Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading?

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Started reading this month's Book Club selection, Queen Lucia, this morning. I'm choosing to listen to the Nadia May narration from Audible, and it's quite enjoyable. Sort of a cross between Cranford and Jeeves and Wooster. Fun stuff. And a marvelous narration.

Sent from my Amazon Fire with Tapatalk. Blame autocorrect for the spelling.

(Discussion of this saved for the MobileRead Book Club thread in a couple of weeks.)

Moving on, now reading Ghost Ship, both the eBook and the Audible version. Sadly it's not WhisperSync enabled.

Finished Break In, by Dick Francis. This was an Audible read, and was my swimming book. So now I need another one for the pool. Haven't decided yet what to do there.

Meanwhile, for the car, reading A Fatal Thaw. This is #2 in the Kate Shugak series from Dana Stabenow, and is a WhisperSync book, so I'm doing a bit of back and forth.

[Fbone]

Yesterday I finished The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. This book was too frustrating to enjoy. Main characters weren't very likable. A few plot holes. Villains that act unrealistically and can't seem to die. Lots of secrets keep everyone in the dark and the big reveal is silly. There are references to a cult-ish religion. Still, the writing skill was good and the world building interesting. A world where everyone can read men's thoughts. Even the animals have "noise." The book constantly stresses that one must have hope. Hope. And, yet, the main character has nothing good happen to him. Just one bad thing after another. He's hopeless. All very depressing. Rated D+ [2 stars].

Next, I started and abandoned a self-published freebie, The Terran Gambit by Endi Webb. A basic space opera that is very cookie-cutter in characters and plot. I figured there are other authors in my TBR list who have done it better and are a more sound investment of my reading time.

[KyBunnies]

Started reading Treachery in Bordeaux. The first in the Winemaker Detective series by Jean-Pierre Alaux translated by Anne Trager. I am loving this series so far. I think it was the first time I have read a mystery set in France but I will keep reading.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Now reading Home. The sequel to Nnedi Okorafor's award-winning novella Binti.

Quite enjoyable. Much like the first one was. I look forward to the third and concluding installment (The Night Masquerade) due out in the fall of 2017.

Now starting The Fortress at the End of Time By Joe M. McDermott.

Humanity has expanded across the galaxy by use of ansible and clone technology, but an enemy stands in their way—an enemy alien in concept as much as physiology. Ronaldo Aldo is a clone stationed in the back-end of nowhere—a watch station with a glorious military past, but no future. He’s desperate to prove himself worthy of ascension—of having his consciousness broadcast to a newer clone, far away from his current post at the Citadel.

[Mort1997]

Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer

The Murder at Skellin Cottage by Amy Cross.
Amy Cross has become one of my favourite horror writers in the last couple of months. The is a reboot of a series she originally wrote set in the US, which is now set in the UK. It isn't a horror, but a murder mystery. It was fun and quick, but a bit predictable.

There is an Amy Cross free in the Smashwords sale (perhaps more)


https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/704065

[Rumpelteazer]

Originally Posted by Mort1997

There is an Amy Cross free in the Smashwords sale (perhaps more)


https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/704065

Thanks for the tip! I will have a look tomorrow when I have access to Calibre and see which books I already have. She regelarly has freebies and most of her books are priced low. Looking back at my reading list I see that since I discovered her last year I read more of her books than I realized. They are great when I'm in the mood for a quck and entertaining read.

Sent from my SM-T713 using Tapatalk

[issybird]

I'm reading Two Years Before the Mast, Richard Henry Dana's classic account of signing on as a sailor on a merchant ship for a trip from Boston around the Horn to California and back in the 1830s; it's terrific. I'm so regretful when I think of how my father loved this book and the Patrick O'Brian books (he did his service in the Coast Guard) and I dismissed them as not of interest to me. I'd love to share them with him now.

[poohbear_nc]

Originally Posted by issybird

I'm reading Two Years Before the Mast, Richard Henry Dana's classic account of signing on as a sailor on a merchant ship for a trip from Boston around the Horn to California and back in the 1830s; it's terrific. I'm so regretful when I think of how my father loved this book and the Patrick O'Brian books (he did his service in the Coast Guard) and I dismissed them as not of interest to me. I'd love to share them with him now.

I tried reading this last year, but got bogged down during their interminable stay off the California coast gathering cow hides.

[Dngrsone]

Damocles by S. G. Redling is a Kindle for Samsung offering for this month. It is a First-Contact drama, done well. In this case, the aliens are the humans, a team of six sent off into deep space to look for... well, we know the drill.

Redling concentrates on the trials and tribulations of learning to communicate with an entirely unknown and unknowable group/society/culture, and she does a good job of pointing out some likely mistakes and errors that would crop up in this kind of venture. While a relatively short book (for me, anyway), the length is appropriate, and though this is obviously a one-off novel plotwise, it would be interesting to see her revisit one or more of the characters in a future book.

The formatting of the ebook, was good, and I found a single error in the entire reading, which is a nice change.

Next up... wow. A lot of good stuff, not sure yet which I will choose. Probably a non-fic, possibly hysterical Historical.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by issybird

I'm reading Two Years Before the Mast, Richard Henry Dana's classic account of signing on as a sailor on a merchant ship for a trip from Boston around the Horn to California and back in the 1830s; it's terrific. I'm so regretful when I think of how my father loved this book and the Patrick O'Brian books (he did his service in the Coast Guard) and I dismissed them as not of interest to me. I'd love to share them with him now.

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

I tried reading this last year, but got bogged down during their interminable stay off the California coast gathering cow hides.

This was one of my favourite books from my teens, discovered as I was looking for something to read after I'd devoured the Hornblower books. (And LONG before O'Brian was writing. Even before Alexander Kent was available in the US.) I haven't re-read it recently, but might be worth considering.

[KevinBurke]

I am reading : How Not to be Wrong : The Power of Mathematical Thinking by Jordan Ellenberg.

The book is interesting but not entertaining but I don't expect non-fiction books to be entertaining per se. I am reading it because it is like making a kid eat his vegetables, at the dinner table, it is self edifying. I am reading it because I think it is important like John Allen Paulos' book Innumeracy. Interestingly, enough, Bill Gates read How Not To Be Wrong and wrote a review here :

www.gatesnotes.com/Books/How-Not-to-be-Wrong

The amazon description is here :

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/01431..._1489034464320

I am only on page 56 so don't ask for my review, at least, not yet. I did conduct a superficial scan of the whole book, first , to make sure it was worth reading so I already know what it is basically about.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: 1636: The Ottoman Onslaught by Eric Flint. I'm looking forward to this novel from the original author in the series.

And it was indeed a novel that drives the main narrative forward with the main characters. Splendid stuff.

Then I read Snapshot by Brandon Sanderson. An interesting little story that's set in a mysteriously produced artificial replica of the past. You just have to pass over the impossibility of the setup and enjoy the story set in this impossible place. Although one of the plot points is obvious from early on, I missed the other one despite the clues.

Now I'm reading Code of Conduct by Kristine Smith, a recently acquired freebie.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

Started (and read half of) The Hunt for Vulcan: And How Albert Einstein Destroyed a Planet, Discovered Relativity, and Deciphered the Universe yesterday. Its a fantastic blend of science, history and a love song to the scientific method.

This is one of three new (gift-card-purchased) DTBs that have come into the house since the new year started.

Its midterm week, which means some days off for a professor. I had a faculty meeting yesterday and then spent the rest of the day in a public library just reading. As such, I finished Vulcan yesterday, read all of Neil Gaiman's delightful Norse Mythology, and started Cixin Liu's The Dark Forest. One of my TBR goals this year is to read all three of Liu's Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy.

[drjd]

Originally Posted by drjd

Now I'll take up Another Fine Myth by Robert Aspirin.

Firstly, it was a fantasy, secondly, I didn't like it, period.

Quickly grabbing a hard boiled crime fiction by James Hadley Chase, No Orchids for Miss Blandish for now.

[JSWolf]

I'm currently reading/listening to Queen Lucia by E. F. Benson. I started reading it and would have stopped had I not found a rather good audiobook version. The text is rather dry and reading it is rather dull. It takes a rather good reader to overcome this.