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

[HarryT]

Interesting - thanks for explaining .

[Apache]

Yesterday I started and finished the newest Walt Longmire Mystery, The Western Star by Craig Johnson. 4.5 Stars
Apache

[astrangerhere]

I've been cleaning and baking all day and have listened to almost the entirety of Colm Toibin's House of Names. I will finish it this afternoon. It has been a most unique experience.

From The Guardian review:

Rather than turning human-sized stories into myths, Tóibín sets out to humanise the myths of the house of Atreus: of Agamemnon and his wife Clytemnestra, their son Orestes and daughters Iphigenia and Electra, protagonists of the Iliad and of subtly different plays by Aeschylus and Euripides.

[bfisher]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

I've been cleaning and baking all day and have listened to almost the entirety of Colm Toibin's House of Names. I will finish it this afternoon. It has been a most unique experience.

From The Guardian review:

I have it on my TBR. Thank you for the reminder. I must move it up in the queue. The first pages are very arresting.

[Panchax]

Just finished Les Miserables. Waiting for the Hunchback of Notre Dame (going to the library for a 'real' book). Someone really needs to write an adaption for Les Miserables to put it into a Tolkienesque universe... Jean Valjean as a Balrog, Cosette and Marius elves, Fauchevelaunt and Javert humans... Thernardier I don't even know of a fantasy that could fit him, maybe invent a new one. The book really has something the fantasy genre is missing and needs.

[ReadingManiac]

Originally Posted by Panchax

Just finished Les Miserables. Waiting for the Hunchback of Notre Dame (going to the library for a 'real' book). Someone really needs to write an adaption for Les Miserables to put it into a Tolkienesque universe... Jean Valjean as a Balrog, Cosette and Marius elves, Fauchevelaunt and Javert humans... Thernardier I don't even know of a fantasy that could fit him, maybe invent a new one. The book really has something the fantasy genre is missing and needs.

I haven't read this though I've seen a movie version. Interesting idea!

[Dngrsone]

Originally Posted by Rev. Bob

FYI, there's a third book in the series now. Found out when I saw the short-term giveaway on Nobody Gets the Girl.

Thanks. I did see that when I picked up the first two books, but promptly forgot/ The second book is memorable enough for me to spend the $4 for the third one (Covenant).

[astrangerhere]

I did finish House of Names by Colm Tóibín and (finally) finished Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer on my Kobo.

I enjoyed House of Names quite a bit. I'm not sure how I feel about Too Like the Lightning. I'm not sure I like what the author did with gender and gender roles. I much more appreciated Ann Leckie's handling of gender in the Ancillary series. I will grant Palmer this, though - she had some really nice imagery and prose.

I am now starting the audio of Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope and reading an actual paper back from the library - Maurizio de Giovanni's I Will Have Vengeance.

[WT Sharpe]

I just started The Science of Superstition: How the Developing Brain Creates Supernatural Beliefs by Bruce M. Hood. The good news is that so far it looks as if I'm going to enjoy this one quite a bit. The bad news is that it was formally known as SuperSense: How the Developing Brain Creates Supernatural Beliefs, which I had also purchased under that name and had in my TBR list.

Oh well. I'm made of money. At least, that's what some in my family think.

[Dngrsone]

Finished The Gift: The Butterfly Effect, Book 1 by Margaret McHeyzer. Undecided on pursuing book 2...

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

...and reading an actual paper back from the library - Maurizio de Giovanni's I Will Have Vengeance.

Finished the de Giovanni novel yesterday. The mystery was nothing special, but I enjoyed all of the characters. I found an interesting comparison between Comissar Ricciardi, who clearly cares little for the fascist government of Mussolini and Inspector Chen Cao and his discomfort with the Chinese regime. I read this in paperback from the library and will continue to the extent that they are available.

[ATDrake]

Finished The Ruin of Angels, 6th and latest in Max Gladstone's The Craft Sequence, which apparently starts a new, more linear direction to the storytelling (previously written out of chronological sequence and numbered in the titles).

This one took us to a new city with interesting local geography and ensuing adapted culture, with some more detail on some specific God Wars backstory only previously hinted at. It was nice to see some established characters show up and interact, as well as meet new ones.

Unfortunately, the plot seemed to drag somewhat at first (some of the new characters were introduced in a side storyline which seemed to not have much to do with or be as compelling as the main plot). And there was rather more romantic relationship drama than I personally care for, though I acknowledge it's probably a useful additional motivator for prodding characters to less than sensible actions when family and friendship ties have already been invoked. And occasional characters setting up deliberate miscommunication and sabotaging each other and themselves by stubbornly withholding key information and expecting everyone to take everything purely on trust, instead of negotiating compromises like adults. But eventually everything got resolved reasonably well.

Aside from that, while I don't think I really liked it nearly as much as the previous novels (might get better on a re-read), it provided an entertaining look at the rather Lovecraftian-sounding Iskari squid god religion I'd been curious about, along with other aspects of the world, and set up some interesting possibilities for the future.

[sydmalicious]

Reading The God Delusion by Dawkins, Hounded: Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne, and Tools of Titans by Tim Ferris. Skipping around in that one. Really enjoying Iron Druid Chronicles so far. Listening to it in Audible has been a treat.


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[seanyyz]

Finished Sebastian Barry's Days Without End and Sunil Yapa's the Heart is a Muscle the Size of a Fist. Moved onto the Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne and am really enjoying it.

[ReadingManiac]

I've been reading Faerie Tale by Raymond Feist. It's close enough to Halloween to start reading Horror books!