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

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

I am now reading The Turn: The Hollows Begins with Death, the first of three prequels for The Hollows series. I did not realize this was a full-fledged novel at first. I had planned to read all three prequels by this weekend (the other two are graphic novels), but I think it will take me that long to complete this story.

It took me a bit longer than I wanted, but I finally finished reading The Turn: The Hollows Begins with Death last night.

Next up is the second book in the Sookie Stackhouse series - Living Dead in Dallas. I will either start it later today (after I get some school work done) or tomorrow (before I get some school work done).

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

Part of my 2018 goals are reading non-American, non-male authors. To that end, I started Min Jin Lee's Pachinko this morning. Enjoying it very much.

Still reading this and tacked on two short stories on Friday as well:

Kate Chopin's "An Egyptian Cigarette" (for Vogue magazine in 1900)
Jessica Reisman's "Bourbon, Sugar Grace" (for Tor.com)

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Finished Emergence, and was going to start something unknown, when the latest Ava Lee, The Imam of Tawi-Tawi, dropped onto my Kindle. That's what I'll be reading today.

And finished it, of course. What fun these Ava Lee books are. OK, they're not the Great Canadian Novel, and they'll never even get nominated for a Giller. But they're fun reads and quite entertaining. I love the characters, and enjoy the different locales.

Next up was the February selection for the New Leaf Book Club, Passing, by Nella Larson. I listened to this as an Audible book, narrated by Robin Miles. Not the world's best narrator, but better for this than she was for Hidden Figures. Finished, and we'll be discussing this starting February 15th here. Come join us -- the book is short (226 pages), inexpensive ($0.99) and quite interesting.

Meanwhile, for an eBook, I'm reading a barely interesting Fantasy from Jack Campbell. Nothing exciting, I'm not really sure why I'm reading it, actually.

Next for an audio book, I'm listening to the David Case narration of Galsworth's The Man of Property. Wonderful, simply wonderful. I tried to read this as an eBook and it wasn't working for me, but with David Case narrating, it's really enjoyable. The perfect book for a long trip!

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Meanwhile, for an eBook, I'm reading a barely interesting Fantasy from Jack Campbell. Nothing exciting, I'm not really sure why I'm reading it, actually.

Finished. Three stars, mostly because I'm feeling generous. Next up, something better, I hope -- The Price of Salt, by Patricia Highsmith. This was nominated for the New Leaf Book Club February Rainbow theme, but even though it didn't get selected, it sounded interesting enough that I decided to go ahead and read it.

[Dr. Drib]

You're going to die! Yes, you!

And me!

And everyone in the world! DIE! DIE!

Why am I so excited, you might ask? Well.......

I just now purchased "The Immortalists," by Chloe Benjamin.

If you knew the day you would die, how would you live your life? This is the premise of Chloe Benjamin's novel, which is a literary novel.

I'm almost finished with a wonderful short story collection, "Scary Old Sex," by Arlene Heyman. I should be finished with this one today or tomorrow, and then I'll start on the Benjamin novel.

[PurpleStar]

I finished Cracked to Death by Cheryl Hollon. Another of her nice cozy mysteries! Next up, I'm going to read Heaven's Queen by Rachel Bach. It's about time I finished that series.

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

You're going to die! Yes, you!

And me!

And everyone in the world! DIE! DIE!

Why am I so excited, you might ask? Well.......

I just now purchased "The Immortalists," by Chloe Benjamin.

If you knew the day you would die, how would you live your life? This is the premise of Chloe Benjamin's novel, which is a literary novel.

The premise reminds me a bit of the two "Machine of Death" anthologies (Machine of Death and This Is How You Die), not to mention Heinlein's classic short, "Life-Line."

The short deals with the same innovation you describe - divining one's time of death in advance - but the anthologies deal with a device that tells you the means, and instead of getting something clear and actionable, you usually receive an opaque prophecy. Each of the stories in the anthologies gets its title from the death prediction, from the mysterious "?" and "Nothing" to some much more intricate ones. Naturally, the Machine is never wrong, which leads to all kinds of complications. (I believe the second collection has the story about the spec-ops squad made up of people with long-term death cards. They know their daring missions won't kill them...)

The creators of the Machine of Death books also made a card game based on it, where you play assassins who have to get really inventive with how they kill people...

[Dngrsone]

So, I managed to lose the USB drive I was using to listen to Ringworld on... I was supposed to be taking it into the house to update files on it and got distracted.

So, while I still have a copy of the audiobook, I've obviously lost my place. Anyway, I said I wasn't going to listen to it on long drives besideswhich, so I am almost to the end of Henrietta Lacks, having gotten the transfer done right on the new USB drive for the car.

Meanwhile, I have finished reading The Kif Strike Back by C. J. Cherryh, and three quarters of the way through the next book in the series, Chanur's Homecoming. I have so many nice books in the queue to read yet, not really sure what I will pick up next.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Finished. Three stars, mostly because I'm feeling generous. Next up, something better, I hope -- The Price of Salt, by Patricia Highsmith. This was nominated for the New Leaf Book Club February Rainbow theme, but even though it didn't get selected, it sounded interesting enough I decided to go ahead and read it.

Oops, had to take slight break from The Price of Salt because my pre-order for Degrees of Separation showed up on my Kindle.

Finished and gave it 5 stars. A worthy prequel to Block Party, but can be read without having read the free Block Party.

Spoiler:

A wonderful new addition to the stories of the Liaden Universe. Degrees of Separation is the prequel to the current Baen Free Library short story Block Party. Don Eyre was not wanted by his clan, so sent off to a far planet to become a baker. Where he meets Serana, a captain of the Guard. After Don Eyre's Delm calls him back to the service of the clan, Serana follows as bodyguard and lover. And where they need to survive Low Port, and the antagonism of that same delm.

A very worthy read that requires no prior knowledge of the Liaden Universe, or of Block Party. Recommended.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Fbone

To try out Libby I borrowed a public domain title Queen Lucia by E.F. Benson. Basically, this is about the happenings of an English village in the 1910s. Humorous and silly. It's really surprising the topics that concerned people back then. Rated C [3 stars].

Next TBD

The Nadia May reading of the book is actually better than reading the book. Nadia does the voices rather well. And her voice fits in very well with the time the story takes place.

[JSWolf]

I'm half done with Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff.

With extraordinary access to the Trump White House, Michael Wolff tells the inside story of the most controversial presidency of our time

The first nine months of Donald Trump’s term were stormy, outrageous―and absolutely mesmerizing. Now, thanks to his deep access to the West Wing, bestselling author Michael Wolff tells the riveting story of how Trump launched a tenure as volatile and fiery as the man himself.

In this explosive book, Wolff provides a wealth of new details about the chaos in the Oval Office. Among the revelations:
— What President Trump’s staff really thinks of him
— What inspired Trump to claim he was wire-tapped by President Obama
— Why FBI director James Comey was really fired
— Why chief strategist Steve Bannon and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner couldn’t be in the same room
— Who is really directing the Trump administration’s strategy in the wake of Bannon’s firing
— What the secret to communicating with Trump is
— What the Trump administration has in common with the movie The Producers

Never before has a presidency so divided the American people. Brilliantly reported and astoundingly fresh, Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury shows us how and why Donald Trump has become the king of discord and disunion.

[mewmartigan]

Just finished up The Demon Cycle by Peter V. Brett. It was quite good although a bit X-rated at times.

Next up is either The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O by Neal Stephenson/Nicole Galland or New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson.

[Solitaire1]

Infinite Crisis (a trade paperback) by Geoff Johns, Phil Jimenez, George Perez, Jerry Ordway, Ivan Reis, and Andy Lanning.

Excellent miniseries that rewrote the entire DC Universe. The book does contain a few modifications from the original miniseries to correct some issues the creative team had with the way the some scenes were done.

Among these is a scene were Batman holds a gun at the forehead of Alexander Luthor (the architect of the events of Infinite Crisis). The original strongly indicates that it seems he shot him, but the revised version clearly indicates that he was holding the gun on Alexander but did not fire it.

The book also includes an interview with the Creative Team explaining the creative process for the story, including things that were not included in the final story. Among these was the death of Nightwing (Dick Grayson) and a much larger part for The Legion Of Super-Heroes.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Which was the usual fun read.

Next up: The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin. The 2016 Hugo winner was on offer, so I thought I see what it was like. I don't like the style at present, but I'm willing to continue and see where it goes for a bit.

It was OK. Possibly a bit better than OK, but I didn't like some of the style choices, and I don't like that's it's a third of a big book, not a first book in a trilogy. Oh - and I got the 'twist' in the last line long before we got to it.

I don't think I'll be getting the other books in this series.

Next up: Passing by Nella Larsen. The February choice of the New Leaf book club.

[kansaskyle]

I finished Sufferings in Africa: The Incredible True Story of a Shipwreck, Enslavement, and Survival on the Sahara, and gave it three stars.

It was an interesting autobiographical tale of shipwreck in 1815 as Captain James Riley endured amazing hardships in their quest to survive. Full Goodreads review here.