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

[bfisher]

Originally Posted by MickeyC

Just finished The Adventures of English by Melvyn Bragg and it was an excellent history of the English language. Much more detailed than other books I’ve read on the subject (e.g., The Mother Tounge by Bill Bryson). It focuses mostly on Britain but does devote a couple of chapters to the US and one each on India, the West Indies and Australia.

I must have a look at that. Melvyn Bragg has a long-running programme on BBC Radio 4 - quite eclectic in his subjects. The most recent episodes discuss Frederick Douglass, cephalopods, Cicero, Anna Akhmatova, and the Great Siege of Malta
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qykl

[Dngrsone]

Finished Petty by Warren Zanes. A pretty thorough biography of Tom Petty, written with perfect timing, it seems: published a mere two years before the artist's death.

I've listened to Tom Petty radio on XM, of course, and I'd heard of Mudcrutch, but I'd never experienced it as Petty's first band. Reading this book makes me want to go beyond the four albums I already own (I've owned the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Damn the Torpedos since 1989 when I bought my first CD player, and Hypnotic Eye when it first released), discover Mudcrutch and everything, but there is so darn much of it that I'd go broke trying to get a significant portion of it.

Anyway, good read, going into the reread list. I have an ongoing series to get caught up on and then rummage through the deeper areas of my TBR... I think the TBR is somewhere around 700 books now, LOL; more than my physical library ever got to.

[astrangerhere]

Since my last post I have read:

• Carrie Vaughn's Bannerless
• Jason Lutes' Berlin: City of Stones
• Carson McCullers' "A Tree, A Rock, A Cloud"
• Stephanie Powell Watts' "Unassigned Territory"

[drjd]

I'm halfway through 12, 20 & 5: A Doctor's Year in Vietnam by John A. Parrish.

The wry and heart-wrenching memoir of a young doctor’s year behind the frontlines in Vietnam.

Assigned to the marine camp at Phu Bai, Dr. John A. Parrish confronted all manner of medical trauma, quickly shedding the naïveté of a new medical intern. With this memoir, he crafts a haunting, humane portrait of one man’s agonizing confrontation with war. With a wife and two children awaiting his return home, the young physician lives through the most turbulent and formative year of his life — and finds himself molded into a true doctor by the raw tragedy of the battlefield. Interesting read.

[issybird]

I'm falling behind on all my goals and am in the middle of too many books, but since pitchers and catchers report this week, I've added Babe: The Legend Comes to Life by Robert W. Creamer to the list. It's my habit to observe spring training with a baseball book. It's pretty much what it says it is, but heavy on the baseball and much less so on the lifestyle, a good thing.

[orlok]

Recently started The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell. It's written by the owner of The Bookshop situated in Wigtown, Scotland, about his experiences servicing the reading public. Appropriately I'm reading this as a pbook, which I don't often do.

Wigtown has become a second-hand bookshop haven, much like Hay-on-Wye (in the County of Powys on the England/Wales border), and they now hold regular literary festivals, and have revitalised the town's fortunes.

Full of amusing anecdotes (for example, his part-time assistant who is a Jehova's Witness keeps putting The Origin of the Species in the fiction section, so he retaliates by putting the Bible amongst the mystery novels) I find myself laughing out loud at frequent intervals.

[Dngrsone]

I read and finished Blood Gamble by Melissa F. Olson in pretty short order.

Despite my professed dislike for the genre, I love this particular series.

Next I may try Warcross by Marie Lu

[astrangerhere]

I just finished listening to Louisa May Alcott's "blood and thunder" pulp Behind A Mask, or A Woman's Power.

I had never heard of it, but was amused by it nonetheless.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by Fbone

After reading four library books, I need to read a few books I purchased! So, I'll start with an impulse buy from 2017, The Accidental Hero by Matt Myklusch.

This would appeal to the young teen with an interest in comic books. As an adult, it was less so. The setting was interesting, original and there were a few surprises. Still, at 470 pages, I thought the story dragged a little and when it was over I felt relieved. There's a lot to enjoy here for a certain reader. Rated C- [2 stars].

Next read undecided but will be a purchased book.

[HLS]

The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. by Neal Stephenson. At first it was slow but part 2 and on getting better and better. Best book of his yet. I am about 51% in

[Lusitanic]

- Autonomous by Annalee Newitz
- The Mathematics of Love by Hanna Fry
- Do Androids dream of Eletric Sheep by Philip K. Dick
- Keto Clarity by Jimmy Moore

[Dazrin]

One of the "genre" categories for the Bingo challenge is "A book about a hobby or crafts" so I have started How to Camp Out written by John Mead Gould, a Civil War veteran, and published in 1877. It has been a interesting to compare post-civil war era camping to modern camping. And it is funnier than I expected too. When listing out what each person in a group is responsible for:

1. Captain. General oversight; provider of food an provender.
2. Jack. Washing and the care of dishes.
3. Joe. (Worthless.)
4. Mr. Smith. Getting breakfast daily, and doing all of the cooking on Sunday.
5. Sam. (Gone home, sick of camping.)
6. Tom. Wood, ...

[RobertLCollins]

Earlier today I finished Dan Moren's The Caledonian Gambit. It was a good science fiction novel of espionage with two interesting POV characters. I've heard Dan on a number of podcasts, mainly "The Incomparable." I'm glad I enjoyed his first novel. Probably back to fantasy for my next read.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Finished, and I definitely will be reading the rest of the trilogy. But first, I need to read the latest Vatta book from Elizabeth Moon, Into the Fire, which showed up on my Kindle late Monday night on a pre-order. Already well into it, and enjoying it so far. But my goodness Ky Vatta does manage to get herself into trouble!

I seem to be a bit behind here, and worse, the Olympics are interfering with progress! So, I finished Into the Fire, which was good, but perhaps not quite at the top of her game. Still, an author I am always willing to read on release day.

Currently reading the second book in the WWW trilogy from Robert J. Sawyer. Not going as well as the first, I think I'm getting tired of the main character. OTOH, it's not going _badly_, just not as well as the first book. Perhaps a bit of middle-book-of-the-trilogy blahs. The third is available at the library, so I'll likely read it just to finish things off.

[gmw]

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley (2015).

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

I was completely beguiled by Natasha Pulley's The Watchmaker of Filigree Street -- an enchanting melange of Victorian England, Japan, steampunk, magic realism, just plain magic ... I thought my reading taste had left fantasy far behind, but this book was magical to me ...[...]

I read this book because of your recommendation, poohbear_nc. It's all your fault! (Only just got around to reading it now.)

Your description is quite accurate ... though I must admit to not really knowing, even now that I'm finished, exactly what I thought of this book; I think it might take a second read to work out (which will not be a trial). It took me a couple of chapters to settle in and feel comfortable, then things were great for a while and then she made me uncomfortable again (just an unexpected turn), until it seemed to fizzle a little at the end (not badly, but some over-explanation). The book book is well written, often surprising and certainly unlike my usual fair. I'm very pleased to have read it and look forward to seeing what this author does next.

Spoiler:

Yes, I was rooting for the octopus as well, and hope it gets reincarnated in a future book.

Thank you, poohbear_nc, for an interesting read.