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

[MDRobinson]

Reading the The Art of War by Sun Tzu (actually translated by Lionel Giles and edited by Dallas Galvin. This is a B&N hard back I came across many years ago. Found it on the shelf while looking for something more to read this winter. VERY interesting.

[latepaul]

Started and finished The Old Man and the Sea yesterday, for NLBC. Never read it before, enjoyed it.

Have now started Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle which is for another book club. Enjoying it so far. Nice light tone with a hint of humour.

[Dngrsone]

Finished listening to Eragon... haven't decided what next, though I think I have the second Ringworld book on audio.

I got a 90% off coupon for Kobo, so I splurged on the first Ian McKellen LoTR audiobook, not realizing that I am locked into using the Kobo app. Which is fine: I can connect my tablet or my phone to the car audio system via BT, but had I known, I would not have. Well, at least it was less than $4 this way.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

Finished up Emma yesterday. It was the last Jane Austen fiction that I had not read. Nowhere near my favorite title, but enjoyable nonetheless.

Emma is my favorite of the six Austen novels. This is my ranking:

• Emma
• Pride and Prejudice
• Persuasion
• Mansfield Park
• Sense and Sensibility
• Northanger Abbey

Pride and Prejudice is weaker than some of the other novels, but it's just so darn funny. Mansfield Park is terrific, but falls apart at the end (my relative ranking of Mansfield Park and Persuasion is my hardest call). And does anyone not put Northanger Abbey dead last?

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by issybird

Emma is my favorite of the six Austen novels. This is my ranking:

• Emma
• Pride and Prejudice
• Persuasion
• Mansfield Park
• Sense and Sensibility
• Northanger Abbey

Pride and Prejudice is weaker than some of the other novels, but it's just so darn funny. Mansfield Park is terrific, but falls apart at the end (my relative ranking of Mansfield Park and Persuasion is my hardest call). And does anyone not put Northanger Abbey dead last?

My ranking is thus:

• Pride and Prejudice / Sense and Sensibility (TIE)
• Persuasion
• Mansfield Park
• Emma
• Northanger Abbey

I have a particular attachment to tie in the first place because they were the first I've read and the ones I've gone back to. I read Sense and Sensibility for the first time in high school when a friend was dying, and I associate it with getting through hard times. Pride and Prejudice has a similar attachment.

Emma falls down my list because I don't like any of the female characters, which are Austen's forte.

[RobertLCollins]

Last night I finished Tigana. What a great read. There was an interesting world with intriguing characters. The plot kept me going in the first three-quarters of the novel, and had me guessing in the last quarter as to how it would end up. I also enjoyed that it was set in a land inspired by Italy of the Middle Ages. Don't always get that in fantasy. Now to figure out what to read next on the list of books I got over the holidays...

[CRussel]

Nearly finished with my read of the Mercedes Lackey Griffon series. I just needed something to bury myself in, and it's working well.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

Emma falls down my list because I don't like any of the female characters, which are Austen's forte.

I think one reason I prefer Emma to P&P is that overall the characters are more realistic, a mixture of good and bad. In P&P, the characters tend to be more either good or bad and there's much more reliance on caricature. Of course that's part of the reason it's so humorous. There's wit in all the Austen novels, but P&P is the only one that's lol funny.

[kansaskyle]

I'm almost done with Persuasion, which I'm enjoying. Depending on how it concludes, it will be up toward the top of the list so far.

I finished the ones below in the last few months, and I listed them in order of preference.

• Mansfield Park
• Northanger Abbey
• Emma

Emma was just okay for me. The most exciting thing was a picnic, and I didn't care for any of the young female characters.

[kansaskyle]

Originally Posted by kansaskyle

I'm almost done with Persuasion, which I'm enjoying. Depending on how it concludes, it will be up toward the top of the list so far.

I finished up Persuasion last night, and it is my favorite of the four Jane Austen books I've read. I do plan to read the other two soon as part of my 2018 reading goal to knock off books on my TBR list.

I finished the ones below in the last few months, and I listed them in order of preference.

• Persuasion
• Mansfield Park
• Northanger Abbey
• Emma

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

Enjoying Leigh Calvez's The Hidden Lives of Owls with Willow the cat.

Finished The Hidden Lives of Owls and loved it. I am apparently growing into a love of nature reading. A few years ago, A Shepard's Life by James Rebanks and H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald were both 5 star reads for me. The Hidden Lives of Owls now joins that list.

I also had a quickie listen to Alan Bennett's The Clothes They Stood Up In, which had an ending I did not see coming.

I am now listening to Ragnarök: The End of the Gods by A.S. Byatt (from the Canongate series).

I think I will move on to JY Yang's novellas The Black Tides of Heaven and The Red Threads of Fortune on my Kobo.

[latepaul]

Originally Posted by RobertLCollins

Last night I finished Tigana. What a great read. There was an interesting world with intriguing characters. The plot kept me going in the first three-quarters of the novel, and had me guessing in the last quarter as to how it would end up. I also enjoyed that it was set in a land inspired by Italy of the Middle Ages. Don't always get that in fantasy. Now to figure out what to read next on the list of books I got over the holidays...

Really enjoyed Tigana when I read it a few years ago. Can't remember that much about it. Maybe time for a re-read

[latepaul]

I've only ever read Persuasion. I'd decided that I had been a "Austen fan" solely through TV & film adaptations for too long and so I would finally read one of the books. I chose Persuasion because I wanted to try with a story I didn't know and so it was either that or Northanger Abbey and that sounded like a bit of a departure.

I enjoyed it but found the language a struggle at times. There were times when I'd forgotten by the end of sentence what it was referring to. I just read the 1818 Frankenstein and found it very readable by comparison. (Persuasion was published in 1817).

Always meant to go back and read the others but rather put off by this experience. Will probably try again at some point, but there's always so much to read...

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: Grantville Gazette #76

Which was good, but the issues seem to be getting smaller.

Then I re-read Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey, which was on a £0.99 deal recently. A quick fun re-read.

And now I'm starting on The Confession of Brother Haluin by Ellis Peters. The 15th brother Cadfael novel.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by latepaul

Always meant to go back and read the others but rather put off by this experience. Will probably try again at some point, but there's always so much to read...

If I can make a suggestion, go with Pride and Prejudice. There's a reason it heads most people's lists; it's so much fun. Persuasion is technically good, but I find it a little dreary.