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

[KyBunnies]

Originally Posted by drjd

The paperback edition which I have was published by Souvenir Press Ltd, UK in 2005.
According to Wikipedia:

Thanks as interesting as they sound I doubt I will read them unless they are digital. My hands are not able to hold print books and my eyes need the larger font size on my Kindle/iPad lol.

[drjd]

Originally Posted by KyBunnies

Thanks as interesting as they sound I doubt I will read them unless they are digital. My hands are not able to hold print books and my eyes need the larger font size on my Kindle/iPad lol.

Reading print books with smaller fonts is a real pain in the ar** for me too, but you sometimes don't have a choice in absence of digital edition, and a strong urge to read a particular darn book.

[Dngrsone]

Finished reading Sex at Dawn: How We Mate, Why We Stray, and What it Means for Modern Relationships by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá.

This is a very interesting book, though not for everyone: besides the nominal subject matter (that horrible S-word) and questioning the supposed "naturalness" of monogamy in humans, the authors also examine the roots of human aggression and warfare, convincingly throwing out most of the "truths" dictated by anthropologists, evolutionary psychologists and primatologists from the very beginnings of those disciplines to the modern day.

The authors accomplish this with thorough research and a saber-sharp use of simile which entertains as well as skewering many giants in their fields.

I quite enjoyed this book, and though I am sure there are some very critical attacks on this book for its contents, my feeling is that the authors are much closer to the truth of prehistoric human interactions than our current textbooks portray.


I then read the fourth Jack Reacher book, Running Blind, which is to me the best so far.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by drjd

Reading print books with smaller fonts is a real pain in the ar** for me too, but you sometimes don't have a choice in absence of digital edition, and a strong urge to read a particular darn book.

There have been times I've popped my computer glasses on top of my reading glasses and then picked up my Bausch & Lomb magnifying glass, to boot. One does what one must!

[drjd]

Originally Posted by issybird

There have been times I've popped my computer glasses on top of my reading glasses and then picked up my Bausch & Lomb magnifying glass, to boot. One does what one must!

Benefits of keeping multiple glasses!

[orlok]

Originally Posted by Dngrsone

I then read the fourth Jack Reacher book, Running Blind, which is to me the best so far.

I'm toying with the idea of rereading the whole series from book one. The only other series I've done that with is Robert B. Parker's Spenser books.

What's sparked that off is the book I'm currently reading, Don't Know Jack by Diane Capri, set in the Jack Reacher universe. There's a lot of references to events that happened in Killing Floor, the first Reacher book, and I'd like to go back and refresh my memory before I read any more in the Capri series.

[haertig]

Currently reading a Patrick Lee book (note: there are two authors with this name).

The first in the trilogy was "The Breach", the second was "Ghost Country", and now I'm reading the third and final book "Deep Sky".

These Patrick Lee books are all good and are quick and fun reads. A mix of Action/Thriller and Sci-Fi.

Prior to my current book, I read "Fragment" by Warren Fahy. Another quick reading fun action/adventure/monster romp.

Prior to that, I read "Wool" by Hugh Howey. I read the omnibus (collection of the original short story series). A very good book about future post apocalypse/dystopia. It is probably a familiar read to many here. The imagery of the settings that the writing conjured up in my mind was fantastic. I highly recommend this book.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: At Bertram's Hotel by Agatha Christie. Her 66th mystery novel.

Originally Posted by Luffy

At Bertram's Hotel is quaint, but slightly rushed near the end.

Yes! That was the problem with it. All the fun leading up to things, and then it all happened in far too much of a rush.

Then I read The Counterfeit Madam by Pat McIntosh. A murder mystery in mediaeval Glasgow, the eighth in the Gil Cunningham series. I don't know enough of that period to judge the details, but they feel right. Most enjoyable.

And then there was Grantville Gazette #77 by Bjorn Hasseler. A fun collection of Granville shorts, but I'm not sure it's worth the money for the length. But I've still I've bought the next five volumes already.

Now I'm reading F&SF, May/June 2018 edited by C. C. Finlay. I'm now getting this from weightless books, for £3.61 an issue for a six issue subscription, which is up on the £1.98 I used to pay at Amazon, but a lot less than the £4.99 that they're now wanted people to pay at Amazon.

[latepaul]

Originally Posted by latepaul

Next up book 2 in the "City of..." books City of Blades

Enjoyed it but felt it was over-written. Could have done with a trim.

I really should start on this month's NLBC pick but I'm thinking of trying to squeeze in something short and fun first. Haven't decided what yet though.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by latepaul

Enjoyed it but felt it was over-written. Could have done with a trim.

I really should start on this month's NLBC pick but I'm thinking of trying to squeeze in something short and fun first. Haven't decided what yet though.

Not something you'll want to be reading at bed time, so factor that into the equation. I'll save further discussion for the discussion, but I'm glad we're reading it. Just not while trying to go to sleep.

[drjd]

Finished reading Women and Men in My Life by Khushwant Singh. An intriguing and bold account of the sketches of various prominent persons he came across in life. Although some memoirs were repeated from his other books, I enjoyed re-reading them.

Next up, The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold.

[poohbear_nc]

Last year I had reported finally making it through all 12 volumes of Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time, and how much I had enjoyed the experience, mingling with the fantastically original cast of recurring characters, whilst awaiting with eager dread the return appearance of the dreadful Widmerpool in each volume.

Well, I've begun a slow re-read, accompanied by Hilary Spurling's magisterial, yet entertaining, Invitation to the Dance -- a handbook par excellence to the series. I'm simply wallowing in Powell's vocabulary and sentence structure, e.g. "The passages seemed catacombs of a hell assigned to the subdued regret of those who had lacked in life the income to which they felt themselves entitled..." -- a brilliant, atmospheric description of a second class private hotel in London for gentry who had fallen on hard times.

Powell constructed sentences whose length rivals Henry James at his most florid, whose intricate structures are descriptive of both the inner and outer landscapes. Sentences and paragraphs are to be savored slowly, allowing them to reveal their concealed nuances of meaning and insinuation.

[Dngrsone]

Just finished The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter on recommendation from a coworker. I've shied away from Pratchett because of the long bibliography (Discworld), but I'm glad to finally read a book of his.

Next up, a reread of The Radium Girls:The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore for the New Leaf Book Club.

[bfisher]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

Last year I had reported finally making it through all 12 volumes of Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time, and how much I had enjoyed the experience, mingling with the fantastically original cast of recurring characters, whilst awaiting with eager dread the return appearance of the dreadful Widmerpool in each volume.

Well, I've begun a slow re-read, accompanied by Hilary Spurling's magisterial, yet entertaining, Invitation to the Dance -- a handbook par excellence to the series. I'm simply wallowing in Powell's vocabulary and sentence structure, e.g. "The passages seemed catacombs of a hell assigned to the subdued regret of those who had lacked in life the income to which they felt themselves entitled..." -- a brilliant, atmospheric description of a second class private hotel in London for gentry who had fallen on hard times.

Powell constructed sentences whose length rivals Henry James at his most florid, whose intricate structures are descriptive of both the inner and outer landscapes. Sentences and paragraphs are to be savored slowly, allowing them to reveal their concealed nuances of meaning and insinuation.

You make me want to do a re-read.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Now I'm reading F&SF, May/June 2018 edited by C. C. Finlay. I'm now getting this from weightless books

And I enjoyed all of it except for one of the stories, which I don't think gave enough context, nor had a believable set-up, in terms of agriculture.

Next up: Asimov's SF, May/June 2018.