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

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by gmw

I have the first one of these on my wish-list at Kobo thanks to your nomination for the book club. I'm hoping Kobo will offer a discount sometime, as I've got more than enough to keep me busy for the moment.

It should be couponable (at least they are at the Canadian site, so feel free to do a bit of geo-relocation!) There are also three bundle versions, at $19.99CDN, but they are also couponable.

Originally Posted by CRussel

Yes, he gets better after Knots and Crosses, but you're definitely right about not binge reading. Just a bit too dark for that.

For my own binge reading, I've just done a binge of the Ava Lee series from Ian Hamilton. There's a new one due out early next month, and I'm definitely ready. What's not to like about a lesbian, ethnically Chinese, Canadian, forensic accountant who practices Bak Mei and can (and does) take on just about any bad guy twice her size. Totally fun, and one of my 'guilty pleasures'.

And I'm done with my binge of Ava Lee while I wait for the new book in the series. So now, the latest from Ben Aaronovitch - Lies Sleeping. I'm mostly listening to this, but snatching moments to also read the eBook.

Into book 2 of the Mark Treasure series by David Williams. Undemanding fare, perfect for a lazy Friday evening

[ReadingManiac]

I feel a mermaid phase coming on. Just read Into the Gray (short story) and perusing samples of several others.

[HarryT]

Just finished "Expanded Universe", a collection of short stories and essays by Robert Heinlein that I bought from Baen in 2005. I have mixed feelings about this one. I enjoyed the fiction, but found much of the non-fiction (a lot of it vitriolic rants directed against the Soviet Union) to be rather distasteful. The pinnacle of the distastefulness was undoubtedly a heated polemic written by Mr Heinlein in the 1950 arguing against a campaign to persuade President Eisenhower to ban atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons; a campaign which Mr Heinlein appeared to view as a communist plot! I suppose I should just regard it as a product of its times (the 1950s) when seeing "Reds under the bed" was the normal thing in the US.

Not good for my blood pressure, so I really can't recommend this one.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

Listening to Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum and reading Ahmed Saadawi's Frankenstein in Baghdad.

Finished Eco, which sort of tailed off at the end for me. Still reading Frankenstein in Baghdad, which I am enjoying quite a bit.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

But since I don't have F&SF to hand, I've also started Lord of the Silent by Elizabeth Peters, the next one in her Amelia Peabody series. Splendid stuff.

Finished F&SF for Nov/Dec 2018. Another good collection. I've really been enjoying the choices of the new editor.

Nearly finished Lord of the Silent. Good as usual.

Two-thirds done with The Crime at Black Dudley - a complete Allingham re-read has been long on my to-do list, and it's fun to be reminded of how far Campion came from his rather mehdiocre debut

[Dngrsone]

Read Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear over the weekend. Character's name is actually spelled "Memery" but that would never make it to a book cover for obvious reasons.

Anyway, in my limited reading of the genre, there seem to be two main types of Steampunk novel-- the classic UK type, usually centred around London (heh, recently read example; Mortal Engines) and the Western type, as so well exemplified by Cherie Priest, set in the American West (typically the Northwest corner).

Karen Memory is the latter type occurring primarily in a town called Rapid City which appears to be an amalgamation in equal parts of San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle set in 1878 or so.

This is not a terrible book, though there were a few glaring anachronisms, such as the radium dial painter reference which is about 70 years early (considering the discovery of Radium would not occur for another twenty years...), which just breaks one out of the story for a few moments.

At any rate, considering it was a library book, it was well worth the money I spent on it (i.e. none).

Still working on that non-fic, but I've once again paused to read something else: Wildcard by Marie Lu.

[covingtoncat73]

Gospel of Loki was fun, although Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology is a superior retelling.

I am now reading A Burnable Book by Bruce Holsinger. It is a historical fiction mystery set in Chaucerian England. I had a couple of false starts finding a new book but I think this one will "take." Convincing, complex characters and historical details.

Just starting Brighton Belle, looking forward to seeing a female lead in that era setting

[GtrsRGr8]

I hang out elsewhere, and was just passing through. I noticed that someone had posted that this thread needed some action . . . .

Audible had the audio of Burning Down the Haus: Punk Rock, Revolution, and the Fall of the Berlin Wall on sale over the last few days. I almost pulled the trigger on this one, but my budget is busted and, besides, I need to be listening to things related to my day job . . . .

Anyway, the popular notion is that it was Ronald Reagan's challenge, with the Berlin Wall standing behind him, that set things in motion for the Wall to come down. On that occasion, Reagan famously challenged Mikhail Gorbachev, the president of the Soviet Union, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this Wall." Anyway, the author of this book, Tim Mohr, makes what seems to be a compelling case that there was something else that was a big contributor to the Wall coming down, one that is not often acknowledged--punk rockers!:
It began with a handful of East Berlin teens who heard the Sex Pistols on a British military radio broadcast to troops in West Berlin, and it ended with the collapse of the East German dictatorship. Punk rock was a life-changing discovery. The buzz-saw guitars, the messed-up clothing and hair, the rejection of society and the DIY approach to building a new one: in their gray surroundings, where everyone’s future was preordained by some communist apparatchik, punk represented a revolutionary philosophy—quite literally, as it turned out.

But as these young kids tried to form bands and became more visible, security forces—including the dreaded secret police, the Stasi—targeted them. They were spied on by friends and even members of their own families; they were expelled from schools and fired from jobs; they were beaten by police and imprisoned. Instead of conforming, the punks fought back, playing an indispensable role in the underground movements that helped bring down the Berlin Wall.

This secret history of East German punk rock is not just about the music; it is a story of extraordinary bravery in the face of one of the most oppressive regimes in history. Rollicking, cinematic, deeply researched, highly readable, and thrillingly topical, Burning Down the Haus brings to life the young men and women who successfully fought authoritarianism three chords at a time—and is a fiery testament to the irrepressible spirit of revolution.

Sounds intensely interesting to me. I'll have to listen to, or read it, one of these day.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Nearly finished Lord of the Silent. Good as usual.

Finished Lord of the Silent. Most enjoyable, as expected.

Next up: The Gates of Tagmeth (Chronicles of the Kencyrath Book 8) by P. C. Hodgell

A recent purchase, but I'm keen to read it now as I've been waiting for it to drop in price for some time.

Finished Brighton Belle, a very promising start to the series, now back to my Allingham re-read with Mystery Mile

[gmw]

So today I finished The Dry by Jane Harper. This is an Australian murder mystery that has won several awards. I can see why. It grabbed my attention from the start, and although it never obtained a high level tension or excitement, it was definitely compelling enough that I was reading when I should have been working and I finished it very quickly.

As someone who grew up in a location not that different to the one in the book, I was generally pleased with how real it all felt. There were a few things that made me cringe a little*, but I was happy enough to let them slide because the rest of it was so well done. A firm 4/5.

* eg:

Spoiler:

My guess is that either the author or publisher didn't like having kangaroo shooting in the book and so substituted rabbits and shotguns for the 'roos and rifles.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by gmw

* eg:

Spoiler:

My guess is that either the author or publisher didn't like having kangaroo shooting in the book and so substituted rabbits and shotguns for the 'roos and rifles.

I'm not sure why you'd think that. Rabbits are an absolute pest in Australia - they were very unwisely introduced from Europe and have bred like, er, rabbits . They have no natural predators.