Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading? - Page 1866

Dngrsone · 01-25-2019, 02:15 PM

Finished reading Code Girls by Liz Mundy. I like this kind of history. Now reading The Enemy by Lee Child.

RobertLCollins · 01-25-2019, 02:24 PM

I found a couple weeks ago that I'd read "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" years ago, and had only started "Through the Looking-Glass." I re-read the first and yesterday finished the other. I quite enjoyed reading both of them. Fun little books, and two more classics are taken care of. I'm going to pause for a bit to think about what I want to read next. It will probably be something much more recent.

AnotherCat · 01-25-2019, 06:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stuartjmz

FINALLY ground my way through the collection of anti-semitic, racist and classist slurs that was Whose Body? and in desperate of a palate cleansing before giving Sayers a second shot...

But, in comparison, murder and murderers provide quite acceptable reading for you?

stuartjmz · 01-25-2019, 07:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AnotherCat

But, in comparison, murder and murderers provide quite acceptable reading for you?

Not sure if I understood your query, but I read murder mysteries to enjoy seeing good triumph. When the "good guys" are spouting bigotry and bile, it does take the gloss off.

AnotherCat · 01-25-2019, 07:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stuartjmz

Not sure if I understood your query, but I read murder mysteries to enjoy seeing good triumph. When the "good guys" are spouting bigotry and bile, it does take the gloss off.

I just find it intriguing that people quite commonly, seemingly, have no difficulty with murderers and violent characters being depicted in a novel, together with their evils and dialogue, but apparently have difficulties with characters who are bigots, racist, classist, anti-semitic, sexist, etc. in the same novel. Perhaps a virtuous fashion of the times?

I have no time for any of those behaviors myself but recognize that such people exist in real life and so do not get upset when characters in novels are created in those frames. Just as I do not get upset if a novel creates murderous or violent characters, but I would wonder about myself if I did not get annoyed at them but got annoyed at the others in novels, especially if I made the distinction all in the one novel..

Was just a comment and getting off topic so I'll leave it at that.

stuartjmz · 01-25-2019, 07:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AnotherCat

Just as I do not get upset if a novel creates murderous or violent characters, but I would wonder about myself if I did not get annoyed at them but got annoyed at the others in novels

The phrase "assumes facts not in evidence" seems relevant here. Nowhere did I say I don't get annoyed by murderous or villainous characters. On the contrary, as I said, I read mysteries precisely because I enjoy seeing good triumph. Dislike of the villainous characters is, for me a given, not something I should need to explicitly state. I have no problem with the existence of negative characters per se.

On the other hand, when characters the author intends the reader to like consistently display characteristics I detest, that is a different thing altogether.

pdurrant · 01-26-2019, 05:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: The Quiet Gentleman by Georgette Heyer

Which was, as expected, an excellent Regency romance.

Next up: To Love and be Wise by Josephine Tey.

haertig · 01-26-2019, 04:01 PM

What I hate is novels where the author has an agenda. That agenda may be anti-gay, pro-gay, anti-Semitic, pro-Jew, anti-gun, pro-firearm, or whatever. If it's obviously an agenda, then I don't like it. However, if the various things I've mentioned above and other similar things appear in a novel - but they have a reasonable relationship to the novel and are not just thrown in to promote an agenda - then I am usually OK with them. But it does depend on how often mentioned and how flagrant they are.

DiapDealer · 01-26-2019, 07:00 PM

Story-telling sort of requires an agenda, in my opinion. We just all have differing tolerances for how transparent or subtle (or un-) we "allow" those agendas to be. Not to mention which agendas we allow authors to get away with (or kid ourselves into believing they never intended). Utterly agenda-free fiction is boiler-plate, uninspired fiction in my opinion.

stuartjmz · 01-27-2019, 03:50 AM

Nearly halfway through A Delicate Truth for next month's book club, and it's both engaging and depressing. As much as I'm enjoying the story, it feels a little too much like non-fiction, not providing me with any comfortable escapism.

Dngrsone · 01-27-2019, 03:38 PM

Finished The Enemy by Lee Child. This is a first Jack Reacher prequel, and I have mixed feelings: on the one hand, it was engaging enough that I stayed up an extra hour plus to finish it, and I loved that little extra bit about his mother's hidden past. On the other, I had most of the mystery solved before the halfway point...

At any rate, moving on.

pwalker8 · 01-27-2019, 03:57 PM

Finally powered through David Weber's Safehold 10, Through Fiery Trials. It was pretty obviously a set up book, the set up the next phase of the Safehold books. I think I would have rather Weber just dropped the series, but I guess it's been too good a seller for that. Basically, a lot of "gee, having kids is a wonderful experience", characters who were kids in the last book getting married plus killing off much of the previous generation due to old age and setting up the next set of conflicts, plus a massive bomb shell at the very end. In case you hadn't guess, I found it a hard slog. Not sure I will continue this series.

CRussel · 01-27-2019, 06:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Finally powered through David Weber's Safehold 10, Through Fiery Trials. It was pretty obviously a set up book, the set up the next phase of the Safehold books. I think I would have rather Weber just dropped the series, but I guess it's been too good a seller for that. Basically, a lot of "gee, having kids is a wonderful experience", characters who were kids in the last book getting married plus killing off much of the previous generation due to old age and setting up the next set of conflicts, plus a massive bomb shell at the very end. In case you hadn't guess, I found it a hard slog. Not sure I will continue this series.

Well, the audio book is thoroughly awful,so I'll be waiting until Tor releases the eBook to libraries.

Charlie.

gmw · 01-28-2019, 03:13 AM

Since I was last here...

Inspector Hobbes and the Blood by Wilkie Martin (first book of the Inspector Hobbes series). 2/5. If this hadn't followed on immediately after another 2/5 book I probably would have found that strength to finish it, but as it was I got to around page 100 and then jumped to the last chapter. The writing and editing quality is okay in this one, but it's supposed to be funny (I think it depends on being funny) and none of the humour worked for me. If you happen to like the humour of the story you would probably have a very different reaction.

The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip. 5/5. That's right, an instant favourite! A rich and poignant fairytale/fable. I think I may have read this many years ago, back when I didn't believe in re-reading, but I'm so glad to have picked it up again now for my list of favourites. It is easy to see why this was winner of World Fantasy Award in 1975 - a short novel that encompasses so much, and in such deceptively simple but eloquent phrasing. (With thanks to a recent post from RobertLCollins that reminded me I had bought this book last year with the intention of getting to it soon.)

mewmartigan · 01-28-2019, 12:36 PM

Just finished Peter F. Hamilton's Void Trilogy. It was quite good...I think I may have liked it better than the original Commonwealth books.

Not sure what I am moving onto next....may Brent Week's Lightbringer series.

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01-25-2019, 02:15 PM	#27976
Dngrsone Almost legible Posts: 1,457 Karma: 4611110 Join Date: Dec 2013 Location: In a high desert, CA Device: Galaxy Note 9, Galaxy Tab A (2017), Likebook P78	Finished reading Code Girls by Liz Mundy. I like this kind of history. Now reading The Enemy by Lee Child.

01-25-2019, 02:24 PM	#27977
RobertLCollins Groupie Posts: 155 Karma: 1735704 Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Kansas Device: iPhone	I found a couple weeks ago that I'd read "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" years ago, and had only started "Through the Looking-Glass." I re-read the first and yesterday finished the other. I quite enjoyed reading both of them. Fun little books, and two more classics are taken care of. I'm going to pause for a bit to think about what I want to read next. It will probably be something much more recent.

01-26-2019, 04:01 PM	#27983
haertig Wizard Posts: 1,899 Karma: 31522252 Join Date: Sep 2017 Device: PW3, Fire HD8 Gen7, Moto G7, Sansa Clip v2, Ruizu X26	What I hate is novels where the author has an agenda. That agenda may be anti-gay, pro-gay, anti-Semitic, pro-Jew, anti-gun, pro-firearm, or whatever. If it's obviously an agenda, then I don't like it. However, if the various things I've mentioned above and other similar things appear in a novel - but they have a reasonable relationship to the novel and are not just thrown in to promote an agenda - then I am usually OK with them. But it does depend on how often mentioned and how flagrant they are.

01-26-2019, 07:00 PM	#27984
DiapDealer Grand Sorcerer Posts: 28,645 Karma: 204624552 Join Date: Jan 2010 Device: Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD	Story-telling sort of requires an agenda, in my opinion. We just all have differing tolerances for how transparent or subtle (or un-) we "allow" those agendas to be. Not to mention which agendas we allow authors to get away with (or kid ourselves into believing they never intended). Utterly agenda-free fiction is boiler-plate, uninspired fiction in my opinion.

01-27-2019, 03:50 AM	#27985
stuartjmz Nameless Being	Nearly halfway through A Delicate Truth for next month's book club, and it's both engaging and depressing. As much as I'm enjoying the story, it feels a little too much like non-fiction, not providing me with any comfortable escapism.

01-27-2019, 03:38 PM	#27986
Dngrsone Almost legible Posts: 1,457 Karma: 4611110 Join Date: Dec 2013 Location: In a high desert, CA Device: Galaxy Note 9, Galaxy Tab A (2017), Likebook P78	Finished The Enemy by Lee Child. This is a first Jack Reacher prequel, and I have mixed feelings: on the one hand, it was engaging enough that I stayed up an extra hour plus to finish it, and I loved that little extra bit about his mother's hidden past. On the other, I had most of the mystery solved before the halfway point... At any rate, moving on.

01-27-2019, 03:57 PM	#27987
pwalker8 Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,196 Karma: 70314280 Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Atlanta, GA Device: iPad Pro, iPad mini, Kobo Aura, Amazon paperwhite, Sony PRS-T2	Finally powered through David Weber's Safehold 10, Through Fiery Trials. It was pretty obviously a set up book, the set up the next phase of the Safehold books. I think I would have rather Weber just dropped the series, but I guess it's been too good a seller for that. Basically, a lot of "gee, having kids is a wonderful experience", characters who were kids in the last book getting married plus killing off much of the previous generation due to old age and setting up the next set of conflicts, plus a massive bomb shell at the very end. In case you hadn't guess, I found it a hard slog. Not sure I will continue this series.

01-28-2019, 03:13 AM	#27989
gmw cacoethes scribendi Posts: 5,818 Karma: 137770742 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Aura One & H2Ov2, Sony PRS-650	Since I was last here... Inspector Hobbes and the Blood by Wilkie Martin (first book of the Inspector Hobbes series). 2/5. If this hadn't followed on immediately after another 2/5 book I probably would have found that strength to finish it, but as it was I got to around page 100 and then jumped to the last chapter. The writing and editing quality is okay in this one, but it's supposed to be funny (I think it depends on being funny) and none of the humour worked for me. If you happen to like the humour of the story you would probably have a very different reaction. The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip. 5/5. That's right, an instant favourite! A rich and poignant fairytale/fable. I think I may have read this many years ago, back when I didn't believe in re-reading, but I'm so glad to have picked it up again now for my list of favourites. It is easy to see why this was winner of World Fantasy Award in 1975 - a short novel that encompasses so much, and in such deceptively simple but eloquent phrasing. (With thanks to a recent post from RobertLCollins that reminded me I had bought this book last year with the intention of getting to it soon.)

01-28-2019, 12:36 PM	#27990
mewmartigan Guru Posts: 852 Karma: 8242060 Join Date: Aug 2009 Device: Kindle Oasis (2019)	Just finished Peter F. Hamilton's Void Trilogy. It was quite good...I think I may have liked it better than the original Commonwealth books. Not sure what I am moving onto next....may Brent Week's Lightbringer series.