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

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Most enjoyable. A PI mystery set in the then contemporary 1980s, but now feeling like a historical, with all the necessary focus on how to make sure you can keep in touch with only landline phones!

Next up: Day of the Dead by Neil Gaiman. Another random pick, from a humble bundle I got back in August 2015.

Originally Posted by Luffy

You gave A is for Alibi 5 stars?? Wait till you read 'D' and 'I'. Your mind will be blown.

Luckily I do have B to I. Something to look forward to!

Day of the Dead was a script for a Babylon 5 episode, with some annotations. Good fun.

Then I read The Ladies of Mandrigyn by Barbara Hambley. Excellent sword & Sorcery, as expected.

Next up: The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins. I bought this back in June 2018 after seeing the film.

[ekbell]

Originally Posted by Tarana

August is usually my Western month and I've read a few that were good, but not outstanding. Hey, they are pulp westerns. I personally know nobody alive but my Mom who still reads westerns, so I won't bore you folks with a bunch of titles. I very much enjoyed the suspense in Ambush on the Mesa by Gordon Shirreffs. I gave that a 4/5. I recommend The Sacketts series by Louis L'Amour (I started last year) for historical fiction fans. The first 4 books have been outstanding and we haven't even reached the west yet.

Currently reading The Blue Mustang by Will Henry. Coming of age story.

I'm very fond of Louis L'Amour, fond enough to buy a copy of The Sackett Companion by Louis L'Amour which is basically author's notes for the Sackett books he had written with additional references to books he had planned to write. I found the forward well worth reading. (BTW the first four books were not the first written & the earliest ones written are much shorter and closer to typical Westerns).

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins. I bought this back in June 2018 after seeing the film.

Very good, but not my kind of thing, really.

Next up, another random book choice, Carnivores of Light and Darkness by Alan Dean Foster. Bought way back in December 2009 as part of an omnibus.

(I'm expanding my omnibuses back into their individual volumes for reading.)

[Luffy]

My 5 star review of Written in Blood (Robert Hunter, #11), by Chris Carter:-

Spoiler:

My capacity for writing reviews atrophies with time. It's been 8 years and about 800 reviews. I can't find non formulaic words to tie my thoughts in a neat bow.

Words fail me. But I still want to write reviews. If I didn't, maybe you wouldn't have considered giving this book a try. It's not all philanthropic, you know?

I get pleasantness from writing. By that I know that if I write a novel, I'll be really happy. But that's catch 22 for another day. Reading too makes me happy. Hope you found the review useful. I know I haven't talked about the book. Next review I'll be more mundane.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up, another random book choice, Carnivores of Light and Darkness by Alan Dean Foster. Bought way back in December 2009 as part of an omnibus.

Which is a fun, light fantasy. But clearly part one of a whole story. But it stops at a reasonable stopping point, not on a cliff-hanger.

Next up: Cabal by Michael Dibden. The third in his Aurelio Zen series. The first was OK, the second was better. Hopefully this one will be better still. (Yes, another random pick from my unread pile, thanks to calibre.)

[Uncle Robin]

Nearly halfway through Sea People: In Search of the Ancient Navigators of the Pacific by Christina Thompson, an interesting look at Polynesia and its peoples.

[Dr. Drib]

Just started 'The Bitch," by Gil Brewer.

Right up my alley: Hard-boiled and 'noir-ish'.

[Uncle Robin]

An interesting quirk from Sea People - the author consistently refers to her husband as "Seven", a rather exotic name in English. Given that he's Māori and two of their three kids have very Māori names, it seems likely she's "exoticized" his name by translating "Whitu", which NZ friends tell me is quite common as a personal name.

[astrangerhere]

Earlier this year, I read Rebecca Makkai's The Great Believers about the AIDS epidemic in the 80s. Through a secondary plot, she drew a great parallel to the men that were lost in the AIDS crisis to the men lost in World War I. That, coupled with the current pandemic had me returning to stories of World War I. As such, I am currently immersed in Vera Brittain's Testament of Youth.

As college students flood back into my town, I cannot help but see the first lines of Brittain's book ringing true again to a generation of young people having their lives interrupted by a global health crisis:

“When the Great War broke out, it came to me not as a superlative tragedy, but as an interruption of the most exasperating kind to my personal plans.”

[mlewis78]

I finished The End of October by Lawrence Wright early this morning before I went to sleep. It's about a fictitious pandemic. The author did his research and some of what he wrote I recognized from having read The Great Influenza by John M. Barry. Lawrence Wright is known for his non-fiction. I'd read The Looming Tower many years back.

I think I'm going to read next The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson that I've had since the year it came out (2010, I think). She has a new book that looks very good, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. I heard two good interviews with her today on podcast with Preet Bahrara and on TV tonight with Lawrence O'Donnell on MSNBC.

[Uncle Robin]

Now reading Overkill by Vanda Symon, the first of three in the series, and the first of two crime series set in NZ - this one in the 21st century, next up one set in the 19th. I think so far the only NZ fiction I've read is Ngaio Marsh, who barely mentioned her homeland.

[Luffy]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

Earlier this year, I read Rebecca Makkai's The Great Believers about the AIDS epidemic in the 80s. Through a secondary plot, she drew a great parallel to the men that were lost in the AIDS crisis to the men lost in World War I. That, coupled with the current pandemic had me returning to stories of World War I. As such, I am currently immersed in Vera Brittain's Testament of Youth.

As college students flood back into my town, I cannot help but see the first lines of Brittain's book ringing true again to a generation of young people having their lives interrupted by a global health crisis:

Testament of Youth is a hidden gem. Gave it 5 stars. There's an excellent review on Goodreads by someone called Warwick which made me aware of the autobiography.

[ReadingManiac]

Originally Posted by NiMa

Reading Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman on a Kobo Libra. I'm beginning in English reading (my tongue is French). I find it very interesting and somewhat mysterious, and that's what I like about Gaiman.
Otherwise, I'd be reading now some Lovecraft fiction. He's my favourite author. Thanks to the portability of the Kobo devices, I dropped the complete fiction in my Libra. What a joy!

I love Gaiman! Most of his stuff anyway. If you enjoy Neverwhere, you might love The Ocean at the End of the Lane.

[ReadingManiac]

Originally Posted by mewmartigan

Just finished up John Scalzi's Interdependency Trilogy. It was pretty good.

Not sure where to head next. Was thinking about either Edding's Belgariad or finally starting The Witcher books.

I find myself drawn more and more to The Witcher. I tend to wait until new stuff settles down before I catch up with it.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: Cabal by Michael Dibden. The third in his Aurelio Zen series. The first was OK, the second was better. Hopefully this one will be better still.

The third was much like the second. I suspect the author is poking fun at Dan Brown in passing. 4/5

Next up: Another random pick: Essays in Humanism by Albert Einstein.