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

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Next The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi purchased January 2019.

Finished last night. Interesting plot and setting. The author spent many words explaining why faster-than-light travel was an impossibility then created his own system of very fast travel. Writing was informative yet concise. The story continues in the next in the series which I placed on my TBR list. Rated B [4 stars].

Next is Lilith: A Snake in the Grass (The Four Lords of the Diamond #1) by Jack L. Chalker. My first with this author.

[Luffy]

My 2 star review of The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #5) by Rick Riordan:-

Spoiler:

The book didn't upset me, make me want to hurl, or make me depressed. However, it never rode above the niche of mediocrity that it carved for itself.

I couldn't be lenient. Being so might have guaranteed me more likes, but difficult as it is, it feels right not to cut the book some slack.

The driving force behind this book especially, is the literary power of the prophecies.

Rick Riordan deserves the rewards he has reaped due to his work. Nevertheless, I don't know if this book is the result of hard work or the formula of a paint by numbers mentality. The Last Olympian is such an iniquitous title. That's it.

[ReadingManiac]

Anyone else feeling Halloween in the air? Tis the season to read Horror.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by ReadingManiac

Anyone else feeling Halloween in the air? Tis the season to read Horror.

It's not even September yet!

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

It's not even September yet!

And yet, my grocery store was awash in all things "pumpkin spice" this morning.

I am still working through Vera Brittain's Testament of Youth on my Kobo. I have a paper copy of A Classical Education from my library and I am listening to Ron Rash's The Risen while I row and bike.

[Uncle Robin]

I just finished Overkill by Vanda Symon -3.5/5 for me, not a bad debut. Now into a re-read of 4:50 From Paddington after several decades - the result of testing random selection on the new Kobo firmware.

[John F]

Originally Posted by Tarana

In July, I did a lot of random reading focused on books I've had for a long time. My favorite during this time was Volume II of the Hugo Stories by Mike Resnick. All of these were outstanding. This was followed by The Relic by Douglas Pendergast and Lee Child. Very good with a lot of action along the way. FBI agent comes north to investigate a murder that is similar to one that happened in his home turf.

...

Darn, for a second there I thought there was another book by Lee Child.

[SeaBookGuy]

Murder at the Abbey by Irina Shapiro. Second in a mystery series set in an English village c. 1870. Not bad at all for a monthly free Prime selection - looking forward to the next one later this year.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: Redemolished by Alfred Bester. Part of a Humble Bundle I bought way back in April 2014.

Which was a collection of minor SF and non-SF works, with some essays and an obituary. 3/5, of interest to a completist.

What did endear him to me was Isaac Asimov's recollection in the obituary (from 1987):

"In any case, he always gave me the biggest hello it was possible to hand out. I use the term figuratively, because what he gave me more than once (lots more than once, especially if he saw me before I saw him) was more than a verbal greeting. He enclosed me in a bear hug and kissed me on the cheek. And, occasionally, if I had my back to him, he did not hesitate to goose me.

This discomfited me in two ways. First, it was a direct physical discomfiture. I am not used to being immobilized by a hug and then kissed, and I am certainly not used to being goosed.

A more indirect discomfiture and a much worse one was my realization that just as I approached Alfie very warily when I saw him before he saw me, it might be possible that young women approached me just as warily, for I will not deny to you that I have long acted on the supposition that hugging, kissing, and goosing was a male prerogative, provided young women (not aging males) were the target. You have no idea how it spoiled things to me when I couldn't manage to forget that the young women might be edging away.

I wonder if Alfie did it on purpose in order to widen my understanding of human nature and to reform me. No, I don't think so. It was just his natural ebullience."

Personally, I hope that it was done for exactly that reason.

Next up: Another random pick: Passenger to Frankfurt by Agatha Christie. I picked up a whole load of Christies from Fictionwise way back in February 2010, and I've been reading them in published order. This is number 71.

[Uncle Robin]

From Christie to Holmes - or at least a Holmesian retelling, according to several of the reviews: The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard. So far, so interesting.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by issybird

I ended up going back to the memoir well after all, with God’s Hotel by Victoria Sweet, an account of her practice at the last almshouse in America, in the years of its transition from patient-oriented to corporate medicine and its removal from its historic building to a purpose-built (but much less patient-friendly, according to the author) facility. I read this on a recommendation, not thinking it was really my thing, and I ended up loving it - the author’s synthesis of people, place, and her own evolving ideas of medicine which in fact went back to the twelfth century marvelously realized the almshouse, even given her biases and touch of arrogance. A five-star read.

I’m now reading a publication from this year, The Betrayal of the Duchess by Maurice Samuels, about the machinations of the daughter-in-law of the last Bourbon king. The author’s brief is that this was occasioned the transition of France to the modern era, including the nascence of modern anti-Semitism. It’s moving quickly and is entertaining, for all its seriousness of purpose.

I seem to keep returning to the memoir genre this Covid summer and I just finished another five-star memoir which was published last month, Notes on a Silencing by Lacy Crawford. It’s the harrowing account of her rape by two fellow students at St. Paul’s School when she was fifteen years old, and of the subsequent coverup and shaming of the author by the school power structure, which persisted for decades even when the state finally began to investigate the culture of abuse and assault at the school.

Highly recommended, but I think it would be impossible to read this without a sense of sheer outrage so while it’s compelling, it’s also difficult and upsetting.

[Uncle Robin]

The Tea Master and the Detective was a pleasant short read. One of the most interesting features was in the "Acknowledgements" - the author listed her favorite Holmes/Sherlock pair as Jeremy Brett and Lucy Liu. Since I'm 100% on board with her choice of Watson, the pairing does sound fascinating.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

The Tea Master and the Detective was a pleasant short read. One of the most interesting features was in the "Acknowledgements" - the author listed her favorite Holmes/Sherlock pair as Jeremy Brett and Lucy Liu. Since I'm 100% on board with her choice of Watson, the pairing does sound fascinating.

Thanks for reporting your reaction. A while ago I read On Red Station, Drifting by Aliette de Bodard, and I loved the character interactions, but the setting was less satisfying so I didn't continue the series. I've been wondering what else to try from this author.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: Another random pick: Passenger to Frankfurt by Agatha Christie. I picked up a whole load of Christies from Fictionwise way back in February 2010, and I've been reading them in published order. This is number 71.

Oh dear. On a par with The Big Four. She's not good at international intrigue. A really dreadful tale, no mystery, and just bad.

Next up: Unnatural Death by Dorothy L. Sayers, the third in her Lord Peter Wimsey series.

[mewmartigan]

I just finished The Last Wish, a collection of short stories from The Witcher. They were good and I remember most of them from the show.

Now starting Daniel Abraham's Long Price Quartet starting with A Shadow in Summer.