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

[Luffy]

My 5 star review of Death of a Prankster (Hamish Macbeth, #7), by M.C. Beaton:-

Spoiler:

Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. As does Triteness. I've given a very divisive book a perfect score. It took me two days to read this book.

I read a few of the 2 star ratings on Goodreads and marvelled at subjectivity. The traditional mystery is couched in a small vista, and as a result, I fell, mesmerized by the machinery of the genre.

Death of a Prankster is a book that rekindled my love for the series. It's a very solid book with the main character being not the handsome policeman, but the insecure Goth girl. You'll understand if you read the book. Five stars.

[CRussel]

I think it's time for me to return to the world of 1632. Though I will likely stick to the mainline, or at least avoid the Virginia DeMarce ones -- they're what caused me to bog down the last time. I'll likely have to start from the beginning, but that's OK, those first two books were so much fun.

[rainerm]

I've been reading 'Orwell on truth', a collection of short excerpts from Orwell's early writings. These excerpts are short paragraphs on Orwell's understanding taken from the likes of - Burmese Days, The Road to Wigan Pier, Fascism & Democracy reflecting on imperialism, working conditions, the colonial positions, and the state. It gives a peek into Orwell's ideology and his socialist-leaning that helps understand the genesis of his epics 'Animal Farm' and '1984'. I've also been reading 'The Sixth Extinction' by Elizabeth Kolbert. It talks about the sixth extinction that humans are on the brink of precipitating, something in contrast to the Big Five, the previous mass extinctions. A book with an intention of reminding us not to take the situation in hand lightly.

[Luffy]

My 3 star review of Bloodsucking Fiends (A Love Story, #1), by Christopher Moore:-

Spoiler:

It took me years between the time I acquired this book and finished reading it. This was a walk in nostalgia lane. The story has aged with the grace of Gene Tierney, or Grace Kelly. It was of limited appeal.

But I did like the story. There was an intangible quality of essentiality about it. Probably the reason for that is that Christopher Moore was either inspired or toiled hard at the typewriter.

The ending was like Mowgli's Tiger! Tiger! story. Something was happening, the good guys win but one doesn't know how or why the helpers of the good guys were motivated.

This was not perfect. But only the climax had more ambition than sense.

[Luffy]

My one star review of The Horse and His Boy (Chronicles of Narnia, #5), by C.S. Lewis:-

Spoiler:

Imagine my horror when I read this once familiar story in e-book form, and stopped reading when Aslan was saying 'myself' to poor Shasta. The problem of evil has never been more apparent in any book.

C.S. Lewis has always been disingenuous about his Narnia books, imparting the sugar coated dishonesties about the Creation of Narnia, implying in other books that the worst should fall to Aslan.

Forget about all of the previous grievances. Forget the implied racism. This book is boring. Every talking character is. More rubbish being spouted each page. By the way, I do think, unlike Lewis, that Cor is a far worse name than Shasta.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by Luffy

My 3 star review of Bloodsucking Fiends (A Love Story, #1), by Christopher Moore:-

Spoiler:

It took me years between the time I acquired this book and finished reading it. This was a walk in nostalgia lane. The story has aged with the grace of Gene Tierney, or Grace Kelly. It was of limited appeal.

But I did like the story. There was an intangible quality of essentiality about it. Probably the reason for that is that Christopher Moore was either inspired or toiled hard at the typewriter.

The ending was like Mowgli's Tiger! Tiger! story. Something was happening, the good guys win but one doesn't know how or why the helpers of the good guys were motivated.

This was not perfect. But only the climax had more ambition than sense.

I worked in grocery store a long time ago. The Turkey Bowling scene reminded me of all the crazy things you can do in a grocery store.
Apache

[Luffy]

Originally Posted by Apache

I worked in grocery store a long time ago. The Turkey Bowling scene reminded me of all the crazy things you can do in a grocery store.
Apache

Those things are just crazy, they are substitutes for actual activities, but anyway I hope you liked the book better than I did.

[Apache]

I liked the book, but never read the sequels.
Apache

[gmw]

Originally Posted by Luffy

My 3 star review of Bloodsucking Fiends (A Love Story, #1), by Christopher Moore:- [...]

Originally Posted by Apache

I liked the book, but never read the sequels.

I liked the book and the two sequels. I thought it was a clever variation on the traditional vampire story. I liked the finale probably most of all (but not so much more that I would recommend it to anyone who only gave the first book 3 stars ), it wrapped up the story very neatly. I also recently read and liked A Dirty Job, which uses the same setting (even some overlap in small characters like the Emperor), although I have not read the sequel yet.

I can easily understand how Moore might not appeal to some readers. I like his writing in general but a few of his books have stretched my patience.

[Luffy]

Originally Posted by gmw

I liked the book and the two sequels. I thought it was a clever variation on the traditional vampire story. I liked the finale probably most of all (but not so much more that I would recommend it to anyone who only gave the first book 3 stars ), it wrapped up the story very neatly. I also recently read and liked A Dirty Job, which uses the same setting (even some overlap in small characters like the Emperor), although I have not read the sequel yet.

I can easily understand how Moore might not appeal to some readers. I like his writing in general but a few of his books have stretched my patience.

I agree. Moore's writing is too personal. His handle on the human mind is not disposed to sound mainstream. He has both good and bad ideas in the one book I read.

[gmw]

The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter by Theodora Goss. After the initial surprise that the characters would intrude directly onto the narrative, the story settled into something fairly interesting. As a mash up of characters and descendants from 19th century literature it was surprisingly effective, but the finish is not very satisfying. And worse, the finish came at about three-quarters of the way through, with the final quarter dragging out plans for a future book. So a 3/5 if you only read the first three quarters, a 2/5 for the lot.

The Stars are Legion by Kameron Hurley. A "Legion" of worlds made of regenerating flesh, served by the women that live in them. I found this is hard to rate. The multiple first-person narrative was at times quite irritating, and the story took a long time to settle in and get me involved. But I really liked that the setting was so different. A violent and messy story for the most part, quite gory in places, you spend a lot of the early part as confused as one of the protagonists. There is a huge scale to this story and the setting, and I'm not sure this came over as well as it could have, but I found it an intriguing collection of ideas. And not a male to be seen; not missing, just not part of this universe. That aspect lent a different perspective to some of the themes being explored. Somewhere around 3.5/5 I think.

Half a King by Joe Abercrombie. Heroic fantasy in a Viking-like setting. Well written but standard fantasy fare. Through the start you could see what was going to happen next. Through the middle there were a few more possibilities but no surprises. The finale contained a twist that was not obvious but was not overly surprising either. The array of characters are also pretty much standard fare (right down to the ones wearing the metaphorical red shirts). On the plus side it finishes up well enough that there is no compulsion to continue the series, which is good because I don't think I will. 3/5.

[ReadingManiac]

Doing a re-read of The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart for a reading group. I'm always amazed at how quickly this book sucks me in!

[Moe The Cat]

Originally Posted by ReadingManiac

Doing a re-read of The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart for a reading group. I'm always amazed at how quickly this book sucks me in!

That's first of the Merlin trilogy, correct? Will you move on to volume 2 and 3 when you are finished?

[Paperbackstash]

My friend gifted me a copy of The Godfather, which I plan to re-read soon. Love Puzo's writing style and want to re-read this, then more of his work. My previous version was an old, used copy that fell apart. I wanted a nice edition on the bookshelf since it is a favorite.

[John F]

Originally Posted by ReadingManiac

Doing a re-read of The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart for a reading group. I'm always amazed at how quickly this book sucks me in!

Is this available as an ebook somewhere?