Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading? - Page 2028

LDB · 12-25-2021, 01:59 PM

Got such a GREAT gift, the book Good Friends, Good Guns, Good Whiskey by Skeeter Skelton. I read all of his stuff 50 years ago. One of the best gifts ever. The new number one read.

Uncle Robin · 12-26-2021, 03:44 AM

Nearly halfway through Death in the Garden by Elizabeth Ironside, and applauding her skill at writing REALLY badly. The protagonist's reading an account of the historical murder she wants to solve and the "book within the book" is just AWFUL - I literally just said out loud "what a piece of c rap" then saluted Ms Ironside for writing badly so well.

pdurrant · 12-26-2021, 03:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: Maelstrom by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough. The first in their follow-up to their Petaybee series. I didn't much like that series, so I'm not sure I'll like this. We'll see. (I bought this one way back in August 2008!)

I'm a third of the way in and I'm abandoning it. It reads like a poor YA novel. Disappointing.

Next up: Venetia by Georgette Heyer. Her 46th novel.

gmw · 12-26-2021, 11:34 PM

I read the six books in the Miss Peregrine's Children series, by Ransom Riggs:
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children,
Hollow City,
Library of Souls,
A Map of Days,
The Conference of the Birds,
The Desolations of Devil’s Acre.

The collection constitutes two trilogies. Books one, two, four and five all leave you hanging to some extent. Book three (Library of Souls) ties everything off to a satisfying conclusion, so you can happily stop there; ditto book six.

The photos embedded in the first book are interesting and I thought did add something to the story, if nothing else it gave it a different feel. But as the series progresses the photos start to feel more and more gimmicky, with sentences or characters obviously added just so a photo has somewhere to fit.

I liked the first trilogy very much. It was different and entertaining. Each of the books earned a comfortable 4/5 from me.

The second trilogy is let down by its first book which felt like mostly filler to me; it gets a 3/5 only because it picks up right at the end. The last two books are fast and action packed, albeit a bit much like a re-run of the first trilogy. 4/5, but only just.

Dr. Drib · 12-27-2021, 08:21 AM

I just finished an incredible book of short stories, The Irish Sea, by Carlos Maleno. (Published by Dalkey Archive Press)

This is what I'm currently reading: Awake, by Harald Voetmann.
(New Directions)

pdurrant · 12-28-2021, 06:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: Venetia by Georgette Heyer. Her 46th novel.

Which was absolutely delightful. A wonderful romance.

Next up: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein. Bought today as it's part of Amazon UK's daily deal, and is just £0.99.

LDB · 12-28-2021, 10:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Which was absolutely delightful. A wonderful romance.

Next up: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein. Bought today as it's part of Amazon UK's daily deal, and is just £0.99.

Lucky for UK members. It is $12.99 on the US site.

spacepope · 12-29-2021, 06:45 AM

It's been a while since I finished a book because I've been working on the monster that is To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini. Solid 4/5 stars, and I really want to read more books in this universe if they're ever released! However the narration by Jennifer Hale is easily a 5/5 stars. For her first audiobook, she absolutely knocked it out of the park. (Also, I developed a very strong craving to replay the Mass Effect games

)

Almost done with Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik! Really enjoying it so far. Not my usual fare, but I'm glad I started reading it. An excellent recommendation from a good friend of mine.

After that, I'm going to be reading the next book in the Skyward series, Starsight by Brandon Sanderson, and listening to the audiobook of Once Upon A River by Diane Setterfield.

Uncle Robin · 12-29-2021, 08:15 AM

Halfway through The Hanged Man's Noose by Judy Penz Sheluk. A competent, serviceable cozy, but the author has one character use the word "crammed" in a way that made me smile:

Quote:

Three bedrooms, one bathroom, kitchen, a living room-dining room combo, all crammed into a thousand square feet

Google tells me that 1000 square feet is around 92 square meters, so if the above is "crammed" then my unit, "Two bedrooms, one bathroom, kitchen, a living room-dining room combo" in 60 m2 clearly requires a whole nother level of descriptor.

ReadingManiac · 12-31-2021, 05:50 AM

Christmas reading finished, reading a non-fiction ARC on Welsh Magic and then going to plunge into City of Masks by S.D. Sykes and Godstalk by P.C. Hodgell within the next couple of days. Meant to start the latter a while back but holidays diverted me.

spacepope · 12-31-2021, 08:28 AM

So I eeked out one more book before new years strikes: Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik. An enjoyable 4/5. A little more confusing than I'd like with tons of points-of-view, and I'm also not generally fond of fairy tales, but despite that I enjoyed it quite a bit!

For my first book of the new year, I thought I would let a random number generator decide from my 40 unread books downloaded to my device. It picked Heritics by G.K. Chesterton.

I've been meaning to read Chesterton, and happy to have the RNG push me to actually do it.

pdurrant · 12-31-2021, 10:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein. Bought today as it's part of Amazon UK's daily deal, and is just £0.99.

I had read this before, but probably when I was in my teens. It's OK, but a bit too preachy for me now. Fun to see Hazel Stone as a bit player.

Next up: Poor Tom is Cold by Maureen Jennings. The third in her Murdoch Mysteries.

j.p.s · 12-31-2021, 02:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by j.p.s

Next up on actually learning about plant (not only tree) interactions (actually fungi-plant interactions) is Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake.

I came to this book looking to learn about plant-plant (via fungi) interactions, but this book delivers so much more since fungi are, um, entangled with just about all other life on Earth. It is written very well and has loads of apt high resolution illustrations, most of which are adequately rendered on e-ink. There are also quite a few beautiful color illustrations well woth bringing up on a color screen.

I very highly recommend this book to anyone that reads, regardless of background or interest.

Uncle Robin · 01-01-2022, 02:07 AM

3.75/5 for The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Tolstoy, translator Peter Carson. A grim but thought-provoking and relatable read to start 2022, and the fact that the translator submitted his manuscript the day before his own death added a certain depth to the reading experience. Now into Kim Ji Young, born 1982 by Cho Nam Joo, translator Jamie Chang.

Uncle Robin · 01-01-2022, 03:14 PM

4/5 for "Kim Ji Young, born 1982", as tough a read as I expected it would be. 4.5/5 for I Am a Girl from Africa by Elizabeth Nyamayaro, with an unexpected connection of subject matter to Kim Ji Young. 4/5 for Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam by Andrew Pham and 4/5 for Men in the Sun and Other Palestinian Stories by Ghassan Kanafani with Hilary Kilpatrick (Translator) , another brutal read. A good start to the year with a lot of my planned "worthy" reads all done and dusted. Next up, for a complete change, The Cat Who Played Brahms and then The Cat Who Played Post Office.

01-01-2022, 03:14 PM	#30420
Uncle Robin Diligent dilettante Posts: 3,661 Karma: 52758936 Join Date: Sep 2019 Location: in my mind Device: Kobo Sage; Kobo Libra Colour	4/5 for "Kim Ji Young, born 1982", as tough a read as I expected it would be. 4.5/5 for I Am a Girl from Africa by Elizabeth Nyamayaro, with an unexpected connection of subject matter to Kim Ji Young. 4/5 for Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam by Andrew Pham and 4/5 for Men in the Sun and Other Palestinian Stories by Ghassan Kanafani with Hilary Kilpatrick (Translator) , another brutal read. A good start to the year with a lot of my planned "worthy" reads all done and dusted. Next up, for a complete change, The Cat Who Played Brahms and then The Cat Who Played Post Office. Last edited by Uncle Robin; 01-01-2022 at 05:16 PM.

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12-25-2021, 01:59 PM	#30406
LDB Baker Street Irregular Posts: 460 Karma: 9920853 Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Houston suburb Device: Oasis 3, PaperWhite 5, Aura One, Glowlight Plus, Scribe, Sage	Got such a GREAT gift, the book Good Friends, Good Guns, Good Whiskey by Skeeter Skelton. I read all of his stuff 50 years ago. One of the best gifts ever. The new number one read.

12-26-2021, 03:44 AM	#30407
Uncle Robin Diligent dilettante Posts: 3,661 Karma: 52758936 Join Date: Sep 2019 Location: in my mind Device: Kobo Sage; Kobo Libra Colour	Nearly halfway through Death in the Garden by Elizabeth Ironside, and applauding her skill at writing REALLY badly. The protagonist's reading an account of the historical murder she wants to solve and the "book within the book" is just AWFUL - I literally just said out loud "what a piece of c rap" then saluted Ms Ironside for writing badly so well.

12-26-2021, 11:34 PM	#30409
gmw cacoethes scribendi Posts: 5,818 Karma: 137770742 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Aura One & H2Ov2, Sony PRS-650	I read the six books in the Miss Peregrine's Children series, by Ransom Riggs: *Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, Hollow City, Library of Souls, A Map of Days, The Conference of the Birds, The Desolations of Devil’s Acre. The collection constitutes two trilogies. Books one, two, four and five all leave you hanging to some extent. Book three (Library of Souls*) ties everything off to a satisfying conclusion, so you can happily stop there; ditto book six. The photos embedded in the first book are interesting and I thought did add something to the story, if nothing else it gave it a different feel. But as the series progresses the photos start to feel more and more gimmicky, with sentences or characters obviously added just so a photo has somewhere to fit. I liked the first trilogy very much. It was different and entertaining. Each of the books earned a comfortable 4/5 from me. The second trilogy is let down by its first book which felt like mostly filler to me; it gets a 3/5 only because it picks up right at the end. The last two books are fast and action packed, albeit a bit much like a re-run of the first trilogy. 4/5, but only just.

12-27-2021, 08:21 AM	#30410
Dr. Drib Grand Sorcerer Posts: 45,444 Karma: 59592133 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Peru Device: KINDLE: Oasis 3, Scribe (1st), Matcha; KOBO: Libra 2, Libra Colour	I just finished an incredible book of short stories, The Irish Sea, by Carlos Maleno. (Published by Dalkey Archive Press) This is what I'm currently reading: Awake, by Harald Voetmann. (New Directions)

12-29-2021, 06:45 AM	#30413
spacepope Zealot Posts: 117 Karma: 5915366 Join Date: Jun 2021 Location: USA! USA! 🇺🇸 Device: Kobo Libra H2O, Kobo Clara, Kindle Paperwhite 3, Smartphone	It's been a while since I finished a book because I've been working on the monster that is To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini. Solid 4/5 stars, and I really want to read more books in this universe if they're ever released! However the narration by Jennifer Hale is easily a 5/5 stars. For her first audiobook, she absolutely knocked it out of the park. (Also, I developed a very strong craving to replay the Mass Effect games ) Almost done with Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik! Really enjoying it so far. Not my usual fare, but I'm glad I started reading it. An excellent recommendation from a good friend of mine. After that, I'm going to be reading the next book in the Skyward series, Starsight by Brandon Sanderson, and listening to the audiobook of Once Upon A River by Diane Setterfield.

12-31-2021, 05:50 AM	#30415
ReadingManiac Genre Jumper Posts: 1,070 Karma: 11070900 Join Date: Dec 2015 Device: Kindle paperwhite	Christmas reading finished, reading a non-fiction ARC on Welsh Magic and then going to plunge into City of Masks by S.D. Sykes and Godstalk by P.C. Hodgell within the next couple of days. Meant to start the latter a while back but holidays diverted me.

12-31-2021, 08:28 AM	#30416
spacepope Zealot Posts: 117 Karma: 5915366 Join Date: Jun 2021 Location: USA! USA! 🇺🇸 Device: Kobo Libra H2O, Kobo Clara, Kindle Paperwhite 3, Smartphone	So I eeked out one more book before new years strikes: Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik. An enjoyable 4/5. A little more confusing than I'd like with tons of points-of-view, and I'm also not generally fond of fairy tales, but despite that I enjoyed it quite a bit! For my first book of the new year, I thought I would let a random number generator decide from my 40 unread books downloaded to my device. It picked Heritics by G.K. Chesterton. I've been meaning to read Chesterton, and happy to have the RNG push me to actually do it.

01-01-2022, 02:07 AM	#30419
Uncle Robin Diligent dilettante Posts: 3,661 Karma: 52758936 Join Date: Sep 2019 Location: in my mind Device: Kobo Sage; Kobo Libra Colour	3.75/5 for The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Tolstoy, translator Peter Carson. A grim but thought-provoking and relatable read to start 2022, and the fact that the translator submitted his manuscript the day before his own death added a certain depth to the reading experience. Now into Kim Ji Young, born 1982 by Cho Nam Joo, translator Jamie Chang.