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

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I'm going to finish Shadows in Death by J.D. Robb either tonight or tomorrow.

I've finished two books.

1. Shadows in Death by J. D. Robb
2. Never by Ken Follett

I've started Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire. It's the 3rd book in the Wayward Children series.

Return to Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children. At this magical boarding school, children who have experienced fantasy adventures are reintroduced to the "real" world.

When Rini lands with a literal splash in the pond behind Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children, the last thing she expects to find is that her mother, Sumi, died years before Rini was even conceived. But Rini can’t let Reality get in the way of her quest—not when she has an entire world to save! (Much more common than one would suppose.)

If she can't find a way to restore her mother, Rini will have more than a world to save: she will never have been born in the first place. And in a world without magic, she doesn’t have long before Reality notices her existence and washes her away. Good thing the student body is well-acquainted with quests...

A tale of friendship, baking, and derring-do.

[Fat Abe]

Not mentioned in this long thread is The Fantastic Adventures of Lefty Feep, by Robert Bloch. The author of Psycho might not be remembered for his humor. Lefty is a con artist and irreverent character. The book sells for under $2 on Kobo.com and is worth buying just to convert to AZW to read on a Kindle device. In the synopsis of the book on Kobo, Lefty is compared to an adult version of Bart Simpson. Of course, Bart never aged two decades in one day, or did all the shady things that Lefty has concocted.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: War of the Marionettes by Adam-Troy Castro. The third of his Andrea Cort novels, finally available as an ebook.

And I enjoyed it.

Next I read the first two of Simon Brett's Mrs Pargeter series. Fun.

And now the first volume of Robin Hobb's Soldier Son trilogy.

[issybird]

I have read trash for the past three months. I need a major reset come Labor Day.

Junk reading in the summer is typical for me, but it's never persisted so long and with so little to counterbalance it. I'm hopeful I can retrieve those marbles that are skittering all over!

Topic: I'm listening to the longest of all Trollope novels, The Way We Live Now, my 22nd Trollope novel. Also reading They Were Divided by Miklós Bánffy, the last of his Transylvania Trilogy. Not vampires.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by issybird

I have read trash for the past three months. I need a major reset come Labor Day.

Junk reading in the summer is typical for me, but it's never persisted so long and with so little to counterbalance it. I'm hopeful I can retrieve those marbles that are skittering all over!

Topic: I'm listening to the longest of all Trollope novels, The Way We Live Now, my 22nd Trollope novel. Also reading They Were Divided by Miklós Bánffy, the last of his Transylvania Trilogy. Not vampires.

I have been filling in with a number of Maigret and Alleyn detective novels, but I am also still doing the daily War and Peace. I'm going to try to do two letters a day from Samuel Richardson's Clarissa next year.

I have just started Elizabeth Strout's Pulitzer winner Olive Kitteridge. I have some priorities for the fall, very little of which is junk.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

I'm going to try to do two letters a day from Samuel Richardson's Clarissa next year.

What a marvelous idea! A great way to tackle a work that seems overwhelming. I’d like to sign on for it also.

I have some priorities for the fall, very little of which is junk.

The end of summer makes me mournful, but I am looking forward to getting more serious about my reading again.

[Amar Rameez]

Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther, its beyond golden man!! Each and every syllable echoes of love and the grief of separation.

[Quizlit]

Am currently reading The House of Door by Tan Twan Eng, really good so far.

Recent reads include the disappointing The Post Office Girl by Stephen Zweig, the wonderful Dead-End Memories by Banana Yoshimoto and the rather poignant Dalva By Jim Harrison

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by issybird

What a marvelous idea! A great way to tackle a work that seems overwhelming. I’d like to sign on for it also.



The end of summer makes me mournful, but I am looking forward to getting more serious about my reading again.

If you're really interested in Clarissa, I'll set up a buddy read on StoryGraph

The end of summer here makes me deliriously happy. I feel like I can settle back in with the students and get some real intellectual work done. It helps that this year I have been tasked with supervising an entirely new to me area of law, so I am doing a lot of self-study. Gets me in the mindset, as it were.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

If you're really interested in Clarissa, I'll set up a buddy read on StoryGraph

I'm very interested in a buddy read, i.e., a read & discuss as we go along, but I have to say I've never figured out what a buddy read at StoryGraph does.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by issybird

I'm very interested in a buddy read, i.e., a read & discuss as we go along, but I have to say I've never figured out what a buddy read at StoryGraph does.

It's very similar to a thread here except that it blocks comments that from people further ahead than you to prevent spoilers. I'm also happy just to open a thread here though.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

It's very similar to a thread here except that it blocks comments that from people further ahead than you to prevent spoilers. I'm also happy just to open a thread here though.

Which means you have to keep updating your status? What happens if you don't?

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by issybird

Which means you have to keep updating your status? What happens if you don't?

I have no idea as I update my status. But, honestly, unless you are reading the same edition, I can see where it would be cumbersome. We'll just do a thread here, yeah?

[drofgnal]

I just finished Geraldine Brooks’ book ‘Horse’. A marvelous historical fiction novel about a Kentucky thoroughbred named Lexington (1850s-70s) and the slave boy who pretty much raised him and cared for him his whole life. It’s also a story of slavery and modern racism. The book jumps to present time with the story of a Nigerian art history grad student at Georgetown who is researching a painting of Lexington found in a trash pile. A meticulously researched book. Many of the characters and Lexington were real. Lexington may have been the greatest ever, who eventually sired many champions as well. It was a wonderful book.

I need a gap filler. Ken Follet’s 5th Kingsbridge novel comes out in about 1 month. Horse was one of those novels that make you go wow and I find it hard to decide what to read after that. I’m still slowly reading ‘The Road to Reality, A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe’ by Roger Penrose. I may just pick up the pace with that vs start something else right now.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

I have no idea as I update my status. But, honestly, unless you are reading the same edition, I can see where it would be cumbersome. We'll just do a thread here, yeah?

Excellent, thanks. I wasn't trying to denigrate StoryGraph, just to be clear; it was only that I've never understood buddy reads there. I never upgrade my status until completion, although obviously I could if incumbent on me for a discussion.

I'm looking forward to this; I think it's the kick in the ass nudge I needed to tackle the book. Back in my salad days, those who read it read an abridged version and that's against my religion.