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

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

I did a double-take on this. Now I'm imagining taking all week to read a long word.

Har har.

Clarissa is an epistolary novel comprised of 700 letters (as in correspondence). It is generally thought to be the longest novel in English.

[CWatkinsNash]

I finished reading the Far Reaches collection. Some very thought-provoking stories in there. My favorites were The Long Game by Ann Leckie and Slow Time Between the Stars by John Scalzi. I also loved Just Out of Jupiter's Reach by Nnedi Okorafor because I have a very sensory mind and I found it to be an extremely immersive read.

I started reading Weevil Spirits, the 5th book in the Freaky Florida Mystery Adventures series by Margaret Lashley.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: The Fire Engine That Disappeared by Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö. The fifth in their Martin Beck series.

Which was OK, but not compelling.

Next up: Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes. Medusa's story.

[Solitaire1]

I'm re-reading Green Lantern - Rebirth. An excellent series that returned Hal Jordan to being Green Lantern, and redefined the previous 10 years worth of story (during which Jordan went from hero, to villain, to dead, to being The Spectre, and back to being a hero).

[Quizlit]

Currently on Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie, in the past few weeks have read The Diving Pool by Yoko Ogawa, really liked it, 3 novellas.
Also Fulgentius by Cesar Aira, also a novella about a famed Roman General, interesting but not great.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Quizlit

Currently on Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie, in the past few weeks have read The Diving Pool by Yoko Ogawa, really liked it, 3 novellas.
Also Fulgentius by Cesar Aira, also a novella about a famed Roman General, interesting but not great.

We like the same thing (novellas) - and both authors.

I've read Yoko Agawa, and very much like her work, but have yet to read The Diving Pool.

I love Cesar Aira and have read a number of his works. I don't have Fulgentius, and will buy it right now.

THANK YOU!

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by Solitaire1

Maybe it is for the hope that they will meet a horrible end? I had the same reason for reading 2000s Supergirl comic. I disliked her so much that I was rooting for the villains to win.

Originally Posted by orlok

And I'm betting you were disappointed?

Although it is late I will respond. The Supergirl who debuted after Crisis on Infinite Earths was the only version of Supergirl that I liked. She started out as a being composed of protomatter that could take any shape she chose (how she came about is a long story) and had enhanced strength and flight. Unfortunately, because of her origin she felt empty inside (once she said she looked in her eyes in a mirror and saw nothing looking back).

Eventually, she encounters a young woman, Linda Danvers, who is dying. To save her life, Supergirl merges with her and they became one being. Now she can only switch between Linda Danvers (with the only difference being that she now has blue eyes instead of brown) and Supergirl. The tag line of the series was "They told her to get a life, they didn't say whose...) and it turned out that Linda was very troubled young woman who fell in with a very wrong crowd. Eventually, after an especially traumatic event, that Supergirl departed for parts unknown, never to appear again. As far as I know, she has now been completely deleted from continuity.

I have found the subsequent Supergirls to be very unlikable characters.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes. Medusa's story.

Which was very good indeed.

Next up: A Sultry Month. London in 1846. For a bookclub.

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

Before taking a job in a spying organization, I recommend reading an entertaining 2003 novel I just finished, Loose Lips by journalist, historian, and . . . .

I just finished the second and, to-date, final book in the series, Lion Eyes. I think it's the best spy novel I ever read.

Two things I should admit.

One, I hardly ever read spy novels -- mostly because I generally fail to finish any I start. And Lion Eyes is as much a romance as a spy book. It's also a mystery, the primary mystery being how much is fiction, and how much, if any, is a memoir.

Two, despite re-reading, I am unable to understand the ending of Lion Eyes. Berlinski is some sort of genius, so it must be me.

[BenBanned]

Elmore Leonard
Law At Randado

Very entertaining, the pacing was excellent and the plot was involved but not overly complicated

Video Book Discussion /review

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: A Sultry Month. London in 1846. For a bookclub.

Which was not very good. Unless one likes mixed up details of the lives of literary, artistic and political figures of the 1800s.

Very dry. Fails to be satisfactorily chronological, jumping back and forth in time seemingly at random.

Supposedly documenting one hot month in 1846, but skips the first half of the hot month, and details half of July instead, after thunderstorms and rain end the sequence of hot weather.

The author should at least have kept to their conceit of documenting a month chronologically a little. It happens throughout the book that in chapters supposedly concerning specific days, days before and after are also detailed. For example, Chapter XVI: Tuesday, 30th June. The second sentence starts "The Times had a resounding article on 26th June, ...."! The previous chapter is entitled "Thursday 25th June to Monday 29th June".

Not a good read for me. 2/5.


Next up: A Prime Read freebie, The Real Deal by Caitlin Devlin

[drofgnal]

After taking a pause on Anna Karenin because it just didn’t suit me over the holidays, I read the Hobbit, then returned to Anna and finished it off. I’m now back to another reread, this time with Lord of the Rings. I figured why not. Next up is a return to WW2 historical fiction with Pan Jenoff’s Code Name Saphire.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: A Prime Read freebie, The Real Deal by Caitlin Devlin

Which I enjoyed. 4/5 from me, mainly because I wasn't too keen on the ending.

Next up: My other January Prime Read Freebie: The Bad Weather Friend by Dean Koontz.

[Uncle Robin]

I'm 10% into San Marino la storia in miniatura - La storia piccolissima by Pierluigi Taddei, my February prompt for the MobileReads TBR Reduction Challenge at the Storygraph. So far, it's been an interesting read for several reasons. First was discovering courtesy of of the fascinating foreword that the "miniatura" and "piccolissima" in the title refer not just to the book's size but also its scale. It is intended as a small, personal level history. Related to that was discovering from the same foreword that the author is himself Sammarinese, references to "we" "us" "our" throughout. I'm looking forward to learning more about my favourite micro State.

[Dr. Drib]

Almost finished with Bedlam, an incredible book of short stories, by Charlene Elsby.

Recommended for readers who enjoy literary fiction.