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

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by issybird

This has been sitting in my Kobo for some months, since I reread Magic Mountain last year. I'll be interested to know what you think of it; I'm always looking for reasons to bump a book up my list!

I don't think I would be appreciating it anywhere near as much as I am if I had not read The Magic Mountain.

[nana77]

I've read some backlogs from december: "Ascension" by Nicolas Binge (2023); which I'd liked much, also (imho) one of the most great ends evar (and LOL ); and "Austral" by Paul McAuley (2017), which I'd liked too. So nice the female character of the protagonist, which is half husky.
Now on the new reads with the borrowed ones: "Dream Dancer" by Janet Morris (1980); I've liked it much too, but I'm not sure to read now the serie's followings, I was to hope to a different ending (but it's fine, anyway). Did even searched the spoilers on Wikipedia to check if she would had stayed with (ok, no spoilers)..
The italian cover it's also strange, I'm about to like to borrow those books at the public library: them seems great and everything, thought the cover wasn't on theme within the book, at all.
Now on a collection of short stories (from 1944 to 1958) by Sturgeon: "Aliens 4".

[rumplestiltskin]

Almost done with "Retail Gangster: The Insane, Real-Life Story of Crazy Eddie"
by Gary Weiss

I grew up in NY and heard and watched all the ads ("His prices are insane!"). I always wondered what happened to him and his company after I moved out of the NY area almost 50 years ago. This book covers events and people even more insane than you can imagine. Highly recommended.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: No Friend to This House by Natalie Haynes. I really like some of her classical works. We'll see if this is one of the ones I like.

I did like it. A good retelling of Jason & Medea mostly from Medea's POV. But I didn't find it compelling, so it took me four days.

Next up was: When Gavin Met Stacey and Everything in Between by Ruth Jones and James Corden

A fascinating insight into these two and their work on Gavin & Stacey. Finished in a single sitting.

Next up: Sharpe's Storm by Bernard Cornwell. The most recently published of his Sharpe books.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by rumplestiltskin

Almost done with "Retail Gangster: The Insane, Real-Life Story of Crazy Eddie"
by Gary Weiss

I grew up in NY and heard and watched all the ads ("His prices are insane!"). I always wondered what happened to him and his company after I moved out of the NY area almost 50 years ago. This book covers events and people even more insane than you can imagine. Highly recommended.

As someone who lived in NYC from 1980-85, that phrase certainly resonates! And goodness knows I bought more than my share from him. The fun was actually trying to buy something at the published price. It was a game and a challenge. Off to my public library to see if I can score a copy of the book. Thanks!

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

Started the year off thusly:

• Audio - A Case of Mice and Murder by Sally Smith (I was pestered into reading this by a buddy, but was unwilling to purchase it. Only listening to it now because my hold came in via the library).
  
• Up Next Audio - The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story by Olga Tokarczuk
  
• DTB - The Uncanny X-Men Omnibus Vol. 1 by Chris Claremont
  
• Kobo - The Saint of Bright Doors by Varja Chandrasekera

I have finished all of the above except the Claremont (I am waiting in line behind my wife who started it before me. Currently:

• Audio - The Black Mountain by Rex Stout
  
• DTB - Book and Dagger: : How Scholars and Librarians Became the Unlikely Spies of World War II by Elyse Graham. This is a very pop history and I am almost certainly going to donate it as soon as I'm done. It was a gift from a well-meaning "you like books" friend and it's a bit light on facts and heavy on imagined drama for me.
  
• Kobo - Orwell's Roses by Rebecca Solnit.

[nana77]

Now on a collection of short stories (from 1944 to 1958) by Sturgeon: "Aliens 4".

This edition has "Killdozers!" changed with "When You Care, When You Love" (written in '62), and an interview with the author, very nice.
He even said one of his techniques was to change the metric in iambic or anapestic, like just to change the composing even on 3000 words, or giving 300 in pure iambic inside a structure, to change the novel's atmosphere (in here, the book is translated as "Iapetus' race").
I'd liked it, and also his "The Cosmic Rape" (in here, "Medusa's sons"), liked much even its inner cover: https://imgur.com/a/ilPH4Cx .

I'm about to finish "The Continent Makers and Other Tales of the Viagens", by L. Sprague de Camp.
Maybe it needs to be set on a context, it's not the bestest novels' collection ever (also from his firsts writtings), but probably it wasn't even meant to be (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Co...ns#Reception); but yes, somehow, sometimes, funny and a little sarcastic.

I'm about to finish also "The Genocides" by Thomas M. Disch (1965, in here on a newest translation - it's a backlog from the readings of november - as "Gomorra and surroundings"; not my cup of tea .

eco-weird

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Genocides

Edit: on the editor intro in "Aliens 4" there is a nice mention to Sturgeon capabiity as he was writing novels whitin a visual manner, as others might prefer or use other senses, together also. That on SF fits peculiar, as many of the environments aren't often knew, conversely the ones into other genres, as references.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: Sharpe's Storm by Bernard Cornwell. The most recently published of his Sharpe books.

Which was the expected adventure. A bit more introspection from Sharpe than in the earlier books, IMO.

Next was New Under the Sun by Nancy Kress and Therese Piecynski. Ususally I see the connection between the pieces. It passed me by in this one. OK.

Then there was Birds of Prey by David Drake. Time traveller in ancient Rome to defeat aliens. Fun.

And Slow Time Between the Stars by John Scalzi. An absolutely brilliant short story.

Now reading: Murder in Norfolk by Sadie Norman. I'm not sure I'll finish it. It seems a small thing, but using shined instead of shone has put me off a bit. And while I'm not overly familiar with west Norfolk around Kings Lynn, the descriptions haven't rung true for me yet.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Which was the expected adventure. A bit more introspection from Sharpe than in the earlier books, IMO.

I just finished this. I'm finding the most recent Sharpe books to be on the skimpy side. There wasn't anything remotely resembling a plot until about three-quarters of the way through, just gore and wheel-spinning. And it's supremely irritating that after all this time, Cornwell still can't be bothered to get titles right. It's one of my pet peeves, but still.

It was entertaining enough and I'll stick with Sharpe for now (assuming there's more in the pipeline), but it's a close run thing.

[drofgnal]

Originally Posted by drofgnal

I'm still at it as I've been pretty busy during December. But I see light at the end of the tunnel. I can see why in the first version his publisher had him remove 400 pages. It does go on and on. But I'm too invested with time now to stop. Maybe now with the holidays almost over I can push through quicker.

I finally finished the 1400 page door stop. I had a love hate relationship with this book. Many times I started to put it down but didn't. Steven King is a wonderful writer, but somehow the flow of this book bugged me. His writing kept me going, the flow of the book made me want to delete it. So I kept going, albeit slowly. I didn't really care for the ending either once I got there. Oh well, glad I finished. I'm sure I'd have enjoyed the original edition without the 400 pages added back in better.

It took me a while to decide what to read after finishing so I started Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano. I had picked it up as an Amazon deal of the day for 1.99 some time ago.

[nana77]

Just finished the second book of the space-opera shorts' anthology "Infinite Stars" (2017), by Bryan Thomas Schmidt (in here it has been published in two books); a nice anthology.

[...] he was asked to edit The Martian. He worked with the author, Andy Weir, to improve the story.

Also I wasn't to know that Leigh Brackett wrote the first draft of "The Empire Strikes Back".
Reading more than one book at the same time is not my thing, but while having recently brought mostly shorts as collections on TBR from past months, for how much them can be nice them doesn't gives the addictiveness of larger volumes (imho).
"Skaith!" by Brackett is very enjoyable, even if it has quite a fantasy mood (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leigh_...s_Solar_System).

One of the next purchasing will be for sure "The Sourdough School: The ground-breaking guide to making gut-friendly bread", by Vanessa Kimbell; as I've discovered that following some explained tutorials can only be beneficial for results .

Edit: I account that I can't follow both the SF's Urania series, the TBR's ones; and the free, spacey wall at the public library, btw (#sadshrug ).

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Now reading: Murder in Norfolk by Sadie Norman. I'm not sure I'll finish it. It seems a small thing, but using shined instead of shone has put me off a bit. And while I'm not overly familiar with west Norfolk around Kings Lynn, the descriptions haven't rung true for me yet.

It got better. If I didn't have 700+ other books to read, I'd put the others on my watch list.

Next I read the Biography of Florence Nightingale by Lytton Strachey. This is actually just a chapter from his Emminent Victorians. It had stuff I didn't know, but still a very condensed biography, without much analysis.

And then there was The Garden Party and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield. This was for a book club.

I hated it. Literary short fiction. The first story really put me off, and none of the others fully corrected that first impression, although some of them were certainly better. The person who put this book forward said that she'd forgotten which one came first in the book, and that she'd have recommended that we not start there if she had!

Not an author I intend to pick up again.

Next up: Into the Thinking Kingdoms by Alan Dean Foster. Middle part of a trilogy. I read the first part in 2020, so some details escape me, but clearly a set up for the current book, where we drop straight into an ongoing quest. I suspect it's really one story in three volumes.

[astrangerhere]

Currently:

• Audio - Plot it Yourself by Rex Stout
• DTB - The Letters of Shirley Jackson - these are fabulous. I have about one more sitting before I finish them and have really enjoyed them.
• Kobo - A Century of Fiction in The New Yorker: 1925-2025 edited by Deborah Treisman. The highlight so far has been re-reading Susan Sontag's stellar look at the early days of the AIDS epidemic - "The Way We Live Now" from 1986.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

<SNIP>

And then there was The Garden Party and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield. This was for a book club.

I hated it. Literary short fiction. The first story really put me off, and none of the others fully corrected that first impression, although some of them were certainly better. The person who put this book forward said that she'd forgotten which one came first in the book, and that she'd have recommended that we not start there if she had!

Not an author I intend to pick up again.

<SNIP>

That's really a shame. I really enjoy Mansfield and "The Garden Party" was one of my favorite stories for a long time. I'm not sure it would be in my top 10 now, but I hold great affection for it still, nearly 30 years after i first read it.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

That's really a shame. I really enjoy Mansfield and "The Garden Party" was one of my favorite stories for a long time. I'm not sure it would be in my top 10 now, but I hold great affection for it still, nearly 30 years after i first read it.

The first story in the book was "At the Bay". I didn't hate "The Garden Party" as much, but I'm afraid that sort of thing isn't for me.

"Mr. and Mrs. Dove" was quite amusing.