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

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

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.

This middle part is an enjoyable fantasy epic journey. I'll follow it up with the third part, rather than wait another five years.

so next up: A Triumph of Souls by Alan Dean Foster.

[Dr. Drib]

Just bought Liars, by Sarah Manguso. It's priced at £0.99 from Kobo.UK.

However, the preview function for that title is not working and has no text. But because the book's premise (and price) intrigued me, I went over to Amazon and read the preview online and was HOOKED.

But don't buy it from Amazon [U.S.], because the price there is $13.99 !!!!!

Amazon [quoted]: Liars is a tour de force of wit and rage, telling the blistering story of a marriage as it burns to the ground, and of a woman rising inexorably from its ashes.

[varia]

Just started The South Bank Murders (Detective Rob Miller #5) by Biba Pearce.
It's my first jaunt into a Police Procedural series. Not bad so far.
My other side read is a translation of A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies, by Bartolome de las Casas originally published in 1552. Though it's short, I won't read it in one sitting. It's heavy reading.

VariaM

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by 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.

I finished (and loved) The Letters of Shirley Jackson.

Right now I've got:

• Audio - One Aladdin, Two Lamps by Jeannette Winterson
• Paper - Pedro the Vast by Simón López Trujillo, translated by Robin Myers
• Kobo - Continuing A Century of Fiction in The New Yorker: 1925-2025

[Solitaire1]

Kingdom Come - A trade paperback of the DC Comics miniseries. The first two-thirds of the trade paperback contains the original 12-issue miniseries, and the final third contains a massive amount of supplemental material. This includes deleted scenes, overviews of the various characters and how they have changed over approximately 20 years, and the Creative Team thoughts during the creative process (such as having Batman appear in an exo-skeleton due to the damage his body has taken in decades of crime fighting).

[Fbone]

Finished Closer to Home by Mercedes Lackey. Finally.

This one was boring and dull except for the last 50 pages. All about two families fighting and attending fêtes. A few interesting items but not enough to improve its rating. Rated C- [2 stars]

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

This middle part is an enjoyable fantasy epic journey. I'll follow it up with the third part, rather than wait another five years.

so next up: A Triumph of Souls by Alan Dean Foster.

Which was an enjoyable and satisfying conclusion.

Then there was The Samurai Detective by Shōtarō Ikenami. Which was interesting, but I think was letdown by a mediocre translation.

And then An Amateur Corpse by Simon Brett. The fourth in his Charles Paris mysteries. Good fun.

Now reading: Spies by Michael Frayn. A freebie I got from Kobo a while back, and a random pick.

[Uncle Robin]

Currently 80% through what's shaping up to be my first 5-star read at The Storygraph for 2026 Indo-European Language and Culture By Benjamin Fortson IV. Simply sublime, an introductory textbook written so well as to be accessible to hobbyists like me (or "such as I" for the pedants). I got it after Laura Spinney, the author of the excellent Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global was kind enough to answer a query I sent about one of her sources. I really enjoyed Proto but Fortson's book is next level superb.

[Wiggo]

Is Benjamin Fortson's book also understandable for nonspecialists, or is it aimed at linguists?

I found Spinney's book quite good and understandable.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by Wiggo

Is Benjamin Fortson's book also understandable for nonspecialists, or is it aimed at linguists?

I found Spinney's book quite good and understandable.

It's DEFINITELY a textbook, but it is written to be accessible to those for whom linguistics is a hobby. I'd estimate that despite it being an introductory textbook, I have grokked around 80% of what I've read. Here's a couple of examples of his writing being less than totally dry.
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Alternatively, connection with an Etruscan god with the unfortunate name Crap has also been suggested, but we know nothing about this deity – which might be a good thing.

[Renate]

I just read an example of how absurd English is:
Contrast the pronunciation of "baseline" and "Vaseline"!

[Hasdrubal_Lector]

Baseline is a compound word and could just as easily be written base-line or base line. So we pronounce it as two words. Quite sensible, I think. OTOH consider all the words that end in -gh, tough and though for example. Now, that is absurd.

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

Currently 80% through what's shaping up to be my first 5-star read at The Storygraph for 2026 Indo-European Language and Culture By Benjamin Fortson IV. Simply sublime, an introductory textbook written so well as to be accessible to hobbyists like me (or "such as I" for the pedants). I got it after Laura Spinney, the author of the excellent Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global was kind enough to answer a query I sent about one of her sources. I really enjoyed Proto but Fortson's book is next level superb.

There is also David Anthony's book, "The Horse, the Wheel, and Language". "Proto" is essentially the 'lite' version of it. A slow read but an excellent read.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by Hasdrubal_Lector

Baseline is a compound word and could just as easily be written base-line or base line. So we pronounce it as two words. Quite sensible, I think. OTOH consider all the words that end in -gh, tough and though for example. Now, that is absurd.


There is also David Anthony's book, "The Horse, the Wheel, and Language". "Proto" is essentially the 'lite' version of it. A slow read but an excellent read.

I read "THe Horse, The Wheel and Language" some years ago. What I enjoyed about Proto is that because it's more recent, it incorporated more recent research and scholarship and the author wasn't afraid to highlight areas where the scientific consensus has moved on from when Anthony wrote his book. Spinney's book also has a MUCH stronger focus on linguistics, whereas Anthony's ius more on the material culture. I enjoyed Anthony's book but Spinney's, thanks to its much stronger focus on words (and fewer photos of potsherds) was a delight

Fortson's textbook is almost exclusively about the languages, culture only mentioned in the context of the linguistic developments. The question I asked the author of Proto that triggered my getting Fortson was about an issue of language.