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

[Karellen]

Came across the Creasy series by A.J Quinnell...
https://www.goodreads.com/series/89082-creasy

About to start #3 and I thoroughly enjoyed the first two.
The slow buildup to the main event is enjoyable and well written.

[drofgnal]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

I reread this every 2-3 years. I hope you continue to enjoy your visit to Madam Pavlova's.

Thanks, I am enjoying it quite a bit. This is my fourth read in a bit over 20 years. It never ceases to amaze me the subtle nuances that I still pick up in any reread.

I hope you enjoy your next reread.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by drofgnal

This time I'm reading the Ann Dunnigan Translation (Signet Classics) .

That's my favorite.

[haertig]

I'm trying a new author (new to me, that is). Andy McDermott's "The Hunt for Atlantis". The first book in the "Nina Wilde and Eddie Chase" series. I guess I would call the genre "Action/Adventure", but I'm only at the very beginning of the book and don't know for sure - on either the genre, or on whether the book is any good or not. So far I'm not turned off by it, seems OK, so it's off to a good start so far. Nothing much has happened yet though...

[nana77]

Originally Posted by nana77

Now on "Davy" by Edgar Pangborn, and a book about cats, which is not translated.

A nice character, liked the novel.
Followed by "The Ginger Star" by Brackett, which I'd liked too, as the others' parts of "Skaith!".
Philip José Farmer was new, to me, I'd liked "The Green Odyssey" and its steampunk mood.

Now on "Rogue Moon" by Algis Budrys.

I do have borrowed (as picking some books quite at random) "The Conquest of Space" by L. Ron. Hubbard, but I don't know if I will read it, while having had read his biography..

[drofgnal]

Originally Posted by issybird

That's my favorite.

I think mine too. I enjoyed reading the P&V one once to understand all the footnoted historical and cultural references in the book, but for just a read Ann Dunnigan is the way to go. Ann Dunnigan has been my choice in 3 of 4 reads of W&P.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

I finished the audio of Lady Joker as well as Xiaolu Guo's Call Me Ishmaelle. Now the list looks like:

• Audio - Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde (190 pages)
• Kobo - The Books of Earthsea, complete illustrated edition, by Ursula K. Le Guin (1008 pages)
• Paper - The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, revised and expanded edition, edited by Humphrey Carpenter and Christopher Tolkien (720 pages).

Finished the Audre Lorde. Still reading the Le Guin and Tolkien's letters. Now listening to Werner Herzog's memoir Every Man for Himself and God Against All which is fascinating. I think he is more than a little mad, but he is an excellent storyteller.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

[*]Paper - The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, revised and expanded edition, edited by Humphrey Carpenter and Christopher Tolkien (720 pages). [/LIST]

I have that on my watchlist. I'm beginning to wonder if it'll ever get discounted. They didn't even reduced the ebook price when the paperback was published.

I'll be interested to hear whether you think it's worth reading.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I have that on my watchlist. I'm beginning to wonder if it'll ever get discounted. They didn't even reduced the ebook price when the paperback was published.

I'll be interested to hear whether you think it's worth reading.

I'm about 30% in and have really enjoyed it. Reading correspondence is an acquired taste, but one that I adore.

I could do without some of the sermonizing he is giving his sons (particularly about women), but I knew that was part and parcel. He talks ALL THE TIME about the writing process of The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings which, honestly, is what I was here for. My wife is reading LOTR for the first time right now so this is my companion read to hers.

Though I read about 30 letters last night that he sent to his son Christopher during World War II. They were poignant and gave an interesting look into his views on war and the experiences he had.

I have also been pleasantly surprised to discover that CS Lewis was a rather annoying dude when drunk, which seemed more often that I'd have ever anticipated.

As to the price point - I bought the hardcover used just after the paperback came out. I think I paid eight or nine dollars for it.

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by Renate

I'm reading this book on horology but it doesn't seem to be very technical.
"The Secret of the Old Clock", Carolyn Keene.

LOL This reminded me of the following old joke:

Although written many years ago, Lady Chatterley's Lover has just been reissued by the Grove Press, and this pictorial account of the day-to-day life of an English gamekeeper is full of considerable interest to outdoor minded readers, as it contains many passages on pheasant-raising, the apprehending of poachers, ways to control vermin, and other chores and duties of the professional gamekeeper. Unfortunately, one is obliged to wade through many pages of extraneous material in order to discover and savour those sidelights on the management of a midland shooting estate, and in this reviewer's opinion the book cannot take the place of J. R. Miller's "Practical Gamekeeping."

-- Ed Zern, "Field and Stream" (Nov. 1959)

[nana77]

Originally Posted by nana77

Now on "Rogue Moon" by Algis Budrys.

I'd liked very much this novel too, published in here translated in 1977 (the original was from 1960).
This on bottom was an original draw from Glauco Cartocci for the novel, inside.

The version of "Who Goes There?", by John W. Campbell I have just finished was translated and published in 1977 (1938 the original), and added other two articles by Asimov and Sturgeon (I didn't knew the three laws of robotics were suggested by Campbell to Asimov, having them deducted from Asimov's lectures ). Included it's also the screenplay of the movie's transposition "The Thing from Another World", by Howard Hawks (which didn't took the credits, and -sadly- didn't made other works as director - by the plot's intro from Giovanni Mongini comment https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?128499).

What puzzled me a little was the annotation, on preface, that those stories didn't came translated in here, and afterall waited next to the second wave on SF, in the late '70 (Astounding wasn't translated, either, instead the Galaxy was, if I've understood correctly).


Now on 1Q84, by Haruki Murakami.

[Uncle Robin]

Currently reading The Book Charlatans , one of my MR TBR Reduction Challenge prompts. It's a fascinating read, and wins the prize for having the laongest author's name of any book I've yet read

Jamāl al-Din `Abd al-Rahīm ibn `Umar ibn Abī Bakr al-Dimashqī, also known as al-Jawbarī

[fantasyfan]

Charles Beaumont (1929–1967) was a science fiction writer closely linked to Rod Sterling’s Twilight Zone TV series. He contributed to around 20 episodes— some of which were based on his own short stories. He was only 37 at his death from a strange condition which caused him to prematurely and rapidly age.
This collection, Perchance To Dream, is a collection of 23 of his short stories published in 2015. It contains an introductory memoir, Beaumont Remembered, by Ray Bradbury which had been used for an earlier collection in 1981. In it Bradbury celebrates the remarkable fertility with which Beaumont turns “ideas, notions, fancies” into wonderful stories.
The book concludes with a moving “Afterword” by William Shatner. He had been an actor in two episodes of The Twilight Zone between 1960 and 1963. During that time he came to know Beaumont who was writing scripts for the series. He saw him at his peak and witnessed the onset of his decline.
The short stories themselves demonstrate that Beaumont is a master of the dark twist. Bradbury puts Beaumont in the same class as John Collier and Roald Dahl. I think that these stories have something of the sharp irony of William Tenn. Certainly many of the tales in Perchance To Dream are classics. I found only one that I think shows its age. I felt that “You Can’t Have Them All” is too long and too gender stereotyped. But still that ending has a remarkable ironic twist.
This is a book all lovers of “Golden Age” science fiction would enjoy.