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

[ficbot]

Just finished 'Fantasy in Death' by J.D. Robb. I love this series, but have felt with this one and the two or three which came before it that it started really strong, great case, good character development etc. and then fizzled out just before the end. Maybe she is tipping her hand too early about who did it, maybe Eve is just too comfortable and domestic these days (Kellerman's Alex Delaware reached this point) or maybe the books just need to be about 50 pages shorter. But halfway through, it was 'best! book! ever!' and by the end I felt kind of meh about it.

Going to tackle some back issues of Alfred Hitchcock and Asimovs next. I am way behind.

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by ShortNCuddlyAm

Dawkins is seeking to find possible evolutionary reasons behind religious belief and to understand why this sort of behaviour might have come about and still seemingly be hard-wired into humans.

Thank you for the review, Am! I think I'll put this book on my wishlist. I find this subject fascinating.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by ShortNCuddlyAm

Finished it, and now wondering how to write about it...

Richard Dawkins is an evolutionary biologist and an atheist. The God Delusion is partly an attempt at examining religion from an evolutionary point of view, and partly a heartfelt, impassioned rant.

It's dedicated to the memory of Douglas Adams (Adams credited one of Dawkins books with converting him (Adams) to atheism), and early on he expresses the hope that this book would have made Douglas Adams laugh. It is a serious book, but not entirely written in a serious tone. The humour tends to be a very British (not really surprising ) observational humour; dry and sarcastic.

The book's stance is unapologetically and unsurprisingly anti-religious. Dawkins takes issue with blind acceptance even when the information available is contradictory, or there is evidence against what is being believed. But whilst this makes up a large portion of the book, it is not what the book is about - it is there as explanatory and background material as much as anything. Dawkins is seeking to find possible evolutionary reasons behind religious belief and to understand why this sort of behaviour might have come about and still seemingly be hard-wired into humans. There is a fascinating section on cargo cults which gives an overview of just how quickly these things take hold and become accepted.

I found it to be an engaging, thought-provoking and sometimes challenging book, and I would recommend it to most people. (Dawkins lists a theist-atheist scale fairly early on in the book - I probably wouldn't recommend it to people who lay in either 1 or 7...)

Thanks for that!

[MickeyC]

Just blew through Deeper Than The Dead by Tami Hoag and it was excellent. First one of hers I've read but I expect they'll be more.

Next Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by TC Beacham

Trying a mystery writer I've never read - PRIME TIME by Hank Phillippi Ryan.

She works at one of the local news departments in Boston.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by phenomshel

So...going out on a limb, I messaged Hank via Facebook and asked her if she got a chance could she ask Donna what was up with the unavailability of her titles in ebook formats. She said, "sure, no problem". The day after she got back from the event, I had a message from her, saying Donna was thrilled that I asked, and that her publisher (Macmillan) was blaming Amazon for the hold up.

The hold up being because of Amazon is a crock. There are lots of other shops that sell eBooks. Granted, none of them work with a Kindle because of the DRM. But still, Macmillan is just giving a BS answer here.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by TC Beacham

That really is great! Next time you talk to her you can say she has a new fan - read a lot this morning and I'm really liking PRIME TIME!

I've just added Prime Time to my pile of books to read.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by phenomshel

I messaged her via Facebook. Watch out, she may show up, now!

Kewl.. that would be another local.

[WT Sharpe]

Just finished reading American on Purpose by The Late Late Show host and The Drew Carey Show alumni Craig Ferguson. It tells about his life growing up in Scotland, his struggles with alcoholism, his marital difficulties, his rise to become the host of The Late Late Show and his thoughts on recently becoming a United States citizen. He's a fascinating individual, and he's written an equally fascinating and interesting book. It makes me want to read his novel!

Originally Posted by ShortNCuddlyAm

Finished it, and now wondering how to write about it...

Richard Dawkins is an evolutionary biologist and an atheist. The God Delusion is partly an attempt at examining religion from an evolutionary point of view, and partly a heartfelt, impassioned rant. ...

The God Delusion is another book I plan to read in the not-too-distant future. Although his passion engenders in him a tendency to be a bit caustic at times, Dawkins is a great writer as well as an entertaining and knowledgeable speaker. I feel certain that reading this book would be well worth the time and effort!

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by phenomshel

I think the first one was a different publisher, so it may be a rights issue. Alternatively, we could take it as yet another example of publisher's being stupid about ebooks. . Trivial as it may seem, I think what bothers me the most about that series is that the cover artist changed. The old ones were really pretty, the new ones are awful. This is one I'm tempted to scan before I try re-reading it again, though...it's one of my favorite books (and even though it is technically first in a series it stands on it's own merits), so I re-read it fairly often.

What bother's me about series in eBook is when they are incomplete or in different formats. Incomplete I will not buy at all. Different formats I can deal with by stripping and converting. But still for the average person, it's a no go. Might as well be incomplete. #1 is Mobipocket/eReader/MS Reader, #2 is Mobipocket/eReader, #3 is eReader/ePub, and #4 is ePub. Now for someone who has a reader that doesn't do DRMed Mobipocket or eReader or MS Reader, that series would be useless overall.

[JSWolf]

I just finished The Good, The Bad, and the Undead by Kim Harrison. I do think she has a thing for Clint Eastwood westerns based on the titles.

I am now reading Life as We Knew it By Susan Beth Pfeffer. So far it's pretty good.

Miranda’s disbelief turns to fear in a split second when a meteor knocks the moon closer to the earth. How should her family prepare for the future when worldwide tsunamis wipe out the coasts, earthquakes rock the continents, and volcanic ash blocks out the sun? As summer turns to Arctic winter, Miranda, her two brothers, and their mother retreat to the unexpected safe haven of their sunroom, where they subsist on stockpiled food and limited water in the warmth of a wood-burning stove. Told in journal entries, this is the heart-pounding story of Miranda’s struggle to hold on to the most important resource of all—hope—in an increasingly desperate and unfamiliar world.

[neilmarr]

Yep, Tom, The God Delusion is a neatly crafted piece of work. You're right that Dawkins can be a tad 'caustic', but he's a model of diplomacy compared with Chris Hitchens in God is Not Great (a brilliant writer, though, whatever he sets his hand to). I find Sam Harris a little muddled in his talk of 'spirituality' and a touch watery in his books and papers. Of all the Four Horsemen, my favourite scribe is Dan Dennett. His Breaking the Spell is a beautiful job of work. For sheer poetry on the subject of belief and lack of it, though, my recommendation would be the English translation of the Atheist Manifesto by Frenchman Michel Oneray. That truly is a wonderful and profound book. Happy weekend. Neil

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by neilmarr

Yep, Tom, The God Delusion is a neatly crafted piece of work. You're right that Dawkins can be a tad 'caustic', but he's a model of diplomacy compared with Chris Hitchens in God is Not Great (a brilliant writer, though, whatever he sets his hand to). I find Sam Harris a little muddled in his talk of 'spirituality' and a touch watery in his books and papers. Of all the Four Horsemen, my favourite scribe is Dan Dennett. His Breaking the Spell is a beautiful job of work. For sheer poetry on the subject of belief and lack of it, though, my recommendation would be the English translation of the Atheist Manifesto by Frenchman Michel Oneray. That truly is a wonderful and profound book. Happy weekend. Neil

I've almost bought "God is Not Great" a couple of times. Thanks for the input on it, may read it at some point. "Breaking the Spell" (in paperback) is right here on my desk at the moment. I've only read the first chapter so far.

The Atheist Manifesto has been mentioned to me several time. I'm going to go find it right now.

Thanks Neil!

P.S. just ordered "The Atheist Manifesto" used in paper...no ebook available that I could find.

[Ea]

Originally Posted by neilmarr

Yep, Tom, The God Delusion is a neatly crafted piece of work. You're right that Dawkins can be a tad 'caustic', but he's a model of diplomacy compared with Chris Hitchens in God is Not Great (a brilliant writer, though, whatever he sets his hand to). I find Sam Harris a little muddled in his talk of 'spirituality' and a touch watery in his books and papers. Of all the Four Horsemen, my favourite scribe is Dan Dennett. His Breaking the Spell is a beautiful job of work. For sheer poetry on the subject of belief and lack of it, though, my recommendation would be the English translation of the Atheist Manifesto by Frenchman Michel Oneray. That truly is a wonderful and profound book. Happy weekend. Neil

I'll save these suggestions. Though to be honest, when I've read anything about faith and religion, it was in a, so far mostly failed, attempt to figure what religious faith feels like and what it means to someone. It's quite a closed country to me.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by neilmarr

Yep, Tom, The God Delusion is a neatly crafted piece of work. You're right that Dawkins can be a tad 'caustic', but he's a model of diplomacy compared with Chris Hitchens in God is Not Great (a brilliant writer, though, whatever he sets his hand to). I find Sam Harris a little muddled in his talk of 'spirituality' and a touch watery in his books and papers. Of all the Four Horsemen, my favourite scribe is Dan Dennett. His Breaking the Spell is a beautiful job of work. For sheer poetry on the subject of belief and lack of it, though, my recommendation would be the English translation of the Atheist Manifesto by Frenchman Michel Oneray. That truly is a wonderful and profound book. Happy weekend. Neil

I haven't read any of Dan Dennett's books, so I can't comment on that; but I thoroughly agree with everything else you wrote in that post.