Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading? - Page 315

Bluesman7 · 04-25-2010, 07:02 PM

So, just finished The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao...

...Was really hoping to like it more than I did. I gave it a shot based upon its inclusion in "best of the decade" lists as well as the Pulitzer.

It had much that was interesting and passages that were compelling but as a novel, as a story, it failed to involve me to the extent I had hoped.

It wasn't time wasted and the information about the Dominican Republic was certainly eye opening but I wouldn't be able to give it a particularly enthusiastic endorsement.

dreams · 04-25-2010, 11:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dreams

Just started Radium Halos by Shelly Stout and Tracking Magic by Maria E. Schneider (both MR author members). I'm also listening to The Oort Perimeter by Steven Lake (also a MR author member) that I picked up last year when he offered it. (he is offering a free ePub format on MR).

Finished Radium Halos and totally enjoyed the way the story was told. I think I'll use a section of the forward by Leonard Grosman which describes it better than I can..

Quote:

Sometimes fiction can speak truth in ways that the bare facts cannot. Ms. Stout has found a unique voice in which to tell the tragic story of the Radium Dial workers and at the same time to say much about life in this country. The story goes beyond the Radium Dial case and reflects much about our attitudes toward work, women, mental illness and aging. Along the way it speaks of fear and loyalty and truth itself.

I found the story built around this part of history hard to put down.

montsnmags · 04-26-2010, 05:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by recluse

Just started reading "Floating Dragon" by Peter Straub, thanks to a recommendation by Montsnmags. ( Thanks, Marc!) Very absorbing read, so far.

I hope you enjoy it, but if you don't please edit your post to say someone else recommended it. Let's say...vivaldirules.

Cheers,
vival...err, Marc

FlorenceArt · 04-26-2010, 05:49 AM

I'm still reading the Great Book of Amber. Apparently it consists of two series, the first (6 books) centers on Corwin, and the second (4 books) on his son. I had only read the first series before. IMO the quality drops in the second series. The faults which were already present in the first one are worse here, especially the characters which I do not find very believable. I'm still reading and enjoying it though

Edit: oops, looks like I got it wrong, both series have 5 books.

poohbear_nc · 04-26-2010, 09:48 AM

Just finished Michael Stanley's detective novels set in Botswana featuring Superintendent "Kubu" Bengu - a nickname meaning hippo derived from his large size. It's a different take on crime in this African country, already popularized in Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency - more urban & international themes. But it was interesting to note the emphasis in both series' main character (Sup. Kubu and Precious Ramotswe) on personal decency and kindness.

columbus · 04-26-2010, 10:31 AM

Just finished *The Winner* by David Baldacci a very entertaining read, fast paced all the way through. 4.5 stars from me. Very different from his Camel club series.

Fortunately, before the Geo restrictions closed the door I managed to buy at reasonable prices all his back catalogue work I had not read and am working my way through them.

Bluesman7 · 04-26-2010, 12:43 PM

Just started The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall. Looks like it should prove interesting.

kennyc · 04-26-2010, 09:48 PM

I went back to "A Princess of Mars" by Edgar Rice Burroughs at lunch today and just have to say how impressed I am with his ability to tell a story, simply, to keep your interest, to keep the reader reading to see what happens next....

sjb · 04-26-2010, 10:02 PM

Just started Disraeli's, Sybil, or The Two Nations. D/L'ed from this site. Thanks guys.

recluse · 04-26-2010, 10:23 PM

Just finished "Floating Dragon" by Peter Straub. An excellent book, frightening on many levels, the kind of book you have to put down to give yourself time to process Straub's imagery, the subtle plot threads, and the story's emotional impact.

ficbot · 04-26-2010, 10:44 PM

Still plugging away on the Oprah bio. It's weird, it's such a long book but it feels very superficial. She keeps jumping around and does not progress chronologically, which I feel one should for a biography. I seem to only be managing this one during my commute. Other stuff on the go right now include whack of library books including the latest Pat Conroy.

SneakySnake · 04-27-2010, 01:10 AM

Just finished Xenolith by A Sparrow.

He gave to us free right here in MR.

It was a good read too. I am now looking for the sequel which I seem to remember he said he was doing.

neilmarr · 04-27-2010, 03:45 AM

Re-read Mark Twain's short Letters from the Earth last night (an excellent 100-page MR ePub download). I hadn't realised until this re-read just how much of Twain had been lifted almost word-for-word for use in lectures and books by atheism's Four Horsemen -- Richard Dawkins, Chris Hitchens, Dan Dennett and Sam Harris. You've got to admire Twain's brave stance in a time when it took real guts and involved no little risk (especially in the US south) to express such views and to poke fun not only at religion itself, but also at those who professed belief, which must have been pretty well 100% of his neighbours and 99% of his readers. Cheers. Neil

PS: Wonder if any pals in this thread with a Kindle might be wlling to download and cast an eye over the first Mobi format novel we've produced in-house. A neat book, *Notes from the Lightning God by John Schouten, but no need to actually read it unless it appeals (you'll find blurb, extract, etc in the book store section of our site below): we're just interested in being sure that on the actual Kindle machine layout is good and that a little Spanish punctuation has converted accurately. If you can spare a few mins, just drop me a line at ntmarrATbewrite.net. Use the @ sign, of course. Thanks. Neil

dreams · 04-27-2010, 05:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by neilmarr

Re-read Mark Twain's short Letters from the Earth last night

I just downloaded and started this based on your comment. I'm almost halfway and it's great! Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

neilmarr · 04-27-2010, 06:29 AM

When you consider its age, Dreams, this really is something of a ground-breaker. Other atheists, agnostics and deists of the time who had the courage to write openly about what they didn't believe, tended to be 'professional' skeptics. Twain had always put himself forward as something of an 'everyman' author (if always a tad eccentric in his social outlook), so the book must really have shocked many folks.

I'm in a Mark Twain frame of mind lately: Recently re-read his brilliant *Joan of Arc* and *Connecticutt Yankee* and have just started a re-read of *Prince and the Pauper* (written for his children). Each of this trio of books is set in a different era and his historical scholarship and the ability to use it to water-colour his work rather than burden it with look-what-I-know detail is admirable.

My enthusiasm for Twain, by the way, has nothing at all to do with the fact that he was a fellow pipe-smoker ... honest! It's pure coincidence that many of my favourite authors of that period were brothers of the briar.

Another was JM Barrie (Peter Pan) who wrote perhaps the most hilarious collection of short stories I've ever read, *My Lady Nicotine*. Twain's daughter said he was 'the smokiest man I've ever known'. She had obviously never met Barrie (a fellow-Scot).

Ol' JM -- described as 'the most eccentric man in London' by friends -- was never seen without a disreputable pipe between his teeth. It is believed to have been the *real* reason for the break-up of his marriage and was certainly why the fussy George Bernard Shaw broke off his friendship and refused to visit JM's smoke-flled home.

Of course, bowing to current PoCo, there wasn't the suggestion of a pipe in Johnny Depp's depiction of the great man in *Neverland*. Only Dustin Hoffman (a life-long non-smoker) was seen to smoke a cigar in the movie.

I'm in danger of imposing an information overload here ...

Cheers. Neil

04-26-2010, 05:49 AM	#4714
FlorenceArt High Priestess Posts: 5,761 Karma: 5042529 Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Montreuil sous bois, France Device: iPad Pro 9.7, iPhone 6 Plus	I'm still reading the Great Book of Amber. Apparently it consists of two series, the first (6 books) centers on Corwin, and the second (4 books) on his son. I had only read the first series before. IMO the quality drops in the second series. The faults which were already present in the first one are worse here, especially the characters which I do not find very believable. I'm still reading and enjoying it though Edit: oops, looks like I got it wrong, both series have 5 books. Last edited by FlorenceArt; 04-26-2010 at 10:53 AM.

04-27-2010, 03:45 AM	#4723
neilmarr neilmarr Posts: 7,215 Karma: 6000059 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Monaco-Menton, France Device: sony	Re-read Mark Twain's short Letters from the Earth last night (an excellent 100-page MR ePub download). I hadn't realised until this re-read just how much of Twain had been lifted almost word-for-word for use in lectures and books by atheism's Four Horsemen -- Richard Dawkins, Chris Hitchens, Dan Dennett and Sam Harris. You've got to admire Twain's brave stance in a time when it took real guts and involved no little risk (especially in the US south) to express such views and to poke fun not only at religion itself, but also at those who professed belief, which must have been pretty well 100% of his neighbours and 99% of his readers. Cheers. Neil PS: Wonder if any pals in this thread with a Kindle might be wlling to download and cast an eye over the first Mobi format novel we've produced in-house. A neat book, Notes from the Lightning God by John Schouten, but no need to actually read it unless it appeals (you'll find blurb, extract, etc in the book store section of our site below): we're just interested in being sure that on the actual Kindle machine layout is good and that a little Spanish punctuation has converted accurately. If you can spare a few mins, just drop me a line at ntmarrATbewrite.net. Use the @ sign, of course. Thanks. Neil Last edited by neilmarr; 04-27-2010 at 03:54 AM. Reason: to add PS*

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Hey hey! I found the first Kindle 3 bug!	WilliamG	Amazon Kindle	22	02-14-2012 05:28 PM
Advice on Action	jaxx6166	Writers' Corner	5	06-25-2010 12:29 AM
Hey! From Reading - P.A. that is.	GlenBarrington	Introduce Yourself	3	01-01-2010 09:00 PM
Seriously thoughtful Affirmative Action	Jaime_Astorga	Lounge	39	07-07-2009 06:24 PM

04-25-2010, 07:02 PM	#4711
Bluesman7 Book 'em Danno Posts: 156 Karma: 180 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Blue Ridge Mtns, NC Device: Kindle 2	So, just finished The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao... ...Was really hoping to like it more than I did. I gave it a shot based upon its inclusion in "best of the decade" lists as well as the Pulitzer. It had much that was interesting and passages that were compelling but as a novel, as a story, it failed to involve me to the extent I had hoped. It wasn't time wasted and the information about the Dominican Republic was certainly eye opening but I wouldn't be able to give it a particularly enthusiastic endorsement.

04-26-2010, 09:48 AM	#4715
poohbear_nc Bah! Humbug! Posts: 63,591 Karma: 135239851 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Durham, NC Device: Every Kindle Ever Made & To Be Made!	Just finished Michael Stanley's detective novels set in Botswana featuring Superintendent "Kubu" Bengu - a nickname meaning hippo derived from his large size. It's a different take on crime in this African country, already popularized in Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency - more urban & international themes. But it was interesting to note the emphasis in both series' main character (Sup. Kubu and Precious Ramotswe) on personal decency and kindness.

04-26-2010, 10:31 AM	#4716
columbus Wizard Posts: 999 Karma: 5487540 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: In my own imagination. Device: Sony Prs 650, 505	Just finished The Winner by David Baldacci a very entertaining read, fast paced all the way through. 4.5 stars from me. Very different from his Camel club series. Fortunately, before the Geo restrictions closed the door I managed to buy at reasonable prices all his back catalogue work I had not read and am working my way through them.

04-26-2010, 12:43 PM	#4717
Bluesman7 Book 'em Danno Posts: 156 Karma: 180 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Blue Ridge Mtns, NC Device: Kindle 2	Just started The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall. Looks like it should prove interesting.

04-26-2010, 09:48 PM	#4718
kennyc The Dank Side of the Moon Posts: 35,908 Karma: 119230421 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Denver, CO Device: Kindle2; Kindle Fire	I went back to "A Princess of Mars" by Edgar Rice Burroughs at lunch today and just have to say how impressed I am with his ability to tell a story, simply, to keep your interest, to keep the reader reading to see what happens next....

04-26-2010, 10:02 PM	#4719
sjb Member Posts: 22 Karma: 86 Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Kingston, Ontario Device: Sony PRS 600	Just started Disraeli's, Sybil, or The Two Nations. D/L'ed from this site. Thanks guys.

04-26-2010, 10:23 PM	#4720
recluse Banned Posts: 3,724 Karma: 535488 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: the Mortuary Device: Kindle 2	Just finished "Floating Dragon" by Peter Straub. An excellent book, frightening on many levels, the kind of book you have to put down to give yourself time to process Straub's imagery, the subtle plot threads, and the story's emotional impact.

04-26-2010, 10:44 PM	#4721
ficbot Wizard Posts: 2,409 Karma: 4132096 Join Date: Sep 2008 Device: Kindle Paperwhite/iOS Kindle App	Still plugging away on the Oprah bio. It's weird, it's such a long book but it feels very superficial. She keeps jumping around and does not progress chronologically, which I feel one should for a biography. I seem to only be managing this one during my commute. Other stuff on the go right now include whack of library books including the latest Pat Conroy.

04-27-2010, 01:10 AM	#4722
SneakySnake I'm watching you! Posts: 6,113 Karma: 22344652 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Sunny Coast Qld, OZ Device: Sony PRS-900(unused lately) iPadAir2, want me Kindle Oasis	Just finished Xenolith by A Sparrow. He gave to us free right here in MR. It was a good read too. I am now looking for the sequel which I seem to remember he said he was doing.

04-27-2010, 06:29 AM	#4725
neilmarr neilmarr Posts: 7,215 Karma: 6000059 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Monaco-Menton, France Device: sony	When you consider its age, Dreams, this really is something of a ground-breaker. Other atheists, agnostics and deists of the time who had the courage to write openly about what they didn't believe, tended to be 'professional' skeptics. Twain had always put himself forward as something of an 'everyman' author (if always a tad eccentric in his social outlook), so the book must really have shocked many folks. I'm in a Mark Twain frame of mind lately: Recently re-read his brilliant Joan of Arc and Connecticutt Yankee and have just started a re-read of Prince and the Pauper (written for his children). Each of this trio of books is set in a different era and his historical scholarship and the ability to use it to water-colour his work rather than burden it with look-what-I-know detail is admirable. My enthusiasm for Twain, by the way, has nothing at all to do with the fact that he was a fellow pipe-smoker ... honest! It's pure coincidence that many of my favourite authors of that period were brothers of the briar. Another was JM Barrie (Peter Pan) who wrote perhaps the most hilarious collection of short stories I've ever read, My Lady Nicotine. Twain's daughter said he was 'the smokiest man I've ever known'. She had obviously never met Barrie (a fellow-Scot). Ol' JM -- described as 'the most eccentric man in London' by friends -- was never seen without a disreputable pipe between his teeth. It is believed to have been the real reason for the break-up of his marriage and was certainly why the fussy George Bernard Shaw broke off his friendship and refused to visit JM's smoke-flled home. Of course, bowing to current PoCo, there wasn't the suggestion of a pipe in Johnny Depp's depiction of the great man in Neverland. Only Dustin Hoffman (a life-long non-smoker) was seen to smoke a cigar in the movie. I'm in danger of imposing an information overload here ... Cheers. Neil