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

[WT Sharpe]

Just finished reading Was it Heaven or Hell by Mark Twain; a pleasant morality tale on the virtues of lying. It is available for download as part of the collection of stories in The 30,000 Dollar Bequest and Other Stories by Mark Twain at this Gutenberg.org link.


Also finished Over the Cliff: How Obama's Election Drove the American Right Insane by John Amato and David Neiwert. Newart and Amato cover much ground in this book, touching on issues such as the Southern Strategy, the Tea Party phenomenon and how it has morphed into a machine that now threatens to bring down traditional conservatism, biased news coverage, racism, radicalism, the Missouri report commissioned under President Bush, and much more. The following quotes are in no way intended to sum up the entire tenor of the book, but they can perhaps provide a frame of reference to what the book is about:

.....The thing about right-wing populism is that it’s manifestly self-defeating: Primarily those who stand to benefit from this ideology are the wealthy, which is why they so willingly underwrite it. It might more accurately be called "sucker populism."
..........— John Amato and David Neiwert, Over the Cliff: How Obama's Election Drove the American Right Insane.

.....As we have seen through the long and sordid history of right-wing populism in this country—particularly the way it has relied on scapegoating, smears, conspiracy theories, falsehoods, and unhinging rhetoric, all of which inevitably unleash violent, extremist rage—the foundations of democracy suffer at the hands of these movements.
..........— ibid.

[*reg*]

Finished Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner. Light, escapist reading.

Now onto The Book Of Negroes otherwise known as Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill.

I have a feeling it will be one of those books that always stays with you.

[lilac_jive]

I'm reading "Midnight Rising" by Lara Adrian. It's been on my Reader for a while now (it's actually in LRF!).

[bjones6416]

I'm heading for the beach for a week. This is what I've loaded up for vacation reading:

--The Chalion series by Lois McMaster Bujold. I burned through the Vorkosigan series and the Sharing Knife series late last year, and it's been very hard to save these!

--The Alpha and Omega series by Patricia Briggs. I just finished her Mercy Thompson books and thought they were great. And this brings to mind another advantage of reading e-books: I never would have picked them up in a bookstore because the cover art just doesn't look like something that would interest me. I would have missed out on some good reading, though.

--The Endless Forest, the latest Sara Donati book. This was a happy surprise, I didn't even know she had written another one until this week.

--Bulls Island, by Dorothea Benton Frank. Hey, it's the beach, okay? I wasn't a big fan of the last one I read by her, but this was free, and again, it's the beach.

Hopefully this will hold me, but I've also got a few freebies on there that I haven't read just in case I get desperate. Anybody have any last minute suggestions?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by bjones6416

I'm heading for the beach for a week. This is what I've loaded up for vacation reading:

--The Chalion series by Lois McMaster Bujold. I burned through the Vorkosigan series and the Sharing Knife series late last year, and it's been very hard to save these!

Hopefully this will hold me, but I've also got a few freebies on there that I haven't read just in case I get desperate. Anybody have any last minute suggestions?

Get Lois McMaster Bujold's The Spirit Ring too. It's a good stand-alone fantasy.

[dougf4]

Currently reading, "SH%$ My Dad Says." I rarely laugh out loud but this book is written with perfect comedic timing to jolt you with hilarious, short bursts of "Dad's" profane laced gems.

Just finished. "Sometimes a Great Notion" for the umpteenth time. Probably my all-time favorite book.

[edbro]

Originally Posted by dougf4

Currently reading, "SH%$ My Dad Says." I rarely laugh out loud but this book is written with perfect comedic timing to jolt you with hilarious, short bursts of "Dad's" profane laced gems.

That book was a riot! Brutally honest too. I'm not so sure I'd write so much about masturbating in a book my mom was sure to read.

[bjones6416]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Get Lois McMaster Bujold's The Spirit Ring too. It's a good stand-alone fantasy.

Okay, you twisted my arm. I'll add that one. :-)

[poohbear_nc]

I'm currently reading "Miss Hargreaves" by Frank Baker, a sort of screwball comedy about what would happen if what you imagined really happened in your life. This is part of The Bloomsbury Group, "a new library of books from the early twentieth century chosen by readers for readers," and published by BloomsburyUSA Press. Unfortunately only pbook, but I have contacted the publisher to see if ebooks are upcoming. Other titles in the series look equally comedic or entertaining "period pieces."

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by dougf4

Currently reading, "SH%$ My Dad Says." I rarely laugh out loud but this book is written with perfect comedic timing to jolt you with hilarious, short bursts of "Dad's" profane laced gems.

Looks good. I've downloaded a sample and will probably read it soon.

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

I'm currently reading "Miss Hargreaves" by Frank Baker, a sort of screwball comedy about what would happen if what you imagined really happened in your life. This is part of The Bloomsbury Group, "a new library of books from the early twentieth century chosen by readers for readers," and published by BloomsburyUSA Press. Unfortunately only pbook, but I have contacted the publisher to see if ebooks are upcoming. Other titles in the series look equally comedic or entertaining "period pieces."

That does sound interesting. Hate to admit it, but I can't get into pbooks anymore. I'm spoiled by the ease and convenience of ereaders.

[Bluesman7]

Finished The Last Stand by Nathaniel Philbrick and am just starting White Teeth by Zadie Smith.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Just started reading the next Book Club selection, The Sheepfarmer's Daughter; Book I of Elizabeth Moon's The Deed of Paksenarrion series. The first three chapters are highly entertaining.

That is what I am reading now as well. I did recently finish Club Dead so I can watch the third season of True Blood.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

I downloaded Sheepfarmer's Daughter and read a few pages. It looks nice but not extremely well written, as is too often the case with this type of fiction. I've read too many of those in the last year and I don't really feel like another one, I'll keep it for later maybe.

How far did you get before you gave up? I feel that you should read at least 50 pages before giving up. A lot of books do start slow and get better so if you give up at the slow beginning, you risk missing out on a good read.

[carld]

I'm just getting into the third Sookie Stackhouse book atm.

[bjones6416]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

How far did you get before you gave up? I feel that you should read at least 50 pages before giving up. A lot of books do start slow and get better so if you give up at the slow beginning, you risk missing out on a good read.

I read it a couple of months ago as a read-along over on Ravelry. I enjoyed it okay, but I think what bothered me about it a little bit was that I never really felt the characters were explored deeply enough. As somebody else in the read-along said (and I agreed), we never could quite get the motivations of the characters. Having said that, though, I must have enjoyed it, because I kept reading until the end. I don't always do that if I don't like it.