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

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Apache

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/se...lternative.htm

If you liked that one there is another book set in the same universe. The Excalibur Alternative is by David Weber.
Weber expanded a short story, "Sir George and the Dragon," which appeared in the David Drake anthology Foreign Legions.
Apache

Sorry, just realised that I said "Ranks of Bronze" was written by David Weber. It is of course written by David Drake.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Sorry, just realised that I said "Ranks of Bronze" was written by David Weber. It is of course written by David Drake.

I did not catch it either.
Apache

[LovesMacs]

I forgot to mention some other recent reads. Two of them are by Charles Dickens: Bleak House, easily one of the best novels I've read this year, and Little Dorrit, which came as a disappointment. I started reading Little Dorrit just after finishing Bleak House. I gave it a chance but even after reading half the book, I didn't care for almost any of the characters.

I also read The Impossible State by Victor Cha. It's part history, part political analysis of North Korea. An informative but at times repetitive book.

I am now devoting most of my time reading War and Peace in the Maude translation but in the Oxford World's Classics edition. This edition differs from many Maude reissues in that it leaves the French language passages untranslated, with translations available in footnotes. Moreover, character names are left un-Anglicized: Andrei, not Andrew, Marya, not Mary. Both of these are very welcome differences

[Lusitanic]

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

by Malcolm Gladwell. It's...meh. Or maybe I have read other books like this and this feels like been there done that.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

I am currently reading The Rook. Its fantastic, so far! I wish I had started it yesterday morning. Now I'll have to sneak in 5 minutes of reading enjoyment, whenever I can, during the workweek.

Just started it, and I'm hooked right from the very beginning. Thanks for the recommendation .

[Dngrsone]

Reading T.S. Eliot... "The Waste Land" has more footnotes than content.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by Lusitanic

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

by Malcolm Gladwell. It's...meh. Or maybe I have read other books like this and this feels like been there done that.

I liked this one. It wasn't one of my favorites, but it was worth reading. If nothing else, it introduced a lot of people to the fascinating and controversial work of Paul Ekman, the real-like role model for Dr. Cal Lightman of the now defunct TV show Lie To Me.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

If nothing else, it introduced a lot of people to the fascinating and controversial work of Paul Ekman, the real-like role model for Dr. Cal Lightman of the now defunct TV show Lie To Me.

And sadly missed, at least by me and my wife.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: LightSpeed Magazine for April 2015.

A disappointing issue for me. A bit too 'literary' perhaps.

Next up: Time for a re-read of LotR, starting with The Fellowship of the Ring.

[Dngrsone]

Originally Posted by orlok

And sadly missed, at least by me and my wife.

Dngrswife quite enjoyed that show, too.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by orlok

And sadly missed, at least by me and my wife.

Originally Posted by Dngrsone

Dngrswife quite enjoyed that show, too.

Lie to Me was one of my favorites as well. I was very disappointed when it was cancelled. But while the exploits of Dr. Lightman and his team are only available in reruns, the real life Paul Ekman (who worked as a consultant on the show) can be followed on Twitter and we can still read his books. I've read two of them. Of the two I highly recommend Unmasking The Face by Paul Ekman & Wallace V. Friesen. It's a great introduction to his work and highly layman-friendly. I found it to be both enjoyable and informative. The price is more in line with other ebooks as well, something that can't be said for What the Face Reveals: Basic and Applied Studies of Spontaneous Expression Using the Facial Action Coding System (FACS) edited by Paul Ekman and Erika Rosenberg. That tome set me back $41.72, and that was five years ago. It was scholarly, dry, and packed with enough details and figures to make an android nod off. It was most definitely not something intended for the general reader.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Oh, and currently reading:
1.) Cannery Row (Book Club selection)
2.) Coroner's Pidgin -- #11 in the Campion series from Margery Allingham.

Finished Coroner's Pidgin, APA Pearls Before Swine. I had very mixed feelings about this book. I enjoyed the reading, but found the resolution and solution highly unsatisfactory and not at all "fair". I don't mind a fair number of red herrings, but the final answer needs to at least be among them.

Meanwhile, continuing to read / listen to Cannery Row. I'm enjoying it quite a bit. Perhaps more while listening than reading for some reason, but the choice of which is mostly about time and place.

Next up: Tracker, #16 in the Foreigner series from CJ Cherryh. This is due to drop tomorrow in eBook and Audible format, and I've got it pre-ordered in both.

[Moe The Cat]

Reading Ghost Rider by Neil Peart (drummer for the band Rush). It's about his motorcycle journey on "the healing road" (he covered 55,000 miles) after the death of his daughter and wife in 1997/1998. It's an excellent read.

[Dngrsone]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Next up: Tracker, #16 in the Foreigner series from CJ Cherryh. This is due to drop tomorrow in eBook and Audible format, and I've got it pre-ordered in both.

Dang, I think I'm five behind, now...

All of mine are paperback, and I tried rereading the series straight and tired of it at around book eight.

I'll have to try again, but do so in increments.

[CRussel]

Try reading one or two in Audible format. The reader is excellent, and they really work well in it. And it breaks the whole thing up.