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

[HarryT]

A little behind on noting my recent reads:

Forfeit, by Dick Francis.

Very enjoyable thriller about a horse-racing newpaper correspondent who uncovers a betting scam.

This Scepter'd Isle by Mercedes Lackey and Roberta Gellis

Fantasy about "good elves" and "bad elves" competing to influence the succession to the English throne in the time of Henry VIII. A reasonable story, but the book is overly-long and slow-moving to my mind.

Enquiry, by Dick Francis

Another enjoyable romp by Dick Francis, this time about a jockey who loses his licence to race after being wrongly accused of race-fixing and sets out to prove his innocence.

The Robin and the Kestrel, by Mercedes Lackey

The second in her 4-book "Bardic Voices" series. Enjoyable fantasy about the "free bards" attempt to investigate why the church is branding all non-humans as "evil". Recommended.

Rat Race, by Dick Francis

Yet another racing romp by Francis. This one's about an air-taxi pilot who ferries jockies and racehorse owners around to race meetings, and who stumbles upon a mystery. What I like about Francis is that although all his novels are set in the world of horse-racing, each one looks at it from a different angle. We have books looking at the sport from the viewpoint of jockeys, stable lads, trainers, newspaper correspondents, and now pilots. An excellent author who I'm glad in a way I didn't discover earlier, because now I'm enjoying the works of a prolific author I hadn't read until a couple of months ago!

[fantasyfan]

I have just finished Shattered by Allen and Parnes.

Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes guide the reader through the convoluted labyrinth of "Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign". Recently, Clinton claimed that she lost the election primarily because of the actions and remarks of the FBI director, James Comey. But these two supporters of Hillary make a very strong case that the root causes of her defeat lay in her own decisions and the strategies she adopted.

She created distrust in a large section of the electorate by actions before the campaign through setting up a private email server and then avoiding taking responsibility for this mistake far too long. She gave speeches to Wall Street Banks and ". . . was unable to prove . . . she had a vision for the country rather than visions of power".

The authors also emphasize her reliance on the "scientific" data analysis of her campaign manager Robby Mook rather than engaging with the voters themselves and having poll workers on the ground. She presumed the Democratic "Blue Wall" would guarantee a victory and thus never focused on the "Rust Belt" states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin. She lost them all.

The long bitter road of the Primaries and the equally difficult battle against a flamboyant and unpredictable opponent who proved far more dangerous than she expected is agonizingly detailed in this tale of one of the greatest political upsets in American history.

[MickeyC]

Just finished A Necessary End by Peter Robinson; another excellent Inspector Banks book. Next up Rather Be the Devil by Ian Rankin

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by MickeyC

Just finished A Necessary End by Peter Robinson; another excellent Inspector Banks book. Next up Rather Be the Devil by Ian Rankin

Two of my favourite series!

[djulian]

Just finished Incredible Stories by Abram Tertz and am now on Chekhov's Collected Stories (not an omnibus, but the Norton Critical collection).

Also just finished The Burning Room by Michael Connelly and am now reading his The Crossing.

And I'm listening to Smarter, Better, Faster by Charles Duhigg while I walk or drive.

[JSWolf]

I just finished Star Trek: Section 31: Control by David Mack. It is a very good book. 5 stars. If you like Star Trek, a highly recommended read.

now I'm onto an Alex Cross book. I'm now reading Violets are Blue (Alex Cross 7) by James Patterson.

D.C. Detective Alex Cross has seen a lot of crime scenes. But even he is appalled by the gruesome murders of two joggers in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park - killings that look more like the work of savage beasts than humans. Local police are horrified and even the FBI is baffled. Then, as Cross is called in to take on the case, the carnage takes off, leaving a trail of bodies across America and sweeping him to Savannah, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Los Angeles . . as his nemesis, the merciless criminal known as the Mastermind, stalks him, taunts him, and once again, threatens everything he holds dear...

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I'm going straight on to The Well of Ascension, the second in the trilogy.

Which was also better the second time around.

On to The Hero of Ages.

[Cinisajoy]

Read Thankless in Death by J D Robb.
Now reading Hollywood Moon by Joseph Wambaugh. Not sure about it yet.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Which was also better the second time around.

On to The Hero of Ages.

I listened to the first of these as an Audible book, and sort of enjoyed it, but somehow never got around to reading the later ones. I might have to re-think that.

[Cinisajoy]

Finished Hollywood Moon.
His non-fiction is much better.

[drjd]

Originally Posted by drjd

.. I am also near completion of reading Atlantis Gate by Bob Mayer.

My recent reads :

Atlantis Gate by Bob Mayer.
Immortal by Krishna Udayshankar.
The Atlantis Plague by A.G. Riddle.
Written in My Own Heart's Blood by Diana Gabaldon.

Now I am starting The Castle by Franz Kafka, translated by Mark Harman.

[astrangerhere]

Read "Hush...Hush Sweet Charlotte" by Kazushige Abe at lunch yesterday from the July 2014 issue of Granta. The story revolves around two young guys who are minding their own business getting high in a park when they see a car containing a kidnapped infant crash into a fountain. Hijinks ensue.

[josnorgren]

Reading Underground by Haruki Murakami. Good stuff.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

On to The Hero of Ages.

Which I again enjoyed a great deal. I had forgotten quite a lot, in the nine years or so since I first read it.

Next up: Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire. A recent Tor freebie that seems to have just won a Nebula Award.

[JSWolf]

I finished Voilets are Blue by james Patterson and I gave it 3 stars. It was OK. Nothing special.

Now I'm on to The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi.

Our universe is ruled by physics. Faster than light travel is impossible—until the discovery of The Flow, an extradimensional field available at certain points in space-time, which can take us to other planets around other stars.

Riding The Flow, humanity spreads to innumerable other worlds. Earth is forgotten. A new empire arises, the Interdependency, based on the doctrine that no one human outpost can survive without the others. It’s a hedge against interstellar war—and, for the empire’s rulers, a system of control.

The Flow is eternal—but it’s not static. Just as a river changes course, The Flow changes as well. In rare cases, entire worlds have been cut off from the rest of humanity. When it’s discovered that the entire Flow is moving, possibly separating all human worlds from one another forever, three individuals—a scientist, a starship captain, and the emperox of the Interdependency—must race against time to discover what, if anything, can be salvaged from an interstellar empire on the brink of collapse.