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

[HarryT]

Finished "Proof", by Dick Francis. Amazon description:

Wine merchant Tony Beach will do anything for a quiet life. But when a party to celebrate the end of the racing season ends in eight violent deaths, he is drawn reluctantly into the subsequent investigation.

Meanwhile, the police, having evidence of the sale of illicit alcohol at a local club, ask for Tony's help in closing it down. Thanks to his intervention, Tony comes to the attention of the criminal underworld.

And that's when he reluctantly realizes that the deaths and the illicit alcohol are connected.

Tony doesn't want to be a hero. But if the choice is that or dying...

Excellent. Right up there with the best in the series.

[drjd]

Originally Posted by drjd

Not decided yet what I am going to read next.

It has been long time since I recorded my reading progress. I have finished a few good books during the period.

1. The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt edited by Ian Shaw. An excellent book which covers 700,000 years of ancient Egypt from the stone age to the Roman conquest. Rated 5 star. Thanks to HarryT for suggesting this remarkable book.

2. The Hunt for Vulcan...And How Albert Einstein Destroyed a Planet, Discovered Relativity, and Deciphered the Universe by Thomas Levenson. A marvelous science cum history account of that tells the story of the 50-year search by the world’s top scientists for the “missing” planet Vulcan and Albert Einstein’s remarkable proof of the Theory of Relativity, which once and for all proved that the planet never existed in the first place. Rated 5 stars! Thanks to astrangerhere and MickeyC for recommending this.

3. Chase Baker and the God Boy by Vincent Zandri. Next book of Chase Baker "pulp fiction" series set in the locations of Nepal and India. It was page-turning fun for popcorn munchers. Rated 3 stars.

4. The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture: The Indo-Aryan Migration Debate by Edwin Bryant. Very impressive book, balanced description and evaluation of the two century old debate dealing with the origins of the Indo-Aryan speaking peoples of South Asia. Again 5 star rating.

5. The Crock Of Gold Paperback by Mary Roberts Rinehart. A short crime fiction novella. Rated 3 stars.

6. The Seven Minutes by Irving Wallace. A fictional account of the effects of pornography and the related arguments about freedom of speech. Impressively written, 3 stars.

Next I am taking up Thug - The True Story of India's Murderous Cult by Mike Dash.. Rated 3 stars.

[Dngrsone]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

I liked the Pat Benatar memoir.

I do too. Two thirds of the way through, and I'm wondering why I don't have In the Heat of the Night on my laptop... I used to have that CD (one of my first CD purchases, actually)... did I misplace it?

[HarryT]

Finished "The Hero" by John Ringo and Michael Z. Williamson, which I bought from Baen in 2004.

A bit of an oddball, this one. It's part of Ringo's "Posleen War" series but, uniquely among the 12 or so books that make up the series, this one is set 1000 years in the future, and describes an event insignificant in the overall scheme of things: a covert infiltration by a small reconnaissance team onto an uncolonised planet on which it's thought a hidden military base may have been constructed by a hostile alien race.

Very good military SF. You could easily read this is a standalone novel: there's minimal reliance on any knowledge of what's happened previously in the series.

Recommended.

[drjd]

Originally Posted by drjd

Next I am taking up Thug - The True Story of India's Murderous Cult by Mike Dash.. Rated 3 stars.

Edit:

Spoiler:

How the heck did I rate this book before even finishing it?...
My bad! Some cut/paste error at my end... my apologies!

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Finished "The Hero" by John Ringo and Michael Z. Williamson, which I bought from Baen in 2004.

A bit of an oddball, this one. It's part of Ringo's "Posleen War" series

Well, kinda. It has since been decanonized, as the series took a different direction that made The Hero impossible.

[Luffy]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Most enjoyable. Clear, readable, English versions of the stories of the Norse Gods. Most I already knew, but some were new to me.

Now: The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side by Agatha Christie. Her 63rd mystery, that I bought way back in February 2010.

I think if I'll ever give Neil Gaiman a second chance, it will be this Norse mythology book.

I read the Christie book, and even saw the film adaptation. You'll probably like but not love this one.

[astrangerhere]

Finished reading James Agee's A Death in the Family this morning with my coffee and finished the audio of Arthur Graeme West's The Diary of a Dead Officer on my commute.

Both books were excellent, and I strongly recommend Ruth Golding's librivox reading of West's diary. She lent it a gravity and depth that really added to the excerpts.

[Dngrsone]

Finished Between a Heart and a Rock Place: A Memoir by Pat Benatar. I liked this book quite a lot, actually.

I think I am going to read Serafina next, but I also want to catch up on some stuff near the bottom of the TBR stack...

[astrangerhere]

Made lunch of Haruki Murakami's "The Second Bakery Attack" via the LeVar Burton Reads podcast.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Now: The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side by Agatha Christie. Her 63rd mystery, that I bought way back in February 2010.

I solved it! Before Miss Marple! And well before she revealed the solution!

Goodness, I feel pleased with myself.


Next up: Analog SF for September/October, and also Sharpe's Battle.

[HarryT]

Finished "Break In", by Dick Francis. Jockey Kit Fielding investigates why a scandal-mongering gossip-column in a newspaper is making false accusations about the training stable run by his sister and her husband. Very enjoyable, although not his best, to my mind.

[bfisher]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

Made lunch of Haruki Murakami's "The Second Bakery Attack" via the LeVar Burton Reads podcast.

Was it sweet or savoury ?

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by bfisher

Was it sweet or savoury ?

It was savory indeed. One of his older stories.

Split a six pack with the Lady last night and read Giant Days: Not On the Test Edition Vol. 1 (the first 8 issues of Giant Days collected in hardcover).

Started listening to Anthony Trollope's The Warden on my commute.

Started C.J. Sansom's Dissolution on the Kobo this morning with my coffee.

[bfisher]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

...Started listening to Anthony Trollope's The Warden on my commute.

I read The Warden once (45 years ago) and the successor Barchester Towers multiple times. Barchester Towers is a comedy masterpiece, and would probably work great as an audiobook with the right reader. I'm trying to imagine an audio of The Warden.