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

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by kennyc

I'm being tempted by this one just from the little I've heard of it.

Me, too. I'm trying to break out of my fantasy/sci-fi/YA rut as well.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Simon Wood

I'm listening to A PINCH OF SNUFF by Reginald Hill (who is one of my favorite authors). It's one of his books from the 70's and deals with snuff movies.

I wonder, does that actually count since you aren't actually reading but listening?

[JSWolf]

I'm reading Unbroken by Laura Hildebrand (since the book club choice is dull and incomplete because of when it was written)

Unbroken is very good so far and I am about 1/4th into it.

On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.

The lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini. In boyhood, he’d been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails. As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile. But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown.

Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.

I think this is a must read book.

[Steve Anderson]

About halfway into The Warsaw Anagrams by Richard Zimler. An elderly Jew tries to solve the grisly murder of his young nephew from within the Warsaw Ghetto in 1940. It sounds grim and is but it's also compelling after a somewhat slow start. Recommend it so far.

Steve

[MarkAdair]

About to wrap up Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. A lot of details but it all has a place.

[bZkindle]

Imperial Hubris by Michael Scheuer

http://www.amazon.com/Imperial-Hubri.../dp/1574888498

The war on terror has created near unanimity on many points, at least within the American press and political leadership. One essential point of agreement: al Qaeda specifically and radical Islamism in general are stirred by a hatred of modernity. Or as President George W. Bush has articulated repeatedly, they hate freedom. Nonsense, responds the nameless author of this work and 2003's Through Our Enemies' Eyes (the senior U.S. intelligence official's identity became an open secret by publication date). Indeed, he grimly and methodically discards common wisdom throughout this scathing and compelling take on counterterrorism. Imperial Hubris is not a book that will cheer Americans, regardless of their perspectives on the post-9/11 environment. We are, the author notes, losing the war on terror. Hawks will squirm as the author heaps contempt on U.S. missions in Afghanistan (too little, too late) and Iraq ("a sham causing more instability than it prevents"), but opponents of Bush administration policies may blanch at Anonymous' suggestion that what's needed is for the West to "proceed with relentless, brutal, and, yes, blood-soaked offensive military actions until we have annihilated the Islamists who threaten us." Quoting the at-all-cost likes of William Tecumseh Sherman and Curtis Lemay on one hand and contending that unrelenting military measures be accompanied by concessions to the ideology of the militants on the other are unlikely to curry widespread support from either side of the divide. And how will readers conditioned to references to Osama bin Laden as a deranged gangster or simple-minded fanatic with deep pockets digest the respect accorded "the most popular anti-American leader in the world today"? Imperial Hubris clearly wasn't written to win friends, though the author believes it's essential that his words influence people at the top. Whether it will is debatable, but that this blunt, forceful, urgently argued polemic recharges the discussion is a foregone conclusion. --Steven Stolder

[readergirl218]

Just finished Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. An enjoyable read.

[caleb72]

Just finished King of Shadows by Susan Cooper. It was great - really managed to tap into my love of stage acting.

Now I'm reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon. Surprised it took me so long considering I loved his second novel A Spot of Bother. It's already a big hit with me.

Regards
Caleb

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by readergirl218

Just finished Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. An enjoyable read.

Hmmm. Tell us more please?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

The Teeth of the Tiger by Tom Clancy.

Another I bought from Fictionwise some time ago, so it's about time I read it. It's the latest but one Jack Ryan novel, apparently concentrating on his son. If I like it I'll probably get the next one, Dead or Alive.

Well, it was OK. But I don't think I'll bother with the next one. I think this series jumped the shark some time ago. It seems little more than rather unpleasant wish fulfilment now. (Rather than fun and exciting wish fulfilment earlier.)

Next up: Analog, May 2011. I'm half-way through already, and it has an absolutely splendid "Probability Zero" short short.

[nigel p bird]

The first work I read by Dave White was his story in the ‘Terminal Damage’ anthology. That’s a brilliantly constructed piece about a young man who has lost his grip. It was so good that I had to get hold of ‘More Sinned Against’ as soon as it came out.
Here I found a very different voice.
I met Jackson Donne, a Private Detective in the classic mould who has a strong enough profile to make him stand out from the rest.
This is a series of tales that are beautifully self-contained. There’s enough tension, pathos and character in each one to make them the perfect read for fans of the detective genre.
It’s extremely satisfying, also, to have complete stories that can be read in one sitting, reminding me of Block’s Hit Man in that respect. Nourishing tales in manageable bites, it’s just the kind of thing Kindle was invented for.
Jackson (and I feel I know him well enough now to use his first name) is just the kind of man I’d want batting on my team. A+
[please use full link]
And now I'm on to Smokeheads by Doug Johnstone and I'm hooked. Marvellous.

[poohbear_nc]

I'm wallowing in works by Elizabeth Ferrars - whose works are now becoming available again - a mystery writer compared (favorably) with Agatha Christie - murder mysteries in England - with many delicious plot twists and quirky characters.

Just finished "Enough to Kill a Horse" - a wonderful "death at a dinner party in a small English village" mystery.

[bjones6416]

I'm re-reading the "Song of Ice and Fire" books in preparation for the new book that MIGHT come out this summer. I finished Game of Thrones this morning, and am well into Clash of Kings. Now I remember why I loved this series the first time around. (And the second.) It's good. And now that I know where each character is ultimately headed down the road, it gives me a new perspective. (Also, the relationships are so complex that it's taken me this long to get some understanding of how all the main characters are related to each other!) I hope the HBO series is well done, since it will introduce the books to a whole new set of readers.

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by bjones6416

I'm re-reading the "Song of Ice and Fire" books in preparation for the new book that MIGHT come out this summer. I finished Game of Thrones this morning, and am well into Clash of Kings. Now I remember why I loved this series the first time around. (And the second.) It's good. And now that I know where each character is ultimately headed down the road, it gives me a new perspective. (Also, the relationships are so complex that it's taken me this long to get some understanding of how all the main characters are related to each other!) I hope the HBO series is well done, since it will introduce the books to a whole new set of readers.

It's like you read my mind! I've been thinking about doing a re-read, too. What a great series - I can't wait for the next book!

[ATDrake]

Finished Ruled Britannia, Harry Turtledove's alternate history Shakespearean thriller wherein the master playwright is commissioned by two opposing powers to write a Very Special Play in an England where the Armada succeeded and the Spaniards now rule.

Absolutely brilliant.

Turtledove makes truly marvelous use of the language, juxtaposing surprisingly naturalistic Shakespearean dialect with more neutrally omniscient narrative voice. It's a rare writer who can pull off that combination of period flavour and modern comprehension*. Connie Willis managed to pull this trick in her short story Winter's Tale, but most authors fail miserably when they try.

And not only the awesomely evocative use of language, but also the plot is very well done, with characters' internal thoughts and motivations and external expressions of them shown with a subtle clarity. Scenes one thinks are simply pleasant scene-setting background detail filler-inners turn out to have surprising bearing on the plot later, and the whole seems beautifully laid out with a certain economical elegance, deftly woven into a magnificent whole.

While the heavy use of Shakespearean language won't be for everyone (by all means, do read the Kindle/Nook samples for the experience), I highly recommend this to anyone with an interest in the Bard, the late Tudor period, and what-might-have-been. I bought this purely on impulse after reading In the Presence of Mine Enemies, and I don't regret it in the least.

Plus there's nifty guest star roles and a good set of historical notes in the back, which I always love. Turtledove based more of this on actual history than I'd have thought, given that he normally loves to do these multi-volume epics where the US South won the Civil War only to run up against Nazi Germany before they all get invaded by alien space lizards, or stuff like that.

Now if you'll excuse me, methinks I needs must exit, pursued by a bear†.

* The vocabulary was unusual, and certainly gave my Kindle's dictionary a workout, but the meaning was perfectly understood from the surrounding context; except for that one constable who seemed to have been imported from the cast of 'Allo 'Allo!.

† I started on Tim Davys' Amberville, an offbeat sleuth story with the conceit of being set amongst plush animals, wherein the PI is a stuffed bear. This is surprisingly still free for Canadian Kindlers, but it's not quite grabbing me like I hoped.