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

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: Lost Mars edited by Mike Ashley. Lots of old Mars short stories.

Which was as advertised, with some interesting commentary.

Next I took a look at a freebie - some teachers notes and plans on Hobbit/LotR. Quickly abandoned.

And now Have His Carcase by Dorothy L. Sayers. A Harriet Vane/Lord Peter Whimsey novel.

[ReadingManiac]

Ack! I'm reading too many books at once! I've got 6 on the go. This is what comes of reading Kindle samples.

[spacepope]

Originally Posted by ReadingManiac

Ack! I'm reading too many books at once! I've got 6 on the go. This is what comes of reading Kindle samples.

I have this problem and it’s kind of terrible at times

Currently 3/4ths the way through Marque and Reprisal (Vatta’s War #2) and probably will finish it by this evening because I can’t stop reading it.

I start a job next week so maybe my reading habits will return to normal soon? I used to read at my desk (using my Kobo, more discreet) during short coffee breaks and got a surprising amount of reading done that way.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

And now Have His Carcase by Dorothy L. Sayers. A Harriet Vane/Lord Peter Whimsey novel.

Which was most enjoyable, with Harriet playing a leading role.

Then I read The Scandalous Duchess by Anne O'Brien. Set in the latter half of the 1300s in England, it follows the life of Katherine Swynford, one of the minor nobility who became the mistress and later wife of John of Gaunt.

It was OK. I didn't get enough of a feeling that the story was actually in the 1300s, despite mentions of historical events.

Next up was The Magic Three of Solatia by Jane Yolen. It turned out to be a sweet fairy tale, a quick read.

Next up: Alternities by Michael P. Kube-McDowell. This month's Phoenix Pick freebie, and apparently a tale of alternate time lines.

[Dr. Drib]

Currently re-reading one of my favorite books, 20 years after I first read it:

The Stories of Eva Luna - Isabel Allende

I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves short stories. It's just as great the second time around. The language is magical. The themes are eternal.

[Deskisamess]

Originally Posted by ReadingManiac

Ack! I'm reading too many books at once! I've got 6 on the go. This is what comes of reading Kindle samples.

Six at one time is a lot...I thought I was weird to typically have 3-4 going at one time.

Currently my non fiction book is The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb. What an interesting educated woman she was, in a 32" tall body. I'm at the point of the beginning of the Civil War, as she has just spent 3 years as almost property of the first "riverboat sideshow" owner she made the mistake of signing on with. She is trying to get her name out in public so P. T. Barnum will hear of her. She wants to be known and remembered as an educated person, not a freak.

My fiction book is The Angry wife by Pearl S. Buck, about a Southern belle during the years after the civil war. I'm having trouble staying with it for some reason. The book is rushing through the years, which may be part of the problem.

I have several pieces of lite fiction that I've bailed on due to obvious padding and repeated convoluted nonsense. I'm too distracted lately, and it's making my reading suffer from attention deficit.

[Dazrin]

I've just started my 1000th book since I started keeping track at the beginning of 2011. Yay! Hopefully I'll finish my 1000th book sometime later this year, I'm about 30 behind due to various abandoned books.

I've been listening to the BBC Radio plays of the Lord of the Rings during a couple trips recently, these are really excellent even though I know the books well. Highly recommended.

[spacepope]

On book #3 of Vatta's War - "Engaging the Enemy".

I'm waiting on the 4th book to come in the mail (I got it physically because I wanted my mom to read the series - she's enjoying it too). It's shipping by media mail, but I hope it comes by before Monday so I can get the jump on reading it...

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

I've just started my 1000th book since I started keeping track at the beginning of 2011. Yay! Hopefully I'll finish my 1000th book sometime later this year, I'm about 30 behind due to various abandoned books..

Congratulations!

[gmw]

Since my last post...

The Crossing Places and The Janus Stone by Elly Griffiths (aka Domenica de Rosa). These are the first two in the Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries series. They're both good fun. An interesting blend: more serious than cozy murder mysteries but rather more personal and domestic than many police or forensic procedural stories. The characters and their interactions are what give these stories their spark, and have you looking to get to the next book. A comfortable 4/5 for both these, and I will be reading more from the series, just not straight away.

The 1,000-Year-Old Boy by Ross Welford. A middle-grade children's story. I liked the story idea but ended up finding the execution quite annoying: alternating first person perspectives but the voices are not distinct enough; many short chapters each with crude cliff-hanger sentences "if only I had known what was to happen"; and I felt it was a condescendingly simple treatment of the subject even for middle-grade. I give it a fence-sitting 2.5/5.


Now I'm reading The Octopus and I by Erin Hortle. At 40% in I'm pretty sure I will finish it but it's ... odd. Far from subtle, especially in how Australian it is, it's also intriguing and different, and I like different.

[ReadingManiac]

Originally Posted by spacepope

I have this problem and it’s kind of terrible at times

I'm on a quest to read my top tbr books, but I have a LOT of samples, most of which get rejected usually, and sometimes a good one entices me in!

I'm down to 5 books now, one of which is a Dickens book kept at a controlled reading pace for a group read. As soon as I finish one of the others, I'm going to start Dave Grohl's The Storyteller which I got in hardcover last Christmas.

[ReadingManiac]

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

Six at one time is a lot...I thought I was weird to typically have 3-4 going at one time.

I normally try to keep it at 3-4, different genres. It makes the long books less intimidating because I can read it a chapter at a time while breezing through shorter books.

[gmw]

The Octopus and I by Erin Hortle. Contemporary fiction set in Tasmania, Australia. This was odd and at times the language was over the top flowery. It is told in a variety of perspectives, including some short parts from the point of view of certain animals involved in the story*. I thought the octopus worked but the other animals did not. The main character's story, coming to terms with how her life has changed after breast cancer, was done really well. The ecological theme in the story felt a bit off-key ... but the story doesn't so much make a statement as it does expose the inconsistencies in way people think about environmental and cultural issues. Despite the flaws I did enjoy this: 4/5.

* Trigger warning: there is killing of birds and animals in this story.


Now I've started Cage of Souls, a fantasy by Adrian Tchaikovsky. At 10% in I am enjoying it very much.

[Buren]

I am on the go of trying to read the books Goodreads has recommended to me (based on my previous reads).
I have chosen a couple of them as my TBR, and there are all happen to be older books.

I started with:
- The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde), gave it 5 stars even though there is one chapter that made me want to scratch my eyeball.

- The Giver (Lois Lowry), 3 stars because of how incomplete and unsatisfying it made me feel.

- Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck), 4 stars, it was a good read, simple but thought-provoking

- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, 4 stars.
There is a perfect quote that I think is fitting to what this book is about. I have seen this quote more and more often lately, said to be falsely attributed as Fyodor Dostoyevsky's.
Tolerance will reach such a level that intelligent people will be banned from thinking so as not to offend the imbeciles.

I will proceed with Animal Farm by George Orwell, I have 1984 in my list as well, but thought the topic would be depressing in the current-day situation. However, I heard it was banned, and as the nature of humans, it makes me curious.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: Alternities by Michael P. Kube-McDowell. This month's Phoenix Pick freebie, and apparently a tale of alternate time lines.

Which was OK. A poor start, but picked up a bit as it went along.

Next up: The Midnight Hour by Elly Griffiths. The sixth in her "Brighton Mysteries", and just today on special offer at Amazon UK for £0.99, along with the previous five in the series. My most recent purchase!