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

[FlorenceArt]

Finally finished Ulysses!!! I thought I would be relieved, but I'm not. The last chapter was really beautiful, and sad.

Now I need to pick a book in my "to read" list. I think I'll start The Finkler Question.

In the meantime also reading Mirror Dance, by Lois McMaster Bujold.

[joker]

Originally Posted by Latinandgreek

I love the series, too. They are possibly the best YA books I've ever read. I enjoyed the movie, but my friend who saw it with me, and hadn't read the books, said that she had a bit of trouble following it.

I can definitely see that about the movie. I'm only in chapter 4 of the Subtle Knife but am enjoying it too. So far there's not as much focus purely on Lyra but it's kind of nice seeing what else is going on!

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

Finally finished Ulysses!!! I thought I would be relieved, but I'm not. The last chapter was really beautiful, and sad....

Can't wait to tell Kenny!

Congrats!

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Can't wait to tell Kenny!

Congrats!

Just got your PM.

Great job on persevering Flo! You're a better man than me.

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Can't wait to tell Kenny!

Congrats!

Originally Posted by kennyc

Just got your PM.

Great job on persevering Flo! You're a better man than me.

A PM? A bout my finishing Ulysses?

Thank you guys, but I didn't "persevere", I really enjoyed the book. Though to be honest the beginning and end were IMO much better than some parts in the middle which dragged a little.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

A PM? A bout my finishing Ulysses?

Thank you guys, but I didn't "persevere", I really enjoyed the book. Though to be honest the beginning and end were IMO much better than some parts in the middle which dragged a little.

Hee-Hee! Seriously, glad you enjoyed it Florence. I may give it another go one of these days....

don't hold your breath though.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

A PM? A bout my finishing Ulysses?

Thank you guys, but I didn't "persevere", I really enjoyed the book. Though to be honest the beginning and end were IMO much better than some parts in the middle which dragged a little.

What Kenny didn't mention is that the subject line of the PM read "The patience of Job...".

[bert501]

Originally Posted by GraceKrispy

I agree that Stephanie Plum just gets to be too much, but it's easy, mindless entertainment! I'm reading a book called "Fruitbasket from Hell" right now- it's very in line with Evanovich's style of writing, but with a male protagonist.

I'm adding this to my TBR list--looks really interesting and fun. Thanks for the recommendation!!

[ATDrake]

Both the local library within walking distance and the not-so-local library within short public transit distance either being out of shelf copies of the sequels to Jo Walton's Farthing (aargh, they were in at least the last 5 times I was; well, at least they're getting read) or never having had the books at all, I'm back to reading Sherlock Holmes mash-ups until the weekend, when I can make a longer bus trip to one of the other libraries which says they have them on shelf.

Just finished Fred Saberhagen's The Holmes-Dracula File, which is apparently the start of all his Holmes-Dracula team-ups, of which there's quite a series, though it seems that many of them are probably just plain Dracula spin-off books.

Like Séance for a Vampire, which I'd read previously, this one was merely okay. In fact, I found SfaV slightly more interesting, since this one seems mainly set up for the shocking revelation that ends in Holmes and Dracula teaming up from time to time. Since it's such an ahahahaha…WHAT sort of "secret", I'll spoiler it right here:

Spoiler:

It turns out that Holmes and Dracula look creepily identical enough to be mistaken for each other because they're related. Oh, and Holmes has an evil twin. Who also happens to be a vampire. But isn't actually Dracula, despite the creepy identicalness. Because the Count is actually Holmes' uncle. Maybe.

Anyway, THDF purports to tell the tale of the Giant Rat of Sumatra, which Conan Doyle hinted at but apparently never wrote up, and as such it's got the usual sort of plot you can expect involving rats and Victorian medicine and blackmailers threatening to disrupt the Queen's Jubilee, along with a couple of guest appearances from the Stoker side of the mashup.

An okay read, but not particularly recommended unless you really enjoy Holmes and Dracula combo spinoffs, or Fred Saberhagen's writing in general, or want to specifically point and laugh at the spoilered stuff above.

[ATDrake]

Just finished Ballistic Babes, an omnibus edition of two books in a hard-boiled sci-fi PI zany comedy series by John Zakour and Lawrence Ganem. They were pretty funny and set in a spoofy future where people swear using "DOS" and "Gates!" and there's plenty of absurd outgrowths of pop culture like the "Faux Network" and the PATA (People Against Talentless Acts).

The Radioactive Redhead was the 3rd book in the series, but held up pretty well when read as standalone.

Long story short: Retiring teen pop idol who plans to go into politics is targeted for assassination and hires Zach Johnson, the world's last PI, to be her bodyguard. In the meantime, Zach has to fend off an overeager network executive who wants to make him the star of a reality holovision show, Let's Kill Zach! and deal with his slightly wonky AI assistant, who's decided to make some fairly drastic user interface changes. Hilarity ensues.

I quite liked this one, although I did spot the whodunnit (or rather, guessed who was probably going to end up having dunnit) fairly easily, which is something I'm usually pretty bad at unless the writer is clumsily obvious about it. But then, this is a hard-boiled PI action/adventure story, not a classic detective sleuth-and-figure-it-out novel, so that's okay.

The Frost-Haired Vixen is the 4th book, and reading the opening chapters will thoroughly spoiler you for the 3rd book, just in case you happen to pick them up separately.

Long story short: In the future, there's an official (and non-denominational) Holiday, sponsored by the World Council, which has superseded all the rest. Everyone gets 3 gifts each year (1 they select themselves from the official catalogue, 2 others specially selected by the expert elf consultants who basically spy on everyone to find out their likes and dislikes) which is delivered by teleportation. This incredibly complicated annual tradition to maintain happiness worldwide is run by the genetically engineered Santana Clausa and her genetically engineered elves, two of whom have been killed at the Pole, which is sealed off from the rest of the world by a giant forcefield, thus making it a locked room murder mystery which Zach Johnson has to go undercover as an elf-suit wearing tourist to solve.

Enjoyable enough, but I think I liked the other one a little better, although it was pretty entertaining seeing what's basically the flipside of Futurama's "Xmas" with the killer Robot Santa and all. Lots of fun details about how the Holiday is run and what it Means to the world of 2060. Also some stuff about the aliens who apparently made all the advanced technology possible and lots of callbacks to previous books I hadn't read, which might account for why I liked TRR better (more self-contained).

Both recommended if you happen to like somewhat satirical sf comedy, especially mixed with a spoof on noir-ish defective detective tropes. I'll have to see if the library has any more of these.

[Latinandgreek]

I'm reading "The Mists of Avalon". Interesting so far, and it's really hitting the spot.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

So now I'm back to D'Artagnan, and the last of the volumes put together by HarryT: The D'Artagnan Romances, Vol. 4 by Alexandre Dumas

Still on this book, 88% of the way through it so far. It is definitely worth reading — a great story. I'm really interested in seeing how it all turns out.

[obs20]

I'm currently reading The Unnatural History of the Sea by Callum Roberts. It's only available as an epub, pdf and of course a pbook.
http://books.google.com/books?id=kPU...page&q&f=false

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

So now I'm back to D'Artagnan, and the last of the volumes put together by HarryT: The D'Artagnan Romances, Vol. 4 by Alexandre Dumas

And I'm done. I'm glad I have read it. The translation is old, but good enough. The archaic quality of it adds to the story a bit, I think.

HarryT gave the series good overall title. They really are all about D'Artagnan.

I shall have to have a think about what to read next. Probably February's book club book, but I'm still rather overwhelmed by the last bits of the D'Artganan Romances.

Highly recommended, and should definitely be read through from the start.

[Iridal]

Just finished Storm Front, the first Dresden book by Jim Butcher. This is a reread, it was as good as I remember I'm going to read the entire Dresden series, but first: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. This is my least favourite HP book to be honest. The first half of the book is just ... a little boring