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

[SeaBookGuy]

The recipes are there to underscore that the book is a farce! I liked the sequel, but haven't read Gerry Samper's third adventure yet.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

should be "Read 111 Books in 2011" for numerical symmetry purposes.

Surely "Read 110 Books in 2011"? (1102011)
or "In 2011, read 102 Books"? (2011102)

[ATDrake]

Perhaps I should have phrased it as "Read 111 books in '11", but those work also.

Nevertheless, 111* is a nice-looking palindromic number. And people who are really pressed for spare time can just read 7 books and still have it "count"†.

* Eleventy-one!!!

† Provided they're counting in binary.

[SeaBookGuy]

For those interested in unusual memoirs, I'm nearly done with Down Among the Dead Men: A Year in the Life of a Mortuary Technician. Granted the author's writing is more chatty than polished, but her anecdotes have been consistently interesting.

Not the best mealtime reading though, as I discovered opening the book one breakfast at the chapter on the post-mortem of a little girl, whose grandfather had just run her over.

[caleb72]

I finished The Blade Itself which was a bit of a slog but pretty good. I'm now reading The Blue Man Dreams the End of Time by Michael McIrvin.

After the relatively unsophisticated writing of Abercrombie, McIrvin is a bit of a slap in the face. His language is sophisticated and very philosophical. Might like to actually get to some action though.

[maianhvk]

I decided not to finish Artemis Fowl, it's not interesting to my taste.

[orlok]

Half way through the second Hunger Games book. They have just revealed the twist that I knew was coming all along...

[Rumpelteazer]

I finished Lion in the Valley by Elizabeth Peters today. Although I liked it (better than the previous book) every time the Master Criminal was discussed the song "Macavity the Mystery Cat" from the musical Cats popped into my head.

[Steve Anderson]

Originally Posted by SeaBookGuy

The recipes are there to underscore that the book is a farce! I liked the sequel, but haven't read Gerry Samper's third adventure yet.

SeaBookGuy,

Good point about Gerald Samper's recipes. I have to say that they're growing on me. Probably won't attempt one, though

[siraks]

finished catching fire just now. on to mockinjay - book 3 in the hunger games trilogy.
the second book started off ok, nothing extraordinary or mind blowing but then it ramped up. i was expecting one thing to happen but it didn't and went a different way. it was pretty cool though, gets you ready for the third book.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by siraks

finished catching fire just now. on to mockinjay - book 3 in the hunger games trilogy.
the second book started off ok, nothing extraordinary or mind blowing but then it ramped up. i was expecting one thing to happen but it didn't and went a different way. it was pretty cool though, gets you ready for the third book.

I'm still on the second book, and the twist mid-way was predicable, I thought, given the name of the series. Not sure where it will end though .

[siraks]

Originally Posted by orlok

I'm still on the second book, and the twist mid-way was predicable, I thought, given the name of the series. Not sure where it will end though .

Spoiler:

I suspected something to deal with the quarter quell since they mentioned it so many times but i didn't expect for them both to go back in. i didn't really expect either of them really, i thought that they would have to mentor someone close to them after it gets revealed that they were going back in. i'd say the second half of the book is better than the first. what my initial thought was when i was reading though was that the revolution would start and i expected the whole second book to be about peeta and katniss's victory tour through the districts. it started out as such with good descriptions and the old man getting shot in the square and i figured that's how the second book would continue with hints of an uprising with every stop but that got brushed away pretty quick after the first stop as it just pushed along many months afterwards. regardless it was a pretty good book, so far both books seem as if they could be one book. i'm guessing after i read the third that my assessment will be correct and that anyone reading will have to read all three to get the whole picture, but anyone who just reads the first book and doesn't continue will definitely get an engaging story as well.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by siraks

Spoiler:

I suspected something to deal with the quarter quell since they mentioned it so many times but i didn't expect for them both to go back in. i didn't really expect either of them really, i thought that they would have to mentor someone close to them after it gets revealed that they were going back in. i'd say the second half of the book is better than the first. what my initial thought was when i was reading though was that the revolution would start and i expected the whole second book to be about peeta and katniss's victory tour through the districts. it started out as such with good descriptions and the old man getting shot in the square and i figured that's how the second book would continue with hints of an uprising with every stop but that got brushed away pretty quick after the first stop as it just pushed along many months afterwards. regardless it was a pretty good book, so far both books seem as if they could be one book. i'm guessing after i read the third that my assessment will be correct and that anyone reading will have to read all three to get the whole picture, but anyone who just reads the first book and doesn't continue will definitely get an engaging story as well.

Spoiler:

I initially thought the same, that it would all be about the uprising, which I thought may be a bit boring. But as you say, they kept going on about the Quarter Quell, and it suddenly occured to me that they would be including previous victors in the games. So it has stepped up a notch, for which I'm pleased. Currently just entered the area...

[phenomshel]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

Read Ancient Egypt on 5 Deben a Day, one in Thames & Hudson's entertaining series of historical faux-travel guides. This one is ostensibly set in the reign of Ramses II, though there's reference to past and future famous rulers.

Lots of fun, and written by some university professor whose name I can't recall, having returned it to the library. The author note in the back did a dedication to a number of people whom I assume are Egyptologically related, including Barbara Mertz, who writes as Elizabeth Peters.

If you've ever wanted to know where to go and what to see and what to get in ancient Egypt (hint: monkeys only make good souvenirs for hated enemies), as well as useful phrases such as "Does this loincloth make me look fat?" and "Truthfully, I'm afraid of mummies", then this is a book you need. Highly recommended.

"Truthfully, I'm afraid of mummies" might have actually been a useful phrase for Vicky Bliss in The Laughter of Dead Kings, 6th and currently final volume in the series. I started this awhile ago, but put it on hold to read up on the Amelia Peabody series first, since they were supposed to be connected and this was another Bliss adventure having to do with Egypt.

It turns out that the connection that I thought would be made actually took a rather different form which was mildly surprising. But it's a bit open ended, since that particular "group" seems to have a suspicious number of the telltale artifacts in question, unless copies were made and passed out to everyone in the other "groups" as well.

Also a couple of other callbacks to the Peabody books, with a swordfight (and a rotund maybe-ancestor of the same surname possessing dueling scars having popped up in the Peabodys) and Peters kind of writing herself into the story with a scene where she pretends to be an obsessed novelist tracking down Amelia's journals so that she can "retell" the adventures in fictionalized form.

In the front there's a note about the sliding timeline and all the technological advances that have been invented since then which have to be accounted for in order to keep the Bliss books "current" since they're meant to be contemporary rather than historical. Even though this is the first time that e-mail etc. have shown up in the series, I think the advances have been incorporated fairly well, and I'd have never really noticed a transition if the author hadn't pointed it out.

As for certain character developments advanced in the book, I can only hope that if there's a next in the series, they don't go the cheap sentimental route. I was just as "WTF are you on about?" as party approached was, and I'll be more than happy if the established-and-gradually-evolved-over-previous-books works-well-enough-for-me status quo is maintained and maybe mildly advanced, but without any sudden drastic changes.

Another nicely-done heist-caper mystery with a surprising but logical whodunnit and high entertainment value. But this time you really do have to have read at least two of the previous books to fully appreciate the story (Trojan Gold and Night Train to Memphis). Recommended as usual.

And now from one Barbara who occasionally writes historical mysteries under a pseudonym to another Barbara who occasionally writes historical mysteries under a pseudonym, onto Barbara Hambly's The Shirt on His Back, 10th in her excellent Benjamin January series set in antebellum New Orleans. Though technically, this one wanders out of antebellum New Orleans for very good and entertaining reasons.

LOL I have been waiting for you to get to this point. I love when authors write themselves into their books (Be sure and read The Copenhagen Connection if you haven't yet). I adore the Benjamin January series also. Do you have Goodreads or Shelfari? Bet our bookshelves would sync up pretty well, LOL.

[mcrow24]

I'm reading Cellar by Richard Laymon. I like horror.