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

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by haertig

Most of the books I see people reading here I have never heard of. It would be nice if people would also post the genre (or a one/two sentence description) of the type of book it is. So others can see if that might interest them, and then go look into it further.

I'm reading Matthew Reilly's "Temple". I would label this as Action/Adventure from what I know about it (just started it, so not very far along). As best I can tell, it's about a govt/military/science group heading into the depths of Peru to find an Incan artifact that a competing group of bad guys is also after. I expect lots of action, shooting, etc. just based on other Matthew Reilly books I've read.

I'm game for this.

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

I have moved on to Rivka Galchen's Atmospheric Disturbances now.

Atmospheric Disturbances is a short book narrated by a man who is losing his mind. I have posted the description below. Rivka Galchen, the author, is most regularly seen as a short story contributor to the New Yorker.

When Dr. Leo Liebenstein’s wife disappears, she leaves behind a single, confounding clue: a woman who looks, talks, and behaves exactly like her—or almost exactly like her—and even audaciously claims to be her. While everyone else is fooled by this imposter, Leo knows better than to trust his senses in matters of the heart. Certain that the original Rema is alive and in hiding, Leo embarks on a quixotic journey to reclaim his lost love.

[haertig]

Originally Posted by Sonicboom

Hi!
I'm currently reading the Bonecollector by Jeffery Deaver. It's one of the top crime novels I have ever read.
The language is also pretty understandable for non-native English speakers.

That was a good one. Other Jeffery Deaver books that I have enjoyed are:

The Blue Nowhere
Roadside Crosses
The Skin Collector

The Skin Collector is later in the Lincoln Rhyme series ... I had it given to me and read it out of order. I need to go back and read more of this series - it is good.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by orlok

I enjoyed The Wanted, though I'm not sure quite as much as some of the other's in the series. I thought Joe Pike felt like a bit of a cypher - if this had been the first time we had met the character, there would have been little to engage with. Only knowing his backstory saved it for me. Still, I gave it 4 stars as any book by Robert Crais is still above average for the genre.

Haven't posted anything I've read since The Wanted, so here's the list:

3. All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka
4. Mythos by Stephen Fry
5. Passing by Nella Larsen
6. Buy A Bullet by Gregg Hurwitz
7. Crash by Keith Houghton
8. The Hunter by Tom Wood
9. The Walk by Lee Goldberg
10. The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell
11. Writing a Page Turner by Mark Dawson
12. Musings from a Writer's Desk by Elizabeth Bailey
13. Elon Musk: How the Billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla is Shaping our Future by Ashlee Vance
14. From the Heart of a Copy Editor-10 Most Common Mistakes and How to Fix Them by Shiels Glasbey
15. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
16. The Pier Falls by Mark Haddon
17. Nightmares and Dreamscapes by Stephen King
18. Night Moves by Jonathan Kellerman
19. Zombies, Run! The Way of All Flesh by Naomi Alderman
20. Bird Box by Josh Malerman
21. Funny Old World by Victor Lewis-Smith
22. Confessions of a Slightly Neurotic Hitwoman by J.B. Lynn
23. The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir by Bill Bryson
24. Vertical Run by Joseph Garber
25. Hellbent by Gregg Hurwitz
26. Stein on Writing by Sol Stein
27. Making History by Stephen Fry
28. Sophomore Slump by Alan Lee
29. Preacher Book 2 by Garth Ennis
30. Preacher Book 3 by Garth Ennis
31. Preacher Book 4 by Garth Ennis
32. Preacher Book 5 by Garth Ennis
33. The Lost Continent: Travels In Small Town America by Bill Bryson
34. Preacher Book 6 by Garth Ennis
35. Preacher Special: Cassidy: Blood and Whiskey by Garth Ennis
36. Panic Room by Robert Goddard
37. Preacher Special: The Good Old Boys by Garth Ennis
38. The Last Teacher by Alan Lee
39. The Second Secret by Alan Lee
40. Preacher Special: One Man's War by Garth Ennis
41. White Is the Coldest Colour by John Nichol
42. The Bone Farm: A Jane Hawk Case File by Dean Koontz
43. The Grave Man by David Archer
44. Ultima by L.S. Hilton
45. Licensed to Thrill by Diane Capri
46. Professor Moriarty: The Hound of the D'Urbervilles by Kim Newman
47. No Time Like the Past by Jodi Taylor
48. Get Back Jack by Diane Capri
49. Bill Bryson's Appliance of Science by Bill Bryson
50. The P45 Diaries by Ben Hatch
51. Guess Who? by Chris McGeorge
52. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
53. Spider Girl by Peter Lovesey
54. The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman
55. Dead Boys by Gabrille Squailia
56. The Outsider by Stephen King
57. Crackanory by Various
58. Old Black Magic by Ace Atkins
59. Crossing by Andrew Fukuda
60. Six Poets: Hardy to Larkin by Various/Alan Bennett
61. Deathworld 2 by Harry Harrison
62. Brilliance by Marcus Sakey
63. Sex, Lies and Chocolate Cakes by Steven Morris
64. Forever and a Day by Anthony Horowitz
65. The Crooked Staircase by Dean Koontz
66. Pet Sematary by Stephen King
67. Reality 36 by Guy Haley
68. Flawed Players by Alan Lee
69. Happy by Derren Brown
70. Likely Suspects by G.K. Parks

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by ReadingManiac

Have you read the Mary Stewart series? I'm wondering how they compare.

I read the Mary Stewart series many years ago. It's more centred on Merlin, and has magic, or at least prophecy. Bernard Cornwall's is much more concerned with Arthur (although the viewpoint character isn't one of the 'main' Arthurian characters), and has no real magic, or that's my impression.

[DiapDealer]

I'm reading the third book in Emma Newman's "Planetfall" universe: Before Mars. I've really enjoyed the first two of these loosely-connected books, so I have high hopes for the third.

After months of travel, Anna Kubrin finally arrives on Mars for her new job as a geologist and de facto artist in residence--and already she feels she is losing the connection with her husband and baby at home on Earth.

In her room on the base, Anna finds a mysterious note, painted in her own hand, warning her not to trust the colony psychiatrist. A note she can't remember painting.

When she finds a footprint in a place that the colony AI claims has never been visited by humans, Anna begins to suspect that she is caught up in an elaborate corporate conspiracy. Or is she losing her grip on reality? Anna must find the truth, regardless of what horrors she might discover or what they might do to her mind.

[haertig]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I'm reading the third book in Emma Newman's "Planetfall" universe...

Thank you for posting the story synopsis, that really helps in "evaluating" the books that other people are reading. I immediately thought I might like that book you'r reading. So I went and found it in my local library's Overdrive and put a hold on the first book in the series. The third book in the series (the one you are currently reading) was available for checkout, but I want to start the series from the beginning.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by haertig

but I want to start the series from the beginning.

I understand perfectly. I'm the same way.

These books really would stand up well by themselves, but there is the occasional easter egg (nothing mind-blowing, mind you), or technology previews for those who are reading them in order. So read them in order I must (and would recommend).

[Rev. Bob]

I'm about a quarter of the way through Upside Down: Inverted Tropes in Storytelling, and I'm beginning to wonder if there's a deliberate correlation between trope inversion and dystopian settings or pessimistic tones. For instance, the "Super Soldier" story amounts to saying, "Imagine the technology exists to create kid-show characters as living beings rather than puppets... and then retool them as troops in a shooting war between media factions."

Not that it's a bad story, but so far there seems to be a pretty grim tone to the book.

[PurpleStar]

About 75% done with House Swap by Rebecca Frost. Not the suspense novel I thought it would be but I’m invested enough in the characters to finish it.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by latepaul

So I finished it. Not bad. Better than Touch not as good as Harry August. I felt like the central premise was simple enough that it didn't need 450 pages to tell the story and could have done it justice in 300ish.[...]

Sadly, I ended up coming to this conclusion about The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August. And I had had such high expectations. If the story had been compressed into 300 pages then things might have moved fast enough to keep me from peering into the cracks. There were some clever ideas, and it was obvious that a lot of work went into it, but I just couldn't get past some details that didn't sit well with me, and I didn't care about the characters. Also, by the time I was half-way through I knew pretty much what was going to happen (which can be okay if you're enjoying the ride, but I wasn't). I finished mainly in the hope she was going to surprise me. She didn't.

On the other hand... it's rare for me to like time travel stories very much anyway, and this was well enough executed that I probably will give Catherine Webb (aka Claire North aka Kate Griffin) another chance - but maybe not with Touch, given your comment above. I might try some of the fantasy written as Kate Griffin.

[drjd]

Finished Night Has a Thousand Eyes by Cornell Woolrich. A noir tale of a man struggling with his ability to see the future. It was interesting enough to finish in two sittings.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Not sure what'll be next...

I've started a couple of books. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Echo, and Grantville Gazette #78.

GG#78 was a quick fun read. I'm still getting in to The Name of the Rose. I might start something else as well...

[Dngrsone]

Two-thirds of the way through Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English by John WcWhorter, and I must say, this is something new for me.

Whilst reading other histories of English, it always niggled at the back of my mind that the authors rarely mention any influence of the native speakers on the language that has become modern English.

Mister McWhorter addresses this in a sensible, though by his own admission unorthodox way: He as a linguist argues that the etymologists are more interested in the "what happened when" than the "this happened why" and he explains quite well the lack of written proof (required by the aforementioned etymologists) for his theories.

[drjd]

Originally Posted by Dngrsone

Two-thirds of the way through Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English by John WcWhorter, and I must say, this is something new for me.

Whilst reading other histories of English, it always niggled at the back of my mind that the authors rarely mention any influence of the native speakers on the language that has become modern English.

Mister McWhorter addresses this in a sensible, though by his own admission unorthodox way: He as a linguist argues that the etymologists are more interested in the "what happened when" than the "this happened why" and he explains quite well the lack of written proof (required by the aforementioned etymologists) for his theories.

Appears to be an interesting read. Thanks, Dngrsone. Added to my wish list.

Edit: Its available in print only. I can't find an ebook online.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Next, a new author for me, Harry Connolly's Child of Fire.

The story ebbed and flowed. I thought Connolly's storyline was original especially the relationship between Ray and Annalise. There is no real mystery. Everything is laid out for the reader. The last half was action packed. However, the book is full of tragedies and sadness. Decent debut if somewhat uneven. Rated C [3 stars].

Next, a change-up, The White Cottage Mystery by Margery Allingham.