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topic: Thematic Discussions > What (in the supernatural area) are you reading right now?


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message 1: by Werner (new)

903390 If you're reading any book right now that happens to fit into this group's focus, this is the thread where you can tell us about it! Maybe that'll spark some discussion from other members who've read it and liked (or disliked) it, or who want to read it or have some questions about it. (And if a book sparks enough discussion here, we could start a new thread just for that one.)

Also, don't hesitate to post supernatural books you're currently reading onto our group's currently- reading shelf. I try to do this from time to time, so that shelf isn't so barren, and if I'm currently reading in a different genre, I sometimes check other member's currently-reading shelves for a book --but sometimes I forget where I got it, which makes it hard to tell when to move it to the "read" shelf! :-)


message 2: by Nena (new)

281988 I'm reading Daywatch, by Sergei Lukyanenko. It's not as good as Nightwatch (Book 1), but I've been told I have to get through it before reading the last 2 books in the series.


message 3: by Werner (new)

903390 I've finally started reading Twilight --my oldest daughter gave me a copy for Father's Day. So far, I'm liking it, though I'm not far into the book. I know, I know; some of you are thinking, "We've already had that discussion!" :-) You know the old saying, "Sticks and stones will break my bones...." So whatever you do, just don't throw sticks and stones! (As a 56 year old, straight male, I promise that at least I won't swoon over Edward! :-))


message 4: by Jim (new)

695116 Werner, good luck with Twilight. I read it, didn't think the writing was very good nor did I like the POV. Even my daughter didn't like the last 3 books of the series, though. Marg & I had no interest in reading them after reading the first.


message 5: by Werner (new)

903390 Thanks, Jim! Even when their tastes overlap, different readers will often like (or dislike) different things, too --part of the fun of Goodreads is comparing the fascinating mosaic of people's different reactions to books. :-) POV is a big factor for most of us in our experience with a book --a viewpoint we can't enter into effectively or sympathize with is a real killer.

For myself personally, a teenage girl's POV isn't in itself a deal-breaker in fiction, even though I'm an older guy. Sometimes I like fictional perspectives different from my own, as sort of a learning experience. And then, too, my background has a big influence: I was raised in what was otherwise an all-female family (mother, aunt, and grandmother), my closest playmate as a young kid was a neighbor girl --we were both only children-- and I had no sons, but did raise three daughters. And even as a kid, I'd read books with female protagonists (even female teens) as readily as ones featuring males. (Of course, I'd read encyclopedias, too, if I didn't have anything else handy. :-)) So that perspective isn't as forbiddingly alien to me as it would (understandably) be for most males.


message 6: by Jim (new)

695116 Teenage boys are bad enough - I raised two - but teenage girls are aliens. Besides, mine bosses me around all the time with incantations like, "Please, Daddy" while batting her eyes at me. It's witchcraft! The boys agree.


message 7: by Levi (new)

2366694 Reading The Strain, as some of you may know already I am really liking it. :)


message 8: by Twoina (last edited Jul 06, 2009 11:26AM) (new)

Nophoto-u-25x33 I decided to give Laurell K Hamilton another try with <Incubus Dreams>. Unfortunately it wasn't worth the try. The non-sex scenes are good but they're only about a third of the book. It seems like she's run out of things to write about so she fills it in with lots and lots of silly sex stuff like every man in the known universe can't wait to have sex with Anita and she doesn't really want to do them but she just HAS to or her head will explode...or something. Gawd, get a grip. I liked her first two or three books so much but I'm done.



message 9: by Henrik (last edited Jul 06, 2009 02:59PM) (new)

573337 Hm, I am currently reading Robert Bloch's Strange Eons, a hardcover I recently bought on Abebooks (it's long out of print). It's a nice yarn where Bloch uses his mastery of the psychological pulp-thriller (is that really something you can say?:-P) to create his own Cthulhu Mythos story. Clearly an homage to Lovecraft and the whole Mythos sub-genre. While not technically a supernatural tale, it does have elements, since the story includes people believing or disbelieving magic and, of course, supernatural beings in some guise or other. At present I am reading about a--perculiar--church gathering where "magic is being created.":-D


message 10: by Jim (new)

695116 Twoina wrote: "I decided to give Laurell K Hamilton another try with . Unfortunately it wasn't worth the try. The non-sex scenes are good but they're only about a third of the book. It seems like she's run out of..."

You'll find the same thing happened to her Merry Gentry series, but it started on the 2d or 3d book.

I'm loaning my Anita Blake series to a friend & she just finished the 4th book & is still very pleased with it. I've warned her, though. I can't recall exactly when I decided this series had hit the skids, but it was somewhere around the 6th book, I think.


message 11: by Levi (new)

2366694 I don't know if you world classify this as supernatural, my guess is mostly not, but I am in a few days going to read A Clockwork Orange. I've tried last summer, but wasn't into it a great deal. Just wondering what you guys' thoughts are on the book...


message 12: by Jim (new)

695116 I don't think "A Clockwork Orange" is supernatural, but it is fantastic. I loved the movie, too. It's one of those SF classic's like "1984" or "A Brave New World" that is a must read for anyone interested in the genre.


message 13: by Levi (new)

2366694 Alright, I have started reading the book and unlike what I thought after a few pages the language is actually pretty easy to understand.


message 14: by Jim (new)

695116 Burgess used Russian, I think. It doesn't take long to get used to. It adds a lot to the book, too.


message 15: by Paula (new)

2490260 Right now I am reading Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris. So far I like the book. I plan to read all of the Sookie Stackhouse books eventually.


message 16: by IUHoosier (new)

1721731 The Sookie books are great - I read them last summer and finished the latest one the day it released. I also like MaryJanice Davidson's Queen Betsy series for goofy/weird vampire tales. And, of course, the Twilight series is the goofiest/weirdest of them all.

Right now I'm smoking thru Kim Harrison's The Hollows series. I'm on the third book - Every Which Way But Dead, and I'm enthralled. She's a better than average writer for this genre and I'm loving her language and perspective as much as the stories.


message 17: by Paula (new)

2490260 I will look for The Hollows series. I am always looking for suggestions on books.


message 18: by Jim (new)

695116 Harris' books are like peanuts for me. If I have them handy or start reading one, I find it difficult to stop. It's fluff, but very engaging fluff. My wife & daughter don't seem to have that problem. Odd.


message 19: by Paula (new)

2490260 Jim wrote: "Harris' books are like peanuts for me. If I have them handy or start reading one, I find it difficult to stop. It's fluff, but very engaging fluff. My wife & daughter don't seem to have that pro..."
The Sookie books are the only ones I have read by her and they are pretty easy reads.



message 20: by Jim (new)

695116 Paula, she has 2 other series that I know of; Aurora Teagarden & Harper Connelly. The first is a straight murder mystery. The second is our world, but Harper got struck by lightening & can find dead people. She's a depressing whiny person - not like Sookie or Aurora. I reviewed all of them, if you're interested.


message 21: by Levi (last edited Jul 09, 2009 05:01PM) (new)

2366694 I have started the first of the Sookie books. Really digging it. Like you said Jim: "If I have them handy or start reading one, I find it difficult to stop." That is so true!

Sookie is a great for a narator. These books give me a flash back to the Twilight series (which for me just makes them even better than they already are!) for some obvious reasons, can't wait to read the others! XD

I will also check out the Hollow series sometime, and I hate this you guys give me so much stuff that seems great and I just can't stop!!! But then again there's nothing wrong with that! :D





message 22: by Paula (new)

2490260 Jim wrote: "Paula, she has 2 other series that I know of; Aurora Teagarden & Harper Connelly. The first is a straight murder mystery. The second is our world, but Harper got struck by lightening & can find d..." Okay, thanks, I will check them out.




message 23: by Jim (new)

695116 I use BookMooch & PaperBackSwap to get books. It costs me about $3.50 a book now & I've built up a pretty good library of books. Any I don't like, I swap back out. Unfortunately, my to-read pile is over 7' long now. But I agree with Levi, it's a tough problem to have, but of all mine, it's by far the best!


message 24: by Nona (new)

1521956 thanks to the groups suggestions I got Patricia Briggs Moon Called and Iron Kissed from the library, I know I'm missing the second but oh well. Only ten pages into it and I have to admitt I'm liking it.


message 25: by Jo (new)

2457455 Im reading Blue Moon its the sequel to Evermore which i liked a lot


message 26: by Jim (new)

695116 Nona, I think you should look around hard for book 2 before reading book 3. As I recall, a lot happens. I don't think book 3 was my favorite, either. Not as good as the others.


message 27: by Paula (new)

2490260 I am half-way through the Sookie books now. I started Dead As A Doornail last night.


message 28: by Nona (new)

1521956 oh ok thanks Jim I'm on the hunt now searching libraries.


1570669 I recently started A Taste for Blood which is vampire stories. I am reading Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu right now.


message 30: by Werner (new)

903390 Danielle, it's cool that you're reading Carmilla --I'll look forward to your rating/review of that one, just to compare our reactions. :-) And thanks for the compliment, on another thread, re my Lovecraft description. My worldview isn't anything like his, but I really like his imagination, storytelling skill, and mastery of purple prose. And Chris, HPL gets some "love" in several of our other discussion topics, too (see above, for instance).


message 31: by Werner (new)

903390 Levi, re A Clockwork Orange, I know this is probably woefully belated information, but there are different editions of that book, and which one you read does make a difference. It was originally published in England; but in the first American edition, the last chapter was deliberately omitted (the movie version was based on that mutilated edition). That materially changes Burgess' story and message. (On the plus side, though, that edition does include a Nadsat glossary.)


message 32: by Nona (new)

1521956 finished Moon Called, good easy witty read.


message 33: by Jim (new)

695116 My wife is reading the Sookie Stackhouse books now. I think we have the first 8. I borrowed the 9th from a friend & read it. I have to say the books aren't particularly memorable, but they are a fun read. I found Brigg's books to be more memorable & just as much fun.

---------

My printed book of A Clockwork Orange is missing the last chapter, as Werner says. I have both a .lit & .pdf version though that have both the last chapter & the glossary. If you're wondering which version is which, the full version ends with:

"...And so farewell from your little droog. And to all others in this story profound shooms of lipmusic brrrrrr. And they can kiss my sharries. But you, O
my brothers, remember sometimes thy little Alex that was. Amen. And all that cal."

The edited version ends with:
"Oh it was gorgeosity and yumyumyum. When it came to
the Scherzo I could viddy myself very clear running and running on like very light and mysterious nogas, carving the whole litso of the creeching world with my cut-throat britva. And there was the slow movement and the lovely last singing movement still to come. I was cured all right."

The last chapter does make a huge difference in the message - like a 180 degree difference. Email me if you need it.


message 34: by Jo (new)

2457455 Im reading Breathers A Zombie's Lament..although i guess that doesnt count as supernatural


message 35: by Werner (new)

903390 Generally speaking, I'd classify zombies as supernatural entities --though I suppose that depends on how the author explains them. (The zombies that figure in Haitian voodoo beliefs are certainly thought to be supernaturally created.)


message 36: by Jo (new)

2457455 This is a sort of comedy book where the zombies are like normal people that have come back from the dead. They think like normal people and dont go killing people but they are slowly rotting away


message 37: by Jim (new)

695116 Piers Anthony treated a zombie that way in one of his Xanth books, Jo. They're amusing - the first few, anyway. I lost my taste after that. Puns can only go so far.


message 38: by Jo (new)

2457455 Yeah true. I think that if this book im reading was a series i probably wouldnt read the rest


message 39: by Jim (new)

695116 I just finished up an SF book & am now going to try the "Kitty" books, starting with Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn.


message 40: by Jo (new)

2457455 I finished Breathers A Zombie's Lament and it was really good, i loved the ending. Im now reading The Strain
which also doesnt count as supernatural but oh well


message 41: by Jim (new)

695116 I decided to read Kitty and the Midnight Hour a couple of weeks ago & was surprised to find I had books 2 - 5, but not book 1. Very odd. I rarely get later books in a series unless I've read the first & like it, but I looked on my book shelves & couldn't find it. So I got another.

As soon as I finished the SF book I was reading, I put in this one & found I had a review from last October! I had read it, but forgotten it & misplaced it. Some digging around turned up my other copy & I skimmed through most of it last night.

It's another candy book, like the Sookie books. Fun to read, engaging & just not very memorable, unfortunately. I guess I read too many of these books & find it hard to keep them straight. That's why I made a special bookcase just for them, though.


message 42: by Twoina (new)

Nophoto-u-25x33 ACK! This group is making me as crazy as I was when I first started my (now lamentably defunct <sob> damned budget cuts) library job. I wanted to read 90% of the books that came across my desk. Now I'm being inundated with new book suggestions everyday on this list and I already have shelves and shelves of unread books.

So many books so little time.


message 43: by Jo (new)

2457455 Twoina wrote: "ACK! This group is making me as crazy as I was when I first started my (now lamentably defunct damned budget cuts) library job. I wanted to read 90% of the books that came across my desk. Now I'm ..."

People on goodreads are always telling me about new books my list of books i want to read is getting way too big as well lol


message 44: by Jim (new)

695116 "So many good books, so little time!" seems to be a common complaint around here. My own To-Read pile is about 7' long now. Of all my problems, this is by far the best, though!
;-)


message 45: by Jo (new)

2457455 Jim wrote: ""So many good books, so little time!" seems to be a common complaint around here. My own To-Read pile is about 7' long now. Of all my problems, this is by far the best, though!
;-)"


Lol yeah i agree its probably not the worst problem that we are facing :)


message 46: by Nona (new)

1521956 I'm excited I'm next on the library hold list for the first three Sookie Stackhouse books! how could I get that lucky?


message 47: by Jim (new)

695116 The Sookie books are fun reads. My wife just finished the series - well, up to book 8. We don't have book 9 yet, although I borrowed it from a co-worker & read it. Enjoy, Nona!


message 48: by Jo (new)

2457455 I hear lots of good things about the Sookie Stackhouse series, might have to give it a go


message 49: by Jim (new)

695116 You should, Jo. All of Harris' books are candy books. Not terribly memorable, but fun, quick & thoroughly enjoyable. Actually, I think that about most of the paranormal/urban fantasy books I've read lately. Since my primary reason for reading them is escapism, entertainment & more to talk to my daughter & wife about, I'd have to say they're practically perfect.


message 50: by Jo (new)

2457455 Thanks Jim i will have to get the first one. I have so many books that people recommend that i want to get its hard to decide which to get first but that series seems like a big favourite with people so it must be good



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Books mentioned in this topic

Every Which Way But Dead (other topics)
Evermore (other topics)
Blue Moon (other topics)
A Clockwork Orange (other topics)
Breathers: A Zombie's Lament (other topics)
More...


Authors mentioned in this topic

Carrie Vaughn (other topics)
Janny Wurts (other topics)
Rachel Vincent (other topics)