Outread Aubrey! Challenge discussion
What are you reading?
Goodness, all of you are so busy! I'm having a hard time...this weekend was the Swan Lake ballet (I play the violin in the symphony that plays for the ballet troupe), with three 2-1/2 hour shows yesterday and another this afternoon. I've only had time for a chapter, and in the midst of it all a book idea struck...Maybe I can read something tonight!
Well, can't complain about a new book idea! ;) Still, I hope you're able to squeeze some reading in! A chapter here and there can add up, so keep at it!
By the way, everyone, I added a poll to the group asking about ereader-themed prizes. You can find it at the bottom of the homepage. Please vote!
By the way, everyone, I added a poll to the group asking about ereader-themed prizes. You can find it at the bottom of the homepage. Please vote!
Yes, read one chapter and beginning another. I couldn't get into the ones I'd been reading, so this is "The Enchanted Canyon" by Honoré Willsie Morrow. If you ever read his YA book "On To Oregon", you should know who he is. It's another of my Christmas books, and the first one of his I've found in years. We'll see what his writing for adults was like!Yes, incidentally, "On To Oregon" is another recommendation...it's the true story of young siblings who decide to make it to Oregon alone after their parents die on the trail.
Wow! You all have been busy. I'm technically still hiding in a closet, trying to get my book written (taking longer than I dreamed!), but I did read "Jessie Wells" by Isabella Alden in the past two days. It was a favorite from when I about 12-19, but I hadn't read it in a few years. I enjoyed it, though I didn't agree with all her beliefs. *slinks back into the shadows again*
That's wonderful, Rebekah! I'm so glad you're squeezing a bit of reading in between your writing. ^_^
"Enchanted Canyon" so far is great. I've been propping it open to read while I do chores today. On chapter eleven now...I'll be doing a review and maybe even posting a few good quotes. :)
Too excited to read...tornado going overhead! We can hear the rip in the clouds and feel a big updraft...and we have small hail and green air! :)
Hannah wrote: "Too excited to read...tornado going overhead! We can hear the rip in the clouds and feel a big updraft...and we have small hail and green air! :)"Green air? What causes that?
Tornadoes. Scientists have not yet solved the mystery of why air turns green.There are reports of trees down past us from that storm. From another storm in this system, about 30 miles south of us, there are bunches of windshields crashed out in cars near the airport from 1-3/4 inch (golf ball size) hail that hit. It happened to be the middle of Atlanta rush hour....
Glad to be home!
Looks better now... But others in the area are trapped in their homes and cars from falling trees and power lines, and the new record of hail size for today is up to 2-1/2 inches (tennis ball size).Quiet enough to go back to reading!
Finished "The Enchanted Canyon" today and really enjoyed it. I finished "Yukon Trail" by William Macleod Raine, which I'd begun last year. And I'm halfway into "The Lonely House" by Adolph Streckfuss, translated by Mrs. A. L. Wister. Our county had an election today, and I sat there for twelve hours with little else to do...we had a total of 170 voters from a precinct that has 2170. So I was catching up on some reading! :)
Stayed up late to finish "The Lonely House". Fun, clean murder mystery set in Ukraine, translated from the German in 1907.
I'm Reading "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austin. It makes me relise how amazingly good they did with the five hour version. I love Jane's style.
Yay for catching up on some reading! Hurrah for voter turnout rates. :P ;)
Corey wrote: ""Fun, clean murder mystery..."Those are four words I never thought I'd see together. ;-)"
Yes, it's a very unusual tale. I have read plenty of clean ones, but not a lot of fun ones. If you're curious, it is online. I was quite startled when the genial Professor was on his way down the mountain, looking for water, on page 50, and finds a body. Certainly not a mystery according to formula!
Aubrey wrote: "Yay for catching up on some reading! Hurrah for voter turnout rates. :P ;)"It was a SPLOST election concerning a 1% sales tax. You'd think people would be concerned enough about either their pocketbooks or their schools to come out and vote, wouldn't you? But it wasn't publicized much.
Starting "One Summer" by Blanche Willis Howard. I've started it twice before, so I really want to finish it this time.
I just finished Justified Means by Chautona Havig. It was really good, but now I'm ready for books two and three - I don't have the second one yet and she hasn't written the third. Oh... and I haven't finished the three books I started in January yet - no time on the iPad for the e-books, and I haven't been up to Mark Twain the last week. He's a good writer, but I think I'm missing his point to the story altogether. :-/
Which Mark Twain book are you reading, again, Rebekah?
By the way, y'all might be interested to know that Molly Evangeline's books are all on sale for 99c on Amazon today. If you're looking for a new read or need to fill holes in your collection, now's a good time! I know Mikayla was reading her Pirates & Faith series... I've got pieces of all of her series, so I'm completing my collection today. :)
By the way, y'all might be interested to know that Molly Evangeline's books are all on sale for 99c on Amazon today. If you're looking for a new read or need to fill holes in your collection, now's a good time! I know Mikayla was reading her Pirates & Faith series... I've got pieces of all of her series, so I'm completing my collection today. :)
Faith wrote: "Just finished Captive In Iran... a powerful book." Ooh. What's that about?
Aubrey wrote: "By the way, y'all might be interested to know that Molly Evangeline's books are all on sale for 99c on Amazon today."
Just came back from buying two of her books. ;)
No fun...I've used up all my Amazon credit... I hope to have more soon, though, if I don't have other expenses.Almost done with "One Summer". I can't imagine why I couldn't get into it before...it's wonderful! I must have been in an odd mood. It's a sweet story of a young lady who visits New England one summer and has an unusual encounter with a friend of her brother-in-law's. The plot is based a great deal on finding love, but until the final third of the book the hero and heroine hardly say anything to each other, after their inauspcious first meeting, and the only thing that links them is the young country boy who worships them both.
Aubrey wrote: "Which Mark Twain book are you reading, again, Rebekah?"I'm reading A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. I think I'm 6/10ths the way through it? I'm finding the protagonist, a little antagonistic and unlovable, and like I said, I'm not getting the point of the story at all.
Oh! I agree about the satire and comedy! I forgot that I really was enjoying that part. Hmm... Maybe I'll give it another try here soon. You know, I think part of what's bothering me, is I have no idea why this guy is back in time or how he got there... and I'm pretty sure he's going to get sent forward in time again - and I don't want him to. :p
Or maybe I had a romanticized view of King Arthur's Court that got shattered reading. ;)
Oh and did you like the main character? (I can't for anything remember his real name - he goes by The Boss I know) I swing around from liking him to thinking he's just obnoxious... Maybe that's just me...?
Faith wrote: "Captive in Iran is the story of two young Iranian Christians who were imprisoned in Evin prison for handing out New Testaments. It really exposed the darkness of Christian persecution. I was shocked by the things they arrest people for in Iran....one woman was arrested for using the wrong computer server/browser."I'm going to have to look into that. I just finished
Secret Believers: What Happens When Muslims Believe in Christ recently and it was amazing.
Faith wrote: "Fun, Clean, Murder Mystery.... Sounds kind of like the Ollie Chandler series. Those were so good!"
Those were good. I don't think I'd call them fun, though. Those things are intense!
I happened on The Chequer Board on our library's "free" shelf last week, picked it up so as to have my own copy, and have just finished rereading it. Like Understood Betsy, it's one that I had to be forced to sit through having read to me (as our "family reading") that's now become one of my favorites---though I would have been even more delighted to see Trustee from the Toolroom, the other Shute I've read (or, rather, had read to me).Some of the themes of The Chequer Board are ones I don't agree with; Shute seems to be (mostly subtly) saying that Buddhism (as he views it, which I'm not at all sure is accurate) is preferable to Christianity, but that at the lay level the two are essentially equivalent. But this doesn't come up much, and the story is engaging and interesting---and it's also interesting from the standpoint of craftsmanship, since it's mostly told in flashbacks, and the whole thing is wrapped in a framing story we only see in the first and last chapters, but in this case it works.
*should probably try reading mysteries, as she rarely does so...*
Aubrey wrote: "*should probably try reading mysteries, as she rarely does so...*"Try Anna Katharine Green's books for some great old mysteries. I'm pretty sure you'd love them!
I've read The Daughter of Time, and thought enough of it to put it on my list of "books everyone ought to read." But I don't have much exposure to mysteries as a genre---the ones I've liked have been as much something else (romance in Gaudy Night, for example) as mystery, or were primarily some other genre but had a mystery plot (Memory, for example). (Though I did like most of the Sherlock Holmes stories I read.)Aubrey, I've mentioned Duty Free to you before (it's a Ruritanian novel), but it's also something of a mystery. The Far Traveller, also by Manning Coles, is the only ghost story I've read that I can remember liking even at all ... partly because it's more historical fiction whose main characters are ghosts than a "ghost story."
Also recommended are the Lord Darcy stories by Randall Garrett, which are fantasy/alternate-history mysteries that are partly parodies of famous fictional detectives; Too Many Magicians is the one novel I'm aware of, and where I'd hesitantly suggest starting.
Ah, so many suggestions, where's a girl to start? Thanks, everyone! :)
I don't think they are books, but the Father Gilbert radio drama's (mysteries) are amazing. They are put out by Focus on the Family.
I just got "Land Keep" by J. Scott Savage. My to-read list is getting ever-longer, and my energy levels are getting ever-lower. XD
Renna, we must find a solution to this horrific problem! *heroic face* XD
The first few volumes weren't that exciting, but the story is pulling itself together now. It's good--I like the +Anima concept--although I don't love it as much as Fullmetal Alchemist.
I haven't read any Fullmetal Alchemist. I don't remember if I know about it. xD I should look at it sometime.I'm still reading Crosswind! It's a great book! There is some mature content that I plan to mention in a review, however. Not a lot, but enough that I'd want to mention it when recommending the book to people. *sigh*
FMA is amazing! The plot and drama is superb.
I've had that problem... That's what reviews are for, thankfully. If you let people know what's in there, they can judge for themselves whether or not they can tolerate it.
I've had that problem... That's what reviews are for, thankfully. If you let people know what's in there, they can judge for themselves whether or not they can tolerate it.
Renna wrote: "I just got "Land Keep" by J. Scott Savage. My to-read list is getting ever-longer, and my energy levels are getting ever-lower. XD"Oh, I've had that problem before! But never living near a good used bookstore helps. I catch up on reading when I start craving a good trip to the bookstore! I read in spurts myself.
I finished "One Summer" last night and am reading an ebook the Project Gutenburg published this week, "Around the Corner at Gay Street" by Grace Richmond. I've never read her books before and am really enjoying it.
Aubrey wrote: "Renna, we must find a solution to this horrific problem! *heroic face* XD"Oh, I was wrong. "Air Keep", not "Land Keep". Anyway. XD Yes, yes, we do.
I mean, look at my currently-reading list; I've started reading, like, ten books, and now I have no energy (general anxiety disorder saps energy; if it's not scientifically proven, it should be). XDD But I'm hoping to read a few chapters of each book on my currently-reading list today.
It doesn't have to be scientifically proven, Renna... Being anxious is one of the most taxing things we can feel. One hour of worry leaves me totally drained.Here: one big, calming hug! :)
I just finished "Around the Corner in Gay Street". I would definitely recommend it as a pleasant family story. :)
Oh... *offers Renna an encouraging cupcake* I understand, but remember--just a chapter or two here and there adds up, so don't be discouraged. :)
Aubrey wrote: "Oh... *offers Renna an encouraging cupcake* I understand, but remember--just a chapter or two here and there adds up, so don't be discouraged. :)"I'll remember. Thanks. :)
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Do! And I can give more if you need them... :)