Vintage Tales discussion
Book Chat!
>
What are you currently reading?
At the moment I'm rereading Dorothy Sayers' Gaudy Night. You can't go wrong with the classic detectives like Wimsey!
Diana, I loved the whole Chronicles of Narnia series! And Erin, my only acquaintance so far with Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey is through one short story, "The Learned Adventure of the Dragon's Head," but I really liked that one. I'm not sure if they're officially on my to-read shelf (which has burgeoned way out of control anyway!), but I do want to read all of the Lord Peter novels and stories eventually.
This month, the Norah Lofts fan group I belong to here on Goodreads is doing a common read of her novel A Wayside Tavern, so I've just recently started on that one. I'm enjoying it so far --not surprisingly, since Lofts is a favorite author of mine.
when I signed up for this group last night, I was nearly finished with two books, Gigolo by Edna Ferber (wonderful short stories) and Frenchman's Creek by Daphne DuMaurier.....it is DuMaurier, what else needs to be said...=))....Today I will be starting Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe as my "real" book, and The Cossacks by Tolstoy on ReadCentral.
I am almost finished with a YA zombie book called The Infects and a YA fairy tale book called The Unfairest of Them All which are both pretty good reads.
Next month, I'm going to be taking part in our group's common read of Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor. Since I finished A Wayside Tavern earlier today, I went ahead and started the Blackmore book a little early.
I'm reading Pearl S. Buck's Imperial Woman and will be starting on The White Queen soon. Yes, different epoques, different cultures!
Nearly finished with The Cossacks. I am thoroughly enjoying it, but I have had two areas of SORRY, PAGES MISSING HERE....right at some very dramatic episodes, too. Tried another online reading site I found and it was the same. So someday I will have to get an actual copy of the book and find out what I missed. I also am reading Half Portions, a collection of wonderful short stories by Edna Ferber...and I am still on the island with Crusoe.
I'm 71% done with The Fire Wish so hope to finish it today then got to finish Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm too so I can start The Finisher on Monday.
Finished The Cossacks, have Lorna Doone ready to start tomorrow, today I will see if Robinson and I can get off the island.
Awesome Debbie Have fun. I won't be able to join you guys with Lorna Doone cuz of other reads I got to get to for the RFP book club with group reads and the readathon starting tomorrow but have fun you guys! ^_^ Def doing The buddy read for the Finisher and more.
Robinson and I are still marooned but we have learned how to fire clay pots. I'm about halfway through with Half Portions...wonderful stories with kicker endings. Tomorrow is September 1st so will start Lorna Doone, Animal Farm, and a Talbot Mundy book called The Winds Of The World. Mundy's work influenced authors such as H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard and is great fun to read when you need a breathless adventure.
finished Rebecca of Sunnybrook farm last night which was a pretty good read so starting the finisher tonight and go from there.
Of the books mentioned above, I have finished Half Portions and started the other three. Tonight adding "A New Illustrated Edition of J. S. Rarey's Art of Taming Horses With the Substance of the Lectures at the Round House, and Additional Chapters on Horsemanship and Hunting, for the Young and Timid" to the pile for yet another change of pace. Enjoying them all!!
Okay: gave up on Lorna Doone, finished Animal Farm, the Mundy book is living up to its promise (especially the first pages of chapter four where I am at now),the horse book is trotting along fine, and Robinson FINALLY met Friday. Since I want to read The Further Adventures Of Robinson Crusoe online as soon as I get him off the island, I think my next print book should be Friday by Robert Heinlein.
Debbie, not to share any spoilers, but Robinson Crusoe (contrary to what most readers assume) does NOT end when Robinson gets off the island. He goes on to have quite a few more adventures in the original book. (I'm guessing that The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe would be a pastiche by a modern author, though I could be wrong.) Also, Heinlein's Friday (I haven't read it, but I've skimmed it) isn't about Defoe's Friday at all.
Werner wrote: "Debbie, not to share any spoilers, but Robinson Crusoe (contrary to what most readers assume) does NOT end when Robinson gets off the island. He goes on to have quite a few more advent..."I've just finished Robinson Crusoe, and yes he does have a few pages worth of adventures after getting off the island, including being involved in a massive wolf attack near the Pyrenees.
I offer this link re The Further Adventures....http://www.online-literature.com/defo..., written by Daniel Defoe. It sounds interesting and I cannot wait to start it.
I have read Friday by Robert Heinlein, many years ago. I am aware it is not about Defoe's Friday, but I was amused at the idea of reading a book titled Friday immediately after reading about a person named Friday in another book. Maybe after that I will re-read The Man Who Was Thursday, who knows? Thanks for your comment.....happy reading.
This month, I'm taking part in the common read of Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus in my Supernatural Fiction Readers group (I had to start late in order to finish up some other reading). It's one I wouldn't have picked to read on my own, without the stimulus of the common read; but it captured my interest quickly.
I'm reading The Seer which I'm finishing today, Sunflower Summer and other ebook reads. Plan to read the name of the wind in December for a buddy read.
I've been enjoying An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris, which is historical fiction based mostly on facts relating to the infamous "Alfred Dreyfus Affair" in 19th century France, which incident caused iconic French author Émile Zola to be charged with libel (and probably to be murdered) for rallying around Dreyfus (a Jew) who was wrongly convicted of treason. The novel focuses on the part played by a French army officer Georges Picquart in collecting evidences in support of an exonerating exercise.I'm two-thirds through, and am going slow in order to savor the thrill :)
Barb and I recently started reading the 19th novel in Piers Anthony's humorous fantasy Xanth series, Roc and a Hard Place, as our "car book." We've been fans of the series in the past, though of the dozen books in it that we've read, several were out of order; but we got distracted with other reading and had taken about a six-year hiatus from it since the last one we read. That one was Yon Ill Wind, which is actually the 20th in the series.
I finished all my All Hallow's Read reads so now got to get back to my read for review ebook requests and other ebook reads.
I'm reading Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South...
This month, the Christian Goodreaders I belong to (and help moderate) is doing C. S. Lewis' The Four Loves as a common read, and I'm taking part in that.
Earlier this fall, I won a copy of Roger Clarke's book Ghosts: A Natural History: 500 Years of Searching for Proof in a Goodreads giveaway. While we aren't obligated to review books we win in giveaways, I'm sure the authors/publishers whose generosity makes them possible appreciate getting reviews in reasonably timely fashion. So I try to prioritize reading books I receive this way; I'm reading this one right now, and am finding it quite fascinating!
I'm currently reading Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene for my fiction read and The Invisible Woman by Claire Tomalin for my non-fiction.I have to say though that neither are grabbing me very much! I enjoyed my "catch-up" for this group of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde more, and am looking forward to my next "catch-up" read before Christmas, which will be Northanger Abbey.
I'm currently reading This is Where I Leave You as a regular book, Lucifer falls as an ebook, and My Soul Immortal as an indie read for review ebook request.
Yesterday, I started reading Operation Angelica, Goodreads author Juliene Lloyd's recently published first novel. She's a member of another Goodreads group I'm in, and generously gave me a free review copy; so in fairness to her, I pushed it to the top of my TBR pile. (I was glad to do that anyway; I'm intrigued by the premise, and definitely enjoying the book so far!)
I've now started reading yet another one of the free review books I recently got. This one is Living in the Spirit: Paul's Timeless Message to Christians, by my Goodreads friend Ron Andrea. It's a short, simple exposition of the message(s) of the Apostle Paul's epistle to the Romans, written for Christian laypersons.
Currently finished The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells and it was a pretty good read. :) Planning to read Treasure Island in January for the Pirate Reading challenge.
I finished reading Lorna Doone, then read Wuthering Heights and A Sudden Fearful Death by Anne Perry. Now I'm reading Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon. I am halfway through Middlemarch by George Elliot.
Wow, I'm behind in my posting on this thread! Since my last post, I've read another of my review copies, the short story cycle Ring of Time by my Goodreads friend Andrew Seddon.Now, I've started on the last review copy in the queue, Tails From the Front Lines, an anthology of original stories about the bond between current or former military personnel and their canine companions. Proceeds from the book sales go to the work of the TADSAW (Train a Dog, Save a Warrior) organization (www.tadsaw.org ). This one was another gift from Andrew, who has a story in the collection.
As of yesterday, I'm started on reading Is God a Moral Monster?: Making Sense of the Old Testament God, by Palm Beach Atlantic Univ. scholar Paul Copan (Baker Books, 2011).
Finished treasure island which is a pretty good read and will get back to my other reads later.
Following up immediately on the Copan book (message 270), which I finished reading yesterday, I've now started on Sam Harris' New Atheist manifesto Letter to a Christian Nation. Since it's very short, I expect to finish by Tuesday (and would finish it well before then, but for the fact that I won't have any opportunity to read tomorrow or Monday).
I recently finished two non-fiction titles by the same author about the Mongol Empire: Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World and The Secret History of the Mongol Queens: How the Daughters of Genghis Khan Rescued His Empire. Loved both, particularly because they are of help to my current writing project.I'm currently reading Bel-Ami by Guy de Maupassant and am enjoying it a lot.
Deborah Cannon, the author of the book I'm reading now, The Pirate Vortex, is one of my Goodreads friends, but I actually had her book on my to-read shelf long before we became friends. It's a YA novel (the first in her Elizabeth Latimer, Pirate Hunter series --yes, that's now another series I've added to the dozen or so I'm already juggling!), with time travel, pirates, and a plucky 18-year-old heroine with a pet parrot and top-notch fencing skills.
The Pirate Vortex (which I liked) proved to be a pretty quick read; I finished it today, and have now started on The Haunting of Gad's Hall, a supernatural fiction novel by 20th-century British writer Norah Lofts (whom I think I've mentioned before on this thread). This is the sequel to her Gad's Hall, which I read four years ago and really liked (my review is here: www.goodreads.com/review/show/129382711 ).
I've finished Bel-Ami and rated it 5-stars.My review:-
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I'm about to start To the Lighthouse
I was never the kind of ardent Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan who watched every episode and bought the posters, mugs, etc. But I did like the movie, and saw a scattering of episodes of the series back in the 90s, when it was in syndication; and I picked up a few spin-off books years ago at a yard sale. One of these is a story collection, How I Survived My Summer Vacation; and I'm now reading in it while I'm waiting for a March common read in another group.
I'm continuing my personal challenge to reread all the novels of Charles Dickens in order, and have just finished Barnaby Rudge, which was his first historical novel. (He only ever wrote two of them.)I enjoyed it much more this time round. Here's my review
Pride and Prejudice, finally - it has taken me a long time to get here! Huge classic, but somehow always overshadowed by other classics by me.
For the month of March, my Fans of British Writers group is doing a common read of The Dark Horse by Anglo-Indian novelist Rumer Godden (1907-1998). So, I've gotten started on it a bit early. When I nominated it for the read, I thought (and now know for sure) that I'd read it aloud to my wife in a Reader's Digest condensed version back in 1981; but this will be my first exposure to it, and to Godden's work, in its actual complete form.
The writing duo of Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman are pretty well known in the fantasy genre, but up to now I've never read any of their work. However, my wife picked up a copy of their Darksword trilogy at a yard sale last summer, with the idea that it might be a good possibility for us to read together as one of our out-loud reads. So, we've now gotten started on the first volume, Forging the Darksword.
Vintage Tales
Books mentioned in this topic
The End of the Ancient World and the Beginnings of the Middle Ages (other topics)Sackett's Land (other topics)
Martin Chuzzlewit (other topics)
The Stones of Muncaster Cathedral (other topics)
Favorite Ghost Stories (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Ferdinand Lot (other topics)Louis L'Amour (other topics)
Charles Dickens (other topics)
Robert Westall (other topics)
Joi Copeland (other topics)
More...
Hi sorry for not replying, I haven't had chance to come on here recently. I love the series. I have started read Allegiant and cannot wait to reach the end.