What Are You Reading: October 2015

[Sacramento Public Library]

We'll be reading our One Book Sacramento selection The Third Plate by Dan Barber this month and we hope you will join us. We've even got a bunch of programs to go along with it: http://www.saclibrary.org/About-Us/Ne...

So, what else will you be reading this month? Please share below and help someone else find their next great read!

[David]

Currently reading Twilight's Dawn the last book of the Black Jewels series. I'm going to be very sad for this series to end so I'm starting my frantic search for a worth while Epic Fantast series that has a minimum for 7-8 books!

[Brendle]

I just finished up The Last Policeman by Ben Winters, a pre-apocalyptic mystery. I liked it (definitely gets you thinking!) and will be reading the next two in the trilogy.

Now I'm about to start The Pirate Hunters by Robert Kurson who does outstanding non-fiction adventure stories. If you're a Hampton Sides fan, check him out. I've also got the new Lee Child on deck and Girl Waits With Gun by Amy Stewart which is based on the true story of one of the first female deputy sheriffs in the US. It's one great line up of reading, believe me!

[Susan]

I just finished You are an Ironman and have started In the Unlikely Event. I know, quite diverse. But I don't like reading the same type of books right in a row. Next up will be After You. I have a nice cozy weekend planned for that book!

I think I might need to add Girl Waits With Gun to my reading list. That sounds good!!

[Justin]

I'm finally reading Graceling. So good.

[Katie]

I have Graduation Day on my Kindle and Armada on my night stand. It's going to be a good month for books :)

[John]

I've just started the e-book "Polaris," by Jack McDevitt. In audio format, I'm about halfway through "The Bat," by Mary Roberts Rinehart.

[Brendle]

@Susan I just finished Girl Waits With Gun and it was as fun as I hoped it would be. I think you'll enjoy it too!

@Justin Yay for Graceling!

Now I'm moving on to Only a Kiss by Mary Balogh, one of my all time favorite historical romance authors.

[Cat]

I'm just finishing Calico Joe by John Grisham. It's been good, although I found it a bit predictable. He knows how to put words together nicely, even if you know what's going to happen.

I'm also reading Wicked Intentions by Elizabeth Hoyt in audio. I used the advanced search feature on Overdrive to find an available audio book after I'd finished my others, and just browsed and found it. It's pretty good so far!

[Teresa]

I wanted to read the third plate but every copy at my library was taken - very popular. I'll have to order it. In the meantime I'm just starting audio version of "All the light you cannot see" which I like a lot. The imagery is so strong that I feel like I'm right there. Just got "Part of our Lives a people's history of the American public library" and I'm so hoping it's amusing!

[David]

I just started Legends of the Dragonrealm and I feel a little underwhelmed by it. I started it about a year ago and had to put it down when I was moving and just started it over. Since then I've read such amazing authors that, while I enjoy reading it, it just doesn't grab me like it did before. I feel a bit snobbish saying that but it's the truth!

[Lisa]

I just started A Midwife's Tale by Gretchen Moran Laskas

[Teresa]

I've been working on Game of Thrones on audio and I like it a lot but I watched the first two seasons on television and I wish I hadn't. The book is very much like the series so I know a great deal of it in advance. Normally wouldn't bother me as I usually read the last chapter of a book right after the first chapter but now so much depends on the surprises.

[John]

Finished "The Bat" a few days ago. Originally a play by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood, "The Bat" premiered on Broadway in 1920 and was twice made into a movie, as a silent film in 1926 and as a talkie called "The Bat Whispers" in 1930. Bob Kane, creator of Batman, cited the title character as the inspiration for the Dark Knight...except that in Rinehart's work, the Bat was a thief and murderer.

Now my reading choice has taken one of its occasional detours away from my usual sci-fi/fantasy/paranormal/mystery: I've started the audiobook "Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief," by Lawrence Wright.

[Nicholas]

I just finished Perks Of Being A Wallflower which is a good friend of mine's favorite book. I was allowed to borrow it, and I don't regret it. I'm sure most people have read it in high school but I'm sure I would not have understood everything that happened in the story during high school. I shared those experiences afterward. As simple as the book is, it left me wondering what to feel. Now I'm going to read Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury. The line up is the third book in the Foundation series by Issac Asimov and The Martian, which I know is late to read but I must!

[Kristi]

I just finished reading The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult.

I'm currently reading The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food by Dan Barber, almost finished!

I also recently started The Shining by Stephen King, but have to read that during lunch breaks only, definitely not right before bed!

[Brendle]

I've been working hard to get out of my reading comfort zone this year and last night, as part of that endeavor, I read Nimona by Noelle Stevenson, a most highly recommended teen graphic novel. It's been shortlisted for the National Book Award, our own Sacramento Teen Book Award, and more. While I liked many things about it, especially Nimona herself and the flipping of good and evil, I struggled with the graphic novel format wanting much more from the story. I am wondering if better familiarity with the format will help this frustration so I am going to continue with my reading explorations and adventures. Lumberjanes and Ms Marvel have been mentioned a lot so I might try them next.

Currently holding my bookmark is The Aeronaut's Windlass by Jim Butcher.

[David]

Brendle wrote: "I've been working hard to get out of my reading comfort zone this year and last night, as part of that endeavor, I read Nimona by Noelle Stevenson, a most highly recommended teen graphic novel. It'..."

I'm going to be real interested on your take of Jim Butcher's series. While I loved the Dresden files I've been hesitant to read this one. Let me know what you think!

[Brendle]

David wrote: "I'm going to be real interested on your take of Jim Butcher's series. While I loved the Dresden files I've been hesitant to read this one. Let me know what you think! "

If you enjoy the Dresden series, you will enjoy this one. It's more of a straight up fantasy adventure, obviously, but it has the same pacing and feel plus there's naval battles in the sky! Butcher wrote another fantasy series a while ago, The Codex Alera, which I would also recommend. It's a bit more of a military fantasy than this one, but I enjoyed it very much. At 6 volumes long, it will keep you busy for a while.

[Julie]

I finished Ice like Fire and loved the book. No slump with this series. I also started The mystery of Hollow Places and loving it so far.
I finished For the Record--very cute about a band on a road.

[Angie]

Brendle wrote: "@Susan I just finished Girl Waits With Gun and it was as fun as I hoped it would be. I think you'll enjoy it too!

and @Susan

thanks for the recommendation! I'm checking it out now.

[Angie]

I've been slowly still finishing Snow by Pamuk, I'm halfway thru el El Capitan De Los Dormidos/The Captain of the Sleeping by Montero and for fun have been reading McKinnley's short story fantasies in The Door in the Hedge.

[John]

This afternoon I finished the audiobook, "Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief," by Lawrence Wright. Engrossing and appalling are two adjectives which come immediately to mind. I'll save further commentary for a longer book review. I will say this, however: "Going Clear" is essential reading.

Now, on to Robert Galbraith's (aka J.K. Rowling) latest, "Career of Evil," featuring investigator Cormoran Strike. Last year I listened to the audiobook "The Silkworm," also by Robert Galbraith, and it was one of the best books I'd read or listened to in the past few years. Had J.K. Rowling never written the Harry Potter series, the Cormoran Strike books would have made her one of the best authors of British psychological mysteries, on par with P. D. James and Ruth Rendell.