What are you reading or what books have you read or heard about? (Part TWELVE) Ongoing general thread. Showing 2,451-2,500 of 2,793

[Nina]

I am reading "Where the Crawdad's Sing," by Delia Owens and it deserves to be number one on the NYT best seller list and that is where is has been for several weeks. It is excellent so far.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Sounds good, Nina. Thanks for posting about it.
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

[Nina]

The theme is about a young girl living alone in a North Carolina swamp; starts out with a murder but mostly the book involves a young girl abandoned by her family one by one. But the writing is beautiful and so you feel sad for her but you are so immersed in nature and wondering how she is going to make it so you keep turning the pages. The writing is excellent.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Thanks for explaining, Nina.

[Nina]

Disaster. This morning woke to no water coming out of faucets so found a broken pipe and basement floor flooded(our basement is finished into living quarters) and some of the ceiling fallen down in the bedroom; soaked mattress, carpets etc. Not a fun day ahead. Waiting for Insurance call.

[Jim]

Oh no! Just last year you had a broken sewer pipe, didn't you? Ugh. I hope things get fixed quickly.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

How awful! Hope insurance will take care of it quickly, Nina.

[Nina]

There are people working on it as I write. Hope they get the water up even if the carpets are soaked. The water poured down there all night. Probably why the ceiling caved in. Some days aren't so good but not all days, thank goodness.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

So sorry you have to go through this, Nina.
Hope it will be all fixed soon.

[Nina]

The workers were here draining water for several hours and back this morning. So it goes from here. Thanks for your kind words.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Glad to hear you're making progress, Nina.

[Linda]

Here's my review so far on "Clock Dance."
"Clock Dance" struggling through this book. Now 3/4ths through and have started skimming.

Part I covers 1967 and 1997 - this section is good reading, moves along, reading to find out where the story line is going. Part II covers 2017 and this is where the author looses me. Boring, unrealistic. Causes me to scratch my head and say WHAT and WHO WOULD DO THAT, WHY would someone do THAT?
I will read this to the end - well "read" with skimming.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Linda, I admire your perseverance! ;)

[Linda]

Joy H. wrote: "Linda, I admire your perseverance! ;)"

Joy, this comment made me laugh. Thanks!!

[Joy H., Group Founder]

:)

[Jim]

The Bughouse Affair was a bust for me. I quit fairly early on. My 1 star review is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

War Cry by Brian McClellan was a really good novella & quite different than his Powder Mage series, although still fantasy. It's only a novella, but he really painted an interesting world. I hope he does more stories in it. My 4 star review is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The Short Stories of Gordon Randall Garrett are really good. Written in the 1960s, these 3 short SF stories have really interesting points of view. I doubt they're for everyone, but I appreciated them. My 4 star review is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

And now I'm working the 5th in the Daisy Darymple cozy mystery series, Damsel in Distress. No murder so far which is a nice change of pace.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Thanks for posting, Jim.

[Mary JL]

I am in a story reading mood this year. So far two mysteries; one western and three Science fiction. Very entertaining reads; not much depth; not best sellers but well, that is what I crave now. Hope to get more reading done this year.

[Jim]

The science journal "Nature" is great for nonfiction. I've been reading their articles for years. In another group, someone posted their short SF page called "Futures". I hadn't realized they had one. I've read half a dozen so far. They've all been very short (5 min or less) & really good. You can find them here:
https://www.nature.com/nature/article...

[Joy H., Group Founder]

THANK YOU BOTH FOR POSTING.

[Nina]

I am reading "Victory Garden," and will post the author later as I don't have it close by my computer. It's a good read set in England during and after WW1

[Joy H., Group Founder]

THANKS, NINA.

[Nina]

Author is Rhys Bowen and after I finished reading it I thought it was very good. I recommended it.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Thanks, Nina.
The Victory Garden by Rhys Bowen

[Jim]

From Here To Infinity: An Exploration of Science Fiction Literature was an interesting lecture, not quite up to the 4 stars I gave it in my review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Nina]

I am reading "The Storyteller's Secret," and very good so far.

[Jim]

Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain was fantastic. I've been rereading some classics that I read as a teenager & thought I remembered. I keep finding that I don't remember them nearly as well as they deserve, especially in this case. I gave it a 5 star review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Thank you both for posting.

[Linda]

Jim wrote: "Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain was fantastic. I've been rereading some classics that I read as a teenager & thought I remembered. I keep finding that I don't remember t..."

I never read this book as a teen and I did LOTS of reading.
Adding this book to my list of to read. Thanks Jim.

[Jim]

You're welcome, Linda. Too many books, too little time. Still, I've found Twain is worth rereading. Next month we're going to read A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court in the Evo of SF group. It's proto-SF, but his insights on social norms & change are pretty fantastic, as well as being relevant today.

[Jim]

The New Nation: 1789-1850 by Joy Hakim is the 4th in her YA history series on the history of the US. It was really good, but I think it should have been 2 books. Still, I'm looking forward to reading the next & gave this one a 4 star review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[JAKe]

Jim wrote: "Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain was fantastic. I've been rereading some classics that I read as a teenager & thought I remembered. I keep finding that I don't remember t..."

Interesting! I tried rereading Tom Sawyer a couple of years ago but quickly tired of it. For some reason I find Twain hard to read.

[Jim]

I finally finished The Bourne Identity. It was nice to see where the movie was born. There was certainly a lot of action & it made a nice change from my normal reading. I gave it a 3 star review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Jake and Jim: Thanks for posting.

[Nina]

I am reading, "The Chilbury Ladies Choir," by Jennifer Ryan and it is very good so far. Mostly told by journals of the main characters. Keeps the interest going.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Thank you for posting, Nina.

[Jim]

Flesh & Blood So Cheap: The Triangle Fire and Its Legacy was short, but a really good overview of immigration, sweatshops of the early 1900s, & the politics/society around them. I gave it a 5 star review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Thanks for posting, Jim.

[Nina]

One of my very favorite books although I guess is SF and that usually is not my thing is "Dandelion Wine," by Ray Bradbury.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Thanks for posting, Nina.
Dandelion Wine BY Ray Bradbury

[Jim]

Bradbury didn't particularly like being labeled as an SF author. I'd put him more in the broader speculative fiction class since he rarely really did anything with science in his stories. It was just there in the background. He really could have used some place other than Mars for his Martian Chronicles, for instance. He also had a lot of fantastic & horror elements in his work.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Jim, thanks for that explanation about Bradbury's work.

[Nina]

I figured Jim would know what category to put him in. I wasn't sure. I once heard him speak of being aware of his circumcision when he was almost a new born baby. He described what his mother had been wearing at the time so they had to believe him.

[Jim]

I'm not great on genres, but Bradbury has been discussed a lot. While I barely consider The Martian Chronicles SF, I definitely think Fahrenheit 451 was. It had too many future elements not to be.
- It has biometrics. Montag comes home & sticks his hand in the glove on his door & it recognizes him. Wow.
- Ear shells that constantly blast entertainment into his wife's head. iPod anyone?
- TV screens that cover the walls & inane programs that are more important than real life since they also allow user input. We're just seeing that today.
- Montag's run is eerily familiar to King's "The Running Man" & 'reality' TV.
- Short wars that no one understands a thing about.
- A presidential race decided on which candidate looked & sounded better.
- According to Wikipedia: "Bradbury has stated that the novel is not about censorship, but a story about how television destroys interest in reading literature, which leads to a perception of knowledge as being composed of factoids, partial information devoid of context."

How he managed to get so much right about today 65 years ago is beyond me. Still, most of his work isn't truly SF. I've read a lot of it & enjoyed both his radio & TV shows. Great man.

[Nina]

Did you think "Dandelion Wine " was a good story, Jim?

[Jim]

I don't recall that one, Nina. I'm sure I read it, but it's been too many years. I'm sure I didn't like it as much as '451' or his short stories. IIRC, it's more like The Illustrated Man - more general literature. Not really my thing.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Nina wrote: "I figured Jim would know what category to put him in. I wasn't sure. ..."

Yes, Nina, Jim would know.

[Nina]

Haven't had much time to read but I try to get some in before bedtime. So much to decide about our recent demolition. All the ceilings downstairs have to be replaced/furniture/mattresses and box springs/bedding/walls and trims painted/carpet replaced or we pay extra for vinyl flooring instead. My husband spends hours sorting through tax returns from the past ten years that were soaked as were the files that were supposed to be OK. Oh well, so it goes at our house/besides having our hot tub cover filled with flats of pansies that I am afraid to plant outside until the cold front goes away..

[Jim]

Yuck. What a mess. I hope it gets cleared up soon.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Oh Nina, I'm so sorry you have to go through this.