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What are you currently reading?
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Banner
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Nov 04, 2013 10:11AM
Well Reggia it so happens that audible.com had the first book in that series (no 1 Ladies Detective Agency) on sale the day of your comment. I was on the fence deciding to buy it or not and you pushed me over. I really have got to stop looking at the "daily deals"
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Charly, I think the comment you're replying to was actually by Banner. (But you're right; I have a feeling that hanging out on Audible.com would tend to greatly increase the to-read list, not reduce it! :-) )
On my most recent trip to our local bookstore, Hearthside Books, I found that for a limited time, the owners had decided to make some of the many advance review copies they receive from book publishers available for free to their customers. Om the strength of a glowing review from a lady in the Book Review Exchange group, I snagged a copy of
, the first volume in the new Lockwood and Co. series by Jonathan Stroud (whose previous work I've heard of but not read). I started on it this weekend, and I'm enjoying it so far.
I am currently reading Off-Topic: The Story of an Internet Revolt
Here's the link to the Goodreads description for the book Angela mentioned, in case anyone is interested:
. It's on my to-read shelf, as well.
Charly wrote: "Angela, is that fiction or fact? sounds interesting."Good question. I think readers will need to answer that one for themselves. (:
Werner wrote: "Here's the link to the Goodreads description for the book Angela mentioned, in case anyone is interested: . It's on my to-read shelf,..."Excellent! Thank you for posting this link.
Thanks Angela and Werner, it looks like an interesting read.
Despite being in the midst of a bunch of other books, I started reading Off-Topic: The Story of an Internet Revolt. It's been very informative and more enjoyable than I expected. I'd be interested in hearing others' thoughts when they get through it.
Just took a peek at Off-Topic, I may be back to finish it as well.For now, I have begun Count of Monte Cristo with hopes of finishing sometime in January.
I just finished reading The Signature of All Things and highly recommend it for fans of historical fiction. Here is my review:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The book I'm currently reading doesn't appear in the Goodreads database. It's Wreaths of Empire, which I'm beta-reading for the author, Andrew Seddon, who's a Goodreads friend of mine (and a long-standing Internet pen pal dating back to the days before Goodreads). This particular book is a science fiction novel, set in the same far-future, human-colonized galaxy as his Iron Scepter, but about fifty years after the events in the latter book.
Didn't know Andrew Seddon wrote sci fi. Will be interested to hear what you think of it.
Yes, Janelle, that's the genre where he got his start, although he writes some historical fiction as well. I can't do a formal Goodreads review of Wreaths until it's actually published and entered in the Goodreads database; but when I finish it, I'll try to post a comment here with my reaction.I'm glad to hear that you know about his work at all! He's not as well-known as he deserves to be.
I've only read one of his novels, the one set in Roman times. I've never seen any other novels by him, but I'd made the assumption that he stuck to historical fiction. I enjoyed the novel I read by him, but not enough to seek him out. But I do love reading Christian sci fi, so I'll have to look at his other books.
Earlier today, I sent you a couple of recommendations for science fiction books by him, Janelle!
Thanks Werner, I got a notification about the books, but haven't had a chance yet to check them out.
Here is my review of For Whom the Bell Tolls, which I read recently and will never forget. It really blew me away:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
For the past fortnight and more, I've been beta reading a couple of unpublished novels, both by Goodreads friends, which aren't listed in the Goodreads database, so I haven't had any titles to post here. Yesterday, however, I started on two that I can post:
, by yet another Goodreads friend, Shane Joseph, and
. (Actually, I started the latter late Thursday night, but noted it as "currently reading" after midnight.)Shane's book is a collection of mainstream short stories, descriptive fiction set in the contemporary or near-contemporary world. This is my first exposure to his work (it's drawn me in so far!), and he was kind enough to offer me an ARC in exchange for my honest review. While I don't read as much of this type of fiction as I do the speculative variety, I like it when it's well done, which this is; and the unusual setting (Sri Lanka, where Shane was born) is interesting and off the beaten track.
Iron Bloom author Billy Wong is a member of my Action Heroine Fans group here on Goodreads, which is how I came to know his work. This novel is the opener for his swords-and-sorcery fantasy series, Legend of the Iron Flower, featuring female warrior Rose Agen. I've never read any of Wong's novels, but I've mostly liked his short e-stories, and encountered and very much liked Rose in that format with
. That made me interested in snapping up a limited time free offer of the e-book for my Kindle app, but that won't be a substitute for the print book; if I like it, I'm committed to buying a paperback copy to keep!
Given my liking for supernatural fiction, you'd think I'd have explored the urban fantasy field much sooner and more fully; but before this year, I hadn't read in it very much. This past year, though, I've enjoyed several UF reads, and just started another,
, the opening volume in Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson series, following the adventures of a shape-shifting heroine. The book was a recent kind gift from a friend in another group.
Charly, I read Mutiny on the Bounty back in junior high school, and really liked it; hope you did, too!I've had to wait awhile, but I've finally started the last book of Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy,
. The mixed reaction to this volume from series fans has me approaching it with much curiosity (and some trepidation!).
Finally, here is my review of The Book Thief, one of the three best books I read in 2013 - and, in fact, one of the best books I have ever had the privilege of reading:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Charly, a couple of my friends (whose judgment I often agree with) gave five-star ratings to all three books of the Hunger Games trilogy. So I'm not automatically expecting to dislike Mockingjay just because some folks did.Yes, some trilogies are really bound very closely together, and could be read and reviewed as one work. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings (which was originally written as one long book; the publisher made him split it into more manageable units) is a good example.
Charly, one of my Goodreads friends does the same thing with series books! There's a lot to be said for that approach, especially if it's a short series (like a trilogy or quartet) that has a beginning, middle and end, rather than a very open-ended one that can go on indefinitely.
Some other novelists --Hardy, Faulkner, and Norah Lofts come to mind-- also set all or much of their fiction in one fictional location or area, but vary the characters that they follow in particular parts of the corpus. The reader comes to appreciate the familiar setting.Series longer than four books are usually built around a particular character(s) that readers like and want to spend more time with, and whose circumstances can allow for an open-ended series of episodic adventures. I can appreciate that approach (though I don't try to read all of the extant books back-to-back, either!) Of course, I also used to read encyclopedia sets, as a kid (I was a weird child.... :-) ).
Here is my review of The Pillars of the Earth, which I found to be a real page-turner, even though there were a lot of pages to turn!https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I just finished The Age of Innocence, which I really really enjoyed and will review soon, plus Collected Poems: Edna St. Vincent Millay, which I also gave four stars. My review is here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Now I'm onto The Bean Trees and Orphan Train.
Having just finished Mockingjay, I'm looking ahead to taking part in a common read of David Weber's
for February in one of my other groups. Rather than start another novel in the meantime, I'm reading short stories from the collection
; come Feb. 1, I can finish whatever story I'm reading and put the book aside for later. I'm a big fan of the Sword and Sorceress series. (This is one of three volumes that were assembled from material already submitted when founding editor Marion Zimmer Bradley died.)
I'm reading the lastest installment from the Sunday Philosophy Club, The Forgotten Affairs of Youth. There seems to be less "story material" and more ethical philosophizing than previous ones but I'm enjoying it nonetheless.
The Shack... it's a bit annoying to me but I continue to read so I can argue about it at some future point. :-p
Planning to follow up with The Painted Veil which I inadvertently abandoned a year or so ago.
Personally, I liked The Shack, too (rated it as a five-star read, and recommended it to a couple of dozen people!); but I can understand why some readers wouldn't. It's very much a novel of ideas, and that's not everyone's cup of tea.
During the month of March, my Fans of British Writers group is doing Tolkien's
as a common read; so I started on that one yesterday. While I was between common reads last week, I started intermittently dipping into one of the story collections among my mountainous TBR piles,
. The latter reading, of course, continues my broadening acquaintance with the whole urban fantasy sub-genre.
I finished The Painted Veil, misplaced The Shack while moving and began The Portrait of Dorian Gray as well as a book on walking.
My Goodreads friend Jackie and I just started a buddy read of
, the fourth novel in Stephen Lawhead's Bright Empires series. (We'd previously read the first three together as well.)Reggia, I liked The Picture of Dorian Gray well enough to give it five stars; but Wilde's Victorian prose and concentration on ideas rather than action doesn't appeal to all modern readers. I'll be interested in hearing what you think of it!
Yesterday, having finished The Shadow Lamp, I was ready to start another book; and with perfect timing,
had arrived in the mail. It's a newly-published World War II spy novel with a Nisei heroine, a teen who becomes a U.S. undercover agent. Author Clive Lee is a member of one of my other groups, and generously offered me a free copy when I said his book sounded intriguing. I've barely begun it, but I'm impressed by the writing so far!
I'm rereading A Voice in the Wind as I will be discussing it with a local book club. I rarely do this but it's been many years and I remember staying up half the night the first time around, lol... let's hope I enjoy at least half as much again!
I'm reading The Tipping Point which is better than I expected it to be during the first chapter, Thank You for Arguing which is also better than I expected given how simply rhetoric is being handled here and am in between fiction novels at the moment.
Thank You for Arguing LOL, intrigued by the title, Karin, so I had to look this up... looks like an interesting read.
Charly, "ROFL" is an Internet abbreviation for "Rolling On (the) Floor Laughing." (Don't worry; I'm very poor at deciphering abbreviations and acronyms myself, and more often than not have to ask for translations! :-) )Earlier this year, I won a copy of
, by Wayne Reinagle. So I finally started on that one over the weekend. It's a homage to the fictional heroes of the Victorian and early-modern pulp magazine eras.
I'm reading Blue Shoes and Happiness, Kiss of the Spider Woman, and The Temple: Its Ministry and Services.
Recently, I stumbled onto a free copy of the e-book edition of the action-adventure novel
by Goodreads author Percival Constantine. I've just started reading it intermittently on my Kindle app for PC (because reading that way doesn't fit into my schedule as well as print books do), but if I like it, I'll buy a print copy. (That's a courtesy I feel I owe to the author.)
I just finished A Memory of Light, the final book in a series I've been reading for YEARS. There aren't enough superlatives to describe how much I loved this book - I get teary just thinking about it! 5★ for sure - it deserves many more than just five. I feel quite bereft now that I have no more Wheel of Time books to read, but so very glad and privileged to have read them.My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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