What Else Are You Reading in 2020? Showing 1,601-1,650 of 2,960

[Mystic]

I finished All Systems Red . Enjoyed most of it, could have been better.

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Beth]

A Study in Scarlet: the first Sherlock Holmes story, and--I sincerely hope--not his best? (I'm the only person on earth who hasn't read these in their entirety several times.) The parts introducing Holmes and Watson to each other, and to the reader, were great. The mystery and its background narrative were a trope-fest with characters of pure cardboard. (review)

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Beth wrote: "A Study in Scarlet: the first Sherlock Holmes story, and--I sincerely hope--not his best? (I'm the only person on earth who hasn't read these in their entirety several times.) The par..."

I think it gets more convoluted but this is what the series is...it's a pulpy, gothic-y mystery where dude just determines stuff.

[Beth]

Hm. Maybe it would have been better if I'd read them in jr. high like everybody else. But... I thought they were pretty boring then.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

I read them in law school, so admittedly they were much more entertaining than something about how bankruptcy law applies to commercial ventures and 1000 cases explaining this, but I enjoyed them then! The next couple feel more supernatural, if you think that might help?

[Beth]

We'll see soon(ish) enough. :D

Anyhow, next in audio land is either chipping away at Children of Time (excellent but seems to be working better as an on-and-off thing) or getting started with Alyssa Cole's books with Radio Silence

[Lowell]

So, I found the short stories to be a bit more engaging, but I think I had other reasons for finding “A Study in Scarlet” to be one of the more interesting Sherlock Holmes works.

Given the time period in which sir Conan-Doyle was writing, it was really interesting to me to see how a Brit thought about portraying that culture in the American west. What would have seemed to me as rank sensationalism (and probably was considered overly pulpy and far too dramatic for reality, in 1887), turns out to be more plausible than not once I was more aware of the historical precedents.

I think a lot of my appreciation of the book came from knowledge I never would have learned without some pretty specialized research, though.

[Mary]

Frozen Dreams by Moe Lane

[Randy]

Beth wrote: "A Study in Scarlet: the first Sherlock Holmes story, and--I sincerely hope--not his best? (I'm the only person on earth who hasn't read these in their entirety several times.) The par..."

The best of Holmes and Watson are the first two story collections, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. If you like the characters and the ambience of late 19th century London, then the novels can be enjoyable, but all have long stretches of no Holmes. The best of the novels is probably The Hound of the Baskervilles, one of the most enjoyable Gothic/mystery novels I've read from that time period.

[Christopher]

As a diversion from SF I'm reading Less which won the Pulitzer a few years ago.

[Eric]

I completed Daughter of Smoke & Bone and will go on to book two, Days of Blood & Starlight. Masterful writing, but I have this question that continues to bug me.

I do not understand how this work gets classified by whomever as "young adult." When I grew up there were children's books and book books. Where and how did YA ever creep into the book world? This tale is for a reader of any age. Given the vocabulary, perhaps not children, but hey, that is what dictionaries are for.

[CBRetriever]

I remember going to the library back in the 60s and there was a children's section and a teen section. YA seems to have transitioned from the Teen category.

[Eric]

CBRetriever wrote: "I remember going to the library back in the 60s and there was a children's section and a teen section. YA seems to have transitioned from the Teen category."

May be. I remember learning the Dewey Decimal System to find library books.

[Mary]

CBRetriever wrote: "I remember going to the library back in the 60s and there was a children's section and a teen section. YA seems to have transitioned from the Teen category."

In the trade, YA were called "juveniles." The thing is, I still see "Teens" in libraries, so there's that difference too.

(The biggest difference I see between the juveniles I read as a teen and the current YA is that the juveniles were much more likely to have an adult, albeit young, protagonist, instead of a juvenile one, than YA is.)

[Beth]

CBRetriever wrote: "I remember going to the library back in the 60s and there was a children's section and a teen section. YA seems to have transitioned from the Teen category."

Our library system definitely had a YA section in the '70s. iirc you had to have an adult library card to get books from it, but that age was fairly young, like 14. Just as expected, it was intended as a stepping stone between middle grade and adult books.

YA as a publishing category (not a genre, dang it!) has existed for a long time. I get rather frustrated by the debates around YA that have flourished since the NYT created their YA bestseller list to (essentially) stop HP from dominating the fiction list.

[CBRetriever]

The Young Adult nomenclature also leads to more adults reading those books as they previously would be a bit embarrassed to be seen reading Juvenile or Teenager books, but even someone in their 20s could be considered a young adult...

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Speaking of YA (agreed, I hate it as a genre classification. Still accepting ideas for names for books like the Maas and Tahir series)

I am listening to The House in the Cerulean Sea which so far is delightful and probably MG, but that maybe changes? I'm not very far in yet.

I'm also reading The Riddle-Master of Hed and it's so fun and campy, but also yowzer has the genre expectation changed since this was written!

they're making for a very pleasant summer reading list so far.

[Gabi]

May I ask what *yowzer* is? My dictionary doesn't have it :).

[Eric]

From the "Urban Dictionary."

"Used throughout the western world as a word exclaiming excitement. Usually used before a sentence. Can be found in many articles (including the Washington Post) and commentaries.

By typing in Yowzers in the search engine google, many examples can be found.

Yowzers! She ran down the street naked."

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Haha! Yes, add this to my list of seriously outdated American slang I still use unironically. It's like "wow" or "whoa" but much less often heard these days.

[Gabi]

Thank you, Eric!

[Eric]

Gabi wrote: "Thank you, Eric!"

Bitteschön

[Dawn F]

I’ve just finished Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun, which is centered around the Biafra conflict and war in Nigeria in the 60s. A deeply interesting look into an important, African piece of history, which truly gave you the sense of what it’s like to live in the middle of the horrors of a civil war. Her prose is direct and unflinching, I was very impressed.

[Anna]

Allison, I'm also reading Cerulean! In fact I'm about to finish it in just a bit. It's just as delightful as I was promised ^_^ I have no idea what age group it was written for, but I think it's one of those all ages books that everyone can enjoy.

[Eva]

Lol! Please feel free to exclaim "Yowzers!" anytime you like. :-D

In terms of YA: it's also become SUCH a popular genre that books originally written for adults often get minor edits just so that they can be published as YA to get more sales. E.g. Leigh Bardugo was asked to edit her characters's ages in Six of Crows down by 10 years so that it could still be marketed as YA.

So sometimes you'll have very "young", immature-feeling books that even sometimes feel cliche and dumbed-down, and sometimes YA means more "this book can be read by people over 13 without them getting traumatized". Often it just means "no graphic sex nor ultra-graphic violence" and sometimes it just means "one of the protagonists is under 18". No wonder the majority (60%) of YA readers are actually adults - there are a lot of lovely books that are marketed as YA even though they have lots of appeal for grown-ups.

I've concluded that usually, it's just a matter of signalling to parents "this book is okay for your teenager to read, don't worry". I think parents today worry about this more than they did when I was a teen: I bought, borrowed or read any adult book I wanted from age 12 onward and nobody bothered about it. We didn't have cellphones, either, so most of the day my friends and I were just running around wherever we wanted, visiting whomever we wanted, without anyone knowing where we were. The only rule was "be back for dinner".

[Deedee]

Phrynne wrote: "Deedee wrote: "Reading City of Stairs. Really enjoying it so far (about 70 pages in)."

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did Deedee. I thought the whole trilogy was just brilliant!"

City of Stairs was a 5 * read for me :) I have the next volume, City of Blades here ready to go (along with a dozen other books but still, it's a sooner rather than later read)

Meanwhile, I am now reading The Memory Police.

[Phrynne]

Currently totally engrossed in reading The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and listening to The Lascar's Dagger. Both are excellent books.

[Rachel Adiyah]

Eva wrote: "Lol! Please feel free to exclaim "Yowzers!" anytime you like. :-D

In terms of YA: it's also become SUCH a popular genre that books originally written for adults often get minor edits just so that ..."

So more adults are reading YA than actual adult novels?

[DivaDiane]

I just finished reading Polar City Blues by Katherine Kerr, better known for her Fantasy series Deverry. This is an SF murder mystery full of intergalactic intrigue. Very fun.

I started The Fifth Season yesterday and, oh my! It’s sooo good. I’ve had it on my TBR for a while now, because I received it as a gift, but I’ve been resisting the hype. The opinions of many of this group’s active members, plus that it’s this month’s group Reread prompted me to read it now. Why did I wait so long?!? I’m loving it. And I might actually finish it by next weekend!

[Eva]

No, 60% of the people who read YA are adults, according to some articles I've read about it. And it's also a very popular genre.

That doesn't imply that adults read more YA books than adult books, I haven't seen any statistics done on that but would say that probably no.

But if you're asking if the majority of adults *also* at least sometimes read YA, then yes. Probably sometimes even without realizing it: e.g. if you were to read all the Hugo award nominees this year, you'd be reading a YA novel (The Ten Thousand Doors of January), a YA novella (In an Absent Dream), a YA series (Winternight), and some YA graphic novels. Same with nominees/winners in the past few years: Spinning Silver, The Books of Earthsea, Every Heart a Doorway, Binti, The Graveyard Book, Beneath the Sugar Sky, Coraline, Harry Potter - all of them are either marketed as YA or even Middle Grade books.

Anyway, to be more topical to the thread again: I'm reading and loving Bloodline by Claudia Gray and The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington at the moment, both of which were wonderful positive surprises I had not expected to enjoy as much as I am. Would totally recommend the audiobook for Bloodline if you like Star Wars sound effects: makes it much more immersive.

Sorry about the lack of links in this post: the search function is currently unavailable.

[Karen]

Allison wrote: "Speaking of YA (agreed, I hate it as a genre classification. Still accepting ideas for names for books like the Maas and Tahir series)

I am listening to [book:The House in the Cerulean Sea|4504738..."

Those could fit into the "New Adult" category which broadly encompasses ages 18-35.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Let's keep brainstorming over here!

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Sarah]

Just finished Devolution by Max Brooks and loved it. Now I’m starting The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones and loving that.

[Jacqueline]

I haven’t actually read anything for weeks (been busy sewing, thinking about sewing, or cleaning which isn’t very exciting) but yesterday I stopped by the Bookshop with the great SFF section in Coffs Harbour and bought Fool Moon by Jim Butcher (2nd Harry Dresden novel) and Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames. As with most books I do have them on my iPad but the ones I really want to read I buy. If I can’t buy them I read them off my iPad. If I want Hubby to read them I have to have the physical copy because he refuses to read off a screen. He liked Storm Front (as did I) so I wanted number 2 and I’ve been meaning to read Kings of the Wyld for ages.

[Deedee]

Jacqueline wrote: "I haven’t actually read anything for weeks (been busy sewing, thinking about sewing, or cleaning which isn’t very exciting) but yesterday I stopped by the Bookshop with the great SFF section in Cof..."

I have Kings of the Wyld on inter-library loan; it's labelled as "in transit"; these days not sure how long it will take to get here.

I've read books on kindle before, but I still prefer physical books.

[CBRetriever]

as my eyes have aged and my hands, fingers and arms have become weaker as I've added years, I've really come to appreciate Kindles. I can't imagine trying to hold a read one of the Malazan books like Midnight Tides (960 pages) in a physical format rather than a digital one. Plus I don't have to look for large print books and I don't have to look for a dictionary when I run across a word I don't know.

I think I'm enjoying this Malazan books the most of all of them I've read. There's some good humorous bits in it and quirky characters. It's not really a book about war and soldiers like the other ones were. Still loving Shurq and Bugg

I'm also reading one of the club books The Master and Margarita asIi realised it was in my collection of 23 Great Fantasy Novels. It's very bizarre.

[Jacqueline]

Yeah Deedee if I have to I read them on my iPad but I don’t like to. Reading off a screen makes me really tired. I much prefer a physical book. Maybe a Kindle would be better on my eyes but I have this thing about adding to Amazon’s wealth. And I love having books around me. They make me feel calm. We’re in the middle of reclaiming our Farm after our daughter moved out and it needs a renovation so there will be lots of bookshelves put in all over the place.

[Jacqueline]

Yeah Chessie that’s the advantage of a Kindle or iPad. Easier to hold than a big book and you can make the writing bigger. When I buy a physical book I always make sure the writing is readable before I buy it. If it’s microscopic I put it back on the shelf and read it on my iPad instead.

[Michelle]

Recently finished the long-awaited but disappointing Peace Talks. Now I'm reading The Ace of Skulls.

[CBRetriever]

I still have lots of bookshelves but they mostly hold cookbooks (over 300), chess books, language (French, Russian and now Chinese) books, Chesapeake Bay Retriever books and specialty books.

and I forgot, I'm also reading the de Bodard book for this month's bookclub reads.

[Jacqueline]

I can’t find that one Chessie. None of my bookshops have any of her works and I can’t find it on the internet. And I don’t order online very often and at the moment I have no idea where to get it sent anyway as we are in the middle of moving for the next few months. I love her work though and want to read it eventually.

All of my books like that are in boxes at my Mountains house from where we have moved and I haven’t got around to taking them where I have moved to and unpacked them. I have half a dozen cookbooks unpacked and that’s it.

[CBRetriever]

This one?

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...

it's on amazon.com.au here:

https://www.amazon.com.au/Servant-Und...

I couldn't find it on any other Australian bookstore site except for exorbitant prices

[Jacqueline]

CBRetriever wrote: "This one?

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...

it's on amazon.com.au here:

https://www.amazon.com.au/Servant-Und......"

Exorbitant is right.I always look up booko.com.au They're one of those sites that gets prices from everywhere and it includes actual bookshops in Australia as well as Book Depository and AbeBooks and Fishpond and Amazon and whoever else. They have them from $A76 to over $A300. The one from Amazon is $A86.

It's OK. If I'm ever in one place long enough I'll see if the bookshop there can get it for me. I'll just be way behind everyone else who has read it. Again lol
edit - And just to be really annoying I can order a new paperback from the bookshop for $39.99. That's usually around the price reserved for brand new hardcovers. Even new paperbacks are $32.99. I want to read it but I don't want to read it that much.

[DivaDiane]

There’s also Kobo, Jacqueline. I didn’t like it as an ebook format as much as Kindle, but many people do. I bought Forty Thousand in Gehenna on Kobo to read on my iPad (I do that on Kindle as well), because if I’m going to pay full price for an ebook, I shop around.

[Leticia]

I'm hearing the Audiobook of Les Disparus du Clairdelune
I'm quite torn if I like this book or not as some aspects of it I like and some not.
I think that this is kind of due to my lock down mood? I like tv series and books but I often find flaws in everything, it is a weird mood so sorry if I don't manage to be completely positive right now.

[Phrynne]

N.K. Jemisin is one talented lady. I found The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms to be beautifully written and totally engrossing. Hope the rest of the trilogy lives up to the first book!
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Ines, Resident Vampire]

Somehow, my e-reader opened the first Murderbot novella all by itself (I know, I can't explain it either!) and now I've read through all five of them again.

[Anna]

Amazing! 😄

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

Christopher wrote: "That looks like the book I read! I brought it into my elementary school to read for DEAR time. Thinking back on it sort of an odd choice ..."

Wow! I didn't get into the Twilight Zone until college I think. I had a roommate who would watch the reruns with me during late night study breaks.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I finished (original Twilight Zone writer) Charles Beaumont's earliest short story collection - it was good but didn't contain much of his best work:


The Hunger: And Other Stories by Charles Beaumont
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading:


Night Ride And Other Journeys by Charles Beaumont

There is a lot of overlap in Beaumont's various short story collections so I have already read many of these stories.