What Else Are You Reading - April 2015

[Rob, Roberator]

Ooh. Micheal Kramer. Screw waiting for my library hold..I have too many audible credits anyways..

[Geoff]

You people and your audiobooks.

[Rob, Roberator]

Geoff wrote: "You people and your audiobooks."

If not for audiobooks I'd be lucky to get to 30 books a year..

[Lariela]

Now reading Royal Airs by Sharon Shinn, and re-reading Dark Moon Defender.

[Leesa]

Geoff wrote: "You people and your audiobooks."

O:)

[Kat]

Currently finishing the last chapter of Gardens of the Moon, and also reading Souls of Astraeus along with an old children's book favourite I happened to find (Der geheimnisvolle Graf).

After those I have Foxglove Summer coming up (Peter Grant #5), but also want to read Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother which has been sitting on my bedside table for a while.

[Joseph]

Finished The Weird Company: The Secret History of H.P. Lovecraft's Twentieth Century and started Mazirian the Magician: by Jack Vance, another one of my all-time favorites.

[Sam]

I am currently on a simon green kick and reading deathstalker rebellion. I love this series and it has both swords and lasers

[Nick]

Currently listening to Curse of the Bane by Joseph Delaney. Tried out The Last Apprentice series because I liked the movie Seventh Son (Yeah, I liked it!). The books are a lot better.

I've been switching between that series and Runelords by David Farland, one book at a time, so my next book will be book 2 of Runelords, Brotherhood of the Wolf.

[Brendan]

Currently reading The Farthest Shore, so this radio doc about Ursula Le Guin is very well-timed: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05pkmyg

[AndrewP]

I just finished The Time Traveler's Wife, which I thought was excellent. Now on to Ship of Magic which seems to be getting quite a few mentions here of late.

[Dara]

Finished Fool's Fate. I'm ready for a break but I do miss Fitz and the Fool already. My review. I'm sure anything I read next will pale in comparison but I'll be moving on with The Rebirths of Tao.

[Joe Informatico]

I'm having trouble staying focused on Wyrd Sisters--I like it, but can only read it in very short bursts (which is weird, because I had no such issues with The Colour of Magic). I'm also in the middle of the Chronicles of the Black Company, specifically the beginning of the second book, but I'm having trouble staying focused on that one too. So I picked up Summers at Castle Auburn and just breezed through it.

John (Taloni) wrote: "Waiting on Wyrd Sisters until I finish up Cibola Burn. Cibola Burn is simultaneously intriguing and boring. Good action, decent characters, but the whole Expanse bit about "the unknown unknowable remains mysterious, dangerous and unknowable" is wearing thin after four books."

Dara wrote: "That and "we're disagreeing, the only answer is a gunfight!""

I hear you both, but let's just say the epilogue gave me hope the next book can get back to my favourite parts of this series.

[John (Taloni)]

Joe, I'll be there for the next book as well. Even as I criticize, I find The Expanse addicting.

[Whitney]

I was able to finish Curtsies and Conspiracies and The Martian.

Currently talking to myself over in the group reads for Ready Player One and Ancillary Justice

[Christina]

Chakara wrote: "I was able to finish Curtsies and Conspiracies and The Martian.

Currently talking to myself over in the group reads for Ready Player One and [book:An..."

I am in the middle of reading Ready Player One and plan on reading Ancillary Justice later this month, so I will join you soon so you won't have to talk to yourself anymore!

[Misti]

Finished up Wyrd Sisters this afternoon. The Rebirths of Tao is up next.

[Rob, Roberator]

Misti wrote: "The Rebirths of Tao is up next."

So good so far! If you're interested few of us are discussing it over here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...

[John (Taloni)]

Done with Wyrd Sisters, on to Guards! Guards!

[Sky]

Finished Memories of Ice, starting (finally!) The Grace of Kings.

[Christina]

Sky wrote: "Finished Memories of Ice, starting (finally!) The Grace of Kings."

The Grace of Kings is fantastic so far! I'm about 22 % in.

[Trike]

I'm 1/6 of the way through The Skull Throne and really enjoying it. The quality from the other books is there... and I love being the first person to read a library book.

[Ctgt]

Like Sky and Christina, I'm working on The Grace of Kings

[terpkristin]

Ctgt wrote: "Like Sky and Christina, I'm working on The Grace of Kings"

I really enjoyed that one, I hope you guys do, too!

I'm generally in a reading funk lately. Work has been kicking my keester,I come home with no energy to focus on anything. I'm almost through Mountain of Black Glass in audio (about 5 hours left), but I got interrupted this evening on my listening. I'm reading Equal Rites, since I have a paperback edition to make up for my fubar Kindle edition. I'm about halfway through it....it's ok. Nothing special. But I wanted to read it before Wyrd Sisters. Given my love of Shakespeare (and Macbeth, in particular), I feel like I should like this more...but I don't. I'm also a bit more than halfway through LAST month's pick, The Goblin Emperor. I really really really need to finish some of these open books. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get some quality time with books and/or my audiobook.

[Phil]

Just finished I Lost Everything in the Post-Natal Depression by Erma Bombeck. She wrote several best-selling humour books and newspaper columns from the 60's to the 90's and I enjoyed them when I was a teenager but this one sure seems dated to me now. It's all about the travails about being a housewife and mother and a lot of the references wouldn't mean much to many people today.
Starting Fuzzy Nation.

[Rob, Roberator]

My library hold finally came in for Half the World. Much much better than Half a King and more in line with what I expect from Joe Abercrombie.

My Review

[Misti]

Rob wrote: "Misti wrote: "The Rebirths of Tao is up next."

So good so far! If you're interested few of us are discussing it over here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group......"

Nice! I'll check it out.

[Clyde]

Totally unplanned, but it seems I am reading a lot of SF by lady authors recently.
Just finished City of Ruins by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Currently reading Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon and just started A Passage of Stars by Kate Elliott.

[Joseph]

Finished Mazirian the Magician: (a.k.a. The Dying Earth) and went immediately into Cugel the Clever: (previously titled The Eyes of the Overworld), both, of course, by Jack Vance.

[Dara]

I finished The Rebirths of Tao this weekend. My review. Now I'm giving Ancillary Justice another try. Seems this book is divisive and I want to know what the deal is.

[Madelyn]

Oh, dear, I'm so behind on this. In the last week, I read: Scrap Metal, Static, and Driftwood.

I've now read 20 of my 52 books for this year, and 12 in my Diverse Books Challenge.

[Olivia "So many books--so little time.""]

I made a New Year's resolution to read more short fiction so currently I'm reading The Year's Best Science Fiction: Eighth Annual Collection which is edited by Gardner R. Dozois. So far the stories have been very good.

[Alan]

Last week I finished The Magicians, which left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. This weekend I finally read The Goblin Emperor, which is a very sweet book and really a tour de force piece of craftsmanship to make a page-turner out of not much happening other than dialogue. I seem to be finishing all the book club picks too late after the month is over.

[Phil]

Just finished Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi. I loved it. It reminded me of old Double Star era Heinlein.
Starting The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives.

[Tim]

I am simultaneously reading Mythborn: Rise of the Adepts; Emperor's Blades; Assassin's Quest; and The Path of Daggers.

I don't work. I read a lot. My goal is at least 30 books this year. 8 finished so far.

[Tim]

Tara wrote: "I'm almost done with The Republic of Thieves and I still haven't decided on what to read next, I am thinking maybe to read Assassin's Apprentice, [book:The Well of Ascen..."

All great books.

[Kurt]

I just started Time and the Gods by Lord Dunsany. I'm going back to read A Crown for Cold Silver by Alex Marshall because I really liked that world.

[Christina]

Kurt wrote: "I just started Time and the Gods by Lord Dunsany. I'm going back to read A Crown for Cold Silver by Alex Marshall because I really like..."

I just received my pre-order for A Crown For Cold Silver yesterday! I probably won't get around reading it until next month though due to too many group reads.

[Dharmakirti]

The other day I finally finished reading the wonderful The Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells. I very much recommend it, especially for those who liked The Lies of Locke Lamora.

I hope to finish The Brothers Karamazov this weekend, only 200 more pages.

Up next will be R. Scott Bakker's two part short story/Conan homage, The Knife of Many Hands which was published in Grimdark Magazine Issue 2 and Grimdark Magazine Issue 3.

[Joseph]

Finished Cugel the Clever: (previously titled The Eyes of the Overworld) and am right back where we started from with Cugel: The Skybreak Spatterlight: (previously titled Cugel's Saga).

[Jlawrence, S&L Moderator]

Just started Acceptance and hoping I like this capstone of the creepy Southern Reach trilogy as much as I liked books one and two. So far it's delivering (view spoiler)[The director just descended into the 'anomaly' knowing its the gaping maw of some beast and sat down next to Saul the lighthouse-keeper. So, aaaaaAAAAAAAA (hide spoiler)]! After I finish that, it's on to Deathless by Cat Valente.

[Kurt]

Christina wrote: "Kurt wrote: "I just started Time and the Gods by Lord Dunsany. I'm going back to read A Crown for Cold Silver by Alex Marshall because ..."

It's a very enjoyable book.

[[deleted user]]

I've just finished Frankenstein. Much better than I was expecting. Deals with some interesting questions in a mature and thoughtful way. There is a good reason it has lasted so long. I'll be reading more of her works.

I've just started The Wonderful Adventures Of Nils And The Further Adventures Of Nils Holgersson. I'd not heard of this book before. In Sweden it is so well known and loved that an illustration from it is on the currency. I'm reading a translation, I can only hope it is well done and preserves what makes the original so special.

[Dara]

I lemmed Ancillary Justice at 41%. My review. This book was such a slog and so boring that it's killed my desire to read anything else for a while.

[Christina]

Kurt wrote: "Christina wrote: "Kurt wrote: "I just started Time and the Gods by Lord Dunsany. I'm going back to read A Crown for Cold Silver by [author:Alex Marshall..."

Good to know. Thanks!

[Marcelo]

I'm reading two at a time. On the iPad, Orion's Hounds, the third book in the Star Trek: Titan (STT) series. It's the first in the series that I won't read on paper, as I'm reading it on Scribd. I've reserved it to read at night in bed, or on errands.

The USS Titan finally begins its mission of exploration of the Gum Nebula, very far away from the Federation. Written by Christopher Bennett and not by the pair Mangels and Martin, who wrote the first two STT, Orion's Hounds is even more Sci-Fi than I usually see on Star Trek novels. It isn't nowhere near a hard core Sci-Fi, though, but the attention to scientific detail the author is giving is enough to please me. Also, many more pages are devoted to the non-Terran shipcrew: many characters merely introduced in the first two books are fleshed out.

The book I'm reading during the day when I'm at home is Vector Prime, the first of the New Jedi Order series of the Star Wars Expanded Universe (EU). I started reading the EU when the arc Legacy of the Force came out. I faithfully followed the EU, grabbing all the novels as they came out, until the latest (and final) book, Crucible. Now that there will be no more books in the EU, I decided to return to the sagas that I've skipped. I started with the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, which kicks off the New Jedi Order, a really big arc. If there's one thing the author, R.A. Salvatore, knows how to do is sword fight.

I've found the hardcover version of Vector Prime in a used books store along with books 4, 5 and 6 of the New Jedi Order series. All hardcover.

[Phil]

Just read Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce. I channelled my inner 12 year-old girl for this and she loved it. My outer 52 year-old man liked it a lot too. It's a very short, nice adventure with a likeable protagonist. Some would call her a Mary Sue but to them I would say "Fuck off, I like my heroes to be competent."
It's one of the few SF&F books I can recall that even mentions a menstrual cycle.
If I had a daughter I would want her to read this for the capable female hero who's not going to let anyone stop her from doing what she loves.

[Joel]

Dara wrote: "I lemmed Ancillary Justice at 41%. My review. This book was such a slog and so boring that it's killed my desire to read anything else for a while."

I completely agree.

[Michele]

I just finished Midnight Crossroad by Charlaine Harris of Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood fame. It was...boring, but with potential? Kind of like a pilot episode, with too much character set up and not enough plot. None of the characters really grabbed me, but I'll most likely try the next one, since I liked the Sookie books for silly fun.

I grabbed several books from the library, but haven't made up my mind what's next - probably The Slow Regard of Silent Things.

I'm still not in much of a reading mood lately so I set aside Grace of Kings for now.

[Marcelo]

Michele wrote: "I'm still not in much of a reading mood lately so I set aside Grace of Kings for now. "

John Scalzi recommended The Grace of Kings in his blog so I kinda have to read it now.