What I'm Also Reading in June

[Lara Amber]

I finished the Sword of Truth series this weekend. I was pleasantly surprised by how well Terry Goodkind finished the series (the last three books were new reads for me). It was like he listened to the readers say "stop being a pontificating ass" and decided to write a story for the final trilogy.

Now I'm reading:
Serenity Found: More Unauthorized Essays on Joss Whedon's Firefly Universe

To read this month:
Reread Crown of Stars series by Kate Elliott

I have several other books in my "to read" pile, but not sure what I'm going to tackle next.

[Catamorandi]

I am reading The Face of a Stranger and The Cater Street Hangman both by Anne Perry.

[Cicero]

I am reading John Steinbeck "The Pearl." I am busy at the moment so this short book suits me down to the ground.

When I have some more free time I plan to read "The Bonehunters" by Steven Erikson, "The Three Muskateers" by Alexandre Dumas and "To Kill A Mockingbird" by Harper Lee.

EDIT: Picked up on a whim "Love in the Time of Chlorea" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez which just took my fancy and will read that next.

[[deleted user]]

I am reading Sailing from Byzantium, but I wouldn't recommend it for most people.

[Sandi]

Thomas, the link comes up with two books. Which are you reading and why wouldn't you recommend it for most people?

I'm still working on "The Scar" by China Mielville and "The Year's Best Science Fiction" (24th Edition) edited by Gardner Dozois. I started both in May.

Next, I think I'm going to re-read "Where the Red Fern Grows". Then, I'll move on to "Altered Carbon" by Richard K. Morgan, "Crystal Rain" by Tobias Buckell, and "The Lies of Locke Lamora" by Scott Lynch. I might steal "The Sea of Trolls" by Nancy Farmer off my son's bookshelf. It looks good.

After that, I'll have to get some more books. I've been going through 6-8 books a month.

[[deleted user]]

I just finished "... and my fear is great," and "Baby is Three," by Theodore Sturgeon. Baby is Three was great, not easy to figure out what was going on. Nice surprise in the end.

Another really strange book I picked up at the Baltimore Book Fair last year and just finished reading is "Spider Pie," by Alyssa Sturgill. Very strange, macabre, short, short stories. Lots of internal organs and cannibalsim. Puns galore. Not laugh outloud funny, but humorous in a quirky way. Imaginitive. Glad the author's not my neighbor kind of writing. This book came out on Raw Dog Screaming Press. Anybody read anything else from this small press?

[Steven]

Besides reading Martin's Fire and Ice series I am also reading some of the fortress series by C.J. Cherryh, some of the Krondor series by Raymond Feist, and also some random books by Mercedes Lackey.

[Kersplebedeb]

i'm finishing off Doris Lessing's Shikasta: Re, Colonised Planet 5 (Canopus in Argos--Archives) at the moment - a good book but not one i would recommend to just anyone. At times almost embarassingly earnest, and its as much Lessing's 1970s take on all of human history and our place in the universe as it is a standard SF work.

But i'm hoping to get through Shikasta tonight as i just received Hartwell and Cramer's Years Best SF 13 - their annual "best of" anthology is one of the two books (along with Gardner Dozois' same) i look most forward to every year.

[Lori]

I read Shikasta when it first came out a looong time ago, and I've always meant to go back. One of these days! I loved The Marriage Between Zones 3 and 4.

[Kersplebedeb]

yeah, i remember finding The Marriage Between Zones 3 and 4 to be the most enjoyable and accessible of the trilogy (it is a trilogy right?). Hopefully later this year!

[Derek]

I am reading Clash of Kings

I am also reading Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

[Lori]

Kersplebedeb - that's a mouthful! Hee.

It's more than a trilogy - I think there are 5 books in all. I remember Shikasta and Marriage the best.

I'm almost finished with Well of Ascension. I can't decide what to read next. These great books keep arriving for me from my library holds list, yet I keep going to my bookshelves for the scifi or fantasy I've been collecting from used bookstores! I'd like to start Cherryh's Foreigner series - but do I want to committed to so many books? Haha! Katherine Kerr's last book of her series is waiting for me too, but even tho I'm dying to read it, I'm trying to save it for my vacation in August.

[bsc]

Just finished reading The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester and listening to Benjamin Franklin by Walter Isaacson and Crazy Horse by Larry McMurtry. Just started reading Brasyl by Ian McDonald and listening to 1776 by David McCullough. For whatever reason, I like to listen to history audio books but read science fiction.

[Lori]

Brasyl is great! So is River of Gods.

[bsc]

I read River of Gods last month and I agree...it was great.

[Summer]

I'm about halfway through The Half-Blood Prince; I plan on finally finishing the Harry Potter series. I don't have anything in particular lined up; just whatever strikes my fancy at the library. Ah, though my husband did just buy me Lyndsay Sands' The Accidental Vampire, first book of the Argeneu vampire series. I may finally pick up Hardy's Jude the Obscure, now that I have more reading time on my hands.

Also thinking of starting Jim Butcher's Dresden files series.

[GW]

Summer wrote
Ah, though my husband did just buy me Lyndsay Sands' The Accidental Vampire, first book of the Argeneu vampire series.

Great series, be prepared to laugh. This one is very funny. I do believe that there are several more before this one. I'll have to look it up. Two of my favorites are "A Bite to Remember" and "Single White Vampire." Be sure to check out her website. Accidental Vampire is a good one to start out. I met Lyndsay & her DH at a Dallas book signing, they're both great people.

G W Pickle

[Julie]

I'm waiting (not very patiently I might add) for Eclipse to show up from Amazon, and then AGOT will get dropped like a hot potato until that's been consumed. I will probably read The Host in there at some point too.

I also have a couple of library books I've been ignoring: Seeker, a YA fantasy by William Nicholson and The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. Who knows what else I will sneak in there this month.

[[deleted user]]

Sandi,
I'm referring to the book by Colin Wells. It's from the dates and names school of history writing, otherwise known as Ol Skool. In my case, it's an audiobook, which makes it even harder to absorb the information. Wells puts in lots of good info, though.
Ben, I'm with you on history audiobooks. I whiled away many hours in my car with books on Alexander Hamilton and Osama Bin Laden.

[Lara Amber]

I've started reading The Overspent America: Why We Want What We Don't Need. It's a little dated (refers to VCRs as a status item) but the ideas are still sound. It's only 173 pages, which is a tad short for an academic book, but she didn't waste time with filler, and for that I'm grateful. Nothing worse then ordering a book and finding out that they used big type and set the dictation machine on loop to pad it out. It would have been nice if the 34 pages of footnotes were included with the actual text instead of at the end, so I would actually read them.

[[deleted user]]

Sounds like an interesting book even if it's not sf. Who's the author?

[Leslie Ann]

I'm still plowing through 'Legacy Of Ashes-A History of the CIA. It's a fascinating look into the workings of a government entity long shrouded in mystery, with an entirely undeserved reputation for competence. In fact, for most of it's long and sordid history, the CIA has been an egregious waste of our tax dollars. Totally infuriating to know just how incompetent it is.

[Lara Amber]

The Overspent American is by Juliet B. Schor.

[Angie]

I am trying to catch up on some books I have been wanting to read but have been putting off for book clubs. So I am reading Three to get Deadly, From Dead to Worse, and The Absolute True Dairy of a Part Time Indian.

[Jon]

For June, I finally finished Fatal Revenant by Stephen R. Donaldson. I literally had the book checked out for months but just couldn't stay focused on it. It was good, but I kept getting distracted by other offerings. For example, I completed an entire Michael Stackpole series while reading Fatal Revenant!

Now, I'm reading two Branden Sanderson books - Elantris and Mistborn - because I learned recently that he will be writing the final Wheel of Time series book - A Memory of Light. I thought I should get a feel for his writing style to see if it would be a good fit to Jordan's style.

And finally, since I watched A&E's recent mini-series - The Andromeda Strain - I checked out that book from the library and also put the original 1971 movie at the top of my Netflix queue.

That's it for June!

Jon

[Allie]

I wish I was reading 'Serenity Found: More Unauthorized Essays on Joss Whedon's Firefly Universe'. I'm excited by the fact that such a book actually exists! Must find..

Tonight I'm going to finish Dune, which I am only now starting to get attached to, despite having around 50 pages left. I am always disappointed when I read classics, and have such low expectations of (what I consider) 'trashy' fantasy novels, which I end up loving. I started reading Celia Friedman's Black Sun Rising last night, and feel guilty about it because the cover makes it look so ridiculous. I'm hooked already, though. Some women love shoes, I love sprawling, epic fantasy novels..

[E.J.]

I'm reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Love it so far!

[Branka]

I'm almost at the end of the fourth book from The Dresden Files series - Summer Knight, Jim Butcher. It looks like I'm becoming his huge fan, because every book is getting better and better, ok, there are few things that are disturbing, but still, it's a great read, where your mind just get relaxed and delighted. Can't wait to start the fifth book.

[John]

Allie, have you read Steven Brust's unauthorized Firefly novel? It's pretty good, and available free as an e-book from his website: http://dreamcafe.com/firefly.html

[Jeanne]

I just finished reading Kushiel's Scion and while waiting for Kushiel's Justice and Kushiel's Mercy to arrive I'm reading the third book from The Dresden Files series - Grave Peril by Jim Butcher and I agree with you Branka, they do keep getting better and better! Looking forward to more.

I'm finding all I read these days are series! Doesn't anyone write single titles anymore? LOL!

[Branka]

Jeanne, I just ordered Kushiel's Scion myself. It's been almost a year since last book from J. Carey, I'm quite curious how the story is proceeding.

Butcher is finished. It's time for The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski. First impression - very, very smoothly indeed, pages just fly by ;)

[Dov]

I'm reading the newish James Rollins book Black Order , not sci fi but a fun novel NTL, also i'm reading an also newish novel by wiese and Hickman Dragonlance: highlord Skies. Speaking of which, why aren't there any dragon lance books, at least the original ones, on the master fantasy list?

[Debbie]

So, have any of you read Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series? Very different from his Dresden Files...

I love both series, but since we're doing epic fantasy this month with George R.R. Martin, the Codex Alera is a good tie-in. Butcher's style and tale is very different from Martin, but equally brilliant.

Both men are masters of their craft.

[Heather]

Julie-
I am also patiently waiting for Breaking Dawn to come from Amazon. I just read all three books from the series the first time this past weekend. (Hubby wasn't too thrilled that all I did was read for 3 days!)
And I have The Host on waiting list at my local library.

After that I don't know what else I'll be reading. I read from almost every genre of book...

[Cicero]

Just got off for my summer holidays (exams over- I can go out of the house again without feeling really guilty) and decided to draw up my planned summer reading. Things will probably change but these are the initial choices:-

“The Book of Sand and Shakespeare’s Memory” – Jorge Luis Borges
“The Book of Imaginary Beings” – Jorge Luis Borges
“The Name of the Rose” – Umberto Eco
“American Gods” – Neil Gaiman
“Fragile Things” – Neil Gaiman
“The Outsider” – Albert Camus
“The Plague” – Albert Camus
“A Hundred Years of Solitude” – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
“Claudius the God” – Robert Graves
“The Road” – Cormac McCarthy
“No Country for Old Men” – Cormac McCarthy
“Life of Pi” – Yann Martel
“Titus Groan” – Mervyn Peake
“A Tale of Two Cities” – Charles Dickens
“The Early History of Rome” – Livy
“The Yiddish Policemen’s Union” - Micheal Chabon
“The Three Musketeers” – Alexandre Dumas
“Sharpe’s Eagle” – Bernard Cornwell
“Royal Flash” – George MacDonald Fraser
“The Bonehunters” – Steven Erikson
“The Charnel Prince” – Greg Keyes
“Neuropath” – R. Scott Bakker (looking really, really forward to this one, if its anywhere near as good as his Prince of Nothing Series, it will be a treat)
“Fool’s Fate” – Robin Hobb
“Gates of Fire” – Steven Pressfield

[Michael]

I finally started the fourth book of Termarie series this weekend. Been meaning to read it for a while now and with the fifth one on the way in July, figured it better be sooner rather than later.

[Sandi]

I just finished reading "Little Brother" by Cory Doctorow and immediately posted my review. My heart is still pounding.

I recommend that you drop whatever you are reading and go read "Little Brother" now.

[bsc]

I'm on the hold list for it at my library. I'm next in line so hopefully I'll be reading it very soon.

[Lori]

I should have put it on hold immediately when Sandi first suggested it. 122 holds before me!

[Deanna]

Just finished the Un-Dead Kama Sutra...It's ok.

Has anybody read Under the Moons of Mars? Just having a real hard time gettin interested in it and would like to chat with somebody who has read it.

Also Started Victory Conditions this am by Elizabeth Moon...Seems to be a keeper like the rest of the series. :o)

[Deanna]

I never get tired of Harry! Just finished Small Favor...just as good! Going to start his Codex Series soon...enjoy!

[bsc]

I recently finished John Adams by David MaCullough (highly recommended for anyone interested in American history), The Uglies (very good), Nor Crystal Tears by Alan Dean Foster (my first ADF book...very fun), and The Draco Tavern by Larry Niven (great collection of short stories in which Niven lets his imagination run wild). And I also just finished Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep in anticipation of a great discussion in July.

I have just started on the Thomas Paine by Craig Nelson, though I am not enjoying it very much (it is not in the same league as the Isaacson and MaCullough biographies), and Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (amazing so far...very fun and well written). I also just started listening today to Lucifer's Hammer by Niven and Pournelle, though my hopes are not very high for this one.

[April]

This month, I've read Grimspace by Ann Aguirre, The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks, and Lords of Rainbow by Vera Nazarian.