What else are you reading? (June 2010 - May 2013) *closed* Showing 8,551-8,600 of 13,523

[Becky]

LOL. Yes, Dad!

[Aleksandr]

I mean, you make sense that late in the day? I turn into a gibbering wreck at about 4:00. :)

[Emanuela ~plastic duck~]

It was a slow reading week, but I recuperated in the week end. I read Dark Fire, the second Matthew Shardlake's book, historical mystery, I think Henry VIII's (and then Elizabeth I's) period is one of my favorites. It makes me want to go to London and find what's left of it.

Then I read an almost good m/f erotica book, but the best part was the m/m subplot :)

Then I read Sleight of Hand by Katrina Strauss. I liked it and I think it had a couple of wonderful ideas and an incredible setting, but it was very condensed and it seemed an abridged version of a longer book.

Yesterday I read Incursion by Aleksandr Voinov. I loved it. Kyle is wonderful, he's broken and proud and this story's making me think a lot.

I am currently reading Sundowner Ubuntu by Anthony Bidulka. It's interesting to finally see Russell Quant with a lover, how long will it last?

[Antonella]

Emanuela ~plastic duck~ wrote: "I am currently reading Sundowner Ubuntu by Anthony Bidulka. It's interesting to finally see Russell Quant with a lover, how long will it last?"

I've recently read all the Russell Quant Mysteries. I loved the first two, but I started to be disappointed with the rest of the series. Especially the last ones looks like a kind of travel guide.

Mind you, it's good in comparison to what's around (the rest of the books got 3 stars from me), still...

[mc]

I finished a somewhat disappointing memoir by Frank Langella. He's a talented stage actor (I've seen and enjoyed his work many times on the NY stage), and some would adore this book, in which he discusses his impressions of the many remarkable people he knew in his acting life.

He's candid enough - and pardon me, catty enough - that's there's a certain 'oooooh' when his comments get pointed. But then, more and more, I had the feeling that there was more sharpness than insight, and as famous the people were (Jackie Kennedy! Anne Bancroft! Rita Hayworth! Elizabeth Taylor!), I started to get tired of the tone.

Though, to be fair, there are several people he adores/adored wholeheartedly, and, he certainly reflected his own arrogance and insecurities rather honestly, but I came away feeling as if I had read very well-written mini-profiles from an erudite....gossip magazine.

Maybe with some time away, I'll have a different impression.

I will say though, he moved in the most fascinating circles!

[Emanuela ~plastic duck~]

Antonella wrote: "Especially the last ones looks like a kind of travel guide."

Yes, it's like a formula. I am liking this one, there's something unsettling. Have you read Dos Equis (A Russell Quant Mystery, #8)?

[mc]

Aleksandr wrote: "Becky - I know there's at least one author who was dismayed that their books aren't available in e-formats and I have received actual finalized word and PDF files from authors happy to ensure I cou..."

I never thought of doing that, either. When it comes down to it, I'd be happy to pay the author for that ebook, even if it's a 'homemade' one.

[Becky]

Aleksandr wrote: "I mean, you make sense that late in the day? I turn into a gibbering wreck at about 4:00. :)"

My sleep schedule is all screwy. Between that and the time difference, I'm probably waking up most days around the time you're getting home from work!

[Aleksandr]

I had a pretty wild schedule while I was writing my first novel. Worked all night, went to bed at seven in the morning, woke up at five in the afternoon. It was winter, so for about two weeks or maybe three I didn't see light. It was really kinda cool and pretty creepy - only human contact was the guy at the gas station during graveyard shift. But these days, I'm tied to a corporate schedule, which is so not natural for me.

[Tracy]

Something about being home visiting my parents... I'm currently working through a collection of short stories by L.M. Montgomery published in various magazines (currently, I'm reading the ones published from 1896-1901). I would like to thank Project Gutenberg for making these available...

[Becky]

I heard back from Greg Herren. The Scotty Bradley books will be re-released by Bold Strokes Books, hopefully after the first of the year.

[Aleksandr]

Now, there's good news. :)

[mc]

Tracy wrote: "Something about being home visiting my parents... I'm currently working through a collection of short stories by L.M. Montgomery published in various magazines (currently, I'm reading the ones publ..."

Tracy, do you know, I've never read Anne of the Green Gables?

[Antonella]

Emanuela ~plastic duck~ wrote: "Antonella wrote: "Especially the last ones looks like a kind of travel guide."

Yes, it's like a formula. I am liking this one, there's something unsettling. Have you read Dos Equis (A Russell Quant..."

Yes, as I said, a travel guide ;-)

[Becky]

mc wrote: "Tracy wrote: "Something about being home visiting my parents... I'm currently working through a collection of short stories by L.M. Montgomery published in various magazines (currently, I'm reading..."

Oh, Anne of Green Gables was such a big part of my childhood! And Emily of New Moon, and the Story Girl, and the Avonlea short story collections.... I still re-read The Blue Castle at least once a year. I flipped out when one of my parents' friends told me she is distantly related to Montgomery.

[John]

Anyone else read ? I just finished it and thought it was terrific. It's a really good suspense/serial killer/mystery sort of story - but I thought really well written. Rather a lot of gore, to be sure, but well crafted. It rather reminds me of a certain other author whom we all admire.

[mc]

John, I haven't, but I'm going to add it to my list. Thanks.

[Karen]

I finally went back to P.D. Singer's The Rare Event and finished it this time. (I was resisting the inevitable angst of Ricky's journey from player to lover, and wasn't sure whether I could see Wall Street opportunists as sympathetic MCs.)

This week also enjoyed reading K.Z. Snow's Visible Friend and Mongrel, Ethan Day's Second Time Lucky (also enjoyed his Sno Ho books ), and Aleksandr Voinov's Incursion.

[Anne]

John wrote: "Anyone else read ? I just finished it and thought it was terrific. It's a really good suspense/serial killer/mystery sort of story - but I thought really well writte..."

Thanks for that recommendation. The sample has been sitting on my Kindle for a while, maybe I should give it a try.

[Pender]

I read Break and Enter by Rachel Haimowitz and Aleksandr Voinov. I thoroughly enjoyed it. If you like cyperpunk, this is a good choice.

[Aleksandr]

Whew, I'm glad I didn't lead you wrong. :)

[Pender]

Aleksandr wrote: "Whew, I'm glad I didn't lead you wrong. :)"

No, it was exactly what I was looking for. I even read it twice. :)

[Aleksandr]

Most excellent! Thank you. :)

[K.Z.]

Just finished . Wow. I can't believe this book hasn't been more widely read. The plot had more twists than a worm on a fish hook, yet I bought into every one of them . . . which, in my mind, translates into damned masterly writing.

[Calathea]

John wrote: "Anyone else read ? I just finished it and thought it was terrific. It's a really good suspense/serial killer/mystery sort of story - but I thought really well writte..."

Thanks for the rec, John! Got it with the fw coupon and started reading right away. Although I'm usually not fond of the culprit POV and I'm a bit wimpy when it comes to gore (I mean, come on, first he cuts off... and the he... and then... *yikes* ^^), I already like it a lot. It feels like a solid mystery/thriller and Harry and Sean seem to be likable MCs.

[Josh]

Aleksandr wrote: "It's the "tone argument", people can go either "oy, you bastward, I can't read your books on my Obscure Tablet from The Solomon Islands with Proprietary Format Nobody Has Every Heard Of, so fix tha..."

Oh my God.

I had a guy who contacted me about a wonky Nook file. I sent him the replacement file and he wrote me a very nice note, amazed that I had responded and loved my work and so on. But in his initial frustration he had left a negative one star review on B&N. Hoping, I guess, that I would see it and fix the problem.

Then the poor guy tried to get the lousy review removed. B&N wouldn't believe that it wasn't the author trying to pull something. It was insane. This reader tried for two days to get that review changed. I don't know whatever happened because I told him to stop worrying about it.

So the moral of the story, gentle readers, is don't try to communicate with authors through reviews. We don't see them. If you need help with something, drop us a line. I don't know any author who wouldn't try to fix a problem for a reader if it's at all within their power.

[Josh]

Antonella wrote: "Mind you, it's good in comparison ..."

Do you guys do this? Do you review with an eye to what is "average" within our genre?

[Josh]

Tracy wrote: "Something about being home visiting my parents... I'm currently working through a collection of short stories by L.M. Montgomery published in various magazines (currently, I'm reading the ones publ..."

I so dearly love the Gutenberg site and the hard work done by the contributors there.

[Josh]

John wrote: "Anyone else read ? I just finished it and thought it was terrific. It's a really good suspense/serial killer/mystery sort of story - but I thought really well writte..."

One of the weirdest things is reading a book or an author which has been compared to your own work. I'm doing that very thing right now with Diana Copland's Carina Press release.

Is she better than average in the m/m genre? Probably. In fairness, I think the genre is much more competitive than it was when I first stumbled onto it. There are some brilliant writers working in our humble little genre.

But the weird thing is trying to figure out how she is like me. Or how someone else perceives she is like me.

Not that this is my primary focus. Not at all, actually, but it is an ongoing question in my mind because you always wonder how the words come across. you can never see your work with complete objectivity. You can never see it, experience it, as a reader does.

And of course I wonder all the time what IS it that readers see in my work? What is it that they especially enjoy?

I mean, I have my theories, but that's all they can ever be. And the fact that I am writing what is so personal, so satisfying to me, makes it even more mysterious.

Because you always think you're the only one feeling like you do. And clearly I am not. Clearly I am not alone.

[Anne]

Josh wrote: "Aleksandr wrote: "It's the "tone argument", people can go either "oy, you bastward, I can't read your books on my Obscure Tablet from The Solomon Islands with Proprietary Format Nobody Has Every He..."

Reviews are a good way of orient oneself when checking out a new author. If one book is given a lot of positive reviews and a few bad ones I often check the bad ones to see why someone differs so widely from the rest. Quite often I find that the reviewer gives one or two stars because the book was damaged in the post or came too late or some thing like that, and it has always seemed to me to be a very dirty trick to play on the author.

[Aleksandr]

Josh - LOL, yep. That's actually fodder for a blog post. :)

Regarding the "who sounds like me" question - I can look at a text and see similar styles (I think Rachel and I write like we're the products of the same Creative Writing MFA course), but "voice"? Much harder to pin down, because yours just sounds natural to yourself.

[Johanna]

Anne wrote: " If one book is given a lot of positive reviews and a few bad ones I often check the bad ones to see why someone differs so widely from the rest. Quite often I find that the reviewer gives one or two stars because the book was damaged in the post or came too late or some thing like that, and it has always seemed to me to be a very dirty trick to play on the author."

Sometimes I feel like some people give a widely well liked book only one star and a bad review only because every body else who reviewed the book liked it.

[Josh]

Johanna wrote: "Sometimes I feel like some people give a widely well liked book only one star and a bad review only because every body else who reviewed the book liked it.
..."

I know this to be true because I have the same anti-social tendencies. I have a natural antipathy to "popular."

However, being mostly sane, I fight it. :-D

[Johanna]

Josh wrote: "Because you always think you're the only one feeling like you do. And clearly I am not. Clearly I am not alone."

Nope. You are definitely not alone. And it must feel weird and wonderful at the same time. :)

[Johanna]

Josh wrote: "Johanna wrote: "Sometimes I feel like some people give a widely well liked book only one star and a bad review only because every body else who reviewed the book liked it.
..."

I know this to be ..."

LOL! Well, I think it's mostly sane to have a healthy amount of antipathy to popular. ;) This might be a bit off topic, but one thing I'd like my students to learn is to take a critical attitude towards the way media presents things (and that covers the "popular" things too...).

[Emanuela ~plastic duck~]

Josh wrote: "And of course I wonder all the time what IS it that readers see in my work? What is it that they especially enjoy?"

Since I found you with Fatal Shadows, I can tell what that book did to me.

I was enjoying it a lot, and then I realized it was not only enjoyment, it was real pleasure, because I was not only in love with Adrien, in lust with Jake, and in awe of the story, I was enthralled by the writing. The little episode I want to share is that on the second morning I was brushing my teeth and reading my Kindle sideways because I didn't want to put it down, then I looked up in the mirror and told to my reflection "è scritto da Dio" (it's divinely written). You make it look easy, I know it's not, but whatever difficulty you had in writing it doesn't transpire. It seems written for me, the list of what I'd like to read all checked.

[Anne]

Johanna wrote: "Well, I think it's mostly sane to have a healthy amount of antipathy to popular. ;) This might be a bit off topic, but one thing I'd like my students to learn is to take a critical attitude towards the way media presents things (and that covers the "popular" things too...).
"

I guess that is part of the reason why I like to check out the negative reviews because sometimes they are actually the ones that see through the hype and ask the difficult critical questions. (When they are not complaining about paper damage, that is)

[Emanuela ~plastic duck~]

Anne wrote: "I guess that is part of the reason why I like to check out the negative reviews because sometimes they are actually the ones that see through the hype and ask the difficult critical questions."

Sometimes I agree with negative reviews even if I still like a book a lot: I know it's too sappy, but it's a reunited lovers book with cops/firemen etc. :)

[Anne]

Emanuela ~plastic duck~ wrote: "Anne wrote: "I guess that is part of the reason why I like to check out the negative reviews because sometimes they are actually the ones that see through the hype and ask the difficult critical qu..."

And what is not to like with reunited firemen :)

[Susinok]

I really dislike rating books and reviewing them.

I even have a BA in English Lit and you can barely get more than a sentence or two out of me once I've read a book. If you get more than that in a review from me, you've knocked my socks off or really pissed me off somehow. ("You" being collective here, not anyone here).

When I choose a book to read, I most often just go by the author's blurb and read the first page or two (samples now). I check to see if my Goodreads friends with the same tastes and see if anyone really hated it.

I think over the years that I've gotten very good at choosing what I like and avoiding what I don't, so I rarely rate below 4 stars.

This post of mine seems a bit non sequiter now that I read over it. It linked to the conversation in my mind though. Honest.

[Emanuela ~plastic duck~]

Susinok wrote: "I really dislike rating books and reviewing them."

I try to write something for each book I read because I want to record the frame of mind I was in. I discovered yesterday that I gave three stars with no review to a book that I now consider a 4+ book. Why? What's changed in my perception? If I had written a couple of sentences, I'd know...

Anyway, your post seemed pretty logical to me :D

[Kari]

Emanuela ~plastic duck~ wrote: "...I looked up in the mirror and told to my reflection "è scritto da Dio" (it's divinely written). You make it look easy..."

This? Profound.

Pardon me for saying so, but there's a lot of shitty writing out there. Sorry, but there is. I think we all know that and sometimes we (including myself here) buy it anyway. But those little (or HUGE) niggles grate and grate and grate and grind us down. While we may enjoy these stories as guilty pleasures, we nonetheless long for those engaging, seamless reads. The ones that don't include passives and filters and silly nonsensical plot points that makes us want to lob bricks.

You, Josh, write those engaging, seamless reads. Every time. You aren't standing there telling me the story -- the story unfurls on its own, without you crowding in on me. Author intrusion is nil. The internal editor is silent and the characters and stories suck me right in. You make it look easy. It isn't, but you make it look that way. And it's an easier, smoother read for it too. I'm not butting heads with what the story could've and should've been. Because it already is.

[/fangirl]

[Vivian]

Susinok wrote: "I really dislike rating books and reviewing them.

I even have a BA in English Lit and you can barely get more than a sentence or two out of me once I've read a book. If you get more than that in ..."

Yeah, I can see how a book rate can be misleading. I mean, I often think of books this way: genre fiction, and literary fiction.

I wouldn't compare a work of literary fiction with a work of genre fiction. Ever. Not because I am a snob, but because they are written with two very different purposes in mind.

Even within genres is sometimes hard to be fair. I know I am extremely tough on the m/m romance writers because I am used to the quality put out by Josh Lanyon.

I don't know if this makes sense at all...

[Kari]

Also, FWIW, I just finished and , both of which I recently discovered in my TBR when I transferred my files to the new machine. Veddy, veddy nice. Outstanding. I love Ava March. That these 2 got mysteriously buried in my massive TBR was a tragedy I quickly remedied. :-)

[mc]

Emanuela ~plastic duck~ wrote: "Josh wrote: "And of course I wonder all the time what IS it that readers see in my work? What is it that they especially enjoy?"

Since I found you with Fatal Shadows, I can tell what that book did..."

Manu, that's such a beautiful way to put it. Sigh.

[mc]

Kari wrote: "You, Josh, write those engaging, seamless reads. Every time. You aren't standing there telling me the story -- the story unfurls on its own, without you crowding in on me. Author intrusion is nil. The internal editor is silent and the characters and stories suck me right in. You make it look easy. It isn't, but you make it look that way. And it's an easier, smoother read for it too. I'm not butting heads with what the story could've and should've been. Because it already is."

Ditto. I'm in my head too much as it is, but with truly good writing, I step away from the thinking, and right into the being. Same thing with good theatre. There are moments when I realize I'm not even taking a breath, because the actor is affecting me so deeply. That's the power of art.

[Anne]

mc wrote: "Kari wrote: "You, Josh, write those engaging, seamless reads. Every time. You aren't standing there telling me the story -- the story unfurls on its own, without you crowding in on me. Author intru..."

Many years ago I was watching Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen in a small theater in London, with a cast of extremely good actors. There was a time during the performance when the whole audience was completely silent, not a cough sounding and you could sense everbody, me included, sitting at the edge of our seats, so tense and not breathing for fear of losing any word or gesture. The power of art indeed.

[Susan]

Kari wrote: "You, Josh, write these engaging, seamless reads. Every time. You aren't standing there telling me the story -- the story unfurls on its own, without you crowding in on me."

Amen to everything Kari just said, and then some.

[fangirl/2]

[Antonella]

I agree with everything Manu and Kari and Vivian said about Josh.

I don't usually like posts which just state ''me too'' but this is necessary ;-).

[Aleksandr]

I agree. Group hug!