What else are you reading? (June 2010 - May 2013) *closed* Showing 4,551-4,600 of 13,523

[Cleon Lee]

ns wrote: "Anne wrote: "I'm a horrible dancer."

This is not making me feel better. Why?"

LMAO.

[Becky]

Anne wrote: "I'm a horrible dancer."

Oh, good. I can't do any of that other stuff you can do, but I'm a fabulous dancer.

[Sagajo]

whitney wrote: "I loved loved loved Shades of Gray! Thanks for the nudge Antonella and Laura!! Now what to read??? I haven't read Hell Cops and I do have it...."

Sleepwalker by JCP!!! AND Hell Cops. Shades of Grey is awesome by the way, love it. Another slightly similar book to Shades of Grey is Freeman by Clare London. I highly recommend it.

[Charming]

ns wrote: "Seriously, people, at this point I would consider it an act of mercy if the MM community stopped using the word "angst" altogher. "

LOL. I looked it up in the thesaurus and it isn't well defined and doesn't have good synonyms.

[Cleon Lee]

My professor taught about "angst" when I was in Human Philosophy class, but she tied it with Sartre's philosophy. If I remember correctly, "angst" is supposed to be an existential feeling of emptiness and purposeless-ness. And "angst" is also (probably) tied with people who don't want to take responsibility over their lives.

I still have Sartre's collection of essays, but it's buried somewhere along with my other text books so I can't check how accurate my memory is. LOL.

Maybe someone who has read Sartre or remember their Philosophy class can explain further?

[Kaje]

Not that the critics are using it in the classical sense anyway. It seems to either translate as "emotional drama" for those who claim to like angst, or "over-emotional melodrama" for those who say they don't. Where the line comes in between those is a very personal preference, (and to my mind separate from the issue of excessive MC victimization because the way things are handled is more critical than exactly what happened. Even gang rape in some cases of ex-con characters can be pages of wallowing or a lurking PTSD or never think back.)

[[deleted user]]

whitney wrote: "I loved loved loved Shades of Gray! Thanks for the nudge Antonella and Laura!! Now what to read??? I haven't read Hell Cops and I do have it...."

Glad you liked Whitney, it is a great book!

Currently reading I don't know how JCP comes up with these amazing, unique POVs that are just so FRIGGIN' awesome...I'm just glad I get to read them! LOVING!

[Candice]

Kaje wrote: "Candice wrote: "I've always been fascinated by both Greek and Roman history (though I don't even qualify as knowledgable amateur) but bored and disappointed by the inevitable hetero leads. ..."

I ..."

Yes! The first 2 Alexander the Great novels and The Charioteer. Isn't she something?

A further note re "Vengeance..." I didn't know who was Caesar because they don't have one yet. Rome is a young republic. I'm just about done and I have genuinely enjoyed the book. A proviso though: the romance is w/out difficulty. It's "nice," and the sex is only alluded to. This last isn't always a deal killer, but this love story, while pleasant, lacked fire.

I bought the 3 Infected books; everybody sold me. Looking forward.

Oh, Kaje, I bought Life Lessons. Well reviewed, huh? Cool.

[Candice]

I meant to throw out there: Has anyone else been watching the Montgomery Clift marathon on one of those two movie channels? I have, and wow. What a beautiful man. I was already a fan, but I didn't properly remember. The looks, the eyes, the voice (the wonderful acting); he so had it going on.

And it has seriously put me in the mood to read Adrien English through for the second time.

[Kaje]

Candice wrote: "Oh, Kaje, I bought Life Lessons. Well reviewed, huh? Cool. ..."

People have been astonishingly positive about it. It was my first real published book and I see all the flaws, but I hope you like it.

[Josh]

whitney wrote: "Lori K wrote: ":)-Josh, your vid makes me very afraid..."

Me too :( I need to stock up on tissues :("

:-D

[Josh]

Charming wrote: "Liade wrote: "I agree about Snowball in Hell, but to me Come Unto These Yellow Sands was more in line with your other books involving a character with a serious disablity/chronic illness. Which to ..."

Thank you, Charming. I consider that a great compliment.

[Josh]

Re-read Don't Look Back again last night. I love that story..

Aw. Thank you!

[Josh]

Liade wrote: "Josh wrote: "Adrien doesn't view it as rape, which I think is the key element there. He's not happy about it, but he's a lot more worried about other possiblities than having sex...."

Worse for ..."

Yes. Quite right.

[Josh]

ns wrote: "Seriously, people, at this point I would consider it an act of mercy if the MM community stopped using the word "angst" altogher.

Mercy towards the few remaining brain cells I seem to be operatin..."

:-D

[Josh]

Anne wrote: "Don't Look Back is one of my very faves, mc. I might have to go read it, now."

My goodness. Thank you!

[Josh]

Sagajo wrote: "You guys are like my dream team :P
..."

I'm happy to say I've come to terms with my little story, but what I've read of the other stories is really wonderful. I loved those Hell Cop anthos, but I think this will be even better. The world building stuff is incredible and yet never in the way of the stories and characters.

[Kaje]

You're just trying to make us go crazy waiting here, right?

[Josh]

Josh drops him into a hole in the ground in Blood Heat, and instead of crying about it for three pages, Taylor asks "Why do these things always happen to me?", and then finds a way out of the hole. And the way out didn't even involve him scraping his way back up the hole, leaving a trail of blood where his fingernails had dug into the wall, all the while remembering the kitten stuck in a tree that he couldn't rescue when he was eight years old because he couldn't climb high enough. He just walks a bit and finds a way out.

Of course, depending on what you're looking for, that approach could be a real let down. ;-P

[Josh]

I loved getting different perspectives of the same world through the individual authors of the Hell Cop stories. It made the world seem so real to me to see one aspect of through the eyes of one author and one set of characters, and then the same world at two differing angles. It was a brilliant idea and those writers and their editor deserve a pat on the back for it.

I appreciate that nwo more than ever, having had to try and fit my wacko vision into a group vision. Man, that was difficult, and yes, Nikki does get huge credit for finding a way to link all these stories together.

[Josh]

ns wrote: "Seriously, people, at this point I would consider it an act of mercy if the MM community stopped using the word "angst" altogher.

Mercy towards the few remaining brain cells I seem to be operatin..."

I'm tempted to see what happens when NS snaps and runs amuck. I'm betting it would be highly entertaining -- for those few minutes before she wiped us all off the face of the earth.

[Josh]

Kaje wrote: "You're just trying to make us go crazy waiting here, right?"

Oops. Not deliberately. I've never done this kind of connected world thing before, so I'm sort of excited (and nervous) about it.

[Sylvia]

I'm excited too!

[Nicole]

Josh wrote: "having had to try and fit my wacko vision into a group vision"

ha! Everybody's vision is a wacko vision!

[Nicole]

Josh wrote: "Nikki does get huge credit for finding a way to link all these stories together. "

Well that's the thing about the shared world. You can find all the ways you want to link stuff up but if the authors aren't willing to...well, share the world, and allow changes then the whole thing is sunk. You guys deserve the credit for being flexible & adaptable and for actually finding ways to incorporate the links.

[ns]

Fadeout -- Hansen

Let's face it, we never really grade on an absolute scale around here. For that matter, I'm not sure that's even possible anymore. Shakespeare would be around 20, and a few people would be between 1-5, and the rest would start under -30, tailing into the -70 range. We'd get lost in the infinite space between two rational numbers somewhere there, have to use a logarithmic scale, and I'm sure we'd have to divide by the square root of minus 1 to make it all come out even. I'm telling ya, the math would get hard.

But this is not my usual grading on a curve for the genre/sub-genre, either.

So on the current NS scale, i.e. the wednesday after the late tuesday night of reading scale, when I can't remember anything else scale, the completely overridden by emotion scale, Fadeout might just be the best MM book I've read. It is a remarkably lovely book on the absolute scale, too, the one where you put His Holy Shakespearan Highness up front, and feel depressed because they're all mostly dead, and will never write again, the good guys on this scale.

Exhibit A:

"In twenty years you could say and do a lot you wish you hadn't. In twenty years you could store up a lot of regrets. And then, when it was too late, when there was no one left to say "I'm sorry" to, "I didn't mean it" to, you could stop sleeping for regret, stop eating, talking, working, for regret. You could stop wanting to live. You could want to die for regret.

It was only remembering the good times that kept you from taking the knife from the kitchen drawer and, holding it so, tightly in your fist, on the bed, naked to no purpose except that that was how you came into the world and how your best moments in the world had been spent--holding it so, roll onto the blade, slowly so that it slid like love between your ribs and into that stupidly pumping muscle in your chest that kept you regretting."

There is no sex scene in this book. There is barely the start of an incipient sparkle of romance in his eye as a figure comes over the horizon, unexpectedly, into the life of our insurance investigator protagonist.

What there is, however--a superbly etched out murder mystery--is all grace, quiet charm and elegance. Old school. So very the epitome of mid-twentieth century detective fiction (albeit written in 1970), so very much a window into the heart of Americana. You know that shelf upon which history keeps Jazz and baseball? Yes, that's where this belongs.

[mc]

Oh, ns, I love your commentaries so very much.

I bought the complete Brandsetter compilation at least a month ago, based on Josh's recommendations, but just haven't been able to get to it yet.

[ns]

mc wrote: "Oh, ns, I love your commentaries so very much.

I bought the complete Brandsetter compilation at least a month ago, based on Josh's recommendations, but just haven't been able to get to it yet."

Thank you, mc, for everything, not just your comment here. And really, you will not regret the Brandstetter purchase. It took me a long time to stalk them on ebay and buy them at affordable prices, but I am really glad I put in the time and effort to do so.

[mc]

Yes, I stalked them on amazon.com until I found a very good price (well, I thought it was good) - and from the UK, of all places.

And stop it, about the other stuff. I'm the one who should be on her knees and a lighting a candle to your...screen name.

Though in this crowd, if I get on my knees even briefly, someone is sure to smack me on the ass, put a blindfold on me and try to lodge a gag in my mouth, so I'll just leave you with the sentiment it represents, if you don't mind.

[ns]

Why is everyone looking at Ann? Ann? Anything to say?

[mc]

Don't get her started, ns. She knows how to put fires, for God's sake. I don't want to know what kind of hose she keeps around the house.

On another note, do you find it hard to keep up here as well? One goes back to one's life to try to get a few things done and then, poof! 500 new posts.

I know y'all are writers, but do you get paid by the word?

[ns]

mc wrote: "On another note, do you find it hard to keep up here as well..."

I've given up even the pretense of keeping up, not having the hours to spend during each day that it would take. I read this thread and the monthly read thread, mostly. The rest is just a random peek once in a while.

[mc]

No wonder everyone here is a writer :) Which is good for us, as readers.

[mc]

Given how many books everyone here reads, are there ones that you find yourself re-reading again (and again?)

I've mentioned the ones that I tend to re-read. Usually, it's a comfort read, in that I really liked the characters and felt something for their conflict and, of course, the writing, certain lines, certain descriptions, slay me each time I read them.

And in the best of all circumstances, there's something new that I missed the first or first dozen times I went through it (I admit, shamefaced, that I am an inveterate skimmer. That comes from corporate America, where I had to read a lot of things quickly and be able to pull out pertinent facts and come to a conclusion).

On the other reading from, I'm reading Ray Kurzweil's, The Singularity is Near, and though the topics he focuses on are very interesting to me, I'm having a devil of a time slogging through it. I haven't given up yet, though.

[mc]

Lou, I haven't grabbed the Ginn Hale piece of cheese yet, either, because I know what kind of trap it's attached to!

[Becky]

mc wrote: "Given how many books everyone here reads, are there ones that you find yourself re-reading again (and again?)

I've mentioned the ones that I tend to re-read. Usually, it's a comfort read, in that..."

This year, since I've started reading m/m, my comfort re-reads have been the Adrien English series (everything except The Hell You Say), The Ghost Wore Yellow Socks, and Strawberries For Dessert and Promises by Marie Sexton. All my paperbacks are in a box in my closet (no space for bookshelves in my room), but some of my older comfort reads are Jenny Crusie, Jayne Ann Krentz/Jayne Castle/Amanda Quick, Sarah Addison Allen, and Deanna Raybourn. And I have two favorites from childhood that I reread just about every year-- The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery and The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin.

A storm is rolling in, so I'm going to take advantage of the atmosphere and read In a Dark Wood tonight.

[Kaje]

mc wrote: "Given how many books everyone here reads, are there ones that you find yourself re-reading again (and again?)

I've mentioned the ones that I tend to re-read. Usually, it's a comfort read, in that..."

I reread a lot, pretty much anything on my books list with a 5 and many of the 4 star ratings I've read more than once. Sometimes ten times or more. In the last month : Lois McMaster Bujold, Tanya Huff, Michael Nava, Chris Crutcher, Dorothy Sayers, Josh, Amy Lane, Tolkien, Jim Butcher, Sarah Monette, Elizabeth Bear, James Buchanan, Suzanne Brockmann, Wen Spencer, JL Langley, LM Montgomery, Ellis Peters, Jim Grimsley, and probably a couple of others.

Drives my husband crazy that I won't trade in old books, because he almost never rereads unless it's something dense like Thomas Pynchon. But I love my old books.

[Kari]

I repeat read so many...From Josh, AE, TGWYS, TDH & TWK. Joely Skye's shifter series: Marked, Feral and Lynx. ANYTHING by KA Mitchel, LOL, but particularly partial to Collision Course. Another shifter one, Mary Calmes' Change of Heart. J.C. Owens Gaven series. L.B. Gregg's Men of Smithfield Park series. Kim Dare's Ellery's Duty & Mark of an Alpha. Jet Mykles Heaven Sent series, especially Heaven and Purgatory.

These are all books I haven't just re-read. I keep re-reading them.

[Becky]

Kari wrote: "I repeat read so many...From Josh, AE, TGWYS, TDH & TWK. Joely Skye's shifter series: Marked, Feral and Lynx. ANYTHING by KA Mitchel, LOL, but particularly partial to Collision Course. Another shif..."

Oh, and I've read and reread Hell by Jet Mykles, too. (I adore Hell and Brent.)

[Mandapanda]

I re-read all the time anything I rate 3.5 and higher. I read so fast that I always find something new each time. Some of my staples are: Promises, When Irish Eyes Are Sparkling, Psycop series, Collision Course, Mann Of My Dreams, Like A Sparrow Through The Heart, Dark Lord Seeks Friendship Maybe More, Caught Running, Black/Gold, He Completes Me, Nicole Kimberling's Bellingham Mysteries, Astrid Amara's contemporaries, Cut & Run series, Edward Unconditionally, L.B. Gregg's Men of Smithfield series & Z.A. Maxfield's St Nacho's series (and lots more). There are also a lot of great new releases in 2011 which I'll be re-reading in the near future.

[Traci]

Must be the oddball as I rarely re-read anything. Not that I don't love the ones I do read - think it's more that there are soooooooooo many books I want to explore, I just don't have time to re-read many. Only title that comes to mind is "The Stand" by Stephen King, and it was years between readings. Interesting how I responded to it differently when I read it as an adult (the 1st time I was 12 or something!) Love Josh's books dearly, and I've re-read parts, but not the whole book. Maybe someday when I win the lottery!

[Kari]

Traci wrote: "Only title that comes to mind is "The Stand" by Stephen King..."

I re-read The Stand every cold & flu season and only once I've started coughing & sniffling. >:D

[Calathea]

ns wrote: "Fadeout -- Hansen

Let's face it, we never really grade on an absolute scale around here. For that matter, I'm not sure that's even possible anymore. Shakespeare would be around 20, and a few peopl..."

That's so beautiful, ns! Love your reviews!

divide by the square root of minus 1

Although, that one made me cringe even just by reading it... ;-)

Let's face it, we never really grade on an absolute scale around here. For that matter, I'm not sure that's even possible anymore.

The scales drive me crazy. Even my own use of them. I once tried to come up with some criterions I could use so that at least my own ratings would be consistent... but it seems that rating is a highly emotional thing and I can't get any consistency into it.

[Calathea]

mc wrote: "Given how many books everyone here reads, are there ones that you find yourself re-reading again (and again?)"

Strangely I find myself re-reading (as a comfort read) those books that are physically on my bookshelf. Although I'm all into the ebook-phenomenon and I'm glad I can take them all with me on a neat ebook-reader, somehow I seem to crave the feeling of an actual book in my hands.

[Charming]

If I own a book and like it, I have probably reread it. More than once. Even murder mysteries. Before ebooks, whenever I didn't have a new book or books from the library, I went and picked something off my bookshelf to read. I can't even count the number of times I've read some of my DTBs. Now I can Kindle borrow or surf around and find something free once I have hit my spending limit, but I still reread.

People who don't reread generally say that they don't have time because of all of the other books out there still to be read. People who reread seem to want to relive or deepen a good experience. In my case, I also have a bad memory. :-)

Leaving M/M aside, I probably most often reread Terry Pratchett and Jane Austen, who definitely repay reliving and deepening the experience.

[Anne]

mc wrote: "Don't get her started, ns. She knows how to put fires, for God's sake. I don't want to know what kind of hose she keeps around the house.

On another note, do you find it hard to keep up here as ..."

Some of us were busy reading writing last night when all this tom-foolery was going on.

I might also add that it is very difficult to tie someone up with hose. Even cotton-jacketed hose. Good for flogging, though.

[Anne]

mc wrote: "On the other reading from, I'm reading Ray Kurzweil's, The Singularity is Near, and though the topics he focuses on are very interesting to me, I'm having a devil of a time slogging through it. I haven't given up yet, though. "

Seriously? Are you buying it? I don't, but I actually have yet to read his book. The Singularity features heavily in my series, though.

[Anne]

Kari wrote: "Traci wrote: "Only title that comes to mind is "The Stand" by Stephen King..."

I re-read The Stand every cold & flu season and only once I've started coughing & sniffling. >:D"

LMAO

Nice.

[Anne]

I think the thing I've re-read the most is a short by JL Langley, One Good Favor. It's the short that pulled me completely out of the M/F world and into the M/M. Revisiting it is nostalgic for me.

[Kaje]

Anne wrote: "Some of us were busy reading writing last night when all this tom-foolery was going on.

I might also add that it is very difficult to tie someone up with hose. Even cotton-jacketed hose. Good for flogging, though. ..."

Because the knots slip? Fortunately, writing about guys makes the question of tying up with hose unlikely to arise. (Do we want to know why it did arise?) And some of us are avoiding writing through any means possible...