What are you reading in January 2011?

[Paul]

Just finished World War Z on a recommendation from three members here..excellent book consumed it in 4 days. Now reading Shift by Tim Kring/Dale Beck..about 50 pages in..not sure about it yet

[Julia]

I'm reading three books right now which is odd for me. Two are for very different book discussions/ events at the Library.

, and .

[[deleted user]]

Is it the last two?

[Kevin]

Done A Darkness at Sethanon, starting with the next book in the series, Prince of the Blood

[stormhawk]

Mercury Falls - Robert Kroese

[Rusty]

Just completed Cassandra Clare's City of Bones. This is the first of a trilogy including City of Bones, City of Ashes and City of Glass. It's a very good read. I liked the tale enough to put the second and third of the series on my TBR list. This is the story of an unusual young woman, Clarissa Fray, her mother, Jocelyn, and artist who she discovers has a life she never dreamed she had, her brother, Jonathan, known as Jace, and her father who wishes to change the world for his own purposes and needs. There are many surprises in this novel as people uncover secrets and discover who they really are. It's an outstanding beginning to a fine fantasy series.

[Julia]

I loved rereading .

[Peggy]

It's been a while, but as I recall, I had to abandon Parable of the Sower. It was beautifully written, as is everything I've read by Butler, but it was so depressing that it was dragging me down with it.

I still have it, and plan to make another run at it someday, but it will have to be when I'm in a better frame of mind.

[Julia]

Last fall I read The Road. That is bleak. I didn't think I'd make it to fifty pages, my cutoff point when I can stop reading a book I hate. But by 50 pages, while I didn't hate it, I never loved it either.

Because in Parable of the Sower we start slightly earlier in the story. We can see society devolving along with Lauren the young protagonist. Lauren is young, sheltered, relatively well-educated and she has faith, which no one in The Road has. It's an odd, simplistic faith, but it's hers.

I'm looking forward to rereading the next book
Parable of the Talents and I'm very sorry that Octavia Butler never got around to writing the planned third book in the series. Or living thirty more years.

[[deleted user]]

So after finishing Night Watch, I went through Day Watch and am now on the third Watch book titled Twilight Watch. Probably finish that tomorrow or the day after and then read The Last Watch to round out the week.

I hate when I get sucked into a series...every other book gets pushed aside until i finish.

ETA: The series is Urban Fantasy set in Moscow. More dreary and dark then Dresden, but still interesting reads if you're into that genre.

[[deleted user]]

So far this month I've read:
-Waterfall Dance
-Wuthering Heights
-A Wizard of Earthsea
-North and South
-The Invisible Man
-Crooked Little Vein

Today I started The Return of the King, as I've been working on rereading Tolkien the last few months. I don't tend to read Tolkien very quickly so this will probably eat up most if not all of the remainder of January.

I'm also reading From Hell at the moment.

[Tacuazin]

I am currently reading Holy Smokes, the -so far- last book of the 'Aisling Gray, guardian' series. Light reading, some funny quotes... but I will probably forget about them as soon as I finish this book.

[Lara Amber]

Just an update since I already posted once this month.

I finished Common Sense, The Rights of Man and Other Essential Writings of Thomas Paine, The Jungle Book, and Doctor Who: Coming of the Terraphiles (blech). I delayed reading The Star Scroll and instead got back into The Riyria Revelations and read:

Nyphron Rising
The Emerald Storm
and am currently reading
Wintertide.

[Benjamin]

I read Foundling by D.M. Cornish. World-building is quite impressive, but the plot and characterization were a little light.

I also read Brayan's Gold by Peter V. Brett. Decent backstory, though nothing outstanding.

Lastly, I got through Twisted Metal by Tony Ballantyne. Interesting story. I had major problems with suspension of disbelief because the sentient robots act way too human. Maybe there's a reason for that, but I'm not going to read more.

[stormhawk]

Wolf And Iron - Gordon R. Dickson

[Doug]

I just read World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, was pleasantly surprised, and am now trying out The Walking Dead Vol. 1: Days Gone Bye. They both have a strong character component, draw you right in, and have done good jobs of looking at how people and societies deal with disasters. I've been bitten, and am in the process of being sucked in.

On a loosely related note, I've almost finished the Y: the last man series of graphic novels, to which the above comments also apply.

Time to get back to novels.

[Snail in Danger (Sid)]

I've been bitten

Oh man, am I sorry to hear that. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

Speaking of being sorry - I thought I had apologized before now for being overly serious about Bill's comments upthread. But I didn't, so I'm doing it now. Sorry for taking your tongue-in-cheek comments perhaps a little too seriously. :)

As for what I've been reading - I finished my re-read of Mark Del Franco's Connor Grey series, which starts with Unshapely Things. I picked up on something I completely missed the first time, and now I wonder if that will come up at all in the fifth book, which is due out in April IIRC.

I finished The Journal of Dora Damage. I thought that the beginning was very promising but that the later parts didn't feel quite right. I loved the detailed descriptions of bookbinding, because yes, I am that kind of geek.

I also read Tales Before Narnia: The Roots of Modern Fantasy and Science Fiction and Sea magic and other stories of enchantment. The former had some nice stories. If you're curious about the precursors to fantasy generally or you are a C.S. Lewis aficionado, I'd recommend it. The latter is a book of fairy tale, myth, and legend adaptations for children. Some of them were decent, but most of them were kind of meh.

I snagged Wild Cards 1 from the library and only read (or tried to read) the new ones. David Levine's story was the only new one I particularly cared for. If it wasn't a Kage Baker homage it should have been.

On the non-fiction front I read My Life with Charlie Brown and Economics (by Laura Anne Gilman, who's much better known for her fantasy work). The former is recommended for anyone who was/is a fan of the Peanuts comic strip and anyone who is curious about what the creative struggles a cartoonist deals with are like. The latter is a decent basic book about economics for kids.

Things I decided not to read: The Final Call: Hockey Stories from a Legend in Stripes, RIM, Castles, The Other Side of Life, Little Money Street: In Search of Gypsies and Their Music in the South of France.

Final Call just felt too sententious. RIM made me feel like I'd read it before, only with better execution; but it did make me feel an uncontrollable urge to re-read The Tale of Genji, which I am now doing. I didn't think Castles was specific enough about facts and time periods to be a good reference work, even (perhaps especially) for children.

The Other Side of Life is self-published; the author advertised here and I was curious enough to agree to review it. I think the author shows promise but that this particular book felt too much like an early attempt to be interesting enough to read.

And finally, I gave up on Little Money Street because although the topic was interesting, it actually turned out to be pretty depressing. The Tale of Genji re-read will probably eat the rest of my reading time this month, and possibly the start of next month's too.

[Qylie]

Colleen ~blackrose~ wrote : I'm currently reading Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy. Fun and amusing little...


Ha, my brother just got that assigned for school!

[Tonya]

Just finished Side Jobs: Stories From the Dresden Files. This was supposed to keep me happy until Ghost StoryUnfortunately the opposite has happened. Now impatiently waiting for it to come out.

[Peggy]

Tonyanc, I had the same reaction to Side Jobs. That's not to say some of the stories weren't wonderful (anything that gives me more of Michael and Thomas is a win), but the new novella was really disappointing. Admittedly, Murphy is my least favorite character, so that may have colored my opinion a bit.

[Bill]

I just finished , which remains one of my all-time favourite stories. It never disappoints, even with the depressing subject matter. I still think it's wonderful and hope that the present and future generations read it and take heed. I'm just about to start , which I hope is as good as

[Tonya]

Peggy, I did enjoy the stories and Murphy is one of my favorite characters but it did leave me wanting more. As it should be.

I started Magic Lost, Trouble Found today.

[Peggy]

I know I'm in the minority with my Murphy-hate; it's mostly because she was just so very Lawful Stupid in those first few books.

[Doug]

I just read The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terrorand had a ball. Pure Rapture, and nuclear Fruit Cake

[Benjamin]

Last night I finished The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie, which was pretty good. I liked it a little bit more than Best Served Cold.

Now reading Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch.

[Mara]

I picked up way too many free kindle books of varying quality, read dozens of samples of books (some which ended up on my wishlist) and finished a couple of low price kindle books.

The two that stand out the most are The Emperor's Edge and Encrypted by Lindsay Buroker. They were a pleasant surprise.

[John]

Starting on Suzanne Collins' [Book: The Hunger Games] pretty soon. Almost done with [Book: Monster Hunter Vendetta].

[[deleted user]]

Just started on The Sirens of Titan today. It's a monthly read for a different group.

So far, so good.

[Qylie]

What group? I am part of another Fantasy group but it's kinda lacking.. is your other group good?

[Qylie]

This is my fav group on goodreads, I was looking for some more in diff or same genres that are like this group but I haven't found any.

[[deleted user]]

It's the Reddit group.

It's basically been dead for a while, a couple of us are attempting a resurrection. I don't think we have enough points in necromancy, but we'll see...

[Snail in Danger (Sid)]

I started and finished The Orchid Affair because I was visiting a used book store, but I wanted to have a book to take with me that wouldn't look like I stole it from the shelves. Overall: meh. (My copy of The Tale of Genji was purchased at a different used book store and looks exactly like something the one I was visiting would have in stock.)

And apparently I'm going to (try to) start How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, because it's due on the first and there's a hold list, so I won't be able to renew it.

[Julia]

I'm reading Rampant, which is about a teenage girl who finds she's a really good unicorn slayer. Yes, unicorns have pointy teeth and kill people in her universe. It's a hoot and it's due back at the Library tomorrow...

[[deleted user]]

Buffy the Unicorn Slayer, eh?

btw, someone else feel free to start the "What are you reading..." thread for February :)

[Peggy]

Rexton wrote: I just read The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terrorand had a ball. Pure Rapture, and nuclear Fruit Cake

LOVED that book - Moore has an awesome imagination. Just when you think things can't get any weirder, they do.