What are you reading in February 2011?

[Stefan, Group Founder + Moderator (Retired)]

Let us know what you're reading this month!

[Phoenixfalls]

My plans went horribly awry in January, so all I'm saying at the moment is this:

Currently reading:

Up next, because I've previously committed to them:

And the rest of my reading schedule is wide open!

[Shel, Moderator]

I'm just getting started on Grand Conspiracy - can't wait to catch up on the goings-on in Athera :)

[Christine]

I've just started Son of Avonar and have already ordered the sequel; I love finding new series like this one

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

Reading The Mote in God's Eye. Up next, back to Athera with Warhost of Vastmark.

[Sandi]

After reading a couple of reviews, I decided to set everything aside for a few days and read Shadowfever, the last book in Karen Marie Moning's Fever series. I'm also reading A Secret Kept, a non-genre novel by Tatiana de Rosnay. I have started Off Armageddon Reef by David Weber, but it's going to have to wait until I'm finished with Shadowfever.

In audio, I'm listening to Orion: A Novel by Ben Bova. Audible is having a great sale on first books in series, so I got a few. This was one of them. I'm really enjoying it so far.

[Bill]

I am currently reading Salt by Adam Roberts which is supposedly a SF, but after 50 pages, seems more a political primer.

Next up will be The Carnivorous Lamb, and then Janny's Fugitive Prince. What comes next will depend on how I feel.

[Stefan, Group Founder + Moderator (Retired)]

I've neglected this topic for a month, so here's a quick update of what I've read in January:

- Pirate Freedom by Gene Wolfe (4 stars)
- The Hammer by K.J. Parker (4 stars)
- God's War by Kameron Hurley (3.5 stars)
- Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch (4 stars)
- The Sentinel Mage by Emily Gee (2 stars)
- Brave New Worlds: Dystopian Stories edited by John Joseph Adams (5 stars)
- Farlander by Col Buchanan (3 stars)
- The Fallen Blade: Act One of the Assassini by Jon Courtenay Grimwood (still deciding)

... and I just started Among Others by Jo Walton.

[Sandra]

I just started Magician: Apprentice, and am doing a group read of King Hereafter with a Yahoo group. So far Magician Apprentice is quite good. King Hereafter is a very dense historical novel by Dorothy Dunnett, so bears a break now and then. Am also reading The Death of the Necromancer, but have admittedly been distracted.

My TBR pile looms menacingly, and yet I bought Among Others after reading your comments and the book description, Stefan. Am anticipating perhaps starting Gardens of the Moon later this month. Thought I'd see what all the fuss is about. :) Am also ready to plunge into Cherryh's Alliance Union world, some mysteries that sound good, and I dunno what else.

[Jon]

For a short month, I have way too much reading I need to finish, all of it related to virtual and physical book clubs.

Currently, I'm reading Magician: Apprentice by Raymond E. Feist as part of the GR FBCS group read of the Riftwar Saga, which just kick off this month.

I ordered Cold Magic by Kate Elliott to participate in the GR SF&F BC group read of that novel. I wasn't planning on buy it, but I was shocked to learn that my amazing public library on the ground floor of my employer's building (aka the Kansas City Public Library Plaza Branch) had not yet purchased a copy. It's rare that I can't find a book through the KC library system.

As part of that library's Winter Reading Program, I'll also quickly re-read Fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Twain. I hope to earn a cool mug and be entered in a drawing for a Nook.

I am also participating in another reading program sponsored by the KC Library called 'A Taste of Victorian Literature' so I'm reading Mansfield Park by Jane Austen this month to participate in a group discussion held at the Plaza Branch the evening of Wed Feb 16 at 6:30 pm.

I'll be continuing the group read at Beyond Reality for Janny Wurts' Wars of Light and Shadow with Traitor's Knot.

And back at FBCS in mid-February, I'll begin a re-read of the ebook version of Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson to participate in the alternate series group read of Malazan Book of the Fallen.

Should I pray for more blizzard like weather so I'll have more time to read? Otherwise, I've probably bitten off more than I can chew (or read) during the shortest and coldest month of the year.

For any other reads I might try to squeeze in, see my current-month book shelf.

[Ken]

I finished House Name by Michelle West, final volume of the Jewel Markess prequel. The book was pretty good. While I didnt enjoy it as much as her previous works, I suspect that had more to do with how the book is places within its own history. It takes place during her Hunter Duology so there was some cross over and it felt like she was skimming over some stuff. With that said, very good book. I haven't read the duology yet. Next summer

I have decided to catch up on some non fiction. Unfortunately I have so much that looks interesting. Had some trouble but decided on a book I bought in 96. I found the receipt.
WHERE WIZARDS STAY UP LATE: The Origins Of The Internet

[Stuart]

I am reading Star of the Sea byJoseph O'Connor

[Christine]

I just finished Son of Avonar and today The Adoration of Jenna Fox, both of which titles I found here. I really enjoyed both books. Now I've started on The Magic of Recluce, another title I found on this forum

[Lurple]

Read a couple this month, but my to-finish list includes:


Changes
Ariel: A Book of the Change
Elegy Beach
The Name of the Wind
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
The Player of Games

I've read Ariel before and loved it, but the new version apparently has some omitted content and I want to give it another read before I tackle the sequel Elegy Beach.

As for the others I'll tackle the BR group books first (starting with The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms) and see how far I get on the rest. I'm at least halfway done with Changes, so I'll finish that for sure too.

[Lurple]

Phoenixfalls wrote: "My plans went horribly awry in January, so all I'm saying at the moment is this:

Currently reading: is such a beautiful book. I hope you enjoy it!

[Phoenixfalls]

Lurple wrote: "The Last Unicorn is such a beautiful book. I hope you enjoy it! "

Thanks! I hope so too. . . it's been sitting on my TBR stack since before I knew what a TBR stack was! :)

That said, I finished The Fox Woman, which was absolutely beautiful but wrecked me emotionally, so I went on a Georgette Heyer binge and slammed these:

Sprig Muslin -- Fun but problematic
The Convenient Marriage -- Fun and less problematic
The Corinthian -- Delightful, and not at all problematic, though by this point I was a little tired of seeing a 30-something man with 17-year-old girl
Black Sheep -- Just perfect

I suppose it's back to more serious reading now though. . . ;)

[Karen]

So far this month:

The Post-Office Girl by Stefan Zweig --historical fiction and a good story (highly recommend)
Noah's Compass by Anne Tyler --Baltimorean fiction reminiscent of The Accidental Tourist (recommend)
The Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna --silly Finnish fiction (disappointing)

And now, after that last, it's back to some good sf - over hard just the way I like it! (I alternate the sci fi with other genres, otherwise it all gets confused in my feeble little mind...)

The Eternity Artifact by L.E. Modesitt Jr.

[Karen]

I also bought Lord of Light in anticipation of the April read, but dunno if I can keep my itchy fingers off of it until then!

It looks good!

[Christine]

Has The Magic of Recluce even been a book of the month? I'm reading it right now, and would love to see a discussion of it.

[Kevin]

Christine wrote: "Has The Magic of Recluce even been a book of the month? I'm reading it right now, and would love to see a discussion of it."

If you go to another fantasy group that I am in, you could vote for it to be read and discussed in March. I recommended the book.

[Christine]

Thanks for the recommendation, Kevin; is it really the first of 15?? What is the other fantasy group? As if I needed more books to read.

[Stefan, Group Founder + Moderator (Retired)]

16 actually, I believe, and counting. I would love to see this be our next series for discussion - I've only read 4 or 5 of the books. The author is one of my favorites, but I've mostly read his SF and some of his other fantasy series so far.

As for what I'm reading - I just started a quick re-read of The Name of the Wind. 100 pages in, it's just as good as I remember!

[Chris]

Here's the Recluce series link, Christine.

[Ken]

Finished up Wizards Stay up Late. Its a history of the birth of the internet with the creation of Arpanet. They invented packet switching, routers, gatheways eathernet all from scratch. All this happened in the 60s and 70s. The book is high level. I enjoyed it.

Started with
Caesar
Actually I started this a while back, continuing on

[Karen]

"As if I needed more books to read."

LOL, Christine! What strange law of physics is at work when the more books I read, the longer my to-read list gets???

[Arthur]

I have been absent for a while here.
Nonetheless, I read books :)

I have finished His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman

The Amber Spyglass was very good. A couple of heart wrenching moments, such as when they have to separate with ....and go to the Underworld and a few others. I am not sure whether kids or even teenagers who have never experienced true love, can fully understand the depth of some of the feelings. I have a suspicion that although Pullman uses teenagers as protagonists, he is speaking to a wider audience, mainly adult.
There are two epigraphs of the last chapters that I am going to add to my favourite quotes. I love them, although one of them is one of the sweetest things in the world and another is so bitter...and they usually follow each other just like that chapters in the book.

All in all, very good trilogy.

Then I started to read The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins
I have finished the first two books and liked them quite a lot. Sometimes I have this deja-vu feeling because of certain ideas and atmosphere similar to We and 1984.
I like Catnip. She is not perfect. Her friends can be smarter and kinder than she is. Then again, she is a true survivalist. She would not be one, if she were as humane as her friends. It is the reality we face every day. As somebody said: Well behaved women rarely make history. I could only add that it applies to all human beings.

At the moment I am 1/4 into .

[Shel, Moderator]

I finished Grand Conspiracy early this morning when I woke up well before my alarm and couldn't fall back asleep again - figured if I was going to be insomniac I might as well take advantage of the time to read!

Next up is Fledgling by Octavia Butler. Really looking forward to this one.

[Christine]

@Arthur, it will be interesting to see what you think of
Mockingjay; I was very disappointed in it after really enjoying the first two books

[Arthur]

Christine wrote: "@Arthur, it will be interesting to see what you think of
Mockingjay; I was very disappointed in it after really enjoying the first two books"

That's the general opinion. Unfortunately :(
We will see.

[Dede]

I have almost finished Mockingjay and totally disappointed too.


Dede

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

I am well into Warhost of Vastmark. Next up I have either Under Heaven or The Player of Games before tackling the next book in Janny's series.

[Shel, Moderator]

I just finished Fledgling. It was a very strange book. I liked it, but there were some parts of it that rubbed me the wrong way, and I don't think it was as good as the other Octavia Butler books I've read. It was definitely a unique take on vampires, though. Worth reading, just didn't blow me away like I was expecting it to based on her other work.

[Phoenixfalls]

I couldn't resist and read two more Georgette Heyer novels: These Old Shades (fun) and its sequel Devil's Cub (EXTREMELY problematic).

Then I got back on track and finished Remains, which I finally reviewed over on my brand-new book review blog. In short, it was a damn good, refreshingly adult SF mystery.

I also finished Odalisque, but the less said about that one the better. Blech.

Finally, on to The Last Unicorn!

[Phoenixfalls]

Sherri wrote: "Honestly, I remember almost nothing about them except that i finished them before we landed and, yes, kidnapping is not the best choice in romantic moves."

Seriously, kidnapping is NOT sexy. Not at ALL. Nor is the threat of drugging, rape, and death by strangulation. I mean, aside from that there were some good moments, because Heyer does humor so well, but NO. Just NO.

[Phoenixfalls]

Sherri wrote: "I think I have about 8-10 more of the Regencies left, then I'm going to start on her mysteries. I suspect the mood will strike me as the weather warms up."

I was sadly underwhelmed by the one mystery I tried of hers, Behold, Here's Poison. Not looking forward to the day they're all I have left! (Happily, that's quite far away, as I've only read 8 of the 37 romances and none of the straight historicals. . .)

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

Phoenixfalls wrote: "I also finished Odalisque, but the less said about that one the better. Blech."

OK, but even a clue about why you disliked it? You dislike the author in general, you like the author but this was not a good book... I have several unread books by this author on my shelf, picked up on someone's recommendation, but haven't read them. So I'm just wondering. Thanks.

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

I finished Warhost of Vastmark last night and will be taking a break, as is my usual strategy when reading a series, to read a non-series book between each series book.

The group has read or is reading 2 of my 3 options (Under Heaven, The Player of Games, and The Gripping Hand--sequel to The Mote in God's Eye) and that influenced my choice, so today I will be starting The Player of Games.

[Phoenixfalls]

Kathi wrote: "OK, but even a clue about why you disliked it? You dislike the author in general, you like the author but this was not a good book... I have several unread books by this author on my shelf, picked up on someone's recommendation, but haven't read them. So I'm just wondering. Thanks."

LOL! I thought the story was trite and the writing entirely made up of telling rather than showing. I went in rather hoping to like the book, because she's become one of my mom's favorite authors in recent years, but I basically had to skim the entire thing.

That said, I get why some people would like it. . . because of its very familiarity it hits a lot of epic fantasy buttons, and it's easy to see who to root for and who to root against.

But after a year of reading authors like Catherynne Valente, Elizabeth Bear, and Samuel R. Delany, where absolutely nothing is handed to you, it felt like a waste of time.

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

Phoenixfalls wrote: "LOL! I thought the story was trite and the writing entirely made up of telling rather than showing...."

Thanks for some details about why this was unappealing to you. I guess I'll have to see what I think when I get around to reading some of her stuff.

[Phoenixfalls]

Even my mom thought this particular story was predictable; she liked Myrren's Gift more, but wanted to discuss the books she read most recently with me, so I started with Odalisque. So, you know, if you have some options, maybe that title just isn't the place to start. . .

[Shel, Moderator]

I'm in the middle of Katharine Dunn's Geek Love, and boy, is it a weird book. Disturbing. The "geek" reference in the title is not the modern sense of the word, like Bill Gates at his computer, but a carnival geek, i.e. one who bites the heads off of chickens. It's a fascinating book, so far, but weeeeeeeeeird.

[Sandra]

I'm limping along with King Hereafter, which I like a lot, but am reading with a group on another website and they are microscopically SLOW! Thinking of forging ahead and then going back and reading the discussion.

Also reading Gardens of the Moon with low expectations from what everyone says about it, but plan to stay with the series though at least book 3, as this is recommended. Actually am finding it more readable than I expected.

Currently listening to The Dark Tide as I've never read one of McKiernan's books. Enjoying it with a smile at its quaintness.

Here's my current month shelf, although god knows if I'll get to them all. Some have been on this shelf since Jan. 1.

[Christine]

I've almost finished Dexter Is Delicious as a break from Fantasy and SciFi. I have The Reality Dysfunction sitting on my shelf from the library, but doubt I could read it before it's due, so will probably move on to Rainbows End instead

[Christine]

I've always enjoyed Dexter; this one is a bit different and I'm not sure I really like the "new" Dexter but I will probably continue to read this series (as opposed to anything written in collaboration by James Patterson)

[Shel, Moderator]

Finished Geek Love in one fell swoop this afternoon (I love school vacation week!) - it ended as weirdly as it started. Sort of an abrupt climax, which was a little disappointing after all of the buildup, but I still really liked the book.

Now I'm into Soul Hunt, the third Evie Scanlan book by Margaret Ronald. Love these.

[Christine]

Sherri wrote: "I lost patience with the whole "Dark passenger as supernatural entity" thing, but I like the light touch with pretty grim subject matter, so I know I'll eventually pick it up (cheap). :)"

I may have to change my mind about the Dexter books; the final quarter of the newest one is so contrived. Of coourse, Dexter won't die or the series is done but still...

[Bill]

I finished and reviewed Fugitive Prince and decided I needed to read some easy SciFi so started The Middle of Nowhere by David Garrold who wrote the screenplay masterpiece The Trouble with Tribbles.

[Nick]

Recently finished Secret Passages by Paul Preuss, Pretty good sci-fi set in modern Greece, very character oriented as two recent divorcees search for a "mad scientist".

[Stefan, Group Founder + Moderator (Retired)]

I've pretty much been sucked into The Wise Man's Fear. I need to get it read by the release date to meet my review deadline, and at 1,000 pages it's a bit of a tome. Still, great book so far - the fans will be pleased, I think. After this, I'm going back to Traitor's Knot for the discussion here.

[Phoenixfalls]

Finished The Last Unicorn, and it made me wish I remembered my Greek philosophers better, but I nonetheless did the best I could with my review.