What are you reading in January 2012?

[Candiss]

Let us know what you're reading this month!

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

Still working on City of Bones--and liking it a lot!

[Viv]

I'm currently making slow progress through The Curse of Chalion which is excellent. I am also reading In Shades of Grey on my Kindle.

Next up for this month will be the next in Butcher's Codex Alera series, Princeps' Fury.

Unfortunately haven't got copies of either of January's BR books, but will make a start on both of February's so can get a head start on those discussions hopefully ;-)

[Paul]

Just started The Winter King, the first of Bernard Cornwell's gritty Arthurian trilogy. I'm on board for a few book club reads this month - House of Suns here, along with Never Let Me Go and The Big Sleep. A re-read of To Kill A Mockingbird may be the next book up, though.

[Helen]

Hopefully, I'll read The Mad Ship, The Magician King, Rise of Empire, The Night Circus, not sure about anything else.

[Nikita]

I got a few books for Christmas, so I plan to read Harmony, The Land of Painted Caves, and started before Christmas, I'm currently reading 1632 and Jhereg.

[Shel, Moderator]

I'm not letting myself start a new novel until I finish some important schoolwork, so I've been alternating between short stories in the anthology Interfictions: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing and nonfiction science in The Mind's Eye.

[Felina]

Helen wrote: "Hopefully, I'll read The Mad Ship, The Magician King, Rise of Empire, The Night Circus, not sure about anything else."

I loved Night Cirus. You've got some good ones set up for this month.

[Kevin]

Reading Bag of Bones along with Valley of the Horses.

[Jim]

About half way through Zima Blue by Alastair Reynolds. Enjoying it immensely. About the same with Nerd Do Well by Simon Pegg. Funny, but only marginally informative.

[Christine]

I'm reading World's End and The Summer Queen su= simultaneously (there are times when I prefer to carry a smaller book around)

[Candiss]

I'm beginning the month with Dawn by Octavia E. Butler (Finally!) and Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya. I'm behind one person at the library for House of Suns, so I hope it will be available after I finish those previous 2 books.

After I've finished those...we'll see. There are 3 people ahead of me at the library for The Magician King, so although I'd love to read it, I probably won't get to it this month.

[Stuart]

Will be reading The Magicians' Guild
by Trudi Canavan very shortly

[Paul]

Candiss wrote: "I'm beginning the month with Dawn by Octavia E. Butler (Finally!) and Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya. I'm behind one person at the library..."

I really MUST read some Octavia Butler! One of those authors I never seem to get around to. So many books...

Oh, I'm also hoping to fit in a re-read of The Golden Compass. How could I forget about that! And have just started listening to a reading of The Night Circus on BBC Radio, which was broadcast last week.

[Helen]

Wish I'd known that! Also, missed Handmaids Tale on the only day I didn't check Kindle's daily deal.

[Sandra]

Currently reading Seabiscuit: An American Legend and listening to The Tiger's Wife. Just pulled myself out of the grips of the Honorverse, feeling like I've OD'ed on popcorn and chocolate.

[Pickle]

im currently reading Lies, Inc. with a view to read:

Who Goes There?
Martian Time-slip
The Master and Margarita

[Jenny]

I'm trying to finish Dead as a Doornail. In the past couple of days I started Mansfield Park and after the quake.

[Bill]

I just finished the near perfect epic fantasy Kirith Kirian and have started The Ordinary its sequel.

[Ken]

Finished up Chung Kuo second prequel book, Daylight on Iron Mountain. There were problems but I enjoyed it.

And with a little sqweee I am now reading Skirmish
We finally get to see what happens to Jewel Markess after the events of the Sun Sword

[Stefan, Group Founder + Moderator (Retired)]

I've been enjoying Rise of Empire, which is the second omnibus of Michael J. Sullivan's Riyria books. It's a ton of fun - not very deep or original, but very entertaining.

[Shel, Moderator]

Kernos wrote: "I just finished the near perfect epic fantasy Kirith Kirian and have started The Ordinary its sequel."

Near perfect? I don't know anything about this book. Tell me more. I'm intrigued!

I finished The Mind's Eye the other day - fascinating stuff, as with all of Oliver Sacks' books.

[Bill]

Shel wrote: "Kernos wrote: "I just finished the near perfect epic fantasy Kirith Kirian and have started The Ordinary its sequel."

Near perfect? I don't know anything about this book. T..."

I'm working on a review in which I hope to explain.

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

I finished City of Bones last night and will start the ebook of Honor Among Enemies soon... probably no reading time till next week.

[Deedee]

I was set to start House of Suns ... but somehow I started with Theft of Swords. Quick read so far (p. 138) and there is a swashbuckling feel to the story even though (so far) there have not been any swordfights.

I'll be starting House of Suns soon.

[Jenny]

I finished after the quake, loved it, and now I'm reading Room.

[Kevin]

Jenny wrote: "I finished after the quake, loved it, and now I'm reading Room."

That this what happens when one finished a Haruki Murakami book. There is just something magical about his books.

[Kevin]

Reading some classic SF, A Fire Upon the Deep and Armor.

[Jim]

Is Armor really old enough to be a classic? (Please say no!)

[Ken]

We could say the same thing about A Fire Upon the Deep. Your making me feel old. LOL

[Stefan, Group Founder + Moderator (Retired)]

Back when we did Classics Month here (which has been a while - maybe something to resurrect?) we defined it as books that are more than 25 years old and still in print. Of course that's a completely arbitrary number.

[Random]

Eeep, 10 years can't be long enough to earn classic status! :)

I'm still working my way through my Skolian Empire reread fest. Just finished Spherical Harmonic and that was a horrible slog. The book itself is good, but the narrator was awful and I couldn't find my dead tree edition anywhere.

Just started The Moon's Shadow and it has a different narrator. YAY!

I initially read the series all in text format, but my husband knows I love audio books so he picked up the audio editions over the years. Since most of my dead tree editions have been donated, eaten by my cat, packed away, buried in closets, hidden in book shelves packed two or three levels deep, or lost in the black hole under my bed, I figured audio editions would be less of a hassle. :)

[Jim]

Whew! I didn't think Armor was that old. Kevin, you had me feeling really old there for a minute. It really is a super book, though.

[Kevin]

I kind of gave up/put on hold Armor and Fire Upon the Deep to read World Without End.

[Jan]

So far I've read Red Seas Under Red Skies, which took me a long time to get into, but once I got there I couldn't stop.

I also read Master of Crows which was a surprising good Fantasy Romance.

And finished with Changing Planes, which is an awesome collection of short-stories by Le Guin. Really, really enjoyed them.

Also read Roverandom by Tolkien as a quicky, but was terribly disappointed by the Dutch edition.

Not sure what's in store next. Might reread some of the Foreigner series by Cherryh in preparation for the new installment in March, but other than that not feeling the groove for anything.

[Snail in Danger (Sid)]

I've been on a non-fiction kick lately. (Mostly related to World War II; some good stuff there which you can see on my bookshelf if you really want to know. ;)

In the genre this month, I've read and enjoyed The Cabinet of Earths and Human for a Day. The former is a middle grade fantasy set in Paris which unexpectedly tied in with my non-fiction reading; the latter is an anthology where I was only bored enough to skip one of the stories. (Which, IME, is impressive.)

I tried to read the YA title Cinder (a science fiction retelling of the story of Cinderella) but bounced off it. I will probably start The Master and Margarita soon — within the next day or so. I want to read something that's at least a little bit silly first, so I've started Epic: John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg and the Greatest Season in Tennis Ever.

[Bill]

Just finished The Last Green Tree the end of a trilogy somewhat about magic vs science/technology as sources of power and last nite started The Road, dystopian but hardly SF.

[Jenny]

I'm listening to Definitely Dead on audio.

[Nick]

Snail in Danger (Sid) wrote: "I've been on a non-fiction kick lately. (Mostly related to World War II; some good stuff there which you can see on my bookshelf if you really want to know. ;)

In the genre this month, I've read..."

I've been doing a lot of non-fiction also recently. I just finished Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base by journalist Annie Jacobsen which speaks in many ways to the 20th century fascination with science fiction. From society's obsession and fears of alien invasions to stealth aircraft experiments to pilots wearing gorilla masks to Nazi scientists spreading their mayhem all over the planet -- it's all got a connection to Area 51 -- that place that officially doesn't exist.

[Bill]

Is it any good Nick? It's been in my shopping basket at Amazon for ages but I haven't gone for it yet.

[Stefan, Group Founder + Moderator (Retired)]

I'm reading an advance copy of The Best of Kage Baker, a collection containing some of her best stories and novellas as well as a batch of previously unpublished stories. As expected, it's excellent, but so far I've only re-read the stories from her previous collections.

[Snail in Danger (Sid)]

I'm so glad that's got "The Carpet Beds of Sutro Park" — I was really looking forward to reading that, and then, well, her death intervened.

I didn't like most of the things she wrote near the end of her life — I don't know if she was going in a direction I wasn't as fond of or if her health affected her writing. But I'm still sad that she's no longer with us.

[Nick]

Bill wrote: "Is it any good Nick? It's been in my shopping basket at Amazon for ages but I haven't gone for it yet."

I really liked it. A lot of records before 1980 are now declassified and that's where Jacobsen gets most of her info -- that and interviews.

[Ken]

Nick wrote: "I've been doing a lot of non-fiction also recently. I just finished Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base by journalist Annie Jacobsen "

I had this on my radar till I read that most of the "Area 51" employee interviewee's were upset because Jacobsen when a bit off the reservation.

[Alivia]

I gobbled up Clockwork Prince like a madwoman, now I'm working on Immortal Beloved by Cate Tiernan. Not bad, a little lacking, but good story so far.

[Nick]

Theresa wrote: "I bought 1Q84 for my tablet (tried reading the print copy, but it's way too heavy to hold in bed!), and I'm continuing The Dovekeepers which I started a few months ago."

I just noticed that 1Q84 won the "Best Fiction" award by the Goodreads readers in the year-end GR Choice Awards. However, the "Best Science Fiction" went to Stephen King's 11/22/63 which I just finished, and, frankly, I only marginally consider it sci-fi.

[Hélène]

I'm reading The Riyria Revelations by Michael J. Sullivan : I'll soon finish the fourth one. While waiting for the publication of Heir of Novron, I'll go on with Honor Among Enemies by David Weber. On the non-fiction side, I'm reading Petit cours d'autodéfense intellectuelle which could translate in Lessons on intellectual self-defense or "How not to be fooled by pseudo reasoning".

[Deedee]

Have just started The Revisionists. Good so far. Also reading Theft of Swords - almost finished. Starting soon: House of Suns and Sung in Shadow.

[Bill]

I finished The Road and am trying to figure out how to review it. I'm impressed. Sometimes simple is best. "The Shape of Things to Come"

I just started The Space Vampires a SF/Horror crossover upon which the '80's Brit SF B-movie "Lifeforce" was based.

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

I finished Honor Among Enemies last night. I have a copy of The Art of Racing in the Rain, a Poul Anderson book from my shelf, and the Feb. BOTM by Brust. Decisions, decisions...