Whatcha Readin' Dec 2012 Edition

[Khadaji]

As always this time of year - First and foremost Happy Birthday to me! Tomorrow I'll be 51.

I'm reading the newest Dresden by Jim Butcher and so far I'm enjoying it. Next up after that will be the newest Iron Druid Trapped.

November's thread.

[DZedNConfused]

Reading Sempster's Tale by Margaret Frazier... I have a love hat realtionship with Sister Frevisse, she's too detached to laove but I can't hate her either...

Up next will be Murder Most Medieval, a collection of short stories.

OH! And Happy Birthday Khadaji!

[wonderlust]

Khadaji: Happy Birthday tomorrow!

DZedNConfused: I want a love hat too.

[DZedNConfused]

Oh good heavens! I even edited that once!

Love Hate relationship, I blame NaNoWriMo all my brain cells are DEAD! *but I won*

[wonderlust]

Yays! That's a real accomplishment.

[Jack Batty]

I'm stuck in 1972. I polished up Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72, by Hunter S Thompson a couple weeks ago, and now I'm almost through All the President's Men, by Woodward and Bernstein.

[DZedNConfused]

Originally Posted by wonderlust

Yays! That's a real accomplishment.

Thank you, this was one story that really didn't want to come out of my head.

[jsgoddess]

Originally Posted by DZedNConfused

Reading Sempster's Tale by Margaret Frazier... I have a love hat realtionship with Sister Frevisse, she's too detached to laove but I can't hate her either...

Have you tried the Joliffe books? I like them a bit better, though I quite like Sister Frevisse. I cannot hide my love of the medieval period.

[Siam Sam]

Happy Birthday, youg 'un!

Still on A Mencken Chrestomathy, which I just recently started. Selected writings by HL Mencken.

[DZedNConfused]

Originally Posted by jsgoddess

Have you tried the Joliffe books? I like them a bit better, though I quite like Sister Frevisse. I cannot hide my love of the medieval period.

I haven't yet, they are on my list of things to check out. I gotta read some of these piles down first

[LavenderBlue]

Happy Birthday Khadaji.

I am reading Marmee and Louisa: The Untold Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Mother by Eve LaPlante. It's sort of depressing. Basically Alcott's father was a head in the sand philosopher who did not want to or couldn't do much work. Abigal Alcott was constantly pregnant, contantly in debt and contantly barely able to feed her family. As a woman during that period she had no rights at all. They both bravely stood up against slavery and for integration and full rights for African Americans. But bravely alone was not enough to ward off near constant homelessness.

[jsgoddess]

Originally Posted by DZedNConfused

I haven't yet, they are on my list of things to check out. I gotta read some of these piles down first

B-but, you're supposed to drop everything and go read them RIGHT NOW so I can know what you think!

[DZedNConfused]

Originally Posted by jsgoddess

B-but, you're supposed to drop everything and go read them RIGHT NOW so I can know what you think!

Bahahahaha! Umm well money, I errrr got bored over the summer and spent WAY too much on books. But I check the Paperback Exchange here on a regular basis.

[Dung Beetle]

Originally Posted by Khadaji

As always this time of year - First and foremost Happy Birthday to me! Tomorrow I'll be 51.

I'm reading the newest Dresden by Jim Butcher and so far I'm enjoying it.

Happy birthday, Khadaji! I'm reading Cold Days as well.

[Future Londonite]

About to finish Johannes Cabal:The Fear Institute by Jonathan Howard. Going to start reading Dead Harvest and The Collector by Chris Holm

[DZedNConfused]

Mmmmm finished The Sempter's Tale and yeah...

SPOILER:

Do ANY of these books end with the murderer getting punished?

Started Making Money... I need some Discworld right now.

[Dendarii Dame]

Terry Pratchett's novel Wintersmith. Excellent as usual.

[DZedNConfused]

Originally Posted by Dendarii Dame

Terry Pratchett's novel Wintersmith. Excellent as usual.

I enjoyed it a lot... nice reading during a summer heatwave!

[LawMonkey]

Just polished off Deathless. I loved it when I started, but it lost me. Felt like I was lacking the necessary cultural grounding. The writing was lovely, though.

Just started Oliver Sacks's Hallucinations. I'm looking forward to it, because Oliver Sacks is in the dictionary for both "win" and "awesome."

[Chefguy]

Team of Rivals, Doris Kearns Goodwin (biography of Lincoln, if you don't know).

[wonderlust]

Originally Posted by Eleanor of Aquitaine

I need to revisit this one. I've read and enjoyed many of Flynn's books - Eifelheim, The Wreck of the River of Stars, and the Firestar series - but I bought The January Dancer when it was released, and I abandoned it about halfway through. My notes say that the writing was good but I just wasn't interested in the plot or the characters or the setting. Maybe I was in some sort of weird mood at the time.

As much as I adored Wreck of the River of Stars, I think we're in agreement on January Dancer. As a slower reader, I ran out of motivation a quarter-way through. It started out really fun, with wonderful imagination and mysterious artifacts, but there was a steep learning curve (a map to become familiar with, many names, many stories, a far-future universe to grasp) and Flynn's great, dense language -- but not enough payoff to push through. This saddens me, because I didn't love Eifelheim either, and so maybe Wreck is where I should leave him.

It did, however, remind me to read Jack McDevitt's alien artifact books, though, because this is the part I really liked. I just don't have any interest in Flynn's galactic political machinations.

[koeeoaddi]

I just finished watching Season 3 of Deadwood and because I was married to the series for three weeks and because the ending left me swinging in the South Dakota wind, I went to the library and brought home Deadwood, by Peter Dexter.

My hopes are unrealistically insanely implacably high.

[AuntiePam]

Finished Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. Liked it a lot, for the local flavor and the character of Fermin, but probably won't read the sequel(s?).

Started Mall Purchase Night by Rick Cook. It's set in a shopping mall built on something like Buffy's Hellmouth, only it's the entrance to where elves, faeries, and other fantastical critters live. May Day is coming and a new security guard is encountering some weird shit. It's a lot of fun, and reminds me of something from the 70's, before horror and supernatural novels turned into gorefests and torture porn.

[Elendil's Heir]

Originally Posted by Jack Batty

... now I'm almost through All the President's Men, by Woodward and Bernstein.

The movie is actually a bit better than the book, I'd say!

Originally Posted by Chefguy

Team of Rivals, Doris Kearns Goodwin (biography of Lincoln, if you don't know).

Hope you'll have the chance to see Lincoln soon; it's partly based on the book. Good stuff.

I'm almost done with On the Night Plain by J. Robert Lennon, about brothers on a struggling sheep farm in the American West just after World War II, and Hitler Victorious, a pretty uneven collection of alt hist short stories edited by Gregory Benford. Also just started reading, with my 13-year-old, The Rolling Stones by Robert A. Heinlein.

[Jack Batty]

Originally Posted by Jack Batty

I'm almost through All the President's Men, by Woodward and Bernstein.

Originally Posted by Elendil's Heir

The movie is actually a bit better than the book, I'd say!

Oh, I love the movie. I think I've seen it at least a dozen times. But the book makes the whole plot a lot clearer. I'd always steered clear of it because I was afraid it would be just a stale, just the facts, newspaper prose type snooze-fest, but its a pretty snappy read.

[Chefguy]

Originally Posted by Elendil's Heir

Hope you'll have the chance to see Lincoln soon; it's partly based on the book. Good stuff.

It's in our neighborhood theater now, and we'll probably get to it next week. It's not like it's going to spoil the ending or anything.

[wonderlust]

I'm reading Among Others, by Jo Walton, this years Hugo Award winner. It's a coming of age novel about a Welsh teen girl, magic, a boarding school, and her deep and abiding love for science fiction novels.

Someone posted a page showing the covers of all the books mentioned in Among Others.

[Khadaji]

Originally Posted by AuntiePam

Finished Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. Liked it a lot, for the local flavor and the character of Fermin, but probably won't read the sequel(s?).

Started Mall Purchase Night by Rick Cook. It's set in a shopping mall built on something like Buffy's Hellmouth, only it's the entrance to where elves, faeries, and other fantastical critters live. May Day is coming and a new security guard is encountering some weird shit. It's a lot of fun, and reminds me of something from the 70's, before horror and supernatural novels turned into gorefests and torture porn.

I've liked Rick Cook's Wizardry series, but haven't tried this one. Let us know what you think.

[TheMerchandise]

Originally Posted by LawMonkey

Just started Oliver Sacks's Hallucinations. I'm looking forward to it, because Oliver Sacks is in the dictionary for both "win" and "awesome."

I was lucky enough to meet him last year, after he gave a lecture. He is the most delightful little old man I've ever met and I wanted to put him in my pocket and keep him forever.

He is also shockingly smart. He didn't give a prepared lecture, just asked aloud "What should I talk about tonight?" and then launched into a 60 minute monologue, complete with case citations and delightful personal anecdotes.

[Eleanor of Aquitaine]

I'm still caught up in a re-read of the Vorkosigan novels. I'm up to Memory now.

Otherwise I just read a charming little murder mystery/comedy of manners: Thus Was Adonis Murdered, by Sarah Caudwell. It's a contemporary novel published in 1981, but the language is highly stylized, something like a Regency novel, and it's absolutely hilarious. The characters are a group of young English barristers trying to assist one of their friends who has been accused of murdering someone while on holiday in Venice.

[yanceylebeef]

I had to put down Patient Zero. I like zombie novels as much as the next guy, but the lead protagonist was such a Mary Sue for the author it wasn't even funny. This guy is a crack shot, super cop, ex military martial arts expert super man. The scene where he walks into a room of six black ops military delta force/seals types and beats them all up in under five seconds just ruined it for me. It started to read like fan wank.

My nightstand book is The Disappearing Spoon and my daily read is Existence.
I'm loving them both. Up next is 2312 thanks to a recommendation on this board a month or so ago.

[DZedNConfused]

Originally Posted by Eleanor of Aquitaine

I'm still caught up in a re-read of the Vorkosigan novels. I'm up to Memory now.

Otherwise I just read a charming little murder mystery/comedy of manners: Thus Was Adonis Murdered, by Sarah Caudwell. It's a contemporary novel published in 1981, but the language is highly stylized, something like a Regency novel, and it's absolutely hilarious. The characters are a group of young English barristers trying to assist one of their friends who has been accused of murdering someone while on holiday in Venice.

Oh MUST have for the Edward Gorey cover if nothing else!

[jsgoddess]

I'm on the final book of the Percy Jackson series. I had read the first four a few years ago and enjoyed them, but never finished the series.

[TheMerchandise]

I'm reading A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell, which I just decided should be an apartment only read. I'm only 80 pages in and I already know this book will produce at least one episode of ugly crying.

So on the train this morning, I started The Half-Made World.

[koeeoaddi]

Originally Posted by wonderlust

I'm reading Among Others, by Jo Walton, this years Hugo Award winner. It's a coming of age novel about a Welsh teen girl, magic, a boarding school, and her deep and abiding love for science fiction novels.

Someone posted a page showing the covers of all the books mentioned in Among Others.

Cool. I'm going to read this, now.

[Eleanor of Aquitaine]

Originally Posted by wonderlust

I'm reading Among Others, by Jo Walton, this years Hugo Award winner. It's a coming of age novel about a Welsh teen girl, magic, a boarding school, and her deep and abiding love for science fiction novels.

Someone posted a page showing the covers of all the books mentioned in Among Others.

I've just discovered that Jo Walton has a blog on Tor.com where she reviews new books and discusses old ones. She also has just started a series called "Something Else Like..." where she recommends books similar to an author's works. So far she's done Roger Zelazny, Robert Heinlein, and Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga.

I've only read one book by Walton, Tooth and Claw, but I liked it. It was something like a Victorian romantic novel, except with dragons instead of people.

Originally Posted by TheMerchandise

I'm reading A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell, which I just decided should be an apartment only read. I'm only 80 pages in and I already know this book will produce at least one episode of ugly crying.

A great book, but it's beyond depressing. I remember being angry and nearly nauseous at the ending.

[hogarth]

I finished Thackeray's The Virginians about a week ago. I'm kind of kicking myself because it turns out I've been reading his books in reverse order (The Newcomes, Pendennis, The Virginians) which results in a certain amount of "Am I supposed to know this character already?" I suppose I could complete the reverse sequence with Henry Esmond, but I've kind of spoiled the ending already.

Currently I'm reading Our Mutual Friend by Dickens.

[araminty]

Originally Posted by TheMerchandise

So on the train this morning, I started The Half-Made World.

I really enjoyed this one, very unique and interesting world-building, although the pace dropped off a little bit in the middle. I thought I'd read another by the same author, but I a little googling doesn't bring up anything I remember. Hmm.

I've been re-reading some Diana Wynne Jones, as it becomes available for Kindle. Lovely, and such a pity there will be no more. I also read a collection of her writings on writing, which could have done with a much tighter edit - the same stories were told over and over. Which, actually, come to think of it, was quite interesting, so never mind.

[zeldarae]

I'm reading To Kill a Mockingbird. It's been 30 years since I read it in high school, so it's pretty much all new to me. I'm very much enjoying it as an adult.

[wonderlust]

Originally Posted by Eleanor of Aquitaine

I've just discovered that Jo Walton has a blog on Tor.com where she reviews new books and discusses old ones. She also has just started a series called "Something Else Like..." where she recommends books similar to an author's works. So far she's done Roger Zelazny, Robert Heinlein, and Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga.

I've only read one book by Walton, Tooth and Claw, but I liked it. It was something like a Victorian romantic novel, except with dragons instead of people.


A great book, but it's beyond depressing. I remember being angry and nearly nauseous at the ending.

Thank you for this! I avoided reading her because I didn't like the writing style in Tooth and Claw, not a fan of Victorian stuff, but am really enjoying the new one.

[Elendil's Heir]

Originally Posted by wonderlust

...Someone posted a page showing the covers of all the books mentioned in Among Others.

Wow! That's not a book, it's an extended sf bibliography.

[wonderlust]

They're my era, so it's fun reading what she thought of them as a teen. This book is to some extent about her own teen years.

[delphica]

Recently finished:
Fire, by Kristin Cashore. This is the 2nd book in a YA fantasy series, I enjoy the series overall a lot even though I have some quibbles with it being a little too needlessly sexy.

Casual Vacancy, by J.K. Rowling. I enjoyed reading this (a big multi-family saga is right up my alley), but I don't think this would be getting this much press if it was written by anyone else.

I'm almost done with The Brides of Rollrock Island, by Margo Lanagan. It's another YA novel, this is about selkies. I like it, but it's pretty dark and melancholy. Between this and Casual Vacancies, I'm going to need to read a book about happy ponies next.

[wonderlust]

Originally Posted by delphica

I'm almost done with The Brides of Rollrock Island, by Margo Lanagan. It's another YA novel, this is about selkies. I like it, but it's pretty dark and melancholy. Between this and Casual Vacancies, I'm going to need to read a book about happy ponies next.

If you'd like more selkies, treat youself to the movie The Secret of Roan Inish. I'm trying to remember the name of another book about selkies that I liked...

[Khadaji]

Thanks for all the birthday wishes. I spent last Saturday napping... I guess when you celebrate your birthday with a day-long nap you really have reached old age.

Finished Cold Days list night and really enjoyed it. Will start Trapped tonight (although I may start the Sherlock Holmes book Mom got me for my birthday - she likes when I tell her I've read her gifts and if I put it in the queue I will forget to tell her. I won't forget to read it, but I'll forget to tell her.)

[AuntiePam]

Originally Posted by Khadaji

I've liked Rick Cook's Wizardry series, but haven't tried this one. Let us know what you think.

I liked it a lot, and think it would make a neat little movie. There were several subplots that needed to be wrapped up -- at the mall, at the same time. I wondered how Cook would manage -- he did fine. This would be something you could give a pre-teen. Only one use of the F word, the violence wasn't gratuitous, and all the characters got what they deserved.

[BetsQ]

I've been reading Diana Gabaldon's Outlander books after seeing them mentioned here several times. Not perfect, but I'm enjoying them. I've also learned some new Scottish English words that will come in handy in Words with Friends.

[Elendil's Heir]

Originally Posted by wonderlust

If you'd like more selkies, treat youself to the movie The Secret of Roan Inish. I'm trying to remember the name of another book about selkies that I liked...

Another movie in which selkies are an issue: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ondine_(film)

[wonderlust]

Thank you! It's on Netflix streaming too. =D

[CalMeacham]

Just Finished The Great Salem Fire of 1914 and am plowinging through arthur, King of Britain, a book I've been looking for for decades. It's a collection of primary texts about Arthur, with criticism. Since I started looking for this book, though, I've already read most of those primary texts elsewhere.

I've also finished reading three different translations of Beowulf (as well as watching a stack of movies based on it). I think i have to re-order my preference of translations.


I've been trying to read Robert Forward's return to Rochworld and Nathaniel Hawthorne's house of Seven Gables, but I just can't get into them.