I’m starting this a little earlyish, since I’m going to be busy tomorrow. So what are we all reading? Old favorites? New authors? New books by favorite authors? (THANK YOU Dung Beetle for the news on the new Daniel O’Malley book!)
I’m a pinch over halfway through The Nun’s Tale by Candace Robb. Medieval murder abounds!
Khadaji was one of the earlier members of the SDMB, and he was well known as a kindly person who always had something encouraging to say, particularly in the self-improvement threads. He was also a voracious, omnivorous reader; and he started these monthly book threads. Sadly, he passed away in January 2013, and we decided to rename these monthly threads in his honour.
Finished Poul Anderson’sEnsign Flandry, reading Theodore Sturgeon’s More than Human, next up is Toni L.P. Kelner’s second “Skeleton” mystery, The Skeleton Takes a Bow (published under her pen name “Leigh Perry”. as Toni said recently, "Now everyone knows what the “L.P.” stands for).
On audio I finished the Clive Cussler/Paul Emprecos Polar Shift, and moved on to their Fire Ice. When I finish that I’ll have exhausted all the Cussler audio novels at four local libraries, and I’ll have to find another if I want to continue to feed this addiction. I’m also reading The Fellowship of the Ring. I’ve been collecting the Lord of the Rings on audio for the past several years, buying only used copies at cheap prices, and this completes my collection. It’s also the best of them – it’s not missing any discs and none of the discs are scratched and unreadable (problems that plague my other copies).
A little over halfway through Moby-Dick, by Herman Melville. (I never realized the name was hyphenated.) Enjoying it but my reading time has been restricted lately. Should have finished it by now.
Just finished The Gods of Guilt, the latest in the Lincoln Lawyer series. Not a bad potboiler. I’m glad he included his original ending in the Kindle edition; also glad he went the way he did, as his original ending was pandering to a movie version and was not very believable.
Next up: I’m starting the John Dos Passos USA trilogy, the first book of which is 42nd Parallel. I’m hoping for a good read, as I’ve never read anything by him.
I just started Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Now I understand what my friend’s dad (who was in Haight-Ashbury at the time) means when he says that drugs killed the hippie movement.
I just finished re-reading Thackeray’s The Virginians. I read some of his books out of order – for instance, I originally read The Virginians before reading Henry Esmond even though the former is a sequel to the latter – so some elements were lost on me. After re-reading it, I was able to pick up all kinds of references to The Newcomes, Pendennis and Henry Esmond that I missed the first time, which was nice.
Yes, several times; it’s one of my favourite books. It also takes place in the same “universe” as the other books I mentioned (along with Barry Lyndon, which I haven’t read yet).
The book itself is another delightful romp with Miss Jacky through various trials and travails; unjustly accused of treason, she must flee Boston and go into hiding. First she takes a job as a governess to the Polk family in Plymouth. Going by the name Annabelle Lee, she must face off against a “high-strung” (aka spoiled brat) boy named Edgar Allan Being her devious self, Jacky manages to outwit Edgar and eventually win him over. Events force her to run away and join the circus as an Russian aerialist. However, as the cover of the book portrays Jacky standing on the deck of the gallows, moments away from the noose, it seems Jacky’s bloody past will finally catch up with her.
While L.A. Meyer may have stretched history a bit (I’m not sure the lyrics Jacky sings to the Hooche-Coochie song existed before the 1890’s, for example), the overall story feels true to the era. Meyers also makes multiples callbacks to minor characters from the entire series and wraps the overall story arc up in a satisfying way.
Despite not exactly being target audience; I have loved this series and am sure I will be revisiting it again in the future - especially with the superb narration provided by Katherine Kellgren.
Just finished the excellent new Paul McAuley novel, Something Coming Through.
Immediately after a short sharp nuclear exchange, benevolent aliens appear and offer free access to 15 distant habitable planets. Offer immediately accepted, although it turns out the planets are strewn with the detritus of many previous civilisations which have also accepted the Jackaroos’ offer over the ages…
Some years later on an Earth being transformed by reverse-engineered alien tech, there are sporadic outbreaks of madness, rioting, religious fervour, cults, etc. triggered by access to smuggled alien artifacts. These are investigated in the hope of achieving new breakthroughs in understanding. The characters here, especially Chloe, are driven by the need to solve the meaning in a teenager’s cryptic automatic drawing…
Meanwhile, on one of the newly settled planets, various murders and gang activity are being investigated, including links to an archaeological dig out in the sticks.
Personally, I found strong echoes of both M. John Harrison’s K-Tract trilogy and Philip K. Dick’s A Martian Timeslip running through the re-invented Earth and shabby scenes on Mangala. It stands perfectly well on it’s own, but I know there’s a sequel in the works.
Now I’ve started the new Chris Evans fantasy doorstop, Of Bone and Thunder. The Imperial army is bogged down fighting an unwinnable war on a small jungle-covered island chain far from the courts of power… A newly qualified thamaturge is among reinforcements flying in on a decrepit old dragon, kept on flying missions long after it should have been sent to the knackers yard.
It’s trying maybe a little too hard to be gritty and down to earth.
And I’m also re-reading Blue Face by G. C. Edmondson, one of the early DAW titles. Recovering but in great pain from an auto accident, a university professor ends up visiting a native american village the authorities have never discovered, deep in the mountains of northern Mexico. The old ways are still in full force but he notices that one of the ceremonial dancers never takes off his unusual mask. And there are other strange things about him, including the possibility that he may be able to cure the prof’s debilitating pain.
I’ve read it before, but I still enjoy the way Edmondson casually drops plot-advancing info almost un-noticed into the story.
Re the Bloody Jack series: My library has only the first book on audio, and I loved Kellgren so much I decided not to continue the series without her. Someday I hope to hear the rest!
This morning I started on Your House is On Fire, Your Children All Gone by Stefan Kiesbye. It’s something to do with the people of an old German village and the evil things that happen there, but so far, the tale seems rather unfocused. I’ll push on a little farther.
I wonder if your library would request audiobooks via ILL? The Bloody Jack series is SO worth listening to!
As you’re a Kellgren fan, may I also recommend The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series by Maryrose Wood? Kellgren has narrated the 4 books so far released and they’re quite fun - think Lemony Snicket meets Charlotte Bronte I’ve listened to the first three and have the 4th audiobook in the series on hold at the library! I also really enjoyed Kellgren’s reading of The Cheshire Cheese Cat: A Dickens of a Tale by Carmen Agra Deedy. Kellgren also plays Mina Murray Harker in Audible.com’s stellar full cast recording of Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
I finally had a chance to read Suki Kim’s Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea’s Elite after listening to an interview with the author on the Diane Rehm show back in October. A Korean-American journalist, Kim manages to get a job teaching English at a missionary-sponsored school in North Korea - the all-male Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST).
Kim treads multiple fine lines during her stay: as evidenced by the existence of this book, she is taking copious notes, which she must hide from both her colleagues (who would question her motives for coming to North Korea, as they are Evangelical Christians, and she is not) as well as her North Korean minders.
Kim must also continually be aware of how much (or little) of her personal life and experiences she can share with her students, as not only does she teach them, but has 3 meals a day with them as well, so they can practice their English. Not much older than her charges, she is surprised by her student’s mix of boyish enthusiasm and openness, contrasted with their easy ability to lie and their obedience to Juche and the Kim John-il regime. I got the sense that she truly cared for these young men, while never quite trusting them.
Kim’s sense of claustrophobia and general tension carries over quite clearly in the text; I found myself fascinated by her experiences, all the while worrying that somehow she would be found out in some way. While the narrative is definitely colored by Kim’s experiences and agenda, I found this memoir a compelling look at a facet of the hidden nation of North Korea, as contrasted with the likes of Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demmick.
I finishedThe Nun’s Tale by Candace Robb this afternoon. The book is well written and well researched but it lacks something I can’t quite put my finger on. The characters weren’t as engaging as in the first two books and there was never a sense of impending doom. The ending was incredibly anti-climatic and whoever didn’t see the big confession coming needs to get out more…
I really enjoyed Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl, it’s a novel about a girl in college who is heavily invested in an online fanfic community (built around a fictional send-up of the Harry Potter books) and it deals a lot with the issue of how much – or not – this is impacting her ability to cope with real world situations. I like this author a lot in general, and I think it was nicely subtle and didn’t make the issues black or white. I think it works especially well for readers who are at least familiar with fandoms like this, it might be perplexing for someone who has had zero exposure to the internet (in that sense).
I just finished Bellweather Rhapsody, a mystery novel that takes place in an old hotel, with two stories – an old crime, and a present-day situation related to a high school music conference that seems to mirror some of the original events. It was decent, it kept me entertained.
I just finished Something Comes Through by Paul McAuly, and can’t wrote it up better than Meurglys did. I’ll just add that I loved it, and am hoping for more books in this universe.
About a quarter of the way through The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu and translated by Ken Liu.
It’s a wonderful story about first contact, physics, and Chinese history all rolled into one. I can’t seem to put it down.
Up next is Kelly Links Get In Trouble collection, and a re-read of Jingo.
Being her devious self, Jacky manages to outwit Edgar and eventually win him over. Events force her to run away and join the circus as an Russian aerialist. However, as the cover of the book portrays Jacky standing on the deck of the gallows, moments away from the noose, it seems Jacky’s bloody past will finally catch up with her.