I envy you.
I’ve seen enough to know I’m one of the fortunate. 
On the other hand, now I know the origin of Kimmy Gibbler’s screen name!
I was all excited to get the Amazon notification that Joe Hill’s new book - NOS4A2 was on its way. Then I read some of the reviews. Looks like he’s following in his father’s footsteps. Several reviewers describe it as bloated. The worst part is that I ordered it without reading a plot description. It’s 700 pages about a serial murderer/rapist who targets children.
I adored Hill’s short story collection and really liked Heart-Shaped Box and Horns, but I won’t be reading this latest one.
makes sense, I spent my winters in Indianapolis and summers with family in the Appalachians, the folk music alone is dead giveaway, along with customs to source of culture and a lot of the mindset
give me an actual book any day, but due to an obsession of keeping and rereading books (when I last moved I had close to 2000 paperbacks alone) I now live in very limited space and having to shove books in storage.
I got a used sony 659 reader a while back and while I appreciate the portability and multiple book capability but it challenges my failing eyesight.
i don’t have the attn span for audio 
currently reading “black blossom of kerishdar” by m.c.a. hogarth. I’ve read a lot of her work and love it, though some find the kerishdar series odd, its basically philosophy of an alien species but incredibly though provoking; I highly recommend her http://stardancer.org/ . Since she publishes almost exclusively electronic she’s not well known, but she should be imho. she’s also an extraordinary artist.
read "tongue of serpents " (book 4? 5?)of the temeraire books by naomi noviks napoleon era war but with dragons. absolutely delightful.
I’ve been tempted to try and drag all my robert jordan out of storage and re read and buy the last book but digging through storage is daunting.
read the mockingjay series finally and enjoyed it, but found it a tad predictable
read “Grass” by sheri tepper, first I’ve read of her work. nice balance of action and social observation
“the bee keepers apprentice” which the authos name escapes at the moment, about a retired sherlock holmes taking on an orphan teenage girl as apprentice while living in the countryside during world war. Greatly enjoyed it! (keep in mind I’m an odd duck who reads everything but classics, so have not yet read the original sherlock holmes!)
since it has been raining non stop and I’m flooded in I’m desperate for books. I’m always desperate for reading material as I’m disabled, broke, live 120 miles round trip from the nearest bookstore and the only thing goodwill or walmart seems to have are bodice rippers. local library distressingly small and selection is abysmal (fully half is christian religion books.)
can anyone recommend sources for used books that won’t kill me with shipping and aren’t almost purely out of copyright classics like project gutenburg?
I did Camp NaNoWriMo this month, so I didn’t do much reading for the first three weeks or so of April. I’ve been doing some catching up since and I finished 11/22/63 by Stephen King; I, Zombie, by Hugh Howey; and Does Jesus Really Love Me?: A Gay Christian’s Pilgrimage in Search of God in America. I also read Home by Toni Morrison this month. All were good reads, but I especially loved I, Zombie. It’s quite possibly the most disturbing book I’ve ever read. Wonderfully disturbing. I’m currently working on Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter.
I think e-readers are better for failing eyesight than most books. The maximum font size on my Sony Reader is pretty dang big – certainly bigger than the average large print book!
Still plugging along on The Stand, but I’m not sure if I will be for much longer. It’s just not… doing it for me, this time around. Characters are getting on my nerves, particularly Mother Abigail. Maybe my atheism has gotten more militant since last time I read this, but there’s only so much “Praise God”-ing that I can handle. Even though I don’t have anything specifically lined up at the moment, I’m getting that feeling of “I could be reading something else”. …
Have you tried half.com? Shipping for a single book is a bit high, but if you buy several books from the same seller it becomes more reasonable.
How about some other King? My favorites are 'Salem’s Lot and Misery.
I’d also add C J Sansom’s Dominion to this list. It’s set in London in the 50s following the UK’s capitulation after the fall of Chamberlains government.
I’m not a King Fan as such: I stumbled onto The Stand way back, loved it, and had nothing else to do with the man until my “brother” pushed The Gunslinger into my hands. He’s since then occasionally pushed another King book into my hands, and I’ve always enjoyed it–even the one with the shitweasels.
On the other hand, 'Salem’s Lot does have a Dark Tower tie in…
It’s excellent, as I said in the March (iirc) thread. Another new ‘Nazis won’ novel is Afrika Reich by Guy Saville, set in Africa in 1952 as Germany is gearing up to occupy the remaining British possessions there. I’ve only read a couple of chapters so I’m not sure how good it’ll be…
Also read the fairly brief Gold Dust by Ibrahim al-Koni, about a Tuareg driven to find a cure in the desert for his ailing thoroughbred camel. I finished it, but I wouldn’t suggest anybody else bother trying.
And Cuttlefish by Dave Freer is one of the most enjoyable steampunk books I’ve read for a long time, even if it is officially a YA novel.
Thanks - good to know! I’ll add both to my list. I love a good alt-hist novel.
Ha! I received an email this morning from amazon.co.uk, politely informing me that my copy of The New Watch had been dispatched. So I shall keep at The Stand until it arrives, then trade up.
I’m now reading Josephine Tey’s mystery*** A Shilling for Candles.*** I don’t think Richard III will figure prominently in this one.
Thoroughbred camels? Cool.
I’m reading Philida by Andre Brink, a story of slavery in South Africa in the 1830’s, based on a real person in the author’s family history.
Currently reading Darwin’s Armada: Four Voyages and the Battle for the Theory of Evolution by Iain McCalman. It covers not only Darwin’s early voyages and experiences that led him to develop the theory of evolution, but also those of Joseph Hooker, Thomas Huxley, and Alfred Wallace. An absolutely fascinating read.
Just finished the ebook version of Wonder Show by Hannah Barnaby. Found it while browsing new books thru the digital library consortium; it got mixed reviews on GoodReads, and the description sounded interesting.
It’s a YA book set during the Depression about a young girl, Portia, whose father leaves her with an aunt, who sends her to a Home for Wayward Girls. Portia, after a heart-wrenching experience, runs away to join the circus. It’s got some evocative writing, an engaging (if not totally likable) main character and a serviceable plot. I was hoping the Gypsy elements would be played up for some supernatural elements, but no, not really.
Some reviewers were annoyed by the interstitial first-person POV chapters within the larger third-person POV tale, but I thought they provided some interesting insights into the characters. It reminded me a lot of INZARED, Queen of the Elephant Riders - another historical YA novel that has its female lead run away to join the circus.
It was a bit refreshing to read a “one and done” YA book - as it seems multi-book series is the direction YA fiction (especially genre fiction) is being pushed. It was worth at least a freebie/cheap read, IMHO - and I’d be interested to see what Barnaby comes up with next.