Brace yourselves! The month of pumpkin spice EVERYTHING is almost upon us! Though I have to admit, pumpkin pie is a favorite of mine…
I am cheerfully reading Amazon’s catalog of gay romances Some have been good some not so great and yesterday’s god awful… Today’s is so cute I feel my teeth rotting. Maybe I’ll follow this up with some Bill Pronzini
Khadaji was one of the earlier members of 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, who started these threads way back in the Stone Age of 2013. Consequently when he suddenly and quite unexpectantly passed away, we decided to rename this thread in his honor and to keep his memory, if not his ghost, alive.
Last month’s thread; Well, that’s a wrap for September!
Also on a side issue, am I the only one suddenly unable to highlight text on the board? I can’t seem to highlight in the response window or on the board itself. It’s weird…
Started today on All Systems Red, the first of the Murderbot Diaries series by Martha Wells. Pretty good so far. I wish it was thicker because I’m already halfway through. But I have the others coming from the library soon.
I read Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea. It was a great book, and I really enjoyed it, particularly the first part. For the first part of the book, you don’t really need much of a mathematical background to enjoy it. But the second half of the book introduced some calculus and physics concepts. Granted, I have taken calculus and physics, but at the time that I took the course, I probably understood about 10% of what the teacher was saying, and I certainly haven’t retained that 10%. So in the second half of the book, there were parts where I just sort of had to read along, not really comprehending, waiting for the author to get back to concepts I could understand. I did finish the book, and enjoyed it until the end – but I didn’t bother to read the appendices.
Just finished Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty. Well written sci-fi about a clone crew of a generational ship being awoken after their predecessors have all been murdered.
Reading the next installment (#17 - Abaddon) in the v-plague series by Dirk Patton. Very interesting fantasy zombie type apocalypse story with the main character a cross between Jack Reacher and Jason Bourne.
Next up Exit Strategy, the final installment of the Murderbot series, by Martha Wells. The protagonist is a rouge security bot who has hacked his controls but still has a sense of loyalty to some humans, but would rather just sit and watch television series.
I haven’t been updating consisently, poor behavior for the thread keeper!
So:
I read the first two Adrien English book by Josh Lanyon. I liked the settings, the mysteries, Adrien but oh HELL no on his love interest Jake Riordan. I cannot deal with a so called romance where one partner is so obviously an abuser. shudder
This past weekend I read Heart Trouble and Bedside Manner by DJ Jamison. Love, shenanigans and job conflicts in the bustling halls of a small Midwestern town’s hospital. I like Ms Jamison’s characters and the way she gets under their skin and shows you their pain and their conflicts as well as their happiness.
Then for a complete change of pace I started Snake Agent by Liz Williams today. Urban Fantasy Chinese style. I think this series ended up on my want to read list because of this thread, Siam Sam maybe? I don’t remember. Anyway , so far I’m enjoying it greatly.
Tonight I finished Richard Hoyt’s 1982 novel Trotsky’s Run, in which the CIA gets word - in what may or may not be a KGB deception operation - that the likely next Democratic nominee for President is a Soviet deep-cover agent who’s had a psychotic break and thinks he’s the reincarnation of Leon Trotsky. It’s both a spy thriller and a bit of a satire of the genre, and a farfetched but fun read.
Almost done with The Falklands War - The Full Story by Paul Eddy and others of the The Sunday Times staff. The book came out within months of the end of the war and thus there’s a lot that was still classified or undiscovered, so it has some unavoidable but unfortunate gaps.
Just started Arthur C. Clarke’s novelization of 2001: A Space Odyssey, not having read it in many years. So far, so good.
Finished Rosel George Brown’s story collection A Handful of Time. They’re from the late 50’s, early 60’s, and haven’t aged well, especially with regard to sexism. A few fun moments, but that’s it. Not recommended.
I’d heard good things about Dorothy Sayers and Lord Peter Wimsy, so I thought I’d give it a whirl. Maybe I picked up the wrong book, because I don’t see what all the fuss is about. I gave it up and headed back to my reread of Harry Potter. I have a couple of free Amazon Prime books in my queue. The Storyteller’s Secret wasn’t half bad.
Conan Doyle for the Defense: The True Story of a Sensational British Murder, a Quest for Justice, and the World’s Most Famous Detective Writer Margalit Fox
In 1905 a wealthy Glasgow widow was brutally murdered in her apartment. Although there were a number of plausible suspects among her family and servants, the police quickly settled on Oscar Slater, a Jewish immigrant and (maybe) petty criminal who lived in the area. Despite the almost complete lack of evidence, other than some unreliable eyewitnesses, he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
This is where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle comes in. The creator of the Sherlock Holmes stories began to agitate for Slater’s release, and with some help from a Glasgow police detective, succeeded in freeing him.
A fascinating story, very well told.
The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century Kirk Johnson
Edwin Rist was an American studying music in London in 2012. He was a musical prodigy and seemed to be headed for a career in the Symphony. He was also obsessed with fly tying. Fly tying is the arcane art of creating elaborate fishing lures using feathers from rare, even endangered, birds.
Whether prompted by his obsession or a need for cash, Rist broke into the Natural History Museum at Tring and stole hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of rare feathers.
Some have been good some not so great and yesterday’s god awful… Today’s is so cute I feel my teeth rotting. Maybe I’ll follow this up with some Bill Pronzini 
also I adore supporting small time writers, beginning writers, people without big publishing contracts.