MPSIMS.
Actually, I’m getting ready to start Maskerade, one of the Discworld novels. You’re in for a lot of great reading, Moosie.
If you haven’t read 'em, I highly recommend Hogfather, Small Gods, and Pyramids. They’re all good, but those are my favorites.
He weathered a firestorm of agony and did not break.
And while Yori raged against his unbending
courage, we took Kyuden Hiruma back.
His loss is great, but so is the gift his suffering brought.
-Yakamo’s Funeral
Sealemon, Just got done re-reading Deed, is always enjoyable, I wish Moon would return to that world. Maybe not Paks, but the world.
Pratchett’s The Fifth Elephant is also very good, use Amazon.com.uk to get it in the states. And his Science of Diskworld is also excellent.
Am currently re-reading Fanuilh(sp?) by Daniel Hood. Pretty decent work. Am also re-reading Applied Cryptography by Bruce Schnieir.
>>Being Chaotic Evil means never having to say your sorry…unless the other guy is bigger than you.<<
—The dragon observes
“If only they could talk” by James Herriot. and a novel my daughter is writing. Both very good =)
I really try to be good but it just isn’t in my nature!
Holding the Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike of 1983 by Barbara Kingsolver.
Just got it yesterday from Amazon, and it completes my Kingsolver collection. Not really a topic I would normally go for, but I love Ms. Kingsolver’s writing. (BTW, jodih, I loved The Poisonwood Bible.)
Mr. K’s Link of the Month:
Well, I’m looking forward to reading it – I’ve heard good things.
I love these threads; you guys have given me so many good ideas for what to read next. 
Jodi
Fiat Justitia
Ignorant Armies–a history of the World War 1 era invasion of the Soviet Union by Great Britain & the United States. No, I’m not kidding; we did that. Trying to rescue pro-Czarist White Russian forces. It failed miserably.
Alien Science–serious, non-UFOster book on probable alien life. Very good stuff!
Bride Of The Rat God --by Barabra Hambly. Schlock, but damn fun schlock!
“Show me a sane man, and I will cure him for you.”----Jung
“334” by Thomas Disch – sort of a 1984 for the 21st century. Just got it yesterday and it looks to be fun.
“Residents of the public housing project at 334 East 11th Street live in a world of rationed babies and sanctioned drug addiction. Real food is displayed in museums and hospital attendants moonlight as body-snatchers.”
Sounds bleak but Disch writes with a lot of humor and sympathy.
More Hot Chocolate for the Mystical Soul…which was given to me at Christmas by a very close and dear friend
Testament by Grisham and I Know this Much is True by Wally Lamb
“Do or do not, there is no try” - Yoda
Lenin’s Embalmers by Ilya Zbarsky and Samuel Hutchinson - an odd, but interesting , read.
I usually try to keep a couple of books going at once and my other has been With the Old Breed which, oddly, I’m crapping out on. A good enough book, and it’s rare that I crap out, but it’s happened with a few (some of note - although I relish and reference the excellent snapshots of life captured by Tom Wolfe, I couldn’t finish Bonfire of the Vanities; neither could I take the whole dose of Catch-22… I do better with history and science than I do with fiction).
Next in line is We Die Alone.
Anything Written by Andrew Vachss.
Fret not thyself because of evildoers… for they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.
I just started reading Phantoms In The Brain by Ramachandran, M.D., PH.D. and Sandra Blakeslee. It has been deemed by Oliver Sacks, M.D., as “One of the most original and accessible neurology books of our generation”. It is absolutely fascinating and I’ve only just begun.
You can stand tall without standing on someone. You can be a victor without having victims. -Harriet Woods-
Lord of the Rings, for the fourth time in my life. I don’t care if “The FOundation Series” won Asimov the century’s “best-loved series” award; to me Tolkien will always hold that award.
“God would never let me be happy. He’d kill me first.”
“I thought you didn’t believe in God.”
“I do for the bad things.” - George Costanza
Perfect Murder Perfect Town by Lawrence Schiller (which I got from my sister for my birthday).
Wolfwalker Tara K. Harper
Urban Nightmares edited by Josepha Sherman and Keith R. A. DeCandido (short stories based on urban legends)
Carioca Fletch Gregory McDonald
The Ecolitan Enigma L.E. Modesitt, Jr.
As soon as I finish one of these, I plan to start in on one of the Tom Clancy books I got for Christmas and birthday gifts. Which one? I haven’t decided yet.
Your Official Cat Goddess since 10/20/99.
“We are here! You are saved!” --R. & F.
Killing the Dream by Gerald Posner. It’s about James Ray and the assassination of Martin Luther King.
The Time of Feasting by Mick Farren, another book in my ongoing project to read every vampire novel written in the English language since 1950.
And I’m rereading What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew by Daniel Pool. It’s a description of life in 19th century Britain. Uke, you should check this book out if you’ve haven’t already.
I’m almost finished with Hearts in Atlantis. Then I am going to try to finish Stone of Farewell, which I started 6 months ago but then got sidetracked.
I am just reading Catch 22 AGAIN, no other book has the ability to make me laugh like it does.
Also reading Memoirs of a thinking Radish - the autobiography of Peter Medawar. V. interesting.
Oooh, Michelle, the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn set are so good. You’re in for a treat.
Currently reading:
How To Think About Weird Things by Schick and Vaughn
Just finished:
Mountain of Black Glass ny Tad Williams
A question: Have any other skeptics found their enjoyment of fantasy novels declining as their skeptical philosophy matures? I used to love fantasy, and read it almost exclusively. Now I read sci/fi and non-fiction in approximately equal amounts and almost no fantasy. Does this sound familiar to anyone?
Fuzzy, PLEASE tell me “More Hot Chocolate for the Mystical Soul” is a parody title!!!
Cant, I just finished “Wicked”—now I have to watch “Wizard of Oz” again!
I’m in the midst of a bio of 19th-century theater manager Augustin Daly, and am off to the library to get the memoirs of Mlle. Vigee-LeBrun (Marie Antoinette’s court painter) and a novel by Tournee, “Bricks Without Straw.”
I guess I’m being retro this month.
I am between books at teh moment. I should join the library at last.
But a book I read recently that I recommend is Dave Duncan’s “The Gilded Chain”. Actually, any of Dave Duncan’s books are great, but this new series is told in a somewhat unique way this time, while not straying far from the Fantasy standards. It will also help to read the teen oriented novels that also take place in the same world, the first being “Sir Stalwart”.
-PIGEONMAN-
Returning Soon!
The Legend Of PigeonMan - Watch this space…! Great things are afoot!
MidnightVa asked:
Not really. I mean, I love sci-fi/fantasy and I doubt anybody here would be skeptical of my skepticism. 
My father even once asked me why, if I don’t think UFOs are alien spaceships, etc., I like Star Trek so much. I told him I don’t think there are elves and wizards running around, but I loved Lord of the Rings.
The ones I don’t care for are those that pretend to be on the boundary – the ones that act like they are “real life” type things and then insert all the paranormal crap. But that’s just my own personal preference.