Reading Books For Pleasure

[lesliecannon]

I am currently enjoying the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. A friend was reading the last book and recommended it. I think it is wonderful, great writing with interesting mini plots and peeks into life the 1700's. I am on book four and while I think each book has started slightly slower than I would like, each one has also grabbed me at some point and I can't put it down!

That is a wonderful series!!! The series they have started on it also very good. It actually sticks to the book so far... She did a lot of research for the historical interests and the character development is amazing... when I read them I found myself cheering or crying right along with them in the books... amazing writer Diana Gabaldon is.

 

[FurryFury]

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North.

I liked this one. I want another 15 please and thank you!

Goodreads sez:

SOME STORIES CANNOT BE TOLD IN JUST ONE LIFETIME.
Harry August is on his deathbed. Again.


No matter what he does or the decisions he makes, when death comes, Harry always returns to where he began, a child with all the knowledge of a life he has already lived a dozen times before. Nothing ever changes.

Until now.
As Harry nears the end of his eleventh life, a little girl appears at his bedside. "I nearly missed you, Doctor August," she says. "I need to send a message."
This is the story of what Harry does next, and what he did before, and how he tries to save a past he cannot change and a future he cannot allow.

 

[FurryFury]

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

550 pages (The large print was faster to get from the library and may have added quite a bit to the pages.

I liked this one but it also frustrated me. Making bad decisions, questioning them, fighting the right thing, these are all things that I just don't get. Not to say I've never made a bad decision of course I have it's just the questioning, fighting and all that I don't understand. I found that part frustrating.

Goodreads:


The Light Between Oceans
After four harrowing years on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia and takes a job as the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, nearly half a day’s journey from the coast. To this isolated island, where the supply boat comes once a season and shore leaves are granted every other year at best, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel. Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby’s cries on the wind. A boat has washed up onshore carrying a dead man and a living baby.

Tom, whose records as a lighthouse keeper are meticulous and whose moral principles have withstood a horrific war, wants to report the man and infant immediately. But Isabel has taken the tiny baby to her breast. Against Tom’s judgment, they claim her as their own and name her Lucy. When she is two, Tom and Isabel return to the mainland and are reminded that there are other people in the world. Their choice has devastated one of them.

M. L. Stedman’s mesmerizing, beautifully written novel seduces us into accommodating Isabel’s decision to keep this “gift from God.” And we are swept into a story about extraordinarily compelling characters seeking to find their North Star in a world where there is no right answer, where justice for one person is another’s tragic loss.

The Light Between Oceans is exquisite and unforgettable, a deeply moving novel.

 

[FurryFury]

8.) Mercury and Me by Jim Hutton 3.5/5

Part of my valentine to myself was reading this book I've wanted to read for a very long time and bought with a gift certificate around x'mas. I liked it. It was a more intimate portrait of the best rock singer evar. Yet Jim Hutton came off as without emotion in the wording of the book. I know that's not accurate and I think it's unfortunate. I want more.

Good reads sez:

The relationship between Freddie Mercury and Jim Hutton evolved over several months in 1984 and 1985. Even when they first slept together Button had no idea who Mercury was, and when the star told him his name it meant nothing to him. Hutton worked as a barber at the Savoy Hotel and retained his job and his lodgings in Sutton, Surrey, for two years after moving in with Mercury, and then worked as his gardener. He was never fully assimilated into Mercury's jet-setting lifestyle, nor did he want to be, but from 1985 until Mercury's death in 1991 he was closer to him than anyone and knew all Mercury's closest friends: the other members of Queen, Elton John, David Bowie, Phil Collins to name a few.

Ever present at the countless Sunday lunch gatherings and opulent parties, Hutton has a wealth of anecdotes about as well as a deep understanding of, Mercury's life. He also nursed Mercury through his terminal illness, often held him throughout the night in his final weeks, and was with him as he died. No one can tell the story of the last few years of Mercury's private life - the ecstasies and the agonies - more accurately or honestly than Jim Hutton.

9.) Drama by Raina Telgemeier 3.25/5

As part of my popsugar ultimate reading challenge I read this graphic novel chosen for me by a trusted librarian who likes graphic novels. It surprised me by being so easy and quick to read despite not liking the format. Perhaps because I was in drama myself in part, I enjoyed it.

Goodreads sez:

Callie loves theater. And while she would totally try out for her middle school's production of Moon Over Mississippi, she can't really sing. Instead she's the set designer for the drama department stage crew, and this year she's determined to create a set worthy of Broadway on a middle-school budget. But how can she, when she doesn't know much about carpentry, ticket sales are down, and the crew members are having trouble working together? Not to mention the onstage AND offstage drama that occurs once the actors are chosen. And when two cute brothers enter the picture, things get even crazier!

 

[FurryFury]

Flesh and Bone by Jefferson Bass 4/5

354 pages

This is the second book in the "body farm" series. I liked both and Jefferson Bass is my author of the year so I plan to read the rest this year. That being said, there were some cliches I didn't like and which, if they continue I will get fed up with. Also Jefferson Bass is two writters names stuck together. Kewl.

Barnes and Noble sez:


Overview

Anthropologist Dr. Bill Brockton founded Tennessee's world-famous Body Farm—a small piece of land where corpses are left to decay in order to gain important forensic information. Now, in the wake of a shocking crime in nearby Chattanooga, he's called upon by Jess Carter—the rising star of the state's medical examiners—to help her unravel a murderous puzzle. But after re-creating the death scene at the Body Farm, Brockton discovers his career, reputation, and life are in dire jeopardy when a second, unexplained corpse appears in the grisly setting.

Accused of a horrific crime—transformed overnight from a respected professor to a hated and feared pariah—Bill Brockton will need every ounce of his formidable forensic skills to escape the ingeniously woven net that's tightening around him . . . and to prove the seemingly impossible: his own innocence.

 

[IrisAlthea]

Flesh and Bone by Jefferson Bass 4/5

354 pages

This is the second book in the "body farm" series. I liked both and Jefferson Bass is my author of the year so I plan to read the rest this year. That being said, there were some cliches I didn't like and which, if they continue I will get fed up with. Also Jefferson Bass is two writters names stuck together. Kewl.

Barnes and Noble sez:


Overview

Anthropologist Dr. Bill Brockton founded Tennessee's world-famous Body Farm—a small piece of land where corpses are left to decay in order to gain important forensic information. Now, in the wake of a shocking crime in nearby Chattanooga, he's called upon by Jess Carter—the rising star of the state's medical examiners—to help her unravel a murderous puzzle. But after re-creating the death scene at the Body Farm, Brockton discovers his career, reputation, and life are in dire jeopardy when a second, unexplained corpse appears in the grisly setting.

Accused of a horrific crime—transformed overnight from a respected professor to a hated and feared pariah—Bill Brockton will need every ounce of his formidable forensic skills to escape the ingeniously woven net that's tightening around him . . . and to prove the seemingly impossible: his own innocence.

Hm, that does sound a bit like one of Patricia Cornwell's Scarpetta books.

 

[FurryFury]

Yes, the body farm is mentioned more than ones in Patricia Cornwell's books. I stopped reading when she killed off my fav character though I understand he is back which makes no damn sense to me. Perhaps one day I'll pick up her books again.

Hm, that does sound a bit like one of Patricia Cornwell's Scarpetta books.

 

[FurryFury]

The Angel by Tiffany Reisz 3/5

I did not like the previous book. I was not excited about reading this one. I'm puzzled by how much others like these books. Overal I did like this book better than the first one, The Siren, thank goodness. That was due to a relationship I can believe in Micheal / Griffin, and the background stories.

410 pages

I am curious about the Submissive's Vitamin Supplements which Nora recommends to Micheal but I can't remember exactly what it was zinc and ? If anyone knows and can weigh in on that I would like to know what you think.

Also, her character told her editor it would be easier to get preggers if he dominated his wife. His testoterone would be higher and his wife would be more relaxed. Naturally Nora's answer to everything is BDSM but what do you think of that?

Primary Inversion by Catherine Asaro 3.5/5

317 pages

So I had to skip much of the science in this book because 1.) I don't care and 2.) I don't understand. It sounded to me like blah, blah, blah, you know Charlie Brown's teacher? Like that.

I did like that the book went where I wanted it to go. I'm curious if there are more books and if it's a trilogy or more. Love finding new to me authors to read!

 

[IrisAlthea]

Yes, the body farm is mentioned more than ones in Patricia Cornwell's books. I stopped reading when she killed off my fav character though I understand he is back which makes no damn sense to me. Perhaps one day I'll pick up her books again.

Yes, I haven't read any of her books for years either. It just got too much and I don't read as much crime fic as I used to.
I did like them in the beginning though.

 

[Aurantica]

I'm working my way through The Dresden Files by Jim butcher as well as the Laundry series by Charles Stross. I do so love my monsters and mayhem!

 

[FurryFury]

Me too. Maybe I'll get back to them at some point.

Yes, I haven't read any of her books for years either. It just got too much and I don't read as much crime fic as I used to.
I did like them in the beginning though.

I love The Dresden Files but I've not read the other. I may have to check them out!

I'm working my way through The Dresden Files by Jim butcher as well as the Laundry series by Charles Stross. I do so love my monsters and mayhem!

The Devil's Bones by Jefferson Bass 4/5 my second Author of the Year book,
309 pages. I liked this one. I am so happy I found an author to read that is consistent and enjoyable for me. Yay! I can't wait to read the next one.

Amazon sez: A burned car sits on a Tennessee hilltop, a woman's lifeless, charred body seated inside. Forensic anthropologist Bill Brockton's job is to discover the truth hidden in the fire-desecrated corpse. Was the woman's death accidental . . . or was she incinerated to cover up her murder?

But his research into the effect of flame on flesh and bone is about to collide with reality like a lit match meeting spilled gasoline. The arrival of a mysterious package—a set of suspiciously unnatural cremated remains—is pulling Brockton toward a nightmare too inhuman to imagine. And an old nemesis is waiting in the shadows to put him to the ultimate test, one that could reduce Brockton's life to smoldering ruins.

 

[desertslave]

I'm working my way through The Dresden Files by Jim butcher as well as the Laundry series by Charles Stross. I do so love my monsters and mayhem!

Love the Dresden series! I got to meet Jim Butcher at a talk/signing a few years ago, and he was quite fun. I liked his "Fury" series, too, but not as much as Dresden. My daughter is living in Chicago now, and has fun finding places mentioned in the books. She got the audiobook version of Dead Beat for the initial move into her dorm 2 years ago. The day we arrived was gray and stormy. That evening we drove around the Field Museum listening to the big confrontation (trying to avoid spoilers), with these heavy clouds overhead, a bit of mist and distant lightning. It was PERFECT!

I tend to bounce between SF/F, history and quirky non-fiction. I'm currently engrossed in a biography of a true Renaissance man, Antonio Neri. He was a priest, physician, cousin to the Medici family of Florence, scientist and alchemist, particularly with glass. The book is Conciatore, by Paul Engle (whose wife happens to be a friend of mine and a fellow bead maker). I'm sure I'm biased, but it's a good read.

 

[FurryFury]

Draconian New York by Robert Sheckley

I didn't love this book. I didn't like any of the characters or feel any connections with them or any of the settings. I thought it was super strange how everyone had a connection to Ibiza. Hob didn't seem to care about working for large sums of money for a questionable character or be much of a detective. Very strange book for me. Not a bad book. Just not one I loved or even liked much.

Goodreads sez:

Ex-hippie Hob Draconian returns to New York, where his only plans are to finalize his divorce and get the $10,000 he needs to pay off his mortgage, but he ends up in an adventure that could get him arrested or killed.

 

[FurryFury]

Neuromancer by William Gibson

276 pages

Personal enjoyment scale a generous, 2/5

I still don't like this book but I actually made it through this time. I think it's at least my third time to try reading it.

Really looking forward to hearing and perhaps getting some understanding of why so many people love this book.

Here are my main reasons for not liking it.

1.) The main character doesn't seem to know what is real and what is not for too much of the time. I hate that kind of thing.

2.) There are no characters to like and no powers that be to pull for or against because the main characters are not clear on which side is good or bad.

3.) I love good descriptions up to a point but the writer was clearly obsessed with materials. I got weary of hearing about what a thing was made of and eventually had to skim read through that stuff.
Additional thoughts:

I've tried very hard to find things to like about this book. There was one passage about being conscious and not thinking on page 149. That's long been a goal of mine. My brain thinks too much and sometimes I just want quiet in that thing.

On page 162 I liked the description of free fall. "FREEFALL. The sensation was like diving through perfectly clear water. She was falling - rising through a wide tube of fluted lunar concrete, lit at two - meter intervals by rings of white neon."

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuromancer

Neuromancer is a 1984 novel by William Gibson, a seminal work in the cyberpunk genre and the first winner of the science-fiction "triple crown" — the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, and the Hugo Award.[1] It was Gibson's debut novel and the beginning of the Sprawl trilogy. The novel tells the story of a washed-up computer hacker hired by a mysterious employer to pull off the ultimate hack.

 

[IrisAlthea]

Neuromancer by William Gibson.

Really looking forward to hearing and perhaps getting some understanding of why so many people love this book.

Here are my main reasons for not liking it.

1.) The main character doesn't seem to know what is real and what is not for too much of the time. I hate that kind of thing.

2.) There are no characters to like and no powers that be to pull for or against because the main characters are not clear on which side is good or bad.

3.) I love good descriptions up to a point but the writer was clearly obsessed with materials. I got weary of hearing about what a thing was made of and eventually had to skim read through that stuff.
Additional thoughts:

I've tried very hard to find things to like about this book. There was one passage about being conscious and not thinking on page 149. That's long been a goal of mine. My brain thinks too much and sometimes I just want quiet in that thing.

I haven't read it in a very long time, but as far as I can remember I liked what you didn't like.

I tend to like books and films where there is an ambiguity about good and evil and where the theme is a discussion about our consciousness and to what extent we can distinguish between reality and dream/ fantasy etc.

 

[FurryFury]

Thanks for sharing that. We all like different things.

I haven't read it in a very long time, but as far as I can remember I liked what you didn't like.

I tend to like books and films where there is an ambiguity about good and evil and where the theme is a discussion about our consciousness and to what extent we can distinguish between reality and dream/ fantasy etc.

 

[FurryFury]

Stitches by David Small 3/5

329 pages

This book scared me somewhat on two fronts. First, it was a graphic novel and pictures overwhelm me whereas words are my thing. Second, it was about a child being mistreated and possibly abused. The idea of a graphic memoir drew me in even as it repulsed me. I had to try to read it. All in all I liked it fairly well. I'm glad his therapist helped him and he was able to make a good life in spite of everything. That makes it a survival story which I can relate to very well.

From Goodreads:

One day David Small awoke from a supposedly harmless operation to discover that he had been transformed into a virtual mute. A vocal cord removed, his throat slashed and stitched together like a bloody boot, the fourteen-year-old boy had not been told that he had cancer and was expected to die.

In Stitches, Small, the award-winning children’s illustrator and author, re-creates this terrifying event in a life story that might have been imagined by Kafka. As the images painfully tumble out, one by one, we gain a ringside seat at a gothic family drama where David—a highly anxious yet supremely talented child—all too often became the unwitting object of his parents’ buried frustration and rage.

Believing that they were trying to do their best, David’s parents did just the reverse. Edward Small, a Detroit physician, who vented his own anger by hitting a punching bag, was convinced that he could cure his young son’s respiratory problems with heavy doses of radiation, possibly causing David’s cancer. Elizabeth, David’s mother, tyrannically stingy and excessively scolding, ran the Small household under a cone of silence where emotions, especially her own, were hidden.

Depicting this coming-of-age story with dazzling, kaleidoscopic images that turn nightmare into fairy tale, Small tells us of his journey from sickly child to cancer patient, to the troubled teen whose risky decision to run away from home at sixteen—with nothing more than the dream of becoming an artist—will resonate as the ultimate survival statement.

 

[desertslave]

Stitches by David Small 3/5

329 pages

This book scared me somewhat on two fronts. First, it was a graphic novel and pictures overwhelm me whereas words are my thing. Second, it was about a child being mistreated and possibly abused. The idea of a graphic memoir drew me in even as it repulsed me. I had to try to read it. All in all I liked it fairly well. I'm glad his therapist helped him and he was able to make a good life in spite of everything. That makes it a survival story which I can relate to very well.

From Goodreads:

One day David Small awoke from a supposedly harmless operation to discover that he had been transformed into a virtual mute. A vocal cord removed, his throat slashed and stitched together like a bloody boot, the fourteen-year-old boy had not been told that he had cancer and was expected to die.

In Stitches, Small, the award-winning children’s illustrator and author, re-creates this terrifying event in a life story that might have been imagined by Kafka. As the images painfully tumble out, one by one, we gain a ringside seat at a gothic family drama where David—a highly anxious yet supremely talented child—all too often became the unwitting object of his parents’ buried frustration and rage.

Believing that they were trying to do their best, David’s parents did just the reverse. Edward Small, a Detroit physician, who vented his own anger by hitting a punching bag, was convinced that he could cure his young son’s respiratory problems with heavy doses of radiation, possibly causing David’s cancer. Elizabeth, David’s mother, tyrannically stingy and excessively scolding, ran the Small household under a cone of silence where emotions, especially her own, were hidden.

Depicting this coming-of-age story with dazzling, kaleidoscopic images that turn nightmare into fairy tale, Small tells us of his journey from sickly child to cancer patient, to the troubled teen whose risky decision to run away from home at sixteen—with nothing more than the dream of becoming an artist—will resonate as the ultimate survival statement.

That would give me nightmares.

I'm still nibbling on Conciatore while also reading the last of the "Jack Ryan" novels by Tom Clancy's successor. I haven't made as much reading time, lately, because of research and writing on other projects. Some days I miss hiding in the back yard inside my favorite tree cave (a very old blue spruce) with a treasured book.

 

[FurryFury]

That tree cave sounds ideal!

That would give me nightmares.

I'm still nibbling on Conciatore while also reading the last of the "Jack Ryan" novels by Tom Clancy's successor. I haven't made as much reading time, lately, because of research and writing on other projects. Some days I miss hiding in the back yard inside my favorite tree cave (a very old blue spruce) with a treasured book.

 

[La damnee elle la licorne]

 

[La damnee elle la licorne]

 

[FurryFury]

Great! Hope the birthday friend likes it!

Thank you, I have a birthday gift to buy and this sounds like the perfect gift, a lover of dark graphic novels . Its the kind of thing I would never stumble over or find myself.

Thanks!

I've actually read that last one. I'd love to see the BBC adaptation!

I enjoyed this too, and a few others on the thread. Some of the following recommendations are the young adult / crossover genre....but in some I find the writing is tremendously good. I'm suggesting them the other content of the thread in mind, despite the 'teen' angle. I am a fully adult woman who enjoys reading 'grown up books' too, but it find great beauty in some of these books. Along with the mass of trash produced on the genre.


The Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Lani Taylor ( first of a Trilogy) is a modern set fantasy and is, IMO beautifully written. All are worth reading, but as is so often the case the first is the best I think.

the paper musician by Charlie N. Holmberg. Again, first in a trilogy, I have only read the first two. Steampunk sort of vibe, but delicate.


The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters. by Gordon Dahlquist adult. . Steampunk again. my Boss likes these.


a discovery of witches Deborah Harkness. The first one has been referred to as 'the adult woman's Twilight'.I don't think that's fair. Unlike many trilogies I think this one hits its peak , for me, in book two.

Jonathan Strange and mr Norrell be Susanna Clarke. I think the BBC did an adaptation?

 

[desertslave]

a discovery of witches Deborah Harkness. The first one has been referred to as 'the adult woman's Twilight'.I don't think that's fair. Unlike many trilogies I think this one hits its peak , for me, in book two.

I loved all three books, although the final book was a little more convoluted (IMO) than it really needed to be. The second book was an utter treat for me, what with all of the historic tie-in characters. There was much giggling and snorting during that week.

I got to meet her at a talk/signing here when the 2nd book was released. She is FUN to listen to and to chat with. Oh, and that glass book I mentioned? I've messaged Deborah to talk with Paul because I think they'd have a great time swapping notes.

 

[La damnee elle la licorne]

 

[annikasfury]

Gone Girl

I just finished Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. I've been a big fan of hers since her first success, Sharp Objects. Very good books. I heard there's a movie, but I'd recommend reading it first. There's no way they can get it right, or at least keep the experience as intense and pleasurable.