Reading Books For Pleasure

[IrisAlthea]

I just finished The Amber Spyglass and with that the His Dark Materials trilogy.

I finished the book bawling at the unfairness, so I'm glad my daughter gave up after the first book.
A few more years don't hurt before she goes back to it.

I did promiss to watch The Golden Compass with her though, since she did finish that book.

 

[SassyKatz71]

I bought all the FSOG books and I can't even get past the first chapter. I tried and tried.. Waste of money. I'll stick with my Sherrilyn Kenyon Dark Hunter Series.

 

[FurryFury]

I hated the first one. I didn't read further. My daugther OTOH, loved it.

We had the book as a Teen Book Club read and then went to see the movie. This was for a mostly homeschooling group. You would have thought I skinned their kids or something from the uproar over the first book.

The woman over me supported the book and me. But later refused to start up a GBLT support group because it was all about "sex".

I just finished The Amber Spyglass and with that the His Dark Materials trilogy.

I finished the book bawling at the unfairness, so I'm glad my daughter gave up after the first book.
A few more years don't hurt before she goes back to it.

I did promiss to watch The Golden Compass with her though, since she did finish that book.

 

[FurryFury]

We could have told you. This is what libraries are for. You try it from the library for free then buy it if you love it.

I bought all the FSOG books and I can't even get past the first chapter. I tried and tried.. Waste of money. I'll stick with my Sherrilyn Kenyon Dark Hunter Series.

 

[IrisAlthea]

I hated the first one. I didn't read further. My daugther OTOH, loved it.

We had the book as a Teen Book Club read and then went to see the movie. This was for a mostly homeschooling group. You would have thought I skinned their kids or something from the uproar over the first book.

The woman over me supported the book and me. But later refused to start up a GBLT support group because it was all about "sex".

Was it the anti-religion theme, that made them flip out?
I can see how it would be great to use in home schooling.

I do hope my daughter comes back to it in a couple of years.
She's reading the Beautiful Creatures series now and insists I read it too. In return I'm going to throw The Eartsea Quartet at her. Hah!

 

[FurryFury]

I read the first Beautiful Creatures. I didn't hate it. I didn't love it. I didn't read more.

Was it the anti-religion theme, that made them flip out?
I can see how it would be great to use in home schooling.

I do hope my daughter comes back to it in a couple of years.
She's reading the Beautiful Creatures series now and insists I read it too. In return I'm going to throw The Eartsea Quartet at her. Hah!

 

[FurryFury]

Bit of Spectacular by Gin Phillips 3/5

176 pages

This book is another bittersweet piece by Gin Phillips. I enjoyed how her book was sparkly yet not very girly at all, rather it was very human. If it were not a juvenile novel I might have rated it higher than I did. As it is a juvenile novel it's a very good one even if it felt short to me.

Amazon sez:

An authentic coming-of-age story about finding magic in the every day—perfect for fans of Rebecca Stead, Joan Bauer, and Wendy Mass.

Olivia and her mom have just moved in with her grandmother, and Olivia has exactly zero friends at her new school. But after a strange message on the bathroom wall of a café catches her eye, Olivia decides that Birmingham, Alabama, may be a little more interesting than it seems. So begins a search for answers that takes her all over the city. Luckily, her mission isn’t solitary for long, thanks to her newfound friendship with Amelia, a girl just odd enough to be intriguing.

What the girls discover isn’t the earth-shattering revelation they were hoping for, but it may be just as compelling. After all, sometimes the journey really is more important than the destination. Especially when it leads you back home.

 

[La damnee elle la licorne]

 

[IrisAlthea]

I read Lehane's The Drop last night.
Still like him a lot.

 

[ceris01]

Any Sci-Fi fans about?

Hi all, interesting thread, I am definitely going to have to read some of these. I was just wondering if any one has some good modern Sci-Fi suggestions?

I just got the new Charles Stross laundry novel, I would recommend the series to anyone who likes Sci -Fi mixed with spy type stuff. Very funny especially to any brits as it is centred around a UK government department dealing with the occult. Stross has a fantastic way of dealing out black humour and is well worth a read.

I will certainly be checking out some of the previous suggestions though.

 

[FurryFury]

Welcome! I might check your read out. I'm a huge Heinlein fan, btw.

Trying to read Ringworld right now the nilla BOTM for July in my Fetlife book club, The Kinkster's Book Club. It seems awfully dry so far though.

I just finished A Summons To Memphis by Peter Taylor 1.75/5. Why it won the Pulitzer is a mystery to me. I knew I would likely hate it or anything that won that prize. I picked it for the short page count. That completes that challenge category.

Amazon sez: One of the most celebrated novels of its time, the Pulitzer Prize winner A Summons to Memphis introduces the Carver family, natives of Nashville, residents, with the exception of Phillip, of Memphis, Tennessee.

During the twilight of a Sunday afternoon in March, New York book editor Phillip Carver receives an urgent phone call from each of his older, unmarried sisters. They plead with Phillip to help avert their widower father's impending remarriage to a younger woman. Hesitant to get embroiled in a family drama, he reluctantly agrees to go back south, only to discover the true motivation behind his sisters' concern. While there, Phillip is forced to confront his domineering siblings, a controlling patriarch, and flood of memories from this troubled past.

Peter Taylor is one of the masters of Southern literature, whose work stands in the company of Eudora Walty, James Agee, and Walker Percy. In A Summons to Memphis, he composed a richly evocative story of revenge, resolution, and redemption, and gave us a classic work of American literature.

Also finished The Sweet Potato Queens Book of Love 2/5 by Jill Conner Browne. It was better than I expected. Sometimes it made me laugh and it completes another Ultimate Popsugar 2015 reading challenge.

Amazon sez: To know the Sweet Potato Queens is to love them, and if you haven't heard about them yet, you will. Since the early 1980s, this group of belles gone bad has been the toast of Jackson, Mississippi, with their glorious annual appearance in the St. Patrick's Day parade. In The Sweet Potato Queens' Book of Love, their royal ringleader, Jill Conner Browne, introduces the Queens to the world with this sly, hilarious manifesto about love, life, men, and the importance of being prepared. Chapters include:
The True Magic Words Guaranteed to Get Any Man to Do Your Bidding
The Five Men You Must Have in Your Life at All Times
Men Who May Need Killing, Quite Frankly
What to Eat When Tragedy Strikes, or Just for Entertainment

And, of course:
The Best Advice Ever Given in the Entire History of the World

From tales of the infamous Sweet Potato Queens' Promise to the joys of Chocolate Stuff and Fat Mama's Knock You Naked Margaritas, this irreverent, shamelessly funny book is the gen-u-wine article.

Visit the Sweet potato Queens Web site at www.sweetpotatoqueens.com

Hi all, interesting thread, I am definitely going to have to read some of these. I was just wondering if any one has some good modern Sci-Fi suggestions?

I just got the new Charles Stross laundry novel, I would recommend the series to anyone who likes Sci -Fi mixed with spy type stuff. Very funny especially to any brits as it is centred around a UK government department dealing with the occult. Stross has a fantastic way of dealing out black humour and is well worth a read.

I will certainly be checking out some of the previous suggestions though.

 

[desertslave]

Hi all, interesting thread, I am definitely going to have to read some of these. I was just wondering if any one has some good modern Sci-Fi suggestions?

I just got the new Charles Stross laundry novel, I would recommend the series to anyone who likes Sci -Fi mixed with spy type stuff. Very funny especially to any brits as it is centred around a UK government department dealing with the occult. Stross has a fantastic way of dealing out black humour and is well worth a read.

I will certainly be checking out some of the previous suggestions though.

A few semi-recent series that I've really enjoyed are the Confederation novels by Tanya Huff (first one is Valor's Choice), and the Cadence Drake & Tales from the Longview duos by Holly Lisle. The Longview stories are move like novellas, but priced accordingly. (And all in Kindle format.)

 

[seela]

I finished Abbas Khider's Brief in die Auberginenrepublik (A letter to the eggplant republic). It was extremely interesting! It's a story of the journey of a letter sent from Libya to Iraq. The sender is a man who's had to leave Iraq to avoid going to prison and can't send the letter using regular mail, because the mighty and powerful would then find out where he is. Instead the letter is smuggled in using various people who regularly travel between different cities or countries.

It's set in 1999 or 2000, don't remember which, and gives a very interesting perspective into life and politics in the Maghreb and Levant. It also shows maybe another side of the origins of the Arab Spring. Each chapter in the book depicts a different leg of the journey and shows the perspective of a different person.

The author is from Iraq and did time in prison for being anti-Saddam. He now lives in Germany. It was also the first book in ages that I've read in German, so still being able to enjoy reading in German was an added bonus to me.

I couldn't find if it's been translated into English, but if you read German, I really recommend this one. It's a short book too, so it's a quick read.

Another book I recently finished is Kråkflickan by Erik Axl Sund. It was pretty good too, looking forward to starting the next book of the trilogy. Probably today. I don't know if this one's available in English either.

 

[seela]

Hi all, interesting thread, I am definitely going to have to read some of these. I was just wondering if any one has some good modern Sci-Fi suggestions?

I just got the new Charles Stross laundry novel, I would recommend the series to anyone who likes Sci -Fi mixed with spy type stuff. Very funny especially to any brits as it is centred around a UK government department dealing with the occult. Stross has a fantastic way of dealing out black humour and is well worth a read.

I will certainly be checking out some of the previous suggestions though.

Have you read anything by Alastair Reynolds? I've read a few of his books and liked them, J has read all of them and really likes them. They're more like space saga type sci fi than, say Clarke or Heinlein.

Another suggestion from the recent years are the Metro books from Glukhovsky. The first one reminded me of The Lord of the Rings a little, just couldn't shake it - there's a guy who has to navigate through the metro tunnels of Moscow to save the world. I didn't like it that much, but I know many people who did. I might have to give it another go now that I talked about it with somebody and they told me to look at it as a commentary to communism and current Russia.

Hugh Howey's Silo and Shift were pretty good too.

I also enjoyed Hannu Rajaniemi's The Quantum Thief and The Fractal Prince. There's a third book to the series too, but I haven't read it yet.

 

[ceris01]

Have you read anything by Alastair Reynolds? I've read a few of his books and liked them, J has read all of them and really likes them. They're more like space saga type sci fi than, say Clarke or Heinlein.

Another suggestion from the recent years are the Metro books from Glukhovsky. The first one reminded me of The Lord of the Rings a little, just couldn't shake it - there's a guy who has to navigate through the metro tunnels of Moscow to save the world. I didn't like it that much, but I know many people who did. I might have to give it another go now that I talked about it with somebody and they told me to look at it as a commentary to communism and current Russia.

Hugh Howey's Silo and Shift were pretty good too.

I also enjoyed Hannu Rajaniemi's The Quantum Thief and The Fractal Prince. There's a third book to the series too, but I haven't read it yet.

Yes on Reynolds and howey, I have all of Reynolds books, he is a space opera master but he rushes the end of some of them which is a shame. I still have to get the third silo book so don't know how that ends yet.

I have heard of the fractal Prince I think my father in law has read them.

Thanks for the other suggestions, my kindle library is growing quickly!

 

[FurryFury]

The Bone Thief by Jefferson Bass 4/5 Crime fiction? Mystery? 368 pages

This is my author of the year. All the books have been good so far. I've spaced them far enough apart that it doesn't feel like I'm reading the same thing each time I pick up a new volume. This particular one touches again on the lack of ethics in the bio medical and funeral industries. Not a comfy subject. If you have had loved ones die and/or be cremated or donated to science. Fascinating story with characters you can pull for always makes me happy I read it though.

Amazon sez:

New York Times bestselling author Jefferson Bass delivers an authentic and knuckle-biting thriller in which forensic anthropologist Dr. Bill Brockton must confront a crime of unimaginable proportions on his own doorstep. Find out why Booklist says, "Fans of forensic fiction will want to add this author to their list of favorites."

Dr. Bill Brockton has been called in on a seemingly routine case, to exhume a body and obtain a bone sample for a DNA paternity test. But when the coffin is opened, Brockton and his colleagues, including his graduate assistant Miranda Lovelady, are stunned to see that the corpse has been horribly violated.

Brockton’s initial shock gives way to astonishment as he uncovers a flourishing and lucrative black market in body parts. At the center of this ghoulish empire is a daring and prosperous grave robber. Soon Brockton finds himself drawn into the dangerous enterprise when the FBI recruits him to bring down the postmortem chop shop—using corpses from the Body Farm as bait in an undercover sting operation.

As Brockton struggles to play the unscrupulous role the FBI asks of him, his friend and colleague medical examiner Eddie Garcia faces a devastating injury that could end his career. Exposed to a near-lethal dose of radioactivity, Dr. Garcia has lost most of his right hand and his entire left hand. Out of options, he embarks on a desperate quest: both of his ravaged hands will be severed at the wrist and replaced with those from a cadaver. But unless suitable ones are found soon, the opportunity will be lost.

As Brockton delves deep into the clandestine trade, he is faced with an agonizing choice: Is he willing to risk an FBI investigation—and his own principles—to help his friend? Will he be able to live with himself if he crosses that line? Will he be able to live with himself if he doesn’t? And as the criminal case and the medical crisis converge, a pair of simpler questions arise: Will Dr. Garcia survive—and will Brockton?


Toes by Tor Seidler Children's Fiction, Animals 176 pages

This children's book is a book I've been looking for. For a long time I've sought a book that shows a cat, rather than a dog, being a selfless hero. This is it! I really just picked it up due to the cover art.

Sadly, it is also rather "Giving Tree" like in that the cat uses it's energy and life up helping another. Mostly it was sweet and wonderful though. I'm glad I read it!

Amazon sez:

Tor Seidler's sweet and humorous story about Toes, the runt of a litter of cats who is born with seven toes on each paw.

Intelligent and aptly named, Toes has seven toes on each foot. The other kittens, fearing his condition might be contagious, refuse to play with him. So one night, a lonely Toes runs away. He takes refuge in a strange basement, where a struggling musician named Sebastian eventually finds him. As he grapples with his own insecurities as a violinist, Sebastian learns from Toes that the most beautiful duet can be the one made by true friendship.

National Book Award finalist Tor Seidler once again introduces an endearing animal who will live in readers' hearts forever.

Age Range: 8 - 12 years
Grade Level: 3 and up

 

[FurryFury]

40.) Ringworld by Larry Niven 3/5

There were parts of this book I liked. The idea that the puppetmasters couldn't control things as they had planned because luck is not a unchanging thing for instance.

Certain hard science errors that others caught went totally past me. I don't know. I don't even care. The characters were interesting but not particularly likable. I do enjoy the idea of a tiger man, the most interesting character. The space prostitue was interesting too in certain ways. Most other characters were not very intriguing to me.

Goodreads sez:

Pierson's puppeteers, three-leg two-head aliens find immense structure in unexplored part of the universe. Frightened of meeting the builders, they send a team of two humans, a puppeteer and a kzin, eight-foot red-fur catlike alien. Ringworld is 180 million miles across, sun at center. But the expedition crashes, and crew face disastrously long trek.

 

[FurryFury]

Hedwig and the Angry Inch 3/5 by John Cameron Mitchell 3/5 I recently saw a local production I was not satisfied with though it was my first Hedwig experience. I got the movie and LOVED it. Then I wanted to read the play to get more clarity on the production. It's so much fun to read the stage notes and what not. *Le sigh*

Goodreads sez:

On Valentine’s Day 1998, Hedwig and the Angry Inch opened off-Broadway to rave reviews, revitalizing the rock musical while engendering a die-hard cult following, and the phenomenon of Hedwig was born. In 2001, the mesmerizing film adaptation was released to equally glowing reviews.

Brilliantly innovative and oddly endearing, Hedwig and the Angry Inch—inspired by Plato’s Symposium—is the story of “internationally ignored song stylist” Hedwig Schmidt, the victim of a gruesomely botched sex-change operation, as dazzlingly recounted by Hedwig (née Hansel) herself in the form of a lounge act, backed by the rock band The Angry Inch.

White Fang by Jack London 2/5 I was appalled at the meanness and violence in this book. For a children's book it was even more odious. I had expected it to be wholesome and I had expected to like it. Nope.

Goodreads sez:

In the desolate, frozen wilds of northwest Canada, White Fang, a part-dog, part-wolf cub soon finds himself the sole survivor of a litter of five. In his lonely world, he soon learned to follow the harsh law of the North—kill or be killed.

But nothing in his young life prepared him for the cruelty of the bully Beauty Smith, who buys White Fang from his Indian master and turns him into a vicious killer—a pit dog forced to fight for money.

Will White Fang ever know the kindness of a gentle master or will he die a fierce deadly killer?

A classic adventure novel detailing the savagery of life in the northern wilds. Its central character is a ferocious and magnificent creature, through whose experiences we feel the harsh rhythms and patterns of wilderness life among animals and men.

The Stranger by Albert Camus 2/5 Ugh. Not one I enjoyed. How can someone be so passionless, so remote? I didn't care what happened to him and hey, he didn't either so whatever. Best thing about this one is that it is short. The French have a mindset I don't Grok so maybe that is the issue?

Again there is violence against a dog that is considered okay. I hate, hate, hate that.

Goodreads sez: Through the story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on an Algerian beach, Camus explored what he termed "the nakedness of man faced with the absurd." First published in English in 1946; now in a new translation by Matthew Ward.

 

[FurryFury]

Found one I'm really loving! I started it last night and sped through 94 pages even with an exhausted brain.

If you are a walking dead fan, this might be a good book for you. It's described as Thelma and Louise meets The Walking Dead. The title is The First Days and it's by Rhiannon Frater

 

[FurryFury]

Vanilla by Megan Hart 3.25/5

This one irked me a bit because you could tell there was back story the reader wasn't getting told and it was relevant. It ended well overall but that bothered me until it was finally told.

It was still a pretty solid piece of BDSM fiction in a "I'm a special snowflake, kind of kinkster" way. I found the name Elise a good one. It's one I like and I've used in my own writing before but the name Niall was jarring to me. I guess it's just cemented in my mind to be a Fairy God from Tru Blood now.

Goodreads sez:

"It's an acquired taste…he just has to acquire it

Elise knows what she wants in the bedroom, and she makes sure she gets it. Her thirst for domination has long been quenched by a stable of men only too happy to bow down before her.

But sexual satisfaction isn't the same as love, and she's been burned in the past by giving her heart too freely.

Niall is handsome, smart, successful and sweet—sweet as vanilla. When they meet, their romantic connection is electric, even though he's way on the opposite end of the kink spectrum. Despite how she fights it, Elise falls for him—but how can a relationship work when both lovers want to be on top? "

Red-Headed Step Child by Jaye Wells 4/5

At first this one seemed a little same as other urban supernatural fiction but soon it took off and gained my interest. I will def be reading more. Now I know that "all" vamps have red hair! hahaha!

Goodread's sez:

A USA Today Bestseller!

"In a world where being of mixed-blood is a major liability, Sabina Kane has the only profession fit for an outcast: assassin. But, her latest mission threatens the fragile peace between the vampire and mage races and Sabina must scramble to figure out which side she's on. She's never brought her work home with her---until now.

This time, it's personal."

 

[FurryFury]

Born Free A Lioness of Two Worlds by Joy Adamson

Though the 1960's attitude toward animals and natives is a big jarring. Even so these people decided to raise the kits of a lion they killed in error. They rehabilitated Elsa and were able to let her live in the wild, something that had never before been done. This book was very close to the Movie I grew up with and loved as a child. That's the reason I read it. I was not dissappointed.

Amazon sez:

"There have been many accounts of the return to the wild of tame animals, but since its original publication in 1960, when the New York Times hailed it as a "fascinating and remarkable book," Born Free has stood alone in its power to move us.

Joy Adamson's story of a lion cub in transition between the captivity in which she is raised and the fearsome wild to which she is returned captures the abilities of both humans and animals to cross the seemingly unbridgeable gap between their radically different worlds. Especially now, at a time when the sanctity of the wild and its inhabitants is increasingly threatened by human development and natural disaster, Adamson's remarkable tale is an idyll, and a model, to return to again and again.

Illustrated with the same beautiful, evocative photographs that first enchanted the world forty years ago and updated with a new introduction by George Page, former host and executive editor of the PBS series Nature and author of Inside the Animal Mind, this anniversary edition introduces to a new generation one of the most heartwarming associations between man and animal."

The First Days by Rhiannon Frater 3.75/5

This book was so fun for me. I happen to like The Walking Dead. When I read this blurb "Thelma and Louise meets The Walking Dead" - All Things Urban Fantasy. I always thought Thelma and Louise were idiots and the movie wasn't that great for me but the blurb sang to me.

Post Zombie Apocalypse the two ladies in this book are far better characters for me. I loved the way this book unfolded and now that our main characters have landed somewhere, I can't wait to read the next two.

Amazon sez:

"Rhiannon Frater's As the World Dies trilogy is an internet sensation. The first two books, The First Days and Fighting to Survive, have won the Dead Letter Award for Best Novel from Mail Order Zombie. The First Days was named one of the Best Zombie Books of the Decade by the Harrisburg Book Examiner. AmericanHorrorBlog calls Rhiannon Frater "a writer to watch."

The morning that the world ends, Katie is getting ready for court and housewife Jenni is taking care of her family. Less than two hours later, they are fleeing for their lives from a zombie horde.

Thrown together by circumstance, Jenni and Katie become a powerful zombie-killing partnership, mowing down zombies as they rescue Jenni's stepson, Jason, from an infected campground.

They find sanctuary in a tiny, roughly fortified Texas town. There Jenni and Katie find they are both attracted to Travis, leader of the survivors; and the refugees must slaughter people they know, who have returned in zombie form.

Fast-paced and exciting, filled with characters who grab your heart, The First Days: As the World Dies is the beginning of a frightening trilogy."

 

[IrisAlthea]

Haven't read a book in German for some time now, but I was recommended a German movie named Krabat and was curious about the book it was based on.
So now I have read Krabat by Otfried Preußler.
It reminds me of the Grimm stories I read as a child, combined with fantasy.
I liked it a lot and I think I'll have to read it with the kids too.

I've also finished a book I have been fighting with for some time.
The book is by Care Santos and is called Habitaciones Cerradas in the original languge, but I read it in Swedish.
It's a story about a family in Barcelona and their servants through four generations, civil war, world wars etc. The starting point is the present time and the old house where the family lived is being remodeled to be used as a library/ gallery. Behind an old fresco, they find a locked and hidden room and secrets that make the living family members rethink the family history.

It's an interesting story and each part of the story is well written in a way I liked. It's just that it jumps around and tells a little part here and a little part there, mixing in E-mails, letters, news articles, texts from art books etc.
The form made it a bit tiring to read, I think but I guess the story was worth it since I did finish it at long last.

 

[desertslave]

I've never really tracked any "reading patterns" before, but today I realized that, after I read a fairly intense book (or series) I seem to need to read something(s) lighter afterwards.

I just went from this month's book club selection to a bit of paranormal fluff. I realized that I needed something lighter for a while. I seem to be able to only handle a certain number of pages of "intense" before I need a vacation.

Anyone else like that?

 

[seela]

I've never really tracked any "reading patterns" before, but today I realized that, after I read a fairly intense book (or series) I seem to need to read something(s) lighter afterwards.

I just went from this month's book club selection to a bit of paranormal fluff. I realized that I needed something lighter for a while. I seem to be able to only handle a certain number of pages of "intense" before I need a vacation.

Anyone else like that?

I am like that too, but I usually read two books at a time, and if one of them is heavy, the other one has to be light.

I like to have a fiction and non-fiction book going at the same time. That way I can switch between them depending on what I feel like reading. A lot of non-fiction can be really light and flully too, it depends on the subject matter and how the book is written. I've also noticed that in summer I like to read lighter books than in winter, because usually those lighter books are easier to put down and pick up again and in summer I often have so many other things to do that I read in shorter spurts than in winter.

Recently I've finished

-Hungerelden and Pythians Anvisningar by Erikson & Axlander Sunqvist. It was a pretty good trilogy, kept me reading past my bedtime on several nights.

-Madaddam by Margaret Atwood. Yup, liked it a lot, as was to be expected!

-Journey of a Thousand Miles: My Story by Lang Lang and David Ritz. I liked it, it was an interesting story and I love classical classical music, so check and check. It was the second time reading this one, still good.

 

[desertslave]

I am like that too, but I usually read two books at a time, and if one of them is heavy, the other one has to be light.


-Journey of a Thousand Miles: My Story by Lang Lang and David Ritz. I liked it, it was an interesting story and I love classical classical music, so check and check. It was the second time reading this one, still good.

I'm a huge fan of Lang Lang! He is simply amazing! I bought my mom one of his CD's and, after she passed, it was the first thing I shamelessly grabbed to take home with me. I think he is truly the prodigy of our age.