What are you reading the week of May 16, 2010?

[DUgosh]

Fire and Ice by JA Jance

[vixengrl]

1. Got some BOTMC selections--

I guess hubby wasn't fast enough with the "Decline featured selection" option. So they sent us some....stuff. I have Stuart Woods' Lucid Intervals.

I have tried to get into it, but the Stone Barrington series is apparently established enough that I can't decipher the "raised eyebrow" character short-hand. Also, Woods suffers from what I think of as "Plum Disease" (so labeled because I read a Janet Evanovich novel and she was the perfect example of this)--if a series goes on for a while, eventually it starts to suck. People may be invested in the characters too much to notice that the quality of the writing is just bad, but it is. Dialogue sounds fake or forced, and situations don't contribute to story (I abandoned fanfic when I started writing like that with my OFC's)

I've also got David Baldacci's Deliver Us From Evil which is turning out to be a more promising read. The premise of a group of operatives who run stngs to rub out the worst of human scum is at least interesting.

Also I have Katherine Neville's The Fire. Haven't even cracked it open, yet. (When faced with a number of unknown books, I address them from apparently least-to-most promising, as if to give myself a treat by working through to an actually good read. I'm sort of hoping I got the order right, here.


Edit: fixed bad HTML.

[lordsummerisle]

2. Molly Ivins n/t

[leftyladyfrommo]

14. Did you see where they are making a movie about Mollie?

I sure hope they get it right. I can't remember who was up for the part. I'll have to check it out.

[msedano]

3. two collections

Tom Miller, ed. Writing on the Edge. A Borderlands Reader.
Stella Pope Duarte. Women Who Live in Coffee Shops and other stories.

[skeptical cynic]

4. "The Monkey Wrench Gang" by Edward Abbey

and

"Lord of the Flies" by William Golding

[fishwax]

7. "The Monkey Wrench Gang" is on my summer reading list

probably a few weeks before I can get to it, but I'm looking forward to it :)

[JitterbugPerfume]

9. If you like The Monkey Wrench Gang

read Hayduke Lives


It is a real wild ride!

[skeptical cynic]

11. Next on the list.

This is the path I'm finding myself following.

"Protest beyond the law is not a departure from democracy, it is absolutely essential to it." Howard Zinn

[Onceuponalife]

25. Both excellent

Especially MWG is one of my favorites. Except....why does Hayduke throw his empty beer cans out the window??:mad:

[elocs]

5. I am listening (for the second time) to "The Stolen Child" by Keith Donohue.

From an NPR interview with Donohue:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5477391

NEARY: In Donohue's story, a young boy named Henry Day is stolen by fairies and replaced by a changeling, a fairy who changes himself to look like Henry. The changeling takes over Henry's life, but is always conscious of the fact that it's not really his. Henry becomes a fairy known as Aniday, who never grows old, but is always aware that he has lost something precious. The two narrate their own stories.

Mr. DONOHUE: I thought it was an intriguing way to try to tell two sides of the same story, to have two narrators, to have two separate narrators. And boy, it was a lot of fun to write that way because you, I was able to bounce, as I said, back and forth between two narrators telling two slightly different versions of the same story, particularly when their paths intersect as they do.

It is a great book and I highly recommend it and I really enjoyed listening to it on cd with the different voices.

[fadedrose]

6. Just started IMMORAL by Brian Freeman eom

[fadedrose]

18. This is a good book

I hope to read more of Freeman's books . . . series character is Jonathon Stride, Police Lt., Duluth, Minnesota...

Good story, good characters, no boring parts, no 5-page descriptions of the color of the water or sky...

[Lydia Leftcoast]

8. Just finished "The Amber Spyglass," not sure what to read next

although I'm considering reading "The Remains of an Altar" by Phil Rickman, whose books take place in the Welsh border country.

[JitterbugPerfume]

10. Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy

It was written in 1987, and it is about Julian West who fell asleep (mesmerised) in 1817 and woke up in 2000 to a utopian socialist paradise

It is a far cry from the 2000's we live in , but a fascinating book.

There is a review of it at Buzzflash.com by Thom Hartman if anyone is interested.

I also finished The Book of Genesis, illustrated by R. Crumb ( the Keep on Truckin' guy from the 60s ).Sex , violence, Goddess worship ---all of the good stuff is included!

Thom Hartman reviewed it at BuzzFlash too.

Next --Cannery Row . I have no idea how I missed reading that one for all of these years!

[MaineDem]

12. "The Venetian Betrayal" by Steve Berry

On audiobook. Read by Scott Brick, one of my favorites.

[fadedrose]

29. I was thinking of starting this series..

have you read the first two - THE TEMPLAR LEGACY and THE ALEXANDRIA LINK - if so, are they any good?

thanks..

[Laura PourMeADrink]

13. You know what would be GREAT? If you asked if responders would

recommend or maybe rank the book 1 to 10. Just suggestin...:>)

[hippywife]

17. Even better if they would

give some kind of description of the book and what they like/dislike about it. I've been trying to do that.

:hi:

[Laura PourMeADrink]

21. amen1

[Jim__]

23. I agree - n/t

[fadedrose]

19. Or say what kind of book it is, mystery, romance, fantasy, scifi...eom

[Laura PourMeADrink]

20. amen2

[pscot]

15. I'm starting Ulysses

which I will peruse in liesurely fashion for the next several weeks until I finally wake up in bed with Molly Bloom the morning of June 16th. Yes.

[hippywife]

16. The Queen of Bedlam by Robert McCammon

I loved the first in the series, Speaks the Nightbird. This one follows the main character after that book. At first I was having trouble getting into it. It seemed like he was trying too hard to set the scene, but it has gotten better.

I don't know what his earlier books were like, but some say they are horror novels. These are more murder mysteries set in early America.

[Name removed]

22. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[yellowdogintexas]

24. Sourcery by Terry Pratchett

finished Mort last week and Omerta by mario Puzo

[Onceuponalife]

26. The Lords of Discipline by Pat Conroy

Excellent so far. This is my 4th Conroy novel and I love them all.

[MrCoffee]

27. The Song of the Earth by Hugh Nissenson

It's a sort of sci-fi eco-dystopian documentary interview, and it's really really REALLY good.

Very hard to describe, but I'm enjoying it so far.

[sueh]

28. Rhett Butler's People by Donald McCaig...

I'm learning how Rhett Butler became such a scoundrel and scallawag. Good read, though. If you liked Gone With the Wind, you'll definitely like this.

[hippywife]

30. Today I finished Mr. Slaughter by Robert McCammon.

I read all three books, Speaks the Nightbird, The Queen of Bedlam, and Mr. Slaughter in just one week and about a day. Unfortunately, I have done little else. They really suck you in. Thank goodness, the next in the series hasn't been written yet or I'd be in big trouble. LOL

japple...I think you would enjoy this historical fiction series with a mystery twist.

He does promise more to this series, and I'm glad, but I don't like the idea of waiting for it.

[azmouse]

31. I have the first two books in the series on my reading pile.

I hope to get to them soon. It sounds as though you really like them.

[hippywife]

32. I did!

It's a good thing that was the end of the series for now, coz if I don't get this damn house cleaned, I may be looking at a divorce. :rofl:

[Jade Fox]

33. Wolf Hall

I may not finish is, just because the whole Henry the Eighth/Anne Boleyn thing has been done to death. But I haven't quit yet.

[hippywife]

34. Love Medicine by Louis Erdrich.

I'm almost done with it.

It's the story of a Native American community and the relationships within it, told from the prospective of each one of them in alternating chapters.

It's held my interest for the most part, but I have to admit to having a hard time keeping track of the relationships of these people. At almost the end, I think I have most of them straight in my head.

:hi:

[fadedrose]

35. IN THE DARK by Brian Freeman

Good....