Books: What are you currently reading?

[Swamper]

The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman. I really liked it- it was a bit sad, but enjoyable nonetheless.

[Aldin]

Speaking of teen fiction, _The Rithmatist_ by Brandon Sanderson is amazingly good. It takes place on the United Isles of America (the USA rewrit as an enormous archipelago) and is set in an alternative 1900s turn of the century with chalk based magic and clockwork technology.

~Aldin, yes I did say chalk based magic-ly

[greygnarl]

Just finished Moneyball, now I've got to do World War Z for school.

Man, I look like one of those people who only cares about stuff in movies don't I?

[Dysole]

Just finished Sourcery by Terry Pratchett. On to the next Discworld book!

~Dysole, who can't believe it took him this long to find Pratchett

[Heroscape Elffy]

One of my friends from college suggested these to me and lent them to me over the summer. I have to finish 2 and 3 by August 10th.

[Garenex]

Just finished a couple books by George Macdonald. The Princess and the Goblin and The Princess and Curdie. I didn't know anything about them before reading them, other than they were recommended by Corey Olson, as classic children's fantasy stories.

[chas]

The Guns At Last Light by Rick Atkinson, is the new final volume of The Liberation Trilogy, the story of the US and its Allies in the WWII European Theater. The first volume won the Pulitzer Prize. The author masterfully weaves poignant information with masterfully powerful interpretation, rising at times to poetry. From the last paragraph of the Prologue before D-Day:

"Down the ten channels they plunged, two designated for each of the five forces steaming toward five beaches: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, Sword. Wakes braided and rebraided. The amber orb of a full moon rose through a thinning overcast off the port bow, and the sea sang as swells slipped along every hull bound for a better world. Hallelujah, sang the sea. Hallelujah. Halleluja."

[ollie]

I've been reading a lot again. New books too. I now can't see how I got through the last six months or so hardly turning a page.

Since my last post:

• Finished the Hunger Games trilogy. They teach this in US schools?! I looked briefly to see if this was controversial, but only found tedious stuff about the violence and killing. Hasn't anyone noticed that most of the kids reading this in a US school are the analogue of the Capitol resident, for some natural analogies, and that the book is decidedly in favour of the non-Capitol residents. [Spoiler: that was an understatement.] Wow. Am I missing something?
• 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson. My first book by him. Not sure exactly why as he's exactly the sort of author I really enjoy, according to his reputation. I think I didn't get along with one of his books a while back and that stuck with me. But I enjoyed this a lot. The detectice story aspect, which was nominally the main plot driver, was not especially compelling and didn't ramp up at the end the way I hoped it would. But a beautifully imagined nearish-future and I'll be reading more of his. Recommendations?
• I, Lucifer by Duncan Glen. Satan inhabits the body of a writer with a very similar name to the author. Tipped into the clever-clever occasionally but good, puerile, blasphemous fun. Think the movie Dogma for a similar premise and attitude.
• Currently reading Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson. English comedy of manners, it seems, set in a small village. Enjoying it so far.

[Serenity]

I finished The Passage by Justin Cronin. It was good, but not great. I thought the logistics and action were well done, but I wish more had been done to build a connection to the characters. Still, worth reading and I'll probably read the rest of the trilogy as it moves into paperback.

[TrollBrute]

I just started:

Swamplandia! by Karen Russell. Only a few pages in, but the opening is very well written and has my already thinking I'm going to like this book.

Before that I read Redshirts, which was okay, but nothing special; and Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman, which was excellent. It's short (only 180 pages) and I read it in one day (which is really quick for me, I'm not usually a very fast reader). I highly recommended it, even if you're not a previous fan of Gaiman's work.

[Aldin]

Originally Posted by ollie

• Finished the Hunger Games trilogy. They teach this in US schools?! I looked briefly to see if this was controversial, but only found tedious stuff about the violence and killing. Hasn't anyone noticed that most of the kids reading this in a US school are the analogue of the Capitol resident, for some natural analogies, and that the book is decidedly in favour of the non-Capitol residents. [Spoiler: that was an understatement.] Wow. Am I missing something?

Ollie, how ya been?

Surely you're familiar with the idea that everyone is the hero of their own story? And anyway, the books were so weakly written from a political commentary perspective it would be difficult for anyone to take offense. I think the thing that amazes me is that these books, like the Twilight series, have managed to capture the popular imagination. Mind you, I never understood how Harry Potter managed to keep its following after the story started coming unglued in book 4.

~Aldin, chattily

[Hahma]

Originally Posted by Aldin

Ollie, how ya been?

Surely you're familiar with the idea that everyone is the hero of their own story? And anyway, the books were so weakly written from a political commentary perspective it would be difficult for anyone to take offense. I think the thing that amazes me is that these books, like the Twilight series, have managed to capture the popular imagination. Mind you, I never understood how Harry Potter managed to keep its following after the story started coming unglued in book 4.

~Aldin, chattily

I read Hunger Games Trilogy after my wife had and said she liked it. Meh...pretty weak for the most part IMO and the 3rd book was my least favorite. Though, my wife liked the Twilight series as well and got my twin daughters hooked on the movies But she's more into the simpler writing styles I guess.

I guess the teenage girls and women demographic can be quite a powerful force as far book sales go.