What Are You Reading?

[greek_jester]

Jay 2K, I had to double-check who posted that as it sounded so much like me that I couldn't believe I hadn't sleep-posted!

The current series I'm working through is Harbinger P.I. by Adam J Wright. The series follows Alec Harbinger, who's a Preternatural Investigator working for the secret Society of Shadows. He's currently in disgrace, thanks to an incident in Paris, and was yanked from his Chicago spot to go to a back-woods little town called Dearmont in Maine which, as far as anyone's aware, has zero supernatural occurrences.

I'm quite enjoying the world-building, although the series isn't without its flaws. The women in the series tend to be more on the needing rescuing end of the spectrum, although they can hold their own. To be honest I'm wibbling over whether or not to keep an eye out once I've read the last in the series to date, however I am curious to find out if they manage to solve one particular problem involving a curse. Since I'm reading it on Kindle Unlimited it's not costing me anything, so I probably will. I just wish there was more character development; some of the recurring characters are still paper thin and they've been around since the beginning of the series.

One series I do go back to every so often is Jennifer Rardin's Jaz Parks series. Quite fun, and set "now" in a world where the supernatural is a part of every-day life. Jaz works as an assassin for the CIA. Her partner/boss is a vampire called Vayl, and he's the top operative in the CIA.

While they do develop a relationship which does play a part in the series (there are long-term plot points relating to it) it doesn't overwhelm the plot, and her (quite understandable, once you learn her backstory) issues aren't whined about and avoided (well, not more than is reasonable), she does do her best to get past them (she actually attempts therapy; it doesn't go well due to circumstances beyond her control, but she does try). While she (and Vayl) do start developing extra powers over the course of the series, they aren't unreasonable given their situations (no "he/she has powers we've never seen before/have never been this strong before!" incidents). Her team (once they are acquired) are also well fleshed out, with enough personality that you can get a feel for whether something would be in or out of character. Not high fiction, but certainly fun.

Sadly the author has passed away so there won't be any expansions, however she did complete the series before she passed, so there's no "Wheel of Time" panic.

[Pixelated]

I started reading Catch-22 by Joseph Heller today. If the rest of the book is as hilarious as the first chapter, I'm going to love it!

Doesn't that bring back memories ... when I was in high school (Grade 12) we were whining to our English teacher about why we HAD to read this or that book. She finally got tired of listening to the crap and said we could pick the next book but we HAD to complete it. We chose Catch-22.

And yes, halfway through the book (if that far) ... "WHY DID YOU MAKE US READ THIS???"

I can't remember if ever I've read The Gods Themselves, but I am looking forward to rereading Asimov's Foundation trilogy ... whenever I find it in my storage units.

I have quite a backlog of books to get through so I might just add that one to my wish list. The past few years, with only a handful of exceptions (new Dresden Files, Discworld, or Girl Genius novels), if I saw a book I thought was interesting at the bookstore, I'd snap a pic of the cover, and later would just add the title/author to my wish list. Then family can get me a copy of the book for my birthday or Christmas.

Alas, my siblings refuse to buy me any more books ...

I'm doing a re-read of Lemony Snicket's Unfortunate Events series ... not in order because they weren't packed in order. I'm currently on The Carnivorous Circus. The damn series is thirteen books long so they'll take some time (there seems to be a 14th book titled The Blank Book; no idea what it's about).

My apartment building has a small library made up of donated books and I am incapable of walking past free books without grabbing one, so I have a small pile near my door that needs to be returned.

One was The Jester, by James Patterson & Andrew Cross. It's about a peasant who decides to join the Crusades and in the process acquires "the most valuable item in Christendom" ... but he doesn't know what it is, and so when one of the local lords takes some drastic steps to get it, he can't give it to them. The result is an incredible amount of mayhem and violence, and an ending that I found to be completely unbelievable.

One book that I donated was Pauline Gedge's House of Dreams. It looked overwhelming -- at about 600 pages, like a bloody doorstop -- but it was much better than I expected. It's about a young Egyptian peasant girl who doesn't want to follow her mother's footsteps as the village midwife/healer, and schemes to get into Pharaoh's harem. She gets there ... but once there, she slowly starts to find out that nothing is what it seems, and the people she met along the way, whom she thought she could trust (it should be remembered she's in her early to mid-teens during this story) all have very definite agendas of their own. I wouldn't say the ending is happy, but it is striking, and rather sad.

Also read A Few Minutes Past Midnight by Stuart Kaminsky. This is part of his Toby Peters series. Peters is a detective who is often called upon by big names in Hollywood -- in this book it's Charlie Chaplin, who's had a mysterious visitor with a very large knife show up on his doorstep in the pouring rain. I really liked the characters, especially Chaplin, who eventually gives up worrying about the knife-carrying nutjob and refuses to keep hiding. I'm going to dig into the municipal library to see if they've got any others from the series. I'm sure I've read other books by him, but can't remember specific titles at the moment.

So there's my essay, Teacher. Does it get at least a B+?

[Deserted]

I'm currently re-re-re-reading Jack Chalker's Well World series. I'm in the middle of the final book, Ghost of the Well of Souls.

FINALLY finished. Hard to get through a book when you can only do maybe a page at a time.

Next up: uhh... hmmm. I'll have to see what catches my fancy. I haven't read Barbara Hambly in several years. Or maybe I'll go with Simon Haynes. And I can't remember the last time I read Anne Rice. Piers Anthony is always good. Or I could always go with one of the "Big Three" of science fiction: Heinlein, Asimov, and Clarke, the first being my favorite author of them all. Choices, choices.

[AnaKhouri]

Reading Ruth Joffre's Night Beasts. None of the short stories seem to have resolutions and some just seem like vignettes, which is annoying because she is very good and I care about the characters and would like to see what happens to them. I've had a lousy reading run lately. Nothing above mediocre, nothing I'm going to remember next year.

I also started a novelty book my husband gave me called How to Appear Normal at Social Events. I have needed this book all my life.

[Ironclad Alibi]

The Gods Themselves[/I], but I am looking forward to rereading Asimov's Foundation trilogy ... whenever I find it in my storage units.

I reread the Foundation Trilogy a few months back. Recently I read Foundation's Edge and Foundation and Earth.

I am presently reading The Iron Ship by K. M. McKinley. So far it is pretty good.

[Pixelated]

I just finished a book titled The Pearl That Broke Its Shell by Nadia Hashimi. It's about a girl growing up in Taliban-run Afghanistan, who is, early on, allowed to dress as a boy to make life easier for the whole family. It can't last, of course ...

The book also tells the story of her great-great-grandmother, who was disfigured early in life when she pulled a pot of boiling oil down on herself and was later orphaned during an epidemic.

I found this one in the apartment building's library, but it was a good enough book that I bought a second book by the same author.

[Ghel]

Oh! I forgot about this thread!

Since I last posted, I've read An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green, a near-future sci-fi themed book about fame in the internet age. It was really good, and I hear he's working on a sequel. <SQUEE>

I'm now reading Star Wars: Bloodline by Claudia Gray. It's all politics and intrigue surrounding Senator Leia Organa and her attempts to get a viable government set up in the New Republic. It's good so far. I like seeing Leia as a retired rebel fighter and all the perks and baggage that comes with that.

[mjr]

I need to finish up "Clean Code" and "Agile Principles, Patterns, and Practices in C#".

I recently bought "Leviathan", but that's gonna take me forever to read.

[AnaKhouri]

Reading Devil in the White City currently. I've been meaning to read it for years.

[Ironclad Alibi]

I recently read A Map of Days by Ransom Riggs. It is the fourth novel of Miss Peregrines Peculiar Children. Now I'm waiting for the fifth one to come out.

After that I read relic by Alan Dean Foster.

I am now reading Strange Music also by Alan Dean Foster.

[Ghel]

Somewhere in there, I also read Dark Disciple by Christie Golden. If you're a fan of the Star Wars: Clone Wars animated series, or especially the character of Asajj Ventress, I really recommend it. I was a bit disappointed with the ending, but mostly because it felt cliche.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Currently reading another one of Neal Stephenson's books, SeveNeves. Basic gist-- the Moon fractures, the pieces keep colliding and the debris is eventually going to rain down on the planet and torch it. So presently they're working on trying to convert the International Space Station into a sort of "Ark" so they can preserve something of humanity.

Among the cast of characters are expies of Neil Degrasse-Tyson and Elon Musk.

[Pixelated]

Oh! I forgot about this thread!

*snip*

I'm now reading Star Wars: Bloodline by Claudia Gray. It's all politics and intrigue surrounding Senator Leia Organa and her attempts to get a viable government set up in the New Republic. It's good so far. I like seeing Leia as a retired rebel fighter and all the perks and baggage that comes with that.

So did I, until I wanted to comment on that book!

I've read Bloodline. The same author wrote a YA (supposedly) book titled simply "Leia" and it was about Leia's early years, when her parents were still alive and Alderaan was still in one piece ...

Bloodline was an interesting concept; it had never occurred to me that her personal history was such a big secret, but I suppose it wasn't something she'd necessarily have wanted made public. The only thing I really didn't care for much was the very end, but I did like the rest of the book a lot.

Another really good look at the post-Rebellion time is a not-very-short story written by Daniel Keys Moran. It's titled "The Last One Standing: The Tale of Boba Fett" and it's one of the stories in the anthology "Tales of the Bounty Hunters." It gives Fett a fairly comprehensive backstory ... but it also bounces back and forth between the past and the present, a present in which the New Republic is firmly in charge, and there's at least one well-known smuggler who really doesn't know what to do with himself anymore ...

[Ironclad Alibi]

Currently reading another one of Neal Stephenson's books, SeveNeves. Basic gist-- the Moon fractures, the pieces keep colliding and the debris is eventually going to rain down on the planet and torch it. So presently they're working on trying to convert the International Space Station into a sort of "Ark" so they can preserve something of humanity.

Among the cast of characters are expies of Neil Degrasse-Tyson and Elon Musk.

That is a most excellent book. I loved. I heard it is going to made into a movie.

[TawnyMyst]

Just finished Kevin Hearne's Iron Druid Chronicles and am now currently re-reading Mercedes Lackey's Elemental Masters series. I'm reading Serpent's Shadow and listening to A Study in Sable thru my audiobooks.