What Are You Reading?

[Ironclad Alibi]

I finished the Phryne Fisher books. All were excellent.

I am now half-way through The City & The City by China Miéville. It is murder mystery with a very unusual twist.

[Kit-Ginevra]

A biography of Teddy Roosevelt.He's my favourite president l think-he was one of the elite New York families(one of the few that Lady Astor would allow to attend her balls-and she wouldn't even invite the Vanderbilts...) and yet he'd been out working rodeos and ranches with the working folk.For a President he was reassuringly human-after his wife and mother died on the same day all he could put in his diary was a black X and the phrase 'All the light has gone out of my life.'He was a military fighter with the Rough Riders but still had a guinea pig called Fighting Bob Evans' �� He stopped the Russians and Japanese from waging war but he loved his nephews and nieces and still on occasions had to be called down from their treehouse where he was playing with them because a minister had turned up for a meeting. And despite being a great militarian,there were still some problems he couldn't tackle..as he said about his daughter'l can be President of the US or l can control Alice.l can't do both' ��

[AnaKhouri]

Speaking of books, every Valentine's Day I tweet Tad Williams to tell him how much I hate him for killing off my favorite character in -series redacted for spoilers. This is the third year now. I like to think it isn't Valentine's Day for Tad Williams until I I form him how much cheaper I still hate him for that.

Shouldn't have killed her off, Williams.

[Jay 2K Winger]

"Bimbos of the Death Sun", Sharon McCrumb

Hahaha, I remember that one. Mom picked it up somewhere, amused by the title, and how non-indicative of the plot it actually is. I've read it several times, and still find it quite amusing how it dips into con culture.

[Mental_Mouse]

Currently re-reading the Goblin series by Jim C Hines. Smudge is adorable, and I love the twist on the old sword and sorcery novels.

If you haven't already, check out his Princess series. Fairytales crossed with Charlie's Angels, what's not to like?

Note that Smudge gets a reprise in his Libriomancer series. His newest, Terminal Alliance (Book 1 of Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse), is a jump to space-opera of a sort -- it's a hoot.

[greek_jester]

Currently re-reading the Goblin series by Jim C Hines. Smudge is adorable, and I love the twist on the old sword and sorcery novels.

If you haven't already, check out his Princess series. Fairytales crossed with Charlie's Angels, what's not to like?

[Ironclad Alibi]

I just finished Cocaine Blues by Kerry Greenwood. It is the first Phryne Fisher novel. I have the trilogy volume. The next two titles are Flying Too High and Murder on the Ballarat Train.

We also watched the first TV show based on Cocaine Blues. There were a few differences.

[Pixelated]

"Bimbos of the Death Sun", Sharon McCrumb

That sounds like a classic; I have to see if it's available around here!

I'm rereading Michael Jecks' Medieval West Country mystery novels, set in 14th-century England. One character is the bailiff of Lydford, Simon Puttock, and the other is the Keeper of the King's Peace, Sir Baldwin Furnshill, who is also one of the few Templars who escaped the purge. They're pretty good, although the story lines can get so tangled in some of the books that you want to sit down and start drawing one of those crime scene-type boards with pictures and bits of string showing how all the characters and motives and whatnot are tied together.

I'm also about halfway through "A Court of Thorns and Roses" by Sarah J. Maas, but I'm finding it a tough slog. The heroine/narrator goes on and on and on about how vile and awful and dreadful her captor is until you want to scream "OH FFS, GET A ROOM!!" In all likelihood I'll finish it, but it's not a keeper and I won't bother to read any of the sequels.

[Ghel]

I finished Name of the Wind. Although I liked it, I feel the need to point out that Denna is a manic pixie dream girl. Some of the other women in the story might have been interesting, had Kvothe not been obsessed with Denna and ignored all the others.

Next up is Wise Man's Fear, second in the unfinished trilogy.

[Nunavut Pants]

It seems I'm no longer much of a Poul Anderson fan. I read two of his books in the last couple of months, and came away quite unimpressed. I used to like his stuff a lot more; I think I still like some of it. (E.g., Three Hearts and Three Lions, Ensign Flandry, etc.) But "Brain Wave" and "Starfarers" did nothing for me. I wound up skimming through the last third of Starfarers, which I never do.

[greek_jester]

I recently started reading the Netherworld Paranormal Police Departments series'. The main author is John P Logsdon, and each sub-series within the overarching universe is a collaboration with another author. You're supposed to start with the Ian Dex novels, but I started with Piper & Payne and had no problems following what was going on (to be honest, if I'd started with the Ian Dex novels I might have given up, as I didn't really like the character, although he did improve a little in the later books). It's an interesting concept with interesting world-building, but I do prefer some branches of the universe to others.

[AnaKhouri]

Just finished 'Sons of Cain: Serial Killers from the Stone Age to the Present'. Much more scholarly than I expected, and very interesting. But between that and Triumph of the Moon (which I am still slogging through) I am looking for something fun to read next. Maybe one of the mysteries by my friend from my writing group.

[Mental_Mouse]

I used to like the Drood books, but somewhere around #7 or 8 I started getting a sense of "what's the point"; the guy seemed to be basically invulnerable and can do anything (unless the author says otherwise), he's got his family buffaloed, and the emotional/development stuff (such as it was) was losing traction. I'd still read another Nightside book if he did one, but that story arc got wrapped up pretty thoroughly.

[dbuzman]

I'm currently rereading Live and Let Drood (Secret Histories Series #6) by Simon R Green. All the book titles are plays on James Bond movie names.

[Mental_Mouse]

I have that book! It is in a two book volume titled Bimbos and Zombies, the second novel being Zombies of the Gene Pool by the same author.

It's going to be read one of these days.

I've read it, in one of my rare forays out of SF/F. Pretty decent. Asimov had at least one mystery set at a con too.