Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading?

[astrangerhere]

Reading Tove Jansson's The Summer Book to close out the season.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

And now I'm reading Fatal Legacy by Lindsey Davis, the most recent one (AFAIK) in her Flavia Albia series.

I enjoyed it, but I think the series is dragging a bit.

Then I read Imaginary Numbers by Seanan McGuire, one of the Incryptid series.

I moved straight on to the next one, Calculated Risks, because it was a bit less of a finished story than usual.

[acprinter]

The 13 ½ Lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers.

A delightful fun silly book.

[Renate]

Originally Posted by acprinter

A delightful fun silly book.

It had better be. I just checked it out.

So, I started reading it. And was enjoying it. And then I said, "whadda minute..."
I flipped to the front material and there I read the fateful words:

Translation copyright...

Fortunately I found a copy of "Die 13½ Leben des Käpt'n Blaubär" at another library.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I moved straight on to the next one, Calculated Risks, because it was a bit less of a finished story than usual.

Which was excellent. And now I'm at the end of the books included in the Humble Bundle. So I'll have to wait for later books to become available in the UK.

I started and abandoned The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder, a recent freebie. It sounded good, but I found it just to be dull.

Next up: By The Sword by Mercedes Lackey.

[DrNefario]

I'm part-way through a trial of Kindle Unlimited at the moment. I've never felt it made sense as an ongoing subscription for me - it's far too expensive for what you get, in my opinion - but it could make sense as an occasional 1-month flying visit when I've accumulated enough material. Although it is going to be tricky to time the ending and not be cut off in the middle of a book.

So far I've read:

Dungeon Crawler Carl - Matt Dinniman - A fun LitRPG. This was widely praised, but from book 1 I don't see why it's better than most of the other LitRPGs I've enjoyed. I did like it, though, and will continue.

Incursion - Sarah Hawke - Porny space opera. I enjoyed the space opera parts, but really did not get on with the sex. Obviously I knew what it was going in, but it's the attitude rather than the content that bothers me. I'd like to know what happens, but I don't think I'm going to continue. Maybe I'm too old and mellow.

I'm currently reading:

Reign & Ruin - J D Evans - So far, this is properly good. I was reading it as a "romantasy" recommendation for the Reddit r/fantasy Bingo, but it's a really enjoyable political fantasy. I'm about half-way through, and the attraction of the two leads is just starting to become more of a feature. As long as it doesn't drop the ball I'll definitely be continuing the series.

An Alien Heat - Michael Moorcock - This is a reread, and one of the main reasons I decided to sign up now. I'm doing an exercise where I reread some formative books, in chronological order of publication, one per year, and I wanted this one for 1972, but don't own a copy myself. It's still good fun. I'm not intending to reread the whole Dancers at the End of Time series, just book 1.

Some interesting Crime stuff to follow, including Christianna Brand (Inspector Cockrill) and Edogawa Rampo. I'll have to see what I have time for in my remaining Trial days.

For the series I am continuing, I expect it will still work out cheaper to buy the books than to keep a KU subscription running.

[John F]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

I'm part-way through a trial of Kindle Unlimited at the moment. ...

Some interesting Crime stuff to follow, including Christianna Brand (Inspector Cockrill) and Edogawa Rampo. I'll have to see what I have time for in my remaining Trial days.
...

I'm currently in a trial version of KU. I got the trial due to some Edgar Award winners being in KU.

[Renate]

Originally Posted by Renate

Fortunately I found a copy of "Die 13½ Leben des Käpt'n Blaubär" at another library.

Well, it was kind of fun. And the word play is probably better in German. But I'm on the 6th of 13.5 chapters and I'm through 100/500 pages. Sometimes the author runs amuck on enumeration and it gets tiresome. Mark it DNF.

Next up: "The Weimar Years", Frank McDonough.

[foosion]

Labyrinth of the Spirits, Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Very nice. I read the first three Cemetery of Forgotten Books many years ago (this is the fourth) and remember enjoying them, but have forgotten most else about them.

Snow Leopard, Peter Matthisen. A reread. Fantastic book.

The Peregrine, J. A. Baker. Highly recommended nature diary. I liked it, but not as much as I expected from the reviews.

Love Triangle, Matt Parker. His usual math related fun.

Nevermor Morgan Crow triology, Jessica Townsend. Target audience is pre-teens, but other than the age of the characters could be much older. Magic oriented fun.

Ilium/Olympos, Dan Simmons. I really like Ilium and liked Olympos almost as much.

Current - Shakespeare After All, Marjorie Garber. Analysis of the title subject and his plays. Seems very well done so far. I wonder why Harold Bloom's version is not available as an ebook.

[beespeckled]

Currently reading The Year of the Locust by Terry Hayes-action adventure espionage. I liked "I am Pilgrim" by the same author.
Next will be: "Far From the Light of Heaven" by Tade Thompson
After that a book club selection "The China Room" by Sunjeev Sahota

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: By The Sword by Mercedes Lackey.

Which connects up different parts of the valdemar series excellently.

I went straight on to Winds of Fate and Winds of Change, the next two in the series.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Next, a new author to me, Homeland by R.A. Salvatore.

This fantasy novel is more character driven than anything else. Strong emotions. The world is unique with its classes of people, their belief system and politics. I felt we could have more details of the everyday life. What does everyone do all day? What do they eat? Etc. Very enjoyable but I just didn't feel fully immersed. Much of the book consisted of the MC's internal torment and after a while it grated on me. Rated C+ [3 stars].

Next is another new author, Gene Doucette's Fixer.

[Uncle Robin]

After finishing Murder Under a Red Moon book 2 in Haraini Nagendra's [iBangal;ore Detectives Club[/i] series, and enjoying it just as much as the first, I'm now nearly halfway through An Unholy Drought, book two of Madhulika Liddle's Delhi Quartet. An excellent example of historical fiction, telling the historical story of Delhi by means of a family saga spanning several centuries. The author's sister is a published historian whose specialty is Delhi, so the two bokos so far are rich in historical detail and provide context for some of the famous names and events of the times they cover.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Which connects up different parts of the valdemar series excellently.

I went straight on to Winds of Fate and Winds of Change, the next two in the series.

Which were most enjoyable.

Now I'm reading The Paris Affair by Anton Du Beke. The latest in his Buckingham Hotel series of light romance set in WWII London.

[Uncle Robin]

4.5/5 for An Unholy Drought and now 30% through a very different read. [Black Arsenal[/i] by Clive Chijoke Nwonka. As a Gooner for 40+ years, I was excited to get this book when I learned that the author is NOT an Arsenal fan. In the preface he says

Black Arsenal is an exploration, rather than a celebration, of Arsenal and Black culture. It does not claim that Arsenal has a model relationship to Black identity, nor is it an exhaustive list of all things Black and Arsenal

and so far, it's living up to that nicely.