All things books and reading thread - 2016

[foxxycat]

Sorry!

Perfect Timing=I have 50 or so pages to go.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15742663-perfect-timing for the picture of the cover.

This book is hysterical but warning there are a few mild swears in it but no dirty talk or explicit sexual scenes-just references to the physical stuff but not pages and pages of it.

Theres some funny jokes about things common in our time period that we had none of back 1500s era of the world. 

 

[Mamanyt1953]

I'll have to look for Perfect Timing.  I just ran across a series called the A Bewitching Mystery series by Madelyn Alt.  I don't have any of them yet, but they are now on my list.  Wiccan themed, set in the present.  They sound fun,  I'll let you know sometimes in the next month or two

 

[Margret]

 
Sorry!

Perfect Timing=I have 50 or so pages to go.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15742663-perfect-timing for the picture of the cover.

This book is hysterical but warning there are a few mild swears in it but no dirty talk or explicit sexual scenes-just references to the physical stuff but not pages and pages of it.

Theres some funny jokes about things common in our time period that we had none of back 1500s era of the world. 

Thanks.  You actually had given the name in your original message and I had misunderstood.

Margret

 

[foxxycat]

Its ok Margret I still have 20 pages to go=I have been spending too much time on tcs 

I bought about 12 books from catherine anderson-this one i am reading looks to be part of a family series-i read the prior book but i am missing two other titles. but i will have forgotten most of the background story by the time I find those other two...thats why i try to not read series books unless i get all of them. i should seriously sell my books on amazon but I just dont want to deal with the post office and the emails etc...its easier to just donate them to the local grocery store who sells them for charity. Hannafords has got a book bin in every store now-I have 4 of them near me-so they will get dozens of romances I know I will never read in my lifetime. BUT if I ever get a job reading=I would be in HEAVEN.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

I have just run across two series by two authors that I've never heard of.  I must give them both a try.  Probably next month, as this month's budget is shot.  The first is the "A Bewitching Mystery" series by Madelyn Alt, about (you guessed it) a Wiccan lady who solved mysteries.   The second is the "A Cat in Trouble Mysteries" series by Leann Sweeny.  Has anyone read any of these?

 

[misty8723]

 

Huh.  I had the same problem with The Silmarillion.  At least I know why, though.  It covers something like a thousand years of elven history; almost none of the elves die; most of them reproduce; and they keep naming children after their ancestors, which means you have no way at all to keep track of the characters.

I'm currently reading Rhapsody: Child of Blood, by Elizabeth Haydon.  I had read this before, and greatly enjoyed it, so when I got an offer for the ebook at a good price in BookBub I snatched it up.  Epic fantasy, copyrighted 1999.

Margret

I enjoyed that Rhapsody series, read it ages ago but I think I still have them on my bookshelf. I wish I could find other series like that.  Truthfully, I haven't been looking too hard lately, still going through a re-read of Game of Thrones (and for light reading, free downloads from Amazon).

 

[Margret]

 

 

Huh.  I had the same problem with The Silmarillion.  At least I know why, though.  It covers something like a thousand years of elven history; almost none of the elves die; most of them reproduce; and they keep naming children after their ancestors, which means you have no way at all to keep track of the characters.

I'm currently reading Rhapsody: Child of Blood, by Elizabeth Haydon.  I had read this before, and greatly enjoyed it, so when I got an offer for the ebook at a good price in BookBub I snatched it up.  Epic fantasy, copyrighted 1999.

Margret

I enjoyed that Rhapsody series, read it ages ago but I think I still have them on my bookshelf. I wish I could find other series like that.  Truthfully, I haven't been looking too hard lately, still going through a re-read of Game of Thrones (and for light reading, free downloads from Amazon).

The author has just come out with the final book in the series, which is why they were offering volume 1 in electronic format for a good price.  You may want to do a search on "Elizabeth Haydon" in the Amazon Kindle store.  I found volumes 2 and 3 in the basement, but I think there was at least one further trilogy in the same universe that I missed.

Margret

 

[misty8723]

 
The author has just come out with the final book in the series, which is why they were offering volume 1 in electronic format for a good price.  You may want to do a search on "Elizabeth Haydon" in the Amazon Kindle store.  I found volumes 2 and 3 in the basement, but I think there was at least one further trilogy in the same universe that I missed.

Margret

Amazon says it is a 9 book series, which I don't think I was aware of. The second trilogy was Requiem for the Sun (book 4), Elegy for a Lost Star (book 5), and The Assassin King (Book 6).  I've read all six.  I don't recall reading the third trilogy, but I will have to check my bookshelf to be sure.  Hopefully, they weren't part of the batch I took up to the used book store.  If not, I may use my Nook gift card to get those 3...or maybe first hit the used book store to see if they have them (I still have a store credit).  Thanks for the head's up Margret!

 

[rubysmama]

Finally got "The Fiery Cross",  the 5th book of the Outlander series, from the library.   I'm about 150 pages in and it's still the same day.  There are 1300 pages in this book, so there's lots of pages yet to go, but still that's a fair amount of reading and not much happening yet. 

 

[Winchester]

Reading Crescent Dawn by Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler (I love his Dirk Pitt NUMA series)

Also on my iPad

Bones Never Lie by Kathy Reichs

Malevolent by Jana Deleon

 

[Mamanyt1953]

 
Finally got "The Fiery Cross",  the 5th book of the Outlander series, from the library.   I'm about 150 pages in and it's still the same day.  There are 1300 pages in this book, so there's lots of pages yet to go, but still that's a fair amount of reading and not much happening yet. 

It gets better.  And I have to say, when Gabaldon takes a huge number of pages to cover a short time, things are happening that form a foundation for later,  She doesn't keep you there just for a word count.  I am getting ready to reread "A Breath of Snow and Ashes, and then reread "An Echo in the Bone," and THEN, O JOY O BLISS, I have a brand-new copy of "Written in My Own Heart's Blood"!

There are so many profound passages in her books, that I'm rereading with a pad of sticky-tabs on my end table, and marking them, then going back later and transcribing them to a computer file, so I can remember them.  Words of wisdom,

 

[rubysmama]

Good to know,  @Mamanyt1953

And I can certainly see how things are getting set up for later.

 

[LTS3]

I'm currently reading "Search Inside Yourself" by Chade-Meng Tan. It's about practicing mindfulness and how it can be beneficial to your work life and life in general.

 

[Margret]

Many, many years ago I bought and read the first two books in the Elemental Logic series, by Laurie J. Marks.  Volume 1 is Fire Logic, and volume 2 is Earth Logic.  I found Earth Logic in the basement, and have been re-reading it, and I've just bought volume 3, Water Logic.  (Volume 4, Air Logic, is still forthcoming.)  See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurie_J._Marks.  According to Wikipedia the copyright dates on the first two are 2002 and 2004, but the date in my paperback copy of Earth Logic is 1999, so I'm a bit doubtful about the 2007 date that appears in my electronic copy of Water Logic.  I think the dates may have been updated when the author went to electronic publishing.  And I'm seriously considering buying Fire Logic again, as there are references in the second two books to things that I'm having trouble remembering clearly from the first book.

Very good series, with engaging characters, and each book is complete in itself, but it is a series, and it's not yet complete.  You'll get a better idea what it's about if you read the part of the Wikipedia article that deals specifically with this series than if I try to tell you, and I might let slip some spoilers.  If you're offended by (as opposed to simply feeling that it's not for you) gay, bisexual, or polyamorous relationships, then this series is not for you, but those are not the point of the books, they're just part of the environment and of the lives of the characters.  Unlike Heinlein, Marks doesn't get all preachy about it.

Margret

 

[Winchester]

Just started The Emperor's Revenge by Clive Cussler (this is from the Oregon Files; it's a good read)

 

[natalie_ca]

I'm about 30% through Justin Cronin's "The Passage." It's over 800 pages. 

I've been in a reading slump this year and it's taken me months to find a book that has kept my attention.  

Here is an overview of what it's about.  It's pretty good. 

 

 about a virus that nearly destroys the world, and a six-year-old girl who holds the key to bringing it back. The Passage takes readers on a journey from the early days of the virus to the aftermath of the destruction, where packs of hungry infected scour the razed, charred cities looking for food, and the survivors eke out a bleak, brutal existence shadowed by fear. Cronin doesn't shy away from identifying his "virals" as vampires. But, these are not sexy, angsty vampires (you won’t be seeing "Team Babcock" t-shirts any time soon), and they are not old-school, evil Nosferatus, either. These are a creation all Cronin's own--hairless, insectile, glow-in-the-dark mutations who are inextricably linked to their makers and the one girl who could destroy them all.

 

[Margret]

I've already said part of this, but I'll recap to make it easier to follow.

In the nineties I bought volumes 1 and 2 of what should eventually be a 4 volume series, the Elemental Logic series, by Laurie J. Marks (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurie_J._Marks).  I recently found volume 2, Earth Logic, in the basement, but I couldn't find volume 1, Fire Logic.  I thought I had a pretty good handle on it though, so I didn't worry about it when I went ahead and bought volume 3, Water Logic, for my Nook.  I was wrong.  There was just too much of the back story that I didn't remember, so I went ahead and bought the Nook version of Fire Logic, and have now finished it.  I am now about two thirds of the way through re-reading Earth Logic, and when I finish that I'll finish off Water Logic.  (Note: Volume 4, Air Logic, has not yet been published, but both of the first two volumes had satisfying endings, while still leaving room open for more to be written, so I'm not too worried.)

From the Wikipedia article:

1. Fire Logic. 2002. ISBN  978-0-8125-6653-6. ^[2]
2. Earth Logic. 2004. ISBN  978-0-7653-4838-8. ^[3]
3. Water Logic. 2007. ISBN  978-1-931520-23-2. ^[4]
4. Air Logic. (not yet published^[5])

The dates in the Wikipedia article are not totally accurate, as my paperback copy of Earth Logic was printed (and copyrighted) in the 1990s.

Margret

 

[Kat0121]

I'm reading a series called Vampire Girl by Karpov Kinrade. It's called a cross between Twilight and Outlander. The heroine is a girl named Arianna. On her 18th birthday, her mom falls ill and goes into a coma. Her father died when she was very young (this matters). She is approached by a man who tells her that the only way her mother can be saved is if SHE makes a deal with the devil. She needs to agree to go to hell and eventually marry one of 7 princes that live there. She will eventually be queen. She ends up going of course but finds that hell is not what she has always been taught that it is. Each of the 7 princes represents one of the 7 deadly sins and rules over his own portion of hell. There are 2 books out so far. The third is coming shortly according to the authors' website. I am signed up to get an alert when it's released. 

It's a good read. The Twilight comparison is because the 7 princes are vampires. The Outlander reference is because the portions set in hell take place in the past. I like Arianna (Ari). She is FAR, FAR more likable than Claire from Outlander IMO who I cannot stand. She is gutsy as heck yet sweet and funny. The series is written by a husband and wife team so the author name is each of their surnames. 

Vampire Girl (book 1)


Midnight Star (book 2)


It's a lighter read than Outlander. It's also less bogged down with unnecessary stuff (and did I mention NO CLAIRE? 

)

It's a good summer series. I recommend it. 

 

[Margret]

Well, I finished Water Logic, which was an excellent read, though it does leave one major loose end hanging for Air Logic.

I'm now re-reading The Last Continent, by Terry Pratchett.  Totally hilarious.  I'll probably finish it off some time today.

Sigh.  Terry Pratchett's death was such a loss.  He used to say that the hardest fan mail to deal with was the letters saying "I sure hope you got Death right, because it looks like I'll be meeting him soon."  All he could say to that was, "Yes, I hope so too."  After his death, a friend of mine saw a Tweet that said, "HELLO, SIR TERRY.  LET'S TAKE A WALK."

http://www.hwaet.org/Catmp3s/SendHimHome.mp3

Margret

 

[Mamanyt1953]

I loved "The Unadulterated Cat."  Favorite Pratchett quote, “A person ignorant of the possibility of failure can be a halfbrick in the path of the bicycle of history.”