All things books and reading thread - 2016

[misty8723]

 
I am on the fence about Martin.  I've read all of the books to date, and each one was a struggle to get through, but every time I finished one, I thought, "Well...THAT was interesting!"  Keeping up with all the story threads was wearing, but each story individually was fascinating.  And I'll be reading the next one, if I'm still alive when it comes out, LOL!  He isn't very fast...

I absolutely LOVE GRRM's Game of Thrones. I'm actually re-reading the series to date, and loving every minute of it. I don't find it a struggle at all, I love all the details and all the characters.  I'll be shocked if I live long enough - or he lives long enough - to see the end of the series. Which is too bad because I really do want to know how it all turns out.

 

[Margret]

 

 
That's fine; for one thing you're not going to have much reading time until you're moved in.  But, THIS REQUIRES NO PENNIES!  Installing the Nook and Kindle apps on your computer is 100% free.  And once you have those, you're all set up to start "buying" free books via BookBub et.al., which you can then read at your leisure.

Margret

Free books rock! If you don't like it, you can hit the delete button and don't feel like you've thrown your money away. And some of them can be surprisingly good.

A lot of new authors use a short term give-away to pull new readers in.  And some new authors are extremely good; they just haven't been "discovered" yet (think J.K. Rowling being turned down by the first twelve publishers to whom she submitted Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone -- I wonder how many people lost their jobs over that particular error in judgment).

As for hitting the delete button, I prefer to hit the archive button.  That way I still own the book, and if I ever do decide I'm interested I can download it again.  In the meantime it isn't taking up space in my computer or Nook.

Margret

 

[Mamanyt1953]

 
That's fine; for one thing you're not going to have much reading time until you're moved in.  But, THIS REQUIRES NO PENNIES!  Installing the Nook and Kindle apps on your computer is 100% free.  And once you have those, you're all set up to start "buying" free books via BookBub et.al., which you can then read at your leisure.

Margret

OOOOOOOHHHHHHHH...NO PENNIES!  I CAN HAZ REEDER!  With all the upheaval, I'll prolly still wait until after the move, but it is on my TO DO list,

 

[Primula]

I wonder how many people lost their jobs over that particular error in judgment.

Probably the same number as the number of people who lost their jobs at HBO for turning down Mad Men.

 

[catspaw66]

OOOOOOOHHHHHHHH...NO PENNIES!  I CAN HAZ REEDER!  With all the upheaval, I'll prolly still wait until after the move, but it is on my TO DO list,

If you like Science Fiction, I have a bunch I can lend you in Nook format.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

Apparently I have Kindle already.  I had no clue, but it popped up on my screen out of nowhere...MUST really explore this computer!

 

[Winchester]

I just finished The Martian. It was an excellent book, IMO; I couldn't put it down. I started it yesterday morning and finished it last night. Now, I'd really like to see the movie.

I'm also reading some Steve Berry novels (with Cotton Malone as the main character). They're quite good, too. Jefferson Key was excellent. I'd recommend them. 

 

[DreamerRose]

I loved The Martian,  too, and the movie is just as good as the book. Also liked Steve Berry. If you like him, you will like Chris Pavone, too.

 

[Primula]

Apparently I have Kindle already.  I had no clue, but it popped up on my screen out of nowhere...MUST really explore this computer!

The Kindle is a free app - you don't need to own a Kindle to use it. I love it & that's how I read books these days.

 

[Winchester]

I'm a Sneaky Pie fan (until Rita Mae Brown goes off on one of her rants in the book, that is) and just started to read Tall Tails.

I also have Beyond the Ice Limit by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. I am a HUGE Preston and Child fan. Huge. The Pendergast series is excellent. This book is from the Gideon Crew series and it is very good, too.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

 
I'm a Sneaky Pie fan (until Rita Mae Brown goes off on one of her rants in the book, that is) and just started to read Tall Tails.

I also have Beyond the Ice Limit by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. I am a HUGE Preston and Child fan. Huge. The Pendergast series is excellent. This book is from the Gideon Crew series and it is very good, too.

LOVE Preston and Child, far better together than either alone.  Although I enjoy the Gideon Crew books, I only collect teh Pendergast books.

I never really got into the Brown books, although I like them well enough.  Just not enough to collect them and reread elebenty six times.  Best part of those books?  Sneaky Pie may be the best cat name I've ever heard!

 

[rubysmama]

I'm just about to start book 8 in the Outlander series - Written in my Own Heart's Blood.

I'm anxious to read more of the story, but a little sad that this is the last main book, for now. I do have the Lord John series and the novella's to read, but after that I'll be waiting for the 9th book like the rest of you Outlander fans. 

I'm glad I stuck with the series, especially through a couple of the middle books in which there were tons of words but not much happening.  Now the books are mostly a historical soap opera, and I do skim a bit over some of the battles, but I like all the characters and enjoy seeing how they interweave with each other.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

 
I'm just about to start book 8 in the Outlander series - Written in my Own Heart's Blood.

I'm anxious to read more of the story, but a little sad that this is the last main book, for now. I do have the Lord John series and the novella's to read, but after that I'll be waiting for the 9th book like the rest of you Outlander fans. 

I'm glad I stuck with the series, especially through a couple of the middle books in which there were tons of words but not much happening.  Now the books are mostly a historical soap opera, and I do skim a bit over some of the battles, but I like all the characters and enjoy seeing how they interweave with each other.

There will be another,   She's working on it now, and I'm MAKING myself not read any of the excerpts on her web page.

 

[rubysmama]

 
There will be another,   She's working on it now, and I'm MAKING myself not read any of the excerpts on her web page.

Since I've read them all one after another, it's going to be hard for me to not look for hints about the next book. Especially if this one ends with cliff-hangers, which I'm sure it will. LOL.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

Honestly?  As much as I have enjoyed this series (and remember...I re-read the whole thing about every 6 months...I REALLY enjoy it!) I almost hope the next one is the last one, or the one after that.  I don't really want to be there when either Jamie or Claire dies.  I want to leave them sitting on the porch of the New House, watching the sun set over their valley, content. 

 

[Margret]

 
I just finished The Martian. It was an excellent book, IMO; I couldn't put it down. I started it yesterday morning and finished it last night. Now, I'd really like to see the movie.

I'm also reading some Steve Berry novels (with Cotton Malone as the main character). They're quite good, too. Jefferson Key was excellent. I'd recommend them. 

Did the book start with a windstorm on Mars that threw the hero across the valley and injured him with some kind of metal junk?  That's how the movie starts, and it's totally impossible.  Mars doesn't have enough atmosphere for that kind of storm.  Once you get past the blatant impossibility, however, it was a pretty good movie, except that Matt Damon is supposed to be starving and obviously isn't.  That didn't really bother me too much -- I disapprove of Tom Hanks' technique of actually starving himself for a role.  I liked the ingenious ways they found to communicate.  I had some trouble with the idea of living for so long on nothing but potatoes, which are pure carbohydrates and don't really taste very good without some kind of topping.

Margret

 

[DreamerRose]

It was a good movie. A really good movie. Mars DOES have sandstorms, created by the heat of the sun. Matt Damon isn't starving at first as he is using all the meals left by the other astronauts, and he did use catsup as a topping for the potatoes. If you are starving, you will eat anything, and potatoes will taste just fine. I know personally of a carpenter who worked at one of the Nazi prison camps who every morning baked potatoes and carried them into the prison in his tool box. The movie was good, plausible science fiction, and there's no point in throwing cold water on it.

I've read Steve Berry too, and he is great. Love his books.

 

[Winchester]

While Mars can have dust storms, they don't have the same actual intensity as what we would see on earth because the atmosphere isn't dense enough to handle them. I think that, on Mars, the dust storms would last a while, blocking out sunlight, but that would be about it. Nonetheless, I enjoyed The Martian very much. As for the potatoes, I thought it was awesome that he thought of growing them! Yeah, he lived on potatoes for a while (well until 400+ potato plants bit the dust anyway). I could live on potatoes if it meant that I wouldn't starve. Then again, I rather like potatoes and can eat them without anything added to them.

It was a good book! Darn it! 

I just finished Steve Berry's The Lincoln Myth. That was good, too. A little long in spots, but I liked it. 

Am anxiously waiting for the ninth Outlander book. I've read and reread and reread that series so many times. Right before Season 3 starts, I'll grab Voyager again and reread it.

As for the ninth book......Spoiler Alert

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

I've read where either Jamie or Claire will die in the ninth book. And that will definitely end the series at that point. 

 

[DreamerRose]

http://www.space.com/16903-mars-atmosphere-climate-weather.html:

Giant dust devils  routinely kick up the oxidized iron dust that covers Mars' surface. The dust storms  of Mars are the largest in the solar system, capable of blanketing the entire planet and lasting for months. One theory as to why dust storms can grow so big on Mars starts with airborne dust particles absorbing sunlight, warming the Martian atmosphere in their vicinity. Warm pockets of air flow toward colder regions, generating winds. Strong winds lift more dust off the ground, which in turn heats the atmosphere, raising more wind and kicking up more dust.

 

[Margret]

 
It was a good movie. A really good movie. Mars DOES have sandstorms, created by the heat of the sun. Matt Damon isn't starving at first as he is using all the meals left by the other astronauts, and he did use catsup as a topping for the potatoes. If you are starving, you will eat anything, and potatoes will taste just fine. I know personally of a carpenter who worked at one of the Nazi prison camps who every morning baked potatoes and carried them into the prison in his tool box. The movie was good, plausible science fiction, and there's no point in throwing cold water on it.

I've read Steve Berry too, and he is great. Love his books.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3659388/trivia?item=tr2509566

When I was 4 years old, going on 5 (very important at that age

), late one night my father came into my bedroom and told me to get dressed and put on my snowsuit, very quietly so as not to wake my mother who was in the middle of a difficult pregnancy.  Then he took me outside and showed me the stars.  He showed me how to find the North Star.  He showed me the Milky Way.  He explained about constellations and how far away the stars were.  And then he showed me a star that was moving, unlike all the others.  He wanted me to someday be able to tell my children and grandchildren that I saw Sputnik.  When I was older, one morning my mother woke me up early along with my brothers and we all went into my parents' bedroom and snuggled between them in bed and watched the television at the foot of the bed as John Glenn made history.  I grew up with the space race, and I cared and care about space travel deeply.

Shortly after John Glenn became the first American to orbit the planet, I found one of the very few S.F. novels in my elementary school's library -- a book named Springboard to Venus.  I don't know who the author was, and I haven't been able to find it in an internet search, but I loved it.  It centered around a young man who was an orphan as a result of an auto accident that not only killed his parents but left him crippled.  He was now living on his own (at the YMCA), read a lot of science books, and was a court reporter.  And one night he went to a science talk about space flight and some kind of mission to Venus, and he asked a question that cut a little too close to the facts about the program (they were trying to keep their actual techniques secret, as well as how close they were to being ready -- this was written in the days when the Russians were automatically the bad guys and if they got to Venus first bad things would happen.

Turns out that their big secret was that they weren't using rockets for takeoff; they were using a flying ship that would get them all the way to the upper atmosphere before the rockets cut in.  This wouldn't work for going to the moon, of course, since there's no ocean there for the ship to land on, but Venus was another matter.  All totally wrong, of course, but we didn't know that then.  To make a long story short, our hero gets hired by the program in a ground support position, but all ground support personnel are being used in some of the test runs so they can all get a taste of weightlessness, so he is on board the ship when news comes that the Russians have taken off earlier than anyone thought they could and this ship must leave now if we're going to beat them to Venus.  So our hero goes to the ocean/jungle planet of Venus where, because of the lower gravity he is less crippled than he is on earth, and manages to foil a Russian plot to sabotage the ship, getting his legs severely broken in the process.  And on the trip home, the doctor on board is able to put his legs back together properly (because of operating in Zero G), and when they land he is able to walk off of the ship on his own, though he's still using crutches.

This book was full of everything wonderful: an underdog who is intelligent and respected, and who foils the bad guys against almost insurmountable odds; an ingenious idea about space flight; a fascinating alien planet; in short -- Sense of Wonder.  I loved it.  If I could find a copy I would happily read it again.  But it would be with the knowledge that Venus is actually a hell-hole that would immediately kill anyone who was stupid enough to try to land there.

Margret