All things Books and Reading thread - 2017

[Winchester]

Ebooks from the library: These aren't bad, a little slow in spots, but I think most of you would like them.
Murder in an Irish Village - Carlene O'Connor
Murder at an Irish Wedding - Carlene O'Connor

On my Nook:
Unleashed (Sydney Rye #1) - Emily Kimelman

On Kindle:
The Black Diamond Curse - Hattie Jenkins & The Infiniti Chronicles #4) - Pearl Goodfellow (kind of weird, but hey, it's got cats!)

 

[Margret]

I ran into this article yesterday and immediately thought of posting it here: Old books actually smell like chocolate and coffee

Margret

WOW! That would explain why I love used book shops. I did not realize that.

The thing that isn't obvious from the article (at least to me) is whether this is just the odor that old paper emits on its own or whether these are the scents of old snacks from when the books were last read.

Of course, since I can smell neither coffee nor chocolate, this is entirely a matter of curiosity for me. Perhaps this is why I actually prefer ebooks -- my non-visual senses are less involved.

I also love used book shops, but for me it's a matter of greed. I just want to grab as many books as I can afford, and I really really hope I'll find something on my current wish list.

Margret

 

[Mamanyt1953]

I just finished Tailchaser's Song, by Tad Williams. It came out years ago, but I missed it. It's billed as Young Adults, but there are some very timeless themes addressed in it, and I enjoyed every moment of it. Lots of the mythologies that cats themselves tell of their origins...I ~blush~ read those aloud to Hekitty, who listens with apparently deep interest. I may be creating a monster!

 

[Primula]

Does anyone read the Jack Reacher books by Lee Child? I have never in my life read books like this, but turns out they are very well-written with a ton of interesting factual material. I'm on the third one now much to my amazement.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

No, but I'm in love with the Pendergast novels he does with Douglas Preston.

 

[Primula]

No, but I'm in love with the Pendergast novels he does with Douglas Preston.

What are they about - briefly?

 

[Mamanyt1953]

Very briefly? A hard-bitten New York detective and a very mysterious Special Agent with the FBI, Aloysius Pendergast. From an old and mysterious New Orleans family, Pendergast operates by his own rules, and for his own motives. The books are filled with an intriguing touch of science-based supernatural.

 

[Winchester]

Mamanyt1953 , you're thinking of Lincoln Child. He's the writer with Douglas Preston. And the Pendergast series is truly excellent. I have them all and they're worth reading more than once. Truly an excellent series. I keep waiting for a new book!

Oh, and each author, Preston as well as Child, also writes on his own and those books are so good, too. I highly recommend anything written by them or either one of them!

I like the Jack Reacher series by Lee Child, too. The problem is that because Tom Cruise played Reacher in the movie(s), I can't get him out of my head and when I'm reading the books. And I am so not a fan of Tom Cruise.....he "icks" me.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

I am, indeed. A pox on all these authors who write wonderful books, but who have very similar names.

Just started reading the Keeper series by Tanya Huff. There's this cat. Austin. He talks. And he is just so TOTALLY a cat in his conversations. And a portal to Hell in the basement. And Hell talks to itself. And says about what you might expect, but is hysterically funny. I must quote, a thing I seldom do:

Says Claire (our intrepid keeper) to Austin, "Are you suggesting we need to take a vacation?"
"Right at the moment, I'm suggesting we need to eat breakfast."
And if THAT isn't a cat sentiment...

Hell, talking with itself:

A LIE! A LIE!
A PREVARICATION. WE CAN'T USE THAT.
SAYS WHO?
THE RULES.
D*** THE RULES.
Heated air, redolent of sulfur and brimstone, gusted up into the furnace room. DON'T THINK WE HAVEN'T TRIED.

I'm hoping the rest of the series, there are only three, live up to the first in tickling my extremely lively sense of the absurd!

 

[Winchester]

That sounds so cool! I'll have to check it out.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

Currently re-reading "Angel's Landing" by Alice Hoffman. I love the way she weaves ordinary magics into her stories. Also love her prose. It's just pretty. I only have two of her books now, although until the Great Storage Locker SNAFU" I had all of the ones prior to 2007. MUST re-collect these books.

 

[boney girl dad]

I've been reading writings of the brothers Grimm. Not all seem to be stories for children. Anybody familiar with the short story---the Cat and Mouse in Partnership ?

 

[Mamanyt1953]

No, much of Grimm is NOT what we think of as "children's fare" today. They are, by and large, cautionary tales from days when scaring the pants off of a kid wasn't considered a bad thing. And most of what you find today is a watered-down version of the originals, which were more than a little dark!

I'm reading Dorothea Benton Frank's "Shem Creek." I read one of her books years ago, forgot her name, and have been wanting to find the book and her ever since. She sets her books in South Carolina, and they are lyrical. Drat...ANOTHER author I MUST collect!

 

[Margret]

There's a Fantasy convention in Denver that I like to go to every year, the Myths and Legends Con. They have a program called, um, Fairy Tales After Dark?, Grimm After Dark?, something like that, anyway, strictly for adults, where they do dramatic re-tellings of some of those really old fairy tales. Some of them are quite funny, in a dark way.

I heard years ago that in the original version of Sleeping Beauty it wasn't a kiss that awakened her, but the birth of her baby (or was it twins?); it seems that "Prince Charming" was into raping comatose young women. Have you ever noticed that he's always "Prince Charming"? I wonder whether they weren't making the point that it makes no difference how charming he is; that doesn't necessarily mean he's the kind of man you want to marry!

Margret

 

[Mamanyt1953]

OOOOOOOOOOH...I LOVE cons! Haven't been to one in years! Maybe that can change one day!

Good point, that. "Charming" has little to do with good character and reliability. Love is a verb.

 

[Margret]

Does anyone remember a series (I think it was a series, may have only been one book) about a family of women (witches, I think), who are responsible for keeping infernal activity under control, and magical activity secret, for a large area of the U.S. Atlantic seaboard? This dates from some time late in the last century, 1980s or '90s. Female author; I had thought Jody Lynn Nye but may have been Tanya Huff, or someone else entirely. I remember two scenes fairly clearly. In one, they're trying to clean up some sort of magical spill in the restroom of a train or bus, and some teenage boys are harassing them about their frequent trips to the bathroom. One of the young women manages to silence the boys by claiming that it's a menstrual problem, with huge amounts of blood and clots everywhere, and scares them off by, essentially, threatening to go into much greater detail. The second scene is actually more of an aside. On Christmas Eve, at midnight (so goes the myth), in honor of their presence at the birth of Jesus, the animals become able to speak for one minute. So, it's Christmas Eve, and the magic minute rolls around. Somewhere in New Jersey a cat sticks her paw into the opened mouth of her snoring human and says, "Don't you think this would be a good time to feed the cat?"

Margret

 

[Winchester]

Margret , I'd be interested in that book/series, if you remember the title! Sounds like a hoot.

On my Ipad: some cozy mysteries from the library, at least I guess they're cozy mysteries
Gem of a Ghost - Sue Ann Jaffarian
The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins
Keeper's Reach - Carla Neggers
Ice - Linda Howard

On my Nook: Just picked them up from Freebooksy on the Kindle
The House (The Armstrong House Series) - A O'Connor
North Haven - Sarah Moriarty
Bundle of Trouble - Diana Orgain

 

[Mamanyt1953]

Margret It sounds very much like Tanya Huff's The Keeper series if there was a talking cat named Austin. In fact, although I have not read it, the scene you described MAY be in the third and last book, "The Long Hot Summoning." I have read "Summon the Keeper," and have the other two sitting on my "To Be Read" table (yes, there is a table of books not yet read, in the order I want to read them, and those are next). The books are fun, full of adventure and humor. Read my post #170, and see if that sounds like the right style of writing.

I just finished Dorothea Benton Frank's "Shem Creek." I'd read one of her books years ago, and fell in love with it. It disappeared, and I had forgotten her name, so when I started reading this one and recognized the style, I IMMEDIATELY added her to my "Authors I Collect" List, and made out a section for her in the "To Buy" file. Her prose is, to me, lyrical.

 

[Margret]

Margret It sounds very much like Tanya Huff's The Keeper series if there was a talking cat named Austin. In fact, although I have not read it, the scene you described MAY be in the third and last book, "The Long Hot Summoning." I have read "Summon the Keeper," and have the other two sitting on my "To Be Read" table (yes, there is a table of books not yet read, in the order I want to read them, and those are next). The books are fun, full of adventure and humor. Read my post #170, and see if that sounds like the right style of writing.

---SNIP---

Actually, it was your post #170 that made me remember that I'm looking for these, and think of Tanya Huff in connection with the search.

I don't specifically remember a talking cat (except for the one in N.J.), but I do remember something about the Elysian fields, and someone pointing out that they're not some kind of idyllic spot, as some people seem to think, but rather the entryway to Hades.

I've already gone to BookBub's site and put Tanya Huff on the list of authors I follow, and added the first book of The Keeper series to my wanted list; they didn't have the other two (or the box set) in their database. I've informed them of the lack and expect an email in the next day or two correcting the problem.

Well, I bought a Kobo book the other night. I already had four of them, although, of course, I don't actually have a Kobo any more than I have a Kindle, just the app. I had to reset my password; it's been that long since I bought one. So then I began searching for how to break the DRM and convert the books to standard epub format for sideloading to the Nook. Sure enough, there's a Calibre plug-in for that (surprise!), which I installed. But when I tried to use it I got error messages. Did some more online searching and found out that the problem arises when you try to use the plug-in to break DRM on a book that isn't DRMed! And Kobo books that aren't DRMed are already in standard epub format; you just have to add the extension. Ah, well. I'm sure the plug-in will come in handy someday.

Margret

 

[Mamanyt1953]

I've put Tanya Huff's "Victoria Nelson" series on my to-buy list. The books were made into a series that I loved, although it only ran two seasons, "Blood Ties." I like vampire stuff on occasion. There are, I think, six of them, so the investment will be relatively small.

Right now I'm reading "Barefoot" by somebody or another. It's ok, but I won't be adding her books to my list. It's a decent little time-filler, and I'm not complaining, but it will be donated to the convalescent center when I'm done, not placed on my own shelves of beloved books.