What are you...reading?

[Macros]

The Black Company Books by Cook

A very different style than what I'm used to, with a lot of it being narrated by one person. onto book 6 now, with the 3rd narrator of the series so far, from what I can gather, once someone loses the narration they don't pick it up again.
I like how the tone of the books changes with the different narrators taking the reigns.

The premise is quite simple, The black Company is a mercenary company, this is their story
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oh hello

[Gomez]

We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver. It's an epistolary novel that takes the form of a series of letters from a woman, Eva Katchadourian, mother to the eponymous Kevin, to her estranged husband, detailing her struggle to come to terms with Kevin's brutal massacre of eleven of his classmates.

Man alive, I've never read a book quite like this. The writing is incendiary, furiously eloquent, and Shriver's ability to distill and dissect even the finest nuances of emotion is unparalleled. The density of some passages is such that they demand a second or third read to grasp their full meaning. The characters are so perfectly realised it's like they're sitting in the room with you as you read it. Shriver is an undeniably gifted author, and We Need To Talk About Kevin is one of the best books I've ever read. Very, very strongly recommended. Seriously, buy it. Buy it right now. You'll thank me.

[Scurra]

As I think I said about the film, the book was one of those weird experiences in that it was undeniably great but I never, ever want to read it again. Indeed I actually gave my copy away so that I won't...

But Gomez is right. Everyone should read it.
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_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[jesternl*]

I will add it to my Audible queue..

[JDTAY]

Just got a Kindle Touch today. Reading He Who Whispers by John Dickson Carr based on a GameFAQs recommendation. I'll have to go through this thread sometime.
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[Fried Egg]

Shifting between Jack Vance's "Cugel's Saga", Arther Conan Doyle's "Aventures and Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" and Jonathan Thomas's "Tempting Providence and other stories".

[JDTAY]

Just finished Robopocalyspe by Daniel Wilson. Ugh, I was spoiled by Crichton. Went into this book expecting to learn stuff and got nothing but a long Hollywood script.

Moving on to Heat Wave by Richard Castle. It was the Kindle Daily Deal on Tuesday.
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Prohibit nothing. Disclose everything.

[Gomez]

About a third of the way through Game of Thrones, by George R. R. Martin. Loving it! Can't wait to get onto the next book in the series.

[Jedo the Jedi]

Just finished Life of Pi on a friend's recommendation. It was pretty excellent. Then again, I'm partial to philosophy and existential questions.

Finally, I get to read A Dance with Dragons. There should be far more copies of this at the local library.
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Paragon Tally: 18 mafia, 3 SKs (1 twice), 1 cultist, numerous chat scum...and counting.

[MNOWAX]

I am not a reader, but a nice book that is being passed aound the house these days is The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker.They guy is an expert on violent behavior and is a good study for criminal psychology.

Lately for me, it's been rereading the Harrington on Hold'em series by WSOP World Champ Dan Harrington. If you are a poker player, or aspire to be one, take the time and read his books, they will help your game a lot.
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The Man The Myth The Legend
MNOWAX

[Scurra]

[Jedo the Jedi]

[jesternl]

[Jedo the Jedi]

Recently finished The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. It's the first book following Philip Marlowe, PI. I thought it was thoroughly enjoyable, and I now readily see the influence of these books on later detective novels. Very interesting.

I'm almost finished with The Rhino with Glue-on Shoes. It's a collection of zoo veterinarian stories. If you like animals, this is a good read with some heart-warming stories.
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Paragon Tally: 18 mafia, 3 SKs (1 twice), 1 cultist, numerous chat scum...and counting.

[Jedo the Jedi]

Just finished (for the second time) The Gunslinger, the first book of Stephen King's Dark Tower series. At least, it's the first book for now. I just found out he released a book between the fourth and fifth installments of the "closed" series. I don't know whether I'm happy or annoyed.
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Paragon Tally: 18 mafia, 3 SKs (1 twice), 1 cultist, numerous chat scum...and counting.

[Hitchhiker]

The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided By Politics and Religion

[Jedo the Jedi]

I don't know if anybody has mentioned these in here (it seems unlikely that they haven't been mentioned), but A Memory of Light, the final Wheel of Time book, comes out in less than a month. I'm reading a blog series which does a recap of each book a few chapters at a time, then I'll be reading in their entirety the Brandon Sanderson works, The Gathering Storm and Towers of Midnight, in preparation for the final book.

I'm so excited. If you haven't read these, the story as a whole is awesome. There are definitely sections where it becomes bogged down, but I think that's to be expected in a 10,000+ page series which spans three decades.
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Paragon Tally: 18 mafia, 3 SKs (1 twice), 1 cultist, numerous chat scum...and counting.

[Fried Egg]

H Rider Haggard's "She (who must be obeyed)"

[Death Mage]

The Hunger Games. I got the trilogy for Christmas, based on how awesome the movie was. Though I dislike things written in first person. Gonna try to get through these.
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[Pablo]

Life of Pi

Expectations were too high and was somewhat disappointed.
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All religions are the same - Guilt....just with different holidays.

[Zag]

Hi Pablo! Where've you been?

[Death Mage]

Still reading The Hunger Games (yes, I am a very slow reader anymore). But I will say this; This is one of the few instances where the movie is better than the book. Much better. Seriously, watch the movie.
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* These senseless ramblings brought to you by Insanity™. If you just can't figure the dang thing out, it must be Insanity™.
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[Scurra]

It is a YA novel to be fair. (Although the same thing is true of JK Rowling.) So the style and language has to be considered in that light, although that doesn't necessarily excuse other problems. (Personally, I thought the first one was fine, the second felt like a filler and I hated the third.)

Burton & Swinburne: The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack

A fun steampunk alternate history; the second genre series I have read that features Sir Richard Burton as the protagonist (after Riverworld.)
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_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[Death Mage]

Finished the first book. The movie is far better. There's a few good spots in the book, but I still say the movie is really where the story shines. They adapted it very well, cut a lot of excess from it, tightened up some plot elements that didn't work quite as well in the book, and overall made the story just better.

And I'm starting to dread reading books 2 and 3. So far, I've heard almost nothing good about them. But I want to give them a fair chance.
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* These senseless ramblings brought to you by Insanity™. If you just can't figure the dang thing out, it must be Insanity™.
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[itisally]

@ Death Mage. THey are the fiest boooks my son really got into. He is 8. So I took the content in that light. By book 3 it had gotten a little complicated for him. I thought the move under played the political overtones. These become more relevant in the third book.
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I could agree with you, but then we would both be wrong.

[itisally]

OH yeah, what I am reading now.

Les Mis. Because I have always loved the play and the new movie was wonderful, but I knew there was more to the story. It is a hard read for me with lots of words I am unfamiliar with.

5 love Languages: based on a recomendation from a friend. So far so good. It is totally in the self help, feel good genre.

Teaching Methods: But it is a text book for my class so I don't think it counts. ha!
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I could agree with you, but then we would both be wrong.

[The Ragin' South Asian]

[Jedo the Jedi]

I still don't understand why people like The Hunger Games trilogy so much. I agree with Friend 2 in that this book brings up some global issues, but I think it's the only one that does so with any degree of relevance and accuracy. I also agree that the first book was an exposition for the second because the first book was pretty pointless otherwise. Let me be clear, if there were no sequels, the first book was complete trash. At least now I can appreciate it as a necessary foundation.

Anyway, if you want to encourage kids to read and you want good YA novels, there are many better choices than The Hunger Games. (At least they are better written than The Twilight Saga.)
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Paragon Tally: 18 mafia, 3 SKs (1 twice), 1 cultist, numerous chat scum...and counting.

[Jedo the Jedi]

A Memory of Light is complete. As I do most times when I finish a long and consuming series, I feel depleted and flat. It was so intense and wonderful, and now there is no more. *sigh*

Still, a wonderful end to an amazing series.
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Paragon Tally: 18 mafia, 3 SKs (1 twice), 1 cultist, numerous chat scum...and counting.

[Jedo the Jedi]

I've been blazing through The Dresden Files since my semester ended. I give this a hearty recommendation to any who like sci-fi and/or mystery. My favorite description of it is "Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Philip Marlowe." Good characterization, pacing, and the mysteries are actually pretty decent. Sometimes the cycle of the plot feels repetitive from book to book giving a measure of predictability, but certain repetitive features have become endearing more than annoying.

To echo the discussion in the "What annoyed you today?" thread, there are actually a few times here that he explains how magic has to follow the laws of physics. The fact that he ties the magic closely into the laws of the universe gives some fun situations. Each book also has a self-contained plot which links up to an over-arching plot, so bear that in mind. Anyway, I think a lot of people here would enjoy this series.

Did I mention the eponymous protagonist is a smart-ass who makes clever pop-culture references?
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Paragon Tally: 18 mafia, 3 SKs (1 twice), 1 cultist, numerous chat scum...and counting.

[novice]

Sounds like I have to check out the Dresden Files.

[Scurra]

You do. You really do. I can't believe I only discovered the series about 18 months ago (when someone forced the first one onto me) but the upside is that you get 13 books before you hit the horrible waiting game...

I've just finished The Sons of Macha, which is the final part of John Lenahan's Shadowmagic series. It's probably best classed as YA since the story is mostly a coming-of-age thing, but the world building is terrific and he has fun cliché-busting, especially with the dreaded "prophecy" millstone that haunts most fantasy novels.
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_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[Jedo the Jedi]

At least Butcher comes out with a new one almost every year.
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Paragon Tally: 18 mafia, 3 SKs (1 twice), 1 cultist, numerous chat scum...and counting.

[Amb]

I saw the movie Jumper was on TV the other day, and having seen it before, didnt really watch it. But I went and tracked down the original book that the movie was based on! (On kobo)

The movie and the book are very dissimilar. The book was good fun! The kobo rendition was evidently scanned in page by page though - there were a good number of spelling errors caused by the scanning process. That made some sentences quite surreal until I worked out what they meant!

(some M words became rn and vice versa. At least twice, the sentence changes were hilarious)

[Hitchhiker]

Dresden Files fans: I recommend The Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne, starting with Hounded. I discovered these by accident and they are fantastic. Just imagine Harry as a two-thousand-year-old Druid running an occult book shop in Arizona.

[Jedo the Jedi]

I just finished Ghost Story from the Dresden series. It's my favorite of the series so far which is crazy because just a couple books ago it was Turn Coat. I mean, wow. I would be interested to hear any thoughts you might have on Ghost Story, Scurra, and what your favorite book is so far. PM me if you think that would be better.

Edit: Just finished Cold Days, the most recent book, and holy hell. That one might actually be my favorite. I was complaining about how he hasn't really had the guts to kill a major character, but what he has done to the major characters has the same basic effect. They aren't anywhere close to the same people, and it still ramps up the intrigue and intensity. I think Butcher has really grown as an author as he wrote this series.
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Paragon Tally: 18 mafia, 3 SKs (1 twice), 1 cultist, numerous chat scum...and counting.