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What book is everyone reading at the moment?

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xterra said:
And thus my aging memory fails me....
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:D It happens to us all.
xterra said:
May I please have more information on this publisher? Perhaps the books are available on this side of the pond.
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Pan-McMillian, they list her books here and ship worldwide AFAIK. However they're Stg£15, and attempting an order gets the message that it'll be dispatched when available so they may not all be in print.

xterra said:
I encountered my first Manning Coles book on my parents' bookshelves, sometime about 1955. I got hooked immediately.
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I was recommended him by Michael Gallagher in Murder Ink a few years ago, when RM started to reprint him.
xterra said:
Another series author who just came to mind: Maurice Proctor, whose character was DCI Harry Martineau.
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I think I read Hell Is a City year ago, I must have a look for more. Thanks.
 
I am reading, No Easy Day, By Mark Owens. So far it is interesting, especially how the Obama administration prolonged them from rescuing Capt. Philips because he did not want the pirates killed. It almost allowed Osama Bin Laden to escape because it dragged its feet on giving the go ahead for the mission to take place and again it was because they did not want Bin Laden killed.
 
Starting into Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes, by Edith Hamilton
 
Just finished John Sandford's latest Virgil Flowers novel Deadline. Excellent as usual.
 
I just finished Sundiver by David Brin.

Interesting, and I'm considering reading the second one, possibly even all of the Uplift books.

Gotta say though, for an action filled book, we spend an awful lot of time in the hero's head, especially considering that it's written in third person.
 
I'm reading Cornerstone: Raising Rook by KA Krisko, also known as our very own Tiktaalik. If you've ever complained the fantasy genre is too mired in its swords and sorcery tropes, this book is for you. It's really well written, and excellently paced. The main character is initially as ignorant as the reader about what's going on, but you both learn at just the right speed - fast enough avoid frustration, but slow enough not to lose its sense of intrigue.
 
I have recently started listening to audio books while exercising. My library recently added Remembrance of Things Past/In Search of Lost Time. So far I am a bit over half way through Swann's Way, into the Swann in Love section.

What I can say about it is that it is great while walking. The words and images evoked are remarkable and the minimal plot means one doesn't miss the thread of the book when one's concentration drifts. The period covered by the book is the era of impressionist painting. The descriptions of French bourgeois attitudes, manners and customs really enhances the enjoyment of the art.
 
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I've started reading Five Weeks In A Balloon by Jules Verne, but stopped after reading chapter 5. I know that the book is old, so I kept that in mind with regard to the style of writing. Sadly, even that didn't stop me from finding the descriptions of the past expeditions more than a little tedious.

Please, someone tell me that it gets better, because I want to give it an honest try, but the constant interruptions to give a qualification are putting me off.

I realise that I'm not required to read it, but what with it being one of the first real science fiction novels, I don't want to put it aside and know that I've given up on a good novel.

For the moment, I'm going to make a detour, and read The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. Not that I hadn't read it before, but this would be the first time I would read it in book-form, instead of audio book.
 
Just finished _Among the Believers_, intend to read more non-fiction by V. S. Naipul.

The subject of _The Skeleton Crew_ -- amateur internet sleuths who sometimes succeed in solving cold cases -- interests me a lot. If things were a little different, I could see doing that myself. But the book is too disjointed and poorly-written to be much of a pleasure.

Don't they edit books these days? (Lawn, get off, etc.)
 
_Revival_ Stephen King. IMO, slightly better than the previous one, but all of his stuff in recent memory seems generic, recycled from spare parts. Or maybe he's determined never to go over anybody's head, lest someone feel insulted. If anyone in his books has an original idea, it must get edited out.

Even the details about music aren't really right. Not terribly wrong, just not right:

...Then realized I could use the same three chords [E, A, and D] to play "Gloria"...and "Louie Louie"...
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(Why is this not right? It's a mistake I've heard from other semi-musicians like King. Go listen to "Louie, Louie".)
 
bruto said:
Well, keep in mind that he said he could play it, not that he could play it well.
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A terrible train-wreck would occur if Stephen King sat in with the Kingsmen.

(Setting aside the fact that the recording of Louie Louie is in Ab, a hard key for guitar. Let's imagine they played it in A.)

Kingsmen: A, D, E minor

King: A, D, E (major)

That's a minor V chord in Louie, Louie.

There are only six pitches involved in those three chords. Get one wrong and your performance is -- according to my calculations -- 16.667% wrong. That's very wrong.

It's little details like that that make the difference between someone who really loves music and has a good ear, and someone who just does it for ***** and giggles; or between a novel that speaks with authority and one that just seems churned out.
 
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The New Annotated H.P. Lovecraft (Oct 13, 2014)

I've read all of Lovecraft's stories, and a good hunk of his poetry, but few of his letters, and no biography books. I am loving this one: it's a beautiful hardback of nearly 1000 pages, covering only about 20 stories, but with a copious amount of background, annotations, and pictures.
 
Denver said:
The New Annotated H.P. Lovecraft (Oct 13, 2014)

I've read all of Lovecraft's stories, and a good hunk of his poetry, but few of his letters, and no biography books. I am loving this one: it's a beautiful hardback of nearly 1000 pages, covering only about 20 stories, but with a copious amount of background, annotations, and pictures.
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I am just right now re-reading "At the Mountains of Madness".
 
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