AmyStrange
Philosopher
Oh, nice! Really hope you like it now that I've sung its praises so stronglyLet me know!
Will do, and thanks again.
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What book is everyone reading at the moment? Part 2.
- Thread starter alex04
- Start date
Will do, and thanks again.
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Scorpion
Illuminator
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2013
- Messages
- 3,818
Since getting hooked on the TV series 'ancient aliens' on Blaze channel 64 I have been buying related books. The latest book I have purchased is called ' Aliens' by Ron Miller. I have begun reading it and I found that it is believed there is an as yet large undiscovered planet orbiting the Sun far beyond the orbit of Pluto. They have worked this out from the disturbances in the asteroid belt which may be caused by the gravity of this unknown planet. The book explains that the discovery of most of the large outer planets was done by observing deviations in the known planets orbits. Their gravity causes wobbles in the orbits of the closer planets so it was possible to deduce where there might be another planet. By this method Uranus and Neptune were discovered.
The Great Zaganza
Maledictorian
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I can give a full thumbs up for "I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom" and everything else by Jason Pargin.
AmyStrange
Philosopher
I just got done reading Moby Dick, and I don't know about anyone else, but I was actually rooting for the whale in the end.
Now, I'm going to begin reading Mayhem and Madness: Chronicles of a Teenaged Supervillain, because I've got it on loan from the local library, and I only have a week and a half to go. Of course, I had to finish Moby Dick first, even though I got the e-book through a free e-book site, Project Gutenberg.
After I finish that one, I was going to read the I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom, but I forgot that I had it on hold, and it wasn't readily available yet. It's like a 12 week wait!
Damn it! That makes me so mad!
In case anyone is interested, here is the list of all the books that I've read (in the order that I've read or will read them) since the beginning of the summer (most of them I already read in high school), and also my future reads:
I started with 1984, Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Dracula, Lord of the Flies, A Good Girl's Guide to Murder (I recently watched the Netflix series that was based on it), Frankenstein, The House of the Seven Gables (I actually toured the house--including the secret passage--that the novel was based on, but according to the book, it was only one of three houses and not the only one), A Study in Scarlet, the Hound of the Baskervilles, The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Moby Dick, Mayhem and Madness: Chronicles of a Teenaged Supervillain, Murders in the Rue Morgue, Oliver Twist, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Swiss family Robinson, Treasure Island, and ending with War and Peace (this will be my second time reading this one).
Plus, the following books as I get them from the library: To Kill A Mockingbird, Fahrenheit 451, Spy School, James, and finally, I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom.
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Now, I'm going to begin reading Mayhem and Madness: Chronicles of a Teenaged Supervillain, because I've got it on loan from the local library, and I only have a week and a half to go. Of course, I had to finish Moby Dick first, even though I got the e-book through a free e-book site, Project Gutenberg.
After I finish that one, I was going to read the I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom, but I forgot that I had it on hold, and it wasn't readily available yet. It's like a 12 week wait!
Damn it! That makes me so mad!
In case anyone is interested, here is the list of all the books that I've read (in the order that I've read or will read them) since the beginning of the summer (most of them I already read in high school), and also my future reads:
I started with 1984, Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Dracula, Lord of the Flies, A Good Girl's Guide to Murder (I recently watched the Netflix series that was based on it), Frankenstein, The House of the Seven Gables (I actually toured the house--including the secret passage--that the novel was based on, but according to the book, it was only one of three houses and not the only one), A Study in Scarlet, the Hound of the Baskervilles, The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Moby Dick, Mayhem and Madness: Chronicles of a Teenaged Supervillain, Murders in the Rue Morgue, Oliver Twist, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Swiss family Robinson, Treasure Island, and ending with War and Peace (this will be my second time reading this one).
Plus, the following books as I get them from the library: To Kill A Mockingbird, Fahrenheit 451, Spy School, James, and finally, I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom.
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AmyStrange
Philosopher
Oooops, I forgot that my next book after Mayhem and Madness: Chronicles of a Teenaged Supervillain won't be Murders in the Rue Morgue but instead will be Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain.
And if anyone really cares, here's my list of books in an easier to read format (the one with an X is the one I'm currently reading):
1984
Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Dracula
Lord of the Flies
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder
Frankenstein
The House of the Seven Gables
A Study in Scarlet
the Hound of the Baskervilles
The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
Moby Dick
Mayhem and Madness: Chronicles of a Teenaged Supervillain X
Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain
Murders in the Rue Morgue
Oliver Twist
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
The Swiss family Robinson
Treasure Island
War and Peace
Plus, the following books as I get them from the library:
To Kill A Mockingbird
Fahrenheit 451
Spy School
James
I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom
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And if anyone really cares, here's my list of books in an easier to read format (the one with an X is the one I'm currently reading):
1984
Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Dracula
Lord of the Flies
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder
Frankenstein
The House of the Seven Gables
A Study in Scarlet
the Hound of the Baskervilles
The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
Moby Dick
Mayhem and Madness: Chronicles of a Teenaged Supervillain X
Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain
Murders in the Rue Morgue
Oliver Twist
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
The Swiss family Robinson
Treasure Island
War and Peace
Plus, the following books as I get them from the library:
To Kill A Mockingbird
Fahrenheit 451
Spy School
James
I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom
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Safe-Keeper
My avatar is not a Drumpf hat
Ouch. I don't know where you get your books from, but maybe check different bookstores? Other than that, you could possibly buy it for Kindle or as an audio book? I dislike Amazon, but I've ended up using Audible, and the edition narrated by Ari Fliakos is just great.
AmyStrange
Philosopher
Unfortunately, I'm low on cash. Even a couple bucks would break me. I can't do audible, because my mind tends to wander a lot when I'm listening, and I'm always losing my place, and I spend half the time trying to figure out where the hell I lost it.
Thanks for the suggestion though.
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Safe-Keeper
My avatar is not a Drumpf hat
Aaaaah, I only read your list of books now and saw you were getting it from the library. I was wondering what kind of bookstore or whatever could have a 12 week wait time, and why you didn't just pick a different one. It all makes sense now !
!AmyStrange
Philosopher
Aaaaah, I only read your list of books now and saw you were getting it from the library. I was wondering what kind of bookstore or whatever could have a 12 week wait time, and why you didn't just pick a different one. It all makes sense now
Yup, it seems to be a very popular book. so that's very encouraging.
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Scorpion
Illuminator
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2013
- Messages
- 3,818
Nearly finished reading 'Aliens' by Ron Miller. The book is a scientific study of belief in aliens, and to save you time reading it the conclusions are that there are probably countless inhabited planets but it is unlikely aliens have actually visited us due to the vast distance between stars.
There have been over 2000 habitable planets discovered, and based on this the estimate is there could be two billion habitable planets in our galaxy.
The book contains the web address of planethunters.org so that you can participate in the search for more planets on your home computer.
www.planetary.org
There is also another page to search for planets SETI@Home
There have been over 2000 habitable planets discovered, and based on this the estimate is there could be two billion habitable planets in our galaxy.
The book contains the web address of planethunters.org so that you can participate in the search for more planets on your home computer.
Planet Hunters home page
Visit http://www.planethunters.org/ to start hunting planets!
www.planetary.org
There is also another page to search for planets SETI@Home
AmyStrange
Philosopher
Nearly finished reading 'Aliens' by Ron Miller. The book is a scientific study of belief in aliens, and to save you time reading it the conclusions are that there are probably countless inhabited planets but it is unlikely aliens have actually visited us due to the vast distance between stars.
There have been over 2000 habitable planets discovered, and based on this the estimate is there could be two billion habitable planets in our galaxy.
The book contains the web address of planethunters.org so that you can participate in the search for more planets on your home computer.
Planet Hunters home page
Visit http://www.planethunters.org/ to start hunting planets!
There is also another page to search for planets SETI@Home
Yup, I actually participated in the SETI one.
As far as the distance thing, I have to agree, unless they've discovered a way to travel long distances really, really fast, but what the hell are the chances of that happening?
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catsmate
No longer the 1
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2007
- Messages
- 34,767
There's a thematically similar series, YA aimed, by Richard Roberts.
Please Don't Tell My Parents Series by Richard Roberts
I Did NOT Give That Spider Superhuman Intelligence! (Please Don't Tell My Parents, #0.5), Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain (Please Don't ...
www.goodreads.com
AmyStrange
Philosopher
Yup, I saw your post about that, and the first book in the series is my next read. I already have the e-book on loan from the library and ready to go. Thanx for the suggestion.
ETA: The library doesn't have the second book in the series, or at least not yet anyway, and I hate reading a series out of order. Ok, it looks like the spider superhuman book is first, but I've already got Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain on my Kindle, so it looks like I'll be forced to read the series out of order, damn it!
Ok, I tried getting the Spidey book, but my library doesn't have that one yet either, but I put a "notify me" tag on both books and hopefully they'll get them soon.
They do have them in audiobooks, but I can't do those, because unfortunately, my mind wanders when I'm listening to them, and I'm always losing my place. I spend too much time looking for where I got lost, and that's just too much of a pain to deal with, so I'd rather read the Kindle versions instead.
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catsmate
No longer the 1
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2007
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- 34,767
The Spider book isn't necessary to read the series, it's set rather earlier and introduces some of the supporting characters.
AmyStrange
Philosopher
Safe-Keeper
My avatar is not a Drumpf hat
Just out of curiousity, is "I'm starting to worry..." really different from his other works? I'm asking because I'm reading Storygraph reviews at the moment, and a fair few of the more negative reviews seem to start with "I'm a big fan of his other books, but...". To be fair, I haven't actually read the reviews because I'm wary of reading negative reviews for works I love, out of fear they'll actually influence me into liking them less
.The Great Zaganza
Maledictorian
- Joined
- Aug 14, 2016
- Messages
- 29,896
Yes, the " John dies at the End" books are much, much weirder, and the Zoe Ashe ones again different in a different way (language award please).
But I like them all.
But I like them all.
AmyStrange
Philosopher
Well, I just got done reading Mayhem and Madness: Chronicles of a Teenaged Supervillain, and I enjoyed reading it very much except for one part. I'm sure anyone who's read it will already know which part I'm talking about, but before I start reading, Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain, I have to make one observation that I picked up on a while ago. especially in this book.
Some of the books I was reading before the ones I started this summer, had one weird thing in common, and that was the type of music all the characters enjoyed, and they all seemed to be somehow related to the age of the author or at least from a time long before the age of the young characters in the book. In this one for example, the Beatles and Rolling Stones are pretty dominant even though the main character was in high school.
I first noticed this in another book series that I enjoyed reading a few years ago, the Joe Grey series. Almost every character in that series (running from 1996 to 2018) enjoyed jazz or swing or the big bands, even though many of them were in their twenties. *
There's nothing wrong with that, but I still found it interesting.
* I'm going to post my review of that series in my next post
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Some of the books I was reading before the ones I started this summer, had one weird thing in common, and that was the type of music all the characters enjoyed, and they all seemed to be somehow related to the age of the author or at least from a time long before the age of the young characters in the book. In this one for example, the Beatles and Rolling Stones are pretty dominant even though the main character was in high school.
I first noticed this in another book series that I enjoyed reading a few years ago, the Joe Grey series. Almost every character in that series (running from 1996 to 2018) enjoyed jazz or swing or the big bands, even though many of them were in their twenties. *
There's nothing wrong with that, but I still found it interesting.
* I'm going to post my review of that series in my next post
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AmyStrange
Philosopher
Shirley Rousseau Murphy
(the Joe Grey cat mystery series)
Review written: 2019-02-05 12:12 PM PDT
OF COURSE, IT MIGHT BE that I just got done writing a novel about one, but now, I'm seeing cats everywhere. Cats buried in snowbanks, sliding down hills, cleaning houses, listening to music, showing up outside a guy's window during the polar vortex, and even werewolf cats!
I don't know about you, but I think the Criminal might be right, and that someday, cats are gonna take over the world, and we're gonna end up being their food.
I've got no proof. It's just a feeling, but if there's one nearby, just read that last part out loud and see what they do.
That's all the proof I need, but it's not that important anyway, because we'll all be long gone before that happens. Maybe our great, great, great, great grandkids will have to worry about it, but we won't.
Anyway, after I finished my novel, I wondered how many other authors used the talking cat trick, and surprisingly enough, not too many did. The only one I could really remember was the Cheshire Cat from Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
I did a web search and ran across a website, GoodReads.com, that had a webpage listing 118 books about talking cats. The list was called, Forget Meow! - Talking Cats in Fiction (unfortunately, this list doesn't exist anymore).
I haven't had a chance to check them all out, but most of them seemed to be about fantasy worlds where cats can talk. That's called high fantasy, but the kind I was writing about was called low fantasy, and those are usually set in the real world.
A sub-genre of low fantasy is urban or contemporary fantasy, and not only do they take place in the real world, but also in modern or contemporary times. Another sub-genre that my book falls under is known as science fantasy, and that's when science is used to explain a fantasy scenario.
My book does exactly that. It not only uses a thin veil of science to explain a talking cat, but also an RV that can almost turn invisible.
While looking through the Good Reads list, I did find one novel that was more like mine, than all the others. It's called, "Cat Raise the Dead."
I went to the local online library to check it out, and come to find out, it was number three in a series of more than twenty books called the Joe Grey series. I don't really like to read books out of series, so I went looking for the first one, and that was called, "Cat on the Edge."
The author of the Joe Grey series is Shirley Rousseau Murphy, and her mystery stories are amazing. Joe Grey is one of the talking cats, and his girlfriend Dulcie is another. A few books into the series, a talking kitten called Kit joins them.
They're ordinary cats, except they can talk. They also help the local Police Department solve murder mysteries.
What I found the most fascinating about her series was how she worked around some of the problems that I also encountered while writing my own book.
The first is explaining how a cat can talk. While I use science to explain my talking cat, Murphy uses Celtic Mythology and other folklore stories to explain hers. I can't remember the details, but I do remember something about underground cities run by talking cats, and also about them being guardians of the gate to the underworld.
The second problem was who the cats could talk to, and who they couldn't. In a fantasy world where all the cats can talk, that's not much of a problem, but in the real world, that can become a big problem if the wrong people find out.
In my book, the Criminal catnaps her from the military to save her life, and that adds a whole 'nother layer of problems, besides the usual ones like people stealing her for financial gain, or scientist wanting to cut her open to see what makes her tick.
In the Joe Grey series, Murphy keeps it down to six people who know their secret, and one of them can also turn herself into a talking cat too. There's also an evil black cat that can talk, and a whole feral clowder of them that wander the west coast like gypsies. Some other low lifes know about the talking cat detectives too, but they're not about to say anything. They just want to kill them.
Like I said, the series is amazing, but also funny. What's comical is that the one person who should be in on the secret is the Police Chief, because the cats are always calling him on the phone to give him tips, and he can't figure out how his "snitches" are getting their information. He doesn't even suspect that they're cats. Oh, he's got a weird feeling about it, but he never really gives it a second thought.
What makes it even funnier is his wife is in on it too, but she can't tell him, because she promised the cats. His best friend knows it too, and they're also both afraid to tell him, because they think it'll send him off the deep end.
That brings up another interesting problem, how will people react to a talking cat, and that's actually where I had the most fun while writing my book. Also, I allow the Cat to talk to a Homicide Detective, and that's one of the many ways my book is different from the Joe Grey series.
Another way is how her cats act. She does a damn good job of explaining how the mind of a cat works, and she also has them hunting and killing mice and rabbits too.
My cat, being a product of a genetic modification, was a kind of test-tube kitty, and didn't have a mother to nurture and teach her how to hunt. The result was that she feels sad for the mice that are tortured in front of her, while she's caged up in the "Secret Room".
If you like talking cat stories, and even if you don't, you should definitely check out the Joe Grey series, and if you like those, then you should definitely read my book too.
I know it's a shameless plug, but hey, you can read Part 1 for FREE here:
(the Joe Grey cat mystery series)
Review written: 2019-02-05 12:12 PM PDT
Talking Cats, You Ask?
OF COURSE, IT MIGHT BE that I just got done writing a novel about one, but now, I'm seeing cats everywhere. Cats buried in snowbanks, sliding down hills, cleaning houses, listening to music, showing up outside a guy's window during the polar vortex, and even werewolf cats!
I don't know about you, but I think the Criminal might be right, and that someday, cats are gonna take over the world, and we're gonna end up being their food.
I've got no proof. It's just a feeling, but if there's one nearby, just read that last part out loud and see what they do.
That's all the proof I need, but it's not that important anyway, because we'll all be long gone before that happens. Maybe our great, great, great, great grandkids will have to worry about it, but we won't.
Anyway, after I finished my novel, I wondered how many other authors used the talking cat trick, and surprisingly enough, not too many did. The only one I could really remember was the Cheshire Cat from Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
I did a web search and ran across a website, GoodReads.com, that had a webpage listing 118 books about talking cats. The list was called, Forget Meow! - Talking Cats in Fiction (unfortunately, this list doesn't exist anymore).
I haven't had a chance to check them all out, but most of them seemed to be about fantasy worlds where cats can talk. That's called high fantasy, but the kind I was writing about was called low fantasy, and those are usually set in the real world.
A sub-genre of low fantasy is urban or contemporary fantasy, and not only do they take place in the real world, but also in modern or contemporary times. Another sub-genre that my book falls under is known as science fantasy, and that's when science is used to explain a fantasy scenario.
My book does exactly that. It not only uses a thin veil of science to explain a talking cat, but also an RV that can almost turn invisible.
While looking through the Good Reads list, I did find one novel that was more like mine, than all the others. It's called, "Cat Raise the Dead."
I went to the local online library to check it out, and come to find out, it was number three in a series of more than twenty books called the Joe Grey series. I don't really like to read books out of series, so I went looking for the first one, and that was called, "Cat on the Edge."
The author of the Joe Grey series is Shirley Rousseau Murphy, and her mystery stories are amazing. Joe Grey is one of the talking cats, and his girlfriend Dulcie is another. A few books into the series, a talking kitten called Kit joins them.
They're ordinary cats, except they can talk. They also help the local Police Department solve murder mysteries.
What I found the most fascinating about her series was how she worked around some of the problems that I also encountered while writing my own book.
The first is explaining how a cat can talk. While I use science to explain my talking cat, Murphy uses Celtic Mythology and other folklore stories to explain hers. I can't remember the details, but I do remember something about underground cities run by talking cats, and also about them being guardians of the gate to the underworld.
The second problem was who the cats could talk to, and who they couldn't. In a fantasy world where all the cats can talk, that's not much of a problem, but in the real world, that can become a big problem if the wrong people find out.
In my book, the Criminal catnaps her from the military to save her life, and that adds a whole 'nother layer of problems, besides the usual ones like people stealing her for financial gain, or scientist wanting to cut her open to see what makes her tick.
In the Joe Grey series, Murphy keeps it down to six people who know their secret, and one of them can also turn herself into a talking cat too. There's also an evil black cat that can talk, and a whole feral clowder of them that wander the west coast like gypsies. Some other low lifes know about the talking cat detectives too, but they're not about to say anything. They just want to kill them.
Like I said, the series is amazing, but also funny. What's comical is that the one person who should be in on the secret is the Police Chief, because the cats are always calling him on the phone to give him tips, and he can't figure out how his "snitches" are getting their information. He doesn't even suspect that they're cats. Oh, he's got a weird feeling about it, but he never really gives it a second thought.
What makes it even funnier is his wife is in on it too, but she can't tell him, because she promised the cats. His best friend knows it too, and they're also both afraid to tell him, because they think it'll send him off the deep end.
That brings up another interesting problem, how will people react to a talking cat, and that's actually where I had the most fun while writing my book. Also, I allow the Cat to talk to a Homicide Detective, and that's one of the many ways my book is different from the Joe Grey series.
Another way is how her cats act. She does a damn good job of explaining how the mind of a cat works, and she also has them hunting and killing mice and rabbits too.
My cat, being a product of a genetic modification, was a kind of test-tube kitty, and didn't have a mother to nurture and teach her how to hunt. The result was that she feels sad for the mice that are tortured in front of her, while she's caged up in the "Secret Room".
If you like talking cat stories, and even if you don't, you should definitely check out the Joe Grey series, and if you like those, then you should definitely read my book too.
I know it's a shameless plug, but hey, you can read Part 1 for FREE here:
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