What are you reading now?

[Dusty Chalk]

finished the one Tim Powers, started the other -- this one seems rougher than the first (these are his first two books, bought as a set, with an introduction/explanation/apology by Tim Powers)

Ongoing:  Indexing: Reflections (Kindle serial -- loving it as much as the first)

Red-Rose Chain -- about halfway done, superb

[Dusty Chalk]

Ended up enjoying both Tim Powers just fine, thank you very much, but it's more just "very good action science fiction", not that classic WTF vibe that Tim Powers does so well.

Red-Rose Chain was, indeed, fantastic.

Almost finished Ghost Story from the Dresden files by Jim Butcher -- unholy carp, this is an awesome follow-up to Changes -- and yet completely different.  I was just thinking there was no way he could match Changes, that he had peaked, but he did the smart thing and didn't try to match it or write a sequel, he just wrote something completely different.

Edited October 24, 2015 by Dusty Chalk

[acidbasement]

Totally agree with you on A Red Rose Chain. That series is amazing.

The new Mira Grant Parasitology book comes out next month.

I'm partway through Moon Called, by Patricia Briggs. Initial impressions are positive.

I also recently read The Shadow Cabinet, by Maureen Johnson. It's the third one in her Shades of London series, which I really like. Supernatural detectives and boarding schools, etc. She's also a laugh a minute on Twitter.

[Dusty Chalk]

Is that based on the movie?  :allinnocentlike:

Also, between installments of Indexing: Reflections, I'm reading Dead of Night by M.R.Forbes, the story of a terminally ill necromancer who does covert, high-paying jobs so he can afford to keep taking his "medicine" -- I'm actually quite enjoying this so far.  I think I just love urban fantasy, especially when it has a dark element or a sarcastic character somewhere.  There's a scene where he's talking to one of his reanimated dead about the afterlife,

and all of a sudden the zombie channels someone else and says (I hear this in my head in cookie monster voice), "Stay away as long as you can.  If you think it isn't safe for you here, you have no idea what's waiting."  "What the hell are you talking about?"  (back to normal voice)  "What?"  "What the hell?"  "I don't know."  "You don't know?"  "Sorry boss."  I lollered.  This continues to haunt him for the rest of the book so far, I laugh every time it comes up.  It's black comedy gold.  I think my favourite part is the incongruous, "What?" "What...?"

Edited October 25, 2015 by Dusty Chalk

[Craig Sawyers]

Started re-reading The Worm Ouroboros by ER Eddison (I first read it in 1975; pass the walking frame....).  If you haven't read it, it was written in the 1920's and is a fantasy novel of great quests and warfare, written largely in 16th century English.

Good summary here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Worm_Ouroboros

One of a series of 3.5 books (A Fish Dinner in Memison and Mistress of Mistresses) - the 0.5 is what remains after Eddison died before finishing it (The Mezentian Gate).

[TMoney]

I bought this on an Amazon sale. I love struggling with the puzzles even if they occasionally (often) make me feel like an idiot.

Edited December 8, 2015 by TMoney

[luvdunhill]

Started re-reading The Worm Ouroboros by ER Eddison (I first read it in 1975; pass the walking frame....).  If you haven't read it, it was written in the 1920's and is a fantasy novel of great quests and warfare, written largely in 16th century English.

Good summary here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Worm_Ouroboros

One of a series of 3.5 books (A Fish Dinner in Memison and Mistress of Mistresses) - the 0.5 is what remains after Eddison died before finishing it (The Mezentian Gate).

Any chance it was the Kindle version? Is it as badly typeset as the reviewers say?

[luvdunhill]

I managed to trick my Kindle to get the HarperCollins version from Amazon UK.

[Craig Sawyers]

The first book (Worm) actually fell apart while I was reading it!  Only reason I did not throw it out is that my wife to be bought it for me in 1975.

Now reading Mistress of Mistresses; this one is more about Machiavellian power politics (in a fantasy 16th/17th century setting). 

[Dusty Chalk]

3 hours ago, EdipisReks said:

Pick up a stinky version from a used book store.

Ugh!  No!  Mold == bad.  Mold == death.

Me:  Been binging on M R Forbes -- totally dig.  Mostly the Magic and Bones series -- urban fantasy, but a bit more morbid due to the necromancer angle -- Dusty like.  Finished that series, started the bleeding eye series (or whatever it's called).  He ...uh... is not afraid to kill characters.  I'm talking, one per book, serious shiznit.  Sometimes more than one.  He's not quite George R R Martin bad, but...in some ways, he's worse.

[TMoney]

I read this fantastic book over the break. I recommend it without qualification to anyone interested in history or science.

The Manhattan Project and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were probably one of the five most important events of the 20th century and this book feels like the definitive tome. It treats the subject with the respect and humility it deserves.

It's also a great layman's guide to nuclear science (no equations) and the development of the atomic theory.

Once the race to the bomb is on you'd be surprised how much of a page turner a book like this can be.

5/5

[MexicanDragon]

Harry Potter books 1-7; currently on 6. Yay @ Audible finally getting the HP books; makes the day go by faster, though I wish I would have suspended my Tidal subscription, as I haven't listened to music much in 1.5 months.

I give them a 5/7.

**BRENT**

[Dusty Chalk]

So a perfect score, then?

[Dusty Chalk]

The ballad of Zola and Jess - a twitter story

http://imgur.com/a/WDwyW

 

[crappyjones123]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/081298840X?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00

written by the doc who wrote the following - http://stanmed.stanford.edu/2015spring/before-i-go.html

Incredibly sad but very well written so far. 

[crappyjones123]

Nope but if you feel that strongly about it, I'll grab it after my next set of exams. I just had 4 this past Monday so have a little more reading time. I deleted my netflix account recently. The little free time I get I think would be better spent taking pictures or reading. 

 

Take a look at this, Jacob. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/125006581X?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00

I think you might enjoy it. If you want I can pop it in the mail for you. Julie wanted to read it but i don't see her finding time anytime soon. Send it back whenever you are done. 

[luvdunhill]

Aubrey-Maturin Series

[crappyjones123]

On January 28, 2016 at 0:33 AM, crappyjones123 said:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/081298840X?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00

written by the doc who wrote the following - http://stanmed.stanford.edu/2015spring/before-i-go.html

Incredibly sad but very well written so far. 

Just finished this. I cried for 5 minutes. Perhaps longer. Even though I knew the ending, it was still so emotionally overwhelming. 

 

Fuck cancer. 

[Hopstretch]

Continues to amaze me how much it has changed since I last lived here decades ago. Book says half of the current population of the city has arrived since the year 2000 and more than one third are now born outside the UK. Good read, sometimes florid and often desperately sad.

[tkam]

[luvdunhill]

[tkam]

[Dusty Chalk]

Damn, son.

[tkam]

The Red Rising Trilogy is amazing.  I'd recommend it to just about anyone.

[TMoney]

David Foster Wallace's 2005 commencement speech at Kenyon College.

DFW is such an amazing writer. This is a great read if you are having a shitty day.

http://web.archive.org/web/20080213082423/http://www.marginalia.org/dfw_kenyon_commencement.html