What books are we reading at the moment ?

[Chris S]

Warning: Audiobook content. Previously, it has been writ that audiobook content is OK on this 'ere thread. But equally, I know some folks can be snippy about this - so I give fair warning!

Now then. "A Feast for Crows - George R R Martin.

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Does anything actually happen in this book?

I've been listening for (checks) about 12 hours of Roy Dotrice reading this book. Does anything actually happen? There seems to be vast tranches of time given over to Iron-born kingly machinations that are... well, frankly fucking dull. The gradual unspooling of Cersei is long awaited, but this and other meaningful events are hard to find amongst the fluff.

I hope I don't end up giving up!

[Steph]

"Ancillary Justice" by Anne Leckie.  Her debut novel, and it won the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, Clarke & BSFA awards for SF in the same year.  First time anyone's done that!

It's rather good 

Hmm, I read that as a Kindle 99p thing. I found it pretty dull mix of porridgy prose and uninteresting characters diligently labouring towards the inevitability of future volumes.

Books, like Cornish pasties, always seem to be award-winning these days. Both are disconcertingly chewable and ultimately unsatisfying.

Just got that one. Will let you know what I think, but yes, I did spot the 'endless volumes' ahead signals. As long as she doesn't do the bloody irritating thing that stopped me reading the 'Destroyermen' series, where the author reintroduces every character with a minibio: "Dennis Silva, the powerfully built gunner's mate who had been born in Mooserump and served time in...... and who had been having a secretive relationshipo with  Zyzzyxxas, the sister of Anthronos, whose brother was...."

Dear author: we met Silva in book one. He has been a central figure in every volume so far. Your readers know who he is.

[Ruthie]

The Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez. 

An American goes to Afghanistan shortly after 9/11 to help the women of Afghanistan.  Being a healthcare professional I always envisage the most useful kind of 'help' to be medical, but the not-very-right-on world of the beauty salon opens the door to independence and power for women in a very different culture.  I'm loving it so far, it's about women taking care of each other in lots of different ways, in a man-centred society.  Deborah makes some terrible faux-pas, but who wouldn't?  She forges ahead anyway.

I hope it stays as good as this.

[mcshroom]

Tony Hawks' 'Round Ireland with a Fridge'

I'm counting this as research for a March trip to the Emerald Isle

[redshift]

In that case you need Eric Newby's 'Round Ireland in low gear' too.

[jsabine]

^Which is (or was) floating round the Lending Library thread - I got it from Basil, and sent it off to Pedaldog.

[mattc]

Tony Hawks' 'Round Ireland with a Fridge'

I'm counting this as research for a March trip to the Emerald Isle

I found this a lot more entertaining than:
- The Eric Newby book, or
- Hawks's sequel (A Piano in the Pyrenees) - which I am about to finish.

(I only preseverd with the latter cos it's a very easy read, suitable for man-flu sufferers. Happy to add to The Lending Library if there is demand! )

Probably better than all the above was Newby's "Short Walk in the Hindu Kush".

[tiermat]

"What If?" by Randall Munroe.

It's in the vein of "Why Don't Penguin's Feet Freeze" etc, but written, and illustrated, by every geek's favourite web comic artist.

[mcshroom]

Tony Hawks' 'Round Ireland with a Fridge'

I'm counting this as research for a March trip to the Emerald Isle

I found this a lot more entertaining than:
- The Eric Newby book, or
- Hawks's sequel (A Piano in the Pyrenees) - which I am about to finish.

(I only preseverd with the latter cos it's a very easy read, suitable for man-flu sufferers. Happy to add to The Lending Library if there is demand! )

Probably better than all the above was Newby's "Short Walk in the Hindu Kush".

Ah I have his second book on my shelf ready to read. That doesn't sound like a ringing endorsement. oh well.

[Mr Larrington]

Ms Gallumbits otp will be pleased to learn that I have now finished "Foxglove Summer" and reckon it to be well up to the standards of its predecessors (though I did find "Broken Homes" a little less excellent than the first three in the series).

[Riggers]

Robert Jordan's A wheel of Time. Book 2 of 14

[mattc]

Robert Jordan's A wheel of Time. Book 2 of 14

Oh jeeze.

There was a short period in my early teens when I found that sort of thing a selling point. MaybeI'd been lucky and only read trilogies that were as good as most stand-alone novels; whatever,  I soon became reeeeeally bored of these endless "epics".

Put me off for decades!

[Torslanda]

'Something to Declare' by S.A.A. Calvert.

Really enjoyed it and found myself somewhat involved in the plot, which is unusual for me. A very engaging book.

[Vince]

Yay! Aunty Steffie sold another one!

I'm re-reading The 39 Steps, prior to embarking on the sequals that have Richard Hannay in them.

[pcolbeck]

Robert Jordan's A wheel of Time. Book 2 of 14

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Didnt he die before he finished the series ?

[Riggers]

Indeed he did young Polbeckers, which my son (who's loaning them to me) pointed out the other day. Ho hum, never mind. It shan't put me off and, in answer to the young shaver Mathew C, (who's derisive sneering tone has been noted  ), I'm an avid reader, so one a week will fly by. I'm enjoying them. It's escapism. It's fantasy. I also enjoy many other genres.

[L CC]

You know sometimes you're enjoying a book so much you really resent going to work?

When bobb and I were in Greece I read Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch. I really enjoyed it and got myself the next two in the series, Moon Over Soho and Whispers Under Ground. I finished Moon Over Soho yesterday and started Whispers Under Ground straight away. I really really really like them.

On audiobook they are read by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith and they are Awesum.
(I too found Broken Homes a bit less wonderous, but I thought at the time, that that was because it accompanied a particularly miserable DIY200).

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Ms Gallumbits otp will be pleased to learn that I have now finished "Foxglove Summer" and reckon it to be well up to the standards of its predecessors (though I did find "Broken Homes" a little less excellent than the first three in the series).

I'm getting near to the end of Whispers Under Ground overground wombling free. I'll probably go straight into Broken Homes.

[mattc]

Indeed he did young Polbeckers, which my son (who's loaning them to me) pointed out the other day. Ho hum, never mind. It shan't put me off and, in answer to the young shaver Mathew C, (who's derisive sneering tone has been noted  ), I'm an avid reader, so one a week will fly by. I'm enjoying them. It's escapism. It's fantasy. I also enjoy many other genres.

Don't worrry,  I'm sure you could find plenty to sneer at if I was daft enough to expose my book-shelves to scrutiny (including some reet dodgy SF/F)!

[Steph]

'Something to Declare' by S.A.A. Calvert.

Really enjoyed it and found myself somewhat involved in the plot, which is unusual for me. A very engaging book.

A fan! Thank you, dear reader. May I suggest that you read the much shorter 'Uniforms' next. You will understand by the end.

[pcolbeck]

Indeed he did young Polbeckers, which my son (who's loaning them to me) pointed out the other day. Ho hum, never mind. It shan't put me off and, in answer to the young shaver Mathew C, (who's derisive sneering tone has been noted  ), I'm an avid reader, so one a week will fly by. I'm enjoying them. It's escapism. It's fantasy. I also enjoy many other genres.

Don't worrry,  I'm sure you could find plenty to sneer at if I was daft enough to expose my book-shelves to scrutiny (including some reet dodgy SF/F)!

Mine too, an unholy mixture of hardcore history, science, classic fiction, airport novels and any SF that comes to hand when I cant be arsed reading anything too serious. The only thing you wont find is fantasy and crime fiction.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

I thought I didn't like crime fiction until I discovered Sophie Hannah and Helen Fitzgerald.

I'm also working my way through the Poirots, in order. They're all the same, really. Someone contacts Poirot to say "something fishy is going on, please come and investigate" but by the time he gets there, there's been a murder. Then someone contacts him to say "I know something about the murder" but before they can say who it was, they've been murdered too. Then Poirot works it all out.

[Steph]

Just starting 'Deathbird...' by Ellison, once again.

[Mrs Pingu]

Ms Gallumbits otp will be pleased to learn that I have now finished "Foxglove Summer" and reckon it to be well up to the standards of its predecessors (though I did find "Broken Homes" a little less excellent than the first three in the series).

I are also reading that just now. Be sad when I'm finished them.

[Riggers]

Indeed he did young Polbeckers, which my son (who's loaning them to me) pointed out the other day. Ho hum, never mind. It shan't put me off and, in answer to the young shaver Mathew C, (who's derisive sneering tone has been noted  ), I'm an avid reader, so one a week will fly by. I'm enjoying them. It's escapism. It's fantasy. I also enjoy many other genres.

Don't worrry,  I'm sure you could find plenty to sneer at if I was daft enough to expose my book-shelves to scrutiny (including some reet dodgy SF/F)!

Hey, that would be a good one for 'The Gallery' wouldn't it!? …

My bookshelves