October Reading Thread

[Damaen]

Next up: Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita", which supposedly is an old favourite of Neil Gaiman. Should be good, right?

it reads like 2 books: one is a fantastic story of the devil in moscow. the cat is hilarious. the other is a story from the bible and i dont remember it beign interesting nor did i really like that it was there at all. it just bounces back and forth, and since my bible history is basically nil i didnt get wtf was goign on every now and then. you'll have to let me know what you think if u get thru it.

also: mistborn is a great series =]

[The Wolf Maid]

Reading through Name of the Wind. Halfway done, was being lazy. I guess first person POV in fantasy isn't for me.

To Finish Reading:

Mother Teresa, Come be My Light

Seriously? I didn't know she had a book.

[Talyn]

Talyn, how was Blood Engines?

I was rather tired when I read it so I will have to re-read it to get a proper opinion and I am not that good at reviewing books but I wall give you my first impressions.

This book is what I would call urban fantasy, a genre that I like reading in. I would call this book good but not great. The story is set away from the main characters home territory. I think that it suffers from this a little because the author hasn't fleshed the setting out as much and the characters that are settled there don't have as much depth as the ones back home seem to have. I also felt the action in the book could have been handled better because the ending didn't meet my expectations. I am hoping for better from the next book since it seems to be set at home.

The authors homepage with short story and chapter one of the book here.

[Rimmer]

Seeing as you've read so much of Vance's work, I hope you won't mind a question. I have thus far only read one of his books, The Star King. To be blunt, I rather disliked it. The hero was so damn smart/skilled that I never felt the story had even an ounce of dramatic tension. So my question is this: are all the Demon Princes books like the first one?

It's probably the weakest of the Demon Prince series (the Star King himself is definitely the least interesting villain), and Gersen does have to get quite clever, but I guess there is never much 'dramatic tension' in them. They're really more about the locales and characters than the actual plot; there's never much doubt that he's going to succeed, although he does become conflicted over where his life is going, being nothing much more than a perfectly trained killing machine.

You could perhaps try the Dying Earth or Lyonesse series for a different tone, but Vance's books are never very tightly plotted; maybe they're not your thing.

[Jhogo's Evil Twin]

glad to hear that some people are starting Novik's Temeraire books

just scored a copy of Empire of Ivory

wont be starting it until sometime next week

[Inigima]

Been on a roll the last couple days.

Finished the following:

- Lynch - Red Seas Under Red Skies (Gentleman Bastards sequence, book 2)

- Williams - River of Blue Fire (Otherland sequence, book 2 of 4)

- Bujold - Miles, Mystery and Mayhem (Miles Vorkosigan compilation)

Next on the list:

- Abercrombie - The Blade Itself (The First Law, book 1)

Others near the top of the list:

- Rowling - Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter, book 7)

- Williams - Mountain of Black Glass (Otherland, book 3 of 4)

- Pressfield - Gates of Fire (Os will kill me if I don't list this)

[IheartTesla]

I'm kinda stuck in a rut and havent picked up any new books to read this month. Still working on Guns Germs and Steel, and The Blank Slate. I should probably pick more fun stuff to read than polemics and treatises on human nature.

.

I was thinking of getting one of Umberto Eco's books. Probably Foucalts Pendulum

[Happy Ent]

I should probably pick more fun stuff to read than polemics and treatises on human nature.

Still, you're doing the right thing in the sense of reading intelligent representatives of both sides of the debate. Brilliant books.

[Greyweather]

Thanks Rimmer. I'll try out the other two series before I decide if Vance is for me.

[dits]

About halfway through, Ruckley's Winterbirth. It was a bit slow going getting into it but now that I've gotten a hang of things, its been a great read. Next up, I have Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind and hopefully I'll get both Mistborn books I ordered from Amazon.

[Horus Ex Machina]

I've decided that this fall I'm going to finally read Asimov's Foundation trilogy. Seeing how I've heard so much about it, and none of the series' that I am currently reading look anywhere near to coming out with a new volume, I figure this fall should be for older acredited books that I have not read.

[Turinqui-Calima]

Still, you're doing the right thing in the sense of reading intelligent representatives of both sides of the debate. Brilliant books.

*Puts The Blank Slate on my To Read List* - I wanna be intelligent too. (I read Guns, Germs and Steal this summer and liked it)

Right now I'm still trying to get through Deadhouse Gates by Steven Eriksson but I keep finding other more interesting books to read and am now on my 3 renewal period on Deadhouse Gates from the library. I just really didn't like Gardens of the Moon very much and had a hard time getting started on this one. Now I'm about halfway through and am very determined to finish it.

After that I'm reading Making Money by Terry Pratchett, who I met last night and who signed my book I also have The Science of Discworld III waiting for me.

[Annelise]

Rereading Good Omens, atm. Always fun.

Have Ruckley's Winterbirth and Lukyanenko's Nightwatch on tap.

[back_packn]

Just started Name of the Wind... really enjoying it so far.

[Red Sun]

I'm currently reading a Jack Vance omnibus, containing "The Language of Pao" and "Nopalgarth", because the idea of the first story sounded interesting. It was okay so far, but not a page-turner. I think that the language is a bit dry, but it might be the German translators fault. (It's always good to blame the translator. )

[dayna]

I've just finished AFfC, so when I'm not spending time here enjoying this board to its fullest (finally!), I'm reading The Annotated Hobbit aloud with my son. I also read through The Epic of Gilgamesh today and now I'm poking around in my TBR list trying to figure out what I want to read next.

[Ser Barry]

Imperial Life In The Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran

Rajiv Chandrasekaran was a reported for The Washington Post from 2002 to 2004 in Baghdad. In this book he documents his findings, thoughts and observations on the efforts of the CPA to install a new society based upon the American model in post-war Iraq. I am sure it is not very difficult to imagine the errors he describes. He is critical of the administration but not so of many of the well-meaning Americans who were dumped in to positions for which they were unqualified and for which they received insufficient support. Even if you think you know what it contains I would recommend reading this book

I am going to write out one long quote as it says more about the content of the book then I can;

'Once the Americans arrived, the job of rehabilitating Iraq's health-care system fell to Fredrick M. Burkle Jr., a physician with a master's degree in public health and post-graduate degrees from Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, and the University of California at Berkeley. Burkle was a naval reserve officer with two Bronze Stars and a deputy assistant administrator at the U.S. Agency for International Development. He taught at the John Hopkins School of Public Health, where he specialized in disaster-response issues. During the first Gulf War, he provided medical aid to Kurds in northern Iraq. He had worked in Kosovo and Somalia. And in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq, he had been put in charge of organizing the American response to the expected public health crisis in Iraq. A USAID colleague called him the "single most talented and experienced post-conflict health specialist working for the United States Government."

A week after Baghdad's liberation, Burkle was informed that he was being replaced. A senior official at USAID told him that the White House wanted a "loyalist" in the job. Burkle had a wall of degrees, but he didn't have a picture of himself with the president.

Burkle's job was handed to James K. Haveman Jr., a sixty year old social worker who was largely unknown among international health experts. He had no medical degree, but he had connections. He had been the community health director for the former Republican governor of Michigan, John Engler, who recommended him to Wolfowitz.'

[beniowa]

The Guild of Xenolinguists is a collection of short stories by Sheila Finch. The stories tell the tales of the lingsters, members of the Guild of Xenolinguists, who study to become translators and recorders of alien languages. The publisher is Golden Gryphon Press. It’s a small press and there were only about 2000 copies of Guild printed so getting a hold of one might be a challenge, however, it’s definitely worth it if you’ve ever been interested in the possibility of communication with alien races. See the blog for the full review.

[Deornoth]

Just finished 'Crystal Rain' by Tobias Buckell. It's the first in a series so there's a lot of scene setting/world building but once you get past this it's a great little pulp sci-fi story full of wierd aliens and airships (amongst other things). I had great fun reading this and may have discovered my new favourite sci-fi author! My full review is Here.

I've still got John Lawson's 'Witch Ember' on the go but I'm also reading a collection of Star Wars parodies from MAD Magazine...

[Calibandar]

beniowa

That sounds like an interesting collection, could you elaborate and go into some detail about what the various stories are about? This will give me more of an idea about whether or not I want to buy this and there have been very few review on the net sofar.