All things Books and Reading thread - 2017

[Mamanyt1953]

Margret It is Tanya Huff's "The Second Summoning." The scene you specifically mentioned is on page 110, goodness only knows where on an e-reader, and I just spit iced tea all over myself along about 142. I highly recommend it if you have a bit of a twisted sense of humor!

 

[Margret]

Margret It is Tanya Huff's "The Second Summoning." The scene you specifically mentioned is on page 110, goodness only knows where on an e-reader, and I just spit iced tea all over myself along about 142. I highly recommend it if you have a bit of a twisted sense of humor!

Thank you so much. And you already know that I have a twisted sense of humor.

Winchester , it's the Keeper series by Tanya Huff.

Margret

 

[Mamanyt1953]

Just finished "The Second Summoning" and have started "Long Hot Summoning." So far, so good, if by "good" one means spitting iced tea YET AGAIN! SPOILER...There is a cat...not Austin...who USED to be an angel. I really like him.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

Double dipping here, but I'm reading the first in a fairly new series in the Cozy Mystery genre. The series is "A Witch's Cat Mystery Series," by Delia James, and so far it's just flat cute! I give you two brief quotes that had me snurking lemonade, which I don't recommend. It BURNS!

She's just found out that her gram is a witch, and that her new friends are, as well.
"Did I say normal had left the building? At this point, I couldn't find normal with a flashlight and a GPS."
On finding out that she has been magically summoned to the town:
"Summoned. I didn't like the word or the idea. Pride rebelled. Common sense would have rebelled, but common sense was whimpering under the bed somewhere and refused to come out."

 

[dalpaengi]

I'm reading The Tidal Zone by Sarah Moss, Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor and Sweetbiter by Stephanie Danler. I was trying to read White Lines by Jennifer Banash but something about the narrator bothers me. It's probably me projecting my rage because I was a lot like her when I was a teenager (but secretly don't want to admit that haha)

 

[dalpaengi]

Double dipping here, but I'm reading the first in a fairly new series in the Cozy Mystery genre. The series is "A Witch's Cat Mystery Series," by Delia James, and so far it's just flat cute! "

I might have to pick this up because even the title sounds amazing haha.

 

[Winchester]

Sadly, neither Tanya Huff or Delia James are in my local library's database. Darn it.

Just finished reading The Curse of the House on Cypress Lane (Books 0 and 1) - James Hunt. The books were OK, but just OK, nothing great.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

I might have to pick this up because even the title sounds amazing haha.

There are three so far, "A Familiar Tail," "By Familiar Means," and "Familiar Motives." I'm quite taken with the cat, who does NOT talk, but in very cat-like fashion, makes his opinion known. I have the first two, and will be getting the third asap.

Well, drat and darn, Winchester , I hate that because I think you would really enjoy both of them! I ordered mine online for a very reasonable price.

 

[Hoosier Mama]

I am currently reading (the end of book 2) - The Century Trilogy by Kenneth Follett. I've never really gotten in to history and/or war themed books, but my daughter bought these (and 10 other books - she knows I am an avid reader!) for me at Christmas last year.
I was hesitant to even start, but the story grabbed me before I finished the first paragraph and I have been flipping page after page since I started it. You get to know each other characters personally, and the best part is that so much of his story is factual.
Ken Follett is a phenomenal writer and I am eager to pick up more of his many, many books!
Ken Follett | Biography

A little about the Trilogy:

1. Fall of Giants - This historical epic begins, as five interrelated families move through the momentous dramas of the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the struggle for women’s suffrage.
2. Winter of the World - follows its five interrelated families—American, German, Russian, English, and Welsh—through a time of enormous social, political, and economic turmoil, beginning with the rise of the Third Reich, through the great dramas of World War II, and into the beginning of the long Cold War.
3. Edge of Eternity - as they made their way through the twentieth century. Now they come to one of the most tumultuous eras of all: the 1960s through the 1980s, from civil rights, assassinations, mass political movements, and Vietnam to the Berlin Wall, the Cuban Missile Crisis, presidential impeachment, revolution—and rock and roll.

 

[dalpaengi]

Ken Follett is a phenomenal writer and I am eager to pick up more of his many, many books!
Ken Follett | Biography

Hey, these sound pretty interesting. Originally, I'd passed him up because one of my friends kept relentlessly making fun of one of his other historical series + whatever show that's been made based on it. I've forgotten what she said about it, forgotten the name of the series though I know it's his most popular one. In any case, I'm gonna give these a chance.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

Now reading "By Familiar Means." I really am enjoying this series. It's fun, lighthearted, and the mystery portion of our program is quite well done! MUST order "Familiar Motives" ASAP!

 

[Margret]

Hey, these sound pretty interesting. Originally, I'd passed him up because one of my friends kept relentlessly making fun of one of his other historical series + whatever show that's been made based on it. I've forgotten what she said about it, forgotten the name of the series though I know it's his most popular one. In any case, I'm gonna give these a chance.

You've heard it said that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover? Well, actually you can tell quite a lot about a book from its cover. What you should never ever do is judge a book by the bad movie or television series that's been made based on the book. Movies are notorious for not doing justice to the books that spawned them.

A good movie probably (though not necessarily) implies that the original book is also good. A bad movie says little or nothing about the book.
______________________________________________

I'm about to begin re-reading my old paperback of High Adventure, by Donald E. Westlake. Westlake is best known for his comic crime novels starring John Dortmunder (John Dortmunder - Wikipedia). These are good, though lately Westlake has begun running short of ways to keep Dortmunder out of prison (he already has 2 strikes; a third one will get him put away permanently). IMO, High Adventure and Help, I am Being Held Prisoner are better books because they're both stand-alones.

In High Adventure, our protagonist, Kirby Galway, uses the money from an inheritance to buy a farm in Belize. Then he finds out that the land is arid most of the year. What to do, what to do? Well, if you can't make money honestly perhaps you can make it dishonestly. Kirby finds out that the local Indians are descendants of the Mayans and still carve things in the ancient Mayan style. So he transforms a hill on his property into a fake Mayan temple ruin and plants it with Mayan artifacts made by (and bought from -- Kirby pays his neighbors well) the local Indians. He gets museum curators to come to Belize, where he shows them the "temple" and "finds" "antiquities" that he's willing to sell to them. Of course, he explains, he'll have to raze the temple to recover all the antiquities, and he needs to charge extra because exporting these antiquities is illegal under Belizean law (which it would be if they were really antiquities), so he'll need hazard pay because he'll be putting himself at great risk smuggling them out, plus some extra money to bribe authorities.... Buying antiquities this way is, of course, quite improper behavior for museum curators, so Kirby can be certain that his customers won't be talking about him, especially after he tells them that he'll be destroying the temple.

Then Kirby has another brainstorm. There is a crop that he can grow quite well on his farm -- marijuana. He has to smuggle product into the U.S. anyway (to keep up appearances with the curators), why not pack the "antiquities" in leaves? And things begin to get hilariously complicated from there.

Margret

 

[Winchester]

For those of you with ebook readers and the like, are you taking advantage of the sites that are offering free ebooks? My Kindle app on my Nook is going to hit 800 books in the next couple of days, simply because I'm downloading a ton of free ebooks pretty much everyday. Some of them are eh, just so-so, but I've gotten some that are actually quite interesting.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

Still haven't downloaded an e-reader. Margret pretty please email me which one I should get? Again...SIGH...

Finished "By Familiar Means." WHAT a cute series, and the mystery portion of the program is quite mysterious! I was fairly clueless till the very end. OH BE QUIET! I KNOW I'm fairly clueless most of the time!

Back to the Joe Grey series. I now have all but the newest one. AND I have Amazon reward credits, so I may order that one next week. Just so I'll have all of SOMETHING!

 

[Margret]

Mamanyt1953 , you want two e-readers: The Kindle and Nook for Windows 10. Maybe Kobo as well.

I'm boycotting Amazon for several reasons, including the way they treat new authors; I only "buy" free e-books from them. However, Amazon does have more books, and frequently there are free books available only from Amazon, so you want their reader. I have quite a few Nook books, many of which I can lend to you, but only if you have a Nook reader. And every once in a while the only option to Kindle is Kobo, so I've bought a few of those, as well.

Margret

 

[Margret]

Heads up, all. On BookBub today:

Tails of Wonder and Imagination
By Collected Authors

Legendary editor Ellen Datlow presents a roster of terrifying, gruesome, and fantastical stories about cats from an impressive list of authors, including Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, and George R. R. Martin. Cat lovers be warned: This collection is not for the faint of heart.

$1.99, available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple iBooks, Google, and Kobo. If you click on the title in the quote, the link will get you to BookBub's page for this book, which will give you the option to buy from any or all of the sellers. If you aren't subscribed to BookBub you may have to either set up an account with them or simply search for the book on your selected seller's website.

Margret

 

[Margret]

For those of you with ebook readers and the like, are you taking advantage of the sites that are offering free ebooks? My Kindle app on my Nook is going to hit 800 books in the next couple of days, simply because I'm downloading a ton of free ebooks pretty much everyday. Some of them are eh, just so-so, but I've gotten some that are actually quite interesting.

Yes, and no. I've downloaded quite a few freebies (and gotten on quite a few authors' mailing lists as a result ) but they have to be sideloaded to my Nook Color or read in Calibre on the PC. They're taking up enough disc space that I'm leery of downloading many more until I have time to make some room on my hard drive.

Margret

 

[Mamanyt1953]

THIS time, I've made a list. Shoulda done it long before! I really know better than not to! K, then. I'll do that tomorrow. That'll be a good way to explore new authors before deciding if they are a "collector" or not.

 

[rubysmama]

For those of you with ebook readers and the like, are you taking advantage of the sites that are offering free ebooks?

When I first got my e-reader, I downloaded a ton of freebies. My only complaint was that a lot of books were "first in a series" and the next books weren't free, or in most cases even available.

So now I mostly borrow e-books from the library. The only problem with them, is the long waits for best sellers, and the borrowing limit of 3 weeks only. But there's so many to choose from, I always have something to read.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

Downloading Nook as we speak...type...whatever. Then Kindle and Kobo.