All Things Books And Reading Thread - 2018

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Margret

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Alas, Babylon is on sale for the next week on Amazon for $1.99. I already have it, just a heads up to other readers. My paper and ink copy was printed August, 1979.
This appears to be so for most (all?) ebook sellers. Is it good?

Finishing my review of The Collected Kagan:
  • "Standing In The Spirit" Molly Rose Hawkins is a young author. She attempts to come out with a good Christmas story every year, which brings in some income over the holidays, but this year she didn't manage so she's taken a temporary job as a store clerk during the busy season and her holiday spirit is taking a severe battering from all the tired, angry people (some slapping their tired, cranky children) that she's encountering. Fortunately, a spirit named Boz has her back...
  • "What A Wizard Does" Sable is a black cat, the familiar of a wizard named Glory Two-Eyes, who lives in a village where it's been raining all week. Negative energy is building, and something needs to be done, but it's a bad idea to mess with the weather. Fortunately for both Sable and Glory (and the depressed villagers) Glory is a creative sort of person, and what a Wizard does, by definition, is Wizardry. There are ways to deal with depression that don't involve messing with the weather. {This story introduces a new word: "snigget," defined as the tiny invisible beings cats chase.}
  • "Naked Wish-Fulfillment" R-rated. Barbara is a young author who's been talked into writing a script for a porn movie. She's also offered her home for location shooting. Over the course of the shooting she talks with some of the actors to find out how they got involved in making porn, and how they deal with it (revealing that integrity has more to do with doing your best in whatever situation you find yourself than with what your profession is), and she also deals with her perennial feelings that she still hasn't properly caught her ideas on paper. This story also features Barbara's white tom cat, ER. His name is short for "Edgar Rice" because ER likes to burrow.
  • "Fermat's Best Theorem" A wonderful story, that effectively communicates the thrill that math geeks get from a really good problem. Contains a "stunt" that you should not attempt; you could end up with a broken finger.
  • "The Stubbornest Broad On Earth" Sol is about to go nova, but, fortunately, someone has developed a near-light-speed engine for starships, so the planet can evacuate. Unfortunately, we haven't figured out how to tell whether there are habitable planets around specific stars, so the ships simply have to set out, hoping there will be a place to land when they arrive 40 years from now. Even worse fortune - the closest habitable planet is 100 light years in the opposite direction. Fortunately for everyone, however, the stubbornest broad on earth has determined to stay behind and die with her planet, and she has resources that even she doesn't yet know about. {Please note that this story was originally published in 1998 and Janet Kagan died in 2008; when she wrote this she had no way to predict that scientists would develop ways to identify potentially habitable planets within two decades.}
Overall, I loved this book. Also, this book has LendMe enabled. If you have a Nook, or can install the Nook app (available for Mac, Linux, smartphones, Windows 8 or later, and probably other readers like the Kindle) and want to read it send me a PM and I'll be happy to lend it to you.

Margret
 

Margret

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Alas, Babylon is a very good book. Written in 1959 (I was 5) it is the best post-apocalypse book I have read. It takes place in Florida mainly. The way the war starts is scary, as we are in a similar situation now.
Thanks.

Margret
 

Mamanyt1953

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Alas, Babylon is a very good book. Written in 1959 (I was 5) it is the best post-apocalypse book I have read. It takes place in Florida mainly. The way the war starts is scary, as we are in a similar situation now.
I LOVE that book! It is on my shelves right now, after a long search. Now, be advised...there are some very, VERY mild racist overtones in the book, but considering the era in which it was written, it was a bastion of tolerance and equality!

OH OH OH! I just got my copy of Diana Gabaldon's "Outlandish Companion." For those of you who love "Outlander" and Dr. Who, here's why...many years ago, Our Author (who has degrees in zoology and ecology) wanted to write a book. Preferably a mystery, but doubted her ability to come up with a convincing plot. SO she decided to write a historical novel as a way to hone her skills...but what? When? While watching an episode of Dr. Who (The Highlanders), she quite fell for Jamie McCrimmon, kilt and all, as well as the time period. And thus was born Jamie Fraser and all that followed.

And that isn't even a spoiler...it was in the introduction!

But for right now, I'm reading "The Chocolate Chip Murder" by Joanna Fluke. Full of fun, mystery and cookie recipes! It's the first of the series. I've read 2- 6 and #8, so I'm playing catch up. I now own 7 and 9-13. When I finish those, I'll dive into The Companion for real!
 

Mamanyt1953

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I found on Amazon three collected stories volumes: H. Beam Piper, E.E. 'Doc' Smith, and Murray Leinster for $0.55 each. Total of over 75 stories and short novels.
OH, a treasure! EXCELLENT!

OH, I LIED! I have 2,3, 4 and 8 of the Hannah Swenson mysteries, so I'm now on #5, "The Fudge Cupcake Murder." Still reading, still drooling. I think I've gained 3 pounds just reading the included recipies! Don't laugh, but my current plan is to put a bookcase in my dining room, right at the kitchen door, and keep my cozy mysteries the feature recipes there for easy reference!
 

Blu6456

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Hey guys, anyone else here have books on their reading list?
Right now, I am currently reading a biography on President James Buchanan (Titled Worst. President. Ever.) and Steven Pinker's book The Better Angels of our Nature, which discusses how violence has declined.

Other books include:
Energy For Future Presidents
Physics for Future Presidents
Moral Tribes (gonna reread that)
Outliers
A People's History of the United States
A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Anyone have any book recommendations?
 

Mamanyt1953

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Hey guys, anyone else here have books on their reading list?
Um...I just looked, and I currently have 1050 books on my "want to read" list at Goodreads. Does that qualify?:p

Move "Hitchhiker's" up near the top of your list. It's an amazingly fun read. And if you are fond of puns and wordplays, and enjoy science fiction, I highly recommend Spider Robinson's "Callahan's Crosstime Saloon" series.

Currently reading "Creme Puff Murder," #11 in the Murder, She Baked series by Joanna Fluke. I now have a list of over 100 cookie recipes that I must try! :hyper:
 

rubysmama

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Hey guys, anyone else here have books on their reading list?
I borrow e-books from the public library, and as of now I have 636 on my "wishlist". Not as many as Mamanyt1953 Mamanyt1953 , ;) but enough to keep me in reading material for years!

Anyone have any book recommendations?
Start at page one of this thread, and I'm sure you'll find some recommendations that will interest you. :read:

-----------
I finally finished reading:
Fascism: A Warning by Madeleine K. Albright


It was interesting, and a bit scary considering the current political climate around the world.

She talked about all the different Fascist leaders in history. As well as her own family's history and the fact that they were refuges who arrived in the US after WWII. She also discussed when she was Secretary of State. And of course, discussed the current political situation in the US.

---------

I'm currently about partway through:
The President Is Missing by Bill Clinton
 

Margret

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I'm currently alternating between:
  • The Cat, the Devil, and Lee Fontana, by Shirley Rousseau Murphy and Pat J.J. Murphy
  • High Adventure, by Donald E. Westlake (hilarious, much funnier than the Dortmunder novels, IMO)
  • Atlantis and the Silver City, by Peter Daughtrey (a reasonably plausible theory about where Atlantis was and what actually happened to it)
  • Genius of the People: The Making of the Constitution, by Charles L. Mee, Jr.
  • Crosstalk, by Connie Willis
  • and Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien (of course).

Margret
 

Mamanyt1953

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I'm marathon reading Joann Fluke's "Hannah Swensen" series. That's the one that Hallmark's "Murder She Baked" mystery movie series is based on. Currently reading #16, "Red Velvet Cupcake Murder." This is torture. EVERY book is full of wonderful recipes, most of them for cookies. I'm keeping a list of the recipes I really want to try and which book they are in. Come Christmas, I'm going nuts!
 

Kat0121

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I just stumbled on this one while browsing Bookbub.
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The text is pretty small so I'll add it again with the link. It sounds interesting. I'm not usually into "fantasy" type stories but it does involve waking up as a mountain lion (who doesn't want that? :wave3:) and it's free so I think I'll grab it while it's available. Has anyone read it? The reviews on Amazon are mostly 4 and 5 stars.

"Thomas wanted a simple, stable existence, but saddled with unemployment, an absentee girlfriend, and the impending unpaid rent, change is hurtling down on him whether he likes it or not. Following the sudden murder of his strange elderly neighbor, He awakens on wrong side of the Veil transformed into a mountain lion and thrust into a dangerous world of magic.

Thomas must team up with a disgraced Inquisitor and a pyromaniac squirrel to dodge the fate pushed upon him by haughty mages, manipulative union leaders, and violent werewolves. Does Thomas have the will to take control of his life through wit and claw to become the first Freelance Familiar?

Off Leash is the first book in Daniel Potter’s Freelance Familiars series, a humorous adventure story beset by immoral mages and fast-talking animals. If you enjoyed the Dresden Files and want an overtone of Discworld, you’ll love this rollicking urban fantasy adventure.

Dig in your claws, brace for impact and buy this story right now!"

www.amazon.com/Off-Leash-Freelance-Familiars-Book-ebook/dp/B011J9L5JA?_bbid=10271423&_bbtype=blog
 

Margret

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Thomas must team up with a disgraced Inquisitor and a pyromaniac squirrel to dodge the fate pushed upon him by haughty mages, manipulative union leaders, and violent werewolves.
Yes, I also was intrigued and grabbed the Nook version. I haven't read it yet; it's archived to avoid taking up space until I get to it.

The part I find most intriguing (I think) is the "pyromaniac squirrel." I have trouble figuring out how a squirrel could conceivably be a pyromaniac, since I can't figure out how a squirrel could light a fire. Although I do remember reading a fantasy short story once about a wizard who gave her tom cat/familiar thumbs so that he could open his own cans (or something like that) and then found out that the cat loved fires and could now use matches. Also, he was a very prolific tom, and the trait bred true, and it turned out that most cats are fascinated by fire. The wizard left town in a hurry, just ahead of the lynch mob that was chasing her. Wish I remembered who wrote that...
* * * * * *
Well, I finished High Adventure last night, archived it, and downloaded Dancing Aztecs, also by Donald E. Westlake. I read the reviews on Amazon first, of course, before I bought it. They basically said that you have to make allowances for the mores of the time when it was written - racial and gender stereotypes and such - but I'm already accustomed to doing that when reading Dorothy Sayers, for example (mostly Scottish and Jewish money-grubbing stereotypes, in her case). And I already know that the worst Donald E. Westlake book is still better than most, though I tend to avoid his more serious novels as they're a bit too nasty (stuff about Idi Amin, for instance, as I recall). The funniest two, IMO, are High Adventure and Help I am Being Held Prisoner, neither of which is part of a series, like the Dortmunder novels. I have Help I am Being Held Prisoner bookmarked on BookBub; hopefully it'll come up on a sale one of these days. High Adventure did, after all.

Margret
 

Mamanyt1953

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And I'm still reading the "Hannah Swensen" series, and drooling copiously. I think that I must order the "Lake Eden Cookbook" next month. It has MOST of the recipies from the books, plus some extras.


help me..............................
 

Mamanyt1953

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I've read all of the Joanne Flukes available in paperback now, and have moved on to Gail Oust's Spice Shop series. Finished the first one, "Rosemary and Crime," and am now reading "Kill 'Em with Cayenne." I was a tiny bit disappointed that there were no recipes in this series, however, as I read, I realized that there is a wealth of information about spices; their origins, their uses, their characteristics, all sorts of interesting stuff. I'm going to have to re-read this series with a notepad and pen and make notes!
 
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