What Are You Reading

[Dru Edwards]

Originally Posted by Aimelie

Well, I hate to say it, but I ended up a little disappointed. A writer makes a promise with a story’s build-up and, in this case, I felt the pay off was a little lacking. With S. King, I can accept that sort of thing if the “voice” is good enough (think “Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut” for voice) — however I didn’t get there with this book.

Anyway, I’m off to the races with another King book, “Later” and it’s shaping up nicely…definitely enjoying it so far.

I read "Later" a few months ago. Later was better than Billy Summers but not as good as the previous novel "the Institute".

[M19]

[Bob Womack]

I am still on a short vacation from the 20,000 foot view of Winston Churchills The Second World War series and going down to the trenches, as it were, sort of like Stephen Ambrose did when he finished The Supreme Commander and wrote Wild Blue and Band of Brothers to return to the rank and file small units of the war.

So, anyway, I just re-read Adam Makos' excellent A Higher Call about the veteran German Ace who, one December day in 1943, decided to spare the lives of an American B-17 crew who were limping back to England after receiving some of the worst damage imaginable to their plane over Germany.

Bob

[reeve21]

I wanted something light and I stumbled on The Lost Continent by Bill Bryson. He always makes me laugh. Loved his book on hiking the Appalachian Trail.

[Aimelie]

Originally Posted by Dru Edwards

I read "Later" a few months ago. Later was better than Billy Summers but not as good as the previous novel "the Institute".

Yes! “Later” was way better than “Billy Summers”—much more like “Doctor Sleep” and “The Institute”. I really enjoyed it.

I’ve just started “Consider Phlebas” by Iain M. Banks. This book was mentioned just a little up thread and reminded me that I’ve been wanting to read a big, sprawling space opera for a while now. I think this could be just the thing.

(The last sci-fi book I read was “Hyperion” by Dan Simmons, who has other books I enjoyed, but I ended up setting this one aside and never got back to finishing it. Something left me cold, style-wise, I think…possibly unhappy memories of studying Chaucer once upon a time.)

Hopefully this will be a different story (assuredly!).

ETA: I forgot—the actual last sci-fi book I read was Adrian Tchaikovsky's “Children of Time”, about the evolution of a race of intelligent spiders. Not bad at all.

[Highroller]

Following my usual MO of finding a writer I like and then reading everything they ever wrote, earlier in this thread I mentioned I was reading Rachael Maddow's Bagman (about a bad politician doing bad things).

Followed that up with Drift (bad defense industry people doing bad things) and just finished her latest, Blowout (bad oil industry people doing bad things).

All pretty good books if you enjoy that muckraker exposé type thing, but thank goodness she only has the three books! I need a break from this stuff!

Next up, taking Mr Eastwood’s advice and checking out Stephen Walker’s Beyond. Sounds like a good read.

[M Sarad]

I just finished Vonnegut's Sitens of Titan. I girstvread it on 1974. Didn't Ike it as much 46 years later.
Next will be Philip K. Dick.

[Gdjjr]

Just started John Grisham's The Whistler- good so far, which is not unusual for Grisham

[Ryler]

Circe by Madeline Miller. So far, so very good.

[Gdjjr]

Just finished The Wish by Nicholas Sparks- he, like Harlan Coben is a story teller extraordinaire-

[Highroller]

Originally Posted by David Eastwood

I’ve just finished reading this - Beyond, by Stephen Walker. It’s the story of the race to get the first man into space.

Lots of material about the Russian side of the story, and the narrative of Gagarin’s voyage is truly exciting to read.

Highly recommended.

Just finished this one. You're right, it's a great read. Exciting, sometimes disturbing, and very informative. We've all heard so much about the US program, this one's mostly about the Soviets, and it's a heck of a story! I can definitely second your recommendation.

---

[Gdjjr]

I started Cry Macho- not impressed so far.

[Mycroft]

Rereading "The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors." Excellent book about the Battle of Leyte Gulf, and more specifically, the fight between a half dozen tiny and slow escort carriers, 3 destroyers and a few destroyer escorts vs the main strength of the Japanese surface fleet: four battleships, including the Yamato, the worlds largest, six heavy cruisers, two light cruisers and eleven destroyers.

In case you have never heard of it, the little dogs saw off the big dogs...

Good book.

[eyesore]

Originally Posted by reeve21

I wanted something light and I stumbled on The Lost Continent by Bill Bryson. He always makes me laugh. Loved his book on hiking the Appalachian Trail.

OH MAN!! I just finished that the other day. What a great read!! Wish I could find more like this one. I do like all his books.

[eyesore]

Has anyone read Here There and Everywhere by Geoff Emrick? I just started it a few days ago.