July's Reading List

[dwndrgn]

Since June is now over and July has begun, this is the new 'What are you reading?' thread for July.

I've just finished a Cromwell war/history novel that I enjoyed quite a bit. I've no idea what I'll read next but I'll check my shelf and see what I've got.

 

[ravenus]

Slowly progressing on The Night Land by W.H. Hodgson. After a tiresome romantic bit, the story is finally getting into groove with an ambitious concept, of the protagonist in 2 incarnations separated by millions of years, both of which have an awareness of each other. The future avatar is in this fantastic world where a pocket of humanity is settled in this gargantuan Pyramid, where each floor of the Pyramid constitiutes a city. The Pyramd is protected by an electrical fence equivalent from the outside world where monstrous forces lurk, waiting for the source of power to the fence run out. Lots of great description really giving you a sense of huge scale in the future world.
Looking to see how this one pans out.

Oh and remember, this guy was a precursor to Lovecraft, and if you see his concepts and descriptions, it's quite apparent that HPL was inspired by him.

 

[Sirathiel]

Right now I'm right in the middle of 'Renegades of Pern' by Anne McCaffrey.

All the Weyrs of Pern and The Dolphins of Pern are already waiting. Since I've decided not to read 'The Masterharper of Pern' I'm positive to get through (almost) the whole Pern series before returning home. It's a pity that the library here hasn't got 'The Skies of Pern'... I wonder where I'll be able to get my hands on that particular book....

 

[Lacedaemonian]

I am half way through Ender's Game, which is the first SF book I have read in years. I am not a big fan of the genre but this book is fairly interesting. I will probably read the full Ender's Saga next as I have just bought them. I have just bought my first graphic novel too. It is called Origin, and it is about Wolverine's life. The artwork is stunning and the story looks good, fingers crossed. I have a Jeffrey Deaver crime novel to read, Valerio Massimo Manfredi's Talisman of Troy, Bernard Cornwell's Harlequin, and a load of other not so interesting books to read. July looks good, but August is the month I am waiting for. Everything seems to be coming out in August.

 

[dwndrgn]

I read Anonymous Rex by Eric Garcia today. Completely implausible and full to the brim with 'gumshoe-isms' but still enjoyable for all that.

Next up is either a Judith Tarr or Moonstone by Collins. No telling which I'll pick.

 

[Lacedaemonian]

What is Moonstone about?

 

[littlemissattitude]

I read Anonymous Rex by Eric Garcia today. Completely implausible and full to the brim with 'gumshoe-isms' but still enjoyable for all that.

Funny, not fifteen minutes ago, as I was walking out of the library, I saw a talking book version of "Casual Rex". Laughed out loud, just at the title.

Anyway, as I reported in the June books thread, I'm reading "The Dreamtheif's Daughter" by Michael Moorcock. Almost halfway through at this point, and really enjoying it.

 

[tonic]

Well I've gone through a few (when Im bored I can be a fanatic reader) But probably the three books that are the most memeroable are The Scrolls of The Ancients By:Robert Newcomb, Song of Susannah By: Stephen King and Midnight Tides By:Steven Erikson.

 

[ravenus]

What is Moonstone about?

Moonstone (Wilkie Collins) is about the hunt for a stolen diamond. It was one of the first detective stories in print.

Also recommended from the pen of Collins is Woman in White, a beautifully paced melodramatic mystery thriller with a classy old-school villain.

 

[McMurphy]

A Laughing Mammoth

I am currently reading The Mammoth Book of Comic Fantasy II edited by Mike Ashley.

It is a collection of short stories in the fantasy and science fiction genre of the humorous nature. There are a few big names in the collection, such as Neil Gaiman.

 

[polymorphikos]

Slowly progressing on The Night Land by W.H. Hodgson. After a tiresome romantic bit, the story is finally getting into groove with an ambitious concept, of the protagonist in 2 incarnations separated by millions of years, both of which have an awareness of each other. The future avatar is in this fantastic world where a pocket of humanity is settled in this gargantuan Pyramid, where each floor of the Pyramid constitiutes a city. The Pyramd is protected by an electrical fence equivalent from the outside world where monstrous forces lurk, waiting for the source of power to the fence run out. Lots of great description really giving you a sense of huge scale in the future world.
Looking to see how this one pans out.

Oh and remember, this guy was a precursor to Lovecraft, and if you see his concepts and descriptions, it's quite apparent that HPL was inspired by him.

By another freak of chance, I just found this book buried at the back of a hospital paperback stand just today and got it for a dollar. (Only part one of the book in two parts, though, so I'll have to hunt the full down). I also finished a Case of Conscience yesterday and A Clockwork Orange today, and am now continuing my war against the mammoth Don Quixote.

 

[The Master™]

Just finished Alfred Bestor's The Demolished Man. Damned good book...

 

[Hypes]

I am currently reading Huxley's Brave New World, A History of the Arab Peoples by Albert Hourani, Eco's Foucault's Pendulum and Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander. Also reading a book on Desert Storm by the English commander, but I seem to have misplaced it.

Waiting for me lies Heinlein's Assignment in Eternity (two short novels, Gulf and Lost Legacy), Eco's The Name of the Rose and two books by Wells: The Invisible Man and The War of the Worlds. Also, just discovered another few books which I picked up a month ago and am still waiting to read: Emperor: The Gates of Rome by Conn Igguilden, Robert Wilson's The Company of Strangers, The Spanish Civil War by Beevor, Darwin's Origin of the Species, and Soldiers of God: With Islamic Warriors in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Robert D. Kaplan.

Damned if I ever get enough time.

Looking to pick up Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files series next, which look interesting, along with perhaps some Sherlock Holmes and Neil Gaiman.

 

[littlemissattitude]

Foucault's Pendulum is a good book, if a bit maddening in places ; going to have to find time to re-read it one of these days.

I finished the Moorcock book a few days ago (and I'm about halfway through the review), and I've gone through two or three books trying to find something to read. Finally decided on Reading Lolita in Tehran, by Azar Nafisi. It is a memoir by a woman who was a university professor in Iran, finally quit in disgust (only it took something like two years for her school to accept her resignation), and started meeting informally with certain hand-picked students in her home to read books that the regime weren't especially happy to be having people read. It is an interesting view of life in Iran after the Ayatollah, and I'm sure I'll be having more to say about some of the things in the book.

I don't know; I'm just having trouble finding things to read right now. For example, I'm not going to be able to take part in this month's book club discussion as I can't find a copy of Tarzan anywhere, library or bookstore. I don't know what's up with that. Last I looked, it was considered a classic of sorts. Then, I keep starting books that look like they're going to be good but just don't catch my interest.

 

[dwndrgn]

I haven't been reading too much lately. Nothing has really caught my eye except for some new ones I'm waiting for the library to get. I did read Red Slippers by Dennis McKiernan which is sort of a supplemental group of stories about his Mithgar world. Basically, a 'red slipper' is something that wasn't covered in the series but that readers might have been interested in. He's done it in a neat kind of way with a group of familiar characters retelling old legends and stories - sort of filling in the gaps.I did get a copy of Tarzan, the only copy my library had was a large print copy. Unfortunately I haven't read it yet - I really haven't been in the mood. Probably get to it tomorrow.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

I'm currently reading Jasper Fforde's Lost in a Good Book, the second of his tales of Thursday Next, literary detective. Fforde has a Douglas Adams-ish sense of humour, and these books make for a good light diversion, laced with literary in-jokes and references. The actual prose could be a bit better and I have a problem with his PoV (basically first person subjective, but with a god like ability to describe things the narrator could not possibly be privy to) but the stories, ideas and gags are delightfully cracked.

Also reading Jeff Noon's Nymphomation. Whoa. This is really good. Ambitious, playful, cerebral stuff, and it is a shame that Noon feels a need to distance himself from the SF tag, because this is just the sort of stuff the genre needs to stay vital and interesting.

 

[Blue Mythril]

I'm currently reading Jasper Fforde's Lost in a Good Book,

ooh, I actually have that in my little list of things to read, I'm just waiting to get it back off a friend...
So far I have just finished Cecelia Dart-Thorntons Battle of Evernight. Bit of a dissappointment really, loved The Ill-made Mute but the last book, particularly the ending seemed to have certain aspirations that it didn't quite reach. Meh, you get that.
I've just started Kim Stanley-Robinson's The Years of Rice and Salt, (or something to that effect), has potential but I havn;t really gotten into it yet...
Still in the middle of Yoshikawa's Taiko, loving it to bits.
Gotta read Tarzan
There's a few more I have planned, but I havn't started reading them yet, so I won't get ahead of myself

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Two Jeff Noon novels: Nymphomation and Automated Alice. Both rather brilliant, hard to categorise and highly recommended.

Also, The Chronoliths by Robert Charles Wilson - an excellent SF novel marred by two things: Wilson's ability to research the science aspect is sadly not matched by his research into real life cultures. A main character is one Sulamith Chopra, a scientist whose family hails from Madras, the city where I was born. Chopra is an extremely unlikely nickname for a person from Madras, and I have never, ever, met anyone with the name Sulamith. Secondly, I am just fed up of books where Asia, Africa, the Middle East are all reduced to rubble, while Europe and North America remain relatively unscathed. Gahhhhh. Nevertheless, a great read, awesome concepts and masterful prose. Sadly, for all his insight and imagination, Wilson cannot quite escape his cultural myopia. This is why I tend to prefer far-future or outer-space SF.

Now reading: Angelica Gorodischer's Kalpa Imperial, supposedly this leading Argentinian fantasist's masterpiece, translated by one Ursula Le Guin. Quite amazing so far, more magic realism than generic fantasy if you ask me, but hey, whatever.

 

[littlemissattitude]

I've interrupted my reading of "Reading Lolita in Tehran" to read Jonathan Kellerman's "Therapy", which is a rental book (50 cents for 7 days) from the library. I usually don't take out rental books, but this is Jonathan Kellerman, after all. He's one of my favorite mystery/police procedural writers, so I make an exception. When I'm finished with that, it'll be back to "Tehran" and the rest of the stack of books I've got waiting for me to read.

 

[polymorphikos]

I just finished The Broken God, and must say that it is stunning in all senses of the word. Read it. Now.
Currently trying to finish some of the books I got halfway through and then put aside, but it's really hard to drop yourself back into the flow of Anna Karenina so far in.