July 2016: What Have You Been Reading?

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I have just started a trilogy of comic fantasies for kids by Mary Rodgers. The first one will be familiar to you. The books are Freaky Friday, A Billion for Boris, and Summer Switch. (1972, 1974, and 1982.) Interestingly, in the first one, although the daughter finds herself in the mother's body, the mother's mind is not in the daughter's body (at least not yet.) Right now, the daughter's body still apparently has the daughter's mind (although, confusingly, those two minds seem to be entirely separate ; they don't communicate, and the daughter-as-mother has to act as the parent of the daughter-as-daughter, if you see what I mean.)

 

[Vince W]

Currently about halfway through Cornwell's Sharpe's Trafalgar. I must admit, I wasn't expecting to like this one - thought it would be contrived (what would Sharpe be doing at Trafalgar, after all?). But I'm thoroughly enjoying it

It's a fun book. Cornwell himself admits Sharpe had no business being at Trafalgar.

 

[John Thiel III]

I am embarked upon reading a number of books concerned with the infinite and the eternal. I consider books of this nature to be science fiction at its best, theme-wise. The books on my reading list are Brian Stableford's ARCHITECTS OF EMORTALITY, Robert J. Sawyer's FLASH FORWARD, Paul Melko's WALLS OF THE UNIVERSE, Paul Levinson's THE CONSCIOUSNESS PLAGUE, John Barnes' FINITY, and Clarke's THE LAST THEOREM. To this I might add a fantasy volume, Lovecraft's THE BLACK SEAS OF INFINITY. Levinson's book is involved with consciousness expansion, is why I have added to the others. I think reading all these books will make an important man of me, somewhat as will a scholastic undertaking, so I consider it to be a rewarding extended read. I am also reading factual books on the same matters, including one on the Multiverse concept.

I have all those I mentioned read, by the way, except the Lovecraft one, and am now adding another book to this collection of books, Greg Benford's BEYOND INFINITY, which has a tremendous scope, and I am thinking of going on next to John Scalzi's THE END OF ALL THINGS.

 

[John Thiel III]

Hi everyone.

Please post here what you have been reading in the month of July.

I'm continuing with the fascinating work Night Walking by Matthew Beaumont that explores the nightly perambulations of English poets, novelists and thinkers in London over the centuries that translates ultimately into a refutation of the Enlightenment period.

Meanwhile..on the fictional front I've embarked on a challenging ascent of Mt. Proust, currently at base station with Volume I Swann's Way as part of the classic 6 volume modernist work "In Search Of Lost Time".

Proust is indeed an ambitious undertaking; hope I can find the results of your reading, some comments you might make.

 

[John Thiel III]

I am about finished with issue number 115 (Summer 2016) of the anarchist journal The Match! (published since 1969, at very irregular intervals) and am about to start on Scott Fitzgerald (1962) by Andrew Turnbull, a biography. (I wonder if the author will explain why he didn't call his book F. Scott Fitzgerald.)

Probably he will not.

 

[John Thiel III]

I just finished Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut. I found it one of the best portrayals of PTSD I've seen, even though that term was never used. It is a strange book, alternating between scenes from a WW2 vet's life and some absurd aliens who could fit into the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (which I believe are the main character's mechanism for coping with his life). Yet this works in the story, which uses themes of fate and death to try to find meaning in life.

I'm interested in reading more by Vonnegut, so I'm starting The Sirens of Titan.

That's the one where the guy gets caught in the infundibulum, I believe. Had to read it for an sf course in college. Enjoy!

 

[John Thiel III]

The Big over Easy by Jasper Fforde - a bit of absurd fun but more wry chuckling than load guffawing. More here.

The Easy's New Orleans! It's a treat to call it that and shows you have a lot to you. It means it's easy to get what you want there. So the Big Over Easy sounds like it would be a good read, one sees that there is some japing to it.

I'm currently reading Cauldron of Ghosts by David Weber and Eric Flint and I'm frankly struggling big time. I'd have probably given up and thrown it away by now if I wasn't too committed to the Honorverse and didn't want a big hole in the story.

 

[Vertigo]

@John Thiel III ??

 

[John Thiel III]

Don't know what has confused you.

 

[Toby Frost]

I have started Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold. So far it's pretty good but I have a nasty feeling that it is going to turn into a romance set in space.

 

[Vertigo]

Don't know what has confused you.

Ah sorry, I hadn't noticed that you had commented inside the quote rather than outside it! Apologies. And yes there is quite a lot of 'japing' though I'm not sure how much of the humour might be rather 'British humour,' but so long as you know your nursery rhymes there's certainly chuckles aplenty.

 

[Vertigo]

I have started Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold. So far it's pretty good but I have a nasty feeling that it is going to turn into a romance set in space.

Yes Toby very much a romance set in space. Bujold has a distinct bias that way.

 

[Toby Frost]

Damn. I don't mind romance in the course of a story, but if it's the main thrust of the story, that's likely to be bad news. I find most romances I've seen significantly less believable than stories involving spaceships and talking dragons.

 

[Vertigo]

'fraid I tend to agree with you there That said I actually think it's one of the better books in her Vorkosigan series.

 

[Bugg]

I have started Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold. So far it's pretty good but I have a nasty feeling that it is going to turn into a romance set in space.

It is, but that romance is kind of (as in VERY) important to the rest of the series. Plus it's essentially the first part of a two-parter, and you need to read Barrayar to get the most out of it, IMO

 

[Vertigo]

It is, but that romance is kind of (as in VERY) important to the rest of the series. Plus it's essentially the first part of a two-parter, and you need to read Barrayar to get the most out of it, IMO

Agree, but throughout the series romance continues to play a very significant role. For me that is the weakest part of it. But I'm just not much into romance. I'm with Toby; I find most fictional romance about as believable as Trump being a peacemaker!

 

[John Thiel III]

Ah sorry, I hadn't noticed that you had commented inside the quote rather than outside it! Apologies. And yes there is quite a lot of 'japing' though I'm not sure how much of the humour might be rather 'British humour,' but so long as you know your nursery rhymes there's certainly chuckles aplenty.

I find that it's easy to get a rise out of a fellow from New Orleans, just come up behind him and "goose" him, that is, suddenly give him a couple of fingers in the crotch. However, I'm saying that without having read OVER EASY at all; the title just reminded me of New Orleans and I think a free goose would be regarded as a good jape there.

 

[Bugg]

Agree, but throughout the series romance continues to play a very significant role. For me that is the weakest part of it. But I'm just not much into romance. I'm with Toby; I find most fictional romance about as believable as Trump being a peacemaker!

It all got a bit too much for me with A Civil Campaign. Haven't read any more of the series since I read that one last year. I did think Mirror Dance and Memory were excellent, though

 

[DZara]

I'm reading Asimov's The Gods Themselves again. I'm in research mode. And enjoying Jo Zebedee's short story prologue to her novel Inish Carraig - will either have to buy the novel or break down and get a Kindle Unlimited subscription - debating KindleUnlimited over Audible right now, and I can't decide.

 

[kythe]

I just finished The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut, and really enjoyed it. I'm wondering why I haven't seen more references to Vonnegut here on Chrons. I discovered him on Kindle Unlimited, where they seem to have his whole collection.