February 2020 Reading Thread

[hitmouse]

Just started the new 'Rivers of London' book by Ben Aaronovitch - Lies Sleeping.
If you haven't read any of this series, they have my strongest recommendation - in fact, the author is one of the very, very few on my pre-order-a-new-book-as-soon-as-there's-a-publication-date list.

Ooh. When was that published? I really enjoy these, but tend to lose track.

 

[Extollager]

Well, a friend (who's a real authority on Charles Williams) recommended MA's books a while back -- might even have been this title in particular. I've requested an interlibrary loan copy -- I'll be about ready for a mystery novel before long.

 

[soulsinging]

I mentioned Chesterton in part because I thought it might catch your eye. As I was finishing the novel it occurred to me you and Pastor might find it of interest.

Randy M.

Reading the Father Brown mysteries is on my list of things to do sooner rather than later. Hopefully they are more Graham Greene than In the Name of the Rose.

 

[Pyan]

Ooh. When was that published? I really enjoy these, but tend to lose track.

Today

 

[Vince W]

Just started the new 'Rivers of London' book by Ben Aaronovitch - Lies Sleeping.
If you haven't read any of this series, they have my strongest recommendation - in fact, the author is one of the very, very few on my pre-order-a-new-book-as-soon-as-there's-a-publication-date list.

I have the first one on my TBR pile. Maybe...

 

[Randy M.]

Reading the Father Brown mysteries is on my list of things to do sooner rather than later. Hopefully they are more Graham Greene than In the Name of the Rose.

I don't think they are like either. It's been 40+ years since I read them, but I recall Chesterton delighted in paradoxes and conundrums, and that the writing of the stories was almost gleeful in spots, Chesterton seeming to enjoy himself.

I'd definitely take a stab at The Innocence of Father Brown, the first collection, I believe. If you like the Chesterton, once you work your way through, consider Melville Davisson Post's Uncle Abner stories, if you can find them. They are brisk but dour in comparison to Chesterton, and feel almost Faulknerian at times in their Old Testament orientation.

Randy M.

 

[Randy M.]

I have the first one on my TBR pile. Maybe...

I'd recommend the first one. I haven't gone further, not being all that willing to get sucked into a series, but the combination of humor and horror (mild; not gory) was appealing. Even more so were the politics/diplomacy angle with the goddesses of the rivers. Really nicely done.

Having a mid-February energy lag so though I've started The Sinister Mystery of the Mesmerizing Girl I haven't made much headway.

Randy M.

 

[Pyan]

I have the first one on my TBR pile. Maybe...

Read or um..read. There is no maybe...

 

[tegeus-Cromis]

I liked it more and more as I got deeper into it, so I think I'd like to read it again. I'd probably appreciate it more from the beginning. I'm now more than halfway through his next book, The Battle of Pollock's Crossing.

I finished it last night. It ends with a punch that the quieter first half of the book doesn't really lead one to expect. Again, I think I'll have to reread it with an eye to all the elements I missed that built up, at first unnoticeably, toward that conclusion. In terms of sheer beauty of sentences and paragraphs, it's perhaps even better written than A Month in the Country. I've ordered three other of his books.

(I discovered him, by the way, from a piece on him written by Penelope Fitzgerald, another one of my favorite writers.)

@DannMcGrew

 

[Parson]

I made a beginning of Thiif River Falls by Brain Freeman. After about 40 pages if felt as though this was going to be a book of continual despair with more than little horror mixed in. --- I wasn't ready to read it. Maybe another time --- I picked up a light hearted time travel Romance A Knight in Central Park by Teresa Ragan and thought it's never going to make any all time list for me. It did fit my mood, and I am ready to see what else might be available.

 

[Paul_C]

Just started the new 'Rivers of London' book by Ben Aaronovitch - Lies Sleeping.
If you haven't read any of this series, they have my strongest recommendation - in fact, the author is one of the very, very few on my pre-order-a-new-book-as-soon-as-there's-a-publication-date list.

I don't know why, but despite enjoying the first one I've never bought any more - I suppose I should rectify that at some point

 

[Danny McG]

After a couple weeks break from it I'm back onto the third book in the Necropolis series by C T Grey (our own ctg)
This is slow going because I'm doing proofreading amendments as I'm reading it.
The trouble is it's a very interesting story and I have to keep going back a few pages for minor errors I spotted and thought "yeah, I'll fix that in a second, I just need to see what happens here first"

Then I realise I'm like ten pages ahead and I've had the same thought three times already on different pages!

 

[williamjm]

I just finished "City of Illusion" by Ursula K LeGuin yesterday. Really liked it!
It's partly the familiar theme of a stranger adapting to an alien culture, but then it gets all mixed up in the end. pretty nice

I thought it was probably the best of her early (pre-Left Hand of Darkness) Hainish novels, I liked the setting of the largely unpopulated Earth.

Just started the new 'Rivers of London' book by Ben Aaronovitch - Lies Sleeping.
If you haven't read any of this series, they have my strongest recommendation - in fact, the author is one of the very, very few on my pre-order-a-new-book-as-soon-as-there's-a-publication-date list.

Do you mean False Value? Lies Sleeping came out a couple of years ago.

Aaronovitch is doing an event in a bookshop here on Monday so I'll pick up the new book then.

 

[Danny McG]

Another book I've got on the go (with three others scattered around the house!) is The Lesson by Caldwell Turnbull
Human looking Aliens strolling around in the Virgin Islands, slowly assimilating into society while the mothership hovers up above.

The story is mainly about how the islanders cope with this, because anyone who annoys the Aliens, even for a triviality, is ripped into pieces a moment later

I'm only at chapter four so I'm still getting all the why's and who's sorted in my head.

 

[Hugh]

Mervyn Peake "Letters from a Lost Uncle"
Never heard of it. Found in Oxfam.
Uncle searches the frozen polar wastes, looking for his heart's desire, the elusive White Lion, his only companion the mutant-like 'turtle dog', Jackson.
Not bad if you have an interest in Peake. This edition is reproduced from the original artwork.

 

[hitmouse]

Mervyn Peake "Letters from a Lost Uncle"
Never heard of it. Found in Oxfam.
Uncle searches the frozen polar wastes, looking for his heart's desire, the elusive White Lion, his only companion the mutant-like 'turtle dog', Jackson.
Not bad if you have an interest in Peake. This edition is reproduced from the original artwork.

View attachment 60616

A favourite of mine.

 

[elvet]

After doing two Esslemont books in a row, I’m back to Erikson and Reaper’s Gale. I approach this reread with some trepidation, as this book has some very uncomfortable scenes, but I am looking forward to getting reacquainted with the Bonehunters.

 

[Pyan]

Do you mean False Value? Lies Sleeping came out a couple of years ago.

Whups - yes, the new one is False Value. My mistake...

 

[Pyan]

And I've finished it. Not quite as good as his best, a bit too linear and the big reveal is telegraphed from the first few pages, but still well worth the read.

 

[Pyan]

About to start Seveneves, by Neal Stephenson, intrigued by reviews by Boaz, Venusian Broon and others.

Seveneves