August Reading Thread

[Dave Vicks]

Two short ones HOW COLORS AFFECT YOU,William Lidwell.
ALIEN 3 Alan Dean Foster. Foster must be in every library.

 

[Dave Vicks]

WALTERS PERSPECTIVE, by Walter Jacobson, 2012. Chicago Journalist memoir.

 

[Elentarri]

Simon Sort of Says by Erin Bow. Middle Grade book

Simon and his family move to the only area in America where the internet is banned because it interferes with signals from outer-space. This is apparently a good thing. Even if they have to live in the back half of a funeral home with a homicidal peacock. Even if Simon has to deal with being the new kid at school (he tells his classmates they were forced to leave their home due to an incident at his dad's church involving alpacas). Being normal. Doing normal things, like going to school and making new friends. Erin Bow skillfully drops hints that something isn't quite right, until someone finds out and Simon has to deal with the fallout. Faintly amusing with wonderfully developed characters and "silly" but funny small town doings (like the squirrel that ate the consecrated host at Simon's dad's church and got nicknamed the "Jesus Squirrel", the escaped emus and the prank*). The service-puppy-in-training is a nice addition to the story. I did feel the book ended too abruptly, but then the book has to end somewhere. A lovely book that deals gracefully with some difficult topics.​

*Don't take the science too seriously, folks!

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Is that the book from the changes?

Yes. It was Peter Dickinson's debut in 1969, though it turned out to be the third of three! He wrote it following a vivid dream.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

I’ve got the DAW paperback but never got around to reading it yet. Is it that good?

It's alongside The Hobbit and Alice In Wonderland in my top 3 children's books. I absolutely love it.

 

[Elentarri]

The Last Crusade: How Vasco da Gama's Epic Voyages Turned the Tide in a Centuries-Old Clash of Civilizations by Nigel Cliff (History book)

 

[Danny McG]

I'm looking through a scanned pdf of 'City of the first time' by CJ Barrett.
I thought I'd share the second page with you

 

[HareBrain]

Ooh, my 11th birthday is there!

 

[Danny McG]

Ooh, my 11th birthday is there!

T'were only checked out 16 times.
I read it back in the 70s and thought it was rather good.
I'm not sure I'll continue reading this scanned copy though, it's making the pages all cramped and that's annoying.
I'll see if I can buy it elsewhere in a better format

 

[Bick]

T'were only checked out 16 times.

Yes, but in under two years - it was pretty popular. Maybe it left the library shelves toward the end of ‘79?

I finished Maugham’s Collected Stories Volume 3, which was very good. All the stories were of the English spy Ashenden, but the majority were not really spy stories per se; the spying part was often in the background (or absent) and the stories focussed on the lives of those he encountered.

I just re-read Wuthering Heights also. I hadn’t recalled how much took place after Catherine Earnshaw’s death. It’s all rather melodramatic, but it’s certainly vivid.

I’m now switching gears and reading Star Trek, Log One, by Alan Dean Foster, which is fun.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I just re-read Wuthering Heights also. I hadn’t recalled how much took place after Catherine Earnshaw’s death. It’s all rather melodramatic, but it’s certainly vivid.

I think that's an excellent summation.

 

[Dave Vicks]

NATIVE PEOPLES OF NORTH AMERICA, by Daniel M.Cobb.

 

[Bick]

I think that's an excellent summation.

Though possibly more in-depth and discursive critiques have been penned.

 

[Dave Vicks]

AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS, 1931
HP Lovecraft. Misatonic U. Expedition.

 

[Danny McG]

Minds of Sand and Light by Kylie Chan

A dystopian tale of an AI cold war between East and West

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I've just finished Thistlefoot, by GennaRose Nethercott. Because my description of the book is so long, I've put it in the review section.

Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott

It’s taken me weeks to finish this book, not because it is terribly long, or because it’s not well-written (in fact, it is very well-written), but because parts of it were so grim and I wasn’t in a state of mind at that time to deal with it in large doses. Also, I should mention that although I...

www.sffchronicles.com

 

[Dave Vicks]

On deck POIROT INVESTIGATES, 1924,By
Agatha Christie, 11 Stories.

 

[dask]

Finished The Florentines by Paul Strathern, now starting:

 

[Bick]

I just re-read Wuthering Heights also. I hadn’t recalled how much took place after Catherine Earnshaw’s death. It’s all rather melodramatic, but it’s certainly vivid.

Incidentally, I meant to ask about something that piqued my interest towards the end of Wuthering Heights. Nelly Dean refers to “ a ghoul, or a vampire” - noting that she had read about such “incarnate demons”. This part of the narration was set in 1802. I wondered what book(s) she was perhaps referring to. I suspect she was referencing the same sort of ‘horrid’ gothic novels as those Austen refers to in Northanger Abbey, but I was slightly surprised to see reference to vampires, as I did not know the term was used back then. What work do you think Nelly was referring to? I would probably want to read it.

 

[dask]

Not sure if this helps or is what you’re looking for: