October Reading Thread

[Danny McG]

I'm starting The forest of lost souls by Dean Koontz

DNF
He's gone too literary and using too many high blown phrases that may sound poetic but get on my nerves

 

[AE35Unit]

DNF
He's gone too literary and using too many high blown phrases that may sound poetic but get on my nerves

Hmm that's a new one, only out this year.

 

[Danny McG]

Now I'm reading "All the stars a grave" by somebody called Greg Curtis (who he?)

 

[AE35Unit]

Hmm not heard of him. Neither has FF

 

[alexvss]

Slaughterhouse Five. Halfway through this book, I'm starting to dig his sense of humor. I was a little disappointed at the beginning, and began to think that Vonnegut was not for me, but it kept getting better so I haven't dropped it.

So it goes.

 

[Dave Vicks]

DON'T TELL DAD: A MEMOIR. BY PETER FONDA.
1998.

 

[Dave Vicks]

MUSICOPHILIA.By Oliver Sacks.2007

SUCH ,SUCH WERE THE JOYS AND OTHER ESSAYS. By George Orwell
2009,1952.

Audio books.

 

[Danny McG]

Now I'm reading "All the stars a grave" by somebody called Greg Curtis (who he?)

I'm maybe a quarter way through this book now, and I have a sneaking suspicion for a big reveal at the end, we shall see!

@psychotick

 

[HareBrain]

I finished The Count of Monte Cristo, all 460,000 words of it. In the end, disappointing. It had me gripped until the revenge started to play out, and then it gradually deflated. I think Dumas would have done better to write a book half the length and spend much more time thinking through his end-game plotting, but from what I've heard this just wasn't his style.

Here are a few spoilery notes/annoyances:

Spoiler

I was convinced, once it began to seem that Monte Cristo was going too far and being too obsessed, that one of his targets or a member of their families would put two and two together and start investigating him, and this would lead to a battle of wits. I was convinced this was going to happen with Albert, once he worked out that MC was behind the release of compromising information about his father. But no, Albert simply challenged him to a duel and then avoided that by his mother explaining everything to him. Weak.

Among a great many conveniences, one of the largest was that all three targets had done other bad things MC could use to exact his revenge. You could argue that they were bad enough people that they would inevitably have done so, but I would dispute this except maybe in the case of Danglars.

We never got any of the targets trying to justify what they'd done to him, nor reacting to the revelation of who MC was. Nor did we ever see two of them talk about Dantes with each other. The entire beginning of the book might as well have happened off-screen.

De Villefort only harmed Dantes to protect his own father M Noirtier, but the moral greyness of this was never addressed, nor did MC ever mention it to Noirtier.

MC is very morally compromised in various ways (e.g. he introduced Mme de Villefort to poison, with which she then killed five people including herself) but for the most part he is treated by the author as virtuous.

There's a great deal of dated, melodramatic stuff that doesn't exist in other authors of the period. Nobody thinks anything to themselves: if they have a thought they don't want someone else to be aware of, they mutter it. Physiological reactions to emotion are so extreme as to be comical.

Now started Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins, a hotchpotch memoir by Rupert Everett.

 

[dask]

Finished Conan, which was good with enough weirdness to satisfy the siren call of October but, for no particular reason I can point to, have decided to set aside Blood Tide and wrap up the month with:

 

[Extollager]

After almost 50 years, reading Chesterton’s The Flying Inn for the second time, not in this vintage Penguin alas.

 

[pogopossum]

Nicked by M, T, Anderson

Liked the setup. In 1087, a monk is sent out to retrieve (steal) the remains of St Nicholas, a long dead (343 CE) saint famous for miracles associated with his remains and pleas for his intervention. Yeah, we're talking Santa Claus.
Based on historical accounts of attempted grave robbing, the book has a plethora of characters. A holy monk, accomplished thieves, various poobahs, Ecclesiastical and Civil, who lust for his remains. Even Turkish invaders who had just taken over his place of interment.
Starts off lively. When I saw a laudatory review I was enthused. The book does sag towards the end. The various ratings that I looked averaged four of five stars. I had hoped for more medieval flavor rather than theft capers. I'd give it a medium positive.

 

[pogopossum]

Things That Go Bump In The Universe by C. Renee James.

Cephid variables, Supernovas, Pulsars, Gravitational Wave Astronomy. At least 30 different cosmic bodies and behaviors, few of which I had any real knowledge of as compared to the detailed discussions in this 25 chapter book.
The author deals with most of the bodies, forces and discoveries conversationally. Generally with astrophysicists who are the scientists currently exploring these phenomena. Thus it is not a text but something that a non scientist (me) history major can (mostly) follow. It is however not simplistic. The detail was, almost overpowering.,The NYT review that occasioned my picking it up says, "James’s journey through the study of these objects is exhilarating, sometimes difficult, but ultimately rewarding thanks to her cheerful, agreeable prose; she is better than most astrophysicists at explaining their sometimes abstruse work."
My favorite image is of a pulsar that revolves 716 times per second (not a typo). This is a body several times the size of our sun. The author nicknames it "Zippy"
A fascinating but often difficult read. I did put it down for weeks at a time to relax with collections of old SF. But went back to it. Got it from the library. Go thou and do likewise.

 

[Vertigo]

My favorite image is of a pulsar that revolves 716 times per second (not a typo). This is a body several times the size of our sun. The author nicknames it "Zippy"

There is a slight typo there it should be "around twice the mass of the sun." Even if it was the same size as the sun, the outside of the star would be exceeding the speed of light! As it is it is thought the outside of the star is travelling at around 24% the speed of light.

Sorry pedant in me refuses to sleep sometimes!

PSR J1748−2446ad is the fastest-spinning pulsar known, at 716 Hz (times per second),[2] or 42,960 revolutions per minute. This pulsar was discovered by Jason W. T. Hessels of McGill University on November 10, 2004, and confirmed on January 8, 2005.

If the neutron star is assumed to contain less than two times the mass of the Sun, within the typical range of neutron stars, its radius is constrained to be less than 16 km. At its equator it is spinning at approximately 24% of the speed of light, or over 70,000 km per second.

 

[pogopossum]

Thank you pendant - er Vertigo. That sort of mis-statement (not a typo) also annoys me.

 

[Dave Vicks]

TIME PATROL. By Poul Anderson. Four books. 1960,1983,1988,1990.

 

[Lady of Winterfell]

I finished Somewhere Beyond the Sea. Enjoyed it as much as the first one. I really enjoy the dialogue and banter of the children.

Now I'm reading Machine Vendetta by Alastair Reynolds.

 

[Elentarri]

Ghost Station by S.A. Barnes [horror / science-fiction]
Not as graphically gory or as nail-biting or action packed as the author's previous novel, Dead Silence, but I still enjoyed this story. There is something strange happening on an isolated and abandoned planet, but is it all in the crews' head or is there something really out there?

 

[AE35Unit]

Ghost Station by S.A. Barnes [horror / science-fiction]
Not as graphically gory or as nail-biting or action packed as the author's previous novel, Dead Silence, but I still enjoyed this story. There is something strange happening on an isolated and abandoned planet, but is it all in the crews' head or is there something really out there?

Is that the 'author' that's actually 2 authors working together?

 

[Elentarri]

Is that the 'author' that's actually 2 authors working together?

No. S.A. Barnes is a single person. GR LINK: Ghost Station