What are you Reading (Part 2)?

[keen23]

The old thread got too long, so let's start a new one!

What are YOU reading now? Anything good? Anything to avoid?

[FloraKitty35]

I am reading a novel called The Sunne in Splendour.  It's a historical novel set during the Wars of the Roses. 

[EyeQueue]

I just finished Way Station by Clifford D. Simack. It's a 1963 classic sci-fi novel about a Civil War soldier who becomes the caretaker of a way station for galactic travelers. Next up is Simack's collection of short fiction, The Ghosts of a Model T.

I stupidly decided to do the Goodreads 2015 reading challenge, and set my number of books at 40, and I'm now 6 books behind. I guess I'll be trotting out the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books that are somewhere on my Kindle just to read in between the other two legit books I'm trying to finish by Dec 31.

[nastyhobbitses]

Besides all of the reading ever for grad school (yay), I'm currently reading a pretty interesting biography of Princess Charlotte of Wales, who was the granddaughter of George III, daughter of George IV, and was basically supposed to be the next great queen...until she tragically died giving birth to a stillborn boy, causing a succession crisis that ultimately led to the conception, birth, and ascension of Queen Victoria. Pretty interesting read, though I read way too many books about historical royals and need to branch out. Up next is an Isabel Allende novel.

I also recently read a book called The Disaster Artist, which is about the making of the infamous movie The Room, written by the main supporting actor. It's the epitome of bile fascination, because if you've seen the movie, you know just how ineptly made and acted it is, and the story of its production is just an even bigger parade of ineptitude. It's a really funny and well-written book, but I'd say that it's a lot funnier and easier to get through if you've seen The Room.

[Arete]

Right now I'm rereading A World Lit Only By Fire, it's about how appalling the medieval world really was and how the Renaissance finally broke through.  I first read it 15 years ago and am learning even more this round.

[CTRLZero]

20 hours ago, EyeQueue said:

I just finished Way Station by Clifford D. Simack. It's a 1963 classic sci-fi novel about a Civil War soldier who becomes the caretaker of a way station for galactic travelers.

This has been loaded onto my Kindle for a couple of weeks and looks like an interesting plot.  I hope to read it in a couple of days.  Did you enjoy it?

14 hours ago, AreteJo said:

Right now I'm rereading A World Lit Only By Fire, it's about how appalling the medieval world really was

Oh, I love books like this!  I have read (and agree) that most of us today have much better lives than royalty during medieval times (sanitation, disease control, etc.), so it's interesting to find another book on that subject.

[EyeQueue]

3 hours ago, CTRLZero said:

This has been loaded onto my Kindle for a couple of weeks and looks like an interesting plot.  I hope to read it in a couple of days.  Did you enjoy it?

 

Yes. It was pretty good. Kind of slow to get started, but the premise is intriguing and a couple of the characters were interesting.

[RabbitKM]

I'm reading Yes Please by Amy Poehler.

[PennySycamore]

The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Keirnan about the women who worked and lived in Oak Ridge, Tennessee during the Manhattan Project and helped build the first atomic bombs.  There were some women scientists that weren't at Oak Ridge like Ida Noddack, Lise Meitner and Leona Woods who were also instrumental in developing nuclear fission and thus made these women's work possible.

One of my uncles, so I've been told, helped with the construction of Oak Ridge (he was an ironworker)  and my mom lived with her aunt and uncle in Knoxville during that time.  She went to Rule High School.  I think that's the coolest name for a high school ever.

[Karma]

I've been in the mood for some light reading. Have just read a few books released in the last few years by an australian author, Liane Moriarty.  Good, light reading.  The one more of hers I haven't read, called Three Wishes. I think I'll go buy it tomorrow

[manda b]

I'm reading Death at Sea World by Dan Kirby, The Return by Bentley Little and Dark Moon Rising by S.Kenyon.

[browncoatslytherin]

i just finished reading "raising abel" about a woman who adopted an abused foster kid. it was a really awesome read, heartbreaking at times, but also really illuminating on childhood behaviours and how abuse affects children through childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood.

[sparkles]

On 1/5/2016 at 11:59 PM, PennySycamore said:

The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Keirnan about the women who worked and lived in Oak Ridge, Tennessee during the Manhattan Project and helped build the first atomic bombs.  There were some women scientists that weren't at Oak Ridge like Ida Noddack, Lise Meitner and Leona Woods who were also instrumental in developing nuclear fission and thus made these women's work possible.

Thanks for the recommendation. Just added it to my audiobook queue.

[Seahorse Wrangler]

On 12/29/2015 at 0:26 AM, AreteJo said:

Right now I'm rereading A World Lit Only By Fire, it's about how appalling the medieval world really was and how the Renaissance finally broke through.  I first read it 15 years ago and am learning even more this round.

Thanks for the recommendation.

I'm about to start Two Gentlemen Poets at the Court of Henry VIII George Boleyn and Henry Howard by  Edmond Bapst, trans J.A. Macfarlane and Claire Ridgway

 

On 12/28/2015 at 5:22 PM, FloraKitty35 said:

I am reading a novel called The Sunne in Splendour.  It's a historical novel set during the Wars of the Roses. 

One I've been thinking of reading, since I read The Rose of York trilogy by Sandra Worth

Edited January 7, 2016 by Seahorse Wrangler
I can so speel..

[RabbitKM]

I'm just starting The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. 

[RabbitKM]

The Shadow of the Wind was pretty interesting.  It was a bit drawn out, but I enjoyed it.  I am now on The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker.

[clueliss]

Six Women of Salem

so far very interesting.  Non Fiction.  If my genealogy is correct I have 3 accused witches in my family tree.  One accused in the 1650's (the village she lived in didn't turn her over).  Another, Mary Perkins Bradbury, was accused in Salem and somehow escaped prison (and is mentioned in this book).  Another was accused/arrested and taken to Ipswich and not Salem possibly saving her life (her sister was also accused and escaped/fled and her stepmother is Sarah Averill Wildes who was accused/convicted/hung in what I chalk up to, among other things, squabbles with her huband's first wife's family)

[danvillebelle]

Blue Mind: The Surprising Science that shows how being near, in, on, or Under Water can make you Happier, Healthier, More Connected and Better at What You Do  by Wallace J. Nichols.  Fascinating and right up my alley since I would be a mermaid if I could.  

[drivingmishcrazy]

I'm currently trying to read my way through Joseph Delaney's The Last Apprentice series, and im currently on book three, Nighy of The Soul Stealer. In case anyone watched the Seventh Son and was sorely disappointed, the books are much better.

[religiouslyconfused]

I am not that much of a book reader! 

[RabbitKM]

I finished The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker, and I did not like it at all.  I was intrigued by the setting (Burma) but alas, the plot and characters left something to be desired.  

I am starting The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez and so far it is very good.

In other news, I went to the thrift store yesterday and purchased 13 (yes, 13!) books.  I'll be very busy reading for a long while.  

[Grimalkin]

On December 28, 2015 at 4:22 PM, FloraKitty35 said:

I am reading a novel called The Sunne in Splendour.  It's a historical novel set during the Wars of the Roses. 

I love Sharon Kay Pennman. I read that ages ago. I may need to find a copy and reread it.

[sawasdee]

2 hours ago, Grimalkin said:

2 hours ago, Grimalkin said:

I love Sharon Kay Pennman. I read that ages ago. I may need to find a copy and reread it.

 

I loved it, and also When Christ And His Saints Slept, by the same author. Set in 12th century England - the same  time frame as Ken Follet's The Pillars Of The Earth. Both are very good at recreating the era. And Penman's Here Be Dragons made me fall in love with Llewellyn the Great of Wales!

[RabbitKM]

Reading Memoirs of a Geisha, it was slow to begin but I'm halfway through and I'm liking it. 

[PennySycamore]

@danvillebelle,  I'll have to read Blue Mind!  I wanted to be a mermaid when I was tiny and I'd still love to be able to sail round the world.  I'll probably never be able to do that now, but I did find a way to do some serious bluewater sailing as paying crew.  I can do ocean sailing but in smaller bites!

Right now, I am re-reading Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen since I missed the airing of it a week ago Friday and reading for the first time Rescue Road by Peter Zheutlin about the efforts of Greg Mahle to rescue dogs from the South and ferry them to forever homes in the North.  It's very good and also a bit heartbreaking, reading about how dogs are so mistreated.  Fortunately, Zheutlin does't dwell on the heartbreak but more on the hope that Greg and the other volunteers give these loving dogs.