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What are you reading the week of May 16, 2010?

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DUgosh Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-15-10 11:46 PM
Original message
What are you reading the week of May 16, 2010?
Edited on Sun May-16-10 12:10 AM by DUgosh
Fire and Ice by JA Jance
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vixengrl Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-16-10 12:05 AM
Response to Original message
1. Got some BOTMC selections--
Edited on Sun May-16-10 12:06 AM by vixengrl
I guess hubby wasn't fast enough with the "Decline featured selection" option. So they sent us some....stuff. I have Stuart Woods' Lucid Intervals.

I have tried to get into it, but the Stone Barrington series is apparently established enough that I can't decipher the "raised eyebrow" character short-hand. Also, Woods suffers from what I think of as "Plum Disease" (so labeled because I read a Janet Evanovich novel and she was the perfect example of this)--if a series goes on for a while, eventually it starts to suck. People may be invested in the characters too much to notice that the quality of the writing is just bad, but it is. Dialogue sounds fake or forced, and situations don't contribute to story (I abandoned fanfic when I started writing like that with my OFC's)

I've also got David Baldacci's Deliver Us From Evil which is turning out to be a more promising read. The premise of a group of operatives who run stngs to rub out the worst of human scum is at least interesting.

Also I have Katherine Neville's The Fire. Haven't even cracked it open, yet. (When faced with a number of unknown books, I address them from apparently least-to-most promising, as if to give myself a treat by working through to an actually good read. I'm sort of hoping I got the order right, here.


Edit: fixed bad HTML.
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lordsummerisle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-16-10 12:17 AM
Response to Original message
2. Molly Ivins n/t
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leftyladyfrommo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-17-10 07:11 PM
Response to Reply #2
14. Did you see where they are making a movie about Mollie?
I sure hope they get it right. I can't remember who was up for the part. I'll have to check it out.
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msedano Donating Member (682 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-16-10 12:23 AM
Response to Original message
3. two collections
Tom Miller, ed. Writing on the Edge. A Borderlands Reader.
Stella Pope Duarte. Women Who Live in Coffee Shops and other stories.
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skeptical cynic Donating Member (404 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-16-10 02:30 AM
Response to Original message
4. "The Monkey Wrench Gang" by Edward Abbey
and

"Lord of the Flies" by William Golding
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fishwax Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-16-10 11:09 PM
Response to Reply #4
7. "The Monkey Wrench Gang" is on my summer reading list
probably a few weeks before I can get to it, but I'm looking forward to it :)
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JitterbugPerfume Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-17-10 10:54 AM
Response to Reply #4
9. If you like The Monkey Wrench Gang
read Hayduke Lives


It is a real wild ride!
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skeptical cynic Donating Member (404 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-17-10 12:25 PM
Response to Reply #9
11. Next on the list.
This is the path I'm finding myself following.

"Protest beyond the law is not a departure from democracy, it is absolutely essential to it." Howard Zinn
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Onceuponalife Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-20-10 12:48 AM
Response to Reply #4
25. Both excellent
Especially MWG is one of my favorites. Except....why does Hayduke throw his empty beer cans out the window??:mad:
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elocs Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-16-10 09:39 AM
Response to Original message
5. I am listening (for the second time) to "The Stolen Child" by Keith Donohue.
From an NPR interview with Donohue:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5477391

NEARY: In Donohue's story, a young boy named Henry Day is stolen by fairies and replaced by a changeling, a fairy who changes himself to look like Henry. The changeling takes over Henry's life, but is always conscious of the fact that it's not really his. Henry becomes a fairy known as Aniday, who never grows old, but is always aware that he has lost something precious. The two narrate their own stories.

Mr. DONOHUE: I thought it was an intriguing way to try to tell two sides of the same story, to have two narrators, to have two separate narrators. And boy, it was a lot of fun to write that way because you, I was able to bounce, as I said, back and forth between two narrators telling two slightly different versions of the same story, particularly when their paths intersect as they do.


It is a great book and I highly recommend it and I really enjoyed listening to it on cd with the different voices.
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fadedrose Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-16-10 10:22 AM
Response to Original message
6. Just started IMMORAL by Brian Freeman eom
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fadedrose Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-18-10 08:28 PM
Response to Reply #6
18. This is a good book
I hope to read more of Freeman's books . . . series character is Jonathon Stride, Police Lt., Duluth, Minnesota...

Good story, good characters, no boring parts, no 5-page descriptions of the color of the water or sky...
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Lydia Leftcoast Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-17-10 12:40 AM
Response to Original message
8. Just finished "The Amber Spyglass," not sure what to read next
although I'm considering reading "The Remains of an Altar" by Phil Rickman, whose books take place in the Welsh border country.
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JitterbugPerfume Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-17-10 11:07 AM
Response to Original message
10. Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy
Edited on Mon May-17-10 11:09 AM by JitterbugPerfume
It was written in 1987, and it is about Julian West who fell asleep (mesmerised) in 1817 and woke up in 2000 to a utopian socialist paradise

It is a far cry from the 2000's we live in , but a fascinating book.

There is a review of it at Buzzflash.com by Thom Hartman if anyone is interested.

I also finished The Book of Genesis, illustrated by R. Crumb ( the Keep on Truckin' guy from the 60s ).Sex , violence, Goddess worship ---all of the good stuff is included!

Thom Hartman reviewed it at BuzzFlash too.

Next --Cannery Row . I have no idea how I missed reading that one for all of these years!

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MaineDem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-17-10 03:05 PM
Response to Original message
12. "The Venetian Betrayal" by Steve Berry
On audiobook. Read by Scott Brick, one of my favorites.
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fadedrose Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-20-10 08:26 PM
Response to Reply #12
29. I was thinking of starting this series..
have you read the first two - THE TEMPLAR LEGACY and THE ALEXANDRIA LINK - if so, are they any good?

thanks..
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Laura PourMeADrink Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-17-10 07:01 PM
Response to Original message
13. You know what would be GREAT? If you asked if responders would
recommend or maybe rank the book 1 to 10. Just suggestin...:>)
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hippywife Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-18-10 06:56 PM
Response to Reply #13
17. Even better if they would
give some kind of description of the book and what they like/dislike about it. I've been trying to do that.

:hi:
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Laura PourMeADrink Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-18-10 10:09 PM
Response to Reply #17
21. amen1
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Jim__ Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-19-10 02:44 PM
Response to Reply #17
23. I agree - n/t
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fadedrose Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-18-10 08:57 PM
Response to Reply #13
19. Or say what kind of book it is, mystery, romance, fantasy, scifi...eom
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Laura PourMeADrink Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-18-10 10:09 PM
Response to Reply #19
20. amen2
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pscot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-17-10 07:56 PM
Response to Original message
15. I'm starting Ulysses
which I will peruse in liesurely fashion for the next several weeks until I finally wake up in bed with Molly Bloom the morning of June 16th. Yes.
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hippywife Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-18-10 06:55 PM
Response to Original message
16. The Queen of Bedlam by Robert McCammon
I loved the first in the series, Speaks the Nightbird. This one follows the main character after that book. At first I was having trouble getting into it. It seemed like he was trying too hard to set the scene, but it has gotten better.

I don't know what his earlier books were like, but some say they are horror novels. These are more murder mysteries set in early America.
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Name removed Donating Member (0 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-19-10 12:09 PM
Response to Original message
22. Deleted message
Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.
 
yellowdogintexas Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-19-10 02:48 PM
Response to Original message
24. Sourcery by Terry Pratchett
finished Mort last week and Omerta by mario Puzo
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Onceuponalife Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-20-10 12:54 AM
Response to Original message
26. The Lords of Discipline by Pat Conroy
Excellent so far. This is my 4th Conroy novel and I love them all.
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MrCoffee Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-20-10 12:59 PM
Response to Original message
27. The Song of the Earth by Hugh Nissenson
It's a sort of sci-fi eco-dystopian documentary interview, and it's really really REALLY good.

Very hard to describe, but I'm enjoying it so far.
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sueh Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-20-10 08:08 PM
Response to Original message
28. Rhett Butler's People by Donald McCaig...
I'm learning how Rhett Butler became such a scoundrel and scallawag. Good read, though. If you liked Gone With the Wind, you'll definitely like this.
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hippywife Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-22-10 11:08 AM
Response to Original message
30. Today I finished Mr. Slaughter by Robert McCammon.
Edited on Sat May-22-10 11:09 AM by hippywife
I read all three books, Speaks the Nightbird, The Queen of Bedlam, and Mr. Slaughter in just one week and about a day. Unfortunately, I have done little else. They really suck you in. Thank goodness, the next in the series hasn't been written yet or I'd be in big trouble. LOL

japple...I think you would enjoy this historical fiction series with a mystery twist.

He does promise more to this series, and I'm glad, but I don't like the idea of waiting for it.







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azmouse Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-22-10 01:16 PM
Response to Reply #30
31. I have the first two books in the series on my reading pile.
I hope to get to them soon. It sounds as though you really like them.
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hippywife Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-22-10 01:17 PM
Response to Reply #31
32. I did!
It's a good thing that was the end of the series for now, coz if I don't get this damn house cleaned, I may be looking at a divorce. :rofl:
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Jade Fox Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-28-10 07:54 PM
Response to Original message
33. Wolf Hall
I may not finish is, just because the whole Henry the Eighth/Anne Boleyn thing has been done to death. But I haven't quit yet.
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hippywife Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-29-10 09:49 AM
Response to Original message
34. Love Medicine by Louis Erdrich.
Edited on Sat May-29-10 09:56 AM by hippywife
I'm almost done with it.

It's the story of a Native American community and the relationships within it, told from the prospective of each one of them in alternating chapters.

It's held my interest for the most part, but I have to admit to having a hard time keeping track of the relationships of these people. At almost the end, I think I have most of them straight in my head.

:hi:
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fadedrose Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-29-10 08:08 PM
Response to Original message
35. IN THE DARK by Brian Freeman
Good....
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