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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Amph What book are you reading right now?

Discussion in 'Community' started by droideka27, Aug 31, 2005.

  1. SWpants

    SWpants Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 28, 2004
    The Sound and the Echoes by Dew Pellucid

    A quick YA read (as in it's just under 600 pages but the font is large and the pace is quick). I'm enjoying it so far.
     
  2. Rogue_Ten

    Rogue_Ten Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Aug 18, 2002
    get ur YA on, sooooonnnnn
     
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  3. NYCitygurl

    NYCitygurl Manager Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jul 20, 2002
    What's it about?
     
  4. SWpants

    SWpants Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 28, 2004
    The people of Earth are considered Sounds. As in, we are originals.
    But beneath Earth's surface for the northern degrees (north pole to 50 degrees...latitude??) live our Echoes. Being who look like us who can die before us, but can't live past us.
    There are three types of Echoes (I think so, anyway): normal people, those who kill the Echoes whose Sounds have died, and those who find Sounds to have excuses to kill off the Echoes.

    Will is a Sound whose twin sister was kidnapped by Echoes 10 years ago when they were two. He was also kidnapped, but had two Echoes bring him back home. These Echoes took over animal Sound bodies (and the animals were dead, it's very weird) and watched over Will. But now Will has to rescue his sister and prevent the killing of himself and his Echo, the Prince of the land (the land's name is a bit odd).
    Will can't trust many people except for 'his' Echoes.


    It's very odd and difficult to explain [face_laugh]
     
  5. Rogue_Ten

    Rogue_Ten Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Aug 18, 2002
    i havent read YA since i was, well, YA, but last week i was taking care of someone who's in The Industry that was hella-sick and i did some reading to her from The Diviners, which was pretty dope. reminded me of china mieville's work, especially kraken.
     
  6. Jabbadabbado

    Jabbadabbado Manager Emeritus star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Mar 19, 1999
    Olives: Poems by Alicia Stallings. Also Lucretius, The Nature of Things, translated by Alicia Stallings

    I had no idea Lucretius was so damn good, as is Alicia Stallings, author of my favorite doomsday poem:

    The Machines Mourn the Passing of People

    We miss the warmth of their clumsy hands,
    The oil of their fingers, the cleansing of use
    That warded off dust, and the warm abuse
    Lavished upon us as reprimands.

    We were kicked like dogs when we were broken,
    But we did not whimper. We gritted our cogs—
    An honor it was to be treated as dogs,
    To incur such warm words roughly spoken,

    The way that they pleaded with us if we balked—
    "Come on, come on" in a hoarse whisper
    As they would urge a reluctant lover—
    The feel of their warm breath when they talked!

    How could we guess they would ever be gone?
    We are shorn now of tasks, and the lovely work—
    Not toiling, not spinning—like lilies that shirk—
    Like the brash dandelions that savage the lawn.

    The air now is silent of curses or praise.
    Jilted, abandoned to hells of what weather,
    Left to our own devices forever,
    We watch the sun rust at the end of its days.


    That last bit is priceless: the greatest and perhaps only living Latin-English translator of Lucretius writes poetry about the sun becoming a red giant.
     
  7. NYCitygurl

    NYCitygurl Manager Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jul 20, 2002
    Wow!

    SWpants, sounds interesting. I end up reading YA quite a bit; maybe I'll check it out!
     
  8. AmazingB

    AmazingB Manager Emeritus star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jan 12, 2001
    Speaking of the apparent YA run in here, I'm reading the second Fablehaven book, Rise of the Evening Star.

    Amazing.
     
  9. emilsson

    emilsson Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Oct 5, 1998
    Finally time for rereading A gathering storm :D.
     
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  10. LAJ_FETT

    LAJ_FETT Tech Admin (2007-2023) - She Held Us Together star 10 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    May 25, 2002
    Just started Bernard Knight's The Sanctuary Seeker. It's the first of his Crowner John series. I found the eighth one in a local charity shop and really liked it so I got what Amazon UK had in stock. (This one came out in 1998, so the series is pretty old.) If you like medieval mysteries I recommend this The main character is Sir John de Wolfe - a knight who fought in the Crusades. After returning to England he is appointed coroner for the county of Devon by Richard the Lionheart. Most of the action takes place in and around the city of Exeter in 1194.
     
  11. Rogue1-and-a-half

    Rogue1-and-a-half Manager Emeritus who is writing his masterpiece star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Nov 2, 2000
    [​IMG]

    Blackkerchief Dick (1923) – Margery Allingham

    Margery Allingham was, along with Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, one who revolutionized the mystery genre by essentially creating the now classic British mystery style. She’s the one who has survived the least to the modern era. Agatha Christie remains beloved and probably always will; Dorothy Sayers is a tier below Agatha Christie, but still remains popular. Margery Allingham is rarely mentioned anymore. I decided to begin reading her novels to see what I thought about her. This novel was her very first and it isn’t a mystery. It is the story of Mersea Island, an Island off the coast of Britain, and the various smugglers and pirates who use it as a haven during the late 1700s. It is a richly sketched story and Allingham has a real strength for dialogue. She writes uneducated pirates, ambitious young people struggling to rise above poverty and upper class Englishmen equally well; they all seem absolutely real. And then there’s the beautiful atmosphere of the novel which feels absolutely real and true. I found myself absolutely transported to this wonderful, mysterious old island. The characters are pretty great; even the characters with the smallest roles feel surprisingly genuine. In the titular character, a foppish, yet cruel, ship captain, she creates a compelling, surprisingly sympathetic villain. This book isn’t very easy to find; too bad – it’s pretty darn good.

    The White Cottage Mystery (1928) – Margery Allingham

    This slim volume is around a hundred and fifty pages and is Margery Allingham’s second novel and her first foray into the mystery genre, which would dominate her career from this point forward. This story was originally published as a serialized story and for many years Allingham refused to have it published in book form, due, she said, to the fact that it contained many repetitious sections that were necessary for a serial, but would only be annoying for the reader of the novel. After her death, the story was gone through by one of her heirs and all repetitions were deleted. The story is completely standard. A man is found murdered in the White Cottage, a large house in the country. It seems, once the police arrive, that just about everyone in the house had a motive for the murder. The detectives are a father and son team which is something you don’t see very often, but so little is made of their relationship that it’s pretty well not important at all. Two things are worthy of mention. One is the incredibly brisk prose. There’s hardly a description in the book; the story consists almost entirely of dialogue, which is either refreshing or annoying, depending on your perspective. As someone who enjoyed the atmosphere of the setting Allingham was able to conjure in Blackerchief Dick, I found it to be a huge step backwards and very disappointing. The second thing is that I actually figured out the identity of the killer, two chapters before it was revealed. In other words, Allingham played fair with the clues; good for her and good for me. This isn’t essential or anything; it’s mostly a throw-away book that you won’t really remember anything about once you’ve finished it. Read it if you’re an Allingham completest; otherwise, it’s unnecessary.

    The Crime at Black Dudley (1929) – Margery Allingham

    The Crime at Black Dudley, published in the US as The Black Dudley Murder, was Allingham’s third novel and her second mystery. The main character is a chubby Scotland Yard consultant/physician, named George Abbershaw, who finds himself enmeshed in a series of strange occurrences during a weekend house party at the rambling mansion known as Black Dudley. Allingham was most famous for her series of books about rakish jack of all trades Albert Campion. She introduces him in this novel as a supporting character. Even in a small role, he’s a great, surprising character, a foppish, prissy, abrasive, ugly young man who just happens to be incredibly intelligent and skilled at getting out of scrapes. He overpowers the novel, frankly; compared to him, Abbershaw, the main character, seems dull and uninteresting. It strikes me that Allingham didn’t intend to write a series about him, but, in the way that Hercule Poirot did to Agatha Christie, he’s more compelling than she expected him to be and basically muscled his way into the main character role in a continuing series by sheer force of his weirdness. As to how this book works, it isn’t so great; the middle section, after the murder, when Black Dudley is taken over by a gang of criminals who hold the other characters hostage, is pretty creative and interesting. Likewise, the prose here, after the incredibly disappointing prose in The White Cottage Mystery, is back up to snuff; it isn’t luminously beautiful, but she at least takes time to describe characters, setting and action with more care and depth than she did last time. The book is enjoyable enough, but the solution is a classic cheat; Abbershaw gets some information that he doesn’t share with the reader, which isn’t quite fair play. If we had everything Abbershaw had, we could solve it, but Allingham hides the pivotal clue from us. Enjoyable enough, with a disappointing ending.

    An Advancement of Learning (1971) – Reginald Hill

    The second book in the Dalziel & Pascoe series and, if anything, it’s even better than A Clubbable Woman, the first book in the series. Hill has stated that he never intended to make Dalziel & Pascoe a series and he only reused them here because he didn’t want to have to create two new detectives for this mystery. Surprisingly, given this, both the characters are integrated perfectly in this tale of a mysterious skeleton discovered on a university campus. Both the detectives are given serious character dilemmas. Dalziel, an uneducated, vulgar, anti-intellectual man, feels distinctly out of his element and even more hostile toward the people that he has to deal with in this case than he usually does. Pascoe, meanwhile, is forced to confront both an old flame and his decision to leave the academic life for the police force, questioning if he wouldn’t have been happier in the ivory tower than he is in the mean streets. The mystery is, as in A Clubbable Woman, a good one, with plenty of twists and Hill’s prose is distinctly above average for the genre. It’ll scratch the itch for those looking for genre thrills and also those looking for a novel that is both literary and readable.

    More Book Reviews!
     
  12. I Are The Internets

    I Are The Internets Shelf of Shame Host star 9 VIP - Game Host

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    Nov 20, 2012
    I'm looking for a good book that deals with racial issues in the 20th century for my Race and Ethnicity in U.S. Lit class. It's for a book report. Suggestions?
     
  13. LAJ_FETT

    LAJ_FETT Tech Admin (2007-2023) - She Held Us Together star 10 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    May 25, 2002
    Ever read Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin? I had to read this back in school. It's old but might fit your bill if you're looking for a personal account rather than a dry factual book. You can see the search results here on Amazon.
     
  14. Jabbadabbado

    Jabbadabbado Manager Emeritus star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Mar 19, 1999
    My father was in the national guard in Alabama and called up for duty in Birmingham during the events in this book, which I read to help understand what happened back then.

    You've probably already read Richard Wright. Native Son and Black Boy.
     
  15. I Are The Internets

    I Are The Internets Shelf of Shame Host star 9 VIP - Game Host

    Registered:
    Nov 20, 2012
    Ooo I haven't actually! Thanks! I'll look it up on my Nook and see how much it is. :)

    Yeah I read Black Like Me for my sophomore year of high school, but if I can't find anything else, I'll resort to re-reading that book. I liked it quite a bit when I originally read it, and it's been long enough that I don't really remember that much about it.
     
  16. Rogue1-and-a-half

    Rogue1-and-a-half Manager Emeritus who is writing his masterpiece star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Nov 2, 2000
    Native Son's a great one. I love W.E.B. DuBois' The Souls of Black Folk, but that's mostly about the nineteenth century, not the twentieth.
     
  17. VadersLaMent

    VadersLaMent Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Apr 3, 2002
  18. King_of_Red_Lions

    King_of_Red_Lions Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 28, 2003
    The A.I. War: The Big Boost by Daniel Keys Moran

    Trent the Uncatchable returns to earth after sabotaging his enemy's greatest weapon.


    The Castle Of Crossed Destinies by Italo Calvino

    Travelers tell tales using Tarot cards.
     
  19. SWpants

    SWpants Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 28, 2004
    The Sound and the Echoes was a fun, quick read filled with a lot of content. I liked it.

    Next up is Enchanted One: The Portal to Love by Sheila Applegate
     
  20. LAJ_FETT

    LAJ_FETT Tech Admin (2007-2023) - She Held Us Together star 10 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    May 25, 2002
    For fiction, I just started Angel Exterminatus by Graham McNeill. It's the latest in the Warhammer 40K Horus Heresy series.

    For non-fiction, I will be starting The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England by Ian Mortimer. I enjoyed his previous TimeTraveller's book and had been waiting for this in paper. However, thanks to a gift voucher I bought the HC at the local Waterstones book store yesterday.
     
  21. SWpants

    SWpants Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 28, 2004
    Enchanted One: The Portal to Love by Sheila Applegate was.....no. Just no.

    God Loves You ~ Chester Blue by Suzanne Anderson was so much better and heartwarming.


    Just started Blood Before Sunrise by Amanda Bonilla. It's the 2nd novel in the "Shaede Assassin" series, and I've never read the first. The summary for this was too intriguing for me to pass up. Hopefully I'll catch on as I read along!
     
  22. tal0nkarrde

    tal0nkarrde Jedi Knight star 2

    Registered:
    Dec 1, 2005
    JUst started reading Star Wars: Scoundrels and I'm halfway done. There are some slow moments, but for the most part, it's typical Zahn all the way with fun conversations, some nice backstory stuff and more.
     
  23. RC-1991

    RC-1991 Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 2, 2009
    So, my current list of sources for my capstone (not counting journal articles):

    Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities books III-IX
    Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita, books V-VIII
    Polybius, The Histories, books VIII-X
    J.P.V.D. Balsdon, Romans and Aliens
    Kathryn Lomas, Roman Italy 338 BC-AD200, A Sourcebook
    E. T. Salmon, Roman Colonization Under the Republic
    Richard Miles, Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization (provides some excellent sourcing, as well as intriguing information on the use of Herculean myth in Roman propaganda in Italy)
     
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  24. Frank T.

    Frank T. Force Ghost star 6

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    Sep 2, 2012
    Taking a break from Infinite Jest last night I started Ghost In the Shell 2 also started the manga Vagabond earlier in the week and today I started Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor.
     
  25. NYCitygurl

    NYCitygurl Manager Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Jul 20, 2002
    Sounds very interesting! Carthage Must Be Destroyed is on my to-read list; it looks fun!