|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lily Fairbairn
Half-elven
Jun 23 2015, 3:01pm
Post #1 of 11
(526 views)
Shortcut
|
|
It's the post-birthday reading thread!
|
Can't Post
|
|
Another birthday down, I say in a chocolate-cake induced haze.  But if you can't have chocolate cake on your birthday, when can you have it?
I've been celebrating the return of decent eyesight by reading paper books like crazy. I finished books two and three in the Sheila Connolly series set in a pub in a small Irish town: Scandal in Skibbereen and An Early Wake.
Both these installments work better as mysteries than the first book, Buried in a Bog, although that frankly isn't saying much. Connolly spends much more time with character and setting than with plot. In fact, the last page of Wake left me fanning the pages going, "Huh? Where's the end?" But they're pleasant, fast reads with congenial characters.
I'm now reading A Pint of Plain, a non-fiction book about Irish pubs. Yes, you do sense a trend here! 
I rest my eyes occasionally by listening to Bill Bryson's At Home on my CD player, one of his lovely, discursive books, this time on the history of domestic life.
What have you been reading?
Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?
Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing?
Where is the hand on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing?
Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing?
They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow;
The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow....
|
|
|
Meneldor
Valinor
Jun 23 2015, 5:59pm
Post #2 of 11
(484 views)
Shortcut
|
by Lawrence Watt-Evans. Fantasy about a boy who swears vengeance and justice after dragons wipe out his family and village, and looters sell him into slavery. Imagine Pilgrim's Progress into Monte Cristo with Captain Ahab on the way to the desolation of Smaug. I liked it. There were some interesting musings on the nature of justice which were very organic to the plot.
They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters, these see the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep. -Psalm 107
|
|
|
Annael
Immortal
Jun 23 2015, 7:09pm
Post #3 of 11
(477 views)
Shortcut
|
by Helen Bryan. About five women who endure WWII in Sussex. It's fiction but her aim was to bring home to a new generation just what rationing and the Blitz was like. I am learning a lot - the heavy reliance on carrots for everything, for instance, even "carrot fudge" when sweets became hard to come by. The book could easily be twice as long (and it's not short) to fill in more of the characters' stories; as it is I feel she skips over a lot of stuff, especially the internal lives of the characters, but that does make the plot move along.
I'm still unclear why food had to be rationed in Britain for 10 YEARS after the war ended. I get that they couldn't import food during the war, but why did it take so long to get back to normal supply mechanisms?
Also read one assertion that despite the hardships, people were actually healthier during the war because they were eating mostly fresh vegetables grown in Victory Gardens.
I am a dreamer of words, of written words. I think I am reading; a word stops me. I leave the page. The syllables of the words begin to move around … The words take on other meanings as if they had the right to be young.
-- Gaston Bachelard
* * * * * * * * * *
NARF and member of Deplorable Cultus since 1967
|
|
|
Elberbeth
Tol Eressea
Jun 24 2015, 2:26pm
Post #4 of 11
(452 views)
Shortcut
|
which is the second in Conn Iggulden's series about Julius Caesar.
"There are some things that it is better to begin than to refuse, even though the end may be dark."
|
|
|
Old Toby
Grey Havens
Jun 25 2015, 4:31am
Post #5 of 11
(438 views)
Shortcut
|
This is the third book in the Outlander series. It's hard to talk about it without giving anything away! So far, I don't think it's as good as the first two books - too many pages I just passed by because I found them irrelevant to the story. Not to mention - well - lacking in a certain Scot. I get so exasperated with Claire. While she is intelligent and independent, both qualities I admire, she can also be pig-headed and impetuous, which always lands her in trouble, thereby having to be rescued by Jamie and/or his friends. Well, I guess birds of a feather, eh?
The setting is certainly a surprise! Yo ho ho!
"Age is always advancing and I'm fairly sure it's up to no good." Harry Dresden (Jim Butcher)
|
|
|
dernwyn
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Jun 25 2015, 4:36pm
Post #6 of 11
(425 views)
Shortcut
|
|
Dark Run by...um, some orc we all know...
[In reply to]
|
Can't Post
|
|
I'm halfway through Mike Brooks/Ufthak's sci-fi novel, and it's a fun read! It's also keeping me up too late at night, I can't read just one chapter before turning out the light...
It's another one of those novels by TORnfolks which I think would make great movies. 
Chocolate? How can one have a birthday and not have chocolate! Have you gotten the recent rainstorms?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I desired dragons with a profound desire"
|
|
|
entmaiden
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Jun 25 2015, 4:42pm
Post #7 of 11
(423 views)
Shortcut
|
|
I finished Dark Run last weekend
[In reply to]
|
Can't Post
|
|
and can't wait for the next book - Dark Sky! Very engaging, and I really liked how he gave us the characters' backgrounds a little at a time. Instead of dumping all that information on us, instead we got to know them better as the story unfolded.
Fortunately, Ufthak's already working on book three. 
|
|
|
Ataahua
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Jun 25 2015, 7:26pm
Post #8 of 11
(412 views)
Shortcut
|
|
I finally got Dark Run yesterday. :D
[In reply to]
|
Can't Post
|
|
I'm about 90 pages in - it's certainly an easy and engaging read.
Celebrimbor: "Pretty rings..."
Dwarves: "Pretty rings..."
Men: "Pretty rings..."
Sauron: "Mine's better."
"Ah, how ironic, the addictive qualities of Sauron’s master weapon led to its own destruction. Which just goes to show, kids - if you want two small and noble souls to succeed on a mission of dire importance... send an evil-minded beggar with them too." - Gandalf's Diaries, final par, by Ufthak.
Ataahua's stories
|
|
|
Meneldor
Valinor
Jun 28 2015, 1:48pm
Post #9 of 11
(381 views)
Shortcut
|
a collection of his short stories from 1976. There were a few that were fun, but mostly they were kind of "meh" or just "no."
They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters, these see the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep. -Psalm 107
|
|
|
sherlock
Gondor
Jun 28 2015, 2:40pm
Post #10 of 11
(380 views)
Shortcut
|
I just checked my iPad & Kindle app & it's not there.
|
|
|
dernwyn
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Jun 28 2015, 6:17pm
Post #11 of 11
(372 views)
Shortcut
|
For my hard copy - not sure where to get e-copies of it!
But do get it, it's great. Four or so pages from the end, I was suddenly laughing out loud, and the family was wondering what was wrong with me...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I desired dragons with a profound desire"
|
|
|
|
|
