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Lily Fairbairn
Half-elven
Jan 2 2023, 5:01pm
Post #1 of 18
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It's the occasional reading thread!
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A very happy new year to us all!
I closed out the holiday season by going from one classic Christmas novel in audio, Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, to another: Terry Pratchett's Hogfather. This one of his audiobooks is read by a female narrator, with a deep-voiced male narrator reading Death's all-caps dialog and actor Bill Nighy reading the footnotes. The story is, of course, about how the Hogfather goes missing just as Hogswatch gets under way, and how Death not only fills in for him, but also how Death's granddaughter Susan manages to put everything to rights. As always, the story can be slapstick funny and profoundly wise at the same time.
On paper I read a paranormal romance, Witchful Thinking by Celestine Martin. It's a quick, entertaining, if utterly predictable read set in a community of paranormal characters on the Jersey Shore. Two old high school sweethearts, a witch and a merman, meet again some years later and... Well, you know how it goes! I found the world-views of the two twenty-somethings more alien to my own that their paranormality. I must be getting old or something 
I also read To Kill a Troubadour by Martin Walker. Walker's series featuring Bruno Courreges, police chief of the small French town of St. Denis, is usually entertaining, although Walker's styleless, just-the-facts, writing is not my favorite. This installment centered on the controversy surrounding a musical group and their song supporting Catalan independence. It had the usual scenes of cooking and eating, of the landscape and history, of dogs and horses, but was also packed with tedious discussions of international terrorism, Russian misinformation campaigns, weapons, and on and on, And yet the best action scene concerned a subplot concerning domestic abuse.
I've started the first (e)book of a series set in India, The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra by Vaseem Khan. Chopra has just retired from the Mumbai police force, only to be given a baby elephant by a distant relative. Meanwhile, his wife of many childless years is plotting to adopt a relative's (human) baby. It reminds me of Alexander McCall Smith's Ladies' No. 1 Detective Agency books, in that the characters are engaging and I'm enjoying the picture of---and Chopra's musings on---contemporary India. But Inheritance has a more heavy duty murder-mystery plot.
So 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....
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Eledhwen
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Jan 2 2023, 5:37pm
Post #2 of 18
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was "Taste" by Stanley Tucci, a memoir of food through his life. It was very readable and includes lots of yummy-sounding recipes.
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Otaku-sempai
Immortal
Jan 2 2023, 5:40pm
Post #3 of 18
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I just read a western (a genre I don't usually pay much attention to) by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins. It's the latest book in a series based on a screenplay by Spillane (his only western--written for his buddy John Wayne) and developed by Collins, who was named Spillane's literary executor. The books focus on the character of Caleb York, a former gunfighter who becomes the sheriff of the south-western town of Trinidad.
“Hell hath no fury like that of the uninvolved.” - Tony Isabella
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Greenwood Hobbit
Valinor
Jan 2 2023, 9:09pm
Post #4 of 18
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I've just re-read 'Hogfather' -
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it's a very appropriate book for midwinter, I think. My daughter lent me a book that's unlike anything I've read before - rather quirky and intriguing, describing very alarming events in a matter-of-fact, deadpan tone which may or may not be the result of the translation. 'The hundred year old man who climbed out of a window and disappeared', by Jonas Jonasson, translated from Swedish. I'm not entirely sure what it's telling me about the Swedish sense of humour, but it did draw me in!
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sevilodorf
Tol Eressea
Jan 2 2023, 9:50pm
Post #5 of 18
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A solid B.
What do you do when the evil pirate spirit you killed in your preteens returns when you're 40+ and dealing with car pool, picky eaters and babysitters?
Some parts are excellent .... one big complaint by many readers is sooooo much information told through character thoughts another is that it feels like you're in a sequel and you really really would prefer to read the prequel.
It had some interesting elements and I want to read more by this author but it is a bit heavy handed with the exposition.
Fourth Age Adventures at the Inn of the Burping Troll http://burpingtroll.com
Home of TheOneRing.net Best FanFic stories of 2005 and 2006 "The Last Grey Ship" and "Ashes, East Wind, Hope That Rises" by Erin Rua
(Found in Mathoms, LOTR Tales Untold)
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Ataahua
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Jan 2 2023, 11:15pm
Post #6 of 18
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The Dresden Files - I've reread Storm Front and have almost finished Fool Moon.
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I had forgotten how straightforward the plots of these early books were - though it didn't seem so at the time of first reading, only in retrospect after the later, fate-of-the-world novels. I'm enjoying picking up early cues to later developments but it's clear that Butcher hadn't nailed down the rules of magic in the first book - a few small things happen (like hiding an empowered circle with leaves and twigs) that are impossible later on.
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.
Fantasy novel - The Arcanist's Tattoo
My LOTR fan-fiction
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Annael
Elvenhome
Jan 3 2023, 5:03pm
Post #7 of 18
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There's a movie of "Hogfather" also
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with Michelle Dockery as Susan, Joss Ackland as the Archwizard, and a chilling Marc Warren as Teatime. Well worth finding.
I realized a couple of days ago that I had never finished reading "The Shepherd's Crown," the last of the Tiffany Aching books and the last book written by Terry Pratchett. The earlier books are YA but not this one; a very different tone - perhaps inevitable as it starts with the death of a major and much-loved Discworld character. Pratchett knew when he was writing it that he had early-onset dementia, which no doubt colored how he wrote that bit. I have picked it up again and although Pratchett rings many of the same chimes, he introduces a new character who doesn't fit gender norms, a bit ahead of the cultural curve as Pterry usual was.
I've finished "Salt to the Sea" about the sinking of the William Gustloff, a German refugee ship sunk by a Soviet submarine in 1945, causing the death of over 9000 people, many of them children. Told in first-person narrative by four characters, all teenagers, from Germany, Prussia, Poland, and Lithuania. The stories of how Russian soldiers treated civilians as they swept across Germany echoes stories coming out of Ukraine today, alas.
Still working on "How Emotions are Made." Neuroscience is best digested slowly.
And I just received a copy of "The Soul's Twins" by my friend Jean Benedict Raffa, who has been working with the concepts of the inner masculine & feminine for most of her life. Her book "The Bridge to Wholeness" came out the same year and was similar to, but entirely overshadowed by, Maureen Murdock's "The Heroine's Journey." Jean was my external reader for my dissertation. She's a lovely person and her books are beautifully written.
I am a dreamer of words, of written words.
-- Gaston Bachelard
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NARF and member of Deplorable Cultus since 1967
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Greenwood Hobbit
Valinor
Jan 3 2023, 5:54pm
Post #8 of 18
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and, thanks to a friend who recorded it for me from tv ages ago, I have Going Postal too. Reading The Shepherd's Crown was rather a sad experience, knowing it was the last. I think it was probably a collaborative effort I remember feeling that bits of it didn't quite ring true and flow in the usual way - a bittersweet experience.
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Lily Fairbairn
Half-elven
Jan 3 2023, 9:29pm
Post #9 of 18
(822 views)
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It's just as well they obviously didn't have a huge budget for special effects, that way the story came through much more clearly.
Speaking of Marc Warren, have you seen him as Rochfort in one of the recent Three Musketeers adaptations? Talk about chilling!
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....
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Annael
Elvenhome
Jan 4 2023, 9:07pm
Post #10 of 18
(782 views)
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bits of it didn't quite ring true and flow in the usual way - a bittersweet experience.
Definitely not up to his usual standard. Apart from getting to see how Magrat had grown into the role of Queen, I think I was happier about the future of all of the characters at the end of "I Shall Wear Midnight."
I am a dreamer of words, of written words.
-- Gaston Bachelard
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NARF and member of Deplorable Cultus since 1967
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NottaSackville
Valinor
Jan 5 2023, 1:00pm
Post #11 of 18
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The hundred year old man is a great book!
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Both my wife and I loved that book and we rarely agree on books. The sequel is also good. There's another book by that author, "The Girl That Saved the King of Sweden" which is similar but totally different characters/story.
Happiness: money matters, but less than we think and not in the way that we think. Family is important and so are friends, while envy is toxic -- and so is excessive thinking. Beaches are optional. Trust is not. Neither is gratitude. - The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner as summarized by Lily Fairbairn. And a bit of the Hobbit reading thrown in never hurts. - NottaSackville
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Greenwood Hobbit
Valinor
Jan 5 2023, 11:00pm
Post #12 of 18
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No, the most recent adaptation I've seen
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is the one for BBC tv in 2014 which had Peter Capaldi as the Cardinal, and a very nice (nasty) job he did too! I could see Marc Warren in that role.
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Greenwood Hobbit
Valinor
Jan 5 2023, 11:07pm
Post #13 of 18
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I hadn't realised! Must look out for that. Thanks for the tip.
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dernwyn
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Jan 7 2023, 3:11pm
Post #14 of 18
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Gifted to me from my son, this is the Centenary edition, edited by Baillie Tolkien. I'm delighting in the simple stories and illustrations. The letters in themselves were one of the best gifts a parent could give their children.
For fluff, I've started re-reading Lilian Jackson Braun's The Cat Who... series.
I do get the Smithsonian magazine, and keep forgetting to start up National Geographic (I was getting my late dad's subscription until that ran out a couple years ago).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I desired dragons with a profound desire"
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Annael
Elvenhome
Jan 7 2023, 4:25pm
Post #15 of 18
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Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, fantasy novel based on Mayan mythology. I read the Popol Vuh, the ancient text that inspired her, in grad school, so I'm familiar with the Hero Twins who are at the center of the story; in Moreno-Garcia's book, they are still active in Jazz Age-era Yucatan. A plucky heroine, of course.
I am a dreamer of words, of written words.
-- Gaston Bachelard
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NARF and member of Deplorable Cultus since 1967
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Lily Fairbairn
Half-elven
Jan 7 2023, 9:45pm
Post #16 of 18
(685 views)
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...is in the second season of that adaptation, taking up the role of chief villain after Capaldi left the series. I like the actors playing the musketeers, but seeing The Hobbit's Ryan Gage as the king takes a bit of getting used to!
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....
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cats16
Half-elven
Jan 8 2023, 12:45am
Post #17 of 18
(682 views)
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I bought the Father Christmas Letters a year ago but didn't think to read them around the holidays - that sounds like an enjoyable time! Maybe I'll write a note to go through it this coming December.
Join us every weekend in the Hobbit movie forum for this week's CHOW (Chapter of the Week) discussion!
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cats16
Half-elven
Jan 8 2023, 8:50pm
Post #18 of 18
(665 views)
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Man and Wife by Wilkie Collins
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I needed a breezier read to end the year, so I went with Mr. Collins, whose The Moonstone and The Woman in White I found very entertaining. This one's a bit harder to get into narratively, so I'm wobbling a bit on whether I want to see it through after the first 75 pages.
Join us every weekend in the Hobbit movie forum for this week's CHOW (Chapter of the Week) discussion!
(This post was edited by cats16 on Jan 8 2023, 8:50pm)
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