What Are You Reading 2

[Dotsie]

I'm getting my revenge on my reading group by giving them Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks

Dotsie, have you read the latest Stephanie Plum book yet? I'm halfway through it now...it's like snuggling up in an old warm blanket...comfortable, predictable, undemanding and quite satisfying.

I only got as far as 10 when I moved house, my local library doesn't have them But I'll start up again soon - I like that undemanding old blanket feel

 

[Tiffany]

I am reading Birders, Tales of a Tribe by Mark Cocker. It's a good insight into the minds & habits of 'Twitchers' as well as simply birding.

 

[Bouncy Castle]

Stephanie 17 is my bathroom book. I'm finding it a bit of a struggle, to be honest.

They're definitely not as funny as some of the earlier ones.

I'm dreading the Katherine Heigl movie.

 

[Dotsie]

She's going to be Stephanie Plum? Thinking she won't have big hair and a thing for butterscotch crimpets.

 

[Bouncy Castle]

She's going to be Stephanie Plum? Thinking she won't have big hair and a thing for butterscotch crimpets.

I'm saying nothing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhlHpbZM_9k

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

Katherine Heigl

she looks good as a brunette too.

 

[raisindot]

Stephanie 17 is my bathroom book. I'm finding it a bit of a struggle, to be honest.

They're definitely not as funny as some of the earlier ones.

I'm dreading the Katherine Heigl movie.

I'm not dreading it. I'm going to avoid it. The previews make it look like they're taking some major liberties with the plotline that I just don't like at all.

 

[Catch-up]

Hmmmm, I'm going to reserve judgement, but it was weird watching that trailer. No one looked like I imagined them. Lula looks promising. We'll see!

 

[stripy_tie]

Finally got the opportunity to read "Going Postal" since it came out in black cover recently, it was excellent, Pratchett at the very height of his skill.

 

[author3]

Last night I started the second Skulduggery Pleasant book Playing with Fire.
I was quite disappointed with it but hopefully it'll get better ray:

 

[Quatermass]

I've finished the tenth and final volume of Transmetropolitan, which is the first graphic novel series I have read and finished in order. Great series, intelligently written, but bloody dark and violent.

 

[author3]

I'm putting Skulduggery Pleasantlaying with Fire on hold for a while and I'm going to start Duncton Wood by William Horwood it sounds a bit like the Redwall series by Brian Jacques so I have high expectations for it

 

[MongoGutman]

currently I am reading, or am part way through,

Halfway through the latest Shardlake book, Heartstone by C.J. Sansom - I like the Shardlake series, one of those historical detectives, this one a hunchback lawyer in the later years of Henry VIII's time.

The latest in Conn Iggulden's Mongol empire series, Conqueror. This is the fifth, the first three detailed the rise and demise of Ghengiz, the fourth largely about the squabbling of his heirs, and I think (only just started it) this un'll be about the rise of Kublai.

Caesar by Alan Massie. Again, only just started it, and I've read a lot of books about Caesar so I was a little hohum about it but it seems to draw you along well enough. Told from the viewpoint of one of his lieutenants later drawn into the conspiracy.

And a little book, Equal Rites by some fantasy author, um, Timmy Pritchard? Somthing like that.

 

[stripy_tie]

Read "Monstrous Regiment" it was good and very funny in parts but certainly not one of Pratchett's best, I don't think he ever quite worked out what he wanted to say with it. I know it's got a lot about feminism in it but it's context within the army limits the scope of what he can say.

 

[Tonyblack]

Read "Monstrous Regiment" it was good and very funny in parts but certainly not one of Pratchett's best, I don't think he ever quite worked out what he wanted to say with it. I know it's got a lot about feminism in it but it's context within the army limits the scope of what he can say.

It's also about pointless wars that drain the resources of a country tothe point where its people are starving. And about how a superpower suddenly gets involved when their interests are threatened. There's a lot more to it than feminism.

 

[Hvitveis]

I am reading Oblivion by David Foster Wallace, and it is slow going. I enjoy so much his esseys ( I recomend his covering of John McCain campaign and of the annual award show (like the oscars) for the pornographic industry. LOL!) but I find his fiction more dificult to read.

 

[Dotsie]

Hmmmm, I'm going to reserve judgement, but it was weird watching that trailer. No one looked like I imagined them. Lula looks promising. We'll see!

Agreed. Katherine Heigl actually didn't seem that bad, but Joe and Grandma Mazur weren't really right. Neither was Ranger, but that's a good thing - I just couldn't fancy a man with a pony tail who says "yo" when he answers the phone

 

[Sister Jennifer]

Read "Monstrous Regiment" it was good and very funny in parts but certainly not one of Pratchett's best, I don't think he ever quite worked out what he wanted to say with it. I know it's got a lot about feminism in it but it's context within the army limits the scope of what he can say.

It's also about pointless wars that drain the resources of a country tothe point where its people are starving. And about how a superpower suddenly gets involved when their interests are threatened. There's a lot more to it than feminism.

Agree with you Tony. I know it's me that has the problem , but it always makes me a tiny bit sad when Monstrous Regiment isn't given the credit it deserves. I think it IS one of his best books.

Anyhoo, am currently reading Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut and have The Children of Men by PD James to read after that.

 

[stripy_tie]

Read "Monstrous Regiment" it was good and very funny in parts but certainly not one of Pratchett's best, I don't think he ever quite worked out what he wanted to say with it. I know it's got a lot about feminism in it but it's context within the army limits the scope of what he can say.

It's also about pointless wars that drain the resources of a country tothe point where its people are starving. And about how a superpower suddenly gets involved when their interests are threatened. There's a lot more to it than feminism.

None of it really seemed to come together properly though, not like redemption did in Going Postal or music did in Soul Music or death did in Reaper Man or Christmas did in Hogfather. It felt like he didn't have all that much to say about it.

 

[stripy_tie]

Just finished Neil Gaiman's "Fragile Things" a collection of his short stories, it was better than "Smoke and Mirrors" and that was excellent. A feast of good storytelling, full of darkness and light and black humour. I particularly enjoyed "A Study in Emerald", "October in the Chair" (all the seasons get together to eat sausages over a bonfire and swap stories), "How to Talk to Girls at Parties" and "Sunbird". The "American Gods" novella was also wonderful.