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What are you reading in October?
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dustydigger
Posted 2012-10-01 3:44 PM (#4196)
Subject: What are you reading in October?



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Location: UK		Another month,another pile of books.And of course we have our Month of Horrors.So what we you read.And hat will you review?
I have a couple of horror books in mind, as well as several comics that could be classed as horror,Moore's Swamp Thing,and Miller's Batman,the Dark Knight Returns,which is pretty dark..Not much SF in my list again,just Red Mars,and a Heinlein ''juvenile''Here's the whole of this months reading list
Michelle Magorian - Goodnight Mr.Tom
Nina Bawden - Carrie's War ✔
S.S.Van Dine - Benson Murder Case
Karen Rose - Dont Tell
Karen Robards - Shattered
Kim Stanley Robinson - Red Mars
Maria V Snyder - Fire Study
Robert Heinlein - Citizen of the Galaxy
Neville Shute - Trustee from the Toolroom
Patrick Rothfuss - The Name of the Wind
Thea Harrison - Storm's Heart
Frank L Miller - Batman: The Dark Knight Returns

Urban Fantasy monthly group challenge
1. Simon Kernick - Whispers of the Dead
2 Kresley Cole - Lothaire ✔
3 Laura Owen - Winnie takes the Plunge
4 Kate Wilhelm - Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang
5 Holly Black - Ironside





Edited by dustydigger 2012-10-01 3:58 PM
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Switters
Posted 2012-10-02 7:24 AM (#4197 - in reply to #4196)
Subject: Re: What are you reading in October?



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I finished Foundation by Asimov yesterday for the GMRC.

My list for this month:

Palimpsest - Cathertnne M. Valente
Cataganda - Lois McMaster Bujold
Rainbow's End - Vernor Vinge
WWW: Wake - Robert J. Sawyer
The Last Colony - John Scalzi
The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman
Deathworld - Harry Harrison
Downbelow Station - C.J. Cherryh
The Big Time - Fritz Leiber

A couple of new authors for me, Cherryh and Leiber.

Dustydigger, Rothfuss is one of the few authors that I buy as soon as their new book is available.
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DrNefario
Posted 2012-10-02 7:43 AM (#4198 - in reply to #4196)
Subject: Re: What are you reading in October?



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Location: UK		I'm currently reading Terry Pratchett's I Shall Wear Midnight, for no particular reason other than that I felt like it.

For the GMRC, I'm probably going to go for L. Sprague De Camp's Lest Darkness Fall, and for my personal non-SF/F trawl through classic crime I'm likely to read The Crime at Black Dudley by Margery Allingham. Other than that, I have no specific plans.
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valashain
Posted 2012-10-02 11:14 AM (#4199 - in reply to #4198)
Subject: Re: What are you reading in October?



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Location: The Netherlands		Currently reading Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear. Liking it an awful lot so far.
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Scott Laz
Posted 2012-10-02 11:54 PM (#4202 - in reply to #4196)
Subject: Re: What are you reading in October?



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Location: Gunnison, Colorado		Just finished The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle, and am making my way through Jack Vance's earliest short stories. Lots of clever con men and godlike aliens.
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justifiedsinner
Posted 2012-10-04 9:32 AM (#4206 - in reply to #4196)
Subject: Re: What are you reading in October?



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Finishing off Helliconia Spring, the last in my GMRC books. Then going on to the new Iain M. Banks "The Hydrogen Sonata" which is unfortunately not in the database yet.
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dustydigger
Posted 2012-10-05 7:58 AM (#4208 - in reply to #4206)
Subject: Re: What are you reading in October?



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Location: UK		Finished Heinlein's Citizen of the Galaxy,about a 4 year old child taken into slavery and is passed from owner to owner till he falls into the hands of a beggar who is really a spy collecting data on slavery.We watch his progress through a veriety of environments till he grows up and finally finds out his true identity.Didnt know what to make of this book really.Many echoes of Kipling's Kim,as the boy,Thorby , learns about spying in a sort of Great Game way.Its a juvenile,and mostly Heinlein subsumes his hobbyhorses about citizenship,being a man etc into a rattling good yarn.This time there was a lot of lecturing about how one's society forms one character and ideas.There is even an anthropologist called Margaret Mader (how much nearer to the famous anthropologist Margaret Meade can we get!) who rams home the reasons why traders living as families have such formalized lives (surely C J Cherryh must have read this when young.So many echoes of her Merchanters universe).Not a bad read,but a bit clunky,and too many lectures
.Not one of my favourite Heinleins.I am now reading Maria V Snyder's Fire Study,Neville Shute's Trustee from the Toolroom,and am ready to start Michelle Magorian's Goodnight Mr. Tom.
I am also happily poring over the Guardian list choosing 12 books to be in one of next year's 12 categories in my 12x12 book challenge.My theme for the year is Filling in the Gaps.Already chosen 12 Hugo winners for one category,have already chosen about 8 from the Guardian list,most of my Fantasy category,some of which were chosen from the Mythopoeic lAward list Still have to do my horror thread,so thanks admins for adding the Shirley Jackson list,and a lot of new horror books.Then I will chose manga ,graphics etc from galleyangels excellent overview..All that should help fill a modicum of the gaps of ignornce I have in the genres covered by WWEnd.!

Edited by dustydigger 2012-10-05 8:24 AM
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Scott Laz
Posted 2012-10-05 3:19 PM (#4209 - in reply to #4196)
Subject: Re: What are you reading in October?



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Location: Gunnison, Colorado		dusty: I've seen you refer before to your reading challenge, but I don't think it dawned on me until now that it entails reading 12 books per month EVERY MONTH. That's amazing. It sounds like this is an individual challenge as opposed to something organized.

I'm trying to decide between Clement, Asimov and Leiber for the GMRC thiis month, which now seems pretty paltry at only one book per month...
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dustydigger
Posted 2012-10-06 2:43 AM (#4211 - in reply to #4196)
Subject: Re: What are you reading in October?



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Location: UK		Tut tut,Scott,you should get out more ! I belong to Shelfari,,''facebook for book nerds'' as my son so charmingly puts it.Members tell their groups what they are reading,get book recommendations,build up a virtual bookshelf,join challenges ,have buddy reads,etc etc.You may have heard of Goodreads,or LIbrarything,whih are similar.
In my 12x12 groups there are dozens,even over a hundred people doing this challenge of reading 12 books from 12 different categories of their choice,so I am certainly not the only OCDreader around.I now have added 2930 books read to my shelf!.
As for the GM challenge,I joined WWEnd on 27th May,and finished the last book,Haldeman's Forever War on 22nd July! What can I say,I truly am a book nerd and have been since a small child.I clearly remember holding a copy of Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Jeremy Fisher ,in the distinctive small whitecover,on my 4th birthday.I also clearly remember having a book about Queen Elizabeth's coronation,can still close my eyes and see pictures of the crown jewels lying on purple velvet,and an overhead viewof her walking down the aisle with this long long train behind her.That was 1953,and reading,of all sorts,has been my joy and delight ever since
.
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Marleana
Posted 2012-10-07 7:55 PM (#4223 - in reply to #4211)
Subject: Re: What are you reading in October?



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Location: WA		Currently reading The Blood Knight, part 3 of the Briar King series by Greg Keyes - good stuff
Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

A few others to finish after those two.
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DrNefario
Posted 2012-10-08 7:59 AM (#4225 - in reply to #4198)
Subject: Re: What are you reading in October?



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DrNefario - 2012-10-02 1:43 PM

I'm currently reading Terry Pratchett's I Shall Wear Midnight, for no particular reason other than that I felt like it.

For the GMRC, I'm probably going to go for L. Sprague De Camp's Lest Darkness Fall, and for my personal non-SF/F trawl through classic crime I'm likely to read The Crime at Black Dudley by Margery Allingham. Other than that, I have no specific plans.


Okay, I've started Forerunner by Andre Norton instead of Lest Darkness Fall by L. Sprague de Camp, for the feeble reason that it was on the correct e-reader. (I have two. I'm greedy.)

(I finished Black Dudley, and enjoyed it a lot. These older books are nice and short.)
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dustydigger
Posted 2012-10-10 11:52 AM (#4233 - in reply to #4225)
Subject: Re: What are you reading in October?



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Location: UK		Dr Nefario,I really like Allingham's books,they are never predictable,so quirky and amusing,with these quaint old settings,delapidated old houses in sinister countryside.Great fun.I am reading them in order,as far as it is possible to get these old books.Fortunately someone in charge of the repository must like Allingham,because I have managed Black Dudley,Mystery Mile and Look to the Lady so far,and they have about 8 others! Thats amazing.There isnt a single Silverberg or Simak in any of the 39 branches,but there are 25 Heinleins,10 Arthur C Clarke's,and only 4 Asimov's.
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dustydigger
Posted 2012-10-10 12:15 PM (#4234 - in reply to #4196)
Subject: Re: What are you reading in October?



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Location: UK		@Marleana,for some reason I never really fancy fantasy,but but back in August Emil posted the Mythopoeic Award list.and I started to browse it.Now I intend to have a thread in a challenge I will be doing next year,I am sorting out some intriguing reads from this list.Check it out:
http://www.mythsoc.org/awards/winners/
Have you read some of these? What would you recommend?
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Marleana
Posted 2012-10-10 12:56 PM (#4235 - in reply to #4196)
Subject: Re: What are you reading in October?



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Location: WA		I've read few of those actually. A lot of the fantasy I've read is not on that list. I get on kicks, sometimes I want fantasy, sometimes I want sci-fi. Just depends on my mood and if I find something that grabs me. I kind of got tired of epic fantasy and the usual sword & sorcery stuff. I would recommend reading at least the 3 main Lord of the Rings books and the Hobbit. It is a good story, but the writing is a bit meandering. Some others I'd recommend are Patrick Rothfuss's Kingkiller Chronicles - The Name of the Wind, and The Wise Man's Fear. The Chronicles of Amber (Zelazny), The Fionnavhar Tapestry (not sure on spelling right now)(Guy Gavriel Kay). Both were really good. I know there are more I could recommend but for right now, those are some that really stick in my mind.
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justifiedsinner
Posted 2012-10-10 5:29 PM (#4236 - in reply to #4196)
Subject: Re: What are you reading in October?



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I read the Bartimaeus books to my son when he was little, so much better than Harry Potter. I also read him Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy. I may have warped him for life, time will tell.
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justifiedsinner
Posted 2012-10-15 9:57 PM (#4257 - in reply to #4196)
Subject: Re: What are you reading in October?



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Finished The Hydrogen Sonata. Wasn't as good as the earlier Culture novels but I liked it better than Matter or Surface Detail. The Culture Minds seem to have become civilized, The Interesting Times Gang (the ITG) are in abeyance and diplomacy is the order of the day. Sigh. I'm afraid I preferred it when they blew up lots of stuff.

Edited by justifiedsinner 2012-10-15 9:59 PM
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DrNefario
Posted 2012-10-16 7:48 AM (#4258 - in reply to #4196)
Subject: Re: What are you reading in October?



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Location: UK		I finished my GMRC pick (Forerunner by Andre Norton) last night, and didn't really have anything lined up next, but when I went to get the cover image of The Forerunner Factor omnibus from Baen for my blog, I couldn't help noticing that Captain Vorpatril's Alliance by Lois McMaster Bujold was now available to buy and download. So I did, and I expect I'll be starting that later.

Edited by DrNefario 2012-10-16 7:49 AM
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splunge52
Posted 2012-10-17 9:03 AM (#4260 - in reply to #4196)
Subject: RE: What are you reading in October?



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Location: Rhode Island		I am currently struggling through Samuel Delany's "Dhalgren". I am getting the sinking feeling that there is not going to be any kind of pay off at the end.
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btaylor
Posted 2012-10-17 8:30 PM (#4268 - in reply to #4196)
Subject: Re: What are you reading in October?



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I'm taking a (for the first time in a long time) break from reading science fiction and am trying to read some "great American classics". Read 2 Hemingway novels (The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms) and just started Lord of the Flies.
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justifiedsinner
Posted 2012-10-17 8:35 PM (#4269 - in reply to #4196)
Subject: Re: What are you reading in October?



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i hesitate to mention it but Golding is a Brit.
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btaylor
Posted 2012-10-17 8:39 PM (#4270 - in reply to #4269)
Subject: Re: What are you reading in October?



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yikes, shows how much I know. Also read The Count of Monte Cristo, which certainly isn't American so I guess I'm on just a "classic" streak.
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dustydigger
Posted 2012-10-18 8:23 AM (#4272 - in reply to #4196)
Subject: Re: What are you reading in October?



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Location: UK		Well,I certainly picked the right month to read Kate Wilhelm's Hugo winning Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang ,because this chiller scared me quite a bit !.It truly fits in with our October horror theme.After a cascade of disasters,which end with a devastating plague which causes mass sterility,a hard headed rich family ,determined to survive,decide cloning is the only practical way.It is expected that after a few generations of clones,fertility will once again increase,very slowly,so that after some judicious mixing of cloning and sexual reproduction,mankind will be re-established,and clones will no longer be needed.Unfortunately,the clones disagree.They have developed group minds to match their identical bodies.(I had some flashes of the Village of the Damned,film,with its creepy children! lol) Soon the little group of humans is gone,and the clones continue to reproduce ,using the little group of fertile females segregated,drugged,and used only as breeders to carry clones and are then euthanased when no longer useful. But each generation of clones loses more and more of its creativity,their equipment is aging and nuclear winter is on its way.,and individuality,and it makes for tense gripping reading
There are so many themes and ideas about conformity versus individuality,environmental destruction and pollution etc,and it is all beautifully written with many fine descriptions of nature,which is in itself almost a character of the book,but what will stay with me is that cold chilling determination of both humans and clones to continue their existence.Chilling and powerful stuff indeed.A fine ,if uncomfortable,read.

Edited by dustydigger 2012-10-18 8:27 AM
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valashain
Posted 2012-10-21 5:23 AM (#4278 - in reply to #4272)
Subject: Re: What are you reading in October?



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Location: The Netherlands		I've been rereading The Hobbit one last time before the first movie comes out. I've also read Be My Enemy by Ian McDonald and I'm currently about halfway though The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin.
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Marleana
Posted 2012-10-22 3:40 PM (#4281 - in reply to #4278)
Subject: Re: What are you reading in October?



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Location: WA		Finished The Blood Knight by Greg Keyes, must...find...next...book!!

Started The Unincorporated Man again, by Dani and Eytan Kollin.
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Scott Laz
Posted 2012-10-22 3:56 PM (#4282 - in reply to #4196)
Subject: Re: What are you reading in October?



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Location: Gunnison, Colorado		Reread Ender's Game this month; now almost finished with Hal Clement's Mission of Gravity for GMRC. Also, enjoyed the Spring 1950 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and have begun Arc 1.3, which has a great new story by Lavie Tidhar, about celebrity clones, copyright, and DNA pirates. (And, though I don't typically have much interest in memoirs, I'm making an exception for Pete Townshend's new book, Who I Am.)

@splunge52: I hope Dhalgren pays off; I've always wanted to read that...
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