Reread Continues

[ninedaysaqueen.livejournal.com]

Late summer greetings, Sounisians! Hope you had a great summer, and I can't think of a better way to bring the season to a close than to spend it with Costis and Kamet!

Our community wide reread and discussion resumes with Thick as Thieves. Start reading the book this week, if you want a full two weeks to finish it; but if you're gonna read it in a day, you've got plenty of time.

The chat to discuss the book will be held in the Conspiracy Room Sunday, August 27th Noon PT / 1pm MT / 2pm CT / 3pm ET.

In the meantime, what have you been reading this summer? I'd love to know!

Comments

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Happy Summertime, LJ and everyone!

I've mostly been rereading some favorites (Murderbot!). I read a Michael Connelly Bosch/Ballard book, Desert Star--I'm nearing the end of the series of Bosch books--and it was the first in series that I didn't like at all. The characters did things that were completely out-of-character for them and seemed to have a huge unexplained plot hole towards the end. Disappointing.

Read another Elly Griffiths Ruth Galloway mystery, they are always good. This one was A Dying Fall. Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney was terrible; how dare they compare it to And Then There Were None! I should have learned my lesson after Rock Paper Scissors. And just finished a cute romance called Nora Goes Off Script by Annabel Monaghan. I really liked it except that it's one of those romances where if the two people had just ONE conversation none of the misunderstanding or angst would have happened.

I'm also working my way through two nonfiction books, Eat To Beat Your Diet by William Li and A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle.

How about you, LJ?

[ninedaysaqueen.livejournal.com]

In honor of the 75th anniversary of the first nuclear weapon ever detonated, I'm reading John Hersey's Hiroshima, originally published one year after the titular incident. I'm reading the 1980's version which has an extra chapter he wrote after going back to Hiroshima forty years later and checking in with the survivors he initially interviewed to write the expose. Not lite reading, by any means, but everyone should read this book! I'd argue that it is the most important work of non-fiction of the 20th century.

For beach reading, I've been reading the translated Japanese lite novel series, My Happy Marriage, which the new Netflix's anime is based on. I know the title sounds weird, because it's badly translated. The Japanese title means something more like My Marriage of Good Fortune, and it takes place in an alternate verison of Taisho era Japan where the nobility has supernatual X-men like abilities, and they marry based on maintaining these hereditary powers. That's more the background of the story, as it is actually about a Cinderella inspired romance between two people in one of these arranged marriages. I know that sounds like it might be YA cringe, but it's actually really good and has an overarching mystery and a lot of suspence going on as well. The translation is not the best, but the story is more than good enough to make up for it.

I finshed the forth Murderbot book recently via audiobook, and I am so in love with this series! Apparently eveyone else is too, because they take so long to come in at the library. I have this theory that Murderbot used to be human but doesn't remember. Also, who else thinks Murderbot's gender identity is female? I get those vibes. Anyhow, I need more sacarcastic, hashtag-relatable robots to be narrators of sci-fi. I'd read way more of it! XD

[eachase.livejournal.com]

In addition to TaT, I'm currently I'm reading _The Feather Thief: beauty obsession, and the natural history heist of the century_ by Kirk Wallace Johnson, about the theft of birds from a museum in England. Real thieves are so much more despicable than fictional ones, but this story is fascinating. It goes back to Darwin and Wallace to set the stage for a much more contemporary theft.

I recently read _Queen Bee_ by Amalie Howard, a gender-swapped Regency period retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo. Reads very much like Alexander Dumas meets Jane Austen, but with a racially diverse cast. It mostly want me made to re-read Dumas.

Has anyone else read _Murder Your Employer: the McMasters guide to homicide_ by Rupert Holmes? I thought it was really well-written.

But probably my bes read of the summer was _The Serial Garden: the complete Armitage family stories_ by Joan Aiken. MWT herself recommended the book. I think it's the source of an Easter Egg or two in her books.

[rouan1.livejournal.com]

Besides reading TaT, I read the newest collaboration by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer: Lavender’s Blue. I also read three books by Jilly Wood; Seeds of Power, Seeds of Exile, and Seeds of Destiny.

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

I read Hiroshima back in the 70s and agree with everything you say about it. My dad joined the Navy in early 1945--he was 17--and didn't see any combat due to the bombings and end of the war, so I have very mixed feelings about the events back then. Such a terrible thing for the Japanese people.

I've reread the Murderbot books so many times! They are such fun. Just buy them, LJ, you'll want to read them over again. :-)