Our reads in July 2024
dustydigger
Posted 2024-06-30 1:41 PM (#30020)
Subject: Our reads in July 2024



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Location: UK
Another month,another pile of books. What are your plans for July?
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dustydigger
Posted 2024-06-30 1:48 PM (#30021 - in reply to #30020)
Subject: Re: Our reads in July 2024



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Location: UK
Dusty's TBR for July:
Larry Niven - Protector
Bob Shaw - Palace of Eternity
Jeanne & Spider Robinson - Stardance
Clifford D Simak - Why Call Them Back from Heaven?
Elizabeth Moon - Hunting Party
Tove Jansson - Moominpappa's Memoirs:
Stella Gibbons - Cold Comfort Farm
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daxxh
Posted 2024-07-01 8:38 AM (#30022 - in reply to #30020)
Subject: Re: Our reads in July 2024



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Location: Great Lakes, USA
July TBR

Lake of Souls - Ann Leckie
Mirrored Heavens - Rebecca Roanhorse
Return to Mars - Ben Bova
Star Trek How Much for Just the Planet - John Ford
Icehenge - Kim Stanley Robinson
Fen, Bog and Swamp - Annie Proulx


Edited by daxxh 2024-07-01 8:47 AM
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dustydigger
Posted 2024-07-29 3:49 PM (#30076 - in reply to #30022)
Subject: Re: Our reads in July 2024



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Location: UK
What a shocking reading month I had!. First there was the European Football competition,England got to the final and then of course lost. Then for weeks the state of politics in the USA has been gobsmackingly weird and totally unhinged so it was time to be glued to the TV in disbelief and angst. And now the Olympics. In between I had to take care of poor Mr Dusty with his rapid cognitive decline,and reading got a bit squeezed. Oh well,at least August's TBR is already sorted,all the books I never managed to read this month will be on it. lol.
Spider and Jeanne Robinson's Stardance was a rather odd Locus award nominated novella about a dancer who dances in low gravity,and how she manages,in a somewhat unlikely way,to dance before alien scouts scoping out earth for invasion and chase them away. A bit hippy-ish,and a bit schmaltzy but quite fun if dated.
I did enjoy a reread of John Scalzi's Unlocked and Lock-in,about a global pandemic in the future which leaves victims totally paralysed but suffering lock in. So they develope neural networks in the brain of sufferers which can link with robots which can move about and interact with others,and also have VR avatars online. Good fun. Written during covid it brought back some intense memories.
Elizabeth Moon's Hunting Party was yet another reread,the first book in the Heris Serrano series,pure fluff but amiable and a good comfort read,something I am looking for these days.
Tove Jansson's Moomin stories have been favourites ever since I picked up Moominsummer Madness way back in the early 60s.This month I read The Exploits of Moominpappa(aka Moomin pappas Memoirs. This is perhaps my least favourite in the series,as it is told as a memoir by Moominpappa and somehow I fel his boasting and style of speech rather at odds with the Moominpappa who comes across as rather serious and dinified in the rest of the series,it just made me a bit uneasy. But we did learn more of the origins of Snufkin,Sniff,and Little My. Classic delights.
I put aside several other reads when I acquired C J Cherryh's Defiance,book 22 in the Foreigner series and have spent most of a week reading it. Not happy with the Jane Fancher imput,it is simplistic,linear and not very well written IMO.I give a sigh of relief when I come upon some of Carolyn's complex,skilful descriptions of all the twisty complicated alliances and cultural minefields that I love so much. But most of it reads like some ordinary adventure novel,not at all what I look for in Cherryh. You had better wrap this series up soon,Carolyn.You are going on for 83 yrs old,I dont want Jane Fancher ending the series,or even worse,carrying on with it.
And apart from a rubbish but fun urban fantasy title about witches banshees and other daft but amusing creatures ,that was it. Wont finish anything else tomorrow,phone conferences with chemo nurses and doctors on the agenda,so I'll post this early,and will be back on 1st August with a new TBR which I will hopefully actually read!
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