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What are we reading in August?
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dustydigger
Posted 2020-08-01 7:23 AM (#22292)
Subject: What are we reading in August?



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Location: UK		Life seems to be a Groundhog Day scenario in most respect,even reading. I have been reading the Morgan,Scwab and Fisher books below on and off for months!I'm determined to finish them this month

Dusty's TBR for August
Richard Morgan - Altered Carbon
V E Schwab - A Gathering of Shadows
Catherine Fisher - Obsidian Mirror
H G Wells - The Invisible Man

maybe a few short stories from the Locus all time best list if I can locate them.
Our public library doesnt open till October,so I am reading old favourites or stuff online.
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daxxh
Posted 2020-08-01 10:59 AM (#22293 - in reply to #22292)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in August?



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Location: Great Lakes, USA		I just started William Gibson's Agency. So far, it's good. I might read Firewalker by Tchaikovsky. I will definitely read Silver by Nagata as I have been waiting for this one. I bought some Andre Norton books and a friend sent me some Asimov Robot books not written by Asimov, so maybe I will read those. I have a few nonfiction books to read as well. No shortage of books, just not enough time.
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lisagarrity
Posted 2020-08-03 2:02 PM (#22309 - in reply to #22292)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in August?



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Location: California		I just got a copy of Arkady Martine's A Memory Called Empire. I'm really excited to read it. I also have 3 of Gary Kilworth's novels. The Roof of Voyaging, The Princely Flower and Land-of-Mists. I'm rereading a couple of old favorites-Simak's City and Melissa Scott's The Shapes of Their Hearts. Our library has just started pick up service by appointment only. Books are to be returned by book drop only. No word on when we can actually go inside.
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dustydigger
Posted 2020-08-04 8:58 AM (#22324 - in reply to #22309)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in August?



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Location: UK		Hi Lisa! I am facing the exact same situation with my library,only physical pickups. I walk with a stick and the library is a 10 minute bus ride away,no way am I risking my already badly compromised immune system(super susceptable to chest infections in particular,eg got a cold late December,and was sick for 4 months!Lungs still weak even now..Dear old Corona would kill me off in a matter of days).So I too am doing a lot of rereading old favourites etc. I do miss visiting a library though.
I am a long time Simak fan - 50 years and counting! .Just located a free online read of his Empire,plus a kindle edition of his Highway of Eternity,aliens and time travel,sounds fun. For a ridiculous ?0.99.
Less happy to see Ben Aaronovitch's latest short story kindle collection,Tales from the Folly,a scant 139 pages,costing ?4.99.Ouch!

On the go right now Ihave H G Wells The Invisible Man. I once tried to read it as a teenager. Way back then there was an ancient but fun TV series based very loosely on the book. I remember being disappointed that Wells' book was very different from the TV versionand gave up on Wells two chapters in. Here's hoping I enjoy it more this time,50 years later,when hopefully I am less shallow and more discerning.
I am also really enjoying V E Schwab's excellent follow up to A Darker Shade of Magic. A Gathering of Shadows.It is another rich,sharp,elegantly written tale of two young people confronting dark,dangerous challenges in an intriguingly conceived multiverse,with a series of alternate Londons. Great characters,lots of swashbuckling but with a dark tone of fantasy. Great stuff,purportedly YA,but making no concessions for YA readers.So many second books in a trilogy are unsatisfying,but this stood up well


Edited by dustydigger 2020-08-04 9:17 AM
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lisagarrity
Posted 2020-08-04 8:21 PM (#22332 - in reply to #22292)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in August?



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Location: California		Hi Dusty, I haven't read any of V E Schwab's work. When I go back out into the world, I will have to check for some. It sounds very interesting. I am going out only for groceries and medical appointments currently. Both my elderly mother and I would not survive Covid 19. You are wise to take precautions.
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thejessleigh
Posted 2020-08-06 3:51 PM (#22342 - in reply to #22332)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in August?



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Location: Chicago, IL		I just started Sarah Gailey's new YA novel, When We Were Magic. I don't read a ton of YA anymore, but I'm enjoying this one so far. Thinking of picking up a history of the Sweeney Todd urban legend for the nonficition RYO challenge, and after that I'm not sure what else I'm going to read this month. I went on a huge shopping spree at Half Price Books last month and got a bunch of Richard Laymon, Brian Keene, and F. Paul Wilson, so I'll probably pick up one of those.

Edited by thejessleigh 2020-08-06 3:52 PM
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thejessleigh
Posted 2020-08-06 3:53 PM (#22343 - in reply to #22292)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in August?



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Location: Chicago, IL		Oh, I also picked up The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones and Survivor Song by Paul Tremblay. I've definitely been in a horror mood lately, and either of those would be good for the pub'd in 2020 RYO challenge.
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spoltz
Posted 2020-08-06 4:57 PM (#22345 - in reply to #22343)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in August?



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Location: Beaverton, Oregon, USA		Hi Gang! I finished Mother of Souls by Heather Rose Jones at the beginning of the month. It's really good, although the first in the Alpennia series, Daughter of Mystery, was my favorite. I just read Asimov's Foundation for the second time, this time for my book club in exile. I just started Ammonite by Nicola Griffith last night.

My library is doing the pickup thing is as well. I'm still waiting for Book 10 of the History of Middle Earth series to come back. It's been out since February and they just extended all the due dates to August 31st. So who knows when I'll get it.

I'm glad folks are staying safe!
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dustydigger
Posted 2020-08-07 4:19 AM (#22348 - in reply to #22345)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in August?



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Location: UK		Hi Steve,I am on the other side of the equation. I have Ben Aaronovitch's False Value from the library,got it the day before lockdown was announced in March,and have had it ever since.Feel guilty when I think how many people could have read it by now! Our latest ''due date'' is 31st October,so things are not looking good! There is no ifo on the library site about returning books.
I have been meaning to read Ammonite for ages,after being intrigued by her Slow River. Hey,not many books using a sewage works as a setting!
Then maybe one day I will get around to Hild. Not a fan of historical novels as a rule,and this seems about 95% historical with a smidgen of fantasy. Its a pity that her tumultuous personallife,and health problems has diminished her literary output.I hear she is still working through the follow up to Hild,Menewood,It will be probably another year before that sees the light of day.
Speaking of long delays,at last Jim Butcher has published Peace Talks,after a mere six years and I have it and am reading it! Yay! Such fun to slide back into Harry's World.Wells Invisible man has been ruthlessly pushed aside for now
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daxxh
Posted 2020-08-22 12:17 AM (#22381 - in reply to #22348)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in August?



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Location: Great Lakes, USA		My library is offering grab bags - 5 random books of a genre of your choice. The first time I got one, I had read all but one of the books already. The second one I had only read two. One of the unread is Captain Vorpatril's Alliance, which I will read for the Bujold challenge and the others are random - The Immaculate Void and The Perfect Wife, which I will read for the Pick and Mix challenge. I doubt I will finish all three by the end of the month as I have The Last Emperox and Mirror Dance to read first.

I just finished Agency by William Gibson. I liked it better than The Peripheral (which I liked as well). I hope the third book in the trilogy comes out soon. I also read Firewalkers by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I recommend that one as well. I seem to be reading a lot of books with climate change themes - perhaps a topic for a 2021 challenge?

Edited by daxxh 2020-08-22 12:22 AM
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dustydigger
Posted 2020-08-23 5:10 PM (#22387 - in reply to #22381)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in August?



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Location: UK		Thanks daxxh for reminding me of Captain Vorpatril's Alliance!I Its about time I reread it. I also want to reread Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen. I found reading that the first time incredibly painful. How extraordinary that I was mourning the death of a character in a book and then didnt want the surviving spouse to remarry! lol.LMB really draws us into her world,and revisiting is irresistible for most of us.
I also fancy yet another reread of Mirror Dance,but if I do that I will inevitably need to read Memory,Komarr and Civil Campaign again,and I dont have the time.
I think Mirror Dance is one of the strongest entries in the Miles Vorkosigan series. (well duh,it DID win the Hugo after all!). And the most uncomfortable for Miles fans.
Wow! It sems incredible that it is TWENTY FIVE YEARS since I first read that book. As ever Miles does things in spectacular fashion,including his mistakes!
Anyway,thanks for jogging my memory on the LMB titles. That sorts out most of September for me
I am slowly reading Wells Invisible Man,but finding it hard going. I find the somewhat farcical tone an irritation,and the invisible man himself too unpleasant for me to be happy following the tale.Still about 70 ages left to read..but I hope to finish it this month
Much more enjoyable was Catherine Fisher's Obsidian Mirror,an excellent YA novel.Fisher is an excellent authorwho writes very well and has rather unstereotypical young characters,complex plots,and she really can ratchet up the tension..I particularly liked her Crown of Acorns. Good stuff.
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spoltz
Posted 2020-08-23 7:49 PM (#22388 - in reply to #22387)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in August?



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Location: Beaverton, Oregon, USA		Hi everyone! I've been lacking in keeping up with the forum this month. My reading has slowed down a bit with work and life. I read and loved Ammonite by Nicola Griffith, The Drowning Girl by Caitlin Kiernan, A Door Into Ocean by Joan Slonczewski, and Ring of Swords by Eleanor Arnason. I gave Ammonite five stars and the others four. Next I hope to read The Breath of the Sun by Isaac R. Fellman and The Deep by Rivers Solomon, Daveed Diggs, et al by the end of August. They're both short; I think The Deep is actually a novella.
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dustydigger
Posted 2020-08-29 4:31 PM (#22399 - in reply to #22388)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in August?



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Location: UK		Finished Wells .'Invisible Man,played at times as farce,as a scientist discovers the secret of invisibility,and uses it to his advantage in a must brutal and maniacal way He seems to have lost his mind as he lost his visibility! Once again I was somewhat taken aback by the seam of crude violence that shows up in Wells early works. The Island of Dr Moreau was another work that shocked me with its brutality and violence,not at all full of gravitas and solemn philosophizing that we expect from the celebrated author! lol
I am trying to finish J G Ballard's The Burning World before the end of the month.Rather strange and haunting,wonderful prose,but becoming rather bizarre in the later pages.
And yet again I am struggling with Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon. I find the brutality of this futuristic hardboiled crime noir a bit hard to take,and its slow going and the tension can be almost unbearable at times. As is the graphic torture. I think I need to stick with my old friend Philip Marlowe for my hardboiled detection! Still 100 pages to go. I'll get there in the end,but I am much reminded of Paolo Bacigalupi's Windup Girl which also had a brutal in your face no holds barred approach to the story,though they are quite different in mst other ways.. Not at all my cup of tea. I have become a total wimp in my seventies.Better stick with the pre 80s eras,much more my sort of thing.
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dustydigger
Posted 2020-09-01 5:48 AM (#22407 - in reply to #22292)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in August?



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Location: UK		Finished J G Ballard's weird and gloomy The Burning World(aka The Drought) Very strange. I find that after reading Ballard I cant settle it in my mind,but haunting flashes come to mind over the years. His pessemistic take on the world stays in your mind a long time.Interestingand wellwritten,but no bundle of laughs!

Edited by dustydigger 2020-09-01 6:01 AM
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spoltz
Posted 2020-09-01 6:08 AM (#22408 - in reply to #22292)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in August?



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Location: Beaverton, Oregon, USA		Finished The Breath of the Sun and The Deep. The former was very good, but the latter was excellent. Also finished Necrologue: The Diva Book of the Dead and the Undead, which isn't in our database yet. It won the Lambda Literary Award for SF/Fantasy/Horror in 2004. It was an uneven anthology. I didn't care for the first four or five stories but the rest ranged from good to outstanding.
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