The generic Current Reads thread turns yet another new page

I'm in the midst of Janny Wurts's Peril's Gate. As usual, a mad scramble with little chance to catch my breath! (and I've already had to use a dictionary twice!)

I have to struggle not to spell her name Wurtz. Only because I have the TZ in my name and it seems automatic!

Happy June, everyone. I've finished the three books I needed to read before attending Booktopia in Bellingham, WA, next weekend. Whoot whoot

So, I've gone back to Waiting to be Heard by Amanda Knox. I have some initial thoughts which I will post on my Green Dragon reading journal thread.

I'm reading The Recycled Citizen by Charlotte MacLeod, a cozy mystery by one of my favourite authors. I find that I'm having trouble getting into it, though. The fault is probably more mine than the book's.

I'm also reading The Private World of Georgette Heyer by Jane Aiken Hodge. I suspect some Georgette Heyer rereads will soon be happening.

I've finished Here, There Be Dragons, Princess Ben - both YA - and Changing the World, a Valdemar anthology edited by Mercedes Lackey.

I'm enjoying Soulless, the first in the Parasol Protectorate series.

I'm reading Bring up the bodies by Hilary Mantel, and Excellent women by Barbara Pym (because yesterday was 100 years since her birth).

I've spent the entire weekend glued to Peril's Gate. I can't put it down.

I just started The Mathematics of Love by Emma Darwin. It certainly starts off with a bang!

Been clearing some bottom-of-TBR books (the top being somewhere else currently not available).

Bloodsilver. Had a blast with this alternate history of the early USA, cowboys and vampires included. Despite the english/american-sounding title, author name and his spurious bio, this is a collaboration by 2 french authors.

A Feast in exile. Enjoyed a couple earlier books in the series but this one is somewhat lackluster.

World's End, a side novel I didn't really know existed until maybe a year or 2 ago to The Snow Queen and The Summer Queen, both of which I read long ago (and liked, though didn't love). It's alright, but probably not worth losing sleep tracking it down I guess.

This is not a game. Nicely flowing, probably not unforgettable thriller about an alternate/augmented reality games designer whose life undergoes "interesting" times and blurring of the game/real-life boundary.

A Fire upon the Deep. Good so far though it's yet to awe me as I would expect from a novel that seems so widely loved.

I've started Lenny for your thoughts by Anyta Sunday (reminds me of A Candle for Saint Anthony) and Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger in the last couple of days.

I finished Waiting to Be Heard and enjoyed reading it. What a mess the Italian "judicial system" was for Amanda Knox and her family!

I am now reading The Aleppo Codex - In Pursuit of One of the World's Most Coveted, Sacred, and Mysterious Books by Matti Friedman. It is about what is described as the oldest, and best, copy of the Hebrew Bible and its history. Written a bit like a mystery novel.

I've finished Magic Study and The Uncrowned King, both second in their series, and am now contemplating starting a new series with The Skewed Throne.

Currently fixated on The Spiritualist by Megan Chance. This is thusly cutting into my reading of Framley Parsonage.

I just finished The Mathematics of Love which I loved and am moving on to To Marry an English Lord, inspired by the History Chicks.

I really enjoyed To Marry an English Lord.

I'm working my way through The Great Influenza and A Fire Upon the Deep with dips into Plum Spooky as a palate cleanser.

After finishing and reviewing The Harper's Quine (which didn't get a very high rating from me), I've moved on to The Rook. The premise of having a character awaken with no memory and find notes from some version of a prior self to guide her is very far from new. Here, however, the character must find her way within a bizarre hierarchy of beings that deal with (or are) unnatural phenomena. Interesting, to say the least.

I'm enjoying To Marry an English Lord but it doesn't work well when I'm brushing my teeth, so I am now also reading Faithful Place by Tana French. It's off to a good start.

To be honest, I've never tried reading while brushing my teeth (not since I was very young, anyway), and I doubt it would work for any book for me.

I've just finished The Skewed Throne by Joshua Palmatier. I can't define why, but it just grabbed me and pulled me in and wouldn't let go until I got to the end. It's a 5 star read for me.

I've just started Secretum which is set in Rome in the year 1700. It is a book into which I am enjoying being immersed. Decadence is the order of the day.

Just finished What's News? -- touchstone not working, a book of reminiscences by Riaan Cruywagen, who is famous for reading the news first on radio, later TV, almost daily for 47 years. A delightful collection of stories of a relatively normal upbringing (no angst here!) and a happy life that also gave pleasure and reassurance to many thousands, if not millions, of others. Will mean more to South Africans than others (in particular, I felt closer than possibly many to the first few chapters, as he grew up "just over the hill" from where I went to primary school), but still worth reading.

Ever noticed how you set reading goals for yourself at the beginning of the year, and then your reading urges are determined to take you in a completely different direction?

Part of the way through The Complete Idiot's Guide to Self-Sufficient Living (which was not part of any of my reading challenges this year). It's both kind of preachy, and less informative than other books in the genre (with the exception of giving me a few new book recommendations); so I don't really recommend it.

And I'm about to start Paper Towns, which is one of the first 13/13 challenge books I've gotten to this year.

I've read a few books, at the end of June :

Cupcakes by Daniel Kelley - an ER book for June; Turning Point by Lisanne Norman; Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith; Court Duel by Sherwood Smith; Sorcery and Cecilia, or, the Enchanted Chocolate Pot by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer; and Agent of Change by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, a free e-book in the Liaden universe, from the Baen free library.

I'm reading Two Graves and have to hustle through it since it's a two-week book from the public library.

Hmm, this thread has been snoozing for a while, hasn't it?

I recently and for the first time watched Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds in 1952's Singin' in the Rain, and that led me to recall an excerpt from a 1995 biography of Elizabeth Taylor that I'd read in the newspaper at the time of release: a line in which Liz accused Debbie of being a "girl scout" when it came to romance. I looked up the biography and borrowed it from the library. But the book itself, a hardcover, is physically falling apart and thus hard to read, so I'm just going to return it.

While I'm shopping for an alternative, would anyone care to recommend a Taylor biography?

I've read only a handful of Hollywood stories over the years: a bio of Sean Connery (boring), an autobiography of Sidney Poitier (embarrassingly self-glorifying), and an autobio of Adrienne Barbeau because I met her at a writers' conference (intelligent, candid, and refreshing). So I have no preconceived yardstick for work of this type, although I'd prefer it not to read like a gossipy fan mag.

I've just entered the Two Rivers in Andor, for the Group Read of The Eye of the World.

The thread for The Wheel of Time group read is here, if anyone else would like to join in.

I finished THe daemon prism and The sweet dove died this weekend, and am now reading World War Z.

A few nights ago I watched Apocalypse Now. Not having seen it before, I was guilty of a cultural remissness that's now rectified. It really was a great movie, if hard to watch. Now I'm reading Heart of Darkness, which I was assigned in high school but never actually got through.

What a great idea to pair the two. And if it were me I would do it in the same order you have chosen. I'll be interested in what you think.

Just started The Illusion of Conscious Will, as well as Nerd Do Well. Continuing where I left off with The Wordy Shipmates.

I am yet again dropping my current reads for another. So fickle! am I

Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of The Lane just grabbed me.

>29 maggie1944: I'm envious, Maggie. I'm trying to make serious inroads on my TBR cases and avoid buying books. But if someone were to give me the newest Gaiman, I wouldn't be responsible, would I?

no, of course not. There are some temptations that are just overwhelming. Period. No, Exclamation Point!

I went to the library for Gaiman's latest, but of course there's a waiting list. I left with John Green's Paper Towns (loved it), Rick Riordan's The Battle of the Labyrinth (liked it), and Cornelia Funke's Inkheart (returned it without finishing). The next book in Riordan's series also has a waiting list, so now I'm reviewing Mt TBR for my next read. Maybe Crosscurrent?

I just got The Ask and the Answer from the library. It's been so long since I read the first one I read the synopsis on Wikipedia.

Oh god, what a thrill that book was first time I read it!

*cackle* My book requests arrived within a couple days of each other. First, The Last Olympian, then The Ocean at the End of the Lane.

I'm still making my way down Sixty-One Nails by Mike Shevdon. it's been really slow going so I think I might put it down for a bit... I need a bit of pace and action... and preferably some dead bodies.

I just got through the first chapter of The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things and I'm finding it enjoyable so far. The brilliant @Marissa_Doyle recommended it on her reading thread this year or last year.

Just finished Inferno which was certainly clunky in parts but I still enjoyed. And it asks some interesting questions about population growth.
I've reviewed it but it contains spoilers.

Now I'm moving on to The Cuckoo's Calling - by a strange coincidence I received both of these at the same time from the library's waiting lists - the circulation software was showering blessings on me :)

Wow, this thread has been all but abandoned! I wanted to revive it, as I don't want to start my own reading thread.

I just finished reading The Martian - I made the mistake of starting it last night before bed and didn't get much sleep. I was interested because of all the positive comments I'd read on various threads, and I found it lived up to all the raves. Has to be one of my best books of the year!

I loved it, and both kids have read it now. We each kept reading bits aloud, and that would hook the next person. We haven't convinced my husband to read it yet, but if we can ever get him to read a fiction book, this will be the one.

I guess that should be my next book, too. The Martian was on sale for a couple days for like $5 and I grabbed it based on the vibe here on LT.

As it is, I decided to read The Midwich Cuckoos which is a classic sci-fi novel from John Wyndham. So far it's fairly dry and clinical, but there are tendrils of dread building, mostly because I know the premise and have seen Village of the Damned, but I can't knock it for that.

Yep, I killed this thread. Coincidentally or ironically my next read is The Silkworm.

I just finished the Cuckoo's Calling so it seemed natural to move onto another book with cuckoo in the title. :)