August Chat

Feel free to chat about anything on this monthly chat page.

Okay... I must have entered the Twilight Zone. I clicked on the The Book Discussion for the Book of Fate Discussion and...are you ready for this?...It's in Japanese or Chinese or some "nese" and a box comes up that asks me if I want it translated. It translates into English but nothing that I ever saw on that site. Do I need to check into a mental health facility right away or does anyone else see this in some other language than English?

Now Carol if anybody else checks now they will question whether they were really there seeing as now the Chinese postings have all been deleted and were apparently spam. I did see them too so they weren't a figment of your over active imagination! :)

>3 Andrew-theQM: I sent message to Brenda and Eadie that is was all back to normal. Maybe I'll still check out that mental facility...there may be aliens in the site you know:)

What do you mean may be! :)

>5 Andrew-theQM: You've seen them too???

>6 Carol420: Most definitely. Perhaps they can lock us in a padded room together with a stack of books and provide us with regular meals.

>7 Andrew-theQM: Great idea! Also wanted 24 hour room service. "Oh Mr. Alien...we're over here"

****Sneaks in to grab the recorder she left in the room****

>9 AnitaUnmuted: Foiled again! :)

I am looking to set up a schedule of Group Reads for the next few months over the next week.

3 questions
1) Do you want to continue with 3 monthly group reads (1 voted on, and 2 other reads we agree on) or do you want to do two (1 voted, 1 other). I am happy with either because the group reads ensure I take some time away from work and help me to de-stress during term time!

2) Are you happy doing them other 4 or 5 days as we have been doing (depending on length of book) or do you want to do them over a longer time frame (e.g. 6 days or 7 for longer ones)?

3) Any thoughts on other books (including standalones) or series to read. By my reckoning we have these series still to continue (although some are approaching the end).
The Oregon Files by Clive Cussler
Vera Stanhope Series by Ann Cleeves
Ruth Galloway by Ellie Griffiths
Cotton Malone Series by Steve Berry
King and Maxwell Series by David Baldacci
If I've missed any let me know.

Thanks,
Andrew

I like doing 3 group reads a month and I like the sections to be about 70 or 80 pages. I would like to read:
Sigma Force series by Rollins
Sandford series
Greg Iles
Coninue Stuart MacBride
Start Tami Hoag series
Bob Skinner series by Quintin Jardinière
C.J. Box series
More Jeffrey Deaver

Thanks for this Eadie.
Few Questions : with Jeffery Deaver the standalones, or the Lincoln Rhyme series or Kathryn Dance series. He is one person I want to read more of

John Sandford : Lucas Davenport or Virgil Flowers Series

Greg Iles : Mississippi Series or Penn Cage?

Tami Hoag - which of her many series?

I like the 3 a month but if it's too much during the school year for you we can cut it to two during your busiest months. I agree with Eadie that 70 - 80 pages is good and 4-5 days is just about right.

Tami Hoag is good. Some of her stuff might have too much romance for some people. The Kovack and Liska series is excellent and fits the Mystery & Suspense genre .

Love John Sandford. I've read all of his both Davenport and Flowers...but would read them again. Virgil Flowers is a character from the Davenport series. Everything up to 2007 has Virgil Flowers in it. There's 26 Davenport books and 8 Flowers.

The series that we've started I'd like to continue.

I don't know anything about the different series so I would say it doesn't matter to me. Maybe Carol can let us know which would be besr.

I'll happily go with what everyone else decides. 70/80 pages a go seems a goodly amount to me.

The Sandford or the Flowers series are both good. I like the Davenport series more. The Novack and Liske series is about two cops and as I said it would fit the genre better. I like the Penn Cage series. I really don'r care for C.J. Box . I'll think about it more.

I'm going to vote for three with the caveat that Andrew postpones one when he gets in a bind. I like the 70-80 page length too. I'll read anything as long as it isn't too cozy. 😈

Thanks everyone for your feedback. I can say the first three books that Ihave read in the Lucas Davenport series I have read I have enjoyed (would happily read them again), a very interesting character! It looks like we've got it about right. The key time to go down to two books might be late June / early July when I am reading and writing 400 reports, as well as evaluating and checking end of year results. My problem is I end up writing a big paragraph about each child!

I like the mix that we've been doing - throwing in a standalone here and there as well as working through series. The 4-5 day schedule works so long as it can be adjusted for the longer books as 90+ pages per day gets more difficult.

I've read the first 8 or so of the Prey series many years ago and enjoyed them. I've read several Tami Hoags as well but couldn't tell you which series other than it was the one made into a TV movie 😀

I tend to read more thriller and spy so I will leave it in the capable hands of the group to pick the mystery/suspense books as it is a newer genre for me

Other than the Novack and Liska series. She has 3 books in what she calls "Oak Knoll"... Deeper Than Dead, Secrets to the Grave, and Down the Darkest Road. Those were good and not too mushy.

Another series we might think of trying is Tess Gerritsen's Rizzoli and Isles. She also writes several standalones that are really good.

J.T. Ellison writes a series that I read until it became repetitive was the Taylor Jackson series and out of it came a great series featuring the medical examiner Samantha Owens. There's currently 4 books in that series and it is very,very good.

>21 Carol420: Lol! A medical examiner series (or 2), you do surprise me :)

But seriously thanks for the suggestions. Will look to see how we work in all these suggestions although we are approaching the end of Vera and Ruth.

>22 Andrew-theQM: There's a new Body Farm book coming out in October...plenty of medical examiners around yet:) We still have #8 Woman in Blue in the Ruth series and there is the 9th one coming in 2017 but it's only listed in Kindle format right now. We still have 3 Vera's to go and there is a new Shetland Island book, Cold Earth in April of 2017. I never thought I would hear myself say this but...there are just too many good books:)

Interesting how the dates differ in the two countries, Cold Earth is published this October in the UK. The new Ruth Galloway, The Chalk Pit is published in February 2017 as hardback.

Also good news, Ann has just finished a rough draft of the next Vera Stanhope book:
http://www.anncleeves.com/weblog/

>24 Andrew-theQM: I'm glad she's writing faster. I should have switched over to the UK on Fanrtastic Fiction and I would have seen that. We'll be ready whenever they are ready:)

I watched the Jack Reacher movie with Tom Cruise - it was pretty entertaining. I don't know why I'm always expecting to not like him, and then end up doing so. Anyway, I haven't read the book; apparently it came from a Lee Child book called One Shot. Curious to know if any of you have both read the book (or any of the Reacher series) and seen the movie - how do you feel about Cruise's portrayal of the character?

>26 Darth-Heather: I've read every word that Lee Child has ever put to paper...love the Reacher series. When it was first announced that Tom Cruise...5 ft 4, 135 pounds with a rock in his pocket...was going to be cast as Jack Reacher...me and About 40 million other fans said "No way in H_ _ _ _." I put off watching the movie forever it seemed and then I thought lets see how bad he screws it up. To my amazement he pulled everything off without a hitch. If you had never read the books and knew that Jack Reacher was 6ft 3 and 235 pounds you would have thought nothing of it. I've been waiting for another Reacher movie. Cruise would not have been my choice but I did him a disservice. I also bought the movie:)

>26 Darth-Heather: >27 Carol420: I have not seen this movie nor read any Reacher material but... Cruise is not my favorite human being only because he seems so insane. But his perceived insanity may just be the spark that allows him to be a good actor. Yes, he is a freak show walking but I have to admit that I usually enjoy his movie portrayals. I do, at times, lose sleep over this unresolved dichotomy... ;)

>27 Carol420: that is exactly how I felt when I heard that Cruise would portray Lestat in Interview With A Vampire. I was wrong - he didn't quite fit the physicality of the character, but he certainly fit the personality and he far surpassed my expectation. But somehow I still always brace myself to dislike his movies and then end up enjoying his performance.

Maybe it is as Sco says - he is a total nutbag and I dislike him as a human, but he is acceptable when he is being anyone other than himself.

We seem to have lost Sushicat. :(

>30 Andrew-theQM: did she leave LT, or just this group? Maybe she's too busy to participate in group reads right now?

Hopefully just too busy. Not seen her in a while (possibly a couple of months) and unfortunately Librarything (unlike Shelfari) doesn't show you when someone last logged in. Not seen her post in that time.

>32 Andrew-theQM:
I've been missing Sushi too. I hope she's ok.

She's posted books she's reading on Goodreads today.

So she may have may have moved to Goodreads.

Sorry guys - not much participation anywhere currently. Plus I find discussions here even more difficult than on GRRR.

And keeping up with things on three sites is a nightmare. I've started putting my reviews on booklikes as well when things went haywire.

Nice to see you back Sushicat, as you can see you have been missed. You do get used to the discussion on here. This is the only site I am using for group discussion but do keep a backup of books on Goodreads and also use it to track progress of my annual reading challenge. The book discussions are seeming to work well on here but we do set up a new group for each book discussion as that is the only way it can seem to work.

I think the book discussions are going better than we originally thought they would. I know Andrew has to do a lot of extra formatting but I'm glad we are all still together.

Now that I'm actually able to find the discussions, I agree that it seems to work well. Thanks for adding that thread. I was initially thinking of going wiki for this, before I went AWOL as things got a bit hectic here. I'll experiment a bit and let you know.

Btw I really like the list. But since there is only one measly book on there maybe a quarterly or even yearly list would be the thing. When I saw the empty thread I was a bit lost, but once it actually has content this is a really nice feature for a group like ours.

Has anyone read anything by Leonard B. Scott? I ran across the name while searching for more military fiction series' for my husband, who has been devouring everything by WEB Griffin and Clive Cussler.

Let me know if you recommend anything in particular...

>40 Darth-Heather: try Dale Brown, PT Deutermann, Jack Higgins and Larry Bond

Also, check out www.fantasticfiction.com if you search for an author you like, the go to the bottom of the page...there's a box that shows other authors people searched for that are similar. It also gives you author recommendations in that area

>40 Darth-Heather:

Maybe give Literature-map.com a try?

>42 ScoLgo: that's a cool site!