OT - What are you reading?

"tanadashoes" wrote in message
...
Me? "Mayflower" by Nathan Philbrick: a history of the Plymouth
Plantation for the first 75 to 100 years. I'm learning a lot that I never
knew. I'm a history addict. The cats seem to find it interesting too.


I just finished HIST 156 (UMUC) and I learned so much that I completely
forgot when I was a kid. I haven't seen my grade yet, but I did see I got
the credit hours.

What made me giggle was that Plymouth was settled by accident.

On Aug 18, 10:19*pm, Mark Edwards wrote:
No cluons were harmed when Julie_Snowshoe wrote:

If I'm in
the living room and not on the puter I'm reading diabetic how-to-eat
books.....

Um... diabetics need fiber, but I don't think they're supposed to eat the
books (evil grin).

Hugs and Purrs,
Mark
--
Proof of Sanity Forged Upon Request

If only I could get him to eat books!! I can't get him to eat most
veggies, he loves salty (chips, crackers...bad for diabetics) sigh.
I still haven't figured all of this out but we have at least got some
control of dh's blood glucose.

Mark Edwards wrote:
No cluons were harmed when Will in New Haven wrote:
Recently finished: "Falling Free" by Louse McMaster Bujold" I waited
forever to find out what the fuss was about Bujold. Then I read all of
her fantasy and all of her SF in one swell foop. This one is SF and
great SF.

I LOVE her Miles Naismith books and hope she eventually goes back to that
universe. I also love all her other stuff too, so I'm not hurting TOO badly
(big grin).

pedant That's Miles Vorkosigan. /pedant

--
Deborah
Delmer Udell Ruppert, 8/19/1928 - 8/18/2009
Rest in Peace, dad

At the table? The newest Oprah magazine which finally got here (I
get mine later than ANYone, including the stores)

In the bathroom? a copy of By Her Subdued, a bunch of short
stories published some time ago.

At bedtime, John and I are reading aloud Lois McMaster Bujold's
"Cordelia's Honor", a 3-novella collection of prequels to the
Miles Vorkosigan series.

I *love* Bujold. Now so does John g

--
Deborah
Delmer Udell Ruppert, 8/19/1928 - 8/18/2009
Rest in Peace, dad

tanadashoes wrote:

SO, what is your current reading material? What have you recently finished?
Do your cats have preferences?

At the moment, I'm re-reading Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children. I
remember the rush when I read it the first time and experienced his
fantastic writing style. This time, it's not as strong an experience,
since I've read most of his work since then and got accustomed to his
style, but it's still a joy to read.

On the island, I read much more (have much more time to read). Among
other things, I read Rohinton Mistry's Such a Long Journey, Toni
Morrison's Sula, Kazuo Ishiguro's When We Were Orphans and Chimamanda
Ngozi Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun. So I travelled from India to the
US to Shanghai to Nigeria and Biafra, and then back to India this summer.

--
Marina, Miranda and Caliban.
In loving memory of Frank and Nikki.

Julie_Snowshoe wrote:
On Aug 18, 10:19 pm, Mark Edwards wrote:
No cluons were harmed when Julie_Snowshoe wrote:

If I'm in
the living room and not on the puter I'm reading diabetic how-to-eat
books.....
Um... diabetics need fiber, but I don't think they're supposed to eat the
books (evil grin).

Hugs and Purrs,
Mark
--
Proof of Sanity Forged Upon Request

If only I could get him to eat books!! I can't get him to eat most
veggies, he loves salty (chips, crackers...bad for diabetics) sigh.
I still haven't figured all of this out but we have at least got some
control of dh's blood glucose.

For a second I thought you were talking about a cat eating diabetic
how-to-eat books, and my reaction was, this is unusual? Sam took a
single bite out of "Some by Fire" by Stuart Pawson, which I finished
yesterday. I had been going to pass it on to a store which is a bit
picky about books with part of the back cover and a couple pages missing
(yes, it was just one bite; Sam's *good* at destroying paper). I'll have
to give it to a less particular person or charity. I hate throwing out
books, even battered or chewed ones, and I can't keep them all.

I always have several things to read on the go at once. I started
'Nightlife' by a new-to-me author Rob Thurman (looking OK so far) after
finishing the Pawson, and currently have an old Joan Hess partly
finished, several non-fiction books (mostly on religion) on the go, and
a stack of magazines not started, plus the usual stack of miscellaneous
books I'm going to get to.

I am also an avid Bujold fan, and also enjoy Cherryh. I used to read
more widely in the genre, but those are the two I still stick with.
Well, if I see something by Barbara Hambly, I'll usually read it.

Cheryl

On Aug 18, 10:13*pm, Mark Edwards wrote:
No cluons were harmed when Will in New Haven wrote:

Recently finished: "Falling Free" by Louse McMaster Bujold" I waited
forever to find out what the fuss was about Bujold. Then I read all of
her fantasy and all of her SF in one swell foop. This one is SF and
great SF.

I LOVE her Miles Naismith books and hope she eventually goes back to that
universe. I also love all her other stuff too, so I'm not hurting TOO badly
(big grin).

_Falling Free_ is in that universe. You could call it a prequel but it
isn't really important background for anything that has happened
involving Miles, or at least not yet. It is just set much earlier in
the same universe and explains the origins of the Quaddies. It is
probably, in my opinion, better than any single book of the Vorkosigan
saga except for the two about Miles's mom and maybe _The Vor Game_ or
_Mirror Dance_

She has another Miles book coming out next year I believe.

--
Will in New Haven

On Aug 18, 10:34*pm, Phoenix wrote:
Mark Edwards wrote:
No cluons were harmed when Will in New Haven wrote:
Recently finished: "Falling Free" by Louse McMaster Bujold" I waited
forever to find out what the fuss was about Bujold. Then I read all of
her fantasy and all of her SF in one swell foop. This one is SF and
great SF.

I LOVE her Miles Naismith books and hope she eventually goes back to that
universe. I also love all her other stuff too, so I'm not hurting TOO badly
(big grin).

pedant That's Miles Vorkosigan. /pedant

When he's a mercenary admiral, he's Miles Naismith. When he's home
he's Miles Naismith Vorkosigan.

--
Will in New Haven

No cluons were harmed when Will in New Haven wrote:
She [Bujold] has another Miles book coming out next year I believe.

At the bookstore and library, I cheerfully complain that, "Darnit, my
favorite authors keep writing new books" (grin).

I've also recently finished the Dresden series by Jim Butcher (alternate
modern reality where magic is real)

and recently finished Kim Harrison's Rachel Morgan series (alternate
modern reality where biuengineered tomatoes killed off half the "normal"
population and supernatural creatures stop hiding).

I reread ANYTHING by Pterry Pratchett

An old friend was once asked who his favorite authors were. He started
listing Asimov, Asprin, Bova, Bujold, Clarke... The girl who asked him
said, "Oh, so you haven't made it past the 'C' shelf."

I made a list once of all the authors I have read. I think I am only
missing 'X'.


Hugs and Purrs,
Mark
--
Proof of Sanity Forged Upon Request

Right now I'm re-reading the 20th anniversary edition of "Godel, Escher,
Bach: The Eternal Golden Braid". I'd originally read it in college and it
really affected me. It's about the nature of consciousness, against a
background of math, music, art, and computer science.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0465026567/

Anything by Vernor Vinge, but he hasn't published anything new recently.

http://www.amazon.com/Vernor-Vinge/e/B000APOW0E/

Next up would be John Ringo, who's been quite prolific. The latest book in
his "Posleen" series, "Eye of the Storm", includes a resurrected ship's cat
who's a bit strange, now that its intelligence is unexpectedly augmented.
(The cat first appears in "Yellow Eyes", and "dies" near the end. Ringo's
SF military fiction is realistically brutal, with a ravenous enemy that
outclasses humanity.)

I'd also highly recommend his new series starting with "Into the Looking
Glass", which suggests what Star Trek would be like if a Marine wrote it.

I just finished his "Princess of Wands", about an Episcopalian housewife
who finds herself unexpectedly fighting demons in the Louisiana Bayou.
Think Buffy the Vampire Slayer crossed with a prim and proper soccer mom.

http://www.amazon.com/John-Ringo/e/B000APPSXE/

Eric Flint has a good alternate history SF series starting with 1632, in
which a West Virginia mining town is uprooted and dropped into the middle
of the 17th century 30 Years War in Europe. The series is authored by many
other authors, with Flint coordinating the major events but letting other
authors fill in the blanks concerning their own specialties. (For example,
one short story is written by someone who knows horses and knows the
history of horse breeding. Another involves the introduction of sewing
machines.)

http://www.amazon.com/Eric-Flint/e/B001ITXFV8/