Bred Any Good Rooks Lately?

GNTLGNT

FlakeNoir said:

Months ago I started Fairy Tale on audio book then life got in the way. I'd also bought the physical book a few months ago. 
I'm on annual leave from work and have recently started the story again back from the beginning.
I'm 100 pages in and am hooked. This feels more like a classic Stephen to me than anything else I've read from him in many, many years. Very solid characters. 
(but if anything happens to this dog... sigh 🥺)

....agree totally with that assessment....gdamn bridge and all....

Kurben

Started The Doll-master by Joyce Carol Oates. Described as 6 tales of terror. But, as it is Oates, you can bet that the terror comes from within a human being. When she terrifies she does so because you get to know the person and then to see what deeds he/she is capable of scares one all the more. She does not need supernatural thingies to scare, to her humans can be much more scarier. Very much looking forward to it. For me Oates is the best living american author today. Her width is amazing. From Gothic novels, to epic family drama to psychological crime stories to horror stories to intense character studies... She has even thrown in a SF novel to make the picture complete. 

Hedda Gabler

Kurben said:

Started The Doll-master by Joyce Carol Oates. Described as 6 tales of terror. But, as it is Oates, you can bet that the terror comes from within a human being. When she terrifies she does so because you get to know the person and then to see what deeds he/she is capable of scares one all the more. She does not need supernatural thingies to scare, to her humans can be much more scarier. Very much looking forward to it. For me Oates is the best living american author today. Her width is amazing. From Gothic novels, to epic family drama to psychological crime stories to horror stories to intense character studies... She has even thrown in a SF novel to make the picture complete. 

This sounds good. I watched her Masterclass — it was so interesting. I would love to have her as a teacher and for her to critique my work. 

Lou_Sytsma

Ooooo - the next book in Robert McCammon's - Matthew Corbett series - is waiting for me at the library! 

Hedda Gabler

Lou_Sytsma said:

Ooooo - the next book in Robert McCammon's - Matthew Corbett series - is waiting for me at the library! 

I really liked the one Matthew Corbett I read. How many are there? 

Kurben

Hedda Gabler said:

Lou_Sytsma said:

Ooooo - the next book in Robert McCammon's - Matthew Corbett series - is waiting for me at the library! 

I really liked the one Matthew Corbett I read. How many are there? 

It must be at least 7 now, perhaps 8. I have read the first three and they are really worth reading. Have 3 others that stand in my TBR line in my shelves. Then i think there is one before this one that i dont have. So 8 if my count is correct. Then i think there exist some short stories somewhere (e-book perhaps) that fit somewhere that i dont know.

GNTLGNT

....I seem to be stuck in a reading slump right now, mind is willing but the body is weak...just so tired from all that is swirling about that I have lost my focus....I'll just give it some time and see if I can't put the needle back in the groove....

Lou_Sytsma

Kurben said:

Hedda Gabler said:

Lou_Sytsma said:

Ooooo - the next book in Robert McCammon's - Matthew Corbett series - is waiting for me at the library! 

I really liked the one Matthew Corbett I read. How many are there? 

It must be at least 7 now, perhaps 8. I have read the first three and they are really worth reading. Have 3 others that stand in my TBR line in my shelves. Then i think there is one before this one that i dont have. So 8 if my count is correct. Then i think there exist some short stories somewhere (e-book perhaps) that fit somewhere that i dont know.

This is the 8th book. One more and the series will be done.  I believe there will also be a novella collection from the POV of some of the other characters.

It's fun, pulpy material - a cross of Sherlock Holmes and James Bond in the 1700s US.

Kurben

Lou_Sytsma said:

Kurben said:

Hedda Gabler said:

Lou_Sytsma said:

Ooooo - the next book in Robert McCammon's - Matthew Corbett series - is waiting for me at the library! 

I really liked the one Matthew Corbett I read. How many are there? 

It must be at least 7 now, perhaps 8. I have read the first three and they are really worth reading. Have 3 others that stand in my TBR line in my shelves. Then i think there is one before this one that i dont have. So 8 if my count is correct. Then i think there exist some short stories somewhere (e-book perhaps) that fit somewhere that i dont know.

This is the 8th book. One more and the series will be done.  I believe there will also be a novella collection from the POV of some of the other characters.

It's fun, pulpy material - a cross of Sherlock Holmes and James Bond in the 1700s US.

True but what makes me come back to them is the good historical setting. And the good characters. In many historical novels the setting seems not researched enough but he has done a good job in that department.

Grant87

I'm finishing up a productive reading month here in January. I really got on a thriller kick for a while. I read books 2 and 3 in Jack Carr's Terminal List series, True Believer and Savage Son. Also read the first 3 books in the Jack Reacher series: Killing Floor, Die Trying, and Tripwire. Now I'm switching back to horror for a little bit, as I started Grady Hendrix's new novel How to Sell a Haunted House yesterday.

My February TBR:

• How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix
• Strange Weather by Joe Hill
• In a Lonely Place by Karl Edward Wagner
• Don't Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones

Hedda Gabler

Grant87 said:

I'm finishing up a productive reading month here in January. I really got on a thriller kick for a while. I read books 2 and 3 in Jack Carr's Terminal List series, True Believer and Savage Son. Also read the first 3 books in the Jack Reacher series: Killing Floor, Die Trying, and Tripwire. Now I'm switching back to horror for a little bit, as I started Grady Hendrix's new novel How to Sell a Haunted House yesterday.

My February TBR:

• How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix
• Strange Weather by Joe Hill
• In a Lonely Place by Karl Edward Wagner
• Don't Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones

Wow. Nice job. Like scott, I am struggling with reading but you have inspired me. 

Highlight the good ones as you go along. 

Lou_Sytsma

Thanks to Bev for his recommendation of John Slattery's narration of Duma Key - just finished it. 

Slattery does indeed do a fantastic job. Whether it's his narration or my foggy recollection but the story is a lot creepier than I remembered.

Highly recommended listening.

Kurben

Read Appointment with Death, one of the lesser Christie (IMO), The mystery is good enough but the characters the solution is a bit hasty. I hasten to add that in comparison to other mystery writers it stands strong.

Kurben

Rereading parts of Auels Earths Children series. They are not really good enough to reread a whole book bt parts are very good. She is not a great stylist or manufacturer of prose that you remember but she is very well researched in her topics. True, the research is a bit out of date now but still. Her first, third and fifth book you can select parts to read again. The second and sixth book are rather awful really. The fourth is not as awful but still rather bad. She needs good supporting characters for her lead duo, Ayla and Jondalar, otherwise the interest soon withers and dies. They are there in the first and third book and partly in the fifth and thats why you can reread these.

Hedda Gabler

Just picked up Spare from the library. Yes. I am reading it even though it’s all been discussed. Anything of salacious interest is out there. 

But, I want to get my judgy on. 

Hedda Gabler

Right. I just read the first chapter of Spare. This is going to get tedious, fast. 

Dripping with Shakespearean tragedy undertones, his subtle cutting remarks and poor-me victimization is theatrical.  I’m sure he was going for the profound, but it comes off funny and needy. The kind of needy that makes you want to pinch his head off. Whether that be his ginger crown or the frostbitten one.  Or both.   

I’m sure his pain is real. I realize he just wants to be heard and understood.  But, wow, you whiny poetic bastard. Get a grip and carry on. 

“Lead on spirit! Lead on!”

Notaro

GNTLGNT said:

....I seem to be stuck in a reading slump right now, mind is willing but the body is weak...just so tired from all that is swirling about that I have lost my focus....I'll just give it some time and see if I can't put the needle back in the groove....

I'm feeling the same, can't focus for too long. I've started this, it's an easy read, short individual chapters....hopefully it'll get me started again....

GNTLGNT

....maybe a profound picture book would help us.....

Kurben

GNTLGNT said:

....maybe a profound picture book would help us.....
Maybe try some Calvin & Hobbes??

Hedda Gabler

Kurben said:

GNTLGNT said:

....maybe a profound picture book would help us.....
Maybe try some Calvin & Hobbes??

Bill Watterson has a new book coming The Mysteries.   A fable for grown ups . 

I own The Complete Calvin and Hobbes in hardcover so I will be getting it. 

Hedda Gabler

Holy hell. This Harry book — so many lies? So much hypocrisy. If you’ve watched any of his interviews, he says one thing and totally contradicts it in the book. 

He howls and moans about the Brit tabloids, calling them liars, and in the book, we find out they weren’t lying. He was. 

Every 10ish pages, he talks about his bad memory. He can’t remember any specifics clearly — but yet, he disparages people with his faulty memory and we’re supposed to jump on his tsk, tsking band wagon. 

Yes. A child might block bad memories and he has had plenty. But he continues as an adult to claim faulty memories.  Makes me question the  “what color is the baby going to be” story even more than I already did! 

This book is very weird. So many readers just glommed onto the salacious items. There is an undercurrent of a much bigger thing here. Imo. 

I think Harry needs a brain scan. I do not say that as a joke. As many times as he claims he can’t remember exactly and goes so far as to say he may be misremembering his remembrances — did he have a CTE from serving in military? And the lies.  Maybe he isn’t seeing his hypocrisy and lying. 

I don’t trust much of what they say at all now. Fade away Harold. Shut up and go live your life. 

GNTLGNT

...given the title, I thought it was about bowling.....

Kurben

Read Fall Of Giants by Ken Follett. His historical novel of the first world war seem through the eyes of different families of different status in England, Wales, Germany, Austria, Russia and the United States. The title is of course a reference to the knocking down of the monarchies in Germany, Austria and Russia as a result of the war.

Kurben

Started The Winter Of The World by Ken Follett. His follow up to the above book. Its about the between the wars time and WW2. We follow the same families as before and/or their descendants. Its not that its bad, its not, but it doesn't have the same panache that the first book had. My one complaint about the first one was that even through all the families in it participated in combat noone died. It stretches the imagination a bit that although about 10 million young men died in the war. And then he does not even mention the Spanish Flu that killed an additional 21 million people around the globe. But our families remain untouched. I understand that he needs the persons for story telling purposes later on but why not create a younger son or beloved daughter that dies in one of these events??

Hedda Gabler

Almost halfway through Harry’s book. I’m slogging through his military days. Kudos to him for serving. Amazing achievement and dedication in learning to fly an Apache helicopter. Bravo for duty to veterans. 

But — make it stop. I just can’t get past the constant whining. 

I think I heard he didn’t title this book Spare because of the heir and spare label. Bull. Shit. He brings it up every whiny chance he gets.

My observation? He’s the abused Cinderella to his evil pampered sibling. The moment he talks about their sleeping arrangements as KIDS, I knew he was huddled in his corner of the same room (william’s side a lush kingly area) covered in coal dust and mouse droppings. 

Not.