Sacramento Public Library discussion

Summer is in full swing and it is hot hot hot! Here is hoping the books on your shelves are making you a happy reader. Share what you are reading below and help someone else find their next great read!

This month I am going back to books that I had started but had to stop for one reason or another. They are: A Storm of Swords, Clariel by Garth Nix, Good Omens, and The Short Stories by Hemingway.

Right now I'm finishing up the last book of the series I'm reading The Traitor Queen. I also just got Uprooted come in from my hold list so I'm going to start on that this weekend!

Love May Fail: A Novel by one of my favorite authors :)

I am reading Chasing Impossible --Logan and Abby's story by Katie ..I adore her series :)

I'm immersed in Daniel Silva's newest Gabriel Allon book, "The English Spy," and enjoying every page.

I'm reading The Blue Bear by Lynn Schooler. Just back from my first trip to Alaska, and he so completely captures the beauty that my vacation feels extended.

The Martian by Andy Weir. Lots of fun so far. Soon to be a movie with Matt Damon. Geeky, funny, and good hardcore SF all rolled into one.

I'm listening to the 4th book in the Steampunk series by Shelley Adina called Magnificent Devices. Fun, quirky adventure - thanks, Steampunk challenge!

I'm also re-reading an old favorite, The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King.

I started off July with Gironimo: Riding the very terrible 1914 Tour of Italy by Tim Moore. I am a huge fan of the Tour de France, which started on July 4, so a book about cycling seemed like suitable reading. I am also a big fan of Tim Moore who writes humorous travel lit. He's traced the route of a Grand Tour before (French Revolutions) but this time he decided to do it on a vintage bike. Let's just say things don't go smoothly. I frequently laughed out loud as I read along.

I just finished "The Martian" by Andy Weir. Wow, wow, WOW!

Edge-of-your-seat hardcore science fiction combined with some delightful geek humor. I don't remember the last time I read such a long book in such a short period of time. I loved it! I also don't remember the last time I read a book that I found myself dreaming about at night!

It's being made into a movie to be released in October - directed by Ridley Scott, starring Matt Damon, Jessica Chasten, Kate Mara, Kristin Wiig, Chiwetel Ejiofor (ha, take that spellcheck!). I kept the IMDB page for the movie open as I read the ebook so I could look up each new character when they were introduced. I'm hoping this will help avoid those book-to-movie disappointments where, you know, you go, "Oh, no - not Jeff Daniels!"

Not sure what's next. My wife is praising "The Girl on the Train" by Paul Hawkins, which she's reading for her book club. It sound really interesting!

Loved, loved The Martian. I actually listened to it - it was only available in audio when I read it. One where I was sorry I had liquids in my mouth several times. It does bring out your inner geek, no matter your level of scientific expertise....and it hadn't been optioned for a movie yet - I kept picturing Jeremy Renner. But Matt Damon will do just fine!!

Chip wrote: "I just finished "The Martian" by Andy Weir. Wow, wow, WOW!

Edge-of-your-seat hardcore science fiction combined with some delightful geek humor. I don't remember the last time I read such a long b..."

You'll love the Girl on the Train. Intense book with a fascinating ending.

Ok, so I just finished Uprooted and I have to say... I'm pretty disappointed in it. Don't get me wrong it had an ok story but the magic system made no sense to me and the story seemed extremely rushed. This may be partly because I haven't read a non series book for many years for just this reason but I found that I just couldn't get connected to anything in the story. Looking forward to finishing her other series though!

"The Girl on the Train" was an excellent book! Just the right number of twists!

After reading a couple mediocre books, I am now almost done with "The Ghost Network." I think I missed why what they were doing was so important, but otherwise I am really enjoying the faux documentary style.

David wrote: "Ok, so I just finished Uprooted and I have to say... I'm pretty disappointed in it. Don't get me wrong it had an ok story but the magic system made no sense to me and the story seemed extremely rus..."

Rats. I actually bought Uprooted and am planning to read it on a trip this week. I absolutely loved the Temeraire series, so I'll be sad if this doesn't hold up.

Glee wrote: "Rats. I actually bought Uprooted and am planning to read it on a trip this week. I absolutely loved the Temeraire series, so I'll be sad if this doesn't hold up.

Well I've heard lots of other people say great things about it so you may really enjoy it, let me know what you think of it! I'm also a fan of her Temeraire series though I need to catch up a bit, can't believe she's already on the last on of the series!

"The Martian" is great!! Entertaining and suspenseful. Looking forward to the movie!

Since I last checked in, I've finished a couple of books. First, "The Wolf in Winter," by John Connolly: good, but not great. It's a part of an ongoing series featuring investigator Charlie Parker. Not having read any of the other series titles, I missed some of the plot elements because I was unfamiliar with the main character's backstory.

I also completed "The Ghost Brigades," by John Scalzi, the sequel to Scalzi's excellent first novel, "The Old Man's War." "Ghost" was excellent and now I'm well into the third book in the series, "The Last Colony." There are three more novels in the sequence after that, the last one to be published this summer.

Recently I learned that the 14th and final book in Carrie Vaughn's Kitty Norville series, "Kitty Saves the World," will be published in August. This is one of my favorite book series and will be sad to see it end. I've only read through the eighth book, so I've put the remaining titles on my to-be-read list. I also went back and reread an earlier series title, "Kitty Takes a Holiday."

David wrote: "Glee wrote: "Rats. I actually bought Uprooted and am planning to read it on a trip this week. I absolutely loved the Temeraire series, so I'll be sad if this doesn't hold up.

Well I've heard lots..."

I did really like it, even though it is about magic, not one of my favorite genres. Novik is an incredible writer - the textures and tastes she gives to practicing magic made it work really well for me.

I recently read The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan which one Goodreads reviewer described as "Kate Middleton fan fiction". I have to say that's about right! But even though it does bear more than a passing resemblance to a certain recent royal romance and even though as a reader I sometimes wished it didn't, it is an entertaining work of contemporary romance in it's own right. It does have a great premise, after all--meeting your fairytale prince. But more than that it looks at what it means when that fairytale prince comes with a nightmare of baggage.

Before that I read The Midnight Plan of the Repo Man by W. Bruce Cameron which gets points simply for a fantastic title. It's also a funny cozy mystery featuring a little bit of romance, a lot of not so smart people, a highly opinionated ghost, and a truly lazy dog. When researching the possibility of a sequel, I discovered that, prior to this book, the author mainly wrote non-fiction books about dogs.

Next up I will be reading Uprooted which I've been dying to read for ages and On Gold Mountain by Lisa See for my bookgroup.

I finished The Girl on the Train and absolutely LOVED it! The main character is such a mess, and the mystery unfolds really well. In some ways, it reminded me of Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl.

Now I'm reading The Diary of a Teenage Girl by Phoebe Gloeckner. We saw the film at LA Fest a while back (a terrific film BTW with a very indie feel - kind of reminded me of "Juno") and I really wanted to read the book. And I'm not disappointed! Gloeckner is a terrific cartoonist as well as a writer.

Chip wrote: "I finished The Girl on the Train and absolutely LOVED it! The main character is such a mess, and the mystery unfolds really well. In some ways, it reminded me of Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl."

She's a train wreck! (See what I did there??) I enjoyed it too, thought it was better than Gone Girl.

I'm enjoying two books that are perfect for July.

One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson - this one is non-fiction and perfect if you're a history buff but like to hear the colorful version of events and the people who lived them.

One Day by David Nicholls - a novel that describes the evolution of one couple's relationship over the course of many years. Each chapter is dated July 15 and chronicles only that day from year to year. An interesting storytelling technique.

It was accidental that I was simultaneously reading book titles that start with the word "One". Ha!

I really liked 'One Day'. I thought the movie adaptation was good but then I had already read the book so if there were plot gaps in the movie, I probably unconsciously filled it from the book.