SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

This month I hope to read:

Breaking Dawn
Hot Six
Dune
Storm Front
Sense and Sensibility
The true and outstanding adventures of the hunt sisters
The Tailsman

Hoping this month:

Kushiel's Avatar
Victory of Eagles
Iron Angel
The Andriod's Dream

Just finished yesterday The Left Hand of Darkness and I'm still reading, sporadically on my bus commutes, the 50 Short Science Fiction Tales.

I will start today at lunch The Hand That Bears the Sword.

I want to also read The Well of Ascension before the October release of The Hero of Ages.

I'd also like to read The Name of the Wind and perhaps the last book of the series I'm starting today.

I am TRYING to get through my stack of library books that grew far too large last month, we'll see if it happens:

Carol Goodman's The Drowning Tree and The Ghost Orchid
Haruki Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
John Connolly's Every Dead Thing
Kelley Armstrong's Industrial Magic
James Rollins' Evacuation
Terry Pratchett's Moving Pictures
Michael Connelly's The Concrete Blonde
A Lovecraft anthology
PKD's Humpty-Dumpty in Oakland
Arturo Perez-Revete's The Nautical Chart and The Painter of Battles
Orson Scott Card's Shadow of the Giant
David Pirie's The Dark Water
Christopher Buckley's newest

I've started three and can't settle on one, and I still need to fit Dune in there somewhere. I'm sort of being guided by which ones are suddenly reserved by someone else at the library, limiting my ability to renew it.

Brooke--I know the feeling of re-ordering or ordering the book pile based on what's due, when it's due and if you can renew. :)

I am working on the eighth novel of the Dresden Files this month in the hopes I can read the entire series by year's end.

I would like to read The Count of Monte Christo as well and I promised a friend I'd read a book she gave me soon. We participate in a sf/f book group and we're working on recommendations for next year. She wants a second opinion on the book and we have to suggest books for next year by October.

That and I am sure something will come in on reserve at the libray and jump off the bookstore shelves and follow me home. ;)

Alas! school has started and reading time is wrecked. On the other hand I get access to a great library. I still have not been able to get my hands on either "Tigana" by Guy Gavriel Kay or "The Bonehunters" by Steven Erikson both of which I wanted to read ages ago. I plan to read the following books this month.

"Candide and Other Stories" by Voltaire, currently reading.

"Aeniad" by Virgil, re-reading.

"Dune" by Frank Herbert.

"If on a winter's night a traveller" by Italo Calvino, another book I wanted to read last month but I only just got it from the library.

"Farenheit 451" by Ray Bradury.

"Lords and Ladies" by Terry Pratchett.

OK, here's the to-read shelf. I've made a promise to myself to get through it before I start plundering my libraries' shelves again (a promise I'm already going to break since I want to check out Ruckley's Bloodheir while Winterbirth is still fresh in my mind, and there's a book on CIA history that's on hold but will probably become available this month).

Doctor Rat, William Kotzwinkle
The Geese of Beaver Bog, Bernd Heinrich
Maske: Thaery, Jack Vance
Light in August, William Faulkner
Light & Viriconium, M. John Harrison
Think on My Words, David Crystal
The Singing Neanderthals, Steven Mithen
Inside the Neolithic Mind, David Lewis-Williams
Young Staln, Simon Sebag Montefiore

I'll probably finish Hitchhikers Guide by today. For the rest of the month, I've started Deception Point by Dan Brown, The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett, and Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card. I also plan to read Brisingr by Chris Paolini, which comes out later this month I think. And I'm trying to get a hold of a Percy Jackson book from the library, but I doubt that'll happen.

Just finished The Curse of Chalion yesterday. This month I will be reading Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny, Mansfield Park by Jane Austen, Crown of Swords by Robert Jordan, re-reading Storm Front by Jim Butcher, and then I can't decide between Wen Spencer, Kat Richardson, and another Jim Butcher (but I may not make it to that decision anyway).

I just picked up a few books from the library. No idea which one I'll read next but here they are:
Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
Eifelheim by Michael Flynn
The Road by Cormac McCarthy

My wife recently picked Water for Elephents for us both to read, and she just finished it so I'll need to read that shortly, too.

Brooke,

I hope you love the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle as much as I do! I re-read it about once a year.

I just finished "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" by Michael Chabon. I'm starting on "A Clockwork Orange" by Anthony Burgess and "Heart-Shaped Box" by Joe Hill. I'll be reading "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy and "Singer of Souls by Adam Stemple for a couple of other groups.

Well, it happened..the library called with some books I'd reseved, thus throwing my to be read list into chaos....

But what a nice problem to have...;)

Me TOO, Michael, a book that was on reserve for months suddenly came in last night. And since it took so long for me to get it, I'm guessing there are people behind me on the list and I won't be allowed to renew it.

I once told my dad that it's a good thing I'm addicted to something that's free.

I always tell people that having a large stack of unread books is one way to insure immortality...:)

Because there is no way I could shuffle off this mortal coil and still have a good sized stack of books to be read. :)

Woo hoo...just got an email from Amazon and they have added a SciFi Store to the Kindle Library

I'm working my way through Lovecrafts "Call of the Cthulhu and other Weird stories". I'm surprised at myself as I'm actually enjoying most of them. I read "The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories" last year and kinda bounced off of it.

And I've got 1984 on audio book in the car right now. Should have that finished by next week.

Then, I'm thinking maybe:
Axis by Robert Charles Wilson
SnowQueen by Joan D. Vinge
or
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch as it's a friends book and I'm sure she would like it back.

I guess it will depend on what I'm in the mood for when I'm done with Lovecraft!

I really want to read Axis, but the reviews are so mediocre that I'm pretty sure I'll be disappointed. Why do SF sequels suck most of the time?

how did you like chabon's book. i thought it was very imaginative

I pretty much read only new books (I reread older books that i have at home) so practically everything I get is due in 2 weeks from the library and I barely read on weekends b/c I have twin 5 year olds so its all kid time then, but i read about 3 books a week. I am going to try to read some of the following in the rest of this month

Silks by Dick Francis
Moscow Rules by Daniel Silva
Last Patriot by Brad Thor
Time Engine by Sean McMullen
Cry Wolf by Patricia Briggs
Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson
Free Fall by Laura Ann Gilman

For September:

I'm currently reading the 8th book in the No. 1 Ladies Detective series and will wrap that up in a day or two. Then I'm going to be reading the following for another book club:

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz
Shantaram, Gregory David Roberts
The Cider House Rules, John Irving

I also plan to read Heaven's Net is Wide (The First Tale of the Otori), Lian Hearn which is really the 5th book in a series that I absolutely love.

For September;

Throne of Jade
Cryptonomicon
The Hope
Use Once Then Destroy

I'm also starting to collect and read an expansive Gary A. Braunbeck collection, the newest author that has captivated my attention.

So far I've read:
The Princess and the Hound by Mette Ivie Harrison
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett
The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly

I'm almost finished with A Door Into Ocean by Joan Slonczewski, and I'm really enjoying it.

Next up will be
The Solitaire Mystery by Jostein Gaarder
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand and
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

How's everyone doing on their Sept. to-reads? For some reason, this has been my worst month this year, I've only read Dune, 200 pages of Industrial Magic, and a little more than half of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. I have NO idea why I'm dragging.

I've finished all but The Well of Ascension and only because my library couldn't/wouldn't get it via interlibrary loan. So I've ordered a personalized autographed copy from Brandon instead. It probably won't make it here by the end of September, though.

So, I'm forging ahead with one of the October books A Night in Lonesome October.

At my 13 year old daughters insistence I just read the twilight series. A book a day 4 days. They are a very nice juvinile series.

Definately written for teens much like Harry Potter. However, Stephanie Meyer has a talent for making the story engrossing.

I would recommend anyone read these.

Very predictible, on the romance level of a Harliquen but very enjoyable.

And very kid freindly unlike most vampire novels on the market.

I'm reading:

THE WATCH BELOW by James White
The New His Majesty's Dragon book by Novak
just finished THE SKY PEOPLE by Stirling (for another Goodreads group I'm in)
and STORM FRONT (of course)
as well as HOMUNCULUS for another Goodreads book group I'm a member of.

H.

I finally finished Shantarum, and immediately started Stephenson's new Anathem. It's a slow start because of where I'm coming off from (Shantarum) and also because of the book itself - it dives right into a complex world with its own terminology. So I took a few days off to clear my head from Shantarum and am now ready to concentrate fully.

Just a heads up to all of us who post in this monthly topic.

The new "add book/author" link/widget underneath the comment text box area will add an instant link on a book's home page showing that a book is being discussed in our group. This is like a recruiting/free advertising option to let others know about our group.

It also shows up in the links to the right under the "Books mentioned in this topic" section.

Here's an example from some of the recent posts:

Anathem
His Majesty's Dragon
The Princess and the Hound
The Wind-up Bird Chronicle
The Solitaire Mystery
Use Once and Destroy