SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Well I didn't get to anything I wanted to read in October so I have to read those books this month:

Hard Eight
Gunslinger (re-read)
The Fire
Catcher in the Rye (re-read)

and I have to catch up on October's book club reads for this book club!

I started two books yesterday:

The Well of Ascension: Book Two of Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
The Best of John W. Campbell by John W. Campbell Jr.

I'm still slowly reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

For the rest of November:

The Tolkien Reader by J.R.R. Tolkien by
The Christian Imagination: The Practice of Faith in Literature and Writing
Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grille by Steven Brust
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

That should keep me busy.

11/3/2008 update: I forgot The Gunslinger by Stephen King which is in the mail to me via BookMooch.com

I am planning on reading:

Holes
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Fallen
A Wrinkle in Time
November Grass
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Tales of Mystery and Madness
Anne of Green Gables
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

I'm on this endless reading of "The Historian" by Elizabeth Kostova. I'm also reading "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" by Junot Diaz.

Next on the list is "The Anubis Gates" by Tim Powers, "Farthing" by Jo Walton and "Blindness" by Jose Samarengo.

I probably messed up a lot of those titles and authors' names.

Mention of Perdido Street Station as a possible theme read this month got me interested, so i picked it up in a used bookstore in Toronto. It's an incredible read so far, promising to get five stars if the author keeps it up...

I'm currently reading The Sovereign Reigns, or Does He? by Ray Ruppert, a GR author. It's good so far. Different.

I also plan on reading, Shaihen Heritage: Book 1: Cloak of Magic by S.A. Rule, another GR author. I downloaded the first 2 chapters & read them. Peaked my interest.

I do plan on getting to The Gunslinger & Twilight. I also just got the next two Sookie Stackhouse books, Living Dead in Dallas & Club Dead 2 & 3, so I have enough to keep me busy for a while.

I am currently reading Pirate King by RA Salvatore.

I have Anathem out of the library but not sure will read it -- its just so blasted long.

I have read the Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly this month, which was very good for a legal thriller.

I plan to read The Gold Coast by Nelson DeMille and its new sequel, The Gatehouse next

I may read The Given Day by Dennis Lehane, but not sure. It was due at library on 11-1

I have 20 books out of the library, 25 on the floor in my computer room that I bought but have not read and I will probably pick some of them to read the rest of the month.

About half are still left over from one or even two months ago:

Moving Pictures by Terry Pratchett
The Nautical Chart by Arturo Pérez-Reverte
The Painter of Battles by Arturo Pérez-Reverte
Excavation by James Rollins
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
Still Waters by Nigel McCrery
Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinlein
Deep Six by Clive Cussler
In the Woods by Tana French, and
its sequel The Likeness
The Court of Air by Stephen Hunt, although this is iffy since its sequel isn't out yet in the US and I'd like to read them together (it called to me from the Recent Releases library shelf and I couldn't resist)
The Killing Circle by Andrew Pyper
The Wildfire Season by Andrew Pyper
And I think the newest Ender book comes out sometime this month

What I REALLY should do - stop going to the library and finish the last volume in Stephenson's Baroque Cycle

My Current list for November (for now):

All Together Dead (Sookie Stackhouse Book 7) - Charlaine Harris (Currently Reading)
From Dead to Worse (Sooke Stackhouse Book 8) - Charlaine Harris
The Devil and Miss Prym - Paulo Coelho
Insomnia - Stephen King (Re-read)
Eragon - Christopher Paolini (Re-read)
Eldest - Christopher Paolini (Re-read)
Brisingr - Christopher Paolini

- Just finished Hero of Ages, book 3 in Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series. It was the first traditional fantasy I'd read in a while (been more focused on traditional sci-fi and urban fantasy for some reason), but it really held my attention and was terrific;
- Finishing the Nightside Series by Simon R. Green and also listening to his The Man with the Golden Torc in the car;
- Started the newest Laurell K. Hamilton book, Swallowing Darkness;
- Planning to read The Anubis Gates for this group and Darkfever for the Urban Fantasy group;
- Can't wait to read Perdido Street Station now that my interest in peaked;
- Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close for The Next Best Book Club;
- and the Betsy-Tacy books I haven't read since I was a tween and maybe a few Anne of Green Gables books;
- I'm reading The Lightning Thief Percy Jackson and the Olympians Book 1 with my sweet 10-yr-old for whom I babysit and loving every moment!!! He's in 4th grade and they are learning about mythology, so it's just perfect fun for kid and sort-of-adult-me;
- I almost forgot Fleet of Worlds and it's sequel - they'll be my first Niven books, can you believe it? Shocking, I know!
Oy, that's a lot and I'm really eager to read them all. A lot of them are thanks to you guys, so thank you very much for the leads - and I better get busy!

Currently reading:

Dewey: The Small Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron with Bret Witter (there has been better writing but it has Cats! and Books!)
The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon (this one is going to take me a while unless the pace picks up significantly)

Planning on reading:

The Anubis Gates for the group
Contact Imminent and then Endgame by Kristine Smith
Intrepid by Mark Shepherd
Resenting the Hero by Moira J. Moore

And will add more if I manage to get through that list!

I listening to podcasts this month. It's something new for me and I'm not sure I like it. We'll see how it goes.

Ok, I'm feeling ambitious this month so here goes...

for Goodreads book clubs:
The Gunslinger - S. King
The Anubis Gates (if I can find it anywhere) - Tim Powers
Good Omens, the Nice & Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch - N. Gaiman/T. Pratchett

on my own:
Charlotte Gray - Sebastian Faulks
Lightning,- Dean Koontz

I'm still attempting to finish Children of the Ice Age. It's not a "bad" book; it's just that it's twelve years old and I'm familiar with a lot of the material he covers so I can't muster the interest to finish it quickly.

I'll also finish How Fiction Works by James Wood.

After that, nonfiction-wise, it's Inside the Neolithic Mind and The Winter War. The former's subject matter should be self-evident; the latter is an account of Finland's resistance to the Soviet invasion of 1939-40. It's a serendipitous pick-up from the library's New Book shelf and I can only hope it's at least as good as another random pick: The Ruin of the Roman Empire, which I've just finished and can't recommend enough to anyone interested in Roman/Medieval history.

In the fiction pile this month, I've placed Light by M. John Harrison and Cabell's The Silver Stallion and Figures of Earth.

For the bedside, as I lurch toward sleep, I've pulled from the shelves Graves' The Greek Myths and Anton Chekhov's Short Stories.

If I can get through all that by Thanksgiving, I'm keeping my options open as to where to go next.

I just finished the The Golden Man by Philip K.Dick and am starting to listen to the audible Science Frontiers novel Metatropolis. You can get the first chapter for free!

The library threw a monkey in my wrench yesterday. Several weeks (or months) ago I requested The Best of Robert E. Howard: Crimson Shadows via InterLibrary Loan. I'd forgotten that I'd requested it.

Well, it showed up on Tuesday and since you can't renew ILL books, I had to drop everything to start reading it. It's been interesting so far.

I also finally received The Gunslinger in the mail from BookMooch yesterday so I'll get that read this weekend.

Happy Friday everyone!

A Talent for War-this is the first McDevitt novel I have read. I will be reading more of his. I like the way he mixes mystery and sf together.

Hogfather-somehow I never read any Pratchett until this year. My loss. Going Postal was my first and I loved it.

The Gunslinger-just started this one. I like the beginning.

The Anubis Gates-next on my list.

I'm reading a few books in November:

New Moon
Rebecca
The Host
Eldest
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows
And Hopefully Eclipse

I really want to finished the Twilight series by the end of the year! :D

End of November update:

The Well of Ascension: Book Two of Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson - finished
The Best of John W. Campbell by John W. Campbell Jr. - finished
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley - finished
The Tolkien Reader by J.R.R. Tolkien - next month
The Christian Imagination: The Practice of Faith in Literature and Writing - currently reading
Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grille by Steven Brust - next month
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie - next month
The Gunslinger by Stephen King - just couldn't make myself read it

Also finished in November:

The Hero of Ages
His Majesty's Dragon
The Canterville Ghost
A Morbid Taste for Bones: The First Chronicle of Brother Cadfael

On track to finish on or before December 1st:

The Best of Robert E. Howard: Crimson Shadows
On Basilisk Station

All in all, not bad. I'll get even more read in December because I'm taking off work the last two weeks!

Hope everyone had a safe and happy Thanksgiving. I'm very grateful for all of my GoodReads friends!

Jon

These are not at all what I had planned for November, but here is my list:

Vonnegut, Galapagos
Colfer, The Eternity Code
McCarthy, The Road
Gruen, Water for Elephants
Meno, Demon’s in the Spring
Follet, Pillar’s of the Earth
Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London
Balzac, Le Pere Goriot
Freese, Coal A Human History
Hager, Demon Under the Microscope

At least, I have a shot at participating in the discussion for December since I have recently read The Road. And, I am hoping I can find my copy of His Majesty's Dragon in time to reread it for the discussion.

In the meantime, I've just started The Brother's Karamozov, which may take me a while to finish.

Neuromancer is for December. The Road was rescheduled to February 2009.

Figures. I'm always off track. Luckily, I do know where my copy of Neuromancer is. Thanks, Jon.

I'm reading Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. So far I'm really enjoying it. Fantasy with just a touch of modern-day satire.

Inkdeath
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23...

Cloak of Magic
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26...

Just started The Heretic's Daughter
http://www.goodreads.com/search/searc...

Inkdeath and Cloak of Magic were both VERY good and are highly recommended.

Well I started this in November but won't be finished for awhile yet - but I really am liking it:

Mistborn: The Final Empire


--
Wife of fantasy author: Michael J. Sullivan
The Crown Conspiracy (Oct 2008) | Avempartha (April 2009)
Reviews: Fantasy Book Critic | Odysssey | Amazon | MidWest Book Review | Huntress Reviews

OK, I just realized we're not in November anymore, LOL. I'm not good with dates, I'm lucky I get the year right.

In November I read Twilight - I really was not impressed.

I did read Stephen King's 11/22/63 and it was an amazing work. If some of you want to read my review..


herbertwest,
webmaster of the Club Stephen King

Use this thread for chat about what you're reading. :)