What are you reading the week of April 27, 2014?

[Enthusiast]

Once again, I'm starting this thread because no one seemed to step up to the plate. I'm not the thread starter type so feel free to start one before 4:30 on Sundays and I'll be happy to relinquish the duty.

I am reading what I consider the very best of the Nevada Barr books—Destroyer Angel. Best as in most suspenseful and exciting. I can't wait for my wife to read this. We have read all the Nevada Barr books, as I'm sure several of you have. I would highly recommend this book, Destroyer Angel.

[shenmue]

1. Stephen Booth

'Dancing With the Virgins.'

[scarletwoman]

2. I've literally just cracked open the latest Donna Leon Commarisario Guido Brunetti book,

By its Cover. Just picked it up from the library on Wednesday - to my delight, I thought it would be a longer wait. I just finished the last Liza Marklund book that I had on hand, so now I'm leaving Sweden behind and heading down to Venice, Italy.

I've just paused on page 7 so I could post this.

It's a wonderful series, this book is number 23, and I've read the entire series in order - which has been great fun. Highly recommended!

[scarletwoman]

3. BTW, thank you for starting a new thread this week and last week!

[Enthusiast]

4. You are most welcome.

I'll check each week so we can continue to have a thread.

[scarletwoman]

5. It's much appreciated! These "what are your reading..." threads are always intriguing.

I enjoy seeing what other folks are into - and I also enjoy sharing my own choices.

[TexasProgresive]

6. The Abandon by Paul Gallico

This book is a must read for all cat lovers. It is called a children's book but I think anyone could enjoy the story. Mr. Gallico of the Poseidon Adventure is a wonderful story teller and he seems to have gotten inside the psyche of cats. Those who are fortunate enough to live with cats will understand this:
"When in doubt, wash."

[sharp_stick]

7. The Scar - China Mieville

This book takes readers back to the world he created in "Perdido Street Station" but you don't need to read that to enjoy this.

A ship carrying "slaves" and paying passengers to a really out of the way part of the world is captured by a group of pirates that press-gang everyone into their floating city called Armada which is made up of many ships lashed together that has been floating the worlds oceans for centuries if not thousands of years.

It turns out that they acquired this ship because of at least one of it's passengers is very important to future plans.

Mieville is one of my favorite world creator authors (kind of weird fiction / steampunk blend). He's got a fantastic way with words that makes his novels both readable and not dumbed down in the least.

[Enthusiast]

8. That sounds pretty far out.

[Goblinmonger]

9. Thanks for starting these

I try to get in here to start and pin a thread, but Sundays do not always cooperate.

[closeupready]

10. The Kite Runner.

[Enthusiast]

11. That was something, The Kite Runner.

I certainly never want to visit Afghanistan.

[closeupready]

12. I'm just a few chapters in, but the tone reminds me of A Separate Peace.

On a side note, one of my closest friends is a Pakistani of Pashtun ethnicity, so knowing him better than even my own brothers, I can already relate to the protagonist and the cultural baggage he is going into.

[japple]

13. It is a lovely work. Sad, terrible and beautiful at the same time. I listened to it

read by the author on audio books a couple of years ago when I had eye surgery. I also listened to A Thousand Splendid Suns. Both books opened a whole new world for me, and the pictures they left behind haunt me still.

[getting old in mke]

14. _The Dreaming Void_ by Peter F Hamilton

First thing I've read by him. Space opera writ large. Make that writ humongously. I'm enjoying it a great deal so far.

[SheilaT]

15. Long Live the Suicide King

by Aaron Michael Ritchey.

A teenager is seriously suicidal, but there's also some nice humor to it. I'm pretty sure in the end he won't kill himself. It's YA, so not very long and I very much like YA.

Very much looking forward to whatever else this guy writes.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

16. Finished a nonfiction book, and I've started a collection of Chekov short stories.

The Brothers, by Stephen Kinzer, is an account of John Foster and Allen Dulles. Highly recommended, but since this is a fiction forum, I'll leave,it at that.

I've just started a collection of 40 of Anton Chekov's short stories.

[Moe Shinola]

17. The Transhumanist Wager, by Zoltan Istvan, and Betrayals, by Steve Bowers

Two very different takes on Transhumanism and Futurism. Istvan's is very "us-versus-them", with religionists and traditionalists wearing some very black hats, but his main protagonist turns out to be as lacking in scruples as his enemies. Bowers' novel, based on the Orion's Arm Worldbuilding Project(www.orionsarm.com) is way more inclusive, being set in a future where Humanity "made it", surviving the tests were are facing now, to build a galaxy-spanning civilization. It's also a not-bad detective story.

[llmart]

18. "Still Life With Bread Crumbs"

by Anna Quidlen. I've read everything she's ever written. Love her.