Reading anything?

[Pacman000]

Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card, a sequel to Ender's Game, also by Orson Scott Card.

[AndyC]

Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card, a sequel to Ender's Game, also by Orson Scott Card.

I liked that one. Didn't much care for the books that followed, but Speaker wasn't a bad follow-up to Ender's Game. I thought it was pretty cool that the setting jumped forward a few thousand years, with Ender spending so much (greatly slowed) time traveling around at near-light speed. People curse history's greatest mass-murderer and revere the original Speaker for the Dead, while having no idea they're the same guy, he's still alive and he's standing right there.

[tracy]

A trilogy of 3 Xanth novels:

[indianasmith]

I am about 3/4 done with MY THOUGHTS BE BLOODY, a history of the Booth brothers, Edwin and John Wilkes, and their talented, tragedy-ridden father, Junius Brutus Booth.  The author's thesis is that the lifelong rivalry between the two brothers is what drove Wilkes Booth to murder Abraham Lincoln, a shame that Edwin spent his life trying to atone for.  It is a wonderful read!

[JoeTheDestroyer]

Just finished Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins.  So I'll resume my other projects:

Go Rin no Sho by Miyamoto Musashi
Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King

Also planning on starting a few other books, particularly Defiant Light by Jason Venter.

[bob]

1984 and I'm loving every word of it. 

[AndyC]

Nearing the end of The Hobbit with Rowan, and trying to think of another book we'll enjoy just as much. I don't think she's quite ready for Lord of the Rings yet, and it would be a heck of a commitment to read LOTR in 15-minute bites at bedtime.

I'm thinking about introducing Ro to some of the easier books I enjoyed as a kid - Encyclopedia Brown, The Mad Scientists' Club and the like.

I've kind of stalled out reading Dome City Blues. Just not in the mood for it. Might also be that I've been trying to pick up a cyberpunk detective thriller right after reading The Hobbit, when my imagination is still in Middle Earth.

[tracy]

I am about 3/4 done with MY THOUGHTS BE BLOODY, a history of the Booth brothers, Edwin and John Wilkes, and their talented, tragedy-ridden father, Junius Brutus Booth.  The author's thesis is that the lifelong rivalry between the two brothers is what drove Wilkes Booth to murder Abraham Lincoln, a shame that Edwin spent his life trying to atone for.  It is a wonderful read!

That reminds me of an episode of "Branded",with Chuck Connors,we were watching a short while back. The  brother of John Wilkes Booth was out to find and execute the man responsible for falling asleep so Lincoln could be shot. He blamed him for the death of Lincoln and also his brother. Interesting episode.

[BoyScoutKevin]

Ye-es!

William H. Miller's "S.S. United States: the Story of America's Greatest Ocean Liner"

In three parts.

pre- 1952
1952-1969 or from the S.S. United States' first trans-Atlantic voyage to its last.
1970-1991 or from its mothballing to the date the book was published.

The title might be slightly hyperbolic, but several superlatives stick to the ship.

(1) The largest and still the largest American ocean liner ever built in an American shipyard.
(2) For many years, the fastest ocean liner ever to cross the Atlantic. Winner of the much coveted Blue Riband.
(3) And then there were three. One of the last ocean liners to make regularly scheduled trips across the Atlantic. Only the S.S. France and the S.S. Queen Elizabeth lasted longer on the Atlantic crossing.

No idea what happened to the ship after 1991 or when the book was published. All kind of ideas were advanced, including making it into a seaside hotel, but none came to fruition.

And . . .

Dave Madden's "The Authentic Animal: Inside the Odd and Obsessive World of Taxidermy"

While the business of taxidermy may fly under the radar, it still is a big business. There are taxidermy classes, taxidermy competitions, taxidermy conventions. Though now what mostly gets the stuff is the family pet Spot and Puff.

I will also say, that while the book starts out as a straight history of taxidermy, and here we are talking about the subject of the book and not the author's sexual orientation, the books morphs into a discussion of the relationship between man and animal.

"Encyclopedia Brown" I can remember when the first book in that series came out, and that was over 50 years ago. AndyC, if your daughter likes mysteries and/or puzzles, that'd be a good series to read to her. And see if she can solve the mystery, before you read the solution to her.

Next time: a he said/she said.

[indianasmith]

Nearing the end of The Hobbit with Rowan, and trying to think of another book we'll enjoy just as much. I don't think she's quite ready for Lord of the Rings yet, and it would be a heck of a commitment to read LOTR in 15-minute bites at bedtime.

I'm thinking about introducing Ro to some of the easier books I enjoyed as a kid - Encyclopedia Brown, The Mad Scientists' Club and the like.

I've kind of stalled out reading Dome City Blues. Just not in the mood for it. Might also be that I've been trying to pick up a cyberpunk detective thriller right after reading The Hobbit, when my imagination is still in Middle Earth.

Not sure how old she is, but my girls LOVED "A Series of Unfortunate Events" by Lemony Snicket.

[AndyC]

Nearing the end of The Hobbit with Rowan, and trying to think of another book we'll enjoy just as much. I don't think she's quite ready for Lord of the Rings yet, and it would be a heck of a commitment to read LOTR in 15-minute bites at bedtime.

I'm thinking about introducing Ro to some of the easier books I enjoyed as a kid - Encyclopedia Brown, The Mad Scientists' Club and the like.

I've kind of stalled out reading Dome City Blues. Just not in the mood for it. Might also be that I've been trying to pick up a cyberpunk detective thriller right after reading The Hobbit, when my imagination is still in Middle Earth.

Not sure how old she is, but my girls LOVED "A Series of Unfortunate Events" by Lemony Snicket.

She's six, going on seven. I'm not familiar with A Series of Unfortunate Events, beyond the movie adaptation, and my memory's fuzzy on that. I assume the book is much better than a Jim Carrey movie.

[ulthar]

Nearing the end of The Hobbit with Rowan, and trying to think of another book we'll enjoy just as much. I don't think she's quite ready for Lord of the Rings yet, and it would be a heck of a commitment to read LOTR in 15-minute bites at bedtime.

I'm thinking about introducing Ro to some of the easier books I enjoyed as a kid - Encyclopedia Brown, The Mad Scientists' Club and the like.

I've kind of stalled out reading Dome City Blues. Just not in the mood for it. Might also be that I've been trying to pick up a cyberpunk detective thriller right after reading The Hobbit, when my imagination is still in Middle Earth.

Andy, my almost 7 yo loves the dickens out of "The Magic Treehouse" books. He got 1-28 as a set for Christmas and blew through them.

[indianasmith]

There are 13 books in the series, and they are delightfully fun to read.  My girls enjoyed them starting about age 9.

[HappyGilmore]

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith.

Pretty delightful reading.

[AndyC]

Nearing the end of The Hobbit with Rowan, and trying to think of another book we'll enjoy just as much. I don't think she's quite ready for Lord of the Rings yet, and it would be a heck of a commitment to read LOTR in 15-minute bites at bedtime.

I'm thinking about introducing Ro to some of the easier books I enjoyed as a kid - Encyclopedia Brown, The Mad Scientists' Club and the like.

I've kind of stalled out reading Dome City Blues. Just not in the mood for it. Might also be that I've been trying to pick up a cyberpunk detective thriller right after reading The Hobbit, when my imagination is still in Middle Earth.

Andy, my almost 7 yo loves the dickens out of "The Magic Treehouse" books. He got 1-28 as a set for Christmas and blew through them.

Ro has brought some of those home from the library. I didn't realize that there were so many of them, or that they covered so many settings and situations. And they're at a level she can read for herself. I might have to look at that 28-book set for her birthday or Christmas.

I'm still pondering what I can get in the way of a novel I can read to her over a couple of weeks. The Hobbit worked out amazingly well. My wife has been reading Ro some Laura Ingalls Wilder - Little House in the Big Woods, Farmer Boy, etc. - which is her thing. I'd like to find some novels or novellas in fantasy, adventure, science fiction or mystery that are at about that same level. Enjoyable for a first-grader, but a little more advanced than what she can handle reading on her own.