Reading anything?

[BoyScoutKevin]

Ye-es!
6 0f 1 or 6 non-mysteries and 1 mystery.

Bender and Chernack
Born to be awkward :
celebrating those imperfect moments of babyhood
from the website
4th in the series


Christie Golden
Star Wars :
dark knight
4th in the Star Wars series

Normally, she writes books for a series. Having written . . .
14 in the Star Trek series -- 8 in the War craft series -- 5 in the StarCraft series -- 2 in the  Assassin's Creed series -- 1 in the Hex series + 7 non-series novels.

I 1st came across her when I read her Vampire of the Mists for the Raven loft series. A fantasy series with a horror twist or a horror series with a fantasy twist. I hold that her Vampire of the Mists is not only one of the best novels in the series. It is one of the best vampire novels ever written.


Al Roker
(yes, that Al Roker)
The storm of the century :
tragedy, heroism, survival, and the epic story of America's deadliest natural disaster :
the Great Gulf Hurricane of 1900

Not only does he talk about the most deadly hurricane ever to strike the U.S. He also talks about . . .
how weather is formed -- the history of Texas -- the history of the U.S. weather bureau -- the history of the Cuban weather service -- racism in 19th century America -- and American Cuban relations of the late 19th century.

One hopes he continues to write, as all his years of doing the weather on TV has apparently taught him something, and that is keep the story interesting and short.


Kamil and Elder
Great is the truth :
secrecy, scandal and quest for justice at the Horace Mann School

Or how almost 2 dozen employees of the New York City school abused its students--both boys and girls--for almost 3 decades.

A number of things came out of the books.
1st. The sheer number of people abusing the children who attended the school.
2nd. While most child abusers are, for what ever reason, white males, here we have women, Asian-Americans, Afro-Americans, as abusers.
3rd. A couple of hitherto unknown, to me, things arise from being abused.
a. Falling into doing pornography. Both video and pictorial.
b. The inability thereafter to be able to hold a job.

And a couple of oral histories from Svetlana Alexievich.
Voices from Chernobyl :
the oral history of a nuclear disaster
translator, Keith Gessen.

1986 the disaster -- 1996 oral histories collected -- 1997 published in Russia -- and 2005 translation published.


Zinky boys :
Soviet voices from the Afghanistan War
translators, Julia and Robin Whitley

1979-1989 the war -- 1990 published in Russia -- and 1992 translation published


and the mystery

M. J. Arlidge
(despite the initials, a male writer)
Pop goes the weasel
2nd in the Detective Helen Grace series
sequel to the Doll's house


Next time: a half dozen of the other--more mysteries

[frank]

I made a real find at Goodwill yesterday with the following Ian Flemming Bond novels: Dr. No, From Russia With Love, The Man With the Golden Gun, Goldfinger, Thunderball, Live and Let Die, Casino Royal, Diamonds Are Forever, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, and The Spy Who Loved Me

oh yes, I'll be busy reading for a while

I'm also reading the series currently, just finished "The Spy Who Loved Me" - that was an odd one, not sure about it yet.

[bob]

I made a real find at Goodwill yesterday with the following Ian Flemming Bond novels: Dr. No, From Russia With Love, The Man With the Golden Gun, Goldfinger, Thunderball, Live and Let Die, Casino Royal, Diamonds Are Forever, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, and The Spy Who Loved Me

oh yes, I'll be busy reading for a while

I'm also reading the series currently, just finished "The Spy Who Loved Me" - that was an odd one, not sure about it yet.

I bought Only Live Twice, Octop***y and The Living Daylights to complete all the Bonds novels 

[BoyScoutKevin]

Ye-es!
a half dozen of the other mysteries

Stella Cameron
British ex-pat
Out comes the evil
2nd in the Alex Duggins series

Barry Maitland
British ex-pat
award winner
Crucifixion Creek
1st in the Bell tree trilogy
Hero: Australian
Place: Australia
Time: Present

Denise Moore
award winner
Blood, salt, water
5th in the Alex Morrow series

Felix Francis
son of the late, great Dick Francis,
who went from being a jockey to being a mystery writer
writing 40 fiction,
2 non-fiction,
all on the subject of racing,
and who wrote 4 with his son,
who wrote 4 on his own.
all on the subject of racing
Front Runner

Dean Meyer
"The King of South African crime"
award winner
Icarus
K. L. Seegers translator from the Afrikaans
9 more fiction

Anne Perry
ex-pat Kiwi
Corridors of the night
21st in the William Monk series
Hero: English
Place: England
Time: the Past

Next time: 6 graphic novels of 1 non-graphic novel
P

[Newt]

Abject Terrors: Surveying the Modern and Postmodern Horror Film (2005) by Tony Magistrale.   Only 200 pages but presents a lot.  An enjoyable read.  Maybe because of major congruences with my own thoughts.   

[FatFreddysCat]

George Lucas: A Life by Brian Jay Jones

[BoyScoutKevin]

Ye-es!
6 graphic novels and of 1 non-graphic novel.

The graphic novels . . .

Ward, Dodson, Dodson, and Bellaire
Star Wars :
Princess Leia

Lee, David, and Daran
Amazing, fantastic, incredible :
a marvelous memoir

Duggan and Baldeon
Nova :
homecoming
consisting of issues 28 to 31 and annual 1

Stevenson, Ellis, and Allen
Friendship to the Max
Lumber janes : v.2 issues 5-8

Duggan and Vinello
1872

Seen . . .
The Black Widow -- Captain America -- Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers) -- Doctor Octavius -- Elektra -- Fisk -- The Hulk -- Iron Man -- Red Skull -- and Red Wolf.

Not seen, but mentioned . . .
Ant-man -- Bucky Barnes -- Daredevil -- and Spiderman.

This works both as a straight western and a variation of the Marvel Universe

Gilray and Melching
In service of the Republic
Star Wars, the Clones Wars issues 7-9
+ the story story "The gauntlet of Death" from Free Comic Book Day 2009.

And the 1 non-graphic novel . . .

Vecchione and Schmettterer
award winners
Crooked Brooklyn :
taking down corrupt judges, dirty politicans, killers, and body snatchers.

Next time: and a half dozen of the other various titles

[AoTFan]

I just got done reading Magic Shifts by Ilona Andrews.  It's the latest in the Urban fantasy series featuring Kate Daniels.  It's a pretty good series, I recommend Ilona Andrews work. 

[javakoala]

Italian Crime Filmography, 1968-1980 by Roberto Curti

So far, it is an interesting book giving the basic description of the "poliziotteschi" genre, its place in Italian cinema history, and its influences before launching into a listing of movies the fit the definition set forth by the author. I have no idea how far into the book I am page-wise, but I just broke into films made in 1970, so I've hardly scratched the surface of this wonderful monster of a book.

Even though the author cites works of critical analysis and traces real-life influences for each film, it is far from a boring work of academic tedium.

One downside I've found so far (other than the price of $50 for the paperback version) is that a lot of the films I've read about are not available on DVD or BD, if they were ever available for sale to begin with.

[indianasmith]

A couple of December reads for me:

AMERICAN EMPEROR: AARON BURR'S CHALLENGE TO JEFFERSON'S AMERICA by David Stewart
   Burr has been getting a lot of attention lately as the nemesis/villain in the life of newly famous founding father Alexander Hamilton.
However, there was much more to his life than the duel which killed the founder of the Federalist Party.  Burr tied with Thomas Jefferson in the electoral college in the 1800 Presidential election, throwing it to the House and provoking a constitutional crisis, then serving for four years as Jefferson's VP, killing Burr near the end of his term.  But it was after he retired from American politics that his life gets very interesting:  Burr hatched a plan to pry the southern half of the Louisiana Purchase away from American control and to set up his own American Empire.  He colluded with American frontiersman, traitor extraordinaire General James Wilkinson, as well as making offers to the governments of France, England, and Spain - at one point even offering to kidnap or kill President Jefferson in order to facilitate the breakup of the Union.  As a result, be became the only former Vice President ever formally tried on charges of treason. Unfortunately, much of the evidence that would have proved his guilt was hidden in letters and diplomatic archives and would not see the light of day for many years, and so he was acquitted - only to proceed to Europe and continue to plot against the USA!  This was a fascinating and entertaining book; I highly recommend it.

THE STONE OF EBENEZER by Susan van Volkenburgh is a historical novel that covers the period chronicled in the last chapters of the Book of Judges and the beginning of I Samuel.  While the dialogue is a bit stilted to our modern ear, much of its contents is lifted both from the Bible and from Canaanite inscriptions.  This is a historical novel that generally gets things right; a few minor grammatical errors don't get in the way of the story.  I was surprised at how good it actually was.

[BoyScoutKevin]

Ye-es!, but more likely 6 of 1 or 7 that are different.

Piu Marie Eatwell
The Dead Duke, His Secret Wife, and the Missing Corpse :
an Extraordinary Case of Deception and Intrigue.
1 more non-fiction


Muller and Pronzini
(husband and wife writing duo)
Americans
award winners
The Plague of Thieves Affair
in the Carpenter and Quincannon series
Heroes: American
Place: San Francisco, California
Time: the Past


The Clone Wars
Various writers. Various artists.
v.3. The Warriors of Taloraen -- v.4. The Colossus of Destiny -- v.5. Deadly Hands of Shan-ju -- v.6. The Star crusher Trap -- v.7. Strange Allies.


Bonnie Macbird
award winner
Art in the Blood
Sequel to Unquiet Spirits


Kate Gavino, compiler
Last Night's Reading :
Illustrated Encounters with Extraordinary Authors

1st. Draw a portrait of the author.
2nd. Have the author sign it.
3rd. Have author add something profound about writing.

Between March 20, 2013, and September 24, 2015, the compiler attended 105 different book signings or about 1 every 9 days.

Young and Parker
Rocket Raccoon  :
[a graphic novel]
v.1. A Chasing Tale
v.2. Is to be Story Tales

Who'd have believed that 2 of my favorite heroes in the Super Heroes Universe would be a raccoon with anthropomorphism and a sentient tree.


Wilson and Morikaua
Lafcadio Hearn's the Faceless Ghost :
and Other Macabre Tales from Japan
Hearn was an ex-pat Greek who died in Japan in 1904.
Wilson is another ex-pat.
And Morikaua is an award winner.

Next time: and a half dozen more differents.

[AoTFan]

I'm re-reading James Herriot's Every Living Thing.  If you like animals, or just funny stories, you should check out his work.  His books chronicle his time as a veteran from the 1940s on up.  The stories are just really funny and down to earth.

[Murtlap]

I am reading now the Devil in the White city by Eric Larson

[Rev. Powell]

[BoyScoutKevin]

Ye-es!
These half dozen.

Graphic Shakespeare
David Salaria, creator and designer
with various adaptors and illustrators

Hamlet -- Macbeth -- Julius Caesar -- Romeo and Juliet -- and A Midsummer's Night's Dream.

The wish is for them to do the other Shakespeare plays. For those without a familiarity, it's a good intro., and for those who have a familiarity, such as myself, it's a good re-intro.


Victoria Thompson
American
Murder on Nicholas Avenue
18th in the Gaslight series
Hero: American
Place: New York City
Time: the past


Nele Neuhaus
German
I Am Your Judge
translator, Steven T. Murray
4th in the Kirchhoff and von Bodenstein series
Hero: German
Place: Germany
Time: 2012 and 2013

German publication 2014  -- Copyrighted 2015 -- English version published 2016.


The Big Book of Sherlock Holmes Stories
editor, and with an intro., by Otto Penzler.

81 different stories by 79 different authors. Stories range from a publication date of 1892, or the year after Doyle published the 1st Holmes story, to 2011.
+an 1 page bio of the author, with other works by the authors, and theatrical film and TV show versions of other works by author.


Simon Schwartz
German
First Man :
Re-imagining Matthew Henson
Laura Watkinson, translator

German publishing date 2012. American publishing date 2015.

A factual/fictional look, in graphic format, at an Afro-American from the U.S., as seen by the Eskimos of Greenland, and told by a German in Germany. That's international.

May you live in interesting times. He lived from 1866, or the decade that slavery ended in the U.S., to 1955, or the decade that is regarded as the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. And his 2nd wife lived to 1968, or the decade that the Civil Rights Movement really took off in the U.S.  And in those racist times, Peary and Henson really had an odd relationship.


R.L. Stine presents . . .
Goosebumps :
Slappy's Tales of Horror

Jamie Tolagson's A Shocker on Shock Street -- Gabriel Herandez' The Werewolf of Fever Swamp -- Ted Narfeh's Ghost Beach -- and Dave Roman's Night of the Living Dummy.


Next time: 5 different books in different formats.