Reading anything?

[BoyScoutKevin]

Ye=es!

Concluding . . .

Andrew Shivarts'
Royal Bastards

Out of a 100 book characters who die . . .
85% will be men
12% will be women
02% will be boys
01% will be girls

But here . . .

80% were men
07% were women
09% were boys
04% were girls.

Thus . . . the percentage of men and women who died declined, while the percentage of boys and girls who died increased.

He has that rare bad character who becomes good, and the even rarer good character who becomes bad.

The more you think about it. The better it becomes.

"Be still my beating heart," she said, rolling her eyes.
Me: ROTFL!

While not as funny as My Lady Jane, there are o'er 3 dozen LOLs!

It works. The female viewpoint from the male perspective.

Not particularly original, but he does unoriginality better than anyone else. He makes it work.

Next time: 6 of 1 or a half dozen of the other.

[316zombie]

just started on the early winter marathon of diane duane's young wizards series...i need to see if i have them, all, don't think i do.

[Rev. Powell]

[FatFreddysCat]

Currently: Stephen King, Bazaar of Bad Dreams

On deck: Bruce Dickinson, What Does This Button Do?

[Alex]

Currently: Stephen King, Bazaar of Bad Dreams

On deck: Bruce Dickinson, What Does This Button Do?

When you've finished What Does This Button Do could you let me know if it happens to mention him being chased by a man with a 2 by 4 before a concert in the early 90s please.

Just don't ask why I am asking.

[BoyScoutKevin]

I'd said I'd do a 6 of 1 or a half dozen, but I'm going to put that off to later. Now I want to do a compare and contrast of 2 books.

Miller's
Power House
an oral history of the Creative Artists Agency

and
Altman and Cross'
The 50 Year Mission
an oral history of Star Trek. This is v.2. or the last 25 years. We'll get to v.1. or the 1st 25 years later.

CAA=Creative Artists Agency
ST=Star Trek

01. Both are oral histories.

02. They were both founded about the same time.
ST=1966
CAA=1971

03. Though both were founded in the U.S. by Americans, they have grown into something that is international.

04. Both founders proved to be controversial.

05. Though, without either founder, neither would have been founded.

06. Both later had to turn over to others what they founded.

07. And both founders proved to be 1-trick ponies. Neither before or after were they able to found something comparable.

08. Both of that which was founded was striven by personal conflict within what was founded.

09. Both books open up a window to look thru, but it is an outside window looking out and not an inside window looking in.

10. What both books need?
ST: Whatever became of?
CAA: Something about life outside the founding.
ST: Photos of the people not seen on the screen.

11. Both of what was founded became the largest in their field.

12. Though competitors have since whittled both down in size, if not importance.

13. Both, at founding, were believed to be headed for failure, but both became wildly successful.

Next time: 6 of 1 or a half dozen of the other.

[Rev. Powell]

I'm slowly reading (sometimes re-reading) through a list of the 100 greatest works of world literature (this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokklubben_World_Library).

While I'm waiting for a volume of Greek tragedies I ordered from the library to show up I downloaded a free version of the "Epic of Gilgamesh": https://archive.org/details/TheEpicofGilgamesh_201606

I've read it before but it's short (about 24 pages long). Interesting to see the similarities between this and the Old Testament (including the earliest reference to the Flood).

[BoyScoutKevin]

Ye-es!
6 of 1. 6 mysteries + 1 comic book series

Debbie Howells
Brit
The Beauty of the End
1 more fiction
includes reading group guide
Hero: Brit
Place: U.K.
Time: Present

Richard Beard
Brit
The Apostle Killer
5 more fiction + 3 more nonfiction
Hero: Romanized Germanic tribesman
Place: Eurasia
Time: Present

What if the Roman Empire still existed?
What if Christ came to Earth not in the 1st century A.D., but the 21st century A.D.
What if after He was crucified, dead, and buried His disciples were being murdered in the order, place, and manner that tradition states?
What is the motive for the murders, and who is the murderer? Paul aka Saul is a prime suspect.

John Keyse Walker
American
1st novelist
award winner
Sun, Sand, and Murder
1st in the Constable Teddy Creque series
Hero: British Virgin Islander
Place: British Virgin Islands
Time: Present

Lotte and Soren Hammer
(brother and sister writing duo)
Danes
The Vanished
Martin Aitken, translator
3rd in the Konrad Simonsen series
Hero: Dane
Place: Denmark
Time: Present

Anne Perry
ex-pat Kiwi
Revenge in the Cold River
22nd in the William Monk series
+ 49 more in 3 more series + 6 stand alone novels
Hero: Brit
Place: U.K.
Time: Past

Ace Atkins
American
The Innocents
6th in the Quinn Colson series
+ 13 more fiction including 5 Spenser for Hire
Hero: American
Place: Mississippi
Time: Present

1 comic book series

Whitley and Gordon
Princeless
v. 1. Once Upon a Time -- v.2. Get Over Yourself -- v.3. Short Stories -- v.4. Be Yourself -- v.5. Pirate Princess

Next time: a half dozen of the other

[stine.greta]

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, I have read this a few years ago and here I am again reading it again.

[Alex]

Started a selection of HG Wells novels, currently going through The Island Of Dr Moreau.

[Rev. Powell]

I think this is the same book I had in college. Kind of an odd selection but contains three classic plays: "Oedipus Rex," "Medea," and "Lysistrata."

[BoyScoutKevin]

Yer-es!
and a half dozen more + 1
non-fiction and graphics

non-fiction
Rudits, Golden, Stone, Hugo
The Star Trek Book :
Strange New Worlds Boldly Explained

Andrew Fazekau
Canadian
Star Trek :
the Official Guide to Our Universe :
the True Science Behind the Starship Voyages

Of the 23 futuristic scientific devices seen on Star Trek
17 No or yet to be invented, but we have to 2166

06 Yes or have been invented by 2016
yes - medical tricoder
yes - orbital space diving
yes - stealth mode
yes - replicator (if primitive)
yes - hypno sprays
yes - personal communicators

Rich Cohen
American
award winner
The Sun and the Moon and the Rolling Stones
4 more non-fiction

graphics

Steven and Greene
Battle world : Runaways
issues 1-4
+ 5 stories from Secret Wars : Secret Love
issue 1

Riggs and Jean
Hollow City
Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children : v.2
Following Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Followed by Library of Souls
Film version of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Johnson and Pleece
an Afro-American who can pass for white and a Brit
Incognegro
Hero: Afro-American
Place: the U.S.
Time: Past

Ben Towler
American
Oyster War
3 more graphic novels
Hero: American
Place: Chesapeake Bay (U.S.)
Time: Past

Next time: 6 of 1

[indianasmith]

I just finished reading GRANT by Donald Chernow.

It's a massive biography, over 800 pages, of a man who has been called "the most underrated President in American history."  Ulysses Grant has fascinated me for years; he was an utter failure in life until his 38th birthday, when the Civil War called him from obscurity to command one of the largest armies in history.  He was a brilliant general (the Encyclopedia of Military History, compiled by two British officers, refers to his Little Black River campaign as the most brilliant military campaign ever waged in the Western Hemisphere"), a reluctant politician, a fearless crusader for civil rights, a globe-trotting goodwill ambassador for the United States, and finally, in his last years of life, a writer whose memoirs have been called the finest military history by any general since Julius Caesar.  Sadly, today he is mainly remembered for the corruption of some of his cabinet members, and for his off and on battle with alcoholism - a battle he finally won by sheer force of will.

This is a great book, that further cements Chernow's place as one of America's greatest biographers.  5/5

[stine.greta]

Always and Forever, Lara Jean

Finally on the third book of Jenny Han...

[BoyScoutKevin]

Ye-es!
6 of 1 or
6 mysteries and 1 non-fiction

Michael Pearce
Anglo-Sudanese ex-pat
The Women of the Souk
19th in the Mamur Zapt series
+ 7 more in 1 more series
Hero: Welsh ex-pat
Place: Egypt
Time: 1910s


Linda Castillo
American
award winner
Among the Dead
8th in the Kate Burkholder series
Heroine: American
Place: Ohio and New York (USA)
Time: present


Kate Saunders
Brit
award winner
The Secrets of Wish tide
1st in the Laetitia Rudd series
+ 3 more fiction + 1 juvenile fiction
Heroine: Brit
Place: England and Belgium
Time: 1850s


Craig Johnson
American
award winner
The Highwayman
12th in the Longmire series
now streaming on Netflix
+ 2 short story collections + 2 more fiction + 1 novella
Hero: American
Place: Wyoming (USA)
Time: Present


Emily Littlejohn
American
1st novelist
Inherit the Bones
Heroine: American
Place: Colorado (USA)
Time: Present


Andrew Hunt
American
award winner
Desolation Flats
3rd in the Art Oveson series
3 more non-fiction
Hero: American
Place: Utah (USA)
Time: 1930s

and 1 non-fiction
Reginald Grant, consultant editor
Brit
The History Book
104 of the greatest events in history + 44 of the greatest characters in history, from 200,000 BCE to 2015 CE, identified and explained.
12 more books in this series from . . . to . . .
business -- economics -- literature -- movies -- philosophy -- politics -- psychology -- religion -- science -- Shakespeare -- Sherlock Holmes -- sociology
A good intro to the subjects. Of course, if one wants more details on the specifics, then bibliographies are included.

Next time: and a half dozen graphic novels