What are you reading this week of December 27, 2015?

[hermetic]

The continuing Outlander adventures in Voyager. I'm amazed there's anything left of poor Jamie after what Gabaldon has put him through. And we've still got a long way to go. My dear sister sent me the DVDs of the first season of Outlander so I have that to look forward to later.

I bought myself a book for Christmas: Neil Gaiman's Overture. It's a graphic prelude to the Sandman series which I have owned and loved for many years. So this is a real treat for me.

What'd you get?

(Notice anything different about me? )

[TexasProgresive]

1. "Old Man's War" by John Scalzi

Finished Outlander and thought I would take a break from Claire and Jamie while the are still healthy. The Scalzi book is pretty close to classic SciFi. I do wish the blurb writers had not made comparisons to Heinlein, as it will stand on its own.

P.S. it is storming off and on here and the internet (satellite) is coming and going. It doesn't look like we're getting anything dangerous with straight line or circular winds - just rain and more rain.

[hermetic]

2. I remember reading that one

some years ago. Good book.

Hope you are in a safe place. Pretty scary stuff going on down there. I'm in the Idaho desert, surrounded by several inches of snow with howling winds and temps just above zero. No warm up in sight, either. NOT normal.

[japple]

6. Stay safe, TP. Don't know where you are, but it looks like blizzards are on the way to

the panhandle. We're drowning here in North Georgia and thinking of trying to grow rice in the garden instead of peas. It's not too worrisome where I live unless the winds start uprooting trees. We've had the doors/windows open and fans running for over a week. Some relatives have put on their A/C!

[TexasProgresive]

7. When I left the house this morning the AC was cycling with the outside temp at 80

in 45 minutes the temperature dropped 38 degrees. We aren't likely to get snow or ice that's west of I-35. 3.4 inches in the rain gauge so far. The rain has stopped for now but may return in a bit. We are like you with standing water but no flowing water. I just fed our goats and dogs wearing the obligatory wellies. BTW- the goats and dogs are high and dry. the dogs are hoping for snow or at least sleet so they can become crazy rambunctious, Great Pyrenees.

[Enthusiast]

9. Those dogs probably love cooler weather.

[url=http://www.freesmileys.org/emoticons.php][img][/img][/url]

[Enthusiast]

10. A/C! Incredible!

We have been in the mid 60° here in Ohio! Bizarre weather.

[japple]

3. Happy New Year to everyone in this group. Hermetic, it looks like you have a new

avatar picture, though I can't quite make out what it is. Looks a bit like a little green hedgehog!

Last night, I finished reading the beautifully written In Open Spaces by Russell Rowland.

Set in the vast and unforgiving prairie of eastern Montana from 1916 to 1946, In Open Spaces is the compelling story of the Arbuckle brothers:

George
A rising baseball star who mysteriously drowns in the river

Jack
A World War I veteran who abandons his family only to return to reclaim the family ranch

Bob
The youngest brother, whose marriage to Helen creates a fault line between him and the rest of his family

Blake
A shrewd, observant man burdened with growing suspicions of Jack's role in his brother's death

With breathtaking descriptions of the Montana landscape, Russell Rowland masterfully weaves a fascinating tale of the psychological wars that can rip a family apart...and, ultimately, the redemption that can bring them back together.

There is a sequel, The Watershed Years, which I hope the library has.

I have downloaded Church of Marvels by Lesley Parry after reading a nice review of it in Book Page.

What do two twin sisters who star in a Coney Island sideshow, a woman whose mother-in-law may have had her committed to an insane asylum, and a sanitation worker who finds an orphaned baby girl while completing his rounds one night have in common? The question sounds like the set up to a rather ghoulish joke, and yet untangling this mystery forms the basis of Leslie Parry’s dazzling debut.

After having a copy of Book Page hand delivered to me every month for many, many years by my librarian sister, I found myself missing it when she retired and moved in with me last year. I didn't realize that one could have an individual subscription to this periodical until today, so I've ordered my own subscription. It will be nice having it once again. There is also the online version which is much like the print version, but I much prefer it in print.
http://bookpage.com/

Happy reading in 2016!!

[hermetic]

4. Cool!!

I just subscribed. Thanks for sharing.

That little guy is a seasheep. Or something like that. It's the little yellow star above the picture that has been missing for a few years. It's good to have it back again so I am able to do more things here, like change my avatar.

[japple]

5. Congrats on the return of the star. I love the little seasheep.

[Enthusiast]

8. Hello, everyone! Thank you for the great thread, hermetic.

I finished Avenue of Mysteries by John Irving. There are many things to appreciate in Avenue of Mysteries if you are a John Irving fan. I understand Irving's books are not for everyone and Avenue of Mysteries is way out there.

I have started In Bitter Chill by Sarah Ward.

Mrs. Enthusiast finished The Ritual Bath by Faye Kellerman. She really liked this one so we ordered the next two in the series. Now she is reading The Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke. She is enjoying this one very much. The Tin Roof Blowdown takes place in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It is a rather more ambitious undertaking by James Lee Burke than usual.

[Number9Dream]

11. Finished the "Dune" prequel trilogy - war against the thinking machines (spoiler alert).

The prequel trilogy is comprised of "The Butlerian Jihad", "The Machine Crusade", and "The Battle of Corrin". I found the trilogy interesting enough to read something like 2,000 pages. No, they were not as good as the original "Dune" novel, but I was okay the overall quality. For fans of the original Dune series, I would say to try "The Butlerian Jihad" just to see if you like it. If you've read Dune, the trilogy is interesting in that these books introduce ancient ancestors of the Atreides and Harkonnen bloodlines. We also discover the first Arrakis resident to ride a sandworm, how melange became the most precious substance, how humans learned to fold space, the origin of mentats, the origin of the Bene Gesserit, and other bits related to the original Dune. There is constant action, and the plot moves along quickly. On the negative side, for me personally, these books were much more dark than the original Dune, and more violent and gruesome. By the end of the war, billions of human beings have been killed, and it doesn't feel like victory. I don't know if I want to try any more Dune books by Brian Herbert for now. If anyone else here has read these, I'd enjoy reading your take on these.