Not much to say this week. I’m still bogged down, trying a little of this and that, making little to no progress on any of it. I did finish Aliens: Bug Hunt, an ebook story collection of Alien stories I got from the library. It was okay, but when at the beginning of every story you know there are going to be those nasty aliens vs. humans in kill-or-be-killed situations, it takes a lot of the interest out of things.
I have other short story anthologies and collections in progress, but nothing’s exciting me just now. I’m also about a third through Orbital Decay by Allen Steele, and as I said last week at the 40 page mark, not much is happening. It reads a lot like Arthur C. Clarke at his didactic best. That’s fine, but I want some action to go with the detailed science, especially as the thing is set at a space station in Earth orbit. Yet I keep picking it up and reading a few pages before setting it aside.Meanwhile I keep looking at the spines of books on the shelves, and nothing looks especially appealing.
Barbara finished Two Lost Boys by L. F. Robertson, and liked it a lot. It’s a first novel, a legal mystery. She says she’ll read the next with this character when it becomes available. Now she’s reading the latest novel by Jeffrey Deaver, The Burial Hour. She always enjoys Deaver’s Lincoln Rhyme novels, and is racing through this one.
So how about you?
What have you been reading?
Tip the Wink 
Last week I finished The Big Killing by Annette Meyers, a mystery set on Wall Street, and did not like it that much. Now I am reading The Vanishing Act by Thomas Perry and enjoying it a lot.
I read one or maybe two of Meyers’ Wall Street mysteries, after hearing her speak on a panel a long while ago at Left Coast Crime, or maybe a Bouchercon. I don’t remember liking them all that much.
Read Every Night I dream of Hell by Malcolm MacKay. I liked this a lot. A tale of gangsters in Glasgow but plenty of twists. Also read Fatal a stand alone by John Lescroart. It was okay. I prefer his Dismas Hardy books. Just started a book about the history of the film Casablanca. Light week for me. Spending too much time watching baseball (Detroit Tigers) and binge watching Peaky Blinders on Netflix.
I finished Loren Estleman’s THE LIONESS IS THE HUNTER, his latest Amos Walker novel. Good, as expected. I also read Lee Child’s ONE SHOT, a Reacher novel that became the first Tom Cruise film in the short-lived franchise. The book was a heck of a lot better than the film. I zipped through Robert B. Rarker’s Jesse Stone novel STRANGER IN PARADISE. Here, a contract killer from Stone’s past comes to town and joins forces with Stone to battle a Miami gangster and a deadly teenage gang, all to save an unsavable fourteen-year-old girl. An above average book from Parker.
I finished two YAs: SCARED SHIRTLESS, a flawed collection of horror stories that was my FFB this week, and TOM SWIFT AND HIS AERIAL WARSHIP; or, The Naval Terror of the Seas. Every once in a while I like to dip into the campiness of the original Tom Swift books. This (published in 1915) was the eighteenth in the series, a strange tale of a coalition of English, French, German, and Russian spies trying to steal Tom’s plans for a mighty military machine during the Great War, but before America entered the fray.
I also read one graphic novel. SUPERMAN, VOL. 1: SON OF SUPERMAN, a story about how Clark and Lois try to raise their sin. So-so.
I spent a good part of the week binge-watching SENS8, the Netflix series from the Wachowskis and J. Michael Straczynski that was just (senselessly) cancelled after two incredible seasons. It’s a hopeful (but definitely NSFW) show about a “cluster” of eight people around the world who are linked psychically. It reminded me a lot of Theodore Sturgeon. Now we’re binge-watching (and re-watching HOUSE OF CARDS.
School is now out here, which means less time shuttling grandkids to and from various schools, which means !) more time to get to that list of household chores, and 2) more time to read (hopefully).
Have a great week!
I have enjoyed Tom Swift JR, but don’t like the original Tom Swift books, after having tried a handful. If the graphic novel is as you describe it, maybe it should be R rated.
Good luck with the chores, and more reading.
I’m a few pages away from finishing LITTLE WHITE LIES, Ace Atkins’ latest Spenser novel. I skipped the last few of these, and I don’t think I’ll read any more in the series.
Hope you will still be able to do some reading, after the eye problem. We’re worried about you, you are much in our thoughts.
I feel like I’m reading a lot but don’t feel like I’m getting a lot read, if that makes any sense. Let’s just say I’m reading a LOT of short stories but not getting that much fulfillment out of the novels I’ve been reading lately. I’ve abandoned a couple of things at the 50% mark – unusual for me, but I just wasn’t getting enough enjoyment out of them – and may be close to another one. It’s not that the books are bad, but they don’t provide enough of whatever it is I’m looking for at the moment. Jackie has been luckier than me with her choices lately, though that’s more understandable as she’s been reading from a list of her favorite authors and I’ve been reading new things that were recommended by others and sounded like things I’d like.
Don’t get me wrong, I am reading, and will get back to you with the list after breakfast. I did read over 100 (111 actually) stories in May, and I’m past 400 stories read in the first five months of the year. Last year I was at 402 at the end of June, not May.
You put it very well, “reading a lot but don’t feel like I’m getting a lot read”. Exactly how I’m feeling just now. I’m struggling through the Steele book, determined to finish it, though I’m not sure why.
Lots of stories. LOTS.
I trying to get caught up on the stack of Library books. I also picked up a massive copy of WAR AND PEACE. That’s my Summer Project this year. I finished Daniel Abraham’s THE DAGGER AND THE COIN series. Reading 2,500 pages of a series had its ups and down. And I also bought a bunch of books at the AAUW Book Sale!
I’ve not read W&P, pretty sure I never will, and I’m not feeling like I’ll miss a lot. You got a lot of nice books at that sale.
I picked up WAR AND PEACE too, George, after reading Pamela Paul’s MY LIFE WITH BOB, a book that really grew on me as I went along. Good book. I also read the 400+ page NO MIDDLE NAME, the complete Jack Reacher short story collection by Lee Child. I’d only read one before (a short one). A lot of these were 60+ pages. There were a couple of Reacher-as-teenager stories which stretched credulity a bit – he was the same Reacher then as now – but overall, definitely recommended for fans. The other collection I read was THE HIGHWAY KIND: Tales of Fast Cars, Desperate Drivers, and Dark Roads, edited by Patrick Millikin, Not surprisingly, a standout was Joe R. Lansdale’s Depression era story, “Driving to Geronimo’s Grave.” Another I liked was Kelly Braffet’s “Runs Good.”
The library ebook I’m in the middle of, the one I like (sort of) but keep thinking I should like more, is PATIENT ZERO, the first Joe Ledger book by Jonathan Maberry. I may just read John Scalzi’s THE COLLAPSING EMPIRE, which came from the library on Friday.
I truly believe our President is interfering with our concentration. As well as every other decent think on earth. My book group insisted on reading Megan’s latest book so I am rereading it.Could not finish the Swanson book. It was just too outlandish to believe that so many sociopaths ran into each other.
There’s an old saying that “there’s no law against stupidity”, but where the hell is this dufus even coming from? I can’t stand to see him, to hear his voice, see his hand gestures, even think about his false facts and misguided ideas. Damn and blast, what an idiot. Yet about half the voters in this country wanted him, and seem to still want him, to be President. It seems the entire GOP is off the tracks. Many are intelligent people who seem to have been hoodwinked in some fashion, drinking the far right, super conservative kool-aide, hating anything that happened in the previous administration, and doing a big clap-hands for Trump. BAH.
It’s more like 25%, because too damn many people just didn’t vote for whatever – to me – unacceptable reason they had. I hope they’re happy now. We are truly becoming not only a laughingstock but an object of pity.
Jackie agrees with that. She also says he’s affecting people’s eating and drinking, as well as depression.
I definitely agree, ‘fearless leader’ is interrupting my entire routine. I have to battle through the day NOT to think of what he may be up to next. I wake up and think, oh good, we’re still here. Of course checking into Facebook several times a day doesn’t help. But at least there I can vent. 🙂 And I recently signed on to The Washington Post as well as The NY Times, so I’m there too. I’m a glutton for punishment I guess.
Anyway, I too have a batch of books home from the library. A couple I gave up on like Preston and Child’s THE OBSIDIAN CHAMBER. I keep picking up these Pendergast novels expecting something better and am usually disappointed. But he’s such an intriguing character and I keep hoping against hope – maybe the next one. I did love THE RELIC and CABINET OF CURIOSITIES and am glad to hear that there might be a TV series. Also read a few pages into ALICE AND THE ASSASSIN by R.J. Koreto which features Alice Roosevelt and her bodyguard as an unlikely crime solving duo. But just couldn’t get into it though I usually like this sort of thing. I was also bitterly disappointed in WAKING GODS by Sylvan Neuvel, after the brilliant first book in the series, SLEEPING GIANTS. So I say, read SLEEPING GIANTS and forget the rest. 🙂 Also disappointed in Malcolm Gladwell’s WHAT THE DOG SAW. I’ve read two of his other books and enjoyed them very much, so maybe it’s just me this time out – maybe not in the mood.
However did love THE QUESTION OF THE FELONIOUS FRIEND by E.J. Copperman/Jeff Cohen.
Also looking forward to Thomas Perry’s THE OLD MAN as well as THE INHERITANCE by Charles Finch, a terrific series you don’t hear much about. I’ve got Laurie R. King’s latest Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes book here as well, THE MURDER OF MARY RUSSELL. And last, but certainly not least, E.B. WHITE ON DOGS. Phew!
Not even mentioning all the vintage books which keep arriving in the mail since I can’t seem to stay away from Abe Books. Ha!
P.S. Didn’t realize Jeffrey Deaver has a new Lincoln Rhyme book. I’m adding it to my next library haul. Of course with those books I fast forward through the awful violence, it’s just Rhyme as a character that I love reading about. I’m a whimp.
Wonderful lists of hits and misses, Yvette. I’m not at all familiar with Charles Finch, but will look him up. Barbara always tries to stay on top of her favorites so she can reserve the new books the minute the library put them on order.
I suspect someone donated their Science Fiction collection to the AAUW Book Sale. Hundreds of books were wrapped in plastic. And, most of them were in wonderful condition!