Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic 50 Book Challenge 2011

And more John Sandford:

Naked Prey
Hidden Prey
Broken Prey
Invisible Prey

Almost had a serious disaster yesterday when my Kindle froze during a recharge. Ended up with some glitches, but fortunately the main one - bookmarks no longer working and a book not remembering what page I was on if I closed it down - seems to have affected just the book I was in the middle of yesterday. The new one I opened up today is holding its last page, so hopefully all future books will too. Phew!

I still have a glitch where it's putting the current collection at the end of my collections list instead of at the top, but I can live with that!

LabRat

#21 Nelson Mandela - Albrecht Hegemann

An updated biography.

#22 Strictly Business - Francesca Clementis

#23 Girl Meets Ape - Chris Manby

Summer chick lit

#24 The Secret of Shambala - James Redfield

Spiritual voyage meets science fiction

#25 The Color of Magic - Terry Pratchett

After years of waiting, I've finally read the first Discworld novel. Hurray!!!

# 26 A Casa Quieta - Rodrigo Guedes de Carvalho

A novel about loss and life by one of the best portuguese contemporary writers.

# 27 A Streetcar named Desire & other plays - Tenessee Williams

A compilation of four plays: Cat on a hot tin roof, Suddenly Last Summer, Summer and Smoke, A Streetcar named Desire. Wonderful.

It's beeing a busy summer. Seems like I might actually reach the 50 book mark

#12 - Lois and Clark: Heatwave

#13 - Lois and Clark: Exile

#14 - Lois and Clark: Dangerous Games

A bit of very light reading. They aren't great by any means, but they *were* fun. I think I liked Exile the best. Heatwave was fun with the premise of Lois and Clark going undercover on a film shoot. But then again, I love anything to do with film. Dangerous Games was my least favorite because it felt like Clark got a lobotomy in that one. He really *was* a lunkhead in it. However, I did like all of the Lois kicking butt and taking names parts of all three.

All in all, I've read much better fanfics from our talented pool of writers here on the boards and the archive.

Starting A Game Of Thrones now...

Have to agree, DC. I thought these three were a lot of fun when I read them, years back, so long as you didn't take them too seriously. But fanfic beats them by a mile - cheaper, too.

Hope you enjoy GoT!

LabRat

Thanks Labby! I used my Amazon gift card to pick up the LnC books - can't beat free (and they were all 1 penny each before the shipping).

GoT is going well - about 50 pages in at the moment. So far, so good.

My reading time was curtailed in the last week and a half. Mostly due to the glitches on the Kindle becoming impossible, so I had to make the tough decision to reset to factory settings. And then spend four days putting 934 books back on the Kindle and sorting them back into Collections again. Oy!

Last of the Prey series:

Phantom Prey
Wicked Prey
Storm Prey
Buried Prey
Rules of Prey
Shadow Prey

Having spent so long on one thriller series, although I greatly enjoyed them and they've become big favourites, I'm looking forward to changing direction. I'm in the mood for some SFantasy now and, as it happens, I've just discovered that Jim Butcher has written one that looks very intriguing. So off to get started on that.

LabRat

#32 The Physcik Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe

Interesting spin on the Salem Witch trials

The Codex Alera Series - Jim Butcher.

Furies of Calderon.
Academ's Fury
Cursor's Fury
Captain's Fury
Princep's Fury
First Lord's Fury

I absolutely loved this fantasy series. Full of engaging characters (Tavi and Kitai in particular are just adorable), humour, action, drama, romance... Some of its power is diluted by the author's refusal to kill of any of his major characters so that by the time you get to beyond book one you can't really feel much for the peril they get into. But, you know, sometimes that's no bad thing. It didn't hurt Eddings and in some ways The Belgariad is what this series reminds me of. Although the number of times each character almost dies and is brought back by magic healing does get a little irksome after a while. Still, each book kept me up to the small hours, unable to go to bed until I read 'just one more chapter' and found out what happened next. Which is surely the sign of a successful series. Hugely enjoyable.

LabRat

Hope it's alright to join your 50 book challenge
iam not as quick at reading as lab rat who seems to have a super power in this area
So off I go

No,1 Agatha christie- the mysterious mr quin
Not as well know as her other two certions miss maple or hercule poirot but mr quin is very diffant he appears from nowhere he comes and goes no one knows who is
But with his help mr satterthwaite a looker on life that see things others do not and plays a real part in life at last togather they unravel strange mysteries from love to murder in 12 short stories that offer something for everyone


No,2 Walter Scott - Ivanhoe
Can't beat a classic Story of days gone bye that has everything in it
idea for a long train trip to work

No,3 Agatha christie - curtain :poirot's last case
The great belgium detective last case very sad but one of his best with arthur hastings back to give assistance to be his eye and ears in this case with poirot's legs gone but with the little grey cells still working there is many mysteries to be found at there 2nd vist to styles court that now is a guest house
This was one of her best story's so many twists and turns that ever when your have found out what happen it's still a stock
Just great


No,4 bernard cornwell- the pale horseman
Set in 871-899 of king Alfred reign
The main hero is uhtred who is Saxon cheated of his inheritance,adrift in a world of fire and treachery he has to make a choice :whether to fight for the Vikings who raised him or for king Alfred who dislikes him
Uhtred finds himself on Alfred side in a uneasy alliance that's leads them to the last remaining Saxon army and will fight for the very existence of England

No,5 Harry sidebottom- part 1 fire in the east
Set in the roman empire of 256ad the hero is ballista who is a barbarian in the roman army lots of battles and superior fiction a good read

No ,6 harry sidebottom - part 2 warrior of Rome
Ballista has returned to an imperial court obsessed with intrigue and religious fanaticism . Then he discovers men who would rather see him dead than alive

Black Creek Crossing - John Saul
House of Reckoning - John Saul

Trademark creepiness and ghostly goings on. Saul has never been in the top flight of horror writers for me, but these were fun enough anyway. And quite short, it seemed. That's the trouble with Kindle - no idea how many pages were in either of these. But they didn't seem very long.

Course I might just have gotten through them so fast because for the past two days I've been stuck upstairs bored out of my mind with nothing else to do but read - while Stuart paints the living room.

LabRat

#33 Forty Signs of Rain by Kim Stanley Robinson

Although I like science fiction and this writer does a great job explaining science concepts and even how the process of science works (grant reviews,polititcs, etc), this book never fully engaged me.

#34 Goodnight Nobody by Jennifer Weiner

I read another book by this author that I really liked. I wasn't as impressed by this one.

Joan

You Belong To Me - Mary Higgins Clark
Let Me Call You Sweetheart - Mary Higgins Clark

Through A Dark Mist - Marsha Canham
In The Shadow of Midnight - Marsha Canham

I thoroughly enjoyed these two historical romances, set in the reign of Prince John. The romance did tend to wander a little too much into bodice-ripper territory for my tastes now and then, but that didn't detract from it being fun with a large group of characters I grew rather fond of. Wouldn't mind reading more from this author - especially as the second book rather contained a teaser for another story in its ending, although each book is a separate story in its own right, but with some of the same characters spanning each.

ETA: Aha - and a quick scan of MC's books on Amazon reveals that these two are first and second in her Robin Hood Trilogy - so guess The Last Arrow, the third book, will be the tale of the tease.

The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

I've been meaning to get to this one for a long time now and I was not disappointed. Absolutely superb. I was unable to put it down until I was done and now I'm desperate to find out what happens next. I suspect books 2 and 3 will keep me up well into the night, on the edge of my seat, just as much as this one did. It's been a long time since a book provoked as many "OMG" and "Oh, you SOB!" moments out of me while I was reading.

LabRat

#35 Peeps by Scott Westerfeld
I'm not a huge vampire fan but my son likes this author so I thought I'd try it out. Interesting twist on vampire lore.

At this rate, I don't think I'm going to reach 50 books by the end of Dec. But I haven't officially given up.

Joan

LabRat, you'll have to let me know what you think of the ending once you've finished all three books. My family and I disagree on that one.

Joan

Catching Fire (Hunger Games 2) - Suzanne Collins.
Mockingjay (Hunger Games 3) - Suzanne Collins.

Well, I've just this minute read the last of Mockingjay and I feel I have to put down my thoughts while they're fresh in my head.

What did I think of the ending? I cried when Buttercup showed up. There were a few small details I didn't agree with - and all I'll say on that is that I can't help thinking about Snow's grand-daughter.

But on the whole...it fit. It was a bittersweet ending and it felt right. And there wasn't a moment in the entire trilogy where I wasn't riveted to the page. This was a truly remarkable piece of work, that I'll revisit again as an old favourite in years to come.

LabRat

I prefered Boy A too but it was okay. My husband and daughter felt the ending was a tremendous let down. She wanted a truly happy ending while my husband felt happier or sadder would've been better. My son and I thought it was fine as written. Definitely an excellent series of books. I hope the movie does it justice.

Joan

Re "The Hunger Games" trilogy - one could argue that the ending was a bit of a downer. (I don't want to do any spoiling here.) I personally thought that it was well within the context of the stories. Katniss et al have been through a whole lot. They're not going to come out of everything unscarred.

I'm in agreement with Labby - I thought it was an excellent series. It's certainly one that left me thinking for a long time afterward.

This was definitely my thinking. If there had been a traditionally fairytale happy ending I don't think it would have satisfied me as much as the bittersweet ending we got. It wouldn't have felt true. Nor would I have been satisfied with a completely downbeat ending as I felt the characters deserved better than that. All things considered, I think it was the right ending for the characters.

LabRat