Vintage Tales discussion

right now I am finishing Sins of a Priest and will get to my other reads after that.

Right now, I'm between novels, waiting to start a planned buddy read with a friend. In the meantime, I'm filling in by reading stories in the anthology The Vampire Hunters' Casebook, one of many edited by the late Peter Haining, who was well known as an indefatigable editor of genre collections, mostly of speculative fiction or mysteries. Surprisingly, I've only read two previous books that he edited; but I definitely liked those two!

Finished To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Have started Emile Zola's The Belly of Paris.

Right now I am reading A Monster Calls which is pretty good and I hope to finish it soon. This is by the author who wrote the Chaos walking trilogy which I am almost finished with too.

The fact that two years ago, I reviewed the book that I started reading this morning, Fire Storm by my Goodreads friend Mackenzie Dare, suggests that this is a reread. In a very real way, though, it isn't: although she kept the same cover, title, and ISBN, Mackenzie has re-written the book in the light of constructive criticisms from me and other reviewers. I promised her then that I'd read the new version sometime, and edit my review accordingly. It's been awhile since I made that promise; but I've finally gotten the opportunity to make good on it, and I started on the book this morning.

My first introduction to the outstanding fiction writing of LeAnn Neal Reilly (who I'm proud to say is one of my Goodreads friends) was through getting a free review copy of her novel The Last Stratiote. After reading and reviewing that one, my appetite was whetted for the rest of her work. Finally, this morning I got started on reading another Reilly novel, Saint Sebastian's Head.

Right now I am finishing Illusion and then will get to my other reads afterwards.

Last week, Barb and I gave up on our read of Forging the Darksword; six chapters in, neither of us were getting into it at all. :-( I elaborate more on this at www.goodreads.com/review/show/1217232393 (although that's not an actual review, since I didn't finish the book).

Instead, we've started on the first volume of Dave Duncan's Kings Blades fantasy series, The Gilded Chain. This one has been sitting in my TBR piles since I got a copy for Christmas in 1998, the year it was published; so it's about time I read it!

Have finished The Belly of Paris. In the beginning I was a bit put off by the description of putrid smells of the markets, but the story itself got me going. The ending brought tears to my eyes. Here's my 4-star review:-

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I haven't made up my mind yet which book I'll get to next. Maybe Pride and Prejudice or The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Volume V: Une Vie and Other Stories.

Classic-wise I am almost done reading the ebook Northanger Abbeyand its pretty good so far.

Another one of my groups is starting a common read on May 1. While I wait to take part in that, I'm filling in the time by reading in the short story anthology Did You Say Chicks?!, the sequel to the sword-and-sorcery collection Chicks in Chainmail, which I read about six years ago. Esther Friesner has edited a whole series of these books; I really enjoyed the first collection.

I'm currently reading The Shining and Warbreaker so I will be finished with them soon.

I'm reading The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Volume V: Une Vie and Other Stories - almost finished the novel "Une Vie" ("A Woman's Life").

Doomed by Chuck Palahniuk
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Duma Key by Stephen King
...as well as simultaneously enjoying the delicious works of John Keats!

I have just finished Atonement (While not a classic YET, I have a feeling it's well on it's way to becoming one!) and just picked up Madame Bovary. I have only read the 1st chapter, but hopefully I will get into that mode of reading that type of book as I progress.

Although the Kindle app on my PC isn't used much, since I prefer print books, I do use it to read books by new (to me) authors that are offered for free, to see if they're good enough for purchase in print. So when my Goodreads friend Quentin Wallace recently offered the Kindle edition of his first novel, Brackett Hollister: The Werewolf Pack, as a freebie for a couple of days, I grabbed up a copy. I started on it last night, in addition to the print books I'm reading.

I listened to Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier. Loved it. Read it the first time, and listened recently. Bethlehem Road I finished today by Anne Perry. Is there a novel being discussed here?

Forgot to mention, I also listened to Crime and Punishment by Nabokov. Loved it as well.

For some time, I've had a copy of my Goodreads friend Lance Charnes' debut action-adventure/espionage novel Doha 12 sitting on my shelf (I bought it, I think, a couple of years ago). Finally, I decided it was about time I read it (I've been wanting to, because of the rave reviews!), so I got started on it yesterday.

I am almost done with Instinct, got Wildwood to read next and other reads.

Finished A Woman's Life and the short stories in The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Volume V: Une Vie and Other Stories.

My review of A Woman's Life ("Une Vie"):

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I've done about 20% of Pride and Prejudice. The only character I like so far is Mr. Bennet. The story is OK but not crazy about it.

Recently, I won a copy of God's Daughter, by my Goodreads friend Heather Day Gilbert, in a giveaway; and with perfect timing, it arrived in the mail yesterday, just in time to become my current read. :-) It's a historical novel about the Vikings in the New World (I'm of Scandinavian descent, so that's right up my alley) near the beginning of the 11th century.

Currently reading The Paris Wife which is historical fiction about Ernest Hemingway's relationship with his wife Hadley Richardson in the early years of their marriage. I'm enjoying it a lot!

Right now I am reading Serial Uncut: Extended Edition which is about Serial Killer hitchhikers, The Isle of the Lost which is about the Disney Villains kids, and a Christian book called Snitch which are all pretty good so far.

Recently, Goodreads author E. J. Fisch, who's in one of my other Goodreads groups, made her SF series-opener Dakiti free for a day on Kindle. I've read good things about that book, so I seized the opportunity to try it out for free and see if it's worth buying in print form. Today, I started reading it, and I can already tell that Fisch has a professional-level command of the English language (which, unfortunately, too many self-published authors do not!).

Yesterday, I started reading a spin-off book from the old Xena, Warrior Princess TV series: Xena: The Huntress And The Sphinx by Ru Emerson. It's one I picked up from BookMooch awhile back (I was a fan of the series); and right now I wanted a quick read that I can finish in time for a common read next month in another one of my groups.

I'm reading The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens. It's humorous and doesn't contain the serious plot that you usually find in his works. It's more of a fun, relaxing read.

Have just finished To Kill a Mockingbird.

My Review

I'm about to start The Hours by Michael Cunningham.

i'm listening to the audiobook The Girl with All the Gifts, am going to start Company of Liars and my next classic will be The Arabian Nights: Tales from a Thousand and One Nights next month.

Last year, I mentioned the first book of Suzanne Arruda's Jade del Cameron mystery series, Mark of the Lion, as a book I was reading aloud to Barb whenever we traveled in the car together. We both loved it, and counted Jade as a new addition to the ranks of our favorite fictional heroines. Now, we've started on her second adventure, Stalking Ivory, as our latest "car book."

Finished The Hours.

My Review

I'm now reading Alias Grace and loving it - it's very engaging to say the least!

Currently, I'm taking part in a common read of Cakes and Ale by W. Somerset Maugham this month in my Fans of British Writers group. Because of being out of town earlier this month and having to get a copy from a library in another town (though part of the same system), I had to start on it late; but it's short, and I expect to finish well before the month is over.

My Goodreads friend David Wittlinger recently gifted me with a free review copy of his debut novel, The Strong One, which I'm reading as an e-book. (At present, there isn't any print edition, though the author hopes to release one eventually.)

I have been continuing to read The Yellow Claw which is a pretty good mystery and hope to finish it soon so I can write my review later, Eyes wide open by Ted Dekker is pretty good so far so will read more later with The Last Princess and The Accidental Book Club

My review of the historical adventure Freedom and Necessity is up. I gave it 4 stars, it was wonderful. I'm reading the LibriVox audio version of Middlemarch now.

Barb and I just started a new "car book" yesterday, Operation Chaos by Poul Anderson. We'll probably read quite a bit in it today, since we'll be leaving shortly to spend a few days with her side of the family, and it's a long drive!

Werner wrote: "Barb and I just started a new "car book" yesterday, Operation Chaos by Poul Anderson. We'll probably read quite a bit in it today, since we'll be leaving shortly to spend a few days..."

The only Poul Anderson book I've read is one of his fantasies, The Broken Sword, which I thought was excellent. I gave it 4 stars. I want to read some of his sf at some point (a friend recommended Harvest of Stars to me). I haven't heard of Operation Chaos before though.

Beth, Operation Chaos was recommended to me several years ago (when I was new to Goodreads) by a Goodreads friend, but I can't remember now who it was. The Broken Sword sounds familiar, and I'll have to check that one out!

For SF by Anderson, I'd definitely recommend The High Crusade. My review of that one is here: www.goodreads.com/review/show/18226215 .

Last night, I finally started on The Fatal Tree, the final volume in Stephen Lawhead's Bright Empires series, which I'm buddy reading with a Goodreads friend. She started before I did, because I had an unusually long wait in getting my copy by interlibrary loan; but I expect to catch up with her before we finish.

Right now I am reading Warriors of the Black Shroud which is a pretty good YA fantasy thus far.

Fungi (the title is taken from a poem by H. P. Lovecraft, "Fungi From Yuggoth") is an irregularly published magazine of short fiction, poetry, art, and nonfiction commentary, focused on the weird and macabre. (It could be described as a present-day version of the old pulp magazine Weird Tales, though it has a large-size, glossy format.) Perhaps because they're published irregularly, Amazon and Goodreads treat the individual issues as books (and they have ISBNs like books).

My goodreads friend Andrew Seddon has a story in Fungi, Summer 2015, and recently sent me a free review copy. So that's what I'm currently reading, rather than an actual book as such.

I've finished The Good Earth and have started The Odyssey. This ancient classic is giving me a pleasant surprise - I feel like reading an enchanting story in a song! (I had dreaded it would be boring. How silly!)

It's been awhile since I posted an update about my reading here! Last week, I finished reading another free review copy from my friend Andrew, this time of an anthology of original scary stories set in or around New York's Sleepy Hollow, Legends of Sleepy Hollow. (Andrew has a story in this one as well.) This was a relatively quick read (though a good one; I gave it five stars); I had finished and reviewed it before I had time to post about it here! Now, rather than start a brand-new book for my regular reading while I wait for a common read in October in another group, I'm filling in the time with a book on my "being read intermittently" shelf, The Mammoth Book of Men O'War.

However, Barb and I recently did start a new "car book." For our 35th anniversary earlier this month, I gave her the two-volume collection of Les Savage Jr.'s corpus of novellas/stories about an outlaw heroine (no, that's not an oxymoron!) in the Old West, The Complete Adventures Of Senorita Scorpion Volume 1 and Complete Adventures of Senorita Scorpion, Volume 2, reprinted by Altus Press in 2012. The short-lived Savage (1922-1958) was a serious, talented writer who earned the lasting acclaim of many readers; it would be fair to say that these tales, published in 1945-49 for the pulp magazine market of that day, are genre classics (if you're not among those who think the words "genre" and "classic" can't be uttered in the same sentence --and I'm not!). We're reading the first volume together, and plan to follow it with the second if we continue to like it as well as we currently are.

Right now am reading Sizzling Sixteen and Killer Crust. will get back to my other September reads later.

Since I finished The Mammoth Book of Men O'War earlier this week, I've been replacing it until October with another place-holder, Andrew M. Seddon's The Deathcats of Asa'ican and Other Tales of a Space Vet. This collects his ten SF stories about space-faring veterinarian Doc Hughes (and is another free review copy from the author. I've actually beta read these years ago, as they were being written; but my memory of some is hazy, so I thought I could review them more intelligently with a reread.

Finished All Quiet on the Western Front; am half-way through Wolf Of The Plains, which is a gripping fictionalized account of Genghis Khan's childhood and youth, based on The Secret History Of The Mongols (translation by Arthur Waley).

Right now, I'm reading Haunted, by the late British writer James Herbert. (It's our common read for this month in the Supernatural Fiction Readers group.) Since it's pretty short and reads quickly, I expect to finish it soon.

Right now am reading The Keeper and other reads.

My reading is still in "fill-in time" mode; now, I'm awaiting the arrival, on Oct. 23, of our oldest daughter and son-in-law from Australia for a visit. While I wait, I've started The Collected Short Stories of Louis L'Amour, Volume 1: Frontier Stories. It's part of a three-vol. set of his Western, or "Frontier," stories. Barb owns all three; he's her favorite author, and though I've read much less of his work, I've liked what I did read so far.

My Goodreads friend Shane Joseph recently gifted me with a free review copy of his latest novel, In the Shadow of the Conquistador. Now that our company's gone (they left yesterday morning) and I'm getting back into the normal groove of reading and keeping up with Goodreads, I've started on that one. It's general fiction with a contemporary setting (as is his excellent story collection, Paradise Revisited. I'm appreciating it so far!