Vintage Tales discussion

My physical holding shelves for TBR books are absolutely full to capacity, with more intended for immediate attention piled on my desk at home --but I've got another book coming in the mail! (Long story.) So, room had to be made by selecting my current read from the TBR piles mountains. The book I picked, and have just started, is The Guns of the South by Harry Turtledove. (This is a stand-alone novel, not part of his Timeline-191 series, and a different scenario, though the South wins the Civil War in both of them.)

Alternate histories/worlds are a favorite sub-genre of mine, and Turtledove has pretty much been the crowned king of that branch of fiction for decades. So it's surprising --and inexcusable-- that I've never before read any of his work in this field! (I did read one of his short stories once, but in a totally different genre.) So this one has been on my to-read shelf, and regarded as an eventual must-read, for ages. I've read good things about it in friend's reviews, so I have high hopes for it.

I started reading Lorna Doone, another book that has been on my to-read shelf for a long time. I really enjoyed Jude the Obscure, even though it was so sad.
I have not read anything by Turtledove. I am trying to read more Science Fiction again, which I stopped reading in the 80s. I get those books out of the library, since I am trying not to buy any books for as long as possible, or three months at least.

Just finished reading True to the Last and The Invisible Man and I'm in the middle of Hard Times and The Lost Clue. All great books! True to the Last The Invisible Man Hard Times The Lost Clue

Barb and I are continuing right along with our reading of Suzanne Arruda's Jade del Cameron historical mystery series, set in Africa in the years just after World War I, and have now started the sixth installment, The Crocodile's Last Embrace. (We actually started it over the past weekend, but things were hectic here at the time, and I got behind in my posting!)

I am reading Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsey. I saw the movie years ago, so as I am reading the book, I realize just how much I have forgotten.

For his 11th birthday this past fall, my wife and I gave our grandson Philip a copy of a book he'd seen at his school library and wanted to own, E. L. Konigsburg's Newbery Award-winning From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. He likes it quite a bit, and recently loaned it to me with his recommendation, as he did last year with John Gardner's Stone Fox. Since I take his recommendations seriously, I promised him I'd give it priority after I finished the book I was currently reading. So, I've started in it today!

I am a big fan of E.L. Konigsberg books.

Rosemarie wrote: "I am a big fan of E.L. Konigsberg books."

She's a completely new author to me, Rosemarie! I'm enjoying the book so far.

i'm currently reading Born of Vengeance and its a pretty good read.

]My author friend Andrew Seddon always generously gives me a copy of each anthology where one of his many excellent short stories appears, and I always treat these as review copies --although in truth, he'd share these with me out of kindness, whether I reviewed them or not! Since late last year, I've been sitting on two of these, and been trying as much as possible to prioritize them. Last night, I finally got a start on the shorter one, Just Desserts. It's published by the small press WolfSinger Publications, which has turned out quality anthologies before.

Over the weekend, I started two new reads. One is a paper book, Silent Screams: An Anthology of Socially Conscious Dark Fiction. This is another short story anthology, and again a gift (which I choose to treat as a review copy) from my friend Andrew Seddon, who has a story included. The cover is a disturbing and depressing image, but it fits the collection's theme: these are stories particularly aimed at giving voice to the concerns of the marginalized and oppressed.

On my Kindle app, I'm reading a short e-story (though, at 64 pages, it's at the longer side of the "short' story range), Demon's Night by Guido Henkel. The author is a member of one of my other groups, and one of my Goodreads friends gave the story a very favorable review a few years ago. It's an introduction to the author's Jason Dark series, Jason being a protagonist in the "psychic detective" tradition. You can download it free for Kindle, as a teaser for the series.

I am still reading Tigana which is a fantasy novel from 1990 so am not sure if it could be considered a classic fantasy novel but its pretty good so far

Laurel June Thompson is a local independent author here in the Bluefields; she's an acquaintance of my wife, who gave me a copy of the lady's debut novel, Falling Rain, last Christmas. Because of the personal connection, I've been wanting to prioritize that read as much as possible; but I decided to put one book ahead of it.

Thompson bases much of the plot of her novel on The Book of Enoch, an ancient Jewish writing composed between the Old and New Testaments (it wasn't actually written by the antediluvian patriarch Enoch). That book is a significant primary source for Jewish religious thought in that era, so it provides background for the study of both Testaments; it's actually been on my to-read list for years for that reason. The fact that it would also provide important background for Thompson's book gave me the push I needed to read it now, so I started on it this afternoon.

Earlier today, I started reading the novel I mentioned in my previous post, Falling Rain.

I have started reading the "Deathbed Edition" of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass (488 pages).

This month, another group I belong to is doing a common read of The Town House, the opening novel of Norah Lofts' House trilogy. I'd read this back in 1963 or thereabouts, and I rarely reread books. But I'd gotten a copy by interlibrary loan to refer to for the discussion, and intended to review the book before returning it. As the discussion proceeded, I became aware of how many details I'd forgotten, and realized that a proper review will demand a re-reading. So, I started my second read of the book this morning, though I'm joining the common read late!

I have just finished reading Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë. I borrowed it from my local library as I like Jane Eyre and hadn't read any of Anne's work. I even read the introduction by Samantha Ellis, which was informative. I was not aware that Agnes Grey was written before Jane Eyre, but published later, and unfortunately criticised as being a poor version of Jane Eyre, however much Anne Brontë had written it as more true to the life of a governess.

I would recommend Agnes Grey. Agnes is an interesting character, quite naive at the beginning of the book, but determined to do well and make her mark.

I have been meaning to read that book, so your posting has just moved it higher up on my to-read list.

I've just finished reading an illustrated copy of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and The Marvelous Land of Oz. I just read the first story, not the second, as I didn't love it. The illustrations are cool, but the story just wasn't for me.

I'm also reading Dangerous Liasons. I have tried to read it several years back and am now trying again. Plus, I've started Les Miserables again.

I read The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Holman. Not sure if I'll read the rest of the selected writings as well though.

For anyone who's interested, here's the link to the Goodreads description for a free-standing edition of the Charlotte Perkins Gilman short story that Sam mentioned in the preceding post: The Yellow Wall-Paper. I've read and appreciated this one myself; but I read it in a larger anthology, so it doesn't appear as such on my shelves, and I've never done a review of it by itself.

I've just started reading the story collection The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, by (of course) one of my favorite authors, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Most of the stories are ones I haven't read elsewhere, even though I'm a Holmes fan; and I'm particularly interested in one, "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire." That one was dramatized years ago, in the PBS adaptations of the Holmes canon starring Jeremy Brett, as "The Last Vampire" (which I taped on VHS), and I've wanted to read it ever since. (First published in 1927, the collection will also count towards an ongoing challenge in another group to rack up 250 classics.)
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Meanwhile (despite the unattractive cover) I'm also reading the short e-story Theater of Vampires, the second installment in Guido Henkel's Jason Dark story series, on my Kindle app. (I expect that to be a short read, however).

I am reading Dracula by Bram Stoker.

I've read and greatly liked the late Michael Crichton's novels Jurassic Park and Timeline, and I've been intrigued by the descriptions and some of the reviews of his last novel, Pirate Latitudes. When I found a copy of the latter at a thrift store a few years ago, I snapped it up. This morning, I finished the book I was reading sooner than I'd expected, and before checking out the library book I'd intended to follow it with; so I needed a substitute from the TBR piles here at home, and the Crichton book was the one that called to me. :-)

I enjoyed Timeline as well. Airframe was an interesting look at airplane safety and turbulence, which is why I keep my seatbelt fastened when I am sitting in my seat.

I finished Dracula and am reading The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

I've never read Airframe, Rosemarie, but I really liked Dracula and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow."

Being a college library, the library where I work doesn't spend a lot of money on contemporary fiction; but we like to have some, to encourage students to get into reading for pleasure rather than only when they have to. In some of my groups, I've encouraged members who are authors to consider donating copies of their books to us. One who took me up on that invitation, earlier this year, is Tom Holzel, author of the action-SF novel Staff Sergeant Belinda Watt.

Though it was published about a year ago, Tom's book still hasn't garnered any reviews on Goodreads except the author's (though it does have four ratings, counting his, averaging four stars, and a few positive reviews elsewhere). It's been on my to-read shelf for awhile; I've been waiting for it to be cataloged and processed for the shelf here, but I finally resolved not to make the author wait for that unpredictable event. So I borrowed it from the processing cart, and started reading it yesterday.

I am reading Lolita by Nabokov. I am in the second part of the novel and finding it a bit heavy going. I am determined to finish it this weekend.

In electronic format, I've started reading a PDF review copy of my Goodreads friend Shane Joseph's soon-to-be-published story collection, Crossing Limbo: Deep Moments, Shallow Lives. Since I've greatly enjoyed both of the books by Shane that I've read before, I have high expectations for this one.

I finished Lolita and found it quite a chore. I have just started reading the autobiography of Helen Keller.

I'm currently reading several books by and about Friedrich Nietzsche. I've found his ideas to be incredibly difficult to grapple with. The experience has been pummeling but enlightening. I'm also reading Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Books, which are a heck of a lot of fun. I recommend them to everyone.

Holly wrote: "Honestly, I'm slightly scared Amber. It just seems so daunting!"

Good luck on Paradise Lost. It's difficult, beautiful, terrifying. Let me know what you think!

One of my Goodreads friends, author Lance Charnes, recently donated his latest novel, The Collection, the opener for a projected series, to the Bluefield College library. It's a crime/mystery thriller, set in the world of high-priced art collecting (and sometimes of swindling and stealing), a milieu Lance has done a lot of research in. Since I really liked his debut novel, Doha 12, I've just started on this new one. And I'm really hoping to read his South, which is in one of my many TBR piles, early next year.

When I started my latest e-book read, I expected it to take about six weeks (I usually don't read very quickly in that format). To my great surprise, when I actually got started on it, I finished it in six days! So, I've gone on to start the next PDF in the queue, a review copy of Bumpy Roads: Glimpses in the Meadows of Memory by medical doctor Ibrahim Masoodi. It's a memoir/travelog (the author was, I believe, born in Kashmir), presented along with life lessons and health tips. (This type of nonfiction isn't really my thing, but I agreed to review it anyway.)

Some time ago, I ran across some reviews of J. B. Lynn's series opener Confessions of a Slightly Neurotic Hitwoman, featuring a protagonist who becomes a contract assassin (although not of innocent people) in order to pay the massive hospital bills for her comatose niece's care, and was intrigued enough to add it to my "maybe to read" shelf. (I haven't read many books with assassin protagonists, but I do think they have the potential to be interesting characters.) Recently, I stumbled across a short story/novella the author has published about the same character, designated as number 2.5 in the series, The Hitwoman Gets Lucky, which turned out to be free on Kindle. Granted, the title is an eye-rolling and embarrassing double-entendre (though I've browsed enough reviews to be pretty certain the actual meaning here isn't sexual --the settng is Atlantic City, which is noted for its casinos). But despite that, I thought the chance to sample the series at short length for free was worth taking, so I downloaded it to my Kindle app. I started reading it last night, so we'll see where it goes! :-)

Hello Everyone, I'm afraid I gave up on Dangerous Liasons. Just wasn't holding my attention enough. I have read "The Monk", that wasn't a light read or particularly fun. I read "The Witch's Daughter", I liked that. I've finished reading "Moondial" this week. I remember it as a TV series in the 1980s, hadn't realised it was a book. I would recommend it.
I'm reading "The Book Thief" at present. I haven't got any further with "Les Miserables", I may have to start again.

As of yesterday, I started two new books, having finished the prior reads pretty much simultaneously. One is the regular book that I'm reading to myself; the other is the "car book" that Barb and I are reading together.

The latter is Devil Dance, the seventh (and so far last) book in Suzanne Arruda's Jade del Cameron series, which we've been reading together pretty steadily since the first one. The other is a review copy of a short story anthology from WolfSinger Publications, Incarceration, yet another kind gift from my friend Andrew Seddon, who has a story included. This one focuses on the theme of imprisonment (mostly literal), examined from a science fiction perspective. It sounds as if it would be grim and dark --and so far, in the main, it is.

I started reading Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days.

I am rereading Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. As I am reading it, I ask myself, "What were they thinking?"

reading Dune and its a pretty good read. Hope to finish it later.

I am reading Robinson Crusoe. Now that I have gotten used to the writing style, I am finding it more interesting.

With a common read coming up next month in another group, I wanted the read I started today to be fairly short; and I've also been wanting to sandwich a nonfiction read into this year somewhere, to fulfill a mental commitment I made a couple of years ago to try to read one nonfiction book every year. So I settled on H. P. Lovecraft's classic Supernatural Horror in Literature, which has been on my to-read shelf for awhile; at 106 pages, it should be easy to read before Aug. 1, with plenty of time to spare. Given my love for weird fiction, this should be right up my alley. :-)

I'm taking part this month, in one of my other groups, in a common read of Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene.

Today, Edwardian writer (and Anglican priest turned Roman Catholic priest) Robert Hugh Benson is mostly known as a writer of ghost stories, and I've read one or two of his works in that genre. But back in the early 70s, I stumbled on a copy of a very different kind of work, his 1907 novel Lord of the World, and skimmed it but didn't have the opportunity to actually read it (long story). Ever since, it's been on my to-read list as a must-read, so it's with special satisfaction that I finally started on it yesterday. In a very real way, I think it can be said to be Benson's answer to H. G. Wells' A Modern Utopia (1905)

Although this group is doing a common read in September, the book picked is one I've already read. With another common read possibly coming up in October, I'm taking advantage of the respite to read the book my 11-year-old grandson recently gave me for my birthday, A Thin Dark Line by a new-to-me author, Tami Hoag. (He got a bargain on it at a library sale. :-) ) It's a long novel (the Goodreads description says 574 pages, but the actual count is 590 for the text), so it'll take a fair amount of time to read.

For some time, the e-book freebie Ghost Squad by Bob Moates has been sitting around on my Kindle app, ever since it got an enthusiastic review from a lady in one of my other groups. (When I can, I sometimes take advantage of the option of reading a book by an unfamiliar author for free electronically, to see if it's worth supporting with a purchase in paperback.) This one is fairly short (140 pages), premised on the teaming up of a living homicide detective with the ghost of another cop to solve cold cases, and intended to be humorous. I finally got started on it last night.

I started reading The Cricket on the Hearth by Charles Dickens and Goodbye to all that by Robert Graves. I reread Winnie the Pooh last week. It was a lot of fun.

Normally, my wife and I both like to read series books in order. But we've just started reading the third installment of Susan Page Davis' Ladies Shooting Club trilogy, The Blacksmith's Bravery, as our car book. Back in 2013, I'd bought a copy secondhand, and gave it to Barb for Christmas, with the intention of getting the first two books as well. However, the paperback editions turned out to be out of print, and there apparently aren't any plans to reprint it. (Sigh!) So I thought we'd see if it stands alone well enough to be worth a read.

After we'd started it, Barb was able to recall that she'd actually read it not long after she got it; she remembers both liking it and recommending it to me. But by now, her memory of the details is hazy enough that she's willing to read it again. (She rereads books oftener than I do.)

I am reading The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Rosemarie, I love Hawthorne's writing! The House of the Seven Gables got four stars from me.