What Are You Reading?

[It's me]

I gave up on Ring of Fire a few years back. Just lost interest, not sure exactly why. Maybe I'll give the series another go... I own the first several ebooks.

[TheSHAD0W]

I gave up on Ring of Fire a few years back. Just lost interest, not sure exactly why.

The Ring of Fire series IMO suffers from being *too* realistic. The greatest interest in the story is how the alternate history contrasts with actual history; and if such an anachronism like this actually happened, changes would cascade so quickly that reality would be completely different within a handful of years - which is what happened in the series.

This contrasts with something like the Conrad Stargard series, which took place in a smaller area, at a time when movement between nations was more constrained. Later books also mainly limited themselves to where frontiers were pushed. (Except for the last, posthumously-completed book, which I'm not going to spoil.)

[Pixelated]

Three sort-of related books: A ginormous coffee-table-type-book titled The Gold of the Pharaohs by Henri Stierlin, as well as Isis, or the Search for Egypt's Buried Past, by Pierre Montet.

The latter is a lovely old book, published in the late 1950s, but the text itself is somewhat hard to read. It's fairly small and sans-serif, which itself is hard to read when on paper. I squint a lot.

And lastly, Secrets of the Pharaohs, by Ian McMahan.

[Ironclad Alibi]

Three sort-of related books: A ginormous coffee-table-type-book titled The Gold of the Pharaohs by Henri Stierlin, as well as Isis, or the Search for Egypt's Buried Past, by Pierre Montet.

The latter is a lovely old book, published in the late 1950s, but the text itself is somewhat hard to read. It's fairly small and sans-serif, which itself is hard to read when on paper. I squint a lot.

And lastly, Secrets of the Pharaohs, by Ian McMahan.

If you would like a very interesting book about Egypt check out A Thousand Miles Up The Nile by Amelia B. Edwards.

Online here.

PDF here.

[Pixelated]

If you would like a very interesting book about Egypt check out A Thousand Miles Up The Nile by Amelia B. Edwards.

Online here.

PDF here.

Thank you, I will check that out. I've also read (a couple of times) House of Dreams by Pauline Gedge. It was very well written, although it didn't exactly have a happy ending. But the reader has to remember Thu's age during this saga ... she was, what, 14 when the book started, when she first became a concubine?

[It's me]

I've change series for a bit.... Read "Child of Fire" by Harry Connolly, now working on the second book in the series.

[protege]

I'm in the middle of Robert Bentley's "The Complete Official MGB, 1962-74" as I deal with that damn fuel pump and leaking axle seals.

[AnaKhouri]

Got my tween Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America and he read it in 3 days. I just borrowed it from him.

[Nunavut Pants]

Not long ago, I polished off "His Majesty's Dragon", by Naomi Novik. Enjoyable, lightweight, fun. Could easily be classed as YA or fantasy. The first of a 9-book (so far) series, which I am looking forward to getting from the library as soon as it opens again.

Protege--you have my sympathies for the Haynes manual. They're better than Chilton's, but that 's not saying much.

[Ironclad Alibi]

Not long ago, I polished off "His Majesty's Dragon", by Naomi Novik. Enjoyable, lightweight, fun. Could easily be classed as YA or fantasy. The first of a 9-book (so far) series, which I am looking forward to getting from the library as soon as it opens again.

I only have the first seven, so am ordering the last two. The cover of #9 says it is the final book of the series.

I also received the new book Enemy of all Mankind today. It is the true story of a global manhunt for a notorious pirate in the 17th century.

[greek_jester]

I just totally devoured "All Systems Red" by Martha Wells, the first book in the "Murderbot Diaries". It's only 150 pages, and not very densely written, so it is a quick read. Expensive for basically a novella, but I got it from my local library. I'm waiting for the second book to get checked in, and I may pre-emptively check out the others in the series just in case....

The series is now complete, and I have just finished reading it.

Go read it right now. Seriously. This series is amazing, and Murderbot is a wonderful character. It is written in first person perspective, but if it wasn't then the series wouldn't work as well as it does. At least half the fun is Murderbot's internal monologue about how stupid humans can be when handling security.

Plus, I found them kind of relatable; whenever they get stressed they start watching terrible programs, whereas whenever I get stressed I either start reading or play a quick game of solitaire.

[Ghel]

I finished the Star Wars: Aftermath series and started reading The Lies of Locke Lamora. I'm told it's good low fantasy. I like it so far, even though it leans heavily on the "clever boy who's amazingly lucky" trope.

[Ironclad Alibi]

I Just finished The Sea Peoples by Nancy Sanders.

Next up is 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed by Eric H. Cline

[Pixelated]

Hmm, Cline's book sounds like a nice, apocalyptic read ...

[Ironclad Alibi]

Hmm, Cline's book sounds like a nice, apocalyptic read ...

Indeed it does. I found out about the book from his talk at a National Capital Area Skeptics program. It is on YouTube.