Author Topic: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?  (Read 189808 times)

Offline Nathan

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #615 on: March 30, 2009, 04:11 PM »
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Offline Daigo-Bah

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #616 on: March 31, 2009, 02:07 PM »
I just started the first "Lost Dragonlance Chronicles" by Weis and Hickman.  I was a huge fan of the original Dragonlance Chronicles, and even moreso of the Dragonlance Legends trilogy.  Once they moved on into their kids' stories, I lost interest, but with a return to the original characters, I'm there!
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Offline Phrubruh

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #617 on: April 7, 2009, 12:36 AM »
Finished Artimis Fowl. Fun read. Now starting the next in the series Artimis Fowl: The Arctic Incident by Eion Colfer.



Rocketing readers back into a world of modern fairies (they pack heat and wear motorized wings), Colfer here reunites 13-year-old antihero Artemis with his former kidnap victim, Captain Holly Short, an elf officer with the LEPrecon (Lower Elements Police Reconnaissance) squad. As the erstwhile arch enemies join forces to squelch a power-hungry pixie's coup attempt in one world and to rescue Artemis's long-missing father in another (he's being held for ransom by the Russian Mafiya), the boy proves he has a heart after all, even as he builds his reputation as a world-class criminal mastermind. Once again, the roller coaster of a plot introduces a host of high jinks and high-tech weaponry as Colfer blends derring-do with snappy prose ("The broad grin disappeared like a fox down a hole") and repartee ("Hey, Mulch, if you listen really hard you can just about make out the sound of nobody giving a hoot"). The resulting fantasy hosts memorable characters, many of whom (such as the flatulent dwarf Mulch Diggums) reprise roles that helped attract fans to the first adventure. The author ratchets up the body count in this return engagement (perhaps too steeply for some tastes), and the high-concept premise may be a tad slick for others, but Colfer's finger is firmly on the pulse of his target market, and along with extra helpings of sly humor ("The sprite's breathing calmed, and a healthy green tinge started to return to his cheeks") he delivers a cracking good read.
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Offline JediJman

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #618 on: April 7, 2009, 11:30 AM »
Catching up on some of the older SW books I missed over the years...

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Offline Phrubruh

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #619 on: April 7, 2009, 02:31 PM »
I remember that book. That's the one with the Star Wars version of the Borg.
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Offline JediJman

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #620 on: April 7, 2009, 02:39 PM »
I remember that book. That's the one with the Star Wars version of the Borg.

Correctemundo.  I just started it this week though, so don't tell me what happens.  ;)
Climbed a mountain & never came back. I will not quit & I always fight back 
From this moment for all my life. What could I say? Was born to be this way. And what could I say?  Just livin' for today

Offline Angry Ewok

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #621 on: April 7, 2009, 04:31 PM »
It took me a long time to get through Truce at Bakura. Painfully long.

Offline JediJman

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #622 on: April 7, 2009, 04:32 PM »
It took me a long time to get through Truce at Bakura. Painfully long.

Based on the initial 20-30 pages, I'm definitely feeling that.   :P
Climbed a mountain & never came back. I will not quit & I always fight back 
From this moment for all my life. What could I say? Was born to be this way. And what could I say?  Just livin' for today

Offline Chris M

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #623 on: April 7, 2009, 04:52 PM »
Just finished the autobiography of Don Malarkey, one of the platoon sergeants in Easy Company, 101st AB in WWII.  His part was acted by Scott Grimes in the Band of Brothers series.  You might also know Grimes as playing Dr. Morris on ER.  Pretty good book and a quick read.

Now I'm going the novel route for a few weeks and then I'll delve back into history.  Not sure what will come after this, but for now the following is what I'm working on.

« Last Edit: April 8, 2009, 07:45 AM by Chris M »
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Offline Nathan

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #624 on: April 7, 2009, 05:24 PM »
I really liked TAB but could be just the nostalgia talking.
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Offline JediJman

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #625 on: April 7, 2009, 06:20 PM »
I really liked TAB but could be just the nostalgia talking.

Is this a book or are you referring to the carbonated beverage?  Maybe you should hang out with my Aunt...
Climbed a mountain & never came back. I will not quit & I always fight back 
From this moment for all my life. What could I say? Was born to be this way. And what could I say?  Just livin' for today

Offline Chris M

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #626 on: April 11, 2009, 06:19 PM »
I realized after getting about 15 pages in, that the story seemed really familiar.  Then it dawned on me I had already read "Atlantis Found" but had done so in hardback.  So I'm shipping it to a few of my buddies in Iraq looking for books to read and I've picked up "Bloody Bremen" to read.  It's about the last major engagement in Europe during WWII, fought mainly by Montgomery and it was thought at the time he was being relegated to a rear/flank guard position.  He ended up putting the final nail in Nazi coffin from the West.


"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote."  Ben franklin


Embrace the suck.

Offline Phrubruh

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #627 on: April 11, 2009, 07:26 PM »
Now starting The Prestige by Christopher Priest.



Priest, one of Granta's Best Young British Novelists (1983 list), has not been overproductive since he made a small reputation with The Affirmation and The Glamour, published here more than a dozen years ago. His new novel (the title of which refers to the residue left after a magician's successful trick) is enthrallingly odd. In a carefully calculated period style that is remarkably akin to that of the late Robertson Davies, Priest writes of a pair of rival magicians in turn-of-the-century London. Each has a winning trick the other craves, but so arcane is the nature of these tricks, so incredibly difficult are they to perform, that they take on a peculiar life of their own?in one case involving a mysterious apparent double identity, in the other a reliance on the ferocious powers unleashed in the early experimental years of electricity. The rivalry of the two men is such that in the end, though both are ashamed of the strength of their feelings of spite and envy, it consumes them both, and affects their respective families for generations. This is a complex tale that must have been extremely difficult to tell in exactly the right sequence, while still maintaining a series of shocks to the very end. Priest has brought it off with great imagination and skill. It's only fair to say, though, that the book's very considerable narrative grip is its principal virtue. The characters and incidents have a decidedly Gothic cast, and only the restraint that marks the story's telling keeps it on the rails.
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Offline Phrubruh

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #628 on: April 13, 2009, 05:39 PM »
Also starting "Airman" by Eoin Colfer.



Conor Broekhart was born to fly. 

            It is the 1890s, and Conor and his family live on the sovereign Saltee Islands, off the Irish coast. Conor spends his days studying the science of flight with his tutor and exploring the castle with the king's daughter, Princess Isabella.  But the boy's idyllic life changes forever the day he discovers a deadly conspiracy against the king. When Conor intervenes, he is branded a traitor and thrown into jail on the prison island of Little Saltee. There, he has to fight for his life, as he and the other prisoners are forced to mine for diamonds in inhumane conditions. 
            There is only one way to escape Little Saltee, and that is to fly. So Conor passes the solitary months by scratching drawings of flying machines into the prison walls. The months turn into years, but eventually the day comes when Conor must find the courage to trust his revolutionary designs and take to the skies.
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Offline Nathan

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #629 on: April 16, 2009, 03:49 AM »


The Despair has plagued the earth for five years. Most of the world’s population has inexplicably died by its own hand, and the few survivors struggle to remain alive. A mysterious, shadowy group called the Collectors has emerged, inevitably appearing to remove the bodies of the dead. But in the crumbling state of Florida, a man named Norman takes an unprecedented stand against the Collectors, propelling him on a journey across North America. It’s rumored a scientist in Seattle is working on a cure for the Despair, but in a world ruled by death, it won’t be easy to get there.

It's very much in the vein of Children of Men (though with the depopulation a few stages further along), as well as, apparently, M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening. As io9 pointed out, it "may be the first novel ever to have a blurb from Marvel Comics' Stan Lee and reviews comparing it to Cormac McCarthy's The Road."

Incidentally, the author is an '02 grad of my college, so I showed up at tonight's signing/reading on campus and got an autographed copy.
« Last Edit: April 16, 2009, 03:54 AM by Nathan »
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