What are you currently reading?

[Michelle Louring]

I thought it was about time I did one of my book owl photos with the most owlish book of all: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
It's been years since I last reread the Harry Potter series, but I find I still enjoy it immensely.

[Kate Elizabeth]

I started a lot of books over the past month or so, but here are the ones that I finished:

Ed West's Saxons vs. Vikings - an irreverent history that I loved.  I will definitely check out more of his books.

Lucy Foley's The Hunting Party - I liked this thriller pretty well.  I could really feel the isolating Scottish wilderness that the characters experienced.

Helena Hunting's The Good Luck Charm - this was not her best, but it was still okay.  Meet Cute was much better.

Melody Grace - All for You - a lovely romance.  I will definitely check out the rest of her series.  This was the 2nd in the Sweetbriar Cove series.


I'm currently reading two books:

Rhys Bowen's Love and Death Among the Cheetahs (Book 13 in Her Royal Spyness Mystery Series) - I have loved this series from the beginning.

Robert Silverberg's Hawksbill Station novel - I just started this one.  I was intrigued by the blurb and I didn't realize that this was originally a novella.

[LeonardDHilleyII]

Blood of the City by Robin D. Laws

[Vijaya]

Really enjoying Andrew Levy's A Brain Wider Than the Sky. It's part memoir, part history of migraine treatments and migraineurs.

[dgcasey]

Really good paranormal thriller.

[Kate Elizabeth]

I just finished Miranda Liasson's Then There Was You.  I will definitely read more of her books.

I'm currently reading Jane Casey's Let the Dead Speak, a UK police procedural.  I like it, so far.

[Hopscotch]

Rereading everything on my overburdened home library shelves - right now Jean Backus' Letters from Amelia (Earhart) - and taking those books I no longer want to keep to the neighborhood bookshare box by the beach when I do my daily walk, hastily sidestepping joggers who think speed spares them the need to maintain social distancing.

[elleoco]

I've been relying heavily on the library and KU since the lockdown and discovered a great new-to-me author when browsing the library's website, Bart Paul. There are currently 3 out in his Tommy Smith "High Country Noir" series, and they're IMO opinion terrific. I think any one who likes outdoor wild country settings for thrillers by authors like C.J. Box, Nevada Barr, and Paul Doiron would like these. Also Craig Johnson, although these don't have the Native American woo-woo stuff that Johnson's do.

These books are not actually noir by any definition of it I know. No sex to speak of, violence, but only at a level typical of thrillers.

The only negative is the price, which is why I got them from the library.

Under Tower Peak
Cheatgrass
See That My Grave Is Kept Clean

[Maggie Ann]

I'm reading (again) through my favorite mystery series. First, the Hillary Greene series by Faith Martin and now I'm reading Nero Wolfe. I think next I will reread the Miss Marple books.

I noticed something with the Nero Wolfe Books. If you go all the way to the end, past the back matter, you can download the next book in the series. I already have all the books so I can just go from one to the other and not have to search.

[TWErvin2]

Reading Contest by David Wood. It's the 12th in the Dane Maddock Series (action/adventure).

[Maggie Ann]

Currently reading Murder at Melrose Court set in the 1920s. So far so good.

Also read A Traitor at Tower Bridge by Lynda Wilcox, known around these parts has Gerri Attrick. It's the third in her Lady Eleanor series and I have enjoyed them all.

Just finished The Black Pill by L.J. Sellers in her Detective Jackson series. I think there are 17 books and I've read them all.

Continuing marathon reading of Nero Wolfe and also the Liturgical Mysteries by Mark Schweitzer.

[Vijaya]

Apocalyptic fiction by Bud McFarlane.

[elleoco]

It may be heresy in these contentious times, but tonight, thinking about tomorrow's holiday (here in the U.S.), I'm reading David McCullough's 1776. Tomorrow night I'll do my usual 4th of July viewing of Mel Gibson's The Patriot.

[Vijaya]

It may be heresy in these contentious times, but tonight, thinking about tomorrow's holiday (here in the U.S.), I'm reading David McCullough's 1776. Tomorrow night I'll do my usual 4th of July viewing of Mel Gibson's The Patriot.

Happy 4th of July!

Reading Canticle for Leibowitz.

[Maggie Ann]

I am mostly rereading mystery series. I just finished Mark Schweitzer's liturgical mysteries and I'm only about halfway through the Nero Wolfe series.

I have two tablets with only one series per tablet so when the battery gets low, I switch tablets and series. I have to decide what series I'm going to replace the liturgical mysteries. I'm thinking of Catherine Aird's Calleshire mysteries.

[Marti Talbott]

I bought a cook book I probably won't read. Does that count?

[Maggie Ann]

I read a few of Catherine MacLeod's Sarah Kellerman series but I couldn't get into the characters. I much prefer her Peter Shandy series.

I finished up the Nero Wolfe series and now I'm rereading Catherine Aird (Sloan and Crosby series). There's a little slow going getting to the meat of the mystery but it's well worth the slog both on a character and mystery level.

I'm also reading Faith Martin's Ryder and Loveday series. She has a new one out and I want to reread the prior books before I get to the new one.

I just finished a four book box set by Jean Heller. It features a columnist for the Chicago Chronicle. Good mysteries though kind of long, and the motive in the third book was kind of weird.

[elleoco]

I read S.W. Hubbard's Frank Bennett Adirondack mysteries, liked them enough to try her Palmyrton series, and liked them even more. KU!

[Hopscotch]

Re-reading Hammet's The Thin Man - a slim (pardon the pun) mystery but the writing is terrific and worth the study .

[Luke Everhart]

Morningstar by David Gemmell (not for the first time as I've reread all of Gemmell's books more than a few times)
It's loosely inspired by the tale of Robin Hood but it's a brilliant departure.

(David Gemmell is the greatest fantasy author since Tolkien imo. Fittingly there are several awards in fantasy named after him and his works.)

[Alec Hutson]

Morningstar by David Gemmell (not for the first time as I've reread all of Gemmell's books more than a few times)
It's loosely inspired by the tale of Robin Hood but it's a brilliant departure.

(David Gemmell is the greatest fantasy author since Tolkien imo. Fittingly there are several awards in fantasy named after him and his works.)

Not anymore. The Gemmell Awards stopped in 2019.

[Luke Everhart]

Morningstar by David Gemmell (not for the first time as I've reread all of Gemmell's books more than a few times)
It's loosely inspired by the tale of Robin Hood but it's a brilliant departure.

(David Gemmell is the greatest fantasy author since Tolkien imo. Fittingly there are several awards in fantasy named after him and his works.)

Not anymore. The Gemmell Awards stopped in 2019.

Yeah, unfortunately. It's a real shame for fantasy imo.

Departing Gemmell Awards Chair Stan Nicholls said: "This is a decision that has not been taken lightly, and indeed is one that myself and my committee members make with a heavy heart. It was always important to us to do things to a high standard, and in the current situation I don't think that we could deliver something befitting the reputation the Gemmell Awards has. I hope that the awards will be remembered for the good work they have done in supporting and championing the cause of fantasy fiction over the last ten years, and that we've left a legacy behind that people can look at fondly in years to come."

[Alec Hutson]

Morningstar by David Gemmell (not for the first time as I've reread all of Gemmell's books more than a few times)
It's loosely inspired by the tale of Robin Hood but it's a brilliant departure.

(David Gemmell is the greatest fantasy author since Tolkien imo. Fittingly there are several awards in fantasy named after him and his works.)

Not anymore. The Gemmell Awards stopped in 2019.

Yeah, unfortunately. It's a real shame for fantasy imo.

Departing Gemmell Awards Chair Stan Nicholls said: "This is a decision that has not been taken lightly, and indeed is one that myself and my committee members make with a heavy heart. It was always important to us to do things to a high standard, and in the current situation I don't think that we could deliver something befitting the reputation the Gemmell Awards has. I hope that the awards will be remembered for the good work they have done in supporting and championing the cause of fantasy fiction over the last ten years, and that we've left a legacy behind that people can look at fondly in years to come."

I agree that fewer awards are worse for the genre, especially with how politicized the Hugo and Nebula Awards currently are, but the last few years of the Gemmel were also sort of eye-rolling. The winner in 2017 was a Warhammer novel with currently a 3.7 rating on Goodreads with a whopping 63 ratings, beating out Mark Lawrence and Barndon Sanderson and others. Clearly Games Workshop mobilized their legions of fans to vote for a book they never actually read.

[amanda58759]

Glow of the Everglame by Penn Cole.  Very Interesting fantasy series.

[Vijaya]

Hinds Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard. An allegory of the Christian life. It reminds me very much of the movie Inside Out, where all the emotions are characters.

[Bill Hiatt]

And the thread rises from the dead...fittingly, given that writers are almost always readers.

From things I've read recently, I highly recommend Evelyn Skye's A Year Ago in Spain. It's a moving romance with a strong fantasy element.

I'm currently reading book 7 in Ben Reeder's Demon Apprentice series. (A young boy is sold to a demon by his own father. He learns enough tricks to escape from the demon and dedicates himself to compensating for all the evil he's done while enslaved by the demon. With the help of a werewolf girlfriend and other supernatural associates, he still has many tough scrapes with the forces of evil.) No one would confuse it with Shakespeare, but it's very entertaining.

I just finished One Two Three by Laurie Frankel. The titular characters are sixteen-year-old triplets who live in a town poisoned by a chemical company that escaped all responsibility. Now the same company wants to reopen its plant under supposedly safer conditions. Most adults are seduced by the prospect of new jobs and more money for the impoverished town. The girls' mother continues to try legal avenues to stop the company. The triplets, all of whom are emotionally scarred, one of whom is autistic, and one of whom has severe physical issues, decide to take matters into their own hands. Their possible in--the handsome but naive son of the plant manager, who falls in love with one of them. But love doesn't just go one way, creating complications that none of them could have anticipated. And incriminating evidence seems always to be just out of reach.

[LilyBLily]

Definitely risen from the dead.

Loyalty, by "Mary Kingswood," a Regency romance that is part 5 of a very complicated but quite interesting story that starts with an axe murder.

[Vijaya]

In the middle of: Creativity by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. It's a tome of a book but so interesting about innovation and creativity and what leads to it.

[Hopscotch]

Just finished A Short History of the World According to Sheep by Sally Coulthard - and it is just what the title offers - the "who'd have believed it" fascinating impact of sheep on world history.

[Maggie Ann]

Hinds Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard. An allegory of the Christian life. It reminds me very much of the movie Inside Out, where all the emotions are characters.

Loved Inside Out. There's a sequel, but I don't know if it's been released yet.

Currently reading The Imperial China Trilogy. I'm on the third book (Dynasty) which I already read and loved. Didn't know there were two previous books (Manchu and Mandarin). I promised myself I would read all three in the month of June, but they are about 800 pages each. I'm a fast reader but I couldn't do it. I really wanted to make a start on my TBR list in July with Three Men in a Boat. I'm going to stick to it and start that one today (it's after midnight), but I'll fit it a chapter of Dynasty here and there.

[LSBurton]

I'm currently reading Peter F Hamilton's "Fallen Dragon." Like a lot of his books, it could be maybe a third shorter, and this one being an earlier one, it seems like it's a practice run for his Pandora's Star books, which I really enjoyed.

[Bill Hiatt]

This was a while ago, but I read a series by forum member C Gockel (Urban Magick and Folklore series, beginning with Snow So White). The premise is that technology has failed and magic has returned to Earth. Fairy tales provide inspiration, but the plotlines are very original. Good mix of action and character development. Some of the characters work well despite (no doubt intentional) incongruities, like a gentle vampire who is also claustrophobic--coffins are just not a good fit!

I'm currently working on Michelle Bardsley's vampire books (the Broken Heart series). Yeah, I know, vampires are maybe used too much, but hers are undoubtedly original. If you don't mind lots of sex, there is at least one good love story in each book and also plenty of intrigue as different vampire factions with competing agendas work to gain dominance--or just wipe everybody else out, depending.

For my Substack book club, I read Shelby Van Pelt's Remarkably Bright Creatures. One of the viewpoint characters in an octopus who forms a bond with a seventy-year-old woman who cleans the aquarium where he is held captive. (In real life, octopuses are intelligent but not social.) He sees what humans miss and tries to bring together broken people who can mend each other. There is also a lot of that happening outside the confines of the aquarium. But will it happen fast enough? A misunderstanding prevents two people who should have a strong bond from fulling knowing each other. Soon, one will move away, and there will be no chance. But Marcellus the octopus has a plan... Yeah, it is in some ways a silly premise, but the book is so good that you'll want to disregard that.

[Vijaya]

Just finished two ARCS of memoirs: Daughters of Palestine by Leyla King and Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy. Loved them both. Gave me much food for thought. I'd read Roy's first novel, God of Small Things, when it had come out nearly 30 yrs ago and loved it, so it was great to read about the lead up to it (and beyond).

[LilyBLily]

I do not admit to having read anything of particular merit lately. Some nearly 100 years old British train mystery shorts collected by Martin Edwards were amusing.

Mostly I try to find good Regencies to read but half the time I find badly written ones. The good thing about reading a badly written book at bedtime is it is easy to put down. Well-written books keep me up until all hours. 

[Hopscotch]

Audiobooking The Domestic Revolution by Ruth Goodman about the huge cultural changes produced by the household and factory conversion from wood to coal for cooking, heat and power generation.

[LSBurton]

Audiobooking The Domestic Revolution by Ruth Goodman about the huge cultural changes produced by the household and factory conversion from wood to coal for cooking, heat and power generation.

Her "[historical] farms" shows are really great.

[Maggie Ann]

I'm sad to say, Three Men in a Boat was a DNF for me. It started out well with that typical Brit humor that I love but it quickly became repetitive and I couldn't finish.

I did finish White Lilac by Rosamunde Bott who is a BookTuber. I had been looking for book recommendation because I was in a reading rut. I came across her channel and gave it a try. It was an easy read. I thought it had an element of time travel, but it didn't. Instead, a woman becomes fascinated by a portrait of a woman who lived in the late 19th century. Through the course of the book, we find out about her life, but all the characters stay firmly on their side of time. Some of it was predictable, but the ending was not. Anyway, it got me out of my rut and on to Rose Cottage by Mary Stewart.