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What are we reading in January 2020?
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dustydigger
Posted 2020-01-01 10:46 AM (#21619)
Subject: What are we reading in January 2020?



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Location: UK		This is my TBR for January in spec fic genres
Naomi Novik - Spinning Silver
Katherine Addison - The Goblin Emperor
Daniel O'Malley - Stiletto
Leigh Brackett - The Sword of Rhiannon
H G Wells - The Invisible Man
Ransom Riggs - Map of Days
Ally Condie - Matched.

For now I am riveted to Novik's Spinning Silver,and intend to do Liguana's reteling of fairytales challenge as well as my usual Pick & Mix of course. I may do some short challenges later in the year depending on my reading time.We'll see
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daxxh
Posted 2020-01-01 12:49 PM (#21624 - in reply to #21619)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in January 2020?



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Location: Great Lakes, USA		I finished The Wild Dead by Carrie Vaughn while listening to lots of fireworks around me. Never mind that it was really windy and raining. This book is the sequel to Bannerless and was a whodunit. I like those. A murdered woman is found on the beach and the book revolves around finding her killer. I am not sure that I like the society's obsession with children - that is the main goal for all the "families" - to earn the right to have a child. But, I would recommend this book for people who like dystopian murder mysteries.

I am almost done with Antediluvian by Wil McCarthy. Had to leave that one unfinished over the holidays as hard back books do not go with me when I travel. It's pretty good so far.

I have Adrian Tchaikovsky's novellas Walking to Aldebaran and Made Things on top of the TBR pile and Medusa in the Graveyard and Brothers in Arms to read as well. I ordered the whole Sector General Series (thanks for the recommendation, Dusty) and am looking forward to starting book 1.
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dustydigger
Posted 2020-01-01 3:21 PM (#21633 - in reply to #21619)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in January 2020?



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Location: UK		daxxh,I havent read any Tchaikovsky yet,though I do have children of Time on this years basic list.
I really liked Carrie Vaughn's Kitty Norville werewolf series,but with the budget cuts to the library they never acquired the final 2 books of the series,very irritating.Nor did they get the Bannerless series or any otherof her books post 2014.In fact apart from still getting Patricia Briggs Mercy Thompson booksand one or two other big names,UFand fantasy have almost disappeared.They ruthlessly trimmed the stock,and merged SF/F/UFand horror from two areas of the library into one corner,40 shelves now down to 20!
Good old Sector General. Not the greatest of iterature but great fun,and the staff of the hospital become old friends.I am still trying to locate the last two books that fill the gap on my shelfs.Enjoy them!
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thejessleigh
Posted 2020-01-02 10:32 AM (#21640 - in reply to #21619)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in January 2020?



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Location: Chicago, IL		Starting out the year with This is How You Lose the Time War, but I'm not entirely sure what to read after that. I'm having some choice paralysis when I stare at my bookshelf, and I'm not sure where I want to go. But Spinning Silver, Stiletto, and The Goblin Emperor have all been on my shelf for a bit so maybe I'll pick one of those up in solidarity.
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Administrator
Posted 2020-01-02 11:54 AM (#21641 - in reply to #21640)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in January 2020?



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Location: Dallas, Texas		Right now I am continuing to read Cryptonomicon that I started a few weeks back. I've always been reluctant to read Stephenson because his books are big 'ol doorstoppers but I thought I'd give the audio a try. This damn thing is 42 hours! I am enjoying it very much and you can't beat it on value for money. That's a lot of entertainment for only $11.
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dustydigger
Posted 2020-01-06 4:13 AM (#21653 - in reply to #21619)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in January 2020?



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Location: UK		I intend to bite the bullet and read Cryptonomicon this year,but the heart quails at the page count of 932 pages! EEK
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daxxh
Posted 2020-01-06 10:42 AM (#21659 - in reply to #21653)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in January 2020?



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Location: Great Lakes, USA		I read Cryptonomicon and really liked it. Even though there are a lot of pages, it goes pretty quickly.
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spoltz
Posted 2020-01-09 5:09 AM (#21678 - in reply to #21659)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in January 2020?



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Location: Beaverton, Oregon, USA		A friend gave me Cryptonomicon a few years back when she found the sci fi to hard. I've been balking at the length as well.

I started the year with Death By Silver by Melissa Scott and Amy Griswold. It's a magical Victorian murder mystery. I'm not a usually a mystery reader, but I really enjoyed it.

I'm rereading Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy right now for my book club. I'm liking it, but not as much as I did when I first read it nearly 40 years ago (OMG I can't believe it's been that long ago). Maybe I'm just more jaded now, but the goofiness of it isn't quite as sharp as I remember it. I'm thinking it's because the original BBC series was fresher in my mind when I read it then and I had that Monty Pythonesque/Dr Who delivery of the actors in my head when I was reading it.
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dustydigger
Posted 2020-01-09 4:48 PM (#21680 - in reply to #21619)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in January 2020?



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Location: UK		spoltz - Its nearly 40 years for me too! I listened to the radio version,and adored the TV series (1981!) ,so I just couldnt accept the film version years later,because Simon Jones in his dressing gown,,David Dixon as the irrepressible Ford Prefect,complete with towel,and the inimitable voice of Peter Jones as the Book were so firmly fixed in my mind the film just couldnt live up to the oldTV series.
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Engelbrecht
Posted 2020-01-10 1:49 AM (#21683 - in reply to #21619)
Subject: RE: What are we reading in January 2020?



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I just finished (finally!) the Vandermeer's The Big Book of Classic Fantasy.  It had a handful of familiar stories, but the large majority of the book was devoted to fairly esoteric pieces/authors.  I know the Vandermeers like to take this sort of approach, but there weren't really many stories that made me want to track down more of a previously unread author (Vernon Lee and Stella Benson were the exceptions), so perhaps in that sense, it could be viewed as something of a failure.  Still, I was glad to have encountered so much new material.  And as long as I'm whinging, I really hate the two-column format these books use.

Another long-term project of mine is Lovecraft's The Fiction: Complete and Unabridged - a little more than 700 pages into it's 1100 pages.  Been reading since last July, might finish by March - I just nibble away at it...

Other than that, it's the usual - the Sisyphean climbing of Mount To-Be-Read!
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dustydigger
Posted 2020-01-10 8:04 AM (#21685 - in reply to #21619)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in January 2020?



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Location: UK		katherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor was very enjoyable,with superior world building and a sympathetic young hero...Very appropriate for my Fairy Tales Retold challenge..Rags to riches with a vengeance!
Next up Daniel O'Malley's Stiletto,and RansomRiggs Map of Days..
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finminer
Posted 2020-01-10 1:15 PM (#21688 - in reply to #21619)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in January 2020?



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Started off the year with Naomi Novik's His Majesty's Dragon; a good, easy read but not nearly as good as Uprooted. I'll try to read Spinning Silver at some point this year. I now have 4 books going: The Accidental Time Machine - Joe Haldeman; Going Postal - Terry Pratchett (audio); All Flesh is Grass - Clifford Simak; and Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. The latter is one I started a couple months ago but just couldn't sustain. Gonna take it in small bits this time. Should finish all these in a few days, next in queue is Cordelia's Honor & the novellas of The Expanse series.
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dalex
Posted 2020-01-14 2:10 PM (#21703 - in reply to #21688)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in January 2020?



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Location: behind the 4th wall		I have read...

Dead Astronauts by Jeff VanderMeer. Weirdly wonderful and a great follow-up to the fantastic Borne. 4 Stars

Child of a Mad God by R.A. Salvatore. Excellent world building, great characterization. Typical tropey epic fantasy (but sometimes that's a good thing!). 4 Stars.
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dustydigger
Posted 2020-01-24 2:19 AM (#21738 - in reply to #21619)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in January 2020?



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Location: UK		Daniel O'Malley's Stiletto was enjoyable enough,but I prefered the first book,The Rook,with its tight focus on the perils surrounding the amnesiac heroine Myfanwy. Stiletto often seemed to degenerate into a list of the wide variety of supernatural creatures in the Checquy..Still a fair read,but not outstanding.
Alas,Babylon,was intense and gripping ,about a smallFlorida community adapting to life after nuclear war. The author Pat Frank was a former journalist and government official in the Ministry of Information,and he used his skills in producing an excellent warning about the dangers of the arms race touching on many of the dangers whilst trying to promote communities working together to cope. Within a decade most books were stark depictions of the terrible effects of such a war,and the idea that within days the world would collapse into brutl barbarity with the weak crushed by the stronge would make this book into a ''cozy catastrophe''. But it is of its time,and quite exciting,with sympathetic characters,plenty of incident - and useful info on what to do. Survivalists probably know i off by heart!.
I must confess I felt like running out and buying a huge sack of salt when I read about just how worrying lack of salt is..No salt,6 weeks and you are dead. Then I remembered I live within 2 miles of the coast,free salt by the bushel load,so...phew.....
What did strike me is that the little town was semi rural and things were bad,so today where most of us are completely dependent of food distribution centres supplying our supermarkets,and our trusty fridges running smoothly with an excellent electricty supply,catastrophe is just around the corner if things go pearshaped.! lol.
Now its on to Clifford D Simak's Cosmic Engineers and Algis Budrys Rogue Moon.

Edited by dustydigger 2020-01-24 2:28 AM
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spoltz
Posted 2020-01-24 7:15 AM (#21741 - in reply to #21619)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in January 2020?



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Location: Beaverton, Oregon, USA		The Heritage of Hastur was my first Marion Zimmer Bradley book. It was dark and very good, although I was kind of getting tired of everyone's angst towards the end and just wanted resolution. I'll probably not read the other 23 books in the series, at least not soon.

My reaction to Restaurant at the End of the Universe was better than I expected. I liked it better than Hitchhiker's. It seemed more coherent even though it was still just a bunch of comedy skits held together by a loose plot. And I remembered it less than I remembered Hitchhiker's. So that may have made a difference. I'm going to complete the series, but not all in row. I'm reading other books in between so that it's every other book.

Right now, I'm on Jack Finney's Time and Again. It's the February selection for my SF book club. It's better than I expected, even though long sections are about the architecture and people watching of New York City in 1882. I'm reading it so early before book club because the week before book club, I'll be going to see all the Oscar best picture nominees with my Oscar movie pass from my local theater. I'm sure I won't get much reading done then.
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dalex
Posted 2020-01-27 8:24 AM (#21758 - in reply to #21741)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in January 2020?



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Location: behind the 4th wall		My final genre fiction book for January was I Still Dream by James Smythe. It is a brilliant philosophical discourse on technology and identity. Very thought provoking and heart breaking. 5 Stars from me.
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spoltz
Posted 2020-01-28 6:08 AM (#21760 - in reply to #21619)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in January 2020?



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Location: Beaverton, Oregon, USA		I finished Time and Again and really enjoyed it. The science aspect of it is very light, it's more a culture lesson/romance/mystery, but it's still time travel. I think I liked it more because I group in the New York area, visiting the city a lot. So reading about the city in 1882 was very interesting.

Continuing on with the Hitchhiker's series, I read Life, the Universe, and Eveything. I didn't like it as much as the second book. I think I would have found it funnier if I understood the game of cricket.

I just started Spin Control by Chris Moriarty. It's a long book, so I probably won't finish it until February.
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dustydigger
Posted 2020-02-05 5:58 AM (#21787 - in reply to #21619)
Subject: Re: What are we reading in January 2020?



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Location: UK		Clifford D Simak's Cosmic Engineerswasoriginally published in serial form in 1939,and was his first book. Pleasant if lightweight,aimed mainly I think at teenagers,but still some of his originality,lyricism,and philosophical musings is peeping through.

State of my challenges

Pick & Mix - 4/40read
Books read this year - 4/100
Fairy Tales Retold - 1/3
Killer Bs - 1/3

Edited by dustydigger 2020-02-05 6:07 AM
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