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Uber User
Posts: 369
Location: Middle TN, USA | In honor of Independence Day, I have decided to focus on books from the Banned Book List This month. Nothing says "lets celebrate our independence from tyranny like trying to curtail the free flow of information. And Gob Bless America!
On Deck:
The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Stranger In A Strange Land by Robert Heinlein
Cats Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut Jr
and
Christian Nation by Frederic Rich, which is not a banned book, but is a story about what would happen if the Christian fundamentalist right was in power in the US. It starts out with President McCain dying in office and Sarah Palin becomes president. OH, THE HORROR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1008
Location: UK | Right,here is my outline list for July.
<u>Books in Progress</u>
China Mieville - Embassytown
Erskine Childers - The Riddle of the Sands
Raymond E Feist - Magician
Terry Brooks - Sword of Shannara
<U> Pick a Genre Challenge - chose Science Fiction</u>
Mira Grant - Feed
Isaac Asimov - Foundation and Empire
Jack Vance - The Dragon Master ✔
Ian Banks - Excession
<u> Other Reads</u>
Matt Hilton - Cut and Run
Dan Wells - Generation Dead
Dianne Wynn Jones - House of Many Ways
Charlie Fletcher - Stoneheart
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Member
Posts: 6
| I'm starting out with Neuromancer - I started to read it a couple of years ago, and while in progress accidentally left the book somewhere. I only recently grabbed myself another copy.
After that, I'll be moving on to The City and The City by China Mieville, and then probably Feed by Mira Grant as my WoGF selection. Not too sure where from there - too many books on my to read pile, you know? |
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Member
Posts: 46
| I'm starting this month off reading Hiero's Journey by Sterling E. Lanier. |
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New User
Posts: 2
| Just finishing reading Cozy Chilling Bedtime Stories by P. Gibey. Bunch of novels there, sci-fi and horror together, along with a little spicy erotic scenes, just lovely reading . |
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Uber User
Posts: 794
| Finished my July WoGFC M. M. Bruckner's 'War Surf'. 200 pages from the end of Stephenson's 'The Confusion' and starting on McDevitt's 'Seeker'. |
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Regular
Posts: 96
Location: Cheshire, England | I've not long started "to say nothing about the dog" by Connie Willis which at the rate I'm going should be read by the end of the week. What a romp! Then I'm still working my way through a couple of WoGF (let's face it that Storm Constantine is probably not going to be finished, especially since I started it in May). Just finished Cold Steel by Kate Elliott so that finishes her Spiritwalker trilogy. And my to-read pile is getting so large it's on the floor now I've run out of bookshelf space for it. |
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Member
Posts: 18
| Reading "The Last and First Men," by Olaf stapledon. Then maybe "The Fall of Hyperion." |
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Veteran
Posts: 106
Location: scotland | Horror for me this month.
Just started Clive barkers short story collection Books of Blood Volume 1-3.
Also have Anno Dracula by Kim Newman to read and another short story collection by Stephen King. |
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Member
Posts: 19
| A Clockwork Orange at the moment. |
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Member
Posts: 19
| Finished "A Clockwork Orange", now reading "The Ocean at the End of the Lane"
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Regular
Posts: 96
Location: Cheshire, England | I'm in the middle of Shikasta by Doris Lessing (my random WoGF). Also on with The Glass God (new Kate Griffin). And unfortunately I was lent a copy of A Hunger like no Other by Kresley Cole which I'm not looking forward to having read the first couple of pages. Might read enough to know the plot and be able to talk about it semi-sentiently. |
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Uber User
Posts: 526
Location: UK | Just finished a bit of comfort-reading, Darknesses by LE Modesitt, Jr. A big-book fantasy. The second book in the Corean Chroniclss. I borrowed it from a colleague because the third book is the first one available as an ebook. I think I still generally prefer the Recluce series, but it was okay.
I should probably get on to my WoGF next. I might go for my random pick this month. |
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Uber User
Posts: 263
Location: Gunnison, Colorado | So far in July: Finished Caliban's War by James S. A. Corey (space opera/thriller/political/military SF and a page-turner--old-fashioned fun), the Gardner Dozois edited Third Annual Year's Best, with stories from 1985 (great stuff by Lucius Shepard, KSRobinson, Nancy Kress, etc.; an excellent anthology!), the February '51 issue of F&SF (not a standout), and Foreigner by C. J. Cherryh (the beginning of a series I've long wanted to take a look at, and which now will be difficult not to continue!). Now in the midst of Conjure Wife by Fritz Leiber.
@francesashton: I am interested to see the reaction to Shikasta of someone who came upon it randomly! |
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Regular
Posts: 96
Location: Cheshire, England | Hey Scott Laz, my impressions so far are that it's extremely interesting, a very well-thought-out idea but overly long. I'm about half way through and I've been reading it for about a month. As I generally whizz through books this is very slow for me. I'll stick up a review when I've finished it and taken it all in :-) |
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Regular
Posts: 96
Location: Cheshire, England | Quick update - that Kresley Cole was as bad as I thought it would be. I'm not a fan of romance but I can cope with a bit of it, but sex on every page gets to the point where the plot line is purely there to go from one episode of sex to another. If someone else did a vampire/valkyrie/werewolf story it would probably be a good read as there is lots of potential in that combination of characters. Now reading Dark Eden - this year's Clarke Award winner. |
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Uber User
Posts: 794
| Got a jump on my August WoGFC by finishing Pat Murphy's 'The Falling Woman'. I got delivery of Mary Gentle's Ash which is also part of my Challenge. It's a tome at around 1K pages, so I may rush through the others novels on the Challenge first so I can devote enough time to finishing it.
'The Falling Woman' brought my outstanding Nebula winners down to 9. I have 2 left for the Locus SF list. I'm wading through Neal Stephenson's 'The System of the World' and have ordered 'Redshirts'. At the rate the Stephenson is going I may well finish 'Redshirts' first. |
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Uber User
Posts: 263
Location: Gunnison, Colorado | July is winding down! Finished C. J. Cherryh's Invader and moved on to Inheritor. I'm enjoying the Foreigner series, but have some reservations about the point of view and infodump strategies. By most accounts, it gets even better after the first trilogy (it's structured in three-volume arcs). Also read Leigh Brackett's The Long Tomorrow for the challenge, and the March 1962 issue of If, with the classic Poul Anderson military SF story "Kings Must Die". Now on to The Worm Ouroboros by E. R. Eddison, a 1922 fantasy that has some of the same visionary qualities and faux-archaic language as David Lindsay's Voyage to Arcturus and William Hodgson's The Night Land, from the same era. |
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Member
Posts: 18
| A slow month for me, I only read a few. Stapledon's "Last and First men," Zelazny's "Jack of Shadows," and I am abou tto finish Clarke's "Rendezvous with Rama." |
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Member
Posts: 46
| After Hiero's Journey, I read Fritz Leiber's Swords Against Death and am now reading Michael Moorcock's History of the Runestaff (actually, I have the four separate books, so I'm technically reading The Jewel in the Skull right now). |
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Regular
Posts: 96
Location: Cheshire, England | Finished Dark Eden. That's really worth a read if it's on your list. Also just finished a book from an author I've never heard of before - Luke Smitherd called The Physics of the Dead. It's a strange book that rambles a bit but it has an interesting theme of what the dead do in the afterlife - assuming they can get there. Not doing any WoGF this month as my next on the list is Jonathan Strange (a long book) but I've got Ben Aaronovitch's Broken Homes to pick up tomorrow and that will take precedence over everything! |
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Member
Posts: 18
| Finished "Rendezvous with Rama" and read Silverburg's "Book of Skulls" this weekend to finish off July slightly below my average with only 4 books read in the month. Excuse: I was on vacation for much of it, and I actually wrote something of my own, a short story, completed. Woo-hoo!
It was a good read, "Book of Skulls," but I found the split first person narratives to be distracting. What were those supposed to be? Journal entries? Internal monologues? The voices all sounded the same, I thought, and were not convincing as internal monologues, though I'm sure that's what they were supposed to be. Still, all in all, a good book, enjoyable. |
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