What are we reading?

Started by Martok, March 05, 2012, 01:13:59 PM

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Toonces

"If you had a chance, right now, to go back in time and stop Hitler, wouldn't you do it?  I mean, I personally wouldn't stop him because I think he's awesome." - Eric Cartman

"Does a watch list mean you are being watched or is it a come on to Toonces?" - Biggs

Greybriar

Tonight I will begin reading Malice by John Gwynne.
Regardless of how good a PC game may be it will always have its detractors and no matter how bad a PC game may be it will always have its fans.

undercovergeek


Staggerwing

I'm reading a couple of Barry Cunliffe's books concurrently: 'Britain Begins' and 'The Extraordinary Voyage of Pytheas the Greek'. One of them on Kindle and one in hardcover.

The first book does bring up one of the drawbacks to the smaller e-ink readers such as my Paperwhite: the maps and photographs are just too small and muddy looking despite the greater degree of greyscale available over older readers. Occasionally I have to pull out my iPad and sync up to a particular page in the kindle app just so I can get a better look at a distribution map or the ancient lines of a hill fort or something.
Vituð ér enn - eða hvat?  -Voluspa

Nothing really rocks and nothing really rolls and nothing's ever worth the cost...

"Don't you look at me that way..." -the Abyss
 
'When searching for a meaningful embrace, sometimes my self respect took second place' -Iggy Pop, Cry for Love

... this will go down on your permanent record... -the Violent Femmes, 'Kiss Off'-

"I'm not just anyone, I'm not just anyone-
I got my time machine, got my 'electronic dream!"
-Sonic Reducer, -Dead Boys

JasonPratt

#1309
I've been playing Levée En Masse off and on (on my iPhone) recently, and marveling at how in some simple game mechanics it captures the flavor of the crazy years of the French Republic up to Napoleon; and Mom just finished plowing slowly but steadily through The Barbarian Conversion which serves as a history of the Dark Ages (from context before the fall of Rome up through the start of the Norman conquests in Britain) from a perspective of religious politics.

Consequently she's looking for something new soon, and I was reminded I don't have a good book yet on the political and strategic ferment of the Republic vs Pretty Much All Of Freaking Europe Including Itself. ;) While she likes medieval history, I have plenty more of that already and she's tired of that already; and I recently picked up a similar political/strategic book on WW1 (thanks to a recommendation upthread) which she'll probably want to read, too, but a history of the pre-Nappy/Nappy Wars (World Wars Minus One and Zero basically  8) ) seems like a good idea.

Any recommendations?

Note: given a choice between the two related topics, I'd prefer the insane complexity of the pre-Nappy Republic's struggle myself, since after all Napoleon's whole raison d'existence or however it's said in French was basically to solve all that).
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

Steelgrave

"Red Country" by Joe Abercrombie, the latest in the "The Blade Itself" series. Excellent, as usual.


undercovergeek

Quote from: Steelgrave on February 07, 2014, 06:09:15 PM
"Red Country" by Joe Abercrombie, the latest in the "The Blade Itself" series. Excellent, as usual.



is this still the same story of the guy that has uncontrolable rage?

Steelgrave

It is the same series, yes. But of course Logan Ninefingers was just one of the ensemble....although his story was the most compelling.

undercovergeek

Quote from: Steelgrave on February 07, 2014, 06:50:51 PM
It is the same series, yes. But of course Logan Ninefingers was just one of the ensemble....although his story was the most compelling.

ive read the first 3 books of law - i didnt know there were any more - dammit, where are my amazon vouchers?

Steelgrave

The first three follow the same cast and storyline. After that, some folks you "know" will make appearances. I don't want to give anything away, but "Red Country" is (so far) focusing on one of the "mains", much to my delight.

Martok

Am in the middle of my annual re-reading of Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield.  Man, I so dearly wish the movie 300 had been based on this instead of that crap by Frank Miller... 

"Like we need an excuse to drink to anything..." - Banzai_Cat
"I like to think of it not as an excuse but more like Pavlovian Response." - Sir Slash

"At our ages, they all look like jailbait." - mirth

"If we had lines here that would have crossed all of them. For the 1,077,986th time." - Gusington

"Government is so expensive that it should at least be entertaining." - airboy

"As long as there's bacon, everything will be all right." - Toonces

OJsDad

Just finished Under A Graveyard Moon.  It was pretty good.  Haven't picked up the sequel yet.  I not sure I like Ringo's writing style.  It's a little hard to follow at times. 

Tomorrow, David Webers Like A Mighty Army comes out.  It's the next installment of the Safehold series. 
'Here at NASA we all pee the same color.'  Al Harrison from the movie Hidden Figures.

Staggerwing

^Thanks for the reminder. I thought I'd preordered but I'll check to be sure. Also, Weber's (and Eric Flint's) next installment in the 'Crown of Slaves' series (based in the Honorverse) titled 'Cauldren of Ghosts' is due out in April.
Vituð ér enn - eða hvat?  -Voluspa

Nothing really rocks and nothing really rolls and nothing's ever worth the cost...

"Don't you look at me that way..." -the Abyss
 
'When searching for a meaningful embrace, sometimes my self respect took second place' -Iggy Pop, Cry for Love

... this will go down on your permanent record... -the Violent Femmes, 'Kiss Off'-

"I'm not just anyone, I'm not just anyone-
I got my time machine, got my 'electronic dream!"
-Sonic Reducer, -Dead Boys

Martok

#1318
So I went to my "local" Barnes and Noble (it's almost an hour's drive from home) to *finally* pick up the last three Wheel of Time novels (now that they're all available in paperback)...and of course, they only had A Memory of Light in stock.  >:(  So I had to order the other two, and wait for them to be shipped to my house. 

I hate waiting. 




Quote from: OJsDad on February 17, 2014, 09:34:41 PMTomorrow, David Webers Like A Mighty Army comes out.  It's the next installment of the Safehold series.
I just picked up my reserved copy today (well, yesterday now).  I've already begun reading it.  ;D 




Quote from: Staggerwing on February 17, 2014, 09:43:38 PM
Also, Weber's (and Eric Flint's) next installment in the 'Crown of Slaves' series (based in the Honorverse) titled 'Cauldren of Ghosts' is due out in April.
Yep, that one's definitely on my "going to get" list as well. 

I have to admit, though, that I'm even more excited for the next "Shadows" book that comes out (whenever that may be).  Can't wait to see what happens when Honor's pals kick over that hornet's nest... 

"Like we need an excuse to drink to anything..." - Banzai_Cat
"I like to think of it not as an excuse but more like Pavlovian Response." - Sir Slash

"At our ages, they all look like jailbait." - mirth

"If we had lines here that would have crossed all of them. For the 1,077,986th time." - Gusington

"Government is so expensive that it should at least be entertaining." - airboy

"As long as there's bacon, everything will be all right." - Toonces

Staggerwing

IIRC, Admiral Mike has already kicked the nest and wiped out some of the hornets. We're just waiting for the biggest nests who just heard about it to get over their "WTF?!" and respond in true force.

When is the next book in that series due out? I haven't heard anything yet.
Vituð ér enn - eða hvat?  -Voluspa

Nothing really rocks and nothing really rolls and nothing's ever worth the cost...

"Don't you look at me that way..." -the Abyss
 
'When searching for a meaningful embrace, sometimes my self respect took second place' -Iggy Pop, Cry for Love

... this will go down on your permanent record... -the Violent Femmes, 'Kiss Off'-

"I'm not just anyone, I'm not just anyone-
I got my time machine, got my 'electronic dream!"
-Sonic Reducer, -Dead Boys