What are you reading?

I just finished From A Certain Point of View. If you're a Star Wars nerd, it's excellent.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/7864/from-a-certain-point-of-view-star-wars-by-renee-ahdieh-meg-cabot-john-jackson-miller-nnedi-okorafor-sabaa-tahir-and-more/9780345511478/

I have just discovered Terry Pratchett. OMG!     These are soooo funny!

I just finished From A Certain Point of View. If you're a Star Wars nerd, it's excellent.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/7864/from-a-certain-point-of-view-star-wars-by-renee-ahdieh-meg-cabot-john-jackson-miller-nnedi-okorafor-sabaa-tahir-and-more/9780345511478/

I just put this in my Amazon cart to get my sisters for Christmas! I think they'll love it!

I just put this in my Amazon cart to get my sisters for Christmas! I think they'll love it!

This makes me feel like we need a cool "gift ideas" thread.....Because that is a cool gift idea but I never would've thought about it....May need to get my husband this for Christmas. I keep buying him books in hope he'll start reading again some day but then I just end up reading them instead....hahaha

This makes me feel like we need a cool "gift ideas" thread.....

Excellent idea! Go for it! 

Sounds Like Titanic by Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman. I'm only about 50 pages into it, and so far it's fantastic.

Ooh, I like renewing this thread. I'd been on a Tarryn Fisher binge, but just started Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology. Enjoying it so far!

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Strugatsky brothers' (Arkady and Boris) Roadside Picnic.  I am a sucker for scifi and dystopian fiction, and I learned of this one written by Russian brothers during the Cold War (1972), and I had to have it.  I needed to see what was happening on the other side of the curtain, since I've long since exhausted all of the West's offerings.

I tried to start reading Armada by Earnest Cline and I'm not one to ditch a book usually.....but I think I'm going to have to give the rest of this one a miss if I'm honest....

Sounds Like Titanic by Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman. I'm only about 50 pages into it, and so far it's fantastic.

Interesting title. What's this one about?

I tried to start reading Armada by Earnest Cline and I'm not one to ditch a book usually.....but I think I'm going to have to give the rest of this one a miss if I'm honest....

Yeah, I liked Ready Player One, but I also thought the constant stream of references got a little tiring after a while, and that's put me off trying Armada.

Interesting title. What's this one about?

It's a memoir based around her experience playing violin in an ensemble that put on fake performances.

(I know that sounds really weird. I've been trying to come up with a more compelling description for the last few minutes, and that's the best I can do. One of the great things about reading on a Kindle is you can try a sample of the book before shelling out for it. I was on the fence about this book until I read the sample. You know when you're trying to convince someone that something is great and you know you're not doing a very good job so you add more words in an effort to sell it even more? I'm doing that now.  )

Yeah, I liked Ready Player One, but I also thought the constant stream of references got a little tiring after a while, and that's put me off trying Armada.

It's a memoir based around her experience playing violin in an ensemble that put on fake performances.

(I know that sounds really weird. I've been trying to come up with a more compelling description for the last few minutes, and that's the best I can do. One of the great things about reading on a Kindle is you can try a sample of the book before shelling out for it. I was on the fence about this book until I read the sample. You know when you're trying to convince someone that something is great and you know you're not doing a very good job so you add more words in an effort to sell it even more? I'm doing that now.  )

In fairness...that does leave me more intrigued.... How did they put on fake performances?! Like were they not actually playing??

In fairness...that does leave me more intrigued.... How did they put on fake performances?! Like were they not actually playing??

I'm still early in the book, but at this point they're going to arts & crafts fairs and playing to a small crowd in a tent. They're playing along with a CD, the PA is turned up really loud, they're playing softly, and their microphones are turned off, so you can't really hear the musicians. The composer who has hired them has also composed the music, and is popular enough that in addition to selling at local fairs, he also sells it on QVC and does PBS pledge drive broadcasts. It's totally bizarre, but the writing is excellent. She goes back and forth between her past - growing up in Appalachia, learning violin as a child, moving to New York to study music at university - and telling the story of going on tour with the ensemble.

I'm still early in the book, but at this point they're going to arts & crafts fairs and playing to a small crowd in a tent. They're playing along with a CD, the PA is turned up really loud, they're playing softly, and their microphones are turned off, so you can't really hear the musicians. The composer who has hired them has also composed the music, and is popular enough that in addition to selling at local fairs, he also sells it on QVC and does PBS pledge drive broadcasts. It's totally bizarre, but the writing is excellent. She goes back and forth between her past - growing up in Appalachia, learning violin as a child, moving to New York to study music at university - and telling the story of going on tour with the ensemble.

That does genuinely sound interesting to be honest

I signed up for a science fiction / fantasy book club at work,  only to find that the first book is some fantasy junk about Greek mythology called “Cerces”. I should have bailed when I had the chance. I prefer to read a page-long equation about how many potatoes you can grow on Mars.  I’m sticking it out because I’m too embarrassed to quit.

I signed up for a science fiction / fantasy book club at work,  only to find that the first book is some fantasy junk about Greek mythology called “Cerces”. I should have bailed when I had the chance. I prefer to read a page-long equation about how many potatoes you can grow on Mars.  I’m sticking it out because I’m too embarrassed to quit.

Haha. I read that and thought it was a really interesting take on Circe. But I love mythology and fairy tales as well as sci-fi, just not the really dense  and super sciency stuff. In a book club you have to read things you aren't interested sometimes... I did at the last one I did, I wasn't I retested in any of them. Haha.