What are you reading?

[narya]

I'm still struggling to keep up with my Libby hoard, but in a good way . I tasked one of my old phones (the one with a relatively large, unsmashed screen) to be a second reader, since I am draining my current phone too quickly each day, and don't like to be tethered to a power cord. As long as I am at home and hooked into my wifi when I switch from one device to the other, Libby will automatically update me to my current page.

My latest reads (or listens):

Thich Nhat Hanh's "The Art of Mindful Living" was a delightful collection of recordings from some of his retreats. I need to remind myself more often to be a fresh flower.

Spider Woman's Daughter by Anne Hillerman was OK, but I did not like it well enough to read the second book in the series. Her father's writing was better.

A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers was set in the same set of worlds, and had some of the same characters, as her first book, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, but the type of story was completely different. The first book was a rollicking space opera adventure. This second book was a very introspective story examining the fine line (if there is one) between advanced artificial intelligences and organic beings like humans. It examined free will, slavery, and purpose-in-life. The second book can be read as a stand alone book, but it has spoilers concerning the fate of some of the characters in the first book, so you should probably read the two books in order. I highly recommend both.

And now I'm starting Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga, with the first three audiobooks in my phone - Falling Free, Shards of Honor, and Barrayar.

[Maria]

"The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet" sounds interesting. I've added it to my audible wishlist.

[Impenitent]

While Falling Free technically comes first in the chronology, it takes place many generations before (and in a very different location to) the adventures of our hero Miles and you will find no connection at all between Falling Free and Shards of Honor.

That shouldn't stop you, but just saying.

[narya]

I got that impression, reading the blurbs for each book.

[RoseMorninStar]

I just finished The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams. I'm not sure what attracted me to this book, it may have been the author's name 'Pip'. It is historical fiction based around the construction of the Oxford English Dictionary, formally originally known as A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles; Founded Mainly on the Materials Collected by The Philological Society. Work on the dictionary began in 1857 and was published in fascicles (serial/parts) by subscription. The Philological society originally thought the work would take 10 years but it took about 70, after which the supplements began. What a project!

As a work of historical fiction the story revolves around a fictional main character but also includes historical persons and timeline. At times I enjoyed the book, at times I was frustrated &/or annoyed with it and at one point I almost set it aside. I'm glad I finished it. It touches on women's issues, suffrage, and how the original work was affected by mainly being composed by educated older white men. It discusses how the work and England was affected by the first world war. There is quite a lot of profane and common use language in the book as many of those words were discarded, words which the protagonist 'saves'.

Also of interest but not touched upon in this book, Tolkien worked on a small portion of the 'W' section of this dictionary between 1919 and 1920, at the very start of his career. He later said of this time that he 'learned more in those two years than in any other equal period of my life'.

[Impenitent]

RoseMorninStsr I loved that book! I think I reviewed and recommended it upthread; I wonder if I subliminally influenced you!

[Inanna]

You did recommend it.

I loved that book too. I liked the parts about the words & the making of the dictionary much more than I liked all the other stuff around it… but of course, that’s life.

[narya]

Y'know, I hated book reports as a kid, and yet I keep coming back to this thread. Thanks for not grading me!

I just finished "A Thousand Pieces of You" by Claudia Gray, which was a fast-paced light romance, murder mystery, multiverse jumping story, set in the near future, but with a dash of Tsarist Russia, that should appeal to all of you on some level or another And it's the first book of a trilogy, so the next two books are in my increasingly improbable queue!

Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold was a refreshing departure from typical speculative fiction - it featured an action-packed engineer (not an oxymoron this time) and technically credible hard sci fi that wasn't all about guns (well, there were a few repurposed soldering irons involved). There was also the oft recurring sci-fi theme of slavery and autonomy that was given some depth.

[Jude]

"Mirror Dance" seems not to be available - my library doesn't have it, and my bookshop cancelled my order. If I just skip it and continue the series, will that mess things up?

[Inanna]

You will miss an insanely beautiful view into Cordelia. And dynamics between Mark & Miles.

You could read the Wiki and move on to Komarr…

Argh. I own the bloody book, I should be able to lend it to you. Should we try?

[Jude]

Do you have it as an ebook?

[Inanna]

Kindle, yes.

[RoseMorninStar]

RoseMorninStsr I loved that book! I think I reviewed and recommended it upthread; I wonder if I subliminally influenced you!

Ah.. I almost certainly put it on my wait list for borrowing upon your recommendation! Thanks!


I'm currently reading The Memory Box by Kathryn Hughes and it occurred to me that the last 4 books I read were set in England and all touch on how they were affected by various wars.

[Maria]

I've lost track of how many times I've listened to the Vorkosigan series. I love those books!
Shards of Honor is the best place to start, in my opinion.

I'm really enjoying the series, "A Trader's Tale from the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper"
The first book is "Quarter Share". https://www.audible.com/pd/Quarter-Shar ... N383Q0PSC9

It's so refreshing to have good science fiction without significant violence or evil. Where the difficulties that must be solved are technical or personnel problems.
There hasn't been a single instance (and I'm four books into the series now) where I thought, "Well, that's stupid. There's no way that could happen." It's all very well thought out.

The reader isn't the best I've heard, but the quality of the writing shines through despite him.

I may just have to listen to everything this author has written......

[Jude]

Kindle, yes.

Have you lent ebooks before? What's the process?

[Impenitent]

Inanna needs your kindle email address (not Amazon, but the kindle-specific one Amazon generated for you when you downloadedthe app).
In her booklist, Inanna then nominates that email address for lending a book, and it should then turn up on your bookshelf.

It won't automatically show up on your device - you'll need to do a search or manually visit your bookshelf on Amazon. And this will only work if Amazon allows you to be in the same region despite being in different countries.

One can only lend a book once, so you have to get it right the first time. When I tried to lend you a book, we got it wrong by using your regular email address and the whole thing failed.

This Amazon system whereby they lock reading rights is outrageous.

[Inanna]

I agree, Imp. It’s ridiculous. While I can understand the bit about restricting regions, restricting the number of times a book can be loaned to ONCE, is just ghastly.

R and I can’t share the kindle unlimited subscription either. Grrr.

They do allow you to have multiple kindles in your account even in different regions. So, everyone in my family (mom, dad, dead sis, alive sis) has kindles registered to my account, and have access to all my books.

Shhhh. Don’t tell them.

[RoseMorninStar]

Jude, do you have a local library (Libby/Overdrive->Amazon/kindle) you can borrow from digitally? That's how I get most of the books I read.

I see I have to get a new phone by March 31 because it's a G3 and won't be supported anymore. I wonder if my kindle will also
be affected.

[Inanna]

Rose,Jude’s Library doesn’t have this book.

Jude, I’ll email you. Let’s try it with a book you’ve read first

[Jude]

One can only lend a book once, so you have to get it right the first time. When I tried to lend you a book, we got it wrong by using your regular email address and the whole thing failed.

This Amazon system whereby they lock reading rights is outrageous.

More than that, the books you've bought disappear into the ether when you pass on. We have hundreds of real books from my dad, including books that go back to the 17th century (he was quite the reader and collector) but all the ones he got for his kindle are gone for good.