What are you reading?

[Inanna]

And oh, just got a notification that The Merciful Crow is available. I can't remember why I queued it up. Someone here?

Maybe. I did read it recently, don’t remember if I posted. It’s a good read - this and the next one in its series. TL;DR - Indian caste-ism meets the Ku Klux Klan in a fantasy setting. Also throw in multiple gods.

[Alatar]

Currently reading the latest Ross O'Carroll Kelly book. Absolutely brilliant books, but I'm not sure how well they'll translate outside of Ireland. Basically they're parodies of a certain type of upper class Dubliners who believe anything outside of Dublin (or even North of the river) are second class citizens. If anyone is interested hearing more let me know. Also good for Rugby fans

[Jude]

What's the title of the first book in the series?

[Alatar]

The first one was called The Miseducation Years but I think the later ones are stronger.

Maybe have a listen to some of the podcasts first!

https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/r ... 1005100505

[Maria]

I'm completely unhappy with a series I restarted after decades. I liked the first two books of Robert Aspirin's "Phule's Company" when I read them long ago, and since they popped up on Audible recently I decided to listen to them. The first two books I could still almost quote verbatim in places and they are still good. The third book written with another author takes a distinct downturn and the fourth book I'm actively hating. I'm sticking with it because I'm want to make sure the characters turn out OK, but I definitely don't want to get the next in the series. I'm done. I'm not convinced that Robert Aspirin had anything to do with the co-written books.

[N.E. Brigand]

Lorna Doone.

[Impenitent]

Lorna Doone.

One of my favourites when I was a teen!

Sent from my SM-G965U1 using Tapatalk

[Inanna]

Lorna Doone.

One of my favourites when I was a teen!

What’s it about?

[Impenitent]

Pure romance, but written in the late 1800's so very chaste.

I haven't read it in at least 40 years so the only character name I remember is Lorna Doone. It's classic star-crossed lovers, set on the windswept moors.

Narrative details are lost from my memory; there are some vignettes that remain. What I remember most is the wildness of landscape; the longing and heartbreak; the long narrative style of the period.

For anything meaningful, you'll have to ask N.E.B.

[Inanna]

You lost me at “long narrative style of that period”. .

[Inanna]

Lady Sherlock is really very well written. And funny. Proof:

[Frelga]

Charlotte's relationship with food is refreshing, it's true.

Finished Midnight Riot/Rivers of London. It's quite good. The voice on the audio book is perfect for the first person narrator, conveying both the gritty cynicism and the idealism of the protagonist. A very Pratchett view of policing. Sadly, the library doesn't have audiobooks for the sequels so I'll have to read them on Kindle.

I took a brief detour to listen to Exit Strategy. I just finished reading it and was curious how the audiobook compare. It was good but not amazing.

The Merciful Crow is up next.

[Inanna]

The Merciful Crow is up next.

I liked that duology.

[N.E. Brigand]

Pure romance, but written in the late 1800's so very chaste.

I haven't read it in at least 40 years so the only character name I remember is Lorna Doone. It's classic star-crossed lovers, set on the windswept moors.

Narrative details are lost from my memory; there are some vignettes that remain. What I remember most is the wildness of landscape; the longing and heartbreak; the long narrative style of the period.

For anything meaningful, you'll have to ask N.E.B.

I just noticed that IMDB says the 1950 movie adapted from the novel is set in Scotland.

[Impenitent]

That makes sense to me!

Sent from my SM-G965U1 using Tapatalk

[N.E. Brigand]

Lorna Doone.

One of my favourites when I was a teen!

What’s it about?

Lorna Doone is set in the southwest English counties of Devon and Somerset in the late 17th Century. (Wikipedia wrongly says 18th Century, but the story concludes shortly before the Glorious Revolution.) We meet the protagonist, John Ridd, age 11, on the day he drops out of school to work the family farm after his father has been killed in a confrontation with the Doones, a noble Scottish family who lost their ancestral home and turned to brigandage on the moors. The story sits at the edge of history, and John crosses paths with two kings, Charles II and James II. Some characters' speech is written in a dialect that I found difficult to understand, and there's one word in particular that I never could figure out: "thiccy."

[Túrin Turambar]

One thing I liked about Lorna Doone was how it shows England's fringe in the transition between the middle ages and modernity. In theory, England is becoming a modern state, but in practice, this corner of the West Country is still controlled by the Doones in a feudal, if not tribal, arrangement. You can see it also in the contrast between the old West Country dialect and the standard English of the characters from London.

[Frelga]

Borrowed A Slip of the Keyboard, a collection of Pratchett's nonfiction. The nice thing about reading on a Kindle and HoF having such nice mobile site now is I can copy my favorite bits over.


In a chapter about writing process and research for it.

the dark delight of the Victorian author, when writing about a famous German family of financiers, in coming up with sentences like “soon there were rich Fuggers throughout Lower Saxony.”

And in one on an Australian tour.

Incidentally, an early Australian rival to Marmite was tentatively called Pawill, although the proposed slogan, “If Marmite, Pawill,” was never used as far as I know, possibly because of police intervention.

I miss Sir Pterry.

[Frelga]

Here's a sentence you won't find in Tolkien.

I wrote a third of Equal Rites in one weekend. In fact, after one of the nuclear power stations I was a press officer for exploded.

Followed by a story of a man who was too radioactive to be let into the nuclear power station.

[Inanna]

Oh, I remember that story. I quite enjoyed this book; well, of course. Will borrow it again.