Mores summer reading

On Sat, 11 Jun 2005 14:20:24 GMT, Wooly spewed forth :

I should say rather that if you ENJOYED "R&G are Dead" you'll like Gregory Maguire.

Reply to the list as I do not publish an email address to USENET. This practice has cut my spam by more than 95%. Of course, I did have to abandon a perfectly good email account...

I just LOVE Sheri Tepper. Everytime I feel like puking over the various and sundry and way too frequent events of our current times, I read a Sheri Tepper book and all is right with the world (at least til I listen to the news again). Anyone watching the TV program "4400"? I feel a great glee there, too, as bad people get their due, and our heros and heroines persevere. Kira

Wooly that sounds omnious...Margaret Atwood all alone is a big personality....for me she is so large she always stands between me and the story...... So now I have to look for Sheri S Tepper. I am not much of a Sci-fi reader.

Els

Ah Kira, I let Otto have all the news, and I skip most of it. TV programs are not all that hot anymore anyway. It is the odd time I realy enjoy a show, most of it isall very mediocre.

Els

Ooh, which one? I just finished the Jinian trilogy and now I need to find the Mavin one. I've read most of her more recent stuff, except The Companions, and now I'm catching up on her older works. She hasn't disappointed me yet!

Helen "Halla" Fleischer, Fantasy & Fiber Artist

I couldn't begin to tell you which of Tepper's books I've read, without gathering them up from the half-dozen people I've lent them to. Someone who patronizes the used bookstore nearest me apparently has a thing for Tepper as well; initially I glommed four of her books at once. Since then I've been finding one or two at a time, always with the dogear on the left so I'm pretty sure the books are coming from the same reader. I think I'm pretty well up to date except for maybe the two most current ones.

Els - don't be afraid of Tepper. She's a thinking woman's author, lighter than Atwood and not quite so fantastical as LeGuin.

My next trip to the UBS will hopefully turn up another Greg Maguire. I was lent a copy of "Wicked" which I'm reading now - this guy definitely does NOT write for the juvenile set! The guy used to write kid books and he had no trouble whatsoever making the leap to adult fairy tales.

A book that just came back to me (having made the rounds of several friends who kept passing it along) is "The Years of Rice and Salt" by Kim Stanley Robinson. Robinson's usual schtick has been the Mars series - "Red Mars", "Green Mars", "Blue Mars" - which follow the future history of Mars' development as an political unit independent of Earth's management structure. "The Years of Rice and Salt" is a future history of Earth based on the premise that Europe never recovered from the 14th century Black Death.

I found a new John Varley at the bookstore when I was there last week. His Gaia series captivated me when I was in college. Varley is not a prolific author, but his works are worth waiting for. Think Robert Asprin meets Robert Heinlein and you'll be on the right track.

If you like hard SF and haven't yet discovered Robert MacBride Allen I can recommend his books as well. He's another author who trickles them out, so what's on the shelves right now is what there is (a total of 4 or maybe 5 books).

My pile of "gotta read" books currently exceeds my bookshelf's capacity - I have piles of books on the floor by the bed waiting for my attention. If I don't sleep I might get them all read this summer :)

Reply to the list as I do not publish an email address to USENET. This practice has cut my spam by more than 95%. Of course, I did have to abandon a perfectly good email account...

I was just wondering which one was on your summer reading plan. ;) Or most recently read. I've been donating the ones I finish to the library at the Baltimore Science Fiction Society. Then I know I can check them out again, and still save a little room on my own shelves. ;)

Helen "Halla" Fleischer, Fantasy & Fiber Artist

It is on my book list to get from the library. Most likely a good read for my trip to Toronto

I will let you know how I make out.

Els

I seldom watch TV news (unless there is some big event), but am masochistic enough to drink my morning tea listening to hours of National Public Radio... national, USA, and then the BBC newshours. About TV... anything that has canned laughter I do not watch. But there are a number of really outstanding shows with excellent writing and stories. Unfortunately, most of them are in a soap opera format... that is, they are continueing so one cannot miss even one program! And then there are the Newsgroups discussing them! I didn't watch TV at all for years, then only X-Files (and boy was that a bust... they ended without giving any answers to the ongoing mystery, but had great one-episode tales interspersed). Now I'm retired and waste my evenings. I love "LOST" (on ABC) and "4400" (on satallite USA) and then HBO has some wonderful series. "Deadwood", "Six Feet Under", "Carnivale" (now ended ... boo hoo), and of course the infamous "Sopranos". Kira

I have probably read only 25% of Tepper's many, many books. For a first timer, I think I would recommend "Family Tree" and "Gate to Women's Country". The most recent book of hers I have had time to read is "Fresco", also very good. Kira

Here's a light summer read for you - gifted to me by a knitting friend.... "Knit One, Kill Two" by Maggie Sefton. The model for the setting was Lambspun in Fort Collins, CO, renamed Fort Connor(er?) in the book. Apparently it's the first in a series. I read it on the plane coming home from knitting camp.

I still have to write up my report of my knitting camp yet - that is coming. Had a wonderful time and visited some great yarn shops! I also have pictures to post to a new Yahoo album. Stay tuned. ;>D

Shelagh

Hi Shelagh,

Thanks, I'll be looking for that one, sounds good.

Hugs,

Nora