What are you reading?

[terri]

Just finished Dark Matter which has generated lots of buzz. It started off with a bang and, for me, ended with an eyeroll. I enjoyed about 2/3 of it, though. Meh.

Have a glass of wine.

What, was that your fave book, or something? Lemme guess... it would be better if I'd read it in Spanish.

 

[waday]

Just finished Dark Matter which has generated lots of buzz. It started off with a bang and, for me, ended with an eyeroll. I enjoyed about 2/3 of it, though. Meh.

Yeah, the ending was definitely an eyeroll. The last half to three-quarters was meh. I give it high remarks based on it being a decent sci-fi book.

Part of my issue with the book, which I believe I touched on before, was that it was written to be adapted into a movie/television script. It definitely helped pull me into the book, but it got tiring after a while.

Spoiler: Contains Spoilers

The ending where everyone just stepped aside? Yeah, that's so unrealistic. If there are an infinite number of himself running around, one of those men would be himself stopping himself. But, I guess that's for another door...

Plus, how many times did it take him to figure out how to pilot it and which was the correct door? And then he leaves it up to his son to figure out the next door when they don't have any of the vials left? Nope.

 

[Gary A.]

Just finished Dark Matter which has generated lots of buzz. It started off with a bang and, for me, ended with an eyeroll. I enjoyed about 2/3 of it, though. Meh.

Have a glass of wine.

What, was that your fave book, or something? Lemme guess... it would be better if I'd read it in Spanish.

LOL ... wine is helpful, almost medicinal when eye-to-eye with disappointments.

 

[Gary A.]

(PS- Everything is better in Spanish. )

 

[terri]

Just finished Dark Matter which has generated lots of buzz. It started off with a bang and, for me, ended with an eyeroll. I enjoyed about 2/3 of it, though. Meh.

Yeah, the ending was definitely an eyeroll. The last half to three-quarters was meh. I give it high remarks based on it being a decent sci-fi book.

Part of my issue with the book, which I believe I touched on before, was that it was written to be adapted into a movie/television script. It definitely helped pull me into the book, but it got tiring after a while.

Spoiler: Contains Spoilers

The ending where everyone just stepped aside? Yeah, that's so unrealistic. If there are an infinite number of himself running around, one of those men would be himself stopping himself. But, I guess that's for another door...

Plus, how many times did it take him to figure out how to pilot it and which was the correct door? And then he leaves it up to his son to figure out the next door when they don't have any of the vials left? Nope.

o HO, I must reply:

Spoiler: Contains Spoilers

Totally what I was thinking!! Plus, he spent a lot of time making sure we understood just how awful it was to be in that box. The uncertainty, the fear...and that's the best option for his wife and son? Boo...hiss!

You know, I don't recall off the cuff reading that about it being script-ready, but it does explain a lot. The fast action midway and beyond starts to feel like scenes from a movie. So compelling at the beginning...so exhausting at the end!

A lot of people love it, though. Love the premise. For me, a great idea that kinda went south. It happens.

 

[waday]

Just finished Dark Matter which has generated lots of buzz. It started off with a bang and, for me, ended with an eyeroll. I enjoyed about 2/3 of it, though. Meh.

Yeah, the ending was definitely an eyeroll. The last half to three-quarters was meh. I give it high remarks based on it being a decent sci-fi book.

Part of my issue with the book, which I believe I touched on before, was that it was written to be adapted into a movie/television script. It definitely helped pull me into the book, but it got tiring after a while.

Spoiler: Contains Spoilers

The ending where everyone just stepped aside? Yeah, that's so unrealistic. If there are an infinite number of himself running around, one of those men would be himself stopping himself. But, I guess that's for another door...

Plus, how many times did it take him to figure out how to pilot it and which was the correct door? And then he leaves it up to his son to figure out the next door when they don't have any of the vials left? Nope.

o HO, I must reply:

Spoiler: Contains Spoilers

Totally what I was thinking!! Plus, he spent a lot of time making sure we understood just how awful it was to be in that box. The uncertainty, the fear...and that's the best option for his wife and son? Boo...hiss!

You know, I don't recall off the cuff reading that about it being script-ready, but it does explain a lot. The fast action midway and beyond starts to feel like scenes from a movie. So compelling at the beginning...so exhausting at the end!

A lot of people love it, though. Love the premise. For me, a great idea that kinda went south. It happens.

Totally agree! It was a really good premise and idea.

I need to clarify: I don't think he actually wrote it to be script-ready, but that's how I read it, LOL. While I was reading it, I had mentioned to my wife that the book read like a movie. She mentioned that a previous novel of his was made into a series or movie. That confirmed it for me, lol.

 

[terri]

Ah, ok. Yes - he is quite popular already, and some of his stuff is already on TV. So I think your assessment is spot on!

 

[pendennis]

I'd seen the movie a number of times, and enjoyed Randall Wallace's interpretation of then-Lt. Col Harold Moore's "We Were Soldiers Once... And Young". I decided to read the book.

Extremely glad I did. I understand that movies have to compress, combine, edit, etc., but the book was so moving, and one of those in which I felt I would miss something when my reader's battery started to fade.

The battle, which really took place at places other than LZ Xray, was so fluid and fast, that it was difficult at times, to keep track of the officers and men who fought there.

It was one of the few books, over which I shed tears about the men who fought there, and how families were told of deaths and woundings by methods such as taxi-delivered telegrams.

 

[CherylL]

My summer reading was Next Year in Havana and The Alice Network. Both had the same theme of writing of two women in two different times. Next Year in Havana has the grand daughter traveling to Havana with her grandmother's ashes. Present day and during the revolution. The Alice Network is about occupied France in WW1 and WW2 with women as spies.

 

[Frank F.]

I am working again through Marshall B. Rosenberg's "Non Violent Communications", a world changing work that helped solve many a conflict in Northern Ireland, Palestine/Israel, cities with violent motor cycle gangs in the USA and milions of private and corporate cases.

He teaches us to see the world through new eyes and solve conflics by looking to the bottom of our and our communication partner's feelings and needs.

It is very often the case that all or most needs of all parties can be statisfied by cooperation while a competitive approach leaves all parties poorer, the winners and the losers.

Rosenberg died in 2015. Shortly after his death a revised (by his own hand) edition of his groundbreaking work was issued. Here is his website: Center for Nonviolent Communication: A Global Organization

 

[SquarePeg]

Late Show by Michael Connelly - a new (hopefully?) series from him with a female detective as the lead. As usual nicely written 3 dimensional characters and a story that pulls you in and moves right along. She's not quite as anti-hero as his Bosch character but definitely not your typical main stream cookie cutter good guy. Same feel as the Bosch novels with the seedy side of LA being the backdrop. The twist was plausible and almost a total surprise.

 

[waday]

Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew Sullivan

 

[Gary A.]

The LA Times: An article the legislators are on the verge mandating California to be a 100% renewable energy state.

 

[Braineack]

A Darker Shade of Magic series.

I'm on book two or three. pretty good, Harry Potter-esque, but more adult.

https://www.amazon.com/Gathering-Shadows-Novel-Shades-Magic/dp/0765376474

 

[SquarePeg]

A Darker Shade of Magic series.

I'm on book two or three. pretty good, Harry Potter-esque, but more adult.

https://www.amazon.com/Gathering-Shadows-Novel-Shades-Magic/dp/0765376474

Sounds like it might be something I would like. Have you been watching The Magicians on SYFY?