Haven't done that in a long time, and I think I'm getting too old for it, but it's a very creative and interesting trilogy with a magic system that is quite clever and innovative.

I started doing it then because I'd been encouraging my daughters to read during the summer and keep track of what they'd read, and I decided to practice what I preached. It became so useful that I just kept it up.

I started putting the books in Goodreads this past year, and one of my goals is to get them all in this year.

I think Goodreads is a great way to share books with friends, and I would be happy to add friends that way if anyone is interested. (Email me your email address and I'll send you an invitation.)

I also finished Star Soldiers by Andre Norton - which was a collection of two novels in one book, as far as I could tell. Star Guard and Star Rangers, I think. They feature similar characters/environment but one takes place much later than the other (thousands of years.) They're both interesting. I'm glad I read them. I think that if you haven't read Andre Norton and are a fan of Golden Age Sci-Fi, you should read them. If you're not a fan of Golden Age or not that into Sci-Fi, I don't think I would recommend these as they are rather dense, lots of made-up names for characters and their ethnicities, place names, etc. I think that would get in the way of enjoyment for people not already fans of the genre.

I've just picked up Zoe's Tale by Scalzi, which is a parallel story to the Last Colony but told from the teenage daughter's perspective. I am sure I'll like it, she's got spunk.

Because my babysitter loaned it to me and I was starting to feel guilty about it sitting on my shelf all this time, I started Twilight today. So far so good, I'm sure I'll enjoy it as it seems everyone I know has read it and enjoyed it (exceptions here noted, and expected as people here are much more opinionated about speculative fiction which is one of many reasons I come here - for balance) It's a quick read. I'm noticing many useful things about how the author characterizes details. I'm also noticing many things about authorial asides and buried exposition that is a little obvious to me, but it's all useful in learning how good (where good = highly marketable/salable) stories are constructed. I'm only 40 pages or so in, but I predict it'll be a quick read.

I'm taking that as a lesson to focus 95% of my effort on story and storytelling skills - pacing, foreshadowing, inner dialogue, plot structure/arc. I or my early readers will help me with that 5% of work on exact wording choices, but most of the effort should be on story. I expect, sometimes at least, that effort is in choosing the right words to convey a certain mood or deliver a certain plot point - but not in combing through each sentence painstakingly ensuring that every single word is just *perfect*.

I'll recommend:

A. Lincoln: A Biography, Ronald C. White, Jr.
The Last Lincolns: The Rise & Fall of a Great Family, Charles Lachman
The Great Comback: How Abraham Lincoln Beat the Odds to Win the 1860 Republican Nomination, Gary Ecelbarger
Abraham Lincoln: Great American Historians on Our Sixteenth Presiden, Brian Lamb and Susan Swain, editors
Vindicating Lincoln: Defending the Politics of Our Greatest President, Thomas L. Krannawitter
The Lincolns: Portrait of a Marriage, Daniel Mark Epstein
Lincoln, President-Elect: Abraham Lincoln and the Great Secession Winter 1860-1861, Harold Holzer
Lincoln at Peoria: The Turning Point, Lewis E. Lehrman
"They Have Killed Papa Dead!" The Road to Ford's Theatre, Abraham Lincoln's Murder, and the Rage for Vengeance, Anthony S. Pitch
Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander-in-Chief, James M. McPherson

Some are biographies, some are histories, some focus on one specific area of Lincoln's life...there are others, but these are the titles I could lay my hands on. (Of course there were a couple I didn't much like.)

[edited to correct a typo, which surpisingly didn't involve all the italicism]

In the interim, I read Elantris by Brandon Sanderson. Highly Recommend. This came highly recommended by others, it's on many people's "must read" fantasy lists. It was quite long (took me 8 days to read, which is somewhat unheard of for me these days) and dense at places. A lot of made-up place and people and thing names (including stuff like terms for religion.) That usually is a turn-off for me but the author switches between 3 main points of view for the majority of the novel and that helps.

The pace is slowish through most of the book, but the last 100 pages are packed with action (so do yourself a favor and don't do what I did and start the last 100 pages at 11:45 PM...because it's really hard to put down once you get into that section. LOL)

Just finished
Mark Twain - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - I hadn't read this before. I find the language in classic fiction takes a little getting used to whenever I start reading one of these. Enjoyed it though, both for a look at the representation of a particular point in American history, but also for the language and structure of writing of the day. Recommended.

Jeff Abbott - Fear - I hadn't read this author's work before. I enjoyed this book and the switch back into modern writing made for a very fast read. Recommended.

Kenneth Grahame - The Wind in the Willows - Switching back to an older writing style again; I found the most difficult thing about this book was visualising the scale of the animals. Once I'd beaten that part of my brain to a pulp it was very enjoyable and I could get into the characters a little more. Recommended.

Now on to Michael Crichton's State of Fear. I actually want to read Michael Crichton's Sphere, but someone misheard me before Christmas, tried to find Michael Crichton's 'Fear', couldn't find it and so got me this and the Jeff Abbott book. I guess I shouldn't complain about a 2 for 1 deal...

On the non-fiction side I read The Complete Idiot's Guide to Publishing Science Fiction by Cory Doctorow and Karl Schroeder. Lots of excellent information in that book but it's hard to find at a decent price for whatever reason.

The concept is excellent (a world that has 6 suns in constant presence in the sky in different formations suddenly undergoes a traumatic eclipse when only one sun is visible, causing total darkness, which leads to insanity among the populace.) The story is dragging at this point - I'm well into the "daybreak" section and I think I have 100 pages left and am debating skimming. Maybe because in the Daybreak section they're dealing with the aftermath of the insanity and things are pretty dark (mood-wise, the suns have returned to their normal functionings post-eclipse.) So, I give it a so-so. I know Nightfall is highly regarded in sci-fi circles, but I wonder if the shorter form might be better than this novel. I'm going to have to dig around for it to compare.

The Rolling Stones, Robert A. Heinlein. This is an old book that has just been reprinted...it's different in tone than his other so-called "juveniles," but is still interesting.

Escape from Hell, Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. This is a sequel to a book from the 1970s, Inferno...if you've read that (and it's been reprinted, too), you'll know the basic story. That was a lot of fun and I look forward to plowing through it.

RX for Chaos, Christopher Anvil. This is a collection of old short stories, some of which I'm sure I've read before, a lot of which I haven't. Anvil rarely lets me down.

and also...

quote:

---

I just finished "The Picture of Dorian Gray".
'Twas awesomeness.

---

I quite enjoyed it also, but found it hard to get started on; the dialogue tends to digress a bit particularly in the beginning.

Recently finished:
State of Fear, Michael Crichton. Disappointed; in my opinion he has in some ways sacrificed the integrity of the story to state a personal point of view regarding global warming etc. Decidedly "Meh". Not Impressed.

Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson. Blown away. I'd never read this before and really enjoyed it. For a book published in 1883 I found the language very accessible to a modern reader. If you've never read this before, Highly Recommended.

I also attempted Brother Fish by Bryce Courtenay. I cannot imagine a better cure for insomnia; I found the narrator's constant digressions into telling us this or that story to so stall my interest in the book that I eventually had to put it down. Not my cup of tea, but someone may really like it, even if it's just his publicist. Not Impressed

Currently reading The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, and quite enjoying it. A nice antidote to the last book.

I enjoyed Gaiman's THE GRAVEYARD BOOK, especially after I heard it was "inspired by" Kipling's Mowgli stories. Fun to look back on the book and think about the characters lined up to correspond to Kipling's characters.

Friggen brilliant! I loved all three so much. Highly recommend for anybody.

my english teacher makes me read emo books...

just edited to add that Im reading The Once and Future King on my own. great read.

Also, I read back on this thread. I should have known I'd find people who have read The Dresden Files. They are so full of cliched writing in some places! But you know, detectives are so much more fun when they are wizards.

barely got my hands on a copy last week, during spring break, and just HAD to read it before the due date.

Started L.E. Modesitt's THE MAGIC OF RECLUCE a few days ago. It's all right. I like the main character well enough, but I find his writing style rather unclear. Of course, it's a 1st-person POV, and the narrator doesn't understand what's going on either. I appreciate the risk Modesitt took in writing the book this way . . . but I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to hang on. It better pick up quickly.

* * * * *

Other books I've read recently:

Ru Emerson's AGAINST THE GIANTS. (Bad)

Brandon Sanderson's MISTBORN 1: THE FINAL EMPIRE (highly recommended)

Keith Strohm's THE TOMB OF HORRORS (good)

Graham Greene's OUR MAN IN HAVANA (good)

Janet Evanovich's ELEVEN ON TOP (not impressed)