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Let us know what's keeping your mind busy this month!

Beyond the Clouds, tome 1 by Nicke

Just finished Enchanted Pilgrimage by Clifford Simak. Now re-reading The Pride of Chanur by C.J. Cherryh.

I ordered the Chanur books since the group will be reading the first one in July as a BotM.

At the end of April I finished The Rebirth, which I really liked. I will continue with more Cyteen later this month.

I read The Invisible Library, which I also enjoyed. I am looking forward to spending more time in that multiverse, too, although I see the 7th book is not coming out till December and rumor has it she is contracted for one more. I hate waiting for a series to be finished!

I keep telling myself I need to read some of my magazines that have been piling up, but books are more alluring, so I started The Dragon Circle, but I need to tend to those magazines, too. Irene Radford’s books are pretty easy to set down, so I may make progress with both.

Jim wrote: "Just finished Enchanted Pilgrimage by Clifford Simak. Now re-reading The Pride of Chanur by C.J. Cherryh."

Jim, how did Foundation hold up after 50 years since you first read it?

Kathi wrote: "Jim wrote: "Just finished Enchanted Pilgrimage by Clifford Simak. Now re-reading The Pride of Chanur by C.J. Cherryh."

Jim, how did Foundation hold up after 50 years since you first read it?

The concepts were still good even after all that time. Algorythms seem to be the thing. Still true. But I think I was disappointed at the lack of "action" the first time I read it, lo those many years ago. This time, it seemed like a science fiction version of "My Dinner With Andre".

I am in re-reading mode. I just finished Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion, and I think I'm going to continue and read the second two books again before moving on to Six Wakes.

Finished Scalzi's The Last Emperox
I'm torn on this one and really not sure what I think. I'll probably end up changing my rating a few times until it settles.

I figured out my inability to concentrate. I'm spoiled for choice. I've got so much extra time now I don't commute, that I have all this time and couldn't decide what I actually wanted to do.

I've picked up a few hobbies I haven't touched in close to a decade.

Dug out my old DSLR. Surprisingly enough the battery holds a charge still. Down side, I really only like taking landscapes and I don't have the opportunity to go out and wander.

I've got a crochet bed spread that's been in progress for years. Decided to turn it into a throw. I went for granny squares this time around so not many more squares to go and I can start to assemble.

Also decided I will FINALLY finish Witcher 3 and its DLC. Afterwards I'll take a look at the scary huge game library backup that my husband has been building for me.

Catching up on a ton of lectures and pod casts.

Been doing a lot of experimenting in the kitchen. I actually have the time to work on more complex dishes and recipes instead of going for simple. Some have been a hit, some were failures. Haven't tried one yet that I felt was worth the effort and ingredients to make.

I actually have a half completed jigsaw on my dining room table. I had multiple cats for so many years and they had pretty much trained me that anything with lots of tiny pieces would just be an exercise in futility. Once they were gone, I just never felt I had the time to put into it.

Books have fallen by the wayside. But I look at it this way. The heaven that is self isolation won't last forever, but the books will. I'll get back to them.

Funny enough, I have all this free time and the last thing I want to do is spend it in front of a TV, which is frustrating my husband as he's been trying to get me to watch some shows for ages and I never really have the time.

I’m reading SHOREFALL, book 2 in Robert Jackson Bennett’s FOUNDERS trilogy.

Random wrote: "Funny enough, I have all this free time and the last thing I want to do is spend it in front of a TV, which is frustrating my husband as he's been trying to get me to watch some shows for ages and I never really have the time."

You could do worse than to catch the new Amazon Prime series, "Upload". SF casting a jaundiced eye toward both scientific reality and virtual reality.

Greek Religion by Walter Burkert

I'm reading The Invisible Library and The Light Fantastic. Still hoping to get around to finishing Executive Orders one of these days, plus I need to re-read Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore and Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened for my IRL-but-now-virtual book clubs.

I also downloaded Tor's free copies* of the Murderbot novellas a couple weeks ago and have three more Discworld books and Collins' new book The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes on order for later this month. Oh, and a friend is insisting that I read N. K. Jemisin's Emergency Skin pronto... here's hoping I find more free time!

Kathi, Shel, and Anthony: I didn't get a chance to say thanks for the C. J. Cherryh advice! Now I'm much less lost. I think I'll start with Cyteen and see how I feel about it after that. Thanks!

*If anyone is interested, their free ebook right now is the first Stormlight Archive book. Apparently there were so many requests today that the website crashed(!), so they're leaving it open through tomorrow (05 May).

I'm reading Six Wakes right now and it's very good at keeping my frayed attention, so that's a plus!

Also reading Lavinia, The Song of Achilles, and Hollow Kingdom (pitch: zombie apocalypse through the POV of a very vulgar crow and his pet dog). I'm feeling pretty spoiled right now with my reading choices. I quite like all of them.

I'm reading Network Effect (The Murderbot Diaries 5) by Martha Wells. Have been looking forward to this and so far I am feeling well entertained.

The Dragon Circle was OK, 7/10.
Then out of genre with A Wanted Man, 6/10, a Jack Reacher Book by Lee Child. Not one of the better ones, IMO.
Now reading The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. I don’t typically read vampire/horror but this is holding my attention & interest quite well.
Next up will be some of those magazines that haven’t gotten read and then probably the next book in our Old Man’s War series, The Ghost Brigades.

Kathi wrote: "Now reading The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. I don’t typically read vampire/horror but this is holding my attention & interest quite well."

I tried this one some time ago. But it seemed to me like a Transylvanian travelogue. If you come to a different conclusion, I'd like to hear about it.

Jim wrote: "Kathi wrote: "Now reading The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. I don’t typically read vampire/horror but this is holding my attention & interest quite well."

I tried this one some time ago. But it ..."

I read it a long time ago and remember kind of liking the travelogue stuff but don't remember anything about the plot at all! Lol. Yes, please Kathi come back and tell us what you think.

I finished my Hyperion Cantos re-read (still brings tears to my eyes at the ending, even though I've read it multiple times) and I've just started Six Wakes. I'm intrigued so far!

Kari wrote: "I read it a long time ago and remember kind of liking the travelogue stuff but don't remember anything about the plot at all! Lol. Yes, please Kathi come back and tell us what you think."

Jim wrote: "I tried this one some time ago. But it seemed to me like a Transylvanian travelogue. If you come to a different conclusion, I'd like to hear about it.��

Well, I gave The Historian a rating of 9/10. I really thought it was good. Very detailed, but so readable. I found the descriptions of people, places, and food to be thorough without being boring or repetitive—they added to the richness of the storytelling. And the plot was fascinating—the connections between libraries/books/research and history, and then the vampire story/mystery.

My only complaint was the shifting narratives. It always took me a bit to figure out who was narrating a given section, since the POV was always first person regardless of who was narrating via letter, journal, oral recounting, or the “current�� story in the POV of Paul and Helen’s daughter. And as the POV changed, so did the time period.

I thought the cast of characters was wonderful—each detailed enough that the reader could really “see�� him/her.

I finished Six Wakes - just posted thoughts in the spoiler thread - and I wanted a break from SF before moving on in the group series read. I've just now started In Calabria by Peter S. Beagle and will probably pick up The Ghost Brigades after that.

Kathi wrote: "Well, I gave The Historian a rating of 9/10."

Thanks for the update!

I thought SIX WAKES was way better than I expected it to me when I read a few years ago.

My son has been reading the Wings of Fire series by Tui T. Sutherland and keeps bugging me to read it so I can talk about it with him, so after finishing Ghost Brigades I dove in and finished the first book, The Dragonet Prophecy in two days. I never really paid attention to middle grade SF/F until I had a kid that age, and I have to say there is a LOT of good stuff out there that's enjoyable for adults too! I thought the first book was great and I'm now about a third of the way into the second one, The Lost Heir. If you need a good gift for a young reader in your life I highly recommend it! My son is 9, for reference.

I'm currently re-reading The Kif Strike Back by C.J. Cherryh. This after going through The Pride Of Chanur and Chanur's Venture again as well. Fun the second time around. Then I'll read the final two novels in the five book traversal. Those I didn't get to earlier, so looking forward to them.

Shel wrote: "My son has been reading the Wings of Fire series by Tui T. Sutherland and keeps bugging me to read it so I can talk about it with him, so after finishing Ghost Brigades I dove in an..."

My oldest (nearly 9) is reading the graphic novel versions right now. I'm equally impressed with our recent foray into middle grade fiction and graphic novels. If you haven't tried Sanderson's Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians series, it's a great read aloud series for adults and kids alike! (You'll get a few jokes/references that will fly over his head but it won't detract from the story for him.)

Finally reading SALVATION LOST by Peter F. Hamilton during my birthday week after savoring it since it’s October 2019 release...

Lindsey wrote: "If you haven't tried Sanderson's Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians series, it's a great read aloud series for adults and kids alike! "

Thanks for the suggestion! I'll look it up!

I finished The Rise of Magicks which I thought was a good ending to this trilogy. I've started Probability Moon

Christine wrote: " I've started Probability Moon"

A good one. All three in the series are worthwhile.

Probability Moon looks good, haven't noticed that one before.

Finished Network Effect which was good fun, but I get frustrated by the Murderbot stories because there's so much more about that world I want to know about other than the sarcasm and the shooting and the hacking. Although I do like the sarcasm.

Starting Goldilocks with high hopes.

So far this month, I've read:
The Majesties - definitely not what I expected in the end, but I would definitely recommend it.
City of Golden Shadow - loved it and will read the rest of the series soon, I'm sure.
Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers Who Helped Win World War II - for one of my IRL book clubs - very well-written.
Sword in the Stars - if you enjoyed the first one, you'll like the sequel.
Illuminae - such a cool format - I wish there were more books that used their physical formatting like that.
The Library at Mount Char - haunting is actually an accurate description rather than a figure of speech with this one.
Step on a Crack - for another IRL book club. Great characters and definitely hooked me into the series.
Joyland - the perfect summer book.
Lost - a fast-paced thriller.

Currently reading Misfits, which is a lot of fun.

MadProfessah wrote: "Finally reading SALVATION LOST by Peter F. Hamilton during my birthday week after savoring it since it’s October 2019 release..."

I have it reserved at the library. Just finished Salvation. Particularly like the book's structure and the far-future group of characters. Interesting concepts of male/female.

Stephen King's the Institute which I enjoyed as it has to do with mind powers (wish I had some), followed by Outsider (an entity which can move from body to body) and his Finders Keepers trilogy (detective series) all good. Dunno why I have gone back to King, probably because I am looking forward to the new version of the Stand, leaning more to fantasy than horror and quite apt. A couple more Jack Reachers - absolutely love the character. A re-read for about the tenth time of Simak's Way Station, again don't know why it touches me so. Finally Hamilton's Salvation. Hope to pick up the sequal in acouple of days ��

My latest reads:
The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi, 8/10. Enjoyed this book and looking forward to more in this series.
The Vindication by C.J. Cherryh, book 3 of her original Cyteen trilogy, 8/10. Still a lot left unexplained. And I’m wishing I had read Forty Thousand in Gehenna more recently, since it ties in with the Cyteen books.
Dragon's Revenge by Irene Radford, 7/10. Conclusion of The Star Gods trilogy.
Never Go Back by Lee Child, an excellent installment in the Jack Reacher series, 9/10.
Next up? Debating between The Masked City by Genevieve Cogman, book 2 in the Invisible Library series, or starting one of the books for our June reads. Hmmmm, think I’ll decide tomorrow.

Megan wrote: "Illuminae - such a cool format - I wish there were more books that used their physical formatting like that.."

You may want to look for more epistolary novels, then.

Those are all great Stephen King books for people who like mystery/thriller. If you like straight up sci-fi Kong’s ��11/22/63�� is also fantastic.

Those are the only King books I have read because I’m Not a horror fan but I’ve been impressed with what he has put out in genres I do like.

I'm about halfway through The Burning Page by Genevieve Cogman, the third book in the Invisible Library series - I'm finding these books the perfect kind of escape right now. Not too taxing but not total fluff, well-written, with great characters and a fascinating setting.

I also just started reading Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett to my third grader - we are really enjoying the Tiffany Aching series!

I have both of our June books queued up on my kindle, so I will probably start one of them next.

Mary wrote: "Megan wrote: "Illuminae - such a cool format - I wish there were more books that used their physical formatting like that.."

You may want to look for more epistolary novels, then."

I enjoyed Nick Bantock’s Griffin and Sabine trilogy, Griffin and Sabine, Sabine's Notebook, and The Golden Mean. I read them years ago, but they were quite unique, at least to me back then

Worlds of Wonder, Days of Judgment: Popular Religious Belief in Early New England by David D. Hall

Cloak of Ashes by Jonathan Moeller

I'm reading I Am Legend and Where the Crawdads Sing.