[April 2015] What are you reading?

[Nellisir]

Finished Children of England; moved on to The Life of Elizabeth I.

Anyone have tips for remembering names & suchlike? I'm probably going to start actually taking notes to keep the names and dates straight.

Also, anyone have recommendations for books covering the post-Elizabethan period, particularly the English Civil War & Restoration?

 

[Mallus]

Fiction - Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel.

Non - So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson.

Both are very good, so far.

 

[Dioltach]

Also, anyone have recommendations for books covering the post-Elizabethan period, particularly the English Civil War & Restoration?

If you can find them, Robert Neil wrote a bunch of novels set during and after the Restoration: Crown and Mitre deals with the politics surrounding the return of the Monarchy, Rebel Heiress is about exiled Royalists returning and having to deal with the pardoned Parliamentarians. Moon in Scorpio is set after the Restoration, with tensions between Catholics and Protestants still high and the memory of the Civil War not far.

(His most famous novel is probably Mist over Pendle, about the famous witch trials of 1612.)

 

[Tonguez]

just started (ie on chapter 2) -The Black pearl of Peihoo, A Tale of the Malay Seas - by Stanley Portal Hyatt, first published in 1914 its typical white mans burden amongst the savages of Borneo. But its easy reading and appeals to my anthropological curiosity and love of ERB and the Tarzan novels...

 

[HobbitFan]

Right now, I'm reading everything I can to get ideas to flesh out my Princes of the Apocalypse campaign. I don't have tons of time outside work but I do what I can.

 

[Mishihari Lord]

Just finished a David Weber "Honorverse" book, shadow of somebody-or-other. It gets a B, like the other ones I've read. Fun read but the action drags a bit, and the politics are a bit too left for my enjoyment.

Next up is probably "Developing Management Skills," a textbook I've been meaning to get to for year.

After that I'm in the mood for some John Ringo, if I can find anything I haven't read yet.

 

[Nellisir]

Finished The Life of Elizabeth I, by Alison Weir. Honestly, I had no idea she was such a hoot.
I've moved on to Warrior Queens, by Antonia Frasier, a sort of overview of martially-inclined female rulers and examination of the stock mythos that grow up around them. I started this a few months ago and couldn't get in to it; I'm either more in the mood now or better prepared after charging through the previous books.

I also just scored copies of The History of Scotland, by Magnus Magnusson, and Mary Queen of Scots and the Murder of Lord Darnley, by Alison Weir. I'm less inclined to read that one; I'll probably finish with Warrior Queens, move on to Hist. of Scotland, and then the book sale will be on and I can find stuff covering the Stuarts.

 

[delericho]

I did indeed read "A Prayer for Owen Meany", which was actually very good. I'm now reading "Magician's End" by Feist (which is no better than okay), and finishing up the PHB (60 pages of spells to go).

Next up will be "Vanity Fair" by Thackery and then "The Silkworm" by Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling). Oh, and once the PHB is done I'll start on the MM.

I'm not now expecting the next Pathfinder until next month, which is unfortunate.

 

[Richards]

I just finished Dean Koontz's 77 Shadow Street, which was surprisingly unsatisfying - he rarely fails to entertain. I think the problem here was that there wasn't a central protagonist, rather a huge helping of hotel inhabitants trying to survive, and the POV kept shifting around so often that it was difficult to keep them all straight, let alone keep track of what was going on with each one. However, there was a 100-page separate story grafted on to the end of the novel as a bonus feature, and that was much more enjoyable.

Right now I'm reading Stephen King's Full Dark, No Stars, a collection of novelettes. I'm almost done with the second one, and they have both been very good reads.

Johnathan

 

[megamania]

Keith Baker's Queen of Stone