One Book a Week Club 2016 (Good Intentions Edition)

Peter Why · Post by **Peter Why** » March 18th, 2016, 1:24 am

I've just finished "Radio Acting" by Alan Beck. It's mainly aimed at people who are already trained actors, and details the way a studio operates, covering microphone technique, working with others and with "spot" (on-the-spot sound effects). It does also have a chapter on getting work in radio acting, voice-over, audiobooks etc. It's illustrated with lots of advice and comments from actors and directors.

The book was written in 1997; the author is (was?) a lecturer in drama at the University of Kent in the U.K.

Probably not worth buying a copy if you want to read it, but I think it's definitely worth borrowing a copy if you're interested in the subject. It does give an insight into the work involved in "dramatic works".

Peter

Peter Why · Post by **Peter Why** » March 31st, 2016, 7:47 am

... and I've finished the most recent Bryant and May novel by Christopher Fowler: Strange Tide. I golloped through it like through the first glass of beer after a ten mile hike over sunny hills. I had been very worried by the direction the previous novel was heading, so had put off starting this one for a few days. I'll not spoil the story for anyone who's yet to read it, but it is as complex and engaging as all the others. A wonderful read.

Peter

Carolin · Post by **Carolin** » April 1st, 2016, 1:46 am

i have a huge book-hangover from canavan's the magician's guild. i havent enjoyed fantasy so much in a long time (i was afraid i was getting too old)

MaryinArkansas · Post by **MaryinArkansas** » April 1st, 2016, 6:08 am

Here is my list for March. Not a lot, but I actually did read two print books. Two down, a kazillion to go!

Print Book: "Short Stories of the Tragedy and Comedy of Life – Volume II" by Guy De Maupassant
LibriVox: "Midnight" by Octavus Roy Cohen
LibriVox: "Crucial Instances" by Edith Wharton
LibriVox: "Roast Beef Medium" by Edna Ferber
Print Book: "Suite Francaise" by Irene Nemirovsky (my favorite for this month)

MBraymiller · Post by **MBraymiller** » April 1st, 2016, 12:24 pm

Carolin wrote:i have a huge book-hangover from canavan's the magician's guild. i havent enjoyed fantasy so much in a long time (i was afraid i was getting too old)

I hope I never grow too old for a good fantasy book! I started the first novel in that series but never finished it. I'll need to revisit it.

smike · Post by **smike** » April 2nd, 2016, 12:13 am

MBraymiller wrote:
Carolin wrote:i have a huge book-hangover from canavan's the magician's guild. i havent enjoyed fantasy so much in a long time (i was afraid i was getting too old)
I hope I never grow too old for a good fantasy book! I started the first novel in that series but never finished it. I'll need to revisit it.

Oh, I think I'll check it out. I love fantasy books and am always on the lookout for some good ones. I just finished listening to the Spell/Sword book 1 by G Derek Adams, which seems to treat the same topic as the Magician's Guild, going by the synopsis. I'm intrigued now.

In other news: I finished listening to The Angel Tree by Lucinda Riley, and I was enchanted. It spans across the time shortly after WW2 to the 1990s, and tells the stories of Greta and her daughter Ceska, and David, who is their best friend.

J_N · Post by **J_N** » April 2nd, 2016, 5:37 am

Carolin wrote:i have a huge book-hangover from canavan's the magician's guild. i havent enjoyed fantasy so much in a long time (i was afraid i was getting too old)

I loved it, too... anyone just starting out has 7 books to look forward too... though, I have yet to meet a male person who enjoyed the books as much... I only ever hear women loving them... men seem to be a bit bored...

smike · Post by **smike** » April 2nd, 2016, 8:04 am

Well, I bought the first book now.

Kangaroo692 · Post by **Kangaroo692** » April 2nd, 2016, 4:15 pm

Here's my list this year:

Goal: 100
So far: 19
To go: 81

Read:
1 - Tom Slade: Boy Scout of the Moving Pictures by Percy Keese Fitzhugh
2 - Tom Slade at Temple Camp by Percy Keese Fitzhugh
3 - Tom Slade on the River by Percy Keese Fitzhugh
4 - Tom Slade with the Colors by Percy Keese Fitzhugh
5 - Pee-Wee Harris Mayor for a Day by Percy Keese Fitzhugh
6 - Tom Slade on a Transport by Percy Keese Fitzhugh
7 - The Magician's Nephew by C. S. Lewis (re-read)
8 - Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes (re-read)
9 - The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis (re-read)
10 - Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter
11 - Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder
12 - Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
13 - Prince Caspian by C. S. Lewis
14 - The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis
15 - The Silver Chair by C. S. Lewis
16 - This Country of Ours by H. E. Marshall
17 - Carry a Big Stick (Theodore Roosevelt Biography)
18 - America Grows Up by Gerald W. Johnson
19 - These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder

To be read:
Along the Mohawk Trail by Percy Keese Fitzhugh
Roy Blakeley by Percy Keese Fitzhugh (re-read)
Roy Blakeley's Silver Fox Patrol by Percy Keese Fitzhugh
Children of the New Forest by Frederick Marryat (re-read)
Man of the Family by Ralph Moody
Under the Lilacs by Louisa May Alcott
Michael Faraday: Father of Electronics
Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson (re-read)

My goal this year is one hundred books, including homeschool reads.

Piotrek81 · Post by **Piotrek81** » April 4th, 2016, 12:06 pm

I've just finished reading "Beneath the Moors", a collection of short stories (most of them HPL-inspired) by Brian Lumley. Like most of Cthulhu mythos stories these too were quite predictable and full of well-recognizable motiffs. I'd like to read a Cthulhu story set in the world filled with the 21th century technology for a change. Just think about it: a story involving a Cthulhu fanpage on Facebook

Earlier there was "Blackout" by Marc Elsberg. This one I wanted to read since I first saw it in a bookshop and read the description. And I finally did. Scary stuff. A group of crackers hacks a heavily interconnected system of power plants across the European Union and then the US. Electricity is cut off pretty much everywhere and hundreds of millions of people suddenly find themselves in a world where the most basic elements of their lives have stopped functioning. This book shows you how dependent we are on electricity in today's world and how enormous the effects could be if such cyberattack were carried out.

smike · Post by **smike** » April 4th, 2016, 12:58 pm

Well, I finished listening to Vol 1 of the Magician's Guild and am now halfway through Vol II.

J_N · Post by **J_N** » April 4th, 2016, 1:38 pm

Piotrek81 wrote:Earlier there was "Blackout" by Marc Elsberg. This one I wanted to read since I first saw it in a bookshop and read the description. And I finally did. Scary stuff. A group of crackers hacks a heavily interconnected system of power plants across the European Union and then the US. Electricity is cut off pretty much everywhere and hundreds of millions of people suddenly find themselves in a world where the most basic elements of their lives have stopped functioning. This book shows you how dependent we are on electricity in today's world and how enormous the effects could be if such cyberattack were carried out.

Oh, I read this... as did loads of my work colleagues - the author is a fellow Austrian... we were all a bit paranoid at the end... we discussed getting emergency generators and how to store water and food supplies long-term... fortunately this wore off after a few days... the story is just so realistic... it really felt like this could happen any day...

Surprisingly, it has been translated into a couple of languages (including Polish) but not into English...

smike · Post by **smike** » April 4th, 2016, 9:03 pm

J_N wrote:
Surprisingly, it has been translated into a couple of languages (including Polish) but not into English...

Hardly anything is ever translated into English. They're so insular, they seem to think that they have enough literature themselves and no need of literature from other countries.

Newgatenovelist · Post by **Newgatenovelist** » April 6th, 2016, 7:55 am

It can be more difficult to find literature translated into English, but & Other Stories have some interesting titles (no, I don't work for them).

J_N · Post by **J_N** » April 17th, 2016, 8:03 am

I have just finished Middlemarch by George Eliot - it was a surprisingly nice read... it's a sort of slice of life kinda novel with A LOT of pages (about 900 of them), so I was expecting to get bored at some point, but I didn't

I listened to the commercial version read by Maureen O'Brien who did a delightful job - I loved her voices for the different characters... apparently we also have 2 versions on Librivox... hats off to the soloist - at 35 hours this is quite a feat...

on another note: I finished my first ever proper Japanese book recently (ももこの21世紀日記 <No'1> = Momoko's diary of the 21st century Vol. 1)... and I am feeling quite proud

even though it was a fairly easy one...