Agent to the Stars by Scalzi: Hilarious. Very much like other Fantasy/SF books about the Hollywood movie industry (Bride of the Rat God, The Revenge of Kali-Ra), and every bit as enjoyable. (Though with aliens instead of ancient curses.) I didn’t particularly want the plane ride I started it on to end, or the book for that matter.
Con and Conjure by Lisa Shearin: Meh. Another marking time book. I liked the way there was actually some closure in the previous book.
Psych: Mind Altering Murder by William Rabkin: It was ok.
The Wide Awake Princess: Lots of fun!
Kitty’s Greatest Hits. A bunch of short stories about Kitty, other people in her books, and historical vampire/werewolf fiction. The ones with kitty are the best… the historical ones aren’t as much fun.
Once Dead, Twice Shy by Kim Harrison. Definitely YA, an easy read and a clever concept. Plays around with fate vs. free will rather than good vs. evil, which is a nice twist on the grim reaper genre (or shinigami genre…).
Template by Matthew Hughes. No Henghis Hapthorne in this one, but the main character, a professional fencing duelist, is also interesting. We revisit many of the cultures we’d already discovered in Fools Errant and the Henghis Hapthorne books. There’s an underlying anthropology message in this one– what is culture, what are mores, how do we experience the world based on our culture?
The travelin’ one of us has been reading a bunch of Heyer: a re-read of Lady of Quality, plus Faro’s Daughter.
The Mongoliad: awesome idea. A book written by committee, and unfortunately it shows. But still you should maybe read it. It’s like an RPG video game but in a good way. Some info-dumping about swordsmanship, which fortunately is authentic as Neal Stephenson is authentically a real historical sword guy. The book is dedicated to Guy Windsor, one of the most well-known experts in the field and an amazing font of knowledge.
Divine Misfortune by A. Lee Martinez: light enough to read on choppy plane or when jetlagged in foreign hotel room at 4am.
Discount Armageddon: I’ve read a bunch of this author’s other stuff but I enjoy this one most so far. Very silly. Solid start to a new urban fantasy series.
Cancer Vixen: rapidly becoming a classic in the field, and I can see why. Read it.
The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction: Hells yes.
Plus a WHOLE BUNCH of other books! Yay, summer!
Any summer recommendations for us?
Grumpy Rumblings (of the formerly untenured) 
May 30, 2012 at 3:20 am
I just got Amazon Prime membership which allows for lots of free streaming videos so I’m catching up on years of TV shows that I never got a chance to watch because the kids were small and I didn’t sleep much. You know I still haven’t seen a single episode of lost? But I don’t know if I can do that show. Masterpiece Theater on the other hand, well, that’s just pure heaven.
My latest stack of reads came from a tag sale at a neighbor’s house. Not sure if any of them are good. They seemed to have more of my husband’s taste in books and not so much mine.
May 30, 2012 at 8:23 am
I do have to ask…how in the world do you have the time to read all this stuff?!
May 30, 2012 at 8:25 am
There are TWO of us and we don’t watch a whole lot of tv.
May 30, 2012 at 8:34 am
:-) There is only one of me, which admittedly stacks the odds against me. I don’t watch any TV at all, but if I manage to make it through one book of ‘fun’ reading a month, I’m way over my quota. Unfortunately, I’m at the point where even non-fiction is considered fun reading…
May 30, 2012 at 8:38 am
Reading is also something we tend to do when we travel. There have been weddings and conferences. And I think it’s been a while since our last “What are we reading” post. I tend towards brain popcorn which doesn’t take that long to get through… #2 seems to have more brain power than I do. I can’t handle non-fiction “pleasure reading” during the school year.
May 30, 2012 at 8:39 am
One thing I will do… when I get behind on my work reading I’ll allow myself a chapter of pleasure reading after each work article I get through. Work article, pleasure chapter, work article, pleasure chapter, etc.
May 30, 2012 at 9:04 pm
Ah…don’t travel much, and I guess the other thing is that, given the opportunity, I would rather spend some time playing violin. I hope once this PhD thing is out of the way, I’ll have a bit more opportunity to enjoy some reading.
May 31, 2012 at 5:22 am
No violin playing here!
May 31, 2012 at 10:05 am
Aw…that’s too bad. :-)
May 30, 2012 at 5:04 pm
The flight to Tokyo is 11 hours each way. Plus getting to and from the takeoff city. The train to Kyoto is 2 hours each way. Etc…
May 30, 2012 at 10:11 am
The Sherlockian by Graham Moore; Drift by Rachel Maddow
Agent to the Stars sounds like fun; I might try that one. Oh, and there is a new Kitty book out!
May 30, 2012 at 10:23 am
ooh! I should put that on the wishlist!
May 30, 2012 at 11:41 am
sherlockian was FABULOUS
May 30, 2012 at 10:15 am
Oh, and my head would explode if I “didn’t have time” to read. Even though I watch waaaayyy too much TV, most TV doesn’t require my full attention so I typically read while the TV is on. Multitasking? LOL
May 30, 2012 at 10:54 am
My DH does that too…
Something I do sometimes is put on the subtitles and watch at 4x speed. I’m not sure why I can’t relax while watching shows anymore.
May 30, 2012 at 11:42 am
just finished two mysteries, much like Anne Perry’s Monk and/or Pitt series, with a “distressed” gentlewoman as amateur detective. There are only 2 so far in the series. Author is a high school teacher, Suzanne Rizzolo, http://www.poisonedpenpress.com/suzanne-rizzolo/ Read one and half one night, finished the next day. I only read fiction on weekends (unless I’m traveling)
working my way through amanda cross mysteries again
May 30, 2012 at 4:35 pm
oooh I love Amanda Cross!
May 30, 2012 at 3:31 pm
I’m a huge fan of English classics. I’d like to reread Sense and Sensibility, and any Agatha Christies I can find at the library.
May 30, 2012 at 3:36 pm
I have to thank you guys for introducing me to Georgette Heyer. I love plucky heroines. I think I’m on my third or fourth one and have two more ready to go. Thankfully my university library has lots of them (in off-site storage, but has them nonetheless!)
Other than that, I just finished Mindy Kahling’s memoir/comedy book which was really quite funny. Also re-read Harry Potter 4-6.
I totally do the reading for fun as reward for work reading. Keeps me motivated. Also for writing – during Phase 1 of dissertation writing this winter I devised a sticker system that rewarded me with lattes and then Game of Thrones books. 5000 words = book, I think. (500 = latte.)
May 30, 2012 at 3:38 pm
Oooh, I like that reward idea. (And Heyer is awesome!)
May 30, 2012 at 4:00 pm
Have you discovered Jacqueline Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs series yet? Mysteries set in England in the period between WWI and WWII.
May 30, 2012 at 4:02 pm
#1’s mother left a bunch at #1’s place and #1 passed them on to #2. :)
May 30, 2012 at 4:29 pm
What?! Doesn’t Googling random stuff and reading up on wiki count ? Ah Well, must finally hit the library soon :)
May 30, 2012 at 4:34 pm
That’s how I read the hunger games (or rather, how I decided I didn’t need to read them).
May 31, 2012 at 8:45 am
Know what you mean. When friends say they love the books, they loved the movie, I go :]
Hunger Games – Not my Cuppa!
May 30, 2012 at 4:47 pm
The amount of books you have time to read depends on how fast you can read them. I can read an average length book in a couple of hours and I don’t watch much TV (a lot of days I don’t watch any TV). Currently there are 90 items on my Amazon wish list, I will buy (never at full list price) and read most of them. I also reread a lot of stuff I already have. And I just got Kindle this year so I’ve been buying cheap or free eBooks on Amazon to read.
Some books I’ve already read this year: Discount Armageddon (as a biologist I think this rocked), Con & Conure (not so impressed with this either), The Bride Wore Black Leather by Simon Green, Alien Diplomancy by Gini Koch, Royal Street by Suzanne Johnson, Tricked by Kevin Hearne, The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa, Blood and Bullets by James Tuck, War Maid’s Choice by David Weber, Elfhome by Wen Spencer, and Monster Hunter Legion by Larry Correia (the last 3 as eARCs from Baen they’re not published yet).
Looking forward to: Whispers under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch, Blackhearted Betrayal by Kasey Mackenzie, Gunmetal Magic by Ilona Andrews, Shadows Before the Sun by Kelly Gay, Kitty Steals the Show by Carrie Vaughn, The Far West by Patricia Wrede, Fire Season by David Weber (2nd prequel to the Honor Harrington series), Kris Longknife: Furious by Mark Shepherd and Cast in Peril by Michelle Sagara (West).
May 30, 2012 at 4:57 pm
Amazon just recommended discount armageddon to me and I believe I stuck it on the wish list. I hope The Far West is better than book #2. (And totes looking forward to the next kitty! Even her “bad” ones are entertaining and easy reads.)
May 30, 2012 at 6:59 pm
Yeah, #1 was great, and #2 was a let down. Not sure what happened there, but sometimes in sequels Wrede doesn’t always have a great a book as the start
May 30, 2012 at 7:03 pm
My partner is optimistic that #2 is tracking time for an awesome #3.
(Personally I liked her second dragon book, but thought the third was the one that sucked, IIRC.)
May 31, 2012 at 9:48 pm
There are 4 books in the series, and the book I thought was the last book, Talking to Dragons, was actually published first, and the other 3 books are prequels to it. Makes the book seem a littler better, but still sucks.
June 1, 2012 at 2:34 am
Interesting. Wikipedia also says it was significantly revised. In any case, I like the first two, but am very meh on the last two (actively disliking the third). I don’t think I like feeling that book 3 was pre-ordained back in book one!
May 31, 2012 at 7:57 pm
Agent to the Stars was great.
I’ve been enjoying the Iron Druid Chronicles…comedy and novel fantasy set in modern times, somewhat like Gaiman’s American Gods. I’m going to check out the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo next.
May 31, 2012 at 7:58 pm
My sister really liked Girl with the Dragon Tattoo… me, I read the wikipedia article on it instead…