I loved reading D. C. Fontana’s Star Trek novel Vulcan’s Glory. It is a remarkable journey to the past history of the starship Enterprise. I like the Star Trek novels about the original series the best. If they were written by authors that contributed to the old series so many years ago they are probably the finest of all the stories written about Star Trek. This book is about the time of Captain Christopher Pike. Some of the new series such as Strange New Worlds have episodes about the same time period, but I think this book by D. C. Fontana is the most authentic. 

Posted by: @valiantarcher

Hurrah for finishing Gaudy Night and moving on to Busman's Honeymoon! You'll just have the short stories after that then, I think, unless you move on to the one(s) Jill Paton Walsh completed. When you finish, I'd be curious to hear which novels are your favourites (if not the full ranking).

I finished Busman's Honeymoon yesterday! And I started the short stories this morning. Oh, it's going to be hard to rank them...except for Murder Must Advertise it was definitely my favorite and I am so glad I bought the hardcover copy...I can't believe I was debating over buying it.  

Not currently planning to read the Jill Paton Walsh books. Have you read any of them?

I'm trying to listen to The Nazarene by Michael Card while I write since I've only got another week of Hoopla and then my old library card will expire forever. The audiobook is pretty neat because the songs have been placed at the end of each chapter.

And today my preordered copy of Wimpy Weak And Woke by John L. Cooper arrived, and was I glad to see how thick it is since I've never spent that much on a single book before. Looks like both Alistair Begg and Tim Challies are going to be shoved to the side for a time while I read Wimpy Weak And Woke.  

SnowAngel

@narnian78, did many of the writers for the original series go on to write Star Trek novels?

Congratulations on finishing the novels, @SnowAngel! How are you enjoying the short stories so far?
Murder Must Advertise is a lot of people's favourites if Gaudy Night isn't, it seems like. It sounded like The Nine Tailors was at the bottom of the list, but the rest just kind of float in between?
I have not gotten around to reading any of the Jill Patton Walsh ones yet, though I will probably give at least the first one she finished a shot sometime and see how it goes. It's always sad when a library card expires but it sounds like you picked a good book to end your Hoopla access with!

I've continued to have little success in my reading - I've not finished a few books and the ones I did finish have not been particularly enjoyable (including, I'm afraid, my reread(s)). I'm hoping it'll turn a corner soon but, in the meantime, it's making it a bit hard to really pick up books. Warrior Scarlet by Rosemary Sutcliff is my latest attempt but at two pages in it's hard to say how it will go yet.

@valiantarcher 

Besides D. C. Fontana I think there were some other authors that wrote Star Trek books although I have not yet found a useful list of those who worked on the original series. This page might be of some help:

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Special:Search?query=Dc.+Fontana&scope=internal&navigationSearch=true

Some of the authors would include Margaret Armen, David Gerrold, and others who wrote the episodes, but I am not certain if they wrote novels based on Star Trek. The search might be helpful for looking up information on the authors. 

Thanks for the info, @Narnian78!

It wasn't an unmitigated success, but I think Warrior Scarlet ended up on 'liked' side of the scale overall. Reading has still not been progressing as I would like, but I've made it through a couple of P. G. Wodehouse's books and rereads of a couple of children's books. I'd remembered enjoying Homeless Bird by Gloria Whelan and it held up well; it also helped it was a fast and fun read.

I have ordered three more vintage sets of Star Trek novels based on the original series.  They appeared to be quite good coming from authors like J. M. Dillard, Diane Duane, and D. C. Fontana.  I will usually like the original series novels better because they are based on that series and the writing is probably better. The Next Generation books seem to be more mass produced since they were so many more of them. I wouldn’t consider them pulp literature, but the large number of them makes me wonder if they were written to make money. I prefer older Star Trek books because I think their quality is usually better. 🙂

I'm going to do something unusual for me: recommend a nonfiction book. Of course, it's a nonfiction book about a work of fiction.  

It's Christmas and Charles Dickens by David Parker. While the author is clearly a fan of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, he argues against the common historical conception that the things modern people associate with Christmas, such as merry parties with friends and family, only began to be associated with it after/because of A Christmas Carol. He makes a good argument. 

From the beginning of his career, the texts (Dickens) wrote about Christmas speak of the customs they describe as if they were both ancient and popular. Most of them were ancient and all of them were popular but let us for a moment suppose this not to have been the case. In order to reconcile what we read in his books with the notion that Dickens launched the modern Christmas, we should have to entertain one of two propositions: either that he persistently deluded himself or that he created a fiction not only sustained but audaciously transparent. Neither proposition features much in the literature on the subject. What we find instead is a determination to ignore what Dickens says or to explain it away. Acknowledge that he was faithfully describing popular customs, many of which had been practiced for centuries, and there is nothing left to reconcile. On the contrary, things fall briskly into place. The way opens for a clearer understanding of what he wrote about the festival and why he wrote it.

The book also contains some first-rate literary analysis of A Christmas Carol and of Dickens's lesser-known follow-ups to it. It was fascinating to read Parker trace the theme of grief in the midst of Christmas celebrations throughout Dickens's writing on the holiday. And as someone who cut their teeth on the works of Lewis Carroll and Beatrix Potter, I appreciated his defense of Victorian literature. (Remember this was written back in 2005!) 

Despite the sound work of many scholars in the field, the condescension towards the Victorians which infected twentieth-century thought is hardening into dogma. A subtext repeatedly manifests itself in much that is written on the subject: ‘God, I thank thee that I am not as the Victorians were.’ There is a determination to see the Victorians only as a rum lot, blinkered and venal. Lytton Strachey’s Eminent Victorians (1918) was a jeu d’esprit. Now his way of thinking-less his wit-is earnestly proclaimed as a banner proclaiming intellectual allegiance. The Victorians were a rum lot. Every generation is more or less. The twentieth century cannot be supposed exceptional. It blithely fashioned its own blinkers and pursued its own sordid objectives. But in highlighting the failings of the Victorians, we are in danger of forgetting how astonishingly vital and creative they were. The old-fashioned way of seeing the era, as an age of innovation and reform, is no more partial than the fashionable way of seeing it as an age of power-grabbing and oppression. Victorian modes of thinking and feeling deserve more than derisive denunciation. This is something that needs to be reasserted now, especially in the academy…we are now confronted with an attitude-not just to Dickens, not just to the Victorians, but to all literature of the past-that is not just merely pharisaical: It is philistine as well. Literature is being studied so that what is found in it may be denounced. ‘Invention’ is deemed a smokescreen. Readers are urged not to be duped. Delight in literature is reduced to shameful eagerness to be duped. And it is the Victorians who are getting the worst treatment.

@col-klink That book sounds really fascinating and I will have to look out for it! I love A Christmas Carol and am always interested in history, including the history of Christmas celebrations — and a bit of debunking of popular myths, like "Charles Dickens virtually invented Christmas" or "the Victorian era was utterly dire", would be very appealing as well. Thanks for the recommendation!  

I am now listening to the audio CD reading of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Tom Baker is so great at performing this audio version of the story. Here is a video of him reading the book at another performance. What a wonderful actor he is!  🙂

How I love Dickens' writings! A Christmas Carol by Dickens is an annual Christmastime read for me, which I began last evening. What a treasure! Dickens' insight into humanity, his humour, the descriptions, utterly memorable characters (and their names!) are brilliant. Yesterday as I baked all day, I listened to FotF's A Christmas Carol, which is well done, although too short, imho. (There were some scenes they omitted.)

I have read so many good books lately (mostly non-fiction, mainly biographies), but don't have time to tell all now. There is also a to-read pile sitting on the dresser to delve into in 2024, also my biennial reading year for The Lord of the Rings, which I will begin sometime in the summer.  

@jo 

I have never heard the Focus on the Family’s Christmas Carol, but I would think it is very good since I already own and love the Narnia radio dramas and At the Back of the North Wind and The Secret Garden.  All of these dramas are very close to the original books even though the stories had to be shortened for adaptation. They all have a high standard of excellence.  I was attracted to Tom Baker’s reading of Dickens’ novel because I love his acting on classic Dr. Who. So I decided to purchase the audio CD’s, and I have never regretted it. 🙂

Nice! ^ I just finished listening to The Back of the North Wind and, in the past couple of weeks, The Secret Garden and Anne of Green Gables. Also throughout this past falltime, Silas Marner, Bonhoeffer, Ben Hur, The Hiding Place, Squanto, and Amazing Grace (3 CDs: Equiano, Newton, Wilberforce). All so excellent!

Ah, but this is the Books thread, not the audiobook topic, so getting back to books : out of the above, I have read all the books (and some, numerous times), except for anything about Squanto.

Just a quickie: a couple of years ago I read the authorized biography of Elisabeth Elliot by Ellen Vaughn, Becoming Elisabeth Elliot. Recently, the second volume was released, Being Elisabeth Elliot, also by Vaughn, which I just completed. Wow! Honest, raw, respectful, giving us an intimate picture into a woman who many have thought as a spiritual giant. And she was ... but she was also very, very human. God's grace portrayed each step of her long, productive, difficult life.

Posted by: @valiantarcher

Congratulations on finishing the novels, @SnowAngel! How are you enjoying the short stories so far?
Murder Must Advertise is a lot of people's favourites if Gaudy Night isn't, it seems like. It sounded like The Nine Tailors was at the bottom of the list, but the rest just kind of float in between?

I enjoyed the short stories very much, it was a great book to be able to read while company was popping in and out last month. After Murder Must Advertise, I really enjoyed Whose Body?, Clouds of Witness, and Busman's Honeymoon (interesting to see how Bunter's role changes with Lord Peter and Harriet's marriage and Harriet's interacting more with Bunter). I actually stumbled across a softcover copy of Whose Body? in the kids section of a used bookstore last week, I thought it was strange place to see that title. Do you have a favorite in the series?

Oooh, I didn't know there was second Elisabeth Elliot bio coming out. So glad to hear you enjoyed it, @jo. I'll have to tell my sister to put it on the interlibrary loan list.  

Do we have an audiobook thread? Because I bought two Perry Mason audiobooks last week and I'm very excited about listening to them. For Christmas I gave Scarlet two softcover Perry Mason books I bought at the same time since she already has several in the series, but the audiobooks are for my own collection. During that same book purchasing excursion I also bought Sand by Will James (western fiction), a Disney Robin Hood book based on the 1973 film, and a few other books for birthday gifts next year.  

I'm reading the last book in a trio of Civil War biographies for kids, this one is about J.E.B. Stuart and was written in 1914. Part of my reading goals for 2023 were old books and history, this trio combines both goals most satisfactorily.  

I'm also reading The Nonesuch by Georgette Heyer and Wimpy Weak and Woke by John L. Cooper (in tiny bits, this one is going to take a while at the current rate).

SnowAngel

An aunt of mine actually got a biography of Elisabeth Elliot for Christmas. I didn't notice which one it was though. Wouldn't be surprised if it was the second volume.

@ValiantArcher , I've had a few fairly neat ones but no real standouts finished recently, and I need to finish some current reads that seem promising before I'm sure if their content is fully forum-appropriate.