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What book(s) are you currently reading or listening? July 01
(discuss.online)
just restarted the Expanse series
An excellent choice.
Think I'll do that as my next read as well.
Runaway Jury by John Grisham. It's a long but enjoyable read.
A Short History of Ireland by John Gibney
Paying a visit to Ireland and wanted to learn some of the history. It's a good book but definitely wish it included pre-1500s history, since it is a more Britain-centric view of Ireland, really. Starts when Britain really gets to colonizing
The heroes by Joe Abercrombie By all means not a nieche author. Goddamn he makes the fights seem so tense and exciting, with just enough involvement/information for you to not pick sides before the fight happens, but still be very excited about the outcome.
This was my favorite of his standalone novels. I found the way he explored the POV jumping to be so effective. I hope you enjoy!
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. I'm working my way through his works.
Ooff, that one is a doozy. I haven't read all of his, but that one was the hardest to read, I think. And in true Cormac McCarthy form, absolutely brilliant, both ugly and beautiful at the same time..
It's pretty hard and bleak.
For fiction, I've been working my way through the Inspector Rutledge murder mystery series by the mother/son duo that wrote as Charles Todd. I really haven't liked this series, to be honest, I'm only reading it because I like the genre and the setting, and a family member is into them so we can talk about them when I see them. But I really don't care for the protagonist and the pseudo-schizophrenic voice in his head is a gimmick that got old really fast.
For non-fiction, I'm reading Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America's Food Industry by Austin Frerick, and holy cow (pun not intended) is it an eye-opener. You know how some non-fiction books will make you see the world differently, and also piss you off? Yeah, it's one of those. But told well enough that the rage isn't too bad. I'm actually enjoying it, in a "holy shit" sort of way. (And shit is a big portion of the book, since that's the by-product from pig farming enclosures that has poisoned the majority of the rivers in Iowa and portions in other states.)
Looking forward to your review of Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry by Austin Frerick
My wife and I like to read through books together sometimes, and we're very close to wrapping up Quantum Thief (its my third read through, but her first). Still an absolutely incredible piece of sci fi. Unbelievable that it was his debut novel.
As for me, I'm finally working on House of Leaves, and oh boy is that ever a book.
Haven't read either of them, both look interesting. Though Quantum Thief seems more up my alley.
Quantum Thief is genuinely amazing. It's a book that somehow manages to be both the hardest of hard scifi (the author's day job is doing hyper advanced quantum math), and also completely batshit insane. There are superheroes, hyper-advanced civilisations built on WOW clans, weapons that use human minds as ammo, a city where people have to make contracts just to remember each others names and where time is currency... And that's just book one.
The fact that two of the main characters stole a moon is quite literally a footnote. It's such a minor detail that it gets mentioned in passing. That's the level of insane this series operates on.
That sounds amazing. Thanks for the recommendation!
First Person by Rituparno Ghosh
This is a collection of columns Ghosh wrote. He was a critically acclaimed director (and actor) of mostly Bengali films known for his aesthetics and sensitivity. On top of that, he was also an LGBTQ activist. I know a few people who used to be homophobes but changed their opinion after watching his works.
I’m working my way through Darcy Coates books. Most are pretty good.
Never heard of her before, any recommendations, where to start?
Most of her books are about ghosts. “The haunting of Blackwood house” is pretty good and light hearted. “From below” is also good. Start there
Thanks for the recommendations, will check them out.
DUNE
Nice! How are you liking it? Reading for the first time?
Yep! Saw the new dune, then the old one, then dune 2 and I'm like, I need to read these lol. I'm still fairly early as it's my first book in a while (used to read CONSTANTLY at my midnight job), so I'm a tad slow, but they've just met shadout and Paul is taking a nappy-poo while yueh and Jessica are talking O.O
I'm loving it so far, I love getting the inner dialogue of people like yueh or the Duke or gurney
Nice. Glad that you are enjoying it.
It also has some sequels that are pretty good, though I haven't read any of those yet.
Yep I've got all those, still chugging through the first one but I hear Messiah is amazing. Probably going to try the expanse series next :)
I'm about to read book 21 of the Inspector Alleyn series by Ngaio Marsh, False Scent.
If you end up liking the first Jack Reacher book, then I would recommend the first season of Reacher (I think on Prime). It takes some liberties, but follows the story reasonably well. And has an actual large guy playing Reacher, not Tom Cruise.
Keep in mind there were a few years between me reading the first book and watching season 1, so I might've spotted more differences had I experienced them back to back.
Never heard of Ngaio Marsh, just found out she is considered Queen of Crime along with Agatha Chrisie and couple of other. Should look her up (and also Agatha Christie, have heard so much about her, but don't think I have read any of her work)
Thanks for the recommendation. I'll take a look at it.
Ngaio Marsh is good, and I'm enjoying them, but if it's between her or Agatha Christie, then Dame Agatha wins every time (personal opinion).
I LOVE a good Poirot mystery story. Gather all the suspects together and then reveal all the secrets everyone has been hiding as well as the culprit of the dastardly crime. chef's kiss
Well, I haven't read either of them. Will start with Agatha Christie then. 😀
Finished Winter's Heart by Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time book 9) and started Crossroads of Twilight (book 10). Book 9 was slow at first but really picked up in the second half. So far book 10 is starting slow too, but knowing this is the last "slog" book is helping me stay motivated.
Actually I wouldn't personally call Book 10 a slog book.
I'd agree, Winters Heart is when he started moving the plot again after close to 2,000 pages of dithering. Something actually happens! It definitely has its flaws, but it's an improvement over Swords/Daggers.
Interesting! I heard some people say Crossroads was the worst of them. I'm close to halfway through this book and so far nothing has really happened. I will say though that the slog in general isn't as bad as I was warned.
I don't have much of a memory of Crossroads so maybe it was a slog too. Probably. I do remember Knife of Dreams being a sudden change of pace that moved along fairly briskly, because Jordan was dying at the time. It was a welcome change, but it honestly pissed me off that this joker had been faffing around for 3,000+ pages on purpose and could have written a better story anytime he wanted. That still pisses me off, actually. If Sanderson hadn't provided a brisk and serviceable trilogy to end the series I doubt I would have finished it.
Comments like this make me glad I never went back to Wheel of Time.
I'm sure it does "get good" at some point, and some of the world building really is brilliant, but it's just not worth it. Life is too short to handle 2000 pages of dithering.
(not having a go or anything, to each their own)
Finished The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson. I had heard this was a good early horror, and an inspiration to Lovecraft, and I definitely glimpsed that in a few places. The rest of it, however, hoo boy, was that a slog to get through. I'd expected the of-the-period prose style/voice, but it really felt like he smooshed several separate stories into one, with excruciating detail in some parts, and a complete lack in others. The only bright spots, for me, were aspects that seemed like proto-versions of things I'm familiar with (namely, the Dark Sign from Dark Souls, Piglins from Minecraft, and the Beach from Death Stranding), although I have no idea if they were actually inspired by this book or not.
Bingo squares: Older Than You Are (HM), It's About Time, Among the Stars. May count for Bookception and Stranger in a Strange Land, as well, but ehhh.
--
I'm a few pages into a couple of books atm, which I started as treats while I tried to get through The House on the Borderland: Foul Days by Genoveva Dimova, and Dark Star by Oliver Langmead. The latter is a verse novel, which I didn't realize was a thing! Looking forward to seeing how the experience differs from normal prose.
Verse novels sound cool. How are you liking it so far?
Finished it over the weekend. Despite descriptions being just a line or two, I still got a good sense of everything, thanks to other, strongly evocative lines (like you expect from poetry). In that way, I liked it quite a bit, and will happily try other verse novels in future.
However, in terms of story, I don't think my opinion of Dark Star rises above "fine". The noir aspect was about what you'd expect, but the worldbuilding (billed as scifi) was too much--or not enough?--dream logic to work for me. Reminded me a fair bit of A Man of Shadows by Jeff Noon, which I also didn't really jive with.
Just finished "Void" by Rhiannon Lassiter. Quite good cyberpunk read it you don't kind that is was written for teenagers. It's a trilogy: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10637724-void
Looks interesting. Would wait for your review of whole series before taking a dive 😀
I finished the while trilogy. Pretty solid read.
Ahan, thanks for the info, will check it out.
this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2024
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