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He's got good instincts as a reviewer.
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Nov 2, 2014 15:22
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Let's Talk About Love: Why Other People Have Such Bad Taste, by Carl Wilson. I love this kind of stuff - a critical academic analysis of Céline Dion intricately tied with Wilson's self-analysis on why he (and wider culture) hate her and her music. This version is packaged with a whole lot of essays written in response to the original book, by everyone from Krist Novoselic to Sheila Heti. It picks apart the concept of a "guilty pleasure", draws on a lot of great cultural theory (reminding me I need to re-read a lot of Bourdieu), and was generally a pretty fun read. If you're at all interested in popular music and culture, check it out.
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Nov 3, 2014 01:10
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I'm interested in that but not Dion.
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Nov 3, 2014 01:18
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Gertrude Perkins posted:Let's Talk About Love: Why Other People Have Such Bad Taste, by Carl Wilson. I love this kind of stuff - a critical academic analysis of Céline Dion intricately tied with Wilson's self-analysis on why he (and wider culture) hate her and her music. This version is packaged with a whole lot of essays written in response to the original book, by everyone from Krist Novoselic to Sheila Heti. It picks apart the concept of a "guilty pleasure", draws on a lot of great cultural theory (reminding me I need to re-read a lot of Bourdieu), and was generally a pretty fun read. If you're at all interested in popular music and culture, check it out. My boyfriend is the biggest Celine Dion fan. When he went to Montreal a few months ago, he traveled like 2 hours into the suburbs just to take a photo on Celine Dion Boulevard. I need to get him this book.
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Nov 3, 2014 03:18
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ICHIBAHN posted:I'm interested in that but not Dion. I didn't care at all about Dion before I read the book, and I was pretty hooked.
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Nov 3, 2014 10:33
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Flowers in the Attic. The only thing I knew about this book was all the jokes about incest. It was okay! My suspension of disbelief was getting stretched as the children were showered with musical instruments, record players, a television, mountains of food and clothes, and were allowed to scream and dance and run around in the attic constantly and yet somehow nobody twigged that it probably wasn't mice playing the loving accordion... but whatever. This astute Goodreads reviewer sums it up: quote:I am passed chapter 7 and all I want to know is WHEN do they get OUT OF THE ATTIC?
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Nov 3, 2014 11:26
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Finished The Tyranny of the Night by Glen Cook the other day. Wasn't planning on continuing the series until I caught up on my backlog (Dread Empire, Liminal States) but the ending was very good so I instantly ordered the next two books. Reading Catcher in the Rye again real quick while I wait for them to arrive.
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Nov 3, 2014 11:41
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Prism Mirror Lens posted:Flowers in the Attic. The only thing I knew about this book was all the jokes about incest. It was okay! My suspension of disbelief was getting stretched as the children were showered with musical instruments, record players, a television, mountains of food and clothes, and were allowed to scream and dance and run around in the attic constantly and yet somehow nobody twigged that it probably wasn't mice playing the loving accordion... but whatever. I think all VC Andrews books have a very selective 'best if read by' date which comes into fruition sometime around the 7th or 8th grade when you start getting hairs 'down there'. After that it's all pretty eye rolling unless you read it for full on camp value.
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Nov 3, 2014 22:25
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I just finished Ted Chiang's Stories of your Life and Others. Really good collection of his science fiction and fantasy short stories. He does some really cool things with alternate realities/histories.
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Nov 4, 2014 19:43
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starr posted:I just finished Ted Chiang's Stories of your Life and Others. Really good collection of his science fiction and fantasy short stories. He does some really cool things with alternate realities/histories. Tower of Babylon was a really, really, cool story for that anthology. Definitely one of the more solid short story anthologies I've read in a while.
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Nov 4, 2014 22:36
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No Country for Old Men has blown me away. It's seriously one of the top 3 books (if not THE top book) that I've read this past year.
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Nov 5, 2014 13:47
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Ted Chiang is so loving good. He is my favorite sci-fi writer, my favorite short story writer, and if "philosophical fiction" is a genre, he's my favorite phil-fi writer too. I really, really wish he'd put out some new stuff; he seemed to publish at least one new story per year for a long time but I don't think he's put out anything new in a couple of years now.
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Nov 5, 2014 13:59
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BadOptics posted:No Country for Old Men has blown me away. It's seriously one of the top 3 books (if not THE top book) that I've read this past year. I love this book. I'm an unabashed mcarthy fan, but I just love the voices of the characters in this book. If you haven't read The Road or All the Pretty Horses, go grab those for a treat.
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Nov 5, 2014 14:22
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Lawen posted:Ted Chiang is so loving good. He is my favorite sci-fi writer, my favorite short story writer, and if "philosophical fiction" is a genre, he's my favorite phil-fi writer too. I really, really wish he'd put out some new stuff; he seemed to publish at least one new story per year for a long time but I don't think he's put out anything new in a couple of years now. Last year's The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling is one of my favorites. Seriously, if you missed it, go read it now, it's phenomenal. Movac fucked around with this message at 03:34 on Nov 6, 2014 |
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Nov 6, 2014 03:26
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Just finished Petite Mort by Beatrice Hitchman and it was pretty great. Set in France in the silent film era I think it really captured the dreamy quality of a silent film and had a nice little Diane Setterfield-esque mystery plot with a (somewhat predictable) twist ending.
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Nov 6, 2014 06:19
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Dr. Pangloss posted:I love this book. I'm an unabashed mcarthy fan, but I just love the voices of the characters in this book. Thanks for the recommendations; I already got The Road on my Kindle, but I'll be sure to pick up some of his other books.
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Nov 6, 2014 10:12
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1632, by Eric Flint. I'm in two minds about this book. On one hand it's a fun, well-researched and entertaining romp about a timestuck American town coping with being dumped in 17th-century Germany, and the military and social challenges that arise. On the other hand, it's repetitive, every conflict is a foregone conclusion, and at no point did I feel any kind of tension or doubt. It's written almost like a TV mini-series, which makes a little sense given it's 600 pages - the characters are given time to grow and mingle, and the story is broken up into "battle", "civics" and "romance" episodes and subplots. There are some impressive little details - Flint clearly thought about a huge number of factors when it comes to keeping a town self-sufficient and "gearing down" to acclimatise to the technology levels of the early 17th century, and that's where most of the clever little moments of culture shock come in. But as a whole a lot of the book was pretty forgettable. There are quite a few sequels, though they appear to be mainly co-written/ghostwritten - would it be worth looking into them?
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Nov 6, 2014 11:57
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Movac posted:Last year's The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling is one of my favorites. Seriously, if you missed it, go read it now, it's phenomenal. Whoah, I did miss that one. Thanks for the link, you've made my day. Gertrude Perkins posted:1632, by Eric Flint. I read 1632 and maybe 3 or 4 of the sequels and you pretty much nailed what I both liked and disliked about them. The repetitiveness didn't bug me too much for the first book or two but I eventually burned out on the series. It's a cool thought experiment that's clearly well researched but it's kind of a one trick pony. Still, the first few sequels are probably worth leaving on your to read list for the next time you need a beach/airplane book and don't have anything else you're dying to read.
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Nov 6, 2014 14:49
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Just finished listening to the Audiobook for John Darnielle's (yes, as in the Lead Singer of The Mountain Goats) Wolf in White Van, which was really darn good. It was disturbing and surreal like most reviewers/other posters have said, but I think it's far less intimidating than that description seems. The audiobook was really quick, only about 5 hours or so, and Darnielle himself narrates it and supplies the music, which was nice. It's not making me sit down and rethink my life or anything, but it was extremely satisfying and well written/read. Darnielle brings up a lot of interesting themes that I don't want to spoil, and constructs them extremely well. I really recommend it.
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Nov 7, 2014 03:10
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Just finished the first Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson and the recently released Clariel by Garth Nix right after that. Both were pretty great, although Mistborn had the tendency to ramble on a bit. I feel like it could have been cut by roughly 100 pages and not lost too much. Very entertaining though. And Clariel is probably my favorite Old Kingdom book. Way to go, Nix. You still got it. 
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Nov 7, 2014 13:53
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Al Cu Ad Solte posted:Just finished the first Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson and the recently released Clariel by Garth Nix right after that. Both were pretty great, although Mistborn had the tendency to ramble on a bit. I feel like it could have been cut by roughly 100 pages and not lost too much. Very entertaining though. And Clariel is probably my favorite Old Kingdom book. Way to go, Nix. You still got it. Have you read Sanderson's Stormlight Archive series? If you so do you think someone who doesn't read a lot of fantasy, but loves ASOIAF, the Stormlight Archives series, and Abercombie's First Law Trilogy, would enjoy Mistborn?
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Nov 7, 2014 14:21
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I just finished Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz (who also wrote House of Silk, another Holmes novel). It isn't actually written by Watson because it takes place after the death of Holmes and Moriarty and is about the hunt for a criminal that tried to form an alliance with Moriarty. If you like Holmes stories I highly recommend both, as they get the style and tone of Doyle with only a few hiccups (although of course that depends on taste). If you have any intention of reading them do not mouse over the spoilers. I spent the whole book trying to figure out who Moriarty was, because obviously he faked his death like Holmes. I seriously read the whole book under the assumption that one of the characters was either Holmes or Moriarty and I thought about every character suspiciously. Except one. And then BAM. Narrator murders the detective. It shouldn't work. It should piss me off but it works. The book is called Moriarty and that is something Moriarty would do.
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Nov 7, 2014 15:26
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Finally got around to finishing The Girl With All the Gifts based on recommendations itt. I really liked it and thought it contributed something new and interesting to its (already pretty over-saturated) sub-genre of (does this need to be spoilered?) zombie horror. For reals spoilers: I have to admit, I wasn't at all surprised by the "twist" at the end. From pretty early on I got the sense that Carey was building to a similar core point that Richard Matheson did in I Am Legend -- when a new species of "monsters" (e.g. vampires or zombies) replace humans as the dominant sentient species, the remaining humans become the monsters and need to be eradicated for the good of progress. Despite seeing it coming, I thought Carey did a really good job of telling the tale and giving us some interesting and fairly complex characters. laplace posted:Wolf in White Van This has been hovering near the top of my to read list since it came out. I'm not usually an audiobook guy but Darnielle reading it and scoring a soundtrack for it is pretty tempting.
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Nov 7, 2014 16:29
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Gertrude Perkins posted:Let's Talk About Love: Why Other People Have Such Bad Taste, by Carl Wilson. I love this kind of stuff - a critical academic analysis of Céline Dion intricately tied with Wilson's self-analysis on why he (and wider culture) hate her and her music. This version is packaged with a whole lot of essays written in response to the original book, by everyone from Krist Novoselic to Sheila Heti. It picks apart the concept of a "guilty pleasure", draws on a lot of great cultural theory (reminding me I need to re-read a lot of Bourdieu), and was generally a pretty fun read. If you're at all interested in popular music and culture, check it out. I'm damned if I can remember the author, but there's a book called I Hate Myself And Want To Die about the 50 most depressing songs of all time. Featuring prominently is Dion's "All By Myself", which is described (roughly) as follows: "If Celine Dion had been alive during World War 2 there would have been no need for the D-Day landings. They could have set up a PA system on the beaches playing All By Myself on loop, and the Wehrmacht would have committed suicide". Hilarious book, by the way, I recommend it if you can find it. E: it's by Tom Reynolds. There's also a sequel called Touch Me, I'm Sick about the 50 creepiest love songs. I've read it, it wasn't quite as sharp but still funny. Jedit fucked around with this message at 18:11 on Nov 7, 2014 |
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Nov 7, 2014 18:08
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nate fisher posted:Have you read Sanderson's Stormlight Archive series? If you so do you think someone who doesn't read a lot of fantasy, but loves ASOIAF, the Stormlight Archives series, and Abercombie's First Law Trilogy, would enjoy Mistborn? I have read The Stormlight Archive. The Way of Kings currently holds the throne as my favorite book. And in regards to your question, yes. It's a like a more grim Ocean's Eleven heist story masquerading as fantasy. And it does skirt the line between low and high fantasy. The protags aren't exactly good people (so. much. murder.) but they have good intentions. I myself am more of a fan of traditionally heroic stories, like Stormlight or Lord of the Rings and poo poo. Can't really stand the grim, realistic fantasy, but Mistborn is interesting to me because it rests somewhere in the middle and uses the strengths of both.
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Nov 7, 2014 19:52
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Jedit posted:I'm damned if I can remember the author, but there's a book called I Hate Myself And Want To Die Added to my Xmas list! Thanks for the tip. I just finished Dennis Cooper's Frisk. More visceral and single-minded than his first book Closer, this book goes deeper into a kind of psychosexual self-analysis of Cooper's (or at least, the main character, also named Dennis) inextricable link between sex, violence and death. It churns along in a series of gruesome scenes of sex, murder and confused semi-romance, a lot like Story of the Eye. But just when I thought "this can't be all there is to it, right?" the last sequence of the novel made the preceding 110-odd pages feel...not worth it, but fitting. I think I liked it.
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Nov 8, 2014 02:01
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I just finished reading The Astounding Antagonists by Rafael Chandler, which I think is his second book. It's all about a group of supervillains coming together to fight the authoritarian superheroes, among other things. Entertaining, fast paced, witty and well plotted. I know the author plays RPGs and such and his gamer sensibilities really shine through at points, making it feel like a really kickass Supers campaign.
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Nov 8, 2014 07:28
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Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises A bumpy ride, but fun. I got bored at times but the good bits more than made up for it; the writing starts to flow naturally after a while. Hemingway's early fascination with the warrior mindset and the longing for a natural, romantic way of life clearly shine through. 4/5 Kubla Khan fucked around with this message at 14:14 on Nov 8, 2014 |
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Nov 8, 2014 14:12
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Loved that book! Well tell you why soon.
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Nov 8, 2014 15:57
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I finished reading Infinite Jest a few days ago, but I didn't Get It because it took me over two years of stop and start reading to actually finish it. I just couldn't get caught up in the story, and when I got to the end, I had forgotten what happened at the beginning. I ended up looking up what actually did happen and I did catch on to a few things, but definitely not all of it. I will have to read it again some point in the future. There were some genuinely disturbing and funny parts throughout the book, but I just didn't string along the series of events/timeline enough to have it make any sort of sense. Infinite Jest is also the only thing that I have read that is written by DFW. The next book on my list is The Windup Girl, and I am enjoying it a lot so far. I love the settting and the whole "generipping" thing.
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Nov 8, 2014 17:37
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I finished the series Stealing The Network, which is comprised of four books: How To Own the Box How to Own a Continent How to Own an Identity How to Own a Shadow These books are fictional novels trying to portray accurate hacking scenarios. All four novels revolve around a person named Knuth, who basically goes around and hires hackers to get things done for him. I regret to inform you this is not your next Great American novel. The writing in these books are terrible, and the third and fourth books are filled with cringeworthy moments. The interesting part about these books is the level of accuracy regarding the hacks. They cover a lot of topics (databases, SQL injection, RFID hacking, wireless cracking, analysis of Windows applications using Ollydbg, DNS hijacking, the list goes on). Some moments will certainly make you roll your eyes. Example: I have to hack this large site, oh hey they just happen to be vulnerable to the most basics of SQL injection.  While I do appreciate the amount of technical detail they put in these books, it's still a bit outdated (the stories revolve around the Windows XP/2003 era of hacking). The writing is poor, and thinking back I only enjoyed reading the first two of these books and can only recommend those.
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Nov 9, 2014 00:39
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Kubla Khan posted:Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises I loved this book. Loved it. Not read a great deal of Hemmingway but this was excellent. Reminded me a lot of On The Road, in the romancism of the travelling, particularly when Kerouac wrote of his times in Mexico.
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Nov 9, 2014 00:46
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pakman posted:The next book on my list is The Windup Girl, and I am enjoying it a lot so far. I love the settting and the whole "generipping" thing. I read it a couple of years ago and absolutely loved it, and I've been planning on doing a reread after taking cyberpunk course at uni this semester and I brought it up briefly when we were discussing the direction cyberpunk fiction would/could go after the 90s.
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Nov 9, 2014 00:48
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Pattern Recognition, by William Gibson. After polishing off his Sprawl books, I was advised to skip the Bridge trilogy and move straight on to "Blue Ant". It turns out Blue Ant is some kind of enormous ad company, and our protagonist works as a coolhunter for them, using her own psychological aversion to branding to her monetary gain. She's part of an online group investigating these mysterious snippets of film that have shown up, and ends up getting dragged down into a spiralling rabbit hole of conspiracy. It's very, very Gibson. Even when not writing sci-fi, he has the same hyper-aware voice, and it kept me zipping through the book (I finished it in two days). Even during long conversations about corporate politics or clothing (there is a lot of description of clothing brands) I was hooked. Really looking forward to checking out the other two in the trilogy!
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Nov 10, 2014 01:17
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The most recent book that I finished is David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas. Though I'd been interested in it for years, I saw the movie first and had to make a comparison. Long story short, the book wins, since it goes into more detail with society of Nea So Copros and doesn't have that embarrassing yellowface problem. I really like this book, even though I suspect it's a style over substance book. Having a deliberate and obvious structure and mixing half a dozen different writing styles will do that to a novel. I'm open to a suggestion on which David Mitchell book to read next, though for now I will be picking up Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast series.
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Nov 10, 2014 12:18
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I've read Ghostwritten by Mitchell, actually I read it before Cloud Atlas, and loved it.
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Nov 10, 2014 13:18
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I like all of Mitchell's books, but I liked Bone Clocks the best. Also, read Bone Clocks and then read 1000 Autumns as I think the tie ins are stronger in that order.
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Nov 11, 2014 05:09
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Just finished MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood, thus completing the trilogy. Wow. Really enjoyed this one. So Oryx and Crake was from the perspective of one, Snowman-the-Jimmy, and Year of the Flood was from the perspective of two, Ren and Toby. MaddAddam was from the perspective of three: Toby, Zeb (through dialogue with Toby, usually), and Blackbeard, a young Craker. Atwood captures the different voices beautifully, and has really fleshed out a world of depth. However, two quibbles. In the course of tying everything together, with all of the same corps (HealthWyzer, etc.) and smaller pleebland businesses (Scales and Tails), I thought the world was diminished, since we kept going back to the same half dozen businesses. Whatever, its the nature of a contained series of events. The second, the denouement, was both sad and...small. And banal after all of the events that preceded, but that is life, and that is the note she gives it; life carries on. Best fiction I have read in many years.
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Nov 11, 2014 07:15
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War Trash by Ha Jin. A fictional memoir of a Chinese POW during the Korean War, and holy hell, is it a great read. Jin's writing has such an exquisite attention to detail, it's almost mind-numbing. Just started reading Crazy Rich Asians, but the writing is so bad that I'm thinking of dropping it after only the first two chapters. I hadn't heard of this book previously, only that it's a bestseller from the blurb on the cover. So far it's like I'm reading a rough draft for a lovely B movie. It opens with a wealthy Chinese family being denied a reservation at a fancy hotel by a racist hotelier, so their solution is to... buy the entire hotel since they're desperate for a place to stay for the night. I might stick it out for a few more chapters but my backlog of books is too drat large, and I borrowed the book from a friend so it's not like I'm balancing the usual buyer's remorse. Mira fucked around with this message at 04:10 on Nov 12, 2014 |
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Nov 12, 2014 04:06
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I just finished Annihilation, book one of the Southern Reach trilogy. It was a very quick read (under 200 pages in paperback) which I appreciated. I've been told the second book, Authority is the best of the trilogy. I'm sure I'll eventually read it but the first book doesn't really have me rushing out to buy it right away.
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Nov 12, 2014 14:40
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