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Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Following the fractured - two years later...two years later...three years later - events surrounding the downfall of a prominent Nigerian tribesman. An arrogant, abusive, rear end in a top hat of a prominent Nigerian tribesman. A decent reminder that colonial Africa was a hard place displacing a rock and that the real debate should not be the evils of colonial rule, but whether it sucked more or less than many existing societies. The writing and pacing were weak in many spots, but the story was very good and well worth a read. I very much want to read Achebe's later works. E: Reading it directly after Vonnegut's Mother Night was an interesting double-hitter of moral ambiguity. Butch Cassidy fucked around with this message at 00:23 on Jan 12, 2014 |
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Jan 12, 2014 00:18
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Red Seas Under Red Skies (Gentlemen Bastards) by Scott Lynch A strong second novel both for the series and the author. It was both thoroughly engaging and enjoyable to read. This one has a nautical flair with a dash of heist to it and is liberally dusted with fantasy. If you care a lot about nautical details or medieval weaponry this book is not for you but if you enjoy character-driven stories with a lot of drama and a small leavening of romance you will probably like this book; though you will want to start with the first novel for the series as the character development is the important bit.
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Jan 12, 2014 01:37
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A (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Jan 12, 2014 05:25
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Zola posted:Just finished The Alienist by Caleb Carr. Someone had listed it in a set of recommendations posted to another TBB thread, it sounded interesting, it had a reasonable price on Kindle so I checked it out. This isn't available on Kindle anymore?
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Jan 12, 2014 15:25
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), because this is really an excellent read. An insane serial killer on the lose and the creation of the a criminal profile to identify and capture the killer...in 1896. It's a novel, but it reads like it's historical fact. A lot of attention to detail, interesting characters and a well-plotted story. I highly recommend this for anyone who likes a good procedural
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WastedJoker posted:This isn't available on Kindle anymore? It appears available to me on Kindle at $5.99 as of 5 seconds ago; where are you checking from?
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Jan 12, 2014 16:15
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ulmont posted:It appears available to me on Kindle at $5.99 as of 5 seconds ago; where are you checking from? I looked on Amazon UK and it wasn't there. The US site didn't list it under a search and when I looked at the paperback version I didn't see the usual Kindle option. I'm still not seeing it  Edit: double checked and I only see paperback/hardback/audible versions. WastedJoker fucked around with this message at 16:50 on Jan 12, 2014 |
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Jan 12, 2014 16:48
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WastedJoker posted:I looked on Amazon UK and it wasn't there. The US site didn't list it under a search and when I looked at the paperback version I didn't see the usual Kindle option. It doesn't seem to be on Amazon UK in Kindle version, no. Amazon US, yes. 
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Jan 12, 2014 17:34
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I just finished the Divergent series. My overall impression is "bleh", and the description I think most defines it is "juvenile". But it's a young adult series, so maybe I'm expecting too much. I was recommended this series by a co worker, so we will be discussing it tomorrow. I never read Hungry Games, but I know enough about it to pick up what the Divergent author was aping. The world she creates is unfortunately too simplistic and there are enough convenient plot devices (like serums that do whatever the plot needs, they might as well be Harry Potter magic spells) to really take me out of the story. During the third book, there are two narrators, which became confusing and really shone a light on the author's inability to give distinct voices to her characters. There were times I literally forgot who was narrating and when the statement was "then I grabbed him and kissed him" I would be like "what the f..oh, right, it's the girl talking now, not the guy." Now having said that, I do think the author has some talent and did a good job letting us know the main character, a teenage girl. I did feel like I understood her, and when she made actions, they made sense with her character. Ultimately I would not recommend this book series, but I guess it's hot poo poo because there is a movie coming out this spring with blurbs like "Move over, Hungry Games! There's a new series on the way!" Bleh.
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Jan 13, 2014 03:55
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I finished The Maltese Falcon where Sam Spade's impassive, immobile, inexpressive, uncommunicative, granite, still face (so deep in thought as to appear almost stupid) holds his yellow-grey eyes as they burn yellowly at the 3rd cigarette he's rolled this page. Occasionally one or other of his features breaks out and expresses something, but don't worry, he doesn't mean it. I preferred the film, to be honest.
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Jan 13, 2014 18:22
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Mr. Squishy posted:Yesterday I started and shortly finished Flaubert's Parrot, as part of my campaign to empty my local second-hand shop of Julian Barnes novels. It reminds me a lot of Gass's The Tunnel and Markson's Wittgenstein's Mistress, both of which it predates by several years. Like those, we have a pettish academic venting spleen and probing at the holes in knowledge (both their personal store and also the limits of what can be known), airless books where one person goes on and on, occasionally throwing out hints of some muted tragedy in the background. Would you recommend Before I Met Her? I tried reading Pulse, a collection of Barnes' short stories, and not only did I not like any of them, I came away feeling that I didn't like him very much either. But A Sense of an Ending has gotten a ton of praise and I know he's very well-regarded, so I'd like to give him another shot. E: I'd start Sense of an Ending but am not feeling up to the subject matter. Rabbit Hill fucked around with this message at 18:53 on Jan 13, 2014 |
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Jan 13, 2014 18:42
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Butch Cassidy posted:I just read it as schlocky pulp and it was good in that role. I've been using adventure pulp as my go-to escapist literature for a while and getting back to a noir-ish detective story was nice plus magical shenanigans to lighten the mood. It isn't the greatest book I have ever read, but it matched my mood on a rough night pretty well. Took your advice and read it and picked up Fool Moon at the library. Finished it and promptly reserved the next three in the series. Guess I'm hooked now on yet, another series.
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Jan 13, 2014 18:44
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Rabbit Hill posted:Would you recommend Before I Met Her? I tried reading Pulse, a collection of Barnes' short stories, and not only did I not like any of them, I came away feeling that I didn't like him very much either. But A Sense of an Ending has gotten a ton of praise and I know he's very well-regarded, so I'd like to give him another shot. E: I'd start Sense of an Ending but am not feeling up to the subject matter. Not really. It's a novella exploring this obsessive love that I really have no relation to and so don't care for. It also feels pretty clumsy, throwing out these delicate psychologies in the rush to the end. To be honest, I'd happily pass on my copy of FP to a friend. I wouldn't even say it's bad, exactly, just irritating. From what I've heard of SoaE, that sounds a bit tricky-tricky too, so maybe he's just not my author.
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Jan 13, 2014 21:04
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Someone casually recommended The Chronicles of Li and Number Ten Ox (or one of the books therein) as if it was a staple story which everyone who's anyone has already read and enjoyed. That's as good sentiment as any, whether or not it was actually implied. These stories are great and will come off the 'shelf' time and time again. Riddle in Stone and Betrayal in the Highlands - Another book mentioned in the recommendation thread. This got really bad by the second book and I'm looking forward to the third, just to see how many miraculous coincidences will come along and save the nerdy, formerly fat hero. The Hydrogen Sonata Allllmost done with this. What can I say, it's a Culture book. Unless the ending completely ruins the story it's as good as any other Culture novel. I'm getting more sinister vibes from the Minds in this book than any other. The Red Knight - Yet another goon recommended book, and I loved it. Young, misunderstood hero with a murky past turns white knight for the land.
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Jan 13, 2014 23:31
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1554 posted:Took your advice and read it and picked up Fool Moon at the library. Finished it and promptly reserved the next three in the series. Glad you liked it. I'm looking forward to using it as a nice go-to serial that reads quickly and isn't terribly deep.
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Jan 14, 2014 02:21
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Butch Cassidy posted:Glad you liked it. I'm looking forward to using it as a nice go-to serial that reads quickly and isn't terribly deep. Easy read for sure (so far) and I have the next three on reserve at the library. So I'm excited to have something to burn through while I have Malazan on hold, waiting for GGRM, and a possible move into the Mystborn series. All in all a departure from my norm.
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Jan 14, 2014 06:22
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The Sound and the Fury. What an amazing book; very well written, with powerfully-conceived characters, gripping plot and drama, wonderfully engaging narration style, as satisfying a climax as I've ever read, and definite reread value. What I don't get, though, is all the people who act like it's immensely difficult to read and piece together. I mean, like, I wouldn't toss it at high schoolers, but it just takes a bit of thought, at least as far as understanding the plot goes; a full understanding of the symbolism could take multiple reads, I imagine.
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Jan 14, 2014 07:22
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Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster was a seriously seriously interesting read. I'm a guy so most of the marketing stuff for these brands isn't aimed at me and I'm really not into this sort of thing as much. It was surprisingly well written, and a really fascinating insight into the world of those who sell primarily to the ultra rich and how they cannibalize their own legacies to become even more ultra-rich themselves. I honestly cannot recommend this book enough regardless of how much you think the topic interests you. I do think the author failed a bit at one point when discussing brands that "secretly" manufacture stuff in China and she honoured an agreement not to out them though. 
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Jan 14, 2014 07:34
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1554 posted:Took your advice and read it and picked up Fool Moon at the library. Finished it and promptly reserved the next three in the series. Boy, you are in for a treat. It's pretty common among fans of the series that Fool Moon was the worst book, so if you dug it, the rest are going to be god damned amazing.
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Jan 14, 2014 13:56
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Rabbit Hill posted:Would you recommend Before I Met Her? I tried reading Pulse, a collection of Barnes' short stories, and not only did I not like any of them, I came away feeling that I didn't like him very much either. But A Sense of an Ending has gotten a ton of praise and I know he's very well-regarded, so I'd like to give him another shot. E: I'd start Sense of an Ending but am not feeling up to the subject matter. England, England is a pretty funny read if you're really keen to read one of his books and maybe not hate it. I also remember enjoying A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters (short stories) but that was a while ago and I can't remember much except for the last chapter. art of spoonbending fucked around with this message at 19:13 on Jan 15, 2014 |
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Jan 15, 2014 19:10
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I just finished In the Midst of Life, a collection of short stories I got for Christmas. They're all by Ambrose Bierce, a name I didn't recognize until I got to An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge which I had tabbed for a week before deleting unread. I really enjoyed it. The stories are characterized by a hyper-detailed realism which reminded me of Dennis Potter, with a wash of occasionally-camp gothic. Long, intricate sentences pinning in place settings, events and effects, which occasionally fixes in place something fantastically macabre. The closest analogy is a Bosch painting. However, the familiarity of these stories to themselves diminish their individual effect, at least in a dedicated collection. The blurb from the Morning Post notes that "no anthology of short stories would be complete without an example of his unique artistry", which is tellingly back-handed. The second grouping of short stories, on civilian life, is almost exclusively dedicated to one theme. (that being "corpses are scary") Also Bierce habitually ends his stories on a punchline, some of which are as unnecessary a flourish as a cherry on top of a steak. However, this represents some very enjoyable work by an incredible talent.
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Jan 16, 2014 17:25
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Mr. Squishy posted:I just finished In the Midst of Life, a collection of short stories I got for Christmas. They're all by Ambrose Bierce, a name I didn't recognize until I got to An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge which I had tabbed for a week before deleting unread. I really enjoyed it. The stories are characterized by a hyper-detailed realism which reminded me of Dennis Potter, with a wash of occasionally-camp gothic. Long, intricate sentences pinning in place settings, events and effects, which occasionally fixes in place something fantastically macabre. The closest analogy is a Bosch painting. It is also relevant to note that Bierce wrote all ninety of his short stories from 1882 through 1896 and that he was also both an editor and a journalist for most of his adult life. I think that many of his stories seem familiar because he has influenced later authors like Stephen King and he suffers the fate of anyone with popular imitators where their own works seems trite or cliche'd by comparison. Anyways, The Complete Short Stories of Ambrose Bierce published by the University of Nebraska Press in 1984 contains all ninety of his short stories divided into three major groupings: War stories, Horror stories and Tall Tales. I love his stories and recommend them to anyone with an interest in early American horror or the Civil War.
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Jan 16, 2014 22:03
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The Postmortal by Drew Magary I learned about this book through the author's contributions to the world of Sports Writing. Some of the blogs he contributes to promoted it so I figured "why not?". The book has a very interesting premise: a cure for aging is discovered. At first, only the wealthy can purchase it on the black market as it is illegal, but eventually it gets legalized and sold to the majority of the population. As you can imagine, this brings forth a number of issues and creates a rift between those that would prefer to die of natural causes and those that support the drug. I thought the book was lighthearted, modern, and relatively well written. The story is essentially told through the journal entries of the main protagonist. It skips forward through time a lot and you might feel like the author skips to certain events in the protagonist's life a bit too freely and without developing a lot of the reasoning behind some of the choices that he decides to make. If anything, I thought the ending was a little abrupt and disappointing, but I was still thoroughly entertained until the last chapter. All in all, I think it's worth a quick read if you don't feel like reading anything too heavy. Some elements of the story really intrigued me and I think that if it would have been slightly more developed, it would have been a killer book. I think that someone bought the movie rights to the story, so read it before it maybe hits theatres.
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Jan 17, 2014 04:13
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Neuromancer by William Gibson Drugs, sex, drugs, insanity, drugs, the matrix, sexy drugs, sexy violence, drugs, Rastafaians is spaaaaaaaace, and one suicidal loser on all of the drugs The prose was great, the imagery amazing, the plot well paced but full of holes and literary conveniences. The concept seems dated now, but it was written on a typewriter in the '80s as a debut novel that wound up creating an entire genre. And I'm a sucker for fractured beat sentence and paragraph structure. A wicked fun book and I really want to read the other Sprawl books. Butch Cassidy fucked around with this message at 02:26 on Jan 18, 2014 |
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Jan 17, 2014 17:03
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Just finished Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch. I read this after hearing a few recommendations from others, and because the premise sounded nifty: The Met Police’s very own magical CSI is a cool idea. To be honest I was expecting something a bit like Neverwhere, something that really delves into the history and occult that’s built up around such an old city. In reality Rivers of London isn't really like that at all. Its exploration of the occult and how it seeps into the life of the city is shallow at best. Instead the author goes full bore into making his characters snark machines, to the point where you realise you don’t really know anything about them. Occasionally the witticisms were…well…witty, but usually they fell a bit flat Often I wish the author would just let the characters show some depth rather than spout some snarky one-liner. The book was okay, and I don’t regret buying it, but I really don’t think I’ll bother with the sequel. Sadsack fucked around with this message at 17:35 on Jan 17, 2014 |
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Jan 17, 2014 17:31
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The Corner by David Simon & Ed Burns I finished this a few weeks ago. This book is still haunting my thoughts. It follows about a dozen or so people in Baltimore, Maryland for a year living in a ghetto during the early 90s where the only jobs available are selling drugs, or stealing stuff to buy the drugs. Heroin and coke rule everyone who lives here. You see how successful people rise and fall to the drugs, you see people who know better become addicted, and you get to see how many of these people never had a chance to begin with. Families and gangs are followed around, dealing on the corners are detailed, arrests made, time served. Spending time in jail is often looked at as a time to rest, to regain stamina from all the drugging, not as punishment. All the people in the book are real, and you really start feeling for all of them. Upset that they have to live through this. Excited when they make strides to better themselves, and angry and pissed when they fall down and do something stupid. I've never read a book where you feel so attached to someones struggles. I watched the six part HBO series after I finished the book and it did a pretty good job, and they even show the people who are in the book. You can look online after you are done to see what has happened with all the people in the book, and you get another punch in the gut. I think about all these people every so often, like a lost relative. It just hurts to think that this happens. 
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Jan 17, 2014 19:36
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Butch Cassidy posted:Necromancer by William Gibson I think you meant NEUROMANCER not NECROMANCER.
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Jan 18, 2014 01:42
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Brimstone Angels: Lesser Evils by Erin M. Evans Just finished this and I'm sad to say that while I did enjoy the book, I was not a impressed with it as I was with the first book in the series. I loved the depiction of the society of devils and was more than pleased with the growth of the characters following the first book, the villains felt lackluster and rather one dimensional to me with the only reason why the story is able to continue at all is because of some rather poor choices on the part of the antagonists. And while I do look forward to the series continuing, I cannot say that I am pleased with the current plot thread. A coming of age story involving a warlock and the devil they made their pact with is more than interesting enough, no need to arbitrarily throw world shaking events in just to make things seem more dire.
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Jan 18, 2014 01:42
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specklebang posted:I think you meant NEUROMANCER not NECROMANCER. Auto-correct is a pain.
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Jan 18, 2014 02:25
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Catherine Bailey's The Secret Rooms. Bailey was hired by the Duke and Duchess of Rutland (surname: Manners) to do some research work into the dukedom's history. There was wealth of documents available, but no one had cared to organize anything since the 9th duke, who died in 1940, in one of the document rooms. She soon finds out that there are three gaps in John's, the 9th duke's, history. One from childhood, one from young adulthood and the other from World War I. The unraveling of the mystery is fascinating as it involves some crazy family dynamics. Violet Rutland's shenanigans were almost comic as to how far she'd go to get what she wanted. That said, Bailey only really gets to the bottom of the Great War mystery. A chunk of the childhood one is figured out, but John's reason excising it is never really brought to light. She just gives up on the middle one. It's worth it alone when you get to the part where Violet pimped out her daughter Diana (later Lady Diana Cooper) solely because the dukedom must continue, dammit, and John is the last one who could accomplish that. Even with that, it's unsatisfying. There was so much more that could have been said about John Manners. With the close of the section on WWI, the book ends. You get the idea at the start that he grew up to be quite strange and was said to have favored one of his sons over the others. There is nothing on how all of the craziness affected him in later life, save for his last few days.
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Jan 18, 2014 06:53
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A Darkling Plain by Phillip Reeve. Aaaaaargh my emotions, I was totally absorbed into te last quarter of this book. I'm happy with the way things ended but I can't say I wasn't emotional about it. Fantastic series, comparable to Harry Potter in that it's basically flawless (to me anyway).
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Jan 18, 2014 08:02
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A Dance With Dragons. The book was pretty decent, but GRRM wasting space on giving a lot of boring one-note characters a POV dragged both this and A Feast For Crows down a whole lot. I think it took me 3 months to get past the first 1/5th mark.
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Jan 18, 2014 12:30
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The Old Man and the Sea Very powerful. I was struck by the old man's resolve, crushed by the final moments of his quest, and inspired by the bond he recreates with the boy.
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Jan 18, 2014 23:02
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I just finished V., and I thought it was very well written, but I really don't get why it even told us about Profane, Bodine, and most of the Whole Sick Crew when they weren't important to the core of the story beyond "heh the story is like a V  ."
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Jan 19, 2014 05:27
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bowmore posted:A Darkling Plain by Phillip Reeve. I quite agree. It's a great series and an emotional roller-coaster. At times, I wept or held my breath.
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Jan 19, 2014 06:59
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specklebang posted:I quite agree. It's a great series and an emotional roller-coaster. At times, I wept or held my breath.
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Jan 19, 2014 07:21
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The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch Starts off as a fairly middle-of-the-road heist story set in a quasi-medieval Venice-style city, abandoned by its mythical creators, with a precocious (and somewhat annoying) protagonist. The story flips back and forth between past and present - I found the sections in the past provided a hint or even explanation of the protagonists actions in the subsequent present-day chapter. It goes along at a fairly good pace but seems fairly whimsical until exactly 66% of the way through (on my Kindle progress meter anyway!) when it takes a massively dark and shocking turn. It's the turn that really makes this book and I can't recommend it highly enough.
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Jan 19, 2014 14:07
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bowmore posted:I was on the verge of tears during the last quarter of the book. Is it really Young-Adulty or can a cynical bastard like me enjoy it?
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Jan 19, 2014 14:10
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A publisher rep gave me an advance copy of Jacob Bacharach's The Bend of the World and described it in such a way that I expected something along the lines of John Dies at the End. She didn't use those words, but, you know, something fairly humorous with a lot of paranormal elements. Guessing she had merely internalized the marketing materials, because it is not really a science fiction, horror, or fantasy novel and, while it wasn't bad or anything, I would have been disappointed had I spent money on this based on the description on the dust jacket.
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Jan 19, 2014 14:40
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I am so bothered. After finishing the Goldfinch, I read Tarrt's book The Secret History. It is just as well written, but the story was just bland in comparison to The Goldfinch. I felt like it never completely took off and was forever hampered by the fact that the characters are just basically stuck up super rich alcoholic college kids. I really am at a loss now of what to read since finishing The Goldfinch. It was such an emotionally powerful book with the most memorable characters (Boris!). If you have any recommendations on newer books with the same weight and rememberance to them, please tell.
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Jan 19, 2014 21:59
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WastedJoker posted:Is it really Young-Adulty or can a cynical bastard like me enjoy it?
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Jan 19, 2014 22:22
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