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Talas posted:55. Goliath. Scott Westerfeld. The references to real people started to get ridiculous. Also, the main characters got more annoying. I'm glad it's over. I started that series but didn't get around to finishing it, perhaps because of issues mentioned.
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Sep 3, 2014 01:22
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Through August: 69. I am a Strange Loop by Douglas Hofstadter At the very least, this book frees me for feeling guilty for my light reading. Hofstadter is smug, and trite, and repeats himself, and uses his pet theories to explain everything. Having read this book, I am free to not care about Hofstadter anymore. 70. Godslayer by Jacqueline Carey The second part of a high fantasy novel. Kept me entertained, didn't quite hit the spot of being really involving. 71. Simplicius Simplicissimus by Grimmelhausen A contemporary picaresque novel of the 30 Years War. Of interest to those interested in German history/literature, a bit dense for the rest of us. 72. The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe I know Goethe is a genius and all, but this book was so deathly dull that at points in reading it, my brain shut down. It was like white noise for my brain. Boring. So, so boring. 73. Kill Him Twice by Richard Prather Detective noir set in the 1960s in LA, where a PI has to break up a black mail ring. Pretty good, if you want some vintage pulp. 74. Salt Water by Charles Simmons Litfic. The author was an editor at the New York Times Review of Books. A novel about bored people having sex, told without affect. 75. Persons & Places by George Santayana Famous philosopher writes his autobiography, and it is mostly about architecture and boat rides and funny relatives. 76. The Achievements of T.S. Eliot by F.O. Matthieson I've kind of reached the point of diminishing returns as far as Eliot criticism goes. 77. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Volume 7 I don't really know where stuff like this comes from, tbqh. I got a varied mix of books, but to be honest, nothing I've read for a while has really lit me up and made me excited. What is wrong with my reading?
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Sep 3, 2014 01:40
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Trek Junkie posted:14. Mastering the Rockefeller Habits by Verne Harnish - This was required reading for work. Though there are some good ideas here, a lot of Harnish's justifications rely anecdotal evidence. On principle, that bothers me. Maybe back up some claims with evidence/data? Nah. End of August update! 23. Deep Gravity by Gabriel Hardman - Intriguing, but not so good that I would buy the next issues in the series. Maybe I'll look for a volume set and check it out from the library, but not worth my money. I enjoyed the interstellar art. 24. The Sandman, Overture #1 by Neil Gaiman - The cliffhanger for the end of this issue is extremely upsetting (in a good way). I even missed release day at the comic shop for #2, but they have #3 sitting on the shelf right now.... Must... not... skip ahead!... 25. Spike: Into the Light by James Marsters - Being crazy about the only vampire who wanted his human soul back, this was a delightful read. What makes it extra tasty is the fact that James Marsters actually wrote the story (the actor who plays Spike in the show). 26. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller - I cannot believe I waited this long before reading this riveting take on war, crime, and government officials. I am still reeling from this read and am halfway convinced that I have to readjust my top ten favorite novels list. Heller is hilarious, sharp, and thoughtful. Just, wow. 27. 30 Days of Night Omnibus Vol. 1 by Ben Templesmith - This is, by far, one of the best before-bed reads I've had this year. The imagery is haunting and, at times, beautiful. The narrative had a punch to it, because of the illustrator. The work as a whole seems complete and envisions a menacing take on a classic monster. I am losing momentum to read often, because life outside of reading has become rather time-consuming. We'll see if I can catch up in the last few months to hit 65. Yeesh. My Goodreads profile here: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/28352324
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Sep 3, 2014 04:15
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ToxicFrog posted:US readers may know these better as the omnibus editions All Creatures Great and Small, All Things Wise and Wonderful and All Things Bright and Beautiful. These are stories about rural veterinary practice in the Yorkshire Dales in the 1940s, and are mostly autobiographical -- with names changed to protect the guilty, and some embellishment. Man, I read a bunch of those when I was a wee lad, 30 years ago or more. Remember them as being pretty great (also I grew up on a farm myself).
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Sep 3, 2014 09:40
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ltr posted:Yeah, good when I read it but depressing. She has a new book coming out in a couple weeks that I just preordered. Thanks for the heads-up. I'm definitely getting that.
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Sep 3, 2014 18:08
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Groke posted:Man, I read a bunch of those when I was a wee lad, 30 years ago or more. Remember them as being pretty great (also I grew up on a farm myself). They're still pretty great.  I keep trying to convince my wife to read them, but her reading list is ridiculously long and she doesn't have a lot of time for reading at the moment.
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Sep 3, 2014 22:44
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apophenium posted:1. Dust of Dreams by Steven Erikson 12. Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks 13. Every Love Story is a Ghost Story by D. T. Max 14. Open Secrets by Dayton Ward 15. If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino 16. Blindsight by Peter Watts 17. The State of the Art by Iain M. Banks Woo! That's 17 books finished in 2014, which incidentally was my goal. I've atoned for my sin of falling short last year. I'm not going to bump up my goal, but instead am going to see where I end up so I have an idea what my goal should be next year.
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Sep 7, 2014 19:34
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thespaceinvader posted:53: The Time of the Dark (i think it's called) by Barbara Hambly. It's OK so far, but it's another in a sequence of 'our world into theirs' type plots which seems to define this humble bundle and I'm getting kind of bored with those. It's got a good world with some interesting myth and backstory, I just can't understand why it NEEDS the whole 'person(s) from our world into theirs' to prop it up. 53: The Time of the Dark was solid except for the aforementioned 'people-from-earth' issue - I think this might have been a 'classic fantasy' humble bundle, which probably explains it. I enjoyed it, but I probably won't bother with the next one. it didn't grab me enough. 54: Freehold by William C Dietz. I very much enjoyed this, I have to say. Fairly basic military space opera, but fun and interesting, with engaging characters and a reasonably interesting plot. Well-written action too. not a lot to say about it on my part I have to say, but I did enjoy it.
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Sep 11, 2014 21:54
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quote:01. The Stranger - Albert Camus 40. The Bone Clocks - David Mitchell Thrilling adventure. I really liked writing style and the characterization, but the supernatural stuff (esp. in the last 150p) was a bit much (reminded me of like Harry Potter battles, but really out of place). If you liked Cloud Atlas, I'd recommend it even if the magic stuff gets silly. 41. Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace So good I'm tempted to start reading it again. Some of the talking in the AZ desert seemed too go on too long at times, but I absolutely loved this book. I started reading this on paperback, but quickly switched to Kindle and it was much more enjoyable. 42. Tobacco Road - Erskine Caldwell Bleak portrayal of a destitute Georgia family during the Great Depression. Nearly every person in this book is selfish, uneducated and desperate but it's difficult to not feel sorry for them.
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Sep 14, 2014 06:53
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Ornamented Death posted:1. The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 24 edited by Stephen Jones I actually hit my goal a few weeks back. 27. Authority by Jeff Vandermeer 28. Half a King by Joe Abercrombie 29. Skin Game by Jim Butcher 30. Deadlock by Tim Curran 31. Burnt Black Suns by Simon Strantzas 32. Shattered by Kevin Hearne 33. The Rhesus Chart by Charles Stross 34. Blackout by Tim Curran 35. Savage by Gary Fry 36. Deceiver by Kelli Owen 37. Conduits by Jennifer Loring 38. The Sleeping Dead by Richard Farren Barber 39. A Beautiful Madness by Lee Thompson 40. Blood Eye by Craig Saunders 41. The Last Mile by Tim Waggoner 42. Elderwood Manor by Christopher Fulbright and Angeline Hawkes 43. The Dark Defiles by Richard Morgan 44. The Chapman Books by Aaron French, et al. 45. Ceremony of Flies by Kate Jonez 46. Sunblind by Michael McBride 47. Worlds of Hurt by Brian Hodge 48. The Exiled by William Meikle 49. Surrogate by David Bernstein 50. Factory Town by Jon Bassof 51. Darkfuse 2 edited by Shane Staley 52. The Concrete Grove by Gary McMahon 53. Unholy Dimensions by Jeffrey Thomas 54. Acceptance by Jeff Vandermeer 55. The Forever War by Joe Haldeman 56. Radiant Dawn by Cody Goodfellow 57. The Getaway God by Richard Kadrey 58. Fearful Symmetries edited by Ellen Datlow 59. The Mission by T.E. Grau 60. Lovecraft’s Monsters edited by Ellen Datlow Authority and Acceptance were quite a bit different than Annihilation, but I liked them just as much; I think Vandermeer fully succeeded in what he set out to do with the Southern Reach trilogy. Half a King is not really YA, even if it's sometimes marketed that way, it's just Joe Abercrombie writing with a much narrower focus; I thought it was excellent. Burnt Black Suns, while not as good as it's predecessor, is still an excellent collection that I recommend to horror fans. The Dark Defiles is easily the best of the Land Fit for Heroes trilogy and a fitting end to the story. I'm going to miss reading about all the characters, but I also appreciate that Morgan started out with a story to tell and stuck to his guns, not giving in to the temptation to turn it into a sprawling epic. The Last Mile is a nice little cosmic horror tale; I hope Waggoner visits that setting again in the future. Worlds of Hurt is also an excellent set of cosmic horror tales, but Hodge is a lot more nihilistic in how he approaches that type of story. I read the original version of The Forever War (I think an expanded edition came out at some point...) and was blown away - I can't imagine a better response to Starship Troopers. Radiant Dawn was not what I"d been led to believe (I was told it was a modern-day setting Cthulhu story), but it was still pretty good. The blurb for the sequel makes it sound like it will get into all the stuff I expected from the first book. The Mission is a great period horror story that, unfortunately, not a lot of people will get to read (limited edition chapbook and, as far as I know, no plans for a digital release).
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Sep 19, 2014 01:49
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thespaceinvader posted:53: The Time of the Dark was solid except for the aforementioned 'people-from-earth' issue - I think this might have been a 'classic fantasy' humble bundle, which probably explains it. I enjoyed it, but I probably won't bother with the next one. it didn't grab me enough. 55: Empire of Man by David Weber and John Ringo. Pretty decent actually; I wasn't expecting much of it. Has a lot of the hallmarks of Weber in particular (British-style aristocracy, marines, sailing and sailing analogies) set on an interesting hellworld. A few things struck me on reflection as a little over-convenient, particularly Cord's lack of language problems, and the general lack of culture shock and cultural problems, but as a whole it was a fun militiary SF pair of novels/start to a series, and I'll be looking up the rest of the series at some point.
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Sep 21, 2014 12:26
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:141: The Sorcerer's Widow - Lawrence Watt-Evans 154: The Living End - Craig Schaefer 155: The Misenchanted Sword - Lawrence Watt-Evans 156: Spider Man 3 - Peter David 157: No Hero - Jonathan Wood 158: The Grendel Affair - Lisa Shearin 159: Bloodlight : The Apocalypse of Robert Goldner - Harambee K. Grey-sun 160: We Are All Completely Fine - Darryl Gregory 161: Circles in the snow - Patrick F. Mcmanus 162: Hellenic Immortal - Gene Doucette 163: Interesting Times - Matthew Storm 164: The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison 165: Voices From Beyond - Simon Green 167: Origins of a D-List Supervillain - Jim Bernheimer 168: Confessions of a D-list Supervillain - Jim Bernheimer 169: Hidden - Benedict Jacka 170: Chosen - Benedict Jacka 171: The Getaway God - Richard Kadrey 172: Kill City Blues - Richard Kadrey The Living End was pretty awesome. Great book that didn't end up exactly the way I thought, but was still pretty damned good. If you liked the first two books, you'll dig this one. Misenchanted Sword was pretty great. I love the Esthar series and wanted some happy fantasy to read. Spider Man 3 was the novelization of the movie with a few differences in the script. Overall, not worth a read. No Hero is a pretty decent urban fantasy set in London, where Dept MI37 (all 4 of them) work to keep the world safe from monsters, critters, and rogue wizards. The Grendel Affair is the first book in the series called SPI Files, and is kinda decent. I was worried because it had the tropes of Southern woman lead, mysterious agency, handsome and withdrawn bodyguard, and super powers so I went into it thinking "Holy poo poo please don't be some sort of weird fuckfest romance" and it wasn't. Decent story to it, and I do plan to pick up the second book. Bloodlight was loving horrible. Just, jesus it was a chore to read and basically it was horrible and I'd give it the same rating as herpes if I could. We Are All Completely Fine was a decent story. Little weirder than I thought, but the basic gist of it is a group of survivors from incredibly creepy supernatural poo poo all end up in a therapy group and share their stories. Circles in the snow was the last Tully novel released, and was actually pretty good. If you liked the other mystery books he's written, you'll dig this one. It was a little weird, but I can see where he's going with the series... kinda. Hellenic Immortal was a reread, but a good one. I like the book. Interesting Times was decent. It's the first book in a new series, I think, and it's an interesting take on the whole urban fantasy idea. The book opens with an accountant barely surviving an assassination attempt and kinda runs from there. Worth a shot. The Goblin Emperor I did not like that much. I basically kept reading because the story seemed somewhat interesting, but it suffered a bit from the old fantasy trope of "let's invent a language and then throw fantasy words around with no definition, and then just substitute well known species from D&D with different names". I can't really recommend it, but it did fill the nitch I was looking for of vaguely happy fantasy without grimdark bullshit. Just the annoyance of weird little things like calling them emperor "Serenity" instead of "Emperor" because they are elves and that's what they do in this magic fairyland of wonderfulness! and that got annoying really fast. Plus I couldn't really sympathize much with the main character because he just sort of struck me as whiny. Dude became Emperor and can't seem to find actual friends, and spends a lot of time moping around because of it. Voices from Beyond is the latest Ghost hunters novel from Simon Green. I didn't dig it that much. It's basically starting to bug me that the books have all been the same thing over and over and over. Very little plot advancement, and the general theme is "team goes to haunted place, haunted place is SHOCKINGLY not what they thought, incredibly bad poo poo happens, guy takes off glasses and stares at it with glowing eyes, Everyone is in danger, no one dies or is injured and then the book ends". At least with the Drood series there's a vague idea of danger for the main characters. Nothing in this series so far. Confessions and Origins are exactly what the titles say. Confessions is the first book, Origins is the second book that was recently released that gives a bigger backstory to the characters. Worth a read if you dug the original. Hidden/Chosen were both pretty good. I enjoy this series, and reread Chosen because I couldn't remember wtf was going on at the beginning of Hidden. Kill City Blues and The Getaway God were both pretty good. I had to reread KCB because I couldn't remember wtf was going on at the beginning of TGG, but TGG turned out to be pretty interesting. Kept the pace up through the book and left me wondering how in the hell they were going to finish the book. The ending was a bit abrupt but nowhere near as bad as the third books ending. All in all, save for Bloodlight, it was a pretty good month.
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Sep 21, 2014 18:12
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thespaceinvader posted:55: Empire of Man 56: Half a King by Joe Abercrombie. Very much enjoyed it, even if I did peg one of the twists very early then forget about it til right at the end, and peg the other almost as soon as the character was introduced and spend the rest of the story basically thinking 'get on with it already'. Nonetheless, a good, interesting, lively book. 57: Priests of Mars by Graham McNiell.
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Sep 25, 2014 11:27
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drat I wish I could read this much, but I just end up browsing forums. Good on all of you!
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Sep 26, 2014 06:27
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thehomemaster posted:drat I wish I could read this much, but I just end up browsing forums.  I'm with you brother
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Sep 26, 2014 06:32
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screenwritersblues posted:41) Delancey: A Man, A Woman, A Restaurant, A Marriage by Molly Wizenberg: I wanted to like this book, but I didn't really like it. I don't know if it was the fact that it was about the opening of a restaurant or I just didn't expect it to be what it was, but there was just something about it that I didn't enjoy September... 42) Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer: This was my first trilogy in a little over a year after reading the disappointing Hunger Games. After that I swore off trilogies all together, but something about this series just hooked me it. It was also my first foray into weird fiction. I really enjoyed this one, there was something somewhat off putting about it. 43) Authority by Jeff VanderMeer: While the second books of most trilogies fall short, the second book of the southern reach series, made me want to read more. This one was good, but a lot stranger than the first, which was a little off putting for me. 44) Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn: I read this because I've been wanting to read it for a while. I heard it was good, so I grabbed it last year from a big box club. When I heard that there was going to be a movie adapted from the book, I moved it up my list. When I realized that the movie was coming out next month, I decided that it was time to read it and I was glad that I did. The book was one of those books (for me anyway) that had me going from start to finish. I really hope that the movie is the same way. 45) Acception by Jeff VanderMeer: The final book of this series was the strangest of them all. I guess that this was a good thing, because of the fact that it kept me hooked. 46) Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs: What in the name of god did I just read? This was either written when Burroughs was heavily under the influence of something or he was just that insane. 45) Sous Chef: 24 Hours on the Line by Michael Gibney: I grabbed this after seeing it in the employee picks wall at the Strand. I kind of consider it to be a blind read (which reminds me that I should add it to that goodreads shelf that I made) and I really enjoyed it. I have a friend who's a pretty high up cook at a resturant in NYC and he tells me all the time it's not a fun job (especially during brunch). While I didn't believe him, after reading this book, I do believe everything he said. Currently reading: Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury: My first time ever reading Bradbury (although my gut tells me that I should have went with 451 first), so things are going to be interesting. Goal: 30/30 Year: 45/30
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Sep 27, 2014 20:36
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screenwritersblues posted:46) Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs: What in the name of god did I just read? This was either written when Burroughs was heavily under the influence of something or he was just that insane. It was both.
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Sep 27, 2014 23:42
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September - 5: 38. The Quarry (Iain Banks) 39. Star of the Sea (Joseph O'Connor) 40. Snow Crash (Neal Stephenson) 41. Riotous Assembly (Tom Sharpe) 42. Vintage Stuff (Tom Sharpe) This wasn't quite the month I planned out but there you go. The Quarry was really enjoyable; I like Banks' style and he's very readable. A cast of flawed characters coming together to revisit their past through the eyes of an autistic boy who's struggling to deal with his father dying of cancer is a pretty good setting and story and Banks tells it well. Star of the Sea was a beautiful book. The combination of viewpoints and styles which tell the story is clever, and the language in places is wonderful. The characters live and breathe with the reality of the Irish famine and the mass emigration to America and their internal contradictions bring home how complex an issue it was. Snow Crash was fun and dumb. A nice change of pace from the last few books I've read. Riotous Assembly and Vintage Stuff are two Tom Sharpe books from a collection of his my parents bought me for Christmas years ago. I'd never got around to reading them because I tried Vintage Stuff when I got them and in my younger days where I wanted to read about heroes and wizards and elves that kind of black farce stuff was way above me. Now though this is some funny, funny poo poo. Riotous Assembly is a savage satire of apartheid South Africa (Sharpe was deported for speaking out against it in the 60s) and the South African police in particular. Despite it being a comedy, there's this undercurrent of raw anger that comes through loud and clear. Vintage Stuff is much gentler, more of a send-up of adventure novels and the British middle and upper classes, but it's still good and very funny. About halfway through this month I started reading Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang. I'm finding it heavy going, which is weird because the actual writing isn't very complex and the subject matter is something I'm interested in. I just never seem to make that much headway with it when I pick it up. Hopefully I should be able to knock it on the head for October and move on. Per the recommendation of someone in the thread I've picked up the new Naomi Klein which is set to make an appearance one or two books after Mao, so I'm looking forward to that. Year so far: 01. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (Robert Tressell) 02. Always Managing: My Autobiography (Harry Redknapp) 03. Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe) 04. Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things that Happened (Allie Brosh) 05. Dracula (Bram Stoker) 06. The Drowned World (JG Ballard) 07. The Tudors: The Complete Story of England's Most Notorious Dynasty (G.J. Meyer) 08. Wolf Hall (Hilary Mantel) 09. The Politics (Aristotle) 10. The Prince (Niccolo Machiavelli) 11. Twelve Years a Slave (Solomon Northup) 12. The Fault in Our Stars (John Green) 13. If on a winter's night a traveller (Italo Calvino) 14. The Communist Manifesto (Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels) 15. The Age of Revolution: 1789-1848 (Eric Hobsbawm) 16. The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea (Yukio Mishima) 17. The Fall of Paris: The Siege and the Commune 1870-71 (Alistair Horne) 18. The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood) 19. Homage to Catalonia (George Orwell) 20. Half Blood Blues (Esi Edugyan) 21. The Ottoman Empire: The Classical Age 1300-1600 (Halil Inalcik) 22. The Outsider (Albert Camus) 23. The Ottoman Empire: The Structure of Power 1300-1650 (Colin Imber) 24. Suleiman the Magnificent (André Clot) 25. Forbidden Colours (Yukio Mishima) 26. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller) 27. One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquéz) 28. On the Road (Jack Kerouac) 29. Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground, 1981-1991 (Michael Azerrad) 30. Life and Death are Wearing Me Out (Mo Yan) 31. The Sound of Things Falling (Juan Gabriel Vásquez) 32. Dance Dance Dance (Haruki Murakami) 33. The Name of the Rose (Umberto Eco) 34. What is Property? (P.J. Proudhon) 35. Oryx & Crake (Margaret Atwood) 36. When the Lights Went Out: What Really Happened in Britain in the Seventies (Andy Beckett) 37. No Logo (Naomi Klein) 38. The Quarry (Iain Banks) 39. Star of the Sea (Joseph O'Connor) 40. Snow Crash (Neal Stephenson) 41. Riotous Assembly (Tom Sharpe) 42. Vintage Stuff (Tom Sharpe) Total: 42/60, 4+2/8 women, 6+2/8 non-white people, 16/20 non-fiction Living Image fucked around with this message at 18:02 on Sep 28, 2014 |
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Sep 28, 2014 12:40
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Mr. Squishy posted:1 The Devils by Fyodor Dostoyevsky as translated by David Magarshack. 80 The Honourable Schoolboy by John le Carré. The post Tinker Tailor Smiley has to piece together the service he exploded by revealing its corruption. He tried his best but it goes wrong, mostly because of those bastard Americans, as you'd expect from a le Carré. About a hundred pages too long for my interest. 81 The Outcast of the Island by Joseph Conrad. drat, what an ending. I don't care about all these arab pirates, but they take up a relatively small place in the book. 82 Under Western Eyes by Joseph Conrad. Makes a lot more sense on second reading. ♀ 8/20 Σ 82/60 Obviously the Conrad thing continues. It's the only thing I can stomach reading at this point. I'm currently reading Secret Agent again.
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Sep 28, 2014 15:00
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Walh Hara posted:Apparantly I forgot to update. Welp, I forgot updating this. Rest of May: 27. Pedro Paramo ---- Juan Rulfo 28. Bloodchild and Other Stories ---- Octavia E. Butler 29. Skin Game ---- Jim Butcher June 30. Stories of Eva Luna ---- Isabel Allende (Dutch translation) 31. Shogun ---- James Clavell July 32. Pact Pt 1 ---- J. McCrae 33. The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare ---- G. K. Chesterton August 34. The King Must Die ---- Mary Renault 35. When You Are Engulfed In Flames ---- David Sedaris September 36. The Habitation of the Blessed ---- Catherynne M. Valente 37. Little Green Men ---- Christopher Buckley 38. The Crying of Lot 49 ---- Thomas Pyncheon 39. The Scar ---- China Miéville 40. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales ---- Oliver Sacks 41. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love ---- Raymond Carver 42. The Old Man and the Sea ---- Ernest Hemingway I'm reading a lot less than the previous two years, but I'm still optimistic I'll hit my target of 52 books. Only 10 more books in 3 months, it should be doable even though I'm no longer a student and instead will spend my time earning money from now on. That said, the best book of this bunch was The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, the various stories were excellent and the analysis useful. You can't really imagine how those people must think (he picked mostly cases where the patient did not and/or could not realize their way of thinking is not normal) yet it's quite a fun excercise to try. None of the books really stood out in very positive or negative sense.
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Sep 28, 2014 15:28
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Female authors: 17/24 Non-fiction: 9/12 Goodreads. Tunnel Vision was pretty unremarkable. A bit creepy, but probably not as much as the author intended. I enjoyed it, but I probably won't end up remembering much of it. I did like the setting though, of an old asylum in the early 20th century with a network of tunnels underneath. The short stories in the same book all suffer from the problem of having an intriguing setup that builds up quite nicely but then an abrupt ending that doesn't really pay off. The Shedow in particular is nice and creepy right up until the ending where suddenly it loses all its tension. After all the build-up it basically ends with "And then the monster killed her! The end!" Justice and Her Brothers is a weird book. I almost stopped reading after the first two chapters, but kept going because it was pretty short. Can't say it really paid off though. At first it seems like it's just going to be a fairly unremarkable story about childhood or something, but then it gradually starts to seem like something very unpleasant is about to happen. I felt like Thomas was going to turn out to be a budding serial killer or something. But then it takes another turn with the introduction of the psychic neighbour and Justice's own psychic powers, and then the revelation that Thomas (and maybe Levi?) also have psychic powers. But then before anything can really happen it's suddenly over without any apparent resolution. I don't know what I was supposed to have got from it, and I don't understand what actually happened in the end. Justice herself was also weird, in that she was apparently supposed to be 11, but was written in a way that made me think she was half that age. And that only after the first chapter, where I initially thought she was an adult. She was written very oddly. When I first saw the title "The Healer's War" I assumed it was going to be some generic fantasy "chosen-one in a world of sword and sorcery" type of story, so I was pleasantly surprised that it turned out not to be. The book is broken into three sections (although the third section is basically just an epilogue), and I felt that the second section (the most heavily fictionalised) was a little weak, but the first is good enough that the whole thing holds up. My only major criticism of the story is that I don't really think the supernatural elements were necessary. The author states that she felt that the protagonist would clearly have died in part two without the magic, but I don't see that myself and I think the book would have been better off without it, just because it has so little impact on anything. Sticks and Stones was disappointing. The first two parts of the book are set out in a way that makes them hard to follow, with three real life stories of bullying split over six chapters, with the second part of each story appearing in part two of the book so you have time to forget who was who and what was going on before you get back to it. Also it seems that Bazelon struggles to connect the points she wants to make to the stories she's relating. The third part is the weakest though, as it seems really unfocused and meandering, and she doesn't seem to back up a lot of what she says and ends up with a very weak conclusion that comes across as basically "I dunno, maybe Facebook could be more pro-active about stopping bullying?" Basically I feel like there wasn't really much information in this book, and what was there wasn't presented in a way that made any sort of point, other than "bullying is bad and we should probably do something about it but also there are other problems too." I quite liked The Alchemist, but I didn't find it quite believable that the mayor and the wizard would not want to immediately save the town. I understand putting their own interests first and how their plan worked, but it seems like they would have made themselves celebrated heroes by just doing the right thing and would never have had to worry about their position again. Their actual plan seems almost evil for the sake of being evil. Not nearly as good as Pump Six. The Little Sister, The Scarecrow of Oz and Evil Under the Sun were all good but they're all more of the same from their respective series' and I don't really have anything to say about them. I also started reading Sworn to Raise and got about a quarter of the way through it just because I was entertained by how bad it was. It's not a long book though. Kind of like a poor man's Harry Potter, but every flaw in the Harry Potter series is magnified. Especially egregious are the bizarre inconsistencies in the setting and tone. For example, the story seems to be written for children, right up until the point where the protagonist has to sneak out of her room to avoid being raped. It's not even like it's implied only, it's just clearly stated "It wasn't the best place to sleep, but it was better than being raped" (actual quote). And the tone of the narrative doesn't even change in that section. It's almost presented as a minor nuisance, like the protagonist is weighing up the options "I don't want to sleep in the barn, but on the other hand, rape. Hmm..." (not an actual quote). But then after that it goes back to schoolyard bullying being the biggest problem she faces. It seems like the sort of thing a young teenager might write if they were trying for mature and serious but had only ever read YA fiction.
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Sep 29, 2014 07:30
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Mr. Squishy posted:78 Dispatches by Michael Herr. Interesting. Basically just a soup of vietnam for 200 pages. Obviously a cornerstone in forming our impressions of the war. Michael Herr also wrote the screenplays for Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket. It's crazy reading his memoirs and seeing which events he experienced were written into the films. The other interesting thing about it, is that when it was published (in 1977), it was one of the few books that actually dealt with and explained the American experience in Vietnam. Due to various political and societal reasons of the time, most people kept quiet about their experience. Obviously, we have a much better understand of what happened during the war, but it was pretty groundbreaking for its time.
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Sep 29, 2014 08:20
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DannyTanner posted:41. Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace Idon't own an e-reader, so I had to tough it out like a trooper. Got a lot of strange looks on the bus whenever I pulled out this goddanmed tome of a book to read through. Worth it though.
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Sep 29, 2014 08:24
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elbow posted:August - 55/52 September - 67/70 56 - 60. Y: The Last Man volumes 3 - 7, by Brian K Vaughan and Pia Guerra. 4/5 61. Shift, by Hugh Howey. Someone in my book club recommended this because it gives more backstory to Wool, but I mostly found it sluggish and boring. 3/5 62. Annihilation, by Jeff VanderMeer. People seem to either love this or hate it, mostly based on the language. I loved it, plowed through it, and can't wait for the other two books in the trilogy to arrive in my mailbox. It's been a while since I read a book that creeped me out this much. 4/5 63 - 65. Y: The Last Man volumes 8 - 10, by Brian K Vaughan and Pia Guerra. Wish they had wrapped up the series a bit better, the ending was dissatisfying on a lot of levels. Still a fantastic read. 4/5 66. Kingdom Come, by JG Ballard. I read Crash before and hated it, but wanted to give Ballard another go, and this seemed like a great place to do it. I was wrong. Ballard is just too much extreme essay and not enough plot for me. 3/5 67. Authority, by Jeff VanderMeer. I didn't enjoy this as much as Annihilation simply because of the setting, and found it hard to follow along when the protagonist starts losing his mind. It kept me interested enough to read the final book in the trilogy, though, and had some genuinely creepy moments despite its relatively mundane setting. 3/5
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Oct 1, 2014 01:26
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Prolonged Shame posted:1) Winters Heart - Robert Jordan Awful month for reading. I moved cross country and am working on volume II of the Teddy Roosevelt bio, but I should have finished more. 82) His Majesty's Dragon - Naomi Novik: I'm usually not a fan of alternate histories and I'm not big on dragons, but I really enjoyed this book. I will probably keep on with the series. 83) Cymbeline - William Shakespeare: Not his best work. Apparently experts suspect another playwright helped him with this one and you can tell. Overall:83/100 Sub-goals: Presidential biographies: 9/12 Books over 600 pages: 15/15 - done! Non-fiction books (not counting prez bios): 18/20
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Oct 1, 2014 02:56
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September! 110. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - J.K. Rowling 111. Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage - Haruki Murakami 112. Rumo and His Miraculous Adventures - Walter Moers 113. The Kindly Ones (Sandman #9) - Neil Gaiman 114. The Wake (Sandman #10) - Neil Gaiman 115. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J.K. Rowling 116. The Dispossessed - Ursula K. Le Guin 117. Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling 118. The Bone Clocks - David Mitchell 119. Acceptance - Jeff Vandermeer 120. Pride & Prejudice - Jane Austen 121. Half a King - Joe Abercrombie 122. The Accursed - Joyce Carol Oates Due to a heavy workload this month, I read less than usual, but I’m still on target if I want to reach 150 books by year’s end. (A whole lot of that reading was the first week of the month - I had some vacation time that was mostly spent sick in my bed reading.) The best two books I read this month were The Dispossessed and Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures. These authors - Ursula K. LeGuin and Walter Moers - are really impressing me with their consistency. I’ve been devouring their books like crazy and their invention shows no sign of faltering. LeGuin wrote a tale of a scientist on a utopian moon colony, torn between the socialist ways of his world and his desire to further science. It is so drat brilliant, how she talks about society, people, how they relate to each other - she’s frighteningly smart. Moers, on the other hand, took me further into his wonderfully batty world Zamonia. His other books - The City of Dreaming Books and The Thirteen and a Half Lives of Captain Bluebear - were massive and massively entertaining, and Rumo was no exception. It tells the story of Rumo, a Wolperting (half-dog, half-deer) who sets out to become a hero and goes on a quest into a mysterious underground realm to save the rest of his species. It was so much fun you guys. So much fun. Other stuff I enjoyed this month: The Bone Clocks was an interesting read from David Mitchell, and I enjoyed the chameleon nature of his writing as he jumped from narrator to narrator over the span of the book, but the sci-fi elements ended up taking over near the end. Half a King was a nice little bite-sized Abercrombie book, with his typical violence toned down for the young adult crowd. It still had his signature moral ambiguity, though it’s a solid adventure story aside from that. Finally, Joyce Carol Oates’s The Accursed is a monster of a gothic novel, set in Princeton circa 1905, following a family that has come under a terrible curse. It weaves dozens of characters together, including historical figures like Woodrow Wilson, Mark Twain, and Upton Sinclair. A really good read. Oh and Harry Potter and Sandman are cool too.
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Oct 1, 2014 04:06
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thespaceinvader posted:57: Priests of Mars by Graham McNiell. (could swear I posted this already) 57/58: Priests of Mars and Lords of Mars by Graham McNiell. Solid black library 40k grimdark, with an interesting potential-horror extra that all those uncountable millions of servitors might be sapient. Looking forward to the final one in the trilogy. 59/60: Rivers of London and Moon over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch. I've been meaning to read these, and jonesing for police-procedural-with-magic, and they scratch the itch fairly well. Enjoyable, not too predictable, and starting to find their feet away from the a-little-too-close-to-Dresden start. Well worth reading if you like that sort of thing, but still doesn't quite do what I was hoping for in fantasy police procedural. I was looking for something more in 'everyone knows there's magic'. 61: Whispers Under Ground. Continuing Aaronovitch's series.
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Oct 1, 2014 23:14
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September. 56. The Republic of Thieves. Scott Lynch. The book was really fun but kind of random at some points. Pretty good anyway. 57. 59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot. Richard Wiseman. Not bad for a self-help book, at least this one has backup in actual research. 58. Nación TV. Fabrizio Mejía Madrid. Entertainment resume of the history of television in Mexico. 59. The Currents of Space. Isaac Asimov. Kind of bland. 60. The Believing Brain. Michael Shermer. Awesome book, even if some of the science is kind of sketchy. 61. No Country For Old Men. Cormac McCarthy. Great book, the story is loving awesome. 62. Through The Gates Of The Silver Key. H.P. Lovecraft. Short, kind of weird.
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Oct 2, 2014 01:19
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Spadoink posted:31. The Yiddish Policeman's Union - Michael Chabon 40. The White Bone - Barbara Gowdy 41. The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden - Jonas Jonasson 42. Sylvanus Now - Donna Morrissey 43. The Birth House - Ami McKay 44. The Face of Another - Kobo Abe 45. Through Black Spruce - Joseph Boyden 46. World Without End - Ken Follett The White Bone was by far Barbara Gowdy's best work that I have read. Amazing, really - Barbara tells the story of a family of elephants, from the point of view of the elephants themselves, imagining them as intelligent and communicative creatures. I thought the premise sounded so lame when I originally was recommended this book about 2-3 years ago, but it is absolutely incredible. Add it to your list if you're looking for more non-American, non-male, non-lovely authors to read The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden was charming and entertaining. Very much in the vein of Jonas' other work, "The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared." Sylvanus Now and The Birth House were my 'longing-for-home' books, as I'm a Newfoundlander and spent a decade in Nova Scotia. The Birth House was the better story of the two, set in Scot's Bay, Nova Scotia, the hometown of my bestest university friend, and a place dear to my heart. Sylvanus Now was great for giving a sense of outport fishing life, and the evolution of the outport and dissolution of the fishing industry in Newfoundland. The Face of Another was absolute garbage - the premise is interesting, but the 40+ years that have elapsed since it was written have caused some serious cultural drift to set in. Through Black Spruce is probably already showing up on CanLit/Multicultural Lit course lists, and for good reason. Literary and engaging, this is the story of Annie and Will Bird, niece and uncle, and their journey. The story travels from Moosonee to New York, from deep in wild of James Bay to under the Gardiner in Toronto. I am now reading The Orenda and am equally spell bound. World Without End was about 500 pages and 60 awkward sex scenes too long. The writing was terrible, full of "tell, don't show," and so repetitive that I assumed Ken Follett was writing for the +60 year old crowd with no memory. I can't remember "The Pillars of the Earth" being this bad, but it was written about 20 years before World Without End, so maybe his writing has devolved. Spadoink fucked around with this message at 22:14 on Oct 2, 2014 |
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Oct 2, 2014 20:27
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I've had a rough past two months because of tackling War and Peace. One more and I've met my goal for the year, though. 57. Carthage by Joyce Carol Oates- This book was pretty boring. It probably could have been only 200 pages. 58. Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris- Probably the worst in the series. Harris had an end in mind that she wanted to get to and just kind of rushed this, I think. 59. Shake Hands with the Devil by Romeo Dallaire- I'm fascinated by the Rwandan Genocide and this book was very interesting because it gives a lot of background of what was happening in the UN. 60. Look Again by Lisa Scottoline- Run of the mill “thriller. A lot of stuff that doesn't even make sense happens. It was fine to read while traveling. 61. Homicide: A Year of Killing on the Streets by David Simon- Amazing. I can't recommend Simon enough. 62. Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King- Really did not enjoy this and I am a big King fan. I just thought all of the characters (save the psycho) were boring as hell. Parts of the plot make no sense (and it's not even supernatural). 63. Coraline by Neil Gaiman- really liked this. It was haunting and cute at the same time. I really can't imagine reading it as a kid, though. I think it would have scared the crap out of me then. 64. Bad Blood: Crisis in the American Red Cross by Judith Reitman- Very interesting, but pretty outdated now. 65. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy- This was honestly not half as hard to read as what people had led me to believe. Pierre is probably one of my favorite characters in a book ever. I just love how bumbling and naive he manages to be.
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Oct 2, 2014 22:03
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thespaceinvader posted:61: Whispers Under Ground. Continuing Aaronovitch's series. 61/62: Whispers Under Ground and Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch. This series continues to improve and mature in a very satisfying way. It's quick, easy and readable, with an interesting magic system and fun (if occasionally stupid) characters - plus some interesting long-term plots if my inferences from the most recent book are correct... Looking forward to the next one. Roll on November. 63: Valour and Vanity by Mary Robinette Kowal. Continuing the Glamourists series. Not started yet. e: Finished Valour and Vanity was, as the rest of the series, very good. Strong, believable heist novel, well-told in the period style it aimed for, generally very enjoyable. I need to read more of this author. thespaceinvader fucked around with this message at 21:56 on Oct 8, 2014 |
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Oct 5, 2014 19:34
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Aphra Bane posted:18) Community Development in an Uncertain World - Jim Ife 25) The Princess Bride - William Goldman 26) The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories - Angela Carter 27) The Plains - Gerald Murnane 28) Practice Skills in Social Work - Jane Maidment 5 books behind  The Princess Bride was a re-read. Still as funny and charming as the first time I read it. The Bloody Chamber was fun. I read about half of the stories a year prior and just now got to finishing it. The writing is fantastic at times, but few of the stories were very memorable, unfortunately. The Plains was brilliant. It was the first time I've ever read a book that gave me an almost tangible sense that it was a classic. Probably the most well-written book I'll read all year. It even managed to make reading the word "plains" over a hundred times somehow not torturous. And Practice Skills was a textbook. It was pretty good, I guess.
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Oct 11, 2014 07:19
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64: The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. A reread, but I've decided to finally get round to reading Republic of Thieves, which i'll do after I've finishe Red Seas Under Red Skies. TLoLL is, as I remembered it, very good, but I hadn't recalled Lynch being quite a brutal as this. Very good, very interesting characters, very visceral, and intriguing world building with a lot of room for questions to be asked and answered and interesting things to use. 65: Red Seas Under Red Skies. So far so good.
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Oct 12, 2014 16:32
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I realise this is a ridiculous time to join this year's reading challenge, but what the hell. I bought a Kindle earlier this year, mostly just to make reading while commuting to work somewhat viable. One of the best purchases I've done I think, I had forgotten how much fun reading can be. This is what I've read so far in 2014, and yes I'm aware my reading list contains a lot of straight up crap: 1. A Dance with Dragons by George RR Martin: It's not the worst book in the series so far, though I'm still alternating between "oh god this chapter never ends and who is this person again?" and "holy poo poo holy poo poo HOLY poo poo". 2. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman: This didn't really grab me at all. It wasn't bad, but I also didn't care about anyone or anything in it. 3. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins: Read these because I thought the film(s) were alright. Was pleasantly surprised, actually. Not really great literature by any means, but it was an entertaining read. 4. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins: See above. 5. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins: See above. 6. The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien: Should have read these years ago, but never got around to it. Overall enjoyable, glad I read them. Unfortunately it felt a bit like a chore because I (obviously) already knew the story, and they weren't captivating enough to make up for that. 7. The Two Towers by JRR Tolkien: See above. 8. The Return of the King by JRR Tolkien: See above. 9. Gone by Michael Grant: This series is surprisingly not terrible, even though I'm technically far too old to admit I read them. The fifth book was pretty dull but the overall ending was actually alright, all things considered. Enjoyable-ish read, but probably wouldn't recommend them. 10. Hunger by Michael Grant: See above. 11. Lies by Michael Grant: See above. 12. Plague by Michael Grant: See above. 13. Fear by Michael Grant: See above. 14. Light by Michael Grant: See above. 15. Watership Down by Richard Adams: Really enjoyed it! Engaging, fun and sad, even cried a bit at the end. Would re-read. 16. Atlantis by Robert Doherty: This started off really good and then got progressively more dull the further I got. You really get the sense the author changed his mind halfway through and figured he'd turn it into a series instead of a single book. It was pretty good overall, but I haven't read any more of the series (yet). 17. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare: I'm not at all proud to admit I read these, and I don't really think they're very good: they're fairly predictable and the story works out more or less exactly like you expect. Nevertheless I read all six of them embarrassingly quickly so uh, I like terrible YA books apparently. They're easy to read and fairly engaging despite everything else that's wrong with them. 18. City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare: See above. 19. City of Glass by Cassandra Clare: See above. 20. City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare: See above. 21. City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare: See above. 22. City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare: See above. 23. Divergent by Veronica Roth: This was a load of crap and I've no idea why they would make a film of it. 24. World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks: This started off strong and then got boring. By the end I was happy just to finish. 25. The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov: This wasn't bad, but I didn't think think it was great. I really liked the plot idea (moody detective has to cooperate with a humanoid robot to solve crime) but the way it was executed wasn't as captivating as I'd hoped. 26. Wool by Hugh Howey: This was on sale so I got it. I actually really liked this series up until the last book, which I didn't think were as strong as some of the others (#3 and #4 in particular). Still a rather enjoyable read. 27. Proper Gauge by Hugh Howey: See above. 28. Casting Off by Hugh Howey: See above. 29. The Unraveling by Hugh Howey: See above. 30. The Stranded by Hugh Howey: See above. 31. Bossypants by Tina Fey: Read this because why not. Can I count it as a book? The first half was really good and then it was all about babies and Jesus and I kind of lost interest. Some good bits still, though. 32. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card: Didn't see the film. Some parts were a bit slow and the ending was slightly unfulfilling, but overall an alright read. 33. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green: Again, didn't see the film. Despite not really wanting to like this I kinda did. The plot is predictable as poo poo and characters are ridiculous, but I still kind of cared about them. I don't think the book is great by any means, but I enjoyed reading it. This adds up to 33 books, so my 2014 final goal is going to be an even 40. 
oliven fucked around with this message at 17:39 on Oct 12, 2014 |
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Oct 12, 2014 17:35
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Guards! Guards! By Terry Pratchett: A fun romp with Sam Vimes and Lady Sibil as dragons go apeshit in Ankh Morpork. Dies the Fire by S. M. Stirling: An awful book. Stirling is a terrible writer, but he can spin up a great plot for mindless pulp and his pacing is pretty solid. I enjoyed it greatly and apologize for nothing  If a stupid macho pulp rag full of painful stereotypes, sex, and sword fights sounds fun, go for it. The Road by Cormac McCarthy: Very good, horribly depressing, and the ending irked me. Compelling enough that I tossed a second mag. on my belt while reading without really thinking about it. Dunno what this brings me up to until I check my post history, but life has been stupid busy. E: 12, I did read The Long, Dark Teatime of the Soul which was very fun, but weaker than the first Dirk Gently. And I think I may have read a couple more but hosed if I remember them right now. Butch Cassidy fucked around with this message at 06:25 on Oct 13, 2014 |
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Oct 13, 2014 06:18
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thespaceinvader posted:64: The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. A reread, but I've decided to finally get round to reading Republic of Thieves, which i'll do after I've finishe Red Seas Under Red Skies. TLoLL is, as I remembered it, very good, but I hadn't recalled Lynch being quite a brutal as this. Very good, very interesting characters, very visceral, and intriguing world building with a lot of room for questions to be asked and answered and interesting things to use. 65: Red Seas Under Red Skies. Not much to say about this as it's a reread, but again it was as good as I remembered it being, which is pretty darn good, and there's more intriguing and disturbing worldbuilding than I remembered, which is also good (the Parlour Passage, for instance, hit just the right level of WTF creepy for me). 66: The Republic of Thieves. Not actually started it yet.
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Oct 14, 2014 20:22
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13. The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett: An unflappable protagonist righting wrongs with judicious application of string, a cast iron frying pan, and a horde of belligerent brawling sidekicks. And a toad. One of the more fun Discworld books. I read the Green Heid scene to my kids and they now want to read the whole book 14. Starfish by Peter Watts: I picked it up a while back on recommendation from somewhere in the book barn. Was not let down and it was a very solid book that kept me reading and reluctant to stop. Butch Cassidy fucked around with this message at 07:09 on Oct 18, 2014 |
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Oct 15, 2014 06:11
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thespaceinvader posted:66: The Republic of Thieves. Not actually started it yet. 66: The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch. I'm slightly ashamed that it's taken me so drat long to read this, but I wanted to give it time for a reread of the first two before I started it. And it was worth it, because I'm not sure I would have got a proper understanding of what was going on without it. What was going on was pretty great. I really liked the parallel stories, I loved getting some more information about the Bondsmagi and how the magic works (and possibly its impacts on the world in the dim and distant past). But... something was a little lacking. There wasn't the usual racing shocking climax, other than a little bit of weekend at Bernie's stuff that I enjoyed. The book built up a lot but let down a little too slowly. It definitely had its moments though, especially the really, really obvious misdirection, although it wasn't clear what it was FOR. The Bondsmage chapter where one told the other 'just focus really hard on Locke Lamora' or whatever... clearly something was afoot. It was really enjoyable, but there's part of me that wonders if this was intended to be a trilogy and we're winding up with 2 extra books of filler due to the 5-book contract. Fun nonetheless. 67: Not sure yet arg I hate picking books.
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Oct 18, 2014 18:46
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Roydrowsy posted:76 - Mira Grant - Deadline. The sequel was better than I was expecting. I might have to read the third at some point. I've been busy with work so my pace has slowed down, but I've been doing my best 101 Lost Souls -Poppy Z Brite: Horrible, horrible emo garbage. It's essentially a book about pathetic, creepy, inappropriate gay sex. 102 - Best American Essays 2007 - There are some interesting things in this collection, but instead of focusing on just really good pieces of writing, David Foster Wallace (as editor) really focused on topical articles for 2007, which don't all age well. 103 - Sandman Slim - Richard Kadrey: There are some good and interesting ideas in here, but its ruined by trying to hard to do too much. 104 - Lost Homicidal Maniac Answers to Shirley: Jeff Strand. I really just read it to finish the series. It's not that good. 105 - Valediction - Robert B Parker: A really fun, entertaining Spencer novel, which was a nice change of pace from some of the stinkers I had just went through before. 106 - Turn of The Screw - Henry James: a ghost story with some interesting features, but the newer stuff is more fun. 107 - The City of Falling Angels: John Berendt: Absolutely fascinating look into the inner workings of Venice, Italy. The book itself is a work of art, and I wish that Berendt wrote more. 108 - If This Isn't Nice, What is" Kurt Vonnegut: a reprint of a bunch of old speeches. They're pretty nice. That's about it. 109 - Gone South - Robert McCammon: One of my new favorite writers, though I've been reading his old stuff. They're horror stories, but they are always well put together and they have heart, and not in a way that is hokey or preachy. You can seeMcCammon trying to do something new and different, which led to him leaving writing for awhile. 110: The Hidden: Sarah Pinborough: ghastly attempt at a horror novel that is more jumbled and confused than people have time for. 111: Off Season - Jack Ketchum: viceral and raw. This book is really short, a whole hell of a lot of fun, and leaves you feeling uncomfortable. Ketchum holds nothing back and its great. 112: Conspiracies F. Paul Wilson: Repairman Jack 3. Probably the weakest of the books I've read, but still a lot of fun. This book really sets up Jacks role in the bigger picture of Wilson's "cosmology" 113: All The Rage by F. Paul Wilson: Repairman Jack 4. This one is a lot more action packed, and a lot more intense. Jack takes on a nasty new drug and a villain from the past. I like how Wilson tells original stories, but still holds true to the larger framework that these stories take place between. 114: Hosts by F. Paul Wilson Repairman Jack 5. Another wonderful installment. Nothing terribly "new" just the same consistently good stuff from before. 115: Kill the Dead: Richard Kadrey - Sandman Slim 2 is even more of a confused mess than the first book. Really disappointing. 116 The Blinding Knife - Brent Weeks - i loved everything about this book, an amazing follow up to the first one. 117 The Ritual by Adam Nevill: common consensus is that the first half of the book is amazing and creepy and awesome, and the second half is less so. They're right, though i can imagine if you lived in Northern Europe the second half would have more of an impact. 118 The Exorcist - William peter Blatty: It's really, really close to the film. It's really quite intense, and interesting and fun. A lot of people were surprised this was a book. 119 Bad Luck and Trouble: Jack Reacher kicks rear end. He always kicks everybody's rear end, and it is always a joy and treat. 120 The Haunted Air: F. Paul Wilson - repairman jack 6. Another solid chapter, i really do recommend people check it out. 121 The Broken Eye: Brent Weeks - a slow burning sequel to the Lightbringer series, the ending is really intense. Probably the weakest of the bunch, but it sets everything up for an amazing conclusion.
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Oct 18, 2014 19:26
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15. Fool Moon by Jim Butcher: Enjoyable pulp. Looking forward to the rest of the series.
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Oct 19, 2014 18:45
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