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That one is easily the worst in the series, so if you love it, the rest are gonna be amazing.
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Oct 20, 2014 02:07
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thespaceinvader posted: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). My biggest complaint about RSURS is that it felt like it wanted to be two books and ended up as two half-books awkwardly spliced together. I would have loved to have read Locke And Jean On The High Seas and Locke And Jean Rob A Casino as separate books, but as it is it felt like neither plot really got the time it deserved.
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Oct 20, 2014 04:22
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ToxicFrog posted:My biggest complaint about RSURS is that it felt like it wanted to be two books and ended up as two half-books awkwardly spliced together. I would have loved to have read Locke And Jean On The High Seas and Locke And Jean Rob A Casino as separate books, but as it is it felt like neither plot really got the time it deserved. Yeah this was basically my feeling as well. The pirates story gelled a little better, but the casino one felt kind of tacked on as introduction/conclusion. Uhhh, I don't remember the last time I updated but I've read 35 out of 42 books so far this year! Let's see if I can beat my goal, since I actually reduced it from last year after getting too busy  Last few I read were: Storm Front by Jim Butcher - a reread in which I liked the book more than I did the first time! Looking forward to seeing where the series goes. Dresden is a bit of a loner nerd wish-fulfillment character, but a pretty interesting one as far as that goes. Half A King by Joe Abercrombie - I was pleasantly surprised that this was basically up to Abercrombie's usual standards! No significant reduction in quality of writing like I noticed in Sanderson's Steelheart. Yarvi was a cool character, and the secondary characters were all a lot less one-dimensional than you see in a lot of YA books. Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls by David Sedaris - I love Sedaris, and this was a particularly good one of his books, so I had a blast. His parody stories are fun but the autobiographical ones are definitely the best. The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon - LOVED this. The twisty conspiracy stuff was simultaneously creepy and funny; this was my first Pynchon, but I already dig his sense of humor. I picked up Inherent Vice, so that's up next within my next couple t books! Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn - this was fun enough I guess. Mostly what I came away with was that Thrawn is a fantastic villain who belonged in a much better series. The original SW characters were not interesting, and Zahn cribbed situations and lines from the movie trilogy like crazy. Also, Zahn was a terrible wordsmith (I understand this was an early book for him so maybe he gets better), so I was also distracted because I kept rewriting the prose in my head as I read.
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Oct 20, 2014 08:46
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Dresden just gets better and better every book.
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Oct 20, 2014 11:05
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16. Stardust by Neil Gaiman: Was a fun book my wife gave me to read after she finished it.
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Oct 22, 2014 06:44
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7) Anathem - Neal Stephenson Excellent book, like everything else by Stephenson far too long, but full of interesting ideas. 8) Siddartha - Herman Hesse Om... 9) The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald The idle rich, kill all these fuckers. 10) Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson Seriously flawed, the stuff from the author at the end where he says this started out as a comic book make a lot of sense. I doubt I'd have finished this if not for the reading challenge 11) The House of War and Witness - Mike Carey Surprisingly good for a book about ghosts. 12) The Girl with all the Gifts - M.R. Carey Amazingly good for a book about Zombies, seriously really great book if you like sci-fi at all. 13) Mostly Harmless - Kate Russell Pulp sci-fi set in a computer games universe, its exactly as bad as you'd think. Kind-of fun, quick read. I was drunk when I bought it. Dirty Frank fucked around with this message at 08:10 on Oct 22, 2014 |
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Oct 22, 2014 07:51
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:154: The Living End - Craig Schaefer 173: The Skin Game - William Miekle 174: Even - Andrew Grant 174.5: Naga Please - Robert Bevan 175: Jhereg - Steven Brust 176: Wolf Hunt - Jeff Strand 177: Wolf Hunt 2 - Jeff Strand (EARC) 178: Half a Prayer - Rick Gualtieri (EARC) 179: Goddamn Freaky Monsters - Rick Gualtieri 180: The Brothers Cabal - Jonathan Howard 181: The Sirens - William Meikle 182: Impact - Adam Baker 183: The Unwelcome Warlock - Lawrence Watt-Evans 184: Holes in the ground - J.A. Konrath 185: Gil's All Fright Diner - A. Lee Martinez 186: The VonDish Ambassador - Lawrence Watt-Evans 187: With a Single Spell - Lawrence Watt-Evans The Sirens and Skin Game are the last 2 books of the Midnight Eye files, a detective series that William Meikle wrote a while back. Great books though. It's more... realistic than the general UF books we get, where the detective is some supernatural creature and knows all the ins and outs of the worlds. This series is more like "Normal dude gets hip deep in weird poo poo, then poo poo gets weirder and weirder", and no "WHOOPS TURNS OUT I'M A HALF FAIRIE VAMPIRE DEMON CHILD" kinda plot device. Dude's normal, stays that way. Great series though. Even was... odd. Written by Lee Child's younger brother, it stars a british guy as a spy. It's completely an airport thriller kinda book, but to be honest the plot in the first book goes loving EVERYWHERE. It's not really a bad thing though, just odd. Still, it was interesting enough for me to pick up the second and third books. Naga Please is a short story in the Creatures and Caverns series, and is great. I love the series. Jhereg is book 1 of the Taltos series. It's... unique. I thought the series was going to be about a vampire cause the dude's name is Vlad, but it turns out he's just a normal fantasy character assassin guy. Interesting read though. Wolf Hunt is a 5 star book by Jeff Strand you need to own. Wolf Hunt 2 is his newest book, coming out in December, and it's around a 4.8 star read. If you liked the first book you are gonna like the second. Batshit insanity meets terrific dialogue. Half a Prayer is the upcoming book in the Tome of Bill series and I got lucky enough to be a beta reader. It's going to be a great story, and it's entering it's final editing process now. Should be out for the holidays. If you like the Bill series, you are gonna dig this book. Goddamn Freaky Monsters is the latest book out in the Bill series and I had to reread it to remember wtf was going on before hopping onto the beta read. The Brothers Cabal was good. I didn't like it as much as the last book he did, but it was still very well written and extremely action/adventure-y, wll worth grabbing if you enjoyed the others in the series. Impact kinda sucked. It wasn't as bad as Terminus but it fell incredibly short of the first novel in the series. I'm... not entirely sure why I keep reading this series. He keeps throwing in kinda cool poo poo that seems like it'll be awesome and then forgets about it and moves back to standard zombie-ish books. This one is called Impact because they were trying to nuke something and the plane crashed in the desert, and the world's officially a shithole with massive radiation everywhere from nukes. No clue what's going to happen on the next book but I'll probably grab it as well. Gil's is a great book, 5 star. Haunted diner, and frankly telling you more than that would kill some of the fun with the book. Holes in the ground is a 2 part book (both in the same book, just... odd) where 2 diff authors wrote 2 similar stories to be a sequel to Origin (which was a kinda decent horror novel). Neat, and worth a read, just weird. The Lawrence Watt-Evans books were amazing. All in all, great month for reading. No massive crapsackular books. Even the worst (probably being Impact) was still something that was fast paced and kinda interesting.
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Oct 22, 2014 13:16
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thespaceinvader posted:67: Not sure yet arg I hate picking books. 67: Working for Bigfoot by Jim Butcher. A collection of stories revealing some background behind events in the latest Dresden novel. Interesting, fun and well-written, but annoyed me in that the epub version I have, at least, was presented out of in-universe chronological order, which made it really kind of confusing to read. Otherwise decent. 68: Working Stiff by Kevin J Anderson. I got the impression from reading it that this book was supposed to be funny. It failed in one major and unforgivable regard in that I didn't even smirk once whilst reading. And a lot of minor regards, but I guess quite a lot of them come down to it being a collection of shorts rather than one long story which limits world building and does tend to wind up with the author repeating character intros a lot. But it didn't grab me anywhere near well enough to persuade me that this is a character whose longer exploits I want to invest any time in, sadly.
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Oct 22, 2014 23:34
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I found that the Nekropolis series by Tim Waggoner handled the whole Zombie Detective thing WAY better.
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Oct 23, 2014 01:05
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37. Howard Barker - Plays One 38. Larry Fink - On Composition and Improvisation 39. Hans Ulrich Obrist - Ways of Curating 40. Stanislaw Lem - The Cyberiad 41. Paul Hazard - The Crisis of the European Mind 42. John Berger - Understanding a Photograph 43. Ezra Vogel - Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China 44. Sven Birkerts - An Artificial Wilderness 45. Gonçalo Tavares - Jerusalem 46. Viktor Shklovsky - Zoo, or Letters not about love 47. Gaito Gazdanov - The Spectre of Alexander Wolf 48. Kim Won-Il - The House with a Sunken Courtyard 49. Peter Watson - The German Genius 50. J L Carr - A Month in the Country 51. Peter Schjeldahl - Let's See: Writings on Art 52. Karel Capek - The Gardener's Year 53. Siegfried Kracauer - From Caligari to Hitler A good bunch of books - there's nothing that stands out as being particularly weak. Maybe the Fink, which is a pretty slight book of him chatting about his own photography, or Vogel's biography of Deng; at its best as a startlingly dry account of the political wrangling behind the "bamboo curtain", less so when his instinct to flatter takes over. Maybe the most interesting one is Paul Hazard's intellectual history of the origins of the Enlightenment. It's not just that Hazard knows what he's talking about, it's his bizarre Zelig-like writing style - you won't get too far into the book before you'll be totally disoriented by his seamless mix of quotation and unacknowledged paraphrase. As it all piles up, it becomes incredibly difficult to distinguish between author and subject. Really bizarre and either hilarious or irritating depending on what kind of mood you're in. Peak academic eccentricity.
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Oct 23, 2014 13:31
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thespaceinvader posted:68: Working Stiff by Kevin J Anderson. I got the impression from reading it that this book was supposed to be funny. It failed in one major and unforgivable regard in that I didn't even smirk once whilst reading. And a lot of minor regards, but I guess quite a lot of them come down to it being a collection of shorts rather than one long story which limits world building and does tend to wind up with the author repeating character intros a lot. But it didn't grab me anywhere near well enough to persuade me that this is a character whose longer exploits I want to invest any time in, sadly. 69: Tricknomancy by Michael Stackpole. A much better treatment of the post-Dresden urban fantasy private dick. Well, in this case, bouncer who does some pseudo police work on the side. A strong, if a little ill-defined magic system, well-written action scenes, but wanting a little for characterisation, which again I think comes down to being only a short story collection rather than a novel. I'd read more of this character, especially in novel length. But I always did enjoy Stackpole's work. I, Jedi was very good.
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Oct 25, 2014 00:36
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17. Grave Peril by Jim Butcher: Puuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuulp. The editing is no better and possibly even weaker than the first two books, the story repetitive, Harry needs a punch in the throat for being a whiny dork, and I really enjoyed it.
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Oct 25, 2014 06:40
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screenwritersblues posted:45) Sous Chef: 24 Hours on the Line by Michael Gibney End of September - October 46) Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury: I was into this a lot. This was my first time reading Bradbury and while I think that I should have went with 451 as the first book that I read, I think that this was somewhat of a better choice. 47) The Tao of the Wu by The RZA: I've been passing this book for the past three months at the Strand and was passing on it constantly. However, I'm glad that I picked it up. It was more of a spirital look at the brains behind the Wu and how it became to be the force that it is today. 48) The Wolf of Wall Street by Jordan Belfort: I really had been searching for this book, mainly because of the fact that I like the film so much. However, like most adaptions, the book was far more interesting than the film and the movie is really two books, not one like they make it out to be. So now I have to look for the second book to finish the movie. 49) Wild by Cheryl Strayed: With the movie coming out in December, I figured that I'd get this one out of the way. It was a pretty solid book. Lots of details about what she went through were pretty shocking and also pretty drat interesting too. 50) Redeployment by Phillip Klay: A former Iraq vet writes a bunch of stories about being in Afaganastan and Iraq? Sounds interesting. However, it turned out to be the most depressing thing that I ever read. 51) I Don't Know Where You Know Me From: Confessions of a Co Star by Judy Greer: OK, I'll admit, that I have a major crush on Judy Greer and was really looking forward to this book when I heard about it. It was all that I hoped for. From how she made it big to her early life, it was the perfect memoir. 52) 10:04 by Ben Lerner: I saw this author speak at the Brooklyn Festival and was intrigued by something that he said. I also was intrigued by his book mainly because of the fact that part of it was set during Hurricane Sandy. It was a little surreal, but great contemporary literature. 53) Bambi vs. Godzilla by David Mamet: Mamet's view on the film industry is pretty deep. It's kind of like your Alice and he's the white rabbit and you're just following him down the rabbit hole. The deeper you go, the more interesting it gets. Currently Reading: Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer: When I heard that there was somewhat of a sequel coming out, I knew that I had to read this one. So far, it's really interesting. Goal: 30/30 Year: 53/30
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Oct 29, 2014 02:20
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I hope you got Wolf used so that you didn't give any more money to Jordan Belfort.
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Oct 29, 2014 10:09
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Fellwenner posted:August! September and October update! You're on track! 45) Justine, by Lawrence Durrell. So far this is the best book I've read all year, hands down, with some of the best prose I've ever read. Love and romance set in Alexandria between WWI and WWII. The narrative makes use of memory and recollection in the telling. Highly recommended. 46) Sleeping Late on Judgment Day, by Tad Williams. Decent end to the series. 47) Go Down, Moses, by William Faulkner. Excellent stories, the characters and events of which are all interrelated which made it really interesting. It skips back and forth in time. Faulkner does wilderness well. 48) Frolic of His Own, by William Gaddis. In this Gaddis takes on the law and legal profession. The recounting of the play, necessary though it is, which lies at the heart of the novel was an absolute chore for me and I fear cast a pall over the book . That said, it's still quite good. The legal opinions were magnificent. 49) A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith. I loved this one. Coming of age at the turn of the 20th century. 50) We, by Yevgeny Zamyatin. Anyone who likes dystopian books owes it to themselves to read this. It was one of the very first of its kind and a direct influence on Orwell in his writing of 1984. It can be kind of a janky read in that it's recounted in the manner of a journal by a cracked mathematician who often seems to perceive in geometric or mathematical constructs, so fair warning I suppose. 51) A Night in the Lonesome October, by Roger Zelazny. Snuff is a good dog. 52) Fay, by Larry Brown. Southern tone done just right. 53) The Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch. Fun with heists. It went from family friendly to dark all of a sudden, though.
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Oct 29, 2014 11:26
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Mr. Squishy posted:1 The Devils by Fyodor Dostoyevsky as translated by David Magarshack. I've stopped keeping a tally of this on Goodreads so let's see what I can remember 83 My Sisters Keeper by Jodi Picoult. It is impossible to overstate how poo poo this book is. The viewpoint is shared by numerous characters which does nothing but highlight how every character speaks in the same trashy way which is both badly- and over-written. An interesting legal thought experiment if you can ignore everything else about it. 84 Conrad and Women by Susan Jones. A good critical book on how Conrad was actually a feminist. 85 Victory by Joseph Conrad. Another one that made a lot more sense to me on second reading. 86 Chance by Joseph Conrad. First reading for this one. Perhaps it suffers from a surfeit of distancing devices, like a chinese boxes obscuring the central core. I'm on my second reading of it now so I'll let you know that it made a lot more sense next month. 87 The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist as translated by Marlaine Delargy. The cover blurbs promises a book for fans of Orwell and Huxley, which of course translates to a dystopian book aimed squarely at being taught in schools. Old artistic people are coralled in a very humane abatoir to be salvaged for parts. A nice springy novella stretched out for no reason, though I guess maybe conveying a sense of deep boredom is germane. Maybe if the writing could sustain itself... 88 The Romance of a Shop by Mary Levy. Women entering the hard world of the workplace. Dont worry, they all manage to marry by the end of it. 89 The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde. I got bored halfway through of this like 15 years ago so I read it backwards to meet myself in the middle (and then continued to the beginning/end). Another good gothic novella padded with insufferable Oscar Wilde dinner-party scenes in the hope that one of the drives in the story will be lost in the noise. 90 Votes for Women by Elizabeth Robbins. A hardcore suffrage activist producing a hardcore bit of agit-prop. Most interesting to me is the third act where the play goes INSANE. The first and final acts are drawing room-type melodrama with a very very obvious suffrage edge, but they're separated by a chasm where the play tries it damndest to recreate a suffrage rally on the streets. Any sort of narrative goes out the window while you're harangued by a fictional Pankhurst about the vote. 91 Diana of Dobsons by Cicely Hamilton. Another play about the new woman. Shop-girl escapes and shatters the preconcieved notions of the landed elite by calling them decorative. 92 Chains by Elizabeth Baker. Yet another play. Talking about women's lib in the guise of talking about men going to Australia to work a farm. 93 Rutherford and Son by Githa Sowerby. Ditto. This one's fun though. 94 Machinal by Sophie Treadwell. The final play this month about bloody women. This one's really good and fun and I liked it. 95 Combined and Uneven Apocalypse by Evan Calder Williams. A political bit of film-criticism proposing the new genre of "salvagepunk". I picked this up after a beautiful article he wrote on Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and he's still very strong on there. Perhaps a bit less interesting is his Marxism but hey, that's his concern. The prose style can be gratingly chummy at times, and the books is appealingly copy-edited. ♀ 16/20 Σ 95/60 I guess you can figure out which Uni I'm going to and which modules I'm doing if you want. Looks like my women quota has got a shot in the arm though. Mr. Squishy fucked around with this message at 22:13 on Oct 30, 2014 |
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Oct 29, 2014 12:04
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Mahlertov Cocktail posted:I hope you got Wolf used so that you didn't give any more money to Jordan Belfort. It wasn't. Oh well. At least he's not using his earnings to buy ludes anymore (although, do they still make ludes anymore?).
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Oct 29, 2014 16:53
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Supporting hard-working lude manufacturers is one of the least bad things Belfort did.
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Oct 29, 2014 17:12
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screenwritersblues posted:It wasn't. Oh well. At least he's not using his earnings to buy ludes anymore (although, do they still make ludes anymore?). I don't give a poo poo about his drug habits, I was more referring to him ripping off thousands of people and being an all-around lovely person. Edit for on-topic content: 36. Red Dragon by Thomas Harris - Fun read. Dolarhyde is an even more interesting killer than Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs. I did miss the themes of sexual harassment and patriarchal dominance that came with Clarice being the main character, but Will is a good protagonist in his own way. I liked seeing little moments in this book that the TV show used in different contexts; also related to the show, I can't imagine Jack Crawford as anything other than Lawrence Fishburne now, so it's weird when it pops up that he's white in the books. 37. Fool Moon by Jim Butcher - goodreads review: "Pulpy fun. Not incredibly good prose, but Harry has a distinct voice and the writing is quite functional and certainly not as painful to read as the writing in Zahn's Thrawn books. I also liked how the different kinds of werewolves were all distinct and also slightly different from the normal werewolf legend in their own way. Looking forward to where the series goes. But: ATTN HARRY DRESDEN: stop trying to protect women by withholding information from them; literally every time you do it only ends up hurting everybody involved and also it is pretty sexist." Starting up Inherent Vice next, woooo! Mahlertov Cocktail fucked around with this message at 11:42 on Oct 30, 2014 |
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Oct 30, 2014 11:32
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ltr posted:1. The Fires of Heaven (Wheel of Time, #5) by Robert Jordan September/October 45. London Falling (Shadow Police, #1) by Paul Cornell 46. A New World: Awakening (A New World, #5) by John O'Brien 47. A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. 48. Neuromancer by William Gibson 49. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel 50. The Great Siege: Malta 1565 by Ernle Bradford Progress: 50/52 Getting back on track after real life slowed my reading in September and she wasn’t worth it. London Falling was more police procedural than I like, but it was good. I’ll also say that it was tough to get through as some of the topics were a little disturbing. A Canticle for Leibowiotz I liked the story of the first third more that the second and third but it was good. Neuromancer I like cyberpunk and somehow I had never read Neuromancer. Pretty much what I expected. Dystopian future, mega-corporations, street sams, computers. Definitely enjoyed reading this one. Station Eleven I was more curious about the world 20 years after the pandemic than the back story bits. I don’t know if this is supposed to be the start of the series or stand alone as it did end with a few questions remaining. The Great Siege: Malta 1565 Pretty great story about one of the greatest sieges in history, between the Knights Hospitallers(defenders) and the Ottoman Empire(agressors). It’s been a long time since I stopped being a history major so I do not know how this book stands up to historical accuracy, but it was a good read that never got bogged down in citing sources(everything is listed at the end of the book).
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Oct 31, 2014 05:11
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Prolonged Shame posted:1) Winters Heart - Robert Jordan 84) Robopocalypse - Daniel H. Wilson: I picked this up because I enjoyed World War Z and everyone said that this was very similar but with robots instead of zombies. It was not nearly as good. Some of the POV's were interesting, but most of them were just he-man soldiers and there was only one female POV and she vanished early in the book. 85) The Good Earth - Pearl S. Buck: I really liked this one. It takes real talent to write a character who you shift from liking to disliking to liking etc in the course of one book, but Buck does so with ease. 86) Akira Volume II - Katsuhiro Otomo: Generally manga/graphic novels aren't my thing but I read the first in this series last year as part of a reading challenge and enjoyed it, so I thought I'd finish the series. This one was ok too. 87) Theodore Rex - Edmund Morris: The second volume in my Teddy Roosevelt biography. This one details the years of his presidency. It's not as good as the first volume, but is still excellent. I'm working on the third and final volume right now. 88) Wool Omnibus (Silo #1) - Hugh Howey: This came highly recommended by goons and I loved it. It's a nice little dystopian future novel. 89) All Souls: A Family Story from Southie - Michael Patrick MacDonald:The true story of a single mother and her 11 kids growing up in South Boston in the 70's and 80's as told by one of the sons. Not bad, but he never really finds his narrative outside of 'drugs and gangsters tore the neighborhood apart'. 90) Shift (Silo #2) - Hugh Howey: The second book of the silo trilogy. I liked it almost as much as the first one. 91) The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game - Michael Lewis: Ordinarily I give no shits about football, but this book managed to make it interesting (not to mention accessible) even to me. I read it because I liked the movie, but I enjoyed the book even more, even the chapters on football theory. Very interesting. 92) The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler: While I can appreciate the influence on the noir genre, the dated attitudes toward women and gays in this book were really off-putting. I found myself dreading the possible introduction of a non white character. I enjoyed the mystery, but terms like 'fag party' pulled me right out of the book. Overall:92/100 Sub-goals: Presidential biographies: 10/12 Books over 600 pages: 15/15 - done! Non-fiction books (not counting prez bios): 20/20 - done!
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Nov 1, 2014 01:59
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oliven posted: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. October! 34. 1984 by George Orwell: I don't know how I'm supposed to feel about this one. It's depressing as hell, and it's extremely good. I rated it 4/5 and I kind of feel bad about it? Like it deserves a full on 5/5 and 4/5 is insulting, but I don't ever want to re-read it because holy poo poo. The ending, wow. 35. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman: This is the second book by Gaiman I've read. There's something about his style of writing I have a hard time getting into, but I can't put my finger on why that is. I just don't care about any of the characters, their motivations nor the universe they're in. Overall a bit disappointing. 36. Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson: This one started off unbelievably good, then lost a bit of steam as it progressed. Nevertheless, an enjoyable read. I'm excited about the rest of the series! Goal: 36/40
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Nov 1, 2014 19:43
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October. 63. The Eye of the World. Robert Jordan. Book was good but too drat long. 64. Mockingjay. Suzanne Collins. Mediocre. It was like a series of random scenes joined by a loose plot. 65. Jingo. Terry Pratchett. I laughed out loud more times than I expected at first. Awesome. 66. The Hellbound Heart. Clive Barker. Good and short. 67. Nothing. Janne Teller. Not bad, but I didn't understand many things. It was like light philosophy. 68. Life of Pi. Yann Martel. Good book but kind of tedious. 69. Redemption Ark. Alastair Reynolds. Amazing book. It's a little on the long side and some of the characters were really dull but the story is great. And you really need to read the first couple of books in the series. 70. The Graveyard Book. Neil Gaiman. Good little book. 70/75, almost there.
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Nov 1, 2014 20:31
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Female authors: 18/24 Non-fiction: 9/12 Goodreads. Only read two books this month and neither of them much good. Jet was the better of the two, but that's not saying much. The actiony bits are dumb but fun, although sort of written like a video game, with the items the protagonist needs just kind of showing up when she needs them and the bad guys gradually escalating rather than just killing her the most efficient way. The backstory and characterisation are terrible though. I didn't hate it, but I did hate bits of it. Justified, on the other hand, is one of the worst written books I've ever read. If there hadn't been an editor credited I would have assumed it hadn't had one. Madison Knight is a wholly unlikeable protagonist, the story is boring, and the writing is terrible. I read it all the way to the end largely because I couldn't believe how bad it continued to be. In case anyone's interested in the details, I wrote a full review on my blog. Tiggum fucked around with this message at 03:08 on Nov 14, 2014 |
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Nov 2, 2014 07:15
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thespaceinvader posted:69: Tricknomancy by Michael Stackpole. 70: Nightingale by David Farland. Weird book. Reasonably well written but couldn't quite decide whether it was a YA urban fantasy romance or a haardcore urban fantasy thriller. not good enough to bother with the rest of the series I don't think. 71: Feed by Mira Grant. Really enjoying this so far.
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Nov 2, 2014 16:21
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October! 123. The Silence of the Lambs - Thomas Harris 124. The Marrow of Tradition - Charles W. Chesnutt 125. Shadowmarch (Shadowmarch #1) - Tad Williams 126. My Struggle (volume 1) - Karl Ove Knausgaard 127. The Razor’s Edge - W. Somerset Maugham 128. Shadowplay (Shadowmarch #2) - Tad Williams 129. A Walk in the Woods - Bill Bryson 130. Shadowrise (Shadowmarch #3) - Tad Williams 131. The Good Earth - Pearl S. Buck Rereading a fantasy series (Shadowmarch) is some nice chill reading among some heavier stuff like Marrow of Tradition (black/white relations in the Carolinas at the turn of the 20th century) and The Razor's Edge (young man tries to find a good life independent of the riches of his friends). My Struggle volume 1 was an interesting read at times, flat dull at others. The best book I read this month was probably The Good Earth, which felt like an extended fable on how the poor change when they become rich. It was really good, though I have no desire to read the other two books focusing on Wang Lung's sons.
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Nov 2, 2014 17:20
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Haven't updated here in awhile. Since I have a ton I am only going to comment on a few: August - October Non-fiction: 15/20 Lifetime Reading List: 5/10 New Female Authors: 9/12 Non-Europe/USA countries: 4/5 Gravity's Rainbow: 0/1 48. The Magician's Land by Lev Grossman 49. The Crusades: The Authoritative History of the War for the Holy Land by Thomas Asbridge - Very interesting. I had no background in the Crusades, this seemed like a pretty good analysis of each side. Unfortunately a lot of the history centers around the fluctuating popularity in Europe, the political motivations of varying factions, and the fact that a lot of these failed after a strong initial surge when a loan outpost was left surrounded by enemies while everyone back in Europe got bored and gave up. So those parts dragged a little, but it was still interesting information. 50. A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul 51. The Best American Essays 2011 52. Bleeding Edge by Thomas Pynchon - This is the first Pynchon where I felt like I actually got a lot of the references. I also had just visited NY so I feel like I got more out of it for that reason, probably not as much as if I lived in or visited NY more frequently. Did not see 9/11 out of nowhere coming. 53. One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson - Really solid, and I couldn't shut up about it to my friends. Really enjoyed the wide range of stories he was able to tell with the conceit of setting it in this one summer. 54. The Love Letters of Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn by Henry VIII 55. The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood 56. The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner 57. MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood - September ended up becoming a bit of a dystopian/post-apocalyptic month. The two Atwood books were sequels to Oryx and Crake and were solid, although I can't help but feel she felt backed into a corner after the first book and decided the apocalypse wasn't that bad, since like 2 dozen people who all knew each other in the same city happened to survive. The Sheep Look up was great, a lot more directly political than a lot of other dystopian stuff I've read, and also way more applicable to modern times (although some of the references were pretty outdated and laughable, like microwaves being dangerous). 58. Longitude by Dava Sobel - I have become a fan of Sobel after reading The Planets and now this. She writes on interesting topics in a much more narrative way. 59. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman 60. A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry - Talked about this a little in another thread. Super depressing but also a really solid read about the caste system in India during the Emergency. 61. Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami 62. Friend of my Youth by Alice Munro
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Nov 2, 2014 21:18
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Guy A. Person posted:Gravity's Rainbow: 0/1 Get to work!
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Nov 3, 2014 06:30
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October - 5: Mao: The Unknown Story (Jung Chang & John Halliday) Arrow of God (Chinua Achebe) No Longer at Ease (Chinua Achebe) This Changes Everything (Naomi Klein) A History of the English Language (Albert C. Baugh & Thomas Cable) November - 2: The Dark Room (Rachel Seiffert) Language, Society and Power (Linda Thomas & Shan Wareing) I didn't get a chance to post in the last couple of days and then finished two books in that time as well, so gently caress it have some November too. Mao: The Unknown Story was interesting but a real slog of a book. I feel like I hated Jung Chang's style, which might just be a consequence of someone working in an academic context in their second language, even though the content was good. Given the nature of China it's hard to tell how much of the book is accurate or not and how much of it is Jung Chang's own biases put onto the events. A difficult book to get a grip on but one I'm glad that I persisted with. Arrow of God and No Longer at Ease I read together as palette cleansers after the grind that was Mao. Clean, spare prose and complex, flawed characters. I really love Achebe's style. I read Things Fall Apart right at the start of the year and it's a great example of how you can build a well-written, complete and satisfying trilogy without needing to run to thousands of pages. This Changes Everything is the newest Naomi Klein book and in predictable fashion was depressing as all gently caress for large parts and then ended sort-of hopefully. It's good both as an exploration of modern green issues and a good introduction to the idea that progressive causes are largely interlinked and that work on environmentalism can be a partner and asset to other class and race struggles instead of an impediment to them. One of those books that you get through and realise it's changed your way of thinking for the better. A History of the English Language I bought for uni and then never actually read. Somehow this was still my highest scoring module by a long way. Hm. Pretty much the standard text on its subject, the book is a detailed examination of the development of English from its earliest days through to modern usage. It's heavy going at the start, with a long opening chapter on Old English declensions which is basically like reading an introduction to a foreign language (which OE essentially is) but after the Conquest becomes much more interesting. The Dark Room I finished in like, two days. It's split into three stories covering three German lives and the impact of World War 2 on them. It has a weird style (the opening story has no dialogue at all) but I tore through it. A beautiful book. The quote on the back cover pretty much sums it up; "There is no punishment for what I did. Not enough sadness and no punishment." Language, Society and Power is another text book that was sat on the shelf for years before I picked it up yesterday. It's an introductory text to the idea of issues around language and the way it's used, analysing the way language is used to form ideologies which benefit the powerful. It's all stuff I already knew from my degree (despite not, uh, having read this one either) but it was short and a nice refresher on the content. I have the second Iain M. Banks book next, Player of Games, then after that a bit of a mixed bag of stuff. I also have a week off work, so hopefully I can catch up to goal a bit because I'm a little behind at the moment. On the plus side I cracked 20 non-fiction just now and I'm 1 away from my other meta-goals. I should finish both in the next six books, so fingers crossed I might just make it by month end to give myself an easy run through December. 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) 43. Mao: The Unknown Story (Jung Chang & John Halliday) 44. Arrow of God (Chinua Achebe) 45. No Longer at Ease (Chinua Achebe) 46. This Changes Everything (Naomi Klein) 47. A History of the English Language (Albert C. Baugh & Thomas Cable) 48. The Dark Room (Rachel Seiffert) 49. Language, Society and Power (Linda Thomas & Shan Wareing) Total: 49/60 7+3/8 women, 7+4/8 non-white people, 20/20 non-fiction
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Nov 3, 2014 12:58
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code:My subgoal of reading at least 10 non-nerd books has been fulfilled; I'm one short on four books from authors who are not from the Anglo-Eurosphere (Borges, Marquez and Farah), two short on Finnish authors writing in Finnish (meaning Rajaniemi or translations do not count). If I miss any of these I'll add the missing books to the challenge total; it might happen because I inadvertently wound up with a big pile of good old SF I really want to get to ASAP. Sulphagnist fucked around with this message at 17:58 on Nov 3, 2014 |
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Nov 3, 2014 17:56
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Guy A. Person posted:52. Bleeding Edge by Thomas Pynchon - This is the first Pynchon where I felt like I actually got a lot of the references. I also had just visited NY so I feel like I got more out of it for that reason, probably not as much as if I lived in or visited NY more frequently. Did not see 9/11 out of nowhere coming. You really should have seen it coming. Its placed at the right time period and hints at activities nonstop from I think the midpoint onwards.
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Nov 4, 2014 19:43
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Corrode posted:
Do you happen to know where he got most of his sources from by chance?
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Nov 4, 2014 19:47
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Stravinsky posted:You really should have seen it coming. Its placed at the right time period and hints at activities nonstop from I think the midpoint onwards. Let me rephrase: I sort've saw it coming, but wasn't sure if the novel was going to end before it reached that point. It happens fairly late in the book and I was resisting the urge to skip ahead to see if they addressed it, so I began to suspect it would leave that out and keep the book as kind of a time capsule of pre-9/11 NY.
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Nov 4, 2014 20:04
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Spadoink posted:40. The White Bone - Barbara Gowdy 47. The Orenda - Joseph Boyden 48. Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage - Haruki Murakami 49. The Magician's Land - Lev Grossman 50. The Crying of Lot 49 - Thomas Pynchon 51. Funny Boy - Shyam Selvadurai 52. Born Standing Up - Steve Martin 53. Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris 54. The Rez Sisters - Tomson Highway Another mixed-bag month. The Orenda continued to be as spell-binding as Through Black Spruce, and heartbreaking, and educational (I had to look up Huron-Iroquois conflict and got to learn about the Beaver Wars). The Orenda is set in the 16th C, and is told from varying points of view, from Bird, a Huron leader, Christophe, a Jesuit "crow" (as the Huron's name them), and Snow Falls, a Iroquois girl who is taken from her murdered parents and "adopted" by Bird. It was the winning book on CBC's Canada Reads this year, and for good reason. Set in the pivotal moment when the French, Dutch and English are still making deals with various native peoples in the north-east US and Upper Canada areas, you have a compelling historical tale where the Hurons and Iroquois are trying to win trade routes, negotiate these new "crows" with their weird spirits, and deal with new illnesses, war, and crop failure, while winning over the Europeans for access to their shining wood (guns). Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki was okay, but Murakami's new stuff keeps falling short of his earlier works. I can't remember anything about The Magician's Land really, it was candy fluff, but I seem to recall being entertained. The Crying of Lot 49 was an interesting conspiracy read, and it holds up as a time capsule of the era in which it was written (mid-60s). Funny Boy is a "novel in 6 stories" about a young Sri Lankan Tamil as a child in the late 70s and early 80s. I live in a very Tamil-heavy neighbourhood in Toronto, and while I know vaguely of the civil war in Sri Lanka and the violence against the Tamil minority (and of the Tamil Tigers), I had not engaged in the history in any way. The book was a fantastic piece of writing, with the struggles of a boy coming to recognize he is different (gay, or a "funny boy" as per the title), but has the backdrop of the escalating tensions between Sinhalese and Tamils, and word of riots and violence against Tamils happening around the country. Again, it prompted me to take to the internet and learn more about the civil war and the historical tensions between these two ethnic groups. A very quick and compelling read, add it to your list if you're looking for more non-American, non-white authors :P Born Standing Up read like Steve Martin telling a story, which is what it was, but I could visualize him narrating the whole thing. An interesting read, mainly for Steve Martin fans - it doesn't really offer a wider perspective on life or stand up, or fame, just a humourous narrative of Steve's early life and stand-up career. Me Talk Pretty One Day is the first Dave Sedaris I've read, and it was absolutely hilarious. I drove my husband crazy reading in bed and laughing out loud, while he was trying to sleep, and almost missed my subway stop one morning, as I was too engrossed in the story I was reading. I was hooked from the first story, of Agent Samson and his forced speech therapy. Lastly, The Rez Sisters is a play by Tomson Highway, who is a Cree author best known for his plays (I'm currently reading the follow up to The Rez Sisters, Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing). I'm not much for reading plays, normally, but Tomson Highway wrote one of the books closest to my heart, Kiss of the Fur Queen. He was mentioned at some point in Joseph Boyden's novels, either in a thank you, introduction, or book flap, I don't recall, but it did prompt me to revisit my hesitation over reading his plays. I don't really know what to write about the play other than to say it felt like an "important" read, to me, if that makes any sense. Highway was inspired by Michel Tremblay, and has become to Native Canadian storytelling as Tremblay is/has been to Montreal and Quebec.
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Nov 5, 2014 16:40
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thespaceinvader posted:71: Feed by Mira Grant. Really enjoying this so far. 72: Deadline, similarly by Mira Grant. Most of the way through this already and still loving it. e: 72/73: Deadline & Blackout by Mira Grant. Bothered me a little because Deadline finished on a MASSIVE CLIFFHANGER which I always hate, but otherwise, I really, really enjoyed these, ad much as the first one. This is an author I will watch with distinct interest. Speaks to my scientific brain a lot, whilst still writing well enough to entertain and thrill. Good stuff. e again: 74/75: COuntdown and Parasite by mira Grant. Countdown was fine, a novella about the Rising in Newsflesh. Parasite: Whilst newsflesh was great, I spent a reasonable amount of time thinking that viruses weren't the right way to do 'scientific simulation of the possible Zombie apocalypse' - something in a eukaryotic seems a little more likely. This.. is that book, basically. It's not a zombie apocalypse, though. The only real problem I found with it was that the protag was so resolutely ignorant to her situation - the big reveal at the end was the biggest anticlimax I've ever seen, given that I worked it out within about the first third of the book... thespaceinvader fucked around with this message at 22:43 on Nov 12, 2014 |
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Nov 6, 2014 00:16
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70. Conqueror's Pride by Timothy Zahn 71. Conqueror's Heritage by Timothy Zahn 72. Conqueror's Legacy by Timothy Zahn More Zahn rereads. I had forgotten how the viewpoint flips around; the first book is written from the perspective of the humans, the second from that of the "conquerors", and the third from both. It works pretty well. 73. Dragon and Thief by Timothy Zahn 74. Dragon and Soldier by Timothy Zahn 75. Dragon and Slave by Timothy Zahn 76. Dragon and Herdsman by Timothy Zahn 77. Dragon and Judge by Timothy Zahn 78. Dragon and Liberator by Timothy Zahn Not rereads. When I first saw these I went "huh, I didn't know Zahn did any fantasy". Turns out he doesn't; the "dragon" is an alien symbiote that bonds to the protagonist after being shot down by space pirates. YA, so they're uncomplicated and go by really quickly, but are pretty much typical Zahn: not groundbreaking, but fun. 79. Most Secret War by Victor Jones US readers may know this as The Wizard War. Nonfiction about signals intelligence and the development of radar and ECM during WW2, written by the physicist who was ADI (Science) during the war and directed much of the British EW and SIGINT work. A fascinating read; I picked this up mostly for the chapters on the Battle of the Beams, but it is well worth reading the whole thing. This one goes next to Ignition on my shelf, I think. 80. Shoggoths in Bloom by Elizabeth Bear Short story collection. Very eclectic; we've got Norse myth, postcyberpunk murder mysteries, Lovecraft, urban fantasy, and more, often all in the same story. Possibly as a result it was extremely hit and miss for me, but the hits were good enough that I'll be checking out her novels as well. 81. The Dragon Never Sleeps by Glen Cook The best way I can describe this is that it's Warhammer 40,000 with all the stupid parts filed off, and the resulting nub then grown back out until it can support a full story. Keeping track of the various people and planets and the passage of time can be a full-time job, though. 82. The Swordbearer by Glen Cook I enjoyed it while reading it, but it honestly didn't leave much of an impression on me. 83. Devices and Desires by K.J. Parker 84. Evil for Evil by K.J. Parker These were recommended to me by a friend who I increasingly suspect has fundamentally incompatible tastes in books. On the surface, these look up my alley. Parker's writing isn't awe-inspiring but is always at least competent, and I am a big fan both of intricate plots of revenge and of characters exiled to an alien culture who must then figure out how to survive in it, which this trilogy has in spades. Unfortunately, the good guys, such as they are, are all idiots. I've mentioned earlier in this thread that I have a distaste for plots that hinge entirely on characters who can talk to each other refusing to; these books have loads of that and the characters in question have some kind of severe brain damage. The love triangle, such as it is, is only the tip of the iceberg. So, on the side of the angels we have a bunch of well-meaning fools who are constantly at odds with one another due to an inability to behave like functional adults. What are they up against? A superintelligent, innovative, supernaturally lucky, sociopathic mass murderer. Welp. (Halfway through the book he gets a sidekick, an equally intelligent and innovative but rather less lucky serial rapist.) If you think the odds look a bit stacked here, they are, and the end result is that the first two books basically consist of the barely likeable characters getting their lives constantly and thoroughly destroyed by the completely unlikeable characters (while praising the latter as their saviours because they've been decieved and mainpulated that thoroughly). It's a bit like watching someone upend a bucket of deformed but still lovable kittens into an industrial blender. It's really unpleasant even if (as I often did while reading these books) you wish all the idiots would just die already. It's made all the worse because you can usually see it coming. Why? Because much of the books are actually written from the perspective of the villain. Now, in general, I don't have a problem with this. I like a story from the point of view of a complex, multifaceted, somewhat sympathetic bad guy. I like it even more when it's ambiguous who the bad guys are, or if anyone can even be called "the bad guys". The problem here is that the villain in question is kind of unbelievable and totally unsympathetic. If this were, say, a thriller about a serial killer, it would be one that spends a chapter on the police as they investigate clues (and end up arresting the wrong guy because the real killer has cunningly framed them), and then three chapters watching over the killer's shoulder in loving detail as he tortures his next victim. It's more than a little squicky. Further complicating matters is that the books are structured around the villain in a way that initially encourages thinking of him as the protagonist. This creates some serious dissonance as you learn more about him and become increasingly unwilling to cheer him on or even watch him work at all. I'm not sure if this was a deliberate thematic choice (in which case, well done, but it makes the books really loving unpleasant to read), or if Parker actually thinks this character is the protagonist and expects the reader to take their side (in which case that's horrifying and makes me wonder how many dismembered corpses the author has in their freezer). 85. Blood and Iron by Elizabeth Bear I liked this more than the stories in Shoggoths in Bloom that I disliked but less than the ones I liked. Part of this is that I was expecting more Promeathean shenanigans and less Faerie politics. Good, but not what I wanted to read. Now reading: A Shadow of All Night Falling by Glen Cook I've tried Cook's Dread Empire books at least twice before and bounced off each time, but I've enjoyed his other work so much this year and last that I figured I'd give them another try.
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Nov 13, 2014 15:44
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Yeah, K J Parker is a decent enough writer but his (her? no-one knows apparently but he definitely writes like a guy..) protags are loving ABOMINABLE people. I've not read a single one of his books I didn't want to kick the poo poo out of the protags by about halfway through. I didn't bother finishing the Devices and Desires series after the first book despite the second two being in the library waiting for me. It's a shame because the world-building is solid, but every one of them I've read turns out to be a creepy dude on a massive revenge trip masquerading as whatever. And Parker spends WAAAAY too drat long going on about whatever pet subject he Did His Research on this time round. For Devices and Desires it was hunting. EVERY loving character hunts and/or talks about hunting non-stop in the most technical detail, and it's so goddamn boring. I'm firmly of the opinion, BTW, that he thinks of these guys as protagonists. Maybe villainous protagonists, but there's an entire series of his books where the main character is about the only one presented vaguely sympathetically (from memory) and in which he spends each book lovingly crafting weapons using dead people. In the thespaceinvader fucked around with this message at 13:22 on Nov 14, 2014 |
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Nov 14, 2014 13:20
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I was gone on a trip for a month, which limited my reading, and also I am behind on updating this. Since the end of August, I have read: 78. A Theft by Saul Bellow Bellow won the Nobel Prize for writing Litfic about wealthy New Yorkers. I can't debate his skill, but I haven't really carried much away from his books. 79. The Novel in Russia by Henry Gifford Survey book in Russian lit that I had on my shelf. 80. All My Friends Are Going to be Strangers by Larry McMurtry I think I like McMurtry in principle, but there seems to be something missing from his books. 81. Brooklyn Dreams by J.M. DeMatteis and Glenn Barr Coming of age graphic novel about being a teenager in 1970s Brooklyn. I read this a couple weeks before I actually visited Brooklyn. 82. Ossian's Ride by Fred Hoyle Fred Hoyle is best known as an astronomer who disliked the big bang theory because it was too theistic. He also wrote a science-fiction/spy novel. For some reason. 83. Nursery Crimes by Ayelet Waldeman I got this because I was going on a train trip and it was at the Dollar Tree. 84. Blood of Wolves by Loren Coleman A novel set in the world of Conan the Barbarian, but not featuring Conan. This was more involved than the light fantasy I thought it would be. 85. Hark! A Vagrant by Kate Beaton Collection from the webcomic, fun stuff. 86-89. Atomic Robo A fun independent graphic novel about a robot created by Nikolai Tesla who...fights monsters and other fun stuff. 90. Runaways Omnibus A collection of what was one of Marvel's more innovative titles. 91. The War at Ellesmere by Faith Erin Hicks B&W graphic novel about rivalries at a girl's boarding school. 92. The Scorpion's Sting by James Oakes A history of the onset of the civil war, talking about how slavery opponent's wanted to end slavery by placing a cordon around it. Every book I read on the history of slavery and racism in the United States starts with me wanting to understand the issue from a neutral point of view and ends with me wishing Abraham Lincoln had a fleet of B-52s 93. All Men of Genius by Lev AC Rosen Fun Victorian romance steampunk novel about a girl who dresses up like a boy so she can go to science school. Intrigue and romance abounds! 94. Seven Flowers by Jennifer Potter Book about the history in art and science of flowers in different cultures. 95. What If? by Randall Munroe This is a fun book, but it doesn't have much content beyond what is already available on the website. 96. None to Accompany Me by Nadine Gordimer Tales of South Africa during the end of white minority rule. Gordimer has a somewhat rambling style, but it is usually worth it. A pretty good mixture! And it looks like I am very close to my goal.
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Nov 15, 2014 01:37
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Oh god, I totally forgot about this thread and I haven't been reading a whole lot but here's what I can remember. 20: Elizabeth of York - Alison Weir A pretty standard biography of a queen who was important because of her blood but didn't really do a whole lot. I generally like Alison Weir's biographies because she gets into details but this is one where a lot of her details are conjecture which is what happens when there isn't a whole lot of documentation directly from or related to Elizabeth of York 21: Henry VIII: The King and His Court - Alison Weir This is one where she really gets into the details about all the places Henry VIII lived and she really focuses more on him rather than the wives because like everyone else who writes about Henry VIII she's already put out a book about his wives. Weir can be a bit of an apologist for Henry VIII and sometimes she gets kind of lazy, which can be a little frustrating but understandable. 22: Eleanor of Aquitaine - Alison Weir I had a harder time finishing this one compared to the other Weir biographys I read. I'm not sure why either since she definitely does her best to try and present a more balanced portrait of Eleanor of Aquitaine but it kind of falls flat for me. It's a good overview of Henry II's policies and his kids but otherwise I wouldn't recommend it. 23: The Namesake - Jhumpa Lahir Probably my favorite book ever and it has a lot to say about identity and growing up in America as a first generation immigrant. The prose is amazing and it switches it's POV between Gogol and Ashima, contrasting their experiences in America and India. There's a passage where Gogol's father tells him the significance of his name that always gets me, as well as Gogol's search for something different. 24: Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte It's not my favorite Bronte novel and it's more conformist than Wuthering Heights or The Tenant of Wildfell Hall but I do like the undercurrent of Gothic horror running through the novel. Rochester is least interesting Bronte anti-hero even with the whole imprisoning his crazy wife in the tower thing and Jane's a lot more interesting when she's dealing with his ward than him. 25: The White Queen - Philippa Gregory 26: The Red Queen - Philippa Gregory 27: The Kingmakers Daughter - Philippa Gregory I basically read this trilogy because they're quick reads and I have bad taste in historical fiction. Margaret Beaufort is pretty much the least likeable person in the series, Anne Neville is dumb, and Elizabeth Woodville is the only one who is tolerable. But it's Philippa Gregory so expecting anything other than frothy, questionably accurate drama that's tailor made for T.V. is dumb. Gregory's got a huge, huge hard-on for Richard III that's pretty hilarious though. I'm working my way through The Goldfinch right now and I've got a book on K2 lined up next. So I should hit my goal!
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Nov 16, 2014 05:02
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76: Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch. I'm really enjoying the Peter Grant books now that they seem to be taking a little more of a diversion away from Dresden in some areas (though by no means all) - and compared to the same stage in the Dresden series, this is a LOT more accomplished writing I think. This one was no exception. It grabbed me, gripped me and didn't let go over the course of the 48 hours or so in which I read it (damnit, it was meant to last me a week of lunch breaks!) but I can't shake the feeling that I want it to be... longer. It was just a bit brief. Great, good fun, intriguing details, but all too short.
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Nov 17, 2014 22:47
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