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I just finished the rest of Joe Abercrombie's The First Law trilogy. I can't say I loved the series, but it was definitely enjoyable. Never really absorbed me into the world the way other fantasy writers have (read: Lynch, Rothfuss). I really need to fully read the What If? book. Got it for Christmas and I regularly read the comic.
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Mar 22, 2015 20:54
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rock2much posted:I liked this and Ready Player One for the Sci-Fi/humor blend. I need more books that are nerdy, funny, and have some action. A friend has me reading The Sparrow and so far so good. I finished Ready Player One in about three days (finished five minutes ago). It had its problems, but that's the fastest I've read a book in a long time. Fun read.
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Mar 22, 2015 21:02
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Finally finished The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay last week (started it back in November, then got sidetracked), banged out The Martian right after, which was good popcorn to follow Kavalier & Clay with. Started Wolf in White Van on Friday night, finished it yesterday morning, then finished it again just now. Yeah, got to the end and pretty much immediately flipped back to page one to start over. It's incredible, and begs a second look because of the way it's structured. Not sure where to go next, but I have The Ocean at the End of the Lane and Ready Player One Kindle-queued and The Sculptor on my coffee table.
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Mar 24, 2015 08:26
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Finished my second read of Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. I read it before some years ago when I was quite a bit younger and it definitely had a much greater impact on me during this read. Absolutely one of my favorite books I've ever read. The ending, in particular, frustrated me a lot during my first read, but this time around I thought it was maybe the best part of the whole book.
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Mar 24, 2015 17:10
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Finally read Spin by Robert Charles Wilson, which I had bought years ago and had for some reason just ended up sitting on my bookshelf. I generally enjoyed it, liking both the setting and the characters, though at times it got a little overly wordy. I'm not sure if I want to attack the sequels, since this one left things at a good place, and sequels to good books generally just frustrate me.
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Mar 25, 2015 13:40
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Borachon posted:Finally read Spin by Robert Charles Wilson, which I had bought years ago and had for some reason just ended up sitting on my bookshelf. I generally enjoyed it, liking both the setting and the characters, though at times it got a little overly wordy. I'm not sure if I want to attack the sequels, since this one left things at a good place, and sequels to good books generally just frustrate me. Don't read the sequels.
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Mar 25, 2015 15:20
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Patricia Lockwood - Motherland Fatherland Homelandsexuals I read this because (1) I needed to read some poetry for the Booklord challenge, (2) my girlfriend recommended it, and (3) I think the author is funny on Twitter. I know virtually nothing about poetry but some of these were really disturbing or hilarious (or both) and generally some sort of weird sexual content. The "Rape Joke" poem which I guess from reading about the book is somewhat famous, was really well done, but there are a lot of gems and none that I really disliked. One of my favorites was "The Whole Word Gets Together and Gangbangs a Deer". Neil Simon - The Odd Couple I've never read a play except I guess Macbeth back in high school. I decided to read this because I heard it was a funny play, and I liked the '68 movie version. I thought this was great, and the stage direction/list of props, set decoration stuff included throughout was interesting to me now whereas reading that when I was younger would have bored me to death. I'm going to read more Neil Simon but also more plays in general this year. Nick Hornby - Funny Girl I've read all of Nick Hornby's novels and generally speaking you know what you're going to get - a lot of 'action' happening off camera, interesting character development, damaged people. I thought this was his best since A Long Way Down. David Brin - The Postman This was on some list of 'must read post-apocalyptic fiction' so I picked it up last year and subsequently forgot about it. An interesting idea, but it tried to do too much. I've heard the movie is terrible, I kinda want to watch it.
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Mar 25, 2015 18:05
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I read Lonesome Dove. I loved the dialogue and the setting and it was cool how some of the critters had personality too. The fight between the bull and the grizzly owned. I guess its kinda genre fiction but it was very well executed.
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Mar 25, 2015 18:28
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my bony fealty posted:Finished my second read of Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. I read it before some years ago when I was quite a bit younger and it definitely had a much greater impact on me during this read. Absolutely one of my favorite books I've ever read. The ending, in particular, frustrated me a lot during my first read, but this time around I thought it was maybe the best part of the whole book. Blood Meridian is one of those books that is best read when one is older and better able to comprehend what it is trying to say. I imagine the violence would underscore its profundity for people below a certain age.
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Mar 27, 2015 01:42
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Nine Goblins by T Kingfisher (aka Ursula Vernon). Ursula is a writer and artist who I remember most fondly for the great descriptive blurbs her pictures used to have. Very Pratchett-esque. Shortly after that she started Digger, which is: Excellent. A Hugo winner. Something you should go read right now. Anyways, Nine Goblins is a prequel to the sadly unfinished Elf vs Orc. It's about the titular goblins (only 4 or 5 of whom actually matter in any capacity) engaging in adventures behind enemy lines. As you might have gathered from the fact that I've started with a bunch of links talking about the sterling work the writer has done elsewhere... I don't have a lot to say about the book. It's... fine. Perfectly decent little comic adventure story. Not as epic as Digger, not quite as well and carefully written as Elf vs Orc. Might have been better with illustrations, is perfectly fine even without them. Probably well worth the price if you're in the states, a bit overpriced with international shipping, but isn't that always the way.
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Mar 28, 2015 12:30
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Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson, about a hacker in the Middle East who gets caught up in state affairs after receiving a mysterious book of tales from an ex-girlfriend. If you want a more politically charged, modernized Harry Potter with an adult tone, this is the book you want to read. It's got a breakneck pace, a strong arc for the main character, and an interesting magical world it plays around with. The way that it mixes weird, disparate elements (religion, politics, technology, race, gender roles, Middle Eastern history/myth, modern Middle-Eastern culture, etc.) is compelling and organic, and it's worth the read just to see that balancing act. My only complaints are that the ending is a touch weak, and there's a love triangle in there that is obvious and a touch silly. Also, some of the side characters are immediately forgettable, but there's so much other stuff interesting stuff in the book that overrode those weaker points. I also finished Don DeLillo's Falling Man. I'm a fan of DeLillo - reading Mao II and White Noise in university got me hooked - but the last few I've read by him (Point Omega, The Body Artist, End Zone) were forgettable and sort of soured me on constantly searching out his novels (ESPECIALLY Body Artist, which is a garbage aberration in his bibliography). Falling Man got me re-hooked. I really, really, really dug it. The first and last chapters are stunning, and his usual stylized prose just worked for the story he was trying to tell. There are also chapters that deviate from the main characters momentarily - moving the action from New York City to Germany and Florida - that are absolutely, completely incredible in saying so much with so little. Loved it.
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Mar 28, 2015 22:46
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Just finished Well of Ascension: Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. It's the second book in the Mistborn trilogy. Have to say I'm enjoying it quite a bit. Although when it comes to fantasy I am definitely easily entertained. The first book in the series seemed more like a prequel than anything.
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Mar 30, 2015 15:03
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I just finished Tuck Everlasting, I heard a story about it on NPR so I checked it out. It's definitely a kids book but I found it entertaining and thought provoking if not a bit short. The ending was bittersweet and quite appropriate.
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Mar 30, 2015 22:58
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The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks. I liked it, it definitely fit into the niche of hosed up people doing hosed up poo poo. Not really sure what the twist ending had to do with anything, or if it did at all?
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Mar 30, 2015 23:14
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Arcland posted:Just finished Well of Ascension: Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. It's the second book in the Mistborn trilogy. Have to say I'm enjoying it quite a bit. Although when it comes to fantasy I am definitely easily entertained. The first book in the series seemed more like a prequel than anything.
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Mar 31, 2015 02:06
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So I always take a book to work with me to read on my lunch break. One of my coworkers noticed this and asked if I had ever read any Dean Koontz. I told him that I hadn't and he said he and his wife read all of them and got me one out of his car. Not wanting to be rude, and knowing nothing about Dean Koontz except that he was popular and sometimes polarizing, I figured what the hell. The book he gave me was Innocence. There were times when I wondered if I was wrong about Dean Koontz being a "serious" writer because it seemed like a parody. The whole thing was so contrived and yet there were so many different things going on it was just like a giant clusterfuck. I think that I actually have a few pages left because it just seemed so done that I threw up my hands and thought "well that's the ending, there's no way anything else could possible happen". It reads kind of like you're supposed to be watching a movie, I guess. So many things are just matter-of-fact. The characters are all either perfect, good, people, or horrible evil people. They always "just know" things. About four times in the book they go someplace and instantly know that something is off. It's all so generic it's painful. I intend to politely decline to read the second Dean Koontz book he gave me before I had even finished the first. Sorry if this sounded harsh to any Koontz fans reading the thread, but I just can't help thinking it was just garbage writing.
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Mar 31, 2015 21:15
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You didn't mention overly-intelligent dogs, so I'm not sure you actually read a Koontz book, sorry.
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Mar 31, 2015 21:35
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Koontz is miserably, unfathomably bad. I slogged through a couple of his novels a few years ago and was completely unimpressed. Taking book advice from someone who loves him is like listening to a restaurant review from a grown-up living on hot dogs and Pepsi. (There are decent popular authors out there! Stephen King is a prime example).
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Mar 31, 2015 21:54
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funkybottoms posted:You didn't mention overly-intelligent dogs, so I'm not sure you actually read a Koontz book, sorry. Actually, while all humans were driven to violence at the mere sight of the protagonist, it was noted at least once that dogs didn't mind him at all. This makes sense when you find out the reason people try to murder him on sight is that he was born without original sin. List of other amazingly hilarious things that happen in the book: There is an evil music box evil marionettes. These were a recurring "plot point" for the entire book and as far as I can tell served no purpose and didn't relate to anything else at all. a goth girl who is SO PERFECT AND INNOCENT... that almost everyone wants to rape her on sight. She won't let anyone touch even her clothing the slightest bit. GET IT? She can't look at him and he can't touch her! ...this is because she was also born without sin A powerful group in the Middle East that collects rare western art to destroy it. The goth girl's dad set her up with 8 apartments throughout the city so that she could always have a place to stay and be a recluse Also there are angels and demons loving everywhere, just wandering around, only the protagonist can see them. North Koreans made a 100% fatality rate super-bioweapon that is ebola AND flesheating bacteria, "both turned up to eleven" Which gets unleashed somehow. I literally missed when this got mentioned, all the sudden the villain is just like "oh btw I am infected with this" and then it's armageddon Also there's a 6 year old girl who's been in a coma for 3 years who is special somehow in a way that no one can explain. She's vegetative, and the EVIL JUDGE was going to take her feeding tube out but they saved her. She wakes up when the apocalypse starts. The two main characters, who just now realized they can look at and touch each other get married and, along with the 6 year old are like, the last humans alive I think. I dunno I stopped reading right after they got married during the north korean super-ebola apocalypse. edit: I like Stephen King just fine. edit2: I still don't get the marionettes thing. In the middle of the climax they take a detour to some guys house to burn the last two of them. With still no idea why the gently caress this poo poo is important. Maybe it was explained in the last few pages I didn't read, but that wouldn't magically make any of it retroactively good story telling. Snak fucked around with this message at 22:11 on Mar 31, 2015 |
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Mar 31, 2015 22:07
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Snak posted:So I always take a book to work with me to read on my lunch break. One of my coworkers noticed this and asked if I had ever read any Dean Koontz. I told him that I hadn't and he said he and his wife read all of them and got me one out of his car. Not wanting to be rude, and knowing nothing about Dean Koontz except that he was popular and sometimes polarizing, I figured what the hell. The book he gave me was Innocence. I really liked Watchers but everything after that was basic schlock.
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Mar 31, 2015 22:32
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bowmore posted:Your in luck, the 3rd book is better than the second! Been really enjoying the third so far. Think I'm going for Malazan Book of the Fallen next.
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Apr 1, 2015 18:10
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I just finished Geek Love for something like the fourth time. It is still one of my favorites, but this time I was struck not by how hosed up everyone is, but how profoundly sad they are. I was left with a melancholic feeling that is still lingering.
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Apr 1, 2015 18:29
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Fart.Bleed.Repeat. posted:The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks. I liked it, it definitely fit into the niche of hosed up people doing hosed up poo poo. Not really sure what the twist ending had to do with anything, or if it did at all? The twist that Frank is female? But basically the whole book is about that and there's a big didactic chapter at the end explaining the moral 
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Apr 1, 2015 19:55
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The Painter by Peter Heller. I really like Heller's voice - reading certain segments reminds me of a less dense McCarthy. It's not perfect; everyone outside the protagonist is pretty crudely drawn and the women in particular lack character (maybe part of the point, and hard to avoid in first-person narratives). However, Stegner (the narrator) is compelling enough to carry the story, and Heller manages to avoid the black-or-white characterization that would be easy to fall into with a setup like this, even if the epilogue might be a little too on-the-nose as far as that goes. In any case, some of his prose, especially when he describes the land, is as evocative as anyone I've read recently (the fact that he lives and writes about Colorado biases me a bit in this regard I'm sure), and I'm excited to see what he does next.
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Apr 1, 2015 20:46
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Koontz had some great books (in the airport fiction meaning of the word) YEARS ago, but since maybe... 95? 99? 2000? it's just been crap and mystical magic dogs. I loved Dragon's Tears and Lightning, hell even Shadow Fires was good. The Odd Thomas books started out ok but as soon as the magic dog showed up I bailed.
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Apr 2, 2015 18:10
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Just finished reading Catch-22 for the first time. Absolutely astounding, absolutely devastating. One of the best books I've ever read.
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Apr 2, 2015 21:42
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Koontz had some great books (in the airport fiction meaning of the word) YEARS ago, but since maybe... 95? 99? 2000? it's just been crap and mystical magic dogs. Phantoms scared the gently caress out of fifteen year old me. I've read it three times.
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Apr 3, 2015 05:51
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That was also the only good movie translation of his books as well. It was a great one, and well worth a read, just not one of my favorites in the bunch. Awesome mystery though. That scene where they find the bed filled with fillings and pacemakers and hips ranks up there as one of the creepiest things I have ever read.
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Apr 3, 2015 12:51
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Just finished Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer. It's the first in the Southern Reach trilogy that was on sale as a kindle daily deal a few weeks ago and I finally bothered to start reading it. It's actually pretty short at just around 200 pages and I read it in two sittings. I really liked the main character and was able to relate to her a ton in a lot of ways, and the setting for the story is fantastic and I just really loved it. My understanding is that the second book in the trilogy doesn't feature her at all as the book is meant to be her journal that was presumably discovered, so that's a bit of a bummer especially considering the kind of downer ending that it had, but I bought all three of them at the same time so I'll probably start reading that tonight.
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Apr 4, 2015 03:21
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Circle Nine posted:Just finished Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer. It's the first in the Southern Reach trilogy that was on sale as a kindle daily deal a few weeks ago and I finally bothered to start reading it. It's actually pretty short at just around 200 pages and I read it in two sittings. I feel exactly the same about the first book as you. The second does feature her, but sparingly and not nearly as much as you want.
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Apr 4, 2015 04:57
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The second book will confuse and dismay and probably (sometimes) even bore you but push through it because it's actually really good and the third one is even better. All the books in the trilogy work best when viewed alongside the others. This is why it's good they're short!
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Apr 4, 2015 05:22
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:That was also the only good movie translation of his books as well. There was a decent TV adaptation of The Face of Fear in 1990. Kevin "Batman" Conroy was the bad guy.
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Apr 4, 2015 14:21
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Blankets by Craig Thompson. An "Illustrated Novel" (super-long graphic novel) about love, loss, and faith and how those all mix together when you're a teenager. The artwork is beautiful and the story is really well told from a mature and knowing perspective. Full of melancholy and bittersweet nostalgia stuff but never heavy handed or self-pitying. Also finished Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee, which was a quick read. I liked it but I felt like all the stuff that I would be more interested in didn't really happen to the main character. The villain of the story was really strongly fleshed out, straddling the line perfectly between enigmatic and perfectly defined. The relationship between him and the main character was complex and satisfying in its conclusion. As well, Coetzee is great at laying out unique settings, complex politics, and themes quite simply and in an articulate, beautiful way. However, after the first half of the book or so, all those unique politics, action, characters, and thematic moments seem to happen far away from the main character, which went against what I wanted and loved at the beginning of the book. Can't have it all, I guess.
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Apr 4, 2015 21:32
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Just finished Men at Arms. Was another fun romp, although at times I lost track of who was doing what in the latter half of the book (not reading it consistently may have contributed to this).
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Apr 5, 2015 01:56
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Captain Hotbutt posted:Blankets by Craig Thompson. An "Illustrated Novel" (super-long graphic novel) about love, loss, and faith and how those all mix together when you're a teenager. The artwork is beautiful and the story is really well told from a mature and knowing perspective. Full of melancholy and bittersweet nostalgia stuff but never heavy handed or self-pitying. Oh my god, this. I am around page 300 and taking my time because I don't want it to end. The story parallels my own life in so many ways and I've never teared up from a comic book before. So good.
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Apr 5, 2015 02:12
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Just finished Don Quixote. admittedly i am very late to the party as many people look in astonishment when i admit i haven't read it. Midway through i had to put the book down and think about how i could see literary trends draw from it and why it gets its title as the first modern novel. Also i found Sancho Panza far more entertaining than Don Quixote throughout the book and insightful in different ways. The book is loaded with subtle mockery at what i imagine would have been pop culture at the time but i don't have quite the historical context to back that up. Either way, if you were like me and had just kept putting off reading this book go ahead and just move it to the top of your list.
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Apr 5, 2015 07:57
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Captain Hotbutt posted:Blankets by Craig Thompson. An "Illustrated Novel" (super-long graphic novel) about love, loss, and faith and how those all mix together when you're a teenager. The artwork is beautiful and the story is really well told from a mature and knowing perspective. Full of melancholy and bittersweet nostalgia stuff but never heavy handed or self-pitying. Blankets is terrific. It's such an unpretentious sweet story told with just enough art. His most recent volume Habibi is also terrific, almost for the opposite reasons. It revels in intricate complex art and the story is opaque in parts. Recommended.
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Apr 5, 2015 21:57
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Finished up Jonathan Wood's Anti Hero, which is the latest book in his Author Wallace series. Surprisingly pretty good. Not to spoil anything but I was not expecting the ending I got, considering how the last book ended. You'll be completely lost if you haven't read the previous novels but if you had it's a pretty great read.
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Apr 6, 2015 15:05
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I just devoured Under the Skin in one sitting, and I am having a hard time processing it. It left me feeling sick and unsatisfied. I must be getting soft in my advancing age, it used to be that the more disturbing and gross the novel, the better, but this was an intensely uncomfortable novel.
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Apr 7, 2015 01:39
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yes, did you like it? i thought it was brilliant. very hosed up.
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Apr 7, 2015 11:36
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