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cultureulterior posted:I just finished A Succession of Bad Days- the sequel to Graydon Saunders' The March North. Still fantastic, and we get to find out a lot more about the setting. I think I liked this one even more than the first. This review nails a lot of what I loved about it (and would have probably sold me on it if I hadn't already been looking forward to it after reading The March North): https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1312170804 quote:This is a story about where legendary sorcerers come from. Five young people (ages range from late teens to early thirties) with magical talent take part in a highly experimental training program. Talent is hazardous; absent training, none of them are expected to live to see fifty. Traditional training, which runs along the lines of "spend several years sweeping floors and learning control before moving on to lighting candles", has a roughly fifty percent survival rate. Their program, in contrast, starts with completely reconstructing a square mile or so of geography and scales up rapidly from there. quote:There's a line in the book that describes itself perfectly: "Like a fairy-tale lost in a civil engineering manual."
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Jun 23, 2015 12:06
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Finished Crazy Rich Asians not so long ago. It was very entertaining because all the characters were basically Asians but Crazy Rich. The hella judgey, gossipy, and competitive Asians made the book very interesting to read. Maybe it was Gossip Girl like but I never read Gossip Girl so I can't really say. Either way, good for the summer when you got nothing to do!
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Jun 24, 2015 00:22
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I just finished Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen. I know it's a pretty girly book, but Sarah Dessen knows how to kick you in the feels. I own all of her books and they all make me weep sappy tears and feel renewed after reading them.
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Jun 26, 2015 03:16
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I just finished Brain On Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan and loved it. It's terrifying, uplifting, and interesting. I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in mental illness from the perspective of someone suffering from it. It also gave me this little quote: "Sometimes, just when we need them, life wraps metaphors up in little bows for us. When you think all is lost, the things you need the most return unexpectedly."
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Jun 27, 2015 18:40
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The first two Honor Harrington novels. I'm a huge fan of the Vorkosigan saga, up to... let's say Cryoburn, which is the first unabashedly terrible Miles story?... and I was really surprised to find out that this was written about at the same time, and by an author that's equally esteemed. Because one reads like a story by someone who wants to make sure their Sci-Fi universe doesn't read like something from a cheap parody (and in fact emphasizes actual flawed characters, quotable dialog and interesting plot twists that don't rely on author fiat) while the other... does not (starting with "gentlemen, we are riding a neo-tiger" and concluding with a confrontation with the hypocritical-arrogant-academic-pacifist civil authorities which just won't let the good old honest soldier heroine pursue her business of inevitable war with the crafty savage foe) Though maybe if I've read the Hornblower series I would have recognized Harrington for the subtle parody that it is? Anyways, now I'm rather jonesing for an actually tolerable space-opera / sci-fi series to get into.
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Jun 30, 2015 11:31
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I just finished Hitler's Willing Executioners by Daniel Goldhagen. He argues, through three case studies (a police battalion on the eastern front, a work camp, and a death march) that the 'average' German was far more complicit in the holocaust than generally thought. He founds this argument on the fact that, according to his research, ordinary Germans were gratuitously cruel to Jews when they had no external reason to be, and when they were comparatively less cruel to other ethnic groups (Poles, collaborating Slavs, German political prisoners, etc.). UNFORTUNATELY, according to the history goons in the A/T nazi thread, the book is poorly researched bullshit and presents evidence unfairly and inconsistently. They suggest Ordinary Germans by Browning as a better treatment of the culpability of 'average' Germans during the Holocaust. I will put that in my queue. Also Goldhagen's book is 500 dense pages, so that's a lot of  Read comic books (like the one where captain America punches out Hitler) instead.Or you know what, gently caress it. Reading history right is hard, so maybe I will just become a blog-informed holocaust denier.
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Jun 30, 2015 19:05
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Just finished House of Leaves as a stop over in my summer plan to read all of Vonnegut's major works, I hear it had kind of a bad reputation here? I really enjoyed it and thought it was the most genuinely fun (and powerful, dark rooms give me the heebie jeebies now) that I've read in a while!
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Jul 2, 2015 07:49
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Sandwolf posted:Just finished House of Leaves as a stop over in my summer plan to read all of Vonnegut's major works, I hear it had kind of a bad reputation here? I really enjoyed it and thought it was the most genuinely fun (and powerful, dark rooms give me the heebie jeebies now) that I've read in a while! I think the majority opinion is that HoL is enjoyable despite Johnny's story being kind of lame/annoying/overwrought/_____; I'm not sure if I remember anyone poo poo-talking the Navidson Record side of things.
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Jul 2, 2015 11:50
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funkybottoms posted:I think the majority opinion is that HoL is enjoyable despite Johnny's story being kind of lame/annoying/overwrought/_____; I'm not sure if I remember anyone poo poo-talking the Navidson Record side of things. Wow, this is exactly what I thought. The Navidson Record was enthralling and had me flying through pages, whereas Johnny's stream-of-consciousness entries made my eyes glaze over. Overwrought is really a good way to put it. I know this book is similar to Pale Fire, but if you enjoy one, would you enjoy the other? I have a semi-pretentious friend who claims Pale Fire is WAY better.
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Jul 2, 2015 17:15
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Sandwolf posted:Wow, this is exactly what I thought. The Navidson Record was enthralling and had me flying through pages, whereas Johnny's stream-of-consciousness entries made my eyes glaze over. Overwrought is really a good way to put it. I thought Pale Fire was excellent but I wouldnt necessarily say enjoying one means you'll enjoy the other. They are very different stories and the prose in Pale Fire is much better. Also, half the novel is a poem which is enjoyable in its own right and there arent any format gimmicks. I loved HoL but PF is much much more enjoyable.
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Jul 2, 2015 17:21
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TommyGun85 posted:I thought Pale Fire was excellent but I wouldnt necessarily say enjoying one means you'll enjoy the other. They are very different stories and the prose in Pale Fire is much better. Also, half the novel is a poem which is enjoyable in its own right and there arent any format gimmicks. I'm in a similar camp. House of Leaves is a fun ghost story but lays it on way too thick for me. Pale Fire is beautifully written and enormously funny. I like both books, but I gotta give it to the latter.
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Jul 2, 2015 18:59
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Sandwolf posted:Wow, this is exactly what I thought. The Navidson Record was enthralling and had me flying through pages, whereas Johnny's stream-of-consciousness entries made my eyes glaze over. Overwrought is really a good way to put it. They're massively different (the only similarity being there is a text which another person comments on) but Pale Fire is just plain better so you should read it.
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Jul 2, 2015 22:12
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I wouldn't really say that Pale Fire and House of Leaves are similar except at the most superficial level. House of Leaves is a fairly simple story trying its damndest to make you think its complex and Pale Fire is a very complex story hiding behind a veneer of simplicity. They're different enough that I don't think enjoying one will necessarily mean you like the other but for what it's worth Pale Fire is excellent and probably my favorite Nabakov novel.
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Jul 2, 2015 22:18
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Just finished Handling the Undead by John Ajvide Lindqvist. That was certainly interesting. This is a hard book to describe. It's a zombie story, but I wouldn't call it a horror story - at least, not in the traditional sense. As with all the best zombie stories, the story isn't about the zombies themselves, but about how the regular people react to their presence. In this case, the story focuses on three families - a grandmother whose deceased husband returns home from the undertakers', a father whose wife has just died in a tragic road accident and a grandfather whose grandson fell out of a window and whose daughter has yet to recover from the loss. In essence, it's a bitter-sweet tale of love and loss, and how people deal with both when the dead rise from the grave. This book isn't for everybody; I enjoyed it, but I can easily see why somebody wouldn't; especially if they go in expecting a more traditional horror story. Some might consider it a little too slow paced, and I wouldn't blame them. That said, if what I've written above makes it sound interesting, there are far worse books you could be reading.
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Jul 3, 2015 20:45
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hectorgrey posted:Just finished Handling the Undead by John Ajvide Lindqvist. That was certainly interesting. I read this too and enjoyed it but not as much as Let The Right One In. Have you read his other novels? I was thinking of reading Little Star
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Jul 3, 2015 21:43
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TommyGun85 posted:I read this too and enjoyed it but not as much as Let The Right One In. Have you read his other novels? I was thinking of reading Little Star Same; Let The Right One In was a much better book, in my opinion. I haven't read Little Star, but I'm currently about a quarter of the way through Harbour. So far it's been quite good, if a little depressing. If there's one thing Lindqvist is really good at, it's writing believable relationships between characters who are exactly as fleshed out as they need to be and no more, and given the subject matter of the book... This one is also not a traditional horror story and is also a little slow paced (at least so far), but so far I'm definitely enjoying it.
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Jul 3, 2015 22:06
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The most recent book I finished was "King Leopold's Ghost". I'd read a little bit about the rubber trade in the Congo, but that book was heart-wrenching.
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Jul 4, 2015 03:33
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Slow Bullets by Alastair Reynolds, his new novella. A nifty story full of the usual Reynolds staples: mysteries in space, dangerous sociopaths, gruesome moments (Crowl's trip to the med-bay is a memorable scene), and unknowable alien horrors. It's a good tale, kind of a fresh angle on the people-waking-on-a-generation-ship trope. There are some thoughtful moments about the preservation of culture. The arc about Scur's need for revenge against Orvin plays out well, with a surprising and satisfying resolution. Some disappointments, though. Murash is an interesting character who needed to be featured more. I'm still not entirely sure on the ship's purpose or why some people were included in its complement, and I want to know more about the places it goes at the story's end. Most egregious: the Sickening are one of Reynold's creepier creations, so it's disappointing that they get described once and then barely feature again in the story. The length suits the story well. It moves at a great pace, with no dull bits. But the way it was published was just a bit disappointing — it could have been the star attraction in a new (and long-overdue) collection of Reynolds' stories and novellas. Instead it's kind of an overpriced chapbook: readers pay full novel price for just 40,000 words. Nonetheless, it's a must-read for Reynolds' fans.
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Jul 5, 2015 13:16
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TommyGun85 posted:I read this too and enjoyed it but not as much as Let The Right One In. Have you read his other novels? I was thinking of reading Little Star Little Star is the closest thing to a traditional horror novel that he's written. Harbour may be a ghost story. They should both be read.
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Jul 6, 2015 15:15
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Jedit posted:Little Star is the closest thing to a traditional horror novel that he's written. Harbour may be a ghost story. They should both be read. And don't forget to check out Let the Old Dreams Die, his short story collection that has epilogues/what happened next for Let the Right One In and Handling the Undead.
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Jul 6, 2015 16:23
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Poseidon's Wake, by Alastair Reynolds. The last in the Poseidon's Wake trilogy, and the largest in scope, spanning centuries and light-centuries. Very much the sequel to Blue Remembered Earth and On The Steel Breeze, it brings the story to a full and all-encompassing conclusion - for the Akinya dynasty, for their elephants, for the Mandala mystery and beyond, while continuing themes of control, autonomy and allegiance. I've always been fond of the way Reynolds writes cosmic vertigo, and in this book that existential dread is woven into the plot masterfully. Over the course of reading this I watched the anime series ΠΛΑΝΗΤΕΣ (Planetes), which shares a few themes, and a similar philosophy, I feel - that while space and physics are cold and unfathomably vast, and ultimately indifferent to human struggles and endeavours, that doesn't cheapen those struggles, but imbues them with even more importance. Or maybe I just get sentimental about hard SF stories. As a side note, Reynolds does have an affinity of slipping cultural and musical references into his work, and I managed to catch a couple (a Flaming Lips album; equally macrocosmic SF author Hannu Rajaniemi), which felt cool. Overall, a very good end to a very good trilogy. I'm not sure whether I rate this above On The Steel Breeze or not - the previous book hit me harder with gut-punch after gut-punch, while this had more of an even flow. Part of me wonders if there'll be more stories within the same universe, but I wouldn't be disappointed if these three books were all we got.
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Jul 7, 2015 00:22
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The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan. It's the first book in his second series after Percy Jackson and the Olympians . Before that I read the first series. I consider the book to be junk food, like the Jack Reacher series for me. I'm averaging one of Riordans books every few days, so I'm sure I'll have finished all his books by the end of the month. Lost Hero is pretty good, and surprised me a little. After the first 4 (or 5) of the first series, I figured he would continue to serve up the same book over and over until his readers stopped reading young adult novels. It turns out I was correct. With the limited exception of introducing 3 new characters you have the same basic setting, setup for the book and resolution from the previous books. Somehow this hasn't gotten old for me. I'm a bit of a completionist when it comes to authors, so I'll probably read the next 4 books of this series, if only to save myself from finding my next author to read through. 2/5
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Jul 7, 2015 04:16
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I just finished Blindsight by Peter Watts. Fantastic sci-fi. A small cast of very interesting characters experiences first contact with an alien race that truly feels alien. Good action, deep ideas. It made me think hard about the nature of consciousness and other thinky poo poo. The follow-up Echopraxia has made it into my reading queue.
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Jul 7, 2015 23:00
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Franchescanado posted:I just finished Brain On Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan and loved it. It's terrifying, uplifting, and interesting. I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in mental illness from the perspective of someone suffering from it. I read that book last summer! Absolutely loved it. I was hooked as soon as she started recounting the first few days of her mind starting to slip.
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Jul 8, 2015 00:19
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Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism by Michael Parenti. A well-argued and passionate history of 20th century geopolitics and politico-economics, charting the close ties between fascism and corporate capitalism from Mussolini and Hitler's rise to power to the mid-1990s. Rejecting a lot of past and contemporary anti-communist narratives, which he describes as dogmatic and propagandistic, Parenti discusses the fallacious approaches to communism and socialist states. From big-business sponsors of American imperial overreach and fascist dictatorships to anti-communist liberals, there are few who escape his criticism (and in some cases, personal grudges, as laid out in some particularly fun footnotes). The book is short but dense, and while it loses a little focus toward the end of the book (which tails off into critiques of then-contemporary "cultural studies" ignoring issues of hegemony and class) it remains powerful. It's a little worrying that, 18 years after publication, many of Parenti's assertions still resonate.
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Jul 11, 2015 01:51
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I've just finished Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, it was easy to read but its five volume length meant it took quite awhile. I'd been putting it off since my familiarity with the musical and a ninety's film with Liam Neeson gave me the basic outline of the plot. I'm pleased a got around to reading it since naturally there's alot in her that's been cut out from the adaptations. It was really quite a fun little game seeing how characters and events differed from the other versions. Thenardier for example while still a villain and even more of one in the book then in his other appearances gets an explanation for his wickedness that seems all too believable. The book is much, much heavier on Christian imagery then other versions but it balances this with frequent attacks on the Church, particularly the convents and there brutal practices. And despite the love affair of Marius and Cossette and the fighting of June 1832 being the most well known events depicted both barely cover a quarter (the last quarter at that) of the book, with the rest of the pages being devoted to describing poverty and the evils society through its institutions and values inflicts upon those not lucky enough to be Bourgeois.
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Jul 11, 2015 11:03
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Wages of Destruction by Adam Tooze Pretty comprehensive, and I think authoritative among academic historians, account of the economic underpinnings and history of Nazi Germany. It thoroughly undermines a number of popular myths of nazism, particularly those that revolve around the notion that Germany could have somehow won the war. The thesis of the book could pretty much be 'Germany punched above its weight and got lucky for a while, then it ran out of gas, which was virtually guaranteed to happen from the start.' It also puts to rest a number of notions, namely that Hitler had some genius solution to getting Germany out of the depression (it was on track to getting there before he became chancellor), ended reparations and began rearmament (the Weimar government did both), etc. It is a very un-History Channel look at the Nazis. Well worth the read.
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Jul 12, 2015 03:21
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Read a bunch of stuff on vacation: Last Call by Tim Powers - American mythology "fantasy" about poker, tarot, TS Eliot's The Waste Land, the Arthurian legend Fisher King, and other mythological (Egyptian/Greek/Roman) bits and bobs. Reminded me a lot of American Gods or old (good) Stephen King. Really enjoyed it. The Waste Land by TS Eliot - Last Call reminded me I'd never read it, so I did. Poetry isn't really my thing but it's short and pretty good and worth reading if for no other reason than lots of other good stuff quotes and references it. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson - I'd been working through the audiobook on my commute the past few weeks and finished it in a plane. Great overview of the current (as of early 2000s - there was already some outdated stuff in it) state of a bunch of scientific disciplines. Pretty high level though, the stuff I already knew quite a bit about made me think he could've gone into more detail (e.g. I know quite a bit more dark matter research than he explained and I thought his treatment of it was pretty light) but for disciplines I knew less about, like geology and cellular biology, I found Bryson's overview engaging and interesting. An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield - I heard Col. Hadfield doing the podcast rounds when this came out and finally got around to reading it (well, half read, half listened to audiobook - yay for WhisperSync). Really likeable guy who has lead a very interesting life and tells great stories well. Found it both inspiring and also a bit depressing since this guy's life will probably make you feel a bit like you're a lazy bum who's wasting your life. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood - great dystopian scifi from a female/feminist perspective. Holds up well considering it's now 30 years old. Looking forward to reading her MaddAddam trilogy now. The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones by Stanley Booth - Booth tags along with the Stones in the late 60s for the death of Brian Jones and the U.S. tour that culminates in the infamous Altamont show. I liked the "behind the scenes of a rock band's life" stuff but the big problem with the book is that Booth seems to be under the delusion that he's just as interesting as the Stones and he just isn't. Fewer words about how cool he is and how much the publishing industry has been unfair to him would've made the book better.
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Jul 12, 2015 13:40
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Gravity's Rainbow Took me almost three months cause I was really only reading it on the train to and from work but it was worth it. I went into it with the intention of not understanding most of it and just letting the words hit me and don't regret that at all. I reread one or two parts mainly cause I liked them so much but I couldn't get over some stuff (like the Kenosha kid section) and had to do it again. Gonna have to reread the whole book at some point but I feel a genuine sense of accomplishment right now.
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Jul 12, 2015 16:10
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WAY TO GO WAMPA!! posted:Gravity's Rainbow I finished reading it this year for the first time as well. Everything I've read since pales in comparison, and it has made me more selective with what I read. I'm hoping to read Vineland soon.
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Jul 12, 2015 18:17
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Franchescanado posted:I finished reading it this year for the first time as well. Everything I've read since pales in comparison, and it has made me more selective with what I read.
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Jul 12, 2015 19:02
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I got an advance copy of Bell Weather from a giveaway the author Dennis Mahoney did on Twitter. I hadn't heard of him before. This was really good, it's a mystery/suspense/adventure story set in an original fantasy world. It's not explicitly alternate history but it's a bit like an alternate 18th century setting with strange weather patterns and bestiary. Anyway, it sold me on reading whatever else is written about this world. The author says he is working on a sequel. This was a self-contained story so I don't know what direction he's going with the next book but even though I enjoyed the non-epic story with a focus on the characters I'd like to see more of the world in the next book. It's a bit like the Gentleman Bastards series where there's an interesting world with a lot of description but no explanation. Like that series I'll also keep reading anyway even if it remains a tease.
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Jul 12, 2015 21:16
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Just finished the Nexus trilogy by Ramez Naam. Holy poo poo it was actually really loving good. I'm usually not a big sci-fi technothriller fan but this was really well done and mostly plausible--even though he admits himself that technology is not likely to be close by 2040 but he's done a lot of research and almost everything is mostly plausible and already being researched. It really makes me wish I was born 100 years later too. I love how eerily accurate the political response to such technology would be. It was pretty tense all the way through and pretty great satisfying ending. Definitely recommend to anyone who likes sort of Michael Crichton/Stephenson sort of work.
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Jul 12, 2015 22:45
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Finished The Martian last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. I glossed over the more technical bits involving levels of gasses and whatnot but it didn't detract from anything. The voice of the character was sometimes a bit annoying due to his snarky quips. And for the movie I hope they remove the "pirate-ninja" way of describing energy or whatever. The whole "pirate ninja robot unicorn zombie" thing was stupid even before it was played out years ago.
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Jul 13, 2015 17:22
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me your dad posted:The voice of the character was sometimes a bit annoying due to his snarky quips. And for the movie I hope they remove the "pirate-ninja" way of describing energy or whatever. The whole "pirate ninja robot unicorn zombie" thing was stupid even before it was played out years ago. Apparently it actually spread to NASA as a meme now. The future of mankind is in the hands of total dorks.
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Jul 14, 2015 09:26
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So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson 3.25 stars Entertaining, with some good anecdotes, stories and interviews. But in this book Ronson leans too much on some pop-psychology "quest" that wasn't exceptionally compelling (I mainly picked this book up for the schadenfreude), and never really pulls together at the end. The through line of the book kind of just meanders from story to story with no discernible thesis forming. I think Ronson called it a day on this book too early. There have been many more schadenfreude-rich online shamings in the last year or so, which would have fit in nicely alongside the handful of examples Ronson used. Also, what about some more celebrity examples? Eg: Lance Armstrong or Rolf Harris. Given another half a year or so in the works, and a bit more meat to the people and stories contained within, this book would have been better.
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Jul 14, 2015 12:21
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Midnight Riot (Rivers of London #1) by Ben Aaronovitch It was fine enough as a start to an urban fantasy series, with a cool, mysterious magical world and a really likable main character. My only major complaint is that I feel like I need Google Maps opened to London while reading because a lot of the narration is "took this road then a right on this road past this building and this pub and then we stopped by a house that was just off the bypass by road" which was grating. London becomes a character itself in the novel - which I fully appreciate - but that type of description got extremely repetitive and grating. Also, it definitely felt like a lot of mythology was crammed in and "sped-established". The breezy pace of the book meant that it was a lot of stuff was just glossed over for later exploration - wrecking some of the character motivation and world building. There's literally a part in the book where the main character is like "suddenly I'm heading to this house and I don't know why and I bought flowers because I don't know why okay now I'm at this house" to meet a character we hadn't met before just so she can be set up as a minor antagonist for later and it felt like the book was totally filled with moments like that. I would have preferred if maybe one or two things were introduced and explored in-depth rather than the everything-plus-the-kitchen-sink approach. It was still a fine enough book though, and I'll read the rest of the series. Not life-changing, but there's worse out there.
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Jul 14, 2015 15:38
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Shadow of the Torturer (book 1 of the Book of the New Sun Series) by Gene Wolf. An intense read that I'm glad I read on my kindle app... Lots of interesting vocab, well-written. Now that it's been a couple of weeks since I finished I'd have a hard time recalling all of his 'slang.' Overall an enjoyable read, tons of loose ends that I imagine the later books in the series will address. The ending was a bit abrupt, but not disappointing. I was ready to jump into the second book but needed to wait for my wife to catch up. I enjoyed every character in the story - even the ones that appeared for only a scene or two were provided with entertaining qualities and flavor. What's the secret of the torturer's guild? It's the one thing I was dying to find out but I'm sure that won't be answered directly or any time before the last book in the series. The main character's mentor tells him the secret of the guild the day he ascends a rank in their order and then boom. End of chapter and not mentioned again. I'm looking forward to finishing the series. Until then, I think I'll get going on Stands on Zanzibar next.
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Jul 16, 2015 05:48
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I just finished The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac. It starts off slow, but it shows that the writing has grown since his big novel On The Road. It's more concise, the main characters are more fleshed out, it's themes are tied up more, and it has a more satisfying end. It's not an action packed book, but it reminds me of trips I've taken with friends, appreciating the world around you, and trying to make sense out of existence one step at a time (sometimes a forward step, sometimes a step backwards). It's one of those books that I would have loved more had I read it when I was 18-22. It also paints a picture of the Buddhist movement in the west coast in the 50's and 60's, and provides different perspectives and viewpoints.
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Jul 16, 2015 16:11
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Finished up Formerly Fingerman by Joe Nelms. It's a pretty good book. It's not my usual style read, meaning there aren't any wizards or demons or any magic of any kind, it's just a comedy style book about a witness to a mob murder who didn't actually see anything, who ends up lying to the FBI and ends up in witness protection. It's really reminiscent of Christopher Moore and A. Lee Martinez as far as the writing style goes. Worth a read if you like comedy novels.
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Jul 17, 2015 06:30
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