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Corrode posted:
There's a third story, Full Moon, but I don't remember if it's been included in any English editions. At the very least, they do not advertise it. Kitchen was okay, but I think my favorite Yoshimoto work is Goodbye Tsugumi. Onto my books: Goal: 52 books, 1/4 literature, 4 books nonfiction. 6. Magic Study by Maria V. Synder 7. The Appointment by Herta Muller (Literature) 8. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami (Literature) 8/52, 4/8 literature. No nonfiction yet. Magic Study was pretty good. There's a stylistic choice that irritates me though, but I try my best to ignore it. The Appointment was draining. That's about the best word I have for it. I recommend it, but not when you're depressed. You need energy to get through the book. Norwegian Wood was what I expected from Murakami for the most part, though I think it had a slow start. Not sure what I'll read next. I have plenty of choices.
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Jan 31, 2016 22:20
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End of month update, just adding one book since previous update. Total 10/60 so far. For "A biography or autobiography" I decided to read Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter by Kate Clifford Larson after seeing it mentioned in The New Yorker. Thought it'd make a quick read, but it was pretty slow going; however very much worth it. Tells the story of Rosemary Kennedy (sister of JFK, Ted Kennedy, Eunice Kennedy Shriver etc), who was mentally disadvantaged from birth (due to a nurse literally pushing her head back into the birth canal since they were waiting for the doctor to arrive, causing oxygen deprivation), and later completely hosed over by her parents by way of a lobotomy in an attempt to make her more docile and less of a potential embarrassment for the family (yes, this really happened). A sad yet intriguing story, well written and researched.
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Jan 31, 2016 22:59
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Had a slow end to the month because I keep getting halfway through something and then starting the next, but a very bookful first week keeps me well on track. I'm going to try to write more extensive reflections on some of these on my own, but for now: 1. The Chimp and the River: How AIDS Emerged from an African Forest - David Quammen. The parts that focus on modern research and competing theories are great; the part that is an extended fictional rumination of the possible bringer of HIV from a backwater to an urban area is not. 2. Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science - And the World - Rachel Swaby. Though the concept was nice, I had problems with this coming from a combination of format and Swaby’s way of writing: the individuality of each woman seemed to disappear, and the particulars of each’s contributions to science weren’t emphasized enough for my tastes. Recommendations on another book specific to women (even just one or a few women) in science would be welcome. 3. Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon - Michael Ghiglieri and Thomas Myers. This book rocks. I bought it at Grand Canyon and had my girlfriend read me the grisliest parts as we drove through the park. The deaths are well retold in terms of detail and story, and the stories of daring rescues are great as well. The book has lots of practical advice for how not to end up in future editions; my natural instinct to be a big pussy around sheer drops is validated. 4. The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn - Diane Ravitch. I first saw this book in the context of the current trend of writers complaining about kids these days, and how PC an SJW can be. Since Ravitch has earned my respect as a thorough and passionate researcher, I figured I’d get her take on the issue. But it’s not about that subject; published in 2003, it is much more about the way that the process of textbook and standardized test writing and approval sanitizes the content that children experience. A lot of her argument makes sense: guidelines fought for by interest groups and parents that restrict what kinds of reading children are expected to do can result in a pretty boring education if teachers don’t fill in the gaps. I’m still on the lookout for something that actually researches and discusses the supposed pernicious effect of ‘PC culture’ in higher education. 5. Carving Grand Canyon: Evidence, Theories, and Mystery - Wayne Ranney. Unless you are of a scientific bent or even already a geologist, I might recommend steering clear of this book. The rigor that it uses is extensive for a book with as many glossy and colorful pages as this one. But it is really well explained even if it goes rather deeply into ideas of geological evidence. I enjoyed it, though I’ll have to read it again to understand it all. 6. A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power - Jimmy Carter. It’s good to see that Carter is still sharp; though this book is short, it is still wide-ranging, clear, and insightful. Some might not appreciate his religious perspective on these issues, but we’ll have religious people in the world for the foreseeable future and I’d rather we had more like Carter than like Cruz. 7. The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World - Lincoln Paine. This is one I’ll remember when deciding my favorite books of the year. It covers everything from Polynesian navigation methods to the way the shipping container revolutionized the global economy. Although some parts drag into boredom, the absolute wealth of detail and variety in this book are amazing. I read this from the library, but I think I’ll get a keeper for myself as soon as it makes sense to do so. 8. Dubliners - James Joyce. First fiction of the new year! So this book was pretty interesting; I really appreciated the commitment to authenticity, true detail, etc, that Joyce uses. The way that he expertly focuses each one of these stories was nice as well. I read A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and really enjoyed it, maybe I’ll be spurred to make another attempt at Ulysses (if I’m feeling masochistic). 8/80, 1/12 months with fiction. 2) Something written by a woman - The Language Police 10) Read a long book, something over 500 pages - The Sea and Civilization 15) Something recently published - The Chimp and the River 21) A Short Story collection - Dubliners
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Feb 1, 2016 00:09
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January went pretty well! 6 down. The Heart Goes Last: Margaret Atwood As somebody else said a couple of pages back, definitely not her best. The opening section about how the main characters slid inevitably into their horrible living situation was actually kind of chilling though. Winter Book: Tove Jansson I can't remember many actual story points but was left with a really strong kind of experiential memory (?) of warmth and ice cold and what it feels like to really care about the important things in life. Of all the descriptions I've read written by an adult of what it's like to be a child, this one seems the most accurate to me. Iron Council: China Mieville My usual gripe with Mieville is that the sex parts are unnecessary and there was even more of this than usual. The story was pretty compelling although I preferred The Scar. Tender is the Night: F Scott Fitzgerald A re-read but from so long ago it might as well have been new. It hit a lot closer to home this time round and I think I'll have to re-read it a third time in order to work out what's what. I like his writing though, it's clear and easy going without being overly simple. The Bell: Iris Murdoch I've never read anything of hers before but I'm pretty sure I will again. Deceptively straightforward, great sense of place, compelling story, believably flawed and relateable characters. Outer Darkness: Cormac McCarthy Irredeemably grim. No thank you. Currently wading through a lot of work related reading so not sure what's up next for the challenge...
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Feb 1, 2016 00:30
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January! 1. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay- Michael Chabon. I loved this overall, but I definitely enjoyed the first part of the book where it was mostly about Kavalier and Clay's comics careers more than the end, but that might be because I was also reading the next book on my list at the same time. 2. Superman is Jewish? How Comic Books Superheroes Came to Serve Truth, Justice, and the Jewish-American Way- Harry Brod. Really fascinating background information for reading Kavalier and Clay. Plus there's a whole chapter at the end specifically discussing that book, which was great and gave me a better understanding and appreciation for it. I am very glad I read these two books at the same time. 3. Battle of Wits: The Complete Story of Codebreaking in World War II- Stephen Budiansky 4. Fathers and Sons- Ivan Turgenev 5. Justice at Dachau: the Trials of an American Prosecutor- Joshua M. Greene. Like all good Holocaust books, this was incredibly fascinating and crushingly depressing.
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Feb 1, 2016 00:59
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Read in January: 5 1.Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari (audio book version) I don't listen to audio books often, but this is one of the few times I would recommend it over actually reading. Asia's narration is fun, the information is interesting, the pace is casual, and there are extra jokes (even some 4th wall jokes about listening to audiobooks). Recommended. 2.The Broom of the System by D. F. Wallace Hilarious, mind-bending, indulgent, witty, flowing, droning, depressing, heartbreaking, and silly. The use of dialogue, story-within-story techniques, and character realities/perceptions are top notch. A little overly long in the last act, but still pleasant. Highly recommended. 3.The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut A new read from an old favorite. I wish I had read this years ago during my Vonnegut phase, but still fantastic. Much more epic in story than usual, the author is still learning but has achieved his voice. Darker than I was expecting, and not as funny as later books, but still a great read. One of the few books I read in one day. Recommended. 4.Blood Meridian by Carmac McCarthy Much more dense than I was expecting. Dark, grisly, disturbing, misanthropic, bleak, but beautifully crafted. I'm excited to re-read this for deeper meaning, because I feel as though I only scratched the surface. Recommended. 5.Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger Absolutely amazing. One if the best collections of short stories I have ever read. I may read the rest of Salinger's catalogue and revisit Catcher this year. Everyone read this. Highly Recommended. 1/10Non-Fiction 5/52 Total None of the books met my Read Harder challenge to my liking (a few could have qualified, but I have other books picked out for those categories). Franchescanado fucked around with this message at 02:06 on Feb 1, 2016 |
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Feb 1, 2016 01:11
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nerdpony posted:5. Richard Yates by Tao Lin. This was my wildcard recommendation for the 2016 challenge thread. I found Lin's style oddly compelling, but didn't like reading the book that much... it was too much an unrepentant retelling of his abusive relationship with a high school girl. There were aspects of the story that I liked, but by and large, this was neither an enjoyable read nor one that made me want to read his other books. 2/5 If you ever want to give Tao another shot I'd highly recommend Taipei. Especially if you found his style compelling. It's definitely not as egregiously morally questionable. Also I haven't read the Ghost Network yet but here's a podcast interview with the author I enjoyed, if yr interested: http://otherppl.com/catie-disabato-interview/
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Feb 1, 2016 01:31
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1. Let Me Hear Your Voice by Catherine Maurice Biography about a family's struggles with autism and autism treatment. Pretty raw and moving. I was infuriated at the hug therapist. I'll definitely be recommending this one to my students. 2. What Shamu Taught Me About Life Love and Marriage by Amy Sutherland This was, show should I say it, cute? Her descriptions of her interactions with her husband and mother-in-law were pretty stereotypical, but I really liked the portions about the animal trainers. The entire chapter on incompatible responses is chuck full of painful errors. Would NOT recommend. Thank God it was short. BookLord Challenge Progress: 1) Vanilla Number (2/26)
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Feb 1, 2016 03:08
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Pieholes posted:Authority (Southern Reach 2) by Jeff VanderMeer. Now here is where the problems begin. VanderMeer was actually contracted to write three books in a year (I'm assuming he had the first book ready and was forced to write the last two). The problem with Authority is that it doesn't have much in terms of content. Nothing much happens at all and since VanderMeer is not the strongest of writers it's extremely uninteresting. I'd even say you should just read the first book and leave it at that unless you really really want to know what caused the events of the first book. The main character with no personality worked in the first book because the environment was the point of interest, however in Authority VanderMeer changes into third person point of view and the whole thing falls flat. 2/5 I felt the same way about the second one. The first book was so different and good, but the second was just horrible. I almost didn't read the third on because of it.
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Feb 1, 2016 06:37
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Caustic Chimera posted:There's a third story, Full Moon, but I don't remember if it's been included in any English editions. At the very least, they do not advertise it. Kitchen was okay, but I think my favorite Yoshimoto work is Goodbye Tsugumi. I don't think it's even mentioned in the foreword in my edition. Interesting that they'd leave one out.
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Feb 1, 2016 12:00
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Read three books this month. Kind of disappointed because I was hoping to get four in, but The Secret History is like 650 pages long so there's that, and I'm still ahead of schedule. This month's theme is mildly disappointing books that were nonetheless pretty good overall. I have read: 5) Something History Related - Look Who's Back by Timur Vermes I was a bit disappointed in Look Who's Back. I didn't go into it expecting high literature, but from some of the praise I've seen, I was expecting some sharp satire. Instead, it comes across as terminally unfocused. Hitler seems more like a lovable, angry old grandpa than, well, Hitler - much of his time is spent complaining about instant coffee, teens looking at their phones while walking, and, for some reason, people picking up their dog's poo. Though Angela Merkel is referenced, it's only so Hitler can laugh at her for being fat, in a way that honestly comes across more like he's become the author's mouthpiece than anything else. Despite my criticisms, I liked it overall. It's a quick, light read, is very funny in parts and occasionally manages to make some sharp insights, possibly by accident. Overall, it's not a bad book, but I get the impression it was perhaps far edgier and more refreshing in its native Germany, where the subject is obviously still very taboo - for the British reader, there's not much here that wasn't done with more wit and humour in Monty Python's Mr Hilter sketch back in 1970. 3/5 10) A long book, something over 500 pages - The Secret History by Donna Tartt Difficult to say how I felt about The Secret History, really. On one hand, I found it flawed and often interminably boring. Side stories that start up and go nowhere and lend nothing to the characterisation, about twice as long as it needed to be, chapters and chapters of attempted tension about whether a thing we know (from the first line of prologue) is going to happen will actually happen. A desperation to make you think the book and its author are cool and smart and Literary as Hell and writing Real Literature that I can only compare, in its enthusiasm and off-puttingness, to a puppy trying to please you with its paw shaking while not realising it's smearing poo on the carpet. Still, I really enjoyed it. The characterisation is great - all of the characters are both clear archetypes and fleshed-out, believable human beings (with some of them faltering near the climax, unfortunately). The setting is lovely and memorable, the wistful reminiscing about the characters' loss of innocence and childhood wrapped up in a typical university setting - specific enough to feel like a real place and general enough to feel like you went there, to see it as your own old school - that will have any graduate remembering their time there with more fondness than it possibly deserves. The time period is intentionally vague and incongruous, giving the whole book a dreamlike, timeless air that effortlessly straddles the stupid, tiny minutiae of day-to-day life with the "sublime" world that the characters are always just-about touching and striving for. Ultimately, The Secret History is one of those books that I'm more glad to have read than I was glad to be reading it. A lot of infuriating problems drag it down, but it's a testament to it that many of them would have put me off a lot of novels entirely. I can't say it's a great book objectively, but I find myself fonder about it the more I think about it. 4/5 16) That one book you've wanted to read for a while now - No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy This one has been on my plate for a while, as someone who loved Blood Meridian, liked The Road and had mixed feelings on the film. And it was... eh. I knew going into it that it wasn't one of McCarthy's most well-regarded works. That's fine. I was not expecting it to be quite as... thin as it turned out to be. It really is ultimately just a thriller, a not particularly believable one with a larger-than-life evil dude who tracks down and kills people, occasionally mumbling something half-baked about karma and coins and how it's not really his fault, while an old sheriff bumbles around shaking his fist at the sky and grumbling about liberals and kids these days and their anime and their abortions and how the world's going to hell in a handbasket, I tell you where are the parents. It's still a good book. McCarthy's ear for dialogue is great, the pace is good and the prose is evocative, though not up to his usual standard. He can just write so much better. Nothing really stood out to or impressed me about the whole thing. I don't regret reading it, but I don't feel like I got anything out of it that I didn't get from watching the film, and that's disappointing from an author of this level of talent. 3/5
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Feb 1, 2016 14:46
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Lunchmeat Larry posted:5) Something History Related - Look Who's Back by Timur Vermes This was easily in the top three worst books I read last year. We read it in my book club, and the only person who enjoyed it was the person who suggested it, and they didn't even show up to the meeting.
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Feb 1, 2016 17:45
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Tiggum posted:Care to elaborate on that? I'd be interested in hearing what specifically you take issue with and why. Also curious about this, since I've been reading it as well. The Mardrus & Mathers translation, since that's the one I grew up with; I always planned the read the whole thing, but could only ever find the first volume (of four). Now, thanks to the internet and also thanks to that translation being released before copyright became perpetual, I have all four volumes and plan to read them this year. Tiggum posted:Goodreads I think I may know the one you're talking about -- the tale of the hunchback, the tailor, the broker, the steward, and the doctor? Which in itself contains four stories, one of which, in turn, contains eight additional stories, seven of them by That loving Barber?
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Feb 1, 2016 17:48
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So I'm behind the pace this month, but did read my long book, so that's a plus. Most of the month was devoted to a cattle drive. 1. My Dead Body by Charlie Huston. I was trying to get through my end of December reading so I wouldn't have to admit to starting the year by reading the last book in a vampire detective series. As a series, I enjoyed it. It had Huston's characteristic style, and though action-y wasn't driven at the same breakneck pace as Caught Stealing. My biggest problem was the main character, Joe, always seemed to be the biggest sarcastic rear end in a top hat he could be, often to his detriment. Still, I enjoyed the book and the series. If you're going to read 1 vampire detective series this year, you could do a lot worse. It's also set in NYC. 2. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. 2 retired Texas Rangers round up a herd of cattle and drive them Montana. I found the first part a bit slow, but moved through the last 2 parts pretty quickly. There are a ton of characters, and backstories to match. Parts of it are a coming of age story. Others are about old men who society has moved on from. On the whole, I really enjoyed this and found more depth than I was expecting, there's a lot more going on than just Cowboys and Indians. Though it's not short on those either. As a warning if you get the 25th Anniversary edition with a preface by McMurtry, don't read the preface, it contains spoilers. I'm counting it as a long book, but if I come up short, I'm totally filing it as the first in a series and a book I've been meaning to read as well. 5/5 3. Made in America, An informal history of the English Language in the US by Bill Bryson. This book sets out to look at different eras and aspects of American history. So there's chapters about Colonial times, The Founding Fathers, Westerns, The invention of the car and airplane, etc. On the whole I found it to be interesting, and with a lot of good trivia bits. It was published in the 90s, so unfortunately nothing about the internet and the way that's changed language. It does take a stab at political correctness, and is just a little cringy, but not outright awful. I'm checking off categories 10 and 11 this month. Ben Nevis fucked around with this message at 18:42 on Feb 1, 2016 |
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Feb 1, 2016 18:20
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Tiggum posted:Care to elaborate on that? I'd be interested in hearing what specifically you take issue with and why. You're treating it like it's a book designed to be read cover to cover over the course of a few sittings, rather than a massive compilation of every vaguely middle eastern story that was available at the time loosely tied together with an overarching plot. The Burton translation is literally as bloated as the Thousand and One Nights can possibly be, both he and the original compilers weren't trying to write something particularly readable, more of a Arabic fairytale encyclopedia. If you don't like a story skip it rather than forcing yourself through something you don't want to read. Also the poetry is good. If you're reading the Burton translation are you going into the footnotes too? Because they are basically an excuse for him to show off how much he knows about foreign sex, it's pretty cool.
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Feb 1, 2016 18:33
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quote:1. Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko Good start to the year. School is starting so I know I won’t keep up this pace, but helpful in the overall goal. I liked most of the books I read this month. The Long Way Down felt like a darker Dresden Files set in Las Vegas. I had an itch for some urban fantasy and it scratched that, I’ll pick up the rest of the series later. Barrayar will forever change the definition of shopping in my mind. I’ve enjoy the four books I’ve read in the Vorkosigan Saga, so I will keep working my way through the series. Reading On Stranger Tides, I got a little confused with some of the voodoo terms he used, but overall it was but was a fun read. Kind of makes me want to read a bit more pirate/sailing age stories. Golden Son is the second book in the Red Rising trilogy. This time instead of Hunger Games style competition, we have a pretty straight up space opera with a lot of twists. I liked it pretty well even though I kept getting two characters confused. Will be finishing the series when the final book is out in February. The Library at Mount Char was just okay. I read a review somewhere that sums up my thoughts, instead of narration a story, it felt like some mastermind telling the reader what they are going to do. quote:1) Vanilla Number 8/52
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Feb 2, 2016 02:24
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January. 1. Caliban's War. James S. A. Corey. Better than the first book in the series. Not only the story was better, also the characters and the antagonists. Good book. 2. The Vanishing Tower. Michael Moorcock. Regular, the story is mediocre. The book is only saved by the biggest hint of the multiverse and the great character of Elric. 3. Raft. Stephen Baxter. I was quite surprised by this novel. It was a very entertaining hard science fiction book.. If anything, the characters were the weak point. 4. The Ringworld Throne. Larry Niven. Needlessly complicated. Some characters just disappear for no reason... at least the story is kind of interesting. 5. The End of Eternity. Isaac Asimov. Lots of interesting twists in a good story. The characters lack... character, but that's Asimov for us. Progress: 5/60
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Feb 2, 2016 02:40
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I read six books in January. 1. Daft Wee Stories, by Limmy (Brian Limond) - This is a pretty thick book with a lot of very short stories - from ten pages down to just a couple of lines. Some of them are surreal, some are psychological, some of them are very, very funny. All of them surprised me in some way, even when I was getting used to the author's voice and predilections. It might actually be one of my favourite books of the last year, despite on the surface being a colelction of mundane and quirky fables by a cult comedian. 2. I Kill Giants, by Joe Kelly and JM Ken Niimura - It certainly grew on me - the protagonist is hostile and unpleasant from page one, and Kelly slowly draws the reader into her inner world and the real vulnerabilities and fears that drive her. It's impressive, and I can definitely see why so many people love it, but I think I only like it. 3. Kill Your Boyfriend, by Grant Morrison, Philip Bond, D'Israeli and Daniel Vozzo. A "cult" comic book, and a lovely little time capsule of empty mid-90s misanthropy. Shame it's insufferable and I hated it. 4. Supervillainz, by Alicia E. Goranson. Based around the lives of a queer community in Boston in 2001, this book is a weird but engrossing blend of action and interpersonal drama. A trans woman is blamed for the murder of a masked vigilante, and it puts the lives and livelihoods of her and her closest friends in jeopardy. I enjoyed it a lot! It's worth checking out for its unique premise alone. 5. AM/PM, by Amelia Gray. A short collection of even shorter stories, one per page. They're little snapshots of relationships, both romantic and social, with a smattering of philosophical musings and brief prose poems here and there. Some of them raised a chuckle from me, but the more serious vignettes lacked that much of a punch. Still, it was a nice breezy afternoon read. 6. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, by Gabriel García Márquez. I'd only read a couple of his short stories before now, so I didn't really know what to expect. This is an enormous, sprawling, ambitious novel. It's extremely densely packed, and though some parts I can't escape the fact that this novel is a canonised Great Work, and that legacy was inescapable even when I was engrossed in the text. I'm glad I read it, but I'm also perversely glad I can SAY I read it. Slightly longer reviews up on my Goodreads as usual. quote:1) 52+ books - 6
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Feb 2, 2016 04:22
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ToxicFrog posted:I think I may know the one you're talking about -- the tale of the hunchback, the tailor, the broker, the steward, and the doctor? Which in itself contains four stories, one of which, in turn, contains eight additional stories, seven of them by That loving Barber? CestMoi posted:You're treating it like it's a book designed to be read cover to cover over the course of a few sittings  CestMoi posted:If you don't like a story skip it rather than forcing yourself through something you don't want to read. CestMoi posted:If you're reading the Burton translation are you going into the footnotes too? Because they are basically an excuse for him to show off how much he knows about foreign sex, it's pretty cool.
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Feb 2, 2016 04:49
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ltr posted:Barrayar will forever change the definition of shopping in my mind. That is such a good scene.
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Feb 2, 2016 10:16
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1. One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel García Márquez) I agree with what Gertrude Perkins wrote, and I was surprised by how ardous it was even though the language is relatively straight forward. But it's just so compact and fast moving (it felt like reading a 350 page backstory to something) that reading it was a bit exhausting. Still a phenomenal book that I'd recommend to pretty much anyone. 2. Eye of the Red Tsar (Sam Eastland) I got this for christmas and felt obligated to read it. Thankfully it only took me 3 days, because it's bad. It's supposed to be a historical crime novel, but the history is made up and the crime parts are dumb. It's about a dude who used to be the private investigator for the tsar and now he has to work for Stalin (who he hates because he has Good Western Morals, and as his first job he has to find out what happened to the Romanovs. Because even though the book is from 2011, the author decided to ignore that we already know what happened to them and just made poo poo up. It was moderately suspenseful though. 3. Siddhartha (Hermann Hesse) My 2016 self was a bit skeptical about a 1920s German dude writing about ancient India but really, the setting (including Hinduism and Buddhism) doesn't matter much at all. It's just spectacularly well written. 3/40 17) The First book in a series Eye of the Red Tsar (Sam Eastland) A week ago I started Der Turm (The Tower) by Uwe Tellkamp and I'm in love with it so far.
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Feb 2, 2016 14:27
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January was not productive for me. Currently half way through both Ignition! and Annals of the Former World. Hopefully once I finish Annals in particular I can get back on track to hit 45. 1. The Other Wind, Ursula LeGuin (BLC# 13, YA) The most recent (2001) and probable end of the Earthsea fantasy series. It might be that I have low expectations for "young adult" literature, but this was a surprisingly mature look at mortality. I felt it suffered a little from a rushed conclusion, but overall a nice ending to a good series. Going to have to find more to read by this author.
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Feb 4, 2016 04:30
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Was hoping to read more than 3 in January, but I'm also rebuilding my reading habit so am happy with regular progress. The End is Nigh - This is the first volume in a three volume series of short stories about the end of the world. Each author has their own approach to the apocalypse and what causes it. The first volume is stories that take place shortly before the apocalypse, the second volume is stories that take place during it, and the final volume is post-apocalypse stories. As with many anthologies, some of these were great, some were decent, and a few were duds. Some were incredibly depressing or disturbing, and I was so glad when they were over and I could put the book down for a bit to do something more cheerful. I enjoyed the pseudo-thrill of contemplating humanity's doom from the safety of a warm bed. Several stories have gay or minority characters. I enjoyed this book and am looking forward to the other volumes. The sheer variety of things that led to the end of the world in these stories was fascinating and would leave me thinking long after putting the book down. The Bogside Boys, Eoin Dempsey - I was hoping for a good, balanced historical fiction but instead got a predictable Catholic-Protestant love story with overwrought writing that seemed straight out of a soap opera. It went for romance over history, was full of cringe-worthy dialogue, and the relationships and characters were two dimensional and entirely predictable. By the time I was a quarter of the way in, I was just reading so that I could be done with it. I was originally going to use this for the historical category, but I can't in good faith call it historical fiction when it was really some kind of romance-thriller hybrid that happened to be set in Ireland. I am already extremely familiar with Irish history, though, which might be why I don't find it as exciting as other people seem to. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Marie Kondo - I picked this up because of all the hype over it. Some of the mysticism didn't really resonate with me, but I know there are a lot of cultural differences at play. I also found some of her absolute claims unrealistic - that no one who does her method perfectly ever rebounds (and thus if you end up with clutter again, it's a failing on your part and not because her method isn't 100% perfect), that is is the only guaranteed way of succeeding, etc. I also found her attitude toward unread books to not really be personally applicable as I will pick up a book that has been sitting on my shelf for a long time and eventually read it. That said, I did really enjoy it and get a lot out of it.
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Feb 4, 2016 13:00
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Enfys posted:Was hoping to read more than 3 in January, but I'm also rebuilding my reading habit so am happy with regular progress. I read all 3 last year and one complaint I have is that the stories are in a different order in the other books so if you're trying to remember which story is which, it can be difficult. Some of them are obviously memorable and easy to remember, but others seemed to blend into each other. There is a review on Goodreads for The End is Nigh which gives a brief summary of each story and is a good reference if you are not quite sure which story you are following.
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Feb 4, 2016 20:30
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thespaceinvader posted:1: Chimera by Mira Grant I read a shitton of StoryBundle and Humble Bundle ebooks, which for anyone who pays attention to my posts here, is not news. They are variable in quality, so I didn't expect much - and it felt to begin with like this book was delivering just that. It seemed like a fairly generic 'oh no singularity' type story. It wasn't quite that. I liked the conceit of the relativistic colony ship coming home again having not found anywhere to colonise and lol Earth is hosed. Some bits of it felt a little too convenient - there's all of Earth to play in and every bit of action that's not in space happens within about 100 miles of Seattle - but the story was more interesting than the initial chapters let on, and I was pleased with the conclusion. I was also pleased with the number of strong female characters on display, both heroes and villains. Very enjoyable.
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Feb 5, 2016 21:16
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Booklord Challenge Update posted:Count: 10/96 books; 1 nonfiction (10%); 0 rereads. 1. Black Powder War by Naomi Novik With this I think I'm all done with Temeraire for a while. They've spent the last two books faffing about in Asia and honestly not doing much, and while I can see how this serves to set up the long-term conflict of equal rights for dragons in Britain, the series starts by getting you all pumped up for the Napoleonic Wars and I'd like to get back to that. 2. Atomic Accidents by James Mahaffey Nonfiction about atomic accidents throughout history and, incidentally, about the history of nuclear physics, power, and weapons. It ranges from the story of the radium cave prospectors in the 1800s to the Fukushima disaster a few years ago. It covers a lot of the same ground as A Review of Criticality Accidents, but is a lot more readable without being sensationalized (although the preface does acknowledge that, like the locomotive crash shows of the age of steam, most of the audience is here for the spectacle). It also covers assorted non-criticality accidents, and goes to some trouble to establish the broader context and root causes of each accident. I've occasionally said that I wanted to read more nonfiction like Ignition, and I think this fits the bill.  to the FOOF thread for the recommendation.3. Trading in Danger by Elizabeth Moon 4. Marque and Reprisal by Elizabeth Moon 5. Engaging the Enemy by Elizabeth Moon 6. Command Decisions by Elizabeth Moon 7. Victory Conditions by Elizabeth Moon The Vatta's War series. The romance subplot towards the end felt kind of tacked on, but overall this is some solid, enjoyable space opera. Don't have much to say here, really. 8. Parasite by Seanan McGuire (as Mira Grant) 9. Symbiont by Seanan McGuire (as Mira Grant) 10. Chimera by Seanan McGuire (as Mira Grant) I picked this up primarily on the strength of her Newsflesh trilogy, which made my best-of list last year. I didn't enjoy this nearly as much, though. Largely, this is because the main character is very, well, passive and helpless. She spends most of the first two books being shuttled from one prison to another without putting up any sort of effective resistance and gets drugged into unconsciousness so frequently that after a while it starts being funny, which I don't think is what McGuire was going for. She does realize this and makes an effort to improve, especially in the last book, but after the level of competence and proactivity demonstrated by Georgia & Shaun Mason in Newsflesh, Sal is kind of frustrating to read, and it feels like a lot less actually happens despite occupying roughly the same amount of book.
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Feb 7, 2016 13:55
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Update #3. 11) The Warden – Anthony Trollope: The first book in the Chronicles of Barsetshire series, in which a clergyman is accused of mishandling funds. Not the most exciting book ever, but short enough (especially on Kindle). 3/5. 12) City of Stairs – Robert Jackson Bennett: I read someone compare this book to Perdido Street Station, and that’s not an entirely unfair comparison: both books have weird stuff going on. However, one main difference between PSS and CoS is that the latter has more women / non-white characters, which is not something you can say about that many speculative fiction books. (Then again, CoS doesn’t have any bug-women characters, so it doesn’t matter). A good read with some interesting world-building (I wouldn’t mind a prequel set in a time when the deities were still active). 4/5. 13) Downbelow Station – C. J. Cherryh: The first published book in the Company Wars series (which also includes Cyteen), and another Hugo winner. (I’m trying to read as many Hugo winners as I can, which may or may not include the Heinlein winners). It takes place in a science fictional setting, but the conflicts presented in the book wouldn’t be out of place in a literary fiction context. 4/5. 14) Sorcerer to the Crown – Zen Cho: From a Hugo winner to a potential Hugo nominee. Similar to Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, in that they are both set in Regency England and are written in an old-fashioned manner; however, I prefer the former book, as SttC felt a little bit lightweight. Unlike the Susanna Clarke book, Sorcerer will have sequels, which I will probably read: maybe the future entries in the series will flesh out the magical world-building. 4/5. 15) Kitchen – Banana Yoshimoto: The book that launched Banana-mania in Japan. Consisting of two novellas packaged in one book dealing with themes of tragedy and family, written in a minimalist style. 4/5. Currently reading: The Copper Crown - Patricia Kenealy-Morrison. The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet - Becky Chambers.
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Feb 12, 2016 03:35
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I'm glad to see people reading Banana Yoshimoto. I remember my Yoshimoto binge last year. Got a few more books read. Goal: 52 books, 1/4 literature, 4 books nonfiction. 9. Some Boys by Patty Blount 10. The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kid (Literature) 11. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass (Nonfiction) 11/52, 5/11 literature, 1 Nonfiction book. None of these were particularly uplifting books to read. Some Boys was about rape and rape culture. The Invention of Wings was about slavery and the life of a female abolitionist. The Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass was about Frederick Douglass' life as a slave. I really recommend it though. It was really cheap if it wasn't free on kindle, and he has a really nice writing style. I liked all of these though. I should probably read something different. I don't know what though.
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Feb 13, 2016 19:26
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The 2016 Book Lord Challenge 1) Vanilla Number: 10/40 2) Something written by a woman 3) Something Written by a nonwhite author 4) Something written in the 1800s - Three Men In A Boat by Jerome Klapka Jerome 5) Something History Related (fictional or non-fiction your choice) 6) A book about or narrated by an animal 7) A collection of essays. 8) A work of Science Fiction - Expanse 1-4 by James Corey 9) Something written by a musician 10) Read a long book, something over 500 pages 11) Read something about or set in NYC 12) Read Airplane fiction (Patterson, ect) - The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie 13) Read Something YA 14) Wildcard! Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley, as suggested by High Warlord Zog 15) Something recently published (up to a year. The year will be the day you start this challenge) 16) That one book you’ve wanted to read for a while now. 17) The First book in a series Harmony Black by Craig Schaefer 18) A biography or autobiography 19) Read something from the lost generation (Fitzgerald, Hemmingway, ect.) or from the Beat Genneration 20) Read a banned book 21) A Short Story collection 22) It’s a Mystery. Harmony Black by Craig Schaefer (challenge: part one of a series) - Here's one book I would've read anyway; Schaefer writes some of the better urban fantasy around. It's pulp but it's very enjoyable pulp and a bit of departure from his usual style of combining magic with Las Vegas and heist stories - this one goes for a more traditional mystery approach. I enjoyed the fact that the main protagonist is largely clueless about this whole magical dangerous world she's living, which makes for a nice change from all those accomplished wizards and demons and detectives. The ending was predictable and way too loving sentimental but overall a good book for the genre. 3/5 City of Blades by Robert Jackson Bennett - I enjoyed City of Stairs a lot, and this was a mostly decent followup. More interesting character, solidly engaging magical mystery for plot, a thoroughly enjoyable book - until the final quarter where it literally shits the bed, villains are revealed to be comically (as in comic book style) insane or outright idiots and the whole thing is solved by a deus ex machina; I suspect the parts near the end retroactively sapped a lot of my enjoyment of this. 2.5/5 Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway - Now this one, I liked a lot. Really would love to peg in in a genre but the closest I get is "pulpy spy fiction gangster fantasy parody". While I think it could have used some trimming of details and meandering side-stories that detract from the over-the-top fun ride that is the rest of the book, it's really a very small price to pay. 4/5 Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley (challenge: wildcard - fits more but putting one book in more categories feels cheap) - I expected a hardboiled detective story with a strong social commentary from the moment I read it's about a black detective in the 1940s and it delivered plenty on that - the author's style reminded me a lot of late Chandler in places - and it's a plenty good book for that, but what I think caught me the most was its use of dialogue. It's fast and snappy, sure, but what I enjoyed the most was Mosley's use of accents - as someone who's unfamiliar with how American English sounds when it's not the news or podcasts, I found myself reading bits of dialogue out loud and just seeing Rawlins' I-am-just-a-simple-black-laborer lingo (so at odds with the way he observes and thinks in), the fake French accent (and its loss) of the femme fatale or the overcultivated hidden threats of the gangsters stand out. It's a pretty standard story and there are some awkward scenes near the end but the writing saves it. Ordered the two following books. 4/5 Next batch should be interesting, I intend to tackle Inherent Vice for "that book I wanted to read for a while now". It's supposed to be accessible for a Pynchon, right?
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Feb 15, 2016 16:55
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Just Kids by Patti Smith - I listened to the audiobook narrated by Smith herself. I figured that since she's a performer (and one that I really like) that she'd do an good job. She doesn't. And the book is crap too. We did this. Then we did that. Then I read such and such. Then we saw so and so. Repeat with additional namedropping. Dry writing made worse by phoned in terminally bored sounding narration, with none of the artistry or verve you find in her lyrics or performances. Listen to Piss Factory, which covers a lot of the same ground, instead. In contrast Omar Musa's Here Come the Dogs* felt all of a piece of with his work as a musician and poet. It’s a very different book by a very different artist, but voice is voice, and Dogs exhibits its creator's in spades. Musa is clearly enamoured with Irvine Welsh and Junot Diaz, and trying his hardest to write Trainspotting or Oscar Wao for the Aussie hip hop scene. And while he doesn't get there, it's a solid first novel. Exuberant and a lot of fun to read, even if you don't care about the subject matter. NOS4A2 by Joe Hill - A go-for-broke spookhouse novel in the vein of his father's early work. Could have done without the villain's rhyming rapist sidekick. Can horror writers please move on from using sexual violence as tool for grossing out the reader? Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie* - A compelling examination of class, identity and the legacy of colonialism in Africa. Shades of Herman Wouk’s historical soap operas in its focus on affairs and romantic entanglements as a way of introducing a human element into its sweeping big picture treatment of conflict (in this case the Biafran war). Frankenstein by Mary Shelly* - Incredibly (at times offputtingly) melodramatic, though I really dug the nested story structure. A familiar yet surprising read as many of the most iconic aspects of the film/s are absent. No Castle, No Lightning Reanimation, No Angry Mob. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - I audiobooked this one too. Rosamund Pike's reading is great. The book was also very good. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy* - This is one beautifully written book. The way that Roy relates a child’s perspective of the world is completely disarming... sneakily so. The darkness at the heart of the story hits you all at once and leaves you drained. Laurinda by Alice Pung* - Mean girls by way of 90's Australian teen lit with some cutting observations re class and the second generation migrant experience. The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes* - I loved this. Tightly focused, yet sprawling, with a story that spans decades, packed with memorable digressions into the lives of a diverse group of 20th century women. Contains some of the most effective and affecting kill scenes I've encountered in a slasher/serial killer story in a long time. Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson - Solid pulp-fantasy, nothing ground-breaking. The last one had me worried that Sanderson had exhausted all the possibilities of his magic gun-fu in Alloy of Law. But Bands of Mourning introduces a bunch of neat devices, new abilities, and possibilities for new abilities, and shows them of in a series of over-the-top sustained set-pieces. Nothing as good as the final blowout from Alloy, but you get a fun fight on a train, a nice long sequence where the characters infiltrate and break out from a heavily defended compound and some Indiana Jones style lost booby-trapped temple shenanigans at the end; all of which are much better than Shadows of Self's perfunctory fights. 1) Vanilla Number (6/40 authors I've never read before) 2) Something written by a woman (7) 3) Something Written by a nonwhite author (4) 4) Something written in the 1800s (2) 5) Something History Related (fictional or non-fiction your choice) 6) A book about or narrated by an animal 7) A collection of essays. 8) A work of Science Fiction 9) Something written by a musician (Here Come the Dogs) 10) Read a long book, something over 500 pages (NOS4A2) 11) Read something about or set in NYC (Just Kids) 12) Read Airplane fiction (Patterson, ect) 13) Read Something YA (Laurinda) 14) Wildcard! 15) Something recently published (Bands of Mourning) 16) That one book you’ve wanted to read for a while now. 17) The First book in a series 18) A biography or autobiography 19) Read something from the lost generation (Fitzgerald, Hemmingway, ect.) or from the Beat Genneration 20) Read a banned book 21) A Short Story collection 22) It’s a Mystery Someone wildcard me High Warlord Zog fucked around with this message at 03:44 on Mar 31, 2016 |
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Feb 16, 2016 04:14
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High Warlord Zog posted:
The Bloody White Baron by James Palmer. It's about this guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_von_Ungern-Sternberg
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Feb 16, 2016 06:26
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I've about 100 pages left of my first book still, I'll post an update during the weekend
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Feb 17, 2016 15:26
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It's been a slow couple of months for me reading wise. A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories by Flannery O'Connor - Dark, strange southern gothic stories. I've never read anything from the genre before but I really enjoyed it. A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki - Was lent this by my grandmother. A book about a novelist on Vancouver Island who finds the diary of a suicidal girl in Japan. Very influenced by Zen philosophy with some quantum stuff mixed in. I thought the ending was a little eh but besides that I thoroughly enjoyed the story. Rambunctious Gardens: Saving Nature in a Post Wild World by Emma Marris - A nonfiction book on post wild ecology. Pretty much an argument for how certain conservation goals are outdated and new ways of viewing wilderness and conservation. I am not super informed on conservation but I thought the book made a lot of sense. Neuromancer by William Gibson - Reread this, last time I had read it was a couple years ago. It's Neuromancer, it's amazing. 1) Vanilla Number: 4/50 Nonfiction: 1/15 Classics: 0/10 Poetry: 0/5 2) Something written by a woman: A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories - Flannery O'Connor 3) Something Written by a nonwhite author 4) Something written in the 1800s 5) Something History Related (fictional or non-fiction your choice) 6) A book about or narrated by an animal 7) A collection of essays. 8) A work of Science Fiction: Neuromancer - William Gibson 9) Something written by a musician 10) Read a long book, something over 500 pages 11) Read something about or set in NYC 12) Read Airplane fiction (Patterson, ect) 13) Read Something YA 14) Wildcard! 15) Something recently published (up to a year. The year will be the day you start this challenge) 16) That one book you’ve wanted to read for a while now. 17) The First book in a series 18) A biography or autobiography 19) Read something from the lost generation (Fitzgerald, Hemmingway, ect.) or from the Beat Genneration 20) Read a banned book 21) A Short Story collection 22) It’s a Mystery. Still need a wildcard book, if someone would be so kind as to give me one 
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Feb 17, 2016 21:26
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Read The Vegetarian by Han Kang.
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Feb 17, 2016 23:55
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Corrode posted:Read The Vegetarian by Han Kang. Same. Loved. Here's a nice little interview.
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Feb 19, 2016 05:26
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Haha reed not red, I was responding to the guy's wildcard request. I did just read it though and it was awesome - I'll check that interview out, thanks!
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Feb 19, 2016 07:27
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thespaceinvader posted:1: Chimera by Mira Grant Reclamation was another Storybundle or Humble Bundle (not sure which) number, and it grabbed me right from the get-go. It established an interesting character with a mysterious past, a sinister villain race and a future history in which humankind has expanded to the stars but been gone long enough to forget where it started. It didn't bother expositing on how the interstellar travel works, which is always preferable for me, and quite frankly, it was just fun. I liked it a lot, I'll look out for more from this author. I'd really recommend Humble Bundle and Storybundle. Sure, you get some poo poo, but for $15 for like 20 books, who cares.
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Feb 19, 2016 22:24
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Corrode posted:Read The Vegetarian by Han Kang. Thanks for the rec, looks interesting
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Feb 19, 2016 23:44
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I haven't checked in yet. I wasn't going to saddle myself with personal challenges beyond this... but then I came across a bunch of Robert B. Parker novels, so I declared it "THE YEAR OF SPENSER" so my goal is to read all 44 Spenser novels this year, in addition to other stuff. 1) Vanilla Number 24/100 2) Something written by a woman : Act of God by Jill Climent 3) Something Written by a nonwhite author: American Born Chinese: Gene Luen Yang 4) Something written in the 1800s 5) Something History Related (fictional or non-fiction your choice) 6) A book about or narrated by an animal 7) A collection of essays. 8) A work of Science Fiction: Dan Simmons: Flashback 9) Something written by a musician 10) Read a long book, something over 500 pages 11) Read something about or set in NYC 12) Read Airplane fiction (Patterson, ect): 8 different Spenser novels. 13) Read Something YA 14) Wildcard! 15) Something recently published (up to a year. The year will be the day you start this challenge) 16) That one book you’ve wanted to read for a while now. 17) The First book in a series 18) A biography or autobiography 19) Read something from the lost generation (Fitzgerald, Hemmingway, ect.) or from the Beat Genneration 20) Read a banned book 21) A Short Story collection 22) It’s a Mystery: 8 different Spensers! 1 Timothy Zahn - Dark force Rising 2. Brandon Sanderson - Shadows of Self 3. Ed. Catherine Burns: The Moth 4. Robert A Heinlein - The Cat Who Walks Through Walls 5. Drew Karpyshyn: Path of Destruction (Darth Bane) 6. Jill Climent - Act of God 7. Betty Smith - A Tree Grows in Brooklyn 8. Jim Gaffigan - Food 9. Lee Child - Worth Dying for 10. Gene Luen Yang - American Born Chinese 11. Ed McBain - The Mugger 12. Drew Karpyshyn - Rule of Two 13. John Connolly- Dark Hollow 14. Lee Child- The Affair 15. Robert B. Parker - Promised Land 16. Terry Pratchet & Stephen Baxter: The Long War 17. Robert B. Parker - A Catskill Eagle 18. Robert B. Parker - Taming a Sea-horse 19. Robert B. Parker - Pale Kings & Princes 20. Dan Simmons - Flashback 21. Robert B. Parker - Crimson Joy 22. Robert B. Parker - The Widening Gyre 23 Robert B. Parker - The Judas Goat 24. Robert B. Parker - Looking for Rachel Wallace
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Feb 20, 2016 15:58
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thespaceinvader posted:1: Chimera by Mira Grant I even managed to mostly avoid spoilers about Finally I can go back to reading the spoilers in the Sanderson thread *sigh* thespaceinvader fucked around with this message at 19:33 on Feb 25, 2016 |
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Feb 22, 2016 16:39
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