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An ARC of Sarah Pinborough's Behind Her Eyes, which comes out at the end of the month and is being marketed as Gone Girl written by Hitchcock. It's really well-constructed and the wacky poo poo that pops off at the end is all there in the book when you look back, so credit for that, but the whole plot pivots on the dumbest loving thing astral projection and that just destroyed it for me.
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Jan 23, 2017 01:37
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I have just finished reading The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch. It is the 6th book in his Rivers of London series and an excellent read. More mysteries are revealed and lots of exciting things explored. I would recommend it wholeheartedly.
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Jan 23, 2017 04:54
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Just finished my second read through of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel by Susanna Clarke. I decided to read it again after blasting my way through the miniseries. Still really love this book and it's an auto-recommendation whenever someone asks me for a non-fiction book.
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Jan 23, 2017 05:10
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A human heart posted:It's also very chilling because Khubilai Khan is a lot like Donald Trump in many ways lol
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Jan 23, 2017 07:39
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Dr. Pangloss posted:Just finished my second read through of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel by Susanna Clarke. I decided to read it again after blasting my way through the miniseries. Still really love this book and it's an auto-recommendation whenever someone asks me for a non-fiction book. Wait, what?
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Jan 23, 2017 07:49
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A human heart posted:It's also very chilling because Khubilai Khan is a lot like Donald Trump in many ways Except that he opened his empire to international markets and had a lot of muslims in his administration. In many ways he would have been a better president in my opinion.
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Jan 23, 2017 09:14
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Dr. Pangloss posted:Just finished my second read through of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel by Susanna Clarke. I decided to read it again after blasting my way through the miniseries. Still really love this book and it's an auto-recommendation whenever someone asks me for a non-fiction book. 
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Jan 23, 2017 13:08
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Dr. Pangloss posted:Just finished my second read through of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel by Susanna Clarke. I decided to read it again after blasting my way through the miniseries. Still really love this book and it's an auto-recommendation whenever someone asks me for a non-fiction book. Truly, this is the best of all possible posts.
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Jan 23, 2017 13:51
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I recently finished Ella Minnow Pea off a friend's recommendation and it was awfully cute. A fun read based on a amazing concept (I don't want to spoil anything)
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Jan 23, 2017 14:46
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StrixNebulosa posted:Wait, what? Bwahahaha, yeah, went brain dead for a sec. CestMoi posted:Truly, this is the best of all possible posts.  Nicely played.Dr. Pangloss fucked around with this message at 16:28 on Jan 23, 2017 |
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Jan 23, 2017 16:26
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Dr. Pangloss posted:Bwahahaha, yeah, went brain dead for a sec. Can you expand on the rec?
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Jan 24, 2017 01:44
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Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre. It's been a while since I've blown through a book this quickly. Kind of a ridiculous look at how grotesque and lovely life in small town America can get, which had me wavering at times between thinking "That's a bit much," and "Yeah, that's about right. gently caress these people," at first. It was effective at getting me angry and scared for the main character, who has enough people in his camp and makes enough stupid mistakes to keep this from being a completely one-sided persecution story. Pretty good overall. Also, reading up on this book introduced me to Theodore Dalrymple, via his hyperbolic negative review of it, and how much of a pompous, moralizing, holier-than-thou dickhead he is.
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Jan 24, 2017 04:48
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StrixNebulosa posted:Can you expand on the rec? Oh, yeah! The book is about two magicians, living in England in the 19th century. Magic is coming back into England after being dormant for centuries, and two magicians with very different feelings about how magic should be practiced emerged. What I loved about the book is that it takes a fantastic thing like magic and it puts it in the real world. It's part alt-history, part-fantasy, but the world feels authentic. And the actual writing is very good. It was a pleasure to read. Very different style, but the same sort of pleasure I get from reading Cormac McCarthy, I just love the way that Clark puts words together.
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Jan 24, 2017 05:30
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Dr. Pangloss posted:Oh, yeah! that's very ahistorical, magic was practiced continuously in england from probably the middle ages at least
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Jan 24, 2017 05:35
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Welcome to Night Vale, Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor I'd never heard of the podcast until I finished this book, so I went into the weirdness that is Night Vale fresh. All things considered, Welcome to Night Vale reminded me a lot of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. There probably is an internal and consistent structure to this setting, but gently caress if I know what it is and it mainly serves to make the plot hard to follow because it's never clear what balls-out weirdness is actually relevant to the story and what's just Night Vale being weird. At heart, the book is about two women coming to terms with human, personal problems in their lives, but there's so much weirdness for weirdness's sake that I found the core plot hard to follow and hard to care overly much about. Becoming invested in a story is somewhat difficult when for all I know the protagonists are going to be devoured by a demon-possessed child's drawing of a Muppet and it wouldn't jump out at me as being particularly strange or inconsistent with the rest of the book. There's a lot of wit and charm to the book and its setting, and I appreciate how the book handled the protagonists' relationships with the two main antagonists, but it's a tough nut to crack. Maybe if you're already invested in the series it's an easier read, and I suspect a second read down the road will be more productive.
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Jan 27, 2017 04:00
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Captain Hotbutt posted:The Last Policeman - Ben H. Winters Thanks for this recommendation! I picked up the Last Policeman and it was a breezy enjoyable read. I liked the attention to world building without falling into parody, and the mystery had a satisfying payoff. I need to get the next two in the series.
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Jan 28, 2017 17:49
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Dr. Pangloss posted:And the actual writing is very good. It was a pleasure to read. Very different style, but the same sort of pleasure I get from reading Cormac McCarthy, I just love the way that Clark puts words together. You have a very strange definition of "good" and "pleasure". Jonathan Strange was an absolute chore. I struggled through the first part, but it was so dry and tedious I gave up at that point. Recently finished The Boats of the Glen Carrig by William Hope Hodgson. It's showing its age badly now, it both ends and starts very abruptly and there's quite a lot of information that gets missed out (you don't find out until almost the last chapter that the narrator was a passenger, not crew), but when it works it really works. The mystery and the horror walk hand in hand and reward you for paying attention.
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Jan 30, 2017 10:47
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The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood. David Simon and Ed Burns. Came to this book as a huge fan of the Wire and having not seen the mini-series. Probably the best example of literary non-fiction I've read in ages. Very genuine, very intimate and the literary approach suits the stories being told. I've read a few books of late that seemed like forced and half-arsed screenplays when just basic exposition would have suited much better. So it was a joy to read. I'm not American, I have no appreciation of how Americans at large view Simon or Burns's politics and ideas. When discussing sentencing, drug policy, welfare, etc the writing in the book is very confident without coming across to me at least as being ideological or patronising.
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Jan 31, 2017 02:19
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Dr. Pangloss posted:Just finished my second read through of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel by Susanna Clarke. I decided to read it again after blasting my way through the miniseries. Still really love this book and it's an auto-recommendation whenever someone asks me for a non-fiction book. Right. I was first introduced to this through the tv-series, which was interesting enough that combined with this (which I take as a recommendation) I'm definitely reading this. Thanks! I've just finished (on a recommendation in the Aeronautical Insanity thread of all things) The Three-Body Problem, The Dark Forest and Death's End, a.k.a. Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy by Liu Cixin. My take on it is that as relatively hard Sci-Fi, it is a very refreshing contribution with a rather massive scope and a very unique perspective. As all good Sci-Fi it's a book based on some incredibly strong foundations and ideas, and inserts itself into current scientific speculation/unknowns about our galaxy and universe even tackling some realistic answers to the Fermi Paradox. To be frank, I found the premise frightening, which is the first time in a long time a book has actually given me that kind of emotional response. The translation is very good, but still I feel that a lot may have been lost in translation. I couldn't help conjuring images of some Hong Kong 80's detective movie when reading, but the content of the book doesn't really suffer significantly. It was an engaging read, not terribly difficult to get absorbed in, and overall a fantastic contribution to the genre. The trilogy is about a two-weeks read depending on the reader, and of the three books the first is probably the strongest, but not by any signifcant degree. I strongly endorse the trilogy as a Sci-Fi classic in the making, even contrasted against the Expanse series which I finished with the latest book just before reading this trilogy.
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Feb 1, 2017 12:18
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Finished Consider the Lobster and Other Essays by David Foster Wallace a couple days ago. I read this after having read his Infinite Jest a few months back and finding myself missing his writing style. Consider the Lobster and Other Essays is another of his well-regarded works and takes the form of a curated1 collection, often articles written for publications which themselves enjoy a niche readership. This may initially seem like a strange detail to highlight in the second sentence of a comedy forums post destined for niche eyes indeed but it's important to acknowledge as his tone in these articles varies strongly depending on the presumed audience2. I enjoyed most of the writing in the collection but wasn't able to drag myself through his discussion of the usage text and it's placement alongside other equally dry subject matter (this reaction was predicted by a goon in this thread after I indicated my interest in doing so4). The experience of moving quickly from one short article to the next gave both a pleasing reassurance when mired in the middle of a slow-moving segment5 as well as a sense of upcoming disappointment when enjoying an article which really resonates with you - knowing that any turned page may reveal the arid expanse of blank paper preceding the start of a new article does in fact put a damper on one's enjoyment of the writing. The article to which the entire book owes it's namesake is as fantastic a read as I was led to suspect- although I'd have enjoyed it even more had it not been hyped so much to me. Some less prominent essays demand of the reader a fair bit of insider knowledge w/r/t the field discussed in order to find much relevance. Overall I'd recommend this as either an introduction to DFW's writing style6 or as a worthwhile trial mix of his writing where the chocolate bits enjoy a per-scoop density high enough to make the occasional raisin well worth it7. 1. Self? It's not clear whether some overruling publishing authority put this together or whether he3 hand picked the articles to be assembled. 2. Which if you consider the inclusion of an article written for Rolling Stone alongside a review of an American English usage and style text can be polarizing to say the least, which even as a trite turn of phrase is not something the author had ever demonstrably been taken by. 3. Having not yet de-mapped himself - indeed recording some of the articles from this collection to publish as an audiobook in the same year as the collection was itself published. 4. In the broader sense of being excited to read the collection of articles, not necessarily Authority and American Usage, the second title given to the usage article which found itself initially published in Harper's Magazine. 5. If you've ever been on a long intercontinental flight, you'll appreciate the little joys to be found in the finite duration of an uncomfortable thing. 6. Did you make it through these footnotes? Have a headache? 7. Of course, some people do prefer raisins or at least are able to suppress their conscious preference for chocolate to the extent whereby their gastronomic enjoyment isn't as impacted when a higher-than-mean occurrence of raisins is found in a handful. This dizzying feat of mental acrobatics is regrettably out of the reach of yr. corresps. who cannot even force himself to buy a mixed bag with a high enough statistical spread of enjoyable/disappointing elements for fear of the anxiety/guilt upon realization of a bad/good handful.
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Feb 1, 2017 13:40
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I'm going to be nice about it and just say that you're overdoing it.
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Feb 1, 2017 15:12
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Just jokingly trying to provide a litmus test for people to see if they can stomach a hundred pretentious footnotes. E: I do see how it comes off as super heavy-handed. Oh well, onwards to neuromancer. VelociBacon fucked around with this message at 15:36 on Feb 1, 2017 |
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Feb 1, 2017 15:22
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I enjoyed it (both the book and your review)
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Feb 1, 2017 16:25
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VelociBacon posted:Just jokingly trying to provide a litmus test for people to see if they can stomach a hundred pretentious footnotes. Maybe I was too mean and I'm not sure if you are familiar with the trope that people claim that after reading DFW their own writing starts to mimic his. It's become a tiring cliche that seems to follow nearly every mention of someone familiarizing themself with Wallace's work.
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Feb 1, 2017 16:53
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Jerome Agricola posted:Maybe I was too mean and I'm not sure if you are familiar with the trope that people claim that after reading DFW their own writing starts to mimic his. It's become a tiring cliche that seems to follow nearly every mention of someone familiarizing themself with Wallace's work. I don't write (creatively) or discuss anything with writers so I hadn't heard of this. I don't think you were mean, it's all good.
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Feb 1, 2017 17:15
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Jerome Agricola posted:Maybe I was too mean and I'm not sure if you are familiar with the trope that people claim that after reading DFW their own writing starts to mimic his. It's become a tiring cliche that seems to follow nearly every mention of someone familiarizing themself with Wallace's work. VelociBacon posted:I don't write (creatively) or discuss anything with writers so I hadn't heard of this. I don't think you were mean, it's all good. Go on Goodreads and read any review of a DFW book. The reviews are overwhelmingly written in the exact way you wrote yours. Franchescanado fucked around with this message at 17:38 on Feb 1, 2017 |
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Feb 1, 2017 17:28
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Dfw sounds like an insufferable prick
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Feb 1, 2017 17:34
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fridge corn posted:Dfw sounds like an insufferable prick *past tense* I liked pretty much everything I ever read of his, but I always found his style (especially in Infinite Jest) difficult just for the sake of being difficult. Its easy enough to understand, but just like MZD, its not very enjoyable to read.
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Feb 1, 2017 18:25
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TommyGun85 posted:*past tense* I like a lot of what I've read, but he has some clunkers, like the dictionary essay (which gave me an appreciation of dictionaries, but is entirely over-written and partly cringe-worthy). He was the smart kid in your class that knows he's smarter than everyone, but he wants to be one of the cool kids, and wore this conflict on his sleeve. I like him in interviews, I like his fiction, but I get how frustrating he can be.
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Feb 1, 2017 19:30
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The Last Days of New Paris - China Mieville Can an entire plodding novella with cool ideas sort-of well-executed be saved by a stunner of a last chapter? Almost. It's full of awesome ideas and an interesting world, but it just never did much for me. The end of the book is incredible and such a natural progression from what came before, I kicked myself for not guessing it.
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Feb 1, 2017 20:22
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Well, I've just finished [b]The Witcher: The Tower of the Swallow[/s], after many delays. Great book - I'll definitely be picking up the final book in the series, when the English translation is released in mid-March. Only problem with TTotS is simply that it ended too soon!  Now, onto the Penguin Classics translation of Xenophon's Anabasis.
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Feb 1, 2017 20:30
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Major Isoor posted:Well, I've just finished [b]The Witcher: The Tower of the Swallow[/s], after many delays. Great book - I'll definitely be picking up the final book in the series, when the English translation is released in mid-March. Only problem with TTotS is simply that it ended too soon! that is one hell of a juxtaposition
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Feb 2, 2017 20:44
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chernobyl kinsman posted:that is one hell of a juxtaposition God drat, I should NOT post when tired! ...I was thinking about correcting it just then, but nah I think I'll leave it be, so it can remain as a monument to my complete lack of proofreading (I mean drat, I could understand using the italic code but wow, strikethrough?)
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Feb 2, 2017 22:02
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Major Isoor posted:God drat, I should NOT post when tired! ...I was thinking about correcting it just then, but nah I think I'll leave it be, so it can remain as a monument to my complete lack of proofreading no i meant going from the witcher to xenophon is an odd transition
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Feb 2, 2017 22:06
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chernobyl kinsman posted:no i meant going from the witcher to xenophon is an odd transition Yeah, for real
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Feb 2, 2017 22:13
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chernobyl kinsman posted:no i meant going from the witcher to xenophon is an odd transition Ah right, I see now. I was thinking about reading The Black Company first (as I was recommended that one in TBB rec thread), but thought I could do with a change of pace. (As I've been reading through the Witcher series without reading anything else, so I felt like trying something a bit different before diving into the grim fantasy world of TBC)
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Feb 2, 2017 22:14
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Just finished Scipio Africanus by B.H. Liddell Hart. I have mixed feelings after finishing the book this afternoon. It was very informative, clear and supported with maps to aid in the description. Hart touches on the military and political aspects of Scipio's struggle in his war on Carthage, all while describing how many of this strategic (and some tactical) executions were far ahead of his time. My mixed feelings are a result of the way that Hart gushes over his subject. The book approaches hagiography, where Scipio is not only the greatest general of Rome, but of history. And not only a great general, but one of history's great statesmen, diplomats, and individuals. There were times when the book would go on a tear about how incredibly marvelous and blameless Scipio was and I'd almost want to look away from the book just to give Hart and Scipio some alone time. That said, the awkward moments we shared were worth it, all in all, because the book is well-referenced and easy to read and follow. It's an old one, so I'm sure anyone that's done some serious history reading will likely already have read it, but for those don't know much about Scipio Africanus, this would be a good place to start.
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Feb 2, 2017 22:39
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Countdown City - Ben H. Winters (The Last Policeman #2) Taking place a few months after the first novel, the world continues to decline as people await the asteroid that will strike earth. It's a good continuation of the first book, but it's pushing the conspiracy side-plot to the forefront, and I don't know how I feel about it. The story's best when it's just "crime solving as the world goes to hell", not when the main character is on the fringes of government mistrust. I still really liked this one though, and I'll finish up the trilogy soon.
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Feb 8, 2017 01:30
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Captain Hotbutt posted:The story's best when it's just "crime solving as the world goes to hell", not when the main character is on the fringes of government mistrust. You'll see.
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Feb 8, 2017 01:41
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Almost half way through the first book in the Last Policeman series. I like the premise, but I find the writing a little lovely.
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Feb 8, 2017 01:51
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