Bilirubin posted:Wonderful Life is no joke one of the best science-for-the-general-public books ever written. its unbelievably good yeah. bits of it are outdated (e.g. hallucigenia doesnt actually walk the way gould thought it walked) but its overall solid and essential reading imo
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# ? Jun 10, 2024 15:01 |
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Alastair Reynolds went off the deep end with his latest novel and I'm running out of 'hard' sci fi to read. Also just finished 'Borne' by Jeff Vandemeer which I liked immensely more than the Reach trilogy. Recommended!
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Brinner posted:Alastair Reynolds went off the deep end with his latest novel and I'm running out of 'hard' sci fi to read. Have you read Stephen Baxter's NASA Trilogy? Voyage, Titan, and Moonseed? Or his XeeLee series?
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Humbug Scoolbus posted:Have you read Stephen Baxter's NASA Trilogy? Voyage, Titan, and Moonseed? Or his XeeLee series? I've read the NASA trilogy and some of his Xeelee sequence. Maybe I'll go back and finish that if I can remember most of it..
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I need a couple more Book of the Month suggestions so I can throw up a poll.
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:I need a couple more Book of the Month suggestions so I can throw up a poll. Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl Solaris by Stanislaw Lem Abolition of Species by Dietmar Dath
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Brinner posted:Alastair Reynolds went off the deep end with his latest novel and I'm running out of 'hard' sci fi to read. Trajectory series by Rob Campbell (disclosure: author is a friend, but I really liked them).
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:I need a couple more Book of the Month suggestions so I can throw up a poll. StrixNebulosa posted:Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
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thanks folks that's enough I could have sworn we'd already done Solaris maybe I just put it in prior polls
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:thanks folks that's enough I checked the past threads and it's not in there, so maybe it was done pre 2014? ![]() Either way I need an excuse to read it, it's sitting right next to me taunting me, but I'm reading Groundties and Man's Search for Meaning instead.
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Franchescanado posted:The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey Solid Did I recommend that to you?
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Mel Mudkiper posted:Solid Yep
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Human Tornada posted:What is Don Winslow's stuff like? The local place has The Cartel for for 3.99 used. I liked The Cartel and it's sequel, but I have a particular interest in drug trafficking and the War on Drugs. I know many (most?) parts of both novels are based on things that actually happened, just wish I knew better which parts are fact-based and which are pure fiction.
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I have a book recommendation for everyone: join the Book Barn Secret Santa. You'll get a surprise book present and the joy of sharing a book you love with someone else. Last year was a big success so I'm sure this year will be too. If you're interested, please pop over to the thread: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3838647
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Safety Biscuits posted:I have a book recommendation for everyone: join the Book Barn Secret Santa. You'll get a surprise book present and the joy of sharing a book you love with someone else. Last year was a big success so I'm sure this year will be too. If you're interested, please pop over to the thread: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3838647 I would, except that I don't want to receive books from random people on this forum.
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can i get recommendations for fiction by catalan authors?
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practically anything by Quim Monzó is fun if not super substantial, Mercè Rodoreda is good if a bit old fashioned. Albert Sánchez Piñol's The Cool Skin is supposed to be good, but I haven't read it yet. Juan Marsé is writing in Spanish, but he's often piled together with Catalans (and he considers himself as such), and definitely worth reading.
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thank you
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Is Blackwater by McDowell super good?
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Burning Rain posted:practically anything by Quim Monzó is fun if not super substantial, Mercè Rodoreda is good if a bit old fashioned. Albert Sánchez Piñol's The Cool Skin is supposed to be good, but I haven't read it yet. Juan Marsé is writing in Spanish, but he's often piled together with Catalans (and he considers himself as such), and definitely worth reading. Quim is a bad rear end name to have
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It's actually a pussy name.
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Junkie Disease posted:Is Blackwater by McDowell super good? I picked it up due to some strong recommendations and Ive stopped reading 13% in, as I'm not enjoying it. Early book spoilers: So some ancient river spirit/monster comes to town with a flood then instead of doing anything interesting she get married and settles down. I mean she's killed one kid but come on, give me blood. The reveal that the newcomer is a monster was immediate and really anticlimactic, loads of suspense could have been built with that. Instead we have a sort of little women esq portail of small town life, except of of the women is some kind of elemental monster, its un-fun nonsense for the moment.
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Dirty Frank posted:I picked it up due to some strong recommendations and Ive stopped reading 13% in, as I'm not enjoying it. Maybe you should consider what the book is doing, rather than what you wanted it to do in your imagination space.
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Dirty Frank posted:I picked it up due to some strong recommendations and Ive stopped reading 13% in, as I'm not enjoying it.
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A human heart posted:Maybe you should consider what the book is doing, rather than what you wanted it to do in your imagination space. Lol, theres no way you think Blackwater is a good book.
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anilEhilated posted:I liked it a lot, but it is not a horror novel so if you expect that you will be disappointed. It could be an expectations thing, I did think it was going to be a bit of fun horror going in. Not sure if that was fair based on the recommendations or more my imagination.
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Junkie Disease posted:Is Blackwater by McDowell super good? Its a masterpiece and one of the great forgotten gems of American Literature imho Just go in knowing its not a horror novel, its a terrific Southern Gothic novel where one character just so happens to be an immortal river monster who eats children Dirty Frank posted:
So basically you went in hoping it would be bad and generic and are pissed off its good and interesting
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Mel Mudkiper posted:Its a masterpiece and one of the great forgotten gems of American Literature imho basically yes (although it doesn't seem very interesting so far). It amazes me its being described as a "gems of American Literature" though, haha. Either a total expectation mismatch, or mental goons either way I guess I'll give it another go.
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Dirty Frank posted:basically yes (although it doesn't seem very interesting so far). It amazes me its being described as a "gems of American Literature" though, haha. Either a total expectation mismatch, or mental goons either way I guess I'll give it another go. It's no Faulkner or Flannery but it's waaay better than it has any right to be, to the point that it can create cognitive dissonance in the reader. Pretty much whatever expectation you have going in, it's going to be something different.
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Dirty Frank posted:basically yes (although it doesn't seem very interesting so far). It amazes me its being described as a "gems of American Literature" though, haha. Either a total expectation mismatch, or mental goons either way I guess I'll give it another go. i cannot comprehend books that do not adhere slavishly to genre conventions, which i have internalized so deeply that they have become my substitute for aesthetic standards i also have necrotic brain lesions chernobyl kinsman fucked around with this message at 16:42 on Oct 31, 2017 |
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:It's no Faulkner or Flannery but it's waaay better than it has any right to be, to the point that it can create cognitive dissonance in the reader. Pretty much whatever expectation you have going in, it's going to be something different. chernobyl kinsman posted:i cannot comprehend books that do not adhere slavishly to genre conventions, which i have internalized so deeply that they have become my substitute for aesthetic standards
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Could someone recommend a couple of crimey books? Like a true crime book that's interesting and also a fiction crime book? I tried an agatha christie but pretty quickly i found the writing to be slightly old fashioned, talking about a factotum and how children "are, they just are"
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Dirty Frank posted:Lol, theres no way you think Blackwater is a good book. I've never read it, I just think you're approaching a book in a stupid way.
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Crankit posted:Could someone recommend a couple of crimey books? Like a true crime book that's interesting and also a fiction crime book? Non-Fiction In Cold Blood by Truman Capote The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer As for fiction, are you looking for a book about solving a murder, or a book about a murder that isn't a mystery? A human heart posted:I've never read it, I just think you're approaching a book in a stupid way. u should
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Mel Mudkiper posted:Non-Fiction Thanks, I didn't consider that there might be non-mystery, I don't mind which for the fiction book.
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Crankit posted:Thanks, I didn't consider that there might be non-mystery, I don't mind which for the fiction book. James Ellroy’s LA Quartet books
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Crankit posted:Could someone recommend a couple of crimey books? Like a true crime book that's interesting and also a fiction crime book? For fiction, Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler.
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Crankit posted:Could someone recommend a couple of crimey books? Like a true crime book that's interesting and also a fiction crime book? I didn't like Murder on the Orient Express years ago, but And Then There Were None is fantastic. Non-Fiction Devil in the White City (Erik Larson) - HH Holmes and the Columbian Exposition Satan's Circus (Mike Dash) - police corruption and the dying days of Tammany Hall's influence And the Dead Shall Rise (Steve Oney) - Leo Frank. Racial and geographical/class issues in the 1910s south. For the Thrill of It (Simon Baatz) - Leopold and Loeb Not recommended for you because it has some very annoying character speech tics, takes way too long to get started and drags on too long at the end, but someone out there might enjoy Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy. The middle section, about 300 pages worth, is extremely good. Several works have been based on it, including A Place in the Sun. Very heavily based on a true story.
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Hi thread I'm looking for a good non-fiction book of the French Revolution that isn't as dry as a textbook
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# ? Jun 10, 2024 15:01 |
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Meyers-Briggs Testicle posted:Hi thread Hi Testicle I remember this one as being a fun read: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/527523.Citizens
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