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I finally got around to reading The Road. I got through it during a slow day at work and just felt drained and upset all evening. Now I'm slightly obsessed with disaster preparation. Even though I guess if there's a meteor or nuclear winter or whatever, it won't really matter because all of the plants will die and then everything will eventually die.  I really loved the book though, it's obviously a beautiful, dark, upsetting read. 5/5
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May 30, 2012 20:39
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Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. I thought it was good storytelling with a bit of an atypical main character. Other than that I couldn't really see what was deserving of a Pulitzer about it. 4/5 Now I'm starting The People of Paper, which Goodreads says I should enjoy.
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Jun 5, 2012 20:31
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Autumncomet posted:Just finished GRRM's A Game of Thrones on my Kindle. I've never seen the HBO series though, so now I can become cultured. Don't stop now! You only have another 865 000 pages to go until you're current! I read all five last month on my kindle. I read the hedge knight yesterday. It's quite a comforting universe to be immersed in. I really hate fantasy as a genre though, but GRRM makes the whole thing very human somehow so it's alright.
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Jun 8, 2012 02:47
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I'm not exactly a fan of medieval fantasy (but I tear through other fantasy like nothing else), but A Song of Ice and Fire is shaping up to be really good. The writing was solid; nothing special, but that's probably for the best because of all of the names. 
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Just finished The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. I now know which one of my friends were unpopular in high school and need wish fulfillment fiction. This review sums up my feelings exactly. http://ferretbrain.com/articles/article-295
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Jun 15, 2012 11:23
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Hedrigall posted:The tragic hilarity of The Name of the Wind is that, even though Kvothe is a total wish-fulfilment character who excels at EVERYTHING, he still ends up in a total Nice Guy situation with the girl he's obsessed with. And this is seen to be a good thing. Kvothe boasts about how, while whatserface sleeps with tons of other guys and never him, none of those other guys will ever be in the privileged position he's in where he gets to listen to all her woes and be her emotional crutch and yet remain totally hopelessly celibate because she's the only girl he'll ever love and she Just Doesn't See Him Like That. And Rothfuss writes this as if it's the best situation possible and we Should All Be Jealous Of Kvothe. Yeah my friends who recommended it have been urging me to start the second book. No thanks, but if anyone knows of a book about a normal innkeeper living in a fantasy world, I'd love to read that.
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Jun 15, 2012 18:51
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WeaponGradeSadness posted:I like the point the article made about how if Kvothe and Patrick Rothfuss were both women the book would be considered Twilight-level trash. It's really a striking comparison; obvious Mary Sue has all the sexy people of their preferred gender fall in love with them and never has any problem that can't be overcome with sheer force of how cool the main character is, but for some reason being written by a man makes it a wonderful work of fantasy where if it were a woman it would probably be considered Twilight 2.0. Honestly this book's more offensive to me than Twilight. At least Twilight is just a personality-less girl being fought over by two hot guys, Kvothe is every male nerd fantasy shoved into one character. At least Rothfuss's writing is better. Yeah, the quality of the writing was the only saving grace in The Name of the Wind, and even then he's not a great writer, it's just mostly innocuous. I'd really like to figure out what makes GRRM's ASOIF world so much more concrete and interesting than Rothfuss's... whatever it's called. Also:  
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Jun 18, 2012 01:16
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Just finished The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Potzsch. I really enjoy historical fiction, but this seemed a little bit far-fetched and soft for my tastes. It's really just a typical pop mystery story set in 17th century Germany. I was very excited because the protagonist is obviously a brutal, anti-heroic figure who could really do a lot to color mid-renaissance Bavaria. I mean living in a 17th century Bavarian town would loving suck. Instead, it's just a slightly different setting for a typical happy-ending, best-selling, book club favorite type mystery serial. I'm not interested in following the series at all. However, it was comfortably well-written and painless to finish. Completely innocuous. 3/5 Meanwhile I'm still pecking away at Gilead by Marilyn Robinson, and my phone lost my place in the audiobook of Lolita, which is very dark and funny, in my opinion, so I put that on hold this week. I also started Thinner by Stephen King, but I can't see myself finishing it.
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Jun 24, 2012 17:12
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TFNC posted:Is it the one read by Jeremy Irons? Because that one owns and all y'all should listen to it. Haha yes! It's a really good production.
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Jun 25, 2012 20:30
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The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz I don't really get why this book won the Pulitzer. It's really just a novel about getting laid and how a family's curse is that getting laid keeps screwing them over somehow. When you combine this theme with the fact that the narrative is full of: idiosyncratic Spanish that had me going to google translate constantly and still not getting the meaning of large passages, obscure regional slang (what is getting "bopped" in New Jersey, exactly?), obscure comic book and sci-fi references, and shifting perspective without shifting tone in a very confusing manner, I just didn't enjoy it. The first third of the novel was incredibly slow-going for me, then it picked up after the identity of the narrator was determined. I really enjoyed the 1940s section before "The Fall". Looking for either a good zombie book (I've read WWZ) or maybe The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, since it sounds really good and I want some classic sci fi now.
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Jul 6, 2012 23:31
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WoG posted:What an odd take on it. He writes memoirs, how else could he be? Yeah seconding this, his books are great but Sedaris is very good at reading comedy as well. He has great cadence and style. You should try one out for your next road trip or something.
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Jul 11, 2012 10:22
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The Passage by Justin Cronin This book was definitely part Andromeda Strain and part The Stand. If you like either, especially The Stand, you'll probably enjoy it. Basic premise: Government/military finds a virus in the jungles of Bolivia that has the capacity to make people immortal monsters (vampires, it's just dumb, mutant vampires). Decides to take the virus into a lab to see if they can weaponize it or turn it into medicine. Apocalypse ensues. Throughout the book Cronin makes attempts at poetic narrative which fall flat in a way that I can't really explain. The first act is very much Andromeda Strain, with much more compelling characters, less Crichton-esque MD sperging, and some very well done storytelling for the genre. The geopolitical situation that Cronin hints at is fairly different from ours, but I hope that it gets fleshed out in the next two books because it was really just mentioned in passing ("The 2008 terrorist attacks in Chicago") and it seems like he's created an interesting alternate world. The second act is the post-apocalyptic setting act, set 100 years in the future in "First Colony". This is much more The Stand and very much not The Road. A poorly characterized gang of under-introduced or stereotypical (yeah the redhead gets superpowers) people decide to save the world one set-piece at a time. I have a huge hard-on for post-apocalyptic fiction, and this was really not poorly written at all, or gag-inducing, so I loved it. YMMV. 4/5 for making vampires cool again. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein Yeah this is excellent classic sci-fi. Heinlein writes about a penal colony on the Moon. The prisoners decide to revolt because they are in a trade relationship with Earth that can only end in depletion of the Moon's natural resources, the revolt is made possible and helped along by the Lunar Authority's supercomputer that gains sentience one day. Like all really good classic science fiction, the setting is pretty much tertiary. This is a novel about developing countries, political ideology, class war, globalization, gender issues (marriage is a gender issue, right?), and so much more than just a moon colony. I really really liked it, and it's made me want to start reading more classic sci-fi. 4/5 Just started Rocannon's World by Ursula K. Le Guin. tuyop fucked around with this message at 19:02 on Jul 29, 2012 |
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Jul 27, 2012 23:13
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Rocannon's World by Ursula K. Le Guin 3/5 Obviously her first novel, the characterization was pretty weak. I read The Left Hand of Darkness in High School and I think I'm going to gradually make my way through the Hainish series. On to Starship Troopers now!
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Jul 29, 2012 19:02
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I tried to read Wolf Hall but only made it half way and just couldn't stand it anymore. Then... Read The Magic of Thinking Big. I'm on some kind of a self-help book kick these days, and this one is one of the best I've read so far. It had quite a few hilarious 1950s examples, everyone's been in the war, the ideal is a big new house in the suburbs, et cetera. But the message is very powerful and I've found that implementing Schwartz's lessons has really helped keep me positive. Heartily recommended. Started the Discworld books, just read The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantasic, this is just really great, silly entertainment. I don't mind it at all and each one only takes a day or two to read so I'll probably just continue on through all 49 of the books. And, since the movie is coming out, I read Ender's Game. Ender is a bit of a Marty Stu, but the story is really great anyway. I loved this book and I'm starting the next one, Speaker for the Dead, now. Excellent sci fi.
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Jun 7, 2013 16:14
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MentholsNBeer posted:I couldn't get through that book. Just walking in that character's shoes was so uncomfortable. Lolita is amazing and that's totally part if the appeal.
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Jun 14, 2014 05:58
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Jedit posted:You may want to rephrase that. It sounds like you're talking about the character. How? I thought the fact that the book is so uncomfortable to read because it's told from the perspective of a pedophile is one of the coolest things about Lolita. He's talking about that exact thing.
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Jun 14, 2014 19:13
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The Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman. It's about the people who drive giant robots with their minds, the giant robots require them to be jacked together in an empathic way for some reason that's brushed off. Haldeman seems to just nerd out about the tech in his books a bit much for me. It was cool in Forever War because there was some cool time dilation involved, but it seemed a bit more gratuitous in this one. Other parts were cool, perspective shifts in an interesting, seamless way, quotation marks are dropped and it's not really confusing. So that was all a success. It just seems like the characters are kind of secondary to the world the author wants to create. What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell. Yeah yeah, Malcolm Gladwell. This is a collection of a bunch of his NYT articles. Most are quite good. I honestly like Gladwell because he takes ancient discoveries in the social sciences that haven't taken hold with the public and makes them more accessible.
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Jun 26, 2014 13:26
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Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault. I had skimmed this for a course during my BA but totally didn't get it. Now, a few years and many other books later, it makes perfect sense. It's pretty much the opposite of Malcolm Gladwell but if you have a background in Sociology and don't mind staring at pages to puzzle out meaning a few dozen times, there's really nothing else like Foucault*. I'd say this is the quantum physics of the social sciences, complete with the necessary barrier to entry. * I shouldn't really say that, I think reading Sartre is similar, and Fanon has his moments. There's definitely a sort of French ivory tower genre. That doesn't explain loving Spivak, though. tuyop fucked around with this message at 15:50 on Jun 27, 2014 |
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Jun 27, 2014 15:48
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Gertrude Perkins posted:Right now I am about a third of the way through Liminal States and this is in no way what I was expecting - I'm hooked. Wait is that by like our Zack Parsons (goodreads says yes)? Tank is fight guy? And it's a genuinely good book?
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Jun 29, 2014 00:36
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Zsa Zsa Gabor posted:Finished Martin Meredith's The State of Africa: A History of the Continent Since Independence this morning. It's very depressing and, at times, horrifying. Holy poo poo I want to read this, but it's not available as an ebook. gently caress buying and reading a 768 page nonfiction tome ever again. Wait, it loving is but only in the UK. What the gently caress? tuyop fucked around with this message at 01:54 on Sep 24, 2014 |
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Sep 24, 2014 01:52
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Zsa Zsa Gabor posted:I'm one of those really old-fashioned people that refuse to read books in digital format, so wouldn't know anything about that, but I couldn't recommend it enough. It's a really great read. The chapter on the Rwandan genocide is particulary harrowing (I had no idea the French had played such a big role in this particular tragedy). When I was writing my honours thesis I stumbled upon translated first-hand accounts of aid workers in Rwanda and Somalia in the 90s and I remember having to stop my work because I couldn't stop crying. Africa, man.
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Sep 24, 2014 13:42
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Lord Hydronium posted:In the US it's called The Fate of Africa. So it is, I thought that was something else. Getting this right now. Thanks.
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Sep 24, 2014 15:33
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tetrapyloctomy posted:I just finished S., the (fictional) 1949 novel Ship of Theseus by the (fictional) V.M. Strake with footnotes by the (fictional) F.X. Caldeira and annotations by the (fictional) ... you get the idea. I had heard about this, it sounds cool as hell. Thanks for the review.
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Oct 10, 2014 02:09
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DannyTanner posted:As someone who thought The Goldfinch was okay (didn't like Vegas or the conclusion), I really liked The Secret History. Yeah I don't really understand why it won a Pulitzer, though it was definitely a good read, just not amazing like some of the other Pulitzer winners I've read (looking at you, Tinkers, The Road, and Beloved!). Edit: Seriously, Tinkers is such a loving good book I can't read it without getting emotional.
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Oct 19, 2014 05:05
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Sadsack posted:I just finished Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. And I frigging loved it. When I got it I thought it would mainly be about courtly goings on with chapter after chapter of bland men and women speaking in Olde English, and page after page of tedious court decorum. I was wrong. Instead it's full of politics, back stabbing, heretics and Anne Boleyn being an alpha-bitch. Thomas Cromwell is painted as a ruthless but not unkind polymath whose genius slowly works him up the political food chain. Along the way he spars and destroys a number of opponents, but does it without satisfaction or remorse. He's a complex character who sees himself as a perpetual outsider a court, a rough handed mercenary turned political fixer in a world of lords and ladies. The book is centred entirely on him, but it never grates or grows tedious. Mantel has made him fascinating enough to carry the whole thing. I couldn't get through it, I think I just don't like that sort of historical fiction that much.
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Oct 23, 2014 00:14
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Bilirubin posted:Just finished the Area X trilogy by Vandermeer. Was good stuff! And just in time for the movie I really liked the first one and third. I read all three during a resort vacation and I actually had nightmares, which never happens for me. If that does it for you, I’d recommend Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff and The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle.
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Feb 24, 2018 02:37
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I disliked the second one for its treatment of female characters, but the third was very upsetting to me in the same way as Seveneves, if you read that. I’d recommend sticking through the series.
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Mar 24, 2018 19:44
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Captain Hotbutt posted:A Darker Shade of Magic - V.E. Schwab I was recommended that series by a colleague and I thought it was just full of clumsy prose and Mary Sue-isms. I was embarrassed to be reading it. I haven’t actually encountered any palatable fantasy apart from ASOIAF and Uprooted by Naomi Novik, even scouring the Nebula and Locus award lists. I guess All the Birds in the Sky qualifies as fantasy? Even that was a bit cringe-inducing at points. I’ve just given up on the genre at this point but It’d be great to see some quality writing there.
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Mar 25, 2018 15:55
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funkybottoms posted:tuyop, have you read any Gene Wolfe or Ursula K LeGuin? Oh yeah I love Ursula K. LeGuin, I just thought that was Sci Fi rather than fantasy. Gene Wolfe does sound more up my alley, I’ll add him to the queue. Also, are there any normal looking fantasy authors? Between Gene Wolfe and Patrick Rothfuss I’m just  at the whole persona.
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Mar 26, 2018 03:27
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Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky Holy poo poo this is one of the best Sci Fi books I’ve ever read. The scope and connection to alien characters and emotional highs and low and imagination of it were spectacular. It also doesn’t suffer from the Neal Stephenson problem of epic Sci Fi where the third act just falls apart. I’m a bit heartbroken that it’s over. The closest thing in terms of quality and atmosphere that I can recall is probably Kim Stanley Robinson’s Aurora. I’m reading Semiosis right now for a similar fix, but I don’t think it’s going to be quite as good.
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Apr 13, 2018 04:26
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Semiosis was not as good. Still a fine, but forgettable, Sci Fi book. I think it fell apart because the plant character just wasn't alien enough. Like, a plant should be loving weird, but this wasn't really that weird.
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Apr 20, 2018 03:34
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Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson might do it for you. The more fun books I’ve read in recent memory were the Area X trilogy by Vandermeer, the bobiverse books (don’t judge me), the Martian. Stuff like that.
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May 2, 2018 22:00
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On a lighter note: thanks for the Gene Wolfe recommendation. Finished Shadow of the Torturer, it was really good! I’ll get into some more soon, I’m sure.
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May 11, 2018 19:20
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That book is a very weak representation in my opinion. I actually stopped reading it because I just couldn’t care about those people. Most of his work is very character-focused. Of what I’ve read, I’d rank them like this: 1. The Years of Rice and Salt: alternate history with a reincarnation framing device where the plague kills 99% of Europe’s population instead of whatever it did kill. 2. Aurora: generation ship takes colonists to a new world where the ship itself is one of the main characters. 3. The Mars Trilogy: this is a distant third. It’s an epic story about terraforming and political philosophy on mars. It’s alright but I think there have been much better books with the same themes. 3. 2312: ugh, I can’t stand these characters or their stupid bougie space struggles. 4. New York 2140
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May 22, 2018 15:28
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I’m so into indigenous futurism that I don’t even care if that book is any good, I want to buy it.
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Jun 11, 2018 04:00
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A human heart posted:I don't really understand why its good that a by the numbers YA fantasy book has an African cultural veneer now when books by Africans that emphasise African culture that are also actually good to read in your brain exist. Like if you want 'fantasy' drawing on West African culture why would you read that book instead of Amos Tutuola, for instance. It doesn't seem very progressive to me to write genre fiction that's exactly the same as before except there are references to African gods and black people instead of like norse myth or elves or whatever. To use your example, African culture and African people are not monolithic. There’s space for more traditional cultural stories, more imaginative cultural stories that adapt or reject tradition, and there’s space for a reimagining of that culture the same way mainstream western culture has been reimagined in all sorts of SF and Fantasy for like a century now. It’s progressive because it provides a section of the population with a version of itself as different in some way that might help a group of those people see themselves in novel and liberating ways. If you only see traditional, static versions of people like you, or versions that you think are boring or trite, it can be really alienating and hazardous. It’s easy to imagine it the other way. When I was a young adult, I saw all these young adult stories and they were obsessed with poo poo like monogamy and really basic questions of identity like what white middle class people should do when they leave home. I had no interest in those stories, but since I’m a white man it was easy to find literally any other representation of myself in literature. The effect is a kind of freedom to not just reproduce the young adult narrative or otherwise feel lost and alone. You can take pieces of all the media you encounter and imagine a more complex - and personally accurate - identity for yourself.
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Jun 12, 2018 13:18
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Does it have those same Scalzi problems where all of his characters are two dimensional nerdcore snark machines that sound exactly the same or did he grow out of that?
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Jun 20, 2018 00:10
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Speaking of books nobody else has read, did anyone else read “Dear American Airlines” by Jonathan Miles? I bought it in an airport during a layover years ago and devoured it as quickly and shamelessly as possible. I remember it being good but I bet it wasn’t!
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Jun 21, 2018 12:47
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I’m really surprised to find anyone else who read it, even though it obviously had distribution! I think Angela’s Ashes or maybe Teacher Man by Frank McCourt hisself grabbed me the same way, and somehow All the Lights We Cannot See, though they’re very different. On the comedy side, a lot of the Bill Bryson memoire stuff like A Walk In the Woods and I’m a Stranger Here Myself scratched the same sort of itch for me.
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Jun 23, 2018 05:07
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I’m always disappointed by the Hugo awards, I feel like ~the community~ is really not a good judge of good books.
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Jul 10, 2018 05:24
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Solitair posted:1: Raven Stratagem by Yoon Ha Lee (finalist) Yeah I wouldn’t call any of those great. Hurley’s The Stars are Legion is better than all of the batch and it possibly wasn’t as good as Borne by Vandermeer. Even The Rise and Fall of DODO was silly and fun and still just fine, but not on the list!
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Jul 24, 2018 04:04
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