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Going for a modest 35, with the additional goal that I'll finish War and Peace this year. Goodreads
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Jan 2, 2014 15:34
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1. One Million Tiny Plays about Britain, Craig Taylor - "Everyone is stupid and predjudiced, also 'One Million' sounds better than 'Ninety-Seven'." 2. The Earth Hums in B Flat, Mari Strachan - a very languid novel that just unfolds as you read it. Really liked it, and it made an unintentional contrast between female/rural and male/urban with: 3. Mortal Engines, Philip Reeve - Always thought this was a cool premise but for whatever reason I never picked it up around the time it came out. Please consider Transformers nerds before you call your villain Magnus, it is very distracting.  I would say my favourite book from last year was Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel. Not something I'd normally read but I ended up really liking it. It's very British if that's a plus/minus at all for you.
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Jan 13, 2014 18:57
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No More Days posted:1. One Million Tiny Plays about Britain, Craig Taylor 4. Mr. China, Tim Clissold - Read it about a month ago and can't really remember much that stood out about it. Oh well. 5. Devil-Devil, Graeme Kent - it was an okay dip into a genre I don't really like much. 6. The Loyal Servant, Eva Hudson - I'm not really into thriller/detective stuff but it was free on Kindle so what the hell. I liked Angela but it ended rather abruptly. Also could have done without the 'everyone stood up and clapped' scene. 7. Morgue Drawer Four, Jutta Profijt - liked it a lot and I'll pick up the next book in the series at some point. I can see how the main character would turn people off, but it didn't feel like the author was celebrating his behaviour or presenting it as the right thing to do. 8. Letters from Mallorca, Kevin Woodrow - very, VERY '50 year old white dude opinions'. Probably would have been fine to drop halfway through, it's all more of the same. 9. The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern - really disliked it, more of a personal taste thing I think. The whole 'isn't this so wonderful and magical' atmosphere the author was going for was really grating since it didn't feel like anything had any weight behind it. I basically only finished it in the hope that the whole thing would burn down in the end. Really pretty cover art though. 10. Economyths, David Orrell - I think he only talked about the actual economy for about half of the book. The rest of the time it was about cloud systems, cancer, and probability lessons. 11. Freakonomics, Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner - When you're reading it, it's fine, but when I finished I went 'huh. Is that it?' Kind of disappointing. I'm eyeing Malcolm Gladwell's books and might try some of them instead. War and Peace progress: 930/1359. I really like how much the characters change their opinions/outlooks on life over the course of the book. Also feeling pretty good about where I'm at even though there's still like 400 pages to go. Halfway through The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin, the switch in perspectives was a fun surprise. I like to have 3 books going at once but am honestly not sure what to go for next.
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Mar 16, 2014 15:15
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12. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. le Guin 13. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood 14. Stranger Things Happen, Kelly Link 15. Oryx and Crake, Margaret Atwood 16. Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood Atwood extravaganza! I loved Handmaid's Tale so much that I'm basically OK with going through the rest of her works. I really liked Oryx and Crake but decided to take a break with Alias Grace rather than going directly to the sequel, which I'm really looking forward to. Left Hand of Darkness was solemn and really kind of beautiful, now I've had some time to digest it and get over the second half being taken up by the trek across the Ice. re: short story chat: Stranger Things Happen suffered from having one clunker that slowed the whole thing down. The survivor's ball story really dragged for me without much payoff. Picked up and dropped Lev Grossman's The Magicians after 10 pages of the main character being an odious twat. I've learnt my lesson about finishing books I don't like for no reason. I've been on the last ~100 pages of War and Peace for like a month, it's ridiculous.
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May 11, 2014 13:21
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