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Safety Biscuits
Oct 21, 2010

Franchescanado posted:

I feel like this is a reference to the Kenosha Kid gag?

ulvir posted:

speculative might not be the correct phrasing, but around the midpoint Pynchon goes on for several pages discussing phonetics in a bunch of languages (some of which I believe are fictional) and a grapheme. reminded me of Borges tbh

I don't remember this section at all but I have a vague idea it's something to do with Tchitcherine. Man there was so much in that book and so much went over my head.

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Siminu
Sep 6, 2005

No, you are the magic man.

Hell Gem
post in the goddamn thread with some regularity: 1/12

1. Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente was beautiful and bleak. As a communist, wartime re-telling of Russian folklore, this is fitting. I'm going to read more of her books, because her prose is wonderful in it's vivid smoothness.

2 (Poetry, or Maybe Translated). The Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyam, Edward Fitzgerald translation, was very good. I found it surprisingly fun and encouraging at it's shallowest level. I'm sure much of the deeper interpretation I took away is a result of the translation, and am going to have to dig up some other versions to see how the symbolism shifts.

3(Historical?). The Last Days of New Paris by China Miéville was pretty weird, and ended up totally batshit. I expected this, and liked it a lot. I'm sure I lack the background education in surrealist art to fully pick up what the author was putting down.

Franchescanado
Feb 23, 2013

If it wasn't for disappointment
I wouldn't have any appointment

Grimey Drawer

Safety Biscuits posted:

I don't remember this section at all but I have a vague idea it's something to do with Tchitcherine. Man there was so much in that book and so much went over my head.

You never did? The Kenosha kid.
YOU! Never did the Kenosha, kid.

How language, context, meaning, rhythm, etc. is susceptible to even the slightest change in grammar. This is when Slothrop is being, what, hypnotized? And then he has the dream where he falls in the toilet after his harmonica and almost gets raped by Malcom X.

I admit that I don't remember Tchitcherine much, or much of the Schwarzkommando or otukungurna sections.

ToxicFrog
Apr 26, 2008


1. Foreigner by C.J. Cherryh
2. Invader by C.J. Cherryh
3. Inheritor by C.J. Cherryh

I don't, in general, think that Foreigner is Cherryh's best work, and I'm kind of disappointed that she seems to have gotten into a groove of writing ~infinity Foreigner books rather than, say, more books in Compact Space, or the sequel that Cyteen wants (and didn't get in Regenesis). Despite that, these books are an old favourite, warm, comfortable, and familiar. They don't have nearly the degree of nostalgia attached to them that the Chanur books do, but they're relaxing in a way Chanur generally isn't.

That said, ever since I heard someone say that "all of C.J. Cherryh's books end with a bus ride to a gunfight", I can't unsee it, and it's really obvious in the first three Foreigner books.

I'm planning to read up through book 15 this year, although not all at once.

4. The New Space Opera 2 by Gardner Dozois (ed.)

There were no stories in this that I absolutely loved and compelled me to seek out the rest of the author's work, but lots that I liked; I don't think I can pick out a favourite. The weakest ones were definitely Cracklegrackle by Christina Robson and The Far End of History by John C. Wright, though. All in all, a solid collection.

5. Precursor by C.J. Cherryh
6. Defender by C.J. Cherryh
7. Explorer by C.J. Cherryh

Foreigner arc 2. This, for me, is where it gets interesting, with the Atevi reaching out into space and encountering another alien species, against the backdrop of the tension between Phoenix command and the Pilot's Guild. If I have one complaint it's that first contact with the Kyo seems to go a bit too quickly and easily -- granted, no faster than in The Pride of Chanur, and it's explicable by the fact that the Kyo seem to have encountered a number of other spacefaring species already and Prakuyo presumably has specialized training for that, but it still bugs me.

On the other hand, this trilogy features a lot more Illisidi, which forgives many sins.

This is where my reading of Foreigner stopped last time (on account of running out of books). A bunch more have been written since then, and my plan this year is to continue reading through to the end of Arc 5.

8. The Book of Night with Moon by Diane Duane
9. To Visit the Queen by Diane Duane

Same setting as So You Want To Be A Wizard, different protagonists -- this time the team of feline wizards responsible for maintaining the Grand Central Station worldgate complex in NYC. Neither, I think, is as tightly plotted as SYWTBAW, but Moon is an old favourite that I've read probably a dozen times over the years and keep coming back to. It's a warm, cozy hit of nostalgia that I can read in an afternoon and enjoy the book equivalent of having an old, lazy cat sprawled across my lap.

Queen I've only read once before, and on re-read, I see why; it's good enough, but I only like it, I don't love it.

Apparently there was a third book, The Big Meow, but it was crowdfunded and released online on a site that no longer exists. :(

10. Critical Failures by Robert Bevan
11. d6 by Robert Bevan
12. Fail Harder by Robert Bevan

Perennial favourites of the SF/F thread here, a tale of four assholes who piss off the GM in a game of D&D Caverns and Creatures, only to get trapped inside the game when it turns out that he is an actual loving wizard.

This is...I'm honestly not sure how I feel about it. On the one hand, the protagonists are a group of painfully unfunny douchenozzles who probably deserve to spend four books and change getting dicked around by a vengeful wizard god. On the other hand, the situations they find themselves in -- and the ways they escape -- are often genuinely (if morbidly) funny. At this point I'm much more interested in their continuing misadventures than in the overarching plot of their attempts to get back home.

I don't think I can take long runs of this, but I will likely return to it later.

Horse.

13. Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut

My first Vonnegut! I've had two others on my shelves for years (Cat's Cradle and Timequake), but somehow never got around to them. But this was the BOTM, and it was a blast. I went through it in a day and enjoyed every page of it, and I think it might benefit from a slower reread sometime next year.

It also reminds me, although I can't put my finger on why, of some of Stanislaw Lem's work.

14. The Futurological Congress by Stanislaw Lem

And here's Lem! All I knew going into this was that it was an Ijon Tichy book, so I was expecting something similar to The Star Diaries. What I got was a drug-fuelled descent into madness, like if Memoirs Found in a Bathtub mellowed out a bit and took a massive hit of LSD. A+, would recommend.

And as I cast back my mind to ten years ago and remember what The Star Diaries were actually like, maybe that shouldn't have been so surprising. I should reread them.


Booklord Challenge Update (bold == updated this month)
As with other years, I'm counting books that hit multiple categories for all of them, but if I later get a chance to de-duplicate categories I will.

pre:
1) 96 books, ≥10% nonfiction, ≤25% rereads
      14/96 books, 0 nonfiction (0%), 8 rereads (57%)
2) ≥20% by women
      8/14 books (57%)
3) ≥20%10% by non-white authors
      0/14 books (0%)
4) at least one20% by LGBT authors.
      6/14 books (42%)
5) At least one TBB BoTM and post in the monthly thread about it.
      Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut
6) A book someone else in the thread recommends (a wildcard!)
7) Something that was recently published (anything from after 1st January 2016).
8) Something which was published before you were born.
      Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut
      The Futurological Congress by Stanislaw Lem
9) Something in translation.
      The Futurological Congress by Stanislaw Lem
10) Something from somewhere you want to travel.
11) Something political.
12) Something historical.
12a) Something about the First World War.
13) Something biographical.
14) Some poetry.
15) A play.
16) A collection of short stories.
17) Something long (500+ pages).
      Explorer by C.J. Cherryh
18) Something which was banned or censored.
19) A satire.
20) Something about honour.
21) Something about fear.
22) Something about one (or more!) of the seven sins.
23) Something that you love.
      The Book of Night with Moon by Diane Duane
24) Something from a non-human perspective.
      To Visit the Queen by Diane Duane

Mollsmolyneux
Feb 7, 2008

"You're not married, you haven't got a girlfriend... and you've never watched "Star Trek?"
Good Lord
January update:

1. The Dresden Files #2 - Fool Moon by Jim Butcher
I enjoyed this book, but it certainly isn't as good as the first. All the references to different types of werewolves certainly don't add a lot to the story other than making it confusing to work out which characters are what. The villain's final scheme is a bit convoluted, but it is a fantasy book.

2. The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin
Very good, but a little heavy towards the end. Very technical in the last few chapters. The first two parts of the books as the mystery of "Three-Body" is unravelled and great. The history of the Red Coast in the political atmosphere of the Cultural Revolution was also fascinating, especially as I know very little about Chinese history. Will definitely be picking up the other two at some point.


1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. 2/25
1a) Read 10 books that I owned before August 2016 0/10
2) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 0/5
3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 1/5
4) Read at least one book by an LGBT author.
5) Read at least one TBB BoTM and post in the monthly thread about it.
6) Read a book someone else in the thread recommends (a wildcard!)
7) Read something that was recently published (anything from after 1st January 2016).
8) Read something which was published before you were born.
9) Read something in translation. Three-Body Problem
10) Read something from somewhere you want to travel.
11) Read something political.
12) Read something historical.
12a) Read something about the First World War.
13) Read something biographical.
14) Read some poetry.
15) Read a play.
16) Read a collection of short stories.
17) Read something long (500+ pages).
18) Read something which was banned or censored.
19) Read a satire.
20) Read something about honour.
21) Read something about fear.
22) Read something about one (or more!) of the seven sins. The Dresden Files - Fool Moon about wrath/anger
23) Read something that you love.
24) Read something from a non-human perspective.


Book Barn Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/2686-book-barn-goons?ref=nav_bar_discussions_pane_group

Mollsmolyneux fucked around with this message at 16:31 on Feb 3, 2017

Enfys
Feb 17, 2013

The ocean is calling and I must go

January update:

1. Shift - Hugh Howey

Didn't start off the year that great. 2nd in a post-apocalyptic series about people who live in underground silos. This author is a very mixed bag. The first book started out really interesting but then started having nonsensical elements and a weak ending. I wouldn't have continued the series at all, but it contained a teaser chapter from the start of the second book, which is the story of how the world ended and early history of the silos. Again, this started out as a really fascinating book, even better than the first. Then about a third of the way in, a second storyline is inserted with a bizarre, apparently near-immortal character (never explained). It switched between these two stories, one fascinating and the other boring and nonsensical, which seemed to exist mostly as a kind of fan-service to the first book. Finally that ends, and then yet another fan-service storyline begins, slightly more interesting but also containing inexplicable events and even less necessary to the main (and more interesting plot). The main plot line comes to a screeching and sudden halt as well, the main character doing a 180.

I started reading the last of the three books before realising I just don't want to continuing wasting my time. He already fooled me twice.

2. Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith - Jon Krakauer

This book is an examination of religious belief through the lens of Mormonism/Latter Day Saints, with a particular exploration of fundamentalism and extreme belief. A recurring focus of the book is the murder of a woman and her baby by two fundamentalist brothers. Not being into true crime writing, I didn't enjoy that aspect of the book, and at times I felt that the book invited a sort of voyeuristic pleasure in the graphic details of murder, incest, and paedophilia it discussed which really put me off. I really enjoyed the incredibly detailed historical and theoretical parts of the book. It is a thoroughly researched and well written account of the founding of a major religion less than 200 years ago and the implications of its spread and history.

3. Empathy Exams - Leslie Jamison

I ended up hating this so much. There have been books I haven't enjoyed before, but few that I actively loathed as much as this one. I was expecting to like it based on all the positive attention and praise it's received. Then again, I also thought it would have something to do with empathy. When described, all anyone seems to mention is the first essay on the author's experience acting as a patient for student doctors. That essay (and the Barkley marathon/Morgellons essays) were interesting, but the rest were just a chance for the author to prove what an insufferable, self-absorbed arse she is.

She writes like a dumb teenager who just smoked pot for the first time and is completely convinced that she has all these incredibly profound revelations and world views that you just wouldn't understand, and like, she was in love with this poet who said deep things about her because she's, like, so deep, you just don't even know. The topics she writes about might be interesting if she stopped turning everything into narcissistic navel-gazing rumination about herself - how great she is, how much she has suffered, how no one (including herself) really understands how amazing she is and how much she has suffered, how many guys were just totally obsessed with her and said these deep things about how deep and mysterious she is. She even has a chapter where she talks about how she had her friends read her essays and how they all said it was just so amazing, for reals.

Go read a teenage art student's diary, and you have this book, complete with excessive discussion of the metaphorical meanings of menstruation.

4. Mother Night - Kurt Vonnegut

BOTM. Loved this, loved the discussion, want to read more Vonnegut. Made me feel uncomfortable as well.

5. The Memory of Running - Ron McLarty

A middle-aged obese alcoholic loser learns everyone in his family is dead. Ends up cycling across America, experiencing all kinds of bizarre things and meeting bizarre people, finds love and happiness - the self-realisation/transformation plot. I don't think the author is quite as funny as he thinks he is, and the story is unrealistic enough to really strain my credulity - morbidly obese alcoholics don't suddenly turn into really fit, sober, cool people in two months of cycling across the entire United States while getting hit by cars, badly beaten, etc but somehow being fine.

That said, it was an enjoyable enough book, especially when it focused more on the stories of the other people he met (and less on his insane sister and his messed up relationship with a paralyzed girl he ignored for two decades).


I'm building on the reading habits I started developing last year but apparently doing a poo poo job at the actual challenge.

1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. 5/50
2) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% (10/50) of them are written by women . 1/10
3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% (10/50) of them are written by someone non-white.
4) Read at least one book by an LGBT author.
5) Read at least one TBB BoTM and post in the monthly thread about it. January - Mother Night
6) Read a book someone else in the thread recommends (a wildcard!)
7) Read something that was recently published (anything from after 1st January 2016).
8) Read something which was published before you were born.
9) Read something in translation.
10) Read something from somewhere you want to travel.
11) Read something political.
12) Read something historical.
12a) Read something about the First World War.
13) Read something biographical.
14) Read some poetry.
15) Read a play.
16) Read a collection of short stories.
17) Read something long (500+ pages).
18) Read something which was banned or censored.
19) Read a satire.
20) Read something about honour.
21) Read something about fear.
22) Read something about one (or more!) of the seven sins.
23) Read something that you love.
24) Read something from a non-human perspective.

screenwritersblues
Sep 13, 2010
January!

1) Wolf Winter - Cecilia Ekbäck

2) American Girls - Allison Umminger

3) Fate and Furries - Lauren Groff

4) M Train - Patti Smith

5) The Rap Year Book - Shea Serrano

6) Unfaithful Music and Disappearing Ink - Elvis Costello

The first six where very good. Two memoirs by musicians, I preferred Costello's to Smith's, one YA novel that somehow got the Manson Murders involved (Don't ask), a great book to settle your Pac vs Biggie arguments, a somewhat interesting critically acclaimed novel for 2015 and the first indiespensable novel of the year.

6/30

1/13

Currently reading: Our Endless Number Days by Claire Fuller and My Heart is an Idiot by Davy Rothbart

Talas
Aug 27, 2005

January!

1. Sundiver. David Brin. Good ideas but the execution isn't at the same level. Some of the ideas were directly taken from the time it was written.
2. Siddhartha. Hermann Hesse. One of those books you have to read from time to time. It changes with you.
3. To Kill A Mockingbird. Harper Lee. How many novels can you name that doesn't have obnoxious children? This is one and with a great story too.
4. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. J.K. Rowling. Not much of a story with a whole bunch of teenage angst... the worst in the series until now.
5. The Hemingway Hoax. Joe Haldeman. Like reading the life of someone who didn't really want to be someone else. Good story, weak characters.
6. Dread. Clive Barker. Reading this short story was weird for me, because I've already seen the movie... I really thought Barker put more effort in the screenplay, but maybe it's just me.


1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. 6/75
2) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 2/15
3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 0/15
4) Read at least one book by an LGBT author. Dread. Clive Barker
5) Read at least one TBB BoTM and post in the monthly thread about it.
6) Read a book someone else in the thread recommends (a wildcard!)
7) Read something that was recently published (anything from after 1st January 2016).
8) Read something which was published before you were born. Siddhartha. Hermann Hesse
9) Read something in translation.
10) Read something from somewhere you want to travel.
11) Read something political.
12) Read something historical.
13) Read something biographical.
14) Read some poetry.
15) Read a play.
16) Read a collection of short stories.
17) Read something long (500+ pages).
18) Read something which was banned or censored.
19) Read a satire.
20) Read something about honour.
21) Read something about fear.
22) Read something about one (or more!) of the seven sins.
23) Read something that you love.
24) Read something from a non-human perspective.

Living Image
Apr 24, 2010

HORSE'S ASS

Anyone interested in reading more women/non-white people, this might be cool: Heroism and Anti-heroism in Five New Novels by Arab Women

Robot Mil
Apr 13, 2011

January update

1. Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell: This is a book by a journalist who upped sticks with her husband and moved from the UK to Denmark. A pretty fortunate position to be in, a) that he could get a job good enough for them both to live on (in the Lego factory no less!) and b) that she worked in a profession where she could work remotely/freelance etc. Still, I really liked the good and bad of living in Denmark and as someone pretty fed up of the conservative/fascist way of things right now, it gave me hope that some countries still value providing good social care to their citizens. I quite liked her frequent references and statistics to back up her comments, although perhaps some would find this annoying. Mostly it made me hungry for Danish pastries and want to visit Copenhagen.

2. Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick Ah I have such a ladycrush on this woman. I've read quite a lot of autobiographies by female actors and comics, and this was a pretty good one, she doesn't try to hard to be funny but has such a lovely attitude.

3. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon: I had this on audiobook which I think was a slight mistake as it's frickin' long and took all month to listen to where I would have read it much quicker. OK so it's mainly historical romance/sex trash but I still liked it - I found the historical setting absorbing, the characters complex and believable and really enjoyed the humourous touches (possibly enhanced by the lovely sarcy tone of the narrator). The main character adjusted a little too quickly and effectively into being shunted a couple of hundred years into the past though and the ending did drag.

Booklord challenges completed:

1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. 3/40
2) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% (8) of them are written by women . 3/40
10) Read something from somewhere you want to travel - A Year of Living Danishly
12) Read something historical - Outlander
13) Read something biographical - Scrappy Little Nobody

Ras Het
May 23, 2007

when I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child - but now I am a man.
Hasn't Denmark been going through a massive right wing swing in the last few years. Also their conservative party is called Left

Safety Biscuits
Oct 21, 2010

Ras Het posted:

Also their conservative party is called Left

No that's the UK.

Enfys
Feb 17, 2013

The ocean is calling and I must go

Corrode posted:

Anyone interested in reading more women/non-white people, this might be cool: Heroism and Anti-heroism in Five New Novels by Arab Women

Thanks for this. Think I'll check out The Queue - surrealist Arab fiction about totalitarianism.

Robot Mil
Apr 13, 2011

Ras Het posted:

Hasn't Denmark been going through a massive right wing swing in the last few years. Also their conservative party is called Left

Isn't everywhere? I'm firmly in the Denmark in my head (a la the book I read) which is wall to wall lego, pastries and amazing unemployment benefits. And ok, terrible domestic violence and alcoholism problems.

A human heart
Oct 10, 2012

lets all get really hype about the nordic model of social democracy and ignore that it is A. being eroded. B. only sustains itself by massive exploitation of the third world, everyone.

Ras Het
May 23, 2007

when I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child - but now I am a man.
Go herd a sheep about it, all black hobbit

A human heart
Oct 10, 2012

Ras Het posted:

Go herd a sheep about it, all black hobbit

i will

ulvir
Jan 2, 2005

actually Norway's model sustains itself on the exploitation of the whole planet (crude oil), thank you very much :colbert:

Stupid_Sexy_Flander
Mar 14, 2007

Is a man not entitled to the haw of his maw?
Grimey Drawer

Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:

I forgot to do it last year, so I'm in for this year.

80 sounds like a nice round number.

Not going for any specific challenges though, I'm not a fan of checklists.

I'll update this post later on with the stuff I've gotten read so far.

THE ROAD SO FAR:
1: Waking Gods - Sylvain Neuval
2: Sleeping Giants ARC - Sylvain Neuvel
3: Super City Cops : Undercover Blues - Keith R. DeCandido
4: Super City Cops : Avenging Amethyst - Keith R. DeCandido
5: Gryphon Precinct - Keith R. Decandido
6: Goblin Precinct - Keith R. Decandido
7: Unicorn Precinct - Keith R. Decandido
8: Dragon Precinct - Keith R. Decandido
9: Penric's Demon - Lois McMaster Bujold
10: One Fell Sweep - Ilona Andrews
11: Immortal and the Island of Impossible Things - Gene Doucette
12: Flash - Susan Griffith
13: Kingston Raine and the Grim Reaper - Jackson Lear
14: The Cambion Cycle - John G. Hartness


15: ERIS - 1-8 (short stories, novellas, etc) - Sort of funny books about demon hunters who work for a company, and the weird poo poo they get into. Not exactly great and wonderful, but still entertaining. All on KU if you want to give em a shot.
16: The Breach - Patrick Lee
17: Deep Sky - Patrick Lee
18 : Ghost Country - Patrick Lee
This is the Breach series, and while it's only a 3 book set, it's pretty cool. I really enjoyed it, and the way the completely weird poo poo happens you never really feel like it's a plot you can guess where it's going.
19: Working Stiff - Judy Melenik - Book about doing autopsies in NYC and the weird poo poo that medical examiners have happen. Good book, but I wasn't fond of how it ended with the 9/11 attacks. Went from interesting and kinda funny to bleak in a manner of like, 3 pages.

tookie
Nov 12, 2008
And here's me, almost forgetting to post this month.

January

Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher 13
The Bird and the Sword by Amy Harmon 7
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks 23
The Secret History of the Mongol Queens by Jack Weatherford 12
Bloodchild: And Other Stories by Octavia E. Butler 16
An Ember In The Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
Underground Airlines by Ben H Winters
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
Inés of My Soul by Isabel Allende

Goal= 10/60
Women= 80%
POC= 40%

I really made an effort to start reading women/POC authors right out of the gate, so this was a pretty good reading month. I particularly enjoyed Homegoing because I'm a sucker for a generational narrative structure.

I'm currently reading T.C. Boyle's The Terranauts and Sarah Wise's The Blackest Streets: The Life and Death of a Victorian Slum. I'd be more than happy to take on a Wildcard this month if someone has something to suggest!

1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild.
2) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women.
3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white.
4) Read at least one book by an LGBT author.
5) Read at least one TBB BoTM and post in the monthly thread about it.
6) Read a book someone else in the thread recommends (a wildcard!)
7) Read something that was recently published (anything from after 1st January 2016).
8) Read something which was published before you were born.
9) Read something in translation.
10) Read something from somewhere you want to travel.
11) Read something political.
12) Read something historical.
12a) Read something about the First World War.
13) Read something biographical.
14) Read some poetry.
15) Read a play.
16) Read a collection of short stories.
17) Read something long (500+ pages).
18) Read something which was banned or censored.
19) Read a satire.
20) Read something about honour.
21) Read something about fear.
22) Read something about one (or more!) of the seven sins.
23) Read something that you love.
24) Read something from a non-human perspective.

nerdpony
May 1, 2007

Apparently I was supposed to put something here.
Fun Shoe

tookie posted:

I'd be more than happy to take on a Wildcard this month if someone has something to suggest!

You should read The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra. I finished it last night and really liked it.

mdemone
Mar 14, 2001

1. Jerusalem - Alan Moore7, 17
2. A Billion Wicked Thoughts - Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam3, 22
3. Herman (The Game Warden, The Death of a Craft) - Laszlo Krasznahorkai9
4. The Atrocity Exhibition - J.G. Ballard8, 18
5. The Last Wolf - Laszlo Krasznahorkai9
6. The Kingdom of This World - Alejo Carpentier3, 9, 12
7. Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey3, 8
8. Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel2, 12, 13, 17
9. Destruction and Sorrow Beneath the Heavens - Laszlo Krasznahorkai9, 10
10. Sudden Death - Alvaro Enrigue3, 9, 23
11. Caligula for President - Cintra Wilson2, 19
12. The Dark Highlander - Karen Marie Moning2, 22
----end of January
13. Universal Harvester - John Darnielle7
14. The Plague - Albert Camus5, 8, 9
15. The Prophet: The Life of Leon Trotsky - Isaac Deutscher8, 11, 13, 17
16. A Temple of Texts: Essays - William H. Gass
17. The Child To Come: Life After the Human Catastrophe - Rebekah Sheldon2, 7
18. We Are Legion (We Are Bob) - Dennis E. Taylor7, 24
19. The Poetics of Space - Gaston Bachelard8, 9



1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. 13/100
2) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 2/20
3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 4/20
4) Read at least one book by an LGBT author.
5) Read at least one TBB BoTM and post in the monthly thread about it.
6) Read a book someone else in the thread recommends (a wildcard!) --> Human Acts - Han Kang2, 3, 9, 12
7) Read something that was recently published (anything from after 1st January 2016).
8) Read something which was published before you were born.
9) Read something in translation.
10) Read something from somewhere you want to travel.
11) Read something political.
12) Read something historical.
12a) Read something about the First World War.
13) Read something biographical.
14) Read some poetry.
15) Read a play.
16) Read a collection of short stories.
17) Read something long (500+ pages).
18) Read something which was banned or censored.
19) Read a satire.
20) Read something about honour.
21) Read something about fear.
22) Read something about one (or more!) of the seven sins.
23) Read something that you love.
24) Read something from a non-human perspective.

mdemone fucked around with this message at 02:41 on Feb 27, 2017

Franchescanado
Feb 23, 2013

If it wasn't for disappointment
I wouldn't have any appointment

Grimey Drawer
How was Universal Harvester?

I liked Wolf in White Van, but I'm trying to hold off from buying new books, unless I should stop everything for it.

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

Late on my January update as usual but got a decent amount read through first week of Feb (and about to finish another book tonight)

1. The Best American Short Stories 2015
2. The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2015
3. The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2015
4. The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2015
5. The Best American Essays 2015
6. Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut
7. The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe by Kij Johnson
8. Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives by David Eagleman
9. Shifu You'll Do Anything for a Laugh by Mo Yan
10. Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O'Neil
11. Every Day is for the Thief by Teju Cole
12. The Last Days of New Paris by China Mieville
13. Aquarium by David Vann

A little light on non-white authors so far but I have some coming up. Everyone here should read Aquarium if they haven't already. And Mo Yan for that matter. Oh also someone should read My Name is Red for non-human perspective, even though it's not on my list here.

Challenge status:

2. 23%
3. 19%
5. Read Mother Night and also reading The Plague this month so I might be able to keep this up all year
7. Dream Quest of Vellitt Boe fills this but honestly I will probably be getting some books that come out in '17 including the new Arundhati Roy
9. Shifu You'll Do Anything for a Laugh

There's probably more but I have to give them more proper thought!

Franchescanado
Feb 23, 2013

If it wasn't for disappointment
I wouldn't have any appointment

Grimey Drawer
I really like Sum, but some of the ideas were a little heavy. What'd you think?

And I agree. Everyone read Aquarium, and My Name Is Red is also a playful mystery with insights on Eastern vs Western culture/religion with some good humor, and is perfect for the non-human perspective.

mdemone
Mar 14, 2001

Franchescanado posted:

How was Universal Harvester?

I liked Wolf in White Van, but I'm trying to hold off from buying new books, unless I should stop everything for it.

I read it in an hour. My first Darnielle, he's a decent stylist, good pacing and a feel for place. I quite enjoyed it, but it's a bit more of a soul excavation than it is a horror vehicle (like the cover blurb might mildly suggest).

Worthwhile, if only because it's undemanding and smooth enough to be a quick and satisfying read. If I were you I might wait for the paperback unless you find a good sale; it won't make the year's ten best.

It felt very much like Richard Powers' The Echo Maker, although not as plunging or well-styled as Powers.

Franchescanado
Feb 23, 2013

If it wasn't for disappointment
I wouldn't have any appointment

Grimey Drawer

mdemone posted:

I read it in an hour. My first Darnielle, he's a decent stylist, good pacing and a feel for place. I quite enjoyed it, but it's a bit more of a soul excavation than it is a horror vehicle (like the cover blurb might mildly suggest).

Worthwhile, if only because it's undemanding and smooth enough to be a quick and satisfying read. If I were you I might wait for the paperback unless you find a good sale; it won't make the year's ten best.

It felt very much like Richard Powers' The Echo Maker, although not as plunging or well-styled as Powers.

It's $15 for a hardback on Amazon, which might be worth it since I like the hardback's holographic cover (it is holographic right?), or $12 for Kindle.

I'm sure it'll take me more than an hour to read, but I dunno if I wanna throw down the money. $15 can get me anywhere from 5-7 used books.

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

Franchescanado posted:

I really like Sum, but some of the ideas were a little heavy. What'd you think?

It was interesting; not exactly what I thought it'd be or in many cases what was advertised. Usually just science-philosophy brain teasers more than anything. Some ideas were really compelling and could have used longer stories, others were obvious filler or repeats. A bunch of them ended with the typical moral of "hey you don't want to live for eternity anyway right?" But it was fun and light (for weird philosophical short stories about death that is).

I read his book Incognito a while back and I liked that considerably better.

mdemone
Mar 14, 2001

Franchescanado posted:

It's $15 for a hardback on Amazon, which might be worth it since I like the hardback's holographic cover (it is holographic right?), or $12 for Kindle.

I'm sure it'll take me more than an hour to read, but I dunno if I wanna throw down the money. $15 can get me anywhere from 5-7 used books.

Yeah, I wouldn't pay more than ten bucks for it, but I'm a cheapskate. (I got mine out of the library.)

mdemone
Mar 14, 2001

Well I somehow never did read The Plague, although I've always been fond of The Stranger, and here I've just unearthed a classy Modern Library edition I didn't even know I had...

...so I guess this is my BOTM link-up. I'm on a loving roll and I might just kill this before the weekend.

Also you goons should read Sudden Death by Alvaro Enrigue, I'm halfway through and I keep stopping and going on to other reads because I don't want it to end.

Living Image
Apr 24, 2010

HORSE'S ASS

Should probably update ever!

January - 10:

01. The Ottoman Centuries (Lord Kinross)
02. Snow Country (Yasunari Kawabata)
03. Signs Preceding the End of the World (Yuri Herrera)
04. Socialism: A Very Short Introduction (Michael Newman)
05. Human Acts (Han Kang)
06. As Meat Loves Salt (Maria McCann)
07. Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction (Damien Keown)
08. The Dog Who Dared to Dream (Sun-Mi Hwang)
09. Dirty Havana Trilogy (Pedro Juan Gutierrez)
10. Excession (Iain M. Banks)

Signs Preceding the End of the World was very cool. It's about Makina, a girl in a very obvious analogue for Mexico who travels to the US to try and find her brother who left to claim some land they supposedly inherited. It's a story about borders and crossings and how they affect the lives of the people that make them, and the way they're transformed by their experiences. It's just over 100 pages and it whips along, helped by an excellent and thoughtful translation. I loved it.

Human Acts is my second Han Kang after The Vegetarian last year. It's much more grounded in historical events than that novel, looking at the Gwangju Uprising in South Korea in the 80s and the fallout that resulted. Kang draws out the horror of it all excellently, and even though she's describing horrific events it never feels gratuitous.

As Meat Loves Salt was pretty frustrating. It's about Jacob, a servant in a royalist house during the English Civil War. Plot happens, and he ends up fighting in the New Model Army before moving to London and joining a religious commune. It's incredibly well-researched, but there's a lot of time spent on showing that off which is unnecessary - my copy is 535 pages and it could easily shed 100 of those and lose absolutely nothing. There's long descriptions of pike drills, printing, cleaning silverware, just all kinds of stuff which was not interesting enough or enough of a focus to need the devotion it gets. The plot is also all over the place, and frequently drops things in short order when McCann loses interest in them. Finally there's The Voice, which I think is supposed to be either the devil talking to Jacob or schizophrenia, but which disappears for long stretches at a time. It feels like a lazy way for Jacob to make decisions against his own interests whenever it's plot-critical and otherwise gets forgotten about. McCann needs to get out of her own way and resist the urge to cram in every idea she has - there's a good book in here, but it's not the one she's written.

Dirty Havana Trilogy was a wild ride. Written in Cuba during the famines in 1994-5, it's sort of a collection of short stories about Pedro Juan, who bears more than a passing resemblance to the author. Pedro Juan spends his time drinking, smoking, and loving, while scraping a living from odd jobs and scams. The stories are more or less the same over and over - he meets someone, tries to scam them or gently caress them, succeeds or fails, moves on to someone else. It's an interesting portrait of Cuba which looks at the country through a lens other than communist or anti-communist. Towards the end I was finding it a little wearing, but the character's voice is compelling (probably because the author was basically writing about himself) and there is some seriously funny stuff in here mixed in with all the grittiness.

Excession I liked ok but is probably the Banks I least enjoyed. There's a lot of focus on the ship Minds, which are hard to invest in as characters. It had some cool ideas but I'm not rushing back to read it again.

Booklords this month are 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 17, 18, 24.

To date - 10:
Booklord: 7-9, 11-12, 17-18, 24
Women: 3/10, 30%
Non-white: 4/10, 40%

01. The Ottoman Centuries (Lord Kinross) 12
02. Snow Country (Yasunari Kawabata) 8
03. Signs Preceding the End of the World (Yuri Herrera) 9
04. Socialism: A Very Short Introduction (Michael Newman) 11
05. Human Acts (Han Kang) 7
06. As Meat Loves Salt (Maria McCann) 17
07. Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction (Damien Keown)
08. The Dog Who Dared to Dream (Sun-Mi Hwang) 24
09. Dirty Havana Trilogy (Pedro Juan Gutierrez) 18
10. Excession (Iain M. Banks)

Franchescanado
Feb 23, 2013

If it wasn't for disappointment
I wouldn't have any appointment

Grimey Drawer

Corrode posted:

07. Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction (Damien Keown)

How was this?

tookie
Nov 12, 2008

nerdpony posted:

You should read The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra. I finished it last night and really liked it.

Thank you! Adding that to the reading list now!

Tiggum
Oct 24, 2007

Your life and your quest end here.


Corrode posted:

Excession I liked ok but is probably the Banks I least enjoyed. There's a lot of focus on the ship Minds
It's my favourite Culture novel for that exact reason.

Living Image
Apr 24, 2010

HORSE'S ASS

Franchescanado posted:

How was this?

It was cool. It's informative and gives a good overview of Buddhism, its origins and practices. It's not super in depth but it manahes to convey a lot in the space of 150 pages or so. It's a bit like reading a long-form Wiki article, except written by a subject matter expert and with proper editors.

The whole 'Very Short Introductions' series is good imo. You wouldn't want to base your whole understanding of a subject on them, but as a baseline for 'what is thing' or for refreshing yourself on the basics they're very good.

Sandwolf
Jan 23, 2007

i'll be harpo


So my work library had a total of four books worth reading (a lot of romantic chick lit) and I was looking for a recommendation on which to read first.

My options are:
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Utopia by Thomas More
Dr. Bloodmoney by PKDick
Down and Out in Paris and London by Orwell

Franchescanado
Feb 23, 2013

If it wasn't for disappointment
I wouldn't have any appointment

Grimey Drawer

Sandwolf posted:

So my work library had a total of four books worth reading (a lot of romantic chick lit) and I was looking for a recommendation on which to read first.

My options are:
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Utopia by Thomas More
Dr. Bloodmoney by PKDick
Down and Out in Paris and London by Orwell

Looks like you already figured out which order to read them.

thatdarnedbob
Jan 1, 2006
why must this exist?
I've had a couple full months for reading. I need to get some of them posted here before I finish writing the rest up, otherwise I'm in for a Sisyphean task.

1. How to Fix Copyright, by William Patry

Patry is a very accomplished copyright lawyer and legal theorist, and this book is his effort at explaining himself to a non-legal, non-academic audience. His basic points are that most of the self-justifying myths of copyright industries such as film studios and music labels offer are baseless, and that copyright itself is a solution grounded in the reality of a much less modern time. The facts of the economy and modern markets are putting huge strains on the current big players, and rather than adapt their business models these players attempt to use the law to distort the market back to their advantage. He argues convincingly that we need to make laws for the benefit of society as a whole; if the interests of current stakeholders don’t align with that, tough poo poo. He has some great ideas but this book could have used an editor who rode his rear end about structure. Some fine tuning could have made this into a great book but it’s just really good.

2. The E-Myth Revisited, by Michael Gerber

Gerber has some advice for the aspiring business owner: if you’re in this just to do what you already know how to do but as your own boss you will end up miserable. Your goal should be to create something that doesn’t end up needing you in order to operate; from day one, even if you are the business’s only employee, you should have roles and responsibilities that are clearly defined. Treat even the first step as if you would eventually franchise that exact model. It’s some good advice. The conceit of this book, as an extended conversation/sales pitch with a frustrated baker, may be very off-putting. But if you’re going into business you’re going to have to deal with tools who talk like this all the time so you might as well get used to it.

3. Growth Hacker Marketing, by Ryan Holiday

So, growth hacking is what happens when you try to ‘disrupt’ traditional marketing with modern, tech-focused strategies. But you won’t learn much about it here. This book is pretty much the paperback equivalent of a movie teaser. It’s short, but interesting. You won’t come away from this with much other than a desire to know more.

4. Next Time They’ll Come to Count the Dead, by Nick Turse

Turse covers the South Sudanese civil war and massacres here in some rather bleak conversations. The subjects of his book are ordinary citizens, NGO workers, child soldiers. In case you had any glamorous ideas about modern war this will dispel them. If you want a something to ground you while you read more abstract pieces about modern South Sudan, this would be a great choice.

5. Microstyle: The Art of Writing Little, by Christopher Johnson

Johnson does a deep dive in how to make individual words and sentences sound great. He goes into rhythm, connotation, humor, metaphor and other detailed topics, using examples like tweets and brand names, both good and awful. This was a good choice; I’ve been trying to use his advice on my social media posting and have seen an actual marked improvement in how people respond.

6. The Fact Checker’s Bible, by Sarah Smith

While this book is clearly aimed at the professional fact checker (a rare breed indeed), its lessons can serve as a guideline for anyone who must take on this role whether they be editors, writers or even social media posters. The basic premise is that every statement of fact must be vetted. This includes mundanities such as the spelling of names or the number of counties in NYC, and more obscure things such as whether a quotation really comes from the purported speaker. The book outlines a system you can use to track each fact that must be checked, and gives helpful tips on how to make the checking process easier at each stage. For example, asking an author to keep their source material well-organized and available helps a whole lot.

7. Mother Night, by Kurt Vonnegut

Vonnegut says here that this book is the only novel of his he knows the moral of: You are what you pretend to be. In this case, the main character pretends to be, is, a Nazi (sound familiar?). He creates propaganda for them. However much he hides useful secret info in his broadcasts he still propagandizes the Nazi effort to the world. Basically the main character is a schmuck, and can’t honestly take responsibility for his actions negative or positive. It’s funny and a good read. Reasonably recommended.

8. The Skin of Our Teeth, by Thornton Wilder

I have a much longer reflection on this play written up, but I won't inflict it on you. Long story short, this is the "something you love" for me more than any other work. Written in the heyday of fascism, it deals with surviving the end of times, and the relation of art and knowledge to mere survival.

9. Super Mario Bros 2, by Jon Irwin

SMB 2, as it was released in the US, is the black sheep of the Mario world. It’s a modified version of a Japanese game which originally had nothing to do with Mario. Nintendo gave it to the US because they had the idea we’d like it more than the SMB 2 which the Japanese got. This is a competent entry in the Boss Fight Books series; Irwin does a good job of exploring what made this game special and how its status as a Weird Game has changed over time.

10. Sorting the Beef from the Bull: The Science of Food Fraud Forensics, by Richard Evershed and Nicola Temple

Did you know that you can, using pure chemicals and an industrial setup, create an amazingly convincing fake chicken egg? Someone who isn’t watching out for fakes, who doesn’t notice the lack of an inner lining on the shell, wouldn’t be able to tell at any stage of the process that this thing came not from a hen’s cloaca but from some lab somewhere. Next to this, poo poo like horse meat in the lasagna and ‘Halal’ being stamped on improperly slaughtered animals is nothing. But everything gets scrutiny in this book. The authors cover every food group, exploring the state of the art in food fraud and food fraud detection. You’ll learn about how different carbon isotopes can signal the difference between corn sugar and cane sugar. The plants use slightly different photosynthetic pathways, which changes the isotope ratios you’d expect. You’ll also see fake grains of rice, fake spices and more. Fortunately the authors have some advice to avoid fraud: buy whole, buy fresh, and know your poo poo beforehand. Some good advice in general, I think.

11. The No rear end in a top hat Rule, by Robert Sutton

Maybe it’s not surprising but I’ve had people who are assholes on my mind a lot recently. This book basically says, hey you know that guy who’s a complete rear end in a top hat, and everyone thinks they’d be better off without? They’re right! Sutton explores the effects of assholes on a workplace and especially on workplace evaluation. Long story short, assholes expend effort transferring the credit for others’ accomplishments to themselves. They thus spend less effort doing actually productive things than other people, frequently make themselves look more productive than those people anyway, and frequently generate huge costs just for dealing with their lovely behavior. It’s a classic problem, really. Cooperators letting internal competition produce a poor ‘leader’ is as old as leaders. But people still need a kick in the rear end to realize it. The worst part of this book comes when Sutton allows himself to entertain the idea that One rear end in a top hat can be better than No Assholes. But gently caress that, No Asssholes.

12. You Have the Right to Remain Innocent, by James Duane

The guy who wrote this is best known as the “Don’t talk to the police” guy. He makes the convincing case that even someone who thinks they are innocent of any crime should refrain from sharing a conversation with a police officer. You don’t know what they think they know, what they’re investigating, or whether they’re lying to you (which is completely legal). It’s best, he says, to just not have a back-and-forth discussion. But as he shows, your right to not talk to the police is under attack. Conservative judges and justices currently try and often succeed at ruling that simply staying silent, or even explicitly invoking the 5th Amendment, can implicate you in regards to the questions police ask. Instead, Duane urges that you explicitly invoke the 6th Amendment, and never stop invoking it. That is, ask for a lawyer. Don’t say “I think I need a lawyer!” or “Should I get a lawyer?” or “No I didn’t, but lemme talk to a lawyer before I say anything more.” Just say something like “I want a lawyer. Let me talk to my lawyer” incessantly, answering with nothing else. That’s the gist of this 160 page book, but it’s a good book, I promise.

13. Mary Page Marlowe, by Tracy Letts

I had wanted to read a play by a woman; Tracy Letts fooled me with his name. You can tell how in tune with the theatrical world I am by that admission. Regardless, Mary Page Marlowe was a drat good read. The play follows the life of this one woman from her birth to her death, though not at all in that order. The disjointed chronology of its scenes, with neither a traditional narrative nor a shocking last reveal, blends hope with memory. It’s a strange play; its final scene is the title character at the dry cleaner, for instance. I found it deeply moving, though, and well worth my time.

14. Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software, by Charles Petzold

This book has a mission: to take your from zero idea about how computers work on a fundamental level to constructing a computing system with memory, input, and output. It seems ridiculous at first, but Petzold does a drat good job here. He starts with the very basics of circuits and switches, and eventually takes off on a journey through the history of computer hardware. This hardware, such as it is, starts with the simple telegraph relay, and uses the physical properties of these devices to construct simple logic gates, the stereotypical AND, OR, etc.

With clear descriptions he takes these logic gates and more exotic things like flip-flop gates (which he also explains) and begins constructing adding machines and RAM. His style is to add just a single useful feature to his machine at each stage, so that the reader can follow along very easily. Or easily, at least, compared to how it would feel looking at an Intel 8080 chip without any preparation. The book falters a bit at this point, since it can’t really motivate the dozens of machine code commands or interpreted language that Petzold begins to introduce without really using. I’d say the last few dozen pages can be ignored, or at least skimmed. But the preceding hundreds are really quite fantastic for someone wanting to understand the physical process of electronic computation.

15. Walking Home - Growing Up Hispanic in Houston, by Sarah Cortez

Walking Home is split into two main sections. In the first, the colors of a stained glass window inspire vignettes about the history of Cortez’s family. She explores sickness, faith, parenthood, and dreams in a quasi-mythic retelling of pivotal moments in that history. She writes this section in a kind of lyrical prose style which engaged well. In the second section, Cortez gives poems about her own childhood, in mid-20th century Houston, focusing on the mundane yet meaningful. We see fishing trips to the pond, restaurant visits and hot Texas nights. I admit to getting a cheap thrill out of seeing my city in a different time, but that hook got me reading this very good book so I don’t mind.

1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. - 15/80 written up
4) Read at least one book by an LGBT author. - Sister Outsider
5) Read at least one TBB BoTM and post in the monthly thread about it. - Mother Night
7) Read something that was recently published (anything from after 1st January 2016). - Next Time They'll Come to Count the Dead
9) Read something in translation. - Cockroaches
11) Read something political. - Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect?
12) Read something historical. Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors
13) Read something biographical. Shrill
14) Read some poetry. Walking Home
15) Read a play. - Mary Page Marlowe
16) Read a collection of short stories. - Pastoralia
23) Read something that you love. - The Skin of Our Teeth

Groke
Jul 27, 2007
New Adventures In Mom Strength
February update!

Erstwhile:

1: Revenger by Alastair Reynolds.
2: The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher. +1 woman
3: Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut.
4. Binti by Nnedi Okorafor. + 1 woman, +1 nonwhite
5. Death's End by Liu Cixin. +1 nonwhite
6. Empire Games by Charles Stross.
7. Among Others by Jo Walton. +1 woman

This month, as I am unlikely to finish another whole book by the end of tomorrow:

8. We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis Taylor. This was a pretty fun, quick read. Bob is a present-day software millionaire with a techno-optimistic outlook and a contract with a cryogenics facility. Then he is killed in an accident and wakes up as a downloaded version of his flesh-and-blood mind, in a moderately hosed-up authoritarian future where AIs and downloaded personalities have no rights. Then they stick him in an interstellar Von Neumann probe and send him to the stars just as the poo poo hits the fan on Earth. Then he sets about reproducing himself and exploring the stellar neighbourhood and trying to fix as many fixable problems as possible (still being an optimist and a general good guy).

9. Bror din på prærien by Edvard Hoem. Title translates as "Your brother on the prairie". Sequel to Slåttekar I himmelen which I read last year. The author's fictionalized saga of his own extended family -- grandparents, great-grandparents and their various offspring and entanglements, both the branch of the family that emigrated to the Americas and the branch that stayed in Norway. This volume takes the story through the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, and spans the deaths of several of the original main characters. Beautiful prose as one may expect (author is a grand old man of Norwegian literature), lovely windows into the internal lives of people long dead. +1 Norwegian.

10. The Plague by Albert Camus. BOTM for February and my first reread (previously read it in Norwegian translation many years ago, barely remembered any details). Fine, bleak depiction of life under prolonged extreme stress, demanding a quiet heroism of endurance, where death takes whom it pleases when it pleases. Widely accepted as an allegory for the Third Reich and/or fascist oppression in general, but also works in my mind as an allegory for life in general. Because we are all under constraints, we are all subject to the plague even as we are in health, etc.

11. Haimennesket by Hans Olav Lahlum. # whatever in an ongoing series of pretty old-school crime novels. Set in the recent-ish past (the series has gone through the late 1960s and is now up to 1972). This time it's a confined mystery: Ten years previously, a young child was brutally murdered at an island hotel, the case was never conclusively solved; now, a mysterious letter-writer has summoned all still-living guests from that day back to the hotel in an attempt to finally try to solve the case. Also the two main characters of the series (a police detective and his brilliant but acerbic young female wheelchair-bound assistant) are invited. Across the space of 48 hours, a series of old secrets are dragged to light, of course in a manner that involves more deaths. Pretty good although I increasingly think the main characters are dicks (as in, I wouldn't like either one of them as a person; they're okay to read about, though). +1 Norwegian

12. Land ingen har sett by Edvard Hoem. Sequel to #9 above, very much more of the same and just as lovely. This volume takes the family history through about twenty years starting around 1905 and ending up in the mid-1920s; most of the rest of the "original" generation pass, and the story increasingly focuses on the author's own grandfather (who stayed in Norway) and his brother (who ended up in Alberta, Canada). +1 Norwegian

1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. 12/40
2) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 3/12 = 25%
3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 2/12 = 16.7%
4) Read at least one book by an LGBT author.
5) Read at least one TBB BoTM and post in the monthly thread about it. - Mother Night, The Plague
6) Read a book someone else in the thread recommends (a wildcard!)
7) Read something that was recently published (anything from after 1st January 2016). - The Princess Diarist, Land ingen har sett
8) Read something which was published before you were born. - Mother Night, The Plague
9) Read something in translation. - Death's End, The Plague
10) Read something from somewhere you want to travel.
11) Read something political.
12) Read something historical. - both of the Edvard Hoem books
12a) Read something about the First World War.
13) Read something biographical. - The Princess Diarist
14) Read some poetry.
15) Read a play.
16) Read a collection of short stories.
17) Read something long (500+ pages). - Death's End
18) Read something which was banned or censored.
19) Read a satire.
20) Read something about honour.
21) Read something about fear.
22) Read something about one (or more!) of the seven sins.
23) Read something that you love.
24) Read something from a non-human perspective.


Extra: At least 10 Norwegian books (translations don't count) - 3/10 so far
At least 5 nonfiction books - 1/5
Read every BOTM (except optionally for ones I've read before) - 2/2 as of January
No more than 5 rereads (vs. the vanilla goal, I would count them against specific goals) - 1/5 so far

Slacking off a little on the black woman writers quota this month but I've got some good stuff queued up that will fix it (just started on some Jemisin, for example).

Groke fucked around with this message at 12:29 on Mar 15, 2017

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coolusername
Aug 23, 2011

cooltitletext
Reviewing what I've read mostly in Feb!

1) A closed and common orbit - Becky Chambers :D

The sequel to 'The long way to a small, angry planet' is soft, slice-of-life sci-fi with a good mix of fun and intrigue, alongside the more philosophical explorations of what it is to be a person (even when you're an A.I.). It's carried by a strong heart and sense of characterisation, and the cast and the plot itself is much more contained than the first book's roaming space adventure, focusing on a small group of people getting to know each other, and the main character's struggles in getting to know herself. And I can't say a sci-fi book with a majority women cast isn't refreshing! By the way, if you're looking for LGBTQ+ characters? The first book has a cute pair that might scratch that itch.

2) Short Story Collection: Toast and other rusted futures - Charles Stross :eng99:

I found this short story collection incredibly disappointing, given I'd enjoyed some of his longer works (namely The laundry files). I feel he lost his balance between writing a story and writing a textbook, and crash landed into writing stories where every single character is an identical mouthpiece that infodumps such ~scintillating dialog~ as this in casual conversation:

"They should be working on uploading and solving the nano-assembly conformational problem instead. Then we could turn all the available dumb matter into computronium and use it for processing our thoughts."

Not to mention the sexual assault in The Lobsters. The only short that avoids the pitfall is 'A colder war', with his take on the Cthulu mythos actually possessing something beyond thinly plotted scientific theories.. And that's fortunately online for free outside of this collection.

3) The Last Days of New Paris - China Miéville :confused:

I hope you know your art history! China continues to write some of the weirdest and in this case literally surreal fantasy stories, and he's certainly one of my favourite modern authors for his strange and expansive world-building. I enjoyed the adventures of surrealism artists punching nazis in The Last Days of New Paris, but I think that enjoyment in readers is heavily reliant on a knowledge of the artworks and artists used in the story. After all, this is a book that comes with an index at the end worthy of 101 college art history.

4 & 5: Fire From Heaven & Persian Boy - Mary Renault :agesilaus:

Trotting back to the gay classics, Mary Renault's historical fiction about the life of Alexander the Great holds up well. It's a steady, well-paced adventure that manages to keep a consistent atmosphere and tone between the two books. The writing's not a big and flashy production that draws attention to itself, but it doesn't have to be for the story it tells.

6: Six Gun Snow White - Catherynne M. Valente :geno:

When it comes to flashy writing, Catherynne's the name I think of lately. Six Gun Snow White is a more mature remix of Snow White: Now in the wild west, full of historically accurate patriarchy, oppression, racism and every kind of abuse! Featuring a half-Native American, half-white Snow White. ... What I'm saying is it's not a particularly happy retelling, but it is an interesting and well-written take. However, I preferred her Russian folktale remix Deathless a lot more, and I'd recommend that or her YA series over this for anyone who wants to try her books out.

7: The Quantum thief - Hannu Rajaniemi :D

Drawing on the past, genre-defining heist books featuring Arsène Lupin, The Quantum Thief is a worthy new competitor in the genre. This first book in the trilogy mixes a clever plot with creative world-building and interesting character development, demanding the audience's attention at every page. I got the recommendation from this forum so I'm just going to assume you goons have read it already.

8: She commands and I obey - Ann Leckie :)

Ann Leckie burst onto the scene with her pronoun challenging feminist sci-fi, and this short story is set in the same universe albeit a different society reminiscent of the Aztecs (in space). Mixing sports and political mystery sounds like an unlikely combination until you remember the sport ends with someone getting ritually sacrificed. Still, I feel this story would have been better as a longer novella as it's difficult to get attached to the characters in such a short span of pages and thus following the mystery through to its conclusion isn't as compelling as it could be.

9 & 10: An end to hunger & Covehithe - China Miéville :)

I think, although it was well-written, the short story An end to hunger was a little too on the nose, predictable and blunt to work as horror or as suspense. His writing isn't as strong in a less surreal fantasy context, since his strengths in writing are imagination and weirdness... Of which plenty is found in the Covehithe short story, the contents of which I can't describe without ruining the enjoyment of reading it.

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