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As has become my standard, I'll be aiming for 52 books in total, at least 24 by female authors and at least 12 non-fiction. I fell well short last year, but managed it in previous years, so we'll see. Here's my Goodreads.
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Jan 2, 2017 03:27
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Old Story posted:E: is Goodreads good? What is it. I'm old
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Jan 10, 2017 02:57
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USMC_Karl posted:For example, the disappearance of Orr struck me as particularly sad. That spoiler might be the reason why I find the ending to be a bit of a let down. Wait, did you not get that Orr had faked his death to get out of the war? I thought that was incredibly obvious, to the point that I was really annoyed at Yossarian for not immediately realising that's what happened.
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Jan 16, 2017 04:32
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Mollsmolyneux posted:If someone could hit me with a wildcard too that would be great! The Makers of Rome by Plutarch.
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Jan 20, 2017 03:01
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Mr. Squishy posted:And last time I asked for a Wildcard I got loving blanked so someone give me an wildcard you fucks. The Cipher by Kathe Koja.
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Jan 31, 2017 04:22
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4/52 total 1/24 female authors 2/12 non-fiction The Arithmancer is a Harry Potter fan-fiction that a few people in the Let's Read: "Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality" thread have recommended. It's OK. It has that usual fan-fiction issue of being largely unedited, which means it's not as good as it could be, but even accounting for that it's never going to be great. But it's also not bad.  On the other hand, A Minger's Tale definitely is bad. You know that guy who thinks he's raconteur, but his stories go nowhere, aren't funny, and have no connection to anything? RBN Boookmark is that guy. Also he's a bad writer, a liar and a plagiarist. For some reason I was actually sent a free copy of this to review, which is a thing that happens occasionally. I guess it's because I review a lot of stuff on Goodreads? Anyway, that was the only reason I read it, and if I hadn't agreed to review it then I certainly wouldn't have finished it. Fight Like A Girl is a good book that I personally didn't get much out of. I'd certainly recommend it as an introductory text on feminism, but if you're at all familiar with contemporary feminism then there's probably not much there for you. And finally there's A Confederacy of Dunces. I know people say this book is the funniest thing ever written, but I just don't get it. I didn't so much as smile once. The characters and situations are pathetic and unpleasant. I don't even know what's supposed to be amusing about any of it. It's not atrocious or unreadable, it's just mildly unpleasant the whole way through. It reminded me a lot of Catch-22, another supposedly hilarious book that I just didn't find amusing at all. Full reviews on Goodreads.
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Feb 1, 2017 09:24
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Corrode posted:Excession I liked ok but is probably the Banks I least enjoyed. There's a lot of focus on the ship Minds
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Feb 12, 2017 06:35
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3/24 female authors 3/12 non-fiction Preincarnate was confusing, over-complicated, poorly executed and full of references to things I'm not familiar with. I had a hard time just working out what was going on and who the people involved were. I'm still not sure who the author character was or why he was involved at all, and the first-person sections seem utterly superfluous. I can imagine a lot of it being funny on TV, where you can see it happening, but I couldn't see it happening and so it wasn't funny. Third Girl is an odd mystery, because for most of it you're not even sure what the mystery is. Poirot spends most of the book just trying to figure out what he's even supposed to be investigating. It's an interesting concept, and it does keep you guessing, but ultimately the payoff is not very good and there's also a really weird tacked on romance right at the end where two characters who've known each other less than two weeks decide to get married, and I cannot understand why that's even there. It doesn't tie up any loose ends or resolve anything, it's just weird. Men Explain Things to Me is a really good essay, and if the whole book had been like that then I'd have liked it much better. Unfortunately it sort of loses steam as it goes, and the one about Virginia Woolf just utterly bored me. Full reviews on Goodreads.
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Feb 28, 2017 08:13
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3/24 female authors 3/12 non-fiction Player Piano and The Sirens of Titan were both good, although a bit dated and not what I'd call funny. This is a Book was very hit and miss; some parts were really funny, other parts weren't funny at all, mostly it was just OK. I originally read (and hated) The Outsider in highschool, so I thought I should give it another chance. It was OK, but I don't understand why the prosecutor thought it was necessary to go on about his mother's funeral (or even bring it up at all). He murdered a guy in cold blood, admitted it, and offered no defence. How is that not an open and shut case? Why are you wasting everyone's time with all this bullshit about his life and family when it should be the easiest conviction ever? Also, the supposedly weird protagonist is way more relatable than anyone else in the story. Sword of Truth is still a terrible series for terrible people. Full reviews on Goodreads.
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Mar 30, 2017 05:08
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Sandwolf posted:Someone is free to correct me if I'm wrong, but if I remember correctly, a European killing a black African colonial subject wouldn't have been that big of a deal.
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Mar 31, 2017 01:25
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7/24 female authors 4/12 non-fiction I liked Hallowe'en Party, but I can see why some people don't. It does seem to be the case that Christie was getting sick of writing Poirot, but it's got Ariadne Oliver in it, the mystery is pretty clever, and it's much better than some of the other later Poirot stories. Underwater Adventure is amusingly old-fashioned, but other than that it really has nothing going for it at all. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall isn't exactly an enjoyable read, and could be summarised "why feminism exists". The whole thing is just men failing and refusing to understand that women have thoughts and opinions of their own. Even the supposed "hero" is pretty terrible. The writing's really good, of course, but none of the characters are likeable and the beginning and end sections (narrated by Gilbert) are far less interesting than the middle section (narrated by Helen). But by far the biggest disappointment of the month was Self-Made Man. For a start, the author constantly makes absurd generalisations and leaps to ridiculous conclusions on the basis of her unfounded assumptions, but the main thing is that the premise (she disguises herself and interacts with people as a man) is utterly wasted. What I imagined the book would be is her doing familiar things but as a man to see the difference in how people behave and their expectations, but instead she goes out of her way to only experience things she's never done as herself, ensuring that she has no basis for comparison or understanding. The whole thing is a colossal waste of time. Full reviews on Goodreads.
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May 1, 2017 03:00
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11/24 female authors 5/12 non-fiction I read a lot of poo poo this month, specifically Kiss the Dead, Tender Wings of Desire and The Merchant Prince. I already posted about all three in the terrible book thread so I won't repeat that here. The D&D manual id not sell me on the system, which seems overly complicated and pretty underwhelming. Mrs Pollifax had been recommended to me as funny. It isn't. It was a fairly mediocre cozy mystery style spy story. What Made the Crocodile Cry was also pretty disappointing - not terrible, just not particularly good. Shattered Visage was exactly what I expected it to be, which is to say, if you liked the show you'll probably enjoy it, but I wasn't entirely sold on the show, so... Mother Night is really good though. If you haven't read it, you should. Full reviews on Goodreads.
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May 31, 2017 09:51
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Radio! posted:I found myself underwhelmed by Consider Phlebas? I know Banks is supposed to be great and the Culture series is a popular favorite, but Phlebas was just very forgettable to me. Is there a better place to start with Banks? Ben Nevis posted:40. The Amazing Mrs Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman - Contrary to Tiggum, I'm enjoying the Pollifax books. I'd say "cozy spy stories" is an apt description and their strength rather than a weakness. That being said they are exciting and this one had some funny moments.
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Jun 2, 2017 05:58
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12/24 female authors 6/12 non-fiction What is This Thing Called Science is terrible. I can't tell if the author is dumb or just bad at explaining himself, but the end result is the same either way - he sounds real dumb. Coed Demon Sluts is much better than it sounds, but still not great. Don't Point that Thing at Me is actually really good and funny though and I would definitely recommend it. Full reviews on Goodreads.
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Jul 1, 2017 04:01
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13/24 female authors 6/12 non-fiction I only read one book this whole month, so I've fallen slightly behind again, but it was a pretty good one (Death By Silver). Solid mystery, neat setting, good story. I've added the sequel to my "to read" list. Full reviews on Goodreads.
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Jul 30, 2017 06:39
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18/24 female authors 9/12 non-fiction Animal is really good, interesting and entertaining. Destroying the Joint is less so. But The Fictional Woman is pretty good and made me want to read her fiction (which this is not despite the title). We Could Be Villains was bad (and highly specific to the author) wish-fulfilment fantasy. Curtain was decent, but disappointing in some ways. Full reviews on Goodreads.
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Sep 1, 2017 10:25
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18/24 female authors 11/12 non-fiction The two Lone Wolf books I read as part of this ongoing let's play and I really enjoyed both of them. They have a lot of nostalgia value for me as I first started reading the series when I was about five but the first one especially does seem to hold up pretty well. There are a lot of problems with the series but they're still pretty fun, especially to play as a group. I picked Eternity up at a second-hand book sale for 50 cents or so and I was really hoping it was going to be entertainingly crazy, but it turned out to just be about Jesus rather than aliens or something. The author seems to be one of those Christians who thinks that the only possible explanation for people not believing in Jesus is that they just haven't heard about him, so all his arguments boil down to "look, this really happened and it's amazing!" Maigret was another one I picked up really cheap, having vaguely heard of the series before, and I don't know if I just got a really bad translation or what, but it was terrible. There was no personality at all, and often felt more like reading a transcript than a novel. And The Art of War was similarly disappointing. Some of the illustrative examples were interesting, but the core text was just dull and obvious. Like, who needs to be told "if you're vastly outnumbered, try to avoid fighting"? Full reviews on Goodreads.
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Sep 30, 2017 09:06
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19/24 female authors 11/12 non-fiction Nothing really stood out to me as particularly good or particularly bad this month. I liked the characters of Wuthering Heights and The Three-Body Problem but not the stories. The two Lone Wolf books were fun to play but neither of them is a particular favourite. Full reviews on Goodreads.
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Oct 30, 2017 04:10
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20/24 female authors 11/12 non-fiction The two comics were OK, but reminded me why I don't read comics: even when you get them in a collection like this it's not a full story. I want one book, one story. The portion of the story there was in iZombie was fine, and the illustrations were really good, but I'm not particularly interested in reading any more. Bombshells was even worse from the perspective of not getting a complete story because it introduced a whole bunch of different heroes and basically just gave introductions for all of them. Again, it was OK for what it was but I'm not interested in reading any more. Shadow on the Sand has a really strong first half (or three quarters even) but then suddenly slows down for a fairly pointless section before the climax where you're basically just wandering around asking for directions, and then the ending feels really rushed. God Bless You, Mr Rosewater was the best of the month and was very enjoyable to read, but unlike some other Vonnegut books I don't think this one will really stick with me at all. It was good, just not particularly memorable. Full reviews on Goodreads.
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Nov 30, 2017 05:21
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 12:35 |
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24/24 female authors 12/12 non-fiction Picnic at Hanging Rock is considered a classic and I've no idea why. It just seemed fairly pointless to me. The characters are one-dimensional, the mystery is dumb, and there's basically no plot. Why do people like this book? Where on Earth seemed equally pointless to me. More like vignettes than actual short stories. I'd just start getting interested in the characters and then the story would just stop. Not end, just stop. It was kind of like reading the first chapters of a bunch of different books that I wasn't allowed to read the rest of. The Stench of Honolulu and How to Win at Feminism were both quite silly and very funny. I'd recommend either one, though they certainly wouldn't be to everyone's taste. I think The Kingdoms of Terror is a pretty decent entry in the Lone Wolf series, but some people seem to really hate it. It's got a much more relaxed tone than the previous ones, because you're not under any immediate threat or trying to beat any kind of deadline, you're just seeking a lost artefact. I Miss the World was part of a noir bundle I bought a little while ago, and I feel like that was misleading because it's pretty much straight horror. So it took me a bit to get into it because it wasn't at all what I was expecting. Once I realised, I did like it a lot more, but I think that more accurate expectations would have helped a lot. I'l probably start another book before the end of the year, but I've reached my goal so I'll include anything I read from this point on my 2018 list. Full reviews on Goodreads.
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Dec 28, 2017 03:47
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