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January Klara and the Sun - 6.5/10 The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window 6/10 The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo 6.5/10 A Very Short Introduction to Time 6.5/10 Normal People 7.5/10 The Maidens 5.5/10 Weather 3/10 Currently reading: Here and Now and Then A Very short Introduction to Aristotle January's theme seemed to be "therapy." As far as I could tell, Normal People was a book about CPTSD, The Maidens did a good job of really explaining therapeutic processes, and omg Weather is almost unreadable due to how codependent the characters are (it's 4 hours or I would have ditched it). luscious fucked around with this message at 00:33 on Feb 3, 2023 |
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Feb 2, 2023 22:01
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Nom de Plume: RailtraceR30 Challenge Level: 49 Booklord 2023? Hellyeah Managed to breeze through 8 works in January somehow. Maybe since my job allows me to listen to music (audiobooks) on the clock, it's going better than last year.
Challenge Status 5- Not a Book [x4!], COMPLETE 10- Translation, COMPLETE 3- Author of Color, 1/13 Theming, Adventurous: 3 [storygraph claims Henry IV P1 qualifies, but I'm hesitant to disqualify P2 and V] Celestial: 2 Tragic: 3 RailtraceR30 fucked around with this message at 03:27 on Feb 11, 2023 |
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Feb 11, 2023 01:21
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oh yeah, guess I need a WILDCARD. This is what I've got on deck so far, a mix of 12 books recommended to me by close friends, classics, and things that I think qualify based on my faculties. Top Left is completed thusfar.
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Feb 11, 2023 03:12
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RailtraceR30 posted:oh yeah, guess I need a WILDCARD. Les Guerilleres, by Monique Wittig
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Feb 12, 2023 11:22
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A human heart posted:Les Guerilleres, by Monique Wittig cool thx
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Feb 12, 2023 16:12
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A Movie Making Nerd by James Rolfe Book #1 of the year, also audiobook #1, James does a great job with it. Having narrated so many videos probably helps. I love this kind of autobiography with anecdotes and personal touches on the adventure of life. They're often different than I'd expect, I notice comedian's ones can at times be among the more serious and somber ones. Which makes sense oddly enough. This book is just really relatable and heartfelt, and the kind of "nerdy" introverted awkward etc perspective he approached life's milestones with really hit home for me. And even though it covers all sorts of serious things, he does have a fun offbeat wit to his way of looking at things. All in all, really inspiring and compelling book. Heavy Metal fucked around with this message at 07:51 on Feb 15, 2023 |
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Feb 15, 2023 07:48
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I'll hop on here and shoot for 52 books. I'll probably fail since I don't read enough, but I'd like to change that bad habit, so I'm going to go all in.
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Feb 18, 2023 05:59
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February The Maidens - Alex Michealides Here and Now and Then - Mike Chen Aristotle: A Very Short Introduction - Jonathan Barnes The Secret History - Donna Tartt My Year of Rest and Relaxation - Ottessa Moshfegh To be honest, I'm a bit burnt out on reading at the moment. I got The Secret History as a 7-day library loan and managed all listen to the entire 25 hours in 7 days. I found Aristotle to be a slog but was pretty into The Maidens and My Year of Rest and Relaxation. FWIW, it's a pretty low bar, as I found MYRR to be meh. This month I started, got half way through, and ditched Book Lovers. Overall, I think that February was pretty bad luck. Honestly, The Secret History was beautiful but I didn't love the story and kept waiting for it to pick up. It didn't. However, I didn't put it down and I'll take that as a win. I'm currently reading An Introduction to Elementary Logic and One Last Stop. I have a bunch of library loans that will be delivered to me but also have a bunch of logic books that I have to get through at some point...
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Feb 27, 2023 00:57
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luscious posted:Overall, I think that February was pretty bad luck. Honestly, The Secret History was beautiful but I didn't love the story and kept waiting for it to pick up. It didn't. However, I didn't put it down and I'll take that as a win. I had this same experience. It wasn't thrilling enough to really make me feel any sort of suspense, but at the same time, it kept me intrigued enough to keep going. Was ultimately dissatisfied with the turnout of events as there was absolutely no "secret history" of any sort, but it wasn't a bad book. Kept me entertained. I will say I thought it was hilarious how Henry shot himself in the head TWICE at the end. Absolutely absurd.
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Feb 27, 2023 04:27
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ectoplasm posted:I had this same experience. It wasn't thrilling enough to really make me feel any sort of suspense, but at the same time, it kept me intrigued enough to keep going. Was ultimately dissatisfied with the turnout of events as there was absolutely no "secret history" of any sort, but it wasn't a bad book. Kept me entertained. I will say I thought it was hilarious how Henry shot himself in the head TWICE at the end. Absolutely absurd. I did find the writing really good. I found Bunny so endearing at first. Over time, as intended, I started to hate him. I hadn't expected to feel such a shift in my perception of a fictional character. All in all, I agree with everything that you said. The book kind of reminded me of the feeling of a lazy Sunday: it's slow and good and moving along. I think that the pace contributed to the ultimate burnout that I experienced. Going forward, I don't think I will attempt anything over 10 hours in a 7-day loan.
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Feb 28, 2023 20:30
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luscious posted:I did find the writing really good. I found Bunny so endearing at first. Over time, as intended, I started to hate him. I hadn't expected to feel such a shift in my perception of a fictional character. All in all, I agree with everything that you said. The book kind of reminded me of the feeling of a lazy Sunday: it's slow and good and moving along. I think that the pace contributed to the ultimate burnout that I experienced. Definitely agree. It was a weeks long project for me.
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Mar 1, 2023 02:05
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Name: Tzen Personal Challenge: 40 Booklord 2023? Yes I've only read 3 books this year, I need motivation. I read 39 last year, hoping for 40 this time around. Books read so far: January: 1. The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin - 5/5 2. Junji Ito's Cat Diary: Yon & Mu by Junji Ito - 4/5 February: 3. Tomorrow's Parties: Life in the Anthropocene editor Jonathan Strahan* - 5/5 *it's a collection of short stories
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Mar 1, 2023 07:09
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Someone wanna throw me a wildcard? I prefer hardcore horror/splatterpunk stuff lately but I'm not opposed to some spaceman fighting or wizards.
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Mar 1, 2023 07:32
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UwUnabomber posted:Someone wanna throw me a wildcard? I prefer hardcore horror/splatterpunk stuff lately but I'm not opposed to some spaceman fighting or wizards. Garth Marenghi's Terrortome. A new book from the author of claims he's written more books than he's read. Check out the show Garth Marenghi's Dark Place if you haven't before to understand what it's about Books read in Feb - 5 7 - The Long Utopia by Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter - I liked the concepts around the primary problem of the book but I didn't like how rushed the ending felt. I get that the Next are very logical and that Stan would accept his death as necessary but his mum and friend both seemed pretty quick to let him die. They also seemed quick to just know how to sever that Earth and that Sally would be able to help 8 - Requiem Vampire Knight: The Convent of the Sisters of Blood and The Queen of Dead Souls by Pat Mills & Olivier Ledroit (Illustrator) - Picked this up for cheap from a second hand stall not knowing what it was. Being vol. 4 the plot didn't make much sense to me, seemed to be set in the far future possibly in Hell or an adjacent relm filled with vampires and other creatures. It was a good gore filled violent romp though with intense artwork. 9 - Falcons of Narabelda by Marion Zimmer Bradley - An old sci-fi novel in which the main character (a regular guy from the 1950/60s) finds his conciousness thrown into the body of a tyrant in the far future where technology has advanced to the point of seeming like magic. He spends most of the book utterly confused which is a fair reaction. The world was interesting but you don't really get to see much of it as it's such a short story, that might work in it's favour though as explaining exactly why there are 2 suns probably wouldn't be as good as the reason you yourself imagine. 10 - The Long Cosmos by Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter - Last in the series and more entertaining than the previous one it was pretty satifying to reflect on how much the world has changed since the first book and how much it is going to continue changing. 11- Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson & Howard Lyon (Illustrator) - Aka "Secret Project #1". Favourite book so far this year, a swashbuckling adventure novel with the same sort of feel as The Princess Bride or Stardust. First original Brandon Sanderson novel I've ever read and I'm really glad I backed the kickstarter for it 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. - 11/35 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. - 1 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of color. - 0 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 8% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. - 0 5. Read something that is not a novel (i.e. a play, a poetry collection, a comic/manga, etc.) - 5 6. Borrow something to read (from a friend, a loved one, a library, etc.) - 0 7. Lend or recommend a book to someone (tell the thread what you lended/recommended!) - 8. Read something over 400 pages - 1 9. Read something by an author with the same or similar name as you (can be just first, middle, last, a nickname, whatever) - 10. Read a work in translation - 1 11. Read something that someone you know HATES - 12. Read something about books - 13. Ask the thread for a Wildcard - 14. Read a book published the year you turned 23 years old - Doing terrible for authors that aren't straight white men. Any suggestions for authors of sci-fi/fantasy/horror? I'm planning on reading a fair bit of Ursula La Guin this year but other suggestions would be great.
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Mar 1, 2023 08:15
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freelop posted:Doing terrible for authors that aren't straight white men. Any suggestions for authors of sci-fi/fantasy/horror? I'm planning on reading a fair bit of Ursula La Guin this year but other suggestions would be great. Off the top of my head, Octavia Butler (sci fi), Rebecca Roanhorse (fantasy), Nghi Vo (Singing Hills Cycle is fantasy), Rivers Solomon (sci fi/horror), Cassandra Khaw (horror/sci fi), Tamsyn Muir (sci fi/horror/fantasy), Alma Katsu (historical horror - The Hunger specifically is really good), Shelley Parker-Chan (fantasy), Tasha Suri (fantasy). They're all women and non-binary PoC, and a good amount of them are also LGBTQ. Yoon Ha Lee (sci fi/fantasy) is a Korean American trans man (I finished the Ninefox Gambit trilogy recently and really liked it).
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Mar 1, 2023 12:54
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As usual, I've taken Black History Month to read Black authors. The question facing me now is whether that makes them "seasonal" reads. And I think, sure, why not. 9. Even Though I Knew the End by CL Polk - Sort of a noir fantasy gig, with our heroine as a detective trying to buy back her soul. Angels and demons and lesbians, oh my! A short read that's surprisingly good. I realized after the fact that I'd read Polk's Witchmark book 1, and I enjoyed this more. 10. Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions by Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi - A series of linked short stories focusing on the lives of 3 girls from Nigeria. The stories focus on school, travel, their family members, and ultimately changes in Nigeria over the course of the book. This was very good. Would recommend. 11. The Man in my Basement by Walter Mosely - Charles is a lazy fellow on the cusp of losing his family home when a rich white man offers to pay him a large sum to be locked in his basement over the summer. But why? This, as you might expect, waxes a bit philosophical. Thought this was pretty good. 12. Underground Railroad by Colston Whitehead - Feel like maybe I'm the last person to read this one. An enslaved woman named Cora escapes on the magically real literal underground railroad. She travels to various parts of the country and witnesses the horrors of racism everywhere. And man, there's a host of them even in more progressive areas. A very good book 13. Grand Union by Zadie Smith - A collection of short stories. On the whole, it was pretty mid. I was surprised, given that I had enjoyed Smith in the past. But yeah, not my favs. Ben Nevis posted:1. Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo
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Mar 1, 2023 18:21
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DurianGray posted:Off the top of my head, Octavia Butler (sci fi), Rebecca Roanhorse (fantasy), Nghi Vo (Singing Hills Cycle is fantasy), Rivers Solomon (sci fi/horror), Cassandra Khaw (horror/sci fi), Tamsyn Muir (sci fi/horror/fantasy), Alma Katsu (historical horror - The Hunger specifically is really good), Shelley Parker-Chan (fantasy), Tasha Suri (fantasy). They're all women and non-binary PoC, and a good amount of them are also LGBTQ. Cheers that's quite the list
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Mar 2, 2023 07:18
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Been happy with what I've been able to read so far, even if they haven't been great: January: The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke: This was fine but did that whole switching perspective from past to present that I'm not a fan of. The Cardiff Killings by Gaynor Torrance: Thought I'd read this as I don't get to read a lot of books based in Wales. The characters weren't that great and the overall story was so slow in the build up then the finished seemed rushed with a weird Greek Gods angle that comes to very little. The Stroke of Winter by Wendy Webb: Wendy really wants you to know all the sorts of things the characters eat in this from full meals to light snacks. Febuary: We by Yevgeny Zamyatin: This was great you can see what Orwell took from it. I've also gone through the first three books of Earthsea: A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, and The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin and they have all been great, really enjoying them should have read them sooner. So that's 7/26.
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Mar 3, 2023 18:13
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The only things I read this month were the first four Clickers books by J. F. Gonzalez and a rotating cast of other authors. Surprisingly fun, really a B-movie series in horror novel form. Edit: Also I found a copy of the Terrortome, I've seen Dark Place. Pretty excited honestly but I might rewatch it first. UwUnabomber fucked around with this message at 07:20 on Mar 4, 2023 |
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Mar 4, 2023 07:05
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hello fellow booklords. I started February out strong but I really limped across the finish line. My poor family has been sick seemingly every single week for the past 12 months, but it's been especially bad since February break (my wife is a teacher) You'd think reading would be a perfect sick activity, but not when you have to take care of a sick 4yo and 10mo old. anyway! #6 - Sourcery, Terry Pratchett My first Discworld book. This one stars Rincewind the wizzard as the world sees the violent reintroduction of the Sourcerers, a type of super powerful mage who tries to convince the doddering and mostly academic wizards that they should rule the world via magic. It was funny, and an easy read, but my overall opinion is lukewarm. There are many stories that can balance farcical parody with serious and emotional moments, but Sourcery kept getting the "ratio" wrong, and it hindered my enjoyment of the book quite a bit. The supporting cast gets it the worst; I think you could have cut 80% of their involvement and it'd be much stronger. I want to return to Discworld again, but not quite yet. 3 stars. #7 - Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, translated by Edith Grossman The Ingenious Gentleman himself, a man who rots his brains with his obsessive consumption of entertainment and loses his grip on reality. It is a book visionary in both premise and execution. I read several chapters of it way back in high school Spanish, but I had never read the full book or English translation until now. There is no word that can properly praise how well this book holds up. It's 400 years old, yet it is still absolutely modern and utterly brilliant. It's funny, it's witty, it's engaging (despite being nearly 1,000 pages), it has a lot to say about its society at the time and the human condition that is still extremely relevant. It is also remarkably meta in ways that are very clever and would be praised as innovative even in a book published in 2023. It's a top 5 book. I hope to reread this once every few years. 5 stars. #8 - The Tombs of Atuan, Ursula LeGuin Book 2 of Earthsea. Like the 1st book it focuses on the life of a single character, but unlike the first book it allows for the character and world to live and breath at a more measured pace. The stakes are lower, the scope smaller, and it sticks to one location - and all of it is to the book's great benefit. Tenar, the new protagonist, is complex and tragic and very awesome. She's a high priestess, ostensibly reincarnated, and is thrust into a horrific life at a very young age. LeGuin strikes the perfect balance between drilling down into Tenar's personality and motivations with the wider world and its lore. Her ability to form a sense of place is the work of a real expert. I finished the books feeling as if the Tombs of Atuan were a real place that I could describe and even navigate. I was blown away by this book and finished it in a single day. 5 stars. #9 - Point Your Face at This: Drawings, Demetri Martin This is a collection of comics and comedic writings, one per page, ranging from visual gags to puns to "chart humor" that is vaguely XKCD-y. There are also drawings that are a mixture of political cartoon and modern art. I bought it forever ago because I liked Demetri Martin's standup, though I only just now read it. Most jokes were at least competent, and some pretty clever, but my god I hated every single attempt at social commentary. Think of the most eyerollingly obviouis art piece created by a college sophomore, and you have the baseline here. A man stands with an angel on one shoulder and the icons for the Democrat and Republican party on another. A baby's crib with a mobile consisting of news and social media company logos. A dog poop surrounded by flies is compared visually to a city surrounded by airplanes. 2 stars. #10 - The Farthest Shore, Ursula LeGuin Book 3 of Earthsea. We're back to Sparrowhawk, but much more time has passed, and he's on a new odyssey with a young prince. It's a fitting conclusion to the trilogy, drawing together and paying off story threads that you might not have noticed. It's better than Wizard of Earthsea, though I had similar problems with it. The main thrust of the narrative felt curiously understated, or maybe underwritten. Both books apocalyptic events, yet that is at odds with how characters react and how the narrative itself is written. I think I liked Tombs so much precisely because the stakes were lower and the characters reacted in ways I expected. I still really enjoyed it, and again her ability to describe a place is top notch. The dry lands especially is some of the most haunting afterlife writing I've read. Wonderful stuff overall. 4 stars. #11 - Beowulf: A New Translation, translated by Maria Dahvana Headley This book was recommended in the SFF thread here. The description I saw there seemed kinda bad: it's a translation that uses modern slang like "bling", "hashtag:blessed", "talking poo poo", and a staggering amount of "daddy"s and "bro"s But I like Beowulf and I didn't want to be one of those dorks who gets mad at a modern take on a book without reading it. And I'm glad I did, because this book ruuuuuuuuuules The "worst" parts of the above tend to be the parts that get quoted in reviews (good and bad) because they're so ostentatious, but to my surprise and delight, they represent a tiny minority of the book itself. The majority of the poetry is beautiful, inventive, and impossibly clever. The alliteration is sublime, the compound phrases are evocative and quotable. How many translations of Beowulf can be called quotable? The anachronisms (for lack of a better term) were frequently distracting and actually felt pretty forced. I never got the sense that the author actually uses these words herself, or even knows how other people use them, especially patrons in a bar, which is the true Beowulf experience. But it was overall a delightful book, and one I'd gladly recommend to anyone who has read another translation. 4 stars.
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Mar 4, 2023 10:39
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I finished 8 books in February. I had a sort of mini goal to read a good amount of books by Black authors since it's Black History Month in the U.S., and I had a bunch of qualifying books that had been on my TBR for a while anyway. March is Women's History month so I'm going to do a similar thing and try to read more historical books by/about women and a few sort of 'significant' books by women ( in that vein, finally getting to Joanna Russ's The Female Man is probably my biggest goal for March). 11. Howls From the Dark Ages (anthology) A collection of medieval-themed horror short stories, all by different authors. This is a pretty solid collection overall, I think only one or two stories really clunked for me. I really liked that it's not entirely set in medieval Europe, too. There are some stories set in the Americas and one or two in East Asia, iirc. Worth picking up if you're starving for some medieval horror. 12. The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks The third Culture novel I've read now, but the second in publication order. I've said it before, but I'm really glad I didn't stop after really not clicking with Consider Phlebas. This somehow manages to pull off the "a guy is so good at (board) games he gets recruited by the government" concept. The way the Culture is sketched out feels a lot fuller than it did in Phlebas, too (which makes sense, since that book was mostly an outsider POV). 13. The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South by Michael W. Twitty Here's where I wasn't just finishing up books from the previous month. Twitty is a historian and historic interpreter who focuses on food and how it intersects with race, especially in the south. This combines that with his own genealogical findings as he tracks down his ancestors. The way he presents the effects of specific crops and foods on chattel slavery is really informative (and incredibly sobering -- I currently live in Richmond and while I knew some about the history of the slave market here and Lumpkin's Jail, the details he goes into and his own family connection to it really puts it in a new light). I think the only strike I have against it is that it would get a little repetitive sometimes with some of the facts and details (mostly about crops and foods). 14. Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon A horror/sci-fi book about a young albino Black woman who escapes from the Black separatist compound where she grew up. She gives birth to twins in the forest and proceeds to raise them there, even though things start to get weird as she learns more about the history of the compound, and she starts to develop some superhuman abilities. I really wasn't expecting this to end up where it did by the end, but it was a good read. I think I liked Solomon's Unkindness of Ghosts better, but this is a solid recommendation if you like their other work I think. 15. Sakawa by Ben Asamoah This was a super short book apparently self-published as a companion to a documentary by the same title. It's a fictionalized based-on-a-true-story narrative of a young Ghanaian man named Kweku who gets involved with scamming westerners online. Specifically by getting involved in Sakawa, practitioners of which go to local priests/shamans and participate in rituals that range from the relatively benign (like abstaining from sex and certain foods for a time) to the deadly (like murder), to make their scams work better. The editing of this was a bit rough, but it was interesting to get a look at the other side of a very specific type of internet scam culture. 16. Goliath by Tochi Onyebuchi I've read some other works by Onyebuchi, so I was interested to check this out but it just didn't hook me. The basic jist is that Earth is pretty hosed from climate change, and anyone well off lives in orbiting space stations, leaving the poor and marginalized to scrape by on the destroyed planet (although some people are trying to come in and gentrify things). There are a dozen or so viewpoint characters (or it seemed like it), and each POV is more or less asynchronous from the others (just for fun, I guess?). For me, it was just too many people and not enough time spent with any of them to care much about them. But plenty of other people seemed to love this, so I guess it's just a YMMV thing. 17. Bloodchild and Other Stories by Octavia Butler I'm getting close to having read everything Butler wrote. This collection might be my go-to for introducing people to her writing. The titular story especially is gnarly, and it's thematically pretty similar to a lot of the recurring themes touched on in her novels (especially the Xenogenesis books). But all the rest were really good or at the very least interesting. This also has a couple of essays she wrote on writing which where interesting to read. 18. The Blazing World by Margaret Cavendish I've seen some things posit this as one of the first sci-fi novels (or at least one of the first written by a woman) and it was published in 1666. This was short and an interesting read as a historical artefact (I definitely geeked out over her describing some of the images from Hooke's Micrographia which was published only the year before). However, this is one of those books where someone giving you a synopsis is probably more interesting than actually reading it. For example, it starts with a girl who is kidnapped by pirates, but they're all killed by an illness on the ship only she survives, then she drifts to the north pole and somehow onto a different world populated mostly by animal-men and she becomes their empress! And then there's 50 pages of her asking worm-men and bird-men contemporary philosophical and scientific questions over and over and over. I did have a couple of books that I read mostly in February but finished right at the start of March, so I'll wait to log those (including maybe the one 'meh' Octavia Butler book I've read so far!). PROMPTS 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge - 52 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. (~8/18) 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of color. (~9/18) 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 8% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. (~9/18) 5. Read something that is not a novel 6. Borrow something to read 7. Lend or recommend a book to someone - I got 2 friends to start reading Moby Dick! 8. Read something over 400 pages - Kushiel's Dart definitely qualifies 9. Read something by an author with the same or similar name as you - Hexarchate Stories by Yoon Ha Lee 10. Read a work in translation - Solaris by Stanisław Lem 11. Read something that someone you know HATES 12. Read something about books 13. Ask the thread for a Wildcard 14. Read a book published the year you turned 23 years old THEMES - Surreal - Adventure - Informational - The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England - Uplifting - Tragic - Seasonal - Scary - Comforting - Celestial - The Blazing World - Chthonic
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Mar 4, 2023 17:57
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WarpDogs posted:I still really enjoyed it, and again her ability to describe a place is top notch. The dry lands especially is some of the most haunting afterlife writing I've read. Wonderful stuff overall. 4 stars. Yeah I really enjoyed that part.
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Mar 4, 2023 19:35
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Actually my apologies. I also read gay serial killer horror novel Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z Brite. I liked it a lot, probably my favorite thing I've read as part of booklord so far. I'm a bisexual man, I'm not really queer lit guy. Also not one to read books with sex scenes that are supposed to be erotic and not just scary. Really really good poo poo.
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Mar 6, 2023 04:08
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Hello reading friends, a March update! I haven't been reading as much as I would like but I'm sure all of you understand and feel the same. Despite this, I guess I have maintained a decent pace. I would like to increase it more but we will see how much effort actually occurs. I'm not always reading for pure pleasure, some of the stuff I'm reading is because I own it and I am a completionist. I have a bunch of old books so some of these will be collections of writings and not specifically a novel or whatever. Probably not in order. 1) Kill Anything That Moves - The Real American War in Vietnam by Nick Turse Believe it or not, a book on war crimes is a pretty rough read. Lots of details and interviews. If you want to really hate America and war, this is a good book for you. Recommended for all. 2) Pi in the Ski - Counting, Thinking, and Being by John D. Barrow I have a math degree so I get pop math books as gifts so here we are and this book would have been nice when I was 10. I actually kind of hate pop math books. Recommended for whoever likes these types of books, not me. 3) Callings - Finding and Following an Authentic Life by Gregg Levoy lol I got sent this by a therapist who said everyone at their school got this book upon graduating. It's mostly soft self-help stuff or whatever. Not my thing but it's harmless, maybe a good chicken soup for the soul-style book or something? Not recommended though, it wasn't really much. 4) Games People Play - The Basic Handbook of Transactional Analysis by Eric Berne One of the only pop psychology books I've read but it's short and entertaining enough. The author creates a system, as academics do, but that's all ignorable imo. Recommended to anyone 5) Calculus Made Easy by Silvanus P. Thompson and Martin Gardner A fairly famous math book with some minor tinkering from Martin, who is famous is his own right. I am weird and enjoy old math texts so this was a fun read. Good book to learn the basics of Calc written in folksy style. I can see why quite a few people cite reading this book as a child and appreciating math a lot more. I would have enjoyed reading this book when I was back in school. Recommended for anyone interested 6) Bush Craft 101 - A Field Guide to the Art of Wilderness Survival by Dave Canterbury I think, after reading this, I would die in the woods by following this book. Not a great feeling considering the topic and title. Recommended for people you don't like 7) The Vikings - A History by Robert Ferguson Broad general history book. Nothing special and often bogs down in long, tedious battle - date - battle -date or king date song date king date etc that is of course required in historical literature but I would just rather you put those dudes in a chart and reference the chart. First half of the book was especially slow and took quite a while to get through, later chapters cover later history, which is better documented in the record, so the writing is able to flesh things out better. I don't know anything about Vikings but after this book I know a few things I guess so success? Recommended for anyone interested but I'd imagine there are better books out there on the topic. 8) The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus Sisyphus got that dawg in him. Recommended for college classes that require it 9) The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon Hey some fiction! Too bad it was this book, which I did not enjoy. Recommended for college classes that require it 10) The Outline of History by H. G. Wells Phew this is a tome. This is a great book, though its obviously very dated. I guess it has been kept updated and rereleased up until fairly recently but I had a version from the 60's so lol. Like any old history book it is especially interesting to compare old flawed or downright wrong ideas with modern thought. Recommended for anyone who likes history and would like maybe some holes filled in Let's see how much we add to this next update.
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Mar 12, 2023 06:15
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I'm almost 100% library/library app audiobooks and good gravy the audiobook recommendations from it have been very very hit or miss. That being said I'm a glutton for punishment and I'll listen my way through anything as long as the readers aren't too annoying. I’d say the theme this season in retrospect would be “everything’s just a little strange/off”, like when you wake up from a badly timed nap. January The Favorite Child - Kathryn Grant (audiobook) : Terrible. 0/5 Desert Creatures - Kay Chronister (audiobook) : A gorgeous but bleak fever dream of a book. 4/5 The Bone Orchard - Sara A. Mueller : It was fine I guess? The blurb is way more engaging than the actual product. I did get into it enough to borrow the physical book to check some bits I couldn't quite parse in the listen. 3/5 Hell Bent - Leigh Bardugo : I've been super anxious about this one since I really dug Ninth House. It's good but while the events last book took place over a year or and everything in this happens in a few weeks. The author also really loves describing demon dong in a non-sexy context. 4/5 Life Ceremony - Sayaka Murata : Short story collection. Very mid overall but the ones that hit hit hard. 3/5 The Memory Index - Julian R. Vaca (audiobook): HEY GUYS DID YOU KNOW THIS BOOK IS SET IN THE 1980s??? Nevermind this book is YA published in 2022. Possibly the book that put me off YA for the rest of the month. Almost feels like a middle school book with the lol jk the people you thought were dead are actually fine. 0/5 A Sliver of Darkness - C.J. Tudor : Short story collection. Spooky and unsettling. Some stories hit better than others but overall very solid. 4/5 Book of Night - Holly Black : Promising blurb, unfocused mess. Magic system makes no sense in this world. 1/5 Little Eve - Catriona Ward : Book opens with a cult on a remote Scottish island, ritual murder suicides and eye removal. Any more would be spoilers. 4/5 Star Eater - Kerstin Hall : Came for the lesbian cannibal nuns in the blurb, stayed for the intrigue. Most importantly though, HORSE SIZED CATS as mounts. 3/5 These Silent Woods - Kimi Cunningham Grant (audiobook) : Unlikeable characters all around, and not even in an engaging way. I was kind of hoping the MC would get Ruby Ridge’d a few chapters in but no such luck. 0/5 February Reckless Girls - Rachel Hawkins (audiobook) : I guess all books about strangers with yachts on a remote jungle island paradise follow the same plots because I swear I've read this one before. But I didn't since the characters are slightly different. 2/5 The Death of Jane Lawrence - Caitlin Starling (audiobook): Perfectly serviceable Gothic pastiche. Dead wives in attics and all that. 2/5 Nettle & Bone - T. Kingfisher : Fairy tale flavoured story about a nun trying to save her sister from an abuser, after said abuser already killed one sister. Contains some sad realities about marriages for political ends. Reasonably compelling and I did like Ursula Vernon's work on Digger so I'll have some more T. Kingfisher books in upcoming months. 3/5 A Magic Steeped in Poison - Judy I. Lin (audiobook) : It's an interesting premise and all the court politics are fine but as a Canto speaker I'm mildly annoyed by all the shoehorned in Mandarin words. 2/5 Bunny - Mona Awad : Another fever dream of a book. Bunny? Bunny. Bunny! 4/5 The Honeys - Ryan La Sala : YA but this time with representation in a summer camp for nepo babies. Nicely weird with the whole bees thing. 3/5 Honorary DNF pile: Meat - Joseph D'Lacey : Think Tender is the Flesh needed more depressing blowjobs and graphic underage procedures? Maybe this book is for you! I gave up after the insemination sequence. Current percentages Not Written by Men: 88% Writer of Colour: 29% LGBTQA+: 5% Challenges 5. Read something that is not a novel- Do short story collections count? 6. Borrow something to read 7. Lend or recommend a book to someone 8. Read something over 400 pages - Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo (481 pages) 9. Read something by an author with the same or similar name as you 10. Read a work in translation- Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata 11. Read something that someone you know HATES 12. Read something about books 13. Ask the thread for a Wildcard 14. Read a book published the year you turned 13/23 years old Thread, hit me with the wildcard. I don't have much patience for romance as I've read entirely too much Jackie Collins borderline porn back in the day but I'm open to most other things. Edit: Fufilled! Thanks to DurianGray. DurianGray posted:How about The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling (I saw you were lukewarm on Death of Jane Lawrence by her, but TLD is extremely different and, IMO, way better) Chococat fucked around with this message at 14:49 on Mar 27, 2023 |
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Mar 19, 2023 23:47
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Could I get a wildcard? I tend to prefer literary fiction. Thanks!
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Mar 21, 2023 14:30
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TrixRabbi posted:Could I get a wildcard? I tend to prefer literary fiction. Thanks! Grendel by John Gardner.
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Mar 21, 2023 15:58
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Chococat posted:Thread, hit me with the wildcard. I don't have much patience for romance as I've read entirely too much Jackie Collins borderline porn back in the day but I'm open to most other things. How about The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling (I saw you were lukewarm on Death of Jane Lawrence by her, but TLD is extremely different and, IMO, way better)
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Mar 21, 2023 21:37
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Slow start this year since I was doing professional development stuff. 3: Before the Coffee gets cold: Hat tip to forums poster docfission for this one. I'm a big emotional sap so this book made me cry a couple of times. Quick read but well written and beautifully emotionally. Highly recommend this if you want to feel a bunch of things at once.
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Mar 22, 2023 18:06
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DurianGray posted:How about The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling (I saw you were lukewarm on Death of Jane Lawrence by her, but TLD is extremely different and, IMO, way better) I didn't not like it! My memory is just not great so I was going off my very sparse Goodreads notes. Thanks for the rec, I'll queue it up!
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Mar 22, 2023 23:44
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Name: GaengDangit Personal Challenge: Read 25 books Booklord 2023? Yes I did this last year, and though I abandoned the thread halfway through the year, it was a huge success. I just barely read my goal of 24 books, but more exciting to me I started reading genres I never had, and reading books recommended/lent by friends. My partner is really into horror movies but I don't like them, so I read a lot of books they are based on, and I got into that and it's such a cool way to connect with him. Oh, it's the end of March already and I just read my first book of the year last week and it was The Walking Dead, volume 1.
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Mar 23, 2023 16:57
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March The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections 6.5/10 Sea of Tranquility 9/10 Disorientation 7/10 Singer Distance 6/10 Severance 10/10 This is How you Lose the Time War 10/10 This month was so much better than last month. Despite that, I took a break in the middle of the month and didn't listen to anything for a bit and then hopped back on. I picked up Disorientation on a whim and really enjoyed it. Singer Distance was on a list of hits from NPR and fell kinda flat for me. Two books this week have described male genitalia in ways that have made me raise an eyebrow. One as a sea cucumber and one as "hanging low." I've been trying to work that out ever since. Otherwise I've been enjoying the time travel / alternate timeline reading. 1. 17/52 2. Not Written by Men: 58% 3. Writer of Colour: 29% 4. LGBTQA+: unknown 5. Read something that is not a novel - complete. The very short introduction books are not novels. 6. Borrow something to read - complete. They're all library books. 7. Lend or recommend a book to someone - complete. My father and step-mother just received Klara and the Sun and The Enigma of Reason. 8. Read something over 400 pages The Secret History - 544 p. 9. Read something by an author with the same or similar name as you 10. Read a work in translation 11. Read something that someone you know HATES 12. Read something about books - The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections? 13. Ask the thread for a Wildcard 14. Read a book published the year you turned 13/23 years old
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Mar 29, 2023 22:30
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I only got through two books this month, Permanently Suspended by Anthony Cumia and The Spear Cuts Through Water.
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Mar 30, 2023 04:50
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I finished 11 books in March. I took a hard pivot toward horror at the end of the month (and that's still going) but there was a lot of variety overall. 19. Fledgling by Octavia Butler I've read most of Butler's work at this point, and if I had to rank them, Fledgling is probably at the bottom of the list. On the one hand, this is an interesting take on a vampire novel that layers in race, gender, sexuality, and autonomy in ways that you don't always see in vampire stuff. On the other hand, and probably the biggest hurdle to really get over, is that the protagonist is a 60-something year old vampire (they're a different species from humans in the book but whatever) who explicitly looks like a 12 year old, and she does have sex with adult humans. It's not the sole focus of the book (and it's possible to read some nuance into what Butler was trying to accomplish with it thematically) but it really did make me feel kinda gross! BESIDES THAT THOUGH -- the story in this felt like the weakest of all her stuff I've read so far, and the only thing that kept me interested was the worldbuilding details. 20. Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach Roach has written a lot of sort of pop-science books but this was the first I'd ever read. It does what it says on the tin and investigates the friction that happens when animals and humans intersect and how humans have tried to deal with it. There are a lot if interesting anecdotes and it hops around in time and place from Midway during WWII to modern-day Indian villages and how they deal with belligerent drunk elephants. Sometimes funny, often gruesome (and occasionally both). An interesting but definitely very light read. 21. The Dark Queens: The Bloody Rivalry that Forged the Medieval World by Shelley Puhak About the Merovingian queens Brunhild and Fredegund, who even if you have never heard of them, you've definitely seen stuff they inspired one way or another. This was a really fascinating book, and it managed to explain and detail the complications of the palace intrigue and politics at the time while still allowing a lot of "we can't know for sure" when it was needed given that these events happened in the 6th century CE. A really interesting look at how women of the era were able to gain and wield power, but it also doesn't have any illusions about how difficult that was. 22. The Female Man by Joanna Russ I'd been meaning to read this for a while since I'd seen it referenced as a sort of seminal work of feminist 70s sci-fi. It uses 4 woman who are sort of alternate-world counterparts of each other to look at the hosed-ness of patriarchy. It's a real primal scream of a book, and the things it does well it does really well. But it definitely has a lot of glaring weaknesses stemming from what I'd say is a complete lack of intersectionality. It's great at addressing the type of sexism faced by middle class white American women, but either doesn't address anyone else, or sort of goes out of its way to be gross about them (there's some offhand eugenics and a large section that is hard not to read as transphobic even if that wasn't the intent, for example). Best read from a historical lens I would say. 23. The Faithless by C.L. Clark This is the sequel to The Unbroken, a secondary world fantasy set in a roughly 1700s-ish world where Not-France has colonized parts of Not-North-Africa. This introduces a handful of new characters and major plot threads, and focuses a lot more on palace intrigue and the political aftermath of the anti-colonial revolution that happened in the first book. I enjoyed the first book, but thought that Clark had the potential to grow more as a writer, and I think that this book proved me right. It felt better honed than the first one and I enjoyed it even more which can be a rare thing for the second book in a trilogy. Would recommend. 24. Orlando by Virginia Woolf Been meaning to read more Woolf, so I did. Orlando has piqued my interest for a while since I'd heard it was about Gender in some ways. It was mostly good, but definitely had some glaring and unnecessary racism popped up so casually and suddenly it was jarring. I think the book is also a lot more interesting knowing that Woolf based Orlando on a girlfriend she had a bit of a tumultuous relationship with (it is not a flattering portrait, and they hadn't even broken up yet when Orlando was published). Another one I'd categorize as having some good stuff, but best read knowing it'll have some stuff that, to be maybe overly generous, hasn't aged well. 25. Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses by Robin Wall Kimmerer It's a book about moss! That's mostly it. It's very different from Braiding Sweetgrass if you've already read that and had that expectation. Nice if you just want a chill book about mosses and how human beings have interacted with them historically and presently. 26. Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James This took me a while to finish. On the one hand, the writing style is really great and punchy and just very different from what I'm used to reading. The fantastical, pan-African setting is really cool. I loved those parts of it. What I got stuck on was the pacing. It's a chunky 620 pages with a fairly simple plot that meanders around and around in a way that made my interest flag after I got to about the halfway point. That said, I don't think it's a bad book or anything, but it was definitely long enough that my mood shifted to wanting to read a lot of other stuff before I eventually finished it. I would still recommend checking it out though, especially if you want a lush fantasy book that is not set in Pseudo-Europe. 27. Hell House by Richard Matheson A really zippy and cinematically constructed 70s haunted house novel. Kind of like the exploitation B-horror version of The Haunting of Hill House. The POV rotates between 4 people investigating a notorious haunted house (a parapsychologist, his wife, and two mediums) at the behest of a dying rich man who wants to know if there's an afterlife or not. There's nothing super subtle here, but it's overall well done, with the caveat that it's from the 70s and has some, once again, stuff that hasn't aged well. (I think there's supposed to be a lot more assumed reader disgust/horror about the lesbian attraction between the two female characters than would be the reaction for most people now, for instance?) 28. Leech by Hiron Ennes I really enjoyed this. It's a blend of gothic horror, sci fi, and fantasy in a super post-apocalyptic world. The POV character is a sort of parasitic hivemind that lives in human hosts and has made sure to corner the medical field all by itself. The POV host is sent to care for an ailing baron who oversees a mining town in a distant mountain region. And also find out who/what murdered the previous host/doctor stationed there. About halfway through the plot takes a turn for a much more gothic/personal/intimate sort of horror but I was there for the ride and thought it was a really interesting place to take the story on several levels. 29. Feed Them Silence by Lee Mandelo Super short novella about a science researcher who has wolf thoughts beamed into her brain for an experiment, and also her relationship with her wife is falling apart. This didn't quite gel for me (I did like Mandelo's other book, Summer Sons a lot more than this, though). Something was off about the pacing, like it felt both too long and too short? I think it either could have been a tighter short story and worked better, or a longer novel that dove into the themes it was aiming for in more depth. As it was I just felt pretty ambivalent about it once I'd finished reading it. PROMPTS 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge - 52 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. (~17/29) 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of color. (~13/29) 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 8% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. (~16/29) 5. Read something that is not a novel 6. Borrow something to read 7. Lend or recommend a book to someone - I got 2 friends to start reading Moby Dick! 8. Read something over 400 pages - Kushiel's Dart definitely qualifies 9. Read something by an author with the same or similar name as you - Hexarchate Stories by Yoon Ha Lee 10. Read a work in translation - Solaris by Stanisław Lem 11. Read something that someone you know HATES 12. Read something about books 13. Ask the thread for a Wildcard 14. Read a book published the year you turned 23 years old THEMES - Surreal - Adventure - Informational - The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England - Uplifting - Tragic - Seasonal - Leech (Winter was a very relevant plot point) - Scary - Comforting - Celestial - The Blazing World - Chthonic
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Apr 1, 2023 21:56
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Gertrude Perkins posted:1 - My Sister, The Serial Killer, by Oyinkan Braithwaite I missed last month's post, but I finished eleven books in February and March, including the enormous Jerusalem... 6 - Chronosis, by Reza Negarestani, Keith Tilford, Robin Mackay. A graphic novel written by a philosopher? Exploring ideas of time, subjectivity, panspermia and the unknowable otherness of deep time? I was so excited to read this! And pretty disappointed with it, unfortunately. There are neat snippets of human and alien lives, and there is a throughline of influence and consequence. But it doesn't really go anywhere? There are also a lot of abstract illustrations and sequences that dragged on past the point of interest for me. The back matter includes a number of paragraphs quoted from philosophers and physicists that I wish had been presented at the start so that I would have been primed for the otherwise underwhelming experience. I hear Negarestani's other writing is much more engrossing, so I'll explore that next. 7 - Three Moments Of An Explosion: Stories, by China Miéville. Really fun and interesting and sometimes pretty bleak short SF stories. My first time reading Miéville's short fiction and there are a huge amount of ideas packed into this collection, which mostly work really well. There are commonalities between many of them: the fantastical or horrifying emerging into human life as a result of mankind's hubris or greed or lust for knowledge. Some really striking imagery as well: he knows how to conjure a scene for the reader. There are a few duds - I know that a couple of stories I really liked were a friend's least favourite. But that's how story collections work I suppose. Really enjoyed this! 8 - Afropean: Notes from Black Europe, by Johny Pitts. Journalist explores different Black communities across various European countries, from England to Russia to Portugal. Pitts writes with a really good energy and an urgency that keeps even the drier historical passages interesting. He meets a wide range of characters and explores politics, attitudes and lifestyles navigating race and European colonialism. I learned about communities I would otherwise never have considered, like immigrant families in Norway or the life of being Black in Moscow. Would recommend. 9 - GoldenEye 007, by Alyse Knorr. About the most in-depth document of the N64 game's development, from conception to release to aftermath, informed by an enormous amount of interview and archival research. Paints an intimate and messy picture of the programmers and artists who spent three years going above and beyond to make such an important and influential game. Unfortunately, as with Knorr's previous book in the series, her own editorialising is slim and has a lot of holes. Still, it's mostly good and engrossing as a retrospective and works well to contextualise this small part of the mid-1990s videogame industry. 10 - Jerusalem, by Alan Moore. An enormous novel, a working-class cosmology of small lives and enormous scope. The language throughout ranges from beautiful to poetically impenetrable, and it's easy to tell that Moore worked on this for a whole drat decade. Despite the hugeness of it all, it's broken up into chapters of digestible size and different character perspectives that keep it from getting too overwhelming (except in the parts where the reader is clearly meant to be overwhelmed). I can't emphasise enough what a pleasure this was to read, even if the momentum slows frustratingly in the second book of the three. Is it perfect? Probably not, and there are definitely some passages or entire chapters where I can see people deciding not to continue with it. But I am very glad I persevered, because the third book ratchets up to a really excellent and emotional set of climaxes. drat, Moore can write, and he writes with empathy and passion and a meticulous craft. 11 - AARGH!: Artists Against Rampant Government Homophobia, an anthology of comics released in 1988 in opposition to the anti-gay legislation of Thatcher's Britain. There are individual strips, political cartoons and longer stories in here, in a wealth of black-and-white styles from slice-of-life relatability to outright rants and soapbox pleas. There are some surprising contributors (R. Crumb! Frank Miller? Dave Sim?!?) and some of the stories are deeply personal. It's a shame how well so much of this maps onto the current day if you just tweak a couple of details. Good for teaching younger generations queer history, I think. 12 - Trans Exploits: Trans of Colour Cultures and Technologies in Movement, by Jian Neo Chen. More a heavily annotated bibliography of theory and case studies than a complete "statement", Chen still offers a diverse collection of activists and artists working at the intersections of gender, ethnic, class, and immigrant identities. If you're interested in gender, politics and performance, then this is probably a great way to discover new perspectives, and add a lot more titles to your to-read list. On its own, though, I didn't get much of a sense of Chen's own perspective. 13 - Death in the Mouth: Original Horror by People of Colour, ed. by Sloane Leong & Cassie Hart. I helped crowdfund this, and it's a gorgeous book, with each story accompanied by a full-page illustration. The collected tales are in a range of styles and themes, from creeping psychological wrongness to nasty body horror to twists on monster mythology. The most memorable pieces include a woman tasked with protecting a monster mountain, and a dutiful son feeding his ailing and ungrateful mother. Some missed the mark for me, but there were definitely more good than bad, and even a few that I found pretty affecting horror-wise. And now I have even more names to add to my to-read list! 14 - He Is A Good Boy, by K.C. Green. Reread of a big, long and messy comic about a little acorn making his way in the big bad world of bugs and prophecy. Ultraviolent, crass, often careening between irreverence and insecure existentialism; it never lets up and Green manages to hold it together in an angry controlled chaos. Whether you like the central themes being built around Green's neurosis and struggles with his own status as an online comic artist, and the work being in conversation with the churn of ever-more-self-aware Online Content, I can't say. It works for me but also it's a lot, and it's very long, but I still like it a good deal overall. 15 - Dead Dead Girls, by Nekesa Afia. A murder mystery set in 1920s Harlem, whose protagonist is a kidnap survivor turned unwilling sleuth to unmask a murderer of young girls. It's written in such a way as to make the horrible goings-on seem...pleasant? Despite bodies piling up and the main character being subjected to awful things, the tone felt light and playful. I never manage to guess whodunnit with this genre in general, but my second choice ended up being correct. Unfortunately the resolution was a damp squib, and the book as a whole, while a gentle and enjoyable ride, felt weightless. Not that it's bad, but it didn't do very much for me. Perhaps the inevitable sequel(s) will be better. 16 - Verity, by Colleen Hoover. Entertainingly awful. It's amusing how much it sucks! Until the last few chapters when my thoughts were just "Oh come on now, gently caress off with that". Half written to shock with horrible evil "a mother would NEVER say/do that!", half written for porn. It's very horny, which isn't bad in and of itself - the sex scenes aren't badly written for the genre (erotical for straight, very vanilla 30+ women), they're just relentless to the point of numbing. I laughed a lot while reading but there was only one deliberate-seeming joke that got me, the rest was all this-is-just-ridiculous. The author's note at the end said that this was a project she worked on independently and didn't expect to get published, which might explain how OTT it is - maybe Hoover got a lot of catharsis from writing it, given that so much of it is about writing about horrible, farcically evil and incredibly horny things. It is pacey, but I was turning the pages mostly out of grim curiosity. The ending twists were silly and unsatisfying and served to underscore the whole project as a confused mess.
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Apr 2, 2023 06:17
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It has been an odd month so I didn't manage to get much reading done Books read in March - 2 12 - Darkness on the Edge of Town by Adam Christopher - a Stranger Things tie-in novel in which Hopper is recalling when he was a homicide detective in New York in 1977. I half expected that this book was just written as a detective story and then branded as Stranger Things in order to sell the book but it seems tie-in novels are what the author does. The story was an easy read and entertaining enough, I like that it was in part based around events that actually happened that summer. 13 - A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin - Originally I was only going to count the compilation I have as 1 book but it's a 1000 page tome with tiny font. I instantly love the world that has been created here, I love the way magic isn't just "it's magic I don't need to explain poo poo" but is all about balance and the power of a name, this is all interwoven into the main quest of Ged and dealing with the consiquences of his foolishness when he was young. Well worth reading and I'm looking forward to the next story. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. - 13/35 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. - 2/9 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of color. - 0/9 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 8% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. - 0/9 5. Read something that is not a novel (i.e. a play, a poetry collection, a comic/manga, etc.) - 5 6. Borrow something to read (from a friend, a loved one, a library, etc.) - 0 7. Lend or recommend a book to someone (tell the thread what you lended/recommended!) - 8. Read something over 400 pages - 2 9. Read something by an author with the same or similar name as you (can be just first, middle, last, a nickname, whatever) - 10. Read a work in translation - 1 11. Read something that someone you know HATES - 12. Read something about books - 13. Ask the thread for a Wildcard - 14. Read a book published the year you turned 23 years old -
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Apr 2, 2023 22:17
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12. A Deadly Education, Naomi Novik A wizarding school book that takes the Harry Potter formula and deliberately subverts it. It paints a very interesting and bleak picture of magic in the modern world, where school is less a place of learning and more of a prison. The magic system is novel, a combination of language and intent and superstition. There's a lot to like here, so it's a shame that I hated it most of the time. It is firmly YA, with the pseudo-journal first person perspective, paragraphs of snarky monologues as a way to deliver worldbuilding, the super special but unfairly treated protagonist, the bored responses to absolutely extraordinary events, and on and on and on. Arghhhh. 2 stars. 13. Gate of Ivrel, C.J. Cherryh Gate of Ivrel is a fantasy world by way of post-post-apocalypse scifi. Long ago, a race called the qhal built a galactic empire by utilizing "gates", technology which permitted instantaneous travel over distance and time. As is often the case, the qhal messed around with time too much and accidentally obliterated themselves. The qhal are now distant memory, but the gates are still around messing things up. The story follows a native of one of the post-qhal planets as he reluctantly teams up with Morgaine, a mysterious and legendary figure who scares everyone shitless, and they adventure to close the gate of Ivrel. It's an absolutely fascinating book that is extremely well written, a great blend of fantasy and scifi with a ton of good ideas, and some really badass moments. I can't do it justice by reviewing it in a small paragraph, but it was my favorite book of March. 4 stars. 14. The Color of Magic, Terry Pratchett The first Discworld book, though it's my 2nd one after Sourcery. I started with Sourcery because it's a commonly recommended entry point, but I actually wish I started chronologically after all, because I think I enjoyed this book more. Rincewind the wizard plays guide and protector to a very wealthy and very strange "tourist" named Twoflower. It's not a big book and doesn't try to do anything too crazy, just a fun little premise that's executed well and made me laugh a bunch. 3 stars. 15. Tehanu, Ursula LeGuin The 4th Earthsea book and releasing decades after the 3rd. There is no magical odyssey here, no grand adventure or exploration of wizardry or stopping a vile plot. Our protagonists from the previous 3 books, Ged and Tenar, are too old, too tired, too spent for any of that. Tehanu is instead a tale of parenthood, of motherhood especially, and repeatedly asks the reader to consider the purpose of life, particularly life after trauma. What's the purpose of a wizard who can no longer cast spells? What does a mother do with herself once her children are grown and gone and her husband dead? What kind of life is there for a child who was violated and maimed at a young age and is now forever shunned? What's the point of living if we die? I think I would have hated this book as a kid, but as an adult with kids it just about made me cry. 4 stars. 16. Tales from Earthsea, Ursula LeGuin A collection of pretty good short stories that flesh out the world of Earthsea. There are 5 total ranging from the founding of the wizarding school on Roke, a couple of minor tales involving past characters, and a bridge story of sorts to connect Tehanu with The Other Wind. I liked them all, though the book itself feels superfluous and easily skipped. The themes and storylines she explores here were better fleshed out in the previous four novels, and some of her theming seemed uncharacteristically clumsy. Still, I loved the world of Earthsea, and I was glad to visit it in short story form. 3 stars.
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Apr 3, 2023 00:29
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I usually try and do a summary here, but somehow March was just sort of a liminal month. 2 were holdovers I checked out for February and didn't get through and it winds up with a bit of a horror theme that continues into April. Other than a "Scary" mood I don't think I hit any challenge this month. Though I reserve the right to decide Malka Older's name is close enough to mine for 9. Thinking about it, it might well be. We'll see what the rest holds. 14. The Good Luck Girls by Charlotte Nicole Davis - So I googled Black SFF authors to try and find one I didn't know, and this was a suggestion, and it's a Weird Western, which is a genre I've read little of, but am curious about. Turns out, it's YA. It's about a handful of girls who are indentured to a comfort house. One panics on her first night and they use the ensuing confusion to escape. But they're branded and have to go outlaw while hiding who they are to try and escape to a country that doesn't think they're race makes them inherently the underclass. It's a solid book. Pretty exciting and a bit YA. I believe it's a series, though I'm not likely to read the sequels. 15. Hummingbird by Helen Harper - Magical Scotland where the all male Mages rule everything, in part due to their ability to offer some protection from The Afflicted, zombie-like beings that roam the night. Our mute heroine rebels and takes a job at their offices to try and overthrow the whole system. Being mute and a woman, she can't use magic at all. Or can she? Decent novella. Sorta finishes immediately at the climax. Presumably later books will get into what happens next. There's a fair chance I read them, but more in a "I'll check them out if I see them" than "I'm following the author and putting them on hold." 16. Havana Highwire by John Keyse-Walker - An American expat in Cuba is hired by the government to try and ferret out those darn rebels. It's a bit of a recurring theme that I'm a sucker for Raymond Chandler and am prone to pick up books where blurbs or the author reference him, and am subsequently disappointed. Keyse-Walker hits the sort of Chandler atmosphere and funk of the central character pretty well. Ultimately, this is closer to spy novel than mystery, but a solid read. 17. Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse - It's the Book of the Month, which I now realize is not a challenge category. Whatever, I read it anyways dirt bags. 18. Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung - An apparently Booker shortlisted collection of stories. These are horror adjacent and often pretty surreal. The author said she used fantasy elements to write about capitalism and the patriarchy and whatnot. Could well be. I enjoyed these. 19. Jackal by Erin E Adams - Liz returns home to Johnstown, PA for her best friends wedding and during the event her god daughter is lost in the woods. Over the next few days of trying to find her, Liz uncovers the dark history of the city, where Black girls have gone missing every summer solstice for the past 25 years. It's a mystery that leans into some supernatural horror. Adams ties in the real racial history of Johnstown, which is interesting and pretty hosed up. 20. The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Ann Older - A SF/Mystery novella. In a future where climate apocalypse on Earth has humanity living on Jupiter, a faculty member from the university disappears. Inspector Mossa has to enlist the help of Pleiti, her college flame, to unravel the mystery. It touches on the philosophies among those on Jupiter who want to return to Earth and those who may not, and has a bit of romance. I actually really enjoyed this and am glad it's apparently the first in a series. Ben Nevis posted:1. Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo
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Apr 4, 2023 15:19
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March: 1. The Drifting Classroom, Vol. 1 by Kazuo Umezz - 4/5 2. 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami - 4/5
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Apr 14, 2023 08:59
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March update! Turns out its Mushroom March, baby! Entirely by accident, even, I walked into this blind. Haven’t even watched “The Last of Us”. What Moves The Dead - T. Kingfisher (audiobook) : The Fall of the House of Usher but if it was mushrooms all along. It did bother me that the reader kept the Commonwealth phrasings (in hospital) but used the US pronunciation of lieutenant. 3/5 Sister, Maiden, Monster - Lucy A. Snyder : It might’ve been a mushroom plague, but it wasn’t. 2/5 The Personal Librarian - Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray : Awful. The premise is intriguing, a fictionalized biography of the personal librarian of J.P. Morgan. However it meanders from flat to overwrought. Why sell it as historical and admit she burned all her papers so huge chunks are just things you made up? Recommended by my SIL, maybe I’ll ask her for something she hates, too. 0/5 Sorrowland - Rivers Solomon (audiobook) : Mushrooooooooms. 4/5 The Hollow Places - T. Kingfisher : What if The Magician’s Nephew but instead of Digory and Polly in England it was a recent divorcee and a gay barista in small town North Carolina? Also a very damp setting, perfect for our mycelium friends. 3/5 Whose Names are Unknown - Sanora Babb (audiobook) : Written contemporaneously with The Grapes of Wrath, also about poor farmers getting their lives destroyed by the Dust Bowl. Feels painfully real, more labour disputes, less breastfeeding adult men. 4/5 The Luminous Dead - Caitlin Starling : So good. I get an itch for reading about hopeless caving/mountaineering expeditions and this scratched it. Has mushrooms but they're just a walk-on. 4/5 The Food of a Younger Land - edited by Mark Kurlansky (audiobook) : Very uneven as all the articles are sourced from an unpublished WPA project, but generally informative. 3/5 Not written by a man: 88% Author of colour: 26.4% LGBTQIA+: 20% Challenges 5. Read something that is not a novel- The Food of a Younger Land 6. Borrow something to read- The Personal Librarian - from SIL 7. Lend or recommend a book to someone 8. Read something over 400 pages - Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo (481 pages) 9. Read something by an author with the same or similar name as you 10. Read a work in translation- Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata 11. Read something that someone you know HATES 12. Read something about books - 13. Ask the thread for a Wildcard - The Luminous Dead - from DurianGray 14. Read a book published the year you turned 13/23 years old Chococat fucked around with this message at 03:17 on Apr 18, 2023 |
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Apr 17, 2023 18:50
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