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Mr. Paradise by Elmore Leonard Book #2 of the year, also audiobook #2, read by the really cool Robert Forster. He did a great job with it. Really dig Elmore, the king of cool crime books, all that great proto-Tarantino witty dialogue rules. And seemingly effortlessly cool and clever without trying too hard kind of stories. Always fall in love with his characters so far. This one is another Detroit crime romp, starts off with a murder involving some cheerleader-themed escort/models and this Lebowski-esque old dude who's a shady lawyer. Then we get some cops and crooks involved, hitmen, all that good stuff. Just really charming and laid-back, a pleasure. Heavy Metal fucked around with this message at 03:14 on Jul 31, 2023 |
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Jul 31, 2023 03:10
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I finished 9 books in July which is more than I thought I was going to finish. Mostly really good stuff with just one big disappointment. 63. Boy's Weekend by Mattie Lubchansky Online, lefty editorial comics website The Nib is closing shop soon (which I'm bummed about, they published some really neat longform non-fiction works!), but one not before distributing this graphic novel by one of their main artists. In a near-future dystopia, a newly-out non-binary trans person goes to a bachelor party hosted in a floating libertarian version of Las Vegas (the sort of place where you can Most Dangerous Game your own fully sentient clone, for fun!). Things aren't great with the groom-to-be's rear end in a top hat wedding party, and then the eldritch horrors show up. This manages to be fun and insightful and a little bit heartbreaking at the end. Would recommend. 64. The Marigold by Andrew F. Sullivan Another near-future dystopia, this time in Toronto. I can't recommend this enough. It manages to swap between a handful of point of view characters, from a gig worker to some unfortunate teenagers to some overworked city safety employees, to a handful of vignette characters and the rear end in a top hat billionaire antagonist--without feeling too thin OR too bogged down. There are giant sinkholes slowly devouring the city, a sentient mold overtaking shoddily built apartment complexes, and a lot of raccoons. A really fantastic read! 65. HMS Surprise by Patrick O'Brian The third Aubrey/Maturin book. I am loving this series so much. This is where we finally get the "Jack, you've debauched my sloth." line but that wasn't the only thing that had me cackling. On the other hand, this continues to really focus on character studies and relationship building and had plenty of "Oh, no" moments to keep the tension going. I look forward to continuing into book four! 66. The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia Here's the big disappointment. I really liked Moreno-Garcia's novel Mexican Gothic and had high hopes here (I really like Island of Dr. Moreau! Seeing a riff on it sounded interesting!) but nothing in this book really approached good. The Moreau tie-in was barely there (the vivisection aspect was totally dropped for just growing hybrid animal people in jars), and most of the book was bogged down in some of the least interesting romance I've encountered in a while (a weak "will she go for the prettyboy who is an obvious rear end in a top hat or the grumpy guy who actually cares about her?" plot). We also get POV switching between the titular daughter and the grumpy guy that ended up just repeating the same plot points over and over without giving much new insight each time. Would NOT recommend. 67. Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks The third Culture book but the fourth I've read. I know this one is fairly beloved, and I can see why. They backwards/forwards chapter layout is a neat approach to the story and the big reveal at the end (sort of the middle) wouldn't have worked otherwise. For me though, I've really enjoyed Surface Detail the most of what Culture I have read. There's something about the main protagonists in these early books all just being sort of bland action hero guys that's not clicking with me. I might peruse around and see if any others look like they'd be compelling though. 68. In Harm's Way: The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors by Doug Stanton I'll admit I mostly only knew about the Indianapolis from Quint's monologue in Jaws, but the full story is so much gnarlier than a giant shark attack. Mixed in with the horrors of drifting in the ocean for days on end after being torpedoed is the administrative debacle that meant no one was even looking for the Indianapolis or expected that it had sunk (no one who had the hierarchal power to instigate a search effort at least). This is really breezily written but doesn't lack detail or context. Another highly recommend. 69. Convulsive by Joe Koch A horror short story collection. Despite being under 200 pages, this took me a while to get through mostly because Koch's style of writing is so dense (a compliment). Their prose is so purple it's almost ultraviolet, but they manage to make it work in a unique way. The abstractness and sometimes archaic language use lends itself to the alienation of the horror more often than not, giving everything a sort of dream/nightmare quality as it keeps you off balance and trying to figure out what's happening. Would recommend for horror fans looking for something a little different. 70. Echo by Thomas Olde Heuvelt I really loved Hex by the same author, and I was so glad that this was a solid spooky read. A young man's boyfriend is disfigured in an alpine climbing accident, but it seems like he brought something supernatural and horrible back with him from the mountain. Most of the book is told in an almost epistolary style, slowly revealing exactly what happened on the mountaineering trip as we see things go more and more wrong in the present. Olde Heuvelt's work somehow reminds me of the best sort of Stephen King writing, but definitely updated and doing its own thing at the same time. 71. The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell This is a gothic-style horror set in the 1860s. A psychiatric patient slowly reveals to her doctor what happened when, as a recent widow, she inherited her dead husband's nearly-abandoned and likely cursed country estate. We also get flashback chapters from an ancestor's diary circa the 1600s explaining How Things Got So Bad. This stayed spooky throughout and the mystery kept me interested but I'm not sure that it really stuck the landing with how it tried to finally reveal and stick the two main spooky things together (I only mention because it felt like it was trying to do that and didn't succeed). Otherwise a good read though! PROMPTS 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge -  71/52 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. (~35/71) 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of color. (~21/71) 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 8% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. (~23/71) 5. Read something that is not a novel - The Madman's Gallery 6. Borrow something to read - Witch Hat Atelier #2 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 - The Gone World 14. Read a book published the year you turned 23 years old - Wool by Hugh Howey THEMES - Surreal - The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington - Adventure - Thin Air - Informational - The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England - Uplifting - Tragic - In Harm's Way - Seasonal - Leech (Winter was a very relevant plot point) - Scary - The Ghost Map - Comforting - Celestial - The Blazing World - Chthonic - Hollow [/quote]
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Aug 1, 2023 01:18
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Holy poo poo it's August. I've fallen off pace a little bit. Mostly just hit a slow patch with some longer reads. Also shits just busy. If anyone reads these, I probably need a wildcard. 44. Shy by Max Porter - I remember being quite taken with Grief is a Thing With Feathers some years ago, so grabbed this off the library shelf. It's short. It's a tangled look at a troubled young boy over one night. Definitely a sort of stream of conscious thing going on. This was decent, I liked Grief better. 45. Destroyer of Worlds by Matt Ruff - Sequel to Lovecraft Country. It drops the linked stories aspect of the first with more of a traditional structure. While it felt satisfying, it definitely had "middle book" troubles, where it seems a lot of it is sort of maneuvering people for book 3. 46. Titanium Noir by Nick Harkaway - A near future sci-fi detective novel. The sci-fi bit is that the rich have found a way to prolong their lives by essentially undergoing a second puberty leaving them bigger and stronger than everyday folk, with the richest undergoing several treatments over time to make them almost inhuman. Into this steps our detective, a police consultant who specializes in "Titan" matters. Solid detective story, enjoyed it. 47. The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter and Other Essential Ghosts by Soraya Palmer - This focuses in on a first generation immigrant family, mostly the mother, Beatrice Porter. It's told through her interactions with her husband and children, Sasha and Zora. Sasha is the older and as she grows up struggles with her sexuality and gender identity. It finishes when Zora is in College, she's mostly just a bookish young lady with the accompanying problems. What ties this all together is the folklore throughout. They remain connected to each other and the Caribbean by telling and retelling stories of the Rolling Calf, of Mama Dglo and of Anansi, altering them to fit their own circumstances. This was easily the best of the month, I think. Ben Nevis posted:1. Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo
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Aug 1, 2023 21:32
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Gertrude Perkins posted:1 - My Sister, The Serial Killer, by Oyinkan Braithwaite I forgot to update this last month whoops. I finished fifteen books in June and July! Including some real winners! 38 - Venus Plus X, by Theodore Sturgeon. A man wakes up in a strange world of androgyne post-humans and struggles with the implications. There is a parallel slice-of-life story about a contemporary suburban family, and a lot of nice moments from their life. These two threads only cohere at the very end, amidst a bizarre flurry of twists and revelations that sour much of the strange-new-world narrative of the rest of the book and bombard the reader with difficult questions. I am sure that in 1960 this was groundbreaking, but I don't think it's aged particularly well. The prose is very good though, Sturgeon has a nice attention to detail and even the most expository scenes were never boring. 39 - The Priory Of The Orange Tree, by Samantha Shannon. Enormous epic fantasy brick that I tore through and enjoyed a lot! Dragons (both nice and evil), queens, ancient prophecy, an exiled alchemist, a legendary sword, and rarely a dull moment. Shannon does a lot of deliberate subversion of expectations, which keeps things interesting, though there are elements (particularly in parts 3-4) that feel rushed in order to get the right characters to where they need to be for the plot to continue. The most interesting parts to me were the characters themselves, the four protagonists and their relationships - especially Niclays, a real piece of poo poo who still gets a really nice resolution. I've already recommended this to more than a few people, and I don't read a lot of big epic fantasy bricks, so I'd call that a win. 40 - Under The Skin, by Michel Faber. This was really drat good. I'm glad I read it knowing very little about the premise, because the slow revelation of the true nature of the protagonist and her circumstances were very affective. Visceral disgust and moral outrage are interwoven with deep loneliness and sadness. And once the mysteries are resolved, there are much nastier feelings to sit with. Hell of a book!! 41 - The First Year of Teaching: Real World Stories from America's Teachers, ed. by Pearl Rock Kane. 25 short chapters, each by a teacher sharing stories from their first year in education. There are some really lovely memories recounted here, but it's clear that the entries were chosen to fit a narrow spec. I can see the stories here being inspirational, but also alienating. American educators from decades ago (with some stories reaching back to the 30s!) had a lot of similar stories, but also there is a lot missing here. I'd like to read the 2023 equivalent of this. 42 - The Overcoat and Other Stories, by Nikolai Gogol. A collection of folk tales that range from genuinely hilarious social satire ("The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarrelled with Ivan Nikiforovich") to spooky supernatural threats ("The Viy"). The titular story is also very good, of course. Others I struggle to recall the finer details of. 43 - It Never Ends: A Memoir with Nice Memories!, by Tom Scharpling. This definitely lives up to its subtitle. Scharpling's recollections include a great deal of silliness and unmitigated successes interwoven with the horrible nadirs of his mental health struggles, including his institutionalisation as a teen. There's a lot about The Best Show, some neat details about his work on Monk, and a totally unnecessary extended discussion of coin-pusher arcade machines. Plenty of anecdotes that made me smile, too. I learned a surprising about about a guy whose work I was only semi-familiar with. 44 - Summerland, by Hannu Rajaniemi. Really mixed feelings about this one. The premise is fantastic, but the execution felt clunky. It shines in the final third, but the first act is so much less interesting it was difficult to keep up the momentum. There are so many cool ideas and interesting questions raised, and I love the threads of connection to real-world figures and events being twisted for the dense alternative-30s history. The main issue is that one of the book's two protagonist-narrators is just not interesting at all. I do hope he writes more in this world, though, because like I said the ending is superb, and I'd love to see more perspectives and stories told here. 45 - The Plotters, by Kim Un-su (trans. by Sora Kim-Russell). Is it ironic that the plot is the least interesting thing about this novel? There are some really great scenes and the characters are richly drawn, even the more stock roles. The opening scene, between the hitman protagonist and his first victim, is long and tense and sweet and sad in ways that got my hopes up, but I don't think any other moment in the book lives up to that anticipation. That disappointment aside, there is good stuff here, and a lot of memorable imagery. 46 - The Illusion of the End, by Jean Baudrillard (trans. by Chris Turner). It's 1992 and the End of History has been declared, but not if Jean has anything to say about it. Essays and rants about geopolitics, postmodern hyperreality and media saturation, with a brief digression into the absurdities of human attempts at reconciliation with nature. Some of it has aged very well, some seems short-sighted, but all of it is delivered with the anger and eloquence you'd expect from Baudrillard. 47 - In A Shallow Grave, by James Purdy. A short, heartbreaking novel about a disgigured veteran trying to lie (and die) comortably in rural Virginia. Sublimated desire and longing, a stolen life, history books, and messy relationship drama. The kind of story where the characters are gay but would never call themselves that. Purdy's narration includes some really beautiful language, and the way he can recontextualise an entire story with a tossed-off detail is drat impressive. 48 - Booked For Murder, by Jasmine Webb. Disclosure: I received a code for this audiobook from the author. The book itself is way out of my usual interest, so take this review with that in mind: it's pretty good? It's pleasant, it's fun, it's eye-rolling, it's a big dollop of wish fulfilment fantasy with Silicon Valley dipshits as the victim and main suspects. I liked the main characters, with the investigator's hyper-confidence. I was very surprised that there was no romantic spark between the two of them, because there was definitely chemistry there. Some of the characters are pretty one-note, and the style of banter gets grating, but the mystery itself is fun and the ending is satisfying enough. Interested to see where this series goes next., if I ever decide to try out another cosy mystery. 49 - Ninefox Gambit, by Yoon Ha Lee. Engrossing military SF which starts out completely opaque and drip-feeds information about the characters and the world of its setting in pretty satisfying ways. I ended up not particularly interested in the plot itself, but the protagonist and her relationship with the war-criminal-ghost implanted in her brain? Now THAT'S some fun science fiction stuff. Personality bleedthrough, a little gender weirdness, conspiracy and heresy and the like, it's great. Plus, nice to see an evil SF theocracy that isn't just Space Catholics. Very fun! 50 - A Brief History of Seven Killings, by Marlon James. Wow. Long and difficult and razor-sharp, this starts with a ghost narrating his own assassination, and evolves into a densely-woven tangle of crime, politics, sex, prejudice, and the occasional hilarious moment. Set from 1976 to 1991, and told from a dozen different characters' perspectives, this is a real epic, and yet 700 pages go by at a real clip. Listening to the audiobook meant that each character had their own narrator, which I appreciated; it also made the Jamaican patois much more manageable for me to understand compared to reading it on the page. I particularly loved the story of Dorcas and the old man she is hired to take care of, and the final chapter was really something. The whole book is really good, if you have the stomach for its horrors. 51 - Bibliomaniac, by Robin Ince. I read this one as slowly as I could to prolong the comfort. I have always resonated strongly with Ince's work and his enthusiasms, and he approaches his passions with a similar self-endangering mania to mine. This is a gentle tour of a hundred-odd bookshops across Great Britain, with love and attention given to the people who work and frequent these places. Of course it's full of books, a wide array from pulp horror to political manifesto to bizarre celebrity autobiography, and the reader gets choice snippets that serve as silly or touching set dressing. I would have been happy if this was twice as long. 52 - Suttree, by Cormac McCarthy. My first McCarthy! Finally! Bloody hell, the prose is beautiful. Disgusting, visceral, creative and surprising language is on every page of this book, and McCarthy can go from humour to utter desolation with an impressive flow. Each of these episodes in Suttree's life - and they do sometimes feel like a collection of stories - is amazing in its own way. The protagonist's world disintegrating around him, hopes and lucky breaks brought low by absurd happenstance or sad sabotage, and throughout all of these changes, he remains himself. I can't see myself reading this again; it's too bleak to stomach again anytime soon. But so many scenes and conversations that I'm sure will stick with me for a long time. 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. - 22 - 1, 3, 9, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 31, 32, 33, 35, 37, 39, 41, 48 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of color. - 19 - 1, 4, 5, 6, 8, 12, 13, 15, 17, 20, 23, 24, 26, 27, 35, 37, 45, 49, 50 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 8% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. - 16 - 5, 9, 11, 12, 15, 20, 23, 28, 31, 32, 33, 35, 39, 47, 49, 50 9. Read something by an author with the same or similar name as you (can be just first, middle, last, a nickname, whatever) - 13. Ask the thread for a Wildcard - 14. Read a book published the year you turned 23 years old - THEMES - Surreal - 3, 10, 19, 38 - Adventure - 14, 20, 29, 36, 39, 44 - Informational - 8, 9, 12, 28, 30, 31, 43, 51 - Uplifting - 24, 34, 37, 43, 51 - Tragic - 5, 10, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 30 - Seasonal - 52 - Scary - 13, 28, 30, 40, 50, 52 - Comforting - 22, 24, 28, 34, 37 - Celestial - 10, 32, 52 - Chthonic - 20, 52
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Aug 3, 2023 00:39
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Books read in July - 3 24 - Tales from Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin - Several short stories from Earthsea spanning several centuries which includes the buildup to the next book as well. It helped enrich the world a bit more. 25 - NieR:Automata: Short Story Long by Jun Eishima/ Yoko Taro - A collection of short stories set within the Nier Automata world spanning across a few years, it's a nice companion to the other book. It adds new perspectives and provides a bit more background 26 - Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson, illustrated by Aliya Chen - Third of the Secret Projects and my favourite so far, a story of swapping worlds with a medieval asia inspired world feature unbearable heat and a spirit summoning priestess and a modernish city surrounded by darkness from which Nightmares can emerge and it is a Painter's job to catch them on canvas which banishes them. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. - 26/35 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. - 8/9 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of color. - 1/9 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 8% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. - 1/3 5. Read something that is not a novel (i.e. a play, a poetry collection, a comic/manga, etc.) - 6 6. Borrow something to read (from a friend, a loved one, a library, etc.) - 1 (complete) 7. Lend or recommend a book to someone (tell the thread what you lended/recommended!) - Berserk Deluxe Vol. 1 8. Read something over 400 pages - 2 (complete) 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 - 4 11. Read something that someone you know HATES - 12. Read something about books - 13. Ask the thread for a Wildcard - Lathe of Heaven (complete) 14. Read a book published the year you turned 23 years old -
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Aug 7, 2023 16:28
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Woops. Forgot to update for a bit. There are a few new entries that are worth recommending / reviewing, but I'll get back to those after the info dump. Previously: 1. The King of Attolia | Megan Whalen Turner 2. A Conspiracy of Kings | Megan Whalen Turner 3. Thick as Thieves | Megan Whalen Turner 4. Jade Legacy | Fonda Lee 5. Return of the Thief | Megan Whalen Turner 6. The Aeronauts Windlass | Jim Butcher 7. Mistborn: Secret History | Brandon Sanderson 8. Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendancy | Timothy Zahn 9. Sea of Tranquility | Emily St. John Mandel 10. The Wicked + The Divine | Kieron Gillen 11. The Law | Jim Butcher 12. Children of Memory | Adrian Tchaikovsky 13. The Atlas Six | Olivie Blake 14. The Atlas Paradox | Olivie Blake 15. The Black Company | Glen Cook 16. Shadows Linger | Glen Cook 17. This is How you Lose the Time War | Amal El-Mohar & Max Gladstone 18. Court of Roses and Thorns | Sarah J Maas A very overdue update: 19. All Systems Red | Martha Wells 20. Artificial Condition | Martha Wells 21. Of Slicing Men | Eric Ugland 22. The Sorcerer of Pyongyang | Marcel Theroux 23. A Court of Wings and Ruin | Sarah J Maas 24. A Court of Silver Flames | Sarah J Maas 25. The Dirty Streets of Heaven | Tad Williams 26. A Connecticut Yankee in King Author’s Court | Mark Twain 27. Scythe | Neal Shusterman 28. Happy Hour in Hell | Tad Williams 29. Thunderhead | Neal Shusterman 30. Sleeping Late on Judgement Day | Tad Williams 31. The Long Way to a Small and Angry Planet | Becky Chambers 32. A Closed and Common Orbit | Becky Chambers 33. The Toll | Neal Shusterman 34. Hultichia | Marshall Ryan Maresca 35. Lords and Ladies | Terry Pratchett 36. Record of a Spaceborn Few | Becky Chambers 37. The Galaxy and the Ground Within | Becky Chambers 38. A Psalm for the Wild Built | Becky Chambers 39. Port of Shadows | Glen Cook 40. Victory City | Salman Rushdie 41. Darktown Funk | Eric Ugland 42. On a Throne of Lies | Eric Ugland 43. Fledgling | Octavia E. Butler 44. A Desolation Called Piece | Arkady Martine 45. The Terraformers | Annalee Newitz 46. Downbelow Station | C.J. Cherryh 47. Autonomous | Analee Newitz Booklord Status: Total 47/52 Not by Men (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 23, 24, 31, 32, 36, 37, 38, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47) POC Author (4, 13, 14, 27, 29, 33, 40, 43) LBGTQ Author(31, 32, 36, 37, 38, 45, 47) Not a Novel: The Wicked + The Divine (10) Borrow Something to Read: “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” (26) Lend or recommend a book to someone: My partner read “Anathem” by Neil Stevenson (and as an academic found it hilarious), and if that doesn't count we listened to "Fledgling" together Over 400 Pages: A Court of Wings and Ruin (23) Read something by an author with the same or similar name as you Read a work in translation: ________ A book I know a friend hated _______ A book About Books: “The Sorcerer of Pyongyang” (22) Wildcard Published in 2010: “A Conspiracy of Kings” (2) Of Particular Note First, I enjoyed literally everything by Becky Chambers and Annalee Newitz. I've now read everything I can find from either of them at my local library and don't regret a single second of it. "A Psalm for the Wild Built," a Novella about the burgeoning friendship between a Monk and a Robot on a far future world, is one of the better novellas I've read in the last few years and Annalee Newitz's "The Terraformers," a novel about ecology, building a world, intelligence, and personage (that's probably not quite the right word) presented a future version of 'humanity' that was intriguing and in some ways borderline utopian. The "Arc of a Scythe" series by Neal Shusterman. A YA trilogy about a world without death. Or rather, a world mostly without death. In the series humanity (with the help of a global AI) has conquered mortality. No one dies of cancer, no one drops from a heart attack, and no one drops from a stroke. poo poo, you can jump off a building and the hospital will stitch everything back together, download your memories back into your new brain, and send you on your way. The only way to die is to be "gleaned" by a professional. The people granted the power to off their fellows are called Scythes and, as you might expect, its a job that inspires both reverence and abject terror in the rest of the populace. The series follows two teenagers who are chosen to become Scythes as they deal with a world where the tradition of Scythedom is threatening to jump off the rails that have held it in check for all of living memory. Also: If anyone has a good Wildcard to suggest I'm very open. For preference something in the Science Fiction / Fantasy Genres, but I'm willing to broaden my horizons if anyone has something they recently read and absolutely adored.
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Aug 25, 2023 22:17
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The Strangest Finch posted:Also: If anyone has a good Wildcard to suggest I'm very open. For preference something in the Science Fiction / Fantasy Genres, but I'm willing to broaden my horizons if anyone has something they recently read and absolutely adored. Have you read any of the Singing Hills Cycle books by Nghi Vo yet? The first is The Empress of Salt and Fortune. If you like Chambers and Newitz you might enjoy those too.
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Aug 26, 2023 00:34
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DurianGray posted:Have you read any of the Singing Hills Cycle books by Nghi Vo yet? The first is The Empress of Salt and Fortune. If you like Chambers and Newitz you might enjoy those too. Just grabbed it of Hoopla, thanks!
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Aug 26, 2023 03:37
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I also need a wildcard if anyone could chime in.
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Aug 31, 2023 22:32
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Ben Nevis posted:I also need a wildcard if anyone could chime in. Strange Hotel, by Eimear McBride
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Aug 31, 2023 22:34
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Bilirubin posted:Strange Hotel, by Eimear McBride Well now, that looks interesting.
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Sep 1, 2023 14:31
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I finished 10 books in August! I've been keeping a steadier clip so far than I was expecting I would. This month was a mix of really good stuff, some OK stuff, and a real stinker. I'm also back on a nonfiction kick from the look of it. 72. Beyond the Deep: Deadly Descent into the World's Most Treacherous Cave by Monte Paulsen, Barbara Am Ende, William Stone This is a nonfiction account about a group of cavers lead by Bill Stone (who developed the first commercially-available diving rebreathers) and their attempt to find the lowest caves on earth in the Huautla cave system in Mexico. It's an interesting story with some harrowing near-and-actual mishaps. The development and use of early rebreathers was neat to learn about. However, like a lot of exploration stories where a bunch of white people go to a 'foreign' country to do something dangerous, there's a smidge of casual/ignorant racism in the way the local people get described, which is blegh. 73. Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree An orc warrior retires from her 74. Translation State by Ann Leckie Another Imperial Radch spin-off in the vein of Provenance. A few characters from the Ancillary trilogy show up here, and it follows some of the ongoing fallout from what happened in those books. It took me a second to remember the plot of this without looking, but then I recalled I did like reading it at the time even if it hasn't made a huge impression. It's much more personal stakes, with three POV characters, a young Presger translator, a space station mechanic, and a diplomat who was forced into a sinecure position and ends up taking the work seriously. Worth checking out if you didn't mind the different direction Provenance took. 75. Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah This is a wild book. On one level, it's a near-future dystopia where prisoners are given the 'opportunity' to win their freedom in televised gladiatorial-style death matches. The action is compelling and gruesome and the main characters feel complex and lived in. On the other hand, there are frequent footnotes that, in addition to giving in-universe worldbuilding tidbits, also give real-world statistics and facts about the current US prison system. It's sort of genius how the gorey fun of the fights sits so uncomfortably with reminders of the horrors of current-day incarceration, since it's a theme in the text and not just the metatext. Absolutely worth a read. 76. The Handyman Method by Andrew F. Sullivan and Nick Cutter I read The Marigold by Sullivan earlier this year and loved it, so I was excited to see he had another book coming out already (I haven't read anything but Cutter yet, but I know he's actually the more well-known name for most people). This was a banger. A unique take on a haunted house, combined with unsettling YouTube personalities. The gross parts are vivid and goopy in the way an 80s horror B-movie would be and it's a lot of fun. Highly recommended for horror fans that that appeals to. 77. Dr. Mutter's Marvels: A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine by Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz Years ago I was able to cross off a major personal bucket list item by visiting the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia. It's a large medical collection of real and replica specimens with a focus on rare conditions and what some might call 'oddities'. Learning more about Mutter, the actual person, was fascinating. At least according to this biography, he was an extremely empathetic doctor in a time when that was seen as almost unprofessional. He helped pioneer the use of anesthetics and was an early adopter of life-saving surgical techniques like washing your loving hands before an operation. His unique medical collection (which eventually became the foundation of the museum) seems to have really been driven by a wish to help and heal people in unique and painful circumstances. Really cool book about a really interesting person and time in history. 78. The Mauritius Command by Patrick O'Brian The 4th Aubrey/Maturin novel. This one was a little lackluster for me! After how much I loved the first three, this one paled a bit in comparison. If you prefer reading in detail about obscure naval operations more than the social bits in these books though, this is for you. This one wasn't bad by any means, it still has all the things I love about this series, but it is the first one to feel like O'Brian was more interested in writing fanfic of the 1809-1811 Mauritius campaign than anything else. And at least now I know what a Commodore actually was! 79. The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez This is one of the best fantasy novels I've read in a while. And it's a standalone! This has a wonderfully layered narrative that swings between the 'modern day,' a dream-play, the main story, and small interior moments of various characters. I listened to the audiobook and I was able to pick up on the lens shifting thanks to the great performance, but I've seen other people say they can't imagine it working in audiobook, so I'm planning to pick up a hardcopy sometime to compare. Highly recommended for fantasy readers looking for something a little different. 80. Witch King by Martha Wells uuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhh. it's not good. I ended up perusing 4 and 5 star reviews after I read this and I feel like I read an entirely different book from the people who enjoyed this. There's a cover quote from N.K. Jemisin that calls it "complex" and it's not unless you consider frequent flashback chapters and a bunch of namedropped people/places that are never further developed complex. I couldn't describe the characters to you beyond the barest functions they serve for the plot. No one seems to have any kind of interior life. There are multiple side characters that get marketed as a "found family" who are really only there to stand around and ask the main characters questions about the worldbuilding. What a disappointment, considering I've mostly liked Murderbot and enjoyed the one Raksura book I've read. 81. Scurvy: How a Surgeon, a Mariner, and a Gentlemen Solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of Sail by Stephen R. Brown It's what it says! The broad strokes of this were familiar to me just because I've read a good amount about naval and medical history now. But I did learn even more reasons why I would never ever get on a tallship if I were somehow transported to the 16-1800s. For a modern reader who takes knowledge (and accessibility) of Vitamin C for granted, it's wildly frustrating just how many times people landed on citrus and other fresh produce as a scurvy cure only to have it repeatedly fall out of fashion for increasingly buck wild bunk theories and the classic "it's too expensive." This was neat and a quick read at about 200 pages (plus 50~ pages for notes and citations). PROMPTS 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge - 81/52 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. (~39/81) 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of color. (~23/81) 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 8% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. (~25/81) 5. Read something that is not a novel - The Madman's Gallery 6. Borrow something to read - Witch Hat Atelier #2 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 - The Gone World 14. Read a book published the year you turned 23 years old - Wool by Hugh Howey THEMES - Surreal - The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington - Adventure - Thin Air - Informational - The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England - Uplifting - Tragic - In Harm's Way - Seasonal - Leech (Winter was a very relevant plot point) - Scary - The Ghost Map - Comforting - Legends & Lattes - Celestial - The Blazing World - Chthonic - Hollow
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Sep 2, 2023 02:43
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Gertrude Perkins posted:1 - My Sister, The Serial Killer, by Oyinkan Braithwaite I finished ten books in August, mostly short ones: 53 - Agent Running In The Field, by John LeCarré. A slow and rather boring espionage procedural that only comes together in the final act after two hundred pages of office politics and a whiff of familial drama. Very disappointed by this - by the time things started to resolve I realised I was almost completely uninterested in the plot or the mystery. 54 - All Tomorrows: The Myriad Species and Mixed Fortunes of Man, by Nemo Ramjet. Still a really fun and creepy piece of far-future speculative fiction, with allegorical storytelling that ranges from "this is a bit like a Cold War" to more nuanced ideas of self-perpetuating power and cruelty. The artwork is the main draw here and it does not disappoint, with some images that have stuck with me since the first time I saw them years ago. 55 - Phototaxis, by Olivia Tapiero (trans. by Kit Schluter). Short, bleak, beautifully-written, with an abiding sense of melancholy and collapse. Not just because of the worsening "meat crisis" that forms the backdrop to the intimate character drama, but because of the gravitational pull of oblivion that surrounds them and their actions. Tapiero gives us only snippets of conversations and a handful of scenes that still paint vivid ideas of who the protagonists are, and I finished this in one troubling sitting before staring out of the window at the city for a while. 56 - Demon, by Jason Shiga. Cute and silly comic artwork mixed with nihilistic ultraviolence and maths-brain puzzles for the increasingly awful protagonist. A story about immortality and casual mass murder in pursuit of flawed and petty goals. It's also sometimes very, very funny, and there are some genuinely wild twists and feats of spectacle that had me grinning and groaning at Shiga's audacity. The perfect comic for me-at-fifteen, if I had been able to read it back then. 57 - We3, by Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely. Ultra-grim SF about robotically-augmented animal soldiers fighting for survival against US government forces. The most exciting thing about this is Quitely's panel layouts and pacing, which turn the action into a kinetic and time-dilating tour de force. The story is thin and the events are gory and nasty but there are moments of calm between action horrors. Happy to finally read this after knowing about it for so long. 58 - Seaguy, by Grant Morrison & Cameron Stewart. Oh wow, this was so much fun! Surreal and confident and constantly one-upping itself, this is the saddest I've felt about a cartoon fish in a while. Preposterous silliness with a lurking awful darkness underneath, in true Morrison style. The artwork is clean and bright and helps sell the oddness, and there are so many ideas packed in here that I wanted more. Luckily there's a sequel, so. 59 - When The Whales Leave, by Yuri Rytkheu (trans. by Ilona Yazhbin Chavasse). Pretty and melancholy and mythic, about a village of people born from the union of a human and a whale. Clearly heavily influenced by Ryktheu's Chukchi heritage and folklore, there is a lot here about human connection with nature, the dangers of ambition, and the way truth turns into legend, which turns into hearsay. Very good. 60 - Seaguy: The Slaves of Mickey Eye, by Grant Morrison & Cameron Stewart. Seaguy is back! This one's much more troubling from the start, and goes to some strange and wonderful places. Doesn't stick the landing quite as I'd hoped, and didn't thrill me with surprise in the same way that the first adventure did, but this is still solid Morrison oddness and I liked it a lot. 61 - The Hellbound Heart, by Clive Barker. Why had I not read this before? This rules! It's exactly what I expected, a vivid and exciting and grisly horror novella with really striking scenes. There's a strong sexual theme, even moreso than the film. It's hard not to visualise scenes from the film when reading this, since it's a favourite of mine, but this original work really does hold up. 62 - Empire of the Feast, by Bendi Barrett. Wild erotic SF novella about a newly-awakened galactic emperor fending off amnesia, an attempted coup, and the rapacious hunger of ambition. With lots of sexy sex and bloody combat, and queer as hell. A good romp with a surprisingly sweet conclusion. 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. - 26 - 1, 3, 9, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 31, 32, 33, 35, 37, 39, 41, 48, 55, 57, 58, 60 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of color. - 22 - 1, 4, 5, 6, 8, 12, 13, 15, 17, 20, 23, 24, 26, 27, 35, 37, 45, 49, 50, 56, 59, 62 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 8% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. - 21 - 5, 9, 11, 12, 15, 20, 23, 28, 31, 32, 33, 35, 39, 47, 49, 50, 57, 58, 60, 61, 62 9. Read something by an author with the same or similar name as you (can be just first, middle, last, a nickname, whatever) - 13. Ask the thread for a Wildcard - 14. Read a book published the year you turned 23 years old - THEMES - Surreal - 3, 10, 19, 38, 54, 58, 60 - Adventure - 14, 20, 29, 36, 39, 44, 56, 57, 58, 60 - Informational - 8, 9, 12, 28, 30, 31, 43, 51 - Uplifting - 24, 34, 37, 43, 51, 62 - Tragic - 5, 10, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 30, 55, 57, 58, 59 - Seasonal - 52, 59 - Scary - 13, 28, 30, 40, 50, 52, 54, 57, 61 - Comforting - 22, 24, 28, 34, 37, 62 - Celestial - 10, 32, 52, 54, 58, 62 - Chthonic - 20, 52, 54
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Sep 3, 2023 01:58
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Ben Nevis posted:Well now, that looks interesting. Its real good OP A fellow goon got it for me as a Secret Santa gift a year or two back.
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Sep 3, 2023 02:01
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Books read in August - 8 A lot of short stories and a lot of manga this month, it was the mood I was in. I've really got to read more with writers of colour but I'll be starting a Sam Delany book this month and hope I enjoy it enough to pick up more. 27 - The Other Wind by Ursula K. Le Guin - The final book in the series, we learn more about the land of the dead, of dragons and of pacts made long ago. I really liked it as an ending to the series. 28 - Fist of the North Star, Vol. 1 by Buronson/ Tetsuo Hara (Illustrator) - You are already dead! The classic Bruce Lee is Mad Max with a martial art that involves pressing pressure points on people to make them do various things (mostly explode). I found the note at the back interesting which describes how during planning they were looking for a hook beyond it just being another martial arts manga and the idea for the pressure points came from someone complaining about an acupuncture that went wrong. 29 - The Books of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin - I'm putting this final selection of the book in as one, it contains a few very short stories that were published in magazines along with a few essays and speeches. Ursula Le Guin was an intersting and cool woman. The tale from Ged's point of view where he is on his deathbed, waiting to die was something I think about in general, in a way it made me more afraid but in a way it helped. 30 - Professor Elemental's Tales of Wrong by Paul Alborough - The man behind chap-hop artist Professor Elemental decided to write a collection of Penny Dreadful style stories, some are connected where as others are random offshoots. It was both funny and creepy and if you are a fan of either him or the genre I'd recommend it. My favourite was probably one involving a trip to a seaside town to see an old friend which turns into something akin to the Evil Dead but with old people. 31 - Jojo's Bizzare Adventure Part 3 - Stardust Crusaders, Vol. 1 by Hirohiko Araki - The Jojo series that got me into Jojo (through the old anime OVAs) we see the introduction of Stand abilities and a shift towards even more ridiculous scenarios 32 - Jojo's Bizzare Adventure Part 3 - Stardust Crusaders, Vol. 1 by Hirohiko Araki - Continuing the story as above 33 - The Humans of Ziax 11/ The Drought of Ziax 11 by John Morressy - Picked this up in a charity shop mainly because of the art work on the cover and because the odd way it has been published. Each story takes half a book but is published upside down to the other so both books get a front cover. I'm not sure why this is the case as Humans comes first but there's no blurb to explain this. They were fun little stories about the balance of nature and why we shouldn't just kill things for the sake of convenience, something that's well known now (though not always followed) but probably wasn't cared about as much in 1974. 34 - Nothing but Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw - The second book I've read from Cassandra, this time it's a horror with the classic group of young adults in a haunted house finding out what a bad idea it was. I liked the setting and the use of an ohaguro bettari which I'd not heard of before. The characters themselves seem to hate each other way too much before everything kicks off and I couldn't help wonder why they all took a long haul flight with each other. Once the action kicks off it isn't as important anymore though 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. - 34/35 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. - 11/9 (complete) 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of color. - 1/9 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 8% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. - 2/3 5. Read something that is not a novel (i.e. a play, a poetry collection, a comic/manga, etc.) - 6 (complete) 6. Borrow something to read (from a friend, a loved one, a library, etc.) - 1 (complete) 7. Lend or recommend a book to someone (tell the thread what you lended/recommended!) - Berserk Deluxe Vol. 1 (complete) 8. Read something over 400 pages - 3 (complete) 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 - 4 (complete) 11. Read something that someone you know HATES - Death of a Salesman (complete) 12. Read something about books - 13. Ask the thread for a Wildcard - Lathe of Heaven (complete) 14. Read a book published the year you turned 23 years old -
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Sep 5, 2023 10:18
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Phew. August blew by. I am less busy though, so been able to read more. That's a plus. And I made progress on my challenges. I've got a wildcard coming in. My library though is closing in 2 days while moving to a temp location. It'll be out of commission for 6 weeks. I'll admit, I did not pay much attention to challenges when checking out a big pile of books. 48. A Brief History of Living Forever by Jaroslav Kalfar - Was excited to read another from the Spaceman of Bohemia author. This review was getting wordy, so suffice to say this sci-fi novel draws parallels between rightward swings in the US and across the world, it details the failures of the American Dream under Reagan, reveals how big tech will not save us from either failing, and talks about the problems with immortality. I liked it. 49. The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry by CM Waggoner - A gutter wizard gets a job guarding a proper lady. What ensues is a adventure mystery, at least for like a third of a book. Then sort of a cozy romantic stakeout? I don't know. I was way into the first bit, not so much the second. Ultimately, this fell short and leaned way too hard into twee. 50. Big Swiss by Jen Beagin - Saw this on some summer "Best of 23 so far" lists. Greta is a transcriptionist for a psychologist who falls in love with the titular Big Swiss after hearing her sessions. In this small town, naturally she runs into her and engineers a relationship with her behind the scenes knowledge. This was billed in places as a sex comedy, and I don't think it gets there. Primarily it's about trauma and how our characters handle, or don't handle, it. This was good. 51. Silver Nitrate by Sylvia Garcia-Moreno - Set in Mexico, natch, when Montserrat and her friend Tristan go looking for a lost horror movie that turns out to have been made by a Nazi occultist. A pretty decent thriller. It does drag a bit in the middle, but this felt like a definite step up from Daughter of Doctor Moreau. 52. Open Throat by Henry Hoke - A mountain lion that lives near the Hollywood sign flees his habitat after a fire and finds himself in LA. This is all written from the big cat's point of view and you get his take on life and the foibles of the city. Good. 53. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd - Turns out I'm old. In Civil Rights era South Carolina, a girl saves her nanny from jail and runs away to find out about her dead mother. A lot's been said on this one generally, but I'll just say it was good. 54. The Shamshine Blind by Paz Pardo - In an alternate world where Argentina is dominant thanks to emotion manipulating weaponry, a detective tries to get to the bottom of a conspiracy. Another sort of sci-fi noir. I enjoyed this one. 55. The Secret, Book, and Scone Society by Ellery Adams - Another mystery. Four ladies in a quirky small town known for it's healing industry work together to solve a crime. It's big on sisterhood, shared stories, and love of reading. And also mystery. It gets a little tangled in all of that and winds up only OK. 56. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer - Set in 1946 a writer stumbles across the titular society and their role during the occupation of the Channel Islands during WW2. This one wound up being sort of a heart warming, comedic and lightly romantic affair where you learn about the Occupation. I enjoyed it. Ben Nevis posted:1. Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo
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Sep 6, 2023 15:56
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Kudos on the reading folks!freelop posted:28 - Fist of the North Star, Vol. 1 by Buronson/ Tetsuo Hara (Illustrator) Oh lord yes, that's the good stuff.
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Sep 7, 2023 01:43
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Ben Nevis posted:56. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer - Set in 1946 a writer stumbles across the titular society and their role during the occupation of the Channel Islands during WW2. This one wound up being sort of a heart warming, comedic and lightly romantic affair where you learn about the Occupation. I enjoyed it. Oh, I didn't realise this was a book! I saw the film when it came out and I thought it was really delightful.
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Sep 8, 2023 00:21
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Checking in at the 2/3rds mark to rattle off my progress. #22- My Solo Exchange Diary, by Nagata Kabi | :: Part of my manga challenge I'm running simultaneously. Kabi is my favorite working mangaka. After my lovely time reading My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness two years back, I've been anxiously awaiting an excuse to continue and this title continues that tradition of extrapolatory anxiety exorcism. Delightfully troubling and horribly relatable. [Trade Paperback] #23- Silver Screen Fiend, by Patton Oswalt | :: Oswalt can tend to get obnoxious in the wrong forum, but here he knows to modulate and keep sincerity at the forefront of his recollections. Final Appendix detailing his idealized film festival in the afterlife for his friend the cinema operator was lovely. Fulfilled the book published the year I turned 23 regulation. [Audible] #24- Wolf Children Ame and Yuki, by Mamoru Hosoda | :: Unfortunately the first major disappointment of the year thusfar. Read this as prep work for a podcast on Mamoru Hosoda and was disappointed that there really isn't a compelling reason for this to exist. There is no real additional information this adds to the context of the film its based on. It's just the story of the movie minus the wonderful audiovisual elements that make the film a near-masterwork. Bland writing style, and impersonal voice of the writer make the reading feel perfunctory without allowing readers to feel like they accomplished something by reading this. [Hardcover] #25- the Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro | :: My first Ishiguro. A neat little drama of etiquette and morality that lends itself to the written word remarkably. Been circling the Merchant-Ivory production for years. Ishiguro definitely someone I wish to catch up on, after appreciating this alongside their work in film, adaptation-wise. [Audiobook/Libby] #26- les Guérillères, by Monique Wittig | :: This be the Wildcard I was assigned and I went in almost completely blind. Never took any authentic Womens' Studies courses or even read more than a paragraph from The Feminine Mystique, so it was a new experience to wrap my head around. Curious how the stanzas and oblique formatting add even more surreality to a parable (?) about militarized lesbians who keep men prisoners as pets of a sort, and that's practically glossed over in the prose it gives. [Hardcover] #27- Kill All Normies: Online Culture Wars from 4chan and Tumblr to Trump and the Alt-Right, by Angela Nagle | :: This here constitutes the work that someone I know, in this very forum actually, hates. Personally, I came away from it quite underwhelmed, but short of active disdain. Can certainly see the critiques about its most shallow approach to the Internet circles circa 2010-2017, especially how minimally they indicate GamerGate as the dogwhistle rallying cry it was. Foundational text it is not. Perhaps seeking out more journalistic explorations from peer-reviewed works would produce more good info? [Audiobook/hoopla] #28- the Tempest, by William Shakespeare | :: A show I was watching week to week was borrowing liberally from this particular work, so I scratched the itch to acquaint myself with the original text before said television series wrapped. Am really blazing through the Bard this year. It remains formulaic and does not mess around with much of the foundational elements from say Twelfth Night. The lowbrow subplot was not as engaging to me as I could hope for, but that is more likely my own taste interfering with my appreciation. The concept of Ariel as a Puck entity struck me, given how wildly different Mobile Suit Gundam - The Witch From Mercury utilized that namesake. I want to talk with my Caribbean drama scholar friend about Caliban; I know they have thoughts. [Audiobook/hoopla] #29- Metamorphosis (a.k.a. Emergence), by ShindoL | :: Picked it up because it was the most popular hentai graphic novel on MAL and I was curious to sample it as such. Going forward, I quickly regretted not doing any additional research. If you thought Requiem for a Dream needed more non-consensual (rape) action, and did not get bleak enough for your taste, ShindoL has you covered, for better and worse. Art and construction are ludicrously detailed, but in service of a story that feels sleazy and awkwardly preachy in equal measure. Came away feeling like I needed a powerwashing and additional therapy. Going to be wary if I ever see ShindoL attached to anything going forward. If you do seek it out, consider concluding with the fanmade ending that ties it into JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, as a palette cleanse. [Trade Paperback] #30- Lonely Castle in the Mirror, by Mizuki Tsujimura | :: Caught the animated adaptation of this in theaters. Came away puzzled by my muted reaction, considering how much I was enjoying the story being told in concept. But the adaptation was missing something, and to chase that hunch, I purchased the original work on Audible mere days later to pursue said hunch. My gut turned out to be correct. The story of this Eastern YA novel is well-paced, structured ingeniously, knows when to crank the melodrama (oh boy do I love me a melodrama), and I found myself sobbing come the epilogue chapter. Now, waterworks does not guarantee a masterwork; certain specific tropes can work the whirlwind on unsuspecting consumers. But I can say without doubt that the original novel is a damned good work all its own, and having glanced at the manga adaptation, can label the film adaptation as skippable as a result. One of two works focusing on bullying at a certain age to potently affect me this year. [Audible] #31- Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman | :: Have yet to actively dive into both Pratchett and Gaiman's literature, so thought this would be a worthy introduction. Charming, clever, uproariously ridiculous, a farce with its heart on its sleeve. The dynamic between Aziraphale and Crowley is a terrible hoot to experience. The plot with the child Antichrist is equal parts horrifying and disarmingly fun. Love to find out the reviews sell this one correctly. [Audiobook/hoopla] #32- UИNATURAL Omnibus, by Mirka Andolfo | :: A comic that ended up in my purview due to lewd reputation, even though while it deals with adult situations, yes, it's more just plain mature than just furry eroge. Girl in dystopic Zootopia needs to find a mate or be punished by the totalitarians in power. Oh, and she's also possessed by a generational ancestor's lover who wants to control her life for bloodthirsty reasons as well as biological ones. Solid as hell beginning that outright murders some of the more intriguing characters early on just to mix up the progression, which I found bold but annoying. Middle segment onward is very episodic stop/go, and the shot pacing can affect the story for the lesser. Worth a read, sure. Curious how that currently publishing sequel series plays out. [eBook/hoopla] #33- the Demon, by Hubert Selby, Jr. | :: Namedropped another Selby earlier in my Metamorphosis words, but this was another recommendation from a friend. First Selby. Lack of quotation marks in print took me a while to parse. Walks the line of leering character drama to heartfelt coming-of-maturity story all the way back to depraved morality tale like a spastic yo-yo overall. [Hardcover] #34- All the Pretty Horses, by Cormac McCarthy | :: My first Cormac McCarthy. Solid south of the border intrigue / laidback tragic western yarn. Mostly came to this on reputation from its mishandled Miramax film adaptation that was cut to two hours by producers who did not respect the material. The rhythm of the text put me in a lull of sorts. So much so that I nearly had to backtrack minutes at a time to reaffirm what had just occurred, though that could just be my dire ADHD. [Audiobook/hoopla] #35- the Murder of Roger Ackroyd, by Agatha Christie | :: Love me a Poirot story read by Richard Armitage, and his professional approach to these stories boosts their charm greatly. Cannot recommend the Armitage Audible editions at all higher. [Audible+] Challenge Status 2- Not Male Author, 10/13 3- Author of Color, 11/13 Theming, Adventurous: 11 [storygraph claims Henry IV P1 qualifies, but I'm hesitant to disqualify P2 and V] Celestial: 2 Chthonic: 1 Comforting: 1 Informational: 5 Scary: 3 Surreal: 4 Tragic: 10 RailtraceR30 posted:Checking in after 3 more months of reading means a big ol' text dump. But as of now, to my delight, I'm 5 biblios ahead of schedule! RailtraceR30 fucked around with this message at 05:32 on Sep 8, 2023 |
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Sep 8, 2023 04:11
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I finished 9 books in September (with a lot of half-finished ones on deck for various reasons lol). This was a really solid set of books overall! 82. Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata I don't read a lot of contemporary/litfic sort of stuff, but I am so glad I picked this up. It's a novella that packs a lot of social commentary and a really fascinating (and, for me, pretty relatable) protagonist. This is the story of a woman named Keiko who has spent her whole adult life working at a convenience store, and it works well for her. But of course, this means that her friends and family find her weird and don't understand why she doesn't pursue a more prestigious job or get a boyfriend, etc. They can't understand why she's content as she is. Absolutely recommend it. 83. Bloody Summer by Carmen Maria Machado (This is technically just a short story, but I'm including it in my total count in part to stand in for a novel that one of my friends wrote and I read to give feedback on. Also this is just a good story.) This is a short story in the format of an academic paper about children's hand/clapping games in certain regions. But the more the paper's author investigated the games and rhymes unique to the town of Never-Again, Pennsylvania, the darker things start to get. This is free to read if you have Amazon Prime and I really recommend checking it out (look up trigger warnings if you think you might need to -- there are some messed up things implied and talked around.) 84. He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan The second book in the Radiant Emperor duology that started with the fantastic She Who Became the Sun. This is a sort of fantasy/alt-history about the fall of the Yuan Dynasty and rise of the first Ming Emperor. This is packed with complicated gender and sexuality dynamics without attempting to force the characters into modern conceptions of those things. Similarly almost all of the major POV characters have significant mental illnesses that felt like they were portrayed pretty realistically (again without trying to explain/force them into a modern psych framework). Also there's ghosts and stuff. I think my only complaint is that overall the book could have maybe been trimmed a smidge (some stuff started to feel, not really repetitive, but like concepts were dwelt on longer than they needed to be). Otherwise would recommend if you liked the first book, it's a good finale! 85. Communion: A True Story by Whitley Strieber I hadn't joined in the SA Book of the Month thing in a while and this caught my attention (alien abduction stories were everywhere when I was kid in the 90s and I never stopped being fascinated by it). Not gonna lie, especially considering that Strieber was already a published fiction author when he wrote this, it's REALLY rough and felt like it needed more editing. That said, Strieber's narrative is an interesting look into the mindset of someone who truly believes something incredible and terrible happened to him (even though he's not 100% sure it's even aliens himself). I finished the book mostly feeling sympathetic toward him and wishing that he was able to resolve whatever happened/he thinks happened in a way that brought him more peace (assuming he's being fully honest, which I think he was -- it might have been better reading if he'd made it up). 86. The Last Dragons of Bowbazar by Indra Das A novella about a boy with a mysterious family and an obscured heritage living in Calcutta, India. He has dreams that don't quite seem like dreams, mostly involving dragons. The story manages to be both grounded and fantastical by turns. I didn't really know anything at all about it going in except seeing a few places I trusted saying it was really good, and I think it's best to go in not knowing much so you can enjoy the mystery of it. It's only about 120 pages, so it's a quick read and really nicely written. 87. The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward Another book that I knew almost nothing about except that it was good, and I'm really glad I didn't look up anything beyond the barest synopsis beforehand. This is a missing-child thriller, with a strange, possibly-suspicious man at the center, and a cat is a main point of view character (stick with it even if that might turn you off at first blush). Everything in this went a lot deeper and there were way more levels of reveals and 'twists' than I was expecting there to be. But it all managed to come together to a satisfying ending which I found impressive. I've heard some claims this isn't even Ward's best book, and I am really looking forward to reading more of her stuff. 88. Stampede: Gold Fever and Disaster in the Klondike by Brian Castner I was vaguely aware of the Klondike gold rush from playing a bit of the Oregon Trail spinoff game, Yukon Trail, but didn't realize just how batshit and horrific it was in reality. This is a good overview that pingpongs between various stand-out people, ranging from the person who made the first claims at Bonanza Creek to the grifters and hotel magnates who exploited the rush of gold miners, to Jack London before he became an author. A good cross-section of a brief but harrowing historical event. 89. The Atrocities by Jeremy C. Shipp This was a short gothic-style novella that was OK! There was some absolutely fantastic imagery, a mansion and hedge maze filled with gruesome statues and paintings that evoke a mix of religious and cosmic horror. The downside is that the main plot doesn't really do much. It's a classic setup where an eccentric, rich family hires as tutor for their young daughter, and things are Strange, but the book is so short that there's not enough time to really marinate in the creeping dread you might expect from most gothic stories. Definitely a "great ideas, mid execution" sort of story. 90. Taaqtumi: An Anthology of Arctic Horror Stories (various authors) A short story collection about, as it says, Arctic horror. Many (but not all) of the authors included have Indigenous heritage so you get to see some cool stories involving new takes on traditional monsters like Nanurluk, an enormous (think in the range of 50 foot tall) polar bear, as well as some really unique new ways to be terrified of blizzards. This is on the shorter side overall (just under 200 pages) but all of the stories were really good, and there wasn't a single one that clunked for me (rare with most short story collections!). PROMPTS 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge - 90/52 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. (~44/90) 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of color. (~28/90) 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 8% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. (~28/90) 5. Read something that is not a novel - The Madman's Gallery 6. Borrow something to read - Witch Hat Atelier #2 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 - The Gone World 14. Read a book published the year you turned 23 years old - Wool by Hugh Howey THEMES - Surreal - The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington - Adventure - Thin Air - Informational - The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England - Uplifting - Tragic - In Harm's Way - Seasonal - Leech (Winter was a very relevant plot point) - Scary - The Ghost Map - Comforting - Legends & Lattes - Celestial - The Blazing World - Chthonic - Hollow DurianGray fucked around with this message at 18:34 on Sep 30, 2023 |
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Sep 30, 2023 18:28
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10 Books since the last update, though the early-month Dungeon Crawler Carl binge kind of inflated my numbers in a rush. Previously: 1. The King of Attolia | Megan Whalen Turner 2. A Conspiracy of Kings | Megan Whalen Turner 3. Thick as Thieves | Megan Whalen Turner 4. Jade Legacy | Fonda Lee 5. Return of the Thief | Megan Whalen Turner 6. The Aeronauts Windlass | Jim Butcher 7. Mistborn: Secret History | Brandon Sanderson 8. Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendancy | Timothy Zahn 9. Sea of Tranquility | Emily St. John Mandel 10. The Wicked + The Divine | Kieron Gillen 11. The Law | Jim Butcher 12. Children of Memory | Adrian Tchaikovsky 13. The Atlas Six | Olivie Blake 14. The Atlas Paradox | Olivie Blake 15. The Black Company | Glen Cook 16. Shadows Linger | Glen Cook 17. This is How you Lose the Time War | Amal El-Mohar & Max Gladstone 18. Court of Roses and Thorns | Sarah J Maas 19. All Systems Red | Martha Wells 20. Artificial Condition | Martha Wells 21. Of Slicing Men | Eric Ugland 22. The Sorcerer of Pyongyang | Marcel Theroux 23. A Court of Wings and Ruin | Sarah J Maas 24. A Court of Silver Flames | Sarah J Maas 25. The Dirty Streets of Heaven | Tad Williams 26. A Connecticut Yankee in King Author’s Court | Mark Twain 27. Scythe | Neal Shusterman 28. Happy Hour in Hell | Tad Williams 29. Thunderhead | Neal Shusterman 30. Sleeping Late on Judgement Day | Tad Williams 31. The Long Way to a Small and Angry Planet | Becky Chambers 32. A Closed and Common Orbit | Becky Chambers 33. The Toll | Neal Shusterman 34. Hultichia | Marshall Ryan Maresca 35. Lords and Ladies | Terry Pratchett 36. Record of a Spaceborn Few | Becky Chambers 37. The Galaxy and the Ground Within | Becky Chambers 38. A Psalm for the Wild Built | Becky Chambers 39. Port of Shadows | Glen Cook 40. Victory City | Salman Rushdie 41. Darktown Funk | Eric Ugland 42. On a Throne of Lies | Eric Ugland 43. Fledgling | Octavia E. Butler 44. A Desolation Called Piece | Arkady Martine 45. The Terraformers | Annalee Newitz 46. Downbelow Station | C.J. Cherryh 47. Autonomous | Analee Newitz New Update 48. The Poppy War | R.F. Kuang 49. Dungeon Crawler Carl | Matt Dinnimin 50. Carl’s Doomsday Scenario | Matt Dinnimin 51. The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook | Matt Dinnimin 52. The Gate of the Feral Gods | Matt Dinnimin 53. The Butcher’s Masquerade | Matt Dinnimin 54. The Eye of the Bedlam Bride | Matt Dinnimin 55. The Empress of Salt and Fortune | Nghi Vo 56. Light Bringer | Pierce Brown 57. Salute the Dark | Adrian Tchaikovsky Booklord Status: [57/52] “not by men” :26 so far (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 23, 24, 31, 32, 36, 37, 38, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 55) Author is POC (4, 13, 14, 27, 29, 33, 40, 43, 48, 55) 8/52 LBGTQ (31, 32, 36, 37, 38, 45, 47, 55) Not a Novel: The Wicked + The Divine (10) Borrow Something to Read: “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” (26) Lend or recommend a book to someone: My partner read “Anathem” by Neil Stevenson (and as an academic found it hilarious) Read something over 400 Pages: A Court of Wings and Ruin (23) Read something by an author with the same or similar name as you: ______ Read a work in translation: ________ A book I know a friend hated _______ About Books: “The Sorcerer of Pyongyang” (22) Wildcard: “The Empress of Salt and Fortune” (55) Published in 2010: “A Conspiracy of Kings” (2) Of Particular note Dungeon Crawler Carl etc: Since I binged these as audiobooks pretty unhealthily it’ll be hard to disentangle the plots for multiple reviews. The series starts with the titular Carl being roused from his sleep by the screaming of his ex-girlfriend’s cat (Princess Donut) who has escaped his apartment and is now trapped in a tree outside. Clad only in a leather jacket and boxers he runs outside to save the cat from its predicament, reaching the outdoors just moments before “The Dungeon” starts. Either luckily or unluckily, Carl being out of bed allows him (and Donut) to participate in Dungeon Crawler Earth, an intragalactic bloodsport beloved by trillions. This series starts as fairly standard Lit-RPG and shines by including a broader political storyline and a number of characters (both earth based and alien) that are genuinely quite fun. Carl and Donut are both well rounded and interesting main characters and the series ramps up in intensity in a way that feels about as natural as is possible given the constraints of the Genre. I am also pretty sure I only found out about it through someone in this thread, so thanks to whoever that was! The Empress of Salt and Fortune: This was my wildcard, suggested by DorianGray and I adored it. I’m increasingly drawn to novella length stories, perhaps because they basically have to be pretty aggressively paced in order to get their full narrative out in relatively few words. The Empress of Salt and Fortune is a feminist fantasy story telling the tale of two women sold into the Emperor’s service. One as a servant, the other as a wife. Conveyed through a series of short stories from the memory of the former it provides a view into the inner life of the emperor’s least favored wife from her arrival in the palace to her eventual expulsion and rise to power. Its quick, emotional, and clever.
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Oct 3, 2023 22:22
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I've had no motivation for this. September is gone and my library is still closed. Fortunately, I had the foresight to check out some spooky stuff for this month. Challenges are proceeding apace. Got to figure out what book might be cthonic. 57. The Monsters We Defy by Leslye Penelope - Set in 1920s DC in the Black part of town. Our heroine can commune with spirits and can broker deals between people and them, trading favors for "tricks" which are more or less just curses. She can have her own removed if she can steal a certain item. She assembles a team of curse people to try and do it. Sort of a magical Oceans 11. It's a pretty enjoyable read. 58. The Legend of La Llorona by Rudolfo Anaya - Just what it says on the tin. Honestly felt short. Would have enjoyed a little more room to breathe. 59. The Meister of Decimen City by Brenna Raney - The Meister is a super genius that through thoughtlessness sometimes slips into super villainy. When her dinosaurs escape and ravage downtown, she is put under official government surveillance. While trying to deal with her intrusive babysitters, she winds up having to navigate her newly realized orientation and also a whole lot of family drama. There's a meaningful story lying under the comic book dinosaur book and this all wound up being surprisingly good. 60. Board to Death by CJ Connor - A very mid mystery that has less to do with boardgames than I'd hoped. If like you really want a mystery with a gay detective and some light romance, this may be for you. Otherwise, I'd pass. 61. On Earth As It Is on Television by Emily Jane - Aliens spend a day hovering over major world cities. Communications and power are disrupted. Everything is nuts, nothing can ever be the same. And then they leave. Most of the story happens in the aftermath, as the population freaks out about alien invaders hiding among us. This turns into a madcap adventure with people travelling cross country to hide and maybe find the aliens. Enjoyed this. 62. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind - A man born without odor, but who was a super-smeller, becomes obsessed with creating the ultimate perfume. Overall good. I felt it dragged a little midway, but good. 63. Djinn Patrol On the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara - In an Indian slum, kids start going missing. Jai and his friends are determined to solve the crime. This really gets into living conditions and inequality and whatnot. It'd likely be pretty grim if it wasn't told from Jai's perpective. He's an irrepressible kid who's eager to do what he can despite circumstances. Good book. Ben Nevis posted:1. Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo
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Oct 9, 2023 22:00
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Books read in September - 2 Not a lot read this month but I did like what I read. 35 - The Ballad of Beta-2/ Empire Star by Samuel R. Delany - First time I've read any of his work and I loved it. The novel is made of 2 stories in very different settings, The Ballad of Beta 2 is about a student a long time in the future who begrudgly sets out to study the Star Children, the remenants of a group of early space travellers who set out just before jump drive type technology was created and thus he sees it as a waste of time studying a primitive cultural dead end (as most people view them). Empire Star is a space odyssy in which a simple boy on an asteroid must travel to the heart of the Empire to deliver an important message, there's slavery, war, sentient rocks, computers and in places it feels almost Alice in Wonderlandish. 36 - Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman - It was originally published in 1998 but our copy was published in 2013 which is what I needed for the 23 years challenge. It's quite a vast collection of short stories with a lot of different themes but I think my favourite is the one in which a homeless man tells a story in payment for a cigarette about the first murder and murder investigation in the city of angels before the universe was created. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. - 36/35 (complete) 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. - 11/9 (complete) 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of color. - 1/9 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 8% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. - 3/3 (complete) 5. Read something that is not a novel (i.e. a play, a poetry collection, a comic/manga, etc.) - 6 (complete) 6. Borrow something to read (from a friend, a loved one, a library, etc.) - 2 (complete) 7. Lend or recommend a book to someone (tell the thread what you lended/recommended!) - Berserk Deluxe Vol. 1 (complete) 8. Read something over 400 pages - 3 (complete) 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 - 4 (complete) 11. Read something that someone you know HATES - Death of a Salesman (complete) 12. Read something about books - 13. Ask the thread for a Wildcard - Lathe of Heaven (complete) 14. Read a book published the year you turned 23 years old - Smoke and Mirrors
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Oct 12, 2023 16:27
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Whoops I missed last month, and what I'm reading now won't be done before the end of this month, so here's my update!Gertrude Perkins posted:1 - My Sister, The Serial Killer, by Oyinkan Braithwaite 63 - Lives of the Monster Dogs, by Kirsten Bakis. Dog-people arrive in near-future NYC, flush with riches and collective pain from the awful circumstances that led to their creation. A human woman is tasked with helping chronicle the dogs' history as their upper-crust society begins to crumble. Engaging, surprising, brutal and melancholy, this was one of the best books I've read this year. 64 - The Psychosis of Whiteness: Surviving the Insanity of a Racist World, by Kehinde Andrews. Andrews uses the title phrase to describe the hypocrisy, doublethink, existential fear and liberal appeasement that result from and reinforce white supremacy. He provides historical context for the evolution of ideas of race and whiteness, and compares manifestations of the "psychosis of whiteness" past and present. The book ends up, unfortunately, as a series of righteously angry polemics against hot sociopolitical topics of the last decade (critical race theory, imperialist museums, etc) that brings little new to the discourse. One big sticking point is the titlular concept and how he says that it comes out of his examination of the racist history of mental health. It doesn't really come together, and ends up feeling forced when he goes from talking about the absurdity of "psychosis" as a subjective and unhelpful medical term...while spending the rest of the book using "psychosis", "delusion" etc. as political descriptors. 65 - Banned Book Club, by Kim Hyun Sook, Ryan Estrada & Ko Hyung-Ju. Really good graphic autobiography about a girl inducted into an illegal book club under the 80s Fifth Republic of Korea. Censorship, subterfuge, and the spirit of resistance against oppression, as well as awkward teenage social life stuff. It's good stuff, and sadly relevant today. 66 - Light from Uncommon Stars, by Ryka Aoki. A trans musician escapes an abusive home and tries to pursue her dreams of online stardom. A cold and enigmatic violin teacher has made a deal with the devil. A family of alien immigrants run a donut shop. None of this should fit together, but it does, in a story filled with catharsis, queer love, sacrifice and a lot of other good things. The connective tissue does fray at times, especially with the sci-fi stuff, but I was hooked until the end. 67 - Fluids, by May Leitz. Grisly nasty splattery gore novella about a horrible hosed-up lady and a younger woman she ropes into her awfulness. A bloodcurdling yelp of a book, clearly the writer getting a lot of poo poo off her chest, in a fun and kind of amateurish way. When you think "extreme horror youtuber writes book" this wasn't far from my assumptions. Also a LOT of the titular fluids, especially vomit. Fun, but not as good as... 68 - Girl Flesh: An Extreme Horror Story About Love, by May Leitz. A more complete narrative, still with some grotesque horror and a decent amount of creeping dread. Similar to Leitz's first book, there's a pair of queer women at the heart of this, but I cared about seeing them succeed and survive. Thelma and Louise pursued by horrible murderers. I liked this! 69 - Hawai'i's Story By Hawai'i's Queen, by Lili'uokalani. This starts as a pleasant, interesting, slightly dry memoir full of courtly life, gossip and family affairs. The young princess grows up in a Hawai'i already heavily influenced by imperial powers and modernising at pace to meet the demands of the 19th Century. Deaths and births are mourned and celebrated, diplomacy and politics are described in exacting detail, and Lili'uokalani shares her passion for music and for her people. She writes with a stately, conservative tone commeasurate with being brought up under a British-style private education. And then crisis upon crisis upon crisis rock the islands and her family as corporate and US interests undermine and demolish the Hawai'ian government and sovereignty. It's deeply sad, reading about her desperate journey to petition the US government and knowing as a reader how fruitless the endeavour is. This adds a lot of extra context to my previous reading of Notes From A Native Daughtter, also. Free Hawai'i! 70 - Camp Damascus, by Chuck Tingle. A drat good creepy horror novel in front, a satisfying, cathartic revenge fantasy in back. Tingle has a real knack for this, an earnest exploration of the ways evangelical bigotry enforces social and sexual repression. Nasty parenting stuff, genuinely frightening scenes...the finale didn't hit me as hard as I hoped, but I was still thoroughly entertained. Very much recommended. 71 - Valuable Humans In Transit and Other Stories, by qntm. Short collection of short SF stories, including the excellent Lena. Every one of these is good, skin-crawling and upsetting in different ways. A handful of bad bad futures. 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. - 32 - 1, 3, 9, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 31, 32, 33, 35, 37, 39, 41, 48, 55, 57, 58, 60, 63, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of color. - 26 - 1, 4, 5, 6, 8, 12, 13, 15, 17, 20, 23, 24, 26, 27, 35, 37, 45, 49, 50, 56, 59, 62, 64, 65, 66, 69 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 8% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. - 25 - 5, 9, 11, 12, 15, 20, 23, 28, 31, 32, 33, 35, 39, 47, 49, 50, 57, 58, 60, 61, 62, 66, 67, 68, 70 9. Read something by an author with the same or similar name as you (can be just first, middle, last, a nickname, whatever) - 13. Ask the thread for a Wildcard - 14. Read a book published the year you turned 23 years old - THEMES - Surreal - 3, 10, 19, 38, 54, 58, 60, 67, 70 - Adventure - 14, 20, 29, 36, 39, 44, 56, 57, 58, 60, 70 - Informational - 8, 9, 12, 28, 30, 31, 43, 51, 65, 69 - Uplifting - 24, 34, 37, 43, 51, 62, 66, 70 - Tragic - 5, 10, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 30, 55, 57, 58, 59, 63, 67, 69, 71 - Seasonal - 52, 59 - Scary - 13, 28, 30, 40, 50, 52, 54, 57, 61, 68, 70, 71 - Comforting - 22, 24, 28, 34, 37, 62 - Celestial - 10, 32, 52, 54, 58, 62, 66 - Chthonic - 20, 52, 54, 67, 70, 71 Also I don't think I've been WILDCARDed yet, so someone do that! Maybe a book published in 2013, so I can tick off challenge 14?
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Oct 26, 2023 06:52
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Gertrude Perkins posted:Whoops I missed last month, and what I'm reading now won't be done before the end of this month, so here's my update! That is a damned impressive list of books read so far! (but no Solenoid?) As for wildcards from 2013, how about The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt?
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Oct 26, 2023 13:00
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Gertrude Perkins posted:Also I don't think I've been WILDCARDed yet, so someone do that! Maybe a book published in 2013, so I can tick off challenge 14? e: Hah, I spent too long typing. Wow 2013 is sparse for books I've even read (even sparser on ones I'd be interested in too). Three I have read and would recommend (seems like there's a chance you might have already read some of them, so, options!): Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer - nonfiction about Native American ecological traditions, but also sort of a memoir basically? It's really good -- she also reads the audiobook herself and she has such a lovely, enthusiastic, and kind voice. Ancillary Justice by Anne Leckie - a partially destroyed ship AI seeks revenge against the galactic emporer who tried to kill her. Can stand alone, though there are currently 4 more books in the series/setting (and only 2 more in the same 'trilogy' as Justice) S. (or Ship of Theseus) by J. J. Abrams and Doug Dorst - this is one I am waffling on even recommending, but if the concept of a book with a second narrative of two people trying to learn more about the book's mysterious author playing out in notes scribbled in the margins and ephemera tucked into the book's pages sounds extremely interesting, give it a shot (it is sort of expensive though, and given the ephemera gimmick I'm not sure if you could get it from a library easily? ). I was kinda meh on the story personally (it's definitely written in part by J.J. Abrams, for better or worse) but the execution of the physical object is really neat.
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Oct 26, 2023 13:07
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DurianGray posted:Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer - nonfiction about Native American ecological traditions, but also sort of a memoir basically? It's really good -- she also reads the audiobook herself and she has such a lovely, enthusiastic, and kind voice. I'll probably choose one of these two, thanks!
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Oct 31, 2023 05:57
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Savage Dragon: Into The Hornets’ Nest by Erik Larsen (collecting SD 259-264) Always one of my top favs. Varied collection of inventive fun comics. 264 focuses on the story of Paul Dragon, the original indie Dragon from 80s books like Megaton and Graphic Fantasy. The other issues focus on Malcolm Dragon, his wife Maxine, and their super-powered Dragon kids. And the wild lives they all lead. Love this stuff. Erik keeps it fresh with the slice of life stuff mixed with the wild pulpy oldschool comic motifs, and a unique vibe all its own. That's book #3 of the year for me, bit off from my initial goals, but I'm intending to do a bit of a comeback in these last two months. Gonna rock those books, oh yes! Heavy Metal fucked around with this message at 02:38 on Nov 1, 2023 |
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Nov 1, 2023 02:35
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I finished 6 books in October, all of them thematically spooky in one way or another. I'm also in the middle of way more books than I prefer to be. Hoping to get that cleaned up a bit this month if I can, but I'm also supposed to be doing NaNoWriMo with some friends so I anticipate my reading time is going to be eaten into by that. 91. The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji Published in the 80s initially, this is part of a longstanding Japanese tradition of mystery writing called 'honkaku' that focuses on classic, whodunnit mysteries that (and this is the key) contain all the clues for the reader to be able to solve the mystery if they're clever enough. This is a sort of locked room mystery explicitly in the vein of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. A group of college mystery club students, all nicknamed after famous Western mystery writers, go to a supposedly haunted island where only 6 months earlier, a multiple-murder and suicide happened for a writing retreat. They start getting picked off themselves. This was a fun puzzlebox of a book and I would recommend it if you like that sort of mystery. 92. The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine by Lindsey Fitzharris Nonfiction, kind of mostly a biography about Joseph Lister (who Listerine was named after, yes) and, eventually, his contributions to antiseptic surgery and germ theory. This was a really engaging read and it does not shy away from some of the more disgusting details of early modern surgery. I really enjoyed Fitzharris's The Facemaker, about the revolution in plastic surgery during WWI, and I was glad that this was also a great read. Check it out if you like learning gnarly medical history. 93. Wilding by Melanie Tem This is a different sort of horror book about a matriarchal family of werewolf women living in Denver, Colorado. Things kick off when teenager Deborah runs away from her coming-of-age ceremony. Deborah, besides being a latent werewolf, has a lot of problems. She's angry and frustrated and has a significant eating disorder. Her mother is a pushover who never makes decisions herself, and Deborah's grandmother is showing signs of dementia. Basically, this is about werewolves (who a lot of the time act like witches, making flying ointments out of fat rendered from their newborn sons, that sort of thing), but it's mostly a drama about a messed up family. Masterfully written, but definitely not a fun or comfortable read. 94. Batavia's Graveyard: The True Story of the Mad Heretic Who Led History's Bloodiest Mutiny by Mike Dash Nonfiction about the 1628 wreck and subsequent massacre of the passengers and crew of the Dutch East India Company ship Batavia. This starts out with the wreck and then pivots for at least half the book to just giving background information about the VOC, and Jeronimous Cornelisz who is the titular 'mad heretic' (though really it seems like he's more of a clinical psychopath who happens to use a wildly libertine interpretation of an existing religion as a thin justification for his actions -- he's not trying to convert anyone which was the impression I initially got from the title). The last (less than) half takes us back to the horrific series of murders and power grabs done by Jeronimous until rescue finally arrives. An interesting book, but sort of odd pacing and potentially too many asides and background notes if you're just here for the shipwreck stuff. 95. Brainwyrms by Alison Rumfitt I loved Tell Me I'm Worthless, and Rumfitt does it again with another fast-paced extreme horror novel that manages to smash the gross stuff you saw on the internet as a teenager, modern British transphobia, and rancid relationship dynamics into one squirming dripping ball. Rumfitt has an incredible way of writing character psychology and digging down into the nastiest thought processes while still seeing and embracing the full tragic humanity of these characters. It's a rough read. It's really gross. I know one person who said they had to stop reading at parts because they started to actually gag. If that sounds like a great time to you, check it out. 96. All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby This was the one real flop for me this month. This is a thriller set in a small, fictional Eastern Shore county in Virginia, about the county's first Black sheriff (an ex-FBI agent) and his hunt for a serial killer. Apparently a lot of people on Goodreads called the prose in this "poetic" and "lyrical" but I was very quickly cringing every time another "like a..." simile hit the page. I thought the writing alternated between being too heavy handed (we get it, Titus is sad his mom died and he lost his faith!) and too thin (you will NOT figure out who the killer is yourself -- when it was revealed in the last few chapters I immediately said "who???" and a word search confirmed the person was only mentioned in passing as part of a group of background characters in three previous chapters before the reveal). I dunno though, apparently a LOT of people thought this was one of the best thrillers of the year, and I don't really read the genre, much so maybe I'm off base with my expectations. PROMPTS 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge - 96/52 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. (~47/96) 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of color. (~30/96) 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 8% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. (~29/96) 5. Read something that is not a novel - The Madman's Gallery 6. Borrow something to read - Witch Hat Atelier #2 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 - The Gone World 14. Read a book published the year you turned 23 years old - Wool by Hugh Howey THEMES - Surreal - The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington - Adventure - Thin Air - Informational - The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England - Uplifting - Tragic - In Harm's Way - Seasonal - Leech (Winter was a very relevant plot point) - Scary - The Ghost Map - Comforting - Legends & Lattes - Celestial - The Blazing World - Chthonic - Hollow
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Nov 1, 2023 14:29
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Books read in October - 1 Only one book completed in October but it was actually a book that a book barn goon got me in a Secret Santa a few years back 37 - The History of Bees by Maja Lunde - This story follows 3 different people across 3 different eras, a man in the 1850s hoping to make his name in the world with bee hives, a modern day bee farmer dealing with the loss of bees and a woman in the late 21st century who's job is to hand pollinate trees as there are no bees and her journey to find her missing son. The chapters flip between each character and I was compelled to keep reading to advance all 3. It's rather bleak across the board but not without hope. Thanks goon who's name I forgot! 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. - 37/35 (complete) 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. - 12/9 (complete) 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of color. - 1/9 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 8% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. - 3/3 (complete) 5. Read something that is not a novel (i.e. a play, a poetry collection, a comic/manga, etc.) - 6 (complete) 6. Borrow something to read (from a friend, a loved one, a library, etc.) - 2 (complete) 7. Lend or recommend a book to someone (tell the thread what you lended/recommended!) - Berserk Deluxe Vol. 1 (complete) 8. Read something over 400 pages - 3 (complete) 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 - 5 (complete) 11. Read something that someone you know HATES - Death of a Salesman (complete) 12. Read something about books - 13. Ask the thread for a Wildcard - Lathe of Heaven (complete) 14. Read a book published the year you turned 23 years old - Smoke and Mirrors freelop fucked around with this message at 16:55 on Nov 5, 2023 |
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Nov 2, 2023 17:58
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Felt like putting a couple more reviews down, 4. The Dragon: Blood & Guts by Jason Pearson A side story to one of my favorite comics, Savage Dragon by Erik Larsen. This side mini-series by Jason Pearson has great art, a loose kookiness to it, and a lot of references to John Woo and Quentin Tarantino. Which is ok by me. Yep John Woo is a bartender, whatta guy. 5. House Divided: A Political Satire by Bruce Campbell I've enjoyed all Bruce's audiobooks, I mean he is the king of acting after all. This is I think his second full fiction one, after Make Love The Bruce Campbell Way. This one is pretty light, feels like it could make a low budget comedy buddy movie. Much of the book is them messing around in the woods Aykroyd and Candy style. Not too shabby. So like the OP said, I'm aiming to make reading more of a habit, and using the various ways of beaming stories into my noggin. So far I've read comics and listened to audiobooks, haven't finished reading a novel in about a year though. So I'm intending to finish one or two novels in the next couple months, along with more audiobooks and lots of comics. The bit from the OP about "not having to finish a book you're not enjoying! It's a lot easier to read a book that you find fun or interesting!", that is wise. I notice though that I'm in denial or something on that, I have books that I kind of enjoy or am curious about, but really they are a slog or don't grab me. So I have had The Gunslinger on my currently-reading list for about 7 years. Still have the bookmark on page 114 from many years ago. Was thinking of switching to the audiobook to mix it up. So finishing The Gunslinger is a lifelong project. Heavy Metal fucked around with this message at 03:09 on Nov 9, 2023 |
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Nov 9, 2023 03:04
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So I went camping the first week of November and totally skipped the update for October so this is going to be a long one. I've officially hit my number goal and am finishing up books in the Mood section. I'll clear my challenge this year, which is very exciting. And I just realized, don't know if I've read something someone hates. Need to work on that. My library has reopened, and it's very exciting. So, October and November, here we go: 64. The Scourge Between Stars by Ness Brown - A spooky one to kick of the month. It's not quite Aliens, but it sorta is. Mid. 65. The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa by Stephen Buoro - A young man growing up in Nigeria experiences through his teens sorrowful events that perhaps deserve meditation on. Sectarian violence, family drama, and more punctuate what is actually a pretty sad book. Pretty good though. 66. Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle - More Horror, this time centered around a religious sect and the conversion camp that helps fund their culty little town. Turns out this was good. 67. The Apartment by Ana Mendez - A novel of linked stories taking place in a single apartment in Miami. The final chapter/story or so was good. The rest, less so. Not recommended. 68. A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny - A re-read, I suppose. Still a great Halloween read. 69. Maeve Fly by CJ Leede - A final horror type thing for October. The lead character askes at one point why women can't just be psychopaths. They always have to have been abused or something first. Enter Maeve, who is definitely a psycho. She's a princess at Disneyland and it all sort of turns to a feminine reflection of American Psycho, perhaps. Not exactly my jam, but if you enjoy that sort of thing. This may incidentally allow you to compile a pretty impressive Halloween Playlist. 70. Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo - #4 of the historian Chih series. And yeah, it's good. I'll read any more she writes. 71. Strange Hotel by Eimer McBride - My wild card. On reflection, I bet some people hate this one. Gonna check. A woman travels to hotel rooms the world over and reflects on past encounters and a specific failure. Had some trouble getting into this, but eventually it clicked and I was enjoying it by the end. 72. A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers - I figure by this point anyone interested in reading cozy sci-fi knows whether they like Becky Chambers. I do, and this was great. 73. A Prayer for the Crown Shy by Becky Chambers - See 73 74. A Stranger in the Citadel by Tobias S Bucknell - In an apocalyptic future, humans live small cities around alien cornucopia that provides whatever is needed. In exchange for the technology to survive here they had to give up literacy. Hence the tagline "Suffer not a librarian to live." Fundamentally, I think this is fairly interesting. The book kind of heads elsewhere and leaves a lot of interesting questions unanswered and sort of shies away from what feels like the main point. Kind of blah. 75. The Death I Gave Him by Em X Liu - A near future retelling of Hamlet, set in a research lab on lockdown. Felt a little bit that the parallels to Hamlet sapped some of the tension and intrigue that might otherwise be more present. Decent. Ben Nevis posted:1. Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo
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Dec 1, 2023 19:28
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I have read 69 books this year, OP
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Dec 2, 2023 11:26
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A human heart posted:I have read 69 books this year, OP  Books read in November - 4 Not much to say this month other than I completed The Year of Brandon Sanderson books. I'm glad I dived into the kickstarter despite never having read any of his books before. All I need to complete the booklord is the author with a similar name challenge 38 - Nova by Samuel R Delany - The first full novel I've read from Sam Delany. A space opera involving captain Lorq Von Ray's search for a supernova so he can gather a load of Illyrion (an ultra rare material used as the main power source of everything). It's a universe of cyborgs, tarot cards and high technology. I loved it and would highly recommend it. 39 - The Sunlit Man by Brandon Sanderson - Book 4 of YoS and possibly my joint second favourite of them (next to Tress). Possibly the first one where it would have helped to have read others in the Cosmere series as it deals with more returning characters and magic systems but it explained everything well enough that I wasn't really lost. 40 - One of Our Thursdays is Missing by Jasper Fforde - A goon sent me the first one in this series and I've enjoyed going through the series over the years. This is my "book about books" as the book (and series in general) is set in the Bookworld where the characters of all books live in order to act out the parts so you can read them. In this one Thursday Next is missing so Thursday Next (the written counterpart) ends up on a quest to try and find her. It's weird, imaginative, I still don't quite understand how the universe is supposed to work but it is a fun read. 41 - Jojo's Bizzare Adventure Part 3 Vol 3 by Hirohiko Araki - This adventure is pretty bizzare. The crew head across India on the way to Egypt and fight more of Dio's minions. Joseph uses Hammon and I can't remember if he ever does it again. Silly fun! 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. - 41/35 (complete) 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. - 12/9 (complete) 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of color. - 9/9 (complete) 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 8% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. - 4/3 (complete) 5. Read something that is not a novel (i.e. a play, a poetry collection, a comic/manga, etc.) - 6 (complete) 6. Borrow something to read (from a friend, a loved one, a library, etc.) - 2 (complete) 7. Lend or recommend a book to someone (tell the thread what you lended/recommended!) - Berserk Deluxe Vol. 1 (complete) 8. Read something over 400 pages - 3 (complete) 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 - 6 (complete) 11. Read something that someone you know HATES - Death of a Salesman (complete) 12. Read something about books - One of Our Thursdays is Missing (complete) 13. Ask the thread for a Wildcard - Lathe of Heaven (complete) 14. Read a book published the year you turned 23 years old - Smoke and Mirrors (complete)
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Dec 2, 2023 12:02
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6. Saga vol 1 by Vaughan and Staples Pretty good. Been meaning to dig into this, had it on the to-read pile forever. I'll say not everything has connected for me the way it's intended, like splash pages I know are supposed to be big moments etc. Some of the dialogue doesn't quite hit for me, and some plot beats, stuff like that, but overall I like it and am interested enough to stick with it. I notice it's one of the most read comics in these booklord threads too. 7. Saga vol 2 by Vaughan and Staples Still kind of cool, still not quite making it to a new favorite. But I like it, and could see myself getting more into it as it goes. I'll say in chapter 10 it was the first time I was moved by a couple of those big beats, in earlier issues it felt like they were throwing them at us almost by habit, even if we didn't have time or space for it to mean much yet etc. At least for me. It hits the ground running as you do, I'm just still not super impressed with some of the stops we've hit along the way. But I am a bit invested in the main crew, and it's solid enough to keep me with it and see where it goes.
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Dec 4, 2023 05:09
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Whew, got sick at the beginning of the month so this is a little later than I planned. I finished 6 books in November. Ended up hopping between a bunch of different stuff the past few months and I'm hoping I can sort of wrap up some ongoing reads during December. No real stinkers this month, which was nice! I also broke 100 which, wow. Was not expecting to at the start of the year! 97. The Route of Ice and Salt by José Luis Zárate This is a work in translation that was originally published in Mexico in 1998. This is an EXTREMELY horny and EXTREMELY gay spinoff of just the voyage of the Demeter part of Dracula, told from the ship's very horny and very repressed captain. When Dracula finally does show up, he's definitely in nasty Nosferatu-style so it's not a traditional sexy-vampire sort of horny. It gets really gnarly in some parts, but it's beautifully written/translated and I'm glad it's finally getting a wider audience. 98. Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice This is an apocalypse narrative, with the twist that it's set in a remote Anishinaabe community in Canada, who don't really realize anything has happened (besides the TV and internet being out) for a pretty long time. Highly recommend it if you're looking for something different in an 'end-of-the-world' narrative, and one that actually thinks through what survival as part of a community might look like. 99. The Seep by Chana Porter Another sort of 'end-of-the-world' that isn't really. In the recent past (I think?) a sort of symbiotic alien has 'invaded' earth, but they're actually super chill and just want to make humans happy. The problem is the aliens have a lot of learning to do in that regard. This reminded me a lot of some of the 70s New Wave sci fi I've read (not that I've read a ton). There's a bit of depth, but it's mostly pretty breezy and has a lot of fun, strange vignettes. 100. Spear by Nicola Griffith This is an Arthurian retelling about one of the main but still slightly less major knights of the round table, except that she's a girl and has some very powerful relatives without realizing it. I think I'd say most of my knowledge of Arthuriana is through cultural osmosis and a few movies at this point, but this was a fun and different approach. Plus it's a quick read, so the occasionally 'literary' style doesn't overstay its welcome. 101. Frozen in Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition by Owen Beattie and John Geiger Originally published in 1987 with some updates in the edition I read, this is about the scientific study that came up with the lead hypothesis for what happened to the lost Franklin Expedition. A lot of the first half or so details the earliest rescue and search attempts and what they found and it was wildly useful as a research tool for something I'm in the process of writing. Really engaging and informative and it definitely made me understand in and believe the lead hypothesis better than I had before. 102. The U.S. Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin by Elisha Kent Kane This was also research. It's a first-person account by a ship's surgeon on, like it says, a U.S. search expedition. Besides finding the graves and campsites at Beechey Island, this particular search didn't find a lot out about Franklin's fate. However, the details of life in the arctic, the horrors of having to overwinter, and tons of details about various wild optical effects that happen there were also fantastic to learn about. The biggest mark against it is the 1800s-style racism that creeps in now and then, especially whenever local Inuit people are described. PROMPTS 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge - 102/52 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. (~49/102) 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of color. (~32/102) 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 8% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. (~32/102) 5. Read something that is not a novel - The Madman's Gallery 6. Borrow something to read - Witch Hat Atelier #2 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 - The Gone World 14. Read a book published the year you turned 23 years old - Wool by Hugh Howey THEMES - Surreal - The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington - Adventure - Thin Air - Informational - The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England - Uplifting - Tragic - In Harm's Way - Seasonal - Leech (Winter was a very relevant plot point) - Scary - The Ghost Map - Comforting - Legends & Lattes - Celestial - The Blazing World - Chthonic - Hollow
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Dec 7, 2023 21:11
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OK with that out of the way, I should have done this sooner and kinda dropped the ball, but here is me putting a call out if anyone was eager to take a swing at running the thread next year. The offer is open! But I get that it's pretty late notice at this point, and I'm happy to make the OP for 2024 if there are no takers.
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Dec 7, 2023 21:18
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And that's all folks. Final update! 76. Touched by Walter Mosely - Sure, I'll read the new Mosely book. A man has a dream wherein he acquires powers and learns that humanity must be stopped from spreading, as we are inimical to the greater universal order. He's one of many tapped to keep this from happening. He encounters another chosen human with a far more violent methodology. Also, because it's Mosely, he also encounters systemic racism. Pretty solid little book. 77. Follow Me To The Ground by Sue Rainsford - Cthonic? I think so. A girl and her father are from the Ground, a somewhat magic entity at the edge of town. They work out there healing people. And being somewhat eternal, there's maybe some conflict with townspeople. This was really interesting. I think it could have been more. 78. Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald - According to Book Riot a top 25 hated book. I also distinctly remember disliking this in highschool. So yeah, Gatsby's a weird incel who tries to steal a racist's wife. I like it better than I recall. I'm not sure why it's a great American novel. As to the recent assertion that Gatsby is a white-passing Black man? Just from reading knowing nothing about the author, it strikes me as possible. 79. Bookshops and Bonedust by Travis Baldree - My treat for finishing Gatsby. It's great. 80. Shadow Speaker by Nnedi Okorafor - New Okorafor. A post apocalyptic world where a "green" bomb wound up linking parts of the world with other worlds giving people strange abilities, like our heroine who can speak to shadows. The old misogynistic, racist, violent ways start to reassert themselves in the world and across worlds and our heroine has to help out a diplomatic mission. This was OK. Not bad, reminded me of Binti, but less succinct. 81. Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman - Set in France in the 14th century, Thomas is a disgraced knight travelling with brigands. Pere Matthieu is an alcoholic priest. They wind up travelling with an otherworldly young girl, trying to escort her to Avignon through the plague ravaged countryside. Historical fantasy, horror and more. This is a pretty unique book and was a really good way to end the old year. Ben Nevis posted:1. Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo
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Jan 1, 2024 19:24
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I did not finish reading The Ministry for the Future.
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Jan 1, 2024 19:36
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IT'S OVER! Gertrude Perkins posted:1 - My Sister, The Serial Killer, by Oyinkan Braithwaite Well, I got into a bit of a frenzy working 14-hour days and taking a lot of trains and planes, and in November and December I finished twenty-eight books. Bloody hell. 72 - Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace. An interminable slog that's also extremely engrossing, miserable, hilarious, and other superlatives. I've seen this described as "a novel that doesn't want you to read it" and that feels only partially true - it's a thousand-page shaggy dog story where entire chapters could be irrelevant ephemera or they could be deeply enmeshed in the characters' lives and circumstances. It is also a very 90s book, drenched in contemporary satire and half-prescient, half-ridiculous predictions for the early 21st Century. It's one of its weaknesses, too, with tiresome fixations on frivolous activism, or on physical deformity for shock and comedy value. There are sequences that are legendary - the Eschaton game, the addict monologues, the Train Game - that others have written much more intelligently about, but every part of this book has something interesting going on even when it's like wading through word-mud. This is also a very American novel, steeped in "new world order" hegemony, corporate media saturation, prescription and non-prescription medications, and the uneasy pride of a bloated and rapacious new empire. I think this is echoed in the recurring themes of isolation and inability to communicate, figuratively and literally. So many conversations happen between characters talking past each other in a kind of monologue-brinksmanship that DFW pulls off really well - with the "brink" being admitting one's true feelings or expressing true affection or fear or intent. There are so many character moments and emotional states which feel visceral and true-to-life, and at the same time the cast is full of caricatures and oddballs who have a fifty-fifty chance of being important or being utterly inconsequential. This book is so bloody long and exhausting and I can't recommend it to anyone but also it was an experience I am very glad for. My copy almost fell in half from how much wear and tear it sustained during the three solid weeks I spent reading. I look forward to donating my copy and cursing someone else. 73 - This Much Is True, by Miriam Margolyes. A wonderful, uproarious autobiography - I listened to the audiobook and Margolyes is an absolute joy to listen to. She doesn't pull any punches, and doesn't hold back from describing the extremes and anomalous sexual encounters she's had over a long and story-filled life. She also doesn't shy away from harsher topics - family health struggles, bigotry, and her own self-image. I really, really enjoyed this, and I recommend it to anyone, even if they're not familiar with her work. 74 - We Had To Remove This Post, by Hanna Bervoets (trans. by Emma Rault). A short novella about a woman who works in extreme content moderation for Not-Facebook. It's an office drama, kind of, and it shows the damage of being inundated with unfiltered horror, trauma and a total lack of support. And then the book kind of just ends, which is a shame, because it felt like it was going somewhere. 75 - Horse Destroys The Universe, by Cyriak Harris. I helped crowdfund this! It's a very silly science fiction novel about a horse being uplifted and gaining techno-omnipotence to reshape society. It's funny sometimes, and the increasing strangeness matches what I expected from "Cyriak wrote a book!", but I found myself getting impatient by the end. 76 - The Art of Being Normal, by Lisa Williamson. Sweet coming-of-age YA novel about two misfit teens in an English secondary school. There are class tensions, family drama, bullies, and a lot of trans stuff. It's a feel-good story with some bittersweet moments and a sense of hope, despite some clumsy handling of the subject matter (it's obvious this was written by someone who works with trans kids but isn't trans herself). It's the hopefulness that really dates the book. This came out in 2015, just before the brutal increase in transphobic rhetoric in the UK, and I can't imagine this book coming out today without some drastic changes. 77 - American War, by Omar El Akkad. Bleak and upsetting. Near-future refugees try to survive in the American South in the shadow of a second Civil War. El Akkad clearly brings a lot from his journalistic background into the narrative, to the point where it almost feels like a checklist of humanitarian miseries: massacres, drone warfare, torture, PTSD, radicalisation. The story is punctuated with contemporary documents to help fill out the sociopolitical details of the setting, which works. However, one conspicuous absence from the story was race - it seems far-fetched that even sixty years from now, in a secessionist South, that's not a factor in people's lives. Still, a solid novel and one that deserves its accolades. 78 - Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, by Robin Wall Kimmerer. The audiobook, read by Kimmerer herself, is highly recommended. A story about rediscovering and reclaiming her lost indigenous heritage, and reconciling that heritage with her study and career in science as a field biologist. She fills the book with stories, from her life and from traditional Potawatamee folklore, to show how "the human and more-than-human" can coexist sustainably and respectfully. This she contrasts with how settler colonialism and Western ideas of science and industry encourage us from an early age to see the natural world as separate from, and subordinate to, the human world. It's a book about education of all kinds, and I found it really affecting. 79 - Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie. Military-political space opera of colonialism, distributed identities, artificial intelligence and desperate survival. I can see why this was such a hit when it came out, it's exciting and tense while richly fleshing out the cultures and settings along the way. Leckie sticks the landing with the protagonist's complicated first-person narrative and it's just a good time. Devoured this in three days. 80 - The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, by John Le Carré. A drat good espionage novel, drenched in bitter cynicism and dread. Le Carré writes with a superb economy, telling the reader just enough to strike hard with each new detail. The ending in particular hit me with a particular power. The edition I read included supplemental materials and an afterword by Le Carré written fifty years after publication, which was a good and bleak way to cap off the experience. 81 - Cycle of the Werewolf, by Stephen King and Bernie Wrightson. My first Stephen King! Wow! And it's a good one, a spooky woorwilf story told in monthly vignettes. A lot of stuff about the darkness underlying small-town Americana. Some really great illustrations too, vivid and exciting. I liked it a lot! 82 - Gideon The Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir. I was afraid I might hate this, because of its reputation as "annoying" or "tumblr" or "millennial" etc. And all of those things are true - Muir draws heavily from everything from Homestuck (there's a Karkat-type, there's a Vriska-type, etc) to Warhammer 40,000 to shounen anime. But she produced a really solid, fun, strange, and surprising mystery novel about necromancers, courtly intrigue, betrayal, deception, and some heavy-yearning-level sapphism. The title character is insufferable and also grew on me immensely by the end, and the dialogue is a bizarre anachronistic melange of Hussie-esque quirks and idiosyncracies that I came to find very endearing. I've heard the sequels go to some much more tangled places, too. 83 - The Mysterious Study of Dr. Sex, by Tamsyn Muir. Side-story set before the events of Gideon, this is a fun, silly necromantic mystery caper. Fleshes out some more details about the setting and two of the more fun characters from the main novel, and has a satisfying resolution. 84 - Deflowered: My Life In Pansy Division, by Jon Ginoli. As a big Pansy Division fan I was excited to listen to this (though Ginoli doesn't quite have the presence as an audiobook narrator you'd hope for). Focused closely on his music career, this tracks his pleasant upbringing and introduction to punk music through Pansy Division's formation, rise and gentle dwindling success. There's a frustrating that comes through in Ginoli's writing, partly due to the cynical-Gen-X-gay position he's writing from but also the understandable anger at the trials and tribulations of trying to make it as an indie rock band in the 1990s-2000s music industry. There are lots of fun behind-the-scenes tidbits, and no punches pulled as to other musicians he likes and dislikes (with a particular hatred for Bon Jovi, Limp Bizkit and Blink-182). It's been 15 years since this came out and I saw them play a small club just a couple of months ago. I'd be happy to read a follow-up about the journey he and PD have been on in the 21st century. 85 - Bullshit Jobs: A Theory, by David Graeber. Shouldn't have read this while in the process of trying to find a job myself. This definitely felt like "this was an article but then I got so much feedback it turned into a book", but it comes together into an urgent call to change things for the better - while we still can. It seems to have come from a place of yearning and deep despair, with the philosophy and psychology and morality and economics all stacking up into a diagnosis of a horrible, horrible status quo. Graeber remains a top-notch polemicist, though this still has some issues that kept me from enjoying it fully. There are long run-on sentences, a rambling style and a tendency to repeat himself as he builds up his arguments. But by the end he's firing on all cylinders and it left me wanting to throw this book at certain people in my life. 86 - This One Summer, by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki. Absolutely beautiful artwork that evoked a nostalgia in me for the kind of childhood summer I never had. Two teenage girls navigate family tensions and eavesdrop on some local drama while their own friendship hits a rough patch. The writing is perfect, capturing so many small emotional details and frustrations; the imagery only makes it hit harder. A fantastic graphic novel that I'd recommend to anyone. 87 - A Canticle For Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller Jr. I don't do well with post-apocalypse stories, but this worked really well for me, at least for the first two thirds. The religiosity of the protagonists and the new primitivism of the ruined world I found touching, even when circumstances are unremittingly bleak. This is not a feel-good book, and even knowing that I was shocked by how blunt and cruel some of the events are. The way it ends...I'm not sure about. Hopeful, but desolate. I'm being vague. It's a good book. 88 - The Merlin Conspiracy, by Diana Wynne Jones. A strange decision to follow up a general-audience fun fantasy romp with an explicitly middle-grade one, but this isn't bad at all. A lot of this feels like it's responding to the H*rry P*tter phenomenon, and Jones does much more interesting things with the ideas of magic and destiny, but it all feels too light for the stakes we're shown. There are some great scenes and fun characters but the central plot - especially the antagonist(s) - were pretty uninteresting to me. I enjoyed much more the smaller moments and seemingly inconsequential encounters that fleshed out the worlds and characters. It's a shame Jones (as far as I know) never wrote more in this setting. 89 - Une Semaine de Bonté, by Max Ernst. A surrealist collage-novel made up of cut-and-pasted illustrations from lurid crime tabloids, naturalist and medical drawings, grouped by seven "elements" into evocative if narratively vague vignettes. People with the heads of lions or birds are ensconced in dangerous and violent passions, women sleep fitfully surrounded by rolling seas, and plant-skeletons pose as "visible poems". This is a cool book to just sit and gaze at for a while, noticing the strange details and putting together your own interpretations. Surrealism a-go-go. 90 - Bark, by Lorrie Moore. Short story collection that I often found really moving. There are a lot of strained, failing and doomed relationships, and conversations that leave every participant feeling worse. A wistfulness permeates every one of the stories, which mutes the comedic moments but amplifies the darker and more desperate ones. I liked these, and will definitely read moore. 91 - Gregory Horror Show: Another World, by Sanami Suzuki & Naomi Iwata. Adaptation/spinoff of the weird animated short series. Horror-comedy with a great, weird style, and a plot that serves only to justify why the protagonist is being hosed with by each member of the Gregory House. It's a fun little collection of spooky, over-the-top vignettes, and the art really sells the surreality of it all. 92 - Don't Let The Goats Eat The Loquat Trees: Adventures of a Surgeon in Nepal, by Thomas Hale. Hale's account of being a missionary doctor in rural Nepal is a weird and difficult read that made me regularly immensely frustrated. In part this is a cliché-ridden story of highly-educated white doctors clashing with superstitious and dangerous Asian locals, even though Hale mentions more than once his reluctance to be paternalistic or condescending. This is also a medical drama, with high stakes, hard work and terrible tragedy interwoven with miraculous success. Some of the most interesting parts of this were just him describing the everyday travails of running a tiny mission hospital in an inhospitable and remote part of the world, low on supplies and money and space. The third and most inescapable part of the book, unfortunately, is the religiosity. Hale is a devout born-again Christian whose unwavering faith leads to some deeply uncomfortable passages and infuriating rhetoric. (No, God did not "send you" the dying orphan child to teach you something about life, the child came to you because your job is to stop people from dying!). It's the worst part of the book, even though it's also the point of the book, as Hale's audience is presumably other Christians and (potential) missionaries. Still, this was an educational read, and a window into the life and mind and experiences of someone completely different from myself. 93 - Harrow the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir. It's certainly different from Gideon. Hard to follow, deliberately obtuse and frustrating, until everything clicks into place. Or, it should have done. I don't like re-reading books but I may have to to make sure I didn't miss anything. Muir is much more confident here, weaving a tangled soap opera around a load-bearing tangle of mysteries. There are even more egregious relics of a too-online author, but as with the first book I can't make myself dislike it. I'm primed for this post-Hussiean self-indulgent bullshit, and I will be reading this series and its supplemental materials until the finale. 94 - Coraline, by Neil Gaiman. I know the film intimately but had never got round to reading the book until now. It's good, atmospheric and frightening and doing a lot with a very small setting and cast. I was surprised how much was added for the film, actually. There are plenty of Gaiman staples here too - I liked the enigmatic cat and the eerie transformations of the other house and its inhabitants. 95 - A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens. I've never read a full Dickens before. This is just lovely, and everything I hoped it would be. 96 - Goodbye, Eri, by Tatsuki Fujimoto. Meditative, sad and beautiful manga about a troubled teenage boy who films every moment of his life. His relationship with his mother, and then an unlikely friend, are picked out mostly in silent montage, and Fujimoto uses the camera frame to play with the passage of time. And there are twists, surprises, denied catharsis...and that ending! drat! 97 - Geek Love, by Katherine Dunn. Well poo poo, I can see why this is considered a cult novel, literally and figuratively. A sad, mean, dense novel of carnival counterculture, disability and disfigurement. Dunn makes sure the reader spends long enough with each character that their abnormal or abject bodies are intertwined with their personality traits, the facts of one inextricable from the facts of the other. I was constantly surprised by the paths the plot took, and each new darker turn has a grim inevitabilty to it. This book is carnivalesque not just in its setting but in its raucous inversions of norms, and one of the most interesting things is which structures remain intact: hierarchies of power and influence, in-groups and out-groups and the ways those boundaries are policed. It's a lot more thoughtful than the premise had led me to expect. It's also extreme, strange, and often difficult to stomach. An acquired taste. 98 - War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells. First re-read since I was about ten. It's bloody good, and the David Tennant-read audiobook is super. For all the spectacle and the iconic images of the Tripods, the Thunderchild, the red weeds, the story is mostly a desperate account of terror, survival and dumb luck. I had forgotten how much thought Wells put into the Martians themselves - their anatomy, evolution, hints at their culture and origins. It's just a drat good and scary book. Let's see what that's done to the end-of-year Booklord Challenge... THEMES - Surreal - 3, 10, 19, 38, 54, 58, 60, 67, 70, 75, 89, 91 - Adventure - 14, 20, 29, 36, 39, 44, 56, 57, 58, 60, 70, 82, 83, 88, 93 - Informational - 8, 9, 12, 28, 30, 31, 43, 51, 65, 69, 72, 78, 84, 85, 92 - Uplifting - 24, 34, 37, 43, 51, 62, 66, 70, 73, 78, 82, 95 - Tragic - 5, 10, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 30, 55, 57, 58, 59, 63, 67, 69, 71, 72, 77, 78, 80, 87, 90, 96, 97 - Seasonal - 52, 59, 78, 81, 86 - Scary - 13, 28, 30, 40, 50, 52, 54, 57, 61, 68, 70, 71, 72, 81, 91, 94, 98 - Comforting - 22, 24, 28, 34, 37, 62, 73, 82, 95 - Celestial - 10, 32, 52, 54, 58, 62, 66, 93 - Chthonic - 20, 52, 54, 67, 70, 71, 82 Booklord COMPLETE. And some final stats... Comic/art books read: 16 Comic pages read: ~4,052 Non-comic books read: 72 Non-comic pages read: ~24,655 Average pages/book (non-comic): ~342 Total books read: 98 Total pages read: ~28,707 Average book length: ~293 pages Average ~79 pages/day A huge amount of reading, and a lot of very long books. This year has been bloody exhausting but at least I got to read a lot of great things. Thank you again DurianGray for being our eminent Booklord! See you folks in the next one...!
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Jan 1, 2024 20:17
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