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Sham bam bamina! posted:Just finished proofreading a cool book about these people, which involved reading it. Crimean karate? That's just silly
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Mar 15, 2020 12:10
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Pere Goriot, by Balzac. Interesting to read because it contrasted in its priorities so much with Stendhal's Red and the Black, though covering the same historical territory of Parisian balls, social climbers and opera visits. Balzac is much less concerned with politics and is nowhere near as enamored with romance or sentiment. One thing that stood out to me is the seemingly complete lack of stigma towards marital infidelity. FPyat fucked around with this message at 03:09 on Mar 19, 2020 |
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Mar 17, 2020 01:03
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FPyat posted:Pere Goriot, by Balzac. Interesting to read because it contrasted in its priorities so much with Stendhal's Red and the Black, though covering the same historical territory of Parisian balls, social climbers and opera visits. Balzac is much less concerned with politics and is nowhere near as enamored with romance or sentiment. For Balzac nothing existed but money and loving, and all social conventions are just speed bumps for the irresistible march of each
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Mar 19, 2020 21:41
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The Jordan Rules by Sam Smith. A chronicle of the Chicago Bulls' 1991 season, and their first NBA title. Turns out, being obsessively competitive doesn't necessarily make you the coolest person to be around. Michael Jordan didn't do anything uniquely awful, but I can also see why he was generally unhappy with the release of this book. Unlike some of the other books about basketball I've read this year, this one felt like kind of a slog. The friend that recommended it had a different experience, saying he read thoroughly enjoyed reading it cover-to-cover.
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Mar 20, 2020 11:03
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Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton. It was recommended to me as a book that really captures the local details of growing up in Australia, particularly Brisbane where I currently live. It definitely doesn't skimp on the details. In fact, part of the actual plot is how the young narrator uses details and simile to aid his memory, and sometimes overdoes it getting too flowery. It could feel pretentious sometimes, in the beginning most of all. It also leans on some tropes I don't like too much, but these drawbacks were never enough to make me consider putting it down. Especially not once the main plot kicks into gear and things start getting exciting. In the end the story worked out a bit too nice and neat for my tastes, but I did enjoy the journey along the way. What I appreciated most of all wasn't all the detailed trappings about local Australian life for their own sake, but the overall picture and feeling of bogan poverty they evoked. I'd recommend it to anyone who's a sucker for coming-of-age stories, or anyone who wants to read something set in Australia.
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Mar 22, 2020 21:50
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Mindf*ck by Christopher Wylie, ISBN 978-1-9848-5463-6. Didn't really enjoy this book. The book leaf notes in Mindf*ck presented it as a history of Cambridge Analytica by one of the founding employees of it, but instead Mindf*ck came across more as a self-serving after the fact justification memoir. Mainly because despite claiming to have "burnt out on politics as a teenager" the author's entire work history, as presented in Mindf*ck was exclusively political polling firms, global political lobbyist firms, and as a data-mining specialist contractor for Canadian + UK political parties.
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Mar 25, 2020 04:16
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Recursion by Blake Crouch. Really fun time travel sci fi. Its time travel mechanism is similar to Primer, but much less confusing. Mostly because the author just doesn't spend any time with his characters dwelling on the mindfuckery of time travel. There's a love/obsession story, nukes, billionaires being irresponsible, I recommend it.
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Mar 26, 2020 16:55
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Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart. A really comforting and cozy read that is like The Princess Bride if it was set in ancient fantasy China.
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Mar 27, 2020 03:16
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PsychedelicWarlord posted:Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart. A really comforting and cozy read that is like The Princess Bride if it was set in ancient fantasy China. An awesome series of books. Always felt they didn't get their due.
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Mar 27, 2020 14:43
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nonathlon posted:An awesome series of books. Always felt they didn't get their due. So is it worth continuing the series or does the premise get tired? I'm pretty happy with where the first one ended but could easily read more.
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Mar 27, 2020 23:39
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You don't have to read further - where the story ends with each is s fine stopping point. Read on if you want more of the same.
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Mar 28, 2020 00:34
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Moby Dick, finally. Tremendous; enjoyed it cover to cover
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Mar 28, 2020 20:11
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The Metamorphoses by Ovid, as translated by David R. Slavitt is a verse account of many incidents in Greek mythology arranged in a chronological narrative. It was fun sorting out the stories, between ones I recognized from learning them as a kid and the ones too sexually explicit for children. Slavitt's translation is mostly fine; I noticed a phrase here and there that seemed a bit laconic for a project like this, but I appreciated their presence. The same can't be said of how he handled the story where Actaeon is turned into a stag and killed by his own hounds. Instead of using the original Greek names for the hounds, he replaced them with English equivalents and lists the original names in the book's only footnote anyway. It's a jarring moment that spoiled what would have otherwise been my favorite part of the poem. I definitely want to revisit this with other translations, though since my library doesn't want the book back due to quarantine, I might have to settle for the copy I've got.
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Mar 28, 2020 22:22
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I was a fan of finding out how many greek stories I learned as a kid that simply had the normalization of homosexuality removed Like Narcissus falling in love with his own reflection but the reflection made it look like he had long hair so he thought it was a girl
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Mar 28, 2020 23:02
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Let the atrocious images haunt us. I just finished "Regarding the Pain of Others" by Susan Sontag. Really loved it, I don't know why it took me this long to finally read it. No surprise it mentioned Guy Debord as it touches on loads of stuff related to the spectacle. If you're really into photography, journalism, war etc I can't recommenced it enough.
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Mar 29, 2020 14:01
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Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban. Gonna be thinking about this one a lot. One of the best books of its type I have read, probably second only to Engine Summer.
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Mar 29, 2020 20:56
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The Library at Mount Char, Scott Hawkins. I don't know what all the fuss was about, some of the dialogue was painfully juvenile.
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Mar 29, 2020 22:50
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The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. Every problem in the story gets solved within a few paragraphs so that the author can go back to showing her characters being vomit-inducingly nice to each other. A shame, because when stuff does happen it can build up a good pace. People who like cosy stories or BioWare games might get a kick out of the book.FPyat posted:The Library at Mount Char, Scott Hawkins. I don't know what all the fuss was about, some of the dialogue was painfully juvenile. Lol I read the sample of this ages ago and it looked like it had been extracted from a teenager’s webcomic. A character who’s always covered in bloooood and wears a tutu ahhh so spooky and random!!!
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Mar 29, 2020 23:21
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Prism Mirror Lens posted:The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. Every problem in the story gets solved within a few paragraphs so that the author can go back to showing her characters being vomit-inducingly nice to each other. A shame, because when stuff does happen it can build up a good pace. People who like cosy stories or BioWare games might get a kick out of the book. Yeah I hated that book as well.
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Mar 30, 2020 00:29
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Prism Mirror Lens posted:The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. Every problem in the story gets solved within a few paragraphs so that the author can go back to showing her characters being vomit-inducingly nice to each other. A shame, because when stuff does happen it can build up a good pace. People who like cosy stories or BioWare games might get a kick out of the book. A Close and Common Orbit has problems that don't go away in a chapter, which is one reason why I prefer that book to Long Way. The Library at Mount Char has huge problems, but I loved the premise, the accompanying existential dread, and where it progressed from there.
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Mar 30, 2020 17:01
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Let's Go Play At The Adams' by Mendal W. Johnson I first heard about this book in Grady Hendrix's "Paperbacks From Hell", where it was described as this ultra-extreme book from the 70s that people couldn't finish, and was only talked about in whispers. So, naturally, when I saw that it was being re-released, I had to jump on it. Boy, was I let down. I've never wanted to shout "oh GET ON with it!" at the bad guys in a book, as much as I did at the kids in this book. Maybe it's my internet-fueled desensitization talking, but LGPatA does NOT hold up, 4 decades later. Two stars only because it had a promising premise from the beginning, that devolved into boredom.
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Mar 30, 2020 20:35
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A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet has a lot of rough spots, read like a textbook example of someone’s first novel, and feels a lot more like a series of vignettes than a coherent story, but I tend to be pretty forgiving because A Closed and Common Orbit is one of my favorite novels ever. It’s just such a heartwarming story about found-families, lovable-hippies in space, and how maybe all of us weirdo outcasts might be able to find our niche in a vast and uncaring universe. What’s not to like? I’ve been on a tear recently reading public domain Victorian fiction (finally got around to reading Dracula, which stands up amazingly and is an all-around great novel, Carmilla, which is a little thick but has some interesting elements, and The Turn of the Screw, which, despite being super-short is also *really* dense and kind of frustrating. I kind of wonder if it Henry James specifically meant to make us readers hate his culture’s over-obsession with formality and never actually saying what you actually mean, or if hating it is just a consequence of reading the story). Then I read Treasure Island. Holy poo poo! That book is amazing! I knew a lot of the story through cultural osmosis and because I saw a movie or two based on it, but was not prepared for how much of a brisk adventure-story the book actually is. It’s way ahead of it’s time, and very refreshing. It feels like ninety percent of the things we think of as action/adventure clichés were invented in that book. Not to mention every cliché about pirates, the age of sail, and the golden age of piracy. If I had one of the first things I’d use it for would be to go back and ask Robert Lewis Stevenson how much of the terminology he used about sailing life and piracy was based on research and experience, and how much he just made up. Tracking down ‘Captain Charles Johnson’ and trying to figure out how much of his stuff was just bullshit that he made up would be fun too. Treasure Island also seems to be ground zero for the trope of the lovable villain, and also the concept of a villain being in hiding for the early part of a story, introduced in a way where you start out really liking him. I’m sure there are earlier examples, but drat, Long John Silver really quenches it. There’s also a great sense of underlying danger and menace throughout the whole book, in a way you don’t often see in kid stories/young adult fiction. You’re always made very aware that Jim Hawkins is this tween kid who’s just gotten plunged completely out of his depth, and all of the aging pirate characters that he encounters are *extremely* capable and dangerous men who could easily kill him if he wasn’t careful. So yeah. It’s a great and thrilling adventure story, and now I wish I’d read earlier.
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Mar 31, 2020 05:03
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The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs. This was a fantastic read of the true story of a man who grew up in a poor section of Newark, NJ and was brilliant and graduated from Yale with degrees molecular biophysics and biochemistry. The author was his college roommate and extensively looks at his life and achievements and relationships. From the title it's not a spoiler to say there is a sense of doom and it is sad, but highly recommended. Reporter by Seymour Hersh. Autobiography of an investigative journalist with a long career. Fascinating when he's roaming a huge army base to track down the culprit behind the My Lai massacre who is being hidden by authorities, or driving in the early morning in a Utah winter to drop in unexpectedly on a source. After the early 2000s gets much less interesting, including being weirdly defensive of Syrian leadership during the ongoing war. Stalling for Time: My Life as an FBI Hostage Negotiator by Gary Noesner. Lots of interesting stories from a FBI agent who was responsible for talking down hostage takers. I liked it, the author clearly cares about preserving human life and the best anecdotes are where the situation resolved with no loss of life, which is a nice break from similar books where the author thinks he's Rainbow Six. I didn't even know about a long standoff in Montana with the "Montana Freemen" that ended peaceably.
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Mar 31, 2020 16:13
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The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. I did not like this book very much, because it was tedious and felt weird just for the sake of being weird. One for the donation pile for sure.
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Mar 31, 2020 22:15
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The Readings of the Recluse Michael "Black Griffon" Lastname, in the month of our lord March of TwentyTwenty, Henceforth To Be Known as poo poo Month Well, it was a good month for reading, but a bad month for the world. I started off the month blazing through Infection, Contagion and Pandemic by Scott Sigler. I wanted hollywood action, and that's what I got. Occasionally, what you need more than anything else is cheap, gory bullshit, and Sigler is really good at crafting an engaging cheap, gory story. Infection starts off with the promise of eventually leading up to a pandemic (which I've dared to consider a non-spoiler, considering that's the title of the last book in the series. It has the feel of a directorial debut. A small cast of characters that's obviously part of a bigger whole, a local story with implications for something that needed a bigger budget, and a joy in writing that makes the work enjoyable in turn. Sigler's science-minded chapters about how the eponymous infection takes hold, interspersed with character chapters, give the book an interesting and easy dynamic. Of course, directorial debuts also carry the risk of dumb mistakes and poor craftsmanship. Where Sigler fails is in attempting to torture action out of misogyny and homophobia. As a horror aficionado, I appreciate the value of a good gore-fest and torture sequence, and I abhor a poor try at it. Like it or not, we're primed to react differently to a guy getting his eyes gouged out as opposed to a woman getting abused and fatshamed, ad Sigler doesn't really learn to tow the line until the third book. A full review of each book is not necessary. Sigler escalates and escalates, and each time he does it in a fun, grotesque and engaging way. When the infection is contagious, the larger apparatus of the american military gets involved, when the contagion is a pandemic, every weapon of both science and slaughter is brought out, and each and every escalation is a joy. Clancy-isms and zombie tropes mix in a dumb, wonderful cauldron of blood and pus, and despite my abject hatred of casual f-words and r-words and whatnot, I still enjoyed the books a whole lot (which is why I started reading infection March 1st. and finished Pandemic the 9th). Good poo poo, with caveats. After that came Murderbot #3 and #4 (Rogue Protocol and Exit Strategy) by Martha Wells. I was a big fan of the first two books, and I continue to be a fan of our beloved Murderbot. Wells mixes intrigue and conspiracy, the ruminations of a rampant AI (quasi AI? Who knows, really) and harrowing action in such a good way. Whether it's a hackathon with lethal consequences or the two second battles of massive machines being thrown against each other, it's such a wonderful contrast with the cold, strange but very human narration of the 'bot. Wells highlights the good and bad qualities of humanity through the lens of someone who is torn between resisting and embracing their humanity, and constantly confused by the whole mess. Rogue Protocol does feel a bit rote. At a few points while reading the book, I had the sensation of reading a filler episode of a TV-show, but it's still a good story. #4 dials it up a bunch, and in it, Wells crafts a story that's more interesting, and which feels like it relates to the overarching plot of the series in a better way. Good poo poo, continues to be so. I ended the month with Recursion by Blake Crouch (oh, dear reader, I lie, but if I said I read Recursion in between MrDrBt #3 and #4, as I did, it would make for a poorer narrative). I picked it up on a whim after it got posted as a kindle deal, and I'm always so very happy when a purchase like that turns out good. I'm a sucker for time travel, as I've mentioned before (though there's woefully little queer romance in Recursion, as compared to Time War), and Recursion is such an interesting take on the whole thing, enough that I'd like to plant a seed of doubt in the reader's mind and say outright that it's not necessarily even a time travel story in the eyes of some (though it is, though is it?). Recursion takes joy in exploring the toll of time on relationships, on the psyche and on the world. It's a moving, thrilling study in patience , loss and sorrow, and in the action of watching things unfold while being powerless to stop them. It's one of those books I cannot write too much about for fear of spoiling the details that makes it such a compelling tale. It feels like a very personal story, while being unimaginably big in scope, and I loved every minute of it. The best I can do is recommend it, as I do. Good poo poo. Now then, onto April, which I have preemptively dubbed rear end Month but in a Bad Way.
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Apr 1, 2020 00:29
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Just finished Dubliners . Wonderful collection of short stories that is very evocative. The people were real, the situations recognizable from life, which was comforting to me in this current time of displacement from the usual. It will be with me for a long time I think.
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Apr 2, 2020 07:40
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The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym by Edgar Allan Poe. Strange and inconsistent, but the ending sticks with me. Wouldn't be surprised if it influenced Lovecraft's Antarctic novel a hundred years later.
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Apr 3, 2020 02:57
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The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker is the source material for the Hellraiser movie. I got it for two bucks on sale, and that's about what I think it's worth. It seems like the kind of story that relies on a cool premise to carry the reader's interest, and that the movie version would be much more interesting. I'm going to keep reading the shortest works in my Kindle collection during the quarantine.
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Apr 3, 2020 15:57
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Bilirubin posted:Just finished Dubliners . Wonderful collection of short stories that is very evocative. The people were real, the situations recognizable from life, which was comforting to me in this current time of displacement from the usual. It will be with me for a long time I think. Yeah, I read it a few years ago and any mention of the book brings back the story Clay, that one really stayed with me. For my own part, just finished Winter in Sokcho, which says a lot in a short space. I liked the way the book conveyed the worries that the character herself couldn't really confront.
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Apr 4, 2020 14:02
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I felt like writing so here's what I've read this year so far. The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick: This is such middle-of-the-road PKD I can barely even remember what happens in it at this point. It’s still better than most SF. Diary of a Dead Man on Leave by David Downing: Despite being a little fluffier than I prefer, this is a really solid little WWII spy novel told in journal format. It makes me think I’ve been neglecting the genre at large. Andy Catlett: Early Travels by Wendell Berry: This is a nice little novelette about pastoral life through the eyes of a young boy as he visits his grandparents. It’s neither as deep, heavy, nor good as some other Berry I’ve read, in particular A Place on Earth, but he’s a hell of a writer so I ain’t complaining. Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth by Sarah Smarsh: I think this book has a lot of good points about how little is understood about the lifestyles, livelihoods, hopes, and struggles of folks in rural communities in America. On a literary level it’s decent but far from prose I’d save for a rainy day. The Stench of Honolulu by Jack Handey: Really was not into this; I think I’d just prefer a book of jokes compared to this paper-thin thread of narrative tying them all together. Handey is undoubtedly a master of whatever you’d call his craft. Murder and Mayhem: The War of Reconstruction in Texas by James M. Smallwood: This is essentially a history of Klan violence in North Texas after the Civil War, revising what has long been framed in the area as a family feud between noble ex-Confederates and bastard carpetbagging Union soldiers. I was curious about it because I had basically read the Lost Cause version of the story in the book Murder at the Corners, and I figured there had to be more to it. What I discovered was kind of a gut punch; humans can be so drat horrible, man. This guy Bob Lee, who had been touted in the area for so long as a champion of state’s rights, was not only a murderous klansman, but also a bandit and a valor thief. The writing was interminably academic. So Far from Heaven by Richard Bradford: This is sort of a lost gem of New Mexican literature. The author’s first book, Red Sky at Morning, had some notable success back in the 70s, and his followup just fell off the map. It’s so specifically regional that I wonder if someone not from here would appreciate it, but it does a wonderful job of satirizing all the state’s weirdness, from useless politicians to smalltime domestic terrorism. The Big Sky by A.B. Guthrie: A classic of the Western genre that just didn’t grab me at all. It’s got the darkness and cynicism of Cormac McCarthy but none of the poetic flair. Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman: This was a welcome reprieve in tone at the onset of social distancing. It’s humorous, kinetic, and emotionally moving. The Stars Around Us edited by Robert Hoskins: Overall this is a mediocre SF short story collection. The standouts aren’t surprises. “Fondly Fahrenheit” by Alfred Best is majestically deranged and understandably a classic. “The Feeling of Power” by Isaac Asimov is a minor miracle, so tightly composed.
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Apr 4, 2020 16:43
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Black Swan Green by David Mitchell I am a big fan of Mitchell's, but this was probably my least favorite of his novels. Its still a very good autobiographical account of his time as a young teenager dealing with how he overcame bullying, his stutter, his parents divorce and ultimately his self consciousness of becoming a writer. It does not contain any of the usual storytelling quirks present in all of his other novels, so I would actually recommend it as a good place to start with Mitchell. Im thinking of starting The Expanse series of novels now after watching the show. TommyGun85 fucked around with this message at 18:02 on Apr 4, 2020 |
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Apr 4, 2020 17:41
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The Infusorium by Jon Padgett. Best thing about it was the blurb on the back by Ligotti. Kind of a noir dective story about a smog covered town and an old paper mill in the center of a park in which were discovered strange heavy black altered skeletons. A mysterious librarian. A cult of policemen. I mean it was half an hour's read so good enough for that but wasn't terribly compelling even for my lower horror genre standards.
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Apr 4, 2020 22:52
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Heavy_D posted:Yeah, I read it a few years ago and any mention of the book brings back the story Clay, that one really stayed with me. I liked Clay. Well I liked pretty much them all. A Sad Case is my standout (other than The Dead which was just  )
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Apr 5, 2020 00:37
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TommyGun85 posted:Im thinking of starting The Expanse series of novels now after watching the show. as someone who enjoys the show, I do not recommend this, the books are really not very good, unless you're purely looking for popcorn reads to tune out to. even then you'll probably finish them wondering why you just read a 600 page book with maybe 150 pages worth of plot and (barely any) character development. it works muuuuch better as a tv show.
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Apr 5, 2020 06:54
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my bony fealty posted:as someone who enjoys the show, I do not recommend this, the books are really not very good, unless you're purely looking for popcorn reads to tune out to. even then you'll probably finish them wondering why you just read a 600 page book with maybe 150 pages worth of plot and (barely any) character development. The opposite is actually the case.
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Apr 5, 2020 07:34
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I enjoyed The Expanse books quite a lot
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Apr 5, 2020 07:47
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I'm thinking of not reading the books or watching the show.
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Apr 5, 2020 08:03
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Sham bam bamina! posted:I'm thinking of not reading the books or watching the show. There are a lot of goons who prefer the TV show, and several like me who prefer the books, so Tommygun85 might go either way. Milkfred E Moore has been doing an excellent thread in TBB which covers both, too. I think that thread is still on the first book.
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Apr 5, 2020 13:49
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Ive started Book 1 already and so far its not...awful. I didnt start this series expecting proper literature, but I did enjoy the show and I guess just want to see where the story goes without having to wait 9 years. I'll also be reading some other books concurrently. I'm thinking Accessory to War by Neil de Grasse Tyson
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Apr 5, 2020 14:18
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I really enjoy the expanse books fwiw. It's quick and easy sci-fi, but it's fun, engaging and you grow to love a lot of the characters.
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Apr 5, 2020 20:34
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