|
Tzen posted:Name: Tzen 4. The Drifting Classroom, Vol. 1 by Kazuo Umezz - 4/5 5. 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami - 5/5
|
#
?
Apr 22, 2023 07:34
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 20, 2024 00:10 |
|
|
April I don't think that I'm going to finish anything else between now and Monday. By the middle of the month I remember thinking "wow, I've done shockingly little reading this month!" However, I'm in school, work full-time, and am studying logic outside of the reading challenge. So, my reading is split between all of these things. 1. Diary of a Void 8/10 2. An Ocean of Minutes 8/10 3. The Maid 8/10 4. Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mothers Will to Survive 4/10 5. Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents 6.5/10 6. Stress, Health, & Well-Being: Thriving in the 21st Century 6.5/10 7. Psychology: From Inquiry to Understanding 4/10 Diary of a Void (1) was really sad but so well written. It didn't linger and left a lot unsaid. This was translated from Japanese to English. An Ocean of Minutes (2) was also so great. At first I thought of it as a time travel book. Then, I read a review that conceptualized it differently. As a book about the immigrant experience and wage slavery. I caught that vibe through the book, obviously, but never conceptualized the whole book that way. The Maid (3) was so amazing. The audiobook was narrated in a way that brought the character to life so perfectly. Maid (4) was... not so great. Stephanie Land just... isn't a great writer despite everyone wanting her to be. I know that the point of the book is to tell her story and maybe a better editor could have helped her to do that in a way that made her more sympathetic? I understand the many intersectional aspects to Land's story, but despite this, I never really felt for her. I grew up in domestic violence and lived 37 years as a traumatized person who made... objectively bad decisions. I get that you don't see clearly when you have trauma brain. Still, I could not even begin to understand most of her choices. For example, at one point she discusses finally throwing out baby clothes after realizing that she wasn't going to have a baby with her abusive partner, with whom she can barely afford her current child. Uh. I understand that her choices were limited in SO MANY WAYS and still never really understood what she was choosing over what she wasn't. But. I am not her and don't have to! The last three were non-fiction and the last two were textbooks. I closed them in April, although I didn't start them in April. Here they are. Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents is an amazing resource. However, I lost steam on it about halfway through. I started it in January and put it down with about 1/4 to go. Then picked it up again and put it down with less than a chapter remaining. I finally powered through while taking apart my bed frame last night. As mentioned above, I grew up in a DV household with parents who were emotionally immature (EI) in wildly different ways. I did 18 months of trauma therapy to heal from all that and it was great! It lay the groundwork for emotional availability (EA) and maturity because I felt safe connecting with people and being around their feelings. This book provided a clear framework for what emotional availability (EA) and emotional unavailability (EUA) are but by the time I read it it wasn't super necessary and I felt that it was kinda repetitive. As a result, it became boring - I already had a bottom-up understanding of what she lay out. That being said, the book is clear and filled in some gaps. It also gave me language for some things instead of just an abstract idea or sense. Stress, Health, & Well-Being: Thriving in the 21st Century this textbook was pretty good. I did appreciate that Harrington used sophisticated language instead of treating his readers like children (in fairness, undergrads are 18 so...) Psychology: From Inquiry to Understanding this textbook was ridiculous, long-winded, and did treat its readers like children (again, 18 years old so..) The authors were also really conservative and simply did not discuss any controversies or controversial topics. However, it's used in introductory courses so that was likely a conscious decision. 1. 24/52 2. Not Written by Men: 66% 3. Writer of Colour: 33% 4. LGBTQA+: unknown 5. Read something that is not a novel - complete 6. Borrow something to read - complete 7. Lend or recommend a book to someone - complete. 8. Read something over 400 pages - complete 9. Read something by an author with the same or similar name as you 10. Read a work in translation - complete 11. Read something that someone you know HATES 12. Read something about books - complete 13. Ask the thread for a Wildcard 14. Read a book published the year you turned 13/23 years old luscious fucked around with this message at 17:08 on Apr 27, 2023 |
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2023 17:04
|
|
|
Hey Folks, The year so far: The King of Attolia | Megan Whalen Turner Honestly, I’m not sure I have anything super intelligent to say about this series. With the exception of the second one (A Conspiracy of Kings) I enjoyed them. Its a fun concept I guess but me finishing it is probably more to do with my inability to give up a series than a statement about its quality. A Conspiracy of Kings | Megan Whalen Turner Thick as Thieves | Megan Whalen Turner Jade Legacy | Fonda Lee I started reading this series last year, but it took awhile for the last of them to come off hold at my local library. The series as a whole is a fun (if occasionally hyper-violent) look into the inner workings of a crime family in a world where access to something akin to magic is gated through the ability to use “Bioreactive Jade.” The overarching story is equal parts about how the family deals with its own members, how they deal with their rivals, and how they deal with a world that is changing in ways that may threaten their monopoly on their own abilities. Return of the Thief | Megan Whalen Turner The Aeronauts Windlass | Jim Butcher Having read all the Dresden books and short stories I was super curious about his attempt to do something different. It is VERY different from the Dresden books, but good in-and-of itself. Mistborn: Secret History | Brandon Sanderson This was honestly somewhat disappointing. I generally like Sanderson’s work, though I admit they’re not to everyone’s tastes. This just felt tacked on, and though it ends up being a useful lore-dump for later novels, I sort of regret spending time reading it. If (like me) you’re deep in the Cosmere and want to make sure you keep up to date I guess read it, but if you’re not a super-fan of his work then honestly I’d avoid it. Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendancy | Timothy Zahn gently caress, I listened to this one as an audiobook and I am already super sick of the new trend in star wars books to include a soundtrack and special effects in audiobooks. I guess it was good, but I really do not care about hearing blaster sounds in a book. Sea of Tranquility | Emily St. John Mandel No comments except the promise that I am going to read every single book this author writes. The Wicked + The Divine | Kieron Gillen A story about how a bunch of modern-day 20-somethings react to a gift of godhood. It manages to be topical and reasonably hard-hitting in its description of how that sort of responsibility (and its related promise of a quick death) impacts those who are given it. I don’t know how to properly review a comic, as its not a style of writing that I indulge in frequently. However, I think this series has inspired me to seek out more things like it. I absolutely loved it and I’ve been recommending it aggressively to friends who aren’t huge fans of reading. The Law | Jim Butcher Children of Memory | Adrian Tchaikovsky drat, that was weird. How the hell does Tchaikovsky produce so many books? It seems like he’s reliably putting out 1 or 2 genuinely good novels a year, which is an insane pace. The Atlas Six | Olivie Blake I think I’m going to read the whole series, I’ll hold my comments until I’ve completed it I guess. The Atlas Paradox | Olivie Blake The Black Company | Glen Cook See below. Shadows Linger | Glen Cook I’m somewhat committed to reading this series just because it has been referenced so often in comments about other series. I don’t love it, certainly it hasn’t aged particularly well, but so far I haven’t found that it falls into the trap that modern ‘Grimdark’ novels have -- it doesn’t attempt to make the point that ‘being good’ is a trap for idiots. That alone is inspiring me to keep reading, the story itself isn’t bad and I’m hoping that as the series progresses (and the publication dates approach the present) it will improve. This is How you Lose the Time War | Amal El-Mohar & Max Gladstone An absolute gem! A story of correspondence between opposing agents in a war that spans space and time. It is Romeo and Juliet adjacent and is (in my mind at least) a wonderful retelling / reworking of that work.I don’t normally go in for Romances, but I think after this I’m reconsidering that idea a bit. Court of Roses and Thorns | Sarah J Maas In light of reconsidering my willingness to read Romance novels I gave this a shot. A story about a young woman entangled with the machinations of the Fey Court. It's not as good as the above, but definitely worth a look. Booklord Status: Unclear at the moment. I'll have to commit some time to figuring it out. Though I'm at 18 of my goal of 52. The Strangest Finch fucked around with this message at 22:12 on Apr 30, 2023 |
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2023 22:05
|
|
|
The Strangest Finch posted:The Wicked + The Divine | Kieron Gillen If you read the whole series, that's a lot of books, not just one, any way you slice it. I guess since you're a prestigious reader you're giving yourself a bit of a sports handicap in your accounting. Nine volumes right there in the standard 5 to 6 issue trade paperback format. So just saying, you could count it as 9 books, or 4 books if you happened to read the bigger omnibus ones. More importantly, cool to see you digging comics!
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2023 22:33
|
|
|
The Strangest Finch posted:Children of Memory | Adrian Tchaikovsky I have about 30 minutes of this left. I've loved the entire series.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2023 22:35
|
|
|
Heavy Metal posted:If you read the whole series, that's a lot of books, not just one, any way you slice it. I guess since you're a prestigious reader you're giving yourself a bit of a sports handicap in your accounting. Nine volumes right there in the standard 5 to 6 issue trade paperback format. So just saying, you could count it as 9 books, or 4 books if you happened to read the bigger omnibus ones. More importantly, cool to see you digging comics! Yeah, I wrestled with the accounting there. I read the omnibus versions, but decided to just count it as a single narrative since (as you noted) it is otherwise maybe sort of vague how many individual works it counts as and I'm not super worried about hitting my 52 book goal. On the other (more important) note I talked to a buddy of mine who is significantly more plugged into comics than I am and he told me about a bunch of other works Kieren Gillen was a writer on. I just started D.I.E. and am super excited to check out the Star Wars comics he contributed to.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2023 23:17
|
|
|
I finished 12 books in April. A lot more than I was expecting, though a few of these were super short. I also got into a non-fiction Sad Guys on Boats kick (again). I would also like to ask the thread for a Wildcard! I don't have one yet. 30. Lucrezia Borgia: Life, Love, and Death in Renaissance Italy by Sara Bradford This was just OK. I had already read her biography of Lucrezia's brother Caesare, and there was a lot of retreading here of the same ground, especially since there's not nearly as much unique historical documentation about Lucrezia's life. She seems like a really interesting figure, but I'm sure a lot about her was either lost or never documented because she was a woman. If you pick it up, I hope you like reading exhaustive lists of the goods included in her various dowries! 31. Fluids by May Leitz What a nasty gross little book. It was really good! It calls itself an extreme horror novel and one version even has the trigger warnings listed on the front cover, so you know what you're getting into. It's basically about two women (one of them trans) who meet online during the pandemic and one of them decides to meet the other in real life. Things quickly spiral out of control into a toxic relationship and a gory murder spree. 32. The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories by Various Authors This is a collection in translation of SFF short stories written by Chinese women and non-binary folks. There are also a handfuls of essays about translation and parts of the history of women in China writing SFF. A really solid collection overall, and I'd definitely recommend it. The essays are a really nice touch and definitely add some neat context and depth to the stories. 33. Post Captain by Patrick O'Brian The second Aubrey & Maturin book. I'd put off reading it for a bit because I enjoyed the first one so much and was worried about blasting through the whole series too quickly. This is definitely a bit different than the first -- there's a lot more time spent on land and some romance plots are introduced. This was still fantastic though. I think the last time I laughed out loud so many times reading a book, it was Master and Commander. I'll definitely be picking up the pace as I go through these, they're too good to not read. 34. The Wreck of the Medusa: The Tragic Story of the Death Raft by Alexander McKee Here's where my little shipwreck spree started. This was a really well written account of what happened with the Medusa and why, plus it goes into the legal aftermath once the survivors got back to France. PLUS it goes through a few other similar cases of shipwreck, deprivation, and psychological stress to talk about how being stranded affects people psychologically. My one big caveat is that the author uses some bizarrely outdated ethnicity terminology (it was published in 1975, but even then, it feels like some of the word choices are, for that time period, wildly old-fashioned, at best). 35. Labyrinth of Ice: The Triumphant and Tragic Greely Polar Expedition by Buddy Levy An American research and possible rescue expedition during The First International Polar Year of 1882-1883 goes horribly wrong! After multiple years of no-show resupply efforts (not for lack of trying as one of the ships was itself destroyed and the crew had their own polar misadventure) Greely's team decides to abandon their research station and head south for rescue. A good read if you're into "polar expeditions gone wrong" nonfiction. 36. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann I had already had this pre-ordered, but then it started blowing up my various newsfeeds as the book journalism circuit picked the title up. It was good! A lot of it, especially the start, felt sort of like "baby's first introduction to the Royal Navy of the 1700-1800s" but that means it's a good entry point if you want to learn more about the era. Really well written and feels pretty thoroughly researched. 37. Witch Hat Atelier Vol. 2 by Kamome Shirahama The same friend who lent me the first volume also gave me this one. I still like it! It's a cute coming-of-age fantasy/witch series with really good art, and it isn't afraid to get a little grim. The pacing in this is slower than it was in the first volume, but that isn't unexpected. The art is also still gorgeous. I'll keep reading it, especially if my friend keeps lending me more. 38. They Were Here Before Us by Eric LaRocca A really quick horror short story collection. Each story is totally different, but the concept of the book is that they're all sort of within conversation with each other conceptually. I can see what it's going for and there were some nice gross stories in here (it's LaRocca). It's on Kindle Unlimited, so if you happen to have that, it's definitely worth checking out, and it's a snappy 100 or so pages. 39. Field Guide to the Haunted Forest by Jarod K. Anderson This was also on KU. I forget how I even found it, but I'd had it sitting on my kindle for a while so I finally buckled down and read it. It's basically a poetry collection, some of which apparently started life as tweets (not a bad thing, but makes sense with how short some of them are). Sort of toes the line between horror and almost cheesy, cozy-horror if that makes sense. I liked it though. Also a very quick read. 40. What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher This was the first thing I've read by T. Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon. It was not bad! It had some really cool horror sequences, and it's been long enough since I've read Fall of the House of Usher (it's sort of a riff/expansion of the Poe story?) that I wasn't trying to draw any mental lines between the two. I think the one thing that stuck in my craw (and this is a very personal pet peeve) is that the neopronouns/genders used by the main character (and kan culture) didn't feel quite polished or thought out as much as it seemed like they would be at first glance. Among other things, it uses the same form for the object and possessive, which comes across as really odd sounding (so ka/kan/kan and va/van/van where with English you have, for example, she/her/hers and they/them/their). Anyway, it was overall pretty good and I might check out more T. Kingfisher stuff at some point but I'm not in a rush. 41. Hollow by Brian Catling This is hands down my favorite book this month, and is in the running for best of the year. It's set in what seems to be medieval Netherlands and the work of Hieronymus Bosch is a running motif (literally and in the form of some of the weird little creatures from his paintings actually coming into existence). Some mercenaries are hired to deliver an Oracle (more of a creature than a human being?) to a monastery at the foot of what's implied to be the ruins of the Tower of Babel. Weird poo poo happens. One of my favorite hoax/cryptids, Gef the Mongoose is there. I would absolutely recommend this for anyone who enjoyed Between Two Fires and wants more in that vein. PROMPTS 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge - 52 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. (~23/41) 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of color. (~15/41) 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 8% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. (~19/41) 5. Read something that is not a novel 6. Borrow something to read 7. Lend or recommend a book to someone - I got 2 friends to start reading Moby Dick! 8. Read something over 400 pages - Kushiel's Dart definitely qualifies 9. Read something by an author with the same or similar name as you - Hexarchate Stories by Yoon Ha Lee 10. Read a work in translation - Solaris by Stanisław Lem 11. Read something that someone you know HATES 12. Read something about books 13. Ask the thread for a Wildcard 14. Read a book published the year you turned 23 years old THEMES - Surreal - Adventure - Informational - The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England - Uplifting - Tragic - Seasonal - Leech (Winter was a very relevant plot point) - Scary - Comforting - Celestial - The Blazing World - Chthonic - Hollow
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2023 00:43
|
|
|
Gertrude Perkins posted:1 - My Sister, The Serial Killer, by Oyinkan Braithwaite I finished fourteen books this month, of a wide range of sizes, themes and quality. Thanks, solid month of hell-commute! 17 - Black Stars: A Galaxy of New Worlds, by Nishi Shawl, Nnedi Okorafor, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, C.T. Rwizi, Nalo Hopkinson, Victor LaValle. Six short SF stories. A hit-and-miss collection that nonetheless has some great stuff in even the less interesting stories. "The Visit" left me rather cold; the former is beautifully written but conceptually rather one-note, and I can't remember a single thing that happened in "These Alien Skies". "The Black Pages" and "2043..." were more interesting to me, though aside from some neat imagery didn't feel particularly special. The latter two stories, "Clap Back" and "We Travel The Spaceways", were much more gripping. I wanted them to be longer, and go a little harder. 18 - A Short History of Tractors In Ukrainian, by Marina Lewycka. A book I remember being pretty popular when it came out, though it has aged pretty poorly. A supposedly funny novel about an old man trapped in an abusive relationship, the experience is marred by irritating caricature and barely-examined politics. Lewycka can write well, with amusing passages and a light, chummy style, but on the whole this just did not work for me. A story about an evil greedy temptress immigrant woman trying to con the loving well-meaning misguided immigrant old man, only to be thwarted by the old man's good-immigrant daughters with the help of the benevolent-but-inefficient state apparatus...it's easy to see how this was so appealing to the UK mainstream circa 2005. The most interesting parts are the titular history, a book the old man has been writing which the reader is treated to snippets of. There are some rather good chapters concerned with the family's background as well, the plight of growing up under the threats of war and famine, and the combination of ingenuity and dumb luck needed to escape a grim fate. But it doesn't mix well at all with the bawdy farce with its shrieking harpy villainess. A real disappointment. 19 - Locus Solus, by Raymond Roussel (trans. by Rupert Copeland Cunningham). Strange and intricate details describe a collection of bizarre contraptions and artistic installations. There are plenty of weird and surreal images and ideas in here, written with an exacting specificity that is sometimes engrossing but sometimes very dull. Throughout there are wild stories and biographies that background the different artworks, making for much more interesting reading than the surrounding matter. I can see why this was such a big influence on dada and surrealist artists, as it's full of absurd errata and grand inventions that amount to fancy and overcomplicated installations. This was tough to get through, often tiresome but more often, quite brilliant. 20 - The Einstein Intersection, by Samuel R. Delany. This was really good. A far-future journey mimicking that of Orpheus that sees an inexperienced and angry young man travel in search of revenge, meeting a strange cast along the way. The journey is more important than the destination, and the protagonist experiences a multitude of lessons and difficult truths on the way. Delany's writing is, as usual, deeply engrossing, and the petty nuances of his characters are brought to life very well. 21 - A Brief History of Portable Literature, by Enrique Vila-Matas (trans. by Tom Bustead & Anne McLean). Chronicles the politics, foibles and feuds of a grand secret society populated by just about every modernist-era artist and writer across the 20s. If I recognised more than half a dozen of the people in her I'm sure I would have enjoyed it a lot more - it is occasionally very funny, and often good at evoking a chuckle. A strange art collective described in fond snippets that ended up being as light as its name suggests. 22 - Garth Marenghi's TerrorTome, by Garth Marenghi, by Matthew Holness. As an enormous DarkPlace fan, I was excited for this from the moment I first learned about it. The audiobook is even read in-character by Garth Marenghi! It's...not as good as the series, which is unsurprising given that this is a solo work rather than an ensemble cast. But it was endlessly pleasant to be in Marenghi's company for the duration of these three wonderfully stupid novellas. For me at least, the novelty never wore off, as the stakes and bathos kept ramping up and the bloated ego of the writer/protagonist swelled up to obscene proportions. Great fun, with parts that I will remember for a very long time. 23 - Hybrid Heart, by Iori Kusano. Paranoid novella about near-future Japanese idol stardom and the horrific ordeals of existing in a body whose every action is tightly monitored and controlled for brand preservation. Kusano writes the pain of scrutiny, fear, anorexia and exacting beauty standards very well. As with a lot of dystopian SF this is merely an exaggeration of existing structures of power and domination, and exploring the manufactured J- / K-pop idol industry works pretty well here. 24 - Strange Weather In Tokyo, by Hiromi Kawakami (trans. by Allison Markin Powell). What starts as a gentle novel about an age-gap relationship blossoms into a beautiful and moving romance. Aching loss, built-up desire curtailed by fear and past trauma, and heartbreaking revelation. This surprised me with how good it is, and how hard it hit me. Will have to read more Kawakami if they're all this good. 25 - Sarah, by JT LeRoy. Horrible misery-lit full of abuse, exploitation and uncomfortable sexual and gender dynamics. There is so much folksy wisdom and so many quirky country sayings that they become self-parody before even the first act is over. Everyone is having a dreadful time even when they're putting a cheerful, jokey face on it. And to top it off, the author is a bizarrely overdrawn alter ego jigsawed together from real and fictional horrors and traumas. It feels like poverty tourism, a carnival of grotesque Southern perverts written to scandalise and tearjerk. The phrase "raccoon penis bone" must appear two dozen times. And yet...I don't hate it. I actually enjoyed a lot of this, as farcical and over-written as it is. With the wider context of who/what "JT LeRoy" was, this is interesting. 26 - The Carpet Merchant of Konstantiniyya, vol. 1, by Remena Yee. Beautiful comic story about a young man pursuing his dreams of love and commerce who must also contend with the spiritual and supernatural pain of vampirism. The artwork is really something to behold, heavily inspired by traditional Turkish designs (as well as a lot of Ottoman and even Byzantine art) - each double-page spread could be framed and draw eyes. Yee also has a lot of time for quiet, intimate moments between Zeynel and Ayse, and the writing is moving and greatly enhanced by the visuals. Really glad I read this, and eager to take on the second volume. 27 - Six Four, by Hideo Yokoyama (trans. by Jonathan Lloyd-Davies). Dense, slow-paced and exhaustively detailed police procedural drama set in small-town Japan. The main character being a reluctant media spokesman for the police means the book is awash in politics, embargoes and questioned loyalties. It's good! Better than I expected, really engrossing. Even though there is meticulous detail put into describing how the different characters and their institutional roles intersect, I never felt bored or out of the loop. There are mysteries that hang precipitously over the characters before (mostly) resolving in ways that were satisfying, sensible, or (in one case) properly shocking. The most prevalent thought I had while reading this was "Wow, it really loving sucks to work anywhere near law enforcement". A good, solid slow-burn police story. Definitely glad I read this. 28 - The Last Days of the Dinosaurs: An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World, by Riley Black. An unconventional retelling of the extinction event that ended the age of reptiles and began the age of mammals, that I ended up adoring. Told in narratives with significant liberties taken, Black uses a dense array of scientific data to build snapshots of different organisms as they lived and died, before, during and after the asteroid impact. The book feels like the narration for a nature documentary, but not one concerned not just with showcasing the individual lives of the creatures it showcases. Instead, Black offers a deep-time look at ecosystems as they evolved, with every element of those systems contributing to and affecting the growth of every other element. It's a pop-paleontology book written with such empathy that I blasted through it in a single sitting and felt very emotional afterwards. Black and I seem to have similar feelings about dinosaurs and their cultural impact, too. A really lovely book that I will be recommending to many friends! 29 - Bad Moons Rising, by Brian Clevinger. Full disclosure: I received a copy of this from the author. A fun, silly SF action romp that would make for a great animated miniseries if the language was cleaned up a little. His familiar comedic style comes through pretty well, even if the story and characters feel a little stock. The capitalist-hellscape solar system full of bounty hunters and corporate espionage still has Clevinger's particular flavouring, and there isn't too much over-explaining of concepts and future tech. It seems like this is the start of a series, and there are plenty of questions still open by the end of this adventure. A nice palate-cleanser after reading a lot of heavier stuff lately. 30 - Homage to Catalonia, by George Orwell. This is good in a way that made me annoyed I hadn't read it before. Orwell's account of the drudgery of trench warfare and the exhausting minutiae of Spanish politics is thrilling and horrifying, and he writes with powerful urgency and empathy. For someone like me with only piecemeal knowledge of the Spanish Civil War this filled in a lot of gaps and helped contextualise things. But also it's a great journalistic account of the lives of people living through the turmoil and uneasy lulls of the conflict, as well as the effects of politics on how the war was carried out. I felt his frustration and anger with the sabotage and infighting that helped scupper the revolutionary movements as well as weakened the anti-fascist forces; he describes in detail the material results of factionalism and power-grabs. drat, yeah, good. Booklord progress: 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. - 30/52 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. - 14 - 1, 3, 9, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of color. - 14 - 1, 4, 5, 6, 8, 12, 13, 15, 17, 20, 23, 24, 26, 27 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 8% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. - 8 - 5, 9, 11, 12, 15, 20, 23, 28 7. Lend or recommend a book to someone (tell the thread what you lended/recommended!) - 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 - Adventure - 14, 20, 29 - Informational - 8, 9, 12, 28, 30 - Uplifting - 24 - Tragic - 5, 10, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 30 - Seasonal - - Scary - 13, 28, 30 - Comforting - 22, 24, 28 - Celestial - 10, - Chthonic - 20 Gertrude Perkins fucked around with this message at 19:50 on May 2, 2023 |
|
#
?
May 1, 2023 05:54
|
|
|
Gertrude Perkins posted:22 - Garth Marenghi's TerrorTome, by Garth Marenghi, by Matthew Holness. As an enormous DarkPlace fan, I was excited for this from the moment I first learned about it. The audiobook is even read in-character by Garth Marenghi! This sounds incredible!
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2023 06:54
|
|
|
DurianGray posted:
Are you interested in queer time travel? If so, how about One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston? Maybe true crime and time travel? If so, The Gone World was one of my faves, although I haven’t read it in a few years. These books are opposite ends of the spectrum. If time travel doesn’t interest you at all LMK and I’ll give you something else! I ALSO need a wildcard!
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2023 13:00
|
|
|
luscious posted:Are you interested in queer time travel? If so, how about One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston? Maybe true crime and time travel? If so, The Gone World was one of my faves, although I haven’t read it in a few years. These books are opposite ends of the spectrum. If time travel doesn’t interest you at all LMK and I’ll give you something else! Oh thank you! I actually already have a copy of The Gone World and I haven't gotten to it yet, so that's perfect. I did read Red, White, and Royal Blue a while back and wouldn't mind reading more by McQuiston at some point, but the coincidence of already having a book on hand is too convenient to pass up.
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2023 13:58
|
|
|
And, unexpectedly, April finished really strong. I read 8 books, and 3 were just excellent. Couple duds, but nothing truly awful. Somehow had a theme of Grief ran through the month with 5/8ths dealing with it as a major thing. Unintentional, I assure you. Not unwelcome though. An exciting month as well, as 3 holds finally came through at the library and some much anticipated reading was done. 21. Don't Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones - Sequel to My Heart is a Chainsaw. Jade is back in town after years of trials in the aftermath of the Lake Witch Slayings. And wouldn't you know it, it all starts up again. This is good. I don't get tired of Stephen Graham Jones and I'm not even a horror guy. 22. Rubble of Rubles by Josip Novakovich - After a divorce, a man takes a trip to Russia to try and get a sense of the Russian Soul. Eventually he is framed for murder and tabbed by Putin to become an assassin or else. This is a surreal trip through Russia marrying corruption and comedy. A crazy trip. I enjoyed it. 23. Dead Country by Max Gladstone - I was so excited to return to the Craft world. In Gladstone's newest, Tara returns to her humble hometown for her father's funeral, and winds up in a dispute with raiders. A must if you're a fan of the Craft Sequence. 24. The Foreign Exchange by Veronica Henry - 2nd in the Mambo Reina series with a vodou mambo solving mysteries. It's OK. Ultimately, I think it's forgettable and I don't know that I'll grab the third. 25. Flux by Jinwoo Chong - Sci-fi esque novel. Through three narratives Flux looks at F1, a move fast break things tech company in the battery sector. Through it all runs 1980s gritty detective series "Raider" the first mainstream show of it's type with an Asian lead. There's a lot about representation, tech, family, but most of all grief. I didn't know at all what I was getting into. This was excellent. 26. Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree - I am absolutely a sucker for the slice of life found family cozy genre books. If Chambers is that with sci-fi, this one is that with fantasy. An adventurer has a final score and settles down to found a coffee shop. I enjoyed this thoroughly. 27. Arch Conspirator by Veronica Roth - An SF retelling of Antigone. It's mid at best. Low point of the month here. 28. The Gospel of Orla by Eoghan Wells - Orla is a troubled 14 year old girl. She'd been acting out a bit and shoplifting even before her mom died. And now, two months later, it's escalated to running away. Her second attempt is bound to succeed, until she finds Jesus. Not religiously or metaphorically, rather she runs her bike over him and almost knocks him into a canal. When she later sees this odd drifter raising wildlife from the dead, she conceives a plan. If she can just run away to Ireland with Jesus, then he can raise her mother from the dead and things will be back to normal. This was quite a surprise. I just blew through it. I couldn't put it down. This was really good. Ben Nevis posted:
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2023 03:42
|
|
|
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! #9- the Stranger, by Albert Camus | :: Always meant to read Camus, and jumping in to this one truly emphasized the existentialism I knew I was in for. Contrary to many other readers, could not find myself hating Mearsault. He merely comes across as fatally apathetic, a trait even I find in myself on occasion. The nightmare scenario he finds himself in was surely a riff on Kafka, another author whose influence I am aware of moreso than their actual written work. [Audiobook/hoopla] #10- Strangers on a Train, by Patricia Highsmith | :: Took me a bit to get back to this one, having started listening to it back in January. Bronson Pinchot reads it well enough, making Bruno more pathetic than I realized given my familiarity with the Hitchcock film adaptation. Made for an unpleasant experience overall, but with my knowledge of the author from assorted readings, that may have been the point of it all. [Audible+] #11- Fairy Tale, by Stephen King | :: My first King. And lemme tell you it was rather a funny listening experience. First of all, it was delightful having a cameo by the author as a recording of the old man in the story. Added to the charm of the thing. Now then, the plot. Being someone familiar with anime, this Americana reissue of the Isekai subgenre made me giggle. Compared to so many outlandish examples of that "other world" story, seeing Ol' Man King tackle it in such a surface level manner was terribly charming. That said, the other world stuff feels wildly disjointed. The first third is just a great coming of age and getting to know your cantankerous neighbor narrative, complete with a lovable dog who becomes the focus for the journey in the latter portions. The gladiatorial section felt like it came from a whole other realm of literature. Overall, not bad, and I enjoyed my time. [Audiobook/Libby] #12- the Violin Conspiracy, by Brendan Slocumb | :: Seeing authentic representation does something to audiences. As a former musical performer in high school, this bleeds authenticity. Narrative was challenging, yet still breezy. [Audiobook/Libby] #13- the Souls of Black Folk, by W.E.B. DuBois | :: This one made me anxious, for I had the undue apprehension with this work, considering it to be literary vegetables: necessary, but overly starchy and not terribly appealing in the now. Unsurpisingly, the text within has an unfortunately timeless quality, given how people of color are still unilaterally treated with ire even today, so DuBois' points still stand at attention. Loved the essay that mutated into a fabulous short story about "The Coming of John". An undying, authoritative text. [Audiobook/hoopla] #14- Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin | :: Made me feel seen. Made me consider shoving this into my mom's library queue to see if she could better understand my love for movies and videogames as a result. Loved all the characters, even that dick of a professor. The Marx sequence gives me pause on putting this in my mom's queue. She's a lovely, soft woman and hates upsetting things on principle, having had a rough 12 years of recent. A loving ode to my interior passive gamer. [Audiobook/Libby] #15- Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus, by Rick Perlstein | :: Now this one fulfilled the terror I had with DuBois in full. This text is D R Y. Not going to fault the attention to detail in every single interaction recorded between prominent lawmakers, lobbyists, concerned citizens, and journalists, but as someone used to the Behind the Bastards trim all the fat approach to detailing these shitshows, I found myself skimming and skipping trying to latch onto some theme or narrative, which was not to be found here. Not really for me. [Paperback] #16- Stoner, by John Williams | :: Remarkably easy to read. It felt like a fleshed out parable from a faith based book my grandma might have tried shoving into my paws back when I was an impressionable youth. But Williams' prose and concise wording and structure gave the story a charming depth and a hidden hook that made the journey a breeze. Loved the simplicity of the language and the spirited drive of the life of Stoner. [Hardcover] #17- the Rise of Kyoshi, by F.C. Yee | :: As someone who loved Avatar The Last Airbender as a kid, was anxious coming to these prequel novels, hoping for a fantasy novel worth my time. Got that and more. First of all, I went in expecting this to be a contemporary saga of Sokka's friend, who I only now realized was named Suki. Egg goes on face here. But the fact that this is set hundreds of years beforehand makes it a prequel that justifies itself; separated far enough from the main continuity that it can tell its own tale without fear of stepping on the toes of the shows. And the narrative character writing is superb. Actions have magnitudinal consequences, and maybe I haven't read any YA Fantasy in a while, but the "Oh poo poo" moments land extraordinarily well here. Playing not only with elements of Joseph Campbell but also a Hong Kong flair for action sequences makes for a thrilling adventure from start to initial conclusion. Part 2 will be read, cause I want my girls to have a happy ending, drat it all. [Audible+] #18- the Price of Salt, by Patricia Highsmith | :: I'm a sucker for a love story. And by golly, this one made me smile. Will be enforcing this on my literate companions. [Audible+] #19- Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson | :: Was not prepared for this all-timer no-nonsense non-fiction barn burner. Holy Carp, Rachel Brought The Receipts! A landmark text for a reason, this is a reasoned, incredibly detailed plea for salvation from a community that was being poisoned by their bureaucratic caretakers. And lo, we are still reeling from such rotten infrastructure to this very day, (Flint Michigan comes to mind). Just a gripping, gut-churn of a health and safety report. One of the best books and most important of the 20th century, no contest. For without it, who knows how our lives would have been affected? [Audiobook/hoopla] #20- Carrie, by Stephen King | :: Went in happy to have come across the audiobook, narrated by Sissy Spacek (!). Came out authentically chilled. A story of the extended traumas of abuse and bullying. Fast discovering that epistolary literature is something I crave in my life. I want an authentic hard copy of The Shadow Exploded right this minute; seems like a great text. The final moments with Carrie White in the actual story were quite haunting. Girl has my sympathies, she deserved better. [Audiobook/Libby] #21- Making a Scene, by Constance Wu | :: I hated that I kept visualizing the author as Hong Chau. I know they're two different actresses, but even looking at the cover, I still kept picturing Chau as Wu. Taking that as a sign I really need to explore more of Wu's work. Really enjoyed the structure of the book as episodic essays. Wu has a great vibe, and skill for cursing to boot. [Audiobook/Libby] Challenge Status 2- Not Male Author, 4/13 3- Author of Color, 6/13 4- LGBTQ+, 2/4 Theming, Adventurous: 5 [storygraph claims Henry IV P1 qualifies, but I'm hesitant to disqualify P2 and V] Celestial: 2 Chthonic: 1 Comforting: 1 Informational: 3 Scary: 2 Surreal: 1 Tragic: 6 RailtraceR30 posted:Nom de Plume: RailtraceR30 RailtraceR30 fucked around with this message at 02:48 on Sep 8, 2023 |
|
#
?
May 2, 2023 04:04
|
|
|
Ben Nevis posted:25. Flux by Jinwoo Chong - Sci-fi esque novel. Through three narratives Flux looks at F1, a move fast break things tech company in the battery sector. Through it all runs 1980s gritty detective series "Raider" the first mainstream show of it's type with an Asian lead. There's a lot about representation, tech, family, but most of all grief. I didn't know at all what I was getting into. This was excellent. Awesome. I have this through Libby but prioritized another book (Tender is the Flesh). I’ll probably go back to it soon.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2023 04:27
|
|
|
April was a slow month, all things considered. I guess the undead was the closest thing to a theme? Books: 31/48 A Dowry of Blood - S.T. Gibson (audiobook): Told from the POV of one of an unnamed (but with dealings with the Harkers in passing) vampire's wives. Vampirism as an abusive relationship. 4/5 Before the Coffee Gets Cold - Toshikazu Kawaguchi (audiobook): I guess nothing you choose to do or not do actually matters, given the absolute mess of time travel rules in this book. One character goes back in time to talk to somebody who is dead. 0/5 Yellow Jessamine - Caitlin Starling (audiobook): I can see the bones of 'The Death of Jane Lawrence' peeking out from this novella, but overall not nearly as cohesive. A mysterious illness strikes a land already under siege! People are possessed/corpse-puppeted?? I'm still debating how much of what happened was our deranged narrator's mental state colouring her perception and how much was "real". 2/5 A Lush and Seething Hell - John Hornor Jacobs: Two novellas for the price of one! 'The Sea Dreams the Sky' was evocative and heartbreaking. 'My Heart Struck Sorrow' was not as compelling at the beginning to me but definitely the creepier of the two. Definitely had undead, with the cosmic horror vibes. 4/5 The Lesser Dead - Christopher Buehlman: POV of a teenage vampire who sees strange creepy children on the subway in 1970's NYC. The twist was viscerally upsetting, I kind of threw the book. 3/5 Hatchet & Brian's Winter - Gary Paulsen (audiobook): Needed something for my kid's biweekly half hour each way drive to after school stuff. Brian Robeson (13) crash lands in the Northern Ontario woods alone with nothing but the clothes on his back and the titular hatchet and has to figure out how to survive. Had to break the news to child that this was the 1980s and in fact, there's still no cellular reception in the bush. Solid survival fiction that doesn't shy away from the fact that your own mind is the worst hazard in survival. 4/5 No progress on the challenges. Not written by a man: 77% Author of colour: 24% LGBTQIA+: 22% Chococat fucked around with this message at 17:15 on May 3, 2023 |
|
#
?
May 3, 2023 02:48
|
|
|
Tzen posted:March: 6. The Drifting Classroom, Vol. 2 by Kazuo Umezz - 4/5 7. No Gods, No Monsters by Cadwell Turnbull - 2/5 8. Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks - 5/5 9. My Year of Running Dangerously: A Dad, a Daughter, and a Ridiculous Plan by Tom Foreman - 5/5 10. Promises of Gold by José Olivarez - 5/5 11. The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming by David Wallace-Wells - 3/5
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2023 09:50
|
|
|
Listen I just read all five Dungeon Crawler Carl books.
|
|
#
?
May 4, 2023 21:51
|
|
|
UwUnabomber posted:Listen I just read all five Dungeon Crawler Carl books. Tell us about Dungeon Crawler Carl!
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2023 00:46
|
|
|
Books read in April - 3 14 - Solaris by Stanisław Lem - It was only just after I started reading this that I realised I had seen the George Clooney film based on this book and wasn't a huge far. I really like how the book opened and the main character seems to be instantly gripped by a pervasive madness upon arrival at the floating research station but over time it becomes a bit annoying how the characters act. There's a middle section of the book taken up by a description of the planet which while interesting doesn't really seem to add anything to the story and I can't actually remember how it ends. 15 - The All Consuming World by Cassandra Khaw - This author was goon recommended and I quite enjoyed the universe that was created. Somewhat prone to hyperbole and gently caress was overused to the point of losing all meaning (though I think this could be argued as intentional as it's only when the humans talk, the A.I. Minds don't swear at all). I was never quite sure why sometimes it mattered if a character was at risk of death when it also constantly talked about how they are all clones and sometimes killed themselves just to get out of situations. Other than that it was a fun hyper-violent space romp and I plan on picking up some of their other works 16 - The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin - Book 2 in the Earthsea series. My mind kept going back to Small Gods though probably because it involved religion in the desert. This time the main protaganist is a high priestess of an ancient religion deticated to nameless evils in the dark. I like the first book and I liked this one but I'm not sure what else to say on it. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. - 16/35 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. - 4/9 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. - 1/9 5. Read something that is not a novel (i.e. a play, a poetry collection, a comic/manga, etc.) - 5 6. Borrow something to read (from a friend, a loved one, a library, etc.) - 0 7. Lend or recommend a book to someone (tell the thread what you lended/recommended!) - 8. Read something over 400 pages - 2 9. Read something by an author with the same or similar name as you (can be just first, middle, last, a nickname, whatever) - 10. Read a work in translation - 2 11. Read something that someone you know HATES - 12. Read something about books - 13. Ask the thread for a Wildcard - 14. Read a book published the year you turned 23 years old - [/quote]
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2023 14:56
|
|
|
Hey thread, anyone wanna throw me a wildcard? I am interested in science fiction, space travel, time travel, aliens, lots of stuff.
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2023 16:52
|
|
|
luscious posted:Hey thread, anyone wanna throw me a wildcard? Hyperion?
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2023 00:09
|
|
|
Amazing, thanks! I just saw this on a list along with another one of my favorite books of all times (Semiosis) so I'm happy to give it a go.
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2023 14:35
|
|
|
Gertrude Perkins posted:Tell us about Dungeon Crawler Carl! Dungeon Crawler Carl is a LitRPG series. That's a genre I can usually take or leave for the most part except for the ones by Matt Dinniman, author of Dungeon Crawler Carl. Carl and his ex girlfriends show cat, Princess Donut, survive a Hitchhiker's Guide style "just space business" apocalypse and compete on an AI-enhanced gameshow called Dungeon Crawler World. Together with Donut's pet velociraptor, Mongo, they battle aliens, fantasy creatures, weird poo poo the aliens made up, and other "crawlers" to survive to the 18th floor and hopefully their freedom. It's at least based in the physical world so there's some kinda stakes here other than "you're gonna live in the cyber-prison video game forever." That's usually what makes LitRPG books a drag to me. And I lied, I also read Kaiju Battlefield Surgeon (also by Matt Dinniman) and Joyride by Jack Ketchum.
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2023 07:00
|
|
|
17. The Other Wind, Ursula Le Guin The final book of the 2nd Earthsea trilogy, and last book overall. Unfortunately, it was by far the least favorite of the series. I adore LeGuin's prose and her style of worldbuilding, but this book felt so drat unnecessary. Its basic premise asks "have you ever considered that this haunting and mysterious part of the world is actually a problem that needs explaining and solving???", and for me the answer was a clear "no", even if I did appreciate parts of the book (like how the central conflict is resolved by getting a bunch of important people in the same room to talk and compare notes.) But overall it reminded me far too much of a TV series that should have stopped seasons ago. 2 stars. 18. The Curse of the Mistwraith, Janny Wurts An absolute wonderful surprise. The Curse of the Mistwraith is book 1 of an eventual 11-book epic fantasy series. It centers around a pair of brothers who are each blessed with a different magical affinity. They are initially tasked with freeing the world from a mist that has concealed sky and sun for centuries, but they are soon cursed into irrational and unending enmity toward each other via a geas. There's wizards, and scheming, politics, war, weird monsters, swords, magic swords, musical instruments, magic musical instruments, and so forth I've never read a book like this before. Every sentence contains so much stuff, though it's a good type of density. The prose goes to great lengths to give depth and characterization to its many characters, towns, backstory, and magic system. It's as if every sentence is crafted with a clear purpose (and frequently, multiple purposes), there is no padding or unnecessary rabbit trails. However, it engaged my imagination so fully that it was actually a little exhausting to read. I absolutely adored this book and plan to finish the series in time for book 11 coming next year-ish, though it's also a series I'm going need frequent breaks between. 4 stars. 19. Tau Zero, Poul Anderson A colony ship is sent from earth to a distant planet. En route they suffer a catastrophic accident that disables the "brakes" of their hyperdrive. The colonists are alive, but the ship is now perpetually speeding up with no way to slow down or stop. Due to time dilation from travelling at near-light speeds, the minutes they experience on board the ship begin to translate to hours, days, years, and centuries on the outside`. The book deals with their ill fated journey. It's a really neat premise! The science and space stuff is crunchy and poetic and beautiful... but the characters are all woefully underwritten. Calling them cardboard cutouts would be an insult to cardboard. You get the sense Anderson only included humans because it was the price he had to pay to write a story about a cool space ship. It's hard to enjoy a disaster book where none of the characters feel human. Yet it speaks to his skill as a writer that it still managed to be incredibly tense throughout, and best of all it had a tremendously interesting finish. 3 stars. 20. The Interface Series, _9MOTHER9HORSE9EYES9 This "book" began as a series of Reddit comments by user _9MOTHER9HORSE9EYES9 in response to unrelated posts. They were bizarre interconnected microfictions about LSD, flesh-interfaces, body horror, addiction, and summers in which your mother is not your mother. It was weird, but that was the point. Eventually a sub as created for the user who then focused all their posts there and made it into a proper story (albeit in a very untraditional medium) that is on Goodreads and everything. It's a fix-up by way of creepypasta. Its first 2/3rds are captivating and sickening and insane and awesome. But then he realizes he has to actually payoff all the story threads he's been weaving, and it just... all falls apart. What becomes clear is that the author was making it all up as he went along, and it results in this sort of "drift" happening to the story, so that the beginning of the book is absolutely nothing like the end. He loses everything that made it compelling and special. Really disappointing, but it's such a unique experience that I can't bring myself to rate it less than 3 stars.
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2023 21:26
|
|
|
Gertrude Perkins posted:1 - My Sister, The Serial Killer, by Oyinkan Braithwaite I finished seven books in May. Mostly comics, because I am burnt the gently caress OUT. 31 - Who Hunts The Whale, by Laura Kate Dale & Jane Aerith Magnet. I helped crowdfund this book, which makes me feel bad that I didn't enjoy this nearly as much as I hoped. Dale and Magnet write a satire of the modern videogame industry that is ridiculously unsubtle, in ways that detract from the true-to-life horrors depicted. It's clear that much of the novel comes from Dale's career in games journalism, and there are parts which feel urgent and awful, and character moments that are genuinely lovely. But it's spoiled by the eye-rolling absurdity of the comedy, and shot through with long rants that feel like they've been transcribed verbatim from Dale's previous work. It's subtitled as "a satirical novel set in the exploitative world of big-budget game development", and that is exactly what it is, but it left me very cold and frustrated. 32 - The Complete Hothead Paisan: Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist, by Diane DiMassa. Read concurrently with Bitchy Butch. A snapshot of lesbian separatist fury from the early 90s, Hothead is a foul-mouthed, mass-murdering animal full of righteous anger against a world built to destroy her and those few people (read: women) she cares about. There's also a surprising amount of introspection here, with HH frequently talking with some ineffable deity, or DiMassa herself, and trying to deal with the psychological turmoil that fuels her. There's even a romance with an ambiguously trans love interest, which is written sweetly and seems to be one of the few shreds of joy in HH's life that aren't cat-based! Shame the author would go on to be vocally anti-trans. Welp. The artwork is scrappy and angry and serves mostly to illustrate bouts of spleen-venting. It's interesting, so clearly a product of its time, and has aged pretty poorly, and the cycles of violence and revenge get old fast. But now my curiosity is sated. 33 - Bitchy Butch: World's Angriest Dyke! by Roberta Gregory. Read concurrently with Hothead Paisan. A spinoff of her Bitchy Bitch character, Gregory uses Butch as a mouthpiece for righteous lesbian rage - often impotent and self-defeating, nostalgic for a more innocent and yet more radical time of her youth. While not as violent ascontemporaries like Hothead or DTWOF's Mo, Butch's rants have a similar desperate cynicism as her worldview is challenged by the widening scope of queerness in the early 90s. A more sympathetic character than Hothead as well as a more critical portrayal by Gregory, with her prejudices often shown to reflect those of the world she finds herself in. I enjoyed this more than I thought I would at the beginning, and it doesn't quite outstay its welcome. 34 - The Satsuma Complex, by Bob Mortimer. A quirky misfit narrator in a very small world ends up in way over his head, but manages to keep a strange whimsy throughout. As a lifelong fan of Mortimer's comedy, this book is filled with the idiosyncracies I've come to expect from him; it really does work in this form, though. Every character is memorable, with bizarre turns of phrase and a satisfyingly convoluted progression. Everyone in this narrative is a little absurd, and seeing them bounce off each other is very entertaining. Of course there are stakes, and I got quite invested in how things would turn out, but that was secondary to the pleasant silliness of the prose. 35 - The Death Of Vivek Oji, by Akwaeke Emezi. A sad family drama about the events leading up to, and the aftermath of, the titular death. Told with empathy and a real sense of beauty by Emezi, who is able to explore the characters' emotional depths with nuance and intensity. Vivek is a tragic, troubled queer character who presumably reflects a lot of people's experiences growing up under deeply socially conservative circumstances. The setting was well-realised, and while it started a little slowly for me, it was worth it for the emotional climax and denouement. Maybe a little too neat? I liked this, and I hope it reached a wide enough audience to open some minds. 36 - James Bond 007: Permission to Die no. 1-3, by Mike Grell. What begins as a rather half-baked retread of 60s Bond adventuring soon escalates into a fun, action-y romp that is let down by the ambitious composition making some scenes a little hard to follow. It's only in the final issue that we get some proper super-spy-versus-mad-science stuff, and while it's over a bit quickly it does get quite exciting. An interesting curio from the last dregs of the Cold War, already nostalgic for the golden age of pulp espionage. 37 - The Carpet Merchant of Konstantiniyya, vol. 2, by Remena Yee. This is so drat good, beautiful and sad and well worth all the praise it's received. The ending wraps things up a little too fast, but the emotional core of the story is intact, and the entanglements between Zeynel and his new companions are very fun. It goes without saying that the art is gorgeous, with Yee pushing her craft to serve the storytelling and affective power of the work. Recommending this to everyone I know. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. - 37/52 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. - 19 - 1, 3, 9, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 31, 32, 33, 35, 37 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of color. - 16 - 1, 4, 5, 6, 8, 12, 13, 15, 17, 20, 23, 24, 26, 27, 35, 37 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 8% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. - 12 - 5, 9, 11, 12, 15, 20, 23, 28, 31, 32, 33, 35 7. Lend or recommend a book to someone (tell the thread what you lended/recommended!) - 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, - Adventure - 14, 20, 29, 36 - Informational - 8, 9, 12, 28, 30, 31 - Uplifting - 24, 34, 37 - Tragic - 5, 10, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 30 - Seasonal - - Scary - 13, 28, 30 - Comforting - 22, 24, 28, 34, 37 - Celestial - 10, 32 - Chthonic - 20 My GoodReads, if anyone's curious. Also I haven't done this yet so WILDCARD ME, BABY!!!!!!!!!!!11
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2023 09:09
|
|
|
May: Children of Memory - Adrian Tchaikovsky How High We go in the Dark - Sequoia Nagamatsu ʔbédayine - Kaitlyn Purcell Tweak - Nic Sheff Early-May I got some bad news about my dog's health and it shut everything down for me. I returned every book I was reading to the library and couldn't finish anything I borrowed for weeks. it sucked. At that point, I had read Children of Memory, which was good, but not nearly as good as the previous two books in the series. I managed to get through How High We Go in the Dark. I think that I would have enjoyed it more if I read it, instead of listened to it in audiobook form (which I almost never say). ʔbédayine is a collection of poetry. I really connected with it. I borrowed Tweak after watching Beautiful Boy and wanting to know Nic's story. It was interesting, but I'm going to be real and say that I find most addict memoirs to be different flavors of the dish. I'm currently listening to Hyperion, The Memory Police, and Less.
|
|
#
?
May 30, 2023 17:53
|
|
|
luscious posted:May: Sorry to hear.
|
|
#
?
May 31, 2023 05:48
|
|
|
Heavy Metal posted:Sorry to hear. Thank you. It's awful but it's really put a lot of stuff into perspective.
|
|
#
?
May 31, 2023 22:21
|
|
|
I finished 10 books in May. I'm already just about at my number-of-books goal for the year which I'm honestly surprised by since I've had some stressful stuff happen the past few months, but apparently reading more is just my coping mechanism now. 42. How Much of These Hills is Gold by C Pam Zhang A historical western literary fiction novel. Centers a family of Chinese immigrants who've come to California around the time of the gold rush. The mother is dead and the father has just died and the two surviving children set out to bury him. The story sort of flip flops through time from there with flashbacks to when the parents first met, back to before the mother died, etc. Very grim but has a sort of "literary" style distance a lot of the time. I liked it, even if the whole plot felt a little too tidy by the end. 43. The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch This was my wildcard and it was great! I've been meaning to read more thrillers and the sci-fi/time travel angles of this really got its hooks into me. Just barely shy of a 5/5. I really liked the unique way this dealt with time travel and the sort of cosmic-horror angle was done really well without overdoing it or getting cheesy. Would absolutely recommend this to scifi/thriller fans. 44. The Wandering Mind: What Medieval Monks Tell Us About Distraction by Jamie Kreiner What it says in the title. Basically, people have always been as easily distracted as they are now, and we've always been obsessed with trying to not be so distractable. Medieval people just put a sin/virtue spin on it instead of a 'maximize your productivity/value' angle. Apparently this sort of gets pinned as a self help book in some marketing, but it's really more of a historical survey. There aren't any pithy tips or platitudes as much as a general "oh humans are just Like This" reassurance. 45. My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones I'm bummed I was just sort of 'meh' on this one because I've really liked the short stories of his that I've read, and The Only Good Indians is a top horror book for me. I'm not entirely surprised though because I'm pretty ambivalent on slashers as a horror genre and the whole book is fully framed around the main character's obsession with slasher movies. So if you really like slashers, it might be exactly what you'd enjoy! 46. The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How it Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Steven Johnson This was fantastic. I actually buddy read this with a friend (which I don't get to do often) and it was really fun to talk about. It hits that non-fiction sweet spot of being really informative but not dry, and going on tangents that are still very interesting and relevant. Cholera is a lot more terrifying than I had any idea and the fact it took so long to finally bury miasma theory feels wild with what we understand about germs now, but the book does a good job of laying out exactly why people at that time believed in miasma so strongly. Another whole-hearted recommendation if it sounds interesting. 47. From Hell by Alan Moore This happened to be on Kindle Unlimited and I was still on a bit of a Victorian medicine kick from Ghost Map. I've read a handful of Alan Moore things before and this is very Alan Moore-y. I've never seen the movie but my partner has and when I asked him about some of the wackier/occult-y things in the comic, I wasn't surprised to hear they apparently left most (maybe all?) of it out of the film. It also introduced me to a Jack the Ripper theory I'd never encountered before. 48. The Madman's Gallery by Edward Brooke-Hitching This is sort of a coffee table/art book that I picked up because I saw a tweet from the author about one of the included pieces. This is a wonderful mix of bizarre and unusual art throughout the world. You get some of the expected spotlights on folks like Hieronymus Bosch but there were also a lot of really neat new-to-me artists like Zahr Pritchard who painted seascapes in the early 1900s while fully underwater in one of those brass-and-canvas diving suits. Worth checking out if you come across it! 49. The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington by Leonora Carrington A collection of short stories by the surrealist painter and writer. These had a really interesting style (beyond just being surrealist stories) and many of the stories just sort of stop more than they end, and a lot of them were only a few pages long. I'd definitely recommend this to writers who want to study unique approaches to description and tone. Might be a bit of a hard sell for someone looking for a more typical short story collection though! 50. For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten Welp, I got YA-bamboozled again (this doesn't seem to be listed as YA anywhere but it 100% is). This was a book I picked up a few years back during a small buying spree and hadn't read til now. Despite the name and cover making this look like it's a Red Riding Hood sendup, it's more of a Beauty and the Beast thing. There's a spooky sentient forest (could have been really cool in a better book!) and a magic love interest (the "wolf" from the title) and wow I just didn't care about any of it after about 100 pages. This should have been maybe half as long as it was, so much of it was repetitive. Maybe a middle schooler or high schooler would enjoy this. I skimmed most of it. Oh well. 51. The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester With the caveats that this is a sci-fi book written by a guy in the 50s, this was really neat! It's a sort of reverse murder mystery where you start out knowing exactly who-and-howdunnit, and then follow a psychic detective as he tries to figure everything out and build a case against the super-rich CEO murderer. Some aspects are kind of funny in retrospect (lots of zeerust, a ton of plot hinging on Fruedian/Jungian psychology being completely factual, etc.) but the overall concept and execution is worth checking out if you like classic sci-fi. PROMPTS 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge - 52 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. (~27/51) 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of color. (~17/51) 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 8% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. (~19/51) 5. Read something that is not a novel - The Madman's Gallery 6. Borrow something to read 7. Lend or recommend a book to someone - I got 2 friends to start reading Moby Dick! 8. Read something over 400 pages - Kushiel's Dart definitely qualifies 9. Read something by an author with the same or similar name as you - Hexarchate Stories by Yoon Ha Lee 10. Read a work in translation - Solaris by Stanisław Lem 11. Read something that someone you know HATES 12. Read something about books 13. Ask the thread for a Wildcard - The Gone World 14. Read a book published the year you turned 23 years old THEMES - Surreal - The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington - Adventure - Informational - The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England - Uplifting - Tragic - Seasonal - Leech (Winter was a very relevant plot point) - Scary - The Ghost Map - Comforting - Celestial - The Blazing World - Chthonic - Hollow luscious posted:Thank you. It's awful but it's really put a lot of stuff into perspective. Ah jeez, I'm so sorry. : (
|
|
#
?
Jun 1, 2023 16:56
|
|
|
Books read in May - 3 17 - Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin - My wildcard and a great one at that. A man has the ability to change existance through his dreams which terrifies him and so he seeks to stop it from happening because he can't control it. His therapist who specialises in dreams and hypnotherapy decides that actually this gift should be used to make the world a better place for all, one dream at a time. 18 - The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin - Earthsea book 3. Double Le Guin feature. This one is a lot more like the first one with a grand sailing quest as Ged takes a Prince with him to uncover the reason why magic seems to be disappearing. I liked the feel of this one as there was a lot to explore, touching on things from the previous book while introducing more. 19 - Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson - Borrowed this one from Ladylop. I'd never got round to reading this classic before. I was reminded of Frankenstein in how the book was not what I expected based on how modern media tends to portray the character. It is short and worth a read despite knowing what the twist was going to be ahead of time. The copy I read also had a "The Bottle Imp" in it which was a very short story about a bottle that could grant wishes. The caveat being that if you died while owing the bottle your soul would go to Satan and you could only get rid of the bottle by selling it for less that you bought it for. A cautionary tale which didn't quite go where I expected. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. - 19/35 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. - 6/9 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.) - 5 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!) - 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 - 2 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 -
|
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2023 09:32
|
|
|
A solid may that ended started and ended with a bang. I usually try and come up with something here, but I got nothing. 29. Saturnalia by Stephanie Feldman - In a near future world ravaged by climate disaster, our heroine finds herself on a clandestine mission on Saturnalia, sort of a Mardi Gras type affair. There's secret societies, secret plans, and some surprising alchemy. Pretty good read. 30. Bea Wolf by Zach Weinersmith - Checked this out with the thought the kids might like it, naturally, I had to read it first. It's a graphic novel retelling of Beowulf, just about kids. They've a treehouse where they stay up all night playing kid games, tormenting their neighbor Mr Grindle, whose touch turns kids into disaffected teens. This is just a rollicking good time, and the language used feels true to the original. Art's great too. Two thumbs up. 31. Jack of Shadows by Roger Zelazny - Earth has stopped spinning and is divided into a dark side where magic rules and a light side ruled by Technology. Jack is a thief and lord from the Dark Side and it follows his adventures through it all. It's more wide ranging than just a single adventure and has some broad motifs. This isn't my favorite Zelazny, but it's a pretty good one. 32. The Blood of a Dragon by Lawrence Watt-Evans - Another random Ethshar book being slowing gathered from used book stores. This one was only OK. Mostly cause the main character is kind of a jerk. 33. Lone Women by Victor LaValle - Adelaide Henry burns down the family farmhouse and flees California to stake her own claim in Montana. It's largely her trials in getting set up and also the terrible secret she carries in her giant steamer chest. Enjoyed it. 34. The Lies of the Ajungo by Moses Ose Utomi - A novella where a young boy travels into the dessert to find water for his village to free them of the terrible price leveled by the Ajungo. This one very much has the feel of a fable and is a good reminder to not believe everything. 35. Sterling Karat Gold by Isabel Waidner - Sterling is attacked in the street and coerced into a bullfight. What follows is a surreal, time travelling, encounter with a criminal justice system that preferentially targets outsiders. Man, some reviewers loved this. And at it's best, I can get it. But a lot of this seems not quite at that best. 36. Impossible Us by Sarah Lotz - This was recommended by Amal El-Mohtar, who wrote "This is How You Lose the Time War. She recommended it with the caveat of "Do not read anything about this in advance." I read it with no foreknowledge. It was good! Really enjoyed it and it was quick for the nearly 500 pages. I would recommend you do the same. Ben Nevis posted:
Ben Nevis fucked around with this message at 17:37 on Jun 5, 2023 |
|
#
?
Jun 5, 2023 17:35
|
|
|
Tzen posted:March: 6. The Drifting Classroom, Vol. 2 by Kazuo Umezz - 4/5 7. No Gods, No Monsters by Cadwell Turnbull - 2/5 8. My Year of Running Dangerously: A Dad, a Daughter, and a Ridiculous Plan by Tom Foreman - 4/5 9. Promises of Gold by José Olivarez, David Ruano (Translator) - 5/5 May: 10. Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks - 5/5 11. The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming by David Wallace-Wells - 3/5 12. The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin - 5/5 13. Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler - 4/5 14. Japan 1941: Countdown to Infamy by Eri Hotta - 4/5 15. The Ends of the World: Supervolcanoes, Lethal Oceans, and the Search for Past Apocalypses by Peter Brannen - 4/5
|
|
#
?
Jun 12, 2023 09:10
|
|
|
I finished 11 books in June, mostly short stuff but also a few thick ones (one that took me a few months to finally finish). I didn't read nearly as much during a week at the beach as I thought I would, but it didn't make much of a difference given what my monthly average seems to be. 52. Thin Air: A Ghost Story by Michelle Paver A historical horror fiction book about a 1935 expedition of (mostly) wealthy British guys trying to be the first to summit Kangchenjunga. One of the only two survivors of a previous expedition tries to warn them off, but they only learn why too late. The main character is the team's doctor (his brother, the expedition leader, is an rear end in a top hat) and Paver did a lot of research into mountaineering and the horrific medicines used in the time period. A good spooky little read if you're into mountain climbing horror. 53. Dark Matter: A Ghost Story by Michelle Paver Same author, similar concept! This time it's a 1937 Arctic expedition looking to overwinter in northern Svalbard. The story is mostly told through the diary of the team's destitute radio operator (everyone else is rich) who decides to stay behind with just the dogs after the charismatic expedition leader gets appendicitis. Also a solid, spooky little story if you're into historical Arctic expedition horror. 54. Wool by Hugh Howey I was only vaguely aware this had been/is being adapted as a TV series when I picked this up (it qualified for my "Year you turned 23" book). A dystopia where everyone lives in an underground silo, and every few years someone is sent outside on a death-mission to clean the exterior cameras (outside Will Kill You). This is mostly a thriller at its core, and I found it pretty enjoyable as a beach read. I haven't seen the TV show at all. 55. Lure by Tim McGregor This is a horror novella from a small press who I'm increasingly becoming a fan of. A pseudo-medieval, pseudo-Scandinavian fishing town is on hard times when a strange mermaid shows up and upends the patriarchal order of the town. Things get increasingly weird and dangerous, with a hint of not exactly cosmic horror, but the sort of horror of uncanny, almost incomprehensible folktales that turn out to be true. 56. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson Normally I don't really care about spoilers, but this is a novella where knowing the 'big reveal' (which pretty much everyone knows already) actually ruins the story. It's supposed to be a mystery and the whole thing hinges on that reveal being a surprise (there aren't really any clever clues to follow or pick up on with a re-read, it's not that sort of mystery). It's definitely a lot different than I expected it to be, so I don't regret reading it, but it's pretty underwhelming these days. 57. The Poorcraft Cookbook by Nero Villagallos O'Reilly The third in the Poorcraft series, the first half of this is a non-fiction comic book with tips for shopping, cooking and eating well on a slim budget. The second half is recipes (with a lot of techniques conveyed through comics) that all look solid and I look forward to trying them out. They're also mostly vegetarian recipes, just because meat is usually a lot more expensive than eggs, beans, or tofu. 58. The Secret History by Donna Tartt I guess this book is sort of the grandmother of the whole "Dark Academia" thing. It gets pretty high praise so I was a bit surprised at how much I just didn't care about it. The characters are mostly a bunch of rich kids at a private New England college taking Greek classes from an eccentric professor. The POV character is an outsider, a poor scholarship kid from California, who gets into the super special Greek class. The rich kids do drugs and do crimes. This book might have been better if it was half as long, but it just drags and I didn't find the characters compelling, and it didn't feel like it dug in enough to the interesting stuff it did hint at. Oh well! 59. Walking Practice by Dolki Min THIS WAS REALLY GOOD. It's a Korean novel in translation about a shape-shifting alien who gets stranded on earth. It turns out humans are the only food source here that can satisfy the alien, so they use dating apps to find hookups (there's a lot of sex in this book) that they then (usually) eat. There's a lot of observation on gender and the dynamics between men and women, and a bit of what it can be like to live in a disabled body. It's written in a really punchy voice with some occasional weird typography (apparently it's even weirder looking in Korean), and some neat line illustrations of the alien. Would recommend if you're looking for something weird and different. 60. Scorch Atlas by Blake Butler This book is like a series of half-remembered nightmares that are all set in familiar places (familiar at least if you've spent any time in suburban America). It's a short story collection of bizarre apocalypses and the various dissolutions of nuclear family units that happen as the world crumbles in the background. The world is scorched and flooded and in the small interstitial parts between each chapter, rained on by everything from glass and glitter to blood and teeth and manure. It's weird and gross and good. 61. Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez I thought I would dig this, but I just couldn't get into it. I listened to this on audible, and at 1x speed, it's nearly 30 hours long. I was on almost 3x speed (the narrator talks SO slowly!) by the time I finished this just to get through it. The base story is about a man and his son and the evil magical cult that they're (not very willingly) a part of. It's also set during the years of military dictatorship in Argentina (70s and 80s or so?) so you get a lot of gruesome magical stuff layered in with the gruesome real-life stuff. This was just too long and drawn out for me though, unfortunately. But a lot of people seem to love it! 62. Demon of the Waters: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Whaleship Globe by Gregory Gibson A nonfiction book about what it says in the title. I hadn't heard of this mutiny before and it's pretty buck wild. The ship even has a brief cameo in Moby Dick it was so infamous around the time it happened. This is also a good read if you don't know much about 1800s sailing ships or whaling and would like a primer (while also reading about a gnarly mutiny and the efforts that went into recovering the mutineers). PROMPTS 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge -  62/52 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. (~31/62) 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of color. (~20/62) 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 8% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. (~20/62) 5. Read something that is not a novel - The Madman's Gallery 6. Borrow something to read 7. Lend or recommend a book to someone - I got 2 friends to start reading Moby Dick! 8. Read something over 400 pages - Kushiel's Dart definitely qualifies 9. Read something by an author with the same or similar name as you - Hexarchate Stories by Yoon Ha Lee 10. Read a work in translation - Solaris by Stanisław Lem 11. Read something that someone you know HATES 12. Read something about books 13. Ask the thread for a Wildcard - 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 - Seasonal - Leech (Winter was a very relevant plot point) - Scary - The Ghost Map - Comforting - Celestial - The Blazing World - Chthonic - Hollow
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2023 01:56
|
|
|
June Solaris Less The Impossible Us The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Currently listening to The Marriage Act, Less is Lost, and The Collected Regrets of Clover.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2023 22:05
|
|
|
June: 16. Sparks! by Ian Booth & Nina Matsumoto - 5/5 17. Sparks! Double Dog Dare by Ian Booth & Nina Matsumoto - 5/5 18. Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction edited by Sheree Renée Thomas, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, Zelda Knight - 4/5 19. Sparks! Future Purrfect by Ian Booth & Nina Matsumoto - 5/5 20. A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers - 5/5 2023 BOOKLORD CHALLENGE PROMPTS 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. - Lookin good  2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. - Currently at 19% 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of color. - At 34% 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 8% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. - Currently at 3.8% 5. Read something that is not a novel (i.e. a play, a poetry collection, a comic/manga, etc.) - 6. Borrow something to read (from a friend, a loved one, a library, etc.) - 7. Lend or recommend a book to someone (tell the thread what you lended/recommended!) - 8. Read something over 400 pages - 9. Read something by an author with the same or similar name as you (can be just first, middle, last, a nickname, whatever) - pending10. Read a work in translation - 11. Read something that someone you know HATES - 12. Read something about books - pending 13. Ask the thread for a Wildcard - pending 14. Read a book if you're somehow younger than that, read a book published the year you turned 13) - pending
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2023 08:38
|
|
|
Sorry I forgot about this thread, so quick catch up: I finished off the Earthsea Cycle - Tehanu, Tales from Earthsea and The Other Wind by Ursula K. Le Guin. Another three entertaining entries, I did like the short story collection giving some insights into usually unseen parts of Earthsea. Novelist as a Vocation by Haruki Murakami. This was an interesting collection of essays about his time before being a writer and his life as a writer. Out of Ashes by Kara Thomas. A nurse returns to her hometown and finds secrets about the murder of her family and it wasn't that good, meandered a bit before the end was just there. House of Gold by C. T. Rwizi. Set in the future where humanity has colonised the stars. The story is set in an African based colony so it was nice to read something that didn't revolve around white people from the U.S. or Europe. Also a surprising amount of LGBT representation. I enjoyed it. The Lighthouse by Ron Ripley. The second installment in a series of ghost stories (I think). This time, as you can probably guess, it takes place at a lighthouse. It's not long, just over 200 pages, and fine. The Starts My Destination by Alfred Bester. Pretty good, one of the sci-fi classics. It does feel old but it has some interesting ideas in it. Hospital by Han Song. A man goes on a business trip, drinks some water, gets debilitating stomach pains and is then transported to one of the strangest hospitals in creation. I found it quite interesting, this hospital isn't one you go to then get better before leaving, you can spend your whole life there and for some people that is in fact the aim. You can be there for so long you become a doctor or nurse then you find out more secrets of the hospital. It got slightly repetitive in places but otherwise it was very enjoyable. Tokyo Express by Seicho Matsumoto: A man and woman are found dead on a beach, it's considered a lovers suicide pact but two detectives, an older one from Hakata and a younger one from Tokyo aren't convinced. Very Christie-like. bessantj fucked around with this message at 18:28 on Jul 3, 2023 |
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2023 18:00
|
|
|
Phew. June already? Bit of a mishmash month with none that I'm really running out and saying that everyone should read. Excited to see where July takes us. 37. James Acaster's Classic Scrapes by James Acaster - A collection of James Acaster's "scrapes." If you've watched much James or listened to him on the radio or whatnot, you've heard some of these. Even so, it's a fun read, and there are moments at the end where it's really laugh out loud funny, as sort of a density of callbacks is reached. This was a lot of fun. 38. Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea by Rita Chang-Eppig - Pirates! Historical fiction about Shek Yeung, aka Zheng Yi Sao, the most successful lady pirate in history and among the most successful overall. It's decent, but isn't quite piratey enough for people wanting high seas pirate adventures, or quite dense enough in the personal relationships or politics for those. It kinda lands in the middle of a few different genres and suffers for it. 39. Assassin of Reality by Marina Dyachenka - Vita Nostra 2. Not as long or as baffling as the first, but still really solid. 40. Feed them Silence by Lee Mandelo - A novella about a wolf researcher and the first human-wolf neural link. Also, she has relationship trouble with her wife, and enthusiasm for research is tempered by marriage trouble. I thought this was a solid book, but you really have to be fine with both here. If you wanted in depth relationship or just balls out wolf research, it's not there. 41. Butts: A Backstory by Heather Radke - A glance at butts in Western culture from about 1811 to current. This is the sort of deal where it feels like each chapter could be a book. It talks about why we have butts, and a fascination with butts from Sarah Baartman to Kim K. And the counter trends with flappers and buns of steel. There's stops off at bustles and padding for drag, at fitness movements and twerking. You'll not be surprised to see a chapter on Sir Mix A Lot. Generally I found this fun and informative. 42. The Shoemaker's Magician by Cynthia Pelayo - A lost, maybe magical (eeevil?) movie, a serial killer, horror films. I read the flap and thought this would be maybe something in the Lost Book sort of vein (cf Club Dumas). It's not. More occult thriller. I thought it bit off more than it could chew with demonology, fables, film. It didn't quite cohere. 43. The People who Report More Stress by Alejandro Varelo - Related short stories about Eduardo, a gay Latino living in New York. He struggles with anxiety, health, and hailing a cab. The stories all touch on difficulties of not being the assumed norm of white het America. In large part, the world is hostile towards Eduardo and you really get a sense of why he's anxious and why those targeted by more prejudice have worse health outcomes overall. I enjoyed this, but in some regards it's a difficult read. Ben Nevis posted:1. Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo
|
|
#
?
Jul 4, 2023 15:08
|
|
|
Books read in June - 4 20 - Tehanu by Ursula K. Le Guin - Book 4 in the Earthsea series.I was glad to see returning characters from pervious books in this but there was something melencholy about having them age so much and become so weak. I'm not sure what to say on it other than I liked Therru and hope she appears again in a later tale. 21 - Sensor by Junji Ito - Especially good artwork in this one. The plot was Junji Ito weirdness about a volcano that spews hair, visions, cults etc. Not his best but I still enjoyed it all the way through. 22 - NieR:Automata: Long Story Short by Jun Eishima/ Yoko Taro - This is a direct novilisation of the game so if you fancied revisiting the game without replaying it then look no further. It stayed fairly faithful to the original plot and clarified a couple of points I didn't get from the game like just how long 2B had been executing 9S for over and over. It follows the story all the way to the "good" ending and adds a couple of interesting sections from other character's points of view. I'm looking forward to the second novel as I have no idea what that could include. 23 - The Frugal Wizard's Handbook For Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson, illustrated by Steve Argyle - This did not turn out to be what I expected. It's an isekai type story in which someone from a few decades in the future is transported into an alternate dimensio which never advanced beyond Medieval times, in doing so he loses his memory and the survival guide he has is mostly destroyed. As a result he must figure out who he was, who he wants to be and help save the world. It was fairly light, humerous and was thoroughly enjoyable 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. - 23/35 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. - 7/9 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!) - 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 - 2 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 -
|
|
#
?
Jul 5, 2023 22:14
|
|
|
So as of the end of June, beginning of July, I'm at 67 books. (The L's in parentheses are library books - for my own book-keeping, honestly) January 1. Rumo and his Miraculous Adventures - Walter Moers 2. A Midsummer Night's Dream - William Shakespeare 3. The Book of Goose - Yiyun Li 4. Demon Copperhead - Barbara Kingsolver 5. Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance - Alison Espach (L) 6. Speak: the Graphic Novel - Laurie Halse Anderson & Emily Carroll 7. 2am in Little America- Ken Kalfus 8. Otherland: City of Golden Shadow - Tad Williams 9. An Island - Karen Jennings (L) 10. Dinosaurs - Lydia Millet 11. Manhunt - Gretchen Felker-Martin 12. Otherland: River of Blue Fire - Tad Williams 13. Now is Not the Time to Panic - Kevin Wilson 14. Grand Hotel - Vicki Baum 15. Mouth to Mouth - Antoine Wilson February 16. Otherland: Mountain of Black Glass - Tad Williams 17. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley 18. Otherland: Sea of Silver Light - Tad Williams 19. Nightcrawling - Leila Mottey (L) 20. The Passenger - Cormac McCarthy 21. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Michael Chabon 22. She Who Became the Sun - Shelley Parker-Chan (L) March 23. Dr. No - Percival Everett (L) 24. Foucault’s Pendulum - Umberto Eco 25. Redeployment - Phil Klay 26. A Day of Fallen Night - Samantha Shannon 27. Afterlife - Julia Alvarez 28. Stella Maris - Cormac McCarthy 29. Notes from the Underground - Fyodor Dostoevsky April 30. Cuba: An American History - Ada Ferrer (L) 31. Essex Dogs - Dan Jones (L) 32. City of Stairs (Divine Cities #1) - Robert Jackson Bennett 33. Birnam Wood - Eleanor Catton (L) 34. City Of Blades (Divine Cities #2) - Robert Jackson Bennett 35. I Have Some Questions For You - Rebecca Makkai (L) 36. City Of Miracles (Divine Cities #3) - Robert Jackson Bennett 37. Firekeeper’s Daughter - Angeline Boulley 38. Passing - Nella Larsen (L) 39. The Golden Archives (Scholomance #3) - Naomi Novik 40. The Corpse in the Waxworks - John Dickson Carr (L) May 41. Hell Bent - Leigh Bardugo (L) 42. Step Aside, Pops (A Hark A Vagrant Collection) - Kate Beaton (L) 43. Hannah Coulter - Wendell Berry 44. The Wager - David Grann (L) 45. Flashman and the Angel of the Lord - George Macdonald Fraser 46. Untethered Sky - Fonda Lee (L) 47. Tears of Amber - Sofia Segovia 48. The Books of Jacob - Olga Tokarczuk 49. Bone - Jeff Smith 50. Black Empire - George S. Schuyler (L) 51. King Lear - William Shakespeare 52. The Free - Willy Vlautin 53. Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi - S.A. Chakraborty 54. The King Must Die (Theseus #1) - Mary Renault 55. Yellowface - R.F. Kuang (L) June 56. We Run the Tides - Vendela Vida 57. The Bull from the Sea (Theseus #2) - Mary Renault 58. The Autobiography of Mark Twain - Mark Twain 59. Chain Gang All-Stars - Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (L) 60. Homegoing - Yaa Gyasi 61. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie 62. The Thin Man - Dashiell Hammett 63. A Memory Called Empire - Arkady Martine 64. How Much of These Hills Is Gold - C Pam Zhang 65. Horse - Geraldine Brooks (L) 66. Hex - Thomas Olde Heuvelt 67. Troll - Dave Fitzgerald Highlights: Demon Copperhead - A modern take on David Copperfield set in Appalachia, pretty brilliant. Birnam Wood - an ecological thriller with a crazy ending A Day of Fallen Night - massive dragon tome Bone - one of my favorite comics The King Must Die/The Bull from the Sea - love Renault and her take on Greek myth The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - one of Christie's best The Wager - pop history about a famous nautical mutiny 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. (67/100) 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. (32 out of 67 - about 45% or so) 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of color. (14 out of 67 - about 21%) 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 8% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. (Not that many - about 4-5 I'd guess, but I don't really google "is _________ LGBTQ?", so there may be more) 5. Read something that is not a novel (i.e. a play, a poetry collection, a comic/manga, etc.) -King Lear (drama) and Bone (graphic novel) 6. Borrow something to read (from a friend, a loved one, a library, etc.) I have at least 20 library reads, so... 7. Lend or recommend a book to someone (tell the thread what you lended/recommended!) -Told a teacher friend of mine about George Schuyler (Black Empire) and she started making a Harlem Renaissance unit comparing Schuyler and Langston Hughes 8. Read something over 400 pages -I'll just put "A Day of Fallen Night" here (about 880) but the Otherland books were up there too. Oh yeah, and Books of Jacob. 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 -Books of Jacob, Olga Tokarczuk. That was an effort. Both the translation and the reading of it. 11. Read something that someone you know HATES 12. Read something about books -Yellowface, about the publishing industry 13. Ask the thread for a Wildcard 14. Read a book published the year you turned 23 years old (if you're somehow younger than that, read a book published the year you turned 13)
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2023 19:04
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 20, 2024 00:10 |
|
|
I lost track somewhere I think. 9(?): Nixonland Rick Perlstein: Well researched if meandering examination of the rise of Nixon and conservative politics in the 60 and early 70s (ends on final part of watergate). Utter tome of a book with 750 pages of details, stories and quotes. Really good stuff if you like history and gives lots of rewarding background for modern politics. 10 (?): Heart of Darkness and Other Tales by Joseph Konrad: Decided to read this after subjecting myself to two bleak Congo books recently. Heart of Darkness didn't really...take for me? Like it really felt that it is missing some of the impact it had. I feel like I might have to read it again to really get it. The other stories were interesting though shorter than Heart of Darkness. I did really like the The Secret Sharer which I thought was quite nicely done. I can see myself returning to this collection again in a couple of years.
|
|
#
?
Jul 9, 2023 03:56
|
|