Had a busy week, so couldn’t get much reading done. So still at pretty much the same place in Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire (first book in her October Daye urban fantasy series).
What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?
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I’m just about to finish Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson. I’ve enjoyed it very much.
I’m also reading two others for my book clubs, but can’t remember the titles. Have to look at my ereader.
About 2/3 through “Paladin of Souls” by Lois McMaster Bujold.
Having just jumped through the first 15x “Penric & Desdemona” stories, it’s interesting to see how her magic system has evolved over time through this series (“The World of the Five Gods”), and how it’s definitely improved. One more book left in the series, then on to other things!
The Chalion novels are among my favourite Fantasy reads.
Yeah, I’m reading them because someone in one of these threads said that a bit ago. Perhaps it was you?
Good recommendations, regardless of whom! :)
Could’ve been yeah. Glad you’re enjoying them either way :)
Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey, the first book in The Expanse series. I’m roughly half way in, and it’s enjoyable so far.
stick with the series. it’s great. I think I was on book 4 or 5, right around where the novels start to surpass the tv series, when a buddy said, “oh, you’re just about to the part where they start getting good!”
and boy was he right.
Hopefully they are good before that point and increase in quality? I went in totally blind; haven’t watched the show or read anything about them prior. My free time is pretty limited, so I am picky in selecting what I spend my time on.
oh, very much so! they just get even better after Cibola Burn
I’m so jealous you get to read that for the first time. It’s the only series I wish I could forget and read again.
I have to be honest, it almost lost me for a little when it started focusing on the broader politics of the solar systme, but things picked right back up and are very well interesting again. I’m going to be sticking with it!
I loved this series so much it got me back into reading as an adult.
I watches the TV series in full first before I got into the books and really enjoyed the comparison
I’m looking forward to checking out his new series soon.
That’s a solid endorsement! I’m glad you’re back into reading!
Oohhh this series is a treat. I love so many of the characters.
I just started reading Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass yesterday. I realized a while ago I never actually read it, and only had seen the various adaptations. I have to say, it’s quite different than what I grew up on.
I’m also disturbed that Charles Dogson (Lewis Carroll) is basically described as being a pedophile for his “love” of a 10-yo little girl (Alice Liddell, the daughter of his boss, for whom the story is told) whom he wanted to marry while he was in his 30s.
Next up I plan to read Blue Are the Hills: The Final War for Humanity. I expect it to be completely different than Alice of course.
That’s just how I roll.
I read Alice in Wonderland as a kid when I was gifted The Annotated Alice. I loved the puzzles and the math tricks. And I only just now learned that was Martin Gardner, because of course. I discovered his puzzles many years later and only today put these two together. I don’t know if I would have enjoyed it as much without the explainer text, but with it I felt like I had the secret keys.
Finished reading Dennis E Taylor’s Bobiverse series for the second time, waiting on the new book to be published. For now it’s audiobook only, and I like reading it myself. Just started reading Martha Wells’ “Platform Decay”, Murderbot being one of the other series I found last year that I really liked.
I’m also reading Murder Bot, on book 3, and Audible recommended We Are Bob. I suppose you’re enjoying it?
Both are great series. We are Bob is less action packed though.
If you haven’t already, check out Dungeon Crawler Carl. There is a lot of overlap in fandoms. 🙂
Thanks, I have, the latest book is already on the to read list. Along with the latest book in “the laundry files”, which I can also recommend.
Almost 1/2 way through project Hail Mary. I liked the Martian so I expected to like PHM, but I didn’t realize to what degree I would like. As a Molecular Biologist myself, I feel quite connected to Ryland.
i haven’t read the book, but i saw the movie, and i was astounded at how good it was.
I also loved project hail mary. Just saw the film adaption recently, and while it is certainly impressive in some sense and has some strengths of its own, it generally skips most of what i enjoyed about the book which was a shame and i honestly think it must be superconfusing to watch if you have never read the book. The way it is is written it was always going to be tricky to turn into a movie but i was still disappointed
I am interested in the movie, but I have to finish the book (audible) so my wife can read it, and then we will go see the movie. One of my coworker’s who has read the book and seen the movie said there were instances where an entire chapter was summarized in a sentence. This just reaffirms my long held belief that books should not be movies. Limited Series are a much better platform for screen adaptations of books. you have 6-10 hours to tell the story. With streaming services you are not constrained to a 44-minute episode so you can make each episode the right length to capture the rising and falling action and end on the right beat. You can set the release schedule to generate more hype and it’ll sit in the public conscious for longer. And yes I realize that it costs more to make 10 hours of video than 2 hours of video, but I kinda don’t care because Hollywood already has such absurd margins.
I tried The Martian a few years ago and it didn’t click and Project Hail Mary is never available at my library in English, but I’m thinking maybe one of these needs to be my next read.
There’s a lot of stream of consciousness in both books, and within that, a lot math, which definitely does not click with everyone. If you can get PHM as an audiobook, it is way worth it!
Finished Southern Man by Greg Iles. This is the final book in the Penn Cage series. I wouldn’t recommend it for someone new to this author, and if you have read other Penn Cage novels, you already know what you’re in for. It features the usual levels of racism, violence, and arson. The author had some things to say about politics, and did. It wasn’t quite a hit piece on Republicans generally, but more about the political environment that made a candidate like Trump electable, and how that could be exploited by a smarter and more competent independent candidate.
Up next is The Eagle has Landed by Jack Higgins. Someone said I should read this even though I’d already seen the movie and lent me a copy. Since I mostly know what happens, it should go more quickly.
If you want WW2 spy thrills, skip ‘The Eagle Has Landed’ and read ‘Night Soldiers’ by Alan Furst.
After a Fascist mob kills his younger brother, a young Bulgarian fisherman is recruited by the KGB. He is trained and sent to Spain to fight in the Civil War.
Great atmosphere, chilling intrigue, wild battles.
My brother has been encouraging me to read The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie for a long time, and I’ve started it a few times and always got distracted.
Something clicked this time though, and I’m totally absorbed.
It’s also the first fiction I’ve read in a while, and I forgot what an escape it can be. What a weird thing to forget.
I’ve been slowly getting into this series amongst other books, up to the third in the series now.
I love how dark and mature it is, some excellent characters in it.
It’s better to do a thing than live with the fear if it.
Enjoy this journey, Joe Abercrombie is so good, I loved every book in this series.
Shameless: A Sexual Reformation by Nadia Bolz-Weber.
I think I’m going to reread ‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’ by Kahneman.
Reading the Age of Dread trilogy. I haven’t read anything in a while so I’m proud to be on the third book.
I’ve been relistening to the Jumper series by Steven Gould, it is fun and interesting to see how something written not all that long ago is from a totally different world. The way technology worked in the 90s is so different to how it works now and many of the problems in a science fiction book with teleportation can be solved by a mobile phone.
Also, I just finished the Murderbot series given the release of the newest book, the Bobiverse series, and the Children of Time series with the latest installment Children of Strife.
I also have a massive fanfic called The Winter Of Widows which is based in Westeros from A Game Of Thrones. It is really fun and interesting and the writing is honestly fantastic. Definitely publishable level of writing skill. It is based on the idea of a modern person with some knowledge of things like four field crop rotation and coplanting going into that medieval world and making things work as much as possible. Very cool, very fun.
The spear cuts through water. I’ve never seen an author break so many literary conventions so masterfully before.
I finished Dungeon Crawler Carl’s Gate of the Feral Gods over the weekend. While I enjoyed the first four books I’m looking forward to sinking my teeth into what other readers generally consider the more popular titles of the series.
In the meantime I’ve started reading Haruki Murakami’s The City and its Uncertain Walls while I wait for the remainder of the DCC books to become available at my library.
