[Weekly] What are you reading this week? [9/17/23]

I have just finished the first three of Dennis E Taylor's Bobiverse books over the last week and a half or so. It is a long time since I have read anything so rapidly: they are very compelling. However, since they form a natural trilogy, I have taken a break before Heaven's River and gone to the second of Martha Wells Murderbot series Artificial Condition. I have only just started this one, but thoroughly enjoyed All Systems Red.

I am also reading The Inimitable Jeeves by P G Wodehouse. I do enjoy Wodehouse as a rule, but this one is extremely episodic - to the point where it feels that it should have been a collections of shorts - and is not one of his best. I picked this up since Joy in the Morning was not to hand at the time, which I have read decades ago, and was planning to re-read. JitM is one of his best.

With the bobiverse being so compelling, I have taken a break from Robert Brightwell's Flashman's Waterloo - one of his prequel series to George MacDonald Frasier's Flashman series - although I certainly will be returning soon since it is as solidly researched and entertaining as the GMF originals.

And then I am continuing with my read-across-the-year of Finnegans Wake which is proving as fascinatingly incomprehensible as ever - although the latest chapter is perhaps less impenetrable than some - and its connection to Egyptian myth and the Book of the Dead are a little clearer here.

The Waves by Virginia Woolf.

Not sure there is a genre for this, stream of consciousness.

I love the writing. It is fairly unstructured and confusing. So I'd only recommend it to more adventurous or experienced readers.

Reliquary by Douglas Preston and Lincoln child. Suspense. Enjoying it so far. It's the sequel to The Relic, and I'm liking this book a bit more than the first.

Lots of graphic novels and manga, once done with that I have a nice gardening book to look forward to:

• Home after Dark by David Small

• Kuusama by Elisa Macellari

• The Climber by Shinichi Sakamoto

I just finished the 4th and last available book in the Bobiverse series Heaven's River. This one is quite a bit different as it focuses more on diverging/drifting personality differences of the replicants. I'd still recommend it though, it feels like a natural progression from where the story began.

I also read through The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (translated). This one was very different than your typical sci-fi. Very political, conspiratorial, and at times very dry. In the end I very much enjoyed the story, but it felt like 2 disparate plot lines that didn't really coalesce. It was also the second book I've read in the last month that didn't resolve any of the main story conflict in the first book and requires reading the next book to get closure... Not a fan of that sort of ending.

I just finished Dust, the third in the dystopian/sci-fi Wool trilogy by Hugh Howey. The first two books are great but the third feels a little rushed. I can feel the publisher breathing down his neck to get the book out as quickly as possible. But overall I enjoyed the trilogy and the grand narrative is even more prescient with everything happening in the world today. I'd recommend it for sure!

Foundation by Isaac Asimov for the sixth time. After watching the series. It's science fiction. One of my favorite books. The concept of psycohistory is so interesting, civilization following certain paths.