What are you reading this week? [7/16/23]

Been reading Guards! Guards!

Written by Terry Pratchett

Fantasy/Comedy

I'm absolutely loving it right now

For sure would recommend to anyone with a love of fantasy and snarky humor

Doing it as a trade of with one of my buddies. I've been trying to get him to read Dune for years because I know he'd love it and he finally agreed on the terms that I read this one. It's been a win win because we're both thoroughly enjoying our respective books.

I finished Guards! Guards! recently - loved it! For years I struggled to get into Discworld because I kept starting The Colour of Magic and then failing to finish it. Eventually broke the back of it and then progressed onto the other books - with hindsight I wish I'd done what I've seen suggested before, to start with something like Guards! Guards! instead of reading in release order.
- Yeah my buddy had me start there under the logic that I would enjoy it so much that I would get utterly sucked into the series and he would finally have someone to talk to about it lol. Which is understandable because that's the same reason I wanted him to read Dune. Neither of us really have many other friends that read unfortunately.

What book: Born a crime.

Author: Trevor Noah

Genre: Memoir

How do you like it: very much. I barely read a book where I was shaking my head so much bc of the atrocities that were going on in the South African apartheid

Would you recommend it? Absolutely.

I have read a few person accounts of that time in SA, and I am not surprised in the slightest at your reaction. Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom is the first that springs to mind. Inspiring, yet heartbreaking.
- Thanks! I was looking for more books on that topic.

Daytime reading: Witch King by Martha Wells

Fantasy -- My mental jury is still out on this one. Characters are likeable, but the world is still quite murky which makes certain motivations and behaviors hard to parse.

Nighttime reading: The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu by Tom Lin

??? -- Haven't gotten far enough in it to even know. It's a period piece in mid 19th century. Maybe magical realism?

by Martha Wells
I like her Murderbot books enough that I would probably give anything she writes a chance!
- That's basically why I picked this one up. Her characterizations are great honestly. And the world is unfurling, but the longer certain topics are kept murky (who ARE these antagonists??), the more I think the payoff had better be good.

Our Share of Night by Mariana Enríquez, translated by Megan McDowell

I've been reading such a long list of rave reviews from authors like Kazuo Ishiguro and Alan Moore and publications like the LA Review of Books as well as hearing the same from close friends that I finally bumped this book to the top of my backlog stack.

It's a horror book set in the early '80s in Argentina, weaving the kind of mystical conspiracy of Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum or Pérez-Reverte's The Club Dumas and Ninth Gate novels over and through the very real state terrorism of the Argentinian Junta's Dirty War. I'm only about 75 pages into the 600 or so, and the slow-burn opening is just now starting to unfold into something more overtly disturbing, but the deceptively simple/basic prose creates a remarkably sophisticated and subtle story that is creeping into me like magic. Disturbing magic, lol.

Highly recommend.

I'm reading Jane Eyre again and realising that what happened to Rochester had to happen, because otherwise he would have controlled Jane for the rest of his life. This was the only way she got to control him.

I'm also reading Der Hausmann by Kolosowa and Night Watch by Pratchett

Historical fiction, modern fiction and sort of fantasy? I recommend all of them.

Hmm the control aspect isn't really something I thought about, and the ending never really sat right to me. I always considered the ending kind of sad. Yes she stood up for her values and rejected St Johns proposal, but then I felt she threw all her values away by getting back with the dude that groomed her, and almost damned her for eternity by making her a mistress. I get that it's a deeply Christian work, and forgiveness and all that but yikes.

I just finished Narcissus and Goldmund, by Hermann Hesse. Beautiful book, and kind of similar to every other Hesse book I've read? I'm kind of finding that Hesse just writes the same book over and over again, but they're all amazing so I'm going to keep reading them. It tackles themes of duality of man, men vs women, art vs logic, sin vs virtue, death vs life. Loved it.

Next up is The Iron Heel, by Jack London. Only a few pages in but I'm excited. Socialist classic dystopia that uses footnotes to tell the full story.

books #classics

N & G is one I have not read by Hesse, and I can say the same for The Iron Heel in regards to London. I have really enjoyed both authors though I haven't read them in a long time. Cheers for the recommendations.

Still working on the Stormlight Archive as an ebook. That's going to take ages because most of my reading time is audio.

For audio I got three books into Sarah J Maas's Court of Thorns and Roses series. I think it's less popular than her Throne of Glass series, but it's included on Scribd and the other isn't, so figured I'd start there. It's fantasy, and scribd calls it young adult, but there are some pretty dark actions and dark choices the character has to make. I'm really enjoying the perspective you get, especially in book 2 and 3, but I can't comment why without spoiling them.

How much romance is in her books? I don’t enjoy reading books with a good bit of romance.
- It's there, including some that feels a little excessively lovey-dovey (a lot that has romance has similar), and some sex scenes. In terms of the level of them it's more than innuendo but I've read more explicit. It more drives the characters' actions, though. They're making sacrifices and making hard decisions influenced by their emotional state from their relationships with other characters.
  It's hard to be more specific than that, though. I read a silly amount, but I don't approach the 80-90% that's fiction from an analytical perspective. I can give the broad strokes and could (though generally don't) discuss why I think characters made decisions they did in the ones where characters feel 3D, but I don't really do it in a way that I could compare different levels of different traits of books. I can find enjoyment out of a pretty broad range of style choices and complexity if there isn't something glaringly off I can't ignore. It's only nonfiction I actually judge.

@McBinary
Iain McGilchrist, The Master and His Emissary. Fascinating stuff.

Liz Williams, Detective Inspector Chen Novels 1-3 A fun mystery / fantasy series based on Asian mythology.

Look to Windward

Iain M Banks.

SF.

Banks is one of my favourite authors and LTW is also my favourite. I have reread it every year or two since it was published in 2000.

I recommend Banks to everyone who has a passing interest in SF, his non SF works, published under Iain Banks are also great especially The Bridge.

I’ve never read any Banks. How would you compare him to Alastair Reynolds? I’m a HUGE Reynolds fan, especially stuff like House of Suns and Pushing Ice.
I’m looking for some new epic space opera to read :)
- I have never read Reynolds looks like time for me to check him out.
  Banks is the best post-scarcity space opera I have ever read. The galaxy (ours...) is filled with millions of sentient beings at various tech levels and many stories involve The Culture's interaction with civs below (and sometimes above) them on the tech tree. The human civ, The Culture is always my answer to the question: If you could live in any fictional universe, which would it be?.
  Each book is a stand-alone story that stretch across about 800 years of time and can be read in any order. A good starting point is Player of Games.
According to StoryGraph that one is #7 in the "Culture" series. How tightly are the books integrated, do you need to read them in order? Would you recommend starting at #1?
- Each story is standalone, and you could read any first but LTW does broadly reference events from early books.
  A good starting point is Player of Games, which was my first. Solely because that it was the first one a friend gave me to read.
  I read Consider Phlebas next and was hooked. Either is a good starting point. From there published order works.

What book is currently on your nightstand?
The Hercules Text

Who is the author?
Jack McDevitt

What genre?
Scifi

How do you like it?
So far it is not great. Pretty slow going. Not much scifi. Lots of talk.

Would you recommend it to others?
I am only about a quarter of the way through, but so far nothing is really happening. So unless something drastically changes, I probably would not recommend it.

That's kind of sad. I read Chindi by Jack McDevitt years ago, only to find out later that it was smack in the middle of a series. I remember enjoying it though.

I started Hyperion by Dan Simmons last week and it has been a bit of a slog to get into it. The world building is fantastic, the scifi concepts are next level, but the way the writing style changes during each characters recounting of their time on Hyperion is disorienting and takes a while to get back up to reading it at a normal speed if that makes sense. I'd recommend it to any true scifi fan at this point, but my opinion is still in limbo on whether I like it... I'll let y'all know later.

I had to take a break from it and read the second Murderbot novella Artificial Condition, which was an excellent distraction. :)

I’m a big fan of Murderbot! Short and fun reads.
Makes sense to me. Hyperion took me forever to read. I am talking weeks. I didn't hate book, but I didn't love it either. I had to force myself to read it. I fell completely off of The Fall of Hyperion for very similar reasons. Not sure if I will go back and try to read it or not.

I just finished Thief, Liar, Lady and I would not recommend it. It’s a retelling of Cinderella that has a lot of fantasy elements and political intrigue, however none of it is fleshed out. It was an interesting concept, but by 50% you can tell the author doesn’t know how to resolve it, characters lose their voice and motivations, and there are some pretty questionable themes surrounding consent to top it all off.

Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente, sci-fi satire/comedy. Absolutely hilarious, loving it so far. Often compared lovingly to Hitchhiker’s and it’s been holding up which says a lot. It’s definitely funny but under that is some incredible world building which just makes it that much better. Highly recommend!

Oh man, this has been on my TBR. I loved The Past Is Red by her, and enjoyed Comfort Me With Apples, but I think Space Opera is solidly my wheelhouse. I need to grab a copy.

I'm currently working on two books. The first is Gunmetal Gods by Zamil Akhtar. The genre is Epic fantasy, it is very fast paced like break neck which is both good and bad. On one had something is always happening on the other I have no time to digest the content. I'd say it's entertaining but wouldn't say it's amazing at the moment. If you like quick popcorn style books go ahead you may enjoy it.

The second book I'm listening to is Restaurant at the End of the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, genre is Scifi satire comedy. We've all heard about Hitchhiker's and it's sequels I'm just finally working through the books. I recommend it but the author's humor seems jaded which is perfect for me lol.

I’m a big Douglas Adams fan. Enjoy!!
I loooved Hitchhiker's Guide! I never got around to reading the follow ups though. I'll have to add those to my "To Read" list.

I just started the second book in the Brimstone Angels series, Lesser Evils by Erin. M Evans. It's a fantasy book set in the D&D 5e world. I'm enjoying it, as I did the first one, if you like the D&D world and want to read a story that's like a serious campaign I'd recommend it.

How 'serious' of a campaign? My friends and I always have the most ridiculous events in our campaigns and that is what makes them fun. I dunno if I could do it with serious roles. :D
- My campaigns are the same, lol. It's fairly serious imo, the characters are trying to survive and get by, and have somewhat conflicting goals. i.e. one character just wants to keep a low profile and get another character to get rid of her pact, while that character wants to stay a warlock.
  I mean this is a bit of humour, but it is through the characters joking with another rather than a ridiculous event.

"The Housekeepers" by Alex Hay The description says "oceans 11 meets Downton Abbey" so a heist story set in early 1900s

I was up for a light, fun read and this seems to just fill the spot

Title: No Way Down: Life and Death on K2
Author(s): Graham Bowley
Genre: Documentary
I've just started, it's to early to decide whether I like and recommend it.

I’m also reading two-ish books! The first isDead Ringers by Christopher Golden. It’s a horror novel about doppelgängers. I’m only like 2 chapters in so that’s really all I know lol. The second is Dreamcatcher by Stephen King—another horror novel that I’m actually re-reading. It’s about a group of friends who, while out on their yearly gamehunting trip, get caught in the crossfire of a supernatural event. Loved it the first time, and so far I’m loving it the second time around :)

What book is currently on your nightstand?

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer

Who is the author?

Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin

What genre?
Biography

How do you like it?

Excellent Book! It’s long, and it’s somewhat heavy reading, in light of it’s rather serious subject matter - building a weapon of mass destruction, dealing with McCarthyism. I’ve been at it over a month, but I appreciate that I can look at the cast list for the movie (which is based on this book), and recognize all of the character names! The authors definitely turned over every stone on studying the man - the book was about 25 years in the making - and the meticulousness shows.

Would you recommend it to others?

If you’re a history buff, definitely. For a more casual reader, it may be a bit much, though if you stick with it, you get a lot of fascinating stories.