TwntyOneTwlv
Member
I can't believe I missed this. It's showing $11.99 now, darn.
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What are you reading? (February 2016)
- Thread starter Maklershed
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I can't believe I missed this. It's showing $11.99 now, darn.
Brerlappin
Member
I've been looking for stories with thief protagonists doing thief stuff (fantasy, scifi, whatever) so while Theft of Swords was fun, it wasn't quite what I was hoping it to be.
Only a chapter or two into Lies of Locke Lamora so far, but it looks like it's more in line with what I was looking for. And it's actually legit funny! Really excited to continue it today.
I loved this book. Its one of the best ive read in so long i cant remember. The three books in the series are all great (tho Lies is probably the best). It just gets better and better too.
Currently reading
Eh. Its a real slog at times, but when its talking about the life of Napoleon, and not the minutiae of every single movement of one battle, its very interesting. Not sure if ill finish it tho, as it is quite dreary at times
Wonderful review. Glad you loved it, when I posted after reading I shared many of the same thoughts. Reading stuff like that is always why I try and find those hidden gems to share, and I thanked whoever it was that posted about it previously.
H is for Hawk is on my to-read list as well someday.
Yeah, Bone Clocks is directly linked iirc. Couple characters that are the same I think? Not sure. Only read Cloud Atlas and Slade House so far, and even CA has some of the same language used.
DeathoftheEndless
Crashing this plane... with no survivors!
I finished Silence by Shusaku Endo. Its about a missionary who goes to Japan during the Christian persecution after hearing of his former teacher's renouncement of faith.
I loved the book. Endo's writing is straightforward and avoids the bloat of in-depth sensory descriptions. Its main concern is the struggle Father Rodrigues has with his faith in a time of great suffering. The reconciliation of a loving God with human suffering is a common dilemma in religion. I found Silence's framing of that scenario to be profound and affecting. The outcome of the story took me completely by surprise. I was actually worried that it would head in a poor direction, but the ending left me more than satisfied.
I'm really excited for Scorsese's film adaptation later this year. I assume there will be a lot of narration due to how introspective the novel is. The cast is tremendous and I have confidence that Garfield and Scorsese will translate the novel's power well to the big screen.
I loved the book. Endo's writing is straightforward and avoids the bloat of in-depth sensory descriptions. Its main concern is the struggle Father Rodrigues has with his faith in a time of great suffering. The reconciliation of a loving God with human suffering is a common dilemma in religion. I found Silence's framing of that scenario to be profound and affecting. The outcome of the story took me completely by surprise. I was actually worried that it would head in a poor direction, but the ending left me more than satisfied.
I'm really excited for Scorsese's film adaptation later this year. I assume there will be a lot of narration due to how introspective the novel is. The cast is tremendous and I have confidence that Garfield and Scorsese will translate the novel's power well to the big screen.
whatevermort
Member
They are all linked, to varying degrees. Every book he's written shares the same universe, with characters popping up over and over again. Bone Clocks sort of explains it. Sort of. But yes. BC is like a wrapper for the rest. It's kind of like Mitchell's Dark Tower in a weird way.
Christoff Yurievich
Member
I saw a review that started out talking about how this book is linked to his other works. So I've decided to start from the beginning and read them all first.
Yeah, I know. I was scrambling to think of a "real" African author there, and cheated. I do have the Cairo Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz in my bookshelf, though, but haven't read it yet.
Switch Back 9
a lot of my threads involve me fucking up somehow. Perhaps I'm a moron?
You're a maniac. The third book is awful. Completely turned me off the series.
Red Seas gets a bad rap though, while not as good as Lies I still enjoyed it quite a bit.
FUBAR McDangles
Member
As good as Shadows of Self was...I'm having way more fun with Calamity.
These Reckoners books might be aimed for young adults and all that, but they are right up there with the original Mistborn trilogy for me as best Sanderson books (which, admittedly for me is just Mistborn 1-5 and now the Reckoners...but still). I really need to get around to reading Words of Radiance/Way of Kings.
So entertaining. Anybody have any other superhero books? They're all the rage in comics and movies now, so I figure there have to be others.
This may or may not be what you're looking for, but check this out: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=162948448&postcount=151
So there's another Shadow story in Trigger Warning called Black Dog. While Monarch of the Glen was probably one of the best stories in Fragile Things, Black Dog is only "just okay". There was a lot of exposition in there, references to myth or literature, characters just talking for the sake of conveying these tidbits. There was an element of that in Monarch of the Glen too, but have read it recently it wasn't nearly as pronounced.
There's another fairy tale retelling, in the vein of Snow, Glass, Apples from Smoke and Mirrors. I enjoyed that. There's a Doctor Who story which is actually Matt Smith's Doctor. There's a very good Sherlock story. The other stories range from "meh" to "decent". Not a lot of standouts.
I feel like Gaiman kind of cares less now, but that probably happens to every author.
There's another fairy tale retelling, in the vein of Snow, Glass, Apples from Smoke and Mirrors. I enjoyed that. There's a Doctor Who story which is actually Matt Smith's Doctor. There's a very good Sherlock story. The other stories range from "meh" to "decent". Not a lot of standouts.
I feel like Gaiman kind of cares less now, but that probably happens to every author.
This sounds like my experience with short fiction collections in general. Usually I'll find a couple stories I really like and the rest fails to grab me. Admittedly I haven't read as many as I like and I assume older stuff would be better curated.
I bought a copy last year that I still haven't read yet. Glad to hear you liked it, though.
RepairmanJack
Member
Next Up:
Don't really remember what it's about but it was the first thing on my to read list that was available, so now its a surprise.
Edit: Ok, after a little bit in. This is oddly giving me strong Hyperion vibes for some reason. Reminds me of one of the stories a lot.
Don't really remember what it's about but it was the first thing on my to read list that was available, so now its a surprise.
Edit: Ok, after a little bit in. This is oddly giving me strong Hyperion vibes for some reason. Reminds me of one of the stories a lot.
Well the thing about short story collections is unless they all revolve around a single theme you're going to get different responses to different pieces in the same way you would if you just arbitrarily pulled books off the library shelf. I think that's to be expected.
What I'm talking about though, is that as a collection it is worse than Gaiman's previous collections, and draws a lot from them as well so it feels vaguely self-derivative. Like these are the leftovers after he put together the first two.
Just finished Tess of the D'Urbervilles after not having finished a book in over two weeks. I really enjoyed Hardy's writing style and his description of the English countryside. The story was kind of ridiculous with how many hardships Tess had to endure. I felt sorry for her, but didn't necessarily find her to be a likeable character. This book has made me want to read more Hardy in the future tho.
Nebula nominees are out.
For novel:
Raising Caine, Charles E. Gannon (Baen)
The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
Ancillary Mercy, Ann Leckie (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
The Grace of Kings, Ken Liu (Saga)
Uprooted, Naomi Novik (Del Rey)
Barsk: The Elephants Graveyard, Lawrence M. Schoen (Tor)
Updraft, Fran Wilde (Tor)
For novel:
Raising Caine, Charles E. Gannon (Baen)
The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
Ancillary Mercy, Ann Leckie (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
The Grace of Kings, Ken Liu (Saga)
Uprooted, Naomi Novik (Del Rey)
Barsk: The Elephants Graveyard, Lawrence M. Schoen (Tor)
Updraft, Fran Wilde (Tor)
Freedom and Death - Nikos Kazantzakis
This was amazing, by the way. I also just realized this particular cover ties into a (very brief) conversation from the novel.
I'm willing to believe this.
Pacific Rim had a novelization if you just want to scratch an itch. All You Need Is Kill is mostly about the time travel loop but features some power armor against an alien menace. I can't attest to their quality but there's also the WH40k books centered around the Titans.
When you think of a great, riveting, entertaining plot, what books do you think of? I've been asked about this and I don't really have a lot of stuff to recommend. Dan Brown, Stephen King, and like Harry Potter, but mostly everything else falls into sci fi and that's often politely or tacitly dismissed.
Conkersbadfurday
Member
Recently finished a kind of schlocky high-fantasy novel called Phoenix Ascendant by...can't remember. Third book in the BALANCE SWORD trilogy or somesuch. Was a review copy and hey, free fantasy books.
Not sure what I'll grab next. My mom has a handful of urban fantasy novels that she's praised pretty highly, and they seem fun. Witches and werewolves and fairies and shit. Not True Blood, but maybe by the same author.
Not sure what I'll grab next. My mom has a handful of urban fantasy novels that she's praised pretty highly, and they seem fun. Witches and werewolves and fairies and shit. Not True Blood, but maybe by the same author.
I really want to start and finish a book this year. Just lost my girlfriend two weeks ago and it still hurts, so I need something I can really delve into.
I were standing in the bookstore yesterday with "How to Kill a Mockingbird" in the one hand, and "Ice & Fire: A Game of Thrones" in the other hand.
Which one would be best for me to get, if I haven't finished a book since highschool?
I were standing in the bookstore yesterday with "How to Kill a Mockingbird" in the one hand, and "Ice & Fire: A Game of Thrones" in the other hand.
Which one would be best for me to get, if I haven't finished a book since highschool?
Atraveller
Banned
Want something to immerse yourself in? Game of Thrones it is.
But what kind of book is To Kill a Mockingbird? Is it a slow burn?
Also are you guys buying most of your books digital or physical? I'm not sure if I should dedicate my shelves to books. I kind of want to hold a book in my hands. I never finished a book when I had a Kindle anyway.
Also are you guys buying most of your books digital or physical? I'm not sure if I should dedicate my shelves to books. I kind of want to hold a book in my hands. I never finished a book when I had a Kindle anyway.
There's Battletech, one of the few Western mech series. Extensive line of novels with a lot of mechs though availability is terrible at the moment. (This may change once new novels in the series start getting published, soonish...) Short story anthologies (under name "Battlecorps Anthology #" may be easier to get.
Very pulp scifi though, writing and stories are pretty simplistic or meh.
Funyarinpa
Member
I go physical. Books are nice to have on a shelf, trust me.
Haven't read TKAM or ASOIAF yet, but Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy is an amazing, hilarious series of books with an amazing space opera veiled behind piss-your-pants-laughing good humorous prose. Give it a try! Might help you feel better.
AngmarsKing701
Member
For those of you with a lot of Kindle books ... how do you organize them? I mean, do you keep a bunch on your device and a bunch in the cloud, and work through the ones on your device first? Do you only keep the one you're reading currently on your device and then thumb through the library in the cloud?
I've got ... I don't even know how many books I have in the cloud right now. Pretty much any time something on my wish list drops to $1 - $4 I pick it up. The problem really is trying to keep these all organized in anything like an order I'd want to consider reading them in. I'd love to have a sort option that basically allows me to prioritize my Kindle books in what I consider to be my "to read" list.
I've got ... I don't even know how many books I have in the cloud right now. Pretty much any time something on my wish list drops to $1 - $4 I pick it up. The problem really is trying to keep these all organized in anything like an order I'd want to consider reading them in. I'd love to have a sort option that basically allows me to prioritize my Kindle books in what I consider to be my "to read" list.
I don't really. But then again I don't buy books I don't plan to read so I don't have a lot of clutter. Every book in my cloud is also on my Kindle.
You can create a collection to put books in but I don't think there's any function where you can give books priorities.
You can create a collection to put books in but I don't think there's any function where you can give books priorities.
I gave up on organising my kindle books years ago 
I have a random selection of old and recent purchases from a variety of genres on the device in the hopes that when I finish whatever I'm currently reading something that happens to be on there will appeal to me. And then I usually go and buy something else instead x_x
I have a random selection of old and recent purchases from a variety of genres on the device in the hopes that when I finish whatever I'm currently reading something that happens to be on there will appeal to me. And then I usually go and buy something else instead x_x
I quite literally lost myself in ASOIAF a couple of summers back. Did nothing but read all day for like a week and a half. Give it a try!
Even though I think I'm pretty good at English, it is not my first language, and thus I have found myself not understand certain words when reading English books. The question is, if I should just continue anyway and probably improve my language skills.
The thing is, that I'm currently reading a sample of Game of Thrones on my iPhone and there the dictionary have been useful. On the other hand, I think I would really like holding a physical copy in my hands at night but then I won't have the opportunity of looking up words unless I'm willing to shift between book and phone.
There's also the third option of finding the books in my first language but then the selection of books become more limited. And I'm not too fond of reading books in Danish because it doesn't sound good in my head.
The thing is, that I'm currently reading a sample of Game of Thrones on my iPhone and there the dictionary have been useful. On the other hand, I think I would really like holding a physical copy in my hands at night but then I won't have the opportunity of looking up words unless I'm willing to shift between book and phone.
There's also the third option of finding the books in my first language but then the selection of books become more limited. And I'm not too fond of reading books in Danish because it doesn't sound good in my head.
Is ASOIAF a synonym for a title? Is it the sequel to How to Kill a Mockingbird? Or is the book title simply ASOIAF?
Start using your library. You get to gold the physical book and it's free. If you really enjoy the book and would like to read it again. You can buy it.
Oh, I wouldn't mind buying it, as it's pretty cheap here at least.
I'm just now reading a sample of the start of Game of Thrones and it is very interesting. My only problem is, that I sometimes have a hard time knowing who is speaking, until a paragraph is ending with "- and so said Will", "explained Gerald" etc.
I'm just now reading a sample of the start of Game of Thrones and it is very interesting. My only problem is, that I sometimes have a hard time knowing who is speaking, until a paragraph is ending with "- and so said Will", "explained Gerald" etc.
I created a folder in NY kindle called "to read" all books go n there and I remove them from the folder once I read them. Works good enough
Oh, sorry, it's the name of the series - A Song of Ice and Fire. Game of Thrones is the first book.
Finally finished The Count of Monte Cristo. I don't think it's the longest book I've ever read but it *feels* like it, and I can't help but feel it would benefit (for me at least) from having some fat removed in places.
That said, I really enjoyed it. Going to try and find time to read more about it and check out some adaptations.
Currently on my Kindle I have, and will read in order of size (shortest first):
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
The Last Kingdom, by Bernard Cornwell
Paradise Lost: With bonus material from The Demonologist by Andrew Pyper
... and starting with:
That said, I really enjoyed it. Going to try and find time to read more about it and check out some adaptations.
Currently on my Kindle I have, and will read in order of size (shortest first):
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
The Last Kingdom, by Bernard Cornwell
Paradise Lost: With bonus material from The Demonologist by Andrew Pyper
... and starting with:
MultiJhonny
Banned
For adaptations I highly recommend Gankutsuou. It is anime (idk if you like it or not) but holy shit is it incredible.
Conscience Falls
Member
It's been far too long since I picked up a novel and really enjoyed it. The book I've enjoyed the most, by far, is Justin Cronin's The Passage. Anyone able to recommend anything akin to that novel?
Well, there's The Twelve, which is the sequel to The Passage, I believe.
Vampire apocalypse also shows up with The Strain, by Del Toro (I think?).
Been a while since I posted in these topics. Let's see, what have I done.
I finished all 3 of Django Wexler's Shadow Campaigns book so far. Great books, highly recommended.
I'm wrapping up Blood Song by Anthony Ryan. Also pretty awesome.
Got Sanderson's Calamity to read yesterday, and finished his Mistborn: Secret Histories, which was fun.
Is this the one that's told from Albert's perspective? Will check it out.
Maklershed
Member
Re Kindle Organization:
All new purchases go to the Kindle. Anything I read gets deleted off immediately. That's about the extent of it.
All new purchases go to the Kindle. Anything I read gets deleted off immediately. That's about the extent of it.
Your English is flawless in written form. Definitely fooled me!
DL everything, put finished books in a "finished collection" then make smaller collections. Anything I want to prioritize is put in a collection that's first alphabetically so it's easy to access when I turn it on.
MultiJhonny
Banned
Yep. It is a very interesting take on the book.
About halfway through both Cat's Cradle by Vonnegut and Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein.
Former is hilarious and reminds me a lot of The Crying of Lot 49. Likely this is primarily because I read that book just a month ago, but I do think the way they both view life as a chaotic machine of pure coincidence guiding mild people along indecipherable paths links them.
Latter I was planning to read after having actually listened to Sleater-Kinney—I'm a huge fan of Bikini Kill, like a couple other riot grrrl acts, love a couple NW US bands they associated with like Beat Happening and Unwound, am a big Portlandia fan, yet hadn't gotten around to listening to any S-K at all—but a coworker (who went to high school with Brownstein, funnily enough) was wrapping up with the book and offered to lend it to me, couldn't turn down the offer. So I'm trying to listen as I read, and I'm up to Dig Me Out in both the discography and memoir. (And what a discography, all three albums have at least 3 killer songs so far.) As a snapshot of what it meant to be an independent musician in the mid-90s it's plenty interesting, though what keeps me coming back is Brownstein's ability to capture her own disposition honestly. She's now very aware of her emotional shortcomings at the time and is excellent at analyzing where they sprung from, neither self-deprecating nor self-vindicating. The language and prose can get repetitive but that psychological frankness is more than enough to make up for it.
Former is hilarious and reminds me a lot of The Crying of Lot 49. Likely this is primarily because I read that book just a month ago, but I do think the way they both view life as a chaotic machine of pure coincidence guiding mild people along indecipherable paths links them.
Latter I was planning to read after having actually listened to Sleater-Kinney—I'm a huge fan of Bikini Kill, like a couple other riot grrrl acts, love a couple NW US bands they associated with like Beat Happening and Unwound, am a big Portlandia fan, yet hadn't gotten around to listening to any S-K at all—but a coworker (who went to high school with Brownstein, funnily enough) was wrapping up with the book and offered to lend it to me, couldn't turn down the offer. So I'm trying to listen as I read, and I'm up to Dig Me Out in both the discography and memoir. (And what a discography, all three albums have at least 3 killer songs so far.) As a snapshot of what it meant to be an independent musician in the mid-90s it's plenty interesting, though what keeps me coming back is Brownstein's ability to capture her own disposition honestly. She's now very aware of her emotional shortcomings at the time and is excellent at analyzing where they sprung from, neither self-deprecating nor self-vindicating. The language and prose can get repetitive but that psychological frankness is more than enough to make up for it.
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