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Maklershed · Jul 1, 2015

Maklershed · Jul 1, 2015

Q: What is ths post? What do you mean book of the month?
A: Just a fun idea to spotlight one particular book in a month upon which GAF readers can focus their attention. This won't be like a regular book club where goals or set or discussion is necessary (but it's encouraged). If you even choose to read the book, read at your own leisure, share your thoughts if you like. Have fun.

This months book...

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

My apologies for not making the first pick a little more democratic but we were crunched for time and I wanted to see how this plan would work out. Hopefully we can have a more robust nomination and selection process for August.

Necrovex · Jul 1, 2015

One could not list a better book of the month.

Going to start reading The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland. As some know, I had some troubles with Valetine's John Prester series so we'll see if I click with this one.

Also finished Brothers Karamazov after reading it for the past month. I feel phenomenal reaching its conclusion!

Cade · Jul 1, 2015

Hey, is there a good point in The Dark Tower I can take a break? I'm enjoying it and I'm still on book 3, but I kind of want to throw in something one-off without losing my place in the series and forgetting what the fuck is going on.

Nymerio · Jul 1, 2015

Still going through the first Mistworld books but I've also started on The Miracle of Mindfulness.

Maklershed · Jul 1, 2015

Kindle

Dead Space: Martyr by B.K. Evenson

Audiobook

Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era by James M. McPherson

Angst · Jul 1, 2015

Currently Old Man's War (it's pretty good but not fantastic)

And:

Y The Last Man series - it's fucking amazing!

whatevermort · Jul 1, 2015

Cade said:
Hey, is there a good point in The Dark Tower I can take a break? I'm enjoying it and I'm still on book 3, but I kind of want to throw in something one-off without losing my place in the series and forgetting what the fuck is going on.

It only gets more convoluted and confusing. That said: break after book 4. That's when he took a huge break in writing them.

Cade · Jul 1, 2015

whatevermort said:
It only gets more convoluted and confusing. That said: break after book 4. That's when he took a huge break in writing them.

Excellent. Will take your advice, thanks mort. Might read The Tommyknockers in between, then.

DistortionOfReality · Jul 1, 2015

Finished Peter F. Hamliton's Judas Unchained yesterday. Really really enjoying it, better than his Reality Dysfunction Series by a country mile.
Started on The Dreaming Void almost immediately after finishing, so I'll be chewing through that trilogy for a few weeks yet

Mumei · Jul 1, 2015

Necrovex said:
Going to start reading The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland. As some know, I had some troubles with Valetine's John Prester series so we'll see if I click with this one.

Valente's.

Maklershed said:
Q: What is ths post? What do you mean book of the month?
A: Just a fun idea to spotlight one particular book in a month upon which GAF readers can focus their attention. This won't be like a regular book club where goals or set or discussion is necessary (but it's encouraged). If you even choose to read the book, read at your own leisure, share your thoughts if you like. Have fun.

This months book...

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

My apologies for not making the first pick a little more democratic but we were crunched for time and I wanted to see how this plan would work out. Hopefully we can have a more robust nomination and selection process for August.

Excellent choice. The only hesitation I have is that a decent number of the more active posters have already read it and I don't think most of us are quite emotionally prepared to do it again, but I hope that this encourages more people to try it. It's one of my very favorite books, after all.

Ashes · Jul 1, 2015

Roboleon said:
I'd be down for reading stuff together too, I tried to ask around about co-reading unread classics that shame your shelves earlier, with little response

As long as it's not sci-fi/fantasy I'll probably join in!

What books did you have in mind?

Ratrat · Jul 1, 2015

Really want to read Hanya Yanagihara but refuse to spend $12 for a kindle ebook. Publishers need to stop doing this.

Maklershed · Jul 1, 2015

Sweet! New Joe Abercrombie book this month - Half a War. Comes out July 16.

And ShaneB, there's a new Craig Lancaster book coming out this month titled This is What I Want.

Mumei said:
The only hesitation I have is that a decent number of the more active posters have already read it.

Yeah that was my main trepidation as well but I sorta just panicked and went with it. Haha

sasliquid · Jul 1, 2015

Currently I am bouncing between Time of Contempt (the 2nd main Witcher book) and the manga of Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind

Mumei · Jul 1, 2015

Ratrat said:
Really want to read Hanya Yanagihara but refuse to spend $12 for kindle ebook. Publishers need to stop doing this.

Library!

And I disagree; I think that the devaluation of books is abhorrent. I don't think $12 is an unconscionable amount to be paying for an ebook; you're already getting $23 off the list price for the hardcover.

Bladenic · Jul 1, 2015

Reading Roxane Gay's "Bad Feminist." Only 50 pages in, pretty interesting so far.

Camwi · Jul 1, 2015

I surrender! I'm ready for Brandon Sanderson to take over the series!

SniperHunter · Jul 1, 2015

Evolution of desire
why women have sex
inheritance (genetics)
calculus made easy

higgsboson1997 · Jul 1, 2015

Camwi said:
I surrender! I'm ready for Brandon Sanderson to take over the series!

Haha, this stretch was even a little bit worse than the current AFFC-ADWD stretch in ASOIAF. Luckily, things get better with Knife of Dreams, and really good after that.

GasProblem · Jul 1, 2015

Halfway through The Hero of Ages. The last book of the first Mistborn trilogy. Really enjoying it, but I like the world of the Stormlight Archive books better.

Don't know what I'll read after that. I kind of want to join the AsoIaF re-read that's going on. But there's still so many other books I want to read, I think it would be wiser to start the re-read when a Winds of Winter release date is announced and plan my re-read around that.

Half a King? Leviathan Wakes? The Goblin Emperor? Name of the Wind? Lies of Locke Lamorra? City of Stairs? Lord of the Rings? Hyperion? Assassin's Apprentice?

How am I supposed to pick one?

TTG · Jul 1, 2015

Cade said:
Hey, is there a good point in The Dark Tower I can take a break? I'm enjoying it and I'm still on book 3, but I kind of want to throw in something one-off without losing my place in the series and forgetting what the fuck is going on.

The way I did it is I would read other books alongside it from about the third book on. The Dark Tower is different from a lot of stuff I read, so it was great to switch back and forth or even split reading sessions between it and something else.

That being said, stopping at the end of 4 makes sense, looking through the wiki.

Burger · Jul 1, 2015

Them by Jon Ronson.

Fascinating little stories about people who believe a New World Order is ruling the planet, including crazies like Alex Jones and David Icke.

Great great great.

Ashes · Jul 1, 2015

Maklershed said:
Yeah that was my main trepidation as well but I sorta just panicked and went with it. Haha

720 pages!

I'm out.. I am in the middle of reading other er long books. I'll read it in January.

Weiss · Jul 1, 2015

Last month I finished the last four books of Codex Alera, and was kind of disappointed in how weak the final book was.

Now I'm re-reading John Dies at the End.

Mumei · Jul 1, 2015

Ashes said:
720 pages!

I'm out.. I am in the middle of reading other er long books. I'll read it in January.

Hm. If that's too much, try her first book, The People in the Trees. It's half the length and also excellent.

Camwi · Jul 1, 2015

higgsboson1997 said:
Haha, this stretch was even a little bit worse than the current AFFC-ADWD stretch in ASOIAF. Luckily, things get better with Knife of Dreams, and really good after that.

That's what I figured, going by Amazon reviews (Knife of Dreams has a 2/5 star average). I can't wait to move on to the next book.

Deleted member 1235 · Jul 1, 2015

I'm starting in on book 14 of a wheel of time. I can't believe I'm nearly there!

I really enjoyed 1 through about 8, then I felt it became really painful with all the 'LIGHT, WOMEN HOW DOES PERRIN AND RAND DO SO WELL WITH THEM' and the skirt smoothing ad-nauseum.

however, once brandon sanderson took the reigns for the last 3 books (and possibly as it's the last act or whatever) the pace really really picks up. I can't put it down now. somehow managed to stay entirely spoiler free for the series as well, so I'm really eager to get it done.

edit:

Haha, this stretch was even a little bit worse than the current AFFC-ADWD stretch in ASOIAF. Luckily, things get better with Knife of Dreams, and really good after that.

I am currently experiencing the good bit and I feel I have earned it.

Brandon Sanderson has really cemented himself as the most awesome of fantasy writers. incredible how quickly and how well he churns books out.

I really need my wrap-up to the name of the wind trilogy as well damnit.

ShaneB · Jul 1, 2015

Maklershed said:
And ShaneB, there's a new Craig Lancaster book coming out this month titled This is What I Want.

Thanks for pointing this out. I'll definitely be reading that when available. Sounds great.

I decided I will be reading this next when I am not so busy on vacation.

The Robin Buss penguin classic edition is only 2.73 on Amazon.ca

Lots of interesting nonfiction(biographies & memoirs) monthly deals too. Crazy for the Storm is there, that gets my recommendation.

despire · Jul 1, 2015

I'm reading this:

Haltiain Verta (Blood of Elves), which is, as the cover says a part of the Witcher (Noituri in finnish) saga. The third book actually. This is obviously the finnish translation, straight from polish which is very good luckily

Karu · Jul 1, 2015

Finished Haruki Murakami's After the Quake yesterday, Afterdark before that, and now to start the month (and probably end with it, haha)...

Haruki Murakami - The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

sparky2112 · Jul 1, 2015

DistortionOfReality said:
Finished Peter F. Hamliton's Judas Unchained yesterday. Really really enjoying it, better than his Reality Dysfunction Series by a country mile.

My god, the Ozzie, kid, and dog parts were insufferable...

whatevermort · Jul 1, 2015

Cade said:
Excellent. Will take your advice, thanks mort. Might read The Tommyknockers in between, then.

There is absolutely no way I can ever recommend you read The Tommyknockers, I should say. It's be remiss of me to let you. I wrote this for the guardian on it: http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/aug/28/the-tommyknockers-stephen-king-rereading but that does have spoilers so...

whatevermort · Jul 1, 2015

Mumei said:
Library!

And I disagree; I think that the devaluation of books is abhorrent. I don't think $12 is an unconscionable amount to be paying for an ebook; you're already getting $23 off the list price for the hardcover.

Absolutely. It's completely ridiculous saying that a book isn't worth $12. (Admittedly I have a horse in this race, but still!) A book is the product of years of work, of graft. Reading a book lasts hours. How is a digital file worth so much less than physical? The content - which really is what you're paying for - is the same.

Cade · Jul 1, 2015

whatevermort said:
There is absolutely no way I can ever recommend you read The Tommyknockers, I should say. It's be remiss of me to let you. I wrote this for the guardian on it: http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/aug/28/the-tommyknockers-stephen-king-rereading but that does have spoilers so...

Is it not good? I've just been buying and planning on reading whatever King stuff I can find cheap at local library book sales. Now I have to read it just to see, but I'll bookmark that for after.

NYCmetsfan · Jul 1, 2015

I just started reading again because I have a subway commute so I'm finding time to read again.

I'm just about done with

Not sure if Invisible Man (not HG wells) or Tale of Two Cities will be next

whatevermort · Jul 1, 2015

Cade said:
Is it not good? I've just been buying and planning on reading whatever King stuff I can find cheap at local library book sales. Now I have to read it just to see, but I'll bookmark that for after.

It's a bloated mess, a paranoid coke fantasy fragment of a story dumped almost unedited onto thousands of pages.

Close to my least favourite of his books.

Dandy Crocodile · Jul 1, 2015

Yassss A Little Life! If I were back home I might reread it but as it is, I've loaned a copy to my boyfriend whose reactions are letting me relive it vicariously.

sparky2112 · Jul 1, 2015

60%+ in. Don't bother.

Cohen is a bit of a darling, the book has rave critical reviews, and a few Amazon reviews compare him to Wallace. And it's supposedly the 'definitive' internet novel thus far - better than Egger's The Circle or Pynchon's Bleeding Edge (which isn't really an internet novel, so...).

First, Cohen isn't Wallace - not by a mile. He's smart, for sure, and there are nice passages that I've highlighted, for sure, but to hear Cohen give interviews, what he's saying in them is not what's on the page. The books is ostensibly about a struggling writer named Joshua Cohen who is hired to ghostwrite the memoirs of a Google-like mogul named Joshua Cohen. GET IT? Only the latter's recollections don't really shed much light on the internet and often devolve into just babble - 'It was the biggest small thing you ever saw and the smallest big thing', which isn't a direct quote from the book, but might as well be.

Cohen has 35% to turn this into something, but if I weren't a completest by nature, I probably wouldn't bother to finish it. Of course, it's that attitude that made me finish The Goldfinch, which almost killed my love of all that is good in this world...

Dedication Through Light · Jul 1, 2015

I am still reading Dissent and the Supreme Court: Its Role in the Court's History and the Nation's Constitutional Dialogue

Ordered Reading the Comments: Likers, Haters, and Manipulators at the Bottom of the Web to read this month.

Online comment can be informative or misleading, entertaining or maddening. Haters and manipulators often seem to monopolize the conversation. Some comments are off-topic, or even topic-less. In this book, Joseph Reagle urges us to read the comments. Conversations "on the bottom half of the Internet," he argues, can tell us much about human nature and social behavior.

Reagle visits communities of Amazon reviewers, fan fiction authors, online learners, scammers, freethinkers, and mean kids. He shows how comment can inform us (through reviews), improve us (through feedback), manipulate us (through fakery), alienate us (through hate), shape us (through social comparison), and perplex us. He finds pre-Internet historical antecedents of online comment in Michelin stars, professional criticism, and the wisdom of crowds. He discusses the techniques of online fakery (distinguishing makers, fakers, and takers), describes the emotional work of receiving and giving feedback, and examines the culture of trolls and haters, bullying, and misogyny. He considers the way comment--a nonstop stream of social quantification and ranking--affects our self-esteem and well-being. And he examines how comment is puzzling--short and asynchronous, these messages can be slap-dash, confusing, amusing, revealing, and weird, shedding context in their passage through the Internet, prompting readers to comment in turn, "WTF?!?"

Interfectum · Jul 1, 2015

Okay series so far, hate the main character though. =/

ArcLyte · Jul 1, 2015

whatevermort · Jul 1, 2015

sparky2112 said:
60%+ in. Don't bother.

Cohen is a bit of a darling, the book has rave critical reviews, and a few Amazon reviews compare him to Wallace. And it's supposedly the 'definitive' internet novel thus far - better than Egger's The Circle or Pynchon's Bleeding Edge (which isn't really an internet novel, so...).

First, Cohen isn't Wallace - not by a mile. He's smart, for sure, and there are nice passages that I've highlighted, for sure, but to hear Cohen give interviews, what he's saying in them is not what's on the page. The books is ostensibly about a struggling writer named Joshua Cohen who is hired to ghostwrite the memoirs of a Google-like mogul named Joshua Cohen. GET IT? Only the latter's recollections don't really shed much light on the internet and often devolve into just babble - 'It was the biggest small thing you ever saw and the smallest big thing', which isn't a direct quote from the book, but might as well be.

Cohen has 35% to turn this into something, but if I weren't a completest by nature, I probably wouldn't bother to finish it. Of course, it's that attitude that made me finish The Goldfinch, which almost killed my love of all that is good in this world...

Totally agree. I abandoned this well before the point you're at. Nonsense, and unbearably try-hard with it. A desperate grab at being LITERARY, showing off how much he understands the concept of Metafiction, but the book fundamentally doesn't work. And it's just irritating to read.

Dedication Through Light · Jul 1, 2015

ArcLyte said:

I havent read that in months, I need to get back to it. I need my Alex K Stewart, and Marcos Garcia.

RepairmanJack · Jul 1, 2015

A little over halfway through 11/22/63. It's slowed way down for me, because it's gotten pretty boring once it's gotten to the point of him just hanging around for a couple years and waiting. The bad dreams and stuff slipping out is interesting but it seems so few and far between and also seems like it's likely not going anywhere.

I'm getting to a point where I think Stephen King just isn't for me.(besides the first four Dark Tower)

AngmarsKing701 · Jul 1, 2015

More than halfway through Disenchanted. It's the definition of mediocre so far. Pretty sure Kroese was shooting for a Princess Bride like tone with a pinch of badass, but he's mostly missing the mark.

MikeJAMoran · Jul 1, 2015

After a brief audiobook resurgence in April/May, I now want to get back onto it this month so I've picked up:

To be read digitally.

And:

To be listened to via Audible.

Uzzy · Jul 1, 2015

Just finished The Buried Giant, by Kazuo Ishiguro.

I kept having to remind myself that the same author wrote The Remains of the Day in order to keep reading it. A very average book, I feel. The masterful prose of The Remains of the Day was nowhere to be seen, and the characters felt pretty dull, even compared to the more usual fantasy fare I've read recently.

PassiveObserver · Jul 1, 2015

Getting to the tail-end of The Brothers K, and it's getting good. The way things are going, it seemed like tragedy porn. I mean,

one brother's in jail, the other is in a mental breakdown after the war, and now the father's got cancer.

I'm still certain the ending will be optimistic.

Doctor Ninja · Jul 1, 2015

I finally started reading "A song of Ice and Fire" it's been a party I've been missing for a long time.

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