It has been a while. I have been pretty, and haven’t been around much.
As for the books, I am still in the same place, reading Book 2 of Confederation The Better Part of Valour by Tanya Huff. Though I did spend some time reading a web novel, Book Eater, author is 메켄로 and translator is RainbowTurtle.
What about all of you? Which books have you been reading or listening lately?
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Friend recommended me Project Hail Mary which has been a lot of fun. It’s a sci-fi book by the same guy who wrote The Martian. I usually have trouble paying attention and doze off when reading but this one has surprisingly kept me engaged!
This is a really fun book. No spoilers, but message me what you think when it’s over.
Yeah, I loved Project Hail Mary, the book was really good. Not perfect, but pretty good.
That’s the first scifi book I had read in years, and it reminded me how much I LOVE scifi. I sincerely hope you enjoy it!
Great pick! Listened to it after The Martian and honestly, I like it even more. I heard they’ve started production on a movie adaptation with Ryan Gosling and I am very excited
I just finished the first book of the Wheel of Time series. It was interesting. My friend who recommended it said they get better after the third book, after the author wrested more creative control from the publisher. I’m on the library waiting list for the next one.
I’ve been thinking about trying Foundation again. I have a feeling my mind will wander a lot while listening to it, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing because I also need to think out the next part of my homebrew module for a game I GM.
That’s interesting about the creative control. I did notice the books getting better but didn’t know about the impact of publisher interference. Do you have any more info on what sort of things the publisher was pushing for? I’m scared to search for it because of the abundance of spoilers (I’m only on book 5).
What i was told?
“Make it more like Lord of the Rings. That’s what fantasy is supposed to look like”
Allegedly
I’m listening to the audiobook of Babel by RF Kuang. The narration is pretty great but I don’t know how I feel about the story as a whole yet.
I’m also reading Junot Diaz’s Drown on the recommendation of a work friend. Interesting how both books use the narrator’s native language to help color the stories.
Currently I’m reading something work related (The practice of Enterprise Architecture) but last Sunday I finished The way of kings by Brandon Sanderson. I’m on a reread for the Stormlight Archive books as book 5 will come out later this year.
Oh, I need to start the re-read too, and also re-read Mistborn series, and finally read Cytoverse… Lots of books to read…
A prior thread on Lemmy linked me to https://wanderinginn.com/ so I started reading that a few months ago… and it’s a ton of content to work through so it’ll be another few weeks at least for me to finish the first 9 books. Fun story, the writing is improving as the books progress. World building is 9/10; writing quality is 7/10. Worth giving the first chapter or two a try!
I saw it previously mentioned too, but it was so long, so put it off for later. Will check it out when I am done with my current web novel.
Just wrapped up chain-gang all-stars and loved it!
Just started this one after finishing fourth wing. Great so far
My daughter said Fourth Wing and Iron Flame were pretty frustrating with the betrayal/misunderstanding thing lasting like 500 pages. Do you feel like it was worth the read?
I have iron flame but definitely needed a break after fourth wing. The book was good but I agree that there was a lot of unnecessary drama.
Hmm. I’ve worked in a high school for the past couple of years, and I feel like my tolerance for melodrama in books is lower than it used to be since I hear melodramatic stories in real life almost every day. I think I’ll pass on this one until more books come out to see if it’s worth it.
Thanks for your response!!!
Hmm… a debut novel, finalist for various awards, and compared to Hunger Games.
Going to add it to my list.
Sherlock Holmes and the Shadwell Shadows, part of the Cthulhu Casebooks trilogy, I’m going through the audiobook, albeit fairly slowly. The premise is that this was part of a once lost/now discovered manuscript that implies that Sherlock Holmes was not only real, but that he also dealt with Lovecraftian gods, cults, and monsters. The setup starts out Lovecraftian enough, with a set of letters describing a manuscript being passed down after an old family member’s death, which then becomes the core story.
So far it feels like a nice blending of the two styles of writing, H.P. Lovecraft and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Lovecraft was a raging anglophile, so I’m sure he would’ve liked the synthesis/remix of works (now both public domain).
My trouble with the audiobook is that I’ve been primarily trying to listen to it before bed. The narrator’s voice work is good, but it’s apparently good enough at putting me to sleep as well. I don’t mean it as an insult, I honestly like the book, the writing, and the narrator, but something about the voice-work is putting me to sleep almost instantaneously. I have trouble sleeping most nights though, so it’s not an unwelcome effect. The problem though is that I’ll have to go through each chapter multiple times before I “get” the whole chapter and actually hear it through to the end.
The premise sounds interesting. Would love to hear your thoughts once you have finished the book.
Heh, that’s my problem with listening to anything before bed. At least the problem is that it’s too good.
I’ve been reading Wheel of Time book 5, The Fires of Heaven. Should finish this week but the next book is checked out at the library, so not sure what I’ll read while I wait for it to become available.
How are you liking the series so far?
I like it a lot! The books are long (sometimes maybe longer than necessary), but the author is consistently managing to capture and hold my attention. Some things are predictable but there have also been twists that I didn’t see coming. I can’t wait to see how the characters will continue to grow and how the story will unravel.
I’m reading Finders Keepers by Stephen King and listening to Berserker - Adrian Edmondson.
I’m having a plague phase. Recently read the plague by Camus, then Daniel Defoe’s diary of a plague year. Now I’m reading the great mortality by John Kerry. I’m only about a third in but it feels like an approachable history of plague. I find something horribly fascinating about plague. It was maybe the worst shit we’ve ever had to deal with as a species, truly apocalyptic.
The Last Podcast on the Left did an incredible series on the Black Plague. I know this is a book thread but it reminded me because The Great Mortality is one of the primary sources on it.
Cheers I’ll give it a try, I listen to podcasts at work.
Welcome back friend! I was actually thinking of you the other day - I haven’t seen a books thread in awhile (it probably has more to do with my sporadic Lemmy attendance)
Since Jan, I read some more of the expanse (just started book 4) and its been good.
I read book 1 of “The Bear and the Nightingale” and likely won’t read the rest. Immediately afterwards I read the book “Uprooted” and it was So good. It was everything I wanted the bear to be.
Finally got around to Legends and Lattes, and I listened to (and laughed my ass off) to Seth Rogan’s book.
I also read “Between the World and Me”. It took me awhile as I don’t generally like. Non-fiction (especially reading vs listening) but I wanted to give it a crack as I saw it was on the news for some book ban thing in the USA.
All in all, if anyone cares, check out Uprooted by Naomi Novik. It’s a standalone novel and only around 400 pages. Moves and progresses nicely and the characters are good.
Thanks! I was actually pretty regular, but then I disappeared for about 3 weeks, which is why there wasn’t any thread for a while. A bit sad to see that no one posted anything in 3 weeks I wasn’t around though. Anyways, It should be back to normal now.
That’s lots of books. I haven’t read much this year, have been super busy with other stuff, but that’s just life.
What didn’t you like about The Bear and the Nightingale? And how did you like Legends and Lattes? Same question about “Between the World and Me”.
Thanks for the recommendation. Uprooted is already on my wishlist, but will prioritise it now.
I found the Bear and the Nightingale slow and probably needed to pay better attention to the characters as sometimes they would use nicknames that were close to names. I’m sure its some people’s cup of tea but it wasn’t for me. I found Uprooted to be everything I wanted it to be. Bear is based on Russian folklore and Uprooted on Polish. So there were some similarities in styles but I found it just moved quicker and I found myself liking the characters more.
Lattes was fun. Nothing over the top but since it’s supposed to be a story that takes place AFTER the sword is hung up it makes sense. It was enjoyable and it helped me completely understand the “cozy fantasy” sub genre that spawned from it.
“Between the world and me” was one of my 3-6 non-fiction reads of the year. I try to grab some that push me outside my norm/comfort zone (Swords, wizards, space lasers, etc). As a white man, not from the USA, it was interesting to read his perspective. On the flip side, I’m not sure why a teacher was almost fired over it (or at least that’s why it was in the news)
I’m a dad for 3 littles so I have lots of down time to knock off books. Before them I had way less time for reading because I wasn’t home bound everyday by 7:30pm haha
Thanks for the details!
I have been pretty
Even if you do say so yourself
Previous book was, House in the cerulean sea, I think maybe I read it at the exact wrong time in my life.
Currently re-reading The city and the city, almost finished. I enjoyed it the first time, less so the second I think.
I’ve got Illium lined up for a re-read next. I can’t remember what I thought about it the first time through.
Haha, I didn’t even notice this. I think I am going to leave it just like that.
As well you should, you deserve to feel pretty as much as the next person.
I just finished Kiersten White’s Mister Magic and give it 5/5 stars. If you’ve ever been in a cult, or you like creepypastas, or you just like really kind and likable characters, give this one a read.
Currently reading I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong and loving it. Microbiology is fascinating.
That house.
That house is fucking terrifying, the way she just writes it there.
What does being in a cult or liking creepypastas has to do with liking really kind characters? I think that would be in different spectrum.
Maybe I misunderstood your question, and you’re asking how those three things exist in the same book? The story premise is very reminiscent of the popular creepypasta Candle Cove. I don’t want to get spoilery, so I’ll just say, as someone who was raised in a cult, you can have some genuinely lovely people who were fooled or were taken in as children.
My question was a mix of both, thanks for answering. I’ll look it up.
It doesn’t, hence the word “or” instead of “and.” I was talking about three different features of the story, any one (or more) of which might appeal to someone.
Just finished Three body problem trilogy intend to start Lord of the flies (I think that’s the English name for that one).
Revisiting Eric Flint’s 1632 series. I read the first several books and anthologies some years ago, and enjoyed them, but lost track of the series. I’m a bit daunted to see they got up to nearly forty published books, but we’ll see how it goes!
I haven’t read much alternate history, but this looks nice, will look it up.
