How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix
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What'cha Reading?
- Thread starter Falselogic
- Start date
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King
I was not a fan, but, with the exception of some short story collections, I am done with his back list (unless I do want to read Rose Madder in the future). Moving on, Murder Your Employer by Rupert Holmes looks like it could be fun
karzac
(he/him)
Yesterday I finished Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands , Kate Beaton's graphic novel memoir of her time working in the Alberta oil industry. Many of you might know Beaton as the author of the webcomic Hark! A Vagrant. This is her first full-length adult work and it's a really beautiful and melancholy look at the human toll that a terrible industry - and the terrible economic conditions that enable it - takes on its workers
Highly recommend, and it's a fairly quick read. Much darker than her other work, although it still finds moments for humour. Content warning for sexual assault though
Highly recommend, and it's a fairly quick read. Much darker than her other work, although it still finds moments for humour. Content warning for sexual assault though
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
I was lucky to get this from the library right when it came out and really loved it.
I'm on the second book in the series now (A Closed and Common Orbit). While I'm a little upset that it doesn't seem like we'll be spending more time with
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
Have you read Iron Widow yet? That's my go to "less heavy" recommendation and has been for a year or two. It's so good.
I recently read the graphic novel Batman '89, which I thought was really great. Finally finished the first arc to Mother of Learning, jumping into the second one, and finally getting back to the Star Wars EU with Annihilation by Drew Karpyshyn
Annihilation was great, my favorite Star Wars EU book so far. Now reading The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson and Steven Spielberg: A Biography by Joseph McBride
April was a cruel month, reading wise. I only finished two novels and one novella. This was largely due to starting The Way of Kings by Branderson Sanderdon which after a month of commutes I'm only a little past halfway. I could have finished three other shorter, more impactful books in that time but ah well, I guess that's epic fantasy for you.
Vergil in Averno - Avram Davidson (1986)
Davidson's 100th birthday was this month and I celebrated by tackling one of his most erudite novels. I've attempted it twice before but it defeated me both times. Glad to finally made my way through and it was very rewarding, though I feel like I'm still missing lots. Davidson was extremely knowledgeable about the ancient world and he packed this book full of obscure references, off the cuff allusions, and symbolic parallels that we don't necessarily have context for. More so, the book is written in a folksy stream of consciousness that makes it hard to suss out even the basic plot.
In The Inferno, Virgil claims to have visited hell once before in order to retrieve a soul for the witch Erichtho. This is very problematic in Catholic doctrine and various explanations and rationales have been offered over the centuries. In this work, Davidson takes that conceit for the basis of his story. It details a younger Vergil than the one that appears in his seminal "The Phoenix and the Mirror," one who hasn't yet attained wealth or status. He's summoned by signs and portents to the city of Averno, a horrible place built on top of a natural fumarole, where industry and greed rule all. Nominally he's there to solve the problem of diminishing fires which threatens the rich magnates of the city's livelihoods. But what actually occurs is a tour of a symbolic hell of everyday cruelty and injustice all in the name of avrice.
A harrowing book with an explosive ending. I wish there was more scholarship on it, because there's a lot going on here but its buried very deep.
Memorare - Gene Wolfe (2007)
Reread for the show. A novella that's part noir love triangle, part D&D dungeon-dive in outer space, part symbolic journey into hell (how serendipitous).
Treasure Island - Robert Luis Stevenson (1881)
Read aloud to Alex at bedtime. I was worried that it would be too dry and old, especially in light of more modern pirate stories he's been exposed to like Pirates of the Caribbean or Pirates of the Caribbean (Kingdom Hearts), but he really enjoyed it. It's a very entertaining story, especially if you don't know the twist (though who doesn't, it's become such a part of pop culture at large). Wonderful that it can still hold up in our cynical modern era.
Vergil in Averno - Avram Davidson (1986)
Davidson's 100th birthday was this month and I celebrated by tackling one of his most erudite novels. I've attempted it twice before but it defeated me both times. Glad to finally made my way through and it was very rewarding, though I feel like I'm still missing lots. Davidson was extremely knowledgeable about the ancient world and he packed this book full of obscure references, off the cuff allusions, and symbolic parallels that we don't necessarily have context for. More so, the book is written in a folksy stream of consciousness that makes it hard to suss out even the basic plot.
In The Inferno, Virgil claims to have visited hell once before in order to retrieve a soul for the witch Erichtho. This is very problematic in Catholic doctrine and various explanations and rationales have been offered over the centuries. In this work, Davidson takes that conceit for the basis of his story. It details a younger Vergil than the one that appears in his seminal "The Phoenix and the Mirror," one who hasn't yet attained wealth or status. He's summoned by signs and portents to the city of Averno, a horrible place built on top of a natural fumarole, where industry and greed rule all. Nominally he's there to solve the problem of diminishing fires which threatens the rich magnates of the city's livelihoods. But what actually occurs is a tour of a symbolic hell of everyday cruelty and injustice all in the name of avrice.
A harrowing book with an explosive ending. I wish there was more scholarship on it, because there's a lot going on here but its buried very deep.
Memorare - Gene Wolfe (2007)
Reread for the show. A novella that's part noir love triangle, part D&D dungeon-dive in outer space, part symbolic journey into hell (how serendipitous).
Treasure Island - Robert Luis Stevenson (1881)
Read aloud to Alex at bedtime. I was worried that it would be too dry and old, especially in light of more modern pirate stories he's been exposed to like Pirates of the Caribbean or Pirates of the Caribbean (Kingdom Hearts), but he really enjoyed it. It's a very entertaining story, especially if you don't know the twist (though who doesn't, it's become such a part of pop culture at large). Wonderful that it can still hold up in our cynical modern era.
John
(he/him)
I'm flipping between the new Book Club selection (Her Body and Other Parties) short stories and Stephen King's latest, Fairy Tale. I'm 120 pages in, and wish that he would get to the fireworks factory already. He's used half of a regular novel's page count as setup and tease, which could've been one chapter.
The Book Club's short stories tell entire concepts in 10-30 pages, and are much more impactful. Fairy Tale's fine so far, just could've been much better with a lot of editing, but people don't read King for brevity anymore.
Oh, and I finished up Dahl's The Witches, reading to our daughter at bedtime. Was fun doing voices for the grandma & the Grand High Witch, and I like that it ends on a bittersweet note.
The Book Club's short stories tell entire concepts in 10-30 pages, and are much more impactful. Fairy Tale's fine so far, just could've been much better with a lot of editing, but people don't read King for brevity anymore.
Oh, and I finished up Dahl's The Witches, reading to our daughter at bedtime. Was fun doing voices for the grandma & the Grand High Witch, and I like that it ends on a bittersweet note.
I was right! It left me wanting more. Definitely enjoyed the book, wish I'd gotten to spend more time in its world. If they made a sequel I wouldn't be mad!
My son and I have been on a Roald Dahl kick lately, reading through George's Marvelous Medicine, James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory back-to-back. One the one hand, it has been a super fun experience, since he's at the right age to be delighted by the incredible humor and imagination in Dahl's writing. On the other, as a parent, I've had to take a few breaks to explain some of the more problematic stuff, which so far has mostly been centered on Dahl's raging fatphobia. I know he was pretty racist in real life, and thankfully that doesn't always come through in the text (at least not on a surface level), but holy shit does the man hate fat people. The stories are also a little meaner than contemporary kids' fiction - James' cruel aunts get crushed to death by the peach and everyone cheers - but I can't say I totally mind that part. Kids can be mean, and adults can be mean, and I think it's OK to show that in fiction sometimes. But I've heard Witches is among the more anti-semetic of his books, so I'm curious to know if that was blatant enough for your daughter to notice.
John
(he/him)
There was definitely some fatphobia with the treatment of the other boy, but I didn't catch blatant antisemitism with the Witches themselves. I thought the witches had more Romani traits than Jewish, but I'm neither so can't speak for experience. I've seen people compare the witches' crusade to Blood Libel accusations, but many of the other allegations are just based on the movies' interpretations.
The UK publisher just released plans to revise most if not all of his books for content. There was censorship backlash, and now they're also going to keep the original versions in print alongside the changed ones. I looked at some of the proposed changes, and at least as far as The Witches was concerned, it wasn't a major change in my opinion.
The Alloy of Law was great. Will definitely keep reading the series. I DNFed the Spielberg, because I'll wait until he's passed on for a more complete story. Now, reading Cinema Speculation by Quentin Tarantino and The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
It's been a while but I don't remember anything antisemitic in the book. I'm glad to see there's nothing about that in the edits. This of course doesn't mean there would be something but I will note that it doesn't seem like anything is blatant.
There are a bunch in there I don't quite get, but I'm really confused by this one. The whole point is he's a violent kid from watching too much TV, taking that last sentence out is removing a line that gives you a lot more detail about the character. I would have thought it was editing out all the gun violence but they left that in? What am I missing here?
John
(he/him)
I think they just don't want to glorify a child shooting guns in the air like it's a fun activity, even if they're just toys. I imagine that when he wrote that in the early 60's, British kids didn't have access to actual guns, whereas even though there's still gun control prohibiting access to handguns, it's probably much easier for them to find.
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
Aw, this isn't at my library yet. Sounds really fun though, I filled out the suggested purchase form for it.
Ooh, yeah that makes sense.
Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger. I loved his This Tender Land back in '21.
Finished up Empress of Forever. I don't know what I expected from the "tech billionaire" beginning, but "rolicking space opera isekai adventure" wasn't it. But it was a very good one of those! Gladstone is an excellent writer and I need to track down more stuff by him. In particular I like the way he paints incomprehensible dimensions (something he did similarly in This is How You Lose the Time War). His imagery is strong but also works on levels that kind of go beyond human comprehension, and he leaves just enough ambiguity in his descriptions to let the imagination fill in. Things like the pride ships being "hate fractals" stand out.
Next up: Black Leopard, Red Wolf. I had started the audiobook but decided I'd rather read it on the page, so I took a break and ordered a physical copy, and now that Empress of Forever is on the shelf I can continue BPRW.
Next up: Black Leopard, Red Wolf. I had started the audiobook but decided I'd rather read it on the page, so I took a break and ordered a physical copy, and now that Empress of Forever is on the shelf I can continue BPRW.
Tender Land was a bit better, but this got me in the mood to revisit one of my favorite coming of age stories, which I haven't read in over 20 years: Boys Life by Robert McCammon. Also, reading The Making of The Empire Strikes Back by J.W. Rinzler
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
Finally starting The Comic Book Story of Video Games which @Purple gave me for Festivus. Haven't gotten far but am appreciating the background on computers (including acknowledging that women were computers for firing tables) and other details that I didn't expect the book to include.
Boy's Life was sensational. I'm glad I decided to reread it. Will most likely be rereading Swan Song next month. Now, on to Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
Started the third of these, Record of a Spaceborn Few, a couple nights ago. So far so good!
FelixSH
(He/Him)
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is a weird book. It's excellently written, the style reminded me of the Bronte sisters' books, I love how it has all these footnotes that add flavor to the world, how there are so many characters, how these characters are multilayered. It takes its time. I think it takes for a fifth of the book, before Strange is even introduced. I didn't understand what the actual story of the book would be, up to at least the middle point (and, honestly, I'm not sure I can tell you now, after reading it, because it works structurally different than many other books, I think). I mean, yeah, it is about a historical moment, where two people try to restore magic to England, but it feels more like this - a historical document, written with great prose, instead of a regular novel. It never has quite THE antagonist, even though there is a character that kinda works that way, just not really. The beats of the books feel off, in a good and interesting way.
Any other book would have let Strange and Norrell meet the Raven King. It kinda does, but not as a basically super-human being, but as a character, probably an antagonist. I'm not even sure with what to do with it, having them meet him, and still, after GETTING magic, not being more than a little disturbance to him, to his insane power.
I'm not sure it really stuck the landing, but that doesn't matter. If it works, it works for the time it invites you into the world, letting you share in their past and present.
Any other book would have let Strange and Norrell meet the Raven King. It kinda does, but not as a basically super-human being, but as a character, probably an antagonist. I'm not even sure with what to do with it, having them meet him, and still, after GETTING magic, not being more than a little disturbance to him, to his insane power.
I'm not sure it really stuck the landing, but that doesn't matter. If it works, it works for the time it invites you into the world, letting you share in their past and present.
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell is so good. I also highly recommend her newer novel, Piranesi. It's very different from JS&MN, but extremely good.
Also, I found the Strange & Norrell BBC miniseries to be pretty good, though I think reviews from lovers of the book have been mixed. But then again, aren't they always?
Also, I found the Strange & Norrell BBC miniseries to be pretty good, though I think reviews from lovers of the book have been mixed. But then again, aren't they always?
I'm creeping up on the end of Way of Kings. Hard to believe this book has an end, but it's true! Somehow, I'm still in an epic fantasy mood and deciding what to do next. I won't be hopping into another Sando for a good long while. I'm thinking:
Eye of the World
Gardens of the Moon
Curse of the Mistwraith
Heroes Die
something by Guy Gavriel Kay
Eye of the World
Gardens of the Moon
Curse of the Mistwraith
Heroes Die
something by Guy Gavriel Kay