What'cha Reading?

[Paul le Fou]

Man, Children of Dune very suddenly goes to some Places in the last 100 pages, huh? Now I'm interested in reading the next book again.

Dune Messiah is widely considered not particularly great, mainly existing as the bridge between Dune and Children. Children is indeed generally well-liked. And next you've got God Emperor, which I haven't read, but which I understand is where things start getting weird.

 

[masterthes]

The Wisdom of Crowds by Joe Abercrombie

Really good stuff, can't wait to see what Joe writes next. Now, currently reading Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments by Joe Posnanski. I'm also working my way through Arguably: Essays by Christopher Hitchens

 

[lincolnic]

Dune Messiah is widely considered not particularly great, mainly existing as the bridge between Dune and Children. Children is indeed generally well-liked. And next you've got God Emperor, which I haven't read, but which I understand is where things start getting weird.

Oh okay cool, so it's not just me who thinks Dune Messiah was bad. Yeah, I'll read God Emperor when I finish my current library stack, because I liked how it got weird at the end of Children and I'm looking forward to more of that.

Right now I'm reading Stephen King's Carrie, because 1) I never have, 2) it turns 50 (!) this year, and 3) someone at work recommended it to me a while back. I'm liking it a lot! Knowing nothing aside from the basic outline of the plot, I've been pleasantly surprised by the interesting stuff it does in terms of form (breaking up narration by interjecting a character's thoughts, interspersing bits of epistolary media from after the events of the plot itself to provide context, etc). I've got about 60-80 pages left and am looking forward to wrapping this one up.

 

[Violentvixen]

Huh, this has reminded me that I don't think I've ever read a Stephen King book.

I started Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson this weekend. I needed a Debut Author book for the library's winter reading challenge and a coworker recommended it to me. It sounds interesting but as of page 39 the book has been narrated from I think five character's perspectives already? I struggle with books that have multiple narrators so am not hopeful I'll finish this one but want to keep trying.

 

[masterthes]

Now, currently reading Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments by Joe Posnanski.

this was really great. If you're a baseball fan, highly recommend. Now, reading Slewfoot by Brom. This guy has pretty much been 3 for 3 for me so far

 

[masterthes]

Stephen King reread with 'Salem's Lot

 

[Baudshaw]

Scott Pilgrim (books 1-7) were a fun time. Keep in mind I watched the 2023 show before reading the books, so I use that as a comparison.

It's strange going from a media in the 2020s to the exact same media in the 2000s. It feels like it's de-matured, with many of the jokes feeling childish. However, there are a lot of hitters. Overall, the graphic novel is a lot more slow-paced and more slice of life focused than the show, which has a relatively structured plot and premise. That being said, I still prefer the show, especially in regards to the visual design.

Done better in the books: Scott, Kim, Wallace

Done better in the show: All evil exes, Ramona, Julie, Knives

 

[Beowulf]

Scott Pilgrim (books 1-7) were a fun time. Keep in mind I watched the 2023 show before reading the books, so I use that as a comparison.

It's strange going from a media in the 2020s to the exact same media in the 2000s. It feels like it's de-matured, with many of the jokes feeling childish. However, there are a lot of hitters. Overall, the graphic novel is a lot more slow-paced and more slice of life focused than the show, which has a relatively structured plot and premise. That being said, I still prefer the show, especially in regards to the visual design.

Done better in the books: Scott, Kim, Wallace

Done better in the show: All evil exes, Ramona, Julie, Knives

I would argue that the show is a sequel to the books, especially given what we learn about future-Scott.

 

[masterthes]

Stephen King reread with 'Salem's Lot

Finished this in two and a half days. Definite upgrade. Moving on to The Tyranny of Faith by Richard Swan

 

[Baudshaw]

That sounds funny. Book Scott would probably do what he did

I would argue that the show is a sequel to the books, especially given what we learn about future-Scott.

 

[lincolnic]

Read Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah over the past few days, I could not put this book down. I don't even know what to say about it. Just an incredible work.

 

[Rascally Badger]

I just finished Rites of Peace by Adam Zamoyski. A very readable write-up of the Congress of Vienna. I loved how messy and petty everyone trying to get what they could out of the fall of Napoleon was.

 

[Exposition Owl]

I just finished Rites of Peace by Adam Zamoyski. A very readable write-up of the Congress of Vienna. I loved how messy and petty everyone trying to get what they could out of the fall of Napoleon was.

My wife did her Ph.D. dissertation on turn-of-the-19th-century diplomatic history, and I always loved hearing her stories about the messy pettiness of diplomats and consuls. For example:
--Thomas Jefferson, who would consistently have won Olympic gold in the 100-meter petty-off, kept a burn book of all the things he hated about European and other U.S. diplomats. When he died, Jefferson specifically ordered that all of his papers be burned so that his abundant messiness wouldn't be on public display, but his executors somehow missed that one, so it has survived for historians to enjoy.

--John Adams (who did not order his papers burned upon his death, and so has an unfair reputation for being especially messy just because all of his many complaints about other people survive for us to read) basically ended his diplomatic career because Benjamin Franklin refused to back him up in an argument.

--U.S. diplomats Silas Deane and Arthur Lee made a killing on the British stock exchange by exploiting inside information about what the U.S. Continental Army was going to do in the war. When they got caught, Lee claimed that the whole thing had been Deane's idea, and so got off scot free.

--The U.S. diplomat Gouverneur Morris was a notorious lech, and he carried on an affair with Talleyrand's wife when he was the U.S.'s man in Paris during part of the French Revolution.

--This one is about generals rather than diplomats, but still. The main reason that Benedict Arnold switched sides during the Revolutionary War was that he was mad that Washington promoted Nathanael Greene, one of his subordinates, before him.

 

[Rascally Badger]

--The U.S. diplomat Gouverneur Morris was a notorious lech, and he carried on an affair with Talleyrand's wife when he was the U.S.'s man in Paris during part of the French Revolution.

My response to this, especially reading about what Talleyrand was getting up to during the time frame of the book I just read, is 'good for her.'

 

[keele864]

I recently read Sven Holm's Termush, and reviewed it for The Washington Post. Given how many books I've bought on recommendation from Post critics, I was thrilled to write for them.

I also wrote about the new K. J. Parker series for Reactor, formerly Tor dot com.

Aside from that, I've been reading Ruth Scurr's John Aubrey, My Own Life, which is a biography of the seventeenth-century antiquarian written as a diary. It's one of those books that will fascinate and enthrall a few readers and mystify everyone else. Recommended if you like Sir Thomas Browne, experimental biography, or amiable amateur archaeologists.

Also read Christopher Hitchens's A Hitch in Time, a series of left-wing pieces from the London Review of Books which makes his eventual rightward swing seem even stranger than it already did. In these pages, he's so good at identifying bad faith and imperial hypocrisy; how did he descend into it himself? Will admit that some essays suffer from their timeliness: As an American reading forty years on, some of the minor British political figures of the 1980s who are mentioned but not introduced left me confused.

Oh, and loved Duff Cooper's Operation Heartbreak. If you know your WWII intelligence history, you'll very likely guess the sting in the tail before you begin the novel, but somehow that doesn't dilute the effect of this short book from 1950.

 

[Violentvixen]

I recently read Sven Holm's Termush, and reviewed it for The Washington Post. Given how many books I've bought on recommendation from Post critics, I was thrilled to write for them.

That's so cool, congrats!

 

[lincolnic]

Making It So was fantastic. Highly recommended.

I DNF'd Making It So, unfortunately. It was so slow for my taste

Hey I'm reading this now! I'm about 250 pages in, and it is slow, but I'm finding it extremely charming so I don't mind.

 

[keele864]

That's so cool, congrats!

Thanks very much!

Hey I'm reading this now! I'm about 250 pages in, and it is slow, but I'm finding it extremely charming so I don't mind.

I get the impression Making It So is a lot like Alec Guinness's memoirs: Maybe not always discussing the roles you're most interested in, but so pleasant to be in the author's company. Guinness, of course, was significantly less enthusiastic about his famous science fiction role.

Does Making It So talk about Stewart's small but vital role opposite Guinness in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley's People? Stewart doesn't get a single line, but his malevolent silence conveys so much.

 

[masterthes]

The Trials of Empire by Richard Swan

 

[lincolnic]

Does Making It So talk about Stewart's small but vital role opposite Guinness in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley's People? Stewart doesn't get a single line, but his malevolent silence conveys so much.

I am sorry to report it does not.

 

[Violentvixen]

I get the impression Making It So is a lot like Alec Guinness's memoirs: Maybe not always discussing the roles you're most interested in, but so pleasant to be in the author's company.

This is very accurate!

I just finished What you are looking for is in the library by Michiko Aoyama and I so highly recommend it. A series of connected short stories about people who find what they need at a small community library. Just pleasant and cozy and rewarding.

 

[lincolnic]

Well, I was reading God Emperor of Dune, but at exactly 100 pages it suddenly becomes disgustingly homophobic out of nowhere, so guess I'm done with Dune now.

 

[masterthes]

Set My Heart to Five by Simon Stephenson

 

[Baudshaw]

I read 6 books, but 5 of them are graphic novels. I gotta read more text.

Anyways:

Star Wars: Darth Vader (Kieron Gillen). I read Book 1 (Vader), Book 2 (Strife and Shadow), and Book 3 (Shu-Torun War). I never expected it to reference the prequels, but I found it cool. Book 1 is 7/10, Book 2 is 8/10, and Book 3 is 7/10.

Red Harvest. It's a great graphic novel. I love the art style, and the description of the Holodomor is great. I have nothing to complain about this book. 10/10

The American Dream? (Shing Yin Khor) The book goes through a lot of detail, but it's so short that I barely feel much about it. It's framed as this grand journey through Route 66, but it just feels like a small road trip. 6/10.

Letters from a Slave Girl. It's quite a downer book, since the main character is basically suffering throughout, but I like the little minor victories. 8/10

 

[masterthes]

Wrestlecrap by R.D. Reynolds

 

[masterthes]

Rereading The Shining for my monthly King project. Also, finally giving The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky a try. It's been a hot minute since I read a full length book by him

 

[FelixSH]

Done with Snuff, the 39th Discworld book (I think, the third-to-last in any case), and the last Vimes novel (not really the last Watch novel, the others do appear, but it's mainly Vimes trying to have a holiday, out of Ankh-Morpork.

I liked it. It also went incredibly dark, which, even for how Discworld went that route as it went on, felt like it was further pushed than in the other books. Like, goblins are treated like trash, and here are brought to a place where they are killed, and I think their bones are turned to some heavy drugs that kills trolls. It's heavy stuff.

I really enjoyed how it had a bit of a stronger focus on Sybil, who is such a great character and wife for Vimes. Smart, strong, capable, I enjoy her every time she is in a Watch/Vimes novel.

But I don't know how much I liked Vimes in this one. There were at least parts, where he felt more like a bully. I mean, we know he is a good person, and what he does is for a good and necessary thing. But he simply has no right to be a policeman here, and even if, he could as well be an antagonist, the way he acts. He could lie about everything. We know he doesn't, but that's beside the point, he just takes out special rights for himself. Which is part of how the Watch novels tend to work, but it felt more pronounced here then in the other books.

And sure, he has to defend his actions against Vetinary, but the details are never questioned.

Also, considering the way the police abuses their power, it feels kinda weird to have this policeman who tends to do (especially here) things not by the book. And how it is ok, because in this one special case, we know it is Vimes who is a good guy. That's not how it is supposed to work.

I listened to the podcast Radio Morpork some time ago. They argued, that Nightwatch would have been a good place to stop the Vimes novels, which I do agree. And that, maybe, they could focus on a new recruit. With the watch being so big, there just has to be some bad stuff going on, at least partly. Vimes and the general old guard can't see everything. It is essentially done with Tiffany, in the Witch novels, where we see the witches through a new perspective, and learn how it is to be a new one. Seeing that in the watch would be very interesting.

Anyway, two more to go. Haven't read Raising Steam yet, but did read Sheperds Crown when it was new. I'm looking forward to both, and than to reread The Color of Magic, and maybe Guards, Guards, as a contrast to the later books.

 

[masterthes]

Blackwater by Michael McDowell

 

[Büge]

I liked it. It also went incredibly dark, which, even for how Discworld went that route as it went on, felt like it was further pushed than in the other books. Like, goblins are treated like trash, and here are brought to a place where they are killed, and I think their bones are turned to some heavy drugs that kills trolls. It's heavy stuff.

Something I learned which was fascinating to me, was that the whole idea of the Goblins being an oppressed and colonized minority was inspired by Sir Terry's time playing Oblivion, in which there are several quests that involve wiping out entire tribes of Goblins, which he found distasteful.

 

[lincolnic]

Two good ones recently. In reverse order of reading:

Orbital by Samantha Harvey, who isn't an author I knew about but apparently is very critically acclaimed, and after reading this book I can see why. It's a very quiet and meditative novel about six astronauts on the International Space Station. There's no real plot as such, you just kind of...sit with them, being party to their thoughts and observations. It's hard to describe, but the writing is absolutely lovely. If any of this sounds at all interesting I highly recommend giving it a read.

Before that, I read The Golem of Brooklyn by Adam Mansbach. While I'm not sure I'd recommend this one as globally, as a lapsed Jew who loves golem stories I was pretty much guaranteed to be into it. Don't get me wrong, it's a fun story that I think anyone here would probably enjoy, but there's a lot of cultural stuff involving Hasidic Jews and how they relate to secular Jews (to say nothing of the wider world), and I honestly have no idea how that comes across for non-Jews. I can at least say that if you only read one book this year about a golem fucking up white supremacists, read this one.