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What'cha Reading?

Violentvixen said:
I am now starting The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan, need something lighter while I continue to study for an exam. A quick flip through shows delightful sketches and notes so I'm excited. Little Things in a Big Country was a lovely nature journal/book I read years ago and never quite found anything like it again, Backyard Bird looks like it might so that's exciting.
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I have been utterly delighted by The Backyard Bird Chronicles and highly recommend it. I loved it but it was on hold at the library so I couldn't renew it and ended up getting my own copy. Reading an entry or two before bed every night was so pleasant. Beautiful art and watching her art develop with the journals is very cool.

Kind of sad I finished it honestly!
 
I've also been reading Small Town Horror by Ronald Malfi, which is fairly similar to Peter Straub's Ghost Story, the book is even dedicated to him. Really enjoying it so far
 
Reading A Passage to India by EM Forster as part of my classics book club and I'm really struggling with it. I appreciate it's importance historically and understand it was controversial and progressive at the time but I dunno, it just feel really awkward and dull. It's been a really tiring work week though so maybe I should just stop trying to force it for a couple days.
 
I'm reading C. J. Tudor's The Chalk Man. It's a Stephen King -esque story of murder and secret histories; just set in Old England instead of New England. Not sure if there's going to be a supernatural element or not, it could go either way.
 
My wife and I recently finished listening to Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary. It is so damn good. Just crammed full of fascinating ideas and good science, alongside believable characters you care about. It's the kind of book where it's impossible to get into any details without massive spoilers, though, and I had a lot of fun piecing things together that are gradually revealed through the first half. And even that sort of thing flowed really well; the characters are all smart, so every time I figured something out I felt clever for about 10 seconds before they did too.

I also can't help comparing it favorably to Three Body Problem (which admittedly I've only seen the mini-series version of) - both works are just wall-to-wall heady ideas about near future tech and contact with alien life and facing the end of the world, but Hail Mary is in the end so much more hopeful and optimistic, where Three Body is just suffused with cynical practicality. That element *exists* in this book but it doesn't smother it. Anyway, 10/10 one of my new all-time faves.
 
I liked Tainted Cup slightly better than Corruption. I thought Corruption took a bit more time to get interesting, although I liked the climax and the scene in the Shroud. Now, reading XX by Rian Hughes and Black River Orchard by Chuck Wendig
 
Kirin said:
My wife and I recently finished listening to Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary. It is so damn good. Just crammed full of fascinating ideas and good science, alongside believable characters you care about. It's the kind of book where it's impossible to get into any details without massive spoilers, though, and I had a lot of fun piecing things together that are gradually revealed through the first half. And even that sort of thing flowed really well; the characters are all smart, so every time I figured something out I felt clever for about 10 seconds before they did too.

I also can't help comparing it favorably to Three Body Problem (which admittedly I've only seen the mini-series version of) - both works are just wall-to-wall heady ideas about near future tech and contact with alien life and facing the end of the world, but Hail Mary is in the end so much more hopeful and optimistic, where Three Body is just suffused with cynical practicality. That element *exists* in this book but it doesn't smother it. Anyway, 10/10 one of my new all-time faves.
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Three Body Problem is on my short list of best books ever. Project Hail Mary was really good, I loved the Martian but thought Artemis was terrible, so I didn't really have any expectations going into it. But Hail Mary touches on a lot of different branches of science in really interesting ways. I also appreciated that Andy Weir is always apologetic when people notice or bring up a math error, and I think they either get fixed in later editions or at least he brings it up in interviews and such. It's nice.
 
I reviewed a novel called UnWorld for The Boston Globe. I wanted to like it, but I found the setting distractingly thin. I'd consider reading the author's next novel though. On the other hand, I was very much taken with the André Alexis story collection Other Worlds, which I reviewed for Reactor.

Other books:
Here We Are by Graham Swift - An enjoyable and slightly mysterious tale of stage magic and a love triangle on the Brighton Pier in the 1950s. Not a major work, but reminds me I need to read more of Swift. I read its 200 pages in a single sitting.

The Painted Room by Inger Christensen - Cryptic Danish novel of murder, art, and aphorism in the Italian Renaissance. The same author's Natalja's Stories was similarly difficult, but less fun. Seems almost like the skeleton of a larger book; should be finishing the reading later this evening. Perhaps I should have just read the similarly themed Perspective(s) by Laurent Binet?

The Finishing Touch by Brigid Brophy - Brophy's homage to the camp novels of Ronald Firbank, with a lead character modeled on her friend and acquaintance Anthony Blunt, the art historian who was also a Soviet spy. Wouldn't widely recommend, as the mincing "prancing" Firbank style is something most readers will hate, with bonus untranslated French. I enjoyed it, but somewhat impatiently: The ideal reader lived fifty years ago and is a gay British Francophile.

The Ways of Paradise by Peter Cornell - A book in the form of footnotes to a nonexistent manuscript apparently about surrealism, labyrinths, the center, and the peripheries. A book for readers of Borges or Umberto Eco.

Next up:
The Pretender by Jo Harkin, a tragicomic historical novel beloved by industry people and critics I'm inclined to trust.
 
Just finished How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying, which I really liked. Basically the protagonist has been stuck in a fantasy-world time loop, failing to save the Kingdom, for a lonnnnng time. And then gets sick of it and decided to try playing for the other side. There's a second one I have to pick up soon.

Currently a ways into The Siege of Burning Grass.
 
Finished BRO last night. It was pretty good. Forgot to mention, I had also added The Gate of the Feral Gods by Matt Dinniman. I'm more than halfway done. It feels good to get back to DCC
 
Feral Gods is probably now my second favorite in the series. Now, reading Swashbucklers by Dan Hanks. I guess I kind of like that It trope of people as adults coming back to vanquish an ancient evil that they first encountered years ago
 
Starting Leslie F*cking Jones which is an A+ memoir name. Listening to the audiobook as part of a summer reading challenge and enjoying myself immensely so far. Opening chapter chronicles another comedian and show promoter trying to bully her into taking the headliner spot without a pay raise and her winning the battle. Nice.
 
The Devils was a banger, my favorite of the month. I closed out July by reading a few graphic novels: Three Jokers by Geoff Johns and Welcome to the Jungle by Jim Butcher: a prequel to Storm Front. I'll definitely be reading the rest of the Dresden GNs to tide me over until the new book comes out next year

In the meantime, starting my August with Gunmetal Gods by Zamil Akhtar and Fire and Song by Bryce O'Connor. Been almost a year since I read Iron Prince which was one of my favorites from last year
 
I finished All The Water In The World, which is a very unique post-apocalyptic book. The prose is a bit hard to make out, but I like the adventure vibe and the characters are fun.


I also read Cross My Heart And Never Lie, which very cute and wholesome graphic novel about feminity, love, and growing up. It would be perfect for a closeted 10 year old girl, and I like the simplistic diary style. The plot is fine, I think it would be better if it was a bit longer, but it all comes together very nicely in the end. I think there are some unintentionally funny lines here, like "can I love a girl and still like BTS", but it's still really cute and enjoyable.
 
Fire and Song was an awesome sequel. I also read Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow by Tom King because some Booktuber thought that was going to be the basis for the new movie. Now reading UNSONG by Scott Alexander
 
Just finished When We Were Real by Daryl Gregory last night and I really enjoyed this one. Elevator pitch: seven years ago, our reality was revealed to be a simulation, and to prove it, the creators dropped some completely inexplicable and glitchy phenomena all around the world. Now, a bunch of people are on a bus tour to see some of the Impossibles of North America, all with their own reasons. Things quickly become unhinged from there while retaining a shocking amount of heart. Very fun book all around.
 
Just finished Hyperion for the book club, and might go on to the sequel but first taking a detour to If This Book Exists, You're in the Wrong Universe by Jason Pargin. 4th book in the John Dies at the End series, which I've read the first three of some time ago but don't remember too super well. I'm sure it'll be fine though!
 
been re-reading the Steven Brust Taltos novels and god damn they're still as good as the day i first read them
 
I finished Anima Rising by Christopher Moore. It was decent, not one of his best, but I think it's his best written. Now, giving The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones a try
 
Started A Prayer for the Crown-Shy, the second Monk & Robot book by Becky Chambers. Seems appropriately cozy and low-stakes so far, a little less than two chapters in. The biggest scene so far involved the robot petting a dog for a bit too long and ignoring people until it got awkward, to give you an idea of what kind of book it is.
 
Violentvixen said:
Starting Leslie F*cking Jones which is an A+ memoir name. Listening to the audiobook as part of a summer reading challenge and enjoying myself immensely so far. Opening chapter chronicles another comedian and show promoter trying to bully her into taking the headliner spot without a pay raise and her winning the battle. Nice.
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Just finished this. It's very long as apparently she is retelling all the stories in the book rather than just reading it, but that worked really well for me since I'm not an audiobook person. It felt much more engaging and I highly recommend it. Unless you don't like swearing. Then stay the fuck away.

Also she's fucking hilarious and all of her anti-racism, sexism rants and her rage at so many Republicans were great to listen to. Felt like I was venting too.
 
BHH, unfortunately, didn't work out for me, but here's a small rundown of books I did finish:



You by Caroline Kepnes - Joe is creepy AF. Reminded me of Patrick Bateman. Great thriller though. I'll most likely read Hidden Bodies sometimes next year

Deathstalker: Rebellion by Simon R. Green - First book is still slightly better, but still, this is a great 90's space opera series. I'll be reading War later in the month

Unsong by Alexander North - Pretty long web novel, that was turned into an ebook thankfully last year about an alternate Earth where it's discovered that angels and demons actually exist. The guy who wrote this really knows his theology. There's a great Interlude late in the book where the MC interprets the lyrics of American Pie about being about Jesus



Anyway, on to September. Going back to Carl and Donut with The Butcher's Masquerade by Matt Dinniman and giving another attempt to Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon
 
Starting Vision by David Tatel. He's a civil rights lawyer and judge who I had vaguely heard of in headlines but wasn't super familiar with. He was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa as a child and the book is also very much about living with a disability, which is how I heard about it in the first place.

I am not too far into it yet but as someone who suppressed/hid their disability for far too long this passage stuck with me:

Somehow I feared my friend's judgments about my declining vision more than the decline itself. Like most kids, I just wanted to be "normal" and I thought my friends would think less of me if they knew what was going on. So I began building a repertoire of cover-up strategies. Instead of saying to my friends "I can't see the ball" I made up excuses like, "Can't believe I missed that one." (As if being a lousy ballplayer were better than being a poorly sighted one). Instead of telling my friends at the movies "I have trouble seeing in the dark, could someone else get the popcorn?" I [counted the seats sideways and rows up and down]. (As if struggling through the theater were less strange than asking for help). In his fine book The Beauty of Dusk, Frank Bruni, a New York Times columnist, writing about his sudden loss of sight in one eye, describes a friend who concealed his vision loss through "an exhausting charade that required a layer of energy on top of all the other layers." I sure knew how to play that tiring game.
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Anyway, I hope the rest continues to be as good.

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