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What'cha Reading?

Butcher's Masquerade was fantastic, my favorite in the series so far. Switching up to some historical fiction with The Confessions of Young Nero by Margaret George
 
Starting to read Designing Your Life because I took it to college and my roommate asked to borrow it for a hipster fashion content.
 
Back for Father's Day my family picked up the first Catan novel by Klaus Teuber, the designer of the board game. It was a bit of a joke, since it has a full color map of the hexagonal titular island, and it's freaking Catan, the game about trading wood for sheep. I started reading it, and really liked it. It's YA and silly, but apparently Catan was founded by Vikings exiled over a Romeo & Juliet style love affair. The sequel is supposed to come out next month, though it was planned for a trilogy and Teuber passed away before writing book 3.

This spurred me on to actively read more, something I haven't done in a long time, mostly preferring video games and screen media. I went with comfort food as well as some new to me things. Luckily my local library system is pretty good with its selections, and interlibrary loans are fast.

Stephen King - Mr. Mercedes, Finders Keepers, End of Watch, The Outsider, If It Bleeds, Holly
I always liked King as a kid, and his stuff hasn't changed much. Still too long and bloated, but they read quickly. Started with Mr. Mercedes because there's a TV show version and I could add that to the watch list afterwards, and then just went on with the series. Haven't checked out the most recent one, I'm very burned out on his style.

Gene Wolfe - The Devil in a Forest
Historical fiction, kind of an oddity for Wolfe. Fun read-along with the Alzabo Soup podcast, short but still has depth. I did go in thinking that this was an M. Night Shyamalan "The Village" situation, but that was just me forgetting that cities in Europe can be old and keep names for hundreds of years.

John le Carré - Call from the Dead, A Murder of Quality, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, The Looking-Glass War

I'd never ready any le Carré in detail, though have tried Tinker Tailor over the years, but that book does want you to be pretty familiar with the setting/people to get the most out of it. These are really good, and short which I like, but his style of obfuscating action and intent behind code is fascinating, plus just seeing a glimpse into early 60's England/Europe is neat in itself. Call is a good debut, Murder tried to shift to a detective novel and mostly works, Cold Spy was great. I'm currently halfway through Looking-Glass, and it takes the ending of Cold and dials up the bleakness.

Iain M. Banks - Culture books 1 & 2

I'd never cultured a Culture, but read book 2 first (another Alzabo Soup recommendation). They're good and fine, but doesn't really grab me, too austere when Culture's involved and trying hard to be the opposite when it's not.

Up next, I have never read any Sanderson so have Mistborn on hold at the library, which will probably come in next year based on hold order. I also have Casino Royale on tap, which will arrive this week so I can compare Smiley to Bond.
 
Recently finished:
The Confessions of Young Nero: Really solid historical fiction. Reminiscent of I, Claudius. I felt it did last some steam a bit after the halfway point. Will definitely try to read the second book before the year is out.

Welcome to Elm Street: Finished my second nonfiction of the year!. I am totally slacking on that front. This was a very broad, short and expensive (the Kindle was 26 dollars!) look at the entire Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. I was hoping fly something much bigger, like when I read Crystal Lake Memories a few years back. I saw there was a recent book that came out, but b that also didn't look that long. To it's credit though, what I got was good.

The Nice House on the Lake, Vol. 1: Graphic novel about this individual named Walter who invites his group of friends to a lake house and unbeknownst to them, the world ends. That's all I'll say. Definitely unsettling, wasn't that crazy about the art style, but I will continue to the next volume.

Currently reading: Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle and The Python Years: Diaries 1969 -1979 by Michael Palin
 
masterthes said:
The Nice House on the Lake, Vol. 1: Graphic novel about this individual named Walter who invites his group of friends to a lake house and unbeknownst to them, the world ends. That's all I'll say. Definitely unsettling, wasn't that crazy about the art style, but I will continue to the next volume.
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Oh yeah, I read this a while ago before the second volume was available and forgot to look for it since. Thanks for the reminder, I'm excited to check out volume 2. Looks like the story continues further in The Nice House by the Sea, which I also just put a hold on at the library.

I'm not as good at keeping this thread updated as I used to be, but I'm currently reading Exordia by Seth Dickinson. I wasn't familiar with this author, but I liked his work on the most recent Magic the Gathering storyline (of all things) enough to check out his own books. This one is pretty bonkers from the get-go and I'm very interested to see where it goes.
 
I am nearing the end of The Devils by Joe Abercrombie.
Its a fantasy book, but set in a sort of alternative version of Earth. The geography is the same and you'll recognize the place names. But elves and werewolves and vampires and magic all exist in this world, so everything is a bit different. If you know your middle school world history, you'll recognize the differences.
The plot setup is pretty much the setup for Suicide Squad or Creature Comandos. I wouldn't say there's too many surprises here. Abercrombie is leaning into the stereotypes and tropes. What I like about that is he uses the setup to add humor that I enjoy. There's some romantic pairings but I wouldn't say romance is high on Abercrombie's priority list and he mostly fades to black before intimate scenes get too graphic. He spends more ink on the battles, usually jumping between multiple simultaneous fights.
I'm enjoying the read. It feels like a well market tested Marvel movie. Easy to follow and a bit predictable but a fun ride. I'm not finished and while a bunch of points have been predictable, I'll admit I'm not sure how the book ends. I'm expecting a twist because that's just the kind of thing you'd expect, but I don't 100% know what the twist is going to be.
 
Finished up the British Spy novels I had on tap.

The Looking-Glass War was intensely cynical and depressing, a good follow-up to The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. Uncaring bureaucracy and capitalistic one-upsmanship butting up against humanity, and humanity loses. A good Tragedy, everyone's doomed but still has to go through the motions. Bleak.

Casino Royale - It's been a bit since I've seen the film, but I was surprised that its screenplay hewed so close to the source material. I suppose Bond fans are the rabid type who would get upset at big changes, and I gather they really didn't care for the original farcical adaptation. Fleming's writing style is much more straightforward, he tells it like it is 100% of the time. I prefer Le Carré's style that came a decade later. Maybe Fleming's later work added more complexity, and maybe I'll get to those another time, but I'm shifting genres now.

Got tired of waiting for my library hold of Mistborn, and was at Barnes & Noble the other day, so I picked it up. It's been a long time since I paid attention to book prices, as I did most of my reading via ebook and most recently through the library. I had a Homer Simpson response of "they got these new paperback books.. $24USD? getouttahere". Still picked it up but dang.
 
Reading Dan Brown's latest The Secret of Secrets. So far, I have only really enjoyed the first two Langdon books. Hopefully, this might break the cycle
 
Got maybe 80 pages in and then quit, mostly because looked like Brown was repeating himself, so instead I reread Firestarter and had a real good time with it. Don't think it's top 10 material, but more likely top 15. Now, reading When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi
 
I have been trying to get through People Collide by Isle McElroy for a few weeks and I am finding it an absolute chore to read. The characters all seem pretty flat and unlikeable and I strongly disliked the writing style from only a couple pages in. I've heard it shifts a bit later on so going to stick with it a bit longer and hope my opinion changes.

This is also one of those awkward cases where someone really liked this book and recommended it to me, and I know they're going to be bummed I didn't like it. I'll need to try to come up with something nice to say unless the book picks up soon.
 
lincolnic said:
Exordia by Seth Dickinson
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This book was completely off the rails from start to finish, mostly in a good way. It also pretty transparently set itself up for a sequel, so I guess I'll have to watch for that in the future. (Also, every time I read the title my brain autofills "orbliterate" after it.)
 
I'm 2/5ths through the first Mistborn book, and it's good, but it really wants me to internalize the Lore behind the magic system, and I just want a fun romp. I do like his slow/casual reveal of the backstory, though. It's a pet peeve of mine when an author writes out a lore drop and a character immediately asks "MacGuffin? What's that all about?"

I'm also a third through the first Murderbot book, All Systems Red. It's very light / slight, good for what it is but I'm not dropping everything to eat up the whole series.

Finally, started Return to the Whorl to follow along with Alzabo Soup. I never finished this one when it was released, was frustrated by the intentionally confusing style, so I'm glad I have smarter people than me to help me along. I only do the reading up to where the podcast is, so I'll be reading this for a year or so. Not recommended without having read the previous 11 books in Wolfe's Solar Cycle, but if you have it's definitely a capstone.
 
Recent reading:

I, too, have been reading to keep up with a podcast - but in my case that meant rereading William Gibson's Sprawl trilogy (Neuromancer, Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive) so that I could then listen to the folks at Shelved By Genre dissect it. If you aren't familiar, it's a podcast about genre fiction featuring Austin Walker, Cameron Kunzelman and Michael Lutz, and the discussions are both wildly entertaining and very well-researched. It was interesting to return to these books, since Gibson was one of my favorite authors when I was in my late teens/early 20s. They are, for the most part, really well-written! Neuromancer is the best of them, though it dissolves into a somewhat dreamy ending that Gibson then spends the next two books explaining. I'm a total sucker for his take on cyberpunk, so even when the storytelling isn't quite so hot, I still generally have a good time. I'll probably reread the Bridge trilogy in the near future, too, since I remember really liking Virtual Light.

At a friend's suggestion, I read The Will of the Many by James Islington. It's a fantasy novel with a distinctly Roman flavor, set in a world citizens are placed into a hierarchy, and the people who are farther down the pyramid have to give up what is essentially their life force to those in positions of power. It definitely takes some cues from past sci-fi and fantasy novels, in that it's a coming-of-age story starring an extremely competent young man who must face nearly-insurmountable challenges. But I thought it was quite well written, and it REALLY goes places toward the end, let me tell you. I liked it enough to preorder the second volume, which is due in November.

Now I'm working my way through Yellowface by RF Kuang and, despite how fast the pages are turning, I'm finding it to be a real chore. I don't typically enjoy books where the main characters are terrible people, and that's certainly the case here. It's also very interested in the minutiae of book publishing, which seems to get in the way of the part of the story that I'm more interested in seeing developing...despite the secondhand cringe of wondering whether the POV character will get away with her act of plagiarism. This is my second Kuang novel after Babel, which I didn't love either, so I think I may be done with her writing.
 
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Violentvixen said:
This book is incredibly fun and also well thought-out. Look forward to hearing what you think of it!
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I really enjoyed it, more than I thought I would. Butcher's Masquerade is still my BOTM, but this came close. To finish up the month, I just started Scott Snyder's Batman run, finishing up The Court of Owls. Moving right into The City of Owls, because cliffhanger
 
MCBanjoMike said:
Now I'm working my way through Yellowface by RF Kuang and, despite how fast the pages are turning, I'm finding it to be a real chore. I don't typically enjoy books where the main characters are terrible people, and that's certainly the case here. It's also very interested in the minutiae of book publishing, which seems to get in the way of the part of the story that I'm more interested in seeing developing...despite the secondhand cringe of wondering whether the POV character will get away with her act of plagiarism. This is my second Kuang novel after Babel, which I didn't love either, so I think I may be done with her writing.
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We had some interesting discussion about that one in the book club last year. I was left a little confused but was definitely glad I read it since I hear about it so much.
 
masterthes said:
Now, Deathstalker: Honor by Simon R. Green
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Least favorite in the series. Took me almost a week to finish. Not that this was bad, mind you. It was just this could have easily been 100 pages shorter, but it ended with a good cliffhanger and I'm excited to read the last book in November. I also just finished The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker. I saw Hellraiser a few years back and it's an entirely faithful adaptation. Now, rereading World War Z by Max Brooks
 
Now, for something lighter with A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny and The October Country by Ray Bradbury
 
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John said:
I'm 2/5ths through the first Mistborn book, and it's good, but it really wants me to internalize the Lore behind the magic system, and I just want a fun romp. I do like his slow/casual reveal of the backstory, though. It's a pet peeve of mine when an author writes out a lore drop and a character immediately asks "MacGuffin? What's that all about?"

I'm also a third through the first Murderbot book, All Systems Red. It's very light / slight, good for what it is but I'm not dropping everything to eat up the whole series.

Finally, started Return to the Whorl to follow along with Alzabo Soup. I never finished this one when it was released, was frustrated by the intentionally confusing style, so I'm glad I have smarter people than me to help me along. I only do the reading up to where the podcast is, so I'll be reading this for a year or so. Not recommended without having read the previous 11 books in Wolfe's Solar Cycle, but if you have it's definitely a capstone.
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Finished up Mistborn book 1, thought it was good, though the play by play fight descriptions reminded me of old Halo tie-in novels describing every turn of action explicitly. Very game-y, here’s your battle system, now use these tools. I did enjoy the slow reveal of the world, and the stuff left unsaid for the sequels. Won’t immediately jump to book 2 but now I have something for my fam’s birthday/Christmas wish list since they never know what to get me.

Finished Murderbot 1, similar but not nearly as complex or interesting. Just a light romp.

Started: Too Like The Lightning by Ada Palmer. Only read the first 2 chapters, but it's really interesting. Drops you in media res into a world of unfamiliar terms that you have to suss through context. The style reminds me of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, but I haven't put my finger on why yet.

In between chapters I've started the Nausicaa hardback collected edition. First time reading the manga, the book itself and art is great. The paper used is nice and thick, great ink print, sturdy backing. It does have a few typos per book so far, unfortunate but not a big detractor. I'm reading one of the Books of this for every chapter of Lightning, and the 136 pages of the former takes me around the same amount of time to read as the 20 pages of the latter. (I read slow nowadays)
 
John said:
Finished Murderbot 1, similar but not nearly as complex or interesting. Just a light romp.
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I felt that way about All Systems Red, too, but recently I've read the other three novellas and I'm starting to appreciate the series a lot more. I don't think the first book does a great job of showing off the depth of the world, and Murderbot comes off as a bit of a one-note sarcasm machine. There's definitely more depth to the characters and setting now that I've had more than 150 pages to get to know them.
 
MCBanjoMike said:
I felt that way about All Systems Red, too, but recently I've read the other three novellas and I'm starting to appreciate the series a lot more. I don't think the first book does a great job of showing off the depth of the world, and Murderbot comes off as a bit of a one-note sarcasm machine. There's definitely more depth to the characters and setting now that I've had more than 150 pages to get to know them.
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I started the sequel, Artificial Condition, and it does have a little more depth in the world, so thanks for spurring me on.

I used to be an ebook only reader, but now that I’m in my Reading Renaissance (and started using my local library) I prefer a physical book. My main reading time is the hour between dropping kids off at school and having to start work, and only do ebooks on my phone when going to bed. The latter is how I used to do all my reading outside of vacations, which meant I only read a few paragraphs or maybe a page a day. Now it’s only my Steam library that I keep adding to but never engage with!
 
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