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What'cha Reading?

lincolnic

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
lincolnic said:
Now I'm on a late Discworld book (Thud, closing in on the end of the series!) and once that's done I'll be reading N.K. Jemisin's new one The World We Make. I enjoyed The Cities We Became, the preceding book in this series (does a pair of books count as a series?), so I'm looking forward to it.
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Finished The World We Make last night. I enjoyed it, but it felt a bit fluffier than the previous book. Even though the stakes are ostensibly higher in this one, it didn't feel nearly as tense to me. Still, it's a real love letter to the city, so as a native I can't judge it too harshly.

Tonight I'll start the new one from Rebecca Roanhorse, Tread of Angels.
 
Violentvixen

Violentvixen

(She/Her)
Starting Temple Grandin's Visual Thinking. I often find myself frustrated with her thoughts and writing, but even if I strongly disagree with her the thought process and reading through getting there is always interesting. Also while it wasn't until many years later that I learned I was autistic as well, this piece about her (note: it's from the early 90s so there's some dated mental health stuff in there) and a lot of her other writings spoke to me as there were things she described that no one else around me seemed to understand.
 
masterthes

masterthes

masterthes said:
Mr. Playboy: Hugh Hefner and the American Dream by Steven Watts
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I quite enjoyed this. Author got a little long in the tooth when he talked about how the magazine changed over the years to go with the times, because the actual biographical stuff was really good. Also, wish I had done some research prior, because this wasn't a full biography, it only went through The Girls Next Door. Then I finished the month with a fairly charming novella called The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett. Now currently reading Dogs of War by Adrian Tchaikovsky
 
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Violentvixen

Violentvixen

(She/Her)
Got Shuna's Journey, the first English translation of Miyazaki's manga (although the translator's note says it's technically not a manga) from 1983, from the library and recommend it. Beautiful watercolors and an eerie story, and I was definitely wondering at first if this was the same world as Princess Mononoke since the steed is Yakul here as well.
 
Kirin

Kirin

Summon for hire
(he/him)
Violentvixen said:
Got Shuna's Journey, the first English translation of Miyazaki's manga (although the translator's note says it's technically not a manga) from 1983, from the library and recommend it. Beautiful watercolors and an eerie story, and I was definitely wondering at first if this was the same world as Princess Mononoke since the steed is Yakul here as well.
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Oh dang, that looks awesome. Definitely prototype Nausicaa *and* Mononoke going on there.
 
Violentvixen

Violentvixen

(She/Her)
shivam said:
i need a new book to read. what's good?
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Without knowing exactly what you're in the mood for here's what I think are the best books from my Goodreads list over the past year:

Fiction:
Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo is the third Novella in the Singing Hills cycle, if you haven't read any of these the first one is so dang good. I'm waiting to see if there's a boxed set or anything of these at some point and will absolutely buy it if there is.
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao: Sci-fi retelling of Empress Wu Zetian's rise to power with mechas fighting and just great. I have a copy but have lent it out to so many friends since I bought it I think it's spent more time with other people than with me at this point and everyone's loved it.
The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker: I found out about this due to the TT book club reading the second book. The first is just fantastic.
The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka: A wonderful short story collection about a group of people who share the same public swimming pool.
Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz: Read this as part of my Classics book club, set in Cairo during the World War I and the Egyptian Revolution which I admit I knew nothing about before this. I loved this so much I bought the second and third in the trilogy. I will note that a couple people in the club didn't finish the book because the treatment of women disturbed them.
Scattered All Over the Earth by Yoko Tawada: A book that I saw described as "cheerfully dystopian" which I think is accurate! Japan has vanished in the future and a woman who is possibly the last Japanese speaker in the world is trying to find other speakers.

Nonfiction:
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer: This is probably my book of the year. Essays from a Citizen Potawatomi Nation botanist looking at the intersection and clashing of her scientific training and the beliefs she was raised in. Beautifully written.
Disability Visibility compiled by Alice Wong: An anthology of essays about being disabled, a hard read but an important one.
Rise: A Pop History of Asian America from the Nineties to Now: This is maybe more encyclopedia-like than book-like but I loved it
Pinball: A Graphic History of the Silver Ball by Jon Chad: Exactly what it says it is and quite fun.
Vagina Obscura by Rachel E. Gross a history of research (or lack of) and sexism in science and medicine. Not a cheerful read at all but incredibly glad I read it.
 
masterthes

masterthes

Rereading A Christmas Carol. It's been nearly thirty years since I last read it. Seems like I am more than overdo for a reread
Also, listening to Siren Queen by Nghi Vo
Finally, reading Bullet Train by Kotaro Isaka. Saw the movie last weekend and really enjoyed it
 
masterthes

masterthes

Siren Queen was pretty good, but I thought she went a bit hard into her sex scenes, like borderline erotica. Bullet Train was okay, but the movie is way better. Now, reading Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson
 
masterthes

masterthes

Even though it took 9 days to finish, I still really enjoyed Warbreaker. Finishing up the year with My Favorite Thing is Monsters, Vol. 1 by Emil Ferris
 
masterthes

masterthes

2022 is done. 117 books for the year. Read The Wheel of Time (thus my low number this year). Listened to my first audiobooks (A Life in Parts and Siren Queen), and I had no less than 3 star ratings this year. Here are some awards for the year:

Favorite graphic novel: if it wasn't a reread, I would have put down the first omnibus of Sandman for my choice, but My Favorite Thing is Monsters ended up on top. For a while, it was The Last Ronin, but I know Monsters will stick with me more. I hope the second part comes out next year
Favorite author: Brandon Sanderson. I think this was the year Sanderson finally clicked for me. I wasn't the biggest fan last year of Mistborn Era 1 (with the exception of the first book), but this year with his contributions to Wheel of Time, and falling in love with Warbreaker at the end of the year, I think I finally get it.
Most disappointed: this entry goes out to my favorite author from last year, Adrian Tchaikovsky. After the overwhelming success of Guns of the Dawn last year, I was super disappointed with Cage of Souls. I thought it moved way too slow, but he recovered nicely with Ogres and Dogs of War
Favorite protagonists: Durfel from Warlord Chronicles and Siri from Warbreaker
Favorite antagonist: Lancelot from Warlord Chronicles
My favorites of the year: The Maleficent Seven, He Who Fights with Monsters 1, Warbreaker, A Life in Parts, and The Story of Marvel Studios
 
masterthes

masterthes

My first reads of the year will be The Monster's Bones: The Discovery of the T. Rex and How it Shook Our World by David K. Randall and Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures by Walter Moers
 
Falselogic

Falselogic

Lapsed Threadcromancer
(they/them)
Version Zero by David Yoon

First book finished for 2023, though I did start it in the tail of end of '22. This is the 2nd book I've read recently that tries to capture what it feels like to be in Late Stage TechnoCapitalism (the other was David Eggers' The Circle) both have their difficulties in portraying what it is like to actual be involved with these companies or a coder. They skirt around that aspect. Both are dystopias though Version Zero's ending is supposed to be a more hopeful, and less believable one than Eggers'.

Version Dark plays out mostly as a revenge fantasy against proxies of Facebook, Twitter, AirBnB, Amazon, and Uber. You can almost believe the characters are real in it, but they're drawn with a pretty broad brush. It was certainly enjoyable to read. Though, it does really seem like a fantasy. It seems that writers have been able to successfully identify the problems with the world we find ourselves trapped in but none of them (and this is a really limited sample I'm drawing on here) have been able to imagine a solution to the issue that isn't blowing it up. This is true for our actual opinion policy class of people as well so that isn't that much of a surprise. Though it is disappointing. William Gibson was able to imagine a future that nerds spent 30+ years trying to create, embracing dystopia as they did so. We desperately need some creative types to imagine us up a world that is better than that world, better than our world... Lots are trying (Kim Stanley Robinson's Ministry for the Future is an attempt but an aborted one I think, relying as it does on such state actors to ignore the global financial hegemony and some ridiculous use of the blockchain) but I haven't read one that pulls it off. I don't even know if books are the things that people even look to anymore for visions of the future...

3/5
 
Falselogic

Falselogic

Lapsed Threadcromancer
(they/them)
Leech by Hiron Ennes
I don't remember how I was recommended Leech. Though, I think if someone had told me it was a dystopian Post-apocalyptic sci-fi gothic mansion novel I would have read it much sooner. This book is dripping in the tense atmosphere of dread that gothic novels are known for. And it just keeps building and building and building until the last bit of the book it all comes out in tense action and destruction. There's even the nod to the escape in the dark from the burning mansion and our protagonist waking up after blacking out from all the emotional drama. If you are a fan of gothic horror you owe it to yourself to pick this one up.

And if you are a fan of sci-fi, or body horror or body invasion this also might be something you want to pick up.

4/5
 
jpfriction

jpfriction

(He, Him)
I’m about halfway through Project Hail Mary the latest “guy uses Math to solve an impossible problem” book by Andy Weir. Quite fun so far. Bit of a mix between that Sunshine movie where they had to blow up the sun to make it hotter and that Arrival movie where the lady learns how to talk to alien squids.

Couple of spoilery gripes that may or may not get resolved before the end:

  • Guy is a little too good at science, which spoils my suspension of disbelief. Biochemists and analytical chemists are pretty different beasts. He wouldn’t know how to use half that shit. I have a doctorate in physical chemistry with a focus on spectroscopy and I can barely explain how most analytical chem things work. If they don’t use light, they can fuck right off. Also he can apparently program up an alien translator in about 10 minutes and then barely needs it because he’s that good at everything.
    [*]The world coming together and sparing no expense to save humanity from a threat that isn’t terribly imminent (they have a few years before shit gets bad) is laughably naive. He even tosses a grumpy climatologist in there to rub it in. Must have had some dems in control I guess. I liked it when a bunch of companies tried to sue them for copywrite infringement when they uploaded the entire collected works of man to a hard drive for a portable wikipedia, though, that’d definitely happen.
    [*]I think he’s trying to shoehorn in a romance, not Weir’s forte, but maybe it will pay-off
 
Violentvixen

Violentvixen

(She/Her)
jpfriction said:
Biochemists and analytical chemists are pretty different beasts. He wouldn’t know how to use half that shit. I have a doctorate in physical chemistry with a focus on spectroscopy and I can barely explain how most analytical chem things work.
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Booo the ones that use light are my least favourite boo
 
Falselogic

Falselogic

Lapsed Threadcromancer
(they/them)
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin is an alternative history of early video games where a company run by two deeply flawed people in a very dysfunctional relationship keep making amazing games.
 
Falselogic

Falselogic

Lapsed Threadcromancer
(they/them)
Born to be Posthumous: The Eccentric Life and Mysterious Genius of Edward Gorey by Mark Dery. I love Gorey's work, ever since I found a reprint of one of his "little weird books" at my local book store. This is a good biography of Gorey that is unfortunately, I feel, padded out by the author's love of his own theories and explorations (lots of Freudian and Jungian talk that I don't know how anyone can take seriously anymore) in order to meet what I must assume was a page minimum. For someone who claims to love Gorey as much as Dery says he does he's failed in taking to heart Gorey's pithiness. There is also a lot of cruft in this book that would have been better left on the editor's floor.
 
jpfriction

jpfriction

(He, Him)
jpfriction said:
I’m about halfway through Project Hail Mary the latest “guy uses Math to solve an impossible problem” book by Andy Weir. Quite fun so far. Bit of a mix between that Sunshine movie where they had to blow up the sun to make it hotter and that Arrival movie where the lady learns how to talk to alien squids.

Couple of spoilery gripes that may or may not get resolved before the end:


  • [*]I think he’s trying to shoehorn in a romance, not Weir’s forte, but maybe it will pay-off
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Lol, nope I was worried because they had him and his hated scientist rival looking at each other and then looking away bashfully but Weir either forgot about that plot point or it was edited out. Never comes up again and Grace seems to happily spend the rest of his life teaching physics to alien spiders so romance is presumably not a big priority.

Good book, better than Artemis, probably not as good as Martian.

I liked the vague ending although I’d be surprised if the upcoming movie adaptation doesn’t flesh it out a bit.
 
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