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Maklershed · Dec 1, 2013

xxracerxx · Dec 1, 2013

Joe Mondragon, thirty-six, is a feisty hustler with a talent for trouble, who slammed his battered pickup to a stop one day, tugged on his gumboots, and marched into an arid patch of ground. Then, illegally, he tapped into the main irrigation channel. And so began John Nichols' classic tale of the little guy against the big guy -- THE MILAGRO BEANFIELD WAR.

fakefaker · Dec 1, 2013

Still punching through Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon. Definitely an amazing book.

ShaneB · Dec 1, 2013

Yay new thread.

Currently reading...

LuffyZoro · Dec 1, 2013

I just finished Ballad of the Whiskey Robber. Highly recommend.

Elmore Leonard meets Franz Kafka in the wild, improbably true story of the legendary outlaw of Budapest. Attila Ambrus was a gentleman thief, a sort of Cary Grant--if only Grant came from Transylvania, was a terrible professional hockey goalkeeper, and preferred women in leopard-skin hot pants. During the 1990s, while playing for the biggest hockey team in Budapest, Ambrus took up bank robbery to make ends meet. Arrayed against him was perhaps the most incompetent team of crime investigators the Eastern Bloc had ever seen: a robbery chief who had learned how to be a detective by watching dubbed Columbo episodes; a forensics man who wore top hat and tails on the job; and a driver so inept he was known only by a Hungarian word that translates to Mound of Ass-Head. BALLAD OF THE WHISKEY ROBBER is the completely bizarre and hysterical story of the crime spree that made a nobody into a somebody, and told a forlorn nation that sometimes the brightest stars come from the blackest holes. Like The Professor and the Madman and The Orchid Thief, Julian Rubinsteins bizarre crime story is so odd and so wicked that it is completely irresistible.

lightus · Dec 1, 2013

Is it another month already?

I'm still working on The Way of Kings. I'm about 250 pages in, lots of fun so far!

Eklesp · Dec 1, 2013

Just started. Pretty excited.

Joe Shlabotnik · Dec 1, 2013

Halfway through The Goldfinch. Completely absorbing.

O.DOGG · Dec 1, 2013

Yesterday I started reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time based on recommendations in the previous month's WAYR thread. It's interesting so far but I'm only a few pages in.

zychi · Dec 1, 2013

Got the soiaf series for $10 on kindle, finally gonna finish the newest book. Harry potter reruns on TV made me want to retread the books so I'm about 100 pigs into the first

Das Ace · Dec 1, 2013

The Brothers Karamazov.

My girlfriend believes it's the biggest hole in my literary backlog, so I'm just getting started on it.

AngmarsKing701 · Dec 1, 2013

Still working on Without Remorse by Tom Clancy. About 1/4 in and enjoying it.

Mackenzie 92 · Dec 1, 2013

Still reading

The Abominable by Dan Simmons

aidan · Dec 1, 2013

Currently reading:

Steles of the Sky, the final volume in Elizabeth Bear's The Eternal Sky trilogy. It's the best completed fantasy trilogy I've read in years.

EdibleKnife · Dec 1, 2013

Almost half way through and liking it. Moving on to some of the November recommendations after.

Piecake · Dec 1, 2013

aidan said:
Currently reading:

Steles of the Sky, the final volume in Elizabeth Bear's The Eternal Sky trilogy. It's the best completed fantasy trilogy I've read in years.

Ive seen this recommended quite a few times and it has piqued my interest. Of course, you might be the only person recommending this. You arent, are you?

Das Ace said:
The Brothers Karamazov.

My girlfriend believes it's the biggest hole in my literary backlog, so I'm just getting started on it.

Best book ever

enemyairship · Dec 1, 2013

While I'm still trying to polish off a book I've been reading for what seems like ages (Search for Modern Chna, been at it for the past 3 months off and on), I just got this today:

Should finish it fairly quickly, and with my vacation in two weeks I'm eager to finish SfMC and get some other big books out of the way. Mostly books recommended in these threads.

aidan · Dec 1, 2013

Piecake said:
Ive seen this recommended quite a few times and it has piqued my interest. Of course, you might be the only person recommending this. You arent, are you?

I do recommend it whenever possible, so it's possible that it's me, but it's also proved popular here and among the internet fantasy community. And Bear is a Hugo-nominated author. I wrote fairly extensively about why I loved the first volume here: http://aidanmoher.com/blog/review/2013/03/review-of-range-of-ghosts-by-elizabeth-bear/

FairyD · Dec 1, 2013

The sun also rises.

suzu · Dec 1, 2013

Piecake said:
Ive seen this recommended quite a few times and it has piqued my interest. Of course, you might be the only person recommending this. You arent, are you?

It's definitely a good series. I've finished reading the first two books recently.

Error · Dec 1, 2013

About 40% into Storm Front, and I'm enjoying it so far. The plot is nothing special, but the characters and world-building are very nice. I like how the exposition is handled with bits and hints here and there and not a full page or pages of explaining stuff, gives the narrative a good flow.

Gordon0Freeman · Dec 1, 2013

Mackenzie 92 said:
Still reading

The Abominable by Dan Simmons

What are your thoughts on it

NotTheGuyYouKill · Dec 1, 2013

I just finished two-thirds of Horns by Joe Hill

Great concept. The main character's present day story is awesome, some wickedly funny and dark shit happens. Stuff is starting to get heavy. The book's main problem though, is too many flashbacks. They interrupt the far more interesting present day story far too often and for too long. The present day stuff is encapsulating, but the flashbacks, I find them pretty meh and repetitive. But it's still shaping up to be a damn fine read. Will probably finish it tomorrow.

Nymerio · Dec 1, 2013

Only about 10% in, so far so good.

Freeza Under The Shower · Dec 1, 2013

it's december already? pfff.

at any rate:

kind of a diet book, but I bought it because he claims proteins lead to aging, sorta defined as the occurrence of illness at 50-60+. (he never actually defines what that is).

strangely enough, he puts ketosis in the 'increased aging' corner, due to a single chemical the body creates on its own during ketosis. I'm guessing that is mostly poorly hidden personal bias, which happens at some other times as well. Like examining the science against anti-oxidants, but randomly stating, without any reference, that oxigen leads to aging. Which is really quite odd, because the 'oxigen burning equals aging' is one of the primary aspects of this whole 'free radicals are bad, m'kay' thesis, and from a BBC Horizon episode I happen to know that there is no effect of oxigen concentration on rats, which is to say the whole (rather silly to begin with) thesis is defeated.

I guess the editor didn't catch that one or something. Except something similar happens again later on.

After this: er ist wieder da. Dutch translation, which hopefully won't impact it too much. My German isn't good enough to read it in German though.

obin_gam · Dec 1, 2013

Still reading (or listening... it's an audiobook) Dan Simmons' Drood

The story is kinda nonexistand, it is instead a slice of life fictionary horror tale of Charles Dickens' final five years. It's cozy as hell!

Maklershed · Dec 1, 2013

Kindle

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

Hard copy

Doctor Sleep by Stephen King

Dawg · Dec 1, 2013

Still busy with Dune.

Was a slow start, but shit just got serious and now I'm addicted as fuck.

TCRS · Dec 1, 2013

still reading The Snowman. My first thriller in ages and I'm loving it.

Tabby · Dec 1, 2013

Amazon was having a deal for this erotica book set so I'll be reading that.

Like the hat? · Dec 1, 2013

Started reading 11/22/63, I've heard good things.

hythloday · Dec 1, 2013

EdibleKnife said:
Almost half way through and liking it. Moving on to some of the November recommendations after.

One of my favorites in high school! I should go back and read it again...

I'm still on American Gods. Progress stalled when I was out of town and had no time to read. I like it!

RepairmanJack · Dec 1, 2013

About 50% through so far. Really good and getting better.

About 3/4 the way through. Pretty good, but the overly long narrative is kind of making the book drag at this point. It was fine at the beginning when building stuff up but now after a few big action packed events it just seems like too much.

WorldStar · Dec 1, 2013

moojito · Dec 1, 2013

I usually read fantasy books, but I faniced something different and this gets a lot of high praise in here. Just started, but liking it so far. Part alien, part Tracer Bullet, PI.

Nezumi · Dec 1, 2013

Finished listening to:

This one took me a while to get into, it felt different than the first two. The ending was great though so I immediately downloaded the next book. So now I'm listening to:

Which turns out to be a prequel.

Now that nanowrimo is over I can finally catch up with my reading. Currently I'm working on:

Piecake · Dec 1, 2013

Nezumi said:
Finished listening to:

This one took me a while to get into, it felt different than the first two. The ending was great though so I immediately downloaded the next book. So now I'm listening to:

Yea, Teckla was by far my least favorite Taltos book. It was too much Rah! Rah! Communism for me. The whole time I was reading it when it got preachy, I was like, really? Really? Totally brought me out of the novel.

The other books go back to being good.

nakedsushi · Dec 1, 2013

Finished this:

Canada by Richard Ford

It was really well written and I was excited to start it, but part II (the part actually IN Canada) was really boring and almost made me want to quit the book. I'm one of those readers where even if the writing is really good, if nothing happens, I get bored. Things happen in this book, but there's so much foreshadowing that when they actually happen, I'm already bored of it.

I want to squeeze another shorter book in before I dive into a really good books on my holiday vacation. Do you guys ever save books for when you go on vacation? I always want to save a page-turner for vacation, but then I feel bad when all I do is read instead of other relaxing or socializing on vacation.

Plasticine · Dec 1, 2013

Finally getting back into reading. Thought I'd start with some Jack Ketchum.

FL4TW4V3 · Dec 1, 2013

Sadly I couldn't finish:

It was an interesting read, but it didn't "click" with me and I felt intimitated by the size of the omnibus, so I put it back in the shelf for a later time.

And I started reading something else:

Already a third in and loving it. I'm afraid I'm slowly becoming a Harry Dresden fanboy.

Woorloog · Dec 1, 2013

Tried to re-read Dune Legends, starting with The Butlerian Jihad (Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert) before reading Dune again (once per year).*
Only... I notice this one paragraph, where a space ship is being used as a missile against a planetary defense system. While loaded with as much explosives as it can carry.
Why why why!?!?=!?!
Re-entry velocity is more than enough, explosives are pointless at 3km/s. For fucks sake, can't writers do some math or research first?
Also, i didn't remember how bad the writing was. Well, bad and bad, at least it ain't very good. Show, don't tell is not something the writers really understand, and there are other issues too.

I need something else. I'll read Dune and then read something else... but what?
Can't find good scifi anywhere. Well, stuff i haven't read yet anyway. Know a few books i'd like to read but it seems they don't have printed versions, or available here.
Hard scifi is what i want.

Do i have to write what i want myself?

*Re-read, yes. I have all of the prequels, sequels and interquels. Can't say i like them really, they're nothing compared to original Dune.

Kallor · Dec 1, 2013

Finishing up Return of the Crimson Guard and starting up

and

ShaneB · Dec 1, 2013

nakedsushi said:
I want to squeeze another shorter book in before I dive into a really good books on my holiday vacation. Do you guys ever save books for when you go on vacation? I always want to save a page-turner for vacation, but then I feel bad when all I do is read instead of other relaxing or socializing on vacation.

That's basically what I'm doing right now. Reading a few shorter books until I decide what is going to be my longer marathon book over the holidays when I am home. I'm leaning towards the First Law trilogy, but yeah, I'm just stalling at the moment until choosing something longer.

MrOogieBoogie · Dec 1, 2013

About 300 pages into A Feast for Crows. Certainly feels different from the other books. Lots of new characters being introduced and different stories being explored. But you know what? I think it's for the better. While I'm dying to know what's come of

Tyrion, Bran, Davos, Jon

, etc., to see the perspectives of all these other important players from the far reaches of the land is important in really grounding the reality of the story. It helps that most of the new characters introduced are at the very least interesting.

AngmarsKing701 · Dec 1, 2013

MrOogieBoogie said:
About 300 pages into A Feast for Crows. Certainly feels different from the other books. Lots of new characters being introduced and different stories being explored. But you know what? I think it's for the better. While I'm dying to know what's come of

Tyrion, Bran, Davos, Jon

, etc., to see the perspectives of all these other important players from the far reaches of the land is important in really grounding the reality of the story. It helps that most of the new characters introduced are at the very least interesting.

Meh. Interesting as an unfinished tales sort of thing but such a momentum brick wall for the series.

thomaser · Dec 1, 2013

Haven't read much lately. Still on Oscar Wilde's complete works, specifically the story "The Portrait of Mr. W.H."

Professor Chaos · Dec 1, 2013

It took me a while to get accustomed to Cormac's style and lack of punctuation, but now that I have this is becoming a joy to read.

MrOogieBoogie · Dec 1, 2013

AngmarsKing701 said:
Meh. Interesting as an unfinished tales sort of thing but such a momentum brick wall for the series.

I can see that. Pacing so far in this book is noticeably slower than the past novels. We'll see, I don't want to judge it too early. So far I'm enjoying it.

Jintor · Dec 1, 2013

The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World by Niall Ferguson

Recommended by Phisheep, if I recall correctly (I may not be - apologies if so). Thoroughly fascinating so far. I feel like I should've read this when I was a lot younger though. I'm convinced that my mind isn't set up to intuitively understand markets and economics, but this is nonetheless a really enjoyable read.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

Still moment-to-moment vaguely enjoyable, still thoroughly dull

TetraxShards · Dec 1, 2013

In the words of Bruce Buffer, ITTTTTT'S TIIIIIIIIIME!

It has grabbed me and will not let go.

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What are you reading? (December 2013)

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