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What are you reading? (December 2013)
- Thread starter Maklershed
- Start date
I picked up David Baldacci's Simple Genius at a flee market for 3.
Well, how would I describe it. It was a thriller and entertaining, kind of like Dan Brown without the "deep" stuff. I laughed during reading, with all the CIA, quantum computers, martial arts master ex-secret service woman and spies. I mean it even had
.
I didn't know when I bought it that it was the third book in the series, but some remarks about the past books didn't bother me more then making me check wikipedia for quick recap.
I won't read the other ones if they don't just happen to pop-up somewhere, but then I could because even if the book wasn't very good, it was entertaining at least.
Well, how would I describe it. It was a thriller and entertaining, kind of like Dan Brown without the "deep" stuff. I laughed during reading, with all the CIA, quantum computers, martial arts master ex-secret service woman and spies. I mean it even had
a final fight
I didn't know when I bought it that it was the third book in the series, but some remarks about the past books didn't bother me more then making me check wikipedia for quick recap.
I won't read the other ones if they don't just happen to pop-up somewhere, but then I could because even if the book wasn't very good, it was entertaining at least.
Maklershed
Member
Forgot to post yesterday that on the hard copy side of things I finished Dr. Sleep and started Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope. Not something I'd normally read but a co-worker gave it to me to and I didnt feel like turning her down. Not too bad so far. The worst part is constantly trying to hold back tears. :b
Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope by Gabrielle Giffords
Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope by Gabrielle Giffords
Greg Egan third short stories collection, aka Oceanic. I'm reading the french edition which has a different summary.
This is just as good as Axiomatic and Luminous, his first two short stories collections. Just like with those, the first story was actually an unreadable scientifical gibberish (I'm reading the french edition, which has "Border Guards" as the first story), but the rest is still extremely good. I just finished "TAP".
My favorites so far : "The Extra" (french edition only, apparently), "Dark Integrers", which was a direct follow-up to "Luminous", "TAP", "Oceanic" (which was maybe a little too long for its own sake, as the most interesting developments took place in the last pages, and weren't given enough depth to be actually as shocking as the author planned, but it was still a compelling story), and "Wang's Carpet" (which had the exact same problems).
I just wish there were more information on the net about some plot points. For example I didn't get the ending of TAP. I'm okay with all the science stuff as Egan explains it well (I don't get all of it of course, but I get the main ideas), it's the stories themselves that can get confusing sometimes, especially twists as Egan doesn't delivers them in the clearest way.
This is just as good as Axiomatic and Luminous, his first two short stories collections. Just like with those, the first story was actually an unreadable scientifical gibberish (I'm reading the french edition, which has "Border Guards" as the first story), but the rest is still extremely good. I just finished "TAP".
My favorites so far : "The Extra" (french edition only, apparently), "Dark Integrers", which was a direct follow-up to "Luminous", "TAP", "Oceanic" (which was maybe a little too long for its own sake, as the most interesting developments took place in the last pages, and weren't given enough depth to be actually as shocking as the author planned, but it was still a compelling story), and "Wang's Carpet" (which had the exact same problems).
I just wish there were more information on the net about some plot points. For example I didn't get the ending of TAP. I'm okay with all the science stuff as Egan explains it well (I don't get all of it of course, but I get the main ideas), it's the stories themselves that can get confusing sometimes, especially twists as Egan doesn't delivers them in the clearest way.
Freeza Under The Shower
Member
Finished this trilogy today:
An engaging story about a pretty grim, dystopian near-future. The whole premise was done very well and it kept me really itching to know more about the history of how everything evolved into what it did. The author also does a great job of delving into the psychological aspects of the unique situation the people in the book find themselves in. There's a lot you can see coming(there aren't any massive twists or anything), but it doesn't stop it from being a good page-turner.
Would recommend.
An engaging story about a pretty grim, dystopian near-future. The whole premise was done very well and it kept me really itching to know more about the history of how everything evolved into what it did. The author also does a great job of delving into the psychological aspects of the unique situation the people in the book find themselves in. There's a lot you can see coming(there aren't any massive twists or anything), but it doesn't stop it from being a good page-turner.
Would recommend.
NekoFever
Member
Jeez. I'm on 45 and I thought I was doing well.
Currently 70% of the way through Wolves of the Calla. It's like
The Seven Samurai/The Magnificent Seven (OMG 7+7+5 in the ka-tet = 19) with robots and demon babies.
Tragicomedy
Member
Finished this trilogy today:
An engaging story about a pretty grim, dystopian near-future. The whole premise was done very well and it kept me really itching to know more about the history of how everything evolved into what it did. The author also does a great job of delving into the psychological aspects of the unique situation the people in the book find themselves in. There's a lot you can see coming(there aren't any massive twists or anything), but it doesn't stop it from being a good page-turner.
Would recommend.
I'm two-thirds finished with the second book and really digging the story so far. This one abandoned the characters from the first in honor of more back story explanation, and I was disappointed at first. Now I'm really liking it.
My God, how? How have I never read or even heard more about Dorothy Dunnett?
The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett
I despised men who accepted their fate. I shaped mine twenty times and had it broken twenty times in my hands.
Lymond is a hell of a character. He's an erudite, polyglot scholar who can drop more classical references in a single sentence than I could in an entire book, a brilliant plotter who turns every situation to his advantage, a charmer, a tactician, a caustic wit, a fighter, good at basically everything. And yet Tantalus-like, the one thing he wants more than anything else is constantly, painfully just out of reach.
And of course he's a deceitful, traitorous, back-stabbing, fratricidal, asshole outlaw.
The backdrop of the story is the ongoing skirmishing war between England and Scotland, during the Protectorship after the death of Henry VIII. England is trying to capture young Mary (Queen of Scots) in order to marry her to their own child King, and finally unite the two kingdoms. There are spies and cattle raids, intrigues and long cons, escapes and chases and messengers with Important Dispatches.
Lymond navigates deep and treacherous waters in pursuit of his goal. He veers from incomprehensible to incredible to pitiable and back again. And he's damned well entertaining to read about.
I should warn you in advance that the style takes some getting used to; dense with imagery sometimes at the expense of clarity, and Lymond has no problems breaking into French or Spanish or even Classical Latin. But a few chapters in you'll get used to it, and then it's a hell of a ride.
Highly recommended, especially if you like Miles Vorkosigan, or to a lesser extent Locke Lamora.
You really know how to sell a book
Damn my backlog is getting huge...My God, how? How have I never read or even heard more about Dorothy Dunnett?
The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett
I despised men who accepted their fate. I shaped mine twenty times and had it broken twenty times in my hands.
Lymond is a hell of a character. He's an erudite, polyglot scholar who can drop more classical references in a single sentence than I could in an entire book, a brilliant plotter who turns every situation to his advantage, a charmer, a tactician, a caustic wit, a fighter, good at basically everything. And yet Tantalus-like, the one thing he wants more than anything else is constantly, painfully just out of reach.
And of course he's a deceitful, traitorous, back-stabbing, fratricidal, asshole outlaw.
The backdrop of the story is the ongoing skirmishing war between England and Scotland, during the Protectorship after the death of Henry VIII. England is trying to capture young Mary (Queen of Scots) in order to marry her to their own child King, and finally unite the two kingdoms. There are spies and cattle raids, intrigues and long cons, escapes and chases and messengers with Important Dispatches.
Lymond navigates deep and treacherous waters in pursuit of his goal. He veers from incomprehensible to incredible to pitiable and back again. And he's damned well entertaining to read about.
I should warn you in advance that the style takes some getting used to; dense with imagery sometimes at the expense of clarity, and Lymond has no problems breaking into French or Spanish or even Classical Latin. But a few chapters in you'll get used to it, and then it's a hell of a ride.
Highly recommended, especially if you like Miles Vorkosigan, or to a lesser extent Locke Lamora.
I recommended Dunnett in a historical novel thread here a while back, but I'm glad to see someone else picked up on her. The Lymond Chronicles is flat out amazing. The third book and the last are my two favorites. The third book, The Disorderly Knights, introduces a truly nasty villain and has a tense as hell ending. Dunnett's other series, The House of Niccolo, is also highly recommended. Finally, given the depth of the language and poetry references, there are two companion books that were put together that collect them and translate where neccessary.
Thanks mang
AngmarsKing701
Member
Added the first of Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles to my wish list. I have a couple of her books in paperback on the shelf but not sure which ones.
Jag
Member
I put it in my 'to read' section based on your earlier recommendation, just haven't gotten around to reading it yet.
Yeah, come back after you finish it.
I'm a pretty big Stephen King fan, but the endings are usually the weakest parts of his books.
Finished off The Iron Jackal by Chris Wooding tonight and thought it was pretty good. It felt a little more forced then the first two, and sometimes redundant, but still is a great way to pass the time.
Now onto a indie book on the kindle with The Purloined Number by Jenn Thorson.
Now onto a indie book on the kindle with The Purloined Number by Jenn Thorson.
They'll be back later.
Hey! New to these threads, but thought this would be a good place to get recommendations/opinions over time! Aaanyhow...
Finished reading 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami, which I absolutely loved! A delightfully surreal "love story" that I burned through pretty quickly. Though I've gotta admit, I'm a bit blurry on some of the finer details at the end.
Next up, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick. That, or Valis.
Finished reading 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami, which I absolutely loved! A delightfully surreal "love story" that I burned through pretty quickly. Though I've gotta admit, I'm a bit blurry on some of the finer details at the end.
Next up, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick. That, or Valis.
Cordelia's Honor, then Young Miles.
Those are the first two omnibus editions, arranged in chronological order.
Maklershed
Member
This is relevant to my interests. I've always wanted to get into this series as well but it just seems so daunting.
Hm, It seems like the omnibus editions aren't available for Kindle. Guess I'll have to get the individual books then. So the first one would be Shards of Honor, right?
Welcome!!! Yeah, you'll definitely see a very wide selection here from everyone, so you'll definitely see things that interest you. I've found books I love from what people have posted, and I hope the things I've posted others have enjoyed as well!
I think I'll take a little reading break for a couple days, and then probably jump into those Ketty Jay books for a good adventure over the holidays.
edit: I think my Top Five favourites from this year is getting more set in stone, just trying to decide on what is number 5.
Incandenza
Banned
Had some free time this week so I decided to read Slaughterhouse Five:
Very powerful, with some lovely prose too. The Kilgore Trout bits were hysterical. I suppose I'll need to read Breakfast of Champions at some point now.
Very powerful, with some lovely prose too. The Kilgore Trout bits were hysterical. I suppose I'll need to read Breakfast of Champions at some point now.
avengers23
Banned
Currently bouncing between this:
and
. I keep trying to finish Perdido Street Station, but I lose interest and move on to other books, like After the Apocalypse.
No, but you do have to read every single thing because it's awesome.
My God, how? How have I never read or even heard more about Dorothy Dunnett?
The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett
I despised men who accepted their fate. I shaped mine twenty times and had it broken twenty times in my hands.
Lymond is a hell of a character. He's an erudite, polyglot scholar who can drop more classical references in a single sentence than I could in an entire book, a brilliant plotter who turns every situation to his advantage, a charmer, a tactician, a caustic wit, a fighter, good at basically everything. And yet Tantalus-like, the one thing he wants more than anything else is constantly, painfully just out of reach.
And of course he's a deceitful, traitorous, back-stabbing, fratricidal, asshole outlaw.
The backdrop of the story is the ongoing skirmishing war between England and Scotland, during the Protectorship after the death of Henry VIII. England is trying to capture young Mary (Queen of Scots) in order to marry her to their own child King, and finally unite the two kingdoms. There are spies and cattle raids, intrigues and long cons, escapes and chases and messengers with Important Dispatches.
Lymond navigates deep and treacherous waters in pursuit of his goal. He veers from incomprehensible to incredible to pitiable and back again. And he's damned well entertaining to read about.
I should warn you in advance that the style takes some getting used to; dense with imagery sometimes at the expense of clarity, and Lymond has no problems breaking into French or Spanish or even Classical Latin. But a few chapters in you'll get used to it, and then it's a hell of a ride.
Highly recommended, especially if you like Miles Vorkosigan, or to a lesser extent Locke Lamora.
The Lymond Chronicles are great. Lymond is one of my most favourite characters ever.
Yeah, I liked the third book best I think. The last book was also great, but
I found the whole perfect love psychic communion between Lymond and Philipa a bit much.
I'm saving the Niccolo series for, I don't know, when I retire or something! Or a very long holiday. I think it will need a lot of time to do it justice.
The writer Dunnett reminds me of is Mary Renault, more than any others I've read.
Tragicomedy
Member
Re: The Vorkosigan Saga -- publication order or chronological order? I'm assuming the former is the better option.
I don't care about slow starts or anything like that, and the completionist in me would pretty much require me to finish the series once I start it (unless it's garbage, which doesn't seem to apply in this case).
Publication Order.
Chronological Order.
The Goodreads folks seem to imply the author prefers an internal chronology reading. Halp!
I don't care about slow starts or anything like that, and the completionist in me would pretty much require me to finish the series once I start it (unless it's garbage, which doesn't seem to apply in this case).
Publication Order.
Chronological Order.
The Goodreads folks seem to imply the author prefers an internal chronology reading. Halp!
Zaraki_Kenpachi
Member
Finally have some free time for a little while so I finished
Robin Year One
Bat Girl Year One
Batman: The Black Glove
I'm also reading Radical: My Journey out of Islamist Extremism by Maajid Nawaz and it's been excellent so far. Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys the subject, very interesting autobiography by him.
Robin Year One
Bat Girl Year One
Batman: The Black Glove
I'm also reading Radical: My Journey out of Islamist Extremism by Maajid Nawaz and it's been excellent so far. Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys the subject, very interesting autobiography by him.
Shhh, we gotta hook them in first.
Oh, they'd figure it out themselves soon enough.
I don't really think it matters too much. I mean, if you read things out of chronological order you'll inevitability getting spoiled about so-and-so dying or so-and-so living or so-and-so achieving such-and-such, because it might be mentioned in what you're reading.
But it doesn't really impact your ability to read them out of order and understand what is happening, and I think it was written with that sort of accessibility in mind. I read them in chronological order, as they were ordered in the omnibus editions, and I'd recommend reading it like that. I don't know if reading them out of order is better, but reading them in order is great.
Thanks for the links!
Hm... I normally prefer publication order to internal chronology in such cases but if the author herself recommends it...
Edit:
Chronological it is then.
infiniteloop
Member
Apologies if this is not appropriate for this thread...
My wife enjoys reading a lot and I want to get her a new book or book series for Christmas, but I have no idea what's good or not.
She like YA/adventure/mystery stuff, she likes Hunger Games, Harry Potter, those sookie stack house books, Stephen King, Sherlock Holmes, some crime thriller stuff..
She tried to read SOIAF, but couldn't really get into it, not really bothered about LOTR either.
Can anybody suggest anything worth looking at?
My wife enjoys reading a lot and I want to get her a new book or book series for Christmas, but I have no idea what's good or not.
She like YA/adventure/mystery stuff, she likes Hunger Games, Harry Potter, those sookie stack house books, Stephen King, Sherlock Holmes, some crime thriller stuff..
She tried to read SOIAF, but couldn't really get into it, not really bothered about LOTR either.
Can anybody suggest anything worth looking at?
Tragicomedy
Member
Appreciate that. I found the "author's defnitive" list. The main books are there with all the novellas in quotation marks.
Falling Free
Shards of Honor
Barrayar
The Warrior's Apprentice
The Vor Game
Cetaganda
Ethan of Athos
Borders of Infinity
Brothers in Arms
Mirror Dance
Memory
Komarr
A Civil Campaign
"Winterfair Gifts"
Diplomatic Immunity
Captain Vorpatril's Alliance
CryoBurn
Caveats:
* The novella "Weatherman" is an out-take from the beginning of the novel The Vor Game. If you already have The Vor Game, you likely don't need this.
* The original 'novel' Borders of Infinity was a fix-up collection containing the three novellas "The Mountains of Mourning", "Labyrinth", and "The Borders of Infinity", together with a frame story to tie the pieces together. Again, beware duplication. The frame story does not stand alone, and generally is of interest only to completists.
Tragicomedy
Member
Sounds right since it apparently takes place 200 years prior to the rest of the series and is totally stand-alone. I'll skip it until later.
A quick recommendation from me will be "Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend". It is my favourite book I've read this year. I'm not sure it entirely fits the criteria you posted, but it is pretty broad!
Worst of Sanderson's books IMO. First published.
infiniteloop
Member
A quick recommendation from me will be "Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend". It is my favourite book I've read this year. I'm not sure it entirely fits the criteria you posted, but it is pretty broad!
Thank you. Will check it out.
If she hasn't read them already I would recommend some of Garth Nix's work. His Abhorsen trilogy and The Keys to the kingdom series are awesome.
I also really loved the Artemis Fowl books.
OK. I guess I'll just download Shards of Honor then.
lastflowers
Banned
ahhh
Mackenzie 92
Member
My GF has liked these recently
The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
Forward Slash by Louise Voss
Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
Delirium by Lauren Oliver
Will also throw a rec for Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn out there.
Despite the mixed reviews, I think it's Lethem's strongest book in a long time. Intensely focused and heartfelt.
yah, I read it after finishing Mistborn trilogy, not that good compared to his other work.