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[The Shadow]

Finished this with my wife:

And right after, finished this:

and currently reading:

Which I'm not a fan, but it's been a super fast read so far. I'll probably finish it on the way to work tomorrow.

I might read "Girls", which like Supergod and Scott Pilgrim, have been on my backlog for years, although it didn't really grab me all that much with the little bit I've read so far.

 

[Mussah92]

Great book so far... I think it'll help me alot

 

[Dedication Through Light]

I have started listening to the Books on the Nightstand podcast recently. It features two hosts, Ann Kingman and Michael Kindness, who work in the publishing industry and do weekly / biweekly podcast where they spend about 15 - 25 minutes talking about a books that fit a particular theme (graphic novels for someone who hasn't read them, mystery, cookbooks, books that have upcoming films, nonfiction for fiction readers, upcoming books getting a lot of buzz, mid-year favorites, etc.) and a segment at the end where they talk about a book that isn't out yet, but is coming out in the next few months. Of course, listening to the old (2008 - 9) episodes means that those "upcoming" books have been out for years, but I'm still learning about a ton of books that sound interesting, and the hosts are really great at describing the books with minimal spoilers.

Cookbooks? Thats some nice diversity.

Last cookbook I read was Carmine's Celebrates: Classic Italian Recipes for Everyday Feasts (nov 2014). Only problem was its hard to find a few of the ingredients where I live. Favorite dishes were

Pasta Cabonara
Garlic Bread
Garlic Roasted Broccoli
Roasted Garlic and Garlic Oil
Garlic Herb Oil
Garlic Butter

 

[ShaneB]

Just ordered this. Probably won't be here until either Friday, or next Monday. I've heard good stuff. Anyone read it?

Yup, absolutely loved it, as have most of the folks that have read it in these threads I believe.

 

[Zeyphersan]

Had the same instance when I was the reading books through season 3. When that "what happens next?!" mystique isn't there, that desire to keep going is often missing. So I am rarely inclined to read a book I've already seen the movie for, just seems like it will be a half hearted experience.

Pretty much. Since I know what's coming next it's hard for me to get invested. I thought it would get easier once I hit book 3 because people were act like there were huge deviations from the show so reading it would feel fresh, but aside from some small stuff the major events play out the same way. And generally in the same order.

 

[Nuke Soda]

Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan- This book was very boring. Didn't care for the characters, didn't care for the plot, the plot felt like it finished thanks to a series of convenient coincidences. The only reason I finished the book is because it was really short, only 288 pages, which is merciful for something so boring.

 

[Apt101]

I need to stop bouncing between books (reading four right now, including a science book on the history of Ebola). About to wrap On Stranger Tides and it is absolutely bonkers here near the conclusion. Some of the best fantasy I have ever read.

 

[BronzeWolf]

Finished



I loved the protagonist as well as the sciency stuff. Great book IMO and can't wait for the movie.

Right now starting and enjoying it very much so far:


The short stories are great and very flavorful.

 

[Quake1028]

Finished

Reading

 

[aidan]

Finished

Whoa. Thanks!

 

[RepairmanJack]

Finished Ender's Game, overall I ended up liking it quite a bit. Which was kind of surprising because I wasn't all that into it during the first half. The second half got a lot better and I enjoyed the stuff dealing with everyone trying to "break" Ender. I'll probably read Speaker for the Dead soon.

Next up : Leviathan Wakes

 

[Mumei]

Finished Ender's Game, overall I ended up liking it quite a bit. Which was kind of surprising because I wasn't all that into it during the first half. The second half got a lot better and I enjoyed the stuff dealing with everyone trying to "break" Ender. I'll probably read Speaker for the Dead soon.

I haven't read the series since high school, but Speaker for the Dead was my favorite at the time.

 

[Necrovex]

I haven't read the series since high school, but Speaker for the Dead was my favorite at the time.

Is it true Scott wrote Ender's Game so he could write Speaker of the Dead?

 

[Anjelus_]

Cicero's De Officiis this month.

I also picked up the Americanization of Benjamin Franklin by G. Wood, the 50th anniversary edition of Don Quixote from Spanish DRAE, and the German editions of The Forever War and Harry Potter.

So many books, so little time!

 

[Dandy Crocodile]

Is it true Scott wrote Ender's Game so he could write Speaker of the Dead?

The two are very different in terms of story and what the story they tell.
Card probably could have written Speaker as a part of a completely separate series but the guilt Ender has from his past does have an effect on his motivations.
I'd be interested to know if he did or not.

 

[Mumei]

I'd never read that story before. That is interesting.

The two are very different in terms of story and what the story they tell.
Card probably could have written Speaker as a part of a completely separate series but the guilt Ender has from his past does have an effect on his motivations.
I'd be interested to know if he did or not.

This was the appeal of it for me.

 

[GKSilKamina]

Reading Dune for the first time. I didn't know what to make of it initially but I'm starting to really get into it.

 

[Mumei]

Reading Dune for the first time. I didn't know what to make of it initially but I'm starting to really get into it.

I'm feeling guilty about stalling on my reread. I need to finish it up this week. :x

 

[Piecake]

I think I went a little insane during Audible's The Great Courses sale. I'd definitely recommend giving them a shot if anyone is at all interested. I have listened to about 5 of their courses and loved each one. I think they are very well done, entertaining and informative, and all of the speakers have done a great job keeping the format and audience in mind.

1. The History of Ancient Rome by The Great Courses
2. Bulgakov: A Dog's Heart by Mikhail Bulgakov
3. Lost Worlds of South America by The Great Courses
4. Turning Points in Modern History by The Great Courses
5. The Early Middle Ages by The Great Courses
6. Human Prehistory and the First Civilizations by The Great Courses, Brian M. Fagan
7. A History of the U.S. Economy in the 20th Century by The Great Courses, Timothy Taylor
8. Great Ancient Civilizations of Asia Minor by The Great Courses
9. The Rise and Fall of the British Empire by The Great Courses
10. The Vikings by The Great Courses
11. Between the Rivers: The History of Ancient Mesopotamia by The Great Courses
12. Origins of Life by The Great Courses, Robert M. Hazen
13. Food: A Cultural Culinary History by The Great Courses
14. Understanding the Mysteries of Human Behavior by The Great Courses
15. The Medieval World by The Great Courses
16. Greece and Rome: An Integrated History of the Ancient Mediterranean by The Great Courses, Robert Garland
17. World War I: The Great War by The Great Courses
18. The Skeptic's Guide to American History by The Great Courses
19. Ancient Greek Civilization by The Great Courses
20. The Industrial Revolution by The Great Courses
21. World War II: A Military and Social History by The Great Courses
22. The Modern Political Tradition: Hobbes to Habermas by The Great Courses
1. Foundations of Economic Prosperity by The Great Courses, Daniel W. Drezner
2. The Art of Conflict Management: Achieving Solutions for Life, Work, and Beyond by The Great Courses
3. Particle Physics for Non-Physicists: A Tour of the Microcosmos by The Great Courses
4. Great Battles of the Ancient World by The Great Courses
5. Behavioral Economics: When Psychology and Economics Collide by The Great Courses
6. Cultural Literacy for Religion: Everything the Well-Educated Person Should Know by The Great Courses
7. The Origin and Evolution of Earth: From the Big Bang to the Future of Human Existence by The Great Courses, Robert M. Hazen
8. An Introduction to Greek Philosophy by The Great Courses
9. Einstein's Relativity and the Quantum Revolution: Modern Physics for Non-Scientists, 2nd Edition by The Great Courses
10. The Story of Human Language by The Great Courses, John McWhorter

On the plus side, I can now cancel my audible membership! And actually, this will probably save me money in the long term.

 

[obin_gam]

Done with Simmons' The Fifth Heart now and can with good conscious say it was exactly like expected - a nice Conan Doyle-esque Sherlock Holmes mystery with the fun twists and turns you would expect. Some times it feels a bit too much like a fan fiction, but in reality - that's what it is anyway, but it's not fan fiction like E.L James shit, Simmons is a real author who actually knows and respects the characters he uses so it still feels real. Drood is still his best histoircal fiction though, and The Terror is a close second. I would say this comes third in front of The Abominable (which I still like though, because of the first half).

Now off to Cormac McCarthys Blood Meridian

I have never read McCarthy before and only seen No Country... in terms of works based on him, and I've heard so much about this, especially from here, and I always love violent historical fictions so I'm hoping the hyperbole hasnt been for nothing.

 

[Nuke Soda]

Now off to Cormac McCarthys Blood Meridian

I have never read McCarthy before and only seen No Country... in terms of works based on him, and I've heard so much about this, especially from here, and I always love violent historical fictions so I'm hoping the hyperbole hasnt been for nothing.

Ashamed to admit I have attempted this book three times without success. Very interesting, but so damn bleak.

Speaking of bleak I started reading Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith and so far it is great. The book seems to get the fragility of leadership, Leo the main character has underlings who are one failure away from sending him to a gulag.

 

[walkmetothelake]

Finished:
Loaded and Resident Evil: The Umbrella Conspiracy.

Starting:
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (recommended to me by Mumei ) and Resident Evil: Caliban Cove

 

[TTG]

Thanks to postcyberpunk(who is now banned? Was his defense of Pynchon that bad?) I spent the last three days enjoying this:

There's a lot going on here, it's a bit like a piece of cartoonishly drawn luggage that's been stuffed full of oddball, seemingly unrelated things. The premise is a tropy crime fiction book set in an alternate history Alaska, the tenor is Nick Harkawayish in a zany, quirky, and endearing way. Except where Harkaway perpetually doubles down on that going into Disney cartoon territory, Chabon works his way around to some "serious" themes(religious zealotry, relationship and self destructive angst, gov. grinding small people into pulp for some policy etc).

So it's fun and strikingly different and mostly works and it's funny. The prose is over stylized at times(by that I mean some descriptions just don't work or lose potency in trying to seem cool) and maybe it could do with just one or two less balls in the air as it's juggling. But, my over all impression is very positive, check it out if you're in need of a breath of fresh air, this is definitely that.

 

[Burger]

Just started. Loved Robopocalypse and enjoying this so far.

Anyone know of some good hard scifi coming out soon?

The S.A. Corey stuff was way too 'Expendables' to my prefered 'Alien' type stuff.
Peter F Hamilton is still doing his Void Trilology stuff, which I didn't really care for (compared to Nights Dawn/Commonwealth)
Alastair Reynolds is still doing his awful Elephants in Africa shit.
Justin Cronin's 3rd book (Passage 3) isn't out yet.
I accidentally read Half A King before I realised it was Young Adult.

I keep wanting to try Book of the New Sun but it's tough when the reviews are basically 50/50 "Best book ever written" and "Way too complicated and not at all worth reading"

Should I start Malazan?

 

[sparky2112]

Alastair Reynolds is still doing his awful Elephants in Africa shit.

I tried doing an Amazon search before responding, but I don't get it...

 

[Mumei]

I keep wanting to try Book of the New Sun but it's tough when the reviews are basically 50/50 "Best book ever written" and "Way too complicated and not at all worth reading"

Should I start Malazan?

I have not read Malazan, but The Book of the New Sun is approachable on multiple levels. You can read it as a series of picaresque adventures, as a Bildungsroman, without worrying about "figuring out" the book. And The Book of the New Sun differs from almost every other book Wolfe has written in that there is a coda, The Urth of the New Sun, that explains many of the apparent lacunae.

The only real difficulty is that the prose uses a great many archaic words. In most cases you can simply figure out what is meant by the context the word appears in, or else by reference to other words you know. But "too complicated" shouldn't be a problem. You won't get everything, but no one does - so why worry?

 

[Meteorain]

Just started. Loved Robopocalypse and enjoying this so far.

Anyone know of some good hard scifi coming out soon?

The S.A. Corey stuff was way too 'Expendables' to my prefered 'Alien' type stuff.
Peter F Hamilton is still doing his Void Trilology stuff, which I didn't really care for (compared to Nights Dawn/Commonwealth)
Alastair Reynolds is still doing his awful Elephants in Africa shit.
Justin Cronin's 3rd book (Passage 3) isn't out yet.
I accidentally read Half A King before I realised it was Young Adult.

I keep wanting to try Book of the New Sun but it's tough when the reviews are basically 50/50 "Best book ever written" and "Way too complicated and not at all worth reading"

Should I start Malazan?

If you do start Malazan, just don't judge the series by the first book. The second book is where things really get going.

As for Book of the New Sun. I've only read the first book, but it's fantastic. It has its own unique rhythm due to the nature of his writing. If you fancy yourself somewhat of an intellectual then you will take the complexity as a joyous challenge rather than a chore. The complexity comes from terminology rather than flowery prose.

 

[Matty77]

Finally decided to read A Song of Ice and Fire. On page 164 of a paperback version of GOT.

Also dabbling with a couple of Star Trek books for the hell of it because I had to wait while the library secured the GOT book for me. I'll have them all finished by next week I would say.

 

[Ebolarama]

Done with Simmons' The Fifth Heart now and can with good conscious say it was exactly like expected - a nice Conan Doyle-esque Sherlock Holmes mystery with the fun twists and turns you would expect. Some times it feels a bit too much like a fan fiction, but in reality - that's what it is anyway, but it's not fan fiction like E.L James shit, Simmons is a real author who actually knows and respects the characters he uses so it still feels real. Drood is still his best histoircal fiction though, and The Terror is a close second. I would say this comes third in front of The Abominable (which I still like though, because of the first half).

Now off to Cormac McCarthys Blood Meridian

I have never read McCarthy before and only seen No Country... in terms of works based on him, and I've heard so much about this, especially from here, and I always love violent historical fictions so I'm hoping the hyperbole hasnt been for nothing.

This book was so good and disturbing. This is a western unlike any you've ever read. No Country for Old Men is a fantastic book too, the Coen brothers made one of the most book-faithful movies I've ever seen.

 

[burnside13]

Marshall Zhukovs Greatest Battles - Georgi k. Zhukov

 

[Charles Brandon]

just had an amazon delivery of some very nerdy fiction

 

[Ebolarama]

Ashamed to admit I have attempted this book three times without success. Very interesting, but so damn bleak.

Speaking of bleak I started reading Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith and so far it is great. The book seems to get the fragility of leadership, Leo the main character has underlings who are one failure away from sending him to a gulag.

Absolutely everything McCarthy has written is bleak and depressing. The west generally doesn't come across so desolately, but McCarthy makes it that way. I didn't know what to expect from All the Pretty Horses and the two novels that follow, but they certainly don't have dark titles. Don't be mislead.
If you can get past that aspect, his books are very rewarding to read.

 

[cheezcake]

Currently reading:

This book is odd. The protagonist is one of the biggest Mary Sue's I've seen this side of the planet, none of the lore is particularly original

Spoiler

(golly I wonder who Tehlu, the god who resulted from a Virgin birth and is his own son might be based off)

. But I just want to keep reading.

 

[Charles Brandon]

Did part two of that ever come out?

edit: unsurprisingly, the answer is yes. Three years ago. I can't remember if liked the first one enough to read more. Fuck it. I've still got the Malazan series to finish.

 

[Burger]

I tried doing an Amazon search before responding, but I don't get it...

Blue Remembered Earth. Did not enjoy.

I have not read Malazan, but The Book of the New Sun is approachable on multiple levels. You can read it as a series of picaresque adventures, as a Bildungsroman, without worrying about "figuring out" the book. And The Book of the New Sun differs from almost every other book Wolfe has written in that there is a coda, The Urth of the New Sun, that explains many of the apparent lacunae.

The only real difficulty is that the prose uses a great many archaic words. In most cases you can simply figure out what is meant by the context the word appears in, or else by reference to other words you know. But "too complicated" shouldn't be a problem. You won't get everything, but no one does - so why worry?

If you do start Malazan, just don't judge the series by the first book. The second book is where things really get going.

As for Book of the New Sun. I've only read the first book, but it's fantastic. It has its own unique rhythm due to the nature of his writing. If you fancy yourself somewhat of an intellectual then you will take the complexity as a joyous challenge rather than a chore. The complexity comes from terminology rather than flowery prose.

Still not convinced about New Sun. Just don't know if I will get the desired return from the required investment.

Malazan still interests, but 10 books... Again that is a significant investment.

 

[sestrugen]

60 pages in, enjoying it so far

 

[Charles Brandon]

re Malazan. I've been reading them for fucking years. I'm halfway through book nine and I'm taking a break. They are good but very hard to get through in parts.

 

[obin_gam]

Ashamed to admit I have attempted this book three times without success. Very interesting, but so damn bleak.

Speaking of bleak I started reading Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith and so far it is great. The book seems to get the fragility of leadership, Leo the main character has underlings who are one failure away from sending him to a gulag.

For me, the bleaker the better

I have Child 44 on my goodreads "to read" list! Thinking of getting to that before watching the movie.

This book was so good and disturbing. This is a western unlike any you've ever read. No Country for Old Men is a fantastic book too, the Coen brothers made one of the most book-faithful movies I've ever seen.

A few chapters into it now and the way it's written made me immediately think of that movie once again. It was a bit daunting at first with the short and direct sentences, but after a while the pacing was really helped by that technique.

 

[tariniel]

re Malazan. I've been reading them for fucking years. I'm halfway through book nine and I'm taking a break. They are good but very hard to get through in parts.

I'm having the same problem right now on book 8. I'm maybe 1/4 of the way through the book but this one really isn't gripping me like the others have. My goal is still to finish the series this year though, and hopefully start something new.

 

[NEO0MJ]

Halfway through Shadow and Claw. Love it so far. I feel it's impossible to predict what will come, which is nice. I still can't tell whether it's scifi or fantasy yet.

I feel it's kinda strange to post so often about where I am but it encourages me to read more of the book. I still have at least 600 pages to go in order to complete the Book of the New Sun.

 

[AngmarsKing701]

re Malazan I read the first book years ago and was pretty much befuddled by what was going on. Never went back. I keep hearing to pick up book 2 but frankly I'm having so much trouble just finishing Words of Radiance that I'm going to stick with much smaller fare for the rest of 2015.

 

[aidan]

re Malazan I read the first book years ago and was pretty much befuddled by what was going on. Never went back. I keep hearing to pick up book 2 but frankly I'm having so much trouble just finishing Words of Radiance that I'm going to stick with much smaller fare for the rest of 2015.

I had the same issue with Malazan. Even after reading the second book--which I enjoyed more than the first--I realized the series just wasn't for me. Too much of a slog, and I had a hard time connecting emotionally with anything going on.

 

[Osorio]

Reading this for a Children's Literature class. So good, illustrations included, and a really good introduction to poetry and poetic thinking for children.

 

[Donos]

I had the same issue with Malazan. Even after reading the second book--which I enjoyed more than the first--I realized the series just wasn't for me. Too much of a slog, and I had a hard time connecting emotionally with anything going on.

Sailed through 3/4 of the whole series with hight speed but slowed down near the end. It's not easy somethimes to stay with it but it was worth it in the end, although the conclusion of the main series doesn't tie up everything (doesn't always need to be) / some things just fall under a rug.

Wheel of Time took me around 10 years to completely finish...

 

[e_i]

Listening to A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett
Reading The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert

 

[macfoshizzle]

Currently reading:

This book is odd. The protagonist is one of the biggest Mary Sue's I've seen this side of the planet, none of the lore is particularly original

Spoiler

(golly I wonder who Tehlu, the god who resulted from a Virgin birth and is his own son might be based off)

. But I just want to keep reading.

I'm with you on this. I really don't know what to make out of this book yet i kept reading it. At the end, to me it was just basically reading about a dude going about his day and how wonderful he is. Wish someone would just kick him in the balls and teabag him for a change.

 

[Piecake]

I've been reading the superhero web serial Worm.



Really enjoying it, although I'm reading in chunks and then taking breaks with other stuff, because it gets to be a little much. Things go from bad to worse pretty frequently in this world. Just finished the Slaughterhouse Nine storyline, which gets pretty damn dark. You can tell the author used to write horror.

There's a lot to like about the story. All the characters, both villain and hero (and anti-hero or anti-villain) have their own goals, their own ideas, their own plans. The story moves forward in a way that feels organic and natural, with characters taking the actions that make sense to them and everything going from there.

I love the huge variety of superpowers. It's not just flying bricks and superspeed (though some of those characters are in there). Even just early on in the first storyline, you've got a guy who progressively transforms as he fights into an incredibly tough dragonlike creature, so you have to beat him quickly; a girl whose power is essentially Sherlock Holmes-level intuition; a girl who can turn nearby dogs into monstrous murderbeasts; a guy who generates clouds of darkness in an area around him. And everyone--well, the smart characters, at least--uses their powers in ways that are creative and clever. Even seemingly minor powers like the ability to trigger reflex movements in other people are used to great effect.

Oh, and our heroine's superpower? The ability to control insects, extending in a several block radius around her. So far, in response to the constantly escalating threats, she hasn't really gotten more powerful or gained any new abilities. She's just thought up more and more clever applications for her single power, enabling her to rise to the challenge. I love this kind of clever usage of a limited toolset. Enough so that I'm trying to do something similar in the story I'm working on now.

There are a few downsides to the story. One, it's really fucking long. Nearly two million words in total. Thus the occasional breaks for other stuff. Two (sort of a corollary to one), it's not tightly written. It was written as a serial, so the guy didn't exactly go back and do a lot of editing. Everything feels a bit overwritten and stretched out (the Slaughterhouse Nine storyline just kept going and going). Three, the guy didn't start out as a great writer. A lot of the early stuff isn't up to his later standard, and he makes some poor choices in both storytelling and prose early on, though nothing irrevocable. To me the story really hits its stride around Arc 8, Extermination, which is a sizable chunk of story to get through.

I should also mention that one thing I really appreciate is that the author makes use of "wham!" moments far more than cliffhangers. Meaning, he'll end a chapter with a new surprising bit of information that makes the reader excited (or scared) to find out what happens next, rather than a cheesy withholding of information. (One of my favorites: the moment when a character says "hey, no swearing!" and you are totally shocked.)

I haven't finished it yet--I'm somewhere around halfway through by arcs, not so far by wordcount. But from what I've seen so far, if the author follows through and lives up to what he's promised in these early chapters, it'll be worth the read.

Sounds interesting. Ill check it out.

 

[Coppanuva]

Started reading Pines since it was on sale, not bad so far. I'm liking the weird atmosphere it gets across.

Also reading The Last of the Incas as a historical non-fiction book.

 

[Zona]

Just started. Loved Robopocalypse and enjoying this so far.

Anyone know of some good hard scifi coming out soon?

The S.A. Corey stuff was way too 'Expendables' to my prefered 'Alien' type stuff.
Peter F Hamilton is still doing his Void Trilology stuff, which I didn't really care for (compared to Nights Dawn/Commonwealth)
Alastair Reynolds is still doing his awful Elephants in Africa shit.
Justin Cronin's 3rd book (Passage 3) isn't out yet.
I accidentally read Half A King before I realised it was Young Adult.

I keep wanting to try Book of the New Sun but it's tough when the reviews are basically 50/50 "Best book ever written" and "Way too complicated and not at all worth reading"

Should I start Malazan?

I don't know if you've read the Mars Trilogy but there also excellent though they all take place within the solar system. Hyperion is fantastic, as is it's sequels. I was less fond of the next two. Banks is great but in no way Hard Science Fiction. If you give him a try start with The Player of Games, the first novel is a bit of a downer for an introduction but do be sure to read it second. Rainbows End is a delightful near future romp that examines current technological trends in a realistic way.

I may be alone in this but I hated Malazan, and I say that as someone who read all of them. Half the time it seemed to be combineing the Grimdark of A Song of Ice and Fire with the "What?" of Foucault's Pendulum, just not to my taste.

 

[Wensih]

I'm about 1/4 of the way through Anna Karenina at the moment! I'm really enjoying it; love the Russian Drama!