A community for all things related to Books.
Community icon by IconsBox (from freepik.com)
Bill Bryson - The Lost Continent
It’s funny and a great read as Bryson always is, but I noticed for the first time that my values have changed since I first read it.
He pretty regularly comments on how overweight people are, and doesn’t mind describing exactly what he finds unattractive in older or overweight women.
I guess I just got fat friends and find that distasteful now.
I literally just finished The Shining. Somehow I missed this one in the past, but it was a really good read.
I’m also about 1/2 through The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A Fuck by Mark Manson. Ironically, I’m reading it in the midst of a long trip and it’s giving me a lot of things to contemplate.
I am reading (maybe re-reading) The House of the Spirits. A friend said we read it in high school and I do remember reading One Hundred Years of Solitude in highschool as part of a magical realism unit but I can't really remember if I did the House of the Spirits. Its great and I can't put it down.
Just finished CABIN: Off the Grid Adventures with a Clueless Craftsman by Patrick Hutchison and highly recommend it to anyone looking for a hilarious read. Revisiting Stiff by Mary Roach now, just because it's been a long time.
The Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Díaz. It's really good if you are interested in first hand accounts of colonial history but it can also be a tad anger inducing. The main characters lowkey suck
Someone listed r Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds in a comment about decent hard Sci-fi and my copy just came in the mail today
Robin Hobb's Assassin's Quest (Farseer trilogy 3/3). Devouring those on a holiday like I used to blaze through books as a kid!
The Stormlight Archive. This will be my 4th time. They're my comfort books.
Just started listening to Words of Radiance. I’m not the biggest Sanderson fan but I think he’s okay and I understand why people like his stuff. It does feel a little bloated though. I’m interested to find out if I’ll fall in love with Dalinar like everyone else seems to have.
Yeah, Dalinar is easily my favorite.
Haha I paused my Rhythm of War re-read to start Wheel of Time. Love Stormlight. What’s your favorite book of the series so far?
I read Wheel of Time as well! Loved those too.
Oathbringer is my favorite, though I also really like Rhythm of War.
Oathbringer is also my favorite haha.
RoW is great too, but I love the deep dive into fabrials.
My rereads on that series looks like a stairway down as I do a full read through before each new book comes out haha
It's better when it's fresh! I started when 3 books were out and reread leading up to each new book as well.
I am just wrapping up a reread of the back half of The Expanse. I reread 1-2 a year ago and skipped 3-4 because they’re very slow. I really love the setting and how grounded the scifi feels. I think the last few books kinda lose that grounding but the earlier ones are good enough to carry me through.
Next I’ll be reading Rebecca by Daphne De Maurier for a book club. It’s really outside my normal wheelhouse being historical fiction, but Wuthering Heights was one of my surprise favorites from high school and it feels similar enough in its writing. I do really enjoy the flowery prose from what little I’ve read thus far. It’s rare I’m afforded the opportunity to indulge so much in the English language.
Pariah by Dan Fesperman.
Fesperman is probably the best espionage writer of the 21st Century.
This book is a crazy comedy. A Hollywood comic was about a year into his first Congressional term when an onset meltdown tape comes out and destroys both careers. He's isolating on an island when the CIA comes to him and asks him to meet his No. 1 fan; the brutal dictator of a small European country.
Manges to be WTF and realistic at the same time.
I'm most of the way through Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. This book has gone in directions I was not expecting, and I've loved every minute of it. Should finish it in the next couple of days and it's definitely getting my recommendation.
I keep going back to read more of The Dreden Files and forgetting where I was before. I am guessing if you have read 14 books its worth to keep going back. I think I went up to Blood Rites
Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor. It's the first book in a series about time traveling historians. So far it seems fun! The protagonist is witty and sarcastic, which I look for in a protagonist. I'm also in the middle of reading Galaxy Outlaws: The Complete Black Oceans Mobius Missions by J. S. Morin. I spent 1 audible credit figuring if I liked it, it would be an incredible value. It was presented as similar as Firefly and Guardians of the Galaxy, so I was down! The books are actually rather surprising as the plots progress further than I would have thought. I figured it would be more episodic, with characters slowly developing over the series, but the crew's circumstances being fairly stable, but it is not like that at all! The character development is a little slower than I expected, and the plot progression much faster! I'm up to book 9, but so I don't become burnt out by it I alternate between reading 1 black ocean book, and 1 other book.
Started up Honorverse again, with On Basilisk Station.
It's a comfort series for me. Oddly enough.
I love Honorverse, great space opera
Finished "Service Model" by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I liked this one, but it took me three weeks to read it since I was busy. Picked up "Singularity sky" by Charles Stross after that, and I'm about 40% through. I noticed I'm still as busy as the previous weeks, but I'm making more time available to read. I guess I like the writing style of Charles Stross a little better.
I’m on the last stretch of Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time book 4).
I’m excited to continue into book 5 here soon.
The third Jake’s Magical Market book; just finished the second one last night. They’re… fine and if it was a normal LitRPG series that goes on forever I would have bailed after the first one, but finding out it was a completed trilogy was appealing enough that I’m seeing them through.
Finished up Star Wars Shadows of the Empire. It’s based on the game and is the only book between movies 5 and 6. So now that I’m done this I’m moving onto the novelization of Episode 6. Shadows provided some good back story and setup the rescue of Han. Explains Boushh Leia!
Citizen of the Galaxy by Robert Heinlein. It’s my first story from him that isn’t from a ShortStory compilation. I’m enjoying it, it’s heavy on the slavery and beating, it seems though.
After those two, I think I’m gonna do some more ShortStory compilations, I like that pacing of being able to finish a story in my reading windows sometimes. But there’s a big batch of Star Wars books until the next novelization though.
This puts me at about 80-90 of the 150 books read if I’m counting my brothers list correctly.
Currently about halfway through Shutter by Ramona Emerson.
__
Follows the fates of side characters from the first book, Crypt of the Moon Spider. Half a brain in a satellite travels the solar system, while on Earth, a gang leader faces encroachment from the Mafia.
Ehhhh. There were parts of this I liked, but I generally found it a let-down after Moon Spider. It's a much less focused story, and it loses the particular flavor of creepiness that made the first book so fun. Definitely check content warnings, as they're quite different from the previous entry.