What did you just read?

After reading two random Honor Harrington books by David Weber I actually went out and got most of them to read in order. It's good stuff. I like that he creates minor characters you can actually seriously dislike. Not all authors seem to have that ability.

I am what Steven King calls his "Constant reader" and I just finished his book Joyland and I will say that I enjoyed it a lot more then I thought I would. It was a short read but I laughed and for the first time that I can recall I cried during parts. Fucking sick kids and old people get me every time.

I just read this short story by Amy Hempel (one of Chuck Palahniuk's favorite authors). It's very good.

"In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson is Buried" by Amy Hempel Fictionaut

I also read Double Down, but it was only ok.

I just finished the Iron druid books, by Hearne. Not quite on the level of Butcher, but they were pretty entertaining for only 2 days of reading. The later books simmer down on pop culture references thankfully.

Going to do the Long Price Quartet and the Fever series this week based on Goodreads recommend now...ah holidays, how I love the extra reading time.

Just finished reading a small dictionary of architecture (what can I say, it's instructive and convenient to read during 5-10 minutes bus travels), andSnow White, a pretty brilliant play by early 20th century swiss authorRobert Walser(a genius). It's set after the events that lead to the tale; Snow White, the queen, the prince and the hunter try to reconcile and determine what really happened, as opposed to what the tale said happened. It's a play so it's a very short read.

American Assassin (Mitch Rapp, #1) by Vince Flynn ??"- Couldn't finish, sucked. Merlin would ejaculate reading the first page. 0.01/5

Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass, #1) by Sarah J. Maas ??"- Couldn't finish, sucked. 1/5

The Burning Sky (The Elemental Trilogy, #1) by Sherry Thomas ??"- Substandard, but its romantic young adult, so it's not hiding that. Harry Potter as a crossdresser basically. 2.5/5

Promise of Blood (The Powder Mage, #1) by Brian McClellan ??"- Solid. A revolutionary france style of setting with fantasy elements. Big weakness was a periphery character that deserved more than "just stomped out of the room" type of shit. She got a novella origin story, but should have been woven more into the main story. 3.5/5

The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta ??"- Shit, couldn't finish. Religious tripe about the rapture, badly executed. Being made into a TV show for....HBO? 1/5

The 100 (The Hundred, #1) by Kass Morgan ??"- OK. Teen drama, very angsty. Being made into a show for CW. Will fit in well there. 2/5

The Republic of Pirates: Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down by Colin Woodard ??"- Non-fiction, therefore kinda boring. Dry, "just the facts ma'am" stuff. Also being made into a show. Lot of pirate shows coming out soon based in this period as well as Assassin's Creed 4. 2/5

The Strain (The Strain Trilogy, #1) by Guillermo del Toro ??"- OK...meh. Randomly too much detail, very slow development before anything interesting. Reminded me of Crichton's Airframe with the level of pointless minutiae. Basically reads like a screenplay since they'll need that shit when it goes to TV....being made into a TV show for FX I think. 2.5/5

Holy shit Goodreads.com has some terrible page titles. I had to clean the link text up.

Just finishedUnbrokenby Laura Hillenbrand. It has a five star rating after 5000+ reviews. I guess I'm not a big biography fan because it was really a struggle to read. Good story but it felt like some little kid telling it "...and then...and next...and then...and then." Maybe they all read that way. It will be a movie and probably get 5 stars there too, but I'd give the book 3.

The only kind I can stand are autobiographies of comedians. I read this one about a year ago and laughed often. The serious business ones always read like genesis.

I finished Conn Iggulden's new book, Stormbird:

Stormbird (Wars of the Roses, #1) by Conn Iggulden - Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists

And thought it was great. A tad on the confusing side at first, as it introduces a lot of characters at once (and I'm not nearly as familiar with the history as I was with the Genghis Khan / Julius Caesar books) but if you enjoyed his other books it's definitely worth a read.

ReadRaising Steam, the latest Discworld book from Terry Pratchett.

He still writes some of the funniest lines ever. It's a Moist Von Lipwig book, so there's plenty of Vetinari. It's pretty standard Discworld fair, though maybe a bit more disjointed than normal. More different threads that he ties together at the end than usual. Anyways, if you are in to Discworld already you'll obviously read it. If you are not in to it, what the fuck?

Agraza_sl said:

American Assassin (Mitch Rapp, #1) by Vince Flynn ??"- Couldn't finish, sucked. Merlin would ejaculate reading the first page. 0.01/5

Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass, #1) by Sarah J. Maas ??"- Couldn't finish, sucked. 1/5

The Burning Sky (The Elemental Trilogy, #1) by Sherry Thomas ??"- Substandard, but its romantic young adult, so it's not hiding that. Harry Potter as a crossdresser basically. 2.5/5

Promise of Blood (The Powder Mage, #1) by Brian McClellan ??"- Solid. A revolutionary france style of setting with fantasy elements. Big weakness was a periphery character that deserved more than "just stomped out of the room" type of shit. She got a novella origin story, but should have been woven more into the main story. 3.5/5

The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta ??"- Shit, couldn't finish. Religious tripe about the rapture, badly executed. Being made into a TV show for....HBO? 1/5

The 100 (The Hundred, #1) by Kass Morgan ??"- OK. Teen drama, very angsty. Being made into a show for CW. Will fit in well there. 2/5

The Republic of Pirates: Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down by Colin Woodard ??"- Non-fiction, therefore kinda boring. Dry, "just the facts ma'am" stuff. Also being made into a show. Lot of pirate shows coming out soon based in this period as well as Assassin's Creed 4. 2/5

The Strain (The Strain Trilogy, #1) by Guillermo del Toro ??"- OK...meh. Randomly too much detail, very slow development before anything interesting. Reminded me of Crichton's Airframe with the level of pointless minutiae. Basically reads like a screenplay since they'll need that shit when it goes to TV....being made into a TV show for FX I think. 2.5/5

Holy shit Goodreads.com has some terrible page titles. I had to clean the link text up.

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I thought Republic of Pirates was pretty good - I read it in a hammock in the Cayman Islands so that might of helped.

Last few books I read

Prontoby Elmore Leonard
Stories and Early Novelsby Raymond Chandler
On a bit of a hard boiled detective kick I guess

Finished Scalzi's latest book last night. It's awesome, fans of the series will definitely like it.

The Human Division (Old Man's War, #5) by John Scalzi - Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists

For all five french readers out there, I just finished the three volumes of 'Le puit des m?moires' (The Memories' Well). It's an award winning fantasy novel written by the friend of a friend of a friend of mine. Amusingly, the author created the story for a PnP RPG campaign, mastered it for a group of players and then wrote the novel inspired by what the players did. You can feel this peculiar genesis at times (an unnatural will for the characters to stick together, their shared ability to take an ironic distance toward almost everything, their lack of planning even when they are supposed to have time to plan, etc), but all in all it makes for a pleasant and easy read.

Gentleman Bastard next!

ReadThe Air War, the 8th book in The Shadows of the Apt series.

It's an interesting fantasy series with a silly sounding premise. Basically each of the races is sort of related to different bugs, and they have "Art" based on those. The Wasp kinden can fly and shoot a firebolt "sting" from their hands. Fly kinden are small but are the fastest/best fliers of the races. Etc etc. In addition some races are what they call "Apt", meaning they can understand and work machinery basically. The "Inapt" races, which ruled for hundreds of years and were only overthrown relatively recently, rely more on magic and can't understand anything mechanical.

Like I said, silly sounding premise. It's a good way to somewhat avoid high fantasy tropes like elves and dwarves though I guess.

Not going to break down the plot too much. Basically the series deals with the wasps trying to conquer the world, and some of the rest of the world resisting. Some books(The Air War for example) are almost entirely military in nature. Earlier ones focus more on adventure, though it's all leading up to and related to the war stuff.

I can't really recommend the series enthusiastically. It gets a bit repetitive at times and the characters aren't always very well fleshed out. But if you are looking for something different it's worth a try.

I read Wool a while ago, and just finished plowing through the last two, Shift and Dust:

Dust (Silo, #3) by Hugh Howey - Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists

They're an all around great read, though IMO the story ended/wrapped up a little too quickly. The ending felt somewhat rushed, but other than that the series is well worth reading. It's a bit depressing at times (most of the time, heh) so I'm looking forward to moving onto something with broadswords and/or interstellar travel to lighten it back up.

A small and old book caught my eye on my mother's bookshelf: it was a 1945 edition ofThe Silence of the Seaby Vercors, a short story written in 1942 about a french-loving Nazi officer trying over six months to break the ice with the french people that are forced to share their roof with him. A short and good read of historical significance as it was first published clandestinely in occupied France. Very peculiar to read more than 70 years later a book written during the uncertainty of WWII.

Szlia_sl said:

Very peculiar to read more than 70 years later a book written during the uncertainty of WWII.

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Especially one that is written in any way sympathetically towards a Nazi. Though it makes sense it would be French.


That's right France, YABURNT!

Without going too far into spoiler territory, let's say that the book shows that not all german officers share the hopes and views of the guest and not all the french people have the stoic attitude of his hosts.

FinshedThe Ocean at the End of the Lane. I some how missed it last year and if you are a fan of Neil Gaiman you probably have already read it, but if you have not pick it up. It's a fast read and I enjoyed 100% of it.

Whoops.