Still reading Whispers Underground by Ben Aaronovitch. Book 3 of Rivers of London series.
Didn’t really get much to read this week, so at same place as last week.
What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?
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I started The Final Empire, the first book in the Mistborn trilogy from Brandon Sanderson. Mostly because it’s a “default” when talking about fantasy, and I really enjoyed The Blade Itself from Abercrombie. I was pleasantly surprised, and I couldn’t put it down. Absolutely loved it! I immediately continued with the second book (Well of Ascension).
The first book in the series is quite different from the next two, so would be interested in seeing how you like it.
I’m still reading East of Eden by John Steinbeck.
Slowly reading The Deep History of Ourselves by Joseph LeDoux.
And lastly Epictetus: The Complete Works by Robin Waterfield.
East of Eden is a masterpiece, hope you’re enjoying it!
Cheers for Epictetus.
I finished James by Percival Everett and I really enjoyed his sense of humor and use of irony, and I found it to be a fast-paced read.
Up next will be The First Three Minutes: A Modern View of the Origin of the Universe by Steven Weinberg, which was recommended by Neil DeGrasse Tyson on his StarTalk podcast.
I finished Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky, read book 1 of The Brothers Karamazov, and am almost done with The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey.
Would you recommend Metro 2033? I also know its a game?
I wouldn’t. It read like a video game. I was excited by the premise, but the story was a let down for me.
What do you think about 5th Wave? You reminded me that I have a copy on the bottom of a stack, still unread. I’m currently about halfway into Red Sparrow (I like it so far; the author seems to know his stuff), and I’ll finish that first, but I could re-sort my piles to make it more visible if given a reason to.
Its funny. I was excited about Metro 2033 and skeptical of 5th wave, and I was disappointed by metro 2033 and surprised by 5th wave.
I really liked the story in 5th wave. It’s got a little teenage angst/romance in it, but it’s not too awful.
What I’m worried about in the second book is what looks like a setup of a full on love triangle. I hope I’m wring about that (about to find out!)
Just finished Team of Teams by General Stanley McChrystal (and others), it’s excellent!
The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World by Jonathan Freedland was fantastic!
Also finished The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson. It’s just okay. I keep trying to get into historical fiction and it’s just not my thing so maybe don’t take my word on it.
Just started The Revenge of Power: How Autocrats Are Reinventing Politics for the 21st Century by Moisés Naím and The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle. So far both look to be excellent.
I started reading The Path of Daggers by Robert Jordan, the eight book in the Wheel of Time series. And wouldn’t you know it, it opens with a brand new group of characters with ambiguous goals. Jordan desperately needed someone to tell him “No.”
Asimov’s Nemesis. It’s one of his later works, where he seems to keep forgetting what he already wrote, so it’s quite repetitive, but still an interesting story.
I’ve actually read this one twice, many years ago. Great book!
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Just finished “Rogue agent” by Skyler Ramirez, which I liked a lot. I wasn’t through with his “Dumb luck and dead heroes” series just yet, but I needed a change from the same two characters’ first person thing. Also just finished the audiobook for “The eye of the Bedlam bride” by Matt Dinniman. Great book, but I will probably just read the next book. Listening on my commute takes too long, it took me over two months to finish it.
I just finished The Man in the Rubber Mask by Robert Llewelyn. Nothing I would recommend to non-fans of Red Dwarf, but it’s pleasantly readable
Now I’m reading Small Gods by Terry Pratchett. It’s amusing, has decent world building, but it reads like it was written by or for someone with ADHD - scenes are so short and jump around, it’s kind of frustrating.
Of all the Discworld books, Small Gods was one of few which I didn’t finish.
I finished The Laat Lifeboat by Hazel Gaynor. It’s a fictionalized retelling about a British ship carrying evacuated children to Canada that was hit by a torpedo from a Nazi U boat. One lifeboat was not rescued for many days. I usually don’t enjoy fictionalized retellings like this, but I actually really enjoyed this one. The author took the facts surrounding the lifeboat and populated it with entirely fictional characters, giving her more leeway to properly plot the story out and give depth without having to make up things about real people.
I just started Grendel by John Gardner, a retelling of Beowulf from the monster’s point of view. Too early to say how I feel.
Halfway through Kaiju preservation society. A real page turner.
Fire and blood, the origin of the iron throne. But in french because I need to practice that skill.
I always scoff at how cheesy Scalzi’s book synopses sound but then I burn through them in a day or two. Starter Villain especially.
Kaiju Preservation Society was my first Scalzi and it is so good. I’ll probably buy some fancy collectors edition one day to have in my bookshelves.
I just finished reading the series The Green Bone Saga by Fonda Lee. Overall I liked the series - it was more of a business drama / political family drama with a sprinkling of fantasy. I thought the final book was more of an extended epilogue, with frequent time jumps. I found it a bit difficult to reconcile the rapid aging of characters I still felt were young.
I am now reading Blood over Bright Haven by M. L. Wang at the recommendation of my wife. I have really loved this one - it’s been very interesting even though it has been a tiny bit predictable.
After that, I’m debating rereading The Expanse as I really loved it.
The Expanse is soooo good! I’ve been rereading that via audiobook.
I finished, I Who Have Never Known Men, Jacqueline Harpman, last night. What a very surreal experience that I’m struggling to articulate. It left me very contemplative. It was clearly well written, but I’m not sure whether I enjoyed it. Intentionally too many unanswered questions.
A week or so back I knocked out The Gate of the Feral Gods, Matt Dinniman, which was, as usual, a good romp. I’m interested to see if this LitRPG gets boring at some point.
I’m two books ahead of you and it hasn’t gotten boring yet. As the series goes on I think it has more frequent moments where it slows the action down to put pieces in place, but Dinniman never stops escalating the situation.
Good to know - every time I think he’s jumped the shark, there’s a bigger shark! Have you read any other LitRPGs, and if so, how does this compare?
This is the first LitRPG I’ve read, should probably check out more.
I think I’ll add Never Known Men to my TBR, it sounds interesting.
Nice! It’s quite quick, so it’s a low investment if it doesn’t float your boat.
if Beale st. could talk by Baldwin.
I finally finished Contemporary Theological Approaches to Sexuality. It was a good read, but exhausting. Going to take a reading break for a week or so, I think.
