The last book I read was Monstrous Regiment, a Discworld book that had somehow slipped past me.
It was pretty good. It’s more or less a stand alone book in the setting with some minor cameos by established characters. There is one conceit that the book runs on, which you’ll likely catch onto early, but it manages to mix up how it uses that conceit to keep it fresh enough. The ending big action set piece is contrived even for Discworld action, but the book really isn’t about the action anyway so it gets a pass. B+ book, one of the lesser Discworld books which still puts it way above most other books.
Such an awesome universe.
Last book: Murderbot Diaries - Network Effect by Martha Wells
Current book: Daring Greatly by Brene Brown
The first book is really fun. Lot’s of action and witty characters with a lot of development.
The second book might change your life. It made me realize just how much emotion I’ve not been letting myself feel for the last two decades.
Last: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
Current: A Short History of Nearly Everything
Lest you think I’m bragging, the one before that was Omegaverse fanfic.
Last was war and peace, would recommend.
Currently “reading” Wisconsin • Minnesota | Midwest Bouldering Guidebooks to plan for an upcoming trip to devils lake. If you plan to go climbing there the book is awesome if not it would still be cool to page through if you are interested in climbing.
Last book : the wheel of time (#5) by R. Jordan. I don’t really recommend. I mean the story’s great but the way the characters are written is dull and sexist (men saying that women are mysteries, women complaining about how men are dumb and other ridiculous clichés), it feels like following people that are somewhat the worse of both teens and boomers, it takes me out of the book every single time. I prefer the king killer chronicles (P. Rothfuss) although we’re still waiting for the last book.
Current book : Trapped (C. Lackberg and H Fexeus) it is a great polar, with nice twists, I recommend!
I could only just get through Name of the Wind many years ago. As I was reading it something just felt off and was bothering me massively, I then came to the realisation that the main character (Kvothe) was just too perfect. His flaws were the world around him, not himself, and really the only fault that could be considered was that he was so good at everything he would do too much and get burnt out.
Is the second book better, and would you say it’s worth reading given the third one is nowhere in sight?
That’s interesting. I didn’t feel that way so I’m probably not the best to say whether it changes in book 2. It probably doesn’t as both felt like a fairly coherent story with an homogeneous approach. Anyone else felt that Kvothe was too perfect and would be able to enlighten us about whether it gets better in book 2?
If you like heroes that make mistakes and aren’t perfect (which completely makes sense btw) maybe you’d enjoy the Dresden files by J. Butcher (low urban fantasy in which you follow a mage in Chicago).
For me, the wheels came off the bus in the fourth book of Wheel of Time series. I realized I just didn’t care about another road trip where the gang becomes separated and runs off in different directions.
Yeah that too, you’re right. You get hooked into the rythm of one group and, at the next chapter, you’re taken away from them, following another part of the story in which you are not currently invested.
Last book I finished was Hail Mary by Andy Weir. Solid read, get it done before the movie comes out.
About to start the Kaiju Preservation Project by John Scalzi, no idea on that one yet, but Scalzi does good work in general.
Last one I can’t reccomend is The Book of Elsewhere by China Miéville and Keanu Reeves. I’m a big fan of the BRZRKR comics so I jumped at the chance for a novel in that universe… aaand it’s largely unreadable. :(
Project Hail Mary is one of my favorite audio books of all time! Second your rec!!
Last finished was Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey. It’s a haunted house story with a twist. I would recommend to people who like horror.
Currently reading a first aid manual, On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder, and The Woman in Black by Susan Hill. The first aid manual is handy, but reading it doesn’t do much good without training and experience. OT is short and good, very on the nose for this Trump term. Woman in Black is another horror book; from 1983 and proving “elevated horror” isn’t a new thing.
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FYI, there is an instance that asks this every week!
But to answer your question,
My last read was Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. Its a historical fiction about a few generations of a Korean family. It was solid.
I’m currently on vacation and have been reading Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone … Picked it up since it was available and supposed to be an easy read… Which it is. Its just a whodunit. Idk how I feel about it yet.
Last Book: Is Math Real? - Eugenia Chang
Reading: The Greeks, A Global history - Roderick Beaton
I would recommend both if either subject interests you.
“Is Math Real?” is a really fun book, and gives the brain a lot to chew on. It asks the “stupid questions” of math and explains why they aren’t so stupid.
“The Greeks” is incredibly well written and researched, and goes into many details that aren’t well known about Greek history. This is a subject that has always interested me because of my heritage, and I have learned a lot.
Would you care to share any examples of the math questions?
I can give you the first one!
The book opens up with “Why does 1 + 1 = 2?”, and goes on to explain an answer to the question, including ways where “1 + 1 != 2” and why.
Last book: The Apothecary Diaries 6 by Natsu Hyūga
Current book: The Magic Engineer by L.E. Modesitt Jr
The Apothecary Diaries series has been pretty good so far. Enough quirky characters and situations to not get to dark, but some definite darkness so it doesn’t get to sweet.
The Magic Engineer is the third in The Saga of Recluse series. Overall I enjoy Modesitt, but it also is clearly a cheap paperback fantasy from the 90s. It’s fun tracking down these second hand and they are fun reads. However, I enjoyed the first 3 books in his Imager series more.
I am reading Moon Zappa’s autobiography, I just finished 1000 Acres by Jane Smiley, which I REALLY recommend, and I’m also reading the collected Wendell Berry, Margaret Atwood’s latest short story collection Babes In The Woods, and the book about the Toronto Gay Village murders. All very good, I am decidedly not into true crime but it happened close to me and one of my friends was part of the Village and they told the cops several times that people were going missing. I feel awful for all the victims, but especially for the very closeted religious ones whose wives and children got to find out their fathers were queer because they found parts of them in a planter, and the whole world got to find out too. It’s not nice to posthumously out someone even under the circumstances when it will have such a profound effect on their families.
Last book: “Last Call” by Tim Powers. It’s great. Poker and archetypes. Big inspiration for Unknown Armies, which I loved.
Current: Medusa’s web, also by Powers. Not sure if I’m into it yet but it’s got some of his signature weirdness
Last finished: The Unaccountability Machine: Why Big Systems Make Terrible Decisions—and How the World Lost Its Mind by Dan Davies.
Currently reading: Language Machines: Cultural AI and the End of Remainder Humanism by Leif Weatherby.
They’re about how two mid-20th century intellectual movements (cybernetics and structuralism, respectively) that would have provided valuable tools for managing contemporary issues (institutional collapse and artificial intelligence) were sidetracked in the 70s and 80s by other movements (neoliberalism and poststructuralism), and proposals for updating them for our present needs.
Last book: Human Phoenix, current one Human Man, both from an author with the handle “Refusenik”. Human Man is basically the second part of Human Phoenix, kind of “coming of age” with a bit of mystery and scifi.
