November 2019 reading thread

[Danny McG]

and continually consort with a prostitute!

*Clears throat and mutters Mary Magdalene to himself*

 

[Bick]

I read that a long time ago, enjoyed it very much, and found the arguments in favor of Richard III quite convincing. I wonder if it ages well?

I finished The Daughter of Time. I really enjoyed it; it’s a strange book in a way, part detective novel, part history book. It’s good though, and I liked the parts that are dated (such as Inspector Grant smoking in his hospital bed).

I’m now starting Le Carre’s Call for the Dead.

 

[Foxbat]

Busy reading a New Scientist publication called: Why the Universe Exists: how particle physics unlocks the secrets of everything. I've had to read the chapters on the Higgs Boson and how mass is applied to particles several times - and several associated headaches later, I think I'm (just) beginning to grasp it. I'm reading it on my kindle but that's turned out to be a bad idea. You really need this in book form because of the constant hopping I'm doing between chapters as I try to wrap my brain around this quantum conundrum.

 

[elvet]

I am well into Deadhouse Gates, book two of Malazan. Despite being my 4th reread, I had forgotten the amount of storylines it has. I always think of the book as being about Coltaine’s march, but it is the Sha’ik rebellion that is the main backdrop. So many other arcs begin here—Icarium and Mappo, Felisin and Heboric.
I’m taking the scholarly approach this time, and going to the Tor site‘s Malazan reread for a chapter by chapter summary and discussion. It is a fantastic way to help digest the intricacies of what is going on, though I know it will make the reread a much longer process. Looks like I’ll be talking about these books for a while.

 

[tachyon]

Wow, The Poppy War really took a dark turn. This is not YA material.

The author has emphatically stated that it's not a YA book but apparently it keeps getting mistakenly classified as YA.

 

[soulsinging]

The author has emphatically stated that it's not a YA book but apparently it keeps getting mistakenly classified as YA.

Yeah, it was all over her goodreads page so I'm not sure how I missed it. Maybe it had me thinking of Six of Crows, which the author seemed to want to not be YA but was very much YA. Also seems like it could've been a publisher's promotional decision... it's got magic/fantasy and a kid going to a magic school to start, so unsurprising they'd play up those trappings for sales.

I've decided another Timothy Zahn is a good antitode, and am finally reading Specter of the Past, his sequel duology to the original Thrawn trilogy.

 

[Parson]

Hardly made one a ‘bad’un’ in that day and age;

Dubious. Didn't they "string up cattle rustlers?"

With regard to personal morals they were highly ethical in my opinion.

Perhaps, I didn't see any of that in what I read, but I could see that happening later. But all "personal morals" means is that you are consistent with the morals you set for yourself. Such a definition would make Charles Manson a highly ethical person. But I doubt many would say that he was a moral person and certainly no one would say that he was an example to follow. In my book a person ultimately shows their morality by how they treat other people, especially the most helpless among us.

--- So I have a very difficult time with books with anti-heroes as their focus. I certainly resonate with a flawed hero who is trying to be more than they are, which I don't see as the same thing as an anti-hero.

*Clears throat and mutters Mary Magdalene to himself*

My problem was not with the prostitute. I found her backstory to be convincing. She was certainly a victim. My problem was with the men taking advantage of her brokenness.

 

[Allegra]

Started Donna Tartt's 2nd novel The Little Friend, her writing is addictive. Her first novel The Secret History and the 3rd The Goldfinch have very different subjects, but the same brilliance.

 

[HareBrain]

I've read The Fisherman by John Langan over the last few days. A quite superb piece of weird horror, unlike anything else I've read. I've seen it called Lovecraftian, and in the absence of a better descriptor I guess that'll have to do, but it is very much its own thing. There might also be a bit of Moby Dick about it.

In the acknowledgements page, the author writes that he had a hard time finding a publisher because the genre publishers thought it too literary, and the literary publishers thought it too genre. Useless, the lot of them. They should all have been fighting to publish this rather than the dross they churn out.

Next up, a re-read of Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker.

 

[Parson]

Finished Bad Memory (Jessica Shaw Book 2) by Lisa Gray. An interesting detective story following a private detective whose childhood was about as bad as can be and is still more broken than she knows. But she has an insightful mind and bulldog mentality which helps her, especially in her specialty of finding "lost" people.

Started Star Fire (Stars End. Book One) by M.R. Forbes about 50 perscent done and I'm finding it so interesting and exciting that I don't want to put it down.

 

[Danny McG]

Started Star Fire (Stars End. Book One) by M.R. Forbes about 50 perscent done and I'm finding it so interesting and exciting that I don't want to put it down

I wasn't aware of this book, I'll now be getting it asap. Cheers for a 'heads-up'

I recently finished his seven book War Eternal series and found it thundering good.

 

[Parson]

I recently finished his seven book War Eternal series and found it thundering good.

This is also good to know. I might just look up that series next. Thanks!

 

[tobl]

i'm listening to craig alanson expeditionary force series and... i can't make my mind about it... i mean, is fun and entertainig but i almost feel like it needs something

 

[tobl]

as for m r forbes i loved the divine series

 

[Danny McG]

i'm listening to craig alanson expeditionary force series and... i can't make my mind about it... i mean, is fun and entertainig but i almost feel like it needs something

I read the first one (Columbus Day) a couple of years ago but I found it a bit too much like a dozen other 'aliens attack' books. I never bothered with any more in his series. Too many tropes

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Hey, @tobl. I read four of the books in the Alanson series ... first two, skipped the third, the fourth, skipped the fifth and sixth, then read the seventh. I loved the pulpy, space opera feel of the first few, but realized by then that the glacially slow plot development was going to go on forever, and it was just too frustrating to continue.
And the structure/plotting of each book seemed almost identical to me; all ended with an impossible mission our gang had no chance of completing ... till they did, in some miraculous way. But everything else up till the conclusion just seemed like filler that hardly advanced the series plot-lines. Even the final missions never really advanced the plots all that much. And there seemed to be an endless number of tie-in novels, with characters I just didn't care about. (This is why I was able to skip at least one of the books in the series - it was a boring-sounding tie-in.)
Also, you have to really dig the relationship between the two main characters (you'll see who I mean, by the end of the first book), because it continues pretty much throughout the series. Just one opinion, but you might know by the second book whether you want to continue a long series with no end in site, CC

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

I'm currently reading An Inspector Calls and other plays, by J. B. Priestley, the other plays are: Time and the Conways, I Have Been Here Before and The Linden Tree.

 

[Danny McG]

I've just started what appears to be a SF zombie book, I'm only into the first few pages so no opinions as yet.

First Interview by C.T. Grey -- (our own ctg)

 

[Bick]

I finished Le Carre’s Call for the Dead - his first novel and starring Smiley - a terrific short spy/detective novel. I’m quickly becoming a Le Carre fan - rather late in life but better late than never.

I’m sticking with things criminal, and now turning my attention to The Tremor of Forgery, by Patricia Highsmith. I’ve heard good things about this. Greene said it was her finest book, and The Times named her the greatest crime writer of all time, back in the day.

 

[M. S. Ari]

Busy reading a New Scientist publication called: Why the Universe Exists: how particle physics unlocks the secrets of everything. I've had to read the chapters on the Higgs Boson and how mass is applied to particles several times - and several associated headaches later, I think I'm (just) beginning to grasp it. I'm reading it on my kindle but that's turned out to be a bad idea. You really need this in book form because of the constant hopping I'm doing between chapters as I try to wrap my brain around this quantum conundrum.

They are really great books. Specially new scientist instant expert series.