August 2021 Reading Discussion

[Bick]

A Moveable Feast by Hemingway was superb, and recommended for those who like his other work. Continuing the theme rather, I’m now about to start The Hemingway Hoax, by Joe Haldeman, which won heaps of awards, and as it’s Haldeman the shift in quality won’t be quite so dramatic as if I started something by a more pulpy SF writer.

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

I'm currently reading Curlew Moon, by Mary Colwell.
A terrific story about saving the Curlew from extinction in Britain and Ireland.

 

[Danny McG]

Just finished this:

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This is literary S.F. It is very memorable, but not because of the S.F. elements but rather for the psychological insights. In only that way it is like Flowers for Algernon. Klara is a "robotic companion" who is designed to be a child's companion. The story is told from Klara's point of view and I found that interesting but quite frustrating. Klara is most certainly sentient, but she is uneducated. So there is a lot going on in the world that is important to her and the story, but she does not understand it, and often assigns very wrong causality. Just for example the sun, which is part of the title she sees in a religious sense as life giving and healing. So she's both right and wrong. As the "narrator" she was a continual frustration to me, because there was so much I wanted to know, and I felt could be known, but Klara understandably, does not understand.

It's really hard to rate this book. I gave it my standard 4 stars, which in my system equates to pretty-very good. But certain people might rate it as one of the best books they've ever read and others might easily see it as a waste of time. If anyone reads this I'd be interested in their take on it as well.

I tried it earlier this year, however I got frustrated with the naive viewpoint and DNF it

 

[Parson]

I tried it earlier this year, however I got frustrated with the naive viewpoint and DNF it

The frustration with the naïve viewpoint lessens as the book goes on. She eventually gains more insight, but remains what I would call a brilliant, but uneducated, person. Sometimes the naïveté actually leads to psychological insights others do not see.

 

[tobl]

The frustration with the naïve viewpoint lessens as the book goes on. She eventually gains more insight, but remains what I would call a brilliant, but uneducated, person. Sometimes the naïveté actually leads to psychological insights others do not see.

psychological insights others do not see.... isn't that call being delusional?
AS for naíveté... i have a hard time diferentiating from stupidity... you know like the person that tries to put gasoline on an electric car....
reading the desert prince by peter v brett. seems fun
there's a new laurel hamilton out, from a new series... let's see if it's any good. i hoping for a bit more procediral and a bit less bonking... not that i have anything against bonking of course.
there's also a new demon accords almost out. let's hope it's still this week lol or at least this month. i need a fix urgent.

 

[Parson]

psychological insights others do not see.... isn't that call being delusional?
AS for naíveté... i have a hard time diferentiating from stupidity... you know like the person that tries to put gasoline on an electric car....
reading the desert prince by peter v brett. seems fun

"Psychological insights others do not see," was meant in the sense of the others surrounding her at the instant, not in the sense that no one else could see them. --- So, no, it is not delusional.

Also, I would see naïveté as something considerably different then "stupidity." I see someone who is naïve as someone who believes the best about people and things until life shows them that their assumptions were wrong. For example, when I went to college a couple of my dorm mates would often rope me into a game of cards (no money involved) and they cheated. I didn't see it right away because I could not conceive of someone cheating at a simple game of cards when there was nothing to actually win. My thinking went "Why would someone cheat and risk losing their reputation just for a dumb game of cards." That of course was naïve, but I wasn't stupid. I caught on after a few games, and I count those same card players among my friends today (50 years later), but now if I play games, I'm changed. I've lost my innocence of such things. I rapidly consider the possibility that if someone is winning "too much" that they might be cheating -- even if it is just a meaningless game.

 

[tobl]

"Psychological insights others do not see," was meant in the sense of the others surrounding her at the instant, not in the sense that no one else could see them. --- So, no, it is not delusional.

Also, I would see naïveté as something considerably different then "stupidity." I see someone who is naïve as someone who believes the best about people and things until life shows them that their assumptions were wrong. For example, when I went to college a couple of my dorm mates would often rope me into a game of cards (no money involved) and they cheated. I didn't see it right away because I could not conceive of someone cheating at a simple game of cards when there was nothing to actually win. My thinking went "Why would someone cheat and risk losing their reputation just for a dumb game of cards." That of course was naïve, but I wasn't stupid. I caught on after a few games, and I count those same card players among my friends today (50 years later), but now if I play games, I'm changed. I've lost my innocence of such things. I rapidly consider the possibility that if someone is winning "too much" that they might be cheating -- even if it is just a meaningless game.

yeah, maybe... naïve as someone who believes the best about people and things until life shows them that their assumptions were wrong and stupid when they don't learn or don't want to learn. like i said maybe. but it's almost potatoe potato. and don't get m started on polyannas

 

[Danny McG]

What a big book
Of course, all the books written by Patterson and someone else, are by the someone else, not Paterson. But as Paterson can't write to save his life, that's perhaps a good thing!

It sort of fizzled out, rubbish!
It didn't know if it was low level sci fi or mediocre horror.... I'm impressed with myself for sticking it out to the end instead of DNF

 

[Danny McG]

This morning I'm starting a new one by Stephen King.
Billy Summers, a crime thriller about a mob assassin and his one last hit before retirement.

 

[soulsinging]

I'm re-reading "The Killing Moon" by N.K.Jemisin, which is intense and distinctly non-cosy fantasy.

There’s grimdark, and then there’s NK Jemisin. I finished book one of the broken earth and couldn’t go on.

I read Rebecca Roanhorse's Black Sun, the first volume in an epic fantasy trilogy set in a world inspired by pre-Columbian American civilisations such as the Mayans. I read Roanhorse's debut novel Trail of Lightning a couple of years ago and I liked bits of it but I felt it was very uneven, however I feel she has improved as a writer since then.

I may check this one out. I too thought Trail of Lightning had promise but fell a bit short of being really good. It had some promising Butcher-Dresden flourishes but never quite came together.

I bailed on Just Mercy, which was excellent but just too disheartening to go on. Having worked in the system, none of it was surprising, so it just wound up weighing on me.

currently reading House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune, a fantasy about a government bureaucrat investigating an orphanage for children with magical powers. Very entertaining so far, and significantly more heartwarming than my last few reads.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Soulsinging, not read that but when grimness goes from being gritty realism/dark and menacing and makes me wonder if the author's got something of a fetish, that's when it annoys me.

 

[dask]

This morning I'm starting a new one by Stephen King.
Billy Summers, a crime thriller about a mob assassin and his one last hit before retirement.

Really interested in knowing how this is.

 

[hitmouse]

There’s grimdark, and then there’s NK Jemisin. I finished book one of the broken earth and couldn’t go on.

i read the Jemisen trilogy ( it was a Christmas present.) Well-written and plotted undoubtedly, but not exactly fun, and not something I will repeat.

 

[Danny McG]

Really interested in knowing how this is.

So far.... he's booked by the mob to do a hit on the courtroom steps. A small USA town, the victim is in the county jail.

There are delays so he spends weeks in the town, passing himself off as a writer who has had an advance on his first novel.

To keep up the cover he rents an office and begins pounding away at the keyboard, writing a thinly disguised autobiography.

However, unknown to the mob, he's also established a second identity across town, this is because he doesn't trust them not to set him up as the fall guy after the shooting.

Early days, I'm less than an eighth into the yarn, however it seems to be a fairly good crime thriller

 

[soulsinging]

i read the Jemisen trilogy ( it was a Christmas present.) Well-written and plotted undoubtedly, but not exactly fun, and not something I will repeat.

If I'd read it 15-20 years ago, I think it would have been an absolute favorite of mine. It had a fascinating premise and a ton going for it, but too much pain for me. I had the same reaction to Parable of the Talents, a big disappointment after Parable of the Sower. There's part of me that thinks this is just evidence that a nerdy midwestern white boy would not last a year in the shoes of an African-American woman. I have had this problem with a lot of books lately. I saw a recent thread about this where I'll expand on the idea.

 

[Danny McG]

Really interested in knowing how this is.

Billy Summers by Stephen King

A further update, the gunman is now hiding out in a log cabin and still writing his story - now there's some old Stephen King 'Shining' horror creeping in.

On the cabin wall is a painting of some hedge lions, he keeps thinking they are getting nearer in the picture frame. It's now been revealed it's a view of the Overlook Hotel maze.

 

[Fiberglass Cyborg]

i read the Jemisen trilogy ( it was a Christmas present.) Well-written and plotted undoubtedly, but not exactly fun, and not something I will repeat.

I also think it'll be quite a while, if ever, before I can face re-reading the "Broken Earth" trilogy. "The Killing Moon" is downright cheery by comparison.

 

[HareBrain]

Started The Magic Box: Viewing Britain Through the Rectangular Window, a history of British TV and film by Rob Young

Wonderful. Anyone who grew up with a TV in the 60s-80s in Britain and/or is interested in the SFF/horror/folklore-related elements of the national creative psyche should read it.

 

[dask]

edited

 

[dask]

Billy Summers by Stephen King

A further update, the gunman is now hiding out in a log cabin and still writing his story - now there's some old Stephen King 'Shining' horror creeping in.

On the cabin wall is a painting of some hedge lions, he keeps thinking they are getting nearer in the picture frame. It's now been revealed it's a view of the Overlook Hotel maze.

Think I‘m going to have to get this one.