July 2022 Reading Thread

[Bick]

Now it's Ace Double time

Great looking double that is.

 

[HareBrain]

After several failed attempts to get into it over the years, I've started a reread of The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams. My only previous read was when it came out in 1989, when I loved it almost beyond reason. We'll see what happens this time.

 

[williamjm]

I finished Ryka Aoki's Light from Uncommon Stars. I had mixed feelings about it, it is trying to pack a lot into a single story and I think perhaps it was trying to do a bit too much. The tone was also inconsistent, the emotional heart of the story is Katrina and how she overcomes the horrible abuse she has suffered but this was juxtaposed with the often whimsical portrayal of a family of alien refugees from an interstellar war trying to figure out how to run a donut shop in Los Angeles. There's also a mix of genres between the space opera elements and the magic realism elements about a demon trying to collect souls of seven violin prodigies for Hell. I'm not sure all these storylines belong in the same book and the characters are unconvincingly quick to accept revelations about Faustian pacts or aliens living amongst us. The book does also seem a bit too quick to gloss over the moral implications of one of the protagonists having condemned multiple souls to eternal damnation. It does have some strengths, I think it is at its strongest when focusing on Katrina as she gradually builds her confidence in her own abilities and I think it does a good job of the tricky task of writing about music, particularly when the finale of the novel focuses on someone playing a violin.

 

[Elentarri]

Finished:

The Law by Jim Butcher
This is a charming and entertaining novella that almost feels like one of the first few Dresden File novels i.e. that stakes aren't that high, the world isn't going to end. Harry Dresden is asked to perform a miracle, puts on his P.I hat and does some investigating. Things get a bit complicated, but this novella is surprisingly "cozy" compared to the last several novels in the series. This story takes place after Battle Ground and does contain spoilers for that novel. I'm not always enthusiastic when authors read their own books, but Jim Butcher has a lovely voice and makes a wonderful narrator! This is a nice little addition to the series.

Square³ by Mira Grant
Mira Grant came up with an interesting concept, but fell flat with the execution. The characters were pretty boring, there was too much exposition and the plot failed to make full use of the rift concept. This novella provided a couple of hours of bland before bed reading but isn't anything to write home about.​

 

[Hugh]

Michael Holroyd "A Strange Eventful History. The Dramatic Lives of Ellen Terry, Henry Irving and Their Remarkable Families"
Biography. A mixed experience. At times tedious. At times I felt the research was decidedly lazy. However, I'm delighted to finish it.

One memorable witticism re someone concerned with social status:
"Florence, it was said, had read only one book, Burke's Peerage, but she read it all the time."

 

[Extollager]

Hugh, have you read Alethea Hayter's A Sultry Month? This is an account of people in painter B. R. Haydon's milieu in London in mid-June to mid-July 1846. It's a very good read even if, like me, you haven't got around to read Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, Thomas and Jane Carlyle, &c.

 

[KGeo777]

I am still reading Mary Shelley's THE LAST MAN.
I love her writing style. Such grandiose metaphors.

"Does not a stream, boundless as ocean, deep as vacuum, yawn between us?”

"his manner calm as the earthquake-cradling atmosphere,"

"famine was welcomed as the kind porter to the gates of death"

"the checked waters of misery would have deluged her soul,"

"the fires of heaven rise from the East, moving in their accustomed
path, they ascend and descend the skiey hill. When their course is
fulfilled, the dial begins to cast westward an uncertain shadow; the
eye-lids of day are opened, and birds and flowers, the startled
vegetation, and fresh breeze awaken; the sun at length appears, and in
majestic procession climbs the capitol of heaven."

 

[Danny McG]

I'm now reading a new book by Timothy Zahn - The Icarus Plot

 

[Extollager]

I’m well into Corbin Scott Carnell’s Bright Shadow of Reality: C.S. Lewis and the Feeling intellect, a fairly brief, and readable, relatively early (1974) study. The theme is sehnsucht or romantic longing, Lewis’s Joy, etc. It was well-informed for the time and is a nice contrast, I suppose, to more specialized and “academic” books. I like it, but was surprised by Carnell’s identification of the Oyarsa that first descends on the St. Anne’s household in That Hideous Strength and almost terrifyingly endows them with prodigious power of language, as being God the Holy Spirit; it is Viritrilbia, Mercury; and I’m not sure he remembered the descent of the Oyarsa-being Perelandra either. But generally he does well indeed, particularly considering that there’d been only a few books on CSL published then.

 

[Bick]

I'm now reading a new book by Timothy Zahn - The Icarus Plot

I saw that advertised on the Baen site. I’ll be interested to hear if it’s good.

 

[Dave Vicks]

Robert E. Howard horror stories.

Marty Makary M.D. Health care in the USA.

 

[Danny McG]

I saw that advertised on the Baen site. I’ll be interested to hear if it’s good.

@Bick
I'm only into chapter 2 so he's still scene setting, I'm enjoying the pace etc so far, I'll do a mini review if it proves worthwhile and readable

 

[Hugh]

Hugh, have you read Alethea Hayter's A Sultry Month? This is an account of people in painter B. R. Haydon's milieu in London in mid-June to mid-July 1846. It's a very good read even if, like me, you haven't got around to read Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, Thomas and Jane Carlyle, &c.

Many thanks for the recommendation. I'm always keen to get them and I'll bear this in mind if my interest meanders this way.

The impulse for reading the Holroyd biography came from a visit to Smallhythe Place

Smallhythe Place - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I'd read that the artist Pamela Colman Smith had spent time there in the early 20th century as she was good friends with the owner, Ellen Terry, and her daughter, Edy Craig, so I visited to see if the landscape there showed up in her artwork. (It's fairly close to me, set deep in rural surroundings). Despite being owned now by the National Trust, there's still an unspoilt feeling (not even a car park!). This visit got me interested in knowing more about Ellen Terry (the great actress of her day despite very humble origins) and Edy Craig and her circle. Hence the biography.

 

[Foxbat]

Finished Roadside Picnic and really enjoyed it. It’s a novel that will probably become more clear through multiple readings because, just like the characters in the book struggle to understand their environment, there are things and events that are not completely explained and left to the reader’s imagination.

I recently commented on the film Stalker (based on this book), saying that it was more interesting than entertaining. I think the movie could have been greatly improved upon if it stuck much more closely to the book plot.

Now starting The Santaroga Barrier.

 

[Elentarri]

Finished: Life as We Made It: How 50,000 Years of Human Innovation Refined – and Redefined – Nature by Beth Shapiro
A bit of history, a bit of science. Very interesting. Unfortunately not terribly detailed or in-depth. Then again, it is a popular science book that disseminates information very nicely.

 

[Bick]

Now starting The Santaroga Barrier.

I’m interested in Herbert’s non-Dune books, so it will be interesting to hear what you think.

 

[Foxbat]

From what I’ve read so far of Herbert’s non-Dune books, I think Hellstrom’s Hive is the standout.

Oddly enough, the opening of The Santaroga Barrier gave me a feeling of deja vu so I checked and, right enough, both books open with a character looking down a valley at some buildings (a farm in Hellstrom’s Hive and a cheese cooperative in Santaroga).

 

[Bick]

I finished Drowning World by Alan Dean Foster. I liked it a good deal. Some similarities with Midworld, and with good aliens, an interesting alien world and some engaging characters.

Now starting Forever Peace, by Joe Haldeman, winner of the Hugo, the Nebula and the JW Campbell Memorial award.

 

[alexvss]

Keeping up with one fiction and one non-fiction book at a time, I started reading Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder, by Nassim Taleb. A little hard to understand but I'm enjoying it still.

 

[kythe]

Between audiobooks and Kindle, I have been reading classics lately.

Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll - A re-read, this philosophical fantasy never gets old.

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens - Our world looks very different on the surface from the early 1800's picture of workhouses, orphanages, and children on the streets. However, people don't change. I've unfortunately met my share of Mr. Bumbles and Mrs. Manns in social work. We still have "heroes" working with indigent and vulnerable populations who treat their clientele very differently from higher-ups in society who they are really trying to please.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - This is a change of pace for me, but I found it surprisingly enjoyable. I'm considering moving on to the Bronte sisters as well.