What book are you reading, ιf' - Iff you read books

[gangleri2001]

Finished Eva Baltasar's  Boulder. My opinion is...

Spoiler :

a bunch of LGTQ and antinatalist propaganda. Very well written, there is no denying that, but nothing but degenerate propaganda disguised as literature. This is the last time I let legacy media recommend me a book. Damn woke mind virus, it's everywhere these days.

Just started this one which is addressed to foreign students of Chinese

Spoiler :

Fortunately there is only pinyin transcription on the cover of the book and the rest of the book is characters only, as doing otherwise would defeat the whole purpose of practicing. I've just finished the first chapter and I must say it is surprisingly well-written and engaging. This is clearly a very well-thought book that allows foreigners to practice their Chinese without offering the boring (and sometimes stupid) stories that you usually find in foreign language textbooks. Even a native speaker would also enjoy the story been told in it. Peking University Press really knows how to pull this. If you are really interested in honing your Chinese skills, I highly recommend anything from them. As for the story itself, once I'm finished I'll let you know in a spoiler note.

 

[EnglishEdward]

Yesterday I stayed up late finishing reading:

Creation State

by

Stephen Baxter

copyright 2023

An expedition to Planet 9 discovers it is a black hole.

Turns out a Boltzmann brain was behind it.


Good writing and gripping, although a
couple of plot lines were rather dubious.

 

[bene_legionary]

Still getting through Love in the Time of Cholera; I really love the contradictory nature of pretty much everybody in the book. Everybody is one thing on the outside, different on the inside. And Márquez just really likes the idea of solitude, huh

Nearing the end and now there's a bit more on this cholera stuff which was almost a passing mention for most of the book, unless I've missed a bit? It's odd, but it looks like it's going to get worse, so... I'm happy the title is now being fulfilled?

 

[Bestbank Tiger]

 

[Smellincoffee]

Starting A Brutal Reckoning, a substantial history of the Creek Wars. I live within driving distance of numerous battle sites, so this is a recurring interest..

 

[JollyRoger]

 

[Smellincoffee]

Given Mencken's reputation, that should be entertaining.

 

[JollyRoger]

It' fairly entertaining so far (100 pages in). The Brits really hated Americanisms slipping into the King's English and at the time of this publication (1936), there was moral panic over talkies coming from the colonies to corrupt the British youth. Mencken has a kind of humor that I appreciate.

 

[bene_legionary]

I finished Love in the Time of Cholera last night, and now I understand that cholera is a stand-in for passion... and rage. Which makes the end scene work in a couple different ways

... now I have to decide what to read next... I think at my last count I wanted to read Proust, Tolkien, Banks. But also, I want to see what stories Fight Club had but which the movie left out (which is why I feel like novels are a better way of telling more story... e.g. Catch-22 has so much more going on in the book than in the movie, while The Hunger Games actually makes some sense with an inner monologue and some history the movie simply doesn't provide you). And, it is a shorter novel. May as well...

 

[bene_legionary]

Finished Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuck. I was trying to read it faster than I could watch the movie.

My impression was that the movie was quite faithful to the book, although towards the end, it does diverge (the beat overall is very similar). And at just over 200 pages it's more of a novella. The prose is very disembodied, thoughts come one at a time. And what's Joe's real name?

 

[EgonSpengler]

I'm basically trying to drown myself in science fiction right now. Lately I've finished...

Children of Time (2018) by Adrian Tchaikovsky did some fascinating world-building. The alien species he created are an interesting bunch. I didn't care as much about the characters as I wanted to, and the ending felt a little abrupt.

The Kaiju Preservation Society (2022) by John Scalzi skipped over one of the key components of a kaiju story, imho, which is that they stomp all over little humans and little human cities. In the absence of that, they're just kinda big animals. Still an interesting book, but it was kind of like "What if Jurassic Park, but nothing really goes terribly wrong?" Okay, but when does a train get eaten? 'Cause when you say 'kaiju' I'm picturing people screaming and trains getting eaten.

A Closed and Common Orbit (2016) by Becky Chambers is nominally a sequel to The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, but we who watch a lot of television know that this is really a spinoff. Still, good stuff. Once I got over the fact that it's not actually a sequel, I got into it. I liked that it never came right out said that Pepper was Jane. It was obvious enough. We're smart enough to figure it out, so that, by the time it mattered, it didn't need to be said. I also liked how she reconceptualized an AI occupying a humanoid body, like it's just another vessel they steer around, and a limiting and limited one, at that.

And I've just started Exit Strategy (2018) by Martha Wells, Book 4 of The Murderbot Diaries, 'cause I guess I'm not completely sick of this stuff yet.

 

[Smellincoffee]

Am mostly finished with A Brutal Reckoning, which was as thorough a history of the Creek wars as can be imagined: lot of primary source integration, solid writing, well-chosen illustrative plates. Reccommended.

 

[danjuno]

Re-reading a book I've had a while: Over The Edge: Death In The Grand Canyon by Thomas Myers and Michael Ghiglieri

Basically a history of deaths in the Canyon's history & survival guide in one. Myers was a doctor at the Grand Canyon Clinic and Ghiglieri worked as an NPS Ranger in the Park. Pretty in-depth.

 

[bene_legionary]

Got out Consider Phlebas at the library. My first science fiction novel of the year, it seems.

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

Reading The Yellow Room by Mary Robert Rhinehart, because I mistook it for The Mystery of the Yellow Room by Gaston Leroux. I don't think I'll enjoy it greatly. Start was ho-hum, and three chapters we're introduced to what I fear is the typical smug condescending male protagonist who ends up with the female protagonist despite being odious and combative towards her (not an uncommon trend among female novelists, I've come to notice, I thought they would be better than their male counterparts in this regard)

 

[EnglishEdward]

Yesterday I finished reading:

Frontier

by

Grace Curtis

Copyright 2023

It is a Sci-Fi Western.

Very enjoyable, but there were a couple of logical gaps in the plot logic.

 

[Smellincoffee]

Working on The Dixie Frontier, a social history of Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, etc around 1780 - 1830. Published in 1948, reprinted later.

 

[Birdjaguar]

BOOK NOTES

AT BOOKWORKS

Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck — writing under the pen name of James S.A. Corey — will launch “The Mercy of Gods,” at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 6, at Bookworks.

Their new science fiction book is the start of what its publisher calls “a monumental new space opera.” The novel is the first volume in a planned trilogy. Abraham and Franck are widely known for writing the nine-part “The Expanse.” It was made into a TV series that is now available on Prime Video, Abraham said. “Having the reach of television definitely got people’s attention in a way the books have not,” Abraham said in a phone interview.

Franck, a former Albuquerque resident, now lives in the Pacific Northwest. Born and raised in Albuquerque, Abraham still lives here. “Albuquerque has always had an amazing writing community that’s been a real boon for me,” he said.

Abraham began writing in high school when he was in a mentorship program with veteran sci-fi author Fred Saberhagen. Later on, Abraham was a teaching assistant to Suzy McKee Charnas in a summer class in the University of New Mexico honors program.
“She let me participate in some of the class exercises. She was the person who was the foundation for my career,” Abraham said. Charnas, who died last year, was an Albuquerque author and short story writer primarily of sci-fi and fantasy.

Abraham is also known as the author of “Long Price Quartet” and “The Dagger and the Coin” series, and the “The Kithamar Trilogy.” With Franck, he wrote the Star Wars novel “Honor Among Thieves.” With George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois, Abraham co-wrote the sci-fi novel “Hunter’s Run.” Abraham also adapted several of Martin’s novels into comic books and graphic novels.

Asked why he and Franck are launching “The Mercy of Gods” at Bookworks, Abraham replied, “Because I live here and because Bookworks is my hometown joint.”

Bookworks is located at 4022 Rio Grande Blvd. NW.

 

[Josu]

Almost 2 months since I wrote my last rewiew, but daughter, holydays and a change of position in my company have stolen my free time, choosed less time for internet

Ended The Therror by Dan Simmons. I usally like very much Dan Simmons' books. This was not the case. It is a good book, entertaining.

Spoiler :

IMHO this monster story is completely needless, the story is powerfull enough to mantain the book and it ends being neither fish nor fowl.

Also started and ended Ursua, by William Ospina. Interesting story but a soliloquy in wich the author introduced too much historical figures only to mention them, which makes it having a boring timing.
Happened the same with El Pais de la canela (Cinnamon's country) by same author. Also started and ended
Re-read 1984. This is the book I have read most times in my life, this one is the re-read in which I enjoyed less, it continues being a 5/5

Started and still reading Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson, enjoying it a lot
Started and still reading El infinito en un junco. La invención de los libros en el mundo antiguo (Infinity in a reed. The invention of books in the ancient world) by Irene Vallejo
Re-reading The Ugly Ducklings by Boris Cyrulnik

 

[Smellincoffee]

Starting in on Fires of Vesuvius by Mary Beard, an examination of the eruption which destroyed Pompeii and the surrounding area.