Which Book Are You Reading Now? Volume XII

[Traitorfish]

You're supposed to ask here and be addressed by a helpful poster who'll post the lmgtfy link to a wikipedia article vaguely related to the subject.

That was Plan B.

 

[Mouthwash]

The Dragon Lords: Fool's Gold - Jon Hollins

Amazon blurb (of all things) describes it as "Guardians of the Galaxy meets The Hobbit," and it is indeed the best emulation I've ever seen of MCU-style humor. In fact, the book does it better. It's not high literature by anyone's standard, but this may genuinely be the most fun book I've ever read.

Elantris - Branderson

Unlike Warbreaker (where I had to force myself to turn the pages), I actually find the setting interesting and want to read more. Maybe he isn't as overrated as I've assumed. Would recommend.

Darth Plagueis - James Luceno

Just begun this, but have a very good impression already. This guy is a fantastic writer, and also a fantastic worldbuilder, dropping a ton of detail and jargon while somehow allowing me to easily follow everything. (Of course Path of Destruction is the unsurpassed masterwork of Sith-focused EU novels, but there's not a lot to be said for Karpyshyn's prose.)

 

[Kyriakos]

Started reading Belle Amie, the novel by De Maupassant.
I am pretty sure it will turn very bleak, very soon.

 

[JohannaK]

Bel Ami, in the masculine.

 

[EgonSpengler]

The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty (2017)

Sword-n-sorcery fantasy based on Arabic myths (and maybe Persian and Hindu? I'm not sure) instead of European/Tolkien/Howard/groanjustkillmenowplease myths. Very well written and it moves along. I feel like I need to slow myself down or it'll be over too fast and then I'll have to wait for the next one. It's the first book of a planned trilogy, so we can add it to the list of outstanding fantasy stories that should be turned into an expensive television series with blogs and podcasts dissecting every episode, but probably won't because we're all racist misogynists. Thumbs up, particularly for anyone who digs fantasy.

 

[Mouthwash]

we can add it to the list of outstanding fantasy stories that should be turned into an expensive television series with blogs and podcasts dissecting every episode, but probably won't because we're all racist misogynists.

And that's the downside of more diversity in fiction - obsessed fanboys can now claim the reason why the whole world doesn't recognize their favorite author's genius and give them a movie deal is that they're stinking bigots.

 

[Traitorfish]

And that's the downside of more diversity in fiction - the obsessed fanboys can now claim the reason why the whole world doesn't recognize the author's genius and give them a movie deal is that they're just stinking bigots.

If we get to the point where that outweighs the obsessed fanboys claiming that their favour book/comic/game/body pillow is underappreciated because of reverse-racist ********s, I'd call that a win. Pragmatic, like.

 

[Quintillus]

Finished Meet You In Hell today, about Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick. Interesting subject and decently well written; I'd give it a 4/5. It's about Carnegie Steel and H. C. Frick Coke Company and their leaders, as well as the Homestead strike, in particular, but about the steel industry and labor movement in the late-1800s and early-1900s in general.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Money, Valuation, and Growth by Hasse Ekstedt is about "Conceptualizations and Contradictions of the Money Economy", as its subtitle says. The book essentially boils down to an analysis of the difficulties and failures in conjuring a working systematic model in economics. This is mainly demonstrated through the contradictions created by money's characteristics (e.g. while money is liquidity, it is also a commodity that has value. One may want to spend it in one moment, and then hoard it in another.) that pose difficulties for neoclassicism, Keynesianism, and beyond. The analysis shows the confluence between mathematics, philosophy, and economics: this is necessary since a major problem is studying complex subjects (like commodities and agents) as atomistic objects.

The book is disjointed at times, with definitions of concepts sometimes appearing after they are discussed. Something more editing may have fixed.

 

[EnglishEdward]

I am reaing

Moon over Soho

by

Ben Aaronovitch

 

[Zkribbler]

Way With Worlds Book 1: Crafting Great Fictional Settings by Steven Savage

Earlier, I'd read a book on worldbuilding, but it was pretty generic.
Way With Worlds delves much deeper. For example, early on there's an extraordinary assertion: that in science fiction and fantasy, the main character is the world. The protagonists and other characters are merely points of view within this world.

 

[Kyriakos]

Roughly read 1/3 of Bel Ami. Seems like things are about to go to hell.

Also, rereading Kafka's letters to Milena.

 

[Takhisis]

Mario Puzo's Fools Die. Just begun.

Way With Worlds Book 1: Crafting Great Fictional Settings by Steven Savage

Earlier, I'd read a book on worldbuilding, but it was pretty generic.
Way With Worlds delves much deeper. For example, early on there's an extraordinary assertion: that in science fiction and fantasy, the main character is the world. The protagonists and other characters are merely points of view within this world.

Oh, yes. An extreme case is Harry Potter, where all you see is Harry's thought's, emotions, and so on, but everything is, ultimately, like that.

 

[Zkribbler]

I am NOT reading Philip Roth's The Plot Against America, an alternative history in which aviation hero an anti-Semite Charles Lindbergh defeats Franklin Roosevelt for the Presidency in 1940 and steers the US on a pro-Hitler course.

The Kindle version is not for sale, but if it were it would cost twice as much as I've ever paid for a Kindle book.

https://www.amazon.com/Plot-Against-America-Philip-Roth-ebook/dp/B000SEH52O

 

[Birdjaguar]

Blue Mind. The Science that shows how being near, in, on, or under water can make you happier, healthier and better at what you do. Interesting claim. We'll see how it reads. But just in case I'll take longer showers.....

 

[Zkribbler]

...being near, in, on, or under water can make you happier, healthier ...

Yep, except when the salt air eats up your electronics.

 

[Takhisis]

The Science that shows how being near, in, on, or under water can make you happier, healthier and better at what you do.

Is this actually a scientific study?

 

[Lexicus]

Is this actually a scientific study?

If those claims are to be taken seriously, they'll need a whole body of studies.

 

[Takhisis]

That was basically my point. It's like the time when I heard some writer being interviewed on the radio about how Adolf Hitler had escaped to Argentina, etc. etc. and then this week it was officially confirmed that he died in 1945 as the history books say.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Is this actually a scientific study?

If those claims are to be taken seriously, they'll need a whole body of studies.

I guess I'll find out. The author is a marine biologist, Wallace J Nichols and from the few pages I've read, he says that he has a bunch of science to back up his assertion. Here is his website.

http://wallacejnichols.org/122/bluemind.html