RJ - Slayer of Trolls’s Comments

RJ - Slayer of Trolls’s comments from the 2025 Reading Challenge group.

Note: RJ - Slayer of Trolls is not currently a member of this group.

#6 in 2023:

I finished the Soviet Sci-Fi classic:


Roadside Picnic by Arkady Strugatsky and Boris Strugatsky
Rating: 5 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading:


The Quiet American by Graham Greene

I finally got around to finishing it!


The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I finished the very likeable "Cozy Sci-Fi" book


The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading


Breakfast at Tiffany's and Three Stories by Truman Capote

#5 in 2023:

I finished the very likeable "Cozy Sci-Fi" book


The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading


Breakfast at Tiffany's and Three Stories by Truman Capote

I finished an addition to my All Time Favorites


Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Rating: 5 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading the Russian Cold-War Era Science-Fiction classic:


Roadside Picnic by Arkady Strugatsky and Boris Strugatsky

#4 in 2023:

I finished an addition to my All Time Favorites


Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Rating: 5 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading the Russian Cold-War Era Science-Fiction classic:


Roadside Picnic by Arkady Strugatsky and Boris Strugatsky

I finished this small collection of the two short stories that inspired the Nutcracker ballet which has become a Christmas classic:


Nutcracker and Mouse King and The Tale of the Nutcracker by E.T.A. Hoffmann and Alexandre Dumas
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

#3 in 2023:

I finished this small collection of the two short stories that inspired the Nutcracker ballet which has become a Christmas classic:


Nutcracker and Mouse King and The Tale of the Nutcracker by E.T.A. Hoffmann and Alexandre Dumas
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Karin wrote: "I enjoyed Dave Barry Is Not Making This Up by Dave Barry

I think he was more consistently funny when he was married to his first wife.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/..."

I liked his older stuff too, especially the collections of his columns from the 1980s and 1990s.

I finished my first two books of the year this weekend, both in the Mystery/Crime/Thriller genre:


To Die in California by Newton Thornburg
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...


The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes by Adrian Conan Doyle and John Dickson Carr
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading the second book in the Cartel series - I gave the first one (The Power of the Dog) five stars so hopefully this one is just as good:


The Cartel by Don Winslow

#1 and #2 in 2023:

I finished my first two books of the year this weekend, both in the Mystery/Crime/Thriller genre:


To Die in California by Newton Thornburg
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...


The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes by Adrian Conan Doyle and John Dickson Carr
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading the second book in the Cartel series - I gave the first one (The Power of the Dog) five stars so hopefully this one is just as good:


The Cartel by Don Winslow

Hanča wrote: "I'd like to nominate The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis.

Connection to 'universe' being this is a scifi about extraterestrial, also the film adaptation staring David Bowie who..."

Second this. I've been wanting to read it forever.

By the way, Tevis wrote Queen's Gambit which was a successful Netflix series recently, and he also wrote The Hustler and The Color of Money both of which were filmed with Paul Newman.

Good luck and happy reading in 2023 Lisa! I hope you get to Catch-22 and some Calvino this year. Enjoy Kindred - I read it a couple years ago and liked it.

Lisa wrote: "Happy New Year :)
Great book selection as usual. I'm hoping to get to some of them myself this year. Like Catch 22 and some Italo Calvino, just not in January :D I might've overreached - woops. Als..."

Thanks Lisa! I hope you have a terrific 2023 :-)

this was me at the end of 2022...

Good luck Sam. I think you posted this in the 2022 reading thread though, instead of the 2023 thread.

CURRENT READS

I'm starting 2023 reading these books (listed in order of expected finish):


The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes by Adrian Conan Doyle and John Dickson Carr


To Die in California by Newton Thornburg


Catch-22 by Joseph Heller


Nutcracker and Mouse King and The Tale of the Nutcracker by E.T.A. Hoffmann and Alexandre Dumas


The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers


Intensity by Dean Koontz


Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho


The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter


The Road to Amber by Roger Zelazny


Battle Cry of Freedom by James M. McPherson


The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One, 1929-1964 edited by Robert Silverberg


The Collected Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe by Edgar Allan Poe


Asimov's Chronology of the World by Isaac Asimov

NEW AUTHORS IN 2022:

These are the new-to-me authors I read for the first time in 2022:

The ones I really enjoyed and/or am looking forward to reading more of their work:
Ted Lewis
W. Somerset Maugham
Robert Louis Stevenson
Ernest Hemingway
Fernanda Melchor
Isaac Asimov
James Lee Burke
Leo Tolstoy
Boileau-Narcejac
Arthur Machen
Fredric Brown
James Joyce
Eugene B. Sledge
Edith Wharton
Harry Thompson
Clifford D. Simak
J. Sheridan Le Fanu
Daniel Woodrell
John Fowles
Donald E. Westlake
Colson Whitehead
Joan Lindsay
Ben Aaronovitch
Erich Maria Remarque
Jack McDevitt
Ken Liu

The others:
Edmond Rostand
Elizabeth Peters
Eric Frank Russell
Robert Traver
Donn Pearce
Michael Capuzzo
Susan Hill
Mur Lafferty

2022 HALL OF SHAME:

The books we hate. These are the books I either bailed out of (only one this year) or struggled to get through.


The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams
Rating: 2 stars


Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters
Rating: 2 stars


Wasp by Eric Frank Russell
Rating: 2 stars


Anatomy of a Murder by Robert Traver
Rating: 2 stars


Into the Water by Paula Hawkins
Rating: 1 star


The Worst Class Trip Ever by Dave Barry
Rating: 2 stars

As you might expect, my WORST READ OF 2022 is:


Into the Water by Paula Hawkins
Rating: 1 star

SHORT STORIES IN 2023:

I do enjoy short story collections and anthologies, and I usually find a lot to like in this category. I'm working on a couple big volumes right now (the first two below) but hope to fit some others in this year.

Short Story Collections/Anthologies I hope to read in 2023:


The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One, 1929-1964 edited by Robert Silverberg


The Collected Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe by Edgar Allan Poe


The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume II A edited by Ben Bova


The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor