What Else Are You Reading in 2018? Showing 1,651-1,700 of 3,893

[Sarah]

@Phrynne I see- that’s pretty cool! I listened to World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War and that one has full cast audio. I do think for Illuminae you’d need to read it first and see everything and maybe do a reread on audio. Or maybe follow along in the book while listening to the audio? Lol

[Jacqueline]

I just finished Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli. It’s the book they based the movie Love, Simon on. Rather a nice little YA book. And it was a quick read.

Who knows where my next reading adventure will lead me. To the stars or back to Sweden or to the US again. I do know that I’m off to the Pub right now for dinner. That’s enough of an adventure for me tonight.

[Eric]

Julia wrote: "I just finished rereading Cannery Row by John Steinbeck for my RL book club. I liked it very much."

Don't neglect Cannery Row's sequel, Sweet Thursday. Another fun read.

[Eric]

I finished the five book submarine series, Ohio Class. Back to fantasy land, go I with The Azuleah Trilogy Boxset: Books 1-3 and Bonus Novella. Though there was a certain element of fantasy in the sub series.

[Meredith]

Currently reading three very different versions of our near(ish) future:
Walkaway by Cory Doctorow, Autonomous by Annalee Newitz, and Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse.

[Pam]

Read Frances Hardinge's The Lie Tree and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1725519485.

[Anthony]

I’m in the middle of my first-ever reading of Anne McCaffrey’s Pern books. I’d had my eye on them since I was a kid, and I’m mostly enjoying them, although there are some dated and disturbing sexist moments. Many people on social media have been talking to me about how much these books mean to them, and several have talked about how these books got them into reading in the first place. Even though I find them a little clunky at times, I can definitely see why they are so popular. They have a whimsy and breeziness, and a clarity of vision of a world and culture that’s infectious.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

Starting The Sisters Brothers before the movie comes out.

[CBRetriever]

colleen the convivial curmudgeon wrote: "Starting The Sisters Brothers before the movie comes out."

movie?

wow

[Jordan]

I read The Sword of Rhiannon yesterday. Typically I'm not a huge fan of the older planetary romance type books, but I had a lot of fun with this one.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

CBRetriever wrote: "colleen the convivial curmudgeon wrote: "Starting The Sisters Brothers before the movie comes out."

movie?

wow"


Yeah, with John C. Reilly which is, just... weird.

[Jess]

I just finished The Fishermen (disappointing, style over substance) and have started The Magpies because I'm in the mood for a thriller

[Shana]

IT

[Meredith]

Silvana wrote: Meredith, if you are interested to read the Iron Council together, I am planning to read it in September. ."

Maybe....I've been keeping an eye out for a used copy but I'm trying to prioritize books I already own (before I die under an avalanche of unread books).

[Dan]

I've finished reading the The Picture of Dorian Gray yesterday for a school assignment and now I'm delving into The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment which is really interesting and insightful and (for the late hours at night) Tales of H.P. Lovecraft which is just beautifully terrifying.

[Jamesboggie]

My IRL book club just discussed The Left Hand of Darkness. It was a surprising and challenging work. It really is a product of its time, but once I understood that I could appreciate it. I got a lot out of the discussion.

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Pam]

Read volume 7 in the Flavia de Luce series As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1638817076.

[Gary]

I finished reading The Eye of the World (Wheel of Time Book #1) by Robert Jordan. I am reading A Killer's Mind by Mike Omer. I plan to read Across the River and into the Trees by Ernest Hemingway next.

[HeyT]

Just finished The Dragon Reborn Now I'm trying to finish Autonomous and The Bone Doll's Twin.

[Anna]

HeyT wrote: "Now I'm trying to finish ... The Bone Doll's Twin."

Please post your thoughts in the buddy read thread when you're done!

[HeyT]

That was my plan :)

[Anthony]

I just finished The Fifth Season and was floored by it. I’m debating whether I want to dive right into the rest of the trilogy or have a little palate cleanser before going ahead. Part of me wants to give space to the unfolding of the narrative...

[Jamesboggie]

Anthony wrote: "I just finished The Fifth Season and was floored by it. I’m debating whether I want to dive right into the rest of the trilogy or have a little palate cleanser before going ahead. P..."

I recommend taking a breather first. Those books are heavy, and they take a lot from a reader. It would be a shame to commit to reading all three in a row and lose your tolerance part way.

[Ariana]

Anthony wrote: "I just finished The Fifth Season and was floored by it. I’m debating whether I want to dive right into the rest of the trilogy or have a little palate cleanser before going ahead. P..."

I usually like to take a break, just so that the books stay separate in my mind. If I read a series back to back, later on it just all blends together and I can't remember where one ended and the next one started.

[Anthony]

Thanks, that’s how I was leaning, actually. Now to figure out where to go next. Reading it was such a consuming experience. And I fear that everything else will feel a little small and thin next to it...

I was thinking about All the Birds in the Sky or Among Others or Uprooted or The Zero Stone or Swords and Deviltry so if anyone who’s read any of those has thoughts relative to what I was talking about, let me know...

I mean the funny thing about these inner debates I have is that I’m going to read all of these eventually...

[CBRetriever]

I'm currently reading the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series (7 by Fritz Leiber and one by Robin Wayne Bailey) and have enjoyed them. Swords and Deviltry

I've also read The Zero Stone and it's sequel Uncharted Stars which was also fairly good

[YouKneeK]

Since my last post, I’ve finished the two scheduled July re-read books, 1Q84 and Annihilation, and I’ve finished the rest of the Southern Reach trilogy that Annihilation was the start of.

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
This is an omnibus of a trilogy originally published in Japan. I really enjoyed the setting throughout the omnibus, and the writing style seemed unique to me. I enjoyed the first two books a lot, but my interest fizzled out on the third and I wasn’t all that satisfied by it in the end. My review.

Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer
I liked this quite a bit, with my main complaint being that there aren’t ever any solid answers to the main questions in the series and the ending is pretty ambiguous. I really enjoyed the first two books. The third was good but a little less interesting to me, and I wanted some things to be fleshed out better. My reviews:
Book 1 – Annihilation
Book 2 – Authority
Book 3 – Acceptance

For my next book, I’ve started Touch by Claire North. I’m only about 25 pages in, but so far I’m really interested in it.

[Jacqueline]

The only time I’ve read two in a row from a series this year was in January/February sometime when I was going through a major slump and I read two of my sons Artemis Fowl books back to back. I’ve been like a short fat Tigger bouncing between genres and authors all year. Also I’ve started to get bored with series or authors if I read them one after the other.

I’ve been obsessed with finishing the Popsugar challenge (and to a lesser extent the Around the Year one as well) and I’ve been reading stuff I never would have gone near before. Eleanor Oliphant, Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows, Simon....and all sorts of crying girl type books. Honestly it’s scary. What’s scarier is that I’m actually enjoying them all. I want to read a lot more SFF but I can’t fit it all into the prompts. It’s a bit hard to find a True Crime in a fantasy book...

[MadProfessah]

@YOUKNEEK TOUCH by Claire North (and The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August ) are quite good. I thought Harry August was the better work, though.

Both would be excellent targets for screen adaptation, IMHO.

[Phrynne]

I love Claire North's books. The ones she writes under her pen name of Kate Griffin are really good too.

[Phrynne]

My review of The Testament of Loki by Joanne Harris

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Pam]

CBRetriever wrote: "I'm currently reading the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series (7 by Fritz Leiber and one by Robin Wayne Bailey) and have enjoyed them. Swords and Deviltry
"

I loved those books when I read them while still at school ... will need to do a re-read one of these days.

[Pam]

Read volume 8 in the Flavia de Luce series Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1638817023.

[Pam]

Also read Nemesis, book 1 in a series by Louise Cooper, and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2448679413.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

I didn't love Zero Stone or Uprooted. I think after Jemisin the would have been disappointing for me. Among Others is literary, but you have to be willing just to lazy-river ride it through--it's not a roller coaster like Fifth Season. I haven't yet the other two but they seem to get a lot of strong reactions, Anthony!

YouKneeK, I'm gonna say I also loved Touch! I hope it keeps your interest. I really must read another by her. I've been leaning on The Sudden Appearance of Hope

[Anthony]

I wound up doing a little Twitter poll and All the Birds in the Sky won, and it’s turning out to be perfect. Uprooted got a lot of votes as well, I’m surprised to hear you didn’t enjoy it.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Anthony wrote: "I wound up doing a little Twitter poll and All the Birds in the Sky won, and it’s turning out to be perfect. Uprooted got a lot of votes as well, I’m surprised to hear you didn’t enjoy it."

Not liking Uprooted is an unpopular opinion, but there it is. I think it was hurt by the fact I'd read two other popular Russian folk tale retellings in a short time, so I couldn't be as charmed with the setting.

Glad you're liking All the Birds!

[Anthony]

I’m glad as well.

Having unpopular opinions about celebrated works can be a strange thing. Years ago I started Dave Eggers’ book A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, which topped many critics’ lists and won all sorts of awards and I wanted to punch that book in the face. And I’m not typically a violent person. I still can’t imagine why people thought that book was so great. I never finished it.

[Anna]

Allison wrote: "Not liking Uprooted is an unpopular opinion, but there it is. I think it was hurt by the fact I'd read two other popular Russian folk tale retellings in a short time, so I couldn't be as charmed with the setting."

Is the other one Deathless? I liked Uprooted, and should have loved Deathless (because I loved the stories about Koschei as a child), but it was a slog. Since I like Uprooted, it's hard to explain what it is that some people absolutely hate about it. There's weird pacing in the middle, which I get, and I don't think it's flawless, but I don't quite get why some people loathe it.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Anna wrote: "Allison wrote: "Not liking Uprooted is an unpopular opinion, but there it is. I think it was hurt by the fact I'd read two other popular Russian folk tale retellings in a short time, so I couldn't ..."

Deathless (which I absolutely adored! haha! Maybe it's where you start? You love the Koschei you find first? Maybe it's a curse!! Damn Baba Yaga, you are extremely petty to curse these books) and Bear and the Nightingale.

I love lush writing and complicated characters, which Valente does well for me. Bear was atmospheric and had complex characters but was way slower, and Uprooted had neither complexity nor the atmosphere I wanted/expected at this point.

[Anna]

Yeah, I also didn't love Bear :D

edit: I feel like I have to add, I'm talking about personal enjoyment, not the quality of the books. As a book, Deathless was pretty great, which is why I rated it higher than I otherwise would. With Uprooted, I can see it has flaws, but I enjoyed the story, I had fun, so I rated it higher. Bear... something must be wrong with me, everyone else loves it.

[Rachel]

I loved uprooted the most - it was the 5 star read for me - the others had flaws 😊

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Probably to no one's surprise, there are a few tropes that I do not do well with. Uprooted had several. Bear was gorgeous but one of those "the first book is the prologue" things that...idk. Sometimes works really well for me (Night Circus!) and sometimes less so.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Rachel wrote: "I loved uprooted the most - it was the 5 star read for me - the others had flaws 😊"

Did you read it first? I must know now, for science!

[Trike]

Anthony wrote: "Having unpopular opinions about celebrated works can be a strange thing. Years ago I started Dave Eggers’ book A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, which topped many critics’ lists and won all sorts of awards and I wanted to punch that book in the face. And I’m not typically a violent person. I still can’t imagine why people thought that book was so great. I never finished it. "

I get that. Since May of 1980 I have hated — with a capital HATED — The Empire Strikes Back, which seems almost universally beloved and is by far the most popular Star Wars movie. I just don’t get the love. There are only two good things about that movie: John Williams’ score and Mark Hamill’s acting... and I seem to be the only person who appreciates the latter.

[Anna]

Allison wrote: "Maybe it's where you start? You love the Koschei you find first?"

I have to come back to this. I first encountered Koschei in Alas taikavirtaa, which is a Russian children's book. Unfortunately there's no English translation, but it's an adventure story where you meet pretty much all the traditional Russian fairytale characters. I read my copy ragged, and I still loved it when I reread it for the first time as an adult a few years ago. Seeing my childhood fave in Deathless having pretty creepy sexytimes wasn't very pleasant. Same goes for Baba Yaga's mortar and pestle, that was so uncomfortable!

[Ariana]

Allison wrote: "Did you read it first? I must know now, for science!"

I really liked Uprooted, which I read first, a few years ago. I recently read The Bear and the Nightingale, which I liked ok, but less. Afraid to try Deathless now.

[Anna]

I completely forgot I was going to talk about why people always rec Deathless (and now Bear) to anyone who liked Uprooted. Are Russian/Slavic inspired fairytale retellings very uncommon in the US? Reading Bear I felt like it was every children's book I've ever read put together in a very boring package. Others are going nuts over it, saying it's so different and new. I thought it must be because growing up in Finland I'd heard more Slavic inspired folklore, but then I noticed that Bear is very popular among the Finnish SFF community, too. Now I have no idea what it is I'm missing.

Anyway, I don't think Uprooted and Deathless have anything in common, except that they pull inspiration from Slavic folklore. Not all King Arthur stories are for everyone, so just because it draws from the same giant pool of inspo doesn't mean you'll like both. They're so completely different, and I think it does Deathless a great disservice to rec it to someone who asks for something similar to Uprooted. Had I known Deathless was a depressing slog through war ravaged Leningrad, I would not have started it when I wanted something light and fairytale-ish, like Uprooted. Of course same is true if you read Deathless first, you won't like Uprooted if you're looking for something similar.

edit: Changed Russian to Slavic.

[Rachel]

I think that’s s great point Anna - the time and style are SO different. Also Uprooted is really Polish / Eastern European which I get this feeling would not at all like being lumped in with Russian!

In Uprooted even the horrific parts are written in gorgeous language whereas in Deathless it’s all grim and dark

[Anna]

So true, Rachel. I was going to edit to correct Russian to Slavic, but was too lazy.

edit: I decided to be less lazy and edited my post.