SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion
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What Else Are You Reading?
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What Else Are You Reading in 2019?
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Book stack to be read to start the year include A Dance With Dragons, The Summer Dragon, Winter of Ice and Iron, Sleeping Beauties, Angels Blood, Kill the Queen and Fire & Blood
Mareike wrote: "I started re-reading Parable of the Sower yesterday in preparation of the upcoming Parable of the Talents BR and it is so good to revisit this book, but also very distur..."It is so disturbing to read right now! I finished it a couple days ago and liked it a lot, but it hits so close to home.
Anna wrote: "Anyone who likes things I like, for example Murderbot, Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach and Ninefox Gambit, should most definitely check out [book..."
Okay, that's a very strong rec! I wasn't planning on doing the BR, but that sounds so appealing, and the ebook is currently available from my library...
Beth wrote: "Paying attention to what she's actually saying, and not what others who haven't actually read her book or are taking a line or two out of context are saying about what she's saying, might not be a bad thing."I read parts of her book when it came out and I watched her Netflix series earlier this month (which is what has sparked these discussions). Personally, I think she’s a harmless kook who is taking the principles of Shintoism a step too far, but the people who are reacting positively to her *really* have lives that are teetering out of control, and most them are people who just never stop and think about things.
So in that regard, Kondo is probably helping people think about their behavior, probably for the first time for many of them, which is a good thing.
Kondo’s other preoccupations with things like sorting and folding are borderline obsessive-compulsive. Two of my friends are diagnosed with OCD and take medication for it — it is not the cutesy “oh, I’m obsessed with ______” that people toss off when something shiny catches their eye. OCD forces people to alter their behavior, often to the detriment of their daily lives. I saw so many of my friends’ quirks in Kondo when I watched her show.
Mostly I’m on Kondo’s side of things: stop buying useless crap. I don’t care that your house is cluttered, but all these tchotchkes are literally destroying the planet. I’ve always felt this way. As a kid my mom would become vexed with me at Xmas and my birthday because I didn’t react positively to the useless little toys she would buy. I knew they would just go into the closet where I would never think about them again. She still buys me junk I’ll never use, so as soon as I’m out of sight it gets donated.
I *would* like to bring Kondo to my mother-in-law’s house. She’s a collector who has somewhere in the neighborhood of 25,000 dolls. To my mind, the only difference between a collector and a hoarder is shelves. Over the holidays I posted this photo of the Pillsbury Doughboy’s family on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/Brtg3MWljYL/ But look past them at the background. Yeah. Imagine a whole house like that. (Those six dolls are only part of the Doughboy sub-collection. Seriously.)
Marie and my M-I-L would be the quintessential Unstoppable Force meeting the Immovable Object. The resulting crater would be visible from space.
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But for realsy realington my friends, help me declutter the thread, eh? Let us frolic to another thread where we can talk about the joy and woe of tidying books.
Trike wrote: "There’s nothing wrong with that, so long as you keep the fart jokes to a respectable minimum...."*snorts* LOL
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Nice, Jonathan! Sounds like a pretty epic list :)
Kaa wrote: "Mareike wrote: "I started re-reading Parable of the Sower yesterday in preparation of the upcoming Parable of the Talents BR and it is so good to revisit this book, but ..."Yes! I think I saw your update about that.
The last time I read it was in 2014 and it's just....a world of difference.
Mareike wrote: "Kaa wrote: "Mareike wrote: "I started re-reading Parable of the Sower yesterday in preparation of the upcoming Parable of the Talents BR and it is so good to revisit thi..."Yeah, the world feels like a very different place these days. I always find it interesting to think about how the experience of a book is changed by where we are and what's going on when we read it - the first read especially, but also how the book changes when we read it in different places in the future.
Conal wrote: "Joon wrote: "Conal wrote: "Peter Clines has a new book coming out in this story line next month for anyone interested."Yeah but it looks like it's audiobook only."
Yeah, it looks like Audible on..."
If Ray Porter is narrating, take my credit now!
Big catchup - have read and reviewed the following:Hitler's Girls: Doves Amongst Eagles by Tim Heath - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2679671250
The Black Friar by S G Maclean - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2680546173
Mystery Walk by R A McCammon - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2653212301
plus two books by Diana Wynne Jones:
Minor Arcana - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2679685374 and
Hexwood - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2679724116"
Karen wrote: "Conal wrote: "Joon wrote: "Conal wrote: "Peter Clines has a new book coming out in this story line next month for anyone interested."Yeah but it looks like it's audiobook only."
Yeah, it looks l..."
Yes, absolutely.
Watching the first season of The Handmaid's Tale was similar for me. I read the book in 2010 and really liked it, but the world it imagined felt quite far away. Watching the show two years ago was....let me say I would not have finished if I hadn't watched it in a group where we could decompress afterwards.
I kinda want to re-read the book, too, but haven't quite had the heart yet, so I'll leave it for now.
I finally got around to reading Children of Time, which I quite liked. It suffers a bit by comparison to the brilliant classic Dragon's Egg by Robert L. Forward, but Tchaikovsky carves out a slightly new space of his own and tells a very satisfying story.My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Just finished reading
by Arthur C. Clarke and loved it. Every assumption or expectation for an outcome were obliterated and I was turned in a whole other direction, with this story. Still reading
, which is my fun romp on the nightside.
Just read On a Red Station, Drifting by Aliette Bodard. Really enjoyed it. Can’t wait to read more from this Universe.
Hi all - I'm new here, so apologies if this book has already been mentioned, but....I recently finished and loved Unholy Land. My first Lavie Tidhar, but not my last!
Karen wrote: "Conal wrote: "Joon wrote: "Conal wrote: "Peter Clines has a new book coming out in this story line next month for anyone interested."Yeah but it looks like it's audiobook only."
Yeah, it looks l..."
I am right there with you on Ray Porter
Nadine wrote: "Hi all - I'm new here, so apologies if this book has already been mentioned, but....I recently finished and loved Unholy Land. My first Lavie Tidhar, but not my last!"
Doesn't matter if it was mentioned or not; you can mention it as much as you like! LOL
Glad you enjoyed it :)
Just when I thought I had read everything in the Issac Asimov's Foundation series, I realized that there is a Second Foundation Trilogy" which was written by other authors and authorized by the estate of Issac Asimov . I have started reading the first book in that series "Foundation's fear". Frankly, I am not as impressed so far and am unable to sustain interest due to too many unknown entities. But I wasn't impressed by the other foundation stories outside of the main trilogy initially (later grew to love them). This book sure is filling some of the gaps between Prelude to Foundation (Book 1 of the original septology) and Forward the Foundation (Book 2 of the original septology).
I will give this new trilogy a chance in 2019, I might have to read them a couple of times to get a hang of them. If you folks have any recommendations on anything I should read before getting into these books to understand some of the entities in these books better (where did the tiktoks come from?), please let me know.
I am also going for a few other older books from Issac Asimov, will update once I start.
Do not read the SEXOND FOUNDATION trilogy!!! It’s awful...Instead I would read the other Asimov books in the Robots & Empire line of books...
Reading The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2018 Edition. I'm enjoying it so far, though obviously some stories aren't to my taste. I'm not very far along, but my favorites so far: "Ugo," by Giovanni De Feo, "Fandom for Robots" by Vina Jie-Min Prasad, and "Montreal, 2014" by Madeline Ray.
Leticia wrote: "I can't agree to this of giving away the books you already read. And if you want to reread them? I have around fifteen times the "30" ideal number in my shelves (if not more) and it doesn't feel li..."I owned around 300 books even as a child from about the moment I learnt to read (aged 4.5) and that was nowhere near enough then, even with supplements from the library I had read favourites a dozen times and all the others at least twice.
Now I have a 2.5m X 2.5m bookshelf. About 1m of shelf is for all the read books that I want to keep. Another 1m or so is for non-English language, children's books, non-fiction the books I used for teaching EFL.
The rest are all double stacked with my TBR either bought by me or received from friends.
Just looking at that bookshelf gives me joy knowing that I can now afford to buy books so that if I dislike one enough to DNF I will still have something good to read.
I still remember when I could only afford to buy a couple of books a year and if I was lucky enough to be able to afford the subscription fee had to read whatever was on offer in the limited and dated English-language section of the local library.
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https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Melinda, I'm sort of astonished the 2018 collection is out already! Do you know the criteria for inclusion in the anthology?
Hi Nadine! I always love when I read a book that opens up an author's entire work as new "want to read" books. Glad you had a good experience!
Beth wrote: "@Kevin_Church's tweet embedded in this article is the last word on this topic for me:WHAT MARIE KOND..."
LOL. Nothing like a telephone exchange to understand what someone meant. Twitter is just like that old game.
So I have finished Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That'll Improve and/or Ruin Everything
A very interesting book on technologies that are (mostly) being developed at the moment and what we might expect from them. Also what the downside of some of these developments could lead to.
The Book starts with trying to make it cheaper to get into space. For me, the interesting part here was the Space Elevator. Something that I have always been a fan of. Interestingly enough the downside for that was pretty huge.
It ended with a chapter on hacking your brain. Something that is being worked on at the moment in the area of lost function enhancement. Things like lost limbs, hearing, eyesight and the like. This could be a major advancement in the quality of life but it too has some major downside that wasn't exactly what I expected.
Since the authors add some humor and don't delve too deeply into the science aspect of it, this is a good read for anyone interested in such aspects of future development. Could even help with ideas for writing SciFi.
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Skyward was a lot of fun, and the kind of YA I enjoy reading.
Tried Scarlet, Book 1 as something to read between Skyward and my next stack from the library and it's just too much for me right now. I'm, like, 8 pages in and there's been 2 sexual assaults, a murder, 2 beatings, a dirty cop and a lead up to another murder. Reassessing my next short-read now.
Also halfway through books 2 and 3 of The Once and Future King, this time in audio which I'm enjoying, though it does make the animal cruelty harder to get through. It's amazing to me how much cruelty and drama he tackles and yet how I always feel it to be so very human.
Finished Lincoln in the Bardo...#badacidtrip but it's done.Started focusing on Catseye and it seems like it's going to be an easy read. Maybe will complete it today.
My before bed read continues to be Shadow of Night which may become my take it to work read as I get further into it.
Melinda wrote: "Reading The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2018 Edition. I'm enjoying it so far, though obviously some stories aren't to my taste. I'm not very far along, but my favorites s..."Does that have a green-and-black cover? I think that is the one I got for Christmas, and will be reading this year (sorry, I am away from the book right now, or I would check myself!)
Finished Stone Mad. Still have a couple days before Medusa Uploaded. Think I'll give Catseye a go. Actually wasn't planning to but it looks short and easy.
Mike wrote: "Melinda wrote: "Reading The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2018 Edition. I'm enjoying it so far, though obviously some stories aren't to my taste. I'm not very far along, bu..."Yes, it has a green and black cover and is quite thick.
Allison wrote: "Esther, we made a whole thread about tidying books so that we could tidy up this discussion!https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Melinda, I'm sort of astonished the 2..."
I have a feeling the "2018" collection is kind of like "2018" cars. I just looked at the publication history and the stories were all originally published in 2017.
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https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Melinda, I'm sort of ..."
Ahh that makes sense, thanks!
I finished Parable of the Sower and Door Into Fire earlier this week, so this weekend I'm working on the sequels: Parable of the Talents for painfully relevant dystopia, The Door Into Shadow for comfortable, queer-friendly fantasy to give me a break from the heavy stuff. And then maybe I can finally get to the last few stories from To Shape the Dark.
Read The Various Haunts of Men by Susan Hill and reviewed it - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2683554462.
I read My Hero Academia, Vol. 1 (and volume 2) which was my first manga ever. I watched the anime and absolutely loved it. Then I found out the manga is far ahead of the anime, and the next season doesn't come out until October, so I decided I would start reading the manga to get new content in this story that had me so hooked.I had never really considered manga when I was younger, because I preferred to read books with just words, but I've been more open minded lately. At this point I'll take a good story in any form, and I'm happy to have a new art form to choose from for my reading fun.
Finished Dragon Wing, for the buddy read, and gave it 3-stars. It's a lot of set-up, but the characters were interesting.Now I'm well into Unseen Academicals for my continuing Discworld-a-thon - which should end later this year.
I've been reading the William Shakespeare's Star Wars books, although I've only ever seen two of the movies (the first and third that ever came out, so 4 & 6 in the series). I started with 4-6 with audiobooks and they are FABULOUS. Just like real Shakespeare, I far prefer them in dramatized readings with an actual cast. As for in print, they are more like 3 stars each, which isn't just because I haven't seen the movies, I have no desire to see 1-3, and had mixed feelings about number 7 (haven't seen 8).
After reading the first 71 pages of The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde the other day I actually sat down this afternoon and read the rest of the book. Quite a fun book.
I am new to this group so if you haven't run across me yet, Hi! I tend to have several books in progress at time so I can jump around to read what suits my mood. -The Tea Rose by Jennifer Donnelly just for a break from all my Sci Fi and Fantasy as its a murder mystery set in 1800s London/New York with some historical background. About 20% of the way in a enjoying it so far.
-I also finally started the Stormlight Archives and I am now about halfway through The Way of Kings and loving it (huge Sanderson fan though I just discovered him last year).
-I also just picked up The Kingdom of Copper by S.B. Chakaborty and plan to start on it by the weekend. City of Brass was on of my top 10 read of 2018 so I am very much looking forward to it,.
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I've actually been eyeballing City of Brass. One of those books that keeps popping up in recommended lists. Might have to make room for that at some point this year.
I bought it for my son for the Christmas before last and I’m waiting for him to read it so I can nick it for a while. He’s been a tad busy this last year. He has read a few books but not the one I want. Of course. Usually I read them before I give them as presents but I didn’t have time that year.
John wrote: "I am working my way through The Wheel of Time series, including all the shorts that likely didn't exist 25 years ago. On Book 4. I will likely reread a bunch that I had read way back in the day bef..."Good lord, that's quite a commitment!
Joon wrote: "30 books on an immediate TBR list sounds reasonable. There are countless books I want to read eventually, but if you asked me what I wanted to read SOON, I wouldn't name a hundred books. Even filli..."I actually created an "up next" shelf so that I could have a smaller version of my TBR list :)
Pam wrote: "Big catchup - have read and reviewed the following:Hitler's Girls: Doves Amongst Eagles "
That looks absolutely fascinating!
Scribe and The Library at Mount Char. Both a bit dark, I may need to follow with some P.G. Wodehouse as an antidote.
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SciFi and Fantasy Book Club
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I get rid of the ones for which I have digital versions unless they're Collector editions. I'm still waiting on digital versions of
Louise Cooper's Indigo and Time Master series
Zenna Henderson's books
Madeleine Brent's books
Nick O'Donohoe's Crossroads books
and a few others