What Else Are You Reading in 2019? Showing 2,951-3,000 of 3,237

[Krystal]

I finished reading The Girl in Red which had a pretty typical 'zombie apocalypse' vibe, although Red is actually smart and the 'zombies' are actually ... well, I won't go spoiling it for you. :D

Review for that one is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Now I'm finally about to start Salvation Lost, which I'm pretty keen for because I really enjoyed the first one!

[Sabrina]

I finished Across the Nightingale Floor which is on our bookshelf and found it both beautiful and tragic. I also read the second instalment Grass for His Pillow but stopped the trilogy for now: too full of grief and heartbreak.


Now, I'm reading Sins of Empire just in time for the release of the last book in the trilogy :-)

[Chris]

Esther wrote: "I am debating Tigana, The Lions of Al-Rassan or Under Heaven. Any preferences?"

I'm not Gabi or Don, but I love all three of those books. Tigana seems to be the best loved by readers; it has more magic than the others and is not based on a single time and place in history. If you want GGK's signature style of historical fantasy, The Lions of Al-Rassan is a great place to start.

[Trike]

Stratos wrote: "Just started The Road. Its style is way too lyrical for my taste. Currently struggling. I 've heard it's pretty grim so I 'm nervous for that as well."

When Old Yeller is too darn upbeat and Sophie's Choice has too many laughs, go for The Road to bring you down a bit.

[CBRetriever]

Krystal wrote: "Stratos wrote: "Just started The Road. Its style is way too lyrical for my taste. Currently struggling. I 've heard it's pretty grim so I 'm nervous for that as well."

That book is my ..."

I wouldn't even go see the movie after reading it and I love Viggo.

[Don]

Esther, I don't think you'll miss anything meaningful by going with E-books with GGK. If you closed your eyes and randomly picked one of those three books, you'd win. Tigana is the most fantasy of the three, the other two are what I call Hard Fantasy, in that there is definitely a supernatural element that is lightly used. I hope you'll share your thoughts once you get started.

[Don]

Is among other things enjoying "The Killing Line" by James N. Cook. One of my favorite Preppers vs. Zombies & Marauders Novel-Series.

[Trike]

Don wrote: "Is among other things enjoying "The Killing Line" by James N. Cook. One of my favorite Preppers vs. Zombies & Marauders Novel-Series."

Do posts look substantially different in the app or something? Because these read as if you’re saying “Don is reading...” but they don’t look like that.

[Sarah]

I listened to the abridged version of The Road and didn’t think it was that bad. Not nearly as bad as Blood Meridian anyway.

Now I’m wondering what was cut out of the version I read. I’d eye read it but McCarthy’s style makes my brain hurt. The abridged was the only one my library had.

[Trike]

Sarah wrote: "I listened to the abridged version of The Road and didn’t think it was that bad. Not nearly as bad as Blood Meridian anyway.

Now I’m wondering what was cut out of the version I read. I’d eye read ..."

Sounds to me like you
(•_•)
( •_•)>⌐■-■
(⌐■_■)
took a shortcut.

YEAAHHH!

[Randy]

Sarah wrote: "I listened to the abridged version of The Road and didn’t think it was that bad. Not nearly as bad as Blood Meridian anyway.
... "

Agreed. The final image in The Road is actually somewhat hopeful. There was nothing even vaguely hopeful in Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West.

As for his style, I wish I could write with that economy and precision. But then, I also like Hemingway. (Also Faulkner, but so much for economy there.)

[Sarah]

Randy wrote: "Sarah wrote: "I listened to the abridged version of The Road and didn’t think it was that bad. Not nearly as bad as Blood Meridian anyway.
... "

Agreed. The final image in The Road is ..."

Yeah I agree- the message seemed hopeful overall. Where as Blood Meridian was just super bleak. No hope for anyone there.

And I love the way McCarthy actually writes, I just wish he'd distinguish his dialogue with some quotation marks. Without those the whole thing just kind of bleeds together. He's much easier to listen to than read.

[Alia]

Last month of the year and so far this year I've read all of these scifi/fantasy books:

The Call by Peadar Ó Guilín, 4 stars
The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany, 2 stars
The Celtic Twilight: Faerie and Folklore by W.B. Yeats, 4 stars
The Wicked King by Holly Black, 2 stars
The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden, 4 stars
Amberlough by Lara Elena Donnelly, 3 stars
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin, 4 stars
The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin, 4 stars
Magic's Pawn by Mercedes Lackey, 4 stars
The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert, 3 stars
The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman, 5 stars
Magic's Promise by Mercedes Lackey, 3 stars
An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson, 4 stars
Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant, 5 stars
Rolling in the Deep by Mira Grant, 4 stars
Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Neil Gaiman, 5 stars
Tehanu by Ursula K. Le Guin, 2 stars
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas, 1 star
Shadows Return by Lynn Flewelling, 4 stars
Unwind by Neal Shusterman, 3 stars
UnStrung by Neal Shusterman, 3 stars
Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell, 4 stars
Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson, 3 stars
The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco, 3 stars
Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu, 5 stars
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman, 5 stars
Wolf-Speaker by Tamora Pierce, 4 stars
Emperor Mage by Tamora Pierce, 4 stars
The Realms of the Gods by Tamora Pierce, 2 stars
Sandry's Book by Tamora Pierce, 3 stars
Tris's Book by Tamora Pierce, 3 stars
Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater, 5 stars

What I started 2019 and still need finish at least one of before the year is over:

The Harp of Kings by Juliet Marillier
Homeland by R.A. Salvatore
Daja's Book by Tamora Pierce
The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black

[Beth]

The Chapo Guide to Revolution: A Manifesto Against Logic, Facts, and Reason: I enjoy this podcast a lot, although I'm an old and also often kind of bewildered by it. Much like the podcast itself, this is a heavily political and contemporary book, so I won't get too deep into it here. If you think you might enjoy socialist comedy with an educated/NYC slant, give CTH a try. (review)

[Eric]

I've completed White Jenna. This section of the saga caught fire. It will make you feel good, just like a fairy tale should.

"Hunger is the best seasoning."

Onto The One-Armed Queen.

[Jen]

I initially had trouble with Le Guin too, it took a little bit to become familiar with her style and appreciate it. I read Lathe of Heaven and Left Hand of Darkness, and just felt meh about both. But after reading the entire Earthsea series, I see her work in a new light, and I appreciate it so much more. I think I found my copy of Wizard of Earthsea on paperbackswap.com

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Yeah, Earthsea is nothing like her SF works, other than the depth and the type of prose she likes. But tone, formality, scope...very different.

Eric, glad it grew on you!!!

[Randy]

Have any of you tried Le Guin's short stories? I find short stories can be a way to ease into an author, get a sense of the breadth of their work if not the depth, and she's an expert short story writer. I highly recommend her first collection, The Wind's Twelve Quarters.

[CBRetriever]

I just finished Walking to Aldebaran and I did not see the ending coming or most of the plot twists. Excellent quick read

[Trike]

Alia wrote: "Last month of the year and so far this year I've read all of these scifi/fantasy books:

."

Looks like a miniature stamp collection.

This is why I prefer when people use the titles rather than the covers, because they’re impossible to see at such a small scale. Is that just me?

[DivaDiane]

It’s not just you, Trike. Titles or both, otherwise, I’m not intrigued enough to follow the link and just skip it.

[Jacqueline]

Not just you Trike. Most of the time the little covers won’t load on my app so I’m left wondering what books they’re actually reading. And even when they do I can’t see them anyway.

The same as “here’s my review of X”. I’d like them to include a line or two about how they liked it and some sort of non spoilery comment on the book. I never click on the reviews but I might, and also check out the book, if they included a little bit of information.

I’m still not reading anything. Had another drive yesterday from the farm to the beach and tomorrow I’m going to the Mountains for a few days. I came back to the beach to check on the FIL. He hasn’t been well. So much for respite. I haven’t had a rest since I put him in except for a day at the farm and all I could do was sit on the lounge watching Christmas movies because I couldn’t function.

[CBRetriever]

same here - I never click on the links to read reviews unless it's a book that sounds interesting or is in my Wish List on Amazon. However, if someone adds a line or two in their post about the book and it sounds interesting, I'll be motivated enough to read the review and/or add it to my Wish List

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

The app for me shows the covers ENORMOUS but low quality, so not actually more helpful, just scrolling. I don't mind it on my laptop though!

Hugs, Jacqueline. We went through something similar recently and it is so much effort both physically and emotionally. I hope you get some back up soon.

[Alia]

Ava wrote: "Alia, I have been looking far and wide for a hard copy of the Wizard of Earth Sea. (That means that I've searched all the libraries in our state system.) LOL

I have trouble with Ursula's works. I ..."

I would say my favorite of that particular series is The Tombs of Atuan ( it's actually one of my absolute favorite books ever) and can be read as a stand alone so even if you can't get a copy of Wizard if Earthsea I highly recommend getting that one if you can.

[Alia]

Trike wrote: "Alia wrote: "Last month of the year and so far this year I've read all of these scifi/fantasy books:

[bookcover:The Cel..."

Good to know, I can change it!

[D.]

Ava wrote: "Alia, I have been looking far and wide for a hard copy of the Wizard of Earth Sea. (That means that I've searched all the libraries in our state system.) LOL

I have trouble with Ursula's works. I ..."

I really enjoyed Earth Sea for the first three books, after that they were still good but I did find them drag a little and they took much longer for me to finish. I had a similar problem to you for finding the physical copies, settled for kindle in the end.

[Don]

Trike, thanks for the "Heads Up".

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

The Library at Mount Char was not for me. I'm not sure if it's my headspace or if the audio narrator read the characters "straight" rather than sarcastic or something, but it was pretty gruesome. I got through it and thought there were a lot of neat ideas, but mostly it felt like a paroxysm of violence.

Tales of the City was really neat to read. I am amazed at all the topics it hit and that captured folks in the 70s and 80s. It was over the top in a charming way and I had a lot of fun with it.

Now reading Palimpsest which I'm hoping will find its footing soon because the beginning was fascinating and the idea is so wacky I want it to be good, but right now it's sort of floundering for me.

And listening to A Natural History of Dragons which is quite enjoyable. I'm wincing a bit at some of the characterization but it's otherwise so delightful that it's not derailing things for me at all!

Yay for a good end of the year!

[Travis]

Allison wrote: "It was over the top in a charming way and I had a lot of fun with it."

What a perfect description of that series!

[Beth]

Jen wrote: "I initially had trouble with Le Guin too, it took a little bit to become familiar with her style and appreciate it."

I initially had trouble, too, but that was when I was in jr. high. At the time I had no truck with what I considered slow-moving books, and thought A Wizard of Earthsea was boring.

Fast forward thirty years later, and I've loved every one of the small handful of her books I've read, starting with The Dispossessed in 2013.

Allison wrote: "Tales of the City was really neat to read. I am amazed at all the topics it hit and that captured folks in the 70s and 80s. It was over the top in a charming way and I had a lot of fun with it."

That's a blast from the past! I read it either in, or shortly after college on the recommendation of a friend. I got bored with it after the first couple volumes, but the first one had a lot of impact--I think it was the first book I'd read that had explicitly LGBT characters in it. (just call me Late Bloomer.)

[D.]

I'm currently on a bit of a black library binge, currently on the Dark Imperium and have another 5 or so from their catalogue waiting to be picked up.

I'm also working my way through the Discworld books once more as I realised that even though it is one of my all time favourite and most influential series, it has been about 10 years since I last read one before this year!

[Faith]

My review of The God Game by Danny Tobey:

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

[D.]

Faith wrote: "My review of The God Game by Danny Tobey:

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

Sounds pretty interesting. Annoyingly it sounds a little like a book I read about 10 years ago (overall completely different but some similar themes) and I can't for the life of me remember what it was called, but I do remember being really impressed with it!

[Kirsten]

I just finished reading My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh. Crazy book. I'd hate to see the state of her kidneys and liver. Also, world's worst therapist.

[Don]

Just Finished "The Killing Line" and "Storm of Ghosts" by James Cook, Surviving the Dead series numbers 7&8. fine additions to a great ManStuff series.
Things I'm grateful for: That first cup of properly extracted, fresh ground coffee.

[Glynis]

Just finished 'The Doll-Maker' by Nina Allen ... and ... Wow!
It's buzzing around in my head, stories within stories, - don't want to say any more, I came at it with no fore-knowledge and that worked well for me.
She writes speculative fiction and my first visit to her writing was 'The Rift' which I also liked a lot, sort of urban gone wierd.

[Gabi]

I gave Seanan McGuire two more goes and I guess the two of us go seperate ways from now on.

Neither Every Heart a Doorway nor Down Among the Sticks and Bones managed to get me hooked. She has good ideas, but somehow she manages to execute them in the least suspenseful way. This is fascinating in itself - but not so fascinating that I will read more by her.

[Leticia]

Gabi wrote: "I gave Seanan McGuire two more goes and I guess the two of us go seperate ways from now on.

Neither Every Heart a Doorway nor Down Among the Sticks and Bones manage..."

I consider Seanan McGuire way over hyped and absolutely not for me too. I read three of her books and there was always a depth that belongs to stories missing, the plot was always way too rushed up.
And it isn't a surprise as I usually tend to not like mainstream, 'most loved by public and awards' books a lot of the time. :-)

[Trike]

Gabi wrote: "I gave Seanan McGuire two more goes and I guess the two of us go seperate ways from now on.

Neither Every Heart a Doorway nor Down Among the Sticks and Bones manage..."

Same here.

[DivaDiane]

Interesting. I haven’t yet been enticed to read a book by Seanan McGuire (or her alter ego) and these lackluster reviews have convinced me I probably won’t ever.

[John]

I’m never disappointed with anything by Madeleine Roux

[Eva]

I'm guessing that McGuire probably appeals to teenagers, who make up a huge percentage of GR users. The plots move along at a snappy pace, all diversity checkboxes get ticked off, and many things that appeal to teenagers (school, first love experiments, finding your identity, things are very stylish, people are creepy and weird) come up. Hence the success and great reviews. But the moment you look a little deeper, the world and characters don't really make sense, and the world-building reveals a lack of knowledge/interest in how things actually work: the police doesn't do what real police does, therapists don't do what real therapists do, people do not react in ways that make emotional and psychological sense, etc. I also found the characters weirdly detached and cold - no warmth, affection, caring and attachment to each other, no grief or deep shock when someone dies. Everybody just stands around their friend's body and goes "huh, weird, well, let's pack up her things then". Very odd, just doesn't work for me. But I'm happy for people who do like her - everyone's different and likes different things.

I've just read Skyward by Brandon Sanderson, which was fantastic. It's labelled as YA but works just as well for adults (at least for this adult). I liked it so much that I bought the sequel right away and started reading it (usually I wait between books in a series and read other things in between).
If you're interested, here's a lovely interview with Sanderson that I thought touches on tons of important issues that are relevant to all readers and authors, e.g. the status of SFF as respectable literature, how mental health issues in characters should be written, how he approached finishing someone else's famous series, etc.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLPGh...

I also love how open he is to criticism and how much he makes use of beta readers and their feedback, e.g. Skyward features a young, female protagonist, so he asks lots of female teenagers to read his drafts to tell him what felt most/least authentic (literally "which parts made you aware that a middle-aged white guy wrote this?" and then he listens to what they say and makes changes. He seems to have so little ego, which I find really endearing.

After Starsight, I'll join you guys for The Summer Tree buddy read - yay! And my used copy of Remnant Population just arrived (used was cheaper than kindle), so I can start that soon, as well.

[CBRetriever]

Diane wrote: "Interesting. I haven’t yet been enticed to read a book by Seanan McGuire (or her alter ego) and these lackluster reviews have convinced me I probably won’t ever."

I received one for free from Tor, so I'll eventually read that one: Down Among the Sticks and Bones

edit to change on to one

[Trike]

Eva wrote: "the police doesn't do what real police does, therapists don't do what real therapists do, people do not react in ways that make emotional and psychological sense, etc. I also found the characters weirdly detached and cold - no warmth, affection, caring and attachment to each other, no grief or deep shock when someone dies."

From my review of Into the Drowning Deep:

Mira Grant, it turns out, is aka Seanan McGuire, and I am more convinced than ever that she has never met a human being.

[Jacqueline]

Yeah I got that one for free too Chessie. It’s on my phone and I’ve read a bit of it in a few doctors surgeries in the last few weeks or so. It’s not bad and it is better than twiddling my thumbs waiting for the doctor. I didn’t realise it was the second in the series when I started to read it but at the moment that doesn’t seem to matter.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Uhh...so, Seanan Mcguire is neuroatypical. I'm not sure people commenting on how she writes people know this, but probably explains some of disconnect one might feel. While I don't think this means anyone should feel differently about her work, it might add a bit of context so we can at least be kind in how we discuss her work. (This is mostly aimed at the "never met another person" comment.)

[Don]

Don stomps off to find the dictionary... "neuroatypical, whatever that means"

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Don wrote: "Don stomps off to find the dictionary... "neuroatypical, whatever that means""

It's someone with a mental or behavioral condition that impacts their life significantly, most usually referring to people with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I finished:


Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading:


Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer