On Paths Unknown discussion
Books you have read/Want to read : suggestions and recommendations
Loved Pandora's Star! One of those I still can't get out of my head ... he built a great world there. I sometimes muse on it while I'm driving.When I settle down during the holiday, I'll post a few comments on The Martian too. I was a bit busy and missed the live discussion :) The book was a hoot though! Fun and sciency, but I'm a geek so ...
Ya Allen the book is really good and the best thing about it is that Hamilton has woven scifi elements succinctly with the story.
I suspect this link might interest some people here: http://blog.longreads.com/2015/12/01/...I'm starting with Ta-Nehisi Coates mostly because I'm a big fan but also because it's short. I've never read anything by him that wasn't abnormally long. :)
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Oh boy, we need to go do that Mieville short story read...I keep forgetting!
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Here is a thing I don't know if anyone will be interested in, but it's a good deal if you are interested: Ann and Jeff VanderMeer have put together a story bundle this month. It's choose what you pay, but if you pay more than $15 you get 10 ebooks (3 novels, 4 anthologies, 2 collections, and 1 short). (Just 5 books if you pay $15 or less.) Unfortunately, Mr. VanderMeer did not contribute any of his own fiction this time, but I want it for the collections of Leena Krohn, whose work I've become weirdly fascinated with and who has been hard for me to find in translation. Worth a look:
https://storybundle.com/fiction
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I get BookBub, and also BookBarbarianI've got lots of books from BookBub, and a few from BookBarbarian
Traveller wrote: "Some of you might be interested in this site that apparently alerts one about free book deals : http://landers.bookbub.com/covers/?so..."That looks nice! Added it to my list of ebook sources, thanks!
I notice that Traveller's link to bookbub has "country_code=za", so if you just blindly give them your email address, you might start getting offers for books only available in South Africa (or maybe not, I don't know how they are using that), but you can definitely change your preferences after you've registered.
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That's strange - I copied and pasted a link from a Twitter blog post, that mentioned they let you know of free book offers (like for example from Random House and other big publishers) but didn't see that part of the link. I haven't actually tried it out - one would think that it would automatically change to whatever country you're in?
Hmm, though it works without that additional bit too. I've now changed it to what should just be the straightforward link? Sorry about that.
Traveller wrote: "Derek (Guilty of thoughtcrime) wrote: "I notice that Traveller's link to bookbub has "country_code=za", so if you just blindly give them your email address, you might start getting offers for books..."Well I'm in South Africa and when I joined they notified me that they are working on a SA version but that I can use the US version for now. So it seems they don't have a South African version at the moment. Thought that works for me because most books there one can download digitally from Amazon and other such sites.
I am always excited to see authors, especially when it is a male author, recognize the lack of strong female characters in many genres of literature and then endeavours to change that by creating something different from what has gone before. It is developments like these in literature that are slowly changing the way society views women and gives a glimpse at a better future for the perceptions of women, especially in the media. I follow a few South African book pages on facebook and one of them had this article: http://bookslive.co.za/blog/2015/12/0... This is about a South African writer, Nikhil Singh, who is launching his debut novel at the Kwani literary festival in Nairobi, Kenya, called “Taty Went West.” What struck me is a quote by the author where he says:
“One of the thing that irritated the hell out me with the sci-fi I watched was that they all came with a male protagonist who is very similar to the others, in a formulaic thing that kinda works. You do not really get female characters in science fiction, that were not over-sexualised. For me, I am much more about the concept of gender fluidity in terms of the stereotypes of gender, which at the end of the day break into social perceptions. Another thing they do in sci-fi and fantasy is trying to push a masculine stereotype that says force is equal to strength, whereas it isn’t.
I really wanted a real girl, someone not so outstanding.”
Comments like these just warm my heart as a feminist. One sees so many bad, utterly misogynistic opinions about women on the internet in comment threads etc. that it often makes me feel miserable and hopeless and like nothing will ever change. Luckily now and then, you stumble upon authors like this one who is trying to make a difference and it gives one hope once again. Every time I see negative views about women I hold on to people like this author and all the men I know who truly get what it’s about and it reassures me that the good ones are out there, they might just be far and few between :p
So on a different note, I thought I’d also put it on this thread because “Taty Went West” is apparently speculative fiction so would fit in a group like this one. I have added it to my TBR, but it doesn't seem to be available outside of Kenya yet. I hope it becomes available worldwide eventually. I will be waiting in anticipation :)
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Thanks, for that, Yolande!
In this regard, if you do enjoy speculative fiction, you might enjoy Embassytown by China Miéville. It has a rather cool female protagonist. :)
Traveller wrote: "Yolande wrote: "I am always excited to see authors, especially when it is a male author, recognize the lack of strong female characters in many genres of literature and then endeavours to change th..."Thanks, I'll check it out :)
My goal for this year is to read more diversely so I aim to look for a few more books from different cultures than I have been reading so far. So far I have one book for each of India, Nigeria, Japan, Sweden, Italy and Russia. The majority of those are authors I discovered on the "Year of Reading Women" group which I didn't get to last year but caught my interest.
Jennifer wrote: "I just finished Let the Right One In."That's one of the books I am planning on reading this year.
Yolande wrote: "So far I have one book for each of …, Nigeria, …"I got caught up in Nigeria this year, whenI discovered Nnedi Okorafor. I read three of hers in 2015 and have a couple more on the plan for 2016.
Yolande wrote: "Jennifer wrote: "I just finished Let the Right One In."That's one of the books I am planning on reading this year."
I am still trying to figure out my feelings for the book.
Derek (Guilty of thoughtcrime) wrote: "Yolande wrote: "So far I have one book for each of …, Nigeria, …"I got caught up in Nigeria this year, whenI discovered Nnedi Okorafor. I read three of hers in 2015 and have a cou..."
Interesting, I will look into Okorafor. The one I want to read for Nigeria is Purple Hibiscus by Adichie. I haven't read anything of hers.
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I am looking at Okorafor this year too; Binti and Lagoon are both on my TBR.
Let the Right One In was supposed to be one of my spooky reads for Halloween. Maybe I'll get to it this year.
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Then our mash-up challenge will be perfect for you, Yolande!
https://www.goodreads.com/challenges/...
Jennifer wrote: "I just finished Let the Right One In."
Yeah, I've also been wanting to do Let the Right One In. Maybe we can put it on the discussion list for July-ish. Or better yet, October!
Traveller wrote: "Then our mash-up challenge will be perfect for you, Yolande!"I've been thinking the same thing. I will get on that then :)
On a different topic, I have always loved Bloomsbury's New Mermaids series of Restoration period etc. plays but I have felt kind of sad every time I go through the list because they publish so few female playwrights of that era. I have read that the Restoration period was the time when female playwrights started existing so that might be why, but I have looked up a list of female playwrights of the early modern period and there seem to be many more names I do not see in the New Mermaids publications. So one thing I would like to do is to dig up some of these early female playwrights because I feel that because of the times they lived in they might not have gotten the recognition they deserved. The male playwrights are just way more popular than them. For instance, Aphra Behn seems to have been a very successful playwright and yet I have not given her much attention until now.
Yolande wrote: "My goal for this year is to read more diversely so I aim to look for a few more books from different cultures than I have been reading so far. So far I have one book for each of India, Nigeria, Jap..."Just curious, which Swedish one did you pick?
Ruth wrote: "Yolande wrote: "My goal for this year is to read more diversely so I aim to look for a few more books from different cultures than I have been reading so far. So far I have one book for each of Ind..."For now it is 'Let the Right One In" because that's the one on my list for reading :p
My one for India is: The God of Small Things
Japan: Masks
Italy: My Brilliant Friend
Russia: The Slynx
And I now have chosen one for China: Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth
John Ajvide Lindqvist, I haven't heard of him, though if he writes for Swedish TV I bet I know his stuff. I see the book has become a film. Another thing to keep my eyes open for. Thank you, Yolanda :)
Ruth wrote: "John Ajvide Lindqvist, I haven't heard of him, though if he writes for Swedish TV I bet I know his stuff. I see the book has become a film. Another thing to keep my eyes open for. Thank you, Yoland..."Yes, apparently there is the original Swedish movie version and an American movie version. According to some of the reviewers I've read both are good so I intend to watch both versions after finishing the book :)
Yolande wrote: "Yes, apparently there is the original Swedish movie version and an American movie version. According to some of the reviewers I've read both are good so I intend to watch both versions after finishing the book :) ..."I can confirm that both films are very good ("Let Me In" is the remake). I saw the original first, and I usually intensely dislike American remakes of foreign films or television, but this one avoided the usual tendency to dumb things down and offer a more simplistic, black and white world.
I just checked with the household person in charge of all things cinematic, and she says we have the Swedish version. Yippee! I know what we will be scheduling for later this week. :)
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My one for India is: The God of Small Things
Japan: Masks
Italy: My Brilliant Friend
Russia: The Slynx
And I now have chosen one for China: Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth..."
Interesting selection! Btw, are you going to do Smilla's Sense of Snow with us? I'm looking forward to that one!
Traveller wrote: "Interesting selection! Btw, are you going to do Smilla's Sense of Snow with us? I'm looking forward to that one! "I've heard of that one and think it has a gorgeous title so I will join :)
Did I just imagine that someone (Traveller?) made some lists like of Nobel Laureates and other prize winners? If they exist, where are they?
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Yes I was just yesterday thinking of revamping that whole section, and putting things like that into a folder for lists, but would this help, in the meantime? https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Thank you! I can't figure why I couldn't find it with such an obvious name like Lists - Prize-winning fiction, but there you go!
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The prizewinning fiction had it's own folder, but just after you mentioned your difficulty, I changed the folder's name to lists and stuck the 1001 books into it as well. See, because I've found MORE juicy lists! MOAR LISTZS!!! :O
Will be adding them soon. (Well, soon-ish).
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*happy dance*
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http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/...
And then there is another one, ...er.. which I have now lost, but anyway, look see if you think the one mentioned is worth adding, and I will scratch out some more in the meantime.
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For me the link does not work. I get a 404 error message.
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and
http://thegreatestbooks.org/
and
http://www.greatbooksguide.com/OneHun...
Well, okay, here's a bunch in which some of the above are included: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_o...
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Grr, I see what you mean, and even if I repost it, it still doesn't work. Okay, I'll copy/paste it into a "LISTS" thread. :P
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Okay, here it is, but yuck, it has Ayn Rand in it.
..but a list is a list... Shall we just go nuts and post a bunch of them? If you guys want to add your own lists, please make separate thread for each list - that Prizewinning thread became much too crowded lumping them all together like that.
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On Paths Unknown
Books mentioned in this topic
The Blind Owl (other topics)Astonishing the Gods (other topics)
The Famished Road (other topics)
Songs of Enchantment (other topics)
The Freedom Artist (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Ben Okri (other topics)Rene Denfeld (other topics)
Jane Yolen (other topics)
Daniel Kehlmann (other topics)
Jane Yolen (other topics)
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I am currently reading The Gap Into Conflict: The Real Story one of the darkest books I have read this year.