What Else Are You Reading in 2021? Showing 1,001-1,050 of 2,230

[CBRetriever]

Don wrote: "Stephen Burridge, Mexican Gothic sounds interesting, I hope you will share your thoughts when you finish it."

agreed - it's in my TBR pile

[Stephen]

I just finished Mexican Gothic. Thoughts:

I have a high opinion of Silvia Moreno-Garcia as a novelist, and this book doesn’t change that. I think it’s well executed on multiple levels.

As I mentioned in my earlier comment, the story concerns a young lady from Mexico City visiting a mysterious isolated mansion. She goes there in response to a strange letter from another young woman, her cousin, who married a man from the family that occupies the house. It’s immediately obvious to her that the house and the family are very peculiar. The cousin is in a strange passive, unhappy state. The protagonist, Noemi, has weird dreams. She gradually learns about the family and its past. The secrets eventually revealed are bizarre. Developments get lurid and scary. There is a wild climax.

By genre this is a horror novel. I don’t read many of those, and I may not have picked up on every convention. I found the story a little slow as Noemi struggled to understand the situation and figure out how to deal with it. However the “slowness” probably also helped convey her developing frustration and sense of entrapment. Slow, but gripping.

I have a fondness for historical stories so I was a little disappointed that the period setting (around 1950) isn’t really explored in much detail. It does make sense as the setting for this particular story.

Not my usual kind of thing but I enjoyed it and I remain interested in Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s work.

[Stephen]

Mexican Gothic has over 141,000 Goodreads ratings. A popular book. — Actually I see it won a Goodreads Choice Award. I didn’t know that.

[Krysta]

I just finished The Throne of Glass series by Sarah J Maas, & really enjoyed it. I’ve enjoyed almost all ive read so far his year actually, more so than the usual. Here’s a few favs
Series:
🔹The Fallen World; Laura Thalassa
🔹The Four Horsemen; Laura Thalassa
🔹The Bargainer; Laura Thalassa
🔹A Court of Thorns & Roses; another SJM series
🔹Darkest Drae; Raye Wagner, Kelly St Clare
🔹Blood & Ash; Jennifer L Armentrout
🔹The Atlantis Trilogy; A.G. Riddle
🔹Awakening; Nora Roberts, a trilogy only #1 available now😭
🔹DUNE (need I say more)

Stand Alone:
➖ A Deal with the Elf King; Elise Kova
➖ The Winner; David Baldacci

2020 Honorable mentions :
🔙 🌟Chronicles of The One series; Nora Roberts
🔙 🌟The Power; Naomi Alderman
🔙 The Girl Who Lived Twice
🔙 The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye
🔙 The Next Beat Thing; Jennifer Weiner
🌟 These ones were unbelievable. I wish I never read them so I could start again 😭

Up next/ones I’m excited for:
🔜 Invisible Life of Addie Larue; V.E. Schwab
🔜 Transcendent Kingdom; Yaa Gyasi
🔜 Dune Messiah; Frank Herbert
🔜 The Folk of Air series; Holly Black
🔜 The Tainted Accords series; Kelly St Claire
🔜The Overstory; Richard Powers
🔜 The Plated Prisoner series; Raven Kennedy
🔜 Mexican Gothic
🔜 Midnight Apothecary; Sarah Penner
🔜 Where the Crawford Sing; Delia Owens
🔜 The Air Awakens series; Elise Kova

[Littlelady913]

I'm not a huge book series person. There are some series that I have completed, but there are many more that I started and never finished. I spend the first half of the year reading a lot of fiction or sci-fi/fantasy books and was leaning toward non-fiction for the second half of the year. I just finished "When Books Went to War" by Molly Guptill Manning and looking forward to start "Reader Come Home" by Maryanne Wolf.

However, I found myself getting bored when reading the non-fiction. Which is weird because non-fiction is one of my favorite genre. This boredom prompted me to pick up other books associated or a sequel to other books I read this year. I am in the middle of The Last of August ( A Charlotte Holmes Novel) by Brittany Cavallaro sequel to Study in Charlotte and ECSTATIC to start Carry On by Rainbow Rowell, associated with Fangirl.

[CBRetriever]

I tend to read, at the same time (pick up put down), a fantasy, a non-SF&F book (mystery or non-fiction) and either a book of short stories or a science fiction book. As long as I keep them very different from each other, I don't get confused. I don't mind series, but I'll usually buy them and then wait to read them until the full series is out. Currently I'm reading

The Otherworld which is two books and concerns good and bad elves in the current real world and racetracks and is part of a series that has been completed (two more books to go)
Dragonshadow which is for the Series challenge and is the last book in a series. It has dragons, demons and magic.
Tombland which is set between the time of Henry VIII and Queen Mary and is a mystery. It's also part of a series, but most mysteries can be read in any order.

[MadProfessah]

Just started CATALYST GATE by Megan O’Keefe. Previous book was ONLY THE INNOCENT by Rachel Abbott

[Phrynne]

Alternative history, time slip, warships, romance, mystery - so much in just one book! I love this author:)
The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley
My review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Gary]

Finished reading Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells and Dawnshard by Brandon Sanderson. I’m reading Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. I plan to read The Burning White by Brent Weeks next.

[Don]

Thanks, Stephen Burridge for the update on Mexican Gothic.

[HeyT]

It's the annual grindfest for a game I play so I always use audiobooks as motivation to keep going. This year I decided to finish the Shadow Campaigns series by Django Wexler. I'm on the last one now and I keep having a hard time stopping when my daily grind is done.

[Phrynne]

Finished Fugitive Telemetry . Murderbot can do no wrong in my eyes and nor can Martha Wells. It's a short book but a great way to spend a couple of hours.

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

[Palash]

Finished reading The Great Hunt. It was fantastic. Better than first book in series.
Reading The Dragon Reborn now.

[Stephen]

Don wrote: "Thanks, Stephen Burridge for the update on Mexican Gothic."

You’re welcome.

After Mexican Gothic I wanted something completely different so I picked up The Death of a Joyce Scholar, an unusually literate 1989 murder mystery. I read it 30 years ago but I remembered almost nothing. Dublin police detective investigates murder of academic. It’s pretty good, and full of Irish local colour and Joyce talk. However there is a certain amount of “male gaze” stuff which I see has bothered some Goodreads reviewers.

[Don]

I recently Read that the Popeye's Chicken Sandwich is the biggest addition to the Fast Food Universe is twenty years. I agree.

[Nicky]

I recently read Run which I rated 2*. Didn't work for me; it was too repetitive.
The Bookman was too all over the place, it was as if I was tripping. Funny, because there was mushrooms in the book. (Mushroom rafts, but still.)
The Lost Apothecary was one I enjoyed, but it was too straight to the point. However, it did spark my interest for historical fiction, the cover was awesome, and the language was perfect, not too simple but also not too complicated.
And now I'm reading The Black Lung Captain which is becoming a little dragging at this moment, but I do really love this series, and last night I felt my heart sting for the first time in ages, when something happened. Bonus point for Chris Wooding.

[Michelle]

I loved that series! It was a lot of fun.

[Phrynne]

I finished A Question of Navigation by Kevin Hearne It was great so please don't judge this book by its dreadful cover!!!
My review
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[CBRetriever]

Phrynne wrote: "I finished A Question of Navigation by Kevin Hearne It was great so please don't not judge this book by its dreadful cover!!!
My review
https://www.goodreads.com/re..."

The blurb is excellent; "The only favor the aliens do for Clint Beecham when they abduct him is give him a shirt that says DO NOT EAT on it in their language."

[Nicky]

Michelle wrote: "I loved that series! It was a lot of fun."

Were you replying to my message? blushes in insecurity

Have you finished all the books?

[HeyT]

I finished the Shadow Campaign series today with The Infernal Battalion. I thought it ended well and made sense although some of the reveals were a tad predictable. Still fun though.

[Gabi]

My finished reads from the last 10 days:

I reached 216 books from our groupshelf with

The Princess Bride by William Goldman, which was such a hilarious shit-take that I'm still not sure if I should rate it 3 or 4 stars. It definitely is a good laugh and in some parts Monty Pythonesque.

I, Robot by Isaac Asimov, my first Asimov since forever. It was better than I thought it would be. Dated, of course, but his short story collection of what problems could arise with robots is such a groundbreaking work. The influence those stories had on everything android-ish that came after is fascinating.

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch is one of those books where I wished some editor had thrown 200 pages out of the book. A more tight structure would have done wonders to the suspense this book probably was meant to create. I would have dnf'ed if it hadn't been on the shelf and on audio.

The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett was a pleasant surprise. As well in terms of story (structure and pace ... such an improvement towards the above mentioned Fantasy novel), as in terms of the graphic audio production I was listening to. This one was well done. The worldbuilding with humans trying to survive in a world where demons roam the land at night felt fresh and different and the three changing POVs gave a well rounded picture of this world. The more grating was the superfluous raped women has healing sex with hero near the end. I could have really done without that. But since I liked the rest of the book so much I still gave 4 stars and will continue with the series.

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman may be a classic of his genre, but I couldn't get into it. May very well be because I have yet to find a military SF that doesn't bore me and not the book's fault.



Other classics not from our shelf

Double Star by Robert A. Heinlein: the first Heinlein I did enjoy. Witty prose and a fun read. A classical doubleganger story.

The Dying Earth by Jack Vance is quite dated and reads rather strange for nowadays taste with weird magicians and immoral 'heroes', but I have to admit I did enjoy it. I got a "Book of the New Sun" vibe from it.

And the rest:

Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann, was an experiment. I wasn't sure my boys would like it, since it is written in indirect speech, but they had a blast and were looking forward to it each morning. A witty, tongue-in-cheek narration about the lives of the two completely unsocial geniuses Alexander von Humboldt and Carl Friedrich Gauss.

Firebreak by Nicole Kornher-Stace unfortunately was a miss for me. I tried to get into the dystopian novel in the ego shooter milieu, but it is one of those books where the young protagonists can only speak with f*** in every other sentence and description of ego shooter playings put me to sleep. Plus the author explained everything in detail so that the slowest reader would get it - and that's a writing style that kills a story for me nearly every time. I dnf'd around 50%.

Since it was said to be similar to Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, which is also on our group shelf, I read this one afterwards. The in-game narration this time is more a RPG which is a bit more to my taste than ego-shooter, but still reading/(watching) about other people playing games is nothing that can hold my interest (my boys do this on youtube, never understood the appeal of it). Yet at least the writing and pace was better here, so that I finished it.

[Randy]

Stephen wrote: "I just finished Mexican Gothic. Thoughts:

I have a high opinion of Silvia Moreno-Garcia as a novelist, and this book doesn’t change that. I think it’s well executed on multiple lev..."

I was impressed by it. I can see why you might have liked more of the period in the book, but it does come into play in quiet ways, like the isolation of the house, the life of small town nearby. But like most Gothics it maintains a tight focus on the main character, and I liked how Moreno-Garcia mixed the fairy tales the cousins read with Weird Tales, the premise riffing some off H. P. Lovecraft-like fiction.

[Kirsten]

Ozsaur wrote: "Illuminae - so glad I got it in hardcover. I'm loving the unique formatting. The story might have been fun told in a traditional way, but the epistolary style makes this book a treat."

Yes!! I can't imagine reading it in Kindle -- I would've gone mad!!

[Nicky]

Gabi wrote: "My finished reads from the last 10 days:

I reached 216 books from our groupshelf with

The Princess Bride by William Goldman, which was such a hilarious shit-take that ..."

A friend of mine recommended The Lies of Locke Lamora when I first got into science fiction. I did, and still do, like the idea of a thief-underdog. Now that I'm more experienced with what science fiction entails, would you say it's still a good read despite its length, or would I better pick up something else?

[Jen]

Nikki, I absolutely loved The Lies of Locke Lamora and the whole series, I just finished the third book and am eagerly awaiting the fourth book.

[Nicky]

Jen wrote: "Nikki, I absolutely loved The Lies of Locke Lamora and the whole series, I just finished the third book and am eagerly awaiting the fourth book."

Would you disagree with what Gabi said about the first book being too long?

[Michelle]

I didn't think it was too long, and I also loved it.

[Jen]

Nikki wrote: "Would you disagree with what Gabi said about the first book being too long?"

Yes

[Gabi]

@Nikki: go with the recs of Michelle and Jen. I was bored by Locke Lamora and won't pick up another book in the series. But I'm harsh when it comes to Fantasy books in general.

[CBRetriever]

Nikki wrote: "A friend of mine recommended The Lies of Locke Lamora when I first got into science fiction. I did, and still do, like the idea of a thief-underdog. Now that I'm more experienced with what science fiction entails, would you say it's still a good read despite its length, or would I better pick up something else?"

I prefer Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos series for that type of books. I do like the Locke Lamora series, but I think Vlad Taltos is more interesting.

[Michelle]

I agree about those, too! I devour his Taltos books every time one is published.

[Phrynne]

Aaronovitch changes tack in his latest Rivers of London novella and writes the whole story about Abigail. She is interesting but not as much as Peter Grant.

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

[Jan]

Gabi wrote: "I was bored by Locke Lamora and won't pick up another book in the series. But I'm harsh when it comes to Fantasy books in general."

I also was bored by Locke Lamora :(

I *wanted * to like it but somehow just didn't get drawn in the way I hoped I would.

[Nicky]

I guess I'll just have to read Locke Lamora and see for myself. x)

[Mel]

A bit relieved to see others who didn't love Locke Lamora. I used to finish everything I picked up, but that was my very first DNF, if that tells you something. I couldn't do it.

[Ellen]

Gabi wrote: "@Nikki: go with the recs of Michelle and Jen. I was bored by Locke Lamora and won't pick up another book in the series. But I'm harsh when it comes to Fantasy books in general."

I agree with Gabi. I thought it was boring and only finished it because it was a bookshelf book.

[Rachel]

Same for me - Locke Lamora and Spin are really only two books I’ve fully DNFed

(Sometimes I flip through before really starting and decide against a book)

[Jocelyn]

I just finished The Forgotten SkyThe Forgotten Sky. It was very imaginative as a combo of fantasy in a galaxy/sci fi setting with several view point characters like A Game of Thrones and some really cool worlds. I thought it was great and at least more original than most.

[Jan]

I'm reading Passion: A Novel of the Romantic Poets by Jude Morgan. A historical fiction focussed on the lives of some of the women who had relationships with some of the Romantic poets. (Byron, Shelley, Keats et al.) Includes Mary Shelley who wrote Frankenstein.

I have a library PB copy and it's over 600 pages of small font! So, taking me a while to get through. But it's well written and of course the content is extraordinary and fascinating. I think I will persist, although I may end up having to renew my library loan before this thing is done and dusted.

[Don]

I don't usually go for a novelizations but in light of his interview on JRP I've decided to give "Once upon a time in Hollywood" a chance.

[Don]

The only thing I know about Byron is that he was "mad, bad, and dangerous to know".

[CBRetriever]

Don wrote: "The only thing I know about Byron is that he was "mad, bad, and dangerous to know"."

he was the father of Ada Lovelace one of the first computer programmers

[Gabi]

This sounds interesting, Jan. I'll be following your progress to see how you like the book. Byron and Shelley were my 'Passion' in my 'Sturm und Drang' phase.

[DivaDiane]

LOL, Gabi.

[Dj]

Phrynne wrote: "I finished A Question of Navigation by Kevin Hearne It was great so please don't judge this book by its dreadful cover!!!
My review
https://www.goodreads.com/review..."

Looks like it could be a fun read and I really enjoy the Iron Druid series so I will have to give it a look.

[James]

Books for July:

Library of the Unwritten - A.J. HackwithJust finished early this morning
Blindsight - Peter Watts
The Flame - Travis Bagwell
Unity - Travis Bagwell
Hellion - Travis Bagwell
The Fifth Season - N.K. Jemisin
Isolated - Matt Rogers
Jade City - Fonda Lee
New Spring - Robert Jordan
The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman
The Quantum Theif - Hannu Rajaniemi
The Salvage Crew - Yudhanjaya Wijeratne

This is my month to shine!

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Wow! That's one hell of a line up! Good luck and tell us how it goes :D

[James]

Oh, I will Allison! Definitely doing a few of these as audiobooks, which I listen to a lot while at work. :D

[Mary]

Right now I'm working on a light mystery, The Cat Who Knew Shakespeare. After that I need to finish last month's fantasy book.