What are you reading right now? Showing 2,101-2,150 of 2,326

[Sally]

I recently read one of the most enjoyable and interesting biographies it has ever been my privilege to encounter: Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff - 4★s.

Here is my review:

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

[Richard]

The Book of Strange New Things - just finished. Starts beautifully then goes nowhere agonisingly slowly. Irrespective of the authors own tragedy this book is simply mundane

The Girl with All the Gifts - just started this. Feels a little quick and glib at the mo but it's engaging

[Jennifer]

I just finished Child 44.

BTW Richard, TGWATG is great.

[Whitney]

I've had a few people tell me that they loved The Girl With All the Gifts. Let us know what you think when you finish it, Richard.

[Ruby , Mistress of Chaos]

For what it's worth, I loved The Girl with All the Gifts,.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Jennifer]

Since we are sharing reviews here is mine for TGWATG

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

[Marc]

I've only started to read the first one of these three, but I picked up two brand newish hard covers and one used paperback at the thrift store for a total of $4.00:
- When I Was a Child I Read Books
- The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
- An Abundance of Katherines

[Jennifer]

I want to know about your second pick. Good score BTW!

[Marc]

Jennifer wrote: "I want to know about your second pick. Good score BTW!"

I'll try not to be lazy and post an actual review :)
(BTW--this group introduced me to Catherynne M. Valente!)

[Jon]

Pam wrote: Now I'm working my way through The Man in the High Castle. I'm a big PKD fan, so I'm pretty sure I'll enjoy this book. Muchly.
"

Same here. I love PKD and that's a great alternative history novel. So far, I've read these PKD novels:

Martian Time Slip
The Clans of the Alphane Moon
The Man In the High Castle
A Scanner Darkly
Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said
Dr Bloodmoney
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
Selected Stories (a great anthology of most of his major short stories)

[Jon]

Currently reading The Quiet American by Graham Greene. set in Vietnam during the conflict between the French and the Viet Minh

[Whitney]

Jon wrote: "Currently reading The Quiet American by Graham Greene. set in Vietnam during the conflict between the French and the Viet Minh"

I haven't read Greene is quite awhile, but have loved the ones I have read, especially The Comedians and The Power and The Glory. Didn't read The Quiet American, but I recall the film was pretty good. How''re you liking it?

Also a PKD fan. I think I made my way through just about all of them in high school. I'd say my favorites are A Scanner Darkly, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, The Man in the High Castle, and Ubik. Amazon made a pilot episode of The Man in the High Castle, and will be making more of the series. Worth checking out based on the pilot.

[Rebecca]

Recently finished In the Country of Last Things by Paul Auster. Now onto some relatively early fantastical sci-fi with The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson - enjoying immensely.

[Ruby , Mistress of Chaos]

Whitney wrote: "Jon wrote: "Currently reading The Quiet American by Graham Greene. set in Vietnam during the conflict between the French and the Viet Minh"

I haven't read Greene is quite awhile, but ..."

I've never read Graham Greene but always wanted to, purely because I'm fascinated with hearing Americans pronounce Graham Greene.. ;P

[Richard]

Ruby wrote: "Whitney wrote: "Jon wrote: "Currently reading The Quiet American by Graham Greene. set in Vietnam during the conflict between the French and the Viet Minh"

I haven't read Greene is qu..."

Graham Greenes End of the Affair is just beyond brilliant! I can't recommend it and the excellent Julianne Moore movie highly enough

The Girl with All the Gifts - never quite worked for me. It was a tad too young adult with gore and the characters seemed like ikea flat packs. Not a bad read but never as soaring as Blood Music or The Day of the Triffids or even Blindness

[Whitney]

Richard wrote: "The Girl with All the Gifts - never quite worked for me. It was a tad too young adult with gore and the characters seemed like ikea flat packs. Not a bad read but never as soaring as Blood Music or The Day of the Triffids or even Blindness..."

Inclined to take your word here, as I loved the three books you named as counterpoints. I will also be stealing the "Ikea flat packs" line.

I have the "The End of theAffair" audiobook. It's read by Colin Firth, so I fully expect it to match the brilliance of the print and film versions.

Just finished Station Eleven, which I thought was good but ultimately disappointing. Working on a few books of short stories (I have commitment issues), Qualia Nous and Grimscribe: His Life And Works. About to start The Three-Body Problem, and listening to the second book in the Southern Reach Trilogy Authority, which is so far very different from the first book, but still pretty great.

[Richard]

Question re The Girl With All The Gifts - how much of it was original? It obviously uses zombies, pandemic fears, borrows slightly from John Wyndhams back catalogue - The Midwitch Cuckoos and The Chrysalids, borrows more from The Day of the Triffids. There's an overtone of 28 Days Later as well and the fungal feature of Blood Music so I was wondering quite how much the story is considered fresh. Of course this may all be coincidence but I'd be surprised if it was

I didn't mind the book says a whole but I'm not sure it would have existed without the previous works

(This isn't meant to be inflammatory)

[Sally]

Incantation of Frida K. by the brilliant Kate Braverman affected me so deeply that it has taken me a while to process my thoughts and feelings about it enough to write a proper review, but here it is:

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

Of the forty-odd reviews I've written, this one may be the one that means the most to me. This extraordinarily beautiful book still has the power to bring tears to my eyes just from thinking about it - not sad tears, grateful tears for a story so beautiful and so profoundly resonant with my own. 5★s are woefully inadequate here.

[Leo]

Richard wrote: "I can't recommend Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs enough. It's lucid, fascinating and incendiary."

Agreed: supreme storytelling, raises every question you have on the subject then answers it, filled with equal parts compassion and outrage!

Continuing my incendiary journalism streak with This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate, which has me reading every page through fingers over my eyes.

And hey! Here's my pals Johann and Naomi gabbin it up on both their awesome books!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh-oD...

[Tracy]

Oh, Leo, that was really great, and explains a lot about the two authors' amazing ideas. Thanks for the link.

[Richard]

Ghostwritten - good bit it feels written for the back packer generation. I'm enjoying it but part of me feels I should be reading it on a bus in Thailand or halfway up a mountain in Nepal

[Jennifer]

I have read The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen, And am now reading The Lover.

[Ruby , Mistress of Chaos]

Yeah, the Denis Johnson looks amazing. Two Serious Ladies was recommended by John Waters in one of his autobiographies, and it looks wonderful!

[Richard]

Ghostwritten - ok I can't knit it all together but i don't mind. It was a fun and beautifully executed ride. The final 4 stories were beyond brilliant.

Well recommended! It's not Cloud Atlas but it's damned good!

[Jennifer]

Richard wrote: "Question re The Girl With All The Gifts - how much of it was original? It obviously uses zombies, pandemic fears, borrows slightly from John Wyndhams back catalogue - The Midwitch Cuckoos and The ..."

I think its ok to have idea's perhaps from other books. I think it only human. Did you like it?

[Richard]

Jennifer wrote: "Richard wrote: "Question re The Girl With All The Gifts - how much of it was original? It obviously uses zombies, pandemic fears, borrows slightly from John Wyndhams back catalogue - The Midwitch..."

I didn't mind it but but felt a little like a greatest hits collection by a pub band rather than a new fresh idea

[Jennifer]

The Lover, was a bust. Watch the movie. Almost done with Deathless.

[Ruby , Mistress of Chaos]

Richard wrote: "I didn't mind it but but felt a little like a greatest hits collection by a pub band rather than a new fresh idea ..."

That's a shame. I felt like it had a few fresh things going for it. I've only read one of Wyndham's books so far (The Day of the Triffids) and really didn't love it. Then again, the misogyny really rankled for me.

I'm currently reading Sleight for the treasure hunt, and it's definitely unique. It's a bit experimental (and a little wanky) but it's original. I'll give it that. It's growing on me as I go further into it.

[Richard]

Ruby wrote: "Richard wrote: "I didn't mind it but but felt a little like a greatest hits collection by a pub band rather than a new fresh idea ..."

That's a shame. I felt like it had a few fresh things going ..."

Wyndham is dated and his female characters suffer from that. It's all very tea and scones and frightfully polite but his ideas were blistering. I strongly recommend The Chrysalids if you ever fancy giving him a second go

The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair: A Novel - odd little large french novel billed as being Twin Peaks meets Attonement. Very good this far though some translated sentences jar a little

Ghostwritten is still on my mind. I haven't had a book roll around in my head after reading this much in ages. Fascinated to hear what others think

[[deleted user]]

I'm re-reading Fahrenheit 451. It's not quite as confusing as when I first tried it...but I still don't think it's my favorite classic.

[Richard]

The Enchanted - a death row novel by a death penalty investigator written as a dark fairy tale

60 pages into it's 230 page length and it's some of the cleanest writing Ive read in ages. Small details really set the scene and chill and the pages are beginning to melt away

Really damn good!

[[deleted user]]

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... (my review)

Now I'm going to start re-reading The Forgotten Door. The first time I read it (I must have been 9 or 10 years old), it was one of my favorites. Reading the reviews, I'm not sure about this time....

[Whitney]

Richard wrote: "The Enchanted - a death row novel by a death penalty investigator written as a dark fairy tale

60 pages into it's 230 page length and it's some of the cleanest writing Ive read in ..."

We read that one over in "21st Century Literature". I thought it was fantastic. The pages did just melt away, which is pretty amazing considering some of the subject matter.

[Marc]

I remember liking Fahrenheit 451 a good bit--wonder what I'd think now...

Just finished Station Eleven, which I found kind of "meh" and just started The Three-Body Problem (I'm a quarter of the way through it in a day where I didn't think I'd have time to do much reading if that tells you anything).

[[deleted user]]

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

[[deleted user]]

I'm reading Karen's Sleepover. When I read childish books like this, I tell myself things like:
"Get it over with."
"You can give the book away once you're done, then you'll never have to read it again!"
etc.
The reason I'm reading it at all, in case you're wondering: I own it from when I was younger, and I can't get rid of a novel--meant for 7-year-olds or not--without reading it once...my moral code can get annoying when it comes to books. EDIT: Here's my review. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... . Unfortunately, I can't recommend this to anyone older than, say, eight.

[[deleted user]]

Now I've started to read My Hairiest Adventure. It's not great literature, or even GOOD literature, but compared to the last book I read, this is amazing, if that makes sense.

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

[Jennifer]

I am reading The Dog Stars.

[Olivia "So many books--so little time.""]

Currently I'm reading Hour Game by David Baldacci. So far it's been very good.

[[deleted user]]

Re-reading Trapped,

[Richard]

The Enchanted - just wow gosh man whoa staggered amazed humbled and floored - this was just......for want of a bigger word - PERFECT

Now reading The Leftovers but any book following the enchanted is going to have a hard yard to walk

[Jennifer]

Richard wrote: "The Enchanted - just wow gosh man whoa staggered amazed humbled and floored - this was just......for want of a bigger word - PERFECT

Now reading The Leftovers but a..."

I enjoyed the HBO series, The Leftovers, the book fell flat for me. I hope you like it. I looked for The Enchanted at my library today. Will have to go back.

[Jan]

Blood on SnowOh. My. Goodness. Short book only 200 pages. Read it in one evening. Wished it was longer but it is a tight well conceived book. The last scene brought tears to my eyes. The genius of Nesbo is that he makes you care about a person who kills people for a living. Oh. My. Goodness

[Sally]

I finally finished my review of Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a very important postcolonial novel - 4★s.

Here is my review:

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

[Richard]

Once There Was a War found a first edition paperback print of this. I love Steinbeck so I'm very much looking forward to reading it

[Jennifer]

I am reading Acceptance. Have read the first two in a matter of days. Really like this trilogy.

[Ruby , Mistress of Chaos]

I'm reading Metro 2033, because sometimes sci-fi is my "chicken soup for the soul". It has been an intensely busy couple of months, so the reading is going slowly though. Also.... I totally need glasses. The type is too small on my edition, and the map at the front....I can't even.

[Jennifer]

Then you begin to realize that your new prescription is no longer new and you really need to have your eyes checked yet again...and you begin to read books based on the size of print and have to mentally prepare to read a small print book. I suppose that is where e-readers come in handy.

[[deleted user]]

I'm about half-way through Monster Hunter International and I am liking it. Basically the premise is - What if all those monsters in the horror movies and books were real? Most of the world doesn't believe those monsters exist, but there are a dedicated few who hunt those monsters that prey on humans.

[Jan]

just finished a trio of books by Tim Butcher Chasing the Devil: The Quest for Africa's Fighting Spirit, Blood River: A Journey to Africa's Broken Heart and The Trigger: Hunting the Assassin Who Brought the World to War I not only learned something but was entertained, intrigued and appalled. Highly recommend all three.