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What book is everyone reading at the moment? Part 2.

Lennart Hyland said:
I've finished Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. Gruesome, alot to take in but I really liked it. Will continue my McCarthy journey later this year I think.

Will start tomorrow with The Fisherman by John Langan.
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Done with The Fisherman and I couldn't really stand it. Horror genre isn't my type I realized.

Currently reading Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann and I'm hooked! I read his other work The Wager earlier this year it was fantastic.
 
Buddhism in India: Challenging Brahmanism and Caste, Gail Omvedt, 2003.

An easier read than her other title I mentioned above. Lots of scholarly lumber. (Could've used a more attentive copy editor, but at least Otto Kreckt wasn't allowed in.)

Interesting. It's aimed at Indian readers, who would already know the back- and foreground, and it keeps this western reader on the hop.

2003 is suddenly a long time ago, and I wonder what's the situation in India today.
 
Just finished reading Ian M. Banks' Against A Dark Background. I'm a moderate fan of Banks and have read and enjoyed a few of his culture novels, and this seems to fit in well with that universe, though also to be something of it's own as well. Instead of the vast interstellar civilization of The Culture, we see a fallen interplanetary civilization confined to a single star system. Their civilization and technology are in decline, but there are relics of a past golden age, or at least a more technologically advanced time. One aspect of the book's protagonist is that she, with a group of close friends, searches for and sells these ancient artifacts.

The world building is cool. You get a tech level that feels only a little advanced over our modern world, but then mixed with highly advanced technology in the form of relics of the past (like a city of androids who have been around for thousands of years). He makes this work pretty well.

The characters are cool and interesting, if generally deeply flawed, and Sharrow, the protagonist, is a particularly compelling character. The initial set-up for the story is cool.

However, maybe just because everything is sort of dark and depressing, in the end I found myself wondering what the point was.

A damaged girl is repeatedly abused, but stays resilient and endures. That's basically it.
 
The Magic Tree House #31. Not that could, the writing is, IDK, at a 5th grade level.
 
The Longest Con: How Grifters, Swindlers, and Frauds Hijacked Amercan Conservatism, by Joe Conason. Only about 1/3 of the way in, but it's a dreary and disheartening story that opens with Roy Cohn, role model for Dumb-old Trump, and will continue up to the near-present day.
 
RobRoy said:
The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers

I've read this one before, but it was A LONG time ago. I decided to revisit for a podcast interview with Mr. Powers, and I'm enjoying it a great deal, but with a lot more clarity. Having read more Powers over the years, he has a way of developing the plot from seemingly innocuous threads into a knock-down, drag out, fight to the finish. Very enjoyable.
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Haven't read that as of yet but will be.
I first came across his books whilst looking through second hand bookshops years ago, so i ended up reading 'expiration date' then 'earthquake weather' without realising they were 2nd and 3rd in a trilogy.
I am now finally reading the first one 'last call' in digital form at the moment.
I did the same with brian lumleys necroscope series, read the 3rd one first.

Also just bought 'shards of earth' by adrian tchaikovsky in actual book form, I can twiddle the pages as I read, nice.
 
theprestige said:
Horror is a deep and wide genre. The Fisherman is pretty unusual, and falls outside a lot of the major subgenres. I wouldn't write off all of horror just because you couldn't get into John Langan at his John-Langaniest.
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Well to befair I did enjoy Stephen King - The Outsider.

But now back to non-fiction, currently reading: Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland by Christopher Browning
 
Clare Chambers _Shy Creatures_

Just finished reading the novel by Clare Chambers 'Shy Creatures', an upgrade on the trashy chick-lit 'psychological thrillers' I are mostly been enjoying this summer. Chambers was short-listed for the Women's Fiction Prize with 'Small Pleasures', which will now be on my 'read soon' list. How does this novel differ from the trash-fiction? Delightful writing. Wonderful British self-deprecation, wry humour, a flair for words and a marvellously good inner ear for speech, innuendo, wit and tone.

*NO REAL PLOT SPOILERS* - safe to read.

The author says she got her idea for the book from a chance newspaper report in an old Croydon newspaper. She gives the inspirator of her story the name, 'William Tapping'. The tale is non-linear, set in circa 1964 but moves back and forth in chapters relating to 1934, 1937, 1944 and 1947, so we get a glimpse of William Tapping's early life, family and childhood, as the main third person narrator, Helen Hansford, who works at the nearby mental hospital William Tapping is admitted to, as an art therapist, seeks to unravel the mystery of how William Tapping got into the state he was found, aged 37, and admitted into the mental institution, which were only just beginning to be disassembled to become more care-in-the-community focus. Thus, the novel plot takes the form of a quest.

The other main focus is in Helen Hansford's affair with married hospital doctor (psychiatrist) Dr.Gil Rudden, a [fictitious] early R.D Laing admirer and the near catastrophic menage-a-trois threatened when Helen Hansford's distant young relative also becomes a patient and her lover turns his attentions to her. But is it a professional one?

The interesting part of the novel is in accurate descriptions and snapshots of England in the war years, post-war and early-60's with the advent of pop music. Chambers has an amazing memory and it is clear she is drawing from her own experiences rather than just a shallow look up and copy made up one.

It is a gentle story and deeply absorbing as we find out more and more about William Tapping and his family. I really enjoyed it all the way through. Every page is a pleasure to read.
 
I've just read: "The Cancer Finishing School" by Peter Goldsworthy.

I'm biased, because I know him, and probably have a copy of every book he's written, but...

... It is incredibly well written, and excruciatingly personal.

It's presented as a series of vignettes against the background of his own cancer treatment.

I'm stunned that he wrote it.
 
Wont' be reading it for a few moths, but just preordered on Kindle "Fate Of The Day", Rick Atkinson three volume history of the American Revolutionary War, which begun with "The British are Coming"

Vol One was excellent, just as good his 'Liberation Trilgoy" on World War 2 and looking forward to VOl. 2.
Of course I still think Atkinson's "Long Gray Line: The West Point Class of 1966: VIetnam and Beyond" is his best book.
 
Just finished: Honorable Assassin by Steve Hamilton. The third of his Nick Mason novels. Action and suspense. Perfect for the airplane ride.

Almost done with Stephen Kings You Like It Darker, a collection of short and no-so-short stories. Rattlesnakes is a semi-sequel to Cujo where we pick up the father's story at the age of 70 stuck in Florida during the COVID shut down. 3 stars out of five in total, but Rattlesnakes makes it worthwhile.

Also finished The Unit by Adam Gamal, a memoir of an Egyptian who immigrates to America, learns the language, and joins the Army after 9-11. He eventually works his way up the ranks, and passes selection into the US Army's clandestine in-house intelligence unit (never named, but I think it's Orange). Lots of great insights on the war on terror.
 
Lennart Hyland said:
Well to befair I did enjoy Stephen King - The Outsider.

But now back to non-fiction, currently reading: Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland by Christopher Browning
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Finished this and contentwise it was a hard read from time to time, really gut wrenching. But some how I decided to continue reading WW2 non-fiction books and this time it is: After Stalingrad, Seven Years as a Soviet Prisoner of War by Adelbert Holl.
 
Finished Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson. But I don't know how. What a slog. Before I got into it I knew I had heard the title but mused why it was never made into a movie AFAIK. Now I know why.

It starts with a fine premise (boy Shanghai-ed to a boat by his uncle, intended to be sold for slavery so the uncle can keep his inheritance), but fully 3/4 of the book is the main character and his companion slogging through the Scottish marshes. A miserable journey. The hardest thing about the book was the dialect(s). There are full paragraphs, even pages, that are absolutely incomprehensible to an American English speaker, and someone unfamiliar with the territory.

Imagine my bemusement when I found out there was a sequel.
 
I just got a copy of Ghost Town Living, by Brent Underwood.

Brent bought an entire Ghost Town and Silver Mine called "Cerro Gordo" and lives there, .. He is slowly fixing it up and re-building it.
 
The Ballad of Smallhope and Pennyroyal - Jodi Taylor's latest, with the backstory of the eponymous characters from both the Time Police and St Mary's series. Very enjoyable.

Next up is Le Triangle d'Or, the eighth Arsène Lupin story by Maurice Leblanc. I read these in between other stuff and I'm working my way through them.
 
Agatha said:
The Ballad of Smallhope and Pennyroyal - Jodi Taylor's latest, with the backstory of the eponymous characters from both the Time Police and St Mary's series. Very enjoyable..
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An excellent series, though I need to catch up on them.
 
Just finished Gods of Guilt in preparation for season 3 of The Lincoln Lawyer. I think the book will be better.

Season 3 of Reacher will not live up to the book either. :(
 
Lennart Hyland said:
Finished this and contentwise it was a hard read from time to time, really gut wrenching. But some how I decided to continue reading WW2 non-fiction books and this time it is: After Stalingrad, Seven Years as a Soviet Prisoner of War by Adelbert Holl.
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Done with Holl. Seen alot of praise for Stoner by John Williams so thats my next read.
 
Finished Soucery. Just began Legend-Tripping Online: Supernatural Folklore and the Search for Ong's Hat by Michael Kinsella. Looks interesting, though the author's unorthodox use of language ("people presence their experiences"; "the Internet opportunes the sharing of stories") offputs me a little, and even ebooking it is expensive. ;)
 
Legend-Tripping Online: Supernatural Folklore and the Search for Ong's Hat by Michael Kinsella. Very puzzling book. I wish authors would EWTH acronyms and initialisms mean before STOUR. Anyway, this is partly about ghosts and how they become real if enough people believe in them, or something, but mostly about Ong's Hat and the Incunabula documents. You too can dimension-hop! Except it was all a hoax! But lots of people legend-tripped it online, so it's true. In a way. To prove it, the author quotes interminable unedited internet posts from Concerned Readers and Neo-Kantist true believers*. The author's stance about all this isn't clear. Rather than re-read this work, I will instead muck out the cow shed.
*C.R.A.N.K.s
 
Gideon the Ninth

A fast-paced, tightly-wound story of love and duty. A closely personal story, against a vast backdrop distantly glimpsed. Lighthearted most of the time, spiced with moments of exquisite gravitas. The author puts a number of YA tropes to work, and lets them speak for themselves so she can focus on the deeper themes and arcs. The combination works suprisingly well.

A note on the cover blurb about "lesbian space nuns":
If you're put off by it, the good news is, there's not actually any lesbian space nunnery in the book. Zero.

On the other hand, if that blurb is what piqued your interest, then rest assured that the story is very lesbian space nun adjacent, and also you will probably enjoy the author's sense of humor.
 
Lennart Hyland said:
Done with Holl. Seen alot of praise for Stoner by John Williams so thats my next read.
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Stoner was really really good. The story by itself isnt that intriguing and depressing but his writing style, the prose, was absolutely beautiful. Found a snippet of it online and I wanted to share it with you:

‘He buried her beside her husband. After the services were over and the few mourners had gone, he stood alone in a cold November wind and looked at the two graves, one open to its burden and the other mounded and covered by a thin fuzz of grass. He turned on the bare, treeless little plot that held others like his mother and father and looked across the flat land in the direction of the farm where he had been born, where his mother and father had spent their years. He thought of the cost exacted, year after year, by the soil; and it remained as it had been - a little more barren, perhaps, a little more frugal of increase. Nothing had changed. Their lives had been expended in cheerless labor, their wills broken, their intelligences numbed. Now they were in the earth to which they had given their lives; and slowly, year by year, the earth would take them. Slowly the damp and rot would infest the pine boxes which held their bodies, and slowly it would consume the last vestiges of their substances. And they would become a meaningless part of that stubborn earth to which they had long ago given themselves.’

My next book is a quite short swedish one about the capture of Adolf Eichmann, Operation Eichmann by Erik Åsard.
 
I am reading a Dorling Kindersley (DK) book called 'wonders of the world' .To be accurate I am mostly looking at the pictures. It is of past history brought to life in illustrations that are very realistic and look almost like photos. DK books are fabulously illustrated picture books with boxes containing explanatory text. I also have DK' Knowledge encyclopedia'.
I recommend DK books, the illustrations are fabulous.
 
I'm on a kick right now to read (in the following order) the 17 books I read when I was in high school (plus 4 new ones):

I started with 1984, Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Dracula, Lord of the Flies (I just finished this one), A Good Girl's Guide to Murder (I'm reading this one now, and I also watched the Netflix series that was based on it), Frankenstein (this is the one I'm reading next), The House of the Seven Gables (I actually toured the house--including the secret passage--that the novel was based on), The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Moby Dick, Oliver Twist, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, A Study in Scarlet, The Swiss family Robinson, Treasure Island, War and Peace, ending with Murders in the Rue Morgue.

Plus, the following books as I get them from the library: To Kill A Mockingbird, Fahrenheit 451, Spy School, and finally James.

James (written by Percival Everett) is an interesting one, because it's a complementary novel that gives Jim (the runaway slave in Huckleberry Finn) a voice, and I immediately went to put it on hold at my local library.

Percival Everett wrote it like the Far Side joke where the cows are all cool, while the one watching for cars, sees one, gives the warning, and then all the cows get down and start eating grass. Well, in the book, the slaves all act dumb and gullible while white folks are around, but as soon as they're all alone, they have intelligent conversations. It sounds really good.


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Back on the mystery kick: various E. C. R. Lorac ebooks. Mixed with some time travel fiction and BDSM erotica, both for review.
ETA, there is some cross-over between the latter groups of literature.
 
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Finished the first Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective book (again) (from the free kiosk, couldn't resist!) It would have been nice if my school library had had more in the series (I think there were a few out at the time) because I reread that many times back in the day. The solutions ranged from very obvious to not-quite-fair. (My other choice was a single Two-Minute Mysteries book, which was far worse in that regard.) Eventually I found the less kid-oriented Asimov dinner mystery series which mostly weren't very satisfying.
 
alfaniner said:
Finished the first Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective book (again) (from the free kiosk, couldn't resist!) It would have been nice if my school library had had more in the series (I think there were a few out at the time) because I reread that many times back in the day. The solutions ranged from very obvious to not-quite-fair. (My other choice was a single Two-Minute Mysteries book, which was far worse in that regard.) Eventually I found the less kid-oriented Asimov dinner mystery series which mostly weren't very satisfying.
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I read those when I was a kid too, but I also liked the Brains Benton series, especially because of his cool lab.


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Roboramma said:
I've read and enjoyed a few of his novels, but not this one. Anything specific that makes it stand out to you as your favorite? (Potentially if that resonates I might like to check it out).
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It has a gorgeous magic system, quite unlike Stormlight or Mistborn (in that in theory everyone can do it), cool characters and a really interesting Religion.
And it has a number of twists that will make you see the entire World in different ways.
Unlike the other series, it's nicely contained: the whole story plays in one City, over about a year or so, and it's only a single book.


Warbreaker characters have now been popping up in the Stormlight Archive series.

Hope this helps!
 
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Back to Pratchett: re-read Eric (Rincewind in hell), now returning to the Watch with Jingo, in which war is impending in a surrogate Middle Eastern country.
 
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