Second reading of The Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jamison. Each book won the Hugo award for fantasy in the year it was written. They're SO well written-real page turners!
The wee free men by Terry Pratchett
The Emperors Soul - Brandon Sanderson
Just about to finish the second book in the Starbucks Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell. I'm an absolute sucker for historical fiction and really enjoy it so far. It's an unfinished series tho 😢
God Emperor of Dune. Really liking it so far and I hope to get through the whole chronicle by next year. (I’m not grinding them one after another). Dune (the first book) is one of my favorites of all time.
Also, Make Something Wonderful, a collection of Steve Jobs’ writings and speeches, which was free. I’ve enjoyed it, since I’m in that industry.
Judgement of Mars by Glynn Stewart. I read the first four books in the series one after the other then took a break, so I’m looking forward to this next installment. This is the first sci-fi series I’ve read that also involves magic. The journey has been great thus far and I’m looking for more recommendations for books with the sci-fi and magic mix.
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
Somewhat randomly I read The Remains of the Day a little while back and loved it, even though it's entirely unlike the stories I usually read.
I'm really enjoying Klara and the Sun too - in-particular I'm enjoying how the story has these quite sharp shifts in where you think the story is going, but they're just dropped casually, almost as a throw-away line, and you're left thinking about the huge implications of so few words.
I also just love Ishiguro's writing style and creativity - it's like he's painting a picture with black on white, and that picture is great - but the white space forms a picture too, and with that he adds so much more.
With each story he's setting out to take you on a specific emotional journey, but he's not holding your hand and showing you so much as guiding you with as little effort as possible such that when you get there, you feel like you got there on your own, and so it hits so much harder as a result - even though he very carefully led you. It's hard to describe! But it's amazing, I'd be surprised if I've not read everything of his soon!
I'm listening to The Road to Little Dribbling: Adventures of an American in Britain by Bill Bryson. Written by an older, crankier Bryson than I'm used to, but still a decent "read".
Reading The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler. I like the book, but so far I'm finding the world-building and backstories more interesting than the main plot.
The Far Reaches which is a new collection of SciFi short stories from various authors. I just read #1 by James SA Corey, the duo behind The Expanse books and TV series. I thought it was excellent, great life lessons.
About half way through James Clavell's Shogun. Highly recommended if you're looking for a deep adventure novel!
Reading The Stranger by Camus, listening to Pachinko by Min Jin Lee.
Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson, The Enchiridion by Epictetus, and Letters from a Stoic by Seneca.
I'm reading the final book of the Dark Tower series, which is also titled The Dark Tower. It's been such an amazing journey, and I can't wait to see how this epic ends. Still have plenty of time though as it's a little over 1000 pages and I'm on like page 400 lol.
Just finished Robots and Empire. So I think I'm going to read some stand alone before I jump into the Empire trilogy.
Going to read Uzumaki, and Brandon Sandersons Secret Project 3.
I've been slowly working my way through Gunmetal God's as well I may try to finish that in earnest as well.
Roadside Picnic! Any stalker fanatics here?
just started “the couple next door” by shari lapena, just finished “my murder” by katie williams and “the girls” by emma cline today!
I almost exclusively read non-fiction, but I just got done reading Slash's autobiography (the guitarist for Guns N' Roses among other projects), and that book kept me absolutely hooked from start to end. I have no idea how he's still alive after the wild stuff described in that book. Highly recommend this one if you have any interest in rock music.
I shifted from that to a book about the history of the US Postal Service last week, so it's a pretty big contrast in tone.
The Spy and the Traitor [Non Fiction] by Ben MacIntyre. It's the story of Oleg Gordievsky, a kgb agent who was working with MI6 during the height of the cold War.
I took a chance on it and was pleasantly surprised.
I finished Waybound by Will Wight yesterday. It was a great finish to the Cradle series.
Now I'm on Honor of the Queen by David Weber. I don't think I'll make it through more than about the first five of the Honor Harrington books. They start to transition into a more political series than "space ships go boom", so that's about where I stopped the last time.
Then I've got The Day of the Triffids on my slate, but we'll see if that holds.
I'm reading:
- 50 Years of text Games by Aaron Read
- More Boot Sector Games by Oscar Toledo
Currently making my way through The Guns of August. It's pretty dense compared to what I usually read but something about the writing style makes each chapter fly by faster than expected!
Currently reading Baseball: an illustrated history. Quite a thick book so I'll probably be reading it for a while. It's a nice change of pace since the book I was reading last month was pop fiction
Number Ones by Tom Breihan
A history of the songs that made it to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 list. I'm really enjoying it!
I'm finishing up A Crown of Swords this evening.
I just started Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam.
Finally finished Universal Harvester by John Darnielle after stalling out on it for exactly three months, sadly. Devouring Anxious People by Fredrick Backman now and loving it. Only 10 books in for the year, and falling way behind my goal.
Currently reading The Light on Farallon Island by Jen Wheeler. It's a novel that follows the story of a young woman in the 19th century who takes a job as teacher for the few children of the lighthouse keepers on remote Farallon Island. As you read, you slowly learn about the life she has run away from.
I have been reading The Mongol Storm: Making and Breaking Empires in the Medieval Near East by Nicholas Morton which I am really enjoying. Nicholas has a clear way of describing events and putting them into context without getting too dry with it. I am also reading A Vast Conspiracy: The inspiration for Impeachment by Jeffrey Toobin which I am a little over half way into, but I am considering just giving up. I have been pecking away at this book for probably 2 months now. It's just too long winded. I don't need to know every single conversation, meeting, plot, dinner that people had - I feel this would have made an incredible long-form article in something like the New Yorker but a multi hundred page book seems to be pushing it for me.
Finished reading Blindsight by Peter Watts. I haven’t read this good Science Fiction book in a long time. On to Echopraxis, as it’s a double edition
I just finished The Deluge by Stephen Markley (all 900pp!)
It's basically a US-centric "narrative" of the 2030's, told from the PoV of about a dozen different characters, with the thread of climate change prominent throughout.
Really it's hard to describe it as good or bad, an enjoyable read etc. It is certainly well written, and characterisation is exceptionally good and detailed, but for me it was by turns scary, amusing, depressing, profoundly sad and wrenching in its humanity. I have no reason to doubt its accuracy based on the science.
It took me almost a month to read because I had to take breaks to get my "cognitive dissonance" recharged.
I would definitely recommend it.
It would make a good streaming series on Amazon Prime or Apple TV.
After a decade of literary fiction I'm going back to check on some more mainstream stuff. I'm reading The Dark Tower saga by Stephen King. Just starting the first book.
The Journey to the West, translated by Anthony C. Yu. Given that it is 100 chapters long and I'm still at chapter 6 it's gonna take a long time for me to finish, so I'm thinking about reading another book alongside it.
SS by Barış Pehlivan and Barış Terkoğlu. It's basically a book about Süleyman Soylu's crimes. It's indeed a heavy read, but I think the book does a good job with shedding light on who Soylu really is, so far (I'm at Chapter 5).
The Book That Wouldn't Burn by Mark Lawrence. Such a cool fantasy concept, I'm about 1/4th of the way in.
I also finished Forth Wing this week. It was okay for what it was.
Just finished Rules for a Knight by Ethan Hawke. Very sweet and sad book, enjoyed it very much.
I’m reading To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, but only because my girlfriend told me to read from more modernist authors. I’m liking her prose despite the dry beginning, but I’ll see how it comes along over time.
Victor Of Tuscon
The Vanishing Hitchhiker by Jan Harold Brunvand. Recaptures the magic of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, but as an adult.
Currently reading The Winter Fortress by Neal Bascomb. It’s a good read so far!
The Knights of Erador (The Echoes Saga: Book 7) by Philip C. Quaintrell (Kindle Edition)
I'm just about to start Berg by Ann Quin, which seems to be about a man who stalks his dad and mistress through a seaside town. It looks really good from the first few pages.
Stand on Zanzibar - John Brunner
Exhalation by Ted Chiang. About 3/4 through so far and really enjoying it. The scifi concepts are great and I like that it doesn't always have a black mirror, technology is going to kill us ending.
