The Currently Reading Thread v. A Clash of Kings

[masterthes]

Now, working through another chunker with The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk

I gave it 100 pages, didn't work for me. Starting nonfictionnovember instead with Fosse by Sam Wasson. His biography on Ray Bradbury was one of my favorite books last year, and seeing as I'm a big fan of musicals, I think this'll be right up my alley

[axeman90210]

Finished The Stand and revisited Eyes of the Dragon, which was my introduction to Stephen King back in freshman year English. Now I'm just starting The Talisman, which will be a new one for me.

[hefdaddy42]

Finished The Stand and revisited Eyes of the Dragon, which was my introduction to Stephen King back in freshman year English. Now I'm just starting The Talisman, which will be a new one for me.

I hope you like it.  A lot of King readers do, but it never connected with me, and I've read it multiple times over the years to give it extra chances.

There is a sequel, Black House, that I've never even attempted, despite being a MASSIVE King fan, due to my distaste for The Talisman.

[Kwyjibo]

I think The Talisman is really great, the sequel not so much.

[axeman90210]

I'm only about 50 pages in, but it hasn't really gripped me yet. I'll get through a good chunk more on my flight in a little bit.

[Cool Chris]

Didn't enjoy The Talisman myself. Can't honestly recall if I even finished it.

[hefdaddy42]

Churchill: Walking With Destiny by Andrew Roberts

[masterthes]

Razzle Dazzle: The Battle for Broadway by Michael Riedel

[masterthes]

Razzle Dazzle: The Battle for Broadway by Michael Riedel

This started out a bit slow, but then it took off and I really enjoyed it. One more theater book for the month: The Godspell Experience by Carol de Giere. I was in a production of this sophmore year of high school and it had a very profound effect on me

[masterthes]

Moving back to fiction with Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family by Thomas Mann

[chknptpie]

15% into The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera and I can't do more. These characters are awful. The writing is awful.

[SchecterShredder]

[hefdaddy42]

^Good book^

[Evermind]

[masterthes]

Mr. Playboy: Hugh Hefner and the American Dream by Steven Watts

[Cool Chris]

Alright so the Ka-Tet of Nineteen Ninty-Nine has slayed the wolves and brought peace to Calla Bryn Sturgis. Now we are back on track on our journey to the Dark Tower! Let's go!

Except... 100 pages in to Song of Suzanna and all I get is boring Suzanna/Mia/whoever drama.

The East Stoneham scenes are pretty good though. Worth the wait. And John Cullum is a well delivered character.

"Pretty good" might be a stretch, but for this book, it is definitely the highlight for me.

Taking a break now until I begin the final installment.

[SchecterShredder]

About halfway through this one. Pretty much standard Reacher at this point (i.e. entertaining but fairly preposterous)

[Evermind]

The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith

While I thought the last installment, Troubled Blood was very good partly because of the dynamics between two main characters, this one was very good because of the mystery. As a person who started playing an online RPG when I was 13 years old and kept at it for a few years, had to avoid all the IRL meet-ups because most of the people were 18+, actually hid my real age from other players and so on, I thought this was an interesting read.

The Memory of Souls by Jenn Lyons

[axeman90210]

Finished The Talisman, which was fine but not one of my King favorites. I've moved on from that to probably my actual SK favorite, Wizard and Glass.

[MetalJunkie]

Currently reading: "The Effect of Technology on Face-to-Face Communication" as published in the Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications.

aka I'm doing homework - and I still can't stay away from DTF.

[masterthes]

Mr. Playboy: Hugh Hefner and the American Dream by Steven Watts

I quite enjoyed this. Author got a little long in the tooth when he talked about how the magazine changed over the years to go with the times, because the actual biographical stuff was really good. Also, wish I had done some research prior, because this wasn't a full biography, it only went through The Girls Next Door. Then I finished the month with a fairly charming novella called The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett. Now currently reading Dogs of War by Adrian Tchaikovsky

[axeman90210]

Took me a while to get through The Talisman, mostly because life kept me busy for a while. I did find it to be towards the lower end of the King books I've read, some sections were great but others were very meh. I went from that into Wizard and Glass, which may be my favorite book. I always find it funny that for all his renown as a horror author, my favorite passages of SK's writing are him spinning out love stories (everything with Roland and Susan here, with Jake and Sadie from 11/22/63 not far behind).

[masterthes]

The Measure by Nikki Erlick

[masterthes]

Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli: The Epic Story of the Making of The Godfather by Mark Seal

[masterthes]

Back to fiction with The Border by Robert McCammon

[Evermind]

The Memory of Souls by Jenn Lyons

After being lukewarm-ish on the first book and dropping the second one only to return to it this year, I'm really warming up to these. I thought this was a very good effort. Hopefully I can find the last two books somewhere.

Speaking of that, after searching for it in every bookshop that sells books in English here since March, I finally found and bought

The Wisdom of Crowds by Joe Abercrombie

[Kwyjibo]

The Wisdom of Crowds by Joe Abercrombie

That's a good one, read it a couple of month ago, but man, that ending.

[masterthes]

Rereading A Christmas Carol. It's been nearly thirty years since I last read it. Seems like I am more than overdo for a reread

Also, listening to Siren Queen by Nghi Vo

Finally, reading Bullet Train by Kotaro Isaka. Saw the movie last weekend and really enjoyed it

[bout to crash]

I'm almost done with The Shadow of the Wind and I am in LOVE with this book!

Also finally just read The Prince of Tides after it was sitting on my shelf for like twenty years. Oh man...

[Podaar]

I'm almost done with The Shadow of the Wind and I am in LOVE with this book!

I've enjoyed every sentence Zafon has ever written. The Angel's Game and The Prisoner of Heaven are equally good and build on the story from Shadow of the Wind.

[bout to crash]

Ohh that's awesome, will definitely have to read those too! I have like 40 pages left but I'm waiting because I'm not ready to be done with it yet! It was our book club selection this month and such a good choice.

Edit: ohh just saw there are four books in that series, dammit, I hate discovering more stuff I want to read when I already have such a backlog

[masterthes]

Siren Queen was pretty good, but I thought she went a bit hard into her sex scenes, like borderline erotica. Bullet Train was okay, but the movie is way better. Now, reading Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson

[MetalJunkie]

Having  been a fan of the movies since they were in theaters, I'd never read the books, so I just started Lord of the Rings a week ago. I'm on The Two Towers now.

I've been messaging my friend (to say he's a Tolkien expert would be a massive understatement) at key points to discuss my thoughts. I asked him for a reading order for a Tolkien-verse deep dive. He responded with:

The Hobbit
The Lord of the Rings
The Silmarillion
The Children of Hurin
The Fall of Gondolin
Unfinished Tales
The Treason of Isengard
The Return of the Shadow
The War of the Ring
The Book of Lost Tales
Tales from the Perilous Realm
The Lay of Beleriand
The Lay of Luthien
The Shaping of Middle Earth
The Adventures of Tom Bombadil

It seems I have quite the homework assignment.

[Evermind]

The Wisdom of Crowds by Joe Abercrombie

Still working on this, should finish next week, seems like a strong book so far!


This year I kept full track of what I've been reading, so here's my year:

R. F. Kuang - The Burning God (Jan 9th - Jan 17th)
Christopher Buehlman - The Blacktongue Thief (Jan 18th - Jan 27th)
(reread) Robert Galbraith - The Silkworm (Jan 28th -  Feb 7th)
(reread) N. K. Jemisin - The Fifth Season (Feb 8th - Feb 19th)
Arkady Martine - A Desolation Called Peace (Feb 20th - Mar 15th)
Robin Hobb - Assassin's Apprentice (Mar 16th - Mar 27th)
Adrian Tchaikovsky - Children of Time (Mar 28th - Apr 12th)
Robin Hobb - Royal Assassin (Apr 13th - Apr 25th)
Robin Hobb - Assassin's Quest (Apr 26th - May 11th)
Adrian Tchaikovsky - Children of Ruin (May 12th - May 25th)
N. K. Jemisin - The City We Became (May 26th - June 19th)
(reread) Dennis Lehane - Since We Fell (June 20th - June 27th)
Robin Hobb - Fool's Errand (June 28th - July 5th)
Robin Hobb - The Golden Fool (July 6th - July 12th)
Robin Hobb - Fool's Fate (July 13th - July 25th)
(reread) Jenn Lyons - The Ruin of Kings (July 26th - Aug 14th)
Jenn Lyons - The Name of All Things (Aug 15th - Aug 31st)
N. K. Jemisin - A Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (Sep 1st - Sep 11th)
Robin Hobb - Dragon Keeper (Sep 12th - Oct 9th)
Robin Hobb - Dragon Haven (Oct 10th - Oct 26th)
Robin Hobb - City of Dragons (Oct 27th - Nov 6th)
Robin Hobb - Blood of Dragons (Nov 7th - Nov 14th)
Robert Galbraith - The Ink Black Heart (Nov 15th - Nov 27th)
Jenn Lyons - The Memory of Souls (Nov 28th - Dec 12th)
Joe Abercrombie - The Wisdom of Crowds (Dec 13th - Dec 31st)

As you can see, the list is dominated by Robin Hobb - I discovered her books last year with the Liveships Trilogy, and while the first Fitz trilogy has its ups and downs, the second one is incredible. If I had to pick a top three from all I've read this year, it would be like this:

1. Robin Hobb - Fool's Errand
2. Robin Hobb - Fool's Fate
3. Robert Galbraith - The Ink Black Heart

Already on my shelf for the next year:

Robin Hobb - Fool's Assassin
Robin Hobb - Fool's Quest
Robin Hobb - Assassin's Fate
Jenn Lyons - House of Always
Mark Z. Danielewski - House of Leaves
N. K. Jemisin - The Broken Kingdoms
N. K. Jemisin - The Kingdom of Gods

[hefdaddy42]

Desert Star by Michael Connelly