February 2015 Reads

[mashiara]

I finished Life after Life by Kate Atkinson yesterday. I'm always apprehensive when it comes to books with a certain hype accompanying them so I was prepared to find fault with it. But. I loved this book, I loved the writing and I loved the concept. I was not quite happy with the ending but I sure enjoyed the ride, even though it made me unbearably sad. One of the books I'd love to reread one day.

Time for something easy. Salt by Colin F Barnes is up next.

[gordonah]

I have not seen the Les Miserables film but the book contains so much material that at least with side stories there is very probably quite a bit that was left out in the film because otherwise it would become impossibly long.

This is exactly what I am hoping for, so thanks for confirming it. As a general rule I don't read a book if I've already seen an adaptation, but I could tell there was much more to this one.

[Fylimar]

I'm reading a story compilation by Clark Ashton Smith. He was a friend of H.P. Lovecraft and wrote mostly dark fantasy and horror. His stories are more direct, than those of HPL, and sometimes more gory, but very well written. So far, I like most of them - two were not my cup of coffee, but that's just my subjective opinion. FOr fans of Lovecraft or good horror stories in general, it's a good read.

[Ormond]

Recently I finished Accordion Crimes by Annie Proulx. This was really a series of novellas or short stories about different American families of different ethnic backgrounds (most recent immigrants) as an accordion made by the first protagonist gets successively passed among them.

This was very well written. In some ways it was bleak because things rarely go really well for any of the characters. Proulx was also completely fascinated with odd ways to die when she wrote this book -- it's not just the main characters, but many very minor characters who seem to be introduced almost solely to tell about the odd way they meet their demise, from the guy who scalds to death after falling into a hot spring at Yellowstone National Park to the one who chokes to death on roast beef while laughing at a racist joke about Basques. But I didn't find it depressing -- perhaps because a lot of it is described very matter -of-factly. I suppose the message of the book is "Life sucks, especially if you're a working class immigrant or African-American, but you can still have music along the way." This isn't a book I'd ever want to read again, but I would recommend it to most readers who like quirky "literary" novels.

I have now started A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami. I'm just a little ways into the book (the sheep the narrator will be chasing has just been mentioned for the first time a few pages ago) and so far I don't like the narrator at all -- don't care for his all his sexual relationships (including a marriage) with women whose names he never seems to remember.

[Darth Richard II]

Figures. People actually agree with me for once and the site starts having issues. :p

[RedEyedGhost]

I finished Jade Man's Skin by Daniel Fox last Saturday, and it was excellent. A pseudo/mythological Chinese setting where a dragon is at war with a goddess (who might not be exactly as she appears), and a young emperor trying to win back his empire from a usurper. I will read the final book sometime very soon.

I started Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn after that... I'm not loving it. Both of the POV characters seem like horrible people, and I just have no compulsion to read it. In nearly a week I've only made it 19% through.

I did take a quick break from Gone Girl and read Suicide Risk Vol. 1 by Mike Carey. It was great. Super powers keep popping up, and no matter how the super starts out, they always turn villain. This follows a cop after a group of villains kills and injures many, many of his friends and colleagues in a bank robbery, and he figures out a way to become powered.

Figures. People actually agree with me for once and the site starts having issues. :P

Coincidence? I think not.

[Gasp of Many Reeds]

Read The Name of the Wind over the past couple of weeks; didn't think it was the most transgressive fantasy novel tropewise but was generally enjoyable and well crafted. Kvothe does slip too easily between overly precocious and overly naive and the book kind of tails off in the last 50 pages or so. But I liked the interchange between 1st and 3rd person and thought the magic system well thought out without being overly systematised. Overall, a B to B+ read.

[YellowDogJen]

I just finished Robin Hobb's Rain Wild Chronicles and I loved them! Dragons and their keepers grow together while exploring an empty, magical city and contending with threats of murder, dismemberment, and exploitation.

Tintaglia, queen of the skies! Awesome!

I've had a great reading year so far. Currently reading Half a World by Joe Abercrombie. Delicious so far.

[polishgenius]

After finishing The Godless (yeah, it's very good), I read Station Eleven by Emily St. John - a melancholically beautiful story of human connection as the world ends- and am now most of the way through Touch, by Claire North, which is fully as awesome as everything Webb/Griffin/North writes.

[Garett Hornwood]

Finished Moving Pictures earlier this week, it's alright but earlier Discworld books were better IMHO.

I started my re-read of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire the same day I finished Moving Pictures, I should be further along than I am but the weather decided to dump snow were I lived and I spent half the day I should have been at work, clearing my downhill driveway of snow.

[SkynJay]

I just read Evensong by John Love. It was a techno-thriller version of Faith by John Love. I liked it a bit better because the low grade insanity worked better in the setting. I am sure Datepalm would love it and should pick it up right way based on her love of Faith.

[Mars447]

Just finished a reread of the Cassandra Kresnov series by Joel Shepherd ending with Originator. It's a lot better than books four and five, and not quite as good as the first three, I suppose. I'd still read another one though, so I'm a little disappointed that it seems like book 6 is going to be the last one coming.

Unlike Ghost in the Shell, Cassandra Kresnov is a female android I can actually see Scarlett Johannson playing, because she's already shortish, attractive, blonde, and nominally Russian.

[SilentRoamer]

Well my reading is on track with two books finished in February - Dune and Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert - currently reading Children of Dune.

Really enjoyed the first two Dune books - just brilliant. Dune Messiah did feel a bit rushed but Children of Dune seems to be back to the same sort of pacing and flow I loved in Dune.