Garett Hornwood Posted June 1, 2016 Share Posted June 1, 2016 I'm almost halfway through Marlborough: His Life and Times (Book One) by Winston Churchill, this book contains Volumes I & II of his 4 Volume biography of his ancestor. Volume I covers all of Marlborough's life up to the death of William III, which is basically half a century while the other three Volumes covers the rest of his life and especially his military campaigns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guinevere Seaworth Posted June 1, 2016 Share Posted June 1, 2016 I found Cibola Burns to be my favorite novel in The Expanse series. A nitpick; What the heck does the title refer to?? The Thirteen-Gun Salute by Patrick O'Brian was bleh as nothing happened except in the final 2 chapters. There was also this weirdly disturbing scene where Stephen Maturin Spoiler dissects Mr. Wray's cadaver (who has caused Maturin and Jack to get in lot of trouble for several novels) in in the name of science. Now reading Suldrun's Garden by Jack Vance. Never read any of his novels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamjm Posted June 1, 2016 Share Posted June 1, 2016 5 hours ago, Guinevere Seaworth said: I found Cibola Burns to be my favorite novel in The Expanse series. A nitpick; What the heck does the title refer to?? Cibola was meant to be one of the legendary Seven Cities of Gold the Spanish searched for in the Americas, so maybe it's meant to be a metaphor for the people looking for riches in the new colony? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted June 1, 2016 Share Posted June 1, 2016 I finished Abercrombie's Sharp Ends collections of short stories. His usual high quality, showing stories ancillary to events or characters in the novels. Well worth a read but now I'm feeling very jaded on medieval-ish settings and characters. I really need a change of genre and would like more contemporary fiction or even non-fiction so that I can get more complexity and nuance rather than a lot of sword slashing and fatalism. I picked up Baldacci's Memory Man on a rec from a friend. I've never read him before but he seems to be a mega-selling crime writer. Not too bad so far but it feels very procedural. The central mystery is a combination of a locked-door conundrum with a serial killer on a personal vendetta against the Aspergers former-cop PI. That's a lot of genre cliches squashed into one novel. I'm still looking for something more original, thought-provoking and some glimmers of wit. Most literary fiction I've tried lately seems to be quite gloomy and overly sensitive (I know some skeptics would say that pretty much defines literary fiction). I seem to be trapped in a rut of repetitive recommendations from the algorithms at Amazon and Good Reads. I need to break out of the pattern. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astromech Posted June 1, 2016 Share Posted June 1, 2016 1 hour ago, Iskaral Pust said: I'm still looking for something more original, thought-provoking and some glimmers of wit. Most literary fiction I've tried lately seems to be quite gloomy and overly sensitive (I know some skeptics would say that pretty much defines literary fiction). I seem to be trapped in a rut of repetitive recommendations from the algorithms at Amazon and Good Reads. I need to break out of the pattern. I would suggest Barry Hughart's A Bridge of Birds. It's not necessarily thought-provoking, but is a lot of fun. It follows the adventures of Master Li and Number Ten Ox in a mythical China that never was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sologdin Posted June 1, 2016 Share Posted June 1, 2016 am ambitious this month: plan is the origin of the brunists and then darconville's cat. should be great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red snow Posted June 1, 2016 Share Posted June 1, 2016 I'm embarking on Stephen King's "the stand" on audiobook. I'll hopefully be reading Mark Lawrence's "Wheel of Osheim" when it comes out tomorrow. That should keep me busy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jo498 Posted June 2, 2016 Share Posted June 2, 2016 This should better belong to May as I read most of it last weekend but finished only yesterday J. Williams "Butcher's Crossing" in German translation; the translator received a prize but I spotted at least two errors/bad translations without even having seen the original... e.g. he apparently translates razor as "Rasierer" (which can mean both safety razor or electric shaver) but there were certainly no safety razors in 1873 Kansas, it must have been a "Rasiermesser" (straight razor). Otherwise this is pretty good. Think of Moby Dick with buffalo hunting instead of whaling (and only a third of the length). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Marquis de Leech Posted June 2, 2016 Share Posted June 2, 2016 I'm currently reading Maresi, by Maria Turtschaninoff. Thus far it reminds me of Le Guin's Tehanu, which is not a good thing (I don't mind a story where the protagonists are women; I do mind a story where Men Are Evil). Bloodsnails are a nice little worldbuilding concept though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mashiara Posted June 2, 2016 Share Posted June 2, 2016 I finished Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes and I am unsure how I feel about it. I liked the first half of it, then it became clunky and disorienting, with the increased supernatural element messing up what would have been a very good crime story. I'm a huge fan of the supernatural in my books, I just don't think it worked here. It did have some great moments but overall it felt very uneven to me, I'm disappointed. I'm going to start reading Tana French's The Likeness, the second book in The Dublin Murder Squad series. I meant to reply to Happy Ent in the previous thread and his comments about reading all the books and enjoying them tremendously. I plan on hopefully doing the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astromech Posted June 2, 2016 Share Posted June 2, 2016 2 hours ago, mashiara said: I'm going to start reading Tana French's The Likeness, the second book in The Dublin Murder Squad series. I meant to reply to Happy Ent in the previous thread and his comments about reading all the books and enjoying them tremendously. I plan on hopefully doing the same. I have her In the Woods sitting on my shelf, but keep putting it off in favor of other novels due to some complaints I've read about the ending. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beniowa Posted June 2, 2016 Share Posted June 2, 2016 This post really belongs in the May thread as I finished right on the last day of the month, but anyway I finished The Devourers by Indra Das. This is a debut novel by an Indian author who splits time between India and the US and the book is also set in India. The title refers to shapes-shifters who prey on humans, and in the novel one shape-shifter tries to go against his nature but really makes a mess of things. Shape-shifter is the proper term because while the term werewolves is used in the book, the novel draws on many of many of the different myths throughout the world. The beginning is a bit weak and clunky, but the writing gets better as it goes. It's more of a character-driven story as well as a story-within-a-story structure to make for a fairly well done debut. Now reading John Adams by David McCullough and Hidden Folk by Eleanor Arnason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corvinus85 Posted June 2, 2016 Share Posted June 2, 2016 I have fallen behind on my reading list. I finally got caught up with the Saxon Tales by finishing Warriors of the Storm yesterday. I decided to take a go at this year's Hugo nominees, and have started with Butcher's Cinder Spires. We'll see how it goes. And I haven't read any of the Ancillary novels, so it will be awhile until a I can get to third one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HexMachina Posted June 2, 2016 Share Posted June 2, 2016 37 minutes ago, Corvinus said: I have fallen behind on my reading list. I finally got caught up with the Saxon Tales by finishing Warriors of the Storm yesterday. I decided to take a go at this year's Hugo nominees, and have started with Butcher's Cinder Spires. We'll see how it goes. And I haven't read any of the Ancillary novels, so it will be awhile until a I can get to third one. Uprooted is a standalone and pretty quick to read, so I would personally tackle that next. And Fifth Season is first in the trilogy so you can read that straight off too Both of those were fairly deserving of the nomination this year IMO. I will need to read the others though, like you I haven't even started the ancillary novels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRevanchist Posted June 2, 2016 Share Posted June 2, 2016 Finished 'The Republic of Thieves', the third book in Gentlemen's Bastards series. I think that like 'Red Seas Under Red Skies' it is significantly weaker than 'The Lies of Locke Lamora' but still I quite enjoyed it. The ending was very nice and thought provoking, leaving you want more. And we already know the topic of the next book. Mixed feelings about Sabetha. Quite similar to Denna in 'Kingskiller Chronicles'. At times you like her, but at times, you feel about the protagonist who is in love (and suffering) for such a bitch. Mostly, liked her though. I quite enjoyed the interlude story. It isn't as good as in the first book (when it was absolutely fantastic), but still good enough and better than in the second book. Now, waiting for the fourth book Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted June 2, 2016 Share Posted June 2, 2016 Yeah skip that Butcher crap and go straight to Uprooted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corvinus85 Posted June 2, 2016 Share Posted June 2, 2016 15 minutes ago, Darth Richard II said: Yeah skip that Butcher crap and go straight to Uprooted. No, I have started it. Must see it through. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted June 3, 2016 Share Posted June 3, 2016 2 hours ago, Corvinus said: No, I have started it. Must see it through. Ha, I know that feeling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mashiara Posted June 3, 2016 Share Posted June 3, 2016 9 hours ago, Astromech said: I have her In the Woods sitting on my shelf, but keep putting it off in favor of other novels due to some complaints I've read about the ending. What complaints? It is a great book, you should really read it and see how you feel about it yourself. I thought it was exceptionally good. 1 hour ago, Darth Richard II said: Ha, I know that feeling. Me too. I bet a lot of us here do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRevanchist Posted June 3, 2016 Share Posted June 3, 2016 3 hours ago, Roose Boltons Pet Leech said: I'd say Sabetha is a much better character than Denna in that Lynch is much more explicit than Rothfuss in making it clear that our protagonist has an unhealthy fixation. Sure, but that doesn't change that both of them never got explained why they leave the protagonist all the time. I mean, my impression from the books is that Sabetha (despite that she loves Locke) cannot accept that the other bastards look at him as their leader. I mean, she maybe is right considering that she is definitely smarter and a better thief than Locke, but then Locke has better charisma and seems to not treat the others as shit. Locke thrives in group and becomes stronger, while she seems to prefer being a lone wolf. In process, making the life miserable for Locke and probably not that nice for hersels. Why he left Locke in the end might be a bit more justified cause it is clear that she saw something in that picture (the daughter or wife theories). Btw, I looked into this and there is just a locked thread on this book. I guess, it is time to open the thread for the next book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.