March 2012 Reads

[Contrarius]

Emo, emo, gah, emo, shut up already about the emmmmoooooo.

Sounds like my kinda book. :)

[Cuchulain]

Finished Bruce Sterling's Schismatrix Plus. In this novel the reader basically follows the protagonist through roughly 200 years of the future history of our solar system. The setting itself, with its emphasis on the conflicts between genetically enhanced Shapers and machine augmented Mechanists, is endlessly inventive. Sterling crams more ideas and events in 300 pages than other authors manage in entire trilogies. As a result, though, the writing can be a bit dense. Still, it's very well written and if you're in the mood for space opera but don't feel like slogging through a series of 600-page novels, you might want to check this out. Also, Schismatrix Plus comes with all five short stories set in the same universe. Apart from the last, overly experimental one, all of these are excellent too.

I also read Stephen King's Night Shift. The collection contains a few memorable tales and is overall fun to read, but imo it can't really compare to some of King's novels.

[Yana]

I don't know what possessed me to finally read The Thorn Birds after being perfectly ignorant of its contents all my life. I'm suffering right now. :bawl: I have only about hundred pages left and I still don't understand what's the big deal with this book. Should've realised it won't go so well after my mother said it's one of her favourite books :rolleyes:

I expected more from Colleen McCullough.

[williamjm]

I finished Chris Wooding's The Weavers of Saramyr. I thought it was a reasonably good epic fantasy story, although I'd say Wooding's later Tales of the Ketty Jay series is better. I liked the feudal Japan-inspired setting and the overall plot was interesting. Sometimes of the characters could have benefited from a little bit more characterisation, I'm not sure I really understood the characters of Tane or Mishani all that well and some of their motivations were a bit vague despite being major characters in the book. I'm currently about a third of the way through the first sequel, The Skein of Lament.

[SkynJay]

I finished my first reread of Game of Thrones. Damn did I miss a lot the first time, and while I knew how tight the early story was, I was shocked by all the early references that don't come up again until the forth or fifth book. As I have stated before, after this reread I will actually go to the book forums around here and hope to not be so damn confused.

I wasn't going to shotgun the reread one after another, but damn if Clash of Kings isn't already off the shelf and two chapters in. Damn it, I wanted to go back to my Kindle.

[Baitac]

Maybe, if I ever get off of this darn forum, I'll be able to finish Catherine the Great by Robert K. Massie. I may never finish it!!!!

[Baitac]

I have finished Lolita. Now reading Jane Bowles's "Two Serious Ladies"

I saw that you were reading Lolita from some of your posts. Have you considered reading "Reading Lolita in Tehran". It's a memoir by Azar Nafisi. I thought it was an excellent book.

[voodooqueen126]

I saw that you were reading Lolita from some of your posts. Have you considered reading "Reading Lolita in Tehran". It's a memoir by Azar Nafisi. I thought it was an excellent book.

Yes! It's beautiful! I love Azar's description of Dr Sloper-I think it kind of fits in with Tywin. It's the book that got me into Henry James actually.

[Vrana]

Maybe, if I ever get off of this darn forum, I'll be able to finish Catherine the Great by Robert K. Massie. I may never finish it!!!!

No kidding, when the boards were down for a few hours last night I got actual work done. It was magical.

[Peadar]

I am about 25% through Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne -- a history of the Comanche and their various conflicts with everybody. Enjoyable so far.

[Grack21]

I saw that you were reading Lolita from some of your posts. Have you considered reading "Reading Lolita in Tehran". It's a memoir by Azar Nafisi. I thought it was an excellent book.

Wasn't a lot of this found out to be made up/never have happened? Or am I thinking of a different book.

[Baitac]

Wasn't a lot of this found out to be made up/never have happened? Or am I thinking of a different book.

Were you thinking about Three Cups of Tea or something like that? Azar is a professor of English literature. Her book is about her time at the University of Tehran after 1980 and the theocracy that ensued.

[Baitac]

Yes! It's beautiful! I love Azar's description of Dr Sloper-I think it kind of fits in with Tywin. It's the book that got me into Henry James actually.

I cannot imagine the tightrope that she was walking as she tried to teach within the constraints (shackles) of the new government, disregarding her personal safety, for the sake of literature and a fair/free discussion. We should never that these forums for granted, even if they drive us crazy!!

[Gormenghast]

My lengthy review of Midnight Tides: http://loopingworld....steven-erikson/

In the personal ladder I rate each volume better than the previous, up to the fourth that is my favorite. This one I put ahead of GotM, but behind the other three. For reasons that are not the usual ones since I had a problem mostly with the writing in this book.

Now, let's see, I'll be reading Donaldson's Covenant, Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle, Before They are Hanged by Abercrombie and The White Rose by Glen Cook. These I'll read at the same time and halfway through already in a few cases. Queued are Janny Wurts and the second book of Bakker series.

If I don't read 4-5 books at the same time I'm not happy.

[Grack21]

Were you thinking about Three Cups of Tea or something like that? Azar is a professor of English literature. Her book is about her time at the University of Tehran after 1980 and the theocracy that ensued.

Ah. Yes I am.

[Teng Ai Hui]

Recently, I have been having bad luck choosing books. It took me 2 months to plow through Michener's Centennial, a 1000+ page dropstopper of a book. Some chapters were very interesting; some I had to skip. Also, I recently finished Countdown to Lockdown by Mick Foley. Again, some chapters were quick reads; some were slow, boring reads. Currently, I am 75% done with Peach Blossom Pavilion by MingMei Yip. I was enjoying it at first, but eventually the events of book became ridiculous causing me to suspend my disbelief.

Yesterday, I watched John Carter, and I actually enjoyed it. I went into it expecting a mindless, fun action movie, and that was exactly what I got. I went out of it thinking that it was a good story. The problem was that the movie did do a mediocre job of presenting it. Burroughs had to have done a better job. (Right?) So, today, I downloaded A Princess of Mars from Project Gutenburg. Hopefully, I will have better luck with that.

[Nearly Headless Ned]

The Radleys by Mat Haigh. Naff but light and fun. Haigh strikes me as a good writer who could do better.

Next up is Lolita by Nabakov.Brilliant opening paragraph.

[Vrana]

Yeah, Lolita is pretty stunning.

I'm finally on to Roy Gutman's Witness to Genocide, and I'm finishing it this time. Wasn't allowed to finish it when I was caught reading it when I was younger, so freeeeeedom! And procrastination.

[Gold Storm]

Read Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, I loved it. It was one of the more interesting books that I have read in a long time. I liked the characters and the story I would recommend it to everybody especially if you like the 1980s.

Also got The Emperor's Edge by Lindsay Buroker free of Amazon for the Kindle. This was a lot of fun. I liked the OCD investigator who was trying to keep her group together. The are some cliche parts and a couple parts that I did not get/like, but overall, I enjoyed it and will get the other books in the series.

[RedEyedGhost]

I finished the excellent Infidel by Kameron Hurley a couple of days ago. It was even better than God's War, and I was just amazed at how much Hurley seemed to grow as an author. I can't wait for Rapture, and fans of gritty fantasy should really check out these 'sci-fi' books.

The Deserter by some guy on this board. I enjoyed returning to Stopmouth and his friends, and seeing the continuation (conclusion it seemed?) of their story. This is a nice counterpart to The Inferior and the worldbuilding is unique and fascinating. Also, the ending is perfect -

but i loved Wall-E to pieces for the same reason! Plants FTW!

If I were to nitpick, I'd say that the roof world is not nearly as interesting as the surface world, and so the chase scenes tended to drag and get somewhat repetitive.

Also, if we're keeping tally, I pre-ordered this as a Kindle e-book.

Reading this now myself, 45% done, if my kindle is to be trusted. It's very good so far.

Great interview with the man himself here.