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What are you reading in October


mashiara

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I'm about halfway through the fourth Wheel of Time book, but I started feeling really burned out on the series (it's my first time with the series, and I read the first three pretty quickly). So now I'm reading the Divergent trilogy by Veronica Roth. Just finished the first book and started the second, Insurgent. I like the series so far, it's quick and easy, and sometimes I prefer YA.

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I've been working on the Nightrunner Series by Lynn Flewelling, and right now I am finishing up Traitor's Moon, the third installment of that set. I feel divided about these books, and here's my mini-review:



The Good: Flewelling violates gender norms, which is something rarely done in fantasy, and rarely done well. She started her series in the 90s, too, when the US was not where it is now on gay rights.



The Bad: Her characters are sometimes too broadly drawn, with the Good Guys and Bad Guys easily distinguishable from each other.



Still, I think it's worth a read.


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I finished Angelmaker. At last. It was good once it got going. I maintain that it was a very slow start and could have done with some spicing up (in literary terms) to make it lighter on its toes for the first 50 pages.



The main thing that I had a problem with is the protagonist's love interest. Why did she need to be described first and foremost in terms of her physical appearance? Some time later in the book she's permitted to have a personality and even some kind of professional ability but initially and ultimately she is the sum of her physical description. I felt a bit embarrassed for the author that he'd penned a Bond girl as the love interest. And please don't anyone say the word 'ironic'. I felt let down and saddened by this to the point where it overrode my enjoyment of the story. I gave Angelmaker 4/5 but it's no Gone Away World. It lacks the humanity and grit of that novel.



I absolutely despise hardbacks. After this one I am determined to NEVER try reading one again. What I actually ended up doing was photographing pages with my phone so as I could read the book on my commute. URGH.

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Last night I finished Time for Yesterday by A.C. Crispin, a Star Trek: TOS novel, it was a decent read in and of itself. But once the initial plot about the Guardian of Forever was finished I felt like a was missing something as the book focused on Zar. In fact if I didn't keep reminding myself that a lot of character development of Zar was in Crispin's previous Star Trek, Yesterday's Son, then I would have written Zar off as a "Gary Stu". So I'm going to be on the look out for Yesterday's Son at the used book store and I would recommend reading it before Time for Yesterday.



Today I'm starting To Green Angel Tower, Part 1 by Tad Williams.




I'm about halfway through the fourth Wheel of Time book, but I started feeling really burned out on the series (it's my first time with the series, and I read the first three pretty quickly). So now I'm reading the Divergent trilogy by Veronica Roth. Just finished the first book and started the second, Insurgent. I like the series so far, it's quick and easy, and sometimes I prefer YA.




When I read through Wheel of Time last year I feared getting burned out on the series by reading all 13 main series plus the prequel in a row, so I decided to read a book in-between each WoT book. It allowed me to get away from Randland for about a week or so without forgetting any details of the story. It's up to you if you want to try that, but I thought I would share.


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Haven't been on in a while, I finished The Stand by Stephen King in September, overall I enjoyed it. The book was separated into 3 parts, the first part I really enjoyed and found it very interesting. The second part I found was very slow, and not a whole lot happened until the end of it, although I really enjoyed the insights into the characters on the Dark Man's side. And the third part, while not as good as the first part, I still thought it was very good. I'm curious to know why some people had a problem with the end of the book, for I found the end to be much better than the middle.



I've begun reading The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon, it's about the alcoholic homicide detective Landsman and his partner, Berko (who is also his cousin), investigating the murder of a junky/chess-prodigy. The novel takes place in an alternate timeline, where a temporary settlement in Alaska was created for Jewish refugees fleeing from the horrors of the second world war. Almost 70 years have past, and the american government has finally given an expiration on the settlement, with rumors going around that only about 25-40% of the Jewish folk will be accepted as American citizens. Meanwhile Landsman and Berko's new boss, Landsman's ex-wife, wants them to clear up around 10 unsolved cases before the american government steps in and takes over when the month is through.



So far the novel is really well written, the author leaves just enough details in the book to give you an idea of what has happened, as well as curious as to what else had happened. It also has a great sense of humour about it, although you can sense something serious is certainly going to happen.



I've also picked up Doctor Sleep by Stephen Kind which I plan on reading when I finish The Yiddish Policeman's Union. Really hoping to be reading it by Halloween, but school, work, and breaking bad really ate up a lot of my reading time, so not too sure if it's doable.


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Just finished The Great Gatsby. Don't know how I missed this at school, but I did. Flawed, as all great books are, but brilliant.



F. Scott Fitzgerald really knew how to write. Pity he didn't live long enough to see what a success his work had become.


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Today I finished The First Law trilogy. For the moment, I feel pretty much overdosed with the TFL 'verse; I will likely get down to Best Served Cold around the end of the year.



Next I'm going to read The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht.


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Just finished Doctor Sleep by Stephen King. I'd definitely recommend it, especially if you liked The Shining.



Not sure what to read next, my ebook reader is full of books I haven't read yet. I think I'm leaning towards The Wise Man's Fear, but I might pick something lighter like one of the Discworld novels. I'm also looking forward to the new Game of Thrones graphic novel (Issue #17) that should be coming out this month sometime.


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Just finished 'Horns' by Joe Hill (easy read, quite enjoyable) the other day and started 'The Name of the Wind' by Patrick Rothfuss today (50 pages in so far and I'm finding it hard to put down). Also ordered 'Diablo III: The Order' and 'Doctor Sleep' off of eBay in the last 24 hours.


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When I read through Wheel of Time last year I feared getting burned out on the series by reading all 13 main series plus the prequel in a row, so I decided to read a book in-between each WoT book. It allowed me to get away from Randland for about a week or so without forgetting any details of the story. It's up to you if you want to try that, but I thought I would share.

Thanks for the advice, I will probably do that from now on :)

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Just finished Doctor Sleep by Stephen King. I'd definitely recommend it, especially if you liked The Shining.

Not sure what to read next, my ebook reader is full of books I haven't read yet. I think I'm leaning towards The Wise Man's Fear, but I might pick something lighter like one of the Discworld novels. I'm also looking forward to the new Game of Thrones graphic novel (Issue #17) that should be coming out this month sometime.

Wise Man's Fear IS light. You'll most likely race through it.

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Currently reading The Red Wolf Conspiracy. So far it seems pretty slow but then I'm only 50 pages in plus I don't know much about ships so a lot of the description probably goes over my head. After The Red Wolf Conspiracy I plan on reading The Monarchies of God, followed by one of the three Stephen King novels I've recently bought [The Shining, IT, and Pet Semetary]. By the way, which of those three would you fellow boarders I read first? I've heard that Pet Semetary is his scariest work but a lot of people also say IT is his best and I'm not sure which of the three to choose.


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