April Reads: What, fool, are you reading?!?

[Peadar]

I'm reading one of the Wild Cards books -- Aces Abroad. 

[Isildur's Mane]

Just finished reading The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty. 

Loved the story. It grabbed me and kept me reading but I wasn't scared once by it. I'm not sure if it was just the way it was written and how you felt like you were standing on the outside watching it, rather than right in the action, but I wasn't scared. 

Anyone else feel this way?

 

[red snow]

just started " A  brief history of seven killings". An amazing prologue. Followed by a brutal first chapter - he doesn't pull any punches.

[Inkdaub]

4 hours ago, Isildur's Mane said:

Just finished reading The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty. 

Loved the story. It grabbed me and kept me reading but I wasn't scared once by it. I'm not sure if it was just the way it was written and how you felt like you were standing on the outside watching it, rather than right in the action, but I wasn't scared. 

Anyone else feel this way?

 

There were a few spooky parts in The Exorcist.  I'm probably affected by it a little more as The Exorcist is the scariest movie I have ever seen.  Easily.  Nothing else even comes close.  I was traumatized by that movie until my thirties.  I enjoyed the book, though.

I was reading Ryan's The Waking Fire as March flipped over to April.  I liked it enough to continue with the series.

Next I read Kellerman's Heartbreak Hotel.  Exactly what I expect from Kellerman.

Now I'm reading Sakey's Brilliance.  Not too far in but so far it's alright.

[Robert Baratheon's hammer]

War and Peace.

[Astromech]

5 hours ago, red snow said:

just started " A  brief history of seven killings". An amazing prologue. Followed by a brutal first chapter - he doesn't pull any punches.

Great novel. I've been wanting to read his The Book of Night Women.

I just started John Keegan's The First World War.

[Plessiez]

April has been a quiet month for me so far, as I've been trying to read more short fiction ... and, in the process, remembering that I don't actually like short fiction that much.  

At the end of last month I read J. V. Jones' A Cavern of Black Ice, which I thought was quite well done, though (fortunately for me?) I'm not in any particular hurry to read the sequels.

On 3/11/2017 at 2:11 AM, unJon said:

I agree with your views on the pros and flaws. I just finished Seven Surrenders and it continued in the same way but was even an itch better. Some really good emotional payoffs and also some really well laid twists that I'm guessing will make a re-read very worthwhile. The tone and style were the same and I enjoyed both. I found the treatment of some hard philosophical problems to be well executed though the plot and the 18th century style. 

There were two plot points that I didn't quite buy but it was a relatively minor quibble and I think can be explained by the non-objectivity and non-omniscience of the narrator. 

My copy of Seven Surrenders arrived today, so I'll be reading this next.  Good to hear it's on a par with the first book.

[Starkess]

I have been reading a bunch as I've been on vacation/traveling, but for some reason I have been on a re-read kick. I re-read the first Pern trilogy by Anne McCaffrey (Dragonflight, Dragonquest, The White Dragon) and now I almost done re-reading The Lord of the Rings (just started Return of the King). Not sure why. I used to re-read books a ton (this is problem easily my 15-20th time reading LOTR) but in the past few years I rarely have. Anyway. Once I finish ROTK maybe I will try something new!

[Sheep the Evicted]

So i'm in a slump. Its mostly my own fault, i've been trying to broaden my horizons and read more literary fiction but all i've gotten from that eperiement so far is the certainty that i hate literary fiction. Then i followed a few board reccomendations; after finishing Cloud Atlas i was very impressed with Mitchells skill as a writer but thats not quite the same as being entertained.  I found it decent story overall but im sure the point of the books flew straight over my head. Then i read The Warriors Apprentice and i just found it too twee and YA to finish.

And thats it, i've run out of things to read. My pile only has non-fiction books on it. I'm not really sure where to go from here.

[The Marquis de Leech]

17 hours ago, Isildur's Mane said:

Just finished reading The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty. 

Loved the story. It grabbed me and kept me reading but I wasn't scared once by it. I'm not sure if it was just the way it was written and how you felt like you were standing on the outside watching it, rather than right in the action, but I wasn't scared. 

Anyone else feel this way?

I read it last year, and wasn't particularly unnerved by it. I remember thinking that the movie was a pretty faithful adaption.

[RedEyedGhost]

21 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

People read Wendig on purpose?

It can't be worse than reading your posts on purpose  

[Darth Richard II]

People read my posts on purpose?  Damn I need to release a collection.

[Iskaral Pust]

I have abandoned Kings Of The Wyld by Eames.  Disappointing rec by the monthly threads.  I called time of death at 15%.  A spoof mash-up of D&D and Blues Brothers needs to have some humor or else what was the point?  The Caverns & Creatures series did a much funnier job of spoofing D&D with modern dialogue and cultural references. 

Now reading non-fiction popular history by Thomas Cahill.  The claim that Irish monks saved literacy for western civilization after the fall of Rome is old news for products of the Irish education system, but it's the first in his series so I'll start there. 

[Isildur's Mane]

22 hours ago, Inkdaub said:

There were a few spooky parts in The Exorcist.  I'm probably affected by it a little more as The Exorcist is the scariest movie I have ever seen.  Easily.  Nothing else even comes close.  I was traumatized by that movie until my thirties.  I enjoyed the book, though.

I was reading Ryan's The Waking Fire as March flipped over to April.  I liked it enough to continue with the series.

Next I read Kellerman's Heartbreak Hotel.  Exactly what I expect from Kellerman.

Now I'm reading Sakey's Brilliance.  Not too far in but so far it's alright.

I haven't seen the movie yet.

There were some creepy as scenes in the book but I think because or how it was written - just that little bit detached from the action made me feel safe. I will have to get my hands on a copy of the movie and watch it. 

Is there more than one version? 

[beniowa]

Finished Luna: Wolf Moon, which was a great read.  It did feel a little scatter-brained, but on the whole I loved it almost as much as Luna: New Moon. 

Finally finished the print edition of season one of the serial, Bookburners.  It was fairly decent.  Of the writers, the only one I had read before was Gladstone.  Despite having four different authors, the writing was surprisingly consistent.  It was a lot like a TV show, with each short story as a stand-alone episode.  It worked pretty well this way until three-fourths of the way through there's a twist that changes the tone.  Still not sure how I feel about that.  Also felt like it lacked complexity and/or worldbuilding. 

Also read Gaiman's new Norse Mythology.  It was good, but...I don't know, being Gaiman, I guess I was expecting more.  Instead it read like every other tale of Norse mythology I've ever read. 

Started to read The Painted Drum by Louise Erdrich, but got bored so I put it aside.  I may pick up Tchaikovsky's The Tiger and the Wolf instead.

[RedEyedGhost]

16 minutes ago, beniowa said:

Finished Luna: Wolf Moon, which was a great read.  It did feel a little scatter-brained, but on the whole I loved it almost as much as Luna: New Moon. 

Is there still another book to come in this series or is this it?  I want to read them... when I know I won't be waiting.

[unJon]

1 hour ago, RedEyedGhost said:

Is there still another book to come in this series or is this it?  I want to read them... when I know I won't be waiting.

It was definitely not the concluding volume. I'm guessing one more. 

[williamjm]

1 hour ago, unJon said:

It was definitely not the concluding volume. I'm guessing one more. 

I remember hearing that it was planned to be a trilogy.

[unJon]

3 hours ago, williamjm said:

I remember hearing that it was planned to be a trilogy.

That seems right but I could honestly keep reading The Godfather but set on the Moon forever. These books are fantastic. 

[RedEyedGhost]

4 hours ago, williamjm said:

6 hours ago, unJon said:

It was definitely not the concluding volume. I'm guessing one more. 

I remember hearing that it was planned to be a trilogy.

Thanks guys!  I think I remembered hearing that too when the first was released, but then I saw there was a novelette so I wasn't sure what the current status was.