First Quarter 2019 Reading

[Corvinus85]

Just finished reading The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin. It's not the type of book I usually read, and I struggled through it, but ultimately I'm glad I read it.

A few weeks ago, I finished a history book by Charles D. Stanton called Medieval Maritime Warfare, which is a general, fairly detailed account of the wars that took place across the Mediterranean, North, and Baltic seas in the Middle Ages. I'm about to delve into another history book, Mercenaries and Their Masters, by Michael Mallett, about warfare in Medieval and Renaissance Italy, focusing on the condottieri. 

[Astromech]

John Mack Faragher's A Great and Noble Scheme: The Tragic Story of the Expulsion of the French Acadians from their American Homeland. Extremely interesting and informative history of the Acadians from their settlement in North America to their removal from Acadia and resulting diaspora. This is a history I want to delve into deeper. (And here I thought Geoffrey Butler was the shame of Canada.  )

Up next is a western, Douglas C. Jones's Winding Stair.

[Starkess]

I gave up on Dime quién soy. Started on a light British chick lit book, Friends Like These. It's easy to read but I'm about 50% and it's been incredibly predictable.

[Inkdaub]

I started Dickinson's The Traitor Baru Cormorant.

[Rorshach]

My posting in these threads is so erratic I'm actually embarrased, but hey - new year!

Just finished The Wife's Tale by Aida Edemariam (a biography of her grandmother). Currently reading Factfulness by Hans Rosling.

[williamjm]

I finished Robert Jackson Bennett's Foundryside. It was a fun book to read, I'm not sure it quite has the depth of Bennett's Divine Cities trilogy but it might be better paced. Whereas the magic in his previous series felt more miraculous and unnatural, this time it is one of those fantasy settings where sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology with an early industrial society having being built on the magical scrivings. I did quite like the way it all worked, where the magic is essentially trying to trick objects into believing they are something other than what they actually are. The characters are likeable, although perhaps surprisingly it is the character who is a sentient magical key who is probably the most interesting of them, and the interactions between Clef and Sancia form the heart of the story. It comes to a satisfying conclusion for a first book in a series, although there are strong hints of where the plot is going to go in the sequel(s) (I'm not sure how many books are planned?).

Next up I'm going to start Josiah Bancroft's The Hod King. I enjoyed the first two books in the Tower of Babel series (although they weren't without some flaws) so hopefully this will be good as well.

[Garett Hornwood]

Catching up a bit since my last post...

Finished The Cosmic Code by Zecharia Sitchin, this was the sixth book in his ancient astronaut theory series and frankly it felt like it could have been split up between the fifth and whatever is coming in the seventh.

Next came Divide and Conquer by Jeff Rovin, the seventh book in the Op-Center series, frankly this was a book with one storyline that was written very well and one written poorly unfortunately for Rovin the poorly written one revolved around the series main character.

Then I completed a biography of John Harvey Kellogg by Richard W. Schwarz, a health reformer (yes, he created the cereal but his brother is the one that made it commercially popular) in the late 19th/early 20th centuries.

I've started reading Miracle in Philadelphia by Catherine Drinker Bowen as my primary read, but later this week I'll be finishing up my home read The Histories by Herodotus.

[Starkess]

I finished Friends Like These and yep it was as predictable and meh as I thought it would be. Guess it was good just to shake off the reading cobwebs, at least! Next up I think will be Don't Panic, a Douglas Adams biography by Neil Gaiman.

[Peadar]

I have just started New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson.

[Paxter]

I finished Pane, Pasta, Vino by Matt Goulding. This is a fantastic food/travel memoir, only marred by the inability to actually sample the amazing food described. The chapters on Sardegna, Lake Como and Puglia were the highlights. Also featured are Sicily, Bologna, Rome and Naples. 

I also read The Refugees by Viet Nguyen. I was ultimately left a little disappointed by this collection of short stories about Vietnamese migrants to the US. It wasn't a poor read per se, but about half of the stories were quite forgettable and felt devoid of purpose. I regret not picking up The Sympathiser instead. 

Now reading Shelley's Frankenstein. Then I'll probably get back to some contemporary SFF. 

[Rorshach]

Finished Factfulness. Important book, I'd say, for showing a big picture. 

Not the book for detailed study, but an important broad perspective. 

Now, over to Secondhand Time. The Last of the Soviets by Svetlana Alexievich

[Starkess]

I decided to pick up a book last night that was a Christmas gift a couple years ago, The Trespasser by Tana French. It's quite good, but I get really affected by tense books (so I don't usually read them) and had trouble sleeping last night. Oops! I'm about halfway through, debating if I can risk reading it tonight or not.

[john]

8 hours ago, Starkess said:

I decided to pick up a book last night that was a Christmas gift a couple years ago, The Trespasser by Tana French. It's quite good, but I get really affected by tense books (so I don't usually read them) and had trouble sleeping last night. Oops! I'm about halfway through, debating if I can risk reading it tonight or not.

Same. I lay awake for like four hours after finishing In the Woods in bed.  Various degrees of anger and anxiety rolling around in my head, it’s worse than a shot of espresso after dinner.  So yeah, I don’t read her at night any more.  It’s weird to be kind of put off by something the author has done well.

[Ormond]

I finished Naomi Novik's Uprooted last night. I feel this was the best fantasy novel I've read in years. I am surprised I loved it so because it's written in "first person" style, which I usually don't like, but Novik's narrator, Agnieszka, had about the most engaging voice and personality of any "first person narrator" I've read in fiction.

The novel was full of interesting twists that managed to be both surprising and believable. The characters were complex, with none of the "bad guys" being "pure evil." Both royal and "peasant" characters are portrayed realistically, and even anonymous soldiers are presented as real human beings. The magic in the story is very believable despite being quite powerful. I love Novik's writing -- she comes up with inventive turns of phrase often without resorting to obscure vocabulary. Uprooted richly deserved the Nebula award it won for Best Novel. I recommend it most highly.

[williamjm]

34 minutes ago, Ormond said:

I finished Naomi Novik's Uprooted last night. I feel this was the best fantasy novel I've read in years. I am surprised I loved it so because it's written in "first person" style, which I usually don't like, but Novik's narrator, Agnieszka, had about the most engaging voice and personality of any "first person narrator" I've read in fiction.

The novel was full of interesting twists that managed to be both surprising and believable. The characters were complex, with none of the "bad guys" being "pure evil." Both royal and "peasant" characters are portrayed realistically, and even anonymous soldiers are presented as real human beings. The magic in the story is very believable despite being quite powerful. I love Novik's writing -- she comes up with inventive turns of phrase often without resorting to obscure vocabulary. Uprooted richly deserved the Nebula award it won for Best Novel. I recommend it most highly.

If you liked this then I'd also recommend Novik's Spinning Silver.

[Garett Hornwood]

Well I had a busy end of the last week.  Thursday I completed The Histories by Herodotus, this was a book I read at home in 10-20 page increments and really enjoyed it.  I completed Miracle at Philadelphia by Catherine Drinker Bowen on Friday, this was my primary read (that I take to work to read during breaks) and there was some issues with it but it was a good historical read detailing the Constitutional Convention.

My home read is The Political Writings of St. Augustine, which presents Augustine's political ideas that influenced medieval thought.

My primary read is my first fantasy (or might it be science fiction?) book of the year, Shadow & Claw by Gene Wolfe.  This is an omnibus of the first two books of The Book of the New Sun.

[Iskaral Pust]

Finished Battle Mage by Peter Flannery, a standalone fantasy novel set in a close proxy for medieval Europe.  I gave this a try as variation from the grimdark fantasy I generally read.  It was OK — I did finish it — but not great.  The prose, narrative structure, etc were all fine, with plenty of military action and a complete resolution in just one volume, so this might appeal more to another’s subjective taste (it was highly rated on Amazon and Goodreads). 

The themes and character arcs are like a slightly older version of Harry Potter: the emo, over-sensitive, bullied orphan discovers that he actually has special powers, and his friends and convenient mentors get in line to follow him.  And all that emo grief and sensitivity is what actually makes him super special and super powerful.  Plus, teenagers are put in command of army companies after just a few months of training (none of it tactical), and then they imperil all of those lives, plus the greater army, as they impulsively pursue harebrained acts of personal loyalty (probably meant to sound like heroism) with no thought to body count. 

I’m too much of a curmudgeon to still enjoy this kind of story.

[Peadar]

Reading Enemy of God by Bernard Cornwell. 

[Mlle. Zabzie]

I post so erratically here, but want to do better.  I enjoy this thread because I get great reading ideas.  Here is my current Q1 list, including what I am personally reading and what I am reading to my kids:

Kids

1.  Silver on the Tree - Susan Cooper

2.  The Tale of Despereaux - Kate di Camillo

3.  Serafina and the Black Cloak (current read) - Robert Beatty

Me

1.  Thin Air - Richard K. Morgan.  I really enjoyed this, but I like Morgan's writing and always have.

2.  The Mysterious Benedict Society - Trenton Lee Stewart. One of my daughters insisted that I read it.  I really enjoyed it!

3.  Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe - Alex White.  Meh.  It was interesting enough to finish, but didn't think it added much to my life.

4.  Transcription - Kate Atkinson.  Atkinson never disappoints.  I loved this book (it's a thriller, and really well done).

Currently reading:  City of Brass; The Once and Future King

[Ferrum Aeternum]

I just finished Dispatches From Pluto by Richard Grant. 

As a Mississippi native ("hill country," not the Delta) I thought I knew all there was to know about my ever-controversial home state. Holy smokes was I ever wrong. I recommend this to anyone with interest in an outsider's perspective of the Deep South and the oddly complex culture therein.