Fourth Quarter 2019 Reading

[Garett Hornwood]

It's the first of October, the beginning of fall in the North (except for Tennessee where it's almost 100-degrees) and spring in the South, and it's time for a next Reading Thread for 2019.

I'm currently reading Jon Meacham's Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush.

What are you reading?

[Darth Richard II]

I'm in Rochester. We have two seasons. Winter, and not Winter.

[Nicomo Cosca]

I'm in Paraguay. We have two seasons. Summer, and not Summer.

I'm reading War and Peace at the moment and I'm loving it so far! I love all the characters, the writing and the overall story. I especially enjoy how well Tolstoy develops each character and gives even the most minor ones very distinct characteristics. I'm keeping notes on who is who so I don't mix anything up though lol

My favorite characters so far are Pierre, Andrei, Rostov and Marya. 

I'm still waiting for my copy of A Little Hatred to arrive, which will be this friday 

[Astromech]

I'm reading  A Little Hatred currently.  It's so nice to have another Abercrombie novel to read. 

[Starkess]

Whoops, forgot it was October now! Reposting from the other thread:

Picked up The Stars are Legion from the library, one I've been wanting to read for a while. It took me a bit to get into it, but I'm a few chapters in now and starting to like it. I really dislike biotech (that's probably not the right word, but like spaceships made out of organic matter) and so that's been a bit of a stumbling block for me, it just grosses me out. Curious to see where this is going because it's not very clear so far!

[Inkdaub]

I think it was a Hamilton book where the ships were organic as well.  These ships were actually alive and at one point they would go to a specific area to mate and give birth to baby ships. 

I'm still reading Club Dumas.

[Peadar]

I'm about to leap on the "A Little Hatred" bandwagon. Really looking forward to it.

[Ormond]

I recently finished The Silver Ship and the Sea by Brenda Cooper. It's a 2007 science fiction novel which reads like a "young adult" novel ( straightforward writing style, focuses on teenage characters, no swearing, no sexual activity) though it was originally marketed as a "regular" novel. (It was on the American Library Association's list of "adult books for young adults" the year it was published.)

The story is told in first person by Chelo, an 18 year old girl who is the oldest of six teenagers who come from a society where all humans are genetically enhanced. Their parents brought them to a planet inhabited by people who don't believe in genetic enhancement. There was a war between the two groups which the original settlers won. The six children have been raised by these settlers, who either killed or chased off planet their biological parents when the kids were babies or toddlers. 

Now that the kids are reaching puberty their genetically enhanced talents are becoming more obvious. (Two of them, including Chelo's younger brother, can actually access and alter the planet's wireless Internet with their brains alone.) Some of the settlers have become very frightened and want to confine or even control them. There are other adults on their side -- plus one adult survivor of their own enhanced kind who lives a semi-hermit lifestyle. I thought the book was very well written and has a lot of resonance with present fears about immigrants, even children. I would recommend it to anyone who doesn't need a lot of graphic sex and violence to enjoy a novel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Silver_Ship_and_the_Sea

[Iskaral Pust]

22 hours ago, Starkess said:

Whoops, forgot it was October now! Reposting from the other thread:

Picked up The Stars are Legion from the library, one I've been wanting to read for a while. It took me a bit to get into it, but I'm a few chapters in now and starting to like it. I really dislike biotech (that's probably not the right word, but like spaceships made out of organic matter) and so that's been a bit of a stumbling block for me, it just grosses me out. Curious to see where this is going because it's not very clear so far!

While the plot does reach a resolution, the background world building is never really made clear in this book.

[Starkess]

On 10/2/2019 at 8:31 PM, Iskaral Pust said:

While the plot does reach a resolution, the background world building is never really made clear in this book.

Yeah, I ended up enjoying it but didn't think it lived up to its own promise.

[Iskaral Pust]

Finished Dead Men’s Trousers by Irvine Welsh, the final installment for the Trainspotting characters.  A very good read.  Irvine Welsh is always excellent.  Not an especially sharp or kinetic plot, it’s basically like Porno — a slow-burning conflict that mainly allows us to participate in the four POVs as they interact.

[Inkdaub]

Finished Club Dumas.  Great book until the end which I didn't like. 

Now I've started Room to Dream by David Lynch and Kristine McKenna.

[Astromech]

Listened to David McCullough's The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of The Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West. An interesting look into the opening of the Northwest Territory after the Treaty of Paris ended the American Revolution. McCullough focuses on the town of Marietta, Ohio on the Ohio River using several key figures. Very, very loose narrative following these figures over the span of several generations. Parts I enjoyed, others I honestly kind of tuned out. The Aaron Burr and John Quincy Adams parts were interesting. It was also interesting to hear(read?) how people lived back then.

[HexMachina]

Finished rereading The Lies of Locke Lamora (as brilliant as ever) and Red Seas under Red Skies, which i found i enjoyed more on a reread than i did initially. Going to continue and reread Republic of Thieves before diving into A Little Hatred and The Secret Commonwealth

[The Marquis de Leech]

On 10/12/2019 at 12:37 PM, Leap said:

Next up, Emphyrio by Jack Vance. I've never read any Vance before, although I'm under the impression he had some association with GRRM. I bought this book ages ago, so I'm quite glad to finally get started on it. I will clear that to-read pile, if it takes me ten years.

Emphyrio is a neat little stand-alone that is particularly fun if you have an interest in economics. I'd also recommend checking out Vance's Dying Earth books.

[Derfel Cadarn]

Almost finished A Little Hatred, and enjoyed it.

Afterwards, back to the Ketty Jay series

[ljkeane]

I'm a bit slow with my reading at the moment but I finished Miles Cameron's Bright Steel which was a good end to the series. Cameron's fantasy books are consistently good reads so far.

Next up I'm going to read A Little Hatred which seems to have caught the attention of the board more than most new books do nowadays.

[RedEyedGhost]

Finished Sharp Ends by Joe Abercrombie last week.  This finished up my prep for reading A Little Hatred, and was my first time reading SE.  Really enjoyed it, but I'm also very glad that I had recently reread the other six books because I would have missed so much if I had read this collection when it was initially released (which was four years after Red Country came out).

Now I've shifted gears towards horror for the next month and a half, two months.  Started things off with The Beast is an Animal by Peternelle van Arsdale.

[Inkdaub]

I read Tasha Suri's Empire of Sand.  I liked it and was invested enough to keep going with the next book soon.  I have now started Kuang's Poppy War and it's good so far.

[williamjm]

I'm still making my way through Phillip Pullman's The Secret Commonwealth. There's a subplot featuring an author who has written a terrible sounding 900 page fantasy novel that he claims is about the triumph of rationality over superstition and every time he's mentioned I find myself thinking of Terry Goodkind.