First Quarter 2021 Reading

[ljkeane]

Once I got used to the gimmicky second person point of view The Raven Tower is quite good. The story is interesting and pretty original but I'd really rather Leckie hadn't chosen to write it in the second person. It didn't really feel necessary and it just makes a book a bit of a pain to read.

Next up I'm going to read All Systems Red by Martha Wells. I've been interested in reading this series for a while but after the first one the rest of the series are a bit expensive for novellas. I've decided I might as well give the first one a try to see what they're like though.

On 1/18/2021 at 7:19 PM, Iskaral Pust said:

Next I read Tyrant: Storm Of Arrows by Christian Cameron (aka Miles Cameron), the second in his series of military historical fiction in the era and geographical area of Alexander.  I really enjoyed the exposure to Scythians, Sarmations and Persians in this series because otherwise they’re often the under-represented other for the protagonist to defeat.  Well written and a good read.  I didn’t love the constant supernatural premonitions but the characters, setting, tactics, logistics and the historical expression were all very good.

Cameron has a bit of tendency to make his characters quite superstitious/religious in his historical novels. I suppose he thinks it makes them more authentic and, I don't know, he might be right.

[Winterfella]

1 hour ago, ljkeane said:

Next up I'm going to read All Systems Red by Martha Wells. I've been interested in reading this series for a while but after the first one the rest of the series are a bit expensive for novellas. I've decided I might as well give the first one a try to see what they're like though.

When the full-length novel Network Effect came out last spring, they had the novellas on sale over the course of a few days. Another novella is set to come out this spring, so maybe they'll do the same thing. Something to watch for if you enjoy the first one.

[Tyria]

On 1/19/2021 at 4:38 PM, ljkeane said:

Once I got used to the gimmicky second person point of view The Raven Tower is quite good. The story is interesting and pretty original but I'd really rather Leckie hadn't chosen to write it in the second person. It didn't really feel necessary and it just makes a book a bit of a pain to read.

Next up I'm going to read All Systems Red by Martha Wells. I've been interested in reading this series for a while but after the first one the rest of the series are a bit expensive for novellas. I've decided I might as well give the first one a try to see what they're like though.

Cameron has a bit of tendency to make his characters quite superstitious/religious in his historical novels. I suppose he thinks it makes them more authentic and, I don't know, he might be right.

I absolutely loved The Raven Tower. It did take a bit to get used to the POV, but it was so worth it. 

The Murderbot Diaries are really good too. All Systems Red was the first of her books I read. There's a couple of short stories for the series published in magazines (like super short. A couple of pages maybe). I get most of my books from the library (sorry authors! I do buy some, but I'm a librarian, so, uh, yeah). I went back and looked for her older stuff and read the first Ile-Rien book Element of Fire. It was good. I'll keep reading the series.

I just started the 3rd book of Scalzi's Old Man's War series after reading the first two this past week. Good so far. I've read some of his later books, so going back to earlier ones like I did with Wells. 

I have Afterland by Lauren Beukes queued up, which I'm really looking forward to. I've liked all four of hers I've read so far. Broken Monsters was amazing.

[RhaenysBee]

Not sure if I’m allowed to post about audiobooks as well - some are sensitive about the definition of reading applying exclusively for written books. (And then there’s kindle and the like) So, please, let me know if I should post my audiobook experiences elsewhere. 

Audiobooks have been a great revelation for me in 2020, and I dare say Audible has my most utilized and best value for money subscription for the past 6ish months. It completely satisfied my craving to stimulate my mind without the work/time that would have gone into doing another Bsc degree. 

A couple of the highlights of my audiobook journey have been:

Sapiens, a most extraordinarily holistic and systematic view of human history with interesting implications about the future. It spoke to my soul and reflected many of my own views about the world. (It’s sequel Homo Deus, I have found slightly far-fetched, moderately repetitive and transparently milking the success of its predecessor, but in a stand-alone read, for anyone more interested in the present and future than in the past, is likely a worthy book) I found it especially respectable in the author’s work that his content is barely political. 

The Coddling of the American Mind was another gem, and an interesting assessment of the place my culture is still only headed toward, although the signs and red flags are already apparent. 

The Righteous Mind is the work of one of the Coddling authors, hence my interest. It’s a very interesting, but dense and more scientific than your average non-fiction. I intend to relisten for a more thorough intake because on the first listen only the surface stayed with me, even though the book has so much deeper insight to offer. Highly recommend for situations that enable ample focus on the material. 

Humankind is rather similar to Sapiens in terms of holistic and systematic approach, the main difference is the former’s positive narrative. Hopeful, reassuring and novel in itself, complex, complementary and thought provoking alongside another book in the same topic with more pessimistic worldview. 

Some of the books I didn’t enjoy were:

The Future We Choose, a quite visual and sci-fi like account of possible global warming outcomes, came across as emotionally manipulative, lacking in complexity, holistic view and supporting evidence for either future scenarios it depicted. 

False Alarm aims to provide a more grounding, thorough and complex take on climate change than the former publication. It is very important to note that the author does not deny climate change, he only debates it’s current handling. I found the material to be quite blindly focused on the economic, specifically GDP related, aspect of climate change, which neither resonates with my personal interested, nor does it broaden my horizon on the complexity of the topic. 

Caffeine attempted to be three different things at the same time in one very short book. Namely, the history of caffeine, modern caffeine culture and its connection to larger societal issues, the author’s personal experience with caffeine. It failed to deliver on any of these fronts. 

My Friend Anna is a most different kind of non fiction and I’m not entirely sure what prompted me to ever start, let alone finish this publication. It is an account of a mediocre New Yorker who was cheated out of a large sum of money by a Russian con artist. I could fill another book with everything that was wrong with this one, so let’s just leave it at: don’t bother. 

 

I’m currently listening to Selfie, which is, much like Caffeine quite lost at what it’s about. It approaches its alleged subject from quite a distance, which is not necessarily a problem. That starts when the author gets lost in and among these painfully detailed sub-stories and fails to draw conclusions by which he could link them to the logical frame of the actual topic. Out of cynical curiosity, I intend to finish it, because I want to see if the several sub stories ever come together into something the reader/listener is there for. It’s also worth noting that the book is dark and dramatic in the most unexpected way. 

 

 

[The Marquis de Leech]

On 1/21/2021 at 11:50 PM, Leap said:

Lastly, since I need a successor to Surely You're Joking..., I have chosen The Winter's Tale, which I think I skimmed in Uni but can't remember. I usually read Shakespeare alongside a larger book, but since I started going through this poetry collection as well I decided that I didn't need four books on the go at once. 

The Winter's Tale is the one with a certain famous stage-direction.

It's also the one where Billy gives Bohemia a sea-coast, thereby showing geography was not his strong point.

[Peadar]

I have started Rule of Capture by Christopher Brown, about a lawyer in a future American dystopia. Not so sure about this one, but we'll see.

[TheLastWolf]

3 hours ago, RhaenysBee said:

Sapiens, a most extraordinarily holistic and systematic view of human history with interesting implications about the future. It spoke to my soul and reflected many of my own views about the world. (It’s sequel Homo Deus, I have found slightly far-fetched, moderately repetitive and transparently milking the success of its predecessor, but in a stand-alone read, for anyone more interested in the present and future than in the past, is likely a worthy book) I found it especially respectable in the author’s work that his content is barely political. 

I've read Sapiens and I thank you for the review of Homo Deus. I'm going to read it anyway, but thanks for the warning 

[Iskaral Pust]

25 minutes ago, TheLastWolf said:

I've read Sapiens and I thank you for the review of Homo Deus. I'm going to read it anyway, but thanks for the warning 

FWIW @RhaenysBee’s review would match mine.  I really enjoyed Sapiens but found Homo Deus to be much lower quality.  He’s a historian, not a futurist. 

[RhaenysBee]

1 hour ago, Iskaral Pust said:

FWIW @RhaenysBee’s review would match mine.  I really enjoyed Sapiens but found Homo Deus to be much lower quality.  He’s a historian, not a futurist. 

And he put everything he has and wants to say about the world into Sapiens. Which is genius enough for me, but the fact of the matter is that he ran out of things to say for the other books. Hence my reservations of check out 21 lessons for the 21st century. That, and the fact I’ll pick talking about history over the future 10 out of 10 times. 
 

1 hour ago, TheLastWolf said:

I've read Sapiens and I thank you for the review of Homo Deus. I'm going to read it anyway, but thanks for the warning 

 let me know how you like it! 

[A wilding]

6 hours ago, RhaenysBee said:

My Friend Anna is a most different kind of non fiction and I’m not entirely sure what prompted me to ever start, let alone finish this publication. It is an account of a mediocre New Yorker who was cheated out of a large sum of money by a Russian con artist. I could fill another book with everything that was wrong with this one, so let’s just leave it at: don’t bother. 

I read this last year. While I agree that the author was not very smart, and that it was not particularly well written, I would class Anna Sorokin as a sociopath more than a con artist - she was always going to be caught and end up in jail sooner or later. I thought the book interesting as an extremely detailed account of a sociopath interacting with their victim, as told by the victim.

Incidentally, there is (or was) a Netflix miniseries coming about Anna Sorokin.

Edit: it may be better read than listened to, as you can then skip the irrelevant bits about the author's personal history.

[RhaenysBee]

13 minutes ago, A wilding said:

I read this last year. While I agree that the author was not very smart, and that it was not particularly well written, I would class Anna Sorokin as a sociopath more than a con artist - she was always going to be caught and end up in jail sooner or later. I thought the book interesting as an extremely detailed account of a sociopath interacting with their victim, as told by the victim.

Incidentally, there is (or was) a Netflix miniseries coming about Anna Sorokin.

Edit: it may be better read than listened to, as you can then skip the irrelevant bits about the author's personal history.

I suppose every con artist needs to be a bit of a sociopath to be a con artist. I can’t be the judge of which label describes the essence of Anna’s better.

I thought there was little to nothing about the psychology of Anna in the book, which would definitely have enhanced the story and given it an intriguing edge. I know there might be a Netflix series and I have high hopes that it’ll deliver everything the book entirely failed to offer. 

That’s certainly a possibility. As a listen, it was rather ponderous.

 

[TheLastWolf]

10 hours ago, RhaenysBee said:

 let me know how you like it! 

Sure 

[RhaenysBee]

I finished Selfie and it didn’t really come together after all. The book essentially starts at chapter 6, and does offer some interesting insights into the modern self culture, so I don’t mind that I stuck with it. However, I still think that two thirds of it should have been edited out, and the rest would still need logical revision. 
 

[Peadar]

I enjoyed Christopher Brown's Rule of Capture way more than I thought I would.

It's the story of a lawyer working in an America where the previous president refused to leave office and badgered state officials in Texas to overturn the result of the elections there. It was published in 2019, so maybe the author knew what was coming   This is not a spoiler, since it's just background to the plot.

I have picked up the second book, Failed State.

[Plessiez]

Making steady progress on my to-read list.

As I said in my first post in this thread, this year I'm aiming to read at least one literary-prize winning novel a month.  Half of a Yellow Sun (which won the Orange Prize/Women's Prize for Fiction in 2003) was that novel for January.  The subject matter -- a failed secession attempt and the resulting civil war and famine -- is exactly the sort of thing I avoided reading last year because of a fear that I'd find it too depressing.   And it is pretty depressing, obviously, but I'm glad I made the effort to read it: after a slightly slow start I thought it was really good.   Only one slightly false note, for me:

Spoiler

The reveal of the identity of the author of the fictional account of the war, The World Was Silent While We Died, seemed a bit artifical.  It always felt unlikely that Richard would have written it, given everything else about his character, and the fact the narrative strongly implied he was the author while never saying so outright felt a bit forced to me.  So the 'twist' here ended up seeming like a bit of a formality.

But yeah, this was definitely worth reading.

Kim Stanley Robinson's The Ministry for the Future describes the fictional international agency of the title's various attempts to reduce global CO₂ emissions over the course of several decades starting in 2025.  Not really sure what to make of this.  I enjoyed the experience of reading it, I think, but I'm not really convinced it totally works as a novel (or, really, whether it's a novel at all: there is definitely a central narrative but at least half the book is made up of short essays and dialogues about various topics, including -- at one point -- long lists of Antarctic glaciers).  At times the effect is more like reading a slightly unfocused series of blog posts than reading a work of fiction. 

I tend to broadly agree with KSR on most things so I didn't really mind the digressions, but I can imagine some people reacting very differently.   There's also a very minor conversation early on which suggests that two characters -- and possibly the author? -- believe that Invictus is a film about the (FIFA) World Cup, which annoyed me more than it probably should have done.  (Though when a book is as heavy on exposition and info-dumping at this one, it feels like the sort of mistake you should be trying to avoid.)

[williamjm]

I read Ursula Le Guin's The Tombs of Atuan. I liked it more than the first book in the series, Tenar is a more engaging protagonist than young Ged was and it's a more focused story. The setting is very different, rather than all the island hopping of the first book it's much more claustrophobic this time with the majority of the book taking place in the underground labyrinth which makes for a very atmospheric setting. I did like the contrast between some of the moments of discovery where Tenar does manage to find some wonder in her domain and the slowly creeping sense of dread that starts to build as the book goes on.

Next up I'll continue on and start The Farthest Shore.

[TheLastWolf]

The Book Thief is achingly great! 

[A wilding]

Just finished The Nordic Theory of Everything by Anu Partanen, a comparison of US society with the Nordic ones, by a Finn who emigrated to the US. Wow, assuming the author is not too far from the truth (and any other readers of this, do let me know if she is), then I had not realised how tough things in the US have got in the last couple of decades. I feel that I understand a lot better now how Trump happened. All the more concerning in that the UK is showing worrying signs of moving in a similar direction.

 

[Vaughn]

Read 'the Whites' by Richard Price, a hardboiled NYC detective novel. It was exactly as grim and depressing as I kind of feared it would be from the summary. Well written but your enjoyment will depend on how much you like stories of cops living semi-ruined lives due to the pressures of the job, moral bankruptcy, etc... My appetite for depressing, realistic fiction has dropped severely over the Trump years, funny that.

[Wilbur]

Jack Vance's mystery / romance / comedy novella-length book Bird Isle is set on an island in Monterey Bay, and it includes many of the facets of a Vance SciFi novel, but it is ostensibly a 19506 or 1960s-era comedy romance, a sort of junior varsity PG Wodehouse set on the West Coast.  Some of those Vance tropes include sailing, very picturesque characters of questionable moral quality, penurious youths seeking their fortune, and very specific descriptions of the characters' costumes.

Also, like a lot of Vance's stories, it is a very spare story.  Many situations and characters are sketched without exploring the full extent of the motivations or situations, and it leaves the reader wanting more.  In the end, the rumored treasure is found, but the actual solution to the financial need is created out of the characters' convoluted counter-plotting. 

I got my hard copy from the predecessor to Spatterlight Press, which now only sells ebooks, and it was a surprisingly good quality soft cover book.