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First Quarter 2022 Reading


Fragile Bird

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4 hours ago, Rorschach - 2 said:

So ... this is a thing, it seems. I'm posting in the wrong thread, probably, as I don't think I can stomach it, but if anyone feels like self-flaggelation..

 

I’ve been reading werewolf romance fiction recently, on a free website. And earlier this week I was in Walmart looking at the books and the cover of a novel with a handsome soldier on it drew my eye. I laughed and wondered what kind of patriotic romance it was, and it turned out to be about a soldier who buys a cabin and goes there only to find a man with his two little daughters, ready to challenge him over the ownership. Queue up the romance! At Walmart! Romance is romance is romance, and it’s great to see all the kinds of romantic fiction available now.

But I would think that one is definitely a niche market. Werewolves and the fae and LGBTQ romance are all pretty popular.

 

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3 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

IBut I would think that one is definitely a niche market. Werewolves and the fae and LGBTQ romance are all pretty popular.

 

I am continually surprised at how many paperback M-M romance novels get published. And the huge majority of them seem to be written by and primarily read by heterosexual women, not gay men. 

I'm a bit wary of these myself -- I don't trust straight women to really write realistic male gay romances any more than I trust straight men to make realistic "lesbian" video pornography. Though I haven't read any pure romance M-M novels by women yet, I have read the first two volumes in Sarah Monette's "Doctrine of Labyrinths" fantasy quartet, where one of the two viewpoint characters is a gay man, and remember thinking "this is a straight woman's fantasy of what a gay man is like" and being a bit put off in spots. 

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I finished Daniel Abraham's The Age of Ash. I really liked his two previous fantasy series, The Long Price Quartet and The Dagger and the Coin so I was definitely looking forwards to this. I think it has many of the strengths of the previous books, I've always liked Abraham's characterisation and the characters here do feel believable in their motivations and although it takes most of the book for some of them to really work out why they are doing what they are doing I find that quite realistic. There have been a lot of fantasy books set in big cities that follow both the nobility and those from the poorer quarters trying desperately to survive so it's not really the most original of settings but I thought the details were done well, particularly showing the insularity of some of the poorest quarters and how they feel about anyone who thinks they are too good to live there. There are some interesting twists in the plot along the way, the overall plot is initially a bit of a mystery but gradually becomes clearer and the main villain's plan is memorable creepy even if the impact was reduced for me a bit since I read an older book with a very similar plan last year. Abraham's series tend to get stronger as they go along so I'm definitely looking forward to the rest of the trilogy.

One small question for those who have read it...

Spoiler

Reading the first chapter again after reading the rest of the book it describes three characters and what they are doing during Bryn al Sal's funeral. One of them seems to be Goro (with one of Kithamar's game pieces) and another is Alys but there's also a young man mentioned with an injured hand and I'm not sure who that is meant to be. It could maybe be Elaine's lover but I'm not sure why he would be mentioned, unless he's meant to be a more important character later in the series?

 

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19 minutes ago, williamjm said:

 

  Hide contents

Reading the first chapter again after reading the rest of the book it describes three characters and what they are doing during Bryn al Sal's funeral. One of them seems to be Goro (with one of Kithamar's game pieces) and another is Alys but there's also a young man mentioned with an injured hand and I'm not sure who that is meant to be. It could maybe be Elaine's lover but I'm not sure why he would be mentioned, unless he's meant to be a more important character later in the series?

 

Spoiler

I definitely think it's Elaine's lover. I think he injured his hand in the when they were attacked, and he was in the right district. Must be an important character in the future. Honestly, there were several scenes that felt like Abraham had written the other POV too (or even first), and the attack on Elaine and the trader's son was one of them. 

 

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Just finished Startide Rising by David Brin, a 1983 science fiction novel which won the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards the year it came out. It is set in his "Uplift Universe" where dolphins and chimpanzees have both been genetically altered so that their level of intelligence is equal to that of humans. Most of the characters in this book are dolphins. They along with a few humans and one chimpanzee are the crew of a starship which has crashed onto a mostly-water-covered planet while being pursued by ships of several hostile alien species. It was OK but I am not sure it's aged particularly well for me. The males of both humans and dolphins were sometimes sexist in a way I'm not sure would be written about the far future today. And I found the short chapters about the truly alien species more interesting than the main story of the Earthlings. 

Since my copy is in an ominbus with Brin's next book, The Uplift War, I will soon go on to read that. But inbetween I am taking a break to read T. J. Klune's The House in the Cerulean Sea.  I'm only about 10% in to that so far but already am finding it excellent! Klune's humor is right up my alley. 

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I read Helene Wecker's The Golem and the Jinni last week.  It wasn't bad by any means, but it honestly didn't ever really grab me and I'm not entirely sure why.  Though having said that I finished it pretty quickly, so I can't have disliked it that much.

And in an odd coincidence I am also currently reading Brin's Startide Rising.  I bounced off this pretty hard when I first tried it (sometime last year, I think), but I'm making better progress on my second attempt.  About a third of the way in this time around and my take would probably be the same as Ormond's (the almost endemic sexism -- especially the way the Dennie/Sah'ot subplot is being handled so far -- is pretty offputting, and I'd rather be spending more time with the aliens).

Next up after this I'm going to either read Daniel Abraham's Age of Ash or finally persuade myself to try Samuel R. Delany's Dhalgren (or try to read beyond the first page, anyway).

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The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones and NYT Magazine.

This book grew from the 2019 series in the NYT Magazine.  It wasn't without controversy and backlash, the CRT moral panic, for example of ongoing backlash.  While I found this book to be very informative of the history of enslaved people in the US, there was a lot of violence and really terrible things that happened over time to our black citizens.

This is an important book, a tough one for me to write about, however, I definitely recommend it.  

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I also read 2 other books: Axion's End by Lindsay Ellis.  First novel for this writer, and it showed.  It's a SF about a young woman, Cora, meets extraterrestrial and she becomes his translator.  This book really is a YA novel and just an average one.  It was OK.

The next book was The Lions of Al-Rassan by GGK.  A reread, and as it's my fave of his books so far, a pleasure. 

 

Next up is The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow.

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Have had a good 3 months of being able to read. Last year was awful for me, and I missed the joy of reading.

The Trouble with Peace by Joe Abercrombie: This one was strong. The battle was well done. Orso is the highlight of this trilogy, by far. Great character.

The Wisdom of Crowds by Joe Abercrombie: found this one to be average, and not up to his usual excellence. The revolution sequence was a bit repetitive and lacked the complexity you would expect out of such an event. Orso again is the highlight of the book and carried it.

The Ice Dragon by George R. R. Martin: lovely story. My kid really enjoyed the illustrations, and the story.

Sharp Ends by Joe Abercrombie: This one was a lot of fun, and one of his best. Shevedieh and Javre are two of my favourite characters that he has created.

King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo: This was pretty good, but not as good as Six of Crows. The cast of character is good, but not fantastic like that crew. The story is good, but not as engaging as the heist. Supposedly a duology about Nikolai, but not really.

Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo: Again, not as good as Six of Crows. The expansion of both the politics and the magical universe in this book was extremely rushed and needed more fleshing out. The bones are certainly there, with good ideas, and where it goes is satisfying, but it just lacked a bit of meat.

The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo: I had read most of these short stories before, but it is a good collection. Worth reading if you like fairy tales.

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins: Very ambitious sequel for Collins to take on. A revolution is a big topic. I don't think it quite succeeded, and instead it basically retreads familiar ground from the 1st book, and leaves all the big revelations to literally the last chapter.

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins: Much better than Catching Fire. It deals with a lot of emotional trauma for Katniss, which is good, but because of how long this goes on (half the book) and the first person narrative, the reader misses out on a huge portion of the rebellion plot. Then we get thrown back into the rebellion at the end, but because we have missed so much of the revolution (through the last two books) the climatic struggle and resolution doesn't carry much weight at all.

The Execution Channel by Ken MacLeod: This was a strange, but interesting book. Alternate history after 9/11 where Scotland gets 'nuked', and all the spies wants to know about the device, but it really isn't about that. The device is almost a macguffin, with the book more about truth and deceit. 

Hull Zero Three by Greg Bear: An extremely weird but captivating science fiction tale. Naked dude wakes up on a mysterious spacecraft, where everything is trying to kill him, and he has no idea WTF is going on. You are just as confused as the protagonist. Very effective.

Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain: This was a re-read of one of my favourite books. Funny. Wild. Perhaps shocking to some. Well written memoir.

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown: I'm sure many of you know this book. It isn't a masterpiece of literature, but it's well written, and enjoyable. I really liked all the art history details, and found myself doing a lot of internet research between 'chapters'. Perhaps the worst part of this book is the fact that literally every chapter is a cliff hanger. That gets aggravating after a while. 

Angels & Demons by Dan Brown: I think this was a bit better than Da Vinci Code, but they are both pretty even in rating for me.

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown: I thought this one had really interesting ideas, and was going well, but it all fell apart in the end. Big letdown. 

A Brightness Long Ago by Guy Gavriel Kay: Fantastic read. One of the best that he has ever written.

Gallows View by Peter Robinson: I have read a few of Peter Robinson's Detective Banks mysteries over the years, but I don't believe that I have ever read the first. Good solid mystery, and just the right length. It does not try to do too much, but it is well written, has an easy pace, and has details that are well observed. It is sort of a typical English countryside mystery, of which many proliferate today, but was written in the late 80s.

The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon: I have had this on my shelf for ages but never got around to it. I know a lot of people that don't like this one, but I think it was really good. The writing style that Chabon went for was really spot on, worked perfectly for a Jewish detective noir. I do wish there had been more exploration of the lore, and the alternate history in general. It was interesting.

Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan: Another re-read, great book and one of my favourites of all time. One of the defining science fiction novels of all time.

Broken Angels by Richard Morgan: Re-read again. Not as strong as Altered Carbon, but a cool sequel. It expands the world and the character, but stands quite along, because there is not too much continuity between it's predecessor and itself. 

 

Currently working on a re-read of Woken Furies by Richard Morgan.

 

 

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I don’t think I’ll finish anything else in the next 12 days so here’s my Q1 rundown. 
 

Emma - I finally finished this some time in January and it’s decidedly my favorite Jane Austen novel. What an absolute gem. I prefer this book by far to Pride and Prejudice. 

Persuasion - I had thought I would relate to this more because I’m a spinster myself, but no, it didn’t quite touch me the way I expected. Still, beautiful, mature read. And I might do a re-read. 

Northanger Abbey - because I was on a Jane Austen ride. Again, I had thought this would feel close to home because I’m a hopeless fantasy fan too, but it didn’t become a favorite. Weirdly of all Austen heroines I relate to Emma the most even though on paper she is the polar opposite of me. 

The Midnight Library - the message is important and great, but the story is a hodgepodge and I found the protagonist insufferable. I come to realize that I don’t actually enjoy Matt Haig’s style of writing fiction. I will return to his non fiction work. 

Cognitive Behavior Therapy Made Simple - this one is supposed to be a practical guide to CBT techniques, at least that’s how audible sells it, but it’s not. It was a disappointment and the narration is ridiculous. Wouldn’t recommend. 

Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? By Dr Julie Smith -  this one was great on Audible. Insightful, helpful (in terms on intention and practical tools both), sensitively written and narrated. Nothing groundbreaking, but well structured and selected information. Highly recommend. Yes beside Jane Austen, I was also on a bad mental health streak. 

The Way Home by Mark Boyle is a boring and obnoxious account of the author’s life without technology in the Irish countryside. No substantial message, no enjoyable storytelling and definitely no 360 degree approach. Admittedly, I dropped it half way through because I ran out of interest in what he had to say entirely. 

I also started rereading The Lord of the Rings because that story my ultimate soul medicine and I want to see if I’m old enough to appreciate the actual book beside passionately adoring the film adaptation. 

That was all.

 

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We listened to Hugh Laurie's The Gun Seller this past week on our road trip.  I bought the book when it first came out originally in Amsterdam airport, and I recalled the first three chapters or so almost completely.  However, the latter 75% of the book was like reading it for the first time.

Laurie's voice is very much evident, and he has some very Bertie Wooster phraseology that is funny to hear Simon Prebble read.  And he writes a competent, modern, wish-fulfillment meets true-to-life thriller.  However, the thriller part of the book is just not as interesting as it could be.  Perhaps it could have used some editing, as well.  A lot of the political commentary is quite prescient of what the world looks like now, two decades later.

If you are in your 20s and like an adventure story, this is for you.  For those of us with some more miles on the clock, this is a little too on the nose.

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2 hours ago, RhaenysBee said:

Persuasion Emma

Both were my favorites for a long time.  Then Persuasion edged out Emma.  More lately though, Mansfield Abbey is #1 in my regard. That one is really the mature work! with most subtle references to everything from slavery in the Brit colonies and absentee landlordism, to what we here call the War of 1812. When I was younger, Mansfield Park was always at the bottom of the list, the one I'd only re-read a couple of times.

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On 3/13/2022 at 6:03 PM, williamjm said:

I finished Daniel Abraham's The Age of Ash. I really liked his two previous fantasy series, The Long Price Quartet and The Dagger and the Coin so I was definitely looking forwards to this. I think it has many of the strengths of the previous books, I've always liked Abraham's characterisation and the characters here do feel believable in their motivations and although it takes most of the book for some of them to really work out why they are doing what they are doing I find that quite realistic. There have been a lot of fantasy books set in big cities that follow both the nobility and those from the poorer quarters trying desperately to survive so it's not really the most original of settings but I thought the details were done well, particularly showing the insularity of some of the poorest quarters and how they feel about anyone who thinks they are too good to live there. There are some interesting twists in the plot along the way, the overall plot is initially a bit of a mystery but gradually becomes clearer and the main villain's plan is memorable creepy even if the impact was reduced for me a bit since I read an older book with a very similar plan last year. Abraham's series tend to get stronger as they go along so I'm definitely looking forward to the rest of the trilogy.

One small question for those who have read it...

  Hide contents

Reading the first chapter again after reading the rest of the book it describes three characters and what they are doing during Bryn al Sal's funeral. One of them seems to be Goro (with one of Kithamar's game pieces) and another is Alys but there's also a young man mentioned with an injured hand and I'm not sure who that is meant to be. It could maybe be Elaine's lover but I'm not sure why he would be mentioned, unless he's meant to be a more important character later in the series?

 

I finished this last night.  Honestly, I have to go back and reread through the first couple of chapters, per your spoiler...

However, I was struck by how much, yet again, I was having trouble liking the character who seemed to be intended as the main protagonist.  That might be deliberate.  It might pay off more in the follow ups.  But if ever a story felt like a bridge into the rest of what is to come, it was this story.  It seemed so self contained...but once you reflect, you realize that there are a number of dangling plot threads...

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20 hours ago, Zorral said:

Both were my favorites for a long time.  Then Persuasion edged out Emma.  More lately though, Mansfield Abbey is #1 in my regard. That one is really the mature work! with most subtle references to everything from slavery in the Brit colonies and absentee landlordism, to what we here call the War of 1812. When I was younger, Mansfield Park was always at the bottom of the list, the one I'd only re-read a couple of times.

I do intend to reread Persuasion in a couple years. I did need fifteen years to mature into Lord of the Rings too, the book at least. Mansfield Park will be my next Austen book. Though I don’t have a hard copy so probably listen. Needle stitching to a Jane Austen audiobook has been a great Q1 favorite and it gave me a chance to have a quick “reread” of Emma and Pride and Prejudice. 

 

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1 minute ago, RhaenysBee said:

Needle stitching to a Jane Austen audiobook has been a great Q1 favorite and it gave me a chance to have a quick “reread” of Emma and Pride and Prejudice. 

O, that does sound purrfect!  Good idea > therapy in These Times particularly.

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On 3/16/2022 at 3:22 PM, Lord of Oop North said:

 

 

The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon: I have had this on my shelf for ages but never got around to it. I know a lot of people that don't like this one, but I think it was really good. The writing style that Chabon went for was really spot on, worked perfectly for a Jewish detective noir. I do wish there had been more exploration of the lore, and the alternate history in general. It was interesting.

 

 

 

This is my favorite Chabon novel.  I read a couple reviews on good reads years ago where people actually thought the Sitka colony was real and then were very angry to find out it's fictional.  

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I gave up on Age of Ash.  The narrative was for me a paint-by-numbers exercise, well-executed, the author knew what he wanted to do and how to do and did it, but flat, and I'd seen all of it before many times.  :dunno:

But!!!!!!!!! how in heck have I missed all this time there are sequels now to Miles Cameron's Red Knight, in the Traitor's Son series?  I do believe you all here have talked about these books even.  Did I just not get it, that these books were by that guy who wrote The Red Knight?  I liked that book very much.  And now I aim to read the rest of them.

Ah looking at the pub dates -- there was no time to even pay attention to books coming out during those years, as I was entirely take up with a massive project throughout 2017, which even included a temporary re-location to another school and state for a couple of years. As well as a very great deal of time on the road, both talking and researching.

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20 hours ago, Zorral said:

I gave up on Age of Ash.  The narrative was for me a paint-by-numbers exercise, well-executed, the author knew what he wanted to do and how to do and did it, but flat, and I'd seen all of it before many times.  :dunno:

But!!!!!!!!! how in heck have I missed all this time there are sequels now to Miles Cameron's Red Knight, in the Traitor's Son series?  I do believe you all here have talked about these books even.  Did I just not get it, that these books were by that guy who wrote The Red Knight?  I liked that book very much.  And now I aim to read the rest of them.

Ah looking at the pub dates -- there was no time to even pay attention to books coming out during those years, as I was entirely take up with a massive project throughout 2017, which even included a temporary re-location to another school and state for a couple of years. As well as a very great deal of time on the road, both talking and researching.

If you have an interest in audio books, the reader for the Miles' Cameron Traitor's Son cycle is Neil Dickson, who is well above average.  Someone in our local library system must be a fan, as we got the audio books on Overdrive as soon as they appeared.

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I listened to the Prologue and the first chapter and a half of Fell Sword, Book 2, during the last third of my workout today.  You are right about  

6 hours ago, Wilbur said:

Neil Dickson, who is well above average

I'm really liking this.

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