December 2008 reads

[Teng Ai Hui]

I'm half way through Amy Tan's [i]Joy Luck Club[/i], and the whole time I was thinking about the [url="http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php?showtopic=28104"]Movie Better Than the Book thread[/url]. (I was going to bump the thread, but it's closed.) The book so far is just a bunch of highly (and needlessly) sad stories with no real connection to each other. The movie tells the same essential story but does it in a better and quicker way.

[Joanna vander Poele]

Only like three chapters into [i]The Brothers Karamazov[/i] by Fyodor Dostoevsky and I am already deliriously swept up by the fluidity and easy-going nature of his writing. It's like taking a breath of air or drinking water. It's just so [i]charming.[/i]

Am thinking that since winter break has started, I might as well make it a classics-only fortnight... excepting the stuff I've already gotten from the library. Hmm :idea:

[Isis]

I have been a stranger to reading recently. It feels like ages since I last finished a book. Nearly done with [i]The Inheritance of Loss[/i] by Kiran Desai though; ridiculously easy to read, it just flows over you. Hopefully I can finish [i]Blood Meridian[/i] before the year is out too. I started it about three years ago. The unfinished pile might begin to outweigh the TBR pile. That would be bad.

[Deornoth]

I've almost finished reading Edward Lerner's 'Fool's Experiments', a tale of killer viruses on the internet. Pretty cool but a little heavy on the technical side for me... :dunce:

[TheHoundRules]

Well, I finally decided to read AFFC. I figured ADWD would be done soon, so I decided to finally pick it up. I really enjoy GRRM's writing and storytelling, but this book felt forced to me. I know the whole story about it. Maybe part of it had to do with my favorite characters were not in it. I know that the first 3, I could not put down. When I did I wanted to immediately pick it back up. Not this one. It took about 2 months to read it. Good writing, but the story never grabbed me. I did not really enjoy the Brienne or Cersei POV's. I am still looking forward to ADWD.

Next is The Name of the Rose.

[Larry.]

3/4 into Carlos Fuentes' recently-released [i]La voluntad y la fortuna[/i] ([i]Will and Fortune[/i]) and so far, it compares quite favorably with his better-known works. Will be writing more about it in about a week on my blog.

Also almost 1/2 into Paul S. Kemp's [i]Shadowbred[/i] and it's odd...he has some talent as a writer, but the backstory (it's set in the Forgotten Realms setting and I have NO experience with D&D of any sort) is a bit confusing, as may be expected.

Will be finishing up Kristin Cashore's [i]Graceling[/i] after these and perhaps after Matthew Stover's [i]Star Wars: Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor[/i] (I'm planning on writing a feature tomorrow or Tuesday on tie-in fictions that I've read this year).

[Deedles]

Finished "Beauty" by Robin McKinley today. I like the first 2/3 of the book, but the ending seemed rushed and not well done to me. Meh, still, it was an enjoyable few hours.

Trudging through "The Eye of the World", which is going to my little brother for Christmas. It's just not flowing for me.

About half way through "Hero's die", by Matthew Woodring Stover. I'm really enjoying that one.

[williamjm]

I finished Ken Macleod's [i]The Night Sessions[/i], it was a reasonably good book although I thought some aspects of the premise were unconvincing (that in a couple of decades religion would be driven so far underground) and the ending could have been done better (Macleod has never been particularly great at endings).

I'm now reading Esslemont's [i]Return of the Crimson Guard[/i]. One chapter in and I've already been introduced to several pieces of vaguely explained mythology and what seems like about a dozen assorted cynical soldiers. It must be a Malazan book.

[Dumas]

The [i]Poema del Cid[/i] in W.S. Merwin's translation. Found it for about $6 at a used bookstore. It has the Spanish text printed alongside the translation and it's vaguely similar to what I learned in high school. I'm done with the first cantar and it's pretty good so far. Not nearly as repetitive as the [i]Song of Roland[/i], but I heard that's just an artifact of the [i]chanson[/i] form.

Now for the hard question: The Cid, Roland, and Lancelot in the ring. Who would win?

[duchess of malfi]

[quote name='RedEyedGhost' post='1626880' date='Dec 20 2008, 20.02']If you're struggling on chapter 1, muscle through it because it gets much better. I still think chapter 1 should have been a prologue because it reads so differently from the rest of the book.[/quote]

Thanks for the heads up on [i]Thunderer[/i]. :) I still have half of [i]Hero of Ages[/i] to go, but I will remember the warning for the first chapter of [i]Thunderer[/i] not being like the rest of the book as soon as I get to it. :)

[beniowa]

Over the weekend I finished [i][b]Wild Cards III: Jokers Wild[/b][/i]. This volume deals with the fallout from the second book with the main villain seeking revenge on several of the ace characters. The book has a pretty light plot this time around with each story being told chronologically, hour on the hour. Previously, the stories and characters were separated into specific parts. While this makes sense given the plot, it also make the book feel weaker than the previous two. A few characters, both good and evil, bite the dust, but there doesn't seem to be much actual tension or development. Or maybe it just feels that way to me. Still recommended for all Martin and series fans. 7/10.

I've already started on the second Mistborn book, [i][b]Well of Ascension[/b][/i] by Brandon Sanderson.

[kcf]

I finished up [i]Escape From Hell! [/i]by Hal Duncan ([url="http://nethspace.blogspot.com/2008/12/escape-from-hell-by-hal-duncan.html"]full review[/url]). It's an excellent, fast-paced, and scathing novella.

I'll probably read [i]The House of the Stag [/i]by Kage Baker next.

[Larry.]

[quote name='Dumas' post='1627607' date='Dec 21 2008, 21.20']The [i]Poema del Cid[/i] in W.S. Merwin's translation. Found it for about $6 at a used bookstore. It has the Spanish text printed alongside the translation and it's vaguely similar to what I learned in high school. I'm done with the first cantar and it's pretty good so far. Not nearly as repetitive as the [i]Song of Roland[/i], but I heard that's just an artifact of the [i]chanson[/i] form.

Now for the hard question: The Cid, Roland, and Lancelot in the ring. Who would win?[/quote]

Lancelot would get his ass handed to him. Roland would fight with all sorts of arrows in him, but El Cid was such the badass that when [i]dead[/i] and strapped to a horse, he'd still cause 20,000 Moors to shake, rattle, and then roll out of town.

[mcbigski]

I went to the library the other day and picked up "The Black Swan" which is interesting so far, but requires a fairly close reading. Also picked up "The Gilded Age" and "The Idiot", the latter based on someone's recommendation up thread.

[Myshkin]

[quote name='mcbigski' post='1628103' date='Dec 22 2008, 12.01']"The Idiot", the latter based on someone's recommendation up thread.[/quote]
The greatest novel ever written. Fact.

[bossfan2000]

With all the YA talk on the blogs recently, I decided to do some YA reader. My first read was The Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan ([url="http://fantasybookreviewer.blogspot.com/2008/12/review-ruins-of-gorlan-by-john-flanagan.html"]review[/url]). I actually enjoyed it quite a bit as a light, fun, fast read. I can see why teens would like it, as well as some adults (like me). While the writing was good, most on this board probably wouldn't find it challenging enough. But, if you are looking for something quick and light to read during the holidays, you might check it out.

I liked it enough to buy books 2-4 in hardcover, and already am 100 pages into book 2.

[Joanna vander Poele]

[quote name='TheHoundRules' post='1627493' date='Dec 21 2008, 15.35'][b]Well, I finally decided to read AFFC.[/b] I figured ADWD would be done soon, so I decided to finally pick it up. I really enjoy GRRM's writing and storytelling, but this book felt forced to me. I know the whole story about it. Maybe part of it had to do with my favorite characters were not in it. I know that the first 3, I could not put down. When I did I wanted to immediately pick it back up. Not this one. It took about 2 months to read it. Good writing, but the story never grabbed me. I did not really enjoy the Brienne or Cersei POV's. I am still looking forward to ADWD.

Next is The Name of the Rose.[/quote]
What.

[pat5150]

Just finished Jim Butcher's [i]Storm Front[/i].

Very entertaining book. It's hard not to root for the down-on-his-luck wizard! I'll be reading more Dresden Files books in the near future! :)

Check the blog for the full review.

Patrick

[Guinevere Seaworth]

I finished [i]The Reckoning [/i]by Sharon Kay Penman. What a tragic ending to the Welsh trilogy. I kept hoping a Welshman would cry FREEEEDOM a la Braveheart, but no such luck. Edward I was well portrayed by the author. I hated him for his ruthless and arrogant attitude towards Wales, but on the other hand, he was a very compassionate towards his kin and loved his wife fiercely and he truly believed he was saving Welsh souls by conquering them. [i]Here Be Dragons [/i]is still my favorite because I loved reading about Joanna and her love between two men, her father, King John and her husband, Lewellyn, Prince of Wales who are enemies with each other.
On to [i]Victory of Eagles [/i]by Naomi Novik.

[Bellis]

I read [b]Ringworld[/b] on the recommendation of a co-worker who is the only other genre fan around me regularly in real life. It was sort of par for course of sci-fi from a certain era - strange objects, strange views of women, sketchy science. Not really my taste. I don't think I'll be reading more Niven, but I might check out Vinge, the other author I was recommended. Meanwhile, I'm going to have to get him to read Mieville or Wolfe.

But, Saramago's [b]The Gospel According to Jesus Christ[/b] was brilliant. I am going to have to re-read this every Christmas. Some interesting theological ideas on fate and free will, good and evil, to chew on. Devout Christians should be warned that it's not exactly canonical.