November 2010 Reads

[Peadar]

I'm about to start Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks.

[polishgenius]

Having gone on a bit of a buying-and-borrowing spree last week, I read Princep's Fury by Butcher yesterday, and am currently reading First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde, Factotum by DM Cornish and The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly, with Black-Lung Captain by Chris Wooding and The Rats and the Ruling Sea by Robert VS Reddick on the pile for afters.

[mashiara]

I loved Wolf Hall. If it wasn't for Matterhorn, which was simple genius, it would have been my best read of the year easily.

I absolutely adored this book, I thought it was brilliant and I just don't say this easily. I was really sorry to see it was over, I wanted more. Obviously I was familiar with the storyline but it was presented in such a fresh perspective and Cromwell was such a deep, fascinating character, I just couldn't get enough. I really need to put Matterhorn on my list too, I've seen a couple of other people mention it.

Also read these past few days, Southland by Nina Revour. This book presented its stories in three different timelines, around WW2 focusing on the treatment of Japanese people in the US, around the 60's and the Watts riots in LA, focusing on the racism issue, and in the present, giving us a quest for answers. While I liked the past storylines and found them really interesting I couldn't care less about the present one and the mystery revealed/ lesbian relationship issues it came with. Not a bad book but not a great one. It could have been a lot shorter, I think, there were parts that just made me yawn and look to see how many pages I had left.

I also picked up a little book called The Bad Mother's Handbook by Kate Long. It was supposed to be extremely light reading for waiting at a doctor's office and it surprised pleasantly me by giving me a decent story that deals with teen pregnancy in a realistic way and by also portraying the difficulties one sees in a mother-daughter relationship.

I'm STILL waiting for my copy of Towers of Midnight and when that gets here I'll drop everything else, but for now I guess I'll start reading The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier.

[peterbound]

trudging through 'Towers of Midnight', also reading 'Half-Made World).

[mashiara]

I'm STILL waiting for my copy of Towers of Midnight and when that gets here I'll drop everything else, but for now I guess I'll start reading The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier.

It's a good thing I was busy all morning and I didn't get a chance to start this book. I wasn't expecting ToM today but the universe must have recognized that I suffered enough, so it just arrived and I'll be starting it soon. :read:

[Guinevere Seaworth]

I finished The Gathering Storm by Kate Elliott. It the best book of the series and I'm keen to see how she wraps up the series. I'm about 60 pages into In the Ruins and liking what I've read so far.

[Lordwalker]

I finished The Gathering Storm by Kate Elliott. It the best book of the series and I'm keen to see how she wraps up the series. I'm about 60 pages into In the Ruins and liking what I've read so far.

I'm curious about this one. The first couple of the series gets good reviews while the latter part seems to fall of in the number of starred reviews. Having never read anything by Elliot can you compare her style or storytelling to any other authors?

[Guinevere Seaworth]

I'm curious about this one. The first couple of the series gets good reviews while the latter part seems to fall of in the number of starred reviews. Having never read anything by Elliot can you compare her style or storytelling to any other authors?

As far as writing styles Tad Williams is the closest that I can think of. Her worldbuilding is exceptional. Only Erikson and Martin do better. There is a large cast and lots of political machinations like GRRM but not as violent either.

Werthead's reviews do a good job describing the series much better than I can. I admit his review got me interested in the series.

The link to Werthead's review of the series:

Books 1&2

Books 3,4 & 5

Books 6 & 7

Hope this helps!

[Analu]

I finished "The Way of Kings" by Sanderson a couple weeks ago and enjoyed it very much. Had a few nitpicks about it (Shallan character, the word puns were amusing but got tired fast ie. arrogant/errorgant, the light-eyes caste system), but for the most part, I thought it was great. Am a little dismayed to hear that it's going to be a 10-volume series, but I'll live.

Read "Infected" by Scott Sigler in about 2 days, staying up until 4am both nights to finish it. Haven't done that in years but it was worth it. That's a thoroughly entertaining book. A+

Am about 300 pages into "Towers of Midnight". It feels good to reenter the WOT world, but the Perrin/Faile chapters are killing me. It's like "Days of our Lives" in a fantasy setting.

[Lordwalker]

As far as writing styles Tad Williams is the closest that I can think of. Her worldbuilding is exceptional. Only Erikson and Martin do better. There is a large cast and lots of political machinations like GRRM but not as violent either.

Werthead's reviews do a good job describing the series much better than I can. I admit his review got me interested in the series.

The link to Werthead's review of the series:

Books 1&2

Books 3,4 & 5

Books 6 & 7

Hope this helps!

Thank you Lady Seaworth, this was most helpful. :thumbsup:

[wolverine]

Reading "Davy" by Edgar Pangborn because I saw it at a used book store for less than a buck and it comes on high rec from Stego.

I am almost done with it and don't know what to think yet. It is not blowing me out of the water by any means. But it is an interesting read with identifiable characters.

[cosnik]

approaching the halfway point of Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood. i dont know why, but im liking it much more than oryx and crake. guess im just a sucker for morbid, depressed, twisted main characters. started reading Contact as well. how i love thee sagan

[Inigima]

Got a few chapters into Sanderson's The Way of Kings, hated it and put it down. As a result, my reading today has been borderline schizophrenic. I read the first several stories (i.e., Part One) of Aimee Bender's Willful Creatures, flipped through the first few chapters of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (same author, reread), and bought and started Joe Abercrombie's Best Served Cold, which is very good so far and had a much stronger start than anything in the First Law trilogy.

[siemprepe]

Will finish Catcher in the rye today or tomorrow depending on available time. I reread it because the last time I read it I was much younger.

Then I'll finish up insurrection by Robyn Young. So far it's a good book, but it doesn't read as easy as her brethren series for now. Still I like it.

Then it is on to Towers of midnight. I just got confirmation that it got mailed today, so it should be arriving next week.

[TheEvilKing]

Finished Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon last night. A swift read and a lot of fun. I can see why Chabon has a lot of fans here.

Also 100+ pages into Women by Charles Bukowski.

Going to start An Autumn War by Daniel Abraham, perhaps tonight.

[Borque]

Currently reading Perdido Street Station by China Miéville. About 1/3 done so far and liking it a lot. Bas-Lag is an interesting, hilarious and horrifying place.

[Edda van Heefmstra Ruston]

I have started Redemption in Indigo finally, and Hard-boiled Wonderland just showed up, so I'll start that next, but right now I'm plowing through a nostalgic re-read of Jaran.

[Yagathai]

Read the newest Garrett novel from Glen Cook, Gilded Latten Bones, and in a similar fantasy-detective-noir vein read Bledsoe's The Sword-Edged Blonde, which was... eh. Amusing and disposable, but shows some promise.

Also ploughed through The Unincorporated Man, which I thought was very good but very obviously a first novel, and not worthy of the OMGAMAZING reviews that it got. I also felt it was a little... a little too Heinleiny. I can't believe I just used "too Heinleiny" as a pejorative, considering my well-documented love of the man's work, but there you have it.

[AprilFool]

I have started and stopped a couple of books this week because they didn't really grab me.

The first was AJ Hartley's Will Power. I liked his first book Act of Will as a nice light read, but this one hasn't caught my interest. Will try it again later.

The second was David Weber's On Basilisk Station. I am enjoying his Safehold series, but this one not so much. I will try it again at some other point because I have heard some good things about the series.

The book I have finally settled on is Connie Willis Blackout. My first book by her. Seems very interesting and well written with just enough humor.

[Cuchulain]

Finished China Miéville's King Rat. The plot is a bit simplistic, but the prose is good and the mythical characters are memorable (especially the Pied Piper as the psychotic villain). It's not Miéville's best novel, but it exceeded my expectations and I ended up really enjoying it.

I also read Michael Chabon's Maps and Legends, a collection of essays about the influence of genre fiction on the author's own work. The collection is very insightful and clearly shows how much Chabon loves spec fic.

Currently I'm reading Jack Vance's Emphyrio.