June 2011 Reading Thread

[Lord Toblerone]

The Sign of Four at the moment.

Once that's done, I think Fevre Dream.

[mashiara]

A few days ago I finished Howards End is on the Landing by Susan Hill. It was a odd sort of an autobiographical book where the author decides to go through a whole year rereading books from her own collection, either old favorites or books she somehow managed to overlook. Every book she picks comes with a story, sometimes of the authors she's met, sometimes of other equally interesting events. I was glad to see I had read a few of the books she deemed worthy of such a reread and I was intrigued by some of the other books she picked. I can almost forgive her her dislike of Austen but not the fact that she dared say that Colin Firth is not the perfect Mr. Darcy!

I don't often go for that sort of book but I loved reading this slim volume, because I could relate to this woman whose love of books was clear in every page. I even found myself marking a few passages.

Books help to form us. If you cut me open, will you find volume after volume, page after page, the contents of every one I have ever read, somehow transmuted and transformed into me? [.......] What a strange person I must be. But if the books I have read have helped to form me, then probably nobody else who ever lived has read exactly the same books, all the same books and only the same books, as me. So just as my genes and my soul within me makes me uniquely me, so I am the unique sum of the books I have read. I am my literary DNA.

After that, I reread Peter Brett's The Painted Man -still a very good read- and then went on to read the second book of the series, The Desert Spear. I really enjoyed it, especially after I got past the first 200 pages. At first I didn't care for the fact that the first part of the book was all about Jardir and his history but I eventually got drawn in the story and didn't want to put it down. I particularly enjoyed what the Painted man has become. If I had to complain about something it would be that while I do enjoy seeing strong female characters in a male dominated society I didn't like

that Leesha and later Renna seemed to pick up every new skill at incredible speed and without any difficulty, the second becoming a killing machine in just a little time

I've just started Sleepless by Charlie Huston.

[Teng Ai Hui]

Wait a minute, your not fooling us. Something Borrowed is a fluffy book my wife likes that just got made into a movie about a love triangle. Trying to make it seem like it is something different. We are on to you buddy.

:lol:

I read the Jim Butcher short last night and was very frustrated by continuity problems. In it, Dresden was relying heavily on his Fuego spell, and the info surrounding it were highly out of sync compared to the info established in Dead Beat and Blood Rites. (I hope that's vague enough that it's not a spoiler.)

Oh, and hurry up and start the Long Price. You wont be disappointed at all, it is still the best recommendation I have gotten from this board, out of many good recs.

Yes, I have been wanting to read this for a while now. I just hope that it can live up to the hype given to it around here.

[Mjolnir]

In a weird place, paused a hundred pages from the end of two major 2011 epic fantasies, The White-Luck Warrior and The Dragon's Path. Unless my will crumbles, and with apologies to authorial intent, I'm going to hold off reading the climax and [i assume] tripple cliffhanger in White-Luck until Bakker's done The Unholy Consult and we know it's on the way. The Dragon's Path I just don't want to end; after what felt initially like a sort of undistinguished harmless fun kind of opening section it's really taken off and is approaching the awesomesphere at speed.

I read A Canticle for Leibowitz for the first time. Dang.

And I read Emma Donaghue's Room, in a rush in two days because the first half is very difficult to turn away from. My response to it was maybe too visceral for me to try and say anything useful about it this close to the reading experience. Obviously I've got no idea how to best capture a child's voice in fiction -- Room is told from the pov of a five-year-old who has been imprisoned in a single room with his mother since birth -- but it seems to me the author does an excellent job. Part of this excellence is in how frustrating the young narrator can be at times. There's a lot of satisfaction in reading around the narrator to figure out bits of the story from his mother's perspective, or that of the other adults around him, but the narrator himself

and his struggle to learn the world he's never seen outside of tv, which they do eventually escape to

makes for fascinating and moving reading. But yeah, I'm too close to my reaction to it to say who I think would like it, or to identify problem bits or even the best bits. [Oh, except the setting feels rather flat, and goes unnamed save that it is in the States someplace. And the mother never gets a name for no reason I can discern. I'm sure the author had excellent reasons, but if this is a stab at universalism, ... well, this is just taste but I personally find stories about people and places that are individualized as much as possible more universalizable rather than less, if that makes any sense. When sameness isn't forced, I feel the common threads as less of an imposition and more of a broadening of perspective.] I'm glad I read it, but honestly am not sure I'd be in a hurry to do so again.

I'll probably finish up The Dragon's Path now.

Me expend muchness of effort not make write post in style like Grack's Warrior Prophet post, because if do that awesome-thing become mini-meme-thing. All hate, much sad.

Kellhus is asshat.

[beniowa]

I re-read The Inferior by our very own Peadar, which was as good as I remembered. After that I jumped right into the sequel, The Deserter.

I also finished The Deserter by Peadar O' Guilin and enjoyed it very much. A very good read and a worthy sequel to The Inferior. It didn't quite go the way I had imagined it but I guess that's good, getting surprised by the plot. I found it difficult visualizing some of the scenes at first but it got easier.

This was almost exactly my reaction to The Deserter as well.

Now starting my re-read of A Storm of Swords.

[Arbor Gold]

After that, I reread Peter Brett's The Painted Man -still a very good read- and then went on to read the second book of the series, The Desert Spear.

That's what I'm reading right now! (The Desert Spear, that is.) I'm about 100 pages in and I'm struck by how similar part of The Wise Man's Fear is to this section of the book. I didn't reread The Painted Man, which I originally read years ago whenever it first came out, so I actually have no idea who Jardir is. I remember the name, but all I remember, I think, is that (not really a Painted Man spoiler but I'll spoiler it anyway)

wasn't Jardir some Arab-esque jerky guy?

If you could bring me back up to speed in a sentence or three, I'd be much obliged. :)

[Renasko]

Re-reading 'Tower's of Midnight'. Craving 'A Memory of Light'. Wish it was coming out sooner. Will need to fly back pages to the threads on TOM to get-by. Just finished Aviendha's curious chapter...

[Stone-Made-Soft]

I've just started reading China Mieville's Embassytown. I love it; even though, I'm pretty damn confused right now. The immer is interesting but I have to reread a lot of the exposition of it.

[Contrarius]

I just finished the Tawny Man trilogy. Not perfect books, but I enjoyed them a lot. And I do wish that Hobb could take a few anti-bloat lessons, but OTOH she also managed to create a gripping character with all that bloat.

If anyone decides to read these, just be SURE to read the Assassin's Apprentice trilogy first. They are really all one series.

[mashiara]

If you could bring me back up to speed in a sentence or three, I'd be much obliged. :)

Happy to help! :) I had absolutely no recollection of how the previous book ended, if I hadn't reread it I'd be as lost.

Spoiler

Jardir is the leader of the Krassians (fighter tribe who fights the demons every night instead of cowering behind wards) and was Arlen's friend (that's the guy who became the Painted man). He stole the extra powerful Spear of.. Kaj? with the special fighting wards from him that Arlen had found in some ruins and tried to have him killed/left him in the desert to die and proclaimed himself the Deliverer. Arlen survived and started tattooing fighting wards on his body and fighting the corelings out in the wild

There, did that do it?

[RedThorn]

Pet Sematary, Stephen King - A good book. A lot less pulp than the typical King novel.

Wins, Losses, and Lessons, Lou Holtz - Autobiography.

[Grack21]

Finished Warbreaker. Twas awesome. Haters to the left.

[Astra]

Nearly finished Deadhouse Gates (The Malazan Book of the Fallen #2) by Steven Erikson

[Lyanna Stark]

Just ordered "I människohamn", another novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist who wrote "Let the right one in". "Let the right one in" ("Låt den rätte komma in") is by the way the best Swedish novel I have read in years. What a masterful description of human tragedy. The language also has a lovely flow, which possibly might get lost in translation, but it was refreshing to read after all the rather stilted pieces I have consumed lately.

Oh and speaking of stilted and light reading stuff, I also ordered a pile of thrillers for beachside/holiday reading this summer :)

[Arbor Gold]

There, did that do it?

It totally helped, thanks a bunch! :)

ETA: So, basically, I forgot the entire end of the story/setup for this one. :lol:

[Cuchulain]

Finished Newton's The Book of Transformations. I enjoyed it, but it's definitely a step down from City of Ruin. The whole focus on the Villjamur Knights in TBoT just isn't that interesting. Oh, and the editing is very sloppy (in terms of both spelling and style).

[peterbound]

I'm chowing down on the rest of the Commonwealth books by Hamilton. I love those fucking things.

I'll be reading the Half-Made world after that, and might dig into some bullshit by Lehane.

[Eponine]

Reread A Clash of Kings - my first read was almost 10 years ago now and it's still by far my favorite fantasy series. I've just been reading during the day while compiling or taking breaks, but I may have to read a little faster to finish before ADWD - I want to make sure I get all the way through because I can barely remember what happens in AFFC.

[SkynJay]

Finishing up Assassin's Apprentice tonight before bed. Gotta love Fitz.

[Myshkin]

Finishing up Assassin's Apprentice tonight before bed. Gotta love Fitz.

No you don't. You really don't.