July 2011 Reading thread

[mashiara]

You know the drill. Talk about what you read and how you felt about it, talk about what you are currently reading, talk about what you hope to read in the future. (Besides aDwD, that is. :) )

Let's see. I finished The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, one of Stego's recommendations. I liked it but I wasn't thrilled by it. It was hard to decide which one was the main character as it jumped back and forth in time but it was an interesting book with an insight in Latin American politics.

Stranger Things Happen, Kelly Link. A collection of weird and scary stories, some of them very well written and very creepy indeed.

Sandkings, George RR Martin. This is just a short story of his but I couldn't put the iPad down until I finished it, it is that well written.

Only Forward, Michael Marshall Smith. Another one of Stego's recommendations and a really good SF book. It starts off kind of slow but it picks up quickly and you start seeing some layers in the story. I liked it a lot.

Currently reading Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs.

[Contrarius]

I am forced to admit that I'm on a non-SFF kick right now. I've been listening to several Dick Francis novels over the last few days, with the intention of reading through the lot of them. I read most of them 20 or 30 years ago, but I know I must have missed some along the way. When I get tired of working on that for awhile, I might actually finally listen to ASOIAF, which -- horror of horrors -- I've never read even once. Gasp! ;)

[RedEyedGhost]

I finished Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey, and wow, this was a really awesome book. Earth, Mars, the Belt, and the Outer Planets all are at odds but are their differences irreconcilable? Great stuff, and I can't wait until for the next book.

Today I started The King of Crags by Stephen Deas book two of The Memory of Flames trilogy. Good stuff so far. The plan is to get through that, Long Reach by Peter Cocks, and Small Favor by Jim Butcher before something later in the month... can't remember quite what it is that's coming out, but I'm pretty sure it's big.

[Valarr]

Finished Honor Harrington book In Enemy Hands. I taught about continuing the series, but while I like the battles, politics and most of the characters Honor Harrington herself is too much of a Mary Sue. And I can't stand when she begins blabbing about treecats.

To get that out of my system I decided to go for some unmitigated slaughter so I started reading Horus Heresy Galaxy In Flames.

[Ormond]

Since last posting in these threads I've read:

Show Business by Shashi Tharoor. I really liked this book. It's about a Bollywood actor who is the son of a minor political figure in India. It alternates between three different kinds of chapters: those told by the actor in first person, those told in first person by his father, brother, mistress, or a rival actor; and chapters which give the plots of films he stars in. I thought it was extremely well done. The main character is something of a clueless narcissist and it's particularly interesting to see his relationships with his father, brother, and mistress told from both sides. I had the feeling I was learning a lot about modern Indian politics and culture, and am curious as to how much Bollywood would have changed in the last 15-20 years from how Tharoor describes it./

The Coelura by Anne McCaffrey. A short and slight science fiction novella. Sometimes I wonder why I bother with McCaffrey, because most of what I've read by her seems like it was written for 13 year old girls. This one suffered from being so short. The main character, daughter of a high official on her home planet, seems to come to quite a few conclusions with almost no evidence for them, but she's right about all of them.

Gerald's Party by Robert Coover. This is a literary "experimental" novel. The blurb from the New York Times on the back cover says "A hallucinogenic, phantasmagoric nightmare of mayhem and ecstasy." I would almost agree with that, except I think I'd change "ecstacy" to "excess." This is a 316 page book without any chapters, told entirely in the first person by Gerald. It's not a fantasy because no incident in the novel is magical or physically impossible. But it's fantastical in the sense that the reactions of the characters to many of the things that happen are bizarre.

The first sentence in the book is "None of us noticed the body at first." One of Gerald's party guests, a young woman called Ros, has been stabbed to death in the middle of his living room. Though it's claimed that Ros, an actress, has been liked by almost everyone, no one except her husband seems to be very upset by this. The police who arrive also act bizarrely. They set up a crime lab in Gerald's den and a photo processing dark room in the downstairs bathroom, and use torture to interrogate some of the party guests. No one is outraged by this. People have sex in front of the other party guests and no one seems to pay attention, not even the spouses they're cheating on, and yet the party really isn't organized as an "orgy". Things are confusing because there are scores of guests crammed into an average sized house (almost as many characters as ASOIAF :) ) and it's hard to keep them apart, plus Gerald is given to putting long philosophical or historical asides right in the middle of sentences describing what's going on at the party. Though he refers to most of the party guests by name, his wife, mother-in-law, and "Allison's husband" (Allison is a woman he'd like to become his mistress) are never given names. Most of the guests are connected with the theater community somehow, and some of the reviews seem to imply that Gerald's Party has some profound insights on the connection between theater and reality, but it just seemed like an exercise in seeing how much sex and violence one could put into an absurd send-up of a "cozy" mystery to me. The extreme absurdity of the situations does lead to a few laughs, but it's certainly not a comic novel.

I've just started Avaryan Rising, an omnibus of a fantasy trilogy by Judith Tarr. It's 850 pages and I hope because it's summer I can finish it before ADWD comes out.

[SkynJay]

Starting my mouth with some trash, the latest Fate of the Jedi book.

Should be done by tomorrow, then I should move on to the mass unread pile.

[DJDonegal]

Finished The Lies of Locke Lamora last week so, quite naturally, I've moved onto Red Seas Under Red Skies.

I love TLoLL and I'm really hoping RSURS goes in the same way - slow build up to a great finish.

[Bahimiron]

Finished up Sebastian Junger's War. It's an incredibly important work and pretty much required reading for anyone who wants to know what's happening in Afghanistan, or who wants an apolitical view of what life is like at the platoon level for soldiers in some of the worst fighting of the war. Junger tries to stay objective as he believes a journalist should, but it's clear he really likes these men. The realities of warfare in the Korengal Valley are brought home frequently when Junger describes a character, a real human soldier, who disappears shortly thereafter, another member of the 80% casualty rate suffered at some points in the operation.

Started Pratchett's Unseen Academics. As much as I loved Making Money, Unseen Academics is part of a trend along with Thud and I Shall Wear Midnight of recent Pratchett books that are just organizational and narrative messes from start to finish. I've loved Pratchett for years and while UA still makes me laugh now and again, I'm growing sadder and sadder about the fact that every book of his I read could be his last, and that his writing style is really starting the change as his disease progresses. We will always have Guards, Guards and Mort and Night Watch, but we won't always have Terry and that's downright crushing.

I've also decided to start A Shadow in Summer since everyone agrees it's a pretty quick read and I don't want to be caught flat footed, halfway through something longer, when ADWD drops.

[Guinevere Seaworth]

I'm about a third of the way through A Storm of Swords re-read. Then its AFFC and ADWD next.

[Phoenix]

Finished The Lies of Locke Lamora last week so, quite naturally, I've moved onto Red Seas Under Red Skies.

I love TLoLL and I'm really hoping RSURS goes in the same way - slow build up to a great finish.

Me, too! I'd read TLoLL before and gotten stalled out on RSURS for some reason. I'm enjoying RSURS this time around and am finding it an excellent distraction while I wait for ADwD.

I'm pairing this with a re-read of ASoIaF alongside 2 new readers. That has been interesting. They better read faster or we won't finish before the 12th.

[alguien]

Just finished:

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons

The Dragon Book: Magical Tales from the Masters of Modern Fantasy, edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois.

and a few Fables graphic novels.

All very good reads! Especially The Book Thief, which almost caused me to tear up. Wow. :crying:

Now reading:

The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi (this one seems very promising)

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi

Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond

The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers

The Great Fables Crossover by Bill Willingham (not sure I like this whole Literals concept)

ETA: cannot say enough how much I love Chicago Public libraries. These should tide me over until July 12th!

Also, a very big thank you to the board! Many my recent choices have come from various poster recommendations.

[Nebuchadnezzar]

The Black Prism by Brent Weeks. Don't read DC comics but there's some serious Green Lantern type magic going on.

[Mediumjon Umber]

The First Law trilogy, then the Passage by Justin Cronin and after that Dance with Dragons. It's a good thing I have a Kindle with a massive library and a job where I can sit around all day reading books...

[Biter]

I finished The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Jumot Diaz, one of Stego's recommendations. I liked it but I wasn't thrilled by it. It was hard to decide which one was the main character as it jumped back and forth in time but it was an interesting book with an insight in Latin American politics.

Hey, I just read that! It's Junot Diaz, by the way. As a nerd and loner I could identify quite a bit with Oscar and so I liked the book.

I also finished The Lovely Bones, after reading 2/3 of it a while ago. The ending of it was quite good so I guess I have to call it a pretty good book.

Now I'm reading Last Argument of Kings (the Swedish translation is split into two parts, and I'm on part 2).

[Mack Kilimaro]

Let's see. I finished The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, one of Stego's recommendations. I liked it but I wasn't thrilled by it. It was hard to decide which one was the main character as it jumped back and forth in time but it was an interesting book with an insight in Latin American politics.

I read this one a couple of months ago as a little sidetrack from my Time 100 project. In an interview a couple of years ago, the critics who made that list both agreed that Oscar Wao would make the list if it was updated, so I figured I would read it.

I really enjoyed it, although I wondered how much I would have liked it if it wasn't tickling the nerd vanity so much. I am surprised the book won such a mainstream prize as the Pulitzer considering how infused it is with the nerdiness. Of course, I did like that part. The narrative isn't pandering to nerds. It's a story being told by a nerd. I was impressed.

Not being able to pick one main character is actually one of the things I ultimately liked about it. Both Oscar and Yunior are the main character. Oscar is a more interesting character because we see him through another person's eyes, and there is a journey made as the story is told by Yunior as well. And both of these guys are more interesting characters when contrasted with the other. Plus, Yunior's voice is distinct and I thought it was just plain fun to be in the guy's head.

[Starkess]

Still working on A Clash Of Kings, but I am almost done. Hopefully I will have time to get through ASOS and AFFC before ADWD!! Thank goodness for 3 days weekends. :)

Have a whole slew of books I want to read next, but since I have weeks more of ASOIAF I haven't really decided for sure.

[beniowa]

I'm about a third of the way into A Feast for Crows.

[megs]

I quite liked The Brief Wondrous Life but I didn't think it necessarily lived up to the extreme amount of hype, which is why I really should stop reading so many book reviews...but here's my list:

• Brasyl- Ian McDonald
  
• The City & The City (re-read)
  
• A Feast for Crows
  
• A Discovery of Witches
  
• Leviathan Wakes
  
• Blood Music-- Which I forgot about, because I'm 70% through and read the novellete years ago, and would rather stick to that ending...
  

I'm also on a quest for more solar system spanning space opera. (I am not liking Leviathan Wakes though, but I am hoping to be proven wrong in the last 200 pages!!)

[Grack21]

Man, I can only read one book at a time. You people are all crazy super geniuses or something.

[John W]

I recently finished The Hugo Winners Vol 5 edited by Isaac Asimov (which coincidentally contains GRRM's Sandkings) just before Game of Thrones premiered on HBO.

At the time the show was about to premiere I didn't know anything about GRRM, ASoIaF, nor AGoT. The more I heard about it the more interested in I got so I went and bought AGoT, ACoK, and ASoS from the SF book club and read them all before the show ended.

Now I'm hooked like a drug addict.

Now I'm waiting for both AFFC and ADwD to arrive.

While I was waiting I just finished Watership Down by Richard Adams.