May 2012 Reading Thread, Take Two

[Myshkin]

Finished Kobo Abe's The Woman in the Dunes. Abe creates a very claustrophobic atmosphere, in which we slowly realize we are all trapped, even if we're not all stuck in sand pits. Very good book, highly recommended.

Now reading Delirium by Laura Restrepo.

[Cuchulain]

So far I've finished three books this month:

Noir by K W Jeter. Very dark cyberpunk novel that's occassionally well written but ultimately disappoints. I doesn't help that the author abandons the plot (what little of that there is anyway) halfway through in favor of some heavy-handed moralizing about copyright infringement.

Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock. Really enjoyed this, but I think its status as a classic may be a bit overrated.

The Line of Polity by Neal Asher. Very enjoyable continuation of the Ian Cormac series. Didn't like it as much as The Skinner, but that's probably because the Masadan ecosystem is less interesting than Spatterjay's.

I'm now reading Murakami's Norwegian Wood. This is my first book by this author and I'm only 60 pages in, but so far I'm not that impressed. I was expecting something a bit more...erudite I guess. Might change my mind about it though.

[Peadar]

Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock. Really enjoyed this, but I think its status as a classic may be a bit overrated.

Just wait a few years. I haven't read it since it came out. I liked it then, but didn't love it. However, I have never forgotten it and often think about it.

For myself, I have just finished Guy Haley's Champion of Mars, a wonderful 70,000 years-worth of great world-building. It took me a while before I really started to appreciate what was going on, but it was well worth it. It reminded me a lot of William Hope Hodgson's The Night Land.

[Whitestripe]

While I am waiting for my book challenge books to arrive, I read George Hagan's Tom Bedlam. It was one of those books that I picked up in the library while I was looking for something else, and I really liked it. The first part has a very Charles Dickens feel. It's full of of improbable situations that just feel right. I was also especially taken with Tom's view of London and the progress he saw after he had been away for 30 years. Hagan only has one other book, The Laments, but I think I may read that too.

[williamjm]

I finished Roger Zelazny's This Immortal a few days ago. Apparently it tied for the Hugo Award with Dune, with hindsight that's a bit surprising since This Immortal didn't have anywhere near the same long-term impact, but it's still a good read. The world is intriguing, although not described in great detail, and the plot (a seemingly immortal man guides an alien writer on a grand tour around the ruins of ancient civillisations of a post-apocalyptic Earth) was entertaining, with a strong conclusion, although there were some rather unlikely coincidences required for some plot developments. I like Zelazny's writing a lot, the prose isn't quite as accomplished as in later works like Lord of Light and Creatures of Light and Darkness, but it's still very well written.

Finished Romanitas. I kinda liked it, although it has its flaws. I'd have liked to have the world a bit more fleshed out, more details anout what people look like, what they wear, what they eat...

It's very character-driven, and at first I really didn't like the female protagonist with her "everybody apart from me is stupid" attitude and passive-aggressive hysteria. She becomes a bit more likeable though, in the course of the book.

Rated it 3/5. Not going to pick up the sequels anytime soon though I think.

I'm reading Romanitas at the moment as well. I agree it's a bit lacking in descriptions of the world, much of the time it doesn't feel quite as alien as it should given the different histories of our world and theirs. It's an entertaining read, although often the plot seems a bit predictable.

[Guest]

I'm almost through the long slog that has been The Wise Man's Fear.

I am not sure where I'm going to go fiction-wise after this. I have a pretty big stack of non-fiction that I've been neglecting, so I might have to go for that.

[Myshkin]

I am not sure where I'm going to go fiction-wise after this. I have a pretty big stack of non-fiction that I've been neglecting, so I might have to go for that.

Have you finished all your Rushdie, Spoono?

[Nearly Headless Ned]

Muscle For The Wing-Daniel Woodrell. Second book in his Bayou Trilogy, very light, funny and well written with a constant sense of danger throughout.

Onwards with the third in the series The Ones You Do and also Avillion by Robert Holdstock.

[Gold Storm]

Read Without a Trace: The Fresh Investigation of Eight Ships and Their Fates, by John Harris. I like ship mystery/ghost ships books and for the most part I liked this one. It covered a couple ships mysteries that I did not know about and provided more info about mysteries that I have read about before.

Harris wrote about the Mary Celeste I think almost every ship mystery book covers it, but he provided a lot more on the ship that found the Mary Celeste and how people were trying to say they had something to do with the disappearance of the crew. I did not know about all the junk they had to go through after bringing the ship back in.

Harris also had more of the inquest into the disappearance of the Warath how the owners did not turn all of the captain notes they had and about the stability of the ship.

Harris included a couple ships where there was not any kind of mystery that surrounds them. He wrote about the Teignmouth Electron, it's captain and only occupant, Donald Crowburst, committed suicide while attempting to sail solo around the world, cheating and then freaked out that he was going to get caught. Also, the Franklin expedition into the Arctic looking for the Northwest Passage, it was interesting but not much of a mystery to what happened.

[Inigima]

Finished Harkaway's Angelmaker, which I quite liked, though not as much as The Gone-Away World. Haven't selected my next book yet. Many books under consideration, including Abraham's and Hobb's new (well, "new") series, Kearney, Grossman's sequel to The Magicians, a few recommendations from friends including The Gin Closet, and a handful of others.

[Peadar]

About to start All Fall Down by Sally Nicholls.

[Contrarius]

I just finished The Yiddish Policemen's Union. At the beginning I was kinda worried about it -- it seemed as though it might just be too depressing over all, and thanks to the dense prose it did take a lot of attention to listen to -- but by the end I was pretty well blown away. I gotta read/listen again to pick up those nuances I'm sure to have missed the first time. I can see why it won all the awards.

[Inigima]

It took me a long time to warm to that one, but I ended up liking it a lot. Chabon is a really interesting writer. I've read several of his books now, and you don't hear so much about it, but my favorite is his debut, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh.

[Teng Ai Hui]

Right now, I'm reading Swan Song by Robert McCammon. I'm enjoying it a lot, which has surprised me because I've been having a run of bad luck with books lately.

[Guest]

I finally finished The Wise Man's Fear.

I'm not sure what I'm going to read next. Most likely it's The Great Divergence by Tim Noah followed by The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg; both non-fiction.

[Biter]

I just read Keith Richards' Life, which was a really entertaining wild ride. I usually don't stray from fiction books, but I couldn't pass up this opportunity. It has plenty of insight into the life of a rock n' roller and it explains some of the dynamics of the Rolling Stones.

Currently, I'm reading We Need to Talk About Kevin.

[Contrarius]

It took me a long time to warm to that one, but I ended up liking it a lot. Chabon is a really interesting writer. I've read several of his books now, and you don't hear so much about it, but my favorite is his debut, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh.

I definitely put more Chabon on my TBR list. So many books, so little time!

eta -- I'm a couple hours into Gates of Fire by Pressfield, which I'm reading for the expand-your-horizons reading challenge. So far, eh. We Shall See.

[Grack21]

If you don't love Gates of Fire, we can no longer be friends. :P

[jdiddyesquire]

If you don't love Gates of Fire, we can no longer be friends. :P

That book has so much testosterone in it. Loved it.

[Whitestripe]

Grossman's sequel to The Magicians

I liked The Magicians all right (it wasn't a favorite, but it was ok) however, I did not care for the sequel at all. If you are taking recommendations, you may like Buffalo Lockjaw by Greg Ames. It's set in Buffalo, NY, which may appeal to your memories of western NY.