Decemeber Reading Thread: How Are You Finishing Off The Year

[Starkess]

I just picked up Beloved by Toni Morrison. It was named the best piece of fiction written in the last 25 years by the NY Times. I just started and it is already amazing.

I saw the movie and it was ridiculously terrifying. I avoided the book after that, but I finally read it and found that it was not at all horrory like that damn movie. Good book, in fact!

[gmavridis]

I've started to re read the first of Marcel's Proust In Search of Lost Time, Swann's Way

[Stubby]

On to The Great Hunt in the Great Reread. The Reading of the Series returns, as it has in the past and probably will in the future.

[malek]

By finally giving chance to WOT series. 93% through first book, and I'm moderatly happy with it. Storry is decent, though it drags too much at times. There are somegood characters, and some I dont care about at all.

Best thing in the series to me is atmosphere, as I can really feel that they were chased, never safe, and not likely to outrun The Dark One.

6.5/10 for me.

[beniowa]

Read an old sci-fi book, Them Bones by Howard Waldrop. I've read a lot of this author's short fiction and I managed to get a copy of one of his two novels. Waldrop brings all of his skill at research and alternative history to this book and it's quite good. I just wish it had been a little longer.

I also finally got my limited edition hardcover of Tobias Buckell's The Apocalypse Ocean. It was a great book and I loved reading the Xenowealth world again.

Then I finished Jesse Bullington's latest, The Folly of the World. It was good, though I'm not quite sure what to think of it. For most of the book, I had no idea where the story was going. Even a few days after I've finished it, I still feel like I missed something.

I got several books for Christmas and I've started one, Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson.

[williamjm]

I finished J.V. Jones' The Barbed Coil. It was a reasonably entertaining standalone Epic Fantasy but it felt very generic (the magic system being based on scribes drawing illuminations was the only relatively original thing about it) and the characterisation was adequate but a bit bland. I think her later Swords of Shadows series improved on this in just about every respect, although being a standalone at least we don't have to wait five years to find out what happens next.

Next up I'll read Joe Abercrombie's The Red Country.

[mashiara]

I so wish I had time for a full reread. I finished Towers of Midnight and I'm primed and ready to go for the last volume. Is it January yet?

I also read Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo and I loved it, what an great book. I see why so many people here praise it and I'm glad I finally got to it.

I thought that would have been my last book for the year but I guess I managed to find some extra reading time, so I'm going to try reading and finishing Of Blood and Honey by Stina Leicht.

[Melonica Stormborn]

I give up. I don't think I'll finish anything this month. Too distracted by goings on around me. :D

[SkynJay]

Geez, I have flown through a few recently. Sourcery from Pratchett, which borrowed heavy from his earlier books and was merely OK. King of Thorns, which started slow but ended well. And finally finished Glenda Larke's Stormlord Trilogy, which was highly enjoyable.

I am now reading Dance of Cloaks by David Dalglish because it was the kindle deal a few days ago. So far I have an eight year old murdering his brother and a father imprisoning his daughter, two chapters in. I am thinking this is a GRIMDARK tale.

[WillWork4NinjaPowers]

I picked up In the Woods by Tana French today for $1 at the comic book shop. I don't know if I will get it read by the end of the year, but who knows.

[Starkess]

I finished Dragonfly in Amber today. The first part was okay, but I found most of the Highland stuff really dragged. With the narrative framing of the story, you know exactly what is going to happen, and any curiosity about how it comes about is pretty much extinguished by the time it comes around. So I decided I was done with the series...and then the last like 2 chapters were interesting enough to make me get the next one. Dammit. Anyway, yeah, reading Voyager now.

[deleted01]

I don't know why it took me so long to get into Daniel Abraham! I'm thoroughly enjoying The King's Blood after loving The Dragon's Path. I finished Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo a few days ago, and received a stack of new books for Christmas, so I'll be kept happy for a while :laugh:

Edit: Though that said, I did get a £10 Amazon voucher for Christmas, so I'm open to recommendations, seeing as I now have all the books I wanted to read.

[Peadar]

I've started Ambassador of Progress by Walter Jon Williams.

[Alytha]

I've finished Cloud Atlas, which I enjoyed as a good, gripping read, but somehow it didn't deliver the final kick to make it amazing...

Now reading The Snowqueen by Joan D Vinge, which was almost impossible to find, as it has been out of print for ages...my copy got attacked by somebody with an icepick fixation, or literal bookworms at some point ;)

Also technically reading The Hippopotamus by Stephen Fry, in French, but as I haven't read any fiction in French since high school, I'm not really getting started...

[mjgambino]

I'm about halfway through the 3rd book of the D'Artagnan series. Holy crap it's long; over 2000 pages on my Ipad. I'm pretty sure that this one is going to last until 2013.

[kcf]

I finished up A Memory of Light by Jordan and Sanderson last week. I've got review written, a spoiler discussion written and an interview with Sanderson in the works. But those won't go live until Jan. 8th. I'm currently finishing up The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman which is turning out great - why did I wait so long to read it.

I recently got reviews posted for Of Blood and Honey by Stina Leichtand Zoo City by Lauren Beukes. Both are good, but Of Blood and Honey is one of the best books I've read in a long time.

[Asathor]

I'm going to end with She is the Darkness by Glen Cook. I might start The folding Knife by Parker, but I probably won't finish that before the new year.

Before the Black Company goodness I also read Yathzee Croshaw's Mogworld, Tchaikovsky's Salute the Dark, Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl and Delillo's Endzone.

[Baitac]

I love anything Anna Wintour. Anyway, I'm reading Grace: A memoir by Grace Coddington, who is fashion editor for Vogue U.S.

[Little Wing]

Just finished Life of Pi....

I feel anything I say somehow ruins it.

What an experience...

[Guinevere Seaworth]

Towers of Midnight is the best WoT book since The Shadow Rises IMHO. I can't wait for the final book and I never thought I would say that after reading Winter's Heart.

I'm feeling the need to read a fictional book on the French Revolution, so Madame Tussaud: A Novel of the French Revolution by Michelle Moran is next.