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Post by HDSimplicityy on Mar 6, 2021 3:38:06 GMT -6
Title: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian Author: Clive Staples Lewis, or C.S Lewis.
Genre: Children's Literature, Classical Literature, Portal Fantasy, Children's Fantasy.
Ongoing first reading of The Chronicles of Narnia. Way late!
What do you think of it? I am nearly finished. Its decent. I like Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe more. Both books spend half of the time, just about literally, with characters journeying through Narnian landscapes to their destination. For a good reason, but it gets a little old.
Recommend it? Of course. C.S Lewis wrote famous stories and this series is his classic one. He has his Christian apologetics books I have yet to read.
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farida
Counselor 
Book-ed
Posts: 99
Preferred Pronouns: She/her
HARD: 100
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Post by farida on Mar 19, 2021 4:25:23 GMT -6
Just finished The Deaths by Mark Lawson. Really recommend it. A wonderful deconstruction of wealth - or the illusion of it. And a perfect lesson in how to write complicated and quite unlikeable characters who you still want to spend time with.
Couldn't put it down.
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Post by HDSimplicityy on Mar 20, 2021 14:34:22 GMT -6
Interesting farida. Makes you almost want to like them enough to spend time with. Wealth is awesome, a blessing. One works hard, gets opportunistic/has ridiculous timing with events around them, makes choices to increase it, use it for others. Yet... it is so easily used the wrong way, to use it for advantage. |
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Post by RAVENEYE on Mar 25, 2021 11:14:52 GMT -6
Title: The Long, Long Afternoon
Author: Farida! (or Inga Vesper, as the rest of the world knows her)
Genre: mystery
What do you think of it?
Omigosh, I just got to an unexpected twist at the halfway point. The geraniums! They're not just window-dressing. No spoilers, Raveneye! I absolutely love Ruby. And Mrs Crane reminds me of my Aunt Joy. Utterly relatable.
Recommend it?
Of course. Support your local Legendfirian!
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Bird
Counselor
Posts: 350
Custom Title: World Creator and Destroyer
Preferred Pronouns: they/them/their
HARD: 1700
MEDIUM: 400
EASY: 110
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Post by Bird on Mar 25, 2021 20:13:28 GMT -6
title How We Go Home
Author/Editor Edited by Sara Sinclair
Genre Nonfiction
What do you think of it?
EXCELLENT. It's interviews of Indigenous people about their lives and their thoughts on Indigenous Rights and the fight for their land. The interviews are thorough and heartfelt.
Recommend it?
YES, YES, and MORE YES.
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title Fall or Dodge in Hell
Author/Editor Neal STephenson
Genre Science Fiction (cyberpunk maybe?)
What do you think of it?
It got mailed to me in this care box, but I absolutely ABHOR this author. Yet, here it is regardless of whether i like the author or not, so I decided, why not. I'll give his works one last try. And it's weirdly engrossing in a laid-back way. Like, when I'm bored and just want to sit in someone else's life, this read fits that need. It's not as horribly sexist as his other works, so maybe he learned some lessons? But I'm not that far into this massive tome, so maybe he's hiding the sexism for later in the book. We'll see I guess. It's very surreal and weird, and really just a character study drawn out to over a thousand pages.
Recommend it?
NO.
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Post by Caulder Melhaire on Apr 21, 2021 10:59:43 GMT -6
Title: Red Queen
Author: Victoria Aveyard
Genre: YA Fantasy
What do you think of it?: It's definitely very YA, so a bit out of my usual wheelhouse for sure. But it had a pretty solid and engaging start, and so far I'm still intrigued. I picked it up because I ran across the author on tiktok and everyone was screaming about some major twist that happens later on in the book. Don't know what it is, but hopefully it's worth it. And I definitely need to read outside of my wheelhouse, hehe.
Recommend it?: So far? Totally.
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Post by HDSimplicityy on May 9, 2021 17:20:11 GMT -6
Title: Treasure Island Author: Robert Louis Stevenson Genre: Swashbuclking adventure.
I thought it was going to be a fantasy, along the same vein as Narnia. welp nope! Its a good story. Literature classic. It reads dry in parts before the halfway point. I am in the last sixty one pages as of today. Jim Hawkins sure gets in to more than be bargained for with Long John Silver, Captain Smollet and the Hispaniola.
Recommend: Yes. Writing style is something to get used to.
Title: Halo: Oblivion: A Master Chief Story
Author: Troy Denning Genre: Military Science Fiction.
Due to the dryness of the other read, I opened the cover to my twenty fifth novel in the Halo Expanded Universe several days ago. Its the sequel to Halo: Silent Storm: A Master Chief Story. All I know is that it takes a few weeks (six?) after the first book. Its this one or the third - Halo: Shadows of Reach - that prepare readers and players for Halo Infinite. Im so used to the writing style of these novels they become a fast read once I am deep in to it.
Recommend: Sure.
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Post by HDSimplicityy on May 15, 2021 1:03:32 GMT -6
Done with Treasure Island as of May 12th. Good book. Jim learned his lesson. I sort of see why its a literary classic. I had to get used to the long sentences with lots of commas.
Focusing now on Halo: Oblivion before I consider overlapping it with another novel. Either All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries Novella #1 or the next Narnia novella, or finally Pride and Prejudice. Decisions... decisions.
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Post by havekrillwhaletravel on May 20, 2021 0:21:59 GMT -6
Title: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter Author: Carson McCullers Genre: Southern Gothic A story of people trying to desperately form a human connection (at least that's how I read it). McCullers' prose is straightforward, sincere and powerful. I was just in love with the characters and the setting. The ending was heartbreaking. Recommend: Yes Title: Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters Author: Annie Dillard Genre: Essays I loved this book. She imbues nature with this mysticism and spirituality, which I found really soothing. Her writing is just gorgeous. There's a real sense of music and lyricism to her prose. Just some snippets: I have been thinking about weasels because I saw one last week. I startled a weasel who startled me, and we exchanged a long glance. - Living Like WeaselsWe are here to witness. There is nothing else to do with those mute materials we do not need. Until Larry teaches his stone to talk, until God changes his mind, or until the pagan gods slip back to their hilltop groves, all we can do with the whole inhuman array is watch it. -Teaching a Stone to Talk If you're into essay collections and nature writing, yes. Title: The Martian Chronicles Author: Ray Bradbury Genre: Sci-fi The only other Bradbury I read before this was Fahrenheit 451, which I liked. So I was looking forward to this, but I didn't like this book. The writing here feels very dated (which I don't remember to be an issue with Fahrenheit 451). This isn't usually a problem for me, but it just really bothered me in this book. There's also a very heavy old-time sentimentality on a lot of these stories which I found overbearing. It's especially present in the short interludes, none of which I liked. There are some great stories in here - The Long Years; There Will Come Soft Rains; Night Meeting; Fire Balloons - but overall, it's an inconsistent and uneven read. Recommend? I'd say check it out if you're intrigued by the premise. Title: Lot Author: Bryan Washington Genre: Short stories I'm almost finished with this collection, and it's great. Most of the stories revolve around a Houston neighbourhood and a cast of LGBT characters. There's a strong personality that comes through in his writing, and his prose has a nice rhythm and rawness which I really enjoyed. A snippet: When our father split, he took every sound in the house with him. Ma wouldn't talk for another few weeks, at least not to us; so the last things she'd called him were what floated in the air. -Lot Yes, if you like contemporary short stories
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Post by RAVENEYE on May 20, 2021 16:46:08 GMT -6
Title: Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters Author: Annie Dillard Genre: Essays I loved this book. She imbues nature with this mysticism and spirituality, which I found really soothing. Her writing is just gorgeous. There's a real sense of music and lyricism to her prose. Just some snippets: I have been thinking about weasels because I saw one last week. I startled a weasel who startled me, and we exchanged a long glance. - Living Like WeaselsWe are here to witness. There is nothing else to do with those mute materials we do not need. Until Larry teaches his stone to talk, until God changes his mind, or until the pagan gods slip back to their hilltop groves, all we can do with the whole inhuman array is watch it. -Teaching a Stone to Talk If you're into essay collections and nature writing, yes. Oh, wow, this is right up my alley. The samples I read were amazing. I love essay/memoir writing like this. So rich and evocative. Adding to my get-soon list. |
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Post by HDSimplicityy on May 24, 2021 14:48:39 GMT -6
The Heart is a lonely hunter does sound intriguing. Never been one to read Southern Gothic. Forming human connections is an important part of our essence.
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Post by Caulder Melhaire on Jul 5, 2021 8:45:52 GMT -6
Finally finished reading -
Title: The Hollow Places
Author: T. Kingfisher
Genre: Horror
"Pray they are hungry."
Fantastic horror novel with what I thought was a really well-placed twist because I certainly didn't clock it until the end. I was a bit dissatisfied with the ending because the series of events felt so out of place given the incredible setup the author had done for the horror side of the story. Like for real, she hit on several very specific fears of mine LOL and has a wonderful way of describing the world around the characters that really lets the dread ever so gradually settle on your bones. But all-in-all, a solid read.
I'll definitely be keeping out of the woods for a while after this one.
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Post by RAVENEYE on Jul 8, 2021 10:34:25 GMT -6
Well, I'm gonna bash the book Caulder just finished and praised. We happened to read it at the same time, which was fun. Sorta like an unplanned book club via Discord. Title: The Hollow PlacesAuthor: T. Kingfisher Genre: horror They can hear you thinking.What do you think of it?
Meh. It had brilliant aspects, I cannot deny that. The world through the portal was really weird and scary with some nightmarish, grotesque shit in it. I'll just say "school bus" and move on. The two things that stuck out as annoying were the snarky banter between the two main characters and the overall ambiance of the language the story was written in. If it weren't for the amount of obscenities and goriness, I would've pegged this as a YA novel. To me, it just wasn't written with "mature, serious adult reader of horror" in mind. The "humor" and "lighthearted banter" did too well in breaking the dread of many scenes, IMO. The second thing that annoyed me was the ending. The endings of most mystery/horror/thriller novels disappoint me though, mainly because the build-up is so exciting compared to anything that happens after the reveal and while vanquishing the evil. But the ending to The Hollow Places was, IMO, just dumb. A chase involving possessed taxidermy just didn't do it for me. (Two books where the ending did NOT disappoint were Perdido Street Station and Broken Monsters.) Recommend it?Meh. The concept of the "between worlds hub" (and what's in it and what's invaded it) was really brilliant. Read it for that maybe? And ... "school bus." ------------------------------------------ Title: The House at Riverton Author: Kate Morton Genre: historic romance? What do you think of it?This is the first of Morton's novels, and I think that if I had read this novel first I wouldn't have picked up the books she wrote later. Her novels definitely got better after this one. Likely, b/c she was new to the market, she was playing it safe, so compared to the later books, this first one is rather lackluster (both in terms of writing style and character development), and I'm frustrated by one of the main characters. Sadly, Hannah doesn't have as much attitude and fight in her as I thought she would. She just lets people run her life and doesn't stand up for herself at all, and I want to shake her. I'm reaching the last few pages at this point, and given what still has to happen, I fear the end will be rushed. I hope to spend this weekend locked away finishing it. So I'll reserve final judgement till then. Would you recommend it?Meh. At this point, I suggest reading her novels The Clockmaker's Daughter or The Distant Hours or The Lake House instead. Those were brilliant cover to cover. |
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Post by pelwrath on Jul 8, 2021 15:26:28 GMT -6
What I’m Reading Now
Lies My Teacher Told Me
Everything your American History Textbook got Wrong
by James W. Loewen
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Post by havekrillwhaletravel on Jul 9, 2021 6:40:43 GMT -6
Books I've read from the past couple months/currently reading. Title: Cat Country Author: Lao She Genre: Sci-fi / Dystopian What do you think of it? So a bit of backstory: this was written in 1930s China, and it was intended to be a satire of the sociopolitical turmoil of that time. The book's about an astronaut who crash lands on Mars and has to adapt to a country of Martian cat-people. This is a great premise, but it's such a frustrating read for two main reasons: (1) The author doesn't write satire very well. A quick look at his bibliography shows that this is his first and only satire, and it painfully shows. The characters are all caricatures. There's no plot. Characters just spend entire chapters describing and explaining what they're satirizing. (2) The translation is AWFUL. Despite its flaws, you can tell the author's quite good because there are a few brilliant parts scattered throughout. But this is absolutely ruined by just how clumsy and lazy the translation is. The translation is so inelegant, it makes the book feel amateurish and wooden. The translator also decides to phone in by slathering cliches and proverbs. I'm 99% certain these weren't written by the author. I don't speak great Mandarin, but I am Chinese, and unless I'm way off-mark, the cliches in the book just aren't Mandarin and I have no clue how the translator settled on those decisions. Would you recommend it?No. There are plenty of better dystopian fiction, and it's a HORRIBLE translation. Or maybe yes? It's a study of a society slowly careening into destruction (which feels prescient right now). The book is strangely page-turning and entertaining. The same way gifs of people falling down are strangely entertaining. I will be on the lookout for the author's other works though. ** Title: A Knot in the Grain Author: Robin McKinley Genre: Fantasy What do you think of it?Mixed feelings. This is a book of fantasy short stories. There's a fairy tale quality to these stories that I find soothing. I also like how slice-of-life and low-stakes these stories are. It makes for a very comforting read. I do think the writing could be technically tighter. There are a lot of sentences that feel too long and too clunky (There are also strangely a lot of semi-colons if you care about that kind of thing). Would you recommend it?Yes, if you're looking for a breezy, cozy read. ** Title: Amora: Stories Author: Natalia Borges Polesso Genre: Short stories What do you think of it? I'm 25% through (on my Kindle). The stories all explore a different facet of same-sex relationships, and I think the author comes up with unique, interesting angles. For example, there's a story where the narrator realizes her grandmother is gay. There's another story about a child narrator who learns about the idea of same-sex attraction. The prose is breezy and conversational, but also poetic. For example: The author does seem to experiment a lot with the structure of her stories, which can be hit-or-miss. I think the risks pay off with some stories, but not so much with others (for instance, there are a couple of stories with abrupt POV cuts that don't really add much for me, but really take me out of the story). Would you recommend it? From what I've read so far, yes. It's a very interesting read. |
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