Kurt D

Last month of the decade! As god is my witness, I will finish Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb this month.

As George R.R. Martin says, "Fantasy as it ought to be written." But it be taking me a while ...

Bronkster

I finished A Warning by Anonymous and started The Beatles from A to Zed by Peter Asher. A Warning was a lot of rehashing of what gets discussed in the Political Forum here, but more structured. Overall, a frightening idea of where we are in America right now (and it was quite up to date, including the Ukraine crap going on).

Only one chapter into Beatles, and it's a nice change of pace from Warning! It seems like it will be a lot of Asher's personal recollections, along with facts and tidbits about the Beatles and the music and things that happened along the way. As a Beatles fan (why else would I be reading this?) it's already an enjoyable distraction.

Both books came out in October/November, so this is the must current I've ever been in my reading.

Kurt D

I have been briefly tempted by A Warning but yeah, realize it probably isn't much more than what I've been soaking in for the last 3 years, and even if it's up-to-date-ish now, it will be yesterday's news in 2 seconds. Oy, the world we live in.

urrutiap

I still reading Wheel of Time Great Hunt. Have about 240 pages left to go then im done with that book. Then Ill be back into reading Star Wars Bounty Hunter Wars Trilogy along with reading Star Wars Aftermath Empires End and start reading the first Mistborn trilogy for January

Shannon Nutt

urrutiap

Reading the last 240 pages of Wheel of Time Great Hunt finally.

Books i will be reading the rest of this month and some books for January

rest of this month
-Star Wars Aftermath Empires End
-Star Wars Bounty Hunter Wars Trilogy

January
-X Wing book 3
-To Kill a Mockingbird
-start on the first Mistborn book

Kurt D

Taking a stab at Catch 22, which I never read in school.

Nick Danger

Persuasion by Jane Austen.
Darker than Amber by John D. McDonald.

brainee

That's my favorite of her trilogies (and one quadrilogy) ... I still have to read her latest Fitz and the Fool books though.

I finished a few books since last posting in these threads:



A solid page-turner suspense/mystery, even if the story transparently lifts from Hitchcock (in particular Rear Window and Vertigo).


I've enjoyed everything of Brian Keene's that I've read, but this ranks near the bottom for me. Even by the standards of splatter-horror this seemed pretty juvenile. Maybe I just wasn't in the right frame of mind


I'll have to check out the author's earlier book on Achilles, because I really enjoyed this. Even though Greek mythology has been told to death, I like how this focused on a lesser known character (best known for being a supporting villain in Odysseus' story) and introduced just enough wrinkles to the classic stories to keep things interesting.


Ambitious but inconsistent mix of urban fantasy and science fiction. I appreciate how much stuff (character development and world building) was packed into 300 pages. Very "old school" for fantasy/sci-fi, as opposed to the more current way of making everything stretch out into as long a series of books as possible.

PAG

Just finished:

Tom Banjo

I’m currently on “How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe” by Charles Yu. It’s a very odd book, and I’m not sure I completely understand what’s going on yet. The concept is that there’s this group of universe creators, and for whatever reason the creator of the book’s universe got bored and left it only like 85% complete. This leads to the humans of this universe having a perpetual feeling of emptiness and longing, like something is missing that they can’t identify. Also, it seems that there’s sections of the universe where versions/archetypes of fictional characters from our universe exist, like Luke Skywalker. Although it seems like regular people can actually graduate into these roles if they’re lucky enough. The story’s protagonist even mentions at one point that his best friend works on the Death Star and might be able to hook him up with a job. The protagonist himself is a time traveler technician, fixing the mistakes made by other time travelers (the melancholy citizens of this universe mostly use time travel to relive their worst moments, trying to change the outcome, even though it’s impossible because time is fixed).

It may sound like I’ve spoiled a lot of the book, but honestly everything I said is told within the first couple of chapters.

brainee

Finished:

I saw news here that this was being adapted into a movie and realized this is one of his only books that I hadn't read. And ... I can see how this one slipped by me. It came out right after Dreamcatcher which was the first King book I felt was outright bad. Reader reception was mixed and the story sounded like Christine.

While not bad, this ranks near the bottom for King novels for me. It seems like a classic case of material that could've been great for a short story or novella stretched way too thinly. And just because he telegraphs it doesn't make a story that has very little actual development and resolution any less satisfying. This is a case where I could see an adaptation being an improvement upon the source material, if done with skill and freedom to change things up.

cdollaz

Bad Blood.

The story of Elizabeth Holmes/Theranos

Noonan

Just started Permanent Record the autobiography from Edward Snowden.

PAG

Just finished:

Nick Danger

Finished Persuasion. I didn't like it as much as Pride and Prejudice. The plot of "Will the right people become a couple" has been done to death since it was written. I did like the descriptions of society. People with inherited titles were almost all stupid and vain, and the naval officers who rose to their ranks by merit were all good.

Finished Darker than Amber. I liked it. The Girl was awful, the fight scene was brief and unimportant, and Travis isn't injured or heartbroken at the end.

Started the next Travis McGee book, One Fearful Yellow Eye.

Started the next War Against the Posleen book, Gust Front by John Ringo.

Bronkster

Finished the Beatles book and back to classic stuff - Started H.G. Wells The Island of Dr. Moreau. The print is so darn small in this book! I need new glasses.

Kurt D

I'll go ya one better, in addition to Catch-22 I am reading the Prince biography 'The Beautiful Ones'.

Prince died 3 months after choosing a co-author. Other than some strategizing and discussion, all that was done before death was Prince handing over about 30 pages of handwritten notes, which are very hard to read.

Since scans of the notes are presented in whole, I dug in and spent a week slowly deciphering them. When I got to the end of that section I found that the notes were also presented transcribed in typeface. D'oh!

Bronkster

That's why I read books backwards.

Kurt D

I mean, who knew? The intro goes on and on about how reading his handwriting helps you get to know him. Ahh well, I am done!

Hopefully I can finish Catch-22 b4 the end of the year. Ever since I started logging books on goodreads.com I hate slop over from year 2 year.

Nick Danger

If you read Catch-22 backwards, it gets more light-hearted and funnier. You should try it.

Kurt D

I'll take the current trajectory. I've earned a little dismay after 100 pages of armed services bureaucracy jokes.

urrutiap

books im reading for the rest of this month and through January

Star Wars Aftermath Empires End
Star Wars Bounty Hunter Wars Trilogy
Mistborn book 1 of the first Mistborn trilogy
Star Wars X Wing Krytos Trap

Kevin Phillips

Just finished Valkyrie, by Craig Alanson. It is the 9th book of his Columbus Day series.

brainee

In what will most certainly be my last book finished for 2019:

Going a bit backwards with Brandon Sanderson, having already read the first Mistborn trilogy and the Stormlight books. Despite some comments that this was a "lesser" work (being his first published novel) I still thought it was really really good. While huge multi-book epics can be great, it's nice to have some stand-alone novels too. And this seems like an intriguing world that has many things left untold about it.

Since I started using Goodreads (in 2014), 2019 was my read year for the reading stats: 47 books read totaling 19,376 pages I found bout 50 pages/night before I go to bed really helps me get a good night's sleep. So while it didn't feel like I did a ton of reading, it adds up.