Finished 'It' - Stephen King (2nd reading, first was probably in the late '80s). That's certainly a book! Happy to now finally get to watch the full miniseries, then listen to the commentary, and then watch the two feature movies, plus extras.

Currently reading The Misanthrope and Tartuffe (Richard Wilbur translations) by Moliere

Finished:

Finished

A couple that I finished since my last post:

Dead Sea by Tim Curran. I knew going in that this was going to more of a fun "pulpy" book. I liked the idea of a "Lovecraft at Sea" story, with a ship being sent to some alternate dimension filled with monsters (kind of like The Mist). I liked it ok. It didn't need to be as long (almost 600 pages) as it was, and some of the characters were tough to stomach (even though they were supposed to be unlikable, it got old after a while). But the author had the Lovecraft atmosphere down well, and there were a number of interesting horror set-pieces.

Also finished:

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez. I loved his first novel, The Vanished Birds, and I though this was equally good. Though the style takes some getting used to, and I know it's going to completely turn off some readers. The book is an ode to storytelling, with the framework continually changing (a grandmother to grandson, brother to brother, theatrical performance, and more "normal" 3rd person). It also jumps between 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person narration, often within the same paragraph. As awful as that sounds, I got used to it and it works in its way.

I started reading Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt. I'm not far in at all (2 chapters ... ~30 pages). It seems like an interesting idea: a modern twist on the old horror story trope of a witch's curse. But I hope the characters/dialog gets better, because I'm finding it pretty insufferable so far. Unless this is how people in the Netherlands think Americans talk?

Rage by Stephen King as Richard Bachman, in The Bachman books. This is not a good book, reading like a plot that King wrote at age sixteen. A high school student brings a gun to school, shoots his teacher, and takes the class hostage. This makes him a hero to his classmates.

I learned after I read it that King has since taken the novel out of print, because too many classroom shooters were inspired by it.

I did finish:

Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt. It did get better ... in retrospect I see how the author was exaggerating how flippant the characters were at the beginning to contrast with how serious and grim things would get later. Although I still never completely liked the writing style (which could be because it's the first time the author tried to write in English). The central concept remained an intriguing one.

Just finished:



I thought it was a little on the tedious side and the two main stories being told didn’t connect as well as I had hoped they would.

The Salzberg Connection by Helen MacInnes. A Cold War espionage thriller from 1968. In this story, every spy service is looking for the macguffin in alpine Austria, including leftover Nazis. A competent amateur gets involved. I started with this one because it's supposed to be one of her best novels, and I enjoyed it.

This book is dead serious, unlike the over-the-top James Bond books and their imitators. It's just ordinary people striving to do their jobs.

Currently reading Prophet's Prey by Sam Brower about Warren Jeffs and the FLDS.
Also, reading Afro futurism: a history of black futures.

Finished Nine Princes in Amber - the first of a bunch of chronicles. Was alright, didn't love it. Not sure yet if I'll continue with the next part.

I thought it was great, but that was 1977. I imagine what was innovative then is old now. You might try book 2, The Guns of Avalon. Even in the 1980s, my interest in the series ran down in book 3.

I think you're correct in that it felt very dated to me (although I always try to "adjust" to the time period of when something was written). I'll probably continue with Guns of Avalon since it's part of the "chronicles" book I have. But I'm going to put some space between and read something else first.

Finished:


Got to say I this one didnt click with me. I really enjoyed the first half of the book, but once it changes locations it took a turn that lost me along the way. I had a hard time discerning what was happening, what was real and what was "magic". Its not the first time that a book that edges into the fantastical doesnt click for me. Unfortunately my brain just has a hard time visualizing things when they stray too far from reality.

This has some great stuff in it, but I couldnt get it all to come together, which is always unfortunate.

Finished:

Just finished:



It was a quick enjoyable read.

Finished:

House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds. For some reason it's been about 10 years since I read anything by him, despite him being a prolific author and I enjoying all of his books. Like other big world building hard sci-fi this has a steep learning curve. At the start it feels like you're in the middle of a story, left to piece together many terms on your own. But it comes together and is mind expanding in the way the best hard sci-fi can be.

Finished Prophet's Prey (Need to read Under The Banner of Heaven. Brower's book was fascinating, but he's no Krakauer) and Afrofuturism, which was worth it.

Back to finish The Misanthrope/ Tartuffe (Moliere). I must say The Misanthrope had its moments but Tartuffe is straight fire! Yeah, I said it.

Finished:


Reading Steinbeck is just so cozy, going to be bummed when I finish his library and have been trying to space them out.

Assignment in Brittany by Helen MacInnes. 1942. A British spy agency finds a French man who's the exact image of one of their agents. The agent is sent into occupied France in the man's place. He learns about airfields and troop movements, kills a couple of Nazis, helps an American's escape, and gets a local resistance started. The man whom he's impersonating must have been awful, because everyone hates him, including his mother. The book is exciting and tense.

MacInnes wrote the book during the Occupation, and she emphasizes in the forward that the village is imaginary. She didn't want to be the cause of another Nazi atrocity.




This edition has the worst and funniest back-cover blurb I've ever seen.

Sounds like a romance novel, right? The whole book is manly adventure. Anne appears for about a page at a time, for a total of three pages, in until the ending of the book. In her first appearance, she breaks off the engagement, and she wants nothing more to do with him. Towards the end, she nurses him back to health and helps him escape France.

Everyone who might have been interested in the book would have been turned off by the blurb, and everyone who liked the blurb would have hated the book.

Finished: