I had a run of bad books so for the past few months I have been re-reading Stephen King's Dark Tower, added Wind Through the Keyhole this cycle, and am currently on book 7.

I did pause to read Kim Harrisons new series "Three Kinds of Lucky" which was a nice urban fantasy book but I am partial to her writing.

Like Blackthorne in a strange, daunting world Mariko will be your guide in learning Japanese language, culture, and the political machinations of the period. A long but engaging story awaits.

Finished a couple of short novels:

The Heart of What Was Lost by Tad Williams. I finished rereading Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy not too long ago getting ready for his newer Osten Ard books. Since this is essentially an epilogue to the earlier trilogy (without Williams' usual helpful "previously on ..." introduction) that was good thing it was fresh in my head. Despite being written 30 years later, the style and quality and consistent (and its cool to get POV sections from the villainous Norns).

Also finished:

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield. This one I didn't care for so much, and probably would've bailed if it wasn't so short (160 pages). To be fair, this is probably a little on me. If I dove into reader comments more (though I try to be careful to not get spoiled) I would've seen a lot of warning signs that this wouldn't be a book I enjoy. I get what the author went for, with a dreamy disjointed narrative that cared more about being a reflection on grief and love than telling a coherent story. But without a narrative it dragged terribly for me (despite being short), and seemed like an idea that would've been better as a short story or novella at most.

Finished

Jim Butcher - Proven Guilty: Dresden Files #8. I am really enjoying this series. There is a character arc across the whole series, which is unusual. Dresden has advanced from a solo wizard who carelessly sets buildings on fire to a wizard rapidly moving up the ranks and having to deal with the political implications of his decisions.

In this book, Harry Dresden is asked by one of his best friends to help with a rebellious teenage daughter -- while he is dealing with a supernatural attack on a horror movie convention.

Still working my way through War and Peace.

Finished Afterlife by Douglas Clegg. Short psychological horror, but an overall dud.

Have been chipping away at No Self, No Problem by Chris Niebauer PhD - a look at how neuropsychology can be seen to be approaching concepts of Buddhism.
Oddly, the intro attempts to refute the Descartes tidbit "I think, therefore I am" before going on to say there is no such thing as an actual 'self' because our notion of 'self' is created by out thoughts. Hmmm.

Also reading Mike Nelson's Movie Megacheese wherein he trashes a bunch of turn-of-the-century movies like Volcano, Blade, etc.
Great for some cheap laughs.

Hope you are still enjoying it!

I am! Not being much of a history buff I didn't know too much about the war, but this makes it sounds like both the Russian and French armies were humorously incompetent. But it's been a great book so far. Just very, very long!

Finished

Finished:

Jade City by Fonda Lee. I really like this. I've seen it done before, but having the setting for a fantasy story have modern technology (well, in this case mid 20th century) instead of medieval is interesting to me. As is this book's mix of organized crime thriller, family drama saga, and magical superheroes (and villains). Thankfully this book tells a complete story while leaving lots of avenues open (which I'm sure the next 2 books in the trilogy will follow up on).

I'll get to those soon, but before that I also finished:

We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix. The digital version I read didn't have this cover ... but this is much cooler IMO. And now I'm caught up with reading all of Hendrix's novels. Like all of his books, it's a fun easy read (even if the supernatural mythology of the story seems very underdeveloped).

I finished The Running Grave. I thought it was the best book in the series and it might be the best book ever written by the controversial author. It's very long at nearly 1000 pages. I started it in the fall and just now finished it.

Read:

Jim Butcher - White Night: The Dresden Files #9. Another excellent book, despite a slow start. I think that the author is starting to have trouble bringing new readers up to speed when he's continuing story arcs that started three or four books back. As I said before, I'm enjoying the long-form stories. I just hope that he planned out what he was doing, and not writing himself into a corner like Chris Carter did for X-Files.

In this book, Harry Dresden hunts for a serial killer who targets women of minor magical ability, the kind of women who join Wiccan societies. The killings turn out to be part of a much bigger scheme.

Just finished Volume 3 of The EC Archives Shock Suspenstories. Gotta love EC comics! Also finished The Dark Net: Inside the Digital Underworld, just for funsies. Ten years out of date which is an eternity in Internet time, and it wasn't really funsie. Oh well.
Starting Termush by Sven Holm, a very short late '60s post apocalyptic tale.

I have now completed War and Peace also, and agree that the epilogue was a difficult slog to get through. Not sure what's next, but I think I'm going to catch up on some comic books for a few days.

High five! Yeah, I went real light for a while. May I suggest an EC Archive?


(I'm ready to get erudite again, though, so will be hitting Pride and Prejudice.)

The EC Archive sounds tempting. I've been wanting to explore EC comics since reading The Ten-Cent Plague last year (about the Comics Code). But I have some Superman/Action books to get to, and an Ambush Bug series (Year None).

Finished:

In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami. I'd seen movies based on his books (Audition is probably the best known), but never read any of them until now. I really liked the first third of this, where we dive into the seedy underbelly of Tokyo and there's a sense of mystery about the characters. But it felt like it went off the rails when going full-blown slasher horror (realism seemed to get tossed out the window with the killer having supernatural mind control powers). And oddly, the last third is essentially a long philosophical conversation between the two main characters.

Patty Jensen - Ambassador #1: Seeing Red. Science fiction political thriller. I usually have a couple of free books from Google Books on my phone so I have something to read while I'm waiting in line. They're either public domain titles, or recent books that are rubbish. This book is an exception. It's very well written, and a good story.

Cory Wilson is an ambassador from the Nations of Earth to the Gamra, an association of other extraterrestrial races. He's reporting to the President when the President is assassinated. This triggers a worldwide wave of xenophobia, and the most powerful race of the Gamra signals to Cory that it is willing to use military force to protect its citizens who live on Earth. The Vice President is a xenophobe, and Cory is left in the cold by his administration. Then everything escalates. Cast out by his own people, Cory tries to prevent a war.

Finished:


Its not often a book makes me cry, but when it does, its usually Larry McMurtry. Read the last chapter this morning, nothing like starting the day absolutely wrecked, lol.

I've started Koko by Peter Straub. Going into it blind, but enjoying it so far. After War and Peace, it's nice to read something with type I can see without straining!

Koko is possibly my all-time favorite Straub.


Finished 'No Self No Problem' and for a short, easy-reading primer on the intersection between Buddhism and neuropsychology, I felt it to be potentially life-changing. Highly recommended.

Going slowly through Pride and Prejudice. For light reading, it's a bit linguistically tricky.

I’m still working my way through Shōgun. I haven’t had much time for reading lately so it’s somewhat slow going.

It’s a good book so far. Though there’s a lot of political intrigue going on and I’m having a little trouble keeping tracks of who’s who.

Finished

meh