Taelac
Officer
Be bold. It makes your enemies hesitate.
Posts: 357
|
Post by Taelac on Oct 14, 2016 19:42:03 GMT -8
Those both sound amazing. I'll try to get my next batch up this weekend sometime.
|
|
Leif
Senior Chatterbox
Posts: 600
|
Post by Leif on Oct 18, 2016 8:19:15 GMT -8
September was not a bad month, but there wasn't anything that jumped out. Confessions of a Lioness by Mia Couto was a nominee for the Man Booker, much like General Theory of Oblivion. It was good, but didn't make me want to go out and tell people to read it like Oblivion did. Night of the Animals is sort of a dystopian Noah's ark/pining for Britain's missing wilderness. It's good, but a bit sloggy in bits.
Possibly The Baby Ganesh Detective Agency series by Vaseem Khan, where a retired inspector solves crimes with an elephant. I have some reservations about it as a detective story or a mystery, but as a "detective hangs out with an elephant story" it's fun.
This month, I've got a strong recommendation already for Book of the Dun Cow. Sort of an Aesop's Fables meets Lion Witch and Wardrobe. It has a distinct medieval feel, somewhat Canterbury Tales-ish. I wound up really liking it once I got into it. Though I'll mention that Lewis was chosen deliberately as a comparison, as there are unsubtle Christian overtones. Still a good book.
I may have one for Everfair, whose concept really grabbed me, but I'm only like halfway through so we'll see. Steampunk set in the Belgian Congo, with missionaries, African refugees, and African-Americans who are trying to repatriate struggling against the nefarious King Leopold.
|
|
Taelac
Officer
Be bold. It makes your enemies hesitate.
Posts: 357
|
Post by Taelac on Dec 18, 2016 20:17:05 GMT -8
I am so very over this year. I have two days of work this week, then I'll try to figure out where I last left off and get caught up. I also suspect that this board may be ready to go quietly into the inky depths where abandoned websites go to inform our eventual robot overlords, and that it might be well to consider another venue for a 2017 reading challenge. Thoughts?
|
|
Leif
Senior Chatterbox
Posts: 600
|
Post by Leif on Dec 19, 2016 6:49:44 GMT -8
Yeah, I was sort of hoping some semi regular activity would spur some more posting.
I'm not sure offhand what an option might be for moving to.
|
|
|
Post by firebolt153 on Dec 24, 2016 0:10:40 GMT -8
The only thing I can think of off the top of my head is the Goodreads challenge thing. I know I'm friends with a couple of you guys there, but I also know my books of choice don't always coincide with what you guys are reading (for instance, I read a motherlode of comics/graphic novels this year).
|
|
|
Post by Riku on Dec 28, 2016 20:19:54 GMT -8
Post a link here if you do move! I never post but the books mentioned here do often make their way onto my to-read list.
|
|
Taelac
Officer
Be bold. It makes your enemies hesitate.
Posts: 357
|
Post by Taelac on Dec 30, 2016 14:58:20 GMT -8
Glad to see some folks are still reading!
I have a Goodreads account, but I'm not really fond of the format. Is there any interest in a replacement book club board like this one, that we could invite others to join?
(And yes, I'm here to finish up my reviews for the year today, working on that now.)
|
|
Taelac
Officer
Be bold. It makes your enemies hesitate.
Posts: 357
|
Post by Taelac on Dec 30, 2016 17:05:23 GMT -8
1) Vanilla Number
I can't decide what to put here, though I did read further into some series that this challenge introduced me to, as well as others I had already begun, so have read more than I have reviewed here. Greyed-out items below were eaten by this year's challenges, as I had some medical adventures and some other assorted blows to my ability to give time and attention to reading. Frustrating, but unavoidable. At least the titles I'd lined up for those will give me something to start with in the new year.
2) Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire (written by a woman) 3) The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (nonwhite author)
Written as a series of vignettes that weave together over the course of the book, the story brings the reader along for the worldbuilding, even while the depth and breadth of the Stillness makes it clear that the author took great care with that well before the finished tale came to light. The reader starts with a brutal peek at life in a comm--a community group set up primarily to ensure survival of the every-few-centuries upheaval of the climate and geology of the planet's single super-continent--then follows a newly discovered orogene--a person with the power to sense and control disturbances in the stone--as the young girl learns of the bondage to which she has been pledged. She learns how to use her skills, even as the first rumblings of a nascent Fifth Season are felt deep in the earth.
It is not hyperbole to say that this book changed me, demanding growth, and it took three days after I finished it to finally stop having it intrude on my every moment, both waking and dreaming. 5/5 would definitely recommend to everybody, everywhere.
4) The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle (written in 1800s)
I was familiar with the stories, of course and found the first season of Elementary to be a delightful modern retelling, but I had never actually read this collection of tales in its entirety. The challenge and the closing of a local bookstore leading to a copy on sale for three dollars provided a suitable excuse. While most of them neglect things that would spark curiosity in those of us of the age of the police procedural, they do still offer an invitation to practice deductive reasoning and a colorful setting. While I'd gladly stuff Holmes and Watson together into a coal hopper, Conan Doyle does earn his place in the literary canon. 4/5.
5) The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage by Sydney Padua (history-related, fiction or non)
An alternate history and graphic novel with prodigious foot- and end-notes where the author shares much of the research they relied on to write this tale, this book is a delightful outgrowth of the 2D Goggles webcomic. It follows Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage through what might have been had Lovelace not died so young, and the age would have allowed them such unchaperoned companionship as the author does. Indeed, had Lovelace lived, Babbage might well have built his eternally theoretical Analytical Engine, and that certainly would have changed the nature of the world our own computer age has inherited.
5/5 would recommend to anyone who has the least fondness for a gleeful academic waxing speculative about favored historical characters.
6) Warriors #2: Fire and Ice by Erin Hunter (about or narrated by animal)
At something of a loss for what to read for this title, I remembered reading the first of this series with my son many years ago, and that he hadn't wanted to continue with the series. It follows the adventures of startlingly organized colonies of feral cats at the edge of a human town, covering everything from provisioning the colonies, war between the colonies, and intra-colony politics conducted with an ever-present threat of claw or fang. A children's book for the years leading into what is now considered YA literature, it's a quick read and an engaging story, though the writing does give the impression that the author intends to milk a series for all it's worth and then some. 3.5/5 would recommend for 8-11 year olds who like both animals and checking books out at the library.
7) A collection of essays. 8) Koko Takes a Holiday by Kieren Shea (science fiction) 9) Something written by a musician 10) Agatha H and the Voice of the Castle by Phil and Kaja Foglio (over 500 pages-okay, it was 496 pages, but I'll put my lifetime page count up against anybody else's any day of the week) 11) Read something about or set in NYC 12) Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson (airplane fiction)
Assuming that this meant to read the sort of fiction one would buy at the airport when one had forgotten one's intended book, I again leveraged the bookstore closing, picking up a book for a buck and a half that I would not have otherwise considered. The book details actions of the resistance against the Epics, powerful humans who have developed superpowers in the wake of a baleful red comet appearing in the sky. Epics seem to be hellbent on proving that power corrupts, and they have splintered the world under their capricious rule. They fight among themselves for pride of place, and normal humans are left to find their weaknesses in the hopes of bringing them down. While the writing is good from a standpoint of not over-explaining the origins, it falls down on its reliance on predictable tropes. Still, the overall theme of everyday people fighting against tyranny was welcome in the current political climate the world over, so I will grant it a 3/5, though I would only recommend it for someone who wanted a darker take on the superhero story or as something one could reasonably read on an airplane in the absence of anything better.
13) Possess by Gretchen McNeil (YA) 14) Ghosts of Ascalon by Matt Forbeck and Jeff Grubb (Wildcard!)
A companion novel to the Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 video games, this story explores the thief-as-hero tale, and does a good job of it. Dougal Keane finds himself languishing in the dungeons early on, only to find himself given the option to walk free if he will perform just one task: retrieve an object from a city defended by deadly ghosts--the very city that claimed the lives of his former companions and nearly his own. He is joined by a rag-tag band of adventurers, and he tries very hard to follow his advice of not adventuring with people you care about, since it's too hard to lose them, but the formula demands its price.
As someone soaking in the lore of the games, I found the book a 5/5 for emotional payoff and a 3.5/5 for writing. I'm not sure how it would play as a hook to encourage the reader to pick up either game if they hadn't already, but it was a satisfying installment in the bridging of the 200 Tyrian years that passed between the two for me. (Game information available by request.)
15) What If by Randall Munroe (recently published) 16) The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. LeGuin (wanted to read for a while) 17) Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn(first in a series) 18) A biography or autobiography 19) Drive by Hettie Jones (Lost or Beat Generation)
A book of beat poetry about traveling and the freedom that comes with one's own vehicle. Hettie Jones takes us on the road with her, rhythmically dismantling the constraints of the era on a woman's movement in a voice that rolls from the page like honeyed whiskey. Cars and sex and the mysteries of womanhood, all without flinching, and my only regret was that it was several pages shorter than I wanted it to be. 5/5 Definite recommend for anyone who fears they take their own freedom of movement too much for granted.
20) Read a banned book 21) Defy the Dark ed. Saundra Mitchell (short stories) 22) It’s a Mystery.
|
|
Taelac
Officer
Be bold. It makes your enemies hesitate.
Posts: 357
|
Post by Taelac on Dec 31, 2016 18:11:51 GMT -8
Quick note to say that yes, there has been enough interest here and elsewhere that I am going to set up an online book club forum someplace, so check back over the next week or two for the details.
|
|
|
Post by firebolt153 on Jan 1, 2017 21:25:15 GMT -8
Oo, that Lovelace/Babbage one looks right up my alley, I'll throw that on my to-read list now. Thanks Tae!
Among the mountain of Marvel I read this year, the two books on the women behind the space program (Rise of the Rocket Girls by Natalia Holt and Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly) were my favorites, and I look forward to the movie on the latter one.
|
|
Taelac
Officer
Be bold. It makes your enemies hesitate.
Posts: 357
|
Post by Taelac on Jan 4, 2017 20:52:24 GMT -8
I've been meaning to pick up Hidden Figures, so I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it.
The online book club is mostly set up, but the antispam defenses have not yet been deployed. If you are Leif, Riku, or Firebolt, you should have a PM through this board shortly, just to try to stymie the spammers. If you are not Leif, Riku or Firebolt and would like an invitation, please comment here to that effect or contact me at taelac at the gmail with the dot com, and I'll get you hooked up.
|
|
|
Post by Aethera on Aug 31, 2017 20:32:18 GMT -8
Amusingly, I just finished Hidden Figures, myself. I loved the movie, and the book was pretty fascinating, though I listened to it as an audio book while working and didn't love the narrator. She pronounced things oddly sometimes, often in contraction to the intended meaning.
|
|
Taelac
Officer
Be bold. It makes your enemies hesitate.
Posts: 357
|
Post by Taelac on Sept 1, 2017 18:28:47 GMT -8
The narrator makes all the difference with audiobooks, really.
|
|
|
Post by Aethera on Sept 10, 2017 10:40:34 GMT -8
Agreed. For instance, I listened to the Run of His Life, the Toobin book about the OJ trial, and there were 2 narrator choices...Toobin himself, or some guy. I picked the some guy, and he had this terrific gossipy tone that worked perfectly for the writing. It was great.
|
|