May 2022 Reading Thread.

[J-Sun]

I'm about 1/3 into Among the Stars, a collection by hard-SF-writer G. David Nordley. So far it's fine, with one excellent one out of the first three.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I have started The Boys: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family (2021) by Ron Howard and Clint Howard, a double autobiography of the acting brothers.

 

[williamjm]

I finished P. Djèlí Clark's Master of Djinn. I liked the book's imaginative setting, an alternate early-20th Century Cairo with a lot of supernatural (particularly the djinn of the title) and steampunk elements. Parts of the setting and backstory, particularly the Thousand and One Arabian Nights influence did remind me of S.A. Chakraborty's Daevabad trilogy, although despite sharing some plot points it's structured as a murder mystery rather than an epic fantasy. I liked the characters and the initial set-up of the mystery but I think there is an issue with the plot where it felt too obvious who the culprit was from relatively early on but it takes most of the book for the investigators to figure things out and they rely a lot on other characters deciding to explain things to them. It's an enjoyable read but I think some aspects could have been better and if there are sequels I'll be interested to see whether they can improve on those areas.

One oddity is that although this is the first novel in the setting I think some key plot points work better having read the short story A Dead Djinn In Cairo.

 

[Bramandin]

Nettle and Bone

OMG, I haven't followed her since she switched from doing art to children's books. I loved reading Book of the Gear.

 

[Dave Vicks]

Currently Don DeLillo and Dashiell Hammett.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

OMG, I haven't followed her since she switched from doing art to children's books. I loved reading Book of the Gear.

She writes a lot of books for adults these days, although many of those could be considered crossover adult/YA (adult characters but written with a somewhat light, somewhat whimsical touch even when serious, even sometimes dire, things happen).

 

[dask]

It's not that I can't find books I can't finish, it's not that I'm not enjoying what I've got going. They're good - but the good ain't grabbing. So I've reached for someone who rarely fails to excite:

Been on my shelf for a long time. No more dilly dallying. Not going to live forever.

 

[HareBrain]

Gave up on Lord Foul's Bane (possibly to no one's great surprise). Inspired by a review by @The Big Peat , I've started Lavondyss by Robert Holdstock. I have no idea why I haven't at least started this book before, especially after first reading Mythago Wood, which I enjoyed at the time. And I've read other Holdstock since, and this is widely reckoned the best. Anyway, better late than never. it's started well, and I'm looking forward to the rest.

 

[Danny McG]

Dark Theory by Wick Welker, some girls who live by looking for scrap in junkyards find a robot (they're on another world or possibly a post nuke war Earth) and set off on a quest.

I think this is going to be DNF because it's getting a bit too much of a YA feel now

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

I'm currently reading Our Mutual Friend, by Charles Dickens.
This has been on my to be read list for quite some time.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I'm currently reading Our Mutual Friend, by Charles Dickens.
This has been on my to be read list for quite some time.

OMF is possibly my favorite of all Dickens's novels.

 

[Danny McG]

I'm doing a re-read of There will be dragons by John Ringo, book one of his Council Wars series.

 

[Foxbat]

Currently reading Windswept And Interesting (Billy Connolly’s autobiography).
Entertaining. You come to expect nothing less from the Big Yin.

 

[tobl]

I'm doing a re-read of There will be dragons by John Ringo, book one of his Council Wars series.

i never read that fantasy book of his.... is it any good? i'm kind of in the fence. and now finally i ended my phd in law. thank god

 

[Danny McG]

i never read that fantasy book of his.... is it any good? i'm kind of in the fence. and now finally i ended my phd in law. thank god

It's not really a fantasy series, more a far future post-human tale, the main computer goes down and all the modified people lose their tech so they end up uniting against the bad guys.
Their basic combat unit is like Roman legions but with people who've had major mods

 

[tobl]

It's not really a fantasy series, more a far future post-human tale, the main computer goes down and all the modified people lose their tech so they end up uniting against the bad guys.
Their basic combat unit is like Roman legions but with people who've had major mods

yeah i think i pass... mutant roman soldiers.... somehow not very appealling. Apparently nuttall is writing a new one so, together with a few others i hope to pass by

 

[Parson]

Finished something unusual for me, a biography of Helena Rho entitled American Seoul. The hook for me was the Korean immigrant experience. I've known a few Korean immigrants and they have been truly outstanding people. Dedicated, hard working, and people of dynamic Christian faith. Helena Rho shows herself as the first two for sure, in spite of a number of very difficult things in her life. She became a medical Dr. and then a working author, while dealing with an abusive husband and an over demanding mother. For me it did feel a little bit too much of a "poor me, look at what everyone has done to me." But I did enjoy reading it, and it rang very true.

 

[biodroid]

Morningstar by Pierce Brown

 

[Randy M.]

Over the weekend I finished Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. Based on the Scopes trial in the 1920s, it is still depressingly relevant.

Also finished a collection of essays by Richard Russo, The Destiny Thief: Essays on Writing, Writers and Life:. Russo is very good at presenting his subject somewhat obliquely then leading you along to follow his reasoning. His examples pulled from his own life are invariably entertaining. What surprised me a little was how at times he sounded like a somewhat upscale Stephen King. His family background shares some similarities in terms of class and upbringing, I think, which grounds what he says in everyday life. Of particular interest for young and beginning writers, I think, is the longest essay, "Getting Good."

Just started Nnedi Okorafor's Remote Control and a reread of Ernest Hemingway on Writing.

 

[HareBrain]

I've started Lavondyss by Robert Holdstock.

I'm about 20% through, and I have to say this book astonishes me. It soars so far above anything else I've read by Holdstock, written before or after (including Mythago Wood) that I'm not sure what was going on that allowed him to create it. Every page turned makes me sad that there is less story to come.

Needless to say, I've now jinxed it.