Re: Current Reads

Jude Wed Jun 12, 2013 8:51 pm

I know what you're saying, whatthedeuce. I have no interest in reading the book or seeing the movie after just watching the trailer with that kid. A woman I know sort of casually insisted it was the BEST MOVIE EVER!!!! and I HAD to go see it!!!!! But I didn't, and I won't. Again, because of that kid.

puddingcup Wed Jun 12, 2013 9:38 pm

Orson Scott Card is totally the M. Night Shyamalan of sf/fantasy.

Ouch. This made me laugh. I'm going to try and think of other people who are the M. Night Shyamalans of their fields. I've heard people say similar things about F. Scott Fitzgerald (where Gatsby is his Sixth Sense), but I've really enjoyed some of his short fiction.

inversed Thu Jun 13, 2013 10:22 am

I finished TWO books on vacation so far, yay! One was The Snow Child, about a childless couple in turn-of-the-century Alaska who build a snow girl who comes to life (or does it??). It was excellent, a really beautiful read.

The second was Them by Jon Ronson, a journalist who investigates conspiracy theorists. It was entertaining but didn't entirely hang together. The ending particularly just kind of... happened, like he got tired of writing. I learned a lot about some batshit crazy people though. Did you know that in the early 2000s the KKK tried to have a "kinder, gentler" image? And that there is a group of people who think the world is run by a super-intelligent reptilian race that disguise themselves as human?

naughty zoot Thu Jun 13, 2013 11:11 am

Just started Kate Atkinson's Life After Life and it's quite intriguing so far. The main character dies and is reborn (or comes back to life) repeatedly throughout the 20th century. It sounds very postmodern, but, as one would expect with Atkinson, the writing is very accesible. I'm enjoying it quite a bit

Gilraen Thu Jun 13, 2013 2:44 pm

I just finished Crucible of Gold which I think is the seventh (?) book in the Temeraire series. I mostly liked it, I guess; much more than the Australia one.

Spoilers:

MaddyCat Thu Jun 20, 2013 12:31 am

You guys! I just finished Code Name Verity thanks to this thread and it destroyed me...in the best possible way. Even when I thought I had it all figured out...I did not. And oh my. Good stuff.

Then I read a kind-of memoir called After Visiting Friends by Michael Hainey. The premise is fascinating--his dad dies when he's six and it's never spoken of as he grows up. As an adult, he finds all these holes in the story of the night his dad died, so he goes investigating. I wanted to love this, and parts of it were good, and I had to finish it to find out the whole mystery, but the writing did not always work for me. Very episodic and he tries waaay too hard to infuse every tiny thing with incredible symbolism and meaning.

Like...steam from an iron rising between him and his mom. Oh please. It's just not subtle in any way and not every second of your past has to be fraught with hidden meaning. But whatever. It was a fast read and, as I said, the over-arching mystery was intriguing.

Thank goodness school is out so I can ramp up my reading! I'm onto a mystery called Murder in the Marais by Cara Black. I chose it for the Paris setting, and it's pretty good thus far. It reaches back to the Paris Occupation, which has always fascinated me. We shall see...

inversed Thu Jun 20, 2013 9:47 am

I really enjoyed The Flight of Gemma Hardy, which is a more modern retelling of Jane Eyre. Gemma was way, way more likable than Jane, plus it has the bonus of Iceland as one of the settings and I am obsessed with Iceland since my vacation there last summer. Though at one point Gemma says she's never seen a puffin and I was like "NOPE. THAT IS NOT AUTHENTIC." because there is no way a kid spends four years in Iceland and never sees one of the literally millions of puffins that live there.

mayram Thu Jun 20, 2013 10:11 am

Rhilin wrote:I enjoyed The Diviners a lot (the 20's! Actual historic issues! Diverse casts! Spooky villains!), and will definitely read more of it, but I am also tired of this "everything is a trilogy" trend. The Diviners actually wraps up pretty well, but if I hadn't known it was continuing, I would have been irked. It's 400 pages! That should be enough to tell a complete story! I mean, I love spending more time in an authors' world, but a lot of time you get these cliffhangers where either there's a super abrupt unsatisfying ending, or something terrible happens in the last minute. And that tends to feel forced.

Ok, I'm very glad to hear that this is indeed a jumping off point for a sequel/trilogy only because I was pretty confused by the very end of this book.

It wrapped up the main story pretty well but there were several other characters that were deliberately introduced but then went absolutely nowhere and I was wondering about the point of them. Also, it's not just 400 pages (which is a long enough book!), it's more like 530!! Plenty of pages to tell a full story, but if it's going to continue, I can understand why some of the other characters' stories didn't wrap up.

I really enjoyed the book and was totally engaged in it (though I do NOT recommend reading it just before bed, CRAZY dreams happen!) but the last 20 pages or so threw me off. It seemed like it was veering off into allegory territory in a way it hadn't before and it wasn't well done.

Spoiler:

Putli Bai Thu Jun 20, 2013 5:59 pm

This is the second time I've seen The Diviners crop up this week. Clearly the universe wants me to read it.

That is, if I every finish Little, Big. I swear it's some sort of TARDIS -- bigger on the inside than on the outside.

Raksha Fri Jun 21, 2013 11:05 pm

Putli Bai wrote:That is, if I every finish Little, Big. I swear it's some sort of TARDIS -- bigger on the inside than on the outside.

I know right!! That freaking book, man. I've been reading it for about two months, 20 or 30 pages at a time. It's not that I don't like it or that it's muddled or dragging or anything, it's just...it takes a long time to read. Although, to be fair, it shouldn't take that long, I've just been dealing with moving BS for the past few weeks, which really cuts into my reading time.

It's really sweet, though. It's a nice, quiet book.

Francie Nolan Sat Jun 22, 2013 11:58 am

inversed wrote:I really enjoyed The Flight of Gemma Hardy, which is a more modern retelling of Jane Eyre. Gemma was way, way more likable than Jane, plus it has the bonus of Iceland as one of the settings and I am obsessed with Iceland since my vacation there last summer. Though at one point Gemma says she's never seen a puffin and I was like "NOPE. THAT IS NOT AUTHENTIC." because there is no way a kid spends four years in Iceland and never sees one of the literally millions of puffins that live there.

I really enjoyed it too. The author does a good job of handling the retelling aspect, and the story is strong enough to stand on its own. It doesn't feel like there are "JUST LIKE IN JANE EYRE" signs all along the way (and I say this as a big JE fangirl).

My only disappointment was

Spoiler:

inversed Sat Jun 22, 2013 3:41 pm

I felt the same way Francie Nolan. I really expected

Spoiler:

It didn't take too much away from the story as a whole, though I wonder if I didn't know it was a retelling if that would have bothered me more.

Guest Tue Jun 25, 2013 1:36 pm

I'm currently reading In Her Power: Reclaiming Your Authentic Self. The book is very easy to read and approachable. The truth is, when your career is in the toilet and your confidence is not as strong as it could be, this is a good read. It offers valuable little exercises to reflect and to practice better ways of interacting with others. I am learning something out of it.
I tried reading Terry Pratchett but couldn't get into it!

whatthedeuce Thu Jun 27, 2013 5:37 am

I'm reading Sylvia Day's Bared To You, which I heard was supposed to be a more sophisticated cousin of Fifty Shades of Grey, and I just don't understand this trend in erotic novels of rich guys stalking young women. I'm glad that Eva recognizes Gideon's stalking as unnerving, but she's also really titillated by it and obviously the reader is supposed to be as well. It's really disturbing to me that I'm supposed to think him accessing her private info is in any way okay or even sexy just because he's aware that Eva's attracted to him.

Bad Username Thu Jun 27, 2013 6:55 am

The Company Man by Robert Jackson Bennett. It's a sci-fi story set in an alternate universe America in 1919. A city has built up around a large global corporation that is leagues ahead of the rest of the world in technology, and the main character works to keep its secrets secure. There's union trouble brewing, and a trolley full of people are found dead, with only a four-minute window in which they could have been killed. I loved this book, the main character is one of those hard to like anti-hero types, which annoyed me at first, but the other main characters are likeable enough that I could ignore it. The union sub-plot seemed realistic to me, and the revelation about how the company develops its technology is kind of obvious, but it's still an interesting story.

Jamie Thu Jun 27, 2013 6:47 pm

punzy wrote:One of (most of?) his characters is basically Jesus (Alvin Maker), so that statement is a little worrying.

I know this is from way back in the thread, but Alvin Maker is supposed to be based on Joseph Smith. I haven't read the Alvin Maker series, so I don't know any details to compare. Still, Card supposedly believes Joseph Smith was a great prophet, so he should agree with at least some of his morals.

I loved the books after Ender's Game- Speaker for the Dead and Xenocide. But I read them when I was in college and still Mormon. So much of the weird stuff in them is influenced by the really weird world-creating, men-becoming-gods Mormon theology. I thought they were very entertaining. I wonder how they'd hold up if I read them again now.

I also liked Pastwatch. I hated Homebody and Lost Boys was one of the creepiest books I've ever read. And not good creepy.

Jude Thu Jun 27, 2013 7:18 pm

whatthedeuce wrote:I'm reading Sylvia Day's Bared To You, which I heard was supposed to be a more sophisticated cousin of Fifty Shades of Grey, and I just don't understand this trend in erotic novels of rich guys stalking young women.

Is that the one that had all the Fifty Shades of Gray fans up in arms because they thought Day was copying E. L. James? Would that be considered irony?

I just brought home The Violinist's Thumb from the library. It's apparently an entertaining discussion of genetics and how our DNA affects the future of our species. It's not my usual fare, but it seems really interesting.

whatthedeuce Thu Jun 27, 2013 8:01 pm

Jude, it has a similar premise, so I'm assuming it's the one you mean. Sylvia Day does actually acknowledge EL James in her thank yous though!

ulkis Sun Jun 30, 2013 12:37 am

Okay I just read the Black Jewels Trilogy by Anne Bishop, and I pretty much forced myself to get through it. I read all three because I bought them all together. Don't read this if you really like them, heh:

Spoiler:

woo, that felt good.

I think the only person I really liked was the giant cat.

Spoiler:

Gilraen Sun Jun 30, 2013 1:43 pm

Heh, the Black Jewels trilogy is one of my guilty pleasure comfort reads. It's so, so ridiculous, but the silly family squabbling and bonding, combined with the ludicrous world building, is apparently like catnip to me. However, I've found my experience is enhanced by skipping anything that resembles actual plot. I think I usually quit reading

Spoiler:

ulkis Sun Jun 30, 2013 4:21 pm

re: family stuff. I liked the part where

Spoiler:

Also, one other thing that bugged - Jaenelle "fluffing" her hair. Besides the repetitiveness, it bugged because unless I'm mistaken, she had straight blonde hair. How does one fluff straight hair with just your hand? Because in my world that would be "tangling" your straight hair. I guess she was using magic. Nitpicky, I know, but the author is the one who brought it up 100 times so I had to, heh.

I think maybe if she cut out like 300 or 400 pages it would have been better.

ETA: i'm reading reviews for catharsis and this review from goodreads cracked me up

4. the names. jaenelle angelline. daemon sadiablo. lucivar yaslana. saetan sadiablo. somebody named surreal. ok. i'm just saying that you can be the best writer in the world, but i'm not going to be able to take your characters seriously with names like that. i mean, angel, demon mcdevil, lucifer, satan mcdevil, surreal mcdevil--that's what their names sound like to me.

MaddyCat Sun Jun 30, 2013 8:00 pm

Okay, I'm basically ten years behind, but I'm finally reading The Curious Incident of the dog in the night-time (which shows how much I love to buy books but how long it takes me to actually read them--ahem). It's a decent read and, though my knowledge of autism is limited, provides some good insights into autistic people. The over-arching mystery is semi-interesting, but it's really Christopher's journey that matters. So I guess that means I'm liking it!

I'm also reading Orange is the New Black about a woman who did something stupid one summer (ummm...running money for African drug lords) and a few years later gets indicted for it. Of course right when her life is on track. It's pretty harrowing at times but also amusing as she recognizes what an idiot she once was. Really enjoying this one.

I think there's a Netflix series being based on it or something, so now I'll have to check that out too.

Cynara Mon Jul 01, 2013 1:21 am

I just read Divergent and it wasn't terrible or anything, I think I'm just over the teenage dystopia thing. Also the author is a little too invested in the male love interest, which unfortunately comes through even though the female protagonist is well-written and has actual feelings and tons of agency and character development and all that. It just felt really formulaic and I didn't care about the characters--I felt like I was reading a mediocre CW show, in the end. Teal deer feels/thoughts:

Spoiler:

Gilraen Mon Jul 01, 2013 8:44 am

I had the same reaction to Divergent, Cynara. I mean, it wasn't bad, but I was never really able to emotionally correct with it (or with the sequel, which i will admit, I kind of skimmed). I agree that I felt like the male love interest was being forced down my throat. Also, I couldn't get over the fact that there society seemed deeply stupid for no obvious reason.

Vague spoilers for second book:

And it wasn't just the general idea of the society that was stupid. The individual factions also structured themselves like complete idiots. I mean, Dauntless? Good lord; how many able young people can you kill or discard for no reason? Or Candor? You are basing your entire lives on being kind of douchey to people, basically?

**blixie** Mon Jul 01, 2013 10:49 am

Ha. Candor were my favorite people, but then I loves me some Cordelia Chase. I found myself digging Tris way way more than say Katniss, and I loved Four, so I'm not sure how the author made their romance one of the most tedious things I ever read. And I agree it seemed like a deeply stupid way to organize a society even in response to whatever nightmare dystopian situation they felt they were confronted with.

I just finished reading Before I Go to Sleep which has great hook, and is super involving up to a point, and then it complete chooses the most implausible fucking thing ever to resolve it self on. I was almost like

Spoiler:

Sponsored content