I've re-read the first Harry Potter. It's been so long since I last read it. I felt that it really wasn't poorly written. Sure it's a children's book but i looked reading it. And I've started reading flatland
Are there people out there that say it's poorly written? That's just not the case at all. It's a very well-writte book, and that really does help when you dive back in to re-read it after a while.
Elantris, Warbreaker and started The Way of Kings, all by Brandon Sanderson. Read Mistborn Era 1 a couple years ago and loved it, finally decided to jump head in into the Cosmere.
The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch - I really enjoyed this storytelling and plot about multiple dimensions and timelines and murder. Thrilling and exciting.
Gardens of the moon by Steven Erickson - a reread. Finished the original 10 books a few years ago. Decides to poke around again. This time around has been such a different experience. I'm now thinking I'm gonna do the rest of the other 9 books again.
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer. A really good movie. Decided to try the book. An interesting read for sure. Psychological thriller, with far realm adjacent imagery. About 70% done. Don't think I'll be reading the whole trilogy, though.
Periodo Street Station by China Mieville. I don't know what I think of this one. It seems to be sort of self masterbatory about how unique and wacky the world is. The actual story is scattered and completely lacks focus. The characterization is C+ at best. Full chapters of just wandering though the streets of the city showing small vignettes of peoplea lives from an omniscient pov, that seems to hint at a connection to the main story but is just tiresome to read. The main characters are a poor knock off of Doc Brown, and his girlfriend, a scarab beetle with a human body. I mean the head is the whole beetle legs and all. They are sort of mad scientist beetniks in socially forbidden love. This book just isn't for me I think.
God's Demon by Wayne Barlow. Barlow is a concept artist who often works with Guillermo del Toro. It's a sorry about a demon lord in hell. Aka ex-angel who fell with Lucifer. And has decided to find his way back to heaven and is leading an army to get there. It's okay. The imagery is great. I don't love the characters so it's hard to get invested.
Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.
I'm a sucker for (post) apocalyptic survival, but overall it wasn't very good. The first third was fairly engaging, but the other two thirds were relatively predictable. By then end of the book I disliked pretty much every character.
I feel like Niven just couldn't write people at all (especially women.) He had some cool concepts but I won't be going back to his work.
A few Animorphs and the Well of Ascension. I have a few active challenges on Storygraph.
I love Storygraph. Way better than Goodreads imo.
Swan Light by Phoebe Rowe - I really enjoyed this book telling two connected stories that occurred 100 years apart in parallel, centering around a lighthouse in Newfoundland that collapsed into the ocean and the search to find it.
The Weight of Air by David Poses - Autobiographical book advocating for harm reduction approaches in treating addiction. I was sad to see that the author passed away last year, it's clear that his book has helped a lot of people.
I read The City & The City by China Mieville and some bits of Psychogeography by Will Self.
I would recommend the first one, especially if you like detective stories (and games like Disco Elysium).
I'm not sure about the second, it's a collection of columns and the throughline isn't as good as I'd hoped.
I read Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea by Lucy Maud Montgomery cos I liked the tv series and wanted to see where it went. By the third book I was bored af so I totally changed to The First Law by Abercrombie. So far it’s really good,
Working on three body problem. I dont know if anyone else have a hard time with translated works, but I always feel like some part of the book is missing when translated. Like iboixk up on a few context clues that something should be known.
Anyways I'm enjoying it, just lots of extra lookin things up, makes it a bit tedious.
Yeah, I'm about a third of the way into it and thinking that the translation presents a small barrier.
I'm reading on a ebook, so I get clickable footnotes sometimes, usually though it's mostly for common facts a chinese reader would have. Dont know if there are different translations or not.
Michael Connelly:
I am open for recommendations
Tasha's cauldron of everything... DnD rulebook.
I just finished No Longer Human last night. Haven't breezed through a book like that in quite awhile!
-Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
-Normal People by Sally Rooney
-How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu (personal favorite for this month)!
-Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
-I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
-Happy Place by Emily Henry
-Notes on a Silencing: A Memoir by Lacy Crawford
-The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
-The Girl in the Mirror by Rose Carlyle
-Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell
-Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
-Dirty Laundry by Disha Bose
-Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey
-Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
-Milk Fed by Melissa Broder
-Motherthing by Ainslie Hogarth
-Shoulder Season by Christina Clancy
Woah you were busy
can’t figure out how to edit on lemmy yet; however, Shoulder Season was also another favorite and i highly recommend it as well :)
I read the Cradle series by Will Wight. Lots of fun! Interesting magic system, fun progression as the main characters get more and more powerful through the books.
Kept it pretty lowkey in June, read only two books: Loop by Koji Suzuki (3rd book in the Ring series) and Osamu Dazai's recently translated The Flowers of Buffoonery.
I got sucked back into One Piece, the anime I sorta dropped, put on eternal hold
So I figured I’d start the manga and give it a go, it’s much more enjoyable ^^
Animal Farm and 1984 by George Orwell. They both describe, in a very creative way, the totalitarian regimes of the '40s, especially the soviet one. They give you an insight of what freedom should be, and what are the systems used by dictators to control the popultation: poverty, ignorance, fear, etc.
Worth reading!
I've read both but Animal Farm was for school so naturally I didn't like it. 1984 was great not just as an interesting read but to understand all of the cultural (and culture war) references to it.
Hopped around a few different genres but really enjoyed all the books I read in June:
I read the Broadbent one! How did you like the second book compared to the first? I feel like the one thing that kinda fell flat is that every fight was described as the hardest fight ever, so when the last battle came the author was just rehashing those same descriptions.
Still, I enjoyed the story, and those books were far more well-written than most in the Romantacy genre.
I really enjoyed it! I’m not sure I liked it as much as the first one, I think the pacing in that one for me was a little bit better, but am excited to see what Broadbent writes next in that world. I’m newer to the Romantacy genre (have only read the ACOTAR series and Fourth Wing) but have already had a lot of fun with the books I’ve read so far.
I read Factfullness by hans rosling, would recommend if you want a different outlook in these seemingly dark times
I'm still reading it and I'm halfway through it. I agree in recommending it! Moreover gapminder (which is the source of most of the stats) now has data updated up to the year 2022.
Hypatia: The Life and Legend of an Ancient Philosopher - Edward J. Watts
As the title says. The author tries to stress the fact that the book is primarily about her life and work, which always gets overshadowed by her death. It was pretty good as both a book about her, and general Alexandrian life in her age, but quite short (around 150 pages)
Women Writers of Ancient Greece and Rome: An Anthology - Ian Michael Plant
Contains fragments from ancient women writers about various topics. It was good, but sadly not much was preserved through time, the fragments were often very short.
Oooh this is right up my alley. Was it also an entertaining read, or was it a little dry/difficult to get through? Non-fiction can be really hit or miss for me
Depends on how interested you are, I guess. The Hypatia book wasn't dry at all, and it's a pretty good showcase on how people actually used philosophy as a lifestyle. I just wish it had more, but you can only get so much from a limited source. Hypatia was mostly written about to discuss her violent death than how she lived.
The other book I honestly wouldn't recommend if you're not actually interested in the topic, because the contents will not entertain anyone by themselves. There are a couple of mostly complete poems and letters, but for the vast majority, the only thing that was preserved was a handful of lines. But to supplement that, the authors provide an introduction to every writer beforehand, so you can get a sense of what was accomplishable for women in that period. It's a good book in that sense, but not very entertaining by itself.
Tte Hypatia one I recommend wholeheartedly to anyone who's interested.
Book reader community.