What are you reading this weekend?

I am about halfway through The Perdition Score by Richard Kadrey. I think this is #8 in the Sandman Slim series. So far, so good!

In preparation for the Witcher 3 GOTY release in a few weeks I've started reading the novels. Aiming to get through at least the two short story collections by the time I start playing.

So I started 'The Last Wish' over the weekend

I'm going on vacation for the next week and a half. We're packing light, so I'm not bringing any books, but I'm going to be listening to some audiobooks on my phone instead. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss will be my main listen, and I may try listening to Dune or It as well. I'm not generally a huge fan of most audiobooks I've listened to, but this trip will have long stretches of travel so I'm hoping these ones satisfy.

I'm reading Just One Damned Thing After Another, by Jodi Taylor, and enjoying it immensely.

Reading an older Michael Crichton novel, Timeline. I'm supposed to finish it by tomorrow night, but I'm terribly bogged down in the introduction phase. I'm just not finding his asides and introductions quite as entertaining as, say, Neil Stephenson.

I'm gonna finish this likely today or tomorrow. The first two books in this series have been SO damned good.

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And then much of my weekend will be spent reading this amazing tome in preparation for me covering the game next week.

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I've then got over 100 books in my Kindle backlog thanks to ebook sales and deals, so I've nooo idea what to read next, but I love being spoiled for choice.

Katy, "Doomsday Book" by Connie Willis is leagues better than Timeline. Something to read after you're done with Crichton.

I'm actually trying to cut back on my comics backlog, so am working on that. This weekend will mostly be finishing up Sabrina (which is far more horrific than I anticipated) and getting caught up on Saga.

I have a bunch of manga and French comic books to read, but the main goal for this weekend is to finish Bridge of Birds, which has been pretty delightful so far (if you ignore the creepy/vaguely rapey bit early in the book).

I'll be starting Let the Right one In. I didn't know it was also a book until last week. The translation seems to have gotten good reviews and looks to be different from both movies which were great.

Star Wars: Aftermath: Life Debt. Just started it and hoping it's better than the first Aftermath book.

I've started reading through a series of books that's probably more in line with my reputation around here: Sword Art Online Progressive

I know the start of the books began with the need to add a story for the first floor of the anime, and the author intended for them to line up with the original novel and short stories... but as of the second book the Progressive series either has to be an alternate version or something terribly tragic lies in wait for the main characters to bring them back in line with where we next see them in the original stories.

Just found this short story collection this morning while browsing: Islamicates, vol I.

It's got a really cool premise--sci-fi tropes filtered through a Muslim lens and Islamic culture-- and it's free. Win-win.

Robear wrote:

Katy, "Doomsday Book" by Connie Willis is leagues better than Timeline. Something to read after you're done with Crichton.

That exact thing came up at book club last night. I've got a copy of that floating around somewhere. I had a really difficult time with the Crichton. I'm not sure if I just don't like his style, but I'd read about ten pages, get irritated at a technobabble infodump, and then put the book down. It doesn't help that the plot points are few and far between, and the characterization is pretty flat.

Spoiler:

I got about 1/3 of the way through the book. The plot so far is: Scientist dies mysteriously in the desert in Arizona. Meanwhile, halfway around the world in France, a bunch of grad students are working on a dig. The expedition leader gets called to Arizona because of something the scientist has in his pockets, and goes out of touch. The grad students find an impossible message from the leader, and four of them are whisked off to Arizona on a rescue mission, where they are subjected to an infodump about quantum mechanics and parallel universes.

Sounds fascinating, doesn't it? But that took over 100 pages, and nobody has any personality or interior life, even though the POV dips into their thoughts from time to time.

Everyone around me who's read the book already says it really picks up after this point, so yay?

I do plan to actually finish it, but I'm looking forward to the Seanan McGuire that's next on my list.

Connie Willis, by comparison, has more Hugo and Nebula awards than any other author...

Katy wrote:

I do plan to actually finish it, but I'm looking forward to the Seanan McGuire that's next on my list.

They split the party. Why did they split the party?! Never split the party!

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Because, I thought to myself, I don't have enough unrealistic goals in life. Why not add one more?

I don't know, cats can be pretty receptive to training. Ours is pretty well behaved just from being strict with what she can and can't do. When we let her out she stays in our yard and will always come in when called. She waits until we give her the go ahead before jumping up on the couch etc. She's not like one of those toilet trained cats, but she's far from a loose cannon.

I'll be tackling Welcome to Night Vale this weekend.

New Ilona Andrews book is out. I'm enjoying it a lot. I preordered it back in Feb. I've never done that before.

I have the Seanan McGuire book on hold at the library

MathGoddess wrote:

New Ilona Andrews book is out. I'm enjoying it a lot. I preordered it back in Feb. I've never done that before.

I read it all the way through last night! It was quite fun.

This weekend I am mostly reading (listening) to "Dark Matter", by Michelle Paver (not to be confused with "Dark Matter" by Blake Crouch!).

January 1937. Clouds of war are gathering over a fogbound London. Twenty-eight year old Jack is poor, lonely and desperate to change his life. So when he's offered the chance to join an Arctic expedition, he jumps at it. Spirits are high as the ship leaves Norway: five men and eight huskies, crossing the Barents Sea by the light of the midnight sun. At last they reach the remote, uninhabited bay where they will camp for the next year. Gruhuken.

But the Arctic summer is brief. As night returns to claim the land, Jack feels a creeping unease. One by one, his companions are forced to leave. He faces a stark choice. Stay or go. Soon he will see the last of the sun, as the polar night engulfs the camp in months of darkness. Soon he will reach the point of no return - when the sea will freeze, making escape impossible.

And Gruhuken is not uninhabited. Jack is not alone. Something walks there in the dark...

Mixes two things I love : Horror stories set in remote locations and Ghosts. Great narration in the audiobook version as well.

Continuing my focus on career development and parental improvement this year, his weekend I'm reading Here's The Plan, a book for women who want (or have to) keep working and succeeding at their career through pregnancy and parenthood. Seems to be mostly focused on the pregnancy and new parent stage, and women with predominantly office-type white collar jobs in the US. Good read so far.

Finished listening to 'Dark Matter' Absolutely fantastic ghost story - well worth a listen/read (the audiobook is particularly good). Surprisingly emotional at the end actually (again, might have been the excellent narration).

A good one to keep handy for a cold winter evening.

This weekend, it's The Palace Job by Patrick Weekes (one of the writers for Mass Effect / Dragon Age; currently the lead writer for the Dragon Age series).

I've just started it, so we're still in the "gathering the team" stage of things, but this promises to be a romp of a heist story.

Book Jacket wrote:

Loch—former soldier, former prisoner, current fugitive—must assemble a crack team of magical misfits that includes a cynical illusionist, a shapeshifting unicorn, a repentant death priestess, a talking magical warhammer, and a lad with seemingly no skills to help her break into the floating fortress of Heaven’s Spire and the vault that holds her family’s treasure—all while eluding the unrelenting pursuit of Justicar Pyvic, whose only mission is to see the law upheld.

What could possibly go wrong?

(Free on Kindle Unlimited, or $4 to purchase.)

I'm currently reading a lot of history. Many is the day I wish I'd studied it at university instead of biology. Jerusalem by Simon Sebag Montefiore is my current read.

pyxistyx wrote:

Finished listening to 'Dark Matter' Absolutely fantastic ghost story - well worth a listen/read (the audiobook is particularly good). Surprisingly emotional at the end actually (again, might have been the excellent narration).

A good one to keep handy for a cold winter evening.

Hmm, looks like it used to be available on Kindle but not anymore? Odd...

It's definitely still on the UK amazon here.

I've had What It Is Like To Go To War, by Karl Marlantes, on my shelf for a while. Finally started it this week. Seems fairly short but I'm a slow reader, so I don't know if I'll finish it this weekend or not.

Will probably continue the first book of Fantagraphic's collected edition of Usagi Yojimbo, and I have a couple French comic books I bought months ago but haven't read yet that I intend to read (Largo Winch #19 and #20).