Book Recommendations?

bekkilyn wrote:

Count of Monte Cristo is still my favorite Dumas though!

huh... huh-huh... huh-huh... she said dumbass

RawkGWJ wrote:
bekkilyn wrote:

Count of Monte Cristo is still my favorite Dumas though!

huh... huh-huh... huh-huh... she said dumbass

Shut up, Beavis.

bekkilyn wrote:

Constantine the Great by John B. Firth

How is that? I've wanted to read a book about Constantine for a while.

Seems pretty good so far, but I'm not too far into it yet so we'll see how it goes!

I finished The Library and Mount Char. I really didn't care for it. It was a lot of very dark and violent imagery with very little payoff at the end. Q-Stone must have recommended it because it was terrible and he is terrible.

I need a good palette cleansing book or series. Too early to re-read Way of Kings?

Two of Swords, by KJ Parker.

SallyNasty wrote:

I finished The Library and Mount Char. I really didn't care for it. It was a lot of very dark and violent imagery with very little payoff at the end. Q-Stone must have recommended it because it was terrible and he is terrible.

Yeah, I talked about that at some length many many pages ago. (maybe two years? three? Been awhile.) Do not read The Library at Mount Char unless you're willing to read through very graphic torture scenes. I thought the plot was decent, but that was a book that left mental scars behind. Definitely not worth it.

I need a good palette cleansing book or series. Too early to re-read Way of Kings?

I remain very fond of the self-published Wearing the Cape series, by Marion Harmon. It's superhero genre, and it can get darkish sometimes, but it's mostly just good fun. Best palate cleanser I can think of, offhand.

Uprooted by Naomi Novik might also work.

I'd like to throw Gideon the Ninth hat into the pile too if you want something really different from everything else. Whilst being that most cliched of genres, the Space Necromancer Haunted House Whodunnit, the main character is funny, bawdy and irreverent (which works really well to offset the darkish situation she finds herself in). I found the audiobook easier to follow than the kindle book because the characters have similarish names and you need them to have different accents (or be able to refer back to the Dramatis Personae in the beginning). The sequel is batsh*t and I'm still trying to get my head around it.

If it's specifically light-toned fantasty you want, I continue to enjoy Kevin Hearne's Seven Kennings books. Hearne is often dismissed for some reason, but I find his stuff breezy fun. The Seven Kennings is set is a somewhat Avatarish world (different races / cultures have different elemental powers), but when they use their powers they age, so it's full of scenes of people doing impressive last stands or Kill Everything! type moves, and then dying of advanced old age.

Great recommends, thanks both. The library had the audiobook for Wearing the Cape available, so about to start that one up. Gideon the 9th is on deck.

Seven Kennings also looks fun.

Quote is not edit.

...And Two of Swords! Lol

SallyNasty wrote:

I finished The Library and Mount Char. I really didn't care for it. It was a lot of very dark and violent imagery with very little payoff at the end. Q-Stone must have recommended it because it was terrible and he is terrible.

Wasn't me, I've never heard of it.

Quintin_Stone wrote:
SallyNasty wrote:

I finished The Library and Mount Char. I really didn't care for it. It was a lot of very dark and violent imagery with very little payoff at the end. Q-Stone must have recommended it because it was terrible and he is terrible.

Wasn't me, I've never heard of it.

Sounds like something Q-stone would say.

I've read a few of books from that Wearing the Cape series and enjoyed it in the past.

Initial response is very positive. Narrator is very good.

I enjoy most of Kevin Hearne's books. The Iron Druid series was fun but I've been impressed with Seven Kennings. I suspect he was a little tired of the Iron Druid setting by the end. Seven Kennings has a lot of original ideas as he's building the world from scratch and not relying on cultures and mythologies from Earth.

Zwickle wrote:

I enjoy most of Kevin Hearne's books. The Iron Druid series was fun but I've been impressed with Seven Kennings. I suspect he was a little tired of the Iron Druid setting by the end. Seven Kennings has a lot of original ideas as he's building the world from scratch and not relying on cultures and mythologies from Earth.

I just listened to the first of these...and it took a lot to get me into the book. I'm not sure what's not working for me. I'll probably still do the second book to see if I get more interested.

Not a bad book, just not grabbing me like the Iron Druid series did.

If you listened to the Iron Druid audio books then you're already accustomed to the narrator Luke Daniels. I don't enjoy his narration so it's the written word for me. I listened to a few of the Iron Druid via audiobook and eventually decided to read them all. I tried audio again with Seven Kennings to see if a different setting would change my impression of Daniels as a narrator, but it didn't.

They can't all be as good as Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (narrator for Rivers of London.)

Zwickle wrote:

If you listened to the Iron Druid audio books then you're already accustomed to the narrator Luke Daniels. I don't enjoy his narration so it's the written word for me. I listened to a few of the Iron Druid via audiobook and eventually decided to read them all. I tried audio again with Seven Kennings to see if a different setting would change my impression of Daniels as a narrator, but it didn't.

They can't all be as good as Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (narrator for Rivers of London.)

Seven Kennings had a male and female narrator. Luke Daniels (which is one of my favorites) is the male, and Xe Sands does the female sections.

I will say I didn't like Luke's accent in this one though, which might have contributed.

I am interested in Hearne's Ink & Sigil book in the Iron Druid world. Comes out soon I think.

MannishBoy wrote:

Luke Daniels (which is one of my favorites)

Same, i've picked up books just because he narrated.

bekkilyn wrote:

Let's see...here is what I'm currently reading on my Kindle app:

Don Quixote by Cervantes - about halfway through now and still enjoying it!

Constantine the Great by John B. Firth

Essentialism by Greg McKeown

Care of the Soul by Thomas Moore

Interior Castle by Teresa of Avila

I am determined not to read any more fiction until Don Quixote is complete lest I get distracted!

Are you me? This is a great list and I really liked Essentialism.

Are the last two for your course?

Natus wrote:
bekkilyn wrote:

Let's see...here is what I'm currently reading on my Kindle app:

Don Quixote by Cervantes - about halfway through now and still enjoying it!

Constantine the Great by John B. Firth

Essentialism by Greg McKeown

Care of the Soul by Thomas Moore

Interior Castle by Teresa of Avila

I am determined not to read any more fiction until Don Quixote is complete lest I get distracted!

Are you me? This is a great list and I really liked Essentialism.

Are the last two for your course?

LOL didn't know you had a double, did you?

I heard about Essentialism while listening to one of Cal Newport's podcasts and just had to start reading it!

Only the last book is for my course. I'm finding myself wanting to read one of St. Teresa's biographies now.

Care of the Soul is a book I wanted to (re)read for a while and it was just time for it. I read at least part of it back when it first came out, but I forgot about it for ages when it popped up in a Kindle sale one day, and so now it's like reading it all brand new since my memory of reading it is very bad.

ranalin wrote:
MannishBoy wrote:

Luke Daniels (which is one of my favorites)

Same, i've picked up books just because he narrated.

Heh, after this post, I just went through his audible catalog and added a couple to my wish list.

For instance, I've never heard of JN Chaney, but this has reasonably good reviews. Renegade Stars (which starts a series).

I think three of my favorite narrators are Luke Daniels, RC Bray, and Marguerite Gavin. All are great at delivering sarcastic humor.

After the latest Dresden Files is in the bag, I'm going back to Dune Messiah. Last time I attempted the Dune series, I only got to Children of Dune before I scratched my head and quit. I think I can finish it this time. And by finish, I mean Chapterhouse: Dune. I haven't decided if I'll let Kevin J. Anderson finish the series for me.

Question for bekkilyn. You're reading Don Quixote. Just about every depiction I've seen of that portrays him as a dreamer ahead of his time, but recently I saw a video where the person referred to the titular character as a menace and the overall story as a cautionary tale. Having never read the source material, I wanted to ask what your take on it was.

Grenn wrote:

Question for bekkilyn. You're reading Don Quixote. Just about every depiction I've seen of that portrays him as a dreamer ahead of his time, but recently I saw a video where the person referred to the titular character as a menace and the overall story as a cautionary tale. Having never read the source material, I wanted to ask what your take on it was.

I'd say he's both a dreamer and a menace depending on the perspective of who is observing him. He has a pretty violent temper when he believes his knight errantry is being offronted, and seems to often take out the offenses on innocent people who he mistakes for monsters or people they aren't. I'm not sure I'd agree with him being "ahead of his time" because he primarily causes a lot of trouble for people while oftentimes thinking that he is being helpful. I believe Cervantes is poking fun at all the chivalry tropes through these adventures.

I'm only about halfway through the book though, so my perspective still has plenty of time to change.

r013nt0 wrote:

Been a while since I posted in here so I have a few. Some I may have posted before but I don't think so.

-The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther by Jeffrey Haas. Very interesting true story about the murder and subequent court cases surrounding this atrocious event, written by the Panthers' lawyer.

-Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America by Nancy MacLean (the William H. Chafe Professor of History and Public Policy at Duke University.) Book is about modern Libertarians like Charles Koch, the ways in which they are actively enacting their agenda as we speak, and how it all ties back to the anti-governemnt sentiments of Post-bellum Southern Ruling-Class elites like John C. Calhoun. Extremly good, and frightening, book.

-How Trump Stole 2020 by Greg Palast. Deals primarily with voter suppression. This is the guy who brought the lawsuit against Brian Kemp in Georgia. And won. He has been hired by Stacey Abrams.

-Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America by Sarah Kendzior. Sarah specializes in authoritarian regimes and how they operate. She sounded the alarm bells about trump back in 2016 and has called his every move long before he made it. She exhaustively details his ties with the Russian mafia. All of the newly un-redacted information we're receiving in the last few days from Comey's investigation she wrote about in 2017.

That brings me to:
The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin. Gotta admit, I'm having a hard time forcing myself to read this one. It isn't that it's bad, exactly. The premise is interesting. Her writing is unique and good, as usual. It's just that...
Spoilering not for plot reasons but to protect any New Yorkers in the thread:

Spoiler:

I would rather spend a month at the International Conference of Militant Vegans while wearing a shirt that says "I love eating meat" than spend a single minute listening to a New Yorker spout off about how unique and special their city is. It isn't. You never hear that stuff out of people from London. Or Rome. Or Venice. Or Chicago. It's always and only New Yorkers who behave this way. This must be what American Exceptionalism sounds like to people not from here, I'd imagine.

So yeah, it's a bit hard to get through.

I'm putting that down for a bit and just picked up Reaganland by Rick Perlstein, which just came out today. About the Southern Strategy and whatnot.

Spoiler:

I’m not sure about that, I feel London often gets the same treatment. The Rivers of London series and a Madness of Angels being two examples. Both are excellent btw.

On the topic, and related to the spoiler, I am currently reading the most recent entry in the Rivers of London series. So far I am quite enjoying it, it is a departure in someways from the rest of the series but the humor and attention to detail I enjoy are still there. The chronology reminds me of somebody who recently read Use of Weapons by Banks and was inspired.

bekkilyn wrote:
Grenn wrote:

Question for bekkilyn. You're reading Don Quixote. Just about every depiction I've seen of that portrays him as a dreamer ahead of his time, but recently I saw a video where the person referred to the titular character as a menace and the overall story as a cautionary tale. Having never read the source material, I wanted to ask what your take on it was.

I'd say he's both a dreamer and a menace depending on the perspective of who is observing him. He has a pretty violent temper when he believes his knight errantry is being offronted, and seems to often take out the offenses on innocent people who he mistakes for monsters or people they aren't. I'm not sure I'd agree with him being "ahead of his time" because he primarily causes a lot of trouble for people while oftentimes thinking that he is being helpful. I believe Cervantes is poking fun at all the chivalry tropes through these adventures.

I'm only about halfway through the book though, so my perspective still has plenty of time to change.

Ok, that's kind of in keeping with what the video said. I'll throw you a link to it after you're reading it if you remind me.

Grenn wrote:

After the latest Dresden Files is in the bag, I'm going back to Dune Messiah. Last time I attempted the Dune series, I only got to Children of Dune before I scratched my head and quit. I think I can finish it this time. And by finish, I mean Chapterhouse: Dune. I haven't decided if I'll let Kevin J. Anderson finish the series for me.

We're both Duning it up! Just recently wrapped up Messiah, which already puts me ahead of past me. But I don't know about pushing forward if it gets sloggy. We'll see.

Grenn wrote:
bekkilyn wrote:
Grenn wrote:

Question for bekkilyn. You're reading Don Quixote. Just about every depiction I've seen of that portrays him as a dreamer ahead of his time, but recently I saw a video where the person referred to the titular character as a menace and the overall story as a cautionary tale. Having never read the source material, I wanted to ask what your take on it was.

I'd say he's both a dreamer and a menace depending on the perspective of who is observing him. He has a pretty violent temper when he believes his knight errantry is being offronted, and seems to often take out the offenses on innocent people who he mistakes for monsters or people they aren't. I'm not sure I'd agree with him being "ahead of his time" because he primarily causes a lot of trouble for people while oftentimes thinking that he is being helpful. I believe Cervantes is poking fun at all the chivalry tropes through these adventures.

I'm only about halfway through the book though, so my perspective still has plenty of time to change.

Ok, that's kind of in keeping with what the video said. I'll throw you a link to it after you're reading it if you remind me.

I'll probably not remember by that time, so if you want to throw me the link now, I'll put it in Google Keep as a reminder to watch when I'm done reading!

For anyone else that may want to see it.