Book Recommendations?

Really enjoyed the audio version of The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green

https://www.johngreenbooks.com/the-a...

Hearing it in the author’s voice makes the often personal essays even more compelling

Mixolyde wrote:
EverythingsTentative wrote:

Finished Tender is the Flesh last night and am looking for another horror themed book. I was thinking about Rosemary's Baby, but wasn't sure it held up. Anyone have any horror/Halloween recommendations?

Perdido Street Station is a slow build-up, but a truly terrifying ending. One of the most tense and scary books I have ever read.

Thanks for the reminder. I need to finish reading this. I quite liked what I read.

Mixolyde wrote:
EverythingsTentative wrote:

Finished Tender is the Flesh last night and am looking for another horror themed book. I was thinking about Rosemary's Baby, but wasn't sure it held up. Anyone have any horror/Halloween recommendations?

Perdido Street Station is a slow build-up, but a truly terrifying ending. One of the most tense and scary books I have ever read.

Intellectually, I'd love another Bas Lag book but I don't think I'm in the emotional space to handle one.

Maybe the Southern Reach Trilogy by VanderMeer?

Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin

A young woman named Amanda lies dying in a rural hospital clinic. A boy named David sits beside her. She’s not his mother. He’s not her child. Together, they tell a haunting story of broken souls, toxins, and the power and desperation of family.

Fever Dream is a nightmare come to life, a ghost story for the real world, a love story and a cautionary tale. One of the freshest new voices to come out of the Spanish language and translated into English for the first time, Samanta Schweblin creates an aura of strange psychological menace and otherworldly reality in this absorbing, unsettling, taut novel.

Another Audible sale (for members, I think) ending very soon. I nabbed Emily Wilson's translation of the Odyssey and Goldsworthy's tome on Caesar, among others.

I enjoyed the Poor Man's War series, but didn't particularly like it better or worse than the Frontlines series. I think they're trying to do very different things, and I still like the things Frontlines does differently (the authentic feel of being part of a large military machine, and the larger scale, the better sense of mystery and discovery from the first person style ), whilst also enjoying lots of things about PMW (the crazier Call of Duty style action scenes, the more complex political manoeuvring, the characterised baddies, and the growing realization in the baddies minds that this single injured guy on their ship full of guys is really going to piss on their chips). I'd put them both on a par with Jack Campbell, much better than BV Larson, but not as good as Old Man's War.

Getting The Hollow Tree and Tender is the Flesh tomorrow.
I am excited
I got them for my wife but I probably won't be able to resist picking one up.

I've heard Tender is the Felsh leaves scars. Enjoy!

I was on vacation last week, and got to start and finish five books.

Assassin's Quest by Robin Hobb: Started this series early this month, and while I had a few issues with the first book, I liked it enough to keep reading. I dig the first person limited perspective in this series. It helps that Fitz is one of the more likeable characters in fantasy. It's a really solid story, and a real improvement on Assassin's Apprentice (which felt a bit slow). I dug it, and went straight into...

Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb: End of the FarSeer Trilogy, and the first 90% is FANTASTIC. Hobb continued her approach of creating a wonderful character in Fitz that I deeply enjoy, and then making me watch in absolute horror as she absolutely torments the poor bastard. I really enjoyed the bulk of this book, but at about 85%, I began to get nervous that there were a lot of plot threads that hadn't been resolved. The last ten percent is a bit bewildering, as Hobb introduces some pretty massive concepts and frantically ties up all the last few threads. It felt rushed and a bit unsatisfying. With all that said, I'd still recommend the FarSeer Trilogy.

Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer: I watched this movie a few weeks ago and LOVED it, so I wanted to check out the book it's based on. They're wildly different, with the movie basically borrowing some imagery and beginning plot elements and then doing its own thing. It's a quick read, less than 200 pages, but I really dug it. It's unsettling as hell, with some horror elements that really stuck with me. It's not a great book for anyone who really needs concrete answers, but if you want something wholly unique, it's amazing. It wasn't the best thing I read this week, though, because I also read...

Jade City by Fonda Lee: The Sopranos set in a Chinese-influenced modern fantasy setting. This book was fantastic, beginning to end. I tore through it in a single day, and ordered the second and pre-ordered the third before I was done. I've read a lot of fantasy novels this year, but this is by far my favorite. The magic system is really well done, the characters are rich and complicated, the plot did not go where I thought it would, and the world-building is unique and incredible. So damn good, and I'm 20% into Jade War already. While I waited for it to arrive, I read...

Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller: A few people recommended this retelling of the story of Achilles from the perspective of Patroclus, his boyhood friend and eventually soulmate and lover. I know this was a pretty big phenomenon a few years ago (my daughter told me that half her class was reading it for a while), and I can completely understand why. It's a tremendously sweet romance, and the knowledge of just how doomed their relationship is really adds a lot. That being said, it got a bit exhausting in the final third. Achilles constantly asking Patroclus, "Why would I ever want to fight Hector? He's never done anything to me," felt like the author elbowing me in the side, saying, "Get it? DO YOU GET THE TRAGIC IRONY?!" I still liked it okay, but that did get a bit old.

I'm trying to hit 75 books read by the end of the year. I'm at 56 now, so I think I can get it done. Next on my list are to finish Jade War, the Scholomance series by Naomi Novik, and to see if I can't get through the book 7 through 11 slog of Wheel of Time so I can finally mark that series as read.

Damn, trichy, I'm impressed.

I just read The Iliad for a class and while I loved it, I don't understand how in nine years Achilles and Hector never once crossed swords or killed each other's friends.

trichy wrote:

Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb ...watch in absolute horror as she absolutely torments the poor bastard.

If you continue on in her world of the Elderlings, and I highly recommend it, there's ... a lot more torment ahead. Each series in the world explores a bit more of the various magics and aspects of the world. I thought The Rain Wilds Chronicles was perhaps the weakest of the series, but still very enjoyable. The final chapters of Assassin's Fate, the last of the Fitz trilogies,... just beautiful.

Also 5 books in a week (and some of those aren't light)? Also impressed.

Pirate Bob wrote:
trichy wrote:

Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb ...watch in absolute horror as she absolutely torments the poor bastard.

If you continue on in her world of the Elderlings, and I highly recommend it, there's ... a lot more torment ahead. Each series in the world explores a bit more of the various magics and aspects of the world. I thought The Rain Wilds Chronicles was perhaps the weakest of the series, but still very enjoyable. The final chapters of Assassin's Fate, the last of the Fitz trilogies,... just beautiful.

Also 5 books in a week (and some of those aren't light)? Also impressed.

I think Hobb is responsible for more of my tears from reading than all other authors that I've read combined. Big, wet sloppy tears, that have been for reasons both happy and sad and sometimes both.

Scholomance and its sequel are some of Novik's best work. I think there's a third in the works? But great stuff.

trichy wrote:

I'm trying to hit 75 books read by the end of the year. I'm at 56 now, so I think I can get it done. Next on my list are to finish Jade War, the Scholomance series by Naomi Novik, and to see if I can't get through the book 7 through 11 slog of Wheel of Time so I can finally mark that series as read.

Be warned that the second Scholomance book ends on one hell of a cliffhanger, and the third won't be out for at least a year.

Robear wrote:

Scholomance and its sequel are some of Novik's best work. I think there's a third in the works? But great stuff.

Do you like them better than her Spinning Silver and Uprooted (which I won but have not yet read?)

Badferret wrote:
Pirate Bob wrote:
trichy wrote:

Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb ...watch in absolute horror as she absolutely torments the poor bastard.

If you continue on in her world of the Elderlings, and I highly recommend it, there's ... a lot more torment ahead. Each series in the world explores a bit more of the various magics and aspects of the world. I thought The Rain Wilds Chronicles was perhaps the weakest of the series, but still very enjoyable. The final chapters of Assassin's Fate, the last of the Fitz trilogies,... just beautiful.

Also 5 books in a week (and some of those aren't light)? Also impressed.

I think Hobb is responsible for more of my tears from reading than all other authors that I've read combined. Big, wet sloppy tears, that have been for reasons both happy and sad and sometimes both.

Dammit… I was really hoping the next book would just be Fitz spending some time on a spa, really doing some work on him, you know?

fangblackbone wrote:

Getting The Hollow Tree and Tender is the Flesh tomorrow.
I am excited
I got them for my wife but I probably won't be able to resist picking one up.

If my recommendation pushed you over the edge on Tender is the Flesh, I hope you enjoy it. It's a doozie.

I ended up reading Rosemary's Baby and The Lord of the Flies. They both hole up well. Rosemary's baby is suffocating. I'm sure that's what Levin was going for. I'll have the push him up my list of must reads.

I've read a few chapters in Dethroned by Max Brooks and Perdido Street Station.

Natus, I have not read either of those, sorry. I do feel that she has grown as a writer since the Termeraire novels, which I liked very much on the whole, as a fan of Napoleonic stories and history.

Moving from book recommendations to library recommendations: Circumstances brought me to a rural part of North Dakota a little while ago, and now I’m looking for a library that will accept my money and grant me access to a large ebook selection in return.

Several lists of libraries offering non-resident cards circulated early in the pandemic but I don’t know which of those were temporary things and which still apply.

Libby-app compatibility and good SF selections are highly desirable.

misplacedbravado wrote:

Moving from book recommendations to library recommendations: Circumstances brought me to a rural part of North Dakota a little while ago, and now I’m looking for a library that will accept my money and grant me access to a large ebook selection in return.

Several lists of libraries offering non-resident cards circulated early in the pandemic but I don’t know which of those were temporary things and which still apply.

Libby-app compatibility and good SF selections are highly desirable.

The common one that people use to get the best selection of Overdrive books (Libby) is Brooklyn, NY, at $50 a year I believe. But there are others you can google around and find. Multiple sites like this with lists.

So I think I did something backwards. Ive been reading A little Hatred and The Trouble with Peace by Joe Abercombie. I didn't knw the First Law was the startof the series. Do I finish the trilogy or go back to the First Law?

Speaking of The First Law, I blasted through the first trilogy and really loved it. I'm now reading Best Served Cold, and will likely blow through the entire 10 book collection pretty quickly at this rate.

Best Served Cold and Red Country are quite good.

JohnKillo wrote:

So I think I did something backwards. Ive been reading A little Hatred and The Trouble with Peace by Joe Abercombie. I didn't knw the First Law was the startof the series. Do I finish the trilogy or go back to the First Law?

Finish and then go back and start fresh from The Blade Itself. The latest trilogy was a bit erratic, with book 2 being far better than 1 and 3. But you'll forget too much about the characters if you stop now and then come back after reading everything that came before it.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

Best Served Cold and Red Country are quite good.

Absurdly good.

Red Country might be my favorite book.

NathanialG wrote:

Red Country might be my favorite book.

Ever? This is Abercombie's series?

If my recommendation pushed you over the edge on Tender is the Flesh, I hope you enjoy it. It's a doozie.

Thank you for posting it. I got the books for my wife but ended up grabbing The Hollow Tree first. I am only 65 pages in but it is a very easy read and personable so far. (they are planting seeds so I am totally waiting for the bomb to drop any minute now...)

So I am lifelong fan of Tad Williams, and have read MST 10+ time, as well as most of his other series - the exception being the Bobby Dollar books, which i just began(on 2nd book now).

Very dark, violent and graphic - full of trigger warning material. If you haven't read, it is more like a GRRM take on detective noire, with a bit of after hours showtime tossed in. I'll finish the series, as is only 3 books, but so far I am not loving the content.

This isn't what i signed up for, Tad!