Books: What have you been reading?

[LastActionHero]

Reading the pelican brief. Gotta love the classics.

[LastActionHero]

Also trending: The song of ice and fire!

[Dante Milton]

Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith, a novel, set in a dying town in Iowa, featuring a protagonist with an interest in documenting history, struggling with defining himself. Also has an invasion of giant man-sized praying mantis-like bugs that may end the world as we know it. I enjoyed this one. The quieter moments were very real, and truly felt. the more WTF moments were entertaining and explained in such a way as to be mostly believable.

I'll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson, also a novel, about a set of twins, loss, love, family, superstition, and art. Jumps back and forth in time over a span of about three years. Very enjoyable, particularly if you have a background in art. Some passages here describing the creative process that are just really beautiful.

Currently reading the Awake in the Dark series by McBain and Vargas. Still a bit early to say whether I like it or not.

[Malvolio]

Shattered by Dean R. Koontz

[Freako]

Lately biographies, damn good ones, on Lafayette, Voltaire, and Thomas Jefferson. The most important one I've read recently, somewhat recently, is Bloodlands Europe between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy Snyder. It covers the Eastern European horrors from the deliberate starvation of Ukraine in the 30's until after the end of WW11. The first Holocaust museum in America is near my house. I've been there and wondered why non-Jewish Poles were given little attention when so many were killed or sent to the Gulag. This book also covers the Ukrainian starvation by Stalin and many other atrocities in the Eastern European realm (bloodlands) during Nazi and/or Soviet control. Well researched and possibly the best account of the region ever by an author who knew many of the languages and researched in many of the country's archives.

[Deathstroke]

I finished the Bruce DeSilva novel Rogue Island today.

[DebkoX]

I have a strange reading method:

Girl on the train - Oh my, I can see the hype instantly. The story is pretty hooking, it CAN be predictable at times though.
Flash, volume 1, new 52 - I likes

[Detox]

Just finished The Stranger by Harlen Coben

[bloodofthegods]

More than halfway through Justine (The Misfortune of Virtues) as my first of Marquis de Sade's writings. And I have to say for having read much about Sade, his life, politics and people's opinions on him, I have to say I am quite surprised with the material. I can reaccuring theme and point Sade's making with each instances of Justine's virtues causing her misfortune. His intent to convince or at least proclaim his point is pretty blatant. But the fiction, the events that make the story so that Sade has characters to prove his point are interesting. I'll hopefully be able to finish it this weekend and see where the story ends. What is Justine's final assessment? Virtue or vice?

[Fenris]

As I said, I really liked it. Seveneves definitely suffers from some of Stephenson's usual flaws (infodumps, endings, stock villains), but if you like his work or hard science fiction in general, it's pretty damn good.

Also, any novel that has a thinly-veiled Neil deGrasse Tyson as one of its main characters is all right by me.

I enjoyed the first two-thirds. It was kind of refreshing to see how irreducibly hard space travel is, when you don't have magic hand-waving stuff like artificial gravity or an endless fuel supply. (This probably shows that I'm reading too much space opera.)

The last third lost me completely. I kept thinking, "It's been five thousand years! Why are they naming habitats after old Earth cities? And constantly referencing the old crew? Has nothing at all happened since then?"

That's probably kind of unfair; Stephenson had a limited amount of space to present an entirely-new culture, so of course he used references that the audience is familiar with. But this is the guy who wrote Anathem, which I really really loved; I was hoping for some serious worldbuilding, and didn't get it.


õ
But two-thirds is still pretty decent!

[Freako]

I just finished reading Last Words by George Carlin. Now I'm reading The Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB's: A Secret History of Jewish Punk by Steven Lee Beeber.

How was it? I thought about getting it. A lot of them were Jews.

[Malvolio]

It was mostly good. A little bit of it was just lists of Jews in the industry, but most of it was interesting. I didn't buy it, though. It was on display at the library, and when I read the title and saw Joey Ramone on the cover, I just had to check it out.

[DebkoX]

I finished 'Girl On The Train', whatever you read this year. I implore you read it, the best book I have ever read.

Really? You may ask, well I finished it in eight days and I have full-time college and a job.

Yes.

[BaneBreaker]

Doctor Sleep by Stephen King. It's okay so far, could be my last King book.

[Cinnamon]

I'm reading Addicted, the (auto)biography by Tony Adams from Arsenal fame.

So far, it's pretty good. It gives a pretty good insight in the mind of an alcoholic and the mind of a professional athlete.