This is a chance to share what you’ve read recently, what you’re reading right now, and what you’re looking forward to reading soon.
If you want, you can also go hard mode: pick a TV show you like and then recommend a book to other people who like that show!
I’ll get things started: I just gave up on Mircea Cartarescu's Solenoid, which I’ve been trying to make myself finish for about 18 months. It’s a vaguely postmodern, definitely metafictional account of growing up in Romania, with lots of House of Leaves moments and more than a few instances of magical realism.
It is, in other words, a book that sounded perfect for me. It won lots of awards, too. But I just can’t seem to enjoy reading it, and at page 268 (out of 672) I finally let myself give up.
I recently finished Sally Rooney’s Intermezzo. I’d enjoyed her other books well enough while reading them, but I’d be hard pressed to tell you even the basics of any of their plots. This one felt a bit more grabby, although I still don’t quite understand why she’s so popular.
I’m also currently listening to the audiobook of Dan Simmons’s The Terror, about the 1845 expedition that attempted, and failed, to find the Northwest Passage. It’s fairly interesting so far, and it’s got a nice sense of impending doom that fits with my current mood. It would probably pair well with the television version, which is currently on Netflix in the US.
What about you? What are you reading?
Josie Kafka is a full-time cat servant and part-time rogue demon hunter. (What's a rogue demon?)
"The Terror" is actually a show that I never finished, despite it being right up my alley. Netflix doesn't have it, but there's a second season set during WWII in a Japanese internment camp that's supposed to be excellent.
ReplyDeleteI'm reading "Helter Skelter" right now, the Manson Family murders true crime novel by Vincent Bulgosi, who was the prosecutor. I read like half of it two years ago but life got busy so I'm restarting it. It goes into almost too much detail about everything leading up to the murders (I was far more interested in the trial itself), but it's fascinating.
Also going to plug his book "And The Sea Will Tell." It's such a tragedy with a great impending sense of doom. Again, there's a lot of time spent in the lead up to the murders, and again I found the trials to be the most interesting part. Bulgosi was the defense attorney here instead of the prosecutor, so it's a different view of things as well.
I read Helter Skelter on a family reunion trip when I was 18 and bored out of my mind. It was a "guest room book" in the house where we were staying. I will always associate it with the massive amounts of instant coffee I drank that week.
DeleteFor some reason, I remember parts of the book extremely well, even though that was 25 years ago. I liked the book enough that I tried to read And the Sea Will Tell, but couldn't get into it. I think I'm not a true crime fan. It was just Manson that got me hooked.
(Also, I was really interested in 1960s counterculture at the time I read Helter Skelter, so that might have kept me engaged.)
I'm reading the new James S.A. Corey book, The Mercy of Gods. Corey (who is actually two guys writing together) is the author of The Expanse, a book series I absolutely love. I also love the television series, but I like the books more. Especially the final few that didn't make it to the TV screen.
ReplyDeleteI was hoping to love this new book, which is the first of "The Captive's War." Appropriate name, since it's about humans as captives in a galactic war. But I'm three-quarters of the way through it and it's starting to seriously creep me out.
The latest Michael Connelly just came out, a Ballard/Bosch called The Waiting. I'm looking forward to it. His character Renee Ballard is about to become a series starring Maggie Q.
I finished The Mercy of Gods last night and it had a powerful ending after what felt like a bit too much meandering. I'm definitely interested in following the series.
DeleteI feel bad that while I used to be an avid and insatiable reader, I don't read like I used too. I still have a lot of books, including my favorites like Discworld, Dragonlance, and some military history books, but I also used to go the library all the time too.
ReplyDeleteCan we help? Do you want suggestions?
DeleteThanks, but I still own several I've never read. A big chunk of it is my phone, since I watch videos at meal time instead of reading, which is where a large chunk of my reading was. I also used to read a lot when running machines, as I could read while the parts were being ran, and stopped to change parts, inspect them, and so on, so got a ton of reading that way. Now that I'm in QC, not a thing so much anymore.
DeleteI'm halfway through Richard J Evans's three-book series on the history of the Third Reich, having finished The Coming of the Third Reich and now in the middle of The Third Reich in Power. If you want to know why you sometimes feel (as I do) that you're reliving the 20th century and things are not going to go well, read this series, which will have you muttering 'Well, that sure sounds familiar' a lot more than you'd like.
ReplyDeleteWhenever I've had a bit too much of the Nazis, I dig up a short story or two that I've downloaded from Tor.com (now stupidly renamed ReacTor.com).
Nomad, have you read any of Richard Overy's books? I read part of Twilight Years (about Britain between the wars) and really liked it. I simply didn't have time to finish it.
DeleteTimothy Snyder is also an interesting writer on fascism and authoritarianism. He's got a free newsletter if you want to dip your toes into his work.
I miss tor.com! I used to check it daily. The new Reactor.com layout turns me off so much that I almost never visit the website.
I haven't read Overy or Snyder yet. I've read William Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich and Berlin Diary, and Erik Larson's amazing In the Garden of Beasts, about FDR's ambassador to Germany and his family in Berlin during the rise of the Nazis. Collins and LaPierre's Is Paris Burning is a bit over the top, but still great reading if only because of the incredible unlikelihood of all of the events in it. Hannah Arendt is required reading, of course. I have some books by Ian Kershaw and Max Hastings that I haven't got to yet, as well.
DeleteIf you want a good alternative history, Jo Walton's Small Change Trilogy, starting with Farthing is pretty good.
So much good stuff out there; hard to get to all of it.
And agreed about tor.com. I read it through my RSS reader these days because I hate their redesign so much.
DeleteI read the Small Change Trilogy years ago and really liked it.
DeleteThose are her books that have the Mitford sisters in them, right? I'd had no idea who they were; we don't learn about them in the US.
I confess to only having read the first one, and I think the Mitford sisters — or their alternate timeline equivalents — appear in the second, which is on my stack to read. Maybe that's one I should start tonight! (Nazis are getting a bit hard to take again.)
DeleteI've always been a reader (and I've very proud that my daughter has become a librarian), but after a series of life-altering traumas, I found I couldn't really read anymore. That is, I couldn't concentrate well enough to follow the plot or keep track of the characters. It was just one more thing to grieve. Ultimately, I got back on the horse by choosing to read something that was simple (no need to ponder or decode) and a page-turner. Lee Child's Reacher series.
ReplyDeleteReacher is an uncomplicated character. The stories are engaging and easy to follow. The fantasy of justice being served (often bypassing corrupt systems) is cathartic. It has been the perfect series to help me rewire my brain and enable my "reading muscles" to begin working again.
I just finished the Stephen King "Mr. Mercedes" trilogy (loved it) and a book about Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel ("Opposable Thumbs") that was really fun and dishy.
The Reacher books have led me to authors like Harlan Coben and Michael Koryta (who has become a new favorite).
Because I live an hour from work, I have a lot of time in the car for music, podcasts and audiobooks. Just finished "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy, which is beautiful and brutal. Before that I listened to the LOTR trilogy and Max Brooks' "Devolution" (featuring the wonderful Judy Greer).
I really admire people who can listen to audiobooks while driving. In a car, they put me to sleep.
DeleteI listen to them on walks, which for some reason is totally fine.
You might like the Lincoln Lawyer book series, and if you do the Netflix adaptation is different enough that you could enjoy both.
DeleteScott, congratulations to your daughter from another librarian! :)
DeleteAnonymous, I'm a huge Michael Connelly fan -- I read every novel of his as soon as it comes out, and I have enjoyed all of Bosch and the Lincoln Lawyer television serieseses.
The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho is the book I'm currently reading. Nearly finished. Very simple yet inspiring.
ReplyDeleteAlso, slowly making my way through The Fellowship of the Ring for the first time. As well as a couple of audiobooks.
Completely off topic: some of Doux's writers (but mainly Mikey) might appreciate this...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.instagram.com/p/DBV5BgjxL5-/?img_index=1
I've been kind of on a kick of reading fantasy authors working in non-Western mythologies/histories (R.F. Kuang Babel, the Poppy Wars Trilogy), Rebecca Roanhorse (Black Sun Trilogy), and S.A. Chakraborty (Daevabad Trilogy). Also recently read Red Side Story, the LONG-awaited to sequel to Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde and Ann Leckie's latest book, Translation State.
ReplyDelete