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Whatcha readin now? (book, books, reading, read) (7 Viewers)

Swing 51 said:
Finished NOS4A2 by Joe Hill. Pretty good. Can see a lot of his Dad in Hill's writing.
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I think that was intentional in NOS4A2. There are so many hidden (& not so hidden) references to Dad's works that it had to be. I got the impression that Hill wrote this as kind of an homage to King, though it stands very well on its own.

I think Hill's a little sneakier and has more finesse than King, who is more muscular and straight-forward. Hill's also funnier, IMO. I believe the knowledge that JH is SK's kid has a lot to do with the perception that their styles are similar.

In any case, both are very, very good writers (most of King's problems are structural) and are automatic buys for me when they release something new.

 
The_Man said:
Loving the McCarthy talk. There's been a lot of Blood Meridian talk in here from time to time. I think it's brilliant, but I feel that way about pretty much all of his stuff (though maybe the Border Trilogy's a bit soft). Suttree is probably my favorite of all.

My son rows, so i just read "The Boys in the Boat," about the 1936 U.S. Olympic crew team. Very good - if you liked Seabiscuit or Unbroken, you will like it. If you didn't, then you won't.
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Liked Seabiscuit a lot and absolutely loved Unbroken. I have a friend who swears that a lot of Unbroken is made up (not by the author, but by the subject) - "a lot of it could never be verified" and the like. I don't agree with him, but it doesn't really matter to me. There's enough that IS verifiable to make this an amazing story. And Hildebrand is a really, really good writer.

I think Angelina Jolie is putting together a film adaptation of the book. And I thought I read - don't remember where - that it's being written by Joel & Ethan Coen.

 
Uruk-Hai said:
The_Man said:
Loving the McCarthy talk. There's been a lot of Blood Meridian talk in here from time to time. I think it's brilliant, but I feel that way about pretty much all of his stuff (though maybe the Border Trilogy's a bit soft). Suttree is probably my favorite of all.

My son rows, so i just read "The Boys in the Boat," about the 1936 U.S. Olympic crew team. Very good - if you liked Seabiscuit or Unbroken, you will like it. If you didn't, then you won't.
Click to expand...
Liked Seabiscuit a lot and absolutely loved Unbroken. I have a friend who swears that a lot of Unbroken is made up (not by the author, but by the subject) - "a lot of it could never be verified" and the like. I don't agree with him, but it doesn't really matter to me. There's enough that IS verifiable to make this an amazing story. And Hildebrand is a really, really good writer.

I think Angelina Jolie is putting together a film adaptation of the book. And I thought I read - don't remember where - that it's being written by Joel & Ethan Coen.
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Hillenbrand is a terrific writer. Unfortunately, she has severe Chronic Fatigue Syndrome so it took her almost ten years to write each of her books. Not sure we'll get anything else from her anytime soon.

 
Found a couple of authors I've been digging recently. Jo Nesbo does the Norwegian mystery series bit, and imo does it much better than "The Girl" series. He has about 8 novels translated into English so far. I started with The Snowman which was excellent and am reading The Redbreast which is also very good.

Craig Johnson does the Longmire series. Older sheriff from Wyoming, lots of Indian tie-ins, good mysteries. A & E made a terrible TV series based on the books (the very large, very intimidating Indian is played by Lou Diamond Phillips; the Italian, dark haired, olive skinned deputy is played by Starbuck from BSG <_< ), but the books are really well written.

 
shuke said:
Next up: Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said by Philip K ****.
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:loco:

This has been on my "need to read" list for a very long time. Pretty disappointing. Maybe I just didn't get it.

Next up: Joyland by King. I'm sucker for coming-of-age stories, especially against the backdrop of horror/thriller plot.

 
Just finished both of Josh Bazell's two books--hilarious, fun and nasty: the first is Beat the Reaper.

Others recently read:

19Q4 by Murakami, which I considered brilliant. But it is dense at times. If you like DeLillo--I loved DeLillo and Underworld is one of my favorite books--you will like it, I think.

Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Chabon, which was about what I expected: a clever, angsty, immature but well written first novel about college life. But I am a Chabon fan and so I have to read everything he has written.

I read Mitchell's Number 9 Dream because I didnt want to start with Cloud Atlas. I loved it. Guy is brilliant: serious chops.

 
shuke said:
shuke said:
Next up: Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said by Philip K ****.
Click to expand...
:loco:

This has been on my "need to read" list for a very long time. Pretty disappointing. Maybe I just didn't get it.

Next up: Joyland by King. I'm sucker for coming-of-age stories, especially against the backdrop of horror/thriller plot.
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Currently reading Joyland. It's decent, nothing special.

 
I finished American Elsewhere the other day. Pretty good, but long. The ending was kind of King-ish, which was a bit of a let-down but I liked the main character a lot.

I'm now finally on Gone Girl. I was hooked by the 2nd chapter. I guess I'm 40% in and have no clue where it's going. Very good so far.

 
Finally got back to and finished American Gods. For some reason I found it really hard to make it through. Now reading Good Omens, and while I am enjoying it more than American Gods, still don't have that the same urgency to read it that I have with books I'm really enjoying. Pretty sure I'm just not a Gaiman fan, although people have told me that Pratchett's voice was way more prominent in Good Omens. Or maybe it's just the genre, I often find "modern day" books hard to read, I think I just thought with the addition of "gods" that these would hold my interest more.

 
Maelstrom said:
Finally got back to and finished American Gods. For some reason I found it really hard to make it through. Now reading Good Omens, and while I am enjoying it more than American Gods, still don't have that the same urgency to read it that I have with books I'm really enjoying. Pretty sure I'm just not a Gaiman fan, although people have told me that Pratchett's voice was way more prominent in Good Omens. Or maybe it's just the genre, I often find "modern day" books hard to read, I think I just thought with the addition of "gods" that these would hold my interest more.
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I didn't care for American Gods the first time. I re-read it about six months later at the urging of a friend and really, really liked it a lot more.

If you don't like Good Omens, well then may God have mercy on your soul...

 
JFT Ben said:
'Socrates11 said:
Friend of mine turned me onto the Sandman Slim books. Sandman Slim: A Novel

Read the first two and just started number 3. They read quick and are quite entertaining if you're into the supernatural and violence.
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Thanks for the advice, am picking the first Sandman Slim book up from the library.Just finished "Time and again" by Jack Finney, which was the book recommended by Stephen King at the end of 11/22/63. It was ok, but not recommended.
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Just did this double-dip too. Agree with the sentiments that the second half of 11/22/63 really did fall off. Last 25% of the book wasn't terrible but wasn't as clever as I hoped.

"Time and Again" was a bit difficult. I understand the acclaim. Mesmerizing at times putting you into "Manhattan" in 1882. Just think the two romantic relationships could have been developed better. Well any development would have been nice.

 
Currently reading "Gulp: Adventures in the Alimentary Canal" by Mary Roach. Roach has been called "Americas funniest science writer" and I have to agree...love all of her books. She does a ton of personal research, her books are extremely informative, and she's very funny in the way she delivers it. Laugh and learn at the same time. Also recommend her other books:

Packing For Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void

Bonk:The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex

Spook:Science Tackles the Afterlife

Stiff:The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

 
Reading the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

Very interesting read about the woman behind the cell cultures most of the scientists in the world use for testing everything from cosmetics to viruses.

 
I'm about 100 pages into Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas.

It's a fascinating true story about Dietrich Bonhoeffer who led the Confessing Church resistance to the Nazis and even participated in an assassination attempt on Hitler. He was killed in a concentration camp just a few days before its liberation.

 
Anyone read anything by Victor LaValle? His stories and books usually involve mental illness and take place in Queens. Really funny, dark themes. I've read all of this stuff so far: short-story collection, Slapboxing with Jesus and three novels, The Ecstatic, Big Machine and The Devil in Silver.

He is only 41 so hopefully he'll be around for a while.

 
Foosball God said:
Reading the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

Very interesting read about the woman behind the cell cultures most of the scientists in the world use for testing everything from cosmetics to viruses.
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Read this last year. Excellent, but disturbing, book. Highly recommended! As a science teacher I used this story in our discussions if scientific/medical ethical issues.

 
Read Wool due to all the praise in this thread. Finished it last night and I think I started it in May. Read it much slower than I usually read books. I thought it was pretty good but not great. I never really got into it. Perhaps my expectations were too high from what you all have said.

Some complaints:

  • [*]Characters were static and boring.
    [*][*]I was really bothered by the outlandish coincidences with the radio contact
    between silos. The people from Mechanical just happen to stumble on to the
    other silo's frequency at the exact moment Jules is communicating with
    Solo. What are the odds? Stuff like that bothers me and I think it's
    lazy writing.
Anyways, this thread has provided some great recommendations over the years. Particulary Skippy Dies which is one of my favorite books of all time. Hopefully the next one I read will be better.

 
Currently listening to Wind Through The Keyhole by Stephen King, digital audiobook from library app. I am a bit tired of King's desire to write a novella and then wrap a novella around it and call it a novel. This story in a story crap gets old, However, here he goes story in a story in a story... yeah. Ok despite the breakup of the stories. I'd also much reather hear a story about Jake, Eddie, Susanna, Roland and Oy. To bad they are used only as the intro to the other stories.

Reading the 1st book in the Wheel of Time series. I have the whole series minus books 5 and 9. I'll find them used by the time I need them or audiobook them.

Also reading Abraham Lincoln: vampire Hunter.

 
[SIZE=medium]Finished Feed by Mira Grant last night. Though the zombie genre is a bit saturated right now, I had heard high praise so I gave it a shot. Good book. Light on action, not terribly intricate plot. But it went in a direction I didn’t really see coming, really pulling me in for the final part of the book. It’s the first in a trilogy and I think it’s good enough to keep going to see what happens next.[/SIZE]

 
[SIZE=medium]Also finished Live by Night by Dennis Lehane. Awesome book. Story of a cop’s kid turned gangster and his rise up the ranks of Prohibition era criminal networks. Lehane is a terrific writer, and this was no different. The progression of the novel, including some heart-wrenching twists and turns, was mesmerizing. [/SIZE]

 
Strange Rebels

The story of the year 1979 and how the events that year (focusing on England/Thatcher, Poland/Pope John Paul II, Iran/Ayatollah Khomeini, China/Deng Xiaoping and Afghanistan) still resonate today.

 
Juxtatarot said:
Read Wool due to all the praise in this thread. Finished it last night and I think I started it in May. Read it much slower than I usually read books. I thought it was pretty good but not great. I never really got into it. Perhaps my expectations were too high from what you all have said.

Some complaints:

[*]

[*]Characters were static and boring.

[*]

[*]I was really bothered by the outlandish coincidences with the radio contact

between silos. The people from Mechanical just happen to stumble on to the

other silo's frequency at the exact moment Jules is communicating with

Solo. What are the odds? Stuff like that bothers me and I think it's

lazy writing.
Click to expand...
Anyways, this thread has provided some great recommendations over the years. Particulary Skippy Dies which is one of my favorite books of all time. Hopefully the next one I read will be better.

Just starting Third Shift in the prequel series of Wool and while I was kinda like you with the tail Ed of Wool, I've really enjoyed this 3 book prequel. I tend to want to know the why it all happened with these books and he answered all the questions and has promised to tie them all together in the final book of the series.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
beer 302 said:
Juxtatarot said:
Read Wool due to all the praise in this thread. Finished it last night and I think I started it in May. Read it much slower than I usually read books. I thought it was pretty good but not great. I never really got into it. Perhaps my expectations were too high from what you all have said.

Some complaints:

  • Characters were static and boring.
  • I was really bothered by the outlandish coincidences with the radio contactbetween silos. The people from Mechanical just happen to stumble on to the

    other silo's frequency at the exact moment Jules is communicating with

    Solo. What are the odds? Stuff like that bothers me and I think it's

    lazy writing.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Anyways, this thread has provided some great recommendations over the years. Particulary Skippy Dies which is one of my favorite books of all time. Hopefully the next one I read will be better.
Just starting Third Shift in the prequel series of Wool and while I was kinda like you with the tail Ed of Wool, I've really enjoyed this 3 book prequel. I tend to want to know the why it all happened with these books and he answered all the questions and has promised to tie them all together in the final book of the series.Speaking of the final book "Dust" (aka Wool8/Silo 9) It's available on Amazon for pre-order and scheduled for release on the 17th of this month.

 
Finished I Wear the Black Hat by Chuck Klosterman. If you liked his other non-fiction books (Sex Drugs Cocoa Puffs, Fargo Rock City, etc), you'd like this, but it's not quite as good as those. Way better than his fiction stuff.

Currently reading On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins. really good - non-fictional overview of how the brain processes info in layman's terms.

I'm on vacation next week and I'm going to start Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews. Seems like a good beach book.

 
Dracula by Bram Stoker

Good epistolary novel. It drags at times but overall it's a quality page turner. Fun and easy for a classic.

 
Brony said:
I'm on vacation next week and I'm going to start Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews. Seems like a good beach book.
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I'm almost 100 pages into Red Sparrow and am enjoying it greatly. The author is (supposedly) a 30-year CIA veteran and his account of the mechanics of present day spycraft between the US and Russia is great. The main characters are very engaging, and the writing is good, not just paint-by-numbers, which is my biggest complaint about a lot of genre fiction. Just an excellent summer read so far.

I just finished Brilliance by Marcus Sakey. It's set in a slightly alternative present-day, kind of like a realistic version of the X-Men. Instead of dressing up in costumes and being superheroes, the generation of extra-capable humans born since about 1986 are using their talents to make a fortune in the stock market, star in the NFL, etc., and the government sets up an NSA-type bureau to track them and make sure their talents are harnessed to ends that benefit the broader society. Those that rebel are terminated.

The alternative world the author creates is great, and it's a fun read overall. But the characters are kind of two-dimensional and the action is stock. Still, I enjoyed it a lot and look forward to the next book in the series - I feel like this might make a better movie than book, as the power of both main characters is to see things so quickly that it kind of slows down time and enables them to react, like "bullet time" in The Matrix, so that would be cooler to see than to read about.

I know there are a lot of sci-fi/action fans here and I think you'd like Brilliance a lot. Will report back on Red Sparrow when I'm finished.

 
Currently reading Moby ****. Tried it once when I was a kid but didn't make it very far. Already much farther into it this time, now that I'm ~ 45 years older. Still not an easy read, IMO, but interesting learning about all the different kinds of whales and whaling tools, etc.

Also just started Paul of Dune by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson

 
Reading Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell. Film version had Jennifer Lawrence as the lead in 2010.

This guy Woodrell is good. Awesome language which he describes as "country noir". Pretty bleak plots but really good. I read Tomato Red which took place in the Ozarks (one town over from where Winter's Bone is set). Both fictional towns.

I've also read a trilogy which takes place in a fictional city around New Orleans. That trilogy consists of Under the Bright Lights, Muscle for the Wing, and The Ones You Do.

I highly recommend Woodrell.

 
Bourbon Cowboy said:
Currently reading Moby ****. Tried it once when I was a kid but didn't make it very far. Already much farther into it this time, now that I'm ~ 45 years older. Still not an easy read, IMO, but interesting learning about all the different kinds of whales and whaling tools, etc.
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If I wanted to read a book on whaling I'd read a book on whaling. Well written but it's ultimately an awful book. Honestly, just read the last three chapters and you'll get just as much out of it.

 
cstu said:
Bourbon Cowboy said:
Currently reading Moby ****. Tried it once when I was a kid but didn't make it very far. Already much farther into it this time, now that I'm ~ 45 years older. Still not an easy read, IMO, but interesting learning about all the different kinds of whales and whaling tools, etc.
Click to expand...
If I wanted to read a book on whaling I'd read a book on whaling. Well written but it's ultimately an awful book. Honestly, just read the last three chapters and you'll get just as much out of it.
Click to expand...
I suspect you are right, but I am more than halfway and am committed. Or perhaps I should be committed. :gang2:

 
I'm shooting through Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe books. They're a lot of fun. I'm reading them out of order, not that it matters, but it's interesting to see how his writing style changed as he went along.

My favorite so far is The Long Goodbye.

 
I read Wool and still need to read Shift but I thought I'd pass along that Dust just came out so you can pick it up like I did.

 
How fast do all of you read? Read Ender's Game again. Took me 8-9 hours. Cheap paperback. 325 pages.

Reading a Simmons article and he said he read the Felders' Eagles book, 352 pages, in a few hours. I must be a slow reader.

 
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