Whatcha readin now? (book, books, reading, read) (9 Viewers)

[MindCrime]

Finished the Wayward Pines trilogy last year. Just started Wayward Pines: Genesis. IMO, Steven Konkoly doing a great job providing a prequel to Crouch's work. Thumbs up so far.

Oooh, I didn’t know this existed, going on my list now. I also read the Pines trilogy last summer and loved it. 
 

Just finished Wool and Shift. Loved Wool, Shift was very good, it just took me a while to get into Solo as a character. I have Dust, but taking a quick break to read a library book before I have to return it.

Currently reading Gwendy’s Final Task (S. King and R. Chizmar). Very entrenched in politics of the last few years, also includes Covid references. Slow start, but finishing off the series, hoping it picks up.

 

[FairWarning]

1913 by Charles Emerson.  Basically a view of the major cities of the world leading up to WW1

http://1913: In Search of the World Before the Great War

 

[Barry]

Children of Time by  A Tchaikosvky. Pretty good sci fi. Not a page turner but consistent pace. Good but short climax.

 

[kupcho1]

Just finished a visit from the goon squad.  Fabulous book.  Really looking forward to the sequel.  

OK, perhaps it was wrong to call it a sequel.  I've seen it better described as a "sibling".  Whatever you want to call it, it was great.  You don't have to have read a visit from the goon squad to enjoy The Candy House, but it would help make it more rewarding.

From the NYT:

It comes alive in dozens of entwined stories, in connections and convergences, in scenes set at country clubs, on rocky shores in the south of France, in recording studios, in backyards where neighbors fight like children over property lines.

“The Candy House” is a trim 334 pages, but it has a dwarf-star density. 

Big

 

[steelerfan1]

The World Played Chess

Just started it. liking it so far.

I think this is worth a read for anyone into coming of age stories. Goes back and forth from a few different time periods ranging from the Vietnam war through 2017.

 

[Uruk-Hai]

I've been flying through books the last year or two and can't recall all that I've read. 

For genre fans, I've been on a Jeffrey Ford and Daryl Gregory kick recently. Check 'em out if you're unfamiliar - both are really good.

I'm reading A Man Called Ove by a Swedish writer whose name I can't recall. It's "straight" fiction and is pretty good so far.

I did read Mexican Gothic a while back. It had been getting a ton of buzz. I thought it was just ok, though I can see why it was hyped in certain circles.

 

[Uruk-Hai]

I think this is worth a read for anyone into coming of age stories. Goes back and forth from a few different time periods ranging from the Vietnam war through 2017.

I'll check it out - thanks!

 

[Don Quixote]

My plan is to take the Sea of Tranquility with me on the kiddo's spring break next week, and then will have to decide what to read after that.

Finished up Emily St. John Mandel’s Sea of Tranquility. Really liked it — thought it was better than Station Eleven, but I was only so-so on that one. Time travel elements worked pretty well with some philosophy on life thrown in.

I’ve got Douglas Stuart’s Young Mungo up next. Reviews have been pretty glowing on it.

 

[beer 30]

Just started By Water Beneath the Walls by Ben Milligan. It documents the birth and early history of the SEALs. Only one chapter in so far but liking it. Needed a break from the Wheel of Time slog.

 

[Poke_4_Life]

I've been flying through books the last year or two and can't recall all that I've read. 

For genre fans, I've been on a Jeffrey Ford and Daryl Gregory kick recently. Check 'em out if you're unfamiliar - both are really good.

I'm reading A Man Called Ove by a Swedish writer whose name I can't recall. It's "straight" fiction and is pretty good so far.

I did read Mexican Gothic a while back. It had been getting a ton of buzz. I thought it was just ok, though I can see why it was hyped in certain circles.

Fredrik Backman, I've read most of his books.  Ove and Beartown were my favorites. 

 

[Poke_4_Life]

Finally read Killers of the Flower Moon, listened to on a road trip actually.  The true non-fiction novel takes place near where I grew up, so I felt obliged to read it.  The first part was pretty slow, the second and third parts were both better.  There's a movie in the works now.

Also still reading the Joe Pickett and Gabriel Allon series.  

 

[steelerfan1]

I'll check it out - thanks!

Please let me know what you think.

 

[Uruk-Hai]

Please let me know what you think.

I will. I'm maybe 20% in right now.

I'll say one thing that irks me a bit - and it seems more prevalent in books set in Boomer (of which I'm one) times - is the need to signpost so many cultural touchstones, and they start to feel wedged in. That's not just this book, though - it happens a lot with nostalgia works.

But I'm still on the positive side with it and will report back when finished.

 

[kupcho1]

Just started Mick Herron's Slow Horses, 1st in the Slough House series.  It's very good; looking forward to the next 7 (3 of which are locked and loaded).

 

[kupcho1]

Just started Mick Herron's Slow Horses, 1st in the Slough House series.  It's very good; looking forward to the next 7 (3 of which are locked and loaded).

Just finished the first 4 in the series by Mick Herron
Slow Horses
Dead Lions
Real Tigers
Spook Street

Absolutely incredible and include one of my all-time favorite literary characters in Jackson Lamb.  Which, now that I think about it, deserves its own thread.

 

[kupcho1]

Question: What would you get if you charged George R. R. Martin with writing a spy series that had a lead character that was a mash-up of George Smiley and Ignatius J. Reilly?  

Answer: Mick Herron's Slough House series.  I've finished books 5-7 (London Rules, Joe Country & Slough House) which are all very, very good.  Anxiously awaiting Bad Actors.  

I've been promoting this series for a while now.  You really do need to check it out.

 

[Poke_4_Life]

Question: What would you get if you charged George R. R. Martin with writing a spy series that had a lead character that was a mash-up of George Smiley and Ignatius J. Reilly?  

Answer: Mick Herron's Slough House series.  I've finished books 5-7 (London Rules, Joe Country & Slough House) which are all very, very good.  Anxiously awaiting Bad Actors.  

I've been promoting this series for a while now.  You really do need to check it out.

OK, OK.  I'll give it a whirl.  

Edit:  Guess the Apple TV buzz in full effect, ~11 week wait at my library.  

 

[facook]

Question: What would you get if you charged George R. R. Martin with writing a spy series that had a lead character that was a mash-up of George Smiley and Ignatius J. Reilly?  

Answer: Mick Herron's Slough House series.  I've finished books 5-7 (London Rules, Joe Country & Slough House) which are all very, very good.  Anxiously awaiting Bad Actors.  

I've been promoting this series for a while now.  You really do need to check it out.

Slow Horses is on the way from Amazon.  Looking forward to reading it once I finally finish the Thrawn Trilogy.

 

[kupcho1]

Slow Horses is on the way from Amazon.  Looking forward to reading it once I finally finish the Thrawn Trilogy.

That's great.  And the right book as you  definitely want to read them in order

 

[facook]

That's great.  And the right book as you  definitely want to read them in order

The tv trailer got me interested enough to look up the series but your gushing is what convinced me to pull the trigger. 

 

[Don Quixote]

I’ve got Douglas Stuart’s Young Mungo up next. Reviews have been pretty glowing on it.

Young Mungo may be the best new book that I’ve read in awhile. Incredible prose and story. The Scottish dialect takes some getting used to, but I didn’t want to end. Part coming of age story about a gay teen in Glasgow, and part horrific with some of the stuff that Young Mungo has to put up with.

I just ordered Stuart’s earlier novel, Shuggie Bain, and pretty sure I will read anything that Stuart puts out.

 

[kupcho1]

Young Mungo may be the best new book that I’ve read in awhile. Incredible prose and story. The Scottish dialect takes some getting used to, but I didn’t want to end. Part coming of age story about a gay teen in Glasgow, and part horrific with some of the stuff that Young Mungo has to put up with.

I just ordered Stuart’s earlier novel, Shuggie Bain, and pretty sure I will read anything that Stuart puts out.

Shuggie Bain was ok.  I read it a few months ago

 

[Osaurus]

I’m about half way through Flea’s Acid For the Children. He’s a very interesting guy. 

 

[Don Quixote]

Shuggie Bain was ok.  I read it a few months ago

A bit less excited about Shuggie Bain, seeing that you thought it was just ok. Some of the reviews have suggested that Young Mungo is better, although it has a similar formula as Shuggie Bain. I guess will see how I feel about it.

Going to read Amor Towles' The Lincoln Highway first to give myself a bit of a break before reading Shuggie Bain.

 

[beer 30]

In the Blood by Jack Carr book 5 in the James Reece saga. Love these books, came out Monday 

By Water Beneath the Walls by Ben Milligan history of the SEAL's, where they came from and how they got to be the unit they are today

 

[kupcho1]

Question: What would you get if you charged George R. R. Martin with writing a spy series that had a lead character that was a mash-up of George Smiley and Ignatius J. Reilly?  

OK, I promised myself I'd quit bringing this up, but here's Mick Herron on Slough House.  I think the parallels to a Song of Ice and Fire are quite clear (e.g., POVs from multiple characters, "I don't want readers to think any given character is safe from any harm that I might wish to bestow upon them.")

For those of you that have trouble with the written word, here's the audiobook for the 1st book:  Slow Horses on YouTube. 

 

[Uruk-Hai]

I have recently finished the following:

Dixie Lullaby - Mark Kemp. Shoutout to @simey for the recommendation. It's a study of music/politics/social issues told through the lens of the Southern Rock the author grew up on. It's not a dry work and the author has a good, conversational tone. I'd recommend this to any music fan, and also folks who are interested in the social issues of the south from the late '60s until the turn of the century. An interesting look at how southerners see themselves and how they feel how people from other regions see them. This guy doesn't pull punches and he's harder on himself than any of his other subjects - though his distaste for arena rock in the late '70/early '80s comes in a close second.

Last Exit - Max Gladstone. Fiction about a group of friends who tried to save the world when they were in college and lost one of their crew. Ten years later, the survivors reunite to try again. That's an idiotic description and doesn't begin to do this novel justice. I'd never read Gladstone before. He is fantastic with his characters. There are several gut punches in this one that ####ed me up, man. Highly recommended.

Born To Be Hanged - Keith Thompson. Non-fiction written almost as a novel, a la Erik Larsen. The author used several journals of the crewmembers on a pirate ship(s) that marauded the Spanish Main in the 1680s. This was a blast to read.

I'm on Daryl Gregory's Pandemonium right now. Like everything else I've read by him, it's awesome.

 

[kupcho1]

The Nickel Boys - Colson Whitehead

The Little Friend - Donna Tartt

Bad Actors - Mick Herron   This is #8 in the series and they just keep getting better.

 

[Don Quixote]

Going to read Amor Towles' The Lincoln Highway first to give myself a bit of a break before reading Shuggie Bain.

I thought The Lincoln Highway was just okay. Not as good as Towles’ A Gentleman in Moscow. Good pace to the story, but I found most of the characters pretty uninteresting.

Also read Erik Larsen’s The Splendid and The Vile, about Churchill and the Blitz during the WW2, mostly during Churchill’s first year as PM. I was not a fan of Devil in the White City, and was a bit hesitant on this one for that reason, but I did like this one more. It is told in a more conventional style.

Just started Shuggie Bain.

 

[shuke]

Finished Stephen King's Revival.

Typical good King storytelling, mixing in some rock and roll, drug addiction, and magic.  This really wasn't a horror story until near the end, and I will say that revelation at the climax was rather frightening.

 

[Joe Mammy]

I'm reading A Man Called Ove by a Swedish writer whose name I can't recall. It's "straight" fiction and is pretty good so far.

Great book! FYI- there is a movie and it's pretty good too.

 

[Joe Mammy]

Just finished "The Hush" by John Hart. This is the best page turning scary book I've read in some time. Reminiscent in some ways of The Stand. It definitely has King qualities. It is actually book 2 in the Johnny Merriman series after "The Last Child" which was also great just didn't blow me away like The Hush.

For some reason Amazon has them in reverse order even though Johnny is grown up in The Hush and it was released in 2018, while Last Child was in 2009 and he's only 13.

Looking forward to Hart's next release.

 

[parrot]

Fredrik Backman, I've read most of his books.  Ove and Beartown were my favorites. 

Haven't read A Man Called Ove, but another vote for Beartown.  

Currently reading Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road.  Not the sort of thing I would normally read but it's pretty interesting.   

 

[Sand]

Just started The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War.  Looks to be quite good.

My kids are both addicted to Dungeon Crawler Carl, which is ridiculously funny.

 

[krista4]

Just started The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War.  Looks to be quite good.

This was outside my usual type of book yet I loved it.  So fascinating, and I couldn't believe I didn't know about that guy.

Unfortunately it led me to try the book about Kim Philby by the same author, and after weeks of avoiding it and complaining to everyone who would listen about how much I hated it, I finally gave up.

 

[facook]

Just started The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War.  Looks to be quite good.

This was outside my usual type of book yet I loved it.  So fascinating, and I couldn't believe I didn't know about that guy.

Unfortunately it led me to try the book about Kim Philby by the same author, and a

Family tradition: I buy my Dad a good to great non-fiction book for Father's Day.  He reads it, spoils it for me (because he always thinks I've already read it) and then I read it and the pass it on to my now-17-year-old son.  It matters.

Thanks for giving me my family's FD gift this year, friends.

 

[shuke]

Just finished "The Hush" by John Hart. This is the best page turning scary book I've read in some time. Reminiscent in some ways of The Stand. It definitely has King qualities. It is actually book 2 in the Johnny Merriman series after "The Last Child" which was also great just didn't blow me away like The Hush.

For some reason Amazon has them in reverse order even though Johnny is grown up in The Hush and it was released in 2018, while Last Child was in 2009 and he's only 13.

Looking forward to Hart's next release.

Last Exit - Max Gladstone. Fiction about a group of friends who tried to save the world when they were in college and lost one of their crew. Ten years later, the survivors reunite to try again. That's an idiotic description and doesn't begin to do this novel justice. I'd never read Gladstone before. He is fantastic with his characters. There are several gut punches in this one that ####ed me up, man. Highly recommended.

Sold

 

[kupcho1]

The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes 

A novel so compelling that it begs to be read in a single setting

and given it is only 163 pages long, you can probably do so.  Great novel.

The Bomber Mafia - Malcom Gladwell 

You know what you're getting with Gladwell before you open the book and, as usual, he delivers.  This time on air power.  Learned a bit I didn't know (e.g., how napalm was developed and used in WW II; I'd always assumed Vietnam).  An enjoyable read.

 

[Don Quixote]

The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes 

and given it is only 163 pages long, you can probably do so.  Great novel.

Will have to check that one out. I liked “Arthur & George”, but haven’t read any of Barnes’ other stuff.

 

[kupcho1]

Ordinary Monsters - J.M. Miro

"Charles Dickens meets Joss Whedon in Miro’s otherworldly Netflix-binge-like novel." —The Washington Post

I concur.  A very good read and promising 1st book of the Talents trilogy.

 

[steelerfan1]

Just finished "The Hush" by John Hart. This is the best page turning scary book I've read in some time. Reminiscent in some ways of The Stand. It definitely has King qualities. It is actually book 2 in the Johnny Merriman series after "The Last Child" which was also great just didn't blow me away like The Hush.

Just got both. Thanks

 

[Joe Mammy]

Just got both. Thanks

I read the last 100 pages of The Hush outside by my pool late at night. My wife came out to say goodnight and startled the #### out of me- I almost leapt through the screen enclosure!  Careful.

 

[kupcho1]

Will have to check that one out. I liked “Arthur & George”, but haven’t read any of Barnes’ other stuff.

I liked Arthur & George as well (just finished it).  A nice piece of historical fiction.  I liked The Sense of an Ending better. 

 

[Lehigh98]

For some reason I though of "The Jaunt" from King's Skeleton Crew and downloaded and listened to that on the way back from the shore yesterday, still a good short story that has stuck in my head since I read it as a kid.  Will have to go through the rest of the collection (including "The Mist" again) while I'm driving around.

 

[The_Man]

Finished up Emily St. John Mandel’s Sea of Tranquility. Really liked it — thought it was better than Station Eleven, but I was only so-so on that one. Time travel elements worked pretty well with some philosophy on life thrown in.

I’ve got Douglas Stuart’s Young Mungo up next. Reviews have been pretty glowing on it.

Heard great things about Sea of Tranquility but there was a long wait to get it, so I read her The Glass Hotel while I waited for it. It turns out the 2 are interlocking stories - I liked Glass Hotel but loved Sea of Tranquility, though I wouldn't have liked it nearly as much without reading Glass Hotel first. It definitely had echoes of Cloud Atlas which I like a lot. And there was some great meta stuff in which one of the book's characters was clearly based on Mandel's experience of going on a book tour about a pandemic book as a pandemic broke out

One of the best books I've read in a long time is Alpha by David Philipps about the Navy SEAL who was court martialed for murder in Iraq, then pardoned by Trump. A compelling story in its own right, with very thoughtful contemplation of duty and what can happen if a team of highly trained and motivated killers, charged with operating outside the system, loses sight of their mission and begins killing for its own sake. Hopefully that doesn't make it sound boring because it was a page-turner

 

[Uruk-Hai]

Heard great things about Sea of Tranquility but there was a long wait to get it, so I read her The Glass Hotel while I waited for it. It turns out the 2 are interlocking stories - I liked Glass Hotel but loved Sea of Tranquility, though I wouldn't have liked it nearly as much without reading Glass Hotel first. It definitely had echoes of Cloud Atlas which I like a lot. And there was some great meta stuff in which one of the book's characters was clearly based on Mandel's experience of going on a book tour about a pandemic book as a pandemic broke out

I have Sea Of Tranquility sitting on my Kindle. I've read both Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel, and discovered I have to be in the right frame of mind to read Mandel. She's very, very talented but - to me, anyway - idiosyncratic in style and that can make it hard for me to dive in just any old time.

I've been burning through Joe Landsdale and Daryl Gregory lately.

Right now, I'm reading Donald Ray Pollack's Knockemstiff. It's a series of short stories set in a southern Ohio town that gives the book its title. The stories take place in different time periods, but characters recur in several of them. This can be some tough reading, as many of these folks are severely broken. It's good, though, and the author definitely has a compelling voice.

 

[Don Quixote]

Took Olga Tokarczuk's The Books of Jacob with me on vacation last week. Won the Nobel Prize in Literature, and English translation just came out.  Novelization centered around the life of Jacob Frank, who was a self-proclaimed messiah in the 1700s, but gives an epic portrayal of life in Poland during that time along the way.

About halfway through it, as it is a beast of a book. Not sure if I'm just not in the right frame of mind for it. It is pretty dense, and not something that would be a typical light vacation read. Maybe trying to read it while having distractions of visiting family (and an excited 6 year old) making it too difficult to absorb, as I usually don't mind heavier stuff and it has received a lot of praise from reviewers that I'm usually aligned with on books. 

 

[Uruk-Hai]

Oh, I've also started The World Without Us by Alan Weisman, non-fiction speculation on how the Earth might evolve if humans suddenly disappeared. I've only read the opening chapter so far, but the subject matter fascinates me. I remember watching a show on Discovery or some channel several years ago about the same type thing and really enjoyed it.

 

[shuke]

For some reason I though of "The Jaunt" from King's Skeleton Crew and downloaded and listened to that on the way back from the shore yesterday, still a good short story that has stuck in my head since I read it as a kid.  Will have to go through the rest of the collection (including "The Mist" again) while I'm driving around.

I read Skeleton Crew when I was maybe 15, it was one of the books that really got me into reading, King, and horror in general.  I think it's time for a reread.

 

[shuke]

I've been burning through Joe Landsdale and Daryl Gregory lately.

Right now, I'm reading Donald Ray Pollack's Knockemstiff. It's a series of short stories set in a southern Ohio town that gives the book its title. The stories take place in different time periods, but characters recur in several of them. This can be some tough reading, as many of these folks are severely broken. It's good, though, and the author definitely has a compelling voice.

What's new/good by Lansdale?  Haven't read anything from him in a long time.

Have you read Pollack's The Devil All the Time?