Reading anything good?
- Thread starter lonestar50
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Mainly, just posts on this message board. So, no, I'm not reading anything good.
Anyone a fan of Dean Koontz? I remember reading a book called Velocity that I found to be thrilling the entire way through. I may check out another of his for my next book.
Just finished The Wolf of Wall Street. How can one person do so many drugs. Amazing that dude is alive.
Currently reading Project Hail Mary. Enjoying!
Currently reading Project Hail Mary. Enjoying!
Just picked this one up. Rasputin Swims The Potomac. Satire of Trump and American politics. I hope it's as good as it sounds.
From the award-winning, bestselling author of Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk comes a biting satire of American politics and a searingly intelligent novel about the cruel absurdities of contemporary life, centering on a world champion professional wrestler with presidential ambitions
Reporter Clarence Thomas Jr. is looking for a great story, former country music teen star Faith Spack has parlayed her fame into a job at the White House, and the two-term incumbent president is campaigning for a constitutionally dubious third term.
After an outbreak at a campaign rally, a mysterious new pandemic of “weeping sickness” sweeps the nation, threatening the president’s hold on the Oval Office. Desperate to retain power, he enlists the mystical pro wrestler Rasputin to help ensure his reelection and guarantee additional seasons of his presidential reality TV show, The Real West Wing.
But as Rasputin’s appeal threatens to exceed the president’s, and the wrestler’s supposedly supernatural powers start to seem like the real thing, the campaign finds itself trapped in a spandex-clad destiny no number of executive orders can control, one in which both Clarence and Faith are compelled to play increasingly large parts.
Hilarious, compelling, and tragically relevant, Rasputin Swims the Potomac is both an escape and a warning, a scathing satire that explores the twists and turns of American democracy as it hurtles toward authoritarianism.
From the award-winning, bestselling author of Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk comes a biting satire of American politics and a searingly intelligent novel about the cruel absurdities of contemporary life, centering on a world champion professional wrestler with presidential ambitions
Reporter Clarence Thomas Jr. is looking for a great story, former country music teen star Faith Spack has parlayed her fame into a job at the White House, and the two-term incumbent president is campaigning for a constitutionally dubious third term.
After an outbreak at a campaign rally, a mysterious new pandemic of “weeping sickness” sweeps the nation, threatening the president’s hold on the Oval Office. Desperate to retain power, he enlists the mystical pro wrestler Rasputin to help ensure his reelection and guarantee additional seasons of his presidential reality TV show, The Real West Wing.
But as Rasputin’s appeal threatens to exceed the president’s, and the wrestler’s supposedly supernatural powers start to seem like the real thing, the campaign finds itself trapped in a spandex-clad destiny no number of executive orders can control, one in which both Clarence and Faith are compelled to play increasingly large parts.
Hilarious, compelling, and tragically relevant, Rasputin Swims the Potomac is both an escape and a warning, a scathing satire that explores the twists and turns of American democracy as it hurtles toward authoritarianism.
I really enjoyed it. It's not that deep, pretty straight forward, a little gloomy but a nice ending to wrap things up. One of my favorites this year.
Partisan Song: A Holocaust Story Of Resilience, Resistance, And Revenge, by James A Grymes.
It's a gripping tale of Moshe Gildenman, a Ukrainian civil engineer who escapes the Holocaust and joins a partisan movement. It's a bit of a tough read, as the subject matter would suggest. A man who builds roads and buildings becomes a partisan who shoots, stabs, and blows up Germans and Ukrainian collaborators after his wife and daughter are murdered. Stories of a 12 year old boy who joins the group after his entire family is murdered by the Germans and the collaborators who leads a strike that kills dozens of German soldiers. Young women who join the movement. Gildenman survives the war only to see the Soviets minimize his accomplishments. Can't let a Jew have too much credit. Eventually he moves to Israel and is able to document his actions during the war. Sadly a lot of the documents needed were lost in the war on the German side, or never really detailed by the Soviets, but enough survived.
It's a gripping tale of Moshe Gildenman, a Ukrainian civil engineer who escapes the Holocaust and joins a partisan movement. It's a bit of a tough read, as the subject matter would suggest. A man who builds roads and buildings becomes a partisan who shoots, stabs, and blows up Germans and Ukrainian collaborators after his wife and daughter are murdered. Stories of a 12 year old boy who joins the group after his entire family is murdered by the Germans and the collaborators who leads a strike that kills dozens of German soldiers. Young women who join the movement. Gildenman survives the war only to see the Soviets minimize his accomplishments. Can't let a Jew have too much credit. Eventually he moves to Israel and is able to document his actions during the war. Sadly a lot of the documents needed were lost in the war on the German side, or never really detailed by the Soviets, but enough survived.
Started Country People by Daniel Mason. I loved his last book North Woods, trying to go into this without too high of expectations.
Miles Krzelewski is a devoted husband, a doting father beloved for his outlandish bedtime stories, and the proud owner of a truffle-hunting dog in a land with no truffles. He is also a bit lost, twelve years late with his PhD on Russian folktales and increasingly haunted by a sense that he’s become a disappointment to his family. So when his wife, Kate, accepts a visiting professorship at a prestigious college in the faraway forests of Vermont, he decides that this will be the year to finally move forward with his life.
But Miles is a man of many enthusiasms, one who possesses, in Kate’s words, a great capacity “to fall in with anyone, anywhere.” And no sooner does he arrive than he finds himself entangled with a cast of characters as colorful as those of any of his folktales, from a ghostly tree surgeon to a scythe-mad biochemist, from a Shakespearean temptress to a photographer of snowflakes obsessed with chronicling, on thousands of index cards, the world’s delusions in an Inventory of Wrong Ideas.
The new friends, the enchanted woods, the histories: sure, no PhD, but all good fun. Until Miles stumbles upon a bizarre—perhaps ridiculous—local legend, which, he soon suspects, might not be just a legend after all.
Joyous, absurd, and life-affirming, Country People is a luminous exploration of marriage and parenthood, the nature of belief and the power of stories, and the ways in which we find connection in an increasingly fragmented world.
Miles Krzelewski is a devoted husband, a doting father beloved for his outlandish bedtime stories, and the proud owner of a truffle-hunting dog in a land with no truffles. He is also a bit lost, twelve years late with his PhD on Russian folktales and increasingly haunted by a sense that he’s become a disappointment to his family. So when his wife, Kate, accepts a visiting professorship at a prestigious college in the faraway forests of Vermont, he decides that this will be the year to finally move forward with his life.
But Miles is a man of many enthusiasms, one who possesses, in Kate’s words, a great capacity “to fall in with anyone, anywhere.” And no sooner does he arrive than he finds himself entangled with a cast of characters as colorful as those of any of his folktales, from a ghostly tree surgeon to a scythe-mad biochemist, from a Shakespearean temptress to a photographer of snowflakes obsessed with chronicling, on thousands of index cards, the world’s delusions in an Inventory of Wrong Ideas.
The new friends, the enchanted woods, the histories: sure, no PhD, but all good fun. Until Miles stumbles upon a bizarre—perhaps ridiculous—local legend, which, he soon suspects, might not be just a legend after all.
Joyous, absurd, and life-affirming, Country People is a luminous exploration of marriage and parenthood, the nature of belief and the power of stories, and the ways in which we find connection in an increasingly fragmented world.
The excellent single season TV show of Dresden Files is on Howdy (Roku's surprisingly good ad-free streaming service that only costs $3/mo).
I read 3 or 4 of the Dresden novels, then got sort of bored. It stopped being a neat noir series about a wizard-detective and became too much like every other urban fantasy about vampires and such. Still good, but I liked the early focus better.
BUT . . . I strongly recommend Butcher's other series: Codex Alera. A mix of fantasy with a bit of sci-fi, It won't disappoint.
Here's the Amazon blurb:
For a thousand years, the people of Alera have united against the aggressive and threatening races that inhabit the world, using their unique bond with the furies—elementals of earth, air, fire, water, wood, and metal. But in the remote Calderon Valley, the boy Tavi struggles with his lack of furycrafting. At fifteen, he has no wind fury to help him fly, no fire fury to light his lamps. Yet as the Alerans’ most savage enemy—the Marat horde—return to the Valley, Tavi’s courage and resourcefulness will be a power greater than any fury....
I recently finished the last of the 9 Slow Horses novels from Mick Herron. Strong recommendation.
If you haven't seen the excellent Apple TV series, feel free to watch it first. It might just be my old brain, but I found parts of the first season hard to follow. The novels straightened me out.
Very well written, serious stories but with some sly elements and asides that occasionally cracked me up.
If you haven't seen the excellent Apple TV series, feel free to watch it first. It might just be my old brain, but I found parts of the first season hard to follow. The novels straightened me out.
Very well written, serious stories but with some sly elements and asides that occasionally cracked me up.
Finished Intensity by Dean Koontz a little bit ago (start to finish, non-stop action, gruesome, and gripping).
Recently started The Chestnut Man by Søren Sveistrup, a Danish guy. A gruesome murder scene just a couple pages into the book got my attention really fast.
Recently started The Chestnut Man by Søren Sveistrup, a Danish guy. A gruesome murder scene just a couple pages into the book got my attention really fast.
After finishing the Slow Horses set (technically Slough House), I grabbed the recently released conclusion of Tana French's fine Cal Hooper trilogy about a Chicago cop who takes early retirement and moves to Ireland.
Here's the Amazon blurb for the first book:
Best Book of 2020 New York Times |NPR | New York Post
"This hushed suspense tale about thwarted dreams of escape may be her best one yet . . . Its own kind of masterpiece." --Maureen Corrigan, The Washington Post
"A new Tana French is always cause for celebration . . . Read it once for the plot; read it again for the beauty and subtlety of French's writing." --Sarah Lyall, The New York Times
Cal Hooper thought a fixer-upper in a bucolic Irish village would be the perfect escape. After twenty-five years in the Chicago police force and a bruising divorce, he just wants to build a new life in a pretty spot with a good pub where nothing much happens. But when a local kid whose brother has gone missing arm-twists him into investigating, Cal uncovers layers of darkness beneath his picturesque retreat, and starts to realize that even small towns shelter dangerous secrets. "One of the greatest crime novelists writing today" (Vox) weaves a masterful, atmospheric tale of suspense, asking how to tell right from wrong in a world where neither is simple, and what we stake on that decision.
Here's the Amazon blurb for the first book:
Best Book of 2020 New York Times |NPR | New York Post
"This hushed suspense tale about thwarted dreams of escape may be her best one yet . . . Its own kind of masterpiece." --Maureen Corrigan, The Washington Post
"A new Tana French is always cause for celebration . . . Read it once for the plot; read it again for the beauty and subtlety of French's writing." --Sarah Lyall, The New York Times
Cal Hooper thought a fixer-upper in a bucolic Irish village would be the perfect escape. After twenty-five years in the Chicago police force and a bruising divorce, he just wants to build a new life in a pretty spot with a good pub where nothing much happens. But when a local kid whose brother has gone missing arm-twists him into investigating, Cal uncovers layers of darkness beneath his picturesque retreat, and starts to realize that even small towns shelter dangerous secrets. "One of the greatest crime novelists writing today" (Vox) weaves a masterful, atmospheric tale of suspense, asking how to tell right from wrong in a world where neither is simple, and what we stake on that decision.
I usually listen to nonfiction audiobooks but lately I've been working my way through the extremely satisfying Thomas Pitt Mysteries by Anne Perry.
At first I found the narrator's posh English a bit too snobby for my tastes, but I adjusted and now think highly of her performances. These are extremely enjoyable period and character studies with clever mysteries thrown in (plus political intrigue in later novels). Not quite as gritty as Upstairs-Downstairs, but not cloyingly sugarcoated like Downton Abbey.
Here's from Amazon on book 1:
The Cater Street Hangman is the first of Anne Perry's Charlotte and Thomas Pitt mysteries. Set in the Victorian era, it is an elegant and complex mystery full of well-drawn characters and rich period detail. When a maid in the upper class Ellison household is strangled, Inspector Pitt is called in to investigate. He finds a world ruled by strict manners and social customs, where the inhabitants of the Ellison's neighborhood appear to be more outraged by the thought of scandal than they are by murder.
At first I found the narrator's posh English a bit too snobby for my tastes, but I adjusted and now think highly of her performances. These are extremely enjoyable period and character studies with clever mysteries thrown in (plus political intrigue in later novels). Not quite as gritty as Upstairs-Downstairs, but not cloyingly sugarcoated like Downton Abbey.
Here's from Amazon on book 1:
The Cater Street Hangman Publisher's summary
The Cater Street Hangman is the first of Anne Perry's Charlotte and Thomas Pitt mysteries. Set in the Victorian era, it is an elegant and complex mystery full of well-drawn characters and rich period detail. When a maid in the upper class Ellison household is strangled, Inspector Pitt is called in to investigate. He finds a world ruled by strict manners and social customs, where the inhabitants of the Ellison's neighborhood appear to be more outraged by the thought of scandal than they are by murder.
One of my favorite series of all time (Codex of Alera), and likely my favorite single most likeable man character of all time. How Alera came to be is a great story as well.
Good choice. The description was better than the execution
I'm not quite ready to reread the Wheel of Time series, but it's never too early to recommend it. It is my favorite fantasy series. Yes, even ahead of Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones, which are also great.
Whenever I recommend this series, I urge new readers to skip the Prologue to the first book. It's strange and may put you off. Start instead at Chapter 1, and come back later (if you wish) to check out the Prologue. Trust me on this.
Whenever I recommend this series, I urge new readers to skip the Prologue to the first book. It's strange and may put you off. Start instead at Chapter 1, and come back later (if you wish) to check out the Prologue. Trust me on this.
Reread a few times. Well, at least 1-7 and 12-14 ha
Book 8 definitely dragged - I even wrote an Amazon review bitching about it - but I've never read a long series of books without there being a clunker or 2. I thought Jordan was back to speed in book 10. For Game of Thrones (Song of Fire and Ice) it was book 3 or maybe 4, I forget which. For Tolkien it wasn't a whole book, but there were some very long parts that dragged. You stick with them through the rough patches because they earned your trust earlier.
Did you ever try the audiobooks? I read WoT the first time or 2 the usual way, but tried the Kate Reading/Michael Kramer audiobooks as well. Excellent.
Rosamund Pike has narrated new versions of the first 4. I fear she won't be finishing them now that the TV series is history. I may have to check them out. She was a terrific Moiraine in the TV series.
Agree on Pike, and have done some of the audiobooks as well. Agree on all