12mo ago

What book(s) are you currently reading or listening? July 15

Not much change at my end, still reading Your Money Or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence by Vicki Robin.

Also started volume 7 of Jujitsu Kaisen manga, by Gege Akutami.

What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?

A regular reminder about our Book Bingo, and it's Recommendation Post . Links are also present in our community sidebar.

28 comments

Just finished Whalefall by Daniel Kraus. An anxiety inducing story that follows a young man scubadiving into dangerous waters to recover the corpse of his abusive father. The audiobook is only like 8 hours long but I couldn't pause it for the last two. Solid 9/10 and broke a significant reading slump for me.
I'm currently reading Dune by Frank Herbert, halfway through the first book. It's great to compare to the latest Denis Villeneuve movies, how they adapted the story for the camera.
I got the nice leather bound version by Gollancz:
In parallel, when I'm doing work in the garden, I listen to the audiobook of The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin. Almost finished with the first part of the trilogy, it's very good. Some insight on the emergence of communism in China, and how the propaganda was inflicted on its citizens, at the expense of logic and science.
- Buckle up, bud! Three body problem gets wild after the first book. The dark forest is my favorite but the 3rd book is phenomenal too. One of the few series I can think of where the first book is the weakest.
  
  I heard the same opinion before, excited to discover the next parts, thanks! ^^
- Oooh, these versions look great!
  
  They were also pretty cheap, considering the quality! (ordered with Thalia)
About halfway through The Foundation by Isaac Asimov. I watched the show and wanted to check out the source material.
I also recently started Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. I've been trying to mix in some YA fiction and this one seems to fit the bill.
- My son read miss peregrine and liked it very much. He just started the sequel. Hope you enjoy it as much as him.
Just finished Behind her eyes, by Sarah Pinborough. Found it very nice, a good page turner. The ending was unexpected.
I don't know yet what will be next (probably I'll find in this conversation or another from this community as almost always).
Edit: Started The three-body problem, by Cixin Liu. Seen a comment about it in this post and I remember having heard about it at the radio or so. Plus I'm thrilled to discover Chinese literature.
Halfway through "The Fisherman" by John Langan
The Uses of Literature by Italo Calvino.
Ofc its good, its Calvino
I am trying my damndest to make it thru War and Peace. Because of the Get Smart tv show that always made the joke no one gets thru war and peace.
- Heh, good luck!
Started The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré, which is fine so far, although I am getting tired of the 1950s/60s women character tropes.
I put Weak Heart on hold last week, but I might pick it back up again.
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Finished Foul Days by Genoveva Dimova. This was a fun, fast read about a witch who tries to regain her lost powers in a fantasy city, complete with creatures from Bulgarian folklore and a handsome detective. Somewhat similar in vibe and content rating as T. Kingfisher's fairy tale fantasies or early Robin McKinley, but with much thinner characterization. It did leave some loose ends for the sequel coming out in October, but not so many as to be obnoxious, imo. Oh, and sidenote: the informational pamphlet mentioned by the MC during the story was hidden at the end of my copy, so if you find the creature names confusing, hunt it up.
Bingo squares: New Release (HM); Eazy, Breazy, Read-zie; Debut Work; (alt) A Change in Perspective.
Just started brave new world. Mixed feelings about Huxley's analysis of the world but the story is good
I have recently finished Breathless by Dean Koontz which was alright, pretty typical Koontz story with all the usual elements. Not one of his best but not bad per se.
Odd Thomas: You are destined to be together, again by Dean Koontz. This was just a short story that precludes all the Odd Thomas stories, very short adding a little back story. It was alright to add onto the knowledge of the series I guess but it covered a lot of ground that you already knew from going through the other books anyway so not really sure it was worth it.
Now I have started Deathlands by James Axler. I finished the first book and I'm towards the end of the second, really enjoying this so far, I think it is just going to be lots of shorter stories from within the same universe but I'm fine with that, I like the setting and the writing so far. There are so many installments (I think I have 150 or so currently) so it is definitely something I'll be dipping in and out of.
Manga wise I finished Gantz recently, I have read it before and it is probably my favourite and I enjoyed it a lot again this time! I have moved onto Cage of Eden from that which I dip into every now and then.
- I used to read lots of Koontz, but haven't read him in a long time.
  Deathlands looks interesting, but I don't think I'll be able to get them all physically, may have to go the ebook route for them.
  
  I started on Koontz maybe a year or so ago and have been working my way through his work. I like his books but he definitely has a similar theme running through a lot of his books which is making them more predictable the more I read.
  With Deathlands I'm an audio book guy so I have the GraphicAudio versions which I share on soulseek if you decide you want to listen to them rather than read them.
  Although the setting is very different they are kind of reminding me of Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat series (which I adore) for some reason so far.
I finished The Heaven And Earth Grocery Store by James McBride. I was worried it wouldn't stick the landing and it didn't. A lot of the promises it set up in part 1 seemed to be forgotten. Almost like the author was working on two completely different books and decided to lump them together without editing them to match.
Now I'm about to start Knife of Dreams by Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time book 11) and I'm super excited. He set so much up in the next book and I'm hoping the payoff is good.
On Monday, I finished The Winter of the Witch, the last in Katherine Arden's Winternight Trilogy - it was absolutely fantastic from front to back. Last night I picked up The Time Traveler - I got a physical copy for super cheap from a second hand book store. I've never read it, so I'm excited to see how it reads. So far, it's pretty good - a bit pretentious in some of the word choice, maybe, but I suppose that's kind of to be expected.
- Without giving any spoilers, did that character got his well deserved comeuppance? 😀
  The Time Traveler by H. G. Wells? I remember reading it a long long time ago and liking it, though don't remember most of it now.
  
  Very much so, although the author manages to make it much more poignant than I expected, but it was for good reasons.
  Yeah, H.G. Wells. I finished it a couple nights ago. It's very... Pompous? It's so over the top that it wouldn't surprise me if it was actually supposed to be satire... but I don't think it was. I'm glad I read it, but I highly doubt I'll ever pick it up again. Oh, and it's The Time Machine, not Traveler - sorry for the brain fart.
I fiiinally finished The Recognitions (Gaddis), so now I'm on to something lighter and easier to enjoy: The Queen of the Damned (Anne Rice). My kid and I are sort of going through the vamp chronicles together, and they've been excited for me to start reading this one and catch up with them.
- How are you liking the Vampire Chronicles? These were my first vampire books and I really enjoyed them. At least the first 3, don't recall what I thought about the next ones. I do feel I read first 6, till The Vampire Armand, but not sure.
  
  I really like them! I read the first two years ago as a kid, and reread them recently when the AMC show came out (which I highly recommend if you haven't seen it). I will probably read at least the fourth one, but maybe not right away. Too many other books on the stack. :) But yeah, I love Anne Rice's style, and she did a great job building off existing vampire lore and also adding new lore on top of it.
I finished the first two books in the Red Rising Saga and have just begun the third.
Really enjoying the series as a whole - fun concept, interesting characters, and lots of action!
- Have heard good things about the series. Glad you are enjoying it!

28 comments