What book(s) are you currently reading or listening? April 03

I'm still reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. My area had some unexpected weather a couple weeks ago so I've been off my usual routine.
The book is good and I'm about half way through. I want to finish it by tomorrow.
- Nice. I should read it sometimes too. It has been on my backlog for so long.

Just finished Thrawn Ascendancy: Chaos rising. Next up, the second in the series.
It was such a great book. I can't wait to read the rest of the series
- How is it, if you haven't read any Star Wars novel, and have only watched the movies?
  
  I will also say that the star wars books, from what I have seen, aren't sequential. You can start anywhere in the universe and it doesn't matter, notwithstanding the actual series books, like Thrawn series and whatever. It's more like Terry Pratchett's Discworld. It's a bunch of independent stories set in the same universe.
  
  I am in the same situation. I have not read any other SW books, and have only seen the movies.
  It's great. I can't put my Kobo down. It's enthralling, it's enticing. It's very well written. I love it.

Perfect Victims And The Politics of Appeal by Mohammed El-Kurd
- It seems to have nice reviews, what do you think about it? Does it cover the conflict for mostly ignorant?
  
  if you are interested in books for the mostly ignorant may I recommend instead: Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner's Guide by Ben White
  Ten Myths about Israel by Ilan Pappé
  The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017 by Rashid Khalidi
  For more on israel's crimes: The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappé
  The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World by Antony Loewenstein
  Environmental Warfare in Gaza: Colonial Violence and New Landscapes of Resistance by Shourideh C. Molavi
  Gaza Unsilenced edited by Laila El-Haddad and Refaat Alareer
  you may have heard of Refaat Alareer, a prominent Palestinian writer and poet who was assassinated (very much the same way Ghassan Kanafani was) in December 2023. There is a collection of his poems and writings released in memory of him in 2024 called If I Must Die: Poetry and Prose that is also worth a read. There are also way more books, fiction or nonfiction, by Palestinian authors that are very much worthwhile once one gets a better understanding of the history of settler colonialism.

Reading the Patternmaster books by Octavia E. Butler. Weird but interesting. Definitely not hitting like the Xenogenesis books did but still seem good so far.
Also re-reading the Expanse books because I just read The Mercy of Gods by James SA Corey and it made my love of the expanse series resurface.
- How are the Xenogenesis books? They look interesting.
  
  They're really interesting. As with a lot of Butler's works, they're extremely human which is a bit surprising for science fiction books. She is able to juxtapose aliens against humanity and use it to highlight aspects of our selves and talk about them. I would say that if you're mostly looking for a good narrative with something that conforms to the standard story arc you may be disappointed, but otherwise they are a must-read imo.

Finished the fifth book in the "dungeon crawler Carl" series, and decide to step away from that for a while. The fifth book was a lot longer than the previous four, and this doesn't work out for me (I know, just weeks ago I complained about the novella format of most murderbot books:)). After that read through "midnight black" by Mark Greaney, which was nice, but not the best in the gray man series imo. Now about a third through John Scalzi's "the collapsing empire". So far a nice book, but I liked most books in the "old man's war" series better.
- Hehe, it happens. Some books are too short and some books are too long. It's nice to have the book that's just the right size.

Currently reading Food And Society In Classical Antiquity.
- How are you liking it so far?
  
  Almost finished with it. It's somewhat more of an 'overview' than I was expecting, but I've learned a lot. And not all of it about antiquity - did you know that whole wheat bread isn't healthier than white bread? Fuck, I ate wheat bread as a kid for nothing?

I just finished reading The Mercy of Gods by James S. A. Corey (authors of the Expanse series). Overall I really liked it and am excited for this series! I feel like the characters haven’t hooked me as much as the characters from the Expanse series, but I’m going to give them more time to develop.
I am now reading The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett. This one has surprised me how much I’ve enjoyed it so far. I have read his Founders trilogy and Divine Cities books and found them hit or miss.
- Felt exactly the same about the Mercy of Gods.

Lonesome Dove on audiobook. The production quality is pretty bad, but the story is good.

Just started Holly by Stephen King. I have no idea what’s happening. I got it as a gift for Christmas and left the book cover at home so no summary.
- I prefer to start books without reading the summaries. Sometimes they spoil some stuff even 50 or 100 pages in.

Not Till We Are Lost
Latest book in the bobiverse.
- Great book!

Speaking Bones - Book 4 of the Dandelion Dynasty by Ken Liu. This is probably one of the best fantasy I've read. The setting is based off of ancient China. It's similar to Game of Thrones in the sense that there's a lot of world building, there's no main character, no one is safe from death and the fantasy is lightly applied.
It introduces interesting ideas like storing electricity in objects made with glass, intestines and gold, then utilizing it in warfare. Also logic gates implemented with just basic materials like wood and ropes. Basic AI (non-ML). Etc.
I'm quite confident anyone who enjoys programming will enjoy this series.
- Wow I'm going to go read this now. I've been in between bigger reads, doing shorter stories, and doom scrolling, but definitely looking for something to escape for a bit!
  
  Yeah I'd definitely recommend it. Loved that when there's a fantasy-based beast, people investigate how it works from a basic science perspective, then derive a new weapon that play crucial role in combat.
  Also loved that alliances shift and change. The story likes to lull you into complacency before pouring cold water over you.
- How dark is it? One of my issue with Game of Thrones is that it was too dark / depressing and things just kept getting worse and worse.
  
  It's quite mild compared to game of thrones. The 'dark' parts are not personalized, but description of things happening at a population level.

I have started reading 'The Master and Margarita'. I am only a couple of chapters in and its pretty wild already.
- It's been a long time, but I once read a paperback copy I found. I remember enjoying it.

I just finished Shades of grey by Jasper Fforde. What a weird fascist dystopian future. It took a long time to get interesting and only the last 15% got me to actually want to know more. I don’t think I will read the rest of the trilogy.
- He just released the second book recently after so many years, and while I haven't read it myself, haven't heard many great things about it.

Just finished The Will of the Many by James Islington. Fantastic book. Gonna be champing at the bit until the next one releases in November.
Next up will be The Fifth Age, but I haven't cracked it open yet. I will later tonight.

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi. About halfway through, really enjoying it. The audiobook narrator is great.
- I loved her Devabad trilogy, waiting for her to complete Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi before getting it.

Reading (listening to) War of the Noobs, and honestly it's getting a bit stale. It didn't hook or make me really laugh like earlier books on the series.
Recently finished This Inevitable Ruin, and DCC is always a good time.

Just started The Orb of Cairado by Katherine Addison, as a palate cleanser. I expect it'll be cozy.
Finished Fever House by Ken Rosson. This started very fast-paced, but (imo) got bogged down by (interesting) flashbacks. I enjoyed it, but would have liked it to be shorter, somehow. Not sure I'll read the sequel, since this one swerved into a sub-genre I don't usually go for.

Listening to the Salvation sequence by Peter F Hamilton.
And reading, A most elegant equation by David Stipp.

Can't believe I never got around to it on the first go-round, but Nick Hornby's "High Fidelity."

Listening to Project Hail Mary. I've been utterly absorbed by the story and the scientific concepts being pushed around.
I never took physics and didn't take much math for my job but am jealous of people who have a natural, stronger affinity for those subjects
- I never could get this one checked out at the library.
- Shout out to my boy Rocky

I recently started The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky. I'm a 100 or so pages in, and slowly getting a feel for the characters. It's a large book, but I've got some long flights coming up so hopefully I'll make a good dent in it :)
- How's the book? I have thought about starting it a few times, but I am afraid it might be too dry or complex.
  
  I've just finished Part 1 (around 200 pages out of 1000 - unfortunately the flights I had planned were cancelled, and I didn't get time to read over the weekend!). So far I've been introduced to the characters and the book has explained their natures as well as the dynamics between each of them. It's quite heavy reading at points, especially some of the religious discussion and the fact that there are a good number of footnotes explaining certain references in the text. That said, the web of interactions and different moralities is quite fascinating. It requires a level of concentration to get through, but there's enough of an interesting story and exploration of big ideas to keep me hooked so far.

Careless People - Satah Wynn-Williams
Not only it is a fascinating look into Facebook, it touches me personally because I'm a Canadian female tech worker in a US based company and her perspective on a lot of thing is very relatable to me.

We Are Legion (We Are Bob)
It is part of the "Bobiverse" so with a name like that I honestly couldn't help but have low expectations but so far it is a really fun read.
- It's a truly excellent series!
  
  That's good to know. I'm a third of the way through now and I love the premise and how straight to the point it is.
- Many people here generally start the series with low expectations but end up liking it. Let us know how it goes for you.

Children of Dune, Frank Herbert.

I'm just continuing with Sanderson's Stormlight Archive. I finished Oathbringer and Dawnshard and will start Rhythm of War next.
- Shout out to my boy Rock
  
  He's great! I saw that Sanderson is planning to write a novella about him in a year or two.
  
  Shout outs to Rock and Rocky. Are you a geologist?

I'm reading The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan, the fourth book in The Wheel of Time series. I'm starting to get a bit sick of the characters, frankly. Petty, angry, dishonest liars most of them, looking to make the worst decisions for any given situation. I still like the book, oddly enough, but I wish the characters like, grow up sometime soon.
- I gave up near the beginning of this book. Just wasn’t enjoying it and didn’t relish the idea of spending hours and hours on something I wasn’t enjoying.

How Music Works by David Byrne. It was recommended to me by a colleague when asked about good resources on learning more about music.
I'm only in chapter 3, so far it's been interesting. About how music has adapted since the introduction of recordings, about the shifting perceptions, not only in music but also showmanship, size of venues, choice of instruments. The current chapter is about the different recording media and their impact on the music.
All very interesting, although I do hope it will soon delve deeper into the nitty gritty: notes and intervals, progressions, and all the things I'm still totally unaware of.

Currently I'm reading The Rebel by Albert Camus. I was reading it last month but got interrupted by a hold being available from the library. I'm determined to finish it in the next week or so.

I've barely read or listened to anything for over a year, now suddenly I have 9 books/audiobooks on the go. Most are things that everyone has read or heard about anyway, and almost all are part of a series Ive talked about too much over the years so I don't have too much to say 🤷‍♂️
Audio:
The Wise Man's Fear by Pat Rothfuss when I'm jogging
Words of Radiance by Sanderson at work
Daughter of the Dragon by Michael G Manning at home
Books on rotation chapter by chapter:
White Night by Jim Butcher
River Marked by Patricia Briggs
The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie
The Hungry Isle by Emily Rodda
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Manga: Uzumaki by Junji Ito
- How are you enjoying Dresden Files so far? I'm on Battle Ground for audiobook.
  
  I love the series. Though I am only at Changes. Just finished it last month or so. Looking forward to where things go from here.
  
  I like it, this is my third time through the series. The first two were audiobooks but since then I got my own place and was able to start a proper book collection, so this time through I'm taking my time and reading physically. The next book should be out this year hopefully, Butcher has finished writing it according to his site.

Almost done with The Tommyknockers on audiobook. Still reading Worm (by Wildbow), about 60% done
- I dropped Worm somewhere in the middle, a long time ago. Wanted to start it again, but couldn't find any ebook option, and don't want to start such a long novel on web again.

I just finished reading Dilla Time by Dan Charnas- it’s a must read if you’re a disciple of J Dilla.
I’m currently listening to War and Peace by Tolstoy

Currently in the middle of house of chains by Steven Erikson.
- How are you liking the series?
  
  I do enjoy the series a lot, but I would be lying if I said I find it relaxing. The world building is almost realistic, and as such it becomes quite the task to keep track of all the characters, races and the history of it all. I almost always have the Malazan wiki at hand so I can do some research.

Adrian Tchaikovsky's latest: Shroud. So far, it hasn't grabbed me in the same way that Children of Time did, but I'm enjoying it and am interested to see how the worldbuilding goes.

I just finished The Grace Year by Kim Liggett and loved it, and am about to start Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology for my horror book club.

The Sword and Shield, the history of the KGB. I'm nearly half way through it, it's fascinating.
Never Split the Difference, a reread of what is typically called the best negotiating book. I've not read one better.