The Reader’s Nook - The N&G Book Thread

jamieanderson1968 said:
Finished my first book of the year. Stella Rimmington / At Risk
Amazon product ASIN 0099461390Started at breakfast on Jan 1 and finished in the afternoon on Jan 4. Been a while since I read through a book so quickly. That was my normal pace years ago.

I love John Le Carre and have read his books several times over. But in the spy book world there is Le Carre and then there is everyone else. I find the biggest issue for too many spy books is that the fate of the world hanging is in the balance or the protagonist is a Bond/Bourne killing machine. What I enjoy about Le Carre is the often the stakes are quite small. I need to go back to read more 70s writers when the Cold War was raging.

Now on to a book about Stalingrad, that should be nice and light.
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that is one of the things i like about the computer hacking/spy book that led me into infosec, Cliff Stoll's "Cuckoo's Egg" - he gets into tracking this hack down because of a 10 cent difference in the billing.
 
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Lee Newman said:
I’m probably gonna read this concurrently with at least one other book (kindle challenge is dictating some of my reading right now):
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So my oldest found out about a program from Penguin Books where you fill out some information about some one you want to gift a book and they send you a letter with recommendations based on what you entered. She did this for myself and my wife. We each got the letter and I got an Amazon gift card because she knows I like to read on my kindle and she got my wife the book that she thought my wife would like the best. I went ahead and bought all three books (well i preordered the book about Sister Rosetta Tharp as it is getting ready to be republished). The other is this:
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Which I got a hard copy of because comics are not as fun on a reader/app.
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Lee Newman said:
Well the first story in the LaRocca was fucked up. Kind of like if Stephen King and Chuck Palahniuk collaborated on something. Glad I was planning on reading something else while reading it cause I need a break.
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Lol.

I stop reading the dark horror book to read this:

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Which is a memoir written by a women who in the late seventies as a 3 year old moves with her parents into a cult facility. Years later, she remembers some fragments and confronts her mother. Several years after that, she is a journalist asked to cover the incarceration of the gentleman who ran the cult.

The author is African American and the facility was, at least ostensibly, a Muslim commune of sorts. It is interesting to read about how her parents found their way to the cult.

It’s not the best written thing I’ve ever read. It is in need of a bit of technical editing and is very much written like a young adult novel, however it is a very compelling story.

Reading it from a place of privilege, I have a million questions that I hope she answers. I’m a little over a third through the book.

Edit: it’s also interesting to note that it makes me wonder about privilege and its effect. What makes me lucky enough to be a white male in America with a relative amount of success?

It’s causing a bit of an existential crisis for me.
 
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I picked up The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, the first book in Becky Chambers' Wayfarer series. It's lighter sci-fi than my usual, but a friend recommended it and I'm enjoying it well enough. It is, dare I say it, Whedonesque. Or, perhaps, has anime energy, with Capital-C Characters who often talk and behave in ways that are crafted to be Amusing.
 
kvetcha said:
I picked up The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, the first book in Becky Chambers' Wayfarer series. It's lighter sci-fi than my usual, but a friend recommended it and I'm enjoying it well enough. It is, dare I say it, Whedonesque. Or, perhaps, has anime energy, with Capital-C Characters who often talk and behave in ways that are crafted to be Amusing.
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I liked this one; it’s def the flag bearer for the cozy sci-fi genre. I agree, the characters are all a bit much, at least vividly drawn in the sense that a few remind me of people who would say “squee!” aloud and unironically. I have yet to return to that series.

I’d recommend Chambers’ Monk and Robot books; they’re equally charming, more pastoral, and carry a heavy allegorical bent.
 
Bull Shannon said:
I liked this one; it’s def the flag bearer for the cozy sci-fi genre. I agree, the characters are all a bit much, at least vividly drawn in the sense that a few remind me of people who would say “squee!” aloud and unironically. I have yet to return to that series.

I’d recommend Chambers’ Monk and Robot books; they’re equally charming, more pastoral, and carry a heavy allegorical bent.
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I saw the Monk and Robot books on a Best of 2022 list when I was searching for something else to read! I'll add 'em to my long list. And I think your characterization of the tone is pretty spot on. I'm having fun with it, but occasionally it sets my teeth on edge, just a little.

Unrelated, I've just discovered that Arkady Martine has two new books coming out this year, so that's exciting.

edit: Just realized that I haven't actually posted here in some time, but I've gone on a sci-fi tear of late. Read (and loved) Martine's Teixcalaan series, then circled around and finished up Ann Leckie's Ancillary trilogy. Squeezed Sequoia Nagamatsu's How High We Go in the Dark somewhere in there. That one was a bit too grim to love, in the end, but had its moments.
 
kvetcha said:
I saw the Monk and Robot books on a Best of 2022 list when I was searching for something else to read! I'll add 'em to my long list. And I think your characterization of the tone is pretty spot on. I'm having fun with it, but occasionally it sets my teeth on edge, just a little.

Unrelated, I've just discovered that Arkady Martine has two new books coming out this year, so that's exciting.

edit: Just realized that I haven't actually posted here in some time, but I've gone on a sci-fi tear of late. Read (and loved) Martine's Teixcalaan series, then circled around and finished up Ann Leckie's Ancillary trilogy. Squeezed Sequoia Nagamatsu's How High We Go in the Dark somewhere in there. That one was a bit too grim to love, in the end, but had its moments.
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I still need to read Desolation Called Peace! I don’t know if anyone else has this experience, but often with series if I don’t read the next book within 2-6 months I’m never getting to it, as I’ll have forgotten all the plot and characters of the previous entry.
 
Bull Shannon said:
I still need to read Desolation Called Peace! I don’t know if anyone else has this experience, but often with series if I don’t read the next book within 2-6 months I’m never getting to it, as I’ll have forgotten all the plot and characters of the previous entry.
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I definitely know what you mean. I started The Dark Forest way too long after reading The Three Body Problem and it was a rough first few chapters.

I recommend Desolation Called Peace! It's a messier, but excellent sequel. Both novels gave me real Ursula Le Guin vibes as far as the worldbuilding. I thought they were terrific.
 
Okay, finished The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, which was cozy and enjoyable, if not exactly incandescent with literary value. Next up is Killers of the Flower Moon, partially because of the upcoming Scorsese movie, but mostly because it didn’t have a waitlist on OverDrive.
 
Not sure if this belongs here since it's not out yet, but there's new Bill Watterson coming!

The Mysteries by Bill Watterson, John Kascht

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I saw that Mariana Enriquez's Our Share of Night is finally out in translation. I read this one about two years ago, and I highly recommend it for fans of literary or gothic horror, or of Stephen King. It starts in the 1980s in Argentina, while the dictatorship is still in charge, and as it moves forward, the real horrors of the time mix with fantastical ones. Some of the images haunted my dreams for a bit, especially since I lived in northeastern Argentina where a lot of the plot happens, and could absolutely visualize the places the characters visited.

www.penguinrandomhouse.com

Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez: 9780451495150 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

“A masterpiece of supernatural horror.”—The Washington Post “An enchanting, shattering, once-in-a-lifetime reading experience.”—The New York Times (Editors’...
www.penguinrandomhouse.com www.penguinrandomhouse.com
 
LeSamourai said:
I saw that Mariana Enriquez's Our Share of Night is finally out in translation. I read this one about two years ago, and I highly recommend it for fans of literary or gothic horror, or of Stephen King. It starts in the 1980s in Argentina, while the dictatorship is still in charge, and as it moves forward, the real horrors of the time mix with fantastical ones. Some of the images haunted my dreams for a bit, especially since I lived in northeastern Argentina where a lot of the plot happens, and could absolutely visualize the places the characters visited.

www.penguinrandomhouse.com

Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez: 9780451495150 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

“A masterpiece of supernatural horror.”—The Washington Post “An enchanting, shattering, once-in-a-lifetime reading experience.”—The New York Times (Editors’...
www.penguinrandomhouse.com www.penguinrandomhouse.com
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Not a book but your description made me think of this NPR story I heard today…
 
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