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

Indymisanthrope said:
Wow. What kind of books are we talking? I can get through something fairly quickly if I'm trying to understand the gist of an idea and am sort of scanning for important points, but it's tough for me to absorb fiction/pleasure reading at that rate for sure.
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A bit of everything, it's probably about 2/3 nonfiction, stuff like science, linguistics, psychology, technology, philosophy, economics and such, whatever seems interesting, and on the fiction side, science fiction and literary fiction being the most common. I'm usually reading 8-10 books at a time, so it's more like I'm finishing a couple of books a week than reading them that fast, though.

I figure I should read less so I can become more of a normal person. I haven't watched any sports in years, and I prefer books on a topic to news on the same thing, but I find that this leaves me cut off from what people are talking about at work and at social events and things like that...
 
Anyone a fan of Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series and super nervous about the Starz adaptation that starts airing this weekend? I love those books so goddamn much I think I'm going to avoid the show. Adapting the first two books in eight episodes? Surely that's a recipe for disaster.
 
I'm about to start Middlegame by Seanan McGuire. Well, I did start it last night but read 2 pages so does that even count? Lol. I'm super excited about it. Has anyone read it?

It has to have one of the greatest opening lines ever:

There is so much blood.
 
Did anyone finish that Night in the Lonesome October readthrough? I really wanted to do it, but the way the first few chapters were set up made it really difficult to track what was going on and, thus, to stick with it.
 
LeSamourai said:
Hmmmm... I just finished Ted Chiang's Exhalation, his second collection of short stories. The guy only writes one short story every couple of years, but man, they are STORIES. One of the stories from his first collection was the basis for the movie Arrival.
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How was Exhalation? The NYT times printed one of the stories from that back in the spring and I finally got around to reading it recently. It was the one about the prisms and branching timelines. I thought it was great, but wasn't sure if they were all at that level. It felt very similar to the story that Arrival was based on - I like how he hammers out the details of how it all works but it never feels overly technical just for the sake of nerding out - it's always directed toward heightening the dramatic tension of the ultimately human story and giving you that emotional resonance that sticks with you. It feels like he's writing more squarely for the world we actually inhabit than other sci-fi writers I've read, but I really don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to science fiction. Like, he's not conducting thought experiments, he's just bending the rules of the universe to tell the story he's trying to tell.
 
Ericj32 said:
Did anyone finish that Night in the Lonesome October readthrough? I really wanted to do it, but the way the first few chapters were set up made it really difficult to track what was going on and, thus, to stick with it.
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Yeah, I finished it up on Tuesday. I was disappointed. For something that seems to have a pretty enthusiastic following online, it never really comes together in any satisfying way. It's basically "can you guess which thinly veiled character this is supposed to be?" for 275 pages (with one weird dreamlike interlude and one action scene with Jack that is ultimately meaningless), followed by a 5-page 'climax.' If you want a Zelazny fix, just read Nine Princes in Amber instead.

Sorry I encouraged some of you to spend money on this; it was a bust, imo.
 
Indymisanthrope said:
Yeah, I finished it up on Tuesday. I was disappointed. For something that seems to have a pretty enthusiastic following online, it never really comes together in any satisfying way. It's basically "can you guess which thinly veiled character this is supposed to be?" for 275 pages (with one weird dreamlike interlude and one action scene with Jack that is ultimately meaningless), followed by a 5-page 'climax.' If you want a Zelazny fix, just read Nine Princes in Amber instead.

Sorry I encouraged some of you to spend money on this; it was a bust, imo.
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No need to apologize. I liked the idea of doing a read-through of something together.
 
Ericj32 said:
How was Exhalation? The NYT times printed one of the stories from that back in the spring and I finally got around to reading it recently. It was the one about the prisms and branching timelines. I thought it was great, but wasn't sure if they were all at that level. It felt very similar to the story that Arrival was based on - I like how he hammers out the details of how it all works but it never feels overly technical just for the sake of nerding out - it's always directed toward heightening the dramatic tension of the ultimately human story and giving you that emotional resonance that sticks with you. It feels like he's writing more squarely for the world we actually inhabit than other sci-fi writers I've read, but I really don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to science fiction. Like, he's not conducting thought experiments, he's just bending the rules of the universe to tell the story he's trying to tell.
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I loved it, and I felt that that story was pretty indicative of the level of quality of the others. I'd put the collection on par with Stories of Your Life. The way I see it is that he thinks these ideas through so thoroughly, to the point that he can come full circle to having a real, emotional world even with these heady ideas in the mix. In the way he really gets inside and explores a concept, he reminds me of Jorge Luis Borges (although, since I wrote my thesis on Borges, I may be inclined to seeing his influence everywhere).
 
And actually - anyone else on Goodreads! I didn't mean to exclude. I was chatting about it with tyr and bfly in JQBX so that is the only reason I specifically @'ed them. I'd love more friends!
 
LeSamourai said:
If anyone want to be my Goodreads friend- I'm always looking for my next read!- here's my profile: Paul M.
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I'm going to add you! I've just had a crazy last few days. But for your next book, I really highly recommend The Known World, which @sorcerer recommended to me. Or Middlegame, which I just finished.

They are very different. But both very epic and well written. The Known World follows a black family that owns slaves in the middle of nowhere Virginia in the 1800s. Middlegame is more fantasy/time travelly but also not hugely about that. More about relationships and ethics. You read a lot, like I do (although I come nowhere close to you). These books are long and held my attention.

I will give a slight trigger warning about Middlegame. This does not give anything away and the author has been very clear that she doesn't think this is a spoiler. I think she said something like, if revealing this ruins the book for you, then I've failed as an author.

There is a suicide attempt. It isn't described graphically at all. But not to diminish that it may be triggering for some.
 
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Teeeee said:
And actually - anyone else on Goodreads! I didn't mean to exclude. I was chatting about it with tyr and bfly in JQBX so that is the only reason I specifically @'ed them. I'd love more friends!
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LeSamourai said:
If anyone want to be my Goodreads friend- I'm always looking for my next read!- here's my profile: Paul M.
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Added you both, as well as @Tyr. Hope that's alright!
 
Teeeee said:
Of course! I'm very very new to GR. I'm talking 3 days old. So, forgive the lack of reviews. Just getting acclimated to it.
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Haha, I rarely review either! Usually by the time I've really formulated an opinion on a book I've finished I've already moved on to something else. But it's fun to see what others are reading and what they like.
 
BjorgenFjorgen said:
Just finished The Handmaid's Tale for the first time (was supposed to read it in 1st year 20th-century lit.--oops). Incredible. My question is: how disappointing is The Testaments, really, and is it worthwhile or no?
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The Handmaid's Tale is my favorite book. I've read it several times. It's so scary.

I haven't read The Testaments yet because of the disappointment fear. But I believe @Bennnnn read it and said it was good! I have it on hold at my library, it says my wait is now 6 weeks. Lol.
 
BjorgenFjorgen said:
Just finished The Handmaid's Tale for the first time (was supposed to read it in 1st year 20th-century lit.--oops). Incredible. My question is: how disappointing is The Testaments, really, and is it worthwhile or no?
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Teeeee said:
The Handmaid's Tale is my favorite book. I've read it several times. It's so scary.

I haven't read The Testaments yet because of the disappointment fear. But I believe @Bennnnn read it and said it was good! I have it on hold at my library, it says my wait is now 6 weeks. Lol.
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I liked it quite a bit. It's very engaging. Although if the style of The Handmaid's Tale is what you love about it, The Testaments may disappoint. It's not quite on the same level in that sense. But the narrative drives forward really well.
 
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