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

Bull Shannon said:
This is a pretty fair assessment of Catch and Kill. I had to remind myself that the resulting journalism was about the women and the victims, while this book was totally about Farrow, the investigation, and how it affected him; I hadn't heard him say it's definitely not about him, which rings disappointingly false.

Meanwhile, in my ever-failing quest to read something simply for the sake of entertainment (most recently, I picked up Jeff Vandermeer's Borne with the intent of reading some fluffy sci-fi, but instead got an abstract, thoughtful and sometimes-heartbreaking wasteland story), I'm reading Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander, the start of his Aubrey-Maturin series. Adventure!
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It probably was my fault for not paying close attention to what it was about when it came out. I am quite sure I just assumed it was a story about the women. But even with it being about his chase of the story, it came across whiny. You know when someone is so into a particular field that they can't see through anything but the lens of that field? That's how the book was. Again, probably my fault for assuming it was something else. Also, Matt Lauer is disgusting, gross, a pig and many more names that I'll leave to the imagination. And the parts of the book that went after him were my favorite.

I also just didn't find it well written. Lol
 
Jan said:
Have, you seen this, @Teeeee

www.popmatters.com

‘Switched on Pop’ Schools the Academy, PopMatters

Switched on Pop, the podcast that originated Nate Sloan and Charlie Harding's book of the same name from Oxford University Press, is a kind of primer on...
www.popmatters.com www.popmatters.com
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Have I!!!??? I love that podcast so much. And I got the book for xmas! I really want to read it, it's sitting there mocking me. But I have some ebooks on hold at the library. Some have been on hold for months. And when they are available, they get auto-checked out to me. If I can finish The Bird King before my next on hold book becomes available, I'm going to read Switched on Pop.

Thank you for thinking of me! I'm super excited to read it.
 
@Teeeee - finished I'll Be Gone in the Dark.

It wasn't really the book I thought it was going to be. I had heard about the story of her passing before it was finished, so I was expecting there to be more about how someone else picked up another persons passion and how they completed it, so I was probably disappointed that it was a straight up true crime book. I'm not a huge fan of true crime to be honest; at the back of my mind I always know that dozens of real people were killed etc. for this bit of entertainment.

The bits she had finalised were very well written though, and possibly the biggest shame of all this is that she wasn't here to complete the book - I think she would have been amazing at talking us through the end stages of it all.
 
Thackeraye said:
@Teeeee - finished I'll Be Gone in the Dark.

It wasn't really the book I thought it was going to be. I had heard about the story of her passing before it was finished, so I was expecting there to be more about how someone else picked up another persons passion and how they completed it, so I was probably disappointed that it was a straight up true crime book. I'm not a huge fan of true crime to be honest; at the back of my mind I always know that dozens of real people were killed etc. for this bit of entertainment.

The bits she had finalised were very well written though, and possibly the biggest shame of all this is that she wasn't here to complete the book - I think she would have been amazing at talking us through the end stages of it all.
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I completely agree! It's why I wanted you to check back in after you read it. It was not at all what I thought it would be. It was a bit disappointing to me. So many people loved it and I kept thinking, "Huh, what am I missing, this is not even close to the best true crime book out there." I think that the parts not written by here were very out of place and made the rest very uncohesive and brought the quality down.
 
Teeeee said:
I completely agree! It's why I wanted you to check back in after you read it. It was not at all what I thought it would be. It was a bit disappointing to me. So many people loved it and I kept thinking, "Huh, what am I missing, this is not even close to the best true crime book out there." I think that the parts not written by here were very out of place and made the rest very uncohesive and brought the quality down.
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Yup, basically this. It’s one of those books where you actually want to know more about the author than about the thing itself: why are they doing this, how are they doing it, etc. It had that promise in the first couple of chapters, then it lost all that.
 
Thackeraye said:
@Teeeee - finished I'll Be Gone in the Dark.

It wasn't really the book I thought it was going to be. I had heard about the story of her passing before it was finished, so I was expecting there to be more about how someone else picked up another persons passion and how they completed it, so I was probably disappointed that it was a straight up true crime book. I'm not a huge fan of true crime to be honest; at the back of my mind I always know that dozens of real people were killed etc. for this bit of entertainment.

The bits she had finalised were very well written though, and possibly the biggest shame of all this is that she wasn't here to complete the book - I think she would have been amazing at talking us through the end stages of it all.
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Teeeee said:
I completely agree! It's why I wanted you to check back in after you read it. It was not at all what I thought it would be. It was a bit disappointing to me. So many people loved it and I kept thinking, "Huh, what am I missing, this is not even close to the best true crime book out there." I think that the parts not written by here were very out of place and made the rest very uncohesive and brought the quality down.
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🤷‍♂️ I loved it. I am a fan of true crime, and yeah if that's not something you're into/can't get behind, then it's definitely not for you. In terms of the real victims that suffered, I would say it's not "for this book/entertainment." In fact, largely the reason this case was so compelling was because of the fact that there are tons of victims out there who deserve justice, and that's what she was trying to obtain. I thought that came across very clear. You could feel her passion and compassion for this. Having said all that, once she passes away and the books handed off to other people, it definitely takes a nose-dive in quality. It's such a shame. She seemed like an incredible person, with an important goal, and I just wish she could have seen what happened after this book came out.
 
Anyone read Lost Children Archive? I just started it.

I read Kill Your Friends over the weekend, badically an American Psycho ripoff but following an A&R guy in London during britpop. Entertaining and well written, right up my alley but frivolous.
 
Just finished The Dark Forest the second in the Remembrance of Earth's Past series (The Three Body Problem was the first book). Pretty good, but I liked The Three Body Problem better. My view may change once I finish the trilogy. I'm proud of myself for getting through this one in a timely manner, it was pretty dense!
 
trickyseven said:
Just finished The Dark Forest the second in the Remembrance of Earth's Past series (The Three Body Problem was the first book). Pretty good, but I liked The Three Body Problem better. My view may change once I finish the trilogy. I'm proud of myself for getting through this one in a timely manner, it was pretty dense!
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Definitely get back to us on Death's End; it came out right after I'd finished TBP and TDF, so I ripped right into it, but have a lot of questions which leave me both eager and nervous about a reread. It's very interesting, because TBP in hindsight has a rather focused plot (one person trying to understand something larger), while TDF gets super cosmic and wide-focused. By the end of TDF I was more invested in the exploration of ideas, the way Liu just wanted to spin out with weird ideas about physics and wacky what-ifs.

I remember listening to Tomita's rendition of Claire de Lune a lot while reading Death's End; there's this emotional remove in the electronic instrumentation, yet a tinkly lullaby feeling pervades which makes the song feel like a mix of magic and science. It sums up how that book feels to me.
 
Bull Shannon said:
Definitely get back to us on Death's End; it came out right after I'd finished TBP and TDF, so I ripped right into it, but have a lot of questions which leave me both eager and nervous about a reread. It's very interesting, because TBP in hindsight has a rather focused plot (one person trying to understand something larger), while TDF gets super cosmic and wide-focused. By the end of TDF I was more invested in the exploration of ideas, the way Liu just wanted to spin out with weird ideas about physics and wacky what-ifs.

I remember listening to Tomita's rendition of Claire de Lune a lot while reading Death's End; there's this emotional remove in the electronic instrumentation, yet a tinkly lullaby feeling pervades which makes the song feel like a mix of magic and science. It sums up how that book feels to me.
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I was planning to do another book before hitting Death's End but I might just go right into it. I think you hit on the hardest adjustment I had to make (bolded), the story shifts quite abruptly from modern day science mystery to future state space politics and warfare, which just left me in a pool of science jargony whiplash. I did like the first half with all the Wallfacer stuff. It's also a big downer of a book.

I'll report back on Death's End, glad to find someone else that has read the series! I've been looking to talk about this with someone.
 
Finished my first Dickens last night The Pickwick Papers. Really a bunch of short stories centered around a cast of continuous characters. I’m not really into shorts so struggled with it a little but did make me chuckle occasionally.
I bought his complete works for my Kindle for 99 cents. Next up is Oliver Twist and I haven’t even seen the movie!
 
trickyseven said:
I was planning to do another book before hitting Death's End but I might just go right into it. I think you hit on the hardest adjustment I had to make (bolded), the story shifts quite abruptly from modern day science mystery to future state space politics and warfare, which just left me in a pool of science jargony whiplash. I did like the first half with all the Wallfacer stuff. It's also a big downer of a book.

I'll report back on Death's End, glad to find someone else that has read the series! I've been looking to talk about this with someone.
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I read the trilogy in Spanish (the translations dropped in Spanish months before the English did, so I went for it), so it's fun to see terms like "Wallfacer" and then have to connect it with the way it was translated into Spanish, with a little "oh!" moment each time.

I, personally, loved the whiplash, in that the books kept going in directions I would neither expect nor would have chosen if I were writing them. Book 3 takes the premise (much, much) farther than I ever would have expected when reading the first book.

EDIT: I almost chose el_bosque_oscuro (the_dark_forest) as my user name on here when I joined.
 
Put down Master and Commander at 88% of the way through. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the book quite a bit. It’s just dense with nautical terminology, and the plot is so episodic and inconsequential that I just hit a wall and got tired of dragging myself through it. It sounds like a bad review, but I’d say it’s more a B-minus. I hear the series gets better as you get further in, so I’m definitely going to pick up book 2 once Overdrive sends it to my kindle.

In the meantime, I’ve started The Talented Mr. Ripley, which rips so far, and I have Trust Exercise waiting in the wings.
 
I did not enjoy The Memory Police. At all. I think it was a brilliant idea. I just didn't like the execution.

I also did not enjoy Loving Day. At all.

I would like to read something enjoyable. That is all.
 
Finished Breakfast at Tiffany's and Three Novellas recently. One of the short stories included, A Christmas Story, will definitely stick with me. Haven't watched Breakfast at Tiffany's in awhile, will have to give it a rewatch to see how much it differs from the story.

Just completed Dune last night, first time I'd reread that in a long time. Really enjoyed it, but boy does it jump right in to a fully realized world so it took awhile to really get into. Never read any of the sequels though, curious people's thoughts on them.

Starting up the Beastie Boys book now. Heads up that it's only $4.99 for the Kindle copy on Amazon.
 
I went to Florida this week and wanted something to read on the plane. I picked up Severance by Ling Ma and I'm already 2/3 of the way finished. I'm really enjoying it, such a weird zombie-ish story and I'm intrigued to see where it is going. Hopefully I will be able to finish before my loan of The Testaments finally comes in from the library.
 
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