Books

Just finished The Paradox Paradox by Daniel Hardcastle (aka Nerdcubed) and it is by far one of the most entertaining books I've read in years. After getting outright robbed by his publisher, he's regained the rights and put it up on his Patreon as an epub version for a few bucks, and I can't recommend it highly enough. It genuinely surprised me how good it is for a first novel from a dude I've been watching faff about in video games for many years.

Started on his earlier book Fuck Yeah, Video Games which is a kind of autobiography through the lense of beloved video games from his life in non-chronological order, which is very charming and funny.

Also dipping into Mr. Wilman's Motoring Adventure by Andy Wilman - a behind the scenes look at Top Gear and The Grand Tour, which is also pretty funny so far, as well as the Yes, Prime Minister book, after recently finishing the Yes, Minister book - both brilliant adaptations of the TV shows.

I like funny books.

Finished "Star smashers of the galaxy rangers" by Harry Harrison. Great book, especially the satirical overly stereotyping. Now reading "the stainless steel rat"by the same author. His books are ok for some easy reading, and I don't have anything else in the TBR pile at the moment. Which is good on both accounts, since at the moment I can only find the time to read a few pages before going to sleep.

Listening and reading depending on what I'm doing is Magicians Master by Raymond E Feist and reading Ghost Brigade by John Scalzi

Making my way through the DiscWorld series. It's excellent. Even the least enjoyable are more enjoyable than other very enjoyable books I've read!

Caliban's War . I've seen The Expanse TV series. This is my first time reading the books.

Still on a retro roll, now re-reading the 3rd part of Ursula K Le Guin's Earthsee I-dont-know-how-many-ology.

She's an amazing author. Might seem a little too tree-hugging and esoteric sometimes, but her heroes always have both feet firmly planted on the ground yet also have weakness, make mistakes, and reflect upon them, and they always have a social worldview.

Her language is simple but has a deep, ancient and lyrical feel to it.

I just finished The Broken Earth trilogy and liked it. The first book was by far my favorite and I felt the third was a bit of a “quick, I need to explain everything” exposition dump at times. Overall the series was interesting though.

I’m now re-reading Project Hail Mary in preparation for the movie. I really liked it the first time so don’t expect this time to be any different!

Reaper's Gale by Steven Ericson, book 7 of the Malazan Book of the Fallen. I'm looking forward to seeing where all my favorite storylines are going!

I found this book when I was younger and have read it on and off for years since then. I've probably read through it at least four times. It's called RESISTANCE -JENNIFER A. NIELSEN- Its a book about a girl growing up in Nazi Occupied Poland. Her parents ultimately ended up sending her away as the occupation got to its breaking point, right before mass amounts of jews were shipped from their ghettos and the treatment within them became animalistic. She never made it to her grandparents. Instead her path was interrupted and she rekindled a relationship from her childhood with an old family friend that led a resistance in the country.

Ultimately she became a courier throughout many ghettos that are now renowned for their brutality, carrying the stories with her. She was a pinnacle person in the Warsaw uprising when the Nazi's attempted to clear out the entire ghetto to be sent to concentration camps. Her character is fictional I believe, but her experience's are very real.

The author curated this novel to illustrate and highlight the battles and lives of all the couriers throughout WW2. The book is expertly crafted and my skin broke out in goosebumps multiple times throughout. Whenever Im in a time period where I feel a sense of repression, lack of autonomy, or battles with control I gravitate back to this book. Highly recommend.

Finished rereading The River Why by David James Duncan, a personal favorite of mine, definitely not for everybody, but a good read nonetheless.

Currently moving onto Oathbringer in the Stormlight Archives after a short break after Words of Radiance. very excited to get back into it!

After that, I am going to start the Mistborn series, which I have only heard good things about.

Working my way through Seaman McGuire's Wayward children series (book 3 currently). Also my first time reading her work but I'm loving it so far.

Anything by Peter F Hamilton. Space opera is just too good

Just finished "Project Hail Mary" by Andy Weir. For entertainment. Enjoyed the story as it was very much reminiscent of The Martian by him aswell. Goes into the science and is reasonably accurate with some embellishment to keep the tension and add interesting characters.

Also just finished "The Let Them Theroy" by Mel Robbins. It was very helpful gave me a perspective that was diffuse to see and made me second guess myself alot. I was always trying to always fix situations where someone was mad/angry with me. It help me recognize I'm not responsible for their emotions, Let them be mad". And let me identify what I can control myself. The only other person's emotion you are responsible for are childrens and your goal is to help them process them and tell them emotions are ok. It really is that simple.

Been looking for a new personal growth book. Started "Notes on Being a Man" by Scott Galloway. Its interesting so far. More of a memior so far.

Currently reading Maybe you should talk to someone by Lori Gottlieb, which is absolutely delightful.

Let us know how October Daye is, I've read all of Incryptid and mostly kind of like it.

I happened to pop into my local fantasy bookshop on the weekend while I was out and about, and saw that the latest Dresden Files book was out. I completely forgot! I picked it up, but I need to get through The Fellowship of the Ring (~30% - the hobbits just met Tom Bombadil), Cold Days, Two Towers, Skin Game, Return of the King, Peace Talks and Battle Ground before I can read it. That's like 8 months at the rate I read these :/

Still working my way through The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman. I’m about 80% through now, I’ve been reading less than usual this week with life stuff going on.

I really enjoyed Redshirts by John Scalzi. I enjoy pretty much everything I’ve read of his, but Kaiju Preservation Society is still my favorite.

I’m currently reading 11/22/63 by Stephen King. About 60% through and it is excellent!

Just finished Red Rising. Decent enough. Hunger Games meets Harry Potter a bit for the first book (I have not read the Harry Potter books). I read myself to sleep and it ticked the box nicely / I was happy to pick it up each night. I'll continue with the series for sure.

Currently reading My Friends by Fredrik Backman. Beautiful descriptive language use in it. Slightly less gripping story for my tastes but I'm enjoying it.

Finished Elantris by Brandon Sanderson. I enjoyed it a lot, but kinda feel like it stumbled a bit towards the end. Maybe it was the rapid changes in POV, or maybe because it suddenly added new POVs in the ending chapters? There is also a lot of unresolved stuff, as it sets up sequels that don't exist yet. Was still a very enjoyable book though. It was my first Sanderson, and I'll be checking out some more of his stuff soon. Maybe Mistborn? Taking recommendations on where to go next!

I also finished The Hedge Knight by G.R.R. Martin. Picked it up because of the new HBO show, Preston Jacobs spoke so warmly of the book in his review of the show, and I was so impressed when re-reading A Game of Thrones recently. I was not quite as impressed though, a nice little short story, but I didn't get that invested. There are just so many names presented in a very short story, and I found I had to backtrack quite a bit to keep track of who these people were. I have the collection of the 3 first Dunk and Egg stories and will keep going through them though.

Just finished 1984 (again), as is obvious if you review my comment history. Working on Robinson Crusoe. I've read it a long time ago, but I believe it was a "20th century English" translation.

The Three Pillars of Zen by Philip Kapleau. Trying to do a little better at this

Just stated the Bobiverse this week. I’ve finished books 1 & 2. Interestig stuff. Sort of like The Expanse but handwaves the tech in a way that doesn’t disturb the storytelling. 

I’m torn on finishing the series or getting into my TBR list:

1. Elita by Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum
2. The Everlasting by Alic Harrow
3. The Antidote by Karen Russell
4. Atmosphere: A Love Story by Taylor Jenkins Reid
5. Buckeye by Patrick Ryan
6. Staircase in the Woods by Chuck Wendig
7. Culpability by Bruce Holsinger
8. The Devils by Joe Abercrombie
9. Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
10. The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo

The bitcoin standard. Some interesting info mostly boring. 5/5 would recommend

Just finished Not quite dead yet, I liked it a lot

Currently reading Atmosphere, recommended by my wife, some parts are very good some some other I find them very boring (about 60% progress)

Listening to Stephen King's Holly, I'm enjoying it

I just finished The Book That Broke the World by Mark Lawrence (The Library Trilogy book 2). I'm finding this series absolutely fantastic. Plus having a mysterious library as the main setting is just fun.

Now I'm reading Hamlet. I haven't read much Shakespeare so it's nice to slowly expand into more of his works. It's also wild to see how many quotes I recognize from pop culture, having never read this story.

Finished "Bill the galactic hero and the planet of the robot slaves" by Harry Harrison. Liked it enough to read some more by the same writer, so am now reading "Star smashers of the Galaxy Rangers". It's ok, but at times it's actually hilariously over the top. I've actually read this book decades ago, but I must have been very young at the time because I don't remember it being a satire.

I just read The Wipping Girl by Julia Serano and borrowed from library la lucina by Antonio Moresco.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/534810/distant-light-by-antonio-moresco/

I'm reading Days by Moonlight by André Alexis. Literary fiction isn't normally my jam, but this is very chill so far.

On the Inconvenience of Others by Lauren Berlant.

Finished "The Gone World" by Tom Sweterlitsch, based on a recommendation from a previous weekly thread on here. Holy crap it was good. Darker than my average fare, but that whole True Detective with Time Travel and a dash of cosmic horror was fantastic!

Almost finished "Our Man in Havana" by Graham Greene. Not bad. It's okay. Feels dated tho

I finished off Buy Mort - Singularity which turned out to be the last book in the series and overall I really enjoyed it all!

Then straight back into the Deathlands universe with the Outlanders books, polished off a couple of those and they are great so far as they are fleshing out the universe really nicely with a lot of new lore and information as well as calls back to the Deathlands books and characters occasionally!

I'm close to finishing Fire & Blood, it's a wonderful read. It's been a while since I've read anything of note because I find it hard to pick up a book while I'm at home but I've found that reading a little bit everyday during my commute to work works. Once I'm done with it I feel confident that I can begin tackling the other books that have been shamefully collecting dust on my shelf for a while.