Books

https://shop.craphound.com/

If there is another book that's more aligned with fediverse values, I'm not sure what that is.

The Faith of Beasts!! Just showed up on my doorstep.

It’s book 2 of The Captives War from James S.A. Corey, same author(s) as The Expanse. One is George R.R Martins understudy.

It’ll help keep my mind off my mothers death.

Reading: The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England

Listening to: The Eye of the Bedlam Bride

Bit of a slow year for me, but currently reading Eric by Terry Pratchett.

I'm reading Dungeon Crawler Carl and listening to the complete Sherlock Holmes (I have no idea what's going on in the latter, I keep falling asleep).

I finished There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm last night. While the science fiction was cool, I had some difficulty because the timelines appeared to be jumping around. I guess it was thematic in the sense that our memories are/were incomplete similar to how a character might experience them in-story. I don’t read a whole lot of cosmic horror stuff, so the grandness of some of the descriptions felt different as though I were watching someone else play Shadow of the Colossus.

I’ve had 1Q84, Book 3 sitting on my desk begging and taunting me to finish it, so I might just get to that once and for all.

I'm reading The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune. This covers my last bingo square: Cozy. I'm still early on but I'm really enjoying it so far. It's fun, not too serious, and exactly what I need right now.

When the Moon Hits Your Eye - John Scalzi

Thr Fifth Elephant - Terry Pratchett

And re-listening through the Dungeon Crawler Carl series in anticipation of the new book releasing May 12

Oh no, more time without reading for you :(

I'm still working my way through "The Remaining" books. I finished book 4 yesterday and then did the two nouvellas today that sit in the middle, then straight away started book 5.

To begin with I enjoyed it but thought it was a bit mid, I didn't really like the hooraaa, US of A patriots vibe that I thought was going to be a lot more prominent throughout to begin with. Thankfully as it has gone on it hasn't been too heavy with that shit, a little bit of flag worship or how this country used to be so great bits here and there but I have found that it is easy to ignore and the story going on has been worthwhile to ignore that stuff.

I think I realised I was enjoying it more than I thought i was when I got a bit choked up at the scene where his dog was trapped up on the roof of a building and he was struggling through bouts of unconsciousness trying to get back to the dog and I really felt the emotion in that. And I'm a cat person!

So yeh, looking forward to continuing these books!

Reading "Venomous Lumpsucker" by Ned Beauman. I'm about 50% through and I like it.

Reading "Mansfield Park" by Jane Austen ! I'm going through everything she's written, I finished Pride & Prejudice a few weeks ago and I just got this one !

We’ve got some big projects happening with work that are all coming due at the same time, so I haven’t been doing much reading. I am listening in small bursts to This Inevitable Ruin (Dungeon Crawler Carl) to prep for the book release in May and getting ready for Bingo to start back up on May 1st.

I hope people will be able to join us again! If you have questions, please feel free to ask.

I'm reading Inhibitor Phase by Alastair Reynolds. Nearly done with the series. I'm enjoying how the books jump around in time, space, and genre while all living in a basic rule space. Kind of like a less scattered Cosmere.

Currently rereading the "Children of Time"-Series by Adrian Tchaikovsky because the fourth book was just released and I really like to experience the first three again.

I'm a sucker for good Sciency Science Fiction and this series ticks practically all boxes of my special interests.

Also listening to the Warhammer 40k Series "Ciaphas Cain" by Sandy Mitchell, because it's funny and relaxing.

Also listening to "Sourcery" by Terry Pratchett on my way through the Discworld Series (again)

As always, I've been keeping up with The Wandering Inn, reading the newest chapters as they drop on the website. Other than that I have a a good 8-9 smaller reads on RoyalRoad that I read ongoing as soon as chapters drop. Unfortunately I haven't had the time or mental capacity to continue my "real" (aka physical) book

I'm re-reading the Incarnations of Immortality septology by Piers Anthony. I read them originally as they came out, and I remembered having enjoyed them quite a lot. Upon a re-read, they're not as good as I remembered though certainly not bad. They're also quite a bit more dated than I recalled, but I suppose they weren't at the time of their release. Also IoI is one of Anthony's series with the least amount of his weirdness in it, but it's definitely there.

I also learned that he released the eighth novel in the series in 2007, but reviews are not encouraging so I'll be skipping that one.

Recently got to intermediate level with studying Japanese myself for fun, so I've been reading 「魔女の宅急便」aka Kiki's Delivery Service the original 1985 novel.

It's SOOO adorable OMG!!!

Half way through This Inevitable Ruin, Matt Dinniman, and loving it as all the others.

Listing to Foundryside, Robert Jackson Bennett, which is a cool concept but I'm struggling with the narration of the audiobook. Good enough to keep at it though! Would recommend it in another medium :D.

I decided it is time to go through Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. This will be the sixth time for me. It is the best of the best.

I recently finished Stephen King's Dark Tower series. I have never had such a rocky reading experience. Over all I enjoyed it but it was a very mixed bag. Some of the books were just okay, one or two were excellent, and at least one was truly terrible.

This may not qualify as currently reading - however I just finished Nobody’s Girl by Virginia Roberts Giuffre yesterday. Fantastic and difficult (emotionally) read. Really connects the dots and gives an inside look into Epstein’s world as well as an incredible story of survival and self-empowerment.

I’m also re-reading 1984 by George Orwell. I read it for the first time ~15 years ago and it terrified me, now it’s terrifying in a whole new way.

Gonna need a lighthearted read after this.

I'm almost done with Sadomasochism and the BDSM Community in the United States by Stephen K. Stein.

Just finished re-reading A Clash of Kings by G.R.R. Martin (A Song of Ice and Fire 2). It's a very cool book, but I didn't find it quite as consistently gripping as the first one. The first just has such incredible pacing imo.

Next one up is Caliban's War by James Corey (The Expanse 2). I have seen the TV show, and really liked the first book as well.

I'm almost at the end of The Twelves, by Justin Cronin. It's a bit more fast paced than The Passage which is the previous volume of the series that I read just before but a bit less "deep" also. Anyway, this is a very good trilogy so far, really gripping. Of course, once I finish, I will continue with The City of Mirrors.

Currently reading five books:

1. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray (it’s basically Real Housewives of Regency London. Loving it!)
2. The Wings Upon Her Back by Samantha Wells (grimdark steampunk!)
3. The World is Full of Divorced Women by Jackie Collins (racy 70s chick lit)
4. Blue Skinned Gods by SJ Sindu (a blue boy in Tamil Nadu, India is believed to be the reincarnation of a Hindu god)
5. Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism by George Monbiot & Peter Hutchison (freedom only for the rich while the rest of us are oppressed, surveilled, and exploited)

I'm currently reading "The Ax" by Donald Westlake. I think it was recommended in one of these threads a few months ago actually.

It's about a paper salesman who murders people with similar resumes to himself in order to open up more job opportunities for himself. Its a pretty interesting perspective on capitalism.

Currently reading The Will of the Many. It's very decent. Great idea well implemented.

My main gripe is the author definitely used a thesaurus too much. I'm all for uncommon vocabulary (Adrian Tchaikovsky is a master here), it just goes too far on the odd occasion.

Minor gripe though. It's very solid bedtime reading and I've enjoyed it. Nearly finished.

Reading and Listening: "Chemistry 2e" Openstax

Awee sorry to hear you couldn't get to any reading dresden. Hopefully that changes!

I finished Player One by Douglas Coupland last week, and now felt drawn to read my first ever Terry Pratchet novel - Nation. The writing is superb; the chapter with the milk made me disgustingly laugh. Including Nation, understanding another being seems to be the core theme of my last 3 reads.

On the nonfiction side, finished Metaphors We Live By. It was a lot more academic than I was expecting, aside from that, it was a fascinating and well laid-out argument of the human thinking process based on metaphor. Now gearing up (soon) to read a folllow-up by the same authors, Philosophy in the Flesh. Also finished another one yesterday, which I didn't mention last week (as I tend to bounce between books), Introduction to Design Thinking for UX Beginners by Uijun Park - it was a good refresher and learned some new things. Today, I started The AI Mirror by Shannon Vallor, a solid intro to the subject of AI in our current time.

I just finished Adulthood Rites by Octavia E. Butler. It’s such a good book and the second in Lilith’s Brood (or Xenogenesis trilogy).

To catch a fascist by Christopher Mathias

Stardust!

I love this book. Very unfortunate about the writer being a shit.

I'm currently reading Portrait in Sepia by Isabel Allende. I read some books by her years ago, which I loved, so when I saw this one in a tiny library, I had to take it. I'm not far in yet, but it's a great read so far.

I finished both Murder on the Orient Express and Murder on the River Nile by Agatha Christie. They were both fun and well-written, but I don't think detectives are my cup of tea. I may read some more of her work if it's snowing and I'm in front of a fireplace or something. They're cozy to read, even with all the murders taking place.

Birthright in the Impavidus Cycle trilogy by M A Vice. I'm a few chapters in and so far its mostly just the tragedy of a serial killer born into that role and getting headpats by his dad for murdering real good, and not having any meaningful contact with anyone else or any frame of reference for what he's doing. It reminds me of hanging with my racist family in a sad kinda way.

I just picked up a nice edition of Robin Hood by Henry Gilbert, which I'm somewhat ashamed to admit that I did not realize had been adapted from all the old ballads into an actual novel (in 1912!)

Weird Gutennberg has his King Arthur book but not this...

Finally finished Shadows Upon Time. Really enjoyed the sun eater series in the end. The first book took a bit to get past because it felt like it just was a lot of other books and movies.

Started the Gate of the Feral Gods. Book 4 in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. Enjoying it so far but am not far in the book.

Will also probably start Project Hail Mary audiobook this week. Heard a lot of good so hope its not oversold

Currently reading Velocity Weapon by Megan E. O’Keefe. It was a little slowish to start, but the build up of the characters was important and it really takes off. I’m really enjoying this and kicking myself for not reading it sooner. Mid-book I said wtf out loud and my partner looked concerned before he realized it was because I was reading. Not the first time that’s happened, not going to be the last.

I’m sorry you didn’t get to read this week. I hope you get to soon 💚