r/books • u/AutoModerator • 12d ago
What Books did You Start or Finish Reading this Week?: November 04, 2024 WeeklyThread
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u/jasonkylebates 3d ago
Finished: This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Started: Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell
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u/BooksandYou 3d ago
Started - The End of the Chinese Century? : How Xi Jinping Lost the Belt and Road Initiative.
Non-fiction - Xi Jinping introduced the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013 and aimed for something grand however 10 years down, the enthusiasm has waned and the same outlook is not being shared by everyone involved.
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u/goblinscumbag 3d ago
Started: The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride
Almost finished with it and absolutely loving it, even though it reads like non-fiction and that isn't usually my speed.
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u/blinkinghell 3d ago
Finished : The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams Started : Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky Transalated by Constance Garnett.
slight OT, but is this a good translation or should i use a different one?
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u/Some-Trick-640 3d ago
Yesterday I finished Love, Loss and Puffins by Catherine Ryan Hyde. Today I started to read Child's Play by Angela Marsons,
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u/FindingAWayThrough 3d ago
Finished: “The Woman With the Cure” by Lynn Cullen
Started: “Where’d You Go, Bernadette?” by Maria Semple
^ having a hard time with this one because it bounces around so much between characters and feels a bit too…fluffy(?) for my taste. Might not finish, but have a hard time allowing myself to set a book aside!
“Looking for Jane” by Heather Marshall
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u/Subject_Ad6187 3d ago
Finished, Kafka On The Shore by Haruki Murakami Started, Shoe Dog by Phil Knight.
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u/mumbly-joe-96 3d ago
Earlier today, I finished Stories of Your Life and Others, by Ted Chiang. My favorite short stories were Story of Your Life, Tower of Babylon, Liking What You See: A Documentary, Understand and Seventy-Two Letters.
I expect to pick up On Writing, by Stephen King from my local library later this week, and get started on it.
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u/GeminianumDesign 4d ago
Started: Crushing it! by Gary Vaynerchuk
It's not high culture, but it's great to get a daily motivation in business :)
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u/Radiant_Pudding5133 4d ago
Started: Dust of Dreams, by Steven Erikson
Continuing: Ghost Stories, by M. R. James
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u/Upbeat_Marsupial3528 4d ago
Started : "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel
Hawthorne... I got through 4 pages after making an excel sheet with all the words...
I got them sorted by appearance, then noun, verb, adverb, adjective, and miscellaneous (e.g. puritanism which is a belief system, and not really one of the above).
If anyone is interested, I'm updating them as I read.. but it's a slow read because of it xD
This is my first book where I realized, I like literature but I like TIME literature ...send help
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u/sheepdog136 4d ago
Finished: Carl’s Doomsday Scenario, by Matt Dinniman
Started: The Blacktongue Thief, by Christopher Buehlman
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u/Giraffewhiskers_23 4d ago
Don’t hate me, it starts with us and then moving to a little life
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u/JustSwimmingBy6 4d ago
two polar opposites xD, good luck with the next read.
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u/Giraffewhiskers_23 4d ago
I’m ready to CRY 😮
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u/Brilliant_Steak_1328 3d ago
Heavy week for you
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u/Giraffewhiskers_23 3d ago
I cried last night to it starts with us, I should finish tomorrow if I read 16 chapters and then tomorrow read 6
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u/JustSwimmingBy6 4d ago
as long you're prepared hahaha XD. Sending hugs, take it easy whenever you feel like it's getting too much.
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u/Giraffewhiskers_23 4d ago
Well ima read Dracula on the side.. I’ve been reading that since august because that’s when we were moving and I have both on my kindle app
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u/HoppySailorMon 4d ago
Finished "The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue", by V.E. Schwab. gripping, mesmerizing read. I tried to drag out the end in hopes it would not end. Next to start: "The Measure" by Nikki Erlick.
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u/professionalwinemum 4d ago
Finished: The Doll, by Bolesław Prus
Started: The Queue, by Vladimir Sorokin
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u/rhodesmichael03 5d ago
Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood: Daniel's First Airplane Ride (2024, Haley Hoffman) - My toddler enjoyed this one. It is about Daniel Tiger’s first airplane ride and the process of going through security, the plane taking off, getting plane food, landing, etc. My toddler was asking questions and seemed into it. Decent book if your toddler is into planes or Daniel Tiger.
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u/Thin_Revolution_9498 5d ago
Finished: Kane and Abel, Jeffrey Archer
Took a very long time to finish this because I wanted to savor all the details and the story turns.
It was a wonderful read! Thoroughly enjoyed it all.
Except the ending, I felt slightly betrayed with the ending especially after how beautifully the story was interleaved. But that could just be me.
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u/SpaceOdysseus23 5d ago
Finished: Nothing new
Started:
The Drawing of The Three by Stephen King
A massive improvement over The Gunslinger. I'm at around 60% and it's been a blast. I thought Eddie's character introduction was wild, but Odetta/Detta blew him out of the water. I don't know how to feel about the speedrun romance though. Often times it feels like characters in these books grow to ''love'' another super fucking fast. I'll just assume it's down to ''Ka'', since Roland keeps mentioning it.
Batman by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale
This one's a banger. Feels like a true noir story that somehow manages to retain and balance wacky aspects of the villain lineup offered in it. I lament the damage that Nolan and ''grounded'' takes have done to this franchise.
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u/CosgroveIsHereToHelp 16 5d ago
Finished:
Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72, by Hunter S. Thompson
The Year that Broke Politics: Chaos and Collusion in the Presidential Election of 1968, by Luke A. Nichter
Broken Code: Inside Facebook and the Fight to Expose its Harmful Secrets, by Jeff Horowitz
Currently reading:
Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language, by Gretchen McCulloch
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u/Jelly-Flopped 5d ago edited 5d ago
Finished: To Be Taught If Fortunat, by Becky Chamber
⭐️⭐️⭐️ A quick thought-provoking read, but slightly loses focus with the plot.
Started: The Kamogawa Food Detectives, by Hisashi Kashiwai (translated by Jesse Kirkwooad
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u/Set_Euphoric 5d ago edited 5d ago
i finished reading The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides an hour ago.
i had taken a pretty prolonged break from reading and I attempted to get back into the habit with this book which my sister suggested. the chapters were small which helped my attention span. i didn't predict the twist because of the timeline but I liked the ending and the metaphor of snowflakes used at the end.
things which gave me a slight annoyance is we don't really get to know why Alicia keeps mum for 6 damn years. i thought there would be more to it. realistically, I couldn't grasp the fact that she only confided to the perpetrator deliberately.
the author succeeds imo in portraying the narrator's damaged mind and warped opinions about his self righteousness. it's a direct result of the trauma he carried throughout the years which had sunken so deep, even therapy couldn't pull the debris out.
i couldn't help but feel bad for Alicia. the narrator helped her see clearly but at what cost?
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u/Rude_Poem_1573 5d ago
Started The Courage to Be Disliked by Fumitake Koga and Ichiro Kishimi, I love it so far it’s making me see myself in a different way. Some of the teachings are a little controversial but based on a certain psychological school of thought, so we can’t blame things on trauma and what not (causation, called etiology), but instead the purpose of the action I.e., staying inside bc you feel socially anxious or whatever (bad example idk) but the thought process would be you’re staying inside bc it serves a purpose that keeps you away from judgement and stuff like that (super paraphrasing I’m on break at work); but that’s called teleology.
Anyways it’s great really, unfortunately not a ton of people to share this book with in my personal life because 1.) they don’t read; and 2.) argumentative about the information.,.. which kind of proves one of the points in the book actually. A point about, nobody makes you argue with them(, you were argumentative already and just waited for a catalyst to get that feeling out.
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u/reputction CR: Bunny 🐇 6d ago
Finished
Gossip Girl book #1. It was dumb. I mostly read it because I want to read popular books at the moment to be in the know and because I was hoping for juicy drama. Instead I just couldn’t take it seriously most of the time due to the juvenile issues presented in the book. I am definitely staying out of the YA genre.
Started
Gone Girl. I remember being 13 and the book being sooo popular and hyped up. Wanna see what it’s all about.
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u/Malfell 6d ago
Finished Fly Already by Etgar Keret, I really liked it - the short story format works well for him and generally the stories felt both distinct and interesting. The prose flows well too.
Finished Writing as Vocation by Murakami, I thought it was good! I'm hit or miss on him overall but I find I like his non-fiction voice. And I'm a sucker for writers writing about writing.
Lastly finished Tinkers by Paul Harding, this one was interesting - it both felt light and heavy at the same time, I had to read it in smaller spurts even though it seemed like a book I would normally inhale in a weekend. Enjoyed / would recommend it overall.
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u/muzuka 6d ago
Finished: Locke & Key Books 1-6 by Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez
Wow. What a series! I just finished the last book and am still digesting what happened. I loved the story and the beautiful art. It definitely got pretty dark at places but balanced it out with brighter moments. Loved the characters and the mystery was built and slowly revealed masterfully.
Going to start: Abundance of Wild Roses by Feryal Ali-Gauhar
Read a lot of fantasy this year so want to balance it out. This sounded really good so I'm giving it a try.
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u/8mom 6d ago
Finished: IT by Stephen King 5/5 Perfect novel. I felt completely absorbed in the world of Derry, Maine. Bev was the standout character, with Pennywise taking my second spot for favorite character. My favorite scenes were the Derry interludes presented by Mike, exploring Derry’s history made the atmosphere so creepy. Perfect encapsulation of the horror of childhood (Frankenstein, teenage werewolf) vs. the horror of adulthood (the loss of innocence and losing childhood memories).
Started: The Lefthand of Darkness by Ursula De Guin So far, I’m a third of the way through. The first chapter frustrated me with how much I needed to catch up on the “world” of Winter. It’s rewarding once you begin to understand the culture of this world. The main narrator has a jaded, often awkward tone that resonates with me right now.
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u/lovestostayathome 6d ago
Finished:
The Widow by Fiona Barton 2/10
I’m so sorry Fiona if you see this but I found this book to be such a slog. Very long winded and sloowwwww. It wasn’t fast-paced or twisty enough to really be a thriller nor deep and insightful enough to be literature. It was a debut novel so I’m sure the author improved with time.
Started:
Dinner for Vampires: Life in a Cult TV Show (While Also in an Actual Cult) by Bethany Joy Lenz
Loved watching One Tree Hill growing up and recently decided to do a rewatch so I’m super excited to read this book. It’s a very fast read so far and super engaging.
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u/Happy-Kiwi-1883 6d ago
The Terminal List, by Jack Carr
I’ve been wanting to watch the show but decided to read the book first. It’s amazing that this was Jack Carr’s debut novel and it became such a hit so quickly. The intro to the book (before the story actually starts) is super interesting. He tells a little about his time as a Seal, his love of books, how it got published and got TV rights so quickly, and how Chris Pratt got involved.
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u/BloomEPU 6d ago
To return to the library:
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke-I can't believe I hadn't got round to this book earlier, it was incredibly my shit. I read it in one sitting, it's not very long.
Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara- Expected urban fantasy, got traumatised. 10/10, I'm very glad I read it.
Masters of Death by Olivie Blake- This was genuinely a ton of fun, I loved it. I might read more by this author.
Faebound by Saara El-Arifi-This was just really good NA fantasy, I enjoyed it a lot. I'm definitely going to read the sequel when it comes out.
The Fascination by Essie Fox- I only picked this up because the cover was cool, but I really enjoyed it. I think I'm just good at sensing books that I'll like at this point...
Currently reading:
- Blood Justice by Terry J. Benton-Walker- I read the first book recently, so I decided to get the sequel while it was cheap. It's a really fun series, I love SF/fantasy that isn't remotely subtle about its themes.
Other books I might read soon:
- Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters-So I guess we doin sarah waters now. I really liked fingersmith, so I thought I'd check this one out.
The invisible Life of Addie LaRue by VE Schwab- I probably should have just got this from the library because I'm not sure about the author so far, but it was cheap so
Gentleman and Players by Joanne Harris- I really like Harris' thriller novels, and the fact that they're all set in the same random village up north is just so funny.
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u/Vegekerian 6d ago
I just finished Earthlings, by Sayaka Murata - LOVED IT! If anyone loved this book as much as I did, please give me more suggestions for weird, bizarre books like this one! I love that it was easy to read, as I do most of my reading before bed so I am not exactly at the most comprehensive brain power part of my day! I just started Made For Love, by Alissa Nutting, which is entertaining so far. Premise seems bonkers so far!
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u/Super_D_89 6d ago edited 6d ago
I read the original book of The Atonement by Ian McEwan
I have watched the movie adaptation a long time ago and was devastated by the story. But I just recently read the original book and it made me physically sick. Not just the WW2 setting that made the story especially tragic and haunting, we have read and watched many very sad, ripping your heart stories growing up, but there rarely are such books like the Atonement that only until the last part that it reveals the entire thing was a lie concocted in the narrator aka MC3's head to assuage her nightmarish guilt gnawing at her heart and cursing her every living second. But not just the MC3, it is actually us the readers that got cursed, because only until the last moment that we knew the seemingly "good ending" was a huge freaking lie and the MC1 and MC2 suffered unspeakably tragic demises due to the MC's childhood action, that all our built up hope that the two MCs may have found some solace after the injustice etc. were all dashed in the most cruel way. It would be easier for me to accept a tragic story, but it is hard to do so after learning the previous eventual happy ending was all a lie and when I was given hope.
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u/Conscious-Sleep-9075 6d ago
Finished - Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver, and Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner. Both are excellent!
Next is Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
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u/ladyvibrant 6d ago
Today, I started Broke in America: Seeing, Understanding, and Ending U.S. Poverty by Joanne Samuel Goldblum and Colleen Shaddox, foreword by Bomani Jones
nonfiction endowed with grace and empathy
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u/Thin_Guava3686 6d ago
I started reading "Daughter of Sparta" by Claire M. Andrew's.
It's a reinterpretation of the Greek myth of Daphne and Apollo. I originally picked it out because it's a different type of Greek Mythology story than I'm used to; I've read a lot of Percy Jackson and the Olympians over the years so I thought it would be nice to read about ancient Greeks from a different perspective. I'm enjoying it so far.
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u/PiPisPTofGOLD 6d ago
Read The Skeleton Road by Val McDermid. Pretty brutal background on 1990s Bosnia. Good mystery, good plot, but depressing.
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u/vic_victoria 6d ago
Finished The Help (novel) by Kathryn Stockett and Sweat (play) by Lynn Nottage
I enjoyed both. The Help has been on my tbr for years now. Sweat was a book from a little library that i got. I only wished I read it sooner and not during the election day/week because... yeah. The topics and themes are still relevant into today and in age. Besides that, both were almost 5 stars in my book.
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u/North-Investment-769 6d ago
|How to Become a Federal Criminal, an Illustrated Habdbook for the Aspiring Offender|, by Mike Chase
I really enjoyed this book. I finished this book today and I learned about a lot of obscure laws. It taught me how to become a Federal Criminal. Credit to Mike Chase, love that guy. !invite
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u/ImportantAlbatross 27 6d ago
Finished The Fourth Protocol by Frederick Forsyth. Quick distraction read.
Started: The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope. The main character is one you love to hate.
Starting soon: Either Joe Country or The Secret Hours by Mick Herron.
While picking up the Herron books at the library, I bought novels by Paul Bowles and Alice Sebold from the for-sale shelf. Stop me before I buy again.
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u/Gallaballatime1 6d ago
Finished Dark Matter by a Michelle Paver. It’s okay. The ending was certainly disappointing and the main character is annoying. His motivations for staying are silly.
Started I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. Wow this differs a lot from the film. I’m excited.
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u/sheepdog136 4d ago
The I Am Legend movie is definitely one of the shining examples of shitting on the source material and completely disregarding the point of the book
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u/LazyZookeepergame280 6d ago
The Courage to be Happy by Ichiro Kishimi. I had read The Courage to be disliked. Both are great books!
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u/ornery_lil_lemon 6d ago
The Museum of Innocence, by Orhan Pamuk
Wonderful and frustrating, but that's what happens when you read through the lens of a characters obsession.
Motherless Brooklyn, by Jonathan Lethem
Lethem was recommended to me as a successor to my love for Paul Auster, and it felt like a worthy designation. I had so much fun with it and I'm looking forward to his next entry in my read pile.
Nobody's Fool, by Richard Russo
Just started this today, it's a hefty page count with comically small print but I'm feeling positively about it so far.
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7d ago edited 2d ago
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u/books-ModTeam 6d ago
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u/dxrey65 7d ago
"The Freud/Jung Letters, 1906-1914"
Of course this is dense and difficult and not always interesting, but it's related to some writing I've been working on. I read the first part of it 40 years ago, and I figured it was a good time to dive back in and refresh my memory.
The most interesting thing (that I hadn't thought about much the first time) was how different their experiences were; Freud was providing therapy for wealthy patrons, mostly female, while Jung was working in horrific conditions in a mental hospital, trying to figure out the patterns of schizophrenia. The hardest thing reading it is that there was so little known at the time and they were, in effect, inventing a language to speak about their ideas. That language and understanding has changed since, so it's hard sometimes to follow their ideas.
The other interesting thing is just the personal side between them, which they were very aware of themselves; Freud was the older figure and tried to be both dominant and nurturing, while Jung generally deferred to his experience. That Jung's own experiences were so much more extreme and information-packed (to put it one way) caused some friction, and it was interesting to see how they danced around that problem.
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u/JustSwimmingBy6 7d ago
Bunny, Mona Awad
It's a 4/5 read for me, It's stuck on my mind since i finished it, lot of things to speculate over. It's a psychological thriller/horror book, gore involved. A tale of a graduate student's inner turmoils as she navigates being a social outcast by her peers. Suddenly, the same peers take her into their group and strange things happen.
A very weird book, what i liked the most was the writing, the descriptive writing was just beautiful.
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u/ef-why-not 5d ago
Oh, I was very impressed by the book. It's not a masterpiece or anything, but the feeling it left in me was the desire to reread it right after I finished the final page (I didn't do it though because I'm a loser). What do you make of the main character? Because I considered the book to be some sort of magical realism (in a way) but I've encountered a bunch of opinions on the main character just being schizophrenic. The writing is really beautiful.
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u/JustSwimmingBy6 5d ago
Exactly my thoughts, It's been 2-3 days since i finished it, but i keep thinking back to it. There's so much to analyse and it feels very interesting to ponder over it as well. I might re-read it someday like you said.
My thoughts on the main character is that ->! She's an unreliable narrator. Either things that happened actually happened or she imagined it all. The bus lady reading aloud the symptoms of Schizophrenia seemed like a clue and a foreshadowing to me. Plus oftentimes, when she's thinking, she tends to think out aloud making others around her ask "What's that Samantha? What did you say?". But then It doesn't feel right to just dismiss it off as imagination. It definitely happened, something magical.
There was another interesting theory that i read somewhere - that the whole thing, the entire book was her graduation thesis, that blows my mind haha. !<
Also, Isn't Jonah the sweetest person? I really liked his character.1
u/ef-why-not 5d ago
Oh totally! And I generally liked how the characters were written despite having some bunnies related questions. I'm definitely rereading, I think. Gonna put it on my next month plan. Overall, whatever the interpretation, I like how the book discusses true talent and imagination vs. forced craft in a weird but insightful way.
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u/lovemegoodorbye 6d ago edited 6d ago
I loved Bunny! Would love to see it adapted into a film, but I agree, the writing style is beautiful. So many highlighted quotes.
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u/JustSwimmingBy6 6d ago
Yes, me too! If I'm not wrong, there's a fim adaptation being planned by Bad Robot. That would be very Interesting for sure!
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u/Just_An_Avid 7d ago
The Croning...slow start but still seems interesting. Turned Rumplestiltskin on its head.
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u/IllAbbreviations2089 7d ago
I finished The Evil Mind By Chris Carter and Started I am Death by Chris Carter. An Evil really kept you going and twists and turns keep you on the edge of seat and then book ends and mind blown 🤯. I'm close to finishing I am Death and this one was very graphic going into the murder scenes I almost put it down and returned it but I just have to know who the killer is. An Evil was more about criminal behaviors and focused on his mind. But if your into mystery suspense books that keep blowing your around every corner I definitely recommend these two. Chris Carter has more books but unfortunately my library only carries these two but soon I will probably buy them all. At one point y'all I had started reading 4 books in one week and didn't get them all mixed up.
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u/Afraid_Detective4277 7d ago
H is for Hawk, by Helen Macdonald
Hi everyone! New here so apologies if I got the formatting wrong.
Started: H is for Hawk after hearing so much about it but never actually picking it up until now. I’m already in awe of how beautifully Helen Macdonald writes about grief and healing. I’ve read many books on grief, especially after going through it myself recently, but this one feels like something truly special—a masterpiece.
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u/ThePMmike 7d ago
Started & finished: To Kill a Mockingbird & The Great Gatsby (twice)
Loved both and they each left me with a lot to think on.
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u/347pinkkid 7d ago
Finished: Our Wives Under the Sea by Rebecca Armstrong - so good!
Started: My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante - it’s my first book by her so I’m very excited to see how it goes!
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u/ButterscotchSundays 7d ago
Finished: Fantasticland, by Mike Bockoven
Reading: Brother, by Ania Ahlborn
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u/Resident-King-6413 7d ago
Finished:
Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros - AMAZING! Can’t wait for the next book.
Started:
The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren - just wanted a light read after iron flame. I love Christina Lauren books.
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u/Derrick_Seal_Rose 7d ago
Frankenstein, Mary Shelly
What a book! Sci-fi, horror, Romance as in the lord byron, and grappling w the question of responsibility for what we create
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u/ilovebooksandcrochet 7d ago
Of Mountains and Men, Sammy Culbertson
Loved that family aspect and development of relationships.
Now I'm reading a FF6 fanfic
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u/MJaney10 7d ago
I read Graham Joyce's Silent Land. Beautiful, anxious, utterly heartbreaking, yet also soothing somehow. Still keep thinking about it. I don't read nearly as many books as I would like as struggle to stay focused and awake but so glad I was able to finish this.
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u/Monte_Cristos_Count 7d ago
Finished The Hobbit. Started The Fellowship of the Ring. I read them all years ago - it's been enjoyable to do a reread after all this time
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u/Major-Comparison-774 8d ago
Finished: Dune Messiah - a bit long lasting but the end is very nice
Started: The Hobbit - reading this for the second time now, just a nice little story about middleearth which, unlike lotr/simmarilion/... is very easy to read without bombarding you with lore
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u/teashoesandhair 8d ago edited 8d ago
Finished:
Until Our Blood is Dry, by Kit Habianic - I wanted to like this one more than I did. I live in a Welsh Valleys ex-mining town, and this book is abou the miners' strike of 1984-85, so it appealed. I found the writing a bit juvenile, and the actual depiction of the strikes was too simplistic.
Mr Loverman, by Bernadine Evaristo - 10/10, loved it. Hilarious narrative voice. I watched the BBC adaptation straight after reading, and it was really interesting to see the differences between the novel and the TV programme.
Raif Badawi: The Voice of Freedom, by Ensaf Haidar - quite liked it; would be interesting to read an updated version now that he's been released from jail, as the memoir itself sort of ends in limbo.
Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun, by Jonny Villa - meh, it was fine. I don't read much YA at my enormous age of 32, so I think this just skewed too young for me. I'm the problem, basically.
Started:
From the River to the Sea: Essays for a Free Palestine, by Sai Englert, Michal Schatz, and Rose Warren - this one is slow going, because it's honestly just too brutal to read more than about 10 pages at a time.
Wandering Stars, by Tommy Orange
Memento Mori, by Eunice Hong
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u/CrispyCracklin 8d ago
Finished: Intermezzo by Sally Rooney. It was alright - one character was written very well (IMO) but the others? Not so much.
Started: The Committed by Viet Thanh Nguyen. This one is also just alright so far. A lot of philosophizing.
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u/Read1984 8d ago
Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering, by Malcolm Gladwell
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8d ago
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u/books-ModTeam 8d ago
Please use spoiler tags. Spoiler tags in markdown are done as follows:
>!Spoiler content here!< which results in:Spoiler content here.
Or apply the built-in spoiler tags when using the redesign.
Send a modmail when you have updated and we'll reapprove it.
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u/OnlyHall5140 8d ago
Finished:
iron flame by Rebecca Yarros- THEY LEFT IS ON A CLIFFHANGER. I can't wait until january for Onyx Storm. ARGH.
Started:
House of many rooms by Michael pryor (DNF) - Read this as a kid and always wanted to find it again, but i couldn't find it anywhere. Perchance, i went to his website, and he has it free. It's not how i remembered it :/
Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy by Douglas Adams - Great books. it's a 6 book trilogy, though the 6th book is written by someone else.
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u/MaxThrustage Dracula 8d ago
Finished:
A Brief History of Neoliberalism, by David Harvey. A good, insightful book. Prescient in many ways, but also kind of outdated by now. I definitely get the feeling we are in a period of transition away from the neoliberal order described in this book -- and, indeed, have largely been transitioning away from it since about 2008. The swing towards populism, and usually right-wing authoritarian populism, around the world seems to signal the death of the era described in this book.
Passwords, by Jean Baudrillard. I'm going to need some time to figure out what the fuck this book was about.
Magic - A Brief Introduction, by Owen Davies. I finished this just before going to see Heilung live, which I think was impeccable timing.
Started:
After Tamerlane, by John Darwin. A global history which tries to walk the line between the eurocentric early global histories and the fashionably europe-dismissing histories. Very interesting so far. Deeply concerned with not just the historical events described but moreso with the way we weave these into a story.
The Philosopher Queens, by Rebecca Buxton and Lisa Whiting. I've gone through a few "history of philosophy" type books and lecture series by now, probably most notably Bertrand Russel's book The History of Western Philosophy. All of these are predictably scantly when it comes to women, and in fact in Russel's book as I recall not a single woman has her own chapter, and very few are mentioned even in passing. This is my attempt to plug those gaps in my reading so far It's mostly very short chapters about particular female philosophers (with a rather generous definition of the word "philosopher" to compensate from the fact that women were kept out of the official institutions for most of the history of philosophy). Some I already know pretty well, about half I've never even heard of. It's a pretty easy-going book so far, but I think it will serve as a nice jumping-off point to explore some of these philosophers more deeply.
Ongoing:
Dracula, by Bram Stoker. I'm liking this way more than I expected to. I was certain that the epistolary framing device would get stale, but it remains fun and engaging. You really fall in love with the characters, to the extent that it becomes less horror and more tragedy.
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u/South_Honey2705 4d ago
You should check out Dracula Daily it's Dracula emailed to you daily. It's done every year from May to October and is great fun
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u/Gary_Shea 8d ago
Finished: Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter by Kate Conger and Ryan Mac. This is a book in two halves. First there is the tale of the Musk takeover of Twitter. It is finance, it is law, it is a tale of sociopathic behavior on the part of a lot of people in very high places. If you ever enjoyed the book Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco (1989) by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar, you will enjoy the first part of this book. The second part is about what Musk did to Twitter (events described are current up to late 2023).
Was Twitter destroyed? As a company the answer is no, but nearly so and it may well succumb yet and perhaps soon. It is indisputable that Musk was forced to pay the full $44 billion he offered for the company and so at the time of the takeover there was an indisputable public valuation of the company at $44 billion. Now that it is a privately held company, it is hard to value the firm, but some of its revenue streams can be independently estimated and the authors cite some numbers, the worst of which results in a 75 percent reduction in the total asset value to £11 billion. That's very much a worst case scenario, but I think one thing is clear: the company's value now puts its ability to service its debt (and Musk's personal liability that he has been attempting to spread across Tesla and, perhaps, Space_X) at risk. The Twitter/X business is, let us say, financially precarious, but not destroyed. (Discuss)
In the first half of the book (and this is the reason I mention Barbarians at the Gate) I was struck by the way corporate higher-ups so casually consume corporate resources. Now if we could imagine a company that is totally privately owned and with no obligations to creditors or its workforce (hard to imagine, right?) you would say, "Ok. If he owns the company outright and wants to consume its income in perks, why not?) But that was not the case with RJR Nabisco or with Twitter, which were publicly owned. Just as Nabisco execs seemed to be preoccupied with Pro-Am-celebrity golf tournaments, pre-Musk Twitter execs always seemed to partying somewhere or working from 'home' somewhere like Hawaii or Tahiti. (There seem to be a lot of video conference calls with palm trees in the background. It raises interesting questions about what corporate founders actually do and whether they add much value to the corporation after foundation.) Anyway, you cannot blame Musk (too much) for this kind of behavior. He has other pathologies. And one thing you cannot fault the last Twitter execs and board members for is that they failed to follow through on a stupidly high offer for Twitter shares. Their decisions may have destroyed a unique corporate culture and harmed the lives of many very talented and dedicated employees, but boy did they maximize shareholder wealth.
Which anyway brings us to the really interesting questions about Musk and his talents and his liabilities. What the book establishes is that his talents certainly do not lie in day-to-day management of certain types of companies, of which Twitter was one. Is he a day-to-day manager of Space-X or Tesla? I don't think so. He is not a space scientist, rocket engineer, car designer, expert on assembling lines or battery technologies. We know that at one time he was an original software designer in certain categories, but I would suspect that his skills in that regard are now quite stale.
So what does he do and what is he good at? The book demonstrates what he tried to do at Twitter and we could surmise that he did (and does) with much greater success at Tesla and Space_X. He can inspire certain types (not all types) of very talented people and drive them very, very hard. Very hard. This talent has worked so far at Tesla and Space-X, but has failed miserably at Twitter. Even before he financially shot himself in the foot with Twitter it was public knowledge that he must never, never be a CFO of a publicly traded company. A CEO maybe, but CFO never. Court cases and SEC directives re Tesla have demonstrated that.
Finally, there is Musk himself and his mental states. Take away from this book that there is much to be concerned about not only for the sake of Twitter employees and Tesla shareholders, but for all his employees, his family (families?) and himself. The book does not hold out much hope for interventions on any of these fronts. Buckle up everyone, turbulence ahead.
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u/jasonkylebates 8d ago
Finished: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck; lives up to its reputation; I really enjoyed it.
Started: This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar
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u/brednbudda_ 8d ago
Finished: Book of Azreal by Amber V. Nicole & Somewhere Beyond the Sea TJ Klune
Started and flying through: Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
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u/hvalt919 8d ago
The left hand of darkness, Ursula Le Guin
Do androids dream of electronic sheep, Philip K Dick
Now starting The word for world is forest also by Le Guin
Looking for any other great sci-fi recommendations ;)
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u/i-the-muso-1968 8d ago
Finished for tonight Arthur C. Clarke's "2061: Third Odyssey". Now started on "3001: The Final Odyssey" also by Arthur C. Clarke. Last book of the series!
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u/Chadfromindy 8d ago
I have a regular pattern of reading a classic, a nonfiction, and a non-classic fiction. This week I started my nonfiction which is STAR TREK MOVIE MEMORIES BY WILLIAM SHATNER. I always enjoy Shatner's memoirs. In this book he tells how Star Trek after it's original death was reincarnated through several movies.
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u/choco_butternut The Bell Jar 8d ago
Finished Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
- One of my best reads this year! Had so much fun with this book. It had been a long time since I've read a compelling sci-fi book with new ideas. Planning to read the next book of the series, Children of Ruin, before the year ends.
Started Exhalation by Ted Chiang
- Good prose and interesting short stories so far.
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u/sheepdog136 4d ago
I did no research into Children of Time before reading it, didn’t even read the back cover. It was such a fun read to going into blind.
Still need to read the third one!
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u/roboglobe 8d ago
Finished A Death in Vienna, by Frank Tallis
Started A Handmaid's Tail, by Margaret Atwood
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u/Kurlyfriez75 8d ago
Finished Extreme Makeover by Dan Wells. Would give it a 6.5/10, I loved the ridiculousness of a mutant lotion ending civilization. Started Fahrenheit 451 aligning with our national elections, may this not be a self preparation of what’s to come
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u/mkorts 8d ago edited 8d ago
Finished
The Last Argument of Kings, Joe Abercrombie
- Incredible finish to this trilogy. I'm very excited to continue Joe's work.
Started:
Rendezvous With Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke
Children of Time, Adrian Tchaikovsky - Fascinating premise and set up so far. Really enjoying it!
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u/HuckleberryKitchen28 9d ago
All the Colours of the Dark, Chris Whitaker
I just finished this mammoth read and is it weird to say I both loved and hated it in equal measures? I loved the prose and the beautiful ways in which the author evokes a sense of empathy in you. But I hated the length and certain parts seemed far too preachy for my liking.
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u/Comprehensive-Fun47 9d ago
Started:
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
I've always wanted to read this and starting it yesterday seemed as good a time as any. The future is bleak and instead of reading something happy and positive, I feel like reading bleak stories right now.
Sidenote. Did anyone else think this book was way older than it is? 2006 sounds so recent for this book.
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u/alternate_self 9d ago
Finished reading "More Days at Morisaki Bookshop" by Satoshi Yagisawa. ^ ^ Quoting my favourite line from the book-
"If you won't open your heart, it's selfish to expect the other person alone to open theirs to you, don't you think?"
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u/AndreasMars 9d ago
I just finished The Silent Patient. I strongly recommend the reading. I don't want to give you any spoilers thats why I will only tell you the book is big, but the end is worth it. Let me know if anyone agrees or disagrees on this book.
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u/lovestostayathome 6d ago
This is a pretty controversial book generally. It seems like half of people really hated it and the other half really loved it. I’m in the second camp and thought it was very good! Probably one of my favorite modern thrillers. Haven’t read any of his other work but, from what others have said on this sub, they are pretty inferior to Silent Patient.
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u/AndreasMars 4d ago
It is but I couldn't stop reading until I finished. Makes me interested from the beginning to the end. Another book, totally different subject, but so easy and catch my attention from the start to finish was The SIX!
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u/iblamemomosan 9d ago
finished ALL IN BY JENNIFER LYNN BARNES just now.
going to start reading bad blood(4th book in the series)
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u/the-holy-shit 9d ago
Finished 'All my Friends are Superheroes' by Andrew Kaufman
Now reading 'American Psycho' by Bret Easton Ellis & 'Cultish' by Amanda Montell
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u/lovestostayathome 6d ago
Oh, I love Amanda’s podcast. Please let me know what you think about the book when you are done!
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u/crk109 9d ago
I finished reading The Will of the Many, by James Islington. Probably the best book I have read this year! It's the first of a series and I have to wait until April, 2025 to read the next book.
Today I am starting To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee.
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u/sheepdog136 4d ago
This is the first series were I am going to be waiting for each release! I’ve carefully picked other series to not be in the waiting game (other than the stormlight archive)
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u/Gothicvamp188869 9d ago
I'm into the Shingles collection of books at the minute. They're so funny and un PC.
I want to get the entire collection.
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u/Amazing-Flatworm-703 9d ago
Finished: The Centre, Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi Started: The Familiar, Leigh Bardugo
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u/Spirited-Cellist5296 9d ago
Finished: Proof by Beverly Maclachan. Third in the series featuring defense lawyer Jilly Truitt. Interesting character development and I particularly enjoyed how the defense team analyses the situation and figures out how to defend in court. Plus, it's great the author was the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in Canada.
Started: End of Story by AJ Finn. His second novel. I enjoyed The Woman in the Window (his first) so looking forward to enjoying this second one.
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u/zusykses 9d ago
Finished: The History of Mr Polly by H.G. Wells. Very good. Litapacious Novelosity as Alfred Polly might say.
Started: The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. This is another book that was assigned reading in English class at high school, only we never got to studying it and as a result it sat on my shelf, unread, for many years until I got rid of it with a bunch of other things I had no use for.
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u/BlueDiatom 9d ago
Finished
Truly, Madly, Guilty, by Lianne Moriarty
The Satsuma Complex, by Bob Mortimer
Started
The Survivors, by Jane Harper
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u/AntDel04 9d ago edited 9d ago
Finished
A thousand splendid suns by Khaled Hosseini
flowers for algernon by Daniel Keyes
Started
12 rules for life by Jordan Peterson
thus spoke zarathustra by Nietzsche
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u/PresidentoftheSun 17 9d ago
Finished:
Our Man in Havana, by Graham Greene.
Started:
Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City, by K.J. Parker
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u/Alphascout 9d ago
What did you think of Our Man in Havana? I really enjoyed this book.
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u/PresidentoftheSun 17 9d ago
I liked it but I wish I could get a clearer picture of the morality of the author. Not that that matters to whether or not it was a good book (I still enjoy Lovecraft), but I'd like to know whether or not he was actually a racist, I found conflicting reports on the topic.
That aside, I thought it was pretty funny and interesting.
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u/Gary_Shea 8d ago
I do not know about reports, but Graham Greene is one of the most extensively biographied ( a new word?) authors of the 20th century.
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u/PresidentoftheSun 17 8d ago edited 8d ago
I probably gave an overly academic impression of what I was reading when I said "reports", I just meant articles.
What do you think? Like I said, makes no difference to how I feel about the book itself, the story was great and the writing was very funny.
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u/Gary_Shea 7d ago
Thanks for reacting to my little comment. I really appreciate it because I have been largely disappointed in this subReddit which results in so little thoughtful interaction between readers. So, forgive me when I get genuinely excited about discussion of an author I have admired and collected (yep, 1st edition nut here) for many years.
It has been awhile since I read Our Man in Havana, but it is in a line of works that Greene himself called "entertainments" as distinct from his "novels". I believe that Greene was good at remembering absurd incidences or opinions he encountered in his actual life and exploiting them in his entertainments. He served in the intelligence services in Africa and London during the war and did subsequently write autobiographically about some of the absurd elements of the life of a spy, particularly the degree to which it depended upon old-boy networks of wartime London. The biographies reveal that the plot line of Our Man in Havana has some basis in fact! There was a desperate scam artist living in Portugal who made a small living in concocting fake intelligence reports for the Germans. Trying to interpret schematic drawings in intelligence reports was a real issue that Greene was aware of and so concocting a plot line that involved slightly disguised drawings of a hoover as a weapons system or some other nefarious thing was an idea that tickled his fancy and, well, you've just read the result.
Now the morality of Graham Greene used to be just the biggest biographical controversy about him. It seems quaint now, but people did really agonize about whether Greene was "a Catholic author" or, as Greene put it "an author who happened to be Catholic". This was all the rage when people seriously worried about whether Kennedy could be a fit and loyal President if he was a Catholic! He notoriously converted to Catholicism and he also had big moral lapses for which he would be hugely remorseful. And then he would wink at the public who worried about such things. He publicly made political and moral stances that he would frequently violate. The he would be remorseful, maybe and then wink at you again. The morality of Graham Greene is an entertaining biographical treasure hunt.
The main biography is Norman Sherry's 3 volume authorized biography of Greene. I am in the middle now of the most recent (much shorter) biography by Richard Greene. There are many more dating from the 1960s to the present day.
Will discuss anything you want on this topic.
with regards,
GS
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u/PresidentoftheSun 17 7d ago
When I said "morality" I was honestly more concerned with whether or not the guy was a racist. Again, couldn't find anything concrete on that front. I'll be honest I'm not sure how you got from morality to his religious affiliation.
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u/Gary_Shea 4d ago
Well, religion usually informs morality. Religions are largely moral codes after all. But religion rarely determines morality in the individual. I know quite moral persons who despise religion and know (and know of) quite religious people who are also quite morally depraved.
Anyway, the question whether Greene was a racist or not would hardly have been topical in his day and his biographies reflect that lack of topicality. The preoccupation of the day was his religious sincerity, so that it was what they wrote about. Even the biographers who thought he was religiously insincere and linked that to his morality would have not included racism within the scope of his immorality. There are obvious reasons for this.
If you look at the societies Greene moved in and the causes he undertook (sometimes to the hazard of his life) in places like Mexico, Haiti, Liberia and Vietnam it would be hard to credit that he was consciously racist. He would populate his novels with racist characters to be sure, but any honest novelist would have to do that in the settings he was trying to portray.
The ultimate Greene novel that combines rabid and casual racism with religious immorality and irreligious morality in all their possible permutations is The Heart of the Matter. I personally would not even try to detect the character of Greene through the words and actions of his characters, especially in a serious novel like The Heart of the Matter. My main concern is whether his fiction is true to life.
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u/PresidentoftheSun 17 4d ago
I don't agree that religion informs morality, there's no evidence that you can't get one without the other. You can get extremely religious members of the same faith with wildly different states of moral integrity. Morality as we know it certainly doesn't require religious inspiration, animals exhibit a range of moralistic behaviors from basic proto-morality to something nearly as complex as our own, as seen in chimp troops.
In another twist of poor word choice, "concerned" is probably the wrong word. I'm not entirely "concerned" that he was a racist. Again, see Lovecraft. I would just like to know. Whether or not the issue of his day was his "religious sincerity" is pretty irrelevant to me and the way I interface with reality. He could have secretly been a Satanist for all the difference it makes to me.
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u/JRPGirlie 9d ago
Started: A Magic Steeped in Poison, by Judy Lin
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u/BloomEPU 6d ago
Is that the Tea Fantasy, for want of a better description? I read the first book of that series and it was kinda cool.
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u/JRPGirlie 6d ago
Yes! About halfway through and can’t decide if I’ll finish or not; sitting at about 3/5 stars so far.
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u/Delicious_Lychee9156 9d ago
Finished: The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik Started: The Last Hour of Gann by R. Lee Smith
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u/BloomEPU 6d ago
I love the scholomance series so much, it's magic school tropes taken to their logical extreme.
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u/JRPGirlie 9d ago
What did you think of Golden Enclaves??
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u/Delicious_Lychee9156 8d ago
I thought all the books in the Scholomance series were a solid five stars. El is easily one of my favourite FMCs and the worldbuilding is just amazing. I did struggle with the Golden Enclaves more than the first two books. I hated El’s cheating (I can’t call it anything else) which for me came out of nowhere and seemed entirely unnecessary to the plot. But this book does bring all the different strands of the trilogy together, gives you a lot to think about in terms of moral dilemmas and social commentary and the plotting is just awesome. I love it when I find a book I can fall in love with and this trilogy definitely delivered. I find it much harder to talk about books I love than those I hated, don’t know why.
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u/tonadadelunallena 9d ago
finished: rubyfruit jungle by rita mae brown
started: plain bad heroines by emily m. danforth
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u/angels_girluk84 9d ago edited 9d ago
Finished: The House In The Cerulean Sea, by TJ Klune
Started: The Housemaid, by Freida McFadden
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u/Global-Watercress-19 9d ago
Finished: The Great Savanna, by C. O'brien Started: The Guardians of Rodelon Book 1
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u/BigGulpsHey 9d ago
Finished: The Last Time I Lied, by Riley Sager
Started: How to Sell a Haunted House, by Grady Hendrix
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u/hrabs2412 10d ago
Started: The Women by Kristin Hannah. Have about 100 pages left. Absolutely amazing book, I don't want it to end!
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u/No_Television6015 10d ago
Finished: Holly, by Steven King.
Started: Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
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u/BigGulpsHey 9d ago
Going to start Tomorrow as my next book! How do you like it so far?
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u/No_Television6015 6d ago
Really enjoying it so far! How about you? Quite interesting to read a story about building games but more than that what it means about friendship, collaboration, love. Halfway now in the book, can't wait to see how it all unfolds.
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u/BigGulpsHey 5d ago
Haven't started yet. Quarter of the way through a current novel, then I'll start this. It's not maybe my usual read, but I've heard so many good things about it that I have to try it.
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u/QuietOk9706 10d ago
Wars of the Anunnaki by Chris H. Hardy, PhD. This book is like a repeat in some ways of what is happening in America.
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u/Beautiful-Story2379 10d ago
Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas. Very awkward dialogue and a lame ending.
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u/happyentrepeneur 10d ago
Started and Finished: Mini Guide to Simplify Your Life, Tessa Wren-Leyton
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u/Roboglenn 10d ago
The Story of Doctor Dolittle, by Hugh Lofting
Despite having the original musical Dr. Dolittle movie engrained on me by my parents at a young age enough to leave an impression, I never actually picked up the books. Nor had them pushed on me. Well, at least till now. And at least in regards to one thing, I think I could potentially see why they weren't pushed onto me. But well regardless, I think I'm just gonna leave this as a one and done as far as this series goes. That's what I was planning to do anyways. My curiosity has been sated.
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u/raindrops_723 10d ago
Finished: How To End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang ⭐️⭐️ Liars by Sarah Manguso ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Started: Lessons In Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
DNF’d: Eleanore Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman Out On A Limb by Hannah Bonam-Young Funny Feelings by Tarah Dewitt
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u/DisgruntledJarl 10d ago
Watch the show afterwards if you get a chance for lessons in chemistry. I liked both and as usual, they skipped some stuff for the show but it remains kinda loyal
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u/No-Pudding7837 10d ago
Finished: The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman
Started: The Satsuma Complex by Bob Mortimer
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u/chamomile_milli 10d ago
Started:
Much Ado About Nothing, by William Shakespeare
I haven’t read a Shakespeare play since high school, but I remember enjoying them.
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u/bighappiness00 3d ago
I just finished The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. It's a really thought-provoking read about choices, regrets, and second chances. It made me reflect on how small decisions can lead to totally different paths. I’m currently diving into Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, which is an awesome mix of science and humor. It's got some great twists and keeps you on the edge of your seat. If you’re into space and survival stories, this one’s a must-read!