Books

I've never read The Grapes of Wrath before, but now I'm about a quarter through it.

You can tell that Steinbeck really lived that hard depression life and had an abiding love for the other people who did too, warts and all.

Been going thru the Discworld series in published order, and now on A Hat Full of Sky. I think it's #30ish out of 40ish in the series? It's taken a number of years, but I'm also getting a bit sad that I'm nearing the end and there won't be any more. Pratchett was a treasure.

This Inevitable Ruin

Dungeon Crawler Carl #7

Bill Bryson - The Lost Continent

It’s funny and a great read as Bryson always is, but I noticed for the first time that my values have changed since I first read it.

He pretty regularly comments on how overweight people are, and doesn’t mind describing exactly what he finds unattractive in older or overweight women.

I guess I just got fat friends and find that distasteful now.

I literally just finished The Shining. Somehow I missed this one in the past, but it was a really good read.

I’m also about 1/2 through The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A Fuck by Mark Manson. Ironically, I’m reading it in the midst of a long trip and it’s giving me a lot of things to contemplate.

Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky

Ill Met in Lankhmar (1995) by Fritz Leiber in it's first unabridged german translation from 2004.

It is absurd, how underrated Leiber is up to this day. He was so much better than many of his contemporaries.

Robin Hobb's Assassin's Quest (Farseer trilogy 3/3). Devouring those on a holiday like I used to blaze through books as a kid!

I'm most of the way through Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. This book has gone in directions I was not expecting, and I've loved every minute of it. Should finish it in the next couple of days and it's definitely getting my recommendation.

The Stormlight Archive. This will be my 4th time. They're my comfort books.

Someone listed r Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds in a comment about decent hard Sci-fi and my copy just came in the mail today

I am reading (maybe re-reading) The House of the Spirits. A friend said we read it in high school and I do remember reading One Hundred Years of Solitude in highschool as part of a magical realism unit but I can't really remember if I did the House of the Spirits. Its great and I can't put it down.

The Book of Dust, Volume 3: The Rose Field

If you liked His Dark Materials this continuation of the story is pretty epic and the last book was just released!

Pariah by Dan Fesperman.

Fesperman is probably the best espionage writer of the 21st Century.

This book is a crazy comedy. A Hollywood comic was about a year into his first Congressional term when an onset meltdown tape comes out and destroys both careers. He's isolating on an island when the CIA comes to him and asks him to meet his No. 1 fan; the brutal dictator of a small European country.

Manges to be WTF and realistic at the same time.

I’m on the last stretch of Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time book 4).

I’m excited to continue into book 5 here soon.

Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor. It's the first book in a series about time traveling historians. So far it seems fun! The protagonist is witty and sarcastic, which I look for in a protagonist. I'm also in the middle of reading Galaxy Outlaws: The Complete Black Oceans Mobius Missions by J. S. Morin. I spent 1 audible credit figuring if I liked it, it would be an incredible value. It was presented as similar as Firefly and Guardians of the Galaxy, so I was down! The books are actually rather surprising as the plots progress further than I would have thought. I figured it would be more episodic, with characters slowly developing over the series, but the crew's circumstances being fairly stable, but it is not like that at all! The character development is a little slower than I expected, and the plot progression much faster! I'm up to book 9, but so I don't become burnt out by it I alternate between reading 1 black ocean book, and 1 other book.

Project Hail Mary because of the upcoming movie.

Finished "Service Model" by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I liked this one, but it took me three weeks to read it since I was busy. Picked up "Singularity sky" by Charles Stross after that, and I'm about 40% through. I noticed I'm still as busy as the previous weeks, but I'm making more time available to read. I guess I like the writing style of Charles Stross a little better.

I keep going back to read more of The Dreden Files and forgetting where I was before. I am guessing if you have read 14 books its worth to keep going back. I think I went up to Blood Rites

Oh, also thinking of Cold Days gives me an excuse to post a cat pic. This was Sarissa, named such after the character you meet in Cold Days.

Just finished CABIN: Off the Grid Adventures with a Clueless Craftsman by Patrick Hutchison and highly recommend it to anyone looking for a hilarious read. Revisiting Stiff by Mary Roach now, just because it's been a long time.

The third Jake’s Magical Market book; just finished the second one last night. They’re… fine and if it was a normal LitRPG series that goes on forever I would have bailed after the first one, but finding out it was a completed trilogy was appealing enough that I’m seeing them through.

Started up Honorverse again, with On Basilisk Station.

It's a comfort series for me. Oddly enough.

Finished up Star Wars Shadows of the Empire. It’s based on the game and is the only book between movies 5 and 6. So now that I’m done this I’m moving onto the novelization of Episode 6. Shadows provided some good back story and setup the rescue of Han. Explains Boushh Leia!

Citizen of the Galaxy by Robert Heinlein. It’s my first story from him that isn’t from a ShortStory compilation. I’m enjoying it, it’s heavy on the slavery and beating, it seems though.

After those two, I think I’m gonna do some more ShortStory compilations, I like that pacing of being able to finish a story in my reading windows sometimes. But there’s a big batch of Star Wars books until the next novelization though.

This puts me at about 80-90 of the 150 books read if I’m counting my brothers list correctly.

Tom's Crossing

I am just wrapping up a reread of the back half of The Expanse. I reread 1-2 a year ago and skipped 3-4 because they’re very slow. I really love the setting and how grounded the scifi feels. I think the last few books kinda lose that grounding but the earlier ones are good enough to carry me through.

Next I’ll be reading Rebecca by Daphne De Maurier for a book club. It’s really outside my normal wheelhouse being historical fiction, but Wuthering Heights was one of my surprise favorites from high school and it feels similar enough in its writing. I do really enjoy the flowery prose from what little I’ve read thus far. It’s rare I’m afforded the opportunity to indulge so much in the English language.

Currently about halfway through Shutter by Ramona Emerson.

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Finished Cathedral of the Drowned by Nathan Ballingrud (weird sci-fantasy horror) | bingo: new, x of y, short

Follows the fates of side characters from the first book, Crypt of the Moon Spider. Half a brain in a satellite travels the solar system, while on Earth, a gang leader faces encroachment from the Mafia.

Ehhhh. There were parts of this I liked, but I generally found it a let-down after Moon Spider. It's a much less focused story, and it loses the particular flavor of creepiness that made the first book so fun. Definitely check content warnings, as they're quite different from the previous entry.

I’m up to the 7th of the 9 books in my Reread of the Fred the Vampire accountant series by Drew Hayes. I started November 1st after the final book was released. It’s as fun as I remember.