What are you reading?

[Kaplan]

Ohh I read Children of Time a couple months ago and quite liked it. Maybe I should pick this up.

I wouldn't give it a super high recommendation. While it does have one evocative setting (the jungle prison) it's overall a bit uneven, with not enough taking place in its best setting and too much taking place outside of it, and a pretty weak ending - it was an ok read but not more than that. There are definitely much better books among the classics I've been going through this year.

As for Children of Time it seems like it's the best reviewed of Adrian's SF novels (I didn't pick it up as the premise with the uplifted(?) spiders didn't really appeal to me) - if you enjoyed that one, maybe the last two of his Children trilogy might be worth checking out.

 

[edinatlanta]

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Not giving up on that book but i will say i was very excited when the library told me this was ready for pickup

 

[Kaplan]

Agreed. The Road is awesome and the way it's written without quotation marks around the spoken dialogue gives it a uniquely dreamy feel.

 

[Geoffrey Firmin]

60 year old PB in very good condition. Interesting and highly entertaining.

 

[Mujib]

I started Suttree after finishing Outer Dark and Child of God. Gotta say, I’m not feelin’ it. Yes, the writing is nice, but so far that’s all it is. Does it get better?

 

[Oswald Cornelius]

I started Suttree after finishing Outer Dark and Child of God. Gotta say, I’m not feelin’ it. Yes, the writing is nice, but so far that’s all it is. Does it get better?

Not sure how much of Cormac you've read. The joke was, after the first five novels he started doing "Cormac-lite" which is when he got popular with ATPH and then the movies. I give a carve out to The Crossing, which is a pretty damn deep novel. All that said, Blood Meridian is his masterpiece, and as much as I love it I prefer Suttree and consider it his best work. Stick with it.

"Somebody has been fuckin' my watermelons." How can't you love that?

 

[Scuppers]

Currently tag-teaming these two, admittedly, not my genre. Proving a little indulgent.

The secret history was a recommendation… Auntie Mame, saw the film years ago, just wanted to read it.


However, thats not why I am here; looking for a definitive biography on Napoleon.
Have read around him, the turbulent years post monarchy to Louis 18th… Just never settled on the man himself.
Any recommendations?

 

[heathenist]

Finally getting around to this. It’s the first book I had on my tbr list that I started almost 2 years ago, but just never got around to it. Have read 3 other McCarthy books in the meantime and loved all of them (The Road, No Country for Old Men, All the Pretty Horses). Excited to get into this one despite knowing how hard it is to read due to some pretty graphic violence.

 

[edinatlanta]

Currently tag-teaming these two, admittedly, not my genre. Proving a little indulgent.
View attachment 2018107
The secret history was a recommendation… Auntie Mame, saw the film years ago, just wanted to read it.


However, thats not why I am here; looking for a definitive biography on Napoleon.
Have read around him, the turbulent years post monarchy to Louis 18th… Just never settled on the man himself.
Any recommendations?

Michael Broers triology.

 

[NakedYoga]

View attachment 2018461
Finally getting around to this. It’s the first book I had on my tbr list that I started almost 2 years ago, but just never got around to it. Have read 3 other McCarthy books in the meantime and loved all of them (The Road, No Country for Old Men, All the Pretty Horses). Excited to get into this one despite knowing how hard it is to read due to some pretty graphic violence.

Read it a few months ago. It is really something.

 

[Oswald Cornelius]

Currently tag-teaming these two, admittedly, not my genre. Proving a little indulgent.

The secret history was a recommendation…

I love The Secret History and I love Donna Tartt. Not everyone's cup of tea, granted, which is fine. My old copy is a true first edition. The book is credited with starting the Dark Academia trend, of which fans of this forum are surely aware. The Goldfinch, although overly long, was also good, but the movie absolutely missed the mark, so don't judge by that.

The Secret History seems perfect for a long limited series and I'm not sure why it's never been done as that or a movie. It's a brilliant book.

 

[Kaplan]

Bob Shaw: The Peace Machine, 1971.

"'Good morning, Mr Hutchman,' she said watchfully, the verbal equivalent of moving pawn to king four in the day's new battle."

I've come across a few recommendations for works by Shaw, especially for the quality of his prose, and this did not disappoint. Not an easy pick up, as he's mostly out of print, but I lucked out and found this in a used book store in Copenhagen, where it's rather rare to find vintage SF classics, let alone more obscure stuff like this. In this, a mathematician invents a machine with the power to set off all nuclear weapons simultaneously, in a hope that this will lead to disarmament, when he shares the knowledge of it. Of course, this leads to him being hunted, and he has not insignificant marital problems to deal with as well. Not a major work, this was still a very enjoyable read, mostly due to Shaw's excellent prose and some better than required character work for what's basically a thriller. This was also released as Ground Zero Man.

 

[grippybananas]

The Bad Popes by e.r chamberlin

 

[SixOhNine]

Someone brought up James Clavell recently, so I decided to read Shogun. The first time I read it was during a beach vacation when I was in junior high. I sunburned the the f**k out of my back the first day there and spent the remainder of the week hiding out in the shade. The book lasted the entire week, but that's about all I remember of it.

Damn thing is nearly 1500 pages long...

 

[HORNS]

Someone brought up James Clavell recently, so I decided to read Shogun. The first time I read it was during a beach vacation when I was in junior high. I sunburned the the f**k out of my back the first day there and spent the remainder of the week hiding out in the shade. The book lasted the entire week, but that's about all I remember of it.

Damn thing is nearly 1500 pages long...

To me, there's not a superfluous page in that book.