I almost forgot the weekly thread again, so just putting it up, will post my updates later.
What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?
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I am a book four of my audiobook re-read version of Dungeon Crawler Carl before the eighth book comes out in May. I just wanted to hear the audiobooks because they are done so well.
I also just finished A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher. (All she writes is great) And now I’m moving onto Operation Bounce House by Matt Dinniman, who I will be seeing on Thursday for a signing.
All she writes is great
I really didn’t care much for The Hollow Places. But the rest of her bibliography seems appealing to me. Would you say they are better than that book?
I also didn’t care for The Hollow Places, and have avoided her horror novels ever since. I did pick up What Moves the Dead recently, though, and found it enjoyable. Maybe it’s just that one book? Maybe she’s better at gothic than straight horror? I don’t know.
I do generally like T. Kingfisher’s fairy tale-inspired titles, as well; the ones I’ve read do tend to have the same kind of spunky protagonist as The Hollow Places, but that kind of MC doesn’t bother me in a fantasy setting. YMMV, ofc.
It depends on your preferences. I tend not to read a lot of Horror because it as a genre is something I don’t vibe with, but I have read a few because the writing or storytelling were solid. Hollow Places was like that for me.
If you tend to vibe more with Fantasy, give Paladin’s Grace a try. (Unless a romance aspect will turn you off). Alternatively, A Wizards Guide to Baking is enjoyable and shorter.
I like horror but definitely prefer fantasy. I’ll have to give her another shot but I was really disappointed with Hollow Places.
I’m desperately curious why you didn’t like the Hollow Places.
I kinda just found it rather vapid overall. It was strange for the sake of being strange. It didn’t have enough good aspects to make up for the parts I didn’t like overall. I ended up giving it a 1.25/5. I think overall that “cosmic horror” might just not be for me.
I’m reading Anne Applebaum’s Gulag: A History. If you can’t tell, it’s about the history of the Gulag system, a collection of Soviet concentration camps. Interesting stuff, though gruesome.
I recently also read through IAEA’s INSAG-7 report on the Chernobyl accident. HBO’s Chernobyl is a wonderful series, but the last episode bothered me since I knew it gets a lot of things wrong. After digging around YouTube videos for a bit, I found a lot of them confused and contradictory. Eventually I decided to go to the source and read the report in an effort to understand what happened. It’s a surprisingly understandable and not terribly long, and pretty much the most authoritative source on the accident. It’s amazing how many people make videos about Chernobyl who clearly haven’t read it. What really boiled my coolant, however, was how it was clear the Soviet nuclear institutes knew about the design flaws that caused the accident and even knew how to fix them, but they chose to do nothing. They. Fucking. Knew. They just blamed the operators and got away with it.
The HBO series is great, but it is really inaccurate.
Applebaum’s book on the Soviet take over of Eastern Europe was a fascinating read.
Just started Red Country by Joe Abercrombie this morning and already hooked.
Path of Daggers! (Wot #8)
I’m officially past the halfway point.
I have thoughts on the series, but my spoiler tags have been known to fail here for whatever reason.
Suffice to say, I have been enjoying the books. The hardest thing about reading these books is that they’re just old enough to not be considered classics like LotR, but not modern enough to be at the forefront of social media, like Cosmere stuff.
So finding people to talk about these books irl has been very difficult! And the huge 14 books is such a daunting task to get someone to consider it.
I wish I was more online when I first read WoT and the Dragon Mount site was super active.
I’m currently listening to them, on book 11, whatever it’s called. Read them all a few years back. My problem is I have a difficult time placing things in one book or another, so despite being in the midst of it, I can’t discuss anything with you!
I feel your pain. Everything after book 4 is blurring together.
I bought a collection of the Slough House thrillers by Mike Herron, the books on which the Apple TV show Slow Horses was based.
I find the way Herron writes, very nice. He usually designs every paragraph from the perspective of one of the Slow Horses, or someone useful to the story. But he also changes the tone, the wording, in the way that character would tell that part.
Plus the story kind of takes a modern twist on the tired old spy stories and it contains a fair amount of humour.
I enjoyed the show, thinking about trying the books out at some point!
Just finished The Handmaid’s Tale after having it in my to-read list for who knows how long. It was pretty bleak. I’ll probably take a break and read some other things before coming back for the second book. Margaret Atwood is slowly becoming one of my favorite authors.
Freak Fall by Dave Cheadle. It’s Christian fiction that reads like a thriller and isn’t preachy. Reminds me of Frank Peretti.
Since my last check in, I started and finished Yellowface by RF Kuang. Read it in one day; the narrator was so insufferable I just had to know what would happen to her lmao.
Almost done with Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century by Kim Fu. I like reading short stories before bed because there’s less chance of me staying up all night trying to finish a book haha. I like it so far, some stories more than others, but overall they’re pretty solid.
Also around halfway through None of This is True by Lisa Jewell. It’s stressing me out a bit, not sure in a good or bad way lol. Pretty decent so far and keeps me on my toes.
I finished 2 books by Johan van Coenegham:
- Het verhaal van Tom
- Het verhaal van Kaat
Level 1 readers for learning Dutch!
Guncle
Its for a book review podcast I am listening to, “words about books”
Its a story of retired gay Hollywood celebrity, Pat, taking care of his former friends kids after she lost her battle with cancer.
The father fell into addiction and wants Pat to take care of the kids for 90 days while he goes to a near by addiction treatment center.
I am only 90 pages in, but so far, I am not impressed by the story’s humor and for the most part, I am tired out by celebrity stories/culture.
I listen to books on my hour commute. I am currently working through The Iron Druid Chronicles. It’s a fun world where all the gods and monsters are real and the last Druid is being hunted down by his nemesis and all the trials he under goes. Each book takes a stride through a different pantheon and the story is died together nicely, albeit this is clearly young adult fiction, I’m enjoying it.
- The Wandering Inn book 17 - Lady of Fire . So far I am enjoying it. Its my soap opera guilty pleasure. Theres some parts I dont care for. The push into government is something I could care less about. But the personal stories keep me coming back.
- The Heart Grows - by Damaged - https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/51893/the-heart-grows I keep up with the series. The characters and writing style keeps me going back. Lots of good world building.
- The Hundred Reigns [Timeloop LitRPG] by Maxime J. Durand (Void Herald) . I basically like everything Void Herald publishes. Hes push into the more grittier side of writing has me wanting to read more and more. I cant wait to see what happens in the story.
I started off the week with an Outlanders book (I think it was number 5)
Since then I have been binging on Dungeon Crawler Carl. After hearing people constantly mention it and good things being said I thought i would give it a try and I am loving it. I am already half way through the third book.
It reminds me of a mix of Solo Levelling with Buy Mort. It is very similar to Buy Mort in how it is presented, written and the humour behind everything. So to anyone who loves a bit of Dungeon Crawler Carl, I would highly highly recommend giving The Shopocalypse Saga: Buy Mort books a go, I think you’d love them as well!
Similar. Picked up ‘Carl’ at the library and killed it in two days. Have Book #2 on hold.
Will check Shopocalypse, thank you for the suggestion.
Have you ever tried “Red Harvest” by Dashiell Hammett?
No worries, I hear Carl mentioned a lot but no one has ever spoken about Buy Mort and it is done in such a similar vein that I think people would really enjoy it!
Never heard of Red Harvest but will check it out for sure, thanks!
If the plot of ‘Red Harvest’ seems familiar it’s because that book is the original; all the versions you’ve seen ripped it off.
does my shampoo bottle count?
The State of Affairs, by Esther Perel; I’m also reading The Reemergence of Liberation Theologies, ed. Thia Cooper.
