Books

Making my way through the DiscWorld series. It's excellent. Even the least enjoyable are more enjoyable than other very enjoyable books I've read!

Caliban's War . I've seen The Expanse TV series. This is my first time reading the books.

Finished Dungeon Crawler Carl books 1-7 a few months ago. In preparation for Book 8 in May I'm now listing to the Audiobooks followed by the Soundbooth immersion tunnel version.

Last month read The Expanse first 3 books.

Currently reading Children of Time while waiting for Operation BounceHouse to release next week.

Listening to my first audio book series, dungeon crawler Carl. And damn is it good. Currently on book V, the butchers masquerade.

I just finished The Broken Earth trilogy and liked it. The first book was by far my favorite and I felt the third was a bit of a “quick, I need to explain everything” exposition dump at times. Overall the series was interesting though.

I’m now re-reading Project Hail Mary in preparation for the movie. I really liked it the first time so don’t expect this time to be any different!

Finished Elantris by Brandon Sanderson. I enjoyed it a lot, but kinda feel like it stumbled a bit towards the end. Maybe it was the rapid changes in POV, or maybe because it suddenly added new POVs in the ending chapters? There is also a lot of unresolved stuff, as it sets up sequels that don't exist yet. Was still a very enjoyable book though. It was my first Sanderson, and I'll be checking out some more of his stuff soon. Maybe Mistborn? Taking recommendations on where to go next!

I also finished The Hedge Knight by G.R.R. Martin. Picked it up because of the new HBO show, Preston Jacobs spoke so warmly of the book in his review of the show, and I was so impressed when re-reading A Game of Thrones recently. I was not quite as impressed though, a nice little short story, but I didn't get that invested. There are just so many names presented in a very short story, and I found I had to backtrack quite a bit to keep track of who these people were. I have the collection of the 3 first Dunk and Egg stories and will keep going through them though.

Still on a retro roll, now re-reading the 3rd part of Ursula K Le Guin's Earthsee I-dont-know-how-many-ology.

She's an amazing author. Might seem a little too tree-hugging and esoteric sometimes, but her heroes always have both feet firmly planted on the ground yet also have weakness, make mistakes, and reflect upon them, and they always have a social worldview.

Her language is simple but has a deep, ancient and lyrical feel to it.

Listening to The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson for the first time. ~35% through, really enjoying it. I've read The Mistborn trilogy a couple times before. This is my next foray into the Cosmere.

Reading Caliban's War, book 2 of The Expanse. First time reading the series. Haven't actually picked it up in a few weeks though. It isn't holding my attention as much as the first one, but I've also been really busy

I found this book when I was younger and have read it on and off for years since then. I've probably read through it at least four times. It's called RESISTANCE -JENNIFER A. NIELSEN- Its a book about a girl growing up in Nazi Occupied Poland. Her parents ultimately ended up sending her away as the occupation got to its breaking point, right before mass amounts of jews were shipped from their ghettos and the treatment within them became animalistic. She never made it to her grandparents. Instead her path was interrupted and she rekindled a relationship from her childhood with an old family friend that led a resistance in the country.

Ultimately she became a courier throughout many ghettos that are now renowned for their brutality, carrying the stories with her. She was a pinnacle person in the Warsaw uprising when the Nazi's attempted to clear out the entire ghetto to be sent to concentration camps. Her character is fictional I believe, but her experience's are very real.

The author curated this novel to illustrate and highlight the battles and lives of all the couriers throughout WW2. The book is expertly crafted and my skin broke out in goosebumps multiple times throughout. Whenever Im in a time period where I feel a sense of repression, lack of autonomy, or battles with control I gravitate back to this book. Highly recommend.

Reaper's Gale by Steven Ericson, book 7 of the Malazan Book of the Fallen. I'm looking forward to seeing where all my favorite storylines are going!

I'm close to finishing Fire & Blood, it's a wonderful read. It's been a while since I've read anything of note because I find it hard to pick up a book while I'm at home but I've found that reading a little bit everyday during my commute to work works. Once I'm done with it I feel confident that I can begin tackling the other books that have been shamefully collecting dust on my shelf for a while.

Just finished Red Rising. Decent enough. Hunger Games meets Harry Potter a bit for the first book (I have not read the Harry Potter books). I read myself to sleep and it ticked the box nicely / I was happy to pick it up each night. I'll continue with the series for sure.

Currently reading My Friends by Fredrik Backman. Beautiful descriptive language use in it. Slightly less gripping story for my tastes but I'm enjoying it.

I’m currently reading 11/22/63 by Stephen King. About 60% through and it is excellent!

Working my way through Seaman McGuire's Wayward children series (book 3 currently). Also my first time reading her work but I'm loving it so far.

Anything by Peter F Hamilton. Space opera is just too good

Finished rereading The River Why by David James Duncan, a personal favorite of mine, definitely not for everybody, but a good read nonetheless.

Currently moving onto Oathbringer in the Stormlight Archives after a short break after Words of Radiance. very excited to get back into it!

After that, I am going to start the Mistborn series, which I have only heard good things about.

Still working my way through The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman. I’m about 80% through now, I’ve been reading less than usual this week with life stuff going on.

I really enjoyed Redshirts by John Scalzi. I enjoy pretty much everything I’ve read of his, but Kaiju Preservation Society is still my favorite.

I am trying to finish the Call of Cthulhu... and I not sure whether I will finish or not.

Just finished "Project Hail Mary" by Andy Weir. For entertainment. Enjoyed the story as it was very much reminiscent of The Martian by him aswell. Goes into the science and is reasonably accurate with some embellishment to keep the tension and add interesting characters.

Also just finished "The Let Them Theroy" by Mel Robbins. It was very helpful gave me a perspective that was diffuse to see and made me second guess myself alot. I was always trying to always fix situations where someone was mad/angry with me. It help me recognize I'm not responsible for their emotions, Let them be mad". And let me identify what I can control myself. The only other person's emotion you are responsible for are childrens and your goal is to help them process them and tell them emotions are ok. It really is that simple.

Been looking for a new personal growth book. Started "Notes on Being a Man" by Scott Galloway. Its interesting so far. More of a memior so far.

I'm reading Stephen F. Cohen's The Victims Return: Survivors of the Gulag After Stalin. For whatever reason, I've been somewhat fascinated by the USSR lately, and now I'm dipping my toes in to the Gulag system. This book tries to give some context to the survivors of Gulags and their lives after imprisonment. I find it interesting, though the book mostly speaks in generalities in stead of telling more involved stories of the survivors. Funnily enough, this book mentions a book I read some time back, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, many times and gives some welcome context as to how it was released and why it was so important. I'm really liking this so far.

Reading Russian history is emotionally taxing. The more I read, the more it seems to me that Russian history is just a steady march from one national trauma to another. It's no wonder Russian culture is the way it is; the Russian people rarely catch a break.

When I was a child, the USSR seemed imposing, impregnable and eternal. Now, with age, I realize it didn't really even last a lifetime. Maybe this cognitive dissonance is why I'm trying, in my own way, to understand what happened to it and in it, and why it fell.

Just finished 1984 (again), as is obvious if you review my comment history. Working on Robinson Crusoe. I've read it a long time ago, but I believe it was a "20th century English" translation.

Let us know how October Daye is, I've read all of Incryptid and mostly kind of like it.

I happened to pop into my local fantasy bookshop on the weekend while I was out and about, and saw that the latest Dresden Files book was out. I completely forgot! I picked it up, but I need to get through The Fellowship of the Ring (~30% - the hobbits just met Tom Bombadil), Cold Days, Two Towers, Skin Game, Return of the King, Peace Talks and Battle Ground before I can read it. That's like 8 months at the rate I read these :/

Currently reading Maybe you should talk to someone by Lori Gottlieb, which is absolutely delightful.

I just finished The Book That Broke the World by Mark Lawrence (The Library Trilogy book 2). I'm finding this series absolutely fantastic. Plus having a mysterious library as the main setting is just fun.

Now I'm reading Hamlet. I haven't read much Shakespeare so it's nice to slowly expand into more of his works. It's also wild to see how many quotes I recognize from pop culture, having never read this story.

Finished "Bill the galactic hero and the planet of the robot slaves" by Harry Harrison. Liked it enough to read some more by the same writer, so am now reading "Star smashers of the Galaxy Rangers". It's ok, but at times it's actually hilariously over the top. I've actually read this book decades ago, but I must have been very young at the time because I don't remember it being a satire.

Just stated the Bobiverse this week. I’ve finished books 1 & 2. Interestig stuff. Sort of like The Expanse but handwaves the tech in a way that doesn’t disturb the storytelling. 

I’m torn on finishing the series or getting into my TBR list:

1. Elita by Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum
2. The Everlasting by Alic Harrow
3. The Antidote by Karen Russell
4. Atmosphere: A Love Story by Taylor Jenkins Reid
5. Buckeye by Patrick Ryan
6. Staircase in the Woods by Chuck Wendig
7. Culpability by Bruce Holsinger
8. The Devils by Joe Abercrombie
9. Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
10. The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo

The Three Pillars of Zen by Philip Kapleau. Trying to do a little better at this

I finished off Buy Mort - Singularity which turned out to be the last book in the series and overall I really enjoyed it all!

Then straight back into the Deathlands universe with the Outlanders books, polished off a couple of those and they are great so far as they are fleshing out the universe really nicely with a lot of new lore and information as well as calls back to the Deathlands books and characters occasionally!