How to be an antiracist, The Palestine Laboratory, The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine (a translated version instead of the original text and I question my decision every day) and The Dos and Donuts of Love.
Rogue is really nice so far, I am currently on story 9 and each of the previous ones are a hit. Particularly “What Do You Do?” by Gillian Flynn, “The Inn of the Seven Blessings” by Matt Hughes, and “A Year and a Day in Old Theradane” by Scott Lynch. Recommend.
I should have finished Stephen King’s “The Dark Half” last month. Haven’t been reading as much.
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis by Giorgio Bassani. Although initially I couldn’t grasp much of what was happening in the prologue, as I progress it grows on me more and more.
‘Lincoln in the Bardo’ (2017) George Saunders. A bit late to this title but got restarted with Saunders after finding ‘A Swim in a Pond in the Rain’. Now I have to read/re-read all the Russian short stories but before that, I found a signed, hard-cover, first edition of ‘Lincoln in the Bardo’ at my local used bookstore! It’s a trip but I’m along for the ride.
I didn’t expect to see “A Swim in a Pond in the Rain” here. I’m currently reading it and I’m really enjoy all those Russian short stories, but also the commentary on those stories is also pretty great. As someone who doesn’t have a literary background it’s nice to see how it’s done.
I am reading a bit too much different things at once right now, so this is a fairly long comment:
I’ve been reading “For Whom The Bell Tolls” by Ernest Hemingway for a while, and I have read 5/6 now. It’s about partisans in the Spanish civil war. I am enjoying Hemingway’s prose and the story, but I think I will wait a bit after this before reading any of his other works.
I’ve been meaning to read the great Chinese classic novels for a while, but I never got to it. Last week, after seeing someone on here was reading it, I decided to start reading “Romance of the Three Kingdoms”. The story (about the fall of the Han dynasty and the war of, you guessed it, three kingdoms) is very fun so far, but there are like 50 names in the first 50 pages, so I have trouble remembering who is who. I’m hoping for a bit more dialogue too.
I’m also halfway through the “Aeneid”, the great Latin epic by Virgil. It’s a decent story, but I should have gone for a modern translation instead of the old one I have now. I think I’m going to stop with this one for a while, as this is the perfect point to stop.
Lastly, I’m reading Leo Tolstoy’s “The Kingdom of God Is Within You”, his most well-known non-fiction work. I am a massive Tolstoy fan (War and Peace is my all time favourite novel), so I wanted to know more about his philosophy. It is very interesting so far, with how he makes arguments for non-violence, as well as his arguments against the principle of the Church. I don’t always fully agree, but it is a very thought-provoking book.
Last week I also read Tolstoy’s short story “Master and Man”. I think it may be the best work to read as an introduction to Tolstoy. The setting is perfect for this time of the year, the prose is amazing as always, the psychological depth is unbelievable for so short a novel, and the moral part is typical for his later works, but not too prominent that it bothered me in any way. So if you’re interested in reading some Tolstoy, you should definitely read this one!
Been reading through Mistborn Trilogy 2, current on the back half of the Bands of Mourning.
This trilogy has not been as captivating to me as much as Stormlight or Mistborn 1.
I have Elantris queued up to read more of his works next, but I might take a bit of a Sanderson break here soon since I know Horneater and Stormlight 5 are due later this year. I’ve heard good things anbout Earthsea Anyone have some recommendations about where to start those books?
I read through Earthsea last year and I just went in the order they were published in. I would caution that books 1 and 2 feel very different so if you aren’t big on the first one, give the second one a shot before you call it quits.
What do you think about Jemisin? I’ve read the first two books of her Broken Earth trilogy, and I quit half through the third book. For me, the first one was great, second was meh and third one so bad I wasn’t even interested in how it ends. I think she did a very good job in the beginning with setting up the world and its mysteries, but revealed too much too fast, so when we came to the third book there was almost nothing of interest left.
I definitely liked the first Broken Earth book the best as well.
I'm not sure how I feel about the city trilogy either. The characters and their voices are great, but a lot of the more abstract scenes/actions didn't really do anything for me.
I think she writes well enough that it keeps me reading (and wins her awards), but I haven't loved most of her books.
Yeah, there are some books that are highly recommended--even some that are personally recommended to me by a friend--that I end up not enjoying. I don't think that makes them bad books, just not the right book for me.
Exactly! Tastes differ. But that makes me vary of recommendations and I end up second guessing every 5 star review. Who knows how many good books I passed up 😅
I try not to pay a ton of attention to reviews for the reason, for books and movies. Sometimes I'll check afterward for something I enjoyed and find that it's not well reviewed. Maybe I have trash taste 😅
Lets say you have a refined taste 😉 sometimes what’s most highly rated is boring stuff intended for the mass audience. For example, I stopped watching USA movies and very rarely see a USA series because I don’t enjoy it at all. It has great reviews, but doesn’t interest me, and that’s ok. I’d say that people who like it have a bad taste, and they would say I have a bad taste. Lets just say we have different interests 😅
I finished Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner last night and so I’m on to Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher then King of Attolia by Turner over this week.
Just finished Wheel of Time book 2 (The Great Hunt) and about to start book 3 (The Dragon Reborn). I absolutely devoured book 2 so I’m super eager to continue.
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