The Buried Giant -- Kazuo Ishiguro
This is a fantastical post-Arthurian tale set during the Saxon invasion of Briton. I did not like it. I was hooked on the plot and insisted on seeing it through to the end, but it took 10 days to get through this. I just wasn't as motivated as I usually am.
It's about the power of forgetting and about sins and guilt and forgiveness, but it takes so long to get there. It's another of those with patently unrealistic dialogue, where every character manages to put every consideration and motivation they have into clunky words: "For truly, my husband, are you so willing to give up on our new friends when they are in such need? For though we are aged and our bones creak, have we not kept up with their pace? And it was but this morning that the young lady helped us in our own time of need, providing food and shelter. Surely no harm can come of assisting such stout folk as these." I just made that passage up, but it was fourteen hours of that. The stuff she describes is stuff you literally JUST READ not 20 pages ago. Do we need a reminder on every other page about how old they are? WE GET IT!
Not a fan of the style.
Books we read in 2023
Re: Books we read in 2023
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Books we read in 2023
Exit West -- Mohsin Hamid
I finished the last book and had to immediately start on something new to get that taste out of my mouth. I finished Exit West in a day (only 5 hours), and it absolutely did the trick. I loved this.
In an unnamed city in a country beset by Islamic extremists, Nadia and Saaed first meet, and just as potential romance sparks, fighting breaks out and they must deal with greater and greater deprivation as war slowly destroys their nation.
And then come the doors. An apocalypse of doors. Mysterious doors that can appear anywhere, and link to some other door somewhere on earth. The author explores immigration and refugeeism vs nativism in the context of a world where crossing borders just depends on finding the right door, and true global freedom of movement could be a reality... if people let it.
It is fascinating.
The author reads the book himself, and he literally reads the book to us, with no voices and no acting. In fact, there are no voices, because there is no dialogue. He's written it as a detached 3rd person narrator who relates conversations without giving their actual words (i.e. "They spoke of the how to find each other should the cell network fail again, and she suggested they exchange work numbers.") All of this gives the tale more of a feel of an oral history.
And I appreciate that, but at the same time, the whole thing could have been much richer. It covers a lot of time and there were places where it could have stood to breathe for a bit and let us get closer to these characters.
But still good. Worthwhile. I was hooked, and found any excuse at all today to listen to just 10 more minutes... 20 more minutes... wherever I could get them.
I finished the last book and had to immediately start on something new to get that taste out of my mouth. I finished Exit West in a day (only 5 hours), and it absolutely did the trick. I loved this.
In an unnamed city in a country beset by Islamic extremists, Nadia and Saaed first meet, and just as potential romance sparks, fighting breaks out and they must deal with greater and greater deprivation as war slowly destroys their nation.
And then come the doors. An apocalypse of doors. Mysterious doors that can appear anywhere, and link to some other door somewhere on earth. The author explores immigration and refugeeism vs nativism in the context of a world where crossing borders just depends on finding the right door, and true global freedom of movement could be a reality... if people let it.
It is fascinating.
The author reads the book himself, and he literally reads the book to us, with no voices and no acting. In fact, there are no voices, because there is no dialogue. He's written it as a detached 3rd person narrator who relates conversations without giving their actual words (i.e. "They spoke of the how to find each other should the cell network fail again, and she suggested they exchange work numbers.") All of this gives the tale more of a feel of an oral history.
And I appreciate that, but at the same time, the whole thing could have been much richer. It covers a lot of time and there were places where it could have stood to breathe for a bit and let us get closer to these characters.
But still good. Worthwhile. I was hooked, and found any excuse at all today to listen to just 10 more minutes... 20 more minutes... wherever I could get them.
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Books we read in 2023
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time -- Mark Haddon
Christopher is 15 and is a person with autism. He lives with his dad outside of London and one night finds the neighbor's murdered dog in the garden. He decides he wants to solve the mystery of who killed Wellington and at the urging of his teacher, this book is his first person narrative of his efforts to figure out whodunnit.
Christopher is a great narrator. He ponders and pronounces and digresses his way through this journey while being surrounded by decidedly imperfect but well-meaning people (mostly).
I really really liked this. Christopher felt very real to me, and from my non-expert viewpoint the whole thing felt very genuine. Christopher is likable and sympathetic mostly, but there's no sugar-coating of the issues he has. I would love to talk Kyle or my wife into reading this and hearing how they feel about it.
Anyway... good book.
Christopher is 15 and is a person with autism. He lives with his dad outside of London and one night finds the neighbor's murdered dog in the garden. He decides he wants to solve the mystery of who killed Wellington and at the urging of his teacher, this book is his first person narrative of his efforts to figure out whodunnit.
Christopher is a great narrator. He ponders and pronounces and digresses his way through this journey while being surrounded by decidedly imperfect but well-meaning people (mostly).
I really really liked this. Christopher felt very real to me, and from my non-expert viewpoint the whole thing felt very genuine. Christopher is likable and sympathetic mostly, but there's no sugar-coating of the issues he has. I would love to talk Kyle or my wife into reading this and hearing how they feel about it.
Anyway... good book.
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Books we read in 2023
Did you read it or have it read to you?Mike wrote: ↑Wed Mar 22, 2023 10:11 pm The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time -- Mark Haddon
Christopher is 15 and is a person with autism. He lives with his dad outside of London and one night finds the neighbor's murdered dog in the garden. He decides he wants to solve the mystery of who killed Wellington and at the urging of his teacher, this book is his first person narrative of his efforts to figure out whodunnit.
Christopher is a great narrator. He ponders and pronounces and digresses his way through this journey while being surrounded by decidedly imperfect but well-meaning people (mostly).
I really really liked this. Christopher felt very real to me, and from my non-expert viewpoint the whole thing felt very genuine. Christopher is likable and sympathetic mostly, but there's no sugar-coating of the issues he has. I would love to talk Kyle or my wife into reading this and hearing how they feel about it.
Anyway... good book.
Re: Books we read in 2023
It was read to me. Over the course of six hours.
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Books we read in 2023
I used a credit for it. I'll listen to it when I'm done with Terrortome.
Re: Books we read in 2023
Garth Marenghi’s TerrorTome- Garth Marenghi. Even though this is going to end up being one of my favorite books of the year, I am not recommending it. It is only for people with a very specific brand of humor. To begin, Garth Marenghi is a fictional character created for a fictional television show, played by the brilliant Matthew Holness. I'm not going to bother explaining it all- just read more about the show here. This book is written by Garth Marenghi in the exact same style as his acting and show. It is so absurdly over the top and intentionally poorly and overly written. This book is Marenghi's anthology of horror, and it is absolutely brilliant. Again, I can't recommend it because I'm positive 98% of people will think it's stupid and a waste of time. But I've never actually laughed harder listening to an audio book. It's so genius and funny. I also have to recommend the audio book version of this as it's read by Garth Marenghi himself, and I imaging a lot of the comedic timing and humor will be lost without the performance.
Re: Books we read in 2023
Otherworld -- Jason Segal and Kirsten Miller
I realized moments before I started reading that the primary author was Jason Segal. Like, from How I met Your Mother and Freaks and Geeks. That guy. Apparently he's a writer.
This is a YA adventure novel. Otherworld is a highly immersive virtual reality game world. Our hero is a spoiled smartass rich kid who gets into the beta test to force his best friend to talk to him again and stumbles into a mystery. Not surprisingly, there's something sinister both in and around Otherworld.
I'm telling you, this was a solid tale. It surprised me a few times by not doing what I expected. It was action packed and gripping. I liked the characters a lot. It ends the book by giving us answers... but not resolution. This is a trilogy. I will keep reading them.
My issues:
1. The female lead is named Kat. I once read that naming a main character Katherine or any of it's derivations or spellings (Kat, Cat, Katie, Cathy, Kate, Kitty, etc) is just lazy. It's like a neutral nameset that allows others can project whatever they want onto. Whether that's a valid observation or not, it has stuck with me, and it distracts me.
2. Apparently, these VR devices have revolutionary battery life that allow 48 hours of continuous use AND have their own built in cell phone or satellite capabilities. Or else the author's could have dropped a couple lines to explain those issues. Not a huge deal for me. The story was good enough that I was willing to do the handwaving for them.
3. There's just slightly too many strong, capable female characters who volunteer to sacrifice themselves to further the male protagonist's plotline. I'm not sure how problematic this is yet, but there's lots of noble women throwing themselves on swords to make the guy's story more dramatic, while the males dropping dead around him are just incidental most times. So equal amounts of death on both sides, but the women are more heroic. Maybe that's good? This equity stuff is hard.
4. The female lead (who is absent most of the book) is incredibly well fleshed out in description and in the hero's mental portrayal of her, but feels less substantial as a character when she finally joins the action. Maybe this is just because she was absent for so long, and maybe now that they're together for Book 2, that will change. Maybe. I'll find out.
But if you like YA actioners, read this. Or wait for my review of the second part to see if they iron some of this out. You do you.
I realized moments before I started reading that the primary author was Jason Segal. Like, from How I met Your Mother and Freaks and Geeks. That guy. Apparently he's a writer.
This is a YA adventure novel. Otherworld is a highly immersive virtual reality game world. Our hero is a spoiled smartass rich kid who gets into the beta test to force his best friend to talk to him again and stumbles into a mystery. Not surprisingly, there's something sinister both in and around Otherworld.
I'm telling you, this was a solid tale. It surprised me a few times by not doing what I expected. It was action packed and gripping. I liked the characters a lot. It ends the book by giving us answers... but not resolution. This is a trilogy. I will keep reading them.
My issues:
1. The female lead is named Kat. I once read that naming a main character Katherine or any of it's derivations or spellings (Kat, Cat, Katie, Cathy, Kate, Kitty, etc) is just lazy. It's like a neutral nameset that allows others can project whatever they want onto. Whether that's a valid observation or not, it has stuck with me, and it distracts me.
2. Apparently, these VR devices have revolutionary battery life that allow 48 hours of continuous use AND have their own built in cell phone or satellite capabilities. Or else the author's could have dropped a couple lines to explain those issues. Not a huge deal for me. The story was good enough that I was willing to do the handwaving for them.
3. There's just slightly too many strong, capable female characters who volunteer to sacrifice themselves to further the male protagonist's plotline. I'm not sure how problematic this is yet, but there's lots of noble women throwing themselves on swords to make the guy's story more dramatic, while the males dropping dead around him are just incidental most times. So equal amounts of death on both sides, but the women are more heroic. Maybe that's good? This equity stuff is hard.
4. The female lead (who is absent most of the book) is incredibly well fleshed out in description and in the hero's mental portrayal of her, but feels less substantial as a character when she finally joins the action. Maybe this is just because she was absent for so long, and maybe now that they're together for Book 2, that will change. Maybe. I'll find out.
But if you like YA actioners, read this. Or wait for my review of the second part to see if they iron some of this out. You do you.
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Books we read in 2023
Dragons at Crumbling Castle -- Terry Pratchett
Young Terry Pratchett worked as a journalist for a local newspaper. After a while, he convinced them to publish short stories of his once a week. This book is a collection of those tales. It took about 4 hours for someone to read it to me.
And it was DULL! Ugh. Fantasy tales aimed a very broad audience, including young children. From an amateur author. I didn't like it. They are largely adventure tales that focus on travel, exploration, the futility of war, but at the most basic level and with obviously spelled out morals (In the ones that called for morals). And he likes tiny, tiny people. And some of these tales are genuinely clever. But none of it is enough to make his books worthwhile to me.
Young Terry Pratchett worked as a journalist for a local newspaper. After a while, he convinced them to publish short stories of his once a week. This book is a collection of those tales. It took about 4 hours for someone to read it to me.
And it was DULL! Ugh. Fantasy tales aimed a very broad audience, including young children. From an amateur author. I didn't like it. They are largely adventure tales that focus on travel, exploration, the futility of war, but at the most basic level and with obviously spelled out morals (In the ones that called for morals). And he likes tiny, tiny people. And some of these tales are genuinely clever. But none of it is enough to make his books worthwhile to me.
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Books we read in 2023
A Beginning at the End -- Mike Chen
Third one this year by Mike Chen. Yet another awesome reading by Emily Woo Zeller.
A mutated flu pandemic wipes out three-quarters of the world's population. A decade later, society limps along while 99% of the population suffers from PTSD. Against this backdrop, we focus on three disconnected people each dealing with their own trauma, trying to find a way to move forward and how their lives intersect. It's about making human connections.
And because it's a Mike Chen joint, there's some tense thriller-style action that supports and compliments the interpersonal issues. This is what Chen does. He tells intense dramatic stories about family or trauma or friendship or community that just incidentally happen to also be a time travel story, or a space epic, or a post apocalyptic pandemic tale, or a superhero saga, a vampire novel, whatever. The speculative, sci-fi part is the hook for me, but is secondary to the relationships.
I thoroughly enjoyed this, and I can't believe none of his books have been made into movies yet. They seem custom made for exactly that.
Third one this year by Mike Chen. Yet another awesome reading by Emily Woo Zeller.
A mutated flu pandemic wipes out three-quarters of the world's population. A decade later, society limps along while 99% of the population suffers from PTSD. Against this backdrop, we focus on three disconnected people each dealing with their own trauma, trying to find a way to move forward and how their lives intersect. It's about making human connections.
And because it's a Mike Chen joint, there's some tense thriller-style action that supports and compliments the interpersonal issues. This is what Chen does. He tells intense dramatic stories about family or trauma or friendship or community that just incidentally happen to also be a time travel story, or a space epic, or a post apocalyptic pandemic tale, or a superhero saga, a vampire novel, whatever. The speculative, sci-fi part is the hook for me, but is secondary to the relationships.
I thoroughly enjoyed this, and I can't believe none of his books have been made into movies yet. They seem custom made for exactly that.
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Books we read in 2023
Questions: Was it the voice acting?Mike wrote: ↑Sun Mar 26, 2023 12:34 am Dragons at Crumbling Castle -- Terry Pratchett
Young Terry Pratchett worked as a journalist for a local newspaper. After a while, he convinced them to publish short stories of his once a week. This book is a collection of those tales. It took about 4 hours for someone to read it to me.
And it was DULL! Ugh. Fantasy tales aimed a very broad audience, including young children. From an amateur author. I didn't like it. They are largely adventure tales that focus on travel, exploration, the futility of war, but at the most basic level and with obviously spelled out morals (In the ones that called for morals). And he likes tiny, tiny people. And some of these tales are genuinely clever. But none of it is enough to make his books worthwhile to me.
Have you read any of the Discworld books? (Some of them are as you describe above, some are my favorite books of all time.)
Good Omens? Yay or Nay?
Re: Books we read in 2023
The voice acting was fine. They hired a professional, and it was appropriately English/cheeky in a way that wasn't far off of Neil Gaiman reading his own stuff.
I have Discworld as a whole on my list, but I haven't read any. My library carries only six of the series (all in the range of #28 to #41), so I just haven't sorted out how to begin.
I've read Good Omens twice and then later saw the TV adaptation. I love all parts of it. I like Terry Pratchett.
I have Discworld as a whole on my list, but I haven't read any. My library carries only six of the series (all in the range of #28 to #41), so I just haven't sorted out how to begin.
I've read Good Omens twice and then later saw the TV adaptation. I love all parts of it. I like Terry Pratchett.
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Books we read in 2023
Gotcha! My favorite book in the entire Discworld series is Small Gods. But you can't read it first, because you need a taste of Discworld first, and then Small Gods is fantastic (IMO). If they have Wyrd Sisters, that's a great place to start. Granny Weatherwax is the best. But at #28 to 41 you probably can't get Wyrd Sisters.
Re: Books we read in 2023
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time- Mark Hadden. I'm SO mixed on this book! But let me start by saying that I very much loved it and have ranked it high on my list. That being said, let me start with my glaring criticism: it's has a mathmagical autistic character. In fact, it's the lead character. As the parent of an autistic child, it always bothers me when media depicts people with autism as math wizards. It's like everyone watched Rain Man and now think that's what autism is. I've known many, many autistic people and I've never once seen one that was a "mathmagician." I've seen plenty that have their particular obsessions and intense focuses on a singular subject- sometimes dinosaurs, sometimes videogames (very often video games), sometimes a specific version of genre fiction. And these are high functioning people with autism. I also know many people with autism who are not high functioning, and I find this "savant" magic to be disrespectful (albeit largely unintentional) to them and their families, who face very difficult obstacles. If the main character hadn't been a math genius, I would have enjoyed this book much more. It was just so distracting to me.
That said- I'm aware that there are math-obsessed people with Asperger's and autism. So if I accept that aspect of the character, I found the expression of autism in this book to be very fair and sincere. The author is careful to express things literally and to diverge to things the character focuses on, whether or not that served the story. Because the story isn't about solving the murder of a dog (spoiler- it was the Russian mafia, and they're going to regret it), it's about this character and the obstacles he and his family face. And I found that part to be quite real and ringing very authentic. And the story that's actually told here is compelling, unpredictable and very moving. I literally gasped and covered my mouth at once reveal while I was driving and listening to it. So bottom line- I really liked it, but was constantly distracted by this stereotype about people with autism that is unrealistic.
That said- I'm aware that there are math-obsessed people with Asperger's and autism. So if I accept that aspect of the character, I found the expression of autism in this book to be very fair and sincere. The author is careful to express things literally and to diverge to things the character focuses on, whether or not that served the story. Because the story isn't about solving the murder of a dog (spoiler- it was the Russian mafia, and they're going to regret it), it's about this character and the obstacles he and his family face. And I found that part to be quite real and ringing very authentic. And the story that's actually told here is compelling, unpredictable and very moving. I literally gasped and covered my mouth at once reveal while I was driving and listening to it. So bottom line- I really liked it, but was constantly distracted by this stereotype about people with autism that is unrealistic.
Re: Books we read in 2023
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian -- Sherman Alexie
Taking a cue from Kyle, I've added a bunch of banned books to my wishlist. Or more exactly, books most often requested to be removed from libraries.
And this one's a doozy! This is a YA book about 14 year old Junior who lives on the Spokane reservation who decides in hi freshman year he wants to go to the white school 22 miles away. There's racism in here. There's foul language, including racial and homophobic slurs. There's plenty of talk of boners and masturbation and teen lust. There's some good hand to hand violence. Native Americans are never refered to as anything but Indians. And there's plenty in here to trigger white guilt if that's a thing you haven't come to terms with yet. What I'm saying is that if you're the kind of person who believes in book burnings, then this one gives plenty of incendiary, superficial fodder to make that case for you.
But the book is extraordinary. It's powerful. It's very funny at times, and a couple times I laughed out loud. It's also sad and moving. The author doesn't skimp on the effects of poverty and systemic racism, but also reveals heart and love. White people can be bad guys, but there are plenty of good ones too. Indians are the oppressed heroes, but they can be as ugly and petty as anyone. The main character's voice is well developed and incredibly effective, and it's effect is heightened in the audiobook, where it is read by the author himself, whose strong native accent can be addictive.
I loved this book. A lot. I wish this had existed when I was in high school (and that I had been convinced to read it), because I would have thought it was the most profound thing I'd ever read.
Taking a cue from Kyle, I've added a bunch of banned books to my wishlist. Or more exactly, books most often requested to be removed from libraries.
And this one's a doozy! This is a YA book about 14 year old Junior who lives on the Spokane reservation who decides in hi freshman year he wants to go to the white school 22 miles away. There's racism in here. There's foul language, including racial and homophobic slurs. There's plenty of talk of boners and masturbation and teen lust. There's some good hand to hand violence. Native Americans are never refered to as anything but Indians. And there's plenty in here to trigger white guilt if that's a thing you haven't come to terms with yet. What I'm saying is that if you're the kind of person who believes in book burnings, then this one gives plenty of incendiary, superficial fodder to make that case for you.
But the book is extraordinary. It's powerful. It's very funny at times, and a couple times I laughed out loud. It's also sad and moving. The author doesn't skimp on the effects of poverty and systemic racism, but also reveals heart and love. White people can be bad guys, but there are plenty of good ones too. Indians are the oppressed heroes, but they can be as ugly and petty as anyone. The main character's voice is well developed and incredibly effective, and it's effect is heightened in the audiobook, where it is read by the author himself, whose strong native accent can be addictive.
I loved this book. A lot. I wish this had existed when I was in high school (and that I had been convinced to read it), because I would have thought it was the most profound thing I'd ever read.
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Books we read in 2023
I would highly recommend the audio book version! Travis Baldree has done narration professionally for several years and is damned good at it. Add in the fact that they are his own characters he is voicing and the audio book really was like sitting down with an accomplished storyteller around a campfire and listening to him spin a yarn. (I really believe that I wouldn't have truly appreciated the a couple of the characters without the narration.)Mike wrote: ↑Thu Jan 12, 2023 11:09 amThis book has come highly recommended to me from a couple other sources, so I'm glad to hear you liked it as well.
I tried it a few months ago, and it just wasn't for me. After the first chapter, I just put it down and never came back. And I can't articulate why. It's exactly the sort of book that I oughtta love, but it just failed to resonate or something. I'm assuming it just caught me at a bad moment, because I seem to be the only person who doesn't love it.
I may have to go back and try again in a couple months.
Re: Books we read in 2023
Tress of the Emerald Sea - Brandon Sanderson
This was the first book in the four "Secret Novels" on Kickstarter that Sanderson did last year. I backed the project to the tune of ebooks and audio books for the four novels.
This first installment is a standalone story set in Sanderson's "Cosmere" universe. You can read it without knowing anything about the universe, as I did, since I have only read a one other Sanderson book (Elantris, which I found out recently was his first novel and was very impressed... it's damned good.) From what I understand, you will recognize some of the characters if you are familiar with the Cosmere books, but one of them is almost literally not himself in the story (despite being the narrator... which is a bit of an oddity...)
Overall, I found the story to be very enjoyable. The characters were fun and well written. There were several plot twists that kept the story interesting... but it wasn't a gripping story that changed the way I think about the world or anything like that... just a nice little romantic story where the damsel does her own saving of herself and her man. (In the author's note Sanderson commented that the story was inspired by he and his wife watching The Princess Bride and asking the question: "What if Buttercup didn't just sit around and wait for Westley, but went out and tried to save him instead?")
This was the first book in the four "Secret Novels" on Kickstarter that Sanderson did last year. I backed the project to the tune of ebooks and audio books for the four novels.
This first installment is a standalone story set in Sanderson's "Cosmere" universe. You can read it without knowing anything about the universe, as I did, since I have only read a one other Sanderson book (Elantris, which I found out recently was his first novel and was very impressed... it's damned good.) From what I understand, you will recognize some of the characters if you are familiar with the Cosmere books, but one of them is almost literally not himself in the story (despite being the narrator... which is a bit of an oddity...)
Overall, I found the story to be very enjoyable. The characters were fun and well written. There were several plot twists that kept the story interesting... but it wasn't a gripping story that changed the way I think about the world or anything like that... just a nice little romantic story where the damsel does her own saving of herself and her man. (In the author's note Sanderson commented that the story was inspired by he and his wife watching The Princess Bride and asking the question: "What if Buttercup didn't just sit around and wait for Westley, but went out and tried to save him instead?")
Re: Books we read in 2023
The Long Earth -- Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter
Absolutely addictive. Couldn't stop listening. It's flawed in a bunch of small ways, but it's such a huge ambitious effort that sucked me in and let me ignore all that.
And this is book one of a series (a series of five so far, I think), and it's almost all world-building. And it's BIG! There are worlds next to our own. Alternate earths that stack next to each other like an infinite deck of cards. And ours is the only one with people (kinda). The people of earth discover this when someone anonymously publishes plans for a cheap, simple device that allows anyone to step between worlds. After that, the whole book lays out the consequences of this. People use it to escape and colonize. There are religious repercussions. There's hate groups. The applications for crime are nearly endless. And on and on and on.
Issues: the main characters need a little more depth (except, surprisingly, the AI character); there were a few times that I questioned the physics of certain alternate worlds (in a story where the physics matter); as they move through worlds, both step-wise through alternate earths as well as geographically around the globe, there were too many times when they stumble into a new world and coincidentally happen to be in the most interesting geographic area. All stuff I was glad to overlook to keep getting this story.
Book 2 is on the wishlist already.
Absolutely addictive. Couldn't stop listening. It's flawed in a bunch of small ways, but it's such a huge ambitious effort that sucked me in and let me ignore all that.
And this is book one of a series (a series of five so far, I think), and it's almost all world-building. And it's BIG! There are worlds next to our own. Alternate earths that stack next to each other like an infinite deck of cards. And ours is the only one with people (kinda). The people of earth discover this when someone anonymously publishes plans for a cheap, simple device that allows anyone to step between worlds. After that, the whole book lays out the consequences of this. People use it to escape and colonize. There are religious repercussions. There's hate groups. The applications for crime are nearly endless. And on and on and on.
Issues: the main characters need a little more depth (except, surprisingly, the AI character); there were a few times that I questioned the physics of certain alternate worlds (in a story where the physics matter); as they move through worlds, both step-wise through alternate earths as well as geographically around the globe, there were too many times when they stumble into a new world and coincidentally happen to be in the most interesting geographic area. All stuff I was glad to overlook to keep getting this story.
Book 2 is on the wishlist already.
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Books we read in 2023
My daughter and I saw the play version of this story in Chicago a few years ago. I believe she was still attending the Illinois Math and Science Academy at the time and a story about a high functioning autist who was extremely good at math resonated with her quite well. I don't remember the play all that well, other than the fact that I enjoyed it and thought that the acting was superb at the time. It didn't quite match up to things like "Something Rotten" in terms of enjoyment, but it was a good show.Mike wrote: ↑Wed Mar 22, 2023 10:11 pm The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time -- Mark Haddon
Christopher is 15 and is a person with autism. He lives with his dad outside of London and one night finds the neighbor's murdered dog in the garden. He decides he wants to solve the mystery of who killed Wellington and at the urging of his teacher, this book is his first person narrative of his efforts to figure out whodunnit.
Christopher is a great narrator. He ponders and pronounces and digresses his way through this journey while being surrounded by decidedly imperfect but well-meaning people (mostly).
I really really liked this. Christopher felt very real to me, and from my non-expert viewpoint the whole thing felt very genuine. Christopher is likable and sympathetic mostly, but there's no sugar-coating of the issues he has. I would love to talk Kyle or my wife into reading this and hearing how they feel about it.
Anyway... good book.
If I recall, my daughter found Christopher to be very realistic and well portrayed.
Re: Books we read in 2023
The Cartographers -- Peng Shepherd
Fantastic idea that lacked slightly in execution. Based on a real 1930's New York state travel map that included the fictitious town of Agloe, NY, as a copyright trap, this novel explores the beauty, power, and purpose of maps. Nell is a young cartographer blackballed from the industry and facing a mystery based around her parents and their college friends over two decades earlier. Two separate interwoven tales are told as Nell pursues clues and has the past revealed to her piece by piece.
Sadly, I had 90% of the mystery figured out by about halfway through, so the two or three huge "reveals" were very anticlimactic. Im not going to criticize, because I think she's a good writer. I think this would make an incredible streaming series. But the novel wasn't for me.
Fantastic idea that lacked slightly in execution. Based on a real 1930's New York state travel map that included the fictitious town of Agloe, NY, as a copyright trap, this novel explores the beauty, power, and purpose of maps. Nell is a young cartographer blackballed from the industry and facing a mystery based around her parents and their college friends over two decades earlier. Two separate interwoven tales are told as Nell pursues clues and has the past revealed to her piece by piece.
Sadly, I had 90% of the mystery figured out by about halfway through, so the two or three huge "reveals" were very anticlimactic. Im not going to criticize, because I think she's a good writer. I think this would make an incredible streaming series. But the novel wasn't for me.
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Books we read in 2023
Another Brooklyn -- Jacqueline Woodson
A novel that reads like poetry. Woodson gives us vignettes and glimpses into the lives of four black girls, best friends, coming of age in Brooklyn in the 70's. Our narrator Auggie covers her own life from the death of her mother when she was 8 until the death of her father almost 25 years later, with special focus on the ages from 11-16 and the magical kind of friendship that can only happen then. It is powerful and honest and insightful. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
A novel that reads like poetry. Woodson gives us vignettes and glimpses into the lives of four black girls, best friends, coming of age in Brooklyn in the 70's. Our narrator Auggie covers her own life from the death of her mother when she was 8 until the death of her father almost 25 years later, with special focus on the ages from 11-16 and the magical kind of friendship that can only happen then. It is powerful and honest and insightful. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Books we read in 2023
The Summoning- Bentley Little. Wow do I miss old-school horror novels. Written in 1993, this has all the elements of what I used to love about horror fiction. Small town. Eccentric characters. Monsters. Gore. No one is safe. This book had it all. The premise is that there's a remote Arizona town in the desert and a vampire starts stalking the residence. And here's the best part- they all know it's a vampire right from the beginning. I hate when books and movies use a classic monster like vampires or zombies, but in that world, apparently no one's ever heard about them. So dumb. This book is great. When the first corpse shows up in the desert, less than 12 hours dead, but with a bite mark in its neck and every ounce of liquid drained from its body, EVERYONE says, "Whoa. Do we have a vampire on our hands here?" So great. And again about the old-school stuff- nothing is really off limits. Kids being murdered? Check. Dogs being murdered? Check. Babies? Fetuses?!?! Check and check. Maybe if I read this book back in 1993 I'd have thought it was good, but was just a lot of what I was reading- so nothing special. But with the exception of King (and then only rarely) there's no real horror being written like in its prime. It was great to revisit this style of storytelling. High recommend (unless the murder stuff mentioned earlier is a dealbreaker).
Re: Books we read in 2023
Swamplandia! -- Karen Russell
This is a book that will stick with me for a long time. It's haunting.
The Bigtree family owns Swamplandia, a low-rent tourist attraction/theme park where they put on gator-wrestling shows. It's Chief Bigtree, his wife Hilola, the star attraction, and their three kids: Kiwi, 17, and too smart for his own good; Osceola, 16, a girl who just wants love; and Ava, 13, who is a our primary narrator. Mama Bigtree (Hilola) passed away a year ago, and this is the tale of how the family is getting by (or not) without her.
The beginning of the book felt a little slow and disjointed. I didn't know that I was going to like it at all, but then you get to put pieces together and see through people's facades, and by the end, I rooted for every one of them. It was a ride.
Trigger warnings abound here. It's something of a coming of age story for Ava (and in a way for all three kids), but it's mostly about loss, and it's a surrealist trip into and through the swamps of Florida. Parts of it horrified me, and parts of me were angry at some of the resolutions and loose ends. It's messy. But there's magic in it.
I don't know what to tell you. It's painful and it's ridiculous, and it's really good. It's Russell's first novel, I believe, but her writing is brilliant. Every simile, every metaphor, makes sure that you never forget who's speaking and never lets you forget that you're in swamp county.
This is a book that will stick with me for a long time. It's haunting.
The Bigtree family owns Swamplandia, a low-rent tourist attraction/theme park where they put on gator-wrestling shows. It's Chief Bigtree, his wife Hilola, the star attraction, and their three kids: Kiwi, 17, and too smart for his own good; Osceola, 16, a girl who just wants love; and Ava, 13, who is a our primary narrator. Mama Bigtree (Hilola) passed away a year ago, and this is the tale of how the family is getting by (or not) without her.
The beginning of the book felt a little slow and disjointed. I didn't know that I was going to like it at all, but then you get to put pieces together and see through people's facades, and by the end, I rooted for every one of them. It was a ride.
Trigger warnings abound here. It's something of a coming of age story for Ava (and in a way for all three kids), but it's mostly about loss, and it's a surrealist trip into and through the swamps of Florida. Parts of it horrified me, and parts of me were angry at some of the resolutions and loose ends. It's messy. But there's magic in it.
I don't know what to tell you. It's painful and it's ridiculous, and it's really good. It's Russell's first novel, I believe, but her writing is brilliant. Every simile, every metaphor, makes sure that you never forget who's speaking and never lets you forget that you're in swamp county.
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Books we read in 2023
A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Egan. As I believe I've talked about here before, my parents moved to a small town in Indiana before I was born, and it always felt like we were considered outsiders by the local families that had been there for generations. I find out later in life that the town was a sundown town that had chased out the last colored residents in 1919 or so, and still had a very predominantly white population. So to read a book about the man who brought the KKK to Indiana in the 1920's and what a horrible man he was, but also how much hate there was in those people in general, and then pair that up with some of the things I remember from growing up in that environment decades later... We're still fighting the same fights.
Re: Books we read in 2023
The Long Earth- Stephen Baxter and Terry Pratchett. I won't belabor this. Go read Mike's review and that's exactly how I feel about this book. Sure the protagonists are a little too "Sci Fi Hero and Heroine" with little depth. And yet I don't care. The adventure was fun. The world building amazing. One of my favorites so far this year.
Re: Books we read in 2023
I'm Glad My Mom Died- Jennette McCurdy. I read this because my wife listened to an interview with McCurdy on a podcast and told me some of the fucked up things she went through growing up. And after listening to McCurdy narrate her autobiography... can confirm. McCurdy is an actress who played the tomboy best friend of Carly on the popular longrunning show on Nickelodeon, ICarly. She started on the show when she was 13, then when it went off the air she was cast on a spin off show (Sam and Kat) and co-starred on that for a couple seasons with Ariana Grande. But that's not the fascinating part. The fascinating part is how McCurdy was raised by an overly controlling mother that was trying to live vicariously through her daughter's acting career. And "overly controlling" is not strong enough of a phrase. Just by way of example- her mother insisted on showering McCurdy until she was 17. She wouldn't let McCurdy wipe her own butt until she was 11. Now imagine that type of control over EVERYTHING in your life. And how, as a kid growing up, not thinking there's anything weird or unhealthy about it. That's the the tip of the iceberg. A fascinating story.
Re: Books we read in 2023
The Lesson- Cadwell Turnbull. What if aliens just landed in the Virgin Islands one day and said, "Hey, we need to live here in the Virgin Islands for a few years for research purposes and in return, we'll give you amazing technology that will change your lives, like clean free energy production." That's the premise of this book. And, as you would expect, everything goes swimmingly until you do something that the aliens don't like. Then you need to learn The Lesson. What's the Lesson? I usually means that you are literally eviscerated in front of the public. Sometimes worse. In reality, the entire book is talking about colonialism and slavery, and it's told very artfully. My only issue with the book is that it's told through a series of short stories in this setting. And while they're all loosely connected, there's not a clear throughline like I would prefer. All the same, it's a great novel. High recommend.
Re: Books we read in 2023
The Long War -- Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter
Book 2 in the Long Earth series. It picka up a decade after book 1 ends. The scope of the book just keeps getting bigger, and it continues to be incredibly compelling. Our cast is larger, the multiple earths have become increasingly colonized, there are new civilizations entirely, and I can't wait to get more.
On the other hand, the series (so far) seems to idolize rugged individualism to a Heinleinian degree. I get the appeal--it's very American--but it is an extreme libertarianism that just feels naive. Also, as I look back on this installment, all of the notable bad people in it are men. There's also plenty of good men as well... our primary protagonist, Joshua, is a man. But all the notable female characters (all of them) are portrayed as strong, independent, capable, and outspoken. And all of them are romantically unattached, except for Joshua's wife who, despite being described repeatedly as strong, independent, capable, and outspoken, is only shown in relationship to her husband being maternal, overprotective, and jealous.
Also, this book is not self-contained. There's three major plotlines to follow, and only one gains resolution by the end. The other two seem to be there for further exposition and setting up for future books.
If you liked book 1, this continues the adventure. I have my complaints, but I'm still hooked.
Book 2 in the Long Earth series. It picka up a decade after book 1 ends. The scope of the book just keeps getting bigger, and it continues to be incredibly compelling. Our cast is larger, the multiple earths have become increasingly colonized, there are new civilizations entirely, and I can't wait to get more.
On the other hand, the series (so far) seems to idolize rugged individualism to a Heinleinian degree. I get the appeal--it's very American--but it is an extreme libertarianism that just feels naive. Also, as I look back on this installment, all of the notable bad people in it are men. There's also plenty of good men as well... our primary protagonist, Joshua, is a man. But all the notable female characters (all of them) are portrayed as strong, independent, capable, and outspoken. And all of them are romantically unattached, except for Joshua's wife who, despite being described repeatedly as strong, independent, capable, and outspoken, is only shown in relationship to her husband being maternal, overprotective, and jealous.
Also, this book is not self-contained. There's three major plotlines to follow, and only one gains resolution by the end. The other two seem to be there for further exposition and setting up for future books.
If you liked book 1, this continues the adventure. I have my complaints, but I'm still hooked.
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Books we read in 2023
I'm halfway through! So far, your review seems to track my opinions.
Re: Books we read in 2023
Slaughterhouse-Five -- Kurt Vonnegut
Fantastic! Unlike most of you I'm sure, I have never read this before, and I went in 100% cold. I was shocked to find out this was a sci-fi tale, replete with time travel and alien abduction. All of which is completely secondary to the fact that this is a book about WWII and the firebombing of Dresden that killed 135,000 people.
As we follow the non-linear, surrealist, absurdist narrative of hapless protagonist Billy Pilgrim's life, the horrors of war are constantly juxtaposed against the absurdity and mundanity of his life. Helplessness and lack of free will in the face of the cruelty of the world are highlighted again and again. It's such a good book!
And as soon as I finished it, I found the Cliff's Notes online and read those all the way through as well. There's so much that I wasn't smart enough to get on this first go-round. So as much as I enjoyed Ethan Hawke's perfect subdued delivery in the audiobook, I'm planning to get the eBook so that if I ever get more that just a couple books ahead in my "100 books in a year" project, I'll go back to it and try the printed version.
All this to say I enjoyed this way more than I expected.
Fantastic! Unlike most of you I'm sure, I have never read this before, and I went in 100% cold. I was shocked to find out this was a sci-fi tale, replete with time travel and alien abduction. All of which is completely secondary to the fact that this is a book about WWII and the firebombing of Dresden that killed 135,000 people.
As we follow the non-linear, surrealist, absurdist narrative of hapless protagonist Billy Pilgrim's life, the horrors of war are constantly juxtaposed against the absurdity and mundanity of his life. Helplessness and lack of free will in the face of the cruelty of the world are highlighted again and again. It's such a good book!
And as soon as I finished it, I found the Cliff's Notes online and read those all the way through as well. There's so much that I wasn't smart enough to get on this first go-round. So as much as I enjoyed Ethan Hawke's perfect subdued delivery in the audiobook, I'm planning to get the eBook so that if I ever get more that just a couple books ahead in my "100 books in a year" project, I'll go back to it and try the printed version.
All this to say I enjoyed this way more than I expected.
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Books we read in 2023
The Long War- Stephen Baxter and Terry Pratchett. Basically what Mike said. The one difference I have is that I don't have an issue with the "strong, independent, female characters." Or I should say, I don't have any more problem with them than I do with any of the characters in this book which is: they're all just a bit hollow. Just a smidge too underdeveloped, particularly in the two "heroic leads" (one male and one female) who are essentially just sci-fi hero stereotypes of one sort or the other. However, two of the lesser main characters (the aging cop with cancer and the ship captain) I actually thought were developed pretty well and I ended up looking forward to their storylines the most because of the affinity I felt for their characters. All the same, great sci-fi. I haven't felt this juiced to read a series since the Murderbot Diaries.
That said, I'm going to read a couple more short books before I dive into book three.
That said, I'm going to read a couple more short books before I dive into book three.
Re: Books we read in 2023
Oryx and Crake -- Margaret Atwood
Whoof. Kind of a gut punch, this one. This is book one of the MaddAddam trilogy, a fact I was not aware of when it started. It's a fantastic story, but it ends on a cliffhanger. This book is all the explanation without any resolution.
It's a post-apocalyptic story with genetic engineering technology at its center. It opens with our narrator Snowman in the middle of an apocalypse so bizarre it's hard to tell exactly what's going on. But then as Snowman moves forward, we see flashbacks that tell the story of Snowman's life as well as those of his closest companions, Oryx and Crake. Imagine a world ravaged by climate change where mega corporations have ever increasing control over gene-splicing tech and virtually zero governmental restriction.
There are parts that deal with human trafficking of children that I found very disturbing even though they were not terribly explicit, and part of it is due to the narrator's assumptions and expectations as much as the apparent reality of the situation. I'm still not 100% on how those parts (and others) highlight the motivations that brought on the apocalypse, but I will eventually get to book 2 and maybe that will shed more light.
Atwood is a great writer, and this is great writing. I just wish I understood more.
Whoof. Kind of a gut punch, this one. This is book one of the MaddAddam trilogy, a fact I was not aware of when it started. It's a fantastic story, but it ends on a cliffhanger. This book is all the explanation without any resolution.
It's a post-apocalyptic story with genetic engineering technology at its center. It opens with our narrator Snowman in the middle of an apocalypse so bizarre it's hard to tell exactly what's going on. But then as Snowman moves forward, we see flashbacks that tell the story of Snowman's life as well as those of his closest companions, Oryx and Crake. Imagine a world ravaged by climate change where mega corporations have ever increasing control over gene-splicing tech and virtually zero governmental restriction.
There are parts that deal with human trafficking of children that I found very disturbing even though they were not terribly explicit, and part of it is due to the narrator's assumptions and expectations as much as the apparent reality of the situation. I'm still not 100% on how those parts (and others) highlight the motivations that brought on the apocalypse, but I will eventually get to book 2 and maybe that will shed more light.
Atwood is a great writer, and this is great writing. I just wish I understood more.
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Books we read in 2023
Dark Matter -- Blake Crouch
This is the second Blake Crouch book I've read, and so far what he does is take a weird sci-fi premise, populate it with believable humans, and the create a tight action thriller around it. The two I've read would make kick ass movies, and I know he also has a trilogy that they based the Wayward Pines TV series off of.
In Dark Matter, Jason is a once brilliant and promising physicist (studying entanglement and the possibility of creating superimposed quantum states in macro objects). But that ended when his girlfriend became pregnant, and now 15 years later, he lives a perfectly happy life with his wife and son while working as a professor at a local college. Until one night he is kidnapped and drugged and wakes up to a completely different life. That's chapter one, and the explanation is extremely obvious to the reader right away. Jason takes a couple hundred pages to piece it together.
But it's awesome. The science is good, it explores alternate realities and the meaning of identity, and like I say, it's just a solid action thriller on top of that. But then here, as in the last book of his I read--Recursion, the third act is just completely off the chain. You get comfortable with stuff and you're pretty sure you see where this is going, but then... holy shit.Its so off the rails that you don't see any reasonable resolution. But then there it is. And the ending is solid and satisfying.
I gotta check out this Wayward Pines trilogy now.
This is the second Blake Crouch book I've read, and so far what he does is take a weird sci-fi premise, populate it with believable humans, and the create a tight action thriller around it. The two I've read would make kick ass movies, and I know he also has a trilogy that they based the Wayward Pines TV series off of.
In Dark Matter, Jason is a once brilliant and promising physicist (studying entanglement and the possibility of creating superimposed quantum states in macro objects). But that ended when his girlfriend became pregnant, and now 15 years later, he lives a perfectly happy life with his wife and son while working as a professor at a local college. Until one night he is kidnapped and drugged and wakes up to a completely different life. That's chapter one, and the explanation is extremely obvious to the reader right away. Jason takes a couple hundred pages to piece it together.
But it's awesome. The science is good, it explores alternate realities and the meaning of identity, and like I say, it's just a solid action thriller on top of that. But then here, as in the last book of his I read--Recursion, the third act is just completely off the chain. You get comfortable with stuff and you're pretty sure you see where this is going, but then... holy shit.Its so off the rails that you don't see any reasonable resolution. But then there it is. And the ending is solid and satisfying.
I gotta check out this Wayward Pines trilogy now.
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Books we read in 2023
Beowulf -- Beowulf's Author
I picked up a book (my next read) called The Mere Wife which is supposed to have parallels to Beowulf. Thus, I thought, I should really reread Beowulf first.
A modern translation in audiobook form is only 2 hours and 45 minutes, and it is boring as fuck. I was better off just reading all the summaries and analysis, because my ADD brain simply could not focus on this.
Quick summary: There's a monster (Grendel) attacking the mead hall of King Hrothgar!! Beowulf is a young, strong, honorable warrior from Geatland. He volunteers to slay Grendel, and because he is so honorable, he will battle the beast unarmed. He disarms Grendel by tearing his arm off at the shoulder. Grendel dies.
Act 2: Grendel's mom attacks!! Strong, honorable Beowulf descends with his crew beneath a bog to find her lair. Weapons are useless against her. Beowulf finds a giant's blade in her lair and kills her with it. And there was much rejoicing!
Act 3 (50 years later): Aaaaagh!! Dragon!! Aged Beowulf, now King of the Geats, goes to slay the dragon, but there is only one lone warrior willing to stand up with him. Beowulf slays the dragon, but the dragon deals him a fatal blow during the scrum. Lone companion chastises all the other warriors for letting Beowulf down. Beowulf is buried with honors.
That's all of it, but with lots of digressions along the way to emphasize how strong or honorable or noble various participants are (especially Beowulf). Even in modern translation, it's dull. It is the earliest English language hero story we have, so no surprise that every piece of this is now cliche and overdone. As an expression of common mythic tropes, it is fascinating, and I love reading about the history and origins of the work and the other expressions of the themes and elements of the story, but as an actual tale, it does nothing for me.
I picked up a book (my next read) called The Mere Wife which is supposed to have parallels to Beowulf. Thus, I thought, I should really reread Beowulf first.
A modern translation in audiobook form is only 2 hours and 45 minutes, and it is boring as fuck. I was better off just reading all the summaries and analysis, because my ADD brain simply could not focus on this.
Quick summary: There's a monster (Grendel) attacking the mead hall of King Hrothgar!! Beowulf is a young, strong, honorable warrior from Geatland. He volunteers to slay Grendel, and because he is so honorable, he will battle the beast unarmed. He disarms Grendel by tearing his arm off at the shoulder. Grendel dies.
Act 2: Grendel's mom attacks!! Strong, honorable Beowulf descends with his crew beneath a bog to find her lair. Weapons are useless against her. Beowulf finds a giant's blade in her lair and kills her with it. And there was much rejoicing!
Act 3 (50 years later): Aaaaagh!! Dragon!! Aged Beowulf, now King of the Geats, goes to slay the dragon, but there is only one lone warrior willing to stand up with him. Beowulf slays the dragon, but the dragon deals him a fatal blow during the scrum. Lone companion chastises all the other warriors for letting Beowulf down. Beowulf is buried with honors.
That's all of it, but with lots of digressions along the way to emphasize how strong or honorable or noble various participants are (especially Beowulf). Even in modern translation, it's dull. It is the earliest English language hero story we have, so no surprise that every piece of this is now cliche and overdone. As an expression of common mythic tropes, it is fascinating, and I love reading about the history and origins of the work and the other expressions of the themes and elements of the story, but as an actual tale, it does nothing for me.
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Books we read in 2023
The Left Hand of Darkness- Ursula K. Le Guin. Originally written in 1969, this is considered a classic, foundational work of science fiction. A lawyer I work with started reading it, so I decided to read it to so we could discuss it. Le Guin has a forward to the book that explains her motives- the book is a thought experiment. In this case the question is: what would civilization evolve into if the populace had no gender? It takes place on a world where the inhabitants are hermaphrodites that go into a reproductive mode once per month and, when they do, can become either male or female. The same person can both father and mother their different offspring. Add to this that they live on a frigid world that is dominated by snow, ice and freezing weather. The plot of the book is that an alien humanoid from a nearby star has come to the planet to see if the population is willing to join their galactic trade federation. Le Guin has clearly thought about this experiment for a long time and you can tell as you read through this VERY detailed and VERY deep, rich world that she has 100 times as many ideas and developments that she couldn't include in the book. This is a classic for a reason. The contemplation of the duality of gender and it's infiltration of all aspects of society is profound. Highly recommend.
Re: Books we read in 2023
Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk -- Ben Fountain
The year is 2004. Destiny's Child is performing the halftime show at the Dallas Cowboy's Thanksgiving game. Billy Lynn is one of the eight surviving members of "Bravo Company", army infantry war heroes brought back to the states for a 20 city victory tour to inspire the nation. This story recounts the last day of the tour when the Brovos are scheduled to be shown off at the halftime ceremonies. This is 19 year old Billy's story as he wades through the bullahit of thia daytrying to make sense of it all. It's a sharp satire of America's relationship with war and the disconnect between "I support the troops/thank you for your service" and the people who actually have to suffer the costs of war. I liked it a lot. Not my usual read, and I can't remember why I picked it up, but I'm glad I did.
I also just now discovered it was made into a movie in 2016. I am going to try to watch it.
The year is 2004. Destiny's Child is performing the halftime show at the Dallas Cowboy's Thanksgiving game. Billy Lynn is one of the eight surviving members of "Bravo Company", army infantry war heroes brought back to the states for a 20 city victory tour to inspire the nation. This story recounts the last day of the tour when the Brovos are scheduled to be shown off at the halftime ceremonies. This is 19 year old Billy's story as he wades through the bullahit of thia daytrying to make sense of it all. It's a sharp satire of America's relationship with war and the disconnect between "I support the troops/thank you for your service" and the people who actually have to suffer the costs of war. I liked it a lot. Not my usual read, and I can't remember why I picked it up, but I'm glad I did.
I also just now discovered it was made into a movie in 2016. I am going to try to watch it.
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Books we read in 2023
I've seen the movie. I thought it was okay. Don't know how it compares to the book. It's been awhile, but my recollection is that it didn't quite live up to what it could have achieved. But don't let that stop you from watching it. You may get more from it, having read the book.
Re: Books we read in 2023
That's what I'm hoping. The reviews for the movie are decidedly lackluster.Tahlvin wrote: ↑Sun May 14, 2023 3:20 amI've seen the movie. I thought it was okay. Don't know how it compares to the book. It's been awhile, but my recollection is that it didn't quite live up to what it could have achieved. But don't let that stop you from watching it. You may get more from it, having read the book.
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Books we read in 2023
One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories- B. J. Novak. You know BJ Novak. He played Ryan Howard on The Office, was its executive producer and a writer of many episodes. Even better, he starred, wrote and directed dark comedy/thriller Vengeance, which was excellent. This is a collection of quirky short stories that are funny and also insightful. Some of the stories are lengthy and complex, like the story of the guy who got famous because he returned his sex doll when it gained sentience. Or the boy who won a Kellogs sweepstakes and learned simultaneously that his dad was not his dad. Also, some are quite short. For example, The Walk to School on the Day After Labor Day: "I was sad that summer was over, but I was happy that it was over for my enemies too." I love that. It's like a two sentence horror story. Perfect. But look, you're not solving the world's problems here. These are funny, observational stories. They're fun to listen to. I often laughed out loud while alone in my car. It's great. Highly recommend it.
Re: Books we read in 2023
Working for Bigfoot- Jim Butcher. I'm not generally a fan of Jim Butcher. He writes burley, noir-adjacent stories for nerds. But with that comes machismo that crosses the line into misogyny and a male gaze that's so heavy I can barely hold the book up. I think he's best known for his Harry Dresden books which follow the many, many misadventures of a somewhat clandestine wizard working as a PI in modern day Chicago. I tried reading one of his books and put it down for reasons I can't remember, and I watched the first couple episodes of a series on basic cable before losing interest. But I understand it has a very loyal fanbase. This book is a collection of three Harry Dresden short stories all written about, you guessed it, the various times Dresden worked for Bigfoot. The stories are fine. The world is fine. Bigfoot was pretty cool. But my problem with the Dresden world is that it's just too much wish fulfillment for Shadow Run players. Harry Dresden is just too much of a Mary Jane for 75% of serious Shadow Run players that I've met. And maybe in the 90s or early 00s this would have seemed more relevant, it seems dated now and the chauvinism doesn't age well. That said, if I had gotten into this world a long time ago and read all the books, I'd probably still love every one of them (like I do with the Laundry Files books), and there's nothing wrong with that. They're just not for me.
Re: Books we read in 2023
Yeah... Dresden came heavily recommended to me a couple decades ago, and I read two books (I think), and by the end of the second, I was just tired of it. I don't remember much, except that I remember thinking that magic was fickle and it's workings seemed so incredibly plot-dependent that it felt like a cop-out to me. But it's been a long time. I have no urge to revisit.
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Books we read in 2023
The School for Good Mothers -- Jessamine Chan
Holy jumped up Christ! This was brutal! Every mother's worst nightmare, but played out in horrifying slow motion. Frida is a divorced mom who has one very bad day, and her child is removed from her custody. If she ever wants to regain custody, her only option is to spend one year at the completely voluntary school for good mothers.
And it's BRUTAL! Seriously, I spent the first third of this book wondering if I had the emotional fortitude to get all the way through. And yet... I couldn't put it down. And there's a little dab of sci-fi to it, but it's not about that. It's about our society's evolving attitude towards parenthood and specifically about the expectations and judgments placed on mothers. And about how all of that is shaped by race and class.
I found it extremely powerful and compelling. I loved it, even though it constantly hurt my heart.
Holy jumped up Christ! This was brutal! Every mother's worst nightmare, but played out in horrifying slow motion. Frida is a divorced mom who has one very bad day, and her child is removed from her custody. If she ever wants to regain custody, her only option is to spend one year at the completely voluntary school for good mothers.
And it's BRUTAL! Seriously, I spent the first third of this book wondering if I had the emotional fortitude to get all the way through. And yet... I couldn't put it down. And there's a little dab of sci-fi to it, but it's not about that. It's about our society's evolving attitude towards parenthood and specifically about the expectations and judgments placed on mothers. And about how all of that is shaped by race and class.
I found it extremely powerful and compelling. I loved it, even though it constantly hurt my heart.
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Books we read in 2023
The Mere Wife -- Maria Dahvana Headley
This is the modern reinterpretation of Beowulf that I was getting to. It may be the best book I have read this year. This is all about monsters and mothers and mountains, and it is epic! Epic. That's plenty of information... now go read it!! If it's been a minute since you've read the original, do yourself a favor and take a few minutes to brush up on it before you dive in. There's no one to one correspondence of events, but it'll pay off.
Do you need more convincing? Then minor spoilers for the first chapters follow. Grendel's mother (Dana) is a veteran of a war in a desert, suffering from severe PTSD. After months in captivity, she returns home to give birth to a fatherless monster. Beowulf, here Ben Wolfe, is also a veteran who now works as as a cop in Heorot Hall, a rich enclave built on the mountain slope that once was Dana's childhood home, so she hides away in the old mountain tunnels. It starts right away off the rails and then proceeds almost like a fever dream with deceptive moments of lucidity. And it's amazing.
This is the modern reinterpretation of Beowulf that I was getting to. It may be the best book I have read this year. This is all about monsters and mothers and mountains, and it is epic! Epic. That's plenty of information... now go read it!! If it's been a minute since you've read the original, do yourself a favor and take a few minutes to brush up on it before you dive in. There's no one to one correspondence of events, but it'll pay off.
Do you need more convincing? Then minor spoilers for the first chapters follow. Grendel's mother (Dana) is a veteran of a war in a desert, suffering from severe PTSD. After months in captivity, she returns home to give birth to a fatherless monster. Beowulf, here Ben Wolfe, is also a veteran who now works as as a cop in Heorot Hall, a rich enclave built on the mountain slope that once was Dana's childhood home, so she hides away in the old mountain tunnels. It starts right away off the rails and then proceeds almost like a fever dream with deceptive moments of lucidity. And it's amazing.
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Books we read in 2023
Stories of Your Life and Others- Ted Chiang. You know, this is the type of book that you'd think I'd have way higher on my list. It's won countless awards. It's extremely well-written speculative fiction. It's high brow science fiction that's some of the most well-thought out concepts I've ever read. In fact, you know one of the stories in this anthology. The titular story was the basis for the movie, Arrival (which is freaking amazing). But here's the problem: it's so boring. Ted Chiang is legitimately brilliant. His concepts are so highly intellectual and mind-bending that it's hard to figure out how he figured out the narrative to the story. But that's also the problem. At times, Chiang is so far up his own ass... so enamoured with his own ideas... that the narrative suffers. He insists on proving to the reader how he's thought out every expression and ramification of the concepts that he's writing about, and he refuses to leave any part of it a mystery. I get it! You're smart! You've brilliantly thought about this concept of languages! (Or math... or aesthetics... or whatever.) But I don't need to see all the math. I don't need you to show all your work. By comparison, I just got done reading the Left Hand of Darkness, and Le Guin, and her "thought experiments" (her term) in those books are just as thought through as Chiang's, if not more. But Le Guin has the modesty and understanding of story to leave 80% out of the book. And her book is brilliant. Many of Chiang's stories are legitimately smart and interesting, but it's like the guy at the party that pitches you a cool concept and then talks about it for another two hours after you don't give a shit anymore. That said, the Stories of Your Life (which Arrival is based on) is the best at balancing the explanations of science with a beautiful story of love and grief. This book is worth reading for that story. The other's you can skip.
Re: Books we read in 2023
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow -- Gabrielle Zevin
By the end of this year, I don't know that I'll be able to order everything I've read like Kyle does, but I'm giving serious thought to a Top 10. And this book is sure to be on it.
I started the book and got: best friends since childhood, one male one female, narration from male's perspective; they've always played video games together, and now they are game designers; from his perspective, she's always been better at most things than he.
From that, I was ready to judge the whole thing: I've read this story a dozen times where they get pulled into the game and she's all cool and kickass and he's a near hopeless dork until he makes a Luke Skywalker style zero to hero turnaround and we know he's "the one" when he's better than she is (and maybe she does). BUT THAT'S NOT WHAT THIS IS! YAY!! Turns out, this version is written by a woman, and nobody gets trapped in a video game at all. It's about human beings being human. And it's so so good!
And it's so cool, because play and games and game design play a huge role in how these characters interact, as well as how they relate to the world and to each other.
I need to go work on Godball right now.
By the end of this year, I don't know that I'll be able to order everything I've read like Kyle does, but I'm giving serious thought to a Top 10. And this book is sure to be on it.
I started the book and got: best friends since childhood, one male one female, narration from male's perspective; they've always played video games together, and now they are game designers; from his perspective, she's always been better at most things than he.
From that, I was ready to judge the whole thing: I've read this story a dozen times where they get pulled into the game and she's all cool and kickass and he's a near hopeless dork until he makes a Luke Skywalker style zero to hero turnaround and we know he's "the one" when he's better than she is (and maybe she does). BUT THAT'S NOT WHAT THIS IS! YAY!! Turns out, this version is written by a woman, and nobody gets trapped in a video game at all. It's about human beings being human. And it's so so good!
And it's so cool, because play and games and game design play a huge role in how these characters interact, as well as how they relate to the world and to each other.
I need to go work on Godball right now.
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Books we read in 2023
That's disappointing. I mean really so.Kyle wrote: ↑Fri May 26, 2023 1:30 pm Stories of Your Life and Others- Ted Chiang. You know, this is the type of book that you'd think I'd have way higher on my list. It's won countless awards. It's extremely well-written speculative fiction. It's high brow science fiction that's some of the most well-thought out concepts I've ever read. In fact, you know one of the stories in this anthology. The titular story was the basis for the movie, Arrival (which is freaking amazing). But here's the problem: it's so boring. Ted Chiang is legitimately brilliant. His concepts are so highly intellectual and mind-bending that it's hard to figure out how he figured out the narrative to the story. But that's also the problem. At times, Chiang is so far up his own ass... so enamoured with his own ideas... that the narrative suffers. He insists on proving to the reader how he's thought out every expression and ramification of the concepts that he's writing about, and he refuses to leave any part of it a mystery. I get it! You're smart! You've brilliantly thought about this concept of languages! (Or math... or aesthetics... or whatever.) But I don't need to see all the math. I don't need you to show all your work. By comparison, I just got done reading the Left Hand of Darkness, and Le Guin, and her "thought experiments" (her term) in those books are just as thought through as Chiang's, if not more. But Le Guin has the modesty and understanding of story to leave 80% out of the book. And her book is brilliant. Many of Chiang's stories are legitimately smart and interesting, but it's like the guy at the party that pitches you a cool concept and then talks about it for another two hours after you don't give a shit anymore. That said, the Stories of Your Life (which Arrival is based on) is the best at balancing the explanations of science with a beautiful story of love and grief. This book is worth reading for that story. The other's you can skip.
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Books we read in 2023
I thought you'd already read it. You haven't?
Re: Books we read in 2023
Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock- Matthew Quick. So after some lighter reads, I decided to go with some heavier subject matter. Ted Chiang was a bummer, but this book. Woof. Not to say I didn't love it-- I did. But this is heavy. Written from the perspective of a highschool senior on his 18th birthday, this book follows the day of the titular Leonard Peacock. But Leonard, long neglected by his mother and with a really shitty childhood, has decided on this day he's going to smuggle his grandfather's WW2 Nazi handgun into school, shoot Asher Beale in the face, and then kill himself. But Leonard has also wrapped four presents for his four only friends in the world, and he wants to give them their presents before he carries out his murder/suicide plan. The book then follows him in his conversations with this people, who increasingly are worried about him, and then on his way to becoming a school shooter. As you can imagine, this book is a very hard read, but a very good read also. The serious and heavy material is handled appropriately and with respect, while still coming across as authentic to the character (a high school shooter). I know that sounds weird, but I very much liked this book. High recommend.
Re: Books we read in 2023
Turtles All the Way Down -- John Green
I love the Green brothers. And somewhere in the back of my head, I've always known that John writes incredibly well-received YA fiction. I've never read them and never seen the movies, and knowing his online personality, this aspect of him has always seemed incongruous to me. But he's really really good, y'all.
Turtles All the Way Down opens with the mystery of a missing billionaire, but it's really about high-schooler Aza Holmes and how she navigates friendship, family, and romance while struggling with mental illness. And it's just good. It feels honest and authentic and it treats mental health very seriously without any pat answers. I enjoyed it a lot.
And it helped that the reader, Kate Rudd, is just one of the best I've ever heard. It's rare to find someone who can capture teenage girl voice so well, but she does. And she treats the entire read as a real acting experience. This is someone who knows the work and is invested in making it live.
High recommend.
I love the Green brothers. And somewhere in the back of my head, I've always known that John writes incredibly well-received YA fiction. I've never read them and never seen the movies, and knowing his online personality, this aspect of him has always seemed incongruous to me. But he's really really good, y'all.
Turtles All the Way Down opens with the mystery of a missing billionaire, but it's really about high-schooler Aza Holmes and how she navigates friendship, family, and romance while struggling with mental illness. And it's just good. It feels honest and authentic and it treats mental health very seriously without any pat answers. I enjoyed it a lot.
And it helped that the reader, Kate Rudd, is just one of the best I've ever heard. It's rare to find someone who can capture teenage girl voice so well, but she does. And she treats the entire read as a real acting experience. This is someone who knows the work and is invested in making it live.
High recommend.
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Books we read in 2023
You made me doubt myself, so I checked. No, I haven't. I adored Arrival, but I've never read the source material.
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.