What are you reading these days?

A House with Good Bones for Tildes book club at the end of June.

West with Giraffes rereading for my other book club. I loved this book which is subtle, moving, sometimes funny and very entertaining.

A Fine Balance by Mistry. This is a big novel from India with interesting characters.

The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard. This is frequently recommended by readers on r/fantasy.

Finished The Fall of Hyperion This was a brilliant finish to the story started in Hyperion.

Finished And There Was Light a thoughtful memoir by French Resistance member Jacques Lusseyran. The book can be divided into childhood/youth, nazi occupation and resistance, surviving Buchenwald. The author had a later career as a professor and the scholarly style shows up in the content of this memoir.

Eleven by Patricia Highsmith. Some remarkably short stories from one of my favorite authors. I’m close to finishing everything she’s written, i think.

After this, probably something from Ben Macintyre.

Tinker Tailor soldier spy. Its a bit of a slog but I'm halfway through so figure I'll see it through til the end.

The origin of capitalism: a longer view. Its interesting but fairly dry and academic. As Sun Tzu said "know thy enemy".

I finished Die Wand (The Wall) by Marlen Haushofer last weekend. I devoured the first 80% of the book and then kept putting off reading the last 30 pages, because I knew it would be painful - and it was. But also beautiful.
This book had a bit of a hype in German Booktok, so I was sceptic at first, but the hype is justified.
It is about a woman that is trapped alone, in the woods, by a magical wall. She struggles to survive and her only company are her animals.
The funny thing is: after the initial 20 pages, the wall is rarely mentioned anymore. It isn't really about the feeling of being trapped, but more about the conditio humana, mankinds treatment of nature and each other, and probably also about love in a very somber way. I can wholeheartedly recommend this book and will reread it in a few years for sure.

Next up is "Leben" (To Live) by Karl Ove Knausgard, the fourth part of his great autobiographic project "Min Kamp" (My Struggle). I'm already halfway through and I think this is the weakest book so far. Lots of drunken stories and second hand embarrassment, but let's see where it takes me. The first three books were some of the best literature I ever read.

Recently finished:

• The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler - This was an interesting book that I'm glad I forced myself to finish, although I think i did myself a disservice by listening to the audiobook while doing yardwork. It was a interesting story, and brought up lots of good debates about consciousness, it was just not quite what I was expecting, I rated it 3.75 stars, but I may go back and read the physical book and I might change my rating.

• Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt - I read this book as a lighthearted companion to pair with The Mountain in the Sea. It's not something I would normally have read but rit was a good quick read, although I feel it could have been trimmed down or edited better, but it was a fun and charming read. I rated it 4/5 stars.

Currently Reading:

• 54% finished with The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow - This is a pretty dense one, I don't want to butcher trying to describe it but while its not one I'm enjoying reading because the concepts don't have a simple answer in modern life, I am glad I am reading it for knowledge's sake at least. I feel like I am learning a lot from it, but with everything going on in the news its pretty melancholy. I was listening to it as an audiobook at a soulless stock job I have to work until I can find something better, until that got to be too much and I borrowed...

• 78% finished with Semiosis by Sue Burke - I have been on a book pairing kick lately, and I was waiting for some library loans, so I picked this book to reread to pair with Alien Clay. I really liked this book for its out of the box ideas and how it portrayed a sentient plant, but on rereading I realized I like the world developed and the portrayal of the characters more than the actual stories being told. I originally rated it 5/5 star, but I think I'm going to drop it to a 4.75/5. I should have finished it before starting Alien Clay, but I have a hard time resisting Adrian Tchaikovski

• 90% finished with Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovski - Finishing up this one this evening. Another book by Adrian Tchaikovski that I'm rating 5/5 star, my pairing with Semiosis made it obvious. I am a big fan of the concepts Adrian Tchaikovski talks about, the stories he actually tells, and the way he tells them. Adrian Tchaikovski is quickly joining my favorite authors with Clive Barker and China Mieville.

Up Next

• Shards of Earth, and Dogs of War, both by Adrian Tchaikovski. I have both these two on loan from the library if anybody has a recommendation on which to read first.

Offtopic post script: does the biweekly in the tag mean twice a week or every other week?

I've been on a big historical kick lately, having recently finished Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe, which is ostensibly about a woman who disappears during The Troubles in Ireland, though this ends up being a relatively small part of the book and ends up focusing more on the Provisional IRA itself, the major players, the general philosophy of the organization and the role it played in disappearing many people over the course of The Troubles.

I found it incredibly interesting, having little knowledge of the actual situation itself, so it was nice to begin to understand it a little better and the motivations of it. I kind of always just thought it was Catholics vs Protestants, but it seems to be much deeper than that and runs very much deeper in history than just a relatively small period in the mid-late 20th century.

I've been really wanting to read The Guns of August and actually have it on hold at my local library via Libby and it's come up available several times as I've been in the middle of a couple of books, as recently as my read of Say Nothing. I then push it back, assuming I'll read it after I finish what I'm currently stuck in. Finally I decided I'd just wait and read nothing after Say Nothing, but now it's been 2-weeks since I finished my last book and my eye is starting to twitch. Another hold at the library came up, so I decided to go for it and see if I can get through it before The Guns of August comes up again and at only 350ish pages, I think I can crank through it.

So my next book is With the Old Breed a memoir about a Marine in the Pacific during WW2. I'm very big into WW2 history and personal accounts specifically, but I know very little about the war in the Pacific, generally being much more interested in what's happening in Europe. I'm only about 20% of the way through so far, but it's a pretty good read, the author of the memoir writes very well, owing to the fact that after the war he earned a PhD and became a University Professor.

Nothing in particular is standing out to me about it yet, but it is still enjoyable to read and makes me think I really am not cut out for being in the military; not that I'm much of a candidate at 41 years old and in mediocre physical shape, but even at 18-20, which is the age range of most the enlisted in this book, I'm not sure I could have handled the sheer discomfort and oppression it takes to cut it in even Boot Camp, let alone the jungles of the Pacific.

I just finished Diamonds are forever by Ian Flemming. This is my fourth James Bond book. So far I like them. I will likely buy another four for my Kindle. I'm not native English speaker, yet these books are easy read for me (I think my English is quite advanced though).

If you like James Bond movies, I recommend reading books as well. As with many movies, there are differences, but you will be able to see sme of the movie in the book and vice versa. Sometimes parts of action are used in other movies (other than the one which is based on the book in question).

I'm thinking about buying some nice Czech book Godfather by Mario Puzo. I have read it a few times in English on Kindle and I'm thinking about actually owning paper version in my native language. And possibly some nice edition, if available.

Currently reading: Graceling by Kristin Cashore (paperback), The Return of Ellie Black by Emiko Jean (digital), Queen of Shadows by Sarah J Maas (audio, only when exercising).

I finished my latest audiobook earlier today - Undue Burden by Shefali Luthra. It's a nonfiction book about the human impact of the Dobbs decision. I thought I would be angry listening to this, but I'm just... sad. And disappointed. And thankful to live where I do.

My partner and I also recently finished listening to How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse by K. Eason for our library's sci fi book club. This one started really strong but I was sad to find it had lost us well before the end. I had to keep asking him to recap with me because I lost the plot, and he was in the same boat. We'll not be continuing with the next book.

Another recent read was Poets Square: A Memoir in Thirty Cats by Courtney Gustafson. Quick and enjoyable read, though somewhat gritty and sad in places. I wanted her to talk about how her social media fame messed up her taxes, and she didn't. Oh well.

Next up is The God of the Woods by Liz Moore, A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir, Our Infinite Fates by Laura Steven, and starting up A House with Good Bones by T Kingfisher (with my partner!) for Tildes book club. At some point, I'll get back to Hyperion, but... it might take some time.

I'm currently reading through the hunger game books. I read the first one (Songbirds and Snakes) a month ago and just recently got the rest of the books. I've finished the second prequel and the original one, now starting on catching fire. I've seen the movies so I figured reading them chronologically would be interesting as I had enough context to not totally miss the forward references and could see the presented character progression. Downside is I've found the namesake book a bit disappointing in comparison to the prequels, especially Songbirds and Snakes, and I worry that will be a pattern as I break into the last two.

S&S was my favorite of the 3 due to having a non-2D main character and length enough to actually explore things.

Sunrise was good but felt like "yet another" as it doesn't do very much that's unique/outside the formula and any potential for emotional poignancy suffers from the foreknowledge like 99% of readers have. I wish they had showed more "after" instead of a simple one-two hit and boom, chug chug.

As I'm working through the original trilogy, one thing I've realized is how surprisingly true to the books the movies were. I figured the books would have more to them than the movies but, at least for the first one, there really isn't much. The characterization is better in the book at least. I'm crossing my fingers that it ends up similar to the novel adaptions of the star wars prequels, where the first one is literally a transcription of the movie but each one adds more depth until by the third one you have a novel that is substantially richer and more fulfilling than the movie.

I finished The Forge of God by Greg Bear. If was a solid read, heavier on the implications of the idea of first contact and the implications of Von Neuman probes along with an instellar reaction from other advance civilizations would be. Character work was light and more fleshed out than something like the original Foundation novel.

I'm making a point to finish beta reading my friends books as I've had it for a bit long and feel guilty for not doing it sooner.

Then finally back into Malazan Book of the Fallen. I'm ready to see what happens next and I also would like to finish this series this year.

I generally bounce around between a lot of books, but with large epic fantasy series like this I find trying to track more than one can be a bit confusing.

I finished reading the first six books of the Sun Eater series along with The Mercy of Gods by James S. A. Corey.

Read somewhere that the sun eater books are a pastiche of Dune. I haven't read Dune so I'm not aware. I found the books okay, not that great. Well-written but not that memorable.

I've picked up Funny Story by Emily Henry. It was on Kobo store for less than a quid, so I thought why not. Two chapters in and I love it!

I'm also trying to read Where the Crawdad Sings by Delia Owens. I've been trying to read this for quite some time and it really isn't gripping me despite being on the fifth chapter.