What are you reading these days?

Picked up The AI Con by Emily Bender and Alex Hanna. Also rereading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë.
The former is sharp witted and articulately barbed. While the latter has been one of my all time favourite books.

Had finished listening to the Empire of AI of Karen Hao before these. A sobering investigative journalism, exploration of the power dynamics of the AI industry, its ethics, environmental impact, & the dual possibilities of AI as either an equaliser, or a tool to perpetuate systemic inequality.
I highly recommend it for anyone working in, or simply interested in, AI and its impacts on society.
A 5/5 read/listen!

Reading both The Iliad and The Odyssey, the Samuel Butler and the Fagles translations, chapter by chapter. First the Butler translation then Fagles to pick up what I may have missed the first time.

Already finished The Iliad this way, was very helpful. It's convinced me to find the Pope translations.

I've barely started in on The Lies of Locke Lamora. I hear it's pretty expansive, but I don't know much of anything about it yet. Well-written, though.

I am about 20 pages from the end of the Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, and honestly it was a hard start. Once I got into it, I was really enjoying it. But then the middle and coming into the end of the novel, I don't know. I feel like its pretty lackluster? I don't want to spoil it, and I think I enjoyed it more than not, but I just expected...more? Hard to wrap my head around.

Before that I had finished The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler (fun! I like these hard-boiled noire detective books so I would love recommendations) and Casino Royale by Ian Flemming (very boring, are the other Bond books any better?).

Max Hastings’ Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975.

Having over indulged on Sci Fi over the last couple years and struggled to find something further to enjoy in that genre, I tend to drift to non fiction for a bit.

I've enjoyed books about other wars in the past (well, WWI and WWII), and I realised I, as a Brit, didn't really know much about the Vietnam war.

Not so far through it yet (~500 of of ~1800 pages on my e-reader), and the Americans have just faked an attack on some ships it seems, prompting an escalation.

Also had no idea it was somewhat precipitated by a disastrous withdrawal of the colonial French

Sorry if I'm glossing over this or sounding like a neophyte, because, well, I am.

I'm enjoying it though, it's quite fascinating, and horrifying. I might read another account or perspective after, as I realise how little I know of it all.

Currently reading: Tread of Angels by Rebecca Roanhorse, The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst, David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, Inheritance by Christopher Paolini. More casually, Queen of Shadows by SJM and The Fear Of series by SC Sterling (won the latter in a giveaway and... might DNF the second book idk). I'm loving The Spellshop and it's a really nice palette cleanser with half of these reads feeling a little slog-like. I won The Enchanted Greenhouse in an audiobook giveaway and I'm anticipating receiving it in the next few days, so I'm really looking forward to that.

Just finished: Finale and Spectacular by Stephanie Garber. The Forgotten Kingdom by Signe Pike. Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells. Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan. The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djeli Clark.

Up next: Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. The Burning God by RF Kuang. Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber. The Lady of the Lake by Andrzej Sapkowski. Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo. Gallant by VE Schwab. Next book to read with my partner after Inheritance will be either The Boy on the Bridge by MR Carey or Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang, depending on what's available first.

Started the Heaven and earth grocery store for Tildes book club.

Started The River of Doubt by Millard A narrative history of Theodore Roosevelt's post presidential journey through the Amazon.

Finished the Kite runner.

Finished the Hands of the emperor by Victoria Goddard This is fantasy.

Finished the Nickel boys by Colson Whitehead.

Oh my, I think I've somehow read... More books than I thought since I last responded to one of these threads(but honestly that was maybe three months ago!)
I finished both Psalm for the Wild Built and its sequel A Crown for the Prayer Shy. They were... Fine?.... Good? I think I went into them with different expectations than I should have. I, overall, liked them and would give them a thumbs up. They were easy reads with a lot of little reflections of humanity in them.
I knocked out A House With Good Bones. I liked it more than I expected to! I'm not a huge horror guy and I didn't find it all that horrific. For more thoughts you'll have to look at the Tildes Book Club thread; can't be giving all my thoughts away to the masses!
I just finished Wild Dark Shore. I guess I'm into horror now. I really enjoyed this book. Piecing together the full story from the various perspectives was a great engine for moving the act of reading forward. There was enough story on the bones to be compelling and the setting is a place I would love to go.
I'm almost done with Someone You Can Build A Nest In. It's been an enjoyable listen so far (not a ton of time to devote to actually reading this week, sadly.) I have really enjoyed the characterization of the monster. It's just not-human-enough to be compelling.

I finished reading Abundance the other day. Overall I liked it but it certainly isn't a feel good book, I definitely find it hard to disagree with the basic premise that the net effect of having so many processes to comply with has had a negative effect of our ability to perform. But the main suggestion of the book seems to be to "just choose" agility and throw out all regulations, which certainly doesn't seem any more plausible than the "stop unbounded growth" viewpoint they repeatedly criticized. Ended the book feeling pretty hopeless and wishing for things that would never happen. Doesn't help that the book I read a bit before and a bit in parallel was 1984.

Today I finished Castle in the Air, the sequel to Howl's Moving Castle. It was firmly in the "OK I guess" territory. Definitely not as good as the original and I was disappointed how unrelated it was for most of the book. I wanted the sequel to pick up immediately after the first one as the ending to that felt really disappointing but in a way that felt set up to be easily added onto. But instead this book focuses on a totally different tale that doesn't overlap the original until the end, in what felt more like a cameo than anything. And I really didn't care for how the original main characters got skipped forward a whole life stage when the last book already had them skipping forward. I get it's a children's book but surely you could fit in some relationship development. The main characters and story of the second book feel hardly worth talking about. I already have the third book so going to read that to finish out the trilogy.

I'm also currently reading Death: A History of Man's Obsessions and Fears. Not too far in yet. First chapter has some amusing anecdotes about people being buried alive and one person who was hanged only to recover and then have his chest cut open so people could watch his heart slowly stop beating. So far seems like a jolly fun time, certainly more uplifting than Abundance.

I'm ~70% of the way through Toll the Hounds by Steven Erickson. I had read a few no spoilers reviews for this, and from what I saw mentioned was that the book will start having a lot of action and things going on in the last 1/5 of the book. I've felt like things have been picking up steam for a while now and there have been significant lore drops in the last few chapters that I have been finding myself wanting to read more and more.

One of the positives of reading with these massive books on my phone is that I see a percentage sign instead of the physical pages to read decreasing. When I get to a certain point with a physical book I want to see the end of, I'll end up staying way too late to try and finish it. This has happened with ereading, but it's not as frequent.

I'm reading The Thran by J. Robert King for a book club with my friend. We recently started back up, and it's been a fun read. I've never looked into MTG lore and this has been enjoyable. I also like that while there's a lot of books in the setting, it isn't as expansive as other settings like 40k, Forgotten Realms, Star Wars, etc.

Alex Verus series (on book 7 i think? Burned)

It's ok. It lacks...i dunno, depth? Lots of standard cliches and the world doesn't quite feel believable, but it also slots in as a comfort read/listen rather than some best of all time story. I don't regret reading it at all, but also wouldn't recommend anyone drop something for it.

I just started King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby. All of his books a pretty great for the genre. It's been a slog finding new books lately. I get a quarter of the way in and realize that I just don't give a shit. I used to stick it out, but there's so much stuff out.

Anyway, S.A. Cosby is a gem.

I just started The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. I was not expecting what I am currently reading when I picked up the book, because I saw the work library and I picked it up, but I think it's nice. I'm enjoying it so far much more than I enjoyed The Night Circus which had an amazing synopsis full of lies.

Trauma patient here, just started reading Codependent No More as a recommendation from my psychiatrist. Couple chapters in and I really identify with it.

Sounds silly to say, but it feels like everyone has a little codependency in them. Sometimes it's small enough to be a coworker who won't let you leave work without building some kind of anger, and sometimes it's a doting mother who won't escape the shadow of your own self criticism. I have a lot more to go before actually being able to judge the book but even raising the questions has me searching for my answers.