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What are you reading these days?
What are you reading currently? Fiction or non-fiction or poetry, any genre, any language! Tell us what you're reading, and talk about it a bit.
What are you reading currently? Fiction or non-fiction or poetry, any genre, any language! Tell us what you're reading, and talk about it a bit.
I finished The Lions of Al-Rassan. I recommend it for the historic feel, but it takes place during a pretty horrific time - a fantasy version of the end of Al-Andalus (Moorish Spain). A major theme is soldiers' divided loyalties and dilemmas about what to do when they know a huge religious war is coming and there will be atrocities. There are some peaceful times too, though. I find that good historical fiction will get me wondering what really happened and read some history, and I expect that I'll be reading up on this time period.
I also read Redshirts, a Star Trek parody by John Scalzi. It's pretty fun!
Diane Ravitch is an educational historian and a former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education. She originally supported No Child Left Behind, the United States' contentious national educational reform plan enacted in 2001. She has since changed her position and come out against many of NCLB's tenets and written three books about the "reform movement" that spawned and followed from NCLB.
The three books are separate titles, but together they act as a sort of loose trilogy, each more firey than the last. Her first was The Death and the Life of the Great American School System (2010), followed by Reign of Error (2014), and now Slaying Goliath (2020), which is what I am currently in the middle of.
Ravitch has always been direct and uncompromising in her writing style, but Slaying Goliath is outright cold-blooded (and deservedly so). After a decade of writing about a failed movement that erodes our nation's education system and directly harms kids, families, teachers, and communities, she speaks with a frustration, anger, and moral outrage that is palpable. As someone who lives and breathes this on a daily basis, she's not telling me anything I don't know, but for anyone outside of education who wants a glimpse into the hellscape that the modern American educational paradigm has become, this is a solid read.
She speaks with the force of a sledgehammer striking home again and again and again, and at many points likely comes across as inflammatory or alarmist. I'm an American teacher in full agreement with what she's saying, and even I find her heavy-handed at times! That said, at other times I find this inspiring -- knowing that such a heavy hitter is standing squarely in my corner. I think it's also worth considering that what appears inflammatory when voiced by her isn't actually ramped up rhetoric on her behalf: it's her plainly laying out truths that have been covered up in bad faith for so long that it feels like she's making things up or exaggerating for effect, when really she's simply refusing to cater to the distortions that have poisoned discussions of education for so long.
She is writing the book I would want to write, but in a way that I wouldn't. I'm too concerned with being nice and would mire my assertions in politeness or hedge them as a precaution. Ravitch is not worried about any of that, and it shows on every page. And I'm ultimately grateful for that. Teachers tend to be meek and polite by default; it's in our nature to value group harmony. Thus, we need people like Ravitch to speak for us -- and speak she does. Powerfully.
Kurt Vonnegut is one of my all-time favorite authors, and as such I have already read (and reread) most of what he wrote in his lifetime (though not all his essays/articles yet), and I also already own pretty much all of it in physical form. So, needless to say, I was pretty dang excited when @moocow1452 recently made me aware of Ryan North & Albert Monteys' new graphic-novelization of Slaughterhouse-Five. Unfortunately for me though, the hard cover was already sold out everywhere I looked, and since I didn't want to read it in digital form I was forced to wait before I could get my hands on it.
Well, after about a month of being on a waiting list my copy finally arrived last night!!!... so now I intend to start working my way through it. And on cursory glance after it arrived, the art looks absolutely wonderful and seems a perfect fit for the book's themes, so I am doubly excited to dive into it tonight. Thanks again for making me aware of it, @moocow1452! :)
I realized I don't really like video games that much, so I sold my PS4 that I almost never used and bought a Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite with the main purpose of reading comic books on it. Most online reviews are not that enthusiastic about it, but from my point of view that's an awesome piece of tech. The screen is vibrant, the resolution allows for all the detail I need, the colors are gorgeous, and the price is reasonable. I've been geeking out like crazy in the last few days.
I acquired almost 80 GB of comics via alternative means. Many things that I love but was never able to read in full because I didn't have much money. It's also quite easy to miss a bunch of issues when you depend on newsstands.
Right now, I have loaded on the tablet:
I'm currently reading a fan-made Sensational She-Hulk omnibus on it. I love John Byrne so much, his stories scream "90s fun". His drawing style is very appealing and synonymous with super heroes to me. Character's builds reflect their powers in a clear and unambiguous way, and their anatomy is very detailed. I'd describe the style as "over the top realism".
Byrne’s take on She-Hulk is titillating and would probably raise eyebrows today (I personally don't think that's offensive in any way, but in 2020 moralism and progressiveness go hand in hand..). Byrne's She-Hulk is playful and hilarious. And yes: she's hot as fuck.
Apart from that, I read some dead-trees Detective Comics: a great self contained story in which an unknown villain forces Batman to face his traumas and grow a little bit.
In Batman's regular series, the Bat-family of affiliated heroes face the traumatic death of someone close to them. A great story with a lot of character development.
The Sandman Universe's The Dreaming is still quite disappointing in the vol2 (TPB). A lot of misdirection in a hard to follow story. I even re-read some of the original Sandman just to make sure, and yes, Neil Gaiman's 1989 stories are way more approachable. The Dreaming has some good moments, though. And the art is stupendous.
I've mostly been rereading the past month or so. Originally Malazan where i am up to House of Chains but i had to stop reading the series to pick up Oathbringer and reread that in prep for Rhythm of War. It's my third or fourth read of Malazan now and it gets better every time. Oathbringer too was better this time around, it is still incredibly bloated but more enjoyable this time, especially because i could have the wiki open without worrying about spoilers to help keep track. ,
NO SPOILERS Now i am reading Rhythm of War and i am disappointed so far (around half way). It is just too bloated. They need to get an editor and readers who aren't Cosmere fans. I swear you could cut 50% of this book and it would be so much better. The previous couple of chapters i have read practically nothing happened, progressed or was newly explained, yet it was ~30 pages. While i love nods to the wider worlds, but i shouldn't feel like i have to read the authors other 20 books to not feel like i am missing something important to the plot of this series that i am reading.
I love Malazan so far! I too am on House of Chains right now but it is my first read through.
I am also concurrently reading a Book on Wing Chun Martial Arts. I find it fascinating.
Oh, thank God I'm not the only one. It's kinda relieving to finally know that I am not the only lunatic in the world crazy/obsessed enough to reread that behemoth of a series multiple times. :P It's by far my favorite fantasy series too, and I reread it every few years or so. The only other series I have probably reread more times than it is Frank Herbert's Dune.
Binged the Unbelievable Gwenpool on Marvel Unlimited, it's really good and I'm glad it was put out into the world as kind of a meditation on comicbooks and the idea of how a character can grow and evolve, but also be warped and reset every time another writer takes the reins, and how someone deals with that status quo.
The web serial Worm by Wildbow at parahumans.wordpress.com
It is truly a work of art and hands-down the best thing I've ever read. It's a hyper-realistic take on the superhero genre and it is amazing. Truly great literature as well as great science fiction and one of the freshest takes on superhero fic I've ever seen. It's a bit hard to read at points as it's not published traditionally, but Wildbow, the author, is actually one of the most prolific world-builders I've ever seen. His other works are also great I'll link to them all: pactwebserial.wordpress.com is kinda like dark/urban fantasy I guess and twigserial.wordpress.com is even harder to explain. There's also a sequel to Worm called Ward which I haven't finished yet but it's honestly even better so far than Worm.
You might like the TV show "The Boys" as well, if you haven't seen it already.