The 2nd "What are you reading now" thread

[mattyc75]

Finished A Prayer for Owen Meany about a week ago.

Decent read overall, was a little long winded as if often the case with these mid-west authors - you often get some huge sprawling chapters. The whole book took place over a lifetime, which kind of made it outwardly feel like Forrest Gump or something.

I think at 600+ pages you expect a bit of waffle, but there were some pretty affecting parts. The novel starts brutally with the protagonists mum getting killed, and arguably doesn't reach the same emotional climax as when the characters are responding in their own private ways and with that as background looms over the entire book.

There's plenty who loves the ending and I can see why, but it came off a little contrived to me, even if I can see it was clearly pieced together from a long way back and actually could have really tanked. But it happened so quickly, and then just halted the novel without a proper unpacking. I get that was kind of occurring as the book ran it's natural course, but it almost certainly needs another read.

Started Libra by Don Delillo, and so far it's right up my alley. Also very stream-of-consciousness and lucid at times.

I really like a prayer for owen meany.not a book a could read quickly but enjoyed it nonetheless

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[La Dispute]

I really like a prayer for owen meany.not a book a could read quickly but enjoyed it nonetheless

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It’s fairly stacked.

Took me a surprisingly short time to get through it, and although I wouldn’t call it a page turner it’s pretty interesting throughout.

 

[Quokka]

The Drowned World (1962) J.G. Ballard. Just a little too dated for me, I tried to stick with it as I don't like not finishing books especially when they are so short but I'll have to come back to this one another time. An early environmental apocalypse story but I was a lot more interested in the concepts than I was the characters or the writing.

And so I switched over to Roadside Picnic (1972) Arkady & Boris Strugatsky and it is fantastic so far, exactly what I was in the mood for. It's a Russian science fiction story that reads a bit like an update of Lovecraft's The Color Out of Space (1927).

 

[Dazza the Viking]

Finished,

Cave Diver by Jake Avila

An Aussie Diver is hired for a cave diving expedition, supposedly to assist in filming a documentary, but people he is hired by, are searching a sunken Japanese submarine in a deep ravine, that has a cache of gold bullion and opium, to get there they travel down a river into the jungles of PNG to just across the border in Indonesia, some dodging characters and double crossing, really enjoy it

The Dark by Emma Haughton

Female Doctor arrives at the Antarctic as a emergency replacement, when she arrives finds out that a previous Doctor died in a team building climbing accident, after being there a while, realises it might not of been accident and someone wants it to remain as an accident, there are 13 at the small station for the winter, who will survive, interesting that the 13 are all from different countries

The Kobalt Dossier by Eric Van Lustbader
Book 2 in the Evan Ryder series, first book was The Nemesis Manifesto, if you like your spy espionage books you will enjoy

Rogue Asset by Andy McDermott
Book 2 in the Alex Reeve series, first book was Operative 66, another spy espionage series I’m enjoyed

The Darkness Knows by Arnaldur Indridason
Book 1 in Detective Konrad series, a frozen body of a businessman is found in a Icelandic glacier who disappeared 30 years ago, it is determine he was murder, and Detective Konrad who investigated he’s disappearance, is back on the case, another Scandinavian thriller to read.

The Night Singer by Johanna Mo
First book in The Island Murders series, a female detective returns to a small Swedish Island where she grew up and then fled as a teenager, when her father was convicted of a murder, on arrival she starts to investigate a murder of a 15 year boy, some of the residents aren’t happy when they find out her family background, if you your like Scandinavian thrillers I recommend

Fatal Isles by Maria Adolfsson
First book in the Doggerland trilogy
An Ex Wife of the Senior Detective Inspector on the Island of Doggerland (small island between England and Denmark) is brutally murder, DI Karen Eileen Hornby is assign the case, of her bosses ex wife’s murder, as he maybe a suspect, the more she digs the more deadly secrets appear in the small community

Like my Scandinavian thrillers, what can I say

Also started reading

The Pariah, Anthony Ryan, (Fantasy) half way through it enjoying it so far, haven’t read any of he’s other books, so will look at reading he’s last trilogy, as I was going to read them but never got around to it

 

[Quokka]

I'm glad I went back and finished A Drowned World, it won't ever be a favourite and there is little surprise in the ending but it was satisfying enough.

I started a PK Dick story but it didn't catch me and so I'll come back to it and instead I'm reading Where late the sweet birds sang (1974) by Kate Wilhelm it's another environmental post apocalypse story with a cloning twist and so far it's been really good.

 

[swingdog]

I'm re-reading Hemingway's short stories after watching the Ken Burns doco on SBS a few months back. Guy was an arseh*le but his best writing was untouchable.

 

[manutd/dogs]

Re-reading Murakami 'cos I need some dependable magical surrealist pop escapism from the dumpster-fire of reality. On Wind-Up Bird, then Kafka, then HBW, then 1Q84 (his best, IMO).

 

[Dazza the Viking]

Just finished
When You Are Mine by Michael Robotham,
a psychological mystery thriller, really enjoy it, Philomena McCarthy becomes a police officer despite her father being a notorious gangster as well her three Uncles, she attends a domestic, and arrests a decorated police detective, for domestic violence, in which it doesn’t go down well with her superiors, she also befriends the victim, who has a mysterious past, then a nosy reporter is found dead in which he was digging into the decorated detective as well as her father in the past years

 

[Heisenberg_]

Heard good things about Shuggie Bain, started this morning. Very much lived up to it.

 

[ChubbMuff]

Just started Gardens of the Moon, I am doing it as an audio book. I haven't done audio before but I am enjoying it so far.

 

[Quokka]

Just started Gardens of the Moon, I am doing it as an audio book. I haven't done audio before but I am enjoying it so far.

Interested to hear how you find it as an audiobook, its a fantastic series (one I havent finished yet, did read 7 or 8 books) but Gardens is often considered a bit of a jump into the deep end compared to most opening books.

 

[Roobs321]

Wuthering Heights

I started to read this a decade ago but never really got more than a chapter or two in before being distracted (same with Jane Eyre actually). I'd always had the popular impression that it was about these two lovers on the windswept moors, one a darkish orphan/stableboy lad, and that the story was discussed among other characters. I'd seen the 1939 film but remember it dimly.

Spoilers
Stormed through it. It isn't really a romantic tale, felt more a platonic soulmate attachment, and the bulk of the tale is concerned with a characters diabolical vengeance. The ghostliness also felt overstated to me. I enjoyed all the characters, all with their respective unlikeable faults but lovable all the same, and enjoyed the setting, and have a thing for gothic storytelling myself. I suspect Emily Bronte and I are kindred souls from what I've read of her. It isn't the most psychologically penetrating or thematically potent novel out there in the 19th century, Emily doesn't seem to have broadened her horizons a great deal, but as a volatile saga yarn laced with ghoulish revenge and sweeping isolation I lapped it up and would be open to reading it again and again.

Joseph outliving all five of those kids from the same generation is a bit warped though lol. Felt sorry for Nelly effectively raising two different kids for a while and seeing them thrown to the wolves, then glowed with her at their romantic convergence. Heathcliff does some wicked things here. Him & son Linton taking Catherine II's necklace pendant with photos of her parents and destroying it whilst imprisoned was dark from her pov. Similarly, some of Hindley's drunken violence, Heathcliff's matchmaking campaign, some teeth-gnashing stuff, and that's without getting into the more customary class haughtiness and hard treatment of uncouth youths.

 

[ChubbMuff]

I have started reading No Drama Discipline by Siegel and Bryson at the same time as Gardens of the Moon. They wrote The Yes Brain Child which I found excellent.

Interested to hear how you find it as an audiobook, its a fantastic series (one I havent finished yet, did read 7 or 8 books) but Gardens is often considered a bit of a jump into the deep end compared to most opening books.

Loving the audio book format, I am finding the narrator to be excellent. Managing to keep up with the plot and characters, finding it awesome so far. I'm almost 9 chapters in.

 

[gaskin]

Good luck trying to keep up when you get further into the series.

 

[ChubbMuff]

Good luck trying to keep up when you get further into the series.

Are you referring to Gardens of the Moon?

 

[gaskin]

Are you referring to Gardens of the Moon?

Yes. When you get further into the Malazan series. I'm on a re-read at the moment (halfway through the 2nd last book) and even I have to check things up on the Malazan Wiki at times.

 

[ChubbMuff]

Yes. When you get further into the Malazan series. I'm on a re-read at the moment (halfway through the 2nd last book) and even I have to check things up on the Malazan Wiki at times.

I generally have to read books twice because I am a skimmer. I have read Stormlight twice and The Culture a million times, if something is well written I love going back over it and getting more out of it. Part of the reason I'm giving Audible a go is because I am forced to listen at a normal pace and not skim. If I get lost I'll head to the Wiki though.

 

[gaskin]

I generally have to read books twice because I am a skimmer. I have read Stormlight twice and The Culture a million times, if something is well written I love going back over it and getting more out of it. Part of the reason I'm giving Audible a go is because I am forced to listen at a normal pace and not skim. If I get lost I'll head to the Wiki though.

Just be careful of spoilers if you care about that sort of thing.

 

[Quokka]

I have started reading No Drama Discipline by Siegel and Bryson at the same time as Gardens of the Moon. They wrote The Yes Brain Child which I found excellent.


Loving the audio book format, I am finding the narrator to be excellent. Managing to keep up with the plot and characters, finding it awesome so far. I'm almost 9 chapters in.

I might check it out myself, I have a long drive coming up and I usually add a couple of audiobooks to break up the music playlists. I want to finish the series but its been so long since I read the last book that I really need to start at the beginning and that's a big task.

 

[spinynorman]

Heard good things about Shuggie Bain, started this morning. Very much lived up to it.

Finished this tonight.

Superb book.

 

[Dazza the Viking]

Just finished

Judas 62 by Charles Cumming, it’s the follow up to Box 88, it is a excellent spy series, really enjoyed it, looking forward to the next one whenever it comes out
this book, like the first one set in two periods, this one in 1993 (he’s mission mainly in Russia) and in 2020 (leading a mission mainly in Dubai) which he is now in charge of the secret agency

 

[NSWCROW]

TWELVE SUMMERS - Adam Zwar


Adam recounts various stages of his life set against the backdrop of numerous aussie cricketing moments.


Loving it so far.
$16 at Target

 

[Shell]

The Pianist.

Is a fascinating read and I'm enjoying it- but I'm not enjoying reading atm. Is taking me forever to get thru this 222 pages.

 

[Heisenberg_]

The Pianist.

Is a fascinating read and I'm enjoying it- but I'm not enjoying reading atm. Is taking me forever to get thru this 222 pages.

I never knew that the movie was a adaptation from a book.

 

[Shell]

I never knew that the movie was a adaptation from a book.

Yup. By Wladyslaw Szpilman. I finally saw the film only a month or so ago.