Electrical_Ag said:

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I have been trying to go back and read some of the classics that I somehow missed. I was very disappointed in The Catcher in the Rye. Your thoughts?

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One of the worst books I've ever read (read it around age 24 or so).

Read it in my teens and didn't connect with it at all. Also didn't enjoy it.

Yeah, Catcher in the Rye lost me, but was teenager when read it.

Don't do Gravity's Rainbow.

Reading the Ranger's Apprentice series right now. Middle of Book 3.

Clavell said:

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Yeah, Catcher in the Rye lost me, but was teenager when read it.

Don't do Gravity's Rainbow.

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Thoughts on why not? I've stared at that one for awhile, and just haven't been able to get myself to pull the trigger.

Me by Elton John.

He was honest and funny

It's like a lot of the Umberto Eco (outside Name of the Rose) novels I've read. Metaphor on top of metaphor until you're lost and left with a rather sily boring story. At end of book, I couldn't really tell you what it was about.

That will probably remain on the unread list then. That type of pretentious mush just isn't enjoyable.

Wheel of Time #1 (The Eye of the World)
Wheel of Time #2 (The Great Hunt)
Wheel of Time #3 (The Dragon Reborn)
Wheel of Time #4 (The Shadow Rising)
Wheel of Time #5 (The Fires of Heaven)
Wheel of Time #6 (Lord of Chaos)
Wheel of Time #7 (A Crown of Swords)
Wheel of Time #8 (The Path of Daggers)
Wheel of Time #9 (Winter's Heart)
Wheel of Time #10 (Crossroads of Twilight)
Wheel of Time #11 (Knife of Dreams) in-progress

I don't think I've mentioned it before, but I really love how the first chapter always starts the same way. I may have thought that it seemed familiar in book 2, but it probably wasn't until book 3 or 4 that it made me go back and look at the prior books to confirm.

Great to see Loial again (he's one of my favorites). It took me a minute to remember what task Rand had set him on since it seems like it was several books ago that it happened. Keeping all of that stuff straight really has been one of the biggest challenges through the series. Some storylines are dropped for several books, and the wikis are too risky in terms of spoilers.

Poor Tylin being murdered after Mat left her bound under the bed. RIP cougar.

Holy balls.....520 pages before you see Rand after the crazy ending to book 9.

Truce with the Seanchan? Didn't see that coming. I guess it would be nice to have an "ever-victorious army" on your side.

Egwene riding Bela again made me smile like an idiot for some reason.

It looks like Book 11 is the last attributed solely to Robert Jordan. I'm excited to see how Sanderson helps wrap up the series since everyone praises his work, but even as a new fan, it's tough to think that this will be the last from the creator.

fav13andac1)c said:

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Just wrapped up the first Red Rising Trilogy, and man was it amazing. Starting Iron Gold today.

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When he's finished is it going to be 6 books, or will he just keep going?

You're going to be extremely happy you started the series. I'm on book 10 or WoT, and I'm really looking forward to Brandon Sanderson's books. Stormlight is awesome.

I am! Finished Oathbringer a week or so ago actually!

Finished A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson which was amazing and The Alchemy of Us by Ainissa Ramirez which was interesting, but ok.

Chipotlemonger said:

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I started reading the Stormlight Archive series solely because of how great the last few WoT books were.

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I started reading WoT because I know Sanderson finishes it and was pretty much guaranteed a payoff.

Nice!

Local library didn't have the three books I was looking for, so I headed over to Micheal Crichton to see if there were any I didn't remember reading. Picked up The Great Train Robbery and finished it in a couple of days. Great book!

Also picked up the first book of the WOT series based on recommendations here. Not my usual genre but I'll give it a shot.

Your local library is still open?

Digital download is the only option I've had since March

Frok said:

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Your local library is still open?

Digital download is the only option I've had since March

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Yeah we're open. Limited hours and masks and all that, but otherwise normal.

Thanks for the synopsis. I have Guns of August to read, as I have seen that heavily recommended for WWI books, but what would be a good 2nd one to go with that?

March of 2019, Joe Rogan has TJ English on with Joey Diaz, talking about English's books about the mob, Cuba, and the Cuban mob. I kept thinking about what a fascinating interview that was, because I didn't know much about the Cuban mafia.

I finally got around to reading Havana Nocturne, his book about the mob and their exploits in Cuba in the 50's, and how it interacted with the coming Castro revolution. I finished that, and just started The Corporation, his book about the Cuban mob in America, born out of a group of men that were part of the Bay of Pigs Invasion.

Sounds interesting, I might need to add that to my list.

Just completed Andrew Carnegie's autobiography. I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would.

Now I am reading David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell.

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires
A solid A. A good mix of horror and social commentary on the lives of stay at home women.

PDWT_12 said:

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PDWT_12 said:

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Finally got back to reading regularly.

In the last month or so...

Finished

Allies by Winston Groom- Pretty good

Tiamat's Wrath by James S.A. Corey- Fantastic

Artemis by Andy Weir- Meh

Planning to read Killers of the Flower Moon and Children of Dune next.

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Finished

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann- Fantastic, can't wait to see this turned into a movie.

Reading

Children of Dune

Blood of Elves by Sapkowski because Libby told me it was the first book in the series, but after doing some research it seems maybe I need to stop and read Last Wish and Sword of Destiny first.

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Been a while since I updated, but it's also been a little slow.

Finished

Children of Dune by Herbert- It was good at times, really slow in others but overall I enjoyed it.

Last Wish and Blood of Elves by Sapkowski. Both really good. Never played the Witcher games and haven't watched the Netflix series yet but I like the world he's created.

Redwall by Brian Jacques- Really just wanted to reread this one to see if it held up from my childhood and if I could read it to my kid someday.

Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain- Didn't understand about half of the food he talked about making but still a cool look into his life and the world of professional cooking.

Reading

Sword of Destiny by Sapkowski and then I'll continue through that series.

Jurassic Park by Crichton

Chipotlemonger said:

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Thanks for the synopsis. I have Guns of August to read, as I have seen that heavily recommended for WWI books, but what would be a good 2nd one to go with that?

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I haven't read that, but I'm listening to Dan Carlin's Hardcore History off and on on WWI. I'm not too far into it but it's interesting. Starts with the complex relationships and alliances amongst the various countries leading up to Franz Ferdinand's assassination. I haven't gotten much past the actual shooting just yet. All of these major events like this just seem like a confluence of freak occurrences that happen and then bam!...cataclysmic change.

That podcast series is great. Listened to them all a couple years ago.

Been a while, still making my way through Clancy. I'm on Full Force and Effect, a few books past Clancy's death. Glad to see the series still holds up, if the level of detail you get from Clancy seems to lesser. The writers compensate for making it much more action packed. And I got to say I like Jack Jr. more than Ryan Sr.

I think the one thing all the books lack is a SPECTRE or Thanos style villain that arches over several books pulling the strings. The closest you get is the Ehmir, but that was just for two books.

Don Winslow's "power of the dog" trilogy.

Wheel of Time #1 (The Eye of the World)
Wheel of Time #2 (The Great Hunt)
Wheel of Time #3 (The Dragon Reborn)
Wheel of Time #4 (The Shadow Rising)
Wheel of Time #5 (The Fires of Heaven)
Wheel of Time #6 (Lord of Chaos)
Wheel of Time #7 (A Crown of Swords)
Wheel of Time #8 (The Path of Daggers)
Wheel of Time #9 (Winter's Heart)
Wheel of Time #10 (Crossroads of Twilight)
Wheel of Time #11 (Knife of Dreams)
Wheel of Time #12 (The Gathering Storm) in-progress

Finished this one much quicker, partially because the first 150 pages started much faster than the last several books. Got through them within 2 days even though I was only planning to read a bit before going to sleep.

These prologues are getting hilariously long. 92 pages or 11.6% of the book was prologue! Random notes below.
Pregnant Elayne losing her **** and screaming in the middle of a hallway after yet another person tells her she should change out of her wet clothes was a funny little moment.

Loial was finally tracked down and married to Erith, and as they are "nosing" he thinks about how he barely had the presence of mind not to finger her ear. It made me literally laugh out loud.

Lews Therin finally seizing control of the power from Rand was pretty wild, especially with the things he did to stop the horde of Trollocs that were attacking them.

Nynaeve leaving Lan at World's End was a bold move, but the scene that followed of her enlisting the Malkieri merchant to spread the word of Lan heading toward Tarwin's Gap was one of the best of the series. Someone must have also been cutting onions around that time. I'm so ready to see Lan lead an army and avenge Malkier, but I also have a feeling of dread about what will happen to him. Even with Nynaeve, he may be too messed up to live a normal life at this point. He's also headed toward an apocalyptic battle and would easily sacrifice himself for someone like Nynaeve if need be.

Egwene acting like a badass even as a prisoner, and she and Leanne sowing discontent and doubts in the Tower was pretty awesome.

I forgot Elaida was planning to build a palace for herself right next to, but bigger than, the White Tower. I doubt it'll happen, but it'd be cool if it ended up becoming the site of the Black Tower with them coming back together in the end. I honestly haven't heard anything about how this ends, so I'm not sure how much of a happy ending there will be. I assume there's going to be some heavy losses in terms of characters, but I'm definitely interested to see how much of the world remains intact even if they do defeat the Dark One.

Action is definitely ramping up with Perrin battling the Shaido and Elayne fighting in Camelyn. Will be interesting to see what happens with the Seanchan, especially now that they have hundreds of Shaido damane. The brief glimpse we got into Tuon's thoughts showed that she still planned on concurring them. I assume they'll be allied at some point, but I know part of Mat's prophecy mentions that he will "give up half the light of the world to save the world." I don't have a clear idea what that means yet, but it doesn't bode well.

I had a feeling we weren't done with Moiraine, but the talk of her potentially being "not dead" came so suddenly. I assumed that her words/actions would at least influence the later part of the story, but I wasn't 100% sure if she would actually come back. I guess she still hasn't yet, but that seems like a given at this point.

When the few Red sisters from the Tower ask Taim about bonding Asha'man. He ends up referencing an "old saying" that the Red sister doesn't recognize. He said "let the lord of chaos rule." That's obviously the title of one of the books, but I know the phrase was actually mentioned previously too. I want to say that it was by one of the Forsaken. One of the recent books seemed to insinuate that my "Taim is Demandred" theory was incorrect, but it didn't completely disprove it. Even if he isn't Demandred, I'll be very interested to know if he is one of the Forsaken, a darkfriend, or just an *******.

It took my husband years to get through these, I applaud you

1) The Hundred Days (Aubrey/Maturin #19) by Patrick O'Brian - A
2) The Crippled God (Malazan #10) by Steven Erikson - A-
3) The Well of Ascension (Mistborn #2) by Brandon Sanderson - B+
4) Blue at the Mizzen (Aubrey/Maturin #20) by Patrick O'Brian - A
5) The Last Wish (The Witcher #1) by Andrzej Sapkowski - B
6) The Jewel in the Skull (Eternal Champion/Hawkmoon #1) by Michael Moorcock - B-
7) The Hero of Ages (Mistborn #3) by Brandon Sanderson - B+
8) The Blade Itself (First Law #1) by Joe Abercrombie - A
9) A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson - B+
10) Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson - A
11) Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain - B
12) Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger - B
13) Metro 2033 (Metro #1) by Dmitry Glukhovsky - C-
14) On the Origins of War and the Preservation of Peace by Donald Kagan - A-
15) Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt - A
16) A Wizard of Earthsea (Earthsea #1) by Ursula K. Le Guin - A-

17) Elantris by Brandon Sanderson - B

This was a fun, easy fantasy novel that didn't give me anything to complain about. I saw one user describe this book as the demo tape for Mistborn, and I think that's fair. This book has a very sympathetic antagonist who is probably the best character. Easy recommendation for anyone who likes Sanderson's other work.

18) The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson - A-

This was recommended so many times on this board that I had no choice but to pick it up, and it absolutely delivered. The story of the fair would have been a good enough book on its own, but adding the serial killer aspect boosted it into classic range. Larson did a great job of evoking the time period and filling in details that would be impossible for the lay reader to know without being an expert in the field. I'll definitely be checking out more of his work.

19) I, Claudius by Robert Graves - B+

A classic and for good reason. Graves successfully humanizes the historical characters and makes the time feel relatable. My only problem with it is that it would have been pretty difficult to follow if I didn't have prior knowledge of the time period. I recommend this book, but if you're not familiar with the material, you should read at least Claudius's Wikipedia page first. Given that our collective knowledge of the distant past has not improved over the past century, I'm not sure this could be a hit today.

20) The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon - A

Wow! This book blew me away! I didn't know it, but a postmodern bibliophile Catalan magic-realist gothic noir bildungsroman was exactly what I needed. This book scratched the Name of the Rose itch like nothing I've read since, including other Eco works. Stunning, layered, quotable. I also have to give the translator a shoutout (the daughter of Robert Graves, coincidentally) for capturing the flow of the original language so well.

21) The Road to Serfdom by F. A. Hayek - A

What can I even say about this book? Hayek lays waste to the childish naivete of socialism and central planning, and challenges the reader to value real freedom with its risks over the political opiates of perceived security and prejudicial, racially based 'justice'. If you're uncomfortable with a contemporary Austrian who lived through the rise of Hitler examining the socialist roots of Nazism, well, you're in for a nasty shock. Relatively short, but not an easy read for multiple reasons.

Currently reading - The Story of Philosophy by Will & Ariel Durant, Reasonable Faith by William Lane Craig, and some selections from Bastiat

Also, my Goodreads goal for the year was 40 books. Halfway through, I'm just about on schedule, but I can't afford any more lapses like the last few weeks.

Champ Bailey said:

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Been a while, still making my way through Clancy. I'm on Full Force and Effect, a few books past Clancy's death. Glad to see the series still holds up, if the level of detail you get from Clancy seems to lesser. The writers compensate for making it much more action packed. And I got to say I like Jack Jr. more than Ryan Sr.

I think the one thing all the books lack is a SPECTRE or Thanos style villain that arches over several books pulling the strings. The closest you get is the Ehmir, but that was just for two books.

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That's a good point. I'm not saying this could be done in all series, but heroes are usually only as good as their villains and that would help.

Wheel of Time #1 (The Eye of the World)
Wheel of Time #2 (The Great Hunt)
Wheel of Time #3 (The Dragon Reborn)
Wheel of Time #4 (The Shadow Rising)
Wheel of Time #5 (The Fires of Heaven)
Wheel of Time #6 (Lord of Chaos)
Wheel of Time #7 (A Crown of Swords)
Wheel of Time #8 (The Path of Daggers)
Wheel of Time #9 (Winter's Heart)
Wheel of Time #10 (Crossroads of Twilight)
Wheel of Time #11 (Knife of Dreams)
Wheel of Time #12 (The Gathering Storm)
Wheel of Time #13 (Towers of Midnight) in-progress

I'm so excited that I'll find out what happens soon, but I'm already dreading being done with the series too. It's definitely going to be one of those "well now what" feelings. I can't wait for the show to come out. Random notes below.

Graendal says that Taim likes having an army to command, but that there aren't any for him left moving in the world. Demandred says his rule is secure though in a meeting with Moridin and that he is preparing for war. Starting to make the "Taim is Demandred" theory stronger again since the Asha'man may be the only army unaccounted for by Graendal.

How exactly is Moridin connected to Rand? Graendal saw him flex his left hand as if in pain after Rand lost his, and he is adamant that Rand has to live until Tarmon Gaidan. My initial though was that he is potentially a version of him/Lews Therin that turned to the Shadow in another age. It was confirmed that he is the one with blue eyes that Rand has seen, and Lews Therin mentioned a "third" before. One of Rand's answers from inside the ter'angreal was that he must die to live, so maybe it means one version of him/them must die for the other to live (that's a little Harry Potter-esque). It's tough to know what the "rules" are when it comes to the cycles of rebirth since Lews isn't a physical being (as far as I know), but maybe the corrupted version that follows the Dark One could exist at the same time as the "dragon" version?.....upon further reading it seems this may not be the case since Rand calls him Elan at some point, and Moridin flat out says they are connected but he doesn't understand the connection. Maybe it's more along the lines of each being the representative of the Shadow/Dark One and the Light/Creator.

Egwene continues to have some awesome scenes, two in particular. The first is where she talks to the sisters in the Tower that are hunting for Black Ajah and basically concludes that Elaida's rise to Amyrlin was invalid due to the involvement of the Black Ajah. The follow up dinner for Elaida and several Sitters where she "debates" her in front of them is the other. I've really enjoyed her and Siuan working together, and I'm really hoping that the inevitable conflict between Egwene and Rand isn't too bad.

It seemed like Rand was too far gone, but of course that would be exactly what they wanted it to seem like. The scene atop Dragonmount made it seem as if he has turned back, but I'll have to see exactly how much changed in the next book. I could see the return of Moraine and/or the birth of his kids helping further.

The mountain town that goes insane every night and then wakes up the next morning like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day.....holy **** man.

Nynaeve has grown on me so much. It started happening before this book, but it really hit me how much I tend to enjoy some of her chapters now. She was far from my favorite early on and can still be annoying at times, but things changed. Her association with Lan was the first step, but she has also changed in other ways.

I did NOT see it coming that Verin is part of the Black Ajah. The series made it clear she had her own plans and was a good schemer, but being a double-agent inside the Black Ajah?....damn.

For all of the things she says about Elaida, Egwene has done some similar things. Her intentions are different, but still. Despite their opposition to one another, I was thinking that it'd be interesting if she had to work closely with Elaida to unite the tower. Verin's book listed over 200 members of the Black Ajah. That's way more than I expected, so uniting the Tower by necessity may need to include as many as possible in the fight against the Black. That may mean including Elaida as well. The Black likely wouldn't expect it either, so they could do it in secret while continuing a public battle against one another. That all went to **** after Elaida was captured though...