Finished Bad Blood by John Carreyrou. Picked it up because I had seen it recommended on this or another thread.

It goes over the whole Elizabeth Holmes saga right up until the whole thing began to unravel. Holmes is definitely the main deceiver here, but she was surrounded by others who enabled her, bullied others on her behalf, or relied on intimidation to shut people up who asked reasonable questions.

It fascinating to see how many big names were absolutely hoodwinked by this, and that the perps could get away with it for years. Holmes was still taking in 100 million dollar investments even when being investigated and word was starting to get out that all was not right at the company.

One of the greatest villains in the story and at the top with Holmes was Sunny Balwani. According to this version, that guy was the head jackass and intimidator for Holmes. He got his hands dirty, leaving Holmes to stay in her "brilliant tech girl" mode.

I'd recommend. Mainly because, like the Fyre Festival, its a tremendous disaster that you can't look away from.

rhutton125 said:

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Just a little, my dad is friends with the author's dad so I told him I'd check it out.

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Gotcha. That's neat! I spent some time out in that direction and was just curious.

Well, couldn't find my copy of Guns, Germs, and Steel so figured I'd whip out 16 Way to Defend a Walled City until I found it.

Enjoyed it quite a bit. Cool mix of contemporary writing with medieval setting and problems. My first book by KJ Parker and liked it enough to knock out a short story by him as well called Prosper's Demon. Also enjoyed that one a lot.

Now I'm super butthurt though because I STILL can't find my copy of Guns. Yall ever lose y'all's sanity tearing apart your place looking for something you KNOW you have but it refuses to be found? Infuriating. It's here….somewhere.

Til then, jumped into Midnight in Chernobyl. Already engrossed in it. Always been morbidly fascinated on the whole subject and learning a ton.

Completed Sharpe's Havoc by Bernard Cornwell, 1601 by Mark Twain (The works of Mark Twain), and Black Canaan by Robert E. Howard (The Robert E. Howard Omnibus: 99 Collected Stories (Halcyon Classics)).

In progress are The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (The works of Mark Twain) and Moon of Zambebwei by Robert E. Howard (The Robert E. Howard Omnibus: 99 Collected Stories (Halcyon Classics))

I've gotten through about 35 books so far this year, mainly a mixture of action and Military thrillers.

I've been putting it off but after having reread the first four books of The Stormlight Archive last year I feel like I need to tackle Wind and Truth. Just seeing the size of this book on my coffee table makes it seem daunting. LOL it's going to take me through the end of the year to finish this thing I think. It's definitely going to slow down my book count for the year!

I have not been good about keeping track of all of the different characters outside of the main dozen or so. All of the Throwbacks to some of the old heralds which pop back up makes it seem a little confusing. I found a good animated summary video on YouTube but it's 3 hours long.

Roll the Bones said:

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It's definitely going to slow down my book count for the year!

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You're really slacking in that department

Only way I can keep stuff straight with big series like that is to read all of it straight through. The last time I did that was Malazan over a decade ago. It's all I read for two years.

Take commitment which I haven't had since then. Granted, my example is pretty extreme. Not reading Malazan straight through is almost foolish. But Cosmere sounds the same. I never read beyond the original trilogy.

How is the first law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie? I see it mentioned but not really discussed. I just finished the latest dungeon crawler Carl and the latest Dresden files book. If I like those, would I like the first law trilogy?

Finished U.S. Marines in the Battle for Sangin. Pretty interesting, a good look at what it was really like for one guy. Not a big picture war in Afghanistan book but a snapshot of one year in the conflict, I guess you could say.

Up next on my list is Noble House by James Clavell, but I'm a few days away from my next credit so I'll do Dungeon Crawler Carl book 5 first.

It's hard to judge based on those two. First Law is good. It's gritty and dark, though, so you have to like that. Logan Nine-Fingers is one of my favorite characters of all time.

maverick2076 said:

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It's hard to judge based on those two. First Law is good. It's gritty and dark, though, so you have to like that. Logan Nine-Fingers is one of my favorite characters of all time.

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Yes, it's quite different. Grim dark fantasy that evolves over time as society modernizes. It's badass. I've read every Abercrombie novel in this universe.

Very smartly written and awesome characters.

First Law(and the subsequent trilogies) are awesome

YouBet said:

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Only way I can keep stuff straight with big series like that is to read all of it straight through. The last time I did that was Malazan over a decade ago. It's all I read for two years.

Take commitment which I haven't had since then. Granted, my example is pretty extreme. Not reading Malazan straight through is almost foolish. But Cosmere sounds the same. I never read beyond the original trilogy.

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FLAG ON THE PLAY

You took a break from Sun Eater.

BenFiasco14 said:

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YouBet said:

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Only way I can keep stuff straight with big series like that is to read all of it straight through. The last time I did that was Malazan over a decade ago. It's all I read for two years.

Take commitment which I haven't had since then. Granted, my example is pretty extreme. Not reading Malazan straight through is almost foolish. But Cosmere sounds the same. I never read beyond the original trilogy.

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FLAG ON THE PLAY

You took a break from Sun Eater.

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That I did although I will say it's not nearly as hard to keep up with as something like Malazan. I'm more confused by its 100 year jumps into the future and then referring back to events we never actually read about.

LOVE First Law. I have fancy hard backs for it even. Memorable characters in a memorable setting. Glokta might be the perfect antagonist. My favorite character for sure. An easy recommend from me but will say drastically different from DCC and Dresden. First Law is grim dark fantasy and is exactly that. It's my favorite genre of all time because it's the one that fits reality the closest in my eyes. Not in the gruesome gore but in the fact that sometimes, the good guys just flat out don't win. Or in fact there may not be any good guys at all. Just a bunch of self interested parties vying against each other.

Eliminatus said:

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LOVE First Law. I have fancy hard backs for it even. Memorable characters in a memorable setting. Glokta might be the perfect antagonist. My favorite character for sure. An easy recommend from me but will say drastically different from DCC and Dresden. First Law is grim dark fantasy and is exactly that. It's my favorite genre of all time because it's the one that fits reality the closest in my eyes. Not in the gruesome gore but in the fact that sometimes, the good guys just flat out don't win. Or in fact there may not be any good guys at all. Just a bunch of self interested parties vying against each other.

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I read the trilogy but haven't read the following stand alone's. Since you love grimdark, highly recommend Broken Empire trilogy by Mark Lawrence.

StinkyPinky said:

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Eliminatus said:

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LOVE First Law. I have fancy hard backs for it even. Memorable characters in a memorable setting. Glokta might be the perfect antagonist. My favorite character for sure. An easy recommend from me but will say drastically different from DCC and Dresden. First Law is grim dark fantasy and is exactly that. It's my favorite genre of all time because it's the one that fits reality the closest in my eyes. Not in the gruesome gore but in the fact that sometimes, the good guys just flat out don't win. Or in fact there may not be any good guys at all. Just a bunch of self interested parties vying against each other.

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I read the trilogy but haven't read the following stand alone's. Since you love grimdark, highly recommend Broken Empire trilogy by Mark Lawrence.

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It's definitely on the TBR. I have them all but somehow haven't made the time for them yet. I loved his Red Sister and Library Trilogies. Might as well bump them to next after my current one is done. Thanks for the motivation!

Finished The Eternal World by Christopher Farnsworth. Pretty decent easy read. In the Blake Crouch realm. If you like those you probably like these. Good enough that I bought another about the President having his own personal vampire.

I loved the First Law trilogy too. It's been years, but i remember laughing my ass off and beeping enthralled. Should read it again someday.

I've read the series about 15 times. I love it

I'm up to 35 books this year after reading less than that the rest of my life. Also started an Instagram channel to talk about books. Feel free to look me up if you want low quality reviews and bad memes

@hobbituallyreading


Currently reading the Red Rising series and it is brutally good and goodly brutal.

Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J Mass
Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick
Murder at the ABA by Isaac Asimov
Blacktail by Scott Hawkins
The Songs of Distant Earth by Arthur C. Clarke
The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins in-progress

Really enjoyed The Songs of Distant Earth. Very cool premise right from the beginning: we find out the sun is going to go supernova 1,600 years from now, so we immediately start focusing on how to colonize other planets. It's a pretty short book (originally a short story he then expanded 30 years later), so I would have loved more (or even a series), but it was still good. It's primarily set in a single planet other than Earth rather than focusing on what happens on Earth.

I've only read a few of Clarke's books, but I've liked them all so far. About the only bad thing I can say is that I'm so used to longer books or having a series nowadays that I always wish there was more. I do like a good short standalone too though.

Currently about 1/3 through a reread of The Library at Mount Char. Had been wanting to reread it for awhile and figured I might as well after just reading Blacktail by the same author. It's been so long that I didn't realize there were some references in Blacktail to this book, so they are set in the same universe. This one is definitely weird, but I'm really enjoying it again so far.