I've recently finished Wolf Hall, a historical novel from the point of view of Thomas Cromwell covering a fair portion of the reign of Henry VIII, including the establishment of the Church of England. It feels like it's designed as a rebuttal to the play "A Man For All Seasons", portraying Thomas More extremely negatively. It's an okay read, but not all that engrossing.
This inspired me to read The Other Boleyn Girl, covering the same period from the point of view of Anne's sister Mary Boleyn. It's more fun to read than Wolf Hall, but not as high-quality of writing.
I'm now reading The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, a wonderful book that involves three successive historians from different generations delving into, and getting caught up in, the Dracula mythos. Not very far in yet, but loving it; the writing style is excellent and it's deliciously spooky.
edited 19th Sep '13 8:08:47 PM by WarriorEowyn
With three literature-based classes on the docket, I've been doing a lot of reading. It's manageable so far, I'd say. I just finished A Hero of Our Time and Inch'Allah Dimanche, and am now starting Eugene Onegin, The Queen of Spades, and Une Si Longue Lettre.
A Hero of Our Time was...interesting. I'd fancy a reread, just to better analyze Pechorin's character.
Most recently read were a children's book on cultural diversity, and a wildlife photography book. Also, my giveaway is still going through 9/30/13 http://www.skjam.com/2013/09/16/giveaway-autumn-giveaway-ends-september-30-2013/
My grandparents are moving into a retirement home. They will have less space to themselves there than they have in their current flat, so they needed to get rid of a lot of their books. Well, I was more than willing to help with that when they asked me...
Seriously, it felt like being in Ali Baba's cave of treasures. This is what I took home:
- Dutch Lit Fic: Hildebrand, Multatuli, Claus, Reve, Bernlef, a lot of Vestdijk, and the complete works of Couperus and Elsschot
- English and American Lit Fic: Twain, Steinbeck, Greene, Huxley
- German Lit Fic: All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
- The collected letters of Otto von Bismarck, and those of Crown Prince Wilhelm (the son of Emperor Wilhelm II)
- Kant's Critique of Pure Reason
- Books on the philosophy of mathematics and science
- History books: Dutch history, a book about the history of the labour movement, and a very thick book about the end of the Roman Republic
- A handy little book about Germanic mythology
- The Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan
- A French book about wave mechanics by the famous physicist Louis de Broglie
- Several leather-bound tomes from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (!!!) including Phaedrus' fables and the complete works of Aristotle. Not that I'll be able to really read these, since they're in Latin, but they're still awesome to have just for historical reasons.
I don't think I'll get up to anything but reading for the next five years.
Mache dich, mein Herze, rein...
Sounds interesting (only book out of that I read is All Quiet On the Western Front, not that's surprising given the Math books) I'm currently reading my textbooks (which don't really count), and A Blight Of Mages (I really should have read prior books besides Innocent Mage, but I've run out of reading books). Having to read textbooks takes the fun out of reading my mom's old ones.
I had read Running Out of Time, and reviewed it. It's a Fish out of Temporal Water story that's simple and works well.
I'd definitely recommend Warbreaker. I'd also recommend Before They Were Hangede though- I actually checked it out from the library a few times and hadn't liked it, but then I read the standalone/semi-sequel Best Served Cold as well as Red Country, and realized how much of a sense of humor Joe Abercrombie had.
I think the original trilogy works best if you don't care about any of the characters, and with that caveat, it is an entertaining read. In later books in the series there are actually some sympathetic characters who sometimes succeed.
Edit, edit, edit, edit the wikiPicked up the 2013 Hugo Award winner, called Redshirts, by John Scalzi, which is of course about the Star Trek universe's favorite chew toys.
Just started reading it, and it's a ton of fun... I'm kind of curious to see where the story will go, but so far it's excellent, almost Pratchett-esque in its approach to humor.
edited 5th Nov '13 8:43:08 AM by Akalabth
You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door. There is a small mailbox here.Finished Cold Days, the latest book of the Dresden Files series, and abosolutely loved it. My personal favorite bit was when Harry's cavalry arrived singin "We Will Rock You", as well as any scene with Badass Santa. I'm currently reading Storm Front, which is the first book in the series, because it was the only one at the library at the time. I'm going to compare how good Cold Days is, and see Jim Butcher's steady improvement throughout the series to reach that quality of work.
Apology accepted, and I'M sorry for sounding so defensive. yeah, it's not good starting at the tail end of the series( I actually read the Harry Potter books backwards order, after seeing the first four films, of course) but it gets me hyped up for when the awesome stuff that they mention actually HAPPENS. Plus, I really had no other choice except for waiting a while, which I wasn't gonna do.
I have a book giveaway running through 11/30/13 at SKJAM! Reviews. 15 prizes, up to 3 winners. http://www.skjam.com
I loved Tamora Pierce so much when I was younger. Still have all the books, and they're very good fantasy novels. Haven't been as fond of her later works, though - I liked Terrier and its sequel fine, but something about the third book seemed sort of off to me.
Lately I've been reading Jam, by Yahtzee Crosshaw, which I bought for my brother for Christmas. It's set in a city I'm very familiar with, which is rare. The basic premise: One day the protagonists wake up to find that the city has been covered in a three-foot layer of carnivorous strawberry jam.
edited 16th Jan '14 3:59:52 AM by LoniJay
Be not afraid...This sounds really neat.
:D I don't own any Apple products though. :T
Reading In The Wet by Neville Shute (author of On the Beach) which abruptly goes from the biography of an Anglican priest in north Australia in the 1950s to the tale of an aviator in the then future 1980s. An aviator whose nickname (which he insists all his friends use) is the N-word. He apparently has N-Word Privileges by virtue of being one-quarter Aborigine.
edited 18th Feb '14 8:39:47 PM by SKJAM
New Ligotti!
First stories in ten years!'
*prolonged girlish squee sounds*
I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.I recently started The Book Of The New Sun. I have been slowly finding out how absolutely insane and strange a book it is. Do we have any WMG or analysis-like article for it? If not, could someone link me to an analysis, so that I can compare my theories about it once I'm finished reading it.
"I thought Djent was just a band" -Physical StaminaI'd advise you just keep reading and make up your own mind. Wolfe is not preachy, but he is very deep.
I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.Tears on glasses are indeed problematic, although it can be emotionally satisfying to find yourself receiving those unfortunate stains.
I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.

Well, finished The man who was Thursday. I liked it I think.
It was quite short, but
And now I'm going to sound like a hypocrite but the prose had some nicely turned phrases and clever juxtaposition.
It almost feels like a precursor to the Gaiman's writing in tone and setting, or like it could easily become a Terry Pratchett novel if a simple comedic twist were added (it involves undercover policemen unknowingly chasing other undercover policemen for a start).
The narrative ended abruptly but the metatext was, I think, complete by that point so it still works. That said, the maybe just a dream ending probably wouldn't fly as well in this century.
I'm a little unsure exactly what to make of what the story was saying (a simple message about anarchy or society perhaps?) but it inspires me to think about it in a good way.