What are you reading at the moment? Recommendations welcome

[Dorm Ant]

Ah, over the last 20 years, I've read pretty much everything Stephenson. I don't rate Seveneves or The Rise and Fall of DODO much, though his other books are all incredible. He does need a better editor, though. If each of the books was about a third shorter, they'd be the better for it. He's also rubbish at romance, generally. His concepts, though... Also, he's brilliant at quirky secondary characters. The guy who refuses to use modern technology and writes scrolls is inspired (the scrolls are carried by horseback to someone who then writes them up as texts.)

If you enjoy Cryptomonicon, check out The System of the World trilogy, which travels all over Europe and the high seas and is massive in scope. Anathem is about mathematical monks and is possibly my favourite of his books. Reamde has a similar tone to Snow Crash, though more of a modern plot.

 

[MattScho]

Ah, over the last 20 years, I've read pretty much everything Stephenson. I don't rate Seveneves or The Rise and Fall of DODO much, though his other books are all incredible. He does need a better editor, though. If each of the books was about a third shorter, they'd be the better for it. He's also rubbish at romance, generally. His concepts, though... Also, he's brilliant at quirky secondary characters. The guy who refuses to use modern technology and writes scrolls is inspired (the scrolls are carried by horseback to someone who then writes them up as texts.)

If you enjoy Cryptomonicon, check out The System of the World trilogy, which travels all over Europe and the high seas and is massive in scope. Anathem is about mathematical monks and is possibly my favourite of his books. Reamde has a similar tone to Snow Crash, though more of a modern plot.

I'm also a huge System of the World fan, but I learned while looking it up the other day that it is not, actually, called that. The official name of the series is the Baroque Cycle, which, I think you will agree, is a crap series name. it's a good lesson. Don't overthink these things. The Baroque Cycle sounds like the result of a tortured week or two of reflection on scope and meaning, etc, to capture everything in all three books, while System of the World is the title of book three and is what every fan of the series I know calls the trilogy.

 

[Dorm Ant]

I'm also a huge System of the World fan, but I learned while looking it up the other day that it is not, actually, called that. The official name of the series is the Baroque Cycle, which, I think you will agree, is a crap series name. it's a good lesson. Don't overthink these things. The Baroque Cycle sounds like the result of a tortured week or two of reflection on scope and meaning, etc, to capture everything in all three books, while System of the World is the title of book three and is what every fan of the series I know calls the trilogy.

I was vaguely aware that it had another, unmemorable name. Yeah, like you, I've only ever thought of it as The System of the World trilogy.

 

[Dorm Ant]

MIT did an interview with him, and they asked him about how he was able to get the metaverse so right back in 1992. His answer: because it was so obvious. It's kind of like wondering how someone came up with the idea for Google Earth.

Then the concept was very closely copied by Ernest Kline for Ready Player One.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Just finished reading Several People are Typing, by Calvin Kasulke. The entire book is written as Slack dialogue within a PR company. The premise of the book is that the MC's consciousness gets sucked into Slack, and he's stuck there, trying to get out. Meanwhile, the Slack bot figures out how to inhabit his body. And there are hilarious subplots--the boss who thinks the cleaning staff are sabotaging his desk, but it's two staff members having sex on it, and the PR work they're doing for a dog food company after someone poisons the food. And there are the boss's weird to-do lists on his own private Slack channel.

Sound bizarre? Yep. Totally. Did it completely captivate me? Yep. It's simultaneously ridiculous, hilarious, and touching. And it's a super fast read, because it's nothing but Slack dialogue--not many words on each page. If you want a little escape, this is a surprisingly good read.

 

[Hannah F]

Really enjoyed Caroline O'Donoghue's The Gifts that Bind Us - sequel to the brilliant All Our Hidden Gifts. YA contemporary urban fantasy. Lots of great twists towards the end. The third in the series isn't out yet, but I'll definitely be buying it.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Most recently

Re reading Goodbye To All That, Robert Graves

Fall by John Preston- the story of Robert Maxwell. Born Jan Hoch, he lost his parents and sister to the Nazi death camps, and received one of the highest military decorations from Montgomery, the Military Cross after he led 1945 attack on Nazi machine gun post, and became a lonely monster in a labyrinth of that legacy. But also of his own devising.
Freezing Order, Bill Browder, the frightening history of his sometimes tragic dealings with Putin's plutocracy- those tentacles reach shocking places, and you'd be surprised at what lands in my Tarot inbox, from where
Premonition, by Michael Lewis. the story of America's preparation for the Covid Pandemic. What a story. My new hero, one Charity Dean.

 

[Bloo]

I'm listening to How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu. I had some trouble with Chapter 1. I didn't buy the MC's actions or motivations. The dialogue was also on the preachy side.

At first, I thought Chapter 2 went off the rails. The situation just couldn't suspend my disbelief. However, the characters started to grow on me. And the chapter finale really got to me.

Chapter 4 had echoes of Michael Crichton's Next. That's not a compliment. Yet Nagamatsu somehow manages to pull it off.

I'm not sure how much more of this I can take. The writing is good, and it really hooked me after a shaky start. However, the story is. So. Damn. Depressing.

 

[Jonny]

Having a bit of Wodehouse therapy. Just finished Joy in the Morning for the fifth time at least, and now halfway through Uncle Fred in the Springtime.

There is no one quite like Wodehouse. He stands alone.

I’m also around 3/4 through Ulysses. The audiobook version read by Jim Norton (Bishop Brennan from Fr. Ted)

Now, depending on my mood I am swaying wildly between loving it one moment then getting bored to tears at others. Norton’s narration is fabulous, but I can’t decide whether (for me) if it’s brilliant or a load of old tosh.

Oh by the way, I began it in 2020 so it’s very much small doses. However, I’m determined to finish the damn thing one day, then bathe in the glow of what will be my new credentials as a literary heavyweight

 

[Peyton Stafford]

Having a bit of Wodehouse therapy. Just finished Joy in the Morning for the fifth time at least, and now halfway through Uncle Fred in the Springtime.

There is no one quite like Wodehouse. He stands alone.

I’m also around 3/4 through Ulysses. The audiobook version read by Jim Norton (Bishop Brennan from Fr. Ted)

Now, depending on my mood I am swaying wildly between loving it one moment then getting bored to tears at others. Norton’s narration is fabulous, but I can’t decide whether (for me) if it’s brilliant or a load of old tosh.

Oh by the way, I began it in 2020 so it’s very much small doses. However, I’m determined to finish the damn thing one day, then bathe in the glow of what will be my new credentials as a literary heavyweight

I read it but realized I would need a trip back to grad school to understand it. So I just read it as a book to be enjoyed, whatever I got out of it. Love Wodehouse almost as much as Thurber, both father, and son. The Russians are Coming--hilarious.

 

[Jonny]

So I just read it as a book to be enjoyed, whatever I got out of it.

This exactly.

Some of the chapters and passages are mesmerising in their rhythm, cadence and the sheer brilliance in the application of language and Joyce's extraordinary wordsmithery. Others are dense, impenetrable, dull and dry. These really drag for me and I can't wait for them to finish.

 

[Pamela Jo]

Having a bit of Wodehouse therapy. Just finished Joy in the Morning for the fifth time at least, and now halfway through Uncle Fred in the Springtime.

There is no one quite like Wodehouse. He stands alone.

I’m also around 3/4 through Ulysses. The audiobook version read by Jim Norton (Bishop Brennan from Fr. Ted)

Now, depending on my mood I am swaying wildly between loving it one moment then getting bored to tears at others. Norton’s narration is fabulous, but I can’t decide whether (for me) if it’s brilliant or a load of old tosh.

Oh by the way, I began it in 2020 so it’s very much small doses. However, I’m determined to finish the damn thing one day, then bathe in the glow of what will be my new credentials as a literary heavyweight

Might I suggest instead..... the German brief.

 

[MattScho]

... dense, impenetrable, dull and dry. These really drag for me and I can't wait for them to finish.

I wonder if that would fit in the blurb?

 

[Pamela Jo]

AUDIO books, my son recommended a book about Washington's special forces that saved the ragtag revolutionary army at that Christmas Eve escape from Manhattan. I've come across the commemorative plaque when visiting the Cloisters so it is fascinating to hear the backstory.
Peak, from the new science of expertise
And Bernard Cornwel's,l Fools and Mortals where I am again so impressed by his use of detail. The same thing I was just marveling at in American Gods, Gaiman. It's different from description. Cornwell brings alive the scene where the protagonist runs away from home. The horses Gog and Magog, the balding driver who gives him the choice of London, the extinct sounds, sights, smells of a summer afternoon 600 years ago. I want to learn to do this.

 

[Hannah F]

AUDIO books, my son recommended a book about Washington's special forces that saved the ragtag revolutionary army at that Christmas Eve escape from Manhattan. I've come across the commemorative plaque when visiting the Cloisters so it is fascinating to hear the backstory.
Peak, from the new science of expertise
And Bernard Cornwel's,l Fools and Mortals where I am again so impressed by his use of detail. The same thing I was just marveling at in American Gods, Gaiman. It's different from description. Cornwell brings alive the scene where the protagonist runs away from home. The horses Gog and Magog, the balding driver who gives him the choice of London, the extinct sounds, sights, smells of a summer afternoon 600 years ago. I want to learn to do this.

I loved Fools and Mortals. Great book!

 

[MattScho]

I was enjoying Persepolis ( i know, late to the game) and in general was quite excited about having a graphic novel in my hand, an actual book, but Claudia saw me foolishly fall asleep and put it down and it's now on her bedside table. In the meantime, I Shall Wear Midnight, which is a bit bittersweet, not because of the story, which has Nac Mac Feegles in it so is a romp, but it's number 38 so upon completion I'm down to the final 3 books in discworld, and I like hanging out in discworld. Also just glanced at Shakespeare for Squirrels, though I think that's post DW planning, and not for now.

 

[Pamela Jo]

Ha! Every Christmas we got ONE hardback copy of the latest Terry Pratchett. Let the games begin. You'd just get to a good chapter set it down for a minute only to see it in other hands. Rules were, 'Once lurched fair and square-it's gone. However, decoy doorbell or chocolate bait tactics can be deployed to win it back.' I think it worked to improve the boys reading speed. I really loved "I Shall Wear Midnight." Terry Pratchett must have had some singular women in his life that he loved down to the bone. He does us so well. But I think his secret is that he just found people riotously funny, and endearing, even the nasty ones.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Ha! Every Christmas we got ONE hardback copy of the latest Terry Pratchett. Let the games begin. You'd just get to a good chapter set it down for a minute only to see it in other hands. Rules were, 'Once lurched fair and square-it's gone. However, decoy doorbell or chocolate bait tactics can be deployed to win it back.' I think it worked to improve the boys reading speed. I really loved "I Shall Wear Midnight." Terry Pratchett must have had some singular women in his life that he loved down to the bone. He does us so well. But I think his secret is that he just found people riotously funny, and endearing, even the nasty ones.

LOL! My family did something similar with the Harry Potter series when it came out. Everyone was allowed to read one chapter a day (except whoever had it last that day, who would invariably stay up late bingeing).

 

[Pamela Jo]

LOL! My family did something similar with the Harry Potter series when it came out. Everyone was allowed to read one chapter a day (except whoever had it last that day, who would invariably stay up late bingeing).

Fun times, Eh. Such cutthroat moments are the joys of happy families. I'm afraid my boys were far too piratical for "one chapter" rules. "One chapter" would have lasted til the end of the book. " Honestly, I'm a slow reader, you know that." "Then why are you now on page 568?" I of course had it in the morning since I regained custody after they fell asleep. Fagin would have been proud of the way they lifted it off me.

 

[Pamela Jo]

"The King's Grey Mare" is immediately going on my reading list. I've read other novels regarding the Woodvilles, and watched documentaries, and all were fascinating.

Katie Ellen, I think you should just publish your reading list. You always have the BEST books I've never heard of but wish I'd read, yesterday.

 

[Pamela Jo]

Oh, I feel your pain! I must get this. Our nearly 15 year old won't eat much (though he'll eat crap fine). Driving us crazy. My husband's fav saying is, "if Josh turns sideways, he'll disappear." His dad was a rake when a teen, but Josh is worse

Blast! It's only in paperback, which I can't hold

It's a bold move, but maybe have him read it to you? I found that it was more effective to give our sons the information , like "This is what the greybeards are saying about you young ones-what's your take?" I mean it's obvious you as parents are concerned. It won't be news, but somehow it's like talking about them when they are in the room when they catch you reading these books. My tactic was to give them the info. At the very least it said whatever it is that is troubling you-you are not alone in your coping mechanism. Also these are the consequences. Our son was the other end of the spectrum. He began gaining weight as a preteen and he couldnt shake it. He began dieting in a way that made me worry about an eating disorder. Then the summer he was 14 he shot up 5 inches and his weight was finally proportional. I think there is a correlation between fat and growth in children.

 

[Becca T]

I recently read the Hunger Games for the first time. I've seen the movies and enjoyed them but the books are nearly always better. I also wanted to expereince Suzanne Collins' first person present tense writing. I like to use the present tense to write so I wanted to read someone who was successful at using it. I quite enjoyed the books and quickly found myself so engrossed that I did not even notice the writing style.

 

[Jonny]

Just audiobooked Good Omens, the Terry Pratchett / Neil Gaiman dream team and was left stone cold. I really expected this to be some kind of mega-amazing but found it to be bordering on grimly dire, with a plot more manic and flaky than a fly banging its head against a window in a desperate attempt to get outside. Talk about all over the shop. I came very close to bailing and asking Audible for a refund but struggled on. God knows how or indeed why. It got no better.

Almost every review I saw was gushing in its praise. Really? For me all I could think of was the tale of the Emperor's new Clothes. OK, there were some decent moments but sadly far outweighed (for me) by too much sloppy, half-baked rambling plotting.

I have now started The Beekeeper of Aleppo which is enthralling and one chapter in augers very well indeed.

 

[E G Logan]

Just discovered Damian Dibben.

First adult (as opposed to YA) novel Tomorrow, is narrated by a dog, who is sniffing across Europe on a quest to find his master. Both are 'eternal' (as in Umberto Eco) and hundreds of years old. One for the dog nuts, definitely. Have the tissues to hand.

The Colour Storm is just out. Set in 1510 Venice, main character is Giorgione (Giorgio Barbarelli), with appearances from all the other usual suspects, like Michelangelo and Leonardo, the very ancient (Giovanni) Bellini and the young Raphael and Titian.
Smart choice of MC since little of Giorgione's work survives, and because he died young he is relatively less known, though most agree he was Titian's master/teacher. I knew he was tall, or big, but I hadn't heard he was also good-looking, and interested in women.
Very atmospheric; Venice is almost a character.

Question:
does anyone else think they can see a difference of style details in someone like Dibben who has published several YA novels and then moved to adult? I mean different from someone who has always written for adults.
I first noticed this with Sweetpea, CJ Skuse, despite the tough theme, and I thought then I might be imagining it, because I didn't know her background when I started reading.

 

[Hannah F]

Question:
does anyone else think they can see a difference of style details in someone like Dibben who has published several YA novels and then moved to adult? I mean different from someone who has always written for adults.
I first noticed this with Sweetpea, CJ Skuse, despite the tough theme, and I thought then I might be imagining it, because I didn't know her background when I started reading.

Interesting. Not thought about that. What have you found? That they're more in the moment than retrospective or is it the language?

 

[Peyton Stafford]

Just audiobooked Good Omens, the Terry Pratchett / Neil Gaiman dream team and was left stone cold. I really expected this to be some kind of mega-amazing but found it to be bordering on grimly dire, with a plot more manic and flaky than a fly banging its head against a window in a desperate attempt to get outside. Talk about all over the shop. I came very close to bailing and asking Audible for a refund but struggled on. God knows how or indeed why. It got no better.

Almost every review I saw was gushing in its praise. Really? For me all I could think of was the tale of the Emperor's new Clothes. OK, there were some decent moments but sadly far outweighed (for me) by too much sloppy, half-baked rambling plotting.

I have now started The Beekeeper of Aleppo which is enthralling and one chapter in augers very well indeed.

Have you tried American Gods?

 

[Jonny]

Have you tried American Gods?

I haven't, but I expect I will as that seems to be one of NG's most highly thought of. I am currently listening to Norse Mythology which is quite entertaining although obviously just retellings of the old texts and stories. I have also bought the new version of Sandman Book 1 (a snip at £3.00 ) and that's lined up too.

Re Good Omens. I have been thinking that perhaps because I listened to rather than read it, then it might not have transferred to the format so well. It's the brand new version too with Sheen and Tennant et al. But I would take some convincing if that's actually the problem, because as a veteran now of 100+ audiobooks, it would be the first time it's happened. I honestly found the multi-pronged plot far too rambling, really irritating and too manic.

 

[Hannah F]

Just finished Gallant by V.E. Schwab. Great story. Very gothic/dark fantasy. If you liked Stacey Halls The Silent Companions you will love this.

 

[RK Wallis]

American Gods?

This one isn't my cup of tea, and I enjoy NG, but I've tried a few times. Even tried the TV series. I couldn't get into either

 

[Rich.]

Re Good Omens. I have been thinking that perhaps because I listened to rather than read it, then it might not have transferred to the format so well.

This was my experience (and I love the book). A few years ago I started reading it aloud to my wife, and it just didn't translate well to spoken word, too much textual trickery (for example, Death speaks in capital letters).