What are you reading at the moment? Recommendations welcome

[Pamela Jo]

The 7 deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle was recommended to me but the blurb made me pass it by, until now. Damn, Stuart Turton, you actually pulled off something new. A debut novel from a travel writer. Wow. For me it captures the feeling of being caught in a bad dream trying to find your way out. The prose is elegant and spare, the story deft and clever. A new kind of murder mystery. "Gosford Park meets Inception" really doesnt do it justice.

 

[Hannah F]

I'm reading Paolini's Inheritance Cycle now.

Read those years ago and really enjoyed them. (They get a lot of poor reviews, but the guy was only 16 when he wrote Eragon.) He's presently writing or has written a fifth in the series.

 

[Hannah F]

The 7 deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle was recommended to me but the blurb made me pass it by, until now. Damn, Stuart Turton, you actually pulled off something new. A debut novel from a travel writer. Wow. For me it captures the feeling of being caught in a bad dream trying to find your way out. The prose is elegant and spare, the story deft and clever. A new kind of murder mystery. "Gosford Park meets Inception" really doesnt do it justice.

Really enjoyed 7 deaths. Also enjoyed his next book The Devil and the Dark Water. Didn't quite live up to 7 deaths, but a story like his debut will be hard to beat.

 

[Peyton Stafford]

Insomnia last night. Read Francine Prose's Mr. Monkey and finished at 0130 this morning. Like all her books, I loved it, even though I knew I missed most of her literary allusions like a ten-year-old might. Unless the ten-year-old was a genius in the story. But I am not.

Seriously, reading a story told as a story, from multiple POVs with no slavery to show don't tell, kept me reading. The story, on the surface, is about a failing theatrical company's attempt to stage a play, but it speaks on deeper levels. Not just the rise to middle class for the many under dogs. The story of the short boy who dons a costume made from an old brown bed cover and cavorts in erotic acrobatics as he discovers his budding masculinity, but then ...

"nuff said," as Stan Lee put it. If you love beautiful writing, try Francine Prose.

 

[E G Logan]

I'm enjoying The Death House by Sarah Pinborough, though I didn't really expect to. I was researching her because of her agent, and SP's better known for psychological thrillers, which this isn't. Excellent characterisation and well written, if a tiny bit slow.

The author might have originally meant it as Y/A, given its cast of young people, but it wasn't marketed as that. A tragic love story in a speculative setting, the plot has strong similarities to Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, though here we know from the outset what the situation of the young people is. The 'feel' is different, too, and I was trying to recall what it reminded me of – it's The Lord of the Flies.

Perhaps more when I get to the end.

 

[Peyton Stafford]

Just started The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride. Love it so far. Great counterpoint to Boy's Life. Here is a link

 

[RK Wallis]

I'm enjoying The Death House by Sarah Pinborough, though I didn't really expect to. I was researching her because of her agent, and SP's better known for psychological thrillers, which this isn't. Excellent characterisation and well written, if a tiny bit slow.

The author might have originally meant it as Y/A, given its cast of young people, but it wasn't marketed as that. A tragic love story in a speculative setting, the plot has strong similarities to Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, though here we know from the outset what the situation of the young people is. The 'feel' is different, too, and I was trying to recall what it reminded me of – it's The Lord of the Flies.

Perhaps more when I get to the end.

Ooh, that interests me. You got me at LotFs

 

[E G Logan]

Ooh, that interests me. You got me at LotFs

I think you would like it. Now finished it, and I found it very good.

It is tightly plotted – the end is marvellous – and the characters are strong and realistic, seeming age-appropriate when some are young children. (Have the tissues handy.)

I'd be very interested in an opinion from someone who reads regularly in this genre, because I've read almost no Y/A since Treasure Island and The Black Arrow, long years ago. I believe it is Y/A, or maybe crossover, despite not being specifically marketed as such.

It does have marked similarities to Never Let Me Go, in terms of the basic premise and the setting, but (MHO) I prefer it, mainly as the plot is less meandering.

 

[E G Logan]

Re Y/A – I am completely amazed.

When I checked Wikipedia just now, it said that The Death House (2016) was a HORROR novel. It was even shortlisted in its publication year for a horror prize.

That puts a whole new slant on things. As Y/A/Crossover, it's charming, romantic, elegiac even. As horror, it's probably a bit underpowered. And the sweet, lovely ending doesn't work for that genre at all.

I thought Pinborough did some clever things with scenes where the reader could feel the baddie was any moment going to be really bad – but he did a bit of a last-minute swerve and failed to be 100% evil. How does that fit in with horror?

Can someone else please read this and let us have their view?

 

[RK Wallis]

Re Y/A – I am completely amazed.

When I checked Wikipedia just now, it said that The Death House (2016) was a HORROR novel. It was even shortlisted in its publication year for a horror prize.

That puts a whole new slant on things. As Y/A/Crossover, it's charming, romantic, elegiac even. As horror, it's probably a bit underpowered. And the sweet, lovely ending doesn't work for that genre at all.

I thought Pinborough did some clever things with scenes where the reader could feel the baddie was any moment going to be really bad – but he did a bit of a last-minute swerve and failed to be 100% evil. How does that fit in with horror?

Can someone else please read this and let us have their view?

I'm on the case, lol

 

[E G Logan]

I'm on the case, lol

I can't leave it go either.

I never saw the book jacket because I bought the Kindle version, and I vaguely remembered Kindle Store saying this was a love story. Adult or Y/A not specified.

Just checked Kindle: it comes up with
The Death House: A dark and bittersweet tale that will break your heart and make you smile in equal measure

I think that's pretty fair.

I don't understand why the publishers would market any book in a genre that does not do it justice. @AgentPete any thoughts on this one??

 

[LJ Beck]

I just finished "The Fifth Season" by N. K. Jemisin. (Science Fiction. Awarded the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2016. Series was as well.)

The book came highly recommended to me. I picked it up a while ago (years?) and put it on my "to read" pile as you do. I started it a few times, and it just never grabbed me, so I put it back on the "to read" pile, not the "abandoned" pile, as it was so highly recommended. I finally picked it up again with the intention to finish it. I just finished it this morning.

Holy crap.

Sure it took me a wee bit to get into it, but am I ever glad I pushed on. This book is absolutely brilliant. But not in the usual way. I never really warmed to the MC. She was always held a bit at arm's length, which felt appropriate for who she was. I shed no tears (I'm a super soft touch) and even at the end of the book, I was dry-eyed.

But as as I reluctantly, and at the same time, with a sigh of relief, closed the book, my eyes were like saucers, wide and unblinking, while my mind reeled in the sheer scope and magnificence of the story and it's telling.

The world-building is staggering. At the start of the book, it confused me, but the deeper you go, the deeper it gets. And the society is as unique as I've read. A lot is similar, so that you're not adrift, but there's elements that feel so alien, and yet, so reminiscent of our own more shameful history. The characters feel real, not heroes, or superheroes, or extraordinary, although some are, but all felt like people just trying to live, to find their place, to survive their tragedies. But the telling... the telling... I am still in awe of how N. K. Jemisin pulled off the incredible way she told this story. It's something I will think about for a long, long time.

If you're looking for a sweet, light-hearted tale, this is not that. But if you want to be blown away, this can't help but do that.


PS I have to add this in as I found it so refreshing to read... this was in the acknowledgments (no spoilers, but possibly typos as I'm just typing it here from the book.)

"Also big props to my editor, Devi Pillai, and my agent, Lucienne Driver, for talking me out of scrapping this novel. The Broken Earth trilogy is the most challenging work I've ever written, and at certain points during The Fifth Season, the task seemed so overwhelming that I thought about quitting. (Actually, I believe my exact words were, "Delete this hot mess, hack the Dropbox to get the backups there, drop my laptop off a cliff, drive over it with a car, set fire to both, then use a backhoe to bury the evidence. Do you need a special license to drive a backhoe?") Kate Elliott (another acknowledgement, for being a perpetual mentor and friend) calls moments like this the "Chasm of Doubt" that ever writer hits at some point during a major project. Mine was deep and awful....

then comes a few more acknowledgements of who else helped talk her off a cliff, including her cat, "yeah, even the damned cat" to conclude with.... "It takes a village to keep a writer from losing her shit, okay?"

 

[Peyton Stafford]

I just finished "The Fifth Season" by N. K. Jemisin. (Science Fiction. Awarded the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2016. Series was as well.)

The book came highly recommended to me. I picked it up a while ago (years?) and put it on my "to read" pile as you do. I started it a few times, and it just never grabbed me, so I put it back on the "to read" pile, not the "abandoned" pile, as it was so highly recommended. I finally picked it up again with the intention to finish it. I just finished it this morning.

Holy crap.

Sure it took me a wee bit to get into it, but am I ever glad I pushed on. This book is absolutely brilliant. But not in the usual way. I never really warmed to the MC. She was always held a bit at arm's length, which felt appropriate for who she was. I shed no tears (I'm a super soft touch) and even at the end of the book, I was dry-eyed.

But as as I reluctantly, and at the same time, with a sigh of relief, closed the book, my eyes were like saucers, wide and unblinking, while my mind reeled in the sheer scope and magnificence of the story and it's telling.

The world-building is staggering. At the start of the book, it confused me, but the deeper you go, the deeper it gets. And the society is as unique as I've read. A lot is similar, so that you're not adrift, but there's elements that feel so alien, and yet, so reminiscent of our own more shameful history. The characters feel real, not heroes, or superheroes, or extraordinary, although some are, but all felt like people just trying to live, to find their place, to survive their tragedies. But the telling... the telling... I am still in awe of how N. K. Jemisin pulled off the incredible way she told this story. It's something I will think about for a long, long time.

If you're looking for a sweet, light-hearted tale, this is not that. But if you want to be blown away, this can't help but do that.


PS I have to add this in as I found it so refreshing to read... this was in the acknowledgments (no spoilers, but possibly typos as I'm just typing it here from the book.)

"Also big props to my editor, Devi Pillai, and my agent, Lucienne Driver, for talking me out of scrapping this novel. The Broken Earth trilogy is the most challenging work I've ever written, and at certain points during The Fifth Season, the task seemed so overwhelming that I thought about quitting. (Actually, I believe my exact words were, "Delete this hot mess, hack the Dropbox to get the backups there, drop my laptop off a cliff, drive over it with a car, set fire to both, then use a backhoe to bury the evidence. Do you need a special license to drive a backhoe?") Kate Elliott (another acknowledgement, for being a perpetual mentor and friend) calls moments like this the "Chasm of Doubt" that ever writer hits at some point during a major project. Mine was deep and awful....

then comes a few more acknowledgements of who else helped talk her off a cliff, including her cat, "yeah, even the damned cat" to conclude with.... "It takes a village to keep a writer from losing her shit, okay?"

I want to read more of her work, especially since she builds worlds in which magic is magic and not a quantifiable D&D factor.

 

[RK Wallis]

I just finished "The Fifth Season" by N. K. Jemisin. (Science Fiction. Awarded the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2016. Series was as well.)

The book came highly recommended to me. I picked it up a while ago (years?) and put it on my "to read" pile as you do. I started it a few times, and it just never grabbed me, so I put it back on the "to read" pile, not the "abandoned" pile, as it was so highly recommended. I finally picked it up again with the intention to finish it. I just finished it this morning.

Holy crap.

Sure it took me a wee bit to get into it, but am I ever glad I pushed on. This book is absolutely brilliant. But not in the usual way. I never really warmed to the MC. She was always held a bit at arm's length, which felt appropriate for who she was. I shed no tears (I'm a super soft touch) and even at the end of the book, I was dry-eyed.

But as as I reluctantly, and at the same time, with a sigh of relief, closed the book, my eyes were like saucers, wide and unblinking, while my mind reeled in the sheer scope and magnificence of the story and it's telling.

The world-building is staggering. At the start of the book, it confused me, but the deeper you go, the deeper it gets. And the society is as unique as I've read. A lot is similar, so that you're not adrift, but there's elements that feel so alien, and yet, so reminiscent of our own more shameful history. The characters feel real, not heroes, or superheroes, or extraordinary, although some are, but all felt like people just trying to live, to find their place, to survive their tragedies. But the telling... the telling... I am still in awe of how N. K. Jemisin pulled off the incredible way she told this story. It's something I will think about for a long, long time.

If you're looking for a sweet, light-hearted tale, this is not that. But if you want to be blown away, this can't help but do that.


PS I have to add this in as I found it so refreshing to read... this was in the acknowledgments (no spoilers, but possibly typos as I'm just typing it here from the book.)

"Also big props to my editor, Devi Pillai, and my agent, Lucienne Driver, for talking me out of scrapping this novel. The Broken Earth trilogy is the most challenging work I've ever written, and at certain points during The Fifth Season, the task seemed so overwhelming that I thought about quitting. (Actually, I believe my exact words were, "Delete this hot mess, hack the Dropbox to get the backups there, drop my laptop off a cliff, drive over it with a car, set fire to both, then use a backhoe to bury the evidence. Do you need a special license to drive a backhoe?") Kate Elliott (another acknowledgement, for being a perpetual mentor and friend) calls moments like this the "Chasm of Doubt" that ever writer hits at some point during a major project. Mine was deep and awful....

then comes a few more acknowledgements of who else helped talk her off a cliff, including her cat, "yeah, even the damned cat" to conclude with.... "It takes a village to keep a writer from losing her shit, okay?"

It's amazing, isn't it?

 

[Peyton Stafford]

Starting bless me, Ultima.

 

[LJ Beck]

I joined a craft book bookclub, and our first book to read is "Story Genius" by Lisa Cron. The subtitle is "How to use Brain Science to go beyond outlining and write a riveting novel*" and then the *is also on the front cover and it says [*Before you waste three years writing 327 pages that go nowhere.]

Yuck. That's what I thought just from that title. But I wanted to read it for the book club I just joined. I continued to think yuck until about 30% in. The style of the book is "Myth busting - you thought this. Well, Nope! That's wrong." And the "Science" is pseudo science and pretty basic stuff. There really wasn't anything in the first 30% that I hadn't heard before. And there's a LOT of filler. Like she really knows how to make a meal of a snack. I was pretty annoyed.

Then she hit on something that I thought, ooooh, that's kind of good. And it got me thinking, and then it got me doing the exercises for my current story. It was stuff I'd kind of already worked out, but this solidified and deepened what I had. Like a lot. There's also an example of a real writer working through this exercise for this book. Cron was pretty fortunate to have this writer agree to do that. It was something I hadn't seen before, and was really interesting. The story being writen was of no interest to me, but the process was.

I'm 72% in now, and back to skimming. She calls an outline a "blueprint" and talks about the "Story Genius Index Cards" method like it's a revelation. And the stuff she writes about "endings" I actually just don't agree with a lot of it. And she even goes as far as telling you what to name and how to organize your files for your novel. Um. really?

Now, if this had been my first craft book, I might not be so cynical. But it's not, so I am. That said, even if the last 28% doesn't yield insights for me, I am still glad I've read it for that one section that got me excited and gave me something I'll use moving forward. That's huge. You gotta take the golden nuggets where you can!

 

[RK Wallis]

I joined a craft book bookclub, and our first book to read is "Story Genius" by Lisa Cron. The subtitle is "How to use Brain Science to go beyond outlining and write a riveting novel*" and then the *is also on the front cover and it says [*Before you waste three years writing 327 pages that go nowhere.]

Yuck. That's what I thought just from that title. But I wanted to read it for the book club I just joined. I continued to think yuck until about 30% in. The style of the book is "Myth busting - you thought this. Well, Nope! That's wrong." And the "Science" is pseudo science and pretty basic stuff. There really wasn't anything in the first 30% that I hadn't heard before. And there's a LOT of filler. Like she really knows how to make a meal of a snack. I was pretty annoyed.

Then she hit on something that I thought, ooooh, that's kind of good. And it got me thinking, and then it got me doing the exercises for my current story. It was stuff I'd kind of already worked out, but this solidified and deepened what I had. Like a lot. There's also an example of a real writer working through this exercise for this book. Cron was pretty fortunate to have this writer agree to do that. It was something I hadn't seen before, and was really interesting. The story being writen was of no interest to me, but the process was.

I'm 72% in now, and back to skimming. She calls an outline a "blueprint" and talks about the "Story Genius Index Cards" method like it's a revelation. And the stuff she writes about "endings" I actually just don't agree with a lot of it. And she even goes as far as telling you what to name and how to organize your files for your novel. Um. really?

Now, if this had been my first craft book, I might not be so cynical. But it's not, so I am. That said, even if the last 28% doesn't yield insights for me, I am still glad I've read it for that one section that got me excited and gave me something I'll use moving forward. That's huge. You gotta take the golden nuggets where you can!

I enjoyed Story Genius. I was the same with the story. Not interested in the story, but the process of writing it was fascinating. For me, the table on page 153 has been priceless. I'm always coming back to it

 

[LJ Beck]

I enjoyed Story Genius. I was the same with the story. Not interested in the story, but the process of writing it was fascinating. For me, the table on page 153 has been priceless. I'm always coming back to it

Ah cool! I hear it's a very "love it" or "hate it" kinda book. So glad to hear that you got so much out of it. x