Kuetsar Posted February 1, 2019 Share Posted February 1, 2019 Just finished the 30th anniversary edition of Ken Dryden's theĀ Game, a great book, ostensibly about a week in his last season, its actually quite a but more. Full of hockey history as well as a great autobiography, I'd say its a must read whether your a hockey fan or bot.I'm only a casual hockey fan, but it kept me hooked at all times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liam Posted February 5, 2019 Share Posted February 5, 2019 Book 5 was 'The Gallows Pole' by Benjamin Myers. http://scalingthetbrpile.home.blog/2019/02/05/book-5-the-gallows-pole-by-benjamin-myers/ TL;DR an interesting historical fiction about the Cragg Vale Coiners, an 18th Century group in Yorkshire who used to clip coins to create new ones. Fascinating, beautifully described and quite violent in places. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liam Posted February 10, 2019 Share Posted February 10, 2019 Book 6 was 'Crazy Rich Asians' by Kevin Kwan https://scalingthetbrpile.home.blog/2019/02/10/book-6-crazy-rich-asians-by-kevin-kwan/ TL;DR it basically does what it says on the tin, but with some interesting social commentary and tenser moments that make it readable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobholly138 Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 About a third of the way through Pimp by Iceberg Slim. Decent read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liam Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 Book 7 was 'Temeraire' by Naomi Novik. http://scalingthetbrpile.home.blog/2019/02/16/book-7-temeraire-by-naomi-novik/ TL;DR dragons in the Napoleonic War, though the relationship building is more interesting than the combat. Moved on to reading 'The Black Dahlia', which I am enjoying thus far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSJ Posted February 18, 2019 Share Posted February 18, 2019 1-7. āIn Search of Lost Timeā by Marcel Proust This is time that you will never get back. More self-indulgent than David Foster Wallace, if such a thing is possible. 11. āGravity's Rainbowā by Thomas Pynchon 12. āTitus Groanā by Mervyn Peake 14. āThe Bone Clocksā by David Mitchell These I liked. 15. āAnno Draculaā by Kim Newman 16. āShip of Magicā by Robin Hobb These I didn't 17. āPapillionā by Henri CharriĆØre Pretty good for what it was. 18. āRingāby Koji Suzuki Simply brilliant for what it was!Ā 19. āThe Song of Achillesā by Madeline Miller 21. āMy Brilliant Friendā by Elena Ferrante 25. āThe English Patientā by Michael Ondaatje 26. āFates and Furiesā by Lauren Groff Enjoyed all of the above.Ā 27. āWiltā by Tom Sharpe Tom Sharpe is one of the funniest mofos who ever lived. 28. āEnd of the Affairā by Graham Greene There is no such thing as a Graham Greene book that isn't worth reading. 31. āThe Famished Roadā by Ben Okri 33. āThe Axeman's Jazzā by Ray Celestin 35. āOf Human Bondageā by W. Somerset Maugham Your time is not wasted on any of these three. 36. āSnow Crashā by Neal Stephenson Pretentious drivel of the worst sort. There's plenty of blame to go around. We can start with the author, move quickly to the acquisitions editor who should know better and finally the publisher for allowing both of these parties to do their respective jobs so ineptly. 39. āTemeraireā by Naomi Novik 40. āThe Forever Warā by Joe Haldeman 41. āRebeccaā by Daphne du Maurier 42. āThe Prestigeā by Christopher Priest 43. āHyperionā by Dan Simmons 44. āThe Night Circusā by Erin Morgenstern 45. āThe Black Dahliaā by James Ellroy I think that you might have a hard time finding seven books all so radically different from one another and such fine examples of the writers' craft. 46. āA Prayer for Owen Meanyā by John Irving I know he's supposed to be great, but I have never read anything by John Irving that I felt was remotely satisfying. 48. āAll The Light We Cannot Seeā by Anthony Doerr 52. āFight Clubā by Chuck Palahniuk 53. āThe Gallows Poleā by Benjamin Myers These are all excellent. 54. āRed Marsā by Kim Stanley Robinson The Mars Trilogy suffers from some serious bloat. Are we really going to drag a story about terraforming Mars into a trilogy of three books all suffering from acute authorial bloat. There used to be a really excellent writer named Kim Stanley Robinson, I wonder whatever became of him? 56. āWizard of the Crowā by Ngugi wa Thiong'o Vastly underrated. 57. āLolitaā by Vladimir Nabokov Vastly overrated. 58. āInvisible Manā by Ralph Ellison Brilliant for its time and holds up remarkably well. 62. āThe Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastleā by Stuart Turton 63. āThe Fifth Seasonā by N.K. Jemisin 64. āThe Third Policemanā by Flann OāBrien Loved all three of these. 67. āOne Hundred Years of Solitudeā by Gabriel Garcia Marquez One of the truly great books of the 20th Century. 69. āKavalier and Clayā by Michael Chabon 73. āShadow of the Windā by Carlos Ruis Zafon 74. āMidnight's Childrenā by Salman Rushdie 75. āThe Master and Margaritaā by Mikhail Bulgakov This is ending your list on a high note to be sure. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liam Posted February 20, 2019 Share Posted February 20, 2019 Interesting to hear your thoughts OSJ. Book eight was 'The Black Dahlia' by James Ellroy. http://scalingthetbrpile.home.blog/2019/02/20/book-8-the-black-dahlia-by-james-ellroy/ TL;DR an excellent mix of true crime and hard boiled crime thriller. Unflinching and unsentimental. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLSigman Posted February 20, 2019 Share Posted February 20, 2019 The announcement of James Momoa being cast as Duncan Idaho in the latest Dune movie attempt made me go get my old hardback and give it a read. It's probably been 10 years since I read it, and I always forget how much politic building the first 100 pages has to do to make the rest of the book make sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swift Posted February 21, 2019 Share Posted February 21, 2019 I'm currently reading a 1974 detective crime thriller Hazell Plays Solomon by P.B. Yuill. That's actually a pseudonym for the writing duo of Gordon Williams and Terry Venables - yes football fans, that Terry Venables! Apparently he and Williams wrote a decently received football novel earlier, and decided to team up on a detective series of 3 books (and a later TV show based on those books) They employed the pseudonym so as not to draw attention away from the work itself. When republished however, the books were printed with their real names and so when I found a 90s Penguin reissue of a crime novel by Terry Venables (what the fuck) at a charity booksale I had to buy it. It's essentially a London based detective (think a 70s era Bob Hoskins or Michael Caine) mimicking the stye of a Marlowe. I'm only about a third of the way through but it's already thrown up two WTF sequences. Early on, he makes the moves on a woman he's investigating, proving once again that sex is notoriously difficult to write about in prose. (Apologies for the poor formatting - quote box not working correctly for me it seems) Ā Quote 'I want you now, please,' she murmured, savagely. And she did get me, right there on that awful orange settee. She got more of me than she bargained for. Without being too clinical, I could do everything but, if you follow. I was like an oil drill riding the stormy North Sea but the gusher would not flow. ... I felt like Superman - but I could not deliver the final zap and wowie. ... [She] eased her hips under mine and again I was drilling deep into the ocean bed and again she was convulsing. Why be mealy-mouthed about it? I gave her a terrific seeing to - six times by her count - but the old rock-python refused to eject his juice. Ā In the end, what gets him over the finish line is fondling "her unusually long kneecaps" Yes, bizarrely Hazell has a thing for knees and is always noticing them whenever he meets a woman. Then later on in the book, I stumbled across this lovely piece of prose! Ā Ā Ā A beautiful, half-naked girl opened the door. She had black hair, deep brown eyes and the kind of smile that would corrupt an archbishop. The top half of her white bikini was missing and the bottom half wasn't hiding anything but essentials. Her exquisitely smooth shoulders and boyishly-firm breasts glistened with drops of water. Unfortunately she was about eight years old. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liam Posted February 28, 2019 Share Posted February 28, 2019 Book 9 was 'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay' by Michael Chabon http://scalingthetbrpile.home.blog/2019/02/28/book-9-the-amazing-adventures-of-kavalier-and-clay-by-michael-chabon/ TL;DR A great, sprawling tale set during the Golden Age of comics in which two cousins' lives rise and fall alongside the art they so enjoy creating. (It's many pages long, so that TL;DR doesn't really tell half of the story >_>) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLSigman Posted March 1, 2019 Share Posted March 1, 2019 On 2/20/2019 at 10:03 AM, JLSigman said: The announcement of James Momoa being cast as Duncan Idaho in the latest Dune movie attempt made me go get my old hardback and give it a read. It's probably been 10 years since I read it, and I always forget how much politic building the first 100 pages has to do to make the rest of the book make sense. Finished. I do not own any of the rest of the series, as I find the story telling keeps getting worse (and don't get me started on the B Herbert/Anderson garbage). The short trailer the BBC released to show the characters from their upcoming "His Dark Materials" series has me looking for my daemon, so that'll be the next physical books. Hoopla had me reading the Injustice 2 comics (took a while to get good) and the collected SpiderVerse (EXCELLENT stuff).Ā Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liam Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 http://scalingthetbrpile.home.blog/2019/03/09/book-10-the-famished-road-by-ben-okri/ Book ten was 'The Famished Road' by Ben Okri. TL;DR some moments of magic amongst a narrative that just felt like it meandered for me all too often. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liam Posted March 14, 2019 Share Posted March 14, 2019 http://scalingthetbrpile.home.blog/2019/03/14/book-11-look-whos-back-by-timur-vermes/ Book 11 was 'Look Who's Back' by Timur Vermes. TL;DR a thought provoking book looking at what what happen to Hitler if he suddenly turned up in 2011. The answer? A celebrity. Well worth a read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted March 14, 2019 Share Posted March 14, 2019 On 2/28/2019 at 2:36 PM, Liam said: Book 9 was 'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay' by Michael Chabon http://scalingthetbrpile.home.blog/2019/02/28/book-9-the-amazing-adventures-of-kavalier-and-clay-by-michael-chabon/ TL;DR A great, sprawling tale set during the Golden Age of comics in which two cousins' lives rise and fall alongside the art they so enjoy creating. (It's many pages long, so that TL;DR doesn't really tell half of the story >_>) I don't think I'd want to revisit Kavalier and Clay now. It feels like pop culture has so supplanted it in the twenty years that followed that I'd worry it'd come off as pandering or overly precious now, even though at the time, it was right there out at the forefront. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLSigman Posted March 14, 2019 Share Posted March 14, 2019 On 3/1/2019 at 9:34 AM, JLSigman said: The short trailer the BBC released to show the characters from their upcoming "His Dark Materials" series has me looking for my daemon, so that'll be the next physical books.Ā Finished the trilogy. Oh goodness it's so good. Re-reading Feed by Mira Grant. Also looking at Hoopla for the Batman/TMNT crossover comic that is being turned into a cartoon sometime this year.Ā Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liam Posted March 17, 2019 Share Posted March 17, 2019 Decided it'll probably just be easier to copy the Tweets I make about the books I read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liam Posted March 20, 2019 Share Posted March 20, 2019 An excellent read. Well worth your time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLSigman Posted March 30, 2019 Share Posted March 30, 2019 On 3/14/2019 at 8:41 AM, JLSigman said: Re-reading Feed by Mira Grant. Also looking at Hoopla for the Batman/TMNT crossover comic that is being turned into a cartoon sometime this year.Ā Finished the Newsflesh trilogy. I highly recommend Mira Grant for all your science horror needs. The Batman/TMNT crossover was an OK story with some hit and miss art. I can see it being a decent animation movie, tho. Now back to Tad Williams. I re-read The Dragonbone Chair a year or two ago, right before The Witchwood Crown came out. Now that Empire of Grass has a release date of this summer, I should probably finish up the original trilogy before getting the new book on reserve.Ā Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liam Posted March 31, 2019 Share Posted March 31, 2019 Ā Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSJ Posted March 31, 2019 Share Posted March 31, 2019 On 3/1/2019 at 7:34 AM, JLSigman said: Finished. I do not own any of the rest of the series, as I find the story telling keeps getting worse (and don't get me started on the B Herbert/Anderson garbage). The short trailer the BBC released to show the characters from their upcoming "His Dark Materials" series has me looking for my daemon, so that'll be the next physical books. Hoopla had me reading the Injustice 2 comics (took a while to get good) and the collected SpiderVerse (EXCELLENT stuff).Ā It's very simple, in my world there is only Dune and Dune Messiah.Ā 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted April 4, 2019 Share Posted April 4, 2019 @OSJ Do I want to read any Poul Anderson? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSJ Posted April 4, 2019 Share Posted April 4, 2019 48 minutes ago, Matt D said: @OSJ Do I want to read any Poul Anderson? Depends on why... If you're looking for mind-bending SF that ranks with the best of Greg Egan and Robert Reed you will be quite disappointed. On the other hand, if you want to see what was state-of-art fifty years ago and has held up pretty well, a volume of "Best of" should be right up your alley.Ā NESFA Press is releasing a series of his short stories in a nice matching set, they're up to volume 7 now and I keep buying them reflexively knowing that I'll never do more than dip into them occasionally, but I'm stupid like that when it comes to books. Anderson at his best was a great story-teller with tremendous respect for scientific accuracy, maybe the prototype of the John W. Campbell author for Astounding/Analog. If you go in looking for clever plots and great pacing, you'll find a lot to like. If you're looking for ethnic diversity, realistic characters, and nuance; Anderson is not the guy for you. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SouderDrew Posted April 4, 2019 Share Posted April 4, 2019 I'm reading the The Ghost of Freedom: A History of The Caucasus. I always enjoy reading books about the history of certain regions from around the world. If anybody has any recommendations about the history of certain regions or countries I would love to hear them.Ā Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Control Posted April 5, 2019 Share Posted April 5, 2019 On 3/31/2019 at 11:36 AM, Liam said: Ā This book is terrific. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liam Posted April 5, 2019 Share Posted April 5, 2019 16 hours ago, Control said: This book is terrific. Yeah, I loved it. Just really good. I didn't like my next book as much, but haven't written about it yet. Currently reading 'The Fifth Season' at the moment, which has started off interestingly at least. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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