I've re-read the first Harry Potter. It's been so long since I last read it. I felt that it really wasn't poorly written. Sure it's a children's book but i looked reading it. And I've started reading flatland
Are there people out there that say it's poorly written? That's just not the case at all. It's a very well-writte book, and that really does help when you dive back in to re-read it after a while.
I guess it's just a couple people i know IRL that keep insisting that Harry Potter is poorly written. Maybe they're just upset at the little world building inconsistencies with the Time-Turner and what not, and are not thinking about the language side of things.
Makes sense!
Gardens of the moon by Steven Erickson - a reread. Finished the original 10 books a few years ago. Decides to poke around again. This time around has been such a different experience. I'm now thinking I'm gonna do the rest of the other 9 books again.
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer. A really good movie. Decided to try the book. An interesting read for sure. Psychological thriller, with far realm adjacent imagery. About 70% done. Don't think I'll be reading the whole trilogy, though.
Periodo Street Station by China Mieville. I don't know what I think of this one. It seems to be sort of self masterbatory about how unique and wacky the world is. The actual story is scattered and completely lacks focus. The characterization is C+ at best. Full chapters of just wandering though the streets of the city showing small vignettes of peoplea lives from an omniscient pov, that seems to hint at a connection to the main story but is just tiresome to read. The main characters are a poor knock off of Doc Brown, and his girlfriend, a scarab beetle with a human body. I mean the head is the whole beetle legs and all. They are sort of mad scientist beetniks in socially forbidden love. This book just isn't for me I think.
God's Demon by Wayne Barlow. Barlow is a concept artist who often works with Guillermo del Toro. It's a sorry about a demon lord in hell. Aka ex-angel who fell with Lucifer. And has decided to find his way back to heaven and is leading an army to get there. It's okay. The imagery is great. I don't love the characters so it's hard to get invested.
I'm not a huge sci-fi fan but I read the whole Southern reach trilogy and I'd say the first one is the best. Others are so so. So you wouldn't miss much.
Elantris, Warbreaker and started The Way of Kings, all by Brandon Sanderson. Read Mistborn Era 1 a couple years ago and loved it, finally decided to jump head in into the Cosmere.
I read The City & The City by China Mieville and some bits of Psychogeography by Will Self.
I would recommend the first one, especially if you like detective stories (and games like Disco Elysium).
I'm not sure about the second, it's a collection of columns and the throughline isn't as good as I'd hoped.
I just finished No Longer Human last night. Haven't breezed through a book like that in quite awhile!
That's a good one. The prequel to it, The Flowers of Buffoonery, was just recently published. It's short, but I recommend it.
I have read Our Revolution by Bernie Sanders.
I can recommend it to anyone who are interested in the politics of US. Bernie talked about the main problems in the US. He talked about discrimination, the corruption, populism, wealth distribution and the negative effect of far capitalism overall.
The best bit of the book in my opinion, that you will understand why's the society so against socialism's ideas, even if it would significantly improve their life in many cases.
I finished:
I "read" a lot of audiobooks, so I go through titles pretty quickly.
The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch - I really enjoyed this storytelling and plot about multiple dimensions and timelines and murder. Thrilling and exciting.
Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.
I'm a sucker for (post) apocalyptic survival, but overall it wasn't very good. The first third was fairly engaging, but the other two thirds were relatively predictable. By then end of the book I disliked pretty much every character.
I feel like Niven just couldn't write people at all (especially women.) He had some cool concepts but I won't be going back to his work.
A few Animorphs and the Well of Ascension. I have a few active challenges on Storygraph.
Hopped around a few different genres but really enjoyed all the books I read in June:
I read the Broadbent one! How did you like the second book compared to the first? I feel like the one thing that kinda fell flat is that every fight was described as the hardest fight ever, so when the last battle came the author was just rehashing those same descriptions.
Still, I enjoyed the story, and those books were far more well-written than most in the Romantacy genre.
I really enjoyed it! I’m not sure I liked it as much as the first one, I think the pacing in that one for me was a little bit better, but am excited to see what Broadbent writes next in that world. I’m newer to the Romantacy genre (have only read the ACOTAR series and Fourth Wing) but have already had a lot of fun with the books I’ve read so far.
Working on three body problem. I dont know if anyone else have a hard time with translated works, but I always feel like some part of the book is missing when translated. Like iboixk up on a few context clues that something should be known.
Anyways I'm enjoying it, just lots of extra lookin things up, makes it a bit tedious.
Yeah, I'm about a third of the way into it and thinking that the translation presents a small barrier.
I'm reading on a ebook, so I get clickable footnotes sometimes, usually though it's mostly for common facts a chinese reader would have. Dont know if there are different translations or not.
I’ve been working my way through the Sandman graphic novels 
I read Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea by Lucy Maud Montgomery cos I liked the tv series and wanted to see where it went. By the third book I was bored af so I totally changed to The First Law by Abercrombie. So far it’s really good,
Oh I love Anne! That was definitely a big tone switch up to The First Law lol.
Technically I finished the last few pages of this yesterday but whatever - Spell Bound by F.T. Lukens was an adorable rivals-to-lovers story with some excellent magical worldbuilding. It also has so much in common with The Owl House I refuse to believe the author isn't a fan.
Always Coming Home - Ursula K. LeGuin - I absolutely loved this book. I'm still keep thinking about the Kesh people that this book explores. Very strange read, absolutely recommended.
The Fifth Season - N K Jemisin - Really enjoyed this book. The way it uses perspective was really great. The ending felt okay. I'm definitely going to be picking up the next one sometime soon.
Currently reading Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer, which has been a fascinating read thus far, but I'm only halfway through.
After that I'm planning on reading Among Others by Jo Walton (I loved her Thessaly series)
Manna - Marshall Brain
I just finished No Longer Human last night. Haven't breezed through a book like that in quite awhile!
-Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
-Normal People by Sally Rooney
-How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu (personal favorite for this month)!
-Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
-I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
-Happy Place by Emily Henry
-Notes on a Silencing: A Memoir by Lacy Crawford
-The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
-The Girl in the Mirror by Rose Carlyle
-Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell
-Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
-Dirty Laundry by Disha Bose
-Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey
-Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
-Milk Fed by Melissa Broder
-Motherthing by Ainslie Hogarth
-Shoulder Season by Christina Clancy
Woah you were busy
can’t figure out how to edit on lemmy yet; however, Shoulder Season was also another favorite and i highly recommend it as well :)
Kept it pretty lowkey in June, read only two books: Loop by Koji Suzuki (3rd book in the Ring series) and Osamu Dazai's recently translated The Flowers of Buffoonery.
I got sucked back into One Piece, the anime I sorta dropped, put on eternal hold
So I figured I’d start the manga and give it a go, it’s much more enjoyable ^^
I read the Cradle series by Will Wight. Lots of fun! Interesting magic system, fun progression as the main characters get more and more powerful through the books.
Michael Connelly:
I am open for recommendations
Tasha's cauldron of everything... DnD rulebook.
The Royal Game or Schachnovelle by Stefan Zweig. Great book and a natural next step after his other books, especially in context
Animal Farm and 1984 by George Orwell. They both describe, in a very creative way, the totalitarian regimes of the '40s, especially the soviet one. They give you an insight of what freedom should be, and what are the systems used by dictators to control the popultation: poverty, ignorance, fear, etc.
Worth reading!
I've read both but Animal Farm was for school so naturally I didn't like it. 1984 was great not just as an interesting read but to understand all of the cultural (and culture war) references to it.
I read Factfullness by hans rosling, would recommend if you want a different outlook in these seemingly dark times
I'm still reading it and I'm halfway through it. I agree in recommending it! Moreover gapminder (which is the source of most of the stats) now has data updated up to the year 2022.
It's not like I don't have a huge TBR list, but even so I keep getting seduced back into reading the Aubrey/Maturin series. They're just too good and every re-read reveals a little nugget of something wonderful you missed before.
So I read Desolation Island, The Fortune Of War, The Surgeons Mate and The Ionian Mission.
Ooh some Aussie settings too. Very interesting.
Hypatia: The Life and Legend of an Ancient Philosopher - Edward J. Watts
As the title says. The author tries to stress the fact that the book is primarily about her life and work, which always gets overshadowed by her death. It was pretty good as both a book about her, and general Alexandrian life in her age, but quite short (around 150 pages)
Women Writers of Ancient Greece and Rome: An Anthology - Ian Michael Plant
Contains fragments from ancient women writers about various topics. It was good, but sadly not much was preserved through time, the fragments were often very short.
Oooh this is right up my alley. Was it also an entertaining read, or was it a little dry/difficult to get through? Non-fiction can be really hit or miss for me
Depends on how interested you are, I guess. The Hypatia book wasn't dry at all, and it's a pretty good showcase on how people actually used philosophy as a lifestyle. I just wish it had more, but you can only get so much from a limited source. Hypatia was mostly written about to discuss her violent death than how she lived.
The other book I honestly wouldn't recommend if you're not actually interested in the topic, because the contents will not entertain anyone by themselves. There are a couple of mostly complete poems and letters, but for the vast majority, the only thing that was preserved was a handful of lines. But to supplement that, the authors provide an introduction to every writer beforehand, so you can get a sense of what was accomplishable for women in that period. It's a good book in that sense, but not very entertaining by itself.
Tte Hypatia one I recommend wholeheartedly to anyone who's interested.
Book reader community.