What are you currently reading?

[AquaMarie]

Non-fiction: Girls Garage by Emily Pilloton. I don't know a lot about building, just what I watched my dad do when I was little. But one day I will have my own house, and I want to make custom bookshelves and cat trees and raised vegetable beds and, and, and! So I figured I'd read this one to get some good background knowledge.

Fiction: Network Effect by Martha Wells. Have I mentioned the I love the Murderbot Diaries?

 

[NancyTree]

I just finished a Dutch book 'verkapt', which has a dubble meaning in Dutch, meaning both disguised and chopped. It was a light thriller about palm oil plantations and corruption in Indonesia. I wasn't too impressed by the writing but the story was interesting.

 

[Froud]

I'm currently working through Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole Series. I'm on the third book in the series, The Redbreast.

Loving them, and other crime novels, so far.

Also (finally) reading the Divergent series by Veronica Roth. I want to read it because I watched the movies. But I'm not too keen on reading through the eyes of female characters these days. I guess that's because I relate better to the emotional-mellowness (is that a thing?) Of male characters. I feel like the females are just... Well, bitchy and moany a lot of times. I don't know why that is.

I tend to read two books at once, dedicating equal amounts of time to each a day.

I am quite late to react to that, but the series is pretty good. I am rereading them in chronological order as I first read the books randomly (my former boss was lending me them and she was never good with chronology ^^)

The Redbreast was damn nice.

 

[Froud]

I am on 'Finders Keepers' by Stephen King, the second installement of Bill Hodges's trilogy. I will try to catch up this year with the all SK stuff.

 

[Anek]

Shrines of Gaiety was excellent, Kate Atkinson always delivers books that stay with you after you're done.

Currently slogging through A Dark Inheritance, it's boooring and the writing is not good. The story could be interesting but the writing just kills it.

 

[Giant48]

It´s on my To read list. How do you like it?

İt's going a bit slow but seems to be good

 

[Andi64]

Finished 'Children of Memory' by Adrian Tchaikovsky, which has an interresting view on reality. Now back with Alastair Reynolds. "Eversion" seems to have an interresting, but different, view on reality too.
These guys write faster, than I can read.

 

[PetiteSheWolf]

Just finished 'sharp objects", by Gillian Flynn.

Short presentation: Camille, a young reporter from a Chicago newspaper, is sent back to her southern hometown to report on the disappearance of a young girl, following the murder of another girl the year before. This forces her back into contact with her mother, Adora, who basically rules the town, back into the trauma about the sister she lost years ago, and she gets to know her half-sister, Amma, of the same age group as the two dead / missing girls.

For context, I had already seen the TV serie (with Amy Adams as Camille), so knew what to expect. As I had found it very interesting, I went back to "the source", and it was definitly worth it.
The characters are really well described, with Camille's trauma emerging little by little in very clear images (or should I say words on her skin ?) ; Adora's and Amma's troubles are presented step by step, with clues clearly present so the end is definitly well prepared. If Adora's trouble is fairly clear from the beginning (though the scope remains to be revealed), Amma playing on her double image - and some of her words to her sister, reveal only progressively the damage.
You may sometimes want to shake some "sense" into Camille (specially a later chapter), but with her issues her behavior is largely explainable.
The last chapters particularly I could not put down, even knowing the end, as the author really made you feel this sickness, this urgency, this decay. I felt torn between deep sadness and disgust for these sick mother/daughter relationships, and the fascination of the excellent description of these relationship.

Definitly a book well written and worth reading because of the psychology, just expect to get out of there quite shaken (and in my case, thankful for a healthy relationship with my mother!)

 

[AquaMarie]

Non-fiction: All About Love by bell hooks. I grabbed this one to read the week of Valentine's Day. I'm only a week late

Fiction: The Library of the Unwritten by A. J. Hackwith. Lots of authors I enjoy said good things about this one. I'm liking it so far!

 

[Andi64]

Just finished Century Rain by Alastair Reynolds. A book like a film noir and a space opera had a baby. It works, but it takes some getting used to. Think French gumshoe detective and nanobot enhanced humans with a touch of geocide. Yeah, like that.
Now started Zima Blue and Other Stories also by Alastair Reynolds. I tend to stick with the same author for a while. It's a collection of short stories from 2009. One story, Beyond the Aquila Rift, was adapted for .
Eversion was good, btw. Variations over the same theme, with a nice twist in the end.

 

[SomeGirl]

I just finished Death's End by Liu Cixin, the last book of a sci-fi trilogy. I loved every second and I'm a bit sad it's over. Looking back, even though I didn't like some parts of the previous book, the whole story together is so beautiful that I've changed my mind and now I like/understand the parts I previously didn't. This trilogy was such a journey. I was often listening to the instrumental version of the album Resist by Within Temptation when reading, and it's the story's official soundtrack for me now, at least for the third book

 

[PetiteSheWolf]

I just finished Death's End by Liu Cixin, the last book of a sci-fi trilogy. I loved every second and I'm a bit sad it's over. Looking back, even though I didn't like some parts of the previous book, the whole story together is so beautiful that I've changed my mind and now I like/understand the parts I previously didn't. This trilogy was such a journey. I was often listening to the instrumental version of the album Resist by Within Temptation when reading, and it's the story's official soundtrack for me now, at least for the third book

My older bro had asked for the trilogy for a Christmas a few years ago, big fan of the books... Now I am pondering reading them too!

(what you say about needing all three books remind me of Peter May's scottish trilogy, each book is independant but it is definitly worth reading it to the end for a full emotional pay-out).

 

[SomeGirl]

Now I am pondering reading them too!

I can only recommend them! (I now want everybody to read them too haha)

 

[mavie]

I finished Shame by Annie Ernaux, who was awarded last year's Nobel Prize in Literature and i can understand why by only reading this small book of hers. I read the german translation and i guess it's translated very well. Clear language, very much on point and i could relate a lot to the atmosphere she describes. I'm going to read more of her books for sure.

 

[Sunny Alex]

I started Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman

 

[AquaMarie]

Non-fiction: The Greenwash Effect by Guy Pearse. It's ten years old now, so it's a little dated, but I'm looking forward to finding out more about this particular topic.

Fiction: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. This first on the 'classics I really need to read one day' list for this year

 

[BravoLimaPoppa]

Just finished Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
Whoa.
This one was a slow start - it was kind of boring and repetitive at points. But that's part of the ground work being laid.
Then around ⅔ of the way it takes off. And the last chapters? Jesus. Big ideas indeed.
This is the first time I've ever seen an author deal with the "level" of reality high end simulations and the inhabitants.
Then the corvids! Those birds are unique. And I so want them to talk with Siri Keeton of Blindsight.
And I want to read the two books on avian intelligence Tchaikovsky mentioned in the afterword.

 

[Gandhalfit]

The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion.
By Jonathan Haidt.
I'm only at the beginning of it but I hope it won't disappoint.

 

[Anek]

Today I fast-read a really good one, "The No-Show" by Beth O'Leary. I loved her previous ones I read, and while this one was not as light-hearted as The Flatshare or The Switch, it was still very good. I even got a bit teary at the end!

 

[MissSmilla]

Urgh no! I am a translator, and I've discovered I can neither read English translations of German books NOR German translations of English books. I keep mentally editing and criticising the word choices, or at least thinking about the text on a linguistic level, and it takes me out of the story or content too much.

Naturally, there are a LOT of German translations of popular world literature, at least in the library, yet I'm trying to focus on German writers only. That's the struggle.

I just stumbled upon this, and even though the post is old, I'll have to agree, even though I'm not a translator (which must be the coolest job ever, by the way). When I read a German translation of an English book, I keep back-translating it in my head and it sucks. And if the original is in some other language, I have to stick with the translation (English or German) I read first because otherwise I keep comparing them in my head and it's just exhausting. This happened to me with one of my favourites, Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow. A friend gave me the English translation, and now here we are, this book is in English as far as I'm concerned.

Oh, and I recently restarted my Discworld cycle and am currently on The Light Fantastic.

 

[SkorpionUK]

(which must be the coolest job ever, by the way)

it is actually

When I read a German translation of an English book, I keep back-translating it in my head and it sucks. And if the original is in some other language, I have to stick with the translation (English or German) I read first because otherwise I keep comparing them in my head and it's just exhausting.

Right, you get it! The worst for me is when the book is obviously set in an English-speaking country and the translator had to make certain choices about what to translate, what to explain, and what to leave as is. It's jarring for me, and I don't mean that as shade on the translator: most of them do a really good job!

 

[TopNotch]

Grit by Angela Duckworth. Investigates how people with grit (perseverance) are more likely to succeed than those solely with natural talent. Interesting.

 

[Andi64]

Gridlinked by Neal Asher, the first of 5 in the Agent Comac series. Cormac is a 007 type figure set in a universe with FTL-interstellar travel, proton-guns and androids. What could there go wrong? And on top, it has 500+ pages. Just started it, but it looks quite promising.

 

[Anek]

The Priory of the orange tree, about 230 pages in. It has started to pick up so I'm glad I stuck with it at the beginning, although it usually is like this for me with fantasy books. It took me two tries to get into LOTR and GOT.

 

[Anek]

I finished The Priory of the Orange Tree and it was really good! There were things that made no sense (it's fantasy, but the laws of physics and economics still work the same and some were totally ignored in the story...) but what I really enjoyed was the use of rare words. When was the last time you found the word "rutilant" in a book?

 

[PetiteSheWolf]

Finished Louise Penny's "the beautiful mystery". Set in Quebec, in the "inspecteur Gamache" serie, it is an investigation in a very discreet monastery, specialised in gregorian chant (the "beautiful mystery" of the title) where the second-in-command, and driving force under recording those gregorian chants, was murdered. At the same time, the inspector is confronted by a superior who has ... some different goals for him and his second ; and another surprise visit arrives at the secluded, nearly-secret monastery (the reasons behond that visit are for me the weak point in that book, but come to GoodReads if you want to know more).

I personally enjoyed it a lot. The description of the monastery and music was great, the tension increased quite well, and the ending was very tense. And the ending regarding Gamache and his underling + superiod upstaged the murder solving itself, but it also paralelled it in how a rot can creep in a community and lead decent men to do bad things.

Now, guess I should try to read this serie in order!

 

[Anek]

@PetiteSheWolf I read The Madness of Crowds from the same author, also part of the inspector Gamache series, and what you write about the plot development and the end sounds very familiar, I had the same thoughts! Maybe it's a flaw of this author's writing.

 

[BravoLimaPoppa]

Finished Ruin of Angels by Max Gladstone. Tucking into Dead Country and then I'm back to read what you own challenge.
Ruin of Angels is a heists novel - there are several, including a train job. It's also has some interesting characters - we meet Kai and Issa from Full Fathom Five and Tara from Three Parts Dead and Four Roads Cross again. I think we meet some of the refugees from Four Roads Cross again. And I think we really begin to meet the Blue Lady.
Anyway, listening to it was a different experience than reading it. Ley (Kai's sister) is a pain in the butt. But some of the folks she was in bed with (Vane) are far, far worse. And it's an interesting set up where there's an official Iskari city. Old Alikand hidden in the cracks and the Dead City of the Craft Wars. All jammed up against each other, with people trying to do their best.
I liked it.

 

[MissSmilla]

I'm now on Equal Rites and just finished the magical duel between Granny Weatherwax and the Archchancellor of Unseen University, which is one of the scenes I love (and I know now they will reluctantly embark on an adventure together getting Esk's staff back which has all the ingredients of a good romantic comedy except for the eventual romance).

And I'll just confess to my love of said rom coms. I've discovered that my local library offers English language audio books, and I've taken to listening to romance novels on my childfree weekends while I'm sewing. So last weekend I made dresses for the girls out of a cute unicorn fabric* while listening to "A guide to being just friends" by Sophie Sullivan. It was fun. Before my discovery, I used to mostly listen to Agatha Christie novels on youtube (Christie is about as much violence and suspense as can take, I'm a total wimp), but now I've listened to all of them at least twice, so I needed something new.

*I do not really like unicorns. I do not understand grown women in their 30s or later who buy unicorn chocolate or unicorn liquor. But I've given up. I have two girls aged 3 and 5, so unicorns are going to be in my life. I'm going the proactive route now, and buy unicorn fabric (or, for Easter, bed linen) if the colouring and design is not too terrible, hoping to keep the girls away from too pink, too glittery, too cutesy and too fluffy monstrosities. And 5 got a stuffed unicorn for Christmas that I actually think is cute. She's called Rosalie and sleeps beside her every night.

 

[Andi64]

The Line of Polity by Neal Asher, the 2nd book in the Agent Cormac series. Yeah, I am a serial offender. I liked the style and setup of the first one and what I have read from this one, is promising as well.
@MissSmilla Way to go! You are on the beginning of a long (like around 40 more books) and entertaining (Terry Prachett is the best!) journey, assuming you read the Discworld series in order, that is. Here is a map.

 

[PetiteSheWolf]

@Andi64 , this is a great map to Terry Pratchet's books!

 

[Melnazar]

Currently rereading the Stand.

 

[Nihopaloa]

I've read "Digital Minimalism" by Cal Newport, about social media and smartphone induced (bad) habits and living a richer life. I bought my first smartphone this year and don't really use it much, so most of the tips or problems in the book weren't of interest to me, but the mentioned studies, effects and problems social media cause many people were fascinating.

 

[Anek]

Almost done with The Ministry for the Future, what an amazing read!

 

[PetiteSheWolf]

Finished reading "Claudine at school" (Claudine à l'école), by Colette. In the 1870/1900 period, this is the account of the last schoolyear of Claudine, a very smart, unsupervised (mother dead, father mostly into his research) middle/upper class girl in a village in Burgundy, partly auto-biographical. Colette's pen is just delicious, her acidic and irrespectuous descriptions of Claudine and her schoolfriends - and the teachers is excellent. No "sugar and spice and everything nice" there, and no schoolmarm / "black soldier of the republic"** for the teachers either (not-spoiler: the two female teachers have a lesbian relationship, and Claudine herself deals with attraction to the younger teacher, and to that teacher's sister ; which is no surprise as Colette was openly bisexual). If you want a good pen, and honest, self-deprecatory and humorous (but no pity-party) coming-of-age book, this is a very good one.
**: this is a French expression for the teachers of that period, who had quite strict missions to drill French - instead of dialect, good behavior and patriotism, into those kids.

 

[Andi64]

Brass Man by Neal Asher, the 3nd book in the Agent Cormac series. I am beginning to see a pattern here, but it's still entertaining. I think I will finish the series (5 books)

 

[Maddy_Land]

Wayward son by rainbow rowell, in english. It's the second book of a duology, and I barely remember the first (Carry On) bc I read it almost 4 years ago... but I still like it :]

 

[Wiaaam]

I am currently reading "Small Mercies" from Dennis Lehane on my e-reader (although I have some of his books at home, it's the first book I read from him and I really love it!), and then my physical book at the moment is "Clown in a Cornfield" by Adam Cesare (I am only at the beginning, but it's a good start).

 

[Zeugma]

The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan. I prefer non-fiction.

 

[Jaga]

The Secret of Vesalius by Jordi Llobregat,
Chrobot. Życie najzwyklejszych ludzi świata by Tomasz Michniewicz,
and
Intuitive Eating for Every Day: 365 Daily Practices & Inspirations to Rediscover the Pleasures of Eating by Evelyn Tribole.

 

[Nihopaloa]

The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan. I prefer non-fiction.

Oooh, that is a great book. Carl Sagan contradicts himself a bit in the second half, but I feel nowadays his book is more important than ever.
Unrelated to the book, but not Carl Sagan, I always thought outer space was pretty creepy, but his book Cosmos changed that a lot.
Also, I cried at the end of Billions and Billions. He died way too early, but in a fashion, I'm glad he did before the world turned into what we have now.

 

[Zeugma]

Oooh, that is a great book.

I think you should not miss Pale Blue Dot either. It's exactly the book all about where we are leading now. Space is something that fascinates me a lot, but I am all Earthling. I would choose to return if I ever got a chance to visit Mars.

 

[Nihopaloa]

I think you should not miss Pale Blue Dot either. It's exactly the book all about where we are leading now. Space is something that fascinates me a lot, but I am all Earthling. I would choose to return if I ever got a chance to visit Mars.

I still have Broca's Brain to finish, have been reading it on and off for years. But Pale Blue Dot is on the list, too.
If you want to visit Mars, I recommend building a space bus and preparing for a long ride (sorry, Zak McKracken reference, always comes to mind when I think of Mars)

 

[Wiaaam]

I am currently reading "Meurs, mon ange" (it translates in English by "Die, My Angel") by Clarence Pitz. It's a thriller in which we follow different stories in different countries, I am at a third and everything starts to slowly come together, it's really good. I am reading nothing on my e-reader at the moment, although I should because I have rent a lot of books at my library and they will soon expire...

 

[Nihopaloa]

@Wiaaam I got a warning from my library two days ago that my book was due. They even raised the fees since the last time that happened.

I'm currently reading another book on how to achieve your dream body (hint: eat right, lift heavy, workout hard, have discipline). I read those kinds of books every few months, so that I can better and more conveniently ignore the advice given within

 

[Wiaaam]

@Nihopaloa Arg, I get it, I prefer to not even think at all the fees I got for not returning my books on time (I am always very motivated to read other books than the ones I rent )!
The good thing with the ebooks that I rent from the library is that I don't have any extra fee anymore, they are just no accessible once the due date is passed. But the bad thing is that most of them are on a waiting list, so it can happen that I receive plenty at the same time when they become available, and if I miss the spot then there is a risk that they hit the maximum number of copies to be rented.

 

[orion76]

Cooking recipes

 

[caetielle]

Fiction: Network Effect by Martha Wells. Have I mentioned the I love the Murderbot Diaries?

AHH! Yes, The Murderbot Diaries is SO GOOD. Immediately became my favourite series, nice little comfort reads to take with me on the bus. So excited for the new book later this year!

 

[BravoLimaPoppa]

Just finished Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourne. I liked it. Darkly funny, angry at spots and overall a good read. I mean 4 women assassins that have made it to retirement. And then the organization they work for puts a hit on them.

Anyway, it's enjoyable.

Currently reading Jade City by Fonda Lee, Griffin by Crawford Killian, Untethered Soul.

 

[BravoLimaPoppa]

Three books right now
Endless Forms by Seiran Sumner. Fascinating book about wasps. Superorganisms like them, ants and bees are incredibly interesting, but bluntly domesticated bees are done to death.

Stjepan Šejić's Death Vigil. Fun art, nice dialogue, characters I care about. I hope there will be a volume 2.

Stjepan Šejić's Fine Print. Not sure I like this as much as I did Sunstone or Death Vigil, but boy is it pretty.

Recently finished:

• Blood Stain by Linda Šejić volumes 1-4. Fun, cozy bit of work. Looking forward to Punderworld.
• Jade City by Fonda Lee. Why did I wait so long?

Others in queue: Greek Key by KB Spangler; Griffin by Crawford Killian (still), Imperium Restored by Walter Jon Williams; Untethered Soul; Appleseed by John Clute; maybe Jade War.