books you've read !

[dragonfliet]

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

Yeah, it's big. Definitely too big. This book could have easily trimmed about 200 pages, and most probably 300--if it had, it would have been brilliant, as it is, it's very good. The action is well laid out and the characters are, for the most part, very interesting. What the characters do is powerful and well told and how they interact with each other is very tightly wrought. Hell, I really liked this book. The problem comes from the explanations. Good God science fiction writers LOVE to explain things. The story often stops for 10+ pages so that we can get a blow by blow conversation about how a cryptosystem works. Oh look, he did his research. The thing is, it doesn't matter, a moderate description is all that's needed. Let me say this another way: your research needs to show (in concise, accurate depictions), but you SHOULDN'T show your notes. The desire to explain everything couples with a few other poor pacing choices to really stop this story up at a few points, which is really a shame because it's a terribly interesting story and it's very, very well written. I liked this book a lot but I do wish that it had gone through a more thorough editing process.

~Jason

 

[Balton]

Porno - Irvine Welsh

is the sequel to Welsh's debut book Trainspotting which is a book I devoured despite it being written in parts in thickest scottish accent. Porno too features scotsmen but this time I didn't need time to adjust to the language and could turn my modus operandi to cruise and enjoy.
Porno is less drugs heavy(though bevvy and ching flow like mad), more mad on sex(maybe because this time it's not the rid heidded **** Renton that plays the main guy but Sick Boy) and it continues the story of the boys from Leith doing what entrepreneuial types of guys from "ghetto-ish districts" do best: steal, rob, take drugs and if you got some skills, produce porno. Besides the mindless fun there are a lot of things(conflicts, social interaction, porn biz) to keep your mind occupied.
When I finished the book yesterday in bed at 4am I was a bit sad to depart again from some of the most ****ed up characters I've read about once again, so this can only mean that I enjoyed this work very much, si? Go out and read it


Really, I am no good at book reviews because I like to lose myself in details...

 

[dragonfliet]

The Seamstress of Hollywood Boulevard by Erin McGraw

A truly wonderful novel. This novel about a talented seamstress that abandons her husband and two young daughters in Kansas to move to California and a new life in the early 1900's truly sparkles. Best when she focuses on her characters, instead of plot, McGraw brings Nell, the protagonist to life with short, terse sentences that build the character so well I was often just blown away. Some truly fantastic writing. While the book stumbles a little bit under some heavy plotting, it recovers and ends very, very well. A great read and something I would most definitely recommend if you can get past the terrible cover.

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

Another book about dreams, and again it sparkles. This is a world where fish rain from the sky, Johnny Walker and Colonel Sanders are key characters and a fifteen year old boy who calls himself Kafka runs away from home and the Oedipal prophecy his father gave him only to discover that's how prophecies are fulfilled. To top it off there's an old man who can talk to cats, a government investigation into a strange phenomina during the end of WWII and plenty of supernatural. The key is that Murakami weaves it all together so plausibly that you can't help but believe it. Like a convincing dream, the supernatural is stated with such serious naturalness you can't help but take it for face value, only no dream is really ever about nothing is it?

The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx

This one starts off slow. Whereas McGraw thrives on characters at their most basic and suffers her plot, Proulx's characters are bland when not moving and only come to live through the plot that drives them. Also, this book is full of sparse, poetry-like cutting of sentences. Never have you met a woman who hates commas as much as Proulx does. Sometimes it is brilliant, sometimes it's just annoying. This starts to get better after about 80 or so pages, when the plot begins to thicken and the book gets better and better. Some people go ape**** over Proulx's prose in this novel, but I prefer it near the end when she dispenses of the lyricism for straight talk, which works much better--the truncated prose, meant to show the harshness of the Newfoundland landscape works best when given in small doses.

I recommend this book for people that can buckle down past the annoying beginning because there is something truly great here, even if it is often times obscured.

~Jason

 

[Balton]

Discworld - Going Postal

not the best in the discworld series but I had more laughs than most other authors could give me. Been the whole week taking the subway so I had alot of time to read... and I fear my small staple of books might be gone in a couple more weeks.

 

[Vitamin-Carrot]

Fools Erand - Robin Hobb

I have read all the books before it and i cried at the end now im ontot the next one The Golden Fool and so far its ok ...

 

[_Zd_Phoenix_]

Discworld - Going Postal

not the best in the discworld series but I had more laughs than most other authors could give me. Been the whole week taking the subway so I had alot of time to read... and I fear my small staple of books might be gone in a couple more weeks.

I've become a bit of a Pratchett obsessive over the last few months, and Going Postal is actually one of my favourites Love it, love it, LOVE IT. So much so I had to buy a new, unsullied version.

 

[Manticore]

Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer.

That's one book I've been meaning to pick up and read.

Currently: Jon Dos Passos "U.S.A" This 1000 page trilogy has been one I've spent years trying to get hold of (it seems to be out of print here). Now that I've got it I'm only into the first novel "42nd Parallel" so far but enjoying it.

[Edit]In my opinion Dos Passos' legacy is one where writers like Jack Kerouc and William Burroughs owe a lot to his style of writing.[/Edit]

 

[Balton]

I've become a bit of a Pratchett obsessive over the last few months, and Going Postal is actually one of my favourites Love it, love it, LOVE IT. So much so I had to buy a new, unsullied version.

yay phoenix! I actually wondered a few days ago where you've been.

 

[_Zd_Phoenix_]

yay phoenix! I actually wondered a few days ago where you've been.

Haven't had the internet for a while, but how could I stay away from you, oh beloved Balton

 

[dragonfliet]

Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie

A cute little fairy tale, this book is well written, but simple. There is something of a political commentary in this book, and something about the nature of writing, which is nice to have as an undertone, but is nothing that doesn't exist in any good myth or fairy tale. This is certainly no great feat by Rushdie, but it would be a decent introduction for those not familiar with his work and intimidated by his literary status.

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

An absolutely astounding book. A preacher who married very late in life and had a son from the marriage attempts to leave a legacy to his son. The letters start off primarily biographical, but devolve into daily thoughts and frustrations as well as tangents of stories. The effect of this, however, is that this truly feels like the accounting of a man. Most certainly religious, this book is surprisingly effective in giving religion as a belief for a man that isn't pushed onto the reader, even though the main character's every thought is filtered through his religious view.

This book is transcendent and beautiful and most certainly something that everyone should read

~Jason

 

[Balton]

Philip K. Dick The game players of titan

Once again another novel by my favourite author PKD. This time he pits gambling addicted aliens occupying earth(and forcing their gaming habit on humans) against a mankind that has due to the Chinese almost entirely lost it's ability to conceive children. The remains of mankind play some sort of monopoly for the empty cities, counties and real estate in general. The more deeds you own the more political power you hold until through bad luck your days as important game player end. This is just the premise of the book, you'll find conspiracies, psi-people, alien extremists and cheating in the story.
A fun and entertaining book.

My next book's by Chuck Pahlaniuk, I finally dared venturing into this sick guys mind... and I am enjoying it so far(~50 pages)

 

[dragonfliet]

Love is the Crooked Thing by Lee K Abbott

Lee K Abbott is one of my favorite writers and so I was thrilled when I came across this at half price books, as most of his stuff is out of print. Abbott's short stories are very, very, very unusual. The men are very often MEN, very tough and from the southeast, but Abbott doesn't write realism so much and so everything is flowery and over the top and beautiful. VERY poetic. Here is an except from "We Get Smashed and Our Endings are Swift"

Oh, I did love the murder: the life-affirming "Aaaarrrggghhh!" the dying made when they spied the vast What-Not opening to greet them.
First was a cocaine ganster named Wo Tin (Col), a II Corps Friendly and part-time VC. This was '67--a time you know as distant but dreadful--and I crept upon him like night itself, slipped over the wall of his Frenchy villa, plugged the barrel of That Which Is, my 16, in his nosehole. He smelled like a new car.
"Awake, sleaze," I whispered. "I am here to ease you through the light and into hell." It was a handsome speech. "Think of me as that which hastens and regrets not."

The Creative Writing MFA Handbook by Tom Kealey.

A good read for some basic info about applying. Mostly helpful for the insight into a few specific schools. Hope it helps.

~Jason

 

[Sjosz]

Jeff Lindsay - Dexter in the Dark

After reading the first 2 books I was really wondering what the plot could still be interesting in a Dexter way. Luckily this one delivers a plot better than the first 2 books, very enjoyable, took me only 2 sessions to finish reading it again.

 

[Trynant]

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino translated by William Weaver.

This is a weird one. Marco Polo is describing cities to Kublai Khan. There are nine parts to the book, each part is comprised of page-long vignettes of cities (which are fantastic and clearly fictional) and enclosed at the the beginning and end by narratives of the interactions between the Marco Polo and Kublai Khan.

I learned of Invisible Cities after reading more about Braid, making that game even more awesome for leading me to the book. Definitely a keeper.

 

[dragonfliet]

The Baby Tree by Erin McGraw

It pays to compliment authors, because occasionally they send you free books of theirs. Rock.

This was a surprisingly good novel. This story about a woman Methodist minister who's overly do-good husband welcomes her horrible ex back into their lives manages to continue piling plot on top of plot without sacrificing character. Pastor Kate is one of the most striking people that I have read about and she will stick with me for a long time. All the better is that this book ends perfectly. With everything that happens, with all of the escalation, with all of the emotions that are invested from so man...more A surprisingly good novel. This story about a woman Methodist minister who's overly do-good husband welcomes her horrible ex back into their lives manages to continue piling plot on top of plot without sacrificing character. Pastor Kate is one of the most striking people that I have read about and she will stick with me for a long time. All the better is that this book ends perfectly. With everything that happens, with all of the escalation, with all of the emotions that are invested from so many people, I began to wonder in the last twenty pages how this book was going to be ended. I was not disappointed: this book ends the only possible way it could have.

~Jason

 

[IronMonkey]

A Snowball in Hell by Christopher Brookmyre

The satire is hectoring in places. Fortunately it is also very, very funny. I was banned from reading late at night because my laughter was keeping people awake. Targets include tabloid newspaper columnists, Z-list celebrities and TV talent shows. If you are not familiar with the UK then some of the targets will seem a bit generic - trust me, they are (unfortunately) based on clearly recognisable people.

The book represents something of a return to form for Brookmyre. His last couple of books have been rather flat.

Although not essential, it is probably worth reading A Big Boy Did it and Ran Away (riddled with Quake and Half Life references) & The Sacred Art of Stealing first to get the most from the book.

Brookmyre really could do with a better editor and as a result, I'm not sure how well the book will travel. It is not uncommon to hear non-Scottish characters speaking in what is recognisably Scottish vernacular. If you can cope with Walsh (not sure I could then you will be fine.

Did I mention that the book is funny?

A final warning, Brookmyre is not for the easily offended.

 

[Sjosz]

Dragonfliet, you were right.

Orson Scott Card - Ender's Shadow
Fun how it ties in with Ender's Game and to show a little different perspective on things concerning the events in that book. Pageturning awesomeness.

Orson Scott Card - Xenocide
Mind-bender. It all sort of was plausible right up to the point where they devise of that way for faster than light travel. Ridiculous, and very close to being unforgivable. Still a good read but that was a very, very lame way to solve things.

 

[dragonfliet]

Yeah, sorry I was right on that one. I was pretty angry with Card for a while. Children of the mind continues with the lameness that is the Fantasy FTL. Sigh. At least it ends the series.

In GOOD news, the new book, Ender in Exile, (which covers the period between Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead), has gotten pretty decent reviews. I would recommend it after Children of the Mind (if you feel obligated to read it, though I didn't really enjoy it that much), but before the Shadow of the Hedgemon, etc., to keep it as chronological as possible.

I thought this thread had died. I may update some of my stuff, but I'll just link to my goodreads booklist for now.

~Jason

 

[Lruce Bee]

Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet.

http://www.stokumsucks.com/story.html

About a tennager who predicts his best friends death exactly - great read.

Lruce

 

[theabyss]

I read a few good textbooks lately for example on social science, environmental science or HTML, which I could recommend. Or do you guys just want to keep this thread on novels etc.?