What are you reading?

[heresytrash 250]

Currently reading a Darker shade of Magic series by V.E. Schawb. Her last book of that series comes out next month, and honestly I can't wait.

 

[Mephistopheles 38]

I just recently finished reading The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchinson. It is the first book in a new series called the Collector Trilogy.

[Jigsaw9 6783]

Currently reading Aldous Huxley's The Devils of Loudun, and it's pretty great so far. It's kind of a historical non-fiction novel dealing with demonic possession / witchery in a 17th century French town, but also has surprisingly long and in-depth passages about the workings of various faiths and philosophies of the time. I dunno if everything in here is 100% accurate but the guy sure seems to have done his research! Very interesting read.

[patientZERO 1066]

I'm almost done with Brian Keene's Pressure. The ocean scares the crap out of me and I like Keene's other works, so I was sure this would be awesome. It's an interesting mix of biological thriller and techno horror. The first half was slow and the second half has played out like a Crichton novel, but less science-y. It's a bit predictable, but I'm hoping the last 40 pages blow me away.

[gen-shoku 13]

Right now I'm re-reading Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto. I read it a couple years ago and I saw it in the wrong section at the library and figured I should read it again. Both stories in this book have a strong element of grief. Even when it's not directly stated, it's always felt in the tone, the words, and the characters' responses to the events that happen afterward. Her style never feels melodramatic, which I value. I enjoy subtlety in emotions, and trying to understand the combinations of factors internal and external in creating quiet inner storms. Of the two stories in this book, I think the first has the more interesting characters while the second has the more unusual plot. The second features some supernatural elements, but the author delivers them in such a way that it becomes believable that this could happen in everyday life. The characters are all a little strange, but grief and loss do strange things to people. I recommend it both to those who haven't read it and to those who already have. 

Edited January 16, 2017 by gen-shoku

[jiangshi girl 8]

Just began reading Robin Hobb's The Liveship Traders, it's an old series I always wanted to read, finally borrowed them yesterday. I hope it's a good story.

[Visutox 188]

Currently reading Gardens of the Moon (The Malazan Book of the Fallen, #1) by Steven Erikson. I love it, it's so intense and at the same time such an intriguing reading. I don't regret buying it, it's really captivating as hell.

[patientZERO 1066]

 

On Sunday, I started reading My Best friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix based on some recommendations through Goodreads. I'm honestly enjoying it and flying through it, though it's a bit of a slow burn so far. I'm a sucker for "coming of age" stories and I love myself some horror. And being a product of the 90's helps as well. It has some weird bits that feel very YA, though where it will be a page or two of pictures of what's being written about and it started out like a yearbook, but it hasn't really kept that theme very much. Odd presentation, but engaging writing so far.

[Jigsaw9 6783]

On these currently:

 

Interzone by William S. Burroughs: An interesting mixture of early writings leading up to his wild Naked Lunch era. Begins in a clean matter-of-fact style employed in novels like Junky or Queer and gets progressively weirder by the end, foreshadowing (and even kind of bleeding through to) Naked Lunch. It's an okay collection of bits and pieces so far, just what I was expecting (tho I think I'll just continue to stick to his novels).

 

Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald: This is my first novel from this author, so far so good. The novel chronicles the life of an American doctor who fell in love with and married one of his mental patients, living the high life with a circle of rich friends, but of course their fate and relationship gets progressively worse/complicated. I'm about 2/3 through, and expected a bit more from the story, but the writing style is nice and just about manages to hold my interest.

Edited February 2, 2017 by Jigsaw9

[Tokage 5930]

Three Moments of an Explosion by China Mieville. I still hold that the man only truly shines when writing full-length novels (or at least stories that cross the 30 page boundary), but I just can't say no to his surreal and always decidedly original New Weird fiction. Definitely worth checking out so far, but check out his other works such as The City & The City, the Bas-Lag series or Kraken first.

[L'air 15]

Just right now finished third book from "Merde-series" by Stephen Clarke (Merde actually), if you like make some fun of a little stereotypical view about french-british "going-on-together" - I really recommend the series  The next one, which I'm reading is "Psychology of change" by Mateusz Grzesiak - Polish personal development coach - is about how to use different types of knowledge from dozens of disciplines to become a "people helper" and to make their life easier, better, to wake a inside motivation. Quite interesting

[Jigsaw9 6783]

Ritualistic Human Sacrifice by C. V. Hunt: Managed to breeze through this one in a day, it was so entertaining. An ominous horror story with a darkly erotic (and at times nauseating) vibe, presented in a straight-forward nicely paced style. Fun fun fun. Will probably look up more of the author's work later...

 

Kedi mektupları (Letters of Cats) by Oya Baydar: Just started on this one. Actually a friend lent this to me and it's something I probably wouldn't seek out on my own cuz the protagonists are cats, and as much as I love cats in real life, I haven't read a good novel with animal characters in my adult life, so yeah. We'll see.

Edited February 6, 2017 by Jigsaw9

[allisapp 303]

 For the past month I have started reading books again, which feels so amazing, I have missed this! I have been reading mainly non-fiction stuff,  mainly about communism, North Korea and stuff. Yesterday I finished Ji Li Jiang's Red Scarf Girl  and now I am reading Micael Dahlén's Monster. 

 

From library I also got Petri Sarjanen's Sahara - Palkkasoturi  Per Andersson and Harry Parker's Anatomy of a Soldier.

Edited February 6, 2017 by allisapp

[For my dears 58]

I've been 'trying' to read Dune by Frank Herbert again, but I just can't get to like this book. I've just finished A Wizard of Earthsea and it's great. I've also been re-reading Kafka's The Trial.

[Jigsaw9 6783]

On 2/6/2017 at 8:48 PM, Jigsaw9 said:

Kedi mektupları (Letters of Cats) by Oya Baydar: Just started on this one. Actually a friend lent this to me and it's something I probably wouldn't seek out on my own cuz the protagonists are cats, and as much as I love cats in real life, I haven't read a good novel with animal characters in my adult life, so yeah. We'll see.

 

I found myself being less and less interested as the pages passed by, so dropped this altogether. Meh.

 

Also recently finished Asleep in the Sun by Adolfo Bioy Casares, which was a quick and interesting read! With a bit of tweaks here and there I could totally imagine David Lynch or maybe Denis Villeneuve (or some European arthouse director) adapting this into a surreal unsettling movie. Mystery and suspense lurking in the background, quirky dark characters and some unexpected humor. It was everything I could have wanted in 200 pages.

 

On the topic of 'currently reading', I'm about 1/3 through Patrick Ness' young adult novel More Than This. I admit, I've been struggling a bit with the actual 'current' plot of the book, while finding the flashbacks much much more intriguing to read ... but it figures I guess, since most of the story so far is a guy being alone in a weird empty world, lol. Things are starting to pick up though, so I'm curious what it'll all transpire to in the end.

 

I've also just begun dipping my toes into Paul Auster's latest gargantuan novel, titled 4 3 2 1, apparently featuring the multiple 'could-have-been' lives of a guy born in the mid-20th century, featuring autobiographical elements and whatnot. Seems like a daunting read (it's 860 pages of zipping back and forth between parallel narratives!), but if nothing else, it's evident from the first 30 pages that Auster still knows how to elegantly deliver his thoughts... so I'm hoping it'll be a pleasure to read.

[patientZERO 1066]

Most recently, I was flying through Ronald Malfi's Floating Staircase and was really digging what was going on. It's got a very J-horror-esque vibe to the first half of the book. The MC, Travis keeps seeing remnants of a ghost(?) child that reminds him of his past lost brother: children blocks left on the table, wet footprints, a handprint on the wall. Then he finds out that the house he moved into belonged to a family whom lost a child at the same age of his deceased brother. But about 60% of the way through the book, it's turned into more of a detective story as Travis is trying to uncover the truth behind the family's past. The other characters are a bit unbelievable as his wife passes off the strange happens as if they're no big deal. A child's handprint appearing out of nowhere on the wall is not a big deal? How about the blocks that just appeared stacked on the table while your husband wasn't home?

I'm still holding out hope that it has a bette finale, since I really like Malfi's Snow (if you want something to read that's creepy during the winter, I highly recommend it), but as of right now, nothing really scary has happened since about 40% of the way in.

[GLASSCLOUD 38]

The City & The City by China Mieville.

[gekiai 231]

Okay so someone convinced me to read a YA novel for the first time in roughly 5 years...Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir.

 

It's in a universe with many similarities to the Roman Empire, told through the point of view of a girl from a low class and a boy who is training to be a warrior (though wants to escapes). The obligatory romance is oh, so predictable.

 

50 pages in and it's okay. Only okay. I guess if nothing pulls me in by about 100 or so more then I'll drop it.

 

Woohoo for POC YA authors tho. 

Edited February 24, 2017 by gekiai
context is important.

[Visutox 188]

Started reading The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, I'm really enjoying it so far. 

[Gaz 1097]

Battle Royale by Houshun Takami and Men Without Women by Ernest Hemmingway.

[Jigsaw9 6783]

Slowly making my way through a Hungarian edition of Charles Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal. #2edgy4me #zetsuboufeels

 

Also somewhat slowly savouring the wonderfully weird The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. Finished the first volume out of the three, so I'm taking a bit of a rest because it's quite a tiring read, haha. Packed with all sorts of conspiracies, all presented in a twisted post-modern style. Can't say it's not entertaining though.

[Tokage 5930]

been workin my way through Glue by Irvine Welsh. The usual fare, really; cynicism, black humor, thick accents, lowlife characters.. Took me a bit longer to get into than some of his other novels (like Marabou Stork Nightmares or Filth,  p much my favs so far), but I found myself enjoying it nevertheless. 

[Visutox 188]

Since I had my reading of The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún by J. R. R. Tolkien on hold because of The Da Vinci Code (which I finished today and really appreciated reading, I definitely don't get all the hate and the criticism it received), I'm gonna resume my reading and try to enjoy it. I'm not very familiar with poems so this will be quite a good exercise in order to get used to them and try to appreciate them.

Edited April 16, 2017 by Visutox

[Jigsaw9 6783]

^ Hey, The Da Vinci Code is pretty good imo! (then again, I read it ages ago)

 

Right now I'm reading the Hungarian translation of The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe, his only novel apparently. I'm still not halfway through, but it's pretty entertaining so far. Seems to be a sort of sea-faring adventure story, hoping it'll have some spooky bits later (seeing as how Lovecraft references an element of this story in one of his most iconic writings iirc).

 

Also, I'm still on dat Baudelaire and the Illuminati bros, just letting them (or, rather, me) breathe a bit for now. I can only take a few poems at a time (gotta savor them properly!), while the latter's first volume was quite an exhausting read, so I'm gearing up to begin part two soon. xD

Edited April 16, 2017 by Jigsaw9

[platy 3018]

I finally picked up something that isn't academic research!

 

'The Widow' - Imagine a thriller/mystery like 'Gone Girl' and 'The Girl on The Train'. After her husband's death, the widow can finally reveal the truth about their life. I can't stop reading, it just hits the fucked up little spot in my heart for murder mysteries.