Flights of Fantasy discussion

I just finished a reread of the Spells, Swords & Stealth series. Not sure what’s next.

What about you?

So far I've read Fellside which I didn't like, Never Die which I enjoyed, To Be Taught, If Fortunate which was just ok, The Ten Thousand Doors of January which was really good, and This Is How You Lose the Time War which was fine but I don't get the hype surrounding it.

I'm reading Artful. It takes some characters from Oliver Twist, such as Fagin and the Artful Dodger, and turns it into a vampire story.

Interesting idea, but I'm struggling somewhat with the writing style which, according to some reviews, tries to mimic Dickens. I've never been a huge fan of Dickens...

I'm working on getting caught up on my reading goal. I'm currently 20 books behind (well, 19 once I shift The Innocent Man off my CR shelf to Read.) In September so far, I've read:
Original Gangstas: The Untold Story of Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, Tupac Shakur, and the Birth of West Coast Rap which was fantastic

Maybe I Should Just Shoot You In The Face which was... disappointing, and not a cohesive collection.

Fellside which I liked OK, but missed the mark a bit for me.

Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick which was amazing and eye-opening and anxiety and stress inducing.

The Bat which was... OK, but generally felt like a first novel in a whole lot of ways.

The Grownup which was really excellent writing, but the twist was a bit disappointing. But it's still recognizably Flynn because of it.

I finished The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town last night, late, so a review will be coming. We shall see what my brain decides about the book as I write the review, but as of right now, I'm leaning toward 3-4 stars. It was compelling, & well-researched but I had some issues with the writing and tone of the book more than a few times. But still... the story it told was... unbelievably fucked up, so I guess that snark and shit aimed at the prosecutors and judicial system is somewhat justified. We'll see what comes out in the wash of my review brain. LOL

Upcoming:
Twelve Years a Slave - I have had this on my list forever (and actually own a copy buried in my shelves, AND borrowed a KU ebook copy, which I returned unread, and now have borrowed a library audio version read by Lou Gossett Jr), and I'm determined to finish it finally.

Shook One: Anxiety Playing Tricks on Me - Borrowed this from KU. I saw him on Trevor Noah talking about this book and I decided to read it, so here I am.

Career of Evil - the 3rd book in the Cormoran Strike series.

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry - another one I've had on my shelves for a while, and figured that I might try something a bit lighter for a change. LOL

Exit West - if it comes in from the library in time

Ok. Now I want to read that Original Gangsters book

Ala wrote: "Ok. Now I want to read that Original Gangsters book"

It was really good! :D

Any of you ebook readers out there... I just discovered the Kindle app has "Word Runner" - which is where it flashes each word on the page at you, so you don't move your eyes, the words move for you. Supposedly it's more efficient and helps us read faster, but I tried with the intro to Shook One and it's not working for me. I don't know if it's the text (maybe a different book would work better) or if it's the app, or maybe it's just me.
Has anyone tried to read this way?

I remember a demo from that years ago which was cool but haven't tried an actual book yet. Might be fun.

Yeah, I like it in concept, but maybe it's just this book that it wouldn't work well with. Lots of slang and fragmented, you know, sentences and shit. lol

I tried it on a random fantasy book from amazon and it flowed really well until it got to weird Fantasy names. Then my brain would crash trying to make sense of the name and I'd lose my place.

September's been a little better than my usual, but mostly because I finished a couple of books from last month.

Finally finished Gardens of the Moon after at least three false starts over the years. The ending was great, but an 11th hour save does not redeem an otherwise tedious book. On the plus side, I feel I can continue the Malazan series with a clear conscience having finally filled in the check box on this one. 2 stars.

Northanger Abbey, Lady Susan, The Watsons, and Sanditon: one of my non-SFF reading projects is to read some books by 19th-century women. Austen's my first author in this project (George Eliot's next) and everything of hers I've read so far has been "very good" or better. 4 stars.

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (audio): I loved Martin Freeman's performance of this long-time favorite. His version of Marvin is so good! 5 stars.

Currently reading a couple of fairly slow-moving books...

Jade War is different from Jade City, and not necessarily in a bad way, though at times it's very easy to put down.

Blackout (audio): this book veers wildly from a languid "neighborhood story during war," to frantic, presumably comedic scenes of the time traveling characters trying to do [x] and being thwarted (often needlessly) at every turn. I'm enjoying the former; the latter are a strain on my nerves.

Beth, I have Middlemarch on my ancient TBR, so if you want a buddy for your George Eliot read (and that's the book you were going to read), let me know. :D

I finished The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry last night, which was good... but I feel like something I can't quite put my finger on was missing. I liked it, overall though.

Becky wrote: "Beth, I have Middlemarch on my ancient TBR, so if you want a buddy for your George Eliot read (and that's the book you were going to read), let me know. :D"

Aw, thanks, Becky. I've still got about half of Austen's works yet to go, but I'll hit you up on this later on. Middlemarch is a huge beast of a book and it would be nice to have some support with it!

Yup, perfectly fine! I am in ZERO rush - just throwing it out there that I can buddy up with you when you're ready. :)

Becky wrote: "Any of you ebook readers out there... I just discovered the Kindle app has "Word Runner" - which is where it flashes each word on the page at you, so you don't move your eyes, the words move for yo..."

Just noticed these posts. I thought that speed readers didn't read individual words, but blocks of words, or even full sentences (or paragraphs?) at once? I am no speed reader (completely the opposite) but I'm pretty sure this wouldn't work for me. But if it works for some people out there, all to the good.

Beth wrote: "Becky wrote: "Any of you ebook readers out there... I just discovered the Kindle app has "Word Runner" - which is where it flashes each word on the page at you, so you don't move your eyes, the wor..."

Yeah, I think actual human speed readers effectively "skim", by which I mean that they take in large chunks at a time, rather than individual words quickly in succession. But I don't think that this is necessarily designed for actual speed readers, but more for slower or average readers who want to read faster, without all the work of learning proper speed reading. (ME!)

I think I am going to keep trying word runner though. I think it could work for me, at least for some books. I have astigmatism, and my eyes get tired more quickly these days (though that has improved since my lasik since contacts aren't drying them out on top of everything else lol) but I think reading that way might be easier on my eyeballs.

Blackout (audio) defeated me at about the 1/3 mark. I just couldn't. Parts of it were good, and parts of it were stressing me out in a literal way. Oh well, maybe I'll be able to read or listen to it without free-floating anxiety after I retire.

On to Mansfield Park (also audio) which is kind of a downer: the main character is shy and retiring and she's surrounded by jerks. :P

Bauchelain and Korbal Broach (paper): this is a collection of three novellas set in the world of Malazan. Funny, gruesome and satirical. One of those books that I can't think of a single person I would recommend it to even though I'm enjoying it myself.

The above was a distraction from Jade War which has some great moments, but for the most part feels like chipping away at a (pre global warming) glacier.

I read To Be Taught, If Fortunate, which I really liked, overall, but I'm a bit torn about the ending.


Now I'm reading Muse of Nightmares, the sequel to Strange the Dreamer. Here's hoping there's a bit more plot and a bit less '10 page descriptions of kissing' in this one...

Read some Firefly books. Pure nostalgia.

You can't take the sky from me...

Hey so...we doing a book for October?

Felina wrote: "Hey so...we doing a book for October?"




:D

Read Sourdough over the weekend. Wonderfully chill little slice of life story.