What are you currently reading?

[Riev]

https://www.robertgryphon.com/

https://www.robertgryphon.com/pages/beta_readers.html

Obligatory post about a good man, attempting to write a new style of sci-fi fantasy novel. He's doing a weird thing where he wants... beta readers. He's already done most of the copy, he is more looking for people's subjective views on the book and its themes.

This man was behind the pretty decent William H Macy movie "The Cooler" and was also my boss in college for a few years.

If you're looking to read something different, give it a try!

[Fathi]

This is an article not a book, but oh my good god damn what a gripping read.

https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/the-talented-mr-khater/

When 23-year-old Callie Quinn moved from Texas to Chile, she counted on finding a beautiful country, meaningful work, and interesting friends. She had no idea she’d set off a manhunt for an international con artist. 

[Brytta Léofa]

SOME OF THE BOOKS I WANT EVERYONE TO READ:

A Canticle for Leibowitz (Walter Miller)
The Chronicles of Narnia (CS Lewis)
The Dispossessed (Ursula Le Guin)
Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card)
Gates of Fire (Steven Pressfield)
The Hobbit (JRR Tolkien)
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (Susanna Clarke)
Lila (Marilynne Robinson)
The Long Winter (Laura Ingalls Wilder)
The Lord of the Rings (JRR Tolkien)
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (Robert Heinlein) (shuddup I always cry at the end)
The Ocean at the End of the Lane (Neil Gaiman)
The Once and Future King (TH Whyte)
Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
Space Trilogy (CS Lewis)
Watership Down (Richard Adams)
Till We Have Faces (CS Lewis)
The Violent Bear It Away (Flannery O'Connor)
A Wizard of Earthsea (Ursula Le Guin)

What's your list?

[Kol]

Recently finished re-reading the Wheel of Time series for the third time.

So I started re-reading the Sword of truth series, up to book four already, after about 3 weeks.

[RogueGunslinger]

My list:

Stories of your Life and Others (including the "others" short stories they are great)
Senlin Ascends
Dark Matter
Borne
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Leviathan Wakes/The Expanse series
The Blade Itself/ First Law series
Game of Thrones series.

And somewhat reluctantly... Name of the Wind

There are honorable mentions, like Enders Game/Shadow. Codex Alera series. Old Mans War. Tuff Voyaging series. Hatchet. The Count of Monte Cristo. Cats Cradle. And the Drizzt DoUrden series. But they arent really on my list for reccomending.

 Theres also a book I read in middleschool about this kid in a gang in a city, he rides a train at the end and his friend dies in a gang fight.  Wish I could remember the name or more details, but that book always stuck with me because it made me cry.

[Kol]

There are honorable mentions, like Enders Game/Shadow. Codex Alera. Old Mans War. Tuff Voyaging series. Hatchet. The Count of Monte Cristo. Cats Cradle. And the Drizzt DoUrden series. But they arent really on my list for reccomending.

How the hell do you not find the Drizzt series good enough to recommend? I do so every time someone asks me about a fantasy series worth reading. By Far one of the greatest and well written series ever, and if it encourages someone to get into P&P, even better.

[RogueGunslinger]

I mean. In a way I reccomend everything there. I just enjoyed them more than I think they are something that must be read.  Damnit now you are making me question myself.

In retrospect the only book I feel absolutely must be reccomended here is Stories of your life and Others. I want people talking about and discussing Ted Chiang because that man is a fucking genius.

Everything else is just stuff I really enjoyed and theres some recency bias.

[Kol]

I mean. In a way I reccomend everything there. I just enjoyed them more than I think they are something that must be read.  Damnit now you are making me question myself.

In retrospect the only book I feel absolutely must be reccomended here is Stories of your life and Others. I want people talking about and discussing Ted Chiang because that man is a fucking genius.

Everything else is just stuff I really enjoyed and theres some recency bias.

Honestly, I think if you enjoy a book, really enjoy it to the point you find it hard to put down, or re-read it again just because the first time was that good, it's a book worth recommending.

That's why I always recommend Where's Wally to anyone I can.

 

[Akaramu]

How the hell do you not find the Drizzt series good enough to recommend? I do so every time someone asks me about a fantasy series worth reading. By Far one of the greatest and well written series ever, and if it encourages someone to get into P&P, even better.

I recommend it every time someone wants to learn about writing good sword combat scenes.  As for personal enjoyment... Catti-Brie annoyed the heck out of me and I don't even remember why. Maybe because I had a crush on Drizzt, who knows... I loved the earlier books though. Also <3 Entreri.

I also recommend the War of the Spider Queen (also by Salvatore) whenever someone wants to read a great Fantasy with evil protagonists. Speaking of which... has anyone here read it? I'd think that well-written evil protagonists are something most any Armer can appreciate.

[Kol]

How the hell do you not find the Drizzt series good enough to recommend? I do so every time someone asks me about a fantasy series worth reading. By Far one of the greatest and well written series ever, and if it encourages someone to get into P&P, even better.

I recommend it every time someone wants to learn about writing good sword combat scenes.  As for personal enjoyment... Catti-Brie annoyed the heck out of me and I don't even remember why. Maybe because I had a crush on Drizzt, who knows... I loved the earlier books though. Also <3 Entreri.

I also recommend the War of the Spider Queen (also by Salvatore) whenever someone wants to read a great Fantasy with evil protagonists. Speaking of which... has anyone here read it? I'd think that well-written evil protagonists are something most any Armer can appreciate.

I have! Love any book by Salvatore, but out of any Character he's written about, Jarlaxle is by far my favourite, more so than Drizzt. He may be a self-serving bastard, but he does it with style, and in a manner you can relate to most the time.

[Bogre]

[Cind]

The books made me fall in love with Lord of the Rings and Tolkien's universe in a way that the movies did not.

The books are, if you can believe it, better than the movies.

I'm going to try to read Dragon Age and see where the series takes me. I bought two books from it, because I liked Dragon Age: Origins and heard that wasn't the best of the games.

After you read the LOTR series and then watch the movies, the movies have this odd sense of feeling 'rushed' in parts, although that isn't the case if you watch the movies first, which mostly I think is a result of good directing.

[Brokkr]

I just finished Godsgrave, second in the Nevernight Chronicle.

If you are looking for a book with slave gladiators, I would recommend this one.

If you are looking for a book about drovian assassins, I would recommend both books.

[Akaramu]

Thanks to whoever recommended the Name of the Wind a while back! The first few chapters didn't grab me, but the rest did.  On book 2 atm.

I really like how it includes a female character who is 'realistic' and neither a damsel in distress nor a sword-swinging female Conan. Also her dialogue is awesome. <3

[boog]

and i'm crying like a gat-dang baby

[IntuitiveApathy]

I just read this speech by Jerry Springer of all people.  He gave a commencement address to his alma mater, the Northwestern School of Law, and it kind of blew my mind:

Forty years ago this week I sat where you now do, degree in hand, the prestige of this great law school on my résumé and, perhaps immodestly, a real sense of achievement in my heart, but no sense of what my future would be or if in fact there would even be one.

Please understand, I was not alone in my uncertainty — for this was 1968, and America was unraveling.

Our cities were burning, and Vietnam was beckoning. Martin Luther King Jr. had just been assassinated, Bobby Kennedy was about to be, and within a few months and a few miles from here, Chicago would explode around the dysfunction of the Democratic National Convention. I remember thinking that our sheltered existence at law school, however prestigious, seemed totally detached from the chaos that consumed the world outside.

There were 190 of us in my graduating class, and believe it or not, only two of the 190 were women. Of the 188 men, only one was African American. As a class we were too white, too male and too privileged. And though it certainly took too long to change, what comfort it is today to look out at all of you and see the racial, gender and ethnic diversity that really is America.

But as happy as I am to look out and see all of your faces, I understand there are a number of you who aren't too happy to see mine.

To the students who invited me — thank you. I am honored. To the students who object to my presence — well, you've got a point. I, too, would've chosen someone else. But once asked it would've been kind of arrogant, or at least unappreciative, for me to have said "no." So, here I am.

I've been lucky enough to enjoy a comfortable measure of success in my various careers, but let's be honest, I've been virtually everything you can't respect: a lawyer, a mayor, a major market news anchor and a talk show host. Pray for me. If I get to heaven, we're all going.

Let's assume that your prime discomfort with me is based on the ethics of what I do for a living. Well, that's a fair question, worthy of a serious response. I can tell you with some confidence that you, too, will likely deal with these very same ethical considerations, no matter what path your career takes.

Surely, in every one of my chosen professions there were ethical "red flags" rising virtually every day. When I was Cincinnati's mayor, there were two or three issues I really wanted to focus on. But how much would I compromise on other legislation just to get the votes I needed on my priorities? And how much pandering would I do to the voters, rationalizing that if I didn't get re-elected I wouldn't be able to get anything done?

Then for 10 years I became a journalist — perhaps the most ethically challenging profession of all. You see, I knew that 90 percent of what's in the paper or on the television news, we don't really need to know. And yet, how often do we go with a story anyway because it will make a great headline, sell papers or drive up ratings, even if we know it might embarrass or hurt the business or career or family or reputation of the person we're reporting on? That is a daily ethical question that I can tell you is almost always ignored.

And then, of course, there is my profession now as host of a crazy talk show. Well, at least I can rationalize that the show is only open to those who really want to be on it, and they get to choose the subject matter, what is revealed and what must not be revealed. Even with this I grapple with ethical questions.

What about the career most of you will be choosing, that of an attorney? Think of the ethical issues you will have to deal with. Will you work for a corporate client who perhaps is polluting? Will you walk into your senior partner's office after having been asked to prepare a memorandum in support of this client's case and say, "I'm sorry, I'll have to leave and find another place to work," and then explain to your family why there won't be a paycheck coming in this month?

I'm not suggesting that these moral dilemmas don't have answers. But what I am saying is that whatever you plan to do with this diploma, the ethical questions will never stop.

Welcome to life. Unavoidably, you will all join me on this witness stand of conscience, trying your best to figure it out — never perfectly but, hopefully, always sincerely.

It is perhaps inevitable that we are inclined to always judge others. But let me share this observation. I am not superior to the people on my show, and you are not superior to the people you will represent. That is not an insult. It is merely an understanding derived from a life spent on the front lines of human interaction. We are all alike. Some of us just dress better or have more money, or perhaps we were born into better circumstances of parental upbringing, health, brains and luck.

On this great day when we honor your achievement, we might also say thank you to God in full recognition that whatever we achieve in life is 99 percent a gift.

Life is a gift — as is living in America. And I know that from personal experience. You see, I am not the first lawyer in my family. My dad's brother was. His practice was cut short, as was his life — in Auschwitz. My grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins — they met their end as well in Chelmno, Theresienstadt and in camp after camp, Hitler turning my family tree into a single vine. Mom and Dad, by the grace of God, survived, enabling them to bring my sister and me ultimately to America.

With four tickets on the Queen Mary, January 1949, we sailed into New York Harbor. In silence, all the ship's passengers gathered on the top deck of this grand ocean liner as we passed by the Statue of Liberty. My mom told me in later years (I was 5 at the time) that while we were shivering in the cold, I had asked her "What are we looking at? What does the statue mean?" In German she replied, "Ein Tag, alles!" (One day, everything!)

She was right. In one generation here in America, my family went from near total annihilation to this ridiculously privileged life I live today because of my silly show. Indeed, in America, all things are possible.

So as we honor your achievement, may it be for you as it was for me, "Ein Tag, alles!" One day, everything!

Thank you for having me.

Jerry Springer (L68) is the host of the Jerry Springer Show, which is produced in Chicago

[roughneck]

I audiobook, because I drive a lot.

I'm audiobooking about enneagrams right now.

[Marauder Moe]

I had gotten a bit frustrated with the Ancillary Justice series because it started off as a scifi epic about spaceships and cyborg-AI but slowly transitioned to some sort of Futuristic-Victorian-Punk drama where antique tea sets feature heavily in the plot.

This spinoff actually continues the trend, with much of the story revolving around collectible historic party invitations. 

However, as an audio book, it's soothing rather than frustrating.  The voice actress is pretty good and has a great range.  I think the books also benefits greatly from a new cast of characters, as the main character from Ancillary Justice pretty much finished her character arc in the first book and didn't grow much at all in the sequels.

[boog]

and i'm crying like a gat-dang baby

I finally finished this. I had to take breaks and only read a chapter at a time sometimes. It's hard, when you know the story, to accept that what you know's gonna happen happens.

The amount of love that this author poured into the work was just amazing. I was truly, truly awed by the way she depicted the love between Achilles and Patroclus. I felt like at the end it rushed a little (she didn't mentioned how many days Achilles dragged Hector's corpse around, for instance, but I can't blame her too much, considering the shift in POV), but I still would give it a solid 5/5 stars.

I JUST finished it now and I'm crying like a fucking hungry child.

I'm gonna get to reading Circe now, which is her follow up of a sorts. Seriously though, this is a great, great book written by an adept author.

[Cind]

I was able to read a little bit of Circe, it was good. Classic mythology, told in clipped modern prose. Definitely a new style. Mostly it was the part where Circe was asking another goddess about the god-killing species of plant, and she became so angry that Circe never mentioned it again, but it had intrigued her because she thought she could find uses for it.

I'm kind of sure Circe was the goddess who convinced Ulysses and his band of men to stay on her island for a year when they were searching for the golden fleece, but I could be wrong.

I'm on the hunt for something nice to read. I want a dose of LotR first though.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

... Jerry Springer ... address ...

Wow.

[Cind]

What do you like to read?

I like history, biographies, sci-fi, romances, western. All my top picks are sci-fi. Nothing like adventures in space.

[Fathi]

Mother Horse Eyes is a series of Reddit comments made over the course of a year that, when combined, form a novel with many complicated sci-fi and horror plot threads. It’s some of the best free fiction I’ve ever read.

[Bogre]

Blackwing, by Ed McDonald.

A cast of characters that could be ripped from Armageddon, really. The lead is the captain of a put together mercenary company, sarcastic, self-serving, gritty, alcoholic, distrusting of power, nobles, and magic, but with just enough 'fuck it, gonna do what's right' to make him really interesting. A lot of parallels with the wastelands of Arm, the 'rinth, skullduggery, and nobles who are at some nasty, nasty plots. Very engaging read and I'd highly recommend for any Armer.

[Barsook]

Dark triumph by Robin LaFevers