While She Knits - Whatcha Been Reading?

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

I've been in a bit of a reading slump lately. How about you?

Have you read something recently that you'd like to recommend to others? Tell us about it.

Comments

[ibmiller.livejournal.com]

Been reading a lot of comics, as usual. A mediocre effort by Greg Rucka for a Dragon Age video game tie-in called Magekiller, and a really good collection of one-shot adventures by Warren Ellis in the Secret Avengers series called "Run the Mission, Don't Get Seen, Save the World".

As I posted a bit ago, I found out that Elizabeth Moon is releasing a new book in the Vatta series called Cold Welcome in 11 days, so I've been rereading the first five books. Halfway through the second, Marque and Reprisal, after finishing the first, Trading in Danger. Highly recommended.

Read a very funny science fiction novel called Aye, Robot, by Robert Kroese, the sequel to another funny novel called Starship Grifters. Almost Pratchett-esque, though science fiction rather than fantasy.

I'm also half-dreading the new Netflix series of Anne of Green Gables (the wikipedia summaries for the episodes make it clear that it's trying way to hard to be dark and gritty), so I've been listening to the radio drama of the first book.

[ninedaysaqueen.livejournal.com]

I just finished I Woke Up Dead at the Mall. It's as good as it sounds. XD I'm reading The Martian at the moment which is also a lot of fun. It's an interesting, fresh take on the whole one man survives against all odds in the wilderness trope.

[freenarnian.livejournal.com]

I recently finished Leigh Bardugo's Grisha trilogy, and while they weren't my favorite books ever (the story was too clichéd), her writing is entertaining (as I discovered reading her Six of Crows duology) and I appreciated the depth of her world-building. It's very multicultural compared to most fantasy settings, and I particularly liked the Russian flare in her people/place names, and in her descriptions of food and clothing, etc.

Plus, she's a fan of MWT, and I was pleased to see that nice little promo blurb she did for the new cover of King of Attolia!

I'm still halfway through Ron Chernow's Hamilton biography. In my defense, it is a Very Large book with Very Small print. But I love biographies, and this one inspired the musical that's getting so much buzz lately, so I'm invested in finishing it. (Here's hoping I can splurge on a ticket while the show's playing in Chicago...)

Aside from other less stimulating texts I'm reading for various reasons, I'm enjoying my re-read of KoA, and editing my own book (slowly but surely).

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

My favorite recent reads are both non-fiction, and both by the same author: Alex Soojung-Kim Pang's THE DISTRACTION ADDICTION and his newest book REST.

I would highly recommend THE DISTRACTION ADDICTION to those who enjoy social media but sometimes feel overwhelmed and even overworked trying to keep up with it all, and/or people who fret about not being able to get any Real Work done because they keep getting sidetracked by e-mail, text alerts, cat videos, etc. Pang has some very practical and balanced suggestions about reframing our perception of the tools we use to communicate, and putting healthy limits on them so that they work for us instead of causing us stress.

REST is a great companion to the earlier book, but also stands on its own as an argument in favor of taking deliberate, active breaks from work on a regular basis and how it actually increases your creativity, happiness and productivity. I was amazed and encouraged to see how many great writers, scientists, mathematicians, politicians and other busy people got their best work done in a matter of 3-4 hours a day with ample time for walking, reading, naps and exercise, rather than pushing themselves to work for long stretches without a break (which actually yields worse results in the end, both in terms of health and the quality of the work being done). There's a lot of scientific data in this book, but it's presented in a very approachable way with a minimum of jargon. As I said on Twitter, I'd love to give a copy of this book to all the stressed-out, overworked writers I know who can't understand why the chapter they stayed up all night to work on has to be thrown out the next day...

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

I've been enjoying Zanda Myronde's posts on Patreon. (https://www.patreon.com/zandamyrande/posts)

[frosted-feather.livejournal.com]

I've discovered my first (and only) webcomic called "Noblesse" which is very addicting. A story about an immortal who wakes up after 800 years asleep in the modern age, who is awesomely powerful but a very gentle soul and confused by modern technology. His sidekick/servant is a sassy guy named Frankenstein who kicks butt and laughs at his enemies (never will I associate that name with the monster again.) Everyone is gorgeous in this full-color comic, and there is humor, though a lot of knock-down, drag out fights between good guys, bad guys, and bad guying turning good.

There are 450 episodes, and the artist/writer duo have been releasing it once a week (for free!) for 10 years.

Okay, now back to writing for me.

[jenn hilgeman (from livejournal.com)]

I've been in a bit of a reading slump myself lately, so I can relate. I have, however, read a few good things recently that I can share. I don't normally read much contemporary fiction, but when I do, it's probably written by someone from Australia. There must be something in the water down there that makes them churn out so many quality authors. Anyway, I managed to get my hands on an e-galley of Cath Crowley's Words in Deep Blue, which I have been looking forward to reading for ages. It did not disappoint and had such lovely thoughts on the nature of life, death, and love, and the power of the written word. Made me wish I had a used bookstore to hang out at like Howling Books. You also can't go wrong with her Graffiti Moon, which I've been meaning to reread.

I am currently reading Laini Taylor's Strange the Dreamer, which I actually hadn't planned to read at all, as I had issues with the third book in her Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy (not that there was anything wrong with the writing per se, but I disliked some elements of the plot). I am liking it a great deal so far. The world-building is excellent and Taylor's writing style has a lush, fairy tale quality to it. Plus, you can't go wrong with a delightful main character like Lazlo, a librarian who dreams of adventures.I find myself having a lot in common with him.

[smallsotong.livejournal.com]

Having read Ursula Vernon's Digger webcomic (diggercomic.com) for the thousandth time, I finally sprang for the printed version. It has a wombat and gods and prophetic slugs, and is lots of fun.

Not much

[live-momma.livejournal.com]

I'm reading Summer in Orcus by Ursula Vernon and re-listening to Android's Dream by John Scalzi.

I've been listening to a LOT of podcasts in my spare time lately, which has cut into my reading time. I've added 4 German Language or German Learning podcasts, and I've been listening intensively to the archives. I'm planning to cancel my Dish Network tomorrow, and have been listening to select Cord Killers eps as research. I always enjoy Penn's Sunday School, Ice Cream Social (NSFW!), Hidden Almanac, and Talkin' Birds.

Late to the party...

[rosaleeluann.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if I'm in a reading slump or if life is just getting in the way. Maybe both? But mostly life, really. I have a toddler, we're shopping for our first home, and I even occasionally have work.

That being said, I have been working my way through the All the Wonders podcast while working and am really loving it. It helps to have a host that is so enthusiastic about kidlit.

I recently finished the Newbery winner, The Girl Who Drank the Moon. I liked it, but didn't love it. As an artist, though, it was wonderful--there were lots of great images in it, and I couldn't resist the urge to sketch some.

I've been meaning to put together a black-and-white/middle-grade section for my portfolio lately, and I've been trying to find recent-ish (last decade? last 5 years is better) MG novels I could illustrate for that purpose, SO, if anyone happens to read this and has any recommendations, I'm all ears.

[manderelee.livejournal.com]

I have been very busy with school lately, so most of the books I'm going to mention are from earlier on in the year. It's actually really unfortunate that I got so busy this time around, because there's so much activity in the QT fandom, and I feel like I'm missing out, and then I have to force myself to miss out, because it's too sad to see all the activity and not be involved.

Anyway, at the turn of the new year, I did a reread of Queen of Attolia. It's been some years since my last reread, and I forgot much of what happened. It's awesome how I come to have almost the same reaction with regards to Attolia though -- how I go from hating her to rooting for her. I thought knowing what happened, I would have gotten a different reaction.

I also read both books in RJ Anderson's Uncommon Magic duology, which are really really good! Just last week, the first book was in the Top Picks section in Indigo and I ended up buying it, even though I was supposed to look at the new editions of QT.... (Speaking of Indigo, they used to shelve QT in the middle grade section, but I now find them in teens. It reminded me of when the Eagle of the Ninth movie came out, and the books with the old covers were in the children's section, and the one with Tatum's face on it was in the teens. Hehe, that's marketing for you.)

I also read a book called "The Reader" by Traci Chee. I have very mixed feelings about it. I think I wanted to like it so much it got frustrating when it wasn't catering to my tastes, hahaha.

I read a non-fiction book called "The Geek Heresy" by Kentaro Toyama, and as a computer science student, I think this is the only thing I've read recently that really gets past the hype of recent technological advancements and observe how they're actually affecting society. It's not pessimistic, but I think when you're surrounded by tech fanatics all the time, getting a non upper-middle-class-North-American perspective on tech is quite sobering. I highly recommend it!

I also finally got around to reading the sequel to Howl's Moving Castle, called "Castle in the Air." Gotta admit, I wasn't as impressed, though I did like Abdullah.

I'm now making my way through KoA. It's my most reread book out of the 4, but the last time I read it was 2014, so it's good to refresh my memories of it.

I'm also reading "The Girl Who Drank the Moon" and Brandon Sanderson's novella, "The Emperor's Soul."

And yeah... that's about it. Like a few of the others above, I'm also working on my own writing, which I really need to get to now that I impulsively signed up for Camp NaNoWriMo.