Books You've Read 2016 (1 Viewer)

[DaveF]

2015 here:
http://hometheaterforum.com/threads/books-youve-read-2015.339186/


I wasn't good about updating the 2015 thread, but I do enjoy the thread and seeing what we're all reading.

But I'll start:
I finished The Milkweed Triptych trilogy tonight. "Bitter Seeds", the first book, was so boring in the opening chapter, I nearly quit before it had begun. But I stuck with it, and was hooked when the story proper began. It is a dark story of people doing terrible things for good and bad reasons. It ends strong. "The Coldest War" utterly surprised me in how it continued the series. At times it felt a bit longwinded, but its direction was compelling and the ending propelled me to the third. "Necessary Evil" suffered in the start from a sameness compared to the previous two, and lacking some of the novelty. But every chapter built, every element of story resolution satisfied. And it nailed the ending. It's not a sublime series, but I found it engaging and satisfying throughout. I can't recommend it as strongly as "The Last Policeman", because that was pretty amazing. And this series is less happy, less noble. But I liked it.
https://www.goodreads.com/series/53834-milkweed-triptych

And thinking of British-themed fantastical books, if you want something like and fun, "The Rook" is the way to go. The high concept pitch: Jason Bourne meets James Bond meets X-Men meets Fantasy. I listened to this a year or two ago and hoped there would be a sophomore novel. Posting this...there is!!! Oh happy day.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10836728-the-rook...

 

[Stan]

How about nothing, as terrible as that sounds.

A friend gave me a hardcover version of Ken Follett's "The Third Twin". Brand new, but not her style. Granted it's 20 years old, but I'll start it in the next few months.

Read a lot of Dean Koontz books last year, but kind of on hold the past month or so.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

I recently finished The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I was curious, since I loved the movie. The novel was quite similar for the most part, which was not surprising since the author of the book wrote & directed the film.

I'm currently reading this, which is as hilarious (and informative!) as the cover implies:

 

[Sam Posten]

Just started The Expanse series since the show was so good.

 

[atfree]

Received this for Christmas. Finished The Big Sleep, Farewell My Lovely and The High Window. Getting ready to start The Lady in the Lake. A great box set.

https://loa.org/books/401-raymond-chandler-the-library-of-america-collection-boxed-set

 

[Michael Fennessy]

Re Read books 1 and 2 of the Red Rising Trilogy in preparation for the third that came out last tuesday. I love it when I enjoy a book more the second (or third) time through. Excellent series for those sci fi / fantasy fans out there. And with this series inparticular, I think it falls under both sci fi and fantasy. Next up I think I am going to go for the Brad Meltzer series "The Culper Ring" I love conspiracy theory stories.

 

[DaveF]

Re Read books 1 and 2 of the Red Rising Trilogy in preparation for the third that came out last tuesday. I love it when I enjoy a book more the second (or third) time through. Excellent series for those sci fi / fantasy fans out there. And with this series inparticular, I think it falls under both sci fi and fantasy.

Good to hear. That's been on my to read list for a while.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I'm in the middle of Stephen King's latest short stories collection, "The Bazaar Of Bad Dreams" - I always like his short stories. For this particular volume, he's written individual introductions to each story, talking a little bit about what inspired each one, and I like those little touches.

 

[Michael Fennessy]

For this particular volume, he's written individual introductions to each story, talking a little bit about what inspired each one, and I like those little touches.

I have always enjoyed his "Constant Reader" notes

 

[Stan]

I'm in the middle of Stephen King's latest short stories collection, "The Bazaar Of Bad Dreams" - I always like his short stories. For this particular volume, he's written individual introductions to each story, talking a little bit about what inspired each one, and I like those little touches.

Love his short stories. I forget the title, something about a "Walk", but to this day, probably 25 years later, it's still creepy. I'll have to dig it up somewhere, but it was about kids walking, and walking, and walking. Sounds so mundane and I haven't read it in years, but really uncomfortable

 

[DaveF]

The Body, later made into movie Stand by Me?
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11574.The_Body
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092005/

 

[Aaron Silverman]

You're probably thinking of The Long Walk, one of his Richard Bachman novels (not a short story).

http://www.amazon.com/Long-Walk-Stephen-King/dp/0451196716

Interesting to consider the way this book foreshadowed a lot of dystopian YA stories (e.g., The Hunger Games or Battle Royale), decades ahead of them.

 

[David_B_K]

I have been making my way through Daniel Silva’s Gabriel Allon novels and am currently reading the 11th book in the series – Portrait of a Spy.

Because Gabriel Allon is an Israeli, and because the novels touch on Jewish history, I decided to concurrently read Paul Johnson’s A History of the Jews. This book was a bit of a slog. He gave an overview of history from Biblical times to the late 80’s. The thing that made it difficult was that it was divided into few chapters. A chapter would cover a hundred or more years. You’d be reading about someone or something, and he would abruptly move onto someone else. I can see why he did it that way, because had he divided the larger chapters into smaller chapters, you’d end up with chapters that in some cases would only be a couple of pages long. Still, it was informative and interesting to read about events with which I was familiar, but with an added Jewish dimension with which I was not.

Another offshoot of the Allon series for me was Ben McIntyre’s A Spy Among Friends: Philby and the Great Betrayal. I’ve long known about the Cambridge Spy Ring in general terms, but this was the first book I have read about it in any detail. It focuses on Kim Philby and some of the other agents with whom he worked and whom he simultaneously betrayed. He not only betrayed these friends – he was using them as a source of the information which he then relayed to his Soviet handlers. The main friends of Philby’s who are portrayed are Nicholas Elliot of MI6 and James Angleton of the CIA. Instead of simply detailing Philby’s activities, the author describes up how some of Philby’s colleagues were setting up operations and were then baffled that the Russians “seemed to know all about it beforehand” when the operations failed. One would think that someone would have figured out that Philby's own operations were failures and wonder if he was tipping off the Russians (he was), but they never do.

The author also points out the rivalry between MI6 and MI5 and how MI6 was something of an old boy's network of men who frequented the same clubs. MI5 seemed to be populated by working class officers, while MI6 seemed to be an exclusive club made up of Etonians who felt that treason was not possible among someone who had been vouched for as “our sort of people”. Even when suspicion fell on Philby after Burgess and McLean’s defections, the MI6 friends coalesced around Philby to protect him when MI5 (and the American FBI) were convinced of his guilt.

 

[DaveF]

"The Aeronaut's Windlass", Jim Butcher
Jim Butcher is best known for The Dresden Files, a long-running magical guy-noir series, starring wise-cracking wizard PI, Harry Dresden, living in contemporary Chicago (and if you're an audiobook listener, well known for James Marsters' narrations). Fans also know his Codex Alera series, an excellent hero's tale in the sword-and-sorcery vein. Both series have key similarities: the story is told from the perspective of the male protagonist, surrounded by secondary characters.

The Aeronaut's Windlass is a change in style for Butcher: the story is told from multiple viewpoints, both hero and villain, and women take strong, even starring, roles. Stylistically, it's Steampunk-ish, in an alternate "Earth" (of sorts) where humanity lives in Spires, navigates by airship powered by magical Etheric energy, and the surface is too dangerous for anything by necessary expeditions.

Having read both Alera and Dresden, I was both excited and anxious for the new series. I was hopeful for a new story by Butcher, but there's always the fear that this time it won't work out. And the opening chapter of Aeronaut left me cool. It was different, it didn't feel Butcher-y. I realized after a while it was the multiple characters and viewpoints that was so different. And he was devoting a good deal of time to setting up the world. But a third of the way in, everything came together. The latter portion of the book was a roaring action sequence, and had me listening at every opportunity!

Did I mention it has cats? Talking, warrior cats? Oh yeah. The cats are awesome!


Recommended.

 

[Northgun]

Just finished up "Fallout Equestria" by Kkat. This has been the best fictional book I have ever read, in fact the first one I've liked in ages. I was literally bagged by a good friend to give it a try and I am glad I did. I went and got the epub version of it, but their is a print version of it out there as well. Quite expensive though since only a few thousand were printed in each of the two runs they did of it. I plan on starting the next book soon.

It is of note to point out that my friend is not a brony. He enjoys post-apocalyptic books. If you think the "pony" theme will be an issue, don't worry, the story is so well done you will get past that quick. There are references to the show, but they are subtle. You don't need to know anything about MLP to understand what is going on.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

I never thought I would read a post that began "this is the best fictional book I have ever read" and continued with a discussion of My Little Pony.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I finished "The Martian" book recently. It's one of the few times I've read a book after seeing the movie version. And one of the few times where I've liked the movie more than the book. The book is by no means bad, but it was written by a first time author (apparently as a blog initially rather than as a novel), and its a clunky read. The story is phenomenal and shines through, but I think Ridley Scott and Drew Goddard are able to tell it better than Andy Weir is.

I also read William Shatner's new book about Leonard Nimoy, simply entitled "Leonard" - I found it to be a little uneven, which surprised me, as I've enjoyed all of Shatner's previous autobiographies. If you've read Star Trek Memories, Star Trek Movie Memories, and Get A Life, you've probably read all of the stories in here already. I enjoyed reading it, but didn't really get anything new out of it. The one thing that was surprising was that Shatner says at the end that they had a little bit of a falling out a year or two before Nimoy's death, and Shatner says he's still not sure what it was about. There's got to either be something more to that story that Shatner is leaving out, or something, because as described, it just doesn't make sense. Shatner seems genuinely warm towards Nimoy and his grief over Nimoy's passing seems real. If you've never read one of Shatner's Star Trek books, I'd recommend this, but if you've already read his other autobiographies, there won't be a lot new here.

I'm now reading a book on Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz and the making of I Love Lucy that's entitled "Desilu". Enjoying it so far.

 

[EricSchulz]

Just started "Devil In The White City" by Erik Larson, an account of the Chicago World's Fair set against the story of the first serial killer H.H. Holmes. Everyone in the bookstore said it was phenomenal. Scorsese and DiCaprio are hoping to film it. Anyone familiar with it?

 

[bujaki]

Just started "Devil In The White City" by Erik Larson, an account of the Chicago World's Fair set against the story of the first serial killer H.H. Holmes. Everyone in the bookstore said it was phenomenal. Scorsese and DiCaprio are hoping to film it. Anyone familiar with it?

My wife, a history major, read it. Recommended without reservations.

 

[EricSchulz]

And now I just found this!

A fantastic documentary on the World's Fair from "Devil In The White City"!