There was so much hype around this book, I just had to read it, and I really liked it. Book is about an astronaut being stuck on Mars and has to find ways to survive on his own (don't worry, this isn't a spoiler). It's basically Interstellar, Gravity and Castaway all meshed together. The writing style is a little amateurish, and the technical details are really lackluster for a real geeky sci-fi, but the plot is great, and I honestly couldn't put it down and finished it in two long reading sessions.

The Auschwitz Escape
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I really started to like historical fictions after All the Lights We Cannot See and this one was great as well. The protagonist is fictional, but a lot of the plots were actually based on real historical events, which made the stories that much more enticing. The whole book is mostly just one linear story, which is a nice change since most novels these days tend to develop multiple characters across different timelines simultaneously.

Reading:
Untamed State
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Some rich girl getting abducted or something like that.

Next
The Invention of Wings
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Just Read
Untamed State
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Really didn't like this book, I don't even know why I finished it. This is definitely a "chick" novel, too much emphasis on love, relationships, and emotional distress. The book is basically divided into two halves, pre-kidnap and post-kidnap. Both parts equally boring. I thought it was going to be more of a survival book, but really, the kidnapping was just a convenient medium to carry out the main plot: how families deal with crises. The kidnapping passages are extremely weak and crude, interlaced with useless flashbacks that add nothing to the characters. The book mostly relies on readers' sympathy towards the plight of the main character, and everything is just too contrived. Overall, a pretty fucking terrible book.

Landline
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This is also more or less a "chick" novel, but it's was a much more pleasant read. Mostly about the challenges faced by a family with a career-driven female and a stay-at-home dad. And a magic landline that dials into the past before their marriage (not a spoiler, don't worry).

I mostly read this book because I like the author, who wrote Eleanor and Park, which was something I really enjoyed. Didn't like this one as much, but still good.

Reading (book #7 this year)
The Invention of Wings
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Just started, page 1

KillerSOS

United States4207 Posts

March 17 2015 00:38 GMT

#286

Just finished [image loading]

Loved it, finally a fantasy book where the main character isn't a baller wizard.

Currently reading: [image loading]

Not sure if it gets much more depressing than this..

farvacola

United States18838 Posts

March 17 2015 00:43 GMT

#287

Sledge's book is way better than Leckey's, I'll tell ya that. Shit's real dark though, you got that right lol.

Surth

Germany456 Posts

March 17 2015 08:38 GMT

#288

Just started with

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If I ever were to write a book about Foucault, I'd call it "Society Must Be Attacked" just to be cheeky. much mre readable than the archaelogy of knowledge, at any rate.

Also downloaded
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and

dmnum

Brazil6910 Posts

March 17 2015 14:41 GMT

#289

Reading The Divine Comedy(slowly, one Canto a day), Hobsbawm's Age of Revolutions, Mankiw's Principle of Economics and Augustine's Confessions.

Plus a bunch of Tributary Law which is awesome and infuriating at the same time.

Carnivorous Sheep

Baa?21244 Posts

March 17 2015 14:44 GMT

#290

On March 17 2015 08:50 GhandiEAGLE wrote:
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Interesting so far. Was confused initially, but now I'm used to the pace of the book and I'm enjoying a lot more than I was.

Worst book ever.

dmnum

Brazil6910 Posts

March 17 2015 15:16 GMT

#291

I don't think I've ever seen anyone who finds Morrison to be just ok, it's always shit or brilliant.

bookwyrm

United States722 Posts

March 17 2015 17:16 GMT

#292

let me know how that DeLanda book is, I've never been drawn to read it

GhandiEAGLE

United States20754 Posts

March 17 2015 17:21 GMT

#293

On March 17 2015 23:44 Carnivorous Sheep wrote:

Show nested quote +

Worst book ever.

I can be confident that if you hate it that vehemently, it's probably worthwhile.

Carnivorous Sheep

Baa?21244 Posts

March 17 2015 17:25 GMT

#294

If you say so.

Aerisky

United States12129 Posts

March 17 2015 19:54 GMT

#295

Thought it was ok, pretty interesting but eh. HS curriculum had it for one of the years. The whole magic realism shebang was sort of cool but also sort of weird

Surth

Germany456 Posts

March 18 2015 00:34 GMT

#296

On March 18 2015 02:16 bookwyrm wrote:
let me know how that DeLanda book is, I've never been drawn to read it

I'm not expecting an awful lot, I feel like DeLanda has already fired most of his ammo with 1,000 years and everything else he writes is just kind of an addendum to that text.

nunez

Norway4003 Posts

March 18 2015 16:45 GMT

#297

i finished things fall apart, by chinua achebe. they don't make balls like okonkwo balls anymore, that guy had a massive pair of balls. bonafide arfican tribesman who has a firm grasp on manliness, works hard, gets the women, kills his favorite son, chops the head of some imperialist pigdog, then hangs himself instead of being captured and killed. great book.

i gave up (again) on madness and civilaztion by foucault, i think it's hard to understand at times, but interesting when i do, so i will probably continue again after resting my noggin for a while.

finished post office by bukowski, i am going to read more bukowski for sure. funny and easy to read. felt like taking a warm bath after attempting madness etc.

now reading slaughterhouse 5, and i am particularly pleased by the tralfamadorians take on the human geometry.
i hold the same conviction, and it was a load off my mind to ground it somewhere, because so far it has only been
met with nervous laughter, and the changing of subjects. with the tralfamadorians on my side i stand a better chance.

bookwyrm

United States722 Posts

March 18 2015 16:52 GMT

#298

On March 19 2015 01:45 nunez wrote:
i finished things fall apart, by chinua achebe. they don't make balls like okonkwo balls anymore, that guy had a massive pair of balls. bonafide arfican tribesman who has a firm grasp on manliness, works hard, gets the women, kills his favorite son, chops the head of some imperialist pigdog, then hangs himself instead of being captured and killed. great book.

lol yeah basically, I just taught this maybe I will send your review to my student

dmnum

Brazil6910 Posts

March 20 2015 15:26 GMT

#299

Holy shit the ending of the French Revolution chapter in Age of Revolutions gave me chills. Not only is the book good, it has much literary merit.

Inkblood

United States463 Posts

March 20 2015 17:51 GMT

#300

The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch
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Like the other Gentlemen bastard books I had some problems with this one. The flashbacks had a better story than usual, at least. Scott Lynch when he’s doing well is an amazing author to read. But it feels like there are elements that drag his writing down a little. He seems to have pulled back on the multi-page descriptions of random bits of architecture though, which is good.
Minor spoilers + Show Spoiler +

But one thing dragged down the book for me. The fact that this book was really about Locke and Sabetha, and Sabetha was just a really unlikable character.

The Thousand Names by Django Wexler
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Good military flintlock fantasy. The battles were cool and the ending was a good conclusion to the story while leaving plenty of things open for future books. This book was lacking something though. I can’t quite put my finger on what’s missing. There wasn’t as much of a connection with the characters as I would have liked, I guess, but I felt it went deeper.
At any rate, I thought this book was a good read, especially if one likes military fantasy.

The House of the Four Winds by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory
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Oh my god. Spare me from this misery. Please.

First of all, romance books aren’t quite my cup of tea, but I can enjoy them. This was not one of them. (It should also be noted that the romance was badly handled, imo.)

The main character, who is supposed to be a master swordswoman, only uses her sword like once, I think. For something that looked like it was supposed to be a swashbuckling book I was disappointed by that.

There were several parts where the writing made things so unclear that I wasn’t sure what was happening. The characters were two dimensional at best. The main character was a little interesting at first, but lacked personality and a connection to the reader. The main antagonist was just a freaking caricature of an evil witch. And there were other problems, but I don’t want to go into all of them.
Overall, it was just bleh.

The House at Pooh Corner by A. A. Milne
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I’ve always loved the Winnie the Pooh movies, and I’ve had this book sitting on my bookshelf for some time, never really having the motivation to pick it up. Oh, boy have I been missing out.
This book is hilariously witty, smart, charming, and interestingly enough, rather melancholy and sad at the end.