Book Lists 2021 Book • Page 3

Updated through February. A good month, overall. I'm excited to see where The Dark Tower goes now that it's moving out of the world-building stage, and "The Two Towers" was also a good read.

"The Loop" and "Lakewood" were both books that had a compelling story, but I ended up liking the ideas more than the books themselves. "The Auctioneer" had a lot of potential for me, but it seemed like there was a good bit of anti-socialism fearmongering in it and it bogged the book down for me. I did sneak in "The Night Will Find Us" yesterday and really enjoyed it. It was a fun, lighter spooky read. It's definitely a debut novel, but I'm excited to see where Matthew Lyons goes from here.

For non-fiction, Jemar Tisby's "How to Fight Racism" was fantastic. Whereas "The Color of Compromise" was about the history of the church's role in systemic racism in America, this book is the practical guide to what Christians can do about it both on an individual level and an institutional level.

After "The Waste Lands" and "The Return of the King", I have a good stack of library books to get through and a lot of extra time as I'm in between jobs for at least a couple of weeks (just waiting for an out-of-state background check to clear before I start at my social work job). I have Silvia Moreno-Garcia's "Gods of Jade and Shadow" and Evie Green's "We Hear Voices" on my coffee table; any recommendations are welcome!

 

February update.

Mountains Beyond Mountains was a really interesting read now, as we're in the midst of a massive public health crisis.

Lost In the Funhouse was wild in the best way. Barth is a master and is basically just showing off for most of these stories, each more inventive than the last.

I thought the first half of The Secret History was pretty incredible, but I felt like it set up some interesting ideas that it never pursued in the second half. Specifically, since the first person narrator is an admitted pathological liar, I was fully expecting it to explore the idea of unreliable narration or something like that. The end is propulsive and heartbreaking, just more straightforward than I thought it would be.

 

Updated with my measly February list, though Way of Kings could technically be like 3 books lol.

 

Update. Good month of reading. Finished reading a Welsh grammar book and I'm counting it as a novel achos gallaf i wneud beth dw i'n moyn wneud haha. Finished the Shannara series with The Last Druid and was very, very satisfied; will probably post more thoughts in the fantasy thread. More Tom King Batman, still great. Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man was good too, I like the more hometown/local focus of this run to contrast with the worldwide/big arc stuff (also good). And I'm thrilled Spider-Woman is back in a series of her own, and this first volume was killer.

 

Most of the stuff i've read has been Graphic Novels. Drifting Classroom was actually a little underwhelming the more it went on but Fire Power seems to be going somewhere. Enjoyed LOTJ but it was more world-building. The ending made me more excited for the plans though. Currently reading Leviathan Wakes and i'm really into this journey.

 

I've been wanting to get into Gideon Falls, what's it like?

 

I've read the first 3 in the Expanse and Leviathan Wakes is definitely my favorite so far.

 

It's really good actually. Some pretty gruesome/terrifying scenes but also some really obscure writing. Had to read it a few times to understand some of the timeline but it really worked well when read together.

Thought i'd jump in after the TV series finished there and can't stop picturing the characters now! Looking to see where it all differs.

 

Doooo it.

I've only read the first three, admittedly, but it's wonderful. The combination of gruesome and terrifying scenes and obscure writing (perfect @GBlades) is pretty well done. Some awesome stuff with timelines and physical representations of madness and the format of the medium. Read it!

 

Pretty much sums it up. Really glad I read it. Definitely recommend it!

 

Yeah Gideon Falls is pitch perfect horror that sticks a fantastic landing. A must read.

 

Ok gonna start with horror related stuff. Hasn't been a stellar year thus far as far as my choices go. You Are Invited and There's Someone inside Your House were both fine, but over all fell a little flat. Gone to see the River Man was just bleak. Wounds however fuckin ruled. Usually don't go for a short story collection until I'm out of novels from an author, never read a collection from someone unknown to me, but goddamn I'm glad I did. There's also a movie on Hulu with that cannibal in it. It's pretty good. Dead Lies was hella zombie fun, billed as Punisher meets the Walking Dead. Loop was fucking wild. Like seriously. If you've seen the Ring movies and think you have any idea where the books go you are in for a giant surprise. Some of the craziest concepts since Three Body Problem. A very, very different series than the films. Children of Red Peak was another one that I thought ultimately fell flat. It had a lot of moments I liked, but there were a little too many "character moments" for characters that I didn't really give a shit about. Honestly though I don't remember what my main issue with it was, lol I read too much. I hadn't read a quote/unquote eXtReMe horror book in a while and figured I'd pop one in with the Teratolgist. I might be done with that genre. I had my fun though. Leave the World Behind was good, I did rather enjoy that one. Gwendy's Magic Feather was good...but I'm glad that King will supposedly be back for the third one. I hated Black Chalk. And although I'm a huge fan of Stephen Graham Jones, I did not like the Least of My Scars. I saw what it was going for, but I just didn't dig the journey.

Onto Fantasy, The Poppy War fucking rules. Everyone who reads fantasy needs to read it. Even if you don't. Fuck it. Make this the one. It has everything. I didn't really like the first Thomas Covenant story, but I believe I'll be returning at some point since there are so many of them and I always love a long series. And then it's all Drenai. Goddamn this series is exactly what I needed. I have absolutely loved every book, some more than others, but every single one is solid experience. Looking forward to reading every damn one of them. My favorite so far is the pre-Drenai Saga book, Knights of Dark Renown. It's a full epic in one book. Very similar to the feats that Priory of the Orange Tree accomplished.

Sci Fi is where I eventually found my favorite reading of the past months, but it took awhile. First of Gemina was great, got the last book and I'm pumped to read it. Then I landed on a little something called the Gap Cycle. I was warned that you had to get past the first two books before you really started enjoying it. The reason for this is the first two books are filled to the brim with r*pe and all sorts of abuse, physical and emotional. On one character. And it's tough. And if you don't want to read it just because of that I certainly wouldn't blame you. Anyway, the final book in the series is one of the most epic things I've ever read. I was on the edge of my seat for all 700 pages. Just utterly spectacular space opera (eventually). Oh and I read Starship Troopers, it fucking sucked. Besides the fascist lectures, it's also boring as hell. I'll stick with the movie on this one.

For comics I know I've said it before but I'm going to say it again, if you've read all the Dark Tower books but haven't read the comics, then you don't have the full story. There is so much more of Roland's younger years and lore on the Dark Tower and Prim. They're just wonderful. I'm past that now, into when they started adapting the books. Doing an excellent job, but obviously not as exciting as new stories. And New Avengers rules. I love Bendis.

 

I just finished There's Someone Inside Your House and felt the same way. After they revealed the killer halfway through the book, it felt like the energy dropped. That being said, I do feel the same way about this that I felt about the Scary Stories movie: nothing amazing, but I wish there had been more horror content at that level when I was a teen.

 

RE: Someone Inside Your House it's been like 4 years since I've read it so I don't remember a ton but I can understand these sentiments. It definitely seemed like once the killer was revealed it was mostly "I saw him here" run after him and he gets away cat and mouse type of thing for awhile. The final showdown was kinda weird and happened in like a large dumpster or something though right?
Also I just started Batman Eternal Volume 3 today so I should finish that up this week and then plan to read Clown In A Cornfield next week(I believe both of y'all rec that and enjoyed it right?) and am looking forward to it.

 

Yeah! I thought Clown In A Cornfield was a lot of fun. I hope you enjoy it!

I think for me, I was ready for something in the vein of Scream where there's more than one killer or the real killer got David to take the fall for them instead of ending the way it did. Overall, it was still a fine book, but I think I could have enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed CIAC if it had a different third act.

 

Am I wrong about the final showdown happening in a dumpster?

 

I think it was the barn where they were able to save the last victim (but Alex was killed) and then into the cornfield, but it might have spilled into a big dumpster?

 

I have already read more this year than I did all of last year. It feels good.

January/February

1. A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab
2. No Is Not Enough: Resisting Trump’s Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need by Naomi Klein
3. The Ages of Globalization: Geography, Technology, and Institutions by Jeffrey Sachs
4. Us vs Them: The Failures of Globalism by Ian Bremmer
5. A New Foreign Policy: Beyond American Exceptionalism by Jeffrey Sachs

March

6. Fences and Windows: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Globalization Debate by Naomi Klein
7. American Slavery: 1619-1877 by Peter Kolchin

 

Starting White Vault today

 

March/early April update. A slightly slower reading month for me.

The Yankee Years was a solid read during spring training to get excited about baseball again.

I was really excited for Imaginary Friend after seeing some early praise, but I ended up thinking it was just alright. Some really good ideas and tense scenes, but there's a lot going on to the point that it can feel a little unfocused at times, and the climactic battle was really dragged out. It gets a lot of Stephen King comparisons, but it most reminded me of Joe Hill's NOS4A2, which I thought struggled in similar ways.

 

Turns out I hadn't updated this since the end of February.

Andy Weir's "Project Hail Mary" was excellent.

 

Check out Shipworm! It was really well done

 

I have it downloaded already. Was saving it for when I finished my next book.

 

VERY behind on an update due to who I am as a person. Gonna go ahead and call it for May because I likely won't squeeze in another book.

Some notes from the last few months:

• After getting 200 pages into Wizard and Glass, I'm taking a lil break from The Dark Tower. Reading two large fantasy sagas was a lot, so I'm going to focus on "lighter" stuff until I'm ready to hop back in.
• The Hollow Ones was a neat read. Excited to see where del Toro and Hogan go with what is basically a supernatural "Silence of the Lambs" series.
• I liked The Burning Girls a lot. I mentioned this last year with The Other People, but it feels like C.J. Tudor will bring in some supernatural elements and never really do anything else with them, and that problem was present here too. I wasn't ready for a big twist towards the end of the book that suddenly had me second-guessing how I'd been reading the book up until that point, so it gets a lot of points for that.
• Good Neighbors was ROWDY. It haunted me in the sense that I don't think it's something that could never happen.
• The Lost Village was fun. Very spooky and eerie, even though it's more of a mystery than straight-up horror.
• I liked Whisper Down the Lane a lot more than I liked The Remaking when I read that last year.
• Home Before Dark was well-written, but the reveal that it was actually the dead girl's mom the whole time felt very Scooby-Doo-esque and sort of knocked the wind out of the sails for me.
• Just wrapped up Goblin this morning and was very haunted by 5 out of 6 of the stories.
• For non-fiction, Becoming Brave was a great read about what it looks like for people of faith to stand up against racism and actually do something. Broken Horses was wonderful; I love Brandi Carlile a lot more than I already did after reading it.

Still got a big stack of library books to get through; any and all recommendations are welcome!

 

Random rec that I loved, Vigilance - Robert Jackson Bennett. Super quick read. Kinda like Running Man taken to the next level.