Book Lists 2021 Book • Page 5

Almost every single time we've moved, books/bookshelves was the first thing we'd unpack haha

 

Quick David Gemmell update, the Greek series might be my favorite yet. Dark Prince is just extraordinary.

 

As you can see, my collection is… about 500 books less than it used to be. I’m not in love with these shelves holding the books, but it’s what I’ve got now.

 

I need toys/knick knacks/models... Those really liven up the shelves. I really like the way those Funko pops look. I've gotten my sister a whole bunch of Stephen King related ones but never got any for myself. Mine are just straight books.

 

I've always thought they looked cheesy in the boxes, but really like how they look on the shelf. It also helps that I'm pretty selective with the ones I end up with (gifts notwithstanding).

 

I'm going to pretend I'm the one who told you to read David Gemmell. I don't know if that's actually true, but it might as well be, so I'm running with it—because this kind of response makes me really proud, haha.

Definitely agree on the maps thing. I'm a sucker for ancillary information in fantasy books—notes, maps, arcana, indices, whatever—but I always thing a map is nigh-essential for any kind of book like this. But, you know, that's a pretty minor quibble.

Doesn't surprise me: I love that book.

 

His books are usually one epic in one book, but Dark Prince broke that mold by being two complete epics. It was insane. I was reading on my kindle and didn't have the progress bar on so I literally thought I was reading the end and I still had like half the book to go. And I was thinking the whole time, damn too bad he never wrote a third one because I want to know what happened with Alexander, and little did I know it was all there. I broke down when Parmenion finally got to learn the truth for Derae. So beautiful.

 

Update:

Totally forgot to update my list here. Feel free to ask questions about any of these and I'll try to be better about updating.

2021 List
1. Rhythm of War - Brandon Sanderson
2. Different Seasons - Stephen King
3. Beartown - Fredrik Backman
4. The Adventurer's Son - Roman Dial
5. How Much of These Hills is Gold - C Pam Zhang
6. Babylon's Ashes (Expanse #6) - James S.A. Corey
7. The Painter - Peter Heller
8. Different Seasons - Stephen King
9. Toll the Hounds - Steven Erikson
10. The Rape of Nanking - Iris Chang
11. Later - Stephen King
12. Ready Player Two - Ernest Cline
13. Real Life - Brandon Taylor
14. The Winter Fortress - Neal Bascomb
15. Needful Things - Stephen King
16. The Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead
17. The Greatest Beer Run Ever - John "Chick" Donahue
18. The Only Good Indians - Stephen Graham Jones
19. Missionaries - Phil Klay

 

How are you feeling about Malazan? I feel like Toll the Hounds is when his writing takes it to another level. What did you think of Needful Things and The Only Good Indians?

 

Oh I love Malazan, it's just very dense and I need to read things inbetween. You can certainly tell his writing gets stronger as the series goes along.

Needful Things was great, although it took me a little while to get into it. Once you get past the setup and into the action though it was very entertaining. King so very rarely disappoints me.

The Only Good Indians was pretty brutal but I enjoyed it quite a bit. The premise is a little strange haha, but I'm not one to shy away from weird books.

 

Haven't updated in a while (and slacked on reading a bit over the past couple months as well.

Caste is the best non-fiction book I've read in a long time. It can be tough subject matter, but I'd wholeheartedly recommend it to just about anyone.

Lolita was my book club's pick last month, and I thought it was great. Beautiful, evocative writing (and I loved catching all the lines the Menzingers have quoted in their lyrics).

I thought Lisey's Story left something to be desired in the plot department, but I really liked it as a meditation on age, memory, legacy, and trauma. Basically, it's all the good and sometimes not so good of later career King. I did love the formal trick of writing the present in past tense and past in present tense.

Killers of the Flower Moon was a pretty quick but really good read. A couple of the reveals hit really hard and I can't wait to see how Scorsese adapts it.

 

Yeah you've got nothing but unbelievable heartbreak and nonstop intensity for the last few Malazan books, so prepare yourself. I know I've bugged you with this a million times but you really should read the ICE books. So many characters from Book of the Fallen have their final arcs in ICE books. There's also a giant death that you might already know about that happens in ICE that's important in BotF.

Needful things is like the apotheosis of King small town stories with big casts for me. Love that book.

The thing that I found so fascinating and terrifying in The Only Good Indians was the way he switched to second person to describe the villain's perspective. I haven't seen that before and it worked really well.

 

Would it even make sense to read them after finishing BotF?

 

Absolutely. It will fill in gaps and his story ends after BotF. It’s not ideal, following the suggested order is obviously the best way to go, but you’ll still get a million questions answered and a whole other great selection of stories.

also his books are the only ones that go to Assail. And if you’re anything like me and have been studying the maps you’ve been dying to go there

Oh and I’m not sure if it’s obvious but I’m talking about his series that starts with Night of Knives. I think its loosely referred to as Novels of the Malazan Empire. Not his prequel trilogy, which is great, but would be read after the other series, and imo after the unfinished Karkanas books from Erickson

 

Updated.

Started Veronica Roth's "Chosen Ones" and it was so bad I abandoned it. Started Christopher Paolini's "To Sleep In A Sea of Stars" and realized I wasn't in the mindset for hard sci-fi (though it was starting off really good!), so I switched to fluff reads for a bit.

Currently reading Nicholas Eames' "Kings of the Wyld" and it's an absolute blast.

 

Update for June and July.

June: At the Earth's Core was fun, I'm a sucker for a good ERB adventure and it didn't disappoint. I read the second Pellucidar book in July and it delves (ha) into the world a lot more. Lots of Rick Riordan stuff spread over these two months, good stuff, I'm enjoying them on audiobooks. The first Magnus Chase book was pretty good and I'm about halfway through the second now. My reread of Way of Kings was great, it's nice to be back in Roshar after a long time away. Sanderson's Dark One graphic novel came out (the first volume) and I really liked it, I think it's a better GN foray than White Sand (which I also liked) and I'm looking forward to the rest of the story. Arslan was good too, no surprises there.

July: More Rick Riordan, as mentioned. Finished my first readthrough of Meditations. Absolutely fantastic piece of literature, highly recommended, and one that I'm going to come back to frequently. Yoruga was fun, I don't have as many opportunities to speak Spanish as I'd like so it was gratifying to see that I'm still fluent, haha. Tears of the Anaren is probably the finest work of science fiction ever penned, so that was a treat. Kill or Be Killed is great, not my favorite Brubaker/Phillips but that might change. Kimi ni Todoke is solid. The final two Marvel comics I read were pretty disappointing, some good ideas but mostly a lot of nonsense haha, so I was reading them for completionism only. Oh well, I've got some good comics lined up for August.

Pretty solid couple of months overall. In August I'm doing some more Rick Riordan, finishing up the Hyperion Cantos, more ERB, Words of Radiance, a couple new fantasies I picked up recently, and some great ongoing comics series (Monstress in particular). Should be great!

 

Monstress is my favorite fantasy world that I've read in comics. So consistently heart-tearing and beautiful.

 

Absolutely agree. And it's up there with top fantasy worlds in any medium. I'm about halfway through the series at present and savoring every issue. I know it's one I'm going to be rereading and collecting, particularly because the artwork is so gorgeous.

 

It just keeps getting better and better. I've been caught up for awhile now and it's always the comic I'm most excited about. It also comes out like crazy fast and consistently, especially considering how beautiful the artwork is and it's always the same artist. It will be a sad day when it ends, which I hope isn't anytime soon.

I feel like any of the fantasy fans on here that haven't dipped their toes into comics really need to give it a go.

 

To say that I had a very mind-numbingly boring project at work that allowed me to listen to audiobooks non-stop for the entire month of July may be selling it short... nothing amazing. A lot of fluff reads. Mostly pure entertainment and a lot of MG.

Currently reading Rick Riordan's Norse trilogy, then hard pivoting back into a little more involved stuff again, haha.

 

I need to get back on the book train. Since having kids a few years ago it’s been much easier to listen to music as an active hobby while entertaining the young ones. I feel like we’re in a place again where I can start to dedicate more time to reading. Any recommendations? I know this is incredibly vague but I honestly don’t even know where to start. I thought about going down a 100 greatest novels list just to knock some classics off the list but idk, I’m interested in some modern classics as well. I do have a stack of books I’m going to try and finish this month…

Making Movies by Sidney Lumet

Angels by Denis Johnson

The End of Policing by Alex Vitale

Watership Down by Richard Adams

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

A Clockwork Orange by Alex Burgess

Caste by Isabel Wilkerson

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf


Tbh I’m trying to squeeze in some more fiction between the social justice/history books. Those can be mentally punishing and I find myself walking around pissed off a lot. So fiction recs are mainly what I’m looking for

 

Update:


2021 List
1. Rhythm of War - Brandon Sanderson
2. Different Seasons - Stephen King
3. Beartown - Fredrik Backman
4. The Adventurer's Son - Roman Dial
5. How Much of These Hills is Gold - C Pam Zhang
6. Babylon's Ashes (Expanse #6) - James S.A. Corey
7. The Painter - Peter Heller
8. Different Seasons - Stephen King
9. Toll the Hounds - Steven Erikson
10. The Rape of Nanking - Iris Chang
11. Later - Stephen King
12. Ready Player Two - Ernest Cline
13. Real Life - Brandon Taylor
14. The Winter Fortress - Neal Bascomb
15. Needful Things - Stephen King
16. The Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead
17. The Greatest Beer Run Ever - John "Chick" Donahue
18. The Only Good Indians - Stephen Graham Jones
19. Missionaries - Phil Klay
20. To Sleep in a Sea of Stars - Christopher Paolini
21. Dust of Dreams - Steven Erikson
22. Blacktop Wasteland - S.A. Crosby
23. The Lost City of the Monkey God - Douglas Preston
24. Persepolis Rising (Expanse #7) - James S.A. Corey
25. Billy Summers - Stephen King
26. The Last Green Valley - Mark Sullivan
27. The North Water - Ian McGuire

 

Lost City of the Monkey God is so good

 

What u think about Sea of Stars and Billy Summers?

 

I loved Billy Summers. I think it's his best book of the last several years. I would love a full book of King writing a war novel. Sea of Stars I enjoyed but I did have a few qualms with it, mainly that I think it was too long and got a little stale in parts.