Book Lists 2023 • Page 4

February update.

Loved Stella Maris both as a companion piece to The Passenger and as its own story. I wouldn't be surprised if these were his final novels but I hope I'm wrong.

A Farewell To Arms was my first Hemingway. I had avoided him for years because the person who was probably most influential on my tastes hated him, and I think she was probably right. Didn't really enjoy his prose style or these characters much at all, and it doesn't help that I read a far superior World War 1 novel a few months ago. The ending was brutal and also maybe not what I wanted to read while my wife is pregnant.

And speaking of which, I'm working a few parenting/baby prep books into my reading as our due date gets closer.

 

Congrats on the new addition!!

 

Children of Memory was beautiful, heartbreaking, mind-bending. This series is a Sci Fi masterpiece. I don't love true crime, but I figured I should read Killers of the Flower Moon since we got that Scorsese flick coming. Horrific story I knew nothing about, thank you American History classes, always on the ball with the horrific shit we did. A well told story (here's one of my issues with non-fiction, I don't know how to talk about it, like I'm glad I read the book and it was written well, but I didn't "like" it.) except for the final bit where the author inserted himself, wasn't as compelling as the rest of the story. David Gemmell's Troy saga fucking rules. Just one more book and I'm done with Mr Gemmell forever. It's been a true pleasure.

Finally getting around to finishing American Vampire. It's kind of funny, it was literally one of the first comics I ever read, because the first book is co-written with Stephen King and I was reading everything King wrote. I loved it then, and Snyder has become one of my favorite writers in the interim, but for some reason I'd been holding off on finishing this one. It's been a great ride. I love it.

 

February's update. Another great month.

Novels:
- Fracture in the Qwisdeep was great, really loved it. It's nice to see that there's a compelling story beneath the quirky setting, and I'm excited for book three coming out next month.
- Leviathan Wakes was phenomenal and I'm eager to continue the series. Great choice for audiobook as well.
- Soulsmith was just as good as the first and I know a lot people say the third book is where the story really gets great, so I'm excited.
- Dark One was very interesting. I was a little bland on the first quarter of it or so—true crime podcasts are not really my thing—but as the plot continued to thicken and the worldbuilding came out, I was gripped. Excellent format for this kind of story, and I'm even more excited about future Dan & Brandon collaborations now.
- Press Here was charming, which is why I logged it.
- Daggerspell is 1000% my thing (traditional Welsh-inspired fantasy haha), and I can't believe it took me so long to read it. Will definitely be pursuing the series.

Comics:
Slower this month, but I've got a backlog I'm planning to work through soon. Not much to say; both were great, both are series I'll be continuing.

 

Did you ever read Tom King's Elmer Fudd one-shot? I know that sounds insane, but it's widely acclaimed as one of his best works. It takes Elmer Fudd and puts him in Gotham...it's even mentioned in the cannon of his Batman stories. I feel like it should have been collected with a Batman trade but they probably wouldn't do that.

 

Haha no I have not. I've got The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck from the library right now, but I'll do Elmer Fudd after that. Seems appropriate.

 

Updated for February. Dungeon Crawler Carl is ruling my life. Unhinged humor in an insane fantasy dungeon litrpg setting. Amazing find by my friend.

The Fountains of Silence was excellent, too. Ruta dabbles in YA historical fantasy and both I’ve read are good.

I’m three or four books away from embarking on Malazan. Hoo boy.

 

In Ascension is my book of the year, i'm sure of it.

 

Stumbled on this and figured it would be fun to keep track.

1. The Splendid and The Vile - Erik Larson
2. A Short History Of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson
3. To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
4. Chasing The Thrill: Obsession, Death, and Glory in America’s Most Extraordinary Treasure Hunt - Daniel Barbarisi

 

Might have lied. Justin Cronin's The Ferryman might be tied. I'm not sure and will have to sit with me. I really enjoyed this which is great because the Passage series was not good for me. It was great sci-fi which had me guessing and took a turn that i did not expect. Still stand by Brave New World meets The Truman Show but theres another comparison that may spoil it so don't want to mention.

Loved reading Stan Lee's biography from Danny Fingeroth and liked how it didn't shy away from controversies with Kirby etc. I'm adoring Berserk at the moment and like taking my time to read it.

Moving on i'll read Mark Lawrence's The Book that Wouldn't Burn which i got an ARC for and a few indie books. I'll continue Memory, Sorrow and Thorn which I hope to complete this year.

 

Updated for March because I doubt I'll read anything else this month. Great month for me in March! Some brilliant books and re-reads.

 

Fellowship!

 

Doing a re-read (listen?) of the books for my long car journeys. Listening to the ones by Andy Serkis this time and they are great! He does everything so well.

 

March update. Slow reading month for me for various reasons, so I only finished one book, but it was a great one.

 

Updated through this morning. Dungeon Crawler Carl is a masterpiece, haha. I've got the third del Toro book going, then on to Brandon's SP#2. Then Malazan.

 

how you feelin about the Strain?

 

the first is definitely the best, but it's very fun. reminds me of the passage a lot.

 

It has pretty satisfying conclusion too. I really dug the third book. I've tried to watch the show multiple times and I've never been able to watch it for more than a few episodes, it's not good.

 

that's good to hear! I'm a couple hours into the third audiobook. I was trying to remember if there was a show.

 

It has like lower end CW acting and writing, but with some great practical effects. I still want to finish it some day because I'm curious how they'll do the third book, since as I'm sure you've noticed shit has hit the fan.

 

March update. Lots of good reading this past month.

Dragons of Deceit was an excellent return to Dragonlance. I'm excited for the next book coming out later this year, and I'll likely be rereading a lot more of the older books. The War of Souls in particular was really formative for me and I want to revisit those books. The Titus Crow books are excellent—like if John Carter took the TARDIS to fight Cthulhu. Really excellent adventure/sci-fi/horror. And A Night of Blacker Darkness was excellently fun; nice to see that Cecil G. Bagsworth III was able to continue after this with Frugal Wizard's Guide, which I'm currently listening to. ;)

The Wicked + The Divine continues to be really exciting, particularly the art. Deltora Quest was fun; Grimm was campy and fan service-y, which is why I continue to read them. Spider-Man was a serious improvement over Nick Spencer's run and promises to continue to get better, so I'm loving that. And I'm glad I finally had a chance to read Scrooge McDuck. I've wanted to ever since Tuomas Holopainen came out with his solo album. The art and storytelling in these 12 issues are phenomenal. I need to buy myself a nice collector's edition when I have the chance. I've got the side tales collection waiting on my Kindle as well.

Good month, and April's looking good too.

 

I don't know what it is, like everyone is in agreement that Nick Spencer is writing shitty comics, but I end up loving them all. I'm not a big Spider-Man reader, but there seemed to be so much controversy surrounding that comic I felt like I had to read it, and like I didn't understand any of the deep lore that was a crucial part of it outside of reading summaries and whatnot, but yeah, ended up loving it. He writes those long, epic arcs I just love. And I've been keeping up with the new one, but don't like it that much outside of some stuff that's happening in the newest issues. I felt the same way about his heavily criticized Captain America run.

Also, have you read the Spider-man comic by J J Abrams and his son Henry Abrams? He does the "J J Abrams thing" to Spider-man...and imo it really works. My favorite Spider-Man comic I've read. (A quick google search makes it clear this also wasn't well received by Spider-man fans, so what the fuck do I know)

 

Yeah I definitely don't dislike the Nick Spencer run as much as everyone else haha, I just found that I was getting tired of it by the end. He had some great ideas for his Spider-Man run—Kindred, Absolute Carnage, Hunted, and the 2099 stuff were all aspects I really enjoyed. But like the last 20ish issues lost steam for me and I felt like it was time for a new writer to jump in.

But Dan Slott has been my favorite Spider-Man writer overall. The Superior and Spider-Verse runs were excellent. So everything since then has had high standards to live up to for me.

Haven't read the JJ Abrams one—I'll get to that right after Elmer Fudd lol. Sounds cool.

 

I was looking at that Spiderverse run and was thinking about getting into it because the Wells run hasn't been doing it for me, but I worried there might be too much background (I don't know anything about what the "spiderverse" is outside of the obvious context clues)

Also I binged Spencer's series until like there were 3 issues left, so I never had the to worry about getting tired of it

 

Re: binging, yeah, that can have a big impact on how well you enjoy a story sometimes for sure.

For Spider-Verse, you absolutely should read it. Probably my favorite single comics run ever. You'd probably be fine starting from the beginning—you'll pick up on stuff as you go along—but if you're willing to commit, read from Amazing Spider-Man #600 through the "Dying Wish" storyline (ends in #700), then do the Superior Spider-Man run. They're all done by Dan Slott, and Superior Spider-Man in particularly is really interesting (it's where I started) and sets up pretty much everything you'd need to know for the Spider-Verse stuff. But even if you just want to jump in with Spider-Verse, I'd say it's worth it.

Lemme know if you want more specific recommendations for those arcs. I read every single tie-in/crossover, so I can recommend some stuff.