What are you reading? 2015 edition

[Peregrine]

I've been doing a lot of reading about Vietnam this year - always been a military history buff but for me Vietnam was the modern American war I knew the least about (even counting WW1!)

The Boys of '67: Charlie Company's War in Vietnam - Andrew Wiest Wiest really did his research here as he focuses on a single company and its battles and adventures through the Mekong Delta. Really detailed coverage of all the actions of this unit. He's interviewed a ton of the surviving members and also has a good bit of the struggles many of the men went through after the war with PTSD, etc.

Father, Soldier, Son: Memoir of a Platoon Leader in Vietnam - Nathaniel Tripp Tripp is really doing a memoir here, as his ongoing complex relationship with his father (and his fathers military experiences) are interspersed with his own fighting in Vietnam. I learned a lot about the kind of things combat platoons were asked to do, and Tripp served in many interesting places (I had never really heard of An Loc before for example.) The personal stuff with his father can drag a bit at times but overall I found this well worth reading.

Kontum - The Battle to Save South Vietnam - Thomas Mckenna This is a great read as it takes what is a pretty obscure battle to most Americans (part of a major NVA assault in 1972, the Easter Offensive) and really gives a good understanding of it. The North Vietnamese's first major conventional attack, supported by tanks, rockets, and artillery, tried to take advantage of a "Vietnamized" war in which most US units had left the country. But military advisors, including the author, were there and took part in fierce fighting around Kontum to turn back a huge assault with air strikes and South Vietnamese (ARVN) units. The Arc Light close air strikes using B-52s dropping tens of thousands of tons of bombs at a time were particularly effective!

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

You kidding me? Words of Radiance came out, what, a year ago? And he provides frequent updates (that show actual progress) on his website.

Plus technically half those books are in the same universe and are all part of the same 'epic series'.

I did agree that he writes at a good pace. However, it does stand to reason that if he weren't writing the other books, he would be getting the rest of the series out quicker.

I read it was all part of the same universe and it'll be interesting to see how he pulls it all together.

[Edward64]

I've finished reading

Tower Lord - Anthony Ryan. 8/10. Not as good as Blood Song but still enjoyed it.

Skull Throne - Peter V Brett. 6/10. I have been enjoying his series but this one seemed to drag on. I actually put it down for 2-3 weeks.

I'm looking forward to Ryan's third book in Jul and Hobb's next book in Aug.

Don't see Rothfuss' third book or Sanderson's Stormlight Archive third book on Amazon yet so figure that's at least a year.

[Solecismic]

Wondering if I should join the millions reading Go Set a Watchman (the sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird) when it's released on Wednesday.

I'm on a Haruki Murakami kick lately. Some of his stuff is too rooted in the fantastic for me, but when he's just a little bit weird, it's amazing reading. And his translators do a wonderful job keeping the prose lyrical.

[The Jackal]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

Hyperion - Dan Simmons
I thought this was an OK book, not quite what I expected. Quite clever the way the stories of the different characters weaved together.

I'm about 2/3 of the way through this right now, I'm intrigued enough that I got the next book already. Some interesting story arcs.

[Shkspr]

Originally Posted by Solecismic

Wondering if I should join the millions reading Go Set a Watchman (the sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird) when it's released on Wednesday.

(no spoilers)
I think it's a book that deserves to be thought about some before discussing it with anyone, so I don't think it's something you need to force yourself to read the first week. It'll be discussed ad nauseam everywhere, but I don't think any of the discussion will get past the specter of Gregory Peck. The book deserves more, and I'm pleasantly optimistic that it will find a niche that elevates To Kill a Mockingbird from middle school fare to late high school or college study.

After finishing Watchman this morning, I went back and reread TKAM for contrast. I should point out, HarperCollins isn't wrong - the book is more than a "first draft" for TKAM. It is a fine book, maybe even a good book, but it suffers from its genesis. It was written first, then some parts of the book found their way into Mockingbird, and then this book reads as though it was not revised much to take events in Mockingbird into account - not so much in plot detail, but that the story development conceived by Lee between the date of this manuscript and the finished Mockingbird story was apparently unavailable to inform the way story was presented in this book. Go Set a Watchman would be a fine book on its own, but suffers from being a sequel. It's not. It needed another pass in editing to make the changes in certain characters seem more organic - but to be fair, the fact of this book's published existence argues that an editing pass be made on To Kill a Mockingbird to better set up the revelations in this book.

I've got more to ponder on both books, but a) I want to think some more about it and b) what's the point without offering up spoilers?

tl;dr: It's worth reading, but nobody's going to be saying anything smart about the book for the next few weeks. Don't feel the need to rush into it.

[mmartin68]

I really like sports fiction series. For example the Myron Bolitar series by Harlen Corbin. Very good series. Does anybody of other ones like that?

[Solecismic]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

Yes, I wouldn't say Anathem is a bad book, just not for me and not something I would recommend as a Stephenson intro to anyone - Cryptonomicon is clearly that.

I received Cryptonomicon as a gift many years ago (I want to say around the time I started FOF). I couldn't get into it. And I rarely put down a book after I start it.

So I picked it up again a few days ago, because I keep hearing about it. I'm now about a third of the way through. I still don't get it.

There are turns of phrase that impress the hell out of me, and the story lines should appeal to me. I've studied cryptography - this is fun stuff.

I don't know. Maybe there are too many characters with the same last names. Or just too many characters. I have trouble remembering what happened the last time we were on that thread of the story. Generally, I like a good healthy cynicism, but it's overwhelming.

I'm not sure I'm going to make it though, and I don't think I've ever stopped more than 300 pages into a novel. This is making Donna Tartt look entertaining by comparison.

[Solecismic]

Originally Posted by Shkspr

(no spoilers)
I think it's a book that deserves to be thought about some before discussing it with anyone, so I don't think it's something you need to force yourself to read the first week. It'll be discussed ad nauseam everywhere, but I don't think any of the discussion will get past the specter of Gregory Peck. The book deserves more, and I'm pleasantly optimistic that it will find a niche that elevates To Kill a Mockingbird from middle school fare to late high school or college study.

After finishing Watchman this morning, I went back and reread TKAM for contrast. I should point out, HarperCollins isn't wrong - the book is more than a "first draft" for TKAM. It is a fine book, maybe even a good book, but it suffers from its genesis. It was written first, then some parts of the book found their way into Mockingbird, and then this book reads as though it was not revised much to take events in Mockingbird into account - not so much in plot detail, but that the story development conceived by Lee between the date of this manuscript and the finished Mockingbird story was apparently unavailable to inform the way story was presented in this book. Go Set a Watchman would be a fine book on its own, but suffers from being a sequel. It's not. It needed another pass in editing to make the changes in certain characters seem more organic - but to be fair, the fact of this book's published existence argues that an editing pass be made on To Kill a Mockingbird to better set up the revelations in this book.

I've got more to ponder on both books, but a) I want to think some more about it and b) what's the point without offering up spoilers?

tl;dr: It's worth reading, but nobody's going to be saying anything smart about the book for the next few weeks. Don't feel the need to rush into it.

I read GoSet a couple of weeks ago. So Harper Lee was remarkable without question. And this novel has the bones. But, yeah, major editing required.

I get that the impact of us being used to Atticus Finch as he was to a starry-eyed daughter for more than half a century now makes this a very different novel than if it were released at the time. Her view of 1950s Alabama, given that she lived in it, gives this a feel that really shitty attempts to do the same thing (I'm calling you out, Kathryn Stockett) fail completely.

The ending was terrible, though. I won't spoiler it, but Katharine Hepburn, if she were still alive, would probably smile and say, "damned if I haven't played that ending 100 times."

[Groundhog]

I'm really struggling my way through Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. I'm about 55% done and each chapter is feeling like hard work. Only other McCarthy book I've read is The Road which I liked OK back when I read it years ago, but I forgot how jarring I find McCarthy's writing style overall, in particular the long-running sentences that put me out of breath just reading them...

He's a technically great writer and he paints what seems to me like an incredibly well researched and authentic portrayal of the time he is writing about. It's made me interested in reading more about the Glanton gang and this period of American history, because I had no idea that stuff like this ever actually happened. It's just that as a novel it's so damn bleak, hopeless, and matter-of-factly told that it struggles to keep my attention, despite how vivdly he tells it.

[Grover]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

He's a technically great writer and he paints what seems to me like an incredibly well researched and authentic portrayal of the time he is writing about. It's made me interested in reading more about the Glanton gang and this period of American history, because I had no idea that stuff like this ever actually happened. It's just that as a novel it's so damn bleak, hopeless, and matter-of-factly told that it struggles to keep my attention, despite how vivdly he tells it.

Bolded what just about sums up McCarthy in general.

[Groundhog]

Dropped Blood Meridian a few days ago at 66%. I'd read for about 40 mins total in the week prior because I just couldn't get any motivation to pick it up again.

Started on Neil Gaiman's American Gods this morning. So far so good, it's so good to have commas back!

[whomario]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

Hyperion - Dan Simmons
I thought this was an OK book, not quite what I expected. Quite clever the way the stories of the different characters weaved together.

Song of Kali - Dan Simmons
Holy shit this was a good read. I expected it to be Sci Fi in the vein of Hyperion, but man, this was some fantastic horror. I don't think I could ever travel to India after reading this.

I actually just read my first book of his, "The Terror"

Really, really enjoyed it and it worked a ton better than i expected it would. I picked it up at the library mainly because i liked the cover and am currently very much into survival-type books. The reason it shouldn´t have worked is because i knew beforehand how the book would end and some of the timeline, since the book is a fictionalized account of the famous Franklin Expedition. Heck, sometimes he tells you what happened in a sentence or two and 50 pages later describes the event in detail. And it works ... He mixes in a horror element as well, with a monster stalking the Expedition, which again worked much better than i thought it would.

Simmons does a terrific job presenting a sense of the circumstances, characters and also does a great job with different POV characters, faux (and real) documents as well as frequent (but logical) time jumps.

Spoilers for details

Spoiler

The whole expedition was lost and only fragments of it were discovered when he wrote the book (since then one of the ships was found, of which there are absolutely mind blowing pictures available btw) which made it possible to piece together a timeline but still left lots of room for Simmons to make his own story in between. Also, the find of the ship backs up quite a bit of his story. He based a fair share on Innuit legend and they correctly reported the area of the ship wreck through their verbal history. The most mind blowing thing to me from the real story is, that some of the men were wandering around the polar ice for years after they gave up the ships ...

[Groundhog]

American God's was a good book. I enjoyed it a great deal more than [/b]Blood Meridian[/b]. Not the usual type of book I read.

Read a short novella by King called Ur which I liked quite a bit - a story about an English teacher who gets his hands on a version of a Kindle by accident that has access to books published in 10 million other realities, books by famous authors that never existed.

Started on a Peter Straub book last night, the third book of his I've attempted, named Koko. So far I'm enjoying it. His pure horror/ghost stories haven't done much for me, but this is something a little different - a story about some Vietnam veterans who head to Singapore to try and find out the truth about some horrific murders that they think might have been committed by someone from their own unit.

[BishopMVP]

Read the two Patrick Rothfuss books, Name of the Wind & The Wise Man's Fear (3rd and final one in the trilogy probably out in a year or two). Solid enough fantasy, but seemed very cliche and standard - I'd definitely recommend Sanderson's Stormlight Archive or the Locke Lamora series over it.

Picked up Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, which I think is his only book I haven't read, and it really hasn't grabbed me in the first 50 pages. Is it definitely worth powering through and finishing, or does a lot of its acclaim come from being his debut novel?

[tarcone]

I picked up the Jordan Rules book at a used book sale. Never read it before. Very interesting read.

[Ryche]

Just wanted to thank whoever recommended the Stormlight Chronicles and Gentleman Bastards. Greatly enjoyed the first books of each, really looking forward to the next ones.

[NobodyHere]

Hitler's Mein Kampf to be republished

I'm almost tempted to read this except I don't want to say I spent any money on or that I read Mein Kampf

It's like how I want to view the Rifftrax version of the Star Wars Holiday Special but I don't want to say I spent money on the Star Wars Holiday Special.

[Groundhog]

80% through Swan Song by Robert McCammon. Started slow, but I've really enjoyed it since the start of book two. I read The Stand by Stephen King right before this one - loved the mini-series when it came out, but had never read the book - and it's interesting to see how both authors handled pretty much the same general idea in a different way.

[Peregrine]

I just finished reading Furies: War in Europe 1450-1700 by Lauro Martines. Very interesting read if you like the subject. Yes I knew warfare was horrible in this time and now I know it was even more horrible than I thought. The sterile Europa Universalis view of war never seemed less accurate.

[Buccaneer]

Listening to How We Got To Now: How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World: Steven Johnson: 9781594633935: Amazon.com: Books

I've been a huge fan of James Burke's Connection for nearly 40 years now and this follows the same pattern with six innovations, and reads/listens like Tipping Point.

[Fidatelo]

Read a couple books recently:

Ready Player One: This one has a neat premise and some fun 80's references for anyone that grew up in that era. However the actual writing seems poor, sort of B-level. The characters feel fairly one- or maybe two-dimensional and certain events happen that would be earth-shattering if handled by a better author but instead just breeze past like 'oh yeah, that happened I guess'. It was an easy read though and overall I enjoyed it, so it's hard to complain too much, but it could have been way better in a more talented author's hands.

Elantris: Now this book I really, really liked. It has a really cool, original (at least to me) fantasy concept and excellent characterization. It is very political in nature and it's great fun to watch the maneuverings of the three main characters weave and swerve throughout the book. It also gets bonus points for being a self-contained fantasy novel as opposed to some kind of trilogy or (god forbid) Game of Thrones / Wheel of Time opus that seems almost impossible to avoid nowadays.

[Pyser]

Originally Posted by Fidatelo

Read a couple books recently:

Ready Player One: This one has a neat premise and some fun 80's references for anyone that grew up in that era. However the actual writing seems poor, sort of B-level. The characters feel fairly one- or maybe two-dimensional and certain events happen that would be earth-shattering if handled by a better author but instead just breeze past like 'oh yeah, that happened I guess'. It was an easy read though and overall I enjoyed it, so it's hard to complain too much, but it could have been way better in a more talented author's hands.

You think that writings bad, check out his newest book, Armada. While RPO has a premise fun enough to keep you going, Armada is...it's just terrible. No time wasting more words on it, it's a trainwreck of highest proportions. (and it's basically the Last Starfighter's plot, with some Ender's Game thrown in)

[Groundhog]

I picked Ready Player One up in a book store and read the first couple of pages then put it back down because it felt like I was reading bad fan fiction.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by Fidatelo

Elantris: Now this book I really, really liked. It has a really cool, original (at least to me) fantasy concept and excellent characterization. It is very political in nature and it's great fun to watch the maneuverings of the three main characters weave and swerve throughout the book. It also gets bonus points for being a self-contained fantasy novel as opposed to some kind of trilogy or (god forbid) Game of Thrones / Wheel of Time opus that seems almost impossible to avoid nowadays.

Have you read any of Sanderson's other works? He's quickly become an author on my list of 'I will read everything this person ever publishes.'

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

Have you read any of Sanderson's other works? He's quickly become an author on my list of 'I will read everything this person ever publishes.'

And at the rate that he puts out novels, keeping up with reading everything he publishes will be quite the task.

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

Listening to How We Got To Now: How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World: Steven Johnson: 9781594633935: Amazon.com: Books

I've been a huge fan of James Burke's Connection for nearly 40 years now and this follows the same pattern with six innovations, and reads/listens like Tipping Point.

I watched and liked the BBC/PBS series of the same title. It's on Netflix.

[Fidatelo]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

Have you read any of Sanderson's other works? He's quickly become an author on my list of 'I will read everything this person ever publishes.'

This was my first Sanderson book. I'm about 99% sure I'll check out the Mistborn trilogy sometime soon based on how enjoyable Elantris was. But something like the Stormlight Archive doesn't really feel up my alley, just way too much of a commitment.