OS Book Club Pt II

[JayCutlersCig]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

It's definitely a point worthy of debate.

On one hand it is exceptionally written. It's easy to lose yourself in those pages and passages where you're going into the mind of a character who will most likely never show up again during the course of the book.

On the other hand you're wondering to yourself after you put it down about how necessary it was to dive into the backstory of a character who is only in one chapter.

I realize that it all serves a "purpose" of supporting his themes, fleshing out the world, and establishing a spiderweb of connections to the insecurities/fears that plague them all, but still. He has the main characters doing the same work so it feels fluffy.

I can already tell where the editor came in and was like, "c'mon Stephen. You don't need to repeat this **** again."

Already I can see how somebody would love King and how somebody else would absolutely hate his work.

I can appreciate someone who understands both sides of the story. I think he’s truly a mad scientist when it comes to writing.


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling

Not much longer than Sorcerers Stone so another quick read, PoA is the first kinda meaty one and then it amps up from Goblet on. Enjoyed it again, these stories are so ingrained in my head (at least the early ones) it's just fun to pop back into the world. Dobby is the man "Dobby has heard of your greatness sir, but of your goodness, Dobby never knew...") . And I love Arthur Weasley who's entire job is to know Muggle technology but he's asking Harry how bus stops work and phones lol, what does this dude do at work all day? Anyway, I'd say the writing is a slight step up from SS, Rowling is just great at changes of scenery. Every location jump starts with a few sentences to make sure you can picture where everything is taking place, and then the story does the rest. Looking over rankings lists, a lot of people put this one last. I can see that. My only gripe is with reading it and SS so close together you notice how much rehashing is done. Do you remember when Harry did this? Do you remember that Ron said this? Do you remember when the Dursleys were bad? Yes I do, because I just read it all last week. But the book is written for ages 8-12 so I understand why it's like that.

Starting the Xenogenesis Trilogy by Octavia Butler, where humans have brought about the nuclear holocaust and many of us have been preserved by an alien civilization centuries later in an attempt to reinhabit the recovered Earth, with Dawn. Gonna finish this, hit PoA, #2 in the Xeno trilogy, Goblet of Fire, last in the Xeno trilogy, and then Dostoyevsky. Still trying to figure out what I want to do translation wise, which brings me to my last point...

I'm going to give it until the end of the week before I pull the plug on Baseball A Literary Anthology... through no fault of its own. The stories are good, baseball is great to read about, but seriously, what is a physical book? Everything about this sucks. Lugging it around in my book bag, having 650 pages on one side having to hold it down while I'm on page 72, using outside light sources... I'm off this, no more. And to make it worse, we seem to be the only sport whose book is not available in ebook format. Basketball has an ebook, football has one, even the writings on boxing has an ebook, but not baseball. This has nothing to do with them but I want to take this opportunity to blame Rob Manfred because the only reason I can think of for this is the LoA people saw the subject and said, archaic sport, put it in an archaic format. Changing my name to DieHardKnick2.

On a positive note, another shout out to public libraries. BPL saving me a ton of money for $50 a year on these ebook rentals. Lifesaver. SS for free with Prime, CoS from BPL, Prisoner from my local library, Goblet on hold and should be ready by the time I finish Azkaban, all the Xeno books.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

The Basketball LOA book is great. The inside cover pages are textured and printed like a basketball. I loved discovering that when I got it. I'm hoping to start it up once I wrap up Color of Law.

[Chip Douglass]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era by James McPherson.

A very thorough, panoramic single-volume history of the US civil war, from a military, political, social, and economic perspective. It delves pretty deeply into the events preceding the war, starting from the end of the Mexican-American war in the late 1840s, and makes perfectly clear what the major cause of it was (slavery).

It's a very "bottom-up" narrative too. Practically every page is littered with anecdotes and quotes from contemporary observers: diaries, letters, newspaper editorials, speeches, memoirs, etc. You get a good understanding for how people of all walks of life from both sides felt about the conflict.

The major battles are covered briskly, 10-12 pages for Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Antietam, etc., but satisfactorily. There's enough detail for the reader to grasp the tactics and operational strategy behind the battles without being deluged by overly technical descriptions of the fighting (something all too common in military histories). McPherson also deals with Lincoln's fruitless attempts to find a military commander willing to press home the Union advantage in men and materiel (McClellan, Hooker, and Meade were too conservative) until he finally settled on Ulysses S. Grant, who did push forward from spring 1864 until the surrender at Appomattox in April 1865.

The political narrative was a bit of a revelation to me, as McPherson emphasizes Lincoln's political vulnerability throughout the war as he struggled to hold the home front together. Northern Democrats generally couldn't be relied on for support after 1863; some Midwestern Democrats even muttered threats about seceding from the Union and making a separate peace with the South. The Emancipation Proclamation, which has cemented Lincoln's legacy in the American consciousness as the Great Emancipator, was unpopular and led to huge Republican losses in the 1862 midterms ("Abolition Slaughtered", a Democratic newspaper bragged). Lincoln was so vulnerable in the run-up to the 1864 election that he even considered *rescinding* the Emancipation Proclamation, until Sherman's capture of Atlanta in September 1864 finally assured his re-election. Lincoln also had to strike a very careful balancing act between appeasing the hardliners in his own party who wanted a more radical war and border-state Unionists who wanted to fight for country, but not for abolition.

The peak danger period for the Union was August-September 1862, when the North was defeated at Second Bull Run, Lee's Army of Northern Virginia invaded Maryland, and Britain and France leaned toward intervention in the conflict. The Union victory at Antietam on September 17th (aided by the extremely fortuitous discovery of Lee's battle plans) ended the Confederate invasion of the North, giving Lincoln the momentum he needed to issue the Emancipation Proclamation five days later. With the North now fighting for freedom as well as union, the prospect of European intervention in the war was permanently closed off. For McPherson, this was the first major turning point of the war. The victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg in July 1863 were the second. The capture of Atlanta, which made Lincoln's re-election likely, was the third and final.

Overall, it's an excellent, all-compassing history of the war and probably the first book any student of Civil War history should turn to.

[DJ]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

I’ve never really liked King’s lengthier works. He’s an excellent writer; as a writer myself, I like to study his technique, but I think some of his detailed scenes are unnecessarily detailed. Still, no one can weave a story like he can.

I am a fan of King's writing style, but actually preferred when he shifted to his Richard Bachman pseudonym. His writing felt tighter in those books.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

I actually managed to get quite a bit of reading done this past weekend and am now within striking distance of finishing Stephen King's IT - which is to say I have a "regular" novel's length left of roughly 400 pages. I'm hoping to finish it on holiday, but we'll see.

I've just read about the Apocalyptic Rockfight (1958 part 2) and I feel like the novel has hit it's apex here shedding it's needless flaws and girth. Here King wrings out the novel's strengths in pure craftsmanship whittling itself down to vivid scenery, gruesome gory action, and masterful characterization and development.

Spoiler

"Was that dynamite?" Beverly asked nervously. She was looking at Bill, whose head was up, his eyes wide. She thought he had never looked so handsome - but there was something too alert, too strung-up, in the attitude of his head. He was like a deer scenting fire in the air.

-------------------

Bill turned toward Victor. Their eyes locked, and Victor saw something in the stuttering kid's gaze that scared the hell out of him. Absurdly, the words I take it back! trembled behind his lips...except that was nothing you said to a little kid. Not if you didn't' want your buddies to start ranking you to the dogs and back.

There was a part here I literally had to put the book down to calm myself. The action is culminating and visceral - a turning point for the whole cast and a small climax of sorts before the apparent showdown with the titular character.

Fortunately this has been my experience so far. As I've remarked previously there are some passages that feel like they could be cut out altogether. I also read the subsequent chapter, The Album, and caught myself thinking the chapter was unnecessary apart from giving the reader time to breathe after the fight with Henry Bowers.

Still, I feel like this is deliberate no matter King's state of mind at the time. Hell, the primary character is a boy who stutters - so the pacing all feels deliberate so that when King eschews the fluff and puts the pedal to the metal **** really cooks. So far he is striking a rich balance between naivety calm - where time is unending and details pop from everything - and rushed, heart-pounding excitement - where time passes like the wind and everything swirls together in a blur. An effective balance so far.

Despite my want to finish the book (and it's been quite an exercise simply because I could have read 3 books by now) there's a piece of me gaining ground that doesn't want it to end. King's understanding of childhood is fantastic. He's like Spielberg in a sense. The grand adventure and exploration. The many fears - both real and imagined. The oyster of the world open to you before becoming a burden and sigh with adulthood. The slight twinge of pain that comes with nostalgia. Simply because I've been reading it for more than a month it's become a regular thought of mine throughout the day. I'd be lying if the thought of those bony, clown-claws ripping open the shower curtain or hearing IT's voice bubble up from the drain didn't enter my mind every night.

Either way I have about a week left in the little world of Derry. I should be finished with Color of Law by the end of the weekend, too. I could be finished with it now, but it is truly aggravating to read. On one hand it is fascinating to read, because this is so far off from the history taught in school that it is baffling to comprehend. The blockbusting scheme reads like the premise to a con-movie - hiring actors and sewing falsities through fear mongering. The truly baffling aspect to take away is that the entire system - from the local governments to federal agencies - either wrote segregation and discrimination into their policies and laws, enforced these racist policies, and outright refused to uphold the Constitution. This **** didn't occur 100 years ago. Hell, some of the policies were still being enforced 15-20 years ago. Meanwhile white's were benefiting from public housing, mortgages that weren't predatory, and able to build equity so it would be that much easier for their future family to do so. It's a troubling, heart-breaking read.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

I've been on a nice reprieve from nonfiction, with Harry Potter and the Lillith's Brood Trilogy. My mood as it pertains to American history reading has gone from "That's fascinating" to "that's pretty interesting" to "wow, I can't believe that happened" to "I would've been shocked if that didn't happen" to "wow this **** is depressing". Just looking at the slate, I probably won't get to another one until at least October.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

I've been on a nice reprieve from nonfiction, with Harry Potter and the Lillith's Brood Trilogy. My mood as it pertains to American history reading has gone from "That's fascinating" to "that's pretty interesting" to "wow, I can't believe that happened" to "I would've been shocked if that didn't happen" to "wow this **** is depressing". Just looking at the slate, I probably won't get to another one until at least October.

What's funny (read: super depressing) is that all those neighborhood covenants preventing integration are still on the books. Obviously the court system can't be used anymore to enforce them (as they once were), but the history of fact is still on public record. Hell, when we bought our house the title company read over an item in the covenant that excluded blacks from buying because they felt it was "interesting" to share.

Fast forward to today and the aftermath of these policies and laws continue to bubble up and eventually it'll smack the country right back in the face.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Interesting is one way to put that. I don't know how I would react to a "fun fact" like that but I also doubt I would've been given the opportunity...probably thankfully.

I read 3 books but 2 of them are in a series so I'll put them together and separate Harry Potter even though I read them separately with HP in the middle.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by JK Rowling

I think this is the book I remember least from my series reads as a kid. I must've read all the other ones 3+ times and don't think I ever picked this one up for even a second time, not sure why. Anyway, this time around, I loved it. This is definitely a cut above the first 2 IMO, the dementors add a tangible fear in a way that Voldemort never really did. Every passage they're in they transform the environment and take center stage, the room gets cold, feelings of happiness start to fade, just feels like these instances really let JKR tap into something more than she had with the first 2. The writing style is similar, but the subject calls for a little more oomph. You start to see how well the world is being built over the series, you haven heard much about Azkaban before but the times you have it's always been spoken of with great fear. The last 100 pages or so were just impossible to put down. I fell behind in my Binge Mode reading because I was supposed to do 5 chapters one day and ending up doing like 15 and finishing the book, it just gets so downhill. The time travel stuff is a little blah just because it adds so much unintentional hijinks into the universe (and because the idea that this is something that has to be petitioned for to the highest level of wizard government and here we are having a permission slip written for a student to take extra classes makes no sense lol) but the way it is handled is great. It may even be better in the movie, seeing Harry and Hermione come to the realization that it was them that had put things into motion was awesome. I still think the movies are a little too corny to be good, Snape is in a whole different movie than everyone else, but they're certainly entertaining and add to the universe.

Side note, Snape is too much. Like I understand he's supposed to be some flawed character and I didn't even remember his big Book 6 reveal until it was mentioned in a Binge Mode episode for the CoS movie, but I'm over this guy lol. He's so over the top and cartoony with his antagonizing of these children it's hard to take anything he does as in Harry's interest. Lupin and Sirius though >>>>>>. I didn't get why Snape hated James for the prank, the way it was mentioned in the book it was Sirius's idea and James had nothing to do with it before he saved him. Snape 2/10.

Spoiler

"And then the thing beneath the hood, whatever it was, drew a long, slow, rattling breath, as though it were trying to suck something more than air from its surroundings. An intense cold swept over them all. Harry felt his own breath catch in his chest. The cold went deeper than his skin. It was inside his chest, it was inside his very heart.*.*.*. Harry’s eyes rolled up into his head. He couldn’t see. He was drowning in cold."

"The fortress is set on a tiny island, way out to sea, but they don’t need walls and water to keep the prisoners in, not when they’re all trapped inside their own heads, incapable of a single cheerful thought. Most of them go mad within weeks."

"You think the dead we have loved ever truly leave us? You think that we don’t recall them more clearly than ever in times of great trouble? Your father is alive in you, Harry, and shows himself most plainly when you have need of him."

I kinda feel your anti-Ron sentiment Fresh. Dude was doing the absolute most to protect a rat that up until now he had only criticized and hated, including shunning one of his best friends lol. Just not a good look. Side note, I'm now wondering how much of what I think about prisons and law enforcement were influenced by the mental image of guards who literally suck the happiness out of you that I read when I was like 6 years old...probably a lot.

Dawn by Octavia Butler

I'd liked Bloodchild and Other Stories (short story collection) and loved Kindred (historical fiction with a twist) but man I wasn't ready for this. It occurred to me the other day reading AR that this may be my favorite book series... Then it occurred to me the only book series I think I've read all the way through are Harry Potter and Series of Unfortunate Events so there's not a lot of competition but still.

So it's a post-apocalyptic story, where humans have made the earth uninhabitable and destroyed themselves by nuclear war. There was a period where humans still lived where an alien race called the Oankali came down, put hundreds/thousands of them to sleep, and stored them on their ships for future use.

Basically the Oankali are a spacefaring species that operates by taking part in "trades" with other species, learning them, "fixing them", and then combining genes so that the original species no longer exists on its own but becomes mixed with the Oankali. They're described as very inhuman visually, with tentacles in places where we would have eyes/nose/mouth/ears that serves those purposes and then with separate sexual organs that they use to "taste", or learn, other species, take in their genes, and take what they can from it and put it to use. The main character of Dawn, Lilith, the first human awoken and the one chosen to choose other humans to start over. The Oankali have repurposed the Earth to make it possible to move back. The catch being humans have been made infertile, their diseases taken away and their aging slowed massively, so the only choice is to reproduce with the Oankali or die. The other thing is, shortly after her awakening, Lilith is left with an adolescent Ooloi (the sexless facilitators of Oankali-other species reproduction) named Nikanj and basically hangs with it as it grows. I guess I shouldn't get into too many plot details, it'd awesome. Lilith trying to convince herself of the right path, then trying to convince the others, then having to try to police them to make it all work, all of this leading up to the end of the book where they're finally ready with the group they have to head back to Earth and... Man the end is great, I didn't see it coming. I didn't have any issues with this, but it's definitely the first in a series, all of the most important questions you realize at the end couldn't be answered until at least the next book.

Spoiler

"The lights brightened as she had supposed they would, and what had seemed to be a tall, slender man was still humanoid, but it had no nose—no bulge, no nostrils—just flat, gray skin. It was gray all over—pale gray skin, darker gray hair on its head. The hair grew down around its eyes and ears and at its throat. There was so much hair across the eyes that she wondered how the creature could see. The long, profuse ear hair seemed to grow out of the ears as well as around them. Above, it joined the eye hair, and below and behind, it joined the head hair. The island of throat hair seemed to move slightly, and it occurred to her that that might be where the creature breathed—a kind of natural tracheostomy."

"There was no real comfort in being alone with her thoughts, her memories, but somehow the illusion of freedom lessened her despair."

"Finally there was the trade status name. The Dinso group was staying on Earth, changing itself by taking part of humanity’s genetic heritage, spreading its own genes like a disease among unwilling humans … Dinso. It wasn’t a surname. It was a terrible promise, a threat."

"How much did sex determine personality among the Oankali? She shook her head. Stupid question. She did not know how much sex determined personality even among human beings."

"Now their delight in one another ignited and burned. They moved together, sustaining an impossible intensity, both of them tireless, perfectly matched, ablaze in sensation, lost in one another. They seemed to rush upward. A long time later, they seemed to drift down slowly, gradually, savoring a few more moments wholly together."

Adulthood Rites by Octavia Butler

Dawn's sequel, I liked it even better. Here we follow Akin,

Spoiler

Lillith's son by way of the human she loved before he was killed at the end of Dawn (or the genes that the Oankali had taken and studied from him), and her Ooloi Nikanj

, a construct (half human half Oankali) who is taken as a talking baby from his home by raiding humans on Earth to live with them as a bargaining chip to be sold to other raiding humans who wanted hope in the form of a human looking male baby. Let me tell you about a trope I don't know if I'll ever get sick of: talking babies. Anyway, we follow him as he ends up being taken in by

Spoiler

the group that had been sent to Earth while Lilith was chosen to stay behind for fear that they would kill her for being too close to the Oankali

. He is trying to find himself among a group of humans that want nothing to do with half of him, trying to find out all he can about the human side of him before he undergoes his Oankali metamorphosis, after which he could potentially change and no longer look human. He's constantly dealing with the pressure of trying to help humanity while he still has the luxury of looking like one, trying to work against the clock of his metamorphosis when he could potentially change into a more Oankali physical appearance thus losing the trust of a species that can't trust anything that looks as foreign as they do.

Just think it's an awesome series, love Octavia Butler man. It's cool how you can write about similar themes as other writers of your race (alienation from a homeland, the taking away of sexual freedom, the burden of having to work against your own nature for a future that may or may not ever come to fruition) and just put it in such an unfamiliar setting that it doesn't feel the same.

Spoiler

"They blame me for not looking like them. They can’t help doing it, and I can’t help resenting it. I don’t know which is worse—the ones who cringe if I touch them or the ones who pretend it’s all right while they cringe inside."

"Human beings fear difference,” Lilith had told him once. “Oankali crave difference. Humans persecute their different ones, yet they need them to give themselves definition and status. Oankali seek difference and collect it. They need it to keep themselves from stagnation and overspecialization. If you don’t understand this, you will. You’ll probably find both tendencies surfacing in your own behavior.” And she had put her hand on his hair. “When you feel a conflict, try to go the Oankali way. Embrace difference."

"She could not comfort him or even know how deeply he perceived her. But she could, simply by permitting the attachment, divert his attention from himself, from his own misery."

"The Human Contradiction again. The Contradiction, it was more often called among Oankali. Intelligence and hierarchical behavior. It was fascinating, seductive, and lethal. It had brought Humans to their final war."

"All people who know what it is to end should be allowed to continue if they can continue."

"Then do this. The knowledge won’t harm you if you decide not to use it. You need to do this. You’ve taken refuge too long in doing nothing at all."

Very ready for the finale, Imago, but first I'm reading the Spider-Man PS4 game prequel novel, Hostile Takeover. It's cheap as hell on Kindle and apparently a quick read so hopefully it's good, I'm excited for the game so anything from it is welcome. After that, finish Lilith's Brood, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, then Crime and Punishment.

[JayCutlersCig]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Just finished Stephen King’s “The Body”. Absolutely hated it. I hate his writing style; I didn’t care about future Gordie Lachance. He includes a story written by Lachance in college and it seems like King put it there for no reason. It honestly felt like filler material. Plus, again, the senseless detail in certain parts.

It’s clear that Lachance is a carbon copy of King, which is fine by me. I’ve also seen “Stand By Me”, the movie that’s based off the book, and it was cool to see the parallels between the two. But that’s it as far as my enjoyment goes.


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Well, IT is finally done and what a ****ing book. Stephen King's IT ****s with everything on it's way through leaving white scars over what were once trenches torn by gangly-fingered claws. While the shape-shifting Pennywise AKA Bob Gray AKA IT is the timeless, heralded star of the story he/she ("My madder was my fadder) loses his initial creepy, horrifying, and unsettling menace in the second half. The first half is adventurous, memory making childhood in the vein of Spielberg mixed with stalking horror both in the shapes of Pennywise and Henry Bowers, the town bully.

I've posted about the length of the book enough already, but I wanted to add some small bits to conclude my thoughts on that aspect of the book. Yes, King writes a lot here and there are at least two places where I would almost bet everything that the editor came in and was like SNIP CUT.

Spoiler

He started off at once, and his journey to the Derry town limits and beyond would make a saga in itself...but suffice to say that he did eventually get out of town.

I mean, c'mon. You can just tell. Still, despite King's strange affluence for diving into the mind-space of several side characters everything works to me. Sure the book could be shorter and sure some of the things taken out might not affect the overall craftsmanship, but there are many, many moments that King pulls you into and sears into your mind with their vividness and urgency that you feel a part of the Losers. There's a connection that is felt. It's knowing the feel of the wind rushing against Bill's face as he pedals Silver to speed. The formation of a new friendship. The shared experience of playing and exploring; of building and a shared torment. If the book was shaved down I don't think those moments would be nearly as effective. I don't think the ending and their knowing of forgetfulness would be as beautifully tragic or emotionally effective.

As I've also said before King controls the pacing of the book like a mad magician. The words pile up onto of each other to expand scenes and create an eternity of detail, character thoughts, and vivid action. When King revs his motor **** happens, though. Words charge past you like branches flapping against you as you sprint through passages. Heart pounding in rhythm with the character's. The speed of his pace is exceptional, but what astounds me is how he plants these small seeds for future action and turning points. By the time the Apocalyptic Rockfight starts King has already hyped the reader up enough to expect something wonderous and delivers. He teases the reader with these small hype jobs throughout that keeps you wondering and pumping through the pages.

As King repositions the book several times by the end I was sitting there with a tome on my lap with ten pages left completely lost in the fleeting nature of my own childhood memories. King has the poignancy to touch on the emotion and awareness of nostalgia - the slight pain of knowing all you have are the shape of the memories. As the book completes its own circle there's an awareness from King that each memory is fleeting and gives way to something else - it all faints and fades until we're hit with something to remember with. Not only is IT about the magic premise and structure of childhood, but also about the joy (and pain) of reminiscing and catching those moments again as an adult. There are many times where the crunchy oranges and decaying browns of Something This Way Comes wove itself into my mind. While there are similarities and both authors cover some of the same ground King is in essence flipping the perspective back around. Bradbury posits the horrors of leaving childhood - the wishing for age and the speeding up of time. King posits the horrors of looking back - the pain of nostalgia through a clouded lens of adulthood. A lens that may not let us see everything we experienced or cherished. That in and of itself is chilling.

While the perspective is tightly focused on the Losers for much of the book the second half sees King expand his scope exponentially. Initially he does this in seemingly throw-away fashion. A character suddenly puts pieces together. Various references to specific symbols and representation. I was ready for the **** to hit the fan. When it does - and it will lose many people because of this sudden shift in scope over the last half of the book - it isn't as much "****ed up" as it completely changes the expectation of the narrative. Yet, I dug it. I dug it all. Even "The Scene" that is perplexing (understated) and precedes a recommendation from most like a caution sign is well within the logical reasoning of the book.

Because of this the book opens itself up to so much more than childhood thrills and chills. Derry starts off as a small town that could be interchanged with the thousands of small towns throughout America. By the end it could conceivably be a stand-in for America itself. The Everytown with some Evil that they don't speak about (or even acknowledge) until it deposits them onto National News struggling with ways to comprehend it all.

IT shifts itself in the black of itself. Like the titular character the book expands and contracts - coalescing beneath a small town, but enveloping the universe and well beyond it's bounds. As such it lends itself to plenty of analysis and magnifying small, seemingly insignificant details. Questioning the fabric of reality and the hardness of imagination as they become one in the same many times throughout the book. IT ****s with everything during the course of it's read. It makes the reader question their surroundings, universal quandaries, and the nature of nostalgia. At it's end there is a sense of relief, but also a fleeting pang of regret as it all ends and so do too the memories shared within.

Spoiler

No good friends. No bad friends. Only people you want, need to be with; people who build their houses in your heart.

what mother would kill her son with love?

Grownups are the real monsters.

How could you fight a grownup who said it wasn't going to hurt when you knew it was? How could you fight a grownup who asked you funny questions and said obscurely ominous things like This has gone on long enough?

And maybe, Richie thought, that's the scary part. How you don't stop being a kid all at once, with a big explosive bang...

Some stuff has has to be done even if there is a risk. That's the first important thing I ever found out I didn't find out from my mother.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Spider-Man Hostile Takeover by David Liss

Basically started reading this yesterday I've been so swamped all week, and I looked at the deadline approaching and just had to push through. It's a decent book. One of the things with comics and characters that have been around so long is you know everything about them already, so there's not a lot of creative license I guess. Even so, the cool thing is that comics are ****ing water man, the stories and characters are so malleable to fit into certain themes or archetypes. Jameson becomes the guy railing against the mainstream media, gets a radio show and then says screw that and gets a podcast. Osborn is the business magnate turned politician, Kingpin is Kingpin, if you've seen Daredevil its a similar characterization, rich guy trying to develop and make the city reliant on him. Just a quick plot rundown:

Spoiler

Spider-Man has been Spider-Man for 8 years, and is already thinking about retiring (makes the Miles sightings in the game more interesting). He helped disgrace Kingpin, unraveling his business ventures and forcing him to escape to Europe. Norman Osborn is mayor of NY. Kingpin is back and building his name back up. Echo is his assistant (same backstory from the comics, dad killed by kingpin, taken in as his daughter like Gomorrah basically). Peter is a scientist. I will get to this later... A Spiderman impostor shows up terrorizing the city. You know the rest. Spiderman convinces Echo he's not the murderer of her dad, she turns on Fisk, there's a fight, the fake Spider-Man gets nabbed, Fisk punches Echo in the face in front of cameras, it's a pretty basic plot just as a primer to the game. Mary Jane is a reporter for the bugle trying to write a story about Fisk, Harry is going to Europe.

Again, it was a decent book. Here's my thing: they got OUT OF THEIR WAY not to mention the name of the director of the lab where Peter works. Like it's beyond obvious that this is a thing to look at, but they never mention his name. I'm saying right now, if this is an Arkham Knight situation and they're for some reason trying to hide something that is extremely obvious, I'm gonna be upset. I just don't get it. Yuri (the cop who just started working with Spiderman as of the book) mentions at one point that recon work is less exciting than something or "jumping lizards" so Lizard is already a thing. Anyway, after work, game time. Happy Spider-Man day!

On to Imago, finishing the Xenogenesis Trilogy, then Goblet of Fire.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Isn't there speculation that

Spoiler

Tony Stark/Iron Man

is who Peter is working for?

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

I don't know, but I just texted a friend if it was who I thought it was and he confirmed on my first guess.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Since I've finished Stephen King's IT I've been reading whatever analysis I can find. I stumbled upon this site where one of the bloggers is doing a massive re-read of Stephen King - he's been doing it since 2012.

https://www.tor.com/series/the-great-stephen-king-reread/

I'm not sure what my next King book will be. Maybe something a little bit more pulpy and "grounded?" Maybe The Shining or Carrie.