book recommendations RCF book club

[bronko]

We got about a quarter of the way through and stopped. Definitely not on par with his other works.

I didn't mind Artemis, it was more of a typical summer action movie style book, but I enjoyed it and the Martian. Haven't gotten around to Project Hail Mary yet.

 

[bronko]

Just finished The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly. If you like crime mysteries, Connelly does them about as well as anyone. Harry Bosch, Rene Ballard, and the Lincoln Lawyer make up the cast of a pretty large series of crime thrillers. Easy reads, as much as the subject matter will allow.

 

[Jack Brickman]

Oh yeah, I also knocked out two more books over the past two weeks from my high school reading checklist, Animal Farm and Flowers for Algernon. I read Animal Farm in middle or high school and liked it then and, given the current state of our country, it holds up disturbingly well.

This was my first time reading Flowers for Algernon, tough, and that was fantastic. I more or less knew how it was going to end and it still managed to get me.

It also made me appreciate the episode of Always Sunny that parodies it even more.

 

[jjvors]

I just discovered this thread. Since I read books all the time, I'll let you know what I'm currently reading and my all-time favorites.

1. Currently reading LG Estrella's Unlikely Heroes series. It starts with Two Necromancers, an Elf, and a Bureaucrat." Very funny and it inverts all the fantasy tropes. The necromancers are Timmy and Katie, his 10-year-old apprentice. The elf is a homicidal maniac who barely controls her power over fire. The bureaucrat is afraid of everything that isn't paper but has the power to file and store immense quantities of anything.

2. My All-time favorite fantasy series is Lord of the Rings first and Patricia McKillip's Riddlemaster trilogy a very close second.

3. My all-time favorite sci-fi series is probably Niven and Pournelle's A Mote in God's Eye. I also like Heinlein's early work in juvenile fiction scifi.

The early books in Eric Flint's Aldenata series (Posleen invasion) are also good. It went downhill after a while. Flint also did good work with his 1632 series.

I love David Weber's Honor Harrington series, although the later books tend to spend too much time on politics.

John Ringo also did a good word with Dark Tide Rising, his zombie series. His Citadel series is also good.

 

[Jack Brickman]

2. My All-time favorite fantasy series is Lord of the Rings first and Patricia McKillip's Riddlemaster trilogy a very close second.

3. My all-time favorite sci-fi series is probably Niven and Pournelle's A Mote in God's Eye. I also like Heinlein's early work in juvenile fiction scifi.

If you're in the mood for fantasy or sci-fi, I highly recommend checking out some of these if you haven't already:

• A Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin (the basis for HBO's Game of Thrones)
• The Dagger and the Coin or The Long Price Quartet by Daniel Abraham
• The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb
• The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
• The Prince of Nothing by R Scott Bakker
• The First Law or Shattered Sea by Joe Abercrombie
• The Expanse by James SA Corey (one of the two writers of this series is the aforementioned Daniel Abraham)
• Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds

 

[JJ Smooth]

I've enjoyed reading through this thread. Thanks for the recommendations. I try to read a whole mess of books per year, and here's my 2022 list so far:

• Anthills of the Savannah by Chinua Achebe
• Look at the Birdie by Kurt Vonnegut
• The Homecoming by Harold Pinter
• The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
• Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
• Flags in the Dust by William Faulkner
• Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
• Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon
• Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff
• Light in August by William Faulkner
• Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
• Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
• The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
• The Stranger by Albert Camus

I'm an English teacher, so I move more toward the classics and ones I haven't read during my own education. I will say that the Toni Morrison novel has been my favorite so far. The characters are fully fleshed out, the exposition is superb, and invites rereading with the allusions, imagery, and themes. Support Lorain Ohio's own!

Next novel is House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. It's been hailed as a creepy postmodern read and one that can be challenging.

 

[MD13]

I have read both and also the novella (slow regard of silent things). Some of the best prose i have seen across genres and 100% agree its top notch fantasy.

We got the prolouge last year but hoping for the full 3rd book soon!

There's so many quibbles you could have with the pacing, plot, etc, but none of that really matters because the prose is so good. I'd put Lies of Locke Lamora in this tier as well, the prose is just that damn good (although Lies is very different).

 

[Jack Brickman]

There's so many quibbles you could have with the pacing, plot, etc, but none of that really matters because the prose is so good. I'd put Lies of Locke Lamora in this tier as well, the prose is just that damn good (although Lies is very different).

I'd put Bakker and Martin in the top tier as well, and Abercrombie is close.

 

[MD13]

I'd put Bakker and Martin in the top tier as well, and Abercrombie is close.

I'm reading through Bakker right now. Honestly almost put the first book down, it's so dense and I was flipping to the appendixes every few pages just to figure out what was going on. But around the 60% mark of the book it just hit me that "okay, this is genius". Basically once


The book really picks up for me. After that it's some brilliant stuff. He is very long-winded in the internal monologues though, so I'd argue that the prose is not for everyone. Martin I think is also really good but again, Rothfuss has this ability to just write about anything and I wouldn't be able to put the book down. Not many authors can reach that level for me.

Another guy who is undoubtedly at that level for me is Guy Gavriel Kay. I believe he's a legitimate poet as well, and some of his books just read like modern retellings of historical epics.

 

[Jack Brickman]

I'm reading through Bakker right now. Honestly almost put the first book down, it's so dense and I was flipping to the appendixes every few pages just to figure out what was going on. But around the 60% mark of the book it just hit me that "okay, this is genius". Basically once


The book really picks up for me. After that it's some brilliant stuff. He is very long-winded in the internal monologues though, so I'd argue that the prose is not for everyone. Martin I think is also really good but again, Rothfuss has this ability to just write about anything and I wouldn't be able to put the book down. Not many authors can reach that level for me.

Another guy who is undoubtedly at that level for me is Guy Gavriel Kay. I believe he's a legitimate poet as well, and some of his books just read like modern retellings of historical epics.

Bakker is the rare example of an author whose books just get better with each installment. The first book is slow, and it's a lot of world-building and follows some truly despicable characters, and it's ultimately all set-up for the second and third book. The first trilogy, in turn, is all a set-up for the final four books, which offer pay off for many of the things Achamian dreams about over the course of the series.

 

[jjvors]

If you're in the mood for fantasy or sci-fi, I highly recommend checking out some of these if you haven't already:

• A Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin (the basis for HBO's Game of Thrones)
• The Dagger and the Coin or The Long Price Quartet by Daniel Abraham
• The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb
• The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
• The Prince of Nothing by R Scott Bakker
• The First Law or Shattered Sea by Joe Abercrombie
• The Expanse by James SA Corey (one of the two writers of this series is the aforementioned Daniel Abraham)
• Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds

Thanks for the recommendations.

I read the first three books of A Song of Ice and Fire and quit because it was too depressing. Why read something you don't enjoy?

I've read an assassin series by Robin Hobb. I can't remember the name. It was pretty good.

The others I haven't tried. I will take a look at them.

 

[Jack Brickman]

I recently finished the audiobook for Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. That was absolutely fantastic. It reminded me a lot of Clavell's Shogun in that it was an incredibly long book that never felt it. Augustus McCrae quickly established himself as one of my favorite literary characters. I'm looking forward to reading or listening to the other books in this series, although not immediately. I was planning to finally get around to reading Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy next but I think I need a little break from bleak as fuck Westerns.

Earlier today I finished reading Recursion by Blake Crouch. I believe this is the fifth book I've read by him, the others being the Wayward Pines books years ago and, more recently, Dark Matter. He's great at writing techno-thrillers and it seems like he's content to stay in that wheelhouse. Each of his books seems to take a couple of interesting tech/sci-fi concepts and run with them. Recursion was all about using memory as a means of time travel and was a lot of fun. I liked Dark Matter a bit more, though, on the whole. I felt that Recursion could have been a little longer in order to do some more with the concept. Another 50-100 pages during the middle of the book would have gone a long way.

I've been listening to the audiobook for Pet Sematary more recently. I'm pretty sure I read this when I was a kid, although I may have just seen the movie from the late 80's and am confusing the two in my brain since it was so long ago. Either way, great book. King is the master of small town horror.

Next up is a re-read of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms by George RR Martin. I'm almost done with the first of the three novellas, The Hedge Knight. If you're into Game of Thrones, this compilation (it contains three novellas that feature the same two key characters) is absolutely worth checking out. It takes place roughly 100 years before the show/books.

 

[FFRva]

I’m reading Hero of Two Worlds and so far loving it. I was a big fan of Mike Duncan’s podcasts and always had an affinity for Marquis de Lafayette growing up in Virginia and in a very history driven household.

 

[KevinLoveFan]

I got four books recently at one of my local libraries.

As someone who grew up on 1990s basketball, Blood in the Garden by Chris Herring is a great read about the New York Knicks teams from that era. I've learned some interesting insights about Pat Riley and Anthony Mason so far.

I also got a book with pictures and stories about the pandemic from around the world in 2020. It's called The Year That Time Stopped: The Global Pandemic in Photos.

A third book, which I recently finished, is Uncomfortable Conversations with A Black Man by former NFL player, Emmanuel Acho. He also hosts a YouTube series with the same name. He explains a lot of the race concepts that White (and especially conservative) folks 35 and over might not "get," or agree with (white privilege, cultural appropriation, etc). Highly recommend.

Last book was a brief and simple one, Cat Picture Book by Jacqueline Melgren. It has cat pics and quotes.

Next month, I'm returning to this same library for a literature contest trivia night. Wish me and my team well! Books with sports-like competition-- right up a tomboy nerd's alley!

 

[natedagg]

I got four books recently at one of my local libraries.

As someone who grew up on 1990s basketball, Blood in the Garden by Chris Herring is a great read about the New York Knicks teams from that era. I've learned some interesting insights about Pat Riley and Anthony Mason so far.

I also got a book with pictures and stories about the pandemic from around the world in 2020. It's called The Year That Time Stopped: The Global Pandemic in Photos.

A third book, which I recently finished, is Uncomfortable Conversations with A Black Man by former NFL player, Emmanuel Acho. He also hosts a YouTube series with the same name. He explains a lot of the race concepts that White (and especially conservative) folks 35 and over might not "get," or agree with (white privilege, cultural appropriation, etc). Highly recommend.

Last book was a brief and simple one, Cat Picture Book by Jacqueline Melgren. It has cat pics and quotes.

Next month, I'm returning to this same library for a literature contest trivia night. Wish me and my team well! Books with sports-like competition-- right up a tomboy nerd's alley!

Shout out libraries!

I am mostly an audiobook guy and mostly non fiction so forgive me if this reco sucks but Neville’s The Eight was really fun: two parallel time periods, so two protagonists, historical details, a plot involving a magical chess board, worldwide travel and adventure. I thought it was super interesting but I am not a good fiction critic so I was curious if anyone else read it.

The Immortality Key: basically people have been taking hallucinogens to find god before Christianity and through it. Really cool deep dive of hallucinogens and spirituality.

Iger’s The Ride of a Lifetime - former Disney CEO takes you through his career. I really enjoyed but you’d have to appreciate business and just have a curiosity about Disney so not for everyone.

Reading Build by Fadell right now. He’s a tech guy talking about building startups. Again, not for everyone.

Thanks for sharing! I love the ideas in here.