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Author Topic: Rate the last book you read.  (Read 194325 times)

philip918

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #1890 on: July 02, 2019, 05:34:51 PM »
Storm of Locusts (Roanhorse)

The follow-up to Roanhorse's excellent Trail of Lightning has the same strengths and weaknesses. Great characters, fast-paced, and action-packed, but builds to an ending that doesn't feel like it's quite been properly set up. Still these are very fun reads. Would love to see this as a TV series some day.

The Overstory (Powers)

This was a phenomenal read and Powers succeeds at making trees and forests feel as vital to the story as they are to the planet. In fact, the human characters serve the trees' stories, most of them aren't even that interesting, and that was fine with me. The one human character I did really love was the dendrologist, Patricia Westerford, who has an underdog/unappreciated genius story that really works.

The Name of the Wind (Rothfuss)

Rothfuss creates an incredibly compelling voice for his central character, Kvothe, who is telling his long origin tale to a curious scribe. With that voice, Rothfuss spins a fantasy world that really lives and breathes, and completely pulled me in. Looking forward to the rest of the King Killer Chronicles.
« Last Edit: July 02, 2019, 05:53:17 PM by philip918 »

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #1891 on: July 03, 2019, 09:08:41 AM »
The Name of the Wind (Rothfuss)

Rothfuss creates an incredibly compelling voice for his central character, Kvothe, who is telling his long origin tale to a curious scribe. With that voice, Rothfuss spins a fantasy world that really lives and breathes, and completely pulled me in. Looking forward to the rest of the King Killer Chronicles.
Book 3 has been a long time coming. Glad you started reading it, though.

philip918

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #1892 on: July 13, 2019, 03:51:09 PM »
Underland (MacFarlane)

A great non-fiction companion piece to Powers's The Overstory. MacFarlane goes to the deep dark places of the world and weaves myth, legend, history, and geology into his deep time exploration. MacFarlane does an excellent job structuring the book and builds to a payoff that is well-earned and striking. Highly recommended if you have any interest in the natural world.

MartinTeller

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #1893 on: August 12, 2019, 04:30:12 PM »
Just started this:



I'm a Vonnegut completist, so I have to. But usually unpublished work is unpublished for a reason. I've read one story so far, and while it wasn't bad or anything, it was really predictable. Not expecting much greatness in this book, but it should be a quick read (as long as I set aside some reading time).

Should have been a quick read, but I put it down for a long time and only recently worked my way through it (I skipped the unfinished story at the end, because come on). Pretty lame stories, I must say. The best part was the non-fiction essay. I think I just have very little interest in reading fiction these days. Funny how that happens.

philip918

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #1894 on: August 13, 2019, 11:57:12 AM »
The Patternist Series by Octavia Butler
Octavia Butler is one of my favorite authors of all.

Coming soon to Amazon with Viola Davis producing and Nnedi Okorafor writing. Seems like a perfect team for the project.

https://deadline.com/2019/03/wild-seed-drama-series-based-on-sci-fi-book-in-works-at-amazon-from-viola-davis-julius-tennons-juvee-productions-1202583070/

philip918

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #1895 on: August 27, 2019, 01:11:43 PM »
The Fifth Season (Jemisin)

Even on its own this stands as an all-time great work of fantasy literature. Great characters with unique abilities set in a powerful and fully-realized world. Jemisin's writing is beautiful and the story is told just incredibly well - it packs punch after punch, and those punches land with terrific force because they have been set up so well on every level - character, plot, history, mythology, etc. Will definitely be reading the rest of the trilogy right away.

oldkid

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #1896 on: August 27, 2019, 02:55:11 PM »
The Patternist Series by Octavia Butler
Octavia Butler is one of my favorite authors of all.

Coming soon to Amazon with Viola Davis producing and Nnedi Okorafor writing. Seems like a perfect team for the project.

https://deadline.com/2019/03/wild-seed-drama-series-based-on-sci-fi-book-in-works-at-amazon-from-viola-davis-julius-tennons-juvee-productions-1202583070/

 ;D ;D ;D :o ??? 8)
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

Bondo

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #1897 on: August 27, 2019, 06:29:01 PM »
The Fifth Season (Jemisin)

Read this on my cruise last December and enjoyed it but struggled with its varying perspective. It has some second-person narration at points IIRC. The second book proved insurmountable.

Beavermoose

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #1898 on: August 29, 2019, 08:52:23 PM »
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N Roll Generation Saved Hollywood - Peter Biskind

This should be called kill your idols: the book. It's really a chronicle of misogyny and domestic abuse in Hollywood from Denis Hopper beating his wife to Friedkin controlling and manipulating his partner and forcing her to get an abortion to Beatty forcing himself onto women. The boys club of the new Hollywood were actually really awful egomaniacs. Even Scorsese who I always considered more of an academic cinephile had an affair with Liza Minelli. I'm surprised this book didn't get mentioned more during the MeToo movement because it is an incredible document especially considering it was originally released in the 1990s.
When people go on about boycotting Allen or Polanski they should really consider the fact that literally all of these filmmakers are abusers.
The behind the scenes of the industry also feels incredibly slimy, with millions of dollar getting thrown around and people lying, manipulating each other and arguing to get films produced.
That being said, I couldn't stop reading this book and loved picturing these behind the scenes moments of some of my favourite movies. It's both a fascinating and condemning read.
« Last Edit: August 29, 2019, 09:05:11 PM by Beavermoose »

philip918

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #1899 on: September 17, 2019, 08:23:19 PM »
A Wizard of Earthsea (Le Guin)

The work of a master storyteller. Le Guin creates a vast, deep, and rich world in remarkably concise prose. It's epic in every sense of the word and there are scenes of surprising terror. The shadow is a fantastic creation. I just got the rest of the books in the series and can't wait to dive in.

 

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