MGoReading
Our household has done some cord cutting and streaming downsizing this past year, particularly after the football season ended. We've been doing a lot more reading since then. I often read Horror, Fantasy and US History books. Three that I have on my shelve to read our "Shadow of the Gods", "Dune" and "The Three Body Problem". I'm excited about all three. I think the The Three Body Problem got picked up by Netflix and I haven't read much Sci-Fi in my day. I don't know much about Dune other than I drifted in and out of the movie when I was battling COVID and a high fever.
Anyone else been reading anything interesting?
My wife and a good friend of mine swear by the Red Rising series. Supposedly really good if you're into sci-fi, space exploration, revenge, etc.
My friend describes it as Game of Thrones meets God of War (if you're a gamer) meets Space Opera.
As a long time lurker I logged in just to second this.
The Red Rising series (6 books out, with the finale due in the next 18 months) is absolutely fantastic. The audiobook is done by Tim Gerard Reynolds who is phenomenal, and they’ve started releasing dramatized versions of the first trilogy of the series. So depending on your preferred consumption, there are plenty of options.
and to throw in a different rec - try The Will of the Many. Fantastic book, with the second coming out sometime in the next year! And anything Brandon Sanderson! Cheers! Back to the shadows I go.
Really enjoyed the first three of the red rising, but I had too much of a gap and couldn’t get back in when the later ones came out.
definitely some hunger game vibes also
Great thread! Among the books I've read recently, three stand out as outstanding and wholly singular (in my admittedly limited experience, anyway):
Let's Kill Uncle by Rohan O'Grady
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Night of the Hunter by Davis Grubb
I haven't read the others on your list, but The Remains of the Day was tremendous.
Working on "Children Of Ash And Elm" by Neil Price, which is an academic work about the Vikings. The next one up is "Heart Of Europe", which is Peter Wilson's tome about the Holy Roman Empire.
Before that, I finished "On The Brink", which is essentially a summary / transcript of interviews from workers at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Scary shit there honestly. Thought of the people I know who work at nuclear facilities as I read it.
The best books I read in 2023 kind of fit into this sci-fi / fantasy area.
A Psalm for the Wild-Built
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy
Both by Becky Chambers. Kind of light and uplifting.
Oh really enjoyed these, such a different style of writing, light and flows but heartfelt
If you like these take a look at the The Singing Hills cycle series by Nghi Vo
These are great. You may also like her Wayfarers series - they're loosely connected, but worth the read. There are parts of The Galaxy And The Ground Within that are just brilliant and reminded me very much of how communities pulled together during the pandemic.
Awesome, I will definitely check them out. The Monk / Robot ones left me with such a smile on my face.
My sister got me “My Effin Life” for Christmas. That’s Geddy Lee’s autobiography. I found it very interesting, but I’m a huge Rush fan from way back. While reading that, I also read “The Silk Roads,” a history of the world told through a central Asian perspective. I don’t normally read 2 books at the same time, but The Silk Roads was a slog and I really wanted to read Geddy’s book so I couldn’t wait anymore. The Silk Roads was really interesting, it’s just not a summer vacation page-turner type read.
Currently, I’m reading Collapse, The Fall of the Soviet Union. Ever since I saw the HBO documentary about Chernobyl, I’ve been fascinated with that era in Soviet history.
Is Collapse good?
So far yes, but I’m only ~50 pages into it.
I finally read Moby Dick over the past month or so. What an amazing piece of work that book is, I can see why its considered a classic. This will not hit everyone necessarily, but the depth and quality of written work in the 19th century is almost unbelievable considering what gets published, yelled on TV and screamed out by social media today. The clarity of thought and explanation of the human as a combination of animal and high intellect in the same being seems to have peaked in the mid- to late-1800’s. I would suggest anyone read the classics from that time period (Crime and Punishment, Moby Dick, Thus Spake Zarathustra, War and Peace, Brothers Karamozov, etc, etc).
I have Moby Dick on my reread list. I don't think I fully appreciated it at the time.
I almost added Moby Dick to my Audible list, but went with 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I wish I would have went with Moby Dick as 20,000 Leagues has been surprisingly underwhelming to me.
I’m more into literary stuff but I’ll throw some out there anyhow:
Recent stuff I hit:
Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange is decent so far.
Alphabetical Diaries by Sheila Heti is an oddly mesmerizing memoir.
Dirt by Bill Buford has great prose about the intricacies of learning French cooking in Lyon
All timers for me:
Preparation for the Next Life by Atticus Lish is a powerful novel.
Among the Thugs (another Bill Buford), a well reported, hilarious submersion into the Man U hooligan firm of the 1980s. As sports fans, do not sleep on this book
The Map and the Territory by Michel Houellebecq is a French novel about an artist whose fame instigates a police procedural that culminates with an extended meditation on nature and time
I, uh, did not expect a Sehila Heti shoutout on a college football blog. Map and the Territory is by far the best Houellebecq IMO; much of the other stuff is, forgive me, Whatever.
I did not know that Bill Buford had written a third book. That's going on my list. Among the Thugs is the best thing I've read for really understanding the psychology of mobs. His middle book, Heat, was also a favorite, although it hasn't aged well with what we know now about Mario Batali.
I really enjoyed There There so I've got Wandering Stars on my to read list. Probably in the summer when I'm not teaching.
Also second the recommendation for Among the Thugs.
A good fantasy series is Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
other highly recommend series
the Rampart Trilogoy by m.r. Carey (first is book of koli)
The books of babel by Josiah bancroft
I loved the Mistborn trilogy. Excellent stuff.
I like historical fiction. Two books I've read recently that I really liked:
Horse by Geraldine Brooks & The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris.
Some of my favorites would be:
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles, the whole Kingsbridge series by Ken Follett & The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
AGIM by Towles is excellent. So much so that I picked up The Lincoln Highway....got through it but was a little disappointed.....
Picked up Slaughterhouse-Five the other day. Quick, easy read, and enjoyed it very much. Sometimes the classics (is that old enough to be a classic?) are classics for a reason. So it goes.
Agreed.
Agreed.
Hope you get unstuck eventually.
All of the user names check out!
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles!
See above.....if you like that one, then you should really like A Gentleman in Moscow.
Reading Mitchell Zuckoff’s Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11. I have dozens of unread books from mostly European and American history to choose from. Not sure what I want to read next.
I always recommend the Red Rising books by Pierce Brown to anyone who likes dystopian scifi/space opera/brutalist type series. The first book feels a little YA and is sometimes marked as such but from the second book on is intense
I recommend Confederacy of Dunces.
This is much less political than it seems: https://theauthoritarians.org/ and also it's free--written by a professor in the mid-2000s and he just wanted to get it out there. Heard about it from the British History Podcast, who was using it as a framework to understand the psychology of William the Conqueror and the society of the Norman aristocracy he grew up around.
Very interesting. He takes different personality types and puts them in wargames, and sees the results. Outside of politics, his findings have are extremely applicable to college athletics.
4,000 weeks was probably the most beneficial book I've read in the last few years.
I'm presently reading technofuedalism which is going to turn me into a nihilist (well I suppose more of one)
I cannot recommend Brandon Sanderson strongly enough for a fantasy author. I started with Warbreaker which he put on his website for free for people to see if they like his style. If you like that his masterpiece is the Stormlight Archive which are massively dense books. Mistborn has two series, an oldschool fantasy epic and the second a wild west mix with fantasy.
His work is incredible and he turns out books at a ludicrous pace. He also set the kickstarter all time funding record when he released four books he wrote over Covid.
The kickstarter books are great. Huge fan of Tress of the emerald sea
his magic systems are so well thought out and developed
Brandon just announced he wrote another secret novel that’s coming out with the leatherbound edition of Words of Radiance… he’s an absolute machine.
I read the first book in the Stormlight Archive and enjoyed it. But it was so long ago that I haven't picked up the following books as I'm afraid I'd would just completely lost at this point.
I thought his best work was finishing Wheel of Time, tbh. Stormlight and Mistborn series gave me "Marvel of fantasy fiction" vibes, where he hits the right notes at the right time to make it enjoyable, but I don't find myself thinking about it much afterwards. The standalone books are actually better than his series.
I used to read a lot but not as much anymore.
David McCullough is favorite. I’ve read 1776 a few times, John Adam’s a few times, a couple others, and am currently 1/2 way through the Brooklyn Bridge.
i too like cheesy horror books and have read numerous John Saul books.
The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells are amazing and generally brisk reads.
I'll second the recommendations for John Scalzi. Kaiju Preservation Society and Starter Villian are both laugh-out-loud funny.
I would also recommend nearly anything by Guy Gavriel Kay - Under Heaven is my favorite. It's set during his alternate-history Tang Dynasty, and the sense of the characters knowing that their world is at its peak and about to come crashing down is poignant and brilliant.
I agree about Guy Gavriel Kay. Try All the Seas of the World too.
I do like that one, but of the three books around the fall of Sarantium (alternate-history Byzantium), my favorite is probably Children of Earth and Sky. Villani the Younger is perhaps my favorite character.
Sadly, I don't know how to read
But, when(if) I learn, these are all great ideas
Love this thread as I’m always looking to fill the void as I’m waiting for a couple of new ones from my favorite authors, Hampton Sides, Eric Larson, Nathaniel Philbrick, and a few more. Can’t recommend Hampton Sides enough, his writing is very fluid. From Ghost Soldiers and On Desperate Ground to Kingdom of Ice and Blood and Thunder he hits on some intriguing events from the past couple of centuries.
I really enjoyed Mayflower by Philbrick. I haven't gotten the chance to read any others by him.
If it’s his maritime stuff you’re after, I’d suggest In the Heart of the Sea followed by Sea of Glory. The Last Stand was a detailed narrative of Custer and Bunker Hill was excellent as well.
Maybe too mainstream for all y'all, but Michael Crichton and Stephen King are enough to keep me entertained.