I'm not sure how it became November. Let alone a week into November. I miss the summer. I seem to be speaking in a lot of sentence fragments lately so please forgive me in advance.
Been reading a lot lately. As always the disclaimer is: what I like it not necessarily what you will like and that is OK. Please don't take it personally.
The Magicians by Lev Grossman. AV Club highly recommended. Audio version (look, I do a lot of dyeing and skeining these days)
I got way way too involved in this book, partly because it is very close to home in some aspects. I so enjoyed this, but it's also sad and sometimes angsty and I find the main character to be kind of a jerk. That's all probably part of why it was a fantastic book. Went really fast. I've got The Magician King on hold at the library now.
Magician: Apprentice by Raymond Feist. Recommendation from an NPR fantasy/sci fi list.
Sensing a theme? Enh. Just didn't do anything for me. OK plot, forgettable characters, too many fantasy cliches. I probably would have enjoyed this book immensely in 5th grade.
Old Man's War by John Scalzi. Hello NPR list. Maybe I'm just trying to be a completionist.
I ripped through this in 3 days. Excellent story, very compelling. Not superwonderfulfantastic literature but a page turner. Went out and bought the sequel because I needed something for the train back. The second one wasn't quite as good but still enjoyable.
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. NPR list again. Audio.
Bailed on this one about 4-5 chapters in. I just wasn't interested. I listened to one other Joe Haldeman book in the past and I've just decided we don't mesh.
Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold. That NPR list from above, although my friend Janet went through a Bujold binge last year and loves them. Audio
I'm in the middle of this. Pretty good story, plus it's nice to see a strong female protagonist (The Magicians had one too, although it's more complicated than that).
The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean, another AV Club recommendation
Hey look ma, nonfiction! I love interesting science books like this and I started off a chemistry major, so it's a slam dunk. Not finished with it yet, but I like this one a lot. I had no idea Mendeleev was so... eccentric (didn't believe in atoms, not withstanding that he developed the periodic table. Explain THAT one.)
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Thanks, I just requested The Disappearing Spoon from the library. I read The Magicians a year or two ago, but listened to the audio this summer, then listened to the sequel. Not great, but absorbing.
I found The Magicians absorbing but somewhat depressing (and yeah, there are several characters who are jerks in there, and I think the main character kind of got screwed over in one of the "gifts" he was given).
"The Disappearing Spoon" is on my to-be-read shelf, I might take it for travel-reading over Thanksgiving.
Lots of strong women in the Bujold series. Lots of action. Lots of fun reading.
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