It's still book 3, but I found it interesting how different it is from Dresden Files. There is no forces of nature with personal enmity with the protagonist (yet), it's just (magic) crimes being solved by (magic) police. More of a police procedural then whatever genre Dresden Files is 😀

What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?

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[–] Grimm@lemmy.zip 2 points 4 days ago

I am currently reading Legends of Localization Book 1: The Legend of Zelda by Clyde Mandelin as part of a readalong with a friend. It focuses on the first entry in the TLOZ series and I've found it really interesting so far. I hesitate on reading fanmade gaming history books cause I don't trust the information will be accurate or well-written but so far, so good.

I've just started another book (haven't even finished the prologue yet) with another friend called Secrecy World: Inside the Panama Papers Investigation of Illicit Money Networks and the Global Elite by Jake Bernstein. This book got on my radar after I found out the Laundromat film is based on it. I suspect to get mad at rich people's audacity by the end of it.

[–] NerdyKeith@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

I'm currently almost completely through The Capital / Das Kapital by Karl Marx.

[–] afb@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

It's a horror week for me. Currently reading Shoot Me in the Face on A Beautiful Day by Emma E. Murray and also beta reading a horror novel by someone I know. Quite enjoying them both.

Recently read Albert Camus' The Stranger. That was pretty decent. Think I'll go for one of his nonfictional works soonish, been intending to for a while.

[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 3 points 5 days ago

The Stranger is such a strange (ha) book, but what a sense of serenity at the end.

[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 3 points 5 days ago

Finished Thomas Sankara: A Revolutionary In Cold War Africa. A very nuanced look at the man. A real idealist bursting with energy, a brilliant man and a visionary, yet inexperienced in politics and governance and prone to misjudging people by assuming (and demanding) the best of them. By nature an improviser, trying to improvise an entire government, and often with a mindset too military for civilian tastes, but too 'revolutionary' for military tastes. It's made me hungry to read more about the situation 'on the ground' during Sankara's administration.

[–] TheFerventLion@sh.itjust.works 5 points 6 days ago

Nearly done with Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir! It's quite good, and I'm glad I'd read somewhere here to go in with zero context. Would highly recommend.

Continuing to listen my way through the Otherland series by Tad Williams. Currently in book two, River of Blue Fire. It seems to me that he wrote all four books as one book and was told that was ~3000 pages wouldn't sell well. I'm very much enjoying it. Williams writes in a detailed pace, which can seem slow at times, but I love his use of 20th century literature as the basis of all the VR worlds. They're never the same as their origin and are wonderfully permuted.

[–] pancake@sopuli.xyz 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I finished Grendel by John Gardner. There were some parts I really liked and some that were just ok. Overall a decent read.

I've started rereading the Lady Astronaut books by Mary Robinette Kowal. They are just as gripping and bingeable as I remember them being. I finished the first one (The Calculating Stars) and am currently on book 2 (The Fated Sky).

[–] dresden@discuss.online 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Lady Astronaut books

Is the series finished? Or atleast have non-cliffhanger ending?

[–] pancake@sopuli.xyz 2 points 6 days ago

So I've only read the first 3. The 4th just came out recently, hence my reread. Each of the books I've read had a non-cliffhangery ending and was self-contained enough that I'd be satisfied even if the series didn't continue.

[–] aeternum@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 6 days ago

I'm 80% of the way through my star wars: aftermath book by chuck wendig. I plan to pivot to Billion Dollar Ransom by James Patterson after this, instead of reading the rest of the series. I will likely come back to the series after i read that Patterson book.

[–] tp2020@lemmy.ca 3 points 6 days ago

Just started From Volga To Ganga by Rahul Sankrityayan

[–] hobbsc@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 6 days ago

Well, I was in a reading slump so I opened Overdrive on my Kobo and the Britney Spears memoir was right on the front page so I checked that out. It's pretty bad, reads like the diary of a 5th grader, but maybe it'll shock the system. I have trouble not finishing books once I start.

I am considering going back to the Otherland series by Tad Williams next. I have City of Golden Shadow (book 1) but I never made it through the other tomes. They are pretty dense and I don't remember much. Might try to get that first one read and then visit the library for the others if it goes well.

[–] Catma@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I ended up tearing through Babel by RF Kuang and finished it today. It was a solid 4/5. I think at times it was very in your face with the anticolonialism and racism but was probably very in line with the time frame. I would have enjoyed some more delving into how the magic system worked/was created as well. But if you can make etemology engaging i feel like you did a pretty good job.

Maybe now i can focus on finishing Lady of the Lake.

[–] Grimm@lemmy.zip 1 points 4 days ago

I really loved Babel. There is one character that does a quick 180 that I could see being too abrupt but sometimes people are just like that. The book spoke to me most on the level of despair and apathy and hopelessness in the face of a society that is keen on subjugation.

[–] Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

About two thirds of the way through A Wizard of Earthsea.

[–] ieGod@lemmy.zip 4 points 6 days ago

I adore this book.

[–] Libb@piefed.social 9 points 1 week ago (8 children)

Almost finished 'Les entretiens' de Confucius (in French, because, well, I'm French). Started today: 'Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave'.

Work of fiction waiting to be started: Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein', J.M. Barrie 'The complete Peter Pan'.

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[–] UncleArthur@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago (2 children)

The Rivers of London books are fantastic, and keep getting better.

I've literally just finished reading the latest one, Stone and Sky.

[–] TheFerventLion@sh.itjust.works 4 points 6 days ago

This series keeps popping up on my To-Read list! Might do it after Wind and Truth.

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[–] SqueakySpider@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 week ago

The Left Hand of Darkness - I read most of it a few years ago, never finished it. On my way to finish it in a few days!

[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 6 points 1 week ago (2 children)

About halfway through Roman Sexualities. I know the broad concepts, but the details elaborated on are fascinating.

[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 3 points 6 days ago

Finished Roman Sexualities, very good but typically dry and academic in prose; moving on to Thomas Sankara: A Revolutionary In Cold War Africa.

[–] dresden@discuss.online 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

ahem Any interesting tidbits?

[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 4 points 6 days ago

Sure thing! It's noted, for example, that scratching one's head with one finger was considered a 'dainty' affectation and potentially indicating a passive homosexual - likely in relation to the connection Romans saw between vanity and passive homosexuality, with scratching one's head with one finger being to minimize mussing one's hair (Julius Caesar, famously handsome and vain, was noted by Cicero to scratch his head with one finger).

Another is that Romans considered a man performing oral sex on a woman to be more degrading than a man performing oral sex on another man, or receiving anal sex from another man. This is largely because the Romans didn't conceive of sexual relations in the form of their partner's sex, but in what acts were performed on who. Some men in Roman history are noted as liking men or liking women, but what defines their sexuality is not that, but rather whether they 'give' or 'receive'. The former is entirely normal for a RESPECTABLE citizen; the latter is proof of some inherent servility and disreputability.

During the Principate, sexual and gender boundaries weakened with the rise of the autocracy of the Roman Emperor disrupting traditional social divisions. Part and parcel with this was a spike in concern from moralists about the decline of 'traditional' Roman morality. Nowadays, all the men are going down on girls, marrying boys, and worrying about their appearance! O TEMPORA! O MORES! 😭

Regardless of whether that kvetching represented an actual increase in such behavior (it likely did, to some degree), it gives insight as to how the Romans perceived sexuality as part of the broader social structure, not just a private matter. It was not that transgressing it made you 'bad' or adhering to it made you 'good', unlike later Abrahamic notions of sexuality; it was that transgressing it was a challenge to the social order of inviolable citizens who could 'defend' their liberty and their self from 'intrusion' of others. The worrying, thus, was connected to the worry that the autocracy of the Roman Emperor was stripping Roman citizens of their liberty-oriented mindset, and creating a more 'servile' citizenry and social order.

[–] thefluffiest@feddit.nl 6 points 1 week ago

About 20% into Nietzsches Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Not an easy read but fascinating.

[–] OmegaMouse@pawb.social 6 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I'm 90% of the way through The Master and the Margarita. It's a completely surreal plotline and I think it'll help if I do some reading into the background (both the setting and the author's writing process) once I've finished. It's made me laugh a couple of times though, in particular:

spoiler

the scene in which the theatre accountant is desperately trying to deposit some cash, only to witness a group of employees involuntarily bursting into a sea shanty.

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[–] ModernRisk@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I just finished Fahrenheit 451. It was pretty decent but the ending was kind of a letdown.

Now… I’m searching for a new book and don’t know what to read.

[–] Grimm@lemmy.zip 1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

I feel like Fahrenheit 451 and 1984 go hand-in-hand if you haven't read it already.

[–] ModernRisk@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Yeah, I have read 1984 a while back ago. Was a really good book. I still think about Winston and o’Brain with the … scene.

I freaking dislike how Lemmy does the spoiler tag. So I will avoid what, I wrote previously.

[–] Grimm@lemmy.zip 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Yeah. The spoiler tool is a little janky.

I haven’t read that book in so long, I can’t clearly remember what happens but I do remember it left me feeling rather hopeless.

[–] ModernRisk@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 4 days ago

Oh yeah, the book does give that kind of feeling. Especially the ending. However, I have decided to pick up Before Your Memory Fades by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. It's the third book in the series of ''Before the Coffee Gets Cold'' and I do highly recommend the books.

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[–] HakunaHafada@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 week ago

Gender Identify and Faith, by Mark A. Yarhouse and Julia A. Sadusky.

[–] IcedRaktajino@startrek.website 5 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Still deeply down the TrekLit rabbit hole.

Finished the Star Trek: Destiny trilogy early last week (amazing, BTW) and am now through the first two books of the DS9: Millennium trilogy.

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[–] JaymesRS@piefed.world 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (4 children)

I’m still working through Drew Hayes Super Powereds series, I’ve finished book 3 and am reading a spin-off called Corpies that takes place during book 3.

The quality has definitely improved. Still could have benefited from a good editor but not quite as much as before. It’s moved into A tier.

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[–] Almacca@aussie.zone 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'm in the last quarter of Death's End by Liu Cixin, and not really enjoying it. It reads more like a documentary, and the plot seems to rely on people making the stupidest decisions possible. I'll finish it, but I'll be glad to move onto something else when I do.

[–] dresden@discuss.online 3 points 6 days ago

Just this book, or whole series?

[–] calliope@retrolemmy.com 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I’m reading through The Long Walk for a second time, mostly because it seems like they insist on forcing every Stephen King story into a movie, regardless of how little it makes sense.

The Long Walk is bleak. Something tells me the Hunger Games guy can’t hope to deliver nearly the same level of bleakness that the book insists on.

[–] Grimm@lemmy.zip 2 points 4 days ago

I never finished the Long Walk (had to return a borrowed copy before I was finished). The concept is interesting and hits a personal note as I was forced to walk for long distances throughout my childhood, sometimes to a traumatizing extent.

Apparently there was a screening of the film that required viewers to walk on treadmills at 3mph for the entire length of the movie and if they stopped, they were removed from the theater.

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