What book(s) are you currently reading or listening? June 25

The Labyrinth Index from the Laundry Files Series

I finally finished The Way of Kings which I've been reading since last July. I love a good slow burn and was enjoying reading a chapter a week or so, but I couldn't put it down for the last dozen chapters, it got so damn good. I'm taking a couple of weeks off work soon, so I might wait until I get back before I start the next one.

For tonight I'm in a bad mood so I think I'll stick with something quick and dumb like Kissing the Coronavirus to cheer myself up a bit. Or skim through an old comfort read like The Lies of Locke Lamora.

Just finished Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. A sci-fi thriller with quite a few twists. I enjoyed it and will check out his other books because of it.

I just finished the first trilogy which starts with “Red Rising”. It was really entertaining, and I highly recommend it. I’ll start the follow up series soon.

Right now I’m reading both Salem’s Lot by King and The Catcher in the Rye. I like to throw in classics that I missed in high school - I didn’t appreciate them then, but I’ve found a few as an adult that I’ve absolutely loved. Both books are pretty good so far - we’ll see how they end.

I recently started The Bear and The Nightingale by Katherine Arden. Its the first book in a trilogy, and while I've read - and loved - this book, I haven't read the rest of the trilogy yet. I'm quite excited - my wife blitzed them and said they were very good.

I just finished No Plan B by Lee Child. Number 20-something in the Jack Reacher series.

Fighting injustice (and kicking ass) throughout the country, one small corrupt town at a time.

Finished Into the water by Paula Hawkins. I would say that it's not as gripping as I thought. What is as much a plus and a minus point is tge change of narrator every chapter. At first, I was pleased by this "not so usual" way of writing but at some point, I just got lost about who is who and I had to search a list of characters on the web. That's perhaps because I had not a lot of time to read, so it took a while.

I started Behind her eyes by Sarah Pinborough. I know there is a Netflix show inspired by this but I prefer to read the novel first (or only we will see).

Just started "A Curse of Krakens" by Kevin Hearne (the guy who wrote the Iron Druid series). This is the third in the Seven Kennings series. The series has been pretty fun so far, with an interesting magic system. The prose is only so-so, but the way the story is told is unique and fun.

Since last time, I finished Severance by Ling Ma. I thought it was a good read - sorta reminded me of Catcher in the Rye due to its bleak tone & main character’s… unwillingness to take responsibility / control of their life? Overall, I’d recommend it; it’s pretty short.

I’m now reading Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang. These are a collection of short stories that have been really fun!

Finished To Catch a Thief by David Dodge. Enjoyable suspense mystery, but definitely of its time (casual Roma racist stereotypes, side couple with an age gap we might side-eye today). Definitely a more methodical, serious story than the movie, which I watched after.

Bingo squares: Older than You (1952), What's Yours Is Mine, Eazy Breazy Read-zie, Now a Major Motion Picture, (alt) A Change in Perspective

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I tried reading The Gathering by C.J. Tudor, a horror police procedural in a world where vampires publicly exist, because I like horror and police procedurals, but... all I did was remind myself that vampires just really aren't my thing most of the time. The writing was compelling, so I might go back to it at some point, or try something else by that author.

Started The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson.

I'm about 15% of the way into Neuromancer, and it's pretty good. It seems like it's going to be a heist book, which is always fun.

Just finished The Knight by Will Wight. Third in a series that runs in the opposite direction of his earlier progression fantasy works, the major characters start the story already at the peak of their personal power curves, and the main character outclasses every other merely mortal being in the galaxy. Making an interesting story out of that that isn't just Mary Sue wish fulfillment fantasy is pretty impressive.

Will Wight is my favorite author by far. The only series of his I couldn't get into was the Elder Empire, only because the plot seems to be driven by people just acting like assholes to each other, without any other, more sensible motives behind their actions.

It's the same reason I gave up on the Collapsing Empire series by John Scalzi before finishing the first book, and why I could never understand why anyone was interested in daytime soap operas.