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What are you reading?

So I've got three books on the go; one book is my before bed and the other two are research for some world building. I've always had a passion for old Norse Gods and tales and would love to craft some imaginative worlds through ideas I learn from their stories.

'A Closed and Common Orbit' by Becky Chambers
'The Poetic Edda' (translation) by Jackson Crawford
'The Saga of the Volsungs, with Saga of Ragnar Lothbrok' (translation) by Jackson Crawford
 
Alright, time to resurrect this since I've finished a couple books.

First is the Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett which is a classic of the noir genre and was an interesting read. I had done a surprising job of never being spoiled on what the twist ending of this was; but I put that down more to accident and having never watched any of the adaptations. My impression of the book was that it was too long, even for it's short length it dragged in the middle. I found the main character too un-relatable that when he got kicked in the head I was actually happy. I also found descriptions of the main character to be humorous as my mental picture of him is at odds with how the rest of the cast treat him. Overall I'm glad I read it; but I can't really recommend it.

The second book I finished was Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties by Tom O'Neill. This is a book that can live in your head. While it presents evidence which could be conspiratorial it does not take a full dive into conspiracy. More so it tugs at some strings of inconsistencies and circumstantial events which can easily lead someone to a much more severe picture of what happened with Manson and his family. The book is presented in a chronological order of the research that O'Neill did and so you as a reader are pulled along with him as he finds issues with the official story and must dig to try and find out the truth. A truth which is sadly never fully realized; but it does bring the story of Helter Skelter into question and I think it does in an admirable job, I would recommend this one.
 
M. The son of the XX Century by Antonio Scurati (in the Dutch translation, from Italian M. Il figlio de secolo)

The M from the title is Benito Mussolini. But this book is a work of fiction, which makes it highly interesting for me. Not sure though if it's widely available in English yet, although HarperCollins do seem to have the rights on the English translation. But I couldn't find the English book on Amazon, nor does the writer have an English wiki-page yet.
 
Thunderball by Ian Fleming

Amazon had the original 13 Bond novels for a buck a piece a while back on the Kindle and I am slowly going through them.
 
I recently finished Rimrunners by C.J. Cherryh. A decent book in her Alliance-Union Space setting, the main story line wasn't the strongest but the characters pulled it through. The climatic last fight of the book was a little lack luster. Honestly while I'm not sad that I read it I can't strongly recommend it unless you're a completionist for the setting. I hope the next book, Heavy Times, will be a better outing.

As for what's on my nightstand. I'm reading the rather depressing The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government by David Talbot. Never thought I'd read a book that would make me feel some sympathy towards the IMF and the World Bank; but finding out what the origins of those organizations are and what they've become was a surprise to me. Finding out the CIA used nazis in their war against Russia or stolen nazi wealth to fund their wars; that I was aware of.
 
Sucker Punch, Book 26 of Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series. I love both of her big series and smile like a kid on Christmas morning when a new one is published.
 
I’ve been in the middle of the third John Dies at the End book for about two or three years now haha. But if you’ve never read that series, I highly suggest that you do. They’re pretty great, not many books can make me laugh out loud like those ones. Plus, the characters are just so great tossed into their crazy middle of nowhere town.
 
After another trip to the library, I got four books today:

1) And their children after them by Nicolas Mathieu (in the Dutch translation, from French Leurs enfants après eux)
2) The Ladies' Paradise by Emile Zola (in the Dutch translation, from French Au bonheur des dames)
3) On the road by Jack Kerouac (in the Dutch translation, from English)

but those are for later, I have started in
4) Adults by Emma Jane Unsworth (in English)

On the backside of the cover it says the following:
Adults is what you want it to be. A misadventure of maturity, a satire on our age of self-promotion, a tender look at the impossibility of womanhood, a love story, a riot. And Emma Jane Unsworth is the only voice to hear it from. Adults is excruciating, a gut punch of hilarity and a book laden with truth that you will read again and again.

But, as a man born in the 1960s, and a hundred pages into the book, to me it's all about the life of millenials. People who were born with a mobile phone attached to the end of an arm, where I have two hands. And who do everything for likes. And I'll leave my comments at that until I've finished the book.
 
Unmentionable: The Victorian Lady's Guide to Sex, Marriage, and Manners by Therese O'Neil

Definitely full of amusing information, but the constant snarky tone got to be a bit exhausting.
 
Trash of the Count's Family (Web Novel by Yoo Ryeo Han)

Another general Isekai story, though focuses on the lead ending up in the body of a 'trashy,' noble from a novel series he read who happens to be a minor character. Armed with the knowledge of the series and wanting to live a more peaceful life than what befell the character in the novel, he ends up interacting with various characters that are the stars of the novel differently than what the established character( that he is suppose to be) would of done. An interesting take, sense the author also included even events differing from the MC's knowledge so MC doesn't have full 'cheat' expectations/prediction ability. Plus the MC has to use his actual wits and dialect to manipulate things to follow their natural course as they would in the novel so that he could get by in trying to live a peaceful life in his new world.

This also has a webcomic, but it isn't that far into it. After reading web comic I went straight to novel and haven't regretted anything so far after good 60 chapters in. Of course web novel is still ongoing I think and has about 600 chapters to it. And again, not that far into it, so unsure if MC ever gets stronger. If he does, I guess it will fit Weak to Strong genre; but again mostly from what I seen he is just armed with a silver tongue and what prior knowledge he can maintain of events from the novel he read that he is living in.
 
Tanakalian said:
After another trip to the library, I got four books today:

1) And their children after them by Nicolas Mathieu (in the Dutch translation, from French Leurs enfants après eux)
2) The Ladies' Paradise by Emile Zola (in the Dutch translation, from French Au bonheur des dames)
3) On the road by Jack Kerouac (in the Dutch translation, from English)

but those are for later, I have started in
4) Adults by Emma Jane Unsworth (in English)

On the backside of the cover it says the following:
Adults is what you want it to be. A misadventure of maturity, a satire on our age of self-promotion, a tender look at the impossibility of womanhood, a love story, a riot. And Emma Jane Unsworth is the only voice to hear it from. Adults is excruciating, a gut punch of hilarity and a book laden with truth that you will read again and again.

But, as a man born in the 1960s, and a hundred pages into the book, to me it's all about the life of millenials. People who were born with a mobile phone attached to the end of an arm, where I have two hands. And who do everything for likes. And I'll leave my comments at that until I've finished the book.
Click to expand...

Brought number 1 back to the library. Too depressing a story. Can't get through number 4 either for the reason mentioned above.
Reading On the Road, but don't really see yet why there was so much of a hype around the 2007 uncensored edition. It's all pretty tame and mundane to me.

Also got a new book from the library, Kintu by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi. The writer is from Uganda, and she writes in the style of their old myths, legends and oral stories. Seems good.
 
Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth.

Bloody incredible, sci-fi gothic, young adult (I guess) things. The prose is incredible. The characters wild. And I had no idea what was going on until I did, and it made perfect sense. Like, out of nowhere, the second book is written in the 2nd person. And it works. HOW DOES IT WORK?

*This post brought to you by requiring three posts to do anything.
 
I've heard good things about those books, but also that due to the change in perspective the second can be a bit much.
 
I just finished up Starship Troopers and started in on The Stand. I'm trying to read all of those books that I've always meant to read but never got around to.
 
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