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Talk about all the books you're reading!

Instead of merely linking to a book/review, please tell us a little bit about the book(s) and how you're liking them to give us something to grab onto for discussion.

Also check out Group Book Discussions if you're reading a book that's on the group shelf. Even if it's a book the group read several years ago, you're very welcome to add to the discussion!

We also have lots of buddy reads, you can find all of those in Buddy Read Recruitment.

Happy reading! :)

You, too, SFFBC!

I am re-reading David Gemmel's trilogy about the sack of Troy, which starts with Lord of the Silver Bow. It's a good take on that time period, with great characters. I think this is the fourth time I've read it since it was published. Anyway, it's presented like a good, but violent, historical fiction novel.

Yay!!

I’m reading Gideon the Ninth (ebook), Monstress Vol. 1 (graphic novel ebook on Scribd) and Shadowland, by Meg Cabot (audiobook). Sorry on the app, no links!

Really enjoying Shadowland so far.

In print, I started the year about halfway through the 3rd book in the Poppy War trilogy, The Burning God. I have such mixed feelings about this series but it just kind of keeps dragging me along. I think I would have been wiser to stop with the 1st book, though.

In audio, I’m listening to Reap the Wild Wind. I’ve listened to about 40%. Since this is the group’s science fiction pick for this month, I’ll refrain from any comments here. I’ll visit the group threads after I’ve finished it and probably comment in the spoiler thread.

After I finally finish The Burning God, I plan to read the group’s fantasy pick, Sunshine, in print. Then I plan to do one of the selected re-reads for Jan 15, The Song of Achilles.

Currently Reading:

Persephone Station by Stina Leicht. I picked this because I like the author's fantasy books (this is her first SciFi book): The Fey and the Fallen and The Malorum Gates series. So far it's pretty good. Most of the characters are female. Blurb from Kirkus: "In this earnest space opera, an ensemble of badass women and nonbinary and queer characters fight corporate overlords on the semilawless planet Persephone."

When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain by Nghi Vo. This was free from Tor a while back and it's quite interesting with a Chinese type setting, Empresses, Clerics and tigers who are people. Like her first book this constists of story telling.

Broken by Jenny Lawson = autobiography/stories of the authors life. From Publisher's Weekly; "Lawson (You Are Here) returns with a wry and entertaining take on her battle with depression, anxiety, and rheumatoid arthritis. As always, the author is unrivaled in her ability to use piercing humor and insight to take on heavy subjects." I've read her blog for years:

Blind Descent by Nevada Barr = book 6 in the Anna pigeon mystery series

Return to Quag Keep by Andre Norton. This one isn't as good as the usual Andre Norton (it's co-authored and written near the end of Norton's life)

I wish that she would continue the Fey and the Fallen series.

I can't remember - did those come to an ending?

CBRetriever wrote: "Currently Reading:

Persephone Station by Stina Leicht. I picked this because I like the author's fantasy books (this is her first SciFi book): The Fey and the Fall..."

I finished recently When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain and really enjoyed it!

I read Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson a couple of years ago Chessie. Loved it. Made me laugh and cry. Bought the book especially so that I could display it as the raccoon on the front makes me smile every time I see it.

Finished The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers on New Years Day. Loved it just like I love the rest of her books. And it filled in a heap of prompts on ATY and Popsugar. Decided this year I’m doing them again but trying to see how many prompts each book fills. Not going down the one book/one prompt hole. It’s my challenge and I’ll do it my way.

Currently reading over 20 books and tossing up whether to finish Shards of Earth (on my iPad) or start The Girl and the Mountain by Mark Lawrence, Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune or Daughter of the Deep by Rick Riordan (all dead tree books that I have here at the beach with me and easier on my eyes). Was thinking Daughter of the Deep actually. Yep�.I could do with some Rick Riordan at the moment.

@CBRetriever: There were only two books, and the storyline had not been resolved so a third must have originally been planned. I think there's an issue with publishing rights, or something along those lines.

After hearing a lot about it, I'm finally coming around to reading the Expanse series by "James S.A. Corey" (Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck), starting with Leviathan Wakes.

Liking it so far! I'm appreciating the world building and cultural differences mentioned, and the characters are interesting as well. I do feel it suffers a bit from having so many characters to keep track of, but that's the nature of telling an epic story sometimes, so I don't know that I can fault the authors for that. It's a big story.

I'll wait to decide whether to continue with the series until I finish this first one, but it's seeming like a yes so far.

you really might want to check out her blog as that has the same effect on me

Tagg, we have a buddy read thread for the Expanse series here, and the official discussion threads for books 1 and 2 are linked there, too :)

First book of 2022 is a very different type of book, a mix of history, fiction, sociology, and gender studies: The Real Valkyrie: The Hidden History of Viking Warrior Women by Nancy Marie Brown. It starts with Birka bj581. This is a Viking burial mound, first excavated in the 19th century. Entombed with a single warrior was every type of weapon used by the Vikings (a very rare occurrence), two shields, and two horses. Critically, the warrior was also buried with a set of gaming pieces, a burial symbol for a commander, a war leader and a strategist. Based on the findings, the individual was considered the prototype of a high-status Viking warrior. In the 21st century, further analysis delivered a shock: the person in the grave did not have a Y chromosome. The elite Viking warrior was a woman. Brown uses this as the starting point for a re-examination of gender in the Viking world. She shows, from these findings and other writings from that age, how women were, in fact, part of the Viking warrior society and how their role was distorted and diminished by Christian and then later by Victorian writers. Interspersed with the history, Brown writes a fictional story of the life of the woman in Birka bj581, who she names Hervor after the heroic daughter in Hervararkvida and The Waking of Angantyr, the only one brave enough to take the cursed sword, Tyrfing.

Who should read this book? If you like Vikings, Norse myths and sagas, fantasy, or gender studies, I would call it a must-read. If you love historical fiction, well, that is the weaker part. I think the author uses the fiction mostly as a way to give life to the history. Brown is a terrific writer of non-fiction, but not a novelist. It is a fabulous story and I wonder what Jane Smiley could have done with it. Or Tamsyn Muir!!

I really need to get to Tangleroot, I meant to read it when it came out.

AMG wrote: "I'm reading a bunch of books, including many on the bookshelf, because I requested books without enough planning from the library and have a lot with long waitlists that I have to read quickly:

Cu..."

I have stacks of books from the library some of which have long waitlists and still read them one at a time.

As my fist book of 2022 I am finally reading THE EMPIRE’S RUIN by Brian Staveley, book 1 in a new epic fantasy trilogy .

This morning, with a handy internet outage helping me refrain from frittering any time away on the computer (today was a work holiday for me), I finished up the last book in the Poppy War trilogy, The Burning God. Lots of death and destruction and damaged people making horrible decisions. I thought it was written well, and the story held my attention, but I won’t miss the setting.

Now I’m moving on to "you are my Sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy when skies are gray…� Just what I need, another book that’s going to get a song stuck in my head every time I think about it. :) The Great and Mighty Ernest is no happier with this song than the last one.

You have to sing, "You are my Ernest, my only Ernest" to him instead :)

At the moment reading The Alloy of Law. About 1/2 way through it and really enjoying it so far. I started way late on the Wax and Wayne series, compared to so many others.

LOL Michelle, you're right, that might work better!

Charlton, please don't keep us in suspense! You never finished and said what you're reading!

I'm already reading too many books, but they are some good ones.

A Song for a New Day by Sarah Pinsker. I am enjoying this. Different in many elements from We are Satellites, but similar good character development and attention to human interactions.

Escaping Exodus by Nicky Drayden. Fast-paced story, weird and gritty future setting.

Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton. I was expecting this to be more genteel, I think, but these dragons are very much Dragons.

I just finished The Lost Steersman and it was great, the kind of book you can't put down and refuses to let you rest til you complete it. It's the 3rd book in the Steerswoman Series. Started the next book The Language of Power. These are my own opinions and not influenced by the Murderer of tapirs, Father of Krakens, Diversity Hire! 😂😂😂

So I’m nearly finished Rick Riordan’s new book Daughter of the Deep. He’s stepped away from Demigods and his new heroine is the great-great-great-great granddaughter (I think that’s enough greats) of Captain Nemo. Really enjoying it but then again I love all of his books. Anyhoo back to it. Not much to go now. It’s been a long time since I’ve read books during the day. Just sitting in between everything else I’ve had to do today and just ignoring the world. I’d forgotten how much I love doing that.

Question � do people count re-reads towards books read in a given year for challenges? Anyway, I’m more than halfway on my re-read of The Goblet of Fire as a read aloud to my daughter.

Other than that, just finished Strange Beasts of China and working on the fantasy BotM, Sunshine.

I definitely do count rereads toward my challenges. I may not reread as often as some but when I do I do feel like it’s a different experience from the first read and sometimes it’s in a different medium: eyeball v audio. Either way I’m reading the whole story.

Yes, I do count re-read the same as first reads.

Yes, I do. It's a book that was read, so it shouldn't matter.

Yes, I count them. I spent the time reading, didn’t I? The only one I didn’t count is when I read the first and last chapters of The Fifth Season to refresh my memory before reading the Obelisk Gate.

I've stopped marking rereads of books I reread several times a year, but aside from that, yes, they totally count! There are some series I haven't marked when rereading for the first time for whatever reason, but that just means I can mark them at a later time when I reread for the seventh time :D (Penric. It's all marked as read only once, but I've reread every single one at least twice, most four or five times.)

Yeah, I don't count the ones I read at night to sleep, but anything that's part of my conscious consumption, for sure!

I count rereads if they're in a new format to what I originally read them in. If i read it in hard copy, the Kindle version is a new read.

I count them. I eye read the Wayfarer books by Becky Chambers over the last few years and I’m currently listening to them in my car when I’m driving long distances by myself. Totally counting them even if I eye read them again as it’s precious time I’m taking to read something.

I went to start reading a buddy read and realized my library card, and thus my access to Hoopla, has expired. So! I have gone with a book that's been on my TBR for almost 7 years, The Man with the Golden Torc. I remember no reasons why I put it on the list, so it's a complete mystery to me!

Also gonna try to get the third Expanse book :D

I started a series back in 2018 that I never finished. That's my goal to do this month. I'll be rereading thefirst three books. Right now, I'm reading Dragons dale and didn't realize there's more books after it as our library marked it a standalone.

I started reading the Wheel of Time mid-2020 as I jumped back into reading. XD
It may not have been the best decision, but I stuck with it and I plan to finish the series this year. I am currently in the middle of Crossroads of Twilight.
I had quite a bit of difficulty getting into the earlier books, but once I got a feel for Jordan's writing style I was able to really appreciate his world and character building. To see the characters where they are now in comparison to where they were at the beginning of the series has been such a wonderful experience. I believe this is what has made the notorious "Slog" not so bad for me. I have absolutely fallen in love with so many of the characters that I can't wait to see them every time I open the book.

When I finish The Wheel of Time I plan to read Red Rising in an effort to catch up to my friends in their buddy read.

ambitious! i wish both of you success

I finished The Way of Kings, Part 1 a few days ago, and was looking forward to getting Part 2 from the library yesterday (had to wait for the long weekend to be over), but although it was there on Saturday when I checked, it was gone by the time I got there 😢, as was the other book I'd planned on! Sad times.
Instead, I'm going on with Ariadne, and will get to The Dark Archive next (second-to-last in the Invisible Library series).
I won't say too much about Ariadne, since it's a group book for next month. I like the lyrical, bittersweet mythical style; it's already sad, and I know it's going to be sad, since that's how the legends go; but I hope it tells a nice story along the way. I'm a bit apprehensive about the tragic elements, though. I want there to be enough redemption to make it feel good at the end! I like the insight of telling the story through Ariadne's imagined eyes. It's a bit too "women's lives are ruined by men", "men are evil or stupid" so far, but I hope that's balanced over the course of the story more.
I ended up really liking 'The Way of Kings', in the end. Wasn't sure what to expect, but I'm glad I took the chance. Definitely wanting to know where the story goes now.

Still on my quest to read Hugo Award winners. December I had finished Jo Walton's Among Others and Vonda McIntyre's Dreamsnake. Now I'm reading Ursula LeGuin's Hainish cycle working my way to her two Hugo award winners, so starting at book 1. I know, they are all stand-alone, they have inconsistencies with respect to each other but still, gonna read in order of publishing)
x Rocannon's World (just finished)
2 Planet of Exile
3 City Of Illusion
4 Left Hand Of Darkness (HA)
6 The Dispossessed (HA)

The book I'm reading that has these seems to have missed the 5th one (word for world is forest), so I guess I won't be reading that one!

Marc wrote: " ... Now I'm reading Ursula LeGuin's Hainish cycle working my way to her t..."

The Telling is also connected to the Hainish books, although it too is a standalone. One of my fav books by her, actually. Enjoy your LeGuin fest.

I agree, Jan. The Telling is fantastic.

Also, Marc, if you have the time, do read The Word for World is Forest. It’s quite short and on our backlist. It’s one of LeGuin’s angriest, most politically overt books and worth consideration.

I had wanted to finish books before I started a new one, but my e-reader's battery was down last night when I went to bed, so I started Starry Night: Van Gogh at the Asylum, a book I had bought as a christmas present for myself ... for christmas 2020. :D

I count rereads. There's always at least a year or two in between, but regardless, if there was something I read twice or three times a year, I'd count it, too. It'd be part of my reading for the year.

I currently have six books on Now Reading. The active ones are:
Soulless (audio) (reread) - fun story with a delightful main character.
Strange Beasts of China (paper)

After that The Song of Achilles for the SFFBC reread (haven't decided on audio or paper for that one) and Piranesi for the SFFBC virtual group. After that I'll be greedy and follow my own agenda for a book or two. :D

DivaDiane wrote: "I agree, Jan. The Telling is fantastic."

:)

*virtual hug for a fellow 'Telling' fan*

I'm on a ghost stories phase at the moment. It's A Head full of Ghosts for me, which follows on the trail of Hex, which was creepy.

Lili wrote: "I'm on a ghost stories phase at the moment. It's A Head full of Ghosts for me, which follows on the trail of Hex, which was creepy."

Lili, I am one of those phase people, too!

I finished Fall of Kings, which wrapped things up very nicely. I always liked the way Aeneas was considered the progenitor of Rome, so the epilogue was pretty cool.

Lili wrote: "I'm on a ghost stories phase at the moment. It's A Head full of Ghosts for me, which follows on the trail of Hex, which was creepy."

Loved A Head Full of Ghosts and Hex. I think I read them the same year I read The Last Days of Jack Sparks. It was a very creepy reading year. In a good way.

About a week or so ago my girlfriend and I visited the local Half Price Books. She always walks away carrying a huge stack of novels, where I am more conservative (picky, maybe?) of which ones I buy. I bought a couple in the Nostalgic section that day, one in particular that I am enjoying the hell out of called Alfred Hitchcock's Tales to Keep You Spellbound. This compilation of tales was written by authors in the '50's. Vintage scenes and beautiful characterization. I've always loved Hitchcock suspense and these tales do not fail to deliver engaging stories. Much like when I read Terry Pratchett, I don't wish for the book to end! I ordered Inferno recently and began reading it, and for some reason just couldn't get into the story.