What Are You Reading Now?

[Armenag]

After seeing people rave about it for years, I finally got around to reading Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry and it met or exceeded the hype. It won the Pulitzer for fiction 31 years ago and was at least 31x better than this year's winner. Great story with complex and interesting characters.

If you ever decide to check it out, try the Audible version. Fantastic narration. 36 hrs and I enjoyed every minute.

One of the best book - movie(/miniseries) combos ever. The remastered dvd they released a few years back was a much needed upgrade. I saw the show before reading the book but it didn't make the book any less enjoyable. Great book.

[CardiacCoug]

If you want an easy read I thought Ernie Johnson's autobiography Unscripted was pretty great.

There are some parts about his adopted son from Romania that are tear-jerking and amazing. Then some of the stories about Barkley and Kenny Smith are good comic relief.

Made me want to write down my life/family story.

[Katy Lied]

I finished reading the first three books of the second installment of Sanderson's Mistborn series: The Alloy of Law, Shadows of Self, and the Bands of Mourning. They follow the Mistborn world, but ~300 years from the end of the first trilogy. It's sort of a Western/fantasy mashup, as some of the technology is straight out of the 1800's. If that doesn't get you excited, you can stop reading now

Anyways, Sanderson is a good writer. After six books of his, I've caught on to his style. There may be too many close calls and daring rescues that just barely succeed. It keeps me turning pages, though at times it does feel repetitive. Having said that, he delves into some really interesting religious and political ideas. I mentioned in my review of the first series, some of his writing made me wonder about what he believed personally. He spent a lot of time fleshing out struggles of faith. With this second series, I think he's returning to more of an LDS version of deity; a benevolent god who does little to alleviate suffering, but guides behind the scenes and tweaks here and there to guide mortals.

There is one final book of the series that is forthcoming, and yeah, I'm hooked enough to read it. As I said before, if you're a fantasy fan, this is good stuff, yo.

Love me some Brandon Sanderson. He is super popular here; my colleague who works line security at Salt Lake Comicon says that Sanderson's meet-n-greets are the most packed, people wait in line for hours to try to even get into the room. He has even more rabid fans than stars like Chris Evans.

The reason why I think he is a genius is that his magical systems are so complex and "realistic" - he has thoroughly worked through every iteration of 'what ifs' for any given magical system. From "pushing" on a metal like a magnet, to burning metal in one's stomach, to giving your internal spirit to other people and inanimate objects - this is his forte. My sister claims that Sanderson has never been bored in church-- if Sacrament meeting is uninspiring, he can retreat into his mind to conjour up a new system of magic for his next book.

[Walter Sobchak]

Bear in mind that it is hard for someone like you, with such a fabulous and fulfilling life, and with you using the correct operating system and all, to understand how the rest of us plebeians so desperately seek to avoid the depth of our quotidian tedium. So, please, be kind.

Speaking of which, I finished "We Are Not Ourselves" by Matthew Thomas the other week. I thought it was a fascinating read. The book documents the life of the protagonist spanning six decades and captures, as creek puts it, the quotidian tedium of our lives in a beautiful, if sometimes, brutal way.

[Walter Sobchak]

from The Nix.... bigly:

bigly.jpg

[Katy Lied]

from The Nix.... bigly:

I believe that's called manspreading.

[Jeff Lebowski]

from The Nix.... bigly:

That book is topical. Let me tell you.

[Donuthole]

Speaking of which, I finished "We Are Not Ourselves" by Matthew Thomas the other week. I thought it was a fascinating read. The book documents the life of the protagonist spanning six decades and captures, as creek puts it, the quotidian tedium of our lives in a beautiful, if sometimes, brutal way.

Bump

Sorry, just saw this. Loved this book. Well-developed, complex characters whom I loved at times and hated at others. Really, a harrowing depiction of what may otherwise seem like mudane life events. Lots of thought-provocation, at least for me. I'm guessing people either love this book or they hate it with a passion. I fell into the former category.

[Walter Sobchak]

Bump

I looked... believe me; google let me down.

Untitled2.jpg

Untitled1.jpg

[SteelBlue]

Re-read Jesus' Son after Denis Johnson died. Just finished the new Joshua Ferris short story collection, The Dinner Party. I loved his novel To Rise Again at a Decent Hour, and this collection didn't disappoint. The stories were woven with a thread of introspection regarding time, and those moments when one begins to realize that it is indeed a limited commodity. Some readers will find the stories too negative, but Ferris demonstrates a facility with the topic that I found difficult to resist. My favorite was a hilariously warped take on the Matrix (my interpretation) involving a thirty something hooker, an aging widower and a little blue pill.

[BigPiney]

I have enjoyed both of the Joshua Ferris books I read. Will have to give this a look even though I generally stay away from short stories. Usually don't enjoy them as much as novels or even novellas.

[Katy Lied]

Whoever suggested The Nix, thank you, thank you, thank you.

[eldiente]

Just finish a bio about Ulysses S. Grant titled American Ulysses. Great book. I knew quite a bit about his civil war record, but not so much about his post-war life. I always thought he had been a lousy president, prone to drinking, but I was wrong. He had some issues with alcohol early in life but zero evidence that he drank during the war or after. He was a very wise and honest man. His post-war life was primarily dedicated to securing civil rights for freed slaves, but given long-entrenched attitudes in the south it was a losing battle.

Thanks for the recommendation - fantastic biography. This book goes on my top 10 of all time list

[Pelado]

Reading Watership Down to my 9-year-old daughter. I bought it and its sequel on Amazon after seeing recommendations for it here after the author's passing.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Just finished reading this to my daughter last night. She enjoyed it quite a bit and wants me to read the sequel to her now. My voice got a little ragged last night. I should have called it quits earlier in the night, but as I get close to the end of a book, I tend to push forward to finish it. I was probably just as into the book as my daughter was. Turned out we didn't finish until after midnight. Good thing she didn't have school in the morning.

[SteelBlue]

Just finished Jennifer Egan's new novel, "Manhattan Beach". She's a brilliant writer, and this is a good novel featuring a strong female protagonist who attempts to enter the male only field of shipyard diving during WWII. I predict we'll see it on a long list for the National Book Award, but I don't see it being anywhere near the critical favorite that her last (Pulitzer winning) effort was.
(Release date October 3)
51trrqc4z2L._SX455_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg


Currently reading Jesmyn Ward's "Sing, Unburied, Sing" (Release date Sept. 5). I'm only 2 chapters in so perhaps I'll have to temper what I'm about to say by the time I've finished, but as it stands, I believe I may be reading the 2018 Pulitzer winner.
sing-unburied-sing-9781501126062_lg.jpg