What are you reading in 2024?

[Ralif Redhammer]

I finished reading Marcus Aurelius' Meditations. I found it an easier, more relatable read than Epictetus' Discourses (though certainly, that book was full of wisdom, too).

Now I'm reading Soul of the City, the next Thieves World anthology in my re-read.

 

[Cadence]

I'm in the introduction to the Dashiell Hammett omnibus (short stories) and half way through the 4th Valor fantasy anthology... but "The Misadventures of Nero Wolfe" (parodies and pastiches) was calling me.

My Google skills are failing me. I'm trying to find the full list of pastiches by Narcejac and how many appear in Usurpation d'identite. (Apparently at least ones of Wolfe, Holmes, Father Brown, Wimsey, the Saint, and Elery Queen).

 

[Richards]

I started Ominous this morning, a thriller about a trio of girls who were stalked by a killer as teenagers and now, 15 years later, they're back in town together after having gone their separate ways, only to learn the killer's still at large and has been waiting for them. It's by a trio of thriller authors this time, Lisa Jackson, Nancy Bush, and Rosalind Noonan.

Johnathan

 

[overgeeked]

Up to Mushoku Tensei Vol 21 or 22 now. I’m still enjoying the series quite a bit but the last few volumes are a let down compared to the rest of the series. I’m skimming some pages rather than reading. Despite this being a light novel series, it feels like I’m working through a couple of filler episodes. It’s like the author had this in their outline so included it, but he was already bored with the idea and forced himself to stick to the outline.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Just started The Last Hero by Terry Pratchett, which mostly seems like an excuse for Paul Kidby to do a lot of fun Discworld art -- it's basically an illustrated novella -- which is nothing to complain about.

 

[Nellisir]

Started on Station Eternity, by Mur Lafferty. The premise being "what if, everywhere you went, people died and you solved their murder...whether you meant to or not? And it kept happening? And OBVIOUSLY people were suspicious/disbelieving because...that's either too ridiculous to be real or too much of a coincidence to be real. And so you ended up on an alien space station with (almost) no other humans around because you were tired of people dying? And then a whole bunch of humans showed up...and started dying under mysterious circumstances?"

I've also been binging most of the D&D monster books from various editions to sort out different ideas for my own.

 

[JEB]

Finally finished reading the original D&D boxed set this week. Overall verdict: it's basically a published set of homebrew rules, annoyingly incomplete and disorganized... but you can still see the glimmer of the greatness to come. Plus there are some genuinely interesting things there that aren't supported in modern D&D, like building an NPC "entourage" or domain-building. (More detailed review here, if anyone's interested.) Now I just need to make the cheat sheets for my one-shot...

 

[Clint_L]

I'm halfway through The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions. My Master's thesis was related to evolution and language, so I used to do a lot of reading in that area, but this is the first evolution book I've read in some years. It's great, but SUPER long - I think the Kindle edition is 1100 pages or something.

I love that the first section is built around Wallace's biography - I know Darwin's inside out, but Wallace's is a lot more exciting.

I also re-read The Book Thief on Thursday. What a gorgeous, heartbreaking novel. I made the mistake of finishing it while teaching (the students were working on an assignment) and I think some of them saw me crying.

 

[Nellisir]

Well that went quick....

Station Eternity was NOT a particularly quick book or a quick read. However, I read fast, and more importantly, I stayed awake until 5am reading that danged book. (and then got up at 9am and drove 7 hours to upstate NY today with my daughter. I wouldn't have done it except for the glorious greatness that is an offspring with a drivers license, so I knew I could nap a bit.)

Did I love it more than anything? No. In many respects it was very formulaic. Including the trickling out of information (REALLY blatant) and ending chapters on cliffhangers.

Am I going to go out and look for the next one, and/or other books by said author? Absolutely.
So, solid 4/5.

 

[prabe]

Been a little bit--life's been kinda weird--but the last three books: Manitou Canyon by William Kent Kreuger, a mystery in a series that pays off some threads that have been going a while but still stands on its own, clearly written with love for its setting and people; Light from Unknown Stars by Ryka Aoki, a novel about found/made family centered around the transsexual experience in America, especially in at least some immigrant communities, thick layers of Fantasy and a thin glaze of SF; Starling House by Alix E. Harrow, a folkish Fantasy novel with curses and other worlds and a sapient house, deeply Romantic at its core.