What are you reading in 2024?

[prabe]

Still more or less on my rhythm, with some (mostly pleasant) complications. Anyway, last three books: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, an award-winning, distinctly surreal novel that manages to be a strong read in spite of the award/s, strong and powerful and (rightly) not always easy; The Substitution Order by Martin Clark, an amusing legal thriller with a flawed but mostly likeable main who some people should have known better than to piss off, of course he comes out on top--the novel's kinda cynical about the law but it's not that cynical; The Librarian of Burned Books by Brianna Labuskes, a historical novel in three timelines with strong parallels to the present day, subtext practically impossible to ignore but the stories laid on top of it are all strong, the best book I've read in a while.

 

[Cadence]

Sluggishly finishing up the last few Ngaio Marsh novels I haven't ever gotten around to in an attempt to find something my sister might enjoy, as she's developed a sudden curiosity about mystery as a genre. Most recent was Light Thickens, which was a very odd entry. It's one of several "theatrical" books in the series, and spends most of its page count on the preparation and opening weeks of a run of Macbeth which gets its season (heh) cut short when the lead actor is decapitated during a performance. Roderick Alleyn is barely present for a huge part of the novel, with recurring thespian character Peregrine Jay as POV protag early on, and when Alleyn does show up the mystery is very shallow and disappointing, with the killer outright confessing the moment they're confronted and a side plot being left hanging in a very unsatisfying way. It wasn't a terrible read as such, but it's not really a mystery

Spoiler

and I'm getting very tired of Marsh making characters with mental health issues the killer. I expect and can tolerate the frequent anti-Communist themes as part of the period when these were written and set (1982 in this case) but she really likes punching down at people in her later years.

This one's not going on the rec list for sib, and I'm starting to think maybe none of the Alleyn books will be.

Have you done all of them? There were some I thought were pretty good, especially in the middle and early part. And others that I definitely wouldn't recommend for one reason or other. (I sort of binged them all in a bit over a year and so it sloshes together a bit - so I'd have to go through and see which I had top. I should have kept some notes).

For the mysteries I've done so far (Marsh, Tey, Hammett, and Stout), Archie and Wolfe are the ones I love most as comfort reading, but I think Franchise Affair by Tey might be the best, and I liked Miss Pym Disposes a lot too.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

Have you done all of them?

I believe I've read all but five now at one point or another, of which we seem to have two on hand. Doubt I'll bother to hunt down the others, although I'll keep an eye open for them at library sales and the like. I'm inclined to agree that the better actual mysteries skew toward the early-mid period although there are exceptions. I usually enjoy the "off-brand" ones - the theatricals, the painting ones with Troy, and the overseas stories - but Light Thickens went too far for me and completely blew the ending to boot. It wasn't boring, but it barely qualified as a mystery novel. I find Roderick himself quite dull, far too much so to support a book without a strong mystery plot - which I suppose leads me to be uncharitable on re-reads since it's never really mysterious after the first time.

Contrast that to Stout, where just reading the dialog is sufficient pleasure unto itself to appeal, or Hammett or Chandler whose descriptive writing styles are a perennial draw. Sadly, my sister has read all of the later two, although she's still got a lot of Nero to get through from the library - lucky her.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Finally finished The Sword of Shannara. There's still a large amount of nostalgia in re-reading it. But it really is a lot of book. Not just in page count (it's going to be a long time before I pick up a 700+ page book!), but in terms of plot. It crams events from the entire LOTR trilogy into a single book, and it all gets to be a bit much.

One thing I picked up on this time is that I think there are clear echoes of the Vietnam War and the scars it left on the American populace, in for example, Shea's early isolationist attitude and the horrors of war depicted in it.

Now I'm reading On Wheels, by John Jakes.

 

[prabe]

Finally finished The Sword of Shannara. There's still a large amount of nostalgia in re-reading it. But it really is a lot of book. Not just in page count (it's going to be a long time before I pick up a 700+ page book!), but in terms of plot. It crams events from the entire LOTR trilogy into a single book, and it all gets to be a bit much.

One thing I picked up on this time is that I think there are clear echoes of the Vietnam War and the scars it left on the American populace, in for example, Shea's early isolationist attitude and the horrors of war depicted in it.

Now I'm reading On Wheels, by John Jakes.

I'm at the point where I'm reading like a book every night I have available for reading, and anything longer than 350-400 pages I need to set aside for a Sunday or something, when I have more time.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Just finished 42: The Improbable Ideas of Douglas Adams. It's a gorgeous book, but only something the most die-hard fans should consider. It has fewer glimpses of unpublished works than The Salmon of Doubt (which has a large portion of an unpublished novel) and tells you less about Adams than the books Don't Panic (by Neil Gaiman!) or The Frood.

But if you've got those three under your belt, this was a very interesting Adams scrapbook.

And, of course, Unbound, which crowdfunded this book several years ago, immediately announced a new book today, collecting the Hitchhikers TV scripts along with artifacts related to the show. Fingers crossed they do something similar with the radio scripts, which are only published in a very bare bones paperback version.

 

[Richards]

It was a week-long business trip for me, with lots of time for reading at airports, on planes. and in the hotel room. As a result, I:

• Finished A Mortal Bane by Roberta Gellis. It was an interesting read - definitely the best murder mystery set in 1139 London I've ever read - but I was overcome by too many similar-sounding names (Bartarde, Baldassare, Bellamy, Beaumeis, Benin...) that it was somewhat difficult for me to keep track of who was who. But I enjoyed the cast of characters, especially the whores who were being blamed for the murder (they were an eclectic and interesting bunch) and the knight charged with finding the true killer.
• Purchased and read a Life magazine featuring Godzilla. An impulse purchase at the airport on Monday. There wasn't a lot in it I didn't already know beforehand, but it was an an interesting bunch of articles. A bit pricy, though - but what else can you expect at an airport?
• Started and finished Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. Every bit as interesting and entertaining a read as was The Martian. Not a whole lot to add to what's already been said about it thus far in this thread, but I mentioned it to my son and he's now reading it (on my recommendation). Oh, and I absolutely loved the characters of Stratt and Rocky - those who've read the book know who they are; I don't want to go into details and spoil anything for anyone wishing to read the book themselves.
• Started and finished Tricky Business by Dave Barry (his second novel, apparently). He's an amusing writer, but when you're always going for the funny it makes it fairly easy to always see what's coming next (in general, if not specifically), plot-wise. This one involved a gambling ship doing a big drug shipment and payoff during a nasty tropical storm. I found it not as good as his first novel, Big Trouble (which I read a decade or more ago), but given I paid 25 cents for it at a library book sale, I'm not complaining. However, I realized yesterday afternoon Tricky Business wasn't going to last me for the trip all the way home today, so I picked up another book, and as a result I am:
• Currently reading Artemis, by Andy Weir. I paid full price for this at a bookstore, but it's been worth it thus far. Artemis is the first moonbase, and the main character, Jazz (a woman this time, unlike in his two other books), is a porter and a crook with some big ambitions. Moonbase politics have been interesting to see, and Jazz is just as interesting a protagonist as his other two have been - he seems to like putting the most points in his main characters' Intelligence scores, to use a D&D analogy. Anyway, I'm almost halfway through the book already, having started it at the airport at the beginning of my second leg home.

Johnathan

 

[JEB]

Purchased and read a Life magazine featuring Godzilla. An impulse purchase at the airport on Monday. There wasn't a lot in it I didn't already know beforehand, but it was an an interesting bunch of articles. A bit pricy, though - but what else can you expect at an airport?

That "bookazine" is actually a few (or more) years old, but I also noticed it's back on shelves. A little odd for that sort of publication; guess it must have sold especially well...

 

[Old Fezziwig]

Just finished The Elusive Shift by Jon Peterson. I enjoyed it, but I feel like I might have gotten more out of it if I didn't read it right before bed at night (I have a tendency to fall asleep midparagraph, wake up, and continue reading, which is often suboptimal for comprehension, even if my wife finds it amusing). My immediate takeaway was that we seem to be having a lot of (all of) the same conversations now that folks had fifty years ago. I'm not sure whether this is interesting or depressing.

 

[prabe]

Just finished The Elusive Shift by Jon Peterson. I enjoyed it, but I feel like I might have gotten more out of it if I didn't read it right before bed at night (I have a tendency to fall asleep midparagraph, wake up, and continue reading, which is often suboptimal for comprehension, even if my wife finds it amusing). My immediate takeaway was that we seem to be having a lot of (all of) the same conversations now that folks had fifty years ago. I'm not sure whether this is interesting or depressing.

My wife tends to do that.