What are you reading in 2022?

[TarionzCousin]

Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osmund

My girlfriend read this and really liked it.

 

[KahlessNestor]

Bret Baier does a rehash of Grant's bio while building up to the actual events, He's laying the foundation and giving you insight into how Grant's mind thinks and works. I'm currently in the chapter dealing with his time in the |Civil War. So far it's good.
Here's a screenshot of a section starting at "As news came"..does it remind you of anything?

Spoiler

View attachment 149773

Yeah, that gives a good sense of Grant. It's an amazing contrast, the pre-Progressive era presidency compared to the post-Progressive era, and especially Wilsonian, presidency. Grant was always reluctant to do anything, because President's weren't supposed to "do" anything. They weren't the party leaders they are now. They didn't set legislative agendas. Yet he did manage to do so much with Reconstruction (he was still Commander in Chief, and the south was under martial law). His is also the first administration to make the first steps toward ending the patronage system, though with the growth of the modern beaurocratic deep state evidenced in the last five years, I'm not sure this system is better. I recently watched the Daniel Day Lewis biopic Lincoln, and the way he used patronage to push passage of the Thirteenth Amendment was genius. The Tommy Lee Jones character summarized it well: "The most historic piece of legislation passed in the 19th century, by the most corrupt means, by the most incorruptible man" or something along those lines.

 

[Bagpuss]

My girlfriend read this and really liked it.

I got the wife the second book for Xmas, borrowed the first off my Mum.
But I’d recommend it to anyone nearly finished it, it is a quick but gentle read. Lots of short chapters that makes it easy to pick up and read a bit if you have a free couple of minutes.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Just started to read the graphic novel collections of Kill Six Billion Demons. I've got the first 3, and I think there are 4 print volumes so far. Annoyingly, the first two are in PHB size, and then the next two are in standard graphic novel side. I wish they stuck with a form factor... But so far, halfway through book 1, it's pretty darn cool.

 

[KahlessNestor]

Still reading Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. by Ron Chernow.

Still reading The Battle for Spain by Antony Beevor.

Still reading Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

Still reading An Artificial Night by Seanan McGuire.

Still listening to Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson.

Still reading Critical Role: Tal’dorei Campaign Setting by Matthew Mercer.

Still reading The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors by Dan Jones.

Still reading The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon.

Still reading Black Widow: Red Vengeance by Margaret Stohl.

Still reading Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb.

Still reading Matchlock and the Embassy: A Thirty Years’ War Story by Zachary Twamley.

Still reading The Black Ice by Michael Connelly.

Still reading Rise of the King by R. A. Salvatore.

Still reading The Sorcerer of the North by John Flanagan.

Still reading Ghost Story by Jim Butcher.

Still reading Critical Role: Vox Machina – Kith and Kin by Marieke Nijkamp.

Still reading Half-Off Ragnarok by Seanan McGuire.

Still reading The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan.

Started reading Cytonic by Brandon Sanderson.

Still reading Defending Elysium by Brandon Sanderson.

Started reading To Rescue the Republic: Ulysses S. Grant, the Fragile Union, and the Crisis of 1876 by Brett Baier.

 

[Older Beholder]

Having enjoyed Star Wars Visions, I decided to order the book that expands on one of the shorts from that series, arrived today...

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Finished re-reading Anderson's The Broken Sword. Darn good stuff. Though Three Hearts and Three Lions is the more influential work to D&D, I'd say The Broken Sword is by far the better book.

Now I'm reading Great Short Novels of Adult Fantasy #1, edited by Lin Carter. Some good old Ballantine Adult Fantasy.

 

[Bagpuss]

Finished re-reading Anderson's The Broken Sword. Darn good stuff. Though Three Hearts and Three Lions is the more influential work to D&D, I'd say The Broken Sword is by far the better book.

Just finished listening to the audio book of Broken Sword borrowed from the library. It was very enjoyable.

 

[DeviousQuail]

I couldn't bring myself to finish reading The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. It was so boring. How it became such a popular novel I will never know.

After that I decided to read The Raven Spell by Luanne G. Smith because it was recommended (and free!) on my kindle. It's a pretty good magical murder mystery. The magic leans toward a softer approach but my suspension of disbelief never faltered. It's the first in a series and the next book is coming at the end of 2022 and I'll probably buy it.

Having some extra time on my hands I was going to watch the second season of A Discovery of Witches but it's not on Amazon like the first season. I decided to borrow the first book of the trilogy that the show is based on. It covers pretty much all the same events as season 1 of the show. Turns out, the show is better than the book. Rare but it does happen. The book is better in some regards, particularly in showing off the depth of Diana's (the main character) knowledge and how much her senses of taste, smell, etc impact her view of the world around her. But the show does such a better job of fleshing out the other characters, both major and minor. The show does take its liberties with the story as shows are wont to do but in just about every aspect it did it better than the book.

I've moved onto John Dies At The End by Jason Pargin. It promises Lovecraft like horror but with a lot more comedy. Not my normal cup of tea but we'll see how it goes.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

At about 200 pages, it wastes little time while not stinting on the prose (or poetry, for that matter).

It's also a great model for cursed magic items, making them something you want to dare the consequences to use, rather than just forcing you to use them until a remove curse spell is available.

Just finished listening to the audio book of Broken Sword borrowed from the library. It was very enjoyable.