So what are you reading this year 2021?

[KahlessNestor]

Still reading Exploring Eberron by Keith Baker.

Finished reading Small Favor by Jim Butcher.

Still reading Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson.

Finished reading The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis.

Still reading Unmasked: Inside Antifa's Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy by Andy Ngo.

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

Still reading The Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan.

Still reading Night of the Hunter by R. A. Salvatore.

Started reading Bobby Fischer Goes to War: How a Lone American Star Defeated the Soviet Chess Machine by David Edmonds and John Eidinow.

Started reading Turn Coat by Jim Butcher.

 

[turnip_farmer]

I just finished Antony Beevor's 2012 The Second World War and based on that and a recent documentary, I've checked Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich by Normal Ohler.
I also have Beria, My Father: Inside Stalin's Kremlin by Sergo Beria on request from the library.

Just one of my occasional deeper dives into WWII history...

I'd recommend Beevor's book on the Spanish Civil War if you enjoyed his World War II book. It's engagingly written and surprisingly easy to follow considering the confusing nature of the conflict.

 

[fearsomepirate]

Just finished up Goetzmann's Exploration & Empire: The Explorer and the Scientist in the Winning of the American West. It's a somewhat dry, but thorough overview that is exactly what the title says. Goetzmann does a really good job bringing clarity to the mindset of various actors at various times and what sort of world they inhabited. For example, an overwhelming concern of early post-revolutionary America was that it quite literally bordered the three most powerful empires in the world. Of course I knew that in some sense, but Goetzmann brings into focus what it actually meant to an American in 1800 to have the British, the French, and the Spanish within spitting distance of your own territory, and to be functionally in a state of continuing hostility with two of them, with the Spanish being more culturally alien and closed-off, where accidentally trespassing in their territory could be just as dangerous as finding yourself among hostile Crow. That's just one of dozens of such topics hit.

I can't say I enjoyed reading it, as it really is pretty dry, but I learned a tremendous amount. But if you ever wanted an overview of how we went from hard-bitten fur-trappers to trans-continental railroads, that overall does as much justice as it can to the complexities of internal American politics and foreign relations in 700 pages, it's worth it.

 

[Mallus]

I'm now on to Agatha Christie's The Mysterious Affair at Styles. The prose isn't as assured as in Death on the Nile. The last cast of suspects, I mean characters, isn't introduced with the same precision and clarity, making the early chapters a tad confusing. On the plus side, it's narrated by Hastings, character I have great affection for after watching Hugh Fraser's turn as him on the ITV series.

I'm also almost done rereading the first book in the Foundation Trilogy. Been a long time since I touched early Golden Age SF. All I can say is it's wonderful, despite so many important things being absent from it. Like woman characters, for instance. Or characterization, for that matter (I realize these are fix-ups from short stories, so the relative lack of characterization is to be expected). Looking forward to the upcoming TV series. But man, does that writers room have its work cut out.

And I have to get back to the new(ish) translation of Lem's Solaris I picked up, then put down.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Finished Jemisin's The Stone Sky. That trilogy absolutely deserves all its accolades. It hits heavy as a mountain, but the smaller parts are so intricately woven.

I also read Amra vol. 2, #50, from the late 60s. It was a fascinating glimpse into fandom past. The art illustrations totally felt like they could've been in an early D&D book.

Now I'm going for a re-read of Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions. It's been a while.

 

[Richards]

I picked up a couple of books in The Destroyer series and had brought #125: The Wrong Stuff with me as a backup book on an all-day courier trip by military aircraft on Wednesday, when my courier partner belatedly realized he hadn't brought anything with him to read on the plane. So I lent him that book, which he's still reading - he got halfway through it on the courier trip and said he'd try to finish it up and give it back by tomorrow. But in the meantime, I finished the book I'd been reading (about 10 minutes from landing back home Wednesday evening, so good timing) and have moved on to Destroyer #139: Dream Thing. I'm know I'm reading them out of order, but that's okay; they're all pretty much standalone and even when they reference things from the past (usually recurring villains) they provide enough backstory for context.

Johnathan

 

[Zaukrie]

Finished book two of the Garret PI series, Bitter Gold Hearts. Both better and not, than the first. Definitely well buy more if I can find them used. Guess Mistborn is next!

 

[KahlessNestor]

Finished book two of the Garret PI series, Bitter Gold Hearts. Both better and not, than the first. Definitely well buy more if I can find them used. Guess Mistborn is next!

Mistborn! Enjoy! It's wonderful.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Three Hearts and Three Lions remains an enjoyable read, and one that is a must for anyone interested in the origins of D&D. One thing I noted is that it is one of the few entries in Appendix N that has an explicitly nonwhite character portrayed in a heroic light (Carahue).

Now I'm revisiting an even farther removed re-read, the Thieves World Face of Chaos anthology. I haven't read that since the 80s, most likely.

 

[Blue]

Three Hearts and Three Lions remains an enjoyable read, and one that is a must for anyone interested in the origins of D&D. One thing I noted is that it is one of the few entries in Appendix N that has an explicitly nonwhite character portrayed in a heroic light (Carahue).

Another entry, A Wizard of Earthsea, also has an explicitly non-white protagonist, but some of the older covers that show him white.