Ray Bradbury is…unique. Definitely an acquired taste.
I just finished Hillbilly Elegy last week.
2 books I finished this month.
Well, if you want to read a story about a kick-ass female bodyguard plying her trade for the United Sex Workers of Canada, in near-future Newfoundland, Company Town might interest you. There’s a lot more to her, and to the story, but I’ll stop there. It’s very good. The author is Madeline Ashby, an American writer, among other things, living in Toronto.
Another good read was Amatka, by Karin Tidbeck, a young Swedish writer’s first book, newly in translation. It was on so many “Best of 2017” booklists that, if you haven’t read it and you like SF (it is not fantasy), treat yourself. Imagine a world where you have to keep naming objects or they’ll melt into a sort of goop. That is just a detail, the story is compelling.
Those are as good as any SF books that I’ve read in the last 5 years, and better than most.
My wife and I went on a no-kids vacation this weekend, and among other things I got to catch up on reading.
-Akata Warrior is the sequel to Akata Witch. The short version is that it’s what’s going on in Nigeria while Harry Potter is up in England fighting Voldemort. The long version is that the title character is a girl born in the US to Nigerian parents who moves back to Nigeria when she’s about ten or eleven, and discovers she’s a Leopard Person, and that there are ritual killers and ancient spirits to contend with, as well as magical cities and elders in the Leopard Society. I find Nnedi Okorafor’s prose a little on the clunky side, but her worldbuilding is fantastic, and she does great characters and set pieces. My mention of Harry Potter in no way should suggest it’s derivative, but rather that it’s fun to imagine it being in the same world.
-In Calabria is Peter S. Beagle’s latest (he of The Last Unicorn); it’s another unicorn book, but this time it’s more about an old widower farmer. It’s far from Beagle’s best, but even his middling works are head and shoulders above most fantasy. Plus, it’s quick. If you like Beagle’s style, it’s worth checking out.
-The Girl in the Tower. I told my wife it’s set during a bleak period of Russian history, then realized that was pretty redundant. We’re talking medieval, under-the-thrall-of-the-Golden-Horde bleak. The sequel to The Bear and the Nightingale, this bit of historical fiction is beautifully written, excellently paced, and bleak as all shit. I would be happy to see it recognized come award season.
I just finished Walter Isaacson’s Leonardo da Vinci. I didn’t think any Leonardo biography could top Charles Nicholl’s 2004 book, but this comes close. And since Isaacson covers the surprisingly large number of new developments in the last 14 years, he has the edge in completeness.
It’s very good, and one of the few Custer books to discuss Marcus Reno’s 1879 Court of Inquiry at length. Since the testimony from that hearing has had a huge impact on perceptions of the battle ever since, it’s very relevant to the story.
I just got back from Arisia 2018. I usually buy a stack of books there, but very little caught my eye. I picked up a few freebies, but only purchased two
Girl Genius Book – The Incorruptible Library – the third book in the second series of the GG adventures (or, alternatively, the 16th book overall). I finished this off before I left the convention. I prefer reading the collections to reading online. I left the book out for my daughter , MiliCal, but she’s given up on the series.
Silent Hill by N.S. Dolkart, a Game of Thrones-esque epic fantasy, of which this book is the first volume. It runs over 500 pages, and is his first published work. The second is out, but he’s still writing the third and final part. Sounds very good, from what I’ve heard.
I’m currently reading one of the freebies – The Mask of Circe by Henry Kuttner. I’ve read a lot of Kuttner, but had never heard of this one before.
On audio, I’ve moved on to the second half of Stephen King’s Hearts in Atlantis.
Nearly finished A Bright Shining Lie by Neil Sheehan, which is both a biography of American soldier John Paul Vann and a history of the Vietnam War, basically as seen though the lens of his life.
Powerful and disturbing account of how institutional and political contradictions doomed the American enterprise in that country (and, more to the point, both the people of Vietnam and the US soldiers involved to destruction and misery).
I’m a big Bradbury fan, but he’s not for everybody. I’d start with his short stories - The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man are both excellent collections.
Sheehan is a minor character in the new Spielberg movie The Post, about the Pentagon Papers, as it happens.
Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery by Scott Kelly
This is the astronaut who did 2 shuttle missions, then spent a year on the ISS. It’s chock full of fascinating details about how daily life in space works (which is why I started reading it), but beyond that Kelly is a really interesting guy. The narrative starts on the ISS, then alternates that with chapters about how he came to be an astronaut in the first place. He gives a very full and honest portrayal about all the nitty-gritty about space travel and his opinions of his other crew members (which is usually, but not always positive) while not “burning” people unnecessarily. “We ended up waiting on the pad so long that two of the crewmembers had to use their diapers”, LOL.
He has a twin brother who is also a shuttle astronaut and is married to Gabby Giffords. Her shooting happened while Scott was in space, so that was a pretty poignant section. Coincidentally I was reading that section on the very anniversary or her shooting.
There’s also 2-3 laugh out loud moments, which hit pretty hard because he’s such a non-nonsense guy in general so I wasn’t expecting them. All in all, the writing is well beyond what I was expecting.
I’m doing the eBook and the audiobook. The audiobook is read by the author, which is often not optimal, but his dead-pan delivery is really perfect for this. It’s one of the best books I’ve read in a while.
I am not a fan of short stories, so I know I won’t do this, but thanks for the suggestion.
I read a lot of Bradbury when I was younger. I never made it more than a dozen pages into Dandelion Wine, for some reason: it was far and away the most opaque of his stuff for me.
If you’d like to give him another chance, you could do worse than Something Wicked This Way Comes. I’m convinced it got Stephen King started, and explores very similar themes of small-town America corrupted by a mystical evil that enters town in a quintessentially American form. It’s great stuff.
I’ll try to give him another try at some point. I think I picked up Dandelion Wine because Goodreads lists SWTWC as the second in a series, but it looks like they aren’t really related.
Here’s hoping The wind of my soul is having a better Bradbury experience!
I’m almost done with The Extraditionist, about a smart, successful drug lawyer who gets in over his head just as he’s about to quit the game. It’s been a good read: I’ll probably finish it tonight, and I hope the ending doesn’t fall flat. I *really *didn’t need another series, but I’ll most likely pick up the next Benn Bluestone book. Eventually, anyway. There are a lot of promising titles in my “to read” pile, so I don’t know what’ll be next.
And the 1983 movie is awesome!
I haven’t seen it yet - it will definitely add another point of interest if I do!
wonky, for the first sixty pages I felt exactly the same way you did. I felt like I was reading a poem rather than an actual book with a plot. I’m not a fan of poetry, and did not want to sit through a 300 page poem, so I thought about giving up. But about sixty pages in, the book transitions into actual mini-stories, and at that point I started enjoying the book. (Though unlike you, I do like short stories if they’re well-written, and these ones are.)
I’m glad. I feel bad for disliking a book that gets such rave reviews.
Since you like short stories, sounds like Elendil’s Heir’s suggestion might be perfect for you.
Good call, particularly since I’m also a Bradbury fan! I’ve also read and and enjoyed Fahrenheit 451 and Something Wicked This Way Comes (and you’re right, you don’t need to read Dandelion Wine first).
Agreed, you have got to put in some effort at first, because it starts slowly, but it’s a good read.
Chasing Venus: the Race to Measure the Heavens Andrea Wulf
Around 1700 Edmund Halley (the comet guy) wrote a short paper in which he pointed out that if astronomers in different parts of the world carefully measured the upcoming transit of Venus (when Venus passes between the Earth and the Sun), they could use trigonometry to determine the scale of the solar system. This was easier said than done, because the best locations were in the far north and south, the quality of instruments wasn’t great, and, when the time came, most of the countries in Europe were at war with one another.
But this was the Enlightenment, and valiant efforts were made.
The book is extensively researched and quite well written and the events it describes are among the most important in the history of science.
Incidentally, if you want to repeat the experiment, the next transit is in 2117. Eat your veggies.
Hell yes it is. And it says something profound about our culture, I’m not sure what, that this straight up scary-as-shit horror movie was rated G.
It was PG. There was little-to-no gore/violence/swearing, so I think that’s about right for pure suspense (especially almost 35 years ago).