Books Read 2020

[freelunch]

I didn’t think of this thread as a competition. More like a recommendations list. To that end, thank you to all who read and posted impressions. I have found several great books here.

I don't think of it as a competition either. Jeff V makes occasional references to beating me which I mostly ignore but on this occasion I responded. Shan't do so again.

[Jaymann]

I just finished Roger Zelazny's Dawn of Amber trilogy by John Gregory Betancourt. This series is a prequel to the Amber series, and was authorized by Zelazny's estate. Written in the mid 2000's, it tells the story of Oberon, and Betancourt does a credible job of channeling Zelazny.

There is also a fourth book, Roger Zelazny's Shadows of Amber which continues the saga. Unfortunately it ends on a cliffhanger, and the fifth installment was never published due to contractual disputes.

Some enjoyable light reading if you are a fan of the Amber series.

[ImLawBoy]

Finished How To Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu. Contrary to the other reviewers earlier in the thread, I enjoyed this book. Charles Yu (the main character is apparently also the author) lives in an incomplete science fictional universe. It's mostly finished - 93% complete - but it's a bit rough around the edges and its creators gave up on it. Yu is a time machine repairman - he goes around in his time machine the size of a phone booth to repair other broken down time machines and maybe to help prevent paradoxes here and there. He's a bit of a sad sack, essentially living out of his machine with a weird flirty relationship with its operating system and an incomplete dog as a pet. He takes his machine in for some service, and upon returning he sees himself coming out of his time machine. He panics and shoots his other self and then flees in the time machine to discover he's gotten himself caught in a time loop.

The book sets itself up to be hard core science fiction (something I don't normally read) with a comic twist, but most of the sci fi concepts are nonsense around time travel. What the book is really about is Yu trying to find hmself and his relationship with his parents. Dad has been missing for ten years after laying much of the theoretical groundwork for time travel, and mom essentially lives voluntarily in a 60 minute time loop of an imagined happy setting. The occasional humor keeps it from getting too bleak, but it's still a very emotional, personal book set in a sci fi world.

I can't speak as to why others didn't enjoy it, but perhaps if I had been expecting a more traditional sci fi book or a more straight up farce, I would have been disappointed. Regardless, I thought it was well worth the read.

Up next is In the Dark by Loreth Anne White. This is an Amazon freebie thriller that I don't know much about.

[El Guapo]

Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History, by S.C. Gwynne

This is a non-fiction book centered around the wars between Texas / the U.S. and the Comanche, one of the most powerful horse tribes in the plains. The Comanche were basically masters of horse-based warfare, could do incredible feats on horse-back (e.g. drop down on one side of a horse while riding, fire off arrows accurately and quickly, and gallop away) such that they were able for a long time to hold off in turn the Spanish and the Texans (then the United States), until the United States eventually mustered enough effort (and technology) to essentially overwhelm them. In the middle of that a Comanche raid in Texas resulted in the kidnapping of a nine-year old named Cynthia Parker, who became accepted by the Comanche as one of their own and naturalized into Comanche society. Parker's family kept up efforts to find her and get her back (apparently becoming the basis of John Wayne's movie The Searchers), but as she essentially became a Comanche, Cynthia (now Nautbe) didn't want to return, until she was eventually captured and returned by force after a U.S. army raid decades later. Cynthia / Nautbe's son Quanah went on to become one of the greatest (and last) Chiefs of the Comanche, and (after the Comanche were forced onto a reservation) also managed to adapt and become a major figure who dined with people including Teddy Roosevelt.

Anyway, it's a really compelling story, and it does a great job both telling the macro story of the military conflicts between the U.S. and the plains tribes (which I didn't know much about) and the micro story of Cynthia & Quanah Parker, and how they both winded up straddling the worlds between the plains tribes and the Americans. Kind of grimly depressing in terms of detailing the final end of independent native tribes in the United States - basically a story of almost entirely successful genocide. Lots of details in there about how (for example) buffalo were slaughtered en masse not only for commercial gain, but also essentially as a form of cultural warfare against the plains tribes, as they relied on the buffalo herds for their subsistence. So not the happiest of stories, but it's a compelling read.

Also apparently they are planning on making a movie based on the book, I assume centered around the stories of Cynthia & Quanah Parker.

[Kasey Chang]

I didn’t think of this thread as a competition. More like a recommendations list. To that end, thank you to all who read and posted impressions. I have found several great books here.

Had to cut off my own reading as I'm too busy passing classes instead. But I have SEVERAL books queued on my Fire tablet.

But given I used to do about 3 books a day, this hiatus is... weird.

[Kasey Chang]

Kind of grimly depressing in terms of detailing the final end of independent native tribes in the United States - basically a story of almost entirely successful genocide. Lots of details in there about how (for example) buffalo were slaughtered en masse not only for commercial gain, but also essentially as a form of cultural warfare against the plains tribes, as they relied on the buffalo herds for their subsistence. So not the happiest of stories, but it's a compelling read.

Not just cultural warfare, but also more of a scorched earth campaign.

I'm going to guess it'll only be about Quanah, and start with "I am a man bridging two worlds", and start with a flashback... Nah. Too cliche.

[freelunch]

To that end, thank you to all who read and posted impressions. I have found several great books here.

I don't post impression here because I think my reviews suck. I write them only because I know from indie authors that reviews are a numbers game for them, and any they get will increase their visibility online.

Instead, I link to Goodreads pages for each book I read, where a bunch of reviews can usually be found. This has always been my preferred form of spreading the word (for those who have been around long enough, I cite "The Gold Guide" vs. my occasional reluctantly-completed game reviews on gonegold.com)

[Jeff V]

I'm obliged to review the LT books I receive. I don't really have time to review everything though.

[Hipolito]

I didn’t think of this thread as a competition. More like a recommendations list. To that end, thank you to all who read and posted impressions. I have found several great books here.

I don't think of it as a competition either. Jeff V makes occasional references to beating me which I mostly ignore but on this occasion I responded. Shan't do so again.

Though not a competition, this thread does motivate me to step up my reading game a bit. I've had a tendency to put books on the backburner, so I hope being active on this thread puts an end to that.

To that end, thank you to all who read and posted impressions. I have found several great books here.

I don't post impression here because I think my reviews suck. I write them only because I know from indie authors that reviews are a numbers game for them, and any they get will increase their visibility online.

Instead, I link to Goodreads pages for each book I read, where a bunch of reviews can usually be found. This has always been my preferred form of spreading the word (for those who have been around long enough, I cite "The Gold Guide" vs. my occasional reluctantly-completed game reviews on gonegold.com)

Whoa, I didn't know you're Andy from GG. Hi!

I know what you mean about being reluctant to post reviews. I sometimes agonize for days about what to say in a review. Then I post something less-than-satisfactory just to get it out of the way.

I'm obliged to review the LT books I receive. I don't really have time to review everything though.

You just inspired me to sign up for LTER. I wonder how long it will take for an LT noob like me to get my first book to review.

[freelunch]

Whoa, I didn't know you're Andy from GG. Hi!

I know what you mean about being reluctant to post reviews. I sometimes agonize for days about what to say in a review. Then I post something less-than-satisfactory just to get it out of the way.

Hi!

I used to agonise, now I churn them out as soon as possible. I've had authors I don't know thank me for my "great review" so I guess I'm not completely terrible.

If anyone here uses Goodreads I'm always up for more friends there. This is me.

[Jaddison]

Just finished Fight Club and I really don't know what the hell I just read. The movie is in the same general vicinity of the book but damn the book is one strange experience.

I read reviews that said it was life changing.....not life changing for me nor was impactful all that much. I must be too dense or stupid to be truly inspired or whatever it is i am supposed to be. I don't find murder and gratuitous violence all that inspiring. YMMV

[Jeff V]

You just inspired me to sign up for LTER. I wonder how long it will take for an LT noob like me to get my first book to review.

I signed up when the program first started, IIRC it was a couple of months but they have more books now. My advice would be to get on it right away, I think your history has a lot to do with how many they send your way. When my backlog is not great, I often get two books in a month. Over all, I'd say the number of outright stinkers are offset by an equal number of fantastic books, with most falling in the middle somewhere. While you get to select the books that you're interested, they must use some sort algorithm that ties into your library and review history because when books of the type that's really in my wheelhouse (such as history), I tend to get them. Also it seems I get serialized books, I've been through several trilogies on this program.

[ImLawBoy]

Finished In the Dark by Loreth Ann White. This was an Amazon first read that I didn't know anything about. Turns out it's a mystery inspired by Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. A group of nine people (mostly business owners) are invited to go to an extremely remote luxury spa being built in British Columbia with the promise of a chance to bid on some business for the spa. When they arrive, however, they only find a large abandoned cabin. Everyone has some sort of dirty secret, and at least some of them appear to be interconnected. Before long they are officially cut off from civilization and nasty stuff starts happening.

The plot jumps in time between the party at the lodge and the RCMP and rescue teams trying to find them and find out what happened. The plot is sufficiently twisty for the genre and moved along nicely. The book stumbled in a couple of places (the name of the shadow organization who set things up is terrible), and I could have done without the weird, simmering sexual tension between the main cop and the head of the volunteer rescue team. Overall it was a fun read, though.

Up next is The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. This was on sale and I've never read it, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

[Kasey Chang]

Finished Vaccinated: One Man's Quest to Defeat the World's Deadliest Diseases by Paul Offit MD

Offit is famous for being provax in public and this is one of the books he wrote to counter the antivax stupidity out there. This is mostly about Maurice Hilleman, a man who escaped death at birth... His twin sister was stillborn and his mother died a day after his birth. He escaped from his life as a Montana chicken farmer to eventually become a microbiologist, then vaccine scientist at Merck, and created NINE vaccines that saved countless children today, and much more. But this is not just a biography of Hilleman, but also went into discussing ALL the vaccines and about how they are created. Offit makes no apologies about how some of the vaccines were created by killing mice, or using aborted tissue, or experimented on disabled / retarded, but he also explained the circumstances are not as simple as the antivax folks made it out to be.

[Rumpy]

I'm currently reading non-fiction that might be of interest to some here. The Spy and The Traitor by Ben Macintyre. It's a fascinating look at a KGB Officer who, despite growing up in a family of KGB officers including his Father and his Brother, felt a growing resentment for the system. He ended up becoming a double-agent for MI6, feeling it with large amounts of sensitive data, and was eventually posted to London in the early 80's during the missile crisis. He was essentially the parallel to Kim Philby's defection to the Soviets. In fact, in a brazen move, this guy picked up a telegram from his KBG boss's desk, smuggled it into his pocket and into the hands of his MI6 handler, resulting is possibly one of the biggest tip-offs in history, changing the face of the Cold War.

[Scuzz]

Sahara by Clive Cussler, a Dirk Pitt Adventure.

This is a quick read, with bits on the Civil War and chemical pollution. Dirk Pitt really makes James Bond seem to be a weakling. All of Cussler's books require a suspension of logic by the reader, and this is no exception. But, if you enjoy action and adventure, then you should enjoy this book.

[Bad Demographic]

False Value by Ben Aaronovitch
I have really enjoyed the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch. False Value is the latest and is, I suspect, the first in a new story ark. I think Peter Grant gets a new longterm foe in this book. But that's a guess.
Background note: Peter Grant is a London detective who is a member of the Folly, the branch of the London police that deals with the supernatural. He is aided in his policing by his governor who is one of the most powerful wizards in the world and also sometimes by the various gods and goddesses of English rivers (mainly the Thames and its tributaries).

Simon Pegg and Nick North are working with Ben Aaronovitch to produce a tv series based on the books. I'm looking forward to it.

[$iljanus]

False Value by Ben Aaronovitch
I have really enjoyed the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch. False Value is the latest and is, I suspect, the first in a new story ark. I think Peter Grant gets a new longterm foe in this book. But that's a guess.
Background note: Peter Grant is a London detective who is a member of the Folly, the branch of the London police that deals with the supernatural. He is aided in his policing by his governor who is one of the most powerful wizards in the world and also sometimes by the various gods and goddesses of English rivers (mainly the Thames and its tributaries).

Simon Pegg and Nick North are working with Ben Aaronovitch to produce a tv series based on the books. I'm looking forward to it.

I'm just about done with this and I really enjoyed the series as well. I'd love to have Molly cook me a meal.

[Hipolito]

The Wheel of Time, Book 3: The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan (audiobook). I like this more than the boring book 2 and maybe even more than book 1. We have the first meaningful interaction with the fascinating Aiel, some neat sci-fi touches with parallel universes and chaos theory, mindbending layers of suspicion at the White Tower, and a touching scene in which one of the adventurers reacquaints himself with his former profession. Even the audio narrator sounds more into it this time. The one thing I don't like is the new tagalong Faile, who has yet to justify her annoying existence. 6 out of 8 lucky dice.

[stessier]

Started this series last year, but finished just now.

The Breakers Series by Ed Robertson

1. Breakers
2. Meltdown
3. Knifepoint
4. Reapers
5. Cutoff
6. Captives
7. Relapse
8. Blackout

I found these surprisingly good. The Kindle version of the first 3 books are free. The second 3 are only $5.

It tells the story of an unknown plague that seems ready to end humanity and the war that is fought against those that unleash it. I thought the first book was a little uneven, but the writing gets better throughout the book and the series. The story really pulled me in, even before our current situation.

[Scuzz]

Persepolis Rising by James S.A. Corey.

This is the 7th book in the Expanse Series. I actually thought this was one of the better written books, as most of them take 100 pages or more before ever getting into the plot or action, or even getting on with the characters. This was launched pretty quick. Spoiler....

Spoiler:

The book starts out 20+ years after the end of the last book. Events have moved on and some things have changed.

[Jeff V]

Care to elaborate? Seems like a good metric to me.

- Page count in a given work can vary greatly between editions
- Page count in eBooks is highly suspect, I've seen cases of books with the same word count being 200 pages different in length according to Amazon
- Jeff V listens to audiobooks which technically have zero pages :p

It evens out in the end and is as good a metric as anything. I stole it from Yellowking, who vowed to read 100 pages per day a few years ago. As much as I read, I've not yet met that metric. Certainly it's a better metric than number of books, which varies from the brief to massive tomes. Listening to books is a little slower than reading them, but it's still processing the same words so they certainly count. Besides, I have an hour commute to work each day and when weather permits an hour walk at lunch, so I demand credit for making the most of otherwise down time!

[Z-Corn]

Care to elaborate? Seems like a good metric to me.

- Page count in a given work can vary greatly between editions
- Page count in eBooks is highly suspect, I've seen cases of books with the same word count being 200 pages different in length according to Amazon
- Jeff V listens to audiobooks which technically have zero pages :p

It evens out in the end and is as good a metric as anything. I stole it from Yellowking, who vowed to read 100 pages per day a few years ago. As much as I read, I've not yet met that metric. Certainly it's a better metric than number of books, which varies from the brief to massive tomes. Listening to books is a little slower than reading them, but it's still processing the same words so they certainly count. Besides, I have an hour commute to work each day and when weather permits an hour walk at lunch, so I demand credit for making the most of otherwise down time!

Maybe I'm pedantic since I don't check this thread often, but I don't contribute here because to me "read" is done with your eyes. To me the inclusion of audio books dilutes the value of the very word "read". Put some fuckin' skin in the game if you want to inform me of it. Reading isn't passive.

[Jeff V]

Yes, listening to audiobooks is a slower rate of consumption, but it's consumption nevertheless. Why you have a problem with maximizing otherwise worthless time is beyond me. Sure, I could listen to the radio instead, but really, what does that do for me?

[Hipolito]

When I first enrolled in LTER (LibraryThing Early Reviewers) in February, I requested 5 print books and no ebooks. Result: I won nothing.

For March, I requested 12 print books and 2 ebooks. Ebooks are much less sought after than print books, so my chances of winning them were pretty good.

Result: I won zero print books and 2 ebooks (The Demons of Wall Street and The Things You Left). I look forward to reviewing them soon so that my LTER cred goes up and I have a better chance of winning some print books next time. But to review them, I have to receive them first. Shouldn't take too long for that to happen.

[Jeff V]

For the past two years, everything I've received has been ebooks. There's a number of books I haven't received, I wonder if those may have been print books that were never sent.

[ImLawBoy]

This pandemic is seriously eating into my reading time. I normally do the bulk of my reading on my phone on the train commuting to and from work. Now that my commute is measured in steps around the house, my reading is largely on my nights to sit with the oldest while he falls asleep (2 nights on/2 nights off). The Name of the Rose is a real slog under ideal circumstances (why didn't anyone warn me?), so it's been slow going. I think my phone says I'm 73% done.

I'm also going through a paper version of The Institute by Stephen King. It's quite compelling so far (about 2/3 done), but I really only read that when I get done with my nightly chores and my wife is watching one of her movies that I have no interest in (she likes to hate watch romantic comedies on Hallmark).

[TheMix]

The Name of the Rose is a real slog under ideal circumstances (why didn't anyone warn me?), so it's been slow going.

Oh god! </sudder> I absolutely would have warned you if I'd known. The key is to realize that there are parts that you just don't need to read. It's against my nature to skip pages in books, but that was one of my few exceptions. 10 pages to describe the bas-relief on the doors? Eat a bag of dicks, Umberto!

[ImLawBoy]

The Name of the Rose is a real slog under ideal circumstances (why didn't anyone warn me?), so it's been slow going.

Oh god! </sudder> I absolutely would have warned you if I'd known. The key is to realize that there are parts that you just don't need to read. It's against my nature to skip pages in books, but that was one of my few exceptions. 10 pages to describe the bas-relief on the doors? Eat a bag of dicks, Umberto!

I've been tempted a few times to skip chunks, but I just can't do it. I keep thinking that there might be a hidden nugget in there somewhere that is key to the mystery.

[Rumpy]

Finished The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehesi Coates. Beautiful told story.

[Scuzz]

This pandemic is seriously eating into my reading time. I normally do the bulk of my reading on my phone on the train commuting to and from work. Now that my commute is measured in steps around the house, my reading is largely on my nights to sit with the oldest while he falls asleep (2 nights on/2 nights off). The Name of the Rose is a real slog under ideal circumstances (why didn't anyone warn me?), so it's been slow going. I think my phone says I'm 73% done.

I'm also going through a paper version of The Institute by Stephen King. It's quite compelling so far (about 2/3 done), but I really only read that when I get done with my nightly chores and my wife is watching one of her movies that I have no interest in (she likes to hate watch romantic comedies on Hallmark).

I tried to read The Name of the Rose before the movie came out and remember it as one of the few books I started and didn't finish. I have been thinking of looking for it in my local used book store and giving it another try.

My youngest and my wife will sometimes do the Hallmark movie thing.

[Scuzz]

The Name of the Rose is a real slog under ideal circumstances (why didn't anyone warn me?), so it's been slow going.

Oh god! </sudder> I absolutely would have warned you if I'd known. The key is to realize that there are parts that you just don't need to read. It's against my nature to skip pages in books, but that was one of my few exceptions. 10 pages to describe the bas-relief on the doors? Eat a bag of dicks, Umberto!

Maybe Neal Stephenson learned how to write from Umberto Eco. Once I realized I didn't have to read some of his multi-page explanations of things I learned to enjoy his books.

[Rumpy]

Speaking of Umberto Eco, I never read that particular book, but I'd once been given Prague Cemetery by my Sister who'd had gotten it signed by him. I tried to read it but I couldn't get passed the first few pages, and while I felt bad, I eventually gave it away.

[Skinypupy]

Finished "Everything Trump Touches Dies" by Rick Wilson last night. An absolutely fascinating book, highly recommended.

Also did a pre-release editing readthrough of a book coming out by a colleague around strategies for organizational leaders to identify and address unconscious bias. It's brilliant, and I cannot wait for it to hit shelves in the fall.

[Scuzz]

Finished "Everything Trump Touches Dies" by Rick Wilson last night. An absolutely fascinating book, highly recommended.

Also did a pre-release editing readthrough of a book coming out by a colleague around strategies for organizational leaders to identify and address unconscious bias. It's brilliant, and I cannot wait for it to hit shelves in the fall.

Maybe have the author send a copy of that to Trump.

[Jeff V]

Maybe have the author send a copy of that to Trump.

Unless it's a picture book, he won't read it.

[hitbyambulance]

i've read most of Murakami's novels over the past two decades and my opinions on what are his best:

book 3 of 1Q84 (might be his absolute best, overall. i really love this one - should have been a standalone story.)
Killing Commendatore (for sheer enjoyability)
Dance Dance Dance (tho the previous book in this series, A Wild Sheep Chase, was pretty good. but i could not put this one down.)

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle was too grueling to be a favorite, but it was absolutely the right book at the right time and possibly just a bit transformative.


still haven't read:

Norwegian Wood
Sputnik Sweetheart
After Dark
After the Quake
Haruki Murakami Goes to Meet Hayao Kawai
Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche

[Jeff V]

Sputnik Sweetheart

Read that last year, not impressed. Too much sappy young love angst.

[freelunch]

I enjoyed Sputnik Sweetheart. and that was before my eventual ascent into sappy love angst forever

[Jeff V]

I enjoyed Sputnik Sweetheart. and that was before my eventual ascent into sappy love angst forever

I figured you and Kasey would probably like it.