Books Read 2022

[hitbyambulance]

gave my copy to someone in my book club last night, as they expressed an interest in reading it (and when i do read it again, it will be a newer translation. this was the 1965 Sidney Monas one - i did read a bit of the original public domain Constance Garnett translation from 1914 and it was ok, i guess.)

[El Guapo]

Coraline, by Neil Gaiman

I've had this book on my bookshelf for years, and finally grabbed it off and ripped through it. I suspect people here are mostly familiar with it, but it's a fairly brief story centered around a child who wanders into essentially a dark mirror universe in her house run by a dark creature of some type, who kidnaps her parents in an attempt to force the child (Coraline) to stay with her. It's a very Alice-in-Wonderland esque adventure. Well written (of course) and a pretty gripping story. Also written with all ages in mind, so good for anyone from an adult to a tween.

[YellowKing]

Finished a big batch:

Hotel Chelsea - Jeremy Bates - Jeremy Bates has become one of my favorite casual read horror authors. His gimmick is he takes a real-world scary place, throws a bunch of fictional characters into it, and lets events play out. His books are quick reads, and are pretty much the literary equivalent of watching a slasher film. They're not going to win any awards for plot, but as light reads I've enjoyed all of his novels.

The Vines - Christopher Rice - The son of Anne Rice brings us this tale of slavery, cannibalistic plants, etc. This one just never grabbed me, and will probably be forgotten in a week. He's a fine author, and I feel like I should have liked this book much more than I did, but it never quite gelled.

The House By the Cemetery - John Everson - I picked this up based on the premise - a group of people creating a haunted attraction in a house formerly occupied by Satanists. I love haunted attractions so the theme really appealed to me. This one was actually quite fun - while it veered a bit too much into the supernatural for my taste at points, it redeems itself with some good gore. I'd throw this in the same pile as Jeremy Bates as just a fun light read.

The World of Lore: Dreadful Places - Aaron Mahnke - Aaron Mahnke is the creator of a number of podcasts I enjoy, including Lore, Grim & Mild Presents, and Cabinet of Curiosities. All of his shows deal with the strange and bizarre, but with a heavy emphasis on the real-life history. This book is essentially the Lore podcast in book form, chock full of tales of haunted places, and he writes it in the exact same conversational style as his podcast. If you're a fan of his shows, these are no-brainer good reads.

The Apparitionists: A Tale of Phantoms, Fraud, Photography, and the Man who Captured Lincoln's Ghost - Peter Maneau - I'm fascinated by the Spiritualism era, and this book captures one slice of that, the rise of spirit photography. While extremely informative about the early era of photography, it does read a little more dry at times than the subject matter might demand. I guess I was wanting a bit more Spiritualism history and a little less photography lesson, but I still enjoyed it.

Classic Monsters Unleashed - Collected by Kim Newman - This was a Kickstarter book that recently shipped. While I didn't back the KS, I was able to snag a review copy for my podcast. It's a short story anthology from a variety of successful horror authors, with each story giving a new spin to a classic monster. There are Frankenstein stories, Dracula stories, Wolfman stories, etc. Like any anthology, some are better than others, but I enjoyed all of them to some degree. I specifically liked the ones that didn't get too abstract, and instead added a follow-up or fleshed out the mythology of a famous creature. Recommended if you're a classic monster fan and want something a little different.

[Hipolito]

Dark Factory by Kathe Koja (ebook, LibraryThing Early Review): This novel is about two men: Ari Regon, the manager, lead designer, and public face of Dark Factory, a virtual reality-enhanced dance club; and Max Caspar, a brooding artist who runs an outdoor, daylight dance venue called Bitter Lake. As they go from project to project, success to failure, they develop a frenemy relationship, mutually contemptuous but each finding a missing piece of his own puzzle in the other's vision.

I chose to review this book because I knew, from having read her nihilistic horror tale The Cipher, that the author is a skilled writer and visionary. She uses that skill and vision to create a very different type of work here. It's upbeat, lively, and penned in an almost stream-of-consciousness way that largely eschews punctuation and dialogue tags. It's fast and hard to follow, like William Gibson's Neuromancer; whether or not you understand what's going on, you're there for the ride. At first, I enjoyed the brisk, vivid language that carries the speed of nightlife and the overwhelming visual and mental stimuli in Dark Factory, enhanced by a few nice photo illustrations. While that writing style kept things popping in Neuromancer, it grows wearisome here. It's used even for the many mundane scenes of going to cafes, hanging out in apartments, and setting up equipment for the next big show.

There are a few sidebars in which journalists write about the characters, and they're written in a completely coherent, AP Stylebook-compliant way. I enjoyed these sidebars and wish that more of the book, or maybe all of it, had been written like them. I also wish there had been more of my favorite side characters like the fresh-from-rehab party girl Genie, the type-A reporter Marfa, and the clipboard-carrying Lee.

The book felt too long, the interpersonal conflicts artificially drawn out by people storming out of conversations and not answering each other's texts. The ending is somewhat ambiguous and dissatisfying (kind of like the ending of The Cipher), terminating right after raising an intriguing theory of "curated reality." But it was kind of cool being part of Ari's and Max's lives for a while as they sought to smooth out the seams of reality in the dance scene. 3 out of 8 siskins.

[Isgrimnur]

Tank Warfare by Jeremy Black

Pertinent to my interests and current events, it's a history of the entire timeline. As it was published in 2020, it's rather close to up to date and addresses the previous decade's efforts of the major players to hone their forces.

[YellowKing]

Luke Skywalker Can't Read and Other Geeky Truths - Ryan Britt

Fun little book of essays by Ryan Britt on various geeky/pop culture things. Doctor Who, Star Trek, and Star Wars fandom mostly. The book is a touch dated as the new Star Wars trilogy had not come out yet, and I didn't totally align with Britt's point of view on a few things since he skews slightly younger than me. But it was still a quick, entertaining read.

[Hipolito]

Thrive: Finding Happiness the Blue Zones Way by Dan Buettner (paperback): This book is a study of four regions where people tend to be long-lived and happier: 1) Denmark, where people are permissive and tolerant but law-abiding and pay high taxes to enjoy economic equality and not having to work as hard; 2) Singapore, where people trade significant freedoms for safety, high employment, and harmony on a densely populated and highly diverse island state; 3) Mexico, where people don't have a trustworthy government or fair economy but do have lots of sunlight, close family ties, strong faith, and just enough money to get by; and 4) San Luis Obispo, a town on the central coast of California that was transformed from a vulgar, corporatist Anytown USA to a progressive paradise.

I especially enjoyed reading about Singapore and San Luis Obispo because the author got to interview the government leaders who turned them into two of the best places in the world to live. 6 out of 8 bike lanes.

[El Guapo]

Max and the Midknights: The Tower of Time by Lincoln Peirce

This is the third book of the Max and the Midknights series, that my son asked me to read. It's pretty good - a nice quick entertaining read - a group of kids become knights and wizards and whatnot and go on adventures. Strong recommend for any kids who enjoy any of the Big Nate / Diary of a Wimpy Kid style books.

[Isgrimnur]

San Luis Obispo

And just 10 miles from Pismo Beach.

[YellowKing]

The Grand Hotel - Scott Kenemore

This one was an unexpected delight. I bought it awhile back because I literally judged a book by its cover: a Victorian style hotel with some neon lighting font reminescent of old Hollywood.

However, it wound up being one of the most entertaining horror novels I've read in quite some time. Told from the viewpoint of a mysterious tour guide showing a group of visitors the ins and outs of the hotel, this premise becomes a wraparound for an anthology of horror tales told by the hotel's patrons.

What I particularly loved is that the short tales within the novel had the feel of classic horror literature - some felt like fairy tales, some like fables, some like old ghost stories, and some like Twilight Zone episodes. But they were all entertaining and of a style I love but that you just don't see much anymore.

It's rare that I enjoy a book that I didn't already know I'd enjoy going in, but this was a fun little surprise.

[hitbyambulance]

Frederick Douglass - _The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave_ : read this all in one sitting. really gripping and Douglass makes some great points as well. will be getting to _My Bondage and My Freedom_ at some time in the future.

[Jaymann]

Just finished:



For some reason they changed this beautiful cover and replaced it with something. I wanted to dip my toe into some Reynolds without committing to a huge series, so I chose this stand alone that is highly regarded. Galactic space opera should have been right in my wheelhouse, but to my taste it was good, not great. I won't bother to nitpick, will leave that to the critics, but it took forever to get rolling for a payoff I did not find all that satisfying. 5/8 supernovas.

[Skinypupy]

Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience

So, I have a confession that is considered blasphemy in the professional circles (mainly around leader development) that I travel in: I don't really care for Brene Brown's writing. I think she can make some good points and has some interesting ideas (especially in "Dare to Lead"), but her writing style that bounces between critical data analysis and extremely vulnerable personal anecdote on a dime is incredibly jarring to me. It makes her books really difficult for me to read.

That said, this is a pretty interesting book. It breaks down and examines multiple human emotions in a way that is easy to understand and categorize. There were a number of times during my read where I found myself thinking "oh, so that's actually what I was feeling in situation X. I totally mistook that for emotion Y!"

It made for some interesting personal epiphanies and was definitely worth reading, even if I don't care for the style at all.

[Hipolito]

The Wheel of Time, Book 9: Winter's Heart by Robert Jordan (hardcover): This book isn't the worst of the slog. There is a lot of politicking and bureaucracy, but it helps show how young new leaders grow into their jobs. The Aiel first-sister ceremony is one of my favorite moments in the series so far, majestic, funny, shocking, and moving. Maybe real-life weddings should be like that. There is a long-awaited reunion that is horny in ways I was not expecting. There is an increasingly complicated (and somewhat kinky) scheme to escape the great port city of Ebou Dar, and the independent little city Far Madding has a cool security system. And we get a brief but consequential sizzler of an ending. 5 out of 8 slaps.

[Pyperkub]

Coraline, by Neil Gaiman

I've had this book on my bookshelf for years, and finally grabbed it off and ripped through it. I suspect people here are mostly familiar with it, but it's a fairly brief story centered around a child who wanders into essentially a dark mirror universe in her house run by a dark creature of some type, who kidnaps her parents in an attempt to force the child (Coraline) to stay with her. It's a very Alice-in-Wonderland esque adventure. Well written (of course) and a pretty gripping story. Also written with all ages in mind, so good for anyone from an adult to a tween.

If you haven't seen the movie, do so. It's better than the book IMHO. With the usual caveat that I saw the movie first, and that sometimes makes a difference.

[Carpet_pissr]

Jesus. Just about to finish 'Children of Dune' by Frank Herbert.

About halfway through "Dune Messiah" I started to suspect Herbert started writing on shrooms or acid. Halfway through Children and it's confirmed.

And that's all I will say about that.

[Scuzz]

Thrive: Finding Happiness the Blue Zones Way by Dan Buettner (paperback): This book is a study of four regions where people tend to be long-lived and happier: 1) Denmark, where people are permissive and tolerant but law-abiding and pay high taxes to enjoy economic equality and not having to work as hard; 2) Singapore, where people trade significant freedoms for safety, high employment, and harmony on a densely populated and highly diverse island state; 3) Mexico, where people don't have a trustworthy government or fair economy but do have lots of sunlight, close family ties, strong faith, and just enough money to get by; and 4) San Luis Obispo, a town on the central coast of California that was transformed from a vulgar, corporatist Anytown USA to a progressive paradise.

I especially enjoyed reading about Singapore and San Luis Obispo because the author got to interview the government leaders who turned them into two of the best places in the world to live. 6 out of 8 bike lanes.

As someone who has traveled thru San Luis Obispo many times over the last 45+ years I don't think I ever thought of it as a "vulgar corporatist Aytown". San Luis Obispo (or SLO as the locals say) has always been a college dominated town with the coast less than a half hour away. Sure, it is on a freeway and so suffers from that kind of business, but it is also within minutes of a major National Guard base and a few prisons.

I would love to live there. I would have loved to live there 40 years ago. My brother graduated from the college and I used to go to spring break parties there. They had to pretty much shut that down when they needed riot police to end of a little problem there.

[Scuzz]

Memories of Ice by Steven Erikson.

This is the third of ten parts in the "A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen" series. This book could have easily been the end of a trilogy had Erikson wanted it to be. I don't know if he had planned ten books from the start but things play out in this book that greatly effect the story's characters. As with the first two books I really liked this one. It is a little slower, speeds up, slows down again and then finishes with a flourish. Erikson creates characters you care about and mechanics that will sometimes confuse you. If I had to make some complaint about these books it would be that the while the magic system Erikson employs is very unique, and well done, it is rather complicated to keep track of and is so much different from other books that you can get kind of over whelmed. But maybe that's just me.

[El Guapo]

Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss (audio book)

This is a fantasy book that I imagine a lot of people here are familiar with. For anyone who is not it's the first book in a series (soon to be three books) focused on Kvothe, a hero who starts with a traveling (Roma-esque) people but whose family is attacked by a vicious ancient evil, which starts him on a long quest to learn about them and about magic generally, and then on to epic adventures generally.

It's really good. I'd heard a lot about the series and have meant to get into it, and finally did (listened to the first one on audio book, now reading the second in the series). It's interesting in that the author tries to ground magic in the book with quasi-scientific rules (a lot of magic in the series is done by 'linking' two things with spells and essentially transferring energy from one to the other) which I think helps to limit the "I attacked the enemy who defended themselves with invisible shields then used magic back at me" thing that can happen with fantasy books. But mainly it's just really well written with interesting thoughtful characters.

[Jaymann]

Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss (audio book)

This is a fantasy book that I imagine a lot of people here are familiar with. For anyone who is not it's the first book in a series (soon to be three books)...

You know something we don't???

[El Guapo]

Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss (audio book)

This is a fantasy book that I imagine a lot of people here are familiar with. For anyone who is not it's the first book in a series (soon to be three books)...

You know something we don't???

Oh, I did some googling the other day and saw that it's expected to be released July 2022. But looking closer it seems that date is "expected" but not official.

[Blackhawk]

There's a running joke about Rothfuss and Martin racing to see who can write slower.

[El Guapo]

There's a running joke about Rothfuss and Martin racing to see who can write slower.

Has he said how many books he expects to write in the series? I've seen references to a trilogy, but the fact that the second book is "day 2" (of the storytelling) and IIRC in the first book he references needing I think four days to tell his story, plus that it seems likely that there will be some more story in the 'present' (after he's done telling his story) would suggest more than three books (if Rothfuss lives long enough).

[Scuzz]

Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss (audio book)

This is a fantasy book that I imagine a lot of people here are familiar with. For anyone who is not it's the first book in a series (soon to be three books)...

You know something we don't???

Oh, I did some googling the other day and saw that it's expected to be released July 2022. But looking closer it seems that date is "expected" but not official.

Rothfuss has a bad case of GRRM disease. While Name of the Wind is a very good book the second one is kinda meh and really takes the story nowhere. So unless book 3 when it does come out is either huge or moved way forward in time I don’t see him finishing in 3 books.

[hitbyambulance]

Robert Lanza, Matej Pavsic, Bob Berman - The Grand Biocentric Design: How Life Creates Reality : Idealism with a new coat of paint? Lanza is kind of a pompous, arrogant ass and it comes through the writing, and it is offputting. he also makes some *big* ol' leaps of logic and doesn't explain some questions. i did read that some critics do think he is willfully misunderstanding what 'observation' means in quantum physics, which, if true, pokes a big hole in his idea. i also read one of the experiments he cites (where the state of a particle can be retroactively altered by human measurement) has never been replicated - do need to read more on that.

HOWEVER, putting that aside, this is well worth reading for the fascinating ideas presented. pretend it's hard SF, if you want. i do believe there is something to the basic premise stated here - it is very imperfectly explained and our understanding is necessarily limited by our "ego consciousness", but this makes a strong case in pointing the way to illuminating a new shade of an 'ultimate truth' - with scientific backing.

[Jaymann]

An interesting facet of Schrodinger's Cat I came across is that in the original thought experiment the cat is blocked from seeing the outcome so it can not be considered an observer.

[hitbyambulance]

An interesting facet of Schrodinger's Cat I came across is that in the original thought experiment the cat is blocked from seeing the outcome so it can not be considered an observer.

in the biocentric view, the cat will always experience the outcome where it remains alive from its own perspective, even if it dies in a bunch of other timelines (until the probabilistic certainty of it ever finding an escape from certain death dwindles to 0%)

[coopasonic]

I finally finished Radical Candor. It was an interesting read about leadership.

[Hipolito]

Thrive: Finding Happiness the Blue Zones Way by Dan Buettner (paperback): This book is a study of four regions where people tend to be long-lived and happier: 1) Denmark, where people are permissive and tolerant but law-abiding and pay high taxes to enjoy economic equality and not having to work as hard; 2) Singapore, where people trade significant freedoms for safety, high employment, and harmony on a densely populated and highly diverse island state; 3) Mexico, where people don't have a trustworthy government or fair economy but do have lots of sunlight, close family ties, strong faith, and just enough money to get by; and 4) San Luis Obispo, a town on the central coast of California that was transformed from a vulgar, corporatist Anytown USA to a progressive paradise.

I especially enjoyed reading about Singapore and San Luis Obispo because the author got to interview the government leaders who turned them into two of the best places in the world to live. 6 out of 8 bike lanes.

As someone who has traveled thru San Luis Obispo many times over the last 45+ years I don't think I ever thought of it as a "vulgar corporatist Aytown". San Luis Obispo (or SLO as the locals say) has always been a college dominated town with the coast less than a half hour away. Sure, it is on a freeway and so suffers from that kind of business, but it is also within minutes of a major National Guard base and a few prisons.

I would love to live there. I would have loved to live there 40 years ago. My brother graduated from the college and I used to go to spring break parties there. They had to pretty much shut that down when they needed riot police to end of a little problem there. :)

The changes to SLO may have happened before your travels there. From the book:

In 1952 ... the community had all the trappings of a postwar California boomtown, choked with neon signs and power lines, without any of the graceful towering trees that you see downtown today ... a nondescript western community of 14,000 controlled by a few powerful property owners and conservative business leaders.

[By 1979], the winds had changed, and San Luis Obispo had moved to the forefront of an American planning renaissance.
The "reactionary business community" ... that once ran the city council was replaced by a more progressive group of city leaders, who in turn set a new standard for signs, utility lines, and planted all those aforementioned trees ... the downtown area became visually attractive and more pedestrian friendly. More important, Highway 101--the coastal freeway built on top of Father Serra's old Camino Real--no longer passed by the front of the mission and cut through the center of town. What used to be a central artery was completely blocked off to traffic, with a central mission plaza constructed in its place--kind of a central park running down to the banks of a cleaned-up San Luis Creek. Today there are walkways on either side of San Luis Creek, with terraced café patios across from the mission side filled with people trying out local wines or going for walks or checking out the art center or the historical museum on the edge of the plaza or the historic mission itself.

The book was written 10 years ago. From looking at recent articles and YouTube videos, it seems people still love it there. I hope to see it for myself someday.

[Isgrimnur]

[Hipolito]

Car included I'm sure.

[Scuzz]

I used to go to spring break there in the 70s. It does have a beautiful walkable downtown area, lovely old Mission and it is basically the hub of that part of the coast. But I think it represents the big city in an area of smaller coastal communities. Although Paso Robles to the north and Pismo Beach to the south are growing by leaps and bounds.

And eventually there will be a conflict between the world class wines being grown in the area and the residential demands for water.

[Hipolito]

And eventually there will be a conflict between the world class wines being grown in the area and the residential demands for water.

I can believe this. People have been great at forcing California into a bountiful paradise, but there's a limit to how much more the land can take. I'd love to live there if I thought it was sustainable, but the worsening water shortages and wildfires tell me it's not.

[Jeff V]

And eventually there will be a conflict between the world class wines being grown in the area and the residential demands for water.

I can believe this. People have been great at forcing California into a bountiful paradise, but there's a limit to how much more the land can take. I'd love to live there if I thought it was sustainable, but the worsening water shortages and wildfires tell me it's not.

Idyllic California was a fantasy from my youth. It was like Hawaii in terms of otherworldly glamor and paradise. Then I actually went there, and such idealism was dashed.

There are plenty of places in CA I like visiting, but I can't think of anywhere where I could ever likely afford to live. If I wanted to go to the left coast, Oregon or Washington would be my choice.

[Scuzz]

Morro Bay is just up the coast from SLO and we always liked the idea of moving there but finding a place to buy for a price we could afford, well, that ship sailed probably 20 years ago. We have thought about the north coast, California to southern Washington, but the rain. Going from almost no rain to rain every few days might be too much. And those areas are getting expensive now.

[Hipolito]

Uncommon Measure: A Journey Through Music, Performance, and the Science of Time by Natalie Hodges (paperback, LibraryThing Early Review): The author, a Harvard-educated classical violinist, writes about her struggles to master the violin. While writing about her performance anxiety, she notes that a musician must release her ego to lose herself in a composition's pace, but this is difficult to do when that very ego is what drives her to perform pieces as difficult as Paganini's La Campanella and Bach's Chaconne. She writes about the racial prejudice that she and other Asian musicians face, why Asian parents encourage their children to play classical music, and the trauma of having had an abusive father. Her writing is woven with parallels to seemingly disparate subjects such as space-time theory, quantum physics, and tango dancing. The navel-gazing doesn't always strike a chord with me. But the book made me nostalgic for my own youthful days of playing classical music and tango dancing. It's remarkable how, at a young age, the writer can convey such deep understanding and resonant comparisons, and I hope she continues to pursue her struggles and write about them. We all ought to. 6 out of 8 f-holes.

[YellowKing]

Ready Player Two - Ernest Cline (Audiobook)

I absolutely loved Ready Player One, and never really got the criticisms of it that it was simply a laundry list of nostalgia........until now.

Without the novelty of learning about the Oasis and all its wonders, Ready Player Two has to up the ante with some tech that stretches the bounds of believability. Even once you wrap your head around that, you're left with a rather unlikeable main character basically proceeding through a series of events. This happens, then this happens, then this happens.

To put it into a video game analogy, if a typical novel feels like playing through an immersive story, Ready Player Two feels like reading the walkthrough.

I still enjoyed it for what it was - I'm a big fan of VR fiction like Tad Williams Otherland series, and this world reminds me of that a lot. However, this sequel exposes a lot of flaws I failed to pick up on in the first novel.

[Jaymann]

Thanks for the warning. I will have to look into Overland.

[hitbyambulance]

Thich Nhat Hanh - The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering Into Peace, Joy & Liberation: The Four Noble Truths, The Noble Eightfold Path, and Other Basic Buddhist Teachings : longest title ever. but despite being _incredibly_ dry at parts (it took me about nine months to get through this), i can say this book has altered my life for the better after i adopted a few practices described within. it was nicely succinct while also being thorough. i appreciate TNH's tone throughout, and i am currently reading another of his many books. one particularly valuable part was the "Twelve Links of Interdependent Co-Arising" as a summary of all of the motivators of human behavior - this was an aspect of Buddhism i wasn't very familiar with prior to reading this.

[hitbyambulance]

James Dickey - Deliverance : i'll just quote part of another summary i read: "So four guys go canoeing in Georgia and things go wrong. They go really, really wrong."what is "Super Manly" man man...man's being? is it better to rot in suburban comfortable mundanity or die in 'natural' brutal intensity? how many "forced penetration" metaphors can one author shove into a 236 page book?