Kevin wants to read Masque World by Alexei Panshin
You are invited to a ball given by Lord Semichastny at his estate on Delbalso. …
I found this lurking on my bookshelf and have no idea where it came from.
Reviews and Comments
I love to read, I just don't do it as often as I'd like. The book is always greener on the other side.
I read more fiction than non-fiction, and more science-fiction than fiction.
My bookshelf has a row dedicated to older O'Reilly books, one dedicated to one-off hardbacks of long series I've read, such as Expanse, Harry Potter, H.P. Lovecraft, Shakespeare, and one dedicated to shoe-horning in board games.
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Kevin reviewed The Night Always Comes by Willy Vlautin
You won't be able to put it down
5 stars
I've had The Night Always Comes on my bookshelf for 7-8 months now. After picking it up at the Powell's on Hawthorne, I read the first three chapters and knew this was a book that needed to be read after the weather turned colder and wetter. So, on this Thanksgiving break, I pulled it down and ticked in.
It did not disappoint.
This book is an edge-of-your seat thriller best consumed in one or two sessions. Not because it's action-packed (though it does have its share of harrowing scenes), but because the author has done a masterful job at building up the protagonist into someone you just cannot peel your eyes away from. Lynette's 48 hour journey is filled with sentiment, luck, horror, and white-knuckle scenes that the reader will not soon forget.
I've had The Night Always Comes on my bookshelf for 7-8 months now. After picking it up at the Powell's on Hawthorne, I read the first three chapters and knew this was a book that needed to be read after the weather turned colder and wetter. So, on this Thanksgiving break, I pulled it down and ticked in.
It did not disappoint.
This book is an edge-of-your seat thriller best consumed in one or two sessions. Not because it's action-packed (though it does have its share of harrowing scenes), but because the author has done a masterful job at building up the protagonist into someone you just cannot peel your eyes away from. Lynette's 48 hour journey is filled with sentiment, luck, horror, and white-knuckle scenes that the reader will not soon forget.
Kevin started reading Love in a dish by M.F.K. Fisher
"Whether the subject of her fancy is the lowly, unassuming potato or the love life …
I picked this up at the library after another book, Provence 1970 tells a story of culinary luminaries, including Julia Child and James Beard in addition to M.F.K. Fisher basically all met and changed the course of culinary history. I knew the other two, of course, but needed to read something from a woman who is apparently one of the best culinary writers of all time.
I picked this up at the library after another book, Provence 1970 tells a story of culinary luminaries, including Julia Child and James Beard in addition to M.F.K. Fisher basically all met and changed the course of culinary history. I knew the other two, of course, but needed to read something from a woman who is apparently one of the best culinary writers of all time.
Kevin reviewed Death's End by Liu Cixin (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #03)
Death's End (Chinese: 死神永生, pinyin: Sǐshén yǒngshēng) is a science fiction novel by the Chinese …
End of the line
4 stars
Content warning Some references to other works may hint at spoilers
I couldn't resist and had to finish my binge of the series. This one is truly big, spanning billions of years and tying together many themes and concepts. Cixin Liu will casually cover a topic that in other works would constitute the entirety of the novel, but he does it as a throwaway chapter. Well, not throwaway, but in some cases a topic is introduced, and closed out so quickly that in many cases, the reader is left wanting more or perhaps thinking to themself "was this topic so obvious that the author didn't deem it worthy of covering further?"
The beginning was very confusing and it does seem like this was a dumping ground for some of the conceptual content that had been created while doing some world-building. After about the first quarter of the book, the threads come together and the story really gets going. Strung together like this, the book is like three novels in one. I could see the author having stretched those out into 1 or even 2 more books (after all, this is the longest of the three novels), but I'm thankful it all wrapped up here.
Whereas the first two novels spent a lot of time building up to their point, as in the concept of the Dark Forest in the second novel, this one essentially hurls concepts at you one after another as if you're in a batting cage. It makes for a fun but sometimes bewildering ride and may not be for everyone. Still, this has Cixin Liu's signature high-concept, big universe ideas in it and it is fun to work through them with his story-telling of this expanding universe as we come to know about more than just the Trisolarans.
A couple of the concepts reminded me of the Priscilla Hutchins series by Jack McDevitt, which I also greatly enjoyed for its whole "the Universe is a lot bigger than you think, kid" way of story-telling.
Kevin wants to read The Friendly Orange Glow by Brian Dear
At a time when Steve Jobs was only a teenager and Mark Zuckerberg wasn’t even …
If @spacerog@mastodon.social is going to recommend a book, I'm going to add it to my reading list. This sounds pretty interesting.
If @spacerog@mastodon.social is going to recommend a book, I'm going to add it to my reading list. This sounds pretty interesting.
Kevin started reading The kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara by David I. Kertzer
Heading to Northern Italy next year and they have a convoluted history, and I realized I know very little of Italy's history between the fall of the Roman Empire until World War II. Looking to fill that gap, I found this historical novel about the kidnapping of a Jewish boy at his family's home in Bologna by the Papal State. Written by an historian, this should provide a lot of color to the political forces from the 16th to 19th centuries.
Heading to Northern Italy next year and they have a convoluted history, and I realized I know very little of Italy's history between the fall of the Roman Empire until World War II. Looking to fill that gap, I found this historical novel about the kidnapping of a Jewish boy at his family's home in Bologna by the Papal State. Written by an historian, this should provide a lot of color to the political forces from the 16th to 19th centuries.
Kevin rated The Dark Forest: 3 stars
The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin (Remembrance of Earth's Past #2)
"With the scope of Dune and the rousing action of Independence Day, this near-future trilogy is the first chance for …
Kevin finished reading The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin (Remembrance of Earth's Past #2)
"With the scope of Dune and the rousing action of Independence Day, this near-future trilogy …
Good and grabbed me almost as much as the first one. Has some great concepts and discussions. I think the book could have been tighter overall and cut out some of the content and still be just as good. So that made it a bit of a slog in places. Character development was also a bit uneven.
Good and grabbed me almost as much as the first one. Has some great concepts and discussions. I think the book could have been tighter overall and cut out some of the content and still be just as good. So that made it a bit of a slog in places. Character development was also a bit uneven.
Kevin started reading The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin (Remembrance of Earth's Past #2)
"With the scope of Dune and the rousing action of Independence Day, this near-future trilogy …
Well, I had to start reading it after finishing the first one! So far: good, but I think there are some opportunities to cut it a bit shorter.
Well, I had to start reading it after finishing the first one! So far: good, but I think there are some opportunities to cut it a bit shorter.
Kevin finished reading The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin (Three-Body Trilogy, #1)
Within the context of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, a military project sends messages to alien …
Really excellent. I guess everyone knows this at this point, but this is top-tier sci-fi. Incredibly creative and realistic story set more or less now, rather than far into the future, which isn't common for novels with such big ideas.
Really excellent. I guess everyone knows this at this point, but this is top-tier sci-fi. Incredibly creative and realistic story set more or less now, rather than far into the future, which isn't common for novels with such big ideas.
Kevin started reading The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin (Three-Body Trilogy, #1)
Within the context of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, a military project sends messages to alien …
In retrospect, now that I'm over 300 pages in, this was probably the wrong week to start reading this. Captivating, though.
In retrospect, now that I'm over 300 pages in, this was probably the wrong week to start reading this. Captivating, though.
Kevin started reading The Warship by Neal Asher (Rise of the Jain, Book Two)
The haiman Orlandine, charged with safeguarding lethal Jain tech swirling inside an accretion disc located …
The ending of the Soldier was action-packed, so I had to immediately start in on the sequel.
The Fellowship of the Ring : being the first part of The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
This edition is based on the reset edition first published 2002 which is a revised version of the reset edition …
Kevin rated The Last Devil to Die: 4 stars
The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman (The Thursday Murder Club, #4)
You'd think you would be allowed to relax over Christmas, but not in the world of the Thursday Murder Club.
…Kevin finished reading The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman (The Thursday Murder Club, #4)
You'd think you would be allowed to relax over Christmas, but not in the world …
A nice installment to this venerable series. I LOL'd a bit less on this book than in the previous ones, however, I thought the mystery was a bit better and much less obvious than in earlier books. The continuing story with Stephen and Elizabeth is well-written and heartfelt, bringing the reader close to the difficulties of a person suffering from dementia.
A nice installment to this venerable series. I LOL'd a bit less on this book than in the previous ones, however, I thought the mystery was a bit better and much less obvious than in earlier books. The continuing story with Stephen and Elizabeth is well-written and heartfelt, bringing the reader close to the difficulties of a person suffering from dementia.