Reading Books For Pleasure

[MagdahLina]

I wasn't impressed, if that's the right word. The text is too short to make a real story out of. Most of the work is visual (collage) which is why the recommendation I suppose... I can't see anyone reading this to a group. I think it's a picture book for grade-school age children to look though on their own and the "transition" is there (it's a prin... ?) for their own safety.

[Edit] It isn't a "story" about two princes getting married at all. The flow of the plot is interrupted so abruptly it's more like an open-ended question. The prince needs to be married, and so in royal fashion, princesses from all over the world are introduced to him (each culture in detail) with lots of visual things for the children to chew on. And then, literally in one page, he falls head-over-heels and marries a prince who pops up in the background for two seconds. THE END. It's completely irrational.

 

[MagdahLina]

From the second book:

 

[stickygirl]

The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd
never wanted it to finish
You may know it as a best seller from ... 2001. I know you have a number of references to LGBT books and to be honest, I was surprised to find the thread here in BDSM. The thing about those niche? books is that they're often about being cis and looking in on the small world of transgender and trying to make sense of it. Books like TSLoB is like me looking into the cis world and finding I'm not so different, that I feel the same as the girl in the book felt, right down to the shudders and 'heart-thumping in your chest' or the heat of someone's hand or the buzz of bees singing in your heart, and knowing that I am who I am. So LGBT books are great - I've read loads and often I associate with the characters, with their experiences and things that happen to them, but they seldom express how it is to be a woman or in this case, a girl of fourteen.
Trans women often go through a second childhood, a second puberty - we have to back-track and try to catch up those missing years. So reading this story, which is of a fourteen year old girl growing up in a dysfunctional world where nothing quite gels and where there she is confounded by unanswered questions about her past... well I suppose that resonated more with me than any number of well-written LGBT books.
One day I hope I can put all the questions behind me.
Anyways - that's enough heart-bleeding for one night!

 

[Blue]

I bought a few books from Ian M Banks' Culture series and am in the process of reading them. I'm now done with Consider Phlebas and Excession, currently on Use of Weapons and then I'll have to read Matter. Then I guess go and buy The Hydrogen Sonata and whatever others I've missed.

The amount of imagination and detail invested in these books is cruel in its novelistic scarcity. The entire Culture series isn't centred around anything really. There's no continuing plot from book to book (With perhaps the exception of an in-universe chronological reference or the appearance of machines known as Minds in separate books) and each one contains unique characters and elements.
Although there are some consistent traits; a society known as The Culture appears in each book and even though they're technically the main feature it would be definitively incorrect to say that 'they' are the central feature to each plot. Since the entire premise of 'they' when referring to The Culture is itself incorrect.
It's a bit weird, you'd have to read it to get it.

If anybody here is a sci fi fan I'd strongly recommend any of the books. Consider Phlebas is the first book when ordered in-universe chronologically and is likely the best starting point since it portrays The Culture in a highly sceptical light.
It's defined as a space opera but it just really isn't. There are indeed hints of space opera everywhere but Banks' has purposefully strayed far from that in all the books and, instead, from the perspectives of the characters in the books everything is portrayed in a generally extremely harsh and overtly astro-political light. There's no star-hopping golden-age happy-go-space-lucky-ness, everything is a highly complicated tale of strategy, intergalactic authoritarianism and the stunning accidental hypocrisy of even the most benevolent civilizations.
They're all very grunge, very harsh, very depressing with the odd bit of good humor thrown in, all while displaying much fantastical imaginary machinations.

 

[FurryFury]

26.) Death's Daughter by Amber Benson 3/5

Disappointingly ADHD but had it's moments.

27.) *Fck Feelings** by Michael I. Bennett, MD and Sarah Bennett 4.5/5

Will be buying this one and also typed up some notes for reference.

28.) Blue Zones Eating and Living Like the World's Healthiest People by Dan Buettner 4.25/5

Again will be buying for reference, typed up some recipes. Now I want a whole book of recipes from the Blue Zones. Almost have my desem sour dough starter ready to make my first whole wheat no yeast loaf. Enjoyed making and eating tropical slaw, tropical stew and miso soup.

29.) The Vegiterranean Diet by Julieanna Heyer M.S. RD 4/5

Interesting but somewhat more complicated recipes than I am willing to invest the time and effort into.

30.) The Mediterranean Prescription by Angelo Acquista 3/5

Mmkay.

31.) Elantris by Brandon Sanderson 5/5

Good. Dammit. I will be reading more.

32.) Let food be your medicine : dietary changes proven to prevent or reverse disease by Don Colbert -5/5

So bad, nothing is proven in this book. This guy is a quack.

33.) Fall of Giants by Ken Follet 5/5

So good. Will be reading more.

May

34.) The Advanced Mediterranean Diet by Steve Parker -3/5

Again total trash.

35.) Nudge by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein -3/5

What is the damn point? Nudge this you assholes.

36.) The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate 4/5

Sweet, short, sort of like Charlotte's Web with less crying.

37.) Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Magical Car by Ian Fleming 2/5

Nothing like the movie! No Truly Scrumptious, my fav character. WTF?!? Over all a very juvenile book that should perhaps be called a novella.

38.) It's a Long Story My Life by Willie Nelson 4.5/5

A history of not just Nelson's life but the music biz in general. Very good read for me.

39.) Dark Triumph by Robin LaFevers 4.5/5

Second of a Y.A. series that I'm enjoying about nuns who are assassins and seductive.

40.) Bladerunner by Alan E. Nouse 4.75/5

Only has the name in common with the movie. Good read!

41.) World Made By Hand by James Howard Kunstler 4.5/5

Enjoyed this very much and will be reading more in the series.

42.) I Ate The Sheriff by K. Bennett 4.25/5

Probably will read more as in the two prior to this one. The title got me on this one. Had to check it out.

43.) Moon over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch 4.5/5

Fun series will continue reading, this!

44.) Frost Burned by Patricia Briggs 4.75/5

Always good, and I will continue to read this series as well.

 

[seela]

Samko Tále's Cemetery Book, not in English though.

I love this book and I've read it twice before. It's so politically incorrect and sad, but it also cracks me up every two pages.

If you're interested here's a review and here's an excerpt of the book.

It was interesting for me to read the excerpt in English and see how the translator has chosen to approach certain things. I've had to translate an excerpt of this book for a class before and it was no easy feat, but all the more engaging.

 

[cookiecat]

I used to read all the time. I haven't since I got old eyes. Even with bifocals, I find it tiring to read big chunks.

I realized I spend a ton of time on computer/phone. Am thinking the way I read has changed. I used to love to spend hours lost in a book. Now, I get distracted after 30 minutes.

To that end, I decided to try to set aside a smaller amount of time each day to start reading again. This winter, we took a trip to the Panama Canal so I've jumped in to The Path Between the Seas - David McCullough, an account of its history.

Fingers crossed, I'll finish it this year. I picked a pretty dense book to jump back in. Am looking forward to reading through this thread for recommendations!

 

[Farawyn]

I used to read all the time. I haven't since I got old eyes. Even with bifocals, I find it tiring to read big chunks.

I realized I spend a ton of time on computer/phone. Am thinking the way I read has changed. I used to love to spend hours lost in a book. Now, I get distracted after 30 minutes.

To that end, I decided to try to set aside a smaller amount of time each day to start reading again. This winter, we took a trip to the Panama Canal so I've jumped in to The Path Between the Seas - David McCullough, an account of its history.

Fingers crossed, I'll finish it this year. I picked a pretty dense book to jump back in. Am looking forward to reading through this thread for recommendations!

This is why "kids today" don't read. Their phones are attached to their hands. I would yell at them, but guilty as well.
Still. I grew up devouring books and I'm so happy this thread was popped up.
I will READ it, soup to nuts, tomorrow.

 

[Blue]

Halfway through The Art of War and a couple of Wikipedia pages through the battles and people the authors reference every now and then.

Good guidebook.

 

[seela]

Halfway through The Art of War and a couple of Wikipedia pages through the battles and people the authors reference every now and then.

Good guidebook.

I had to read The Art of War for a poli sci class way back when. I remember enjoying it a lot. Macchiavelli's The Prince was another I read for the same class and similarly enjoyed.

Very interesting stuff.

 

[Blue]

Speaking of The Art of War...

https://i.imgur.com/ZlGXADy.gifv

Sun Tzu would be proud.

 

[FurryFury]

I enjoyed that one too.

Halfway through The Art of War and a couple of Wikipedia pages through the battles and people the authors reference every now and then.

Good guidebook.

 

[FurryFury]

Hope you enjoy it and your plan to read works!

I used to read all the time. I haven't since I got old eyes. Even with bifocals, I find it tiring to read big chunks.

I realized I spend a ton of time on computer/phone. Am thinking the way I read has changed. I used to love to spend hours lost in a book. Now, I get distracted after 30 minutes.

To that end, I decided to try to set aside a smaller amount of time each day to start reading again. This winter, we took a trip to the Panama Canal so I've jumped in to The Path Between the Seas - David McCullough, an account of its history.

Fingers crossed, I'll finish it this year. I picked a pretty dense book to jump back in. Am looking forward to reading through this thread for recommendations!

 

[FurryFury]

Sounds good though I only read English. So maybe I will read it in the future when it is fully translated.

Samko Tále's Cemetery Book, not in English though.

I love this book and I've read it twice before. It's so politically incorrect and sad, but it also cracks me up every two pages.

If you're interested here's a review and here's an excerpt of the book.

It was interesting for me to read the excerpt in English and see how the translator has chosen to approach certain things. I've had to translate an excerpt of this book for a class before and it was no easy feat, but all the more engaging.

 

[FurryFury]

That book didn't work for me. Glad it did for you and so profoundly.

I've read a fair bit of LGBT books that did work for me.
Have you read George? It's a juvenile book well worth reading IMO.

The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd
never wanted it to finish
You may know it as a best seller from ... 2001. I know you have a number of references to LGBT books and to be honest, I was surprised to find the thread here in BDSM. The thing about those niche? books is that they're often about being cis and looking in on the small world of transgender and trying to make sense of it. Books like TSLoB is like me looking into the cis world and finding I'm not so different, that I feel the same as the girl in the book felt, right down to the shudders and 'heart-thumping in your chest' or the heat of someone's hand or the buzz of bees singing in your heart, and knowing that I am who I am. So LGBT books are great - I've read loads and often I associate with the characters, with their experiences and things that happen to them, but they seldom express how it is to be a woman or in this case, a girl of fourteen.
Trans women often go through a second childhood, a second puberty - we have to back-track and try to catch up those missing years. So reading this story, which is of a fourteen year old girl growing up in a dysfunctional world where nothing quite gels and where there she is confounded by unanswered questions about her past... well I suppose that resonated more with me than any number of well-written LGBT books.
One day I hope I can put all the questions behind me.
Anyways - that's enough heart-bleeding for one night!

 

[FurryFury]

I like old sci fi at times but usually only if they focus on what I like to think of as the humanistic equation and are not depressing.

I bought a few books from Ian M Banks' Culture series and am in the process of reading them. I'm now done with Consider Phlebas and Excession, currently on Use of Weapons and then I'll have to read Matter. Then I guess go and buy The Hydrogen Sonata and whatever others I've missed.

The amount of imagination and detail invested in these books is cruel in its novelistic scarcity. The entire Culture series isn't centred around anything really. There's no continuing plot from book to book (With perhaps the exception of an in-universe chronological reference or the appearance of machines known as Minds in separate books) and each one contains unique characters and elements.
Although there are some consistent traits; a society known as The Culture appears in each book and even though they're technically the main feature it would be definitively incorrect to say that 'they' are the central feature to each plot. Since the entire premise of 'they' when referring to The Culture is itself incorrect.
It's a bit weird, you'd have to read it to get it.

If anybody here is a sci fi fan I'd strongly recommend any of the books. Consider Phlebas is the first book when ordered in-universe chronologically and is likely the best starting point since it portrays The Culture in a highly sceptical light.
It's defined as a space opera but it just really isn't. There are indeed hints of space opera everywhere but Banks' has purposefully strayed far from that in all the books and, instead, from the perspectives of the characters in the books everything is portrayed in a generally extremely harsh and overtly astro-political light. There's no star-hopping golden-age happy-go-space-lucky-ness, everything is a highly complicated tale of strategy, intergalactic authoritarianism and the stunning accidental hypocrisy of even the most benevolent civilizations.
They're all very grunge, very harsh, very depressing with the odd bit of good humor thrown in, all while displaying much fantastical imaginary machinations.

 

[FurryFury]

I know. We WANT the book to be great but I've heard the illustrations are off putting and the story is just too fast too pat.

I wasn't impressed, if that's the right word. The text is too short to make a real story out of. Most of the work is visual (collage) which is why the recommendation I suppose... I can't see anyone reading this to a group. I think it's a picture book for grade-school age children to look though on their own and the "transition" is there (it's a prin... ?) for their own safety.

[Edit] It isn't a "story" about two princes getting married at all. The flow of the plot is interrupted so abruptly it's more like an open-ended question. The prince needs to be married, and so in royal fashion, princesses from all over the world are introduced to him (each culture in detail) with lots of visual things for the children to chew on. And then, literally in one page, he falls head-over-heels and marries a prince who pops up in the background for two seconds. THE END. It's completely irrational.

 

[FurryFury]

I want to try this one!

Thanks!

It's been a while since I wanted to add something here. Even favourite authors haven't been touching me. This is a charming little book I thought..about some not charming subjects, like not fitting in, and euthanasia, and finding one's own path. The Universe Versus Alex Woods, Gavin Extence.

 

[FurryFury]

Lucky you!

Just finished reading If I was your girl by Meredith Russo, which is so new it's not published yet: I was very excited to be loaned an uncorrected proof copy.
You can read the reviews online, but it's aimed at young adults/adults and follows the life of a young trans woman with the storyline broadened by flashbacks to her childhood. The author, a trans woman herself, admits she has had to invent an entirely fictional story for the sake of readability and continuity, but I can vouch that her feet are very much on the ground when it comes to both emotional and factual content.
There were times I wanted to edit the story myself ( deleting at least half the "I felt my cheeks blushing/redden/flush.." - OK we got that! ) but it is an easy page-turner as well as being informative to those who might be curious.
Due to be published in May 2016

 

[seela]

Sounds good though I only read English. So maybe I will read it in the future when it is fully translated.

It is fully translated into English, by Julia Sherwood. I just found that excerpt online. It shows pretty well the language and style of the book, and that's why I posted the link here.

 

[Farawyn]

Reading again- Fight Club, Palahniuk

Reading- Truth & Beauty, Ann Patchett

On Deck- The Book of The New Sun, Gene Wolfe

 

[desertslave]

I've been reading much more frequently, lately, since it's about the only thing I can do with one hand (and a Kindle, bless it). I've consumed several series and a few others, mostly urban-ish fantasy.

The Raven Boys, The Dream Thieves, Blue Lily Lily Blue, and The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater. (Excellent and original, IMO)

The Hum and the Shiver, Wisp of a Thing, and Long Black Curl by Alex Bledsoe (all of which reminded me of The People stories by Zenna Henderson, which I then re-read).

Mistress of the Art of Death, The Serpent's Tale, Grave Goods, and A Murderous Procession by Ariana Franklin (medieval historic forensics...somewhat improbable, but excellent writing).

The Silvered by Tanya Huff (werewolf steampunk...goofy as it sounds, it was fun!)

In the midst of all that, I lost faith with one of my favorite authors, Mercedes Lackey. I've thoroughly enjoyed many of her series' over the years, but The House of Four Winds as a dud. The writing was stiff and the pace was slooooooow; so much that I just plain gave up after about 80 pages. It could be that I was feeling my worst when I started it, but I tried to pick it up again a few days ago, and it was still 'meh' for me. Oh well!

 

[FurryFury]

Finished Mortal Heart by Robin LaFevers last night. The last in a trilogy I've enjoyed. I will miss that world greatly.

Also recently finished Shooting the Rift by Alex Stewart. I enjoyed it but wish it had focused more on the matriarchal society and not had it simply mirror the patriarchal one but really be different in goals and rules.

From a Buick 8 by Stephen King was not great for me. I don't like Stephen King generally. It was one of those "something strange" and we can't explain it ah shucks kind of things. Kind of like when sci fi is all about the whizz bang with little of the humanity that I like in a good story.

 

[Farawyn]

Finished Mortal Heart by Robin LaFevers last night. The last in a trilogy I've enjoyed. I will miss that world greatly.

Also recently finished Shooting the Rift by Alex Stewart. I enjoyed it but wish it had focused more on the matriarchal society and not had it simply mirror the patriarchal one but really be different in goals and rules.

From a Buick 8 by Stephen King was not great for me. I don't like Stephen King generally. It was one of those "something strange" and we can't explain it ah shucks kind of things. Kind of like when sci fi is all about the whizz bang with little of the humanity that I like in a good story.

I love Stephen King. I hated Buick 8.

What I love:

On Writing
It
The Stand
Rose Madder
All of his short stories, especially the novella Apt Pupil.
11/23/63
Duma Key

He has a common speak I love. He does not shy away from the grotesque, even to the point of juvenile. I can deal with that. He is the verbal masturbator when it comes to descriptive sentences, but I prefer that to dialogue- just my style.
His foreplay is great, his money shot, not so much.

 

[FurryFury]

lolz!

Love it.

I love Stephen King. I hated Buick 8.

What I love:

On Writing
It
The Stand
Rose Madder
All of his short stories, especially the novella Apt Pupil.
11/23/63
Duma Key

He has a common speak I love. He does not shy away from the grotesque, even to the point of juvenile. I can deal with that. He is the verbal masturbator when it comes to descriptive sentences, but I prefer that to dialogue- just my style.
His foreplay is great, his money shot, not so much.