Read any good books lately? Rate them here

[Little lunch]

Just finished reading The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood.
As always, very easy to read. This could almost be set Pre-Oryx and Crake in the same world, but it's not a prequel like The Year of the Flood.
I think she's still got it, although my ex, who lent me the book, thinks she's had her day.
Time will tell. :-)

[Ravenshire]

I re-read the "Academy" series by Jack McDevitt. Nothing world shattering or ground breaking, just solidly good stories in a believable sci-fi setting. I've not yet found a book by McDevitt that I didn't like.

Now reading the "Witcher" series by Andrzej Sapkowski. If you've played any of the Witcher games, you know what the settings and themes are going to be like. Usually I don't like books based on games because they wind up being formulaic tripe for the most part. In this instance, the games are based on the books and it's the games that have to conform to the settings. Dark fantasy describes them best. Something Andrzej Sapkowski has done is to publish his anthologies as the first two books in the series. This has a couple huge advantages. First, you get to try several stories before diving into a 300+ page commitment. Second, you don't get blind sided by a new character or situation in book three that gets introduces in the second short story that's published in an anthology as book nine. While the risk of spoilers coming up in the anthologies is real, I think the benefits outweigh the possibility. So far, they've been quite enjoyable, if (and likely because they are) a bit different from the usual fantasy fare.

[Rev. Rye]

Black Boy by Richard Wright. 9/10.

Is it strange that a midwestern white boy born in 1989 relates this much to the dysfunctional childhood of a black boy from Mississippi born 80 years prior?

[Aegon]

I've heard great things about the film "No Country for Old Men," so I decided to read the source material. His writing style confused me a little in the beginning (mostly the lack of quotes when characters spoke). But it was very good and I liked what the story had to say. Though I wish McCarthy had

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actually written Moss' death. I didn't like that the character who I had been following since the beginning was killed "off screen". But I'm sure there was a reason behind it. Also a little anticlimatic to have Moss killed by no-name Mexicans when the book was hyping up a confrontation between Moss and Chigurh.

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[Ravenshire]

I've heard great things about the film "No Country for Old Men," so I decided to read the source material. His writing style confused me a little in the beginning (mostly the lack of quotes when characters spoke). But it was very good and I liked what the story had to say. Though I wish McCarthy had

---

actually written Moss' death. I didn't like that the character who I had been following since the beginning was killed "off screen". But I'm sure there was a reason behind it. Also a little anticlimatic to have Moss killed by no-name Mexicans when the book was hyping up a confrontation between Moss and Chigurh.

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Now I'm going to have to read that one again. I remember reading it, and remember that it was good, but I'll be damned if I can remember any details about the book.

[Rev. Rye]

I've heard great things about the film "No Country for Old Men," so I decided to read the source material. His writing style confused me a little in the beginning (mostly the lack of quotes when characters spoke). But it was very good and I liked what the story had to say. Though I wish McCarthy had

---

actually written Moss' death. I didn't like that the character who I had been following since the beginning was killed "off screen". But I'm sure there was a reason behind it. Also a little anticlimatic to have Moss killed by no-name Mexicans when the book was hyping up a confrontation between Moss and Chigurh.

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Maybe it's because, on some level, Moss sees himself as some action hero, and, while he certainly does pretty well in the part,

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it turns out life doesn't work out the way we like to think it does. Good doesn't always triumph over evil (indeed, the opposite may be more likely), and the big showdown you may be waiting for may never even happen. See Friedrich Durrenmatt's "The Pledge" (made into a quite good film starring Jack Nicholson) for more information. A police officer is sure he's found the true identity of a child rapist/killer that his coworkers missed, and he even sets up the perfect trap for him. But he never comes, and it turns out it's because he died in a car crash on the way there.

Sometimes, an anticlimax like that is not only entirely intentional, but the whole point.

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[Ravenshire]

I finished the Witcher series on Friday. The last of the 7 books was a bit of a downer, but overall a very enjoyable series. I would certainly recommend to straight up might and magic type fantasy fans.

What to read next.... ?

[Shai Hulud]

Two recently.

Case for Christ (a friend convinced me we should read it together; possibly the only book I've literally thrown against a wall). 0.5 out of 5 stars. As a friend is fond of saying "Lying for Jesus is still lying."

American War by Omar El Akkad. A page turner with a well fleshed out future America where things like suicide bombings aren't uncommon and there's a 'civil war' going on. We watch as a girl goes from innocent and young to hardened terrorist following a refugee camp massacre, and how she impacts the history of both the nation and the world. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

[Silver]

Case for Christ (a friend convinced me we should read it together; possibly the only book I've literally thrown against a wall).  0.5 out of 5 stars.  As a friend is fond of saying "Lying for Jesus is still lying."

You're Catholic and you didn't like a book about Jesus?

[The Valkyrie]

I've recently read the Succubus series by Richelle Mead.

While I generally don't like books written ion the first person, just a personal dislike of mine, these are quite fun, well written, and hard to put down. 8.5 out of 10 on my Giveafuckometer.