Weekend Thread: Any good books?
Added 2025-03-28 17:47:15 +0000 UTCWe had some technical issues today that mean we're gonna have to finish recording the podcast early next week, but we started the episode by discussing whether we've been reading any GOOD books lately as opposed to the river of slop we wade through on this podcast and it turns out that yes, we are not deranged weirdos who only wallow in the crap we discuss here. So here's the point of the ep where we talk about the GOOD stuff we've been reading lately, and we open the floor to you to discuss or recommend anything else you have been reading in the comments.
Comments
Oh my gosh, my brothers had ALL of those DL books.
Jean Ping
2025-05-14 16:08:33 +0000 UTCI'm revisiting the *much* beloved "Dragonlance" fantasy universe, which is chiefly focused on a world called "Krynn." I've both *much* to reread, & much *more* to read for the first time, even if I only finished extending my reading of the core narrative through to the end of the final decades of "DL's" vast fictional history...I actually WILL be reading many side works, populating Krynn's prehistory plus geographical & historical gaps, so I'll be quite occupied, quite a while! (I was spurred on to this endeavour by a recent "Humble Bundle" deal of around 25 DL books, mostly core & good choices, mostly as ebooks, for around 25 Australian dollars.) From the 80's & still continuing today, the rather unique, quasi-group project setting DL grew to include more than 200 novels / short story anthologies, plus an outstanding tower of fantastic Dungeons & Dragons (etc) game products & merch. There were even (admittedly, generally so-so) 80's / 90's computer / console games, a musical & an obscure animated film : the latter an odd mix, in some ways poor but overall great, shrewdly casting Kiefer Sutherland & his iconic raspy voice as the sinisterly-hissing hit wizard character of "Raistlin." (Note : this film deserves Rifftrax's attention!) Do read the best selected "cuts" of DL if you dig... ...works come to be remembered as *genuine peak classics* of the genre, regardless of era --- literal must-reads for the discerning devourer of fantasy; ...*Dungeons & Dragons-ish* atmosphere & settings; -&/or- ...books with *memorably lovable / mournable characters, warmth - & (a rare thing) genuinely smile-inducing humour!* (Another unusual reason to read DL is its treatment of Serious Life Questions & Religospirituality, including Suffering / Death (& how these Massively Change People.) Without endorsing his Mormonism in any way, I highlight & respect the nobility perhaps present in main DL co-author Tracy Hickman's open depiction & consideration of religospirituality, & exploring / responding to Serious Life Questions crying out for Answers / Resolution, as things of sobre weight & value, imperative for each one of us to resolve in Our Real World, before we die; I appreciate Hickman's apparent attempt to explore & treat in depth not only the (sometimes terribly fraught) relations between mortal beings as characters, but also such fraught relations between these same mortal beings & the genuinely Divine, with maturity & depth worthy of imitation - provided we hew to The True.) The above are all great reasons to start literarily adventuring in Krynn; but note the Warning Sign besides the Path : just avoid the substandard filler that eventually accreted around DL's bright initial Seed of Vision! (Sadly, to be fair, mediocrity's hardly rare in fantasy in general - even in hefty "bestseller" works by "bestselling" authors, with names in foil "lights." This's also even true sometimes in mainstream authors / works of puzzling popularity, as we are re-experiencing inching our way through our podcast / group's current novel. ...But to return to fantasy, having read / translated / studied writings more broadly, I agree with the "How To Write Fantasy Novels" book which I once discovered at a library, that, with unusually bold honesty potentially working against its own interest, declared *60%* of fantasy writing is rubbish.) In line with advice from salient others recorded online, I can help guide you through The DL Maze, should you wish to thread it for its Treasures. I recommend reading, in this order: (1) the Chronicles trilogy (the first & best DL works written); (2) the Legends trilogy (not as good, but focusing on the arresting antihero Raistlin, debatably DL's fan-favourite character, & his relationship with his opposite-reflection twin brother Caramon, the likeable warrior; the Legends also end movingly for various interesting characters, & are "historically" significant for the universe of DL.) The trilogies above are by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman, really the "chief architects" of DL, more so when it comes to the non-game product writing. Anything DL by either author's generally "gold" or "silver", & so, to varying degrees, I can also recommend reading, chiefly, the Lost Chronicles trilogy; the Raistlin-centric "Dragons of the Hourglass Mage"; the "Second Generation". then "Dragons of Summer Flame." The Raistlin-Caramon duology of "The Soulforge" & "Brothers In Arms" is also fairly good & interesting. As for my own Path, I'm not going to read especially side titles particularly panned by multiple reviewers. 200+ books is a lot / expensive to pac-man through --- & many of these writings are no longer published or purchaseable, even as ebooks! But the best of DL, with its epically unfurling tapestry of relational & spiritual deeps, will make you warmly laugh, & sympathetically cry. And you will go on in life carrying the remembrance of these moments with you. Certain actions & events from the pages & art of "Classic DL" --- True Heroism & Noble Sacrifice, Villains & Villainy --- will haunt you.
Luke Yates
2025-05-14 09:59:36 +0000 UTCUp 'n' atom, Reader!
Luke Yates
2025-05-14 03:48:28 +0000 UTCFor enjoyers of cozy mystery that's actually fun and readable - Death at the Playhouses by Stuart Douglas. The second of the Lowe and Le Breton mysteries (the first being Death at the Dress Rehearsal). Imagine Arthur Lowe and John Le Mesurier from Dad's Army solving crimes between filming.
Kara Dennison
2025-04-13 00:15:19 +0000 UTCNow that I’ve finally gotten my glasses prescription fixed so that I can freaking SEE (10/10 would recommend), I want to finish David McCullough’s “The Pioneers,” which is about the European settlement of my neck of the woods. I’ve been trying to read “Kristen Lavransdatter” for ages, but it is one long book. I may default to either “1776” or “The Right Stuff” for my patriotic period (Memorial Day though July 4).
Doodle
2025-04-01 19:19:06 +0000 UTCI love Frank online but have never read his books. Will have to check them out.
Doodle
2025-04-01 19:10:42 +0000 UTCI just read The Splendid & the Vile last summer!
LeviSamJuno
2025-03-31 16:17:42 +0000 UTCI loved 1Q84 but the sex scenes are worthy of the 372 treatment
Ben De Bono
2025-03-31 04:53:33 +0000 UTCI’ve been re-reading the Murderbot Diaries (in preparation of the upcoming Apple TV series), I recommend it.
Lucas A
2025-03-30 19:33:56 +0000 UTCSo odd that you mentioned Murakami. I was going to recommend him on this thread. I only discovered him within the last year by reading the “Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.” After reading that book, I decided to read “1Q84” and then “Kafka on the Shore”next.. I then decided to read every book of his in order of publication. I am on book 10 of his, and every single book has an element of disturbing sexual interaction. Although the sexual element tends to creep me out, (there is a lot that is rather off-putting about the sex parts of his stories), I continue to read him because his stories are so amazingly weird and the actual writing is fabulous.
Laura Leighton
2025-03-30 15:26:38 +0000 UTCI recently read the whole Devoured Worlds trilogy by Megan E O’Keefe, that was a fun ride if you like SF generally and the whole “brain downloaded into new body” backdrop. After that I’m back to my re-read of the Wheel of Time series, continuing at book 9, Winter’s Heart.
Balaji S
2025-03-30 05:27:46 +0000 UTCFeel like the movies got a lot worse after Zeppo left. Wasn't there a fifth Marx brother before the movies too?
Cameron S
2025-03-29 20:29:24 +0000 UTCReading the Life of Christ by Fulton Sheen for Lent. Pretty good so far
Cameron S
2025-03-29 20:13:42 +0000 UTCThe Anatomy of the Nuremberg Trials by Telford Taylor
Landen
2025-03-29 18:45:23 +0000 UTCGood luck! In my library is "Against The Day" which I have started twelve or so times to the same effect each time--it gets set aside.
Paco
2025-03-29 15:00:36 +0000 UTCThe last literary novel I read was "The Thousand Autumns of Jacob DeZoet" by David Mitchell (not the comedian). He wrote "Cloud Atlas" which you may have heard of. Mitchell is one of the best I have come across at describing a scene so you can picture it in your mind's eye in Technicolor. Most of his novels dip into a meta-narrative he established early on which is supernatural and super-fascinating, especially if you are a "many universes" adherent.
Paco
2025-03-29 14:56:25 +0000 UTCI've been engaged in a year-long read of Diana Wynne Jones' complete works in chronological order, and have hit the mid-90s, so read Dark Lord of Derkholm -- both excellent and funny. Am slowly going through Lucretius' Nature of Things, which is super interesting!
Jean Ping
2025-03-29 05:45:39 +0000 UTCI've been thinking about reading that -- enjoyed Tress of the Emerald Sea a while back. But there are so many books...
Jean Ping
2025-03-29 05:42:09 +0000 UTCI just made it through part 1 of Gravity's Rainbow (my second attempt). Hoping to actually finish it this time.
John Gibson
2025-03-29 04:11:21 +0000 UTCI read mostly horror with some other genre’s thrown in occasionally. I just finished Incidents around the House by Josh Malerman (reviews thought it was better than I did) & I started When the Moon Hits your Eye by John Scalzi right after. I typically have 8-10 books going at once that I move between
Lisa Kruse
2025-03-28 22:46:33 +0000 UTCEvery once in a while he’s even briefly literary.
Marc “Darc Reader”
2025-03-28 21:46:11 +0000 UTCReading my way through Anthony Powell’s Dance to the Music of Time. On the fifth volume now. Very understated English humor and a great “slice of life.” Highly recommend it, even though I’m not done with the series yet.
Jacob
2025-03-28 21:36:44 +0000 UTCI'm about half way through King's "Firestarter" (I read it in Norwegian, because I am currently learning the language, so I need to consume norwegian media). King might not write "excellent literature" but it's a billion times better than any of the books we have read on the podcast. Well, except for Eye of Argon, maybe.
Jan
2025-03-28 21:15:09 +0000 UTCJack Handey's newest book: My Funny Cowboy Dance. I'm sure those here would love it. His 'deep thoughts' are the kind of humor that's hard to find anywhere else, and his short pieces are superb!
Bart Hill
2025-03-28 20:15:22 +0000 UTCThe Idiot is one of my favourite books of all time, so if you want more FD and have a handle on the names already, I really recommend that.
Amanda Martyn
2025-03-28 20:13:19 +0000 UTCI have read “ The Stranger Times” by C. K. McDonnell, “ Dungeon Crawler Carl” by Matt Dinniman and “Monkey a novel” by Dave Chadwick. They all good and funny books.
Jenny Erdahl
2025-03-28 19:58:00 +0000 UTCRazorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby is incredible. I tore through it in a couple of days.
KpantsVP (not the Vice President)
2025-03-28 19:51:57 +0000 UTCI’m reading the Japanese Folklore Book by Thersa Matsuura. It’s fun, easy, and breezy. Also, No Pasaran by Matt Christman.
J__
2025-03-28 19:20:28 +0000 UTC"How to Be a Hermit or a Bachelor Keeps House" by Will Cuppy. Recommended to any Wodehouse fan. In fact, Wodehouse is said to have called this one of his favorites that he read several times a year. And for a little bit of light reading -- "A Guide Book of Half Cents and Large Cents" by David Bowers.
Donald Johansson
2025-03-28 19:18:58 +0000 UTCI very much believe this, and it is impossible for me to speculate which one passage it might be -CL
372 Pages We'll Never Get Back
2025-03-28 19:14:12 +0000 UTCNo, nothing has changed. We have offered a video tier for a while now that we post the whole video to. We have also pulled short excerpts for social media videos. The regular audio feed has not gone anywhere, we just weren't able to finish today's episode so we won't be able to post it until early next week
372 Pages We'll Never Get Back
2025-03-28 19:13:18 +0000 UTCMy 11 year old son and I have started reading through the rest of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series. We both love the first book but never read the sequels. I'm currently reading The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. My son finished it last week and really liked it. He just started in on Life, The Universe, and Everything.
Don Whipkey
2025-03-28 19:08:37 +0000 UTCI may have to try one of his novels. Read his Paperbacks From Hell a couple years ago.
Elizabeth
2025-03-28 19:08:05 +0000 UTCWindswept and Interesting, the autobiography of comedian, actor, etc, Billy Connolly. I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy.
Brian R
2025-03-28 19:05:14 +0000 UTCI have an irrational and very personal dislike of Cicero from reading his letters in college. But that actually makes me MORE interested in picking up that trilogy.
Elizabeth
2025-03-28 19:04:58 +0000 UTCI read his previous book, 'Valiant Ambition' years ago so it would be great to read the follow-up. Thank you for bringing it up!
Ian
2025-03-28 19:04:05 +0000 UTCI was obsessed with Lonesome Dove in middle school! Granted, I probably shouldn’t have been reading Lonesome Dove in middle school, but it was the 90s.
Elizabeth
2025-03-28 19:02:33 +0000 UTCSome light reading for breaks a work; just read over the past 2 weeks, Kller in Drag and Death of a Transvestite by Ed Wood
David Leppink
2025-03-28 18:57:36 +0000 UTCJust finished the Hobbit and LOTR trilogy last week. I do those every couple of years. Trying to find something now that's a quicker read, but will still hold my attention.
Jason Hammack
2025-03-28 18:50:57 +0000 UTCIs the show now fully videos and you need that tier to view them? For some reason my feed only shows short videos if these extras (for example, this episode says 52 min and the vid is 4 min). I dont see an audio option for the extras. I fully assume I'm doing something wrong, lol.
Rachel Thunder
2025-03-28 18:49:46 +0000 UTCJust finished Night Prayers By Santiago Gamboa. A hearty, Le Carre-esq slow-burn mystery.
Owen McClintic
2025-03-28 18:48:21 +0000 UTCI’ve read a book that I’d almost call a reverse cozy mystery. It’s called Murder Your Employer. Humorous and a tale of revenge. Not very literary, but one of my favorites.
Art Vandelay
2025-03-28 18:48:07 +0000 UTCI recently finished The Panzer Killers by Daniel Bolger. About Gen Maurice Rose and the 3rd Armored Division in WWII. I read a lot of WWII nonfiction and I definitely recommend this one. I’m currently reading The First and The Last by Adolf Galland. It’s an interesting view of the Luftwaffe in WWII.
Art Vandelay
2025-03-28 18:45:18 +0000 UTCI tend to juggle a few books at a time. Recently I finished The Poison Squad by Deborah Blum (nonfiction about the progress of food safety in the US) and The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett (fantasy and hilarious as all his books are)
Claire P
2025-03-28 18:37:28 +0000 UTCI am currently reading "Zeppo: The Reluctant Marx Brother" by Robert S. Bader. As a long-time fan of the Marxes, I was always curious what happened to Zeppo. As it turns out, while he was the most bland brother on the screen, he was one of the most fascinating in real life. Naturally I would recommend this book more to Mike than to Conor.
John G
2025-03-28 18:29:04 +0000 UTCAnthony Horowitz’s Magpie murder series is excellent and has an equally good shoe on Masterpiece
Evan Eckart
2025-03-28 18:20:32 +0000 UTCI'm also turning into a multiple books at once reader, for me it really helps with reading non-fiction. Recently I got weirdly interested in the classic Roman politician Marcus Tullius Cicero. So I read Robert Harris' Cicero Trilogy which is a novelisation of the life and times of Cicero in the form of a paperback political thriller. And then I started reading actual Cicero's Tusculan Disputations which I'm currently halfway done with. As I was picking up my copy of Ugly Love from the library I also got Eric Hobsbawm's Time of Revolution: Europe 1789-1848 because this is the history book that popularised "the Long 19th Century" as a concept and I've also been weirdly interested in that period for years now. I've had to take less breaks reading that than Ugly Love btw.
Trys
2025-03-28 18:18:55 +0000 UTCI've been reading Chesterton's Father Brown series. The fact that each chapter is a single short story has made them an enjoyable bedtime read. But my new favorite discovery is Frank Fleming's books. Very funny characters and interesting plots. Highly recommend!
Wilwarindi
2025-03-28 18:18:25 +0000 UTCI just read the calculating stars kind of an alt history sci fi novel in a similar style as For All Mankind. I thought it was very good
Jeremiah Campbell
2025-03-28 18:18:19 +0000 UTCI'm about 20% of the way through Lonesome Dove. Pretty good stuff!
Jason Zelbo
2025-03-28 18:17:17 +0000 UTCI'm currently reading the Robert Bloch short story collection The Opener of the Way. Valancourt Books just reprinted it a year ago, and I'm super excited because it's been out of print forever
Joshua Begley
2025-03-28 18:14:45 +0000 UTCI just finished reading Crime and Punishment, which is surprisingly easy to read and quite enjoyable. Also read Garrison Keillor's The Lake Wobegon Virus, which was cozy and hit the spot
Jeffrey Blizzard
2025-03-28 18:13:50 +0000 UTCI just finished Little Dancer Aged Fourteen by Camille Laurens, which is about the sculpture, the child who posed for Degas, and the (incredibly disturbing) world it all happened in. I also just finished rereading a bunch of Tana French mysteries. Well, not her last three, because I liked them less.
Elizabeth
2025-03-28 18:10:52 +0000 UTCThat's a lot o' murderin'
Marc “Darc Reader”
2025-03-28 18:10:43 +0000 UTCFinished A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms from GRRM. Great intimate story telling. It was so funny, too, because the illustrations of “Egg” in the book make him look like an escaped Muggle. Which of course brings us back to here…
Jason Burris
2025-03-28 18:07:31 +0000 UTCRecently finished Grady Hendrix's latest: Witchcraft for Wayward Girls. It's not my favourite of his (that would be We Sold Our Souls) but it's plenty powerful and heartfelt. It has what must be the best childbirth scenes I've ever read.
Marc “Darc Reader”
2025-03-28 18:06:18 +0000 UTCI enjoyed Brandon Sanderson's Sunlit Man recently. it wasn't amazing or anything but a solid 4/5 star book. It was paced very well and had some really interesting sci-fi elements i've never seen anywhere else.
Magister Sieran
2025-03-28 18:05:40 +0000 UTCAfter seeing everyone talk about how terrible Netflix's The Electric State was compared to the book, I decided to give the book a shot and I thought it was really good. Did not watch the Mr. Peanut: Resistance Fighter movie though. I tried to read Le Morte D'Arthur because I read The Once And Future King last year, but couldn't sync with the prose. I'll give it another shot eventually.
Harris
2025-03-28 18:04:39 +0000 UTCJust looked up 1Q84, 'Literary Review nominated one excerpt for its annual Bad Sex in Fiction award.'
Harrison
2025-03-28 18:04:30 +0000 UTCIt's got something for everyone!
Marc “Darc Reader”
2025-03-28 18:04:02 +0000 UTCOne of my faves of his (I've read most of them), enjoy!
Marc “Darc Reader”
2025-03-28 18:03:40 +0000 UTCI'm reading some of Gene Wolfe's short fiction, Seabury Quinn's Jules de Grandin stories (pulp horror from the '30's), and Judas Unchained, a space opera doorstopper by Peter F. Hamilton.
Jeffrey Leonard Greek
2025-03-28 18:01:56 +0000 UTCI've started my first Steven King book. It's called the Eye of the Dragon. And while it's pretty generic genre material, his ability to write comes through. I would hold it in contrast to R.A. Salvatore. There's just some depth to King's writing. I've also been reading a lot of Agatha Christie.
Hayden Olson
2025-03-28 18:00:56 +0000 UTCDungeon Crawler Carl series
Sara Evans
2025-03-28 18:00:18 +0000 UTCSome of my recent reads: -"Everyone in My Family has Killed Someone", "Everyone on this Train is a Suspect", and "Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret" by Benjamin Stevenson - Really great whodunnits with the rules outlined upfront so it doesn't feel like a cheap reveal. -"Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide" - Vol. 1 by Rupert Holmes - Very tongue-in-cheek mystery in where three ordinary people are trained in murder on a luxurious hidden estate, then sent out into the world to carry out their “deletion” assignments. -"I'm Starting to Worry about this Black Box of Doom" by Jason Pargin - A road trip that satirizes our current social media/Reddit society - "How to Sell a Haunted House" by Grady Hendrix - a comedy horror novel. His other works are pretty good, too.
Josh Mueller
2025-03-28 17:58:18 +0000 UTCI just started reading Nathaniel Philbrick's 'In the Hurricane's Eye'. So far it's about the French Navy and how they helped us during the Revolutionary War by diverting English ships to the Caribbean. Which I did not know even though my entire sophomore year US History was spent during colonialism, we just barely scratched Revolutionary by years end (my teacher was not interested in going past that time.) Even though I liked learning history, I don't read a lot of non-fiction historical as my mind likes to wander but his stuff is very easy to follow. I've read/listened to 'In the Heart of the Sea' multiple times and enjoyed telling people about what I've learned. It was around the time of the movie's release so it was on topic.
Harrison
2025-03-28 17:58:15 +0000 UTCThe most interesting book I've read so far this year is Trail of the Lost, about the search for several missing hikers on the Pacific Crest Trail.
Anna Werner
2025-03-28 17:56:32 +0000 UTC(I should have said go pre-order it -- I forgot I read an ARC. :D )
Gina Dalfonzo
2025-03-28 17:56:22 +0000 UTCOkay, bear with me here: A Tale of Two Cities. Fantasy version. With fairies. It's awesome. ATOTC is all my all-time favorite book (aside from the Bible), so if I loved this, that tells you how beautifully done it was. "A Far Better Thing" by H. G. Parry. Go get it.
Gina Dalfonzo
2025-03-28 17:55:33 +0000 UTCAm I the only one who heard in this post the line from the movie Truth or Dare, "Oh Mikey, why don't you read some GOOD books?" I've been trying recently to get to those classic blindspot books that I have missed. Right now it's the Iliad--admittedly not funny (although the gods' constantly complaining about each other can be pretty humorous), but it's staggering to realize that over two thousand years ago, writers could viscerally evoke the horrors of war while terrible writers today can't describe a character's hair without resorting to cliche.
Jason Groce
2025-03-28 17:55:15 +0000 UTCI read “She Danced with Lightning” by Marc Palmieri, a memoir about his daughter’s struggle with epilepsy. Highly recommend!
Paige Hackett
2025-03-28 17:51:49 +0000 UTC
