Bibliophile Thread

robbiestoupe
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Postby robbiestoupe » Fri Sep 28, 2018 2:22 pm

Source of the post Still waiting on the Gone World to arrive
I decided to put a hold on this from my library hearing all the reviews in here. I placed the hold on August 17th and still haven't received it.
I did the same with my Library and it came in, but they forgot to call me, so when I stopped in there for something else and inquired about it, they said they had to send it back because I didn't pick it up in time and got to pay a $2 fee for not getting it...
I've had that happen to me before. Not the $2 fee, but them forgetting to call/email me. I do my books audio-style, and the only option for this cover is OverDrive. I've never waited this long for CDs before.

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Postby eddy » Tue Oct 02, 2018 7:50 am

The Book of M by Peng Shepherd

I have not read this, but it's been on my list and sounds like if you liked Station Eleven, this may be for you. On sale for $1.99 for kindle today

https://www.amazon.com/Book-M-Novel-Pen ... 815&sr=8-1

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Postby shafnutz05 » Tue Oct 02, 2018 1:13 pm

Is Station Eleven in a series or a standalone?

eddy
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Postby eddy » Tue Oct 02, 2018 1:24 pm

from my understanding there is another book coming, but it's not a direct sequel. I think just another story in that world or beforehand with different characters

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Postby shafnutz05 » Tue Oct 02, 2018 1:30 pm

I've been slacking on my fiction reading lately, that's exactly the kind of book I'm craving. I will check out his catalog. Are his other books good too?

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Postby dodint » Tue Oct 02, 2018 1:33 pm

Anyone enjoy James Agee? I'm reading A Death in the Family and it's good; but he writes in run-on paragraphs that fill three or four Kindle 'pages' and it's a little tougher to get through. This is the first time I've had this issue with Kindle and I've been using one for about 8 years. He's like Hawthorne but with paragraphs.

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Postby eddy » Tue Oct 02, 2018 1:33 pm

Emily St. John Mandel is a woman. (I've never ready any of her other books).

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Postby shafnutz05 » Tue Oct 02, 2018 1:37 pm

Emily St. John Mandel is a woman. (I've never ready any of her other books).
Well now I feel like an ass. I'll check her out.

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Postby eddy » Tue Oct 02, 2018 1:39 pm

Swan Song by Robert McCammon keeps popping up on my list. I've read one of his others which was excellent. @shafnutz05 , this may scratch that itch too?

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/115 ... earch=true

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Postby eddy » Tue Oct 02, 2018 1:40 pm

I liked Station Eleven, but it wasn't my favorite in that genre

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Postby shafnutz05 » Tue Oct 02, 2018 2:24 pm

Swan Song by Robert McCammon keeps popping up on my list. I've read one of his others which was excellent. @shafnutz05 , this may scratch that itch too?

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/115 ... earch=true
I've read this! It is indeed excellent.

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Postby LeopardLetang » Wed Oct 03, 2018 2:57 pm

Anyone enjoy James Agee? I'm reading A Death in the Family and it's good; but he writes in run-on paragraphs that fill three or four Kindle 'pages' and it's a little tougher to get through. This is the first time I've had this issue with Kindle and I've been using one for about 8 years. He's like Hawthorne but with paragraphs.
i just bought it recently in a lot from half priced books. i usually read the first few pages of the books i buy and if i'm remembering right his first page and a half felt like one long sentence. Glad to hear it's good though - i'm looking forward to it.

Just finished my first murakami (wild sheep chase). it started like a rocket and i was completely enamored but it really lost steam and ended up being just really good. it felt a little empty of meaning (at least that i could recognize). the lack of stakes was clear which took away from the adventure and it didn't take me anywhere spritually. and it broached an interesting subject about taking power in japan and about 'civilizing' the rural areas but it just breezed past it all too whimsically for me to rank it amongst my favorites. not to take away from the fact that the whimsiness was one of its best features.

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Postby LeopardLetang » Wed Oct 03, 2018 3:00 pm

I liked Station Eleven, but it wasn't my favorite in that genre
Glad to hear another book is coming in that world. She's one author i've occasionally checked on to see if a new book is out

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Postby shafnutz05 » Thu Oct 04, 2018 7:11 pm

So I'm reading The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch and it is indeed as good as advertised ('Inception meets True Detective'). eddysnake, I think this is right up your alley.
Includes a quote from Blake Crouch on the cover? I'm in@eddysnake


Went to our very busy library (Chester County Library) on the way home and was shocked to see this in the stacks. Can't wait to dig in tonight.

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Postby robbiestoupe » Fri Oct 05, 2018 8:20 am

So I'm reading The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch and it is indeed as good as advertised ('Inception meets True Detective'). eddysnake, I think this is right up your alley.
Includes a quote from Blake Crouch on the cover? I'm in@eddysnake


Went to our very busy library (Chester County Library) on the way home and was shocked to see this in the stacks. Can't wait to dig in tonight.
I'm currently #2 in line on hold for the audiobook. I'm hoping the timing works out that the book is available as soon as I finish my current book

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Postby dodint » Tue Oct 09, 2018 9:56 am

I know I'm 30+ years behind here but I've decided to start reading Tom Clancy, specifically the Jack Ryan series. Started at the beginning with The Hunt For Red October.

It's good enough so far. Engaging, but the characters are pretty flat. I assume that gets better over the decades, maybe not.

My question is should I read through a certain number of the Jack Ryan books before watching the Jim Halpert Amazon series? Do they intertwine at all or is the TV show just a re imagining of the whole thing? Obviously the timelines and character stuff doesn't line up; for the show did they just take Jack Ryan and reboot him in a modern context?

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Postby robbiestoupe » Tue Oct 09, 2018 12:55 pm

Source of the post It's good enough so far. Engaging, but the characters are pretty flat. I assume that gets better over the decades, maybe not.
Character development isn't typically the point of Clancy novels imo. Jack Ryan and John Clark are really the only two characters that you'll get attached to, maybe Chavez a little bit. Other than that, it's all plot driven. Clancy is very good at giving you all the painstaking details of the story, as well as interweaving subplots into one major plot.

I'm thinking in the next few months I'll reread the series for a third time.

Can't say much about the Amazon series as I haven't seen it yet. But from what I've read it doesn't really line up with the books. Jack Ryan seems to be more of a shoot em up, superhero action figure than he is the CIA analyst in the books.

As an FYI, Without Remorse is chronologically before HFRO. Jack Ryan is not in the book, but I highly recommend reading it.

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Postby dodint » Tue Oct 09, 2018 2:09 pm

I suppose given how much Clancy was praised for the technical stuff I assumed the characters would have some depth as well. I was basically hoping/expecting for the military version of Michael Chrichton.

Thanks for the response!

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Postby DigitalGypsy66 » Wed Oct 10, 2018 10:04 am

The books and series have little in common other than a few character names, to be honest. The films are obviously closer to the books they were based on, but the new show is set today and the nemesis is an Islamic terrorist.

My favorite of the early Tom Clancy books was Red Storm Rising, which he co-wrote with Larry Bond. It isn't a Jack Ryan book, but a stand alone book about World War III, USSR vs. NATO. I enjoyed it back in the day a lot. Bond's other books back then were similar, and I enjoyed them as well...but it's been 25+ years since I read them, so I'm not sure they aged well. Well, the USSR didn't age well lol.

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Postby shafnutz05 » Wed Oct 10, 2018 12:27 pm

It should be mentioned that Mark Greaney, who has written several of the books after Clancy's death, has done a fine job IMO.

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Postby shafnutz05 » Mon Oct 22, 2018 2:10 pm

Source of the post Still waiting on the Gone World to arrive
I decided to put a hold on this from my library hearing all the reviews in here. I placed the hold on August 17th and still haven't received it.
I did the same with my Library and it came in, but they forgot to call me, so when I stopped in there for something else and inquired about it, they said they had to send it back because I didn't pick it up in time and got to pay a $2 fee for not getting it...
Finished this book last week. It was excellent...just the kind of plot I was looking for, and the main protagonist is great. It started to get a bit convoluted in the last third of the book, and just a touch difficult to follow, but "Interstellar meets True Detective" is a good way to describe it.

robbiestoupe
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Postby robbiestoupe » Mon Oct 22, 2018 2:47 pm

Source of the post Still waiting on the Gone World to arrive
I decided to put a hold on this from my library hearing all the reviews in here. I placed the hold on August 17th and still haven't received it.
I did the same with my Library and it came in, but they forgot to call me, so when I stopped in there for something else and inquired about it, they said they had to send it back because I didn't pick it up in time and got to pay a $2 fee for not getting it...
Finished this book last week. It was excellent...just the kind of plot I was looking for, and the main protagonist is great. It started to get a bit convoluted in the last third of the book, and just a touch difficult to follow, but "Interstellar meets True Detective" is a good way to describe it.
I'll probably finish today or tomorrow. Agree on your summary. A few times I thought to myself, "Ah, that's how it's going to unfold," and every time I was wrong. It's easy to get lost when time travel is involved.

If you haven't read Dark Matter by Blake Crouch, it has a similar multiverse plot to it but a little easier to follow.

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Postby eddy » Mon Oct 22, 2018 2:59 pm

Continuing the theme of travel, this time in space, John scalzis 2nd book in the series the consuming fire is just as great as the first one (the collapsing empire). If you want a fun political read that deals with travel across different systems and what happens when that flow closes off travel between the planets and the different governments/religions scrambling to rule what's left, this is the series for you.

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Postby dodint » Wed Oct 31, 2018 10:06 am

I'm a sucker for anything Ford county related, so when I saw that Grisham was releasing a new novel in that setting I preordered it a few months ago. It dropped last week and I've been reading it, The Reckoning. It's a really slow novel, even for him. A good bit of it is, somehow, about the Bataan Death March, Japanese POW camps, and the Philippine guerrilla war. I recommend it to anyone that might care about that era of military history as the narrative is pretty emotionally engaging.

The central conflict of the book is barely acknowledged and I'm 60% of the way through it. Again, slow burn.

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Postby dodint » Fri Nov 02, 2018 10:29 am

re: The Reckoning

Really slow burn, like I said. It didn't scratch the Ford County itch the way I would've liked. But, I read the last chapter through tears so I consider it a worthwhile read.

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