Fifth Avenue Forum

The Lincoln Highway was a really great read, highly recommend.

Read this the other day. I appreciate the recommendation. It's not something I would have found on my own.

It was a page-turner, and it kept me going into the wee hours for a few nights.
That said, I really hated the antagonist. He's perfectly written because we all know someone like that in real life and they're constantly being rewarded for making the worst possible choices. I was constantly annoyed throughout the book because of his behavior and the measured response, by everyone, towards it. That's probably the mark of good writing so props to the author.

I didn't like the way the dialogue was written. Without using paragraph offsets or even quotation marks it comes across as a stream of consciousness and could be a chore to follow conversations. At times it came across as a bit too cute.
The writing mechanism of each chapter being told by a different character led to an awful lot of retelling and backtracking. I'm not sure but I think if you picked one of the main characters and read it all the way through using just their chapters you can probably still follow the plot the whole way through, at least from their perspective. The only other book I can think of like this, of all things, was First Blood by David Morrell (Rambo).

Glad I read it but if I had bought it in paperback it would go straight to the donation bin.

I definitely see your point on the antagonist, but I thought it worked out in the end and chuckled a good bit at his and woollys mini adventures. For whatever reason, I feel like words flow off the page better for me when written with minimal punctuation, specifically quotations. Loved first blood!

Has anybody read Project Hail Mary?

@LITT posted a positive review a few days ago

I really enjoyed it. The ending was a bit lame but it kept me interested all the way

That was an incredibly enjoyable audio book. I agree on the ending, though I'm not sure any ending would've been completely satisfying. Also, I can't see the Ryan Gosling film (if it happens) being all that great but we'll see.

i feel like they built up the revenge angle with stratt so much that i was bummed to not get that

Hey I just got Vineland from the library, hope it's good!

Just finished The House in the Cerulean Sea. It’s a very nice book. I found myself just being happy while reading it. Very akin to watching Ted Lasso. Nothing was gut busting funny, but I just kept smiling while reading it.

Yep, all of this. I did enjoy Lucy and the bellhop. I thought his book Under the whispering door was a sequel, but that doesn't not look to be the case

Just finished The House in the Cerulean Sea. It’s a very nice book. I found myself just being happy while reading it. Very akin to watching Ted Lasso. Nothing was gut busting funny, but I just kept smiling while reading it.

Yep, all of this. I did enjoy Lucy and the bellhop. I thought his book Under the whispering door was a sequel, but that doesn't not look to be the case

Yup... Under the whispering door is on my list to read at some point soon. I'm almost to the end of the 4th book of the harry potter series. Might take a break and go with under the whispering door instead.

I’m slowly learning to allow myself to move on from a book that I’m just not feeling. I used to force myself to power through and would inevitably hate the experience so now I’m trying to be okay with putting the book away and maybe revisiting it later. So, on that note, maybe I’ll see you later, Blood Meridian.

I’m slowly learning to allow myself to move on from a book that I’m just not feeling. I used to force myself to power through and would inevitably hate the experience so now I’m trying to be okay with putting the book away and maybe revisiting it later. So, on that note, maybe I’ll see you later, Blood Meridian.

Ha!!

I forced myself through this one. When I finished, I think I liked it but damn was it exhausting to read.

Haha I took a break and read a few books between finishing it. I consider it my favorite novel now though and my favorite author.

I love the road and no country. I’ll revisit it one day when I’m in a better headspace.

Been reading After by Bruce Greyson. He's a professor of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia and has written this book based on his research on near death experiences (NDE). He's taken a very scientific approach to this phenomenon where he's received a lot of backlash due to the subject's nature. I just find it a fascinating subject and am completely immersed in the topic.

Sad to see what happened to him.

@LITT posted a positive review a few days ago

I really enjoyed it. The ending was a bit lame but it kept me interested all the way

That was an incredibly enjoyable audio book. I agree on the ending, though I'm not sure any ending would've been completely satisfying. Also, I can't see the Ryan Gosling film (if it happens) being all that great but we'll see.

i feel like they built up the revenge angle with stratt so much that i was bummed to not get that

Haha see as soon as it was revealed that he was a coward and had to be drugged to go on the mission I figured he'd have to make a sacrifice to redeem himself. I was not surprised when he went back to save Rocky and doomed himself. Although I did think it was going to be revealed that Stratt and Grace had a little fling before launch. I was surprised that we got a (way too short) chapter of life on Eridian.

I enjoyed Project Hail Mary so much that I decided to give The Martian a go. It's just as great, though I think I prefer PHM overall. I tracked down the RC Bray version of the audio book since it seems like the general consensus is Will Wheaton's version sucks.

Just finished The House in the Cerulean Sea. It’s a very nice book. I found myself just being happy while reading it. Very akin to watching Ted Lasso. Nothing was gut busting funny, but I just kept smiling while reading it.

Yep, all of this. I did enjoy Lucy and the bellhop. I thought his book Under the whispering door was a sequel, but that doesn't not look to be the case

I’m getting toward the end of under the whispering door. It’s not been as good yet, but still has been quite the story. Can’t wait to see how it ends.

I have a recommendation for the sc-fi series The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells.

Set in the indeterminate far future in which humanity has expanded to many other planets, the main character is a SecUnit—a part-organic, part-mechanical construct (think sort of the original Terminator) designed to provide personal security to humans in dangerous situations, such as the exploration of new planets. The SecUnit, which secretly calls itself Murderbot, manages to hack its governor module, thus enabling it to develop independence. Murderbot primarily uses that new independence to watch TV shows. Murderbot considers humans generally stupid and icky with their emotionality and bodily fluids and their general near-suicidal lack of attention to their own safety and security, and it mostly just wants to do its job and keep whatever humans it's been contracted to protect alive with a minimum of human interaction so that it can get back to watching its favorite TV shows. As always, events intervene, and Murderbot finds itself actually developing friendships and connections, which it finds highly annoying.

The characters and worldbuilding are both quite good. Murderbot comes across as a cross between someone with autism and a grumpy old man with no f***s left to give, and it's as blunt as a sack of doorknobs and every bit as tactful (at least at first). The series comprises five shorter novellas, one longer novel, and several short stories; more books are planned. All of the novels and novellas are part of Kindle Unlimited. The first novella, All Systems Red, won Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards and has a 4.4 rating on Amazon with more than 39,500 reviews.

I’m about halfway through project Hail Mary… so good. It’s fun following it along as a scientist. Not only do I understand what they’re talking about, I’m predicting their course of action before they even do it.

Finished project hail mary today... what a semi-sucky ending. That was worse than the Ted Lasso ending for sure.
With all that said, much like Ted, I freaking loved the book. It was great. I'd highly recommend it to anyone.

Finished project hail mary today... what a semi-sucky ending. That was worse than the Ted Lasso ending for sure.

To be fair though, I had the ending pegged except exactly opposite. I figured either they'd agree to go to Earth together or that the Hail Mary would break down due to some reason and Rocky would come save the day one last time. Although in hindsight, Rocky already did that once with the Adrian encounter and saving Grace's life (where Grace almost kills Rocky thinking that he had helped).

I loved Strat's character right up to the amnesia drug/forcing Grace onto the ship part. It was disappointing, but understandable.

With all that said, much like Ted, I freaking loved the book. It was great. I'd highly recommend it to anyone.

I know you probably wont revisit it, but the audiobook is absolutely fantastic.

My wife read the book for a book club that she’s in. Half of them read it, half of them listened to the audiobook and the audiobook listeners all agreed that’s the way to consume it for the very reason you point out. So that’s the route I took.

Finished project hail mary today... what a semi-sucky ending. That was worse than the Ted Lasso ending for sure.

To be fair though, I had the ending pegged except exactly opposite. I figured either they'd agree to go to Earth together or that the Hail Mary would break down due to some reason and Rocky would come save the day one last time. Although in hindsight, Rocky already did that once with the Adrian encounter and saving Grace's life (where Grace almost kills Rocky thinking that he had helped).

I loved Strat's character right up to the amnesia drug/forcing Grace onto the ship part. It was disappointing, but understandable.

With all that said, much like Ted, I freaking loved the book. It was great. I'd highly recommend it to anyone.

I know you probably wont revisit it, but the audiobook is absolutely fantastic.

Especially how Rocky's dialogue is handled. I have very low expectations for the film and especially the Rocky portrayal.

I have not read it yet, and likely will read the physical book, but I found this none on the Audible landing page interesting:

PLEASE NOTE: To accommodate this audio edition, some changes to the original text have been made with the approval of author Andy Weir.

Finished project hail mary today... what a semi-sucky ending. That was worse than the Ted Lasso ending for sure.

To be fair though, I had the ending pegged except exactly opposite. I figured either they'd agree to go to Earth together or that the Hail Mary would break down due to some reason and Rocky would come save the day one last time. Although in hindsight, Rocky already did that once with the Adrian encounter and saving Grace's life (where Grace almost kills Rocky thinking that he had helped).

I loved Strat's character right up to the amnesia drug/forcing Grace onto the ship part. It was disappointing, but understandable.

With all that said, much like Ted, I freaking loved the book. It was great. I'd highly recommend it to anyone.

I know you probably wont revisit it, but the audiobook is absolutely fantastic.

Especially how Rocky's dialogue is handled. I have very low expectations for the film and especially the Rocky portrayal.

I have not read it yet, and likely will read the physical book, but I found this none on the Audible landing page interesting:

PLEASE NOTE: To accommodate this audio edition, some changes to the original text have been made with the approval of author Andy Weir.

Andy Weir actually addressed this because I had the same concern.

Yeah it's just the change of musical notes to actual music. And the occasional correction of grammar that had slipped through the copyeditors of the print edition.

I am already about finished with Book 2 of the Expanse series. Only took 12 days, I'm hooked.