What have you read lately?

[ergative]

Perhaps the tools that make editing easier have also made editing better. Is it possible that modern writing has actually improved, because of the ease of access to these technological advances? Because even leaving aside the sexism, racism, classism, and colonialism that permeates these texts, I'm getting rather tired of having to remind myself to grade these authors on a curve. The curve has bent far enough, and on Carmilla, despite the sexy vampire kisses, it definitely snapped.

Eh, my bet is that what's improved is much more access to more stories and therefore more good writing is available to those who want good writing as well as a new storyline.  At the time, any new enough story was likely worth wading through not great writing.

I've been disappointed many, many times in my life by finally picking up some beloved-by-a-good-many-people novel and having to sigh heavily about having that particular novel's writing/organization/implementation flaws scream so much at me that I can't go very far in the book.  For example, I know many of the Edgar Allen Poe stories, but I can't say I've managed to reread anything as an adult.  I was more optimistic with more free time as a teenager to read so many and be disappointed very time that I didn't love the execution. The writing is just sooooooo bad, even though the ideas were very new and therefore memorable at the time Poe was writing.  I've never made it through a Lovecraft story yet, although I watch movies based on and read homages/borrowing/reimagings frequently.

I read Frankenstein in high school; now that I've read a lot of freshman prose, I'm perfectly willing to believe this was a story a teenager wrote during a house party.  The ideas are there, but, again, the execution leaves a lot to be desired.

Now that I'm an adult, I better understand why Stephen King is kind of a hack in the "world of literary ideas", but his stories at least move along and it's worth investing a weekend in reading his new book because they are seldom obviously repackaged ideas that have been done to death.  I'm told I would better appreciate Tolkien's work if I didn't encounter it well after I'd already read so many later works that presented similar ideas, but in a much better format.

Fair point: the competition pool has expanded as well as the execution tools. I am very willing to believe that is also (or instead) contributing to the perceived improvement in the quality of modern writing.

[marshwiggle]

Now that I'm an adult, I better understand why Stephen King is kind of a hack in the "world of literary ideas", but his stories at least move along and it's worth investing a weekend in reading his new book because they are seldom obviously repackaged ideas that have been done to death.  I'm told I would better appreciate Tolkien's work if I didn't encounter it well after I'd already read so many later works that presented similar ideas, but in a much better format.

Kind of the "George Lucas" effect. The writing in Star Wars stands out now as more cheesy than originally, partly because the effects and so on were so groundbreaking then. Now that the effects don't stand out the writing has no place to hide.

[Puget]

Just finished the audiobook of Codex, by Lev Grossman. I really love his Magicians trilogy, but hadn't read this one (it was written earlier). Not quite as good, but very engaging nonetheless. It's a mystery about a search for, well, a codex. Definitely kept me guessing, interesting characters, but in the end it sort of felt like he didn't quite know how to end it. 

Per my prior post, I think I'll pull Straight Man off my self and re-read it now.

[nebo113]

Not a book, but am browsing JSTOR. 

[mamselle]

Oooohhh, good idea!

M.

[spork]

Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi: Liked it. An interesting adaptation of Mary Shelley's original.

Death is Hard Work by Khaled Khalifa: Meh. Not that thrilled by it. Maybe dark humor got lost in the translation to English.

Into the Hands of Soldiers by David Kirkpatrick: Liked it even though I'm familiar with the book's subject. It was interesting to see details on the incompetence of Obama's senior foreign policy officials in regard to the Middle East (something not particular to Obama's administration and much worse now).

Water: Asia's Next Battleground by Brahma Chellaney: A well-written academic book on water scarcity. Read it to get material for a course I'll be teaching next year.

Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan: A historical overview of Central Asia. It's fairly well-written stylistically for a popular history, but I set it aside in favor of other books. I might return to it depending on how long the stay at home order lasts.

The Hundred Years War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi: Reading this now. He weaves his family history into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which I like.

[onthefringe]

Imaginary Numbers by Seanan McGuire. Interesting entry in a long running series. But a cliff hanger ending and no new book until next year.

This in how you lose a time war really nice epistolary-ish novel with a relationship between time traveling agents trying to bend various multiverse timelines towards their desired ends.

Thinking about re-reading McGuire's Newsflesh series about a future US where we are on the other side of a pandemic, dealing with the ongoing remnants of a highly contagious a zombie virus. And there's even a presidential election in it!

[ergative]

Imaginary Numbers by Seanan McGuire. Interesting entry in a long running series. But a cliff hanger ending and no new book until next year.

This in how you lose a time war really nice epistolary-ish novel with a relationship between time traveling agents trying to bend various multiverse timelines towards their desired ends.

Thinking about re-reading McGuire's Newsflesh series about a future US where we are on the other side of a pandemic, dealing with the ongoing remnants of a highly contagious a zombie virus. And there's even a presidential election in it!

I loved This is how you lose the time war. I got to see Amal El-Mohtar in at an event at a local bookstore the day after we read it in my sci-fi book group, and she was such a delightful person. She told us that she and Gladstone had written the thing together, at a writing retreat, sitting across from each other at a writing table, one writing the frame and one writing the letter for each chunk, and for the bit about Atlantis, they did not discuss their approach beforehand, and instead came up with such consistent attitudes independently. How many of the cultural references did you look up? I looked up the Meissen Ming Dragon tea sets and the Death of Chatterton and Travel Light, which actually has a blurb from El-Mohtar on its amazon page.

[paultuttle]

Currently rereading the Harry Potter series.

Up to book 3, right now; I'm at the point where Hermione impatiently "tuh"s at Ron when he wonders aloud why Professor Lupin is looking so tired and wan.

[ab_grp]

We finished Straight Man (Russo) and enjoyed it very much.  It was very funny at times, and I appreciated that there were no major tragedies in this one.  As usual, Russo creates very interesting characters, although I wish a few were fleshed out a bit more.  There were plenty of hijinks-filled situations, and we definitely winced at times wondering what a particular turn of events would lead to.  All in all, an entertaining read that lifted our spirits.

Now, we are reading Consider Phlebas (Iain Banks).  It was recommended by one of spouse's colleagues, and it's appealing to try out books that are part of a series so that we have additional books to read if the original book is well received.  We're not too far into it yet and are still in the process of figuring out people and place names, always a fun part of scifi. 

[hmaria1609]

Currently rereading the Harry Potter series.

Up to book 3, right now; I'm at the point where Hermione impatiently "tuh"s at Ron when he wonders aloud why Professor Lupin is looking so tired and wan.

I'm listening to Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets movie soundtrack at the moment!  :)  I read and own the complete series in paperback.

[paultuttle]

Currently rereading the Harry Potter series.

Up to book 3, right now; I'm at the point where Hermione impatiently "tuh"s at Ron when he wonders aloud why Professor Lupin is looking so tired and wan.

I'm listening to Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets movie soundtrack at the moment!  :)  I read and own the complete series in paperback.

I'm with you on the Harry Potter fervor--I've got the whole series in hardback, the whole series in full-size paperback format (as a boxed set), and several of the volumes in smaller-size paperback format.

(I'm really self-indulgent when it comes to books I truly like and know I'll re-read many times. For those favorites, it's all about being able to choose what size book to curl up with when you're at home at your desk, at home on the couch, at home in a recliner, or at the beach stretched out on a towel under an umbrella. It's the same way with my four Lord of the Rings sets, two "Ring of Fire" [Eric Flint] series, and two "Vatta's War" and "Familias Regnant" [Elizabeth Moon] series: Different hardback or paperback sizes for convenience's [or indulgence's] sake. And I have other authors' singletons in different sizes, or newer duplicates of singletons that I bought when the older versions started to fall apart.)

[mamselle]

Oooohhh, good idea!

M.

J-Stor currently has a free 100-view signup program for individuals.

Just in case it's useful....

M.

[ergative]

We finished Straight Man (Russo) and enjoyed it very much.  It was very funny at times, and I appreciated that there were no major tragedies in this one.  As usual, Russo creates very interesting characters, although I wish a few were fleshed out a bit more.  There were plenty of hijinks-filled situations, and we definitely winced at times wondering what a particular turn of events would lead to.  All in all, an entertaining read that lifted our spirits.

Now, we are reading Consider Phlebas (Iain Banks).  It was recommended by one of spouse's colleagues, and it's appealing to try out books that are part of a series so that we have additional books to read if the original book is well received.  We're not too far into it yet and are still in the process of figuring out people and place names, always a fun part of scifi.

I read a few of the Iain M Banks books, including Consider Phlebas, but the only one I really enjoyed was The Player of Games. That was absolutely superb. The others somehow just didn't quite land for me.

[ab_grp]

We finished Straight Man (Russo) and enjoyed it very much.  It was very funny at times, and I appreciated that there were no major tragedies in this one.  As usual, Russo creates very interesting characters, although I wish a few were fleshed out a bit more.  There were plenty of hijinks-filled situations, and we definitely winced at times wondering what a particular turn of events would lead to.  All in all, an entertaining read that lifted our spirits.

Now, we are reading Consider Phlebas (Iain Banks).  It was recommended by one of spouse's colleagues, and it's appealing to try out books that are part of a series so that we have additional books to read if the original book is well received.  We're not too far into it yet and are still in the process of figuring out people and place names, always a fun part of scifi.

I read a few of the Iain M Banks books, including Consider Phlebas, but the only one I really enjoyed was The Player of Games. That was absolutely superb. The others somehow just didn't quite land for me.

So it sounds as though The Player of Games can be read as a standalone book? That one was also recommended, but I think I picked Consider Phlebas because it was the first of the series.  It's interesting that you mention this, because we had gotten so blah about CP that I had been reading Goodreads reviews to see if it might get any better later on.  Apparently not, or not for several hundred pages.  But several reviewers there also mentioned TP of G as one that they liked quite a lot.  Maybe we can pick that one up.  In the meantime switched to Jemisin's How Long 'til Black Future Month?, which was recommended here.