Katy’s Comments (group member since Mar 03, 2015)

Katy’s comments from the Goodjer Recommends group.

Taylor wrote: "Listopia feature?"

Go to Browse | Lists to create (or vote on) a public list.

Just finished Dorothy Must Die for my genre fiction book club. It should make for some good discussion, but I think I'm done with this flavor of grimdark teen war/dystopia YA. (And it didn't help that this is book one of a yet-to-be-finished trilogy, and it doesn't really stand alone very well.)

Next up are Whispers Underground, the third book in the Rivers of London series, and Mycroft Holmes, the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Sherlock pastiche.

I don't use the listopia feature of goodreads much, but Amazon/Goodreads posted a list/poll of 100 SFnal books to read in a lifetime.

There are the usual problems that come with semi-public polls (skewed toward recent books, weird duplicates because the database isn't normalized, etc. I was also surprised to find that neither Ayn Rand or Robert Heinlein was yet in the top 100. Don't know what I'm thinking; of COURSE there are several Heinlein books there. So common that my eye just flits over them, I suppose. But exactly the ones you'd expect: Stranger, Starship Troopers and Moon is a Harsh Mistress)

But we have a lot of SF readers here, so I thought I'd bring it to people's attention. As I write, I've read ~80 of the top 100, though many of those I've never logged into goodreads.

Have you seen any other particularly useful lists? Or do you disdain the list feature here?

Erik wrote: "I'm reading all parenting books now.

Can I presume that congratulations are in order? My only advice is not to pay too much attention to pronouncements of The One True Way to Parent, and do what fits the personalities of everyone involved.

As far as books go, I just finished Unnatural Death. Not particularly recommended unless you're being a completist about reading Sayers. It's too much a product of its time, and showcases all its prejudices against everyone who isn't a cis white male Catholic.

Time for some Repairman Jack. Currently reading The Tomb . I'd enjoyed the book of short stories, Quick Fixes ,which trichy had suggested as a good starting point) and saw this on the shelf at the library.

I'm a little unsure about reading order (I like to have a plan going in), but I'm pretty sure this is the start of the Repairman Jack series.

Just finished The Queen of Attolia. This is the second of a series of YA Fantasy novels set in and around a landlocked kingdom reminiscent of the city-states of ancient Greece. This one's concerned with the conflict between the queens of two neighboring nations, and the thief (think spymaster, though not exactly) caught between them. Lots of palace intrigue and maneuvering armies. Quite a different tone than most fantasy novels, and definitely worth looking at.

The first book in the series is The Thief.

Tanglebones wrote: "If you haven't read Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach, it'd be a good candidate for next month."

Good idea to read Mary Roach, though it's more likely to be Packing for Mars, since we own a copy I haven't read. Or maybe What If?, which is also sitting on the TBR pile.

if anyone wants to recommend a fluffy memoir[...]

Response too slow. Reduced to reading about kitchen utensils, e.g. Consider the Fork.

So far, so good, however. In the introduction alone, I've learned about a fairly recent kitchen item I've never encountered, the chicken brick, and the author has called out unusual food only found in Futurama.

Very readable, and available on Kindle Unlimited, though I checked it out of the library, myself.

Katy wrote: "After that, I'm not sure, but possibly last year's Year's Best Science Fiction collection."

Turns out it's Fool Moon. Technically a re-read... but I never got past book three the first time I read the series, so I'm taking another go. I read through Storm Front for a second time last fall, and I don't want to lose the thread completely.

I've been trying to read at least one nonfiction book a month, but I've missed that goal this month, unless I find some sort of lightweight memoir which will be a fast read, which wasn't quite the spirit of my goal. (But if anyone wants to recommend a fluffy memoir likely to be available as an ebook from my county library or the NYPL, I'm all ears.)

Maybe put a note on the series books indicating if only specific books were recommended. Because sometimes there's a series where there's a consensus that it's worth skipping some of the books, or stopping after a certain point.

I'm thinking particularly of the discussions of the Dune books that come up every now and then on the GWJ thread, (where people say to stop after three books... or four books... or just read the Frank Herbert books), or even Discworld (where people often advise to skip Colour of Magic and start later on in the series).

Just finished Station Eleven. Recommended if you like literary science fiction. It's a character study of a variety of people who survive a worldwide pandemic. Less violent than you might expect, given the premise (and no zombies in sight -- I am so [i]over[/i] zombies).

Very lyrical, and reminiscent of Cloud Atlas.

Next up, I think I'm going to finish my run-through of the Lemony Snicket books. After that, I'm not sure, but possibly last year's Year's Best Science Fiction collection.

I pick both.

Physical books -- best for finding books by browsing at the library, getting as gifts, or for some large-format books where resolution and layout count a lot.

Ebooks -- best for portability, multitasking (I knit and read, and ebooks don't fall shut or need to be held open), and checking books out of distant libraries.

Everyone in the house has an e-ink Kindle (we share one account, which may make things interesting once the kids move out, since "their" books are on the shared account.), and the kids like them especially for the backlight and portability, since they're already loaded down with binders and textbooks for school.

Regarding the distant libraries thing -- if you live anywhere in New York State, you can get a free library card for the NYPL, and they have a huge ebook collection. It's come in very handy.

Christopher wrote: "I'm working on:
- The Goblin Emperor for the sword and laser podcast. I'm not far into this yet but I am loving it so far. Quite an interesting and intelligent take on a fantasy novel."

The Goblin Emperor is about ten books down my to-read list...

Just finished A Kim Jong-Il Production: The Extraordinary True Story of a Kidnapped Filmmaker, His Star Actress, and a Young Dictator's Rise to Power. I have mixed feelings -- it was an interesting look to what was going on inside North Korea... but not much more than that.

Part of my problem with it was me, though. I don't read a lot of nonfiction, and several times I found myself wishing that the book would act more like historical fiction, and give me more of the emotion and interior life of the characters... and then I had to remind myself that the people weren't just characters.

Next books up are three I've checked out of the library: Furies of Calderon (that's the, hey, write a book that's "lost Roman legion" + Pokemon challenge [x]), Orfeo, which caught my eye on the new books shelf, and Hexed, since I've been reading the Illona Andrews series, and the book has a short story in the universe in it.