Beyond Reality discussion

Midsummer nights (and days) are for reading! Please share what books you’re reading this month and what you think of them. Highly recommend? So-so? No way?

All genres welcome in this topic thread!

I finished June with The Blood Knight by Greg Keyes, 9/10. The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone is one of those series where the plot is multi-layered and reading the books is like peeling off each layer to find something else beneath. Just as the characters frequently aren’t sure who to trust, the reader is in the same predicament. Keyes has obviously either studied and practiced fencing and dueling himself or done a great deal of research, for the scenes with Casio and, to a lesser extent, with Neil, are some of the most detailed and feel very authentic. The same is true with the variations and derivations in languages in the scenes with Stephen—a real understanding of languages and how they develop and change over time and distance.

First up in July is Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo.

I'm just starting Infinity's Shore for the Uplift discussion, now that school is out and my brain is starting to be functional again!

Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo was a quick read. 7.5/10 The love triangle has a fourth corner now (and almost a fifth except for (view spoiler)[the untimely death in the battle near the end of the book of Prince & Heir Vasily (hide spoiler)]). And really, how many problems would be solved if people would just communicate!! (But that is not a problem unique to this book.) The sections with the pirates (er, privateers) were the best, and the story overall seemed to gain some depth. As I said, it’s a fast read and I am interested to see where the story goes in book 3.

Next up is Gateway by Frederik Pohl, one of our Books of the Month.

In genre, I'm reading A Winter's Promise, October Daye #6 Ashes of Honor, and We Have Always Been Here. In non-fiction, I'm working through Music Theory 101.

Secrets of Monet's Garden: Bringing the Beauty of Monet's Style to Your Own Garden by Derek Fell

I finished Thunderheadwhich I highly recommend and have just started The Engines of God

I finished Infinity's Shore a few days ago (have just added my thoughts to the spoiler thread), then zipped through two quick reads from the library - Over the Top: A Raw Journey to Self-Love, a memoir by Jonathan Van Ness of "Queer Eye" fame (I've been bingeing the show since school got out ;)) and Beyond by Mercedes Lackey, which is the first in a prequel trilogy to all of her Valdemar books that tells the story of the founding of Valdemar. Those books are old favorite comfort reads and I hadn't known of this new trilogy until a friend of mine mentioned it. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it unless you're familiar with at least some of the others, but my inner teenage Valdemar superfan was very, very happy :)

I'm not sure what's next. Possibly Heaven's Reach, or if something else strikes my fancy to read first I'll wait until the "official" start of the discussion on the 15th.

I recently finished reading A Subtle Agency by Graeme Rodaughan. It was an intense, nonstop, action-packed read. The characters are intriguing, and I will be continuing the series.
My only issue was that the chapters are very long (7 chapters across a 200+-page book).
I am reading the series with a group, and one of the other members described it as Blade meets Jason Borne. Yeah, it's something like that.

June was a SciFi Readathon at another group, and for July I have set myself a personal Challenge: Einstein in Fact and Fiction. (It's also Aliens/UFO's at another group.) So in addition to some Review books, I'm heavily into Physics and Quantum Physics this month. So far:
Upgrade, THE LAST HOUSE ON EARTH,
Einstein's Bridge, From Beyond, A Train Through Time by Richard Blanco (ARC, SF Fantasy),
Lovecraft in a Time of Madness, Twistor.
I've probably loaded up enough suggestions to last till 2023!:))

I’m reading the anthology Sinopticon 2021: A Celebration of Chinese 카지노싸이트 Fiction. It’s terrific.

My comments for Gateway by Frederik Pohl are in the discussion topic thread for that Book of the Month. 8/10

I also read Shaman's Crossing, book 1 of Robin Hobb’s Soldier Son trilogy. Extraordinarily detailed but a pretty solid story. Very different from her Realm of the Elderlings series, apart from the general theme of following a young boy into manhood. 7/10 I do have high hopes for the rest of the series, which I’m reading with a different 카지노싸이트 group.

Now out of genre with an old mystery/thriller, The Man Who Was There by Donald Gabriel Barron.

I finished Beyond and am looking forward to the second book (I've always loved this author). I'm just starting Wanderers

The Man Who Was There by Donald Gabriel Barron was barely fair, 4.5/10. I also read another Leaphorn and Chee mystery (this one was Chee’s first book in the series), People of Darkness by Tony Hillerman, 8.5/10.

I am now about 25% into the final book in Greg Keyes’s The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone series, The Born Queen.

The Apothecary Diaries 05 by Natsu Hyuuga

I finished Heaven's Reach over the weekend and have just posted my thoughts to the spoiler thread. Satisfying but somewhat confusing ending to the series.

Next up is Paladin's Grace.

So a combination of recent birthday, recent promotion at work, and a recent fat bonus left me with too much time and money to buy ebooks, and a realization that there was some long needed processing and organizing to do.

Serious, they add so many barely relevant tags in ebooks that it just becomes a huge mess that's extremely difficult to use for browsing.

And I discovered that while I read The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms back with the group oh so many years ago, I never actually finished the series. So, I'm starting a reread of the first book today and plan on working my way through the three books and short stories.

Recent finishes - Paladin's Grace (I already posted my thoughts in the spoiler thread), The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker (it was lovely - I wasn't sure how I would do with a book about a mysterious virus but it was different enough from COVID that it didn't hit close to home much), and now I'm on All the Seas of the World, Guy Gavriel Kay's newest. I'm about halfway through. It technically stands alone, but it does share some characters and reference events from his last two (Children of Earth and Sky and A Brightness Long Ago).

All the Seas of the World was very good - not my favorite of his, but still as beautifully written as all of Kay's books are.

I then picked up a A Face for Picasso: Coming of Age with Crouzon Syndrome, which is the best memoir I've read in a long time. I chose it from a list of recommended reading for disability awareness.

Now I'm on to She Who Became the Sun for the upcoming group discussion! I've also just started reading James and the Giant Peach to my daughter, which is good fun - I haven't read it in years, and she is currently obsessed with insects of all kinds so she's going to love the big bugs that James is about to meet!

The Born Queen by Greg Keyes wrapped up his series called The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone, 9.5/10. A completely satisfying conclusion to the series, with a happier ending for many of the characters than I expected or than they perhaps deserved.

Beyond the Blue Event Horizon by Frederik Pohl, 7/10. My comments are in the folder with our discussion about the first book in the Heechee Saga, Gateway.

Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo, 8/10. The best of the 3 books in the Shadow & Bone trilogy—less teenage angst and romantic triangles, more maturity as Alina grows in both the use and understanding of her power and its consequences. There were a number of scenes of small heroism and courage by primary and secondary characters. The climax was wonderfully unexpected and the “After” epilogue was a perfect closing of the circle.

Now out of genre with a Jack Reacher book, The Sentinel by Lee Child.

On this last day of July, I finished The Sentinel by Lee Child, 6/10, pretty typical Jack Reacher book with more maiming rather than outright killing (but some outright killing, too).

And I read The Dark Wind by Tony Hillerman, 8.5/10, featuring Jim Chee for the 2nd time.

Next up is Forest Mage by Robin Hobb, an August read for a different 카지노싸이트 group.