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Reading: Vladimir Bartol, Alamut Arguably the best Slovenian book ever. It has a lot to say about power, manipulation, faith etc. Would 100% recommend.

Just finished Empire in Black and Gold by Adrian Tchaikovsky, very much enjoyed that. I've just started Midnight and Blue by Ian Rankin. It's off to a cracking start - Rebus is in prison, what the what now?

As ever though I'm reading dozens of books. Most disappointing is John & Paul, A Love Story in Songs, by Ian Leslie. I bought it after going to a talk by the author. I'm a Beatles fan since childhood, so I thought it would be interesting. Well I guess I'm not a REAL Beatles fan, because I'm finding it tedious. Chapter 7 and it's still only 1962! I mean sure, it's fascinating that as a child, George Martin's family shared a communal lavatory with three other families, but please can we get back to the main subject?

Best of the rest is The Rise and Reign of the Mammals, by Steve Brusatte. Section 4 and we're only up to the Cretaceous, lol. I love this book, not just for the critters, but for the paleontologists, some amazing characters with epic stories of working with teeny tiny bones.

Last book I read was Bee Speaker by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I normally love his stuff, and I loved both Dogs of War and Bear Head, but Bee Speaker was awful. Such a disappointment.

Currently I'm reading Old Man's War by John Scalzi.

Finished the fifth wheel of time book last week, about done with the sixth. They are awesome books. I cant wait till the main characters start fucking things up. Its coming.... i can feel it in my bones with every page.

Last was war and peace, would recommend.

Currently "reading" Wisconsin • Minnesota | Midwest Bouldering Guidebooks to plan for an upcoming trip to devils lake. If you plan to go climbing there the book is awesome if not it would still be cool to page through if you are interested in climbing.

I just finished Jonathan Maberry’s Kagen the Damned trilogy. If you’re into epic fantasy it’s a good read.l, even if feels a little rushed in places and the short chapters irked me slightly.

Now I’m starting How to Survive in Ancient Rome by Robert Garland.

Listened to the audiobook version of Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. I'd read it long ago and was surprised how differently I experienced listening to it. Recommended.

Currently finishing a read of the (British) Rough Guide to Cult Pop (2004) ... a book about pop/rock music and its makers from the 50s forward to to 20 years ago. Broken up into many sections, put together by a crew of Brit-wits, many interesting facts and stories about a half-century of chart hits. Strong recommend IF you're into that sort of thing, appreciate a bit-o-snark, and know most of the names already (or want to).

Last: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

Current: A Short History of Nearly Everything

Lest you think I'm bragging, the one before that was Omegaverse fanfic.

If audiobooks count, I just finished listing to AlienIII by William Gibson.

It is a script for Alien III and it is voice acted by Michael Biehn and Lance Hendricksen and many more.

It was great.

The Puppet Masters by Robert A. Heinlein, and now onto Invasion of the Body Snatches by Jack Finney. After that I will then read Village of the Damned by John Wyndham.

Last read was Closing Time by Joseph Heller. It's the sequel to Catch 22, and while not quite as dazzling as that book, I still really enjoyed it, and found some of the writing hilarious and/or deeply moving. It's got a bit of a poor reputation, but it's excellent IMO.

Have just started reading Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami - only a few chapters in, but I'm enjoying it. I've read quite a lot of HM's work, so the style is enjoyably familiar. Also, it came with some cool stickers inside for some reason 😁

Last book: The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook. It's book three in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series, which I'm enjoying a lot. Sometimes the game mechanic details get a little tiring, but they're typically meaningful to the larger story, or at least the action scenes. The human drama of it is where it really shines, tons of righteous indignation and coming together against adversity. Lots of humor sprinkled in. It can be a little crude and definitely very violent, I'd recommend it as long as those aren't deal breakers.

Current book: Citadel of the Autarch, fourth book in the New Sun series. It's good so far, building on the story of the first three books, interested to see how it reaches the situation foreshadowed in the first book via the framing device of this being a memoir written by the main character. The meandering plot with occasional tangent story-within-a-story have made it a slower read for me, but the surreality of it keeps it intriguing during the slower moments. I'd definitely recommend it, it's clear why this is a well regarded series, very different from my usual read.

The last book I read was Monstrous Regiment, a Discworld book that had somehow slipped past me.

It was pretty good. It's more or less a stand alone book in the setting with some minor cameos by established characters. There is one conceit that the book runs on, which you'll likely catch onto early, but it manages to mix up how it uses that conceit to keep it fresh enough. The ending big action set piece is contrived even for Discworld action, but the book really isn't about the action anyway so it gets a pass. B+ book, one of the lesser Discworld books which still puts it way above most other books.

Last Book: Is Math Real? - Eugenia Chang

Reading: The Greeks, A Global history - Roderick Beaton

I would recommend both if either subject interests you.

"Is Math Real?" is a really fun book, and gives the brain a lot to chew on. It asks the "stupid questions" of math and explains why they aren't so stupid.

"The Greeks" is incredibly well written and researched, and goes into many details that aren't well known about Greek history. This is a subject that has always interested me because of my heritage, and I have learned a lot.

Last book: The Hero of Ages (Mistborn) by Brandon Sanderson

Current book: Wind and Truth (Stormlight Archive) by Brandon Sanderson

I would 1000% recommend these books and other Cosmere books to anyone that enjoys fantasy but with the caveat of being aware of the Sanderlanche. Pretty much every book this guy writes takes time building everything up so it can feel quite slow, but then towards the end you get your avalanche of action, quick story progression, and answers to questions you get throughout the books.

Last finished: Deadhouse Gates (2nd Malazan novel), not sure what I think of the series yet, it has engaging parts, but too much violence for my mood atm (don't need dying refugees in my entertainment).

Now: The Last Continent, Discworld is always recommended.

Last book: Children of ruin. I didnt really like this one, while i was in awe of the brilliance of Children of time.

Currently reading a non-fiction book called The genius of birds. I already knew from direct experience how smart birds are, including ones that people perceive as dumb, like pigeons. But this book really gives a different perspective in how birds are complex creatures that adapt to their environments in intelligent ways, and how other birds will instantly copy these novel ways.

Currently I'm not reading anything but listening to the Magnus protocol podcast (which I highly recommend, but you should start with the Magnus Archives). It's a horror podcast, where each episode a character is reading a horror story that happened to someone, and in the long run stuff starts to happen with the characters who are reading.

Before starting that I read some of the Dexter books, honestly? The TV show is WAAAAY better, the first book is very similar to the first season, but then it goes off the rails, to the point where there are supernatural entities in the books, not to mention the absolutely horrible Spanish from the author, in one book he a character realizes someone knows he's there because he gets a happy birthday card, except the card says "Feliz Navidad" (Merry Christmas).

Last book: Murderbot Diaries - Network Effect by Martha Wells

Current book: Daring Greatly by Brene Brown

The first book is really fun. Lot's of action and witty characters with a lot of development.

The second book might change your life. It made me realize just how much emotion I've not been letting myself feel for the last two decades.

I am reading Moon Zappa's autobiography, I just finished 1000 Acres by Jane Smiley, which I REALLY recommend, and I'm also reading the collected Wendell Berry, Margaret Atwood's latest short story collection Babes In The Woods, and the book about the Toronto Gay Village murders. All very good, I am decidedly not into true crime but it happened close to me and one of my friends was part of the Village and they told the cops several times that people were going missing. I feel awful for all the victims, but especially for the very closeted religious ones whose wives and children got to find out their fathers were queer because they found parts of them in a planter, and the whole world got to find out too. It's not nice to posthumously out someone even under the circumstances when it will have such a profound effect on their families.

FYI, there is an instance that asks this every week!

But to answer your question,

My last read was Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. Its a historical fiction about a few generations of a Korean family. It was solid.

I'm currently on vacation and have been reading Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone ... Picked it up since it was available and supposed to be an easy read... Which it is. Its just a whodunit. Idk how I feel about it yet.

The Neverending Story by Michael Ende

100%

Currently reading: The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook (Dungeon Crawler Carl #3) by Matt Dinniman Last read: The End of Ordinary by Edward Ashton

I recommend both! The Dungeon crawler series is waaaay messed up and pretty funny.

Last book I finished was Hail Mary by Andy Weir. Solid read, get it done before the movie comes out.

About to start the Kaiju Preservation Project by John Scalzi, no idea on that one yet, but Scalzi does good work in general.

Last one I can't reccomend is The Book of Elsewhere by China Miéville and Keanu Reeves. I'm a big fan of the BRZRKR comics so I jumped at the chance for a novel in that universe... aaand it's largely unreadable. :(

Last: Pièrre Hadot, "Filosofie als een manier van leven" , the Dutch translation of "Qu'est-ce que la Philosophie Antique?" , or "What is Ancient Philosophy?"

Current: Caroline Criado Pérez, "Invisible Women"

I would definitely recommend Hadot for a clear overview and an interesting read on filosophical history. Invisible women is kind of a must-read to learn about the data gap in statistics of women.

Last book: The Hundred Years' War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi

This book is really informative if you want to learn the history of the Palestinian struggle for liberations. It makes an effort to recognize its successes and its faults as well as how they can do better. Fantastic book but it will break your heart. I had to read it pretty slowly because I could only stomach so many pages a day.

Current book: The Conquest of Mexico & The Conquest of Peru by William H. Prescott

I'm only 100 pages in and while it is good and most of the history holds up it has some faults. main fault is that the guy is kinda a white/euro supremacist by modern standards. He refers to many of the natives as barbarous and examines their worth by how "civilized" they were in one aspect or another. Does some pompous moralizing etc. I will give him that he doesn't necessarily attribute this to race and often refers to Spainish history as equally if not more barbarous, especially the inquisition. Credit where credit is due I guess. It was written in the 1840s so this is to be expected. Another flaw I'd like to mention is that the author tells the history as a sort of romantic narrative. Everything is heavily cited and like I said most of the history is accurate but due to the format he leans into the great man theory of history. Historical materialism was in its infancy at the time so he can't truly be blamed for this but his books must be read with an understanding of this limitation.

Last book : the wheel of time (#5) by R. Jordan. I don't really recommend. I mean the story's great but the way the characters are written is dull and sexist (men saying that women are mysteries, women complaining about how men are dumb and other ridiculous clichés), it feels like following people that are somewhat the worse of both teens and boomers, it takes me out of the book every single time. I prefer the king killer chronicles (P. Rothfuss) although we're still waiting for the last book.

Current book : Trapped (C. Lackberg and H Fexeus) it is a great polar, with nice twists, I recommend!

Last book: This is How You Lose the Time War - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Is_How_You_Lose_the_Time_War
It was good. I don't normally like love-stories, but this was poetically written. A lot of fun sci-fi and beautiful imagery.

Current book: Little Brother - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Brother_(Doctorow_novel)
Lots of fun hacking and rebellion against an increasingly authoritarian government, very much inspired by 9-11. It's a fun Young Adult Novel so far.

Last book (reading with my kid): The Wild Robot Escapes. Definitely would recommend, nearly on par with the first.

Current book: The Wild Robot Protects. Would recommend if you’re a fan of the series; otherwise, it seems like a step down so far.

Last book: The Apothecary Diaries 6 by Natsu Hyūga

Current book: The Magic Engineer by L.E. Modesitt Jr

The Apothecary Diaries series has been pretty good so far. Enough quirky characters and situations to not get to dark, but some definite darkness so it doesn't get to sweet.

The Magic Engineer is the third in The Saga of Recluse series. Overall I enjoy Modesitt, but it also is clearly a cheap paperback fantasy from the 90s. It's fun tracking down these second hand and they are fun reads. However, I enjoyed the first 3 books in his Imager series more.