leafless7:Finally got around to reading this classic anti-war novel which described the physical and mental traumas soldiers suffered during WWI.The Butterfly:
I'd been away for a few months so I've been checking out what I missed.
Your post about EM Remarque's book (I read the book ages ago!) immediately made me think of Sebastian Faulk's Birdsong. Have you read it? I still remember the feeling of being punched in the gut by this amazing book.
Someone I know came back yesterday from a school trip visiting sites of the first world war (Verdun etc.) and he was devastated with the realization of the horrors of that war. Or any war, for that matter. The cemeteries with endless white crosses, monumental walls with the names of the missing, tunnels and trenches.....all of that made him so sad!
But back to my own reading.
Fed up with dramas (event known as "the slump"!) and not finding any BLs worthy of watching, I went back to reading full time about 6 months ago. I was looking for some light fare and discovered a genre I never knew existed: M/M romances or western BL novels.
After a couple of duds (more about them some other time), I thought I'd hit the jackpot with Alexis Hill's books. They were smart and very very funny. But unfortunately, too much of a good thing, ruins the good thing. Or at least the impression I had of it. I loved the first two books I read but every subsequent one I found less funny and emptier, conforming to today's societal injunctions and downright boring! My saturation point had been reached very quickly: I read another four books of his, desperately looking for the buzz the first two gave me. No such luck!
Selbee:
I'd been away for a few months so I've been checking out what I missed.
Your post about EM Remarque's book (I read the book ages ago!) immediately made me think of Sebastian Faulk's Birdsong. Have you read it? I still remember the feeling of being punched in the gut by this amazing book.
Someone I know came back yesterday from a school trip visiting sites of the first world war (Verdun etc.) and he was devastated with the realization of the horrors of that war. Or any war, for that matter. The cemeteries with endless white crosses, monumental walls with the names of the missing, tunnels and trenches.....all of that made him so sad!
I have not read this book. Sounds interesting!
I’ve not been to a WWI cemetery but I have been to a WWII cemetery in Belgium with all the white crosses of boys who would never go home. :’(
This month I finished Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle and Digital Extremities by Adam Bassett.
 | Bury Your Gays was a fun meta fiction piece. It was a little too idk... idk the word for it like I want to say cheesy but I dont think thats what I mean. Anyway it was good but maybe I think I wanted the worldbuilding of the enemies to be a bit stronger because they were a pretty interesting idea. It was funny talking about this book with my straight coworkers though because they def had like a little "what did you say?" when i mentioned the title. Made me realize that even people who know a lot about stories in general may not be familiar with one of the most infamous tropes I know, aka the "bury your gays" trope. |
| Im back on my anthology game with Digital Extremeties. This time all the stories are by one author though. I liked most of the stories, though like all antholigies some stood out more than others. In particular theres one about digital diving into the web and its dissociative affects on people who do so which was pretty interesting. Its like what are the effects of literally putting your mind into the internet and leaving behind your body? The whole concepy for the book was pretty interesting though. Its like "ok cyberpunk is a thing, but the setting isnt a city. So what does it look like instead?" Thought that was pretty cool. |  |
I have a stack of books that I forgot to post for August-November! My December book might not get done by end of December, though.
August was weirdly Ireland themed (I swear it was not intentional - I just had a big stack of books from a box that I had never unpacked since we moved a couple years ago and I started at the top until I got through it). The first was The Gathering by Anne Enright, which I really thought was a depressing slog, honestly. I finished it, I didn't hate it, but there was nothing that really made it worth reading. 2/5 for this one. And the second was Whitethorn Woods by Maeve Binchy. I had read a few of her books years ago, some of which I liked and others I thought were kind of meh, and this one fell into the meh category, too. Easy, quick read, but just wasn't that interesting, ultimately. 3/5.
In September I read A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby. If I had been paying attention and realized what this book was actually about before I started it (a bunch of actively suicidal people), I probably would not have started it. But it's a Nick Hornby novel, so it's primarily a comedy, so at least I don't have to say this one was a depressing slog like The Gathering. Unfortunately I didn't really find it all that funny or enlightening or anything, really. So another 3/5.
My October book was The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo (I see some updates for The Fox Wife upthread! Will get to that one at some point, for sure). Again, as in The Ghost Bride, the fantasy/mythology was the bright spot here. Unfortunately, the plot was (for me) too focused on the (pointless) romance, and then the end didn't really adequately explain some things. This one was fun to read, though. 3.5/5.
In November I read Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver.
This is my first Kingsolver novel, and based on this one, should not be my last! I had a ton of fun with this book, even though the scientist in me was annoyed by the super oversimplification of some sciency stuff, haha. I loved how female character driven this was, with multiple complex, independent female characters. This is one of those "everything is connected" types of books, which can sometimes feel forced, but this had more subtle connections that were fun to discover while reading. 4/5 for this one.
Two books, one English, one Korean, both highly autobiographical and the proof, if it was ever needed, that human experiences are universal in spite of different cultures. Practically the same plot: young man trying to find his way around love, life and friendship.
I went looking for BLs and found something different, definitely something more and certainly something I was not expecting!
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In my other life my hobby is Biblical scholarship and it makes some people uncomfortable as it’s scholarly rather than devotional or dogma related. Probably shouldn’t have mentioned this book but the secular history of it was fascinating and I like to support Penel’s forum. And it was the only book I read recently.
God’s Ghostwriters by Candida Moss
What kind of a world do we live in if science is frowned upon? Biblical scholarship is a fascinating subject, more interesting than devotion or dogma could ever be! Reason should always come first over ideology. Thank you for sharing!
In my other life my hobby is Biblical scholarship and it makes some people uncomfortable as it’s scholarly rather than devotional or dogma related. Probably shouldn’t have mentioned this book but the secular history of it was fascinating and I like to support Penel’s forum. And it was the only book I read recently.
God’s Ghostwriters by Candida Moss
Your support is much stronger than mine! I haven't been able to finish any interesting books for months:(
