The Currently Reading Thread v. A Clash of Kings

[Jaffa]

1984 is probably one of my favorite books ever.

Anyway, I finished The Witch of Lime Street, which was great.  Now I'm moving on to The Grownup, by Gillian Flynn.  Very excited. 

[ozzy554]

I read The Devil In the White City and Black mass. Both I thought were very interesting.

I decieded to take a break from regular books for a bit and I picked up The first Volume of American Vampire by Scott Snyder and 2 Volumes of Preacher by Garth Ennis. I thought American Vampire was good but I am loving Preacher.

[Cool Chris]

HP and the Goblet of Fire.

Just started The Great and Secret Show: The First Book of Art by Clive Barker.

Read this some time in high school, picked it up on a whim, based on the cover art and synopsis. I LOVED it then, it was the first fantasy novel I ever read, totally unlike anything I had before. I picked up everything else I could find by Barker. I read it again years later, and it totally lost its charm. I don't know why. But I couldn't connect with it at all, it was dull, slow, and I couldn't get in to the story or characters.

[Sub Luna Vitrea]

Like Bread on the Seder Plate: Jewish Lesbians and the Transformation of Tradition... good so far, if you are the type of person who would enjoy it.
The Sagas of the Icelanders with a Preface by Jane Smiley (Penguin Classics)... given to me by a friend.

[adace]

All the Light We Cannot See. An absolutely beautiful story. Can't recommend enough.

[masterthes]

March Violets by Philip Kerr

[hefdaddy42]

Finally on Insomnia by Stephen King.

[Cool Chris]

Finally on Insomnia by Stephen King.

Curious for your report on this one. Won't give you my thoughts at this point.

[hefdaddy42]

Finally on Insomnia by Stephen King.

Curious for your report on this one. Won't give you my thoughts at this point.

Well, I've read it before, but it was back when it was first published.  It's a re-read in light of my re-read of the Dark Tower series.

[kaos2900]

Insomnia was....strange. I remember not hating it but not loving it either. Towards the bottom tier of kings work for me. I did just receive the new short stories book but I'm going to wait until I finish The Book of Art 2 by Clive Barker since I'm almost done with the first.

[Kwyjibo]

My memory insists to tell me that Insomnia was one of the worst King books. But then it is a long time ago that I read it.

[Cool Chris]

I couldn't connect with it at all, which I usually can with King's works, even if they are toward the bottom of my rankings. I was totally on board out of the gate, then it just got too... I don't know how ti describe it. It is one of the few books of his I have thought about revisiting, especially after reading The Dark Tower, but there are just too many other books in my queue.

[Evermind]

The Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged and Last Argument of Kings by Joe Abercrombie

This must be the most dissatisfying trilogy in epic fantasy (in a sickeningly good way) I've read so far - there are no good / evil guys at all among the main characters, they're all gray in its darker shade mostly, and the whole plot throughout all three books is constantly bleak as hell... for some reason this reminded me of more gruesome version of ASOIAF, even if less mature or refined one. I think I need to cuddle some kittens after these.

Moving onto Best Served Cold from the same universe and the same author instead.

[Sacul]

Oh, I've been meaning to read that trilogy for some time, so I guess I'll get to it soon 

Btw, did you finish Mistborn?

[Evermind]

Oh, I've been meaning to read that trilogy for some time, so I guess I'll get to it soon 

Btw, did you finish Mistborn?

Of course I did. Both original trilogy and The Alloy of Law; haven't got a chance to lay my hands on Shadows of Self yet. I've been reading a lot of stuff by Brandon: I also finished Elantris, Warbreaker, The Rithmatist, The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance, and also the short novella Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell (found it in my copy of GRRM's Dangerous Women anthology).

I'm quite apprehensive about Steelheart / Firefight / Calamity though, I think this might be a little bit too young adult fantasy for me from what I've heard. At least Rithmatist had some neat geometry magic system in it.

[Sacul]

Seems you're loving his stuff

I'll get to Stormlight after he releases book 8 or 9 out of the 10 planned - won't ever start reading an unfinished series again, I swear

Will get Alloy of Law soon tho.

[WDADU]

The Grownup by Gillian Flynn. Since that's a short story, I'll be starting the new collection of Stephen King stories, The Bazaar of Bad Dreams later on.

[masterthes]

Insomnia was on the bottom tier of good Stephen King for me

And yes, I was very underwhelmed by the first Abercrombie book. I heard such good things about it, but my reaction after finishing the first book was kind of meh

[Evermind]

And yes, I was very underwhelmed by the first Abercrombie book. I heard such good things about it, but my reaction after finishing the first book was kind of meh

I kinda see what you mean, I agree it's not the strongest thing I've read. On the other hand, I really loved the third book.

[lucasembarbosa]

I saw the thread title and thought it had something to do with ASOIAF specifically... hehe

For now, I'm reading some Brazilian political analysis about the 2013 protests/strikes that occurred here.

BTW I'M EAGERLY EXPECTING FOR THE WINDS OF WINTER RELEASE. GRRM PLEASE DON'T DIE YET

[WDADU]

The Grownup was pretty good. Really liking The Bazaar of Bad Dreams so far. 

[Jarlaxle]

I saw the thread title and thought it had something to do with ASOIAF specifically... hehe

For now, I'm reading some Brazilian political analysis about the 2013 protests/strikes that occurred here.

BTW I'M EAGERLY EXPECTING FOR THE WINDS OF WINTER RELEASE. GRRM PLEASE DON'T DIE YET

Has there been any more news on WoW recently? I'm too scared to google it because I'll just get spoilers from the show.

[Evermind]

I saw the thread title and thought it had something to do with ASOIAF specifically... hehe

For now, I'm reading some Brazilian political analysis about the 2013 protests/strikes that occurred here.

BTW I'M EAGERLY EXPECTING FOR THE WINDS OF WINTER RELEASE. GRRM PLEASE DON'T DIE YET

Has there been any more news on WoW recently? I'm too scared to google it because I'll just get spoilers from the show.

The most recent news are apparently these:

8 January 2015:
<snip> Jane Johnson again confirms that The Winds of Winter is not presently on the publication schedule for 2015.

4 April 2015:
GRRM has said that he hopes to finish the book by 2015 and get it on the shelves by the time Season 6 of the TV show airs (in April 2016). He cautions that he might be being over-optimistic, but notes that he is clearing his decks of other commitments to finish the novel ASAP.

As far as I know, there were no more news since April.

[masterthes]

The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth

[Tiko]

Stalker by Lars Kepler. It's a great series (especially when you're done absorbing all the Jo Nesbo books)!

[Kwyjibo]

With Blood's A Rover I finally completed the Underworld trilogy by James Ellroy.

It was a really good read, but man those are some bleak novels. Everyone is corrupt, takes drugs and uses extreme violence to reach their goals
Talk about conspiracy theories, the whole american history from the 50s to the 70s is influenced by a small group of men, steered by the mafia and J. Edgar Hoover.

Now on to some light stuff: Z Burbia by Jake Bible.

[Viking of the Sagas]

Reading some Rei Shimura now. Pretty awesome detective series.

[Kwyjibo]

Full Dark No Stars by Stephen King

[The Cat Of Tuscany]

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

[WDADU]

Prey, by Michael Crichton.

[Cyclopssss]

Playground by Lars Kepler.

[jasc15]

Devil Take the Hindmost, by Edward Chancellor.  It's a history of financial bubbles and speculation, starting with the tulip mania in the Netherlands in the 1630s.

My favorite quote so far:

When I was young, people called me a gambler. As the scale of my operations increased I became known as a speculator. Now I am called a banker. But I have been doing the same thing all the time.
-- Sir Earnest Cassel, Banker to Edward VII

[Sub Luna Vitrea]

Surrealist Women: An International Anthology. Absolutely mind-blowing and liberating. It's good on all fronts: first of all, it understands surrealism and talks about it in the language of the surrealists, rather than in the language of outsiders to surrealism. Second of all, it recognizes that women should not be relegated to separate anthologies or sections of libraries, and hence its goal is to point out that there have always been women in surrealism and that they were not only part of the movement but essential to it, hence restoring them to the surrealist "canon" alongside the surrealist men they have always been working alongside and who have achieved recognition by a more chauvenist, oppressive, anti-surrealist society.

[Jarlaxle]

Has there been any more information regarding a the release of Winds of Winter? I'm too scared to google anything because I don't want spoilers from the TV show.  The last I heard was an interview from GRRM a few months ago saying he was still hoping for a late 2015 release, which by now I realize is an impossibility, but an early-to-mid 2016 release could still be possible. Not holding my breath or anything though.

[masterthes]

Vivien Leigh by Anne Edwards