Amph What book are you reading right now?

Back to Legends with Shadows of the Empire.

 

After one and a half books I have given up on The Wheel of Time series. I just don't like Robert Jordan's writing and I didn't care one bit for the characters.

Today I shall begin reading

 

I always found this cover funny as it clearly comes from this:

 

What comic is that?


I'm reading Star Wars: Coruscant Nights III: Patterns of Force by Michael Reaves

 

It's from Tales Of The Jedi: The Freedo Nadd Uprising. The character is called Warb Null.

 

Thanks!

 

A Pocket Guide to Writing History.

 

Finished The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto by Mitch Albom this morning and have started Morning Star by Pierce Brown.

 

The Fafhrd origin story was BORING. Gray Mouser's was better. Now on to their team up, I hope.

 

When Will There Be Good News? (2008) – Kate Atkinson

In the third novel in her Jackson Brodie series, Atkinson knocks another one out of the park. The title seems apropos of Atkinson’s style; her books are so filled with tragedy and sorrow that one might have the title question run through their head about halfway through any of her novels. This book starts with a seemingly random crime; a mother, two young children and an infant are brutally stabbed to death. Then the book jumps ahead thirty years to the present day and things quickly go off the rails (no pun intended) for the characters. In Reggie Chase, a fast-talking, hyper-emotional sixteen year old, Atkinson has fashioned one of her best characters and when Reggie becomes convinced that there’s foul play afoot, neither hell nor high water will stop her in her efforts to discover the truth. She’s good for a lot of hilarious bits as well. This book pulls in Jackson, but also Louise Monroe, the single mum/detective from One Good Turn and this book is a bit different in that it isn’t about the constant crossing and recrossing of paths, as One Good Turn was, but about the separate tracks these people are on and the collision they seem to be headed toward, all converging on one thing. The book is very much about women as victims of violence. Louise finds herself obsessed with one case, Jackson with another and Reggie, unknowingly, with yet another; these are all tales of women brutalized and when the book wants to be grim or sad, it practically kicks your guts out. Atkinson’s characterizations are spot on and she manages to make the reader genuinely care about these people and feel their pains and fears. There was a moment when I was almost afraid to continue reading the book because I knew that if one particular plot ended the way I was expecting it to that I just honestly didn’t want to know it. If certain characters met certain fates at the end of this book, and with Atkinson I knew I was in the hands of a merciless writer, then I would prefer not to experience that or know it. That’s the level of care to be found here. But the book dares to end with truly transcendent hope; despite the tragedies of the past, the present and, doubtless, the future, it is within Atkinson’s purview this time around to point up the moments of beauty. Even those with an unhappy ending can remember the happy days that came before. And in this world, sometimes that’s enough. 4 stars.

tl;dr – Atkinson’s third Brodie novel boasts brilliant new characters and a gripping and compelling plot; deeply evocative and powerfully emotional, this book is yet another triumph. 4 stars.

More Book Reviews!

 

Return of the Jedi novelization

 

double post. Boards really being an issue today.

 

bloodline

 

Sticks and Wires and Cloth by Anne Hopkins. The author bought an old biplane, flew it around, and wrote a book about it. Really more of a collection of essays, but well-written in a plain vanilla style. Most readers would probably find it dull and slow, but for those of us who dream of flying around in our own biplanes, it's a good read.

 

Fixed.

 

Kenobi. It's fantastic.

 

Star Wars: Bloodline by Claudia Gray

I'm curious to get some backstory for the state of the galaxy in TFA, I just hope it doesn't turn into 300+ pages of intergalactic C-SPAN.

 

Read a lot of great contemporary poetry for school the past several months...now it's on to some Star Wars reading...Bloodline.

 

Double Post

 

After finishing up Planet of Twilight I'm gonna take a dive into Atlas Shrugged.

 

I've read that a few times. It's pretty long but I enjoyed it.

 

That explains so goddamn much

 

Hunt for Red October is a GREAT book! I can't wait to read it again!

 

The Metamorphosis (1915) – Franz Kafka

When Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from troubled dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous insect.

I read a lot of Kafka last year and liked very, very little of it. But I decided to revisit this novella, which is both the most famous of Kafka’s work and also the first of his work that I read. I read the Malcolm Pasley translation for Penguin, if you’re interested. It’s been a good decade or more since I last ready this story, but I think it worked on my nerves and my soul even more this time than it did before. The premise is to die for: a guy wakes up and discovers that he’s been turned into, essentially, some kind of cockroach or beetle. But the story is just very oppressive in atmosphere. The premise could lend itself to inadvertent comedy and there are a few moments of dark comedy, but overall I found re-reading this to be basically sort of feverish and unpleasant in the best of ways. It’s really dark, really bleak, quite hopeless and, ultimately, just really, really sad. I feel like Kafka reaches a level of real pathos in this story that one rarely finds. For all the negative things I had to say about Kafka’s other work last year, he certainly turned out one undeniable masterpiece. 4 stars.

tl;dr – short novel is grim and unflinching, but also filled with pathos and sadness; Kafka at his best. 4 stars.

 

****ing love this novella. been meaning to read more kafka, as this is the Dane Cook of kafka and its all ive got under my belt so far

 

Tales from Jabba's Palace

 

Star Wars Rebels Servants of the Empire 1: Edge of the Galaxy by Jason Fry