Amph What book are you reading right now?

Star Wars: Rebel Dawn

 

I just finished The Girl on the Train. I essentially finished it in one sitting, that's how into I was. The ending was kind of "meh", unfortunately.

 

The Loneliness Cure: Six Strategies for Finding Real Connections in Your Life (2015) – Kory Floyd

Basically mediocre self-help book disguised as a thoughtful exploration of the issues disguised as a self-help book. I had such a wonderful experience with Overwhelmed last year, that I anticipated this book being like that one, ie. a thoughtful exploration of the issues at the heart of the subject disguised as a self-help book. But sometimes, if it looks like a self-help book, it’s a self-help book and an often close to unreadable one. There are some tips in here that might help a person who is struggling to find real connection with people in their lives, but it’s really badly written and very repetitive. It’s a short book, but, even at that, it just keeps saying the same things over and over. It doesn’t feel particularly insightful on the issues of isolation and loneliness in modern society; it’s mainly a superficial reading of those issues. And the prose is dreadful. Boy, the writing is . . . not good. 1 ½ stars.

tl;dr – book appears to be a sociological study, but is only a mediocre self-help title with little in the way of real insights or even helpful strategies; Also, dreadful prose. 1 ½ stars.

More Book Reviews!

 

X-Wing: Solo Command

 

Re-reading Republic Commando: Hard Contact.

 

Finally getting to Star Wars: Bloodline. The beginning was a bit tough to get through, but once I got past the first chapter I was good. It's been intriguing so far.

 

How Star Wars Conquered the Universe

 

New York Catholics: Faith, Attitude & the Works! by Patrick McNamara

 

The Courtship of Princess Leia

 

The Force Unleashed II

 

A fair amount of quality vacation time in my family consists of sitting around reading, so here's stuff that got knocked out:

The Magicians Trilogy by Lev Grossman. I got the impression that Lev Grossman kind of hates the stereotypical young adult fantasy novels (Harry Potter and Narnia in particular) while also having read them anyway, so we were in a cozy position of mutual understanding as he tore into them with a vengeance. The middle book was a bit weak (having to force a one-off book into a series and then being the lead-off of said series will do so) but the other two made it worth enduring. Some people will pitch this as "Harry Potter for adults" and they are very, very wrong to do so; be forewarned.

Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco. My first impressions were dead on, this was great.

A Lion's Tale: Around the World in Spandex by Chris Jericho. This wrestling autobiography was, primarily, an autobiography about wrestling. It didn't get vetted by the WWE, though, so you like to think that meant it was a bit more honest. I dunno, I'd just finished Foucault's Pendulum and needed something light and dumb, it obliged me.

Current reads:

V. by Thomas Pynchon. It's really good but seems to principally consist of alternating anecdotes with some common characters, some of which take place in the 1950s, some of which take place in different time periods revolving around the British(?) armed forces. Consequently it's difficult to sum up despite ostensibly being a pretty straightforward read, prose-wise. I may very well finish this one on the plane today.

Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. I'm listening to the audiobook because I guess I hate myself.

The Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. I by ****ing guess. Also audiobook because I guess my self-loathing sometimes oscillates in to self-love.

 

About The Sith Lords. It had little moments here and there but it was basically the definition of "meh".

I've been on a long fantasy kick, time to move on for a bit.

Now reading Escapology by Ren Warom, essentially a cyberpunk book new on the shelves.

 

The Mad Ship by Robin Hobb. 2nd book in the Liveship Traders trilogy. Just started it today, enjoying it so far.

 

On War: by Carl Von Clausewitz

Complex.....to say the least.

 

Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution by Neil deGrasse-Tyson

 

Career of Evil by J.K. Rowling Robert Galbraith

The "Cormoran Strike" books are so addicting. I'm not a big mystery fan but I highly recommend the series.

 

I have the equivalent of book ADD. If it's more than 5 pages I struggle. Good thing there is audio books.

 

I struggle with Pynchon. V was the first book of his I read and I did NOT care for it. I felt like it didn't add up to anything and I'm still not sure whether I think that was the point or if it was by accident. I'm also not sure which one makes me angrier. It put me off Pynchon for years. I dipped my toe back in with Bleeding Edge and kind of loved it and enjoyed PTA's adaptation of Inherent Vice. I seem to take to Pynchon's genre stuff more, maybe. Or maybe I need to try some of the other stuff again.

 

I'd say check out The Crying of Lot 49 - it's quick and punchy, more stylistically sophisticated than V., comparatively focused on the paranoia that permeates what I've seen of his stuff so far. I'm not incredibly well versed in his oeuvre myself, mind you.

My final take away from V. is a bit weird - I'm inclined to agree with you that it didn't "add up to anything" but that doesn't bug me (nor has it ever, I've always dug pointless literary meandering) and also I really can't shake the feeling that secretly it did, sort of, if you take this one sentence I really latched on to and view the epilogue as a consequence of that sentence and also then use that to recontextualize alternating chapters of the book and then view the other chapters as the fallout necessitated by the events of chapter 11 which of course causes you to reinterpret the sentence I latched on to and


Anyway now I'm reading Vineland, another of his books (a lot of folks call it his weakest but so far it's Perfectly Fine(TM)), and then I'm going to take a break, sort of, with the caveat that I'm still periodically subjecting my ears to having a brick of LSD audiobook jazz crammed in to them resulting in a kind of dream state wherein my normal thoughts are replaced with George Guidall talking about psychic erections of unknown origin corresponding one to one with V-2 rockets, also a sewer dive, also crazy Nazi sex things, ovens galore, have a banana.

 

Star Wars Battlefront Twilight Company

 

Tatooine Ghost

 

The best book of the newly launched EU IMO. An admittedly low bar, but Twilight Company excels regardless; particularly in the second half, once all the set up is done and the tumblers begin to fall into place. I enjoy all the Jedi/Force stuff as much as the next fan, but it was nice to actually dig into the "Wars" aspect of Star Wars.

Finished: Skyborn by David Dalglish - Dull, poorly written Harry Potter knock-off with wings replacing wands. Ironically, it never takes flight. - 5/10

Currently reading: Transformers: Exodus by Alex Irvine - Yep, there are actually Transformers novels. Not exactly expanding my horizons, but my "vintage" toy collecting focus has shifted gears (see what I did there?) to TF of late, and when I saw there was a novel with a focus on the Optimus Prime/Megatron origin story, phfffft. It's not what you'd call heady stuff, with characters named Ratbat and the like, but it is well written.

 

Finished Beyond the Shadows. It was a good finale to the Night Angel Trilogy. Apart from from one plot thread that was deliberately unresolved at the very end to set up a possible sequel series it ties up the story nicely. Overall I would recommend the Night Angel Trilogy.

Now about to start Republic Commando: True Colours. Apparently the RC series goes downhill from here but I liked the first 2 so I'm cautiously optimistic.

 

Star Wars: Dark Disciple. Pretty good book. Better than I expected.

 

Star Wars: Shadow Troopers