The Reader’s Nook - The N&G Book Thread

Just found out N.K. Jemisin has the first book of a new series she is starting coming out next Spring. I know that's a long way off but it got me excited because I absolutely loved The Broken Earth trilogy.
 
EvanBenner said:
I literally just joined Comicogs a few minutes ago. When I went to the home page and saw newest member girlnevergoesout, I popped over to N&G here to see if it was the same you. Guess so!
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Yes! I saw that on bookogs and went there too! I need to unload some stuff there too!
 
Ericj32 said:
I don’t know. I’m not too familiar with Kindles. I just downloaded this to the app on my phone. I might have a heavily abridged version though because it’s only 264 pages on my phone (like phone-sized pages, I mean) but I have the illustrations in the chapters, and I think that would be the first thing they’d cut, right? But if that’s really how long it is - I won’t mind reading a chapter a day on my phone since most chapters aren’t much longer than 5 pages or so.

Chapter 1 is only 2 pages - does that sound right?
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I received my print version of this today because it doesn't seem like it is available digitally unless you have apple products.

Chapter one is only 2 half pages and the print is very large, so it seems like your length checks out.
 
Really looking forward to volume 2 of the book of dust coming out on Thursday. I thought the first volume was great so looking forward to seeing what happens next with Lyra!
 
dhodo said:
Just found out N.K. Jemisin has the first book of a new series she is starting coming out next Spring. I know that's a long way off but it got me excited because I absolutely loved The Broken Earth trilogy.
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Nice, I just finished the Broken Earth trilogy a couple weeks ago, really liked it a lot. Did you catch any details about the new series?
 
LeSamourai said:
I really liked it. It manages to break your heart and fill your will hope at the same time.
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Hmmm.... I liked it well enough. It did break my heart. I wanted more though. I didn't feel at all connected to the Edwards. That character development was missing. Maybe I misunderstood but I thought it was a story about the 4 of them. But only 2 of them got full treatment. And I didn't so much enjoy the ending. Screw the wife and what she wants? I am definitely glad I read it. And it kept me turning the pages. This is my holistic, Monday morning quarterbacking of it though.

I just started Educated. I am definitely enjoying this. I love things about the end of days and surviving it. And I know that this isn't exactly about that but the father sure does live as if it is coming.
 
Aelias said:
Nice, I just finished the Broken Earth trilogy a couple weeks ago, really liked it a lot. Did you catch any details about the new series?
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Sounds a lot different, for sure:

The City We Became

Five New Yorkers must come together in order to defend their city from an ancient evil in the first book of a stunning new series by Hugo award-winning and NYT bestselling author N. K. Jemisin.

Every great city has a soul. Some are as ancient as myths, and others are as new and destructive as children. New York City? She's got six.

But every city also has a dark side. A roiling, ancient evil stirs in the halls of power, threatening to destroy the city and her six newborn avatars unless they can come together and stop it once and for all.
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Finished The Goldfinch, and although it's not a perfect book I did enjoy reading it a lot. For all the criticism I've seen, nearly all of it didn't apply to me really. Anytime there's a long book, people will always always say it should be shorter. I had no issue with the length. I also had no issue with the narrator, and I felt like his POV was compelling on its own. Of course, Boris is a great character, but I don't think the book would be as good if it were solely about him (which is something I've seen many people bring up). In the end, I wasn't completely blown away or angry, just somewhere in the middle. Endings are hard, and all considered, I feel like it ended when it needed to, and told the story it wanted to. The final section was a little too "let me ponder the meaning of life and essentially summarize the meaning of this novel" but it didn't leave a bad taste in my mouth or anything. All in all, pretty good book - with lots of amazing bits scattered throughout. I also love her prose, which I guess some people just couldn't get into.

Now I'm onto Universal Harvester. So I read John Darnielle's other book Wolf In White Van a couple of years ago and really loved it. I remember the reception being fairly mixed. This one looks to have even more negative reactions towards it, but so far I really like it. However, what made Wolf In White Van so compelling was the way Darnielle wrote. It just pulled me in, and the ending left a massive impact on me. Universal Harvester, so far, doesn't have the same rhythm and style of Wolf, but I still like what's happening.
 
girlnevergoesout said:
There's a discogs for music books! Bookogs!

I have a ton of music books I want to unload. I'm so pleased right now.
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No way! I've been wondering about this for a while, and I asked for suggestions on Reddit just this week. Closest I found was Goodreads and another neat site called Libib, but this looks better than both. Thanks!
 
Indymisanthrope said:
I’m in the camp of thinking the first half is really good, and the second part is...not. Where WiWV’s ambiguity left an impressionistic picture that you could mostly fill in the blank spaces on, this one felt to me like there simply some missing chapters or something. Very unsatisfying, IMO, but curious to hear what your final reaction is.
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So I just finished it today. I'm still trying to figure out how i feel about it. It definitely disappoints in some regards. And I agree it feels like there's stuff just missing. This could have been a longer novel, with more details and I think it might have been more satisfying. On the one hand, the atmosphere of it works for me. But it does take a surprising turn in the middle and then it feels really strangely obscured throughout the rest of the book. In the end, I can appreciate the reveal for what it is - there's something very sad about the whole book and the reveal makes it even more sad. But..it happens kind of quickly and then it's just over. Like rushed, in a way. The shifting character focus is interesting, but sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. And the idea of who the narrator is and why they are keeping things a secret could have been explored so much more than it was. It doesn't leave too much of an impact, not like Wolf In White Van did. And yet - there's a lot I like about this one, it just feels somehow incomplete.
 
I wasn't able to find a copy of the book club book, unfortunately, but I am reading Sean Michaels' The Wagers right now and it is excellent. He's the guy who founded the incredible mp3 blog Said the Gramophone and wrote 2014's Giller Prize-winning Us Conductors, which I would also highly recommend.
 
I'm about halfway through the second book in N. K. Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy, The Obelisk Gate. I really like the series so far. After I finish that, I'm thinking of exploring some of Ray Bradbury's books. I read Fahrenheit 451 in high school I think but I would for sure appreciate it more now. Also on the list is The Martian Chronicles, Dandelion Wine, and The October Country.

I also picked up for my wife as a little push present the latest illustrated Harry Potter book. Pretty cool.
 
I'm halfway through Circe. I'm not loving it. I don't hate it. But I don't like it as much as ALL OF THE REVIEWS led me to believe I would.

@Tyr - I know you posted about this somewhere. What were your thoughts? Anyone else read it?
 
Teeeee said:
I'm halfway through Circe. I'm not loving it. I don't hate it. But I don't like it as much as ALL OF THE REVIEWS led me to believe I would.

@Tyr - I know you posted about this somewhere. What were your thoughts? Anyone else read it?
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I read it. I too was a little underwhelmed honestly. I liked it, wasn’t blown away by it. It’s kind of slow, but it did get me back interested in mythology.
 
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