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Book Club + What Are You Reading? (December 2018)

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MilkBeard

MilkBeard

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Oct 25, 2017
7,778
I decided to step up to the plate, since no one made the thread yet. I chose the book of the month based on some suggestions by other posters at the end of the last thread.

Obligatory:

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December Book Club Title

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

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Evelyn Hardcastle will be murdered at 11:00 p.m.
There are eight days, and eight witnesses for you to inhabit.
We will only let you escape once you tell us the name of the killer.
Understood? Then let's begin...

Evelyn Hardcastle will die. Every day until Aiden Bishop can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest. And some of his hosts are more helpful than others...

The most inventive debut of the year twists together a mystery of such unexpected creativity it will leave readers guessing until the very last page.

Just in case you are wondering ...

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This is the same book. It is the American edition. The title had to be changed because of copyright issues.

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Join the ResetEra Goodreads Book Club to track your progress on our monthly read threads.


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Happy reading!
 
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Deleted member 31133

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Picked this up in Waterstones Birmingham yesterday. Going to start it tonight. It's been on my read list for some time .

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Protome

Protome

Member
Oct 27, 2017
15,673
Thanks for doing this!

I finished Reaper Man and went back to Under The Pendulum Sun. it seems alright so far.

Also, somewhat related, my mum got me the Terry Pratchett radio drama collection. So I've got a billion hours to listen to now. Does anyone know an easy way to listen to these that will store the position like a podcast/audio book?

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OP
OP
MilkBeard

MilkBeard

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,778
A few days ago I finished Skyward. Now, I've just started A Wizard of Earthsea.

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I'm about 30 pages in so far, and I'm enjoying it. The writing is pleasant and evocative. I've gotten a good feel of the world already just by what she's written. The way magic and naming works is really interesting.


Also, I think I will start reading the book of the month after I finish this book.
 
Jonnykong

Jonnykong

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,896
Retroarnold said:
Picked this up in Waterstones Birmingham yesterday. Going to start it tonight. It's been on my read list for some time .

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I really ought to give this another shot sometime. Tried it about a decade ago but I couldn't get into it. I just know there's something about it I'm missing out on though.
 
Jonnykong

Jonnykong

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Oct 27, 2017
7,896
I've just seen an advert for the TV show adaptation of The Passage coming in January, I better hurry up and get it finished!
 
ara

ara

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Oct 26, 2017
12,999
Still reading Alloy of Law, and sort-of-reading Blackwing (enjoyed it, but been taking a bit of a break).

I decided I also need to read something out of my comfort zone, and grabbed Murakami's 1Q84 just now. Will check it out in a minute.
 
FallenGrace

FallenGrace

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Oct 27, 2017
6,035
Started Children of Time - Adrian Tchaikovsky. Only finished the first chapter so far. Seems interesting.
 
JeTmAn

JeTmAn

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
3,825
Oohs, good pick! I finished the audiobook last month. Seems like people are really buzzing about Evelyn Hardcastle. Enjoy!
 
Spinluck

Spinluck

▲ Legend ▲
Avenger
Oct 26, 2017
28,423
Chicago
The Five Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die- John Izzo

Pretty good so far, really convincing bite size stories on why we shouldn't constantly put things we want to the side. Some of the stories/accounts/experiences are far better than others.
 

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ara said:
Still reading Alloy of Law, and sort-of-reading Blackwing (enjoyed it, but been taking a bit of a break).

I decided I also need to read something out of my comfort zone, and grabbed Murakami's 1Q84 just now. Will check it out in a minute.
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I really liked 1Q84. Hope you enjoy it!
 
TheBeardedOne

TheBeardedOne

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
22,189
Derry
I'll do the Book Club this month if Evelyn Hardcastle becomes available at the library in time. I'm first in line.

I'm still reading the same two books, but am just about finished with the first.

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Cantaim

Cantaim

Member
Oct 25, 2017
33,300
The Stussining
I just got finished reading all of the Dune books by Frank Herbert. Holy cow that was a great read! I know there wasn't anything left to do story wise once I finished it. But that doesn't help me wanting more out of the story haha. Still thought it was an interesting story about fate and I feel like Paul at the end of the book had somehow found a path into peace and not genocide.
 
Cantaim

Cantaim

Member
Oct 25, 2017
33,300
The Stussining
Cantaim said:
I just got finished reading all of the Dune books by Frank Herbert. Holy cow that was a great read! I know there wasn't anything left to do story wise once I finished it. But that doesn't help me wanting more out of the story haha. Still thought it was an interesting story about fate and I feel like Paul at the end of the book had somehow found a path into peace and not genocide.
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HOLD ONTO MY BUTT. Was looking for artwork of this book so people could vizualise it but I just found out there is more Dune by Frank for me to read! Fucking bless this day this world has got it's teeth in me and I wanna know more about it.
 
TheBeardedOne

TheBeardedOne

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Oct 27, 2017
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Derry
I *just* finished The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt. It was pretty good, but kind of anticlimactic. Not as good as I hoped it would be given the praise and the cover, and the synopsis, but pretty good overall.
 
TheBeardedOne

TheBeardedOne

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Oct 27, 2017
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Derry
Do you ever get worried that you're not paying enough attention to a book or reading it properly enough, to absorb it as you should or as other people do?
 
Cantaim

Cantaim

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Oct 25, 2017
33,300
The Stussining
TheBeardedOne said:
Do you ever get worried that you're not paying enough attention to a book or reading it properly enough, to absorb it as you should or as other people do?
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For the former yea sometimes I do in which case sometimes I'll go back and re-read parts to see if I can make sense of stuff. But in the case of the later I actually find that to be one of my favorite things about books. Talking with other people and asking how they interpret scenes and meanings from books and comparing it with your own thoughts is great fun. Bar the author coming in and giving a definitive answer. everyone is free to think about the book in their own way.
 
TheBeardedOne

TheBeardedOne

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Donthizz said:
if a book fails to hold my attention, I usually move on from that book.
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That's a good way to go at it.

The thing is that my mind wanders a lot and depression makes it hard to concentrate sometimes, though I do my best. I get up and put the book down when it gets bad.

Cantaim said:
For the former yea sometimes I do in which case sometimes I'll go back and re-read parts to see if I can make sense of stuff. But in the case of the later I actually find that to be one of my favorite things about books. Talking with other people and asking how they interpret scenes and meanings from books and comparing it with your own thoughts is great fun. Bar the author coming in and giving a definitive answer. everyone is free to think about the book in their own way.
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That's a good way to think of it. I read GoodReads reviews for the same reason.
 
Reven Wolf

Reven Wolf

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
4,563
TheBeardedOne said:
That's a good way to go at it.

The thing is that my mind wanders a lot and depression makes it hard to concentrate sometimes, though I do my best. I get up and put the book down when it gets bad.
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I know that feeling very well. I think it's important to remember that sometimes it really can be as simple as coming back to it later when you're at a different point in life.

I've frequently dropped books that didn't grab me, only to come back a year or so later and find myself completely absorbed in them.
 
Osahi

Osahi

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Oct 27, 2017
5,926
I've read the Seven Deaths a few months ago. Can't say I really liked it. It's a cleverly plotted book for sure, but it's not all that gripping. You also kind of need to take notes of everything that happens and all the character's to be able to follow (at least if you can't read the whole thing in the span of a few days).

At the moment I'm still reading the third novel in Elena Ferrante's Naples series (the one the HBO series is based on). I really dig it, but I just can't find the time to sit down and read more than a few pages these days, so it's taking me ages to finish.
 
WhySoDevious

WhySoDevious

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Oct 31, 2017
8,449
Just finished Assassin's Quest by Robin Hobb yesterday. That one took longer than the previous two. It was slow going at first, but then picked up and I couldn't put it down until I had finished it. I love the characters and world so much that I will definitely return for her other books.

But, first, Morning Star by Pierce Brown. I waited a whole year for it to go on sale. It finally did during Black Friday. Now to see how the story wraps up...

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SxP

SxP

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Oct 27, 2017
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Finished And Then There Were None a while back. It's was pretty gripping, partly due to it moving at such a high pace.

Also finished The Mad Ship. I liked the first book in the trilogy, and this was much better. Some plot lines finally converge, others really pick up pace, and some pretty annoying characters become much better in this book. Compared to the Farseer Trilogy, the thing that sticks out the most is that there are a lot of characters and plot lines in this trilogy, whereas the Farseer trilogy just had the singular focus. I don't particularly like one more than the other, but the change of pace is nice.
 
Jonnykong

Jonnykong

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Oct 27, 2017
7,896
I've give up on reading The Passage. It wasn't bad or anything, I just can't be bothered with such a long book at the moment, and the other two in the trilogy are nearly 1000 pages long as well. A 3000 page long trilogy is not what I need for my current state of mind.

Anyway, I bought the book "Normal People" earlier, so I'll get started on that soon.
 
Glasgow Mega-Snake

Glasgow Mega-Snake

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Oct 28, 2017
2,959
About 200 pages into Tad William's Otherland now (book 1, City of Golden Shadow). Liking it so far, aside from some smaller nitpicks. 'Children are disappearing into virtual worlds' as a main plot could read like fearmongering from another author, but it feels like Williams is just honestly interested in the questions virtual realities pose.

The VR stuff is mostly done well and feels realistic, and it allows Williams to go all in on his creativity, jumping from WWI battlefields to fantasy worlds to some surreal futuristic stuff. Sometimes it can feel kind of dated, the way books focused on near-future tech can become (VR is widespread but there's no trace of mobile phones), but that's not his fault.

Also at times it feels like there's too much focus on just describing the environments. I knew that's William's writing style from reading the Osten Ard books, but there the worldbuilding paid off when you became familiar with the world. Here the characters are just moving through places they'll probably never see again, so this might get tiring at some point (there's 4 books with 800+ pages each after all).

But the characters are cool and so far keep me intrigued. The Kalahari bushman character felt like a bit of a stereotype at the start (Indigenous person who questions the purpose of technology), but it's getting better.
 
Reven Wolf

Reven Wolf

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
4,563
Just finished The Shadow of Self
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Overall I liked it a lot more than the first novel (and I really liked the first novel). The mystery as always was very fun and well thought out, and the characters got more fleshed out which was great.

Trying to decide what to read next since I'm coming on empty on my backlog of books that I had already purchased...
 
Dedication Through Light

Dedication Through Light

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
22,309
Finished Accel World vol 12
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Accel World v12, the Red Crest, provides a brief reprieve from action involving Wolfram Cerberus as it relates to the plot for most of the volume. Attention is instead put on Haruyuki learning about the theoretical mirror ability which involved the help of new Chocolat Puppeteer avatar, a return to a focus on the Accelerated Research Society, and a new female antagonist that displays an interesting human side to her that makes her multidimensional.

The major conflict of the volume returns us to the Unlimited Neutral Field. While it seemed like a spur of the moment, "Chiyuri will do her best for Haru," subarc, it became something more compelling and involving. We were able to hear how Chiyuri is really one of the best players ever as she embraced the full aspect of Brain Burst like many of the others, hunting and hiding out in the field for long periods of time just to train and learn her ability as well as find monsters to help Haru develop. But beyond that, we also had a random run in with one of the more compelling avatar designs, the Chocolate Puppeteer, made out of chocolate. While we got the usual random fanservice scenes (Haru licking her fingers), we received deep and emotional friendship scenes and bonding with characters switching sides after going through a very hard-fought battle.

I enjoyed how this fight enabled Haru to gain a new ability and link it to the main plot so that it didn't feel like a hastily thought together plot just for the sake of prolonging the series. Further, with the ability we were able to see that we can now tackle the elephant in the Unlimited Neural Field, the Archangel Metatron. How they will do it, who knows, but I'm hoping it involves Wolfram Cerberus.

Lastly, I'm glad Wolfram Cerberus number 1 returned in the end of the volume. I love his honesty, purity, and innocence that is so nice to see in Burst Linkers. I'm assuming something with the Accelerated Research Society is the source of his personality shifts and ability, as has been speculated by the characters previously.

As usual the volume provided an excellent opportunity to add onto the mystery of the early days of Brain Burst. Finally having the true event of the killing of the Red King displayed and how Kuroyukihime was played like a fiddle was fantastic. Even Kuroyukihime is not as perfect as is shown, and the mystery identity of who was the one that put her onto that path was mindblowing. Well done Reki Kawahara, well done.
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Was hoping to finish all the eng volumes by the end of the year, 3 or 4 more to go.
 
LL_Decitrig

LL_Decitrig

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Sunderland
Osahi said:
I've read the Seven Deaths a few months ago. Can't say I really liked it. It's a cleverly plotted book for sure, but it's not all that gripping. You also kind of need to take notes of everything that happens and all the character's to be able to follow (at least if you can't read the whole thing in the span of a few days).
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I don't use my eyes for fiction nowadays. The audio version of Seven Deaths is very good. I've listened to it many times. Eventually I figured it out. It's still always a fun read.
 
Spectromixer

Spectromixer

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
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USA
I am reading An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green. I am enjoying it. It is differently different than anything his brother has written (John Green).
 
Forerunner

Forerunner

Resetufologist
The Fallen
Oct 30, 2017
14,557
Just finished:

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An interesting read filled with a lot of wisdom and insight. The main premise is that birth and death are just notions and ideas, they aren't real. You are limitless; you are more than just your physical body. Things simply don't disappear, they just manifest into something else. For instance, when you burn a piece of paper, the paper is still there. It just turns into ash or smoke. When the conditions are right, things manifest. When they aren't right, they withdrawal. You can never truly be destroyed.
 
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