Book Lists 2020 Book • Page 4

I LOVED "My Best Friend's Exorcism". Would highly recommend. Hendrix does a great job at mixing in light-heartedness and character building with genuinely creepy moments.

 

Updated through today. Still been on a graphic novel kick during quarantine. 1/2 through The Walking Dead and Scott Snyder/Greg Capullo's Batman N52 run. Hope to finish those in the coming weeks/month.

 

Dreamsongs was a pretty great collection. I especially loved the Sci Fi section, pretty cool that he created an entire universe to write stories in and it worked out especially well since I was already familiar with it having read The Dying of the Light. It was also great to finally get an answer as to why GRRM turned away from horror fiction. The Vohrr trilogy was absolutely wonderful and I've never read anything like it. It's a tough and very rewarding read. Speaking of tough and rewarding...I read The Tunnel...which is considered a literary masterpiece by some. I don't know. I liked parts of it and the prose was unquestionably remarkable, but that's just not enough for me. I'm fine with the knowledge that I didn't really 'get it.' Stephen King's new book the obvious stand out of the month, loved all the novellas. Been really digging the Manifest Delusions series. Crazy grimdark and brutal as all hell but also an intriguing magic system based on phobia and delusion, and repugnant but loveable characters. The Authority fuckin sucked. What a shit sequel. Take away everything that made the first book good. Don't know if I'll read the third book. Hardcase was fast, tense, noir fiction which is just another genre that apparently Dan Simmons can jump in and out of at will.

The Last Crusade was great, I have the final Dark Knight story coming in the mail, pretty excited for it. The Manhattan Projects was a lot of fun, not Hickman's best but still really good. Sentient was fantastic, Lemire always delivers. Eve of Extinction was good but clear that it was the authors first comic. I know All Star Batman and Robin is one of the most hated Batman stories out there, but I loved it. Besides the repugnant shit like Batman calling Robin the R word and a lot of the other dialogue. And the fact that it doesn't have an ending sucks. But oh my God do I love Jim Lee drawing Bats. It's possible that I hated the story too and just didn't notice because I'll absolutely read anything that looks that beautiful.

 

Knocked out a lot of good books in April. I can confirm what @Vivatoto told all of us last month; "The Deep" is VERY good. The perfect blend of historical fiction and horror. "Carrie" is definitely a first novel, but I enjoyed it. "Southern Book Club" was fantastic and comes extremely close to topping "My Best Friend's Exorcism". "Station Eleven" was a surprisingly hopeful book to read in the midst of a global pandemic. "The Changeling" is a well-written horror fantasy novel that got better the deeper I got into it. "Inspection" was the most disappointing book I read this month; the concept was intriguing, but it throws you into the middle of the story with not enough explanation at the beginning. It came together at the end, but I thought it was just fine.

May's off to a good start as well. "The Boatman's Daughter" is a strong read, and I'm currently in the middle of "Lovecraft Country", which I'm also enjoying. As always, recs are welcome!

 

Ugh yeah I love Malerman but Inspection sucked. I was curious about Boatman's Daughter, amazon keeps suggesting it.

 

Looks like I'm not the only one who has been slacking on updating here.

UPDATED

1. Recursion- Blake Crouch
2. Ghosts of the Tsunami - Richard Lloyd Parry
3. Fall of Giants - Ken Follett *Started in 2019*
4. Cibola Burn - James S.A. Corey
5. Life Undercover: Coming of Age in the CIA - Amaryllis Fox
6. House of Chains (Malazan #4) - Steven Erikson
7. There There - Tommy Orange
8. Elevation - Stephen King
9. Exhalation - Ted Chiang
10. Watership Down - Richard Adams
11. Imaginary Friend - Stephen Chbosky
12. The Rage of Dragons - Evan Winter
13. The Glass Hotel - Emily St. John Mandel
14. Midnight Tides (Malazan #5) - Steven Erikson
15. The Sellout - Paul Beatty
16. Broken - Don Winslow
17. Boy's Life - Robert McCammon
18. Ask a Footballer - James Milner
19. Nemesis Games - James S.A Corey
20. Pet Semetary - Stephen King

 

I saw this notification and cringed, hahaha

 

BORING JAMES WROTE A BOOK?!

 

April: 6

1) Lyssa Kay Adams – The Bromance Book Club
2) Lyssa Kay Adams – Undercover Bromance
3) Robert Jordan – New Spring
4) Robert Jordan – The Eye of the World
5) Sylvain Neuvel – The Test
6) Grady Hendrix – Horrorstor

May: 10

1) Robert Jordan – The Great Hunt
2) Michelle Van Loon – Born to Wander
3) Chris Burkard – The Boy Who Spoke to the Earth
4) Melissa Erin Jackson – Pawsitively Swindled
5) Robert Jordan – The Dragon Reborn
6) He Reads Truth – 1 & 2 Corinthians: The Body of Christ
7) David A. Powlison – God’s Grace in Your Suffering
8) Robert Jordan – The Shadow Rising
9) Jessica Brody – Save the Cat! Writes A Novel
10) Suzanne Collins – The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

Didn't have time to write reviews yet. From here on until I finish it, I'm alternating racial justice nonfiction books (currently "The New Jim Crow") and Wheel of Time.

 

Updated through today. Still been on a graphic novel kick during quarantine. Now that I'm back working that'll probably go way down but we shall see

 

April and May update. Don't want to drag on here, but a couple thoughts.

- Nice to finish out the Defenders of Shannara trilogy by Terry Brooks. I think I enjoyed the first one the most, but books two and three definitely had some great twists, moments, and monsters, and I'm really impressed that he managed to write stories that feel fresh even after so long in the same world. (That said, I'm kinda glad his newest book's release has been postponed till October—I still have three more to catch up on first, and I wanted to take a break for a bit.)
- I've been rereading to the John Carter books by Edgar Rice Burroughs. I think I've only read five or six (of eleven)? I reread the first four over the past two months. Fantastic stories, particularly on audiobook when I'm on a walk or lifting weights. I'm taking a break from a bit (going to catch up on a couple other audiobooks) and then I'll finish the series out straight through. I'm excited to get to Barsoom stories I haven't read yet.
- Also been on a bit of a 'self-help' kick (I say that very broadly). The Blue Zones book was really good. It was nice to reread the Bhagavad Gita; it's been a few years. And the Unfettered Mind was really, really, really good. I learned a lot from that.
- The Two Towers is, as ever, excellent.
- Detective Comics has been fun. I don't think I like this as much as the main Batman New 52 run, but there have been some really great stories in here. I liked the Jim Gordon meets the Justice League story. Surprisingly tender.
- Captain Marvel and Spider-Man are some of my favorite comics and continue to be.
- Bojeffries was super weird and I really liked it. I won it in the Worldbuilders fundraiser last year and finally got around to reading it. I'll probably donate my copy (trying not to have too many books), but it was a really fun read.

I've been using libby/hoopla/overdrive a lot lately since I'm always at home and the library is closed. It's been great for branching out. Lots of good stuff on the docket for June: catching up on comics and manga, some older fantasy I've never read, some horror, and some new fantasy on my shelves.

 

In an effort to get some more activity in here, what do people say to picking your favorite book you've read so far in 2020 and talking about it a little? It's June now, it's close enough to a midway point.

 

I’m re-reading Wheel of Time and just finished The Shadow Rising, so that is the correct answer. But I’m going to choose a new to me book.

Mark T. Sullivan’s “Beneath A Scarlet Sky” was a phenomenal historical (non-ish)fiction look into the Italian resistance to fascism in their own country as WW2 was drawing to a close.

 

I loved Beneath a Scarlet Sky! I think for me it's There There by Tommy Orange. There There is a dark story about a group of loosely connected Native Americans all going to a Powwow in Oakland. It's often terribly sad but I thoroughly enjoyed it and I think it's an important piece of literature for what's going on in our world right now.

Other books I've loved so far this year but are more familiar to this crowd are Boy's Life, Pet Semetary, and my continued adventures in Malazan.

 

I'm also reading Wheel of Time and just started Fires of Heaven (think we are moving at the same pace). I'm not on a re-read though.

 

i’m starting Fires on Monday!

 

Nice! I've only just finished the prologue, probably read 3/4 chapters per day (if I'm lucky) but I did recently finish Kings of the Wild and The Colour of Magic.

 

Fires is one of my favorites. I hope you’re enjoying the series!

 

I really am, I've found myself having to take a break every 2 or so books but I'm ready to get obsessed all over again before Rhythm of War!

 

Swarm and Steel was the best Manifest Delusions book, I adored it. Reminded me of the way Abercrombie's best stories are his one offs within his world than his more classic sequels. He's also primed to start doing some crazy Malazan shit if he wants to. It looks like he's writing a bunch of other series so I don't know if he has plans on returning to that world but he should. Wasn't huge on the Crook Factory, wasn't really expecting to like it just finishing off all of Dan Simmons books. I do not like the spy genre, bores me to death. Priory of the Orange Tree was fucking great, like getting an entire Wheel of Time or A Song of Ice and Fire series in one damn book. Black Hills was solid, learned a lot of the building of Mount Rushmore and Native tribes in the area. I did not like Prince of Thorns, might give the series one more try but it was not doing it for me. The whole alternate earth history/fantasy is sort of annoying. Empires of Dust on the other hand was a damn fine grim dark trilogy. I had a lot of problems with the way it was written, there were no rules for switching between first and third person perspective, and the battles were all written in that annoying clipped way that's suppose to make it seem chaotic but really just under describes. And when you're doing it EVERY fucking battle. But I dug the story. I'll be keeping an eye on the author. The rest of the Kurtz series was dope, just straight up no bullshit action. Flashback is the first book from Dan Simmons that I did not like at all. It was like an far far right conspiracy theorists wet dream. Supposedly Simmon's says it doesn't reflect his politics but Idk. It was really stupid too.

The Master Race was pretty awesome. I didn't love the art but at least it was a million trillion times better than the Dark Knight Strikes Again. I've had both Incorruptible and Irredeemable going since I got into comics a few years ago. Finally decided to push straight through to the end. Definitely an incredible series. I've always kind of assumed that I wouldn't like Doom Patrol, I knew it was suppose to be insanely weird and Grant Morrison is weird enough already when he's writing Batman I couldn't even imagine him let loose. That said I adore Grant Morrison and it was dumb of me to ever think that. I looove the series now. Did not know how much horror was injected into it.

 

I've been looking into Priory and I think that just pushed my interest to a high!

 

Updating late because I am a Fool.

May was another good month. My top picks were Lovecraft Country (very spooky, got me pumped for the show), Rethinking Incarceration (a faith-based look at criminal justice reform), and East of Eden (genuinely loved it, very impressed).

The Water Dancer was fine, but I think I liked Coates' writing better than the novel as a whole. The Dead Zone isn't my favorite King novel, but I'm glad I finally got around to reading it.

My top picks for the year so far are The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires and Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? Would highly recommend both of them.

As always, recs for the month of June are welcome!

 

One day I will update my list. But today is not that day. I’m sure half of it will just be King books anyway.

 

About to finish this. Love it! I have been getting in a vampire kick so this was solid. I read We Sold Our Soul’s last year and thought it was alright ... I like this more. I have My Best Friend’s Exorcism arriving this week!

 

17 books down in 2020 so far! Here’s my list, lmk if anyone wants recs if something seems interesting.

1) The Crying of Lot 49 - Thomas Pynchon
2) Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland - Patrick Radden Keefe
3) Night Boat to Tangier - Kevin Barry
4) Black Wings Has My Angel - Elliott Chaze
5) Jesus’ Son - Denis Johnson (reread)
6) The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet - David Mitchell
7) There There - Tommy Orange
8) The Fighter - Michael Farris Smith
9) A Visit from the Goon Squad - Jennifer Egan
10) Where You Once Belonged - Kent Haruf
11) 52 Pickup - Elmore Leonard
12) Letters to a Young Writer - Colum McCann
13) The Sun & The Moon & The Rolling Stones - Rich Cohen
14) The Power and the Glory - Graham Greene
15) True History of the Kelly Gang - Peter Carey
16) Dark Lies the Island - Kevin Barry
17) A Brief History of Seven Killings - Marlon James

Outside of The Fighter and Where You Once Belonged — which were good, but not particularly memorable — I’ve really loved all these books. “Thousand Autumns” and “Brief History of Seven Killings” are some of the best I’ve ever read.