June Wrap Up/July TBR

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Bookish

Күн бұрын

Пікірлер: 67

@HannahsBooks 6 ай бұрын

Thunderclap is intriguing. Thanks yet again, Brian. Love to you and your mother.

@BookishTexan 6 ай бұрын

Thank you Hannah. Thunderclap was a bit of a revelation for me which is something I always appreciate in a book.

@MIDDLEoftheBookMARCH 6 ай бұрын

LeGuin was brilliant. I loved Rocannon’s World and hope you enjoy it! 😊

@BookishTexan 6 ай бұрын

I am almost done with Rocannon's World and I have enjoyed it.

@bookofdust 6 ай бұрын

Congrats on your dive into Fantasy and SciFi for July! One small work, from a very unlikely source, I want to recommend as a palate cleanser between tomes is something many of us discovered and was amazed by in last year’s year long E.M. Forster read, which is his short story The Machine Stops. It’s a work now in public domain and can be readily pulled up online. Especially in light of the pandemic, there is much in the story that is eerily prescient, prophetic and insightful of future machinations to the point one wonders if he perhaps time traveled. It’s well worth the twenty or so minutes you’ll need to give it to see a writer you thought you knew in a whole new light.

@BookishTexan 6 ай бұрын

Thank you for recommending The Machine Stops. I enjoy Forster’s work and I had not heard of this story.

@readandre-read 6 ай бұрын

I second this recommendation. This is a terrific and surprising short story.

@karlalikestoread 6 ай бұрын

For a moment I was like, wait he read 2 Sally Rooney books? What a champ! I think you respect your sanity too much for that. I really enjoyed Thunderclap too. I really loved how much the author countered the idea that art criticism is for critics and that they tell you what are is about. She did such a great job, I thought, based on how she expressed what she loves about the art she loves, encouraging people to form their own opinion and enjoyment of art based on their personal experience and connection with it. And that is applicable to any form and style.

@BookishTexan 6 ай бұрын

@@karlalikestoread Yours is a perfect explanation of what the author of Thunderclap achieved. I always enjoy ignoring critics. Thanks for the great comment.

@StartSmallWithKris 6 ай бұрын

Thunderclap on my list now. TY!

@BookishTexan 6 ай бұрын

@@StartSmallWithKris I hope you like it.

@myreadinglife8816 6 ай бұрын

Last Night at the Telegraph Club is on my Kindle. I really need to get to it.

@BookishTexan 6 ай бұрын

I liked it.

@TKTalksBooks 6 ай бұрын

Very nice discussion of Thunderclap, a book I admire greatly. Great to see you back. xotk

@BookishTexan 6 ай бұрын

Thanks Tess.

@thefantasynuttwork 6 ай бұрын

Jimmy Stack July!!!! Let’s go 😂 excited for this tbr, you picked some great ones! I am always happy to hear your thoughts on books, so these will be especially fun to hear you speak about. Happy reading my friend!

@BookishTexan 6 ай бұрын

@@thefantasynuttwork Thanks Jimmy, hoping to be through GOT before we leave for Iceland on the 11th and then read sailing on my Kindle on flights and at night while there.

@thefantasynuttwork 6 ай бұрын

@@BookishTexan great plan! The north and the wall may remind you of Iceland! I hope you have a great trip

@davidnovakreadspoetry 6 ай бұрын

I’ve put _Thunderclap_ on my TBR, or rather TBC - to be considered. I’ve requested it from the library, but it’s not certain I’ll be ready for it when it’s ready for me. I looked up the author’s other books and they all seem interesting. Interesting to see you genre stretching. I can barely keep up with what I have. Even setting aside titles for, say, Pride Month - it’s remarkable that you are able to do it. I did last year (a month or so tardy) but can’t conceive doing again this soon. Similar to all the 24 banned books in a year that some BookTubers are doing - I can’t compass it all. Hope your mom’s well.

@BookishTexan 6 ай бұрын

Thank you David. My mom is doing better. I hope the stars (libraries?) align for you with Thunderclap. I really enjoyed it. Genre stretching wise, I felt like I had been neglecting SciFi and Fantasy out of some latent snobbery and wanted to overcome that. So far so good though Game of Thrones is slow going for me.

@MarcNash 6 ай бұрын

I'm still filing my canines for reviewing Rooney's book

@marianryan2991 6 ай бұрын

Enjoyed your thoughts on Thunderclap. I'm now reading the author's previous memoir, about her mother, On Chapel Sands. It also incorporates some art commentary but it's more loosely focused, so I sometimes opt to skim it. Homing in on a specific artist, and one whose story resonates with her father's, sounds likely much more effective.

@BookishTexan 6 ай бұрын

Thunderclap did feel a bit scattered at times, but it seemed to work with the subject and in reflecting the random associations the author made.

@pjreads 6 ай бұрын

I'm an avid science fiction/ fantasy reader who has never read Game of Thrones. Ursula Le Guin's Five Ways to Forgiveness would have been my recommendation to you. C. J. Cherryh's Forty Thousand in Gehenna is a science fiction book I've reread many times.

@BookishTexan 6 ай бұрын

@@pjreads Thank you for the recommendations. Glad to know I’m not the only one who hasn’t read GOT.

@kl-ge9bg 6 ай бұрын

I loved Sailing to Sarantium and its sequel, The Lord of Emperors, which I read earlier this year. (These are the only GGK novels i have read.) I have always been intrigued by Byzantium history, and have read Norwich's A Short History of Byzantium, an abridged version of his three-volume opus on Byzantium. Reading the GGK novels inspired me to buy the first in the full-length series, as well as a newly published biography of Justinian by Peter Sarris. Both are just sitting on my shelf so far though. 😅

@BookishTexan 6 ай бұрын

That is very good to hear. Thank you. Byzantine history is not an area of strength for me do I hope this books inspires me to non-fiction reading. Thanks for your comment.

@emmavd 6 ай бұрын

Thanks, Brian!🌷I must say that I loved both storylines in The Book of Form and Emptiness and felt a strong empathy for mother and son. I had read Thunderclap before it was longlisted for the WP. I live in the Netherlands and when I picked up my copy of the book in English (it had just been published), I was pleased to see that the Dutch translation had come out at the same time. I loved Laura Cummings’s fresh, personal reflection on Dutch art. I only found it a pity that she didn’t include more pictures of her father’s artwork. I also read The New Life last year and found it illuminating. 2023 was also my year for two other famous gay novels, Maurice and The Sparsholt Affaire, and I must admit that, as literary works, I found them better than Tom Crewe’s. I think Normal People was enough Sally Rooney for me. It was OK, but there are so many great books out there!!!

@BookishTexan 6 ай бұрын

I think I may have read too many novels that centered on young people and their trials in the months leading up to reading The Book of Form and Emptiness. Thunderclap was so great, but like you I wished it had included more of her father's art. Maurice is great, but I have never read The Sparsholt Affaire. I will have to look into that one. Crewe's novel was good, it just felt like something I had already read. Nothing about it felt special to me. Normal People should have been enough Rooney for me as well.

@readandre-read 6 ай бұрын

I have Thunderclap on my TBR. My library has been "processing" it forever. I have never been able to scrounge up any interest in Sally Rooney. As you know, I loved Blackouts.

@BookishTexan 6 ай бұрын

I hope you like Thunderclap. I don't think you are missing anything in Sally Rooney. Thank you for convincing me to read Blackouts.

@readandre-read 6 ай бұрын

@@BookishTexan 😊

@jimsbooksreadingandstuff 6 ай бұрын

Rembrandt is a lot more than painting Dutchmen in their fancy clothes (although it was one of the main sources of his income). He was a master of light. If you visit the National Gallery in London, you can see some of his self portraits and how he changed over the years particularly after the death of his son. Black Leopard Red Wolf (the "Black Game of Thrones") is on my July TBR, I had meant to read it for the Caribathon last month.

@BookishTexan 6 ай бұрын

Yes. That is one of the points Cumming makes clear in Thunderclap.

@jacquelinemcmenamin8204 6 ай бұрын

My reading in May and June has not been good. No books above 3 stars . The weather has been rotten. Summer here just means the rain is slightly warmer .I haven’t made a TBR for July as I’ve no enthusiasm at the moment. I had visions of reading in the garden in sunshine. It’s like autumn . Wrapped in duvet with big cups of tea.

@amyschmelzer6445 6 ай бұрын

Hugs. I hope your reading improves. I personally don’t enjoy reading outside, but I know how much the sun can have an effect on my mood. I grow a vegetable garden. It’s much more fun to pull weeds on a sunny day than on a gloomy gray one. When the weather is gray I would rather be on the couch with a blanket, cup of coffee, and a good book. Or a nap. I am a fan of those.

@BookishTexan 6 ай бұрын

Sorry to hear about your slump and that your last couple of months have been rough. Hoping your reading picks up and provides some solace for the weather and everything else.

@DebMcDonald 6 ай бұрын

I listened to Thunderclap on audiobook read by the author. You wouldn’t think it would work for an art book but it did because she described the art so well. I enjoyed it very much.

@BookishTexan 6 ай бұрын

When I started reading your comment my first thought was, “I don’t think this book would work on audio,” but I’m glad to hear that it did!

@MIDDLEoftheBookMARCH 6 ай бұрын

Sci-fi? Please consider N.K. Jemisin and Octavia E. Butler. Excellent authors.

@BookishTexan 6 ай бұрын

I read Jemisin's Broken Earth Trilogy, but havent gotten into her latest. I do need to read more Butler having only read Kindred.

@joshyaks 6 ай бұрын

Oh, some fantasy to look forward to! I never read much fantasy until about 5 years ago (previously I would alternate "literary" fiction books with nonfiction books), when the need to escape from my own brain lead me to start exploring the genre, and now I read more fantasy than anything else. Some thoughts on the books/authors you mentioned: -I've never read George R.R. Martin, for 2 reasons: 1) I watched the first season of the Game of Thrones TV series and didn't particularly enjoy it; 2) After being burned by Patrick Rothfuss's Kingkiller Chronicles series, I refuse to start reading any series that I know will never be completed by the author! -I believe that Ursula K. Le Guin is one of the more important authors of the last century based on the things she had to say about humans and our Western societies, but I'm surprised you're diving into one of her series rather than one of her strictly standalone sci-fi novels like The Left Hand of Darkness or The Dispossessed. -G.G. Kay's Sarantine Mosaic duology comprising Sailing to Sarantium and Lord of Emperors is some of my all-time favourite fantasy (it's a beautiful examination of our impact on the world and what it is that we leave behind in our short lives, with a particular emphasis on the arts and their ongoing contribution to society at large, set within Kay's fantasy re-imagining of Justinian 1 in 6th Century Constantinople), so I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! -My own all-time favourite fantasy novel is The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold.

@BookishTexan 6 ай бұрын

@@joshyaks That is high praise for GG Kay and I’m looking forward to starting soon. I agree about LeGuin, I just haven’t found her books that hit just right. Thanks for the insights and recommendations

@thearchive1132 6 ай бұрын

i remember really loving Normal People and tried to get into Conversations With Friends during a couple tea breaks in work (never a good idea) and found it very meh! It just left me cold. I'll be interested to hear what you make of A Game Of Thrones.....You know he'll never finish that series lol

@BookishTexan 6 ай бұрын

I agree about Conversations With Friends and that Normal People was much more effective and compelling. There is no way I’ll ever finish the GOT series, so George is off the hook with me.

@MMjones6459 6 ай бұрын

I generally avoid the Science-fiction genre, but found LeGuin's nonfiction very readable & informative.

@BookishTexan 6 ай бұрын

@@MMjones6459 I will look into her nonfiction. Thank you.

@annegibson6072 6 ай бұрын

Good morning. If you are interested in the effects of AIDS I highly recommend My Government Means to Kill Me. You may have already read it. Right now I am reading Praiseworthy by Alexis Wright. Britta talked about it. I am hoping it is on the Booker longlist though I don't think it is a book for everyone. I also think James by Percival Everett will be on the list. Stay safe.

@BookishTexan 6 ай бұрын

Thank you for the recommendations. I have been curious about Praiseworty. I agree completely about James.

@melissafirman1962 6 ай бұрын

Thunderclap was such a surprisingly great read for me. So much I didn't know. It will be one of my favorites this year. Haven't been able to get into Sally Rooney. I know people love her but I cannot connect with the writing or the characters.

@BookishTexan 6 ай бұрын

That was my experience with Thunderclap as well. It consistently subverted my expectations in great ways. I don’t think you are missing much with Rooney.

@ReinReads 6 ай бұрын

LeGuin’s Hanish Cycle are just loosely connected so don’t need to be read in any particular order. If you don’t connect with Rococo’s World you may want to jump ahead in publishing order. The first 3 are much more traditional SciFi of the time (mid-60s) as LeGuin is developing as an author. The next 3 is where LeGuin truly shines.

@BookishTexan 6 ай бұрын

@@ReinReads Thank you very much for that information. I may still go in order (part of the charm of Rocanons World) was the sort of dated style. But it’s good to know the order isn’t totally important and that I have better books to look forward to.

@clarepotter7584 6 ай бұрын

Alice is going to be missed by me, I have 'Thunderclap' which I'm hoping to get to soon. Please non combining Jane Austen and sci fi. I know there is a zombie version but I'm not going near it!

@BookishTexan 6 ай бұрын

I started Pride and Prejudice and Zombies last year (?) but couldn’t get through it. It’s a book with one gag and it’s stops working after about 100 pages

@FrankOdonnell-ej3hd 6 ай бұрын

I know rooney is a pretty hot author right now but I've never read her partly because I keep getting the impression her books are mainly about twentysomethings hopping into bed with each other though I know that's unfair and probably not true. didn't know fabricus was the artist who painted the goldfinch but that cover was about the only thing I really liked about her book haha⚛😀

@BookishTexan 6 ай бұрын

I think Rooney is already fading. I think here novels set before all the pandemic and post pandemic pandemonium are already showing their age. Your characterization of them is not wrong, but as you said there is more to it than just that.

@jimsbooksreadingandstuff 6 ай бұрын

Interesting selection of books, high school situations don't really interest me either.

@1book1review 6 ай бұрын

Sally Rooney is someone I can't get interested in. When NOrmal People came out I was constantly confused that the cover looked like something for me but everything people said about the book (and everything since about her writing) just doesn't sound for me at all.

@BookishTexan 6 ай бұрын

Normal People was much better than Conversation With Friends, but neither was great.