Books

Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

Just started, premise is interesting, i hope Marcos becomes a bit more than our depressed tour guide for this bleak world.

Berserk by Kentarō Miura Mangas count, don't they?

Just got the second volume of the english deluxe edition, and so far the drawings alone where worth the price.

The first Volume was basically an action packed rush through a grim dark world fighting demons, but the second volume seems to be a flashback to Guts youth and seems to focus more on Guts inner demons and how growing up as part of a mercenary band shaped and damaged the black swordsman we got to know in volume 1.

Recently finished 1Q84. Thought it was an excellent book. A few flaws here and there, but overall a great read, and worth it for such a long book. Then I make the mistake of looking on YouTube and almost everyone is trashing it (going off the click bait titles). I did not watch any of those stupid videos.

Am currently on book 2 of the Evan Tanner series. A complete change of pace from 1Q84. The plots are absurd, but it's an easy read. Guilty pleasure. I prefer Block's later stuff, but he said this series was his most original.

Started reading The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan as my new fiction book. Surprised that it seems pretty good for vampire fiction (though admittedly I have limited experience with the genre), at least the first 50'sh pages.

As my non fiction I just finished reading Schools and styles of Anthropological Theory, ed. Matei Candea. Good enough brief overview of the development and larger discourses affecting anthropology as a discipline.

I was plugging into my Bingo yesterday on StoryGraph but I was reminded about how I need to import my books from other programs there. I think I'm like 7/25 or something.

Audiobook: I was hoping one of my holds would come through Libby... During meantime, Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook by Matt Dinniman which is the third book of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. Just pure fun!!

Book: Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese. Its so good so far but I havent had a lot of time to sit down and read. Hope to get to more this week

Artemis was not as well received as his other works. I saw an interview with the author, and he explained how the main character was not very likable. Not a bad book overall, but not as good as some of his other works.

Link to the interview -> https://pca.st/episode/03b05ad5-6e89-43d7-bf05-1160d02f7f58

I just finished Michael Crichton's Prey again. The last time I read it was when it came out. It's still good. Don't know what to start next.

After finishing Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 by Hunter S. Thompson I opportunistically picked up Rutger Bregman's Humankind: A Hopeful History. It's pretty good, though I find some of his conclusions suspect, in part because I'm inclined to hope they are true. Underneath all this internet grime I am, after all, an optimist with high hopes for humanity. I have to be careful with that pesky confirmation bias.

I also picked up some comic books from the library to have some variety.

I'm at 13/25 books for bingo, but that's all I've been reading since May.

Currently a third of the way through Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark. I was craving a horror read, and this worked for bingo, so I picked it up. It's good so far, but seems more like an action adventure than the grim spookiness I wanted.

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Finished Malice by Keigo Higashino. A surprising number of lies got revealed in the second half, though I did get part of it right. Not jumping to read more by this author, but not opposed to it, either. Sidenotes: this is listed as #4 in a series, but the first 3 aren't in English, and it reads fine as a standalone; also, you may want to check content warnings for this one.

Bingo squares: What's Yours Is Mine, Bookception (hard), There Is Another (hard, if you count untranslated entries), Now a Major Motion Picture (a J-drama from 2001), Minority Author, (alt) Translated (hard)

White Noise -Don DeLillo

Im about 90 hours into The Wandering Inn. Ive read it before, but not the audio-book. Its very enjoyable and has a HUGE world.

The book series loves to fully flesh out characters and focus on their perspectives for quite some time.

A Tomb for Boris Davidovich - Danilo Kiš

The book of joy: lasting happiness in a changing world

Infinite Jest, which I WILL SOMEDAY FINISH (this is probably incorrect)

The wife upstairs - Freida McFadden I've been trying to read more fiction lately, just for a change ya know. Not bad.

I finished The Liar's Key by Mark Lawrence (Red Queen's War book 2). It's a fantasy-scifi blend leaning more towards fantasy, in a post-apocalytic setting. I struggled a bit at first but my enjoyment really picked up in the second half. I look forward to seeing how this trilogy will end.

I just started book 3, The Wheel of Osheim last night. I'm only a chapter in but I'm already finding it very gripping.

In between, I read Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane. This is a crime/thriller book taking place in South Boston in the 1970s. It features a significant event in Bostom's history from that time period (busing to desegregate the city) and a fictionalized version of the crime boss Whitey Bulger. I found it considerably better than most crime fiction I've read and thought the themes were heavy hitting and well done. I will say I wish the author gave a little more explanation of what he pulled from real life events at the end of the book.

For bingo, I've now read 7 books that qualify for at least one tile (I'm not counting multiple books from the same series - which has been the majority of my reading). I don't think I'll fill the whole board but I think I can achieve at least a couple bingos by the end.