this post was submitted on 03 Apr 2025
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Very busy couple of weeks, so didn't actually read anything.

Still on Streams of Silver by R. A. Salvatore, 2nd novel in Icewind Dale series, which is a subseries of Forgotten Realms series (D&D world).

What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?

Also, Book Bingo is near it's end, so get your Bingo cards ready!


For details, you can checkout the initial Book Bingo, and it's Recommendation Post . Links are also present in our community sidebar.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I'm still reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. My area had some unexpected weather a couple weeks ago so I've been off my usual routine.

The book is good and I'm about half way through. I want to finish it by tomorrow.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Nice. I should read it sometimes too. It has been on my backlog for so long.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Just finished Thrawn Ascendancy: Chaos rising. Next up, the second in the series.

It was such a great book. I can't wait to read the rest of the series

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago (2 children)

How is it, if you haven't read any Star Wars novel, and have only watched the movies?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I will also say that the star wars books, from what I have seen, aren't sequential. You can start anywhere in the universe and it doesn't matter, notwithstanding the actual series books, like Thrawn series and whatever. It's more like Terry Pratchett's Discworld. It's a bunch of independent stories set in the same universe.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Any recommendations for interesting starting points?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Not really. I'm pretty new to the Star Wars novels. I've literally read two, and they are both part of the same series. But FWIW, I am reading the Thrawn Ascendency series, and it's pretty damn good.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I am in the same situation. I have not read any other SW books, and have only seen the movies.

It's great. I can't put my Kobo down. It's enthralling, it's enticing. It's very well written. I love it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Cool. Thanks for the info!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Perfect Victims And The Politics of Appeal by Mohammed El-Kurd

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It seems to have nice reviews, what do you think about it? Does it cover the conflict for mostly ignorant?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

if you are interested in books for the mostly ignorant may I recommend instead: Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner's Guide by Ben White

Ten Myths about Israel by Ilan Pappé

The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017 by Rashid Khalidi

For more on israel's crimes: The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappé

The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World by Antony Loewenstein

Environmental Warfare in Gaza: Colonial Violence and New Landscapes of Resistance by Shourideh C. Molavi

Gaza Unsilenced edited by Laila El-Haddad and Refaat Alareer

you may have heard of Refaat Alareer, a prominent Palestinian writer and poet who was assassinated (very much the same way Ghassan Kanafani was) in December 2023. There is a collection of his poems and writings released in memory of him in 2024 called If I Must Die: Poetry and Prose that is also worth a read. There are also way more books, fiction or nonfiction, by Palestinian authors that are very much worthwhile once one gets a better understanding of the history of settler colonialism.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Thanks for the info. I'll take a look at these.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Reading the Patternmaster books by Octavia E. Butler. Weird but interesting. Definitely not hitting like the Xenogenesis books did but still seem good so far.

Also re-reading the Expanse books because I just read The Mercy of Gods by James SA Corey and it made my love of the expanse series resurface.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

How are the Xenogenesis books? They look interesting.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

They're really interesting. As with a lot of Butler's works, they're extremely human which is a bit surprising for science fiction books. She is able to juxtapose aliens against humanity and use it to highlight aspects of our selves and talk about them. I would say that if you're mostly looking for a good narrative with something that conforms to the standard story arc you may be disappointed, but otherwise they are a must-read imo.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

That sounds interesting. Thaks for the info!

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Listening to Project Hail Mary. I've been utterly absorbed by the story and the scientific concepts being pushed around.

I never took physics and didn't take much math for my job but am jealous of people who have a natural, stronger affinity for those subjects

[–] Lighttrails 7 points 6 days ago

Shout out to my boy Rocky

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Finished the fifth book in the "dungeon crawler Carl" series, and decide to step away from that for a while. The fifth book was a lot longer than the previous four, and this doesn't work out for me (I know, just weeks ago I complained about the novella format of most murderbot books:)). After that read through "midnight black" by Mark Greaney, which was nice, but not the best in the gray man series imo. Now about a third through John Scalzi's "the collapsing empire". So far a nice book, but I liked most books in the "old man's war" series better.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

Hehe, it happens. Some books are too short and some books are too long. It's nice to have the book that's just the right size.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Currently reading Food And Society In Classical Antiquity.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

How are you liking it so far?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Almost finished with it. It's somewhat more of an 'overview' than I was expecting, but I've learned a lot. And not all of it about antiquity - did you know that whole wheat bread isn't healthier than white bread? Fuck, I ate wheat bread as a kid for nothing?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

Heh, didn't know that. Good thing I didn't force myself to eat those 😀 White Bread FTW!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I just finished reading The Mercy of Gods by James S. A. Corey (authors of the Expanse series). Overall I really liked it and am excited for this series! I feel like the characters haven’t hooked me as much as the characters from the Expanse series, but I’m going to give them more time to develop.

I am now reading The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett. This one has surprised me how much I’ve enjoyed it so far. I have read his Founders trilogy and Divine Cities books and found them hit or miss.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago

Felt exactly the same about the Mercy of Gods.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago

Lonesome Dove on audiobook. The production quality is pretty bad, but the story is good.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Just started Holly by Stephen King. I have no idea what’s happening. I got it as a gift for Christmas and left the book cover at home so no summary.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

I prefer to start books without reading the summaries. Sometimes they spoil some stuff even 50 or 100 pages in.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Not Till We Are Lost

Latest book in the bobiverse.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago

Great book!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (5 children)

Speaking Bones - Book 4 of the Dandelion Dynasty by Ken Liu. This is probably one of the best fantasy I've read. The setting is based off of ancient China. It's similar to Game of Thrones in the sense that there's a lot of world building, there's no main character, no one is safe from death and the fantasy is lightly applied.

It introduces interesting ideas like storing electricity in objects made with glass, intestines and gold, then utilizing it in warfare. Also logic gates implemented with just basic materials like wood and ropes. Basic AI (non-ML). Etc.

I'm quite confident anyone who enjoys programming will enjoy this series.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I have started reading 'The Master and Margarita'. I am only a couple of chapters in and its pretty wild already.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I just finished Shades of grey by Jasper Fforde. What a weird fascist dystopian future. It took a long time to get interesting and only the last 15% got me to actually want to know more. I don’t think I will read the rest of the trilogy.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

He just released the second book recently after so many years, and while I haven't read it myself, haven't heard many great things about it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago

Just finished The Will of the Many by James Islington. Fantastic book. Gonna be champing at the bit until the next one releases in November.

Next up will be The Fifth Age, but I haven't cracked it open yet. I will later tonight.

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