Topic: Books You're Currently Reading?

Finished Prophet Song, a harrowing book about a mother doing her best to keep her family together as all hell breaks loose in Ireland!

Excited to start the next China thriller, The Fourth Sacrifice.

Rereading Areonaughts Windlass in preparation for book 2. It has been so long. I had to reread it. I forgot how good it was. Really interesting ideas from talking cats with clans as important as people to societies living in spires above dangerous mists. Jim Butcher really knows how to pull me into his worlds.

Finished the titular second story in Vathek and Other Stories by William Beckford. Fascinating stuff, it left an indelible impression on me and I'll have to read more of his stuff after I finish this book. One of the best short stories I have ever read, perhaps the best, but I'll have to let it sink in, in order to make my decision properly. Comparable only to Thomas Mann's short stories, definitely.

Closed out Peter May's "China Thrillers" series today.
Chinese Whispers (Goodreads page), the final full length novel, was probably the best of the lot, in my opinion. There were two instances where the main characters behaved quite stupidly, but I got over it quite fast. Well, the first precipitated some serious fallout in the latter half and that grated a bit, but the story was overall good enough to warrant five stars in my Goodreads review.

The short story The Ghost Marriage (Goodreads page), written six years after the final novel, suffered from being just that: a short story. It was very hard not wanting more, but it was a four star read nonetheless.

Now I'll be starting the next entry in my "return to King & Koontz" project, which is The Door to December (Goodreads page) by Richard Paige, which is, of course, a pseudonym for Dean Koontz.
My previous forays into Koontz' earlier work has been a great success, so looking forward to this one

@FuriousMachine I'm only on chapter 3 of the fourth Sacrifice, but I really enjoy Margaret and Li as characters. Looking forward to getting through all the books!

Haven't read any Koontz before might have to add his bibliography to the list. Damn you 😉.

@MightyDemon82 LOL Don't worry, he's only written some 90 odd novels or so... give or take I used to read him and King a lot in my teens, so I decided to revisit them both a little while back. I'd say Koontz' novels are more thrillers with a supernatural bent (though not always) compared to King's horror novels and some of his novels move quite fast and has had me on the edge of my seat at times.
I've only read five novels in recent times: "Whispers", "Twilight Eyes", "Phantoms", "Darkfall" and "Servants of Twilight" (as Leigh Nichols); all four stars from me, except the last one, which was a very solid five starrer. From my youth I remember "Lightning" and "Watchers" as favourites, so I'm looking forward to see if they hold up as well. There's plenty to choose from!

And I agree, Margaret and Li are great characters! There are some recurring ancillary characters I enjoyed quite a bit as well, in particular the gum chewing Wu and, of course, Mei Yuan.
Speaking of Peter May, I just discovered that he's releasing a follow-up to the excellent Lewis Trilogy in September, so I'm really looking forward to that!

Finished most of William Beckford's Vathek and Other Stories I just left some of his travel writing unread, as it all seemed to end up being much of a muchness, but the titular story and extract from Azemia were very good. Now onto Moscow Stations by Yerofeev, it's quite amusing so far.

I’m now reminded I have to finish The Disaster Artist, I keep restarting it.

Just finished The Door to December (Goodreads page) by Dean Koontz (under pen-name Richard Paige) as a part of my "return to King & Koontz" project. This one served as a rare disappointment, as my earlier forays into Koontz early work has been very enjoyable; this one felt just a bit too "samey" for me. By no means bad, it still garnered three and a half stars in my Goodreads review.

I've also started in on reading a physical book for the first time in a long, long while, and I intend to set aside a few hours every weekend to get through some of the physical tomes that have been gathering dust on my shelf, along with some comics TPBs I want to get to as well.
The first attempt ended literally in tears, as the book is extremely upsetting.
Terroristen fra Bærum - radikaliseringen av Philip Manshaus (The Terrorist from Bærum - the radicalization of Philip Manshaus) (Goodreads page) is a Norwegian non-fiction book from respected journalist Anders Hammer about a Norwegian 21 year old who killed his adopted younger sister and then attempted to shoot up a mosque, wanting to emulate the horrific Christchurch shootings and instigate a race war. Thankfully he failed and was apprehended before he could harm anyone else. I'm only a few chapters in, but they have been a harrowing description of his actions and the gut wrenching account of how the family slowly comes to realize that not only is it their son who's been apprehended for an attempted terrorist attack, but also that their daughter has been killed by the same disturbed young man.

On the digital front I'll be reading far lighter fare, as it is once again time to check in with detective Harry Bosch in Michael Connelly's The Black Box (Goodreads page)

I finished Butter, I enjoyed it quite a bit and want to look more into the Konkatsu killer that it was based on!

I have picked Wurthering Heights as my next read.

Just finished The Black Box (Goodreads page), a Harry Bosch novel from Michael Connelly. A good read with an interesting case, though it was far from the most interesting Bosch adventure I've read. I felt it was worth 3.5 stars in my Goodreads review.

Now I'm going to deep my toes into The Deep (Goodreads page), a horror novel from Nick Cutter that has been described as "The Shining" meets "The Abyss". Intriguing!

I finished Wurthering Heights, A lot different to what I thought it would be. Next up The Once and Future King by T.H. White. Always loved the King Arthur legends!

I just started The Angel of Indian Lake, the third book in the horror novel trilogy by Stephen Graham Jones. It’s pretty good so far!

@MightyDemon82 I'm interested to hear what you think about "The Once and Future King" when you're done. I've always been fascinated by the Arthurian legends myself, but I've never found any good books on it. I wouldn't mind something akin to Neil Gaiman's "Norse Mythology", where he retells the old Norse legends for a modern audience. The books by White looks to be much the same for King Arthur & co, so hopefully they're good

@FuriousMachine I'll let you know my thoughts when I'm done with it. I need to read more Gaiman. I own the Sandman omnibuses and American Gods. other than that I've only seen the adaptations like Coraline!

@MightyDemon82 I'm not that versed in Gaiman's works myself. I have read the Sandman TPBs up to and including "Dream Country", which is, coincidentally, pretty much where season 1 of the fantastic Netflix show left off. So, I'm going to try to get and catch up on the rest before season 2 comes out.
Additionally, I've read "Norse Mythology" and "American Gods", both of which I really enjoyed, but it's been a while since I read AG, so I may consider a re-read on that. "Good Omens", which he wrote with Terry Pratchett, is one of my all time favourite books and is absolutely brilliant. Read it three or four times and will probably read it again
And that's pretty much it. Haven't read or seen "Coraline", which I really should, I think.

@FuriousMachine I highly recommend Coraline, I haven't read it but the movie is superb!

@MightyDemon82 I definitely will There's a 15th anniversary screening of it in a local theatre, but that is unfortunately when I'm visiting bonnie Scotland. Which reminds me, you wouldn't happen to be familiar with the movie theatres in Edinburgh, by any chance? Alien: Romulus comes out a few days before we hit Edinburgh, so I'm considering seeing it there and I would love some recommendations for the cinema best suited for big spectacle films

About halfway through Moscow Stations now, still amusing and enlightening so far. Basically about a drunken train ride with lots of highbrow references scattered throughout.

@FuriousMachine I'm sorry, I can't help you with that. I've yet to experience the cinema scene in Edinburgh. I'll be going to see the Final Fantasy Orchestra in November, so will be checking out the bookstores then. Usually when I'm in Edinburgh, it's mostly for bands or alcohol related!