Just got home from traipsing all over Scotland, and while there, I managed to finish up two books.
Humankind: A Hopeful History (Goodreads page) by Rutger Bregman was the first. It's a non-fiction that posits the theory that humans are inherently kind and that we are hardwired to help one another and work together for the betterment of all. Absurd, right?
Looking at the world today, I was reticent to read this, fearing it would be a naive, lovey-dovey, kumbayah distorted view of reality, but this was anything but, and it actually made me rethink my view of humanity. The twist here is that there is plenty of evidence that humans are primarily selfless, but that the society we've built skews toward selfishness (that is probably one of the most simplified and reductive descriptions of a book ever, but it should give you a rough idea of what to expect). Very, very interesting and I gave it five stars in my Goodreads review.
Another five star novel was The Mercy of Gods (Goodreads page), the first novel in the brand new series from James S.A. Corey, who wrote The Expanse series. Initially I was hampered a bit by my preconceptions of what this was going to be, but it didn't take long before it had drawn me in and thoroughly hooked me. A fantastic start of the new series.
Moving on from the mercy of gods to The Gods of Guilt (Goodreads page). I'm a few chapters in to this Mickey Haller (The Lincoln Lawyer) novel from Michael Connelly and it's quite strong so far. I may have mentioned this a few times, but Connelly's "Harry Bosch universe" has become comfort food for me at this point
Moved on to The Castle of Crossed Destinies by Italo Calvino. It's a fascinating pretext for an unusual novel. The travellers which comprise the story's narrators tell their tales through the use of tarot cards, as speech has been rendered null and ineffective within the Castle where the action takes place. I really liked the first story in the book, just started the second now.
Edit: I also think comparisons may be drawn with Chaucer. The Miller's Tale, The Knight's Tale, etc.
"Preoccupied with a single leaf, you won’t see the tree. Preoccupied with a single tree, you’ll miss the entire forest. Don't be preoccupied with a single spot. See everything in its entirety...effortlessly. That is what it means...to truly "see." "
@FuriousMachine Those all sound like fantastic reads, I will have to get the Expanse read as well. Hope you enjoyed your time here in Scotland.
I should be done with The Wager tonight. great book. I might have to read Killers of the Flower moon now and watch the movie. would be cool to see an adaptation of The Wager or any sea faring movie really, Might look into the books that Master and Commander with Russell Crowe was adapted from!
@MightyDemon82 Scotland was lovely as always and returning home has never been easy. After two weeks on the road, we were predictably tired and ready to go home, but ending with only two days in Edinburgh was a mistake. After only an hour I was ready to stay another two weeks
Have added "The Wager" to my list and "Killers of the Flower Moon" as well. The movie was good, but I don't think it's the Scorcese masterpiece everybody is hailing it as. For that it was too long and plodding for my tastes and I wouldn't rank it among his best. Still worth seeing, though, and the story is interesting, so the read will hopefully be interesting as well.
And thanks for reminding me about "Master and Commander"; need to see that one again soon. I imagine the source material has great potential and if I remember correctly, there are quite a few books in the series (I seem to remember that M&C was intended to launch a huge franchise)
EDIT: Yup, Goodreads shows 20 books in the series... just what my to-read list needs
I just finished Private Moscow by James Patterson and Adam Hamdy, a breezy read was given a pile of Patterson books by someone at work and I enjoyed that first one.
Next up Star Wars NJO: Vector Prime, not really a fan of the brand under Disney, so going to finally read all 20+ books in this series.
@MightyDemon82 Been thinking about getting into the SW novels, but decided to wait until I caught up with Michael Connelly and his Bosch Universe so as to restrict the amount of "infinitely long series" I'm reading to one at a time. Just finished book 26 of 39, so I may catch up some time in 2026
Just finished The Gods of Guilt (Goodreads page), a Mickey Haller (Lincoln Lawyer) novel by Michael Connelly and I think this is his best novel yet. Easily five stars for me, as I reflected in my Goodreads review. I think this could make a great adaptation, so I need to check if the existing (or upcoming) season of the Netflix series is based on this.
Speaking of series, Apple TV+ recently announced they're adapting William Gibson's Neuromancer (Goodreads page), so I decided to push "The Sprawl" trilogy higher on my reading list and it is now next up.
I read "Neuromancer" many years ago, back in my teens, but it was not the novel I expected (turns out Neal Stephenson's "Snow Crash" was the novel I expected from "Neuromancer"), so I came away disappointed. Having absolutely no memory of the novel, I now go in with a blank slate, expectation wise. Hopefully I'll enjoy it this time around
@MightyDemon82 Do you know if the NJO series is canon and if it has anything at all to do with the next Rey movie (which is called New Jedi Order, as far as I can tell)?
Just now finished Neuromancer (Goodreads page), the OG cyberpunk novel by William Gibson and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Having read it as a teen, the only thing about that experience I remember is that I was disappointed by it. I think that may have been due to the fact that I wasn't sufficiently proficient in the language at the time (I guess that goes as much for the tech language as well as the English language) to get a good enough grasp on it. Not a problem this time around, as both the novel and I have aged a bit since then I guess you can consider it retro-cyberpunk these days, in all the best ways! And I was stunned to find that my favourite bad-but-excellent movie, "Johnny Mnemonic", takes place in the same universe (the movie is, of course, based on a short-story by Gibson with the same name) and referenced in this very book. Brilliant! Looking forward to reading more stories from The Sprawl in the future.
But before I get to that, I'm continuing with the "John Cleaver" series by Dan Wells, with the second novel in the series, Mr. Monster (Goodreads page). I quite enjoyed the first in the series (though the movie was dull as dishwater) so here's hoping this one is equally good.
@FuriousMachine It was considered cannon, up until Disney bought Starwars. They just cherry pick elements from the expanded universe (EU) like Thrawn, I'll probably just read these and then close the book on Starwars. Unless I hear they have knocked it out of the park with future instalments!
@MightyDemon82 Yeah, right. I knew Disney trimmed a lot of the EU stuff and have been bringing some of it back piecemeal, but I wasn't sure about this one. Doesn't really matter if things are canon or not, but it's helpful to know in order to avoid confusion (I'm not ready to give up on SW just yet, though I'm not especially enthused about any of the upcoming projects save Andor S2)
"All I’m saying is that everything here is either boring or somebody dies. There’s either nothing going on, or there’s a dead body in the lake."
Such is teenage life in the small town of Clayton, situated "in the middle of Nowhere, USA", as they say. John Wayne Cleaver is almost sixteen, lives with his mother in an apartment over the town mortuary, which is also the family business, and is obsessed with serial killers. He is also a sociopath and knows he is one slip away from becoming a killer himself, so he has invented a strict set of rules he needs to follow in order to keep his dangerous side under control. The part of him he calls "Mr. Monster". When he had to tangle with a real serial killer, he found he had to bend and break many of those rules and the question now becomes: Can he still manage to keep Mr. Monster in check or have the chains been broken for good? Especially now that bodies are starting to pop up in this sleepy town once again?
"I always called corpses “it,” because . . . well, obviously. They’re dead. But apparently that kind of thing really bothered normal humans. It was just so hard for me to remember."
Mr. Monster (Goodreads page) is the second book in the John Cleaver series by Dan Wells and this was even better than the first one! As with the first one, this novel maintains tension from two angles: An external threat as well as John's internal struggle to remain a "normal human" and avoid hurting anyone. Gripping, disturbing and peppered with dark humour, this novel moves at a clip; I finished it in just three sittings. Five stars, easy!
Next up is the second novel in William Gibson's "The Sprawl" trilogy, Count Zero (Goodreads page)
Finished The Castle of Crossed Destinies ,a story told entirely through the presentation and interpretation of tarot cards by Italo Calvio, it was good, but not a profound literary masterpiece like The Plague was, still highly enjoyable, nonetheless.
"Preoccupied with a single leaf, you won’t see the tree. Preoccupied with a single tree, you’ll miss the entire forest. Don't be preoccupied with a single spot. See everything in its entirety...effortlessly. That is what it means...to truly "see." "
@MightyDemon82 Will do! I think the setting is pretty much the only connective tissue in the trilogy, with maybe some characters recurring here and there, if I'm not mistaken, so it will be interesting to see if the upcoming series will weave all the narratives together or if it will focus exclusively on the first novel. Either way, I'm eager to get through all the books before the series drops (maybe next year?) as I prefer experiencing a story for the first time through reading it before seeing the adaptation. I also learned the hard way, with Lord of the Rings, that you should always read all the books before seeing an adaptation based on one of them, if you don't want the adaptation to spoil one of the books
Started Telephone by Percival Everett, it's shaping up well, so far.
"Preoccupied with a single leaf, you won’t see the tree. Preoccupied with a single tree, you’ll miss the entire forest. Don't be preoccupied with a single spot. See everything in its entirety...effortlessly. That is what it means...to truly "see." "
@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN Sounds like an interesting read. Will add it to my constantly growing list.
I've finished Life of Pi, I'm surprised how little I remembered from the movie. There is a lot in the book that I can imagine wasn't in the movie, to keep the age rating down.
Next up Recursion. I loved Upgrade and Dark Matter, so I'm looking forward to getting stuck in!
@MightyDemon82 I like it so far, it is definitely an interesting read. The protagonist is some type of geologist who gets emboiled in some kind of consider-all-of-life's-mysteries=type-adventure. That's my assessment, compiled together with info from Goodreads anyway. Hope you enjoy!
"Preoccupied with a single leaf, you won’t see the tree. Preoccupied with a single tree, you’ll miss the entire forest. Don't be preoccupied with a single spot. See everything in its entirety...effortlessly. That is what it means...to truly "see." "
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