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Pit Book/Discussion Thread

Infidels and disloyalty all- Youngblood should be the FIRST book you read this summer.....
 
KickballDeac said:
Recently finished the Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff Vandermeer. Got progressively better. Also currently being adapted by Alex Garland, writer/director of Ex Machina.
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I read the first and really dug it, but heard that the rest were progressively worse. Maybe I'll check them out.
 
wakephan09 said:
I read the first and really dug it, but heard that the rest were progressively worse. Maybe I'll check them out.
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Reviews seem to be all over the place, but it generally seems like people who liked the first book didn't like the second and third. I actually didn't like the first book at all. The second two are completely different from the first, and IMO are much better written. I'd say give the next book a shot knowing that you're going into totally new territory, writing-wise. Nothing gets explicitly answered (which is the source of a lot of readers' frustration), but there's enough there to piece most things together I think.
 
KickballDeac said:
Reviews seem to be all over the place, but it generally seems like people who liked the first book didn't like the second and third. I actually didn't like the first book at all. The second two are completely different from the first, and IMO are much better written. I'd say give the next book a shot knowing that you're going into totally new territory, writing-wise. Nothing gets explicitly answered (which is the source of a lot of readers' frustration), but there's enough there to piece most things together I think.
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Good to know, thanks. I thought the "nothing gets explicitly answered" thing was one of the most intriguing things about the first.
 
Tree of Smoke was a really good war novel. Defs check it out.

Argonauts is great. Really dig Nelson's style.

Hoping to check out The Sellout by Paul Beatty soon.

Lotta non-fiction on deck.
 
Bluets was moreso that way for me than Argonauts, but I'd read most anything she wrote.
 
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It's been a while, book thread. Lots of stuff since I last posted.

Europe: A History by Norm Davies was very good. I thought he did an excellent job of tying events together and painting consistent themes. One criticism is the incredible number of sidebars he included, most of which were superfluous, if not outright irrelevant. I started skipping a lot.

Completed a read-through of New Atheism (disclaimer: I'm a Christian), knocking out Breaking the Spell (Dennett), God Is Not Great (Hitchens), The God Delusion (Dawkins), and The End of Faith (Harris). That's probably the order I'd rank them in. Dennett doesn't really fit in with the rest; he doesn't so much attack religion as try to offer and defend a theory about how it arose and why it survived. Hitchens's is the best-written, but doesn't engage a whole lot with defenses of religion. Dawkins is the most thorough, but struggles with philosophical arguments. Harris is mostly a rant, but I did find it interesting towards the end where he discusses consciousness and rejects materialism.

Atlas Shrugged was different and not as miserable as I expected. The writing isn't great, but the characters and story were decent, and it could have been a pretty good book if Rand weren't so intent on beating you over the head with her philosophy. Portnoy's Complaint was the first book by Roth I've tackled. It's very well-written, and it's easy to see why it's critically acclaimed and of cultural significance. I didn't like the plot (to the extent there was one) enough for it to be one of my favorites, but still well worth reading. In a way, it reminded me of the Studs Lonigan trilogy, which I also read recently. Depressing, but good and I feel like it pretty accurately captures the frustrations of young men in that era.

Finally, I read Bruce Catton's trilogy about the Army of the Potomac. Fast-paced, well-written, and insightful. Great series that is near the top of my Civil War list (and that's saying something).
 
I rarely find time to pick up a book, but when I do I really enjoy Roth. Thanks random elective professor that assigned Human Stain!
 
TownieDeac said:
There are so many good Roth novels, OGB. Ghost Writer, American Pastoral, Human Stain, Plot Against America. Probably a top 10 20th Century American novelist.
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Would be interested in some of your other nominees. I put forth Vonnegut, Morrison, Steinbeck, and Baldwin. DeLillo and Updike never did it for me, but probably make many folks' lists. Faulkner is on there.

I read American Pastoral, which I believe is only Roth I've ever read. It was very good.
 
I really dislike Toni Morrison. Beloved is one of the worst things I have ever read.

(hot take alert)
 
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Read the new Harry Potter play last week. Only took a few hours to get through. It's about what you would expect. There's a familiar teen angst whininess to it that was pretty pervasive in the books.
 
Just discovered J.M. Coetzee this summer. Instantly became one of my top two or three favorite writers. Finished Waiting for the Barbarians and Disgrace in about four days. Disgrace is fabulous.
 
I finished Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me which was a wild ride, but ultimately just alright. Gnossos was an interesting dude, though.

But man, that book should not have taken me that long to finish. I am in a bad streak. It was one thing to take forever to read the Elvis Costello memoir, but this was relatively light. I don't even remember what I read in between the Costello and the Fariña, maybe The End of the Road, but I feel like there was something else.

Anyway, I just needed some light fare so I picked up The Prestige since that is my favorite Christopher Nolan movie, and I might alternate between that and Dylan's Chronicles vol. 1. Both of those should be fun and easy and maybe get me going. Shiiiiiiiit, I need to get hooked into something.
 
Deacsfan27 said:
I really dislike Toni Morrison. Beloved is one of the worst things I have ever read.

(hot take alert)
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Have you tried Song of Solomon? Great book. Eh, you probably wouldn't like it. Nevermind.
 
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inspectah said:
Just discovered J.M. Coetzee this summer. Instantly became one of my top two or three favorite writers. Finished Waiting for the Barbarians and Disgrace in about four days. Disgrace is fabulous.
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His grandson was my year at Wake, so there are some WFU ties which is cool.
 
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