Grand unified books thread

[Sheilbh]

Not sure if there are any murder myster/whodunnit fans here - but I quite enjoyed R.V. Raman's A Will to Kill.

There's lots of tropes of a golden age mystery: country house (though in India), elderly family patriarch with a large estate to divide, lots of motives and secrets to be investigated after a body's found. Which is interesting given that there are some plot points around art forgery and imitating the masters which makes it a little more pomo.

But I'd recommend if you like the genre and are looking for something new.

[Savonarola]

I finished CS Lewis's "The Discarded Image."  When I was in college I took a number of courses on English literature during the renaissance and seventeenth century.  I see now that this book was an influence on the professors that I had.  The book covers the cosmological model derived from Ptolemy and Aristotle and how that view influenced the literature of the middle ages, renaissance and into the seventeenth century (even as late as Milton who had met Galileo.)  The book is a fun read (if medieval cosmology is your sort of thing) Lewis manages to keep things moving throughout and even throws in a shoutout to Professor Tolkien.

[Berkut]

For the comic books graphic novels fans: https://www.humblebundle.com/books/humanoids-megabundle-featuring-incal-books

Sci-fi masterpieces & groundbreaking graphic fiction

Get transported to one of the most influential sci-fi dystopias of all time in this megabundle from Humanoids! Discover the groundbreaking The Incal series by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Moebius, then explore the wildest reaches of the universe in the The Metabarons saga. Add Space Bastards and more acclaimed graphic fiction to your collection, all while supporting comic creators through the Hero Initiative!

In case you missed them... The top two tiers of this megabundle include content from two past popular bundles from Humanoids: The Incal & More and Moebius & More.

Hmmm. Do you get the actual physical copies, or just digital versions?

[Habbaku]

PDFs, ePUB, CBZ only.

[mongers]

Today I learnt, whilst reading my Hamlyn Children's 'History of the World' by Plantagenet Somerset Fry* that Marshal Turenne was perhaps the greatest general in French history apart from Napoleon.

This in a chapter 54 which is entitled 'The Greatness of France' **




* Surely an author Shelf would approve of.

**Shirley an chapter Valmy would approve of.

[Syt]

PDFs, ePUB, CBZ only.

Yes, and this particular collection is all over the place, with some stuff only available as PDF.

[Syt]

I saw on the weekend that Adrian Tchaikovsky who wrote the excellent Children of Time I mentioned above apparently now also writes for Warhammer 40k.

[Berkut]

I saw on the weekend that Adrian Tchaikovsky who wrote the excellent Children of Time I mentioned above apparently now also writes for Warhammer 40k.

I liked the first book, and started reading his second, and was promptly bored for some reason. Should I perservere?

[Syt]

I saw on the weekend that Adrian Tchaikovsky who wrote the excellent Children of Time I mentioned above apparently now also writes for Warhammer 40k.

I liked the first book, and started reading his second, and was promptly bored for some reason. Should I perservere?

I admit I have yet to finish the second (kindle says about 35% in). It has a similar premise as the first book, albeit with other (multiple, I guess?) species and our human/spider friends thrown into the mix. It somehow didn't grab me much, either. I feel detailing the story of the species' uplift in the system by itself would have been fine, but it was actually the bits aboard the human/spider vessel that didn't grab me at all.

Alternately, I think I would have liked to see the further history of the spiders/humans inhabiting a planet together.

There's a third book in the series coming this year.

[mongers]

Happy 100th anniversary, 'Ulysses' published one hundred years ago today:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60080683


Yet another classic book I've failed to read. 

[Gups]

I saw on the weekend that Adrian Tchaikovsky who wrote the excellent Children of Time I mentioned above apparently now also writes for Warhammer 40k.

I liked the first book, and started reading his second, and was promptly bored for some reason. Should I perservere?

It's good but nowhere near as entertaining as the first one although more intellligent in some ways. 

He's extremely prolific. Seems to bring out 4 or 5 books a year. His series on bioforms Dogs of War and Breahead is very good.

[Savonarola]

Happy 100th anniversary, 'Ulysses' published one hundred years ago today:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60080683


Yet another classic book I've failed to read. 

I've read it three times; the first time I thought it was the greatest book ever written, the last time I thought it had flashes of brilliance (notably the Circe episode); but far too many parts where Joyce set out to demonstrate what a phenomenally clever writer he is (most egregiously in the tangents in the Cyclops episode, says I.) 

If you do decide to tackle it I recommend reading "Dubliners" and "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" first; he reuses characters from both books in Ulysses.

I do have a copy of Lettres Persanes from Shakespeare and Company.   

[Syt]

I have the Penguin edition of Ulysses. I've not finished the book itself (duh), but I loved the extensive foreword about the work's history. Especially that Joyce modeled the book around a very intricate structure of themes and motifs. He released the framework a few years lter, frustrated that no one seemed to notice it

[Sheilbh]

I love Joyce and Ulysses especially. What Sav says is definitely true, but I think it works despite the constant showing off

Trieste's a lovely city too

[Admiral Yi]

I think I made it to about page 5