TC wrote:fiction.

Ding Ding Ding!

Time to catch up this thread.

Right now I'm reading Aasif Mandvi's "No Land's Man." It's a pretty good mix of humor and tales from his past.

Before that I read Creativity Inc. by Ed Catmull. The main focus is on things that make a creative business or enterprise work, but there are a lot of good Pixar and Disney stories in there along the way. I highly recommend it.

And before that I read the Divergent trilogy. The first two weren't too bad, the third one went off the rails. But I give them props for ending it the way they did. We'll see if Hollywood keeps that ending when the last film comes out (the first film was pretty awful as it was). I won't spoil it though since I know you'll all be standing in line on opening day.

Previous to that was Beyond Belief by Jenna Miscavige Hill. Those scientologists are a fucked up lot. And big on child abuse. Whatever you think about scientology, it's worse.

i'm curious about that last one, looking forward to the documentary/exposé.

TC wrote:i'm curious about that last one, looking forward to the documentary/exposé.

They take kids of sea-org members away from their families and send them to what are essentially forced labor camps, complete with physical abuse. It's pretty fucked up. Another part that stands out is when she slept with her fiancé without permission of the church and they took him away and hid him somewhere. She finally freaked out so much she went out on the ledge of the building and was about to jump if they didn't produce him. Later they got married and when she wanted to leave the church and he didn't, they told him if he didn't leave her he'd never get to see his parents again. Lots of messed up stories like that. Oh, and they did everything they could to break up Tom Cruise's marriage to Nicole Kidman because she wouldn't join the church.

Yeah, Beyond Belief is worth a read. It's amazing how much they mess with people. The church split up her parents on opposite coasts for about 2 years, and her mom ended up having an affair, and then she was disappeared to a prison labor camp for a long time to get rehabilitated. And that's how they treat people at the highest ranks!

TC wrote:nice! i've been plowing through the game of thrones books. i think i'm something like halfway through all five, i have a "bundle" that doesn't clearly designate books.

this was digitally, on an ipad mini. i found it difficult to get into. my son got me the complete GoT book set, and a couple more, for xmas last year and i'm currently about 25% through book 2. much more enjoyable reading a physical book. some small but important things different from the show so far, and the level of detail is much better. getting to "hear" inner monologues is great too. really adding another layer to the show so far.

finished book 5 (dance with dragons) yesterday. a few more minor things changed through book 3 (for TV, they consolidated some characters and events, etc.). book 4 was pretty different - about half the things were covered in the show in some way, the other half was not, or was completely different (the entire brienne saga, for example). by book 5, everything is completely unrecognizable from what they did in the show. my gripes about the latter seasons of the show - that they just pushed the accelerator to the floor, racing from spectacle to spectacle, instead of letting it breathe and developing characters like they did in the earlier seasons - is underscored, bolded, and highlighted in the books. book 5 came out a couple months after the first episode of GoT aired. the argument that "they got ahead of the books" doesn't really apply across the board until the end of season 5. they allowed some arcs to get past the books, but... why? that's on them. if they had kept the pace of the earlier seasons, let the characters develop, and followed the books more closely, they could still be airing seasons while we await the next books. so again i say fuck them for kind of ruining the last few seasons of GoT. they wrote themselves into a corner and paid for it in quality.

anyway, the books are great. now have a history of westeros illustrated book and then a 300 years prior targaryen prequel book. it's infuriating that GRRM allowed the show to air and get through all those seasons without fucking finishing the next book. by the time it comes out, it will have been 10 years. and there's at least one more after that one. the dude is old. fucking write already.

Snowblind - a new novel by author todd cameron. i only found out about it via the Outpost 31 facebook group. it's a "prequel" to The Thing, following RJ MacReady (or "MacCarter" for purposes of this book) along the events that led him to antarctica. i know it sounds like glorified fan fic, and i guess it technically is, but it's actually really good. i wasn't sure where it was going initially but it quickly picked up. i really quite enjoyed it. very well researched, with a lot of small details, and a significant number of easter eggs for fans of the film. it is pretty harrowing and takes some sometimes brutal turns. if you are a fan of the film you should quite enjoy this. i would love to see it adapted for the screen, actually. could be really great. it's 500 pages but font is a little larger than most books and it was a quick read. wonder what carpenter thinks about it...

Fire & Blood - just finished this book this morning. given it's essentially a 3rd-person perspective on the Targaryen history and their centuries of conquering and ruling, i didn't expect to like it very much. i expected it to be very dry. i was quite pleasantly wrong. while it is that, it's done in such a way as to remain very compelling. so much happens during this time that i now cannot wait for the prequel series. has potential to be even better than GoT was in the first few seasons. highly recommended for anyone that's a fan of the GRRM-created world as this fleshes out what has only been told in anecdotes in passing, well beyond expectations.

A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms - finishing up the existing GRRM GoT world books, this is a collection of three previously published novellas that takes place a century before the events of GoT. It follows the adventures of a squire to a hedge knight, who eventually becomes a hedge knight himself, Sir Duncan The Tall (hereafter called Dunk) and his eventual squire, called Egg (seemingly named after his bald head). The adventures of Dunk & Egg take place somewhat overlapping the events of Fire & Blood, and set up some of the events of GoT. It’s really great, quite humorous and fascinating to get a “normal person’s” perspective rather than being told from the perspective of royalty, a member of a great house, or a maester. Frankly, I loved this book and wish this would have been the next thing they adapted into a series. It would have been a nice breath of fresh air between extremely drama-heavy GoT and F&B. But, we will be getting F&B later this year, which again I saw will be awesome, it’s just that this would really be an excellent complement to the other shows. As it says on the back cover, “Long before Tyrion Lannister and Podrick Payne, there was Dunk & Egg.” It definitely holds that dynamic, but also some more Brienne and Pod dynamic as well. And, the way it sets up certain things, which I won’t spoil here, if awesome. Excellent background you didn’t know you needed in your life. If you’re looking for something in that world without all the nobility and dragons, this is right up your alley. Also, it’s very short by GRRM standards - the oversized paperback version clocks in at 355 pages, with a lot of illustrations by Gary Gianni. Maybe if enough people buy this, we’ll get an adaptation. But, I’m betting that more likely depends on how well F&B does. It’s just apples and oranges, such a completely different tone. While it started off kind of slow and I wasn’t sure where it was going, once I figured it out and adapted, it was a very welcome change of pace. Again, if you can’t tell, recommended.

Midnight Pass novella and Hurricane Hole novel - two newer works from the aforementioned Todd Cameron. they take place "in the same universe" as the great Snowblind that i discussed above, which means there is a connection - really at the end of the novel - to the world of Snowblind. that shouldn't really be the draw, as it's not a big part, just more of an easter egg for those that read the first novel. Midnight Pass is very short, and while it's a stand-alone story, it's kind of an intro to what happens in Hurrican Hole, so i'll just focus on the latter. it was another quick read from Cameron, and while it didn't have the same subtext of "prequel to The Thing" as Snowblind, i did quite enjoy it. i do have a couple small gripes. the first few chapters are spent having us really relate to and begin to like the absolute piece of shit Travis, and because of that, when his turn happens, it feels very sudden and out of character. yes, i realize that at this point he had already killed a few people, but even so, it felt very sudden. but once that turn happens and you shift perspective, it becomes more enjoyable. again, quite harrowing, as it mainly takes place during hurricane Charley, with a lot of tension, twists, and turns. really no happy ending for any of the main characters, but one of the subcharacters really fills out and enables the coda, which ties to the "universe", to happen, and gets her a kind of happy ending, with an undertone of menace. the other gripe is that Todd needs a new editor. just like Snowblind there are a handful of typos in here, but there is also one line near the end that inadvertently swaps names, rendering it to be nonsense unless you are paying attention to the context and actively overlook it. but it certainly should stop the reader short and make them re-read that set of lines to understand it was a mistake. again, it's not full of typos and mistakes, but the few that are there are distracting and absolutely avoidable with a better editor. regardless, this second novel establishes that Todd has a career ahead of him, and i'll be paying attention. it's a "fun" action/adventure/treasure hunt, and again, a quick read. i enjoyed it.

Dark Matter - a friend recommended this novel to me, written by Blake Crouch of Wayward Pines fame, as he knows my background and interest in theoretical physics. solid recommendation, as i ended up reading this novel in one day. it's really good, written by a guy that's self-admittedly not a physicist, but he talked to plenty of famous people who are, enough to explain what's happening in a "layman" type of way. it's a sort of love story that happens to take place in a world where the multiverse has been proven to exist. i don't really know how else to explain it without spoiling things. there is a lot going on in this book, and when i finished, i did some research - it appears Apple TV has acquired the rights to this and is producing a series (at least 9 episodes), which is the right move. i know for a while he was shopping this around as a film, but i feel like that's not really the right format to tell this story. a limited series should provide enough time to spend with these characters and the complex plot to be successful. lots of opportunity for absolutely crazy visuals and effects, tons of different worlds that can be built, while still maintaining the focus on the core story of a man trying to get back to his wife and son. looks like the show may land later this year or next, so i'd recommend reading this before watching the show. from what i've read, they are adding a character for the show, which i don't really understand why, but remains to be seen. jennifer connelly has been cast in the lead female role, which certainly guarantees i'll watch it (or at least attempt to - even she couldn't save the terrible Snowpiercer series for me). anyway, quick read, engaging subject, well-written - recommended if you like ... sci-fi, i guess? although, again, it's more a personal drama.

House Of Leaves - I know i’m late to the game with this one, as it was apparently a big thing on the internet in the early days, Poe - the singer, not the author - has a record about it (and is the author’s sister), and it was published over 20 years ago. It was completely off my radar, but my son read it and got it for me as a gift, so I checked it out. Author is Mark Z. Danielewski, this was his debut. He has apparently continued writing and has several other things published. How to describe it… in the world of the book, there is this “found footage” style documentary, shot, filmed, edited, etc., by an award-winning photographer, about a mysterious “space” that appears within his family home. Unnatural geography, the interior space is larger than the exterior of the house, etc. It’s something everyone has seen and talks about. The book is written from the POV of “Johnny Truant”, a young, wild, sex/drugs/drinking-loving guy who works at a tattoo shop. He discovers that a crazy old man he used to see in the courtyard of an apartment has died, leaving all his work in his apartment. His work was doing a complete, annotated analysis of the aforementioned documentary film. Johnny decides to dive into this and start reading. So the book is really publishing the old man’s writings about the film, interjected with commentary from Johnny about what doing this analysis of the analysis is doing to him, his life, etc., as well as anecdotes about his life. Also, the book tries, where possible, to retain the physical layout style of the research, or layout the pages in a specific way to emphasize the mood/setting/story/etc. on the pages. So you don’t really read this in the traditional way, there are a ton of footnotes as though it’s a reference book, and there is some physical manipulation required (turn the book sideways, upside down, etc.) in sections. There are also appendices that have exhibits references, photos, letters from Johnny’s crazy mom that include secret messages to decode, etc. It’s a very unusual book. The actual story of the film gets really creepy in a Lovecraftian way, getting into “the dark”, impossible geometry, spaces older than time, etc. It’s pretty wild. The rest of it is interesting, sometimes more effective than others. I found some of it to be annoying and off-putting, which I believe to be the entire point - he does this in certain parts to make you more uncomfortable and annoyed with the interruptions, which lends to appreciating the moment in the main storyline more, etc. I also found the manipulation required unwieldy for the most part - the book is already large and, because of the partial cover fold-out, difficult to hold/read - so thankfully that doesn’t happy too often. This book gets a lot of love and has apparently been fans hold somewhat sacred, going back and re-reading several times to pick up new things they missed. I found it to be interesting and at some engaging, but ultimately kind of frustrating. You don’t really get an end to any of the stories. They just kind of reach what I guess feels like a natural ending, but because of the absolutely unreliable narrator(s), you’re left not really feeling like you can trust what was written or know what happened. So I’d say reading it was an interesting experience, it was certainly unique and at times a page-turner, but I’d say your mileage may vary on this one. The style won’t be for everyone. Again, I realize I’m late to the game on this and most people that would read this already have, but that’s my take.

Yeah, I read this a while back and had a similar take. An interesting journey reading this thing. Challenging and dull at times, engrossing at others. It was quite a feat as a first book though. I haven't read any of his others.

The Fountainhead - I know, I know - only about a century late to this one, but I avoided it for a very long time. Really, anything of Rand’s, after hearing so much negativity about it out there in the world. Yes, even after so many love letters about the source material from Neil Peart, I didn’t trust it. How foolish of me. This is a fucking monster of a novel. So much going on here that I love. So many fantastically perfect points drawn, even if this is more poem in parts than novel, just given how certain characters fit perfectly into their ideal. I get that this is done for literary purpose in point-making, and it works for me. I guess some of the things Rand puts forth are “controversial”, but after reading this, I can’t really see how any reasonable, logical, thinking person would say so. Well, maybe if you are religious, you would find those qualities offensive? I don’t know. I certainly don’t get it. As someone “involved in the arts” (I hate saying I’m an “artist” - I play drums in a metal band - but I’m not not), I relate so much to so much of this book. It hits me exactly where intended, I believe. Also as someone who has long seen how the media and politicians play people, this hits perfectly. So maybe I’m Rand’s target audience? I don’t know. But I love this book, cheesy ending notwithstanding. I can forgive that, given the times. I mean, WW2 was happening and very dark, so a little happiness at the end is forgivable. Now I want to read her other things, so guess I’ll work backwards a bit and see how that goes.