Book Spin Off- Favorite Current books

[estrellita]

Oct 17, 2024 14:32:31 GMT -5 shauni27 said:

Oct 17, 2024 14:20:30 GMT -5 7costanza said:

Rocky from Project Hail Mary is my all time favorite book character! I’m semi excited and semi dreading seeing how he’s portrayed in the movie.

same! Just made me think about ((waves arms wildly around)) everything in such a different way than I ever did before. I feel the same way about the film adaptation. I would LOVE to see it as a movie, like it was in my mind, but am scared to see how different it is than the book. It was just the most perfect book.

Joining you all! I'm excited to see it but really curious what they'll do with Rocky. I loved this book so much!

[emilyj]

So many of mine have been mentioned, but I’ll plug the entire Throne of Glass series by Sarah J Maas.

The entire series is badass women kicking ass. Every single man is secondary. One of my friends and I agreed it was more feminist than a majority of the feminist scholarship we read for our respective jobs.

[pixy0stix]

I can't choose. You can't make me.

[basilosaurus]

Oct 17, 2024 21:01:58 GMT -5 emilyj said:

So many of mine have been mentioned, but I’ll plug the entire Throne of Glass series by Sarah J Maas.

The entire series is badass women kicking ass. Every single man is secondary. One of my friends and I agreed it was more feminist than a majority of the feminist scholarship we read for our respective jobs.

That's quite an endorsement. Adding to my library list!

[estrellita]

Oct 17, 2024 21:22:21 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

Oct 17, 2024 21:01:58 GMT -5 emilyj said:

So many of mine have been mentioned, but I’ll plug the entire Throne of Glass series by Sarah J Maas.

The entire series is badass women kicking ass. Every single man is secondary. One of my friends and I agreed it was more feminist than a majority of the feminist scholarship we read for our respective jobs.

That's quite an endorsement. Adding to my library list!

I'll pile on. I loved this series. I'd love to see a Game of Thrones like show for it (though it's less gruesome and there's less sex). I loved so many of the characters, particularly the female characters.

I always have to remind people though that she started writing this series at 16, so the first book or two might not hook you right away. I think it was toward the end of the second that really pulled me in. Also, don't look up spoilers (I went in to that and ACOTAR knowing a few things and it was way more fun to see my H's unspoiled reactions when he read it!). There's a TON of debate on when to read Assassin's Blade, which is a set of novellas that tell some back story. I read it first but people will fight and say you should read it I think 4th usually. And also a lot of people insist you should do a tandem read of the two books before the last because the stories happen at the same time. I read them in order and enjoyed it but if you're interested in the tandem read, there are guides out there!

TL;DR The series is great but the fans can be CRAZY 🤣

[aurora]

estrellita, that's interesting about Maas starting that series when she was 16 and the books growing accordingly. I'll admit I found the first one a bit simplistic and didn't keep going as a result, but if they do get better maybe I'll try again.

[wildrice]

I don't have a "favorite book" so I'll just list some that I've rated 5 stars and as a bonus, that I think would be appropriate for literature curriculums if we want to replace some of the classics - they are a mix of things I like just because they are good, diverse authors/subjects, and things we should learn about:

Fiction:

By Any Other Name - Jodi Picoult (this is a different take on Shakespeare's story, where she makes the case that a woman wrote many of his plays!)

The Lion Women of Tehran - Marjan Kamali

The Little Liar - Mitch Albom

Remarkably Bright Creatures - Shelby Van Pelt

Horse - Geraldine Brooks

The House on the Cerulean Sea - TJ Klune

The Great Believers - Rebecca Makkai

The Heart's Invisible Furies - John Boyne

Pachinko - Min Jin Lee

The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas

The Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead

A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara (not appropriate for teens though, too heavy)

Americanah - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie




Non-Fiction

Know My Name - Chanel Miller

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City - Matthew Desmond (this is a MUST read)

Just Mercy - Brian Stevenson

The Warmth of Other Suns - Isabel Wilkerson

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

[glw]

Oct 17, 2024 16:58:25 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

Oct 17, 2024 10:01:55 GMT -5 aurora said:

I really like long series where I can get to "know" the characters really well. Some of my favorites are

A friend of mine, a school librarian, asked me what kinds of books I like, and I said character driven. She was impressed I was up with the more modern lingo instead of describing by genre. Except, I wasn't. It's just how I've always thought about it. I want books where they're my friends, and I'll reread if I need to visit them. Like, Anne of Green Gables, I'll read the whole series every few years.

Anyway, bookmarking this thread to put more books on my library list

I describe the kind of books that I like as "word porn". 

Don't care much about characters but a beautifully-crafted sentence really sends me lol.

[StrawberryBlondie]

Oct 17, 2024 17:40:07 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

Just finished Lisa See's most recent. I love nearly everything she's written.

Demon Copperhead was another highlight this year.

Last Tan's Circle of Women, or did I miss a release?

[wise_rita]

Am I the only person on earth who thoroughly disliked Fourth Wing?

The teeny bopper love story turned porno with the overly manufactured Hatfield vs. McCoy schtick was SO tiresome to me!

[emilyj]

Oct 17, 2024 22:47:20 GMT -5 estrellita said:

Oct 17, 2024 21:22:21 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

That's quite an endorsement. Adding to my library list!

I'll pile on. I loved this series. I'd love to see a Game of Thrones like show for it (though it's less gruesome and there's less sex). I loved so many of the characters, particularly the female characters.

I always have to remind people though that she started writing this series at 16, so the first book or two might not hook you right away. I think it was toward the end of the second that really pulled me in. Also, don't look up spoilers (I went in to that and ACOTAR knowing a few things and it was way more fun to see my H's unspoiled reactions when he read it!). There's a TON of debate on when to read Assassin's Blade, which is a set of novellas that tell some back story. I read it first but people will fight and say you should read it I think 4th usually. And also a lot of people insist you should do a tandem read of the two books before the last because the stories happen at the same time. I read them in order and enjoyed it but if you're interested in the tandem read, there are guides out there!

TL;DR The series is great but the fans can be CRAZY 🤣

I felt like she really found her voice starting in the 3rd book, and then it took off. 

Am I right in thinking that an ACOTAR show is actually in the works?  I would love TOG to be a show as well. 

[mx27]

Oct 20, 2024 4:06:24 GMT -5 wise_rita said:

Am I the only person on earth who thoroughly disliked Fourth Wing?

The teeny bopper love story turned porno with the overly manufactured Hatfield vs. McCoy schtick was SO tiresome to me!

Agreed. It wasn’t even okay for me, just bad. I did enjoy the hunger games (I say this just for comparison sake).

[wise_rita]

Oct 20, 2024 13:46:52 GMT -5 mx27 said:

Oct 20, 2024 4:06:24 GMT -5 wise_rita said:

Am I the only person on earth who thoroughly disliked Fourth Wing?

The teeny bopper love story turned porno with the overly manufactured Hatfield vs. McCoy schtick was SO tiresome to me!

Agreed. It wasn’t even okay for me, just bad. I did enjoy the hunger games (I say this just for comparison sake).

Yes!  The first Hunger Games was sublime.

[estrellita]

Oct 20, 2024 13:06:54 GMT -5 emilyj said:

Oct 17, 2024 22:47:20 GMT -5 estrellita said:

I'll pile on. I loved this series. I'd love to see a Game of Thrones like show for it (though it's less gruesome and there's less sex). I loved so many of the characters, particularly the female characters.

I always have to remind people though that she started writing this series at 16, so the first book or two might not hook you right away. I think it was toward the end of the second that really pulled me in. Also, don't look up spoilers (I went in to that and ACOTAR knowing a few things and it was way more fun to see my H's unspoiled reactions when he read it!). There's a TON of debate on when to read Assassin's Blade, which is a set of novellas that tell some back story. I read it first but people will fight and say you should read it I think 4th usually. And also a lot of people insist you should do a tandem read of the two books before the last because the stories happen at the same time. I read them in order and enjoyed it but if you're interested in the tandem read, there are guides out there!

TL;DR The series is great but the fans can be CRAZY 🤣

I felt like she really found her voice starting in the 3rd book, and then it took off. 

Am I right in thinking that an ACOTAR show is actually in the works?  I would love TOG to be a show as well. 

There was with Hulu but apparently it was scrapped recently. I believe there was supposed to be a TOG one too but it was scrapped a long time ago.

[basilosaurus]

Oct 19, 2024 17:43:48 GMT -5 StrawberryBlondie said:

Oct 17, 2024 17:40:07 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

Just finished Lisa See's most recent. I love nearly everything she's written.

Demon Copperhead was another highlight this year.

Last Tan's Circle of Women, or did I miss a release?

That was it. I need to wait awhile for my e-library to get books. So, it just came available to me.

And then I went on an image search to figure out what a 3 room marriage bed looked like. I also ask my Chinese speaking friends how to pronounce names because I hate not knowing how to read it in my head voice.

Also, I googled lot of pictures of bound feet. She treated it with such respect for that era of beauty, and it really made me think. Maybe someday someone will write about injected lips with the same reverence instead of the horror they make me feel LOFL

So, along those lines, one of the best books I've ever read was Wild Swans. As an American of a certain age, I didn't learn much about Chinese modern history, and that book taught me a lot even if it was largely fiction. Sure, my family joked about "kids are starving in China so eat your veggies" which they probably heard in the 60s, but did I actually know anything about great leap forward and the great famine? Definitely not. 

[wawa]

Oct 20, 2024 4:06:24 GMT -5 wise_rita said:

Am I the only person on earth who thoroughly disliked Fourth Wing?

The teeny bopper love story turned porno with the overly manufactured Hatfield vs. McCoy schtick was SO tiresome to me!

I will read total amazon unlimited schlock when I'm bored, so I didn't thoroughly dislike it, but....i wasn't for me.  I will still read the next one when it comes out because I like to know what happens, but it was a 1 star read.

I could go on, but I won't.  (but the pens. and the gym. and her mom's decision making. and the completely unnecessary and casual loss of life while fighting a major war....not to mention the plot holes)

[Vespasia]

Oct 21, 2024 15:54:42 GMT -5 wawa said:

not to mention the plot holes)

So many plot holes!!! And major continuity issues. I'm usually oblivious to those things but they really stood out here.

The second book was even worse and I imagine it got rushed out to capitalize on the popularity of the first one.

I somewhat enjoyed the general story and will probably read the next one but it will likely be a hate read. Particularly with how the last one ended.