this post was submitted on 17 Nov 2024
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I'll start first: (bear in mind I usually listen to audiobooks)

  • Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir |A guy finds himself stranded in space aboard an international space vessel where he has to remember who he is.
  • The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater |A true story about how hanging with the wrong crowd can have life-altering consequences
  • The Animorphs series by KJ Applegate |Young adult series in which a group of kids find an alien, get the powers to morph shape into animals, as well as uncover an alien takeover conspiracy (Plus, detailed depictions of how grotesque those transformations are!)
  • Saga by Brian K. Vaughn & Fiona Staples (Comic, ongoing) |Following the story of Hazel, a baby born from an ex-soldier and an enemy combatant, Saga shows how gowing up and raising a kid in a wartorn universe can have highs and lows.

Edit: added pipes for better separation

top 48 comments
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[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 minutes ago* (last edited 6 minutes ago)

I’m Starting To Worry About This Black Box of Doom by Jason Pargin. It’s an excellent thriller, with a great exploration of how Internet rumors can spill over into the real world

[–] [email protected] 2 points 12 hours ago

The Impending Blindness of Billie Scott by Zoe Thorogood.

I'll just steal the description from Amazon "Billie Scott is an artist.

Her debut gallery exhibition opens in a few months.

Within a fortnight she'll be completely blind.

Zoe Thorogood's first graphic novel is a story about what it's like to get something you want, have it immediately taken away from you and then how you put it all back together again. Set in a world of people down on their luck from Middlesbrough to London, it's a graphic novel that speaks of post-austerity Britain and the problems facing those left behind."

The art is great, the characters feel real, and the issues with it are minor. I read it for a book club and loved reading this and discussing it

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

She is a master of language. I love her style.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Project Hail Mary was much more of an emotional ride than I was expecting.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

🎶 ~Jazzhands~ 🎶

[–] [email protected] 2 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

I'm currently listening to For We Are Many, the 2nd book in the Bobiverse series by Dennis E Taylor. I'd previously read them all, but the newest is currently only an audible exclusive, so I downloaded a copy and listened to it and loved it and am now listening to the rest of the series. Basic plot: a modern guy gets a service to freeze his brain upon death. He then does and is awoken and turned into a self replicating space probe and Earth goes into nuclear war and the probe tries to help where it can and explores. It's a really good and fun read.

I'm also re-working my way through the Anne Rice Vampire series. Haven't read them in a couple decades and wanted to get re-acquainted. currently on book 4. it's crazy what you retain and what gets dropped after many years.

I've found some of the random $1 for a 9 e-book set books that Amazon offers haven't been bad.

You mentioned Animorphs and thats one that I've got to give a re-read at some point. I get partway through another read through every couple of years. I'd love it if Katherine Applegate could re-work the series as an adult series. It's so good.

Starter Villain by John Scalzi was also a great read earlier this year. Absolutely love Scalzi. Basic Plot: Poor guy inherits his Uncles evil villain organization and tries to navigate his way through the shenanigans that ensue.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 12 hours ago

Look up Theft of Fire by Devon Ericson.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Robert Fagles. My first time reading an ancient classic, and it's much less scary than I thought. In fact I'm quite enjoying it, and might read The Iliad (Homer's other epic poem) next. The humanness of the characters (well, the human ones!) is very relatable, even though it's 2700 years old. I don't know why I expected it to be crusty and boring. Maybe I assumed it'd be like the Bible.

The intro explains a lot of stuff about the original Greek poem and how it was written in dactylic hexameterwhich bards back then used to be able to improvise in, which is amazing to me. Reminds me of 8 Mile or something. 😅

[–] [email protected] 1 points 41 minutes ago

If you read a modern bible translation from the perspective of christian mythology just as we treat Greek mythology a lot of the stories are actually fantastic reads

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Watership Down. Way better than I thought 🙂.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

I'll take "Books that made me sob like a baby" for $500, Alex.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Mistborn: The Final Empire, by Brandon Sanderson. An epic fantasy.

I loved it and just started the second book.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Oh you are in for a treat. I love that trilogy. Such good books.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 54 minutes ago

Thanks for the encouragement!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

Algorithms To Live By, applying computer science and mathematic principles to real life. Helping make better decisions that are provably more efficient. Really interesting and anyone who has any interest in computing can get a lot from the book.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 23 hours ago (1 children)
  • The Mercy of Gods: The first book in a new trilogy from the guys behind The Expanse.
  • How to ADHD: Because I wasn't diagnosed until 40 and now I have to rethink everything about me.
  • My War Gone By, I Miss It So: The memoir of a British war zone journalist who covered the Bosnian War and other Balkans conflicts. I originally read it decades ago but was reminded of it after watching Civil War earlier this year. I heard lots of criticism about the main characters in that movie not being relatable or very likable so I picked this back up to confirm that yes, that's accurate, and I think part of the point of the movie...
[–] [email protected] 3 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

How is the ADHD book? Actually helpful?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 21 hours ago

Yeah, I would recommend it. My biggest takeaways from it so far have been understanding how many of my habits and personality quirks are actually coping strategies that I just didn't realize. Like, I always thought I just happened to like chewing gum all the time because I enjoyed the minty flavor. Turns out the repetitive chewing motion can actually stimulate the dopamine I crave. I thought everyone has a collection of rhyming phrases or little songs that they only say in private and we all collectively pretend like we don't because it's embarrassing. Turns out that's verbal or auditory stimming. It's been great in that regard, helping me understand why I am the way I am.

Can't really speak to how effective any of the ADHD management techniques in the book are since I'm still working through it and trying to take things onboard, but the author also has a very popular and successful Youtube channel where you can probably find all the same information and more if you're interested.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

Just finished The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. Her imagery is beautiful and you can feel her talent. It's a an autobiographical roman à clef of her struggling with bipolar disorder/depression. And the only book she wore before taking her life when the love of her life left her for another woman.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 17 hours ago

Anne Applebaum - Autocracy Inc.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 17 hours ago

Sundown Towns, a book about the history of American racism, specifically the number of towns that had signs up warning black citizens not to be there after sundown. Spoiler: it was pretty much most of the towns. All over. It's a sobering read, not a pick-me-up.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I read the Martian. It was at least as good as the very good movie.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

You will most likely love Project Hail Mary, then, if you haven't already read it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I haven't, so thank you for the recommendation. Both were available at the library as a reward for finishing the summer reading challenge, so I almost got it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

🎶 ~Jazzhands~ 🎶

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Learned on Lemmy a couple of weeks ago that Neal Stephenson has a new book out, and I'm still a sucker for them. Polostan is (so far) historical fiction and very readable. The Stephenson-esque infodumps seem to mostly concern the game of Polo and interwar Communism, with healthy dashes of 1930s physics and ranching.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

Fellow sucker here. Will be sure to check it out.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 22 hours ago

Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake. So fascinating. https://www.merlinsheldrake.com/entangled-life

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The Sapling Cage by Margaret Killjoy

[–] [email protected] 2 points 17 hours ago

How is it? I preordered but haven't had a chance to read it yet.

I love their book club and wanted to support them and picked up a few of their books

[–] [email protected] 2 points 21 hours ago

Orbital, by Samantha Harvey. It's just won the Booker prize so I thought I'd check it out. It's set on the space station, and is basically the astronauts on board thinking. I can't believe how beautiful it is, how gripping.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

"Parable of the Sower" by Octavia Butler. Published in 1993 but set in 2024. Definitely resonates with the state of things today.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 23 hours ago

Just read that for the first time and couldn't put it down.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)
  • "Children of God" by Mary Doria Russell: Second and final part of a sci-fi series about a Jesuit mission to an alien culture that goes wrong. Like the first part, it's an emotional rollercoaster with a great cast of characters that you really grow attached to (and who often meet tragic ends). The author also created a really interesting alien society made up of two separate species. Oh, and the title might sound like it's a preachy religious book, but it's very much not. Would never have expected it, but this is now one of my favorite sci-fi series.

  • "Memories of Ice" by Steven Erikson: Third book of the "Malazan Book of the Fallen" fantasy series. All three books I've read so far were enjoyable stories, but also very complex and not easy to read for sure. I love how the author creates a fantasy world where stone-age cultures play a pretty big role and where pre-history in many ways shapes the current world of the book. Also, quite a good cast of characters, which I didn't necessarily expect given that it's "epic fantasy".

[–] [email protected] 2 points 21 hours ago

I'm just finishing the Crippled God now! Definitely a difficult series but so infinitely rewarding (and heart breaking.)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 19 hours ago

"The Terror" by Dan Simmons. I already watched the show and enjoyed it, so I picked up the book and am only a few chapters in, but I'm liking it a good bit. There seems to be a good bit of historical facts thrown in, which I personally enjoy.

For those unfamiliar, it is based on the real life Franklin Expedition that disappeared while searching for a way to traverse the Northwest Passage in the Canadian arctic. The story follows the known facts regarding the fates of the expedition crew members, but it tells a paranormal horror story to fill in the blanks.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

The First Law series.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Babel, by R. F. Kuang

By the way, there are also book communities here on Lemmy. Check out

[email protected]

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Just finished that about a month ago and it was excellent start to finish!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

Ignition!: An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants by John D. Clark. It's a surprisingly fun read.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 20 hours ago

Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

The "Semiosis" series. Just finished the second part, the third was published a few weeks ago.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

Shattered by Lisa Morgan.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

I've been liking Mr. Einstein's Secretary by Matthew Reilly so far. It's far from his usual high octane thrillers (my guilty pleasures) and is written very well.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 23 hours ago

Mount Chicago by Adam Levin

Not as good as his first book, The Instructions, but I'm enjoying it. Try the forward, it's a good indication for whether you'll like the rest of the book. If you don't, still try The Instructions; it's very good.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Recently finished Doomsday Book by Connie Willis. Much of the novel is a real slow burner, but the third act hit me right in the feels. I can't stop thinking about the author's wonderful misdirection, which caught me by surprise.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 20 hours ago

That is an excellent book, and I agree with you about how hard the third act hits. If you're interested, she has a couple other novels in the same setting (time-traveling historians): To Say Nothing of the Dog, a much more light-hearted Victorian-era farce that overlaps with events from the real-life novel Three Men in a Boat which is itself a good and funny read, and the two-parter Blackout and All Clear, neither of which I have read but are on my list to get around to someday.