Topic: Books You're Currently Reading?

I’m reading “Don’t Fear The Repear” by Stephen Graham Jones. It’s the second book in the Indian Lake trilogy — a horror series — and it’s fantastic.

@Kraven Glad to hear it! Have had the trilogy on my reading list for a bit and am looking forward to getting to it

Finished If It Bleeds (Goodreads page), a collection of four short stories by Stephen King, where I found three to be great ("Mr. Harrigan's Phone", "If it Bleeds", "Rat") and one "merely" good ("The Life of Chuck"). I had been looking forward to meeting Holly Gibney again and her adventures in the title story did not disappoint. I gave the collection four stars in my Goodreads review.
Unsurprisingly, my next King novel will be "Holly", but that is still quite a few books further down the line.

Next up I'll be finishing out Peter May's "China Thrillers" series with the double header of the novel Chinese Whispers (Goodreads page) and the short story The Ghost Marriage (Goodreads page)

@FuriousMachine That just isn’t something the majority of the English and possibly throughout the United Kingdom have growing up. When I started to absorb and recommend foreign films, my parents and many friends looked at me as if I had a second head. You have the option of second languages at secondary school but even then it is relatively small scale. I might be wrong but it feels like there is a slight arrogance that others should speak English rather than go through the effort of learning a few words of another language as a courtesy.

@AgentCooper Yeah, I guess you could see it as a kind of arrogance, but I would say that learning a second language is typically driven by any combination of necessity, convenience and genuine interest. When only genuine interest is the driver, as I expect would be the case in the UK and the US, then it is only reasonable that only a handful pursue it.
In Norway, convenience was a huge driver when I grew up (all the cool morning cartoons were on Sky Channel) and at one point someone saw the value of having English as a second language taught in schools from an early age, so there was a degree of necessity as well.
For now, English is the dominant language in the western world and on the internet sites serving the west, so there is no real need for English speakers to learn a second language other than genuine interest; though I do believe the smart money is on learning simplified Chinese (and possibly Mandarin) which may give a leg up on business dealings in the future (and we may actually be there already).

@FuriousMachine In the U.S., a certain amount of foreign language coursework is usually a requirement for high school graduation, but it depends on the state and the school district as to whether it’s a requirement and how many years are required. Some universities want you to have foreign language credits on your transcript. Traditionally what’s offered is Spanish, French, and sometimes German or Latin, but more schools now are beginning to offer Mandarin, and Japanese. I’ve seen some also have Arabic and Russian. But still, the main language most people take in school is Spanish. It’s the easiest for us to pick up and the language we are most exposed to and able to use day-to-day, depending what area of the country one lives in.

@Th3solution Ah, didn't know that; that's cool. And I have noticed (mainly through reality shows like The Amazing Race) that more and more Americans seem to have some solid Spanish skills

@FuriousMachine It’s regional, but I’ve traveled across a lot of the country, and you’ll see supplemental Spanish signage and labeling in public very commonly. Especially any kind of legal or governmental documents or communications will have a Spanish version and when you’re at Wal-Mart and shopping, products will have Spanish labeling (usually on the back or side of the package) and signs will have both languages sometimes. There are now easily accessible Spanish only TV stations (Telemundo, Univision, etc) and radio stations. When I’ve visited certain cities (Miami for example), walking through the city you hear Spanish actually more than English, and when you go to a restaurant, for example, you might be greeted in Spanish unless you appear clearly like a tourist.

I think in Europe that sort of thing is fairly typical, where a store or restaurant isn’t always sure what language to greet you with, since there are so many languages represented in a relatively small geographical area with lots of crossover travel. But for us it’s a new phenomenon where you may not be greeted in English sometimes. But the vast majority of US residents are only able to communicate in English (and many can barely even do that 😂) but Spanish is growing in popularity.

Of course similar situations exist for nearly every immigrant group who has established a community here in the cities’ various Chinatowns, Little Italys, etc. but the Spanish communities are much more widespread in large cities like Miami, Los Angeles, El Paso, Phoenix, a lot of New Mexico, etc., etc.

Finished Prophet Song, a harrowing book about a mother doing her best to keep her family together as all hell breaks loose in Ireland!

Excited to start the next China thriller, The Fourth Sacrifice.

Rereading Areonaughts Windlass in preparation for book 2. It has been so long. I had to reread it. I forgot how good it was. Really interesting ideas from talking cats with clans as important as people to societies living in spires above dangerous mists. Jim Butcher really knows how to pull me into his worlds.

Finished the titular second story in Vathek and Other Stories by William Beckford. Fascinating stuff, it left an indelible impression on me and I'll have to read more of his stuff after I finish this book. One of the best short stories I have ever read, perhaps the best, but I'll have to let it sink in, in order to make my decision properly. Comparable only to Thomas Mann's short stories, definitely.

Closed out Peter May's "China Thrillers" series today.
Chinese Whispers (Goodreads page), the final full length novel, was probably the best of the lot, in my opinion. There were two instances where the main characters behaved quite stupidly, but I got over it quite fast. Well, the first precipitated some serious fallout in the latter half and that grated a bit, but the story was overall good enough to warrant five stars in my Goodreads review.

The short story The Ghost Marriage (Goodreads page), written six years after the final novel, suffered from being just that: a short story. It was very hard not wanting more, but it was a four star read nonetheless.

Now I'll be starting the next entry in my "return to King & Koontz" project, which is The Door to December (Goodreads page) by Richard Paige, which is, of course, a pseudonym for Dean Koontz.
My previous forays into Koontz' earlier work has been a great success, so looking forward to this one

@FuriousMachine I'm only on chapter 3 of the fourth Sacrifice, but I really enjoy Margaret and Li as characters. Looking forward to getting through all the books!

Haven't read any Koontz before might have to add his bibliography to the list. Damn you 😉.

@MightyDemon82 LOL Don't worry, he's only written some 90 odd novels or so... give or take I used to read him and King a lot in my teens, so I decided to revisit them both a little while back. I'd say Koontz' novels are more thrillers with a supernatural bent (though not always) compared to King's horror novels and some of his novels move quite fast and has had me on the edge of my seat at times.
I've only read five novels in recent times: "Whispers", "Twilight Eyes", "Phantoms", "Darkfall" and "Servants of Twilight" (as Leigh Nichols); all four stars from me, except the last one, which was a very solid five starrer. From my youth I remember "Lightning" and "Watchers" as favourites, so I'm looking forward to see if they hold up as well. There's plenty to choose from!

And I agree, Margaret and Li are great characters! There are some recurring ancillary characters I enjoyed quite a bit as well, in particular the gum chewing Wu and, of course, Mei Yuan.
Speaking of Peter May, I just discovered that he's releasing a follow-up to the excellent Lewis Trilogy in September, so I'm really looking forward to that!

Finished most of William Beckford's Vathek and Other Stories I just left some of his travel writing unread, as it all seemed to end up being much of a muchness, but the titular story and extract from Azemia were very good. Now onto Moscow Stations by Yerofeev, it's quite amusing so far.

I’m now reminded I have to finish The Disaster Artist, I keep restarting it.

Just finished The Door to December (Goodreads page) by Dean Koontz (under pen-name Richard Paige) as a part of my "return to King & Koontz" project. This one served as a rare disappointment, as my earlier forays into Koontz early work has been very enjoyable; this one felt just a bit too "samey" for me. By no means bad, it still garnered three and a half stars in my Goodreads review.

I've also started in on reading a physical book for the first time in a long, long while, and I intend to set aside a few hours every weekend to get through some of the physical tomes that have been gathering dust on my shelf, along with some comics TPBs I want to get to as well.
The first attempt ended literally in tears, as the book is extremely upsetting.
Terroristen fra Bærum - radikaliseringen av Philip Manshaus (The Terrorist from Bærum - the radicalization of Philip Manshaus) (Goodreads page) is a Norwegian non-fiction book from respected journalist Anders Hammer about a Norwegian 21 year old who killed his adopted younger sister and then attempted to shoot up a mosque, wanting to emulate the horrific Christchurch shootings and instigate a race war. Thankfully he failed and was apprehended before he could harm anyone else. I'm only a few chapters in, but they have been a harrowing description of his actions and the gut wrenching account of how the family slowly comes to realize that not only is it their son who's been apprehended for an attempted terrorist attack, but also that their daughter has been killed by the same disturbed young man.

On the digital front I'll be reading far lighter fare, as it is once again time to check in with detective Harry Bosch in Michael Connelly's The Black Box (Goodreads page)

I finished Butter, I enjoyed it quite a bit and want to look more into the Konkatsu killer that it was based on!

I have picked Wurthering Heights as my next read.

I'm reading "They All Love Jack:Busting The Ripper" - a mammoth tome (at 850 pages) concerning the definitely,100% for real this time identification of Victorian England's most notorious serial killer. I've read more than one or two of these spurious "Ripperology" books in the past (and this candidate for Jack is certainly one of the most outlandish that I've come across) but then the author here is none other than Bruce Robinson (writer/director of that all time classic of British cinema "Withnail & I") and the text is full to the brim with his eloquently profane,frequently hilarious musings - particularly when he becomes exasperated at the ineptitudes of the Victorian police force and the inequities of the 19th Century class system - which is pretty often. What's more is that he believes that he's cracked the case beyond a reasonable doubt in a conspiracy so convoluted that it would make Oliver Stone blush. Completely barmy and unexpectedly brilliant.

Just finished The Black Box (Goodreads page), a Harry Bosch novel from Michael Connelly. A good read with an interesting case, though it was far from the most interesting Bosch adventure I've read. I felt it was worth 3.5 stars in my Goodreads review.

Now I'm going to deep my toes into The Deep (Goodreads page), a horror novel from Nick Cutter that has been described as "The Shining" meets "The Abyss". Intriguing!