Ben Saufley - Reading

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The Grace of Kings

by Ken Liu

Finished 2018-11-04

I loved The Paper Menagerie—one of my favorite books in recent years. It was full of life and really fascinating ideas and characters. I didn’t feel the same about The Grace of Kings, which felt, for large swaths, like a summary. I only really settled into an understanding of the main characters and the thrust of the novel in probably the second half of the book, and even then many new chapters started by introducing characters, spending a while telling their back story, and then having them pop into the “present” timeline just to vanish for one reason or another. By the end of the book, it had established a rhythm and had focused more on the lives and stories of a few primary characters, and I enjoyed that. But I’m giving it a 3 because much of the book was spent summarizing great historical events and jumping around a bit confusingly in time, and not focusing on the human elements of the story.
The First Book of Swords

by Fred Saberhagen

Finished 2018-10-18
Down Among the Sticks and Bones

by Seanan McGuire

Finished 2018-10-14
Lethal White

by Robert Galbraith, Robert Glenister

Finished 2018-10-11

Note: please see my 2025 blog post re: Rowling
I'm Afraid of Men

by

Finished 2018-10-07
The Stone Sky

by N.K. Jemisin

Finished 2018-09-28
The Obelisk Gate

by N.K. Jemisin

Finished 2018-09-21
Give People Money How a Universal Basic Income Would End Poverty, Revolutionize Work, and Remake the World

by Annie Lowrey

Finished 2018-09-13
A Simple Favor

by Darcey Bell

Finished 2018-09-09
The Fifth Season

by N.K. Jemisin

Finished 2018-09-07
The Twilight Wife

by A.J. Banner

Finished 2018-08-25
Indian Summer The Secret History of the End of an Empire

by Alex von Tunzelmann

Finished 2018-08-24

After having just finished [b:Midnight’s Furies: The Deadly Legacy of India’s Partition 22827628 Midnight’s Furies The Deadly Legacy of India’s Partition Nisid Hajari https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1407814080s/22827628.jpg 42381651], I was interested to read this book, which was discussed as a kind of compliment to that book—Midnight’s Furies being a more historical overview, Indian Summer being a bit more of a personal story. I think I enjoyed this book more than that one, for that reason—but I also found myself a bit more engaged here because of the personal stories woven into the history, where Midnight’s Furies at times felt like a long list of incidents of sectarian violence and while I liked that book and felt like I got some idea of the course of the history from it, this book helped me anchor these events in time a bit by connecting them a bit more to the personal stories that shaped them. Both books focused more on Nehru than on Jinnah, on India more than on Pakistan, so I’m curious to find a book that focuses more on the latter, because I feel like while both books appeared to work to be impartial, I only ended up with mostly one side of the story.An interesting subplot of this book was the light with which the author clearly viewed Gandhi, which was a lot less favorable than my (admittedly very broad) impression. He didn’t believe in germ theory and was (by this account) very weird about women! Interesting stuff, even if—as with all nonfiction—it only presented part of the picture.
Midnight's Furies The Deadly Legacy of India's Partition

by Nisid Hajari

Finished 2018-08-11
Seraphina

by Rachel Hartman

Finished 2018-08-07

Really middle of the road for me. Decently-written, moderately interesting/original world while still being familiar enough to hit that fantasy itch, but never really hooked me. Kind of curious to see how the stuff set up in this book plays out, so I may pick up the next one, but not right away.
Firewalker

by Josephine Angelini

Finished 2018-08-04

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#frontCover { fill: currentColor; } #spine { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 45%, #000 55%); } #backCover { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 78%, #000 22%); } The Grace of Kings

#frontCover { fill: currentColor; } #spine { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 45%, #000 55%); } #backCover { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 78%, #000 22%); } The First Book of Swords

#frontCover { fill: currentColor; } #spine { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 45%, #000 55%); } #backCover { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 78%, #000 22%); } Down Among the Sticks and Bones

#frontCover { fill: currentColor; } #spine { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 45%, #000 55%); } #backCover { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 78%, #000 22%); } Lethal White

#frontCover { fill: currentColor; } #spine { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 45%, #000 55%); } #backCover { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 78%, #000 22%); } I'm Afraid of Men

#frontCover { fill: currentColor; } #spine { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 45%, #000 55%); } #backCover { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 78%, #000 22%); } The Stone Sky

#frontCover { fill: currentColor; } #spine { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 45%, #000 55%); } #backCover { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 78%, #000 22%); } The Obelisk Gate

#frontCover { fill: currentColor; } #spine { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 45%, #000 55%); } #backCover { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 78%, #000 22%); } Give People Money How a Universal Basic Income Would End Poverty, Revolutionize Work, and Remake the World

A Simple Favor

#frontCover { fill: currentColor; } #spine { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 45%, #000 55%); } #backCover { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 78%, #000 22%); } The Fifth Season

#frontCover { fill: currentColor; } #spine { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 45%, #000 55%); } #backCover { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 78%, #000 22%); } The Twilight Wife

#frontCover { fill: currentColor; } #spine { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 45%, #000 55%); } #backCover { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 78%, #000 22%); } Indian Summer The Secret History of the End of an Empire

#frontCover { fill: currentColor; } #spine { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 45%, #000 55%); } #backCover { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 78%, #000 22%); } Midnight's Furies The Deadly Legacy of India's Partition

#frontCover { fill: currentColor; } #spine { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 45%, #000 55%); } #backCover { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 78%, #000 22%); } Seraphina

#frontCover { fill: currentColor; } #spine { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 45%, #000 55%); } #backCover { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 78%, #000 22%); } Firewalker

The Grace of Kings

The First Book of Swords

Down Among the Sticks and Bones

Lethal White

I'm Afraid of Men

The Stone Sky

The Obelisk Gate

Give People Money How a Universal Basic Income Would End Poverty, Revolutionize Work, and Remake the World

The Fifth Season

The Twilight Wife

Indian Summer The Secret History of the End of an Empire

Midnight's Furies The Deadly Legacy of India's Partition

Seraphina

Firewalker