Last Book You Finished?

The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett
9/10

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Apparently I'm some sort of sadist or something. I recently (after the 3rd try in 20-some years) finished the Wheel of Time series (it helps when you realize that book 6 & 7, then again book 8 & 9, are essentially two halves of a single book happening simultaneously on opposite sides of the "known world", which explains why nobody discusses the end of book 6 during book 7), then I started on the Dune series. ALL of it (short stories in anthology books included). In chronological order. I just finished the "second" book, The Machine Crusade by Brian Herbert & Kevin J Anderson. I like both of those writers, but holy crap what the heck did I just read? It doesn't really feel like Dune. It feels like a fanfiction that's set before Dune during the Butlerian Jihad. Don't get me wrong, it's interesting to see the beginnings of the Tlielaxu, the Ixians, the Fremen, the Bene Gesserit, the Guild, etc... even if none of them are currently using those names (although they did mention the planet of Ix and the "Tlielaxians" have made an appearance with organ replacements that are actually harvested from humans just trying to mind their own business away from the war)... in fact, at this point the Guild doesn't actually exist as such, and using Melange to travel instantaneously is just now being thought about. And don't even get me started on the "Buddhislamists" ... because Buddhism and Islam really have the same ideals and deities, right?

Mistborn - Brandon Sanderson, only cause I got the boardgame and wanted to know the lore lols:)

The Truth by Terry Pratchett
8.5/10

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El ser y la nada
From Jean-Paul Sartre

Terry Pratchett’s. The Sea And Little Fishes.
missed this one at 1st cause its a shorter story and doesnt show up on most full discworld reading lists
6/10

War of the Newts (Karel Capec, 1936)

Named public enemy #2 by the Gestapo, Capec was against fascism, worker exploitation, extreme capitalism, and many other things. While War of the Newts might not be a compendium of all of his ideas, it's really a great mixture of so many of them. Criticism of the society of that time is in almost every page, in the form of smart satire. In fact, much of the book reminds me of the first chapter of His Master's Voice (Stanislaw Lem), where the protagonist exemplifies and criticizes much of the thought and science of his era. War of the Newts is kind of a modern Gulliver's Travels, really. The book is divided in clear parts, each one telling a main side of the ongoing history of the man finding the salamanders, making business with them (as slaves, in practical terms), society elevating to higher heights, and... Well, not going to tell you this but Luke's father is Darth Vader.

I can only sum it up as: this book is nearly a masterpiece of its time, classic/early scifi, with only one scifi thing which is "what if" and of course how humankind goes downhill. A great read after Brave New World, or before 1984 or His Master's Voice.

If on a winter's night a traveler - Italo Calvino

I've been reading a lot of SciFi and Fantasy, so I'm trying to read some books that are totally different and I've been pretty lucky with my choices so far.
Not sure what score I'd give it out of 10 to be honest, but I did enjoy reading that book.

my next read will be this
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26184

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Kew Gardens Girls at War. Free little library find. Kind of a slice of life historical fiction book, following the lives of two young women around the London area during the bombing blitz of WW2. Charming, but don't need to keep it around to read again. Nice for a rainy day read with some cocoa. Interesting historicity.

vol.1 so far. lovely manga, i really ought to read more

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Map of Bones, James Rollins

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Terry Pratchett’s
Thief of Time 7/10
AND
The Last Hero 8.5/10 wish this one was longer

The Gathering of Storm - book 12 of the Wheel of Time - 10/10
This is first of the 3 books completed by a Brandon Sanderson after Robert Jordan died. It pains me, a bit, but it is actually better than the first 11. Maybe Sanderson is a better writer. Maybe he cared so much about the legacy of Jordan that worked extra hard on this one. But it is the best of the series. The next one, which I am currently reading, is of the same quality.

Louis Sachar - Holes

It was a re-read after 20+ years 😅 But still amazing!

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The Amazing Maurice 7/10
followed that up with the movie. started with a song and i almost bailed.
a lot of the stuff is word for word from the book

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11 22 63
really liked it, very cool story

Bractwo Nieśmiertelnych / The Brotherhood of the Immortals, Vladimir Wolff

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"How Forests Think: Toward an Anthropology Beyond the Human" by Eduardo Kahn

High Stakes, 23th book of the Wild Cards series. I've been reading Wild Cards from the 1st one (all epubs) and while it has some not so good books, it is a great collection with many scifi writers and George R R Martin as editor, mostly. Wikipedia tells better about it than i could :)

Beautyland
Marie-Helene Bertino

Unexpectedly awesome.

the plucker, Brom

Into the Fire by Elizabeth Moon, sequel to Cold Welcome. It was unfortunately not a great deal better than its predecessor. Definitely skippable and in fact almost a DNF for me.

Night Watch 2002 novel by Terry Pratchett
9/10
most of the time i hate time travel bullshit
it ruins everything

Christopher Paolini - To Sleep in a Sea of Stars
While not a bad book, its not really good either. I kinda feel like Paolini hasnt grown as a writter since he wrote Eragon, like he is at the same level. And dont get me wrong, I loved Eragon, it was my favorite book when I was a teenager/young adult, so I had great expectations from this book, but maybe a little too great...