Fiction Books

cross-posted from: https://mstdn.social/users/edwilk/statuses/110945771856400927

Bambi

https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2023/08/22/bambi-for-the-serious-reader/
@books

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/3737374

Stephen King: My Books Were Used to Train AI::One prominent author responds to the revelation that his writing is being used to coach artificial intelligence.

Have any of you guys read this book? I just finished it two nights ago and I've decided that I really enjoyed it. I'd never even heard of the book or author before. But as I finished a book on my Kindle it popped up as a recommendation and I decided to do something I've never done before, actually try one of the books. I downloaded the demo and immediately purchased the book when I finished the demo. I am pretty much finished with all of the highly recommended books for both sci-fi and fantasy, so it was a pleasant surprise to find something else that isn't on any lists.

I found the writing to be superb, and the story & pacing engaging. The side stories for character development were always relevant to future developments in the story.

I wasn't entirely sold on the magic explanation, but I was still able to enjoy the book. It is part of a series, but this one wraps up neatly, and can stand on its own as a single book.

I'm curious what other readers think of the book.

By this I mean, a book you had to brace yourself to read, and you feel proud for having read. Did you enjoy the process of reading it?

It was a cheesy Hannukah romance book but the main character in the book "The Matzah Ball" made so mad at times that I just know I was annoyed at her but to this day I have no idea why exactly. Her vibes were just yucky I guess

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/1514733

General hardbacks:

1. Ultra-Processed People by Chris van Tulleken
2. Abroad in Japan by Chris Broad
3. Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? by Julie Smith
4. The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy
5. 8 Rules of Love by Jay Shetty
6. Menopausing by Davina McCall & Naomi Potter
7. The Extra Mile by Kevin Sinfield
8. Outlive by Peter Attia and Bill Gifford
9. Manifest by Roxie Nafousi
10. The Creative Act by Rick Rubin

General paperbacks:

1. Just One Thing by Michael Mosley
2. Atomic Habits by James Clear
3. Undoctored by Adam Kay
4. American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J Sherwin
5. Surrounded by Idiots by Thomas Erikson
6. Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall
7. Diddly Squat: ‘Til the Cows Come Home by Jeremy Clarkson
8. Hack Your Hormones by Davinia Taylor and Mohammed Enayat
9. Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton
10. The Power of Geography by Tim Marshall

Fiction hardbacks:

1. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
2. Yellowface by Rebecca F Kuang
3. None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell
4. The List by Yomi Adegoke
5. The Trial by Rob Rinder
6. Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
7. Kill for Me Kill for You by Steve Cavanagh
8. Lion & Lamb by James Patterson and Duane Swierczynski
9. The Ghost Ship by Kate Mosse
10. Atlas by Lucinda Riley and Harry Whittaker

Fiction paperbacks:

1. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
2. It Starts With Us by Colleen Hoover
3. The Last Remains by Elly Griffiths
4. It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover
5. Private Beijing by James Patterson and Adam Hamdy
6. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus Read our review of Lessons in Chemistry
7. The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman
8. Murder in the Family by Cara Hunter
9. The Woman Who Lied by Claire Douglas
10. The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn

Children’s:

1. The World’s Worst Monsters by David Walliams and Adam Stower
2. Heartstopper: Volume One by Alice Oseman
3. Heartstopper: Volume Two by Alice Oseman
4. Heartstopper: Volume Four by Alice Oseman
5. A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

Original link

Is it interesting characters? Or believable motivations? Maybe writing style? Is the world building?

And how likely are you to enjoy a book that doesn’t fit your own criteria?

Like, increased empathy or altered your perspective a bit.

On a lighthearted note, 1984 taught me that most people who quote it in political discussions have probably never actually read it.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/3463478

What clicked and made you have a different mindset? How long did it take to start changing and how long was the transformation? Did it last or is it an ongoing back and forth between your old self? I want to know your transformation and success.

Any kind of change, big or small. Anything from weight loss, world view, personality shift, major life change, single change like stopped smoking or drinking soda to starting exercising or going back to school. I want to hear how people's life were a bit or a lot better through reading and your progress.

TIA 🙏

I’m really looking forward to More Than Fools Fill Graves, a novella from the Gentleman Bastards series by Scott Lynch that’s supposed to release sometime this year 🤞
And also Holly by Stephen King. The character has really grown on me, especially since watching The Outsider adaptation!

It apparently comes out next January but man.... I need it now!

I was a Percy Jackson lover 100%

I still to this day don't understand the point that book served. I don't know if it was just a product of its time but I don't think a bunch of children would behave like that in the event of being stranded

A bit criticism to the Silmarillion is that the style is very dry and the plot is disconnected.

This is by design. The Silmarillion wanted to be the creating work of the UK mythology. As such, it mimicked the style of other mythological sagas: the Mabinogion most notably, the minor Homer, the Eddas. Part of the idea is to create a shared well-know scene from which other authors can draw to set their own works.

In some ways, it was incredibly successful: nowadays it’s impossible to talk about Elfs without referencing Tolkien’s in some ways.

Was very unserious and required a lot of suspension of disbelief but the book was cute and fluffy and when I read it, that's exactly what I needed

If you have ever been interested in jewish folklore, it's the closet to "accurate" you're probably gonna get over everything else. its depiction of a dybbuk is far more accurate than the nonsense people have latched onto. If you don't know, the dybbuk box story was not accurate to how a dybbuk works at all

I have been reading the English translations and the characters and especially their dialogues feel very fake. I do appreciate the hard science aspect of the books but the long monologues, kids speaking like middle-aged philosophers, and army personnel being one-dimensional macho men breaks the immersion for me. It has the depth of a 1980s low-budget thriller.

I don’t read a lot of hard science fiction or translations of Chinese books. I don’t know if this is genre-related.

It's honestly really good so far. Moves quite fast too.