Last Book You Finished?

Guards! Guards!
1989 novel by Terry Pratchett
9/10
also watched The Watch tv show thats kinda based on this book that doesnt really make sense unless you already know a decent bit.
give the tv show a 7.5/10

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Re-reading the Amber series by Zelazny, and almost done. I really liked it in high school. I still enjoy it's charm (some books better than others), but I'm thinking I don't need to dedicate shelf space to the omnibus. If you like unique fantasy world with mild politic backstabbing and far reaching but somehow private family feuds, you might like it. Not as opera as Wheel of Time or such. More individual.

Makes a great TTRPG campaign setting though.

I have not read a full "book" in a while, but the last one I remember is my favorite:

Middle Passage by Charles Johnson

It is a historical fiction novel of a man who finds himself accidentally on an American slave ship sailing the titular title, but above all else, it is very well written.

If this excerpt of the first chapter which can be read from Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Middle-Passage-Charles-Johnson-ebook/dp/B0061Q6CU4/ or read aloud by the author himself https://youtu.be/lHRLYQrJzFo?feature=shared&t=87 interests you at all, I recommend this book

"A Moreninha" by Joaquim Manuel de Macedo. It is a book of classic Brazilian literature. I found it adorable, the book has a good flow and I had a few good laughs throughout the story. There are some controversial points, especially as it is a book originally written in 1844. But overall, it was a fantastic book. 8.5/10.

Eric by Terry Pratchett
8/10 really short

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"The Godfather", 10/10. Much less liked the movie after it

Moving Pictures 7/10
Reaper Man 6/10

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The Catcher in the Rye by J.D.Salinger 10/10

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse. Beautifully written and a light 128 pages! Strongly recommend, probably an 8/10 in my opinion.

Star Wars Kotor art book

Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett
7/10

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A few favorites I don't think were mentioned:

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Elfstones of Shannara by Terry Brooks -- its book 2, but is probably a better starting place than 1 in my opinion
Foundation series by Asimov

I also just finished Fool Moon, book 2 in Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden series. First book is Storm Front. I'm enjoying this series.

Small Gods
Novel by Terry Pratchett
9.2/10

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lords and ladies terry pratchett
7.8/10

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Catcher in the Rye
Dogsh*t/10

The Burnout Society by Byung-Chul Han: Content 8/10, Translation 5/10

It's a short read, which is nice.

Men at Arms terry pratchett
9.8/10

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Wildhood: The Astounding Connections between Human and Animal Adolescents by Harvard evolutionary biologist Barbara Natterson-Horowitz and award-winning science writer Kathryn Bowers. It is a fascinating expose of the process of coming of age of a diverse range of animals, written using a few case studies followed as narratives, giving it an enjoyable reading style for what is essentially a (non-fiction) science textbook. I was amazed by the fact that some of the things I was sure were aspects of our culture are shared with animals that we don't even recognise as having complex social lives, e.g., bullying and risk-taking in fish, and life-long privileges that hyenas inherit from their parents. It also had some interesting things to say about social media causing today's teens relentless pressure (regarding establishing a position in the social hierarchy - it also explains why this is so important to them) due to the mobile nature of social media. Highly recommended!

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Soul Music (1994)
Interesting Times (1994)
terry pratchett

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Finished Sundiver by David Brin, first book of the Uplift series .
The premise of the series is that Earth has recently "uplifted" dolphins and chimpanzees to full sapience following centuries of genetic engineering and experimenting. They find out that this is essentially how every sapient species in multiple galaxies came to exist but they are different because if they ever had a progenitor race it is long gone.

I don't want to spoil too much more but I'll give it a 7.5 out of 10 for a unique concept and interesting story with plausible science that does feel dated and clumsy (it was published in 1980 and it was his novel after all) at times.

My son bought me a box of books (sci fi/fantasy theme) for last Christmas and I have been working my way through them. The last two I finished were:
The God Game by Danny Tobey (2020). Touch of horror running through it, which I enjoy in written form. An AI driven game and kids just making choices in the game that turn out to affect real life.

Cormorant Run by Lilith Saintcrow (2017). Found this one tough to get into in the first few chapters as the story involved an Earth that had had an apocalyptic change, (development of rift areas), and the author used a lot of new slang involving this new earth and the rifts, creatures and technology that resulted. Sometimes I can't push through the "new language" and give up, but I loved this story and found after a while I adapted. Really loved this one and want to read more of this author's work.

The next and last book (my current read), out of the box is Halo: The Thursday War by Karen Traviss (2012). I dislike it. It has the same battle as the above book, Cormorant Run, where I need to get up to speed with a multiple of species, planets, social systems, and names of characters. This one feels like I am reading book number 4 of a series without having read books 1-3. Am seriously considering just donating it to one of the local free libraries and forgetting about it :)

Squirrel Girl: Squirrel Meets World. A light hearted middle grade book, with a vocal patter like a talkative excited squirrel. Took a bit to get into the headspace, but really enjoyed the silly fun. Fourteen year old finding her way into hero-hood. Heartwarming and cute. Good when you just need something to lighten your day.

Last read Drive (The Expanse #2.7)
Reading Abaddon's Gate (The Expanse #3)

I finished Artificial Condition by Martha Wells. It's second part of sci fi series about sentient robot on runaway. Light, fun novel, 7/10, will read next books sometimes.

And now I'm working through Underlands by Robert Macfarlane. Huge non-fiction book about everything inside Earth - caves, mines, underground... half reportage about author's adventures, half popular science. I'm enjoying it.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie

Great mystery novel that gives you all the information you need to solve it, but is so well written that I'd be surprised if someone could figure it out before the big reveal
It's very fun to read and take notes as you try and figure it out
Highly recommend you don't look up anything about it, because it's quite famous and spoilers are everywhere

If you enjoy mysteries, this is an essential book to read, very influential on the genre
10/10