Whitechapel - The Book Club 2013 Sat, 25 May 2013 09:37:01 -0700 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/ Lussumo Vanilla 1.1.4 & Feed Publisher The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346108#Comment_346108 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346108#Comment_346108 Tue, 01 Jan 2013 02:28:55 -0800 Warped Savant
I love having time off work during Christmas. It gives me time to get some reading done. The last little while I've been working on A Storm of Swords and not doing to well. So instead, I took a break and read China Miéville's "Embassytown". Great book, fairly quick read. I like how Miéville is able to write a story and slowly reveal things throughout the entire book that help paint a fuller picture of the environment and characters. Some people would get frustrated with it as they want everything described to them right away. I'm okay with it.
The book itself, for those that haven't read it, takes place on a distant planet and is a political story about human interference. Highly suggested to you all.

Next up is "Gun Machine" from a little known writer that I'm sure none of you have heard of.

What have you wonderful folks been reading? It's always good to know what other people think of various pieces of literature. ]]> The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346143#Comment_346143 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346143#Comment_346143 Tue, 01 Jan 2013 20:41:13 -0800 InvincibleM
The one off issue about the elderly couple was probably the most emotional issue of a comic I've ever read. One of the best issues I've ever read of any comic.

Also working on Woodrell's the Bayou trilogy. ]]> The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346144#Comment_346144 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346144#Comment_346144 Tue, 01 Jan 2013 20:48:45 -0800 imaginarypeople
I am now reading 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. Only a couple chapters in so far but so far so good. Last book of his I read was Kafka by the Shore, which i liked parts of. Some of his work is difficult to get into I think. ]]> The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346165#Comment_346165 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346165#Comment_346165 Wed, 02 Jan 2013 08:00:49 -0800 BMTMTC
Just started: This Book Is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don't Touch It by David Wong ]]> The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346167#Comment_346167 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346167#Comment_346167 Wed, 02 Jan 2013 09:31:35 -0800 ebullientsoul
That issue and the two directly after it are my favorite three issues that Jason Aaron's ever written. Those three issues are authentically incredible.

EDITED TO USE 200% LESS OF THE WORD BRO. ]]> The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346169#Comment_346169 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346169#Comment_346169 Wed, 02 Jan 2013 10:29:46 -0800 Argos ___> ]]> The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346173#Comment_346173 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346173#Comment_346173 Wed, 02 Jan 2013 11:46:07 -0800 fogus The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346178#Comment_346178 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346178#Comment_346178 Wed, 02 Jan 2013 13:39:07 -0800 nigredo The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346186#Comment_346186 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346186#Comment_346186 Wed, 02 Jan 2013 15:46:15 -0800 StefanJ Gun Machine starting Friday. ]]> The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346187#Comment_346187 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346187#Comment_346187 Wed, 02 Jan 2013 16:00:31 -0800 vandalhandle
Also read all the trades of 'Scalped' and loved it all the way through, and @InvincibleM that single issue story is fantastic, it's the only issue i picked up the monthly of, the dueling narrative, dove tailing in and out of unison is superb writing. And the original script of it is floating about online. ]]> The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346193#Comment_346193 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346193#Comment_346193 Wed, 02 Jan 2013 17:24:51 -0800 Warped Savant Gun Machine, great story, really keeps you interested, very well paced. I've never read a detective novel before so I really had no idea what to expect or how it compares to other ones. I'll probably get around to reading a book or two by Jo Nesbo this year so that might put it a little more in perspective for me. I really enjoyed seeing things from the antagonists point of view from time to time. It all unfolded very nicely. Took, well, 2 days to read, but I've been reading a lot more lately.

Also read through Twelve Day of Fast Fiction by Lee "Budgie" Barnett. Entertaining little thing with some really good lines in it. Remember when he was doing the art challenges on here? Give him a title of 4 words or less and a single word that had to be in the story? Yeah, it's a group of that with a Christmas theme and all of the stories are 200 words. Oh, and the titles / words were provided by people like Ellis, Wil Weaton, Fraction, Amanda Palmer, Gaiman, etc., etc., etc. My two favorite stories in it are "The Impossible Box" and "The Christmas That Wasn't". It's worth picking up and giving it a read through purely for the little write-ups that he did about the various people that provided the challenges.
For those interested, it can be downloaded as either a .MOBI (Kindle) or .ePub (various / most other readers) from his website. Here's a link.

Currently halfway through Morrison's Batman run again, Nausicaa and Charles Stross' Accelerando will be next. ]]> The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346214#Comment_346214 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346214#Comment_346214 Thu, 03 Jan 2013 00:36:25 -0800 MartinSheen The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346231#Comment_346231 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346231#Comment_346231 Thu, 03 Jan 2013 07:36:56 -0800 Fauxhammer
On the comics tip, I picked up the first three issues of Thor: God Of Thunder (amazing) as well as the first two collections of Simonson's run, which blew my mind as a kid. ]]> The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346268#Comment_346268 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346268#Comment_346268 Thu, 03 Jan 2013 14:31:31 -0800 Paprika The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346331#Comment_346331 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346331#Comment_346331 Fri, 04 Jan 2013 20:19:31 -0800 Frank The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346384#Comment_346384 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346384#Comment_346384 Sun, 06 Jan 2013 02:28:03 -0800 nelzbub
I was very amused at the seamless placement of a recipe- with full instructions- into the narrative!
]]> The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346406#Comment_346406 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346406#Comment_346406 Sun, 06 Jan 2013 11:33:04 -0800 budgie
I'll be releasing a new fiction project as from Monday:

Starting on Monday, my novella entitled You’ll Never Believe A Man Can Fly will be serialised on my blog.
The world outside your window has never known super-powered beings until now. The first is a man named Ian Davies, an ordinary man who’s about to face some extra-ordinary events in his life. But what if, instead of giving an interview to The Daily Planet, he's interviewed by The Guardian, a newspaper with a reputation for typos?

He wanted to be known as The Public Defender. But someone at the Grauniad forgot the word Public has an ‘L’ in it…
Described by one reviewer as “Siegel and Shuster via Douglas Adams”, the novella will appear, Monday to Friday every week, at around 1,500 to 2,000 words every day.

You can read it like that, every day.

Or you'll be able to buy the ebook (formatted for ePub and Kindle, just like The Twelve Days of Fast Fiction) containing over 55,000 lovely words, all in the right order and everything, at any point for £4.99, just by clicking on the link in each blogpost. ]]> The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346409#Comment_346409 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346409#Comment_346409 Sun, 06 Jan 2013 12:23:41 -0800 Warped Savant The world outside your window has never known super-powered beings until now. The first is a man named Ian Davies, an ordinary man who’s about to face some extra-ordinary events in his life. But what if, instead of giving an interview to The Daily Planet, he's interviewed by The Guardian, a newspaper with a reputation for typos?

He wanted to be known as The Public Defender. But someone at the Grauniad forgot the word Public has an ‘L’ in it…That is one of the best openings for a book that I have ever read! ]]> The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346452#Comment_346452 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346452#Comment_346452 Mon, 07 Jan 2013 12:36:27 -0800 sneak046 The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346455#Comment_346455 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346455#Comment_346455 Mon, 07 Jan 2013 13:37:49 -0800 Steve Toase The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346526#Comment_346526 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346526#Comment_346526 Tue, 08 Jan 2013 15:10:42 -0800 Mercer Finn round-up over Christmas of the best books I read last year, a lot of which I talked about on last year's thread. Also set up a goodreads account. Any one else on that?

Right now I've parked H.P. Lovecraft and Henry Miller to read some comics. Just finished the first Bendis/Maleev Moon Knight. Not sure what the fuss was about (I recall it generated a lot of "wow, how unexpected!" talk when it first appeared). For me it just reads like the two guys on autopilot. But they are both absolute masters of the craft, so not really a bad thing. Was superbly plotted, and had a couple of lol moments.

Also finished Lost at Sea by Bryan Lee O'Malley, which he wrote before Scott Pilgrim. Quite a bit more meditative, and with some great (looong in comics terms) inner monologues where the book almost becomes a first-person narrative with pictures.

Finally, the first Fear Itself trade, which is very quirky tonally (exemplified for me by the reveal of Kid Loki dealing with internet trolls on a smartphone). Lots of stuff happening in lots of cool places, so great reading, tho I really need to get the rest of the series, because not a lot gets resolved in the first trade.

Now probably gonna go on to tackle this massive Martha Washington book. Never read it before, but looking forward to reading some Frank Miller before he got REALLY crazy. ]]> The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346591#Comment_346591 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346591#Comment_346591 Wed, 09 Jan 2013 14:45:22 -0800 oldhat
Made use of a Christmas gift card and ordered the sixth in that series "Blood Rites" and a book of poetry by Tanya Davis titled "At First Lonely". Many would know her through this video:

]]> The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346625#Comment_346625 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346625#Comment_346625 Thu, 10 Jan 2013 09:00:07 -0800 Miranda's Eyes
Currently on the reading pile:

Ian Mc Donald's "River of Gods," an amazingly picturesque ensemble drama set on India's centenary.

George R.R. Martin's "A Game of Thrones," which the HBO series has finally spurred me to read after years of procrastination.

Charlie Brooker's "I Can Make You Hate," a collection of essays and scripts from a man who turns vituperation into an art form. A piece on Mariah Carey's appearing to open a London Westfield shopping mall had me laughing with his description of the spectacularly tight jeans the singer wore.

"Gun Machine" by some writer whose name escapes me. I think he wrote comic books. ]]> The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346658#Comment_346658 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346658#Comment_346658 Thu, 10 Jan 2013 20:18:55 -0800 Yaboo Chingoa
And I just re-read "Cryptonomicon" and discovered that I had somehow completely forgotten the two final chapters of the book. Which means that:

(1) I have no idea what the fuck I'm talking about, and
(2) for perhaps five years now, I've been complaining about a problem that did not exist in the first place.

So: sorry about that.


I'd be interested to know whether the Game of Thrones books are worth reading, if I'm finding the HBO series to be satisfying enough. I don't mind picking up a stack of horse-choker novels if they're especially good, but I read "Armageddon Rag" recently, and it didn't really spur me on towards reading anything else Martin's done. ]]> The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346663#Comment_346663 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346663#Comment_346663 Fri, 11 Jan 2013 00:40:06 -0800 Ryan S Thomason
Game of thrones is definitely worth reading, there's quite a lot - obviously - that didn't fit on-screen. They've got really good last chapters as well ;) ]]> The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346669#Comment_346669 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346669#Comment_346669 Fri, 11 Jan 2013 05:39:23 -0800 Fauxhammer
In that vein of deconstructed European Medieval Fantasy, Joe Abercrombie has hicked my ass from hell to breakfast. Very gritty, excellent characters, and he has fun messing with the setting (The Heroes, for instance, feels like a WWII novel with Renaissance tech, and Red Country is a straight-up Unforgiven-style Western with swords instead of pistols), whereas I think GRRM has more fun trying to manipulate the reader via terrible, unexpected deaths. ]]> The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346677#Comment_346677 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346677#Comment_346677 Fri, 11 Jan 2013 09:40:40 -0800 Magnulus The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346681#Comment_346681 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346681#Comment_346681 Fri, 11 Jan 2013 10:07:42 -0800 Fauxhammer The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346747#Comment_346747 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346747#Comment_346747 Sat, 12 Jan 2013 21:12:41 -0800 Warped Savant The Bat. Nesbø is a Norwegian that writes a really good detective story. This is the first one that he wrote featuring his popular character "Harry Hole" (pronounced "who-leh") and was just recently translated into English. Which seems odd to me because, like I said, it's the first one he wrote that features his main character. (There are 9 Harry Hole novels, all but the second one have been translated to English now.)
One of the guys I work with has been hyping these books up to me for nearly 2 years now. I'm glad I finally listened to him. I really like his writing style... It's a detective story that has more to it than the main guy running around trying to solve the case. It takes its time to show you other things he does in his life and really develops the character. It's written as first person passive so, unlike Ellis' Gun Machine, you don't know who the killer is / anything about them until either you or the character figures out who it is.
Having read both books so close together I can really appreciate both styles. With Ellis you're engaged because you want to see how The Hunter gets caught whereas with Nesbø you're trying to figure out whodunnit. I'm going to be picking up more of his books very soon.

Semi-related question: Anyone living outside of the States have a Kindle? Have you ever noticed that the prices are different (higher) for Kindle books for you compared to if you were to be logged off? (I'm in Canada and was looking on my phone at the Amazon site, most of the other Harry Hole books were $3.99 but when I checked on my home computer and was logged in, they're $8 - $12.) ]]> The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346749#Comment_346749 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346749#Comment_346749 Sat, 12 Jan 2013 22:03:06 -0800 StefanJ
If I'm not totally wasted by bed time, I'm going to start Gun Machine. ]]> The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346756#Comment_346756 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346756#Comment_346756 Sun, 13 Jan 2013 05:01:52 -0800 Steve Toase
Goss and Subby. Two for hire, almost indestructible assassins, one who is extremely talkative in an anachronistic way, and is highly sadistic just seems a bit too close to Croup and Vandermaar. Now im only so far in so it may be Meiville's intention to draw on this as part of a London mythology, but if not it feels slightly lazy? I'm not sure, but I'm convinced that there must be an alternative way to write a relentless assassin.
]]> The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346793#Comment_346793 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346793#Comment_346793 Sun, 13 Jan 2013 18:11:55 -0800 InvincibleM
Pretty good, though I found the narrator's function to be a bit inconsistent as well as adding a layer of difficulty the book simply didn't need.

The parts where Cal is a young teen girl made me disgusted with both men and women however. ]]> The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346804#Comment_346804 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346804#Comment_346804 Mon, 14 Jan 2013 07:20:04 -0800 256
My favourite line in it is the bit that runs something like (I never get this right) "So it was that the first time I saw a naked man was in the middle of a national emergency. Worse still, he was holding a loaded gun. Worse still, he was my father." ]]> The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346810#Comment_346810 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=346810#Comment_346810 Mon, 14 Jan 2013 09:03:10 -0800 InvincibleM The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=347095#Comment_347095 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=347095#Comment_347095 Sat, 19 Jan 2013 18:06:08 -0800 ebullientsoul Kill Your Boyfriend for the first time this month, let it stew for a couple days and then realized I was too old for it. Bummer. If I was ten years younger, that volume would have changed my life.

@oldhat
The Dresden Files is delightful. Heads up: past book 7, the thing goes full on war wizard, but it remains delightful throughout. ]]> The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=347096#Comment_347096 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=347096#Comment_347096 Sat, 19 Jan 2013 18:18:25 -0800 StefanJ Gun Machine.

Comment, not criticism: It is odd reading a story set in New York via British English. Not disconcerting. Mildy uncanny, maybe? ]]> The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=347460#Comment_347460 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=347460#Comment_347460 Mon, 28 Jan 2013 08:44:23 -0800 flecky Lost Echoes by Joe r. Lansdale. It wasn't as crazy as some of the things I've read by him, but it was an OK, pulpy read.

I finally finished Vol. Two of Stephen Donaldson's Gap Series, and I've just started the third one - A Dark and Hungry God Arises.

Comics don't really exist in Stroud, apart from 2000AD, but I got a few graphic novels from the library - some Hellblazer, Sandman Presents Dead Boy Detectives, Pride of Baghdad, and The Authority - Revolution Vol 1. ]]> The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=347955#Comment_347955 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=347955#Comment_347955 Wed, 06 Feb 2013 19:52:18 -0800 InvincibleM
The Four Fingers of Death was so excellent for the first half and then just sort of...gets stupid in the second half. The entire talking chimpanzee plot line was fairly dumb.

I've started Stranger in a Strange land for the first time. I'm excited. ]]> The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=347958#Comment_347958 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=347958#Comment_347958 Wed, 06 Feb 2013 21:03:37 -0800 odarable
Anyone on Goodreads? Add me! ]]> The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=347982#Comment_347982 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=347982#Comment_347982 Thu, 07 Feb 2013 07:50:01 -0800 Kradlum
I'm just finishing Greg Egan's Zendegi, which seems a bit lightweight for Egan. I was tempted by Egan's The Clockwork Rocket, but the blurb and reviews make it seem a little too heavyweight, so I went for Lauren Beukes' Moxyland instead. Awaiting The Mongoliad book 3 to hit my kindle. ]]> The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=347996#Comment_347996 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=347996#Comment_347996 Thu, 07 Feb 2013 12:49:24 -0800 Miranda's Eyes
Currently reading Ian Mc Donald's "River of Gods," his fantastic doorstop novel set in India 2047. I need to take breaks every so often just to absorb the details of the world he's created, with its hoeks and virtual AI TV stars and suchlike.

For a breather, Richard Cowper's "Out There Where The Big Ships Go" offers several stories I remember being printed in Fantasy & Science Fiction among other places. The stories are nicely written, but I don't expect I'll keep the book once I finish it. ]]> The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=348093#Comment_348093 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=348093#Comment_348093 Fri, 08 Feb 2013 17:18:22 -0800 Mercer Finn here. Also finished reading Over The Knee – a bit of erotic fiction written by a spanking / corporal punishment enthusiast. Not particularly my kind of thing, but interesting to read in conjunction with a seminal work of second wave feminism, focused so much on the political implications of portrayals of sexuality, and which would probably view this kind of submissive fetish with suspicion. The author / protagonist in Over The Knee fully inhabits and owns her sexuality – she's always had her 'kink', and she embraces it with confidence. And yet she gets off on being punished, humiliated and physically beaten. It's not so much about that being sexy in itself – those roleplay sessions are genuinely painful and terrifying. The appeal seems to be the surrender to an absolute will who can liberate you from guilt and imperfection. That feeling can be arousing in itself, something I'm still trying to wrap my head around...

Now on to Black Jack, a foundational work of manga. I was given this as a present, and wasn't particularly keen on it, but actually it's really great! It's about a mysterious master surgeon without a license – a anti-hero put in inventive situations where he wrestles with hubris and duty. Fun cartooning as well. On to the second volume already... ]]> The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=348176#Comment_348176 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=348176#Comment_348176 Sun, 10 Feb 2013 12:07:10 -0800 ebullientsoul
Defend The Realm by Christopher Andrew (and his research team)
Gun Machine by Warren Ellis
Night Watch by Terry Pratchett
With Liberty And Justice For Some by Glenn Greenwald
Path of the Assassin vol 3 by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima
Dirty Money by Richard Stark (aka Donald Westlake) ]]> The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=351454#Comment_351454 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=351454#Comment_351454 Fri, 12 Apr 2013 03:19:41 -0700 MartinSheen
I'm reading 'Old man's war' at the moment. It doesn't feel like I'm reading anything new or ground breaking but, because I love everything that's influenced it, it feels comfortable and familiar. ]]> The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=351493#Comment_351493 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=351493#Comment_351493 Fri, 12 Apr 2013 19:11:01 -0700 Warped Savant
Also just finished reading The Redbreast by Jo Nesbø. Entertaining detective story that used some unfortunate tools (IE: Someone figures out a secret, is worried that she'll get attacked, calls someone else and leaves a message saying that they figured it out but they don't say what it is.... Guess who's never heard from again?)
This book had one of the most heartbreaking set of chapters I've ever read. It's 7 chapters in a row, each of them start with
the main characters partner's answering machine recording and the chapter (usually a page or just over) is him leaving a message. After the second or third one he talks about her funeral.
Absolutely beautifully done and I would read the book again just for that part alone.

Currently about to finish Guy Gavriel Kay's newest book, River of Stars. GGK is probably my favorite writer, this book does not disappoint. It's based off of 12th century China, deals with a country that, over the course of the last 400 years or so, has drained all of the power out of its armies. The main explorative theme is about exile, how is affects people, and what happens because of it.
Highly suggested for most anyone that can appreciate a well written, beautiful story. ]]> The Book Club 2013 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=351496#Comment_351496 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=10945&Focus=351496#Comment_351496 Fri, 12 Apr 2013 20:12:13 -0700 StefanJ
Ellis can write. The book is funny in parts, gripping/scary in others, squick-inducing in others. But it manages to be . . . breezy? It moves right along. It is a crime thriller, nothing deep or profound, but one with the potential to be a great movie or TeeVee show. ]]>