I finished On the Road by Kerouac. Exceptional.

Just finished reading Timeline by Michael Crichton and finished listening to the audio book of Powers and Thrones by Dan Jones. If you have any interest in the history of the Dark and Middle Ages, this is the second book by Jones that I've read covering those eras and he does a great job of covering them thoroughly and making it interesting. And he does his own narration, which I think is always better for an audiobook.

Just finished Rebels at Sea: Privateering in the American Revolution by Eric Jay Dolin. I would give it a B+ for readability but an A for information.

Car Guys vs. Bean Counters by Bob Lutz. The story of Lutz's time as a vice chairman at GM. It was an interesting read with great insights into the automotive industry, but Lutz's writing is so annoyingly, unnecessarily opinionated that it was difficult to read at times.

Finished: The Man in the Brown Suit, but Agatha Christie, which unknowingly turned out to be a reread. I'm trying to decide what to read next.

Should be wrapping up Suneater Book 7 (series finale) today... the series and main story has been really great.

Not sure I am a big fan of how this is appearing to end? I hope there is more to it in this last couple of chapters... or setup for future storytelling...

I'll let this one sit with me a while though and marinade...

Recently finished a couple of short stories from two different military thriller series that I have enjoyed. Nothing special about these to be honest, but they were only around 50 pages each and were background stories about a couple of the characters.

Then, read DCC book two. I thought it was ok but it did not hold my interest as much as book one. Hopefully that is not indicative of the rest of the series.

Finally, I finished the latest Gray Man novel, The Hard Line. Thought it was one of the better books in the series. I highly recommend this series to any fans of Silva, Thor, Clancy, etc.




Now reading Cold Zero, a collaboration novel by Brad Thor and Ward Larsen. It is not part of Thor's main series - this is about a new set of characters.

Also just started reading Elantris by Brandon Sanderson. I have read all of the Mistborn series 1 and 2 and the Stormlight Archives, but need to go back for some of his other works now. I understand this was his first published novel so we'll see how the writing quality compares to the more recent books.

A lot of people hate on Elantris, but I really enjoyed the story.

I also really liked Elantris

I liked it a lot as well.

Just read a 100 page novella called "Short Stay in Hell" by Steven Peck. Holy hell talk about a book that stay with you. If you do read it, you will definitely want to go back to the prologue after you're done to really grasp the story. A concept I guarantee you won't have ever seen before.

Finished SunEater series; hmmmmmm...

Started: Project Hail Mary

SpreadsheetAg said:

---

Finished SunEater series; hmmmmmm...

Started: Project Hail Mary

---

Did you like Suneater?

StinkyPinky said:

---

SpreadsheetAg said:

---

Finished SunEater series; hmmmmmm...

Started: Project Hail Mary

---

Did you like Suneater?

---

Loved it

Book 1 was a slow build
2-7.5 were great
7.5 onward, I am wrestling with but only because I want more

SpreadsheetAg said:

---

StinkyPinky said:

---

SpreadsheetAg said:

---

Finished SunEater series; hmmmmmm...

Started: Project Hail Mary

---

Did you like Suneater?

---

Loved it

Book 1 was a slow build
2-7.5 were great
7.5 onward, I am wrestling with but only because I want more

---

I agree with this. I think books 3-6 were borderline masterpieces. 7 was really good but endings are hard and my sentiments on the end are mixed (not bad, just mixed). I have a feeling this is a series I'll have to re visit.

SpreadsheetAg said:

---

StinkyPinky said:

---

SpreadsheetAg said:

---

Finished SunEater series; hmmmmmm...

Started: Project Hail Mary

---

Did you like Suneater?

---

Loved it

Book 1 was a slow build
2-7.5 were great
7.5 onward, I am wrestling with but only because I want more

---

It's a hot
topic for most of the online book reviewers. I've had it on my TBR list for a couple of years. Will make it a must read.

SpreadsheetAg said:

---

StinkyPinky said:

---

SpreadsheetAg said:

---

Finished SunEater series; hmmmmmm...

Started: Project Hail Mary

---

Did you like Suneater?

---

Loved it

Book 1 was a slow build
2-7.5 were great
7.5 onward, I am wrestling with but only because I want more

---

Cool. I'm 60% into book 1 and it had been a slow build but definitely keeping my interest. Glad to hear it really picks up from here

M.C. Swag said:

---

SpreadsheetAg said:

---

StinkyPinky said:

---

SpreadsheetAg said:

---

Finished SunEater series; hmmmmmm...

Started: Project Hail Mary

---

Did you like Suneater?

---

Loved it

Book 1 was a slow build
2-7.5 were great
7.5 onward, I am wrestling with but only because I want more

---

I agree with this. I think books 3-6 were borderline masterpieces. 7 was really good but endings are hard and my sentiments on the end are mixed (not bad, just mixed). I have a feeling this is a series I'll have to re visit.

---

Im most of the way through book 4, and to be honest ive struggled a little bit getting through it. Does noone else think he's a bit long winded and that there are stretches of dozens or seemingly hundreds of pages where nothing actually happens...?

Also, as an aside, I kind of have an anger issue at times (especially when driving), and have started using the phrase "rage is blindness" regularly. And surprisingly, it actually works. Pretty crazy.

lol idk I never had that feeling. Especially with Kingdoms of Death. Feel like I consumed the series entirely after book 2, but I will agree the author tries his hand at philosophical meanderings that some might find "pointless"? Art is subjective right?

Rage is blindness. Grief is deep water.

Kaiser von Wilhelm said:

---

M.C. Swag said:

---

SpreadsheetAg said:

---

StinkyPinky said:

---

SpreadsheetAg said:

---

Finished SunEater series; hmmmmmm...

Started: Project Hail Mary

---

Did you like Suneater?

---

Loved it

Book 1 was a slow build
2-7.5 were great
7.5 onward, I am wrestling with but only because I want more

---

I agree with this. I think books 3-6 were borderline masterpieces. 7 was really good but endings are hard and my sentiments on the end are mixed (not bad, just mixed). I have a feeling this is a series I'll have to re visit.

---

Im most of the way through book 4, and to be honest ive struggled a little bit getting through it. Does noone else think he's a bit long winded and that there are stretches of dozens or seemingly hundreds of pages where nothing actually happens...?

Also, as an aside, I kind of have an anger issue at times (especially when driving), and have started using the phrase "rage is blindness" regularly. And surprisingly, it actually works. Pretty crazy.

---

Is Book 4 the one one where he starts off going to the commonwealth and (spoiler ahead if you have not read more than halfway) winds up getting captured and held on Dharan-Tun and tortured?

I have definitely bogged down on book 4 after going straight through 1 to 3 on audio. The start of 4 feels like more of the same. Sure I will push through at some point.

And Yes! He is extremely long winded and borderline preachy.

Sword of Kings (The Saxon Stories #12) - Bernard Cornwell

Knocked this out on Kindle while traveling. One more to go!!

I've lost count of how many wives Uhtred has had.

YouBet said:

---

Sword of Kings (The Saxon Stories #12) - Bernard Cornwell

Knocked this out on Kindle while traveling. One more to go!!

I've lost count of how many wives Uhtred has had.

---

Dude's a pimp, even in his old age! Lol

Didn't he just release ANOTHER new Sharpe novel?

SpreadsheetAg said:

---

Kaiser von Wilhelm said:

---

M.C. Swag said:

---

SpreadsheetAg said:

---

StinkyPinky said:

---

SpreadsheetAg said:

---

Finished SunEater series; hmmmmmm...

Started: Project Hail Mary

---

Did you like Suneater?

---

Loved it

Book 1 was a slow build
2-7.5 were great
7.5 onward, I am wrestling with but only because I want more

---

I agree with this. I think books 3-6 were borderline masterpieces. 7 was really good but endings are hard and my sentiments on the end are mixed (not bad, just mixed). I have a feeling this is a series I'll have to re visit.

---

Im most of the way through book 4, and to be honest ive struggled a little bit getting through it. Does noone else think he's a bit long winded and that there are stretches of dozens or seemingly hundreds of pages where nothing actually happens...?

Also, as an aside, I kind of have an anger issue at times (especially when driving), and have started using the phrase "rage is blindness" regularly. And surprisingly, it actually works. Pretty crazy.

---

Is Book 4 the one one where he starts off going to the commonwealth and (spoiler ahead if you have not read more than halfway) winds up getting captured and held on Dharan-Tun and tortured?

---

Yep, that one. I like it for the most part, but the middle sections seem to slow wayyyyyy down. So much description, not much is moving forward. Im at about the 80% mark now and it's finally really picking up. But after his capture, it bogs to a standstill.

Yep; but that last 20% is pretty pretty good sir but you'll be dumbfounded at the atrocities that occur

SpreadsheetAg said:

---

Didn't he just release ANOTHER new Sharpe novel?

---

Not sure. I really want to start those but want to wait until after the new Dungeon Crawler Carl book comes out before I get absorbed into a whole new series. So, I'm just kinda killing time until then.

If you want to read a Bernard Cornwall series that's shorter (like three books that are excellent). You can do the Archer series / Grail quest, or the King Arthur one

SpreadsheetAg said:

---

If you want to read a Bernard Cornwall series it's shorter like three books that are excellent. You can do the archer series the Grail quest or the King Arthur one

---

Yeah, The Warlord Chronicles (King Arthur) is badass. That still might be my favorite.

The Sharpe's books are intimidating to even contemplate. There are at least 22 novels in that series that I can see. It will have taken me 20 years to finish The Saxon Stories of which there are 13 novels.

YouBet said:

---

SpreadsheetAg said:

---

If you want to read a Bernard Cornwall series it's shorter like three books that are excellent. You can do the archer series the Grail quest or the King Arthur one

---

Yeah, The Warlord Chronicles (King Arthur) is badass. That still might be my favorite.

The Sharpe's books are intimidating to even contemplate. There are at least 22 novels in that series that I can see. It will have taken me 20 years to finish The Saxon Stories of which there are 13 novels.

---

Thanks, both of you! I may actually start that King Arthur group of books. I've actually been listening to historical audiobooks on the dark and middle ages, so the King Arthur books might be the perfect compliment to that.

I have what might be silly question. I usually use the local library to check-out books, which I realize is probably very old school these days (lol). I have been wanting to start some of the older Bernard Cornwell series, but my library does not carry them (even in Libby or Hoopla formats). Where do you guys get these books or how do you usually purchase them? I think a lot of people probably have Kindles, but I still Haven't yet bought myself one.