★★★ East of Eden / John Steinbeck
★★★ Długi cień PRL-u / Bronisław Wildstein
★★★ Brain Rules / John Medina
★☆☆ Self-Discipline: The Ultimate Guide to... / Jacob Wilson
★★☆ 2001: A Space Odyssey / Arthur C. Clarke

List of all 2017 books.

* The Art Of Financial War * by Jean-François Gayraud
(original title: "L'art de la guerre financière")

It's an anti-capitalist essay which mostly covers the crisis of 2008 and its consequences. Somehow dissapointing as it lacks of structure, feels more like ramblings than being informative (unless you know nothing on the subject). There are not much references (mainly books from Keynes, Schmitt, Varoufakis and a few articles). I don't know if the title was chosen by the author or the publisher but it would have been a much more interesting subject if it had been about the use of economics in geopolitical situations (like embargos and such). Not recommended at all.

* To Destroy Islamic Fascism * by Zineb El Rhazoui
(original title: "Détruire le fascisme islamique")

It's a small essay by a Moroccan former journalist at Charlie Hebdo. In it, she writes mainly against the notion of "islamophobia", the idea of "religion of peace and love" and the current French collaborationists. Nothing new if you're already familiar with the subject or have listened to some of her interviews/speeches.

* Gene Wolfe - Litany of the Long Sun
* Patrick Rothfuss - The Name of the Wind
* Patrick Rothfuss - The Wise Man's Fear
* Jack Vance - Tales of the Dying Earth

Don't miss out on Gene Wolfe - you have to read "The Book of the New Sun" tetralogy at least. To me, he's brilliant. I'm going to read all he's ever written, or at least most of it.

I'm not usually a huge fan of fantasy, but I like Patrick Rothfuss' work so far. I'll wait out for the rest of the books in the series.

As for Jack Vance, I'll be reading a lot more of his work. Initially I only wanted to check out what the hell Vancian Casting was all about (what the source that inspired the whole thing was about, actually), but it turns out his work is surprisingly good.

Btw, if anyone here is on Goodreads and cares to share his/her reading progress, send me a PM please. I'm always interested to see what other people are doing with their reading time.

Litany of the Long Sun introduced me to Wolfe, some 12 years ago. Still haven't read Epiphany, didn't have it then and didn't get it since. But read Short and New (including Urth).

And GR profile's over here, but not like I haven't been posting anything read in these threads. Just have an order coming, finally could actually get some more books, Tower of the Swallow and Sanderson's Mistborn (1-6), so there will be updates... eventually. Will likely space them out somewhat.

Holy crap I finally finished a novel. So much for stepping up my reading this year :)

I finished Watchers by Dean Koontz. It was...okay. It's the only book I've read by Koontz. The story is that a golden retriever and a monster escape from a science lab. They're both genetically engineered - the dog is super-intelligent and meant for spying, and the so-called Outsider (because he's a unique creature) is designed for battlefield killing. The dog meets a man (former Delta Force guy) who adopts him, but the Outsider is psychically linked to the dog and has a compulsion to track him down and kill him.

The characters are generally likable but none of them really came alive for me. Some characters who seem like they're going to be important, like the local sheriff investigating the Outsider's killing spree, end up not amounting to much. I get the sense that Koontz wasn't writing from an outline but was just sort of "seeing where the story goes," which unfortunately means that there isn't much of a plot. It mostly comes down to everyone waiting for the Outsider to do something. A couple of hundred pages in, Koontz makes the big exposition dump explaining what up until then had been a mystery to the investigative characters. A hundred or so pages later, he basically repeats the same scene except with the dog's people.

What I really appreciated about the book is that Koontz does write thoughtfully about his premise. Most writers would just take the concept and do a straight-on horror story in which lots of innocent bystanders get mulched, but he clearly wanted to talk about the implications of it from a moral, ethical, and religious perspective. It's very Frankenstein. The Outsider is actually the most striking character in the story. He's a killing machine but also a deeply sad character because he has no place in society. The dog can always just be a dog, but no one wants an apish, toothy monstrosity designed only for killing. I get frustrated with modern monster stories because they tend to go really far with the sympathetic angle - Peter Jackson's King Kong is basically a really long movie about having to euthanize your pet and I won't even get into what the hell has happened to vampires - but Koontz really gets the tone right. The Outsider is pitiable but never stops being dangerous. He's a MONSTER.

Also, this is just me, but I couldn't warm up to the dog as much as I wanted because he's a golden retriever and I find them very bland dogs. Koontz is also typically snotty about goldens, as dog people tend to be about their favorite breeds (I'm no different). Hey Koontz, thanks for comparing pit bulls and German shepherds to the Outsider. Mighty big of you there :p

The Hand of Fu Manchu, by Sax Rohmer. It's third book in the series. Like the previous two, it's mostly episodic (being originally serialized in magazines) and doesn't really hold together very well as a complete novel, but I find that these books are mostly appealing for their atmosphere. Much like the later hard-boiled crime novels, what's really happening isn't important so much as the sense of hysteria and paranoia as the heroes get submerged in this parallel world in which virtually anyone can be an agent of Fu Manchu. Nayland Smith and Petrie are inspired by Holmes and Watson, but they're nowhere near as smart; just very determined.

The main thing in this one is that you get more information on the Si-Fan, the crime syndicate that employs Fu Manchu, and some of its internal politics. There's something or other about a mysterious chest smuggled out of Tibet that Fu Manchu is intent of retrieving - I don't recall Rohmer ever explaining what its significance was but maybe he didn't care. Like I said, it's all about the atmosphere. There are some crazy scenes such as one in which the heroes are forced to save Fu Manchu's life by extracting a bullet from his brain, and there's a late sequence in which they have to traverse a passage crawling with poisonous insects, which I imagine is one of the inspirations of a similar scene in Temple of Doom.

* The Return Of Wilderness * by Pierre Athanaze
(original title: "Le retour du sauvage")

New English word learned this week: [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rewilding_(conservation_biology)]Rewilding[/url]

As such, this book covers the many past projects of rewilding in France, in both failures and achievements concerning many wild animals species and the hurdles those experiences have to go through (like the sheperds opposing the re-introduction of wolves). It's heavily documented and factual with many references to reports and studies and overall it's a good food-for toughts to rethink the influence of wild nature opposing one which has its "direct utility" for humans (farming and such). Very interesting.

* Confessions of a Snitch at the Unemployment Agency * by Gaël Guiselin
(original title: " Confessions d'une taupe à Pôle-Emploi")

The title says it all: under a pseudonym, a worker at the French unemployement agency shares his anecdotes and viewpoints on the institution, the practices and the relations with the jobless crowd. Nothing out of the ordinary if you're used to be jobless and know how it (very badly) works. Still a pleasant reading.

*** Haring *** by Alexandra Kolossa

It's an illustrated biography of the 80's artist Keith Haring. While there's not much exceptional to say about his (short) life, the author make a very good job of analyzing and putting in perspective most of his works thus it acts more as an handy guide towards his art. Edited by Taschen so available in multiple languages.

Unfortunatelly, I don't have any suggestions of books finished in 2017, but I want to thank you for your posts. Sometimes it needs time to find a good book for reading.

*** Mesopotamian Myths *** by Henrietta McCall

A 1990 book from the British Museum Publications.

The first half is dedicated about the "context".
The first chapter retells the history of the findings of the clay tablets where those myths were written and the process of understanding the cuneiform scriptures (as paradoxically, it's the oldest civilization but its cultural legacy was only acknowledged "recently")
The second chapter is about the state of the collection of tablets and the place and organization of litterature and "writings" in this civilization.
Third chapter makes up a comprehensive list of the gods and describes the social structure of the Mesopotamian society.

The second half of the book is dedicated in the myths themselves (Gilgamesh, Marduk, Ishtar, etc...). They're presented in an interesting and informative form as due to the damaged original material they're mostly incomplete but the author makes a good job at telling the stories, explaining them, filling the missing details and translating directly some excerpts so you can can get a good grasp of their inherent poetry (close to Homer or the Indian tales).

The book is short, very informative and pleasing to read. The original English edition is out of print but the French one is still available. In replacement, there's the Dalley book which was originally edited a year earlier but got a revision in 2009, probably with new knowledges and discoveries (I haven't read it yet).

Here, you can have a piece of "Do Electric Man Dream of Electric Sheep, unless you want to read the whole thing, do so at your leisure

Would someone recommend something from Moebius? Any comic that they would recommend? I am about to go look for Dune as I watched Jodorowsky's film documentary of it, wanna know if it really is THAT bad.

<span class="bold">The Tower of the Swallow</span>

Have to start by saying that the presentation in this book is odd. Switching between events and characters and points of view; changing back and forth while presenting one event between the words or thoughts of a character after the fact and depicting the action as it happens, sometimes following a character, which may or may not be the same one talking or thinking later, sometimes from the point of view of the omniscient author; skipping through action, even back and forth through time, a few times even throwing a quick description of a future different but related event before returning. Some events that appear to have had a certain outcome at one point are later proven to have had a very different one, some scenes are "foggy" and confusing, some clearly intended to be that way, others perhaps not so much. Can be difficult to follow and will likely benefit from being read a second time, to see what else you can figure out, knowing what you know after the first read.
But I don't reread books, so I'll make do with it as it is. And I'm inclined to say that, at least so far, following the high of Baptism of Fire, The Tower of the Swallow may be the low point of the proper , and maybe including [url=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29486636/]Sword of Destiny as well. Mainly following Ciri but not showing enough of her, or not directly, during the action. Definitely too little of Geralt. Yennefer and Triss, even less. And maybe too many traces of a fairy tale, though I guess it's nothing compared to what's to come. But still a lot about the world, still a fair amount of commentary and some words of wisdom, though sometimes not necessarily conclusions I particularly agree with. Still a good story containing a few other good stories; still a mix between pretty good action and a fair amount of depth; still characters that feel "real", call for emotional involvement and generate reactions. So, if this is the low point, may more series be like this.

Rating: 4/5

*** The El Pocero Project *** by Anthony Poiraudeau
(original title: "Projet El Pocero")

In this book, the author describes his trip to the area of [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkFVXpcyvxY]medias to have their point of views. Short read on an interesting subject which should have get a better treatment.

Books read in 2017:

1. Stars Above by Marissa Meyer - 3 stars
2. Locke & Key, Vol. 2: Head Games by Joe Hill (Goodreads Author) - 3 stars
3. Zombie Tramp: Halloween Special 2016 by Dan Mendoza, Bill McKay (Illustrator), Brian Hess (Illustrator) - 4 stars
4. Fables, Vol. 1 by Bill Willingham - 5 stars
5. Fables, Vol. 2 by Bill Willingham - 4 stars
6. Fables, Vol. 3 by Bill Willingham - 5 stars
7. Fables, Vol. 4 by Bill Willingham - 5 stars
8. Fables, Vol. 5 by Bill Willingham - 5 stars
9. Fables, Vol. 6 by Bill Willingham - 5 stars
10. Fables, Vol. 7 by Bill Willingham - 2 stars
11. Supergirl: Being Super #1 by Mariko Tamaki, Joëlle Jones (Illustrator), Sandu Florea (Illustrator) - 3 stars
12. Fables, Vol. 8 by Bill Willingham - 5 stars
13. Fables, Vol. 9 by Bill Willingham - 3 stars
14. Fables, Vol. 10 by Bill Willingham - 3 stars
15. Fables, Vol. 11 by Bill Willingham - 5 stars
16. Fables, Vol. 12 by Bill Willingham - 5 stars
17. Fables, Vol. 14 by Bill Willingham - 4 stars
18. Fables, Vol. 15 by Bill Willingham - 5 stars
19. Fables, Vol. 16 by Bill Willingham - 2 stars
20. 30 Days of Night, Vol. 1 by Steve Niles, Ben Templesmith (Illustrator) - 3 stars
21. A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness - 4 stars
22. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin - 4 stars
23. The Bone Season (The Bone Season #1) by Samantha Shannon  - 3 stars
24. The Pale Dreamer(The Bone Season #0.5) by Samantha Shannon  - 3 stars
25. The Mime Order (The Bone Season #2)by Samantha Shannon - 4 stars
26. The Song Rising (The Bone Season #3)by Samantha Shannon  - 2 stars
27. The Evolution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer #2) by Michelle Hodkin  - 5 stars
28. The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer #3) by Michelle Hodkin  - 5 stars
29.Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher - 4 stars

I just finished The Worm Ouroboros by E.R. Eddison. It's fantasy at its finest. The exquisite prose coupled with philosophical themes made it an unforgettable journey.