Some books I have read recently and not written up:
* One Second After, William R. Forstchen – This is a Message Book. Also a very “patriotic” book. Also rather predictable, though I suppose there’s only so many different things one can do with a post-apocalyptic situation (though I’d like to see people try, or at least avoid the roving bands of cannibals).
That said, it kept me turning pages. Afterwards, I started another book that I didn’t like, and which I set down after a few chapters. One Second After benefited from fast pacing and a very tight plot and writing, every paragraph moving the plot forward. The second book suffered from bouts of purple prose and pointless digressions into, things like the architecture of the Louvre. Maybe that would turn out to be relevant, but I’m not sticking around to find out.
* The Godfather, Mario Puzo – I don’t need to tell you what this is about, right?
* The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss
* The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N.K. Jemisin
* The Way of Kings, Brandon Sanderson
Three examples of excellent secondary-world fantasy. I’ve been lucky with my selections lately. (Not that “books lots of people are posting about how awesome they are” and “book by someone whose other books I love” is exactly luck.) The next Jemisin book is on my Sony waiting for me to finish library books.