I havent participated in this thread in a few weeks. What I've been reading since mid-June:

Finished We, the Drowned, by Carsten Jensen and loved it. Came to it by reddit recommendation. I asked for swashbuckling and I got swashbuckling. Good stuff.

Finished The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin. My first read by her. The world building was pretty involved, i found a Gethenian glossary online to help me through a few points. Really enjoyed it though.

Finished Life of Pi, by Yann Martel. I've seen the movie but I feel the book does it better, as usual. Maybe a little YA but I'm not complaining. It's a great story.

Halfway through Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, by Lisa See. I read Memoirs of a Geisha earlier this summer on a whim and it became one of my favorites. This novel seems to be very much along the same vein.

I finished the Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch and have to say I liked the first installment more. It might be that a big portion of book was dedicated to the sea-faring stuff and other to the immeasurable intrigues that Jean and Locke had to go through. Nonetheless, I loved the final revelation while untangling the web of machinations, even though it was rushed a lot. If I get my hands on the third part, I will definitely read it. There are still some questions I need answers to!

I also read another volume of Saga, the third one (this comic series is absolute treasure, I love it) and two finish books in translation - Seitsemäs vieras by Kati Närhi and Moominsummer Madness by Tove Jansson. I really enjoyed Tove Jansson and will continue with her works in the future.

Plus, I started reading the July´s pick for the Book Club here The City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett, which I enjoy immensely. Already read 300 pages, so I expect to devour it soon.

I hope to start the Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin, as was my goal last week, but somehow I focused on the comics :D Cannot keep my priorities straight in reading!

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Finished:

The left hand of darkness, by Ursula K. Le Guin - I'm somewhat amazed at how she fit so much into a relatively short book. Was expecting it to feel like a heavier read than it was.

The great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald - Quick and easy read, enjoyable, not sure what's so great about it. The good Gatsby.

De kommer att drunkna i sina mördrars tårar, by Johannes Anyuru - Not sure when an English translation will be available, but I've read it'll be called "Rabbit yard", while the original title translates to "They will drown in the tears of their mothers". This has won the August prize and I've been patiently waiting for the waiting list at the library to go from 80 to 0, and it finally happened. I had high expectations and this blew them away. I've heard comparisons to Murakami, which might be fair, I haven't read out to be sure. I personally see it as some kind of mix between a humorless Slaughterhouse Five and the movie K-Pax. The ending moved me to tears, which rarely happens.

Started:

The dispossessed, by Ursula K. Le Guin

Finished: The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K. Le Guin and it was good not great. I think the story became stronger near the end. The writing itself was fabulous, I just think the plot didn't wow me.

Started: The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov and I'm so pumped for this one. So far it's weird and fascinating and I'm loving it.

I've started The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K. Le Guin. It's an iconic book in the science fiction genre. I'm about four chapters in, and it's rather engrossing. I was a fan of the Earthsea series, so I knew I was going to like this.

I recently finished Mother Night, by Kurt Vonnegut and A Small Town in Germany, by John le Carre. Both were fantastic.

Finished: We, the Drowned, by Carsten Jepsen and just...wow. This book seems to be a modern day epic, which is something not only rarely done, but rarely done well. It had shades of some great epics that came before: ie the Odyssey, the Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, and a few of Tolkien's works. I was reminded especially to The Tale of Turin Turambar with Albert and the Tale of Aldarion and Erendis in Klara Friis and the women's relationship with the sea. Klara and Erendis seem to be so very much alike.

The narration itself was gripping. I love the "we" narrator as the community of Marstal. The switch of narrator at times confused me a bit, but it did make sense in the end. I would definitely recommend this book, it got slow at times, as long books tend to do, but it was so worth it in the end. A fascinating story with beautiful imagery, writing, and tons of motifs littered throughout the century.

Started: The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K Le Guin and I am so excited to be getting back into science fiction. This is my first novel of hers and I've heard only great things!

To be honest, I struggled with reading the past week :( I have not been feeling myself for some quite time, and this also shows in my reading habits.

I only read The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin. Although I breezed through her Tales from Earthsea series, I had trouble being captivated as much as I wanted by this one. The first 100 pages were dragging, but it might be due my stamina, and the last part worked like a charm. Is this the best part of the Hainish Cycle?

For me, another pleasant encounter with Saga Vol.2 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples, which I will hopefully continue having in the future.

I also read Men Explain Thing to Me by Rebecca Solnit that was not that bad, but neither great. From the first pages, I had a feeling that the book felt weird. I think these essays are by themselves very important (the ones about violence towards women and exploitation of states left me in tears), but the writing style didn´t quite do it for me.

Plus, there was Wolf Wilder by Katherine Rundell, a middle-grade book set in pre-revolution Russia wilderness, where Feo and her mother are training wolves, which had been turned into domestic pets by aristocrats, to be wild again. They are threatened by one mad general, who turns Feo´s world upside down. It is very pretty, with nice pencil illustrations, even though I have some smaller issues with the story in general.

Will continue reading Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch and hopefully start some more titles that I borrowed from library:

Moominsummer Madness by Tove Jansson (I haven´t read any and this is the one that Miss Librarian gave me, but I found out that this is fifth in the series already :D). Nonetheless, I am really looking forward to this, because my Finnish friend loves Tove and I want to know her works.

Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin - finally found it in library! Hurray!

The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan - hopefully :D

For me, the past week was really weak in reading. I always found something more pressing to do, which then resulted into me having read just one book:

City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennet. I enjoyed this book very much, it was a very swift read, with complex pantheon and interesting plot I immediately took liking to. Will look for the second installment in the library.

I started to read (and will continue to do so) Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin as well, but couldn´t get deeper than 50 pages... I don´t know, it didn´t grab me from the beginning, but hopefully that will change soon.

Finished:

Down and out in Paris and London, by George Orwell - Since Sweden is currently having a debate about outlawing begging in public I felt the london bits were especially relevant. I enjoyed his description of the hard working conditions in a Parisian hotel, and the hierarchy that was created between different jobs at the hotel, which kind of reminded me of the societal structure of A Brave New World.

Neuromancer, by William Gibson - There's so much in this book that I've taken part of in video games, movies and later books. I'm glad to have read it, but I have difficulty reading William Gibson's prose.

I have no mouth, and I must scream, by Harlan Ellison - picked this up at the library the day after his death was announced. I loved the title story but feel that maybe the latter stories didn't get a decent chance after such a strong start of the collection.

Started (and finishing today or tomorrow): Burning Chrome, by William Gibson - Same issues as Neuromancer, which were especially evident when he had a co-author and I felt it was much easier to read again. The belonging kind was probably the best story of the bunch (with two left to read).

Started: The left hand of darkness, by Ursula Le Guin

Dinosaurs: The ultimate guide to how they lived, by Darren Naish - I realized I hadn't read about dinosaurs since I was 10.

The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K. Le Guin.

I didn't quite manage to finish it in time for book club, but the consensus was that nobody really enjoyed it. I'm actually enjoying it the further that I get into it, but it's a very slow burn

Post Captain, by Patrick O'Brian

Not so enamored by this one as I was with Master & Commander. On a few occasions I'd quite fully forgotten what had happened only pages before. Much of the book feels like inconsequential rambling, and in a series of over 20 books in length, I expect there to be more of that in droves from O'Brian. Following on from the great feats of adventure and daring from the previous book and it's disappointing conclusion for the protagonists, Post Captain is a book where largely nothing of note happens, yet the outcome is the resolution to the last book.

I'm getting the odd impression that O'Brian was either writing from an archaic standpoint where he wished books would still be published in installments as with the Dickensian works, or else he was rather hoping on writing for television, with protracted plot to last for years and years of episodic formulae. Perhaps with the next few books the Aubrey-Maturin epic reaches it's stride, but thus far the impression has been one of a stalling lurch forward and abrupt halt.

The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K. Le Guin

I wonder how this book became so praised. A book in which the society of androgynes is described at some length, yet barely given an opportunity to manifest itself to the reader, and just over a quarter of the overall length is of a grueling amble across some ice. Naff, in my view. Even for it's age, there is silver age sci-fi in abundance out there which has aged like a fine whisky, but this book didn't so much turn sour, as merely turn to dusty swill.