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General Category => General Discussion => Archive of Lengthy Threads => Topic started by: polly_mer on May 19, 2019, 02:43:35 PM

Title: What have you read lately?
Post by: polly_mer on May 19, 2019, 02:43:35 PM
Just this weekend, I read Cal Newport's latest book Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World.  I generally like Cal Newport's work and this was well written.  However, I did several times think "SPADFY.  SPADFY!  Some freakin' people are different from you and I, personally, don't want to spend my leisure time doing a lot of freakin' work that isn't fun, interesting, or leisure!!!"

I don't even have a smart phone and my online interactions are mostly these fora.  I do, though, love television much more than I want to take up some hobby that somehow is more virtuous and meaningful because <reasons that are very clearly value judgements based on being upper middle class with a high level of education>.  I can get on the bandwagon that says, "Put down your phone to live in the moment", but not if it also includes "and then you must spend your free time on the treadmill to prove your worth as a human being through observable creativity that results in a displayable product".

I can't find the book right now, but months ago, I read a pretty good book on why many people don't want the lifestyle they associate with a college education; instead, those folks want a bit more money so they can have the same lifestyle their non-college-educated parents have with a little bit more financial breathing room.  That filling all one's leisure time with hard work instead of actual relaxing activities or time off is one big turnoff moving from a lower SES to a higher SES.

I've also been working through Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum mysteries and savoring the old before moving on to the new-to-me number 25.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on May 19, 2019, 11:43:02 PM
Yay, this thread!

I just finished Kameron Hurley's The Stars are Legion, which was incredibly gross and incredibly awesome. Enormous organic world-ships in space that are so old that everyone has basically forgotten how they work, rotting from cancerous disorders, and filled inside with lots of different, uniquely horrifying biosystems and cultures of people who don't even believe they're on a world-ship. There's a wonderful subversion of the whole 'live as one with nature' trope, because the people and the world-ships are perfectly aligned with each other: you can eat or drink anything you find, and you don't get infections in wounds, because the human/world-ship biology is so compatible; yet the flip side of that is a ton of body horror: women literally birth organic ship components, and everything can be 'recycled', which means lots of scenes in the deepest depths, where organic material (such as dead or not-yet-dead bodies) rots and is eaten by the recycling organisms.

In some ways Hurley's work reminds me of the opening scenes in Bones episodes: she takes such a delight in imagining the grossest possible things that could happen, and she has such a fertile imagination in rendering it.

I'm now reading Jeanette Ng's Under the Pendulum Sun, which is about Christian missionaries going off into Faerie to convert the fae, and not doing very well. Some of the elements are really beautifully imagined (especially the pendulum sun and the fish moon), but there's a weird sort-of-incestuous plot line that I'm not digging.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: sprout on May 20, 2019, 11:50:24 AM
Quote from: ergative on May 19, 2019, 11:43:02 PM
Yay, this thread!

I just finished Kameron Hurley's The Stars are Legion, which was incredibly gross and incredibly awesome. Enormous organic world-ships in space that are so old that everyone has basically forgotten how they work, rotting from cancerous disorders, and filled inside with lots of different, uniquely horrifying biosystems and cultures of people who don't even believe they're on a world-ship. There's a wonderful subversion of the whole 'live as one with nature' trope, because the people and the world-ships are perfectly aligned with each other: you can eat or drink anything you find, and you don't get infections in wounds, because the human/world-ship biology is so compatible; yet the flip side of that is a ton of body horror: women literally birth organic ship components, and everything can be 'recycled', which means lots of scenes in the deepest depths, where organic material (such as dead or not-yet-dead bodies) rots and is eaten by the recycling organisms.

In some ways Hurley's work reminds me of the opening scenes in Bones episodes: she takes such a delight in imagining the grossest possible things that could happen, and she has such a fertile imagination in rendering it.

I'm now reading Jeanette Ng's Under the Pendulum Sun, which is about Christian missionaries going off into Faerie to convert the fae, and not doing very well. Some of the elements are really beautifully imagined (especially the pendulum sun and the fish moon), but there's a weird sort-of-incestuous plot line that I'm not digging.

Oo, I just added both of those to my wishlist. 

I'm currently reading:  How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan, and The Body is Not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor.  Also briefly rereading Alison Bechdel's Fun Home.  Plus random fiction ebook on my phone.  I may have a problem, or maybe it's just nearing the end of the school year.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Puget on May 20, 2019, 04:17:06 PM
I like to listen to audio books while a run/walk/work around the house.

I just finished Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman read by the author. People fall through the cracks in the world into a sort of dream scape alternative reality (London Below), where time and space don't work the same way and many crazy plot twists ensue. It was fun, and often funny, even though not all the plot points seem to really have a point and I could do with a bit less gratuitous violence.

I've now started Lincoln in the Bardo which won all sorts of things -- not sure about it so far but I'll keep listening and see.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: 0susanna on May 21, 2019, 11:35:18 AM
Dorothy Dunnett's brilliant historical novel series the Lymond Chronicles, set in 16th c. Scotland/France/Malta/Turkey/Russia/North Africa/England, has been reissued in attractive paperbacks with nicely readable font AND new audiobooks with an excellent reader, so I just started re-reading The Game of Kings for the Nth time.

These books have made people laugh, cry, and throw them across a room. Highly recommended.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: archaeo42 on May 21, 2019, 12:48:56 PM
Quote from: Puget on May 20, 2019, 04:17:06 PM
I like to listen to audio books while a run/walk/work around the house.

I just finished Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman read by the author. People fall through the cracks in the world into a sort of dream scape alternative reality (London Below), where time and space don't work the same way and many crazy plot twists ensue. It was fun, and often funny, even though not all the plot points seem to really have a point and I could do with a bit less gratuitous violence.

I've now started Lincoln in the Bardo which won all sorts of things -- not sure about it so far but I'll keep listening and see.

Spouse and I chose that for an audiobook on a road trip since we'd both read it and figured it'd be fine for times we weren't listening carefully. Instead, we found Gaiman's voice so soothing that we had to stop it and switch to music because we were both feeling sleepy.

I just finished a random book I chose on my Kindle called Fortune's Daughters by Consuelo Saah Baehr. It's set in the early 20th century and I found it interesting enough. I'm biding my time until book 3 in Charlie Holmberg's Numina series becomes available.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: onthefringe on May 28, 2019, 08:22:50 PM
Quote from: 0susanna on May 21, 2019, 11:35:18 AM
Dorothy Dunnett's brilliant historical novel series the Lymond Chronicles, set in 16th c. Scotland/France/Malta/Turkey/Russia/North Africa/England, has been reissued in attractive paperbacks with nicely readable font AND new audiobooks with an excellent reader, so I just started re-reading The Game of Kings for the Nth time.

These books have made people laugh, cry, and throw them across a room. Highly recommended.

Ok, this may be what finally pushes me to an Audible subscription instead of just getting audiobooks from the library. I adore these books, and would love to hear them done by a good reader.

Right now I'm listening to Lies Sleeping, the newest Peter Grant novel from Ben Aaronovitch. These are beautifully done books about a British constable working for a semi secret branch that deals with magic. Absolutely charming, great main character, and wonderfully read by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith.

Just finished Middlegame by Seanan McGuire, which was beautifully written and engaging. Now reading yet another of Jody Taylor's Chronicles of St. Mary's series about British academics who "investigate historical events in contemporary time" (ie time travel). Some resemblance to Connie Willis's time travel series, but enjoyable.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on May 29, 2019, 03:48:31 AM
Quote from: onthefringe on May 28, 2019, 08:22:50 PM
Quote from: 0susanna on May 21, 2019, 11:35:18 AM
Dorothy Dunnett's brilliant historical novel series the Lymond Chronicles, set in 16th c. Scotland/France/Malta/Turkey/Russia/North Africa/England, has been reissued in attractive paperbacks with nicely readable font AND new audiobooks with an excellent reader, so I just started re-reading The Game of Kings for the Nth time.

These books have made people laugh, cry, and throw them across a room. Highly recommended.
Just finished Middlegame by Seanan McGuire, which was beautifully written and engaging. Now reading yet another of Jody Taylor's Chronicles of St. Mary's series about British academics who "investigate historical events in contemporary time" (ie time travel). Some resemblance to Connie Willis's time travel series, but enjoyable.

Oh, pooh! I love Willis's time travel books.

I have the first of the Taylor books, but haven't gotten around to reading it yet.

I've heard wonderful things about Middlegame, and I'll probably end up reading it pretty soon.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: onthefringe on May 29, 2019, 05:51:48 AM
Quote from: ergative on May 29, 2019, 03:48:31 AM
Quote from: onthefringe on May 28, 2019, 08:22:50 PM
Quote from: 0susanna on May 21, 2019, 11:35:18 AM
Dorothy Dunnett's brilliant historical novel series the Lymond Chronicles, set in 16th c. Scotland/France/Malta/Turkey/Russia/North Africa/England, has been reissued in attractive paperbacks with nicely readable font AND new audiobooks with an excellent reader, so I just started re-reading The Game of Kings for the Nth time.

These books have made people laugh, cry, and throw them across a room. Highly recommended.
Just finished Middlegame by Seanan McGuire, which was beautifully written and engaging. Now reading yet another of Jody Taylor's Chronicles of St. Mary's series about British academics who "investigate historical events in contemporary time" (ie time travel). Some resemblance to Connie Willis's time travel series, but enjoyable.

Oh, pooh! I love Willis's time travel books.

I have the first of the Taylor books, but haven't gotten around to reading it yet.

I've heard wonderful things about Middlegame, and I'll probably end up reading it pretty soon.

That came out wrong. I meant that the Taylor books were enjoyable despite feeling a bit derivative of the Willis series that I have also enjoyed...
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: 0susanna on May 30, 2019, 12:50:57 PM
Quote from: onthefringe on May 28, 2019, 08:22:50 PM

Right now I'm listening to Lies Sleeping, the newest Peter Grant novel from Ben Aaronovitch. These are beautifully done books about a British constable working for a semi secret branch that deals with magic. Absolutely charming, great main character, and wonderfully read by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith.

Just finished Middlegame by Seanan McGuire, which was beautifully written and engaging. Now reading yet another of Jody Taylor's Chronicles of St. Mary's series about British academics who "investigate historical events in contemporary time" (ie time travel). Some resemblance to Connie Willis's time travel series, but enjoyable.
Taylor & Aaronovitch are delightful. Now I must look for McGuire...
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on May 30, 2019, 11:21:59 PM
I just started reading the first Taylor book. It's very cute, and until I read it I hadn't realized how criminally underused dinosaurs are in other time travel books.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: cc_alan on May 31, 2019, 10:09:17 AM
I'm getting ready to start the third book in Martha Well's Murderbot Diaries. A friend rated them pretty high but I delayed reading them because "Murderbot". I mean, it just sounded silly.

OK. I was wrong. Well's seems to be using the main character to explore what it means to be a person. Situations we might find dull or commonplace are anything but for the character.

The books are also relatively short. The world building is interesting and the characters are also interesting. And the use of "Murderbot" is explained and done in such a way that gives it meaning.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: azaz_the_unabridged on May 31, 2019, 11:53:29 AM
I just started Catherynne Valente's Space Opera. It's good fun! Basically, intergalactic Eurovision, where the prize for not coming in dead-last is... well, not dying (as a species).
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on May 31, 2019, 01:26:13 PM
I deeply enjoyed both Murderbot and Space Opera. I also enjoyed the first St. Mary's book, which was a rollicking fun read, although a bit choppy in the pacing.  Am now reading The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O, on the recommendation of my mother. It is also promising to be a rollicking fun read.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on June 01, 2019, 07:07:43 PM
Finished Resistance Women by Jennifer Chiaverini
Four friends organize a resistance movement as Hitler rises to power and takes Germany to war.

Now reading: Broken Throne by Victoria Aveyard
Companion book to the popular YA "Red Queen" series.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: paultuttle on June 03, 2019, 08:09:05 AM
I am currently in the last third of Spider Robinson's Lady Slings the Booze--an intriguing pastiche of Wild-West, sci-fi, NYC, and time-travel fiction.

Along with truly bad puns.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: statsgeek on June 03, 2019, 09:37:23 AM
LOVE Jennifer Chiaverini, waiting for Resistance Women in paperback. 

I can't highly recommend anything I've found recently, but for those looking for a good read try Cameron's A Dog's Purpose/A Dog's Journey (yes, much better than the movies) and also Cameron's Dog Master. 
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Vkw10 on June 04, 2019, 05:28:31 PM
Quote from: paultuttle on June 03, 2019, 08:09:05 AM
I am currently in the last third of Spider Robinson's Lady Slings the Booze--an intriguing pastiche of Wild-West, sci-fi, NYC, and time-travel fiction.

Along with truly bad puns.

Thanks, Paul. That one's a sure mood lifter for me when administrivia-induced depression strikes, as it has this week. Now where did I put my copy?
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Tenured_Feminist on June 04, 2019, 06:30:59 PM
Just finished Chernobyl at Midnight. Superb.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: polly_mer on June 07, 2019, 06:45:10 AM
It's summer so I'm on fluff.  The book sitting next to me is 61 Hours by Lee Child.  Will Reacher be able to save small town cops during a blizzard from themselves?  500 quatloos on yes.  Whether the retired-from-Oxford-University librarian lives long enough to testify against the bad guys is less certain.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on June 07, 2019, 08:05:19 AM
Semiosis, by Sue Burke. It follows multiple generations of colonists on a planet with sentient plants. Really good meditation on sentience and domestication (who domesticates whom?) and social pressures and the challenges of planning a society.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: spork on June 07, 2019, 03:20:29 PM
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi. Quick read, good writing, emotional content. Spoiler alert: the book was published posthumously with an afterword by his widow.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on June 07, 2019, 06:55:45 PM
Finished: Anna of Kleve: the Princess in the Portrait by Alison Weir
It's the 4th novel and newest installment in the "Six Tudor Queens" series.
Next up: What Jane Austen Knew and Charles Dickens Ate by Daniel Pool
Saw this non-fiction book around at one time or another and finally checked it out when it arrived in our library collection.

Quote from: statsgeek on June 03, 2019, 09:37:23 AM
LOVE Jennifer Chiaverini, waiting for Resistance Women in paperback.
I checked out a copy of the novel from the library.  It's a good read!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Juvenal on June 07, 2019, 07:27:21 PM
Perhaps not a good idea to read a short story by Flannery O'Connor while having breakfast ("A View of the Woods").
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: archaeo42 on June 12, 2019, 08:16:53 AM
I started Neal Stephenson's new book, Fall, or Dodge in Hell, this weekend. I'm only about 100 pages in (it's 800+) but I'm enjoying it. His last one, Seveneves, took me long time to get into and it was probably my least favorite of his.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: nescafe on June 12, 2019, 05:54:47 PM
I recently finished Lydia Kiesling's The Golden State and it was just stunning (somewhat on-topic: it's about a entry-level university administrator/new mother who skips town to stay in the Sierras, dodging emails from her superiors, smoking cigarettes in the woods, and facing off against Jefferson Staters along the way).   
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on June 12, 2019, 11:25:57 PM
I just finished Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Time last night. That's the one with the giant sentient spiders. It was really neat; I found the spider-focused portions much more engaging than the human-focused bits, and indeed the book lagged around the 3/4 mark because of a human-focused conflict that was pretty dull. Characterization in general was a bit weak, but the imaginative world building was wonderful. I loved the theme of how progress is hampered by attempts to recover the accomplishments of the past (post-apocalyptic humans trying to scavenge from the Old Empire; Avrana Kern trying to direct the spiders' evolution to recapture human accomplishments), and the idea of using ant colonies to create computing reminds me of Cixin Liu's soldier computing system from The Three Body Problem, except much better integrated with the biochemical nature of the spiders' technology.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: downer on June 18, 2019, 09:05:01 AM
I've been reading a right-wing polemic against the liberal universities:

THE DIVERSITY DELUSION: How Race and Gender Pandering Corrupt the University and Undermine Our Culture
Heather Mac Donald

No doubt it is full of inflammatory and dated language (who uses the word "co-ed" anymore?) and it exaggerates the sense of crisis. Very few places are actually fully practicing the liberal ideology that Mac Donald identifies. Most places give some lip service to diversity and sexual assault policies and then carry on as before. But Mac Donald does a great job of ridiculing the liberal rhetoric she finds and making arguments against it. Her easiest targets are the nonsense-statements put out by university administrations in defense of what they do. It's pretty funny.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on June 18, 2019, 10:51:45 AM
In my quest for long series of decent writers'  works by which to distract myself from working....

I just discovered Helen MacInness' "Cloak of Darkness" and see a list of many more to start looking for.

The followup writers for Robert Parker are annoying me, however. Ace Atkins put a well-known street in Cambridge (one away from the late Parker's cool Painted Lady Victorian) in Boston's Back Bay.

The fellow doing the Paradise series (I'm reading "Colorblind") talks about the black servant killed in the "Lexington Massacre." But, where in thunder did he get that from?

Crispus Attucks was killed in the BOSTON  Massacre....grrr!

And the jury's still out on what looks like a misidentified, or made-up site, also supposedly in Cambridge.

Parker would never have made any of those errors...he was the quintessential researcher.

So...humphf

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: 0susanna on June 18, 2019, 12:29:41 PM
Quote from: mamselle on June 18, 2019, 10:51:45 AM

The followup writers for Robert Parker are annoying me, however. Ace Atkins put a well-known street in Cambridge (one away from the late Parker's cool Painted Lady Victorian) in Boston's Back Bay.

The fellow doing the Paradise series (I'm reading "Colorblind") talks about the black servant killed in the "Lexington Massacre." But, where in thunder did he get that from?

Crispus Attucks was killed in the BOSTON  Massacre....grrr!

And the jury's still out on what looks like a misidentified, or made-up site, also supposedly in Cambridge.

Parker would never have made any of those errors...he was the quintessential researcher.

So...humphf

M.
I sadly abandoned Robert Parker some time before his demise (may he rest in peace). I loved his early novels--The Godwulf Manuscript was a joy--but for whatever reasons, the writing started to go downhill after Crimson Joy, so I'm not surprised that those writing under his name aren't much better. I found myself sitting behind him at the theater once, though, while he was still on his game, and wish I'd had the nerve to thank him.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on June 18, 2019, 05:21:49 PM
He was a cool dude to talk to, indeed. I spoke with him twice,once he was on the porch--I suspect that was a whiskey in his hand--and I asked if it was OK to point out his home when I was doing tours in the area, or if he'd rather I didn't.

He grinned, and said, "I think the whole world knows where I live now, so it's fine."

The new owners have painted the place beige with ivory trim. Wimps! He had had it done properly, with a three-color scheme (medium blue, with magenta and ivory trim), a cool sapphire blue stagecoach lamp on the porch and a grinning gargoyle on the balcony.

I used to walk past it when my own writing was on the rocks, reminding myself that it was possible to learn to write well enough to be read...and to own a cool place like that as well.

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Conjugate on June 28, 2019, 08:56:57 AM
I see a lot of people posting about authors I first found out about via following them on Twitter.  For instance, Kameron Hurley, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Cat Valente. So let me tell you about an author I first found out about on Twitter:  Foz Meadows.

Strictly speaking, I'm going to tell you about the first book of hers that I've read: An Accident of Stars. It's a portal fantasy, by which I mean it is a story that hinges around a portal to another world; think Narnia gate. It is not your typical portal fantasy, however, but modern, and much more gritty.

The hero is a young lady named Saffron, who in the opening chapters suffers from tolerated bullying and even groping in school ("Boys will be boys," says the principal) and is looking for help. Enter an odd woman on the school grounds, who talks to her to ask directions. Out of curiosity, she follows this woman, and finds her opening an odd region in space in a part of her school grounds.

The world she finds herself in is much more vicious and hard-core than Narnia; characters are mutilated, throats are cut, and a serious power struggle between two cultures makes up the exciting plot. I have, and will read, the sequel.

Among old-school authors, I have recently read Timothy Zahn's Thrawn. When Disney obtained Star Wars, they mostly dumped many of the follow-up plots and characters that had been part of the Star Wars Expanded Universe so that they could make the story their own.  However, Zahn's memorable character Admiral Thrawn, from five (?) pre-Disney volumes, was chosen to survive into the new Star Wars universe, and this novel is his origin story.

Thrawn is a blue-skinned humanoid alien, extremely intelligent, and he is found by the Empire on a small backwater world where he was exiled by his civilization, which is unknown to the Empire or to the Republic. The story is told from the point of view of an unambitious cadet who only wants to have an undistinguished career and be left alone; Thrawn guides him up the ladder and past lots of perils. On the way, we see Thrawn as part Sherlock Holmes, part Sun Tzu, and all fascinating character.

Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: polly_mer on June 28, 2019, 07:49:28 PM
Lee Child has lots of Reacher novels.  I'm working my way through the library shelf.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on June 29, 2019, 06:39:45 PM
Iron, Fire, and Ice: the Real History that Inspired "Game of Thrones" by Ed West
The book examines the historical events that influenced George R. R. Martin's Game of Thrones series. I received this non-fiction book as a thank you for visiting the publisher's booth during ALA Annual here in DC.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: polly_mer on June 29, 2019, 07:48:11 PM
Quote from: hmaria1609 on June 29, 2019, 06:39:45 PM
Iron, Fire, and Ice: the Real History that Inspired "Game of Thrones" by Ed West
The book examines the historical events that influenced George R. R. Martin's Game of Thrones series. I received this non-fiction book as a thank you for visiting the publisher's booth during ALA Annual here in DC.

That's so cool to receive as a thank-you!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: drbrt on June 29, 2019, 11:54:43 PM
I'm currently working through the Spellmonger series. It's entertaining but not great literature. Reminds me a little of The Black Company. Mostly I'm just waiting for the last Lightbringer book to come out. (I mostly read trash. I admire those of you who read real books.)
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on June 30, 2019, 03:26:01 AM
Quote from: drbrt on June 29, 2019, 11:54:43 PM
I mostly read trash. I admire those of you who read real books.

None of that, now.

I've been cruising through the Temeraire books. It's clear that Novik read Patrick O'Brian very attentively. The Turkish chelengk makes an appearance in book 3, and so does the joke about British officers trying to speak French and using the word domestique as a direct translation when they try to say 'I am your servant' in some way or another. Neither of these is impossible to have come up with on her own, but the circumstantial evidence is pretty strong.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on June 30, 2019, 12:51:39 PM
Quote from: polly_mer on June 29, 2019, 07:48:11 PM
That's so cool to receive as a thank-you!
It was! Some publishers were giving away or selling books throughout the weekend, others were doing it only on Monday.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: onthefringe on June 30, 2019, 01:09:06 PM
Quote from: ergative on June 30, 2019, 03:26:01 AM
I've been cruising through the Temeraire books. It's clear that Novik read Patrick O'Brian very attentively. .

Just listened to the first of these on audiobook, and I definitely agree with your assessment.

Over my recent vacation I read:

A Brightness Long Ago by Guy Gavriel Kay. A loosely connected prequel to Children of Earth and Sky, and his usual quarter turn historical fantasy approach, this time based on Renaissance Italy. I always love his use of language, and always learn something as I try to figure out who his characters might be based on.

Ghost Talkers by Mary Robinette Kowal. Alternate WWI where a group of mediums are employed by the British government to glean important information from soldiers who have died at the front. The main character end up in the trenches briefly, (touching on one of the things about WWI that has always fascinated/horrified me — that trench warfare was ever an effective part of any military strategy)

Storm Cursed, the 11th Mercy Thompson book from Patrica Briggs. Good Urban Fantasy, but not really breaking any new ground at this point. But soothing and familiar.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Conjugate on July 02, 2019, 02:00:00 PM
Becky Chambers, Record of a Spaceborn Few. Read out of order (it's the third of her books in the Wayfarer's books) because I read the first and never got the second.

It's a pretty good exploration of how different societies deal with death, birth, and tradition. That description barely does it justice, but I don't know how to do it justice.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on July 03, 2019, 02:31:00 AM
Quote from: Conjugate on July 02, 2019, 02:00:00 PM
Becky Chambers, Record of a Spaceborn Few. Read out of order (it's the third of her books in the Wayfarer's books) because I read the first and never got the second.

It's a pretty good exploration of how different societies deal with death, birth, and tradition. That description barely does it justice, but I don't know how to do it justice.

I remember liking the first, but I thought the second was the most satisfying. I cried a lot during a certain key reunion. I found the third book a little unsatisfying: it had terrific world building, which could have supported a really good plot, but there wasn't really any plot. If you liked it, though, I think you'd like the second book too.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: nescafe on July 03, 2019, 07:28:46 AM
I picked up Jokha Alharthi's Celestial Bodies this week to have something to read in the park, and it is brilliant so far. Recently translated Omani fiction with three narrators (sisters plus one husband) on the love, marriage, aging, and loss.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: RatGuy on July 03, 2019, 03:34:10 PM
I'm currently making my way through Lovecraft Country. It's a little too on the nose at some points, but I'm surprised at how slyly funny it can be.

Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: spork on July 03, 2019, 04:34:34 PM
Finished Orhan Pamuk's The Red-Haired Woman. An easy read, but Snow and A Strangeness in My Mind are still the only novels of his that I would recommend to others.

Also read Haruki Murakami's Killing Commendatore. Prefer 1Q84.

Currently reading The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee. He's a good writer. As a modern history of a particular subject, it reminds me of Daniel Yergin's The Prize.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: spork on July 08, 2019, 02:48:30 PM
I decided not to finish Elif Shafak's The Forty Rules of Love. It's an easy read but I didn't find the story engaging enough -- being a fan of Mongol history, I wish the story had focused on that instead of the fictionalized account of Rumi's friendship with Shams.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: bioteacher on July 08, 2019, 03:56:53 PM
I have to confess I have not read many books lately. I have been reading thousands and thousands of pages of excellent fan fiction. Some of these stories are so much better than published works I have read. The diversity of characters and backgrounds is also delicious, since they are written by and for fans. The white centric gatekeepers don't get a vote here, and I've learned so much from reading these stories.

The downside is that not only are there too many books to read in my lifetime but the fanfic supply doubles or triples the amount of reading I want to do. No one has invented day-doubling software or the universal pause button. I want to read, darn it. Everything else is an interruption.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on July 09, 2019, 11:09:53 AM
I have lots of updating to do at some point, but I wanted to point out the book we're currently reading.  It's recently released, Velocity Weapon by Megan E. O'Keefe.  It's number one of a series (at least a planned one, I guess), and I think it's her debut novel.   I'm really into this book! The basic premise (from the back of the book so I don't spoil anything) is that a gunship sergeant's ship is destroyed during a battle, and she is saved in an evac pod, expecting to be roused from her protective sleep by her people after the pod is recovered.  Instead, she is awakened and finds herself on board one of the enemy's ships with no other humans on board.  Oh, it's also 230 years later, and her home planet and system have been destroyed.  Not on the back cover, but introduced right away (and was in the summary I read in best sci-fi books of June 2019) is her younger brother who is about to take on a new role/responsibility just as the news about the gunship disaster breaks.  So there are those two story arcs/time periods and also another, not sure yet how that fits in exactly other than speculation.  So far, it's a pretty intense story, lots of wondering what's going to happen next, some good dialogue and mostly interesting characters.  This is one of those books that just makes me want to hold my breath and hope it's good the whole way through and doesn't fall apart later on.  I also hope the story gets wrapped up to some extent in case there are no further books written in the series. 

Anyone else reading this or planning to?
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Conjugate on July 09, 2019, 05:40:56 PM
Quote from: ab_grp on July 09, 2019, 11:09:53 AM
I have lots of updating to do at some point, but I wanted to point out the book we're currently reading.  It's recently released, Velocity Weapon by Megan E. O'Keefe.   
Snip!

Quote from: ab_grp on July 09, 2019, 11:09:53 AM
Anyone else reading this or planning to?

Yes, at some point when the paychecks resume. I've got a list of people whose works I want to try. I'm currently re-reading some old Rex Stout, including an omnibus that contains And Be A Villain, the second book that touches on Nero Wolfe's nemesis, Z.

These are a fun read if you don't mind the fact that Wolfe is a misogynist, his sidekick Archie Goodwin is a womanizer, and all the character's attitudes are solidly 1930s. For instance, in one of the novels (The League of Frightened Men), Archie refers to a disabled character as a "lop" (for lopsided) and is sternly corrected by Wolfe to say cripple.

I also plan to get and read Aliette de Bodard's The Tea Master And The Detective, another mystery set in a science-fictional future. (I believe that the Tea Master of the title is a sentient spacecraft; in any case, one of the characters is, according to the reviews.) I expect much less offensive content there, obviously.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on July 18, 2019, 12:12:13 PM
Conjy, I hope you do get to pick it up at some point (and enjoy it!).  I don't typically buy new books, but Velocity Weapon (and Recursion by Blake Crouch, which we have not yet read) was a Father's Day gift I bought for my spouse.  We finished Velocity Weapon a day or two ago.  We ended up giving it 4/5 on Goodreads.  I think it held up well throughout and remained interesting, and I'd like to read the next book if/when that comes out.  I just took a look at the author's website, and it looks as though I misspoke a bit.  This seems to be her debut sci-fi novel.  She has a couple fantasy novels under her belt. 

Back to the review.  When trying to come up with a rating, we ended up comparing VW to other books that we gave 5s to.  We thought the N.K. Jemisin trilogy was very well done, and there are elements of that series that we were reminded of when reading VW (parts of the society were similar).  But N.K. Jemisin came up with a whole new "world", which I think she did pretty well and coherently.  In some ways that seems easier, because the author has a lot of latitude to make up locations, distances, etc. as long as they make sense as described (especially important if you need to visualize a made-up world, even if it's sort of based in reality).  VW is described as a space opera, and while Earth is part of the story, it takes place elsewhere.  In some ways, this is similar to some of Alastair Reynolds' space operas.   In comparing those authors, what I really like about AR is the technical descriptions and scientific basis (okay, sometimes it can be a bit much).  In VW it was not always easy for us to tell where locations were with respect to each other, how to get from one to the other, and so forth, which made it difficult to tell what options characters had (so hard to speculate about where the story might be going), what implications were of some actions, etc.  Of course, AR is a scientist, so that makes sense, and I don't hold it against M O'K, but it is a point of comparison.  Another weakness we docked "points" for was the main enemy.  Despite building them up a bit, we never really got to know much about them, and the few interactions almost seemed a bit more humorous than maybe they should have been to get across the threat. 

Aside from these minor issues, I thought the story was pretty great.  Very hard to put the book down! I felt that I got to know the main characters well, and they were flawed but likable.  The dialogue was generally good (some eye-rolling parts, but that seems to happen no matter who writes some of these scenes), sometimes very funny.  The story had a touching side that I did not expect.  Lots of good action, drama, intrigue. 

It's also a challenge to rate the book entirely on its own if it is to be part of a series.  So, of course, maybe later books will focus more on the enemy.  All around, as a sci-fi debut and space opera, I thought it was nicely done.  Of course, take my review with a grain of salt, as I have only really been reading sci-fi for a few years and certainly don't know much about it.  Spouse is a big sci-fi fan, specifically space operas, and he agreed with my take (FWIW). 

I also took a look at The League of Frightened Men.  Sounds interesting! I've never read any of those stories so might try one of those books out at some point.

Still have to update the already read list, but we are now working on A Column of Fire (Ken Follett).  We read the previous two books, Pillars of the Earth and World Without End, the past two summers.  I had also read both of those years ago, but this one is new to both of us.   There are a lot of similarities between the books, and I would guess that will remain the case with this one (so far, yes).  There are very similar character tropes and situations that occur despite the hundreds of years between books.  I also don't think Follett is a great writer (who am I to talk) compared to others.  He tends to describe things similarly and doesn't vary his verbs much.  What I really like about the books is the descriptions of architecture and trade and the different political struggles that occur.  The characters are not extremely well developed, but the stories, romances, and allied or adversarial relationships are entertaining.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: archaeo42 on July 19, 2019, 05:40:05 AM
I finally finished Neal Stephenson's new one Fall, Or Dodge in Hell. I enjoyed it but I feel like I need to reread it after doing a deep dive on some modern philosophy of technology. There seemed to be much more that he was saying about society that I was only just grasping. Or maybe I'm reading too much in to it since there's a lot of replication of polytheistic/monotheistic structures and colonial power dynamics in the built digital world in which that part of the book is set.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: downer on July 19, 2019, 06:27:13 AM
I enjoyed Jenny Colgan's The Bookshop on the Shore. Scottish setting, multicultural cast, and Loch Ness. And a romance too. Good summer fare.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: 0susanna on July 19, 2019, 08:51:57 AM
Quote from: downer on July 19, 2019, 06:27:13 AM
I enjoyed Jenny Colgan's The Bookshop on the Shore. Scottish setting, multicultural cast, and Loch Ness. And a romance too. Good summer fare.
Jenny Colgan is reliably entertaining.

Recently finished Bruce Holsinger's The Gifted School. Not having children, the only experience I have with entitled/helicopter parents and their offspring is at the college level, but I thought Holsinger effectively created multiple parent and child character POVs and plotlines and managed to generate significant suspense. Epigraphs to each section from legit research on gifted children raise the level. Recommended.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Juvenal on July 20, 2019, 08:36:19 AM
Patrick Lee's trilogy: The Breach, Ghost Country, Deep Sky, a peculiar mixture of science fiction and thriller, with an interesting premise and lot of unlikely and preposterous detail in the thriller part.  Yes, yes, SF has a lot of "preposterous" detail, but there were holes in the plot.  Still, books were worth reading.  Lee also seems to blend SF and thrillerdom in two other novels, Signal and Runner, less SF than thriller, but both hinge on an SF matter.  Like neutrinos that go faster than light and bear information from the future, but only from ten hours and a few minutes away (Signal).  Hmm.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: fourhats on July 20, 2019, 03:28:13 PM
I've been wanting to reread a lot of Iris Murdoch, in this centennial year. I once went through a long summer of reading all her novels, and they're jumbled up in my mind now. It was a great summer, as I recall. I don't know why she seems to have fallen out of favor these days. She's smart, witty, and a great writer.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Liquidambar on July 24, 2019, 05:21:13 PM
Quote from: onthefringe on June 30, 2019, 01:09:06 PM
A Brightness Long Ago by Guy Gavriel Kay. A loosely connected prequel to Children of Earth and Sky, and his usual quarter turn historical fantasy approach, this time based on Renaissance Italy. I always love his use of language, and always learn something as I try to figure out who his characters might be based on.

I recently read Tigana by Kay and enjoyed it.  It was nice to read a stand-alone fantasy book rather than long series that may or may not be completed before the author dies.  (Not naming any names here...)  If I read some more Kay, which book should I read next?

I also read The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemison, the first book in her Broken Earth trilogy.  I thought it was fantasy, but Wikipedia describes it as "science fantasy."  It was excellent.  I'm looking forward to reading the sequels.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: phattangent on July 25, 2019, 05:00:15 AM
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on July 25, 2019, 06:34:06 PM
Started A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor
It's the 1st installment of a classic travelogue trilogy
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: nescafe on July 26, 2019, 12:35:26 AM
I just finished The Neighborhood by Mario Vargas Llosa. A quick and sexy mystery about corruptions and murder among Peru's industrial elite. This was a strange week to read it; between the compromising photos, tabloid seeking bribes to "kill stories," and the death of journalists, it seemed too strange for fiction and just a little more real.

It was quick and worthwhile, but also seemed a bit vulgar, the characters one-sided and simplistic. I had never read Llosa before but saw his previous book won several significant prizes. Before I write him off, maybe I'll find his first book.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: onthefringe on July 27, 2019, 05:32:16 AM
Quote from: Liquidambar on July 24, 2019, 05:21:13 PM
I recently read Tigana by Kay and enjoyed it.  It was nice to read a stand-alone fantasy book rather than long series that may or may not be completed before the author dies.  (Not naming any names here...)  If I read some more Kay, which book should I read next?

My personal favorites are A Song for Arbonne (inspired by the Albigensian Crusade) and The Lions of Al-Rassan (loosely based on the Reconquista).

His Fionavar Trilogy is a much more standard Tolkein-inspired fantasy, but really quite good too.

His work has tended to have fewer and fewer fantasy/magical elements and lean towards straight alternate history as he goes along  so you could also look at publication order and choose that way depending on your preferences.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Liquidambar on July 27, 2019, 10:10:11 AM
Thanks, onthefringe--very helpful.  That last bit is good to know since I prefer fantasy over alternate history.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: downer on July 27, 2019, 04:59:54 PM
Putney by Sofka Zinovieff. It's a book addressing a loving sexual relationship between a man and a girl in the 1970s, and how she comes to rethink what happened when her daughter is the same age as she was when it happened. It isn't easy to address these issues, but Zinovieff does it well.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Golazo on July 29, 2019, 07:12:46 PM
I've mostly been disappointed with what I've read recently. I bought Ann Leckie's new fantasy book The Raven Tower, but found this much less compelling than her sci-fi trilogy, from characters to world building. The Imperial Radch trilogy is very much worth reading.  I also read CJ Cherryh's latest book, and again found it one of the weakest of her catalog. In the non-fiction section, I read Gemma Clark's book on women in soccer, but found she had so many chapters that she wrote only very basic details about each woman in the book. A lot of the material was from internet sources and she didn't make good use of the interviews she did. I was expecting to learn a lot, but was underwhelmed.

I'm looking forward to reading Jeffery Lewis' The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States for a class I'm teaching in the fall. I'll get back to everyone on how it is.

Several of the sci-fi/fantesy choices sound really interesting, but I'll have to have a think if there is enough time before the semester starts for a new distraction.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on July 30, 2019, 01:03:14 AM
I just finished This is how you lose the time war, by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar. It was exquisite: poetic, imaginative, and allusive to all sorts of other things (Ozymandias, the Death of Chatterton, Calvin and Hobbes (https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1993/04/09), and I'm sure many others that I didn't catch). It's also a novella, so, Golazo, you might find it the right length, although I was surprised at how slowly I read it because of the richness of the language.

Speaking of science fiction, I was also a little disappointed by The Raven Tower. There was some good stuff in it: I loved the idea of gods being careful about what they say, because their use of language makes reality, and if they say something that's not true, they'll spend their strength changing reality so it becomes true (and if they say something that's impossible, they'll die). That was really imaginative. I thought the narrator's backstory, as a stone on a hill, was beautifully written. But I thought the political thriller portion was not as rich as it could have been. Basically, it's Hamlet meets Pratchett's Small Gods, but although it starts there, it doesn't really go anywhere new with it. It's a neat mash-up of two things, but nothing more than that.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Scout on July 30, 2019, 11:07:46 AM
Just finished The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. A gripping true tale of the creation of the Chicago World's Fair and the acts and hunt for a serial killer preying on your women in Chicago (and elsewhere) during the same time. Strangely, the World's fair development was just as gripping as the serial killer story line!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on August 01, 2019, 07:33:42 AM
Patrick Leigh Fermor's classic travelogue trilogy: A Time of Gifts, Between the Woods and the Water, and The Broken Road
Written in his later years, Leigh Fermor chronicled his 1933 walk across Europe.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: nebo113 on August 02, 2019, 05:32:21 AM
Re-reading "My Antonia" by Willa Cather.  Lyrical and timely.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: larryc on August 06, 2019, 05:59:30 PM
Just finished Kate Brown's Plutopia, a history of the Soviet and American nuclear bomb production towns and their oddly parallel development. It is way outside my usual focus and one of my favorite academic books of recent years. It is deeply researched, beautifully written, and students love it.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: downer on August 13, 2019, 02:42:54 PM
Just finished "One Day" by David Nicholls. Reader, I have to confess I really enjoyed it. It was a little tragic, and had a lot of the misery of unhappy marriages in it.

I know it was made into a movie with Anne Hathaway, Jim Sturgess, and Patricia Clarkson. Not just a movie, a "rom com". It's the sort of movie I hate. But something about Nicholls' writing gets me. I will just avoid the movie.

I admit there are problems with the book's plot. But it does bittersweet so well.

His new book, Sweet Sorrow, is already out in the UK, but not in the US until next May. Ugh! I guess I can wait.

Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: spork on August 13, 2019, 03:02:39 PM
Tried reading two of Yiyun Li's short story collections -- Gold Boy, Emerald Girl and A Thousand Years of Good Prayers. Read a few stories in each but couldn't finish either volume. Too depressing, as one might expect from an author who tried to commit suicide twice but failed, and whose son succeeded.

Did finish Lisa Halliday's Asymmetry. The writing was very good but I couldn't figure out what all the fuss was about. I didn't get why this novel was supposedly such a phenomenon.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: downer on August 13, 2019, 03:26:39 PM
Quote from: spork on August 13, 2019, 03:02:39 PM
Tried reading two of Yiyun Li's short story collections -- Gold Boy, Emerald Girl and A Thousand Years of Good Prayers. Read a few stories in each but couldn't finish either volume. Too depressing, as one might expect from an author who tried to commit suicide twice but failed, and whose son succeeded.

Did finish Lisa Halliday's Asymmetry. The writing was very good but I couldn't figure out what all the fuss was about. I didn't get why this novel was supposedly such a phenomenon.

As the New Yorker (https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/why-asymmetry-has-become-a-literary-phenomenon) said
QuoteThe novel surely owes some of its event-ness to the voyeuristic thrill of reading about watching baseball in bed next to Philip Roth; ordering Walnettos from the Vermont Country Store account belonging to Philip Roth; having geriatric, Hasbro-inflected sex with Philip Roth. ("He came like a weak water bubbler.")

Apart from that, it wasn't as interesting as people made out.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: drbrt on August 13, 2019, 03:33:11 PM
I read a bunch of the Spellmonger series over the summer. It was interesting but unchallenging, which how my summer reading often goes. I'm currently rereading Drew Hayes' Super Powereds series.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on August 13, 2019, 03:38:41 PM
We recently finished A Column of Fire (Ken Follett).  I ended up liking it a bit more than I had expected, which is a little odd because I really enjoyed the previous two books.  His books are such tomes and don't have any carryover between the people I get invested in in each offering that I guess I always fear that each new one won't be so interesting.  This book focuses a lot on the religious/political dynamics of England, Spain, Scotland, and France (primarily) in the time just before/during/after Elizabeth I.  The story is fairly one-sided, in that it is told mostly from the view of Protestants who were targeted, had their property taken, were burned for heresy, etc. by the Catholics while they themselves allegedly strove for religious tolerance.   I say "allegedly" because politics and related issues seem to have made that mission go astray.  However, it's fairly clear that the reader is supposed to root very strongly for the Protestant characters.  In any case, we both enjoyed the book despite the usual villains and heroes approach and the somewhat less compelling characters.  Some ways along while reading, I realized that I had recently seen a Twitter post about a key plot point as it occurred in history.  Partner apparently forgot that I had told him about it, but I was excited to see how it would play out in the book.  Maybe the historical ties made up for some of the less interesting or likable people.

Now we are reading Trinity (Leon Uris), because apparently we are in a religious/political historical fiction mood.  I've read this one before but hadn't recalled how funny it is at times (and certainly not at other times).   I had also forgotten how tiny the type is in this copy (though I am glad to not have the huge heavy Follett book to lug around).  I guess I have gotten a wee bit older since having read it before.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: S-4711 on August 13, 2019, 04:22:58 PM
"Conflict in the Caucasus: Georgia, Abkhazia and the Russian Shadow" by Svetlana Chervonnaya. A solid, objective analysis of the events leading to the Georgian-Abkhazian War of 1992-93.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: archaeo42 on August 14, 2019, 06:00:21 AM
I recently finished Postcards from a Stranger by Imogen Clark. It's about a woman who finds out her dead mother isn't dead after all and the fallout as she learns that multiple people in her life have lied to her about what they knew. I enjoyed it but the very end of the epilogue turned me off and felt a bit trite.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Scout on August 14, 2019, 08:14:03 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on August 13, 2019, 03:38:41 PM
We recently finished A Column of Fire (Ken Follett).  I ended up liking it a bit more than I had expected, which is a little odd because I really enjoyed the previous two books.  His books are such tomes and don't have any carryover between the people I get invested in in each offering that I guess I always fear that each new one won't be so interesting.  This book focuses a lot on the religious/political dynamics of England, Spain, Scotland, and France (primarily) in the time just before/during/after Elizabeth I.  The story is fairly one-sided, in that it is told mostly from the view of Protestants who were targeted, had their property taken, were burned for heresy, etc. by the Catholics while they themselves allegedly strove for religious tolerance.   I say "allegedly" because politics and related issues seem to have made that mission go astray.  However, it's fairly clear that the reader is supposed to root very strongly for the Protestant characters.  In any case, we both enjoyed the book despite the usual villains and heroes approach and the somewhat less compelling characters.  Some ways along while reading, I realized that I had recently seen a Twitter post about a key plot point as it occurred in history.  Partner apparently forgot that I had told him about it, but I was excited to see how it would play out in the book.  Maybe the historical ties made up for some of the less interesting or likable people.

Now we are reading Trinity (Leon Uris), because apparently we are in a religious/political historical fiction mood.  I've read this one before but hadn't recalled how funny it is at times (and certainly not at other times).   I had also forgotten how tiny the type is in this copy (though I am glad to not have the huge heavy Follett book to lug around).  I guess I have gotten a wee bit older since having read it before.

Thank you- I hadn't realized another book in the series had been released. Getting it now-
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: wareagle on August 15, 2019, 02:28:30 PM
I'm reading Under the Banner of Heaven, Jon Krakauer.  I like his books, tragic though most of them seem.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: spork on August 15, 2019, 04:17:35 PM
Quote from: wareagle on August 15, 2019, 02:28:30 PM
I'm reading Under the Banner of Heaven, Jon Krakauer.  I like his books, tragic though most of them seem.

I remember this book. It was good. You might like Educated by Tara Westover -- a first-person account of growing up in a family of abusive, on-the-fringe believers.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Juvenal on August 16, 2019, 11:38:11 AM
Agrippina by Emma Southen, a history of Imperial Rome, from about Tiberius to the death of Nero, with a focus on Agrippina the Younger, done in a racy, conversational style, not afraid of the f-word (for those doing it or not), with a focus on Agrippina, sister of Caligula, wife of Claudius, mother of Nero, finally murdered by Nero.  A feminist view, a lot of speculation, as there is not much authentic material about Agrippina, whole years of her life blank in history, save pejorative mentions in some later writers of the time-Tacitus, Dio Cassius. So, not just Agrippina, but the status of Roman women, and asides about many other topics in early Imperial Rome.  With zingers along the way.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on August 22, 2019, 08:13:21 AM
I've been reading Malka Older's Centenal Cycle. The first book is called Infomocracy and the second, which I'm halfway through, is Null States. It's a really smart, imaginative view of a medium-future (late 21st century) earth, which has adopted a vastly different global governance system of 'microdemocracy': The world is divided into 'centenals' of 100,000 people each and they vote on one of a few thousand different possible governments. To the extent that there's anything resembling a nation-state, it's the patchwork of centenals around the globe that all happen to share a government, but of course at each election a centenal can switch to a new government. The events of the first book cover one such election, which is full of all sorts of shenanigans. Highly recommended!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: the_geneticist on August 22, 2019, 09:31:03 AM
Quote from: ergative on May 19, 2019, 11:43:02 PM
Yay, this thread!

I just finished Kameron Hurley's The Stars are Legion, which was incredibly gross and incredibly awesome. Enormous organic world-ships in space that are so old that everyone has basically forgotten how they work, rotting from cancerous disorders, and filled inside with lots of different, uniquely horrifying biosystems and cultures of people who don't even believe they're on a world-ship. There's a wonderful subversion of the whole 'live as one with nature' trope, because the people and the world-ships are perfectly aligned with each other: you can eat or drink anything you find, and you don't get infections in wounds, because the human/world-ship biology is so compatible; yet the flip side of that is a ton of body horror: women literally birth organic ship components, and everything can be 'recycled', which means lots of scenes in the deepest depths, where organic material (such as dead or not-yet-dead bodies) rots and is eaten by the recycling organisms.

In some ways Hurley's work reminds me of the opening scenes in Bones episodes: she takes such a delight in imagining the grossest possible things that could happen, and she has such a fertile imagination in rendering it.

I'm now reading Jeanette Ng's Under the Pendulum Sun, which is about Christian missionaries going off into Faerie to convert the fae, and not doing very well. Some of the elements are really beautifully imagined (especially the pendulum sun and the fish moon), but there's a weird sort-of-incestuous plot line that I'm not digging.
I'm almost done reading The Stars are Legion.  It's fantastic! Gross, and weird, and fantastic.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: nescafe on August 29, 2019, 07:25:01 AM
I just finished The Boat People by Sharon Bala. A brilliant debut novelization of refugee detention centers, and the processing of 500 Sri Lankan refugees who arrived in Canada by boat after fleeing the civil war. Definitely recommended, not only for its salience to our own moment but because it is beautifully narrated and makes plain the many legal and ethical issues involved in this work.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on August 29, 2019, 07:11:58 PM
Enjoying "The Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club" series by Theodora Goss:
The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter
European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman

The #3 and final novel The Sinister Mystery of the Mesmerizing Girl comes out next month.

More about the author here: https://theodoragoss.com (https://theodoragoss.com)
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: nebo113 on August 30, 2019, 04:56:06 AM
Quote from: hmaria1609 on August 29, 2019, 07:11:58 PM
Enjoying "The Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club" series by Theodora Goss:
The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter
European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman

The #3 and final novel The Sinister Mystery of the Mesmerizing Girl comes out next month.

More about the author here: https://theodoragoss.com (https://theodoragoss.com)

Thanks for this link.  Sounds intriguing.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: traductio on August 30, 2019, 10:11:59 AM
Every summer, or almost, I read Madlands (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1356711.Madlands) by J. Allen Kirsch. It is a poorly typeset campy soap-operatic romp that also happens to satirize (lovingly) one of my favorite places, Madison, Wisconsin. It's a send-up of academic culture, and I can never seem to put it down.

This year I discovered there's a sequel called God's Little Isthmus, and my copy finally came in the mail today. Its typesetting is much better, but that's all that's changed, I'm happy to report.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on September 24, 2019, 12:38:56 PM
We finished Trinity (Uris) a while back.  It's quite a tale, heartbreaking at times, entertaining at times, pretty engaging.  There were quite a few aspects that seemed very relevant to today, politics, treatment of different groups of people, identity, and so forth.  We decided to hold off a bit before reading Redemption, which I think picks up a bit later from the point of view of others in one of the families. 

After that, we read Solaris (Stanislaw Lem).  My partner had seen the George Clooney version of the movie and thought it was intriguing and, although the book is a bit different, we agreed that it also fits that description.  After writing up my little review below, I looked it up on Amazon to try to find a description that provides some context without giving anything away, and I noticed that a reviewer commented that it's good "if you like asking questions more than getting answers."  You'll see that I agree with that! It's described elsewhere as "philosophical science fiction".  I would sum it up as essentially a quest to understand the planet Solaris that scientists are studying in the research station that is stationed above the planet.  I thought most of the book (which is not very long) was creepy and dreadful in a good way.  There is clearly something going on, and it's fun to speculate about what with all the happenings.  From my point of view, some parts during which historical and geographical aspects are described in really painful detail take away from an otherwise enthralling book.  I am torn on this because I felt that those sections were excruciatingly long compared to the total length of the book and did not seem to contribute much to solving any of the mysteries about what was occurring.  But, I realize that I may have missed key elements, having fallen asleep several times during those parts.  My partner did not identify anything important, but I think he also felt that those parts (though few) were quite a slog.  We also agreed that the book did not seem to wrap up in a satisfying way.  Again, this may be due to being used to books that at least attempt to tie up loose ends.  Here, there were a number of threads of interest and questions raised throughout the book that were not solved or answered, as far as I could tell.  There were some fairly thought-provoking discussions of humanity, intelligence, and relationships but, again, I wasn't sure they went anywhere at the end.  Still, I appreciate books that stoke that desire to hash out our thoughts in detail and try to figure out what might be meant by what.  Partner and I had different takes on some of it, so we got some good debates out of it.  It's hard to tell sometimes whether an author meant to leave things a certain way or just ran out of steam, or who knows what. 

Now we are reading Empire Falls (Richard Russo), which won the Pulitzer and was apparently written between the two previous books of his we'd read (Nobody's Fool and follow up Everybody's Fool).  I'd guess we're about 3/4 of the way through.  It reminds me very much of Nobody's Fool in terms of the setting (town based around some industry that has dried up, college/rival town nearby) and some of the character types and lifestyle fixtures (the local bars everyone goes to, the diner everyone eats at).  I loved Nobody's Fool, and I am anxious to see how this story turns out.  It has been hard to put this book down.  I think Russo has a great ability to write about scenes in a way that is matter-of-fact, dry, and absurdist... completely hilarious (my kind of humor).  The other night we were up way too late reading and had tears streaming from the laughter about one particular section.  While these kinds of scenes and depictions have come up several times in the books of his we've read, he is also very good (I think) about subtly painting characters a little more deeply and a little more deeply during a book.  They start out almost as stereotypes, but they get layered as time goes on, and I find myself really drawn to a number of them and caring about how things play out for them (and, there are some really unlikable folks, of course).  There are a couple little mysteries going on that I am impatient to find out the answers to.  We still have a ways to go, but that is my report so far. 

Just figured I'd bump the thread up.  It's interesting to see what everyone's reading.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: scamp on September 24, 2019, 01:35:50 PM
Quote from: ab_grp on September 24, 2019, 12:38:56 PM

Now we are reading Empire Falls (Richard Russo), which won the Pulitzer and was apparently written between the two previous books of his we'd read (Nobody's Fool and follow up Everybody's Fool).  I'd guess we're about 3/4 of the way through.  It reminds me very much of Nobody's Fool in terms of the setting (town based around some industry that has dried up, college/rival town nearby) and some of the character types and lifestyle fixtures (the local bars everyone goes to, the diner everyone eats at).  I loved Nobody's Fool, and I am anxious to see how this story turns out.  It has been hard to put this book down.  I think Russo has a great ability to write about scenes in a way that is matter-of-fact, dry, and absurdist... completely hilarious (my kind of humor).  The other night we were up way too late reading and had tears streaming from the laughter about one particular section.  While these kinds of scenes and depictions have come up several times in the books of his we've read, he is also very good (I think) about subtly painting characters a little more deeply and a little more deeply during a book.  They start out almost as stereotypes, but they get layered as time goes on, and I find myself really drawn to a number of them and caring about how things play out for them (and, there are some really unlikable folks, of course).  There are a couple little mysteries going on that I am impatient to find out the answers to.  We still have a ways to go, but that is my report so far. 

I just watched the Empire Falls miniseries with Ed Harris on Amazon Prime recently. I am intrigued to read the book now as it does take a sudden turn and I am wondering how that is treated in the book. Also there are lots of characters and I think many probably get short shrift in a TV movie, even in mini-series format like this.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on September 24, 2019, 01:56:32 PM
Quote from: scamp on September 24, 2019, 01:35:50 PM
Quote from: ab_grp on September 24, 2019, 12:38:56 PM

Now we are reading Empire Falls (Richard Russo), which won the Pulitzer and was apparently written between the two previous books of his we'd read (Nobody's Fool and follow up Everybody's Fool).  I'd guess we're about 3/4 of the way through.  It reminds me very much of Nobody's Fool in terms of the setting (town based around some industry that has dried up, college/rival town nearby) and some of the character types and lifestyle fixtures (the local bars everyone goes to, the diner everyone eats at).  I loved Nobody's Fool, and I am anxious to see how this story turns out.  It has been hard to put this book down.  I think Russo has a great ability to write about scenes in a way that is matter-of-fact, dry, and absurdist... completely hilarious (my kind of humor).  The other night we were up way too late reading and had tears streaming from the laughter about one particular section.  While these kinds of scenes and depictions have come up several times in the books of his we've read, he is also very good (I think) about subtly painting characters a little more deeply and a little more deeply during a book.  They start out almost as stereotypes, but they get layered as time goes on, and I find myself really drawn to a number of them and caring about how things play out for them (and, there are some really unlikable folks, of course).  There are a couple little mysteries going on that I am impatient to find out the answers to.  We still have a ways to go, but that is my report so far. 

I just watched the Empire Falls miniseries with Ed Harris on Amazon Prime recently. I am intrigued to read the book now as it does take a sudden turn and I am wondering how that is treated in the book. Also there are lots of characters and I think many probably get short shrift in a TV movie, even in mini-series format like this.

There are a couple story arcs going on in the book that I fear may take turns in ways that I wouldn't hope for.  One in particular concerns a character who clearly has some issues.  I am hoping the character turns out to have a good resolution, but my partner thinks it will end up quite poorly, and I am starting to think he might be right.  I would like to see the miniseries and how all of these characters and situations are handled.  There is so much subtlety to the storytelling that it seems as though it would be a challenge to really get across some of the depth.  However, partner saw the movie Nobody's Fool with Paul Newman and loved it and thought it was very well done despite not being quite as good as the book (which he read later).  Some of the choices of actors were particularly spot on and memorable in their roles, in his opinion.  A few important aspects were changed in the movie, though.  At least it seems that a mini-series might have more room to explore things than a movie, but there are examples supporting and refuting this idea.  I would love to know what you think if you read it!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Puget on September 24, 2019, 03:57:48 PM
Quote from: ab_grp on September 24, 2019, 01:56:32 PM
Quote from: scamp on September 24, 2019, 01:35:50 PM
Quote from: ab_grp on September 24, 2019, 12:38:56 PM

Now we are reading Empire Falls (Richard Russo), which won the Pulitzer and was apparently written between the two previous books of his we'd read (Nobody's Fool and follow up Everybody's Fool).  I'd guess we're about 3/4 of the way through.  It reminds me very much of Nobody's Fool in terms of the setting (town based around some industry that has dried up, college/rival town nearby) and some of the character types and lifestyle fixtures (the local bars everyone goes to, the diner everyone eats at).  I loved Nobody's Fool, and I am anxious to see how this story turns out.  It has been hard to put this book down.  I think Russo has a great ability to write about scenes in a way that is matter-of-fact, dry, and absurdist... completely hilarious (my kind of humor).  The other night we were up way too late reading and had tears streaming from the laughter about one particular section.  While these kinds of scenes and depictions have come up several times in the books of his we've read, he is also very good (I think) about subtly painting characters a little more deeply and a little more deeply during a book.  They start out almost as stereotypes, but they get layered as time goes on, and I find myself really drawn to a number of them and caring about how things play out for them (and, there are some really unlikable folks, of course).  There are a couple little mysteries going on that I am impatient to find out the answers to.  We still have a ways to go, but that is my report so far. 

I just watched the Empire Falls miniseries with Ed Harris on Amazon Prime recently. I am intrigued to read the book now as it does take a sudden turn and I am wondering how that is treated in the book. Also there are lots of characters and I think many probably get short shrift in a TV movie, even in mini-series format like this.

There are a couple story arcs going on in the book that I fear may take turns in ways that I wouldn't hope for.  One in particular concerns a character who clearly has some issues.  I am hoping the character turns out to have a good resolution, but my partner thinks it will end up quite poorly, and I am starting to think he might be right.  I would like to see the miniseries and how all of these characters and situations are handled.  There is so much subtlety to the storytelling that it seems as though it would be a challenge to really get across some of the depth.  However, partner saw the movie Nobody's Fool with Paul Newman and loved it and thought it was very well done despite not being quite as good as the book (which he read later).  Some of the choices of actors were particularly spot on and memorable in their roles, in his opinion.  A few important aspects were changed in the movie, though.  At least it seems that a mini-series might have more room to explore things than a movie, but there are examples supporting and refuting this idea.  I would love to know what you think if you read it!
I won't give anything away except to say you are indeed in for some swerves.
I too love Russo-- he's a master at characters and story telling. If you haven't already, read Straight Man next-- it's an academic novel, and one of his funniest I think. I also love That Old Cape Magic.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on September 24, 2019, 04:17:13 PM
Quote from: Puget on September 24, 2019, 03:57:48 PM
Quote from: ab_grp on September 24, 2019, 01:56:32 PM
Quote from: scamp on September 24, 2019, 01:35:50 PM
Quote from: ab_grp on September 24, 2019, 12:38:56 PM

Now we are reading Empire Falls (Richard Russo), which won the Pulitzer and was apparently written between the two previous books of his we'd read (Nobody's Fool and follow up Everybody's Fool).  I'd guess we're about 3/4 of the way through.  It reminds me very much of Nobody's Fool in terms of the setting (town based around some industry that has dried up, college/rival town nearby) and some of the character types and lifestyle fixtures (the local bars everyone goes to, the diner everyone eats at).  I loved Nobody's Fool, and I am anxious to see how this story turns out.  It has been hard to put this book down.  I think Russo has a great ability to write about scenes in a way that is matter-of-fact, dry, and absurdist... completely hilarious (my kind of humor).  The other night we were up way too late reading and had tears streaming from the laughter about one particular section.  While these kinds of scenes and depictions have come up several times in the books of his we've read, he is also very good (I think) about subtly painting characters a little more deeply and a little more deeply during a book.  They start out almost as stereotypes, but they get layered as time goes on, and I find myself really drawn to a number of them and caring about how things play out for them (and, there are some really unlikable folks, of course).  There are a couple little mysteries going on that I am impatient to find out the answers to.  We still have a ways to go, but that is my report so far. 

I just watched the Empire Falls miniseries with Ed Harris on Amazon Prime recently. I am intrigued to read the book now as it does take a sudden turn and I am wondering how that is treated in the book. Also there are lots of characters and I think many probably get short shrift in a TV movie, even in mini-series format like this.

There are a couple story arcs going on in the book that I fear may take turns in ways that I wouldn't hope for.  One in particular concerns a character who clearly has some issues.  I am hoping the character turns out to have a good resolution, but my partner thinks it will end up quite poorly, and I am starting to think he might be right.  I would like to see the miniseries and how all of these characters and situations are handled.  There is so much subtlety to the storytelling that it seems as though it would be a challenge to really get across some of the depth.  However, partner saw the movie Nobody's Fool with Paul Newman and loved it and thought it was very well done despite not being quite as good as the book (which he read later).  Some of the choices of actors were particularly spot on and memorable in their roles, in his opinion.  A few important aspects were changed in the movie, though.  At least it seems that a mini-series might have more room to explore things than a movie, but there are examples supporting and refuting this idea.  I would love to know what you think if you read it!
I won't give anything away except to say you are indeed in for some swerves.
I too love Russo-- he's a master at characters and story telling. If you haven't already, read Straight Man next-- it's an academic novel, and one of his funniest I think. I also love That Old Cape Magic.

Thanks for the confirmation about what may be coming up.  Given some clues so far, I am really anxious to find out what the deal is.  I want to speed up the reading but also savor it, alas.  What a good dilemma to have.  And thanks for the recommendations (have put them firmly on the list)! I have enjoyed his books so much, probably more solidly throughout the three books that we've read/are reading than for any other author, and I have some favorite authors.  It's nice to know that there are still yet more of his that are worth the read! Each time we read another I wonder if this is it, the last good one.  Surely, there can't be more.  This is very exciting.   I wish I had come across his books years ago.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on September 24, 2019, 11:52:55 PM
I went through a huge Russo phase some years ago, and the similarities of settings, lifestyle fixtures, and character types that you noticed, ab_grp, are in all of the books. They are all set in a decaying New England town where the industry is gone but left behind carcinogenic pollution, and there's a wise-cracking cynic who's kind of an asshole, in many cases because some interaction of economic and family pressures meant that he had to give up his prospects for a better future away from the town. I remember loving Straight Man when I first read it, but on re-reading I decided that the wise-cracking cynic was too much of an asshole. One thing I liked about Nobody's Fool is that our wise-cracking cynical asshole is constantly being called out and criticized for his assholery, which doesn't happen in Straight Man.

I also remember putting down Empire Falls and thinking what an astonishingly depressing book it was, but then I was a junior in college at the time, and probably too young for many of the points about disappointment and compromise to resonate properly.

Of all of Russo's books, I think I liked Nobody's Fool the best. The ending was really satisfying.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: lsmrlnds on September 25, 2019, 05:24:58 AM
I'm determined to make it through the The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan.  Started it a few years okay because my brother had a few of the books lying around, but I never did finish the series, although I've always wanted to.  I'm on Book 5 of 14....
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: downer on September 25, 2019, 05:38:04 AM
I read an advance copy of Becoming a Man, by P. Carl. It was smart and interesting. But it still left me wondering why it is OK for some to engage in such gender stereotyping.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on September 27, 2019, 12:44:11 PM
Quote from: ergative on September 24, 2019, 11:52:55 PM
I went through a huge Russo phase some years ago, and the similarities of settings, lifestyle fixtures, and character types that you noticed, ab_grp, are in all of the books. They are all set in a decaying New England town where the industry is gone but left behind carcinogenic pollution, and there's a wise-cracking cynic who's kind of an asshole, in many cases because some interaction of economic and family pressures meant that he had to give up his prospects for a better future away from the town. I remember loving Straight Man when I first read it, but on re-reading I decided that the wise-cracking cynic was too much of an asshole. One thing I liked about Nobody's Fool is that our wise-cracking cynical asshole is constantly being called out and criticized for his assholery, which doesn't happen in Straight Man.

I also remember putting down Empire Falls and thinking what an astonishingly depressing book it was, but then I was a junior in college at the time, and probably too young for many of the points about disappointment and compromise to resonate properly.

Of all of Russo's books, I think I liked Nobody's Fool the best. The ending was really satisfying.

I agree with so much (all?) of this! We finished Empire Falls last night.  I've been thinking about a couple aspects that I guess I shouldn't mention explicitly except to say that I wonder how the timing of the release of the book versus now would change the reception to it.  I also wonder about some of what I think are parallels in behaviors that in some cases I think are supposed to be supported and in others are supposed to be reviled.  There are a lot of great parts of this book.  The story builds pretty slowly, as in Nobody's Fool, but the end comes very swiftly, and I felt that the epilogue was tacked on to tie up loose strings (not in a very satisfying way, in my opinion).  I do think Nobody's Fool was the better novel.  It didn't seem at any time to be going for the cheap gags or feels.  I would say all three we've read have different mixes of character development, hijinx, and action.  Nobody's Fool seems to be on one end of the spectrum.  The characters felt very real to me, as if I would recognize them if I ran into them somewhere.  There was certainly hijinx, though not over the top.  There was very little in the way of what might be considered action (compared to the other two).  It was just a slow, layered, really engrossing, lovely, painful, wonderful story well told.  I would put Everybody's Fool down as medium character development (even though a lot of the characters are the same as in NF, I don't think they're as vivid at times here) and a hefty amount of hijinx and action.  I didn't think everything came together as well as it could have, and it felt more superficial, but still a good story that was great at times.  As for Empire Falls, it was really enjoyable overall and very well told through most of it.   The major action was foreshadowed pretty well as things evolved but was still quite powerful.   There was some hijinx, though it's not easy to place that right now.  I guess I just didn't really feel the characters as much as in the other books.  I didn't get a really good sense of who the main characters were, and some of the others were such caricatures that I could completely picture them but didn't care much about them.  It seemed as though there was an additional little mystery going on throughout, but that seemed to get sidelined and just written off hastily.  At the end, I just didn't care much where life would take most of the characters, which is a little odd given how similar the book initially seemed to NF.  I would happily read about Sully and crew's everyday life.   Maybe Russo will write a prequel to NF someday! I am looking forward to the other books recommended here.  I just looked him up, and apparently he has a PhD.  I wonder how common that is.

We started re-reading Catch-22 (Heller) last night as a palate cleanser.  I'm not sure if we will stick to that or move on to another new book.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: scamp on October 01, 2019, 01:18:38 PM
Maybe I will read Nobody's Fool first, before picking up the novel version of Empire Falls. I enjoyed Straight Man as well, which is maybe another reason I was taken off guard by Empire Falls. I now live in the type of town he writes about, which adds an extra element when I read.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: wareagle on October 01, 2019, 04:53:22 PM
Russo taught at Colby College for many years.  He's an academic as well as an author, which is why Straight Man is classic higher-ed literature.  It remains my favorite of his books, although Empire Falls is a close second.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on October 07, 2019, 03:27:49 PM
We picked up both the recommended Russo books and look forward to reading them (and hearing what others have to say as they read his various books)!

After re-reading a bit of Catch-22 that evening, we chose to move on to Foundation and Empire (Asimov).  Neither of us found it as engaging as Foundation was, and we had some issues with how things played out.  I am interested to see what happens in the next book, as this one introduced another intrigue beyond the more straight-forward sci-fi of the first.  What I liked so much about the first book, the military and political strategy and some of the philosophical aspects, were not as much represented here, in my opinion.  The new threat seems more of a fantasy element, and while the gist of it makes sense with respect to what Hari Seldon could or could not predict through psychohistory, I am skeptical of whether it will seem as compelling to me.  Although I grew up with all the Asimov books that my father loved so much, I never read them because at the time they seemed way too sci-fi and technical for me from the book blurbs.  I was excited to find that Foundation (read about 1.5 yrs ago) worked on so many other levels that I could relate to, even as a relatively novice sci-fi reader.  I didn't think this book's characters or the plot pulled me in as much.  There was a review I read on Goodreads afterward that pretty much summed up my thoughts on it, and the review is also posted here: https://notbadmoviereviews.wordpress.com/books/foundation-2/ (https://notbadmoviereviews.wordpress.com/books/foundation-2/).   A major plot twist seemed pretty easy to figure out fairly early on, and the Scooby Doo "all about me and how I did it" type of explanation at the end was just ugh.   But, it was worth reading, and we will be reading Second Foundation sooner or later to find out what happens next.  Asimov had so many neat ideas.

Next up is Sarah's Key (Tatiana de Rosnay), which I read quite a while back. 
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on October 28, 2019, 01:32:38 PM
I'm a few books behind now, so maybe everyone else has also been too busy reading to update!

Let's see.  We read Sarah's Key, as I mentioned in my last post.  It's a very tragic story, and the historical parts are difficult but important to think about (sadly, relevant today).  I was not as much a fan of some of the wrapper (modern timeline) story or most of those characters.  The older storyline takes place mostly in 1942 in Paris around the time of the Vel d'Hiv' round up, detention, and deportation (mainly, ultimately, to Auschwitz, it seems) of thousands of Jewish men, women, and children.  A tale worth reading for the history if not as much for the other stuff.

We then read Blood Music (Greg Bear).  Definitely a strange book. It's basically about a scientist who does some genetic manipulation outside the bounds of his role at the company he works for.  He gets in trouble once he's discovered by his employers but decides he can't kill what he's created, so he injects himself with it on the sly, and mayhem ensues.  It's very creepy at times, and I think fairly thought provoking in some ways, but I wasn't thrilled with it overall.  I think it started as a short story, and maybe it should have stayed that way.

Now we are reading Out Stealing Horses (Per Petterson), which I read a couple years back.  This takes place in Norway, and though I do not remember much of it, it seems to be a remembrance of a tragic and eventful summer.  It's pretty gripping so far, and I really like the writing. 
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: downer on October 28, 2019, 02:38:23 PM
The Dutch House, by Ann Patchett. I enjoyed it, to be sure, but basically I found it undemanding and not as deep as so many reviews say it is.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Tine0625 on October 28, 2019, 03:36:49 PM
The Cook by Maylis de Kerangal. It's very interesting for people like who loves novels about food :)
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: wareagle on October 29, 2019, 07:02:04 PM
I recently finished Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend.  Highly readable and creative.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Second Chance on October 31, 2019, 07:49:25 AM
For novels, i sort of liked The weight of ink (prof is main protaganist) and liked the style of Where the Crawdids sing (written by a naturalist). For non-fiction, I forced myself to read Sapiens, since a friend of mine who loved it recently passed away. Waiting for a library (kindle) copy of Pollin's latest book. Nothing has blown me away lately. Kindle has changed the way I read.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on November 05, 2019, 10:56:31 AM
We finished Out Stealing Horses a few nights ago.  It was hard to put down at times, and the writing is really splendid in some places, but we both felt that the story was a bit lacking.  Maybe it just didn't seem to come together well? But we really enjoyed reading the book. 

After that, we started on Agent to the Stars (Scalzi).  As I have said elsewhere, I absolutely loved his Fuzzy Nation but thought that Red Shirts wasn't quite as good as I expected.  This book seems a bit funnier than RS (which also had some pretty touching parts).  We are barely into it, but I'm anticipating hijinx.  I think that all three of these books have interesting concepts, so I always appreciate seeing where he'll take them.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on November 05, 2019, 02:13:32 PM
Parts of 56 books I set aside at the OSU music and dance library, which I've also scanned, over the past three days.

Heaven....

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on November 22, 2019, 11:38:50 AM
We finished Agent to the Stars.  Overall, I'd probably put it second in the list of Scalzi books we've read.  It was very funny at times, had an interesting premise that was pretty well executed, and some surprisingly touching points (which Scalzi seems to be good at inserting into otherwise humorous tales).

Since then, we've been reading Black Swan Green (David Mitchell), which I read a few years ago.  I remember it as being pretty good but not great.  I think I am enjoying it more this time.  Really, reading to each other has been eye-opening.  It has changed how I've thought of so many books!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: archaeo42 on November 22, 2019, 12:32:42 PM
I finished Thick: And Other Essays by Tressie McMillan Cottom the other night. I wish it was longer. I really enjoy the way she weaves in theory with popular writing.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Bede the Vulnerable on November 23, 2019, 12:47:47 AM
Just received Houellebecq's "Serotonin" in the mail a couple days ago.  I should be grading, so I'm reading it instead.  He's my favorite contemporary author, and this one--thus far--does not disappoint.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on December 04, 2019, 02:29:05 PM
We finished Black Swan Green.  I did end up enjoying it quite a bit more all the way through.  Maybe different parts just resonate with me now.   Some of the characters and scenes are just great.  It covers one year in an early teenage life in early 80's England, but it still feels very relatable.   Some of the observations and depictions are really well rendered.

Then we started Cryptonomicon, which we have both read before and loved.  I read it many years ago and don't remember too much of it but got back into it pretty quickly.  It's another book with some really entertaining and interesting characters and scenes, and it's also pretty fascinating, too!   
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Vkw10 on December 04, 2019, 06:59:56 PM
I'm reading Robert Heinlein's I Will Fear No Evil, which I recall enjoying in my late teens. In my mid-50s, I'm finding it rather depressing and moralistic. Can I call a book with so much discussion of nudity and swinging moralistic? not sure I'll finish it.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Puget on December 04, 2019, 07:19:06 PM

The second book in the "Rivers of London" serious by Ben Aaronovitch -- fantasy meets police procedural in modern day London. They are fun and smart and not too heavy, which is just what I want at the stressful end of the semester. I've acquired the third book to take on my winter break trip. There are 8 total and counting so I won't run out anytime soon.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: archaeo42 on December 05, 2019, 06:42:00 AM
Crazy Rich Asians. I found it fun although I think I was more interested to see how it differed from the movie.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on December 05, 2019, 07:42:41 AM
The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern. It's a beautiful, magical book with an unhurried narrative style, about a continuing competition between magicians who use a circus as a venue to display their talents to their fullest. It reminds me of a combination of Natasha Pulley (for the narrative style), Jonathan L Howard's Joannes Cabal books (for the traveling magic circus), and Frances Hardinge's A Face Like Glass (for the beautifully imaginative details).
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: downer on December 05, 2019, 08:38:06 AM
Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams. A great book about ethicnity, relationships, sex, and friendship. Often very funny but also really interesting.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: onthefringe on December 05, 2019, 09:50:15 AM
Quote from: Puget on December 04, 2019, 07:19:06 PM

The second book in the "Rivers of London" serious by Ben Aaronovitch -- fantasy meets police procedural in modern day London. They are fun and smart and not too heavy, which is just what I want at the stressful end of the semester. I've acquired the third book to take on my winter break trip. There are 8 total and counting so I won't run out anytime soon.

I love these. If you like audiobooks at all, try those. The narrator is fabulous, and adds to the already great experience enough that I alway "read" this series by audiobook if possible.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Puget on December 05, 2019, 11:35:05 AM
Quote from: onthefringe on December 05, 2019, 09:50:15 AM
Quote from: Puget on December 04, 2019, 07:19:06 PM

The second book in the "Rivers of London" serious by Ben Aaronovitch -- fantasy meets police procedural in modern day London. They are fun and smart and not too heavy, which is just what I want at the stressful end of the semester. I've acquired the third book to take on my winter break trip. There are 8 total and counting so I won't run out anytime soon.

I love these. If you like audiobooks at all, try those. The narrator is fabulous, and adds to the already great experience enough that I alway "read" this series by audiobook if possible.

Yes! I did listen to the first two on audiobook but got a paperback for the next one since the wait for the audiobook at the library was super long.
I love audiobooks in general-- it's one of the perks, besides the built in exercise, of my half hour walking commute.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on December 05, 2019, 12:28:51 PM
I finally read all of The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan, after many years of reading bits and pieces of it.  A classic religious allegory that's also a leading contender for the first fantasy novel in English, depending on how one defines the genre.  As allegory a great deal of it still rings true.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on December 07, 2019, 07:35:54 PM
I haven't posted any of my reads in a long time! Here are two that I read this week:
Dream City: Race, Power, and the Decline of Washington, DC, 20th anniversary edition by Harry Jaffe and Tom Sherwood (NF)
I was seeing this book on and off in the library over the years. Finally got to read it when a replacement copy arrived at the library. Worthwhile read about DC during the 1980s-'90s. The authors wrote a new afterword for the 2nd edition, providing an update since its original 1994 publication.

Queen of Nothing by Holly Black (YA)
Final and #3 installment in the best selling "Folk of the Air" trilogy.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: spork on December 23, 2019, 02:38:48 PM
Quote from: Bede the Vulnerable on November 23, 2019, 12:47:47 AM
Just received Houellebecq's "Serotonin" in the mail a couple days ago.  I should be grading, so I'm reading it instead.  He's my favorite contemporary author, and this one--thus far--does not disappoint.

The only novel of his that I've read is Submission, which I liked because of how it veered between a satire of academics, a lesson on parliamentary French politics, and a political thriller. Is Serotonin as good?

Nearing the end of Stephen King's 11/22/63, which I've liked so far.

Didn't finish The Hidden History of Burma by Thant Myint-U. It needs a hook. Or at least the fundamental narrative needs to be more prominent.

Almost done with The Ungrateful Refugee by Dina Nayeri, which is a mix of a memoir and a meditation on the refugee experience. It needs editing. In fact she has what is essentially a condensed version of the book in The Guardian that is much better reading.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: nescafe on December 24, 2019, 10:11:35 PM
Finishing Colson Whitehead's The Nickel Boys tonight. It's an intense read about a boys' reform school based on the author's historical research. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/14/books/review/nickel-boys-colson-whitehead.html (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/14/books/review/nickel-boys-colson-whitehead.html)
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on December 26, 2019, 02:14:41 PM
After 1.5 years of slowly reading The Goldfinch (Donna Tartt) on the side, I have finally finished it.  I went to my Goodreads account to mark it done and give it three stars and read some of the reviews.  A little tidbit of information mentioned in some of the reviews is that the book is 771 pages, which is probably one reason it took so darn long.  I am used to reading 1000-page books (in much less time!) but had no idea this one was actually fairly long and thought it just felt that way and was not very engaging.  This is one thing I do not enjoy about ebooks, not having as much of an idea of what progress has been made! In any case, some other reviewers seemed to agree with my general take but expressed it better.  The book was intriguing at times, informative (e.g., art), and certainly action-packed in places.  However, it also seemed very disjointed, incoherent, and unbelievable.  The vast majority of characters were unlikable (which is fine, but when the story isn't great it's nice to have someone to root for or care about).  I didn't think the ending was satisfying at all.  But, there were some glimmers of pretty good writing (I say eloquently... hey, I'm just the reader).  A shorter and more focused version probably would have been a solid improvement.  There are a bunch of twists and turns, so it's hard to decide how to describe the book without giving some of those away.  Spouse and I are still reading Cryptonomicon, but at least I finally finished this (actually not so little) side hustle and can check that off my holiday time-off task list.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Stockmann on December 26, 2019, 04:30:48 PM
I'm reading Arthur Miller's adaptation of Ibsen's An Enemy of the People. It feels very, very current.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on December 26, 2019, 07:11:36 PM
Quote from: ab_grp on December 26, 2019, 02:14:41 PM
After 1.5 years of slowly reading The Goldfinch (Donna Tartt) on the side, I have finally finished it.  I went to my Goodreads account to mark it done and give it three stars and read some of the reviews.  A little tidbit of information mentioned in some of the reviews is that the book is 771 pages, which is probably one reason it took so darn long.  I am used to reading 1000-page books (in much less time!) but had no idea this one was actually fairly long and thought it just felt that way and was not very engaging.  This is one thing I do not enjoy about ebooks, not having as much of an idea of what progress has been made! In any case, some other reviewers seemed to agree with my general take but expressed it better.  The book was intriguing at times, informative (e.g., art), and certainly action-packed in places.  However, it also seemed very disjointed, incoherent, and unbelievable.  The vast majority of characters were unlikable (which is fine, but when the story isn't great it's nice to have someone to root for or care about).  I didn't think the ending was satisfying at all.  But, there were some glimmers of pretty good writing (I say eloquently... hey, I'm just the reader).  A shorter and more focused version probably would have been a solid improvement.  There are a bunch of twists and turns, so it's hard to decide how to describe the book without giving some of those away.  Spouse and I are still reading Cryptonomicon, but at least I finally finished this (actually not so little) side hustle and can check that off my holiday time-off task list.
The novel was adapted for a movie, and it's now available on DVD and Blu-Ray.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: nescafe on December 29, 2019, 09:23:58 AM
This week it's been Flea's memoir, Acid for the Children. Picked it up in an airport, expecting it to me meh. But it's really entertaining!
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/flea-red-hot-chili-peppers-book-acid-for-the-children-908218/
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: nebo113 on December 30, 2019, 05:30:10 AM
Quote from: apl68 on December 05, 2019, 12:28:51 PM
I finally read all of The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan, after many years of reading bits and pieces of it.  A classic religious allegory that's also a leading contender for the first fantasy novel in English, depending on how one defines the genre.  As allegory a great deal of it still rings true.

WOW!!!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Anselm on January 03, 2020, 01:02:53 PM
Santa gave me a book I put on my wish list, Bullsh*t Jobs by David Graeber.  He is the same author of Debt: The First 5000 years.   I am just getting into it now.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on January 03, 2020, 04:33:12 PM
Magic for Liars, by Sarah Gailey. For a book about a magic academy, it was a very adult story, told from the perspective of a non-magical PI hired to investigate a murder there. It had all sorts of thinky thoughts about responsibility, about adolescence from the perspective of an adult, about nostalgia and identity, and about family. It took the trope of a dark, brooding PI and gave it depth and meaning beyond simply trying to add a Mood to a murder mystery.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: nebo113 on January 04, 2020, 04:05:48 AM
Where the Crawdads Sing
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: onthefringe on January 04, 2020, 06:20:54 AM
Quote from: ergative on January 03, 2020, 04:33:12 PM
Magic for Liars, by Sarah Gailey. For a book about a magic academy, it was a very adult story, told from the perspective of a non-magical PI hired to investigate a murder there. It had all sorts of thinky thoughts about responsibility, about adolescence from the perspective of an adult, about nostalgia and identity, and about family. It took the trope of a dark, brooding PI and gave it depth and meaning beyond simply trying to add a Mood to a murder mystery.

I have that on hold at my library after reading Hippo River by the same author. Similar themes about identity and family, set in an alternate US where Frederick Russell Burnham's proposal to farm Hippos for meat actually was accepted.

Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on January 04, 2020, 08:07:19 AM
Quote from: nebo113 on January 04, 2020, 04:05:48 AM
Where the Crawdads Sing

In the months since our library got its copies they've been continually checked out or on hold.  Only yesterday did I actually see a copy on the shelf!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: nebo113 on January 05, 2020, 05:33:33 AM
I download from my library and was surprised at how quickly I got it.  I prefer paper but ......
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: archaeo42 on January 07, 2020, 01:10:27 PM
Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak. It's his first book in awhile so I'd forgotten what his writing style was like. I quite enjoyed it once I got into it.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: statsgeek on January 08, 2020, 10:18:12 AM
I loved The Book Thief, but could not get into this one.  Maybe during the next vacation when I can read more than a page in a sitting. 
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: archaeo42 on January 08, 2020, 01:55:52 PM
Quote from: statsgeek on January 08, 2020, 10:18:12 AM
I loved The Book Thief, but could not get into this one.  Maybe during the next vacation when I can read more than a page in a sitting.

It definitely took a minute to get into it but I was glad I stuck with it.

I wanted to come post here because I started Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe by Jenny Colgan and wanted to thank whoever recommended her. I'm finding it utterly charming and have stayed up waaaay too late reading the past 2 nights because of it.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on January 08, 2020, 03:03:07 PM
Quote from: archaeo42 on January 08, 2020, 01:55:52 PM
I wanted to come post here because I started Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe by Jenny Colgan and wanted to thank whoever recommended her. I'm finding it utterly charming and have stayed up waaaay too late reading the past 2 nights because of it.

Thanks for bringing this up.  I don't think I had seen the initial recommendation (or maybe it just hadn't stuck with me) but looked the book up just now.  Sounds great!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: 0susanna on January 09, 2020, 10:36:04 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on January 08, 2020, 03:03:07 PM
Quote from: archaeo42 on January 08, 2020, 01:55:52 PM
I wanted to come post here because I started Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe by Jenny Colgan and wanted to thank whoever recommended her. I'm finding it utterly charming and have stayed up waaaay too late reading the past 2 nights because of it.

Thanks for bringing this up.  I don't think I had seen the initial recommendation (or maybe it just hadn't stuck with me) but looked the book up just now.  Sounds great!
I wasn't the one who recommended Jenny Colgan, but I would have. She is reliably delightful when you need a break.

Recently finished Once Upon a River, by Diane Setterfield (The Thirteenth Tale) and found it engaging magical realism.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: larryc on January 10, 2020, 10:18:29 PM
Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad.

Meh. The first third is a dark slog through plantation slavery. The last third is a dark, emotionally manipulative slog where the protagonist goes through a cycle of finding hope and getting crushed. By the last time it is so formulaic.

The middle third is FUCKING BRILLIANT. Whitehead creates an alternative history where the technology of the 1840s is more advanced than it was, powered by dark experiments on black bodies. Whitehead echoes various classic documents and important episodes in African American history. It is fucking brilliant.

Then he wimps out and writes the predictable, meandering, and emotionally manipulative last third. Honestly, the brilliance of the middle part of the book makes me resent the whole so very much.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on January 11, 2020, 10:02:19 AM
Hmm. Looks like I haven't posted an update since the end of June, when I made my last post to the old thread. Henceforth, I'll aim for more of a monthly roundup (at the end of each month). Here goes, then, another massive update. I'll try to remember my impression of the things I read:


Alastair Reynolds – Shadow Captain: I loved Revenger. This sequel is fun, though not as much fun as its predecessor—probably because the world isn't as new, and so the world-building just isn't the same. Still, I enjoyed it, and look forward to the third installment in the trilogy.

Michael Crichton – The Eaters of the Dead: Took me a while to find this one in a book box, but I finally did. It's a fun re-telling of Beowulf, and representative of Crichton at his best. Honestly, he should have stuck to historical fiction—he did a great job whenever he did.

Michael Crichton – The Great Train Robbery: Vintage Crichton: as I said before, he's often at his best writing historical fiction, and that's true of this, too. I'm not at all a fan of the period, but it was a gripping story and well-told.

Michael Crichton – The Terminal Man: So boring. So, so boring. Dull. Ugh.

Michael Crichton – State of Fear: A long, long Gish Gallop against climate change. I think this is the last Crichton novel I had left to read, apart from his pseudonymous medical thrillers. Half of it was super boring, the other half okay (in particular, the brief chunk set in Antarctica). It's all-in on climate change denial and it spends hundreds of pages justifying itself—poorly, I should add, and with reams of dodgy science, misleading graphs, and half-truths. Not a winner.

Karl Schroeder – Lady of Mazes: I read this on the strength of a friendly acquaintance's recommendation. Meh. It was pretty slow and dull for most of its runtime, though punctuated with interesting sequences. The plot is relatively complex, but IMO that's mostly because the story is poorly told, and the revelations aren't managed well. Lots of telling, not enough showing.

Ann Leckie – The Raven Tower: This was my first proper fantasy novel in years, and it was fantastic. I really enjoyed it, right down to the Pratchett-style take on gods. Telling the story from the point of view of a stationary god is also a neat little trick. I really enjoyed it, and look forward to the sequel. Leckie's performed a fantastic genre pivot.

Mira Grant – Feedback: I love Feed. Feedback is fun, but really, it's just Feed retold and, as such, it really lacks the original's punch and imaginative world-building. It's a competent novel, but ultimately it's so similar to the source material that it can't help but be a little disappointing.

Mira Grant – Rise: The Complete Newsflesh Collection: This was better. It's a bunch of short stories, some of which are quite powerful (most notably the San Diego ComiCon story, and the Florida one), and others of which are a little dull (e.g. the Australian story, where nothing at all happens). It made for a nice last taste of the Newsflesh world, though.

M.R. Carey – The Girl With All The Gifts: This was a fantastic read, and another great take on the zombie novel (unfortunately, it totally scooped me on the origins of the zombie plague). This was one of my favourite reads of the year, and telling it mostly from a little girl's perspective was genius. I totally believed the peril, and I nearly wept at how well-executed one of those early scenes was. It makes a few false steps, but it was fantastic nonetheless. A totally unexpected hit.

M.R. Carey – The Boy On The Bridge: This is a surprisingly good sequel (well, prequel) to The Girl With All The Gifts. It's not as good—the element of surprise is gone—but it manages to tell an interesting story, even if we already know how it's going to end. A pleasant surprise.

Naomi Klein – The Battle for Paradise: Puerto Rico Takes on the Disaster Capitalists: Short and sweet, a compelling piece of reporting on the climate crisis from Puerto Rico. I learned a lot, especially about Puerto Rico.

Naomi Klein – On Fire: The Burning Case For A Green New Deal: A collection of Klein's climate change reporting, essays, and speeches. Again, it was totally compelling and I learned a lot (even if I'd read most of the original reporting before). It's wonderful to have all these pieces collected together. Klein really is a national treasure.

Lois Lowry – Gathering Blue: I don't remember much about The Giver (to which it's a sequel, of sorts), except that it was stridently anti-communist. Gathering Blue, however, is stridently anti-capitalist, and it was a fantastic and utterly compelling short piece of teen fiction. I loved it.

Sarah Vowell – Unfamiliar Fishes: I hated this book so much. First of all, it pretends to be a history of Hawai'i, but spends more time talking about Amrerican missionaries in Connecticut than it does anything Hawaiian. Second, there are long tracts in which Vowell talks about her Cherokee 'ancestors'—but she isn't Cherokee! Like Warren, she has one distant Cherokee relative, and that just isn't enough to make her part of that community. Frankly, it's a fucking disgrace that this book talks almost as much about the Cherokee and the Trail of Tears as it does Hawai'i and the Hawaiian people. Let me be clear: the Cherokee story is interesting and important, and I support the re-insertion of indigenous stories and histories into non-indigenous contexts, since otherwise they tend to get erased. But when you're a white tourist telling an indigenous history, don't fucking mix-and-match your indigenous peoples. To make matters worse, the book is chock full of spectacularly oblivious racism (including a complaint about all the Hawaiian street names!). It's a total This American Life book, complete with useless digressions down obscure, boring, and totally unenlightening tangents (because, you see, this person met that one at Yale, and that other person hung out with them and later played a bit part in My Cherokee Heritage Minute, but also, let's talk about all these mainland white people and their religious beliefs, because there were missionaries in Hawai'i—isn't it a funny American life, after all?). UGH. I can't even begin to remember everything I hated about it.

Bernard Cornwell – Sword of Kings: I love this series, and always welcome new installments. This one did not disappoint.

Marlon James – Black Leopard Red Wolf: A really cool fantasy rooted in... the Malian Empire? Somewhere in the vicinity, anyway. There's lots to like about this book, including the weird and difficult pigeon that made my reading rather slow. It's highly imaginative, and full of colour. Very slow in parts, and fast-paced in others. Quite a lot of fairly graphic sex, including some dodgy stuff. But fascinating all the same. I don't know whether I have the energy for the sequel, once it comes out, but there's a lot here that'll stay with me for a long time.

Terry Pratchett – Faust Eric: Found it in a book box, and since it's been about twenty years since I read it, thought I'd give it a spin. Every bit as fun and original as it was the first time around. Honestly, it makes me feel like I should re-read all the Discworld novels—in order, this time.

Poul Anderson – Hrolf Kraki's Saga: I read the original saga about ten years ago. As far as I could tell, this "retelling" is pretty much just the original, plus an occasional reference to a narrator. The source material is as gripping as it ever was, however, and I'd forgotten all about the Beowulf interlude, which made for a nice little treat.

Jean-Yves Ferri and Didier Conrad, Didier– La Fille de Vercingétorix: I love Astérix, but I have mixed feelings about these new additions. The last Ferri/Conrad book was pretty racist, in a manner that I couldn't reconcile with the originals. This story was OK. A little bit rushed and all over the place, like their others, but on the whole better. But man, I miss the Uderzo/Goscinny originals.

Iain M. Banks – Inversions: I enjoyed this one very much, certainly more than I'd enjoyed most of the Culture novels up until this point. Banks found a great way to write across genres, while maintaining his primary scifi audience. A neat trick, and neatly performed.

Iain M. Banks – Look to Windward: This was another good Culture novel, and I enjoyed it, too. I don't have much to say beyond that, except that the Culture novels get a lot better as you go along. I like the thematic arc in each of these later novels, and the execution is good.

Iain M. Banks – Matter: Another hit. I liked this story a lot, too. It was a good mix of genres, not too heavy-handed, and fast-paced.

Iain M. Banks – Surface Detail: This is one of the very best Culture novels, right up there with The Player of Games, although it's a completely different sort of novel. I was thoroughly gripped by all the different plotlines, including the horrifying one that takes place in the Hells. And the callback to Use of Weapons was great (and subtle!).

Iain M. Banks – The Hydrogen Sonata: A fitting end to this series, even if it wasn't intended as such. I enjoyed the closer look at subliming, and the kind of overview of the series that it provided. I'm sorry that Banks is dead, and that there won't be any more installments in this series—by the end, it got to be a pretty rich universe with lots of really, really cool ideas in it.

Cixin Liu – The Three-Body Problem: Boring. I mostly enjoyed the parts set in Three-Body, but the rest was dull as rocks. It's all telling, and almost no showing. Doubtless translation didn't help, but honestly, I don't think there's much for it to have been unhelpful about. All tell, no show.

N.K. Jemisin – The Fifth Season: I heard about this years ago, but put off reading it because I thought it would be bad. Man, was I wrong. This is one of the most exciting novels I read in all of 2019. It's a really cool, original premise, fantastic world-building, and it's clearly influenced by Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time (my favourite fantasy series, featuring my favourite system of magic), especially his Aes Sedai. This is a brilliant novel, and I can't recommend it highly enough.

N.K. Jemisin – The Obelisk Gate: This is the sequel to The Fifth Season, as it's just as brilliant. There's no step down, here: Jemisin has succeeded in writing a novel that's every bit as good as its predecessor. A rip-roaring read that left me in awe of the work she's done.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on January 15, 2020, 03:38:56 PM
I'm so glad to see you're back with more reviews! They always inspire additions to our to-read list, and the only ones we've read in the current review list are the Jemisin books (agreed, excellent), so lots to consider.

We finished Cryptonomicon, finally.  I hadn't read it in years and thought it took off slowly (too much math, ironically, given where life has taken me since I first read it).  Once it got going, though, I fell in love with it again.  Plenty of hilarity and interesting history.  One aspect that annoyed me was the belaboring of what seem like very obvious or easy to understand aspects while blowing past more complicated but important pieces (e.g., military strategies).  In any case, we both found it delightful again and thoroughly enjoyed rereading it.  Now our arms can have a break from holding that enormous book up all the time.

I started to read At Swim-Two-Birds (Flann O'Brien/Brian Nolan), which I had previously read for book club.  I had really enjoyed the quirky writing style (at least the outer story).  It's a bit of a challenge to read out loud at times, and life has been stressful, so we switched to Recursion (Blake Crouch), which was one of the new sci-fi books I picked up last summer.  I don't think the writing is excellent, but the story has some promise.  It has to do with memory and manipulation thereof.  An interesting premise, so we'll see how the story works out.


Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on January 15, 2020, 06:13:50 PM
Haha, well, I'm glad my lists contribute to more than just my post count!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: archaeo42 on January 16, 2020, 05:41:38 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on January 15, 2020, 03:38:56 PM
I'm so glad to see you're back with more reviews! They always inspire additions to our to-read list, and the only ones we've read in the current review list are the Jemisin books (agreed, excellent), so lots to consider.

We finished Cryptonomicon, finally.  I hadn't read it in years and thought it took off slowly (too much math, ironically, given where life has taken me since I first read it).  Once it got going, though, I fell in love with it again.  Plenty of hilarity and interesting history.  One aspect that annoyed me was the belaboring of what seem like very obvious or easy to understand aspects while blowing past more complicated but important pieces (e.g., military strategies).  In any case, we both found it delightful again and thoroughly enjoyed rereading it.  Now our arms can have a break from holding that enormous book up all the time.

I started to read At Swim-Two-Birds (Flann O'Brien/Brian Nolan), which I had previously read for book club.  I had really enjoyed the quirky writing style (at least the outer story).  It's a bit of a challenge to read out loud at times, and life has been stressful, so we switched to Recursion (Blake Crouch), which was one of the new sci-fi books I picked up last summer.  I don't think the writing is excellent, but the story has some promise.  It has to do with memory and manipulation thereof.  An interesting premise, so we'll see how the story works out.

Hahaha I was going to ask if you plan on reading any other Neal Stephenson soon. I do love The Baroque Cycle books...and Anathem.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on January 16, 2020, 11:09:34 AM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on January 15, 2020, 06:13:50 PM
Haha, well, I'm glad my lists contribute to more than just my post count!

If post count were your focus, of course you could always split your review posts up into one per book! Seriously, though, I really appreciate hearing about what you've been reading.

Archaeo42, we have read a few other Stephensons, some of which were (thankfully) a bit less hefty to wrangle.  We read or reread Snow Crash and Zodiac within the past year or so, and we've each previously read The Diamond Age.  Spouse loves, loves, loves Anathem.  I read it and enjoyed it but felt that I was not "getting it" completely.  Again, ironically, I didn't think I was getting the math in particular.  Maybe my mind just resists reading what I have to read at work all day! I would like to reread that one.  Spouse and I both tried to read The Baroque Cycle but didn't get too far, though we have all the books and should probably take a crack at those again (they are big, though!).  He also read Seveneves and found it to be interesting but a bit ponderous in the details at times.  I attempted to read The Mongoliad but didn't get so far with that one, either.  Stephenson seems to have a couple different types of books, some easier to get into than others, but I have enjoyed all of the ones I've finished, even if I have not loved all of them.  Have you read others of his? What did you think?
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: archaeo42 on January 16, 2020, 11:52:20 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on January 16, 2020, 11:09:34 AM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on January 15, 2020, 06:13:50 PM
Haha, well, I'm glad my lists contribute to more than just my post count!

If post count were your focus, of course you could always split your review posts up into one per book! Seriously, though, I really appreciate hearing about what you've been reading.

Archaeo42, we have read a few other Stephensons, some of which were (thankfully) a bit less hefty to wrangle.  We read or reread Snow Crash and Zodiac within the past year or so, and we've each previously read The Diamond Age.  Spouse loves, loves, loves Anathem.  I read it and enjoyed it but felt that I was not "getting it" completely.  Again, ironically, I didn't think I was getting the math in particular.  Maybe my mind just resists reading what I have to read at work all day! I would like to reread that one.  Spouse and I both tried to read The Baroque Cycle but didn't get too far, though we have all the books and should probably take a crack at those again (they are big, though!).  He also read Seveneves and found it to be interesting but a bit ponderous in the details at times.  I attempted to read The Mongoliad but didn't get so far with that one, either.  Stephenson seems to have a couple different types of books, some easier to get into than others, but I have enjoyed all of the ones I've finished, even if I have not loved all of them.  Have you read others of his? What did you think?

I've read all of his fiction, except the short stories.  I found Seveneves really hard to get in to as well -- it's probably my least favorite novel of his. I enjoyed The Mongoliad and the rest of that series but I also really enjoy sweeping, complicated story lines with a lot of detail. I felt like I wasn't quite "getting it" with his recent novel Fall: Or Dodge in Hell. It seemed like there was some background philosophy of science reading I should have done to fully get it. He remains one of my favorite writers because his stories assume the reader is smart and will understand the science and technology concepts he's drawing from.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on January 16, 2020, 12:18:54 PM
Currently reading Big History, which tries to cover everything from the Big Bang to the present.  It's nothing if not ambitious in scope!  I'm up through the formation of the Solar System.  Fascinating stuff.  I look forward to eventually getting into the era that covers history as we usually define it.  I actually know enough about that to form an opinion on whether the authors of this book know their stuff.  Until them I'm having to take things largely on trust.

Also recently read Forgotten God:  Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit, by Francis Chan.  I found it very insightful.

Also reading Stanley Karnow's Vietnam:  A History, which is widely hailed as a definitive work on the subject.  So far still in the early chapters, which deal with France's colonial activities in Southeast Asia. 
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: sprout on January 16, 2020, 12:38:22 PM
Quote from: archaeo42 on January 16, 2020, 11:52:20 AM
I felt like I wasn't quite "getting it" with his recent novel Fall: Or Dodge in Hell. It seemed like there was some background philosophy of science reading I should have done to fully get it.

Huh.  Well, now I'm way more interested in that one!

I really like Neal Stephenson.  I've read his earlier stuff (Zodiac, Snow Crash, Diamond Age).  I like a lot of his later stuff too - including both Anathem and Seveneves, but feel like it would benefit from a more aggressive editing.  Like, when he was less of a name maybe people told him more firmly to tighten it up.  I will probably never read The Baroque Cycle, just because my reading time is limited and I have too many other books I'd like to get to eventually.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: archaeo42 on January 16, 2020, 01:08:28 PM
Quote from: sprout on January 16, 2020, 12:38:22 PM
Quote from: archaeo42 on January 16, 2020, 11:52:20 AM
I felt like I wasn't quite "getting it" with his recent novel Fall: Or Dodge in Hell. It seemed like there was some background philosophy of science reading I should have done to fully get it.

Huh.  Well, now I'm way more interested in that one!

I really like Neal Stephenson.  I've read his earlier stuff (Zodiac, Snow Crash, Diamond Age).  I like a lot of his later stuff too - including both Anathem and Seveneves, but feel like it would benefit from a more aggressive editing.  Like, when he was less of a name maybe people told him more firmly to tighten it up.  I will probably never read The Baroque Cycle, just because my reading time is limited and I have too many other books I'd like to get to eventually.

If you have any sort of interest in the intersection of technology, ontology, and philosophical theology you might really dig it. Also, please please please understand I am using these descriptors with just a very broad, high level understanding of what they may encapsulate.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on January 16, 2020, 02:31:39 PM
The philosophy of science angle sounds interesting to me, too! And I agree that Stephenson's books are pretty smart and don't tend to overexplain.  I was a little surprised that in Cryptonomicon he seemed to go over and over some of the simpler crypto stuff and modular arithmetic.  At the same time, I wish there were more explanation of some of the more advanced crypto stuff and functions, as well as more info on particular strategic maneuvers that I don't want to spoil here but that involved a particular individual's background expertise coming in handy.  And although I thought the book started off slowly for me this time, the end wrapped up way too quickly! But I love the characters and story. 

The editing aspect reminds me of Hawaii (Michener).  I loved that story as well, but good grief I did not need all of the first 50 pages of it.  During Christmas this year, I found out that my MIL had sent a copy of it to a granddaughter and essentially advised her to skip that part.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on January 17, 2020, 07:27:31 PM
Starting the newest "Lady Emily Mystery" In the Shadow of Vesuvius by Tasha Alexander from the library. With this mix of snow and rain we're getting here in the metro DC area this weekend, I'm content with a good novel!  :)

I had the fun of visiting the area during a Mediterranean cruise. I was in college at the time--it was an impressive site!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: monarda on January 19, 2020, 09:25:22 AM
After hearing a radio show with the authors, I started reading The Public Option by Ganesh Sitaraman and Anne L. Alstott and really enjoying how simple and accessible it is so far. Not at all my field, but it strikes me that it would be a good one for teaching... maybe?
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on January 23, 2020, 02:42:28 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on January 16, 2020, 02:31:39 PM
The philosophy of science angle sounds interesting to me, too! And I agree that Stephenson's books are pretty smart and don't tend to overexplain.  I was a little surprised that in Cryptonomicon he seemed to go over and over some of the simpler crypto stuff and modular arithmetic.  At the same time, I wish there were more explanation of some of the more advanced crypto stuff and functions, as well as more info on particular strategic maneuvers that I don't want to spoil here but that involved a particular individual's background expertise coming in handy.  And although I thought the book started off slowly for me this time, the end wrapped up way too quickly! But I love the characters and story. 

The editing aspect reminds me of Hawaii (Michener).  I loved that story as well, but good grief I did not need all of the first 50 pages of it.  During Christmas this year, I found out that my MIL had sent a copy of it to a granddaughter and essentially advised her to skip that part.

I read several of Michner's books. It sometimes seemed to me as if he were trying to write his way into the story, searching for the thread that would get him through it all.

He also came up with some excellent metaphors in so doing, I thought.

I quoted the one about the vulnerability of moulting shellfish to variations in the salinity of the water (an opening passage in one of the chapters of "Chesapeake") to a friend the other day--it was apt.

So, rewarding in its way.

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on January 25, 2020, 12:53:06 PM
Mamselle, those are good observations about Michener's writing.

We finished Recursion and had mixed feelings.  The premise is pretty intriguing, and I appreciated that the author addressed some of the philosophical, psychological, and scientific aspects of memory manipulation.  At times, however, there seemed to be a good bit of hand waving about how some of this worked.  Some of the dialogue and description was pretty terrible, other parts were better written.  It was a bit uneven.  Still, it's an interesting idea and fairly enjoyable overall.

Now we're reading Clue, the book based on the movie screenplay.  I'm loving it so far, probably because I've watched the movie so many times that I think I could probably act the whole thing out, and this gives me somewhat of a chance to do so.  It's been interesting to see what works better visually and what is funnier when described in words.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: bioteacher on January 27, 2020, 07:20:26 AM
Boys & Sex: Young Men on Hookups, Love, Porn, Consent, and Navigating the New Masculinity by Peggy Orenstein.

Fascinating and depressing. It pointed out things Biodad and I have done right and where we have fallen short with our kids. I've already sent Bioson an text of the cover and told him I think he should read it, too.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on January 29, 2020, 12:11:41 AM
Classic sci-fi
I've been listening to Librivox recordings while I do art or wash dishes or whatever. Since everything is public domain, it's all pretty old. I'm astonished by how lousy a lot of the classic sci-fi is, in terms of character, plot, pacing, and even the science.

The Big Time, by Fritz Leiber: Not too terrible, with a fun conceit, but the primary plot never actually went anywhere, and the big conclusion ended up being some stupid pseudo-philosophical speechifying. There were some great scenes, though: at one point a Greek Amazon woman is describing a battle in metrical verse, but using modern English vocabulary, and hearing that narrated aloud really brought out the meter.

Space Prison, by Tom Godwin: This is very classic planetary romance: Evil aliens take over a colony ship and maroon 4000 colonists on a planet that has killer unicorns on it. That's all very fun. The death rate is enormous (we're down to about 300 left alive), and Godwin is not at all shy about killing viewpoint characters, which I appreciate. But there's a villain colonist who is clearly a bad guy because he's trying to hoard food, and yet his arguments make a lot of sense. They're full of things like, 'I have experience in project management and operations, so maybe I should be the one to organize work teams, rather than you military leaders.' or 'Why are you military leaders in charge? I don't remember any agreement about how we should organize ourselves.' And, like, sure, I get that it's an emergency and there isn't time for Roberts Rules of Order, but they've been on that planet for over a year now, and they've still not found time to talk about it? Strawman has a point here.

Modern SFF
Jade City and Jade War by Fonda Lee: This is great fun! It's eastern-flavored magical The Godfather, with clan wars and magical superpowers, and the second book starts looking into how those clans spread into other countries, and how foreign relations and foreign trade can be conducted by a country that is jointly ruled by a legitimate government and a set of overpowerful clans. It's fabulous worldbuilding, and the characters are complex and make genuine decisions about genuine dilemmas. In Jade War one of the clan leaders makes such an appalling decision so lightly that it completely switched how I'm reading the books: Instead of rooting for his clan and hoping things work out for him, now I'm considering them all scum, and while I might care for individual characters, I would be perfectly happy if the series ends with the downfall of the entire clan system.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January, by Alix E Harrow: There were some beautiful bits to this, especially the way two seemingly distinct plotlines dovetailed, but the narrator was far, far too passive for my taste. And when she learns that she has the power to do a thing that her companion, who has done so much for her, desperately wants above all else in the world, she doesn't even consider doing it until the very, very end of the book. In fact, the book is full of people having the power to do a thing they desperately want and then not doing it for reasons that are never entirely clear. I enjoyed it, but it was very frustrating.

Adulthood Rites, by Octavia Butler: Not as good as Dawn. It sacrificed plot for ideas, but the ideas were a continuation from Dawn, and so they were not in themselves new and fresh enough to make up for the absence of a plot.

The Praxis, by Walter Jon Williams: Perfectly fine space opera, but nothing new or fresh.

Serial Box
Are you guys aware of serial box? The idea is serialized fiction, like tv shows, but you can get stories as either text or audiobook. The sci-fi stuff is written by really top-tier authors. We're talking Max Gladstone, Yoon-Ha Lee, and Malka Older.

The Witch Who Came In From The Cold: This is about warring magical factions that intersect with Cold War spy stuff. So you have grudging respect growing between an American spy and a Soviet spy who both work for one magical faction against the other. The cross-cutting loyalties are done very well.

Ninth Step Station: This is a political police procedural that takes place in near-future Tokyo, which has become partly occupied by the Chinese after an earthquake destroyed much of their infrastructure. Americans are there as peace-keepers (which I find depressingly quaint), and we have individual mysteries in which an American peacekeeper and a Japanese detective team up to solve crimes. It was a little too episodic for my taste; I would have preferred for the individual crimes to come together into a juicier political story than they did,, but it was still very well done.

The Vela: This was really superb. It's a science fiction story that is simultaneously a bitterly angry take on climate change and the refugee crisis, and also an awesome adventure romp. Humans have colonised a solar system and mined the sun for hydrogen, which means the sun is going out, and the planets are freezing to death. The outer planets are dying first, creating a flood of refugees to the inner planets, but eventually the sun will go out (in 100 years or so) and every planet will become uninhabitable (Get it? Get it?). Our viewpoint characters are a mercenary who was herself a refugee as a child, and a super-privileged child of the president of one of the inner planets, who deeply cares about the refugee crisis. They are sent off to track down a refugee ship that has gone missing, and the adventure romp has to do with finding the ship and discovering why it, of all refugee ships, was so important that the president of an inner planet wanted it tracked down when it disappeared.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on January 29, 2020, 10:27:39 AM
Thank you for all of these reviews, Ergative! The Vela sounds particularly interesting and has also gotten good reviews elsewhere, apparently.  I looked briefly into Serial Box (hadn't heard of it) and will mention to spouse to see if that sounds like something he'd be interested in trying. 

We finished Clue and thought it was very entertaining overall.  Again, I can't quite tell if I enjoyed it so much because I could hear the movie in my head, but I think it's a solid and humorous mystery on its own.  Despite having watched the movie so many times, there were a couple new things I picked up on (one particular line completely sailed over my head in the movie but became a real duh moment during our reading of the book).  There are some narrative gaps that had or had not occurred to me while watching the movie that stood out to me more in the book, but it's still a favorite.

Now we're reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows), which I can never remember the name of and always think there's a sweet potato in there somewhere.  I've been wanting to read it for years.  I guess it's an epistolary novel, in that it seems to consist so far of letters back and forth between various folks.  That put me off at first, especially for reading out loud, although I realized it makes it much less burdensome to try to parse out different voices.  The questions of how the Society arose and what it is are intriguing, and the characters and situations are at times quirky, sad, mysterious, etc.  Pretty good so far. 
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on February 01, 2020, 09:53:21 AM
January's (small) haul:

Joe Simpson - Touching the Void: I've seen the film and was familiar with the story, but when I saw this in a book box I thought it'd be worth picking up. And it was! The quality of the writing isn't fantastic, but it's an absolutely astonishing tale, and well worth hearing from the person who lived through it. Totally spellbinding for that reason.

Russell Hoban - Kleinzeit: I love Riddley Walker, so when I saw this in a used book store, I thought: "why not?" Experimental Literature, is why not. I don't have the patience for this kind of claptrap, which thinks it's deep just because it's obscure and disjointed. I'm not a fan of High Literature, and I have zero tolerance for this kind of pretentious twaddle.

Mur Lafferty - Six Wakes: This was a fun, engaging read. Great premise, good execution. The quality of the writing let me down at times (weirdly, it sounded a little ESL-ish in a few places, but English is definitely the author's first language), but I was totally into the world Lafferty built, and I'd like to revisit the characters further into their journey, or maybe when they start to colonize their target planet. I'd definitely read more, if there were any.

N.K. Jemisin - The Stone Sky: What can I say? It was heartbreaking and thoroughly engaging. I've often been disappointed by Hugo winner, but not this one (nor its two predecessors): it was well deserved. Jemisin does a fantastic job of telling this story, and of keeping me wanting more. The more I see of this world and its origins, the more I want to see (and the clearer the Wheel of Time influence becomes--weird that I haven't seen anyone else mention it!). Spellbinding, and so well done. I'm sorry that the trilogy is over. And, honestly, I'm a little apprehensive about reading her other work, just because I can't imagine it'll top this trilogy. Then again, I suppose they're not likely to disappoint, either.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on February 01, 2020, 11:06:09 AM
Regarding N. K. Jemisin's other work:

Her short story collection, How Long Til Black Future Month, is excellent. She also has a duology, containing The Killing Moon and The Shadowed Sun, which are easily as good as the Broken Earth Trilogy.

Her other trilogy, beginning with The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, is not as good---or, at least, when I think about it I remember being a little disappointed and impatient with the first book. I think the other two are better, but overall I have a less enthusiastic feeling about them.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on February 01, 2020, 02:07:20 PM
Thanks for the question and answer about other Jemisin work worth reading.  I ordered the short stories and first book of the duology.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on February 06, 2020, 08:09:35 AM
We finished the Guernsey literary society book last night. We both just absolutely loved it and would rank it a favorite.  It was so nice to read a book with so much joy (and sadness).  The characters were well rendered, dialogue was fresh and clever, story was adorable.  It was hard to put down to attend to real-life obligations, and we didn't want it to end. 

Now we are giving Anathem another try.  Probably not a great idea to start late last night, as I am already lost (again), but hopefully we will make better headway this evening.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on February 06, 2020, 08:35:56 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on February 01, 2020, 02:07:20 PM
Thanks for the question and answer about other Jemisin work worth reading.  I ordered the short stories and first book of the duology.

Chime!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on February 06, 2020, 12:12:25 PM
The Secret Chapter by Genevieve Cogman
The latest and #6 in "The Invisible Library" series.  At the end of the novel, there's an announcement about the next installment, The Dark Archive, releasing later this year.

Of interest, the Dreamblood duet is available as an omnibus edition.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on February 06, 2020, 01:47:20 PM
Quote from: hmaria1609 on February 06, 2020, 12:12:25 PM
Of interest, the Dreamblood duet is available as an omnibus edition.

That's great to hear! I read them from the library, but I would like to own them.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: paultuttle on February 11, 2020, 12:39:28 PM
I'm currently plowing back through my collection of Louis L'Amour novels and short-story collections and (re)learning some things.

For example, I truly didn't know that (1) every exciting female was redheaded and (2) most fights are about cattle, the land required for those cattle, or both.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: nebo113 on February 12, 2020, 06:45:36 AM
Quote from: paultuttle on February 11, 2020, 12:39:28 PM
I'm currently plowing back through my collection of Louis L'Amour novels and short-story collections and (re)learning some things.

For example, I truly didn't know that (1) every exciting female was redheaded and (2) most fights are about cattle, the land required for those cattle, or both.

Haunted Mesa is one of my favorites by him.  It's a sci fi take on the Ancient Ones (Anasazi).
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on February 12, 2020, 10:52:48 AM
Quote from: nebo113 on February 12, 2020, 06:45:36 AM
Quote from: paultuttle on February 11, 2020, 12:39:28 PM
I'm currently plowing back through my collection of Louis L'Amour novels and short-story collections and (re)learning some things.

For example, I truly didn't know that (1) every exciting female was redheaded and (2) most fights are about cattle, the land required for those cattle, or both.

Haunted Mesa is one of my favorites by him.  It's a sci fi take on the Ancient Ones (Anasazi).

Haunted Mesa is one of the few Louis L'Amour stories I've ever read.  It's an interesting variant on the "lost world" theme. 
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on February 12, 2020, 11:06:16 AM
Is that about Acoma?

I did a comps on that and two other colonial churches....

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on February 12, 2020, 11:57:58 AM
Quote from: mamselle on February 12, 2020, 11:06:16 AM
Is that about Acoma?

I did a comps on that and two other colonial churches....

M.

No...but "Haunted Mesa" might be a good title for a work set there!

I bet you loved Willa Cather's Death Comes to the Archbishop.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: nebo113 on February 13, 2020, 06:36:29 AM
Quote from: mamselle on February 12, 2020, 11:06:16 AM
Is that about Acoma?

I did a comps on that and two other colonial churches....

M.

Not specifically.  More about the (former) Anasazi, now known as Ancestral Puebloans. 
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: nebo113 on February 13, 2020, 06:37:27 AM
Quote from: apl68 on February 12, 2020, 11:57:58 AM
Quote from: mamselle on February 12, 2020, 11:06:16 AM
Is that about Acoma?

I did a comps on that and two other colonial churches....

M.

No...but "Haunted Mesa" might be a good title for a work set there!

I bet you loved Willa Cather's Death Comes to the Archbishop.

I loved it!!!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on February 13, 2020, 07:53:29 AM
Quote from: nebo113 on February 13, 2020, 06:37:27 AM
Quote from: apl68 on February 12, 2020, 11:57:58 AM
Quote from: mamselle on February 12, 2020, 11:06:16 AM
Is that about Acoma?

I did a comps on that and two other colonial churches....

M.

No...but "Haunted Mesa" might be a good title for a work set there!

I bet you loved Willa Cather's Death Comes to the Archbishop.

I loved it!!!

Wonderful novel.  I had the good fortune to read it in an edition that had Harold von Schmidt's pen-and-ink illustrations.  Then I made sure my mother, a New Mexico native, had a chance to read it.  She loved it too.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Myword on February 17, 2020, 07:22:49 AM
Death Without Tenure by Dobson. A mystery, and satire of affirmative action and multicultural education. Humorous with a cast of unlikable characters. Author is an English professor.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on March 19, 2020, 09:58:16 AM
I haven't re-read it recently, but the viral apocalypse sure seems like a good time to revisit Mira Grant's Feed, which, if memory serves, features a world that's been reorganized very much along the same lines we're currently contemplating.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on March 19, 2020, 10:27:18 AM
We finally finished Anathem again last night.  I definitely enjoyed it more than I did the first time, although I still don't think it's as good as Cryptonomicon.  There are some really interesting ideas and great characters, but he does go on and on at times.  Good gravy.  And, also similar to Cryptonomicon, it seems to me that he dwells and dwells on the most basic stuff and then waves his hands at the more complicated aspects. It's good and thought provoking but a bit arduous to go through at times. When he's on he's really on, and then there are those other times.  Still, I'm glad we reread it.  I have no idea what we'll read next, but hopefully something just as distracting.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: delsur on March 19, 2020, 11:23:09 AM

Long Bright River by Liz Moore. Highly recommend!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on March 19, 2020, 11:48:42 AM
Just read Footprints:  In Search of Future Fossils, by David Farrier.  We've been hearing a lot in recent years about how human impact upon the Earth's environment has become so great that it now constitutes a new geological age--the Antropocene."  Farrier describes just how much that is now the case.  It's mind-boggling how much STUFF humans have made/transformed/relocated in recent decades.  No matter what happens next, what we as a species have done in recent generations will be a fact of life in the world for a very, very long time to come.  Assuming there is that much time left.

It's a fascinating subject, but I wish that the author's personal meditations on the subject hadn't spent quite so many pages out on center stage.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on March 19, 2020, 11:49:40 PM
I've been listening to a Librivox recording of The Three Clerks, by Anthony Trollope. It's fine. Trollope is prolific and reliable, and sometimes you just want to slip into those days. Also, one of the young rakes is an aspiring writer, and there's a hilarious scene where he describes a story he's working on, and explains his decisions about pacing and plotting in terms of what the editor says, and it's very funny.

(I am making a conscious decision not to be annoyed by the wife-husbandry (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WifeHusbandry) in the plot.)
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: polly_mer on March 20, 2020, 04:59:05 AM
I'm reading Richard Rhodes The Making of the Atomic Bomb.  It would be better in many places so far if Rhodes would pick a one storyline and go with it. 

Are we being told the history of the field of nuclear physics? 

Doing flashbacks to follow the making of a physics Nobel prize winner who had a very interesting life due to being in the wrong place at the wrong time until middle age?

Following the development of the political changes in the early 20th century in Europe that led to WWII?

Learning how literature influenced the development of modern physics?

Following various schools of thought regarding the philosophy and history of science?


Right now, it's reading a lot like the index cards that were used to make notes on every idea that Rhodes encountered were tossed on the floor and picked up randomly to be incorporated as a new paragraph for every card.

Perhaps it's a meta experience regarding the chaos of war or how one doesn't know how a scientific field will develop until a good 20 years into publications and discussions in the new field.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: archaeo42 on March 20, 2020, 06:25:36 AM
I'm working my way through the Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante. I'm on book 3 (Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay). I'm enjoying them and find her writing style compelling but I'm not loving them like so many of the people who have raved about them to me have. Maybe I need to read the entire set or maybe it's just not connecting to me.

The setting (post-WWII Italy) is exactly what my father grew up in outside of Naples. It makes me want to ask him more about his childhood - he hasn't told us stories in quite awhile.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on March 20, 2020, 01:38:31 PM
We started on Straight Man (Russo) last night.  The recommendation was a good one.  We are already drawn into and appreciate the humor right now!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: bioteacher on March 23, 2020, 06:49:45 PM
Smoke Bitten by Patricia Briggs. Bioette is reading it now. I love the authentic marriage portrayed by Adam and Mercy. The Mercy Thompson series hits all my buttons for werewolves, vampires, urban fantasy and fantastic characters. Now I can read it again to savor it.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Puget on March 23, 2020, 08:24:39 PM
Quote from: ab_grp on March 20, 2020, 01:38:31 PM
We started on Straight Man (Russo) last night.  The recommendation was a good one.  We are already drawn into and appreciate the humor right now!

One of my favorites-- Maybe I should re-read it now. Seems like just the thing. Can't remember if I already recommended it down thread, but I'd also recommend That Old Cape Magic as another one of his on the funny side (though with some pathos as well).

I've been checking out lots of audiobooks from the library. I started listing to After the Flood -- it was good but I decided post-apocalyptic fiction was NOT what I needed right now. Instead I now have a David Sedaris (Dress your Family in Corduroy and Denim) and a Walter Moseley PI novel (Down the River Unto the Sea).
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on March 23, 2020, 08:34:31 PM
What's Moseley's work like?

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on March 23, 2020, 09:23:33 PM
Quote from: Puget on March 23, 2020, 08:24:39 PM
Quote from: ab_grp on March 20, 2020, 01:38:31 PM
We started on Straight Man (Russo) last night.  The recommendation was a good one.  We are already drawn into and appreciate the humor right now!

One of my favorites-- Maybe I should re-read it now. Seems like just the thing. Can't remember if I already recommended it down thread, but I'd also recommend That Old Cape Magic as another one of his on the funny side (though with some pathos as well).


I didn't recall who had recommended it, but it is keeping us entertained.  We had read a bunch of his other books and also picked up That Old Cape Magic based on a recommendation here.  I hope you can get back to it if you enjoyed it, and thank you if you had recommended it! I also agree that post-apocalyptic stories are not so great to read right now.  We've read quite a few, and I'm not sure if it's possibly making things worse for me (or better? better prepared?).  I am really heartened by all the folks posting videos reading aloud for kids right now.  I would like to do that.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Anselm on March 24, 2020, 11:27:47 AM
Recent news events gave me the idea of maybe rereading A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman.

I just want to know when people start doing the crazy dances.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on March 24, 2020, 12:43:44 PM
Recently finished Simon Sebag Montefiore's comprehensive history of Jerusalem.  What an awful spectacle that city's history has made!  It reaffirms me in my desire never to make a pilgrimage there.  It seems like representatives of all of the Abrahamic faiths (With a few honorable exceptions--the Spaffords' American Colony, for example) tend to be at their worst there, rather than their best.  Somebody once pointed out that a worshiper of one God treating a city as "holy" sounds a lot like idolatry.  I think that sort of idolatry explains most of the problem right there.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on March 24, 2020, 06:02:44 PM
Quote from: Anselm on March 24, 2020, 11:27:47 AM
Recent news events gave me the idea of maybe rereading A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman.

I just want to know when people start doing the crazy dances.

I read that straight through the week after I finished my MA thesis (which included work on 13th c. church history).

Do you mean "St. Elmo's Fire," the tarantisms, or the dance manias?

A lot of that has been debunked as anecdotal.

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Anselm on March 25, 2020, 09:44:43 AM
Quote from: mamselle on March 24, 2020, 06:02:44 PM
Quote from: Anselm on March 24, 2020, 11:27:47 AM
Recent news events gave me the idea of maybe rereading A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman.

I just want to know when people start doing the crazy dances.

I read that straight through the week after I finished my MA thesis (which included work on 13th c. church history).

Do you mean "St. Elmo's Fire," the tarantisms, or the dance manias?

A lot of that has been debunked as anecdotal.

M.

I was thinking about the dance manias.  I read the book back in 1994 and have since forgotten many of the details.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on March 26, 2020, 10:19:25 AM
We're still enjoying Straight Man (Russo) very much.  He has a way with describing people and scenes.  We nearly couldn't get through one of the scenes (filming the news of the new campus building), we were laughing so hard.  Definitely good timing for this book.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on March 26, 2020, 10:43:52 AM
Just finished Wolf Hall. It was an enormous slog. Nothing wrong with it, but it just didn't work for me. Next up is Myke Cole's coastguard-in-space Sixteenth Watch, about which I know very little; I just like watching him swear at cute animals on twitter and bought his book on the strength of that.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on March 26, 2020, 10:56:07 AM
I felt similarly about Wolf Hall.  I had really been looking forward to it and am always interested in that era, but there are many more interesting books on the topic out there.  It did feel like a drag, unfortunately.  I have a couple of Mantel's other books but haven't dug into them yet for that reason.  Have you read any of the others?
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Morden on March 26, 2020, 01:00:18 PM
I enjoyed Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies. Wolf Hall was more daring in terms of narrative structure (you weren't always sure who was speaking of what); Bring up the Bodies was easier to follow. I have just got the third and am looking forward to it. A Place of Greater Safety, about Robespierre and the French Revolution, was very good.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: sinenomine on March 26, 2020, 01:48:43 PM
I'm reading a collection of short stories by Daphne du Maurier — quite diverting!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on March 26, 2020, 02:07:17 PM
Quote from: Morden on March 26, 2020, 01:00:18 PM
(you weren't always sure who was speaking of what)

That drove me wild.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Vkw10 on March 27, 2020, 08:24:37 PM
I just acquired three books from my "broaden your horizons by reading something a student mentioned" list.  Red, white, and royal blue appears to be a rather lighthearted gay romance. Any old diamonds appears to be a gay mystery/romance, possibly set in the 1920s. A history of the United States in five crashes appears to be pop economic history.

I wish I remembered who said what about each of these books to inspire me to add them to my list. I'll try the mystery/romance first.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: nebo113 on March 28, 2020, 05:40:18 AM
Listening to Anna LeBaron's  The Polygamist's Daughter, after having read Educated by Tara Westover.  LeBaron's book isn't particularly well-written but does offer insight into the horrors that cults inflict upon children.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: polly_mer on March 28, 2020, 06:49:13 AM
I just finished Vox by Christina Dalcher.  I probably would have liked this novel more if I had read it when I was younger and knew far less.  The basic idea was interesting and the writing itself was an engaging style.

However, I just keep mentally tripping on:

* a nearly complete lack of awareness about what happened in Iran in my lifetime as Iran went from a modern country, albeit not democratic, to a theology that sent modern professional women back into the home.

* very bad mixes of what scientists with various specific expertises would know or expertly defer on knowing.  At various points, I was smacked in the face with the difference between what an MD would have written (love me medical thrillers and read them by the dozen) and what someone who has possibly skimmed some medical thrillers wrote.  Fandom calls certain things Star Trek science; this wasn't even up to Star Trek science in many noticeable places.

* clearly zero experience working in a government classified setting or an industrial/academic proprietary setting.  Yep, that's what one sees in the standard movies, but we all laugh every time.

* lack of creativity that people would exhibit to get around some of the restrictions on "communication".  Yes, a really noisy place for the scientists covers conversation.  Does no one do direct person-to-person tapping in Morse code in the dark?  Finger spelling or Morse code in clasped hands?  Everyone visiting the bathroom to run the water and perhaps draw in the steam on a mirror or large surface? C'mon, PhD holder, you can do better than that.  Even if bees don't really have language and the best one can do is blink to communicate with other possible revolutionaries, you're not limited to one tiny signal that takes the expert quite a while to figure out is a signal.  Even the kidnapped kid on last night's mystery did better than that to communicate in front of the kidnappers.

* lack of creativity on assassination if taking down only a dozen men will restore everything to normal.  You don't need the highly specialized-unique-in-the-world-just-synthesized chemical if you have access to these men by someone they trust enough to bring them beverages or prepare their food who is also on the revolutionary side.  Again, a little experience actually reading and learning from mystery novels would have made those parts less needing-to-scream-at-the-bozos-who-are-doing-it-wrong and more appreciative of the unfolding events.

I'm now sad that I returned Steven King's Sleeping Beauties to the library a few weeks ago after borrowing it for Blocky.  Rereading that probably would have been a more rewarding experience.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on March 28, 2020, 09:25:57 AM
Just finished Carmilla. I understand that it was the first big vampire book, and the lesbian themes by no means require any turning-your-head-and-squinting to see. These properties go quite a way to justify its continuing fame. Lesbian victorian vampires has a lot to recommend it as a theme. But as a work of literature it also kind of sucks: the chapter breaks and transitions are choppy and weird; everyone is profoundly stupid at not seeing what's right before their eyes; the pacing is terrible; and the narrative frequently does something like this. 'I will now tell you about Y. The next night, X happened. Now, I will tell you about Y . . . '

I find myself regularly struck by the desperate need for editing and revision that jumps out of these Victorian novels. I recognize that hand-writing and re-typing every draft would have made editing much more of a chore without word-processors, but I had previously imagined that this just led authors to do more outlining, planning, or perhaps they were better at keeping track of things in their head. Tut tut, I would have said to myself, see how modern conveniences have damaged mental abilities of modern writers.

But now, I read many of these novels, and I'm constantly gritting my teeth at the odd pacing, the strange chapter breaks, the sloppy transitions, the incoherence of exposition that jumps around from topic to topic without considering how best to introduce new ideas and characters and plot points. Perhaps the tools that make editing easier have also made editing better. Is it possible that modern writing has actually improved, because of the ease of access to these technological advances? Because even leaving aside the sexism, racism, classism, and colonialism that permeates these texts, I'm getting rather tired of having to remind myself to grade these authors on a curve. The curve has bent far enough, and on Carmilla, despite the sexy vampire kisses, it definitely snapped.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: polly_mer on March 28, 2020, 03:05:56 PM
Quote from: ergative on March 28, 2020, 09:25:57 AM
Perhaps the tools that make editing easier have also made editing better. Is it possible that modern writing has actually improved, because of the ease of access to these technological advances? Because even leaving aside the sexism, racism, classism, and colonialism that permeates these texts, I'm getting rather tired of having to remind myself to grade these authors on a curve. The curve has bent far enough, and on Carmilla, despite the sexy vampire kisses, it definitely snapped.

Eh, my bet is that what's improved is much more access to more stories and therefore more good writing is available to those who want good writing as well as a new storyline.  At the time, any new enough story was likely worth wading through not great writing.

I've been disappointed many, many times in my life by finally picking up some beloved-by-a-good-many-people novel and having to sigh heavily about having that particular novel's writing/organization/implementation flaws scream so much at me that I can't go very far in the book.  For example, I know many of the Edgar Allen Poe stories, but I can't say I've managed to reread anything as an adult.  I was more optimistic with more free time as a teenager to read so many and be disappointed very time that I didn't love the execution. The writing is just sooooooo bad, even though the ideas were very new and therefore memorable at the time Poe was writing.  I've never made it through a Lovecraft story yet, although I watch movies based on and read homages/borrowing/reimagings frequently.

I read Frankenstein in high school; now that I've read a lot of freshman prose, I'm perfectly willing to believe this was a story a teenager wrote during a house party.  The ideas are there, but, again, the execution leaves a lot to be desired.

Now that I'm an adult, I better understand why Stephen King is kind of a hack in the "world of literary ideas", but his stories at least move along and it's worth investing a weekend in reading his new book because they are seldom obviously repackaged ideas that have been done to death.  I'm told I would better appreciate Tolkien's work if I didn't encounter it well after I'd already read so many later works that presented similar ideas, but in a much better format.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on March 28, 2020, 03:15:55 PM
Quote from: polly_mer on March 28, 2020, 03:05:56 PM
Quote from: ergative on March 28, 2020, 09:25:57 AM
Perhaps the tools that make editing easier have also made editing better. Is it possible that modern writing has actually improved, because of the ease of access to these technological advances? Because even leaving aside the sexism, racism, classism, and colonialism that permeates these texts, I'm getting rather tired of having to remind myself to grade these authors on a curve. The curve has bent far enough, and on Carmilla, despite the sexy vampire kisses, it definitely snapped.

Eh, my bet is that what's improved is much more access to more stories and therefore more good writing is available to those who want good writing as well as a new storyline.  At the time, any new enough story was likely worth wading through not great writing.

I've been disappointed many, many times in my life by finally picking up some beloved-by-a-good-many-people novel and having to sigh heavily about having that particular novel's writing/organization/implementation flaws scream so much at me that I can't go very far in the book.  For example, I know many of the Edgar Allen Poe stories, but I can't say I've managed to reread anything as an adult.  I was more optimistic with more free time as a teenager to read so many and be disappointed very time that I didn't love the execution. The writing is just sooooooo bad, even though the ideas were very new and therefore memorable at the time Poe was writing.  I've never made it through a Lovecraft story yet, although I watch movies based on and read homages/borrowing/reimagings frequently.

I read Frankenstein in high school; now that I've read a lot of freshman prose, I'm perfectly willing to believe this was a story a teenager wrote during a house party.  The ideas are there, but, again, the execution leaves a lot to be desired.

Now that I'm an adult, I better understand why Stephen King is kind of a hack in the "world of literary ideas", but his stories at least move along and it's worth investing a weekend in reading his new book because they are seldom obviously repackaged ideas that have been done to death.  I'm told I would better appreciate Tolkien's work if I didn't encounter it well after I'd already read so many later works that presented similar ideas, but in a much better format.

Fair point: the competition pool has expanded as well as the execution tools. I am very willing to believe that is also (or instead) contributing to the perceived improvement in the quality of modern writing.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: marshwiggle on March 28, 2020, 04:39:29 PM
Quote from: polly_mer on March 28, 2020, 03:05:56 PM


Now that I'm an adult, I better understand why Stephen King is kind of a hack in the "world of literary ideas", but his stories at least move along and it's worth investing a weekend in reading his new book because they are seldom obviously repackaged ideas that have been done to death.  I'm told I would better appreciate Tolkien's work if I didn't encounter it well after I'd already read so many later works that presented similar ideas, but in a much better format.

Kind of the "George Lucas" effect. The writing in Star Wars stands out now as more cheesy than originally, partly because the effects and so on were so groundbreaking then. Now that the effects don't stand out the writing has no place to hide.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Puget on March 28, 2020, 06:40:57 PM
Just finished the audiobook of Codex, by Lev Grossman. I really love his Magicians trilogy, but hadn't read this one (it was written earlier). Not quite as good, but very engaging nonetheless. It's a mystery about a search for, well, a codex. Definitely kept me guessing, interesting characters, but in the end it sort of felt like he didn't quite know how to end it. 

Per my prior post, I think I'll pull Straight Man off my self and re-read it now.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: nebo113 on March 30, 2020, 08:31:44 AM
Not a book, but am browsing JSTOR. 
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on March 30, 2020, 09:54:48 AM
Oooohhh, good idea!

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: spork on April 06, 2020, 09:04:01 AM
Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi: Liked it. An interesting adaptation of Mary Shelley's original.

Death is Hard Work by Khaled Khalifa: Meh. Not that thrilled by it. Maybe dark humor got lost in the translation to English.

Into the Hands of Soldiers by David Kirkpatrick: Liked it even though I'm familiar with the book's subject. It was interesting to see details on the incompetence of Obama's senior foreign policy officials in regard to the Middle East (something not particular to Obama's administration and much worse now).

Water: Asia's Next Battleground by Brahma Chellaney: A well-written academic book on water scarcity. Read it to get material for a course I'll be teaching next year.

Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan: A historical overview of Central Asia. It's fairly well-written stylistically for a popular history, but I set it aside in favor of other books. I might return to it depending on how long the stay at home order lasts.

The Hundred Years War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi: Reading this now. He weaves his family history into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which I like.


Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: onthefringe on April 06, 2020, 07:36:03 PM
Imaginary Numbers by Seanan McGuire. Interesting entry in a long running series. But a cliff hanger ending and no new book until next year.

This in how you lose a time war really nice epistolary-ish novel with a relationship between time traveling agents trying to bend various multiverse timelines towards their desired ends.

Thinking about re-reading McGuire's Newsflesh series about a future US where we are on the other side of a pandemic, dealing with the ongoing remnants of a highly contagious a zombie virus. And there's even a presidential election in it!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on April 07, 2020, 02:35:11 AM
Quote from: onthefringe on April 06, 2020, 07:36:03 PM
Imaginary Numbers by Seanan McGuire. Interesting entry in a long running series. But a cliff hanger ending and no new book until next year.

This in how you lose a time war really nice epistolary-ish novel with a relationship between time traveling agents trying to bend various multiverse timelines towards their desired ends.

Thinking about re-reading McGuire's Newsflesh series about a future US where we are on the other side of a pandemic, dealing with the ongoing remnants of a highly contagious a zombie virus. And there's even a presidential election in it!

I loved This is how you lose the time war. I got to see Amal El-Mohtar in at an event at a local bookstore the day after we read it in my sci-fi book group, and she was such a delightful person. She told us that she and Gladstone had written the thing together, at a writing retreat, sitting across from each other at a writing table, one writing the frame and one writing the letter for each chunk, and for the bit about Atlantis, they did not discuss their approach beforehand, and instead came up with such consistent attitudes independently. How many of the cultural references did you look up? I looked up the Meissen Ming Dragon tea sets and the Death of Chatterton and Travel Light, which actually has a blurb from El-Mohtar on its amazon page.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: paultuttle on April 09, 2020, 08:46:34 AM
Currently rereading the Harry Potter series.

Up to book 3, right now; I'm at the point where Hermione impatiently "tuh"s at Ron when he wonders aloud why Professor Lupin is looking so tired and wan.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on April 09, 2020, 09:38:32 AM
We finished Straight Man (Russo) and enjoyed it very much.  It was very funny at times, and I appreciated that there were no major tragedies in this one.  As usual, Russo creates very interesting characters, although I wish a few were fleshed out a bit more.  There were plenty of hijinks-filled situations, and we definitely winced at times wondering what a particular turn of events would lead to.  All in all, an entertaining read that lifted our spirits.

Now, we are reading Consider Phlebas (Iain Banks).  It was recommended by one of spouse's colleagues, and it's appealing to try out books that are part of a series so that we have additional books to read if the original book is well received.  We're not too far into it yet and are still in the process of figuring out people and place names, always a fun part of scifi. 
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on April 09, 2020, 12:44:26 PM
Quote from: paultuttle on April 09, 2020, 08:46:34 AM
Currently rereading the Harry Potter series.

Up to book 3, right now; I'm at the point where Hermione impatiently "tuh"s at Ron when he wonders aloud why Professor Lupin is looking so tired and wan.
I'm listening to Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets movie soundtrack at the moment!  :)  I read and own the complete series in paperback.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: paultuttle on April 09, 2020, 07:30:07 PM
Quote from: hmaria1609 on April 09, 2020, 12:44:26 PM
Quote from: paultuttle on April 09, 2020, 08:46:34 AM
Currently rereading the Harry Potter series.

Up to book 3, right now; I'm at the point where Hermione impatiently "tuh"s at Ron when he wonders aloud why Professor Lupin is looking so tired and wan.
I'm listening to Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets movie soundtrack at the moment!  :)  I read and own the complete series in paperback.

I'm with you on the Harry Potter fervor--I've got the whole series in hardback, the whole series in full-size paperback format (as a boxed set), and several of the volumes in smaller-size paperback format.

(I'm really self-indulgent when it comes to books I truly like and know I'll re-read many times. For those favorites, it's all about being able to choose what size book to curl up with when you're at home at your desk, at home on the couch, at home in a recliner, or at the beach stretched out on a towel under an umbrella. It's the same way with my four Lord of the Rings sets, two "Ring of Fire" [Eric Flint] series, and two "Vatta's War" and "Familias Regnant" [Elizabeth Moon] series: Different hardback or paperback sizes for convenience's [or indulgence's] sake. And I have other authors' singletons in different sizes, or newer duplicates of singletons that I bought when the older versions started to fall apart.)
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on April 09, 2020, 07:47:12 PM
Quote from: mamselle on March 30, 2020, 09:54:48 AM
Oooohhh, good idea!

M.

J-Stor currently has a free 100-view signup program for individuals.

Just in case it's useful....

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on April 15, 2020, 12:37:40 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on April 09, 2020, 09:38:32 AM
We finished Straight Man (Russo) and enjoyed it very much.  It was very funny at times, and I appreciated that there were no major tragedies in this one.  As usual, Russo creates very interesting characters, although I wish a few were fleshed out a bit more.  There were plenty of hijinks-filled situations, and we definitely winced at times wondering what a particular turn of events would lead to.  All in all, an entertaining read that lifted our spirits.

Now, we are reading Consider Phlebas (Iain Banks).  It was recommended by one of spouse's colleagues, and it's appealing to try out books that are part of a series so that we have additional books to read if the original book is well received.  We're not too far into it yet and are still in the process of figuring out people and place names, always a fun part of scifi.

I read a few of the Iain M Banks books, including Consider Phlebas, but the only one I really enjoyed was The Player of Games. That was absolutely superb. The others somehow just didn't quite land for me.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on April 15, 2020, 07:42:29 AM
Quote from: ergative on April 15, 2020, 12:37:40 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on April 09, 2020, 09:38:32 AM
We finished Straight Man (Russo) and enjoyed it very much.  It was very funny at times, and I appreciated that there were no major tragedies in this one.  As usual, Russo creates very interesting characters, although I wish a few were fleshed out a bit more.  There were plenty of hijinks-filled situations, and we definitely winced at times wondering what a particular turn of events would lead to.  All in all, an entertaining read that lifted our spirits.

Now, we are reading Consider Phlebas (Iain Banks).  It was recommended by one of spouse's colleagues, and it's appealing to try out books that are part of a series so that we have additional books to read if the original book is well received.  We're not too far into it yet and are still in the process of figuring out people and place names, always a fun part of scifi.

I read a few of the Iain M Banks books, including Consider Phlebas, but the only one I really enjoyed was The Player of Games. That was absolutely superb. The others somehow just didn't quite land for me.

So it sounds as though The Player of Games can be read as a standalone book? That one was also recommended, but I think I picked Consider Phlebas because it was the first of the series.  It's interesting that you mention this, because we had gotten so blah about CP that I had been reading Goodreads reviews to see if it might get any better later on.  Apparently not, or not for several hundred pages.  But several reviewers there also mentioned TP of G as one that they liked quite a lot.  Maybe we can pick that one up.  In the meantime switched to Jemisin's How Long 'til Black Future Month?, which was recommended here.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on April 15, 2020, 10:34:51 AM
Yes, TPOG can be read as a standalone. My experience with Phlebas was that it was pretty much the same from the start, so if you don't like it for the first hundred pages, you may not get any more sucked it. I believe that all of the Culture books work as standalones.

Do let us know how you like the Jemisin! I may well have recommended it; I loved it.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on April 15, 2020, 11:12:20 AM
I think TPoG is far and away the best Culture novel.

They're all standalone novels, but they benefit a great deal from the rest of the Culture universe. They're much better and more interesting novels when seen in light of one another (I confess to some boredom in my progression through them all). The main exception, to my mind, is TPoG. I loved that one from the start.

Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on April 15, 2020, 12:06:07 PM
Thanks to you both! I will report back on the Jemisin short stories and will get a copy of TPoG.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: archaeo42 on April 16, 2020, 04:59:55 AM
I finished The Murmur of Bees last night be Sofia Segovia. It was really lovely. Takes place in Linares around the turn of the 20th century and is about a foundling and the family that takes him in. It was a bit difficult to follow the narration at first (it's told from the point of view of the youngest son) since it does jump back and forth between years at the start. Admittedly the Spanish Flu pandemic chapters were a little....eerie, but I found it hard to put down. It was a nice change of pace from what I usually read.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on April 24, 2020, 07:47:33 AM
The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, by Steve Brusatte.  It's a fascinating history of--well, the rise and fall of the dinosaurs, as currently understood by paleontology.  It's very readable popular science, with vivid profiles of several figures in the field of paleontology, and detailed descriptions of the methods they use to deduce what dinosaurs looked like, how they lived, and how their lineages mapped out.  It's one of those books where the author's enthusiasm for the subject proves contagious.  That's a mark of good popular nonfiction writing.

For extinct creatures, dinosaurs sure have changed a lot in the four decades since I began reading about them as a kid!  Makes me wonder how much of what Brusatte discusses here will be subject to modification in the years to come, due to continuing new fossil finds and methodologies.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: fourhats on April 24, 2020, 03:02:31 PM
QuoteI'm with you on the Harry Potter fervor--I've got the whole series in hardback, the whole series in full-size paperback format (as a boxed set), and several of the volumes in smaller-size paperback format.

If you have these, you need to check out the Juniper Books website! They do wonderful covers, and imaginative editions that look wonderful on the shelf. I bought two sets of books through them. There are multiple Harry Potter sets.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: nebo113 on April 29, 2020, 04:47:32 AM
Skimming another Lee Child.  I can skim as I'm falling asleep since it's so easy to pick up the plot every three or so pages.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: evil_physics_witchcraft on April 29, 2020, 02:14:20 PM
Currently reading my old college/grad school Physics texts. Good bathroom reading. I may start working problems to keep my mind busy.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: onthefringe on April 29, 2020, 05:15:26 PM
I'm having a huge amount of trouble focusing on anything, including reading. It's very distressing.

I did make it through "Because, Internet" by Gretchen McCullouch, which prompted some interesting discussions  about texting punctuation and emoji use with my daughter. And "Fated Stars" by Mary Robinette Kowal, which I quite enjoyed.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: paultuttle on April 29, 2020, 05:19:08 PM
Quote from: fourhats on April 24, 2020, 03:02:31 PM
QuoteI'm with you on the Harry Potter fervor--I've got the whole series in hardback, the whole series in full-size paperback format (as a boxed set), and several of the volumes in smaller-size paperback format.

If you have these, you need to check out the Juniper Books website! They do wonderful covers, and imaginative editions that look wonderful on the shelf. I bought two sets of books through them. There are multiple Harry Potter sets.

Thanks! I'll take a look at their website.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: statsgeek on April 30, 2020, 04:58:17 AM
I'm finally getting to Jennifer Chiaverini's Resistance Women.  Her description of the rise of the Nazi party is, in the present climate, terrifying. 
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: archaeo42 on April 30, 2020, 05:12:24 AM
I've been reading Marc Levy recently. I finished The Strange Journey of Alice Pendelbury, originally published in France as The Strange Journey of Mr. Daldry. I'm currently reading P.S. from Paris. They're nice brain breaks - something pleasant to read that isn't taxing.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on May 02, 2020, 06:25:23 PM
Hmm. Haven't posted since February. Kthen, here's my haul for February, March, and April. It's pretty minuscule, for reasons. I'm not happy about having read so little, but there you have. I'ma step up my game now! I'm reading a few concurrently now, and I'm looking forward to a small fortune of books from an order I placed aaaaages ago, so. Plus, more free time!


Fraans de Waal - Are we smart enough to know how smart animals are?: An entertaining bit of popular science, with lots of really interesting and compelling examples. I often gasped at the shoddy experimental design from the past, which is basically what I was looking for when I got it (and which were, in many ways, highly reminiscent of Elisabeth Lloy'd magnificent Pre-theoretical Assumptions in Evolutionary Explanations of Female Sexuality). It was also interesting to have my childhood memories of how we talked about animal cognition confirmed; I'd come to think I must have been misremembering, but apparently not. Wow, have we ever come a long way!

Ezekiel Boone - The Hatching: Found it in a book box. It's almost a competent creature feature, except that the creature apocalypse described doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Too many different points of view, too, which make the story (such as it is--it's pretty cookie-cutter, with some cookie-cutter misogyny) pretty disjointed. It also just... ends. Without ending. It was an easy read that passed time on the bus, back when we could still bus around, but no more than that.

Robert Jordan - Warrior of the Altaii: Since this was his first novel, I didn't expect much. But those expectations were exceeded, and then some! It was a great, rip-roaring read. I wish it had been longer, because the story could have used expansion in places. But it did a great job of building a new world for me, taking me there, and guiding me through it. It was a lot of fun, and it was especially fun to see the seeds being sown for The Wheel of Time. In fact, it made me desperately want to re-read the series again, but it's such an undertaking... Well. Maybe sometime later this year.

Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Steven Barnes - The Legacy of Heorot: Space colony Beowulf, except the colonists are brain-damaged from hibernation. I don't much care for Niven and don't know the other two, so my expectations were low, but I loved the premise so I gave it a go. I really, really enjoyed this. It's a little dated, lightly misogynist (surprise, surprise), and the different writers show through sometimes, but I had a great time with it. Fantastic premise, competent execution, all-around good story. I definitely want more space colony novels, preferably with wildlife (that's always my favourite part).

Jane Austen - Lady Susan: I've never actually read an Austen, although I've been meaning to for a while. Lady Susan is a joy, what more can I say? (And, of course, the film adaptation is fantastic.)

Norman F. Cantor - In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World it Made: I've had it on my history shelf for ages, and finally decided to give it a go (I'm reading Defoe with my partner, so it's slower, but also way better). It's an OK bit of popular history, but I have complaints. One is that crossbows definitely did not take two people and half an hour to reload, and only shoot thirty yards. Dunno where that came from. Another is that I didn't appreciate the amount of speculation involved, especially with respect to introducing his pet theory that the Black Death was bubonic plague + anthrax, which frankly isn't all that credible. There was some other grandstanding I don't remember, a sentence which seemed to claim that England won the Hundred Years' War but was probably just very poorly constructed, and, well, I just couldn't trust Cantor as a guide through the fourteenth century. Oh, and his focus is almost exclusively on England, which is, well, a bit chauvinist and not as advertised. Overall, not impressed. An easy read, though.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on May 02, 2020, 07:25:19 PM
Oops, I forgot to ask: what can you guys recommend me by way of space colonies with interesting wildlife?
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: sprout on May 02, 2020, 10:27:57 PM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on May 02, 2020, 06:25:23 PM
Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Steven Barnes - The Legacy of Heorot: Space colony Beowulf, except the colonists are brain-damaged from hibernation. I don't much care for Niven and don't know the other two, so my expectations were low, but I loved the premise so I gave it a go. I really, really enjoyed this. It's a little dated, lightly misogynist (surprise, surprise), and the different writers show through sometimes, but I had a great time with it. Fantastic premise, competent execution, all-around good story. I definitely want more space colony novels, preferably with wildlife (that's always my favourite part).
There's a book I remember reading years ago - maybe high school, that has stuck with me, that may in fact be this one.  (I say this after checking out a Wikipedia summary.)  It was definitely a Beowulf in space book, and it fits that the creatures were called grendels.  It stuck with me because of the way the human colonists became prey to this intelligent, learning predator.  It really made me think about human exceptionalism, and how thin the veneer of being the dominant species could get.  Part of the effect may have been the age I read it, but there's not a ton of books that I still randomly think about on occasion, decades later.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on May 02, 2020, 11:01:28 PM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on May 02, 2020, 07:25:19 PM
Oops, I forgot to ask: what can you guys recommend me by way of space colonies with interesting wildlife?

Sue Burke's Semiosis (and the sequel Interference) is awesome in that way, as long as you include sentient plants in your definition of 'interesting wildlife'.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: smallcleanrat on May 03, 2020, 07:48:51 AM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on May 02, 2020, 06:25:23 PM
Fraans de Waal - Are we smart enough to know how smart animals are?: An entertaining bit of popular science, with lots of really interesting and compelling examples. I often gasped at the shoddy experimental design from the past, which is basically what I was looking for when I got it (and which were, in many ways, highly reminiscent of Elisabeth Lloy'd magnificent Pre-theoretical Assumptions in Evolutionary Explanations of Female Sexuality). It was also interesting to have my childhood memories of how we talked about animal cognition confirmed; I'd come to think I must have been misremembering, but apparently not. Wow, have we ever come a long way!

If you enjoyed this you might also like Lucy Cooke's The Truth About Animals: Stoned Sloths, Lovelorn Hippos, and Other Tales from the Wild Side of Wildlife.

It has many examples of the historical/cultural origins of misconceptions and myths about animals and contrasts these with the more modern, empirically-based understanding of animal lifestyles and behavior. Also quite an entertaining read.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on May 03, 2020, 11:47:50 AM
Quote from: sprout on May 02, 2020, 10:27:57 PM
There's a book I remember reading years ago - maybe high school, that has stuck with me, that may in fact be this one.  (I say this after checking out a Wikipedia summary.)  It was definitely a Beowulf in space book, and it fits that the creatures were called grendels.  It stuck with me because of the way the human colonists became prey to this intelligent, learning predator.  It really made me think about human exceptionalism, and how thin the veneer of being the dominant species could get.  Part of the effect may have been the age I read it, but there's not a ton of books that I still randomly think about on occasion, decades later.

Oh! I'm so glad that might have been the one! (I suppose it could have been one of the sequels, too, but I haven't read them yet.) I found out about it from my brother-in-law, who was basically in your situation but couldn't find the book, and after asking me a pile of questions about Beowulf and the names of things in Beowulf, he was able to google his way back to the book.

Quote from: ergative on May 02, 2020, 11:01:28 PM

Sue Burke's Semiosis (and the sequel Interference) is awesome in that way, as long as you include sentient plants in your definition of 'interesting wildlife'.

Thanks! This is actually one of the books I ordered ages ago which should arrive soonish. I'll move it up the 'to read' list accordingly! (Cool flora definitely counts!)

Quote from: smallcleanrat on May 03, 2020, 07:48:51 AM

If you enjoyed this you might also like Lucy Cooke's The Truth About Animals: Stoned Sloths, Lovelorn Hippos, and Other Tales from the Wild Side of Wildlife.

It has many examples of the historical/cultural origins of misconceptions and myths about animals and contrasts these with the more modern, empirically-based understanding of animal lifestyles and behavior. Also quite an entertaining read.

Thanks! That sounds really cool, too. I'll look around for it!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mahagonny on May 08, 2020, 03:47:10 AM
Without Conscience The Disturbing World of The Psychopaths Among Us by Robert D. Hare

How many have you met/known? Are you sure?
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on May 09, 2020, 07:11:13 AM
Whiny student emails, mostly...

...but I am listening to Fahrenheit 451 and trying to get a start on Bill Bryson's The Body.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on May 09, 2020, 11:10:10 AM
As I've said before, elsewhere...we are Bradbury's hoboes....

And think about that wide-screen TV in your wall....

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on May 09, 2020, 04:23:10 PM
Quote from: mamselle on May 09, 2020, 11:10:10 AM
As I've said before, elsewhere...we are Bradbury's hoboes....

And think about that wide-screen TV in your wall....

M.

Walls, soon we can buy the 4th.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on May 10, 2020, 10:22:39 AM
Got it in one.

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on May 26, 2020, 02:31:41 PM
The Tale of Genji, by Murasaki Shikibu, and The Tale of Murasaki, by Liza Dalby

I came across Dalby's historical novel some months back.  It looked interesting.  Reading Tale of Genji first, to understand the context, seemed like a good idea.  I'd been toying with the idea of reading Genji for years anyway.  Now I've finally gotten down to business and completed them both.

Tale of Genji was something of a slog.  I'm mainly a reader of nonfiction.  When I read serious literary fiction, it tends to go down like a dose of medicine.  This was a preposterously big dose (How on earth did anybody ever manage to write a novel this long in the days before modern paper, ink, and typewriters?).  Slog or not, it deserves its reputation as one of the world's great novels.  It's full of psychological insight, and it's an extraordinary window into a long-ago world.

Title character Genji...is a real piece of work.  He's a sexual predator who brings disaster upon most of his paramours.  He even manages to create serious trouble for the royal family, with the all the potentially severe political consequences that that entails.  He's not a sociopath.  He has a conscience and can feel remorse.  Mainly that serves to turn him into a world-class rationalizer.  Yet he's supposed to be a sympathetic character. How did a female author create a "hero" like this?  How did he become so popular among a female readership?

Dalby's Tale of Murasaki tries to have Murasaki herself explain this in the course of narrating her own life's story.  Of course there's no way of knowing whether Dalby's educated guesses regarding Murasaki's motivations are true.  They generally come across as plausible.  The one place where she really overreaches is in the final chapter, which is an imagined reconstruction of a hypothetical missing final chapter to Genji.  I think it would have been best not to have tried that.

Overall it's a remarkable novel in the way it vivdly recreates the lost world of the Heian Japanese court.  It also, for the most part, allows its characters to be people of their time, not time-warped moderns.  That's an essential part of any worthwhile historical fiction.  Modern writers can't help having modern preoccupations, but they can work them into their historical recreations in a subtle way.  Dalby only occasionally tips her hand with an observation or phrase that's a little too on-the-nose. 

I do wonder, as I often to when reading historical fiction, whether certain unsympathetically portrayed characters--Murasaki's jerk of a brother comes to mind--are getting treated fairly.  I guess we'll never know. 
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on May 26, 2020, 07:37:56 PM
Does your copy of the original book show any of the paintings or the pen-and-ink drawings?

Those are amazing in and of themselves.

I am pretty sure I saw these at one point:

   https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/53892

This is also an oft-reproduced work:

   https://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/25532

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Puget on May 27, 2020, 05:56:58 AM
I've been listening to lots of audiobooks from the library as I work in the yard and house and go for walks--

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern (who wrote The Night Circus). A secret underground world centered around stories, with lots of intersecting stories within it and interludes of stories within stories. It got mixed reviews and I can see why-- it's rather odd, and follows dream logic, but in audiobook form and for this moment when we all seem a bit unmoored in time like the characters are, it worked for me.

Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield. I really enjoyed this one-- multiple intersecting story lines in 1840s (?) England. Good characters and an interesting plot that kept me guessing, with some magical realism elements.

The House of Silk and Moriarty, by Anthony Horowtz. Two Sherlock Holmes take-offs that were pretty well done and captured the style well.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on May 27, 2020, 07:42:46 AM
Quote from: mamselle on May 26, 2020, 07:37:56 PM
Does your copy of the original book show any of the paintings or the pen-and-ink drawings?

Those are amazing in and of themselves.

I am pretty sure I saw these at one point:

   https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/53892

This is also an oft-reproduced work:

   https://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/25532

M.

The copy I read was our library's very old Modern Library edition (The Arthur Waley translation, which has lots of helpful annotations).  No illustrations.  It doesn't even have its original book jacket! 

I'll have to check those links you've supplied when I have some time.  Thank you!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: notmycircus on May 27, 2020, 08:20:25 AM
Currently reading Little Fires Everywhere.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on May 30, 2020, 11:08:38 AM
Quote from: mamselle on May 26, 2020, 07:37:56 PM
Does your copy of the original book show any of the paintings or the pen-and-ink drawings?

Those are amazing in and of themselves.

I am pretty sure I saw these at one point:

   https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/53892

This is also an oft-reproduced work:

   https://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/25532

M.

Just found the copy I got from a friend for use as a teaching resource.

It's Seidensticker's paperback, an abridged tranlation with reproduced woodcuts based, per the publication info, on the 17th c. artist Y. Shunsho's work for a 1650 pub. by E. G. Monogatari.

The cover has two color scenes from the Met's screen (referenced above); I'm thinking the woodcuts were informed by/based on the paintings at Yale (or, depending on an unclear chronology, the other way 'round), since both feature several scenes with protruding corners of porches, dias(es), etc. into the center space.

Anyway, there are worthy visual sources at hand...a kid interested in manga or anime might like to explore these as precursorial elements.

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on May 31, 2020, 12:22:57 AM
Quote from: apl68 on April 24, 2020, 07:47:33 AM
The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, by Steve Brusatte.  It's a fascinating history of--well, the rise and fall of the dinosaurs, as currently understood by paleontology.  It's very readable popular science, with vivid profiles of several figures in the field of paleontology, and detailed descriptions of the methods they use to deduce what dinosaurs looked like, how they lived, and how their lineages mapped out.  It's one of those books where the author's enthusiasm for the subject proves contagious.  That's a mark of good popular nonfiction writing.

For extinct creatures, dinosaurs sure have changed a lot in the four decades since I began reading about them as a kid!  Makes me wonder how much of what Brusatte discusses here will be subject to modification in the years to come, due to continuing new fossil finds and methodologies.

I was intrigued, so I actually requested that my library acquire it as an ebook, and then I took it out and read it. (They're surprisingly obliging about acquiring texts I recommend.) I did enjoy it, but I was extremely struck by the fact that he (a) only seems to profile current people that he knows personally, and (b) they're almost entirely men. In the acknowledgements he says that his research comes from his own personal experience and publications--fine, he's an expert--but it led me to look up the gender balance overall in the field of paleontology. Are women really as rare in the field as they are among his buddies?

According to this article in Smithsonion (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/many-ways-women-get-left-out-paleontology-180969239/), women make up 'less than one-quarter' of professional paleontologists. Assuming that 'less than one quarter' means 'more than one fifth and less than one quarter' (or else they'd have said 'less than one fifth'), I would expect a properly representative book to contain between a fifth and a quarter as many women as men. But it sure didn't. On one page I counted twelve men mentioned and no women at all. So this leads me to conclude that Brusatte's own behavior in the discipline--who he makes friends with at conferences, collaborates with, who he cites in this research--is compounding the gender imbalance.

He's exactly my age, and went to my college, so it's not a case of an old fuddy-duddy perpetuating the norms of an earlier time. And that made me sad.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on May 31, 2020, 11:10:07 AM
Tracy Chevalier's Remarkable Creatures discusses the life and work of this 19th c. female in the field:

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Anning

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on May 31, 2020, 12:01:23 PM
I teach about Mary Anning and that book is remarkably accurate about the paleontology.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on May 31, 2020, 05:28:20 PM
I read and own a paperback copy of Remarkable Creatures.  I thought it was good too.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on June 01, 2020, 02:05:10 AM
Quote from: FishProf on May 31, 2020, 12:01:23 PM
I teach about Mary Anning and that book is remarkably accurate about the paleontology.

Can you fill in a gap for me? Brusatte makes a big distinction between things that looked like dinosaurs but weren't, and things that actually were dinosaurs. But it's not fully clear to me what the distinction should be. He himself admits that it's a bit arcane, but he didn't really lay out the characteristics that allow a paleontologist to say, 'yes, this is a dinosaur, but no, this thing isn't.'
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on June 01, 2020, 11:43:06 AM
Sure.  You want the online lecture?

In short, Dinosaurs are Vertebrate Osteichthyan Tetrapod Amniote Sauropsid Diapsid Archosaur Ornithodire with an open acetabulum and an upright gait.

Wait, what?

Vertebrate = has a backbone
Osteighthyan = Bony Fish (has bones and lungs)

Tetrapod = Four-legged terrestrial

Amniote = Lays waterproof eggs (extant = birds, mammals, "reptiles")

Sauropsid = What is typically (incorrectly) called a reptile, has 2 holes in the roof of its mouth (palatine fenestrae)

Diapsid = Two holes in the side of head (upper and lower terrestrial fenestrae)

Archosaur = teeth in sockets, additional hole in skull in front of eye (anteorbital fenestra)

Ornithodire = Pterosaurs + Dinosaurs (plus birds)

Acetabulum = hip socket

Upright gait = Lugs under body, weight supported by bones (opp. to sprawling gait)

Therefore, Ichthyosuars, plesiosaurs, pterosaurs are all NOT DINOSAURS

Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Vkw10 on June 01, 2020, 12:14:03 PM
FishProf, you've almost convinced me to seek a course in biological classification. I vaguely recall learning about vertebrates and mammals many decades ago, but I had no idea of the detail involved in those branching diagrams of classification.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on June 01, 2020, 12:47:55 PM
Quote from: FishProf on June 01, 2020, 11:43:06 AM
Sure.  You want the online lecture?

In short, Dinosaurs are Vertebrate Osteichthyan Tetrapod Amniote Sauropsid Diapsid Archosaur Ornithodire with an open acetabulum and an upright gait.

Wait, what?

Vertebrate = has a backbone
Osteighthyan = Bony Fish (has bones and lungs)

Tetrapod = Four-legged terrestrial

Amniote = Lays waterproof eggs (extant = birds, mammals, "reptiles")

Sauropsid = What is typically (incorrectly) called a reptile, has 2 holes in the roof of its mouth (palatine fenestrae)

Diapsid = Two holes in the side of head (upper and lower terrestrial fenestrae)

Archosaur = teeth in sockets, additional hole in skull in front of eye (anteorbital fenestra)

Ornithodire = Pterosaurs + Dinosaurs (plus birds)

Acetabulum = hip socket

Upright gait = Lugs under body, weight supported by bones (opp. to sprawling gait)

Therefore, Ichthyosuars, plesiosaurs, pterosaurs are all NOT DINOSAURS

Thank you! This was exactly what I wanted. Brusatte talked about the upright gait a bit, but very little of the rest.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on June 01, 2020, 05:52:19 PM
When things are crazy everywhere else, it's so reassuring to know we can at least classify the dinosaurs we know about.

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on June 02, 2020, 03:30:39 AM
I'm actually teaching a course on Dinosaurs right now and I have to update this stuff (at least) weekly.

It's fun to study fields where what we "know" is ion a reasonable state of flux.

I'd hate to be doing cosmology lectures right now.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on June 02, 2020, 05:00:03 AM
Quote from: FishProf on June 02, 2020, 03:30:39 AM
I'm actually teaching a course on Dinosaurs right now and I have to update this stuff (at least) weekly.

It's fun to study fields where what we "know" is ion a reasonable state of flux.

I'd hate to be doing cosmology lectures right now.

I only recently discovered that brontosaurs are now a Thing again. There was a long period in my later childhood when I went around smug in the knowledge that there's no such thing as a Brontosaurus, and the knowledgeable dinosaurophile should say Apatosaurus. Then a month or two ago I read a golden-era scifi book that mentioned Brontosaur and I realized my ten-year-old smugness was alive and well, so I prepared a long condescending post about it in which I was prepared to forgive the writer for not knowing the truth about Brontosaurs (although still holding firm that he was Very Wrong in his implication that they coexisted with early humans), and went to wikipedia to check out when, exactly, Brontosaurus had gone the way of Pluto--only to discover that they're back!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on June 02, 2020, 07:38:34 AM
Quote from: FishProf on June 02, 2020, 03:30:39 AM
I'm actually teaching a course on Dinosaurs right now and I have to update this stuff (at least) weekly.

It's fun to study fields where what we "know" is ion a reasonable state of flux.

I'd hate to be doing cosmology lectures right now.

What sorts of students to you get in a course on dinosaurs?  Are they taking the class because it sounds interesting, or is this something they're required to do? 

Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on June 02, 2020, 07:52:29 AM
A friend in Colorado teaches about the dinosaurs whose footprints are fossilized in the park where he works.

I've always thought that would be fun.

(I did mean my previous post as a wry observation, not snark--hope that was clear...)

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: RatGuy on June 02, 2020, 08:09:26 AM
Nearing the end of Devil in the White City. For some reason, my local library's algorithms think that Pacific Vortex! would be a good follow-up.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: archaeo42 on June 02, 2020, 08:18:46 AM
Quote from: apl68 on June 02, 2020, 07:38:34 AM
Quote from: FishProf on June 02, 2020, 03:30:39 AM
I'm actually teaching a course on Dinosaurs right now and I have to update this stuff (at least) weekly.

It's fun to study fields where what we "know" is ion a reasonable state of flux.

I'd hate to be doing cosmology lectures right now.

What sorts of students to you get in a course on dinosaurs?  Are they taking the class because it sounds interesting, or is this something they're required to do?

I used a course on dinosaurs to fulfill a science gen ed requirement. It looked like it would be the most interesting/fun of that grouping. I wasn't disappointed.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on June 02, 2020, 08:30:45 AM
I still have the fossils (trilobites, brachyopods, and microscopic conodants) that I found at Cowan Lake when taking Dr. Sweet's paleontology course at the end of my undergraduate program at OSU. The egg carton in which they were turned in, with labels, has been moved several times but remains intact.

Plus a huge rugosa coral that popped up in the middle of a path in a woods that used to be near the campus.

I agree, it was a most satisfying course.

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on June 02, 2020, 08:51:12 AM
Quote from: apl68 on June 02, 2020, 07:38:34 AM
Quote from: FishProf on June 02, 2020, 03:30:39 AM
I'm actually teaching a course on Dinosaurs right now and I have to update this stuff (at least) weekly.

It's fun to study fields where what we "know" is ion a reasonable state of flux.

I'd hate to be doing cosmology lectures right now.

What sorts of students to you get in a course on dinosaurs?  Are they taking the class because it sounds interesting, or is this something they're required to do?

This class is a non-majors, Science with a Lab general elective, so I usually get students who need it to graduate and have put it off as long as they can.   However, I have been teaching it for a decade+ and the reputation that it is hard has permeated the culture.  SO my students are generally engaged.  The Criminal Justice department steers their majors this way, as does business.

There is also a Majors-only Vertebrate Paleontology class, and that is a much different critter.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on June 02, 2020, 10:10:12 AM
For extinct creatures of more recent times, it's hard to beat The End of the Megafauna, by Ross MacPhee and Peter Schouten.  It's a beautifully illustrated guide to the fantastic creatures of only a few millennia ago--mammoths, mastodons, and other proboscids; monster birds; even giant turtles discovered recently enough to be known as "Ninja turtles."  To me, the more recent creatures are at least as interesting as the dinosaurs.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: archaeo42 on June 02, 2020, 10:19:44 AM
I recently finished How to Stop Time by Matt Haig. I enjoyed it until the last 85ish% of the book when the climax seemed rushed, seemingly out of nowhere, and some characters seemed to just make decisions that didn't fit with how the author had written them. Things were resolved at a pace seemingly not in line with how things were built up. Or, it would have been nice to have alternate narration by the main character's daughter in relevant places so she doesn't just show up out of nowhere.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on June 03, 2020, 06:11:28 AM
Neil Patrick Harris' Choose Your Own Autobiography
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on June 09, 2020, 07:45:34 PM
The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, Semiosis, and Space Prison arrived in the mail recently, and I'm looking forward to sinking my teeth into them!

But before I fall too far behind again, here was May's small haul:

David Bischoff – Time Machine 2: Search for Dinosaurs: I haven't read this since I was eight or ten or so (i.e. part of the book's intended audience). It was a delight. It's wonderfully and cleverly put together, and I quite literally went through every page in the book on my quest to photograph an archaeopteryx. Lots of gear from the future got left behind in the past, but the story didn't seem to notice. I even got stuck in the very same super-frustrating loop I was stuck in the last time I read this!

Alastair Reynolds – Bone Silence: This is the last of Reynolds's space pirate trilogy. And while I was happy to return to this delightful storyworld and these characters, I have to confess that the whole thing felt pretty rushed to me. Reynolds just pushed me through too much story in too few pages. The first in this series is brilliant, but I'm afraid there's a steady decline where the next two are concerned. Don't get me wrong: I enjoyed it. Just not as much I should have, given the givens.

Becky Chambers – A Closed and Common Orbit: This was brilliant and just lovely, although the Owl storyline is pretty heartbreaking. I loved every minute of it. It's a loose sequel to A Long, Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, although it's really just set in the same universe. It's vastly superior to the first novel, which was fun but not quite there yet. It was just great!

Douglas Adams – The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Not much to say, except of course that it's brilliant and hilarious. I've read it twice before, once as a teen and once as an early adult. It still holds up and, unsurprisingly, is a lot richer now that I know more about everything.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: traductio on June 09, 2020, 08:07:25 PM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on June 09, 2020, 07:45:34 PM
The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, Semiosis, and Space Prison arrived in the mail recently, and I'm looking forward to sinking my teeth into them!

I had to read your sentence twice before I realized you were talking about three different books, rather than one. I'm sad it's not one book called The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, Semiosis, and Space Prison. I was going to order myself a copy based on the title alone.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on June 09, 2020, 08:12:31 PM
Quote from: traductio on June 09, 2020, 08:07:25 PM


I had to read your sentence twice before I realized you were talking about three different books, rather than one. I'm sad it's not one book called The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, Semiosis, and Space Prison. I was going to order myself a copy based on the title alone.

!

It's not too late to follow up your scammy journal submission with a scammy book proposal...
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on June 10, 2020, 07:23:51 AM
Quote from: traductio on June 09, 2020, 08:07:25 PM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on June 09, 2020, 07:45:34 PM
The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, Semiosis, and Space Prison arrived in the mail recently, and I'm looking forward to sinking my teeth into them!

I had to read your sentence twice before I realized you were talking about three different books, rather than one. I'm sad it's not one book called The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, Semiosis, and Space Prison. I was going to order myself a copy based on the title alone.

And here we thought Allan Sokal had a new book out!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: RatGuy on June 10, 2020, 07:52:46 AM
I just read an email that said that subcutaneous microchips were predicted by the Bible. So far it's better than Pacific Vortex that a colleague recommended.

And I'm nearly through with the Watchmen graphic novel. I know, I know.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on June 10, 2020, 08:18:49 AM
It's tattooing, I think, that is supposed to transfer the number of the Beast (666) to the forehead and hand of the anti-elect (my term) in John's Revelation (14:9).

I don't think they had micro-chipping then....

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on June 10, 2020, 10:34:18 AM
Quote from: mamselle on May 30, 2020, 11:08:38 AM
Quote from: mamselle on May 26, 2020, 07:37:56 PM
Does your copy of the original book show any of the paintings or the pen-and-ink drawings?

Those are amazing in and of themselves.

I am pretty sure I saw these at one point:

   https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/53892

This is also an oft-reproduced work:

   https://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/25532

M.

Just found the copy I got from a friend for use as a teaching resource.

It's Seidensticker's paperback, an abridged tranlation with reproduced woodcuts based, per the publication info, on the 17th c. artist Y. Shunsho's work for a 1650 pub. by E. G. Monogatari.

The cover has two color scenes from the Met's screen (referenced above); I'm thinking the woodcuts were informed by/based on the paintings at Yale (or, depending on an unclear chronology, the other way 'round), since both feature several scenes with protruding corners of porches, dias(es), etc. into the center space.

Anyway, there are worthy visual sources at hand...a kid interested in manga or anime might like to explore these as precursorial elements.

M.

By the way, I never properly finished thanking you for linking these.  I loved looking at them!  The way the blacks were spotted in some of those was strikingly like some modern graphic art.  Oddly enough, some of it reminded me of the work of Crockett Johnson, of Barnaby and Harold and the Purple Crayon fame.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on June 10, 2020, 11:07:15 AM
You're welcome!

It strikes me that a class on literary works and their visual counterparts in India, China, Korea, and Japan would make an interesting interdisciplinary course. It might even be library-specific, if the library has large, seminar-type classrooms--in a year or two, once we've worked out our co-operative lifestyle vis-a-vis The Virus, that is--ascwell as online, for the moment.

A selection of the Hindu myths (focused on 1-3 stories and their iconographic depictions--say, representations of the cow herders flirting with the blue god, Krishna, etc.), Buddhist writings (paired with discussions of the mudras in visual arts, as compared with dance) and the formulaic/triadic representations of members of those pantheons, (as well as the Jains), in India; and the spread and interaction of Buddhism with Chinese and Japanese systems, reading Lao T'tsu, Confucius, and myths from the T'ang and Sung dynasties-while looking at their sculpture and paintings and the wondrous 9-ft Dragon Scroll; then considering Korean and Japanese stories and the great pen-and-ink drawing in the original scroll of the "Tale of Choju-Giga" and comparing it with the (later) representations of Gen-Ji.

You could do all this online, in fact; if in place, the class might meet in the library so the larger art history books could be passed around the table while speakers from the various linguistic disciplines presented their papers and led discussions; comparative forms in visual and verbal sources could also be treated in the contexts of danced and dramatized representations of these tales as well.

Another lifetime, another day....

Syllabi RUs....

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Economizer on June 11, 2020, 06:08:01 AM
PLUM ISLAND, Nelson DeMille, 1997. An informative read for those still alive in 2020. The fiction novel includes gore, murder, NYC vicinities, a very likeable smartass NYC detective, the farthest reaches of Long Island, NY, taunting and titillating sexual encounters, intellectual scientists, government agents, rivalries, TOP SECRET bioscience labs, plus pirate lore and much, much more. No mention of butlers but I've not yet finished reading the book.. it is still quite a mystery to me!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: marshwiggle on June 11, 2020, 06:37:27 AM
Quote from: mamselle on June 10, 2020, 08:18:49 AM
It's tattooing, I think, that is supposed to transfer the number of the Beast (666) to the forehead and hand of the anti-elect (my term) in John's Revelation (14:9).

I don't think they had micro-chipping then....

M.

My apologies if I'm incorrect, but I believe you'll remember Erich von Daniken's "Chariots of the Gods" in the 70's, which was kind of a high water mark of sci-fi-ish speculations about historical mysteries and/or prophecies and what they "really mean" now. (Also, Hal Lindsey's stuff in conservative Christian circles.)

There was a little bit of stuff like that coming up to Y2K, and a bit more before "the end" of the Mayan calendar in 2012, but I don't think either of those quite compare...
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: RatGuy on June 11, 2020, 07:46:12 AM
Quote from: Economizer on June 11, 2020, 06:08:01 AM
PLUM ISLAND, Nelson DeMille, 1997. An informative read for those still alive in 2020. The fiction novel includes gore, murder, NYC vicinities, a very likeable smartass NYC detective, the farthest reaches of Long Island, NY, taunting and titillating sexual encounters, intellectual scientists, government agents, rivalries, TOP SECRET bioscience labs, plus pirate lore and much, much more. No mention of butlers but I've not yet finished reading the book.. it is still quite a mystery to me!

If you like John Corey, the author reuses that character a few more times -- notably in the wake of 9/11
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: nebo113 on June 12, 2020, 04:57:32 AM
Quote from: marshwiggle on June 11, 2020, 06:37:27 AM
Quote from: mamselle on June 10, 2020, 08:18:49 AM
It's tattooing, I think, that is supposed to transfer the number of the Beast (666) to the forehead and hand of the anti-elect (my term) in John's Revelation (14:9).

I don't think they had micro-chipping then....

M.


My apologies if I'm incorrect, but I believe you'll remember Erich von Daniken's "Chariots of the Gods" in the 70's, which was kind of a high water mark of sci-fi-ish speculations about historical mysteries and/or prophecies and what they "really mean" now. (Also, Hal Lindsey's stuff in conservative Christian circles.)

There was a little bit of stuff like that coming up to Y2K, and a bit more before "the end" of the Mayan calendar in 2012, but I don't think either of those quite compare...

First grad MA course in research methods used "Chariots" as text on misuse of "research."  I learned a great deal about analysis and interpretation of socalled "data."
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on June 12, 2020, 07:54:03 AM
Quote from: nebo113 on June 12, 2020, 04:57:32 AM
Quote from: marshwiggle on June 11, 2020, 06:37:27 AM
Quote from: mamselle on June 10, 2020, 08:18:49 AM
It's tattooing, I think, that is supposed to transfer the number of the Beast (666) to the forehead and hand of the anti-elect (my term) in John's Revelation (14:9).

I don't think they had micro-chipping then....

M.


My apologies if I'm incorrect, but I believe you'll remember Erich von Daniken's "Chariots of the Gods" in the 70's, which was kind of a high water mark of sci-fi-ish speculations about historical mysteries and/or prophecies and what they "really mean" now. (Also, Hal Lindsey's stuff in conservative Christian circles.)

There was a little bit of stuff like that coming up to Y2K, and a bit more before "the end" of the Mayan calendar in 2012, but I don't think either of those quite compare...

First grad MA course in research methods used "Chariots" as text on misuse of "research."  I learned a great deal about analysis and interpretation of socalled "data."

My adolescent interest in stuff like that led to the same thing.  Among other things, I read quite a bit on the Bermuda Triangle.  Then I read Lawrence Kusche's Bermuda Triangle Mystery:  Solved.  Kusche was a university research librarian who examined each Bermuda Triangle case one-on-one, comparing what the legend said about the case with what he was actually able to find.  Reading his deconstruction of the Triangle mystery in high school gave me an excellent education on critical thinking and the need to check your sources before drawing conclusions.  I'd love to see that book taught today.  Except that I think it's out of print, and today's students probably mostly don't know what the Bermuda Triangle was supposed to be.

I read some of Hal Lindsey's books when I was a kid as well.  Some of his interpretations of trends that he identified at the time seemed plausible enough.  But it's long since become clear that he was a dud as a prophet.  That taught me a few things about how inadvisable it is to get too dogmatic in one's interpretations of biblical prophecy.  That said, I can't help noticing that the world that climate scientists predict we're going to see in the next few decades bears an uncanny resemblance to some of the crises predicted in the Revelation of Saint John....
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on June 12, 2020, 10:45:39 AM
I was in a campus fellowship that went as a  group to hear Hal Lindsey and Josh MacDonald in the late 70s.

That was indeed one of the sources discussing tattoos...and there may have been a sort of whoo-woo reference to the procedure that became microchipping--but the warning was about never getting a bank account that made you get your no. tattooed on your hand or forehead ( which, it turned out, was in fact being considered.

Given research I've assisted in for an author on 16th-18th c. European and British Reformation authors' commentaries on the Apocalypse, it is indeed hard not to fall into their same traps.

For them the Pope was identified as the Anti-Christ; now, well....

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: nebo113 on June 13, 2020, 06:49:42 AM
Quote from: apl68 on June 12, 2020, 07:54:03 AM
Quote from: nebo113 on June 12, 2020, 04:57:32 AM
Quote from: marshwiggle on June 11, 2020, 06:37:27 AM
Quote from: mamselle on June 10, 2020, 08:18:49 AM
It's tattooing, I think, that is supposed to transfer the number of the Beast (666) to the forehead and hand of the anti-elect (my term) in John's Revelation (14:9).

I don't think they had micro-chipping then....

M.


My apologies if I'm incorrect, but I believe you'll remember Erich von Daniken's "Chariots of the Gods" in the 70's, which was kind of a high water mark of sci-fi-ish speculations about historical mysteries and/or prophecies and what they "really mean" now. (Also, Hal Lindsey's stuff in conservative Christian circles.)

There was a little bit of stuff like that coming up to Y2K, and a bit more before "the end" of the Mayan calendar in 2012, but I don't think either of those quite compare...

First grad MA course in research methods used "Chariots" as text on misuse of "research."  I learned a great deal about analysis and interpretation of socalled "data."

My adolescent interest in stuff like that led to the same thing.  Among other things, I read quite a bit on the Bermuda Triangle.  Then I read Lawrence Kusche's Bermuda Triangle Mystery:  Solved.  Kusche was a university research librarian who examined each Bermuda Triangle case one-on-one, comparing what the legend said about the case with what he was actually able to find.  Reading his deconstruction of the Triangle mystery in high school gave me an excellent education on critical thinking and the need to check your sources before drawing conclusions.  I'd love to see that book taught today.  Except that I think it's out of print, and today's students probably mostly don't know what the Bermuda Triangle was supposed to be.

I read some of Hal Lindsey's books when I was a kid as well.  Some of his interpretations of trends that he identified at the time seemed plausible enough.  But it's long since become clear that he was a dud as a prophet.  That taught me a few things about how inadvisable it is to get too dogmatic in one's interpretations of biblical prophecy.  That said, I can't help noticing that the world that climate scientists predict we're going to see in the next few decades bears an uncanny resemblance to some of the crises predicted in the Revelation of Saint John....

I worked with Larry at the time the book was published.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on June 13, 2020, 07:51:28 AM
Quote from: nebo113 on June 13, 2020, 06:49:42 AM
Quote from: apl68 on June 12, 2020, 07:54:03 AM
Quote from: nebo113 on June 12, 2020, 04:57:32 AM
Quote from: marshwiggle on June 11, 2020, 06:37:27 AM
Quote from: mamselle on June 10, 2020, 08:18:49 AM
It's tattooing, I think, that is supposed to transfer the number of the Beast (666) to the forehead and hand of the anti-elect (my term) in John's Revelation (14:9).

I don't think they had micro-chipping then....

M.


My apologies if I'm incorrect, but I believe you'll remember Erich von Daniken's "Chariots of the Gods" in the 70's, which was kind of a high water mark of sci-fi-ish speculations about historical mysteries and/or prophecies and what they "really mean" now. (Also, Hal Lindsey's stuff in conservative Christian circles.)

There was a little bit of stuff like that coming up to Y2K, and a bit more before "the end" of the Mayan calendar in 2012, but I don't think either of those quite compare...

First grad MA course in research methods used "Chariots" as text on misuse of "research."  I learned a great deal about analysis and interpretation of socalled "data."

My adolescent interest in stuff like that led to the same thing.  Among other things, I read quite a bit on the Bermuda Triangle.  Then I read Lawrence Kusche's Bermuda Triangle Mystery:  Solved.  Kusche was a university research librarian who examined each Bermuda Triangle case one-on-one, comparing what the legend said about the case with what he was actually able to find.  Reading his deconstruction of the Triangle mystery in high school gave me an excellent education on critical thinking and the need to check your sources before drawing conclusions.  I'd love to see that book taught today.  Except that I think it's out of print, and today's students probably mostly don't know what the Bermuda Triangle was supposed to be.

I read some of Hal Lindsey's books when I was a kid as well.  Some of his interpretations of trends that he identified at the time seemed plausible enough.  But it's long since become clear that he was a dud as a prophet.  That taught me a few things about how inadvisable it is to get too dogmatic in one's interpretations of biblical prophecy.  That said, I can't help noticing that the world that climate scientists predict we're going to see in the next few decades bears an uncanny resemblance to some of the crises predicted in the Revelation of Saint John....

I worked with Larry at the time the book was published.

Wow!  What was it like working with him?  He's kind of a librarian hero of mine.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on June 14, 2020, 11:12:17 AM
We decided to give The Player of Games (Banks) a whirl given the positive recommendations.  It was (in our opinion, which IIRC seems to match those here) way better than what we had read in Consider Phlebus.  It's much more coherent, introduces a lot less of the universe and a lot fewer (and more interesting) people, and has a really suspenseful plot.  It took a little bit to get into it, but we intrigued fairly quickly.  Some of the plot twists were easy to anticipate, but others were more complicated and cleverly constructed, and the whole thing worked well together.  Thanks for the encouragement to give it a try! We are now going back to Consider Phlebus because we have it on hand, and we're hoping that it will make at least a little more sense now that we are a bit more familiar with the overall context.  We decided to skip what we had previously read and just move forward.  The first chapter of our new reading session was more similar to TPoG (discussion between person and drone), so that helped.  I'm still a little lost on the big picture, but hopefully it will come more into focus.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on June 14, 2020, 11:54:23 AM
After finishing the Harry Potter Series, and the Hobbit, I am reading The Golden Compass to Smolt (and MrsFishProf.  I never read this series, so a second childhood of sorts.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on June 14, 2020, 12:10:56 PM
Quote from: FishProf on June 14, 2020, 11:54:23 AM
After finishing the Harry Potter Series, and the Hobbit, I am reading The Golden Compass to Smolt (and MrsFishProf.  I never read this series, so a second childhood of sorts.

I really loved The Golden Compass and the following two! We read them a year or two ago.  I think they would be appealing to many ages, though there are some dark parts of the story.  They were very entertaining and touching overall, and some of the characters are favorites.  Please let us know what you think of the book and series!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on June 15, 2020, 07:03:53 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on June 14, 2020, 12:10:56 PM
Quote from: FishProf on June 14, 2020, 11:54:23 AM
After finishing the Harry Potter Series, and the Hobbit, I am reading The Golden Compass to Smolt (and MrsFishProf.  I never read this series, so a second childhood of sorts.

I really loved The Golden Compass and the following two! We read them a year or two ago.  I think they would be appealing to many ages, though there are some dark parts of the story.  They were very entertaining and touching overall, and some of the characters are favorites.  Please let us know what you think of the book and series!

Yes, that trilogy is very, very good and satisfying. Skip the new one that Pullman is currently writing. It's deeply disappointing and actively gross in places.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on June 15, 2020, 07:35:12 AM
Two Chapters in and I am intrigued.  I fear it may be too much for Smolt, however. She's 8
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on June 15, 2020, 11:05:06 AM
Ergative, thanks for the heads up about the new book.

Fishprof, you know your daughter best, but I would be hesitant to read those books to someone so young.  I am not sure I would consider them children's books... there are a lot of adult themes (mostly in terms of violence or frightening or very sad elements) from what I recall, and a feeling of loss of youth and innocence.  But, there are good aspects as well, friendship and love and fighting for justice.  Maybe you can pre-read some of it and see whether you wish to continue at this time? I started reading Stephen King when I was around her age, but I'm not sure that was a good thing.  On the other hand, the Pullman books have more positives to offer, especially if you are reading together and you can discuss things that come up or gauge how she is handling it.  Just my two cents.  Good luck.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on June 15, 2020, 11:15:25 AM
I have had a similar issue to deal with in working with the ADHD student I've supported over the past semester.

What was his teacher thinking of, assigning young middle-schoolers (6th grade) a story with two gang-related deaths by shooting and other assorted moments of violence?  (S.E. Hinton's "The Outsiders," FYI). The chapter work was excellent, in using comparisons with other literary materials, etc., but the basic material worried me.

I know, I know they see it all the time in video games and streaming stuff, but it was a bit raw and I really worried at first about how it would affect him; he deals with a certain degree of emotional abuse from his dad (nothing physical that I'm aware of, but the bad-mouthy acid drip is bad enough, thankfully he only has short visits and lives primarily with his mom) and has serious ego-assurance issues as well, and he's not the only one in those classes who has such situations (I subbed in their school a few years ago, and was often assigned to the special-needs classroom, so I'm familiar with the setting).

So, I'm glad you're  keeping an eye out for Smolt in this regard.

M.

Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on June 15, 2020, 11:24:24 AM
How about Watership Down?  That's kid friendly, right?  Just some bunnies doing bunny things.....
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on June 15, 2020, 11:46:45 AM
Quote from: FishProf on June 15, 2020, 11:24:24 AM
How about Watership Down?  That's kid friendly, right?  Just some bunnies doing bunny things.....

Ha... I don't think I'm old enough to read that yet.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on June 15, 2020, 12:06:48 PM
Quote from: ab_grp on June 15, 2020, 11:46:45 AM
Quote from: FishProf on June 15, 2020, 11:24:24 AM
How about Watership Down?  That's kid friendly, right?  Just some bunnies doing bunny things.....

Ha... I don't think I'm old enough to read that yet.

Me neither. I avoid it like the COVID.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: marshwiggle on June 15, 2020, 12:11:22 PM
Quote from: mamselle on June 15, 2020, 11:15:25 AM
I have had a similar issue to deal with in working with the ADHD student I've supported over the past semester.

What was his teacher thinking of, assigning young middle-schoolers (6th grade) a story with two gang-related deaths by shooting and other assorted moments of violence?  (S.E. Hinton's "The Outsiders," FYI). The chapter work was excellent, in using comparisons with other literary materials, etc., but the basic material worried me.


Going to high school in the 70's, (and where I grew up, high school started at Grade 7), it seemed part of the point of English class was to try and shock students my picking edgy things. In some grade, (9 at the latest), we read The Grapes of Wrath. Not a single character who I cared enough about to enjoy the book.

Short stories were different, though. Some of my favourites were "The Most Dangerous Game", "Sorry Wrong Number" and "The Monkey's Paw". If they'd have picked novels like that, I would have been much more onboard.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on June 15, 2020, 12:34:53 PM
Interesting...speaking of Steinbeck, I was just pondering East of Eden, in fact, having just hit Genesis 2-4 in my daily rota....

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on June 15, 2020, 07:08:31 PM
Got a trove of library books coming for my reading pleasure!  :)
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: traductio on June 15, 2020, 07:21:36 PM
Quote from: ab_grp on June 15, 2020, 11:05:06 AM
Ergative, thanks for the heads up about the new book.

Fishprof, you know your daughter best, but I would be hesitant to read those books to someone so young.  I am not sure I would consider them children's books... there are a lot of adult themes (mostly in terms of violence or frightening or very sad elements) from what I recall, and a feeling of loss of youth and innocence.  But, there are good aspects as well, friendship and love and fighting for justice.  Maybe you can pre-read some of it and see whether you wish to continue at this time? I started reading Stephen King when I was around her age, but I'm not sure that was a good thing.  On the other hand, the Pullman books have more positives to offer, especially if you are reading together and you can discuss things that come up or gauge how she is handling it.  Just my two cents.  Good luck.

My daughter and I read His Dark Materials (the trilogy starting with Golden Compass) when she was about seven. On the one hand, there were parts I think we should have waited for, especially in the second and third books. On the other hand, there are some deeply moving parts, especially in the third book, when the characters start on their most serious adventure. (That's all I'll say because it's generic enough not to give away plot points, but clear enough that when you get there, you'll know what I'm talking about.) On yet another hand (that makes three!), I don't think my daughter picked up on a lot of the subtler points of some of the more mature material. The gruesome parts, yes, she certainly did, but certain aspects of the characters' emotional growth were things she'll need to discover later, if she reads the books again.

All that to say, I don't think I scarred her by reading them, but I mighta waited a bit if I had previewed the books first.

(I started to read the first book of the new trilogy, but I didn't get very far. My daughter doesn't know I bought it, or she'd demand to read it. I'm intrigued by the premise of the second book of the new trilogy, though.)
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on June 16, 2020, 02:44:31 AM
Quote from: traductio on June 15, 2020, 07:21:36 PM
Quote from: ab_grp on June 15, 2020, 11:05:06 AM
Ergative, thanks for the heads up about the new book.

Fishprof, you know your daughter best, but I would be hesitant to read those books to someone so young.  I am not sure I would consider them children's books... there are a lot of adult themes (mostly in terms of violence or frightening or very sad elements) from what I recall, and a feeling of loss of youth and innocence.  But, there are good aspects as well, friendship and love and fighting for justice.  Maybe you can pre-read some of it and see whether you wish to continue at this time? I started reading Stephen King when I was around her age, but I'm not sure that was a good thing.  On the other hand, the Pullman books have more positives to offer, especially if you are reading together and you can discuss things that come up or gauge how she is handling it.  Just my two cents.  Good luck.

My daughter and I read His Dark Materials (the trilogy starting with Golden Compass) when she was about seven. On the one hand, there were parts I think we should have waited for, especially in the second and third books. On the other hand, there are some deeply moving parts, especially in the third book, when the characters start on their most serious adventure. (That's all I'll say because it's generic enough not to give away plot points, but clear enough that when you get there, you'll know what I'm talking about.) On yet another hand (that makes three!), I don't think my daughter picked up on a lot of the subtler points of some of the more mature material. The gruesome parts, yes, she certainly did, but certain aspects of the characters' emotional growth were things she'll need to discover later, if she reads the books again.

All that to say, I don't think I scarred her by reading them, but I mighta waited a bit if I had previewed the books first.

(I started to read the first book of the new trilogy, but I didn't get very far. My daughter doesn't know I bought it, or she'd demand to read it. I'm intrigued by the premise of the second book of the new trilogy, though.)

The premise of the second book of the new trilogy is a thirty-something college professor perving on his twenty-something student--a student that he had looked after when she was a literal infant. There's other stuff, but that was the bit that made me nope out of there.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: traductio on June 16, 2020, 06:45:54 AM
Quote from: ergative on June 16, 2020, 02:44:31 AM
The premise of the second book of the new trilogy is a thirty-something college professor perving on his twenty-something student--a student that he had looked after when she was a literal infant. There's other stuff, but that was the bit that made me nope out of there.

Eww. What I had read made it seem like more like the psychological portrait of the main character as she grew alienated from herself (I'm again trying to avoid specifics). That's not at all inconsistent with what you wrote, but the nature of that alienation -- the gross prof -- wasn't in any of the descriptions I read.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on June 16, 2020, 07:38:31 AM
Quote from: traductio on June 16, 2020, 06:45:54 AM
Quote from: ergative on June 16, 2020, 02:44:31 AM
The premise of the second book of the new trilogy is a thirty-something college professor perving on his twenty-something student--a student that he had looked after when she was a literal infant. There's other stuff, but that was the bit that made me nope out of there.

Eww. What I had read made it seem like more like the psychological portrait of the main character as she grew alienated from herself (I'm again trying to avoid specifics). That's not at all inconsistent with what you wrote, but the nature of that alienation -- the gross prof -- wasn't in any of the descriptions I read.

Oh, the alienation is a different component of the book entirely, but I also found it frustrating and boring. It felt more like a plot device to prevent crucial pieces of information from being fully apprehended than any genuine exploration of the psychology of internal conflict.

To be fair to the book, I quit when the perviness became impossible to ignore, so it might improve after that.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: traductio on June 16, 2020, 10:59:25 AM
Quote from: ergative on June 16, 2020, 07:38:31 AM
Quote from: traductio on June 16, 2020, 06:45:54 AM
Quote from: ergative on June 16, 2020, 02:44:31 AM
The premise of the second book of the new trilogy is a thirty-something college professor perving on his twenty-something student--a student that he had looked after when she was a literal infant. There's other stuff, but that was the bit that made me nope out of there.

Eww. What I had read made it seem like more like the psychological portrait of the main character as she grew alienated from herself (I'm again trying to avoid specifics). That's not at all inconsistent with what you wrote, but the nature of that alienation -- the gross prof -- wasn't in any of the descriptions I read.

Oh, the alienation is a different component of the book entirely, but I also found it frustrating and boring. It felt more like a plot device to prevent crucial pieces of information from being fully apprehended than any genuine exploration of the psychology of internal conflict.

To be fair to the book, I quit when the perviness became impossible to ignore, so it might improve after that.

That's a shame because the idea had incredible potential. You've made me all the gladder, however, that I'm not reading the book with my daughter.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on June 22, 2020, 01:05:18 PM
Quote from: scamp on September 24, 2019, 01:35:50 PM
Quote from: ab_grp on September 24, 2019, 12:38:56 PM

Now we are reading Empire Falls (Richard Russo), which won the Pulitzer and was apparently written between the two previous books of his we'd read (Nobody's Fool and follow up Everybody's Fool).  I'd guess we're about 3/4 of the way through.  It reminds me very much of Nobody's Fool in terms of the setting (town based around some industry that has dried up, college/rival town nearby) and some of the character types and lifestyle fixtures (the local bars everyone goes to, the diner everyone eats at).  I loved Nobody's Fool, and I am anxious to see how this story turns out.  It has been hard to put this book down.  I think Russo has a great ability to write about scenes in a way that is matter-of-fact, dry, and absurdist... completely hilarious (my kind of humor).  The other night we were up way too late reading and had tears streaming from the laughter about one particular section.  While these kinds of scenes and depictions have come up several times in the books of his we've read, he is also very good (I think) about subtly painting characters a little more deeply and a little more deeply during a book.  They start out almost as stereotypes, but they get layered as time goes on, and I find myself really drawn to a number of them and caring about how things play out for them (and, there are some really unlikable folks, of course).  There are a couple little mysteries going on that I am impatient to find out the answers to.  We still have a ways to go, but that is my report so far. 

I just watched the Empire Falls miniseries with Ed Harris on Amazon Prime recently. I am intrigued to read the book now as it does take a sudden turn and I am wondering how that is treated in the book. Also there are lots of characters and I think many probably get short shrift in a TV movie, even in mini-series format like this.

Bringing back up an older discussion: we watched the Empire Falls miniseries last week.  I can confirm that many of the characters get short shrift versus their roles in the book.  I didn't particularly care for the miniseries, partly because of that, but also some of the characters really didn't seem much at all like their counterparts in the book.  I know Russo probably had to cut quite a lot for this format, but I was dismayed at some of what he cut versus what he left in.  I don't think there was nearly as much background and build up for the major stuff, so some characters ended up very one-dimensional, which is unfortunate due to the complexity of the story and seems unfair to the characters.  In contrast, the movie version of Nobody's Fool was way closer to the book in my opinion, even though I did prefer the book in that case as well.

In other news, we are still reading Consider Phlebus in a second attempt, and it continues to be more engaging than the first attempt now that we have some familiarity with the writing style and context and the story has picked up.  It still drags at times and is not as compelling as The Player of Games (nor does it seem as clever), but we are more interested in finding out what happens! I was thinking, too, that there were some pieces of The Player of Games that didn't seem to be explained (or I may have missed something!), and I am wondering how that book, or these two books, tie in to the rest of the series or whether each book is pretty stand alone.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on June 22, 2020, 01:22:02 PM
Quote from: ab_grp on June 22, 2020, 01:05:18 PM
I was thinking, too, that there were some pieces of The Player of Games that didn't seem to be explained (or I may have missed something!), and I am wondering how that book, or these two books, tie in to the rest of the series or whether each book is pretty stand alone.

They're all standalone, although each fills in more of the universe (which gets more interesting the more you know about it). And occasionally you'll spot a reference to previous works, like at the end of Surface Detail.

None of the other novels quite compare to Player of Games, though. For one thing, they're mostly (but not entirely) straightforward space operas, and Banks is far more interesting when he deviates from that subgenre.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on June 22, 2020, 03:16:08 PM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on June 22, 2020, 01:22:02 PM
Quote from: ab_grp on June 22, 2020, 01:05:18 PM
I was thinking, too, that there were some pieces of The Player of Games that didn't seem to be explained (or I may have missed something!), and I am wondering how that book, or these two books, tie in to the rest of the series or whether each book is pretty stand alone.

They're all standalone, although each fills in more of the universe (which gets more interesting the more you know about it). And occasionally you'll spot a reference to previous works, like at the end of Surface Detail.

None of the other novels quite compare to Player of Games, though. For one thing, they're mostly (but not entirely) straightforward space operas, and Banks is far more interesting when he deviates from that subgenre.

Thank you! Your insights are (as always!) very helpful.  We do like space operas quite a bit, but we may step away from the series after this book and come back to it later in favor of other items on tap. 

One more thing about Russo... we watched DOA last night (the version with Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan), and it made me think a lot about Straight Man! Of course, the movie is a murder mystery (and a fun one, I thought), so it's a little darker at times, though Russo can certainly go dark.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on June 23, 2020, 03:21:54 AM
Catfishing on Catnet, by Naomi Kritzer: YA, charming romp about a benevolent and beneficent AI that uses the internet for good. There's a great sequence about a bunch of teens hacking a sex-ed teaching robot that has been programmed to respond 'you'll have to ask your parents about that' when asked any of the hard questions.

John Scalzi's Interdependency series: pretty standard Scalzi, with one particularly awesome foul-mouthed smartass, but something about it seemed too easy. The bad guys were too regularly thwarted too easily. The good guys always seemed one step ahead of them, which meant that there was never any real tension about whether the good guys would fail. Even a particularly striking bombshell in the third book didn't end up actually setting the Forces For Good back too far.

Dark Eden, by Chris Beckett: I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it. It's an accidental colony that sprouted on a wandering planet without a sun, so everything's dark and the only light comes from the colony's fires or else bioluminescence from the native ecosystem. Visually the world was great. Socially the book was trying to do things that I get, but which I found a little tiresome (lots of Feelings about how myth and historical narrative are constructed and reinforced not true retellings of what exactly happened). Content warning: only one man and one woman were left behind, so the entire population several generations on is based on incest and inbreeding.

Lanie Taylor's Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy: It was florid and smoochy and dramatic and overwrought, and I adored it. The development of the magical component works so wonderfully (teeth? Why teeth?!), and the conclusion is very satisfying. The second half of the first book is a bit too dependent on tiresome tragiromantic flashbacks, which interfere with the actual plot development, but things pick up again in the second and third books. Content warning: attempted rape in the second book. It is justified narratively, but I think it was unnecessary and the same narrative goals could have been accomplished without it.

The Goblin Emperor, by Katherine Addison: Reread. So good! Terrifically engaging imperial political thriller, based entirely on an out-of-place, friendless surprise!emperor who just wants to do a good job, and by dint of goodwell and earnest hard work makes better.

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell, by Susanne Clarke: Reread. Just as good the second time through. The miniseries is good, too. There were a couple of distinct narrative choices that I really liked. They showed a genuine partnership of trust building between Lady Pole, Mr Segundus, and Mr Honeyfoot at Starecross Hall as they work to decipher the strange tales, and they grant Lady Pole real agency after Arabella joins her and Mr Strange asks her to look after Arabella. And they make Mr Norell's dastardliness much more straightforward by showing that he knew about the consequences of the fairy bargain he made from the beginning, and so he knew that it wasn't a simple matter of 'magic can't cure madness', but in fact was the result of his own actions.

Luna, New Moon
, by Ian McDonald: Mafioso-like families battle it out for economic supremacy on our colonized moon. If you like that sort of thing, it's fine, but it didn't quite work for me. What was much better were  . . .

Jade City and the sequel, Jade War, by Fonda Lee: Mafioso-like families battle it out for economic supremacy on a secondary-world fantasy where magical jade turns people with the right biology into superpowered bags of thuggery. The world is heavily flavored with the technology and politics post-WWII Asia (airplanes and telephones, but not internet or computers), and it's incredibly rich and wonderful. Issues include: the role of ethnicity in allowing you to access the magical jade powers; the international macroeconomics of being a small country that has a monopoly on the source of magical jade; the ethics of belonging to a family that puts clan interests above personal interests; the complexities of immigrant communities recreating the social structures from home in a new country; and the awkwardness of needing to fit personal skills to available roles in different political environments.



Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on July 07, 2020, 03:36:51 PM
Quote from: ergative on June 23, 2020, 03:21:54 AM
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell, by Susanne Clarke: Reread. Just as good the second time through. The miniseries is good, too. There were a couple of distinct narrative choices that I really liked. They showed a genuine partnership of trust building between Lady Pole, Mr Segundus, and Mr Honeyfoot at Starecross Hall as they work to decipher the strange tales, and they grant Lady Pole real agency after Arabella joins her and Mr Strange asks her to look after Arabella. And they make Mr Norell's dastardliness much more straightforward by showing that he knew about the consequences of the fairy bargain he made from the beginning, and so he knew that it wasn't a simple matter of 'magic can't cure madness', but in fact was the result of his own actions.

I had this book at one point but never got around to reading it.  Maybe I'll take a look for it.

We finally finished Consider Phlebas (Banks).  The book did get more interesting at times (and at one point quite gory), but I agree with a review from Goodreads that there is too much tell and not enough show, too much explanation, clunky writing at times, and poor character development.  Even once the cast list was whittled down, it still took a while to remember which characters were which, because there was almost no description or demonstration of personality.  It was difficult to care about any of them.  Although the pace picked up after the first hundred or so pages, it started dragging again at times.  Then, near the end, we realized that a lot had to be wrapped up and wrapped up quickly.  I still don't know how some of the characters fit in (if they do).  Maybe they show up elsewhere.  I may be one of the less literate here, because I had no idea what the title referred to and kept waiting for Phlebas to show up for consideration.  But, I finally looked it up today and get where Banks was coming from with the reference.  The Player of Games was way better, so we may try other books in the series.  The other one recommended by spouse's colleague, besides those I've mentioned in this post, was Use of Weapons.

We are now reading That Old Cape Magic (Russo) but are not far enough into it to comment.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: downer on July 08, 2020, 08:03:59 AM
By weird coincidence, I just finished

Overkill
When Modern Medicine Goes Too Far
by Paul A. Offit M.D.
2020

When does medicine go too far? All the time!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Economizer on July 17, 2020, 06:44:22 AM
THE WATCHMAN By Robert Crais, 2007

A very good mystery. It is not overly rough (as action stories go nowadays), and shares very interesting information re big city investigation resources. The ending..well, it is wonderful.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on July 20, 2020, 10:50:05 AM
Salem Possessed:  The Social Origins of Witchcraft, by Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum.  It's an older book that takes as its thesis the idea that the Salem witchcraft panic of 1692 was an outgrowth of social factionalism in Salem Village.  The authors show great ingenuity in using a variety of records to reconstruct the social factions in Salem Village, and to show correlations between these and who got accused of witchcraft.  It's amazing what you can reconstruct from centuries ago if you scrounge hard enough for sources.  Everything that survives from an historical period is a potential historical source.  That said, there's an awful lot of conjecture here.  I'm not sure how convinced I am regarding what the authors assert about some of the historical actors' motivations.


I've also been reading a lot of F. Scott Fitzgerald's earlier novels and short stories.  The man could certainly write!  He's one of the more readable "classic" authors out there.  It's shocking, though, to see how frequently, and how consistently, his work includes denigrating portrayals of African Americans.  It's not just a matter of using derogatory terms and stereotypes that were more acceptable a hundred years ago than they are now.  Black characters in Fitzgerald are always portrayed as background figures who are casually dismissed in some way.  I haven't found a single instance in his writing of his taking a human interest in any character who isn't white. 

Not that he often views white characters with much admiration or compassion either.  His cynicism about human beings bodes well for his continuing to be viewed as a classic author.  His portrayals of people of color?  Likely to lead to growing calls in the years to come to have him kicked out of the literary canon.  Should that happen, I don't know that he'd be that big of a loss, really.  But then I'm not usually a fan of "literary" fiction in general.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on July 21, 2020, 12:51:23 AM
One thing I always wonder about when people worry about the preservation of any sort of canon, is why we want to preserve it.

1. Is it genuinely so good that we are willing to overlook its flaws? (e.g., [some] Shakespeare, Austen)
2. Does it represent the first instance of something genuinely new and innovative, even if it has aged badly? (e.g., Chaucer)
3. Is it important for its social/political/historical impact, even if, as a work of literature, it's rather lousy? (e.g., The Jungle, Uncle Tom's Cabin)
4. Has it always been a member of the canon, and so should stay on it for the sake of tradition and cultural continuity?

Points 2 and 3 tend to be fairly stable. Chaucer is never not going to be the first major poet transferring the traditions of Boccaccio and French fabliaux into vernacular English. The Clean Food and Drug Act is never not going to be inspired (in part) by The Jungle. It's really point 1, and as a consequence, point 4, that are possible sources of debate. In my preferred genre, science fiction and fantasy, it is undeniably true that the sorts of books that are written now are just plain better in every way than books from the golden era. I don't mean in terms of representation--although that's improved too. I mean in terms of world-building complexity, character complexity, and the basic sentence level quality of the prose. The genre has matured from something written quickly to make a quick buck in pulp magazines into something that can be astonishing. Even the Wall Street Journal has finally admitted it (https://www.wsj.com/articles/science-fiction-finally-a-grown-up-fantasy-11595020733) (and in the process provoking outrage among the SFF authors and fans who think this article breathtakingly condescending and decades too late).

So it may well be worth considering whether things that were once great works, compared to the other stuff out there (point 1) and deserved a place in the canon as it was then, are in fact not really so great given how much other amazing stuff has been published since then.  And that's where the drama lies. I just reread Nickolas Nickelby not too long ago, and my goodness, it was a very, very poorly constructed novel. All over the place, all sorts of little episodes that don't relate to each other and don't move the plot forward, because they only existed as an excuse for Dickens to comment on how silly theatre people are, or to make fun of a widow who wants to have a harmless romance with the man next door. The good stuff is absolutely great, but I'm not sure it's good enough to count as canon anymore. The only reason to keep it there is point 4.

When I was at college, I worked in the special collections of the library, and a large part of my duties involved making photocopies of archived papers for various scholars who requested them. I once spent several days making copy after copy of documents and memos from a committee in which everyone was discussing what should be the core canon that formed the basis of--something, I don't remember what. A core undergraduate curriculum? A set of texts issued by the university press? Something official, at any rate. It was from the 1930s or so. I don't think that something as nebulous as 'the canon' should be decided by one committee of university dudes, but if it is, it should definitely be ruthlessly updated every five or ten years.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Treehugger on July 21, 2020, 04:28:34 AM
Since I'm no longer an academic and have loads of leisure time, but, other the other hand, cannot currently travel or get out much, I have decided to read all the winners of the Nobel prize in literature in their original language. Seeing as how the Nobel prize winners wrote in 28 different languages, this project should take me a while (at least several lifetimes). I have already read many of the winners in French and English (for my doctoral studies and for myself) and have been studying Spanish with some friends, so first up on the list was Garbriel Garcia Marquez's El Amor en Los Tiempos de Cólera, which I adored. I am currently re-reading it and writing a little essay about it en español, por supuesto while also starting on Mario Vargas Llosa's La Ciudad y los Perros.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on July 21, 2020, 07:23:40 AM
Quote from: Treehugger on July 21, 2020, 04:28:34 AM
Since I'm no longer an academic and have loads of leisure time, but, other the other hand, cannot currently travel or get out much, I have decided to read all the winners of the Nobel prize in literature in their original language. Seeing as how the Nobel prize winners wrote in 28 different languages, this project should take me a while (at least several lifetimes). I have already read many of the winners in French and English (for my doctoral studies and for myself) and have been studying Spanish with some friends, so first up on the list was Garbriel Garcia Marquez's El Amor en Los Tiempos de Cólera, which I adored. I am currently re-reading it and writing a little essay about it en español, por supuesto while also starting on Mario Vargas Llosa's La Ciudad y los Perros.

I guess after that you could brush up on your Scandinavian languages, since that's where a lot of Nobel laureates came from in the early decades.

I feel like I had enough of reading Latin American authors in the original Spanish in my college literature classes (Sorry Mom!).
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Treehugger on July 21, 2020, 08:19:53 AM
Quote from: apl68 on July 21, 2020, 07:23:40 AM
Quote from: Treehugger on July 21, 2020, 04:28:34 AM
Since I'm no longer an academic and have loads of leisure time, but, other the other hand, cannot currently travel or get out much, I have decided to read all the winners of the Nobel prize in literature in their original language. Seeing as how the Nobel prize winners wrote in 28 different languages, this project should take me a while (at least several lifetimes). I have already read many of the winners in French and English (for my doctoral studies and for myself) and have been studying Spanish with some friends, so first up on the list was Garbriel Garcia Marquez's El Amor en Los Tiempos de Cólera, which I adored. I am currently re-reading it and writing a little essay about it en español, por supuesto while also starting on Mario Vargas Llosa's La Ciudad y los Perros.

I guess after that you could brush up on your Scandinavian languages, since that's where a lot of Nobel laureates came from in the early decades.

I feel like I had enough of reading Latin American authors in the original Spanish in my college literature classes (Sorry Mom!).

Well, I did spend some time learning beginner's Swedish on Duolinguo a few years ago before we went to Sweden. I had some phrases all ready to whip out, but everyone's English was so good, I really didn't get a chance. The irony is that when we went to Norway (for one day) nobody spoke any English and I hadn't studied any Norwegian, so ooops.

Anyway, yes ... my plan is first authors who wrote in Spanish, then German (since I had 4 years in college), then Swedish, then back to Italian which I had also studied (two years). In the mean time, I could start learning a really challenging language like Japanese ....
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on July 21, 2020, 08:26:43 AM
Quote from: Treehugger on July 21, 2020, 08:19:53 AM
Quote from: apl68 on July 21, 2020, 07:23:40 AM
Quote from: Treehugger on July 21, 2020, 04:28:34 AM
Since I'm no longer an academic and have loads of leisure time, but, other the other hand, cannot currently travel or get out much, I have decided to read all the winners of the Nobel prize in literature in their original language. Seeing as how the Nobel prize winners wrote in 28 different languages, this project should take me a while (at least several lifetimes). I have already read many of the winners in French and English (for my doctoral studies and for myself) and have been studying Spanish with some friends, so first up on the list was Garbriel Garcia Marquez's El Amor en Los Tiempos de Cólera, which I adored. I am currently re-reading it and writing a little essay about it en español, por supuesto while also starting on Mario Vargas Llosa's La Ciudad y los Perros.

I guess after that you could brush up on your Scandinavian languages, since that's where a lot of Nobel laureates came from in the early decades.

I feel like I had enough of reading Latin American authors in the original Spanish in my college literature classes (Sorry Mom!).

Well, I did spend some time learning beginner's Swedish on Duolinguo a few years ago before we went to Sweden. I had some phrases all ready to whip out, but everyone's English was so good, I really didn't get a chance. The irony is that when we went to Norway (for one day) nobody spoke any English and I hadn't studied any Norwegian, so ooops.

Anyway, yes ... my plan is first authors who wrote in Spanish, then German (since I had 4 years in college), then Swedish, then back to Italian which I had also studied (two years). In the mean time, I could start learning a really challenging language like Japanese ....

Sounds like you're a seasoned enough linguist that you could pull it off!

My Japanese is mainly limited to trying to sing along with some of my favorite anime themes.  It's surprising how much you can learn about a language by paying close attention when watching subtitled videos.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ciao_yall on July 21, 2020, 08:27:41 AM
Quote from: Treehugger on July 21, 2020, 08:19:53 AM
Quote from: apl68 on July 21, 2020, 07:23:40 AM
Quote from: Treehugger on July 21, 2020, 04:28:34 AM
Since I'm no longer an academic and have loads of leisure time, but, other the other hand, cannot currently travel or get out much, I have decided to read all the winners of the Nobel prize in literature in their original language. Seeing as how the Nobel prize winners wrote in 28 different languages, this project should take me a while (at least several lifetimes). I have already read many of the winners in French and English (for my doctoral studies and for myself) and have been studying Spanish with some friends, so first up on the list was Garbriel Garcia Marquez's El Amor en Los Tiempos de Cólera, which I adored. I am currently re-reading it and writing a little essay about it en español, por supuesto while also starting on Mario Vargas Llosa's La Ciudad y los Perros.

I guess after that you could brush up on your Scandinavian languages, since that's where a lot of Nobel laureates came from in the early decades.

I feel like I had enough of reading Latin American authors in the original Spanish in my college literature classes (Sorry Mom!).

Well, I did spend some time learning beginner's Swedish on Duolinguo a few years ago before we went to Sweden. I had some phrases all ready to whip out, but everyone's English was so good, I really didn't get a chance. The irony is that when we went to Norway (for one day) nobody spoke any English and I hadn't studied any Norwegian, so ooops.

Anyway, yes ... my plan is first authors who wrote in Spanish, then German (since I had 4 years in college), then Swedish, then back to Italian which I had also studied (two years). In the mean time, I could start learning a really challenging language like Japanese ....

Japanese is easy to pronounce but the grammar is strange. Just say everything backwards, or like Yoda and it's fine.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ciao_yall on July 21, 2020, 08:28:58 AM
Quote from: apl68 on July 21, 2020, 08:26:43 AM
Quote from: Treehugger on July 21, 2020, 08:19:53 AM
Quote from: apl68 on July 21, 2020, 07:23:40 AM
Quote from: Treehugger on July 21, 2020, 04:28:34 AM
Since I'm no longer an academic and have loads of leisure time, but, other the other hand, cannot currently travel or get out much, I have decided to read all the winners of the Nobel prize in literature in their original language. Seeing as how the Nobel prize winners wrote in 28 different languages, this project should take me a while (at least several lifetimes). I have already read many of the winners in French and English (for my doctoral studies and for myself) and have been studying Spanish with some friends, so first up on the list was Garbriel Garcia Marquez's El Amor en Los Tiempos de Cólera, which I adored. I am currently re-reading it and writing a little essay about it en español, por supuesto while also starting on Mario Vargas Llosa's La Ciudad y los Perros.

I guess after that you could brush up on your Scandinavian languages, since that's where a lot of Nobel laureates came from in the early decades.

I feel like I had enough of reading Latin American authors in the original Spanish in my college literature classes (Sorry Mom!).

Well, I did spend some time learning beginner's Swedish on Duolinguo a few years ago before we went to Sweden. I had some phrases all ready to whip out, but everyone's English was so good, I really didn't get a chance. The irony is that when we went to Norway (for one day) nobody spoke any English and I hadn't studied any Norwegian, so ooops.

Anyway, yes ... my plan is first authors who wrote in Spanish, then German (since I had 4 years in college), then Swedish, then back to Italian which I had also studied (two years). In the mean time, I could start learning a really challenging language like Japanese ....

Sounds like you're a seasoned enough linguist that you could pull it off!

My Japanese is mainly limited to trying to sing along with some of my favorite anime themes.  It's surprising how much you can learn about a language by paying close attention when watching subtitled videos.

Or online Japanese lessons like this one?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKjaFG4YN6g
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on July 21, 2020, 09:03:52 AM
Reading major works in their original languages sounds like a great project to take on, especially with so much background in different languages!

We finished That Old Cape Magic last night.  It was very enjoyable throughout and had lots of the signature Russo elements.  He is so good at his descriptions sometimes.  We were happy to find that it was generally light reading, no major heavy downer plot points, although there were some that were certainly sad.  It was a fun summer read with some clever writing as we have come to expect from Russo.  There were a few things that didn't seem to get resolved, but they were more of a curiosity than a major story line, and the lack of closure may have been intentional.

Not sure what we will read next.  Maybe Echopraxia (Watts) or How Green was my Valley (Llewellyn).  We try to alternate sci fi in with other fiction, but spouse's birthday is coming up, and I'm planning to get him/us a bunch of the books listed on some of the favorites lists from Goodreads.  This past week was apparently sci fi/fantasy week there, and at least some will be new to him.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on July 21, 2020, 10:44:49 AM
Quote from: ciao_yall on July 21, 2020, 08:27:41 AM
Quote from: Treehugger on July 21, 2020, 08:19:53 AM
Quote from: apl68 on July 21, 2020, 07:23:40 AM
Quote from: Treehugger on July 21, 2020, 04:28:34 AM
Since I'm no longer an academic and have loads of leisure time, but, other the other hand, cannot currently travel or get out much, I have decided to read all the winners of the Nobel prize in literature in their original language. Seeing as how the Nobel prize winners wrote in 28 different languages, this project should take me a while (at least several lifetimes). I have already read many of the winners in French and English (for my doctoral studies and for myself) and have been studying Spanish with some friends, so first up on the list was Garbriel Garcia Marquez's El Amor en Los Tiempos de Cólera, which I adored. I am currently re-reading it and writing a little essay about it en español, por supuesto while also starting on Mario Vargas Llosa's La Ciudad y los Perros.

I guess after that you could brush up on your Scandinavian languages, since that's where a lot of Nobel laureates came from in the early decades.

I feel like I had enough of reading Latin American authors in the original Spanish in my college literature classes (Sorry Mom!).

Well, I did spend some time learning beginner's Swedish on Duolinguo a few years ago before we went to Sweden. I had some phrases all ready to whip out, but everyone's English was so good, I really didn't get a chance. The irony is that when we went to Norway (for one day) nobody spoke any English and I hadn't studied any Norwegian, so ooops.

Anyway, yes ... my plan is first authors who wrote in Spanish, then German (since I had 4 years in college), then Swedish, then back to Italian which I had also studied (two years). In the mean time, I could start learning a really challenging language like Japanese ....

Japanese is easy to pronounce but the grammar is strange. Just say everything backwards, or like Yoda and it's fine.

Very easy to pronounce, if you're used to Spanish pronunciation.  And vice versa.  When my mother taught college Spanish, she found that Japanese exchange students were some of her best students.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on July 21, 2020, 11:36:04 AM
Quote from: apl68 on July 20, 2020, 10:50:05 AM
Salem Possessed:  The Social Origins of Witchcraft, by Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum.  It's an older book that takes as its thesis the idea that the Salem witchcraft panic of 1692 was an outgrowth of social factionalism in Salem Village.  The authors show great ingenuity in using a variety of records to reconstruct the social factions in Salem Village, and to show correlations between these and who got accused of witchcraft.  It's amazing what you can reconstruct from centuries ago if you scrounge hard enough for sources.  Everything that survives from an historical period is a potential historical source.  That said, there's an awful lot of conjecture here.  I'm not sure how convinced I am regarding what the authors assert about some of the historical actors' motivations.


I've also been reading a lot of F. Scott Fitzgerald's earlier novels and short stories.  The man could certainly write!  He's one of the more readable "classic" authors out there.  It's shocking, though, to see how frequently, and how consistently, his work includes denigrating portrayals of African Americans.  It's not just a matter of using derogatory terms and stereotypes that were more acceptable a hundred years ago than they are now.  Black characters in Fitzgerald are always portrayed as background figures who are casually dismissed in some way.  I haven't found a single instance in his writing of his taking a human interest in any character who isn't white. 

Not that he often views white characters with much admiration or compassion either.  His cynicism about human beings bodes well for his continuing to be viewed as a classic author.  His portrayals of people of color?  Likely to lead to growing calls in the years to come to have him kicked out of the literary canon.  Should that happen, I don't know that he'd be that big of a loss, really.  But then I'm not usually a fan of "literary" fiction in general.

Boyer and Nissenbaum have been superceded. I can't describe the details without sidelining work I'm doing on a different 17th c. issue now, and I don't want to derail the thread, but PM me if you want all the juicy details later.

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: RatGuy on July 21, 2020, 03:53:35 PM
Quote from: ergative on July 21, 2020, 12:51:23 AM
One thing I always wonder about when people worry about the preservation of any sort of canon, is why we want to preserve it.

1. Is it genuinely so good that we are willing to overlook its flaws? (e.g., [some] Shakespeare, Austen)
2. Does it represent the first instance of something genuinely new and innovative, even if it has aged badly? (e.g., Chaucer)
3. Is it important for its social/political/historical impact, even if, as a work of literature, it's rather lousy? (e.g., The Jungle, Uncle Tom's Cabin)
4. Has it always been a member of the canon, and so should stay on it for the sake of tradition and cultural continuity?

Points 2 and 3 tend to be fairly stable. Chaucer is never not going to be the first major poet transferring the traditions of Boccaccio and French fabliaux into vernacular English. The Clean Food and Drug Act is never not going to be inspired (in part) by The Jungle. It's really point 1, and as a consequence, point 4, that are possible sources of debate. In my preferred genre, science fiction and fantasy, it is undeniably true that the sorts of books that are written now are just plain better in every way than books from the golden era. I don't mean in terms of representation--although that's improved too. I mean in terms of world-building complexity, character complexity, and the basic sentence level quality of the prose. The genre has matured from something written quickly to make a quick buck in pulp magazines into something that can be astonishing. Even the Wall Street Journal has finally admitted it (https://www.wsj.com/articles/science-fiction-finally-a-grown-up-fantasy-11595020733) (and in the process provoking outrage among the SFF authors and fans who think this article breathtakingly condescending and decades too late).

So it may well be worth considering whether things that were once great works, compared to the other stuff out there (point 1) and deserved a place in the canon as it was then, are in fact not really so great given how much other amazing stuff has been published since then.  And that's where the drama lies. I just reread Nickolas Nickelby not too long ago, and my goodness, it was a very, very poorly constructed novel. All over the place, all sorts of little episodes that don't relate to each other and don't move the plot forward, because they only existed as an excuse for Dickens to comment on how silly theatre people are, or to make fun of a widow who wants to have a harmless romance with the man next door. The good stuff is absolutely great, but I'm not sure it's good enough to count as canon anymore. The only reason to keep it there is point 4.

When I was at college, I worked in the special collections of the library, and a large part of my duties involved making photocopies of archived papers for various scholars who requested them. I once spent several days making copy after copy of documents and memos from a committee in which everyone was discussing what should be the core canon that formed the basis of--something, I don't remember what. A core undergraduate curriculum? A set of texts issued by the university press? Something official, at any rate. It was from the 1930s or so. I don't think that something as nebulous as 'the canon' should be decided by one committee of university dudes, but if it is, it should definitely be ruthlessly updated every five or ten years.

I do like Jane Tompkins's chapter "But Is It Any Good?" for a discussion of the sentimental (and UTC factors into this discussion) and the canon. I generally don't like Dickens for the same reasons that you list, but I think it's an unavoidable issue of the Victorian literary marketplace. I do like to ask my grad students to consider Hawthorne's position the canon -- having a BIL on the state board of education, who can make your novel required reading in school, probably helps your literary reputation.

Whenever I teach a class in post-war American literature, I like to discuss canon. The Norton includes one Dick story as a token SF story, but I try to bring in a few other genre writers. It's fun to teach something like "The Call of Cthulhu" in this context -- Lovecraft certainly has a strong influence on contemporary SF and horror, and he works well in discussing the genre conventions of the Modernists. Then I ask if his blatant racism should exclude him from the canon, and if not, how do we address it (especially given the influence of his mythos). I've also assigned Shirley Jackson who is having somewhat of a resurgence, and ask if she deserved to be dropped from the canon (the Norton no longer contains "The Lottery"). I've even taught Stephen King's "All That You Love Will Be Carried Away" in the context of the canon.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on July 22, 2020, 12:59:56 AM
Quote from: RatGuy on July 21, 2020, 03:53:35 PM

I do like Jane Tompkins's chapter "But Is It Any Good?" for a discussion of the sentimental (and UTC factors into this discussion) and the canon. I generally don't like Dickens for the same reasons that you list, but I think it's an unavoidable issue of the Victorian literary marketplace. I do like to ask my grad students to consider Hawthorne's position the canon -- having a BIL on the state board of education, who can make your novel required reading in school, probably helps your literary reputation.

Whenever I teach a class in post-war American literature, I like to discuss canon. The Norton includes one Dick story as a token SF story, but I try to bring in a few other genre writers. It's fun to teach something like "The Call of Cthulhu" in this context -- Lovecraft certainly has a strong influence on contemporary SF and horror, and he works well in discussing the genre conventions of the Modernists. Then I ask if his blatant racism should exclude him from the canon, and if not, how do we address it (especially given the influence of his mythos). I've also assigned Shirley Jackson who is having somewhat of a resurgence, and ask if she deserved to be dropped from the canon (the Norton no longer contains "The Lottery"). I've even taught Stephen King's "All That You Love Will Be Carried Away" in the context of the canon.

That sounds like a fun set of discussions! I was never invited to consider the idea that canon decisions could be overruled when I was in college. I think if I'd had such a class I might have had a great deal more confidence in forming my own opinions about 'great literature' much earlier.

There's been a regular feature (https://www.tor.com/series/the-lovecraft-reread/) on the tor.com blog about Lovecraftian horror, in an attempt to reclaim the good bits of the mythos and disconnect it a bit from the assholery of its originator.  They started by reading and discussing Lovecraft's own works, and then moved on to other works that are similarly Lovecraftian.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on August 11, 2020, 10:53:08 AM
I finally got around to reading something by Jane Austen.  I know that Northanger Abbey isn't considered her masterpiece, but it's what wasn't checked out from the library at the time, so...

It's quite funny (even laugh-out-loud funny) in places, and the characters and settings are well drawn.  No question that Jane Austen knew her craft.  However, my ability to get into what is after all basically a romance involving very upper-crust people of two centuries ago is limited.  Heroine Catherine Moreland may marry well above her station, but her station was pretty high to start with.  Note that the romance comes with a solid dose of realism.  To marry well you've GOT to have money and negotiate a deal between the two families, no matter how much the lovers might like each other.

I wonder what Jane Austen's future in the literary canon will be?  Feminist literary critics long ago convinced themselves that she was a proto-feminist, and that it was therefore okay to enjoy her works as a break from more conventionally dreary literary fiction.  But she was a member of the upper classes in colonial-era Britain, and surely had family whose money came partly or entirely from some colonial business that would have involved the labor or traffic of slaves.  That she reportedly expressed abolitionist sympathies back in the day might not be enough to save her from being "cancelled."  Laura Ingalls Wilder and other long-recognized classic authors have already been unpersoned, and the pace of this sort of thing has greatly quickened recently.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on August 12, 2020, 01:35:37 AM
Quote from: apl68 on August 11, 2020, 10:53:08 AM
I finally got around to reading something by Jane Austen.  I know that Northanger Abbey isn't considered her masterpiece, but it's what wasn't checked out from the library at the time, so...

It's quite funny (even laugh-out-loud funny) in places, and the characters and settings are well drawn.  No question that Jane Austen knew her craft.  However, my ability to get into what is after all basically a romance involving very upper-crust people of two centuries ago is limited.  Heroine Catherine Moreland may marry well above her station, but her station was pretty high to start with.  Note that the romance comes with a solid dose of realism.  To marry well you've GOT to have money and negotiate a deal between the two families, no matter how much the lovers might like each other.

I wonder what Jane Austen's future in the literary canon will be?  Feminist literary critics long ago convinced themselves that she was a proto-feminist, and that it was therefore okay to enjoy her works as a break from more conventionally dreary literary fiction.  But she was a member of the upper classes in colonial-era Britain, and surely had family whose money came partly or entirely from some colonial business that would have involved the labor or traffic of slaves.  That she reportedly expressed abolitionist sympathies back in the day might not be enough to save her from being "cancelled."  Laura Ingalls Wilder and other long-recognized classic authors have already been unpersoned, and the pace of this sort of thing has greatly quickened recently.

Eh---lots of people choose not to teach Jane Austen for all sorts of reasons. If they decide that their reading lists contain too much upper-class privilege and want to replace some of it with other types of authors, that seems perfectly reasonable to me.

In general, there are so many reasons not to teach an author---ranging from 'he's morally reprehensible' to 'I don't really like him and there are so many others that I do like'---that fussing about making a decision because of 'cancel culture' seems a bit disingenuous to me. For one thing, it depends on the assumption that certain books have an indisputable right to belong to the canon--and I've already said what I think about that higher up. And anyway, if the concern about cancelling Austen were genuinely motivated by the belief that Austen always belongs on reading lists, then there would be equal outrage around instructors who remove her for other reasons (such as, 'I just don't like her all that much'.) But while we might disagree with such decisions, they don't make us clutch our pearls and bemoan today's Philistinism. So I believe that worries over 'canceling' Austen are really just using Austen as an excuse to complain about cancel culture more generally. And I myself think such complaints are misplaced.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on August 12, 2020, 07:24:11 AM
Quote from: ergative on August 12, 2020, 01:35:37 AM
Quote from: apl68 on August 11, 2020, 10:53:08 AM
I finally got around to reading something by Jane Austen.  I know that Northanger Abbey isn't considered her masterpiece, but it's what wasn't checked out from the library at the time, so...

It's quite funny (even laugh-out-loud funny) in places, and the characters and settings are well drawn.  No question that Jane Austen knew her craft.  However, my ability to get into what is after all basically a romance involving very upper-crust people of two centuries ago is limited.  Heroine Catherine Moreland may marry well above her station, but her station was pretty high to start with.  Note that the romance comes with a solid dose of realism.  To marry well you've GOT to have money and negotiate a deal between the two families, no matter how much the lovers might like each other.

I wonder what Jane Austen's future in the literary canon will be?  Feminist literary critics long ago convinced themselves that she was a proto-feminist, and that it was therefore okay to enjoy her works as a break from more conventionally dreary literary fiction.  But she was a member of the upper classes in colonial-era Britain, and surely had family whose money came partly or entirely from some colonial business that would have involved the labor or traffic of slaves.  That she reportedly expressed abolitionist sympathies back in the day might not be enough to save her from being "cancelled."  Laura Ingalls Wilder and other long-recognized classic authors have already been unpersoned, and the pace of this sort of thing has greatly quickened recently.

Eh---lots of people choose not to teach Jane Austen for all sorts of reasons. If they decide that their reading lists contain too much upper-class privilege and want to replace some of it with other types of authors, that seems perfectly reasonable to me.

In general, there are so many reasons not to teach an author---ranging from 'he's morally reprehensible' to 'I don't really like him and there are so many others that I do like'---that fussing about making a decision because of 'cancel culture' seems a bit disingenuous to me. For one thing, it depends on the assumption that certain books have an indisputable right to belong to the canon--and I've already said what I think about that higher up. And anyway, if the concern about cancelling Austen were genuinely motivated by the belief that Austen always belongs on reading lists, then there would be equal outrage around instructors who remove her for other reasons (such as, 'I just don't like her all that much'.) But while we might disagree with such decisions, they don't make us clutch our pearls and bemoan today's Philistinism. So I believe that worries over 'canceling' Austen are really just using Austen as an excuse to complain about cancel culture more generally. And I myself think such complaints are misplaced.

To be clear, the future of Jane Austen's (or any other novelists') literary reputation doesn't make a great deal of difference to me one way or another.  But I am curious to see whether she becomes a contested figure in today's climate.  A year ago I would have thought that her place in the academic literary canon was as secure as anybody's.  Now...I'm not so sure.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on August 12, 2020, 08:41:32 AM
Many of Austen's characters were hardly upper-class...she explored a range of different layers of society in her day, the 'arrived' (whom she often spoofed as buffons), the aspirational--some of whom 'got on' and were rewarded for their efforts, others of whom did but--and a number of in-betweeners.

She doesn't go into the factories with Hardy, or visit London's low-rent tenements as Dickens later did, but her characters are not all playing tea party games; many, in seeking viable marriages, were fighting for their lives, as things were then.

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Morden on August 12, 2020, 08:49:42 AM
Sometimes I teach Austen; often I don't because she is one of two 19th century novelists (the other is Mary Shelley) that my students have probably already heard of, if not read. I usually don't teach Mary Shelley's novels for the same reason, but this year I picked her The Last Man because it's about a pandemic. So that's what I've been reading recently.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on August 12, 2020, 10:49:03 AM
Quote from: mamselle on August 12, 2020, 08:41:32 AM
She doesn't go into the factories with Hardy, or visit London's low-rent tenements as Dickens later did, but her characters are not all playing tea party games; many, in seeking viable marriages, were fighting for their lives, as things were then.

M.

Which, from what I understand, is what keeps her from being regarded as just a forerunner of the romance novel genre, as some of her less in-the-know fans seem to imagine.  A woman in her society had to make the best marriage she could, or she was likely condemned to a lifetime of being a poor relation or worse.  There really is a lot at stake in her novels.  That was clear even in Northhanger Abbey.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on August 12, 2020, 01:28:09 PM
Quote from: apl68 on August 12, 2020, 10:49:03 AM
Quote from: mamselle on August 12, 2020, 08:41:32 AM
She doesn't go into the factories with Hardy, or visit London's low-rent tenements as Dickens later did, but her characters are not all playing tea party games; many, in seeking viable marriages, were fighting for their lives, as things were then.

M.

Which, from what I understand, is what keeps her from being regarded as just a forerunner of the romance novel genre, as some of her less in-the-know fans seem to imagine.  A woman in her society had to make the best marriage she could, or she was likely condemned to a lifetime of being a poor relation or worse.  There really is a lot at stake in her novels.  That was clear even in Northhanger Abbey.

I'm thinking now about Miss Bates in Emma, who is so poor that she relies on baskets of food from Emma, and how Emma's eventual arrival at maturity depends on her realizing that she needs to be kind to Miss Bates, rather than mocking her.

Of course, Emma is also really invested in maintaining social class boundaries, so it's probably not a great example of progressive values more broadly.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: nebo113 on August 13, 2020, 06:01:22 AM
I've been listening to The Oregon Trail by Rinker Buck, and am fascinated, less by his trek, than by his segues into the history of mules, geography, and the delightful Olive Oil.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on August 13, 2020, 08:48:29 AM
Quote from: nebo113 on August 13, 2020, 06:01:22 AM
I've been listening to The Oregon Trail by Rinker Buck, and am fascinated, less by his trek, than by his segues into the history of mules, geography, and the delightful Olive Oil.
I read a library copy of this book when it came out and enjoyed it!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on August 17, 2020, 12:28:09 PM
We finished Echopraxia (Watts) a few days ago and were unsure how we felt about it.  It definitely didn't draw us in as much as Blindsight had, but we tend to wonder whether we just did not pick up on or understand everything very well.  Lots to think about, but I agree with one review on Goodreads that it seemed Watts went farther outside his knowledge base and expertise with this one, and it just didn't seem as coherent or that his ideas landed that well.  I know there was some discussion of this book on the other site but haven't yet been able to access it via the wayback machine.  There was a brief mention over here.  My recollection was that others felt similarly about the two books?

After finishing that one, we excitedly got to the Chaos Vector (O'Keefe), the sequel to Velocity Weapon, which we read last year.  So far, it's been holding its own.  There are so many interesting story arcs in this series, and it's interesting to see how they relate to each other.   There are a couple pretty solid lead female characters, which is refreshing in science fiction.  The back of the book describes this as the second in a space opera trilogy, and the story involves a sentient AI space ship, a lot of political intrigue and treachery, and some compelling action.  It's a little hard to summarize a follow up book without giving away any spoilers about what happens in the first book! One of the aspects I really liked about the first book was how the sentience of the ship was described and the interactions with it.  It raised a lot of philosophical questions for me, and I believe this book will continue on with those.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on August 17, 2020, 01:26:02 PM
The Oxford Guide to Heraldry by Thomas Woodcock and John M. Robinson (2001 reissue)
Took this book since it was being weeded from our branch collection.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on August 17, 2020, 01:39:01 PM
Quote from: hmaria1609 on August 17, 2020, 01:26:02 PM
The Oxford Guide to Heraldry by Thomas Woodcock and John M. Robinson (2001 reissue)
Took this book since it was being weeded from our branch collection.

That's a librarian for you!  Awhile back I temporarily salvaged a multi-volume Oxford set on British writers from Bede through the Victorian era that we had weeded from Reference and read through parts of it.  It was funny to see Anthony Trollope being dismissed as a minor novelist.  Evidently his reputation has grown since the early 1900s.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on August 18, 2020, 12:10:05 AM
I just finished Katie Mack's The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking), about different theories of how the universe will end. It's a popular science textbook, so I imagine that astrophysicists on the fora may find nothing new--or indeed might find themselves nitpicking the various analogies--but I thought it was mindblowing. It's friendlily written for the lay reader, and Mack has a lot of personality that flavors her prose without turning it into that kind of tiresome 'let me tell you my life story' memoir/science genre that I find so tiresome.

My only question is this: in one chapter we learn about the cosmic horizon, and how elements in the universe beyond it are moving away from us too fast (because of universe expansion) for their light ever to reach us. So if that's the case, then how can vaccuum decay destroy the universe as we learn in a later chapter, if the bubble of true vaccuum, when it appears, will expand "only" at the speed of light? Would all the things beyond the bubble's cosmic horizon be safe because the bubble can't expand fast enough to catch them?
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on August 18, 2020, 09:34:05 AM
Gotta catch up on my June and July reporting:

Simon Scarrow – Traitors of Rome: Always a fun romp, and plenty of fighting to see me through it all. I do prefer it when they're based on real history and real battles, though.

Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Steven Barnes – Beowulf's Children: The misogyny is really strong in this one, and usually centres on sexuality, so I mostly blame Pournelle (although I'm sure Niven bears his share of the responsibility, too). I have no idea about Barnes. It was enjoyable despite that, mostly because the new ecology is exceptionally well-rendered. I was excited to read about the mainland and its flora and fauna, and in that respect it didn't disappoint. I also especially appreciated the subtle deformations of the names of Earth plants and animals to convey the properties of the new ones. There's an awful lot of casual cruelty to animals portrayed, however, and I don't think the authors recognize it for what it is.

Sue Burke – Semiosis: I loved every bit of this one. The imagining of the new world and its creatures was very well executed, as was the central conceit about sapient plants. It was also a very interesting and fresh take on the colonists' side, especially the initial descent into pretty bleak territory, and I wondered the whole way through how the plot could get resolved without diverging too far from the characters' commitment to pacifism. Very cool. My only reservation is that too many of the plant names relied on unchanged earth names, which left me a little confused—especially since the colonists start out with some earth crops. I'd have preferred it if Burke had adopted something akin to the naming conventions in The Legacy of Heorot and its sequels, to mark the difference.

Tom Godwin – Space Prison: I enjoyed it because it's pretty much what I asked for—space colony with deadly critters, although the ecology was a little sparse. It's a very flawed work, however, quite apart from its foundations in misogyny. What it is, basically, is just the sketch of what has the potential to be a really great story, with only the barest bones filled in. A meticulous writer could do an impressive job with the basic plot, especially if they forgot about including the '70s-style fulfillment of revenge thing at the end. Oh, and Godwin apparently has no idea about how bows and crossbows work, the difference between them, or their relative advantages and disadvantages.

Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner – Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores: I read the expanded edition. It was an entertaining pop read, but I'm afraid that I'm pretty skeptical of the conclusions drawn about most of the topics covered, especially—but not exclusively—in the extra essays at the end of the expanded edition. It was fun to think about the weird places where you can find supporting data, but it gave off a very strong impression of the arrogant Economists-Know-All-The-Things-And-Solve-All-The-Problems-Because-Better-At-Applied-Maths-Than-Other-Social-Scientists attitude that I find to be a real turn-off (probably not least because it's the mirror of philosophy's attitude to just about everyone else). As a series of disconnected vignettes, it didn't do much to capture my lasting interest, however. I confess that I often found myself thinking I'd rather be reading Stephen J. Gould.

Douglas Adams – The Restaurant at the End of the Universe: A fitting follow-up to the the first.

Douglas Adams – Life, the Universe, and Everything: Still fun, but the non-sequiturishness of the plot and its occasional efforts at something more substantial is starting to wear a little thin. The whole campaign for real time thing with Slartibartfast and the Bistromath seems especially out of left field, not least because they just disappear again by the end.

Douglas Adams – So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish: This one held together somewhat better than the last, although it's somewhat further removed from the charm of the original. Actually, it felt much less zany and more tame—I think less happens in it?


Quote from: ab_grp on August 17, 2020, 12:28:09 PM
We finished Echopraxia (Watts) a few days ago and were unsure how we felt about it.  It definitely didn't draw us in as much as Blindsight had, but we tend to wonder whether we just did not pick up on or understand everything very well.  Lots to think about, but I agree with one review on Goodreads that it seemed Watts went farther outside his knowledge base and expertise with this one, and it just didn't seem as coherent or that his ideas landed that well.  I know there was some discussion of this book on the other site but haven't yet been able to access it via the wayback machine.  There was a brief mention over here.  My recollection was that others felt similarly about the two books?

I think that was in relation to me--I reread them a couple times over on the old foum. I did save my reports on my reading from the old forum, so I can probably reconstruct those posts. I can't remember where I stashed them now, but I'll have a look.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on August 18, 2020, 10:23:51 AM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on August 18, 2020, 09:34:05 AM
Gotta catch up on my June and July reporting:

Sue Burke – Semiosis: I loved every bit of this one. The imagining of the new world and its creatures was very well executed, as was the central conceit about sapient plants. It was also a very interesting and fresh take on the colonists' side, especially the initial descent into pretty bleak territory, and I wondered the whole way through how the plot could get resolved without diverging too far from the characters' commitment to pacifism. Very cool. My only reservation is that too many of the plant names relied on unchanged earth names, which left me a little confused—especially since the colonists start out with some earth crops. I'd have preferred it if Burke had adopted something akin to the naming conventions in The Legacy of Heorot and its sequels, to mark the difference.

I'm so glad you liked it! There's a sequel, Interference, that I also enjoyed. What's particularly fun about Interference is that it's not at all clear whether to read the sapient plants as sinister or not.

Quote

Tom Godwin – Space Prison: I enjoyed it because it's pretty much what I asked for—space colony with deadly critters, although the ecology was a little sparse. It's a very flawed work, however, quite apart from its foundations in misogyny. What it is, basically, is just the sketch of what has the potential to be a really great story, with only the barest bones filled in. A meticulous writer could do an impressive job with the basic plot, especially if they forgot about including the '70s-style fulfillment of revenge thing at the end. Oh, and Godwin apparently has no idea about how bows and crossbows work, the difference between them, or their relative advantages and disadvantages.

I read this not too long ago, and I agree. I did rather enjoy the attempts to domesticate the unicorns, who remain half-wild assholes throughout. What I thought this book did really well was capture the scale of time and the number of generations and the issues of population shrinkage and resource sparcity that would control the endeavor of these unwilling colonists to escape. I was also struck by the convenience of the ending revenge: how convenient that the hundreds of years that have passed have not changed the design of the Gern blasters or the operation of their spaceships!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on August 18, 2020, 12:00:00 PM
Quote from: ergative on August 18, 2020, 10:23:51 AM

I'm so glad you liked it! There's a sequel, Interference, that I also enjoyed. What's particularly fun about Interference is that it's not at all clear whether to read the sapient plants as sinister or not.

Yes! I read it, and loved it, too. But that goes into the August report. =)

Quote

I read this not too long ago, and I agree. I did rather enjoy the attempts to domesticate the unicorns, who remain half-wild assholes throughout. What I thought this book did really well was capture the scale of time and the number of generations and the issues of population shrinkage and resource sparcity that would control the endeavor of these unwilling colonists to escape. I was also struck by the convenience of the ending revenge: how convenient that the hundreds of years that have passed have not changed the design of the Gern blasters or the operation of their spaceships!

Yeah, the arc of generations was cool (a feature which it shares in common with the Burke novels!), along with the fact that Godwin didn't shy away from killing characters off. I really liked the premise. I'd like to see someone tackling it again in a longer format!


More space colonies with critters, please!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on August 18, 2020, 12:12:14 PM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on August 18, 2020, 09:34:05 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on August 17, 2020, 12:28:09 PM
We finished Echopraxia (Watts) a few days ago and were unsure how we felt about it.  It definitely didn't draw us in as much as Blindsight had, but we tend to wonder whether we just did not pick up on or understand everything very well.  Lots to think about, but I agree with one review on Goodreads that it seemed Watts went farther outside his knowledge base and expertise with this one, and it just didn't seem as coherent or that his ideas landed that well.  I know there was some discussion of this book on the other site but haven't yet been able to access it via the wayback machine.  There was a brief mention over here.  My recollection was that others felt similarly about the two books?

I think that was in relation to me--I reread them a couple times over on the old foum. I did save my reports on my reading from the old forum, so I can probably reconstruct those posts. I can't remember where I stashed them now, but I'll have a look.

Yes, I believe you are the one who introduced us to Watts's books, and I would be interested to re-read your thoughts if you get a chance to find and post them at some point.  Thanks, too, for your thoughts on the Douglas Adams books.  We had read the first one a year or two ago, and I was just thinking the other day that maybe we should move on to the others.  Maybe the second would be worthwhile to put in the near-term queue, but it doesn't sound as though the rest of them are quite as good. 
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on August 18, 2020, 06:32:56 PM
Quote from: apl68 on August 17, 2020, 01:39:01 PM
That's a librarian for you!  Awhile back I temporarily salvaged a multi-volume Oxford set on British writers from Bede through the Victorian era that we had weeded from Reference and read through parts of it.  It was funny to see Anthony Trollope being dismissed as a minor novelist.  Evidently his reputation has grown since the early 1900s.
*Grins* Thanks! The book was in our general collection. There aren't many books written on the subject.

I've nabbed books that have been weeded from the library collection that interested me and didn't have to drop $ on them.
My all time find: a Croatian language book about the history of Croatia by Ivo Goldstein.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on August 19, 2020, 07:15:32 AM
Say, how are your library operations shaping up as we head into a new academic year?
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on August 19, 2020, 11:18:30 AM
Quote from: apl68 on August 19, 2020, 07:15:32 AM
Say, how are your library operations shaping up as we head into a new academic year?
I work in a large public library system. We have limited number of our branches open to the public and limiting how many can be inside the library at a time. It's closed stacks to the public.
I've seen some of our school aged kids (usually accompanied by adult) to check out books since we reopened in June. I saw the city public school system expanded the number of distribution sites for free meals and fresh grocery program heading into the new school year.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on August 20, 2020, 07:28:50 AM
Quote from: hmaria1609 on August 19, 2020, 11:18:30 AM
Quote from: apl68 on August 19, 2020, 07:15:32 AM
Say, how are your library operations shaping up as we head into a new academic year?
I work in a large public library system. We have limited number of our branches open to the public and limiting how many can be inside the library at a time. It's closed stacks to the public.
I've seen some of our school aged kids (usually accompanied by adult) to check out books since we reopened in June. I saw the city public school system expanded the number of distribution sites for free meals and fresh grocery program heading into the new school year.

We were just discussing this morning how we're getting fewer patrons, but they're often needing more involved service (To say nothing of the need to wipe frequently-touched surfaces down after them).  We did a LOT of faxes and scans yesterday, and photocopies of things that couldn't be readily run through the fax. 

Looks like we're going to need an upgrade on scanning equipment.  The pandemic has made it almost impossible for people to get photocopy and fax service locally anywhere else--right when more and more people are having to do business remotely.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on September 03, 2020, 03:06:47 PM
Been reading through an omnibus edition of Booth Tarkington's works, including The Magnificent Ambersons.  Tarkington was both a bestselling selling novelist and a critical success a hundred years ago.  In the 1960s the academy seems to have decided that he was no longer worthy of serious study.  Nowadays he seems on the verge of being forgotten entirely.  I've seen it alleged that the critical neglect is due to his works containing no social criticism.  I've found them to hold quite a bit of criticism of contemporary society's preoccupations with money, status, and economic growth at all costs.  He was also an early critic of automotive culture and its effects on society and the environment.

Magnificent Ambersons is in some ways a kind of saga of suburbanization.  The Ambersons made their name and fortune after the Civil War by developing an upscale suburb called the Amberson Addition.  For roughly a generation the Addition served as an idyllic, genteel enclave for its privileged residents.  During the same period the Ambersons reveled in their status as the richest and most prominent family in town.

But continued urban growth and the rise of the automobile cause the Ambersons and their Addition to be left hopelessly behind.  In only a decade or so the posh Addition becomes a has-been neighborhood of spec houses, apartments, and the occasional run-down mansion turned boarding house.  Protagonist George Minafer, only son of old Amberson's daughter, spends his twenties watching bewildered and helpless as the glittering world of his youth, and his family's fortune and status, all vanish before his eyes like a puff of cloud.  Readers today know that in the years to come the new suburbs that stole the Amberson Addition's thunder will be left behind in turn by still further waves of change.

Since Tarkington was himself a child of a rich family that lost much of its fortune--though not to the point where they couldn't support his ambition to become a writer--it might be tempting to write all this off as simple nostalgia for lost privilege and an imagined golden age.  There's more to it than that.  The reference to the Ambersons as "magnificent" is clearly ironic.  There's nothing admirable about their foolish pride in their wealth and the way they let it be frittered away.  Tarkington is pretty merciless in depicting young George as a vain rich kid who's spoiled so rotten he practically stinks on ice. 

The novel ultimately comes across as a meditation on the fleeting nature of wealth and status in a society where prolonged rapid population growth and economic change repeatedly condenses a century's worth of economic and social change into a few decades.  Poor George's plight could even be seen as emblematic of millions of Americans of today who, raised to consider prosperity and security their birthrights, find it all evaporating now.  Maybe Booth Tarkington is more relevant now than we give him credit for.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on September 03, 2020, 03:42:17 PM
August's haul:

Sue Burke - Interference: This is the sequel to Semiosis, and it's also very good. I quite liked the premise--militaristic re-colonists arrive from Earth to re-establish contact--and very much enjoyed the bleak glimpses of Earth, with hints of another sentience on the planet. The names of things were better balanced in this one.

Larry Niven, Steven Barnes, and Jerry Pournelle - Starborn and Godsons: Coincidentally, the premise is basically identical to Interference's. It's OK. We don't get much in the way of new critters, which is a disappointment. The foreword makes it clear that the cool ecology in the other two was entirely down to an outside biology consultant, which sort of raises the question why we aren't reading that guy, instead, since he did such a bang-up job before. Pournelle died 3/4 of the way through, and it shows: there's much less misogyny (although it's still there). Much less cruelty to animals, too, although it's also still there. What's missing, which made the other two really fun, are the Grendel POVs. Also, however, there's a bunch of stuff that seems to go against events in the first two novels, suggesting at least one of the three didn't bother re-reading them before starting this one. The transitions are weird and hackneyed, and much of the novel feels... unpolished and perhaps incomplete.

Angus Donald - Robin Hood and the Caliph's Gold: I was delighted to discover this, since the Robin Hood series was supposed to be over (it is: this is an interlude). It's self-ish published (via Amazon), so it's full of typos, but it's good fun. It's a delight to revisit the characters. I'd be happy to read more of these--indeed, it looks like at least one more is planned, in addition to a new series (with vikings!).

Douglas Adams - Mostly Harmless: Fenchurch disappears for a plot point and isn't heard from again, and her absence from the story is pretty conspicuous (not in a good way). On the whole, I think it was mostly better than the previous two. It ends abruptly without ending, however.

Eoin Colfer - And Another Thing...: This is a sequel to Mostly Harmless. Colfer mostly just goes for random and zany, although he occasionally gets the tone just right (and when he does, it's great, and as close to Adams as I think you'll get). Vogons and Thor are prominent, and well-rendered; Wowbagger, too. But mostly, it just plods on without much rhyme or reason, and with a distinct sense of trying too hard. Fenchurch is just about totally absent, although she's referred to a fair bit, and the absence is just weird. Like, I don't mean that she should be a character again. Just that she's a plot point not driving any plot, and that's pretty unsatisfying (not to mention boring).


I nearly finished Defoe, too, but am still a few pages short, so that'll be for September's report. Haven't found my Watts posts yet, but I'll keep looking. I definitely have them somewhere.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on September 03, 2020, 07:25:26 PM
Apl68, there were two adaptations of The Magnificent Ambersons. There was a black and white movie in 1942. I watched the 2002 version on A&E in college, starring Johnathan Rhys Meyers as George.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on September 04, 2020, 01:11:39 AM
Parasaurolophus, what do you think about the plants' plans? Benign well-wishers, like (probably) Steveland, or incipient dictators just biding their time? I really can't tell.

I've been enjoying Seth Dickinson's Masquerade series very much. The first book, The Traitor Baru Cormorant, was a perfect reading experience: rich world-building, twisty political maneuverings, lots of bureaucratic competence porn, and a twist at the end that, in retrospect, was pretty obviously telegraphed but somehow came out of nowhere. Now I'm reading the sequel, The Monster Baru Cormorant, which is not quite as good in some ways: the competence porn is breaking down a bit, and the characters who were so perfectly in control of all the threads of their shenanigans are beginning to lose control, not just of their plots (which is fine), but also of their own composure, which seems a little bit out of character for them. But that's a very personal preference. The book itself is lots of fun and the world-building is being expanded and enriched in new ways. The third book in the series came out last month, and I'm looking forward to finishing it. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes this sort of rich twisty political stuff.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: nebo113 on September 04, 2020, 04:53:07 AM
Re-reading Dorothy Sayers.  Just finished "Gaudy Night" and now immersed in 'Nine Tailors" though will never truly grasp bell ringing.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on September 04, 2020, 07:16:46 AM
Quote from: hmaria1609 on September 03, 2020, 07:25:26 PM
Apl68, there were two adaptations of The Magnificent Ambersons. There was a black and white movie in 1942. I watched the 2002 version on A&E in college, starring Johnathan Rhys Meyers as George.

That's interesting.  I saw the Orson Welles adaptation on Turner Classic Movies some years ago, but don't remember a great deal about it.  I didn't know about the more recent version.  I'd like to see them both sometime.  I'd also like to watch the 1930s version of Alice Adams.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on September 04, 2020, 07:25:43 AM
Quote from: ergative on September 04, 2020, 01:11:39 AM
Parasaurolophus, what do you think about the plants' plans? Benign well-wishers, like (probably) Steveland, or incipient dictators just biding their time? I really can't tell.

I think it's generally the latter, although there's some hope for the bamboo who's had a foot in the other shoe. Stevland's mentions of the bamboo seem to lend credence to the latter interpretation, although the groves on Pax seem to indicate that Stevland's not alone in its beneficence.

TBH, I found Stevland pretty terrifying and dictatorial for most of the first book, and I think I was right to do so. The push for moderator, in particular, seemed to bode rather ill. I thought it would be the culmination point. But I was wrong, because Stevland... grew? Matured. Genuinely changed. I thought it was well done, and a nice twist on the usual way of resolving conflicts. So, anyway: I think all that is true in the story.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: nonsensical on September 05, 2020, 05:20:04 PM
I am close to finishing Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane, which I just started last night. It usually takes me a few weeks to read through a book, but this one was ... engrossing. And just wonderful in so many ways. It's a book about the intersecting lives of two families and follows members of these families over several decades. It has interesting things to say about redemption and navigating pain across long periods of time. In general I like novels that focus on families and relationships, and I like being able to follow the same characters over many years. This is rapidly becoming one of my favorite novels of this type. (A Prayer for Owen Meaney and A Little Life are other favorites in this genre, though these are both books I read a while ago.]
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: paultuttle on September 08, 2020, 07:53:36 AM
Quote from: apl68 on August 12, 2020, 10:49:03 AM
Quote from: mamselle on August 12, 2020, 08:41:32 AM
She doesn't go into the factories with Hardy, or visit London's low-rent tenements as Dickens later did, but her characters are not all playing tea party games; many, in seeking viable marriages, were fighting for their lives, as things were then.

M.

Which, from what I understand, is what keeps her from being regarded as just a forerunner of the romance novel genre, as some of her less in-the-know fans seem to imagine.  A woman in her society had to make the best marriage she could, or she was likely condemned to a lifetime of being a poor relation or worse.  There really is a lot at stake in her novels.  That was clear even in Northhanger Abbey.

I've just reread Pride and Prejudice (and rewatched the 2005 film twice or three times--it's on Netflix). Each time, I was struck by how strongly Liddy's elopement with Wickham affected the entire family, and how notable it must have been in that time period for not one, but two, wealthy gentlemen to offer marriage to the two oldest sisters in the family.

Mrs. Bennet's character's question in the 2005 film was particularly poignant: "Who will have you now, with a fallen sister?"

It just underscored to me how narrow the line was between "respectable" and "not," and how much our cultural mores have changed since that time.

They really were "fighting for their lives"; there was indeed quite "a lot at stake" in a time when the actions of one person could well be seen as revealing the fundam(n)ental immorality of the entire family.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on September 13, 2020, 02:57:45 PM
We finished Chaos Vector (O'Keefe), second in a trilogy.  It was nearly as good as the first book.  I am wondering if I liked the first one so much because it was so different from other space operas I've read, plus I think it was her first novel, so I was very impressed.  She writes with charisma and has constructed some really well-built and enjoyable characters.  I like the mix of political intrigue and action and the way that the story arcs intertwine.   I'm definitely looking forward to the third book and am interested to read the sneak peek at the end of the current one.  I fell asleep during the final two pages of the book last night (naturally, not the book's fault) so didn't get to read the sneak peek yet.

Next on the list is one of the other books I got for husband's birthday: Leviathan Wakes (Corey, which I now see is a pen name).  I tried to get several first-in-a-series, highly rated sci fi novels so that we have some further paths to explore if we like the writing.  I didn't realize until just now that this one is part of The Expanse, which I have heard good and less good things about.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on September 20, 2020, 10:27:45 AM
Quote from: nebo113 on September 04, 2020, 04:53:07 AM
Re-reading Dorothy Sayers.  Just finished "Gaudy Night" and now immersed in 'Nine Tailors" though will never truly grasp bell ringing.

Ah, Sayers!

I've re-read Gaudy Night several times; probably due for another one soon.

PM my with your questions about bell-ringing. My god-sister directs the bell-ringers at a colonial church with a full peal, and I used to ring with them.

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: kaysixteen on September 20, 2020, 07:59:21 PM
I am about half way through 'The Meritocracy Trap', written by a Yale Law prof whose name escapes me, the book currently lying in my car.  I am interested to see the end of the book, where he says what he thinks can be done about this.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: larryc on September 20, 2020, 10:20:40 PM
I just finished the audiobook of A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki, which I really loved. It defies easy explanation, but it is a multi-layered literary novel set in Japan and British Columbia, It covers from World War Two through Fukashima in a non-linear fashion. Wonderful writing and some magical realism along the way.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on September 25, 2020, 03:42:07 AM
The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

The structure was really rather brilliant, but, having reached the end, I now know that the title didn't mean what I thought it meant, and also I can't understand what it was intended to mean.

There was some appalling fat-shaming of a fat character, which was utterly gratuitous and horrible, and I cannot understand why Turton thought it was at all appropriate to spend so many words describing how utterly disgusting fatness is, and how fat people can't control their eating and smell bad. It really, really cast a pall over my ability to enjoy the brilliant structure and plotting.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: nebo113 on September 25, 2020, 05:43:46 AM
Quote from: mamselle on September 20, 2020, 10:27:45 AM
Quote from: nebo113 on September 04, 2020, 04:53:07 AM
Re-reading Dorothy Sayers.  Just finished "Gaudy Night" and now immersed in 'Nine Tailors" though will never truly grasp bell ringing.

Ah, Sayers!

I've re-read Gaudy Night several times; probably due for another one soon.

PM my with your questions about bell-ringing. My god-sister directs the bell-ringers at a colonial church with a full peal, and I used to ring with them.

M.

Thanks!  A dear friend helped with the basics but I will never grasp the complexities, especially of the hidden code based on the "peal" Wimsey deciphers.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: fourhats on September 25, 2020, 11:55:37 AM
I'm not very far into it yet, but I'm now reading the novel "Hamnet" by Maggie O'Farrell and am completely hooked. It's about Shakespeare's son who died in a plague, and whose name sparked the play Hamlet. The writing is knocking my socks off. I love reading books where the writing itself is great, let alone character, plot, etc. I don't much care about plot (but this one definitely has one), but good writing makes me want to climb aboard the author's boat and drift down that literary river with them.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on October 10, 2020, 04:12:16 PM
Quote from: ab_grp on September 13, 2020, 02:57:45 PM
Next on the list is one of the other books I got for husband's birthday: Leviathan Wakes (Corey, which I now see is a pen name).  I tried to get several first-in-a-series, highly rated sci fi novels so that we have some further paths to explore if we like the writing.  I didn't realize until just now that this one is part of The Expanse, which I have heard good and less good things about.

Just finished this last night.  Here's the quote from Amazon:
Quote
Two hundred years after migrating into space, mankind is in turmoil. When a reluctant ship's captain and washed-up detective find themselves involved in the case of a missing girl, what they discover brings our solar system to the brink of civil war and exposes the greatest conspiracy in human history.
We both enjoyed it for the characters and action.  I didn't think that the main plot driver was as interesting as it could have been, and I would have liked to know more about the political aspects going on.  But, we will pick up the second book and read it sometime in the not-too-far future in case there are elements of the first one that need to be remembered.  I was interested enough to give the series some more room to move.

In the meantime, we still have a bunch in the queue.  First up is A Memory Called Empire (Martine), which is also a first of several in a series. Actually, it looks as though it might be the first of only two.  Here's the Amazon blurb:
Quote
Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire only to discover that her predecessor, the previous ambassador from their small but fiercely independent mining Station, has died. But no one will admit that his death wasn't an accident—or that Mahit might be next to die, during a time of political instability in the highest echelons of the imperial court.

Now, Mahit must discover who is behind the murder, rescue herself, and save her Station from Teixcalaan's unceasing expansion—all while navigating an alien culture that is all too seductive, engaging in intrigues of her own, and hiding a deadly technological secret—one that might spell the end of her Station and her way of life—or rescue it from annihilation.

Sounds intriguing! And it got several major awards and nominations.  We have only read the prelude so far, and the writing does not seem to flow as cleanly as in the O'Keefe and Corey books.  However, the prelude is not always a fair indicator of how a book will proceed, as it often seems to be written in a different style.  It's going to take some time to adjust to the new universe and naming conventions.  Maybe we should have taken a non-scifi palate cleanser in between.  Still, we are looking forward to reading more.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Vkw10 on October 11, 2020, 11:22:14 AM
Currently reading Megan Whelan Turner's Return of the Thief, just published this week. She's introduced a new character as narrator. When she introduced a reluctant guard as narrator in The King of Attolia, I was hesitant, but it worked well. This time, I'm looking forward to seeing how this most unlikely narrator will transform.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on October 11, 2020, 12:15:54 PM
September's small haul:

Daniel Defoe - A Journal of the Plague Year: Read this one with my partner. It was a really interesting read, and gave some neat perspectives on plaguen-times, which was especially fun and fascinating in relation to our present circumstances. Defoe's propensity to digression is really impressive, too.

Linnea Hartsuyker - The Half-Drowned King: It's fun to see some viking historical fiction by a woman, for once. It makes for a welcome change. There are a few small, jarring inaccuracies, and I'd have liked her to spend more time developing the combat scenes, but on the whole it was a fun read, and pretty compelling. I've acquired the two sequels, and I look forward to reading them. The mixed brother-sister perspectives work pretty well, and it's nice to get a different handle on period life than the usual doughty troublemaker's. Plus, y'know: Harald Fairhair's story is pretty compelling stuff!

Maria Dahvana Headley - Beowulf: A New Translation: This is a fun rendering of Beowulf into a more contemporary lingo. It's been about ten years since I last read Beowulf, and it was a lot of fun to revisit it in Headley's "translation" (I'm not sure that's quite the right term for this, but it's all i've been supplied with). I think she generally manages to capture the spirit of things, although there are times when it feels forced (hwæt/bro, for instance, sometimes works and sometimes doesn't). Still, I'm glad I acquired it, and it now sits beside my Heaney. Plus, the cover is beautiful.

Emily St. John Mandel - The Glass Hotel: I decided to read this on the strength of Station Eleven, which was my favourite book of the year it came out. This is nothing like that, apart from the semi-Canadian setting (yay!), and it's not the sort of thing I usually read, but I found it lovely and really compelling. It was hard to figure out what kind of story it was for quite a while, not least because of the shifts in narrative perspective, and that's not something I usually care for, but I thought it worked really well. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and thought it came together beautifully at the end. Actually, it takes a shift in a totally unexpected direction towards the end. Really cool.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on October 11, 2020, 12:33:42 PM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on October 11, 2020, 12:15:54 PM
Emily St. John Mandel - The Glass Hotel: I decided to read this on the strength of Station Eleven, which was my favourite book of the year it came out. This is nothing like that, apart from the semi-Canadian setting (yay!), and it's not the sort of thing I usually read, but I found it lovely and really compelling. It was hard to figure out what kind of story it was for quite a while, not least because of the shifts in narrative perspective, and that's not something I usually care for, but I thought it worked really well. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and thought it came together beautifully at the end. Actually, it takes a shift in a totally unexpected direction towards the end. Really cool.

This sounds good.  We loved Station Eleven but hadn't read her other novels.  We'll keep an eye out for this one.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on October 11, 2020, 03:35:33 PM
Doing a binge read of the "Lady Darby Mystery" series by Anna Lee Huber. I came across the series not too long ago at the library--I had seen the author's name before from an another historical mystery author.  So, I'm on hold for the latest and #8 installment from the library!

Quote from: Parasaurolophus on October 11, 2020, 12:15:54 PM
September's small haul:
Linnea Hartsuyker - The Half-Drowned King: It's fun to see some viking historical fiction by a woman, for once. It makes for a welcome change. There are a few small, jarring inaccuracies, and I'd have liked her to spend more time developing the combat scenes, but on the whole it was a fun read, and pretty compelling. I've acquired the two sequels, and I look forward to reading them. The mixed brother-sister perspectives work pretty well, and it's nice to get a different handle on period life than the usual doughty troublemaker's. Plus, y'know: Harald Fairhair's story is pretty compelling stuff!
I borrowed and read the trilogy from the library. The author's notes at the end of each novel was fascinating to read too. Happy reading!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on November 07, 2020, 10:57:39 AM
I forgot to report that we finished A Memory Called Empire.  The story was interesting, and I really liked a lot of the characters.  I'm not sure the whole thing pulled together perfectly, so we ended up giving it 4/5 stars (same as Leviathan Wakes).  We'll certainly read the second book.  One aspect I wondered about is the inclusion of items we currently use, though this is set in a time of space travel (beyond what we have now).  I am curious if that was done on purpose or not, because it seems like so many sci fi novels of this type try to come up with so many new ways of doing things that are different from what we are used to.  In any case, I am impressed that this is a debut novel, and I'm not surprised that it won, was a finalist for, or was nominated for major awards.

For the past couple days, we've been reading The City & the City (Mieville).  I read it for book club a few years ago and thought it had a neat premise and was very involving.  It's described as a cross between "weird fiction" and police procedural, and that's pretty apt, I think.  His writing style seems so distinctive and engaging.  Here's the blurb on Amazon:

Quote
When a murdered woman is found in the city of Beszel, somewhere at the edge of Europe, it looks to be a routine case for Inspector Tyador Borlú of the Extreme Crime Squad. To investigate, Borlú must travel from the decaying Beszel to its equal, rival, and intimate neighbor, the vibrant city of Ul Qoma. But this is a border crossing like no other, a journey as psychic as it is physical, a seeing of the unseen. With Ul Qoman detective Qussim Dhatt, Borlú is enmeshed in a sordid underworld of nationalists intent on destroying their neighboring city, and unificationists who dream of dissolving the two into one. As the detectives uncover the dead woman's secrets, they begin to suspect a truth that could cost them more than their lives. What stands against them are murderous powers in Beszel and in Ul Qoma: and, most terrifying of all, that which lies between these two cities.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: spork on November 07, 2020, 02:31:18 PM
Now reading The Secret Life of Groceries by Benjamin Lorr. So far it's quite good. Similar to Wine Wars by Mike Veseth and Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on November 11, 2020, 03:13:32 PM
Happily, I found some fab new scifi the other day. But before I can report on that, here's October:

Erin Bowman - Contagion: Quite a fun teen novel about a zombie outbreak on a distant mining outpost. Very hard to put down once we get to the destination; excellent execution.

Erin Bowman - Immunity: The sequel to Contagion, this one is very much a teen novel. It's astonishing how much teen novels can resemble one another, actually; I'm put in mind of Mira Grant's zombie and parasite series (especially the latter), although it's a lot like The Hunger Games and its clones, too. It's not plot-level similarities, although those are clearly there--evil greedy soulless corporations devoid of a moral compass, and all that--but even the characters and their arcs are super-similar. Consequently, it was much less exciting than its predecessor, which is a great standalone zombie scifi mashup. I kept waiting for the real action to happen, and when it finally did, it was much too brief and contained.

Halldór Laxness - Wayward Heroes: I don't often read properly 'literary' literature, but this one caught my eye. I once started reading Independent People, but stopped after a while because it was kinda of dull (if beautiful) and I was excited to read other things, and I haven't picked it up again. This one is a retelling of the Saga of the Sworn Brothers and Saint Olaf's Saga, but as a biting indictment of human cruelty, stupidity, and vainglory. It's superbly done, but also incredibly frustrating/hard to read as someone who loves saga literature precisely for the same qualities which are so effectively satirized here. I'm really glad I took the plunge, and doubtless I'll try Independent People again soon(ish).

Jorge Luis Borges - Labyrinths: I've read a lot about Borges and his stories, but the only story I'd read before was Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote. I'm really glad I picked this up, because man, the guy was brilliant. The stories are just so rich, especially for a philosopher like me. There's a whole huge range of issues to sink your teeth into. I'll have to hunt down more.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on November 11, 2020, 11:37:34 PM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on November 11, 2020, 03:13:32 PM
Happily, I found some fab new scifi the other day. But before I can report on that, here's October:

Oh, you tease!

Quote from: Parasaurolophus on November 11, 2020, 03:13:32 PM
Erin Bowman - Contagion: Quite a fun teen novel about a zombie outbreak on a distant mining outpost. Very hard to put down once we get to the destination; excellent execution.

Erin Bowman - Immunity: The sequel to Contagion, this one is very much a teen novel. It's astonishing how much teen novels can resemble one another, actually; I'm put in mind of Mira Grant's zombie and parasite series (especially the latter), although it's a lot like The Hunger Games and its clones, too. It's not plot-level similarities, although those are clearly there--evil greedy soulless corporations devoid of a moral compass, and all that--but even the characters and their arcs are super-similar. Consequently, it was much less exciting than its predecessor, which is a great standalone zombie scifi mashup. I kept waiting for the real action to happen, and when it finally did, it was much too brief and contained.

Halldór Laxness - Wayward Heroes: I don't often read properly 'literary' literature, but this one caught my eye. I once started reading Independent People, but stopped after a while because it was kinda of dull (if beautiful) and I was excited to read other things, and I haven't picked it up again. This one is a retelling of the Saga of the Sworn Brothers and Saint Olaf's Saga, but as a biting indictment of human cruelty, stupidity, and vainglory. It's superbly done, but also incredibly frustrating/hard to read as someone who loves saga literature precisely for the same qualities which are so effectively satirized here. I'm really glad I took the plunge, and doubtless I'll try Independent People again soon(ish).

Jorge Luis Borges - Labyrinths: I've read a lot about Borges and his stories, but the only story I'd read before was Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote. I'm really glad I picked this up, because man, the guy was brilliant. The stories are just so rich, especially for a philosopher like me. There's a whole huge range of issues to sink your teeth into. I'll have to hunt down more.

I'm also so glad to hear that you're diving into Borges! I audited a SFF literature class in college, and we were assigned some of his stories, and ever since then I've sought out and read I think every one of his stories. Some are better than others, but many are just so imaginative! When our young cousins turn 13 we usually include a collection in their package of 'welcome-to-adulthood' books.

I've been reading a lot of Frances Hardinge recently. During the Great Vote Count last week I finished A Skinful of Shadows and Deeplight. They are marketed as YA books, but they are not at all teen novels in the sense that you describe. Deeplight had some really interesting things to say on how society changes when oppressive dangerous powers are overthrown (although, oddly, not in a way that feels immediately relevant to the current situation, since the oppressive dangerous powers are semi-sentient sea gods), and had a really great illustration of how a friendship can be toxic and abusive in the same way romantic relationships can be. A Skinful of Shadows had a refreshingly savvy child who does not make the overly naive decisions to trust people that are so often betrayed in frustrating ways in YA books. And the ending was a wonderful example of merciful second chances being granted to people who were unfairly deprived of first chances.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: sprout on November 12, 2020, 10:02:38 AM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on November 11, 2020, 03:13:32 PM
Happily, I found some fab new scifi the other day. But before I can report on that, here's October:

Erin Bowman - Contagion: Quite a fun teen novel about a zombie outbreak on a distant mining outpost. Very hard to put down once we get to the destination; excellent execution.

Erin Bowman - Immunity: The sequel to Contagion, this one is very much a teen novel. It's astonishing how much teen novels can resemble one another, actually; I'm put in mind of Mira Grant's zombie and parasite series (especially the latter), although it's a lot like The Hunger Games and its clones, too. It's not plot-level similarities, although those are clearly there--evil greedy soulless corporations devoid of a moral compass, and all that--but even the characters and their arcs are super-similar. Consequently, it was much less exciting than its predecessor, which is a great standalone zombie scifi mashup. I kept waiting for the real action to happen, and when it finally did, it was much too brief and contained.

Halldór Laxness - Wayward Heroes: I don't often read properly 'literary' literature, but this one caught my eye. I once started reading Independent People, but stopped after a while because it was kinda of dull (if beautiful) and I was excited to read other things, and I haven't picked it up again. This one is a retelling of the Saga of the Sworn Brothers and Saint Olaf's Saga, but as a biting indictment of human cruelty, stupidity, and vainglory. It's superbly done, but also incredibly frustrating/hard to read as someone who loves saga literature precisely for the same qualities which are so effectively satirized here. I'm really glad I took the plunge, and doubtless I'll try Independent People again soon(ish).

Jorge Luis Borges - Labyrinths: I've read a lot about Borges and his stories, but the only story I'd read before was Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote. I'm really glad I picked this up, because man, the guy was brilliant. The stories are just so rich, especially for a philosopher like me. There's a whole huge range of issues to sink your teeth into. I'll have to hunt down more.

Spouse was just telling me yesterday that I need to read Borges.   Also, I read Laxness' Independent People a few years ago, after getting back from a trip to Iceland.  It took me a while to get into it, but when I did it was one of those rich, lush novels you just sink into and don't want to leave.  I may have to check out Wayward Heroes.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on November 12, 2020, 03:42:25 PM
Quote from: ergative on November 11, 2020, 11:37:34 PM


Oh, you tease!


I'm pretty late to the party--you've probably already read this stuff already. :)

Quote from: ergative on November 11, 2020, 11:37:34 PM


I've been reading a lot of Frances Hardinge recently. During the Great Vote Count last week I finished A Skinful of Shadows and Deeplight. They are marketed as YA books, but they are not at all teen novels in the sense that you describe.

I'll give them a spin soonish! I'm not even opposed to teen/YA stuff like what I described. In that case, I was just disappointed because it was a big departure from the first novel.

Quote from: sprout on November 12, 2020, 10:02:38 AM
Also, I read Laxness' Independent People a few years ago, after getting back from a trip to Iceland.  It took me a while to get into it, but when I did it was one of those rich, lush novels you just sink into and don't want to leave.  I may have to check out Wayward Heroes.

Yeah, it's my partner's favourite book. I really need to try again, in a dedicated fashion. It would be easier if I still had a commute via public transit.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: fleabite on November 12, 2020, 04:28:30 PM
I haven't jumped into this thread in a long time. Some recent favorites:

Byron's Don Juan. I really enjoyed this. I'm sure at traditional college age I would have skimmed the whole thing in a hurry and been inpatient at all the digressions. But Byron's verse is inexhaustively creative and much of it is very funny. I didn't realize how much of a liberal he was. He is scathing about the Duke of Wellington and the restoration of monarchies that resulted from the Allied victory in the Napoleonic wars.

Mary Ball's new biography of Nancy Pelosi. Excellent. I didn't know that Pelosi spent years fundraising for the Democratic Party while being a stay-at-home mom before moving into paid roles in politics. Through her years in office, she has consistently stressed the need to get out there and knock on doors and connect with voters. She would have recognized from beginning what a detrimental impact virtual-only campaigning was going to have on candidates.

Continuing in a political vein, Curtis Sittenfeld's Rodham. This is a very plausible and well-imagined take on what Hillary Clinton's life might have been like had she not married Bill Clinton. The ending is particularly good.

Margaret Atwood's The Testaments. I enjoyed this sequel to The Handmaid's Tale. There are some piquant lines. For example, speaking of one of the commanders (the man in charge in Gilead): "This Wife has lasted longer than usual. His Wives have a habit of dying: Commander Judd is a great believer in restorative powers of young women, as were King David and assorted Central American drug lords."

Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis. This is an interesting read in the me-too era, since Venus is stalking Adonis. Or rather, she is already in his presence and trying desperately to convince him that he should sleep with her. For people in literature, it would make an interesting pairing to teach in conjunction with The Rape of Lucretia, which I also read this year (two very different views of women—one who owns her sexuality openly and the other whose role demands chastity above all).

Daniel Immerwahr's How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States. This is the story of the US as an empire in the nineteenth and twentieth century—a perspective from which the country's history is rarely told. I learned about many incidents that were entirely new to me.

Going back a little further to primary season: Kristin Gillibrand with Elizabeth Weil's Off the Sidelines: Raise Your Voice, Change the World. This is both biographical and aimed at getting women involved in politics. I was impressed by how much Gillibrand, like Elizabeth Warren (I've also enjoyed a couple of books by the latter) cares about the people she serves.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on November 13, 2020, 01:04:42 PM
I think it's been awhile for me posting here too.

From the library: Sidney Chambers and the Problem of Evil (#3) and Persistence of Love (#6 and series finale) by James Runcie.
I've read the other novels in the series including the prequel The Road to Grantchester.  Although "Grantchester" on PBS's "Masterpiece" differs from the novels (especially after 4th season), it's been enjoyable reading!

For any fans here of "The Crown" on Netflix, the voice of the late Robert Runcie, Archbishop of Canterbury and the author's dad, is used in the season 4 teaser trailer: https://www.radiotimes.com/news/on-demand/2020-10-13/the-crown-teaser-trailer-princess-diana-season-4/ (https://www.radiotimes.com/news/on-demand/2020-10-13/the-crown-teaser-trailer-princess-diana-season-4/)
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on November 13, 2020, 01:35:07 PM
Quote from: sprout on November 12, 2020, 10:02:38 AM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on November 11, 2020, 03:13:32 PM
Happily, I found some fab new scifi the other day. But before I can report on that, here's October:

Erin Bowman - Contagion: Quite a fun teen novel about a zombie outbreak on a distant mining outpost. Very hard to put down once we get to the destination; excellent execution.

Erin Bowman - Immunity: The sequel to Contagion, this one is very much a teen novel. It's astonishing how much teen novels can resemble one another, actually; I'm put in mind of Mira Grant's zombie and parasite series (especially the latter), although it's a lot like The Hunger Games and its clones, too. It's not plot-level similarities, although those are clearly there--evil greedy soulless corporations devoid of a moral compass, and all that--but even the characters and their arcs are super-similar. Consequently, it was much less exciting than its predecessor, which is a great standalone zombie scifi mashup. I kept waiting for the real action to happen, and when it finally did, it was much too brief and contained.

Halldór Laxness - Wayward Heroes: I don't often read properly 'literary' literature, but this one caught my eye. I once started reading Independent People, but stopped after a while because it was kinda of dull (if beautiful) and I was excited to read other things, and I haven't picked it up again. This one is a retelling of the Saga of the Sworn Brothers and Saint Olaf's Saga, but as a biting indictment of human cruelty, stupidity, and vainglory. It's superbly done, but also incredibly frustrating/hard to read as someone who loves saga literature precisely for the same qualities which are so effectively satirized here. I'm really glad I took the plunge, and doubtless I'll try Independent People again soon(ish).

Jorge Luis Borges - Labyrinths: I've read a lot about Borges and his stories, but the only story I'd read before was Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote. I'm really glad I picked this up, because man, the guy was brilliant. The stories are just so rich, especially for a philosopher like me. There's a whole huge range of issues to sink your teeth into. I'll have to hunt down more.

Spouse was just telling me yesterday that I need to read Borges.   Also, I read Laxness' Independent People a few years ago, after getting back from a trip to Iceland.  It took me a while to get into it, but when I did it was one of those rich, lush novels you just sink into and don't want to leave.  I may have to check out Wayward Heroes.

I've been working my way through Laxness.  It's a vivid picture of a land and people, but I'm finding it as much of a slog as I'd expect from a Nobel laureate in literature.

A collection of Borges stories is waiting in the wings.  Maybe on some dark winter day when everything seems just a bit unreal...
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on November 13, 2020, 02:02:10 PM
The Running of the Tide, by Esther Forbes:  Esther Forbes is perhaps best remembered today for her Newberry-award-winning Johnny Tremain.  Years ago a school librarian worried that I was too deep into science fiction (It was just a phase) gently browbeat me into reading it.  I quite liked it, but then I was already reading a good bit of nonfiction history. 

Esther Forbes wrote both fiction and nonfiction for adults as well.  The Running of the Tide recreates the history of Salem during its great days of overseas commerce between the 1790s and the 1810s.  It's told from the perspective of a fictional family of Salem shipowners.  It offers the sort of vivid recreation of another time that any good historical novel should have.  Only problem is, there are so many melodramatic plots and subplots surrounding this one family and their associates  that it gets kind of preposterous.  It reminded me at times of a 1980s TV miniseries.  I would have expected different from the author of Johnny Tremain.  I still hope to locate the nonfiction work on Paul Revere sometimes.


The Ancient Engineers, by L. Sprague DeCamp:  DeCamp is best known for his science fiction and fantasy, of which I have read a few examples.  He also wrote some nonfiction.  Here he tells the story of engineering from early times through the Middle Ages.  It's one of the better books about building and the history of building that I've seen. 


Speaking of building Chicago's Great Fire, by Carl S. Smith, has a pretty good account of the fire, but is largely about the relief and rebuilding efforts in the aftermath.  Good popular history, and well illustrated.  I think that perhaps he's a little harsh in his criticism of some of the main relief committee's actions after the fire.  That said, they really did let their legitimate concerns to avoid letting their charitable activities be taken advantage of them get the better of them, leading to some unnecessarily harsh and intrusive rules.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on November 13, 2020, 06:49:24 PM
I am reading A Wrinkle in Time to Smolt (and MrsFishProf when she's awake).  It is really interesting to read this now, as it was very influential to the young me.  I can see the downstream effects as I reread.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on November 13, 2020, 07:02:05 PM
Quote from: FishProf on November 13, 2020, 06:49:24 PM
I am reading A Wrinkle in Time to Smolt (and MrsFishProf when she's awake).  It is really interesting to read this now, as it was very influential to the young me.  I can see the downstream effects as I reread.

I loved those books growing up! Spouse and I actually read that particular one last year, I think.  I read Many Waters in grad school (for fun, not for school) and love that one, too, but it may be a good book for later on.  I hope Smolt and MrsFishProf enjoy the story and that you enjoy the re-read.  Even rereading as an adult, I found it moving at times and definitely a little scary!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: nebo113 on November 14, 2020, 06:09:16 AM
Quote from: FishProf on November 13, 2020, 06:49:24 PM
I am reading A Wrinkle in Time to Smolt (and MrsFishProf when she's awake).  It is really interesting to read this now, as it was very influential to the young me.  I can see the downstream effects as I reread.

I re read it annually.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on November 14, 2020, 07:17:22 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on November 13, 2020, 07:02:05 PM
Quote from: FishProf on November 13, 2020, 06:49:24 PM
I am reading A Wrinkle in Time to Smolt (and MrsFishProf when she's awake).  It is really interesting to read this now, as it was very influential to the young me.  I can see the downstream effects as I reread.

I loved those books growing up! Spouse and I actually read that particular one last year, I think.  I read Many Waters in grad school (for fun, not for school) and love that one, too, but it may be a good book for later on.  I hope Smolt and MrsFishProf enjoy the story and that you enjoy the re-read.  Even rereading as an adult, I found it moving at times and definitely a little scary!

I liked A Wrinkle in Time when I read it long ago.  I still have vivid memories of it.  Never got around to reading the others, though.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Harlow2 on November 14, 2020, 07:20:53 AM
Martin Walker's Shooting at chateau rock.
Part of his detective Bruno series set in the Perigord, France, where many of the ancient caves are. Though there are somewhat stronger books in the series it was lovely to be transported to a beautiful part of Somewhere Else for a few hours.  The detective cooks some delicious meals so I don't read until I've already eaten.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: notmycircus on November 14, 2020, 08:42:26 AM
Wendy Wasserstein plays.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on November 14, 2020, 07:12:24 PM
Quote from: apl68 on November 14, 2020, 07:17:22 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on November 13, 2020, 07:02:05 PM
Quote from: FishProf on November 13, 2020, 06:49:24 PM
I am reading A Wrinkle in Time to Smolt (and MrsFishProf when she's awake).  It is really interesting to read this now, as it was very influential to the young me.  I can see the downstream effects as I reread.

I loved those books growing up! Spouse and I actually read that particular one last year, I think.  I read Many Waters in grad school (for fun, not for school) and love that one, too, but it may be a good book for later on.  I hope Smolt and MrsFishProf enjoy the story and that you enjoy the re-read.  Even rereading as an adult, I found it moving at times and definitely a little scary!

I liked A Wrinkle in Time when I read it long ago.  I still have vivid memories of it.  Never got around to reading the others, though.

Our fourth-grade teacher read it aloud to the class the year it won the Newbury Award.

I've since bought all the twinned Time series books ("Chronos" and "Chairos").

Might indeed be due for a re-read. Thanks for the idea!

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: spork on November 17, 2020, 04:26:51 AM
The Secret Life of Groceries was very good.

Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on November 18, 2020, 07:15:35 PM
From the library:
A Stroke of Malice by Anna Lee Huber
Latest and #8 installment in the "Lady Darby Mystery" series. Kiera and Sebastian Gage are celebrating 12th Night with Kiera's extended family when a body is discovered during the revelry.

Next up: The Forgotten Kingdom by Signe Pike
New novel and #2 in her "Lost Queen" trilogy set in 6th century Scotland.
https://www.signepike.com/the-lost-queen-usa (https://www.signepike.com/the-lost-queen-usa)
The #3 and final novel releases in 2023!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on November 19, 2020, 12:17:36 AM
Chuck Wendig's Wanderers. It's about a pandemic in an election year, so I think I made the right choice in not starting until after Biden won and Pfizer (and now Moderna!) announced an effective vaccine, but if you can handle it it's a very well-written, well-plotted, engrossing book.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: nonsensical on November 19, 2020, 03:24:22 AM
I had read The Giver in elementary school but just recently learned that it's the first in a series of four books. I've been working my way through the whole quartet and just finished the last book, called Son. It was pretty good - probably my favorite of the quartet other than The Giver itself. The first 2/3 was especially strong, and then the pacing was kind of off for me at the end. I also didn't appreciate some of the implications of the fantastical world the author is describing, though that could be me reading more into it than intended (for instance, the people in this world take pills that prevent them from being able to have kids and also numb their feelings, and I did not like the suggestion that deep feelings were so connected with the ability to reproduce). But overall, an enjoyable book to read at night while unwinding.   
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on November 21, 2020, 03:37:50 PM
We finished The City & the City.  I liked it as much as the first time I read it, and husband also thought it was very good.  Although the premise or device is a little strange, I think Mieville carried it out consistently and kept it contained enough that there weren't really loose ends or aspects that didn't fit well.  I don't want to say too much about it to avoid giving anything away.  Now we're reading How Green was my Valley (Llewellyn), which husband previously read.   
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on November 22, 2020, 02:30:55 AM
I just finished Chuck Wendig's Wanderers, which I waited to start because I knew going in that it was about a pandemic in an election year, and for my own mental comfort it seemed better to wait until Biden won and there was an effective vaccine before diving into that world. It was a very engrossing story, with a fun SF premise and extremely thoughtful things to say about the uses and dangers of organized religion, but things turn out Very Badly, and I should warn anyone else who is interested in reading it that it is an apocalypse novel.

I do not like apocalypse novels. I hate getting sucker-punched by apocalypses. Last year that happened with Michael Faber's Book of Strange New Things, which was about a missionary heading off to another planet to proselytize to aliens. Fun premise, happens on another freaking planet--you'd think I'd be safe! But nope, apocalypse. And now, here it is again in Wanderers, it turned out.

I feel like there should be a category on doesthedogdie.com: 'Is there an apocalypse?' I don't like knowing too much about books before I read them, so my self-imposed spoiler-protection bit me in the backside and I guess I deserved what I got. I should make an exception for apocalypses.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on November 22, 2020, 07:21:59 AM
Hmm...yeah. I'm not even really a fan of Revelation, (i.e., the Scriptural text), although (ah...or maybe because?) my boss did one book on it and wants to do a second one.

Maybe that's what I didn't like about 《Crake and Oryx》, too...although Atwood bugs me more generally than just that.

Blue bottoms?

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Myword on November 22, 2020, 07:49:16 AM
Around where I live most public and academic libraries are closed or open in the vestibule only or limited hours. Thirty minutes inside only. They are so fearful that they wait 7-10 days to put the book back on the shelf. Some of the doors are locked with security guards
   I prefer not buYing books online, especially novels. I can use interlibrary loans but not if the book is new.

Last academic book I read is an original study of mineral mining in Mexico. Very interesting.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on November 23, 2020, 07:49:46 AM
Quote from: Myword on November 22, 2020, 07:49:16 AM
Around where I live most public and academic libraries are closed or open in the vestibule only or limited hours. Thirty minutes inside only. They are so fearful that they wait 7-10 days to put the book back on the shelf. Some of the doors are locked with security guards

Wow!  The limited openings or curbside service only I can understand in situations where there is either a severe spike raging locally or not enough space inside to socially distance properly.  But the 7-10-day quarantine on library materials has been demonstrated by studies to be unnecessary.  Overnight's probably adequate.  Two days is enough to be really sure.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on November 23, 2020, 08:24:10 AM
Dream of the Red Chamber, by Cao Xueqin.  In the abridged translation by Wang Chi-Chen.  It's considered one of the all-time classics of Chinese literature.  Essentially it's a kind of soap opera set in a noble family's vast communal household that makes Downton Abbey look like a suburban bungalow.  There are scores of nobles, wives, concubines, sons and daughters, and servants.  And an itinerant Buddhist monk, a Toaist priest, and an enchanted, sentient stone that wander in and out of the action.  There are love affairs, assorted kinds of palace intrigue, an extraordinary number of suicides, the rise and fall of family fortunes, and a couple of characters who decide that they're fed up with it all and renounce the world to become monks or nuns.  You can't really blame them.

Little is known for certain of the eighteenth-century author's life.  It has been suggested that the novel is to some extent a roman a clef.  That's a scary thought....

It's a challenge for a 21-century westerner to read, given all the unfamiliar naming conventions, elaborate honorific forms, customs, allusions, etc. on display.  It must have been an absolute bear to try to translate.  I now have a renewed respect for people from that part of the world who come here and have to adjust to our own unfamiliar society and customs.  Although I suspect it may be even more of a challenge for modern Chinese to read in the original than, say, Defoe or Swift is for the average English-language reader today.

I'm not quite sure what to make of the book now that I've read it.  Even with the translator's notes, I can't begin to understand all the allusions and wordplay in the text.  You can tell from the speed with which things move that it must be a considerable abridgement.  From what I've read, the book was added to and re-written to the point where it's hard to decide on a "definitive" text in the first place.  At any rate, it's a vivid portrayal of a very different, now-vanished, society.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on November 23, 2020, 08:45:52 AM
Sounds like Anna Karenina in Mandarin...

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on December 05, 2020, 07:26:19 PM
Kwell, here was November. A small haul; I've been pretty slow this year, probably because of all the teaching and publishing (sigh). I'll try to make my way through a few more in December.

Allie Brosh - Solutions and Other Problems: Brilliant, of course. It also felt much more personal than Hyperbole and a Half, probably because so many of the stories are about her grief and coping mechanisms. You can also see how much her mastery of the medium has evolved (as well as what's possible in the medium itself). It's really quite something, surprisingly earnest, and lovely (but sad). Brosh has really impressive insight into her own behaviour. And she's a dab hand at picking out what's going on with other people, too. I can't wait for her next one!

Simon Scarrow and T.J. Andrews - Pirata: Bit of a change from the usual, since it's pirates this time. It was OK, as usual these days. Perfectly serviceable, but unremarkable. Our protagonist seemed awfully canny and capable for someone so young and inexperienced, and that was a bit of a distraction. I also wish it was firmly rooted in historical events, rather than just an imagined story from the period. But pirates are fun.

Adrian Tchaikovsky - Children of Time: This is amazing. Superb scifi centred on a long-term terraforming project gone awry, replete with lots of entolomology (yay!), careful attention to detail (including entomological detail), and some very well-executed satire. Also, a generation ship. This book is already firmly entrenched in my scifi faves, and it's very high up the list. I'm halfway through the sequel now (and it's every bit as good!), but I'm terrified to read this guy's other work, because how could it possibly measure up? For those of you who are scifi fans, if you haven't tried it already, I highly recommend it!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on December 06, 2020, 06:33:27 AM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on December 05, 2020, 07:26:19 PM
Kwell, here was November. A small haul; I've been pretty slow this year, probably because of all the teaching and publishing (sigh). I'll try to make my way through a few more in December.

Allie Brosh - Solutions and Other Problems: Brilliant, of course. It also felt much more personal than Hyperbole and a Half, probably because so many of the stories are about her grief and coping mechanisms. You can also see how much her mastery of the medium has evolved (as well as what's possible in the medium itself). It's really quite something, surprisingly earnest, and lovely (but sad). Brosh has really impressive insight into her own behaviour. And she's a dab hand at picking out what's going on with other people, too. I can't wait for her next one!

Simon Scarrow and T.J. Andrews - Pirata: Bit of a change from the usual, since it's pirates this time. It was OK, as usual these days. Perfectly serviceable, but unremarkable. Our protagonist seemed awfully canny and capable for someone so young and inexperienced, and that was a bit of a distraction. I also wish it was firmly rooted in historical events, rather than just an imagined story from the period. But pirates are fun.

Adrian Tchaikovsky - Children of Time: This is amazing. Superb scifi centred on a long-term terraforming project gone awry, replete with lots of entolomology (yay!), careful attention to detail (including entomological detail), and some very well-executed satire. Also, a generation ship. This book is already firmly entrenched in my scifi faves, and it's very high up the list. I'm halfway through the sequel now (and it's every bit as good!), but I'm terrified to read this guy's other work, because how could it possibly measure up? For those of you who are scifi fans, if you haven't tried it already, I highly recommend it!

Yes, I really liked this one. I've got the sequel but haven't started it yet.

I also read his book Dogs of War, which wasn't as good, but there were some very clever ideas in it. I've also got the first in his huge Shadows of the Apt series, so evidently just on the basis of Children of Time I am something of a convert.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on December 06, 2020, 08:58:51 AM
Quote from: ergative on December 06, 2020, 06:33:27 AM

Yes, I really liked this one. I've got the sequel but haven't started it yet.

I also read his book Dogs of War, which wasn't as good, but there were some very clever ideas in it. I've also got the first in his huge Shadows of the Apt series, so evidently just on the basis of Children of Time I am something of a convert.


Oh! I'm glad!

I had a hunch you were no stranger to his work. If you've got more scifi hidin up those sleeves, do let me know!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on December 06, 2020, 07:08:57 PM
Re-reading the "Lady Darby Mystery" series by Anna Lee Huber from the library. I recently discovered this historical mystery series set in 1830s Scotland. I had seen the author's name from another historical mystery author I read.
Kiera, Lady Darby, is a young widow who becomes an amateur sleuth. Sebastian Gage is a gentleman inquiry agent whose well-known father is a trusted agent of the British Crown. The two marry and continue investigations as a couple.  The 9th novel, A Wicked Conceit, will be released next spring.
I've been to Scotland twice so it's been a pleasure to "revisit" as I read.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: fourhats on December 07, 2020, 09:06:22 AM
Just finished Maggie O'Farrell's "Hamnet," about Shakespeare's son who died. I was hooked from the first page because of the great writing.

Now I'm halfway through Ali Smiith's "Summer," the last of her four-part series in modern Britain.

Next up are "Jack," by Marilynne Robinson and "Piranesi" by Susanna Clarke, who wrote "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell."

I'm not into sci-fi, fantasy or YA (unless rereading from my childhood, before YA was a thing), and not much in to plot either. But I love to read, usually with a bowl of popcorn.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on December 07, 2020, 10:58:35 AM
The People of Concord:  American Intellectuals and Their Timeless Ideas, by Paul Brooks.  I've sometimes thought that Concord, Massachusetts would be a remarkable place to visit.  It seems like a place full of history and natural beauty.  I doubt that time, distance, and financial concerns will ever permit it--I do live an awful long way off--but I can dream.

Anyway, Brooks certainly makes mid-19th-century Concord seem like a fascinating place.  It seems to have been a prosperous and bucolic community in the days before the railroads set runaway economic development on fast-forward.  It already had 200 years of recorded history behind it.  And there were notable, little-remembered local citizens like lawyer Samuel Hoar, who seems to have been an admirable fellow in some ways.

Of course most of the attention goes to Concord's more famous inhabitants and neighbors.  There was the Brook Farm commune, for example, one of the very best-remembered of hundreds of experiments in communal living in 19th-century America.  They made a go of it for several years until they fell under the spell of the madman Fourier.  If you study 19th-century utopias you'll notice that Fouriest communities were invariably the shortest-lived of them.  Sure enough, within a year of their adoption Fourier's lunatic notions had killed the Brook Farm dead.  Meanwhile Bronson Alcott had been hard at work with his Fruitlands community, which made the Brook Farmers look like the most hardheaded and worldly of Yankee entrepreneurs by comparison.

There were the Alcott women, struggling to deal with would-be intellectual and reformer Bronson's decades-long midlife crisis.  There was Emerson, the great guru, whose lectures and essays Sarah Ripley, "probably the best-educated woman in Concord," admitted she couldn't always get.  Never mind, Emerson has always had plenty of admirers who lacked her honesty....  There was Thoreau, the sociable semi-recluse and worshiper at the shrine of Nature, who in his youth goofed around and started a forest fire that incinerated hundreds of acres.  Brooks' account of Thoreau's uphill struggle to get Sam Staples, Concord's amiable town jailer, to lock him up long enough to enable him to present himself as a martyr for the cause of Civil Disobedience is more than a little amusing.

Brooks obviously admires these figures from the Flowering of New England.  In some ways, most especially their faithful espousal of abolitionism, they are admirable.  The only figure of the bunch whose works I've ever really gotten into, though, is odd man out Hawthorne.  Hawthorne was the one who refused to drink the Transcendentalist Kool-Aid about the divinity and perfectability of human nature.  He recognized that, like it or not, the fundamental fallenness of human nature couldn't simply be wished away.  To me, Hawthorne's work still has more relevance than all the rest of them put together.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: fourhats on December 07, 2020, 02:52:45 PM
This reminds me that I just finished reading both the wonderful recent biography of Thoreau, and the terrific joint biography of Louisa May Alcott and her father Bronson (by John Matteson), that won the Pulitzer Prize. Both definitely worth reading now that you've been initiated into Concordiana!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on December 07, 2020, 03:37:19 PM
That biography of the Alcotts sounds very interesting.

Poor Bronson Alcott.  On top of everything else, his name got to be a gag in the movie Clueless.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: smallcleanrat on December 08, 2020, 07:26:09 PM
Reading the sequel to Little Women by Louisa May Alcott: Little Men.

Premise: Jo and her husband run a sort of boarding school for boys (and a couple of girls; orphans and other "problem" children) including their own offspring. Lots of emphasis on teaching children moral behavior through example and compassion; style can get overly sentimental and...I don't know...treacly?

Still enjoyable.

Each chapter is more of a slice-of-life story rather than part of a larger narrative.

The most entertaining parts are the stories of the kids at play: the games they dream up, the rules they invent, unanticipated consequences, the propensity towards destruction and violence.

Example 1: One of the boys convinces his twin sister and Jo's toddler son to make a sacrifice by fire of a favorite possession to some invisible entity he invented.

One of the things they burn is a toy town:
...the children arranged the doomed village, laid a line of coals along the main street, and then sat down to watch the conflagration...at last one ambitious little cottage blazed up...and in a few minutes the whole town was burning merrily. The wooden population stood and stared at the destruction like blockheads, as they were, till they also caught and blazed away without a cry. It took some time to reduce the town to ashes, and the lookers-on enjoyed the spectacle, immensely, cheering as each house fell...and actually casting one wretched little churn-shaped lady, who had escaped to the suburbs, into the very heart of the fire.

Jo's toddler, Teddy, tosses a doll onto the fire:
Of course she did not like it, and expressed her anguish and resentment in a way that terrified her infant destroyer...she did not blaze, but did what was worse, she squirmed. First one leg curled up, then the other, in a very awful and lifelike manner; next she flung her arms over her head as if in great agony; her head itself turned on her shoulders, her glass eyes fell out, and with a final writhe of her whole body, she sank down a blackened mass on the ruins of the town. This unexpected demonstration startled every one and frightened Teddy half out of his little wits. He looked, then screamed and fled toward the house, roaring "Marmar" at the top of his voice.

Example 2: describing how the two girls in the house "play" with Teddy

Poor Teddy was a frequent victim, and was often rescued from real danger, for the excited ladies were apt to forget that he was not of the same stuff of their longsuffering dolls. Once he was shut into the closet for a dungeon, and forgotten by the girls, who ran off to some out-of-door game. Another time he was half drowned in the bath-tub, playing be a "cunning little whale." And, worst of all, he was cut down just in time after being hung up for a robber.

This passage really stuck out. When kids lie or swear or fight, it's made out as a big deal. But these girls nearly hang a toddler to death and it's just a few sentences embedded in a chapter devoted to describing how the kids like to play.

You'd think the adults would make the girls leave the little boy alone...
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: downer on December 09, 2020, 04:49:54 AM
I enjoyed Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi, short listed for the Booker Prize. She lives in the UK but the book is set in contemporary India, and expores women's identity.

I'm half way through The Lives of Lucian Freud: The Restless Years: 1922-1968 by William Fever. At 700 pages, it goes into a lot of detail. Yet it doesn't explain much about Freud's view of his own art. It does make clear Freud had sex with a lot of women, at least when he was not living in remote locations focusing on his art.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: fleabite on December 09, 2020, 05:31:43 PM
apl68: The novel March, by Geraldine Brooks, is a novelization of the story of Louisa May Alcott's father Bronson. It's been a long time since I read it, but I remember enjoying it. If I recall correctly, it focuses on Bronson's experiences during the Civil War, and the family's life during his absence. Perhaps it might interest you.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: fourhats on December 09, 2020, 06:27:58 PM
After reading the biography, it became clear: Bronson had nothing to do with the war. It was Louisa who served in a hospital, and became very ill for the rest of her life because of it. The treatment eventually killed her. But Bronson stayed home, and Louisa pretty much supported the family for the rest of her life.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on December 09, 2020, 07:05:45 PM
Smallcleanrat, Last year I read Little Women, Little Men, and Jo's Boys in an omnibus edition published by Library of America, copyright 2005. (I borrowed a copy from the library) The original illustrations by May Alcott were included in the text.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on December 18, 2020, 08:06:06 AM
Seasoned Timber, by Dorothy Canfield Fisher.  She was a regional novelist with a focus on New England.  I grew up seeing short stories and articles by her, but had never read one of her novels.  I happened to run across Seasoned Timber not long ago. 

It's about a headmaster at a school in small-town Vermont in the 1930s.  It's a well-regarded, though not elite, institution with a long history and a very small endowment.  Naturally the protagonist has to spend a lot of time worrying about money.  He's also experiencing something of a mid-life crisis.  A major donor dies and leaves the school a potentially transformative legacy--but it comes with strings that the headmaster can't in good conscience accept.  How does he persuade the rest of the school's stakeholders not to sell out?

Though the book's rather longer than I felt it needed to be, it has plenty of local color, and some interesting characterizations.  The author much admires Vermonters and Vermont character.  New England's fortune in having a kind chronicler like Fisher stands in stark contrast to the way noted Midwestern authors like Sherwood Anderson and Edgar Lee Masters performed such vicious hatchet jobs on their communities (And in the process pandered their way into winning plaudits from the East Coast literary establishment).  The protagonist is also a compelling portrayal of a midlife crisis that does not lead to self-destruction.

Reading about the tribulations of an under-resourced school made me think about the colleges on the "Dire Financial Straits" thread.  Though the school in the story is not a college, it is very much the sort of small institution that's in so much trouble now.  It probably also gives insight into how colleges of the time were run--the institution is very small by today's standards, everything is run on a shoestring, there aren't a lot of frills, and there's scarcely any administrative infrastructure (The headmaster runs the school in between teaching classes).  I can just see the school prospering and expanding in the postwar era, and now experiencing an economic and demographic crunch of the sort that has struck Vermont schools and colleges in general.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: fourhats on December 18, 2020, 08:15:43 AM
Interesting, APL! I have a full set of her books, and was once asked by a special collections library director if I'd be interested in writing her biography.

She came in (posthumously) for a hard time over the past few years, by Native American and other readers for remarks or affiliations she made early in her life. I'm not sure how fair the criticism was, though.

As I child, I loved her book Understood Betsy, and reread it just a year or two ago.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on December 18, 2020, 11:05:38 AM
Quote from: fourhats on December 18, 2020, 08:15:43 AM
Interesting, APL! I have a full set of her books, and was once asked by a special collections library director if I'd be interested in writing her biography.

She came in (posthumously) for a hard time over the past few years, by Native American and other readers for remarks or affiliations she made early in her life. I'm not sure how fair the criticism was, though.

As I child, I loved her book Understood Betsy, and reread it just a year or two ago.

She seems to be a significant enough author that she could use a good bio.

From what little I know about it, Understood Betsy sounds like the kind of book my mother would really have loved.

I hadn't heard about Fisher's reputation having had a hard time in recent years.  It would be ironic, given that combating prejudice was a major theme of hers, as in Seasoned Timber.  In today's climate, though, no author who didn't start writing within the last few decades is safe.  The American Library Association unpersoned Laura Ingalls Wilder just a couple of years ago.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: fourhats on December 18, 2020, 02:03:24 PM
It had to do with a brief and tangential connection to a Vermont eugenics movement. She was never really part of it, and dropped the association, but they've renamed the book award that had been named for her.

https://www.sevendaysvt.com/OffMessage/archives/2019/05/03/dorothy-canfield-fisher-book-award-to-be-renamed

Interestingly, she spoke or read (I think) five languages, was on the board of the Book-of-the-Month Club, where she championed the work of Richard Wright. She was pretty interesting.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on December 20, 2020, 04:19:47 AM
I, too, loved Understood Betsy as a child, and read it over and over again. I also just recently read The Homemaker, and also enjoyed it very much. I'm so pleased to discover that she is so well known on these fora!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: spork on December 20, 2020, 01:33:03 PM
I am more than halfway through The Quiet Americans: Four CIA Spies at the Dawn of the Cold War -- a Tragedy in Three Acts, by Scott Anderson. I'm a fan of political history, and this book is well-researched.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on December 20, 2020, 06:48:54 PM
From the library:
Tsarina by Ellen Alpstein
Novel about Catherine I, wife of Peter the Great. She rose from obscurity in the Baltic countryside to be Tsaritsa/Empress of Russia. I knew about Catherine's story from reading the biography Peter the Great by Robert K. Massie years ago.

Fallen Angel by Tracy Borman
Final installment and #3 in the "Frances Gorges" trilogy. In 1614, Frances and her husband Thomas are back at the royal court after a period of time away. King James has a new favorite, George Villiers, the future Duke of Buckingham. Readers follow Frances through the final years of James I's reign and young Prince Charles finding his place. A solid finish to the trilogy!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on December 21, 2020, 09:41:23 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on November 21, 2020, 03:37:50 PM
Now we're reading How Green was my Valley (Llewellyn), which husband previously read.

Finally finished this one, though I found out after I posted that husband hadn't actually read it but had heard it was one of the best books ever written? I'm not sure I would say that, but I really liked some of the descriptions and characters.   It's not the happiest of tales, focusing mostly on the coal mines and unions in Wales, and it reminds me of Trinity (Uris), though that book came later.  The feel of the writing is similar, as are the class struggles.  There were some tragedies that hit a bit too close to home at the moment, so I'm glad to be done with it for now.  I also didn't think it wrapped up very cleanly.  It seemed as though there was a lot of potential laid out, and then everything suddenly ended without much closure.  But, it really had some good turns of phrase.  Definitely a bit of a downer.  Although, husband pointed out that it's not called "How Green *is* my Valley".  True enough!

Now we're reading another of the newer sci fi books I got him for his birthday: Red Rising (Pierce Brown).  We just started, but it sounds interesting (Amazon blurb below) and is the first of a series.  I fell asleep during the first chapter so will have to catch up on the reading.

Quote
Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations. Yet he toils willingly, trusting that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children.

But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and lush wilds spread across the planet. Darrow—and Reds like him—are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.

Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity's overlords struggle for power.  He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society's ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies . . . even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: evil_physics_witchcraft on December 21, 2020, 11:37:43 AM
Just read Sweet Thursday for the umpteenth time.  I tried Cannery Row, but just wasn't feeling it, so I went back to My Family and Other Animals. Love the imagery.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: nonsensical on December 23, 2020, 05:42:14 AM
I recently finished The Vanishing Half. I can definitely see why it's gotten so much positive attention, though it took me until the second half to really get it.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on December 23, 2020, 09:27:26 AM
My annual Christmas read Christmas with Anne & Other Holiday Stories by Lucy M. Montgomery, edited by Rea Wilmhurst
Collection of Montgomery's Christmas short stories originally published in various Canadian magazines in the early 20th century. It also includes two chapters from Anne of Green Gables and Anne of the Island.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: larryc on December 23, 2020, 03:01:41 PM
I have recently read Power's The Overstory and Ozeki's A Tale for the Time Being, both excellent. Next up is Walter, The Cold Millions.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: nebo113 on December 24, 2020, 06:03:30 AM
John Banville's "Snow".  Wow!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on December 24, 2020, 07:50:18 AM
I'm re-reading.

Sometimes re-re-re-reading...

Two Dick Francis mysteries in the past week...

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Hegemony on December 24, 2020, 12:14:46 PM
I just reread "A Christmas Carol." It is shorter than you might think. Very satisfying, although some of the film versions are so present in my mind that I had a whole mental comparison table going the whole time. I am now embarking on Dickens' other Christmas tales (he wrote five), starting with "The Chimes." I read them many years ago but there must be a reason they're less famous, because I have zero recall of them.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Cheerful on December 29, 2020, 09:11:08 AM
A PBS documentary about Laura Ingalls Wilder premieres this evening (8 p.m. Eastern Time).
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on December 29, 2020, 10:57:12 AM
Bill Bryson's "The Body".  He has a gift for taking the mundane and curious and making it interesting and funny.   Now I want to reread "A Walk in the Woods".
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on December 29, 2020, 11:41:10 AM
Quote from: FishProf on December 29, 2020, 10:57:12 AM
Bill Bryson's "The Body".  He has a gift for taking the mundane and curious and making it interesting and funny.   Now I want to reread "A Walk in the Woods".

I hadn't heard about this one, but it sounds interesting from the descriptions and reviews.  I loved A Walk in the Woods, especially having hiked different parts of the AT.  We took a detour to Centralia at one point.  Very strange place.  As an aside, thanks for happening to post this.  I was trying to think of his name last night and just could not for the life of me.  And I had forgotten how much I like some of his writing.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on December 29, 2020, 11:48:19 AM
I've read (or had audio book versions of) all his books.  He is truly a pleasure to read, or listen to.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Langue_doc on December 29, 2020, 06:34:49 PM
Quote from: Cheerful on December 29, 2020, 09:11:08 AM
A PBS documentary about Laura Ingalls Wilder premieres this evening (8 p.m. Eastern Time).

Thanks! Just watched it. I love her accounts of settler life and all the hardships endured without any trace of self pity.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on December 29, 2020, 07:09:56 PM
I've read Bryson's Notes From a Small Island and The Road to Little Dribbling from the library. In these 2 books, he chronicles about his time living in the UK and everything he's experienced and observed over the years.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on December 30, 2020, 03:03:37 AM
Quote from: Langue_doc on December 29, 2020, 06:34:49 PM
Quote from: Cheerful on December 29, 2020, 09:11:08 AM
A PBS documentary about Laura Ingalls Wilder premieres this evening (8 p.m. Eastern Time).

Thanks! Just watched it. I love her accounts of settler life and all the hardships endured without any trace of self pity.

Have I already mentioned "The Ghost in the Little House," about her editor/daughter, Rose Wilder?

That's a very interesting complement to the L. I. Wilder books.

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: traductio on December 31, 2020, 07:20:15 AM
Last night I got to sit in a comfy chair while my kids got along with each other in the basement (!) and my wife got to enjoy cooking a fancy meal she has wanted to make for a while. I read Jay Parini's Borges and Me: An Encounter, a book I've been looking forward to since I heard about it a few weeks ago. (I had to request it through our library.) It's a very funny book (I love Borges, and Parini's encounter with him is so much more interesting than mine could have been, if I had been born at a different time, because Parini has never heard of him and doesn't venerate him as I tend to!), followed by a lovely dinner.

Luxury.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on January 11, 2021, 01:17:31 PM
Quote from: ab_grp on December 21, 2020, 09:41:23 AM
Now we're reading another of the newer sci fi books I got him for his birthday: Red Rising (Pierce Brown).  We just started, but it sounds interesting [took the Amazon blurb out from my previous post] and is the first of a series.  I fell asleep during the first chapter so will have to catch up on the reading.

We finished the book last night, and I fell asleep during the final two or so pages.  Despite bookending the read with me being asleep, it was a pretty engaging story, and we will be reading the sequel sometime soon.  There were some interesting takes on power, in particular.  The main character/narrator seems a bit full of himself given the number of fairly obvious reveals he does not catch onto very quickly.  Aside from some minor eye rolling here and there, we thought it was a fun and intriguing story.  Perhaps not the best to read right now given the recent government events, but we did not anticipate those specifics when we started.

Tonight we will being the second book in The Expanse series, Caliban's War (Corey).   It seems to have gotten good reviews, so we'll see where it takes things from Leviathan's Wake.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on January 12, 2021, 12:59:24 PM
Quote from: ab_grp on January 11, 2021, 01:17:31 PM
Quote from: ab_grp on December 21, 2020, 09:41:23 AM
Now we're reading another of the newer sci fi books I got him for his birthday: Red Rising (Pierce Brown).  We just started, but it sounds interesting [took the Amazon blurb out from my previous post] and is the first of a series.  I fell asleep during the first chapter so will have to catch up on the reading.

We finished the book last night, and I fell asleep during the final two or so pages.  Despite bookending the read with me being asleep, it was a pretty engaging story, and we will be reading the sequel sometime soon.  There were some interesting takes on power, in particular.  The main character/narrator seems a bit full of himself given the number of fairly obvious reveals he does not catch onto very quickly.  Aside from some minor eye rolling here and there, we thought it was a fun and intriguing story.  Perhaps not the best to read right now given the recent government events, but we did not anticipate those specifics when we started.

Tonight we will being the second book in The Expanse series, Caliban's War (Corey).   It seems to have gotten good reviews, so we'll see where it takes things from Leviathan's Wake.

I find this maddening! I just finished Juliet Marillier's The Harp of Kings, the first in her 'Warrior Bards' sequence. Warrior Bards--what's not to like? Also, I imprinted hard on her Sevenwaters trilogy when I was a teenager. But it had a similar problem, and I really dislike books where the characters are dense as to the plot of their own stories.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on January 12, 2021, 07:22:10 PM
But that is sort of true-to-life.

People who are full of themselves are usually tone-deaf, clueless, and egocentric. They don't pick up nuance and they don't learn interpretive logic.

Rather like a certain president I can think of at the moment...

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on January 13, 2021, 12:18:15 AM
Quote from: mamselle on January 12, 2021, 07:22:10 PM
But that is sort of true-to-life.

People who are full of themselves are usually tone-deaf, clueless, and egocentric. They don't pick up nuance and they don't learn interpretive logic.

Rather like a certain president I can think of at the moment...

M.

Remember, you're talking to someone whose favorite genre involves dinosaur wizards flying spaceships. I tend to prefer my fiction untrue to life; an improvement on the original, if you will.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on January 25, 2021, 11:18:40 AM
Saints and Strangers, by George F. Willison
Mayflower Lives, by Martyn Whittock
Plymouth Adventure, by Ernest Gebler

Three different ways of looking at the same story.  Willison's classic follows the settlers of the Plymouth Colony from the origins of the sect that founded the colony to its eventual absorption by Massachusetts in the late 1600s.  They were a blend of idealists hoping to build their idea of an ideal society in the New World and economic migrants hoping to gain a more prosperous life.  The whole venture was seriously underfunded from the start, had a lot of hard luck, and never really overcame that.  Then again, it's truly remarkable that the initial settlement survived at all.  Along the way Willison chronicles constant quarreling with rival interloping settlements, with the exploitative businessmen who bankrolled the project, with the natives, and with each other.  The idealists among them were forced into what must have been some very tough compromises with their principles. 

Whittock's much more recent history--published only last year--tells the story of Plymouth through the lives of several of those who were there.  They include such standard, familiar figures as William Bradford, Miles Standish, John and Priscilla Alden, and Squanto (Tisquantum).  There are also some less familiar stories--such as the four indentured children who turn out not to have been orphans.  They were packed off on the one-way voyage across the Atlantic in a shocking act of vindictiveness stemming from a dysfunctional family situation.  The different stories, taken together, do a lot to illuminate the Plymouth story.

Gebler's historical novel (Made into a 1952 Technicolor spectacular that I saw some years ago--now I'm curious to see it again) is a meticulously-researched fictionalization that employs a novelist's liberty to speculate to try to bring the story alive.  I tend in principle to dislike subjecting real historical actors, who are no longer around to defend themselves, to this level of speculation about their personalities, actions, and motives.  For what it is, though, it's very well done.  It at least tries hard to be plausible, and the author clearly knows and respects what could be known of the true story.  Historical novels very often feature major characters with anachronistically modern viewpoints in conflict with others who have more period-accurate attitudes, or caricatures of the same.  Generally the anachronistic "moderns" are made out to be the heroes.  Here it's the other way around--the character who's made to represent the modern inability to comprehend the the idealism of the Pilgrim Fathers comes across looking rather ignoble compared to their flawed but noble humanity.

All of these books have a great deal that fits into the truth-is-stranger-than-fiction category.  If any one of several improbable things had not happened, it's unlikely the Mayflower settlers would have made it.  It's no wonder some of the hardy survivors believed that they had been preserved by divine providence.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on January 25, 2021, 11:43:30 AM
I expect you'll re-read Longfellow's "The Courtship of Miles Standish" next.

(I know where one of their descendants' gravestones is sort-of 'hidden in plain sight'...)

;--}

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on January 25, 2021, 12:11:23 PM
Hmm, I never reported on December:

Adrian Tchaikovsky - Children of Ruin: This was a really great sequel to Children of Time. It was compelling from the start, beautifully written, and full of really exciting changes of pace and tone (including an interlude clearly inspired by John Carpenter's The Thing, one of my favourite films). The introduction of cephalopods was fantastic, and seemed like a clear nod to Peter Godfrey-Smith's excellent Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness, which makes the point (among others) that cephalopods are about as close as we're likely to come to intelligent aliens. Such great execution!

Adrian Tchaikovsky - Ironclads: A pretty compelling novella set in a dystopian corporate future. One part Heart of Darkness, one part something-I've-forgotten (J.G. Ballard, maybe?) two parts not-so-subtle satire. I found myself wanting to know more about this world and how it got that way, but I also think that a novella is about as much of it as you'd want, so that it's over before it strays into more boring cookie-cutter territory.

Steve Brusatte - The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: I'm glad I finally made it to this one! Thank you, fora! It was an easy, engaging read, and it was great to get a bit of an update on my dino-knowledge before my own egg hatches. I think I would have liked a little less emphasis on Tyrannosaurids, however, especially when it came to size comparisons and talking about the largest predators, etc. It's not that I'm not into that--on the contrary!--but that web is a lot more tangled than I expected, and kind of confusing since there's a lot of contrary information out there. Plus, spinosaurs didn't even rate a mention (there's just one instance of 'spinosaurids' early on), even though it seems pretty clear they were much larger than Tyrannosaurs. I guess because they were probably semi-aquatic? Shrug. I also didn't really dig the fictionalized interludes (the autobiographical interludes, by contrast, were great!). But all the same, it was such a fun read, and educational, too!

Stephanie Kelton - The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory: I've been hearing a lot about MMT, so figured I'd pick this up. It's clear and accessible, and does a good job of driving its main points home over and over (which is what you need in a popular work). I think it gave me a decent idea of what MMT is all about, although it was surprising to learn that so many questions I've had about economics seem not to have really registered for so long. It was nice to have some answers, although I was left with some fairly basic questions which I'd have liked to see answered (e.g. why would anyone abandon their monetary sovereignty to form a currency union?), and which may, I suppose, hint at some important lacunae. I can guess at the outlines of answers, but I'd have liked to see them tackled. Weirdly, leaving out those basics made it feel a bit dumbed-down for my taste. Also: I'm afraid it's not terribly well-written. It's passable and fine, and certainly not terribad, but there are a ton of weird constructions in there, and sections where meaning is obscured.

Bernard Cornwell - War Lord: I saved this one for when I was done with my classes, since it's the last in the series. I cried, of course, because it's the end of a series I've loved for sixteen years. There's no question that Cornwell does this thing better than anyone, and I hope this isn't his last effort at this type of historical fiction. This was a fitting end to the series, a glorious return to properly historical fiction, anchored with some real-life set-piece battles. It was really good--frankly, one of the best in years--and I was swept along for the duration, even though Uhtred is abominably old by the end. (I forgive it its small cinematic foibles!) The myriad allusions to Beowulf were both fun, and reassuring (in view of Uhtred's advanced years). I look forward to finally having the chance to read all of these novels in a row sometime in the near future, without having to wait a year between installments!



At 43 books in 2020, this looks like my smallest haul of pleasure-reading since I started keeping track back in... 2015 or so? I guess, partly, I was busy writing stuff up, and didn't really stumble upon a really long and compelling series which could help me rack up the numbers.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on January 25, 2021, 12:49:06 PM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on January 25, 2021, 12:11:23 PM

Steve Brusatte - The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: I'm glad I finally made it to this one! Thank you, fora! It was an easy, engaging read, and it was great to get a bit of an update on my dino-knowledge before my own egg hatches. I think I would have liked a little less emphasis on Tyrannosaurids, however, especially when it came to size comparisons and talking about the largest predators, etc. It's not that I'm not into that--on the contrary!--but that web is a lot more tangled than I expected, and kind of confusing since there's a lot of contrary information out there. Plus, spinosaurs didn't even rate a mention (there's just one instance of 'spinosaurids' early on), even though it seems pretty clear they were much larger than Tyrannosaurs. I guess because they were probably semi-aquatic? Shrug. I also didn't really dig the fictionalized interludes (the autobiographical interludes, by contrast, were great!). But all the same, it was such a fun read, and educational, too!

That was a fascinating book.  I'm going to have to try to re-read it some time this year.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: nebo113 on January 30, 2021, 12:49:30 PM
Carl Hiaasen's Squeeze Me.  Location is an estate in Florida referred to as Casa Bellicosa, owned by the Mastodon and his willowy wife Mockingbird.

Light reading.....and as with all Hiaasen, amusing.  Biting.  Satirical.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on January 30, 2021, 06:53:50 PM
From the library: Don Quixote by Cervantes, English translation by Edith Grossman
Thought I'd give this great novel a read!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on January 31, 2021, 03:12:23 AM
Just finished Brace New World by Aldous Huxley.  Disturbingly prescient.

Now I'm reading The Lost Continent - Travels in Small Town America by Bill Bryson.  Also, disturbingly prescient.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Langue_doc on January 31, 2021, 07:49:43 AM
Er, um, don't you mean Brave New World?

I first read it when I was an undergrad, and remember staying up most of the night because I found it so engrossing.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on January 31, 2021, 09:19:05 AM
Quote from: Langue_doc on January 31, 2021, 07:49:43 AM
Er, um, don't you mean Brave New World?

I first read it when I was an undergrad, and remember staying up most of the night because I found it so engrossing.

I remember loving that book when I was in high school, but I haven't read it since. I still remember the puzzling over the use of 'pneumatic' as a descriptor of a woman's body and resorting to asking my mother to explain it to me. I also remember being unconvinced by that particular metaphor, and thinking that the author was trying too hard to be clever in his use of language.

I'm adopting Parasaurolophus's practice of reporting monthly. Here's January's reads:

The Provincial Lady Goes Further and The Provincial Lady in America, by E. M. Delafield. These are sequels in the Diary of a Provincial Lady series, and they are all delightful. It's the form of a diary kept by a 1920s-1930s era English woman, who has to run a country house with servants and so on, perpetually strapped for cash, with rambunctious children and snotty neighbours, and all sorts of domestic and village-life responsibilities that harass her and frustrate her, and she reports on them to her diary with a wonderful snarky wit.  In the later books she gets a bit of money and moves to London to write, and eventually even goes on book tour in America, but she's constantly suffering from imposture syndrome and the need to be polite to people she doesn't like. It's all very fluffy and fun and charming.

The Bone Ships, by R. J. Barker. This is a great secondary world fantasy book about a disgraced sailor in the disgraced sailors' navy, who meets a new captain who strips his ship from him and then gives him lessons in leadership and strength of purpose as she takes his disgraced ship and turns around the sailors and takes them on a mission. The worldbuilding and politics are great, but it's really the sort of grudging mentorship relationship that made this book work for me.

Lady Rose and Mrs. Memmary, by Ruby Ferguson. This is a book written and set in 1930s-era Scotland, in which a group of American tourists tour a big old Scottish house and learn all about the glory days of the last family to have lived there, with the little girl growing up, being presented at court, marrying, having children, and living this golden girlhood that eventually morphed into something less and less golden as the strictures of Victorian womanhood constrained her life. Structurally I could see what was being done, but the goldenness of the girlhood was much too tiresome and twee, and the disillusionment as she discovers the constraints of Victorian womanhood were so predictable that they were boring; and the final twist that unites the past and the present narrative was also predictably boring. I was left utterly cold.

The Harp of Kings, by Juliet Marillier. This was fine. I loved Marillier's original Sevenwaters trilogy when I was a teenager, and I adored Foxmask, but everything else she's ever written has been some variant on 'eh, it was fine'. This, too--eh, it was fine. I rather enjoyed the twist that the young people who are trained as warriers must show their worth by pretending not to be warriors, because refraining from defending yourself when you are quite capable of doing so takes its own kind of strength. But the final reveal was perfectly obviously clear from the clues we'd seen along the way, so needing to have our heroine sit down and get someone to lay it all out for her just made her seem slow and stupid.

The Lefthanded Booksellers of London, by Garth Nix. I picked this up because of its outstanding title, but it was a real disappointment. Nix is trying to pull a Jo Walton here: He's set his story in the 1980s and peppering all the settings with specific details about books and authors from the era, in what I can only assume is a nostalgic paean to his youth. The problem, though, is that the book is clearly a YA story: It's about a teenager looking for her father, and the plotting, dialogue, and characterization have the sort of straightforward simplicity that are characteristic of many YA novels. (Not all! The Chaos Walking series avoided it, and Frances Hardinge is incapable of simplicity.) But teenage readers are not going to have the nostalgia for the 1980s he's trying to evoke, and adult readers (like myself) are going to find the shallowness of the story tedious. I didn't finish it.

Ninth House, by Leigh Bardugo. This was great! It's about a girl who can see ghosts, and on the strength of this ability she's been inducted into a secret society of magical policemen who keep watch over all the other secret societies based around the Yale campus. While she's there, things go very badly wrong, and she has to figure out which magical societies have been engaging in which magical nefariousnesses, pulling together a wonderfully unwilling rag-tag team to help solve crime. This is one of the only books I've read that successfully manages to skip around from time period to time period ('last winter', 'last fall', 'this spring', 'last summer') without interrupting with the flow of the narrative, because every time the time period shifts backward, it's to give us a vital piece of information that informs what's happening later.

The Secret History, by Donna Tartt: This was lots of fun. She writes very engrossingly, and it was very reassuring to remind ourselves that a particularly horrible character was going to end up dead (not a spoiler here--we learn he's doomed in the first sentence). It was a particularly great illustration of the academic cult of personality that can spring up around a particularly charismatic professor, who seems so smart to the teenage students who revere him, but whose 'wisdom' is complete bullshit when you look at it.

The Vela: Salvation, published on Serial Box. I really loved the first season of The Vela when I listened to it last year, but this was very disappointing, I think because the writing team changed completely. Instead of Becky Chambers and Yoon-ha Lee and S L Huang and Rivers Solomon, it was a bunch of people I'd never heard of, and the change in quality showed. Lots of plot holes, big ol' deus ex machina, none of the complexity of motivation and loyalty that made the first season so satisfying. Meh.

Planetfall, by Emma Newman: This was great! It's about a religious cult that follows a cult leader to establish a colony on another planet, but then the cult leader disappears and they all decide that she's gone to commune with God in 'God's City'--a mountain-sized aggregate of alien tentacles and mucus that they build their colony next to and occasionally go spelunking in. So the colony is happily waiting for their leader to return, but in fact the situation is not as they believe it is, because our POV character who knows what is actually what happens to be engaged in shenanigans, and things develop in very excellent ways that culminate in a wonderful one-two punch at the ending. My only criticism is that I wanted some more spelunking in the mucus city.

Truthwitch, by Susan Dennard. This was fine. It was a very standard kind of secondary world fantasy, with some great female friendships and a nice magic system and some carefully thought out politics and a nice map and history and everything, but it didn't really go beyond my baseline expectations of competent fantasy. I'd probably bring its sequels on an airplane, because it's fun and undemanding and doesn't seem likely to hurt or challenge me in any way (unlike, say, Planetfall or Ninth House, or the first season of The Vela, which get real dark). But I was left a little unsatisfied when I was done reading it.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on February 01, 2021, 04:58:43 AM
Quote from: FishProf on January 31, 2021, 03:12:23 AM
Just finished Brace New World by Aldous Huxley.  Disturbingly prescient.

The story of a young girl tormented by misaligned teeth, and her obese friend who can't keep his pants up....
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Langue_doc on February 01, 2021, 05:20:47 AM
Not sure if this is the right place for an obit, but here is Sharon Kay Penman's: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/29/books/sharon-kay-penman-dead.html?searchResultPosition=1

I didn't realize that she was a NYC/NJ girl, considering the topics and language of her novels. I think it's time for me to reread "The Sunne in Splendour".
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on February 01, 2021, 05:13:51 PM
January:

Chris Beckett - Dark Eden: This was great! Space colony with two twists: (1) it was founded by just two people, one male, one female, with no backup embryos or anything, and (2) it's on a planet with no sun. It's actually quite reminiscent of Riddley Walker, in terms of the narrative and plot (not so much the language; lots of people have mentioned the language in their reviews, but it's really nothing remarkable, whereas Riddley Walker's language...). The world-design was really good and imaginative, too, IMO. I quite enjoyed the alien biology. And the parallels to the Adam and Eve story are fun, too. I can't wait to finally get the next one, which should arrive any day now!

Adrian Tchaikovsky - Empire in Black and Gold: This was pretty good. It's a good (and very ambitious) first novel, but starts out pretty slow and only really gets going 100 or so pages in. It's a clever attempt at high fantasy, although it smacks of video gamery at times and the combat and armour are kind of nonsensical. I'm also not really a fan of steampunk and steampunkery. But it's enjoyable enough that I'll pick up the next instalment at some point, and I'll enjoy that, too. Not a patch on his later work, but we all have to start somewhere!

Robert J. Sawyer - Calculating God: I tried reading Hominids years ago and gave up because of the piss-poor rendering of a French Canadian character and his use of both French and English. This was much more palatable. Full of CanCon, which is nice, and surprisingly compelling for a book that's essentially just a dialogue between a theist alien who's found proof of God in the fossil record, and an atheist paleontologist. I have to say, however, that those conversations were cringeworthy, and would have benefitted from a better background in the philosophy of science. I suppose that makes the book truer to life, but the art suffered for it. Even so, however, it was a fun read, and I'll try him again in the near future. I'm not sure about the last act, however.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on February 02, 2021, 12:12:14 AM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on February 01, 2021, 05:13:51 PM
January:

Chris Beckett - Dark Eden: This was great! Space colony with two twists: (1) it was founded by just two people, one male, one female, with no backup embryos or anything, and (2) it's on a planet with no sun. It's actually quite reminiscent of Riddley Walker, in terms of the narrative and plot (not so much the language; lots of people have mentioned the language in their reviews, but it's really nothing remarkable, whereas Riddley Walker's language...). The world-design was really good and imaginative, too, IMO. I quite enjoyed the alien biology. And the parallels to the Adam and Eve story are fun, too. I can't wait to finally get the next one, which should arrive any day now!

Adrian Tchaikovsky - Empire in Black and Gold: This was pretty good. It's a good (and very ambitious) first novel, but starts out pretty slow and only really gets going 100 or so pages in. It's a clever attempt at high fantasy, although it smacks of video gamery at times and the combat and armour are kind of nonsensical. I'm also not really a fan of steampunk and steampunkery. But it's enjoyable enough that I'll pick up the next instalment at some point, and I'll enjoy that, too. Not a patch on his later work, but we all have to start somewhere!

Robert J. Sawyer - Calculating God: I tried reading Hominids years ago and gave up because of the piss-poor rendering of a French Canadian character and his use of both French and English. This was much more palatable. Full of CanCon, which is nice, and surprisingly compelling for a book that's essentially just a dialogue between a theist alien who's found proof of God in the fossil record, and an atheist paleontologist. I have to say, however, that those conversations were cringeworthy, and would have benefitted from a better background in the philosophy of science. I suppose that makes the book truer to life, but the art suffered for it. Even so, however, it was a fun read, and I'll try him again in the near future. I'm not sure about the last act, however.

I read Dark Eden and had mixed thoughts about it, but I agree that the ecology of the planet was really cool. I have Empire of Black and Gold on my kindle, and I'm looking forward to it. I do enjoy ambitious fantasy works, I love the steampunk aesthetic (when it's done well), and I thought Children of Time was superb (although Dogs of War not quite as much).

If you like the idea of a paleontologist finding proof of God in the fossil record, I can't recommend Ted Chiang's story 'Omphalos' highly enough. It takes that idea and goes in a wonderfully satisfying (to me) direction.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on February 15, 2021, 10:57:31 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on January 11, 2021, 01:17:31 PM
Tonight we will being the second book in The Expanse series, Caliban's War (Corey).   It seems to have gotten good reviews, so we'll see where it takes things from Leviathan's Wake.

Finished this one a couple nights ago.  I enjoyed it more than the first, more due to the characters that were introduced than to the plot.  It was nice to see a few strong female characters come into play.  The main bad ass lady is played by a pretty bad ass actress in the series, so I am looking forward to watching that at some point.  The plot was similar, centering a lot on a biological (I guess) agent and the political intrigue surrounding it.  Not as much in this one about the caste-ish roles of those from different areas of the solar system.  Some exciting action and good dialogue.  We picked up the next one already and put it in the queue.

But we decided to move back into the Red Rising (Brown) universe with book two, Golden Son.  The immediate beginning was a bit annoying, because it seemed intended to recap a lot of the first book but felt a bit forced.  Now we're moving toward the main thrust of the story, so hopefully things will get more interesting.  This one had the highest Goodreads rating of those we considered reading next, but you never know what kind of sampling bias is going on there.  The first book was really pretty good, so I am optimistic.  We'll see if the main character has any greater self-awareness this go round.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on February 16, 2021, 01:11:24 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on February 15, 2021, 10:57:31 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on January 11, 2021, 01:17:31 PM
Tonight we will being the second book in The Expanse series, Caliban's War (Corey).   It seems to have gotten good reviews, so we'll see where it takes things from Leviathan's Wake.

Finished this one a couple nights ago.  I enjoyed it more than the first, more due to the characters that were introduced than to the plot.  It was nice to see a few strong female characters come into play.  The main bad ass lady is played by a pretty bad ass actress in the series, so I am looking forward to watching that at some point.  The plot was similar, centering a lot on a biological (I guess) agent and the political intrigue surrounding it.  Not as much in this one about the caste-ish roles of those from different areas of the solar system.  Some exciting action and good dialogue.  We picked up the next one already and put it in the queue.


The series is really very good. I find Naomi's casting a little underwhelming, and Bobby is insufficiently immense (although well-acted), but the real standout in the series is Avasrala, played by Shohreh Aghdashloo, who is superb. (And her costumes are exquisite.) And in later seasons they condense some book characters into a really outstanding badass lady named Camina Drummer, who is outstanding.

The balance in the entire series really shifts between the sci-fi protomolecule stuff and the social issues. I feel like, taken as a whole, the balance is very good in books 1-4, but it tilts too far towards the social struggle in books five and six. Then there's a big break, and new social stuff happens (which is surprisingly awesome), but the balance also begins to tilt back towards scifi stuff.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on February 16, 2021, 07:40:49 AM
Paul Revere and the World He Lived In, by Esther Forbes.  This is an older biography that tries to imaginatively re-create the society in which the subject functioned.  It's not an academic monograph style account, but is no less thoroughly researched and scholarly for that.  The author obviously admires Paul Revere and his generation, yet is well aware of their warts. 

Revere comes across as an extraordinary character.  He was a craftsman who turned his hand to all sorts of things--silversmithing, engraving, black powder manufacturing, dentistry (!), bell casting, and eventually large-scale metal smelting.  As well as serving as an organizer, activist, and, on multiple occasions, participating in military campaigns (NOT against Native Americans!).  He comes across as a thoroughly admirable, useful citizen filled with public spirit.  The fact that such a figure is now being "canceled" by those advancing an ignorant and vaguely Orwellian political agenda is disturbing.  It leaves me convinced that people who care about history need to be opposing efforts to reduce him and his contemporaries to nothing more than slave owners and Indian killers whose legacy ought to be obliterated.


Samuel Pepys:  The Unequaled Self, by Claire Tomalin.  I read through Samuel Pepys' Diary--all of it--during grad school.  I was looking for material for my dissertation, and so had my eye out for certain things.  You can't read Pepys without picking up all sorts of other vivid impressions.  Claire Tomalin considers Pepys' life as a whole, not just the years of the Diary period.  He was a prominent figure who left many other records to work with, plus a later, though less vivid and detailed, period of diary-keeping. 

It's interesting to compare Tomalin's work with an older generation of biographers such as Forbes.  One's not better than the other.  They simply differ in their emphases, as is only to be expected of writers who reflect their respective generations' interests and perspectives.  They're both very readable. 

Tomalin mentions several of Pepys' contemporaries who also kept journals, such as Bulstrode Whitelocke and Ralph Josselin.  She describes some of these figures as more admirable, but less interesting, than Pepys, the man of the world.  If you understand why somebody like Josselin felt and believed the way he did he's actually pretty interesting in his own right.  Tomalin's right, though, to say that Pepys gives you a more vivid look at his age and society.

I can't say as I find much to admire in Pepys the man.  There's no denying his vivid observation, intelligence, and humor, his significance as a social chronicler, or his government service.  He was also a turncoat, a boot-licker, and a serial sexual harasser.  I'm reminded of what Jim Hawkins said of Long John Silver at the end of Treasure Island--you wish him well in this world, since his chances of happiness in the next are not great.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on February 16, 2021, 08:42:13 AM
Quote from: ergative on February 16, 2021, 01:11:24 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on February 15, 2021, 10:57:31 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on January 11, 2021, 01:17:31 PM
Tonight we will being the second book in The Expanse series, Caliban's War (Corey).   It seems to have gotten good reviews, so we'll see where it takes things from Leviathan's Wake.

Finished this one a couple nights ago.  I enjoyed it more than the first, more due to the characters that were introduced than to the plot.  It was nice to see a few strong female characters come into play.  The main bad ass lady is played by a pretty bad ass actress in the series, so I am looking forward to watching that at some point.  The plot was similar, centering a lot on a biological (I guess) agent and the political intrigue surrounding it.  Not as much in this one about the caste-ish roles of those from different areas of the solar system.  Some exciting action and good dialogue.  We picked up the next one already and put it in the queue.


The series is really very good. I find Naomi's casting a little underwhelming, and Bobby is insufficiently immense (although well-acted), but the real standout in the series is Avasrala, played by Shohreh Aghdashloo, who is superb. (And her costumes are exquisite.) And in later seasons they condense some book characters into a really outstanding badass lady named Camina Drummer, who is outstanding.

The balance in the entire series really shifts between the sci-fi protomolecule stuff and the social issues. I feel like, taken as a whole, the balance is very good in books 1-4, but it tilts too far towards the social struggle in books five and six. Then there's a big break, and new social stuff happens (which is surprisingly awesome), but the balance also begins to tilt back towards scifi stuff.

Yep, Bobbie and Avasarala were introduced in book two.  I liked Bobbie a lot, but I thought Avasarala was a great character.  And that is the actress I was referring to! I am so looking forward to watching her.  Bobbie and Avasarala make a good team, too.  Sounds like you recommend it! The Camina Drummer character sounds intriguing! Thanks also for the info about how the book series wends its way along.  As for Naomi, her character hasn't made much of an impression on me, unfortunately.  I feel as though she and Alex really take a back seat to the others.  That's why I was extra excited about Bobbie and Avasarala.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on February 16, 2021, 09:03:29 AM
Quote from: apl68 on February 16, 2021, 07:40:49 AM
He comes across as a thoroughly admirable, useful citizen filled with public spirit. 

All I know about him is what I know about the Penobscot Expedition, in which he did not exactly cover himself in glory. Based on his behaviour then, it doesn't seem to me that he was especially admirable, but he may well have been a useful and public-minded citizen. Shrug.

(But, of course, that's just one event in what I gather was a pretty long life.)
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Puget on February 16, 2021, 06:10:54 PM
Richard Russo's Chances Are , which I somehow missed when it came out in 2019. He's one of my favorite authors, and this one did not disappoint-- interesting characters, and a story that cuts back and forth across time and narrators, with a surprise twist.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: wareagle on February 16, 2021, 07:49:31 PM
Quote from: Puget on February 16, 2021, 06:10:54 PM
Richard Russo's Chances Are , which I somehow missed when it came out in 2019. He's one of my favorite authors, and this one did not disappoint-- interesting characters, and a story that cuts back and forth across time and narrators, with a surprise twist.

I just finished that one, too!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on February 17, 2021, 01:53:44 AM
Quote from: wareagle on February 16, 2021, 07:49:31 PM
Quote from: Puget on February 16, 2021, 06:10:54 PM
Richard Russo's Chances Are , which I somehow missed when it came out in 2019. He's one of my favorite authors, and this one did not disappoint-- interesting characters, and a story that cuts back and forth across time and narrators, with a surprise twist.

I just finished that one, too!

Which of the following elements does Chances Are use?


Every RR book I've read has mixed and matched these elements, some more successfully than others. As much as I want to love Straight Man, I can't get over the fact that the narrator is such a jerk and no one calls him on it. I think Nobody's Fool is the perfect combination of the signature Russo elements, in part because people don't let Sully get away with his jerkishness.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on February 17, 2021, 08:24:01 AM
Good list of Russo plot elements, and I would maybe add a divorce and/or complicated marriage or affair.  True, too, about the jerkish main characters and Sully being the exception due to those keeping him (mostly) in line.  I'll put this "new" book on our list! Sounds pretty good.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Puget on February 17, 2021, 11:36:25 AM
Quote from: ergative on February 17, 2021, 01:53:44 AM
Quote from: wareagle on February 16, 2021, 07:49:31 PM
Quote from: Puget on February 16, 2021, 06:10:54 PM
Richard Russo's Chances Are , which I somehow missed when it came out in 2019. He's one of my favorite authors, and this one did not disappoint-- interesting characters, and a story that cuts back and forth across time and narrators, with a surprise twist.

I just finished that one, too!

Which of the following elements does Chances Are use?


  • Dying small town in New England
  • which used to host a manufacturing industry of sorts that has now left
  • but first poisoned the water and gave everyone cancer
  • Wise-cracking jerk as a main character
  • Who gave up some real opportunity in youth and instead built an unsatisfying life in the small town

Every RR book I've read has mixed and matched these elements, some more successfully than others. As much as I want to love Straight Man, I can't get over the fact that the narrator is such a jerk and no one calls him on it. I think Nobody's Fool is the perfect combination of the signature Russo elements, in part because people don't let Sully get away with his jerkishness.

That's a pretty good list for a lot of them, but this one does't really have any of those, though there are some lives that didn't go as planned in different ways. Of his other books, it is probably most similar to That Old Cape Magic, although that one has more comic elements.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on February 19, 2021, 09:24:31 AM
Ivanhoe, by Walter Scott.  The historian in me makes me hard to please when it comes to historical novels.  It's very annoying when an author either didn't do the research, or did and then chose to take extensive liberties anyway.  Sir Walter is way too in love with the "Norman yoke" idea of English medieval history, which wasn't considered good history even in his own day.  He also has quite a few anachronisms in his 1190s setting.  A medievalist could no doubt spot a lot more of them than I can.  On the other hand, Scott really tells a great story, albeit in a prolix style that hasn't aged well.  It's full of vivid characters and settings, with plenty of humor, melodrama, and intrigue.  There are thrills that would do a Hollywood screenwriter proud.

And Scott does get a lot right about the Middle Ages.  Ivanhoe's enormous popularity is often credited with spurring the popularity of romantic 19th-century medievalism.  True, perhaps, but Scott's depiction of the era isn't nearly as romanticized as some.  Scott's medieval England is a thoroughly brutal and unjust place, dominated by tribal loyalties in which considerations of ethics and morality are reserved almost entirely for the members of one's in-group.  Even the most admirable characters struggle to rise above their ingrained prejudices (But prove that doing so is possible for those who have a spark of genuine goodwill toward others).  Scott also correctly portrays medieval piety as an ostentatious veneer of ostensibly Christian ritual over a fundamentally pagan and barbarian society.  Spirituality is overwhelmingly a matter of superficial ritual, the appeasement of a corrupt clerical elite, and the veneration of a pantheon of minor deities bearing the names of saints.  Actual New Testament values and practice are thin on the ground.

Scott also spends a lot of time critiquing medieval chivalry.  For all their admirable qualities, his knightly heroes are badly limited by their conditioning to treat chivalric violence and glory seeking as ends in themselves, instead of subordinating them to higher ends.  Toward the end Scott acknowledges that Richard the Lionhearted's endless glory-seeking ruined any chance of his accomplishing anything truly worthwhile in his reign.  The Jewish Rebecca--easily the most consistently admirable character of all--repeatedly interrogates the knights' priorities and attitudes.  Her allegiance to biblical teaching places her closer to genuine Christian values than any of the novels' professedly Christian characters--an irony that surely wasn't lost on Scott's more thoughtful readers.


Ivanhoe, (1952), with Robert Taylor and Elizabeth Taylor.  I couldn't resist watching this classic screen adaptation again after finally reading the source material.  The movie is necessarily a fairly free adaptation, since it would have taken at least twice the running time to do the full story justice.  There's lots of condensation of plot, consolidation of characters, and elimination of some fairly important characters (Wamba does all of Gurth's work in assisting Ivanhoe, Ivanhoe handles far more of the heroism himself, Urfried and Athelstane are missing, etc.).  The movie still does justice to Scott's basic plot and themes.  Not a bad adaptation at all, and as much fun to watch as the book is to read.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on February 19, 2021, 06:50:45 PM
I haven't posted on this thread in awhile!

Finished The Dark Archive by Genevieve Cogman
The new and #7 novel in the "Invisible Library" series.

Started: Age of Empyre by Michael J. Sullivan
Series finale and #6 in the "Legends of the First Empire" series.  I've been borrowing this series from the library. I read and own Sullivan's two earlier series "The Riyria Revelations" and "The Riyria Chronicles."

Apl68,
I remember seeing bits and pieces of the 1997 adaptation of Ivanhoe on TV. Sir Walter Scott wrote 16 novels in the "Waverley" series--Ivanhoe was the 5th entry, published in 1819.
I've had the fun of climbing the steps of the Scott Monument in Edinburgh. Great views of the city at the top!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on February 20, 2021, 08:35:15 AM
I bet Scotland was beautiful.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on February 22, 2021, 10:48:58 AM
With the town shut down by snow all last week, it seemed like an appropriate time to re-read Storm, by George Stewart.  Storm is a day-by-day account of a fictitious winter storm, from its formation over the Pacific to its disruption of human activities across much of North America.  Stewart creates an epic story with a cast of hundreds--from the meteorologists trying to track and forecast the storm system, to the teams fighting to keep transportation, electricity, and other infrastructure going, to people from all walks of life dealing with the storm's impact.  It's a real tour-de-force.

The vignettes the story is constructed from often have a slow-burn quality.  Readers are repeatedly told about a fallen tree that is gradually shifting from its resting place in the mountains.  Finally it slides downhill and takes out a major power line.  This touches off a whole chain of events as utilities struggle to keep the grid going, and crews make dangerous field repairs.  Meanwhile a kid's stupid pot-shot at an electrical box on the side of a highway creates a minor road emergency days later.  And the seemingly random vignettes of a hog foraging in the hills above a railroad track and the passengers on a transcontinental express prove to be related in a most unexpected manner.

The author's frequent attempts to wax philosophical about how "man is a creature of the air" whose life and society are governed by the weather get a little tedious at times.  But the basic theme about how our society must deal with natural forces beyond our control is valid enough.  It's obviously still very relevant, 80 years after the novel first came out.  We tend to think of weather mainly in local terms as it affects our personal plans.  It's useful to be reminded of how our local weather and its impact upon us are only pieces of something much bigger.  And of all the behind-the-scenes work that takes place to try to keep our transportation and utilities running.  In Storm these efforts are mostly successful.  It would be interesting to know what Stewart would have made of the recent infrastructure disaster in Texas.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on February 22, 2021, 10:57:29 AM
BTW, if you've never heard of Storm, that's not too surprising.  It was a critically-acclaimed bestseller in the 1940s.  There was a special Armed Services edition in World War II.  In the '50s it served as the basis for a Disney semi-documentary on TV entitled "A Storm Named Maria."  Then the book seems to have become almost forgotten (There was a reprint in the 1980s).  Stewart is mainly remembered today for an early post-apocalyptic novel called Earth Abides. 

An old copy of Storm caught my eye at an antique store some years ago.  It goes to show that some of those old, forgotten books can be well worth reading today.  I can't recommend it highly enough.  Looks like there's a new edition due out later this year.  Meanwhile old copies are still available at Amazon.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on February 22, 2021, 11:31:47 AM
QuoteIt would be interesting to know what Stewart would have made of the recent infrastructure disaster in Texas.

He might have linked it to a grain elevator's being torn down 10 years earlier, from what you describe of his long-range interest in causality...

At first, though, my thought was, "Oh, Dick Francis' son Felix finally wrote the book they talked about in "Second Wind," which was the cover activity for a clandestine spy-like operation that pulled a couple meteorologists into flying through a couple of hurricanes...

M. 
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on March 04, 2021, 07:23:59 PM
Finishing: The Writer's Guide to Everyday Life in Regency and Victorian England, From 1811-1901 by Kristine Hughes
It's a withdrawn library copy I got a few years ago.

Next up: Enola Holmes Mystery series by Nancy Springer
This children's series got attention (and new book covers) because of the Netflix movie. Since there's a lull in demand for now, I'm reading the series ahead of the new Enola Holmes novel that the author is releasing this summer.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: nebo113 on March 05, 2021, 05:31:55 AM
Quote from: apl68 on February 22, 2021, 10:48:58 AM
With the town shut down by snow all last week, it seemed like an appropriate time to re-read Storm, by George Stewart.  Storm is a day-by-day account of a fictitious winter storm,

Completely OT but I was caught by your use of fictitious and wondered how it is different from fictional. Checked dictionary and still can't figure it out.  Sooooo....why did you choose the former over the latter?  And I'm not being snarky.  Curious and a bit of a vocabulary nut.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on March 06, 2021, 06:23:11 PM
Angus Donald - Robin Hood and the Castle of Bones: A fun new Robin Hood adventure, although it has to be said that I'd forgotten how irritatingly stupid our protagonist, Alan Dale, is. Ugh. He's insufferable. I don't have much more to say, really: it did what it said on the tin, with a typo or two on every page (such are the perils of not having access to a copy editor, I guess). But I'm glad Donald has been able to crank out a few more of these, and that there's a market for them, even if his publisher didn't want them. He's pretty good at stitching these adventures together.

Robert J. Sawyer - Mindscan: The premise was pretty interesting to me (mind-upload technology has been developed. Some rich people do it, are sued by their children for their legacies.) The execution was OK--the trial is by far the most interesting part of the novel, and there's not really enough of it. Sending the shedskins to the moon also seems really backwards--they've developed this mindscan technology, fine, but they haven't done a good job of thinking through its applications. The philosophy of mind that was mixed in was OK (notwithstanding the philosopher who testifies at the trial, who doesn't acquit himself any better than an undergrad could). Also, while I'm all for CanCon, the CanCon here was kind of grating. President Pat Buchanan was a nice touch, though.

Robert J. Sawyer - Factoring Humanity: Sawyer seems like something of an r-selector scifi author to me: he has lots of neat little ideas, and he churns them out in the hopes that one will be a hit. This is another OK novel. It's more engaging than Mindscan, but I dunno about the central conflict, really. And his grasp of the academy, and of academic ranks, is not good. Also, I just couldn't really get past the idea that a Jungian psychologist is the one who ends up deciphering the aliens' message. Too much disbelief, not enough suspension.

Robert J. Sawyer - Starplex: This was the most fun of RJS's works which I've read (also, in some ways, the least ambitious. Coincidence?). I enjoyed it a fair bit. Put the scientists into space and turn it into a small-scale space opera, and he does just fine. There's still a lot of Basil exposition, but that's his way.

Robert J. Sawyer - Flashforward: The core here is a very good idea (for one minute, the LHC gives everyone on earth a vision of a minute 21 years in the future), and it's competently executed. I enjoyed it, although I have to say that his vision of the near future was just so, so far from the mark that it was grating. There's a philosophical discussion of free will (and quantum mechanics... sigh...) in the middle that's exasperatingly undergrad, too.

Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Puget on March 06, 2021, 06:52:39 PM
The City We Became, N. K. Jemisin
New York comes alive, literarily. I enjoyed it-- some good characters, a fast moving plot, and interesting concept. If you don't like social commentary in your sci-fi it won't be your cup of tea however.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: nonsensical on March 06, 2021, 07:11:00 PM
I've been trying to find a book or book series that I read as a child and can't remember the title or the author, and I was wondering if any of you might have ever read this or have a sense of how to search for it. My memory is that this was a series of stories about a girl growing up in the 1800s. I remember one story in particular where she was trying to memorize a Bible verse and took a Bible into the bath with her to practice, and then panicked because she didn't know how to get out of the bath without putting the Bible down on the floor, and clearly that was not a thing to do with such a sacred book. I think this same book or series also had a different story where this same girl wanted a new dresser for her bedroom, or something, and her brother made her one but she had to do his chores for him. The new dresser made her realize how drab her curtains were, so her brother fixed her curtains in exchange for her doing more chores. Then she noticed that the paint was faded, so her brother painted her room in exchange for her doing still more chores. Someone commented about what an expensive dresser she got and she said, no, the chores I'm doing now are for the paint, and the other person said that the paint would not have been an issue without all the other new stuff, so she was actually still paying for the original thing that started the whole chain. It's possible that either this main character or someone else in the stories was named Mabel.

That's about all that my memory is giving me, and some of it may be wrong or jumbled up with something else I read around the same time. I know this is a long shot but figured I'd post here in case anyone had any inkling of what book this might have been, or any suggestions for keywords that I could use or other ways to search for it ("girl who doesn't want to put a Bible on the floor" isn't really giving me very much...)
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on March 07, 2021, 01:35:54 AM
Quote from: nonsensical on March 06, 2021, 07:11:00 PM
I've been trying to find a book or book series that I read as a child and can't remember the title or the author, and I was wondering if any of you might have ever read this or have a sense of how to search for it. My memory is that this was a series of stories about a girl growing up in the 1800s. I remember one story in particular where she was trying to memorize a Bible verse and took a Bible into the bath with her to practice, and then panicked because she didn't know how to get out of the bath without putting the Bible down on the floor, and clearly that was not a thing to do with such a sacred book. I think this same book or series also had a different story where this same girl wanted a new dresser for her bedroom, or something, and her brother made her one but she had to do his chores for him. The new dresser made her realize how drab her curtains were, so her brother fixed her curtains in exchange for her doing more chores. Then she noticed that the paint was faded, so her brother painted her room in exchange for her doing still more chores. Someone commented about what an expensive dresser she got and she said, no, the chores I'm doing now are for the paint, and the other person said that the paint would not have been an issue without all the other new stuff, so she was actually still paying for the original thing that started the whole chain. It's possible that either this main character or someone else in the stories was named Mabel.

That's about all that my memory is giving me, and some of it may be wrong or jumbled up with something else I read around the same time. I know this is a long shot but figured I'd post here in case anyone had any inkling of what book this might have been, or any suggestions for keywords that I could use or other ways to search for it ("girl who doesn't want to put a Bible on the floor" isn't really giving me very much...)

There is a goodreads community called 'What's the name of that book'? in which people post these sorts of questions. I have used it successfully myself, in the past. You might give it a try: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/list_group/185-what-s-the-name-of-that-book

(I'm already on goodreads, so if you want me to post it there for you and report back, I'm very happy to.)
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: nonsensical on March 07, 2021, 04:48:10 AM
Quote from: ergative on March 07, 2021, 01:35:54 AM
There is a goodreads community called 'What's the name of that book'? in which people post these sorts of questions. I have used it successfully myself, in the past. You might give it a try: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/list_group/185-what-s-the-name-of-that-book

(I'm already on goodreads, so if you want me to post it there for you and report back, I'm very happy to.)

I did not know that! Thank you for pointing me in this direction. I don't have an account there, so if you really don't mind posting for me, I would really appreciate it.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on March 07, 2021, 05:38:50 AM
Quote from: nonsensical on March 07, 2021, 04:48:10 AM
Quote from: ergative on March 07, 2021, 01:35:54 AM
There is a goodreads community called 'What's the name of that book'? in which people post these sorts of questions. I have used it successfully myself, in the past. You might give it a try: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/list_group/185-what-s-the-name-of-that-book

(I'm already on goodreads, so if you want me to post it there for you and report back, I'm very happy to.)

I did not know that! Thank you for pointing me in this direction. I don't have an account there, so if you really don't mind posting for me, I would really appreciate it.

Here it is: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/21895160-children-s-book-1800s-little-girl-doesn-t-want-to-put-bible-down-on-wet

Let me know if you remember more and want me to update it.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on March 07, 2021, 08:48:35 AM
Thanks for the reviews, Parasaurolophus! Some of the Sawyer books sound like promising reads (others not so much).

And it is neat that there's a forum like that on Goodreads for figuring out names of somewhat-recalled books! I hope that group can help.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on March 08, 2021, 01:24:15 AM
Quote from: ergative on March 07, 2021, 05:38:50 AM
Quote from: nonsensical on March 07, 2021, 04:48:10 AM
Quote from: ergative on March 07, 2021, 01:35:54 AM
There is a goodreads community called 'What's the name of that book'? in which people post these sorts of questions. I have used it successfully myself, in the past. You might give it a try: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/list_group/185-what-s-the-name-of-that-book

(I'm already on goodreads, so if you want me to post it there for you and report back, I'm very happy to.)

I did not know that! Thank you for pointing me in this direction. I don't have an account there, so if you really don't mind posting for me, I would really appreciate it.

Here it is: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/21895160-children-s-book-1800s-little-girl-doesn-t-want-to-put-bible-down-on-wet

Let me know if you remember more and want me to update it.

Here's a suggestion: is this it?


The series Grandma's Attic by Arleta Richardson came up in a search.
The first book is In Grandma's Attic. The main character's name is Mabel and she was a child at the "turn of the century". The scene of the bible and the bath is in the book Still More Stories from Grandma's Attic (I did a search within the book using Google Books). The chapter about the piece of furniture that makes her think the rest of the bedroom looks shaby is in the book Treasures from Grandma; it's a bookcase, though, not a dresser, so not sure it's the same story you were looking for!
It looks like the 1st book was published in the mid 70s and the other books in the 80s and 90s!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: nonsensical on March 12, 2021, 04:59:57 AM
Quote from: ergative on March 08, 2021, 01:24:15 AM
Here's a suggestion: is this it?


The series Grandma's Attic by Arleta Richardson came up in a search.
The first book is In Grandma's Attic. The main character's name is Mabel and she was a child at the "turn of the century". The scene of the bible and the bath is in the book Still More Stories from Grandma's Attic (I did a search within the book using Google Books). The chapter about the piece of furniture that makes her think the rest of the bedroom looks shaby is in the book Treasures from Grandma; it's a bookcase, though, not a dresser, so not sure it's the same story you were looking for!
It looks like the 1st book was published in the mid 70s and the other books in the 80s and 90s!


Yes!! Thank you so much!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on March 12, 2021, 08:52:54 AM
Hooray for the series being identified!

Just finished this one last night:

Quote from: ab_grp on February 15, 2021, 10:57:31 AM
But we decided to move back into the Red Rising (Brown) universe with book two, Golden Son.  The immediate beginning was a bit annoying, because it seemed intended to recap a lot of the first book but felt a bit forced.  Now we're moving toward the main thrust of the story, so hopefully things will get more interesting.  This one had the highest Goodreads rating of those we considered reading next, but you never know what kind of sampling bias is going on there.  The first book was really pretty good, so I am optimistic.  We'll see if the main character has any greater self-awareness this go round.

It got a lot better once we moved past the beginning and got into the story.  It was a pretty similar story to the first book, sort of a Hunger Games feel, but took place in a different setting than the first.  I guess you could say the first was in a school setting, and the second was in a workplace setting.  The plot is still about the main character trying to undo society and the caste system that has been in place forever, with those at the lower levels having no idea of the reality of the world and basically kept in slavery.  Each color (red, blue, violet, pink, gold, etc.) has their roles to play in the society and are violently discouraged from expanding beyond those roles.  Similar to the first book, there's a lot of plotting and treachery.  Some very good characters from the previous book and new ones introduced in this one, some eye-rolling (at times) dialog, interesting plot reveals.  It's still hard to get behind the main character completely, because he just doesn't seem to get it half the time, though at least he has grown a bit less naive.  Overall, I really like this series so far.   It's advertised as a trilogy but seems to have five books.  I guess we'll have to see if three books should have been enough. 

Now we're reading An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green.  Seems like it's off to an interesting start, but we began it before bed last night, and I fell asleep not too far into it.  It appears to be about a bunch of statues that start appearing in different cities and the main character having to figure out what the purpose is.  I would post the blurb, but it's a bit long.  Supposed to be a humorous sci-fi with complex underlying ideas.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on March 18, 2021, 01:48:48 PM
A short list of books I read or soon will from the library:
Enola Holmes Mystery series by Nancy Springer
Quick reads--kids series about Enola Holmes, the 14 year old sister of Mycroft and Sherlock Holmes. The 1st book, The Case of the Missing Marquess, was the basis of the hit Netflix movie. I recommend reading the books in order.  The author has a new and 7th installment releasing this summer!

Murder at Queen's Landing by Andrea Penrose
#4 in the "Wrexford & Sloane" mystery series.  The Duke and Charlotte Sloane investigate a murder at London's docks.

The Queen's Secret by Melissa de la Cruz (teen)
The sequel to The Queen's Assassin

The Dark Heart of Florence by Tasha Alexander
New and #15 in the "Lady Emily Mystery" series
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on March 26, 2021, 07:52:25 AM
Quakeland:  On the Road to America's Next Devastating Earthquake, by Kathryn Miles.  It's a fascinating piece of journalism.  The author investigates the geology of earthquakes and earthquake prediction, has a good bit to say about recent and historical quakes, and talks about the risks of a catastrophic quake in various parts of the country and how to prepare for it.  California isn't the only place that's at risk.  Several other parts of the country have real risks of a catastrophic quake within not too many decades.  Even New York City has a slim but real chance of a quake that, in a worst-case scenario, could render the whole city as uninhabitable as New Orleans after Katrina.  Think about that for a moment.

Miles devotes a couple of chapters to the New Madrid fault zone.  I've known all my life that our whole state lies in that zone, although I've always lived in areas far enough out that serious damage would be unlikely.  Most of our state seems fairly safe.  Neighboring regions, such as the city of Memphis, are another story.

There are a couple of pages on the long-term effort to retroactively quake-proof the DeSoto Interstate 40 bridge across the Mississippi at Memphis.  I've crossed that bridge about a hundred times (No hyperbole) over the last 31 years, and had wondered why it had construction on it for so long.  They had to do the retrofitting while keeping it open.  It was one of the first bridges to receive such an upgrade.  It carries such a huge volume of commercial traffic that it could cripple the nation's economy if it were destroyed.  Now it should be proof against a 2,500-year quake.  Good to know somebody has been on the ball there.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on March 27, 2021, 11:47:38 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on March 12, 2021, 08:52:54 AM
Now we're reading An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green.  Seems like it's off to an interesting start, but we began it before bed last night, and I fell asleep not too far into it.  It appears to be about a bunch of statues that start appearing in different cities and the main character having to figure out what the purpose is.  I would post the blurb, but it's a bit long.  Supposed to be a humorous sci-fi with complex underlying ideas.

Finished this last night.  We ended up LOVING it.  It's a sci-fi mystery with an interesting plot.  The writing style kind of reminded me of a mix of some of John Scalzi (like Fuzzy Nation or Agent to the Stars), Neal Stephenson (like Zodiac or Snow Crash), and Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum stories.  A little quirky, and I laughed and cried.  It was really an enjoyable read with some timely messages.  I wish the follow-up were out in paperback, but it looks like that's coming out just around my husband's birthday in July, when it seems like a lot of sci-fi (at least in paperback?) comes out, so I will put that on the list to pick up.  Makes for easy birthday presents! I didn't realize that the author, Hank Green, is John Green's brother (e.g., The Fault in Our Stars).

Just started Wool (Hugh Howey).  It seems to center around a group of people living in an underground silo to protect themselves from the outside.  Apparently, wanting to go outside is a no-no, and a character wishes to do this, which I guess ultimately leads to some sort of uprising against the society and rules they've been living under.   Could be interesting if done well, or could be a rehash of other, similar stories.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on March 29, 2021, 07:39:08 AM
Lying Awake, by Mark Saltzman.  The novel's protagonist is a Carmelite nun who begins having very vivid experiences of God's presence that prompt her to become a popular devotional writer.  She also has worsening problems with migraines and seizures.  Eventually she learns that she is suffering from epilepsy.  This puts her in a dilemma.  If she has surgery to end the symptoms, she will likely lose her vivid experiences.  If she doesn't she will continue to burden her sisters in the community with caring for her during her seizures.

The whole story is a brilliant exploration of the issue of faith struggles--not struggles with doubt in the existence of God, or in the truth of scripture, but with one's own relationship to God and service to God.  It hits very close to home.  I've spent my life dealing with neurological issues--borderline autism in my youth, serious introversion, and periodic attacks of depression.  I've spent most of my life wishing that I wasn't the way I am.  It feels like these things have always held me back from accomplishing most of what I've wanted to accomplish in life, in God's service and in other ways. 

A year ago renewed major depression made it necessary for me to start taking antidepressants, which I very much did not want to do.  Though the drug has greatly improved my situation, I have lost a great deal of my former energy and creativity in the process.  Saltzman's protagonist found after her surgery that she could no longer write.  I've found the same thing.  I used to be a very productive writer.  Now I can no longer write anything much longer than this post.  It makes me feel very diminished.

Which may be kind of the point when God allows his children to go through such things.  Milton learned, in his famous sonnet on his blindness ("When I consider how my light is spent"), that God doesn't need for us to be our idea of high achievers.  He simply wants us to follow him.  That's essentially what the sister in the novel learns.  It's a wonderful exploration of this theme.  I'd love to write a novel like this.  If I could still write....
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on March 31, 2021, 06:39:35 AM
The Organization Man, by William H. Whyte.  This once-famous 1950s study was evidently a big factor in spreading concerns that the postwar rise of corporations and suburbs was turning the United States into a nation of bland conformists.  Well, the 1960s and subsequent developments sure showed them!  It's an interesting social analysis that in some ways looks very quaint with hindsight.

Whyte devotes a couple of chapters to the sorts of standardized personality tests that had become popular with employers.  He gives a brief "test" that includes examples of the different sorts of questions one is likely to face.  It's very funny.  Deliberately so, but he's also making a serious point about the sorts of things that those personality inventories asked.  Then he has an appendix on how to game the exams to keep from getting a score that employers will worry about.  "To settle on the most beneficial answer to any question, repeat to yourself:

I loved my father and my mother, but my father a little bit more.
I like things pretty well the way they are.
I never worry much about anything.
I don't care for books or music much.
I love my wife and children.
I don't let them get in the way of company work."

Probably still good advice for job seekers.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on March 31, 2021, 08:46:44 AM
Anyone here read the works of T. Kingfisher? I've just started my third, and each time I open the book it promises to be a light, entertaining fantasy, but about halfway through I realize it's really, really good! I've just cruised through her goodreads page to mark all her other books so I don't forget about them.

Except The Twisted Ones. I don't like being scared.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on April 01, 2021, 01:24:19 PM
March:

Cormac McCarthy - Blood Meridian: Not nearly as violent as everyone always makes out (at least, not for this particular historical fiction fan!), although the violence is on the whole much more immoral than what historical fiction has accustomed me to. It was mostly dull but punctuated with some nice flourishes, and the spare language mostly got in the way of comprehension and reading for content. I was routinely confused about the progression of events, who was who, etc., and I made awfully slow progress through it. McCarthy's spare language works brilliantly in The Road; here, it's just a gimmick that's supposed to tell you you're reading Literature and there's a Point to it all. But really, there isn't. It's just boring and confusing and pretentious. Also, that epilogue... ugh. For fuck's sake! I know what's going on there (either fencing, telegraph installation, or prospecting for oil), but it's the epitome of pretentious bullshit. Give me a fucking break! Oh, and Bloom's introducition is full of shit. (Despite appearances, I didn't hate it. But I don't have much patience for it.)

Chris Beckett - Mother of Eden: Beckett seems to have mostly abandoned his attempt at Riddley Walker-style language, and that's too bad, since it could have been improved. It's also too bad that this novel doesn't pick up from the last, since I was really interested in seeing what they all found out, and in learning more about Eden's ecology (that's what I want from these scifi colonization stories, after all!). But it was quite a fun read nonetheless, and I did enjoy seeing what Eden had turned into further downstream. And the nascent realpolitik was fun. But this is a very different kind of novel from the first.

Chris Beckett - Daughter of Eden: I expected this one to be further downstream as well, but it mostly picks up after the second one, and settles on a single character's POV. Two of the events we've all been waiting for finally happen, however, and at least one of them is quite interestingly rendered (the other's OK, but actually fades into the background). I enjoyed it, however, and thought it brought the trilogy to a fitting end (to the extent that it does). I wouldn't mind revisiting Eden in another book sometime, although I still mostly just want more of its ecology!

Naomi Novik - Uprooted: This is basically a children's fable/story set in a fantasy world, fleshed-up with a basic Harlequin structure, and set in an eastern European locale. It was a lot fun, I'll admit, although I'm disappointed that there's no system of magic at all (it's pure deus ex machina) and I think that the two romantic interludes were ill-fitting (despite the Harlequin-influenced structure). I was never bored, though, and I tore through it. Plus, it was refreshing to have things be inspired by eastern Europe instead of the usual western European stuff.


I suspect I'll be reading much more slowly over the next few months, but I'll do my best to make it through at least two a month.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on April 01, 2021, 07:25:15 PM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on April 01, 2021, 01:24:19 PM
March:
Naomi Novik - Uprooted: This is basically a children's fable/story set in a fantasy world, fleshed-up with a basic Harlequin structure, and set in an eastern European locale. It was a lot fun, I'll admit, although I'm disappointed that there's no system of magic at all (it's pure deus ex machina) and I think that the two romantic interludes were ill-fitting (despite the Harlequin-influenced structure). I was never bored, though, and I tore through it. Plus, it was refreshing to have things be inspired by eastern Europe instead of the usual western European stuff.
I read this one from the library after the book was released.  I liked the Polish-Lithuanian inspiration. Her fantasy inspired Spinning Silver was good too.
I had the fun of seeing Naomi Novik speak at an author's panel at American Library Assoc. (ALA) several years ago!

Her latest novel A Deadly Education is the 1st installment in a new series.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on April 01, 2021, 09:26:16 PM
Quote from: hmaria1609 on April 01, 2021, 07:25:15 PM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on April 01, 2021, 01:24:19 PM
March:
Naomi Novik - Uprooted: This is basically a children's fable/story set in a fantasy world, fleshed-up with a basic Harlequin structure, and set in an eastern European locale. It was a lot fun, I'll admit, although I'm disappointed that there's no system of magic at all (it's pure deus ex machina) and I think that the two romantic interludes were ill-fitting (despite the Harlequin-influenced structure). I was never bored, though, and I tore through it. Plus, it was refreshing to have things be inspired by eastern Europe instead of the usual western European stuff.
I read this one from the library after the book was released.  I liked the Polish-Lithuanian inspiration. Her fantasy inspired Spinning Silver was good too.
I had the fun of seeing Naomi Novik speak at an author's panel at American Library Assoc. (ALA) several years ago!

Her latest novel A Deadly Education is the 1st installment in a new series.

Oh, cool!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on April 02, 2021, 06:07:05 AM
Quote from: apl68 on March 29, 2021, 07:39:08 AM
Lying Awake, by Mark Saltzman.  The novel's protagonist is a Carmelite nun who begins having very vivid experiences of God's presence that prompt her to become a popular devotional writer.  She also has worsening problems with migraines and seizures.  Eventually she learns that she is suffering from epilepsy.  This puts her in a dilemma.  If she has surgery to end the symptoms, she will likely lose her vivid experiences.  If she doesn't she will continue to burden her sisters in the community with caring for her during her seizures.

The whole story is a brilliant exploration of the issue of faith struggles--not struggles with doubt in the existence of God, or in the truth of scripture, but with one's own relationship to God and service to God.  It hits very close to home.  I've spent my life dealing with neurological issues--borderline autism in my youth, serious introversion, and periodic attacks of depression.  I've spent most of my life wishing that I wasn't the way I am.  It feels like these things have always held me back from accomplishing most of what I've wanted to accomplish in life, in God's service and in other ways. 

A year ago renewed major depression made it necessary for me to start taking antidepressants, which I very much did not want to do.  Though the drug has greatly improved my situation, I have lost a great deal of my former energy and creativity in the process.  Saltzman's protagonist found after her surgery that she could no longer write.  I've found the same thing.  I used to be a very productive writer.  Now I can no longer write anything much longer than this post.  It makes me feel very diminished.

Which may be kind of the point when God allows his children to go through such things.  Milton learned, in his famous sonnet on his blindness ("When I consider how my light is spent"), that God doesn't need for us to be our idea of high achievers.  He simply wants us to follow him.  That's essentially what the sister in the novel learns.  It's a wonderful exploration of this theme.  I'd love to write a novel like this.  If I could still write....

It's been awhile since I audited a seminar on Hildegard von Bingen's sermons, but the thought at the time was moving towards seeing her visualized meditations in 'Scivias,' etc., as the results of migraines as well. I don't know if further work has been done on that, since, but this has strong resonances with it.

I'm sorry for your senses of loss. It's hardest when it seems like the blocks towards fulfilling ones vocation--especially a vocation to which one enthusiastically assets and wishes to fulfill--seem immutable and arising from some aspect of the same self that wishes to comply with that call.

My most recent image is of the boat stuck in the canal. It didn't want to be wedged against the sides, it just was....

And it didn't take one big crane to move it, but a lot of little tugboats, both pushing and pulling, as well as those intrepid tiny sandblasters.

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: spork on April 02, 2021, 03:24:52 PM
Changing a syllabus for a course scheduled for next year that probably won't meet minimum enrollment, so I've read these:


I should probably mention that a new edition of Milton Osborne's Southeast Asia: An Introductory History is scheduled for release in September. Too late for my needs, but the edition I had as a student twenty-five years ago was excellent.

I'm also looking forward to Suchitra Vijayan's Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India, which is due out in May.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: fleabite on April 02, 2021, 03:50:03 PM
Thanks for mentioning these. I'm going to have to read Superpower Interrupted. I found The Hispanic History of the United States, which is thematically in the same vein, very interesting.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: spork on April 02, 2021, 04:23:15 PM
Quote from: fleabite on April 02, 2021, 03:50:03 PM
Thanks for mentioning these. I'm going to have to read Superpower Interrupted. I found The Hispanic History of the United States, which is thematically in the same vein, very interesting.

Thank you for letting me know about Our America: A Hispanic History of the United States. Generally U.S. history isn't my thing, but this looks quite interesting.

Michael Schuman, the author of Superpower Interrupted, is a journalist rather than a historian, so the writing is breezier but it's not a hard-core academic work like Kenneth Pomeranz's The Great Divergence or Klaus Mühlhahn's Making China Modern. From the Great Qing to Xi Jinping.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on April 05, 2021, 07:26:09 AM
Quote from: fleabite on April 02, 2021, 03:50:03 PM
Thanks for mentioning these. I'm going to have to read Superpower Interrupted. I found The Hispanic History of the United States, which is thematically in the same vein, very interesting.

Those both look like good works to check out.  If they're popularly-accessible works, they might be good choices for our library collection.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: fleabite on April 05, 2021, 01:07:11 PM
Our America: A Hispanic History of the United States (Spork supplied the correct title which I had garbled) isn't really short, but it is accessible to a broad audience. In fact, I had wanted to suggest it for the book club at my local public library, but there weren't enough copies in the system. (With budget cuts after the last recession, there is much less nonfiction purchased in sufficient quantities for book club use.)
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Hegemony on April 05, 2021, 11:31:49 PM
Following up on Ab-grp's comments, I read that Wool was great, and tried to get through it, and absolutely could not. It read like some random person without much writing expertise was trying to hack their way through a plot. I was having to force myself to keep going in the hope that it would take off after a while. It never did and eventually I gave up. Then some research revealed that it was self-published, and so it was some random person without much writing expertise was trying to hack their way through a plot. I am at a loss to explain why so many people liked it.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on April 06, 2021, 01:42:34 AM
Quote from: Hegemony on April 05, 2021, 11:31:49 PM
Following up on Ab-grp's comments, I read that Wool was great, and tried to get through it, and absolutely could not. It read like some random person without much writing expertise was trying to hack their way through a plot. I was having to force myself to keep going in the hope that it would take off after a while. It never did and eventually I gave up. Then some research revealed that it was self-published, and so it was some random person without much writing expertise was trying to hack their way through a plot. I am at a loss to explain why so many people liked it.

I've recently been viewing with avid fascination the three (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzk9N7dJBec)-part (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjViIRWesQ0) discussion  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0R4bczm8BPY)of the book and movie adapation of the Fifty Shades of Grey series, which the presenter absolutely describes as a random person without much writing expertise trying to hack their way through a plot. I find this sort of discussion so interesting--not enough to encourage me to read the books (which the presenter evidently did extremely carefully), but enough that I follow these publishing trends and associated discussions. What is it about certain texts that catches the interest of (millions of) readers, or publishers, when their objective merit is so evidently lousy?

This component to publication and reading trends is the part of literary Discourse that interests me the most, I think. I don't really care too much whether a reviewer considers something Good or not, because I disagree with them often enough and read enough Good books to recognize that merit and preference can be related, but also wildly divergent. It's the preference side of things that attracts me to the Discourse: external to merit, what causes something to catch on in a big way? It's works like Fifty Shades of Grey that highlight how disconnected merit and preference can be, and there's just enough randomness in the patterns of explosive popularity to be confusing, and just enough connection to changes in societal values/tastes/mores to make it really juicy to discuss.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on April 06, 2021, 08:37:42 AM
Quote from: Hegemony on April 05, 2021, 11:31:49 PM
Following up on Ab-grp's comments, I read that Wool was great, and tried to get through it, and absolutely could not. It read like some random person without much writing expertise was trying to hack their way through a plot. I was having to force myself to keep going in the hope that it would take off after a while. It never did and eventually I gave up. Then some research revealed that it was self-published, and so it was some random person without much writing expertise was trying to hack their way through a plot. I am at a loss to explain why so many people liked it.

We are only about a third (?) of the way in, but I've started to get into the story, and I hope it takes off! I really like of the relationships between some of the characters, and there is some intrigue as far as what is actually going on (I have some suspicions).  But I could also see it not pulling it off, so I will report back when we have finished it (or have decided not to). 

As far as the self-publishing goes, I generally avoid those books (and didn't know Wool was one of them), but there are a couple I've picked up that I was glad for.  One series in particular is the Miss Fortune Mystery series by Jana DeLeon.  I think I got all the books for free on Kindle.  They're sort of in the Janet Evanovich Stephanie Plum vein and we have really enjoyed them, but they are also more fun and not serious books.  It's also how a friend of mine got into the market with his horror stories.  He's gotten a lot of good reviews for them, and apparently one is possibly going to be a film at some point.   But I am still skeptical most times, and finding out that a book that I didn't think was well written was also self-published would not surprise me. 

The self-publishing angle and also the publishing trends that ergative described are really interesting in general.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on April 07, 2021, 06:47:38 AM
Now reading a truly fascinating document.  Our town was founded around 1900 as a company mill town.  In the early 1950s the company commissioned a team of city planners to develop a master plan for controlled development of the town's population from a few thousand to well over 20,000.  A couple of years ago the library snagged a copy of the plan for its archives when the company's successor got rid of a bunch of historical material that they had inherited.  The planners were quite thorough.  They included lots of maps and tables, clear explanations of their methodology (It was aimed at a general audience), and statistics of all sorts regarding the city's projected needs.  They even have detailed breakdowns of anticipated costs of all the projected development, and what proportions would be paid by the taxpayer and by developers.  They envisioned a gradual three-stage process.

The plan envisioned developing six or seven residential neighborhoods, each with its own elementary school and mini-park.  The land around the old sawmill pond would be cleaned up and turned into a big city park.  There would be an expanded downtown business district, a traffic bypass all the way around the town like a miniature urban boundary ring, and much else.  The planners tried to calculate projected needs down to how many classrooms would be needed in the schools.  They included detailed maps of sewers and other utilities.  There were also plans to preserve much of the land's natural tree cover during development, and to plant new trees to give the whole city a park-like appearance.

Much of the plan was never implemented, in large part because most of the projected population increase never showed up.  But the plan definitely left its mark on the town.  Some of the neighborhood schools were built.  There's one a couple of blocks from my house that remains in use, though it's now a city-wide elementary school, not just for the neighborhood.  Its playground areas double as a neighborhood park.  They were upgraded with some grant funds a few years ago.

The big park was built and remains a great place to walk, fish, and picnic.  The nine-hole golf course there was never built, but a few years ago somebody installed a disc golf course.  The town still has a lot of tree cover.  The oddly wide street right-of-way on the edge of town, a few blocks from my house, turns out to be the remains of part of the projected bypass system.

There are a lot of what-might-have-beens.  There was supposed to be a big new municipal cemetery near our neighborhood elementary school.  A little up from that would have been a proposed college of forestry (The state eventually built a vo-tech school some way out of town).  The plan's maps shows a projected "outdoor theater" roughly where the Asian restaurant now stands.  Our library sits on the edge of town in a patch of land that was never developed--which is a big part of why we have virtually no foot traffic.

If I can get some good, clear scans of these maps to work up a slide show, this would make a great historical presentation to trot out at civic meetings.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on April 07, 2021, 07:06:03 AM
When you look at the civic master plan, it's clear that they envisioned a solidly working-class community.  Some neighborhoods would be designed to have a little nicer housing than others, but there were to be no country-club districts.  There would be a modest amount of duplex and apartment housing.  By all accounts I've heard from people who recall the town's heyday in the 1960s and 1970s (I didn't grow up here myself), that's pretty much what the town became.  Then mechanization, automation, and regional industrial decline wrecked the region's fortunes, as it did in most of small-town and rural America.

A striking feature of the plan is the way it assumed, just a few years before the Civil Rights movement started gathering force, that racial segregation would continue.  The existing black neighborhood would receive the same amenities as the rest of the town, and would expand in area, but it would remain the place where all the black residents lived and went to school.  Some of the park areas were designed to serve as a buffer to keep the black neighborhood properly quarantined. 

A decade or so later, the schools were desegregated.  Truly desegregated, since the town is small enough that everybody goes to the same schools regardless of what neighborhoods they live in (The neighborhood elementary schools were consolidated long ago).  Unlike happened in much of Mississippi, the white residents didn't just abandon the public school system to set up "segregation academies."  White and black students just shrugged their shoulders and got used to going to school together.  The same thing happened in my own home town elsewhere in the state.  It works just fine.  It beats me why some people in other communities can't seem to wrap their heads around the idea.

And, although black residents remain concentrated in certain areas, they now live in every part of town.  Just neighbors like anybody else.  Again, it's hard to see why so many people just don't seem to get the idea.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on April 07, 2021, 07:00:24 PM
apl68, you had a trip back in time with your community maps! Is there someone on library staff who handles local history materials?
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on April 08, 2021, 07:21:05 AM
Quote from: hmaria1609 on April 07, 2021, 07:00:24 PM
apl68, you had a trip back in time with your community maps! Is there someone on library staff who handles local history materials?

No, we don't have a designated person for that.  I do sometimes detail our person in charge of outreach to do certain things with that material.  Yesterday our mayor asked us to supply a selection of historic images of the town from which they could choose some nice items to duplicate to go on the wall of City Hall (They've been doing a bit of remodeling there, and wanted something to supplement all the photos of past mayors).  Today I plan to give that staff member a list of things to look for and turn her loose in our extensive collection of historic photos.

The Mayor also asked if I could cover for a Rotary Club presentation for today.  The speaker fell through, and they needed a last-minute substitute.  I started making plans to do a show-and-tell with some of our more portable memorabilia, including our copy of the master plan.  Then I got a call saying that there had been a misunderstanding.  They have a speaker after all.  That means I can have some time to prepare a better presentation in a couple of months.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: spork on April 10, 2021, 04:48:46 AM
Quote from: apl68 on March 26, 2021, 07:52:25 AM
Quakeland:  On the Road to America's Next Devastating Earthquake, by Kathryn Miles.  It's a fascinating piece of journalism.  The author investigates the geology of earthquakes and earthquake prediction, has a good bit to say about recent and historical quakes, and talks about the risks of a catastrophic quake in various parts of the country and how to prepare for it.  California isn't the only place that's at risk.  Several other parts of the country have real risks of a catastrophic quake within not too many decades. 

[. . .]

If you are interested in earthquakes:

Kathryn Schulz's New Yorker piece on the risk to the coastal northwestern USA: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/20/the-really-big-one (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/20/the-really-big-one) (requires creation of a free website account if you are not already a paid subscriber).

Jonathan M. Katz, The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster, 2013.

I teach a course on disasters, so I'm always looking for readings on events like earthquakes. I'll probably check out Quakeland this summer, so thanks.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on April 10, 2021, 06:54:49 AM
Quote from: spork on April 10, 2021, 04:48:46 AM
Quote from: apl68 on March 26, 2021, 07:52:25 AM
Quakeland:  On the Road to America's Next Devastating Earthquake, by Kathryn Miles.  It's a fascinating piece of journalism.  The author investigates the geology of earthquakes and earthquake prediction, has a good bit to say about recent and historical quakes, and talks about the risks of a catastrophic quake in various parts of the country and how to prepare for it.  California isn't the only place that's at risk.  Several other parts of the country have real risks of a catastrophic quake within not too many decades. 

[. . .]

If you are interested in earthquakes:

Kathryn Schulz's New Yorker piece on the risk to the coastal northwestern USA: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/20/the-really-big-one (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/20/the-really-big-one) (requires creation of a free website account if you are not already a paid subscriber).

Jonathan M. Katz, The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster, 2013.

I teach a course on disasters, so I'm always looking for readings on events like earthquakes. I'll probably check out Quakeland this summer, so thanks.

A course on disasters.  Now that sounds interesting!

I think your students would like Quakeland.  It's very accessible and has lots of anecdotes among the science stuff.  And some good thoughts about the public policy implications of the world's disaster-proneness.  You could pick a lot of good modest-length readings out of there.

I read New Yorker regularly and have probably seen the Schulz article.  I'm planning in the near future to go back and re-read some of New Yorker's environmental pieces.  I'll have to try to find the Katz book.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on April 10, 2021, 07:19:54 PM
Apl, I find your analysis of the town development materials fascinating. It's like having a geographic telescope with a rear-iew mirror, that helps you see how things came to be the way they are.

It's sooo important that you saved them, too.

If I recall aright, Larryc might have some ideas about how to do more with those materials as public history documents,  including the availability of grants to fund, say upper-level high school students' use of them, for coursework, or for creating town signage.

The history of peacefully conducted school integration also deserves some kind of mention, albeit with representative participation from all the affected populations in the town (but I'm guessing you'd be doing that anyway).

Understanding how we got to where we are--accurately--is so important.

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on April 12, 2021, 07:56:54 AM
I can no longer walk along that street on the edge of town without trying to imagine it as a bypass road.  That's hard to do, since it now has very little traffic most of the time.  It has houses along one side like any other residential street in the neighborhood.  On the other side is a long, grassy strip that is still kept mowed.  That's part of the original right-of-way.  Past that you have a combination pipeline/power line right of way that is open in places and has trees in others.  And past that it's mostly clear cuts and timber plantations.  The town/country divide is very abrupt in that section.

Comparisons of the plan maps with a current city map show that most of the land was developed.  Evidently they overestimated how many residents could be accommodated at the level of density the plan envisioned.  The ending of the baby boom caused average household size to be lower than they anticipated.  And by the time the last phase of development took place, some older neighborhoods were losing residents.  It also looks like more people than anticipated decided to live outside the city limits in the compass-point low-tax "suburbs."

Still, a lot of the plan did come to fruition in one form or another.  I'm still trying to get an idea of just how much.

Hoping by week's end to give the Mayor a thumb drive with a good selection of those historical images that we promised her.  We really need to include a scan of the master plan map.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on April 12, 2021, 08:02:52 AM
Quote from: mamselle on April 10, 2021, 07:19:54 PM
Apl, I find your analysis of the town development materials fascinating. It's like having a geographic telescope with a rear-iew mirror, that helps you see how things came to be the way they are.

I've always been fascinated by micro-geographies of communities.  And city planning.  I still recall several illuminating studies of older communities in time.  Robin Osborne's Classical Landscape With Figures:  The Ancient Greek City and Its Countryside is also very interesting.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: spork on April 12, 2021, 10:08:08 AM
Quote from: apl68 on April 10, 2021, 06:54:49 AM
Quote from: spork on April 10, 2021, 04:48:46 AM
Quote from: apl68 on March 26, 2021, 07:52:25 AM
Quakeland:  On the Road to America's Next Devastating Earthquake, by Kathryn Miles. 

[. . .]

If you are interested in earthquakes:

Kathryn Schulz's New Yorker piece on the risk to the coastal northwestern USA: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/20/the-really-big-one (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/20/the-really-big-one) (requires creation of a free website account if you are not already a paid subscriber).

Jonathan M. Katz, The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster, 2013.

I teach a course on disasters, so I'm always looking for readings on events like earthquakes. I'll probably check out Quakeland this summer, so thanks.

A course on disasters.  Now that sounds interesting!

I think your students would like Quakeland.  It's very accessible and has lots of anecdotes among the science stuff.  And some good thoughts about the public policy implications of the world's disaster-proneness.  You could pick a lot of good modest-length readings out of there.

I read New Yorker regularly and have probably seen the Schulz article.  I'm planning in the near future to go back and re-read some of New Yorker's environmental pieces.  I'll have to try to find the Katz book.

While researching Quakeland, I found another book by Kathryn Miles: Superstorm: Nine Days Inside Hurricane Sandy. This also looks interesting and I'll be requesting a copy through my university's library network at the end of the semester.

I just finished Until the World Shatters: Truth, Lies, and the Looting of Myanmar by Daniel Combs. I thought it was much better than The Hidden History of Burma: Race, Capitalism, and Democracy in the 21st Century by Thant Myint-U.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on April 12, 2021, 01:15:30 PM
A People's History of the United States: 1492 – Present by Howard Zinn. 2005.

It was interesting to read about the stuff typically left out of history books (e.g. the Marias Massacre) that had been part of my middle school education in the West.   I thought everyone would have heard those stories. 

By the same token, there was a lot of the eastern labor movement struggles that I was woefully unaware of.  I was one of the 10,000 (https://xkcd.com/1053/), regularly during this read.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on April 12, 2021, 02:53:41 PM
I've now prepared a working copy of the 1953 master plan map for my own use.  When I get out and around on my own I can compare what was projected with what we actually have.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on April 12, 2021, 07:17:43 PM
I haven't posted my reads since last month. All but one are from the library. Here goes!

A Wicked Conceit by Anna Lee Huber
New and #9 entry in the "Lady Darby Mysteries" series. I bought my own copy of the novel.

How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories by Holly Black (YA)
Novella collection with illustrations to the "Folk of the Air" trilogy.

Beneath the Keep by Erika Johansen
Prequel novel to the "Queen of the Tearling" trilogy

My Calamity Jane by Cynthia Hand et al (YA)
Comedic, alternate history about Calamity Jane and her friends

Queens of the Crusades by Alison Weir (NF)
New and #2 entry in "England's Medieval Queen" series
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on April 22, 2021, 01:32:11 PM
Quote from: apl68 on April 12, 2021, 08:02:52 AM
Quote from: mamselle on April 10, 2021, 07:19:54 PM
Apl, I find your analysis of the town development materials fascinating. It's like having a geographic telescope with a rear-iew mirror, that helps you see how things came to be the way they are.

I've always been fascinated by micro-geographies of communities.  And city planning.  I still recall several illuminating studies of older communities in time.  Robin Osborne's Classical Landscape With Figures:  The Ancient Greek City and Its Countryside is also very interesting.

I know the feeling of "...if you squint, you can see them...," which I regularly get after doing an afternoon of 18th c. tours. It's like your awareness of what used to be supplants your sense of what is, sometimes just for a fleeting moment...

I also enjoy doing this with medieval French and English towns. The paper I'm working on now looks at Palm Sunday processions in three French and three English cathedral towns.

So much of the infrastructure is still preserved in nearly all the towns I'm working on that even the roads and their names give clues to what was where. The Celestines still have a (smaller) convent on the Rue des Celestines in one place.

There are remnants of the last 14th houses of the canons in another one's former Cathedral cloister (close). Commercial writing houses were along the roads called "Rue des Scribes" and "Rue des Parmentiers."

And my sister and I got lost in 1973 in London when we tried to find the youth hostel that had newly been established in an old warehouse on Clerkenwell Close. Turned out you had to go through Clerkenwell Street, turn on Clerkenwell Road, go towards Clerkenwell Green, and finally, there was a little side alley called "Clerkenwell Close," that (I know now) led to the cloister for the Clerkenwell monastic emplantation.

All the roads had had that same configuration (maybe a few were straightened a bit) since before the 1500s, when Henry VII destroyed the abbeys and monasteries.

And if you read Robert Parker's books, and you know the area he speaks of, well...

M.   
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on April 23, 2021, 07:27:10 AM
We have a local road that is named after an auto body shop that is no longer there.  The name was used informally for so long that it now appears on the official road sign.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on April 28, 2021, 04:55:32 PM
We finished Wool (Howey) last night.  It was actually easier to get into than some of the other books we've read (like Consider Phlebus), but certainly not one of the best.  I am not sure if I think the premise, as it ended up playing out, was clever in terms of storytelling or in terms of setting the stage for additional books.  In looking at the background, it looks as though it was self-published as discussed in this thread, but originally only just the first part of it as a short story.  It got some attention, so he added some subsequent short stories, and the book was eventually published as a whole by Simon & Schuster.  So it is an interesting publishing model, as the next book in the series is apparently a combination (?) of three prequel short stories.  I would probably check out the second book but wouldn't put it on the short list as we have done for other series starters.  There were a couple interesting twists in the story, but some of the important pieces don't seem well explained (and they're not things that would be explained in prequels or sequels).  Some of the content is a bit eye-rolly.  I did enjoy several of the characters, however.  Unfortunately, most of them contributed only to the beginning of the book.  So we didn't give it high praise but did finish it.

Now we're back into the Expanse universe (Corey) with Abaddon's Gate.  Just started, though I wasn't as into the previous books as my husband was (compared to other series), and I am not gaga for this one just yet, either.  We'll see. 
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on May 02, 2021, 08:06:52 AM
Snorri Kristjansson - Swords of Good Men: Absolutely awful. Total drivel. The period details are all wrong--it's just ill-informed, unresearched bad viking-inspired D&D dungeon mastering with fantasy weapons and combat. The "story", such as it is, makes no sense--I still have no idea why the settlement was besieged, especially since the beginning made it seem like a natural ally to the besiegers. The writing is poor, and not at all helped by the rapid changes of perspective. Speaking of which, there are far too many perspectives. The entire effect is very disjointed. I struggled to read more than a handful of pages a day. It took me all month to read, and what a waste of a month's reading.

Charles Stross - Glasshouse: A friend likes to describe Stross as an r-selector of a writer, and I tend to agree. This one's a real hit, though: it was great! Interesting and engaging the whole way through, even though I'm usually hesitant to pick up novels of the 'distant future scifi but set in a modernish Earth bubble-world' variety. I would have liked a longer dénouement, because things felt a little rushed at the end, but this is probably the best thing of Stross's that I've read. I'd happily read another with the same general setting, if there was one.

John Conway, C.M. Kosemen, Darren Naish, and Scott Hartman - All Yesterdays: Unique and Speculative Views of Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals: This is amazing! All of you dino fans should do yourselves a favour and pick up a copy. The authors basically re-imagine dinosaurs in light of the things we don't know about them and their integument, and cap it off at the end by imagining what alien archaeologists might guess our contemporary wildlife looks like, if they apply the same principles as paleoartists usually do. The results of the first experiment are weird and wonderful; of the second, terrifying and creepy. This is sure to be the best book I've read all year! What a treasure this is!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mahagonny on May 02, 2021, 08:12:12 AM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on May 02, 2021, 08:06:52 AM
Snorri Kristjansson - Swords of Good Men: Absolutely awful. Total drivel. The period details are all wrong--it's just ill-informed, unresearched bad viking-inspired D&D dungeon mastering with fantasy weapons and combat. The "story", such as it is, makes no sense--I still have no idea why the settlement was besieged, especially since the beginning made it seem like a natural ally to the besiegers. The writing is poor, and not at all helped by the rapid changes of perspective. Speaking of which, there are far too many perspectives. The entire effect is very disjointed. I struggled to read more than a handful of pages a day. It took me all month to read, and what a waste of a month's reading.


Why read the whole thing then?
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: RatGuy on May 02, 2021, 08:41:27 AM
Currently reading Barbara Kingsolver's The Bean Trees and re-reading David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas. I'm enjoying Bean Trees so much that I'll likely move onto Pigs in Heaven fairly quickly. I'm kinda surprised that we didn't have an early-90s film adaptation of Bean Trees, given its voice, setting, and subject matter. Does Kingsolver fly under the radar, or does everyone already read her and I'm just late to the party?
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on May 02, 2021, 08:47:34 AM
Quote from: mahagonny on May 02, 2021, 08:12:12 AM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on May 02, 2021, 08:06:52 AM
Snorri Kristjansson - Swords of Good Men: Absolutely awful. Total drivel. The period details are all wrong--it's just ill-informed, unresearched bad viking-inspired D&D dungeon mastering with fantasy weapons and combat. The "story", such as it is, makes no sense--I still have no idea why the settlement was besieged, especially since the beginning made it seem like a natural ally to the besiegers. The writing is poor, and not at all helped by the rapid changes of perspective. Speaking of which, there are far too many perspectives. The entire effect is very disjointed. I struggled to read more than a handful of pages a day. It took me all month to read, and what a waste of a month's reading.


Why read the whole thing then?

OCD. The rule is that if I make it to page 70 I have to finish. Subsidiary rules can compel me to get to page 70.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: spork on May 02, 2021, 08:50:01 AM
Quote from: spork on April 12, 2021, 10:08:08 AM
Quote from: apl68 on April 10, 2021, 06:54:49 AM
Quote from: spork on April 10, 2021, 04:48:46 AM
Quote from: apl68 on March 26, 2021, 07:52:25 AM
Quakeland:  On the Road to America's Next Devastating Earthquake, by Kathryn Miles. 

[. . .]

If you are interested in earthquakes:

Kathryn Schulz's New Yorker piece on the risk to the coastal northwestern USA: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/20/the-really-big-one (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/20/the-really-big-one) (requires creation of a free website account if you are not already a paid subscriber).

Jonathan M. Katz, The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster, 2013.

I teach a course on disasters, so I'm always looking for readings on events like earthquakes. I'll probably check out Quakeland this summer, so thanks.

A course on disasters.  Now that sounds interesting!

I think your students would like Quakeland.  It's very accessible and has lots of anecdotes among the science stuff.  And some good thoughts about the public policy implications of the world's disaster-proneness.  You could pick a lot of good modest-length readings out of there.

I read New Yorker regularly and have probably seen the Schulz article.  I'm planning in the near future to go back and re-read some of New Yorker's environmental pieces.  I'll have to try to find the Katz book.

While researching Quakeland, I found another book by Kathryn Miles: Superstorm: Nine Days Inside Hurricane Sandy. This also looks interesting and I'll be requesting a copy through my university's library network at the end of the semester.

I just finished Until the World Shatters: Truth, Lies, and the Looting of Myanmar by Daniel Combs. I thought it was much better than The Hidden History of Burma: Race, Capitalism, and Democracy in the 21st Century by Thant Myint-U.

I found a copy of Superstorm: Nine Days Inside Hurricane Sandy through my public library and read it. It's well-written long-form journalism. I liked it.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on May 02, 2021, 11:18:04 AM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on May 02, 2021, 08:06:52 AM
John Conway, C.M. Kosemen, Darren Naish, and Scott Hartman - All Yesterdays: Unique and Speculative Views of Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals: This is amazing! All of you dino fans should do yourselves a favour and pick up a copy. The authors basically re-imagine dinosaurs in light of the things we don't know about them and their integument, and cap it off at the end by imagining what alien archaeologists might guess our contemporary wildlife looks like, if they apply the same principles as paleoartists usually do. The results of the first experiment are weird and wonderful; of the second, terrifying and creepy. This is sure to be the best book I've read all year! What a treasure this is!

Does it depend heavily on illustrations? In other words, should I try to find a physical copy, or would my black-and-white e-reader be able to do it justice?
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on May 02, 2021, 11:20:50 AM
Quote from: ergative on May 02, 2021, 11:18:04 AM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on May 02, 2021, 08:06:52 AM
John Conway, C.M. Kosemen, Darren Naish, and Scott Hartman - All Yesterdays: Unique and Speculative Views of Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals: This is amazing! All of you dino fans should do yourselves a favour and pick up a copy. The authors basically re-imagine dinosaurs in light of the things we don't know about them and their integument, and cap it off at the end by imagining what alien archaeologists might guess our contemporary wildlife looks like, if they apply the same principles as paleoartists usually do. The results of the first experiment are weird and wonderful; of the second, terrifying and creepy. This is sure to be the best book I've read all year! What a treasure this is!

Does it depend heavily on illustrations? In other words, should I try to find a physical copy, or would my black-and-white e-reader be able to do it justice?

It's pretty much all illustrations. One page of text for 1-1.5 pages of illustrations.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: smallcleanrat on May 03, 2021, 05:14:41 PM
The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

Combination of memoir and self-help principle, but far more likeable than some of the more famous books in the personal development genre. No sweeping over-generalizations or claims to grand truths; no arrogance or condescension in tone. She describes her own successes and failures without implying that, in the process, she discovered some universal principle for living a good life. 

The book is structured around a series of small "experiments" the author applied in her own life. In preparation, she read up on the psychology and philosophy of what happiness is and how people attain it (she has a law background, and she seems to have been very methodical and thorough with this part of her project). Each chapter centers around a different factor (e.g. friendship, recreation, productivity) and the small projects and challenges she set for herself to see how it affected her mindset and behavior. Much of it centers around home and family life, and she writes with mild, inoffensive humor.

I might post again with a couple of highlights once I've finished the book.




This isn't really one of the most profound insights in the book, it just made me chuckle. It's in the chapter on how money relates to happiness; author has been describing ways money can indeed make it easier to be happy. This leads to an argument with an acquaintance:

"That's so wrong!" she said. "Money can't buy happiness!"
"You don't think so?"
"I'm the perfect example. I don't make much money. A few years back, I took my savings and bought a horse. My mother and everyone told me I was crazy. But that horse makes me incredibly happy - even though I end up spending all my extra money on him."
"But," I said, confused, "money did make you happy. It makes you so happy to have a horse!"
"But I don't have any money," she answered. "I spent it all."
"Right, because you used it to buy a horse!"
She shook her head and gave up on me.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: spork on May 11, 2021, 03:15:39 PM
Just started Michael Lewis's The Fifth Risk. Liking it. Points out that Trump and his acolytes are quite willing, even eager, to burn down whatever they don't understand.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Myword on May 13, 2021, 08:26:55 AM
I am rereading  PIRATES! by Gideon Defoe. Comical farces about silly pirates who meet Darwin, Marx, Ahab, Napolean, etc. It's an intellectual wink with gross anachronisms. Author says that his mother thinks that pirate books are stupid. Eric Idle approved book.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on May 13, 2021, 09:25:35 AM
Quote from: Myword on May 13, 2021, 08:26:55 AM
I am rereading  PIRATES! by Gideon Defoe. Comical farces about silly pirates who meet Darwin, Marx, Ahab, Napolean, etc. It's an intellectual wink with gross anachronisms. Author says that his mother thinks that pirate books are stupid. Eric Idle approved book.

That sounds fun! Do you think the first book sells the series right away, or is a little patience required? I can't tell from the reviews whether it tries a bit too hard at first or is just a particular kind of humor that you either like or don't.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: spork on May 13, 2021, 01:30:29 PM
Finished The Fifth Risk and now reading Michael Lewis's Boomerang. Liking this one, too.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on May 14, 2021, 01:38:48 PM
Quote from: apl68 on March 26, 2021, 07:52:25 AM
Quakeland:  On the Road to America's Next Devastating Earthquake, by Kathryn Miles.  It's a fascinating piece of journalism.  The author investigates the geology of earthquakes and earthquake prediction, has a good bit to say about recent and historical quakes, and talks about the risks of a catastrophic quake in various parts of the country and how to prepare for it.  California isn't the only place that's at risk.  Several other parts of the country have real risks of a catastrophic quake within not too many decades.  Even New York City has a slim but real chance of a quake that, in a worst-case scenario, could render the whole city as uninhabitable as New Orleans after Katrina.  Think about that for a moment.

Miles devotes a couple of chapters to the New Madrid fault zone.  I've known all my life that our whole state lies in that zone, although I've always lived in areas far enough out that serious damage would be unlikely.  Most of our state seems fairly safe.  Neighboring regions, such as the city of Memphis, are another story.

There are a couple of pages on the long-term effort to retroactively quake-proof the DeSoto Interstate 40 bridge across the Mississippi at Memphis.  I've crossed that bridge about a hundred times (No hyperbole) over the last 31 years, and had wondered why it had construction on it for so long.  They had to do the retrofitting while keeping it open.  It was one of the first bridges to receive such an upgrade.  It carries such a huge volume of commercial traffic that it could cripple the nation's economy if it were destroyed.  Now it should be proof against a 2,500-year quake.  Good to know somebody has been on the ball there.

And now the DeSoto Bridge, on which hundreds of millions of dollars were spent making it supposedly proof against a 2,500-year quake, has up and cracked for no obvious reason.  Traffic on both I-40 and the Mississippi are snarled, and the Tennessee and Arkansas departments of transportation are busy seeing what can be done.  This is dispiriting.  We keep hearing about the massive amounts of infrastructure repair the nation needs, and now it appears that one of the best recent efforts to fix infrastructure in time has been botched somehow.  Most Americans are willing at this point to pay serious money toward infrastructure improvement (If Congress can ever stop arguing over it), but only if they can trust that the jobs will be done right.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Myword on May 15, 2021, 06:58:56 AM
Regarding PIRATES, to answer you, I read them all and my favorites are An Adventure With Napolean, and Adventure With Scientists. It is oddball silly humor that some readers will like and others may think is stupid or childish. Does not matter what order they are read....very short novels. Characters have no names. "Pirate With a Scarf" "Pirate in Red"   etc. Napolean and Captain compete to be president of the Condo Association.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on May 15, 2021, 09:04:32 AM
Quote from: Myword on May 15, 2021, 06:58:56 AM
Regarding PIRATES, to answer you, I read them all and my favorites are An Adventure With Napolean, and Adventure With Scientists. It is oddball silly humor that some readers will like and others may think is stupid or childish. Does not matter what order they are read....very short novels. Characters have no names. "Pirate With a Scarf" "Pirate in Red"   etc. Napolean and Captain compete to be president of the Condo Association.

Thank you! If it doesn't matter what order they are read in, maybe we will put the ones you listed on the list first.  It's hard to know what humor will resonate.  But if Eric Idle approved it, it's worth a try.  We just got in a boatload of sci fi, so I'm not sure when we might get to this.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on May 15, 2021, 07:35:39 PM
Started The Steel Beneath the Silk by Patricia Bracewell
It's the finale to her "Emma of Normandy" trilogy. I had read the first two novels so I'm eager to read Emma's story.  It's only been 6 years!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Golazo on May 19, 2021, 01:05:45 PM
I owe an update now that I've caught up on my

I read Promised Land (Obama's memoir) and found it quite disappointing. Far from being the honest memoir a lot of reviews suggested, this was a well written defense of Obama's first term, including things that I find quite hard to defend (ie Libya policy). Some interesting tidbits but hard to recommend.

I also read Lucky: How Joe Biden Barely Won the Presidency (on Biden's win), and though it was quite mediocre. I know Halperin (of Game Change) had me too issues, but he had much better access and also wrote better than  Allen and Parnes. This read like a collection of Politico articles.

I also read some assorted sci-fi and fantasy. Among these, Johnson's The Space Between Worlds is an interesting take on moving between earths though a bit dystopian for my mood, and  A Memory called Empire an interesting take on intersteller diplomacy, language, etc.

Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on May 23, 2021, 02:08:52 PM
I came across an unexplained reference to "O'Neal's Razor" today, and the internet isn't helpful. I gather it's got something to do with fiction--perhaps historical fiction? But what is it, ô wise forumite readers?
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on May 23, 2021, 04:32:04 PM
I"m going to guess it's some sideways take on "Occam's razor" (or maybe a misunderstood Autocorrect...)

   https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Occam%27s%20razor

M. 
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on May 23, 2021, 05:00:14 PM
Yes, but what?
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on May 24, 2021, 12:03:51 AM
Quote from: Golazo on May 19, 2021, 01:05:45 PM
I also read Lucky: How Joe Biden Barely Won the Presidency (on Biden's win), and though it was quite mediocre. I know Halperin (of Game Change) had me too issues, but he had much better access and also wrote better than  Allen and Parnes. This read like a collection of Politico articles.
Given the delay between final MS and actual printing and distribution, I'm not surprised to hear this book wasn't great. How quickly must it have been written? When was the MS submitted to the publisher? Did it include January 6th?

Quote
I also read some assorted sci-fi and fantasy. Among these, Johnson's The Space Between Worlds is an interesting take on moving between earths though a bit dystopian for my mood, and  A Memory called Empire an interesting take on intersteller diplomacy, language, etc.

I loved The Space Between Worlds, and put it on my Hugo ballot. I thought A Memory Called Empire was great, but perhaps not quite as astonishing as a lot of the noise around it made it out to be. But I also discovered that I knew the author when I was in college (she was a friend of a friend), so it was good to see her reappear in this way.

What other assorted SFF have you read?

I just finished The Once and Future Witches, by Alix E Harrow, and loved it so much. It is what I hoped Lolly Willowes would be, and so much more. I wish I had read it earlier, so I could have put it on this year's Hugo Ballot. But maybe someone else will have put it on, and then when voting comes around I can vote for it. But I don't know how I'd rank it in respect to The Space Between Worlds. They're both so good.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on May 24, 2021, 08:45:31 AM
I just finished Pachinko, by Min Jin Lee.  It's the story of a Korean girl in "trouble" in the early 1930s who marries a tubercular young minister and immigrates to Japan.  It follows her family across fifty-odd years of struggle and discrimination (Japan has long harbored a very poorly-treated Korean immigrant community).  It's an impressive-written and researched work.  The author is unquestionably talented and deserves the praise she has received from reviewers.

Unfortunately Pachinko is also an example of why I really don't much like reading contemporary "literary" fiction.  It's a miserable story about miserable people being miserable.  Often predictably so.  I've promised myself that I'm going to let myself read things I might actually enjoy for at least the next few weeks, before doing my duty as a reader and subjecting myself to another "serious" novel.



I've also recently read The Tudors, by G.J. Meyer.  It's a bestselling popular history of the notorious dynasty.  It's well-researched and well-written popular history.  It's also a very aggressively revisionist history.  Revisionist history is usually worth paying attention to, since it tends to point out things that older received interpretations of history don't adequately address.  It also has a tendency to be highly agenda-driven, and to overstate things, often very badly (Which is a big part of why I don't trust the 1619 Project).  Meyer is very deliberately trying to perform a hatchet job on all the Tudor rulers and their underlings, with the predictable exception of an attempt at rehabilitating Queen Mary as a sympathetic sort who wouldn't have hurt a fly.  I'm not convinced.

It's not that I've ever found much to admire in Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, or Elizabeth I.  Most of them were appalling egoists and tyrants, and Henry VIII's and Elizabeth's behavior can only partly be explained as being a product of their times.  But I believe that it's a mistake to throw out the old Whig interpretation of British history altogether, especially when it comes to representing the whole Reformation as nothing more than a monstrous crime.  Personally I believe that Simon Schama gives a better assessment of the Tudors than you'll find here.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on May 24, 2021, 10:09:58 AM
Quote from: apl68 on May 24, 2021, 08:45:31 AM
Unfortunately Pachinko is also an example of why I really don't much like reading contemporary "literary" fiction.  It's a miserable story about miserable people being miserable.  Often predictably so.  I've promised myself that I'm going to let myself read things I might actually enjoy for at least the next few weeks, before doing my duty as a reader and subjecting myself to another "serious" novel.

Yes, exactly. Absolutive and I once went through a long list of book award nominees or new books to watch out for, or something, and actually kept count of how many of them were driven by a tale of trauma. The number was very high.

While I guess I approve of this move away from middle-aged English professors having affairs, the new favorite focus is not any more attractive. I'll stick to dragons and spaceships and check in again on the next litfic paradigm shift.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on May 24, 2021, 10:32:45 AM
Quote from: ergative on May 24, 2021, 10:09:58 AM
Quote from: apl68 on May 24, 2021, 08:45:31 AM
Unfortunately Pachinko is also an example of why I really don't much like reading contemporary "literary" fiction.  It's a miserable story about miserable people being miserable.  Often predictably so.  I've promised myself that I'm going to let myself read things I might actually enjoy for at least the next few weeks, before doing my duty as a reader and subjecting myself to another "serious" novel.

Yes, exactly. Absolutive and I once went through a long list of book award nominees or new books to watch out for, or something, and actually kept count of how many of them were driven by a tale of trauma. The number was very high.

While I guess I approve of this move away from middle-aged English professors having affairs, the new favorite focus is not any more attractive. I'll stick to dragons and spaceships and check in again on the next litfic paradigm shift.

Personally I'm not a big genre fiction reader either.  I mostly read nonfiction.  I have been reading a bit more sci-fi lately.  Much of that is older stuff that I didn't get around to reading when I was a kid and was really into it.

I go over the jacket copy of most books for grown-ups that come across my desk at the library, while writing my weekly library newspaper column.  Most of what we get for our readers is genre fiction.  Sometimes I go over a week's batch of new books and feel like I haven't seen a single fresh idea.  It's all P.I.s, and FBI agents, and undercover agents, and women making terrible discoveries about their family pasts, and bonnet romances.  Right now we're at the time of year when we get all the books with beaches on the cover.  You'd be amazed at how many women in mid-life crises apparently have family beach houses in Nantucket to fall back on.  And meanwhile guys can still read new (or at least recently-composed) stories about Texas rangers chasing outlaws circa 1875.

I just remind myself that even people who read the same genre over and over again are still exercising mental muscles that watching TV tends not to exercise.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: spork on May 24, 2021, 10:35:32 AM
Continuing on my Michael Lewis binge -- most of the way through The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds. It's sort of a professional biography of Kahneman and Tversky.  Basic conclusion: if you have the choice between a human physician or an AI system for a medical diagnosis, choose the AI, because the AI can accurately incorporate probabilities into decision making. The part of the book about how medical experts were diagnosing stomach cancer was terrifying.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on May 24, 2021, 02:10:19 PM
Finished from the library: Katharine Parr, the Sixth Wife by Alison Weir
The 6th and finale novel in the "6 Tudor Queens" series. I've enjoyed reading this series about Henry VIII's wives and Mrs. Weir's non-fiction books.

Here's a link to the landing page for the novels:
https://sixtudorqueens.co.uk/ (https://sixtudorqueens.co.uk/)
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Golazo on May 25, 2021, 06:02:47 PM
Quote from: ergative on May 24, 2021, 12:03:51 AM
Given the delay between final MS and actual printing and distribution, I'm not surprised to hear this book wasn't great. How quickly must it have been written? When was the MS submitted to the publisher? Did it include January 6th?

Jan 6th was only briefly mentioned in the intro. This is really different from Game Change and Double Down, which were more than a year after the election. But of course we are in a different era now in terms of timing and expectation. But even worse, it didn't seem like the authors had the access they needed to write the book. Heilemann and Halperin broke a lot of actual ground on the reporting. I felt like I could have written a lot of Lucky based on following the campaign.   



Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on May 27, 2021, 11:53:34 AM
Bring Back Our Girls:  The Untold Story of the Global Search for Nigeria's Missing Schoolgirls, by Joe Parkinson and Drew Hinshaw.  It's a detailed look at the 2014 kidnapping of almost 300 school girls in Nigeria by the Islamist Boko Haram insurgency.  The authors try to cover all aspects of it--the background of Boko Haram and the Nigerian political situation, the mediators who negotiated hostage deals, the international efforts to find and rescue the abductees, and the experiences of the abductees themselves.

Their experiences occupy a great deal of the book.  Their captors attempted to force the Christian girls to convert to Islam through beatings, hunger, and threats.  They also demanded that they submit to forced marriage with Boko Haram fighters.  Those who persisted in refusing were reduced to slavery--which is still widespread across much of the Muslim world--as punishment.  Some eventually gave in.  They found that their new husbands' attitudes toward the status of women and wives were exactly what one would expect of them.  The largest group professed Islam, but drew the line at "marriage."  They continued to be pressured to do so.

And then there was one group who simply refused to cooperate.  They resisted by singing hymns and reciting Bible verses among themselves, keeping clandestine diaries of their experiences, and even putting themselves at risk to smuggle food to their fellow captives when their captors committed the odd lapse of having them room in a storehouse.  Their story is an inspiring episode in the midst of the tragedy.  And there was a lot of tragedy.  About 40 of the abductees are believed to have died one way or another.  Many are still "married" and missing.  And the wider war killed thousands, displaced a couple million, and tore apart whole communities.

All and all, a fine piece of journalism.  Spectacular crimes and incidents like this tend to grab the whole world's attention for a time before fading away.  Most people never really get much understanding of the wider stories behind the story.  Bring Back Our Girls does a real service in trying to fill in what's missing.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on June 01, 2021, 10:14:32 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on April 28, 2021, 04:55:32 PM
Now we're back into the Expanse universe (Corey) with Abaddon's Gate.  Just started, though I wasn't as into the previous books as my husband was (compared to other series), and I am not gaga for this one just yet, either.  We'll see.

Finally finished this one, which took more than a month.  Eek.  Husband did not like this one as much as the previous ones.  I thought it had some interesting ideas and am interested to see where the series goes from here, but there was too much going on to follow at times.  Maybe too many big ideas plus too many characters and too much action? A bigger picture for the series emerges than in previous books.  In any case, the beings introduced in previous books have built a gate to somewhere, so the focus is on that gate and the consequences of various human actions.  I think that was the most intriguing part, how the non-human force perceived the human actions and acted in return.  They introduced some more good characters, though not as strong as the ones introduced in the last book, in my opinion.  I hope those characters come back in future books.  As the name suggests, the series appears to be about expansion through the known and unknown universe(s?). 

We started on The Test (Neuvel).  Here's the Amazon blurb:

Quote
Britain, the not-too-distant future.
Idir is sitting the British Citizenship Test.
He wants his family to belong.

Twenty-five questions to determine their fate. Twenty-five chances to impress.
When the test takes an unexpected and tragic turn, Idir is handed the power of life and death.
How do you value a life when all you have is multiple choice?

I'm not sure where I came across this one.  It's hard to describe without giving away the plot, but it's very brief (110).  We started it yesterday evening and got about 75% of the way through.  So far, I really like it.  I was unsure where it was going at first (and am unsure of where it will go from here), but there is a lot of psychological stuff going on that I find very interesting (also from a testing perspective).  I expect that we might finish it this evening.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Charlotte on June 02, 2021, 04:37:03 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on June 01, 2021, 10:14:32 AMWe started it yesterday evening and got about 75% of the way through. ....  I expect that we might finish it this evening.

Do you read aloud or are you both reading separate books?
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on June 02, 2021, 09:08:44 AM
Quote from: Charlotte on June 02, 2021, 04:37:03 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on June 01, 2021, 10:14:32 AMWe started it yesterday evening and got about 75% of the way through. ....  I expect that we might finish it this evening.

Do you read aloud or are you both reading separate books?

We read aloud to each other, switching back and forth every so often (sometimes at the section or chapter, or after so many minutes, depending on the book).  Some books are a little more difficult to do this with than others, but it works out pretty well overall.

We finished The Test last night.  Again, a little hard to describe with out giving away the plot, but it was an intriguing psychological thriller (in some ways, it almost reads as a psychological case study) and didn't end up exactly as I thought it might.  I am on the fence about the ending, though it does fit well enough with the story.  Definitely not a happy book.  Dystopian? I'm sure the general idea has been done before, but I still appreciated that it was a different type of story than a lot of other books we've read.

So we started on Bird Box (Malerman), which received pretty good reviews and was made into a fairly popular movie.  I hadn't paid much attention when the movie came out, except to get the impression that people are blindfolded and not allowed (?) to look at the world around them.  That seems to be in line with the plot so far.  It's another story that seems as though it could be too similar to others or contrived, so we'll see how it turns out.  I guess it's another dystopian psychological thriller.  Where did the people go? What happened? Hopefully the author will pull this off in a clever way.  It's also pretty short (272 pp), so we should finish it pretty soon.  We're using these as palate cleansers before getting back to various sci-fi series that are more epic.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Economizer on June 03, 2021, 08:03:24 AM
Not lately, but certainly relating to current topics, I read MARIJUANA: THE NEW PROHIBITION in the mid 20th century. In that work, it was supposed that "grass" users and suppliers would meld into and with criminals and criminal suppliers in business, criminal, and social circumstances. Well, I do believe that has happened and the confluence of those cultures has made it very difficult
for peace officers and law enforcement agencies to ascertain and act against suspicious appearances and activities that forewarn dangers to the general American public. Me? I hate to have to attempt to work, and to play,  and to attempt to guide those that I love in the environments this has and continues to create!

Does this suggest that I have become a proponent of the legalization of "Weed"? HELL NO! What I do support is the
maintaining and not diminishing defenses against its use and availability.



Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on June 04, 2021, 07:29:09 PM
I haven't posted here in a bit.
Finished: Lincoln's Wartime Tours From Washington, DC by John Schildt
Local history about Pres. Lincoln's tours to battlefields and cities and towns in MD and VA during his presidency.

Now: The Deadly Hours by Susanna Kearsley et al.
A gold watch believed to be cursed is passed through the centuries. Two of the contributing authors are ones I've enjoyed and own their novels.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: spork on June 05, 2021, 01:45:38 AM
Quote from: apl68 on May 27, 2021, 11:53:34 AM
Bring Back Our Girls:  The Untold Story of the Global Search for Nigeria's Missing Schoolgirls, by Joe Parkinson and Drew Hinshaw. 

[. . .]

slavery--which is still widespread across much of the Muslim world

[. . . ]

I do not know of any data that would support this claim.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Golazo on June 05, 2021, 05:25:57 AM
+1
I suppose one could argue that conditions in some countries where labor abuses are frequent (ie, confiscation of passports, non payment of wages, debt traps) amounts to slavery. But calling this much of Muslim world is a stretch even in this case.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on June 05, 2021, 07:13:48 AM
Quote from: Golazo on June 05, 2021, 05:25:57 AM
+1
I suppose one could argue that conditions in some countries where labor abuses are frequent (ie, confiscation of passports, non payment of wages, debt traps) amounts to slavery. But calling this much of Muslim world is a stretch even in this case.

I don't have the citations ready to hand and don't have the time to look them up, but in recent years I've seen articles--non-sensationalized articles in thoroughly mainstream publications like New Yorker--regarding the continued existence of outright chattel slavery in several North African countries.  There are also continued reports of guest workers being essentially reduced to household slaves in Persian Gulf states like Dubai.  All of this is distinct from the wartime actions of Islamist groups like Boko Haram and ISIS.  I guess one could quibble over how widespread it has to be to be considered "much" of the Muslim world, but it's not limited to just one or two places.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on June 05, 2021, 07:26:30 AM
It may be helpful to distinguish the Arabic or North African/Middle Eastern world from "the Muslim world," then.

Islam being an important religious affiliation in parts of SE Asia and the Oceania/Pacific Island nations as well as the Mediterranean rim, geographic specificity might be a more helpful description than a religious adjective that could seem to suggest slavery is consistent with Koranic belief systems.

That may be at least one root to the objection under consideration; my limited knowledge of Islam suggests that it's no different from the other Abrahamic faith traditions (i.e., Judaism, Christianity) in perhaps having holy texts that appear to accept a slave-based economic system, but whose current cultural mores reject that stance as theologically indefensible, given the larger message of the whole of any one of those faith systems' received canons.

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: smallcleanrat on June 05, 2021, 07:50:52 PM
Quote from: apl68 on June 05, 2021, 07:13:48 AM
Quote from: Golazo on June 05, 2021, 05:25:57 AM
+1
I suppose one could argue that conditions in some countries where labor abuses are frequent (ie, confiscation of passports, non payment of wages, debt traps) amounts to slavery. But calling this much of Muslim world is a stretch even in this case.

I don't have the citations ready to hand and don't have the time to look them up, but in recent years I've seen articles--non-sensationalized articles in thoroughly mainstream publications like New Yorker--regarding the continued existence of outright chattel slavery in several North African countries.  There are also continued reports of guest workers being essentially reduced to household slaves in Persian Gulf states like Dubai.  All of this is distinct from the wartime actions of Islamist groups like Boko Haram and ISIS.  I guess one could quibble over how widespread it has to be to be considered "much" of the Muslim world, but it's not limited to just one or two places.

Why call it a "quibble?"
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: spork on June 06, 2021, 05:45:32 AM
Quote from: apl68 on June 05, 2021, 07:13:48 AM
Quote from: Golazo on June 05, 2021, 05:25:57 AM
+1
I suppose one could argue that conditions in some countries where labor abuses are frequent (ie, confiscation of passports, non payment of wages, debt traps) amounts to slavery. But calling this much of Muslim world is a stretch even in this case.

I don't have the citations ready to hand and don't have the time to look them up, but in recent years I've seen articles--non-sensationalized articles in thoroughly mainstream publications like New Yorker--regarding the continued existence of outright chattel slavery in several North African countries.  There are also continued reports of guest workers being essentially reduced to household slaves in Persian Gulf states like Dubai.  All of this is distinct from the wartime actions of Islamist groups like Boko Haram and ISIS.  I guess one could quibble over how widespread it has to be to be considered "much" of the Muslim world, but it's not limited to just one or two places.

Chattel slavery is not widespread across the "Muslim world," whatever publications like The New Yorker might have reported. The equivalent of debt bondage might exist in some locations in South Asia, but is not limited to majority Muslim communities. Same for  remote parts of North Africa. If chattel slavery is practiced anywhere, it would be rare and unrelated to religion. The closest comparison I can think of is captive labor in West African cocoa farms, Thai fishing boats, and sex trafficking.

"Slavery existed/exists elsewhere" is the butwhataboutism practiced by members of Georgia's board of education:

https://theintercept.com/2021/06/04/georgia-racism-education-schools/ (https://theintercept.com/2021/06/04/georgia-racism-education-schools/).

In book news, I just finished William Gibson's Pattern Recognition and have requested the second and third books in the trilogy from the local library. It's been maybe twenty-five years since I've read any Gibson novels. While I think he's a far better writer stylistically than, say, Neal Stephenson, I'd rate Pattern Recognition as ok but not great. It's not really sci fi, and feels dated given a post-9/11, post-Soviet setting with mention of DVDs, etc. Plus I didn't like how the story was conveniently resolved at the end. Too deus ex machina.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on June 07, 2021, 08:02:15 AM
Quote from: mamselle on June 05, 2021, 07:26:30 AM
It may be helpful to distinguish the Arabic or North African/Middle Eastern world from "the Muslim world," then.


M.

That's a very fair point.  This (and some other things as well) does seem to be much more of an issue in the Arabic world than in the broader Muslim community.  And it's no longer the norm in most of the Arabic world, which I was not trying to imply.

One thing about posting on a site frequented by academics--it reminds me to be more careful with my use of terms!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on June 07, 2021, 09:06:14 AM
Good for you for being flexible.

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: spork on June 07, 2021, 10:40:58 AM
And I hope my comments did not come across as critical of you. I haven't read the book, but I'm always leery of claims made by journalists, academics, policymakers, and random go-gooders about events in other parts of the world (Kony 2012/Invisible Children, Greg Mortenson/Central Asian Institute, and the American Red Cross in Haiti come to mind) -- especially accounts that have an Orientalist tinge to them.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on June 07, 2021, 11:24:24 AM
May's haul:

Laura Lam - Goldilocks: A feminist colonization attempt from an increasingly dystopian society not too far in the future, but things start going wrong en route. I think this is the first clearly post-Trump (as in, post-2016 election) piece of scifi I've read, and it's pretty OK. Some of the writing is a bit awkward, and it's plotted like a teen novel (which is fine by me, but I'm not sure it was intended as one!). I would have liked it if there was more on the colonization end of things, or if there was some mystery to the on-board problems, but it was a sufficiently interesting read despite all that. I do think, however, that it's trying to do too many things, and so has had its attention diluted somewhat. For the problems-en-route approach, I think that Mur Lafferty's Six Wakes does a much, much better job of it.

Peter Watts - Peter Watts is an Angry, Sentient Tumor {{revenge fantasies and essays}}: This is a collection of essays drawn from Watts's blog posts. The writing and tone are great, and about as acerbic as you'd expect; the topics and thoughts being collected are pretty interesting, and the memorials to his cats are especially moving. Oh, and he's working on a third installment for the Firefall series (Blindsight and Echopraxia), which seems to be called Omniscience! I really enjoyed reading these, and highly recommend them to anyone who enjoys his work.

Sue Burke - Immunity Index: This is the first post-pandemic novel I've read (although apparently she began work on it well before the pandemic), and waddayaknow, it's about a pandemic, set in a future USA that's only a little further down the Republican garden path than we are. It pains me to say this, but it wasn't very good. It's a shame, because Semiosis and Interference were brilliant. This... this just feels rushed. The different perspectives don't tie together very well, the plotting is very basic teen novel plotting (and like Goldilocks, I'm not sure the author intended it that way), the social commentary is too ripe, the story seems naïve and invites too much imaginative resistance (really? Your plan to beat authoritarianism is to hold a protest and a day of civil disobedience? And as it happens, the protest takes place on the day a pandemic gets loose?), etc. It had interesting moments, but the focus was too dilute to make much of them.

Charles Stross - Saturn's Children: I didn't think I'd enjoy it, but it was pretty fun. In the distant future, all organic life on earth is extinct. All that's left are robots, who've colonized the inner solar system. Beyond that, it's a robot-femme-fatale-thriller, and works pretty well on that score. There are some very amusing moments having to do with many of the few texts left over from our time being fundamenalist religious texts, resulting in the assumption, e.g., that we were fructivores and that Tyrannosaurs were crucial parts of our biome. I would have liked to see that connection explored in more detail!

Charles Stross - Neptune's Brood: The sequel to Saturn's Children, set many thousands of years later. This is a less-interesting thriller, sans femme fatale and with a lot of telling and repeating, and not so much showing. Also, it features a lot of cryptocurrency, and some good explanations of how they work, etc. So, a bit of a mixed bag, really. It was OK, but no more than that.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on June 07, 2021, 01:38:35 PM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on June 07, 2021, 11:24:24 AM
May's haul:

Charles Stross - Saturn's Children: I didn't think I'd enjoy it, but it was pretty fun. In the distant future, all organic life on earth is extinct. All that's left are robots, who've colonized the inner solar system. Beyond that, it's a robot-femme-fatale-thriller, and works pretty well on that score. There are some very amusing moments having to do with many of the few texts left over from our time being fundamenalist religious texts, resulting in the assumption, e.g., that we were fructivores and that Tyrannosaurs were crucial parts of our biome. I would have liked to see that connection explored in more detail!

Charles Stross - Neptune's Brood: The sequel to Saturn's Children, set many thousands of years later. This is a less-interesting thriller, sans femme fatale and with a lot of telling and repeating, and not so much showing. Also, it features a lot of cryptocurrency, and some good explanations of how they work, etc. So, a bit of a mixed bag, really. It was OK, but no more than that.

I've noticed something of a trend toward sci-fi works dealing with artificial life forms.  I've never had any interest in them myself--introvert though I am, it's flesh-and-blood people I'm interested in.  The only work of that sort I've ever really gotten much from was an anime series some years back in which the principal characters--a typical team of giant robot pilots fighting to save the world from aliens--discover that the bad guys have in fact already destroyed the world.  The protagonists are artificial life forms trying to prevent the invaders from eliminating the last traces of humanity by destroying the well-guarded servers on which the virtual worlds inhabited by downloaded copies of once-living humans run.  There was something oddly compelling about characters realizing that their world--and they themselves--are dead, and yet still sentient, and learning to deal with that fact.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on June 07, 2021, 01:43:46 PM
Quote from: spork on June 07, 2021, 10:40:58 AM
And I hope my comments did not come across as critical of you. I haven't read the book, but I'm always leery of claims made by journalists, academics, policymakers, and random go-gooders about events in other parts of the world (Kony 2012/Invisible Children, Greg Mortenson/Central Asian Institute, and the American Red Cross in Haiti come to mind) -- especially accounts that have an Orientalist tinge to them.

One of the good things about Bring Back Our Girls is that they're trying not to fall into that trap of exoticizing the people and events they write about, or describing the Boko Haram rebellion as simply what you'd expect in "that part of the world."  They try to give a wide variety of voices their due.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on June 07, 2021, 04:35:39 PM
Quote from: apl68 on June 07, 2021, 01:38:35 PM

I've noticed something of a trend toward sci-fi works dealing with artificial life forms.  I've never had any interest in them myself--introvert though I am, it's flesh-and-blood people I'm interested in.  The only work of that sort I've ever really gotten much from was an anime series some years back in which the principal characters--a typical team of giant robot pilots fighting to save the world from aliens--discover that the bad guys have in fact already destroyed the world.  The protagonists are artificial life forms trying to prevent the invaders from eliminating the last traces of humanity by destroying the well-guarded servers on which the virtual worlds inhabited by downloaded copies of once-living humans run.  There was something oddly compelling about characters realizing that their world--and they themselves--are dead, and yet still sentient, and learning to deal with that fact.

Hmm, interesting. Sounds like a plot element from Robert J. Sawyer's Calculating God.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on June 08, 2021, 07:36:31 AM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on June 07, 2021, 04:35:39 PM
Quote from: apl68 on June 07, 2021, 01:38:35 PM

I've noticed something of a trend toward sci-fi works dealing with artificial life forms.  I've never had any interest in them myself--introvert though I am, it's flesh-and-blood people I'm interested in.  The only work of that sort I've ever really gotten much from was an anime series some years back in which the principal characters--a typical team of giant robot pilots fighting to save the world from aliens--discover that the bad guys have in fact already destroyed the world.  The protagonists are artificial life forms trying to prevent the invaders from eliminating the last traces of humanity by destroying the well-guarded servers on which the virtual worlds inhabited by downloaded copies of once-living humans run.  There was something oddly compelling about characters realizing that their world--and they themselves--are dead, and yet still sentient, and learning to deal with that fact.

Hmm, interesting. Sounds like a plot element from Robert J. Sawyer's Calculating God.

If you're interested, it's called Zegapain.  Don't know how readily available it is in North America at this point.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on June 11, 2021, 07:57:43 AM
The Curious Reader:  A Literary Miscellany of Novels & Novelists, by the editors of Mental Floss.

This is a big collection of literary trivia and not-so-trivia.  It has entries on 65 novels and short novels of note, with facts about the works and their authors.  You learn about real people and events that were (or may have been) used for inspiration; odd stuff about the authors (Mary Shelley kept her deceased husband's heart with her!); quotable quotes; writing advice and quirks; and lots more.  There are also sidebars and entries with titles like "9 Nobel Prize-Winning Novelists."  The article on Tolstoy has a feature on how War and Peace is by no means the longest novel ever written, with several examples of longer ones.

Lots of fun stuff there, but I found it physically hard to read due to a graphic design that left the text and background colors of many pages with too little contrast for me to make out the text easily.  I have only read a dozen of the works that are profiled, plus large parts of several others.  And other works by some of the authors listed.  There are lots of recommendations for further reading...and honestly, with one or two exceptions, none of them leaves me wanting to check them out for myself.  Most of them come off sounding dreary and unreadable to me.  I guess the sorts of readers this book is mainly aimed at will probably feel different.


Holding Back the River:  The Struggle Against Nature on America's Waterways, by Tyler J. Kelley.  This is an interesting look at the infrastructure of levees, dams, and floodways built in the U.S. since the 19th century to make the nation's major rivers more navigable and open up vast tracts of flood plain for agriculture and settlement.  The idea is to make nature conform to our society's needs and desires--and nature keeps stubbornly refusing to do so.  And of course the problem is now getting worse, due to aging infrastructure, climate change, and encroachment from rising seas.

Although the author profiles a lot of failed policies, collisions of selfish interests, and even some outright injustices, he spends refreshingly little time seeking to find villains to blame.  The communities that seek to exist in what naturally wants to be flood plains are a fact of life, they've been there for generations, and their assorted competing interests all have legitimate elements that need to be taken into account.  The Army Corps of Engineers has the unenviable responsibility of trying to juggle and reconcile all these interests.  They're portrayed sympathetically too, for all that so many of their policies have proven badly misguided in hindsight.  If there's a villain, it's short-termist thinking and a refusal by some to consider that others have legitimate interests that can't just be sacrificed to protect their own.

Kelley definitely helps the reader to get an idea of the sheer complexity of the issues involved in trying to control floods and keep communities and navigation going on our rivers.  There's nothing the authorities can do or omit to do that won't create real problems for somebody.  Though Kelley is not too quick to prescribe solutions, he does ultimately come out in favor of a strategy of retreating from threatened lands in some places, with a greatest-good focus on the best long-term solutions.  He holds up the Netherlands' ways of doing things when it comes to flood control as an example--not because the Dutch are any smarter than Americans, but simply because they've been at it for hundreds of years longer.  And the fact that their whole country is at stake when it comes to flood control gives them a huge incentive to work together to do everything it takes to get it right.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: spork on June 11, 2021, 10:05:03 AM
Finished Spook Country, William's Gibson's second novel in his Blue Ant trilogy. It was far, far better than the first installment, Pattern Recognition. Comparable to a John le Carré or Graham Greene thriller.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on June 11, 2021, 10:26:18 AM
Quote from: spork on June 11, 2021, 10:05:03 AM
Finished Spook Country, William's Gibson's second novel in his Blue Ant trilogy. It was far, far better than the first installment, Pattern Recognition. Comparable to a John le Carré or Graham Greene thriller.

Good to know! We really liked Pattern Recognition for the most part but had heard mixed reviews of the second novel.  We'll put it on the list.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on June 11, 2021, 02:15:06 PM
From the library:
The Library of the Dead by T.L. (Tendai) Huchu
The 1st in a new series called "Edinburgh Nights." A secret library underneath the Scottish capitol--who knew?!

Lightbringer by Claire Legrand (YA)
#3 and finale in the "Empirium Trilogy"
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on June 11, 2021, 02:19:04 PM
Quote from: hmaria1609 on June 11, 2021, 02:15:06 PM
From the library:
The Library of the Dead by T.L. (Tendai) Huchu
The 1st in a new series called "Edinburgh Nights." A secret library underneath the Scottish capitol--who knew?!

Lightbringer by Claire Legrand (YA)
#3 and finale in the "Empirium Trilogy"

I've been to the main national library near the bridge just at the (end/beginning? I think) of the Royal Mile....is this some ghostly mirrorplace beneath it?

(That might be why I missed the main librarian the day I was there.....)

M. 
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on June 11, 2021, 02:27:42 PM
Quote from: apl68 on June 11, 2021, 07:57:43 AM
The article on Tolstoy has a feature on how War and Peace is by no means the longest novel ever written, with several examples of longer ones.


If you're into it, I have in my back pocket an article on story size which offers several infinite-length stories (each one longer than War and Peace!), but argues that there is no maximum story size (in passing, it argues for a minimum story size of 0). It's 17 pretty accessible pages, although knowing some basic set theory helps them go down more easily.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on June 11, 2021, 02:29:11 PM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on June 11, 2021, 02:27:42 PM
Quote from: apl68 on June 11, 2021, 07:57:43 AM
The article on Tolstoy has a feature on how War and Peace is by no means the longest novel ever written, with several examples of longer ones.


If you're into it, I have in my back pocket an article on story size which offers several infinite-length stories (each one longer than War and Peace!), but argues that there is no maximum story size (in passing, it argues for a minimum story size of 0). It's 17 pretty accessible pages, although knowing some basic set theory helps them go down more easily.

I know you're responding to apl68, but I would be interested to hear more about this!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on June 11, 2021, 02:43:08 PM
Quote from: ab_grp on June 11, 2021, 02:29:11 PM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on June 11, 2021, 02:27:42 PM
Quote from: apl68 on June 11, 2021, 07:57:43 AM
The article on Tolstoy has a feature on how War and Peace is by no means the longest novel ever written, with several examples of longer ones.


If you're into it, I have in my back pocket an article on story size which offers several infinite-length stories (each one longer than War and Peace!), but argues that there is no maximum story size (in passing, it argues for a minimum story size of 0). It's 17 pretty accessible pages, although knowing some basic set theory helps them go down more easily.

I know you're responding to apl68, but I would be interested to hear more about this!

Sent you a PM!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on June 12, 2021, 06:43:45 AM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on June 11, 2021, 02:43:08 PM
Quote from: ab_grp on June 11, 2021, 02:29:11 PM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on June 11, 2021, 02:27:42 PM
Quote from: apl68 on June 11, 2021, 07:57:43 AM
The article on Tolstoy has a feature on how War and Peace is by no means the longest novel ever written, with several examples of longer ones.


If you're into it, I have in my back pocket an article on story size which offers several infinite-length stories (each one longer than War and Peace!), but argues that there is no maximum story size (in passing, it argues for a minimum story size of 0). It's 17 pretty accessible pages, although knowing some basic set theory helps them go down more easily.

I know you're responding to apl68, but I would be interested to hear more about this!

Sent you a PM!

I'd be curious to hear this also.

BTW, the bit on Tolstoy introduced me to an author I'd never heard of before.  Apparently Madison Cooper's 1950s novel Sironia, Texas holds the record for longest novel published in the U.S.  I just had to look it up.  The author was an eccentric businessman in Waco, Texas who spent 11 years writing it.  And convinced a major publisher to bring it out in two huge volumes!  It was actually a bestseller for some weeks.  Then Cooper and his work fell off the radar.  He's best known now for setting up a local philanthropic trust that is still active.

His Wikipedia article has links to more info:


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madison_Cooper


Apparently Sironia, Texas is now an expensive collector's item.  Those who are really interested can reportedly order a print-on-demand version for $70.  About what a new two-volume work of that size would probably cost today.  I decided to pass....
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on June 12, 2021, 07:38:58 AM
Hmm, it even beats Proust? (Or do his various volumes count as different books?)

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on June 12, 2021, 08:11:44 AM
Quote from: apl68 on June 12, 2021, 06:43:45 AM


I'd be curious to hear this also.


PM sent!

Quote from: mamselle on June 12, 2021, 07:38:58 AM
Hmm, it even beats Proust? (Or do his various volumes count as different books?)

M.

Yup! They're infinitely long--literally. Of course, that makes them much less interesting than Proust. I also have, in my back pocket, an article that identifies a story which contains all of Proust, and everything else, too, for that matter. It's also infinitely long--possibly indenumerably infinite, depending on how we articulate it (and whether we accept it in the first place).
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on June 12, 2021, 12:38:17 PM
Wow.

Parasaurolophi must have pretty big back pockets....

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on June 12, 2021, 03:09:54 PM
Quote from: mamselle on June 12, 2021, 12:38:17 PM
Wow.

Parasaurolophi must have pretty big back pockets....

M.

Those pockets are filled with some really interesting stuff, too!!

We finished Bird Box last night.  I'm glad we took a chance on it and felt the author pulled off the suspense really well with some smart pacing.  He builds the dread carefully, and some of his writing seemed particularly good.  We made it to the end without figuring anything important out ahead of time, and we had a number of fun discussions during while trying to predict the outcomes.  It's unusual to see a story like this with some real cleverness, not too similar to other such tales.  It was very enjoyable, and we will be picking up the sequel. 

After that, we started on Morning Star, which was our next book in the Red Rising series I've mentioned here before.  As with previous novels in the series, it often comes off as melodramatic.  I told my husband while reading it last night that I felt as though I needed to be wearing a turtleneck and have someone playing bongos.  The story has always grown more interesting in the previous novels, so we shall see.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on June 12, 2021, 07:20:03 PM
Quote from: mamselle on June 11, 2021, 02:19:04 PM
Quote from: hmaria1609 on June 11, 2021, 02:15:06 PM
From the library:
The Library of the Dead by T.L. (Tendai) Huchu
The 1st in a new series called "Edinburgh Nights." A secret library underneath the Scottish capitol--who knew?!

Lightbringer by Claire Legrand (YA)
#3 and finale in the "Empirium Trilogy"

I've been to the main national library near the bridge just at the (end/beginning? I think) of the Royal Mile....is this some ghostly mirrorplace beneath it?

(That might be why I missed the main librarian the day I was there.....)

M.
Haha, made you look! Yes, the National Library of Scotland is by George IV Bridge, top of the Royal Mile. I've been in too--the ground floor has an exhibit gallery off to the side.  And a reproduction of Edinburgh in 1700 over the entrance. Loved that!

In the novel, the Library of the Dead is located in the Calton Hill area.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on June 14, 2021, 08:32:57 AM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on June 12, 2021, 08:11:44 AM
Quote from: apl68 on June 12, 2021, 06:43:45 AM


I'd be curious to hear this also.


PM sent!

Quote from: mamselle on June 12, 2021, 07:38:58 AM
Hmm, it even beats Proust? (Or do his various volumes count as different books?)

M.

Yup! They're infinitely long--literally. Of course, that makes them much less interesting than Proust. I also have, in my back pocket, an article that identifies a story which contains all of Proust, and everything else, too, for that matter. It's also infinitely long--possibly indenumerably infinite, depending on how we articulate it (and whether we accept it in the first place).

Thanks for the article.  It left me scratching my head, not being a mathematician.  It also reminded me of an article I saw years ago that mentioned Borges' "Library of Babel" in a discussion of how it is possible to envision sets that each meet the definition of "infinite," and yet some can be bigger than others.

I had never heard of Forrest J. Ackerman's cosmic report card story.  Sounds more like nonfiction to me....

Interesting to note that Guinness now considers Proust's magnum opus to be the longest novel.  In my older edition of Guinness it was a toss-up between Jules Romain's Men of Goodwill and Yamaoka's Tokugawa Ieyasu, which took decades to serialize.  Apparently Romain's work has been reclassified as a series, while Proust's is considered a single unitary work of fiction.  I wonder how these definitions come to be made?
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on June 14, 2021, 10:17:01 AM
Quote from: apl68 on June 14, 2021, 08:32:57 AM

Thanks for the article.  It left me scratching my head, not being a mathematician.  It also reminded me of an article I saw years ago that mentioned Borges' "Library of Babel" in a discussion of how it is possible to envision sets that each meet the definition of "infinite," and yet some can be bigger than others.

Yeah, the different magnitudes of infinity are really trippy when you first learn about them. Despite that, though, they're also pretty intuitive: there's an infinite number of numbers between 0.1 and 0.2, and betwwen 0.2 and 0.21, etc., so it's pretty clear that if you assigned one natural number to each number between 0 and 1, you'd fall hopelessly behind really quickly. So it's clear that there are infinitely many more numbers between 0 and 1 than there are natural numbers.

What I always found less intuitive and trippier was that the same isn't true of even and odd numbers--there are exactly as many odd numbers as there are even + odd numbers (or even as there are even + odd).




Quote
Interesting to note that Guinness now considers Proust's magnum opus to be the longest novel.  In my older edition of Guinness it was a toss-up between Jules Romain's Men of Goodwill and Yamaoka's Tokugawa Ieyasu, which took decades to serialize.  Apparently Romain's work has been reclassified as a series, while Proust's is considered a single unitary work of fiction.  I wonder how these definitions come to be made?

Yeah, I don't buy it. Seems rather just so to me.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on June 29, 2021, 08:01:45 AM
Some noted Latin American authors lately (In translation):

Dom Casmurro, by Machado de Assis.  Machado de Assis was a contemporary of novelists like Henry James and Edith Wharton.  Like them, he wrote about the marital trials and tribulations of the "one percent" of his day.  Common folks only get an occasional walk-on part.  This one is interesting in having a first-person narrator, rather self-centered (naturally), with a dry sense of humor and a tendency to write in many brief chapters.  He tells of how his mother superstitiously vowed when he was a baby that he would go into the priesthood, and spent his youth trying to push him into it; how he fell in love with a pretty neighbor girl and decided that the priesthood wasn't for him; managed to worm his way out of the priesthood and into a legal career; married the girl of his dreams; and finally lets unfounded (probably) jealousy ruin his relationship with with wife, best friend, and son.  It ends with all the cast either deceased or alone--exactly what you'd expect from a Serious Literary Classic.

Interesting for the way it depicts religious devotion that springs overwhelmingly from superstition and ritual, with no real spirituality.  The narrator grows up manifesting his faith mainly in efforts to make "deals" with God to say a certain number of ritual prayers whenever he wants something--something he never follows through with--and yet he nearly becomes a priest, simply because his mother offered him as a kind of human sacrifice as a way of making her own "deal" with God.  It's sad to see people settling for such a thin gruel of faith when there's a great feast of faith out there waiting to be claimed.


The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho.  This reminds me a bit of Redfield's Celestine Prophecies.  I came away feeling as though I had plumbed the shallows of religion, philosophy, and life's great questions.  The message seems to be that You are the Hero of your own Story.  A popular message, no doubt.  It puts me in mind of Francis Chan's parable about the extra who appeared for a couple of seconds in a crowd scene in a blockbuster movie and then rented a local movie theater for "his" big premier.  The movie of life is not all about us.  It's delusional to imagine otherwise.  Again, it's sad to see people settling for messages like this when there is a far greater and more hopeful Good News out there.


Ficciones, by Jorge Luis Borges.  Finally got around to reading this!  I now understand why, when I read some excerpts from Barry Lopez' story collection Winter Count to my mother some years back, she acted like it seemed familiar.  Mom taught Borges for years in her undergrad Latin American Literature classes.  Some of Lopez' stories owe an obvious debt to Borges.

Borges himself has earned a place in world literature through his baffling stories that turn our understandings of reality and knowledge upside down and inside out.  I suspect he may be popular with those readers who can recognize most of his vocabulary and learned allusions, because it gives us an excuse to pat ourselves on the back for being able to catch all this stuff.  Borges is something of a literary equivalent of those T-shirts that say, in Latin, "If you this shirt can read, too much education you have."  I get the distinct impression that Borges had fun pulling his readers' legs, in the most learned way possible.  His Ficciones can sometimes be kind of fun to read.  Though Barry Lopez and Italo Calvino are more accessible.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on June 29, 2021, 08:35:05 AM
Quote from: apl68 on June 29, 2021, 08:01:45 AM

Ficciones, by Jorge Luis Borges.  Finally got around to reading this!  I now understand why, when I read some excerpts from Barry Lopez' story collection Winter Count to my mother some years back, she acted like it seemed familiar.  Mom taught Borges for years in her undergrad Latin American Literature classes.  Some of Lopez' stories owe an obvious debt to Borges.

Borges himself has earned a place in world literature through his baffling stories that turn our understandings of reality and knowledge upside down and inside out.  I suspect he may be popular with those readers who can recognize most of his vocabulary and learned allusions, because it gives us an excuse to pat ourselves on the back for being able to catch all this stuff.  Borges is something of a literary equivalent of those T-shirts that say, in Latin, "If you this shirt can read, too much education you have."  I get the distinct impression that Borges had fun pulling his readers' legs, in the most learned way possible.  His Ficciones can sometimes be kind of fun to read.  Though Barry Lopez and Italo Calvino are more accessible.

I both have that t-shirt and adore Borges's stories. Not because of the allusions (I don't recall that as a characteristic of his work, which I suspect means I missed most of them) but because of the mind-bendingness of his imagination.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on June 29, 2021, 09:01:15 AM
Quote from: ergative on June 29, 2021, 08:35:05 AM
Quote from: apl68 on June 29, 2021, 08:01:45 AM

Ficciones, by Jorge Luis Borges.  Finally got around to reading this!  I now understand why, when I read some excerpts from Barry Lopez' story collection Winter Count to my mother some years back, she acted like it seemed familiar.  Mom taught Borges for years in her undergrad Latin American Literature classes.  Some of Lopez' stories owe an obvious debt to Borges.

Borges himself has earned a place in world literature through his baffling stories that turn our understandings of reality and knowledge upside down and inside out.  I suspect he may be popular with those readers who can recognize most of his vocabulary and learned allusions, because it gives us an excuse to pat ourselves on the back for being able to catch all this stuff.  Borges is something of a literary equivalent of those T-shirts that say, in Latin, "If you this shirt can read, too much education you have."  I get the distinct impression that Borges had fun pulling his readers' legs, in the most learned way possible.  His Ficciones can sometimes be kind of fun to read.  Though Barry Lopez and Italo Calvino are more accessible.

I both have that t-shirt and adore Borges's stories. Not because of the allusions (I don't recall that as a characteristic of his work, which I suspect means I missed most of them) but because of the mind-bendingness of his imagination.

I know what you mean about the mind-bending imagination.  It has gotten to be popular in contemporary popular fiction to try to bend the readers' (or viewers') minds.  The creators we have today haven't caught up with Borges!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on July 02, 2021, 07:14:48 PM
Having a fantastical adventure with The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton.  It's the 1st installment in the "Dangerous Damsels" series.
I like the Bronte sisters are getting a shout out for their novels as well as the author being inspired by them.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on July 06, 2021, 12:01:38 PM
Quote from: ab_grp on June 12, 2021, 03:09:54 PM
After that, we started on Morning Star, which was our next book in the Red Rising series I've mentioned here before.  As with previous novels in the series, it often comes off as melodramatic.  I told my husband while reading it last night that I felt as though I needed to be wearing a turtleneck and have someone playing bongos.  The story has always grown more interesting in the previous novels, so we shall see.

Just finished this book last night.  Like the others, its story eventually became more interesting as the action and intrigue started in earnest, centering on the hierarchical Society ruled by the Sovereign and the various forces trying to make deals and power plays.  The series has a number of great characters to root for (though still not the protagonist, who is still overconfident and naive) and a bunch of villains who are written complexly enough that there is room for some thought about good versus bad.  There was one perfect line amongst the often eyeroll-worthy dialogue and narrative, but I'm not sure if it was an intentional homage or not given the probably reading audience.  We really do enjoy the series despite some of its failings, as the good parts are pretty good and the overall story has legs.  It feels as though this was meant to be the final book of a trilogy with a very neatly wrapped-up ending, but there are two more in the saga.  Those take place a bit in the future, so we'll check them out at some point.

Now we're reading the final book in the Protectorate trilogy (O'Keefe), Catalyst Gate.  This has been one of my favorite series so far.  Aliens, spies, AI, political intrigue... lots of fun, and I really like the interactions between characters.  Hopefully this one will meet or surpass the bar set by the first two and round out the trilogy well.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on July 08, 2021, 05:19:12 PM
June's haul, before I forget them all:

Cathy O'Neill - Weapons of Math Destruction: A book about the pernicious influence of algorithms on our lives. While informative and well-written, it was kind of underwhelming. I mean, it was interesting, but felt like fairly small potatoes. Mostly, it felt like she was in love with her characterization of these algorightms as WMDs, but they mostly didn't live up to their designation. And the solutions prescribed seemed like bandaids for a severed limb.

Michael Cadnum - Raven of the Waves: I found this in a book box years ago (in California, a day after my defence, I think), and had very low expectations of it. It's historical fiction for youngish teens centred on the dawn of the viking age, and it's actually pretty OK. It's clearly written by a poet, in the sense that the flow is weird, the continuity is a little off, and he does a poor job with communicating causality, but it was a perfectly enjoyable read. The period combat leaves something to be desired, and the armour is a common misconception, but on the whole, this was a decent effort. I'd  be interested in reading some of his other work.

Charles Stross - Wireless: The Essential Charles Stross: Some of these were pretty fun, although many cried out for novel-length treatments (especially the novellas, Missile Gap and Palimpsest, but also the short story Rogue Farm). Not my favourite kind of scifi--a lot of it is rooted in the cold war--but it was pretty interesting and effective, even if I'd have liked something more outlandish. The intro was pretty rad, I have to say.

I don't recall if I ever added my review of Stross's short story Antibodies. In case I didn't: I don't remember much about it now, save that I thought it was an intriguing premise but didn't quite work.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on July 16, 2021, 07:52:45 AM
London:  The Biography, by Peter Ackroyd.  A great big book about a great big city!  Ackroyd takes a thematic approach, with numerous chapters, many brief, about all sorts of subjects.  There are chapters on London's clubs and restaurants, on its long-buried rivers, on its now-lost holy wells, on prisons and madhouses, on the development of the Cockney dialect, on such specific neighborhoods as Southwark, and much, much more.  The amount of detail is fascinating and impressive.  But Ackroyd spreads his coverage so thin that the phrase "A mile wide and an inch deep" sometimes comes to mind.

There are frequent free associations between this and that.  Sometimes these come across as insightful.  Sometimes--the discussion of the rhyme "London Bridge" that turns into an assertion that children were once sacrificed to the god of the Thames is a good example--they seem rather fanciful.  Ackroyd puts a lot of emphasis on the seamy side of London life.  It's clear that life has been miserable and often violent for most Londoners for most of the city's history.  A recurring theme is the contrast between the authorities' efforts to impose order and the inhabitants' resistance to any sort of order.  One gets the impression sometimes that Ackroyd has been reading his Michel Foucault.  That observation is not meant as a compliment.

Another theme is the notion that London has never ceased being a "pagan" society.  It's true enough that London seems never to have been dominated by New Testament ethics and morality (What place ever has been?  Jesus made it clear to his followers that following him was about striving to spread and exemplify his teachings in an evil world, not to somehow make the world good).  But Ackroyd really does, in the midst of digressions about obscure, eccentric clubs and enumerations of all the dozens of kinds of fish once caught in the Thames, slight a very long history of Christian practice in London.  Catholic/Anglican churches are usually mentioned only in connection with archaeology or architecture.  Evangelical Nonconformists are only mentioned now and then as part of broader observations about London's "radical" traditions.

Obviously Ackroyd was going for an impressionistic approach.  He does indeed give a great mass of vivid impressions, which leave the reader wanting to know more about all kinds of things.  Next time I think I'll look for a more focused approach to London's history.  And maybe something more chronological.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on July 16, 2021, 09:36:33 AM
For a more balanced, sympathetically informed view on ecclesiastical relationships in Londinium, as it was once called, I'd start with the formation of the early buildings and congregations that preceded the Anglican establishment in the 1500s, something on printing in London from the 1600s-1900s (who does he think printed all those Dissenters' sermons, tracts, hymnals and treatises--and ordered, and read them?) and the way they gave safe harbor to Catholic non-juring priests escaping the French Revolution? Such shelter was not always ungrudging, but still...Cheverus was sheltered at Tottenham Chapel for a couple years before he made it to the Americas.

A study of the evolution of Christopher Wren's churches (all of them--sorry I don't know a recent book to recommend at present) would also point up the fact that while many were indeed built on early worship sites that probably pre-dated the arrival of Christian missionaries from Germany in the very earliest centuries, not all were, and the growth of parishes continued, whether under the Pope or the Crown, so that new as well as old buildings were required.

It sounds in part like he's parroting Lethaby ('Londinium,' 1924) on architectural aesthetics, Jungian psychology, and sociology: that work has a similar tone and can be disproved in several instances (as I did on an assigned pre-comps paper): he worked from his own impressions and not actual architectural and sociological studies. More useful might be Percy Scholes on Dissenters' music, or the study of liturgical history by (A-- & E---, I always called then "Addlepate and Eggsheels," to the point I can't recall their true names...mea maxima culpa...).

I might agree that it's never quite been "all one thing or the other," confessionally speaking, but that's the nature of a large city. Since Canterbury and York had more ecclesial power after the 1530s, the Anglican bishops of London were more functionary (but one signed the midwife's license I found, so they did have some power...ahem). And he may have had some wish partially to defeat the British tendency to romanticize pagan practices, which might not necessarily have included infant sacrifices to the Thames, but could have...Molech-like practices were not limited to the Eastern Mediterranean.

Being more secularly important, more tied to royalty, and more of a military center, there were indeed always competing interests and philosophical approaches to life, so the sense of a "hodge-podge" of thoughts is not wrong, either. The Oxford Medieval History book, and some of the musical entries on hymnals and composers centered in London, in Grove's Dictionary of Music; and the Art Encyclopedia entries on other British architects, like Gibbs, or the Adams, might also give a better sense of solidity and structure.

A wry thought...Perhaps Peter Ackroyd is related to Roger? (;--})

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on July 16, 2021, 07:40:57 PM
The Empire's Ruin by Brian Staveley
The 1st installment in the "Ashes of the Unhewn Throne" series.  I've read the "Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne" trilogy; the new novel picks up some years afterwards.

Apl68, I've read and enjoyed Peter Ackroyd's Thames: the Biography from the library.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on July 17, 2021, 12:27:54 PM
Quote from: hmaria1609 on July 16, 2021, 07:40:57 PM
The Empire's Ruin by Brian Staveley
The 1st installment in the "Ashes of the Unhewn Throne" series.  I've read the "Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne" trilogy; the new novel picks up some years afterwards.

Apl68, I've read and enjoyed Peter Ackroyd's Thames: the Biography from the library.

It gives a vivid impression of the city's long history, doesn't it?  BTW, I'm pretty sure Ackroyd is NOT related to eager Roger or Dan.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on July 17, 2021, 04:17:44 PM
Kidding about Roger.

Circling around not falling into a Poirot loop online....

;--》

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mahagonny on July 18, 2021, 03:51:07 PM
What's a good book for learning more about polling? Anyone? Thanks.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: spork on July 19, 2021, 11:53:24 AM
Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster, by Adam Higginbotham. Excellent journalistic research (the book includes ~ 100 pages of bibliographic notes). An exciting, if depressing, read. Everyone ends up chronically ill, dead, imprisoned, disgraced, or, usually, some combination thereof. If I was teaching an undergraduate course on the end of the Soviet Union, I would use this book.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on July 20, 2021, 07:34:00 AM
Quote from: spork on July 19, 2021, 11:53:24 AM
Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster, by Adam Higginbotham. Excellent journalistic research (the book includes ~ 100 pages of bibliographic notes). An exciting, if depressing, read. Everyone ends up chronically ill, dead, imprisoned, disgraced, or, usually, some combination thereof. If I was teaching an undergraduate course on the end of the Soviet Union, I would use this book.

The only book-length treatment of the Chernobyl disaster I've ever read was Piers Paul Reed's Ablaze, which was published much closer to the event.

Speaking of Chernobyl--I'm currently reading Islands of Abandonment:  Nature Rebounding in the Post-Human Landscape, by Cal Flynn.  I've already passed her chapter on the abandoned zone around Chernobyl, which has become a remarkable wildlife preserve.  The return of diverse wildlife to places abandoned by human settlement and use is the book's main theme.  Apparently our greenhouse gas problem would already be far worse by now had it not been for widespread reversion of farmland to forest in much of the world. 

Our region, like so many rural regions, has seen a great deal of that.  Unfortunately our abandoned lands have mostly been clear-cut and then either abandoned again or turned into commercial timber lots.  We really don't have a great deal of biologically-diverse, naturally-seeded woodland around here.  That's one reason why I want so badly not to have to sell our family's 20 acres when my parents die.  If I do, they'll inevitably become yet another clear-cut tract, and there's far too much of that already out their way.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on July 20, 2021, 10:53:03 AM
I joined Kameron Hurley's Patreon to get access to her short stories, and a nice perk is that, in addition to getting a new short story every month or so, I also get access to all the last four years of her short stories. The first volume (the Patreon Year 1 collection), is stunningly good. Many of those stories were subsequently published in her short story collection Meet Me in the Future, and of the ones that weren't, some of them are in her Patreon Year 2 collection, which I'm reading now. It's not quite as good as Year 1---to be honest, there is insufficient body horror and mucous, and that really is the purest Hurley ethos---but I'm always struck by how good she is at building a world and a story in very few words. She always does interesting stuff with her fiction, and I recommend her work highly.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Puget on July 20, 2021, 10:54:49 AM
Quote from: apl68 on July 20, 2021, 07:34:00 AM
  That's one reason why I want so badly not to have to sell our family's 20 acres when my parents die.  If I do, they'll inevitably become yet another clear-cut tract, and there's far too much of that already out their way.

Off topic for this thread but-- have you looked into a conservation easement? That would protect the land from development but allow you to still sell it if necessary. https://www.conservationeasement.us/what-is-a-conservation-easement/
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: spork on July 27, 2021, 03:29:59 PM
13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi, by Mitchell Zuckoff. Read this because I watched the terrible Michael Bay movie adaptation. The writing doesn't come anywhere close to the quality of Mark Bowden's Black Hawk Down.

Grasp: The Science Transforming How We Learn, by Sanjay Sarma and Luke Yoquinto. Sort of an overview on cognitive psychology/science research as it relates to learning. Starts with educational philosophies of the 19th century and how this drove the unscientific development of the educational institutions we have today. Not as epic or as well-organized as The Emperor of All Maladies by Ned Sharpless, and not as practical as Daniel Willingham's stuff.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on July 28, 2021, 05:45:21 AM
Quote from: spork on July 27, 2021, 03:29:59 PM
13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi, by Mitchell Zuckoff. Read this because I watched the terrible Michael Bay movie adaptation. The writing doesn't come anywhere close to the quality of Mark Bowden's Black Hawk Down.

Grasp: The Science Transforming How We Learn, by Sanjay Sarma and Luke Yoquinto. Sort of an overview on cognitive psychology/science research as it relates to learning. Starts with educational philosophies of the 19th century and how this drove the unscientific development of the educational institutions we have today. Not as epic or as well-organized as The Emperor of All Maladies by Ned Sharpless, and not as practical as Daniel Willingham's stuff.

Is this a different book from the history of cancer by the same title by Siddhartha Mukherjee? I did a bit of a google around and couldn't find anything by this title by Ned (=Norman?) Sharpless.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on July 28, 2021, 06:38:33 AM
There isn't a mix-up somewhere in there with Jhumpa Lahiri's "Interpreter of Maladies," is there?

(A good short-story collection, by the way...)

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: spork on July 28, 2021, 08:06:02 AM
Quote from: ergative on July 28, 2021, 05:45:21 AM
Quote from: spork on July 27, 2021, 03:29:59 PM
13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi, by Mitchell Zuckoff. Read this because I watched the terrible Michael Bay movie adaptation. The writing doesn't come anywhere close to the quality of Mark Bowden's Black Hawk Down.

Grasp: The Science Transforming How We Learn, by Sanjay Sarma and Luke Yoquinto. Sort of an overview on cognitive psychology/science research as it relates to learning. Starts with educational philosophies of the 19th century and how this drove the unscientific development of the educational institutions we have today. Not as epic or as well-organized as The Emperor of All Maladies by Ned Sharpless, and not as practical as Daniel Willingham's stuff.

Is this a different book from the history of cancer by the same title by Siddhartha Mukherjee? I did a bit of a google around and couldn't find anything by this title by Ned (=Norman?) Sharpless.

My mistake. You are correct, the author is Siddhartha Mukherjee. I read so much history of scientific research that I often get the authors and the scientists confused. Mukherjee happens to be both.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on July 28, 2021, 08:44:24 AM
Quote from: spork on July 28, 2021, 08:06:02 AM
Quote from: ergative on July 28, 2021, 05:45:21 AM
Quote from: spork on July 27, 2021, 03:29:59 PM
13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi, by Mitchell Zuckoff. Read this because I watched the terrible Michael Bay movie adaptation. The writing doesn't come anywhere close to the quality of Mark Bowden's Black Hawk Down.

Grasp: The Science Transforming How We Learn, by Sanjay Sarma and Luke Yoquinto. Sort of an overview on cognitive psychology/science research as it relates to learning. Starts with educational philosophies of the 19th century and how this drove the unscientific development of the educational institutions we have today. Not as epic or as well-organized as The Emperor of All Maladies by Ned Sharpless, and not as practical as Daniel Willingham's stuff.

Is this a different book from the history of cancer by the same title by Siddhartha Mukherjee? I did a bit of a google around and couldn't find anything by this title by Ned (=Norman?) Sharpless.

My mistake. You are correct, the author is Siddhartha Mukherjee. I read so much history of scientific research that I often get the authors and the scientists confused. Mukherjee happens to be both.

Ah, ok. I read The Emperor of All Maladies a few years ago, and it was really superb. I've been thinking of reading his other book, The Gene, but it's marketed as being part memoir because his family has a genetic history of some illness or other, and I get really impatient when my science books start poking the authors' personal lives into the science. (If you* like the parasocial author-reader relationship, good for you, but I get impatient. Maybe it's because I don't really like people that much.)

*the generic you
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: spork on July 28, 2021, 09:47:49 AM
That's why I didn't like Grasp. It was trying to do too many things.

Halfway through Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India, by Suchitra Vijayan. A very good book on politics, geography, and identity.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on July 30, 2021, 07:30:52 PM
I don't read graphic novels, however, this title was inviting to be read: Reading Quirks: Weird Things that Bookish Nerds Do! by the Wild Detectives
A fun graphic novel for adults of all things we do reading.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Hegemony on August 02, 2021, 05:15:30 AM
I was looking for a page-turner, so I tried Then She Was Gone, by Lisa Jewell. To my mind it was more a page-tear-out-and-throw-across-the-room-er. What a lot of unengaging hokum. Implausible on about six different levels. And the ending was guessable from about page 15. Books like that really show you what your time is worth (too much for another one like that).

I'd still love a good page-turner, though.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: larryc on August 03, 2021, 06:41:14 AM
I finally got around to John Sclazi's Redshirts, a science fiction novel set in a Star Trek adjacent universe, telling the story from the POV of a group of normally faceless minor crew persons who exist only to get killed to advance the plot. Slowly they realize that they are not just in a starship, they are in a narrative, and it is one that never ends well for them. They decide to do something about it.

I loved this book. It starts off as a romp, a hilarious sendup of the original Star Trek series, but it soon takes a turn, and then another... It is funny, thought-provoking, and moving. I think it is his best work.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on August 03, 2021, 08:36:44 AM
Larryc, if you haven't read his Fuzzy Nation or Agent to the Stars, you might want to give them a try.  I think those two are my favorites of his so far.  They are plenty funny but are also really touching and interesting.  I thought Red Shirts was very good but a little inconsistent and probably could have been edited down a bit in places.

We finished Catalyst Gate (O'Keefe).  I thought she finished the trilogy very well, but the first book of the series (Velocity Weapon) was the best of them, in my opinion (my husband felt the same).  More of this book covered interaction with other life forms, which led it in an interesting direction but felt a little overdone at times.  Still, the same good cast of characters, action, and political intrigue made it a fun read.

Now we are on Hank Green's A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor (follow up to An Absolutely Remarkable Thing).  We really enjoyed the first book, which was told from one point of view.  This sequel has several narrators.  We are barely into it, but it seems like a good set up so far, and I'm interested to see where it goes.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on August 03, 2021, 09:57:57 AM
Do audiobooks count?  I just finished a radio production of Babbit (Ed Asner, Judd Nelson, Hector Elizondo etc).  Great production.

But I didn't really get the book.  At the end, I still didn't really know what it was about.

I'm standing outside the gate, but I don't see any barbarians here....
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on August 03, 2021, 10:18:05 AM
Audiobooks definitely count!

I've recently been getting into Sarah Waters. I read The Paying Guests while recovering from Pfizer #2, and I've just started Fingersmith. She's a very engaging writer, and I enjoy the evocation of the time periods she writes in.

I also just finished Fredrik Backmann's Anxious People, which was outstanding, and Lucy Jago's A Net for Small Fishes, which was a little disappointing. The latter book is about the events surrounding the death of Sir Thomas Overbury in the court of King James I, but the problem is that Jago decided to humanize the characters that history records as scheming villains, and turn them into kind, earnest, sympathetic people who are driven by understandable motives. But after I read the history itself (there's a great chapter about the same events in Eleanor Herman's The Royal Art of Poison), I realized that I didn't want a book about kind, earnest, sympathetic people. I wanted the story about the villains! The book would have been so much more fun if people had leant into their villainy more.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Golazo on August 04, 2021, 12:48:22 PM
In nonfiction, Rosa Brooks' account of being a reserve police officer in DC, Tangled Up in Blue, was compelling. Her conversations with her mother, Barbara Ehrenreich (well known lefty, author of Nickle and Dimed) are hilarious, while the reflections on policing reform, interspersed with what she actually did, are interesting even when I don't agree with her takes.
I also read Liddle Heart's classic book on Strategy, which reinforced my skepticism of him. The cases are all structured to support his argument behind the superiority of the indirect approach, and the book seems like a classic example of problems that come from selecting on the dependent variable. McChrystal's Leaders: Myth and Reality suffers from a different problem--the cases, though sometimes interesting, don't align with his argument about leadership at the end, which is thus less compelling than it might be.

In fiction, I read Katherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor, which was fine but not outstanding, which I had hoped for given the book's awards, and Sarah Pinkser's We are Satellites , which is well written and grabbed my attention but suffered from some key parts of the plot not being at all convincing.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Vkw10 on August 04, 2021, 01:11:12 PM
Quote from: Golazo on August 04, 2021, 12:48:22 PM

In fiction, I read Katherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor, which was fine but not outstanding, which I had hoped for given the book's awards

I found the audiobook of The Goblin Emperor better than the print, although I enjoyed the print. She's just published another book in the same world, Witness for the Dead, which is in my stack.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on August 04, 2021, 03:24:17 PM
Quote from: Vkw10 on August 04, 2021, 01:11:12 PM
Quote from: Golazo on August 04, 2021, 12:48:22 PM

In fiction, I read Katherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor, which was fine but not outstanding, which I had hoped for given the book's awards

I found the audiobook of The Goblin Emperor better than the print, although I enjoyed the print. She's just published another book in the same world, Witness for the Dead, which is in my stack.

I think what I liked most about The Goblin Emperor, aside from the wildly inventive and systematic onomastics, was the fact that it was a book about a good guy, trying his best to do a hard job, and by sheer dint of earnest good faith he manages to bring around enough people to his side to change a political snakepit into something that seems like a functional government. That kind of fable is so refreshing.

Witness for the Dead, which I read not too long ago, is similar, but on a much smaller scale. I enjoyed it, but the plotting wasn't as coherent as The Goblin Emperor. There were multiple different plot threads that didn't all connect, but together they formed a loose weave that characterized a month or so in the life of the main character; and if you like the world building and society building, it was a comfortable, restful book to spend time in.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: spork on August 06, 2021, 03:10:05 AM
Finished Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India, by Suchitra Vijayan. Some chapters are high quality writing. Others are more legalistic in style. All present accounts of atrocities in Kashmir, Assam, etc. One of Vijayan's conclusions is that the Indian state is becoming genocidal. Can't say I can argue strongly against that.

Now halfway through Noise by Kahneman, Sibony, and Sunstein. Liking it so far, but I like anything that Danny Kahneman writes.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Vkw10 on August 06, 2021, 05:51:53 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on August 03, 2021, 08:36:44 AM
Larryc, if you haven't read his Fuzzy Nation or Agent to the Stars, you might want to give them a try.  I think those two are my favorites of his so far.  They are plenty funny but are also really touching and interesting.  I thought Red Shirts was very good but a little inconsistent and probably could have been edited down a bit in places.

Thanks for mentioning Scalzi's Fuzzy Nation. You reminded me of Piper's Little Fuzzy, the basis of Scalzi's story. Searching my shelves for it led to A Planet for Texans, aka Lone Star Planet. I'd forgotten both how much I enjoy Piper's work and how useful it is for starting ethical discussions. Most of his material is available through Project Gutenberg, too, which gives me an opportunity to introduce my students  to an excellent resource.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on August 06, 2021, 06:00:13 AM
Quote from: Vkw10 on August 06, 2021, 05:51:53 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on August 03, 2021, 08:36:44 AM
Larryc, if you haven't read his Fuzzy Nation or Agent to the Stars, you might want to give them a try.  I think those two are my favorites of his so far.  They are plenty funny but are also really touching and interesting.  I thought Red Shirts was very good but a little inconsistent and probably could have been edited down a bit in places.

Thanks for mentioning Scalzi's Fuzzy Nation. You reminded me of Piper's Little Fuzzy, the basis of Scalzi's story. Searching my shelves for it led to A Planet for Texans, aka Lone Star Planet. I'd forgotten both how much I enjoy Piper's work and how useful it is for starting ethical discussions. Most of his material is available through Project Gutenberg, too, which gives me an opportunity to introduce my students  to an excellent resource.

I'm not a huge fan of Golden Era scifi (I have to make way too many concessions to 'ugh, of its time, of its time'), but Piper did have one really outstanding short story, called Omnilingual, which, despite its icky exotification of a Japanese woman, did one of the best jobs depicting how linguists might go around deciphering an ancient (or extraterrestrial, in this case) language. My particular favorite bit was how they assumed that some document must be an academic journal, which meant that the bit of text in the top corner must be the volume and issue and date information, and from there managed to work out the dating system, number system, and morphology of the language. It struck me as really funny, but really accurate: goofy-ass assumption, but hey--if it seems to work, then run with it!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on August 06, 2021, 08:05:36 AM
July:

Simon Scarrow - The Emperor's Exile: It was OK. I'm not a fan of when these books centre on imaginary events instead of real ones, and I confess that I don't like where the ending is taking us, which seems to run against the grain of the characters a fair bit. But whatever, I guess. It'll have to end somehow. Cato was somewhat less annoying this time around.

Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross - The Rapture of the Nerds: It's OK. It clearly wants to be The Hitchhiker's Guide, but is only very mildly amusing. Far too much slapdash-running-around plot for my liking. SciFi's at its best when it's about ideas, and this wasn't.

Jack McDevitt - Infinity Beach: Found it in a book box and gave it a spin on the basis of his Priscilla Hutchins series, which was pretty good. I was pleasantly surprised--it's a solid first contact thriller that had me gripped, and I enjoyed the wrongfooting. I'm also pleased that it's not characterized by the overt misogyny of the late novels in the Hutchins series--there are a few dodgy moments, but I might have missed them if I hadn't been on the lookout for them. I think this is the best of his novels that I've read.

Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on August 16, 2021, 07:32:05 AM
Just finished The City in History, by Lewis Mumford.  It attempts to survey the history of the urban idea from ancient times up to the early 1960s.  The sections that deal with the medieval city try hard to rehabilitate the Middle Ages.  Efforts to correct the common Monty Pythonesque view of the Middle Ages as all one grotesque spectacle of degradation are always welcome, but he does take rather a rose-tinted view of the time.  Mumford considers the medieval city to have been the apotheosis of the human, livable urban settlement.  A lot of his enthusiasm for medieval cities comes down to "small is beautiful"--medieval cities were built on a human scale, within a decentralized political order that let local communities find the best available solutions to their needs.

Mumford considers that the world has taken several disastrous wrong turns since the Middle Ages.  During the Baroque Era tyrants centralized power and authority, and channeled society's resources into grand palaces, capitals, and fortifications that only made things worse for most people.  Then laissez faire capitalism subordinated everything to economic activity that benefited only the few.  Laissez faire capitalism combined with the dirty machines of the early industrial revolution turned cities into hell on earth for most people.  And the continued rapid development of technology in the 20th century, though it solved problems of material scarcity, has continued to develop cities and societies in ways that put human needs last, in both capitalist and centrally planned socialist societies.

Mumford was an early proponent of the now commonplace (but still mostly unheeded) observation that over-reliance on automobiles for transportation results in vast waste of land and resources, pollution, and cities that are engineered around cars, not human beings.  He diagnosed a lot of our urban problems before they became so acute.  But he wrote too early to recognize what have turned out to be the two greatest existential threats to our world--the global climate change that is wrecking the environment in ways that the ecological alarmists of the 1960s never dreamed of, and the proliferation of information and media technologies that are laying waste to our economies, society, and politics.

Mumford, as he admits on the first page, is a generalist.  Books this broad usually end up containing a lot of nonsense and rhetorical excesses, and The City in History is no exception.  It nonetheless also offers some striking insights.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on August 16, 2021, 07:49:02 AM
Two things that occurred to me while reading Mumford.  First, the sorts of cities that he considers the best for human beings are actually what the modern world would call small towns--communities of a few thousand to a few tens of thousands.  Having grown up in a small town, and moved back to one after some years' residence in a big city, I'm a great believer in the virtues of small towns.  At their best they're human-scaled communities that have a lot of the "walkability" and other neighborhood qualities that the New Urbanists wanted so much to see preserved in cities.  Unfortunately the destructive forces that Mumford identified have only continued to run amuck in the 60 years since he wrote.  In my own lifetime I've seen these economic and social forces destroy small towns--my own hometown included--in droves, while all the wealth and population and opportunities continue to be sucked into a handful of over-built, over-crowded, increasingly uninhabitable urban areas. 

Second, at the beginning of his consideration of the Middle Ages Mumford offers this interesting observation concerning how Christianity (of a sort) became the dominant faith of medieval Europe:

"Many reasons have been assigned for the triumph of Christianity; but the plainest of them is that the Christian expectation of radical evil--sin, pain, illness, weakness, and death--was closer to the realities of this disintegrating civilization than any creed based on the old images of `Life, Prosperity, and Health.'"  He goes on to describe how Christian teaching's emphasis on charity and self-sacrifice proved an adaptive response to a disintegrating civilization.  Sounds an awful lot like what we see happening to the world now.  If only more in the church now could stop worshiping the same gods of 'Life, Prosperity, and Health.' like the pagans did.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: downer on August 16, 2021, 08:01:47 AM
Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on August 16, 2021, 10:15:56 AM
It's been awhile since I've posted in this thread.

Finished from the library: "Verity Kent Mystery" series by Anna Lee Huber
In 1919 Verity and Sidney Kent are solving cases related to their wartime experiences in the UK. By the same author of the "Lady Darby Mystery" series.

Now: "Lady Helen" trilogy by Alison Goodman (YA)
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on August 17, 2021, 01:57:09 AM
The Habitation of the Blessed, by Catherynne Valente. It's a take on the Prester John legend, and really beautiful. Valente is a wonderful stylist with her writing, and the way she plays with the ideas of religion and conversion and memory and record-keeping is just wonderful. It's the first in a series, but because there is a recurring motif of incomplete records of tales and history, you don't feel the need to read the later books, because the broad outlines of the missing bits of the story to be addressed in sequels are still clear in this book, and the missing bits can remain missing in a way that is fully consistent with the motif. I was very impressed.

Predator's Gold, by Phillip Reeve. This is the second in the Mortal Engines quartet (start with Mortal Engines), which is a delightfully imaginative far-future science-fantasy series about a world where, after the Thirty-Minute War destroyed civilization as we know it, people rebuilt the world based on 'Traction Cities', creating vast, mobile cities that, according to the principles of Municipal Darwinism, hunt each other down and eat each other. There are also air ships and pirates and zombie monster robots, and overall it's a really wonderful series, full of wit and action.

Fingersmith and The Paying Guests, by Sarah Waters. Both books have the identical plot, if you abstract away enough from the specifics: Two women fall in love, and then one of them murders her husband. Very versatile, as far as plots go. Endlessly adaptable.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Hegemony on August 18, 2021, 03:08:46 AM
I'm reading Stephen King's new novel, Billy Summers. It's basically a crime novel, sort of Lee Child lite. I'm near the end and there was one disconcerting moment (really only about two lines) of something paranormal; so far no actual relation to the plot. And halfway through something very implausible starts, and just keeps on being implausible.

But I had been trying to force myself to read deep and intricate fiction without much narrative drive, and this novel is about the most my actual brainpower can cope with right now. I'm actually yearning for something that's both suspenseful and brilliantly written, but I have exhausted my supply of Graham Greene's thrillers and Elmore Leonard, and this is what the bookstore had. I do like Stephen King, but the last third is often a let-down, when the real answers behind the mystery start to emerge, and they're less interesting than the mystery was.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on August 18, 2021, 01:23:13 PM
Thanks for the review, Hegemony.  It seems as though recent King novels are hit and miss.  I guess I think that's the case about much of his work, but I haven't found any really recent ones that seem as compelling as earlier novels.

Quote from: ab_grp on August 03, 2021, 08:36:44 AM
Now we are on Hank Green's A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor (follow up to An Absolutely Remarkable Thing).  We really enjoyed the first book, which was told from one point of view.  This sequel has several narrators.  We are barely into it, but it seems like a good set up so far, and I'm interested to see where it goes.
Finished this one last night.  It's very similar to the first book in its timely commentary on social media and societal interactions in the face of a global issue.  His writing reminds me a bit of the lighter Scalzi work.   Pretty funny, suspenseful, sad at times, and some interesting characters.  The first one was a "first contact" type of tale, and the second builds off of that on a bunch of philosophical paths (I use that term loosely, not being a philosopher!) including consciousness, "god" (or an infinite power), and free will.  Some parts and explanations feel a bit rushed or cute for the sake of cuteness, but overall it was very enjoyable, and I sort of wish that there were more books to come in the series.  Sometimes it's better to leave things as good and move on, though, rather than drag a story out and dilute the quality.  Green seems like a smart and creative guy, so I'm sure he has other things in the pipeline.

Now we're back to the Silo series (Howey) with the follow up to Wool, Shift.  I fell asleep within seconds of my husband starting to read, so I have no idea if it's good or not yet but will report back.  The first one was inconsistent but had some worthwhile parts, I thought.  I know we discussed it a bit earlier in the thread.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on August 19, 2021, 01:40:28 AM
QuoteI fell asleep within seconds of my husband starting to read

I have nights like that too. But not last night. Last night we finished The 100-Year-Old Man who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared, a delightful romp of delightfulness. This was nearly the perfect book. We have a doddery old man who, as we learn in backstory flashbacks, has been responsible in one way or another for nearly all the notable events in the 20th century, and his adventures continue in the present day as he sows chaos, collects allies, and, with the train of dead bodies that accumulate in his wake, sends gangsters and policemen spinning in circles as he just goes his merry way. There were a couple of places where the backstory dragged a little bit--some adventures in Communist China were rather slow--but they all feed into each other, culminating in a brilliant scene where the new Best Friends of Chaos need to explain to an extremely harassed official what's been going on.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on August 19, 2021, 08:47:36 AM
Ergative, that sounds like a really fun read! Never heard of it, but I will look into it for our list.

After I caught up on the previous night's bit of reading, we made some more progress.  It definitely has a different feel from the first book.  And right now, I am still not quite sure I understand what's going on (which I guess makes sense).  This is a prequel to Wool and seems to be going back and forth between 2049, in which politicians are working on a proposal for some facilities and need to build a silo to get the proposal passed, and 2110, which takes place in the silo.  I omitted some of the details, because I think some could be considered spoilers of plot points in Wool.  We'll see what happens!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on August 19, 2021, 11:56:46 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on August 19, 2021, 08:47:36 AM
Ergative, that sounds like a really fun read! Never heard of it, but I will look into it for our list.

After I caught up on the previous night's bit of reading, we made some more progress.  It definitely has a different feel from the first book.  And right now, I am still not quite sure I understand what's going on (which I guess makes sense).  This is a prequel to Wool and seems to be going back and forth between 2049, in which politicians are working on a proposal for some facilities and need to build a silo to get the proposal passed, and 2110, which takes place in the silo.  I omitted some of the details, because I think some could be considered spoilers of plot points in Wool.  We'll see what happens!

Wool sounds like a Mark Kurlansky title.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on August 19, 2021, 01:15:14 PM
That's true, apl68! Maybe we should nudge him with the idea...
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Hegemony on August 21, 2021, 02:24:54 AM
I think we talked about Wool earlier on this thread. Anyway, I found it so unreadable that I gave the book away. I was not surprised to find out that it started out self-published. My experience of it was that it's a great plot idea made into a novel by someone who can't write his way out of a paper bag, or even a silo. But your mileage may vary.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on August 21, 2021, 10:24:53 AM
Hegemony, yep, we did talk about that! It is interesting that this follow up feels a good bit different than Wool did, so I wonder if that's because it was not self-published or if I am biased because I know the first one was.  It's not great writing, certainly.  But it almost feels as though it had been written to be made into a movie or some such.  I think they are making a series out of it (or out of the first one, or maybe the series), so maybe that's accurate.  Anyway, I'll see where it goes and how it develops.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on August 22, 2021, 11:38:14 AM
I read Robin Hood and His Merry Men to Smolt. She was entertained, but quickly noted that "They didn't include THAT in the Disney version."

Sharp kid.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on August 31, 2021, 11:03:38 AM
Binge reading the "Lady Sherlock Series" by Sherry Thomas from the library.
Charlotte Holmes solves crimes as Sherlock Holmes in 1886 London.  The new and #6 entry, Miss Moriarty, I Presume?, releases in November.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on August 31, 2021, 11:27:59 AM
An old but useful survey, "Papists and Puritans under Elizabeth I" by Mc Grath is making me glad I didn't put it into one of the "LittleNeighborhoodLibrary" boxes last week with others I've been turfing out after helping a friend move.

I'm dithering over a collection of Jonathan Swift's essays, too....figure they're mostly on line, but the commentaries  are often the most useful parts...

(Can you tell my friend was an English lit. major at one point? Now she's an artist....)

M.

Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: spork on September 06, 2021, 01:11:21 PM
Finished these:
Next I will probably start either The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the road to 9/11, by Lawrence Wright, or The Afghanistan papers: A secret history of the war, by Craig Whitlock.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on September 07, 2021, 12:27:44 AM
I've been really jonesing for some books on poison lately. Ever since I read Eleanor Harmon's magnificent text on The Royal Art of Poison I've been wanting more. Deborah Blum's books on the history of food safety and forensic investigation were great.

But then I tried to find fictional books that use poison as plot points, and I'm coming up dry. Sam Hawke's City of Lies was insufficiently poisonous, despite being about a professional poison-protector for a ruling family. There were all these interstitial entries about various poisons that could be used for various purposes and detected in various ways, but none of them actually appeared in the main plot, so that was a waste. Maria Snyder's book Poison Study was marginally better, but still didn't scratch my poison itch, because it was more about politics than the mechanics of being a poison tester.

Can anyone recommend either a good non-fiction tome about poisonous poisons, or else an SFF book in which poison really takes center stage?
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Hegemony on September 07, 2021, 03:32:16 AM
Ergative, I'm something of an devotée of 19th-century murder trials in which women were alleged to have used poison; they make fascinating case studies. Here are three:

Florence Ricardo, a widow charged with poisoning her husband James Bravo. Covered in Death at the Priory: Love, Sex and Murder in Victorian England, by James Ruddick. Despite the rather sensationalist subtitle this is a really well-done book, and the author's detective work has turned up the persuasive answer to the case.

Florence Maybrick, a wealthy American woman accused of poisoning her husband James, a rich Liverpool merchant. Covered in A Poisoned Life: Florence Chandler Maybrick... by Richard Jay Hutto.

Madeleine Smith, a Scots socialite charged with poisoning her lower-class illicit lover, Emile L'Angelier. This was the sensationalist case to end all sensationalist cases, and her steamy letters certainly take the lid off Victorian repression. Covered in The Strange Affair of Madeleine Smith: Victorian Scotland's Trial of the Century, by Douglas MacGowan, and by Eleanor Gordon and Gwyneth Nair, Gwyneth (2009) Murder and morality in Victorian Britain: The Story of Madeleine Smith, neither of which I have read.

All the cases provide excellent, non-poisonous food for thought.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: spork on September 07, 2021, 04:41:32 AM
Quote from: ergative on September 07, 2021, 12:27:44 AM

[. . . ]

Can anyone recommend either a good non-fiction tome about poisonous poisons, or else an SFF book in which poison really takes center stage?

Not quite an answer to your question, but you might be interested in Blind Eye by James B. Stewart. It's about Michael Swango, whose poison of choice for co-workers was arsenic. For his patients, it was lethal doses of medication.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on September 07, 2021, 07:40:29 AM
Nobody has yet mentioned The Elements of Murder:  A History of Poison, by John Emsley.  It's the only book on the subject I've ever read.  It's quite well-written.  There are sections on mercury, arsenic, antimony, lead, and less well-known elemental poisons such as copper and barium.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on September 07, 2021, 07:51:10 AM
I just read a donated copy of a recent reprint of The Red Air Fighter, by Manfred von Richtofen, aka "The Red Baron."  In 1917, while recuperating from wounds, he wrote up a short memoir of his war service prior to his injury.  It seems to have been subject to quite a bit of wartime censorship and editing, but it was not just ghost-written.  There are now and them some pretty frank passages.  The Red Baron comes across as very pleased with himself and his war service.  He was, not surprisingly, the sort who loved the thrill of danger.  He mentions the deaths of a number of his friends and colleagues without saying a lot about how they affected him.  Reticence was normal for a man of his time and social position, of course, and the wartime editing wouldn't have encouraged too much emotion either.  Still, one does get the impression of Richtofen as a man not much given to reflection.

Remarkably enough, the Red Baron's memoir was published in translation in Britain while the war was still going on.  In fact, it was evidently published before Richtofen's death in April, 1918--the original British preface, which was included in this edition, makes no mention of it.  The author of the preface speaks of the German pilots as worthy opponents, with whom one would be glad to shake hands once the war was over.  The Red Baron would not be around to do that.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on September 08, 2021, 02:38:36 AM
Hegemony, spork, apl68, thank you so much for the recommendations! I'm going to go with apl68's in the first instance, since it seems more directly attuned to my cravings at the moment, but I'll keep the others in mind too!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on September 12, 2021, 10:40:15 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on August 18, 2021, 01:23:13 PM
Now we're back to the Silo series (Howey) with the follow up to Wool, Shift.  I fell asleep within seconds of my husband starting to read, so I have no idea if it's good or not yet but will report back.  The first one was inconsistent but had some worthwhile parts, I thought.  I know we discussed it a bit earlier in the thread.

Finished this one a couple nights ago.  It was a fairly interesting story, and better than the first book (in my opinion).  It was suspenseful at times and had some thought-provoking ideas about society, as well as some intriguing characters.  However, it felt somewhat disjointed, like it was trying to do too much.  There is a lot of back and forth between timelines and locations that can get difficult to follow and to try to keep in mind what is happening when with respect to what other occurrences.  We will still likely read the third book at some point.

Now we are back to the Expanse series (Corey) with Cibola Burn.  We're not too far in yet, but it was interesting to come across the mention of the Nipah virus, since that is currently causing problems in India.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on September 12, 2021, 11:01:12 AM
For poison, there's a short section on the development of cyanide (Prussic acid) in this article:

   https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/09/13/a-cautionary-tale-about-science-raises-uncomfortable-questions-about-fiction

Not that I recommend trying it at home or anything...

M.

Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on September 13, 2021, 08:13:29 AM
The History of Henry Esmond, Esquire, by William M. Thackeray.  Henry Esmond is not as well-remembered as Thackeray's Vanity Fair.  It is definitely full of Thackeray's characteristic wit and satire.  The title character--who confusingly alternates between referring to himself in first and third person--is the child of a prominent family in late 17th- early 18th-century England.  Harry is involved from boyhood in several plots on behalf of the exiled Stuarts; serves in Marlborough's campaigns in the early 1700s; falls in love with a kindly lady and later the lady's no-good daughter; and learns that he has an improbably melodramatic and convoluted origin story.  In the end (and this is not a spoiler, because it's mentioned in the original introduction) he goes off to colonial Virginia and establishes one of those old southern families that claims aristocratic British origins (Most of which are in real life totally bogus--at the time of the Civil War the average southern planter family was only three or four generations removed from indentured servant origins).

The exciting details Esmond's eventful life are embedded in a typically long-winded Victorian novel.  You either have the patience to read through all that purple prose for any nuggets that are concealed within it, or you don't.  I do, so it was a worthwhile read.  Ivanhoe was quite a bit faster-moving, if that tells you anything.  Much of Henry Esmond's interest has to do with the historical setting.  England/Britain went through repeated succession crises between 1688 and 1715, with repeated rebellions in the Celtic periphery and fears of renewed civil war at home.  In between these events there was lots of political debate and intrigue.  Thackeray gives a vivid picture of how unstable and divisive the situation was during the period.  A recurring theme of the novel is the idea that political allegiances--Esmond's and many others' as well--are driven as much by personal feelings as by actual principles.

Quite a few actual historical figures--Addison and Steele of Spectator fame, Jonathan Swift, the Duke of Marlborough, even the Old Pretender himself--appear as characters.  Thackeray's history frequently doesn't square with what I recall from my studies of the period years ago (No, the Old Pretender did NOT sneak into England incognito in 1714 in hopes of being there to seize the throne when ailing Queen Anne died).  Now I want to refresh my knowledge of the period.  Making plans to do so in the next few weeks, as I have opportunity.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on September 13, 2021, 09:18:07 AM
You might then like the book I've been working from as a reference for my colonial burying ground work: "The English People on the Eve of Colonization: 1603-1630." (Notestine/Harper).

It's older, but very useful for the dates and the basics; I've also been working from "Puritans and Papists in Elizabethan England," which starts a bit further back but gives some of the entangled political/politial skirmishes that issued from the 16th c. tacking of Henry, Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth across the river of "cuius regio, religio" and that led to the intrigues you've just mentioned.

Also Hosteter's "America at 1750," from this side of the puddle, or any of the Atlantic Rim historians.

And coincidentally, I came here to note I've just re-read "Death Comes to Pemberly," by P.D.James, which ends with some interactions with the colonies (I won't say more to avoid spoiling it). "The Carolinians" is one of the "bodice-ripper-but-not-too-bad-historically" novels treating of those folks who showed up on this side of the Atlantic in one guise, while not entirely being the folks they were on the other side, when they left.

After all, once your shipmates are gone, who's to know?

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on September 13, 2021, 10:11:34 AM
Bill Bryson's Neither Here Nor There.  It's a travelogue from ca. 1990.  It was interesting to compare hos description of the places I have been (1-2 decade later) and places that have drastically changed since he was there.  Also, I like his snarky style.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on September 13, 2021, 10:50:23 AM
Quote from: mamselle on September 13, 2021, 09:18:07 AM
You might then like the book I've been working from as a reference for my colonial burying ground work: "The English People on the Eve of Colonization: 1603-1630." (Notestine/Harper).


Read that in grad school, as a matter of fact. I seem to recall it being pretty good.  I'll have to look it up again sometime.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: spork on September 20, 2021, 10:27:45 AM
The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, by Lawrence Wright. Family members of people killed in the 9/11 attacks who read this book probably wanted certain employees of the NSA, CIA, FBI, and White House to be hanged.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on September 20, 2021, 12:24:49 PM
From the library: Travels with George by Nathaniel Philbrick
The author retraces George Washington's regional tours during his presidency.  It's got travelogue tossed in the mix.  I'd read a comparable book titled George Washington's 1791 Southern Tour by Warren L. Bingham (History Press, 2016)

Quote from: mamselle on September 13, 2021, 09:18:07 AM
And coincidentally, I came here to note I've just re-read "Death Comes to Pemberly," by P.D.James, which ends with some interactions with the colonies (I won't say more to avoid spoiling it).
M.
I saw the adaptation of the novel on "Masterpiece Theatre" in 2014--lots of familiar faces in the cast!  I didn't read the novel.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on September 21, 2021, 12:02:56 AM
Quote from: hmaria1609 on September 20, 2021, 12:24:49 PM
Quote from: mamselle on September 13, 2021, 09:18:07 AM
And coincidentally, I came here to note I've just re-read "Death Comes to Pemberly," by P.D.James, which ends with some interactions with the colonies (I won't say more to avoid spoiling it).
M.
I saw the adaptation of the novel on "Masterpiece Theatre" in 2014--lots of familiar faces in the cast!  I didn't read the novel.

I read that when it came out. I remember thinking that it felt a bit slow and plodding, lacking the wit and zing I'd expect from a Jane Austen fanfiction.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on September 21, 2021, 07:38:00 AM
Hmm, I hadn't noticed that. I've read a lot of P.D. James, though, and maybe I'm just used to her longer descriptive passages.

I admit, in the first one of hers I read, "Holy Orders," I skipped over some of the descriptions the first time through, to get to the plot points, but then I realized that, in doing so, I'd missed some important details that she'd embedded in the descriptions.

I've read most of the rest of her work since then. Maybe it's a different approach to conveying plot: I've often thought of writing an essay on, say, the difference between Austen and Mann in their use of dance scenes; in this case, Austen conveys plot while things are moving (hence the zing to which you allude) while James uses the essential nature of contemplative settings and more placid background musings to get her points across.

So maybe she's trained me to read her, like Dickens, at a different pace, or something.

Interesting, I hadn't thought of that before.

Thanks--

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on September 21, 2021, 07:49:09 AM
Catastrophe 1914:  Europe Goes to War, by Max Hastings.  One of many books that came out for the centennial of World War I.  It's a very good one.  Hastings focuses less on the intricacies of what caused the war and more on the actual outbreak of fighting and the first several months of it.  It's an accessibly written history by somebody who has nonetheless clearly familiarized himself with the most authoritative literature on it.  Hastings presents the story from a wide range of points of view--soldiers, officers, refugees, home-front civilians, and civilian leaders.  And also a variety of nationalities, although not surprisingly there's a greater focus on the Western Front.

Hastings is one of the most fair-minded historians I've read.  He tries hard neither to sentimentalize nor demonize any of the individuals or groups that he writes about.  You see that in his treatment of World War I commanders, for example.  They're hard men to like--their attitudes and values were not much like those of today, and they made decisions--and mistakes--that cost great numbers of men their lives.  But they were also men called upon to do a virtually impossible job, at a time when mass armies and mass firepower guaranteed appalling casualties no matter what strategies and tactics the commanders attempted.  They made mistakes, but they weren't, contrary to what you still often hear, a bunch of criminally incompetent blunderers (Well, there were exceptions).

Probably the best book on the opening months of World War I I've seen.  It even supersedes Barbara Tuchman's classic The Guns of August.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on September 21, 2021, 08:34:25 AM
Supercedes Tuchman?

Impossible. Heresy.

(But I haven't read Hastings, so that's just an uninformed opinion.)

How would you compare Tuchman, Hastings, and "All Quiet on the Western Front"?

Are they each simply functions of their time and the development of more information as things unfold, or does each author's hermeneutic also differ markedly enough that they have very different slants on the situation overall?

(Quiz question, just out of curiosity; you don't have to answer...)

;--}

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on September 21, 2021, 10:03:42 AM
Quote from: mamselle on September 21, 2021, 08:34:25 AM
Supercedes Tuchman?

Impossible. Heresy.

(But I haven't read Hastings, so that's just an uninformed opinion.)

How would you compare Tuchman, Hastings, and "All Quiet on the Western Front"?

Are they each simply functions of their time and the development of more information as things unfold, or does each author's hermeneutic also differ markedly enough that they have very different slants on the situation overall?

(Quiz question, just out of curiosity; you don't have to answer...)

;--}

M.

Well, I'd have to re-read Tuchman and Remarque to refresh myself on them.  I now have a mind to do that, when I can make the time.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on September 21, 2021, 01:04:05 PM
I think I have Remarque, and I read Tuchman about a year ago (can't look at it now, loaned it to a friend and of course returning a borrowed book is--ahem--not possible at the moment).

But I was impressed with her usual methodical way of building up an understanding of the various sides' perspectives one-by-one, so that when it was time to talk about the cataclysm of Sarajevo itself, it made sense in an awful way.

(She's also good on early American history, if you can get "The First Salute.")

I'll have to see about Hastings. It's starting to occur to me that it would be interesting to use the three of them as a backdrop for teaching art history in that period....hmmm....

Sorry, I'm derailing threads right and left today.

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on September 21, 2021, 02:50:00 PM
Tuchman's A Distant Mirror is my favorite of her works.  My brother and I were talking about it over the phone just the other day.  Another one I haven't read in a very long time.

The first one that I was exposed to was The Proud Tower, which I tried to read when I was in seventh grade.  Though I had long been reading above grade level, that one was too big a chunk to chew at that age.  It made more sense when I went back to it as an adult.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on September 21, 2021, 04:26:03 PM
I've read both. Great minds...

I read A Distant Mirror in a week, straight through, after handing in my M.A. thesis (on a topic in the period, although not directly connected to the book itself).

It was like I was on overdrive and dieseling and had to plow through it to slow back down and re-enter humanity.

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on September 21, 2021, 07:13:40 PM
Quote from: mamselle on September 21, 2021, 04:26:03 PM
I've read both. Great minds...

I read A Distant Mirror in a week, straight through, after handing in my M.A. thesis (on a topic in the period, although not directly connected to the book itself).

It was like I was on overdrive and dieseling and had to plow through it to slow back down and re-enter humanity.

M.
I read an older edition of A Distant Mirror in junior high. It's a worthwhile read!

I discovered Remarque wrote a sequel to All Quiet on the Western Front titled The Road Back. Has anyone else read this novel?
To sum: First published in 1931, the novel begins in the days and weeks following the end of the war and the uncertain future for those who fought in the German army. The novel is available on Amazon; the current English translation of the novel has a 2013 copyright date.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on October 04, 2021, 08:03:54 AM
The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy, by David Cannadine.  In the 1870s Britain's caste of landed, titled families was still generally in charge of Britain's political and cultural leadership.  They probably owned the highest concentration of Britain's landed wealth that they would ever own.  Things just went downhill for them from there.  In the decades that followed, stagnating landed incomes (Due to competition from imported agricultural goods) and an increasing democratic franchise eroded the aristocracy's incomes, influence, and privileges.  World War I dealt them a severe blow.  World War II pretty much finished them off.  A few landed families have held onto substantial wealth, and now and then an aristocrat may gain some influence or notoriety.  But they're very much exceptions. 

A good book of history that is both serious and readable.  It didn't really need to be as long as it is.


1913:  In Search of the World Before the Great War, by Charles Emmerson.  Emmerson structures this look at the world before the great catastrophe as a series of chapters about what various cities and nations all over the world were doing in the year before it hit.  He gives an impressively broad, if not terribly deep, view of that world.  The idea is just to give readers an idea of what the world was like before World War I, without a teleological effort to show how the war came out of it. 

If there is a thesis here, it's that the world of 1913 looked a lot more modern than people often realize.  There was already a very high level of economic globalization and global movement of people.  Societies dealt with racial and class issues, terrorism, and all kinds of other issues that we deal with today (But not global climate change, it's worth noting).  The decades-long horrors that World War I ushered in led many Europeans to have an understandable nostalgia for a prewar era of prosperity and stability and general absence of mass murder and totalitarian tyranny.  Honestly, though, the prewar world was way too dynamic and unsettled for any stability it may have boasted to have lasted for too much longer.  The forces of modern science, technology, ideology, and media are just too powerful not to create a lot of creative destruction--and plain old destructive destruction.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on October 04, 2021, 08:44:20 AM
Hmm, I missed August and September. Here they were:

Jane Harper: Force of Nature - A mystery set in the Australian wilderness. This was very capably done, and I enjoyed the surviving-in-the-wilderness aspect. It was reminiscent of Nevada Barr that way. I'd happily read something else by Harper.

Neil Gaiman: Coraline - Picked it up from a book box, and it was fantastic and quite scary (just like the film). I loved it. I don't care for Gaiman's adult novels, but he's clearly a very talented children's author.

Angus Donald: The Last Berserker - Viking-age fiction which I'd hesitate to call 'historical'. It was basically what that crap novel by Snorri Kristjansson wanted to be. It was OK, but the period details were all off (down to 19th-century fantasy arms and armour), and it didn't quite work, although aspects were interesting and some sections were engrossing. In all, it seemed like a hurried job, and it's nowhere near as good as his usual Robin Hood fare. I might well give the sequels a miss. We'll see.

Robert J. Sawyer: Far-Seer - A story about a dinosaur Galileo. I've been pretty hesitant to read these, but I found a signed copy at a used book store and decided to give it a go. I was pleasantly surprised--it's really, really good. The conceit is really well executed, although the biology is clearly late-'80s and early-'90s dino (and not particularly cutting-edge at that). There's a lot of really cool world-building that's gone into this. This is definitely the best thing he's written.

Robert J. Sawyer: Fossil Hunter - This one's dinosaur Darwin. It doesn't disappoint: it's also very good, and it's shrugged off some of the elements of the first one that felt a little forced. There's even a small murder mystery bundled in, and a fantastic showdown with the king of the dinosaurs (although again, '90s dino-bio).
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on October 04, 2021, 09:39:02 AM
QuoteIf there is a thesis here, it's that the world of 1913 looked a lot more modern than people often realize.

+100

In fact, art history looks to 1913 (and the NYC Armory Show that year, in particular) as a watershed year for modernist/abstract movements in the visual arts (Orphism, Fauvism, etc. all draw from this strand):

   https://www.npr.org/2013/02/17/172002686/armory-show-that-shocked-america-in-1913-celebrates-100

and the work of the Delauneys, Matisse, Kandinsky, Dove, and others:

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_art#/media/File:Robert_Delaunay,_1913,_Premier_Disque,_134_cm,_52.7_inches,_Private_collection.jpg

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_art#/media/File:'Windows_Open_Simultaneously_(First_Part,_Third_Motif)'_by_Robert_Delaunay.JPG

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_art#/media/File:Yellow_Curtain.jpg

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_art#/media/File:Untitled_(First_Abstract_Watercolor)_by_Wassily_Kandinsky.jpg

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_art#/media/File:Arthur_Dove,_1911-12,_Based_on_Leaf_Forms_and_Spaces,_pastel_on_unidentified_support._Now_lost.jpg

These were not all peaking just then; there are both known precursors and later developments, and parallels in the performative arts.

But yes, indeed, a century ago we were already doing daring things.

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on October 04, 2021, 12:57:22 PM
Oh, I forgot. Also:

Isabel Fall: I Sexually Identify as an Apache Attack Helicopter (a.k.a. Helicopter Story) - This is a fantastic short story. It's a Hugo finalist for 2021, and it totally deserves to win. It's such a rich story, and actually does a fantastic job of talking about the nuances of gender. Fall did such a great job of running with that stupid meme and turning it on its head. The kerfuffle it caused was entirely unwarranted. I never got around to reading it before Clarkesworld took it down, but thanks to Peter Watts's blog, I found it here (https://archive.is/oXDEt).
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on October 04, 2021, 02:12:59 PM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on October 04, 2021, 12:57:22 PM
Oh, I forgot. Also:

Isabel Fall: I Sexually Identify as an Apache Attack Helicopter (a.k.a. Helicopter Story) - This is a fantastic short story. It's a Hugo finalist for 2021, and it totally deserves to win. It's such a rich story, and actually does a fantastic job of talking about the nuances of gender. Fall did such a great job of running with that stupid meme and turning it on its head. The kerfuffle it caused was entirely unwarranted. I never got around to reading it before Clarkesworld took it down, but thanks to Peter Watts's blog, I found it here (https://archive.is/oXDEt).

Judging from the timing of this comment, might I infer that you have registered for the Hugos and are perhaps working through your Hugos packet?

I've just finished the first two October Daye books. I doubt I'll read all fourteen of them, however--though mad props to Seanan McGuire (or her publisher) for making them all available for the Hugo packet--because, based on the first two, the series just isn't as good as some of the others up for Best Series. On the one hand, it's fourteen books long, so maybe giving up after two isn't fairly sampling the wares. On the other hand, the other nominees for Best Series were outstanding from the start and should be rewarded for that.  Probably my top ranking votes will go to Murderbot and The Poppy War.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on October 05, 2021, 10:58:13 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on September 12, 2021, 10:40:15 AM
Now we are back to the Expanse series (Corey) with Cibola Burn.  We're not too far in yet, but it was interesting to come across the mention of the Nipah virus, since that is currently causing problems in India.

We finished this one last night.  As with many of the other books in this series, it took me a while to get interested in the story.  There are a lot of different characters introduced in each book, and I find myself wanting the same ones to appear in subsequent books rather than meet new ones.  This one had a couple good characters who made their debuts and I who I hope will stick around, and it also brought back some favorites.  Trying not to give too much away, in this book there are people of different factions having to deal with an unfriendly planet without any backup.  Will they work together? Once the story got started, I was on board for the ride. 

Now we are reading The 100-Year-Old Man who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared, thanks to the recommendation from ergative! We just started but are enjoying the writing style (kind of reminds me of Tove Jansson?) and are looking forward to reading about the man's adventures.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on October 05, 2021, 05:55:03 PM
Quote from: ergative on October 04, 2021, 02:12:59 PM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on October 04, 2021, 12:57:22 PM
Oh, I forgot. Also:

Isabel Fall: I Sexually Identify as an Apache Attack Helicopter (a.k.a. Helicopter Story) - This is a fantastic short story. It's a Hugo finalist for 2021, and it totally deserves to win. It's such a rich story, and actually does a fantastic job of talking about the nuances of gender. Fall did such a great job of running with that stupid meme and turning it on its head. The kerfuffle it caused was entirely unwarranted. I never got around to reading it before Clarkesworld took it down, but thanks to Peter Watts's blog, I found it here (https://archive.is/oXDEt).

Judging from the timing of this comment, might I infer that you have registered for the Hugos and are perhaps working through your Hugos packet?

Alas, not! I hope to someday, however!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on October 05, 2021, 11:07:37 PM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on October 05, 2021, 05:55:03 PM
Quote from: ergative on October 04, 2021, 02:12:59 PM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on October 04, 2021, 12:57:22 PM
Oh, I forgot. Also:

Isabel Fall: I Sexually Identify as an Apache Attack Helicopter (a.k.a. Helicopter Story) - This is a fantastic short story. It's a Hugo finalist for 2021, and it totally deserves to win. It's such a rich story, and actually does a fantastic job of talking about the nuances of gender. Fall did such a great job of running with that stupid meme and turning it on its head. The kerfuffle it caused was entirely unwarranted. I never got around to reading it before Clarkesworld took it down, but thanks to Peter Watts's blog, I found it here (https://archive.is/oXDEt).

Judging from the timing of this comment, might I infer that you have registered for the Hugos and are perhaps working through your Hugos packet?

Alas, not! I hope to someday, however!

It's kind of a catch-22, I've discovered this year: if you're embedded in the SFF buzz enough to want to register and nominate, chances are good you've already read much of the stuff that will end up on the shortlist. I already owned all but one of the books on the best novel list, and read completely four of the six best series (and already owned two-thirds of a fifth best series nominee). I suppose there's the short fiction, which has more new titles, but I tend not to pay too much attention to short fiction (although I did love Open House on Haunted Hill and Little Free Library).
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on October 11, 2021, 10:30:54 AM
Run, by Anne Patchett.  My latest attempt to read some contemporary or near-contemporary "serious" fiction.  I do this now and then hoping for a nice surprise--it's happened before--but once again all I found was another self-importantly gloomy work aimed at the book discussion group market.  It has no fewer than (sorry for the spoilers here ) three dead mothers in it!  And more characters than I can count who spend time musing about how they've lost their religious faith, since that is of course the only thing that any reasonable person can be expected to do in today's world.  The sad thing is, this is a very well-written work by somebody who obviously has great talent.  It's not written in that annoyingly affected "lyrical" prose style we hear so much about, nor is it "experimental" (i.e. the author saying "I'm going to dress my emperor of a work of fiction in clothing that only very clever people can see, so that you can claim to be clever enough to see it").  Viewed purely as a work of craft, it's very readable. 

The used copy I got had within it a hand-written note by a previous reader that said "Couldn't get into."  Though I did read through all the way to the end, I'd have to say the same.  Another example of how I've learned to treat the knowledge that an author has won literary awards as a warning, not a recommendation.


Why Buildings Fall Down, by Matthys Levy and Mario Salvadori.  The authors are a pair of architectural engineers who examine a series of structural failures that have occurred over the years (mostly in recent decades) to explain what went wrong.  In the process they also explain a lot about how structural engineering is supposed to work.  They have another one out called Why Buildings Stand Up.  Not the most felicitous writing I've ever seen, but lucid enough for the lay reader to follow.  The stories, which they tell in a non-lurid fashion, are often fascinating.  Accompanied by informative line drawing illustrations by Kevin Woest.  In some ways it's like a David Macauley book for grown-ups.  If there's an overarching idea to take away, it's that structural failures tend to be the result of a chain of circumstances, and structures should be designed to stop those chains of failure from running to their conclusion.  That would be a good idea with all kinds of things, really.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: jimbogumbo on October 11, 2021, 11:06:42 AM
The Testaments. Liked it so much I re-read The Handmaid's Tale right after.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on October 11, 2021, 11:10:14 AM
I'm surprised (and sorry) 'Run' disappointed you.

I've re-read it a couple times, and found the ending redemptive, and the setting and characters very realistic. She clearly researched her sites carefully, and maternal death in the populations she describes is realistically represented..which is, itself, of course, upsetting, but she's not exaggerating, or didn't seem to me to be doing so.

I've also found Patchett's work generally to be of value in various ways; I might have read everything she's written without trying.

But, de gustibus...Did you like 'Bel Canto'?

M.

She's going to be giving the Eudora Welty lecture at the Folger/WDC, I just noticed...apparently, too,, I've missed one of hers, haven't read "The Dutch House" yet.

Also, it might be worth noting, she doesn't generally disparage religious faith, except when it gives unwonted shelter to hypocrisy. As I recall reading somewhere, her own religious nature is important to her, however she sees it constructed, and she's undergone faith crises of her own, so she seems (to me) to take it seriously and engage with its issues, rather than not valuing it at all. -- M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on October 12, 2021, 07:10:59 AM
I haven't read Bel Canto.  It looks interesting.  But after my disappointment with Run, I'm reluctant to invest in it.  There are many more authors and books out there waiting.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ciao_yall on October 12, 2021, 08:52:54 AM
Quote from: apl68 on October 12, 2021, 07:10:59 AM
I haven't read Bel Canto.  It looks interesting.  But after my disappointment with Run, I'm reluctant to invest in it.  There are many more authors and books out there waiting.

Bel Canto was a wonderful book. My favorite of all of hers, actually. Worth the read, and I recommend it highly.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Stockmann on October 12, 2021, 11:13:07 AM
Last book I finished was The Gift of Fear. I found it interesting and informative, although, perhaps to be expected, too heavy on anecdote for my taste.
I've received, but not yet started, The Great Mortality, which is about the Black Death. Reading it at this time is I hope not as crazy as it may sound at first - for example, watching movies about really, really toxic relationships really helped me once after a bad breakup, and reading horror has sometimes had a cathartic effect during bad times. So I'm kind of hoping for a similar effect, among other reasons for wanting to read it.
My taste for reading fiction seems to have run out of steam, for some reason.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on October 14, 2021, 11:40:08 AM
Bing re-reading the "Verity Kent Mystery" series by Anna Lee Huber from the library
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on October 15, 2021, 07:46:17 AM
Our Biggest Experiment:  An Epic History of the Climate Crisis, by Alice Bell.  This is a new book that tries to interweave the story of how modern society became dependent upon fossil fuels with that of how the emerging science of climatology began to realize what all of that fossil fuel burning was doing to the climate.  The realization began to dawn earlier than we often realize.  Ironically it was often supposed early on that global warming would actually be a net improvement.

It's like many better popular-history books--impressively broad and pretty readable, but very anecdotal and not especially deep.  I still found it informative in places  Frequent asides on colonialism, etc. in earlier chapters to demonstrate the author's wokeness had me worried about where this was going.  Overall, though, it's a pretty fair-minded book.  There is very occasionally some acknowledgement that our judgements of the architects of modern fossil-fuel technology are very much judgements of hindsight--they often thought of themselves as benefactors, inasmuch as they helped to make it possible for a majority of people to live something other than a hardsdcrabble subsistence existence.  There's even a bit of hindsight self-criticism regarding the environmental movement's origins and past priorities.

I appreciated how Bell's summing-up consciously avoided playing a shouty blame-game.  The climate crisis wasn't something foisted upon us by a cabal of evil businessmen and politicians.  It developed because nearly all of humanity has allowed ourselves to be seduced into the comfortable, convenient, but catastrophically unsustainable lifestyle of modern consumerism.  It stems ultimately from the way we humans in general tend to be self- and pleasure-seeking, short-sighted, and rather greedy by nature.  None of which excuses us from trying to do the best we can to do something about the problem now, even if it's now decades too late to avoid many problems we might have avoided with earlier action.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on October 19, 2021, 07:27:26 AM
The Egoist, by George Meredith.  I first learned of Meredith in a late 1990s Times Literary Supplement article entitled "A Revered Corpse:  The Peculiar Unreadability of George Meredith."  It described Meredith as a major Victorian novelist, in a league with Dickens and Trollope, who has come to be almost entirely unread.  Apparently late-20th Century attempts to put Meredith's work back into print "foundered on the brute commercial fact that Meredith doesn't sell."  The article described Meredith as having taking the stereotypically prolix, allusive, and obscure writing associated with Victorian novelists to uncommon extremes.

Ever since then I've been wondering what Meredith's work was like.  Now I know.  Well, it's not like I wasn't given fair warning.  Meredith's style makes the likes of Bulwer-Lytton and Thomas Carlyle read like Hemingway.  His wildly elaborate and stylized dialog is meant to be comic.  And it is, in a very dated way, if you can keep up with it and puzzle out the allusions and vocabulary.  I can read ordinarily complex Victorian fiction without much trouble.  Meredith was a slog.  As is common with Victorian three-volume novels, there's a sense that it's two-thirds too long.

Which is too bad.  The Egoist has the kernel of a pretty worthwhile story buried in there somewhere.  The title character is a wealthy, eligible aristocrat who also happens to be the sort of narcissist so obsessed with self that anybody who gets close to him (or her) is likely to regret it.  So it is that a young lady who becomes engaged to him belatedly realizes what a narcissist he is and desperately wants to break it off.  But how to do that, at a time and level of society where doing so, in the absence of the fiance committing something truly egregious, will create a scandal and ruin the lady's own future prospects?  Fortunately narcissists have a way of hanging themselves if you give them enough rope....

My curiosity about George Meredith is now satisfied.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Stockmann on October 21, 2021, 06:45:59 AM
I'm slightly over halfway through The Great Mortality. It's impossible for me not to make comparisons with the current pandemic, even though of course the Black Death was, if measured by the percentage of the population killed, about two orders of magnitude worse than Covid.
The modern world, specifically most of Europe and the Americas, compares surprisingly badly in its response. The pop culture portrayal of medieval rulers is basically of unaccountable narcissists and psychopaths. However, most European rulers acted responsibly, attempting what very little could be done, from quarantines and other attempts to stop or delay the plague to stuff like opening new cemeteries or decreeing that all citizens had to make a will. There was even a Sicilian local ruler who offered to personally carry a saint's relics to try to help a neighboring city, in the end personally carried holy water the relics had been dipped in, and died of plague, a selflessness inconceivable in a politician today and in stark contrast with modern rulers who are too delicate to be inconvenienced by wearing a facemask. There seem to have been zero instances of rulers, even the minority in denial, attempting to stop others from taking measures to protect against the plague - that seems to be a Floridian and Brazilian thing.
But it's not just the present's politicians that compare badly. When reading accounts of how people desperately tried to innocculate themselves against plague by breathing in fumes from latrines, it's hard not to think of the present's anti-vaxxers. Some people threw caution to the wind, yes, but ordinary medieval folk don't seem to have actively hindered attempts by others to ameliorate the pandemic - in contrast to modern Dutch people setting testing centers on fire, French people attacking vaccination sites, Mexicans setting clinics on fire and throwing bleach at nurses, etc. Aside from "confessions" obtained under torture and anti-Semitic rumors, there appears to be no evidence of any deliberate spread of plague - in contrast with isolated but well-documented modern instances of people deliberately coughing on groceries and so on. There  was plenty of pillaging, rape, murder, etc during the Black Death, of course, but, again, it was two orders of magnitude worse, and happened to very ignorant people in a world already dominated by famine, war and natural disasters.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on October 21, 2021, 10:51:27 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on October 05, 2021, 10:58:13 AM
Now we are reading The 100-Year-Old Man who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared, thanks to the recommendation from ergative! We just started but are enjoying the writing style (kind of reminds me of Tove Jansson?) and are looking forward to reading about the man's adventures.

Just finished this one last night and didn't want it to end! Ergative, thank you so much for the recommendation.  It was such a delightful book.  I just recommended it to a couple friends yesterday.  There was another writer it sort of reminded me of, but I can't remember who now.  Anyway, we loved it.  And I ordered the movie!

So we started on The Silent Patient (Alex Michaelides), which is definitely a different one for us.  Part of the Amazon blurb describes it as
Quote
The Silent Patient is a shocking psychological thriller of a woman's act of violence against her husband―and of the therapist obsessed with uncovering her motive.
It was recommended by a friend.  We're only a couple brief chapters in, so we'll see how it goes.  It seems to have been given some kudos by authors of that genre.  I used to read a lot of these types of books, but it's been a while. 
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on October 22, 2021, 01:45:24 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on October 21, 2021, 10:51:27 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on October 05, 2021, 10:58:13 AM
Now we are reading The 100-Year-Old Man who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared, thanks to the recommendation from ergative! We just started but are enjoying the writing style (kind of reminds me of Tove Jansson?) and are looking forward to reading about the man's adventures.

Just finished this one last night and didn't want it to end! Ergative, thank you so much for the recommendation.  It was such a delightful book.  I just recommended it to a couple friends yesterday.  There was another writer it sort of reminded me of, but I can't remember who now.  Anyway, we loved it.  And I ordered the movie!

I'm so glad you liked it! Some of the prose style reminded me a little bit of Alexander McCall Smith. I'd be curious to know who it reminded you of, if you ever remember.

[/quote]
So we started on The Silent Patient (Alex Michaelides), which is definitely a different one for us.  Part of the Amazon blurb describes it as
Quote
The Silent Patient is a shocking psychological thriller of a woman's act of violence against her husband―and of the therapist obsessed with uncovering her motive.
It was recommended by a friend.  We're only a couple brief chapters in, so we'll see how it goes.  It seems to have been given some kudos by authors of that genre.  I used to read a lot of these types of books, but it's been a while.
[/quote]

I read this during the brief period when I joined my mother's Murder Mystery book group. I had very strong opinions about it. Let us know when you've finished it, so I can unleash them.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on October 22, 2021, 08:56:35 AM
Thanks, ergative! I think I only read one Alexander McCall Smith book and don't really remember it too well.  There were aspects of it that reminded me of The Decameron and The Master and Margarita, but there was something else even more salient that I mentioned to my husband that neither of us can remember, and it's bugging me! I will definitely let you know if I can think of it and also will update when we've finished the new book.  Very interested to hear your thoughts unleashed! I've seen very good reviews for it but also found it on a Buzzfeed list of the worst books, ones that people couldn't finish. 
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on November 02, 2021, 10:43:30 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on October 21, 2021, 10:51:27 AM
So we started on The Silent Patient (Alex Michaelides), which is definitely a different one for us.  Part of the Amazon blurb describes it as
Quote
The Silent Patient is a shocking psychological thriller of a woman's act of violence against her husband―and of the therapist obsessed with uncovering her motive.
It was recommended by a friend.  We're only a couple brief chapters in, so we'll see how it goes.  It seems to have been given some kudos by authors of that genre.  I used to read a lot of these types of books, but it's been a while.

Okay, we have finished! Ergative, do you want to share your strong opinions here if not too spoilery or PM? I am definitely interested to hear them! We had some opinions of our own. 

Now we are reading another book recommended on this thread, Chances Are (Russo).  We're only a couple chapters in but are enjoying it so far.  Russo seems to be pretty consistent (in a lot of ways).
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on November 02, 2021, 10:58:32 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on November 02, 2021, 10:43:30 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on October 21, 2021, 10:51:27 AM
So we started on The Silent Patient (Alex Michaelides), which is definitely a different one for us.  Part of the Amazon blurb describes it as
Quote
The Silent Patient is a shocking psychological thriller of a woman's act of violence against her husband―and of the therapist obsessed with uncovering her motive.
It was recommended by a friend.  We're only a couple brief chapters in, so we'll see how it goes.  It seems to have been given some kudos by authors of that genre.  I used to read a lot of these types of books, but it's been a while.

Okay, we have finished! Ergative, do you want to share your strong opinions here if not too spoilery or PM? I am definitely interested to hear them! We had some opinions of our own. 

Now we are reading another book recommended on this thread, Chances Are (Russo).  We're only a couple chapters in but are enjoying it so far.  Russo seems to be pretty consistent (in a lot of ways).

I'll send a PM. My thoughts are definitely all tied around the 'twist' (such as it was). But for those of you reading along, briefly noted, I hated this book. It was so obviously manipulative that I felt personally offended that the writer imagined his literary and narrative techniques would work on me.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on November 05, 2021, 11:15:38 AM
Pump:  A Natural History of the Heart, by Bill Schutt.  It begins with several chapters on how the hearts and circulatory systems of a wide variety of animals work, together with explanations of why they work so well for these species.  We learn that the heart of a blue whale is not the size of a car--it's more the size of a golf cart.  There's a chapter on horseshoe crabs and why their blood is so unique and useful for human medicine.  Along the way, there's some editorializing on how the hearts of fish, cephalopods, etc. are not, as is sometimes said, "primitive" in comparison to the mammalian four-chambered heart.  They're just as elegant a solution to the needs of their respective owners as our hearts are to us.

Then there are chapters on how humans groped their way toward an understanding of what the heart does (and does not) do, and how it does it.  Then there is some examination of heart diseases, and how they are treated.

I ordered this for the library's collection a while back on the basis of some good reviews.  Sometimes I do this, read the book, and come away disappointed that I spent taxpayer money on it.  That was emphatically NOT the case here!  Pump is a great piece of accessibly-written, informative popular science.  I'd recommend it to anybody with any interest at all in the subject.


Ticker:  The Quest to Create an Artificial Heart, by Mimi Swartz.  I just happened upon this one around the time I was ordering Pump for the library.  It makes a whole book, and quite an interesting one, out of something that Pump barely touches on.  The story of artificial hearts is one of big, colorful characters.  I'm old enough to remember the huge media attention given to the Jarvik-7 heart when it was first transplanted into Barney Clark.  A fantastic piece of engineering--but it only succeeded in postponing the inevitable for a few months, at huge cost in resources and human suffering.  The result was a shift in emphasis at the federal level from funding technical fixes of heart disease and more toward prevention of such disease in the first place. 

Artificial heart research has continued since then.  It has made a lot of progress, too.  The goal of an artificial heart that can truly serve as an open-ended replacement for a human heart, with a reasonable quality of life, nonetheless remains something like controlled fusion power plants--always a few years away, never actually seems to get here.

I came away from Pump and Ticker with a greater appreciation for what a truly incredible piece of design any heart, in any species, is.  Yes, I used the D-word in talking about biology.  Though I'm sure Schutt and many others would disagree with me, I just don't see phenomena like hearts as being anything other than the result of an intelligent design process, even granting that design unfolded through natural forces over a period of millions of years.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on November 09, 2021, 11:26:59 AM
Finished from the library: Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset, translated by Tiina Nunnally
I read the Penguin Classics Deluxe edition--it's 1,124 pages long.  All I can say: Wow, what a trilogy!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on November 09, 2021, 12:49:53 PM
Quote from: hmaria1609 on November 09, 2021, 11:26:59 AM
Finished from the library: Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset, translated by Tiina Nunnally
I read the Penguin Classics Deluxe edition--it's 1,124 pages long.  All I can say: Wow, what a trilogy!

I read the first volume some years back.  It was good, but I never got around to reading the rest.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on November 09, 2021, 01:38:10 PM
Not much to show for October, but I was busy:

Robert J. Sawyer - Foreigner: More or less dinosaur Freud/Lacan + Leif Erikson, but better? It was pretty good, and made for a neat conclusion to the saga. Happy to report that I have this one as a signed copy, too! These are definitely his best works. They're such a fun romp.

Chris Moriarty - Spin State: Impressive scifi world-building for a debut novel, but the pacing was kind of uneven. It's sort of a noir thriller on an orbital station + space colony, but not all that mysterious or suspenseful. It was pretty OK, but I'm not sure I need to revisit that universe, as impressive as the worldbuilding was (it really was quite intricate!).
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Harlow2 on November 09, 2021, 03:57:46 PM
Quote from: apl68 on November 09, 2021, 12:49:53 PM
Quote from: hmaria1609 on November 09, 2021, 11:26:59 AM
Finished from the library: Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset, translated by Tiina Nunnally
I read the Penguin Classics Deluxe edition--it's 1,124 pages long.  All I can say: Wow, what a trilogy!

I read the first volume some years back.  It was good, but I never got around to reading the rest.

I read it when I was 15 at the suggestion of my English teacher. I was enthralled, and I've often wondered if I would like it as an adult. Have seen it mentioned twice in the last months (your post being one).
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on November 09, 2021, 07:20:34 PM
Quote from: Harlow2 on November 09, 2021, 03:57:46 PM
I read it when I was 15 at the suggestion of my English teacher. I was enthralled, and I've often wondered if I would like it as an adult. Have seen it mentioned twice in the last months (your post being one).
Thanks!  I'd seen older editions of the trilogy at the library and articles written about it.

Tiina Nunnally won an award for her translation for the 3rd and final installment The Cross. She has an extensive background in Scandinavian literature and has translated other Norwegian literary works.
I definitely recommend the Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition to enjoy the complete trilogy in one volume!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Harlow2 on November 09, 2021, 08:11:25 PM
How much does it weigh? 😀
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on November 10, 2021, 07:25:19 AM
I just finished (with Smolt) the audiobook of Neil Gaiman's Coraline, read by the author.  A fun Halloween season story.  A nice contrast to the film.

I could listen to Neil Gaiman read the yellow pages and be entranced.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on November 10, 2021, 10:57:11 AM
Quote from: Harlow2 on November 09, 2021, 08:11:25 PM
How much does it weigh? 😀
A gallon of milk!  :D
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: paultuttle on November 10, 2021, 12:40:08 PM
Elizabeth Moon's Vatta's War series.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on November 16, 2021, 07:29:54 AM
The Leopard, by Giuseppe di Lampedusa.  It's a rare example of a "literary" novel that I personally found very readable.  It has well-drawn characters, a vivid sense of setting and society, and a writing style that is distinctive without coming across as affected or obtrusive.  It also, despite the author's clearly serious intent, is unafraid to show a sense of humor. 

The Leopard is set in Sicily amid the upheaval of the Italian unification in the early 1860s.  The protagonist is a highly-ranked aristocrat who recognizes that the almost-medieval society to which he owes his power and privilege is unavoidably about to change.  He chooses to accommodate himself to the changes, in what proves a successful effort to preserve as much of the family's wealth and influence as he can.  Although the focus is largely on the aristocracy, there are also insights into how the other half lives.  Lampedusa also speaks his mind about how it was that so many in southern Italy came to regard the government of the new unified Italy, the leaders of which came from other regions, as a kind of permanent foreign occupation.  Lampedusa was himself a titled aristocrat who reportedly based much of the story on the experiences of his own recent ancestors.

The final chapters carry the story on through the protagonist's death of old age, all the way to 1910.  For all that the protagonist is an immensely rich, privileged fellow who more or less succeeds all the way through life, he finds himself discontented a great deal of the time.  Even the most wealthy and powerful of human beings can't make everything in life turn out the way they want.  Toward the end he looks back on his life and figures that in seventy-three years he got a total of maybe two or three years of genuine happiness and satisfaction.  Years later his spinster daughter comes to realize that it was she, and not all the people she spent her life blaming, who was responsible for her failure to marry the man of her dreams.

So ultimately The Leopard has the same theme that I've found running through pretty much all of "serious" fiction--that life is mostly a big disappointment, and you're either never going to get what you want, or will find that it really isn't that satisfying.  Well...yeah.  If we make our own pursuit of happiness and pleasure, however we define these, our main goals in life, we ARE apt to end up spending a lot of our lives feeling disappointed and frustrated.  The thing is, it doesn't HAVE to be this way, if we focus on a perspective that goes beyond ourselves and this life (And I'm not talking about the Zen solution of just learning not to care, either).  I wish we could see fiction that recognizes this, without either the unconvincing pat endings of so much genre fiction, or "serious" fiction's insistence on the misery of life in reaction to that.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on November 16, 2021, 10:33:45 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on November 02, 2021, 10:43:30 AM
Now we are reading another book recommended on this thread, Chances Are (Russo).  We're only a couple chapters in but are enjoying it so far.  Russo seems to be pretty consistent (in a lot of ways).

Finished this a night or two ago.  I really enjoy his writing and various turns of phrase.  This was another of his with some pretty dark material.  The plot was quite intriguing, though the story is a bit hard to believe.  I guess that's part of what he means by the title.  Anyway, not my favorite nor my least favorite of his novels.

So we started on the fourth book of a series we've been reading, Iron Gold (Pierce Brown).  Like the previous books, it is taking a bit to get into, and the protagonist is a bit much.  Still, I've enjoyed the others once the story gets going, so I will hang in there.  Without giving too much away, this one seems to focus on rebuilding a society in the aftermath of a great war between the castes. 
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on November 16, 2021, 07:27:45 PM
From the library...
Finishing: Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson (YA)

Next up: A Corruption of Blood by Ambrose Parry
#3 and finale in the "Fisher & Raven Mystery" series set in 1850 Edinburgh.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on November 17, 2021, 12:04:41 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on November 16, 2021, 10:33:45 AM

So we started on the fourth book of a series we've been reading, Iron Gold (Pierce Brown).  Like the previous books, it is taking a bit to get into, and the protagonist is a bit much.  Still, I've enjoyed the others once the story gets going, so I will hang in there.  Without giving too much away, this one seems to focus on rebuilding a society in the aftermath of a great war between the castes.

I started reading the first in the series (Red Rising, was it?) and had the same opinion, but couldn't be bothered to plough through.

Absolutive and I are now reading Lucy Mangan's Are We Having Fun Yet, which was originally marketed under the title of Diary of a Suburban Lady, a clear homage to E. M. Delafield's delightful, charming, witty, wonderful Diary of a Provincial Lady. I think it's good that we knew that, because it's not something we would have picked up without knowing its origins, and it is just as wonderful and charming and delightful as its predecessor. It's exactly what its (original) title says: the diary of a woman who lives in the suburbs around London, who juggles a part-time job, two kids, a husband who does all the tiresome things that stereotypical patriarchal husbands do--well-meaning attempts to 'help' that just make things harder, for example--and spends a great many pages wishing for things like an opportunity to have a bowel movement in peace.

Much of it reminds me of things my own mother complained about (especially the desire for uninterrupted bathroom time), and my father still does those tiresome attempts to help that just make things harder. It's also extremely, extremely funny. The children are such a hoot.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on November 17, 2021, 09:07:04 AM
Quote from: apl68 on November 16, 2021, 07:29:54 AM
The Leopard, by Giuseppe di Lampedusa.  It's a rare example of a "literary" novel that I personally found very readable.  It has well-drawn characters, a vivid sense of setting and society, and a writing style that is distinctive without coming across as affected or obtrusive.  It also, despite the author's clearly serious intent, is unafraid to show a sense of humor. 

The Leopard is set in Sicily amid the upheaval of the Italian unification in the early 1860s.  The protagonist is a highly-ranked aristocrat who recognizes that the almost-medieval society to which he owes his power and privilege is unavoidably about to change.  He chooses to accommodate himself to the changes, in what proves a successful effort to preserve as much of the family's wealth and influence as he can.  Although the focus is largely on the aristocracy, there are also insights into how the other half lives.  Lampedusa also speaks his mind about how it was that so many in southern Italy came to regard the government of the new unified Italy, the leaders of which came from other regions, as a kind of permanent foreign occupation.  Lampedusa was himself a titled aristocrat who reportedly based much of the story on the experiences of his own recent ancestors.

The final chapters carry the story on through the protagonist's death of old age, all the way to 1910.  For all that the protagonist is an immensely rich, privileged fellow who more or less succeeds all the way through life, he finds himself discontented a great deal of the time.  Even the most wealthy and powerful of human beings can't make everything in life turn out the way they want.  Toward the end he looks back on his life and figures that in seventy-three years he got a total of maybe two or three years of genuine happiness and satisfaction.  Years later his spinster daughter comes to realize that it was she, and not all the people she spent her life blaming, who was responsible for her failure to marry the man of her dreams.

So ultimately The Leopard has the same theme that I've found running through pretty much all of "serious" fiction--that life is mostly a big disappointment, and you're either never going to get what you want, or will find that it really isn't that satisfying.  Well...yeah.  If we make our own pursuit of happiness and pleasure, however we define these, our main goals in life, we ARE apt to end up spending a lot of our lives feeling disappointed and frustrated.  The thing is, it doesn't HAVE to be this way, if we focus on a perspective that goes beyond ourselves and this life (And I'm not talking about the Zen solution of just learning not to care, either).  I wish we could see fiction that recognizes this, without either the unconvincing pat endings of so much genre fiction, or "serious" fiction's insistence on the misery of life in reaction to that.

CS Lewis' Perelandra trilogy might appeal, or "Til We Have Faces."

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on November 17, 2021, 10:01:10 AM
Quote from: mamselle on November 17, 2021, 09:07:04 AM
Quote from: apl68 on November 16, 2021, 07:29:54 AM
The Leopard, by Giuseppe di Lampedusa.  It's a rare example of a "literary" novel that I personally found very readable.  It has well-drawn characters, a vivid sense of setting and society, and a writing style that is distinctive without coming across as affected or obtrusive.  It also, despite the author's clearly serious intent, is unafraid to show a sense of humor. 

The Leopard is set in Sicily amid the upheaval of the Italian unification in the early 1860s.  The protagonist is a highly-ranked aristocrat who recognizes that the almost-medieval society to which he owes his power and privilege is unavoidably about to change.  He chooses to accommodate himself to the changes, in what proves a successful effort to preserve as much of the family's wealth and influence as he can.  Although the focus is largely on the aristocracy, there are also insights into how the other half lives.  Lampedusa also speaks his mind about how it was that so many in southern Italy came to regard the government of the new unified Italy, the leaders of which came from other regions, as a kind of permanent foreign occupation.  Lampedusa was himself a titled aristocrat who reportedly based much of the story on the experiences of his own recent ancestors.

The final chapters carry the story on through the protagonist's death of old age, all the way to 1910.  For all that the protagonist is an immensely rich, privileged fellow who more or less succeeds all the way through life, he finds himself discontented a great deal of the time.  Even the most wealthy and powerful of human beings can't make everything in life turn out the way they want.  Toward the end he looks back on his life and figures that in seventy-three years he got a total of maybe two or three years of genuine happiness and satisfaction.  Years later his spinster daughter comes to realize that it was she, and not all the people she spent her life blaming, who was responsible for her failure to marry the man of her dreams.

So ultimately The Leopard has the same theme that I've found running through pretty much all of "serious" fiction--that life is mostly a big disappointment, and you're either never going to get what you want, or will find that it really isn't that satisfying.  Well...yeah.  If we make our own pursuit of happiness and pleasure, however we define these, our main goals in life, we ARE apt to end up spending a lot of our lives feeling disappointed and frustrated.  The thing is, it doesn't HAVE to be this way, if we focus on a perspective that goes beyond ourselves and this life (And I'm not talking about the Zen solution of just learning not to care, either).  I wish we could see fiction that recognizes this, without either the unconvincing pat endings of so much genre fiction, or "serious" fiction's insistence on the misery of life in reaction to that.

CS Lewis' Perelandra trilogy might appeal, or "Til We Have Faces."

M.

True, there's always C.S. Lewis.  But he hasn't had a chance to write anything new in a long, long time!  "Christian Fiction" as a contemporary publishing phenomenon consists almost entirely of chastely-written romance novels, usually historical or featuring Amish protagonists.  Which is okay as far as it goes--we buy it all the time for our library patrons who like it.  But fiction that deals with Christian themes and is not all about romantic or close family relationships is awfully rare.  One of the reasons why I've been writing in recent years has been an effort to supply the sort of work that I see missing.  The few people who've read it seem to like it, but I don't know who would publish it.  It doesn't fit the narrow mold of contemporary Christian romantic fiction, and since it's not written like Flannery O'Connor or Walker Percy it's doubtful any secular publisher would ever touch it.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on November 17, 2021, 05:03:55 PM
Agreed.

Madeleine L'Engle has some OK things, although I didn't like them as much as I did her children's work.

And as you say, she's not contributing to her corpus anymore, either.

What's hard, I think, is work that has the serious soul-wrestling dimension that one finds when trying to live out the life of faith, but that isn't reduced to the kind of hackneyed, pat answers one gets in all the 45-page 'miraculous wonders' works, as you say.

A friend who's a writer is also trying to work on something (between chemo treatments) along those lines; the three of us in her prayer support group also recently looked at a book that her minister's wife just published.

It's apparently doing well enough on Amazon, but we were each dismayed at how trite it was.

It's sort of the same as the search for life partners if you're both a person of faith, and someone who values intellectual depth and nuance.

It's hard to find folks who engage with the difficulties while neither selling the significance of faith down the river, nor using it as a magic crutch to resolve the issues superficially, or failing to address the emotional depths they may go to.

Maeve Binchy, the Irish writer, did that in some of her earlier books; "Light a Penny Candle," and "Echoes" got at some of those things.

But she's also gone, now, for which I'm sorry, too...

M.

Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on November 17, 2021, 10:42:55 PM
Quote from: mamselle on November 17, 2021, 05:03:55 PM
What's hard, I think, is work that has the serious soul-wrestling dimension that one finds when trying to live out the life of faith, but that isn't reduced to the kind of hackneyed, pat answers one gets in all the 45-page 'miraculous wonders' works, as you say.


Michael Faber's The Book of Strange New Things has a lot of Christian worldview in that book from the perspective of a pastor who buys into the whole personal/emotional support component of pastoral care, rather than the explicitly religious theology. I thought it was a very thoughtful exploration of how people lean on faith in difficult times when they are far away from home and helpless to do anything for the people they love. And I thought the book was very, very well-written, but I hate apocalypse novels so the sneaky apocalypse left a really bad taste in my mouth. And, I suppose for people who do not share my tastes, you should know that the conceit is that the pastor is invited to go on a missionary trip to an alien planet to teach the aliens about Christianity, so it's pretty solidly scifi.


Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: smallcleanrat on December 04, 2021, 10:32:40 PM
Uh...stumbled upon some internet chatter around a book titled Johnny the Walrus by a conservative media personality I'm not very familiar with named Matt Walsh. He's posted a video of himself reading the book aloud to a group of very young kids (who seem to do an awful lot of blank staring).

From the Amazon promo blurb:
Johnny is a little boy with a big imagination. One day he pretends to be a big scary dinosaur, the next day he's a knight in shining armor or a playful puppy. But when the internet people find out Johnny likes to make-believe, he's forced to make a decision between the little boy he is and the things he pretends to be — and he's not allowed to change his mind. From Daily Wire personality and bestselling author Matt Walsh comes a timely tale of innocence, identity, and imagination.

It's styled as a children's book for the preschool/kindergarten age group (illustrated board book with story told in rhyme), but I'm so confused as to whether it's actually aimed at children or is meant to be a satire for adult readers (something in the realm of Go the F*** to Sleep).

Judging from the book itself, it seems the latter. But the marketing (like that video) and some of the chatter makes it seem as if this was really intended for children.




The storyline involves a kid putting socks on his hands for flippers and wooden spoons in his mouth for tusks as he playacts being a walrus. I think it's supposed to be clear that he is playing, not that he actually believes he's a walrus or that he actually wants to be a walrus. Unfortunately, people on the internet convince his mother that the right thing to do is accept his professed identity and take him to a doctor to discuss "transitioning" to his new walrus life.

The doctor explains that now Johnny must eat worms, wear his spoons and socks at all times, and wear gray make-up. There are pictures of the kid crying, complaining that the worms are gross, the make-up itches, and wearing the spoons all the time is painful. There is a menacing illustration of the doctor holding a gleaming saw while suggesting turning feet into flippers.

Eventually, the mother tries to take Johnny to the zoo to live full-time, and it's there that the zookeeper saves the day. He tells her that Johnny is a little boy, NOT a walrus.

MOM: "But if I believe that, they'll say that I'm phobic!"
ZOOKEEPER: "Protecting your son, ma'am, is what's most heroic."




The hype includes a lot of cheering for 'speaking the truth against the trans agenda' or 'giving the woke cultists a taste of their own medicine', and it certainly "works" as a book for adults who want to point and laugh and say 'yes, this is exactly how stupid SJWs sound.'

But for actual kids? Do 4-6 year-olds even know words like "phobic" or "bigot" (another word used in the book)? There's an illustration of protesters holding signs saying things like "Let Johnny transition!" Does that even mean anything to kids this young?




Even as an allegory for how some people perceive transgenderism, it's really, really weird.

I thought the common argument was that children are too immature to fully understand their own identities and that parents need to be MORE assertive with their children. If a boy says, "I'm a girl" it's the parents' job to tell them, "No, you're not." Else all they're doing is reinforcing his confusion.

But in this book, it's the mother insisting Johnny is a real walrus and that Johnny must live as a real walrus (even if Johnny himself is resisting the whole way).

This is a conservative talking point I hadn't heard before.

Are there many people who imagine there are vast numbers of modern parents dragging their weeping, protesting children in for medical transitioning (with doctors blithely indifferent to the fact that the child is clearly unwilling)? Do they think it's become common for little boys to be forced into dresses despite their frequent pleas of "No, Mommy, no! I was just playing pretend at home! I don't want to dress like a girl all the time?"

Do they think this is what people are talking about when they push for "acceptance" of trans people?

???
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mahagonny on December 05, 2021, 04:16:01 AM
Quote from: smallcleanrat on December 04, 2021, 10:32:40 PM

The storyline involves a kid putting socks on his hands for flippers and wooden spoons in his mouth for tusks as he playacts being a walrus. I think it's supposed to be clear that he is playing, not that he actually believes he's a walrus or that he actually wants to be a walrus. Unfortunately, people on the internet convince his mother that the right thing to do is accept his professed identity and take him to a doctor to discuss "transitioning" to his new walrus life.

The doctor explains that now Johnny must eat worms, wear his spoons and socks at all times, and wear gray make-up. There are pictures of the kid crying, complaining that the worms are gross, the make-up itches, and wearing the spoons all the time is painful. There is a menacing illustration of the doctor holding a gleaming saw while suggesting turning feet into flippers.

Eventually, the mother tries to take Johnny to the zoo to live full-time, and it's there that the zookeeper saves the day. He tells her that Johnny is a little boy, NOT a walrus.

MOM: "But if I believe that, they'll say that I'm phobic!"

ZOOKEEPER: "Protecting your son, ma'am, is what's most heroic."

this one sentence (Bolded) is the key.
It sounds like the author is making the point that the new progressive ideology pressures people to believe it is wrong to state 'I understand that there are two genders: boys and girls. I am a boy, though I may have fantasies that delve into any number of things. But I understand they are make believe, and deep down, I fine with boyhood. But not because someone requires me to accept boyhood arbitrarily. Rather because boyhood chose me.' Which is true. Progressives don't merely want the option to dismantle the concept that there are two genders in their own thinking, but they want to be able to require everyone to hold that view. And he might have added, from this pressuring people, and prevailing at it, would come political power and the establishing of the left as the only people to put your trust in morally, because they now believe they  have a blank check which they think they can use to subtract beliefs from your mental bank account any time they decide the ideas are not useful to them and their agenda. But ultimately it doesn't work, because reality always shows up and says 'boo.' And the progressive becomes odd man out.
The boy and the mother are pawns in this arrogant winner-take-all game that they never elected to be part of. And that's what he's making fun of or warning us about. The moralizing from the left, and their in-your-face mission to mainstream ideas that just a short time ago were anything but mainstream. So I think suspect book speaks agaINST THAT TYRanny.
My attitude, as a somewhat reluctant convert to conservativism, is if people need validation for their gender-is-nothing-but-a-continuum views, they can keep that need to themselves rather than insert that need into the personal lives of others. It's a free country. But don't bug me, and watch yourself around my children.
Of course, I'm non-binary, non-racially specified in real life. Try slinging mud at me. I have no identity.

Of course I could have it wrong. Sometimes an allegory is more effective than an argument when it conveys ambiguity and leaves the ball in the reader's court as far as determining the ultimate meaning.

Bill Maher has a show where explains that he is not phobic about this or that, merely because he chooses something else.  That's because have meaning. They are not your personal Play-Dough to mold into anything you want.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: WWUpdate on December 05, 2021, 04:44:45 AM
Quote from: mahagonny on December 05, 2021, 04:16:01 AM
My attitude, as a somewhat reluctant convert to conservativism, is if people need validation for their gender-is-nothing-but-a-continuum views, they ought to keep that need to themselves rather than insert that need into the personal lives of others.

But if that's the case, shouldn't it also work the other way around? If people need validation for their gender-is-immutable views, they ought to keep that need to themselves rather than insert that need into the personal lives of others.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: downer on December 05, 2021, 04:47:33 AM
Silent Earth: Averting the Insect Apocalypse by Dave Goulson.

Insect populations have crashed due to a number of reasons, including global climate change, herbicides and pesticides, and the loss of habitat. The central point of the book is that the insect apocalypse, which to a large extent has already happened, will lead to a plant apocalypse, which will in turn mean that human life on earth is largely unsustainable except in far reduced numbers.

My main criticism of the book is that Goulson's proposals for avoiding the terrible future seem unrealistic. Public policy has done little to address these issues internationally, and there's not much sign that anything is going to change there before it is far too late.


Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mahagonny on December 05, 2021, 05:06:39 AM
Quote from: WWUpdate on December 05, 2021, 04:44:45 AM
Quote from: mahagonny on December 05, 2021, 04:16:01 AM
My attitude, as a somewhat reluctant convert to conservativism, is if people need validation for their gender-is-nothing-but-a-continuum views, they ought to keep that need to themselves rather than insert that need into the personal lives of others.

But if that's the case, shouldn't it also work the other way around? If people need validation for their gender-is-immutable views, they ought to keep that need to themselves rather than insert that need into the personal lives of others.

It can easily work that way if progressives would just stop inserting their personal needs into compulsory public education, which they won't, because they are arrogant jerks. And they've got teacher's unions to fortify them now, because unions are illegitimately the property of the democratic party, despite how their members feel. So now if you want to advocate for a square deal for a college professor, you've got to also advocate for radical leftism.
The radical left is choosing culture war because they think they can win it by splintering the opposition into disparate factions.
I don't need validation for my views. I just need school choice even if I'm not wealthy, so I can use my God-given right to raise my children and have them attend schools taught by people with whom I can work with as a team.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on December 05, 2021, 07:16:12 AM
I've been reading Mud and Glass by Laura E. Goodin. It's a very entertaining academic farce, which is zany and fluffy and yet also feels deeply accurate to academia. Our main character hasn't got tenure yet, so she and her untenured friends are constantly trying to get free food because they're so broke. A student transfers late into her class with all the appropriate paperwork, along from an apologetic note from his academic advisor--not for the late transfer, but because everyone knows what a pain the student is, and then the rest of the day everyone--including the professor's mother--drops by to commiserate about how they'd heard she has Danny in her class, and how sorry they are to get the news. None of the freshmen did the reading over spring break because of the predatory mold infestation in the library--you should see what it did to the head librarian!--and so on. (That's actually a valid excuse, because this is an SFF fluffy zany thriller., and the head librarian does in fact look quite rough after the predatory mold got done with her.)
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on December 05, 2021, 08:05:29 AM
Quote from: smallcleanrat on December 04, 2021, 10:32:40 PM

The storyline involves a kid putting socks on his hands for flippers and wooden spoons in his mouth for tusks as he playacts being a walrus.


It's too bad, because there's almost a good children's story there, in the classic style of children's stories. He dresses up as a walrus and goes around insisting he is one, and the people around him take him at his word. But then he encounters the stumbling blocks of walrus food he doesn't like (shellfish, obviously; where the fuck did worms come from?! Unless they're benthic worms? I mean, if we want to go along with worms, we need to add cucumbers. And shellfish.), the spoon-flippers are tiring, etc. And we end with the parents comforting him in some way--maybe the father grows a handlebar moustache to show him he can be an incognito walrus, or something.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: smallcleanrat on December 05, 2021, 03:27:40 PM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on December 05, 2021, 08:05:29 AM
Quote from: smallcleanrat on December 04, 2021, 10:32:40 PM

The storyline involves a kid putting socks on his hands for flippers and wooden spoons in his mouth for tusks as he playacts being a walrus.


It's too bad, because there's almost a good children's story there, in the classic style of children's stories. He dresses up as a walrus and goes around insisting he is one, and the people around him take him at his word. But then he encounters the stumbling blocks of walrus food he doesn't like (shellfish, obviously; where the fuck did worms come from?! Unless they're benthic worms? I mean, if we want to go along with worms, we need to add cucumbers. And shellfish.), the spoon-flippers are tiring, etc. And we end with the parents comforting him in some way--maybe the father grows a handlebar moustache to show him he can be an incognito walrus, or something.

Funny part of the author's reading is when he gets to the part about the kid complaining that the worms are gross. Author comments, "See, look. He doesn't want to eat worms," and one of the kids in the audience pipes up and matter-of-factly mentions he's eaten worms himself. Walsh kind of glances at him, doesn't seem to know how to respond, then continues reading as if nothing had happened.

I'm still baffled by the implication that the issue is kids who are NOT trans are being forced into a trans identity. The illustration of the doctor's office includes a diploma with the words: "University of Doctoring: Woke Doctor." Which, again, fits in to a satirical work written for adults, but not in something intended for very young children.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on December 05, 2021, 03:36:27 PM
Quote from: smallcleanrat on December 05, 2021, 03:27:40 PM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on December 05, 2021, 08:05:29 AM
Quote from: smallcleanrat on December 04, 2021, 10:32:40 PM

The storyline involves a kid putting socks on his hands for flippers and wooden spoons in his mouth for tusks as he playacts being a walrus.


It's too bad, because there's almost a good children's story there, in the classic style of children's stories. He dresses up as a walrus and goes around insisting he is one, and the people around him take him at his word. But then he encounters the stumbling blocks of walrus food he doesn't like (shellfish, obviously; where the fuck did worms come from?! Unless they're benthic worms? I mean, if we want to go along with worms, we need to add cucumbers. And shellfish.), the spoon-flippers are tiring, etc. And we end with the parents comforting him in some way--maybe the father grows a handlebar moustache to show him he can be an incognito walrus, or something.

Funny part of the author's reading is when he gets to the part about the kid complaining that the worms are gross. Author comments, "See, look. He doesn't want to eat worms," and one of the kids in the audience pipes up and matter-of-factly mentions he's eaten worms himself. Walsh kind of glances at him, doesn't seem to know how to respond, then continues reading as if nothing had happened.

^^ That's delightful!



I realized I haven't updated November yet, so:

Helge Ingstadt - Westward to Vinland: The Discovery of Pre-Columbian Norse House-sites in North America: A first-hand look at Ingstadt's discovery of Leif Erikson's houses at L'Anse au Meadows. This was a really cool read, and I learned a lot. It was interesting to read in light of everything we know about that site now, but also in light of the climate crisis (a lot of it is environmental description, which is pretty fascinating). Also interesting anthropologically for the instances where women and Indigenous people come into the story.

Agatha Christie - Hallowe'en Party: This is a fun one (though not the best-written), but I'd forgotten it's set in the sixties (the ITV adaptation is set in the 1930s). That makes a lot of sense, actually.


It's a paltry list, I know, but I was busy.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on December 15, 2021, 08:31:43 AM
Quote from: ergative on November 17, 2021, 12:04:41 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on November 16, 2021, 10:33:45 AM

So we started on the fourth book of a series we've been reading, Iron Gold (Pierce Brown).  Like the previous books, it is taking a bit to get into, and the protagonist is a bit much.  Still, I've enjoyed the others once the story gets going, so I will hang in there.  Without giving too much away, this one seems to focus on rebuilding a society in the aftermath of a great war between the castes.

I started reading the first in the series (Red Rising, was it?) and had the same opinion, but couldn't be bothered to plough through.

We finished this book last night.  I'm going to stop referring to him as the protagonist and just call him the main character at this point.  He somehow manages to be even more annoying in this book! How does he do it?! But the nice thing is that he is no longer the only narrator.  Many of the chapters (most?) are from other characters' viewpoints, which definitely saved the book for me.  Again some good new characters are introduced, and the story is pretty interesting.  It went in a different way than I had expected.  Although they have built a republic to replace the hierarchical caste society that had been in place, it didn't go off without a hitch, and now there are cracks in that infrastructure that lead to some intriguing conflicts.  There is also more action taking place in other locations than in the previous books, and it was nice to learn more about the story and history from the other characters (the "other side" in some cases).  It wasn't a mindblowingly great novel, but I am still interested to read the "final" installment.  We'll see if in the end it's all been worth having to travel along with Captain Ego.

Now we're back to the Wool trilogy with Dust, supposedly also a final book.  So far it's hard to recall what happened to who when since the second book went back in time and this one is in the timeline of the first one.  I'm hoping to finish this series and get to more of The Expanse before I hear any future plot points or reveals from the TV series.

Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on December 15, 2021, 10:14:49 AM
Quote from: mamselle on November 17, 2021, 05:03:55 PM
Agreed.

Madeleine L'Engle has some OK things, although I didn't like them as much as I did her children's work.

And as you say, she's not contributing to her corpus anymore, either.

What's hard, I think, is work that has the serious soul-wrestling dimension that one finds when trying to live out the life of faith, but that isn't reduced to the kind of hackneyed, pat answers one gets in all the 45-page 'miraculous wonders' works, as you say.

A friend who's a writer is also trying to work on something (between chemo treatments) along those lines; the three of us in her prayer support group also recently looked at a book that her minister's wife just published.

It's apparently doing well enough on Amazon, but we were each dismayed at how trite it was.

It's sort of the same as the search for life partners if you're both a person of faith, and someone who values intellectual depth and nuance.

It's hard to find folks who engage with the difficulties while neither selling the significance of faith down the river, nor using it as a magic crutch to resolve the issues superficially, or failing to address the emotional depths they may go to.

Maeve Binchy, the Irish writer, did that in some of her earlier books; "Light a Penny Candle," and "Echoes" got at some of those things.

But she's also gone, now, for which I'm sorry, too...

M.

Rumer Godden's In This House of Brede and Mark Salzmann's Lying Awake (reviewed above) are among those rare exceptions.  They both deal with the sisters in a convent environment.  Wonderful books.  If you're in the mood for a big read about a large cast, In This House of Brede is a good choice.  If you want a shorter read focused mainly on its protagonist, but still with a lot of spiritual meat in it, Lying Awake is your book.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on December 15, 2021, 10:30:01 AM
A Short History of the Middle East:  From Ancient Empires to the Islamic State, by Gordon Kerr.  This arrived with a batch of recent donated books.  It's part of a series called "Pocket Essentials" that gives overviews of big topics, like the history of this or that region, or World War I.  It seemed very concise and well-written--a good primer to a big subject.  Then I was reading its treatment of ancient Israel and learned that "The Kingdom of Judah, with its capital at Jerusalem, prospered during the reigns of rulers such as Omri, Ahab, and the later dynasty of Jehu." 

Omri, Ahab, and Jehu were all rulers of the northern kingdom of Israel, not the kingdom of Judah!  A few minutes' work by either the author or an editor in any standard reference work on the subject would have prevented that error.  It's one of the biggest howlers I've ever seen in what purports to be a work of history.  I immediately lost all faith in either the author or his editors, assuming he even has any.  How many other foul-ups like this might there be lurking that I wouldn't know enough to catch, let alone the average lay reader who doesn't share even my limited background of knowledge on the subject? 

I didn't even read the rest of the book, for fear of what other misinformation I might accidentally imbibe.  It was a rare case where I decided I couldn't in good conscience put something in the library book sale room.  It's going into File 13 instead.  I have no plans to check out any others in this series.  Goof-ups that fundamental in what is supposed to be a reference book are inexcusable.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on December 15, 2021, 10:38:28 AM
Might make an interesting Bible Study book: Ask the participants to figure out where the errors are and how they could have gotten in it.

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on December 15, 2021, 11:47:54 AM
Flyaway, by Kathleen Jennings. It's a superb book! It starts out as a sort of moody tale in a young narrator, keenly aware of how to be good and sweet and tidy and domestic, tells us about her life in a way that makes it clear that something terrible happened to her father and brothers, and her mother is controlling her in some way to make sure she never thinks about it or asks questions or remembers what happens. But of course she does start asking questions, and half the book is about her quest (well, day-trip) to find out what's what.

But the other half of the book is this wonderfully skillful interlacing set of local folklore that's also not at all local, but Australian-flavored variants of European folklore that have been brought to Australia and turned native. There's this elegant symmetry between the people, European immigrants who have become local to their areas, and the tales they brought with them, that are recognizable (one of them is clearly a descendent of the Pied Piper of Hamlin) but also undeniably Australian too. And the truth of what happened to this narrator's family lies in the intersection of these tales, which are both folklore and family history, together with her own investigations. It's so, so, so good.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: paultuttle on December 26, 2021, 05:47:17 AM
Just re-read the entire Harry Potter series, this time in the order the author intended (the immediately previous time, I read them in reverse order, including back-to-front within some of the volumes).

____

Side note: I like re-reading old favorites in different ways. Sometimes I choose a specific section and read just that, so that counts as my most recent re-reading. Other times, just for the new experience of the old favorite, I open the book randomly and read alternately forward and backward until I finish. Still other times, I start at the end and read backward, paragraph by paragraph. And in each case, I find that after I've satisfied my urge to re-read that book, it takes anywhere between several days and several months before I pick it up again, eager for a new experience with the old favorite. Curiously, I often am able to juxtapose—as I re-read—my memory of first reading a particular passage with my current reactions, which provides a many-layered perspective to my understanding of what a "favorite book" is to me. For some books, it's almost as though I'm accreting layers of mother of pearl memories into a single overwhelming feeling of what that particular book means to me.

_____

Started yesterday on The Lord of the Rings. Currently walking into Bree and sympathizing with Sam's unease at his first sight of humans' tall buildings.

Received the first three volumes of Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series for Christmas. Am now on page 83 in the first book.

Will probably alternate between the old favorite and the new interest over the next few vacation days.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on December 31, 2021, 06:26:35 PM
December's meagre haul (in fairness, I've been writing and parenting hard):

Alastair Reynolds - Inhibitor Phase: I was glad to return to the Revelation Space universe and find out more about the period before humanity started beating back the inhibitors, although it's been so long and I've forgotten so much that I was a little confused at times. It was a lot of fun, though, and even gripping at times.

Anne Lamott - Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year: This was hilarious, and it was lovely to read it now, as the hatchling nears the end of his first year. It was a great way to put things in context, not least because I'm also keeping a daily journal. It's a tad dodgy in places, though.


Quote from: paultuttle on December 26, 2021, 05:47:17 AM

Received the first three volumes of Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series for Christmas. Am now on page 83 in the first book.


I love The Wheel of Time; I've read the whole thing twice, and the first ten books six times. The first three are great but old-school fantasy, the remainder a hugely rich political and anthropological tapestry. Hit me up if you ever wanna talk about it!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on January 01, 2022, 09:39:07 AM
"AntiFragile" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.   I think there were some good ideas in there, but it became a tiresome slog though cherry-picked anecdotes and poorly-articulated (if not thought out) critiques.  Taleb has such a sneering1, mean-spirited style that it became difficult to hear the message through the vitriol.  There were discussions in my own areas of experience that rang false and made me question how accurate he is in areas I lack familiarity.

1 It was an audio-book and I agree that some of the sneering tone may have been exacerbated by the reader.

I read Thomas Sowell's "Basic Economics" right before that (note to self - put an intellectual palate cleanser in between next time) and I found that interesting, but not novel, and slanted by its omission of the more interesting things economics could speak on.

Time for a Jack Reacher novel, methinks...
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ciao_yall on January 01, 2022, 11:37:01 AM
Quote from: FishProf on January 01, 2022, 09:39:07 AM
"AntiFragile" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.   I think there were some good ideas in there, but it became a tiresome slog though cherry-picked anecdotes and poorly-articulated (if not thought out) critiques.  Taleb has such a sneering1, mean-spirited style that it became difficult to hear the message through the vitriol.  There were discussions in my own areas of experience that rang false and made me question how accurate he is in areas I lack familiarity.

I have read his work and heard him speak. He's a big sneerer in real life.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on January 01, 2022, 04:59:45 PM
Quote from: ciao_yall on January 01, 2022, 11:37:01 AM
Quote from: FishProf on January 01, 2022, 09:39:07 AM
"AntiFragile" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.   I think there were some good ideas in there, but it became a tiresome slog though cherry-picked anecdotes and poorly-articulated (if not thought out) critiques.  Taleb has such a sneering1, mean-spirited style that it became difficult to hear the message through the vitriol.  There were discussions in my own areas of experience that rang false and made me question how accurate he is in areas I lack familiarity.

I have read his work and heard him speak. He's a big sneerer in real life.


All this makes me want to listen to the audiobook, even though I know it'll drive me up the wall.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on January 02, 2022, 05:54:35 AM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on January 01, 2022, 04:59:45 PM
Quote from: ciao_yall on January 01, 2022, 11:37:01 AM
Quote from: FishProf on January 01, 2022, 09:39:07 AM
"AntiFragile" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.   I think there were some good ideas in there, but it became a tiresome slog though cherry-picked anecdotes and poorly-articulated (if not thought out) critiques.  Taleb has such a sneering1, mean-spirited style that it became difficult to hear the message through the vitriol.  There were discussions in my own areas of experience that rang false and made me question how accurate he is in areas I lack familiarity.

I have read his work and heard him speak. He's a big sneerer in real life.


All this makes me want to listen to the audiobook, even though I know it'll drive me up the wall.

I got it from my local library.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on January 03, 2022, 12:52:41 PM
Quote from: ab_grp on December 15, 2021, 08:31:43 AM
Now we're back to the Wool trilogy with Dust, supposedly also a final book.  So far it's hard to recall what happened to who when since the second book went back in time and this one is in the timeline of the first one.  I'm hoping to finish this series and get to more of The Expanse before I hear any future plot points or reveals from the TV series.

We finished this one a night or two ago.  We were both fairly pleased with how the trilogy wrapped up.  It seems as though the author's strategy was to avoid discussing details that might have been difficult to explain, but there didn't feel like there were too many loose ends.  It certainly wasn't a great series, but he pulled it off a bit better than I had expected him to.  As in the previous two books, the big picture keeps expanding as the story unfolds, but it's hard to describe the plot without giving important plot points from previous books away. 

We moved back to the Expanse series with Nemesis Games.  Thankfully, the most familiar characters from previous books have already arrived on the scene.  It's hard to get into some of these books without a foothold when there are too many characters. 

It looks as though the audio book threads are old, and I never know the rules for bumping up a thread or leaving it dead and starting a new one.  Given that some have been mentioned here, I will note briefly that I just finished an amazingly great one (in my opinion) on the Apollo 8 mission.

Quote from: Parasaurolophus on December 31, 2021, 06:26:35 PM
Alastair Reynolds - Inhibitor Phase: I was glad to return to the Revelation Space universe and find out more about the period before humanity started beating back the inhibitors, although it's been so long and I've forgotten so much that I was a little confused at times. It was a lot of fun, though, and even gripping at times.

Thanks for this review, Parasaurolophus! We haven't read that one yet, but it sounds good.  I think I have probably forgotten enough to be confused at this point, too.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Vkw10 on January 03, 2022, 08:46:18 PM
The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant, which I listened to while driving from SC to Texas. I generally avoid vampire tales, but couldn't resist listening to the Audible sample when that title showed up in a search for books about accounting. Light-hearted entertainment, but I found myself liking Fred and the gradually building cast. I've purchased the next volume in the series and look forward to seeing how the author makes taxes lighthearted.

I also caught up on Lois McMaster Bujold's Penric series, with Assassins of Thasalon and Knot of Shadows. Both were excellent, as usual for LMB books. Penric and his demon Desdemona are fantastic characters.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on January 10, 2022, 10:47:42 AM
Inside the Victorian Home:  A Portrait of Domestic Life in Victorian Britain, by Judith Flanders.  This is a good example of how the history of everyday life can be as fascinating as that of history's more dramatic moments.  Flanders employs an impressive variety of personal memoirs and correspondence, examples from fiction, advice books, and other contemporary sources to draw a detailed (and well-illustrated) portrait of a world of experience entirely unfamiliar to us today.  And yet this was also a society where mass media, mass consumerism, mechanization, and other forces which have done so much to make today's world were beginning to emerge. 

The focus is mainly on the middle classes.  The poor had little house to keep, while the elaborate establishments of the very rich were a world of their own that has been much described elsewhere.  Middle-class Victorians were beginning to have modern expectations of domestic comfort and convenience--but didn't have just a whole lot of either, by modern standards.  Maintaining such comfort as there was took an enormous amount of labor.  One has to feel for the busy housewife.  And even more for the maids-of-all-work who had to handle most of the dirty and heavy work, in return for low wages, poor living conditions, and continual reminders of their inferiority.

Speaking of continual reminders of inferiority--Flanders sometimes sounds a little too much like the sort of historian who often judges and finds wanting the people of earlier generations for failing to be more like those of today.  They did so many things wrong, and and were so wrong-headed!  That the poor, miserable things had the misfortune to be born too early to be more enlightened is only somewhat of a mitigating factor for their failures to be more like us.  Even an aspect of their society that might be expected to appeal to the modern reader--the Victorians' habit of diligently recycling and repurposing--is made to look like another example of mindless adherence to over-elaborate rules and concerns about status.

Actually, to be fair, Flanders is at least some of the time more fair-minded toward her subjects than that last paragraph makes it sound.  She's aware, for example, that some later portraits of the age by those who experienced it as frustrated youths--Edmund Gosse's memoirs of his father, Philip, for example--were deliberate hatchet jobs.  I do find her attitude a little prosecutorial at times, though.  Ruth Goodwin, whose re-enactments of life a century and a half ago qualify as walking in somebody else's moccasins, writes with more empathy toward her subjects, and shows more recognition that people's customs in earlier times often made more sense on their own terms than we today give them credit for. 

Flanders is still quite a good resource on the era for those interested in it.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on January 10, 2022, 12:04:11 PM
I really like Flanders's work on the Victorians. She expanded the last chapter of the Victorian Home into an entire book called The Victorian City, about London street life, and it was equally fascinating. I do agree, though, that she doesn't have the fond affection and slightly prickly defense that Ruth Goodman has. I enjoy both of their work.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on January 10, 2022, 12:12:29 PM
I checked out and read Flanders'sChristmas: A Biography (2017) from the library a few years ago. I thought it was ok.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Harlow2 on January 11, 2022, 06:37:35 AM
Last week I stumbled on a fascinating new book in the library: The Bookseller of Florence.[ It's a wonderful history of the city in the 1400s, of many of the cross-disciplinary intellectual ferment of the time, and of how the old Roman manuscripts in the monasteries were being dusted off and translated into the Florentine dialect—and then the influence of the "classics" on Florentine thinking. I was surprised to read about the 70% literacy rate, which included girls and women. 

  I was going to just read the library version but kept having to stifle the impulse to take out my pen and start underlining, so I bought it.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on January 11, 2022, 10:13:24 AM
Quote from: Harlow2 on January 11, 2022, 06:37:35 AM
Last week I stumbled on a fascinating new book in the library: The Bookseller of Florence.[ It's a wonderful history of the city in the 1400s, of many of the cross-disciplinary intellectual ferment of the time, and of how the old Roman manuscripts in the monasteries were being dusted off and translated into the Florentine dialect—and then the influence of the "classics" on Florentine thinking. I was surprised to read about the 70% literacy rate, which included girls and women. 

  I was going to just read the library version but kept having to stifle the impulse to take out my pen and start underlining, so I bought it.

Thank you for not annotating a library copy!  Would that all were so considerate....

That sounds very interesting.  I may have to look that one up.

Wonder how they figured the literacy rate?  Some years ago David Cressy estimated literacy rates in 17th-century England based on the proportions of adults who could sign their own names to a loyalty oath everybody was required to sign.  Got quite a fascinating monograph out of it.  One of the best things I had to read in grad school.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on January 11, 2022, 11:29:14 AM
There is more recent work on that, I'd have to look it up, but it's the same test I just used for an individual whose gravestone I described recently: she signed deeds and mortgages she executed with her name, not an "X."

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Harlow2 on January 14, 2022, 09:38:59 AM
Quote from: apl68 on January 11, 2022, 10:13:24 AM
Quote from: Harlow2 on January 11, 2022, 06:37:35 AM
Last week I stumbled on a fascinating new book in the library: The Bookseller of Florence.[ It's a wonderful history of the city in the 1400s, of many of the cross-disciplinary intellectual ferment of the time, and of how the old Roman manuscripts in the monasteries were being dusted off and translated into the Florentine dialect—and then the influence of the "classics" on Florentine thinking. I was surprised to read about the 70% literacy rate, which included girls and women. 

  I was going to just read the library version but kept having to stifle the impulse to take out my pen and start underlining, so I bought it.

Thank you for not annotating a library copy!  Would that all were so considerate....

That sounds very interesting.  I may have to look that one up.

Wonder how they figured the literacy rate?  Some years ago David Cressy estimated literacy rates in 17th-century England based on the proportions of adults who could sign their own names to a loyalty oath everybody was required to sign.  Got quite a fascinating monograph out of it.  One of the best things I had to read in grad school.


The author cites Black, R. Literacy in Florence 1427 in Peterson and Bernstein, Ed's. Culture, society, and politics in renaissance Italy (2008).and idea Education and society in Forentine Tuscany (2007). If I had time it would be fun to get to those to see their method.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on January 15, 2022, 01:54:20 PM
From the library:
Down a Dark River by Karen Odden

Next up: "Veronica Speedwell Mystery" series by Deanna Raybourn
https://www.deannaraybourn.com/book_series/veronica-speedwell-mysteries/ (https://www.deannaraybourn.com/book_series/veronica-speedwell-mysteries/)
Needed something to binge read ahead of the latest installment!  :D
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on January 19, 2022, 06:54:04 AM
Grand Hotel, by Vickie Baum.  Baum's long-ago international bestseller did much to pioneer the old "disparate people bumping into each other at a fancy hotel" genre.  The principals include a terminally-ill clerk, who is using his life savings to try to live it up before the end; his boss, who faces a tricky make-or-break business deal; the boss's stenographer, who has learned that there's only one place for a pretty but poor girl; an aristocratic black sheep turned gentleman thief to keep himself supplied with "the finer things in life;" an aging ballet star nearing the end of her career; and a doctor whose wartime experiences have left him with what would now be called a bad case of PTSD.

Interwar Berlin, with its widespread political and business corruption, prostitution, gambling, etc. was then and later often portrayed as a very sick society.  Baum's Hotel Berlin is a crossroads where sick members of the sick society meet.  It comes across, as has been said of Las Vegas, as a place where one can spend all day long "having a good time" without ever actually enjoying oneself.  Or rather, Baum seems to be saying, one CAN have a good time, but only if there's plenty of spending money, and only for a short while.  And the "eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die, and after that there's nothing" attitude has consequences.  The clerk has abandoned his wife with all their money to fund his desperate little end-of-life fling; the boss, who has up to now tried to be a good family man, ruins himself when he foolishly gives in to his lust for the stenographer; the stenog encourages him in his folly, because she's learned that a narcissistic, hedonistic society offers her no other way to get ahead; the gentleman thief trifles around until he gets himself killed; and the ballet star and doctor have become suicidal.

In looking around at the consequences of a contemporary society where an outlook of hedonistic nihilism has become the norm, I'd have to say that Baum's portrayal of a world where there's little love or real human connection or hope rings true.  There are still alternatives to that dominant outlook.  I know of a particularly good alternative called Jesus, as described by a quartet of writers named Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  Granted, the alternatives are now considered unfashionable.  But then it's not necessarily bad to be out of step with the dominant society's values, when the dominant society's values really suck.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on January 19, 2022, 09:49:58 AM
I am working my way through the audiobook of Thucydides' "History of the Peloponnesian War".  Those Greeks sure love their rhetoric.  It seems to contain all the speeches given about the war.  The monologue in favor of the Spartans supporting Plataea took 15 minutes, the battle description only 2.

I am reading the Black Cauldron series to Smolt.  She is loving it.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on January 19, 2022, 10:13:43 AM
Quote from: FishProf on January 19, 2022, 09:49:58 AM
I am working my way through the audiobook of Thucydides' "History of the Peloponnesian War".  Those Greeks sure love their rhetoric.  It seems to contain all the speeches given about the war.  The monologue in favor of the Spartans supporting Plataea took 15 minutes, the battle description only 2.

I am reading the Black Cauldron series to Smolt.  She is loving it.

I've tried reading some of those speeches before.  Never listened to one.  Does the audio book have a good reader or readers?

I never got all that much into Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain.  Hard to say why.  I was introduced to the series at a time when it ought to have been right up my alley.  Glad Smolt is enjoying it.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on January 19, 2022, 10:48:45 AM
Just remember that the convention in historical writing of the time is to give you the gist of what could have been said, rather than what was actually said!

It's the same with the battles, which sometimes make no tactical sense at all.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on January 19, 2022, 10:54:36 AM
Quote from: apl68 on January 19, 2022, 10:13:43 AM
Quote from: FishProf on January 19, 2022, 09:49:58 AM
I am working my way through the audiobook of Thucydides' "History of the Peloponnesian War".  Those Greeks sure love their rhetoric.  It seems to contain all the speeches given about the war. 
I've tried reading some of those speeches before.  Never listened to one.  Does the audio book have a good reader or readers?

I wouldn't say good, but he's appropriate.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Morden on January 19, 2022, 11:05:11 AM
I just read the first three books of Corey's Expanse series. I enjoyed them, but have no real desire to read books 4-9. Expanse readers, should I keep going?
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: AvidReader on January 19, 2022, 11:15:05 AM
Quote from: apl68 on December 15, 2021, 10:14:49 AM
Quote from: mamselle on November 17, 2021, 05:03:55 PM
It's hard to find folks who engage with the difficulties while neither selling the significance of faith down the river, nor using it as a magic crutch to resolve the issues superficially, or failing to address the emotional depths they may go to.

Rumer Godden's In This House of Brede and Mark Salzmann's Lying Awake (reviewed above) are among those rare exceptions.  They both deal with the sisters in a convent environment.  Wonderful books.  If you're in the mood for a big read about a large cast, In This House of Brede is a good choice.  If you want a shorter read focused mainly on its protagonist, but still with a lot of spiritual meat in it, Lying Awake is your book.

May I take this opportunity to recommend a not very well known British author, Penelope Wilcock, who writes (in my opinion) fairly substantial Christian fiction? The Hawk and the Dove and ensuing series, published over several decades, is largely set in a medieval monastery (early volumes also intersperse a modern frame narrative), and tackles a lot of issues of faith and Christian practice head-on.

AR.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on January 19, 2022, 11:23:03 AM
Quote from: Morden on January 19, 2022, 11:05:11 AM
I just read the first three books of Corey's Expanse series. I enjoyed them, but have no real desire to read books 4-9. Expanse readers, should I keep going?

We are reading book 5 right now.  It always takes me a bit to get excited to pick up each new book and get into it, but I always end up pretty enthralled, and we are enjoying the series as a whole quite a bit.  I guess whether or not to continue probably depends on what (if any) shortcomings you found in the books you read that didn't make you excited to keep reading.  This probably sounds trite, but it is the expansion of the story universe for the characters that I find most interesting, with the political and social issues that come along with it.  Book 4 is the first real step beyond and has a lot of new stuff going on.  I think book 5 is the first book where you get more substantial backstory on the major characters in addition to the action.  We are trying to read the first 6 books before watching the TV series, but I also keep seeing folks online talking about how great the final book is (9) and how well everything comes together, so that is another motivation.   My opinions based on a partial reading, of course, but I hope they help!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on January 19, 2022, 11:27:03 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on January 19, 2022, 11:23:03 AM
Quote from: Morden on January 19, 2022, 11:05:11 AM
I just read the first three books of Corey's Expanse series. I enjoyed them, but have no real desire to read books 4-9. Expanse readers, should I keep going?

We are reading book 5 right now.  It always takes me a bit to get excited to pick up each new book and get into it, but I always end up pretty enthralled, and we are enjoying the series as a whole quite a bit.  I guess whether or not to continue probably depends on what (if any) shortcomings you found in the books you read that didn't make you excited to keep reading.  This probably sounds trite, but it is the expansion of the story universe for the characters that I find most interesting, with the political and social issues that come along with it.  Book 4 is the first real step beyond and has a lot of new stuff going on.  I think book 5 is the first book where you get more substantial backstory on the major characters in addition to the action.  We are trying to read the first 6 books before watching the TV series, but I also keep seeing folks online talking about how great the final book is (9) and how well everything comes together, so that is another motivation.   My opinions based on a partial reading, of course, but I hope they help!

Book 4 was quite good, I thought. Books 5-6 were a bit slow precisely because the whole protomolecule storyline took a back seat to solar system politics, which were perfectly adequate, as far as they went, but they were not what really impressed me about the series. But then in Books 7-8 the politics and the protomolecule storylines start converging in really interesting ways, and the authors took quite a narrative risk with the timeline that I think pays off nicely. I'm looking forward to reading Book 9 now.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on January 19, 2022, 11:30:38 AM
I was going to add to my previous post but will just reply here in light of ergative's review of the latter books.  Good to hear that they continue to progress well! Ergative, I am guessing you will get through book 9 before we do, so I will look forward to your thoughts on that.  Have you happened to read any of the additional parts referred to below?

My addendum: Some say that you should read the story entries in order of publication, so that would include the short stories and novellas (e.g., The Butcher of Anderson Station after book 1, Gods of Risk after book 2).  We did not know that those interim pieces existed early on and have not read them yet but will probably do so afterward.  Here are chronological orderings by publication and narrative orders: https://expanse.fandom.com/wiki/Category:The_Expanse
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on January 19, 2022, 01:47:27 PM
Quote from: FishProf on January 19, 2022, 09:49:58 AM
I am working my way through the audiobook of Thucydides' "History of the Peloponnesian War".  Those Greeks sure love their rhetoric.  It seems to contain all the speeches given about the war.  The monologue in favor of the Spartans supporting Plataea took 15 minutes, the battle description only 2.

I am reading the Black Cauldron series to Smolt.  She is loving it.

Lloyd Alexander was one of the early male JP-ish writers to put young women in charge.

I have always loved him (from afar) for that...

;--}

If Smolt is enjoying Alexander's mythical series, she might enjoy his other works, as well as Avi's...

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Harlow2 on January 19, 2022, 09:07:50 PM
Just started William Bernstein's The Delusions of Crowds: Why people go Mad in Groups. Somewhat modeled on Charles MacKaye's account 180 years ago of tulip mania, it so far is an interesting look at how thinking and decision making go awry.  He's a neurologist with a long-standing interest in finance and investing.  I'm not knowledgeable in either but am enjoying the history.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on January 20, 2022, 07:33:29 PM
From the library: the "Veronica Speedwell Mystery" series by Deanna Raybourn:
https://www.deannaraybourn.com/book_series/veronica-speedwell-mysteries/ (https://www.deannaraybourn.com/book_series/veronica-speedwell-mysteries/)
The new and #7 installment, An Impossible Imposter, releases next month.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on January 21, 2022, 08:16:40 AM
Fuzz:  When Nature Breaks the Law, by Mary Roach.  She has made a career of writing books, on subjects like the human aspects of space travel and what happens to dead bodies, that combine impressively detailed hands-on journalism with a sense of humor that can make one wonder, the author photos notwithstanding, whether "Mary Roach" is a pen name for some talented college sophomore frat guy.  The books are fascinatingly informative and funny, but the emphasis on the gross-out aspects of their subjects gets old at times.  She's also become much more uninhibited in her use of Anglo Saxonisms over the years.

Anyway, Fuzz is about how wildlife makes trouble for humans and human activities, and how humans try to cope with it.  It deals with issues such as coexistence with hazardous creatures like bears and mountain lions--which most people nowadays really want to conserve, but some of those who actually have to deal with them aren't so sure; with marauding elephants and monkeys in India; with how to manage pests; and with management of invasive species.  As always, Roach has uncovered some pretty amazing stuff.  And there are some real dilemmas, such as New Zealand's efforts to get rid of invasive species that threaten to destroy native species, without being too inhumane or environmentally disruptive in the process.  You come away with the impression that there has been a lot of progress over the years in wildlife control--and yet there's an awful lot more that needs to be made.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on January 21, 2022, 08:35:58 AM
That sounds interesting, apl68! I have read a couple of her other books and always found them pretty fascinating.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on January 21, 2022, 10:12:37 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on January 21, 2022, 08:35:58 AM
That sounds interesting, apl68! I have read a couple of her other books and always found them pretty fascinating.

Oh, if you like Mary Roach's writing, you'll like this one too.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: paultuttle on January 21, 2022, 12:08:02 PM
I recently re-read the Harry Potter series along with Pride and Prejudice. Moving soon to The Best of James Herriot.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on January 21, 2022, 12:22:48 PM
Quote from: paultuttle on January 21, 2022, 12:08:02 PM
I recently re-read the Harry Potter series along with Pride and Prejudice. Moving soon to The Best of James Herriot.

Book 1 - HP and the Sorcerer's Pride
Book 2 - HP And the Prejudice of Azkaban

Is this like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies?
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on January 21, 2022, 01:02:05 PM
Quote from: FishProf on January 21, 2022, 12:22:48 PM
Quote from: paultuttle on January 21, 2022, 12:08:02 PM
I recently re-read the Harry Potter series along with Pride and Prejudice. Moving soon to The Best of James Herriot.

Book 1 - HP and the Sorcerer's Pride
Book 2 - HP And the Prejudice of Azkaban

Is this like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies?

I'm looking forward to James Harriot's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on January 21, 2022, 01:11:51 PM
Quote from: apl68 on January 21, 2022, 01:02:05 PM
Quote from: FishProf on January 21, 2022, 12:22:48 PM
Quote from: paultuttle on January 21, 2022, 12:08:02 PM
I recently re-read the Harry Potter series along with Pride and Prejudice. Moving soon to The Best of James Herriot.

Book 1 - HP and the Sorcerer's Pride
Book 2 - HP And the Prejudice of Azkaban

Is this like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies?

I'm looking forward to James Harriot's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

That was certainly better than The Once and Future King Kong.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on January 21, 2022, 01:15:44 PM
Quote from: FishProf on January 21, 2022, 01:11:51 PM
Quote from: apl68 on January 21, 2022, 01:02:05 PM
Quote from: FishProf on January 21, 2022, 12:22:48 PM
Quote from: paultuttle on January 21, 2022, 12:08:02 PM
I recently re-read the Harry Potter series along with Pride and Prejudice. Moving soon to The Best of James Herriot.

Book 1 - HP and the Sorcerer's Pride
Book 2 - HP And the Prejudice of Azkaban

Is this like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies?

I'm looking forward to James Harriot's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

That was certainly better than The Once and Future King Kong.

Haven't seen that one, but I'd be glad to take your word for it.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: paultuttle on January 21, 2022, 01:19:43 PM
Quote from: apl68 on January 21, 2022, 01:15:44 PM
Quote from: FishProf on January 21, 2022, 01:11:51 PM
Quote from: apl68 on January 21, 2022, 01:02:05 PM
Quote from: FishProf on January 21, 2022, 12:22:48 PM
Quote from: paultuttle on January 21, 2022, 12:08:02 PM
I recently re-read the Harry Potter series along with Pride and Prejudice. Moving soon to The Best of James Herriot.

Book 1 - HP and the Sorcerer's Pride
Book 2 - HP And the Prejudice of Azkaban

Is this like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies?

I'm looking forward to James Harriot's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

That was certainly better than The Once and Future King Kong.

Haven't seen that one, but I'd be glad to take your word for it.

These are hilarious! I especially love The Once and Future King Kong. Maybe we should start an "improbable title mashup" thread.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: smallcleanrat on January 21, 2022, 03:22:36 PM
IMHO Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters is a better read than Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on January 21, 2022, 04:35:56 PM
Not into zombies, but Death at Pemberly (P.D.James) was good.

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: smallcleanrat on January 21, 2022, 04:46:37 PM
Quote from: mamselle on January 21, 2022, 04:35:56 PM
Not into zombies, but Death at Pemberly (P.D.James) was good.

M.

But how do you feel about sea monsters?
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on January 22, 2022, 07:38:52 AM
Bicycle past Loch Lomond once, didn't see any...

;--》

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on January 22, 2022, 08:06:56 AM
Quote from: mamselle on January 22, 2022, 07:38:52 AM
Bicycle past Loch Lomond once, didn't see any...

;--》

M.

Naturally not! For that you need in Loch Ness.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on January 22, 2022, 11:23:40 AM
Quote from: ergative on January 22, 2022, 08:06:56 AM
Quote from: mamselle on January 22, 2022, 07:38:52 AM
Bicycle past Loch Lomond once, didn't see any...

;--》

M.

Naturally not! For that you need in Loch Ness.

Oh, of course. That might be why...

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on January 24, 2022, 09:43:04 AM
I had a kind of funny book-related moment with my husband yesterday.  I mentioned here earlier that I had listened to a really fascinating book about one of the moon missions, a book with the main title of Rocket Men.  My husband said he also had it in his Audible library (we have not figured out how to merge them yet), and I was so enthralled about it that he decided to finally give it a listen.  I've been asking him where he is in the book, and he's been talking about a bunch of stuff that I didn't really recall, but I had listened to several of the early chapters months or a year ago and hadn't really gotten into the material at the time.  It was mostly about the astronauts' backgrounds and training.  The mission itself was much more of a page-turner (or whatever you would call it in audio book terms). 

So he had made a lot more progress yesterday, and I asked what was going on.  He said that there was some issue, that the astronauts were possibly going to come in too hard for a landing.  How are they already landing? He's got several hours of the book left! Maybe he's talking about a test flight.  Where are they landing? The moon, he says! I told him that they are not going to land on the moon.  That's not the mission.  He had mentioned Shepard and Armstrong, but I thought maybe they had been mentioned tangentially, and he had also mentioned Borman, one of the astronauts in my book.  I thought maybe I was misremembering, and they did talk about the Apollo 11 moon landing mission and other missions at some point.  But I asked what happened with the Apollo 8 flight? He said it had come and gone, was already over at this point in the book.  I said that mission is the entirety of the book! He had something like 7 hours left to listen and asked if i had listened to an abridged version, or maybe they would talk about it more later in the book?  We stared at each other quizzically for a moment.  I finally looked in his Audible library, and he was listening to a totally different book with the same main title, also about an Apollo mission, but a completely different one.

Anyway I highly recommend the book I "read", Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man's First Journey to the Moon by Robert Kurson, narrated by Ray Porter.  I will update later if my husband recommends Rocket Men: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon by Craig Nelson, narrated by Richard McGonagle.  We may be chuckling about this for a bit.  I have a notoriously poor memory for details of most movies, shows, and books, but as it turns out it's not my fault that I couldn't remember the details he was talking about in this case.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on January 28, 2022, 09:30:25 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on January 03, 2022, 12:52:41 PM
We moved back to the Expanse series with Nemesis Games.  Thankfully, the most familiar characters from previous books have already arrived on the scene.  It's hard to get into some of these books without a foothold when there are too many characters. 

Finished this one last night.  Not a bad read, and the various journeys of the crew were interesting along with their backstories, but I'm not sure how much the overall story moved forward.  Certainly, some major events occurred, but by the end there wasn't a lot of explanation of implications.  The epilogue did give some additional hints about what would be coming up, and it sounds like things will be blowing up shortly.  I guess I also felt as though there were come fairly unbelievable (but convenient to the plot) occurrences, even for a book of this nature, and that dampened my enthusiasm a bit.  Still looking forward to the other books in the series, though.

Now we are reading Malorie (Malerman), the sequel to Bird Box.  It's nice to switch genres.  I thought he pulled off the first book pretty well and am hoping that continues with this one.  I think I probably mentioned before that there are some interesting parallels with covid, masking/vaxxing, etc., especially with the difference in perspectives between those who lived before whatever the heck is going on and those who were born during it and have only existed in the current circumstances.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on January 29, 2022, 01:46:13 PM
Started: The Untold Story by Genevieve Cogman
New and #8 installment in the "Invisible Library" series.  The author writes in her acknowledgements that she'll be taking a break from the series and has a new trilogy she's writing. 

Here's her blog post: http://www.grcogman.com/2021/12/the-untold-story-released/ (http://www.grcogman.com/2021/12/the-untold-story-released/)

I've enjoyed each installment as it came out so it's been an adventure with the Librarian gang!  :)
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on January 31, 2022, 07:30:25 AM
Quote from: AvidReader on January 19, 2022, 11:15:05 AM
Quote from: apl68 on December 15, 2021, 10:14:49 AM
Quote from: mamselle on November 17, 2021, 05:03:55 PM
It's hard to find folks who engage with the difficulties while neither selling the significance of faith down the river, nor using it as a magic crutch to resolve the issues superficially, or failing to address the emotional depths they may go to.

Rumer Godden's In This House of Brede and Mark Salzmann's Lying Awake (reviewed above) are among those rare exceptions.  They both deal with the sisters in a convent environment.  Wonderful books.  If you're in the mood for a big read about a large cast, In This House of Brede is a good choice.  If you want a shorter read focused mainly on its protagonist, but still with a lot of spiritual meat in it, Lying Awake is your book.

May I take this opportunity to recommend a not very well known British author, Penelope Wilcock, who writes (in my opinion) fairly substantial Christian fiction? The Hawk and the Dove and ensuing series, published over several decades, is largely set in a medieval monastery (early volumes also intersperse a modern frame narrative), and tackles a lot of issues of faith and Christian practice head-on.

AR.

I sought out The Hawk and the Dove on your recommendation, and read it Sunday afternoon.  It billed itself as an historical novel, but was more like a devotional book told in anecdotal form.  Not what I was expecting.  However, as a devotional work it gave lots of good food for thought.  It made for a pleasant afternoon's reading and introspection.  Thank you for the recommendation!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: AvidReader on January 31, 2022, 08:24:44 AM
Quote from: apl68 on January 31, 2022, 07:30:25 AM
I sought out The Hawk and the Dove on your recommendation, and read it Sunday afternoon.  It billed itself as an historical novel, but was more like a devotional book told in anecdotal form.  Not what I was expecting.  However, as a devotional work it gave lots of good food for thought.  It made for a pleasant afternoon's reading and introspection.  Thank you for the recommendation!

I am glad you found it thought-provoking, and sorry if I (or the description) mis-sold its genre!

AR.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on February 01, 2022, 12:53:46 PM
January:

John Brunner - The Sheep Look Up: It's a weird mashup that didn't quite work for me. Partly, it's just so clearly rooted in the 1960s and '70s (e.g. simmering racial tensions, cults and hippies, etc.), and thus out of touch with today. It's also that the vision of environmental collapse is too near in the book's future, so it doesn't really make sense (the book is from '72, it's set in the '80s). I do know about how bad things were getting before the EPA and the Clean Air Act, but even so, it just doesn't work for me, especially in light of today's climate crisis. And there were just way too many shifts of perspective and artistic interludes for my taste: it was a real try-hard novel, and that never works. But I'm glad I read it. I've been meaning to for years.

Darren Naish - Dinopedia: A Brief Compendium of Dinosaur Lore: Aesthetically, this is just a gorgeous book, and surprisingly well-priced to boot. I read it from A to Z, and it was a great, exciting, and informative read. Those of you who know the Tetzoo blog will know that Naish is a very engaging writer, and he does a great job here of giving us both historical perspective and the current technical state-of-the-art. And I quite enjoy his editorial asides, too. It's a great use of twenty bucks. Plus, all the illustrations are his (though they're not quite as exciting as All Yesterdays'!).
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: sinenomine on February 01, 2022, 01:58:39 PM
I'm working my way through the collected (adult) short stories by Ronald Dahl — some I read as a teenager, and others are new to me. A nice reading break to look forward to every evening.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Morden on February 01, 2022, 02:59:58 PM
Claire North The Gameshouse. I enjoyed her earlier work  The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August--which tells the tale of a man who lives the same life over and over (retaining his memories each time). Gameshouse posits a world where lower level players gamble on regular games, and higher level players play with people and governments as pieces. It's set up as three linked novellas. The first two were intriguing, but the last one didn't hold together very well.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: paultuttle on February 01, 2022, 06:20:58 PM
Louis L'Amour's Fallon--one of my favorite Westerns.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: smallcleanrat on February 03, 2022, 08:12:05 PM
Does anyone have recommendations for escapist reading?

I've cycled through my favorites so much I think they need to lie fallow for a while to become effective again.

I really need a way to be mentally someplace else for a while.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on February 03, 2022, 08:59:34 PM
Quote from: smallcleanrat on February 03, 2022, 08:12:05 PM
I really need a way to be mentally someplace else for a while.

Life of Pi is really out there. 
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on February 03, 2022, 09:39:39 PM
Quote from: smallcleanrat on February 03, 2022, 08:12:05 PM
Does anyone have recommendations for escapist reading?


What kind of stuff do you like to read?
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: smallcleanrat on February 03, 2022, 10:36:35 PM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on February 03, 2022, 09:39:39 PM
Quote from: smallcleanrat on February 03, 2022, 08:12:05 PM
Does anyone have recommendations for escapist reading?


What kind of stuff do you like to read?
Open to any suggestions; willing to try a genre I haven't explored much

What I choose for escapist reading:

SF or Game of Thrones-style sword and sorcery

Weirdness/Oddities/Curiosities:
Nonfiction books of the 'surprising facts' or 'strange but true' type (can be on any subject really)
Short stories that take an unusual premise and run with it

Children's literature of the classic/wholesome variety

When I want escapism, for some reason I either want to be comforted or amazed and weirded out.




Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on February 04, 2022, 05:09:13 AM
Quote from: smallcleanrat on February 03, 2022, 10:36:35 PM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on February 03, 2022, 09:39:39 PM
Quote from: smallcleanrat on February 03, 2022, 08:12:05 PM
Does anyone have recommendations for escapist reading?


What kind of stuff do you like to read?
Open to any suggestions; willing to try a genre I haven't explored much

What I choose for escapist reading:

SF or Game of Thrones-style sword and sorcery

Weirdness/Oddities/Curiosities:
Nonfiction books of the 'surprising facts' or 'strange but true' type (can be on any subject really)
Short stories that take an unusual premise and run with it

Children's literature of the classic/wholesome variety

When I want escapism, for some reason I either want to be comforted or amazed and weirded out.

SF or GoT style swords and sorcery: If you want massive enormous tomes, try Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archives (currently four books into the first planned five-book series, publishing regularly, each is over 1000 pages; start with The Way of Kings). Or his Mistborn trilogy (Mistborn, The Well of Ascension, The Hero of Ages), which is complete, and--although not as good as Stormlight, in my view--it's brilliantly constructed, and things pay off wonderfully in the third book.

I also really like Kate Elliott's fantasy series, especially her Spirit Walker trilogy (Cold Magic, Cold Fire, Cold Steel) and Crossroads trilogy (Spirit Gate, Shadow Gate, Traitors' Gate). I think Crossroads is deeper, but more difficult (i.e., engaging realistically with problems of politics and society in the fantasy world), while Spirit Walker is more fun.

Julie Czerneda does some really imaginative SF work. I quite enjoyed her Species Imperative trilogy (Survival, Migration, Regeneration) and I think her Web Shifters trilogy is just superb (Beholder's Eye, Changing Vision, Hidden in Sight).

Kameron Hurley's work is really gooey and gross, but lots of fun. For a standalone, try The Stars are Legion, or for the start of a trilogy that stands perfectly well by itself, try God's War. I cannot emphasize enough that both are extremely gross, but in a cool imaginative way.

Fonda Lee's Green Bone Saga (Jade War, Jade City, Jade Legacy) was outstanding: think The Godfather crossed with Bruce Lee, set in a secondary world fantasy that recapitulates the history of the second half of the 20th century. Wonderful politics and society commentary.

Nonfiction weird books: Well, my recommendations are all about poison, in one form or another. To start, there's Eleanor Hermon's The Royal Art of Poison, about the history of poison in ye olden dayes, and also some case studies of purported incidents of poisoning, complete with a summary of what the contemporary people thought happened and a discussion of what modern people think happened. Deborah Blum has some great books about the history of food safety, The Poison Squad; and the The Poisoner's Handbook, about the history of forensic science in New York during the 1920s. I also really enjoyed Lindsey Fitzharris's The Butchering Art, about the development of antiseptics in surgery. Lots of gross details. Read for the anecdote about the amputation that had a 300% mortality rate. (Yes, not a typo).

Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on February 04, 2022, 07:17:57 AM
I just finished Malcolm Gladwell's Talking to Strangers.  He made very interesting arguments.

I am usually agnostic on format, but I recommend the audio book (read by the author) for the audio recording of the events in question, the music, and (when need) the reenactments.

to smallcleanrat:  if you like GoT, try the Joe Abercrombie books  (First Law Trilogy – The Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged and Last Argument of Kings).  Very gritty, magic is real but complicated, and the characters are fantastic.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Puget on February 04, 2022, 07:37:30 AM
Quote from: smallcleanrat on February 03, 2022, 10:36:35 PM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on February 03, 2022, 09:39:39 PM
Quote from: smallcleanrat on February 03, 2022, 08:12:05 PM
Does anyone have recommendations for escapist reading?


What kind of stuff do you like to read?
Open to any suggestions; willing to try a genre I haven't explored much

What I choose for escapist reading:

SF or Game of Thrones-style sword and sorcery

Weirdness/Oddities/Curiosities:
Nonfiction books of the 'surprising facts' or 'strange but true' type (can be on any subject really)
Short stories that take an unusual premise and run with it

Children's literature of the classic/wholesome variety

When I want escapism, for some reason I either want to be comforted or amazed and weirded out.

Some you might like if you haven't already read them:
Fantasy:
The Magicians trilogy (Lev Grossman)
The Rivers of London series (Ben Aaronovitch)
Just about anything by Neil Gaiman (Neverwhere, American Gods, etc.)
Likewise for V. E. Schwab (Shades of Magic trilogy, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue)

Non-fiction:
Bill Bryson (At Home, The Body, A Walk in the Woods, etc.)
Mary Roach (funny popular science writing)

Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on February 04, 2022, 07:54:42 AM
Quote from: ergative on February 04, 2022, 05:09:13 AM
I also really enjoyed Lindsey Fitzharris's The Butchering Art, about the development of antiseptics in surgery. Lots of gross details. Read for the anecdote about the amputation that had a 300% mortality rate. (Yes, not a typo).

I just came across that anecdote recently! Interesting guy.

Smallcleanrat, another that ergative had recommended previously that you might like is The 100-Year-Old Man who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared (Jonasson), which is a delightful little semi-historical (?) fiction.  I think we discussed it more earlier on the thread.

And you may want to check out David Brin's The Practice Effect, which I thought was a really neat story assuming a different physical law were in effect and the consequences.  It's got action, adventure, romance, humor, suspense!

Those are the ones that came to mind when I tried to think of a books that are really engaging but not be too heavy.  Both are fairly brief.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on February 04, 2022, 08:11:24 AM
For weird stuff, Jerome Clark's Unexplained:  Strange Sightings, Incredible Occurrences, and Puzzling Physical Phenomena is one of the best.  Well documented, avoids ridicule, but has plenty of dry humor.  And some really, really good stories.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on February 04, 2022, 08:14:50 AM
Quote from: smallcleanrat on February 03, 2022, 10:36:35 PM


SF or Game of Thrones-style sword and sorcery


Are you familiar with Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time? (It's recently been televised for Amazon. IMO, it's got the best system of magic you'll find in fantasy, and it may well be the most anthropologically-informed fantasy series out there.) It--and its author--are directly responsible for ASOIAF and GRRM getting published (and they get a few small nods throughout the series).

Another fantastic series is N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth Trilogy, which has a lot of parallels to WoT. It's brilliant, but tragic.

Or, if you're in the mood for the grittier turn in fantasy since the aughts, Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen might be of interest. I found the first book slow, but the second and most of the subsequent installments gripping.

Somewhat more recently, Adrian Tchaikovsky's Shadows of the Apt series is an interesting new take on the genre.


On the scifi front, I highly recommend Peter Watts's Blindsight, a rumination on the nature of the mind wrapped up as a first-contact story (also available for free, since it was published under a creative commons license). Alastair Reynolds's Revelation Space universe will keep you busy for a while. Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch trilogy is fun, and the first book is a really interesting reflection on what it would be like for a hive mind to be stuck in a single body. Sue Burke's Semiosis is a fun colonization story where the plants take centre stage, and Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Steven Barnes have a cool scifi version of Beowulf set on a colony world, called The Legacy of Heorot (note, however, that they're--especially Niven and Pournelle--top-flight misogynists, and a decent bit of it leaks through). Adrian Tchaikovsky also has some great scifi, notably the Children of Time series (I think it's his best work).

Quote
Weirdness/Oddities/Curiosities:
Nonfiction books of the 'surprising facts' or 'strange but true' type (can be on any subject really)

I assume you're familiar with the work of Stephen Jay Gould?

Quote
Short stories that take an unusual premise and run with it

Isabell Fall's Helicopter Story (formerly I Sexually Identify as an Attack Helicopter) is quite something. It was mostly scrubbed from the internet because people hadn't read it and thought it was a perpetuation of the anti-trans meme, but it fact it takes the meme seriously and imagines what would have to happen for something like that to work. It actually offers quite a sophisticated analysis of gender (and is clearly pro-trans). And Fall is a trans woman. It's a Hugo nominee, and can be found via the internet archive (or by PMing me).
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on February 04, 2022, 08:22:39 AM
I finally got around to reading our library's copy of The Colour of Time:  A New History of the World, 1850-1960, by Dan Jones and Marina Amaral.  It takes archival black-and-white photos and carefully colorizes them, using historical research to get the colors right.  The resulting images gain remarkably in terms of realism.  The images are well chosen, and the accompanying text gives fairly good potted histories of the places and events that the photos depict.

Ordinarily I'm not a fan of colorizing b&w images.  However, most historical images that most people have seen of the period 1850-1960 are of b&w photos.  This has tended to give everybody the mistaken impression that the people of that time lived in a black-and-white world.  Everybody supposes that the Victorians, for example, lived in black-and-white houses, and wore black-and-white clothes, and lived out their lives beneath dark and gloomy skies.  This collection of images helps to correct that impression.  I've long tried to imagine, when I see a b&w historical photo, what the scene might have looked like in color.  This book does it for you.

I'm partially color blind, by the way, but to the extent that I can see colors I like them.  I wonder what the book would look like to somebody with full color vision?
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: onthefringe on February 04, 2022, 11:55:07 AM
For specifically escapist reading, some of what works for me in those categories is:

Second vote for Ben Aaronovitch Rivers of London series (these are also phenomenal as audiobooks)
Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan series or Penric and Desdemona
Most anything by Seanan McGuire
Naomi Kritzer's Catnet books

Out of your listed genres
Georgette Heyer Regency Romances
JD Robb's In Death books

Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Vkw10 on February 04, 2022, 01:49:56 PM

Quote from: smallcleanrat on February 03, 2022, 08:12:05 PM
Does anyone have recommendations for escapist reading?


I second Bujold's Vorkosigan series and Penric series. People argue over starting point for the Vorkosigan series, but if you want adventure, Warrior's Apprentice is a good starting point. Bujold's good at writing series books that can be read out of order.

For wholesome children's stories, try classics like Anne of Green Gables and Pippi Longstocking. You might also enjoy Freckles by Gene Stratton-Porter, available on Project Gutenberg.

Robert Heinlein's Glory Road can be fun as sword and sorcery, if you skim over his political reflections/rants.

Check out H. Beam Piper's sci-fi on Gutenberg. I'm partial to Lone Star Planet. Paratime and Lord Kalvan are both fun, although they may require inter library loan requests.

James White's Sector General series is another older sci-fi series you might enjoy.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on February 07, 2022, 11:23:03 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on January 28, 2022, 09:30:25 AM
Now we are reading Malorie (Malerman), the sequel to Bird Box.  It's nice to switch genres.  I thought he pulled off the first book pretty well and am hoping that continues with this one.  I think I probably mentioned before that there are some interesting parallels with covid, masking/vaxxing, etc., especially with the difference in perspectives between those who lived before whatever the heck is going on and those who were born during it and have only existed in the current circumstances.

Finished this last night.  I wasn't sure where they were going to go with the story, but it was definitely a creepy and intriguing book.  Some parts seemed quite contrived and unbelievable (which sounds strange to say, given that the entire story is fictional anyway).  The end was mostly satisfactory, though it was a bit of a let down in some ways.  Still, I think it's got to be hard to create a coherent world and tale like this that aren't completely see-through or preposterous.  I was initially unclear about whether a sequel was needed, but this book explored other aspects of society post-Bird Box, interesting things to think about.

Now we are reading Dark Rosaleen (Michael Nicholson), supposedly a historically accurate novel about the Great Famine of Ireland. 
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on February 07, 2022, 11:32:55 AM
Gorgeous escapist children's book:

   Pish, Posh, Said Hieronymous Bosch...

   https://www.abebooks.com/9780152622107/Pish-Posh-Said-Hieronymus-Bosch-0152622101/plp

I'm smiling just thinking of it...

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mahagonny on February 07, 2022, 07:36:21 PM
Possible Side Effects by Augusten Burroughs

Mostly painful to read, but entertaining and real. A sort of autobiography. Sometimes the most intelligent people are also the ones plagued by mental illness and/or a dysfunctional family. (Not a new revelation, but vividly told.) The author is a voyeur and also maybe an exhibitionist (not in real life, but through writing). Now that I've read him I guess I'm a voyeur too. I feel like I've seen things I shouldn't see. But he lived through them, so he has the right.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Stockmann on February 07, 2022, 07:43:14 PM
Quote from: smallcleanrat on February 03, 2022, 08:12:05 PM
Does anyone have recommendations for escapist reading?

I've cycled through my favorites so much I think they need to lie fallow for a while to become effective again.

I really need a way to be mentally someplace else for a while.

Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on February 08, 2022, 03:54:16 AM
Quote from: mahagonny on February 07, 2022, 07:36:21 PM
Possible Side Effects by Augusten Burroughs

Mostly painful to read, but entertaining and real. A sort of autobiography. Sometimes the most intelligent people are also the ones plagued by mental illness and/or a dysfunctional family.

Also read Look Me in the Eye by John Elder Robison, Augusten's brother, who was encouraged to write it by Burroughs after Robison was diagnosed (at 41?) with Asperger's. 
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on February 09, 2022, 06:41:22 AM
O. Henry Memorial Prize Stories of 1943, Herschel Brickell ed.  I found this at a thrift place a couple of months ago.  When I was growing up I read lots and lots of short stories.  I loved to read, and short stories fit my youthful attention span.  I found lots of reading anthologies around school rooms and at home.  Thanks largely to this, I recognized the names of close to half the mid-century writers represented here--people like Eudora Welty, Kay Boyle, James Thurber, and Walter Van Tilburg Clark. 

Having kept up somewhat with today's media and commentary about it, I can't help viewing this collection through the lens of the contemporary emphasis on "diversity."  From that perspective, the selection of authors here is an absolute travesty.  There's no racial diversity, little ethnic diversity, and not much more socioeconomic diversity (Most of the writers here were from the Northeast; nearly all went to the "right" sorts of colleges there).  When one gets annoyed at the absolutely endless, monotonous harping on "diversity" that we see everywhere today, it's worth reflecting on the fact that narrow ranges of literary and media voices like this were the norm until not so many years ago.  As wearisome as it can get, the advocacy of "diversity" does have a point.

It's not that the writers and editors weren't trying to be "progressive."  By the standards of the day you might even call them somewhat "woke."  Many of the writers here try to adopt the voices of people unlike themselves.  There are even a couple of stories that take a pretty sharp view of racial prejudice and injustice in America--this right in the middle of World War II, when there was an urgent stress on fostering national unity and patriotism.  The characters in the stories are actually pretty diverse.  But they're all being imagined by a narrow selection of writers who had a lot more in common with each other than with the characters they're trying to represent.

Which brings us to another issue of today.  If you belong to certain historically dominant groups, you are open to criticism for not having "diverse" casts in your writing.  But if you try to write about people different from yourself, your right to do so is challenged.  It's a no-win situation.  I wish the contemporary acceptance of diverse voices could be without so much of the contemporary emphasis on calling each other out and fighting over each other's right to be heard.  I also wish that contemporary literary voices, for all that they're far more racially and ethnically diverse than they once were, didn't still, in some respects, feel rather narrow--like it's still a self-selected group who, whatever its diversity in some respects, still has more in common with each other than with most of the rest of society.  It's enough to make one wonder just how much progress has really been made since 1943.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mahagonny on February 12, 2022, 10:57:09 PM
Look Me in the Eye by John Elder Robison

I know a couple of people, a father and son, who are Aspergian. And who knows? I may know others who don't know they are, in the sense of it having a term, something identified and studied in depth. Hopefully what has been learned about it is disseminating.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mahagonny on February 13, 2022, 07:26:50 AM
con't

I was a little afraid to read the older brother's story after the rough edges of Possible Side Effects. But it ended noticeably happier. Comparing the two brothers' stories I get the impression that Asperger's can easily be less of a hindrance than alcoholism. The situation of the Aspergian can be improved by improving self-awareness, society's awareness, and sheer fortitude. But alcohol is just...a blight. (Jackie Gleason did say 'I drank and it worked out for me...hmm'.) Well, that would blend with Robison's point, which he made well. Asperger's is not a disease, just a different way of being gifted.

ETA: And not to minimize the trials or courage of Burroughs, being a gay person born in 1965.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on February 13, 2022, 08:58:27 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on February 07, 2022, 11:23:03 AM
Now we are reading Dark Rosaleen (Michael Nicholson), supposedly a historically accurate novel about the Great Famine of Ireland.

Well, for the second time ever, we are putting a book aside.  We have read a lot of books, and they are not all great literature by any means.  What is it about this novel?! I don't know.  The writing is so bland and basic that my husband suggested it sounds like something a high school student would write.  I thought maybe it sounds like an American Girl doll book, though I haven't read any of those and don't really want to cast aspersions in that direction.  For a novel about such a tragic period of time, and a time that must have given rise to many, many interesting people and situations, this book is incredibly boring and not at all compelling.  I looked back at the reviews, and some seem to agree with us, but there are quite a few who really thought this book was excellent.  I feel somewhat validated for wanting to shelve this one midway, given that one reviewer noted that the first half of the book was great but that the second half lacked credibility and fell flat.  Well, I am not waiting for that downturn in an already depressing book.  And not depressing because of the terrible events described therein! Oh my gosh.  I can't imagine caring about these characters at all.  And the villainous "mastermind"... ugh.   I would not be surprised to come upon him twirling his mustache and laughing maniacally at some point.  And of course there's a really mean land owner who behaves terribly and acts like a pig.  Everyone is the same as in every other book, ever.

Anyway, we decided to switch to Redemption (Uris).  I know Uris is not exactly part of the canon, but his writing is infinitely more interesting.  This one is also about Ireland but takes place later on.  We had already read Trinity (Uris), which takes place between the two.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on February 14, 2022, 08:29:58 AM
Quote from: mahagonny on February 13, 2022, 07:26:50 AM
con't

I was a little afraid to read the older brother's story after the rough edges of Possible Side Effects. But it ended noticeably happier. Comparing the two brothers' stories I get the impression that Asperger's can easily be less of a hindrance than alcoholism. The situation of the Aspergian can be improved by improving self-awareness, society's awareness, and sheer fortitude. But alcohol is just...a blight. (Jackie Gleason did say 'I drank and it worked out for me...hmm'.) Well, that would blend with Robison's point, which he made well. Asperger's is not a disease, just a different way of being gifted.

ETA: And not to minimize the trials or courage of Burroughs, being a gay person born in 1965.

Try A Wolf at the Table about Burroughs alcoholic father. You will leave not wondering why Burroughs was an alcoholic, but how else he could have turned out.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: smallcleanrat on February 15, 2022, 01:07:37 PM
Thanks for all the recommendations, everyone!

I copy-pasted everyone's suggestions into a spreadsheet and am using a randomizer to choose a reading order.

Looking forward to popping onto this thread now and again as I work through the list!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on February 15, 2022, 06:55:14 PM
From the library: Antoinette's Sister by Diana Giovinazzo
New novel about Queen Maria Carolina of Naples and Marie-Antoinette's fave sister.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on February 17, 2022, 08:33:19 AM
On the Reliability of the Old Testament, by K.A. Kitchen.  Students of Old Testament history tend to be divided into two principal schools of thought.  "Maximalists" take the traditional view that the historical sections of the Old Testament preserve actual historical accounts of actual events.  "Minimalists" hold that OT history was entirely, or nearly so, the creation of Jews during the Hellenistic era seeking to give their people a longer and more impressive pedigree than was really the case.  Maximalists tend to be Christian and Zionist Jewish scholars with obvious reasons for wanting to demonstrate the truthfulness of OT accounts.  Minimalists tend to be atheists and anti-Zionists with equally obvious ideological investments in dismissing the OT as a collection of fairy tales.

The extremely limited and fragmentary nature of the documentary and archaeological records from Canaan/Palestine/Israel thousands of years ago means that neither school of thought can really "prove" their case, in the way that scholars of more modern times can prove, say, the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776, or that the Holocaust actually happened.  All they can do is try to pull disparate fragments together and interpret and extrapolate from them to try to produce more or less plausible theories about what happened there and then. 

Minimalists have long been in the ascendancy in scholarly circles.  But Kitchen, a renowned biblical scholar and Egyptologist, demonstrates that maximalist interpretations can't just be dismissed.  He marshals an impressive array of sources to contend that the OT accounts of ancient Israel show considerable evidence of a familiarity with social, political, and geographical conditions in the world in which the stories are set that pious fraudsters working in the Hellenistic era are unlikely to have had.  If one reads carefully what the OT accounts actually say--as opposed to some traditional interpretations of them--they often describe what we know of the periods in which they were set pretty well.

Again, it's not really possible at this late date to "prove" or "disprove" the historicity of Old Testament history.  Kitchen at least makes a good case that people who choose to trust the OT accounts are not, as minimalist scholarship would contend, believing things that are obviously untrue to any thinking person.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Juvenal on February 17, 2022, 11:14:03 AM
I had a few paragraphs, was editing, pressed the wrong key and--they vanished.  How do you get drafts back?
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on February 22, 2022, 10:45:56 AM
The Mirage Factory:  Illusion, Imagination, and the Invention of Los Angeles, by Gary Krist.  Los Angeles grew from a modest-sized regional hub into a major city with world-wide recognition within the astonishingly short space of three decades--from 1900 to 1930.  It did so in a region that lacked much of what a very large city would need, most notably anything like adequate supplies of fresh water.  Here's an account of how it happened.  It's told largely through the stories of three of the visionaries who did so much to create the city as it is now--William Mulholland, D.W. Griffith, and Aimee Semple McPherson.

Mulholland was a city engineer who arranged to buy most of the water rights in the distant Owens Valley and built an immense system of dams, reservoirs, and aqueducts to bring the water that L.A. would need to grow.  Griffith was one of the most significant of the pioneering movie directors that built Hollywood into an industry that has had global influence ever since.  McPherson was a pioneering radio evangelist who founded a fairly substantial religious denomination that is still around, and established a template still followed by many televangelists today.

All three have commonly been portrayed as villains--Mulholland for draining an agricultural valley to build a grossly wasteful and long-term ecologically unsustainable city in a nonsensical location, Griffith for making a movie that some blame for having played a major role in enabling the Ku Klux Klan to gain influence (Which didn't actually last all that long, but in the meantime caused black Americans to lose a great deal of the ground they had gained since emancipation), and McPherson for pioneering the excesses of charismatic televangelism, and in the process surviving a scandal that really should have destroyed her reputation.

Krist treats his subjects a good deal more sympathetically.  He portrays them as essentially well-intentioned people who worked hard and accomplished a lot of good.  He acknowledges the wrongs that each did, while suggesting that these should not entirely define who they were.  It's a good example of how historical interpretation of people who are decidedly unsympathetic to today's sensibilities can bring nuance to discussions of those who are in danger of being written off and "cancelled" as nothing more than villains.  None of the three subjects is what would now be considered an admirable person who left an admirable legacy (I certainly don't think that of them).  And yet each did do some admirable things.  It's a good reminder of how history, and historical judgements, just can't be as simple as we keep wanting to make them.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Vkw10 on February 23, 2022, 06:11:16 AM
The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant by Drew Hayes, which I picked up at a Friends of the Library book sale. The deadpan humor, cast of characters, and Fred's ability to get drawn into unusual situations has been a pleasant escape from reality. I bought books two and three from Audible, and enjoyed both. Here's hoping book four is equally good!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on February 24, 2022, 02:02:35 AM
Quote from: Vkw10 on February 23, 2022, 06:11:16 AM
The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant by Drew Hayes, which I picked up at a Friends of the Library book sale. The deadpan humor, cast of characters, and Fred's ability to get drawn into unusual situations has been a pleasant escape from reality. I bought books two and three from Audible, and enjoyed both. Here's hoping book four is equally good!

That's a superb title.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on February 24, 2022, 09:07:46 AM
Quote from: Juvenal on February 17, 2022, 11:14:03 AM
I had a few paragraphs, was editing, pressed the wrong key and--they vanished.  How do you get drafts back?

If it happens while you're on-screen, "Ctrl-Z" returns all deleted text from the version you were just working on (that is, on a PC, I forget how MACs do it, might be the funny little squiggly thing with Z, but ask someone who knows MAC to be sure.)

If you deleted a file with your PC file manager open, Ctrl-Z also sometimes works for that, or you can go into your trash and just click on it, then I think you may have to right-click for a menu of options, and choose "return to original file," when it opens...or maybe it's a choice on the task bar.)

If you've closed the document, there may still be a versiin recovery method, but I've not had ton7se that, so can't speak to that option, except on MSW10, I think it's a choice on the large, LH colored task bar as you open a file, on the bottom.

You can also just type your question into a Google or other search field, and many self-help sites will have answers (as well as the standard site from MSW help, which can also be useful, on occasion.)

M.

Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on March 02, 2022, 07:34:24 AM
Inventing the World:  Venice and the Transformation of Western Civilization, by Meredith F. Small.  The thesis is that the medieval and early-modern community of Venice, faced with the challenges of making a living on an inhospitable place by the sea, responded by developing a culture of innovation that led to Venice's having more influence on the development of the modern world than perhaps any other community of comparable size.  Venetians developed modern trade networks and accounting practices, did much to forward the development of printing and modern medicine, pioneered various industrial techniques and technologies, and much more.  There's a lot of history, of course, and also lots of personal observations of today's living Venetian community.  There's a great deal of interesting stuff here.

There are also two issues of concern.  First, Small gives us an awful lot of wonky numbers.  On Page 66 we read that Venice has about 400 acres of land area.  Six pages later read of how Venice's "102 acres (160 square miles) can be walked east to west in two or so hours."  On Page 227 it says that "Venice is about 7 square miles (18 square kilometers), and New York City, in contrast, covers a hundred times that area, at 302 square miles (784 square kilometers)."  We also learn that "New York City has a population of about eight million and attracts thirty-seven million tourists--that's 6.5 tourists per resident."  You don't have to be a mathematician to see the problems with numbers like this, and these are only a few examples.  Small was very much let down by her editors for allowing such easily-catchable errors to see print.  I'm now afraid to trust any of the author's figures, and can't help wondering what less-obvious (to me, at least) errors may lurk in the text.

Second, Small appears so besotted and be-smitten with her Venetian subjects that she often seems to have an exaggerated sense of just how distinctive Venice really was.  For example, she says a good deal about how and why early-modern Venice, that greatly innovative community, developed sumptuary laws and Carnival celebrations.  There's no mention of the fact that sumptuary laws and Carnival celebrations were common across most of Europe in that era.  This lack of context robs the reader of an opportunity to see what was so distinctive and innovative about Venice's particular approach to these things.  General readers could also easily come to the greatly mistaken impression that Venice invented sumptuary laws and Carnival celebrations.  Again, these are only a couple of examples of how Small seems so focused on what makes Venice distinct that she misses the wider context of which Venice was only a part.

These issues are unfortunate, because they keep a detailed study of an undeniably fascinating city and culture from being nearly as good of a book as it could have been.  What's much more unfortunate is what Small, in her afterward, acknowledges about Venice's future--namely, the very real possibility that it might not have one.  The former hotbed of innovation and economic powerhouse has become a (literal) backwater, a fossilized open-air museum and theme-park version of its former self.  It is so overwhelmed with tourism on steroids that the indigenous Venetian community is in danger of being crowded out.  The physical fabric that these tourists are swarming in to see is endangered by the tourism itself, and by climate change.  Neither Small nor a number of other sources about contemporary Venice that I've seen can offer much in the way of plausible solutions.  It looks like Venice, like so very many other fantastic natural phenomena, institutions, cultures, and other human creations with long and fascinating histories, may well perish in our lifetimes.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on March 02, 2022, 08:59:57 AM
From the library:
Castles in Their Bones by Laura Sebastian (YA)
New and 1st installment in a teen fantasy series.  I read her "Ash Princess" trilogy and enjoyed.

An Impossible Imposter by Deanna Raybourn
New and #7 in the "Veronica Speedwell Mystery" series

The Dark Queens by Shelley Puhak(NF)
Story of Brunhild and Fredegund, 6th century medieval Merovingian French Queens. I like the front cover illustration!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on March 02, 2022, 09:50:06 AM
Hmmm, crossover interest.

One of your Merovingian queens may have established one of the monasteries whose manuscripts and worship practices I work on.

Small world...in all its dimensions...

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on March 02, 2022, 07:22:11 PM
Quote from: mamselle on March 02, 2022, 09:50:06 AM
Hmmm, crossover interest.

One of your Merovingian queens may have established one of the monasteries whose manuscripts and worship practices I work on.

Small world...in all its dimensions...

M.
I'm looking forward to reading it! I first saw the book on Amazon. :)
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on March 07, 2022, 01:37:05 PM
The Discoverers, by Daniel Boorstin.  An attempt at a history of human discovery, in many different fields.  The history of geography and cartography, calendars, astronomy, taxonomy, medicine, printing--the list goes on.  It's a fascinating book.  And huge!  It took me months of off-and-on reading to get all the way through it.  If you like to read about the history of the sciences, technology, and ideas, you'll find a great deal of interest here. 

I strongly suspect that specialists in the various fields that Boorstin tries to cover could find all manner of things to nitpick, and probably a fair few more basic things to complain about as well.  I wouldn't take it as gospel on any one subject.  Still, it's a fantastic attempt at a broad, big-picture synthesis.  It's hard not to be impressed by the breadth of the author's study, and by his ambition.  For what it's worth, where Boorstin touches on areas that I know more than the average bear about I found relatively little to quibble with, and no absolute howlers.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on March 07, 2022, 01:41:22 PM
The Bomber Mafia by Malcolm Gladwell.  A very interesting story about the history or American military bombing philosophy.  Not quite what I expected from Gladwell, but a really engaging and interesting book.

I also listened to an audiobook of A Clockwork Orange.  I had never read the book and only vaguely remember the movie.  Interestingly, I learned that in the US, the book ends at the penultimate chapter, while the rest of the world got the epilogue.  That really changed the story.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on March 07, 2022, 03:23:21 PM
Quote from: FishProf on March 07, 2022, 01:41:22 PM
I also listened to an audiobook of A Clockwork Orange.  I had never read the book and only vaguely remember the movie.  Interestingly, I learned that in the US, the book ends at the penultimate chapter, while the rest of the world got the epilogue.  That really changed the story.

That's interesting to hear about the epilogue! Good to keep in mind.

I've been listening to Charlie Wilson's War (which was also made into a movie with Tom Hanks at some point) about a Texas congressman's somewhat off-the-books work with the CIA to help the Afghanistan Mujahideen fight the Russians in the 1980s.  Unfortunately, some parts of it are pretty timely with what Russia's doing to Ukraine currently.  It's a very interesting (and supposedly true) story, but Wilson and his CIA pal are so unlikable (in my opinion) that it is getting difficult to continue to listen to.  Hearing about all the boozing, women, acting out, cursing, threatening people, growling at them... I am really a fan of most of the above when the time and place are right, but good grief! These people need to grow up and get a life.  It also gets a little dry after a while hearing about the various weaponry.  Still, it's amazing and scary to think about what kind of covert ops go on and how much gets funded behind the scenes and what the consequences are.  This is my second attempt to listen to it, and I still have over 5 hours left.  My guess is that they do not really get their comeuppances, but we shall see.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on March 15, 2022, 07:30:02 AM
General business overtook my pleasure reading in February, so I only just finished this one:

Stephen Jay Gould - Dinosaur in a Haystack: Reflections in Natural History: Always fun and always informative, although a few of these are a little on the duller side, subject-wise. He really was very good at writing these, though, and it's terrible that he's dead. It also turns out he had an interest in, and was quite knowledgeable about, feminist philosophy of science, which is rather cool.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on March 15, 2022, 09:56:02 AM
I usually wait until I'm finished a book to recommend it, but I'm listening to one right now that I am enjoying too much.  It's called Liquid Rules: The Delightful and Dangerous Substances That Flow Through Our Lives, by Mark Miodownik, narrated by Michael Page.  If you liked books like Salt: A World History and Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World by Mark Kurlansky, you will likely enjoy this one.  It's hard to describe but has a ton of little digressions about various liquids, scientifically and through history, told through the course of an airplane ride.  So he talks about the plane fuel (and other fuels), the ocean and other water (waves, tsunamis, nuclear reactors), the drinks served (wines and then coffee/tea), binding agents like glues and epoxies (holding plane wings on), bodily fluids, LCDs, polarized lenses, lots of things.  I am about half way in so far and am fascinated and totally adore the narrator.  I am definitely planning to pick up another of the author's book with the same narrator, Stuff Matters: The Strange Stories of the Marvellous Materials that Shape Our Man-made World.  The author is a British materials scientist, and there is a dry humor underlying the science that the narrator conveys really well.  I'm really glad I picked this one up.  There was an Audible sale, and I decided to just try out a couple that were highly rated but not necessarily something I would obviously glom onto.  Good choice! I hope the others I bought at the time are as good.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on March 15, 2022, 10:44:34 AM
The Rise of Silas Lapham, by William Dean Howells.  Another classic that I've finally gotten around to reading.  It's the story of a New England businessman who rises from humble beginnings to make a fortune in the paint business.  He finds himself and his family struggling to fit in with upper-class New England society.  Then he is caught in a serious ethical dilemma that pits his desire to save his business against doing what he knows is right.  What sort of progress is he really trying to make?

This novel didn't really do much for me, although it's fairly readable.  Howells was famous for championing "realism," as opposed to sentiment, in his novels.  It occurs to me that many readers today would find the ending of The Rise of Silas Lapham too pat to be credible.  I suppose what people find "realistic" varies across generations.  The ending seems credible enough to me.  For me, the best part of the whole story is the very beginning, where Lapham speaks with a newspaper reporter looking to do a standard biographical feature on him, and the two hit it off while joking about hackneyed newspaper biographical pieces.

The book does come across as rather old-fashioned.  Which is understandable--the passage of 140 years since publication has a way of doing that to a book.  I can't help wishing that Hollywood in the 1930s had gotten around to adapting it to the screen.  If they'd had Wallace Beery play Lapham, it could have become a classic in its own right!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on March 18, 2022, 01:30:04 PM
A Taste of Poison, by Neil Bradbury.  It's about eleven notorious poisons, how they're formed, and what they do to the body.  And also what dealing with such poisons has taught us about the human body.  Apparently a number of medical advances are tied in some way or other to the study of poisons.  Most of these substances have beneficial uses as well.  My only quibble is that Bradbury seems to have uncritically accepted some of the more lurid stories about the alleged poisoning activities of the Borgias in Italy.  Poison wasn't nearly as common in Renaissance Italy as people sometimes think it was--the paranoia of the day was such that every time anybody died from an illness that contemporary doctors couldn't diagnose it was blamed on "poison."

Makes a good companion to The Elements of Murder:  A History of Poison, by John Emsley.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on March 18, 2022, 07:36:29 PM
Two DC history titles from the library:
Snow-Storm in August by Jefferson Morley
Story of a forgotten 1835 race riot in the District

Washington Goes to War by David Brinkley
DC during WWII. I read the original 1988 hardback edition.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on March 19, 2022, 09:18:56 AM
Quote from: apl68 on March 18, 2022, 01:30:04 PM
A Taste of Poison, by Neil Bradbury.  It's about eleven notorious poisons, how they're formed, and what they do to the body.  And also what dealing with such poisons has taught us about the human body.  Apparently a number of medical advances are tied in some way or other to the study of poisons.  Most of these substances have beneficial uses as well.  My only quibble is that Bradbury seems to have uncritically accepted some of the more lurid stories about the alleged poisoning activities of the Borgias in Italy.  Poison wasn't nearly as common in Renaissance Italy as people sometimes think it was--the paranoia of the day was such that every time anybody died from an illness that contemporary doctors couldn't diagnose it was blamed on "poison."

Makes a good companion to The Elements of Murder:  A History of Poison, by John Emsley.

This is SO PERFECTLY attuned to my interests! Thank you very much for the recommendation. I read the Emsley book because of another recommendation on this thread, and will now go seek out this companion.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on March 19, 2022, 10:27:59 AM
Quote from: hmaria1609 on March 18, 2022, 07:36:29 PM
Two DC history titles from the library:
Snow-Storm in August by Jefferson Morley
Story of a forgotten 1835 race riot in the District

Washington Goes to War by David Brinkley
DC during WWII. I read the original 1988 hardback edition.

On your latter listing, there's a very good book by two newscasters caught up events in Berlin just as the US was being pulled into WWII. Of course, at the moment, I can neither recall the title nor the authors (one might have been Brinkley, in fact, or not--older, maybe...) and can't get up without much ado to go look at it in my bookshelves in the other room.

I especially recall issues with advertisers wanting to control news releases to their own ends....

I'll try to post it later.

And of course, there's the book, "On the Road," by Charles Kurault, on his newsgathering experiences around the world.

Journalism puts you where unfolding events are happening and people are doing surprising things.

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on March 19, 2022, 07:46:25 PM
Quote from: mamselle on March 19, 2022, 10:27:59 AM
On your latter listing, there's a very good book by two newscasters caught up events in Berlin just as the US was being pulled into WWII. Of course, at the moment, I can neither recall the title nor the authors (one might have been Brinkley, in fact, or not--older, maybe...) and can't get up without much ado to go look at it in my bookshelves in the other room.

I especially recall issues with advertisers wanting to control news releases to their own ends....

I'll try to post it later.

And of course, there's the book, "On the Road," by Charles Kurault, on his newsgathering experiences around the world.

Journalism puts you where unfolding events are happening and people are doing surprising things.

M.
I enjoyed reading both books! I remember David Brinkley from his Sunday morning show on ABC and one of the reporters on election night for commentary and analysis.

I read and own The Collapse of the Third Republic by William Shirer in paperback, copyright 1994. Shirer was in Paris the day the German army took over the city.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Wahoo Redux on March 19, 2022, 07:54:30 PM
Circe by Madeline Miller (http://madelinemiller.com/circe/)

A masterpiece. 
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on March 19, 2022, 09:06:29 PM
I think Shirer's book is the one I recalled, as well.

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Wahoo Redux on March 20, 2022, 08:34:14 PM
Quote from: FishProf on March 07, 2022, 01:41:22 PM
I also listened to an audiobook of A Clockwork Orange.  I had never read the book and only vaguely remember the movie.  Interestingly, I learned that in the US, the book ends at the penultimate chapter, while the rest of the world got the epilogue.  That really changed the story.

That epilogue was a disaster for a masterpiece, IMHO.

The American version is far superior if far darker and more realistic vision of dystopia.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on March 21, 2022, 07:30:47 AM
Quote from: ergative on March 19, 2022, 09:18:56 AM
Quote from: apl68 on March 18, 2022, 01:30:04 PM
A Taste of Poison, by Neil Bradbury.  It's about eleven notorious poisons, how they're formed, and what they do to the body.  And also what dealing with such poisons has taught us about the human body.  Apparently a number of medical advances are tied in some way or other to the study of poisons.  Most of these substances have beneficial uses as well.  My only quibble is that Bradbury seems to have uncritically accepted some of the more lurid stories about the alleged poisoning activities of the Borgias in Italy.  Poison wasn't nearly as common in Renaissance Italy as people sometimes think it was--the paranoia of the day was such that every time anybody died from an illness that contemporary doctors couldn't diagnose it was blamed on "poison."

Makes a good companion to The Elements of Murder:  A History of Poison, by John Emsley.

This is SO PERFECTLY attuned to my interests! Thank you very much for the recommendation. I read the Emsley book because of another recommendation on this thread, and will now go seek out this companion.

Glad you were glad to hear about it!  When I ordered it for the library recently I hoped that it would appeal to our local true-crime fans.  If only I could credit your interest as a check-out here....
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on March 21, 2022, 01:29:15 PM
Quote from: Wahoo Redux on March 20, 2022, 08:34:14 PM
Quote from: FishProf on March 07, 2022, 01:41:22 PM
I also listened to an audiobook of A Clockwork Orange.  I had never read the book and only vaguely remember the movie.  Interestingly, I learned that in the US, the book ends at the penultimate chapter, while the rest of the world got the epilogue.  That really changed the story.

That epilogue was a disaster for a masterpiece, IMHO.

The American version is far superior if far darker and more realistic vision of dystopia.

Having never read it without the epilogue, I am unable to confirm or refute that opinion.  It certainly reverses the message of the novel.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on March 28, 2022, 10:42:22 AM
Temples and Towers:  A Survey of the World's Moral Outlook, by George Vaughan.  In 1933 George Vaughan, Professor of Law at the University of Arkansas, was concerned about the direction that the world and society were taking.  Given that in 1933 the Great Depression was still raging at home, Japan was invading and annexing large parts of China, Hitler had just come to power in Germany, and Stalin was spreading murder, famine, and terror all across the Soviet Union, who would not have been?  Vaughan decided to undertake a survey of hundreds of prominent figures in the sciences, business, politics, academia, and culture, in both the U.S. and abroad, to see what others thought. 

He sent them a survey that asked three questions:  "Do you see any sound reasons for entertaining the prospect of an early spiritual awakening?  Is such a revival desirable?  What is your general reaction to the moral outlook?"  He also asked whether he could use the replies in a book or article.  In 1941 he published some six hundred replies in Temples and Towers. 

The result is an extraordinarily broad snapshot of elite opinion in the mid- to late 1930s.  Most of the respondents have naturally fallen into obscurity over the past eight decades, but there are lots of names here that are still recognizable today--Albert Einstein, George Bernard Shaw, J.B. Priestly, George Washington Carver, and Mary Pickford, to name only a few.  I recognized over 50 of the names myself.  The responses were all over the map.  Some were deeply pessimistic about the world's outlook (Again, who at that time wouldn't tend to feel that way?), some professed optimism.  Some hoped for the sort of revival of orthodox religious practice that Vaughan seems to have had in mind, others wanted something "spiritual" in a different sense, some didn't see the point.  Some ridiculed the whole project.  Vaughan dutifully, and honestly, let them all have their say.

The whole thing makes for a fascinating read.  Students of the history of the period could surely find it of interest, worth at least an article or two and maybe a monograph.  The book seems to have fallen into deep obscurity, but there was apparently some kind of paperback reprint some years back.  I have a copy of the original 1941 edition, autographed by the author, which I found at a Little Rock vintage market last year.

A truly remarkable literary curiosity.  Where else would you find candid thoughts expressed by Shaw, Einstein, Zane Grey, Bernard Baruch, and many others all compiled in one place?
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on March 28, 2022, 10:55:22 AM
While that sounds interesting as a historical canvas, I have to confess that I find the methodology's typically inept conflation of the moral and the spiritual deeply offputting.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on March 28, 2022, 10:56:35 AM
To give an idea of just how eclectic Temples and Towers is, here are some thoughts in it from Edgar Rice Burroughs, creator of Tarzan:  "It seems to me an inexorable law that, spiritually, man never "gets" anywhere.  He reaches a point where he seems to be arriving somewhere, and then the pendulum swings back."

From Einstein:  "I have a strong impression that we are living in a period of moral recession....  I am sorry to be forced to say this; however, it is my conviction."

From James Hilton, of Lost Horizon fame:  "I think...that the present depression is morally not so unhealthy as the materialistic boom-years which preceded it."

From Sinclair Lewis:  "My reading of history does not indicate any period in it when man has been "spiritually asleep.""

From Clarence Darrow:  "Isn't the whole thing silly, Judge?"
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on March 28, 2022, 10:57:18 AM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on March 28, 2022, 10:55:22 AM
While that sounds interesting as a historical canvas, I have to confess that I find the methodology's typically inept conflation of the moral and the spiritual deeply offputting.

Which is what some respondents essentially said.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on March 28, 2022, 10:37:29 PM
Quote from: apl68 on March 28, 2022, 10:57:18 AM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on March 28, 2022, 10:55:22 AM
While that sounds interesting as a historical canvas, I have to confess that I find the methodology's typically inept conflation of the moral and the spiritual deeply offputting.

Which is what some respondents essentially said.

Ah! Excellent!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on March 29, 2022, 07:33:10 AM
Really, the responses to Vaughan's survey are all over the place.  That's what makes this compilation so fascinating.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on March 29, 2022, 04:24:43 PM
I've finished another couple audiobooks recently:

Where I Come From: Life Lessons from a Latino Chef by Aaron Sanchez (also narrator)
The Actor's Life: A Survival Guide by Jenna Fischer (also narrator)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, narrated by Jeff Woodman

The first two were non-fiction.  Sanchez included much more personal background, and Fischer's was much more about trying to be and being an actor, although both were a balance of personal/professional.  I enjoyed both quite a lot.   Sanchez has kind of an excited, breathy (?) way of narrating and sometimes emphasized strange words, but he comes off as very authentic, and I liked him from some of the TV shows he was on (Chefs vs City, Chopped).  Although we come from very different backgrounds, a lot of what he shared about loss and grief really resonated with me.  He had quite an interesting journey to being a chef.

Fischer's book was so informative! I have no interest at all in being an actor but thought it was all really fascinating and has got to be a great resource for those trying to be in the business.  She talked a lot about her own journey but also things like what you want your headshots to convey and who should take them, what it's like at various types of auditions, what's the difference between an agent and a manager, how to get into the actor's union and when, what it's like to be an extra or guest actor or star on a show, nudity and smoking and eating during filming, lots of stuff that I had no idea about.  And though she does not go too deeply into her own personal life, she shares plenty of examples from her own experience.  She does seem a lot like her character from The Office: funny, responsible, and more fun than she initially seems to be.  I'd recommend both of these books for different reasons.

The third is a novel that I had certainly heard of but had never read.  The protagonist (?) and narrator is a 15-year-old boy with Asperger's who finds out that his neighbor's dog is dead, presumably murdered.  He decides to try to solve the case, leading to all sorts of secrets becoming unburied in the process.  He's a very interesting character with an uncommon perspective, and I loved the first half or more of the book, but it definitely gets a bit dark toward the end.  The narrator seems absolutely perfect for this book, though.  I can't imagine that I would have enjoyed it as much had I just read it. 

As for "real" books, we decided to ditch Redemption for now and move on to the sixth Expanse book.  We had kind of put reading together aside because we changed up our schedules a lot and didn't really have time to chat anymore and wanted to put the time toward that.  Hopefully we can figure out a good way to fit it all in.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on March 29, 2022, 07:00:12 PM
"Redemption" as in Sansom, or...??

   (or am I thinking of "Restoration"?)

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on March 30, 2022, 06:20:59 AM
Must be interesting to hear authors narrate the audio versions of their own books.  I wonder how common that is?  The only other example I've heard of is John R. Erickson narrating audio versions of his Hank the Cowdog series.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on March 30, 2022, 06:36:59 AM
Mary Robinette Kowal is a professional narrator as well as author, so I she does her own books. I'm pretty sure I've heard of some other SFF authors narrating their own books, but I can't think of who else off the top of my head.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Puget on March 30, 2022, 06:42:31 AM
Quote from: apl68 on March 30, 2022, 06:20:59 AM
Must be interesting to hear authors narrate the audio versions of their own books.  I wonder how common that is?  The only other example I've heard of is John R. Erickson narrating audio versions of his Hank the Cowdog series.

Quite a few do--for example, David Sedaris does all of his, and Neil Gaiman does most, which makes the audiobooks far superior to just reading them-- both of them are really performers who do a lot of reading aloud to audiences, so it makes sense for them also to do the audio books. A lot of narrative non-fiction and autobiography books are also read by the authors, sometimes really well and sometimes less well.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on March 30, 2022, 09:57:58 AM
Quote from: Puget on March 30, 2022, 06:42:31 AM
Quote from: apl68 on March 30, 2022, 06:20:59 AM
Must be interesting to hear authors narrate the audio versions of their own books.  I wonder how common that is?  The only other example I've heard of is John R. Erickson narrating audio versions of his Hank the Cowdog series.

Quite a few do--for example, David Sedaris does all of his, and Neil Gaiman does most, which makes the audiobooks far superior to just reading them-- both of them are really performers who do a lot of reading aloud to audiences, so it makes sense for them also to do the audio books. A lot of narrative non-fiction and autobiography books are also read by the authors, sometimes really well and sometimes less well.

Sounds like Charles Dickens must have been born too soon.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on March 30, 2022, 10:03:28 AM
Most of the books I've listened to that have been narrated by their authors were memoirs.  In addition to the ones I've mentioned here, I have listened to Ben Folds's, Bruce Campbell's, Eric Idle's, Anthony Bourdain's, Malcolm Gladwell's, and Cary Elwes's, and I have Joe Bastianich's, Trevor Noah's, Barack Obama's, and Michelle Obama's.  Those are the only ones I could find in my list, though I don't have too many fiction books in my library.  I guess it makes sense for someone to tell their own life story.  It's interesting to hear about the fiction authors who also narrate their tales!

Quote from: mamselle on March 29, 2022, 07:00:12 PM
"Redemption" as in Sansom, or...??

   (or am I thinking of "Restoration"?)

M.

Sorry, I thought I had mentioned it earlier.  It's a novel by Leon Uris, sequel to Trinity.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on March 30, 2022, 11:31:08 AM
Making my way through Manga Classics: Macbeth by Shakespeare, adapted by Crystal S. Chan
It's the play with the original text presented in manga format. Thought I'd give it a read!

The historic Macbeth's story is more dramatic than Shakespeare's play.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on April 01, 2022, 10:48:43 AM
A Tower of Steel, by Josephine Lawrence.  The setting is the American home front during late 1942-early 1943.  But it is not an historical novel.  This was published in 1944.  My copy's well-preserved vintage book jacket even contains a plug for war bonds.  Tower of Steel provides a glimpse into how people on the American home front experienced the war at the time, without our hindsight.

The principals are office staff at a law firm that is struggling to stay in business while most of the firm's partners are away in uniform.  One staff member is a newlywed who can only see her husband briefly on leave before he heads overseas.  Another starts wondering whether a quick wartime marriage to an attractive serviceman would be just the thing to take her away from her crowded family home.  Others have other personal and family drama. 

It's hard not to compare the situation during that dramatic, uncertain period of history with the one in which we live today.  Both we and the Americans of 80 years ago lived in a world where stuff was in short supply and prices were rising fast; where people feared for the safety of loved ones and themselves; where many felt like they'd really taken a beating and had their lives badly disrupted, and yet for some there was a sense of new opportunities for change and excitement.  One conspicuous difference--although people in the early 1940s seem to have had plenty of reasons for interpersonal drama, they lived in a society with a strong sense of pulling together in a common cause that comes through even in a story where standard wartime propaganda is absent.  As opposed to today, when so many of our leaders of all stripes in politics, the media, and even academia seem determined to set us all at each others' throats, and we, as ordinary citizens, often oblige them.

I decided to find and read this after seeing a review at "Neglected Books" that called it "Not great art, but very good craft."  Personally I'd call it okay craft.  To me a story where half or more of most conversations are told by the author, instead of shown in the characters' "own" words, in not a piece of first-rate craft.  The writing gets the job done, at least.  As for the story and characters, I didn't find them especially engaging, but then I'm a guy and not really in the target readership.  The book is still a worthwhile and interesting look at what people were thinking and feeling during one of history's great crisis periods, away from the battlefields and occupied territories that get most of the attention.  The quiet (mostly) home-front stories here are also war stories of a sort.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on April 04, 2022, 09:48:25 AM
March haul:

Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Assassin: It was fun to return to Sharpe after so long (the last novel, set fairly early in the series, was published in 2007, although I read it around 2015 or 2016). Not a whole lot happens--it's set during the Occupation of Paris--but it made for a nice last hurrah. As always with Cornwell, the pace is good, the action exhilarating. Someday soon I'm gonna re-read all of the Sharpes (there are 25 of them!), and that'll be lovely.

Waubeshig Rice - Moon of the Crusted Snow: Something mysterious and apocalyptic happens, and an Anishinaabe reserve in northern Ontario is cut off from the rest of the world and has to survive the winter. It's pretty good, although the pacing feels rushed and the writing isn't quite all there (it's perfectly competent, but the characters and events are insufficiently developed). My main complaint is that the (fictional) reserve is set in relative proximity (i.e. within a few hours' drive) to two fictional cities in northern Ontario. I understand why the reserve is fictional--Rice doesn't want any real Indigenous people to feel like they're being depicted--but asking readers to re-arrange Canada's geography like that is too big an ask. If you want a distant but nearest city, you really have to pick either Thunder Bay or Sudbury (or Timmins, although I wouldn't call that a city); you can't just plop one down in the middle of the northern bush. Your audience knows that there's nothing else there.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: paultuttle on April 04, 2022, 02:21:09 PM
The second Bridgerton novel, in preparation for watching Season 2 on Netflix.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on April 14, 2022, 11:32:40 AM
The Enchanted April, by Elizabeth von Arnim.  One rainy spring in the 1920s four British ladies of differing ages and temperaments chip in to take advantage of a fantastic deal on an Italian castle and light out for a month in sunny Italy.  Vague memories of a long-ago viewing of a movie adaptation of this prompted me to order it from Dover Publications.  It seemed appropriate to wait until it was actually April to read it.  Excellent timing, as the wisteria, which features prominently in some of the novel's descriptive passages, and on the cover of this edition, is going full blast locally.  I saw a lot of feral wisteria growing along the roads during my drive home from visiting family last weekend.

Every year I see half a dozen or more new books with look-alike covers of languid beach scenes cross my desk on the way from cataloging to circulation in the space of just a couple of weeks.  They all feature women protagonists who retreat from the cares and traumas of everyday life to spend an extended time in a beautiful, uncrowded seaside setting.  There they find their lives changing for the better.  This is obviously one of popular fiction's more perennially popular fantasies.  Being a guy, I can't really understand the attraction, much as I, like anybody, appreciate a few days off work in a different setting now and then.  Anyway, reading Enchanted April confirms my suspicion that this is probably the ancestor of all those books with beach covers.  It doesn't take place on an actual beach, but it is in a lovely setting by the seaside. 

It's a pleasant and enjoyable read.  The descriptions of settings and characters are finely crafted.  I can see how this is considered a popular classic.  It's no doubt a far better book than any number of spiritual successors being ground out year in and year out by the publishing industry sausage machine.  And yet...it's a book about how a small group of rich folks with time on their hands take off to a fabulous vacation spot, with foreign servants to wait on them hand and foot.  The "poorest" of them has an annual "dress allowance" that would work out to $10-15,000 in today's values.  As annoying as I find current jargon like "check your privilege," it's hard to escape the sense that there's a lot of unchecked privilege going on here.

I was also saddened by the way one character's decision to shove her Christian religious practice, and with it her extensive charitable work with the needy back home, firmly into the background of her life is presented as a triumph of personal growth.  So rich people coming to decide that they no longer owe anything to the less fortunate is a good thing?  Granted, the character was unhappy and could have used an attitude adjustment.  But deciding that from now on you're just going to devote yourself and your resources to pleasing yourself and romancing your husband, and to no longer worry about acknowledging that maybe there are more important things out there to be concerned about and devote your wealth to addressing, feels ultimately tragic.  It reminds me of something that somebody once said about how "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God."
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on April 14, 2022, 02:29:21 PM
The more spiritual take on the "trip to a beach" motif might be Anne Morrow Lindbergh's 'Gift from the Sea,' on her meditations as a woman whose time in life led to different understandings of her place in the world and in the lives of those about her, with each stage of her life, as she looked back on it, symbolized by a different shell.

It has a better sense of balance than what you described--she becomes aware of her need to pull back from some things, but it's neither for the point of romancing her husband (the pilot) nor for foreswearing all self-giving activities, although some do come under scrutiny for her ability to be effective in them.

The issue of understanding women who needed to escape as being opaque to a single male is interesting--if one is constantly expected (as most women of the days we're discussing were) to be homemaker, nurse, cook, childcaregiver (or organizer and manager thereof), socialite, and--sometimes--breadwinner as well, that short visit might be the only time off they had.

While it's clear that guys had constant demands on them as well, they were encouraged/?enabled to get assistance and, in the upper classes, had fewer physical demands of their work placed upon them; even women of a certain level of wealth still had a lot of work to do every day ('Downton Abbey,' for example, falls short here, I think...much as it's gorgeously written, cast, filmed, and set, the two Crowley daughters would have been taking lessons, expected to create needleworked objects and possibly painted or written work as well--not for sale, but to show off their accomplishments...we don't see much of that in the show, nor the expectation that they would learn nursing until the war hits. They probably wouldn't have had quite as much time when they were younger to be so catty as the show implies...).

That week away might have been their only breather--and if the children came with them, it wasn't much of one, at that.

Going back further, one thinks of Harriet Beecher Stowe, who rose at 4 AM to have time to write before putting the bread to rise and starting breakfast for the children, and for her husband, who was one of the early instructors of Cincinnati's Union Theological Seminary. After his death, she was the sole breadwinner, and managed the household and her writing career, until the latter let her afford more help.

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on April 14, 2022, 07:36:08 PM
A few titles I've read so far from the library:
Queens of Jerusalem by Katherine Pangonis (NF)
The royal women who shaped 12th century Jerusalem and the surrounding environs
The Tsarina's Daughter by Ellen Alpsten
Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the Great and Katherine I, tells her story about her rise to the imperial Russian throne. This novel is a good follow up to Tsarina.
The Last Grand Duchess by Bryn Turnbull
The story of Olga, eldest daughter of Nicholas II and Alexandra. The novel covers the years 1913-18.
After the Romanovs by Helen Rappaport (NF)
Paris was a popular city for Russia's royals and aristocrats prior to WW1. Following the Revolution, many Russians made their way to Paris and their struggles to adjust.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on April 15, 2022, 08:49:40 AM
Quote from: mamselle on April 14, 2022, 02:29:21 PM
The more spiritual take on the "trip to a beach" motif might be Anne Morrow Lindbergh's 'Gift from the Sea,' on her meditations as a woman whose time in life led to different understandings of her place in the world and in the lives of those about her, with each stage of her life, as she looked back on it, symbolized by a different shell.

It has a better sense of balance than what you described--she becomes aware of her need to pull back from some things, but it's neither for the point of romancing her husband (the pilot) nor for foreswearing all self-giving activities, although some do come under scrutiny for her ability to be effective in them.

The issue of understanding women who needed to escape as being opaque to a single male is interesting--if one is constantly expected (as most women of the days we're discussing were) to be homemaker, nurse, cook, childcaregiver (or organizer and manager thereof), socialite, and--sometimes--breadwinner as well, that short visit might be the only time off they had.

While it's clear that guys had constant demands on them as well, they were encouraged/?enabled to get assistance and, in the upper classes, had fewer physical demands of their work placed upon them; even women of a certain level of wealth still had a lot of work to do every day ('Downton Abbey,' for example, falls short here, I think...much as it's gorgeously written, cast, filmed, and set, the two Crowley daughters would have been taking lessons, expected to create needleworked objects and possibly painted or written work as well--not for sale, but to show off their accomplishments...we don't see much of that in the show, nor the expectation that they would learn nursing until the war hits. They probably wouldn't have had quite as much time when they were younger to be so catty as the show implies...).

That week away might have been their only breather--and if the children came with them, it wasn't much of one, at that.

Going back further, one thinks of Harriet Beecher Stowe, who rose at 4 AM to have time to write before putting the bread to rise and starting breakfast for the children, and for her husband, who was one of the early instructors of Cincinnati's Union Theological Seminary. After his death, she was the sole breadwinner, and managed the household and her writing career, until the latter let her afford more help.

M.

That's the thing, though--one never gets the impression that the protagonists of Enchanted April are particularly heavily burdened by these sorts of expectations.  They're all childless, two are single, none appears to have had the sort of career that Anne Morrow Lindbergh or Harriet Beecher Stowe had.  They were all unhappy with their current lives back home, and they each had their reasons.  But their issues come across largely as "First World" problems.  I can readily understand how harried mothers would delight in the thought of being able to get away from it all for a month.  Yet these protagonists seem to have about as much experience of motherhood as I do.

It's not that the protagonists are unsympathetic.  Being childless was itself a burden and a social disadvantage for a woman in that time and place.  One of the characters is an elderly widow who has somehow come to be alone and withdrawn and kind of sour, and needs a chance to come out of her shell.  Another is a young woman who lost the only man she ever felt attracted to during World War I, and yet is beset by unwanted male attention due to her combination of good family and spectacular good looks.  Her sections of the book contain a good deal of thoughtful treatment of the difficulties that a highly conventionally attractive woman faces from male attention that she did not seek and does not really understand (I don't really understand, speaking from the other side of it, how and why that attraction can be so compelling either.  I just know that it's something that must be sternly repressed in oneself whenever one feels it, for the sake of avoiding causing trouble for others and for oneself). 

Broadly speaking, the story seems to be about characters learning to come out of their respective shells and enjoy life more.  Which is fine as far as it goes.  It just feels like the characters ultimately remain too "me" focused.  And honestly, I kind of get the impression that that's part of the attraction of the genre.  Not that it's unique in that respect among escapist genres of popular fiction. 

Gift From the Sea sounds like it might be a good deal more worthwhile in its insights.  We happen to have it at our library.  I'll have to make some time to check it out!

Incidentally, not long after I posted that review yesterday, a new book with a telltale seaside cover image crossed my desk.  The season may be about to start....
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Juvenal on April 15, 2022, 08:50:18 AM
The Yiddish Policemen's Union, by Michael Chabon.

Bemused by the fact that it won a Hugo for best science fiction novel of the year.  Yes, it takes place in an alternative universe, but it's really a murder mystery.  But alternative histories are a staple of science fiction, so I guess the award was merited.  Funny in places, and speckled with Yiddish words, most of which you can figure out the meaning of--or, maybe if you have had some exposure to bits of Yiddish before.  Hard to avoid in the NYC Metro area--although the story takes place in Sitka, Alaska, now a Jewish metropolis, uneasily co-existing with Native Americans (there is a half-Native, half-Jewish policemen, a pal of the main character).  A (fictional) Orthodox group runs the sort of things the Mafia is reputed to do elsewhen.  Science fiction!  Oy!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Puget on April 15, 2022, 10:51:12 AM
Quote from: Juvenal on April 15, 2022, 08:50:18 AM
The Yiddish Policemen's Union, by Michael Chabon.

Bemused by the fact that it won a Hugo for best science fiction novel of the year.  Yes, it takes place in an alternative universe, but it's really a murder mystery.  But alternative histories are a staple of science fiction, so I guess the award was merited.  Funny in places, and speckled with Yiddish words, most of which you can figure out the meaning of--or, maybe if you have had some exposure to bits of Yiddish before.  Hard to avoid in the NYC Metro area--although the story takes place in Sitka, Alaska, now a Jewish metropolis, uneasily co-existing with Native Americans (there is a half-Native, half-Jewish policemen, a pal of the main character).  A (fictional) Orthodox group runs the sort of things the Mafia is reputed to do elsewhen.  Science fiction!  Oy!


This is one of my favorite books! The audio book is also really excellent.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on April 16, 2022, 10:51:31 PM
I just slogged through The Gulag Archipelago  by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.  It was a fascinating read but whenever I got to thinking "OK I get it, post Revolution Russia/USSR was a nightmare", it got worse.  Lather.  Rinse. Repeat.

MrsFishProf read it in high school.  We come from very different worlds in that regard.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on April 17, 2022, 05:11:08 AM
I read it long ago, recall I began to feel numbed by the pile-up of horror,  which was itself an uncomfortable feeling.

It was odd to see what Solzhenitsyn did after reaching the US (Gorbachev, too, for that matter). It seemed to me as if they turned their backs on their past--maybe it numbed them, too.

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on April 18, 2022, 07:45:13 AM
The only Solzhenitsyn I've ever read was The Cancer Ward.  It's a kind of sweeping portrayal of postwar Soviet society through the staff and patients in a hospital.  It's quite detailed and fascinating in that respect.  I've read other works, fiction and non-fiction, about the Gulag.  Reading Russian history is rather like learning that that horrible bully who makes life miserable for all his neighbors has himself had an unremittingly miserable life of family abuse and bad neighbors.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on April 18, 2022, 07:46:48 AM
I checked out and read Gift From the Sea over the weekend.  Thank you for the recommendation, mamselle!  Definitely more food for thought there than in The Enchanted April.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on April 18, 2022, 09:07:02 AM
Glad you enjoyed it. I'm probably due for a re-read, I feel myself approaching a new sea-shell lately...

Rather like a hermit crab, maybe...

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on April 21, 2022, 08:00:07 AM
The Citadel, by A.J. Cronin.  One of my tasks at work is to sort through donated and weeded items to get rid of those that are not good candidates for resale or recycling.  Now and then one of the doomed junk books catches my fancy.  I give it the chance to have one last read before being euthanized.  According to the indicia, this 1951 copy was a thirty-eighth hardcover printing of the original 1937 novel.  I also recall spotting a paperback copy many years ago--this was where I first heard of the title.  Wikipedia says that it was adapted to the screen, translated into many languages, and reportedly even still available in bookstores in Nazi Germany throughout the war.  Obviously this was once a hugely popular work.

It's the story of an idealistic Scottish doctor in the 1920s and 1930s, who starts out as a lowly medical assistant in a Welsh mining town and works his way up in the profession.  At every turn he finds himself challenged by a corrupt medical profession, in which senior doctors make a good living off of junior assistants, physicians devote more time to rich hypochondriacs than to needier patients, there's little interest in improving public health overall, older doctors harm their patients by failing to keep up with medical advances, and some physicians aren't all that well trained or qualified to start with.  The protagonist's background and career follow the author's to the point where one has to suspect a good deal of roman a clef.  This fictionalized expose must have made a lot of doctors mad back in the day.  Cronin's advocacy is credited by some with doing much to help make possible the British National Health Service.

It's a fair example of literary craftsmanship.  It's certainly readable, and has some vivid characters.  It could have done with fewer melodramatic incidents, and fuller development of those that were kept.  My main interest in reading these older novels is their portrayal of a now bygone world.  Anybody who is interested in the medical profession during the interwar era, or in British society more generally during the period, might find this of interest.

In the course of the story the protagonist's wife undergoes a Christian religious conversion.  Toward the end there are strong hints that he is doing so as well.  This too was autobiographical--Cronin became a fashionable educated agnostic in his youth, then reconsidered when exposed to the faith of the lower-class people he worked with.  It was not too uncommon to see such themes appear in bestselling fiction as late as the 1950s.  Today it could never happen.  Any publisher or bookseller who saw a work with this sort of more or less orthodox religious theme--even one playing as small a role in the book as it does here--would promptly relegate it to the appropriate segregated specialist imprint or shelving section, just as is done with westerns, sci-fi, and 57 varieties of porn.  Different times.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on April 21, 2022, 08:29:55 AM
So--did you keep it?

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on April 21, 2022, 12:02:23 PM
Quote from: mamselle on April 21, 2022, 08:29:55 AM
So--did you keep it?

M.

It's an old, worn-out copy, too tattered to sell and too old to recycle.  Had I really loved it I might keep it warts and all.  But no, it's going to be euthanized.  From the looks of it, it found many readers in its previous existence as a public high school library copy.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on April 21, 2022, 02:43:41 PM
Ah, got it.

Other, related issue: do you guys have these around?

   https://www.pressherald.com/2022/04/19/the-recycle-bin-a-better-idea-for-books/

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Juvenal on April 22, 2022, 07:14:51 AM
Quote from: mamselle on April 21, 2022, 02:43:41 PM
Ah, got it.

Other, related issue: do you guys have these around?

   https://www.pressherald.com/2022/04/19/the-recycle-bin-a-better-idea-for-books/

M.

Yes, but I think the nearest has been vandalized.  I'll have to go by and see (and if not, well, add a few to the "shelves").
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on April 22, 2022, 07:23:25 AM
Quote from: mamselle on April 21, 2022, 02:43:41 PM
Ah, got it.

Other, related issue: do you guys have these around?

   https://www.pressherald.com/2022/04/19/the-recycle-bin-a-better-idea-for-books/

M.

We started two of them in our town awhile back.  One was not very well located and has not been much of a success.  The other is at the main entrance of the local grade school.  I can't keep it stocked!  I put some in there just yesterday.  I'd like to put up some more around town at some point.

We also have started shipping some of our not-so-old deleted books back to our main book wholesaler through a recycling program they have.  We boxed up six boxes full of deleted items just this week.  We can only do this once every few months, because you have to send the books back in the vendor's own boxes.  We're developing a cycle where we save up a set of boxes, then weed a section and send in the recyclable items.  As a general rule of thumb, if they're too old to have an ISBN number, they're too old to think about recycling.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on April 22, 2022, 08:57:46 AM
OOh, that's a useful cut-off point. (ISBN numbers, that is).

M .
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Juvenal on April 22, 2022, 10:50:41 AM
Today is about as nice an early spring day as possible.  Windows are cracked open; the sky is cloudless; the breeze is slight; it's in the sixties.  Flowering trees of all kinds are--well, "flowering."  The oak tree buds continue to swell.  Soon, before the leaves really come fully out, the young expanding leaves will be there, pale green, lightly reddened with xanthophylls, and then a golden mist in the branches for a couple of weeks.

Life's tasks are, of course, never ending, golden mists or not.

For no particular reason, although a decade's-long reader of the NYer, I've re-read most (not all ) of Jame's Thurber's The Years With Ross, and Brendan Gill's Here at the New Yorker.  Interesting contrast.  For one thing, Gill loathed Thurber, and it shows.  But how things have moved on.  Thurber almost seventy-five years ago; Gill fifty.  I was a bit (a lot) dismayed at Harold Ross's dislikes of anyone not genuinely Anglo-Saxon as reported by Gill.  "Kikes" and "coons" not infrequently spoken...

I hope to live to the Centennial (2025).
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on April 22, 2022, 04:11:50 PM
I grew up in Columbus, Ohio.

When we read the short story about the 1913 flood, and the electricity leaking out of the light socket, I brought my grandmother's photos to class.

In a house where Thurber lived in CT they discovered he'd covered one wall with cartoon drawings, which were saved:

    https://www.nytimes.com/1976/10/04/archives/thurber-cartoons-on-wall-being-salvaged.html

The home he lived in in Columbus is now a museum.

   https://www.thurberhouse.org/james-thurber

This site is also pretty good:

   https://jamesthurber.org/gallery

And while I'd differ with the "unstudied line" claim (I can think of a few predecessors) this is also good:

   https://www.columbusmuseum.org/blog/news_room/celebrating-james-thurber-at-cma/

Anyway, he wrote some good books, too....

;--}

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: paultuttle on May 04, 2022, 11:21:17 AM
Currently re-reading the Harry Potter books, in order. I'm in Book 2 just after Mrs. Norris is found next to "Enemies of the heir, beware!"
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on May 06, 2022, 07:57:11 AM
Yesterday I spent part of a rainy evening reading Ooka the Wise, by I.G. Edmonds.  Ooka Tadasuke was a Japanese judge who served in the early 1700s and was renowned for his intelligence and fairness.  Legends of his clever verdicts, detection of crimes, and Solomonic judgements have made him a major figure in Japanese folklore.  Ooka the Wise is a collection of Ooka tales for English-speaking children, nicely illustrated by one Sanae Yamazaki. 

In the early 1960s it was issued in paperback form by Scholastic under the title The Case of the Marble Monster.  I encountered a copy of it in a fifth-grade classroom.  It was one of many books I found in classrooms that I tried to read in bits and pieces stolen from my schoolwork.  Teachers usually let me get away with it because I wasn't making noise, I stayed on top of my grades, and it just goes against the grain for a teacher to discourage reading.  Forty-odd years later, I find that I remember quite a bit of the book well.  I had stumbled across this copy some months ago.  Finally taking the time to read it yesterday evening was a joy.  Over the years I've assembled quite a collection of books I recall having read as a kid (I'm still finding them now and then--picked up one while on vacation just last week).  This is one that's just as good as I remember.

Some years back I read Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler's Ghost in the Tokaido Inn as part of a library school class on children's literature.  Judge Ooka figures as a major character in it.  It was good to "meet" him again.  I guess I'm also going to have to read that one again sometime soon.  We've got it right here at work.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on May 06, 2022, 08:24:06 AM
I'm still on the hunt for the children's book about a "bear with special stuffing," that, I think, made him forget bad things and remember good ones, or something like that.

It's not Paddington, I don't think, nor any of the 'Bear family' books, I saw it once c. 1990, didn't make a note of the title or author, and have ever since wished I had.

I'd add it to my personal childhood collection of all the Barbara Cooney books, "Pish, Posh, said Hieronymous Bosch," the Zilpha Kathy Snyder books, etc.

M.

Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on May 06, 2022, 09:38:57 AM
Apl68, I'm pretty sure I had or my elementary school had the Ooka stories, because I remember reading and enjoying them.

Mamselle, that bear story sounds familiar, though I can't come up with a title.  I will keep thinking on it.

I've listened to a few more audiobooks since my last update, alternating mostly between fiction and nonfiction.  Coming Back Alive: The True Story of the Most Harrowing Search and Rescue Mission Ever Attempted on Alaska's High Seas (by Spike Walker; narrated by Paul Heitsch) was a fairly interesting book about the Coast Guard's attempt to rescue the captain and crew of a fishing boat in terrible weather and seas.  It also talks about other rescue missions, some successful, some not.  I thought the book was a bit disjointed at times and couldn't tell where the story was going.  There was also a lot of detail about the land, history, sea, ships, helicopters, etc. that distracted at times from the rescue tale.  I think it's hard to know how much of that is necessary and helpful, and it's also hard to know whether it would feel different reading it rather than listening, or with a different narrator, and so forth.   The narrator was a bit annoying at times.

Next, I listened to the N.K. Jemisin Broken Earth trilogy as narrated by Robin Miles.  The narrator did a great job with it.  We read the books a couple years ago and loved them, but I definitely found myself thinking that the first one was the best one this time.  I listened to them back to back, so it may have just felt repetitive in spots. 

The one I just finished was When You Find My Body: The Disappearance of Geraldine Largay on the Appalachian Trail (D. Dauphinee; Traci Odom), which is a tale of a tragedy that could probably have been easily avoided.  It definitely felt like a cautionary tale to me, centering on "the largest manhunt in Maine's history."  I have day hiked sections of the AT but certainly don't understand doing that or through hiking into parts of Maine without any knowledge of woodsmanship.  You can get into enough trouble day hiking easier sections.  It brought up the science of survival and research into what people do when they get lost, which sounds like pretty useful and fascinating research.   With a childhood in Maine and a background in mountaineering, international exploration, and search and rescue, the author has a lot of interesting tidbits to share.  The narrator was very easy to listen to, as well.

Now I am listening to The Godfather (Mario Puzo; Joe Mantegna).  Despite having seen the movies a couple times and having read the book many years ago, I am getting a better understanding of the story this time through or in this medium.  Mantegna is doing a pretty good job with the narration so far.   

Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on May 06, 2022, 09:52:52 AM
Quote from: mamselle on May 06, 2022, 08:24:06 AM
I'm still on the hunt for the children's book about a "bear with special stuffing," that, I think, made him forget bad things and remember good ones, or something like that.

It's not Paddington, I don't think, nor any of the 'Bear family' books, I saw it once c. 1990, didn't make a note of the title or author, and have ever since wished I had.

I'd add it to my personal childhood collection of all the Barbara Cooney books, "Pish, Posh, said Hieronymous Bosch," the Zilpha Kathy Snyder books, etc.

M.

It's frustrating when you have vivid and fond memories of a book, and can't recall an author or title.  It becomes a matter of just browsing wherever and whenever one gets the chance, and hoping for the best.  I've encountered quite a few items that way over the years.  Now and then one even drops right into my lap when I'm sorting through a batch of recent donations at the library. 

This is why whenever I travel to a place I've never been before I look around any bookstores, thrift stores, and antique malls I can find.  You never know when you'll get lucky.  I've still got at least eight fondly-remembered books that I'm hoping to run across one day, plus others still lurking out there that I'm not currently thinking to look for.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on May 06, 2022, 11:22:07 AM
Hmmm...sounds like a thread title, "Books I'm still trying to find."

Wouldn't only have to be children's books...

Hmmm...

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: RatGuy on May 06, 2022, 11:43:29 AM
I've started Melville's "piazza tales." I plan on finding copies of "Redburn" and "White-Jacket" next.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on May 06, 2022, 07:37:57 PM
Quote from: mamselle on May 06, 2022, 11:22:07 AM
Hmmm...sounds like a thread title, "Books I'm still trying to find."

Wouldn't only have to be children's books...

Hmmm...

M.
I'm a long time subscriber to Fiction-L, a listserv for public librarians to ask the collective brain (fellow list subscribers) about all things fiction. (Questions about non-fiction books have been asked and answered too) There's been requests for help identifying the book title based the details that patrons have given them.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on May 09, 2022, 07:47:03 AM
France, Fin de Siecle, by Eugen Weber.  A vivid, impressionistic survey of life and attitudes in French society around about the last decades of the nineteenth century.  Weber's Peasants Into Frenchmen, which stands out in memory from my huge masses of grad school reading, told the story of how French peasants, trapped in medieval-level deprivation and brutishness until well into the 1800s, were eventually freed to live and act more like human beings by the blessings of industrialization.  France, Fin de Siecle broadens the scope to the whole of French society.  Again, most people in France are portrayed as living as little better than animals until they could benefit from things like mass literacy, consumer culture, leisure time, and leisure travel.

Weber seems to have intended for his studies to serve in part as correctives to a view of the industrial revolution that emphasizes the era's excesses and abuses.  He emphasizes just how hard life was for most people before industrialization.  Once industrial society got past the "dark satanic mills" phase, industrialization unquestionably benefited almost everybody.  Today, now that we're all too well aware of the catastrophic effects of industrialization upon our planet's environment, there's a tendency to wish that the whole thing had never happened.  It's still useful to have this corrective--to be reminded that all of us today are products of industrial society who wouldn't honestly want to live in a world where industrialization was not.

That said, Weber belongs to a school of historians that has seriously over-corrected in presenting such a dire view of pre-industrial society.  Ordinary people in largely pre-literate societies usually showed up in the documentary record only when they were in trouble with the law or experiencing some kind of disaster.  This can create a skewed idea of what their lives were like.  It's not unlike the way people whose only knowledge of other communities or regions or segments of society comes from news reports can get the idea that nothing good ever happens there.  I've said in the past that I appreciate studies of early ways of life that take a more humane and balanced view.  For France in the period under study, I have yet to find such a study.  The closest I've found is Pierre-Jakez Helias' memoir of rural Breton society, The Horse of Pride, but that was from a couple of decades later.

Weber writes impressive social history.  It's just good to bear in mind that he probably still misses a lot.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on May 09, 2022, 09:48:12 AM
Seeing A Perilous Perspective by Anna Lee Huber
New and #10 in the "Lady Darby Mystery" series
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on May 13, 2022, 10:43:06 AM
Otherlands:  A Journey Through Earth's Extinct Worlds, by Thomas Halliday.  Now here's an ambitious book!  Each chapter tries to provide a vivid snapshot of what life and the environment were like at some point during one of Earth's past geologic periods and epochs--Pleistocene, Pliocene, Cretaceous, Permian, etc.  There are descriptions of what the geography and weather of the time were like, what the plant and animal life were like, how these are related to today's life forms, etc.  Writing it involved producing a fantastic synthesis of knowledge from many different disciplines and specialties.  You have to admire a mind that can do that.

We obviously know a lot more about these past periods of geologic history than we did when I first started to become aware of them as a kid.  Of course most kids love dinosaurs, but there was soooo much more than dinosaurs in the past.  Fans of dinosaurs and other fossil creatures forget that each of our favorite extinct species were merely parts of whole bygone ecosystems.  Halliday tries to correct this by giving a fuller picture of each of these periods.  It's informative.  And also pretty mind-boggling.  Still more mind-boggling is the realization that we still as yet have surely found only a few examples of the countless life forms that have lived on Earth over the years. 

Reading detailed natural history, of either present or distant past, always reminds me that there is so much more to God's creation than we can ever wrap our little minds around.  Finishing Halliday's book last night reminded me of God's question in Job 38:4:  "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the Earth?  Tell me if you understand!  Who fixed its measurements, or stretched out a measuring line across it?  Where were its foundations set, or who laid its cornerstone?"

We have a lot more fossils to study than ever before, and we can extrapolate an extraordinary amount of plausible (though continually revised and reconsidered) detail from them.  Yet still, how much do we really know?  Not much compared to the original Architect of the whole thing.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on May 13, 2022, 12:35:03 PM
Psalm 139, also.

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on May 14, 2022, 12:49:55 AM
Quote from: apl68 on May 13, 2022, 10:43:06 AM
Otherlands:  A Journey Through Earth's Extinct Worlds, by Thomas Halliday.  Now here's an ambitious book!  Each chapter tries to provide a vivid snapshot of what life and the environment were like at some point during one of Earth's past geologic periods and epochs--Pleistocene, Pliocene, Cretaceous, Permian, etc.  There are descriptions of what the geography and weather of the time were like, what the plant and animal life were like, how these are related to today's life forms, etc.  Writing it involved producing a fantastic synthesis of knowledge from many different disciplines and specialties.  You have to admire a mind that can do that.

Does this book include pictures? Artists' renditions of what's being described? In other words, will I miss much if I get it on kindle?

Quote
We obviously know a lot more about these past periods of geologic history than we did when I first started to become aware of them as a kid.  Of course most kids love dinosaurs, but there was soooo much more than dinosaurs in the past.  Fans of dinosaurs and other fossil creatures forget that each of our favorite extinct species were merely parts of whole bygone ecosystems.  Halliday tries to correct this by giving a fuller picture of each of these periods.  It's informative.  And also pretty mind-boggling.  Still more mind-boggling is the realization that we still as yet have surely found only a few examples of the countless life forms that have lived on Earth over the years. 

I was very struck by this when I was in Moscow some years ago for a research trip and I spent a free day at the museum of paleontology. It's a superb museum, and what struck me the most was the number of exhibits that were not at all dinosaurs, but instead enormous crocodile things, or other massive prehistoric creatures that were utterly unfamiliar to me. I had done my time with dinosaurs when I was little, but I'd never realized how much else there was until I went to this museum.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on May 14, 2022, 03:08:34 AM
Quote from: ergative on May 14, 2022, 12:49:55 AM
It's a superb museum, and what struck me the most was the number of exhibits that were not at all dinosaurs, but instead enormous crocodile things, or other massive prehistoric creatures that were utterly unfamiliar to me. I had done my time with dinosaurs when I was little, but I'd never realized how much else there was until I went to this museum.

In my Dinosaurs class, this is a recurring topic, and I have a lecture specifically on "That was NOT a Dinosaur".
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on May 14, 2022, 04:13:39 AM
Quote from: FishProf on May 14, 2022, 03:08:34 AM
Quote from: ergative on May 14, 2022, 12:49:55 AM
It's a superb museum, and what struck me the most was the number of exhibits that were not at all dinosaurs, but instead enormous crocodile things, or other massive prehistoric creatures that were utterly unfamiliar to me. I had done my time with dinosaurs when I was little, but I'd never realized how much else there was until I went to this museum.

In my Dinosaurs class, this is a recurring topic, and I have a lecture specifically on "That was NOT a Dinosaur".

I feel like there should be a class called 'Not Dinosaurs, But Equally Awesome'.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on May 14, 2022, 06:07:15 AM
Quote from: ergative on May 14, 2022, 12:49:55 AM
Quote from: apl68 on May 13, 2022, 10:43:06 AM
Otherlands:  A Journey Through Earth's Extinct Worlds, by Thomas Halliday.  Now here's an ambitious book!  Each chapter tries to provide a vivid snapshot of what life and the environment were like at some point during one of Earth's past geologic periods and epochs--Pleistocene, Pliocene, Cretaceous, Permian, etc.  There are descriptions of what the geography and weather of the time were like, what the plant and animal life were like, how these are related to today's life forms, etc.  Writing it involved producing a fantastic synthesis of knowledge from many different disciplines and specialties.  You have to admire a mind that can do that.

Does this book include pictures? Artists' renditions of what's being described? In other words, will I miss much if I get it on kindle?


Each chapter has a map of what Earth's land masses looked like during that period, and a black-and-white illustration of one of the life forms being described.  There's some weird, wild stuff pictured there.  I couldn't help being curious about a lot of the other things it described as well, but it's not really meant to be an illustrated guide.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on May 14, 2022, 06:14:34 AM
Quote from: ergative on May 14, 2022, 04:13:39 AM
Quote from: FishProf on May 14, 2022, 03:08:34 AM
Quote from: ergative on May 14, 2022, 12:49:55 AM
It's a superb museum, and what struck me the most was the number of exhibits that were not at all dinosaurs, but instead enormous crocodile things, or other massive prehistoric creatures that were utterly unfamiliar to me. I had done my time with dinosaurs when I was little, but I'd never realized how much else there was until I went to this museum.

In my Dinosaurs class, this is a recurring topic, and I have a lecture specifically on "That was NOT a Dinosaur".

I feel like there should be a class called 'Not Dinosaurs, But Equally Awesome'.

I've always been kind of partial to the mammoths and mastodons and other creatures that lived not so many thousands of years ago.  Ross D.E. MacPhee's End of the Megafauna:  The Fate of the World's Hugest, Fiercest, and Strangest Animals is a great illustrated guide to these animals.  Great renderings of predators, proboscids, glyptodonts, and lots more.  It was in that book that I learned about a fossil turtle that is officially known as a "Ninja Turtle." 
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Harlow2 on May 14, 2022, 08:04:44 AM
This is one of my favorite threads.  I hope to at least dip into a couple of the readings discussed here this summer.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on May 16, 2022, 11:01:21 AM
The House of Mitford, by Jonathan and Catherine Guinness.  When I was a kid I stumbled across a paperback copy of Jessica Mitford's The American Way of Death.  Although I don't recall being especially interested in either death or funerals, I found myself drawn in by this wittily-written account of a funeral industry much in need of reform.  Some years later, I learned that this Jessica Mitford was only one member of a British family noted for its colorful, articulate, and opinionated members.

Guinness and Guinness turn in an impressively detailed and researched account of the family--not only the famous sisters, but their forebears and others as well.  They strive hard to be fair-minded toward everybody.  Given that so many of the family's members became either Nazi sympathizers or Stalinist apologists, I think they're probably fairer toward their subjects than they really deserve.  In the case of some of the Nazi sympathizers, the work's restraint may perhaps serve as a bit of a corrective on some people who have been mythologized and sensationalized into something more wicked and significant than they really were (Leftists with a history of fellow-traveling have long tended to get off much lighter for their own embarrassing flirtations with evil regimes).  Only days ago I noticed a review on a new book that appears to have some pretty sensational-sounding claims about how half of Britain's upper-crust supposedly secretly wanted Hitler to win. 

Anyway, even with all the efforts at being fair and sympathetic, one comes away with the sense that many members of the family, of all political persuasions, could be real pieces of work at times.  The authors of The Mitfords say that the family's members tended to have a "Pelagian" outlook, meaning that they really didn't have much of a sense of sin.  Sounds about right, on the evidence provided.

Incidentally, the first few chapters are on the famous Mitford Sisters' grandfather, Algernon Bertram Mitford.  In some ways he's the most interesting of the bunch.  He was quite the diplomat and traveler, and became one of the first notable European observers of Japan after it re-opened itself to the outside world.  His Tales of Old Japan is still a leading source on Japanese society as it was before the radical changes brought about by the new openness.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Larimar on May 16, 2022, 01:32:45 PM
I recently finished A Heart Lost in Wonder by Catharine Randall, a brand new, shorter than I expected, biography of poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, of whom I am a huge fan. This bio concentrates on Hopkins' progression of thought and the emotional and spiritual struggles he had with issues of theology, natural beauty, and art. I've read several other bios, so I knew that before Hopkins took his vows as a Jesuit, he took a trip to Switzerland with a friend, while he still could, because Switzerland had banned Jesuits. What this book got across that others didn't (at least to me) was how profound this trip, during which he did a lot of wilderness hiking and sketching, was for him; it pretty much planted the seeds of his concepts of inscape and instress, and contributed to inspiring some of his famous early nature poems. The book also claims that Hopkins at the very end of his life broke through the deep depression he experienced in Ireland, a claim which I had not seen before. I hope that the author is right about that.

Larimar
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Hegemony on May 22, 2022, 11:27:39 PM
Quote from: apl68 on May 16, 2022, 11:01:21 AM
The House of Mitford, by Jonathan and Catherine Guinness.  ... Some years later, I learned that this Jessica Mitford was only one member of a British family noted for its colorful, articulate, and opinionated members.

You might be interested in the recent British TV show "The Pursuit of Love," adapted from the Mitford roman à clef by Nancy Mitford. Andrew Scott is a special treat in it, though the whole thing gives a very good idea of the Mitford idiosyncaisies. Available on Amazon in the U.S.

For a while I lived in a house that had formerly been occupied by the Mitfords. The local stories were something. There was still some Hitler memorabilia left over from Unity Mitford's fascination with Hitler.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: paultuttle on May 24, 2022, 10:52:57 AM
Gone-Away Lake, by Elizabeth Enright. And its sequel, Return to Gone-Away.

It almost makes me want to live in upstate New York! (Under a huge plexiglass bubble to protect myself and my loved ones from the lake-effect snow, of course.)
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on May 25, 2022, 07:13:34 AM
Quote from: paultuttle on May 24, 2022, 10:52:57 AM
Gone-Away Lake, by Elizabeth Enright. And its sequel, Return to Gone-Away.

It almost makes me want to live in upstate New York! (Under a huge plexiglass bubble to protect myself and my loved ones from the lake-effect snow, of course.)

I can remember seeing that one in a library when I was growing up, but never read it.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on May 25, 2022, 01:09:53 PM
I think I read everything of hers I could find, as well as the Bland/Nesbitt books, as well as a couple of the other "Magic has rules" club of writers' works.

I would probably recall them as soon as I saw them but don't remember any right this moment.

Definitely time for a re-read.

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on May 25, 2022, 01:49:45 PM
"A Marvelous LIfe" by Danny Fingeroth about the life of Marvel's Stan Lee.    I had expected more about the development of the characters (Wolverine was mentioned exactly once, in passing) but the behind the curtains look at the comics industry was very interesting.  It is hard to remember how close many of the big names came to folding - we are (ok, I am) biased by the recent huge success of the Marvel DCU.

If you like comics and pop culture history - I would recommend.  If not, you will probably find it boring and too lacking in detail if you can't supply the context.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on May 25, 2022, 02:53:44 PM
Saint Death's Daughter by C. S. E. Cooney: The aesthetic of Gideon the Ninth meets the depth of worldbuilding (and footnotes) of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell meets the heart and sweet faith in kindness of A Closed and Common Orbit meets the cuddly undead rodents of Discworld, with a linguistic charm and inventiveness that is all its own. Really magnificent, I thought.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Hegemony on May 25, 2022, 11:55:31 PM
Quote from: mamselle on May 25, 2022, 01:09:53 PM
I think I read everything of hers I could find, as well as the Bland/Nesbitt books, as well as a couple of the other "Magic has rules" club of writers' works.

I would probably recall them as soon as I saw them but don't remember any right this moment.

Definitely time for a re-read.

Edward Eager is fabulous too.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Larimar on May 26, 2022, 05:10:49 AM
Starting to reread The Martian by Andy Weir. I think it's smart, just this side of plausible, and hilarious. Mark Watney is a well drawn character.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on May 26, 2022, 08:27:45 AM
Quote from: Hegemony on May 25, 2022, 11:55:31 PM
Quote from: mamselle on May 25, 2022, 01:09:53 PM
I think I read everything of hers I could find, as well as the Bland/Nesbitt books, as well as a couple of the other "Magic has rules" club of writers' works.

I would probably recall them as soon as I saw them but don't remember any right this moment.

Definitely time for a re-read.

Edward Eager is fabulous too.

Yes, he was on of the ones I was thinking of in "The Club."

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on May 27, 2022, 07:58:50 AM
The Last Days of the Dinosaurs:  An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World, by Riley Black.  In the decades since it was established that the dinosaurs were wiped out by a massive asteroid strike, scientists have worked at understanding exactly how the mass extinction event and the subsequent recovery of life on Earth played out.  Black's work takes the form of chapters that each give a snapshot of a particular period.  First there's a chapter on what the world was like on the eve of the event.  Then chapters on the actual impact, the first hours and day, then eventually for one year, a hundred years, a thousand years, a hundred thousand years, and finally a million years after the impact.

Each chapter puts part of its focus on an imagined day in the life of a particular species that was characteristic of that time.  Of course it talks about lots of other species and lineages as well, of all sorts--mammals, reptiles, non-avian dinosaurs, birds, sea life, and vegetation.  Most of the focus is on the fossil-rich Hell Creek site in Montana, with asides on what was going on in the rest of the world.  Among other things, I was interested to learn just how diverse mammals has already become while dinosaurs ruled the Earth.  They weren't all just tiny insectivores.

Another impressive synthesis of a vast body of current research, like the Otherlands book above.  We know an awful lot more about dinosaurs and other prehistoric life forms than we did when I first read about this stuff as a kid.  Much of what we thought we knew then is now considered mistaken.  Makes me wonder how much of what I've read in these two books will be greatly revised in the years to come.  The study of prehistory involves an awful lot of revisionists and revisionism.  Kind of like the study of human history.  It keeps things interesting.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on May 27, 2022, 07:47:51 PM
From the library: Index, A History of the by Dennis Duncan (NF)
How the index developed over history.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on May 27, 2022, 08:47:44 PM
Quote from: apl68 on May 27, 2022, 07:58:50 AM
The Last Days of the Dinosaurs:  An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World, by Riley Black.  In the decades since it was established that the dinosaurs were wiped out by a massive asteroid strike, scientists have worked at understanding exactly how the mass extinction event and the subsequent recovery of life on Earth played out.  Black's work takes the form of chapters that each give a snapshot of a particular period.  First there's a chapter on what the world was like on the eve of the event.  Then chapters on the actual impact, the first hours and day, then eventually for one year, a hundred years, a thousand years, a hundred thousand years, and finally a million years after the impact.

Each chapter puts part of its focus on an imagined day in the life of a particular species that was characteristic of that time.  Of course it talks about lots of other species and lineages as well, of all sorts--mammals, reptiles, non-avian dinosaurs, birds, sea life, and vegetation.  Most of the focus is on the fossil-rich Hell Creek site in Montana, with asides on what was going on in the rest of the world.  Among other things, I was interested to learn just how diverse mammals has already become while dinosaurs ruled the Earth.  They weren't all just tiny insectivores.

Another impressive synthesis of a vast body of current research, like the Otherlands book above.  We know an awful lot more about dinosaurs and other prehistoric life forms than we did when I first read about this stuff as a kid.  Much of what we thought we knew then is now considered mistaken.  Makes me wonder how much of what I've read in these two books will be greatly revised in the years to come.  The study of prehistory involves an awful lot of revisionists and revisionism.  Kind of like the study of human history.  It keeps things interesting.

I've been reading a small pile of dino-related books, and have a small pile left to go. I should post an update soon.

(That one was suggested to me recently. I was tempted by the cover; thanks for the overview!)
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on May 31, 2022, 01:30:25 PM
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov.  I'd never read it.  I listened to the audiobook performed by Jeremy Irons.  It was equal parts creepy (the basic idea), mesmerizing (the beautiful writing), and suspenseful tantalizing (how's he gonna go down?), all at the same time.

And yes, at times I imagined it was Scar from the Lion King doing the reading.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on June 02, 2022, 08:34:12 AM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on May 27, 2022, 08:47:44 PM
Quote from: apl68 on May 27, 2022, 07:58:50 AM
The Last Days of the Dinosaurs:  An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World, by Riley Black.  In the decades since it was established that the dinosaurs were wiped out by a massive asteroid strike, scientists have worked at understanding exactly how the mass extinction event and the subsequent recovery of life on Earth played out.  Black's work takes the form of chapters that each give a snapshot of a particular period.  First there's a chapter on what the world was like on the eve of the event.  Then chapters on the actual impact, the first hours and day, then eventually for one year, a hundred years, a thousand years, a hundred thousand years, and finally a million years after the impact.

Each chapter puts part of its focus on an imagined day in the life of a particular species that was characteristic of that time.  Of course it talks about lots of other species and lineages as well, of all sorts--mammals, reptiles, non-avian dinosaurs, birds, sea life, and vegetation.  Most of the focus is on the fossil-rich Hell Creek site in Montana, with asides on what was going on in the rest of the world.  Among other things, I was interested to learn just how diverse mammals has already become while dinosaurs ruled the Earth.  They weren't all just tiny insectivores.

Another impressive synthesis of a vast body of current research, like the Otherlands book above.  We know an awful lot more about dinosaurs and other prehistoric life forms than we did when I first read about this stuff as a kid.  Much of what we thought we knew then is now considered mistaken.  Makes me wonder how much of what I've read in these two books will be greatly revised in the years to come.  The study of prehistory involves an awful lot of revisionists and revisionism.  Kind of like the study of human history.  It keeps things interesting.

I've been reading a small pile of dino-related books, and have a small pile left to go. I should post an update soon.

(That one was suggested to me recently. I was tempted by the cover; thanks for the overview!)

You're welcome!

So Parasaurolophus is a dinosaur fan?  Who would've thought....
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on June 03, 2022, 07:14:23 AM
April and May combined:

Caitlin Donahue Wylie: Preparing Dinosaurs: The Work Behind the Scenes - As far as I can tell, this is pretty much the only comprehensive account of the work of fossil preparators out there. I expected Wylie to just repackage the work she's already published in article form, but she didn't at all. This was a super informative read on a subject I knew nothing at all about. The ethnographic style was a little strange, since I was expecting something more squarely in the history and philosophy of science, and it made her commentary stick out a little more than it otherwise would. I highly recommend this one to the dinosaur fans among us, though!

Elizabeth D. Jones: Ancient DNA: The Making of a Celebrity Science - A history of the search for ancient DNA and biomolecules. I didn't know anything about it at all, so it was super interesting and very informative, especially since it's a history that doesn't go back very far (to the 1980s). I was particularly fascinated by the role contamination concerns came to play in the development of the field, especially given how oblivious early efforts (and early players) were to it.

Lukas Rieppel: Assembling the Dinosaur: Fossil Hunters, Tycoons, and the Making of a Spectacle - Essentially a history of the early efforts to mount dinosaurs. As with Wylie, above, I expected it to rehash Rieppel's articles, but it doesn't at all. The history is really cool, although I mostly could have done without the extended contextualization in Gilded Age economic development. It's an understandable and even necessary decision, but I would have been happy with even more extended discussion of the mounting, especially in comparison to modern-day mounting techniques. I wonder where I'd go to learn more about those? Do any of you know?

Adrian Tchaikovsky: The Expert System's Brother - Insect-heavy space colony gone awry. An excellent, compelling novella, which felt somewhat limited by its length. It could easily have been much longer, its time frame less compressed, without losing the reader. I see there's some sort of sequel, however, which I'll definitely hunt down.

Adrian Tchaikovsky: Walking to Aldebaran - A space maze novella! One of the very best I've read, right up there with Alastair Reynolds's Diamond Dogs. I just wanted it to go on and on and on. The story itself is a bit of a maze, and that aspect is really well executed.

Adrian Tchaikovsky: Made Things - A lightly steampunky fantasy centred on a girl and her pickpocket puppets. I'm not usually much for this kind of genre mashup, but it was fun and well executed.

Adrian Tchaikovsky: Firewalkers - Distant future CliFi with a dose of insects. Compelling, and starkly real on the climate front.

Adrian Tchaikovsky: Cage of Souls - Low-tech distant future space prison story set on a dying Earth, with lots of local wildlife. It was a captivating read, especially the prison parts. It's a long novel, but I wouldn't have minded more. Especially more of the prison.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on June 03, 2022, 09:28:41 AM
Quote from: hmaria1609 on May 27, 2022, 07:47:51 PM
From the library: Index, A History of the by Dennis Duncan (NF)
How the index developed over history.

A good indexer is hard to find.

I know two.

So many indices are almost useless, and the automated ones are particularly horrible.

Glad to see someone's paying attention!

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on June 03, 2022, 11:42:28 AM
Parasaurolophus's round-up reminded me that I haven't done one in a while. These are things I've found noteworthy since March or so; there are others that were forgettable and I couldn't be bothered to type about them.)

The Kingston Trilogy, by C. L. Polk, comprising Witchmark, Stormsong, and Soulstar. The first one was fine; the second was really quite good, the third was too infused with range and angst and grief to suit me, and its solution seemed aspirational and infeasible. In a nutshell, we have Edwardian-era-flavoured city undergoing social and political upheaval in the wake of a bad war and some fairies get involved. Lots of political shenanigans in book 2, which is why I liked it so much. Also, outstanding covers. I read Witchmark because of this animated cover (https://i0.wp.com/www.tor.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Witchmark_moving.gif?fit=500%2C+9999&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C773px&ssl=1).

The Murder of Mr Wickham, by Claudia Gray. All the Austen characters from the Big Six gather in a house party, Mr Wickham shows up and turns out to have been a scoundrel to all of them, then he shows up dead, whodunnit? Really lovely character work, directly addressing things that never sat right with me (e.g., Fanny and Edward are so tiresome, and Marianne couldn't possible love Colonel Brandon). An absolute delight if you like Austen, full of subtle comments and references to the various books, and a narrative style with some witty turns of phrase that do resemble something she might have written herself.

She Who Became The Sun, by Shelly Parker-Chan. Fabulous genderbent Chinese historical fantasy, retelling the rise to power of Zhu Chongba's founding of the Ming Dynasty, with ghosts and subtle magic that is mostly symbolic rather than plot-relevant. I was captivated. Superb work.

Lessons in Chemistry, by Bonnie Garmus. 1950s chemist can't get a job in research because sexism, so instead starts a cooking show that is a feminist masterpiece of empowerment. The book itself was delightful and gripping, but in the end it left a sour taste in my mouth because of all the fucking sexism in the 1950s, which is portrayed unflinchingly, and which indeed drives the plot. I do try to avoid that in my fiction, but, if you have a higher tolerance for that kind of thing in your fiction, I highly recommend it. There is an excellent character who is a dog.

Johannes Cabal series, by Jonathan L Howard. I actually started this quite a while ago, with Johannes Cabal, Necromancer, and then some years later read the sequel, Johannes Cabal, Detective, and then just recently continued with The Fear Institute and The Brothers Cabal. Howard has a wonderful narrative voice, which sort of teases and mocks the characters and the readers, snarking at the world because Cabal is an arrogant, obnoxious toad who is incredibly fun to go on adventures with.

A Natural History of Dragons series by Marie Brennan, and then the follow-up book Turning Darkness into Light. The first five books are about a lady dragon naturalist in a Victorian-inspired fantasy Europe, going on adventures to learn about all the different types of dragons that inhabit the world. Great adventure travel costume drama. The follow-up is about her granddaughter, who is asked to translate some tablets written by the old Draconians, a lost culture rather like the Sumerians in our world: lots of relics, lots of texts, but it's hard work to translate them and understand what they meant. Really, really fun all around.

Saint Death's Daughter by C. S. E. Cooney. A wildly inventive combination of the vibes of Tamsyn Muir, the exquisite depth of worldbuilding and footnoting of Susanna Clarke, the tender heart of Becky Chambers, and a linguistic playfulness that is all Cooney's own. Cuddly necromancy.

Rendezvous with Rama, by Arthur C Clarke. My god, this was foul. Boring narrative, wildly sexist (women shouldn't be allowed in space because bobbing breasts in zero gravity are too distracting), and not even a terribly interesting SFF idea in the first place; Big dumb thing in space approaches the solar system, some people go up to look at it, then big dumb thing goes away and people return home none the wiser about what it is, where it came from, or why it's here. I heard that Denis Villeneuve is making a TV adaptation of it, and he did magic with Arrival, so I thought there might be something there--I discovered Ted Chiang's brilliance through Arrival, after all--but nope. Nothing there. There's so much good SF to adapt, Denis. Why this?


I've also been reading a variety of romance books, in part because I'm so fascinated by the industry as a whole that I've decided I should actually read the damn books, and in part because I've been so stressed with house-hunting that I can't focus on much else. I've sampled from the big names of historical Romance (Courtney Milan, Tessa Dare, Lisa Kleypas, Beverly Jenkins, Cat Sebastian), and decided that I rather like Cat Sebastian's gay regency romances and will look for more of them. Courtney Milan is fine but kind of all samey (but I do appreciate her attention to historical detail), and I don't really feel any need for Tessa Dare or Lisa Kleypas or Beverly Jenkins.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on June 03, 2022, 12:36:18 PM
Quote from: ergative on June 03, 2022, 11:42:28 AM


The Murder of Mr Wickham, by Claudia Gray. All the Austen characters from the Big Six gather in a house party, Mr Wickham shows up and turns out to have been a scoundrel to all of them, then he shows up dead, whodunnit? Really lovely character work, directly addressing things that never sat right with me (e.g., Fanny and Edward are so tiresome, and Marianne couldn't possible love Colonel Brandon). An absolute delight if you like Austen, full of subtle comments and references to the various books, and a narrative style with some witty turns of phrase that do resemble something she might have written herself.



Oh! A perfect gift for my resident Maiasaur, thank you!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: onthefringe on June 04, 2022, 06:43:04 AM
Quote from: ergative on June 03, 2022, 11:42:28 AM
I've also been reading a variety of romance books, in part because I'm so fascinated by the industry as a whole that I've decided I should actually read the damn books, and in part because I've been so stressed with house-hunting that I can't focus on much else. I've sampled from the big names of historical Romance (Courtney Milan, Tessa Dare, Lisa Kleypas, Beverly Jenkins, Cat Sebastian), and decided that I rather like Cat Sebastian's gay regency romances and will look for more of them. Courtney Milan is fine but kind of all samey (but I do appreciate her attention to historical detail), and I don't really feel any need for Tessa Dare or Lisa Kleypas or Beverly Jenkins.

ergative, if you like Cat Sebastian, you are likely to enjoy KJ Charles as well.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on June 05, 2022, 11:47:58 AM
Reading from the library: How Music Got Free by Stephen Witt
How digital music piracy influenced getting free music online and the trio that made it happen.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on June 05, 2022, 06:12:10 PM
A Land Fit for Heroes #1 - The Steel Remains by Richard K. Morgan.

This is a dark and grim fantasy series with a homosexual protagonist (this does not make him popular).  It is a great read with interesting worldbuilding and character development.

I read it years ago, when it first came out, and stumbled across the completed series last month.  So I re-read* this one so I could complete the series.  I remembered some parts, but the parts I had forgotten were fantastic all over again.

If you like Joe Abercrombie fantasy, I highly recommend this series.  I'm starting book 2 next week.

*well, listened to it as an audiobook.   It is read by Simon Vance, who also read the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series.  I found the place names in Sweden entertaining, and the made-up place names in The Steel Remains made me think, "where is that?  Is that near Uppsala?  No, wrong world."
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Hegemony on June 05, 2022, 11:46:31 PM
I am reading The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again, by M. John Harrison — an eerie atmospheric tale of a depressed middle-aged man in London. The blurb says "Unsettling and insinuating, fabulously alert to the spaces between things, Harrison is without peer as a chronicler of the fraught, unsteady state we're in." Yep, that's it. It's well written. It's not really a cheerer-upper kind of book to read during a pandemic when the world is falling apart.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on June 06, 2022, 12:23:29 AM
Quote from: Hegemony on June 05, 2022, 11:46:31 PM
I am reading The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again, by M. John Harrison — an eerie atmospheric tale of a depressed middle-aged man in London. The blurb says "Unsettling and insinuating, fabulously alert to the spaces between things, Harrison is without peer as a chronicler of the fraught, unsteady state we're in." Yep, that's it. It's well written. It's not really a cheerer-upper kind of book to read during a pandemic when the world is falling apart.

I started reading Light by the same author, which was praised to high heaven by various SFF aficionados. Gave it up maybe 100 pages in because it was so disagreeable.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on June 06, 2022, 07:51:58 AM
I recall thinking that Rendezvous With Rama had a really interesting premise when I read it many years ago.  But the other things that ergative mentioned...yeah, those were pretty bad.  All too many science fiction writers then were (and I guess probably still are) into a very adolescent idea of sexually liberated futures.  Gene Roddenberry notoriously tried to slip as much of this into Star Trek as he could get away with back in the day.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Juvenal on June 10, 2022, 07:19:42 AM
Some Tame Gazelle by Barbara Pym.  I must have read it years ago because it was down in the basement library.  First American edition, it turns out.  Search prompted by a recent NYer article.

I know I have read other Pym because I was texting about the book with a friend, who also read her some time back, and she said that I'd judged Pym, "weak tea Jane Austen."  And yet, on (re)reading this book I retract that judgment.  The characters--especially the stand-in for Barbara Pym, "Belinda" make many sly, snarky comments along the way.  The plot is nothing much--a small village, a small set of characters (in this book apparently based on some real people), social anxieties among the gentlefolk, and the thrum of love and marriage driving the story.  Hey!  That sounds a lot like Jane Austen, too.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on June 10, 2022, 07:35:21 PM
From the library: The Complete Works of Isaac Babel, edited by Nathalie Babel Brown, translated by Peter Constantine
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on June 11, 2022, 05:15:49 AM
The Striker by Clive Cussler.  This is an Isaac Bell novel (one of my mental palate cleanser series).  It follows the adventures of a railroad detective (a rival company to the Pinkertons).  Reviews are that is gives a good sense of railroad and steam travel in the early 1900s, and this one is about the labor movement in 1902-12 (~ish).  It was a fun read.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on June 13, 2022, 09:41:47 AM
The Prisoner of Zenda. I'd read it before, ages ago, and I remember enjoying it more than I expected to, but I've forgotten most of it. In researching which of KJ Charles's books to read (on ontehfringe's recommendation uptrhead), I discovered that she wrote a from-the-villain-perspective take on that tale, The Henchmen of Zenda. So, naturally, I must do my research!

As it turns out, The Prisoner of Zenda is exactly as fun as I remember. A fast, goofy, swashbuckling yarn that is down for having fun with a good old-fashioned royal switcheroo. I can't wait to see what KJ Charles does with it.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on June 13, 2022, 11:13:48 AM
Twain's "Prince and the Pauper" comes to mind...

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on June 13, 2022, 01:39:30 PM
Quote from: mamselle on June 13, 2022, 11:13:48 AM
Twain's "Prince and the Pauper" comes to mind...

M.

Ah, but Prince and the Pauper is so full of tedious moralizing! This has a lot more in common with that Netflix series The Princess Switch.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on June 13, 2022, 01:51:20 PM
Mark Twain, moralize?

Where do you get that from?

  <<grins, ducks and runs>>

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on June 14, 2022, 07:27:17 AM
Quote from: ergative on June 13, 2022, 09:41:47 AM
The Prisoner of Zenda. I'd read it before, ages ago, and I remember enjoying it more than I expected to, but I've forgotten most of it. In researching which of KJ Charles's books to read (on ontehfringe's recommendation uptrhead), I discovered that she wrote a from-the-villain-perspective take on that tale, The Henchmen of Zenda. So, naturally, I must do my research!

As it turns out, The Prisoner of Zenda is exactly as fun as I remember. A fast, goofy, swashbuckling yarn that is down for having fun with a good old-fashioned royal switcheroo. I can't wait to see what KJ Charles does with it.

Update: The Henchmen of Zenda is--ahem--spicier than Prisoner (which I expected, given the comparison to Cat Sebastian), but also hilarious. I laughed aloud multiple times in the first several pages alone. Peeved secondary characters saying, 'Oh, is that what he said happened? Yeah, right, no. Listen...' is a delightful trope.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on June 14, 2022, 09:19:19 AM
I've read ergative's last two posts as ZELDA, not ZENDA.

I was confused as I didn't remember either of those games....
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on June 17, 2022, 01:22:56 AM
Popping back in to thank onthefringe once again for recommending KJ Charles. I've finished the entire Will Darling trilogy since Monday. I've got some stressful waiting happening in the background right now* and these books were exactly what I needed to hide from it all.


*nothing bad, just stressful
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: onthefringe on June 17, 2022, 04:04:15 AM
Quote from: ergative on June 17, 2022, 01:22:56 AM
Popping back in to thank onthefringe once again for recommending KJ Charles. I've finished the entire Will Darling trilogy since Monday. I've got some stressful waiting happening in the background right now* and these books were exactly what I needed to hide from it all.


*nothing bad, just stressful

Glad you like them!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on June 18, 2022, 07:20:53 AM
Queen Anne:  The Politics of Passion, by Anne Somerset.  Anne reigned during a critical period in British history.  It was when, thanks to the political unification of England and Scotland, "British" history as such technically began.  The era also witnessed succession crises, lingering religious issues, and the rise of two-party politics that were so acrimonious they bear comparison with what we see in the contemporary U.S.  Britain emerged from this era as a new world power--but could very easily have collapsed into civil war instead.

For Anne to have gotten safely through her section of the era suggests that she must have been doing something right as Queen.  But she has generally gotten bad press.  She has long been regarded as at best mediocre, a rather unintelligent woman dominated by favorites.  At worst she is seen as a grotesque figure, grossly obese, a heavy drinker, and more.  At best Britain came through the era more in spite of her than any thanks to her.  From what I've seen of its reviews, the recent movie about her life, The Favorite, presents Anne in the most lurid light imaginable, assuming that all the most malicious gossip about her was true.

Somerset tries hard to rehabilitate her namesake.  She reminds us that Anne had to deal with both a painful royal family inheritance--she supported a coup against her own father, and was then thrust into a leadership role that she had never really been prepared for--and unimaginable personal tragedy--she bore and lost seventeen children.  She spent most of her life sick, bereaved, and surrounded by people who wanted to use her for their own advantage.  I don't see how anybody who studies her life could not feel sorry for her.

Somerset portrays Anne as somebody who spent her life trying conscientiously to do her duty and make the best of a very, very hard hand dealt by fate.  The author's sympathies with her namesake Anne are pretty obvious throughout.  She's done her research, though, and I'm inclined to believe that this is a pretty fair portrait.  And let's face it, one of Anne's most notorious detractors, Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, was by all accounts such a piece of work herself that her side of things is hard to credit.

Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on June 18, 2022, 09:40:27 AM
Very helpful insight for those of us doing American colonial work from an Atlantic Rim perspective.

Thanks!

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on June 19, 2022, 05:55:38 PM
Quote from: apl68 on June 18, 2022, 07:20:53 AM
Queen Anne:  The Politics of Passion, by Anne Somerset.  Anne reigned during a critical period in British history.  It was when, thanks to the political unification of England and Scotland, "British" history as such technically began.  The era also witnessed succession crises, lingering religious issues, and the rise of two-party politics that were so acrimonious they bear comparison with what we see in the contemporary U.S.  Britain emerged from this era as a new world power--but could very easily have collapsed into civil war instead.

For Anne to have gotten safely through her section of the era suggests that she must have been doing something right as Queen.  But she has generally gotten bad press.  She has long been regarded as at best mediocre, a rather unintelligent woman dominated by favorites.  At worst she is seen as a grotesque figure, grossly obese, a heavy drinker, and more.  At best Britain came through the era more in spite of her than any thanks to her.  From what I've seen of its reviews, the recent movie about her life, The Favorite, presents Anne in the most lurid light imaginable, assuming that all the most malicious gossip about her was true.

Somerset tries hard to rehabilitate her namesake.  She reminds us that Anne had to deal with both a painful royal family inheritance--she supported a coup against her own father, and was then thrust into a leadership role that she had never really been prepared for--and unimaginable personal tragedy--she bore and lost seventeen children.  She spent most of her life sick, bereaved, and surrounded by people who wanted to use her for their own advantage.  I don't see how anybody who studies her life could not feel sorry for her.

Somerset portrays Anne as somebody who spent her life trying conscientiously to do her duty and make the best of a very, very hard hand dealt by fate.  The author's sympathies with her namesake Anne are pretty obvious throughout.  She's done her research, though, and I'm inclined to believe that this is a pretty fair portrait.  And let's face it, one of Anne's most notorious detractors, Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, was by all accounts such a piece of work herself that her side of things is hard to credit.
I read and own this biography.  I knew a little bit about Anne going in because of Jean Plaidy's novels about the Stuarts.
Of interest, the book was the 2013 Elizabeth Longford Prize for historical biography.

Lucy Worsley did an episode about Queen Anne in her popular "Royal Myths & Secrets" series, available on DVD and to stream on Kanopy.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on June 19, 2022, 06:51:46 PM
And Jane Austen readers probably already know this, but Worsley's tour of all of the Austen residences is quite worthwhile, too.

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on June 23, 2022, 03:35:22 PM
I guess my last update was a while ago.  I still didn't go to the eye doctor yet so am still listening to books (and my husband is carrying the burden of reading the Expanse book we're slowly reading).

Quote from: ab_grp on May 06, 2022, 09:38:57 AM
Now I am listening to The Godfather (Mario Puzo; Joe Mantegna).  Despite having seen the movies a couple times and having read the book many years ago, I am getting a better understanding of the story this time through or in this medium.  Mantegna is doing a pretty good job with the narration so far.

Aside from some rather ridiculous parts, I really enjoyed this one and just picked up the movies so that we can watch them again.  I am curious to check out all the differences.  There are some story arcs in the book that are not covered in the movies, and some parts of the movies do not occur in the book.

I wish Audible could show what dates books were finished, but I think this is the list since my last post:
The Great Train Robbery (by: Michael Crichton; narrated by: Michael Kitchen) Seems to be based on an historical event.  Specifics were changed, probably to make it a more exciting tale.  I read it years ago and enjoyed it again this time.  The main character in the story (who is apparently kind of a mishmash of the real-life people to some extent) reminds me of the Scarlet Pimpernel, or maybe Pierre Despereaux (Cary Elwes's character in Psych), some kind of dashing and cunning rogue.  It's a complicated heist plan and was fun to listen to it develop and play out.  Very good performance by the narrator.  Some accented slang is a little hard to make out, but it's always reiterated in some way just afterward, as far as I can recall. 

The Apollo Murders (Chris Hadfield; Ray Porter) I am a big fan of both Hadfield and Porter.  This one was so interesting because I had listened to the true story of the Apollo 8 mission narrated by Porter, and Hadfield is a real-life astronaut who knows the technical details involved, and there were plenty of real historical people in the book.  So, it wasn't long before I forgot it was fiction, even though it is (hopefully) a somewhat implausible tale! Definitely very dramatic, taking place during the Cold War and with the space race going on.  Of course, there is murder and, of course, Ray Porter was excellent as narrator.

The Truffle Underground: A Tale of Mystery, Mayhem, and Manipulation in the Shadowy Market of the World's Most Expensive Fungus (Ryan Jacobs;  Ari Fliakos)  I started listening to this one as part of a quest to expand my reading when there's a sale and there are highly rated books on topics I have not read or thought much about.  I have some interest so far but not enough to continue at the moment.  The narrator is a little annoying, as well.  I plan to get back to it at some point.

The Idea of the Brain: The Past and Future of Neuroscience (Ryan Jacobs; Joe Jameson) This one traces the history of perspectives on the brain, the brain's role, thinking, and so forth, all the way to the present (or close).  I would avoid if you are squeamish hearing about questionable research (e.g., surgery) on animals and people back in the day.  I had learned some of it before in various courses, so some was pretty easy to follow, but some was a bit over my head.

Run: A Thriller (Blake Crouch; Phil Gigante) We had read one of Crouch's books (Recursion) a while back and thought it was an interesting premise, even if some of the characters were drawn a bit shallowly.  In my opinion this book has that and more, but by that I unfortunately mean the shallow characters.  The premise is ridiculous, but even if taken at face value, some of the characters are so annoying and some of the plot points both so predictable and so "couldn't happen in a million years" that it's hard to deal with, even as a fan of science fiction.  I actually yelled things at the audio book a few times and, when it ended, said "EYE ROLL!" So, although parts were entertaining, I cannot recommend running right out to get it.  And another unfortunate aspect is that the prolific narrator was accused of and pled guilty to crimes involving a relationship of some sort that he had with a 14-year-old girl.  I don't know enough to say more than that, but I think it is important for me to take into consideration when selecting future audio books.

The Deep Learning Revolution (Terrence J. Sejnowski ; Shawn Compton) I was convinced early on that I was going to find out later in the book that it's actually (aptly, perhaps) narrated by a computer, but I guess not.  The narrator did sound more human-like as time went on.  The author is apparently a big name in the field of computational neurobiology and much of this book calls upon his own experience and collaborations.  Again, some of the material was familiar to me from grad school, but it could get pretty technical at times and beyond me.  Still, there were some interesting insights about artificial intelligence and neuroscience and how it has all infiltrated and evolved society.

Murder in Paradise: Thirteen Mysteries from the Travels of Hercule Poirot (Agatha Christie;  David Suchet) I've only listened to the first one so far ("The Plymouth Express"), but it's nice to have a bunch of short fiction tales to break up the nonfiction.  Since I have so little fiction (comparatively) in my library, I am probably going to intersperse nonfiction books to come with these stories.  The narrator is pretty great.  I am not a huge Poirot devotee, so perhaps others would feel differently, but I like his take on the character, and he does other accents very well, too. 

Crisis in the Red Zone: The Story of the Deadliest Ebola Outbreak in History, and of the Outbreaks to Come (Richard Preston; Ray Porter) As the title notes, this nonfiction book focuses on ebola, and it focuses on outbreaks in western Africa.  There is a previous book on a similar topic and on other diseases tangentially by the same author that was a major hit years before this one.  I have not read that one yet.  This book is also not for the squeamish, as it relates in detail the physical effects of ebola.  However, what has been much more frightening to me so far (about 40% in) is listening to the events unfold as the disease goes unrecognized and is very easily spread through risky medical procedures (lack of rubber gloves or hand washing at the minimum, water used and reused).  It really has felt like watching a horror movie and wanting to yell "No! Don't go check out the noise in the dark basement by yourself! What are you thinking?!!", but perhaps with more profanity.  It's truly a frightening virus even in the best of medical scenarios, and the medical scenarios here were clearly not the best for many reasons.  It seems like a complicated setting between the limited resources and the tension between cultural norms and beliefs and the science of how viruses spread.  I agree to an extent with a NYT review that the tone is dramatic in the way that one might expect if a movie adaptation were planned, and these are tens of thousands of real human lives.  I should wait until I finish it.  Of course, Ray Porter is great as always.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on June 23, 2022, 04:58:10 PM
From the library: 100 Things We've Lost to the Internet by Pamela Paul (NF)
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on June 24, 2022, 10:43:11 AM
English Society: 1580-1680, by Keith Wrightson.  Early Modern Britain was my area of specialty in my PhD program days in the early 1990s, and Keith Wrightson was (and is) a big name in the field.  Re-reading some of his work reminds me of why I found the field so fascinating back in the day.   So much of what made the world in which we live today came out of that period.  It was during this time that England first began to be a significant colonial power, and population growth and social change did much to set the stage for the coming industrial revolution.  Political forms and expectations were also changing during this time.

It was also a formative period for evangelical Christianity as we know it in the English-speaking world.  Any serious treatment of the period has to spend some time addressing religious matters, and Wrightson includes quite a bit on them here.  During the 1600s the more radical Protestant believers gained a great deal of influence in Britain, so much so that for a time they had hopes of leading society as a whole into their vision of a good and just society.  And went on to find their hopes sorely disappointed, although, as Wrightson notes, their ideas of respectable standards of conduct would have great influence for centuries to come.

I was often struck, when I was in grad school, with how familiar the things that these believers of three and four centuries ago thought about and had to deal with seemed.  Today I can identify more than ever with how these long-ago believers were forced to deal with living in a society that had decisively rejected their values and was actively hostile to them.  They were reminded then, and their descendants are being reminded now, that following Jesus has never been about "making the world a better place."  It is really about trying to live a life that is not messed up in a world that we have messed up too badly to fix for ourselves.  We can't expect to remake society in our image.  We can only keep our exit visas from this world open, and encourage others to join us in getting ready to head for a better place, when the time finally does come.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on June 24, 2022, 11:03:28 AM
With that in mind, you might be interested in this series by IVP:

   https://www.ivpress.com/reformation-commentary-on-scripture-set

Book by book, it compiles Reformation writers' commentaries and includes observations by each volume's editor on the historical context and theological approaches each commentator was making.

Sources include homilies, essays, catechisms, and other works. It's part of their periodic survey series, which begins with Early Christian writers, then medieval, etc.

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on June 29, 2022, 08:08:19 AM
I finished Crisis in the Red Zone the other day.  Whew, what a tragic, heartbreaking story.  I cried several times.  In my opinion, the African medical professionals who did their best with their few resources to care for their community and their own comrades were absolutely remarkable heroes.  I'm getting teary-eyed again.  So...

I decided I had to listen to something very uplifting next.  I had the Poirot mysteries but figured I'd see if The 100-Year-Old Man who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared was on Audible.  It was, and it was free!! That is surely a sign.  So I've been listening to that one and really enjoying it.   The narrator (Steven Crossley) is doing a great job so far.  We also have the movie to watch at some point.  Thanks again to ergative for recommending such a wonderful tale.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on July 04, 2022, 02:01:09 PM
June:

Gerhardt Maier: African Dinosaurs Unearthed: the Tendaguru Expeditions - A year-by-year account of 100 years of dinosaur excavations in East Africa (especially Tanzania). The account is exhaustive and, at times, exhausting. It also presupposes quite a bit of knowledge pertaining to dinosaur anatomy and stratigraphy. The level of historical detail is really, really impressive, but it does make for a slow read. It was really cool to read in so much detail about people returning to the site over the decades, however, and to see the overlap in local manpower between the imperial German and British excavation teams. I learned a lot, and it turns out that the Tendaguru fossils are super important. I'd have liked to know a little more about Nazi party activities on the German side, however--that bit gets a little glossed over. There's even some surprising CanCon.

Wallace Ulrich - Stone Fish: Fossils from Ulrich Quarries - Just a short promotional pamphlet, really, but I found it on the free book shelf by the ferry. It's from 1977, and not especially well written (in particular, I'm not sure whether Ulrich knows what 'tedious' means, or whether his repeated use of the term in describing the preparation process is a bit of a joke). But it offers a little bit of insight into the preparation process, which is cool.

Adrian Tchaikovsky: Shards of Earth - A new space opera trilogy following the unlikely exploits of a deep-space scavenging crew several decades after enigmatic aliens have destroyed Earth. This was fun, as usual.

Adrian Tchaikovsky: Eyes of the Void - The sequel to Shards of Earth. Also fun, although the Idris character is getting to be somewhat tedious in his utter helplessness. I look forward to the third installment, which promises to tie up the story. (It does seem like the story has gotten a little too operatic and large, but whatever--it's fun!).

Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: AvidReader on July 04, 2022, 03:16:18 PM
Quote from: apl68 on June 24, 2022, 10:43:11 AM
English Society: 1580-1680, by Keith Wrightson.  Early Modern Britain was my area of specialty in my PhD program days in the early 1990s, and Keith Wrightson was (and is) a big name in the field.  Re-reading some of his work reminds me of why I found the field so fascinating back in the day. 

Ralph Tailor's Summer is the most engaging academic book I have ever read. If you liked English Sociaty and haven't come across RTS, I cannot recommend it highly enough.

AR.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on July 04, 2022, 04:57:21 PM
Quote from: ab_grp on June 29, 2022, 08:08:19 AM
I decided I had to listen to something very uplifting next.  I had the Poirot mysteries but figured I'd see if The 100-Year-Old Man who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared was on Audible.  It was, and it was free!! That is surely a sign.  So I've been listening to that one and really enjoying it.   The narrator (Steven Crossley) is doing a great job so far.  We also have the movie to watch at some point.  Thanks again to ergative for recommending such a wonderful tale.

I finished this the other day, though not without having a need for more tissues.  This time, though, they were because the story is just so dang sweet, and the characters so adorable, that I just want to be in their story with them.  The narrator was excellent, and I can't picture the story being read by anyone but him anymore.  I noticed on Audible that there is a second book in the series! I didn't even realize it was a series.  I might pick it up if it's on sale at some point, but the reviews are pretty mixed, and the negative consensus seems to be that the book is heavy-handed when it comes to political commentary (the further adventures involve real world leaders again, but this time from just a couple years ago).  I am not sure if that just indicates that these reviewers are probably supporters of some of the maligned world leaders.  But let me just recommend book one again, both in hard copy (or ebook) and audio version.

Now I'm listening to an unabridged version of Liar's Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street (Michael Lewis; same).  This book seems so far to focus on Lewis's career at Salomon Brothers on Wall Street starting in the 80s.  I'm not too far along in it, but there are some interesting insights into the working environment as well as the decision to make the interest rate variable and impact on the bond market and the onset of mortgage trading.  I briefly thought about looking into careers in the financial world in grad school after taking some classes involving stochastic processes and arbitrage.  It doesn't sound like the kind of place I'd like to work (and in hindsight since many of the collapses and breakdowns and excesses, I am glad I didn't!), but I do find it kind of fascinating. 
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on July 05, 2022, 07:49:46 AM
Quote from: AvidReader on July 04, 2022, 03:16:18 PM
Quote from: apl68 on June 24, 2022, 10:43:11 AM
English Society: 1580-1680, by Keith Wrightson.  Early Modern Britain was my area of specialty in my PhD program days in the early 1990s, and Keith Wrightson was (and is) a big name in the field.  Re-reading some of his work reminds me of why I found the field so fascinating back in the day. 

Ralph Tailor's Summer is the most engaging academic book I have ever read. If you liked English Sociaty and haven't come across RTS, I cannot recommend it highly enough.

AR.

That does look interesting!  I'll have to see if I can ILL it.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on July 05, 2022, 07:54:26 AM
Ha!

ILL as a verb.

;--》

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on July 05, 2022, 08:06:48 AM
Lost Cities and Vanished Civilizations, by Robert Silverberg.  Though he's best known for his science fiction, Silverberg wrote quite a bit of nonfiction in the 1960s and early 1970s.  It mostly seems to have been potboiler general-interest work.  This early '60s effort has chapters on Pompeii, Troy, Knossos, Babylon, Chichen Itza, and Ankor.  Each accessibly and concisely tells how trailblazing archaeologists rediscovered these places, deciphered their written records, and developed theories and speculation regarding their histories. 

I first ran across this in paperback as a kid, a little while before Indiana Jones came along and made archaeology cool.  This is one of several books that I recall doing much to spark my lifetime interest in history (Which led to that failed bid to become a professional historian).  Reading through it now, I find that it holds up better than I would have thought.  Silverberg does a pretty fair job of getting across what was then known and believed to have been known about these cultures.  Of course, archaeology has moved on a long way in the past 60 years.  This makes me want to refresh my knowledge about more recent developments in the study of Pompeii, Troy, etc.

Silverberg ends with the observation that the future great archaeologists of the '80s and '90s are no doubt in school right now, developing an early interest in past civilizations the way Schliemann and others did in their day.  Silverberg the science fiction writer also can't help speculating about the upcoming exploration of neighboring planets Mars and Venus.  Who, he wonders, will be the Schliemann of Mars?  Sad to say that within just a few years early deep space probes to Mars and Venus would indicate strongly that there would never be one.  Our neighboring planets are just too environmentally hostile to have ever boasted civilizations of their own.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on July 05, 2022, 08:10:29 AM
Quote from: mamselle on July 05, 2022, 07:54:26 AM
Ha!

ILL as a verb.

;--》

M.

Verbs are action words, and some years of working in an ILL department at an R1 university taught me that an ILL department is nothing if not busy.  It wasn't unusual for us to get over 200 borrowing requests in one day.  Running up and down fetching ILL materials from our eight-story main library and the branches around campus helped me to be in the best shape I've ever been in.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on July 05, 2022, 08:17:42 AM
Yes, I briefly ran the microfilm/fiche department at a university library on a short-term basis, before digitized scans existed or were much-used (early 90s).

We had cabinets and cabinets full of a national database of ephemera on file, and were asked to fill many ILL orders because it was simpler to pull up those already-created images and print them directly, rather than have someone stand and scan an article or object.

Kept my student interns active, for sure.

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on July 05, 2022, 08:41:29 AM
Quote from: mamselle on July 05, 2022, 08:17:42 AM
Yes, I briefly ran the microfilm/fiche department at a university library on a short-term basis, before digitized scans existed or were much-used (early 90s).

We had cabinets and cabinets full of a national database of ephemera on file, and were asked to fill many ILL orders because it was simpler to pull up those already-created images and print them directly, rather than have someone stand and scan an article or object.

Kept my student interns active, for sure.

M.

That's actually how I was introduced to ILL work.  I started out working part-time in the microfilm/video/anything-else-that-wasn't-a-book department in our library.  As the senior student worker, I was the one who had to pull and print off any ILLs involving microforms.  When I washed out of the PhD program, they turned my part-time position into full-time by taking me on at ILL as well.  I divided my days between the media center and ILL from that time on.  It gave me an unusually wide variety of experience at a library where most positions were highly specialized.  That variety of experience stood me in good stead when I got to move to the directorship of a small-town public library.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on July 08, 2022, 10:41:31 AM
Hoover Dam:  An American Adventure, by Joseph E. Stevens.  In 1931 the U.S. government began work on an unprecedentedly huge concrete dam across the Colorado River near Las Vegas.  It was one of the most ambitious and complex engineering projects ever undertaken.  The builders had to construct roads in remote and rugged terrain.  They had to build huge tunneling rigs called "jumbos"--early forerunners of today's hi-tech boring machines--to excavate three miles of huge tunnels to divert the river flow.  They had to build a huge cofferdam upstream.  They built a whole town from scratch to house workers and their families.  All this was before work could begin on the actual dam!  The dam itself required the building of huge on-site concrete plants and foundries, and the creation of a complicated network of overhead tram lines and tracks to move workers and materials around the site efficiently.

Stevens gives detailed descriptions of each stage of construction.  He also tells how six major building contractors came together to form a consortium big enough to do the job; how thousands of workers and their families poured into the region from all over the Depression-stricken U.S.; how the worksite and the town built to support it were run; and how numerous managers and administrators representing many companies, communities, agencies, and interests surmounted challenges and battled over jurisdictional matters.

Then there were the labor issues.  The "Six Companies" paid fairly good wages by 1930s standards, fed the workers well, and provided them with accommodations and medical care.  They also tried to claw back as much of the wages as possible through company stores and high prices for cheaply-built lodgings.  Speed of construction was prioritized over safety to the point of causing dozens of preventable deaths, although some of the 96 deaths on the site were probably inevitable.  Six Companies sometimes resorted to underhanded methods, including alleged jury fixing, to keep injured workers from winning suits against them.  Attempts at labor organization foundered when the loony left IWW--not for the first time in its history--came barnstorming into town with such extreme rhetoric and tactics that they put off many workers and played right into management's hands.  Later efforts by more moderate union organizers were just beginning to bear fruit when the project finished.  At least future federal works projects would be much better regulated.

Stevens provides a very vivid picture of an immense undertaking that seeks to be fair and sympathetic to all involved, even people who weren't always very sympathetic.  He ends by describing the whole project as an achievement to celebrate, with a celebratory poem by May Sarton having the last word.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on July 08, 2022, 11:20:04 AM
Colossus:  The Turbulent, Thrilling Saga of the Building of Hoover Dam, by Michael Hiltzik.  Hiltzik covers much the same vast stretch of ground as in the Stevens book above.  The emphases are different.  Although Hiltzik's treatment of the actual construction is quite good as far as it goes, he devotes far less space to it than Stevens, in preference to a far more in-depth treatment of the decades-long political and economic background to the grand Colorado River management plan of which Hoover Dam was the centerpiece.  He also covers the same labor matters and other human interest stories, but with sometimes different perspectives.  It's interesting to see how two equally good and well-researched writers can produce accounts of the same events that complement each other so well.

It's also interesting to see the difference that 22 years makes.  Stevens, writing in 1988, tells a conscientious warts-and-all account of the Hoover Dam project and its personalities, and ultimately finds it a cause for celebration.  Hiltzik can't help admiring the engineering achievement, and ends by noting that those who worked on the project by and large took great pride in helping to make history.  But, writing at a time when it was becoming clear that global warming and worsening droughts are making unsustainable the vast farmlands and cities that Hoover Dam was built to make possible, he can't help questioning whether the massive utilization of the Colorado River's resources to carve cities out of the desert was really a good idea in hindsight.

What would a book on Hoover Dam published today look like?  I have a sinking feeling that it would take a relentlessly prosecutorial tone, representing the whole project as an immense capitalist/colonialist conspiracy against all that is decent and good, no doubt traceable all the way back to the evils of 1619.  In other words, not so much warts-and-all as all warts.  Which doesn't really seem fair.  The great era of western dam building is indeed looking more and more like a terrible series of mistakes, but we're making these judgements with generations' worth of hindsight to go on.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on July 08, 2022, 04:32:34 PM
Or, possibly, generations of ignored foresight?

I don't know enough to know about this in particular, but I do know other kinds of projects are often put through despite strong indicators of their potential for falibility and failure even as they're being touted for the heroic projects they're promised to become.

The other kinds of books might be out there, or not, I also don't know about that; it might indeed make an interesting reading quest.

A quick search revealed a discussion of these 3 dam removal projects, along with their substantiating theoretics:

   https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2015-2-march-april/green-life/3-dam-detonation-videos-prove-going-green-blowing   

Glen Canyon (our family visited that area in the 1970s):

   https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/160411-klamath-glen-canyon-dam-removal-video-anniversary

And from the BBC, on an international and historical scale:

   https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51459930 

I could even see an interdisciplinary class on something like that; it would involve engineering, ecology, sociology (there are towns displaced by dams, like this one:

   https://newengland.com/today/living/new-england-history/lost-towns-quabbin-reservoir/#:~:text=The%20four%20lost%20towns%20of,life%20that%20they%20once%20supported.

...and economics as well as agrarian land management and animal husbandry dimensions to be studied.

Hmmmm....interesting topic, indeed.

But I'd agree, one wants a balanced approach to any such study.

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on July 09, 2022, 06:20:21 AM
Quote from: mamselle on July 08, 2022, 04:32:34 PM
Or, possibly, generations of ignored foresight?

I don't know enough to know about this in particular, but I do know other kinds of projects are often put through despite strong indicators of their potential for falibility and failure even as they're being touted for the heroic projects they're promised to become.

The other kinds of books might be out there, or not, I also don't know about that; it might indeed make an interesting reading quest.

A quick search revealed a discussion of these 3 dam removal projects, along with their substantiating theoretics:

   https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2015-2-march-april/green-life/3-dam-detonation-videos-prove-going-green-blowing   

Glen Canyon (our family visited that area in the 1970s):

   https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/160411-klamath-glen-canyon-dam-removal-video-anniversary

And from the BBC, on an international and historical scale:

   https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51459930 

I could even see an interdisciplinary class on something like that; it would involve engineering, ecology, sociology (there are towns displaced by dams, like this one:

   https://newengland.com/today/living/new-england-history/lost-towns-quabbin-reservoir/#:~:text=The%20four%20lost%20towns%20of,life%20that%20they%20once%20supported.

...and economics as well as agrarian land management and animal husbandry dimensions to be studied.

Hmmmm....interesting topic, indeed.

But I'd agree, one wants a balanced approach to any such study.

M.

Cadillac Desert, by Marc Reisner, is a good study of dam-building mania and its unintended consequences.  It's where I first became interested in the topic of water and river management. 
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on July 22, 2022, 10:41:19 AM
Cults:  Inside the World's Most Notorious Groups and Understanding the People Who Join Them, by Max Cutler.  We just got this in at our library.  It's a look at such infamous leaders as Charles Manson, Jim Jones, and David Koresh, and the groups that they started.  Each chapter gives a kind of potted history of each guru's early life, career, and downfall.  Some of these figures, such as Credonia Mwerinde, aren't as well known.  Most have had any number of books written about them already, so true-crime fans who are into reading about cults might not learn anything new.  For somebody like me who hasn't read a great deal on the subject, it's pretty informative.

Although Cutler doesn't sensationalize his subjects, the stories here are so horrible that they can be hard to read through.  These criminal cult leaders mostly lived lives of such gross dysfunction that it's hard to see why anybody would so much as consent to spend any time in their presence--and yet others trusted their whole lives to them.  Cutler tries to look into the psychology of why people would turn to such leaders.  I tend to think that G.K. Chesterton had something there when he said, "The nineteenth century decided to have no religious authority.  The twentieth century seems disposed to have any religious authority."  And the twenty-first century, in this as in so much else, is the twentieth century on steroids.

The stories of these destructive leaders are a good source of reflection on what, and what not, to look for in trustworthy spiritual leaders, so this unpleasant read wasn't a waste of time.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on July 22, 2022, 11:09:09 AM
I've known three people who were in cults while I knew them.

One, a once-popular acquaintance from high school, was convinced she was on the right path, wouldn't listen to alternatives or answer thoughtful questions. I don't know where she ended up.

Another, my older younger brother, has bounced from group to group most of his adult life. He ends up finding something objectionable, leaves, and starts over somewhere else...leaving, in some cases, his living quarters, possessions, furniture, etc. behind. He, too, won't discuss options; my sister is better able to converse with him than I am. He tries to pull me into convoluted theological discussions that he would lose if I really let loose on his lack of logic, but I've held back because he's pretty fragile, doesn't seem like he'd do well if I showed him how he was wrong.

Another, long ago, came to my door to try to convert me. He was himself confused, uncertain and a bit wild-eyed. I ended up de-converting him and helping him find a homeless shelter so he could get away from the cult, which was making him beg for donations and then taking them all. He visited the church I was attending at the time, a couple times, then disappeared. I don't know what he ended up doing, either.

For a couple of years, I was in a campus fellowship that might have had a few cult-like tendencies, but we talked things out whenever they surfaced, and I think we mostly managed to stay sane. I moved away, stayed in touch for awhile, and recently heard back from a couple of other folks who had also left, and stayed in and out of touch. They had a more negative response than I did to it, but we've all moved on to more stable situations.

The thing I learned most from the group I was in, that I hadn't gotten from any of the churches I'd been in, was how to live in community. The thing I had to leave behind when I left was their ideas about married females submitting to their male spouses.

That doesn't work very well if the male is abusive, as I quickly discovered.

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on July 22, 2022, 07:09:19 PM
From the library: Switchboard Soldiers by Jennifer Chiaverini
New novel about the women who worked in the US Army Signal Corps during WWI.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on July 23, 2022, 06:45:14 PM
I finished reading The Chronicles of Prydain* to Smolt.  She actually lost interest about midway through the last book.  I consider it a poor man's Tolkein, with many of the same plot beats, although there are some novelties.  It is a Celtic-based world (e.g. Taliesin, the High Druid, is in it) and it is overall worth reading, but it is early young-adult level.

It also wraps up too neatly, there are too many Deus ex machina moments, and too much of the background history and culture is lacking to really feel like a complete world.  I wish I had read it when I was younger (I would have enjoyed it more in my Dragonriders of Pern days).

If you want a quality audiobook rendition, the one narrated by James Langdon does a great job on the accents and the character voices (esp Gurgi and Princess Eilonwy).

*The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron, The Castle of Lyr, Taran Wanderer, and The High King.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on July 23, 2022, 10:59:57 PM
I discovered the Taran and Eillonwy series in sixth grade, bought and read them all (in paperback). Still have them.

The thing about that series was that it was really, really early for a series with a mouthy, bratty, bright female character who was allowed to be right and lead and win battles. I have tried to live after her pattern.

You're probably right about the 'deus ex machina' events, but to me, that was a part of the magic.

I didn't--couldn't--read Tolkien for probably 10 years after that, and at times I found it so convoluted and thick with descriptive passages that I had to put it down--could only take it on in small doses.

And his female characters, where they exist--don't fare nearly so well, either.

Alexander did some other books worth reading for younger readers, as well. One group--which gets a bit formulaic, but is still fun--is a fantasy travel series of geeky 19th c. kids from Philadelphia.

Smolt might enjoy one or two of those.

M.



Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on July 24, 2022, 02:33:34 AM
Those YA fantasy books really need to be read as a child, I've found, to hit properly. I'd heard such fabulously positive things about Garth Nix that I read the entire Lirael trilogy. It was... fine. Perfectly ok. Nothing special. I could see that there were some evocative components that might have been enchanting to a younger reader, but to me, at 30+, meh.

The exception to this rule, of course, is the Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C Wrede, everything in the Tortall universe by Tamora Pierce, and John Bellairs mysteries (before he died and the name was taken over by a different writer). Those are outstanding stories, and the fact that I read them all when I was a child is not in the slightest bit related to this claim.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on July 26, 2022, 08:32:02 AM
I don't know any of the others you've named, but John Bellairs was a sweet, funny, troubled, brilliant person.

I only met him, and read his books, much later, in adulthood. I was mixed on some of them. I wanted to like them, but sometimes they were hard to get into.

At other times, they were pure joy.

M.

Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on July 26, 2022, 02:09:19 PM
Thanks for the suggestions, it's been hard to find Smolt appropriate stuff.

We took her to see the musical WICKED, and decided to read the book first.  Not a big hit.

She still likes to go back to a Junie B Jones for a palate cleanser. 
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: downer on July 26, 2022, 02:38:30 PM
Ruth Ozeki. The Book of Form and Emptiness.

Very impressive. And her fans say it is not her best book. I should read the others.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on July 26, 2022, 02:43:14 PM
Quote from: FishProf on July 26, 2022, 02:09:19 PM
Thanks for the suggestions, it's been hard to find Smolt appropriate stuff.

We took her to see the musical WICKED, and decided to read the book first.  Not a big hit.

She still likes to go back to a Junie B Jones for a palate cleanser.

How old is Smolt? I have a wide variety of recommendations for middle-school-ish readers.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on July 27, 2022, 10:45:21 AM
Quote from: ergative on July 26, 2022, 02:43:14 PM
Quote from: FishProf on July 26, 2022, 02:09:19 PM
Thanks for the suggestions, it's been hard to find Smolt appropriate stuff.

We took her to see the musical WICKED, and decided to read the book first.  Not a big hit.

She still likes to go back to a Junie B Jones for a palate cleanser.

How old is Smolt? I have a wide variety of recommendations for middle-school-ish readers.

She's 10.  Recommendations welcome.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on July 27, 2022, 11:36:25 AM
Hmmm. Here's what I was tearing through at age 10:

John Bellairs, Patricia C Wrede, and Tamora Pierce, as mentioned upthread. (Tamora Pierce might be best left until age 13 or so, as her books tend to start out with children and then over the course of a quartet the children have a sexual awakening.)
Redwall. All the Redwall. Every Redwall I could lay my hands on.
My Father's Dragon, by Ruth Stiles Gannet (the whole trilogy. It's quite old--I can't promise it's held up, but I remember it was very charming)
Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House series (although be prepared to have Talks about the treatment of Native Americans in Little House on the Prairie)
CW Anderson's horse books. Great photorealistic (as I recall) illustrations.
Everything by Jim Kjelgaard: Terrific man vs. nature books, often with alternating narratives told from the perspectives of humans and wild animals.
The first half of Walter Farley's Black Stallion series. Things got weird around The Island Stallion Races (aliens), nd The Black Stallion's Ghost was profoundly disturbing to young me, but I quite liked The Horse Tamer and especially Man O' War from the later books.
Horatio Alger books. Like, the actual books by the actual guy. I still have a huge collection of them. I enjoyed the formula.
The Fabulous Flight and Mr Revere and I by Robert Lawson. I bounced off Ben and me for reasons I can't remember. Great illustrations.
Most things by Beverly Cleary

These are, of course, all 30 years out of date. I'm sure new stuff is being written that's terrific, but I'm not so up on those. As I mentioned upthread you sometimes need to be 10 to properly appreciate a book for a 10-year-old. I've been meaning to read Voyage of the Dogs by Greg van Eekhout, though. It has a terrific premise.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on July 27, 2022, 12:51:07 PM
Ohhh, can I play?

Let's see:

First off, no matter how old or young, everyone has to read the Dillingers' "Pish, Posh, said Heironymous Bosch." Beautiful artwork, layered story with applicable narrative for a range of ages in different ways.

All the Barbara Coney books: they may seem 'young' but are again multivalent and I still look at them. 'Island Boy,' 'Roxaboxen,' 'Elinor,' 'Miss Rumphius,' 'Emily' come to mind, there are more. Also good conversation prompts to get at the deeper implications for older young children.

A couple of my students' families love the dismally entertaining 'Lemony Snicket' series, have read all of them, and talk about them as a language of their own. (Some gruesome events are described, you may want to look at one first to see if your reader would be OK with it.)

Ditto the "Mysterious Benedict Society," with its prequel, sequels, and a companion "Puzzles, Enigmas, and Conundrums" book. Basic message, it's fun being intelligent and using that as gift, not as a weapon against others.

In discussing Alexander's other adventure series ("The Illyrian Adventure," etc.) I meant to mention that he takes his characters to places American kids don't hear much about, like Eastern European countries they have to look up to locate, and parts of China they would be unlikely to hear discussed in the (woefully blinkered) American news and social studies classes. Mind-broadening in more than one way.

MacKen's "Flight of the Doves" is a page-turner (also some violence implied, again, a pre-read might be in order) and has some beautiful description sections. Set in Ireland, it's more down-to-earth and gritty--no leprechauns help the kids out of their plight. I think there are others in the series but haven't read them.

"Landslide," I thought, was one of a group of Australian children's fiction books about how kids survive natural disasters and prevail, but it's not showing up in my searchers; can't recall the author, but I remember they were very realistic and very good.

OK, work to do and disaster will strike if I don't get started on it!!

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: onthefringe on July 27, 2022, 01:00:56 PM
Here's what the fringelet was enjoying at or near that age (10-ish years ago)

Rick Riordan, especially the Percy Jackson Series and the Kane Chronicles.
The (endless) Warrior Cats series by Erin Hunter (fair warning I loathed these, but she adored them)
All the Tamora Pierce books
Age appropriate Neil Gaiman (Coraline and The Graveyard Book and Odd and the Frost Giants)
D'Aulaire's Greek Mythology
Cathrynne M. Valente's Girl who Ruled Fairyland series

Though the vast majority of Seanan McGuire is likely NOT tween-appropriate, I found her "Up and Under" series starting with Over the Woodward Wall (written under the name A. Deborah Baker for reasons) thoroughly charming (kind of a self-aware Oz/Narnia series), and I think an actual 10 year old might like it too...


Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: fleabite on July 27, 2022, 01:52:13 PM
Smolt might enjoy The Wolves of Willoughby Chase and its sequel, Black Hearts in Battersea. Other favorites: The Phantom Tollbooth, A Walk Out of the World, and My Side of the Mountain (I'm not sure whether the last might be most suitable for a child one or two years older).
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on July 27, 2022, 02:31:23 PM
Quote from: fleabite on July 27, 2022, 01:52:13 PM
Smolt might enjoy The Wolves of Willoughby Chase and its sequel, Black Hearts in Battersea. Other favorites: The Phantom Tollbooth, A Walk Out of the World, and My Side of the Mountain (I'm not sure whether the last might be most suitable for a child one or two years older).

Oh, yes, I loved The Phantom Tollbooth.

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase series is, I think, written for people who can appreciate that it's an alternate history of England in which the Jacobites won (so instead of Bonnie Prince Charlie you have Bonnie Prince Georgie). That all went way over my head and I found the political stuff very perplexing. My mother loves those books. She had to explain the history stuff to me.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: fleabite on July 27, 2022, 04:33:00 PM
I had no idea that an alternative history of England was involved. My father purchased the first of the two books on his way home from work when I was home sick at around age 10 and I gobbled it down and loved it. I read it a number of other times and never found it puzzling. Maybe I just didn't know English history well enough.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: onthefringe on July 27, 2022, 07:53:59 PM
Quote from: fleabite on July 27, 2022, 04:33:00 PM
I had no idea that an alternative history of England was involved. My father purchased the first of the two books on his way home from work when I was home sick at around age 10 and I gobbled it down and loved it. I read it a number of other times and never found it puzzling. Maybe I just didn't know English history well enough.

Agreed — I loved that book an found out it was alternate history...today. Maybe the lifetime of reading speculative fiction left me inured to being confused by a book's politics?
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on August 02, 2022, 07:33:57 AM
Beau Geste, by P.C. Wren.  This is one of those bestsellers of yesteryear that has long been best known to the general public through its Hollywood adaptations and parodies.  Interested readers can still find the originals in public-domain reprints, such as the used Dover paperback that I read here.  Beau Geste is, of course, one of the principal originators of the now largely forgotten genre of French Foreign Legion thrillers.  The doomed garrison of Fort Zinderneuf certainly fits the stereotype of hard-cases being pushed into mutiny by brutal martinet officers.  It's worth noting that the book's narrator pointedly says that most legionnaires and their officers were not like that.  The Fort Zinderneuf disaster is portrayed as stemming from a most unfortunate collision of personalities and circumstances. 

But that's the image that most subsequent depictions of the Legion picked up on.  The real-life Legion has ever since had to contend with a reputation as a collection of crazed officers and fugitives from justice (And, after World War II, a probably equally exaggerated reputation for harboring escaped Nazis).  P.C. Wren famously claimed that he had personally served in the Legion.  His details of Legion life in the early 1900s do reportedly check out for the most part.  Whether he actually experienced these details first-hand has long been open to debate.

Like many vintage thrillers, Beau Geste comes across as talky and slow-paced by more recent standards.  It consists largely of very long conversations.  If you have a soft spot for the rhythms, vocabulary, and humor of vintage dialog, this may not be an objection.  The author's idea of how Americans, Italians, and other nationalities talked can be quite amusing if you're in the mood for it.  There are, inevitably in such an old book (Or in almost anything written more than about ten years ago, really) casual expressions of social attitudes that would not be welcome today.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on August 02, 2022, 08:11:57 AM
A French film, 《Beau Travail》might be based on that, or just in the genre, but was very were done. There's not a lot of dialogue, so even if ones French is limited, it communicates well.

Just a crossover thought....

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on August 02, 2022, 08:33:04 AM
Quote from: ergative on July 27, 2022, 11:36:25 AM

Redwall. All the Redwall. Every Redwall I could lay my hands on.



Oh yes! I loved Redwall around that age (as did my partner, whose first present to me was the Redwall Cookbook!).


You probably don't know about these, since they're Canadiana, but I highly recommend Gordon Korman's books (everything he wrote until the early 1990s is great; the stuff after that, I can't vouch for). You should start with I Want to Go Home, which is hilarious (even for adults). If she likes that, then the Macdonald Hall series is also great.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Juvenal on August 03, 2022, 08:19:57 AM
https://thecritic.co.uk/on-pretending-to-have-read-books/

Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on August 03, 2022, 09:02:54 AM
I finished the A Land Fit for Heroes series (The Steel Remain, The Cold Commands, and The Dark Defiles) by Richard Morgan (review of the first book is an earlier post).

I loved this series, although the ending was....difficult? But some non-spoiler-ey comments:

1) I loved the Character development, but was left wanting more at the end for 2 of 3 protagonists;
2) I think I understand how one of the plot lines was resolved, but the other was left hanging, obviously and intentionally, which is aggravating (sequelae coming?)
3) Book 3 was as long or longer that 1+2, so technically a Trilogy, but more like a 5-6 part-er (not unlike Lord of the rings which is 6 books, not 3...or 1 book if you believe Tolkien himself).
4) Some online reading suggests I need to read at least one other series by Morgan to really get what was going on.  Which is cool, I love the style.
5) Simon Vance is an amazing narrator of the Audio Books.

Again, if you like Joe Abercrombie, I strongly recommend.

BTW - thanks for suggestions for Smolt, we are just starting Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary and The Black Stallion, Tuck Everlasting and Bridge to Terebithia are in the que.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Puget on August 03, 2022, 04:20:13 PM
I just got back from a backpacking trip with a grad school friend, which was wonderful in many ways, one of which is that she had never read The Hobbit, so we brought it along and read it aloud in camp in the evenings. Story time doesn't have to end just because you're all grown up!

Quote from: downer on July 26, 2022, 02:38:30 PM
Ruth Ozeki. The Book of Form and Emptiness.

Very impressive. And her fans say it is not her best book. I should read the others.

Read A Tale for the Time Being.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on August 03, 2022, 04:23:12 PM
I might have started re-reading all my Dick Francis books.

"Dead Heat," last night.

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on August 03, 2022, 05:22:17 PM
It's been a while again, apparently! Now that I have glasses, we are back to (slowly) reading the sixth Expanse book.  And I listened to a novella from that series today: The Churn (James S. A. Corey; Jefferson Mays).  The novella is about a particular part of Amos's life, and it filled in some blanks brought up in the series.  I enjoyed it and was glad to learn some more detail about Amos's background.

Others I have listened to recently include...
Quote from: ab_grp on July 04, 2022, 04:57:21 PM
Now I'm listening to an unabridged version of Liar's Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street (Michael Lewis; same).  This book seems so far to focus on Lewis's career at Salomon Brothers on Wall Street starting in the 80s.  I'm not too far along in it, but there are some interesting insights into the working environment as well as the decision to make the interest rate variable and impact on the bond market and the onset of mortgage trading.  I briefly thought about looking into careers in the financial world in grad school after taking some classes involving stochastic processes and arbitrage.  It doesn't sound like the kind of place I'd like to work (and in hindsight since many of the collapses and breakdowns and excesses, I am glad I didn't!), but I do find it kind of fascinating.
I finished it and thought it was intriguing but easy for me to tune out because the people he worked with seem like huge jackasses.  I'm sure if I were in the industry it would be an interesting slam book, but for me it was mostly just a couple interesting points here and there amid a sea of ick.

Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome's Greatest Politician (Anthony Everett; John Curless).  I started this one and got a couple hours in but got sidetracked into the world of true-crime podcasts (even though this book starts with a famous crime!).  I will try to get back to it soon.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass (Lewis Carroll; Michael Page).  I liked this narrator previously and hadn't read the stories so figured why not.  Page really gets into it with his voices, and I think that made it much more appealing for me.

I think that's it since early July.  Sadly, I really did get hooked on various true-crime podcasts there for a while until I pretty much ran out of them!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on August 04, 2022, 01:35:09 AM
I've been really enjoying the first two books of the Rook and Rose trilogy, by M A Carrick (the pen-name of Marie Brennan--whom I adore--writing with someone else I don't know.) It's rich, twisty fantasy, with very detailed city-building and descriptions of uneasy cultural amalgamation; a wonderful social-manners long-con, secret identities, crime and high society, magic, mystery, mayhem, and even a titchy bit of romance. The plotting is very elaborate and requires a deep understanding of the magic system and keeping track of a vast set of characters, so I'll need to read it again to fully appreciate how everything fits together, but it's such a good world that I look forward to doing that when book 3 comes out in the next year or so.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on August 04, 2022, 08:42:43 AM
July:


Holly Fitzgerald - Ruthless River: Love and Survival by Raft on the Amazon's Relentless Madre de Dios: A very easy and compelling read about a real life survival ordeal. I have to say, though, that the author and her husband are just clueless. Man, are they stupid. As someone with a modicum of outdoors experience, it's kind of painful to read about. Geeze. I guess that was the 1960s for you?


Chris Boyce - Catchworld: This is just awful. It was award-winning 1970s SciFi, but Bog only knows why. The writing is awful and the plot is completely disjointed and totally incomprehensible. It's five completely different stories slapped together into a single one by someone who was clearly on drugs when he wrote it. There's some boring katana-plonking, some mildly interesting suicide-mission-wrestling-against-the-computer stuff, obligatory 1970s ESP bullshit, a bad imitation of some movie or other, and then another incomprehensible imitation of something planetside (2001?). It was totally nonsensical. Shit would happen entirely out of left field (e.g., Biblical demons manifesting--because the author was high and had seen The Exorcist recently), and there's no explanation for it to be found anywhere. The best I was hoping for was that, at the end, it was all a simulation inside some AI. But it wasn't. The '70s had no standards. Ugh.


Adrian Tchaikovsky - The Doors of Eden: Sort of a mashup between Charles Stross's Atrocity Archives, Robert J. Sawyer's Neanderthal Parallax and Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter's Long Earth series (ugh), but better than both those last two. It was OK. I wasn't super into it, apart from the brief dinobits, but it was fine entertainment.


Adrian Tchaikovsky - Dogs of War: I didn't think I'd like this, but I did. It didn't hook me immediately, but it didn't take too long to do so. It's an unexpectedly good take on using tech to augment biological creatures in a near-future. There's a surprisingly nuanced and insightful overcurrent about abusive relationships, and about the use of negative reinforcement in animal training. It shifts from action to courtroom drama halfway through, then back to action, but I would have been down for a much more detailed and lengthy courtroom drama. I liked the wrongfooting, and it wouldn't have been a bad thing to stick to it.



Quote from: ergative on August 04, 2022, 01:35:09 AM
I've been really enjoying the first two books of the Rook and Rose trilogy, by M A Carrick (the pen-name of Marie Brennan--whom I adore--writing with someone else I don't know.) It's rich, twisty fantasy, with very detailed city-building and descriptions of uneasy cultural amalgamation; a wonderful social-manners long-con, secret identities, crime and high society, magic, mystery, mayhem, and even a titchy bit of romance. The plotting is very elaborate and requires a deep understanding of the magic system and keeping track of a vast set of characters, so I'll need to read it again to fully appreciate how everything fits together, but it's such a good world that I look forward to doing that when book 3 comes out in the next year or so.

Sounds good! I'll check them out!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on August 05, 2022, 07:30:27 PM
From the library: Around the World in 80 Books by David Damrosch
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on August 06, 2022, 03:40:33 AM
Ooo....which 80?

ONLY 80?...

I realize one can't list them all here, but what a tantalizing concept!

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on August 06, 2022, 06:10:32 AM
Quote from: mamselle on August 06, 2022, 03:40:33 AM
Ooo....which 80?

ONLY 80?...

I realize one can't list them all here, but what a tantalizing concept!

M.

This made me curious too.  I just did a quick search of some reviews, and couldn't see a handy list.  I did find various other authors' and blogs' lists on the same theme.  Apparently Damrosch was not the first to get this idea. 
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on August 06, 2022, 07:32:11 AM
That would be a cool assignment, actually, to list ones own 80 significant books from around the world.

Hmmm.....

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on August 06, 2022, 07:34:40 PM
I should've added this:
https://www.amazon.com/Around-World-Books-David-Damrosch/dp/0593299884/ref=sr_1_1?crid=17C6SPTM7GISI&keywords=around+the+world+in+80+books+david+damrosch&qid=1659839085&s=books&sprefix=around+the+world+in+80+book%2Cstripbooks%2C68&sr=1-1 (https://www.amazon.com/Around-World-Books-David-Damrosch/dp/0593299884/ref=sr_1_1?crid=17C6SPTM7GISI&keywords=around+the+world+in+80+books+david+damrosch&qid=1659839085&s=books&sprefix=around+the+world+in+80+book%2Cstripbooks%2C68&sr=1-1)
The book has black & white photos and archival images throughout.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: jimbogumbo on August 07, 2022, 02:21:13 PM
The Atlas Six, Olivie Blake. Now I need The Atlas Paradox to be; need it, I tell you!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on August 08, 2022, 10:00:58 AM
Quote from: hmaria1609 on August 06, 2022, 07:34:40 PM
I should've added this:
https://www.amazon.com/Around-World-Books-David-Damrosch/dp/0593299884/ref=sr_1_1?crid=17C6SPTM7GISI&keywords=around+the+world+in+80+books+david+damrosch&qid=1659839085&s=books&sprefix=around+the+world+in+80+book%2Cstripbooks%2C68&sr=1-1 (https://www.amazon.com/Around-World-Books-David-Damrosch/dp/0593299884/ref=sr_1_1?crid=17C6SPTM7GISI&keywords=around+the+world+in+80+books+david+damrosch&qid=1659839085&s=books&sprefix=around+the+world+in+80+book%2Cstripbooks%2C68&sr=1-1)
The book has black & white photos and archival images throughout.

I had tried to check the table of contents on Amazon and it wouldn't work.  I guess that was due to our flaky internet access that day.  This morning it worked fine using your link. 

Let's see...I've read 18 items on that list, and sampled several others.  Others I know by reputation (in some cases a reputation for unreadability), and still others are a first for me.  Interesting to see at least one graphic novel there.  And some items that are actually great fun to read.  Damrosch is probably never going to be selected to be on the Newberry committee....
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on August 08, 2022, 07:19:56 PM
From the library: Glass Town by Isabel Greenberg (YA)
A graphic novel adaption of the original novel by the Bronte siblings (Charlotte, Branwell, Emily, and Anne) and a biographical telling about their lives.
https://www.isabelgreenberg.co.uk/glass-town (https://www.isabelgreenberg.co.uk/glass-town)
The colors in the illustrations were impressive! I read and own the Oxford World's Classics edition of Glass Town, Angria, and Gondal and selected early writings by the Brontes, copyright 2010.

Quote from: apl68 on August 08, 2022, 10:00:58 AM
I had tried to check the table of contents on Amazon and it wouldn't work.  I guess that was due to our flaky internet access that day.  This morning it worked fine using your link. 

Let's see...I've read 18 items on that list, and sampled several others.  Others I know by reputation (in some cases a reputation for unreadability), and still others are a first for me.  Interesting to see at least one graphic novel there.  And some items that are actually great fun to read.  Damrosch is probably never going to be selected to be on the Newberry committee....
Glad you could see them! Some titles were new to me too.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on August 09, 2022, 01:12:44 AM
The Gauntlet and the Fist Beneath, by Ian Green. It's got a cool world built, but it depends so heavily on feeble flashbacks and snippets of 'documents' at the beginning of each chapter to provide historical context and character backstory that it couldn't support the story it wanted to tell. It felt like book 2 of a trilogy, requiring readers to draw on knowledge and character arcs set up in book 1 to truly appreciate it. Except there is no book 1, so everything felt under-explained and emotionally dead.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on August 11, 2022, 04:31:50 AM
Just finished This is our Undoing, by Lorraine Wilson. I did not expect to enjoy it as much as I did. I avoid climate apocalypse fascist dystopias as much as I can, given that there's plenty of that developing outside the pages of my books, and the moody introspection that characterizes the whole text is usually something I have little patience with. Much of the action, such as it is, involves walking in the woods and talking to people or sitting in a lab looking at GPS blips and making Deep Moral Decisions, interrupted by periods of Waiting and Worrying. And yet, somehow, I was utterly engrossed. Part of it might be because I've spent all summer doing a huge amount of Waiting and Worrying (buying a new home, see Venting Thread), so I could deeply empathize with our main character's state of mind, but I think my enjoyment was less about my own circumstances and much more about Wilson's skill as a writer.

Also, the hard copy of the book is really beautiful: heavy, solid, slightly fuzzy matte cover, like a peach, smooth paper. I kept stroking it as I was reading because it was such a nice object. There was, unfortunately, a misprint that cut off the last couple of sentences of chapter 9, but I still really liked the physical experience of reading it.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on August 11, 2022, 09:34:56 AM
Oh, we should do a thread on misprints in books.

On my paperbacks, the editor in me just HAS to make little notations....can't stop myself....

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on August 11, 2022, 12:16:54 PM
I got lucky with a misprint a while back.  There was a very important book in my field that I did not own that had gone out of print, so used copies were selling for hundreds and hundreds of dollars.  Someone decided to reprint it, so I ordered one (of course!).  I think the copies were about $65.  Not bad for a classic.  Well, they misprinted one page, so they printed all new copies and sent them back out for free, so now I have two copies.  Yay! I do tend to notice misprints in general, but that's the only one that's been a benefit.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on August 11, 2022, 12:50:29 PM
From the library:
Finished: A Secret Princess by Margaret Stohl and Melissa de la Cruz (YA)
A retelling of A Little Princess, The Secret Garden, and Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodson Burnett. The 3 main characters, Sara Crewe, Mary Lennox, and Cedric Errol are teens in this novel.

Next up: Blade Breaker by Victoria Aveyard (YA)
New and #2 in the "Realm Breaker" series
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on August 11, 2022, 01:04:27 PM
Quote from: hmaria1609 on August 11, 2022, 12:50:29 PM
From the library:
Finished: A Secret Princess by Margaret Stohl and Melissa de la Cruz (YA)
A retelling of A Little Princess, The Secret Garden, and Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodson Burnett. The 3 main characters, Sara Crewe, Mary Lennox, and Cedric Errol are teens in this novel.


Goodness, and how was it?
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on August 12, 2022, 05:03:29 PM
Dinomaniacs: Today, I discovered that C.M. Koseman curated a sequel to All Yesterdays in 2013, and it's available as a free eBook! (https://darrennaish.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/kosemen-2017-updated-edition-of-book-all-your-yesterdays.pdf)

All Yesterdays was too short, so this is just great!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on August 12, 2022, 07:22:27 PM
Quote from: ergative on August 11, 2022, 01:04:27 PM
Goodness, and how was it?
I enjoyed it! The authors included story threads and descriptions from the original three novels. Some of the secondary characters in those novels meet the main leads as well. Some things were changed for this novel but it was a good read.  I'd read the original novels at one time or another.
At the end, Jo March from Jo & Laurie appears.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on August 14, 2022, 11:09:48 AM
Do you guys remember a children's SciFi story (a short novel, I think) in which the protagonist is forced to play human chess with an evil entity (a queen?), and in which captured pieces are executed? IIRC, the kid beats her with a fool's mate (or maybe scholar's mate).
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on August 14, 2022, 03:44:00 PM
The first part sounds like "Alice in Wonderland"...

But not the last bits...

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: onthefringe on August 14, 2022, 04:18:29 PM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on August 14, 2022, 11:09:48 AM
Do you guys remember a children's SciFi story (a short novel, I think) in which the protagonist is forced to play human chess with an evil entity (a queen?), and in which captured pieces are executed? IIRC, the kid beats her with a fool's mate (or maybe scholar's mate).

Sounds like maybe  Billy and the Bubbleship (later republished as Mad Queen of Mordra) by Elwy Yost? (described under the literature tab here (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HumanChess)).
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on August 14, 2022, 06:00:39 PM
Quote from: onthefringe on August 14, 2022, 04:18:29 PM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on August 14, 2022, 11:09:48 AM
Do you guys remember a children's SciFi story (a short novel, I think) in which the protagonist is forced to play human chess with an evil entity (a queen?), and in which captured pieces are executed? IIRC, the kid beats her with a fool's mate (or maybe scholar's mate).

Sounds like maybe  Billy and the Bubbleship (later republished as Mad Queen of Mordra) by Elwy Yost? (described under the literature tab here (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HumanChess)).

Hmm. The rest of the plot doesn't ring any bells, but it's got to be that! Thank you!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: jimbogumbo on August 14, 2022, 06:59:46 PM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on August 14, 2022, 11:09:48 AM
Do you guys remember a children's SciFi story (a short novel, I think) in which the protagonist is forced to play human chess with an evil entity (a queen?), and in which captured pieces are executed? IIRC, the kid beats her with a fool's mate (or maybe scholar's mate).

I was looking through this, but there is so much...

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/chess-in-science-fiction
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on August 14, 2022, 10:54:09 PM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on August 14, 2022, 11:09:48 AM
Do you guys remember a children's SciFi story (a short novel, I think) in which the protagonist is forced to play human chess with an evil entity (a queen?), and in which captured pieces are executed? IIRC, the kid beats her with a fool's mate (or maybe scholar's mate).

The end of the first Harry Potter book has a chess game like this--but the evil entity is not evil, but a set of protective spells that the good guys set up that needed to be defused to protect the thing inside. But I don't think the chess was complex enough for specific strategies to be named like that.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on August 16, 2022, 07:25:04 PM
From the library: Sixteenth Street NW by John DeFerrari and Douglas P. Sefton (NF)
Local history about DC's 16th St., NW from its origins to present; this is one of the major traffic arteries in DC. Plenty of archival images and photos.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on August 17, 2022, 06:19:51 AM
Quote from: hmaria1609 on August 16, 2022, 07:25:04 PM
From the library: Sixteenth Street NW by John DeFerrari and Douglas P. Sefton (NF)
Local history about DC's 16th St., NW from its origins to present; this is one of the major traffic arteries in DC. Plenty of archival images and photos.

When well done, local histories of this sort can be fascinating.  My passage through Cincinnati last spring left me with a book on the history of long-ago city transportation projects that promises to be interesting, when I finally get around to reading it.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on August 19, 2022, 08:13:33 AM
The British Are Coming, by Rick Atkinson.  The first of three volumes on the American Revolutionary War.  This one covers the origins of the war and the developments up through the Trenton-Princeton campaign in the winter of 1776-77.  It's the sort of history where the historian (and unsung research assistants and interlibrary loan staff) applies details with a fire hose.  Each time a town appears, its major buildings are cataloged and described.  Each time a military unit appears, we learn what color its uniforms were and what sorts of gear they carried.  Each time a well-documented personage is introduced, we get at least several paragraphs of that person's life history up to that point.  The result of this prolix approach is lots of vivid word-pictures.  It can get to be a bit of a slog to pass through nearly 600 pages--not counting the notes!--of it.

The great virtue of a big, detailed, yet still readable history of this sort is that it doesn't over-simplify things.  The American Revolution gets oversimplified a lot.  Although it was, as wars/revolutions/struggles for independence go conducted, overall, with remarkable restraint by both sides--just take a look at what happened in France after 1789, or Russia after 1917, for comparison--it was still a war, with elements of civil war and a couple of campaigns in an inherently brutal frontier environment.  Traditional histories have often glossed over a lot of this.  Atkinson doesn't gloss over the awfulness of the war.  At the same, time, he also doesn't fall into the current vogue of portraying the American Revolution as nothing more than an evil plot to make the world safe for slaveowners and pave the way for genocide.  Investing in reading through a work like this is a good corrective for efforts to reduce the complexities of the nation's history to partisan arguing points.

But fewer and fewer people seem willing to profit from an exercise like that.  Professional historians who haven't turned into mindless partisan activists themselves must get terribly frustrated at seeing parts of their works weaponized, like everything else, by these activists in their culture wars against each other.  It must make them wonder sometimes whether their efforts to educate have been in vain.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on August 19, 2022, 10:35:46 AM
QuoteThe American Revolution gets oversimplified a lot.

Tell me about it! If the writer balances all those details with comparative ideas and conclusions, it can work very well.

Where people get into trouble (having just reviewed a book that does just this) is in getting lost in the weeds of whatever details interest them the most and forgetting to write a summary chapter, or make chronological comparisons across the categories they've covered, etc.

I'd say, having for 40 years worked to balance this in my writing and tours, that it's possible to maintain lines of reference to, say, the gravestones for those who were enslaved, the homesite markers for Native Americans who represented their own cultural ideas and achievements well (even if, unfortunately, constrained by ideas at the time about the structures in which those contributions could be made) and others, so that the narrative is fairly discussed, with both the grievous errors and the occasional triumphs pointed out and set into conversation with each other in a generously framed arena of inclusivity and honesty.

Just curious, also: there was a writer of (long, but fascinating) children's books on the early 19th c./Northeast Territories frontier named Atkinson, I think...when I saw your reference, I thought of them, first...I'd have to look them up to be sure, of course.

I wonder if they're related.

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on August 19, 2022, 07:10:23 PM
From the library: Life on the Mississippi: an Epic American Journey by Rinker Buck (NF)
The author builds and voyages on a flatboat down the Mississippi River. There are maps of the author's river route and pencil drawings throughout the book.
I'd read and enjoyed Buck's 2015 book The Oregon Trail about retracing the famed trail with his brother in their own covered wagon.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Puget on August 20, 2022, 09:00:29 AM
Quote from: hmaria1609 on August 19, 2022, 07:10:23 PM
From the library: Life on the Mississippi: an Epic American Journey by Rinker Buck (NF)
The author builds and voyages on a flatboat down the Mississippi River. There are maps of the author's river route and pencil drawings throughout the book.
I'd read and enjoyed Buck's 2015 book The Oregon Trail about retracing the famed trail with his brother in their own covered wagon.

Thanks, I'll have to get this one, I really enjoyed the Oregon Trail one.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on August 20, 2022, 09:10:25 AM
Looked for the Atkinson I had in mind, there are several others, maybe that's not it.

They were thick, 2-3" books, with a lot of scenic detail (now, I'd say, they were a descendent of Francis Parkman's interest in verbalized landscape descriptions) and I read them all.

Hmmm....Altmeyer? Could that have been it?

More looking, after I get my own writing done...

M. 
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on August 22, 2022, 07:55:40 AM
Veteran Cars, by F. Wilson McComb.  In automotive circles, a "veteran" car is one produced prior to World War I.  The cars in this 1970s book are thus now well over a hundred years old.  This is an accessible overview of automotive development from early experiments in self-propelled transportation to the early 1910s.  There are lots of illustrations--old b&w photographs, nice modern color shots of museum pieces, and the occasional vintage illustration or advertisement in color or b&w.  The margins include numerous contemporary quotes about automobiles, some meant to be humorous, some humorous or ironic in hindsight.

In the final chapter, the author describes his experiences of driving two actual "veterans."  One was an early mass-produced vehicle from 1903.  Just getting the thing started sounds like a major undertaking, and it seems to have had the highway performance of a riding lawn mower.  The other was a high-end vehicle from ten years later that is quite capable of running on a modern highway.  Given the extraordinarily rapid progress in the development of gasoline vehicles that occurred during this period, it's not at all hard to see why steam and electric vehicles fell by the wayside.  No need to assert, as I've seen recently, that electric vehicles were willfully eliminated by the patriarchy because they were deemed too feminine, and not noisy and violent enough for male tastes.

Speaking of electric cars, one of the marginal quotes, from 1905, observes that when a sufficiently powerful portable electric power supply is perfected, the automobile "as we know it" will become a thing of the past.  It took about another century for that condition to be met, and is now taking decades to make the actual transition from internal combustion to electric.  The old technology is just too strongly ingrained into the fabric of society to be swept away overnight, however badly it may need to go away for the environment's sake.

An uncle gave me this book as a present for my eighth (IIRC) birthday.  Although the text is fairly brief and accessible by grown-up standards, it took years for me to master the whole thing.  In the meantime I spent hours coming back to it to enjoy the pictures and captions, and dip into the text here and there.  I still notice new things when I re-read it every few years.  One of my all-time favorite books.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on August 22, 2022, 01:23:59 PM
Someone in my neighborhood must have a small collection of early cars, I see him out on Saturday AMs giving one or another of them an airing.

It's usually at a stoplight that's about to change, so I don't always have time to get their info....one I 4ecognized from the 1950s, though, and he said something about 1932 before tooling off in another one day.

There are parade groups in a couple towns in the area, and I played for a party once in which the most-requested sing-along title was, of course, "In my Merry Oldsmobile."

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on August 27, 2022, 01:07:13 PM
From the library: The Embroidered Book by Kate Heartfield
A historical fantasy novel about Marie Antoinette and her favorite sister Charlotte. The cover is lovely!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Juvenal on August 29, 2022, 06:39:47 AM
Words in Air, the complete correspondence of Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop.  The art of a good letter is seen in this massive collection.  I'd guess good letters (you know, with stamp, etc.) still get written.  Bishop mostly typed; Lowell never learned script.  His printing looks like what an elementary school student would do.

I like to think my e-mails are fairly good in the letter sense (I try to paragraph--and I always have enough for at least one paragraph).  Some people (there are a few) on my e-mail address list do write what I'd call letters, but some people I know who could write a plump e-mail now text.  A fifty-word text is apparently considered enough.  Well, I have recently gone the iPhone route and will text one or two folk, but they will also get long (rambling?) e-mails.  I continue to thank Mother for insisting, sixty years ago, that I take typing in HS, nearly the lone male in the class.  Now typing is keyboarding, and I use what is about the best keyboard, a replica IBM Model M, full-size and noisy.  I like the clatter.  I can keyboard nearly as fast as I can speak--if I speak really slowly....

The only person who gets a real letter from me is an imprisoned relative, although I think there is a certain access to the Internet nowadays where the person is put away.  Writing a real letter, a really-real one, is relaxing.  How nice it looks on a crisp white page.  The inmate gets a two-pager about once a month.  That's about it for my physically real letters.  And I get to put a peel-off address sticker.  Every other mail pleading for me to open my purse includes a sheet of address stickers.  I've got over a hundred in a box.  The collection grows.  I wonder who uses the sticker storm?  Real letters are so few; so many bills are done on-line.  Cards seem the likely use of these stickers.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on August 29, 2022, 08:27:06 AM
I think the New Yorker did an article on that collection,  a month or more back.

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on August 29, 2022, 11:07:26 PM
Kirsteen, by Margaret Oliphaunt. I really quite like Oliphaunt's work. They have that mid-Victorian veneer of sentimentality, but with Oliphaunt there's quite a hefty chunk of chewy commentary underneath. This one is about a 'Scotch family 70 years ago', so regency-era Scotland: A young woman, Kirsteen, is disowned for refusing to marry according to her family's wishes and makes her way down to London to become a dressmaker. There's a great deal of discussion of social pride and standing, and how in Scotland it's all about family names and clans, and how in England it's about rank and peerage. A very proud Scottish man with nothing but his name cannot understand that his social class is insufficient to interact with English aristocracy on equal grounds: He thinks that his name is all that is needed, and can't see that, to the English upper crust, it's worthless.

Indeed, one theme running through is how all the decisions made on the basis of family clan pride can really shoot you in the foot. An older sister is disowned for marrying a very nice doctor because he's not good enough for her father's family pride (even though he's skilled and successful and eventually they build a very, very comfortable life together in Glasgow); and when her younger sister, likewise disowned, is looking for friends to help her live, she hesitates to approach her sister, because she herself still clings to that same pride that has cast both of them out.

Another theme is about the goal of marriage: How much is about making yourself happy, and how much is about providing for your family? Oliphaunt engages with this unflinchingly in a way that I don't think many Victorian authors can do, given the sentimental veil that usually ensures the eventual success of twu wuv. The marriage that Kirsteen runs away from is a very, very good marriage: The man is kind and good, wealthy, and able to provide a position and home that would allow Kirsteen to ensure the comfort of her mother and sisters, who are oppressed under a horribly abusive husband/father (not violent, but abusive nonetheless). She thinks to herself that she would willingly die for them to rescue them from fire and flood, so why won't she do this thing, which also provides me with a secure, comfortable life? It's common enough to see young women run away from bad marriages; it's much less common to see them run away from very, very good ones.

Oh, also, this book explicitly acknowledges the role of slavery in how families made their fortunes, which is again something I haven't seen in these types of Victorian or Regency era novels. You have to squint and do a lot of special pleading to infer Austen's opinions on slavery from the text of her books. No need to put on the spectacles here: the text is flashing lights at you from the page.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on August 30, 2022, 07:43:05 AM
I've never read one of "Mrs. Oliphaunt's" novels, just one or two stories.  Guess I'll have to do that sometime as part of my occasional series of Victorian novelists.  I like Victorian prose well enough, but their novels have a strong tendency to give the reader...rather too much of it.  If I can choke down something by George Meredith, I suppose a good work by Margaret Oliphant shouldn't be too much of a challenge.

Recently read another by Josephine Lawrence--Remember When We Had a Doorman?  It's about the inhabitants of a New York City apartment building that has seen better days.  The narrator, who knows everything that goes on in the building because she walks everybody's dogs, is the best thing about it.  A sharp observer without being cruel or cynical.  It's set in the early 1970s, in a world that already seems far, far away.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on August 30, 2022, 11:15:52 AM
Quote from: apl68 on August 30, 2022, 07:43:05 AM
I've never read one of "Mrs. Oliphaunt's" novels, just one or two stories.  Guess I'll have to do that sometime as part of my occasional series of Victorian novelists.  I like Victorian prose well enough, but their novels have a strong tendency to give the reader...rather too much of it.  If I can choke down something by George Meredith, I suppose a good work by Margaret Oliphant shouldn't be too much of a challenge.


Ooh, if you haven't read a full Oliphaunt novel, let me recommend Salem Chapel. It's about a minister who takes a position at a dissenting church (i.e., one that is not part of the church of England infrastructure and rather than getting vicars appointed by a bishop or local magistrate or landowner, instead hires independent clergy), and discovers a huge disconnect between expectations and realities surrounding the job. Think, like, an Ivy League grad who wants to revolutionize the English department at a very small community college. And, simultaneously, it is a novel about mothers and the steps they'll take to protect their children--but not in a sentimental Victorian way (although there's that, too), but in other ways, too. For example, the minister's mother starts taking over the book around the 2/3 mark or so.

Anyway, I loved loved loved this book. I have often thought that all those Trollope and Oliphaunt noels about the clergyman's job search, and the misery of being a curate and the breath of relief when you finally get a vicarage, which is a living for life, has a lot in common with the search for an academic job, the misery of adjuncthood, and the glories of tenure. (Oliphaunt even has a book called The Perpetual Curate, although it's not as good as Salem Chapel, I think.) But most of those books presume you're staying within the Church of England. This is the only one I know of that looks at those same issues outside of mainstream academic clerical jobs.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on August 30, 2022, 11:35:14 AM
Which Salem, in the UK, or one of the other ones?

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on August 30, 2022, 11:39:27 AM
Quote from: mamselle on August 30, 2022, 11:35:14 AM
Which Salem, in the UK, or one of the other ones?

M.

UK, definitely. Oliphaunt doesn't leave the island.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on August 30, 2022, 11:47:56 AM
Ah, makes more sense.

St. Peter's, Salem, in the US, does have an interesting history, but it isn't that.

(The prototype for the female in "Seven Gables" was buried in the original cemetery out back: her stone is now in the chapel wall.)

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on August 30, 2022, 01:07:58 PM
Quote from: ergative on August 30, 2022, 11:15:52 AM
Quote from: apl68 on August 30, 2022, 07:43:05 AM
I've never read one of "Mrs. Oliphaunt's" novels, just one or two stories.  Guess I'll have to do that sometime as part of my occasional series of Victorian novelists.  I like Victorian prose well enough, but their novels have a strong tendency to give the reader...rather too much of it.  If I can choke down something by George Meredith, I suppose a good work by Margaret Oliphant shouldn't be too much of a challenge.


Ooh, if you haven't read a full Oliphaunt novel, let me recommend Salem Chapel. It's about a minister who takes a position at a dissenting church (i.e., one that is not part of the church of England infrastructure and rather than getting vicars appointed by a bishop or local magistrate or landowner, instead hires independent clergy), and discovers a huge disconnect between expectations and realities surrounding the job. Think, like, an Ivy League grad who wants to revolutionize the English department at a very small community college. And, simultaneously, it is a novel about mothers and the steps they'll take to protect their children--but not in a sentimental Victorian way (although there's that, too), but in other ways, too. For example, the minister's mother starts taking over the book around the 2/3 mark or so.

Anyway, I loved loved loved this book. I have often thought that all those Trollope and Oliphaunt noels about the clergyman's job search, and the misery of being a curate and the breath of relief when you finally get a vicarage, which is a living for life, has a lot in common with the search for an academic job, the misery of adjuncthood, and the glories of tenure. (Oliphaunt even has a book called The Perpetual Curate, although it's not as good as Salem Chapel, I think.) But most of those books presume you're staying within the Church of England. This is the only one I know of that looks at those same issues outside of mainstream academic clerical jobs.

That sound's interesting!  I've read Trollope's The Warden and Barchester Towers, so I know something about how the CoE did things in those days.  And my father has spent over 60 years and counting as what Trollope and Oliphant would have called a "dissenting" minister.  He's pastored half a dozen churches over the years, while at various times laying bricks (mostly that), driving a school bus, and working in an auto body shop to actually support the family.  And building a house for us to live in.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on September 03, 2022, 07:21:43 PM
From the library: Your Guide to Not to Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village by Maureen Johnson and Jay Cooper (NF)
An illustrated humor book for fans of British mysteries!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on September 04, 2022, 01:20:17 AM
Especially if it has 'Midsomer' in the name...

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on September 04, 2022, 10:21:44 AM
I just finished listening to Red Rising (Pierce Brown; Tim Gerard Reynolds).  We've had a little discussion here before about the book series and main character and his insufferableness.  That is not really diminished in the audio book, but I thought the narrator did a great job, and there are parts of the story I really like.  I'll probably pick up the others in the series at some point, and I still have to actually read the final book.  Next up looks to be The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives (Leonard Mlodinow; Sean Pratt).  A friendly colleague recommended it years ago, but I haven't had a chance to read it yet, so might as well listen.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on September 04, 2022, 10:36:54 AM
August:


W.J.T. Mitchell - The Last Dinosaur Book: The Life and Times of a Cultural Icon: Somewhat frustrating. I thought it would (1) survey popular representations of dinosaurs since the Dinosaur Renaissance and up to the mid-'90s, and (2) argue that dinosaurs are socially-constructed. With respect to (1), it just sort of talks about stuff now and then and entirely unsystematically, without much regard for historical context; Rieppel's Assembling the Dinosaur does a far better job of it, even though it's focused on turn-of-the-century efforts to mount skeletons. With respect to (2), it's asserted a couple of times, but nothing more. The book is largely inoffensive, and sometimes interesting, but mostly it's just a load of pseudo-profound faux philosophical pontificating. It opens with an uncritical discussion of the dinosauroid, so: reader beware.

Jay Ingram - The Science of Everyday Life: Pretty much just a Quirks and Quarks digest from the late 1980s. I found it in a little free library a while ago, and it was fun enough, although I rather suspect most of work in psychology has not survived intact to the present day.

Adrian Tchaikovsky - Bear Head: This is the sequel to Dogs of War, but it takes place a few decades later and on Mars. Plotwise, it's a more coherent novel, and I think it's overall better than the first (I also think it works as a standalone read), although it doesn't have the same nuanced and insightful overcurrent about abusive relationships. A strong piece of colonial scifi!

J.R.R. Tolkein - The Hobbit: I hadn't read this (or LOTR) since grade four or five. I'm writing a popular-facing thing on a fantasy series, however, and I wanted to reacquaint myself with LOTR's influence (plus, I've been meaning to revisit it for a while). I enjoyed The Hobbit as a child, but reading it as an adult was pure joy. It's really quite well written, and even though it's from 1937, it compares favourably to the best contemporary fantasy. It's really quite something. It was pretty neat to notice the influence of the Sagas, too; the whole thing owes a lot of its structure and style to them. I still have the very strong sense, however--as I did as a child--that Bilbo seriously wronged Gollum (despite everything). I mean, imagine being stuck in a dark cave system for 500ish years, all alone except for goblins which want to kill you, and you've invested all of your everything into this one survival tool which you then lose? The poor guy.

Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on September 04, 2022, 07:37:38 PM
Quote from: mamselle on September 04, 2022, 01:20:17 AM
Especially if it has 'Midsomer' in the name...
M.
I haven't seen this long time running show; it was shown in syndication on our local PBS station for awhile. Not surprisingly there's a TV filming locations tour for "Midsomer Murders" for fans.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on September 04, 2022, 08:30:51 PM
I've heard of that, but....I don't know....

I'd worry I might not come back alive....

;--}

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on September 07, 2022, 06:47:36 AM
The Devil's Advocate, by Morris West.  Italy, 1959.  Peasants in impoverished rural Calabria have begun venerating a man killed fifteen years earlier during the War as a local saint.  Monsignor Meredith, a Vatican bureaucrat, is dispatched to the scene to serve as "promoter of the faith" in the case.  His job is to gather evidence, with a particular eye toward ferreting out anything that might disqualify the candidate.  Hence the popular term "Devil's advocate"--one who argues against a cause he might be assumed to sympathize with.

The case is a potential political football.  Since the candidate for sainthood was put to death by Communist guerrillas, not by the Germans, the Vatican hopes that a new saint would make a good tool for rallying the faithful against the Left in Italian elections.  The local bishop would prefer that the case fail, since success would mean spending a fortune on fancy new shrines and such that could be better spent on relieving poverty.  Msgr. Meredith is meanwhile struggling with a personal crisis brought on by a diagnosis of terminal cancer.  And in Calabria he meets a cast of characters who have things to hide about their relationships with the putative saint, and with each other.

The plot unfolds in a melodramatic fashion characteristic of much popular fiction of the day.  It's easy to see this being made into a sensationalist Hollywood movie in the early sixties.  This does not keep the author from seriously examining matters of faith and the direction of the Church.  A Protestant could hardly deliver a stronger indictment of the pre-Vatican II Church in Italy, where its dominance for so many centuries did nothing to lift so much of the population from the most abject poverty and pagan superstition (Carlo Levi makes this point in his classic Christ Stopped at Eboli).  Then there are the bigger questions regarding such matters as what is truly worth believing in.  For some readers it also brings out much about why many Christians don't go with the whole idea of venerating designated "saints" in the first place, since this institutionalizes the universal failing among Christian faith traditions to divide believers between a spiritual elite and a lukewarm majority in a manner that doesn't really hold with the teachings of the New Testament.

For all the muck it rakes up, this is obviously the work of a sympathizer who cares a great deal about trying to make the Church better.  Which is why the edition I've just read is part of the "Loyola Classics" series.  It boasts an introduction by Kenneth Woodward, author of a book called Making Saints that gives a good look at how the long, drawn-out canonization process works (It has changed a lot since 1959--the so-called "Devil's advocate" isn't a thing anymore), and the perennial issues surrounding it.  I found The Devil's Advocate well worth reading, although I didn't personally enjoy reading it as much as a fellow Loyola Classic--Rumer Godden's In This House of Brede.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on September 18, 2022, 10:00:47 AM
We finally finished the sixth Expanse book, Babylon's Ashes after almost 6 months! What a slog.  We just could not get into this one.  It picked up at the end, but 400 or 500 pages in is not where you really want to start being drawn in.  We will continue with the series at some point, but not for a while.

After that, we started Emily St. John Mandel's The Glass Hotel.  Parasaurolophus reviewed it favorably here two years ago, so I put it on our list.  So far, it is definitely much more compelling than the above.  Of course, it's a totally different book.  As Parasaurolophus noted, it is unclear early on what exactly the story is or where it is going.  I'm looking forward to finding out!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on September 18, 2022, 10:30:25 AM
Oh hey! I hope you guys enjoy it!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Morden on September 18, 2022, 12:13:12 PM
Just finished book 9 of The Expanse--I thought it was well done, and now would like to reread the first one again. But I agree--some of the middle volumes were difficult to get into.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on September 18, 2022, 06:59:02 PM
BTW - thanks for suggestions for Smolt, we finished  Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary and The Black Stallion, Tuck Everlasting and Bridge to Terabithia are in the que.

Four really different books, and some pretty heavy content  by the end.  Smolt totally handled it, but MFP was more rattled.

Now we are reading Holes.

I tried reading Tom Wolfe's Kingdom of Speech but I gave it up early.  When someone is so wrong and biased about an area I know well, it makes trusting them on the rest of the book impossible for me.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on September 19, 2022, 07:24:23 AM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on September 18, 2022, 10:30:25 AM
Oh hey! I hope you guys enjoy it!

Thanks so much for the recommendation! We are enjoying it very much so far.

Quote from: Morden on September 18, 2022, 12:13:12 PM
Just finished book 9 of The Expanse--I thought it was well done, and now would like to reread the first one again. But I agree--some of the middle volumes were difficult to get into.

Thanks for this update on your progress in the series.  It's helpful to hear that it wraps up well and that you would even like to start over again.  I think everyone who has finished the series has said it was worth it.  There's another one (book 8) that someone mentioned elsewhere as being difficult to get through, so now I am dreading that one.  Do you want to go back to the beginning because you enjoyed the overall story so much or because you kind of zoned out during the dull ones and missed some aspects that ended up being important or interesting in the long run (which has happened to me too many times)?
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Morden on September 19, 2022, 10:19:23 AM
I often reread if I've enjoyed something. I find I miss a lot of details a first time through because I'm reading too fast for plot (but I won't reread the whole series in this case).
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on September 30, 2022, 07:56:05 AM
The Red Badge of Courage, by Stephen Crane.  A milestone in the development of modernist fiction in its depiction of events through the psychological impressions of a Civil War soldier seeing battle for the first time.  This sort of treatment remains a common, even standard, form of narrative today.  It's amazing that a writer in his early 20s who had never personally seen combat could create such a vivid impression of the chaos of battle.  A lot of writing that we see today, about combat and other things, owes a debt to Crane.

This is one of those much-taught works that you can find all over the place in assorted paperback editions.  The one I read, though, is a vintage Modern Library edition with well-preserved book jacket that I found on a browsing expedition while on vacation this spring.  When I lived in the big city many years ago, toiling in the lower reaches of academia, I used to sigh over the shelves of collectible Modern Library volumes at a certain bookstore.  I couldn't afford the modest collectible prices.  In recent years I've had the chance to collect a few well-preserved examples of Modern Library's lovely 20th-century graphic art book design.


West With the Night, by Beryl Markham.  Markham's memoir contains a late chapter of the same title that our class read in middle school reading class over 40 years ago.  It depicted how she became the first to fly a solo westbound transatlantic flight from England.  Markham had long since slipped into obscurity by this time, but this chapter somehow made it into our junior high-level reader.  I was startled sometime later to read in the newspaper that the octogenarian author was then still alive.  It was around that time that her memoir was rediscovered and put back into print.

Her record-breaking flight only occupies that one chapter.  She had lots more to talk about from the first half of her life--among other things, growing up on a horse farm in Kenya, training race horses, and becoming probably the first ever woman to serve as a professional bush pilot.  A lot of remarkable experiences, vividly told.  It's a shame she was not as well remembered as Amelia Earhart. 

I have a copy of that old school reader, and was able to compare its version of the transatlantic flight account with the chapter in the memoir.  What I read all those years ago was slightly condensed.  One or two words had been Americanized.  The reader's illustrations of Markham and her aircraft bear only a vague resemblance to the real thing.  I thought I recalled the illustrations depicting a twin-engine aircraft instead of the actual single.  Maybe in my memory I confused it with a picture of A.E.'s Lockheed Electra?  Funny how your memory works.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Istiblennius on September 30, 2022, 08:28:46 AM
Quote from: Morden on September 18, 2022, 12:13:12 PM
Just finished book 9 of The Expanse--I thought it was well done, and now would like to reread the first one again. But I agree--some of the middle volumes were difficult to get into.

I also recently finished book 9. Completely agree with your assessment. They really stuck the landing I thought.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on October 02, 2022, 08:08:44 AM
September:

Robert T. Bakker - The Dinosaur Heresies: New Theories Unlocking the Mystery of the Dinosaurs and Their Extinction: A hugley influential classic which made the case for dinosaur endothermy. It's a delight to read--Bakker is a great writer, and the book is extremely accessible to lay audiences. He also packed it with illustrations--one every two or three pages!--which makes it extra fun to read. Many of the illustrations are really clever ways of conveying complex information; others are just cool paleoart. A few of his theses are outdated, and the final chapter on the cretaceous extinction has aged particularly poorly, but for the most part it's impressive how much of it is still perfectly current. It does, however, feature some heavily teleological talk about evolution and natural selection--I couldn't tell if this was just Bakker writing for a more popular audience, or if it's a genuine problem with his understanding of it all (though that would be par for the course for the eighties). This was an absolute joy to read, and I heartily recommend it to anyone who's interested in dinosaurs.

Jamie Glowacki - Oh Crap! Potty Training: Everything Modern Parents Need to Know to Do It Once and Do It Right: This seems like one of the better books on the subject. It was fine--repetitive, but I guess you need that.


I nearly finished two others, but didn't quite get there, so they'll be in the October report.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Sun_Worshiper on October 02, 2022, 10:46:38 AM
Donut Economics by Kate Raworth

This book  critiques mainstream economics and introduces a new model for sustainable development in the 21st century. It is a good read and fairly comprehensive. It is also a little superficial, but this is by necessity given the amount of ground it covers.

There is a lot of interest in the model that the book covers in some circles and some cities are even experimenting with it: https://time.com/5930093/amsterdam-doughnut-economics
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on October 03, 2022, 07:17:37 AM
I remember when The Dinosaur Heresies came out.  I never have actually read it.  I ought to check it out sometime.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on October 03, 2022, 08:21:28 AM
Quote from: apl68 on October 03, 2022, 07:17:37 AM
I remember when The Dinosaur Heresies came out.  I never have actually read it.  I ought to check it out sometime.

Totally! You'll gobble it down in no time flat.

Honestly, it's probably more fun to read now than it was at the time, since we have the benefit of hindsight.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on October 03, 2022, 10:53:32 AM

Quote from: Parasaurolophus on October 03, 2022, 08:21:28 AM
Honestly, it's probably more fun to read now than it was at the time, since we have the benefit of hindsight.

I teach out of that book.  It is great for showing both the debates within science, and how they get resolved by, gasp, more data!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on October 03, 2022, 01:51:15 PM
Quote from: FishProf on October 03, 2022, 10:53:32 AM

Quote from: Parasaurolophus on October 03, 2022, 08:21:28 AM
Honestly, it's probably more fun to read now than it was at the time, since we have the benefit of hindsight.

I teach out of that book.  It is great for showing both the debates within science, and how they get resolved by, gasp, more data!

Oh, that's really cool!

I imagine the lost/found bone growth rate stuff also makes for a fun classroom discussion.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: jimbogumbo on October 03, 2022, 05:38:14 PM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on October 03, 2022, 01:51:15 PM
Quote from: FishProf on October 03, 2022, 10:53:32 AM

Quote from: Parasaurolophus on October 03, 2022, 08:21:28 AM
Honestly, it's probably more fun to read now than it was at the time, since we have the benefit of hindsight.

I teach out of that book.  It is great for showing both the debates within science, and how they get resolved by, gasp, more data!

Do either of you know Jim Farlow?

Oh, that's really cool!

I imagine the lost/found bone growth rate stuff also makes for a fun classroom discussion.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on October 03, 2022, 05:53:37 PM
I don't think so--is there anything in particular by him you'd recommend?
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: jimbogumbo on October 03, 2022, 06:03:47 PM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on October 03, 2022, 05:53:37 PM
I don't think so--is there anything in particular by him you'd recommend?

I'm not qualified to say- obviously it's you and FishProf's area. I just know him pretty well, and know what he does re dino trackways.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: jimbogumbo on October 03, 2022, 06:11:00 PM
Doh! Sorry!  You are a philosopher, right? I made an assumption due to poor memory!

Jim has a book he wrote for the kid market, but really is a straight researcher for all his other writing.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on October 03, 2022, 07:50:30 PM
Quote from: jimbogumbo on October 03, 2022, 06:03:47 PM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on October 03, 2022, 05:53:37 PM
I don't think so--is there anything in particular by him you'd recommend?

I'm not qualified to say- obviously it's you and FishProf's area. I just know him pretty well, and know what he does re dino trackways.


Quote from: jimbogumbo on October 03, 2022, 06:11:00 PM
Doh! Sorry!  You are a philosopher, right? I made an assumption due to poor memory!

Jim has a book he wrote for the kid market, but really is a straight researcher for all his other writing.

Oh! Haha. Yes, I'm just a philosopher (which explains why I'm such a pain in everyone's ass.) I'm on friendly emailing terms with a few dinosaur peeps, but not Farlow, I'm afraid.

It turns out I do have The Complete Dinosaur, which he co-edited, but I haven't read any of it yet, although I'm excited to do so soon. It's a hefty tome, is all.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on October 07, 2022, 07:46:36 AM
The Mystery of Gaither Cove, by Capwell Wyckoff.  I was a big fan of juvenile mysteries growing up.  Some of the ones I read were quite old, since our local library's junior section was not really up-to-date.  Once in a while I still read a vintage juvenile mystery that catches my eye.  I found this one during my spring trip to Ohio.    The publisher, Saalfield, was actually based there back in the day.

Juvenile mysteries, especially 90-year-old ones, tend not to be that well-written.  I've seen a number of exceptions to that.  This is not one of them.  It does hold interest.  I was startled to find the book's young protagonists taking a long road trip--a real undertaking back in 1932--to the Ozark Mountains in my home state of Arkansas.  Books set in Arkansas are few and far between, and the older ones tend to take a rather...patronizing view of the state and its inhabitants (True Grit, by Arkansas native Charles Portis, is a rare exception--it's mostly set outside Arkansas, but the protagonist is a very recognizable character type to any Arkansan my age or older). 

This one doesn't.  It has some "local color," all right, but the land and people of Arkansas are portrayed in a rather good light, without much of the exoticism or patronizing stereotypes you would normally have seen.  At times Capwell Wyckoff (I suspect a pseudonym here) sounds almost like a local booster.  Well, the Ozarks do indeed have a lot of scenic beauty.  One scene, where some of the youths are caught in a flash flood while camping near the Buffalo River, hit kind of close to home.  Some years back a number of people lost their lives when a flash flood hit a campground on the Little Missouri River in the Ouachita Mountains, south of the Ozarks.  It's an all too real hazard for campers along mountain rivers.  I didn't personally know anybody caught in that flood, but I've gone backpacking nearby.  For people all over the state the tragedy felt like it had happened next door.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Hegemony on October 07, 2022, 10:00:32 AM
Quote from: apl68 on October 07, 2022, 07:46:36 AM
At times Capwell Wyckoff (I suspect a pseudonym here) sounds almost like a local booster. 

It sure does sound like a pseudonym, but I guess when you have an actual name like that, you don't need a pseudonym.

"Albert Capwell Wyckoff (February 21, 1903 – January 10, 1953) was an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church in the United States and a writer of juvenile fiction, most notably the Mercer Boys series and Mystery Hunter series."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Capwell_Wyckoff

(I see his wife was named Edna Mae Deakyne — quite a family for names!)
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on October 07, 2022, 10:22:29 AM
Quote from: Hegemony on October 07, 2022, 10:00:32 AM
Quote from: apl68 on October 07, 2022, 07:46:36 AM
At times Capwell Wyckoff (I suspect a pseudonym here) sounds almost like a local booster. 

It sure does sound like a pseudonym, but I guess when you have an actual name like that, you don't need a pseudonym.

"Albert Capwell Wyckoff (February 21, 1903 – January 10, 1953) was an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church in the United States and a writer of juvenile fiction, most notably the Mercer Boys series and Mystery Hunter series."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Capwell_Wyckoff

(I see his wife was named Edna Mae Deakyne — quite a family for names!)

That's amazing.  Thanks for the link!  It goes to show that it's always worth checking an author's name at Wikipedia, even if you figure the author's going to be too obscure to have one.

I see that he served as a Sunday School missionary in the Arkansas Ozarks.  So he did indeed have a background of experience in our state.  I'm now curious to know more about his memoir about that work.  Since he did church work in Arkansas within the last century, there's probably not more than three degrees of separation between us....  I found out last year that there's only one degree of separation from Charles Portis.  Population-wise, it's not that big of a state.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Vkw10 on October 08, 2022, 05:14:50 PM
An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good, by Helene Torsten, translated by Marlaine Delargy. A friend who loves cozy mysteries recommended these stories of a Swedish octogenarian who deals with little problems in a rather permanent manner. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on October 10, 2022, 12:38:45 PM
Quote from: ab_grp on September 04, 2022, 10:21:44 AM
Next up looks to be The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives (Leonard Mlodinow; Sean Pratt).  A friendly colleague recommended it years ago, but I haven't had a chance to read it yet, so might as well listen.

I finished this one a few days ago and am not sure how to categorize it.  It covers a lot of people and ideas from probability.  The biographical parts are more amenable to narration than are the many, many numbers in the book.  The narrator has a somewhat quirky way of pausing.  For example (I'm making this up): "Bernoulli was the type of writer......       who.....   could make the most improbable idea sound realistic."  When reading really long numbers, this got very annoying.  As a person with a strong quant background, I did not enjoy the mathy parts because of this.   But even though it is written at a pretty basic level, and I think the explanations are pretty good, I don't know that a lay person would be interested in it, either.  What is strange is that I heard the author being interviewed on a podcast, talking about another book he wrote (written about Stephen Hawking, with whom he has co-authored several books), and he was so fascinating to listen to! I wondered why he didn't just narrate this one.  I think he has narrated some of his other books, so I might see how that worked out.  This narrator just didn't do it for me.  The content was very good, though! 

Next, I wanted something a little lighter.  I picked up a few such books on sale and just finished listening to one: Orphan X: Evan Smoak, Book 1 (Gregg Hurwitz; Scott Brick).  I guess it's the first book in a series (unfortunately) about a nowhere man, a deadly killer trying to protect "innocents" from other very deadly killers and so forth.  Everyone is very brutally skilled and (did I mention it?) deadly.  It was extremely trope-y and not that entertaining.  The narrator did a good job with it for what it was.  If someone were unfamiliar with this genre, perhaps it could be a good beach read.  I read tons of these types of books in high school and as a young adult, and this one had nothing new to offer.  It just reeks of some kind of power fantasy for the insecure.  The author's name sounded familiar, so I thought maybe I had read some of his books a while back, but they look to be too recent for that.  Maybe I am being too harsh, but ugh.

Since I think the pendulum swung a bit too far to the lighter side, I am going to try The Fall (Albert Camus; Edoardo Ballerini).  I haven't read that one, and it's generally good ratings, although one rater called it a "waist of time."  Caveat lector?
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on October 10, 2022, 01:06:11 PM
I've only ever read Camus' The Plague, but if you're looking to swing the pendulum back from "too light" I'd figure any Camus will do.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on October 10, 2022, 01:16:12 PM
+1 to Camus; "Huit Clos" (No Exit) is another fun one.

On randomness in a wider context, see Rabbi Kushner's "Why Bad Things Happen to Good People" from the 70s.

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on October 11, 2022, 08:28:13 AM
Quote from: mamselle on October 10, 2022, 01:16:12 PM
+1 to Camus; "Huit Clos" (No Exit) is another fun one.

On randomness in a wider context, see Rabbi Kushner's "Why Bad Things Happen to Good People" from the 70s.

M.

My first college French class spent a semester working through and discussing Huis Clos. I loved it. Somehow it just really resonated with self-important, all-in-black REAL FRENCH!-loving 18-year-old Ergative.

Currently Absolutive and I are reading Disorientation, by Elaine Hsieh Chou, which is a pitch-perfect skewering of the following things:

1. The miseries of being an Nth-year PhD student
2. The difficulties of being an Asian surrounded by well-meaning-but-actually-kind-of-racist people who keep talking about 'your unique background'.
3. White people who love/fetishize Asianness with varying degrees of self-awareness
4. Hyper-sensitive leftists who get tangled up in their internal struggles rather than engaging meaningfully with real issues
5. Chasing trends in academia, pros/cons of
6. Is it all bullshit, anyway?
7. Dumb people making hilariously bad decisions.
8. Existential despair

It sounds like heavy going, but it is a SCREAM. It is exactly the kind of academic satire (except it's not? really? satire?) that I haven't seen properly done since Dear Committee Members.

I haven't finished it yet--don't even think I'm at the halfway mark--but the first 36% or so is so outstanding that I recommend it wholeheartedly. Even if the remaining two thirds don't live up to the start, the start is superb.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: downer on October 15, 2022, 09:33:21 AM
If you are not entirely sanguine about the future of humanity, then

What We Owe The Future
William MacAskill

will engage you.

If you are entirely sanguine about the future, then you should also read it.

The good news is that MacAskill thinks that humans will probably survive.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on October 15, 2022, 07:33:44 PM
From the library: Secrets of the Nile by Tasha Alexander
New and #16 installment in the "Lady Emily Mysteries" series
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on October 16, 2022, 05:50:22 AM
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, in Audiobook form, read by the author.

Amazing, odd, and delightful, per usual.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on October 24, 2022, 08:13:09 AM
Fiesta and Images.  These are grade school and middle school readers from the 1970s that I recall using at school.  I mentioned awhile back that I collect these old readers.  Reading class was always my favorite.  When I got ahead in my assignments and got bored, I'd find older readers left on shelves in the classroom and read those as well.  I've spent many years keeping an eye out in thrift stores and such for old readers that I remembered. 

After collecting a fair number of them I had a dry spell that lasted for several years.  That broke a couple of weeks ago when I found no fewer than four readers I remembered at the same place for about $3 each.  I've been browsing Fiesta and Images in the evenings.  Eventually I'll get around to the others.

I find myself recalling a lot about these readings that I'm seeing now for the first time in over 40 years.  They had stories and excerpts from longer works that tried to offer something for every interest.  These 1970s readers tried to incorporate a notably broader range of ethnic and racial diversity than the older readers did.  The contributing writers weren't necessarily as diverse, though.  Anyway, I like finding long-ago books like this.  It's like becoming re-acquainted with old friends.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on October 24, 2022, 08:13:23 AM
Men Against Time:  Salvage Archaeology in the United States.  This is one of several popular-level works on archaeology that Robert Silverberg wrote, while not otherwise occupied with the science fiction that he is best known for.  "Salvage," aka "rescue" archaeology is where archaeologists try to perform surveys or digs of sites threatened by road building, new reservoirs, and other landscape-altering developments.  Silverberg describes how archaeologists, government agencies, and private developers cooperated to salvage all sorts of sites from 20th-century America's orgy of infrastructure and other development.

The book gives a real appreciation for just how much archaeological heritage the nation has.  Early inhabitants of North America may have had sparse populations in most places, but over the millennia they still left an awful lot of traces of their activities.  It also gives an appreciation for how much archaeologists have accomplished, often in sub-optimal conditions, in extending our understanding of the prehistoric past.  At the same time, it's hard to read this 1960s book without bearing in mind the controversies regarding the large numbers of human remains that the archaeologists have collected. 

Most moderns have little problem with digging up long-ago remains, since they feel little sense of kinship with peoples of earlier eras.  In our hyper-individualist society the rising generation, with their widespread abandonment of permanent relationships and raising families, and increasing tendency to become estranged from parents, seems to be giving up on the whole idea of kinship, period.  The descendants of the nation's earlier inhabitants are another matter.  They tend to regard all human remains found on their ancestral lands, no matter how ancient, as their direct ancestors.  Though that's not always correct--archaeology often indicates that their ancestors were living on land appropriated from earlier cultures in at least as ruthless a manner as anything any European colonists ever did--anybody who's not radically estranged from all kin and predecessors can understand why they feel like they do.  Earlier American archaeologists were also pretty brutal about treating any and all native burials--even the most historically recent ones--as fair game.  The profession still has its work cut out for it in trying to build bridges with communities who, with reason, regard them as no better than the reckless amateur souvenir hunters and artifact sellers that professional archaeologists consider the bane of their existence.

Speaking of artifact hunters, my father has told me of an elderly church member who dug up and sold pots and such as a youth in the 1930s.  Like many of these amateur pot hunters, he was from a poor family that needed the money they could get from finding and selling such things.  He once told Dad of digging up an impressive jar that turned out to be the burial vessel for an infant.  Seeing that he had inadvertently become a grave robber troubled him for the rest of his life.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on October 24, 2022, 08:34:44 AM
Quote from: ergative on October 11, 2022, 08:28:13 AM
Quote from: mamselle on October 10, 2022, 01:16:12 PM
+1 to Camus; "Huit Clos" (No Exit) is another fun one.

On randomness in a wider context, see Rabbi Kushner's "Why Bad Things Happen to Good People" from the 70s.

M.

My first college French class spent a semester working through and discussing Huis Clos. I loved it. Somehow it just really resonated with self-important, all-in-black REAL FRENCH!-loving 18-year-old Ergative.

Currently Absolutive and I are reading Disorientation, by Elaine Hsieh Chou, which is a pitch-perfect skewering of the following things:

1. The miseries of being an Nth-year PhD student
2. The difficulties of being an Asian surrounded by well-meaning-but-actually-kind-of-racist people who keep talking about 'your unique background'.
3. White people who love/fetishize Asianness with varying degrees of self-awareness
4. Hyper-sensitive leftists who get tangled up in their internal struggles rather than engaging meaningfully with real issues
5. Chasing trends in academia, pros/cons of
6. Is it all bullshit, anyway?
7. Dumb people making hilariously bad decisions.
8. Existential despair

It sounds like heavy going, but it is a SCREAM. It is exactly the kind of academic satire (except it's not? really? satire?) that I haven't seen properly done since Dear Committee Members.

I haven't finished it yet--don't even think I'm at the halfway mark--but the first 36% or so is so outstanding that I recommend it wholeheartedly. Even if the remaining two thirds don't live up to the start, the start is superb.

Welp, we finished it. The last third or so deteriorated a bit, losing its wit and snap and getting a bit heavy handed. But overall I think it's a terrific book, and I'd be very curious to know what people think of it. (Oddly enough, I just yesterday interviewed a prospective grad student who was in almost the identical situation as our PhD student heroine in this book, and looking to change programs because of it.)
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on October 24, 2022, 10:23:46 AM
QuoteAfter collecting a fair number of them I had a dry spell that lasted for several years.  That broke a couple of weeks ago when I found no fewer than four readers I remembered at the same place for about $3 each.  I've been browsing Fiesta and Images in the evenings.  Eventually I'll get around to the others.

I love early 'readers,' teaching anthologies, etc. (I collected several of mine, too...) My range has strayed towards the very early ones, including hornbooks and primers (being raised in Ohio, we all learned about the McGuffey Readers, of course).

I think both the Philadelphia Free Library and the Boston Public Library include them in their rare book collections as special sub-collections (their websites have links, I think).

Just to tempt you further...

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on October 24, 2022, 11:06:42 AM
Quote from: mamselle on October 24, 2022, 10:23:46 AM
QuoteAfter collecting a fair number of them I had a dry spell that lasted for several years.  That broke a couple of weeks ago when I found no fewer than four readers I remembered at the same place for about $3 each.  I've been browsing Fiesta and Images in the evenings.  Eventually I'll get around to the others.

I love early 'readers,' teaching anthologies, etc. (I collected several of mine, too...) My range has strayed towards the very early ones, including hornbooks and primers (being raised in Ohio, we all learned about the McGuffey Readers, of course).

I think both the Philadelphia Free Library and the Boston Public Library include them in their rare book collections as special sub-collections (their websites have links, I think).

Just to tempt you further...

M.

I've got a couple of late-edition, later-grade McGuffey's myself.  I also ran across some leftover "Dick and Jane" readers in my grade school days.  They'd been phased out at least a few years before my cohort came along.  Though I'm just as glad we didn't grow up reading them in class, they were kind of fun for casual browsing.

Not sure if I've told this story before--when I was still in college, I continued working with Dad and my brother in the summer.  In the summer of 1988, we were hired to block up most of the big windows at our town's grade school to improve energy efficiency.  It was part of the grant that finally got air conditioning for the buildings (Even that far back, summer already lasted about five months out of the year--classrooms were often terribly hot in September and May). 

In one classroom I discovered a batch of old 1960s readers that included at least one story that I recalled quite vividly from childhood.  I still sometimes wish I'd swiped one of them when I had the chance, given that they were almost certainly only going to be thrown out sooner or later anyway.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Langue_doc on October 24, 2022, 11:19:40 AM
Quote
+1 to Camus; "Huit Clos" (No Exit) is another fun one.

Not to be nitpicky, but Sartre's play is Huis Clos in French.

Incidentally, we're discussing The Plague in one of my book groups. Having read the book first in French before reading the English translation ages ago, I keep hearing the French intonation now as I'm reading the English version.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on October 24, 2022, 04:34:13 PM
Of course, and thanks for the correction.

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on October 27, 2022, 08:02:37 AM
In an Antique Land, by Amitav Ghosh.  Jewish communities have traditionally treated any writing containing the Name of God as too holy to treat casually.  Synagogues often had a special repository called a "geniza" where old sacred texts could be safely stored before receiving a proper ceremonial disposal.  A geniza in Cairo managed to go for many centuries without ever receiving a good purge.  The Cairo Geniza is famous in biblical scholarship as the source of many of the oldest Hebrew Bibles (aka "Old Testament") texts in existence this side of the Dead Sea Scrolls.  Since medieval Jews tended to invoke the Name in all sorts of documents, including mundane personal and business correspondence, the Cairo Geniza came to contain a priceless grab-bag of texts of interest to historians of all sorts.

Amitav Ghosh was a scholar from India who used texts from the Cairo Geniza to reconstruct the lives of certain medieval Jewish merchants.  These merchants were great travelers--from North Africa, through the Arabian Peninsula, all the way to India's Malabar Coast.  Ghosh goes to an impressive amount of effort to try to bring these long-ago figures to life through the fragments that they left behind.  Tracking down these fragments proved quite the adventure, as the discovery of the Cairo Geniza by 19th-century scholars and antiquarians led to its collection becoming dispersed around the world.  In an Antique Land alternates chapters on the lives of Ghosh's subjects with chapters on his own experiences in trying to research them.

He spent quite a bit of time across the 1980s, off and on, conducting research in rural Egyptian communities.  People in communities, like the one where I live, with limited opportunities for diverse contacts can be kind of embarrassing in their dealings with strangers from unfamiliar backgrounds.  The fellahin that Ghosh encounters take this quality up to eleven.  They're constantly asking embarrassing questions about, and expressing horror regarding, such Indian customs as worshiping cows and burning the dead.  They also, among themselves, practice a good deal of old-school peasant conflict, even including the barbaric institution of blood feud.  Ghosh portrays himself as a tolerant sort prepared to make all sorts of allowances toward others in the interest of getting along.  He does admit that now and then his impatience and temper get the better of him.  He nonetheless comes across as developing a real appreciation of, and understanding toward, the fellahin as human beings.  This makes him more sympathetic--in both senses of the word--than the sort of educated progressives who express mostly contempt and disdain toward the 98% of humanity who are less evolved than themselves.

Ghosh uses his experiences in his quest to advance a thesis to the effect that modern nation states are in some ways more closed and xenophobic than the medieval world.  For all its hardships and endemic warfare, the medieval era was a time when people had a lot of freedom of movement around much of the world.  Boundaries between religions were also more permeable than one might think--a surprising number of medieval holy men were venerated by adherents of more than one faith.  It's an interesting thesis.  To me, though, Ghosh's accounts seem mainly to show that human beings haven't undergone any fundamental change over the past thousand years.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on November 09, 2022, 08:42:01 AM
October:

Riley Black - The Last Days of the Dinosaurs: An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World: This was a fun read. Trying to explain the end-Cretaceous extinction in a series of vignettes featuring prehistoric fauna as characters is... well, it's an interesting exercise, and difficult to pull off. Black isn't entirely successful, with the general shape of the story being somewhat uneven. But it was a wacky idea, and reading it was fun. I certainly learned a few things, some of which I think I'm more likely to remember--especially about the aftermath of the impact. I'd have liked a little more about the immediate effects of the impact--Brusatte does a great job of this in The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs--but that's also well-trod ground, whereas the aftermath isn't. There's a smack of teleology about some of the evolutionary details, but it comes and goes.

J.R.R. Tolkein - The Fellowship of the Ring: Well, it's serviceable, but nothing like as good as The Hobbit. The pacing is mostly slow but also somewhat erratic, with a lot more direct worldbuilding than story, and more tell than show. The Mines of Moria also loomed larger in my memory. Shrug. It's not bad, and it's certainly impressive as a historical achievement, but The Hobbit just did it all so much better.

Patrick Rothfuss - The Name of the Wind: I picked this up in a book box years and years ago, and never read it. I read it this time because I wanted to make space on my bookshelf, and based on the back-cover summary I figured I wouldn't like it enough to keep it. I was wrong. This is a fantastic piece of fantasy, and had me gripped almost the whole way through (I wasn't super into the storytelling conceit, especially at the beginning; I don't think there's anything wrong with it as such, but it felt a little more forced, and a little more traditional, than the rest of the story). I especially appreciated the relatively robust system of magic (I could read any number of pages about the University!), I thoroughly enjoyed the street urchin material, and I was delighted by the events surrounding the Draccus at the end. In short, I loved it.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on November 09, 2022, 10:45:02 AM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on November 09, 2022, 08:42:01 AM
October:

Riley Black - The Last Days of the Dinosaurs: An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World: This was a fun read. Trying to explain the end-Cretaceous extinction in a series of vignettes featuring prehistoric fauna as characters is... well, it's an interesting exercise, and difficult to pull off. Black isn't entirely successful, with the general shape of the story being somewhat uneven. But it was a wacky idea, and reading it was fun. I certainly learned a few things, some of which I think I'm more likely to remember--especially about the aftermath of the impact. I'd have liked a little more about the immediate effects of the impact--Brusatte does a great job of this in The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs--but that's also well-trod ground, whereas the aftermath isn't. There's a smack of teleology about some of the evolutionary details, but it comes and goes.

I read The Last Days of the Dinosaurs a few months back.  I quite enjoyed it.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Juvenal on November 11, 2022, 10:34:27 AM
The first in what seems (is) a long series.  Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series, here Master and Commander.  I'm afraid that a few chapters in I started my "power skipping" and then "setting aside."  No great grief at draining the exchequer, since it was one book of three at "$1 for three" book sale at my local library.  I value my time at more than the book merited.

My real beef is how unreadable it was.  Not being all that familiar with history-prose, but not wholly.  So did I find what I expected?  Sort of: Ill-defined characters, the squalor of being a sailor, floggings, cannon specs, baffling ship maneuvers, and a blizzard of technical sailing terms.  Mostly undefined.  So, things like "futtock" are mentioned in passing.  Does the crew do futtock duty?  No clue.

On the other hand I found out the origin of the often-used term now, and its much more technical meaning then: "mainstay."


I will pass on all the subsequent volumes.  The book focus on maritime matters reminds me of Samuel Johnson's, "Being on a ship is like being in jail, but with the prospect of drowning."
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: mamselle on November 11, 2022, 11:18:31 AM
Quote from: Juvenal on November 11, 2022, 10:34:27 AM
The first in what seems (is) a long series.  Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series, here Master and Commander.  I'm afraid that a few chapters in I started my "power skipping" and then "setting aside."  No great grief at draining the exchequer, since it was one book of three at "$1 for three" book sale at my local library.  I value my time at more than the book merited.

My real beef is how unreadable it was.  Not being all that familiar with history-prose, but not wholly.  So did I find what I expected?  Sort of: Ill-defined characters, the squalor of being a sailor, floggings, cannon specs, baffling ship maneuvers, and a blizzard of technical sailing terms.  Mostly undefined.  So, things like "futtock" are mentioned in passing.  Does the crew do futtock duty?  No clue.

On the other hand I found out the origin of the often-used term now, and its much more technical meaning then: "mainstay."


I will pass on all the subsequent volumes.  The book focus on maritime matters reminds me of Samuel Johnson's, "Being on a ship is like being in jail, but with the prospect of drowning."

The film with Russell Crowe is excellent.

M.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on November 11, 2022, 12:05:14 PM
Quote from: mamselle on November 11, 2022, 11:18:31 AM
Quote from: Juvenal on November 11, 2022, 10:34:27 AM
The first in what seems (is) a long series.  Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series, here Master and Commander.  I'm afraid that a few chapters in I started my "power skipping" and then "setting aside."  No great grief at draining the exchequer, since it was one book of three at "$1 for three" book sale at my local library.  I value my time at more than the book merited.

My real beef is how unreadable it was.  Not being all that familiar with history-prose, but not wholly.  So did I find what I expected?  Sort of: Ill-defined characters, the squalor of being a sailor, floggings, cannon specs, baffling ship maneuvers, and a blizzard of technical sailing terms.  Mostly undefined.  So, things like "futtock" are mentioned in passing.  Does the crew do futtock duty?  No clue.

On the other hand I found out the origin of the often-used term now, and its much more technical meaning then: "mainstay."


I will pass on all the subsequent volumes.  The book focus on maritime matters reminds me of Samuel Johnson's, "Being on a ship is like being in jail, but with the prospect of drowning."

The film with Russell Crowe is excellent.

M.

I have listened to the entire series (2x) on audiobook (20 plus novels) and the first is by far the weakest.  I find the whole thing hugely enjoyable.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on November 11, 2022, 02:45:56 PM
Quote from: Juvenal on November 11, 2022, 10:34:27 AM
The first in what seems (is) a long series.  Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series, here Master and Commander.  I'm afraid that a few chapters in I started my "power skipping" and then "setting aside."  No great grief at draining the exchequer, since it was one book of three at "$1 for three" book sale at my local library.  I value my time at more than the book merited.

My real beef is how unreadable it was.  Not being all that familiar with history-prose, but not wholly.  So did I find what I expected?  Sort of: Ill-defined characters, the squalor of being a sailor, floggings, cannon specs, baffling ship maneuvers, and a blizzard of technical sailing terms.  Mostly undefined.  So, things like "futtock" are mentioned in passing.  Does the crew do futtock duty?  No clue.

On the other hand I found out the origin of the often-used term now, and its much more technical meaning then: "mainstay."


I will pass on all the subsequent volumes.  The book focus on maritime matters reminds me of Samuel Johnson's, "Being on a ship is like being in jail, but with the prospect of drowning."

The thing about that series is that, if you stick with it, you really do learn all the nautical jargon--or, at least, enough of it so that a sequence in which people are, say, trying to find a place to anchor safely at an island when the wind is wrong, is desperately tense and your heart is in your throat the entire time.

A lot of book 2 takes place on land, and introduces Diana Villiers, who's lots of fun throughout the rest of the series. You might find that it's a good way to get more invested with the characters if you interact with them on land, and then when they go back to sea it goes down more easily.

There's a fabulous sequence in one of the mid-series books in which Aubrey is fleeing from a pursuing French warship in the seas south of the Cape of Good Hope, which RJ Barker basically stole wholesale in the last book of his superb Bone Ships trilogy. It made me feel like we shared a very special moment, when I recognized that chase while reading the book (it's really the culmination that makes it clear where it came from) and then read his author's note in which he confessed what he had done.

FishProf, you might enjoy RJ Barker's books. They're very heavily influenced by the Aubrey & Maturin series, but then do wildly fabulously imaginatively different things with the concept of nautical fantasy.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on November 19, 2022, 10:18:33 AM
Starting: What the Dead Leave Behind by Rosemary Simpson
It's the 1st installment in the "Gilded Age Mystery" series set in NY City. The story opens at the start of Great Blizzard of 1888.
I've checked out all the novels in this series so far from the library.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Morden on November 19, 2022, 10:25:16 AM
Quote from: apl68 on October 27, 2022, 08:02:37 AM
In an Antique Land, by Amitav Ghosh.  Jewish communities have traditionally treated any writing containing the Name of God as too holy to treat casually.  Synagogues often had a special repository called a "geniza" where old sacred texts could be safely stored before receiving a proper ceremonial disposal.  A geniza in Cairo managed to go for many centuries without ever receiving a good purge.  The Cairo Geniza is famous in biblical scholarship as the source of many of the oldest Hebrew Bibles (aka "Old Testament") texts in existence this side of the Dead Sea Scrolls.  Since medieval Jews tended to invoke the Name in all sorts of documents, including mundane personal and business correspondence, the Cairo Geniza came to contain a priceless grab-bag of texts of interest to historians of all sorts.

Amitav Ghosh was a scholar from India who used texts from the Cairo Geniza to reconstruct the lives of certain medieval Jewish merchants.  These merchants were great travelers--from North Africa, through the Arabian Peninsula, all the way to India's Malabar Coast.  Ghosh goes to an impressive amount of effort to try to bring these long-ago figures to life through the fragments that they left behind.  Tracking down these fragments proved quite the adventure, as the discovery of the Cairo Geniza by 19th-century scholars and antiquarians led to its collection becoming dispersed around the world.  In an Antique Land alternates chapters on the lives of Ghosh's subjects with chapters on his own experiences in trying to research them.

He spent quite a bit of time across the 1980s, off and on, conducting research in rural Egyptian communities.  People in communities, like the one where I live, with limited opportunities for diverse contacts can be kind of embarrassing in their dealings with strangers from unfamiliar backgrounds.  The fellahin that Ghosh encounters take this quality up to eleven.  They're constantly asking embarrassing questions about, and expressing horror regarding, such Indian customs as worshiping cows and burning the dead.  They also, among themselves, practice a good deal of old-school peasant conflict, even including the barbaric institution of blood feud.  Ghosh portrays himself as a tolerant sort prepared to make all sorts of allowances toward others in the interest of getting along.  He does admit that now and then his impatience and temper get the better of him.  He nonetheless comes across as developing a real appreciation of, and understanding toward, the fellahin as human beings.  This makes him more sympathetic--in both senses of the word--than the sort of educated progressives who express mostly contempt and disdain toward the 98% of humanity who are less evolved than themselves.

Ghosh uses his experiences in his quest to advance a thesis to the effect that modern nation states are in some ways more closed and xenophobic than the medieval world.  For all its hardships and endemic warfare, the medieval era was a time when people had a lot of freedom of movement around much of the world.  Boundaries between religions were also more permeable than one might think--a surprising number of medieval holy men were venerated by adherents of more than one faith.  It's an interesting thesis.  To me, though, Ghosh's accounts seem mainly to show that human beings haven't undergone any fundamental change over the past thousand years.

I haven't read any of his non-fiction, but I enjoyed the Ibis trilogy (Sea of Poppies; River of Smoke; Flood of Fire) about the Opium Wars.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on November 21, 2022, 07:47:20 AM
The Return to Camelot:  Chivalry and the English Gentleman, by Mark Girouard.  The late 18th-early 19th centuries saw a notable revival of interest in the Middle Ages.  This led to a widespread idea that modern codes of "gentlemanly" behavior were derived, and perhaps should be derived, from medieval chivalry.  Girouard, a noted architectural historian, examines the influence of such ideas on literature, art, architecture, and society.  The book is a visual feast.  There are dozens of full-color plates, and many good black-and-white illustrations.  The text is also very engaging.

Girouard introduces many figures from the period.  Some, such as Tennyson and the Pre-Raphaelites, one would expect to see in any work on this subject.  Others are a good deal more surprising or obscure.  Then there are the real eccentrics--such as the incredibly honor-bound "four friends of Baddesley Clinton," whose story would make a perfect bestselling romantic tearjerker; Charlie Lamb, the radical atheist and vegetarian who "knighted" his pet guinea pigs; and Lord Elgin, who nearly went broke trying to stage a full-dress jousting tournament in the opening years of Victoria's reign (If only the weather had been more cooperative...). 

The visuals and glimpses of stranger-than-fiction eccentrics make this a fun read.  But it is also a serious work of social history.  Girouard  makes a good case that chivalric ideals proved influential in Britain during the 19th century.  Their influence peaked in the latter part of Victoria's reign, just as Britain's global economic and political power reached its peak.  This makes it a phenomenon worthy of study.  Girouard tries to avoid exaggerating the re-imagined chivalric ideal's influence, and is by no means uncritical of it.  Still, he clearly thinks that, at its best, the ideal had its worthy points, and benefited many.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on November 21, 2022, 08:10:04 AM
I first encountered The Return to Camelot in college, after growing up reading my share of Arthurian stories, fairy tales, and some Cervantes.  It made a vivid impression.  I was glad to have a chance to re-read it after so many years.  Some thoughts:  First, the chivalric ideal, with its inherent elitism, stress on individual glory-seeking, and tendency to romanticize warfare, has always been a challenge to reconcile with New Testament Christianity.  Some understood as much back in the day.  Scott's Ivanhoe critiques chivalric values, even as it was popularizing them in the early 1800s.

Second, for all the ideal's problems, an elite class could certainly do worse than try to pattern its conduct after the code of chivalry as re-imagined in the 19th century.  Those gentry who honestly tried to live up to such ideals make an attractive contrast with the Philistine plutocrats, crude dictators, and bloodthirsty revolutionaries who have run so much of the world over the past century or so. 

Which brings us to the idea that the Victorian age deserves far more credit for progressivism than it is often given.  There's a good bit of evidence in Return to Camelot for saying that the period was, in some ways, as progressive an age as the world has ever seen.  Life expectancies and standards of living were clearly rising.  Yes, there was widespread colonialism, slavery, and other forms of exploitation.  There was absolutely nothing new about any of this.  What was novel was just how widespread the idea that all of these practices were wrong became.  The Victorians and Edwardians had reason for feeling like they were moving in the right direction.  Then World War I blew it all up.

For the elite, the ones most attracted to chivalric ideals, for the most part as unaware as most elites are of just how fortunate they really were, it must have been a great time to be alive.  It's hard not to feel sorry for the elite youth of the waning years of the 19th century.  They grew up in a world of optimism and privilege, and then came of age just in time to see World War I and its aftermath destroy forever that world they were brought up to inherit.  I suspect that the baby boomers can identify with their disappointment at just how radically the world of their adulthood turned out to be unlike what they'd experienced growing up.  So it is with our efforts to create paradise in the here and now.

For me, the most arresting image in the whole book is Walter Crane's painting "The White Knight," which is reproduced on one of the color plates and on the book jacket.  It shows a knight riding through a hilly, dreamlike landscape.  When I was younger I went walking a lot in the woods near the family home.  One evening the light was such that I almost felt like I had walked into that picture.  Timber clear cutting has since utterly devastated the landscape of that spot.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on December 17, 2022, 08:58:06 AM
November:

Patrick Rothfuss - The Wise Man's Fear: Every bit as riveting as the first, although I still have some reservations about the framing device. I ploughed through it in no time flat, and I'm very sad that it seems we won't be getting the concluding volume any time soon, if at all. Then again, it seems like there are far too many threads for a single volume to weave together. I suspect that may be what's holding Rothfuss back: it's just too hard to deliver a satisfying ending in one book, given what still needs to happen and the pace at which the previous two books unfolded.


Patrick Rothfuss - The Slow Regard of Silent Things: A fun aside into Auri's life, roughly contemporaneous with the main story. It's a recognizable portrait of OCD, and I rather enjoyed it. But I would still like a novel about Auri's time at the University, and what pushed her into the Underthing.


Rivka Galchen - Little Labors: A fun little book of anecdotes about the early life of her child. A few were very funny, most were quite relatable. A brief but fun distraction.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on December 21, 2022, 07:58:37 PM
From the library: Sister Novelists by Devoney Looser
Biography of Jane and Anna Maria Porter, two sisters who were best selling novelists in early 19th century UK. They were a major influence on the historical fiction genre. In addition to their novels, the Porter sisters had fascinating lives and met many of the greats of society of the day and royalty.

I didn't know about these two sisters before checking out this book! It's been a worthwhile read.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on January 07, 2023, 10:22:12 AM
In December I read a few new ones, and finished a few that were lingering around:

Stephen Jay Gould - Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History: Gould is always a joy to read, and I learned a great deal, as ever. The book flags in its last third/quarter, though, once he's run out of Burgess material to discuss.

Becky Chambers - Record of a Spaceborn Few: Chambers's novels are always fun, and this was no exception. Not much happens, and I haven't much to report, but it's a nice way to fill out the story of the Exodan fleet.

Adrian Currie - Rock, Bone, and Ruin: An Optimist's Guide to the Historical Sciences: I don't normally list the philosophy books I read, but I read this one for fun, so it counts. It was a joy to read: Currie does a fantastic job of leading with examples, and returning to them over and over again to make his more nuanced arguments. It's a thoroughly convincing argument about methodology in the historical sciences.

Michael Livingston - Origins of the Wheel of Time: The Legends and Mythologies that Inspired Robert Jordan: This is a somewhat weird book--it's part biography, part glossary, and part investigation of the influences behind WoT, especially from Tolkein and Graves's The White Goddess. As a huge WoT nerd, I was fascinated, and delighted to discover how on the mark many of my own pet theories about the structure of Randland are/were. I certainly learned some things. And the corrected map of Randland (including Seanchan) is a very nice addition.

Adrian Tchaikovsky - The Expert System's Champion: A delightful return to the world of The Expert System's Brother (a colonization project gone wrong/native), ten years later. Loved it.

Adrian Tchaikovsky - Elder Race: Another fantastic short novel by Tchaikovsky, this time about an anthropologist observing a colony world who seems to have outlasted his own civilization. So much fun. Tchaikovsky is really good at writing gripping scifi focused on a premise that only takes about 200 pages to articulate.

John Conway - A History of Painting (With Dinosaurs): A brilliant little book, which presents a fun new twist on the brilliant methodological twist at the end of All Yesterdays: Conway reimagines important pieces of art history as though they had taken dinosaurs for their subject matter. My only complaint, really, is the conceit that sets up the book--I would have preferred a straight-up text that justifies its existence in the real (art-historical) world. There are some really important art-historical observations and arguments undergirding this little project, and the conceit obscures them, shifting the book from a serious broadside to a quirky project for the lulz. Still, it's a wonderful little work, and well worth the twenty-five dollars.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Juvenal on January 07, 2023, 05:52:25 PM
Just re-read the (apparently under-rated?) Canadian writer, Robertson Davies's "Cornish Trilogy," The Rebel Angels, The Lyre of Orpheus, What's Bred in the Bone.  Delightful, linked novels.  Nice to have an Anglophone milieu that's neither US nor UK.  Things do go on north of the US border, with an academic background, so it seems ...
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on January 07, 2023, 07:39:23 PM
From the library: local history books about regional cuisine and town history.
Also, A Certain Darkness by Anna Lee Huber
New and 7th installment in the "Verity Kent Mystery" series. In 1920, Verity and Sidney Kent head to France and Holland for their latest case, relating to their time serving abroad during the war. The novel ends with them planning a trip to Dublin.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on January 10, 2023, 07:23:48 AM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on January 07, 2023, 10:22:12 AM
In December I read a few new ones, and finished a few that were lingering around:

Stephen Jay Gould - Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History: Gould is always a joy to read, and I learned a great deal, as ever. The book flags in its last third/quarter, though, once he's run out of Burgess material to discuss.

I've never read much about the Burgess Shale fossils, or of Cambrian fossils in general.  There was a lot of weird stuff roaming the Earth--well, some of it could roam--back then.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on January 10, 2023, 07:39:26 AM
Atlantic:  Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of  a Million Stories, by Simon Winchester.  I just happened to run across a copy of this a while back, and took my time gradually reading through it.  Winchester looks at the Atlantic from a wide range of perspectives--its geological history, from the time it formed with the breakup of the Pangaea super-continent; its hydrology; its weather; its exploration; the war and trade that have been centered around it; and the growing environmental crisis surrounding it. 

That's an awful lot to synthesize and pack into a few hundred pages.  And he does it so well!  The book is developed through a series of thematic chapters that follow the conceit of the "Ages of Man" as seen in Shakespeare--infancy (the ocean's formation), childhood (the gradual exploration and discovery of the ocean's shape and extent), and so forth.  Due to environmental degradation and climate change, it appears that we are now living in a time corresponding to the age of decline and dementia, at least as far as the ocean's biological communities and thriving human coastal communities are concerned. 

It's interesting that Winchester, writing only a little over a decade ago, was prepared to express a certain amount of skepticism regarding whether humans were causing climate change.  But he is not by any means a climate change denialist--he accepts that it's happening, but wonders whether we're barking up the wrong tree in trying to fix carbon emissions when there are lots of other environmental threats, like pollution, over-fishing, and human insistence on building along stormy, erosion-prone coasts to worry about.  I wonder whether Winchester has since become as convinced of the urgency of addressing climate change through de-carbonizing our economy as most climate scientists now are?  Anyway, he does show that it is possible to have a certain skepticism regarding some aspects of conventional scientific wisdom without being an ignorant crackpot.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on January 10, 2023, 02:30:09 PM
From the library:
Death at the Falls by Rosemary Simpson
New and #7 in "A Gilded Age Mystery" series

A Tale of Two Murders by Heather Redmond
#1 in "A Dickens of a Crime" series--Charles Dickens is a young journalist who becomes an amateur sleuth in London.  The story opens in January 1835.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on January 10, 2023, 04:46:34 PM
Quote from: apl68 on January 10, 2023, 07:23:48 AM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on January 07, 2023, 10:22:12 AM
In December I read a few new ones, and finished a few that were lingering around:

Stephen Jay Gould - Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History: Gould is always a joy to read, and I learned a great deal, as ever. The book flags in its last third/quarter, though, once he's run out of Burgess material to discuss.

I've never read much about the Burgess Shale fossils, or of Cambrian fossils in general.  There was a lot of weird stuff roaming the Earth--well, some of it could roam--back then.

Gould is always fun to read. It was super informative, and did a great job of explaining why they're so interesting. But it's also from 1988, so, you know.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on January 11, 2023, 03:32:25 AM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on January 10, 2023, 04:46:34 PM
Gould is always fun to read. It was super informative, and did a great job of explaining why they're so interesting. But it's also from 1988, so, you know.

Although he is one of my favorites, his take on the Burgess Shale fossils is not without controversy.  Simon Conway Morris wrote a book The Crucible of Creation: The Burgess Shale and the Rise of Animals which is an alternative interpretation and an attempt to refute Gould's primary thesis.

It's worth a read.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on January 11, 2023, 06:20:44 AM
Quote from: FishProf on January 11, 2023, 03:32:25 AM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on January 10, 2023, 04:46:34 PM
Gould is always fun to read. It was super informative, and did a great job of explaining why they're so interesting. But it's also from 1988, so, you know.

Although he is one of my favorites, his take on the Burgess Shale fossils is not without controversy.  Simon Conway Morris wrote a book The Crucible of Creation: The Burgess Shale and the Rise of Animals which is an alternative interpretation and an attempt to refute Gould's primary thesis.

It's worth a read.

Yes, I do know that he may have overestimated how unique the Burgess Shale specimens were.  It's understandable that a writer who died in 2002 might not be up on the research developments of the past 20 years or so.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on January 14, 2023, 06:21:08 AM
The Enigma Story:  The Truth Behind the 'Unbreakable' World War II Cipher, by Dermot Turing.  I received this as an unexpected Christmas present.  It's quite an interesting comprehensive view of the Allied efforts to break the famous German Enigma cipher machine.  The story of this effort has sometimes been presented mainly as the story of Alan Turing, the great computer science pioneer.  Although--or maybe because--Turing the author is Alan Turing's nephew, he goes to some effort to correct various myths about Turing.  Mainly he puts Alan Turing's contributions to the Enigma decrypts into perspective by presenting him as only one of many key figures in the operation.  Breaking Enigma took a lot of people.

Turing also gives due credit to Polish, French, and eventually American contributions to the war against German cipher signals security.  Most accounts of Enigma give the impression that some Allied genius--Alan Turing, or some unsung Polish cryptographer, or some unsung woman at Bletchley Park--made a genius breakthrough that laid German communications bare.  In reality, the German kept trying to improve Enigma's security throughout the war, and the Allies had to keep upping their own game.  Turing also points out that the efforts to decrypt Enigma were only one of many "codebreaking" operations going on in the war.  And he tries to give a more balanced perspective on cryptography's contribution to victory.  It was seldom a matter of reading dramatic, critically-important secret messages.  Signals intelligence was and is mostly about decrypting lots of little bits of evidence that can be combined to form a bigger picture.

It's a big, complicated story told in a readable and accessible fashion.  Good work, Mr. Turing!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on January 14, 2023, 07:33:14 PM
Started from the library:
Murder at the Serpentine Bridge by Andrea Penrose
New and #6 installment in the "Wexford & Sloane" series
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on January 14, 2023, 08:21:12 PM
Quote from: FishProf on January 11, 2023, 03:32:25 AM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on January 10, 2023, 04:46:34 PM
Gould is always fun to read. It was super informative, and did a great job of explaining why they're so interesting. But it's also from 1988, so, you know.

Although he is one of my favorites, his take on the Burgess Shale fossils is not without controversy.  Simon Conway Morris wrote a book The Crucible of Creation: The Burgess Shale and the Rise of Animals which is an alternative interpretation and an attempt to refute Gould's primary thesis.

It's worth a read.

Cool! I'll check it out!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: paultuttle on January 17, 2023, 08:53:18 AM
Books 1 and 2 of the Harry Potter series, all of the Lord of the Rings series, and several one-offs from other writers.

Is it just me, or do other people also read several books at a time, moving forward on each one when they're in range of that volume they set down on the bedside table, mantel, coffee table, or bookshelf?
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on January 17, 2023, 10:16:27 AM
Quote from: paultuttle on January 17, 2023, 08:53:18 AM
Books 1 and 2 of the Harry Potter series, all of the Lord of the Rings series, and several one-offs from other writers.

Is it just me, or do other people also read several books at a time, moving forward on each one when they're in range of that volume they set down on the bedside table, mantel, coffee table, or bookshelf?

I keep multiple items going at a time like that.  Although which I take up to read at any given time isn't as determined by proximity.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on January 17, 2023, 11:25:19 AM
I used to have up to eight going at a time, but eventually I settled on one fiction and one non-fiction at a time, because I found that too many were languishing uncompleted for too long.

Post-baby, I'm down to just a single book at a time (for pleasure; up to one work book at a time, too). I don't have the bandwidth for more at the moment.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on January 17, 2023, 12:52:17 PM
Quote from: paultuttle on January 17, 2023, 08:53:18 AM
Books 1 and 2 of the Harry Potter series, all of the Lord of the Rings series, and several one-offs from other writers.

Is it just me, or do other people also read several books at a time, moving forward on each one when they're in range of that volume they set down on the bedside table, mantel, coffee table, or bookshelf?

I used to hate being in the middle of more than one book at once, but these days I'm like you--although it's more format than location. I've usually got one audio book for commuting, cleaning, etc., and then a physical book or non-fiction book, and then an e-book or fiction book. Sometimes I've got a literature going and a non-fiction and an SFF going at the same time, to suit all moods.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on January 18, 2023, 08:16:56 AM
I don't usually listen to too many fiction books at once, though I also have an audio book or two going (usually one fiction, one non-fiction), as well as the physical fiction book we read together.  I do have several non-fiction books that I'm currently reading.  They are compilations, so they're pretty easy to switch between and are not super-technical. 
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on January 18, 2023, 09:43:14 AM
From the library:The Last Crown by Elżbieta Cherezińska, translated by Maya Zakrzewska-Pim
Story of Queen Swietoslawa the Bold One who ruled in the early 11th century. The novel is the sequel to The Widow Queen.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on January 18, 2023, 12:04:13 PM
Quote from: hmaria1609 on January 18, 2023, 09:43:14 AM
From the library:The Last Crown by Elżbieta Cherezińska, translated by Maya Zakrzewska-Pim
Story of Queen Swietoslawa the Bold One who ruled in the early 11th century. The novel is the sequel to The Widow Queen.

Ah, I gave up on the The Widow Queen when I slammed headfirst into two characters named, respectively, Bolesław and Boleslaw. That's just rude.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on January 19, 2023, 07:47:12 AM
Headlong Hall and Nightmare Abbey, by Thomas Love Peacock.  Both short novels satirize philosophical trends and culture of the Romantic era.  They include characters based on such real-life figures as Shelley and Coleridge.  I lack the erudition to catch all the allusions that were present in both stories, but I could catch enough to have a lot of laughs.  Highlights include the discussion of ghosts in Nightmare Abbey that is disrupted by an actual "ghost," and the ensuing pandemonium.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Hegemony on January 19, 2023, 09:13:05 AM
I love Nightmare Abbey! There is also Crotchet Castle.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on January 20, 2023, 09:09:39 AM
The Klondike Fever:  The Life and Death of the Last Great Gold Rush, by Pierre Berton.  This 1950s work is still considered the classic general history of the 1890s gold rush to the Klondike.  I first read it some years back.  My first reading about that rush was an early 1960s book for younger readers called The Alaska Gold Rush, by May McNeer.  This was one of the old Landmark Books series, with evocative illustrations by Lynd Ward.  I loved that book when I was growing up, and still do.  I didn't realize at the time that most of it seems to have been more or less cribbed from Berton's then-recent book.

Berton of course goes into a lot more detail.  He tells so many fascinating stories here!  Many of them seem highly improbable.  But Berton does seem to have worked hard at documenting them, so most of them probably do have a good basis in fact.  Berton's own father was a Klondike stampeder who stayed in the Yukon, and Berton himself grew up in Dawson City at a time when the whole gold rush business was still very much a living memory.

This makes me want to know more about the gold rush in the Far North.  Any one of Berton's chapters contains enough material that one could go in much deeper.  He also has startlingly little to say about the experiences and perspectives of the native people whose lands were suddenly inundated by gold hunters.  It's a surprising omission from a writer who went on to gain quite a reputation for what would now be called "wokeness."
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on January 27, 2023, 10:23:47 AM
Jesus Freaks, by Voice of the Martyrs.  Voice of the Martyrs is an advocacy group--a legit one, with transparent finances and an actual history--that documents persecution of contemporary Christian minorities worldwide.  They aren't the only persecuted religious or other minorities, of course, but persecution of Christian minorities in the modern world is very widespread in the Middle East, in sub-Sarahan Africa, and in the Indian subcontinent.  Arrests, beatings, and in some places, murders, still occur on a regular basis.  Most First-Worlders aren't aware of the problem, just as they are largely unaware of pressing problems being experienced elsewhere in the world in general.

Jesus Freaks contains accounts of people who have suffered for being Christians from the first century on.  Although there are some possibly apocryphal ancient saints' legends here, the great majority of the accounts are from the twentieth century and on.  Many of them are from within the past 20 years.  Some of the recent ones have directions to podcasts of people involved telling their own stories.

Many of them speak of how they seek to show love for and pray for those who have mistreated them and their loved ones.  Which is exactly what Jesus told his followers to do.  Sometimes these prayers are answered--there are several accounts of persecutors of Christians who turned Christian when they realized that these people that they were trying to intimidate had something that they wished that they had too.  It's all a moving reminder of the commitment it takes to follow Jesus in any society.  And of how those of us who don't face persecution must try to support those of us who do.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on January 29, 2023, 08:52:35 AM
It's early, but I won't finish any other books before the end of the month. So, January:

David Hone - The Tyrannosaur Chronicles: The Biology of the Tyrant Dinosaurs: An informative read, but the writing leaves something to be desired in places. In particular, a number of things are only partially explained, including things for which an explanation is promised earlier. The section on prey is pretty much all padding, as evidenced by the fact that stegosaurs are included rather than simply dismissed (because, obviously for anyone who's marginally informed, time and geography wouldn't permit it). It's a fine book, but it could have been better (frankly, I think that Mark Witton's blog posts are generally more informative). My main complaint actually has to do with an illustration: Hone argues for feathered Tyrannosaurs, but Scott Hartman's restoration isn't feathered.

Harry Turtledove - The Road Not Taken: Just a short story, but a fun one. Imagine that the trick to FTL travel is so simple that it could have been discovered at almost any point in human history, but wasn't. Now imagine that aliens invade wielding... matchlocks.

Daniel H. Wilson - The Andromeda Evolution: A sequel to Crichton's The Andromeda Strain, which I found in a book box. Really kind of meh. It's a serviceable thriller, and does a fair job of capturing Crichton's style. But this wasn't Crichton's best story, and stretching it out like this does it no favours. The addition of a pile of robotics porn is dull, and Wilson asks us to suspend disbelief a few times too many and too early in the story. Also, the story-telling conceit driving the narration doesn't work.

Poul Anderson and Mildred Downey Broxon - The Demon of Scattery: Another book box find, I took it because I enjoy Anderson's retellings of the sagas. I thought this would be that, but it isn't--it's a wholly invented story set around the second raid of Scattery Island, ~835 CE. It's okay--it's strongly inflected by the revenge horror of the 1970s (e.g. I Spit On Your Grave), so... well, that is what it is. I could have done without the sexual violence, which is not treated sensitively (worse, it ends in reconciliation). Although that's not inaccurate to the period, it's really not narratively necessary or earned. Surprisingly, the book is filled with illustrations--wildly inaccurate and fanciful illustrations, which Anderson takes a dig at in the historical note. (Also weirdly, judging from the historical note it sounds like Broxon was the primary author, even though she's listed second.)
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on January 31, 2023, 12:50:44 PM
Quote from: ergative on January 18, 2023, 12:04:13 PM
Ah, I gave up on the The Widow Queen when I slammed headfirst into two characters named, respectively, Bolesław and Boleslaw. That's just rude.
I missed seeing this!
I enjoyed reading the sequel, seeing how Queen Swietoslawa's story ended. The book could've been edited some--it dragged at one point! Aside from that, I'm glad to have read Swietoslawa's story.  This duet was the author's first novels to be translated in English outside of her native Poland.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on February 08, 2023, 06:24:49 AM
Just finished gradually reading through a big collection of Washington Irving's works, including Bracebridge Hall and Tales of a Traveler.  It took a while to get through about 700 pages altogether.  These were all collections of shorter pieces, of course.  I had a good time at it.  Irving can be great fun to read.  His long essay "Abbottsford" gives an interesting portrait of Walter Scott, whom Irving apparently got to know pretty well.  Although I've read a fair amount of Irving elsewhere over the years, I found only a couple of pieces here that I'd read before.

The volume I read was one I found during my travels last year.  It was published in 1883.  And bore a signature from a previous owner dated 1883.  It's remarkable how fun a 140-year-old book can be.  I wonder whether that long-ago owner enjoyed it as much as I did?
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on February 21, 2023, 03:36:13 PM
Salem Chapel, by Margaret Oliphant.  Our late friend and colleague mamselle recommended this to me a few months back as a rare example of a work of literature that presents a realistic and honest view of life in an evangelical church community, as opposed to the far more common approach of pandering to reader prejudice by portraying them as cult-like villains who make life miserable for the protagonist.  I had supposed that Salem Chapel would be something of a slice-of-life story.  Turns out it has some sensational, melodramatic sections of a sort that fit all sorts of stereotypes about Victorian-era popular fiction.

When not pursuing the sensational plot, though, it is indeed a pretty fair portrayal of that sort of church community.  The people of Salem Chapel are the kind of people who don't roll very high in society in terms of education, wealth, and social status.  Their most eminent members are small-time shopkeepers and tradesmen.  They're what any fair-minded observer would recognize as "good people," hard-working, stable, cheerful, and generally pretty easy to get along with.

They've also fallen into complacency.  They come from a faith tradition that once manifested real spiritual power in contrast to a hidebound and worldly Establishment and its traditions.  But they haven't experienced actual persecution--as opposed to mere occasional ridicule and disrespect--in living memory.  Having shaken off the dead hand of outworn institutions and traditions, they've been unable to resist the temptation to form institutions and traditions of their own.  They're mainly interested in living in a safe little bubble of their own.  They want a minister who will help them to do that, instead of mobilizing them to carry the Gospel into the world.

As for their new pastor, the novel's protagonist, he is a recent seminary graduate whose education has left him feeling a cut above the people he is there to serve.  He can preach lively sermons, and even draw new attendees to the church, but inwardly he still lacks emotional maturity.  He demonstrates this by developing a hopeless infatuation for a beautiful young lady of means who is both a practicing Anglican and above his station in life.

The reader really roots for him to mature and start responding to his congregation with the sort of combination of grace and challenge to strive in the faith that a good pastor can bring.  He doesn't make it.  Maybe God will eventually make him into a mature leader, but he's not that at the story's end.  Meanwhile the congregation finds a new pastor whom they consider more compatible.  They go on being merely good people, when they could be so much more.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on February 21, 2023, 03:51:01 PM
Incidentally, the biblical place-name "Salem" is a perennially popular choice among congregations choosing a name for themselves.  My father's first pastorate, before I was born, was a church named Salem.  Newlywed Mom and Dad had to make a 5-6-hour round trip every Sunday to get there, since Mom was still in college and they had to live close to her school.  They'd drive out to the town where Salem was early each Sunday morning, spend Sunday with the congregation, make the long drive home that evening, and be ready to get back to work and studies on Monday morning.

The churches I knew growing up were socially a cut below Oliphant's Salem Chapel.  They were small, working-class congregations that could only afford a part-time "bi-vocational" pastor who worked the same sort of day job his flock did to make ends meet.  After I and my brother were born, Dad even felt it necessary to give up better-paying union masonry work, which required travel to distant construction sites, in order to remain close to family and pastoral responsibilities.  Between his bricklaying, whatever stipend the church managed to pay him, and Mom's school teaching, we got by.  From the time I turned 13 my brother and I also spent our summers working full-time as laborers with Dad.

Dad spent most of his life as a bi-vocational pastor.  When he hurt himself in his early 60s and had trouble laying bricks, he went to work for a local auto body shop.  He retired from that at age 70, but kept pastoring his church.  Nine years later, he still does.  I guess Dad's the sort who'd rather wear out that rust out.

All of which is to say that I have a lot of personal experience with the kind of evangelical/Nonconformist/low-church congregations that Oliphant writes about in Salem Chapel.  It's refreshing to see a fundamentally honest portrayal of that world.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on February 22, 2023, 03:45:23 AM
Oh, I loved Salem Chapel. I discovered Oliphaunt a few years ago, and I find that her tales are a really interesting counterpart to Trollope, especially her Chronicles of Carlingford, of which Salem Chapel is one, which sit in the same niche as Trollope's Barsetshire books. All of the stuff about evangelical vs. hidebound safe bubbling went completely over my head; I thought it was neat to read a book about a pastor  getting a job in a system that was not the Church of England, but that was about the extent of it for me. What really struck me about that particular lack of fit between pastor and people was how much it all mirrored the trials of landing a tenure-track job in academia. I've thought this before with respect to curates in Trollope and Oliphaunt's work: they are just the adjunct lecturers holding on by their fingernails waiting until a TT job falls vacant. But in this one, the metaphor extends in a different direction: Vincent got himself an R1 PhD, and then landed a TT job at a SLAC, and can't handle the change.

Another thing that I quite liked about this book was how, despite its putative focus on Vincent, it strikes me as being much more interested in having a conversation about mothers, and the efforts they expend for their children. I don't remember the exact details, but I recall that there was one plot element about a mother trying to protect or recover her missing children; and another mother whose daughter needs to be rescued, and then Vincent's mother (possibly the same as the second?) trying to smooth things over with respect to his job. The whole book is about mothers trying to protect their children in various ways, with varying degrees of melodrama and success. It's a kind of perspective that makes sense, given that Oliphaunt was widowed young and had too support her own children with her writing.

I recommended it quite highly to my mother, and then she took my copy of my book to a party and lost it, so I had to replace it, and she still hasn't read it, to my knowledge.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on February 22, 2023, 06:47:02 AM
Salem Chapel does have some themes in common with Trollope's Barsetshire books, doesn't it?  I hadn't realized that until you pointed it out. 

Yes, mothers acting on behalf of their children is a major theme of the book.  Mrs. Vincent is indeed not the only one.  It is strongly implied that another aggrieved mother ends up taking some very extreme measures.

Likening Vincent to a an R1 PhD who finds himself at a SLAC is a good analogy.  I suppose there are many educated professions in which that sort of thing can happen, including libraries.  Educated professionals tend to get their training in a particular kind of big, urban environment.  Many of the places that need them to serve offer something very different. 

I've found that the best fit often comes when the professional comes from the sort of environment where the service takes place and has an understanding and appreciation of it.  I'm not a great librarian, really, but I am a good fit for our community because I grew up in a similar one elsewhere in the state.  Dad has been a good fit for the congregations where he has pastored because, even though he went to college and formally studied for the ministry, he also spent his life making a living the way the members of the flock did.  They understood each other.  It was the same with his father before him, although Papaw was a case of a layman being called to preach later in life.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on February 23, 2023, 03:22:15 PM
From the library:
Independent Press in DC and Virginia (http://independent%20press%20in%20dc%20and%20virginia) by Dale M. Brumfield
This local history book chronicles the heyday of alternative newspapers in 60s and 70s in DC and VA.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on February 27, 2023, 07:51:10 AM
Wild Ocean, by Alan Villiers.  Awhile back I read a book about the Atlantic Ocean by Simon Winchester.  Some half-century earlier, in the mid-1950s, Alan Villiers wrote this work about the same subject.  He covers a broadly similar variety of subject matter.  Villiers has a good deal less about the physical science of the ocean and its currents, climates, etc. than Winchester does.  Understandable, as much less was then known about such things.  Villiers' concerns are with the more classically "romantic" subjects of ships and seafaring. 

Which is understandable, given Villiers' experience.  Winchester begins his book with a description of crossing the Atlantic in his youth aboard one of the last ocean liners to ply its waters in the old style.  Villiers writes of how in his youth he sailed as a seaman aboard some of the last true commercial sailing ships.  He wrote a lot of articles about his experiences for National Geographic and the like back in the day.

The difference in perspective between a writer born in 1903 and one born in 1944 is pretty dramatic.  Naturally Winchester's perspective is in many ways one that today's readers would find more congenial--it's far less Eurocentric for one thing.  But Villiers' perspective is interesting in its own right.  In one chapter he writes about what it must have been like to sail aboard the Mayflower, citing his own experience of sailing in an Arab dhow crowded with migrating families.  Experiences like that gave firsthand insights that writers today simply can't have.  It's interesting to note that at least one of the flurry of books that came out around the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower voyage--I think it was Nathaniel Philbrick's--very clearly drew on Villiers' account to describe what the experience of that voyage must have been like.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on March 09, 2023, 01:59:39 PM
Binge reading from the library: "Gilded Newport Mystery" series by Alyssa Maxwell
A historical mystery series set in 1895 Newport, RI.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: paultuttle on March 10, 2023, 11:27:39 AM
Good Omens, Mystery at Thunderbolt House, and Creating the Not So Big House.

Oh, and Elizabeth Moon's Familias Regnant series (all seven books).
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on March 10, 2023, 05:06:45 PM
February:


Peter Watts and Laurie Channer - Bulk Food: Just a short story, but I've been meaning to get to it for a while. Basically, imagine we learn to communicate with orcas, and it turns out that orcas are kind of shitty. It was fun, but it lacked some of the punch I associate with Watts's work.

Sam J. Miller - Blackfish City: This is a pretty weird work of cliphi, and I liked it very much. Basically, a middle-aged woman shows up at a floating city riding an orca and towing a caged polar bear, and nobody knows what the hell is going on. Very effective world-building, with interesting characters. The final act devolves into a bit of a teen novel (I like teen novels, but the rest of it is kind of grimly unforgiving and adult, so it's a noticeable shift). But I enjoyed it very much, and tore through it.

Tracy Chevalier - Remarkable Creatures: As I recall, mamselle recommended this one as something of an antidote to Brusatte's somewhat bro-y Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs. My first surprise was when I discovered it was a period novel (about Mary Anning's discoveries), rather than a work of non-fiction. My second surprise was just how much I liked it. I couldn't put it down. I don't much care to read stories about suitors and such (though I enjoy watching them), but this was just lovely, and did a great job of weaving the fossil hunting into the story. I wish I'd read it sooner, though, so that I could have told her how much I enjoyed it, and thanked her for recommending it.

Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on March 10, 2023, 06:07:22 PM
Remarkable Creatures is a great read and I've used parts of it in my Dinosaurs class.

Previous discussion here of  old-school Sci-Fi, which encouraged me to go back and re-read The Forever War by Joe Haldeman.  It's an interesting story of the effects of time dilation on soldiers fighting against the Taurans who use FTL transportation.  The technical details of the weapons, and the combat challenges in low G and on planets at 2-3 kelvins I remembered well-enough from my 15 yo reading. 

The societal changes on Earth (and later colonies) as 30-300 years pass on Earth for 3-6 months subjective time for the soldiers were new to me.  The major change is the gradual conversion of homosexuality from an aberration in the 1970's, to being common, and eventually being universal except for a few 'old queers' (the original hetero soldiers from the 1990s).  There are two other books in the series that I haven't read, but now I'm intrigued to see how well other predictions of the future have held up.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on March 11, 2023, 04:24:09 AM
Ooh, Remarkable Creatures sounds right up my alley! Especially because I agree that Brusatte was displeasingly bro-y.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on March 11, 2023, 09:44:40 AM
Quote from: FishProf on March 10, 2023, 06:07:22 PM

Previous discussion here of  old-school Sci-Fi, which encouraged me to go back and re-read The Forever War by Joe Haldeman.  It's an interesting story of the effects of time dilation on soldiers fighting against the Taurans who use FTL transportation.  The technical details of the weapons, and the combat challenges in low G and on planets at 2-3 kelvins I remembered well-enough from my 15 yo reading. 

The societal changes on Earth (and later colonies) as 30-300 years pass on Earth for 3-6 months subjective time for the soldiers were new to me.  The major change is the gradual conversion of homosexuality from an aberration in the 1970's, to being common, and eventually being universal except for a few 'old queers' (the original hetero soldiers from the 1990s).  There are two other books in the series that I haven't read, but now I'm intrigued to see how well other predictions of the future have held up.

I read The Forever War four or five years ago, and I guess I would have posted about it on the old forum. I enjoyed it as a thought experiment, but I'm hesitant to pick up the others, because I'm not sure that they'll be able to add much. I mean, where does the concept go from there?


Quote from: ergative on March 11, 2023, 04:24:09 AM
Ooh, Remarkable Creatures sounds right up my alley! Especially because I agree that Brusatte was displeasingly bro-y.

Oh yes, do! You'll definitely enjoy it!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on March 11, 2023, 11:07:36 AM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on March 11, 2023, 09:44:40 AM
I read The Forever War four or five years ago, and I guess I would have posted about it on the old forum. I enjoyed it as a thought experiment, but I'm hesitant to pick up the others, because I'm not sure that they'll be able to add much. I mean, where does the concept go from there?

My completionist tendencies mean that you don't have to.  I'll get to it shortly and suggest it or save you the experience.  Your question is why I want to read more.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on March 11, 2023, 09:23:44 PM
Quote from: FishProf on March 11, 2023, 11:07:36 AM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on March 11, 2023, 09:44:40 AM
I read The Forever War four or five years ago, and I guess I would have posted about it on the old forum. I enjoyed it as a thought experiment, but I'm hesitant to pick up the others, because I'm not sure that they'll be able to add much. I mean, where does the concept go from there?

My completionist tendencies mean that you don't have to.  I'll get to it shortly and suggest it or save you the experience.  Your question is why I want to read more.

Well, I look forward to it. Good luck!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ciao_yall on March 15, 2023, 05:19:29 PM
Just finished Rodham  (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/551108/rodham-by-curtis-sittenfeld/) by Curtiss Sittenfeld who is a woman, BTW.

It is imagining what would have happened had she not married Bill.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on March 20, 2023, 02:21:31 PM
Polar Exposure:  An All-Women's Expedition to the North Pole, by Felicity Aston.  The author was a polar meteorologist who became a polar adventurer.  In the later 2010s she recruited an international European/Persian Gulf States all-women's team.  After several group training expeditions, they flew to the Russian Barneo Arctic drift station in April 2018 and spent six days skiing to the North Pole.  And are immensely proud of their achievement.

The books spends much more space on the organization and training for the expedition than on the expedition itself.  Because, honestly, the expedition itself seems like something of an anticlimax.  Barneo has spent much of the 21st century paying for its scientific research program by serving as a jumping-off point for assorted commercial polar "expeditions."  Aston's expedition spent six days skiing to the Pole, which evidently any number of commercial expeditions have done in recent decades.  One member failed to take good care of her hands and had to be flown out with frostbite after the first day.  The others made it to the Pole as planned without much in the way of incident.  They seem to have gotten along with each other admirably well.

There's been a lot of polar adventuring in recent decades.  People are constantly skiing, dog-sledding, walking, bicycling (!), kiting, etc. across Antarctica or the Arctic sea ice to one or the other of the poles.  There are so many permutations that there's now a whole web site devoted to codifying them, to avoid another cheater like the notorious Colin O'Brady.  Polar "expeditions" are really more a form of extreme sport than anything else now, although they often fit in a few scientific observations to provide a fig leaf of scientific justification for the trip.  The vast majority of the adventurers are guys who feel they have something to prove, naturally, but there are women who want in on it as well.  And that's pretty much what the Aston "expedition" seems to have been about.

It's a beautifully illustrated book.  The members of the expedition come across as nice people who get along with each other and want to be good role models.  There's no doubt that they've pulled off a physically grueling feat that most of us could only dream about accomplishing.  But I've got to say, the whole thing looks awfully pale compared to the polar expeditions of yesteryear.  The members took some chances, but there wasn't much drama, and you don't get the sense that there was really very much at stake.  They had a documentary camera crew accompanying them all the way.  The whole thing seems about as groundbreaking as an international team climbing Everest among the hordes of climbers in a given season.

I can see commentators of an intersectional bent raking these women over the coals for failing to check their privilege and the like (Aston spends about a page or so toward the end nodding in that direction--but I suspect that for some it wouldn't be nearly enough).  There's also perhaps a bit of cognitive dissonance in the way the participants talk about raising awareness of the need to combat global climate change, even as they burn immense amounts of Russian jet fuel to position themselves to carry out an "expedition" that seems more about proving themselves personally than any actual scientific research.  They've proven that a team of women can do extreme sports as effectively as a team of men.  Women have been proving for a long time now that they can do much more significant things than extreme sports.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Juvenal on March 20, 2023, 03:37:52 PM
My interest in (re)reading wanes.  I pulled Barchester Towers up from the basement "library" and found myself unable to do more than four or five chapters.  Plunk! on the floor by the bed;  I know how it comes out.  A friend thanked me for turning her onto Trollope, in particular, The Way We Live Now, and it appears unlikely I'll ever read it again (as much fun as it was four or five years ago).  Bring on the trash!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on March 21, 2023, 04:02:53 AM
I was going through some old boxes over spring break and came across all my old Dungeons and Dragons books.  Sometime later, down the rabbit hole, I was perusing the Deities and Demigods book and found the section on the Melnibonean mythos, which is based on the Elric novels by Michael Moorcock, and I thought "Hey, I've never read those".

So I did.  The first book, Elric of Melnibone, was a fun albeit dark scord and sorcery adventure.  Nothing too terribly deep, but good for 1961.  I look forward to the rest of the series.

I will also be getting into the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser/World of Newhon books soon. 

I find these make good palate cleansers between heavier academic tomes.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: onthefringe on March 21, 2023, 02:04:02 PM
Quote from: Juvenal on March 20, 2023, 03:37:52 PM
My interest in (re)reading wanes.  I pulled Barchester Towers up from the basement "library" and found myself unable to do more than four or five chapters.  Plunk! on the floor by the bed;  I know how it comes out.  A friend thanked me for turning her onto Trollope, in particular, The Way We Live Now, and it appears unlikely I'll ever read it again (as much fun as it was four or five years ago).  Bring on the trash!

No idea if this would interest you, but Jo Walton's Tooth and Claw is basically Trollope but with dragons (A more complete explanation is in this essay (https://www.tor.com/2020/05/21/dragons-of-the-prime-jo-walton-on-writing-tooth-and-claw/)). I think it's charming, and figuring out the system that provides biological motivations for Victorian attitudes is a lot of fun.

Apparently when asked if she would ever write a sequel Walton said people who wanted one could read Trollope and imagine the main characters are dragons.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on March 21, 2023, 03:20:53 PM
Quote from: onthefringe on March 21, 2023, 02:04:02 PM
Quote from: Juvenal on March 20, 2023, 03:37:52 PM
My interest in (re)reading wanes.  I pulled Barchester Towers up from the basement "library" and found myself unable to do more than four or five chapters.  Plunk! on the floor by the bed;  I know how it comes out.  A friend thanked me for turning her onto Trollope, in particular, The Way We Live Now, and it appears unlikely I'll ever read it again (as much fun as it was four or five years ago).  Bring on the trash!

No idea if this would interest you, but Jo Walton's Tooth and Claw is basically Trollope but with dragons (A more complete explanation is in this essay (https://www.tor.com/2020/05/21/dragons-of-the-prime-jo-walton-on-writing-tooth-and-claw/)). I think it's charming, and figuring out the system that provides biological motivations for Victorian attitudes is a lot of fun.

Apparently when asked if she would ever write a sequel Walton said people who wanted one could read Trollope and imagine the main characters are dragons.

I suppose if I had time I could try doing that with The Warden....

Trollope with dragons has got to be better than Jane Austen with zombies.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on March 22, 2023, 02:13:57 AM
Tooth and Claw was a delight. Beat for beat, it is Framley Parsonage, btw.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: onthefringe on March 22, 2023, 03:53:39 AM
Quote from: ergative on March 22, 2023, 02:13:57 AM
Tooth and Claw was a delight. Beat for beat, it is Framley Parsonage, btw.

Well, Framley Parsonage + additional plot to discuss slavery and women's rights, but Walton's very open about the fact that she stole much of the plot.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on March 22, 2023, 03:58:13 AM
Quote from: onthefringe on March 22, 2023, 03:53:39 AM
Quote from: ergative on March 22, 2023, 02:13:57 AM
Tooth and Claw was a delight. Beat for beat, it is Framley Parsonage, btw.

Well, Framley Parsonage + additional plot to discuss slavery and women's rights, but Walton's very open about the fact that she stole much of the plot.

Yes, of course. You could tie yourself up in all sorts of knots if you go too far in your strict adherence to source material and historical accuracy when retelling Trollope with dragons!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: downer on March 27, 2023, 04:13:21 PM
Having enjoyed Dear Committee Members, I've started reading The Shakespeare Requirement by Julie Schumacher. The start is great -- but even more depressing about the modern university and the fate of the humanities. Very funny though.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on March 27, 2023, 05:24:55 PM
Finished from the library: Treasures of Ukraine: A Nation's Cultural Heritage by Andriy Puckhov et al.
An art history of Ukraine
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on March 30, 2023, 07:27:02 AM
March:

Steve Roud - The Lore of the Playground: One hundred years of children's games, rhymes, and traditions: This was a very dense read, and took up most of the month for me. It was fascinating, though, to learn about how play has changed in the last couple hundred years (basically, these games get restricted to younger and younger people, going from adults to young children, and thus also getting simplified). It's also a really interesting look at British culture, and left me wondering about the poverty of the ludic cultural repertoire in my childhood. Roud is a well-known academic folklorist.

Adrian Tchaikovsky - One Day All This Will Be Yours: Time travel (to murder all other time travellers) and a feathered Allosaurus, so what's not to like? It was quite fun. The narrator adopts the same irreverent tone as in Walking to Aldebaran.

Simon Conway Morris - The Crucible of Creation: The Burgess Shale and the Rise of Animals: (With apologies to FishProf, who recommended it.) This is a bad book, and I hated it. It's poorly written. It's a bad piece of popular science, because Conway Morris never bothers to explain what he can simply assert--including his disagreements with Gould and the reasons behind his own conclusions. There are many pictures, but the quality of the reproductions is so low that it is extremely difficult to make out the structures he references. There are many diagrams, but they're either utterly trivial and uninformative or entirely inscrutable, and as I said, he doesn't like to explain things. In the opening pages, he laments the fact that people these days just throw "isms" at each other instead of having substantive debates on the merits of positions, then immediately argues that Gould is wrong because he's a (Godless) Marxist (I kid you not). He also takes a weird swipe at Derrida and post-modernism, and insinuates that Gould is a postmodernist (!). He basically can't mention Gould without setting up weird straw men. It's a strange crusade against "Steve Gould" (always "Steve", never "Gould"), and given how paltry it is on substance, I'm left to believe that it's personal. But that's weird, too, because Conway Morris cuts a rather heroic figure in Gould's book.

Conway Morris's view of evolution is irreducibly teleological, and the book is suffused with some sort of background theism, with constant (unexplained) references to the "transcendental". He devotes an entire chapter to a supremely annoying conceit of travelling back in time in a submersible and collecting living specimens of the Burgess fauna. This would be merely annoyingly condescending if he didn't blend fact with raw conjecture and pure make-believe, without bothering to indicate which elements are which. I was glad to learn about new discoveries in Greenland and China (though we learn almost nothing about the latter), but honestly, Conway Morris's descriptions of the Burgess taxa are just pale imitations of Gould's--in large part because he can't be bothered to explain anything. (By the by, his account of the discovery of the Burgess shale sounds cribbed from Gould's.) He argues that Gould is wrong about his "inverted cone" of life because all of the Burgess specimens fit into extant phyla (except, he'll say in asides, the ones that don't). He somehow doesn't notice that "the ones that don't" are what matters to resolving this disagreement, and never addresses them. Instead, he simply asserts that they all fit, and illustrates that fact with a couple of cases which he has redescribed. Never once does he bother to start with the basics, and tell us what makes something, say, count as an arthropod or onychophoran (in sharp contrast to Gould). So readers cannot draw their own conclusions based on his text; we must simply take him at his word, and ignore the ones that even he concedes (in passing, with no further explanation) do consistute new phyla.

His arguments against contingency in evolutionary history (such as they are) are straightforwardly stupid (no doubt due in part to his asinine definition of 'contingency', expressed in his glossary. Incidentally, there's no entry for 'transcendence', which shows up an awful lot in the text). It rests in large part on the existence of convergent evolution, which he takes to mean that no matter what, life will find ways to establish itself in the water, on land, and in the air, and there will always be animals that graze and animals that eat other animals (...okay. Yeah.). But then he illustrates it by comparing the sabre teeth of Smilodon fatalis and Thylacosmilus atrox, with the implication being that sabre teeth are evolutionarily guaranteed for top predators (*facepalm*). Incidentally, that brief discussion proceeds entirely without reference to the evolutionary importance, for the development of elongated canines, of the static pressure bite.

And then he spends a page and a half on extraterrestrial life (about which he has little to say) before ending the book.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on March 30, 2023, 10:41:07 AM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on March 30, 2023, 07:27:02 AM
Simon Conway Morris - The Crucible of Creation: The Burgess Shale and the Rise of Animals: (With apologies to FishProf, who recommended it.) This is a bad book, and I hated it.

I'm sorry.  I was recommending Gould, not Conway-Morris, but I see now that wasn't clear.

Quote from: FishProf on January 11, 2023, 03:32:25 AM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on January 10, 2023, 04:46:34 PM
Gould is always fun to read. It was super informative, and did a great job of explaining why they're so interesting. But it's also from 1988, so, you know.

Although he is one of my favorites, his take on the Burgess Shale fossils is not without controversy.  Simon Conway Morris wrote a book The Crucible of Creation: The Burgess Shale and the Rise of Animals which is an alternative interpretation and an attempt to refute Gould's primary thesis.

It's worth a read.

That should have read "GOULD is worth a read."  Mea culpa.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on March 30, 2023, 02:11:06 PM
Quote from: FishProf on March 30, 2023, 10:41:07 AM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on March 30, 2023, 07:27:02 AM
Simon Conway Morris - The Crucible of Creation: The Burgess Shale and the Rise of Animals: (With apologies to FishProf, who recommended it.) This is a bad book, and I hated it.

I'm sorry.  I was recommending Gould, not Conway-Morris, but I see now that wasn't clear.



Oh! lol.

Well, I was glad to get an update on the fauna, such as it was. And I certainly got to feel mighty superior, so there's that!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on March 31, 2023, 03:35:13 AM
You're welcome?
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on March 31, 2023, 07:28:17 AM
The Man of Property, In Chancery, and To Let, by John Galsworthy.  These three novels are usually published in one volume under the title of The Forsyte Saga.  The expanded nine-part (!) series about the Forsytes is also sometimes known by that overall title.  The first trilogy is a big chunk of reading.  Fortunately it's very readable.  The individual novels are of modest length, and they are divided into many fairly brief chapters with evocative titles.  This is the format I prefer for novels that I read, and those that I write for that matter.  It helps a story to move briskly.

Like so much fiction that manages to be both popular and well-reviewed, The Forsyte Saga is essentially a kind of better-written-than-average soap opera.  It tells the story of Britain's rich but untitled Forsyte clan from the 1880s to 1920.  The focus is mainly on several Forsytes who make unhappy marriages, and their efforts to cope with this.  Galsworthy comes across as an advocate of readily available, socially accepted serial polygamy as a cure for this problem.  Now that our society has had a couple of generations of this "solution," we see how well it works as a mass practice.

Galsworthy has been much praised for his social satire.  He makes it clear that when he speaks of "Forsytes" he's referring to a whole social type.  "Forsytes" are anybody with wealth whose lives are all about getting and spending.  They never really create or contribute.  Their view of marriage is transactional, and when they're "in love" it's all about possessing the "beloved," not about that person's benefit.  Hence the unhappy marriages and the sense that they're entitled, when they don't get what they bargained for, to start over with somebody else.  The social satire is amusingly on target--but then it's aimed squarely at the most barn-door of targets.  Doubtless many Galsworthy fans over the years have have broken arms patting themselves on the back for not being Philistine Forsytes.

A more reflective reading of Galsworthy's work might yield the insight that being a crude plutocrat is not necessarily the only way to be a "Forsyte."  That Forsytism is really in a way the human condition.  That, if we're really honest with ourselves, we've all got some Forsyte in us, whenever we imagine that our lives are all about ourselves and not about something bigger than that.

I've seen The Forsyte Saga described as "a comedy of manners."  It's really more of a tragedy.  Galsworthy says of the early Forsytes that they belonged to "some primitive sect," but upon becoming rich joined a tony congregation in the Established Church.  Their religion became another possession, rather than a reminder that we all belong to somebody bigger than ourselves.  They ended up devoting their whole lives to obsessing over wealth that they couldn't take with them, when they could have been practicing love of God and their fellow man as a way to send it on ahead.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on March 31, 2023, 08:32:31 PM
I saw the 2002 adaptation of The Forsyte Saga on PBS's "Masterpiece Theatre" in college. The 2nd season covered the younger Forsyte generation. Actor Damien Lewis had his big break as Soames on this adaptation.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: spork on April 01, 2023, 06:20:32 AM
Looking for a good non-fiction contemporary history of China for a fall undergraduate honors course. As usual, academics who write books have a terrible understanding of the importance of narrative. Style is often just as bad, if not worse.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on April 03, 2023, 03:36:38 PM
Started from the library: A Sinister Revenge by Deanna Raybourn
New and #8 in the "Veronica Speedwell Mystery" series.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: kaysixteen on April 03, 2023, 04:56:52 PM
Just polished off the latest 'Pennsylvania Dutch mystery (with recipes), by Tamar Myers, 'Meat thy Maker'.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on April 10, 2023, 10:19:37 AM
Water:  The Fate of Our Most Precious Resource, by Marq de Villiers.  An overview of the global water situation published around the turn of the century.  It looks at how much usable--for agriculture and human consumption--water is available in different parts of the world, and finds that many nations and regions within nations are heading fast for serious water stress.  Many regions have already maxed out their water resources.  Villiers also looks at how humans have recklessly damaged water resources around the world, through pollution, ill-considered dam building, over-pumping aquifers, and an insistence on settling and developing agriculture in places, such as much of the American West, where water resources just aren't adequate. 

It's a bad situation--and this is what things were like two decades ago!  In most places the situation has deteriorated a good deal since.  Things are getting truly dire in the Middle East, for example.  Though no climate change denier, Villiers has little to say about climate change, since there was less sense of alarm about it than we have now.  His book reminds us that climate change, as bad as it's getting, is only one of many factors in the problematic global water situation that is now developing.


Landscape and Memory, by Simon Schama.  Schama has been writing these huge, lavishly-illustrated intellectual histories for many years now.  This is one of his older works, which I had somehow missed until recently.  It's a look at how Western cultures over the centuries have looked at and valued the natural landscape.  There's lots of study of different kinds of myth-making around forests, mountains, waterways, etc.  It's Schama, so it's very informative and entertaining.  But where exactly was he going with this?  Well, at least he makes the point that there's always been a great diversity of views--there's no one "Western" view of what nature or landscape is or should be.  Be that as it may, the world's landscapes all seem to be generally heading in one direction, and it's not a good one.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: downer on April 10, 2023, 10:52:05 AM
Currently finishing off Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro. It's a tale of middle class families and the effects of a traumatic incident. It's good, and occasionally the writing is beautiful.

Recently finished Pineapple Street: A Novel by Jenny Jackson. It was entertaining and interesting, mainly about the tribulations of being young and wealthy while living in Brooklyn. There are some serious aspects to it too.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on April 12, 2023, 01:48:48 PM
Quote from: ergative on October 22, 2021, 01:45:24 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on October 21, 2021, 10:51:27 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on October 05, 2021, 10:58:13 AM
Now we are reading The 100-Year-Old Man who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared, thanks to the recommendation from ergative! We just started but are enjoying the writing style (kind of reminds me of Tove Jansson?) and are looking forward to reading about the man's adventures.

Just finished this one last night and didn't want it to end! Ergative, thank you so much for the recommendation.  It was such a delightful book.  I just recommended it to a couple friends yesterday.  There was another writer it sort of reminded me of, but I can't remember who now.  Anyway, we loved it.  And I ordered the movie!

I'm so glad you liked it! Some of the prose style reminded me a little bit of Alexander McCall Smith. I'd be curious to know who it reminded you of, if you ever remember.


I think I have figured it out.  I'm listening to Leave it to Psmith (P. G. Wodehouse; narrated by Jonathan Cecil) right now.  I've read it several times and always enjoy it.  I think that's what the writing in The 100-Year-Old Man who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared reminded me of.  Also, this version of Leave it to Psmith is (currently?) free on Audible to Premium Plus members.  I'm not sure if that's the only tier for which that's true, but I would recommend taking a listen if it's available.  There are other versions available for $, and I was afraid that the free one would be lackluster, but the narration is right on IMO.  I'm glad I went back to look for this post, because I forgot we have the movie of The 100-Year-Old Man... to watch.
   
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on April 18, 2023, 03:47:34 PM
Started from the library: Conquer the Kingdom by Jennifer Estep
New and #3 in the "A Gargoyle Queen" trilogy.

Next will be Maryland in the French & Indian War by Tim Ware
Local history book from Arcadia Publishing.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on May 02, 2023, 11:17:41 AM
From the library: A Tempest at Sea by Sherry Thomas
New and #7 in the "Lady Sherlock" series
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on May 02, 2023, 11:43:05 AM
April:

Adrian Tchaikovsky - Children of Memory: This series is fantastic, and this was a fun addition, though it felt weaker than the others, somehow. I'm not sure exactly how; it may have been because this time they discover a human colony, rather than some other earth critters. Or maybe it's that the conceit, though clever and interesting, is kind of confusing for most of the novel, and readers can't quite scrape together enough clues to puzzle it out. Still, it's good. And I enjoyed the Norse inspiration.

Adrian Tchaikovsky - Guns of the Dawn: I didn't expect to like this very much, but I loved it. It's sort of Pride and Prejudice, except with an Elizabeth drafted to fight in France during the Revolutionary Wars and with a more enjoyable Mr. Collins analogue. And, for once in this kind of thing, the Brits aren't really the good guys.

David Norman - Dinosaur!: I picked this up for a dollar years and years ago, and decided I should finally get around to reading it. It's horribly outdated, of course, since it's from 1991. Norman seems to have an axe to grind against Bakker, which is especially weirdly manifested because he'll dismiss Bakker for reasons which, since I read Bakker recently, I can confidently assert are the same things Bakker said. At the same time, he gives a lot more shrift to biomechanically silly (even for the 1990s!) ideas from others, such as Ostrom's suggestion that Triceratops's frill was attached to its neck (or, indeed, his own view [at the time] that Iguanodon's thumb claw is a defensive weapon). But, you know. It's not bad for a popular-facing work on dinosaurs at the time. It's populated with some interesting art, although it doesn't always match what he's saying (the Giraffatitan at the end, for example, has some serious splay to its forelimbs, despite these being described as 'columnar'), and despite it being very much of its time (i.e. lots of shrinkwrapping, a few Burian/Parker clones, that weird '90s Parasaurolophus sail, etc.). Only the tail end talks about the show, which I don't think I ever saw (though I did collect the magazine).

Mark Witton - The Palaeoartist's Handbook: Recreating Prehistoric Animals in Art: A must-have for anyone interested in palaeoart. I don't have any intention of ever producing any, but the detailed treatment of the different aspects of restoring extinct creatures is super informative for just appreciating it. Witton is always a pleasure to read on the subject, both because he knows so much and also because he communicates it so clearly, and with references. It's copiously illustrated, too, both with his own work and that of other major palaeoartists of the post-Yesterdays era. The illustrations are so, so helpful for understanding the points being made on each page. You'll find most of the book's material scattered across his blog, but this didn't feel at all like I was re-reading the same stuff.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on May 03, 2023, 06:43:13 AM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on May 02, 2023, 11:43:05 AM

Mark Witton - The Palaeoartist's Handbook: Recreating Prehistoric Animals in Art: A must-have for anyone interested in palaeoart. I don't have any intention of ever producing any, but the detailed treatment of the different aspects of restoring extinct creatures is super informative for just appreciating it. Witton is always a pleasure to read on the subject, both because he knows so much and also because he communicates it so clearly, and with references. It's copiously illustrated, too, both with his own work and that of other major palaeoartists of the post-Yesterdays era. The illustrations are so, so helpful for understanding the points being made on each page. You'll find most of the book's material scattered across his blog, but this didn't feel at all like I was re-reading the same stuff.

Now that must be interesting.  The theory and practice of reconstructing the appearance of long-ago creatures has changed so much over the years.  It would be interesting to know more about the principles that lie behind it.


I just read F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night.  Fitzgerald is one of the more readable of "classic" authors.  But I've about had my fill of his stories about rich people who can't seem to get their acts together.  In this one you find yourself wanting to take Dr. Dick Diver and try to slap some sense into him before it's too late.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on May 03, 2023, 02:02:26 PM
Quote from: apl68 on May 03, 2023, 06:43:13 AM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on May 02, 2023, 11:43:05 AM

Mark Witton - The Palaeoartist's Handbook: Recreating Prehistoric Animals in Art: A must-have for anyone interested in palaeoart. I don't have any intention of ever producing any, but the detailed treatment of the different aspects of restoring extinct creatures is super informative for just appreciating it. Witton is always a pleasure to read on the subject, both because he knows so much and also because he communicates it so clearly, and with references. It's copiously illustrated, too, both with his own work and that of other major palaeoartists of the post-Yesterdays era. The illustrations are so, so helpful for understanding the points being made on each page. You'll find most of the book's material scattered across his blog, but this didn't feel at all like I was re-reading the same stuff.

Now that must be interesting.  The theory and practice of reconstructing the appearance of long-ago creatures has changed so much over the years.  It would be interesting to know more about the principles that lie behind it.


It's totally worth the forty bucks on Amazon!

Alternately, if you want to get a sense of what's what, you can check out his blog (http://markwitton-com.blogspot.com/), where he discusses the process of researching and making palaeoart in great depth. (He's both a palaeontologist and a palaeoartist, incidentally.) I read through the whole thing obsessively a few months ago. It was great fun, and I learned so, so much.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on May 03, 2023, 03:32:15 PM
There's an artist on instagram who goes by Himapaan, who does some great whimsical illustrations of what look to me entirely plausible dinosaurs.

This is my favourite (https://www.instagram.com/p/B_LL7vVDrwS/), but Parasaurolophus may prefer this one (https://www.instagram.com/p/B5sdpnZh4ys/) (unless you don't care to be a beast of burden.) I also like pirate dino. (https://www.instagram.com/p/BtCY1FCBthJ/)
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on May 03, 2023, 05:15:55 PM
I've finished the first collection ofthe Elric of Melniboné series by Michael Moorcock.  Series in italics because this is really a collection of novels from the Elric Saga which are not all clearly linked.

My interest stems from (as I said earlier) learning of the character from Dungeons and Dragons sourcebooks, and I can clearly see how Gygax et al. drew from these books in designing the game system.  In many ways, D&D feels more like Elric (and the books from Newhon of Fafhrd and The grey Mouser) than it does Tolkien.

The books are fun and entertaining, but the character of Elric changes from  book to book, and not in a clear manner of character development.  Between one book and the next, he goes from idyllic and optimistic about his future as emperor to bent on the complete destruction of his nation and civilization with ZERO explanation.  He isn't a hero, or an anti-hero, but more of a doomed hero wielding an evil sword he cannot survive without.  The mix of sword and sorcery is interesting, but inconsistent.  Elric vacillates between the Gandalf Problem and the Deus-ex-machina problem.

I conclude that there isn't (or wasn't during writing) a clear, overarching plot to the story being told.  It feels more like a series of more or less unrelated adventures with the same character (like Jack Reacher novels, for example).  I don't think I'll persist with all the books, at least not now.  They may become an occasional palate cleanser in the future.

Here is the list of the Books contained in the compendium I just finished, if anyone is interested.
1) Elric of Melniboné
2) The Fortress of the Pearl
3) The Sailor on the Seas of Fate
4) The Weird of the White Wolf
5) The Singing Citadel
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on May 08, 2023, 10:08:25 AM
Quote from: ergative on May 03, 2023, 03:32:15 PM
There's an artist on instagram who goes by Himapaan, who does some great whimsical illustrations of what look to me entirely plausible dinosaurs.

This is my favourite (https://www.instagram.com/p/B_LL7vVDrwS/), but Parasaurolophus may prefer this one (https://www.instagram.com/p/B5sdpnZh4ys/) (unless you don't care to be a beast of burden.) I also like pirate dino. (https://www.instagram.com/p/BtCY1FCBthJ/)

Those are great! (And IMO some are clearly inspired by Dinotopia, which is all to the good! ;) )
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on May 11, 2023, 07:34:21 AM
Communications, by C.B. Colby.  From the 1950s into the early 1970s C.B. Colby wrote dozens of books for younger readers on a variety of technical subjects.  These "Colby Books"--they were actually branded as such--were a staple of school and public libraries for years.  Each one was a slim hardcover with 48 pages, mostly photographs, with a concise, informative text.  The later DK Eyewitness Books were an evolved successor to this format.  The Colby Books had fewer and larger pictures, and fewer words with larger print.  They were also all in beautiful black-and-white.

I read several Colby books as a kid.  I've collected a couple over the years.  They're hard to find, since they were mostly sold to the library market and long since worn out.  Some especially fondly-remembered titles are pricey collectors' items now, if you can even find a copy for sale online.  Communications is a Colby Book that I noticed recently has never been weeded from our library's collection.  Old popular nonfiction like this often provides a great snapshot of what was once considered the state of knowledge in a given field.  We read about such marvels as the first Touch-Tone telephone; a rotary-dial phone with a programmable speed dial using punch cards; Teletype and Telex machines; and the very earliest communications satellites.  There's even a mention of the experimental technology that led to fiber optics.


The Weaker Vessel:  Women's Lot in Seventeenth-Century Britain, by Antonia Fraser.  This is quite an interesting wide-ranging survey of women's experiences in a past time and place.  Early Modern Britain was my area of concentration when I was a PhD student in the 1990s.  I was too naive going in to grad school to realize that an Early Modern Europeanist would essentially never again have a chance to be hired in academia in the U.S.  The tenure-track history pie was shrinking fast, and Early Modern Europeanists were not about to get a slice of what was left.

At least I got to spend six years studying a fascinating period in history.  I'm amazed that I can't recall reading this one during grad school.  Seems like I recall my advisor not being a great Antonia Fraser fan.  It's a shame.  This seems quite a good survey of the subject.  Now and then a book like this reminds me of why I've always found the period so well worth study.  I guess for Americans today it's just all old dead white people stuff that's totally irrelevant.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: downer on May 11, 2023, 08:04:57 AM
I listened to Trust by Hernan Diaz. It won a Pulitzer Prize and was on 2022 top ten lists.

It took a little patience to get into it, but it was interesting and thoughtful, with different layers of narrative. Big themes about capitalism and some about gender roles.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Juvenal on May 11, 2023, 04:08:00 PM
I thought this extract might amuse forumites.  If you like it, you might like the book.

"Mostly she wore, in the daytime in the winter, a tweed skirt, a sweater-set, and a necklace.  The skirt looked as if a horse had left her its second-best blanket; the sweaters looked as if an old buffalo, sitting by a fire of peat, had knitted them for her from its coat of the winter before; the necklace (sometimes it had earrings to match) was made of seeds or acorns or sea-shells that had been gathered and varnished by her children, if you were lucky--by her charities, if you were unlucky.  These necklaces were worse than conversation-pieces, they were collection boxes; admiring one was as good as signing a check.  As my wife said, 'It was a black day when Quakers first made jewelry.'  (Flo was not a Friend, but a friend of Friends.)"

From a book that's about seventy years-old (1954) and does not have so much a plot as linked character studies of academia and academics, and it's loaded with--well, allusions of all sorts woven into the story, such as it is, that keeps one saying to oneself, "Oh, I get that," or "Oh, I think that might be an allusion," and they are mostly from the humanities, such as literature, art, history, music, Biblical, psychological, and... Even the title is a playful allusion (to a piece of music).  The book becomes less antic toward the end.

The author (the first-person narrator is more or less the author) is a man after my own heart when it comes to an oblique aside, often inverting a commonplace. It was his only "novel," but he was a poet/critic of considerable stature, very fond of Robert Frost (who gets more than one walk-on allusion/quotation in the book)

And the author and the book?  Randall Jarrell, Pictures from an Institution.

The somewhat insufferable novelist, "Gertrude Johnson," visiting at the fictional "Benton," (Sarah Lawrence, maybe) gathering material for another of her scarifying works, is reputedly based some on Mary McCarthy.  I think they stayed friends.

If you want to read the first "chapter," go here:

https://press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/393759.html

Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: hmaria1609 on May 20, 2023, 01:22:56 PM
From the library: Pan Tadeusz: the Last Foray in Lithuania by Adam Mickiewicz, English translation by Bill Johnston
A Polish literary masterpiece published in 1834--it's a novel in verse.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on May 20, 2023, 05:03:57 PM
I haven't read any books with my eyes lately, but I have listened to quite a few since last post.  Given the long list, I'll just categorize as excellent and highly recommended, okay, and didn't finish and won't do longer reviews of each.  These are actually only the ones I've listened to since March.  I have been determined to work my way through my library, since I keep adding to it when there are new sales.  I've sort of been alternating between fiction based on length (shortest to longest), trying to dabble in some classics, and non-fiction based on interest.

Title   Author(s)   Narrator(s)

Excellent and highly recommended:
The Metamorphosis: A New Translation by Susan Bernofsky   (Kafka, Franz;; Ballerini, Eduardo; Bevine, Victor; Lewis, Christa)- never read this before and was surprised at how moving it was.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Baum, L. Frank; Hathaway, Anne)- not an Anne fan, but this was really well narrated, and interesting to see the differences from the movie
Influence Is Your Superpower: The Science of Winning Hearts, Sparking Change, and Making Good Things Happen (Chance, Zoe;   Chance, Zoe)- I really enjoyed this and felt inspired by it.
Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World (Epstein, David; Damron, Will)- starts off slowly and includes a bunch of research I'd heard or read before, but I still learned a good amount from this book.
Leave it to Psmith (Wodehouse, P.G.; Cecil, Jonathan)- loved reading this 2x before, and loved this narration
The Emperor's Soul (Sanderson, Brandon; Lin, Angela)- read previously and think this has some pretty interesting ideas about identity
When the Air Hits Your Brain: Tales from Neurosurgery   (Vertosick Jr., Frank T; Heyborne, Kirby)- totally fascinating, and very exciting and touching stories, but not for the faint of heart
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr; Muller, Frank)- I've wanted to read this one for a while, and it didn't disappoint.  A lot can happen in one day in a Siberian labor camp.  Harrowing.
Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions (Christian, Brian; Griffiths, Tom;; Christian, Brian)- can get a little technical at times or hard to follow, but I think they draw some successful analogies between how computers do things and how humans do or could do things (e.g., caching, scheduling, networking).
The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald, F. Scott; Gyllenhaal, Jake)- never read it but felt I should due to all the references to it in pop culture.  I had a totally different impression of it for some reason, but like Metamorphosis it was a surprisingly moving story with very good narration.
The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream (Obama, Barrack; Obama, Barrack)- I believe this was written while he was a US Senator, so I appreciated his perspective on federal gov't at that time.  I also appreciated his candor about his relationship with Michelle and the girls and his takes on various gov't policies.  His narration is almost uncanny, as if he were born to narrate.  I guess it is his book, but he just sounds very comfortable reading it, and the time passes quickly (maybe not so quickly during some of the historical parts).

Good/okay:
Unexpected Stories: Two Novellas (Butler, Octavia; Miles, Robin): I liked the first story more than the second, but it still took me a bit to get into.
The Book of Five Rings (Musashi, Miyamoto; Brick, Scott)- can't really complain, because it's probably good for what it is (wisdom about the martial arts from the 17th century).  I thought his trying to get away with saying things like "this is oral tradition and does not need to be written down" was a little hand-wavey, and "you should practice this thoroughly" got a bit on my nerves.
How to Pronounce Knife: Stories   (Thammavongsa, Souvankham;; Tang, James; Vilaysack, Kulap)- some interesting stories from a fairly new author
The Five Elements of Effective Thinking (Burger, Edward B.;; Starbird, Michael; Troxell, Brian)- some good info, but nothing mind-blowing
Child of God (McCarthy, Cormac; Stechschulte, Tom)- highly, highly disturbing.  Beware!

Didn't finish:
Climate Crisis and Natural Disasters: A Complete Guide to Understand Causes and Effects of Hurricanes, Earthquakes, and Disasters (Davariem, Sam; Prost, Jeremy)- possibly informative, but incredibly boring.  The weird page-turning (or something?) sound effects at the start of each new section was the most interesting part.
The Prince   (Machiavelli, Niccolo; Gardner, Grover)- I started reading this as a "fiction" entry, and I just haven't gotten past the first few chapters yet.  Reminds me a lot of The Book of Five Rings or The Art of War.
Orion Colony: An Intergalactic Space Opera Adventure (Yanez, Jonathan; Chaney, J. N.;; Porter, Ray)- just started this and am somewhat dubious about finishing.  I guess I probably picked it up because it was on sale, and Ray Porter is a favorite, but it is already a bit much.  We'll see.





Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on May 21, 2023, 07:00:07 AM
Smolt and I just finished The Silver Chair (Narnia Book 4 or perhaps 6, depending on your numbering scheme).   It was, meh.  While all the Narnia Books are some sort of Christian allegory,  that usually doesn't bubble-up in an obvious way affecting the story (Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve notwithstanding).  But there is a scene which basically articulates Pascal's wager and it was so blatant that it broke the suspension of disbelief for me.  Even Smolt noticed and commented on it.

I don't think she'll be interested in the rest of the stories after this.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on May 22, 2023, 07:54:47 AM
Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton.  The story of an ill-starred rural New Englander, trapped in a marriage to an unspeakably awful wife, who falls in love with an attractive hired girl, tries to escape with her, and meets a most unhappy fate.  This edition boasts an introduction by Bernard De Voto.  He describes the story as a fine work of literary craft.  And also finds it highly contrived and not true-to-life, full of rural stereotypes drawn from an only superficial acquaintance with actual rural New Englanders.

I must say that I agree with De Voto's assessment.  I've often found "serious" novels like this as contrived and melodramatic, in their own way, as most popular fiction.  Especially distracting is the portrayal of Frome's wife as the most egregiously unsympathetic character I've seen in a literary novel since the evil husband in Elizabeth Spencer's The Light in the Piazza.  They're both not so much characters as walking collections of traits calculated to turn off the sort of well-educated, consciously enlightened reader the stories were presumably written for (Spencer's evil husband is domineering, a cultural Philistine, voices unprogressive opinions, and, most heinous of all for a character in a work written around 1960, has a lucrative career in advertising!).  They could hardly have looked worse to readers if they had practiced torturing puppies and drowning kittens.

It is a very well-crafted story, no doubt about it.  It's just a shame that all that craft couldn't have been in the service of a better story with more believable characters.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on May 22, 2023, 08:02:04 AM
I've also been reading, or at least skimming, a jumbo collection of Wordsworth's collected works.  I salvaged it the other day from a big collection of discards that the local high school librarian has recently weeded.  It was published in 1932, and has obviously been much-read over the years.  But high school students just don't read poetry much anymore, apparently, judging by how much poetry of all vintages was in the weeded item piles.

Not being the world's biggest Wordsworth fan myself, I had planned to give the book a quick going-over before final disposal.  I found I just didn't have the heart to toss a battered volume that has a record of 90 years of service behind it.  Guess it will go up on my home shelf beside my nicer-looking illustrated volumes of Longfellow and Tennyson.  Maybe someday I'll get around to tackling Wordsworth's Prelude.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Puget on May 22, 2023, 06:40:19 PM
Finally read (or rather listened to) The City and the City (China Mieville). A detective story/thriller set in two overlapping cities. Strange and quite satisfying-- one of those ones I'm sure will stick with me for a bit. Even at the very end it was ambiguous to me if the separation of the two cities is metaphysical or merely political disguised as metaphysical. If anyone else has read it I'd be interested in your take.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on May 23, 2023, 08:33:05 AM
Quote from: Puget on May 22, 2023, 06:40:19 PM
Finally read (or rather listened to) The City and the City (China Mieville). A detective story/thriller set in two overlapping cities. Strange and quite satisfying-- one of those ones I'm sure will stick with me for a bit. Even at the very end it was ambiguous to me if the separation of the two cities is metaphysical or merely political disguised as metaphysical. If anyone else has read it I'd be interested in your take.

Looks like I last read it in November 2020 with my husband.  I had also read it a while before that in book club.  I really liked it as well.  It takes some getting into, and I think it can be a little mind-bendy, but it's such an interesting premise and was very well executed IMO.  It definitely has staying power! And I agree with you about it being satisfying (and strange, for sure).  But I haven't listened to it! What did you think of the narration? I assume it was very good.  Is that the John Lee version (maybe that's the only one)? I know my husband likes him... I think for the Alastair Reynolds books.  I haven't really listened to him. 
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Puget on May 23, 2023, 09:44:51 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on May 23, 2023, 08:33:05 AM
Quote from: Puget on May 22, 2023, 06:40:19 PM
Finally read (or rather listened to) The City and the City (China Mieville). A detective story/thriller set in two overlapping cities. Strange and quite satisfying-- one of those ones I'm sure will stick with me for a bit. Even at the very end it was ambiguous to me if the separation of the two cities is metaphysical or merely political disguised as metaphysical. If anyone else has read it I'd be interested in your take.

Looks like I last read it in November 2020 with my husband.  I had also read it a while before that in book club.  I really liked it as well.  It takes some getting into, and I think it can be a little mind-bendy, but it's such an interesting premise and was very well executed IMO.  It definitely has staying power! And I agree with you about it being satisfying (and strange, for sure).  But I haven't listened to it! What did you think of the narration? I assume it was very good.  Is that the John Lee version (maybe that's the only one)? I know my husband likes him... I think for the Alastair Reynolds books.  I haven't really listened to him.

Yes, John Lee and the narration was excellent, I think it really enhanced the noir style.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on May 23, 2023, 10:02:31 AM
Quote from: Puget on May 23, 2023, 09:44:51 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on May 23, 2023, 08:33:05 AM
Quote from: Puget on May 22, 2023, 06:40:19 PM
Finally read (or rather listened to) The City and the City (China Mieville). A detective story/thriller set in two overlapping cities. Strange and quite satisfying-- one of those ones I'm sure will stick with me for a bit. Even at the very end it was ambiguous to me if the separation of the two cities is metaphysical or merely political disguised as metaphysical. If anyone else has read it I'd be interested in your take.

Looks like I last read it in November 2020 with my husband.  I had also read it a while before that in book club.  I really liked it as well.  It takes some getting into, and I think it can be a little mind-bendy, but it's such an interesting premise and was very well executed IMO.  It definitely has staying power! And I agree with you about it being satisfying (and strange, for sure).  But I haven't listened to it! What did you think of the narration? I assume it was very good.  Is that the John Lee version (maybe that's the only one)? I know my husband likes him... I think for the Alastair Reynolds books.  I haven't really listened to him.

Yes, John Lee and the narration was excellent, I think it really enhanced the noir style.

Thanks! I picked it up.  I got lucky because I already own the Kindle version, so it was half price.

Have you read any of Mieville's other books? There is a 2 for 1 credit sale, so I was thinking about picking up Perdido Street Station (which my husband started but could not get through) and The Scar, the first two books of what appears to be a trilogy.  Those were listed by some of the reviewers of The City & The City as being even better, although they have a different narrator.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Puget on May 23, 2023, 10:17:21 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on May 23, 2023, 10:02:31 AM
Quote from: Puget on May 23, 2023, 09:44:51 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on May 23, 2023, 08:33:05 AM
Quote from: Puget on May 22, 2023, 06:40:19 PM
Finally read (or rather listened to) The City and the City (China Mieville). A detective story/thriller set in two overlapping cities. Strange and quite satisfying-- one of those ones I'm sure will stick with me for a bit. Even at the very end it was ambiguous to me if the separation of the two cities is metaphysical or merely political disguised as metaphysical. If anyone else has read it I'd be interested in your take.

Looks like I last read it in November 2020 with my husband.  I had also read it a while before that in book club.  I really liked it as well.  It takes some getting into, and I think it can be a little mind-bendy, but it's such an interesting premise and was very well executed IMO.  It definitely has staying power! And I agree with you about it being satisfying (and strange, for sure).  But I haven't listened to it! What did you think of the narration? I assume it was very good.  Is that the John Lee version (maybe that's the only one)? I know my husband likes him... I think for the Alastair Reynolds books.  I haven't really listened to him.

Yes, John Lee and the narration was excellent, I think it really enhanced the noir style.

Thanks! I picked it up.  I got lucky because I already own the Kindle version, so it was half price.

Have you read any of Mieville's other books? There is a 2 for 1 credit sale, so I was thinking about picking up Perdido Street Station (which my husband started but could not get through) and The Scar, the first two books of what appears to be a trilogy.  Those were listed by some of the reviewers of The City & The City as being even better, although they have a different narrator.

I haven't, but now I want to. I always just check out audiobooks (and kindle books) from the library in the Libby app. I just placed a hold on Perdido Street Station which sounds really intriguing, though the audio book is a whopping 24 hours long! Maybe it will encourage longer runs and walks, as that is when I do most of my listening.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Sun_Worshiper on May 23, 2023, 02:02:05 PM
I'm almost through with Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari. Which seeks to review the totality of human history in 400 pages or so. Most of the information it provides is not new to me, but the compact yet comprehensive way that it covers things is impressive. It is a fun and engaging read.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on May 23, 2023, 05:09:27 PM
I just finished Mythos by Stephen Fry (who narrated it).  It's a retelling of Greek Mythology in a chronological sequence, with the links and connections between stories made explicit.  He also covers the etymological descendants of the stories (although I had a few quibbles along the way).  It was the most cogent reading of Greek myths I've read.  Fry improvises some of the dialogue in the stories in amusing ways and it makes the gods feel more human (i.e. petty, condescending, vain, and arrogant).

The sequels are Heroes and Troy.  I will be reading Mythos to MrsFishProf and Smolt starting tonight.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on May 24, 2023, 01:04:36 PM
Quote from: Puget on May 23, 2023, 10:17:21 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on May 23, 2023, 10:02:31 AM
Quote from: Puget on May 23, 2023, 09:44:51 AM
Quote from: ab_grp on May 23, 2023, 08:33:05 AM
Quote from: Puget on May 22, 2023, 06:40:19 PM
Finally read (or rather listened to) The City and the City (China Mieville). A detective story/thriller set in two overlapping cities. Strange and quite satisfying-- one of those ones I'm sure will stick with me for a bit. Even at the very end it was ambiguous to me if the separation of the two cities is metaphysical or merely political disguised as metaphysical. If anyone else has read it I'd be interested in your take.

Looks like I last read it in November 2020 with my husband.  I had also read it a while before that in book club.  I really liked it as well.  It takes some getting into, and I think it can be a little mind-bendy, but it's such an interesting premise and was very well executed IMO.  It definitely has staying power! And I agree with you about it being satisfying (and strange, for sure).  But I haven't listened to it! What did you think of the narration? I assume it was very good.  Is that the John Lee version (maybe that's the only one)? I know my husband likes him... I think for the Alastair Reynolds books.  I haven't really listened to him.

Yes, John Lee and the narration was excellent, I think it really enhanced the noir style.

Thanks! I picked it up.  I got lucky because I already own the Kindle version, so it was half price.

Have you read any of Mieville's other books? There is a 2 for 1 credit sale, so I was thinking about picking up Perdido Street Station (which my husband started but could not get through) and The Scar, the first two books of what appears to be a trilogy.  Those were listed by some of the reviewers of The City & The City as being even better, although they have a different narrator.

I haven't, but now I want to. I always just check out audiobooks (and kindle books) from the library in the Libby app. I just placed a hold on Perdido Street Station which sounds really intriguing, though the audio book is a whopping 24 hours long! Maybe it will encourage longer runs and walks, as that is when I do most of my listening.

I liked a lot about Perdido Street Station, but the ending annoyed me in ways that will become clear if you read it. In general, Mieville strikes me as a very, very clever writer, who unfortunately knows he's clever while he's doing it. I might read The City and the City, but it's not the top of my list.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ab_grp on May 24, 2023, 01:19:53 PM
Puget, thanks for mentioning the Libby app! I downloaded it and actually do not have a library card here but just applied for one online.  I think I had heard of Overdrive as a resource for e-books, but I kept having trouble trying to access it through my previous library's website (years ago), so hopefully the updated system will be more user friendly (for me).  I'm really glad to hear about the app!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on May 24, 2023, 01:30:30 PM
Quote from: ergative on May 24, 2023, 01:04:36 PM


I liked a lot about Perdido Street Station, but the ending annoyed me in ways that will become clear if you read it. In general, Mieville strikes me as a very, very clever writer, who unfortunately knows he's clever while he's doing it. I might read The City and the City, but it's not the top of my list.

100% agreement on all counts. Perdido's ending came sort of out of nowhere and felt rather unearned.

I've read a few other Miévilles but, frankly, I find him pretty annoying, and his work kind of dull overall. I have a copy of The City & The City taking up space on the bookshelf; I found it on a free shelf, and I should really read it to make room for other stuff, but I can't bring myself around to it.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on May 24, 2023, 01:46:00 PM
Quote from: ab_grp on May 24, 2023, 01:19:53 PM
Puget, thanks for mentioning the Libby app! I downloaded it and actually do not have a library card here but just applied for one online.  I think I had heard of Overdrive as a resource for e-books, but I kept having trouble trying to access it through my previous library's website (years ago), so hopefully the updated system will be more user friendly (for me).  I'm really glad to hear about the app!

It's a mature enough software that it usually works in a pretty trouble-free manner.  If you do have glitches trying to use it on your device, your library staff will be glad to help you sort it out.  Our staff can usually clear up patron Libby issues pretty quickly.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Puget on May 24, 2023, 03:00:58 PM
Quote from: apl68 on May 24, 2023, 01:46:00 PM
Quote from: ab_grp on May 24, 2023, 01:19:53 PM
Puget, thanks for mentioning the Libby app! I downloaded it and actually do not have a library card here but just applied for one online.  I think I had heard of Overdrive as a resource for e-books, but I kept having trouble trying to access it through my previous library's website (years ago), so hopefully the updated system will be more user friendly (for me).  I'm really glad to hear about the app!

It's a mature enough software that it usually works in a pretty trouble-free manner.  If you do have glitches trying to use it on your device, your library staff will be glad to help you sort it out.  Our staff can usually clear up patron Libby issues pretty quickly.

It's great! I've never had any issues. I especially like that you can filter by what is available now so I can get something right away when I'm in desperate need. It's also nice that if you have things come in off your hold list when you won't be able to get to them you can let someone go ahead of you and get them a week or two later.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Juvenal on May 27, 2023, 03:27:04 PM
Fires of Vesuvius, by Mary Beard (a wonderful guide).  A series of chapters on just what we do know and what we don't know (a lot) about the disaster in August (or was in the fall?) of 79 CE, with a intimate discussion of the the social, economic, matters.

Do you want to know about "garum?"  The widespread use of phallic imagery?  Unfortunately, the accompanying images--of all kinds--are so small and dark in this edition that making sense of them is hard.  Go to YouTube for Beard's discussion.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0i2eNqotlY&t=2148s
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: RatGuy on May 27, 2023, 08:09:27 PM
I just finished Jane Harper's The Dry, and I plan on reading her other Aaron Falk mysteries. Pretty breezy summertime reading
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Puget on May 28, 2023, 07:10:31 AM
Quote from: RatGuy on May 27, 2023, 08:09:27 PM
I just finished Jane Harper's The Dry, and I plan on reading her other Aaron Falk mysteries. Pretty breezy summertime reading

I've enjoyed all her books!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on May 28, 2023, 01:50:33 PM
I started reading Watership Down to MFP and Smolt, but about 1/3 of they way through, they were bored and gave up.  I continued it on Audiobook and I loved it.  It's is a great story and very dark at times.  I'm bummed I missed it when I was young.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on May 30, 2023, 07:44:16 AM
Quote from: FishProf on May 28, 2023, 01:50:33 PM
I started reading Watership Down to MFP and Smolt, but about 1/3 of they way through, they were bored and gave up.  I continued it on Audiobook and I loved it.  It's is a great story and very dark at times.  I'm bummed I missed it when I was young.

It was the one book in the library leadership book club I was in for a time that I actually enjoyed.  Although The Alchemist was at least very readable.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on May 30, 2023, 08:03:19 AM
Medieval Science and Technology, by Elspeth Whitney.  This was part of an early 2000s series by Greenwood that dealt with aspects of the Middle Ages.  The author notes at the beginning that whenever she told people about studying science and technology in the Middle Ages, the usual response was surprise that there was any such thing.  Whitney's work is mostly a survey of the intellectual world of the Middle Ages that demonstrates a high level of continuity with ancient ideas involving (proto) science and medicine. 

And also a quite significant amount of intellectual and technological innovation.  Medieval technological innovation may have been a very gradual process by modern standards, but cumulatively it had a profound effect on the world.  It was the period that produced such innovations as clockwork, gunpowder, and printing, after all, to name only the three best-known.

And yet the popular view persists of the Middle Ages as a dark age of stagnation, dominated by moronic superstition and dogma, until a secular Renaissance enlightenment finally broke the hold of the Church.  I blame Monty Python in part, although their Holy Grail movie has always seemed to me as much a satire of silly modern ideas of the Middle Ages as of the period itself.  What's really culpable, though is recent works--Nature's Mutiny, Philipp Blom's massively disappointing look at the "Little Ice Age" comes to mind--that continue to perpetuate the thoroughly debunked medieval religious dark age vs. modern secular Renaissance enlightenment fable. 

I don't even consider myself a fan or apologist for the Middle Ages.  I just hate to see a whole civilization constantly denigrated by scholars who evidently don't know what they're talking about.  Or worse do, but don't let historical evidence get in the way of whatever agendas they're trying to advance today.

Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on May 30, 2023, 09:20:03 AM
Quote from: apl68 on May 30, 2023, 08:03:19 AM

And also a quite significant amount of intellectual and technological innovation.  Medieval technological innovation may have been a very gradual process by modern standards, but cumulatively it had a profound effect on the world.  It was the period that produced such innovations as clockwork, gunpowder, and printing, after all, to name only the three best-known.




Not to mention wind and water power!



My haul for May:


Adrian Tchaikovsky - Redemption's Blade: After the War: An interesting collaborative series, in which each of many authors writes one novel. This is the first. It's a high fantasy tale that takes place after the great war against evil has been won and everyone is left to pick up the pieces of the world. It's an interesting idea, and the worldbuilding is very rich. It basically reads like a D&D campaign, however. That makes for a competent and fun story, but the D&D aspect is kind of distracting once you notice it. I'll read the next one if I come across it in a book box or something, although I'm somewhat skeptical of what the D&D campaign will look like in someone else's hands.

Adrian Tchaikovsky - Ogres: Spartacus meets Toussaint L'Ouverture in a distant-but-not-so-distant future that, in a way, imagines what the world would have looked like if the Confederacy had been a global power (and won). There's perhaps even a dash of that LeGuin novel about slavery. I've said before that Tchaikovsky really excels when it comes to novella-length works, and this is no different. I was reticent to read it, but almost immediately hooked. I think, however, that it should have ended with the penultimate scene.

Adrian Tchaikovsky - City of Last Chances: A bit of the Paris Commune (IIRC?) in a fantasy setting, with elements of Terry Pratchett's Small Gods. Thoroughly enjoyable, with typically rich worldbuilding.

Rob Wilkins - Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes: I'm not much for biographies, although I do enjoy reading about the authors I love and their creative process. This is that. It's engaging and very well written, with more than a hint of Pratchett himself in there. Learning about his life up to the Discworld success was a fascinating glimpse into the scifi/fantasy world of the 1970s and 1980s, and even the 1990s, as well as into the publishing industry of the time. It is, however, an extremely sympathetic portrayal (borderline sycophantic or fanboy?), despite a few hints at some rough edges. He appears to have been a difficult man. I'd have liked to learn more about those rough edges; that they're glossed over in passing left me filling in the blanks in ways that are not entirely complimentary to Pratchett, and I'd have preferred a more direct look at those warts instead. I'd also have liked to learn more about his family life, which essentially doesn't feature at all. I imagine that's deliberate, and in keeping with the estate's wishes (since it's the official biography, and Wilkins is a close friend of the Pratchetts), but in the end it serves to make Pratchett sounds like something of a monomaniacal workaholic. And while I get the sense that there is a grain or two of truth to that characterization, I also get the sense that this grossly distorts his character. The extended description of the descent into Alzheimer's is heart-wrenching, especially if you've any experience with that. Also, the job of being a personal assistant sounds like it sucks.

Darren Naish and Paul Barrett - Dinosaurs: How They Lived And Evolved: As far as I can see, this is the best popular up-to-date summary of dinosaur science out there (although it's no longer entirely up to date, since it was published seven years ago; I have the first edition, but the second seems to have made mostly relatively minor adjustments). As such, it's good and accessible (it starts with the very basic basics), and it's nice that it devotes an entire chapter to birds (rather than just Mesozoic birds, or Mesozoic + early Cenozoic), and is entirely unapologetic about birds and dinosaurs. The art selection is a little dated, although the authors don't shy away from critiquing it (the cover of the first edition, however, is bad in all kinds of ways; I gather they had no control over it, and weren't happy about it). Some sections offer what is perhaps a slightly more balanced treatment than is warranted (e.g. the section on the end-Cretaceous extinction). At this point I don't think I learned much that was new to me, but (1) it's good to read an up-to-date palate cleanser after having delved for a bit into the dinosaur science of the '80s and '90s, and (2) there's so much that you're bound to forget stuff, and it's nice to be reminded of it all.

Suzanne Collins - The Hunger Games: I found it at the yearly community book sale, and I'd been meaning to read it for years, so I picked it up. I expected it to be just another perfectly decent teen novel (I saw the film when it came out). I was wrong`; it's very good. It's very well crafted, the satire surprisingly deft and surprisingly biting, and its singular focus makes it hard to put down. I have a few small quibbles--you don't load a bow, goats need to be/have been pregnant to produce milk, and how could Clove know about what happened to Rue?--but really, it's a great read, even for an adult, and top-notch teen fare for sure. I'm desperate to read the sequels and prequel, although someone's got them out at the library. I suspect, however, that they'll dilute the focus and centre instead on fomenting a rebellion against the Capitol, and that will make it less interesting for me, and push it squarely into the teen novel realm. Which is fine--I like teen novels!--but will mean that they're just much less good than the first.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on May 30, 2023, 01:27:32 PM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on May 30, 2023, 09:20:03 AM

Darren Naish and Paul Barrett - Dinosaurs: How They Lived And Evolved: As far as I can see, this is the best popular up-to-date summary of dinosaur science out there (although it's no longer entirely up to date, since it was published seven years ago; I have the first edition, but the second seems to have made mostly relatively minor adjustments). As such, it's good and accessible (it starts with the very basic basics), and it's nice that it devotes an entire chapter to birds (rather than just Mesozoic birds, or Mesozoic + early Cenozoic), and is entirely unapologetic about birds and dinosaurs. The art selection is a little dated, although the authors don't shy away from critiquing it (the cover of the first edition, however, is bad in all kinds of ways; I gather they had no control over it, and weren't happy about it). Some sections offer what is perhaps a slightly more balanced treatment than is warranted (e.g. the section on the end-Cretaceous extinction). At this point I don't think I learned much that was new to me, but (1) it's good to read an up-to-date palate cleanser after having delved for a bit into the dinosaur science of the '80s and '90s, and (2) there's so much that you're bound to forget stuff, and it's nice to be reminded of it all.

It's been awhile since I've had the opportunity to read a good dinosaur book.  I can justify getting maybe one a year for our small-town library's collection.  The latest edition of this might be a good choice for this year's acquisition.

Dinosaurs are always crowd-pleasers, but I also try to give some love to some of the other notable prehistoric fauna.  Like Inostrancevia:


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inostrancevia


Which evidently looked something like a cross between a walrus and a sabertooth.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: jimbogumbo on May 30, 2023, 01:54:17 PM
Okay, never read The Hunger Games books or Twilight, as I'm an old snob. Would I like Twilight as well? Also planning to read Wayward Pines.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on May 30, 2023, 04:53:26 PM
Quote from: apl68 on May 30, 2023, 01:27:32 PM
It's been awhile since I've had the opportunity to read a good dinosaur book.  I can justify getting maybe one a year for our small-town library's collection.  The latest edition of this might be a good choice for this year's acquisition.

Dinosaurs are always crowd-pleasers, but I also try to give some love to some of the other notable prehistoric fauna.  Like Inostrancevia:


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inostrancevia


I think you'd personally enjoy Witton's The Palaeoartist's Handbook more (incidentally, Witton also restores Cenozoic and Permian fauna--including Inostrancevia (http://markwitton-com.blogspot.com/2016/10/exposed-teeth-in-dinosaurs-sabre-tooths.html)!), but yeah, your patrons would be better off with Naish and Barrett.

Quote from: jimbogumbo on May 30, 2023, 01:54:17 PM
Okay, never read The Hunger Games books or Twilight, as I'm an old snob. Would I like Twilight as well? Also planning to read Wayward Pines.

I dunno. It's on my list of future things to read, but I'm not in a hurry to get to it. Then again, that was true of The Hunger Games, too, and now look at me.

Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: onthefringe on May 30, 2023, 05:08:41 PM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on May 30, 2023, 04:53:26 PM

Quote from: jimbogumbo on May 30, 2023, 01:54:17 PM
Okay, never read The Hunger Games books or Twilight, as I'm an old snob. Would I like Twilight as well? Also planning to read Wayward Pines.

I dunno. It's on my list of future things to read, but I'm not in a hurry to get to it. Then again, that was true of The Hunger Games, too, and now look at me.

I liked Hunger Games very much for all the reasons Parasaraulophus points out. The sequels were not quite as good, but stubbornly refused to settle into many of the expected teen dystopia tropes.

I tried the first Twilight book and bounced off it hard. It's basically a poorly written love triangle with a passive central female character and mopey vampires and werwolves. If I want light fantasy werewolf/vampire/adventure/romance books I'm good with the Mercy Thompson series.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on May 30, 2023, 06:06:24 PM
Quote from: apl68 on May 30, 2023, 01:27:32 PM
Dinosaurs are always crowd-pleasers, but I also try to give some love to some of the other notable prehistoric fauna.  Like Inostrancevia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inostrancevia

Which evidently looked something like a cross between a walrus and a sabertooth.

News of Inostrancevia (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/during-the-great-dying-this-saber-toothed-predator-reigned-180982236/)
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on June 05, 2023, 08:02:58 AM
Frozen In Time:  Clarence Birdseye's Outrageous Idea About Frozen Food, by Mark Kurlansky.  This is a condensed-for-younger-readers version of Kurlansky's earlier Birdseye:  The Adventures of a Curious Man.  I read the first books several years ago.  I first read about Clarence Birdseye's pioneering work in frozen foods in a sidebar feature in a sixth-grade (?) science textbook.  Birdseye spent his youth adventuring in the Rocky Mountains and Labrador in the early 1900s.  In the latter place he learned that meat frozen quickly in the winter would remain both edible and palatable for quite some time.  This inspired him to do several years' worth of creative tinkering to work out economical ways of quick-freezing foods on a large scale.  And so the modern consumer frozen foods industry was born.  Birdseye kept tinkering and took out patents on quite a few other innovations as well.  The Bird's Eye brand is still around. 

In a world where we are all too aware of the health, environmental, and social consequences of excessive dependence on agribusiness and over-processed foods, there's a tendency to view those responsible for these developments as greedy, scheming, villains.  Birdseye doesn't fit the bill as a villain.  While he did indeed never meet a dollar he didn't like, he seems to have been a genuinely nice guy.  He comes across in Kurlansky's telling as a classic hands-on eccentric inventor type.  He'd have been an interesting fellow to meet.

He and his fellow preserved foods pioneers would have considered themselves society's benefactors.  After all, they helped to make it possible for people in all sorts of places and climates to have a varied diet all year round, which averted the perennial scourge of annual seasonal malnutrition.  Our modern, urbanized world couldn't exist without this sort of supply chain.  Birdseye died in 1956, and would never have been able to anticipate the relentless extremes to which processed foods and consolidation in the food industry would go, the tempting marketing of junk foods, or the sweeping social developments that have left most people without the time, inclination, or skills to cook proper meals.  We just can't as a society seem to resist taking our technologies and our dependence on them too far.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Morden on June 09, 2023, 01:09:05 PM
Station Eleven by Mantel: a post-apocalyptic world (pandemic) but far less focus on the day to day grittiness and more on character development than many books of the genre. Very good.
Several Tchaikovsky novels (thanks to recommenders on this thread and the sci-fi thread): Children of Memory--OK but I didn't feel the need to continue on with that series; Shards of Earth; Eyes of the Void; Lords of Uncreation--I really liked the first; the other two were OK. The shifting point of view reminded me of the Expanse series. Actually I was reminded of the Expanse series several times; and Doors of Eden: I liked this one a lot--multiple alternate timelines of evolution on Earth, with different species developing sentience (for example, trilobites), begin to collide with each other.

I think I'll work on mysteries for a while now.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on June 09, 2023, 01:31:30 PM
Quote from: Morden on June 09, 2023, 01:09:05 PM
Station Eleven by Mantel: a post-apocalyptic world (pandemic) but far less focus on the day to day grittiness and more on character development than many books of the genre. Very good.
Several Tchaikovsky novels (thanks to recommenders on this thread and the sci-fi thread): Children of Memory--OK but I didn't feel the need to continue on with that series; Shards of Earth; Eyes of the Void; Lords of Uncreation--I really liked the first; the other two were OK. The shifting point of view reminded me of the Expanse series. Actually I was reminded of the Expanse series several times; and Doors of Eden: I liked this one a lot--multiple alternate timelines of evolution on Earth, with different species developing sentience (for example, trilobites), begin to collide with each other.

I think I'll work on mysteries for a while now.

FWIW, Children of Memory, the third in the trilogy, is not really representative of its predecessors.

Glad you've been enjoying all those goodies, though!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Morden on June 09, 2023, 01:41:37 PM
QuoteFWIW, Children of Memory, the third in the trilogy, is not really representative of its predecessors.

Shoot, I meant the one with the spiders. Is that Children of Time?
Thank you Parasaurolophus for introducing me to this author.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: FishProf on June 09, 2023, 02:05:30 PM
I finished the audiobook of Swords and Deviltry by Fritz Leiber, the first collection of sword and sorcery heroes Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.  I mentioned earlier in discussing Elric of Melnibone how these were some of the inspiration for the original Dungeons and Dragons source materials.  This book introduces the two, explains how they met, and sets them up for their further adventures.  It was...pretty good?  I can see a lot of potential in the characters, but it did seem like Leiber was feeling his way with their development.  I am already committed to the next two books, so I'll report back on whether it picks up or not.

Unrelatedly, I finished reading WhatIf? and WhatIf? 2 by Randall Munroe.  (Subtitles: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions).  These are a fun read, and Munroe carries the logical extension to these questions to their fullest extent, such as "From what height must you drop a steak for it to fully cook before hitting the ground?" or "Can you make a jetpack out of downward-pointing machine guns?" But there are a couple abstract questions like "How much force power can Yoda output?". 
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on June 09, 2023, 02:54:05 PM
Quote from: Morden on June 09, 2023, 01:41:37 PM
QuoteFWIW, Children of Memory, the third in the trilogy, is not really representative of its predecessors.

Shoot, I meant the one with the spiders. Is that Children of Time?
Thank you Parasaurolophus for introducing me to this author.

Oh! Yes, that's the one. Well, it's good that you started with the best of the three before deciding you'd had enough, then!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on June 10, 2023, 07:05:32 AM
Salt, by Mark Kurlansky.  It's one his books--like Cod, Paper, and Milk--that attempts a global history of some common commodity.  I've always found them fascinating.  You can tie the history of common commodities in with all sorts of historical events, social developments, customs, and technological and scientific developments.  And Kurlansky doesn't seem to miss anything.  I've always liked books that give the reader lots of esoteric facts about things we never thought about, delivered in a very readable style.  Kurlansky is a master of that sort of work.


Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert.  I'm also fond of old Modern Library editions.  This worn-out Modern Library edition of Flaubert's work dropped into my lap, so I thought I might as well make it one of my occasional attempts to catch up with the classics.  Madame Bovary is often praised as a landmark in the development of the "realist" novel, in reaction to the prevailing "romanticism" of the earlier part of the nineteenth century. 

Certainly it's a kind of anti-romance, in the sense that "romance" is usually understood.  It portrays quite well the manner in which "romance," for all its declarations of undying love and the like, is ultimately a very self-centered business.  Love is about valuing others at least as much as one values oneself, and doing so in a practical manner.  Romance is mostly about using the "beloved" to further a sort of emotional and/or physical thrill seeking.  It can be as destructive to individuals, families, and society as an addiction to recreational drugs.  Madame Bovary's life story is a kind of portrayal of a self-destructive addict.

The story's setting also features a meticulous portrayal of the world of provincial France of its day.  Commentary on Madame Bovary tends to speak of how the poor protagonist is driven around the bend by the "banality and emptiness of provincial life."  Actually Flaubert makes it sound like a pretty interesting place to have lived back in the day.  The standard of living wouldn't have been congenial to us moderns (I like indoor plumbing, myself), of course, but it was also a world where the natural environment hadn't yet been destroyed.  As for the dull, provincial types, some of them sound like real characters.  They had their shortcomings--who among us doesn't?--but I bet some of them would have been interesting folks once you got to know them.  It's a pity that Madame Bovary was too busy yearning after romantic adventures to become more involved in the lives of the people right there with her.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ciao_yall on June 10, 2023, 10:07:09 AM
Quote from: apl68 on June 10, 2023, 07:05:32 AM
Salt, by Mark Kurlansky.  It's one his books--like Cod, Paper, and Milk--that attempts a global history of some common commodity.  I've always found them fascinating.  You can tie the history of common commodities in with all sorts of historical events, social developments, customs, and technological and scientific developments.  And Kurlansky doesn't seem to miss anything.  I've always liked books that give the reader lots of esoteric facts about things we never thought about, delivered in a very readable style.  Kurlansky is a master of that sort of work.


Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert.  I'm also fond of old Modern Library editions.  This worn-out Modern Library edition of Flaubert's work dropped into my lap, so I thought I might as well make it one of my occasional attempts to catch up with the classics.  Madame Bovary is often praised as a landmark in the development of the "realist" novel, in reaction to the prevailing "romanticism" of the earlier part of the nineteenth century. 

Certainly it's a kind of anti-romance, in the sense that "romance" is usually understood.  It portrays quite well the manner in which "romance," for all its declarations of undying love and the like, is ultimately a very self-centered business.  Love is about valuing others at least as much as one values oneself, and doing so in a practical manner.  Romance is mostly about using the "beloved" to further a sort of emotional and/or physical thrill seeking.  It can be as destructive to individuals, families, and society as an addiction to recreational drugs.  Madame Bovary's life story is a kind of portrayal of a self-destructive addict.

The story's setting also features a meticulous portrayal of the world of provincial France of its day.  Commentary on Madame Bovary tends to speak of how the poor protagonist is driven around the bend by the "banality and emptiness of provincial life."  Actually Flaubert makes it sound like a pretty interesting place to have lived back in the day.  The standard of living wouldn't have been congenial to us moderns (I like indoor plumbing, myself), of course, but it was also a world where the natural environment hadn't yet been destroyed.  As for the dull, provincial types, some of them sound like real characters.  They had their shortcomings--who among us doesn't?--but I bet some of them would have been interesting folks once you got to know them.  It's a pity that Madame Bovary was too busy yearning after romantic adventures to become more involved in the lives of the people right there with her.

I read Madame Bovary under similar circumstances. There is a part in which she was all pouty when she got pregnant and realized she wouldn't be able to afford all the beautiful baby accoutrements she had seen in the fancy shops. I remembered thinking she didn't have much sense of reality and fantasy for her expectations in day-to-day life. No wonder she was miserable. I can't imagine her ever being happy no matter what her circumstances - there would always be bigger, prettier, more perfect visions out there.

That said, quite a bit of that "natural provincial beauty" had to be dug up to create sewer systems, electrical supplies and all the other pleasantries of modern life. Although Emma Bovary would not have known the difference. Everyone lived with outhouses, wood stoves, hand-kneaded bread, washtubs and other aspects of life we would consider complete drudgery. But clearly not everyone was miserable. Imagine how they will look back at our primitive lives today in 2223.

You might find Woody Allen's short story The Kugelmass Episode (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NqB7hfxWrJeA_OjNUP0HTRyRacd2GpS-Mm9YLKrifP8/preview?hgd=1) a rather fun interpretation!
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on June 16, 2023, 12:57:23 PM
Where the Water Goes:  Life and Death Along the Colorado River, by David Owen.  A hundred years ago, the states of the Colorado River basin signed a compact guaranteeing each state a certain amount of Colorado River water each year.  The compact was based on estimates of annual river flow derived from what turned out to have been some of the wettest years on record in the region.  I recall seeing a National Geographic article on the river in the 1980s that noted that actual annual river flow was much too small to meet all the pledged water allocations.  This was before climate change started further reducing the region's rainfall.

Owen surveys the Colorado basin's water situation, with its arcane water laws, its deal-making around water, and its innumerable water engineering projects.  He also describes the communities and people in the region that he visited during his research.  The whole thing's fascinating.  Owen is commendably restrained at passing judgement on the people of the Colorado River region.  He points out that proposed solutions for the region's water problems are far less simple than many imagine.  Making agricultural irrigation more efficient, to eliminate wasteful run-off?  That "wasted" run-off is what makes possible the survival of much of the region's remaining wildlife habitat.  Making residential water usage more efficient?  They've made great strides in that direction, all of which simply end up encouraging still more development.  Having fewer people live in the arid region?  Okay, but where will those millions of people go, in a country where other populous regions, such as Florida and northern California, are also becoming less habitable due to climate change?

Owen sees no reason for despair--but it's clear that there are a lot of hard, and costly, choices to be made in the years to come.  It would be interesting to see Owen's take on the developments that have come thick and fast in the six years since this was published.  Only this spring, the situation became dire enough that the states of the lower Colorado basin were forced to agree to cutbacks in water usage that they would once have found unthinkable.  And now Arizona is taking steps to limit new residential development in still-growing Phoenix, where many developers can't give a good answer as to where they're going to get sustainable water supplies for the housing they're building.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: apl68 on June 16, 2023, 01:08:57 PM
Divine Wind:  The History and Science of Hurricanes, by Kerry Emmanuel.  Emmanuel certainly goes into a lot of detail on the science of how hurricanes form and develop, and on the many things that meteorologists measure to figure out where the hurricanes are going and how strong they will be when they arrive.  Chapters on this alternate with chapters about historical hurricanes.  These are used to illustrate the science.  There are also lots of reproductions of art works and quotes from literary sources on hurricanes.  It's a nice example of a work of popular science that places the science in a broader context.

The reader comes away with a greater appreciation for the challenges that forecasters face in trying to assess the risks posed by a given storm, and the responses to it that they should advise.  Hurricane warnings can pose a real dilemma.  You don't want to fail to warn people in time to evacuate when a community appears threatened.  But then the storm could fail to do the sort of damage predicted, angering people who went to the effort and expense of evacuation and creating a "boy that cried wolf" effect.  I'm reminded of 2005's Hurricane Rita, when panicky officials and a panicky public, their heads full of fresh images of the horrors of Katrina and its aftermath, prompted millions of people who were in little danger to flee in an overblown evacuation that became a disaster in its own right.

The book was going to press in 2005 when Katrina and Rita took place, meaning that it came just too late to consider these infamous storms.  Here's another case where it would be interesting to see an updated version.  So much has happened in the past 18 years in terms of extreme weather events and advances in the relevant sciences.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: ergative on June 17, 2023, 04:42:01 AM
I just finished an advance copy of Alix E Harrow's new book, Starling house, and I loved it. Mysterious old house in a blighted town contains secrets known only to its mysterious caretaker. Young woman who's mastered the art of cheating and stealing to look after her brother and wants only to keep him safe and get him out of a miserable hard life takes a job as a housekeeper at the house, and learns the secrets. Beautifully character work, wonderful sentient haunted house with opinions, very touching set of revelations. I've liked everything Harrow writes.
Title: Re: What have you read lately?
Post by: Parasaurolophus on June 21, 2023, 02:58:19 PM
Per the discussion in the suggestion forum, I'm going to start trying to split threads that get too long on a regular basis, to see if that makes them a little more accessible to new members and lurkers. The previous thread is here (https://thefora.org/index.php?topic=3489.0).