Re: What Have You Read Lately? (2024 Edition)

[ciao_yall]

Altogether Different written by my sister's best friend Brianna Wheeler.

I have a whole new respect for her. I always thought she was awesome so this is next level.

[RatGuy]

I'm currently reading Jane Eyre for the first time.

[ciao_yall]

I'm currently reading Jane Eyre for the first time.

I read it for the first time a few years ago. Great book!

[hmaria1609]

I'm currently reading Jane Eyre for the first time.

I read the novel years ago and watched the adaptation on PBS "Masterpiece" starring Ruth Wilson in the title role. I've also read Jane Eyre in graphic novel and manga formats.

[Langue_doc]

I'm currently reading Jane Eyre for the first time.

I read the novel years ago and watched the adaptation on PBS "Masterpiece" starring Ruth Wilson in the title role. I've also read Jane Eyre in graphic novel and manga formats.

Watch the Orson Welles/Joan Fontaine version. The one starring William Hurt was a disaster. I had to reread the novel recently for a book discussion. There were occasions when I wanted to bop Jane on the head because she kept referring to Rochester as "my master"!

[Puget]

Bellweather Rhapsody by Kate Racculia -- thoroughly enjoyed this, good writing, great characters, and lots of twists and turns right to the end. It does require some suspension of disbelief, so if you're into hyperrealism this isn't the book for you, but you're willing to go along for a madcap ride its a lot of fun!

[apl68]

Medical Center, by Faith Baldwin.  This 80-year-old tale is another of those inexpensive vintage books that occasionally catches my eye.  I went into it without very high expectations...and still felt a bit disappointed by it.  It's not so much a novel as a collection of shorter doctor/nurse romances with a common setting at a large metropolitan hospital.

Faith Baldwin was for many years a very prolific and popular author.  Her work made her a millionaire, in the days when a million dollars was still a million dollars.  Reportedly her stories, as here, tend to feature a lot of wealthy, privileged characters in what most would consider glamorous settings.  Which makes her sound like something of a forerunner of Danielle Steel.  Baldwin's work was also reportedly held in small regard by the literary establishment of the day.  Can't say as I really blame them there.



The Conquest of Canaan, by Booth Tarkington.  Another, even older (1905) of my vintage finds.  Booth Tarkington was the sort of novelist who managed to be both popular and pretty well-regarded in his own day.  Since then...well, the only thing keeping him from sliding into total obscurity at this point is the fact that his The Magnificent Ambersons is still considered, justly in my opinion, a minor American classic. 

The Conquest of Canaan is an early work about a ne'er-do-well who leaves town under a shadow, comes back a few years later to set up a law practice, works on the wrong side of the tracks and prevents some injustices, and is finally restored to respectability.  There's a bit of critique of the respectable parts of society here for their willingness to be led by ill-informed public opinion, but Tarkington doesn't go in for biting satire.  Had he been willing to be vicious about it, and tear down organized religion as well, he'd doubtless have been far more celebrated by the literary establishment than he was, and now better-remembered than he is.  He was just too genial a writer for that.  Not a great book, but the author later showed himself able to do much better.

[apl68]

The Horse:  A Galloping History of Humanity, by Timothy C. Winegard.  This is one of those sweeping histories of some Important Thing that follow it from earliest times to the present day, arguing in the process that this Important Thing was even more important than most of us realize.  A great deal of this book about the influence of the horse on human history chronicles recurring episodes when ruthless, warlike horse riders conquered and subjugated vast regions.  The European conquest of the Americas was only the last such episode.  There's also a lot on the horse's economic significance, and a bit toward the end about our current relationship with horses.

Lots of interesting stuff I didn't know here, such as the idea that the ancient Indo-Europeans were horse riders who replaced the population of Europe in much the same way that Europeans would someday largely replace native Americans.  Horses often take a back seat for long stretches in favor of breathless potted histories of huge events.  It's "galloping," all right!

Unfortunately, I see enough errors and questionable statements in periods I'm more familiar with to make me wonder just how much to trust the author elsewhere.  Also, some sections rely on the sort of archaeological, fossil, and genetic theories that have a way of periodically undergoing dramatic revision in light of new discoveries and interpretations.  So I suspect a lot of what we see here may be upended within the next decade or two.

An interesting book, but I can't help thinking that, say, Simon Winchester could have done something like this even better.  Mark Kurlansky could probably write a better book about the economic significance of horses.  John Keegan has written better about their military significance.  And Wendy Williams has done better on our relationship with the horse itself.  That's the peril of trying to write these big, sweeping histories that try to sum up a whole subject in an accessible manner.  I still can't resist reading them.

[spork]

[...]

one of those sweeping histories of some Important Thing that follow it from earliest times to the present day, arguing in the process that this Important Thing was even more important than most of us realize.

[...]

Unfortunately, I see enough errors and questionable statements

[...]

These are the complaints I had about The Mosquito: A Human History of Our Deadliest Predator, which as I wrote upthread, I returned to the library after reading only the first few chapters.

Can't remember if I mentioned this, but I recently re-read Into the Hands of the Soldiers by David D. Kirkpatrick. I had forgotten how good I thought it was the first time I read it. Any book that gets its author banned from the country that he/she has written about gets a thumbs up from me, but this is one of the few journalistic accounts that in my opinion wasn't already obsolete by its publication date.

[apl68]

The Horse does not make me want to read The Mosquito.  Looks like I won't be ordering any more Winegard books for the library, unless a patron specifically asks for one.

[hmaria1609]

From the library: My Salty Mary by Cynthia Hand et al. (YA)
"The Little Mermaid" and pirates for a whale of tale on the high seas!

Of note: This is the same group who wrote the YA best seller My Lady Jane which was adapted on Amazon Prime Video. A few of the lead characters in this novel appear in My Contrary Mary.

[Sun_Worshiper]

I read Antifragile, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, and How Migration Really Works, by Hein de Haas, on a recent series of flights. I enjoyed both books well enough, finding them readable enough for the air (usually I'd go with something lighter in such a setting). Antifragile is an interesting concept and de Haas's book offers some nice insights about migration that, he argues, are at odds with conventional wisdom. I will say, though, that both authors come off as being quite full of themselves.

[hmaria1609]

From the library: Manga Classics: Hamlet by William Shakespeare, adapted by Crystal S. Chan (Full original text edition)
I read the play in high school so re-reading it in manga format! The artists went to Denmark as part of their research.

[apl68]

From the library: Manga Classics: Hamlet by William Shakespeare, adapted by Crystal S. Chan (Full original text edition)
I read the play in high school so re-reading it in manga format! The artists went to Denmark as part of their research.

A graphic novel version of Hamlet with the full text must either have a lot of very crowded captions and word and thought balloons, or a massive page count.

[RatGuy]

My library informed me that three books I've reserved are now ready for pickup:

• The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
• The Terror by Dan Simmons
• The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton

All of these were recommended to me by different friends. This year I've been reading my friends' favorites, then we go for drinks to discuss them.  Last weekend's discussion of Jane Eyre was amazing.