# Books: And What Are You Reading?



## Scepticalscribe

It is high time to start a nice, welcoming, book thread.

This week, (in addition to studying French - two nights a week, online) I read, well re-read, slowly, by my standards, (thus, the book took several nights of reading), The Far Pavilions - which is undoubtedly her masterpiece, nothing else she wrote came close to it - by M M Kaye.

The book is set mostly in India, British India, the "Raj" of the 1850s to 1879 (the second Afghan War), and also partly in Afghanistan.

Among other interesting details, or footnotes, I had not known that her literary agent was Paul Scott (who wrote the Raj Quartet).


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## lizkat

Scepticalscribe said:


> It is high time to start a nice, welcoming, book thread.
> 
> This week, (in addition to studying French - two nights a week, online) I read, well re-read, slowly, by my standards, (thus, the book took several nights of reading), The Far Pavilions - which is undoubtedly her masterpiece, nothing else she wrote came close to it - by M M Kaye.
> 
> The book is set mostly in India, British India, the "Raj" of the 1850s to 1879, and partly in Afghanistan.
> 
> Among other interesting details, or footnotes, I had not known that her literary agent was Paul Scott (who wrote the Raj Quartet).




Well there's certainly a home run of a post:

1. Love the thread, thank you for starting it... 

2. Loved The Far Pavilions, nearly got fired for going to work late while staying up reading that thing into the wee hours back in the early 80s, a few years after it was published.

3. Loved the Raj Quartet (the books as well as the (more chronological) DVD series.  

4. Impressed by your diligence in taking the online French course as well.


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## Scepticalscribe

My father had the book, which I read - well, raced though, not really grasping all that much, and, frankly, more than a little bored by and not remotely comprehending the sections set in Afghanistan - as a teenager. 

That was then, and this is now.

However, now, as an adult, more specifically, as an adult with time on her hands, (something I didn't have when responsible for my mother's care), and having worked in that part of the world - I was curious, with adult hindsight and adult knowledge, to return to this work, and see if what she had written somehow tallied with my own sense of things.

It did; her insights into the political and socio-economic-cultural background of Afghanistan was excellent - and surprisingly (and unexpectedly) sympathetic to the Afghan perspective.

Her comments on the three major religions - well, two, (Hindu and Islam, for Christianity is the sort of assumed cultural default, although some wonderfully barbed asides are offered), in the context of the tale she tells, are, again, thoughtful, and intelligently insightful and very interesting.

And, while teenage me really liked the protagonist, adult me wants to shake him, kick him and slap him around the head at times.

Actually, I thought it excellent.


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## Scepticalscribe

I posted about this elsewhere; the French classes have been taking place since late July.

The govt is paying for it, and AF (Alliance Française) are conducting the classes.

Online.

My French was quite good at school, and I loved the language & culture - but that is quite some time ago; however, I do have a fairly extensive dormant vocabulary in that language.

When I returned from Africa two years ago, the foreign ministry (because they wished to be able to deploy me on EU/CSDP capacity building missions & EOM (election observation missions) in Francophone regions, suggested (advised, strongly recommended) that I take up French classes.

Accordingly, I engaged the French husband (himself a teacher) of an old school friend (who herself was also a teacher) to give me private classes, an arrangement that worked well until my mother's health further deteriorated, which was followed by her death, whereupon my interest and motivation in many things (including French classes) vanished.

Towards the end of this January past, the foreign ministry contacted me with a view to ascertaining my interest in French classes to be run by AF (but paid for by them); then, before matters could proceed any further, Covid struck, putting paid to all such plans.

However, the classes - now held in an online format - were resurrected in July, and I have been suitably occupied since then.


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## Scepticalscribe

Actually, I also re-read the Raj Quartet, recently (the weeks immediately preceding my mother's death, in December 2018) and thought it excellent.


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## lizkat

Scepticalscribe said:


> Actually, I also re-read the Raj Quartet, recently (the weeks immediately preceding my mother's death, in December 2018) and thought it excellent.




[ Not to drift too far into film from books here but the original DVD set for the series The Jewel of the Crown --based on that quartet of novels-- had rather atrocious audio, not that it stopped me getting bleary-eyed watching it once I laid hands on a used set.   I keep meaning to get the remastered set.  It came out quite awhile ago after being held up for US release for a long time, doubtless some licensing issue.   Tim Pigott-Smith, the English actor who passed away just a few years ago,  had played the role of Ronald Merrick so very well in that series.  ] 

Okay I'm heading back to my books now...   my current read is Akwaeke Emezi's novel _*The Death of Vivek Oji.*_ Drawn to it by a powerful review I bumped into in the LA Times.









						Review: The mesmerizing mystery of ‘The Death of Vivek Oji’: Not how he died but how he lived
					

Akwaeke Emezi's new novel pieces together the short life of a young Nigerian man, exploring gender fluidity, Igbo belief and what makes a family.




					www.latimes.com
				



Emezi has a way of being succinct, blunt or movingly eloquent all of a piece, and brings the reader into the minds of the characters, from whose various POV the book is written, and not in chronological order overall.  The parts written as Oji can break the heart.


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## Scepticalscribe

Agreed, @lizkat: Tim Pigott-Smith was absolutely brilliant as Ronald Merrick (and the portrayal of that intersection of class and race his character represented was superbly done).


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## Renzatic

I've been going through this strange thing recently, maybe the start of a midlife crisis, where I've been revisiting all the things I used to love back in my childhood days of yore. 

It started with 80's movies, now it's books I used to love when I was in elementary and middle school. Specifically, the Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators novels. I've been trying to track them down to read through them again.


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## Scepticalscribe

Renzatic said:


> I've been going through this strange thing recently, maybe the start of a midlife crisis, where I've been revisiting all the things I used to love back in my childhood days of yore.
> 
> It started with 80's movies, now it's books I used to love when I was in elementary and middle school. Specifically, the Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators novels. I've been trying to track them down to read through them again.




Ah, I remember those: Jupiter Jones (the bright one), Pete (yawn, the athletic one), and Bob (the bespectcled researcher).

My main gripe (but this applied to almost everything I read, or watched in those days) was that there were no female characters, - not, no strong female characters, just no female characters whatsoever - not among the investigators, their mentors, friends, antagonists or their supporting cast. 

However, two or three of the books were really excellent, some of the others were pretty good, but the series became very formulaic.


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## Renzatic

Scepticalscribe said:


> Ah, I remember those: Jupiter Jones (the bright one), Pete (yawn, the athletic one), and Bob (the bespectcled researcher).




Ha! It's so nice knowing that there's someone else out there who has actually heard of these books! 

Yeah, they're not exactly too strong on female leads. They're boys adventure novels written in the 60's. It's not going to align perfectly with more modern social standards. Though if I recall correct, some of the John Bellairs books have a few good strong female characters.


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## Alli

Thread bookmarked. I’ll be back when I finish my dissertation.


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## Scepticalscribe

Renzatic said:


> Ha! It's so nice knowing that there's someone else out there who has actually heard of these books!
> 
> Yeah, they're not exactly too strong on female leads. They're boys adventure novels written in the 60's. It's not going to align perfectly with more modern social standards. Though if I recall correct, some of the John Bellairs books have a few good strong female characters.





To my mind, The Stuttering Parrot, The Fiery Eye, and The Talking Skull (the last book, I learned last night, that had been written by the original author, Robert Arthur) were the three best books in the series.  

And, following the death of Robert Arthur, the quality of the books (and mysteries) took a serious nose dive.



Alli said:


> Thread bookmarked. I’ll be back when I finish my dissertation.



 Look forward to seeing you whenever you choose to drop in.


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## Scepticalscribe

Okay, @Renzatic: I am taking look at (re-reading) "The Mystery of the Stuttering Parrot, last encountered A Very Long Time Ago.


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## Gutwrench

Reading a Booker T Washington book right now. I’m not sure where I’m headed next.


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## Renzatic

Scepticalscribe said:


> Okay, @Renzatic: I am taking look at (re-reading) "The Mystery of the Stuttering Parrot, last encountered A Very Long Time Ago.




I've started The Secret of Terror Castle. Of the 6 Three Investigators novels I've read, it was always my personal favorite. The one I would reread time and again. The others would be the Mystery of the Silver Spider, The Fiery Eye, the Moaning Cave, the Screaming Clock, and the Talking Skull. I vaguely recall seeing the Stuttering Parrot, but I don't believe I had ever had the chance to check it out.

One thing I've noticed though, publishers were more on the ball over releasing appropriate art for their books. Compare The Fiery Eye's initial release with the the 90's editions. There's no contest. The 60's release cover actually conveyed a sense of mystery and danger to it. The later editions look like they slapped on some generic stock photos, and called it a day.


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## BigMcGuire

I'm reading through --  Paper: Paging Through History by Mark Kurlansky ---- and ---- The Battery: How Portable Power Sparked a Technological Revolution by Henry Schlesinger. Love history books like these.

I just finished Radium Girls by Kate Moore (amazing and heartbreaking).


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## Gutwrench

BigMcGuire said:


> I'm reading through --  Paper: Paging Through History by Mark Kurlansky ---- and ---- The Battery: How Portable Power Sparked a Technological Revolution. Love history books like these.
> 
> I just finished Radium Girls by Kate Moore (amazing and heartbreaking).




Checking out Kurlansky.


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## BigMcGuire

Gutwrench said:


> Checking out Kurlansky.




Heard good things -- I bought his Salt book first but started with the Paper one instead.


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## Scepticalscribe

Renzatic said:


> I've started The Secret of Terror Castle. Of the 6 Three Investigators novels I've read, it was always my personal favorite. The one I would reread time and again. The others would be the Mystery of the Silver Spider, The Fiery Eye, the Moaning Cave, the Screaming Clock, and the Talking Skull. I vaguely recall seeing the Stuttering Parrot, but I don't believe I had ever had the chance to check it out.
> 
> One thing I've noticed though, publishers were more on the ball over releasing appropriate art for their books. Compare The Fiery Eye's initial release with the the 90's editions. There's no contest. The 60's release cover actually conveyed a sense of mystery and danger to it. The later editions look like they slapped on some generic stock photos, and called it a day.
> 
> View attachment 147
> 
> View attachment 148




While Terror Castle set the scene for the series, once the 'reveal' came, I never had any real interest in returning to the book.  I may revisit it, because the side story of the Rolls Royce is very entertaining, and I liked Worthington.

The world depicted is very obviously that of the late 50s/early 60s world of California - pre-hippy world, pre Flower Power, actually, more with a flavour of LA Confidential than Flower Power. 

The kids come from decent (middle class) backgrounds, but they work (in the scrap yard, or cleaning their parents cars, and, in Bob's case, in a library) to earn extra money, and they know the value of a dollar.  They are not spoilt.  Likewise - the bizarre exception of the Rolls Royce apart - they cycle everywhere. They pay for their own telephone. Very different from the world of today.

However, in the Stuttering Parrot, the actual crafting of the mystery, the sequence of the discovery - and working out of - clues, and dawning comprehension, are all very well done; it is *clever* - and intellectually satisfying, in a way that some of the more mundane mysteries are not.


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## Scepticalscribe

BigMcGuire said:


> I'm reading through --  Paper: Paging Through History by Mark Kurlansky ---- and ---- The Battery: How Portable Power Sparked a Technological Revolution by Henry Schlesinger. Love history books like these.
> 
> I just finished Radium Girls by Kate Moore (amazing and heartbreaking).




I read the Kuransky book (Paper) - have it here on my sofa. It is very good - well researched and thought-provoking - until the last chapter which is, as is the case with many similar books, by far the weakest in the entire book.

His earlier book "Cod" was excellent - strongly recommended.


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## Scepticalscribe

BigMcGuire said:


> Heard good things -- I bought his Salt book first but started with the Paper one instead.



 Salt is more of a struggle; Cod is excellent.


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## Renzatic

Scepticalscribe said:


> While Terror Castle set the scene for the series, once the 'reveal' came, I never had any real interest in returning to the book.  I may revisit it, because the side story of the Rolls Royce is very entertaining, and I liked Worthington.




I remember how it ends, and yeah, it is a little disappointingly mundane. Though I have the lens of nostalgia working in my favor here. I was maybe 9 or 10 when I first read it, maybe the first mystery book I had actually read up to that point, and it left me with a lasting impression. It was so eerie. So spooky. I didn't know what would happen next, and I loved it. Even with full knowledge of the rather flat ending waiting for me, it's fun reading through it again just for the memories.



> However, in the Stuttering Parrot, the actual crafting of the mystery, the sequence of the discovery - and working out of - clues, and dawning comprehension, are all very well done; it is *clever* - and intellectually satisfying, in a way that some of the more mundane mysteries are not.




It's now queued up next on my list.


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## Scepticalscribe

Renzatic said:


> I remember how it ends, and yeah, it is a little disappointingly mundane. Though I have the lens of nostalgia working in my favor here. I was maybe 9 or 10 when I first read it, maybe the first mystery book I had actually read up to that point, and it left me with a lasting impression. It was so eerie. So spooky. I didn't know what would happen next, and I loved it. Even with full knowledge of the rather flat ending waiting for me, it's fun reading through it again just for the memories.
> 
> 
> 
> It's now queued up next on my list.




Even at ten-eleven, which is when I came across those books, I loved the Stuttering Parrot; it was *satisfying*. 

As mentioned earlier, my other favourites at the time were The Fiery Eye, and - the final book written by the original author, which was also a clever, well crafted, mystery detective story - The Talking Skull.

For a modern YA world, which is also eerie, well crafted, very good character development, wonderful world building, great storytelling, and spooky atmospherics, (and a terrific - strong and cranky - female character as one of the three original protagonists), I recommend that you take a look at Jonathan Stroud's Lockwood series.  They are excellent.


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## lizkat

BigMcGuire said:


> Heard good things -- I bought his Salt book first but started with the Paper one instead.




Loved that book (Paper).  It's the only one of Kurlansky's that I've read.  I think I have Salt somewhere...


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## Scepticalscribe

At the risk of repeating myself, Cod (by Kuransky) was exceedingly good, excellent, in fact.  Strongly recommended.

Loved Paper - which was excellent (lots of fascinating stuff in the earlier chapters, and synthesising of stuff, sources ideas and information - a terrific read).

His book on the history of the Basques was also excellent.


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## lizkat

Scepticalscribe said:


> His book on the history of the Basques was also excellent.




I'll have to check that one out.   It's from Kurlansky's wayback far enough (1999 or so) that there seems not to be an ebook version, but it also appears to have recipes in it, so...   I'll be prowling for a used one in good shape, probably!


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## yaxomoxay

Currently (and slowly) re-reading Destined for War by Graham Allison, a most excellent work on US-China relations and what probably lies ahead. @Scepticalscribe you will find this one an exceptional work. I read it before Covid and the world's meltdown; current events just make it an even more necessary read.

Since you're all lefties here, here's the cover with Biden's endorsement of the book (honestly, it's far from being a partisan book)






heck, let's add the cover with Kissinger's endorsement:

*






An interesting conversation on the book, at Harvard, between Kissinger and Allison:*


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## lizkat

yaxomoxay said:


> Currently (and slowly) re-reading Destined for War by Graham Allison, a most excellent work on US-China relations and what probably lies ahead. @Scepticalscribe you will find this one an exceptional work. I read it before Covid and the world's meltdown; current events just make it an even more necessary read.
> 
> Since you're all lefties here, here's the cover with Biden's endorsement of the book (honestly, it's far from being a partisan book)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> heck, let's add the cover with Kissinger's endorsement:
> 
> *
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> An interesting conversation on the book, at Harvard, between Kissinger and Allison:*




As a complement to Allison's book, I'd suggest Michael J. Green's book _*By More Than Providence:  Grand Strategy and American Power in the Asia Pacific since 1783.  *_Published early in 2017, it focuses on the development and history of US strategy in East Asia from the times of Jefferson through those of Kissinger.




Green's own expertise had long been centered on Japan, but his desire to research and write this 700-page tome with a larger view of East Asia (about 160 pages are notes, an index and photos / illustrations) sprang from his government service.  He spent six years serving at NSC under the G.W. Bush administration,  and advising Bush 43 on East Asian affairs, with the realization that while much material about the USA's relationships with China since Nixon (thus, Kissinger's approaches) had already been presented by historians, short shrift had been given --since a book written back in 1922!--  to how crucial American leadership had always deemed relationships in the Far East to American economic interests and its national security.    The book is divided into sections on the historical rise of US, Japan, USSR and China in the region, with a lengthy conclusion in which Green looks at the inherent difficulties that a democracy has in trying to establish and maintain long term strategic policies in conduct of its foreign affairs.


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## Gutwrench

_Dear Me_, by Peter Ustinov. I recently stumbled on it and it’s perhaps the most enjoyable books I’ve read in years. I remember him as a superb actor/director. 

Here’s how I found the book. If you like dry witty sarcastic humor  Peter is the man!

@Scepticalscribe & @lizkat - if you've not read or heard him reading his _autobiography_ I hope you’ll listen to the youtube link below. It’s masterful!


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## Scepticalscribe

Gutwrench said:


> _Dear Me_, by Peter Ustinov. I recently stumbled on it and it’s perhaps the most enjoyable books I’ve read in years. I remember him as a superb actor/director.
> 
> Here’s how I found the book. If you like dry witty sarcastic humor  Peter is the man!
> 
> @Scepticalscribe & @lizkat - if you've not read or heard him reading his _autobiography_ I hope you’ll listen to the youtube link below. It’s masterful!




I read that book years ago; my godmother gave it as a gift to my mother (they had been best friends at boarding school - "a high class boarding academy for young ladies", a quote from its brochure - during the latter years of the second world war, and for a few years immediately subsequent to that), and my mother, who thought it hilarious, gave it to me to read.

Agreed, he writes beautifully, with a biting, dry, wit.


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## lizkat

Reading _*From Harvey River*_, a memoir and four-generation look-back by the noted Jamaican poet and painter Lorna Goodison.  It's prose but the poetry shines through it and illuminates both great care for history and love of family.  This is one of the books that I wanted to get to more than a few years ago when my summer's deep dive was into works of writers from the Caribbean.  Slowly catching up with books that ended up set aside in summer projects derailed by the too-fast approach of autumn.  



​


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## Scepticalscribe

Re-visiting a book I loved when I first read it a decade ago: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson.


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## lizkat

Scepticalscribe said:


> Re-visiting a book I loved when I first read it a decade ago: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson.




Time really does fly...  still haven't read that book and still keep thinking I will get around to it (but should probably admit it won't happen).  I know, I know, it would be worth the read.    That's the trouble with so many books!


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## Scepticalscribe

lizkat said:


> Time really does fly...  still haven't read that book and still keep thinking I will get around to it (but should probably admit it won't happen).  I know, I know, it would be worth the read.    That's the trouble with so many books!




It is a stay-up-reading, or read-in-bed and say to yourself, okay, okay, only one more chapter before lights out, and suddenly you realise that another hour has passed.  

Seriously, once started, or, rather, (as it is slow until the appearance of Lisbet Salander), once she is introduced on the page, it is a book that is almost impossible to put down.


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## Scepticalscribe

@Renzatic: I have re-read a number of the Three Investigators books.

My initial observations stand - re the almost complete absence of women (who, when they do appear, are mothers/aunts with domestic lives who are given predictable lines "dinner is ready; wash your hands" (however, somewhat paradoxically, given current circumstances, and conditions, with Covid, that particular instruction is still more than relevant, all these decades later) - but, are otherwise entirely irrelevant to plot, character, narrative, challenge etc.  They are just there as stable background decoration.

Unlike the male characters with jobs (professions), while some of these women do have jobs, do work, do have professions, the (gendered assumptions of the) narrative mean - or means - that their jobs never seem to allow them to offer an observation, insight, perspective or thought on anything to do with the resolution of any clue in any plot ("did you know that burials in LA in the 1880s...") - they are not depicted as having any intellectual interests or mental life - but are confined to "don't be late; dinner is ready; clean your room, wash your hands.."

Likewise, this is a middle class world (okay, the boys do work, cleaning their rooms, working in gardens, Jupiter's aunt & uncle's junkyard, Bob's library job), and - something I did not pick up on, as a child, reading the books initially - not only is it entirely male, which I had noticed, with annoyance, but, equally telling, it is also entirely white.

I don't think that any of the books have a black character (one or two impoverished Mexicans do put in an appearance), and this was something that did not strike me (unlike the absence of girls, or women) when I first these books, as a child.

A world that is white, male and mostly middle class.

So, an interesting stroll down memory lane.

As a child, in the series, I preferred the mysteries, to the adventures.   And still do; they tended to be more intellectually interesting.

Has anyone read Jean M Auel's Clan of the Cave Bear series?


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## Scepticalscribe

Of The Earth's Children series by Jean M Auel - The Clan of the Cave Bear was the first book - nothing, but nothing, approached the brilliance, creativity, compelling narrative power and verve and dash and chutzpah and intelligence and sheer originality of the superb first book in the series.


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## lizkat

Here's a book I want to read, and I will want to read it whether it's more relevant in just four months or only after a max of four more years and four months...  _*After Trump: Reconstructing the Presidency.*_

The book deals with not only ways to regain respect for norms and traditions in the executive branch that were stomped on during the Trump administration, but suggests improvements to help put up better guardrails against rogue exploitation of Constitutional flexibility offered our Presidents.




How I became interested:  I was intrigued by some remarks from the authors. One headed up the White House Counsel's Office under Obama,  and the other served in Bush 43's Office of Legal Counsel









						Why We Wrote ‘After Trump’
					

Donald Trump operated the presidency in ways that reveal its vulnerability to dangerous excesses of authority and dangerous weaknesses in accountability. “After Trump” explains what should be done to mend the presidency after Trump leaves the scene.




					www.lawfareblog.com
				


​So this offering doesn't seem to be one of those (belatedly handwringing) authors' takes on time spent actually working under Trump while wondering whether to blow the whistle or just take notes and prepare to cash in later.   No.  These guys worked in earlier admins that had some fundamental adherence to norms and traditions, but they did observe flaws and loopholes that could be addressed and still leave a president room to govern effectively. And one needn't have worked for Trump to realize that this particular presidency ran amok even before Day One.  The book steps through foreign state influences, war power concerns, financial conflicts of interest, bureaucratic dealings,  investigations of prior administrations, White House counsel issues, pardon powers, reforms related to handling vacancies and more.   

And of course I hope Biden-Harris, the117th Congress and justices of the high court read this thing.


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## Arkitect

Finally our local libraries are coming to life and my book reservations are arriving.

Currently: *Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph* — Jan Swafford… 





Weirdly, considering Beethoven is God to me, I have never read a biography of him.
Only a few chapters in, he's barely 12 but already on the way… and surprisingly, his father wasn't the monster I had always been led to believe. No bashing little Ludwig around the ears for a start.


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## Mark

yaxomoxay said:


> Currently (and slowly) re-reading Destined for War by Graham Allison, a most excellent work on US-China relations and what probably lies ahead. @Scepticalscribe you will find this one an exceptional work. I read it before Covid and the world's meltdown; current events just make it an even more necessary read.
> 
> Since you're all lefties here, here's the cover with Biden's endorsement of the book (honestly, it's far from being a partisan book)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> heck, let's add the cover with Kissinger's endorsement:
> 
> *
> 
> 
> 
> *



every year i look forward to what books to give to people i give christmas presents.
i bought two books this past year to give out.
Destined for War
and
To Kill A Mockingbird
i gave To Kill A Mockingbird to all my younger American friends knowing they have never read it.
i gave Destined for War to all my Japanese and SE Asian friends because i wanted them to understand what lies ahead.
when i told people in these two groups which book i selected for each group of friends, several people in each group joked that they would have had the _other_ book. but they weren't joking.
americans wanted to find out about what china is up to - not be reminded about what america is.
japanese wanted to find out what america is all about - not wanting to face the problem they will need to face sooner or later.


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## Scepticalscribe

Visited the library today to collect a few books that I had been notified were waiting for me.

First up, Juliet Naked by Nick Hornby.


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## lizkat

Lining this one up for after my leaf raking project outside ever wraps up.

_*Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present, and Future of American Labor*_, by Steven Greenhouse. 

Ran into a review of it in the LA Times while looking for something else.  Gotta love the net for happenstance connections even if not via hyperlink.









						Review: Unions keep watch on corporations — Steven Greenhouse digs into labor's battle
					

Steven Greenhouse's"Beaten Down, Worked Up" tells the story of ongoing labor battles in America.




					www.latimes.com


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## Gutwrench

_The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,_ Rebecca Skloot


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## Scepticalscribe

Capital and Ideology - Thomas Piketty.


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## Scepticalscribe

Reading reviews of books - one of the interesting draws of the week-end editions of good broadsheets.

This, in turn, often serves to help steer my potential book purchases, or prompts as to what books I should place a "hold" or "order" on, at my library.


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## Huntn

I remember when I first sat down to watch this movie, I was thinking it would be another *The Americans*-like story, but this was better, much better. Just finished *Red Sparrow*. This book pulled me in, I was vested in the story although I saw the movie first, thumbs up. One significant plot change where I actually prefer the movie, if I’m remembering correctly.







Spoiler



In the movie, though misdirection, Marble not only lives but maintains his position as the head mole, yes?


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## iMi

Reading a book about Freddie Mercury. It’s called “Somebody to Love.” It’s very well written and the account of how HIV migrated to humans is fascinating. One hunter. One sick Chimp. One bite. Sexual transition Would not have been enough to spread it. The perfect storm of events involving unsafe blood transfusions and ironically inoculation projects in Africa allowed this virus to take hold. There is this convergence of this new virus, which back then was a death sentence, emerging on global scene, and this young man who became arguably one of the most prolific and talented entertainers of all time. Both rose up and both changed along the way. It’s a great read.


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## Clix Pix

Well, for the past several nights my bedtime reading has been the User Guide for my new car, but I have a nice little stack of fairly current mysteries and such on the table waiting for me to delve into them.  Not long ago I read a review about a non-mystery, a novel called "Actress," and that is on the bedside table for me to begin reading tonight.....

"Somebody to Love" sounds really intriguing, too, as I do admire the brilliance and creativity of Freddie Mercury;  he was taken from us way, way too soon.....  Off to put a hold on that book at the library!

ETA:  library doesn't have that title but they do have another biography of him, so I have put that one on hold....


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## Huntn

After seeing the movie (2018) and then reading *Red Sparrow* (2013), and being hooked, a story primarily about US-Russian espionage with other players, I am now about a third of the way through *Palace of Treason* (2016) the sequel. Red Sparrow must be read first.

This book is tense and exciting so far. Nate Nash a CIA officer and Dominica Erogova a Russian KVR agent (successor to KGB), have a relationship, a steaming hot relationship. There are a couple of human monsters in this series and this book prominently features Vladimir Putin as one of the characters, and it sounds right on tone as to what I think I know about him. Of interest, as I read this book I picture Natasha Romanov (Scarlett Johansson) as Dominka. Too much Avengers pollution. 

​


----------



## Scepticalscribe

I blush to confess that I sought refuge - unashamedly - in some fantasy this week (courtesy of Robiin Hobb).

Great idea for a thread, by the way, @Huntn, and thanks for starting it.


----------



## lizkat

Scepticalscribe said:


> I blush to confess that I sought refuge - unashamedly - in some fantasy this week (courtesy of Robiin Hobb).
> 
> Great idea for a thread, by the way, @Huntn, and thanks for starting it.



I think there is already a books thread?


----------



## Scepticalscribe

lizkat said:


> I think there is already a books thread?




Not here, (yes, in The Other Country), unless you mean the general "culture" thread, which was started when this forum had a membership of single figures.

I think that an individual books thread is a good idea, although people can still reference books in the culture thread, or in any other thread where someone thinks that this is a good idea.


----------



## lizkat

Scepticalscribe said:


> Not here, (yes, in The Other Country), unless you mean the general "culture" thread, which was started when this forum had a membership of single figures.
> 
> I think that an individual books thread is a good idea, although people can still reference books in the culture thread, or in any other thread where someone thinks that this is a good idea.




Well, wait... this new thread we're in right now is within the Lifestyle and Culture subforum,  but so is the books thread you had started earlier.  So we really do have two books threads going in here now.









						Books: And What Are You Reading?
					

It is high time to start a nice, welcoming, book thread.  This week, (in addition to studying French - two nights a week, online) I read, well re-read, slowly, by my standards, (thus, the book took several nights of reading), The Far Pavilions - which is undoubtedly her masterpiece, nothing else...




					talkedabout.com


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Many thanks @lizkat; Found it. My bad; I had thought that we had a books section but - eyesight or something - couldn't find it earlier tonight (even though I had started it myself) when I went searching for it - and that was before I had even opened a beer.

Oooops.  Mea culpa, but - feeble defence but true for all of that - every year in November, the appalling quality of light makes me wish that I had a human equivalent of a sort of f-stop setting in the side of my head that I could adjust to admit more light during the winter months.

@ericgtr12: Could you please merge this thread with my earlier one on books so that we are not duplicating threads unnecessarily?


----------



## Scepticalscribe

@ericgtr12: Could you please merge @Huntn's book thread with this one, so that threads are not unnecessarily duplicated in the forum?


----------



## Huntn

Merge them. I looked, but did not see the other one.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

A book with the title The Left-Handed Book Sellers of London by Garth Nix (one of my favourite fantasy writers, he wrote the brilliant Abhorsen trilogy, and he writes superb and strong, yet still sometimes conflicted female characters) arrived two days ago, by post, from a local bookstore, rather than from the dreaded behemoth.


----------



## lizkat

Scepticalscribe said:


> A book with the title The Left-Handed Book Sellers of London by Garth Nix (one of my favourite fantasy writers, he wrote the brilliant Abhorsen trilogy, and who writes superb and strong, yet still sometimes conflicted female characters) arrived ( by post) two days ago, by post, from a local bookstore, rather than from the dreaded behemoth.





That sounds interesting....

Speaking of behemoths,  and not for you probably, @Scepticalscribe  -- since I'm sure you've read these--  I noticed the other day that the first two of the Hilary Mantel books on Cromwell: *Wolf Hall*,  and _*Bring up the Bodies*_,  have been tagged as Kindle Unlimited books on Amazon at least in the USA.  So then if one is a subscriber to that plan, can read them for free.  

Sensibly enough,  _*Mirror and the Light*_, the last in the trilogy,  one still would have to shell out for or else likely end up on a waiting list for ebooks at the public library...  but if anyone hasn't read the earlier ones and subscribes to Kindle Unlimited, the first two are available to borrow into one's Kindle library.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

lizkat said:


> That sounds interesting....
> 
> Speaking of behemoths,  and not for you probably, @Scepticalscribe  -- since I'm sure you've read these--  I noticed the other day that the first two of the Hilary Mantel books on Cromwell: *Wolf Hall*,  and _*Bring up the Bodies*_,  have been tagged as Kindle Unlimited books on Amazon at least in the USA.  So then if one is a subscriber to that plan, can read them for free.
> 
> Sensibly enough,  _*Mirror and the Light*_, the last in the trilogy,  one still would have to shell out for or else likely end up on a waiting list for ebooks at the public library...  but if anyone hasn't read the earlier ones and subscribes to Kindle Unlimited, the first two are available to borrow into one's Kindle library.




I have them all, fine, fat (and fat, in a book I like, is a term of endearment, a compliment) books.  

Wolf Hall is excellent but it does take some time to get into; on a first read, the first fifty pages can be a bit of a struggle, and then, somehow and quite suddenly, abruptly and unexpectedly, it just clicks into place and races along, dragging you with it as you realise that you have become immersed in 16th century England.

Bring Up The Bodies is superb, terse, tight and impeccably written; however, to appreciate it, I really think that you need to have read Wolf Hall first. 

And, as for the Mirror and the Light: Again, you appreciate it more if you have read the two earlier books, but, by this work, it is clear that Hilary Mantel is so comfortable with her world, her work, her characters, that some passages are actually laugh out loud funny (well, to me they were).  

And, what mastery of her material: By the end of the third book, The Mirror and the Light, firstly, you know the end - it is a matter of recorded historical fact, not a spoiler, and secondly, we know that much of what Thomas Cromwell did - as Henry's enforcer - was pretty unsavoury, and yet, as the tale approaches its inevitable and known conclusion, despite knowing who he was and what he did, (and the story does not seek to deny or to diminish this, but does allow for a fuller and more nuanced understanding of Cromwell himself and his world), we find ourselves rooting for him, and - actually genuinely upset at his inevitable end when the king whose bacon he had saved, coffers he had filled, and whose wives he had disposed of, finally turned on him, discarding him, dispensing with him, and dealing a characteristically unjust death to him.


----------



## Clix Pix

For some reason I had a difficult time wading through "_The Actress_," and frankly was relieved to finally finish the darned book so I could move to something else.  The reviews were excellent, but unfortunately this particular book just did not work well for me.  I kept getting bogged down.    Now I'm about a third of the way through a book of a rather different sort which is actually keeping my interest..... _Uncanny Valley_.   Sorry, I'm in the other room and too lazy to get up and stroll into the bedroom to take a look at the book to get the author's name.......  She's a terrific writer, though!    The "uncanny valley" of the title is actually Silicon Valley, i.e., San Francisco and its immediate environs.....


----------



## lizkat

Clix Pix said:


> For some reason I had a difficult time wading through "_The Actress_," and frankly was relieved to finally finish the darned book so I could move to something else.  The reviews were excellent, but unfortunately this particular book just did not work well for me.  I kept getting bogged down.    Now I'm about a third of the way through a book of a rather different sort which is actually keeping my interest..... _Uncanny Valley_.   Sorry, I'm in the other room and too lazy to get up and stroll into the bedroom to take a look at the book to get the author's name.......  She's a terrific writer, though!    The "uncanny valley" of the title is actually Silicon Valley, i.e., San Francisco and its immediate environs.....




I had read some entirely enticing reviews of _*Actress*_, including one in the Washington Post that sticks in my mind, but they hinted --to me at least-- that I'd need to be in a very different frame of mind than I've been lately to appreciate its complexities and craftsmanship.    Somehow your comments reinforce that in me, even though I'm keeping the book on my "sometime, maybe" list. 

*Uncanny Valley* I can see reading a lot sooner.  Not sure what that says about it, or me, or _*Actress *_either. But thanks for mentioning Valley bc going to download a sample into one of my e-libraries as a reminder to check it out.


----------



## lizkat

Not a book but a quarterly magazine for me today... I love *The Paris Review* just for its continued existence but for continuing also to justify my admiration.   

This quote is is from "U Break It We Fix It," the latest in Sabrina Orah Mark's regular column, craftily enough titled _Happiness_.  She has such an ear for the pitch of where we are these days.



> We are knee-deep in broken things. I wade through the kitchen, and the news, and our yard. The dryer is making a sound. The country is divided. Tree limbs are everywhere. “How did the switch break off the lamp?” I ask Eli, my seven-year-old. He shrugs. “It’s like a miracle,” he says.


----------



## Clix Pix

lizkat said:


> I had read some entirely enticing reviews of _*Actress*_, including one in the Washington Post that sticks in my mind, but they hinted --to me at least-- that I'd need to be in a very different frame of mind than I've been lately to appreciate its complexities and craftsmanship.    Somehow your comments reinforce that in me, even though I'm keeping the book on my "sometime, maybe" list.
> 
> *Uncanny Valley* I can see reading a lot sooner.  Not sure what that says about it, or me, or _*Actress *_either. But thanks for mentioning Valley bc going to download a sample into one of my e-libraries as a reminder to check it out.



Yeah, it was the review of _Actress_ in the _Post_ that caught my attention and so when I saw the book on the New Books shelf at the library, I grabbed it.  Definitely the book is well-crafted and a bit complex, and probably one to read during the daytime when one is wide awake and such, rather than in bed at the end of a long day when one is a bit tired and drowsy, as some of the subtleties can elude the reader......   I am definitely enjoying _Uncanny Valley_, though, even when drowsy!


----------



## lizkat

OK I got pulled into this one by more than a couple of good reviews:  Jess Walter's *The Cold Millions* --and I can't put the book down now so it's working out fine.  Historical novel about the free speech riots in Spokane, Washington during 1908-1910...  rights of workers to organize, right of nonviolent direct civil protest...  the book weaves fictional characters' lives into recounting of historical events and characters like the fiery Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, a feminist, labor rights activist, communist and a founding member of the ACLU.


----------



## Arkitect

Turned the final page on this last night, _Richard Bosworth_, *Mussolini's Italy : life under the dictatorship, 1915-1945*.

Next up, my favourite Historian, _Margaret Macmillan_'s *The war that ended peace : How Europe abandoned peace for the First World War*.

Concurrently also _Betjeman's_ collection of architectural essays, *First and Last Loves*.

And lurking in the background, _E.L. Doctorow_, *The March*


----------



## Clix Pix

Next up for me:  _*Mercury: an Intimate Biography of Freddie Mercury.* _I finished  *Uncanny Valley* last night.   Then there are a few mysteries/regular fiction awaiting me as well....


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Arkitect said:


> Turned the final page on this last night, _Richard Bosworth_, *Mussolini's Italy : life under the dictatorship, 1915-1945*.
> 
> Next up, my favourite Historian, _Margaret Macmillan_'s *The war that ended peace : How Europe abandoned peace for the First World War*.
> 
> Concurrently also _Betjeman's_ collection of architectural essays, *First and Last Loves*.
> 
> And lurking in the background, _E.L. Doctorow_, *The March*
> 
> View attachment 1385




Another fan of Margaret McMillan?  Excellent.

Spent most of yesterday reading The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix.


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## Clix Pix

Ooh, now, SS!!!!  You KNOW that's going to catch my attention -- both the title and the author!!!   Must make a quick detour to Amazon to check things out, then see if the book is available at my local library!!!

ETA:   BOOM!  I have now placed a hold on the book, which the library system does have.  Yay!!!


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Clix Pix said:


> Ooh, now, SS!!!!  You KNOW that's going to catch my attention -- both the title and the author!!!   Must make a quick detour to Amazon to check things out, then see if the book is available at my local library!!!
> 
> ETA:   BOOM!  I have now placed a hold on the book, which the library system does have.  Yay!!!




Books, book-sellers, strong female characters........I think you'll enjoy it; I certainly did.  Shall happily re-read and re-visit.

And - aside from a rollicking pace, nice nods to folk tales, and old myths, there are some lovely asides re references to books sprinkled throughout the story.  And some very good jokes.


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## Clix Pix

Having already enjoyed several of his other books, many thanks to you, I can pretty well anticipate that I will enjoy this one as well!  Already looking forward to it!  If the library had not already had it, I would've gone ahead  and bought it.   I may still do just that, if it turns out after I've read it that I just love it and want a copy of my own.....


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## Clix Pix

Instead of getting into Freddie Mercury, as I had intended, I'm reading *One By One*, by the fantastic suspense writer Ruth Ware.  It was waiting for me on the holds shelf yesterday when I stopped at the library.  She is a terrific writer and her books are always page-turners.  I had to argue with myself in the wee hours of the morn to STOP reading the book, put it down, and turn out the light.  I'll probably finish the book tonight, though!


----------



## lizkat

Surely I'm not the first person to notice that there's just a simple transposition of two letters between being "unclear" and arriving at "nuclear"?

Anyway it feels ironic to have been arrested momentarily by that discovery while reading a blurb about the Jonathan Lethem's novel "The Arrest".



> But then Todbaum shows up in an extraordinary vehicle: a retrofitted tunnel-digger powered by a nuclear reactor. Todbaum has spent The Arrest smashing his way across a fragmented and phantasmagorical United States, trailing enmities all the way. Plopping back into the siblings' life with his usual odious panache, his motives are entirely unclear. Can it be that Todbaum wants to produce one more extravaganza? Whatever he's up to, it may fall to Journeyman to stop him.
> 
> Written with unrepentant joy and shot through with just the right amount of contemporary dread, The Arrest is speculative fiction at its absolute finest.




So the question becomes would I rather look up more reviews of this email-touted book (in a genre I have not spent much time with) or shall I get on with the prep of some pasta sauce for tonight's supper.

Life in this ongoing and apparently just barely pre-apocalypse era is occasionally pretty mundane... and I'm starting to think i like it that way..  Still, I've decided to read "Yes, Chef" next and leave "The Arrest" in limbo for now.    I have it on good authority that having any job in a commercially successful kitchen is never mundane,  but not much room for speculation either:  a precise if dramatic ballet, else one is fired.  This version of that life is by Marcus Samuelsson, born in Ethiopia and orphaned there,  raised in Sweden, educated in culinary arts in his new hometown of Goteborg, then also in Switzerland and France, finally to New York and eventually to establishment of the Red Rooster in Harlem.


----------



## Clix Pix

As I had predicted, I finished off _*One By One*_ last night/wee hours of the morn....   Next up is *A Burning*, by Megha Majumdar.    It's a debut novel set in India and the reviews intrigued me.  I'll be starting it this evening....


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Just Like You - Nick Hornby.

Loved it, - it is funny, sharp, yet sympathetic - and warmly recommend it.


----------



## Clix Pix

I'm enjoying _*A Burning*_ -- it is rather different than my usual sort of book. The author has a distinctive style and an interesting theme.   In the meantime got notification that a couple more books are waiting for me at the library, including Garth Nix's* Left-handed Booksellers of London *so probably will go over to the library either today or tomorrow.


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## Scepticalscribe

Clix Pix said:


> I'm enjoying _*A Burning*_ -- it is rather different than my usual sort of book. The author has a distinctive style and an interesting theme.   In the meantime got notification that a couple more books are waiting for me at the library, including Garth Nix's* Left-handed Booksellers of London *so probably will go over to the library either today or tomorrow.




I expect that you will enjoy Garth Nix's most recent book; I certainly did.


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## Scepticalscribe

Read a very interesting piece - a sort of "long article" - entitled "The Regular Army Before The Civil War 1845-1860" by Clayton R Newell.


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## Scepticalscribe

The Evening and the Morning - Ken Follett.


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## Huntn

I’ve started the third Jason Mathews spy thriller *The Kremlin’s Candidate*, I’m still at the beginning so I don’t know if this is a trilogy with an end, or if more is on the way. The same primary characters Dominika  Egorova, Nate Nash, and others. If you like spy novels give this series a chance starting with *Red Sparrow*. It may remind you a little of *The  Americans* TV show. Imbedded illegals, the term for imbedded agents posing as Americans are mentioned, but so far not featured, but seeking out moles on both sides, operating on both sides, is a primary feature of the activity.

​


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Scepticalscribe said:


> The Evening and the Morning - Ken Follett.




Actually, I find that I prefer Ken Follett when he confines himself to the region of south west England where The Pillars of the Earth is set, as this novel does.

Somehow, when writing about other countries - and, more importantly, other cultures - to my mind, his writing, scene-setting, story-telling, doesn't really work as well as it does when he confines himself to a culture he understands profoundly (that of south west England).

All that is by way of remarking that I recommend The Evening and the Morning, which serves as a sort of prequel to The Pillars of the Earth.


----------



## Clix Pix

Scepticalscribe said:


> I expect that you will enjoy Garth Nix's most recent book; I certainly did.




Forgot to come back and say that yes, I did enjoy *The Left-Handed Booksellers of London* -- however, it seemed to take me a while to really get into it, to become truly interested in the characters and their well-being......it took well into the last third of the book before I was really involved.  That is different than what happened with the other books of his that I've read.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Clix Pix said:


> Forgot to come back and say that yes, I did enjoy *The Left-Handed Booksellers of London* -- however, it seemed to take me a while to really get into it, to become truly interested in the characters and their well-being......it took well into the last third of the book before I was really involved.  That is different than what happened with the other books of his that I've read.




Agreed.

To my mind, nothing he has written comes close to the Abhorsen trilogy, but I do like his scene-setting and world-building, and I love - nay, absolutely adore - his ability to write credible, and strong female characters.  

A recent book of his that I did enjoy - some of it was laugh aloud funny - was Frogkisser.


----------



## Clix Pix

I do have _*Frogkisser*_ -- bought it in paperback a while ago, and I quite agree:  laugh-out-loud funny!  

Yes, the Abhorsen Trilogy really is outstanding, and I am so glad you had suggested that I delve into it -- I really did enjoy that series and found it quite absorbing.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Clix Pix said:


> I do have _*Frogkisser*_ -- bought it in paperback a while ago, and I quite agree:  laugh-out-loud funny!
> 
> Yes, the Abhorsen Trilogy really is outstanding, and I am so glad you had suggested that I delve into it -- I really did enjoy that series and found it quite absorbing.




Frogkisser was rollicking, very funny at times, and came with some splendid female characters.

But, nothing approaches the Abhorsen trilogy, which reason, to my mind, the best thing that Garth Nix has written.

It is not just that I love strong female characters - and Lirael is a wonderful female protagonist, intelligent,hard-working, courageous, and decent, it is that in the Abhorsen trilogy, Garth Nix allowed his characters (especially Lirael and Sameth) a lot of time to develop - and gave us, the readers, a lot of time to get to know them well, - before their adventures started in earnest, so that you knew them and felt for them by the time they embarked on their respective dates wth destiny.

That, plus the two animal characters, The Disreputable Dog, and Mogget, meant that you had a terrific and balanced and most interesting quartet of characters to drive the story.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Several books by (the historian) Margaret MacMillan have been requested (by me) in the library; I received notification that one (History's People) is already waiting for me, while another (The War That Ended Peace) is currently "in transit".  

As a second book - a recent publication on Pakistan - is also "in transit", I shall wait until they both arrive, which is when I shall pay the library a visit, and shall also take the opportunity to return two books by Nick Hornby (Juliet Naked, and Just Like You) that I have read and enjoyed.


----------



## Clix Pix

About to begin reading *Anxious People*, which I spotted on the shelf at the library the other day.....   It will be followed by _*Architects of Memory*_ and then Robin Cook's *Genesis.*


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Can anyone recommend a good book on Alexander Hamilton?


----------



## Clix Pix

*Anxious People* is a truly intriguing book, not at all what I'd expected, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Very different in a lot of ways.....   Finished it last night, just couldn't stop reading.   Next up:  *Architects of Memory.  *This will be another departure from my usual reading fare.  

SS, to answer your question, nope, can't recommend any good books about Alexander Hamilton, although I know there have been several (and you've probably already read them anyway).


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Here's the thing; Re Hamilton, I haven't actually read a biography, good, bad or indifferent, and would welcome recommendations from anyone who might care to suggest one.


----------



## lizkat

Scepticalscribe said:


> Here's the thing; Re Hamilton, I haven't actually read a biography, good, bad or indifferent, and would welcome recommendations from anyone who might care to suggest one.




Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton was certainly well reviewed including by other historians.





It's quite a tome, over 800 pages long so I'm glad of having it in e-book format.  It's fascinating and occasionally a slog --but then skimming is an option when one is not looking for more than a certain level of detail about this or that.   I confess I am still making my way through it although I've had it for awhile...  but then I often do that with books in the history and biography genres,  so it's not for lack of interest but time,  and wanting some diversity in my reading.   

Anyway can't go wrong with it and the reviews are definitely not hype.

Chernow has written other well received biographies including two about US Presidents, George Washington and more recently Ulysses Grant. His book on Washington won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for biography.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Thanks to @yaxomoxay - late of this parish, but still active elsewhere, such as in the books thread in The Other Place - a biography of Alexander Hamilton, written by Ron Chernow, has been recommended.  

This is the book considered the "ultimate" bio, according to @yaxomoxay, and thankfully, my local library seems to be able to obtain it for me; in common with @Clix Pix, I am a devotee of libraries (and books), and thus, I have placed a hold on this book and look forward to receiving it, and being able to read it.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Currently reading (or rather. re-reading) War - by Gwynn Dyer.

I have noticed that General (or, later, President) Grant seems to be enjoying a sort of rehabilitation, - challenging the "great general, but lousy president" narrative in that a number of good biographies have been published over the past few years.   

Must take a look out for a good biography.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

lizkat said:


> Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton was certainly well reviewed including by other historians.
> 
> View attachment 1763​
> It's quite a tome, over 800 pages long so I'm glad of having it in e-book format.  It's fascinating and occasionally a slog --but then skimming is an option when one is not looking for more than a certain level of detail about this or that.   I confess I am still making my way through it although I've had it for awhile...  but then I often do that with books in the history and biography genres,  so it's not for lack of interest but time,  and wanting some diversity in my reading.
> 
> Anyway can't go wrong with it and the reviews are definitely not hype.
> 
> Chernow has written other well received biographies including two about US Presidents, George Washington and more recently Ulysses Grant. His book on Washington won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for biography.




My local library informs me that this book (I ordered it having read your post) is now "in transit" (as is his - that is, Chernow's - biography of General - or, President - Grant).


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Just received a notification from the library that Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton has arrived, and is awaiting me.


----------



## Gutwrench

No one is reading _The Beautiful Poetry of Donald Trump_, Rob Sears?


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Gutwrench said:


> No one is reading _The Beautiful Poetry of Donald Trump_, Rob Sears?




Ah, no.

Do you recommend it?


----------



## Gutwrench

Scepticalscribe said:


> Ah, no.
> 
> Do you recommend it?




lol! No. I think it’s in the same vein as a Pet Rock. One might buy it merely for the cover art. Otherwise it’s a gimmicky collection of tweets.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Gutwrench said:


> lol! No. I think it’s in the same vein as a Pet Rock. One might buy it merely for the cover art. Otherwise it’s a gimmicky collection of tweets.




That makes sense.

However, I think that I will reserve my hard-earned cash for something more worthy.


----------



## Huntn

Gutwrench said:


> No one is reading _The Beautiful Poetry of Donald Trump_, Rob Sears?






Gutwrench said:


> lol! No. I think it’s in the same vein as a Pet Rock. One might buy it merely for the cover art. Otherwise it’s a gimmicky collection of tweets.






Scepticalscribe said:


> That makes sense.
> 
> However, I think that I will reserve my hard-earned cash for something more worthy.




This description at Amazon:
_By simply taking the 45th President of the United States' tweets and transcripts, cutting them up and reordering them, Sears unearthed a trove of beautiful verse that was just waiting to be discovered._

As in what‘s the point?    I’m trying to imagine the target audience for this, could it be his collection of knuckle draggers who get all poetic when they think of Donny having his way with them? ...or  lyrical as he screws the country over?


----------



## Gutwrench

Huntn said:


> As in what‘s the point?    I’m trying to imagine the target audience for this,




Satire


----------



## Scepticalscribe

I paid a visit to the library, where three books awaited me, - among them, Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton, plus two by the excellent historian Margaret MacMillan - and took the opportunity to return two books.


----------



## lizkat

Gutwrench said:


> Satire




Good luck trying to revive that art.  Half the stuff one reads in the Onion or from Borowitz now could be factual for all we know.


----------



## Gutwrench

lizkat said:


>




That’s me in about 1/2 hour from now! ...hic....


----------



## lizkat

Just now I've snagged an ebook from the 4-county library's offerings,  _*The Book Thief*_.. I have wanted to see the movie but I've always wanted to read the book first in this case... and every time I looked before, there was a wait list. So my weekend is off to a good start with that discovery.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

lizkat said:


> Just now I've snagged an ebook from the 4-county library's offerings,  _*The Book Thief*_.. I have wanted to see the movie but I've always wanted to read the book first in this case... and every time I looked before, there was a wait list. So my weekend is off to a good start with that discovery.




I look forward to reading your thoughts and observations when you have read it.


----------



## Clix Pix

I liked that book very much and I suspect you will, too!


----------



## Scepticalscribe

History's People: Personalities And The Past - Margaret MacMillan.


----------



## Gutwrench

_I Marched With Patton_, Frank Sisson (Robert Wise)

Not recommended.


----------



## Huntn

Gutwrench said:


> _I Marched With Patton_, Frank Sisson (Robert Wise)
> 
> Not recommended.



Why?


----------



## Gutwrench

Huntn said:


> Why?




Factual inaccuracies; reconstructed from (questionable) memory and the dialogue invented.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Huntn said:


> Why?






Gutwrench said:


> Factual inaccuracies; reconstructed from (questionable) memory and the dialogue invented.




I had thought to ask @Huntn's question, but he beat me to it; anyway, excellent answer.


----------



## Huntn

Gutwrench said:


> Factual inaccuracies; reconstructed from (questionable) memory and the dialogue invented.



Many historical books have dialog inserted as a matter of routine, as long as it supports the historical facts.


----------



## Gutwrench

Huntn said:


> Many historical books have dialog inserted as a matter of routine, as long as it supports the historical facts.



The book is more of a memoir rather than an offering of the facts of a matter.  

Call me old fashioned but a direct quote has meaning to me just as words do.  

Perhaps you might like it. It’s not for me.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Huntn said:


> Many historical books have dialog inserted as a matter of routine, as long as it supports the historical facts.




Intelligent historical fiction, yes, - and the best of these (such as Hilary Mantel's outstanding Thomas Cromwell trilogy) do not put words in the mouths of characters unless there is either independent supporting corroboration, or evidence, or intelligent conjecture, that the character in question said, or thought, these things, but as for actual history books, no, not unless sources for the quoted dialogue can be cited, or verified, or, it is made clear that the author is imaginatively reconstructing a scene, in which case, it is intelligent supposition, at best.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Huntn said:


> Many historical books have dialog inserted as a matter of routine, as long as it supports the historical facts.



Do the facts support the dialogue, or the dialogue the facts?


----------



## Gutwrench

Scepticalscribe said:


> Intelligent historical fiction, yes, - and the best of these (such as Hilary Mantel's outstanding Thomas Cromwell trilogy) do not put words in the mouths of characters unless there is either independent supporting evidence, or intelligent conjecture, that the character in question said, or thought, these things, but as for actual history books, no, not unless sources for the quoted dialogue can be verified, or, it is made clear that the author is imaginatively reconstructing a scene, in which case, it is intelligent supposition, at best.




To be fair the author did disclose the book is based completely on the person’s memory of the events some seventy years later including the dialogue. With all due respect to Mr Sisson I don’t trust his account rendering it uninteresting and unreliable for my taste.


----------



## Huntn

Scepticalscribe said:


> Do the facts support the dialogue, or the dialogue the facts?



It would have to be the latter as far as fictional dialog can support the facts.   To @Gutwrench is this book a documentary or a biography?


----------



## Gutwrench

Huntn said:


> It would have to be the latter as far as fictional dialog can support the facts.   To @Gutwrench is this book a documentary or a biography?






Gutwrench said:


> The book is more of a memoir rather than an offering of the facts of a matter.








__





						Amazon.com: I Marched with Patton: A Firsthand Account of World War II Alongside One of the U.S. Army's Greatest Generals: 9780063019478: Sisson, Frank, Wise, Robert L.: Books
					

Amazon.com: I Marched with Patton: A Firsthand Account of World War II Alongside One of the U.S. Army's Greatest Generals: 9780063019478: Sisson, Frank, Wise, Robert L.: Books



					www.amazon.com


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Dear Lupin - Letters To A Wayward Son - Roger Mortimer & Charlie Mortimer.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Margaret MacMillan - The War That Ended Peace - How Europe Abandoned Peace For The First World War.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Scepticalscribe said:


> Margaret MacMillan - The War That Ended Peace - How Europe Abandoned Peace For The First World War.




This is an excellent read, intelligent, thought-provoking, and beautifully written.


----------



## Huntn

Just completed the third book of the Red Sparrow trilogy, The Kremlin’s Candidate. Outstanding series if you like the genre and a significant ending that I can’t discuss without spoiling it.

​


----------



## The-Real-Deal82

Currently reading ‘Supermarket’. A short book but quite entertaining lol.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Am about to embark on Ron Chernow's magisterial biography of Alexander Hamilton.


----------



## lizkat

Scepticalscribe said:


> Am about to embark on Ron Chernow's magisterial biography of Alexander Hamilton.




Got that queued up but I am presently engaged by the delightful* Liar's Dictionary *(a novel, not a dictionary).  It is great fun but maybe mostly if you are fond of words in the same ways the people who scout around for new words are.

The book is created around that fascinating concept of plagiarism deterrence based in use of what are called *mountweazels*,  In dictionaries, encylopedias and assorted other reference materials, a mountweazel is an invented and often trivial instance of a neologism in something like a new edition of a dictionary,  but it can also just be a fake entry in a map or list of accounts, ingredients or whatever suits the context into which it is meant to fit and so to trap would-be plagiarists.  So if the owner of the copyrighted work sees the term pop up elsewhere, the plagiarist is caught out.

And so to Ms. Mountweazel.  She was an original mountweazel and has landed in Wikipedia.  She was purported to be
​


> a fountain designer turned photographer, Lillian Virginia Mountweazel, who supposedly died in an explosion while on assignment for _Combustibles_ magazine. Allegedly, she is widely known for her photo-essays of unusual subject matter, including New York City buses, the cemeteries of Paris, and rural American mailboxes.



​So there you have it.  *But if you had it in 1975 and you weren't reading the 1975 New Columbia Encyclopedia,  the publisher of that tome definitely wanted to have a word with you about plagiarism.*

There are of course newer methods now of detecting plagiarism but even these days the mountweazel is occasionally deployed.  Also from Wikipedia:
​


> David Pogue, author of several books offering tips and tricks for computer users, deliberately placed a bogus tip in one of his books as a way of catching competing writers who were re-publishing information from his works without permission. The fake tip, which purported to make a rabbit appear on the computer screen when certain keys were pressed, did indeed appear in other books shortly after Pogue published it.




Source for my quotes:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictitious_entry


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Scepticalscribe said:


> Am about to embark on Ron Chernow's magisterial biography of Alexander Hamilton.




But, the events of the past two or three days have meant that I keep getting distracted.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

lizkat said:


> Got that queued up but I am presently engaged by the delightful* Liar's Dictionary *(a novel, not a dictionary).  It is great fun but maybe mostly if you are fond of words in the same ways the people who scout around for new words are.
> 
> 
> ​




And, a friend - very kindly - arranged to take out a subscription for a month on Disney Plus, and has gifted me access (a Christmas gift) so that I can watch the musical Hamilton (which was inspired by Chernow's biography), and which we had discussed, and which - but for Covid - I would have travelled to see performed live on stage.


----------



## lizkat

Katherine Stewart's book *The Power Worshippers:  Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism*

It's about power seekers who have wrapped cultural and political ideology around a cross, largely but not solely packaging abortion as a unifying issue  --albeit as a reliable way of converting their congregants to voters--  and have carried their movement into the public square under the banner of the Republican Party.  By now they press a claim that the other major political party with its focus on plurality and democracy, seen as entirely secular,  has no legitimate place in American government.  And the movement regards the public treasury as fair game.



> Christian nationalists have put particular emphasis on the intersection of money and education. The Christian right has been hostile to public education at least since Jerry Falwell of the Moral Majority called for an end to public schools in 1979. This hostility has its roots in a combination of racial animus and fears of secularism... But Christian nationalists now see in school vouchers—and even charter programs—a potentially vast source of public funding, too.




The book is not about Americans' right to worship (or, not),  nor does it assume all evangelicals or indeed adherents to other denominations of Christianity are Christian nationalists.



> ...some of the most powerful resistance to Christian nationalism may ultimately come from those who identify as Christians themselves. As of this writing, many individuals and groups who identify as religious moderates or who call themselves part of a “religious left” are organizing to meet the challenge. They have many good arguments and can draw on a long tradition in the American past to support their cause, and they may have the future on their side. But they are not in the saddle of history today, and they are not the subject of this book.




It's an alarmingly good read, particularly when getting into the play of big money from the megachurches and wealthy Christian nationalists into the halls and offices of DC politics.


----------



## User.168

.


----------



## lizkat

Taking a break from all things real and political for the weekend, so indulging a fondness for spy novels and such as break fare.  Reading Matthew Quirk's thriller The Night Agent.   The guy who did  'Shields' is writing a TV adaptation of  this thing.   I can see why.   FBI guy hunting for a mole in the West Wing.


----------



## Huntn

​
I just finished the *Andromeda Strain *(1969) Michael Crichton. I had read this before a “techno thriller”, the mark of most Michael Crichton stories, which generally I enjoy. This one is about a US space capsule that brings back deadly alien life to Earth and the team of scientists tasked with discovering exactly what they are dealing with. I’ll say the first time I read it, I thought it was great. However this time, I think, the movie does a better job of projecting tension and there are several moments of tension and intrigue, such as what does a healthy baby and a sick old man have in common to avoid being struck down by this alien virus-like bug?

Now I have to decide between some more science fiction, maybe some Earnest Hemingway Or something else.


----------



## Huntn

theSeb said:


> Neal Asher - Line War
> 
> View attachment 2758



An appraisal is always appreciated.


----------



## Clix Pix

I'm in the middle of Ian Rankin's aptly-titled  _A Song for the Dark Times_.   I've read most if not all of his books -- he's been a favorite for years.


----------



## User.168

.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Will write about Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton when I have finsihed it.

Took a brief breather from American history and lost myself in The Last Light Of The Sun by Guy Gavriel Kay.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Under Heaven - Guy Gavriel Kay.


----------



## Clix Pix

A fascinating book called *Master Class*, by Christina Dalcher -- it's a novel set in a future time with some reminders of 
*The Handmaid's Tale*, but in a different way.   I'm midway through this very well-written book and have already ordered a copy of her debut novel, *VOX.*


----------



## Thomas Veil

Huntn said:


> View attachment 2801​
> I just finished the *Andromeda Strain *(1969) Michael Crichton. I had read this before a “techno thriller”, the mark of most Michael Crichton stories, which generally I enjoy. This one is about a US space capsule that brings back deadly alien life to Earth and the team of scientists tasked with discovering exactly what they are dealing with. I’ll say the first time I read it, I thought it was great. However this time, I think, the movie does a better job of projecting tension and there are several moments of tension and intrigue, such as what does a healthy baby and a sick old man have in common to avoid being struck down by this alien virus-like bug?
> 
> Now I have to decide between some more science fiction, maybe some Earnest Hemingway Or something else.



I must've read "The Andromeda Strain" five or six times, enjoying how Crichton ratchets up the suspense and also explains some points of biology and medicine.

That looks like a first print edition. I have a hardbound one that is almost as old. It came out when the film did and has the same basic design but includes a (discreetly) naked man, which was part of the movie marketing.

I loved the film. I even bought the soundtrack, which back then was vinyl of course. It came in a silver album cover that had six flaps that you had to open to get to the record, which was _also_ hexagonal, like the alien life form.


----------



## Clix Pix

My copy of *VOX *arrived today from Amazon, so since I have finished the other book, I'll immediately delve into this one, too.   *Master Class *was chilling, to say the least, and I expect this one will be as well.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

A few books by Ken Follett.


----------



## Clix Pix

Almost finished now with *VOX *and my guess that it, too, would be chilling was right on the money.  Actually, you know, I'm really glad that I've been reading both of these books now during the new Biden administration rather than before, during the Thug -- err, Trump one.....   I could all too easily envision both books becoming reality under an extended Trump  regime.   Whew!!!

Liz, ScepticalScribe, Alli, and every other woman on this site:  read these two books. They'll horrify you, terrify you and make you glad that the world they portray has not come to pass.......  Thankfully, good resolution at the end of *Master Class.*  Haven't finished *VOX* yet but I assume there is a good ending there as well.


----------



## Huntn

Started *Neuromancer* (1984), so far so good! More comments to follow.   


​


----------



## iMi

I‘m reading “Paddle Your Own Canoe.“ Very funny.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

@Huntn: I must say to you that I have revised my opinion of the "century" trilogy by Ken Follett; I re-read it - in its entirety - last week, and must admit that it is extremely good.

Detailed comments to follow in due course.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Newt's Emerald - Garth Nix.


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

Just got Obama’s book on Audible (29 hours, that’s a lot of rhetoric). I didn’t get it because I’m a big Obama fan, but because my roommate got it, said it was good, and said Obama addresses some of the concerns over policies I didn't agree with. He’s way more of an establishment Democrat and I’m way more of a Progressive cynical of Democrats. I’m interested to hear why he increased our wars, bailed out Wall St and the banks, was pro letting foreign countries have our jobs, and if he ever considered just being white. All the rest of our Presidents succeeded at being white, so what’s Obama’s problem?


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Re-visiting some old favourites by Elizabeth Moon, and making the acquiantance of some of her books that I have not yet read.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

I am reading yet more books by Elizabeth Moon: space operas, with female protagonists - what is there not to like?- (who almost invariably have a military background - Moon, who was a first lieutenant with the Marines, writes very well about the military, her military settings work very well, and she does female friendship, and families, family relationships - and writes about older women, exceptionally well, also.)


----------



## lizkat

Two very different books centered on aspects and offshoots of the petroleum industry.   One is Steve Early's _*Refinery Town*_, about the California city of Richmond where Chevron's footprint has been huge since the WWII era (and has been countered hugely as well  by progressives in later times, in a heady clash of interests including those of the oil industry, green energy activists, religious leaders, construction unions, real estate developers and aficionados of casino gambling).   The other is a book by Michael Patrick F. Smith, *The Good Hand*,  a memoir about his time in 2013 working the shale oil fields of the Bakken Formation in North Dakota near the then boomtown of Williston.  

And because not everything is about fossil fuels (or decidedly mixed feelings that they were ever taken up from the ground?), I've  also been spending time with two books about classical music lately, mostly because I've been listening to a lot of Mozart and Beethoven, and so have reverted to consulting bits of Jan Swafford's enjoyable biographies of both composers. 

Somewhere in amongst all those adventures I'm starting to think harder about this summer's "deep dive".   Last year's was about the perils and joys of translating literature from one language and culture to others.  This year I might revert to reading fiction of a particular region or culture, not sure yet.   Last year's summer focus was endless fun and later spun into reading some works I had bumped into along the way, that were not in the least related to each other in any way except none was written originally in English.   Still I didn't come away from the summer with that sense of immersion that a concentration on one author, time or culture has otherwise offered up from those deep dives.  So time will tell but anyway I'm conscious of time moving on towards when I should be assembling a reading list!


----------



## Scepticalscribe

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Earlier this week, I re-visited the excellent Rai-Kirah trilogy (Transformation, Revelation, Restoration), by Carol Berg.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

The Privilege Of The Sword by Ellen Kushner.


----------



## iMi

Just finished Gray Wolf. I’ve been researching this topic for a while and now I am 100% certain that Hitler survived the war and lived out his life in Argentina. Died in 1962. 

Seems far fetched, you say? Consider this... When I was growing up in Poland back in the 1980’s, and during Soviet occupation, our history text books said that England and France abandoned us in 1939 when Germany invaded. I recall clearly that it said that soviet union offered support (they didn’t, in fact they invaded Poland from the East as is now commonly known) and that our allies, England and France, took weeks to declare war. In the early 1990’s after the collapse of the Soviet Union, our textbooks were replaced. A person literally walked into our classroom and handed us new text books. That’s when I learned that England declared war within a day or so and Frances followed immediately as well. Oh, and Russia invaded form the East. 

History is written by the victor, that much is true.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Ellen Kushner - Swordspoint.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

His Only Wife by Peace Adzo Medie.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

And earlier, The Fall Of The Kings - Ellen Kushner.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

This week, I have been re-reading Gitta Sereny's superb biography of Albert Speer. (Albert Speer - His Battle With The Truth).


----------



## Clix Pix

David Baldacci, _Daylight._


----------



## Scepticalscribe

A Gentleman In Moscow - Amor Towles (a gift from my sister-in-law).


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Shorefall - Robert Jackson Bennett.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Re-Read City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Re-reading City of Blades by Robert Jackson Bennett.


----------



## Clix Pix

Just finished Michael Connelly's _The Law of Innocence_, one of his "Lincoln Lawyer" series books.   Also have another new Connelly book, one of the Bosch series, _Fair Warning_, which I'll probably start reading this evening.   I really lucked out at the library to find both of them on the new books shelf!


----------



## Scepticalscribe

In recent weeks, (well, mainly over the past month, but, much of it over the past fortnight), I have read  several books, mostly fantasy.

These have included:

The Empire Trilogy (Daughter of the Empire, Servant of the Empire, Mistress of the Empire) by Janny Wurts and Raymond E Feist;

The Blue Sword, and The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley;

The Leviathan Trilogy (Leviathan, Behemoth, Goliath) by Scott Westerfield;

The Draconis Memoria Trilogy (The Waking Fire; The Legion of Flame; The Empire of Ashes) by Anthony Ryan;

The Privilege of the Sword - Ellen Kushner;

The Vanished Queen by Lisbeth Campbell.


----------



## lizkat

Read a brief review in the FT of a book by the chief Brexit negotiator for the EU, based on his diaries and just released on May 6th.   Sounds like it will be a great read, not sure my French is up to the task though, so I might have to wait for the release of the English translation this fall.   I'll have a look at the Kindle preview of the French edition this afternoon and make up my mind!    The King Lear quote is hilarious, or would be if not so tragic. 






From the FT mention:



> La Grande Illusion — Michel Barnier on Brexit, ‘baroque’ Boris and broken promises
> 
> ]The “Great Illusion” of Barnier’s title, published in French on Thursday and in English in the autumn, is a reference to the book of the same name written more than a century ago by Norman Angell, who said war in Europe had been made improbable by the economic ties between nations — and who was quickly proved wrong by the first world war. Barnier also prefaces the book with the lament of King Lear, who in anguish beats his own head “that let thy folly in/And thy dear judgment out!”.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Today, for the first time in months - since the most recent lockdown shut their doors - I managed to visit the library.

Books....

Actually, I had received an email which informed me that a book (which has been "in transit" when libraries last shut) awaited me.

Imagine my delight, when, on my arrival in the library (to return one book), I realised that three books awaited me.

Two are on US history, - Ron Chernow - his biography of Grant - and James M McPherson - Battle Cry of Freedom - The American Civil War - and one falls under the heading of UK history (well, on the Raj, Women of the Raj: The Mothers, Wives, and Daughters of the British Empire in India by Margaret MacMillan).



lizkat said:


> Read a brief review in the FT of a book by the chief Brexit negotiator for the EU, based on his diaries and just released on May 6th.   Sounds like it will be a great read, not sure my French is up to the task though, so I might have to wait for the release of the English translation this fall.   I'll have a look at the Kindle preview of the French edition this afternoon and make up my mind!    The King Lear quote is hilarious, or would be if not so tragic.
> 
> View attachment 5037​
> 
> From the FT mention:




I just picked up my week-end FT today - was too distracted on Saturday & Sunday with the Covid vaccine, and too tired yesterday - as a consequence of the Covid vaccine - to venture out.

Must read the review, and keep an eye out for this book.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Reading "Battle Cry of Freedom - The American Civil War" by James M McPherson.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

The first chapter of "Battle Cry of Freedom - The American Civil War" by James M McPherson is a must read, a superb analysis and synthesis (social, cultural, economic - and yes political - history) of the development of the United States in the first half of the nineteenth century.


----------



## lizkat

Scepticalscribe said:


> The first chapter of "Battle Cry of Freedom - The American Civil War" by James M McPherson is a must read, a superb analysis and synthesis (social, cultural, economic - and yes political - history) of the development of the United States in the first half of the nineteenth century.




I had heard good things about this book and am waiting for news of a corrected edition of the ebook, having seen a notice that there are numerous typos of which the publisher has been notified,  so when the update comes out I might get it as a fairly concise but apparently well thought of presentation of that part of our history.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

lizkat said:


> I had heard good things about this book and am waiting for news of a corrected edition of the ebook, having seen a notice that there are numerous typos of which the publisher has been notified,  so when the update comes out I might get it as a fairly concise but apparently well thought of presentation of that part of our history.




Actually, it is superb, the sort of book that is so good, and makes so many good points and thoughtful observations, that you have to take it slowly and re-read some sections, and paragraphs, to give yourself time to mull it over.

In tandem with it, I am also reading Ron Chernow's biography of Grant, who comes across as an extraordinarily attractive - and surprisingly sensitive - character.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

lizkat said:


> I had heard good things about this book and am waiting for news of a corrected edition of the ebook, having seen a notice that there are numerous typos of which the publisher has been notified,  so when the update comes out I might get it as a fairly concise but apparently well thought of presentation of that part of our history.




Actually, it is supposed to be the best one volume book of the Civil War that has been written (or published).

The sources - and I love footnotes and citations - are commendably extensive at the bottom of each page, and - as a feminist - I like the fact that in addition to the central subject matter of race - and social class - the (economic and legal and cultural) position of women (especially some of whom were educated, and who were very prominent in both the abolitionist and temperance movements), is also touched upon and discussed.


----------



## lizkat

I'm moving into summer-read mode, I guess.  Anyway I've put the Libby and Kindle widgets on my mobile devices.  They conveniently remind me to keep turning pages in my summer ebook fare,  mostly scarfed up from the local library and from Kindle Unlimited. 

Not sure the books will be worth individual mention, as I've deliberately gone after stuff I figure I can pick up and put down after ten pages...  and go back to it three hours later for another five pages...  and not feel like I have to go back and figure out the motive of character A for attacking character B between the breakfast and lunch subplots.

Vague apologies in advance to any writers I may have offended by categorizing anyone's work as "summer fare".    But I ain't readin' treatises on what's wrong with America over the summer, believe me.   I'm up for some forgettable fiction, and if it turns out to be memorable instead,  that's a bonus.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

I have been re-reading a number of books by Martin Cruz Smith.


----------



## lizkat

As a break from lazing around through summer reading,  I've taken up Carol Leonnig's book *Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service*.  It delves into the up-and-down reputation and path of the agency over the past nearly sixty years as it has attempted to build back from low points like JFK's assassination and the attempt on George Wallace's life that left him paralyzed from the waist down.

There's reference of course to some of the more well known incidents that made waves and headlines,  whether for bravery beyond call of duty or for unacceptable behavior (no matter if it was accepted or shoved under rugs that Congress critters have often been willing enough to supply even while cutting budgets and whining about expenses and expanding agency duties).  But there are lots of details of which I was unaware, too and some of them are pretty alarming but some very heartening.  Leonnig interviewed more than 180 current and former Secret Service agents and their directors or managers in her research for the book.

The result is a real tome --more than 500 pages in print-- so I opted for the audiobook and have been listening to it for a half hour at a time so as not to become overwhelmed by it.  I've found it fascinating and Leonnig seems to have been careful not to "take sides" in a political sense... if anything she sometimes seems to have extended more understanding to some of the less stellar characters in this important agency than their own colleagues or families may even have done, when it comes to assessing impact on protectees or others including taxpayers when she is discussing unprofessional behavior.

 For once I'm actually listening to this book in the evenings while still fully awake,  instead of my usual routine of taking it upstairs and setting an overoptimistic sleep timer to 30 minutes, having to rewind it next day!


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Reading Women of the Raj by Margaret McMillan.


----------



## lizkat

Scepticalscribe said:


> Reading Women of the Raj by Margaret McMillan.




Must be the summer of India...   and I wish that one were available in ebook format, I imagine it will be an excellent read, and hope you will comment further in time.

I've just begun reading a book that's chronologically a big leap back from the era of the British Raj, to the earlier rise of British colonialism in India, based in expansion of the original charter and progress of the extraordinary "trading" outfit, the East India Company....which at some points was even granted permission to conduct military operations on behalf of the Crown.

Think about that for a moment.  In the USA in modern times, as in Guatemala for instance, our imperialism and association with US companies has generally lain in more covert channels, e.g. CIA involvment in coups or anti-revolutionary maneuvers such as in Central or South America.  It seems like a whole other thing when a country just flat out says by all means use whatever force needed to establish or strengthen our interests...​
Anyway my current book on southeast Asian and then specifically Indian history at the moment is by William Dalrymple,  *The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company.  *I have enjoyed a number of other India-related books by this author,  so it was hard to resist picking this one up.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

lizkat said:


> Must be the summer of India...   and I wish that one were available in ebook format, I imagine it will be an excellent read, and hope you will comment further in time.
> 
> I've just begun reading a book that's chronologically a big leap back from the era of the British Raj, to the earlier rise of British colonialism in India, based in expansion of the original charter and progress of the extraordinary "trading" outfit, the East India Company....which at some points was even granted permission to conduct military operations on behalf of the Crown.
> 
> Think about that for a moment.  In the USA in modern times, as in Guatemala for instance, our imperialism and association with US companies has generally lain in more covert channels, e.g. CIA involvment in coups or anti-revolutionary maneuvers such as in Central or South America.  It seems like a whole other thing when a country just flat out says by all means use whatever force needed to establish or strengthen our interests...​
> Anyway my current book on southeast Asian and then specifically Indian history at the moment is by William Dalrymple,  *The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company.  *I have enjoyed a number of other India-related books by this author,  so it was hard to resist picking this one up.




I have The Anarchy in my bedroom (an excellent read).

Actually, I suspect that you'd love Margaret McMillan's "Women of the Raj" - she is an excellent historian, with an accessible and very welcoming style; this afternoon, I had raced through four chapters before I realised that I had done so.

Will write at greater length about it, when done.


----------



## lizkat

Scepticalscribe said:


> I have The Anarchy in my bedroom (an excellent read).
> 
> Actually, I suspect that you'd love Margaret McMillan's "Women of the Raj" - she is an excellent historian, with an accessible and very welcoming style; this afternoon, I had raced through four chapters before I realised that I had done so.
> 
> Will write at greater length about it, when done.




I may still pick up a used hardcopy or paperback version...  in the morning I'm still usually able to get along in a print book without resorting to tiresome magnifying glasses of various kinds.  Even taking breaks pretty often,  my eyes tire before nightfall when it comes to reading printed materials where the font size and contrast are fixed.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

lizkat said:


> Must be the summer of India...   and I wish that one were available in ebook format, I imagine it will be an excellent read, and hope you will comment further in time.
> 
> I've just begun reading a book that's chronologically a big leap back from the era of the British Raj, to the earlier rise of British colonialism in India, based in expansion of the original charter and progress of the extraordinary "trading" outfit, the East India Company....which at some points was even granted permission to conduct military operations on behalf of the Crown.
> 
> Think about that for a moment.  In the USA in modern times, as in Guatemala for instance, our imperialism and association with US companies has generally lain in more covert channels, e.g. CIA involvment in coups or anti-revolutionary maneuvers such as in Central or South America.  It seems like a whole other thing when a country just flat out says by all means use whatever force needed to establish or strengthen our interests...​
> Anyway my current book on southeast Asian and then specifically Indian history at the moment is by William Dalrymple,  *The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company.  *I have enjoyed a number of other India-related books by this author,  so it was hard to resist picking this one up.



The other interesting thing about the East India Company was not just that it had permission to conduct military operations on behalf of the Crown.

Rather, it is that it had its own civil service - trained and recruited on competitive and meritocratic lines in East India College, Hailey, - and its own military - and trained them in its own military college (Addiscombe), - where, firstly, academic standards were more rigorous and were far higher than at Sandhurst, because appointment to a cadetship and subsequent approval and appointment to a commission (and indeed, promotion) were based mostly on merit.

Bright kids (say, parson's sons) - but who were not especially well off (and couldn't afford to purchase commissions in the regular Army) - with a bit of education, (Hodson, of Hodson's Horse had a degree from Cambridge), intellectual curiosity, (they were expected to learn local languages fluently), and an appetite for adventure, sought employment in the ranks of "John Company", where they received far better remuneration - the salaries were excellent, because one was not expected to have had access to independent private means, and they wanted to attract good candidates - than was the case in the Regular Army, where commissions were bought and idiotic aristocrats promoted mindlessly until the twin debacles of the Crimean war and the Indian Mutiny combined to introduce a recognition of the need for appointment and promotion in both the Army and Civil Service on the basis of merit, rather than inherited unearned rank and position based on wealth and social class.

Likewise, the standards the company set for appointment to and training in their bureaucracy were exceptionally high, and appointment and promotion were based on competition and merit; the company's civil service - which (after the mutiny, after the company was dissolved and the Crown took over its functions) became the fabled Indian Civil Service, and was considered to be the cream of the British civil service, bureaucracy, and imperial appointments.


----------



## Clix Pix

I am in the middle of a novel by Paula McLain (excellent writer), which is a fictionalized account of Beryl Markham and her life, called _Circling The Sun_.  It's an excellent read but unfortunately this eye thing has interrupted my usual pleasurable nighttime reading.  Hopefully tonight or at least tomorrow night I'll be able to get back to the book!    After I finish this I'll have to re-read _West With the Night, Beryl's own autobiography.  She was definitely a fascinating woman._


----------



## lizkat

Engaged in a re-read of _*Disappeared:  A Journalist Silenced*_. It's an accounting by June Carolyn Erlick of the professional life, defiant independence and eventual abduction of Guatemalan journalist Irma Flaquer in 1980, during the corrupt regime of Fernando Romeo Lucas García, when his military had taken up just murdering political opponents. She was taken from her car after an attack during which one of her sons was fatally shot and was never seen again. Mind you this was one of several regimes back then that were at least covertly supported by the USA in the interests of private business, mostly the banana trade.

As an offset to that book,  which is a sort of launch point for this year's deep dive into the history of several Central American countries while I round up more material,   I'm pursuing a raft of at least somewhat lighter fare reserved from the e-book section of the local library.   I've been enjoying two lately, one is Claire Messud's *The Burning Girl, * the other one by Jeff Backhaus,  _*The Rental Sister.*_

And no, I'm not making much headway through my video-streaming queues this summer.  Sometimes movies go better for me in winter and books in summer.  No clue why really.


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## Scepticalscribe

lizkat said:


> Must be the summer of India...   and I wish that one were available in ebook format, I imagine it will be an excellent read, and hope you will comment further in time.
> 
> I've just begun reading a book that's chronologically a big leap back from the era of the British Raj, to the earlier rise of British colonialism in India, based in expansion of the original charter and progress of the extraordinary "trading" outfit, the East India Company....which at some points was even granted permission to conduct military operations on behalf of the Crown.
> 
> Think about that for a moment.  In the USA in modern times, as in Guatemala for instance, our imperialism and association with US companies has generally lain in more covert channels, e.g. CIA involvment in coups or anti-revolutionary maneuvers such as in Central or South America.  It seems like a whole other thing when a country just flat out says by all means use whatever force needed to establish or strengthen our interests...​
> Anyway my current book on southeast Asian and then specifically Indian history at the moment is by William Dalrymple,  *The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company.  *I have enjoyed a number of other India-related books by this author,  so it was hard to resist picking this one up.




Don't know whether you ever came across "The Glass Palace" by Amitav Ghosh, a novel my mother and I both loved (it dealt with the history of a few families across Burma, India and Malaysia between the 1880s and 1990s, the history of those countries serving as the setting; for once, the main characters are Indian, or Burmese, or Malaysian - the Europeans - while real, mostly play secondary roles); a thoughtful, and immensely interesting book, and one well worth reading.


----------



## lizkat

Scepticalscribe said:


> Don't know whether you ever came across "The Glass Palace" by Amitav Ghosh, a novel my mother and I both loved (it dealt with the history of a few families across Burma, India and Malaysia between the 1880s and 1990s, the history of those countries serving as the setting; for once, the main charcaters are Indian, or Burmese, or Malaysian - the Europeans - while real, mostly play secondary roles); a thoughtful, and immensely interesting book, and one well worth reading.




I have read that, yes, and thoroughly enjoyed it.


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## Scepticalscribe

lizkat said:


> I have read that, yes, and thoroughly enjoyed it.




I remember a lenghty Skype call with my mother - well over two hours long - when I was in Georgia (Caucasus Georgia) - I was based in Tbilisi for most of that time where internet connections were good - for two years  as a political analyst with the EU, immediately following their conflict with Russia in 2008.

My mother - who was still mentally sharp and intellectually curious, - had requested reading recomendations, and one of the books I recommended was The Glass Palace, which she loved so much, - and bizarrely, and to my delighted surprise, she read it exactly as I had read it, opening it at random, reading from that point to the very end, whereupon she went back to the beginning, started it and proceeded to read it right the way through - that we subsequently spent the best part of two hours excitedly discussing it, debating it and dissecting it by Skype.

During her long decline with dementia, those wonderful and deep discussions - our intellectual relationship, which had existed since my childhood - was one of the things I missed most; however, her character, essential decency, generosity and sense of humour remained recognisably hers until the end.


----------



## SuperMatt

I am reading *Hiding in Plain Sight* by Sarah Kendzior. It‘s about the kleptocracy leading up to and including Trump.









						Sarah Kendzior
					






					sarahkendzior.com


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## lizkat

SuperMatt said:


> I am reading *Hiding in Plain Sight* by Sarah Kendzior. It‘s about the kleptocracy leading up to and including Trump.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Sarah Kendzior
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> sarahkendzior.com




I thoroughly respect Kendzior's research and writing,  so I want to read that too.

At the moment though, during this laid-back early part of my summer, I've an earworm in my brain from Gillian Welch's song *Look at Miss Ohio, *namely,  _"I wanna do right but *not* right now...."  _


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## Clix Pix

The last few nights I haven't been able to indulge in reading in bed right before heading off to slumberland....things have improved enough now with my eye that tonight should be just fine.  I have really missed my usual bedtime ritual, not to mention that I really want to get back to the book in the first place, having left it somewhere in the middle.  Also there are a couple of new books waiting for me to pick them up at the library this week, too.


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## Scepticalscribe

Clix Pix said:


> The last few nights I haven't been able to indulge in reading in bed right before heading off to slumberland....things have improved enough now with my eye that tonight should be just fine.  I have really missed my usual bedtime ritual, not to mention that I really want to get back to the book in the first place, having left it somewhere in the middle.  Also there are a couple of new books waiting for me to pick them up at the library this week, too.




Ah, reading in bed; one of life's great pleasures, isn't it?


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## Clix Pix

Scepticalscribe said:


> Ah, reading in bed; one of life's great pleasures, isn't it?




Absolutely!  Been doing it for years and years.....


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## Scepticalscribe

Clix Pix said:


> Absolutely!  Been doing it for years and years.....




And likewise.


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## Clix Pix

Ah, it was so nice last night to get into bed and to once again pick up my book and dive back into it.   I really missed being able to do that!


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## Scepticalscribe

Clix Pix said:


> Ah, it was so nice last night to get into bed and to once again pick up my book and dive back into it.   I really missed being able to do that!




That I can well imagine.

Delighted to learn that you can enjoy reading in bed again.


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## Scepticalscribe

I picked up several books yesterday in the library (and returned a few), and last night, I buried myself in the latest book by Louis de Bernières, The Autumn Of The Ace.


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## User.45

Just finished the first Game of Thrones book. It's a pretty impressive world-building exercise. The series seem to be (until it was actually based on the books) quite a good adaptation of the costumes.

Then I did Caste. A good book about racism from a caste perspective. Super relevant and well-written. Wilkerson dissects racism and examines how it is really a caste system that works in the USA.








						Caste
					

The Pulitzer Prize–winning, bestselling author of The Warmth of Other Suns examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America and...



					www.goodreads.com
				




Listening to Deep right now. It's a fun one about free diving and cetacean telepathy. My mentor suggested it, describing the experience of the deep sea as Heisenberg's uncertainty principle and how the observation of the eye (consciousness) alters solitary environments.








						Deep
					

While on assignment in Greece, journalist James Nestor witnessed something that confounded him: a man diving 300 feet below the ocean’s s...



					www.goodreads.com
				




Listening to audio books while moving is fun. 1.6x speed gets me through pretty quickly and I get to maintain focus and attention on the big-picture messages without missing the nuance.


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## Clix Pix

I'm reading the lovely _The Paris Library_, by Janet Skeslien Charles.  It jumps between the Paris of 1939, where a newly-minted French librarian, Odile Soucher,  begins working at the American Library in Paris, and Montana in 1983, where we again meet an older Odile.....   The 1939 segments are particularly interesting, of course, as the author draws us into the growing conflict in Europe and the rise of the Nazis...... The descriptions of how the beautiful city of Paris was altered by fear and worry as residents and tourists alike began to leave or bravely stayed in attempts to try and protect precious homes, loved ones, cherished items.....including -- yes, books, are especially powerful.   For librarians, booklovers and historians alike, this is a novel not to be missed.


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## Scepticalscribe

Clix Pix said:


> I'm reading the lovely _The Paris Library_, by Janet Skeslien Charles.  It jumps between the Paris of 1939, where a newly-minted French librarian, Odile Soucher,  begins working at the American Library in Paris, and Montana in 1983, where we again meet an older Odile.....   The 1939 segments are particularly interesting, of course, as the author draws us into the growing conflict in Europe and the rise of the Nazis...... The descriptions of how the beautiful city of Paris was altered by fear and worry as residents and tourists alike began to leave or bravely stayed in attempts to try and protect precious homes, loved ones, cherished items.....including -- yes, books, are especially powerful.   For librarians, booklovers and historians alike, this is a novel not to be missed.




Okay; I'm intrigued and interested.

Must see if my local library has a copy and shall place a hold.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Clix Pix said:


> I'm reading the lovely _The Paris Library_, by Janet Skeslien Charles.  It jumps between the Paris of 1939, where a newly-minted French librarian, Odile Soucher,  begins working at the American Library in Paris, and Montana in 1983, where we again meet an older Odile.....   The 1939 segments are particularly interesting, of course, as the author draws us into the growing conflict in Europe and the rise of the Nazis...... The descriptions of how the beautiful city of Paris was altered by fear and worry as residents and tourists alike began to leave or bravely stayed in attempts to try and protect precious homes, loved ones, cherished items.....including -- yes, books, are especially powerful.   For librarians, booklovers and historians alike, this is a novel not to be missed.




Have now placed a hold on it - purely on the strength of your recommendation.

Look forward to laying hands (and eyes) on it, and immersing myself in it.


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## Clix Pix

I think you will really enjoy it.....   At this point I am about halfway through and am just really loving this book!


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## fooferdoggie

Listening to Squeeze Me by Carl Hiaasen. This guy Created Florida man Think. his stores are about crazy Floridians. This one is about a old lady that died and a big ass snake ate her and the woman animal catcher that takes care of it but then it just gets crazy in a believable way. it even has trump as president and al the stupid things he says (not actually trump but you know who it is supposed to be) 
I listen to audiobooks while working and read another book when. have chances.


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## Clix Pix

Carl Hiaasen is indeed known for his books about weird characters in Florida!  Brilliant, funny writer!   I haven't read one of his novels in a while.....I should pick up one the next time I'm at the library.


----------



## fooferdoggie

Clix Pix said:


> Carl Hiaasen is indeed known for his books about weird characters in Florida!  Brilliant, funny writer!   I haven't read one of his novels in a while.....I should pick up one the next time I'm at the library.



yes I have really enjoyed him. this one is great as it has a trump clone in it.


----------



## lizkat

Clix Pix said:


> I'm reading the lovely _The Paris Library_, by Janet Skeslien Charles.  It jumps between the Paris of 1939, where a newly-minted French librarian, Odile Soucher,  begins working at the American Library in Paris, and Montana in 1983, where we again meet an older Odile.....   The 1939 segments are particularly interesting, of course, as the author draws us into the growing conflict in Europe and the rise of the Nazis...... The descriptions of how the beautiful city of Paris was altered by fear and worry as residents and tourists alike began to leave or bravely stayed in attempts to try and protect precious homes, loved ones, cherished items.....including -- yes, books, are especially powerful.   For librarians, booklovers and historians alike, this is a novel not to be missed.




So I went to put a hold on an ebook version at my library and there's a wait list they estimate at 20 WEEKS.

Heh.  Might have to spring for a paperback version instead and pass it along to kin later.


----------



## Member 216

I am almost finished Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson.  Bought it soon after release but never got around to reading it due to numerous relocations.  Quite an interesting read.  For those who have not read it, give it a go.  Good background on how key products and services came to fruition.  One bizarre takeaway:  Steve seemed to cry a lot. at least in the early Apple years.


----------



## Ulenspiegel

Ken Follett Century Trilogy.


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## Clix Pix

lizkat said:


> So I went to put a hold on an ebook version at my library and there's a wait list they estimate at 20 WEEKS.
> 
> Heh.  Might have to spring for a paperback version instead and pass it along to kin later.



Go ahead and spring for the paperback, Liz!   It will be worth it......  I loved the book and it is just delightful.


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## Scepticalscribe

Ulenspiegel said:


> Ken Follett Century Trilogy.




I've read it - and, while interesting - it is nowhere nearly as good as The Pillars Of The Earth, which I think excellent.



Clix Pix said:


> I'm reading the lovely _The Paris Library_, by Janet Skeslien Charles.  It jumps between the Paris of 1939, where a newly-minted French librarian, Odile Soucher,  begins working at the American Library in Paris, and Montana in 1983, where we again meet an older Odile.....   The 1939 segments are particularly interesting, of course, as the author draws us into the growing conflict in Europe and the rise of the Nazis...... The descriptions of how the beautiful city of Paris was altered by fear and worry as residents and tourists alike began to leave or bravely stayed in attempts to try and protect precious homes, loved ones, cherished items.....including -- yes, books, are especially powerful.   For librarians, booklovers and historians alike, this is a novel not to be missed.



Received word that this has arrived; shall pay the library a visit over the coming days to collect it.


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## Deleted member 215

Two books featured in _The New York Review of Books_ (which I just subscribed to a few months ago):

*To Start a War: How the Bush Administration Took America Into Iraq *by Robert Draper

and

*The Free World: Art and Thought in the Cold War* by Louis Menand

I enjoyed Menand's _The Metaphysical Club_, so I think I will like this one too.


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## lizkat

Just now I'm taking another break from my "deep dive" into history of some Central American countries (Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador), and reading a very wonderful piece from the fall 1994 issue of _Paris Review._

(I'm enjoying the deep dive project but have to switch it up with other material because the history of those three countries is not light reading by any means.  To understand completely where the term "banana republic" has actually come from is to weep.)​
The _Paris Review_ piece was the first in their series on the art of editing.









						The Art of Editing No. 1
					

COURTESY OF FARRAR, STRAUS AND GIROUX   Robert Gottlieb is a man of eclectic tastes, and it is difficult to make generalizations about the authors he has worked with or the hundreds of books he has edited. In his years at Simon & Schuster, where he became editor in chief, and as publisher...




					www.theparisreview.org
				




The article was made possible by Larissa MacFarquhar, who conducted interviews with Robert Gottlieb and with people he suggested to her for this project, mostly writers whose works he had edited.   Gottlieb has edited a raft of well known writers at both Simon & Schuster and at Knopf, and is also a past editor of _The New Yorker_. The piece opens with a profile of Gottlieb and then moves on to the interview excerpts, presented as takes from Gottlieb about his interactions on editing in general and sometimes with respect to a particular writer,  interspersed with those writers' takes on their experience in having been edited by Gottlieb.  There was no direct conversation between the writers and Gottlieb for this piece.

It's great fun to read.  Here's a bit from Michael Crichton's recollection of what it was like to have Gottlieb edit his book _The Andromeda Strain:_



> When I sent Bob a draft of _The Andromeda Strain_ --the first book I did for him-- in 1968 he said he would publish it if I would agree to completely rewrite it. I gulped and said OK. He gave me his feelings about what had to happen on the phone, in about twenty minutes. He was very quick. Anyway, I rewrote it completely. He called me up and said, Well, this is good, now you only have to rewrite _half _of it...




And I loved this offering from Toni Morrison:



> I think we erroneously give pride of place to the act of writing rather than the act of reading. People think you just read because you can understand the language, but a certain kind of reading is a very high-level intellectual process. I have such reverence for that kind of sensitive reading—it is not just absorbing things and identifying what’s wrong but a much deeper thing that I can see would be perfectly satisfying. Anyway, this separation is fairly recent: not long ago the great readers _were_ the great writers, the great critics _were_ the great novelists, the great poets _were_ the great translators. People didn’t make these big distinctions about which one was more thrilling than the other.
> 
> Writing for me is just a very sustained process of reading. The only difference is that writing a book might take three or four years, and _I'm _doing it. I never wrote a line until after I became an editor, and only then because I wanted to read something that I couldn’t find. That was the first book I wrote.




Gottlieb on the differences in editing for a magazine vs for a book publisher:



> In book publishing, the editor and the author have the same goal: to make the book as good as it can be and to sell as many copies as possible. In a magazine, it’s a different matter. Of course a magazine editor wants the writing to be as good as possible, but he wants it to be as good as possible _for the magazine_, while the writer wants to preserve his piece’s integrity. At a magazine, the writer can always withdraw his piece, but basically the editor is in charge. In book publishing, editors are the servants of the writers, and if we don’t serve writers well, they leave us.


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## Deleted member 215

I picked up this for free outside the public library last week:

*Virginia Woolf: A Biography* by Quentin Bell






A biography of Virginia Woolf written by her nephew.


----------



## lizkat

TBL said:


> I picked up this for free outside the public library last week:
> 
> *Virginia Woolf: A Biography* by Quentin Bell
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> A biography of Virginia Woolf written by her nephew.




Not gonna be an easy read, that one.


----------



## Clix Pix

Scepticalscribe said:


> I've read it - and, while interesting - it is nowhere nearly as good as The Pillars Of The Earth, which I think excellent.
> 
> 
> Received word that this _[The Paris Library]_ has arrived; shall pay the library a visit over the coming days to collect it.




So, SS, did you enjoy _The Paris Library_?  Or maybe you haven't had a chance to read it yet?


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Clix Pix said:


> So, SS, did you enjoy _The Paris Library_?  Or maybe you haven't had a chance to read it yet?



I've yet to pick it up from the library, and have already carefully put several library books - I spent a few days last week reading books - into my briefcase for return to the library, tomorrow or the next day.

@JamesMike requested my thoughts on The Autumn of The Ace (the concluding volume of the latest trilogy by Louis de Bernieres).

It is the concluding volume of a trilogy (the story of which - over all three books - spans a number of characters and their families over the course of much of the twentieth century), and, as such, perhaps, strikes a sort of (unintentional) elegiac note, a note already strongly alluded to, in the title (The Autumn Of The Ace).

Really, it is a book about farewells, goodbyes, death, dying and making peace with the inevitability of one's own mortality. In fact, I suspect that de Bernieres is not simply saying farewell to the characters in the trilogy, but to characters across his entire oeuvre, for The Autumn Of The Ace slyly references some of his other works, as characters from these books make fleeting (or not so fleeting) cameos, or brief flying visits, where their stories intersect with the stories of the characters in The Autumn Of The Ace.

(For those who have read de Bernieres extensively - and I have - you will recognise characters from Captain Corelli's Mandolin, The Partisan's Daughter, the War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts, and Notwithstanding, as they make their entrances, or make themselves known, fleetingly or otherwise).

Actually, increasingly, I am coming to the conclusion that Louis de Bernieres is one of those authors who has written one exceptional book (Captain Corelli's Mandolin) and nothing else he has written before or since comes close to that masterpiece, where everything came together, and the story, setting and characters all worked perfectly.

The strengths of this book lie in the pleasure of recognising the cross references to his other works, and a genuinely powerful and superb passage where the protagonist (the Ace of the title, he was a hero from the First World War as well as the Second World War) travels to what had become Pakistan after (near the Afghan border) a few years after Indian Independence to bury his brother who had served in the old Frontier Scouts of the Indian Army (of British Imperial India, the Raj), and who had always loved the North West Frontier.

Another strength is the lovely relationship, but far too little space is devoted to it - it is rare enough to see middle aged enduring affection and love depicted anywhere, whereas young love is never short of stories - depicted between a clergyman (also a decorated war hero from the First World War) and his wife, the sister-in-law of the protagonist, who had married the clergyman towards the end of the First World War.

And he depicts male relationships - friendships, relationships, comrades, familes - very well, and is endlessly understanding of - and exceptionally sympathetic to - male short-comings almost irrespective of what they do.

As for short-comings: The entire book is a farewell, whereas most of the characters don't actually die until the story is well underway.

And there is the inescapable fact that ever since de Bernieres went through an acrimonious marriage or relationship breakdown, well over a decade ago, he has struggled with female characters; these days, although he tries hard, he finds it a challenge to write with insight, or empathy, or sympathy, or, at times, even liking, for female characters, whereas he is instinctively sympathetic to his male characters.

Much of the time, he doesn't "get" women, and it becomes clear that he doesn't really actually like them all that much, even when the male characters treat them poorly and with contempt.

So, I'll still read de Bernieres, but I suspect that his best work may be behind him.


----------



## Clix Pix

Huh, that's interesting about not picking up the copy on hold for you yet......my library system sends out the notice that a book is being held for me and I have only a certain time frame within which to pick it up -- I think one week.  If I don't get it within that period, then the book is returned to the owning library and/or put on hold for the next interested reader, if there is one, and that person is notified.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

I have been reading "Blood and Oil - Mohammed Bin Salman's Quest For Global Power" by Bradley Hope and Justin Scheck which is exceedingly good, exceptionally well-researched and both deeply unsettling and extremely thought-provoking.


----------



## Deleted member 215

Just picked up:

*Ravelstein* by Saul Bellow

Bellow's final novel. A fictionalized account of his friendship with Straussian professor and philosopher Allan Bloom.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

TBL said:


> Just picked up:
> 
> *Ravelstein* by Saul Bellow
> 
> Bellow's final novel. A fictionalized account of his friendship with Straussian professor and philosopher Allan Bloom.




While I cannot claim to have read exhaustively of the works of Saul Bellow,, (and I haven't read Ravelstein), I have read several of his books, and - to my mind - Herzog is his best book by far.


----------



## lizkat

August beach-read times are just about running out the clock now, so I'm starting to gather up additions to an already long list of "what's next?"  --although I'm extending my 2021 summer's "deep dive" into Central American history and literature into the autumn.  Even paring down that idea to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador wouldn't let me fit that project into a single season, although I did knew that back in the spring. Also, as far as the history goes, it's not light reading, to say the least.   So there will be tendrils from that project heading into the future, same as with some of my other summer focus projects, e.g. Caribbean fiction, South Asian fiction etc.  With the latter I ended up "in" Sri Lanka for the season and the rest of that map's literature still awaits attention. 

Anyway the  American Book Awards for 2021 have just been announced, so I will be looking over reviews of those pretty soon.   Sometimes books I end up adding to my own sprawling reading lists are not the subject of a particular book review but rather the references to other books and writers recalled by the reviewer.   That's why I usually start with reviews and not the books themselves when an awarding organization announces its long lists, short lists or winners.

Anyway just now aside from both beach reads and the Central American explorations,  I've spent weeks on and off reading Chang-Rae Lee's *My Year Abroad*, which densely layered tome I found jaw-dropping, obsessive, fascinating, loathsome, delicious, hilarious, appalling...  

​
Kept putting it down and picking it up again,  despite occasionally thinking I only admired it because I couldn't stay aware of its mechanics at all, it just drew me in, even if I hated assorted themes or scenarios.  Who'd have thought such a long book could be such a page turner. It really is long though and I did stay aware of that.  A few times I laughed to remember a remark by one of my brothers when I was reading Pynchon's _*Gravity's Rainbow*_:  "You must be one of the few people actually gonna make it to the end of that thing."  Lee's book is not _that_ long, but it did have its uphill moments for me.

Back to my beach reads.  This next batch self-destructs off my iPad in 4 to 11 days... a few South Florida Carl Hiaasen novels and a couple other things I picked without much investigation from my library's list of "available now" selections...


----------



## Scepticalscribe

"Scoff - A History of Food and Class in Britain" - by Pen Vogler.

Interesting, informative, witty, and full of fascinating, intriguing, and sometimes unexpected insights.


----------



## lizkat

Still wrapping up my beach reads but put them on pause long enough to fish out from my ebook archives a couple books by Steve Coll about the USA and its involvement in the wars(s) in Afghanistan. 

The earlier of the two books is _*Ghost Wars*_,  about the so many covert international players in Afghanistan during the then Soviet Union's eventually disastrous adventures there. The later one carries the title  _*Directorate S*_, which is an agency of Pakistan's intelligence services, and which has engaged for years with the Taliban to its own domestic benefit, but knew it risked getting burned by the experience. Now of course Pakistan has sorta won the doorprize, which is a house afire...

 Both books were pretty good reads, and  I want to read them again now with some hindsight applied...


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Visited the library today, returned some books, and collected a few that had been held for me.

These included The Paris Library, by Janet Skeslien Charles, as recommended on these threads by @Clix Pix, and The Fall of Carthage, by Adrian Goldsworthy, as recommended by @yaxomoxay.


----------



## Clix Pix

Enjoy!!!  I'll be interested in hearing what you think of _The Paris Library_.....


----------



## Huntn

Just finished *Count Zero* (1986, William Gibson)- Second book of the Sprawl Trilogy. This is a very enjoyable cyberpunk story, better than *Neuromancer* (first book) although that was good too. It's amazing what this author writes about considering the state of computers and the internet when he wrote it. He really has the imagination to make this intriguing and thought provoking.

The only significant comment I have is that when he writes about cyberspace, it more akin to Virtual Reality, but you are connected in such a way that harm, even death can be incurred if you get yourself into a bad spot. The idea of SimStims is very cool. This is when you are linked to someone's brain or a recording of their brain, and you experiencing all of the senses they experience. The game Cyberpunk 2077, that came out this year features something like this, so Gibson was ahead of his time.


​


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## User.45

Huntn said:


> Just finished *Count Zero* (1986, William Gibson)- Second book of the Sprawl Trilogy. This is a very enjoyable cyberpunk story, better than *Neuromancer* (first book) although that was good too. It's amazing what this author writes about considering the state of computers and the internet when he wrote it. He really has the imagination to make this intriguing and thought provoking.
> 
> The only significant comment I have is that when he writes about cyberspace, it more akin to Virtual Reality, but you are connected in such a way that harm, even death can be incurred if you get yourself into a bad spot. The idea of SimStims is very cool. This is when you are linked to someone's brain or a recording of their brain, and you experiencing all of the senses they experience. The game Cyberpunk 2077, that came out this year features something like this, so Gibson was ahead of his time.
> 
> View attachment 8641​



I liked this book probably the most of the 3. But Mona Lisa Overdrive takes it all to another level. The Matrix "borrowed" a lot from these stories, but the main essence that is revealed in MLO never really made it into Matrix.


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## Scepticalscribe

I know that some who post here are rather partial to scifi/fantasy.

In recent years, I have devoured the works of Elizabeth Moon (and far prefer her space worlds - the Serrano/Suiza series, and the Vatta series, to her 'medieval' fantasy Paksenarrion series and its sequels) but, in the past week, I have come across - and am reading my way through - the Vorkosigan Saga/world of Lois McMaster Bujold.

This is outstanding stuff; absolutely superb: Terrific writing, wit, superlative characters - along with some exceptionally well written female characters - (and character development), excellent world building and wonderful stories, and narrative arcs.


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## lizkat

Rather than forging on today with my read of an informative if rather daunting book (Christophe Jaffrelot's *Modi's India: Hindu Nationalism and the Rise of Ethnic Democracy*), I've managed instead to revisit --not for the first time-- some of the chapters I had bookmarked in William Dalrymple's fascinating _*White Mughals*_.

That Dalrymple book is a careful recounting of relationships across conventional ethnic and religious boundaries in pre-Victorian India, and in particular the (not very) secret marriage of Hyderabad's then British resident minister James Achilles Kirkpatrick and Khair-un-Nissa, the granddaughter of Hyderabad's then prime minister, a member of the Muslim Nizam dynasty then overseeing a mostly Hindu populace.

I really enjoy reading Dalrymple's books, he's one of those relatively rare historians whose research can't be faulted but who writes with the ear and eye of a compelling novelist.    His latest book, _*The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company,*_ happens to be my current audiobook choice, so I guess I'm transporting myself to India all the way around lately.


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## lizkat

OK, I confess to having bought Woodward's _*Peril.*_ But I got the audiobook, so I'll likely sleep through at least half of it. Anyway this book doesn't sound like one of the ones that will actually keep me awake to point I have to give it up as bedtime story material and listen to it in the daytime. Some reviews suggest the book is a tedious slog now and then. Great, that sounds like an audiobook that will do its job and put me to sleep inside of five minutes. I rather suspect whichever reviewers found it boring just don't like the detail that Woodward's research lets him provide.


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## ronntaylor

Currently reading 4/5 books. But the most intriguing one right now is: *Battle for the Soul: Inside the Democrats' Campaigns to Defeat ----- *by Edward-Isaac Dovere). Not what I expected. Thought it would detail the concerted effort to beat the Mango Motherfucker. It's more about how each candidate/campaign tried to win the nomination to wind up in battle against the treasonous SOB. I would never trust another reporter or any staffers with any info were I a pol. Too many secrets and cheap shots detailed that you know it came directly from sources with loose lips.


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## Deleted member 215

Decided it's high time I read *On the Road* by Jack Kerouac

Reactions to this book seem to be all over the place, with much of the modern reaction being quite negative. It seems to be a mix of reaction against the writing style as well as a general negative reaction toward books about people who shun "normal life" and try and "find themselves" as being selfish, pretentious, and phony (which I think some of the time reflects a projected dissatisfaction with conventional life rather than any genuine assessment of such a lifestyle as "selfish" for one's decision not to have kids and "settle down"--the reaction is often even stronger when it's a woman's story). I also have heard criticisms about his outdated racial comments. Not always a good idea to go into a book knowing so much about it and having all these expectations/prejudices. Nonetheless, I will try and set all this aside and evaluate the book honestly.


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## Scepticalscribe

TBL said:


> Decided it's high time I read *On the Road* by Jack Kerouac
> 
> Reactions to this book seem to be all over the place, with much of the modern reaction being quite negative. It seems to be a mix of reaction against the writing style as well as a general negative reaction toward books about people who shun "normal life" and try and "find themselves" as being selfish, pretentious, and phony (which I think some of the time reflects a projected dissatisfaction with conventional life rather than any genuine assessment of such a lifestyle as "selfish" for one's decision not to have kids and "settle down"--the reaction is often even stronger when it's a woman's story). I also have heard criticisms about his outdated racial comments. Not always a good idea to go into a book knowing so much about it and having all these expectations/prejudices. Nonetheless, I will try and set all this site and evaluate the book honestly.




Books that come freighted with a weighty reputation have a lot to live up to, agreed.

I recall that I approached Wuthering Heights with similar trepidation (and found it superlative; it was every bit as good as its reputation suggested).

On The Road strikes me as being one of those books (The Catcher In The Rye is another) that are possibly perfect - the kind of book that seems as though it speaks to you - if you read it at the "right age" (right for you).

I read The Catcher In The Rye one night, curled up on a sofa, when I was teaching, - I was in my late 20s, - and that was the night I realised that I was no longer an adolescent (in my mind), for - to my surprise - I loathed Holden Caulfield, whereas, at 15, it is entirely possible that I would have identified strongly with him.

Anyway, I read On The Road in my very early twenties - while still a student, a student friend (who adored it) gave it to me to read - and I thought, okay, interesting, but it didn't set me alight with that fierce joy that some other books, (for example, I read Alexander Solzhenitsyn's The First Circle around the same time, and that blew me away) did.

Perhaps the setting, the story, and the style didn't appeal; or, perhaps, because I am European, and not American, I just didn't "get" it.  Or, perhaps, I was the wrong age to "get" it.

Moreover, these days, I know myself well enough now to realise - and to be able to admit, freely - that that sort of mid century, American, male, writing is just not my literary cup of tea (but I didn't know it then, and wouldn't have had the confidence to challenge that 'canon' at the time).

However, I did think that Herzog, by Saul Bellow, was excellent.


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## Deleted member 215

I admit I'm not such a fan of Norman Mailer and some of that "manly" writing of the mid-century. And maybe this book won't give me "fierce joy" (few books do--but the ones that do I can't stop recommending) but I hope I can at least understand why it's become such a classic. 

I haven't yet read Herzog, though I've read several of Bellow's works thus far. I think I will have to read that next.


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## Joe

Amazon just released new kindle paperwhites for release next month.


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## Scepticalscribe

TBL said:


> I admit I'm not such a fan of Norman Mailer and some of that "manly" writing of the mid-century. And maybe this book won't give me "fierce joy" (few books do--but the ones that do I can't stop recommending) but I hope I can at least understand why it's become such a classic.
> 
> I haven't yet read Herzog, though I've read several of Bellow's works thus far. I think I will have to read that next.




Personally, I think that Herzog is Saul Bellow's best book by far (I've read a few others), much as East of Eden is (to my mind) John Steinbeck's masterpiece.  

Agree about being unable to stop recommending - passionately - the books that have given one what I have described as "fierce joy".


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## JamesMike

One of the books I’m reading is ‘The Bears Ears’ by David Roberts, an excellent read so far.  It is The Bears Ears National Monument in southeastern Utah, created by President Obama and the efforts to save it.  It contains more archaeological sites than any other region in the United States.


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## lizkat

JamesMike said:


> One of the books I’m reading is ‘The Bears Ears’ by David Roberts, an excellent read so far.  It is The Bears Ears National Monument in southeastern Utah, created by President Obama and the efforts to save it.  It contains more archaeological sites than any other region in the United States.




The Trump admin had cut protection of Bears Ears down to 200k acres from 1.6 million, likely to allow for development or expedited use of natural resources.   Of course that move drew lawsuits from a lot of environmental organizations and some  Native American tribes as well, although the Navajos apparently did not want the larger acreage to fall under federal management due to some religious freedom issues.  Biden admin was looking into restoring the larger boundaries of protection.  It's been in the news recently again.









						Some Indigenous groups worry a larger Bears Ears National Monument would limit access to ritual space
					

As the daughter of a nonagenarian Navajo medicine woman, Ana Tom is used to long road trips. Tom supports her mother Betty Jones’ role as a traditional healer by taking her far from San Juan County to look for rare herbs for use in various traditional medicines important for Navajo rituals.




					www.sltrib.com
				




Anyway I didn't realize there was a book on it.  I will like to read that. Thanks for mentioning.


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## Scepticalscribe

The Paris Library - Janet Skeslien Charles.


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## Scepticalscribe

I spent all of today reading The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles.

And thoroughly enjoyed it, a wonderfully warm, beautifully written, intelligent, interesting, simpatico, yet bittersweet work.

I love that sort of reading - where you can lose yourself completely in a book (a real book, one with covers, and pages, and wonderfully made from paper), - something which this book actually celebrates - no computers or noise, or sounds, or TV or other unwanted or unwelcome distractions.

Just you, and a book, and the world that this welcoming books has created for you, one which you are invited to enter by the simple act of opening its covers and beginning to read.


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## lizkat

Clix Pix said:


> Enjoy!!!  I'll be interested in hearing what you think of _The Paris Library_.....




Hallelujah, I see that the wait time to borrow the ebook version of _The Paris Library_ isn't 20 weeks any more. Now it's just.... sigh... 12 weeks. At least that doesn't sound quite like a lifetime.

(and yes, I should have just sprung for the paperback but now I'll join the wait-list and expect to get the ebook in hand by mid-January)


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## Clix Pix

It's worth waiting for!  A lovely read on a cold winter's day......


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## Scepticalscribe

Clix Pix said:


> It's worth waiting for!  A lovely read on a cold winter's day......



Agreed.

The sort of story one can completely lose oneself in, not just skim.


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## Deleted member 215

I've picked up *The Paris Library* after hearing all the positive reception here. 

Also on queue are *Beautiful World, Where Are You?* by Sally Rooney and *The Temple of the Golden Pavilion* by Yukio Mishima.


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## lizkat

Reading Neel Mukherjee's  *A State of Freedom*. Brutal, fascinating, and I think only a writer who's been among or spent time with the poorest of the poor gets some of those details right: extreme compression of hope or expectations, limitless options for punishment and unwelcome discoveries absorbed into a framework for achieving competence in sheer survival, even allowing unexpected advancement or happiness to occur without optimism. Not for the faint of heart and I've had to put the book aside a few times, but not because I don't want to finish it. I have it from the library but am tempted to purchase it for its portrayals of character, class struggle, human nature.


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## User.191

I gave up on Neal Stephenson's *Seveneves*.

The first two parts were brilliant bordering on boring - his constant desire to drone on and on about travel in zero G gravity was spoilt by his total lack of applying real life thought as to the population of the space station.

Then the whole nonsense of the 7 Eve's all maintain the exact same 'strengths' over 1500 years felt very antiquated to me.

And the whole attempt to describe the space station 5,000 years alter - a station that once described is never seen of again, seemed laborious at best.

A shame because I've thoroughly enjoyed many of his other works.

Now on Stephen King's *Mr Mercedes* - a quite different tale from a man who also sometimes likes to drone on and on. Thankfully this story feels much lighter in comparison and I'm finding myself enjoying it more.


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## lizkat

Reading for the second time a New Yorker piece on yet another of poet Anne Carson's considerations of Herakles / Hercules, in her latest offering,  _*H of H Playbook*.    _Just the review is fascinating. I swore off book buying this fall but have to admit this one made the list for next time I succumb to temptation, and it will be because of Casey Cep's review.









						Anne Carson’s Obsession with Herakles
					

In “H of H Playbook,” the poet considers war, guilt, and the mythological strongman.




					www.newyorker.com
				






> The language sounds more Carsonian with every syllable, both in its wit and in the way it ignores eras as easily as genres, as if recognizing that the whole of history exists in our minds simultaneously with whatever happened yesterday and what we think might happen tomorrow. That is why Herakles wears overalls—OshKosh B’gods, basically. His divinity is draped over him protectively but not entirely, a provocation reminding us that the problem of Herakles is the same as the central problem of Christology: Is he fully man, fully divine, or fully both? But he also wears overalls because the present and the past intermingle freely here; the ancient hero steals a Corvette, misquotes Percy Bysshe Shelley, and uses a G.P.S. to navigate both the world and the underworld.






> In addition to “Grief Lessons” and “H of H,” Carson has told [Herakles'] story on at least two other occasions, in “Autobiography of Red” and its sequel of sorts, “Red Doc>,” in which Herakles is known as Sad But Great, or Sad, for short. “H of H” opens on Amphitryon exiting an Airstream trailer, and the Theban general delivers a monologue that makes plain right away that we aren’t in Athens anymore: “By a thread hangs our fate. / H of H is late. / We are suppliants at an altar / being hounded by the totalitarian cracker / who’s seized power.” The rest of his lines spill across a few pages, tiny scraps of pasted text that seem to slow down, as if the words were pacing the way the actor might onstage. “What’s it like to wear an eternal Olympian overall” appears on the verso side; “held up by the burning straps of” on the recto side; then, on the next set of pages, a handwritten question—“mortal shortfall?” This appears opposite a drawing of a pair of denim overalls, charming in its rough simplicity and incongruous against the meta text beside it: “Dumb rhyme / for a complexity more sublime / than the self can ordinarily bear.”






> When Theseus finally arrives, he sounds alternately like Harold Bloom and Andy Warhol, quoting Melville on the sperm whale and then trying to convince Herakles that his penance can take the form of a lion-print T-shirt: “You wear it, you shoot yourself, I sell it, say Sotheby’s, bullet hole and all.” No modern interpreter has better understood Herakles’ role in his culture, or has offered a more striking rendition of the enduring problem of fame.


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## lizkat

All this talk of Florida in assorted other threads has brought me to a closer look at a couple of books languishing in the "samples" category in my Books app for awhile now.   One is Kent Russell's I*n the Land of Good Living: a Journey to the Heart of Florida* -- an account of his and two buddies' intended film docu of a walking adventure through the state in all its variety of terrain and culture-- and the other is a collection of short stories by Lauren Groff simply titled _*Florida*_. I'm more likely to pick up the Groff book rather than the other one, when done w/ the samples, but I've heard that Russell's book is both hilarious and heartbreaking. Hope I can find them at the library.

Both these escapes will become part of my annual plod to the return of the light, through yet another late November and early December.  It's a time of year that makes me wish I could beam myself to Ecuador or Northern Brazil for just those few weeks of the year.   I grow impatient for longer days already.   5pm pitch darkness makes me crazy.


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## Scepticalscribe

lizkat said:


> All this talk of Florida in assorted other threads has brought me to a closer look at a couple of books languishing in the "samples" category in my Books app for awhile now.   One is Kent Russell's I*n the Land of Good Living: a Journey to the Heart of Florida* -- an account of his and two buddies' intended film docu of a walking adventure through the state in all its variety of terrain and culture-- and the other is a collection of short stories by Lauren Groff simply titled _*Florida*_. I'm more likely to pick up the Groff book rather than the other one, when done w/ the samples, but I've heard that Russell's book is both hilarious and heartbreaking. Hope I can find them at the library.
> 
> Both these escapes will become part of my annual plod to the return of the light, through yet another late November and early December.  It's a time of year that makes me wish I could beam myself to Ecuador or Northern Brazil for just those few weeks of the year.   I grow impatient for longer days already.   5pm pitch darkness makes me crazy.




I love reading stories about - or set in - countries (and cultures) with warm climates, especially in winter, for some strange, inexpicable reason.  Probably to do with a desire to escape to these climes.

Have you ever read "My Name Is Red" by Orhan Pamuk?  

I recall that I loved it, when I first read it almost twenty years ago.


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## lizkat

Scepticalscribe said:


> I love reading stories about - or set in - countries (and cultures) with warm climates, especially in winter, for some strange, inexpicable reason.  Probably to do with a desire to escape to these climes.
> 
> Have you ever read "My Name Is Red" by Orhan Pamuk?
> 
> I recall that I loved it, when I first read it almost twenty years ago.




I didn't start with that one by Pamuk but went to it later after reading some of his other works.   I almost set it aside at the very beginning, but glad I persevered or else would never have discovered the fine chapter not too far along from that, the one called "I Am a Dog".  Wow.  Tangents on tangents like a kaleidoscope of ideas.  Then of course I could not put it down.    But he writes often of the cold in Istanbul, so aside from countless references to warming up with a coffee, not sure I'd fancy his novels in winter!


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## Scepticalscribe

lizkat said:


> I didn't start with that one by Pamuk but went to it later after reading some of his other works.   I almost set it aside at the very beginning, but glad I persevered or else would never have discovered the fine chapter not too far along from that, the one called "I Am a Dog".  Wow.  Tangents on tangents like a kaleidoscope of ideas.  Then of course I could not put it down.    But he writes often of the cold in Istanbul, so aside from countless references to warming up with a coffee, not sure I'd fancy his novels in winter!




In fairness, "cold", or the concept of cold, is relative, especially in Istanbul.

I think - in all of the many missions, years, trips, and travels, I experienced, and I have travelled through that city a lot (all of my trips to Georgia, when I worked there with the EU, and Afghanistan, and Somalia/Kenya - when I also worked with the EU, and observing elections in places such as Kyrgyzstan - all transited through Istanbul) - and over-nighted there a lot - over the past decade and a half, though not in the past two years, alas - through that city, I have only once, ever, seen snow (and that so surprised the authorities at the airport in Istanbul, that it took them a little longer than expected to set up the machines, and consequent queue, for de-iceing the wings of the planes, something I had a stunning view of, as I had treated myself to Business Class and watched, rapt, as the machines - and planes - were put through their paces; it was wonderful.)

Granted, I hadn't visited Istanbul when I first read Pamuk; but, it remains one of my favourite cities.   And my parents loved it, too.


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## BigMcGuire

The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth by Thomas Morris. The way the book is written took a bit of getting used to. I’m 30% done and finding it fairly interesting.


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## yaxomoxay

*The Name of the Rose / Il Nome della Rosa (1981) by Umberto Eco. *

The Name of the Rose is probably my favorite novel, and it’s certainly one of my “comfort” readings. Written in Italian (which I can read) by Doctor Umberto Eco, a leading expert in semiotics, this lengthy book might be considered one of the most multi-angled novels ever written. Just to give you an idea, this book about books that talk about other books, spawned quite a few books that try to explain many of its layers. Almost an impossible task if you ask me, rendered more difficult by the extreme quantity of Latin phrases which deeply interlace with conceptual points within the plot.

The main plot is deceptively easy to understand. In 1327 a British Franciscan monk, William of Baskerville, and a novice, Adso of Melk, are invited to a Benedictine monastery in Italy to supervise a meeting about the great question on the Church’s pauperism. On their arrival by horse, they find out that the Benedictine monks are shocked by the death of one of their peers. Hence, the mystery starts.

The novel is written with the pretense that it’s a manuscript written by Adso of Melk that has been found in the 1900’s. The similarities with Sherlock Holmes and his friend Watson are not random, including the Baskerville reference.

The novel, however is not a murder mystery. I mean, it is, but the mystery is just the upper layer of this work. Underneath it, there are more subjects that are integral to the novel and, with it, Western philosophy and thought in general.

Also interesting are the levels of abstractions with it. I mentioned earlier that the book is about books that talk about other books. I mentioned that the book is written with the pretense of being an old manuscript. The result is that the reader is holding a book that talks about a book, and that book talks about other books. The referenced books talk about other books. This is obviously a play on Borges’ abstractions and a reflection of our own personal knowledge.

The book obviously discusses also the Church, its goodness and its sins. Its history and its dreadful behavior. It goes into the topic of love, sex, sexual desire, and more and more.

Ultimately the book touches on existentialism; take it as you see fit but the great Question of existence is meant to stay with us. However, that “us”, will not stay with  the Question as we will inevitably die. And one day, even the mere memory of us will die. At most, what will remain of us, or of the next leaders, emperors, kings, presidents, will just be the name. That name will be completely naked of any sign of existence. That name will be just an ethereal abstraction re-interpreted through the ages. 

One word of note. As the writer explains in his addendum, the first 100 pages or so are meant to eliminate readers. They are long, with long setups, with long explanations. Only those that will get through the 100 pages will have a chance to enjoy the rest of the book and even love it, as I do.

Further note, each time I read this book I recall memories of the past - like the characters of this book, now gone. I used to see Dr Umberto Eco relatively often as he had a house in my old neighborhood. He was always kind and I was sorry about his passing.


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## Deleted member 215

I loved _The Name of the Rose_. Umberto Eco is one of my favorite authors and I've read all his novels as well as some of his non-fiction. That's amazing that you got to meet him.


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## Scepticalscribe

yaxomoxay said:


> *The Name of the Rose / Il Nome della Rosa (1981) by Umberto Eco. *
> 
> The Name of the Rose is probably my favorite novel, and it’s certainly one of my “comfort” readings. Written in Italian (which I can read) by Doctor Umberto Eco, a leading expert in semiotics, this lengthy book might be considered one of the most multi-angled novels ever written. Just to give you an idea, this book about books that talk about other books, spawned quite a few books that try to explain many of its layers. Almost an impossible task if you ask me, rendered more difficult by the extreme quantity of Latin phrases which deeply interlace with conceptual points within the plot.
> 
> The main plot is deceptively easy to understand. In 1327 a British Franciscan monk, William of Baskerville, and a novice, Adso of Melk, are invited to a Benedictine monastery in Italy to supervise a meeting about the great question on the Church’s pauperism. On their arrival by horse, they find out that the Benedictine monks are shocked by the death of one of their peers. Hence, the mystery starts.
> 
> The novel is written with the pretense that it’s a manuscript written by Adso of Melk that has been found in the 1900’s. The similarities with Sherlock Holmes and his friend Watson are not random, including the Baskerville reference.
> 
> The novel, however is not a murder mystery. I mean, it is, but the mystery is just the upper layer of this work. Underneath it, there are more subjects that are integral to the novel and, with it, Western philosophy and thought in general.
> 
> Also interesting are the levels of abstractions with it. I mentioned earlier that the book is about books that talk about other books. I mentioned that the book is written with the pretense of being an old manuscript. The result is that the reader is holding a book that talks about a book, and that book talks about other books. The referenced books talk about other books. This is obviously a play on Borges’ abstractions and a reflection of our own personal knowledge.
> 
> The book obviously discusses also the Church, its goodness and its sins. Its history and its dreadful behavior. It goes into the topic of love, sex, sexual desire, and more and more.
> 
> Ultimately the book touches on existentialism; take it as you see fit but the great Question of existence is meant to stay with us. However, that “us”, will not stay with  the Question as we will inevitably die. And one day, even the mere memory of us will die. At most, what will remain of us, or of the next leaders, emperors, kings, presidents, will just be the name. That name will be completely naked of any sign of existence. That name will be just an ethereal abstraction re-interpreted through the ages.
> 
> One word of note. As the writer explains in his addendum, the first 100 pages or so are meant to eliminate readers. They are long, with long setups, with long explanations. Only those that will get through the 100 pages will have a chance to enjoy the rest of the book and even love it, as I do.
> 
> Further note, each time I read this book I recall memories of the past - like the characters of this book, now gone. I used to see Dr Umberto Eco relatively often as he had a house in my old neighborhood. He was always kind and I was sorry about his passing.



Ah, I loved that book, a brillliant book.

And, as you so rightly say, the murder/mystery thriller format was a vehicle for the deeper philosophical (and theological) discussions and explorations that this format also allowed.

But, and this is also important in light of its extraordinary reputation, the book works exceptionally well on both levels.

That is, it works as a series of (sometimes quite challenging, quite provocative, and quite compelling) philosophical explorations, *and* as a genuinely intriguing murder mystery/thriller, - a narrative architecture, a framework that allows for it to work on several levels, and for the tale to be tied together - and this is something that is not altogether easy to achieve.

Actually, the chapters where William and Adso finally manage to gain entrance to the library are absolutely gripping, some seriously superb, nail-biting writing.

I have the original (first edition) English translation in hardback; it is still on my shelves, and some of the leaves are loose (that book was read a number of times).

Anyway, I was an undergrad at the time it was published and I recall the book having been recommended (passionately) to me by a German boy with whom I was friendly during a spell in Germany the summer it came out, which meant that I kept a close eye out for the English translation when it finally appeared.

Actually, I also remember that this was 'the book' of the year among some of my professors, who would tease one another over coffee with languid questions of the lines of, "Well, how's your Latin, old boy? Been able to brush it up sufficiently to tackle The Name of the Rose?"


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## yaxomoxay

TBL said:


> I loved _The Name of the Rose_. Umberto Eco is one of my favorite authors and I've read all his novels as well as some of his non-fiction. That's amazing that you got to meet him.





Scepticalscribe said:


> Ah, I loved that book, a brillliant book.
> 
> And, as you so rightly say the murder/mystery thriller format was a vehicle for the deeper philosophical discussions and explorations that this format also permitted.
> 
> But, and this is also important in light of its extraordinary reputation, the book works exceptionally well on both levels.
> 
> That is, it works as a series of (sometimes quite challenging, quite provocative, and quite compelling) philosophical explorations, *and* as a genuinely intriguing murder mystery/thriller, - a narrative architecture, a framework that allows for it to work on several levels, and for the tale to be tied together - and this is something that is not altogether easy to achieve.
> 
> Actually, the chapters where William and Adso finally manage to gain entrance to the library are absolutely gripping, some seriously superb, nail-biting writing.
> 
> I have the original (first edition) English translation in hardback; it is still on my shelves, and some of the leaves are loose (that book was read a number of times).
> 
> Anyway, I was an undergrad at the time it was published and I recall the book having been recommended (passionately) to me by a German boy with whom I was friendly during a spell in Germany the summer it came out, which meant that I kept a close eye out for the English translation when it finally appeared.
> 
> Actually, I also remember that this was 'the book' of the year among some of my professors, who would tease one another over coffee with languid questions of the lines of, "Well, how's your Latin, old boy? Been able to brush it up sufficiently to tackle The Name of the Rose?"



@Scepticalscribe very true! The novel touches so many subject (faith vs reason, history, economy etc) that the reader will discover new things after each reading, all while the mystery remains interesting and a nail biter. (Oh yes, the library and how I’d love to visit such a place…)

@TBL same here. I’ve read all his novels. The only one I didn’t like is The Island of the Day Before, however I’ve read it once over twenty years ago so I might give it another try. On the other hand, Baudolino is one of the finest, craziest novels I’ve ever read. However, I think that Foucault’s Pendulum is one of the most ingenious novels ever written… and one of the most brutal novels to read. I plan to read it again, especially since now we live in this age of conspiracy theories / earth is flat / and the book deals with them in a fantastic manner.


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## Scepticalscribe

Terciel & Elinor - by Garth Nix.


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## lizkat

_*Rethinking Prokofiev*_: A book that's a wonderfully collaborative effort to look anew at the life, music and writings of Sergei Prokofiev, from his earliest Russian influences through his times of exposure to western European and then American music and culture, then back to the then Soviet Union. There he was unfortunately denied further visas and so had to work out ways --sometimes only with the assistance of politically well placed contemporaries-- to walk the fences between his creative explorations and political pressures of the times behind the Iron Curtain. The contributors have managed to avail themselves of research materials (some relatively recently released) managed by the composer's estate or by archival entities in the USA, Russia, Paris and elsewhere. The materials include musical fragments and previously unpublished versions of some of Prokofiev's own works along with voluminous diaries maintained by the composer.

  In reading a preview of the book,  I went through the extensive notes about the credentials of the 20 contributors, and decided I could not pass this book up.  Thanks to some of the references (for better or worse per Prokofiev's often very bluntly stated views on the works of other Russians as well as more western influences) I am ending up doing some listening with new ears too, not just to Prokofiev but to the likes of Shostakovich, Diaghilev, Scriabin, Tchaikovsky, Borodin, Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky, Poulenc...   

Apple Music and Spotify are coming in handier than ever as I could never afford to buy some of the recordings just to understand better some of the points made in the book:   about older and newer views of Prokofiev's own works, views held by Russians and by Americans -- in not only music but theatre and film.    The book offers newly reactive and exploratory takes of younger people looking at the fresh research material, the original works, the older reviews and recordings, all set in context of the ever shifting worlds of the arts and politics up through current times.


​


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## sgtaylor5

Ordered "Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order" by Ray Dalio. It should be here in a few weeks.

I’m attracted to big picture economic and political analysis books, even though I’m just a normal guy with no hands on any levers of power.

Left ebooks and am recreating my library slowly with real books, usually using Thriftbooks, but this one is brand new.


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## Huntn

I just finished William Gibson’s Cyberpunk Sprawl Trilogy, *Neuromancer*, *Count Zero*, and *Mona Lisa Overdrive*. Yes, it took me forever as usual with my book reading these days.  I recommend this series with caveats, it is well written, but not monumental, but it is intriguing, especially when considering when it is written and my understanding it is regarded as by the father of cyberpunk, even though at the end the story fizzles, leaving you wanting more, like a real ending.


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## JamesMike

I’m reading ‘The Dark Hours’ by Michael Connelly, it is Ballard/Bosch series.  It is a good read which I expect from Connelly.


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## Huntn

I just started the *Mistborn Trilogy* and it off to a very promising start.

​








						THE MISTBORN® SAGA - THE ORIGINAL TRILOGY | Brandon Sanderson
					

<br />




					www.brandonsanderson.com


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## ronntaylor

Currently revisiting the start of our national nightmare with *Midnight in Washington* by Adam Schiff. Always fantastic to read about the turd that was president of these here United States.



> From the congressman who led the first impeachment of Donald J. Trump, the vital inside account of American democracy in its darkest hour, and a warning that the forces of autocracy unleashed by Trump remain as potent as ever.
> 
> _“If there is still an American democracy fifty years from now, historians will be very grateful for this highly personal and deeply informed guide to one of its greatest crises. We should be grateful that we can read it now.”_—Timothy Snyder, #1 New York Times bestselling author of *On Tyranny*



I actually forgot some of the batshit crazy shenanigans by Mango and his sycophants. Currently reading the part about Devin Nunes carrying water for Mango weeks after he soiled the assumed office.


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## Scepticalscribe

Huntn said:


> I just started the *Mistborn Trilogy* and it off to a very promising start.
> 
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> www.brandonsanderson.com



An excellent trilogy, but, to my mind, the first book is brilliant.

By itself, it - that is, the first book - stands alone, - for, one major narrative arc has been completed, or come to a natural conclusion,  - and it is a genuinely gripping, well-paced tale, with terrific world-building, some great ideas, an amazing (and entirely original) system of magic, some wonderful characters, evil but elegant aristocrats, an appalling and powerful pseudo-divinity as the (primary) antagonist, and a fantastic - a truly superb - female protagonist.


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## Scepticalscribe

Huntn said:


> I just started the *Mistborn Trilogy* and it off to a very promising start.
> 
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I love the contrast between the elegance of the dinners/dances in the aristocratic "keeps" and the skulking, planning and plotting - not to mention the teaching and mentoring - of other parts of the story.

And, an aside, Sanderson does good fights, - actually, excellent fights - a sort of Baroque burst of pure violence - as well.   

And, the heroes aren't improbably unscathed, either.

To my mind, the first book is by far the best of the trilogy.  

I'll be interested to read your reactions.


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## chengengaun

_Lights Out: Pride, Delusion and the Fall of General Electric_. Still less than halfway through the book, but so far the emphasis seems to be on GE Capital. Will be interesting to see if there is discussion of GE Power.


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## Deleted member 215

Just picked up at the bookstore:

*The Writing of the Gods: The Race to Decode the Rosetta Stone* by Edward Dolnick


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## lizkat

ronntaylor said:


> Currently revisiting the start of our national nightmare with *Midnight in Washington* by Adam Schiff. Always fantastic to read about the turd that was president of these here United States.
> 
> 
> I actually forgot some of the batshit crazy shenanigans by Mango and his sycophants. Currently reading the part about Devin Nunes carrying water for Mango weeks after he soiled the assumed office.




I got the audiobook version of _*Midnight in Washington*_, and Schiff's narration is one of the relatively few exceptions to my usual opinion that  publishers should discourage authors from performing professional narrations.  Schiff is always a good listen on TV, e.g. in the impeachment hearings,  and I find him equally so in this audiobook

But, and unsurprisingly, the book didn't put me to sleep when I tried listening to it at night for half an hour max every night.   It's been one to listen to downstairs in the daytime,  at lunch or on a coffee break instead.  And yes, I'm enjoying the sparks of recognition in Schiff's recounting of some of the insane antics of the prior admin and still-current GOP.  At the time they occurred,  I was mostly just rolling eyes and trying not to let the Trump crew's gaslighting get to me.  Now I'm like "oh yeah I remember that, that was CRAZY."


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## ronntaylor

lizkat said:


> Schiff's narration is one of the relatively few exceptions to my usual opinion that publishers should discourage authors from performing professional narrations.



I am not fond of audiobooks. They always put me to sleep. Doesn't matter if it's fiction, nonfiction, history, etc. But I may give a 2nd listening once I finish reading the print version. I'll have some time at the end of the year, beginning of the year and plan to really relax and chill. My book reading this year has fallen off. A friend suggested trying audiobooks again.


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## JamesMike

Started reading John LeCarré's Silverview, I believe it is his last book before passing away.


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## Scepticalscribe

JamesMike said:


> Started reading John LeCarré's Silverview, I believe it is his last book before passing away.




Let me know what you think of it, and do enjoy.


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## lizkat

Reading something well and truly left over by now from my 2020 summer's "deep dive" into literature in translation and issues encountered by the translators and authors...  a project that will surely keep on giving me food for thought for much longer.

Anyway this book is a relatively new translation (2003) into English by the wonderful Margaret Jull Costa, of the savagely satirical and highly entertaining novel by Eça de Queirós about the effects of cascading corruption in the Roman Catholic church of the late 19th century in rural Portugal.    A real keeper, the 1880 version of _*The Crime of Father Amaro*_*: Scenes from the Religious Life* was the third and last, and the version translated by Costa, whose skills I first encountered when reading her translation to English of Fernando Pessoa's _The Book of Disquiet_.

 I could not possibly do justice in describing the sheer fun of immersing oneself in the Eça book, so I'll let the translator herself supply a few hints past the inevitable complications of the title's Father Amaro and the nubile village beauty Amélia.



> _The Crime of Father Amar_o is an attack on provincialism, on the power of a Church that allies itself with the rich and powerful, tolerates superstition and supports a deeply unfair and un-Christian society, and more particularly, it is an attack on the absurdity of imposing celibacy on young men with no real priestly vocation.






> From the first page, on which we meet Jose Miguéis, the 'exploding boa constrictor' of a parish priest, to our encounter on the final pages with the smug and pompous Conde de Ribamar and his vision of a Portugal which is 'the envy of the world', we are treated to a gallery of riveting minor characters: Father Natário is a man with a talent for hatred; the parish priest of Cortegaça is so in love with food that he even spices his sermons with cookery tips; Dona Maria da Assunção with her room full of religious images is agog for any hint of sex; Libaninho, who never misses a mass and flirts with all the girls, in fact has a penchant for army sergeants; the administrator of the municipal council spends from eleven o'clock to three each day ogling a neighbour's wife through a pair of binoculars; Canon Días cares only for belly and bed.  Between them, the clerics and their devout followers commit every one of the capital sins.






> [The novel is placed] in a specific historical context, the period before and after the 1871 Paris Commune, thus contrasting the smug stagnancy and backwardness of nineteenth-century Portugal --city and country-- with the social and political upheavals occurring elsewhere in Europe.  The 1880 version [of the novel] goes further and has the unbearably self-satisfied Conde de Ribamar --Father Amaro's protector-- pontificate about Portugal as an ideal of peace, prosperity and stability.  Father Amaro, Canon Días and the Count are standing, at the time, beneath the statue of Luis de Camões, Portugal's national poet, whose masterpiece _The Lusiads_ celebrates Portugal's bold, heroic past.  As Eça comments, 'a country for ever past, a memory almost forgotten'.




To be fair to Eça, who in turn was not one-sided in bringing authenticity to his tale of life in the village and Church of that time,  the author and his translator show both Father Amaro and Amélia as complex characters and so as ordinarily human, and portray a true spiritual mentor of Amélia by introducing Father Ferrão as her travails become overwhelming.  But one comes away remembering some extemely harsh takes on the clerics and Church of the era, which of course was precisely Eça's intent.


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## yaxomoxay

*The Seven StoreyMountain (1948) *by Thomas Merton.

One way to think and communicate about things is to compare them with previous experiences. “It tastes like chicken,” or “It’s like a Stanley Kubrik movie,” or “It’s as fun as Disneyworld” are ways to evaluate and recommend things, often to get abstract and subjective points across.

I’ve recently finished “The Seven Storey Mountain,” Thomas Merton’s autobiography roughly from his birth at the heights of the Great War in 1915 to about 1945. Merton is a peculiar character, and this book presented me the challenge of the comparison with some other work almost immediately. I thought long and hard about what other book could be even remotely compared to Merton’s book, just to find no answer.” The Steven Storey Mountain” narrates the true internal struggle of a young man that is both confused and in search for his vocation, all while WW2 is roaming, just to end up as a Trappist monk in a remote monastery with the intent of living a life of hard labor and, in general, asceticism as far away as possible from the so-called “world” and society. However, fate doesn’t like plans, so Merton ended up being a sort of celebrity that was then ordered to go to Asia to study the culture there, returning an incredible wealth of information, almost a conjunction between the philosophy of the West and the philosophy of the East.

At any rate, it was until I randomly stumbled across a book on a table at home that I thought I had no answer on which book could get close to Merton’s work. That book on the table that provided me the answer to the question is a work of fiction, it’s a short work, it has nothing to do with Christianity or the West, and it’s German; that is, at first glance it would appear that book has nothing to do with The Seven Storey Mountain. That book is Herman Hesse’s “Siddhartha.”

As with Hesse’s book, Merton’s book is the story of a man in search for something, at that something will inevitably cost the end of own’s identity in favor of a higher meaning. I believe that Merton’s book is among the best books I’ve ever read, and by far the best autobiography I’ve had the pleasure to encounter. I know that Merton changed with the passing of the years, for example his Asian Diaries (which I own and skim from time to time) are a clear reminder that the young man we encounter in The Seven Storey Mountain was unable to truly settle his search (arguably, it’s something that can’t actually be settled).


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## User.45

Started Altered Carbon audiobook for my walk to work. The series thus far did a pretty good job capturing the atmosphere of the book. When it comes to cyberpunk you never know whether what you're reading is junk until the last page.


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## Huntn

P_X said:


> Started Altered Carbon audiobook for my walk to work. The series thus far did a pretty good job capturing the atmosphere of the book. When it comes to cyberpunk you never know whether what you're reading is junk until the last page.



I’m interested in this. Was/is the tv series  good?


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## User.45

Huntn said:


> I’m interested in this. Was/is the tv series  good?



The first season was one of the best cyberpunk I've seen on TV probably ever. The second season however lost all it's momentum.


----------



## Clix Pix

Just shot a photo for another (photography-oriented) site where the topic is "Books You're Reading,"  and realized that it would fit nicely into this thread as well! 

Three books on display here.....    Just finished Lee Child's latest Jack Reacher novel and thanks to the luxury of being retired and not having to get up early on a Monday morning indulged myself in reading the thing straight through until turning the final page in the wee hours of the morn.....    It seems as though Lee is now moving away from writing full-time, as this and a previous Reacher book share writing credits with his son.  His Jack Reacher character and series are also now featured on Amazon Prime as a TV series.  I haven't watched any of those.  The son has written other books under a different name, too, and it is pretty clear that the writing genes have been passed down from father to son.  

Another book from the library is next in line for my reading pleasure, and after the photo was shot immediately found its way to the bedside table.   The third book is one I bought a month or so ago, having decided that I need a bit of a refresher in some things when it comes to photographic technique and such, and this book, which is actually is a textbook meant for use in colleges/universities has been indeed very useful and helpful in filling in a few gaps in my knowledge and skills.  I don't pore over it every night;  usually I pick it up between novels or when I've got a specific question about something.  It lives on the bedside table.


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## User.45

I'm reading Erich Kästner's Emil and the Detectives for my kids (mainly my 4-year-old). This was the first book I finished cover to cover when I was 7. I remember it was so exciting, I finished it in a day or two. It's still really good for my grown-up mind. It's interesting that as a kid, the nuance and gentle humor you've felt about the book subconsciously is absolutely there even now and even 90 years after it was written.


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## SuperMatt

P_X said:


> The first season was one of the best cyberpunk I've seen on TV probably ever. The second season however lost all it's momentum.



I second this. Just watch the first season as a stand-alone and pretend the 2nd season doesn’t exist.


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## Deleted member 215

I recently read *Second Place* by Rachel Cusk. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would and as a result, picked up _*Outline *_as well.

Also add on Joan Didion's *Slouching Towards Bethlehem*. I hate that it took her death to finally get me to read this, but I had intended to read it a while ago. Sad to hear that she passed.


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## lizkat

Zadie Smith's _*Swing Time*_.  I thought I would like it but didn't foresee I'd literally have to force myself to put it down when it was time to head upstairs for the night.

So many lines in this book have hit home to me as a woman, even setting aside the novel's provocative and intentional explorations of not only differences in gender but class and race.  Yet despite empathy --and indeed a few deep friendships across racial lines-- I can still only imagine life as a biracial girl growing into womanhood,  when so many doors are still only reluctantly opened even for white women to discover and develop their talents.

What's most admirable to me about this novel is its portrayal that despite all our differences,  there is nothing more profound than the discoveries we make through a best friendship.  The ranges of our mundane or startling but unique sets of memories, merged in the shared retellings of burdens and joys, are how we come to know what is human, even if and when we later drift apart or find our friendship permanently disrupted.

​


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## Huntn

Scepticalscribe said:


> I love the contrast between the elegance of the dinners/dances in the aristocratic "keeps" and the skulking, planning and plotting - not to mention the teaching and mentoring - of other parts of the story.
> 
> And, an aside, Sanderson does good fights, - actually, excellent fights - a sort of Baroque burst of pure violence - as well.
> 
> And, the heroes aren't improbably unscathed, either.
> 
> To my mind, the first book is by far the best of the trilogy.
> 
> I'll be interested to read your reactions.



Regarding *Mistborn: The Final Empire* this fantasy story is the first book in a long time where I was having trouble putting it down.

It’s in a medieval setting not unlike Game of Thrones, no advanced technology, but there is magic. The author as far as I can tell, defined several disciplines of magic involving metal. One allomancy, is the ingestion of metals which give physical powers to push and pull, strength and resilience, enhanced senses, mental powers to effect others emotions, and mystic abilities to see into the future and past.

There are interesting characters, a flamboyant male, a subdued female heroine who discovers her strength, nobles and peasants, palace intrigue, some romance, and a rebellion fueled by an oppressive magic endued ruler. There are a couple of magic duels that are riveting which I read through twice especially the story’s climax.

Onto  the second book to see if it as depressing as some reports indicate!


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## SuperMatt

Huntn said:


> Regarding *Mistborn: The Final Empire* this fantasy story is the first book in a long time where I was having trouble putting it down.
> 
> It’s in a medieval setting not unlike Game of Thrones, no advanced technology, but there is magic. The author as far as I can tell, defined several disciplines of magic involving metal. One allomancy, is the ingestion of metals which give physical powers to push and pull, strength and resilience, enhanced senses, mental powers to effect others emotions, and mystic abilities to see into the future and past.
> 
> There are nobles and peasants, palace intrigue, some romance, and a rebellion fueled by an oppressive magic endued ruler. There are a couple of magic duels that are riveting which I read through twice especially the story’s climax.
> 
> Onto  the second book to see if it as depressing as some reports indicate!



I like Brandon Sanderson’s novels. I really enjoyed “The Way of Kings” which is the first part in a proposed 10-novel series. I’ve read the first 2 books of the series now and I’m working on the 3rd. I believe the 4th book is out too and the 5th is underway.


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## Scepticalscribe

Huntn said:


> Regarding *Mistborn: The Final Empire* this fantasy story is the first book in a long time where I was having trouble putting it down.
> 
> It’s in a medieval setting not unlike Game of Thrones, no advanced technology, but there is magic. The author as far as I can tell, defined several disciplines of magic involving metal. One allomancy, is the ingestion of metals which give physical powers to push and pull, strength and resilience, enhanced senses, mental powers to effect others emotions, and mystic abilities to see into the future and past.
> 
> There are interesting characters, a flamboyant male, a subdued female heroine who discovers her strength, nobles and peasants, palace intrigue, some romance, and a rebellion fueled by an oppressive magic endued ruler. There are a couple of magic duels that are riveting which I read through twice especially the story’s climax.
> 
> Onto  the second book to see if it as depressing as some reports indicate!




The second book is very good, (and yes, it does get depressing - Sanderson loves putting his characters through some serious if not traumatic punishment) but - to be honest, - I preferred the first book (The Final Empire), which I think is genuinely excellent; the third book is - to my mind - the most depressing.

However, Elend's growth and development in the second book are exceedingly well done, (in any case, I like Elend, and I also very much like his relationship with Vin), and I'm always appreciative of any scene that features Sazad.

Besides, I really liked the crew, especially Vin, (and I especially loved her training in all of the various disciplines, spy craft as much as magical warfare), the setting, the magic duels (brilliantly written), the balls in the various Great Houses, and the culture, economics, religion and politics of this world.


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## lizkat

Trevor Noah's  _*Born a Crime.*_ Finally it was my turn in the queue at the library for this book. I can't even remember when I put a hold on the thing, it was so long ago now. Anyway of course it's a good read and I can barely make myself put it down, but past that I've already learned some things about the detailed and essentially diabolical mechanics of South Africa's era of official apartheid that I was not even aware of.


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## Huntn

Scepticalscribe said:


> The second book is very good, (and yes, it does get depressing - Sanderson loves putting his characters through some serious if not traumatic punishment) but - to be honest, - I preferred the first book (The Final Empire), which I think genuinely excellent; the third book is - to my mind - the most depressing.
> 
> However, Elend's growth and development in the second book are exceedingly well done, (in any case, I like Elend, and I also very much like his relationship with Vin), and I'm always appreciative of any scene that features Sazad.
> 
> Besides, I really liked the crew, especially Vin, (and I especially loved her training in all of the various disciplines, spy craft as much as magical warfare), the setting, the magic duels (brilliantly written), the balls in the various Great Houses, and the culture, economics, religion and politics of this world.



Gosh, this bothers me the notion of this story having an overall description of being depressing, because while we humans can take downer stories on occasion where the bad guys win, it’s not something that we seek out. In most occasions, we (I ) prefer stories with positive or uplifting endings.


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## Huntn

SuperMatt said:


> I like Brandon Sanderson’s novels. I really enjoyed “The Way of Kings” which is the first part in a proposed 10-novel series. I’ve read the first 2 books of the series now and I’m working on the 3rd. I believe the 4th book is out too and the 5th is underway.



Do you agree with the Mistborn Trilogy being described as depressing? Apparantly it is because I’ve heard the comment a couple of times, at least some readers feel it is.


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## SuperMatt

Huntn said:


> Do you agree with the Mistborn Trilogy being described as depressing? Apparantly it is because I’ve heard the comment a couple of times, at least some readers feel it is.



No, I didn’t find it depressing at all.


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## Huntn

SuperMatt said:


> No, I didn’t find it depressing at all.



Well I’ll know soon enough.


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## Scepticalscribe

Huntn said:


> Gosh, this bothers me the notion of this story having an overall description of being depressing, because while we humans can take downer stories on occasion where the bad guys win, it’s not something that we seek out. In most occasions, we (I ) prefer stories with positive or uplifting endings.




A Sanderson book that is - not so much, "not depressing" - as strangely moving and actually, quite uplifting (and also, - equally unusual for Sanderson - blessedly short) is the novella The Emperor's Soul.  

I really liked it.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Huntn said:


> Gosh, this bothers me the notion of this story having an overall description of being depressing, because while we humans can take downer stories on occasion where the bad guys win, it’s not something that we seek out. In most occasions, we (I ) prefer stories with positive or uplifting endings.




Okay, a bit bleak at times, rather than "depressing".

However, there are other authors whose work I prefer.


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## Deleted member 215

These just arrived from Barnes & Noble:





Looking forward to reading some of her work; so far only read a few of her articles and reviews (I also listened to a fascinating analysis of her politics in a recent podcast episode).


----------



## lizkat

Paywall down this week on a Paris Review archived interview of Hunter S. Thompson and some other interesting folk...

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1487913513184079878/


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## lizkat

Just re-read and appreciated anew Isabel Allende's *A Long Petal of the Sea*, a novel with roots in history on both sides of the Atlantic,  reaching back to the 1930s in Spain and then in Chile through the 1970s.

Based in part on accounts from the life of a long time friend (Victor Pey, recently deceased at age 103) of Ms. Allende, the novel centers on personal travails and triumphs of some of the 300 Chilean immigrants whose safe passage from Spain on the ship Winnipeg --during the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War and the onset of the Franco regime-- was funded by the Chilean poet and leftist activist Pablo Neruda.

Ms. Allende's father was a first cousin of Salvador Allende, the Chilean president from 1970-73 who was deposed in a right wing military coup later outed as having been assisted by some corporate and government efforts in the USA.  She was born in Peru while her father, a Chilean diplomat, had been posted to Lima.  She still considers herself "primarily Chilean" because of her upbringing, although like many other prominent Chileans who survived the Pinochet regime, she lived in exile during those years, having fled Chile in 1975 after assassination threats,  meanwhile having helped other people on Pinochet's "wanted" list escape elsewhere. She has become a US citizen.

_*A Long Petal of the Sea*_ is one of only a handful of Allende's books that I've read... * The House of the Spirits* is another great read that a number of people here may recognize and will have enjoyed as an exemplar of magical realism.  Isabel Allende is a prolific author with due diligence on research before and while writing.  I remember reading an interview in which she acknowledged having to set aside a planned novel about Haiti during initial research because she found its history so distressing. She returned to the work later, however, and that book eventually became _*Island under the Sea*_, another of her highly acclaimed historical novels.


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## Scepticalscribe

lizkat said:


> Just re-read and appreciated anew Isabel Allende's *A Long Petal of the Sea*, a novel with roots in history on both sides of the Atlantic,  reaching back to the 1930s in Spain and then in Chile through the 1970s.
> 
> Based in part on accounts from the life of a long time friend (Victor Pey, recently deceased at age 103) of Ms. Allende, the novel centers on personal travails and triumphs of some of the 300 Chilean immigrants whose safe passage from Spain on the ship Winnipeg --during the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War and the onset of the Franco regime-- was funded by the Chilean poet and leftist activist Pablo Neruda.
> 
> Ms. Allende's father was a first cousin of Salvador Allende, the Chilean president from 1970-73 who was deposed in a right wing military coup later outed as having been assisted by some corporate and government efforts in the USA.  She was born in Peru while her father, a Chilean diplomat, had been posted to Lima.  She still considers herself "primarily Chilean" because of her upbringing, although like many other prominent Chileans who survived the Pinochet regime, she lived in exile during those years, having fled Chile in 1975 after assassination threats,  meanwhile having helped other people on Pinochet's "wanted" list escape elsewhere. She has become a US citizen.
> 
> _*A Long Petal of the Sea*_ is one of only a handful of Allende's books that I've read... * The House of the Spirits* is another great read that a number of people here may recognize and will have enjoyed as an exemplar of magical realism.  Isabel Allende is a prolific author with due diligence on research before and while writing.  I remember reading an interview in which she acknowledged having to set aside a planned novel about Haiti during initial research because she found its history so distressing. She returned to the work later, however, and that book eventually became _*Island under the Sea*_, another of her highly acclaimed historical novels.




I must say that I absolutely love Isabel Allende's work.

A former student (a mature - i.e. second chance student, a gay former seminarian and later, a feminist, a publisher of feminist books, who resurrected a feminist publishing house, and became a good friend) of mine (warmly, even passionately) recommended her writing to me.

He told me that *A House of the Spirits* was (and is) one of his two favourite books (the other was a work he also insisted that I read: A book by Margaret Craven with the title *I Heard The Owl Call My Name*).

Anyway, I read it, and loved it.

Another student (former student, in fact the very best student I ever had, now a barrister and lecturer in law, also a passionate feminist, and a good friend, and also the mother of an autistic boy, @Apple fanboy will know of her, as I have written about her, before), - who also adores the writing of Isabel Allende - gave me a gift of *Daughter of Fortune *and *Portrait in Sepia* (two works that if you love *The House of the Spirits*, you should also like - I thought them brilliant).

I have also read *The Stories of Eva Luna,* *The Infinite Plan*, (and loved them) and one of her books for children, *City of the Beasts, *a series that my publisher friend (former student) professed himself disappointed by.

And a very good friend of my mother's gave my mother a copy of* Paula,* Isabel Allende's account of the life (and tragic death) of her daughter, the eponymous Paula.


----------



## lizkat

The latest book I can't put down is Edward Dolnick's T*he Writing of the Gods:  the Race to Decode the Rosetta Stone.



*

Dolnick was formerly chief science writer for the Boston Globe and has written as well for the  NYT Magazine and The Atlantic. His book on the Rosetta Stone is presented as an historical thriller.  The main thread is the decades-long competition between a Frenchman and a British citizen to understand the hieroglyphs and an unfamiliar script presented along with some ancient Greek on the now famous Rosetta Stone, which was found in some rubble being used as construction materials  in the Egyptian town where the French were repairing a fortress during the Napoleonic wars.   The competition over the stone was not only about translation but about physical possession, since the British eventually won in Egypt and the French by then were extremely loathe to give up the stone which was already the subject of deciphering efforts.

The book is also a fascinating briefing on the primary differences between cryptology and deciphering an ancient language: the one attempts to break a code meant to obscure plain meaning,  but the other, while having some procedural similarities, is more often about attempting to understand what the writer meant to reveal, not conceal.

Dolnick presents the race to decipher the Rosetta stone's hieroglyphs as a major stepping stone in human efforts to understand how language itself developed in ancient times from sounds to pictures to scripted writing, and how the idea that "pictures" offered up by the hieroglyphs tended for a long time to distract the decipherers from the fact that the script included on the tablet along with sections in Greek and in hieroglyphs was not a separate language but merely a shorthand and alternative way --the language of documents--  of communicating the same message as that of the "pictures" in the first section of the tablet, and in fact the hieroglyphs represented not pictures of "ideas" but representations of sounds, the same as other languages, in order to make nuance and complexity of expression possible past what paintings alone can do.

Along the way Dolnick relays observations of linguists and neurologists that probably haven't occurred to most of us, e.g., that while humans evolved to be able from infancy to sort out sounds, understand their meaning  and eventually to speak a native language with fluency --any language, and indeed more than one--   we have not yet evolved to where literacy is also something we're quite so wired to pick up without help.   As a result, understanding ancient languages is inherently a guessing game when the last native speaker is long gone, if we don't have some handy "crib sheet" turn up for help in translation efforts.  
With the Rosetta Stone, the world got lucky and ended up with more than one crib sheet,  since the original content was a decree on behalf of the Ptolemaic dynasty that among other things mandated replication of the decree's entire contents and distribution to all the temples in Egypt, all to be presented in hieroglyphs, Greek and the shorthand "language of documents" of the time.     So, some but not all of the eventual cracking of the hieroglyphs came down to realizing that more fragments of replicated tablets, and so more of the content of the entire decree were probably available, and indeed several did come to light, and eventually not only from the reign of Ptolemy V but of other pharaohs of that dynasty as well. 

Great book, and sticks to the main topic efficiently while providing just enough historical context along the way to let a reader go on to explore more of it as desired.  Honestly I'm lucky this was very recently published,  because it was in 2020 that my annual "deep dive" summer project was centered on issues of literary translation.   This thing might well have sidetracked me more to linguistics and away from literary issues that summer. A narrow escape and probably just as well as still have sub projects and a pile of books left over from that 2020 deep dive!


----------



## Deleted member 215

^Excellent book. I'm interested in what else you were reading during your summer of literary translation (though in my case heading more toward linguistics would be fine with me since that's what I studied in college, among other things).


----------



## lizkat

TBL said:


> ^Excellent book. I'm interested in what else you were reading during your summer of literary translation (though in my case heading more toward linguistics would be fine with me since that's what I studied in college, among other things).





I can't recommend highly enough a book edited by Esther Allen and Susan Bernofsky, *In Translation.* It's an anthology of pieces by writers and translators with a wide range of focus, from the nitty gritty detail like "ugh, there's no word for this" to the broader stuff like "the culture of the original can get waylaid in translation, even if the idioms used are correct parallels".

That summer I read interviews of writers and translators (sometimes in the same interview, which was interesting)  from Paris Review archives,  and some books I bumped into along the way about situations where particular issues of culture or custom became stumbling blocks for awhile.   In some cases I was reading parts of the same books in a few different languages that were worked on by different translators.   I liked a couple articles I found that were about re-translation issues, particiularly of either ancient or very well known more modern works.  There's a good piece by Rachel Cooke in the Guardian which got me interested in what makes people decide that translation is "their thing"...

Hah, it all started out when someone at MR mentioned some novel that was written in Portuguese and i decided to take a shot at learning some of that on the fly,  since there was no English translation but I had some background in Romance languages. 

From there it spun off into a project about translation issues, and kept expanding, until I was off in the weeds of stuff like what exactly happens to a writer's ideas within the mind of the reader of an English version of a novel, when the original was written in Italian as the second language of an Indian author, and the translator's native language is English.  I found I was actually more interested in the translators taking up these projects than I was in either the novels or their writers.

Along those lines, a book from that summer's deep dive does stand out in memory:  David Karashima's _*Who We're Reading When We Read Murakami*_. Right from the epigraph he used in his preface, I knew this was what I was looking to explore:

"The first three novels I read by Murakami . . . were all translated by Alfred Birnbaum. When I finished the books, I was mildly curious to know more about Murakami; I was desperate to know more about Birnbaum. —WENDY LESSER, _*Why I Read*_"​


----------



## Clix Pix

One of life's strange coincidences happened yesterday when I was at the library:  the new book by Dave Grohl, _The Storyteller,_ was sitting  on the "new books" shelf,  eye-catchingly displayed cover-out bookstore style,  just ready and waiting for me to pick up, which I immediately did.  Some may ask,  who's Dave Grohl?   Just a guy born in Ohio and raised right here in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC,  who loved music and had a gift for it from an early age and who, before graduating, left high school to explore the world of sounds converted to music, first with a local DC-area band called "Scream,"  eventually becoming associated with Nirvana, and now best known for forming The Foo Fighters.  I'm sure some of you have heard of  them.....

The coincidence?   Many years ago a good friend introduced me to The Foo Fighters and while there were some songs they put out that I didn't much care for there were others which definitely appealed to me.   My friend and I would play their albums when we got together and we each collected them as they came out.  It was yet another connection which bonded us.    Yesterday was my friend's birthday.   Sadly, she is no longer here to celebrate it,  so I had my own little celebration by listening to the Foo Fighters and reading Dave Grohl's book.   Like his mother, Virginia Grohl, who has written her own book and as he has already demonstrated with the lyrics to various Foo Fighters songs, he's a very good writer.  

Foo Fighters music  and a fascinating memoir/storytelling book by its founder: yeah, it was a nice way to honor my friend on her special day....


----------



## Scepticalscribe

lizkat said:


> The latest book I can't put down is Edward Dolnick's T*he Writing of the Gods:  the Race to Decode the Rosetta Stone.
> 
> View attachment 11790*
> 
> Dolnick was formerly chief science writer for the Boston Globe and has written as well for the  NYT Magazine and The Atlantic. His book on the Rosetta Stone is presented as an historical thriller.  The main thread is the decades-long competition between a Frenchman and a British citizen to understand the hieroglyphs and an unfamiliar script presented along with some ancient Greek on the now famous Rosetta Stone, which was found in some rubble being used as construction materials  in the Egyptian town where the French were repairing a fortress during the Napoleonic wars.   The competition over the stone was not only about translation but about physical possession, since the British eventually won in Egypt and the French by then were extremely loathe to give up the stone which was already the subject of deciphering efforts.
> 
> The book is also a fascinating briefing on the primary differences between cryptology and deciphering an ancient language: the one attempts to break a code meant to obscure plain meaning,  but the other, while having some procedural similarities, is more often about attempting to understand what the writer meant to reveal, not conceal.
> 
> Dolnick presents the race to decipher the Rosetta stone's hieroglyphs as a major stepping stone in human efforts to understand how language itself developed in ancient times from sounds to pictures to scripted writing, and how the idea that "pictures" offered up by the hieroglyphs tended for a long time to distract the decipherers from the fact that the script included on the tablet along with sections in Greek and in hieroglyphs was not a separate language but merely a shorthand and alternative way --the language of documents--  of communicating the same message as that of the "pictures" in the first section of the tablet, and in fact the hieroglyphs represented not pictures of "ideas" but representations of sounds, the same as other languages, in order to make nuance and complexity of expression possible past what paintings alone can do.
> 
> Along the way Dolnick relays observations of linguists and neurologists that probably haven't occurred to most of us, e.g., that while humans evolved to be able from infancy to sort out sounds, understand their meaning  and eventually to speak a native language with fluency --any language, and indeed more than one--   we have not yet evolved to where literacy is also something we're quite so wired to pick up without help.   As a result, understanding ancient languages is inherently a guessing game when the last native speaker is long gone, if we don't have some handy "crib sheet" turn up for help in translation efforts.
> With the Rosetta Stone, the world got lucky and ended up with more than one crib sheet,  since the original content was a decree on behalf of the Ptolemaic dynasty that among other things mandated replication of the decree's entire contents and distribution to all the temples in Egypt, all to be presented in hieroglyphs, Greek and the shorthand "language of documents" of the time.     So, some but not all of the eventual cracking of the hieroglyphs came down to realizing that more fragments of replicated tablets, and so more of the content of the entire decree were probably available, and indeed several did come to light, and eventually not only from the reign of Ptolemy V but of other pharaohs of that dynasty as well.
> 
> Great book, and sticks to the main topic efficiently while providing just enough historical context along the way to let a reader go on to explore more of it as desired.  Honestly I'm lucky this was very recently published,  because it was in 2020 that my annual "deep dive" summer project was centered on issues of literary translation.   This thing might well have sidetracked me more to linguistics and away from literary issues that summer. A narrow escape and probably just as well as still have sub projects and a pile of books left over from that 2020 deep dive!



Superb post, and this is a book I now wish to read.


lizkat said:


> I can't recommend highly enough a book edited by Esther Allen and Susan Bernofsky, *In Translation.* It's an anthology of pieces by writers and translators with a wide range of focus, from the nitty gritty detail like "ugh, there's no word for this" to the broader stuff like "the culture of the original can get waylaid in translation, even if the idioms used are correct parallels".
> 
> That summer I read interviews of writers and translators (sometimes in the same interview, which was interesting)  from Paris Review archives,  and some books I bumped into along the way about situations where particular issues of culture or custom became stumbling blocks for awhile.   In some cases I was reading parts of the same books in a few different languages that were worked on by different translators.   I liked a couple articles I found that were about re-translation issues, particiularly of either ancient or very well known more modern works.  There's a good piece by Rachel Cooke in the Guardian which got me interested in what makes people decide that translation is "their thing"...
> 
> Hah, it all started out when someone at MR mentioned some novel that was written in Portuguese and i decided to take a shot at learning some of that on the fly,  since there was no English translation but I had some background in Romance languages.
> 
> From there it spun off into a project about translation issues, and kept expanding, until I was off in the weeds of stuff like what exactly happens to a writer's ideas within the mind of the reader of an English version of a novel, when the original was written in Italian as the second language of an Indian author, and the translator's native language is English.  I found I was actually more interested in the translators taking up these projects than I was in either the novels or their writers.
> 
> Along those lines, a book from that summer's deep dive does stand out in memory:  David Karashima's _*Who We're Reading When We Read Murakami*_. Right from the epigraph he used in his preface, I knew this was what I was looking to explore:
> 
> "The first three novels I read by Murakami . . . were all translated by Alfred Birnbaum. When I finished the books, I was mildly curious to know more about Murakami; I was desperate to know more about Birnbaum. —WENDY LESSER, _*Why I Read*_"​




Two terrific posts.

Re translations, the rule (among the people I know who have done this) is that you translate into your own (native?) language.

This calls to mind a very good friend of mine - I have written of him in other posts - his father was a professor of German, and his mother (whom his father had met when he was a postgrad student in Germany, in the early fifties, not long after the war, not long after universities had reopened in Germany), was German, a German who was studying English, and who later also taught German at university, when she married the postgrad she had met in Germany (breaking an engagement with a German, her son informed me gleefully - something he himself only learned quite late - in order to do so), and returned with him to his country at a time when Germans weren't exactly welcome.

I liked the entire family - liberal, tolerant, decent, multi-lingual, passionate about music, books, culture, and always warm and welcoming, a wonderful place in my student days.

Anyway, his mother - who was a lovely person, with a terrific sense of humour - died a few months into the Covid pandemic (though of cervical cancer, not Covid) and, fortunately, my friend, her youngest son, (to whom she was very close) was with her when she died; the funeral was one of those tragic truncated Covid affairs - restricted to ten people, (which barely permitted children, spouses, and grandchildren) - which meant that I was unable to attend, whereas my friend had gone to considerable trouble to be present for both my mother's and father's funerals.

His father, the former professor of German, had died of cancer a little over twenty years ago, and my friend had become even closer to his mother in the intervening years.  Among other things, he used to watch TV dramas with her (which reminded me of Decent Brother and Mother - they used to watch stuff like The Mentalist, which my mother adored, together; my friend's mother absolutely loved gritty German police procedurals, and those almost "Scandi-noir" German police dramas, which, thanks to cable, or satellite, they were able to watch together).

In any case, in addition to teaching, she had also translated books into German, and, after the death of her husband, this was something she started to do with her son, my friend, who, having avoided the German language as a student, (although his primary degree was in both English and German, and he grew up fluent in the language), and repudiated the culture, - an act of rebellion against his own family background, immersed as it was in German literature and culture - and against what German history represented - now found it a wonderful and profoundly moving and powerful source of bonding with his mother, as they translated works (poetry as well as prose) together, sometimes spending hours on the phone, as they teased their way through various words, phrases, sounds, and thoughts, discussing and debating, pondering phrases, meaning, tone, content and context.

He told me that he loved it, loved every minute of it, loved the intellectual challenge and the dissection, exploration and interrogation of language (for, he actually worked as an English teacher, and has been a Shakespearean actor among other things), loved that it brought him close to his mother via a mutual  and joyful engagement with her native culture, - which she was able to acknowledge more easily and not just at the rarefied level of academic scholarship, and - though he didn't say this to me - I suspect that he has loved, too, how it has enabled him to take ownership of the German side of his family heritage, but on his terms.


----------



## User.45

Altered Carbon is such good classical cyberpunk material. The raunchy, techy content hide gem drops like this here:



> He was the Patchwork Man.
> 
> Most virtual systems recreate you from self-images held in the memory, with a commonsense subroutine to prevent your delusions from impinging too much. I generally come out a little taller and thinner in the face than I usually am. In this case, the system seemed to have scrambled a myriad different perceptions from Kadmin’s presumably long list of sleeves*. I’d seen it done before, as a technique, but most of us grow rapidly attached to whatever sleeve we’re living in, and that form blanks out previous incarnations. We are, after all, evolved to relate to the physical world.
> 
> The man in front of me was different. His frame was that of a Caucasian Nordic, topping mine by nearly thirty centimeters, but the face was at odds. It began African, broad and deep ebony, but the color ended like a mask under the eyes, and the lower half was divided along the line of the nose, pale copper on the left, corpse white on the right. The nose was both fleshy and aquiline and mediated well between the top and bottom halves of the face, but the mouth was a mismatch of left and right sides that left the lips peculiarly twisted. Long straight black hair was combed manelike back from the forehead, shot through on one side with pure white. The hands, immobile on the metal table, were equipped with claws similar to the ones I’d seen on the giant Freak Fighter in Licktown, but the fingers were long and sensitive. He had breasts, impossibly full on a torso so overmuscled. The eyes, set in jet skin, were a startling pale green. Kadmin had freed himself from conventional perceptions of the physical. In an earlier age, he would have been a shaman; here, the centuries of technology had made him more. An electronic demon, a malignant spirit that dwelled in altered carbon and emerged only to possess flesh and wreak havoc.




*sleeve is an exchangeable physical body to which brain-stacks (the "soul") is inserted to make up a person. 

Or this disturbingly visceral scene about how (probably illegal) street advertisements will become even more intrusive in the future:



> Spoiler: Adult theme
> 
> 
> 
> Halfway up the block, a bulky automated vehicle rolled past me, hugging the curb. It looked pretty much like the robocrawlers that cleaned the streets of Millsport, so I paid no attention to it as it drew level. Seconds later, I was drenched in the machine’s imagecast.
> _. . . from the Houses from the Houses from the Houses from the Houses from the Houses from the Houses . . . _
> The voices groaned and murmured, male, female, overlaid. It was like a choir in the throes of orgasm. The images were inescapable, varying across a broad spectrum of sexual preference. A whirlwind of fleeting sensory impressions.
> _
> Genuine . . . Uncut . . . Full-sense repro . . . Tailored . . . _
> 
> As if to prove this last, the random images thinned out into a stream of heterosex combinations. They must have scanned my response to the blur of options and fed directly back to the broadcast unit. Very high tech.
> 
> The flow ended with a phone number in glowing numerals and an erect penis in the hands of a woman with long dark hair and a crimson-lipped smile. She looked into the lens. I could feel her fingers.
> _
> Head in the Clouds,_ she breathed. _This is what it’s like. Maybe you can’t afford to come up here, but you can certainly afford this. _
> 
> Her head dipped; her lips slid down over the penis. Like it was happening to me. Then the long black hair curtained in from either side and inked the image out. I was back on the street, swaying, coated in a thin sheen of sweat. The autocaster grumbled away down the street behind me, some of the more streetwise pedestrians skipping sharply sideways out of its ’cast radius.
> 
> I found I could recall the phone number with gleaming clarity.




Cyberpunk is misunderstood. These stories aren't about deprived (mostly male) fantasies. These are cautionary tales. And as such, we don't seem to heed the advice.


----------



## Zoidberg

Scepticalscribe said:


> I posted about this elsewhere; the French classes have been taking place since late July.
> 
> The govt is paying for it, and AF (Alliance Française) are conducting the classes.
> 
> Online.
> 
> My French was quite good at school, and I loved the language & culture - but that is quite some time ago; however, I do have a fairly extensive dormant vocabulary in that language.
> 
> When I returned from Africa two years ago, the foreign ministry (because they wished to be able to deploy me on EU/CSDP capacity building missions & EOM (election observation missions) in Francophone regions, suggested (advised, strongly recommended) that I take up French classes.
> 
> Accordingly, I engaged the French husband (himself a teacher) of an old school friend (who herself was also a teacher) to give me private classes, an arrangement that worked well until my mother's health further deteriorated, which was followed by her death, whereupon my interest and motivation in many things (including French classes) vanished.
> 
> Towards the end of this January past, the foreign ministry contacted me with a view to ascertaining my interest in French classes to be run by AF (but paid for by them); then, before matters could proceed any further, Covid struck, putting paid to all such plans.
> 
> However, the classes - now held in an online format - were resurrected in July, and I have been suitably occupied since then.



If it’s okay with the mods you can create a French thread (if you want, of course). À la maison, on parlait principalement français, mais j’air rarement la chance de parler (ou écrire) français maintenant.


----------



## lizkat

Scepticalscribe said:


> Re translations, the rule (among the people I know who have done this) is that you translate into your own (native?) language.




Yes, and I find it interesting that while Murakami has worked with several translators of his own works into English,  he is also widely known in Japan and its diaspora for his translations into Japanese of works written in American English,  e.g. the short stories of Raymond Carver.



Scepticalscribe said:


> In any case, in addition to teaching, she had also translated books into German, and, after the death of her husband, this was something she started to do with her son, my friend, who, having avoided the German language as a student, (although his primary degree was in both English and German, and he grew up fluent in the language), and repudiated the culture, - an act of rebellion against his own family background, immersed as it was in German literature and culture - and against what German history represented - now found it a wonderful and profoundly moving and powerful source of bonding with his mother, as they translated works (poetry as well as prose) together, sometimes spending hours on the phone, as they teased their way through various words, phrases, sounds, and thoughts, discussing and debating, pondering phrases, meaning, tone, content and context.
> 
> He told me that he loved it, loved every minute of it, loved the intellectual challenge and the dissection, exploration and interrogation of language (for, he actually worked as an English teacher, and has been a Shakespearean actor among other things), loved that it brought him close to his mother via a mutual and joyful engagement with her native culture, - which she was able to acknowledge more easily and not just at the rarefied level of academic scholarship, and - though he didn't say this to me - I suspect that he has loved, too, how it has enabled him to take ownership of the German side of his family heritage, but on his terms.




That whole post is so touching, as well as a wonderful example of how a youngster can change after navigating all the difficult currents of childhood and adolescence.  

Not least of course it's also an implied and effective argument against state-directed efforts to link language with contemporary politics to the extent of banning instruction --or even use of-- a particular language during times of war or commercial hostility. 

In the USA during WWI there was a serious disruption of medical school curricula, thanks to ill-advised bans on instruction in German at all levels of education, and indeed instances of persecution of German-speaking American citizens.  At that time the bulk of 'modern' medical research papers were still WRITTEN in German, so...  heh, and so eventually to the era of postgraduate refresher courses for physicians, if one wishes to put a kinder light on a stupid decision.



Spoiler: Not to derail a books thread, but...



There are other forms of state abuse of power related to official or tolerated languages. A government may extend prohibition of not only instruction but also usage in public of other than specified languages. Imagine if,  in a country as diverse as the USA,  all the shops that have long advertised fluency in languages other than English were suddenly prohibited from having those little signs in their windows... "Se habla español" or "Ici on parle français"...  

Another even more insidious abuse is state tailoring of the official language(s) for political or propaganda purposes.  We saw that in the Trump era when the administration decreed that official documents related to the budget should avoid use of certain words.   The words were "vulnerable," "entitlement," "diversity," "transgender," "fetus," "evidence-based" and "science-based."  Further, in the case of at least the Centers for Disease Control, the agency was directed to use a substitute phrase for the newly banned "science-based", namely “CDC bases its recommendations on science in consideration with community standards and wishes."   Now of course the Biden administration takes its turn at tweaking official language, altering the way in which immigration is viewed, e.g. proposing we stop using the term "illegal alien" in favor of a less judgmental "undocumented migrant". There are those who will note that whatever one wants to call the would-be immigrants, and regardless of which countries' policies one wishes to blame, our southern border situation remains untenable for citizen and non-citizen alike.

However, in that same vein of language-tinkering--for the sake of political aims-- went the country of Turkey, starting during the reign of Ataturk, all done then in the name of modernization and unification.  What happened though,  after the elimination of maybe as much as 40% of old Turkish vocabulary,  was a generational gap in ability to communicate, and a growing inability of even historians and other researchers to understand older written documents.  But Turkey has continued to tailor its language, e.g., removing words with Persian or Arabic roots, to the end that some older documents have now been re-translated two or three times to try to ensure accessibility to even basic information in the material, if not the document's more precise meaning and far better historical context. 

In state manipulation of language could lie many a cautionary tale for any nation, but (perhaps largely because of social media?) most of us seem to be living in an era of transmission, not so much communication.  Even translators end up pressured by these changes, and some have begun to assert more of their own views or personalities in the translation of material they are hired to work on, which in turn alters further whatever we end up reading, no matter who wrote it or in what language.

The lessons from that behavior may come rather late to salvage for the future some of what we now know about ourselves from history,  if our ability to access that history --even if written in our various "native" languages-- continues to be diminished for political reasons or due to contemporary cultural preferences.



Anyway I salute your friend and his late parents, also your friends,  for their respective attempts to preserve and extend the sense of the works they have treasured, taught or translated.   At the very least translation is a multi-faceted process of communication between author and translator, and so it maintains human facility with language itself, the springboard from which we launch --and learn to understand--  so many of our other achievements.


----------



## lizkat

Lately I've been re-reading parts of Anna Reid's _*Borderland:  A Journey Through the History of Ukraine.*_  Read a review of this updated edition (Part Two was written after events of 2014) in the FT one day and decided to get it.  The summary chronology (mid-800s through 2015) and details of that history in the earlier section alone were worth the price of the book.  One wonders what Reid and the scholars she worked with are thinking now after Putin's latest moves... 

​


----------



## Huntn

Just finished the Second in the Mistborn Trilogy, *The Well of Ascension*, and while it has a lot of gravity, I find I’m really enjoying that this story since book 1 is not predictable, and it ends on an upbeat note based on my standards, there is still hope no matter how much carnage there is. And then in the beginning of the next book, *Hero of Ages*, it starts with a kick-ass Mistborn fight.  

​


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Huntn said:


> Just finished the Second in the Mistborn Trilogy, *The Well of Ascension*, and while it has a lot of gravity, I find I’m really enjoying that this story since book 1 is not predictable, and it ends on an upbeat note based on my standards, there is still hope no matter how much carnage there is. And then in the beginning of the next book, *Hero of Ages*, it starts with a kick-ass Mistborn fight.
> 
> View attachment 12399​




I love the development of the characters of both Vin and Elend in that book (The Well of Ascension), I love their relationship - above all - how it has evolved - and matured - from the mutual attraction of the first book, - their dialogues are simply wonderful, and I love, love, love, Sazad.

And Vin rocks.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Huntn said:


> Just finished the Second in the Mistborn Trilogy, *The Well of Ascension*, and while it has a lot of gravity, I find I’m really enjoying that this story since book 1 is not predictable, and it ends on an upbeat note based on my standards, there is still hope no matter how much carnage there is. And then in the beginning of the next book, *Hero of Ages*, it starts with a kick-ass Mistborn fight.
> 
> View attachment 12399​




I love Vin and Elend.

And I must say that I have long loved the scene where Vin (wounded in battle) decides that she (finally) wishes to be with Elend, and Sazad (treating her injuries, pulling stitches with bloodied fingers) attempts to argue her out of it.


----------



## sgtaylor5

After many decades of not being able to have a copy of the Lord of the Rings in the house because I would get too deeply into it, I finally realized that I could read it like a normal novel (slowly and carefully) and not get ahead of myself.

So a week ago, I bought a Mariner Books imprint of the Fellowship of the Ring. When I get done with that book, reading one or two chapters a day, I'll buy the next book.

Also going to buy a copy of the Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales and possibly even The Hobbit in the same imprint.


----------



## lizkat

For the life of me I have never been able to get into The Lord of the Rings or the Hobbit either.  I've concluded there's just something wrong with me, and somehow I'm not willing to get it repaired.  I just can't make myself give the stuff another shot.  Yet I'm one who tells nieces or nephews they haven't lived unless they've read assorted books I do favor...  Go figure.  It's just somehow a blind spot, and a stubborn one at that.


----------



## Huntn

lizkat said:


> For the life of me I have never been able to get into The Lord of the Rings or the Hobbit either.  I've concluded there's just something wrong with me, and somehow I'm not willing to get it repaired.  I just can't make myself give the stuff another shot.  Yet I'm one who tells nieces or nephews they haven't lived unless they've read assorted books I do favor...  Go figure.  It's just somehow a blind spot, and a stubborn one at that.



I have read this series (TH + LOTR) 3 times. I just don’t know how you don’t enjoy The Hobbit, it‘s light, some humor, adventure, elves, and not much of a time commitment.  Now LOTR is heavier, I could give you a pass on that one.


----------



## lizkat

Huntn said:


> I have read this series (TH + LOTR) 3 times. I just don’t know how you don’t enjoy The Hobbit, it‘s light, some humor, adventure, elves, and not much of a time commitment.  Now LOTR is heavier, I could give you a pass on that one.




I dunno, man,   My mind just literally seizes up at the very thought of any of those four books.  I've developed a mental block via trying a few times to reboot and have a fresh look at them.  Can't do it.


----------



## Huntn

lizkat said:


> I dunno, man,   My mind just literally seizes up at the very thought of any of those four books.  I've developed a mental block via trying a few times to reboot and have a fresh look at them.  Can't do it.



Sorry did not mean to give you a hard time about it, not my intent. There’s lots of content I can’t stand that others love and vice a versa.


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## lizkat

Huntn said:


> Sorry did not mean to give you a hard time about it, not my intent. There’s lots of content I can’t stand that others love and vice a versa.




No offense taken.  In a way, I'm still a bit curious about why the Tolkien books don't appeal to me.   But not curious enough to try to puzzle that out any more; there are too many other books still in the to-be-read pile


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## Huntn

lizkat said:


> No offense taken.  In a way, I'm still a bit curious about why the Tolkien books don't appeal to me.   But not curious enough to try to puzzle that out any more; there are too many other books still in the to-be-read pile



I’d call these fantasy. Do you like fantasy in general?


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## DT

lizkat said:


> No offense taken.  In a way, I'm still a bit curious about why the Tolkien books don't appeal to me.   But not curious enough to try to puzzle that out any more; there are too many other books still in the to-be-read pile




I've done a partial re-read in the last, oh I'd say maybe 10 years or so, and I found them a little tedious.  Don't get me wrong, I think they're the foundation for most modern fantasy works, and I have fond memories of reading them early in life, but there's much better fantasy material (some older, some very new).  Just off the top of my head, I'd suggest checking out the Broken Earth series by N.K. Jemisin.


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## Huntn

DT said:


> I've done a partial re-read in the last, oh I'd say maybe 10 years or so, and I found them a little tedious.  Don't get me wrong, I think they're the foundation for most modern fantasy works, and I have fond memories of reading them early in life, but there's much better fantasy material (some older, some very new).  Just off the top of my head, I'd suggest checking out the Broken Earth series by N.K. Jemisin.



When I first read The Hobbit I was in 5th grade or so and was shocked it was written in the 1930s,  which even then seemed like ancient history to me.


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## lizkat

DT said:


> I've done a partial re-read in the last, oh I'd say maybe 10 years or so, and I found them a little tedious.  Don't get me wrong, I think they're the foundation for most modern fantasy works, and I have fond memories of reading them early in life, but there's much better fantasy material (some older, some very new).  Just off the top of my head, I'd suggest checking out the Broken Earth series by N.K. Jemisin.



I'm a fan of Jemisin's work. both short stories and novels...


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## Arkitect

Just finished…

*The Roman Triumph*, Mary Beard

Sets out to investigate the whole Roman Triumph of popular culture.

Was the general's face painted red?
Was there a slave standing behind him, whispering, "_Remember you are only a man._"
Were the captives executed?
Did the Romans inherit their ritual from the Etruscans?

The answer is an emphatic, resounding, "_Maybe. Sometimes. Perhaps. Who knows?"_

Slightly unsatisfying.


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## DT

lizkat said:


> I'm a fan of Jemisin's work. both short stories and novels...




Ahh, I kind of figured you were probably familiar.

Several years back I pulled out some old paperbacks (I have __many__), and started both some Zelazny, and Moorcock fantasy stuff, neither really held up for me, their core series are sort of neat in concept, but kind of a chore past the first book.

What I did have fun with was the The Burrowers Beneath and The Transition of Titus Crow, two books by Brian Lumley (some may know him from his more recent Necroscope series), but in the 70s he wrote a lot of material based on the the HP Lovecraft Cthulhu Mythos.  Those two books are really fun, they read a bit like HPL fan fiction, but it's a totally different take on the mythos, less like a gothic "we're all doomed" tale, and more like a sci-fi adventure.


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## BigMcGuire

Having a heck of a time getting through Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel. The author definitely is far more intelligent than I am, but the book reads like a textbook to me and I find it difficult to keep up with the constant blast of information. IMO, a bit more filler (which would have probably 2-3xed the book) would help a lot lol. Still an interesting read - learning about cultures I didn't know before.

I figured I'd try something new this year and picked up the ebook version of a book my wife got - Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Was a big change for me - as someone who usually reads non-fiction history books / autobiographies. Definitely a bit easier to read than Diamond's book. lol.


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## Scepticalscribe

ericwn said:


> Vaccine mandates for folks who drag their behind across the country, cry me a river.






lizkat said:


> For the life of me I have never been able to get into The Lord of the Rings or the Hobbit either.  I've concluded there's just something wrong with me, and somehow I'm not willing to get it repaired.  I just can't make myself give the stuff another shot.  Yet I'm one who tells nieces or nephews they haven't lived unless they've read assorted books I do favor...  Go figure.  It's just somehow a blind spot, and a stubborn one at that.



Personally, I think it an astonishing - but, also, an exceptionally flawed - work; having read it a number of times, it is not one I wish to return to. 

It is a magnificent achievement - for it has created the architecture for much of modern fantasy, (not to mention many of its tropes), but is a work that I find very uneven.

It probably doesn't help that I cannot abide Frodo, and detest his relationship (this celebration of servility) with Samwise.

However, I suspect that it is one of those works that appeals more to men than to women; and Tolkien couldn't write a credible female character for toffee (one of the problems I have with the work).


BigMcGuire said:


> Having a heck of a time getting through Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel. The author definitely is far more intelligent than I am, but the book reads like a textbook to me and I find it difficult to keep up with the constant blast of information. IMO, a bit more filler (which would have probably 2-3xed the book) would help a lot lol. Still an interesting read - learning about cultures I didn't know before.



Jared Diamond's book is excellent - a genuinely original, and exceedingly well researched and argued book.


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## ericwn

Scepticalscribe said:


> Personally, I think it an astonishing - but, also, an exceptionally flawed - work; having read it a number of times, it is not one I wish to return to.
> 
> It is a magnificent achievement - for it has created the architecture for much of modern fantasy, (not to mention many of its tropes), but is a work that I find very uneven.
> 
> It probably doesn't help that I cannot abide Frodo, and detest his relationship (this celebration of servility) with Samwise.
> 
> However, I suspect that it is one of those works that appeals more to men than to women; and Tolkien couldn't write a credible female character for toffee (one of the problems I have with the work).
> 
> Jared Diamond's book is excellent - a genuinely original, and exceedingly well researched and argued book.




You are once again quoting me from a totally different discussion.


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## ericwn

lizkat said:


> I dunno, man, My mind just literally seizes up at the very thought of any of those four books. I've developed a mental block via trying a few times to reboot and have a fresh look at them. Can't do it.




It took me two or three attempts as well, to digest his material. It got easier after I enjoyed the moves ( the ring movies, mind you, the Hobbit movies are just nonsense).


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## Scepticalscribe

ericwn said:


> You are once again quoting me from a totally different discussion.




Not sure I quite understand.

Actually, I'm quoting myself, but glad that you agree with me (on TLOTR, I assume).


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## Scepticalscribe

ericwn said:


> It took me two or three attempts as well, to digest his material. It got easier after I enjoyed the moves ( the ring movies, mind you, the Hobbit movies are just nonsense).



Ah, okay.

I think the books flawed, and very uneven.

There re some superb sections (the Ents, the Mines of Moria), some terrific characters (Gandalf, Saruman, Gollum), some ideas - once original, now a somewhat tired cliché - the idea of weak kings, evil counsellors, fueding brothers, the Wise Mentor, kings who will be revealed by destiny, gorgoeus and impossibly attractive elves, grasping dwarves, bucolic bliss, and so on, and some absolutely awful characters (Tolkien couldn't write a credible female character to save his life, and Frodo and Samwise do not - remotely - appeal), and some sections that just drag interminably.

I far preferred Bilbo - wise, witty, humane, sane, brave but not reckless, with a perfectly understandble appetite for many of the good things that life has to offer, - to Frodo, and would have liked to have read about his quest, and what that journey would have done to him and how he would have coped with it.


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## ericwn

Scepticalscribe said:


> Not sure I quite understand.
> 
> Actually, I'm quoting myself, but glad that you agree with me (on TLOTR, I assume).




You’re quoting me on vaccine mandates above which is a different topic altogether.


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## ericwn

Scepticalscribe said:


> Ah, okay.
> 
> I think the books flawed, and very uneven.
> 
> There re some superb sections (the Ents, the Mines of Moria), some terrific characters (Gandalf, Saruman, Gollum), some ideas - once original, now a somewhat tired cliché - the idea of weak kings, evil counsellors, fueding brothers, the Wise Mentor, kings who will be revealed by destiny, gorgoeus and impossibly attractive elves, grasping dwarves, bucolic bliss, and so on, and some absolutely awful characters (Tolkien couldn't write a credible female character to save his life, and Frodo and Samwise do not - remotely - appeal), and some sections that just drag interminably.
> 
> I far preferred Bilbo - wise, witty, humane, sane, brave but not reckless, with a perfectly understandble appetite for many of the good things that life has to offer, - to Frodo, and would have liked to have read about his quest, and what that journey would have done to him and how he would have coped with it.




Being unable to create credible characters of the opposite sex is - in my opinion - quite common and absolutely understandable, especially the older the material is. 

I do agree on Frodo, as a friend of mine once suggested: the books would absolutely rock if every Frodo section would be replaced by a bad ass dragon. 

Still, a masterpiece of the genre.


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## Scepticalscribe

ericwn said:


> You are once again quoting me from a totally different discussion.



Ah, yes.

Now, I see what you mean.  That wasn't intentional.  Apologies.

I have no idea how I did that; ever since the changes to how "likes" are registered in the system, I have found myself clicking on stuff - that reply or quote button - by accident.

Mea culpa.


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## Scepticalscribe

I have been reading - and thoroughly enjoying - the quite wonderful "Temeraire" series by Naomi Novik; brilliant stuff.


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## lizkat

Lately I've been going for a second time through some of Howard French's 2014 book *China's Second Continent:  How a Million Migrants are Building a New Empire in Africa*.  A lot has changed in the world since then,  including China's own focus and its economic achievements and challenges at home and abroad.  But I wanted to look back at this book because French began it by noting that it was only around 2004 that China had intensified its effort to supplant a then languishing effort by western nations to bring along 21st century commerce and assorted innovations in their dealings in African nations.   And he noted that China had only formally seemed to launch its own interests in Africa around the mid-1990s with an important speech by Jiang Zemin, who was then China's head of state.



> In a ]1996] speech at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Jiang proposed the creation of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).
> 
> This turned out to be an important first move in a momentous two-step. Upon his return to China, Jiang gave another speech in the city of Tangshan, in which he explicitly directed the country’s firms to “go out,” meaning go overseas in search of business. No Chinese leader had ever said anything like that before, and from the very start Africa was clearly a principal target.




By now, the processes and results of some of China's projects abroad have been broadly documented in news media from time to time as both controversial and expensive.  But French's book is illustrative of aspects we don't usually read about in media accounts, focusing on the relationships of people, working either as independent merchants, as construction  supervisors or as Chinese or African laborers working on the large projects.  French had managed to round up some pretty outspoken people.  Perhaps as a group,  migrants from China to elsewhere -- whether indie merchants or construction bosses-- and maybe in particular to Africa,  tend to be far more outspoken than the carefully scripted official line from Beijing about how things work in Chinese endeavors abroad... and how things were back home.



> “Outsiders are awed by China’s extraordinary economic growth over the last thirty years [since 2014], during which time its GDP had increased tenfold. But along with that growth has come cutthroat competitiveness and grinding stress in daily life that many find unbearable, and which drove many Chinese to leave the country. Time and again, Chinese told me they did not fully realize how oppressive things were at home until after they had left. Living in Africa, they said, it felt as if a lid had been removed from a pressure cooker. Now they could breathe.
> 
> Hao was the first person I had met, however, who had chosen his destination in Africa because he believed there would be few Chinese there. He was a new kind of frontiersman, and I would meet many others like him. Collectively they challenged another common image about the Chinese, who were held to be a reflexively insular people who constitute self-enclosed communities wherever they go.”






> From his age and from his references to “eating bitter” during the Cultural Revolution, I knew Hao to be a member of the Lost Generation, a group that included people in their late forties to early sixties who had grown up in the bygone era of the iron rice bowl, with its expectation of cradle-to-grave socialism. When China opened up and turned capitalist in the early 1980s, members of that group were too old to recover from the deprivations of the most radical period of Maoism, which had lasted from 1966 to 1976.
> 
> It was a time when higher education, and even secondary school for many, was interrupted and the country was plunged into political and social turmoil. Unlike the overwhelming majority of his age cohorts from undistinguished backgrounds, though, Hao had thrived in spite of his generation’s unlucky timing.




Turns out that Hao, whom the author met in Mozambique, was "sent down" during the Cultural Revolution and that his formal education had ended in junior high school.



> I returned to the question of how he had chosen to settle in Mozambique in the first place.
> 
> “I went to an African trade fair in Fujian province and there were lots of Chinese businesspeople there,” he said. “I got excited by all the talk of business opportunities in Africa. Later, I figured my English is no good, though, so I got the idea that if I went to an English-speaking country, English being a popular language, Chinese people would be everywhere.
> 
> "Mozambique is a Portuguese-speaking country, though. This might bring me luck. I’ll be damned if I understood Portuguese, but damnit, I figured, neither do most Chinese people in general, so what the fuck? There must be great undiscovered opportunities there, and I won’t have to be constantly looking over my shoulder for other Chinese people coming to compete with me, cheat me out of my money, or steal my ideas.”






> I told him I’d just been in Ethiopia, which produced a look of deep puzzlement, and that the next country I would visit was Namibia.
> “What is Namibia?” he asked.
> 
> I drew him a crude map in my spiral notebook. “Ethiopia is up here,” I said, pointing to the continent’s northeastern shoulder. “Mozambique is here. And Namibia is over here. It’s on the Atlantic coast.” Hao wanted to know how far away that placed Namibia from where we were. Several hundred miles, I said. I started to fill in the map to show him some of the other countries I planned to visit. When I sketched Senegal’s position, at the continent’s furthest point west, I decided to give him a little more context and added Europe, tracing its downward slope toward Africa that culminates in the Iberian Peninsula.






> “Here is Portugal,” I said, which produced another look of confusion. He asked me what Portugal was exactly. It was the colonial power that once controlled Mozambique, I told him. As he nodded, still looking uncertain, I added that it was the place where the Portuguese language came from.  He knew that Mozambique had been a European colony, a _zhimindi_, but he had not known it had been Portugal’s colony. “I thought Portuguese came from Brazil,” he said.
> 
> I drew South America on the map for him, separated, as one would expect, by a large blank expanse for the Atlantic Ocean, and told him that Brazil, too, had been a Portuguese colony. Hao began making some connections, thinking of Macau, the tiny formerly Portuguese enclave near Hong Kong. “Son of a bitch,” he exclaimed. “You wonder how the fuck little countries like Portugal controlled so many big, faraway countries? It’s just like the way the Europeans carved up  China, I suppose.”
> 
> After a pause, he asked: “Where is America?”
> 
> I sketched North America onto my crude and now crowded map, and Hao was astounded to learn that it was not of a piece with Europe, as he had always assumed.




Yah, the insights are fascinating. Most Chinese now know at least a little English language, but among some emigrants (just as among many Americans!) a grasp of global geography and the history of other nations' alliances may be pretty rudimentary. Still,  it doesn't seem to prevent these enterprising adventurers from finding a niche in which to operate, particularly as itinerant merchants.  They usually do end up networking with other Chinese expats from their own region of China for their re-ups and for transportation of the goods they sell.

Anyway this is usually the jumping off date for my annual exploration of what to focus on in my "deep dive" reading projects.   Haven't decided yet for 2022 of course,  but both China and a lot of countries in Africa are interesting to me now,  because of ongoing and sometimes tumultuous changes, thanks in part to larger lower and middle class segments of their respective populations.    So this book by Howard French, dealing with both regions at the intersection of commerce and investment (be it by small merchants or national treasuries) seemed like a great place to spend some time again before possibly having to flip a coin and start gathering up my 2022 "deep dive" readling list.

And yeah, no:   I'm not a subscriber to the idea that "globalization is over".    Not gonna happen, even if the roads get bumpy for awhile.


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## Scepticalscribe

I marvel at - and wonder at - how some eras (the Napoleonic Wars, WW1, Tudor England, for example) give rise (at the time and later) to a lot of excellent literature (both "high" literature, popular, and - indeed - fantasy works), whereas other eras are hardly touched, or appear to offer little to the world of the imagination.

Recently, I read Naomi Novik's superb Temeraire series (dragons in an alternative Napoleonic War world); that brought to mind the excellent Aubrey/Maturin series (Patrick O'Brian), Bernard Cornwell's impressive Richard Sharpe series, - both also set in the era of the Napoleonic Wars - and, of course, the original, the outstanding, Jane Austen.


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## Huntn

The artist who created this series of covers, bravo!​

Just finished the *Mistborn trilogy*,  and this story is epic, creative, intriguing, and exciting with a strong female character. I don’t know if using metals to produce magic is a common idea in fantasy stories or not, but if not, this author created a complete basis for a system of magic granting physical powers involving metal that are related to Gods. You have to read all 3 to get the complete story and the arc climax and resolution to the story.

Is there a movie in the works? Maybe, maybe not… this from 2015:
https://www.imdb.com/list/ls079040395/


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## Scepticalscribe

Huntn said:


> View attachment 13520
> The artist who created this series of covers, bravo!​
> 
> Just finished the *Mistborn trilogy*,  and this story is epic, creative, intriguing, and exciting with a strong female character. I don’t know if using metals to produce magic is a common idea in fantasy stories or not, but if not, this author created a complete basis for a system of magic granting physical powers involving metal that are related to Gods. You have to read all 3 to get the complete story and the arc climax and resolution to the story.
> 
> Is there a movie in the works? Maybe, maybe not… this from 2015:
> https://www.imdb.com/list/ls079040395/



Delighted that you enjoyed it.

I must say that I also loved this series; I loved Vin (a seriously strong, female, protagonist, her arc was wonderful) and also loved her relationship with Elend and how it evolved over the course of the three books. 

And Sazad just rocked (as, indeed, did TenSoon).

Moreover, the system of magic in the Mistborn trilogy was one of the best, most original, most credible (yet internally logical and narratively satisfying) that I have ever encountered in (fantasy) fiction.


----------



## Huntn

Scepticalscribe said:


> Delighted that you enjoyed it.
> 
> I must say that I also loved this series; I loved Vin (a seriously strong, female, protagonist, her arc was wonderful) and also loved her relationship with Elend and how it evolved over the course of the three books.
> 
> And Sazad just rocked (as, indeed, did TenSoon).
> 
> Moreover, the system of magic in the Mistborn trilogy was one of the best, most original, most credible (yet internally logical and narratively satisfying) that I have ever encountered in (fantasy) fiction.



Re-*Mistborn trilogy*. It is quite impressive how each character, the protagonist at the start, the various members of Kelser’s crew, the on-going research by Sazed to reveal a lost history, the role of mists and metal, what these represent,  and even how the classes of mythical creatures fit into their cohesive parts of the narrative, and especially the origin of these creatures and how mist and metal is involved from start to finish  in not only their existence, but their actions, motivations, and control. And finally the revealed answer as to why this dying world is the way it is Is simply awesome. 

If you like this genre of story, it is the best for these reasons: Besides  a cohesive and compelling plot, with a bevy of interesting and likable characters, the magic wielded by mortals is not completely vague where anything goes. And although the realm of Gods and supreme but limited  power is touched upon, (due to an initially unexplained status quo), instead for mortals and magic, although related to Gods, it  is based on metals and is presented as a defined framework of abilities with rules and limitations. You don’t usually see this kind of effort in a story involving magic, where usually it’s power is not as well defined


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Huntn said:


> Re-*Mistborn trilogy*. It is quite impressive how each character, the protagonist at the start, the various members of Kelser’s crew, the on-going research by Sazed to reveal a lost history, the role of mists and metal, what these represent,  and even how the classes of mythical creatures fit into their cohesive parts of the narrative, and especially the origin of these creatures and how mist and metal is involved from start to finish  in not only their existence, but their actions, motivations, and control. And finally the revealed answer as to why this dying world is the way it is Is simply awesome.
> 
> If you like this genre of story, it is the best for these reasons: Besides  a cohesive and compelling plot, with a bevy of interesting and likable characters, the magic wielded by mortals is not completely vague where anything goes. And although the realm of Gods and supreme but limited  power is touched upon, (due to an initially unexplained status quo), instead for mortals and magic, although related to Gods, it  is based on metals and is presented as a defined framework of abilities with rules and limitations. You don’t usually see this kind of effort in a story involving magic, where usually it’s power is not as well defined



Agreed.

Actually, I really liked that the system of magic (based on metals) had rules it was obliged to follow (similar to elements in the periodic table, or what one learned when studying science at school), that it had limits, (on its use, re time, potency, type of magic in question - not every metal had equal power), that it had costs (to the user as well as to the target), and that it was fully integrated into - and completely logical within - the world where it was used.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Has anyone read The Bone People by Keri Hulme (it won the Booker Prize in 1985)?

Recently, I re-read it.

My (German) sister-in-law gave it as a gift to my mother in the early 1990s, - which is when I first read it (as did my mother, I recall our discussion about it - gosh, I must say that I do miss discussing and debating books with my parents, especially my mother, who was an avid reader, but, they both read extensively; growing up, I was amazed - and stunned, and disbelieving - to discover that there were houses and homes where there were no books, not on neatly shelved on shelves, not lying around, on coffee tables, or sofas, not found by beside a pillow or on a bedside locker, or, on the carpet beside a bed, and houses where nobody read anything); anyway, we both thought it an extraordinary, powerful, compelling - disturbing at times - and completely original work.


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## Deleted member 215

Just picked these up at the bookstore:





These will be some fun light reading on my upcoming vacation to NYC


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## Scepticalscribe

Last week-end, I read the most recent book published by the almost invariably excellent Guy Gavriel Kay, an impressive writer of very well-crafted and beautifully written fantasy works: All The Seas Of The World.


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## r.harris1

A Gambling Man, by Jenny Uglow about Charles II and the Restoration. Next up is Time Song: Searching for Doggerland, by Julia Blackburn. A couple of birthday books. Exquisite.


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## oldBCguy

Wabi Sabi  “wisdom in imperfection” … “beauty and harmony in what is simple, imperfect, natural, modest and mysterious” … “may be best understood as a feeling, rather than an idea”

Quotes from two books I recently purchased for my lady - a well-aged senior, and home artist / craftsperson - who encountered ‘Wabi Sabi’ via her online “research adventures”, and was seeking additional exposure to the subject.  





Two fantastic books on the subject, and she has been devouring them!!


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## Alli

I am reading yet another series by John Ringo. When it comes to epic military space sagas, there’s no one better.


----------



## Deleted member 215

Latest to be added to my to-read list:

*The Savage Detectives* by Roberto Bolaño (just started this one--haven't started the others)

*Runaway Horses* by Yukio Mishima (the second in the tetralogy that marked the final works he wrote. I read _Spring Snow_ last year and loved it).

*Protestants: The Faith that Made the Modern World *by Alec Ryrie


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## Scepticalscribe

Alli said:


> I am reading yet another series by John Ringo. When it comes to epic military space sagas, there’s no one better.



Lois McMaster Bujold (with the brilliant Vorkosigan series) and Elizabeth Moon (the excellent Serrano-Suiza series) are both also exceptionally good on "epic military space sagas".


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## Macky-Mac

TBL said:


> *Runaway Horses* by Yukio Mishima (the second in the tetralogy that marked the final works he wrote. I read _Spring Snow_ last year and loved it).




_*Runaway Horses*_ was probably my favorite of the four books in _*The Sea of Fertility*_ tetralogy. It's worth making your way through all four, although there's a decided change in tone and outlook presented in each of them.

Have you read any of his other books?


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## Deleted member 215

Just _The Temple of the Golden Pavilion_, which I also liked.


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## sgtaylor5

re: LOTR; I just wanted to read it normally. Through with the main series, now. I really needed a (mostly) happy ending to read about. Thinking of world events makes me not hopeful of humanity's long-term survival and I don't want to think like that. Sam saw the single, bright star in Mordor when they didn't have any water nor food nor any hope left and he then realized that there was divinity and beauty in the universe that even Sauron couldn't touch. That one act made him stronger by far. Whether it was Eru strengthening him or not, he needed to see that star, and so did I.


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## Clix Pix

_The Paris Apartment_, by Lucy Foley....


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## Scepticalscribe

Locklands by Robert Jackson Bennett (the third book in the Foundryside trilogy).

An excellent ending to an exceedingly good trilogy.


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## Scepticalscribe

A number of years ago, Robert Jackson Bennett wrote a superlative trilogy, "The Divine Cities" which was astonishingly good; ever since, I've been a serious fan of his writing.

The Foundryside trilogy (Foundryside, Shorefall, and Locklands) is also excellent, but - as his stories are complicated and dense (hilarious in part and sometimes frenetic in pace), they need to be read slowly in order to be appreciated and understood. That is also a memo to self, as I tend to speed read sometimes.

Plot, narrative and characterisation are excellent, and, moreover, he is extremely good at writing intelligent and troubled female characters.

Unfortunately, this is not something readily mastered by a surprising number of male writers, who, all too predictably often, tend to let the gender of a female character get in the way of her actual character, - let alone her role in the tale (if any, apart from a distracting relationship with a male protagonist), and all too often succumb to the temptation of allowing a male protagonist to have - or to wish to have - a relationship with whatever female characters cross his path on the printed page. These days, I have come to find this very tiresome, even though it may simply be a form of wish fulfilment.

Robert Jackson Bennett doesn't do that.

His "Divine Cities" trilogy featured a different protagonist in all three novels, (though all three of the respective "protagonist" characters interacted with each other in varying ways throughout the trilogy), two of them female, and one male, and I must say that I thought the entire trilogy outstanding.


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## Scepticalscribe

For anyone who liked (or loved) Caroline Criado-Perez's outstanding "Invisible Women", I can recommend a book I read last week, entitled "Mother of Invention - How Good Ideas Get Ignored In An Economy Built For Men", by Katrine Marçal. 

An excellent, occasionally hilarious and downright infuriating read.


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## Scepticalscribe

Another book recommendation: 

"Aftermath - Life In The Fallout Of The Third Reich 1945-1955" by Harald Jahner, an excellent and thought-provoking read (about Germany in the decade immediately after the war) which I devoured last week.


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## Deleted member 215

Thanks for the recommendations, Sceptical. Looking up many of these now. "Aftermath" sounds especially interesting to me.


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## Scepticalscribe

TBL said:


> Thanks for the recommendations, Sceptical. Looking up many of these now. "Aftermath" sounds especially interesting to me.



Aftermath is excellent, - I recommend it strongly - and offers vignettes and perspectives not frequently encountered in historical writing about that era, let alone about that country, at that time.

Among other things, it is subtle and sophisticated in how it treates women, their lives, aspirations and altered - nay, transformed - positions, postwar: For some women, paradoxically, the immediate postwar era was liberating.  They were able to find work - and were generally seen by the Allied occupation as less threatening than male Germans.

For example, "GI Brides" are described (I think, probably correctly) as not simply "marrying for money/security/position", not simply marrying GIs because so many German males had been killled or seriously injured during the war, but also sometimes using the opportunity presented by the possibility of such marriages to escape a stifling (and poverty stricken), defeated (and disgraced) country, that denied them opportunities (personal and professional) that had been in thrall to a robust patriarchal and nationalist ideology (all that "Fatherland" nonsense), suffocating class distinctions, and conservative traditions.

Anecdotally, (because I have worked with many Germans over the years), I have been told stories of returning POWS, some returning after a decade of imprisonment in the USSR, who returned to a transformed world; their wives worked, and had worked, had had to work, to support the family - and were financially independent and had become used to financial and personal autonomy in a society which had not - historically - prized such things.

The days of the classic "hausfrau" were well gone, and they were not about to willingly submit to a marriage with a brutalised, violent and resentful man, often suffering from PTSD, unused to female company after more than a decade of war (with atrocities) and appalling captivity in the Soviet Union, a man who still sometimes subscribed to disagreeable theories about the master race, and a woman's place, views sometimes reinforced with fists; their children had grown up in a different world, and had (for the most part) thoroughly repudiated the values and mindset of the Nazis, which they had come to loathe.  Divorce rates soared (the book discusses some of this), while the children, who challenged their returning parent, or avoided them - especially sons of such marriages - were profoundly alienated from their returning parent, who tended to find these changes unsettling (for they were all about upending "natural" hierarchies) and extraordinarily difficult to deal with.

But, it deals with much more than this; an excellent, thought-provoking read.


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## Deleted member 215

Just picked up:

*The Idiot* by Elif Batuman

I've been hearing a lot about this coming-of-age novel about a Turkish immigrant (not so loosely based on the author). The reviews are mixed but I think it's finally time to give it a read.

*The Savage Detectives Reread* by David Kurnick

While _The Savage Detectives_ is still fresh in my mind (and now one of my favorite novels of all time), I thought it might be a good idea to read this "afterbook" that analyzes the novel's narrative and its creation.


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## ronntaylor

*The Hundred Years' War on Palestine* by Rashid Khalidi

Called a "passionate," "wide-lens" examination of the conflict of the region, I was intrigued by this suggestion and finally got a chance to start on it today. I like that it's not overly long (just 255 pages, not counting notes) and Khalidi attempts to be fair in recounting the tragedy of the Palestinian state since before 1917.


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## Scepticalscribe

Jonathan Stroud, his latest series.

He has already written two extremely good - actually, excellent series, firstly, the Bartimaeus series, and, secondly, the really impressive Lockwood series (the first, a trilogy, the second was a five book series)

Am re-reading the first book in his latest series " The Outlaws Scarlett & Browne", and am also currently reading the second in this series, "The Notorious Scarlett & Browne."


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## lizkat

Going to read “The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021" upon its release in late September.

An excerpt in The New Yorker was definitely worth reading.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1556604226381516801/


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## lizkat

A writer with incomparable skills and diligence has passed away.  HIstorian David McCullough, age 89.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1556676242346311689/


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## Spike

I just finished The Cockroach of the Dada Movement: The Life and Selected Works of K. Ungeheuer. Very different. Link.


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## lizkat

A couple of books by the Egyptian writer and political activist (and dentist!) Alaa Al Aswany:  one is *The Yacoubian Building*, which I first bumped into as a passing reference while on a summer's "deep dive" into translation issues, an umbrella topic that I continue to pursue since then as well. That book is a novel about the Egypt of then current times, e.g. during Mubarak's rule.  It was written in 2002, available inside Egypt, widely acclaimed, eventually translated into more than 30 other languages and adapted not only as a film premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in 2006 but later also as a TV series.

But times change, eh?  Right, so this other book. far more recent, is Aswany's *The Republic of False Truths*, a fictional account of the 2011 Egyptian uprising. which predictably enough was banned in Egypt and a number of other Arab countries, not least because the author was personally and publicly involved in that uprising, having helped found the _Kefaya_ _(Enough!_) movement against Egypt's military dictatorship way back in 2004.   That book was first published in Lebanon in 2018,  translated into English in the UK in 2020.

Some background on the author  in a review of the later book:

https://www.arbuturian.com/culture/books/the-republic-of-false-truths​


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## lizkat

Tempted to escape from Mar a Lago news, maybe read something like an old classic Erle Stanley Gardner mystery from the Perry Mason series,  to try to turn the page on politics ahead of a weekend when media will deluge the planet with speculation and tidbit-leaking.... and I'll end up trying to surf it all without drowning or crashing.

In the meantime here's to Gardner's _*The Case of the Careless Kitten*_.  It's either gonna be that or one of the Travis McGee series of "color-coded" novels by John D. MacDonald,  maybe _*The Turquoise Lament. *_

But I've always been so taken by the cover of the Gardner one.  Someone on Goodreads posted it up today and it made me realize I have it upstairs someplace.   Off to the hunt!


​


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## Clix Pix

Wow, that takes me back years and years......  My mother and I used to read all the Earle Stanley Gardner books -- she belonged to some sort of mystery/crime book-of-the-month type club and each month she'd get a new one.  She'd read it and then pass it on to me.   I think this was even before I was in high school.    It's not surprising that I am still an avid reader and especially enjoy thrillers/crime/mystery/murder/law and courtroom type novels!


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## lizkat

A memoir by Samantha Power,   _*The Education of an Idealist.  *_Took it as an ebook from the local library system,  have had to renew it once because I've kept putting it down to give myself a break from it.   The book does include some fascinating recollections of her early days as a war correspondent and her later focus on humanitarian issues,  particularly as relating to delayed recognition by the world of conflicts that have morphed into genocide.

But the reality of military intervention to interrupt or prevent genocide, which intervention Power came eventually to advocate for,  is fraught with unintended consequences:  humanitarian, political, legal, logistical.   The questions become more thorny with increased experience of nations attempting to intervene in what starts as an internecine conflict inside a nation, with risks of spillover to larger regional conflicts, and potential leveraging by stateless terrorists or those with state sponsorship.

A caveat about the book:  despite my appreciating her related insight and honesty,  the level of Power's self absorption --including documenting instances of it that were pointed out to her by colleagues or mentors--  is maybe in the end more annoying than endearing to me, truth be told

She's almost saying  _look I know you think I'm wrapped up in myself on this point and you're right and others say so too._​​My reaction is _OK yeah and it's worse reading yet another page having you tell me what I already sighed over._​
Still I can't abandon the book because it is informative on issues that interest me, and Powers is nothing if not determined to keep human rights issues on Page One -- instead of some appendix at the back of a briefing paper that few will ever get around to reading.  That's worth a lot to me,  and potentially to all people without the rights that people like me have to try not to take for granted.    I'm sitting on my hands to keep from buying the darn book,  because I suspect there's not a waiting list for this tome,  and I could borrow it again at will.

Ms. Power was US Ambassador to the United Nations during the Obama administration,  and currently serves under President Biden as adminstrator of the US Agency for International Development.


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## Deleted member 215

Currently reading *The Stories of John Cheever. *I'm enjoying these poignant little stories, but man, every single one is a downer. It gets to be a bit much.  Surely Cheever had a positive outlook on _something_?


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## MEJHarrison

I just finished _*Strong Magic*_ by Darwin Ortiz.  It's a non-fiction book all about captivating the audience for magic performances.  It was very interesting.


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## lizkat

David Halberstam's *The Fifties*.  I was still a little kid for some of it,  and so saw that era moment to moment, not as a decade in the arc of American and world history, even though I learned early to be curious about world events.   Fascinating to catch up with more of the background,  past memory of newspaper headlines and dinner table discussions of the news on a given day.

The book is a tome, which is fine, and I like skipping around in the e-book version.    However, shame on the editors for not building out some descriptive headings for chapters past just numbering them.  I've had either to highlight a few phrases or insert notes so I can flip back to start of a particular chapter more easily when desired.   A chapter named "Twenty-seven" just doesn't cut it...

The book does have an interactive index though, which plenty of nonfiction e-books could use but still don't have,  so kudos to editor and publisher for that.


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## lizkat

Current read:  *The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021* (Peter Baker, Susan Glasser)

This married couple are journalists and authors with impeccable professional credentials. This is their third book written together, and it's a compelling read, or in my case a compelling listen.It has turned out to be an audiobook that does not put me to sleep, so it has migrated to my laptop to get its share of my attention during the day. 

The research and interviews were all done after Trump left office, dispelling an unfair charge that they may have "held anything back" for a book as opposed to having had the opportunity to divulge it in their respective reporting endeavors while Trump was still in office.

Anyway I'm not sure I buy into that charge for any journo including Maggie Haberman.  A journalist is not a West Wing employee or a cabinet head, a governor or golf-playing Senator on Trump's ever-changing list of confidantes. Those pols could stand to be ashamed of themselves for keeping to themselves some of what Trump was up to, including being so out of control as to suggest good reason to remove him under the 25th Amendment.  

But reporters working in real time, well... to the extent they can get a source to talk, a reader's question is sometimes "Why don't the pols want to say stuff like this on the record to the American people?"  The answers to that after subtracting all the spin usually boil down to the politician's simple fear of job loss.  For a reporter to bring that to pass would only reduce the transparency we do get by having a press with contacts inside government.

The book is not focused on Trump's policy decisions per se.  Rather it looks at Trump's behavior amid the utter chaos of his own creation, involving the self-sacrifice or self-serving agendas of those who variously strove to stir pots or establish some order or just survive in the maelstrom created by an extreme narcissist.  The authors let the facts and interviews speak for themselves for the most part.  There is an occasional bit of snark that one can hardly deny them considering where it has been applied.

That Trump is still not necessarily in the USA's rear view mirror was frightening before one reads this book. The man's internal chaos spills out without warning into rage and impulsive attempts at decisions with real world consequences he didn't and still doesn't even understand.

To be enlightened --or just reminded-- by some of what's in the book is to roll eyes and hope the Republican Party comes to its senses after the 2022 midterms and emphatically disowns this guy. One could hope the same of voters who, for whatever reason once or even twice, had thought the value to their own egos or agendas in supporting Trump would outweigh any risks to country, party, and even themselves. So far on the ground it looks like a slow slog for some voters to put daylight between a reality TV Trump and the actuality of a now thoroughly self-disgraced former president.


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## Huntn

*Spoilers *


​
*Mastadonia* (Book 1978)- I will call this a good, light read story. It starts with a professor on sabatical on his Wisconsin farm, and his dog brings him fresh dinosaur bones. There is also an ancient crater with strange metal alloys in it and an friendly alien (Catface) who hangs out in the orchard.

Time travel is approached in this story, as a single time line, along with the idea that if you went back to the Miocene (10000+ years ago), would there be any issue with polluting the time line, lasting ramifications that effect your modern existence? There is the idea of the Butterfly Effect. 

How about small groups that go back and hunt Mastadons, or farther back and hunt dinosaurs? Or a couple who have a permanent road back and forth and decide they want to live during the time of Mastodons and build a house there?   The worst would be to allow large groups of poor people to immigrate back and get a fresh start. Yep, that’s in the book. 

Arguably even if you were not altering human development, if you killed enough critters, you might effect the development of future species including humans,  so the change could range from subtle, not noticeable, or possibly monumental. 

There are several ideas in the story that I take issue with, one would be that any authority allow a private entity to run a time travel business. However I was able to overlook them.   My primary complaint is that the story just seemed to get going, when it ends. The Safari who is wiped out by Carnosaurs, I wanted more!  I enjoyed it while  it lasted.


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## Huntn

I read the first William Gibson Cyberpunk Sprawl trilogy starting with *Neuromancer* and got into it, thumbs up. I recently started his Bridge trilogy starting with *Virtual Light* and put it down as his writing style being a bit too helter skelter.

Then I remembered I really enjoyed Brandon Sanderson’s *Mistborn* trilogy, and decided to give him another go, and was hooked in a matter of a chapter on *Warbreaker*. Not sure at this point if this is a trilogy or not. The first trilogy mentioned dealt with the ingestion of metal,  creating personal power, Warbreaker involves colors, breath, and awakening. The term refers to instilling power into inanimate objects so they will become animated and do your bidding. At this point there seems to be a spiritual power element to “breath” such as a life force.

​


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## Scepticalscribe

This week, I have been re-reading the superb Regeneration trilogy (Regeneration, The Eye In The Door, The Ghost Road) - set during the last two years of the First World War by the wonderful Pat Barker (this was the work for which she won the Booker Prize). Seriously excellent - intelligent, interesting, humane, and powerful, and, among other things, an extraordinary examination of social class, gender and war.


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## Herdfan

Random question for you readers.

If you read a series of books where some have been made into movies, do you picture those actors as the characters in future books?

I just finished _A Time for Mercy_ by Grisham and it is the 3rd in the Jake Brigance Series the first being  _A Time to Kill_.  So as I am reading it, I picture Matthew McConaughey as Jake, Ashley Judd as his wife and Samuel L Jackson as Carl Lee.  

Anyone else do this?


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## Scepticalscribe

Herdfan said:


> Random question for you readers.
> 
> If you read a series of books where some have been made into movies, do you picture those actors as the characters in future books?
> 
> I just finished _A Time for Mercy_ by Grisham and it is the 3rd in the Jake Brigance Series the first being  _A Time to Kill_.  So as I am reading it, I picture Matthew McConaughey as Jake, Ashley Judd as his wife and Samuel L Jackson as Carl Lee.
> 
> Anyone else do this?



No.

In general, (and yes, there are exceptions - the movie adaptation, which was surprisingly good, of The Name Of The Rose was one such, the LOTR movies were another, and, the first two Godfather movies, obviously, are yet another, for they are an even more rare case where the movies far surpassed the ancestor book in quality), in my experience, the book (or books) tend to be far better than whatever movies are derived from them.

In fact, usually, I dread movie adaptations as they are - almost invariably - such an utter disappointment.


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## DT

Herdfan said:


> Random question for you readers.
> 
> If you read a series of books where some have been made into movies, do you picture those actors as the characters in future books?




To answer the actual question, sure, visual memory is pretty powerful, I've even had one situation where I read the book,  a couple of years later saw the movie, and have since revisited the book, and now, for all time, Brad Pitt is Tyler Durden 



Huntn said:


> I read the first William Gibson Cyberpunk Sprawl trilogy starting with *Neuromancer* and got into it, thumbs up. I recently started his Bridge trilogy starting with *Virtual Light* and put it down as his writing style being a bit too helter skelter.
> ​




If you like the cyberpunk genre, I'd recommend checking out Neal Stephenson and Bruce Sterling, really anything and you can read some previews/reviews.

With Stephenson, you kind of have to read Snow Crash, it's fun, amazing ideas, but clearly it was written by a much younger author (in terms of skill and perspectives), it's really a satire of cyberpunk.  His Baroque Cycle stuff is fun, I've seen it, which is a pretty good take, described as historical hackerpunk   And slightly off topic, his more traditional sci-fi work, Anathem, is Top N material.

I'd at the very least check out Islands in the Net by Sterling.


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## Herdfan

DT said:


> To answer the actual question, sure, visual memory is pretty powerful, I've even had one situation where I read the book,  a couple of years later saw the movie, and have since revisited the book, and now, for all time, Brad Pitt is Tyler Durden




So you didn't keep him in Fight Club.......


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## Scepticalscribe

The Uses And Abuses Of History - by Margaret MacMillan.

An interesting and thoughtful - and thought-provoking - book, by the invariably excellent Margaret MacMillan.


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## lizkat

Scepticalscribe said:


> The Uses And Abuses Of History - by Margaret MacMillan.
> 
> An interesting and thoughtful - and thought-provoking - book, by the invariably excellent Margaret MacMillan.




Somehow had not heard of that, will have to take a look! 

Meanwhile I've been choosing to read several books on the US Senate.  The latest one is Lewis Gould's "The Most Exclusive Club."   The author noted that he had found himself of a different view of that establishment (and of some of its most memorable figures) compared to what he had half-expected, even while still not very far into his research. So while acknowledging the power of this storied chamber of Congress,  and some of its remarkable achievements on behalf of the nation, the book is no hagiograph of either "the club" itself over time or or of individual Senators, which suits me just fine.


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## Scepticalscribe

*Twelve Caesars - Images of Power from the Ancient World to the Modern - by Mary Beard.*

Anything by Mary Beard (about the world of Ancient Rome) is always worth reading; interesting, stimulating, thought-provoking, wonderfully researched and beautifully written.


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## Scepticalscribe

Re-reading The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett.


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