BS: Read any good books lately?

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 03 Oct 08 - 04:01 PM

The Sea Wolf, by Jack London. OK, some of the sailing and sealing stuff could not quite happen that way-- but what a character study/buddy epic. Theological, too.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: freda underhill
Date: 03 Oct 08 - 09:05 PM

I read Edward Rutherford's books Dublin - Foundation, an account of Dublin from pre-Christian times to @ 17th century, and haven't yet started his next book Ireland the Awakening which continues on. (they sound like the two books referred to above, maybe a different name in Australia?) He's a historian as well as a writer, and also checks his writing with other historians for accuracy in details of the era. The first one was engrossing.

Ducks on the pond by Australian journalist Anne Summers is a fascinating autobiography which is also a rich social history of women in Sydney and social change in the 70s and 80s.

It is similar to Nuala O'Faolain's "are you somebody" in it's frankness and honesty. Any woman can learn from and identify with the writings of these two women.

freda

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: bobad
Date: 03 Oct 08 - 09:15 PM

Rereading JD Salinger's "Franny and Zooey" after more than forty years, surprisingly some recollection remains and appreciation is enhanced by four decades of living.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Joe_F
Date: 03 Oct 08 - 09:57 PM

_Army Life in a Black Regiment_, by Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1869, reprinted by Penguin, 1997). Interesting contemporary memoir. He liked their songs, among other things. His hopefulness is sometimes heartbreaking.

_Giovanni's Room_ by James Baldwin. Bisexuals in Paris, 1950s. Rather dreary IMO. I liked _Another Country_ a lot better.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: GUEST,number 6
Date: 04 Oct 08 - 12:26 AM

"Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life" by Jon Lee Anderson

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 04 Oct 08 - 09:28 AM

I just finished "speak Memory" by Nabokoff. It is the best Biography I have read in a long time. Excellent. On the other hand, I also recently read "Pillars of The Earth" by Ken Follett;one of the worst books I have ever read..so you wine some, you lose some.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 26 Oct 08 - 04:51 PM

Michael, thanks to you I have been reading nothing but Diane Gabaldon this month! Devoured Outlander, went on to Dragonfly in Amber and am getting close to finishing Voyager and have a copy of the next one on its way to me. THAT one will likely have to wait a bit as I am committed to writing a 50,000+ word novel of my own in November!:-)

In between I am up to the 6th book in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Series and have a new John Lescroart to read. All else waits for Gabaldon!

ard, I've just finally ordered a copy of that book from Amazon. If you have a hardback of it, I'd suggest hanging on to it; they are pricey! I am really looking forward to reading it, even if I find some of my ancestor's slaves may have been Irish. (It would be ironic as we've a mix of all three, Irish, Scottish, and English, in my heritage.) The records say he left Barbados to be the governor of the Carolinas and took several hundred slaves with him.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: ard mhacha
Date: 26 Oct 08 - 05:01 PM

I have just finished reading book one of Henry Morris`s trilogy on the British Empire,Heavens Command, beg borrow or steal this trilogy, Pax Britannia, a brilliant account.
Try your local library, I got mine from Folio, a must read.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: ard mhacha
Date: 26 Oct 08 - 05:09 PM

Kats my copy of To hell or the Babadoes is a paperback, dont forget my advice on Henry Morris`s trilogy, his account is the fairest I have ever read on this period.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Riginslinger
Date: 27 Oct 08 - 04:29 PM

"The Aught-Sixers"

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Amos
Date: 27 Oct 08 - 04:33 PM

HIghly recommended first-hand account of the tribulations of the Gemini and Apollo space programs, and their ultimate, extraordinary successes: Last Man on the Moon by Eugene Cernan (who was indeed the last man to walk and drive on the Moon). A humdinger.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: kendall
Date: 27 Oct 08 - 04:40 PM

I haven't finished it yet but Seamus Kennedy's book "Clean Cabbage in the Bucket" is a very interesting read. It's a series of short stories about the life of traveling Irish singers. Also included are Robbie O'Connell, Frank Emerson, Dennis O'Rourke and Harry O'Donoghue.

Poignant and funny is a combo hard to beat.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Joe_F
Date: 27 Oct 08 - 07:49 PM

Picked some more or less random old ones off my shelves to browse in today:

Edward Gibbon, _The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_ (1776-1781). One can pick a chapter at random & escape from present to ancient wickedness & foolishness.

Elizabeth Hawes, _Men Can Take It_ (1939). An extended complaint, by a well-known fashion designer, that the clothing of respectable men in the U.S. is unnecessarily uncomfortable. Amusing, temperate, and amazing when one considers how many other things people had to worry about in 1939.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Alice
Date: 27 Oct 08 - 07:56 PM

Sherlock Holmes: The Montana Chronicles

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Riginslinger
Date: 27 Oct 08 - 10:09 PM

Well tell us about it, Alice. It sure sounds interesting to me.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: alison
Date: 28 Oct 08 - 02:07 AM

Lamb - by Christopher Moore - think Hitchiker's Guide meets the missing bits in the New Testament. Not for the easily offended - but it is an absolute hoot.

another vote for Diana Gabaldon - re-reading Crosstitch for the umpteenth time.

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Folk Form # 1
Date: 28 Oct 08 - 04:04 AM

I am reading Asimov's New Guide To Science at the moment. A massive book which I will probably read in stages to stopmy brain exploding withall the infomration overload.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: quokka
Date: 28 Oct 08 - 09:13 AM

Just finished John Grisham's 'The Testament'. Very good.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Riginslinger
Date: 28 Oct 08 - 10:20 AM

"The Sea Wolf, by Jack London. OK, some of the sailing and sealing stuff could not quite happen that way--"

                      I remember reading this when I was a kid, and everytime they had a storm and the water got rough, they would simply put out a "sea anchor." I came away wondering how any ship could ever sink at sea. Why didn't they just put out a sea anchor?

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 29 Oct 08 - 03:08 PM

For those enjoying the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books, there is a neat video of the author Sandy McCall Smith in Scotland and Botswana, as well as a short bit with Ian Rankin HERE. Well worth watching with a lot about his motivation for writing the books, etc.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: akenaton
Date: 29 Oct 08 - 06:02 PM

When I was young, I was in a really bad accident at work.
Confined to bed, someone gave me a copy of "Time and again" by an American author called Jack Finney. It was about travelling back in time, a fictional project funded by the US Govt and based in the Dakota building overlooking Central Park in New York City.

Over the years, the story stayed in my mind, although I forgot the book title and author's name, but a couple of weeks ago, I found the book at a car boot sale and I have read it again with much pleasure.

It still has the same effect on me that it had all those years ago

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Cluin
Date: 29 Oct 08 - 10:08 PM

Reading a hard cover H. Rider Haggard compilation I picked up at a book sale for a buck. Contains the stories "King Solomon's Mines", "She", and "Alan Quatermain". Good old adventure stories, if a bit dated, imperialistic, geographically impossible and politically incorrect.

I am most of the way through the 2nd one, "She", now and it occurs to me to contain bits that Tolkien might have adapted/borrowed. The English gentleman's gentleman Job has an attitude and dialogue that sounds quite a bit like Sam Gamgee. And "She" reminds me of Galadriel in spots, with her longevity, powers, and psychic ability; she also has a container of water that lets her view things clairvoyantly.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Rowan
Date: 30 Oct 08 - 05:53 PM

Galadriel in spots?

Now, that's a concept that'd exercise some lads' minds.

Cheers, Rowan
Whose daughter #1 has developed a taste for Agatha Christie so I've been collecting for her at the monthly Sunday Markets 'til she gets back from swanning around Europe with her mum. And I have to check out their plots before I give them to her. Of course!

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 30 Oct 08 - 06:40 PM

Loved King Solomon's Mines, years ago! Also loved Razor's Edge. Another of my favs, by Talbot Mundy is King of the Khyber Rifles. I started out with a Classic Illustrated comic of it and went on to the book. Great, fun stuff, long before Indiana Jones was a spark in his daddy's eye.:-)

Just finished In the Company of Cheerful Ladies. Another great No. 1 Ladies' Detective.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: DougR
Date: 30 Oct 08 - 07:18 PM

Yep. BUFFALOed, by Fairlee Winfield. It's available at Amazon.com and I wrote a review for it on Amazon.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 07:26 PM

A new author, to me: Barry Lopez. I've read two of his, recently: Winter Count and Crow and Weasel. I highly recommend both, but preferred the latter which also has brilliant illustrations. Beautiful, incredible writing and stories.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: LilyFestre
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 07:37 PM

Just about finished with Pillars of the Earth by Follett. Excellent.

Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: maire-aine
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 07:54 PM

Conscience of A Liberal by Paul Krugman,

and

The Second Bill of Rights: FDR's Unfinished Revolution and Why We Need It More Than Ever by Cass R. Sunstein

Regards,
Maryanne

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: robomatic
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 11:29 PM

I'm trying like hell to get into "Anathem" by Neal Stephenson. I find it slow going. So was easily diverted to Tony Hillerman's "Fallen Man" which is delightful as is almost everything he's written, and plan to be diverted next to "State Of Fear" by Crichton since it relates to a class I'm attending, re: Global Warming.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Janie
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 12:24 AM

Currently reading A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, who also wrote The Kit Runner. It is as good and insightful, if not even better.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 08:53 AM

I have just come off my annual Jane Austen binge and am now reading The End of History and The Last Man by Fukyama. It is a very thought provoking book and I will have to re-read much of it as I find it very complex in places. However, it does make one take a long look at the concept of liberal democracy and why so many people aspire to it as a national state of being.
   I have also re read North and South by Mrs. Gaskell and find an amazng parralell between it and the Fukyama book, although they are a hundred years apart and one is non fiction and the other a novel.
    I am always pleased when someone reactivates this thread..lots of interesting opinions and many suggestions for good reads. Thanks all.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Bee
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 12:06 PM

Just finished reading Gregory Maguire's Son of a Witch, sequel to Wicked, both of which my brilliant 19 year old neice gave me. Not for everyone, but I really enjoyed both books, and they really helped me come to terms with my deep-seated distaste for the 'heros' of the original Wizard of Oz.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Amos
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 01:20 PM

IF you can get your hands on a 2001 novel called The Forger,by Paul Watkins do so. It is beautifully written and brilliantly conceived.
Preview available here.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Amergin
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 01:43 PM

I am reading a book called Recalling the Good Fight, an autobiography of the Spanish Civil War by John Tisa, who was a member of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Bee
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 01:52 PM

Amos, that preview hooked me. Isn't the plotline based on a true story; a real forger who claimed (when charged with forgery, if I recall rightly) to be forging art to fool Nazis?

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Big Mick
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 01:55 PM

The Guards followed by The Killing of the Tinkers written by Galway man, Ken Bruen. Dark, edgy, and very well written.

Mick

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Catherine Jayne
Date: 08 Jan 09 - 08:41 AM

I've just finished reading Dawn French's autobiography and it's excellent and very funny. I got load of books for xmas including Nation by Terry Pratchett who has to be my favourite author. Also got The Folklore of the Discworld and The wit and wisdom of the Discworld on the pile to be read.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Midchuck
Date: 08 Jan 09 - 10:19 AM

Robomatic: I just finished Anathem. I hear where you're coming from. The first half or so took a long time to get through. I read the second half in a couple of evenings. It's worth the work, IMO.
Peter

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 08 Jan 09 - 11:05 AM

For the curious, like me: Review of Anathem. Sounds challenging and good!

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Riginslinger
Date: 08 Jan 09 - 10:21 PM

Novella - Re-read Joseph Conrad "Heart of Darkness," starting on "Secret Agent." It works very well in today's society, maybe because he was Polish.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Amos
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 12:00 AM

Bee, I did not know it at the time, but if so, truth is as strange as fiction. The novel creates the scene most skillfully.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 03:33 AM

I've just noticed the negative responses above to Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. I have to disagree. I think it's an absolutely wonderful series which presents real moral dilemmas and an alternative view of "God" which probably works better for those of a more agnostic bent. Someone said they felt he had an axe to grind. I didn't think that at all, though he clearly feels strongly about some of the deeper messages of the books. But I thought the stories were beautifully conceived and absolutely magical. Anyway, proselytising through children's literature is accepted in something like Narnia, which is one long Christian allegory - no one accuses CS Lewis of having an axe to grind. If anything, Pullman is the anti-Lewis; he undermines certain ideas about Christianity through the same medium that Lewis promoted them. Oooh, a battle for our children's souls! To be honest, my daughter loved Narnia when she was litte, but didn't really get on with His Dark Materials. But she's still an agnostic. :)

"The most notable quality of Pullman is the total lack of humour, quite the opposite of JKRowling."

Actually, the most notable quality of Pullman in comparison to JK Rowling is his ability as a writer. His Dark Materials is far more sophisticated writing, both conceptuially and in execution, than Harry Potter. I find a lot of Rowling's writing creaky and forced, especially after the third book. The overall story arc often works very well indeed, but there are too many convenient plot devices, and predictable twists, and, perhaps most importantly, I stopped believing in the characters (and especially a lot of the dialogue) from about book 5 - 7. She seemed to do better with them when they were little kids.


Aaaaanyway, someone reccommended William P Young's The Shack earlier. I could not disagree more. Absolutely cringeworthy, dreadful stuff. Grade-school theology - patronising, contrived, exploitative...as one of my friends was wont to say, the book contains "hidden shallows". IMHO.

So - on to the reason I came onto this thread! Has anyone read Affluenza, by Oliver James? They were discussing it on Book Club on Radio 4 last week and I thought it sounded really interesting. I thought I'd see whether anyone here has any views about it...

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: ard mhacha
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 05:24 AM

Just finished, Liberation: Europe 1945 by William Hitchcock, Hitchcock`s 446 pages read exposes the Allies as no better in lots of cases than there foes.
The countless thousands of eastern refugees who were handed over to the Soviets the majority of whom disappeared into forced labour camps to die in there thousands. Well worth a read,it is all there, the unnecessary bombing of the German cities when the war was coming to an end, the author opens a hidden chapter in the liberation of Europe.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 08:22 AM

It works very well in today's society, maybe because he was Polish.

??????

...................

I've just read Barack Obama's first book, Dreams from My Father. I think that must be the first time I've ever read a whole book by a politician.    of course he wasn't quite a politician when he wrote it. A pretty remarkable book - I can only hope he lives up to what it seems to promise.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 12:35 PM

ard mhacha, I recently read the book you recommended, To Hell or the Barbados. Opened up my eyes. I knew things were bad in Ireland, but I did not know some were sent to slavery in the Caribbean. Not so sure I want to claim my old ancestor after reading that! Thanks for telling us about it.

I am re-reading Bundori by one of my fav. authors, Laura Joh Rowland.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Becca72
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 12:39 PM

Just starting "Double Homicide" by Jonathan and Faye Kellerman. Should be an interesting read as I usually love his stuff and hate hers. We'll see how this one goes. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Joe_F
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 10:10 PM

I have recently been browsing in Norbert Wiener's _Cybernetics_, which warped my mind when I was in highschool 55 years ago. It is a very uneven book, and I still find the mathematical parts largely incomprehensible. However, the first chapter, "Newtonian and Bergsonian Time", is a charming comparative history of philosophy & technology, and the last, "Information, Language, and Society", contains the following timely remark:

"There is a belief, current in many countries, which has been elevated to the rank of an official article of faith in the United States, that free competition is itself a homeostatic process: that in a free market, the individual selfishness of the bargainers, each seeking to sell as high and buy as low as possible, will result in the end in a stable dynamics of prices, and [will] redound to the greatest common good. This is associated with the very comforting view that the individual entrepreneur, in seeking to forward his own interest, is in some manner a public benefactor, and has thus earned the great rewards with which society has showered him. Unfortunately, the evidence, such as it is, is against this simple-minded theory...."

His technological prognostications are sometimes quaint, but the following one in the introduction, on the likely consequences of what we now call automation, seems more sensible to me than it does to most people:

"...Of course, just as the skilled carpenter, the skilled mechanic, the skilled dressmaker have in some degree survived the first industrial revolution, so the skilled scientist and the skilled administrator may survive the second. However, taking the second revolution as accomplished, the average human being of mediocre attainments or less has nothing to sell that it is worth anyone's money to buy.

The answer, of course, is to have a society based on human values other than buying or selling...."

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Riginslinger
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 11:11 PM

Fifty-five years ago would be 1953. Reaganomics and the supply-side buffoons hadn't happened yet. I think the GI Bill was passed in 1954--could be wrong--but it seems like the last time that mode of thinking was in vogue would have been prior to the crash of 1929. All of that taken into account, it seems like the writer was thinking way ahead of his times.
                Of course, now we are living with the reality of the failure to heed the warning.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: ard mhacha
Date: 10 Jan 09 - 07:11 AM

Kats, It will be a lesson to anyone who ever doubted England`s role in Ireland, a horror story, an eye-opener for the doubters.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Joe_F
Date: 10 Jan 09 - 08:21 PM

Riginslinger: The book was written in 1947 and published in 1948; it was already (in)famous by the time I got hold of it. The laissez-unfair religion from which Wiener was dissenting was a good deal older than the Reagan's economic geniuses.