BS: Read any good books lately?

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: olddude
Date: 25 May 09 - 10:17 AM

Kendall was kind enough to give me a copy of his book
I laughed on every page. What a great book ....

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 25 May 09 - 10:36 AM

I have just finished Coventry By Helen Humphries..what a wonderful writer she is. The Best of all Canadian writers is Alistair MacCleod, especially "No Great Mischief".

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Neil D
Date: 26 May 09 - 06:18 AM

"Delta Blues" by Ted Gioia

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Riginslinger
Date: 27 May 09 - 09:29 PM

The recent posts reminded me of Elizabeth Bowen and "The Last September." The current economic situation reminds me of it as well.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: robomatic
Date: 28 May 09 - 02:33 AM

Just started "Every Man Dies Alone" by Fallada, a book written during the war by a German author and published in 1947. It's about a grieving German who protests the war in Germany by sending flagrant postcards in the mails and relying on their anonymity to keep him safe, yet there is an official trying to track him down. It is supposedly based on an actual case, but I'm freshly into it. This latest publication is very recent.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 28 May 09 - 02:49 AM

Just finished 'The Shack' - excellent.
Halfway through 'The Gargoyle' - also excellent (but for different reasons).

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: robomatic
Date: 02 Jun 09 - 04:39 PM

Finished: "Every Man Dies Alone" from the 1947 book by Hans Fallada: Jeder Stirbs fur sich allein. The author had spent several months in a German asylum toward the end of the war, and as the East German government took form under the Soviets, a friend of his loaned him the dossier on the Hampel case, which he fictionalized by entering the minds of the participants.

An unusual story, very readable translation.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Ebbie
Date: 02 Jun 09 - 06:26 PM

As usual I'm reading several books but one is a disappointment to me. It is the highly acclaimed 'The Kite Runner'. If it were a true story I'd be a lot more forgiving but this way...

At this point I am where 'Amir' is setting Hassan up as a thief. I may not even finish it which for me is a rare thing.

He presents Amir as evil, even if he doesn't label it as such. The story is so bleak with no redeeming bits of humor that to me the boy is just not believable.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Ebbie
Date: 02 Jun 09 - 06:28 PM

I just realized - it's kind of like "Lord of the Flies". Both books present themselves as revealing human nature but since they are fiction they lack credibility. IMO

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: heric
Date: 02 Jun 09 - 08:29 PM

Agree on the Kite Runner Ebbie. So simplistic in the good/evil split - in the honor/dishonor, pride versus shame etc. that it forces you away to stand outside of it and think - oh, I see what he's doing - with all the subtlety of forced sodomy or a rock to the head. Kites good. Stadium executions bad.

I'm reading An Exploding Case of Mangoes.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: heric
Date: 02 Jun 09 - 08:49 PM

I wish you hadn't triggered that. No doubt there are many people upthread who liked as so many millions do - and it's all subjective. The guy presented it as heartfelt rendering of his homeland with his personal shame exposed - so it's got lots of good qualities as well. But, yeah - I still agree with you.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 09 Jun 09 - 09:35 AM

Lot of public-domain history books recently added at Librivox. Roman, Irish, Scottish, early church history...

John Muir books also just added.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 09 Jun 09 - 09:41 AM

Persevere, Ebbie. It ends satisfyingly well.
Try also 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' by the same author.
And, 'The Bookseller of Kabul' (by a female Swedish author, based on her real-life experiences living with a family in Kabul). A real insight into the oppression of women in that region.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 09 Jun 09 - 10:31 AM

The first Inspector Lynley mystery post the murder of his wife and unborn son: Careless in Red and also the next to latest of the No. 1 Ladies Detective series: The Good Husband of Zebra Drive. Great reads, both of them!

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Rowan
Date: 09 Jun 09 - 08:30 PM

A post I put on a thread about the Kokoda track elicited a riposte from a 'catter that I was sure contained some misinterpretations, so I went and read "Kokoda", by Peter FitzSimons; he compiled it from official histories, published information and interviews he conducted with survivors. It's a great read and goes into details relevant to Australians and Japanese who have (or had) relatives who were involved. Those interested in the Australian aspects of Douglas MacArthur's WWII activities might also find it interesting.

I'm gratified that it confirmed the substantive issues of my post but, more importantly, refamiliarising myself with the graphic details of that campaign was excoriating; much of it had me in tears.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Slag
Date: 09 Jun 09 - 10:08 PM

I recently read "Marley" which was better than the movie by the same name, which is not to say that the book was good. It was ho-hum and predictable, mediocre writing and really, a waste of time.


I also read Lis Wiehl's "Face of Betrayal". This was the FOX news lady 's first attempt at writing a novel. It has had a lot of publicity and heavy promotion on the network. She is supposed to be writing from her "wheelhouse" about things she knows of the legal profession and FBI. If I could sum up the opus in one word, it would probably be "YAWN". Predictable, not great literature, no force of language, self-serving and pretty much, a "rabbit-out-of-the-hat" ending. I think the ending was supposed to be a "twist". The misdirections were very apparent as she tried to clutter up the landscape and hide the culprit. A lot of the events were too, too similar to many recent headline stories in the news of late. Not much imagination. Save yourselves time and money and avoid these books

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

My apologies! The title of David Frankel's book and the subsequent movie is "Marley and Me". My opinion still stands.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Diva
Date: 10 Jun 09 - 02:33 AM

Have finished the first two of the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer. Complete change from my usual kind of read; mind you I did describe them to a friend as Mills and Boon with blood!!!!

The Nineteenth Wife got that to read on the train when going to Girvan at the begining of May. Can't remember the the author

Picked up a history of the Kennedy Family that has been languishing on my bookshelf for years but it is quite out of date.

Am re reading Queen Amang the Heather by Sheila Stewart, about the life of her mother Belle. It is a wonderful read.

Dipping into the new edition of The Merry Muses of Caledonia

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: heric
Date: 13 Jul 09 - 02:27 PM

There are 400 British ships in New York harbor. Hessien mercenary and British regular reconnaissance teams are astounded at the material and agricultural wealth around them, completely mystified as to what motivates these people to invite such destruction. The suspense is killing me.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: fat B****rd
Date: 13 Jul 09 - 02:40 PM

I'm happily reading my way through everything by George Pelecanos. Inspired by his connections to "The Wire"

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: GUEST,Hi Lo
Date: 17 Jul 09 - 11:53 AM

I have just finished two great books.."Out Stealing Horses" by a Norwegan writer and a VERY funny book called rancid Pansies by a British Author who's name I cant recall..Hamilton-Peterson, I think. Great fun and very clever.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Ebbie
Date: 17 Jul 09 - 02:41 PM

In March 08, Art Thieme mentioned a book I just finished 'The Road', a chilling (literally)novel about what one assumes describes a nuclear winter. I suppose everyone else has already read it - I don't get around to reading much fiction - butI understand they are making a movie about it with Robert Duvall in it. I think the movie is due to come out in October.

I don't know that I'll go see it when it comes out. The story line is of a father and young son who are making their way for hundreds of miles without food or water except by happenstance through terrain choked in ash that dims the sun and blackens the night. There are bad guys out there - capturing and killing other emaciated people - for food.

That's all I'll say about it, just in case someone has not read ithe book. It is well worth the read. What I like in reading is well-written subject matter that gives me lots to reflect on and this book certainly does that.

I'm now reading 'Mr. Jefferson's Women' (Thomas Jefferson, of course) and 'The Speckled People', "A Memoir of a Half-Irish Childhood'- oh, and I'm also reading a futuristic novel, 'Stand on Zanzibar', published in 1968. It is interesting to see what the author projects for the future, even including today.

A month or so ago I had given up on 'The Kite Runner' as too guilt-ridden and humo(u)rless but several Mudcatters' opinions encouraged to continue so I did. Glad I did.

*************************
Back in last July Riginslinger asked for suggestions on what books he could have Amazon send his son's friend in prison. May I suggest anything by Adrian Louis?

"Adrian Louis is a poet, novelist, and former newspaper editor who has also served as a professor of English at the Oglala Lakota College on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. He is a member of the Lovelock Paiute tribe."

*************************
And of course I have - and have read - 'Clean Cabbage in the Bucket'. I hope they publish it as a series. hint, hint, Seamus
**************************
Oh, DougR, (March 09)I understand that Sarah Palin is going to help George W write his book and in return he will help her write hers. :)

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 17 Jul 09 - 03:13 PM

Have just read several of James Lee Burke. I love his descriptions of Louisiana and Montana and his characters. He wrote one of the best observations about Katrina that I have read in the last few pages of White Doves At Morning.

Just finished Blood Work by Michael Connelly. His stuff is always good.

Child of My Heart by Alice Mcdermott was wonderfully beautiful.

I am just about to read A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella Lucy Bird. She was English and came through on horseback, alone, through the rocky Mountains of Colorado in the 1870s!

Also, just getting ready to read Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson. I loved his "The Mother Tongue" and expect we will enjoy this as well.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Amos
Date: 17 Jul 09 - 03:33 PM

I have had the recent joy of downloading to my iPhone a bookshelf of forty-five classics for 99 cents and have delighted in reading or re-reading many of them since then. Kidnapped and A Tale of Two Cities are among the best. Others that have delighted me include Siddartha, Silas Marner, The Call of the Wild, Candide, Little Lord Fauntleroy, Pride and Prejudice, Little Women, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Crome Yellow, Daisy Miller, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Four Million, The Girl on the Boat, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Invisible Man, The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Jungle Book, Miss Lulu Bett, Maggie--a Girl of the Streets, Little Women, The Prisoner of Xenda, The Red Badge of Courage, and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

Just imagine!! Such wonderful, rich, thoughtful, colorful, human entertainment--hours and hours worth--for 99 cents!!!


I love my iPhone.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Ebbie
Date: 17 Jul 09 - 04:02 PM

Two questions, Amos: 99 cents for the whole thing? Not per? and how large is the type?

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Ebbie
Date: 17 Jul 09 - 05:24 PM

Oh, by the way, in the science fiction Stand on Zanzibar' one of the world leaders is named 'Obomi'. :)

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 07 Aug 09 - 11:50 AM

Just finished A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains which is comprised of letters written by Isabella L. Bird to her sister as she travelled, alone for much of the time, throughout the eastern slope of the Rockies in 1873 by horseback, climbing to the lofty heights of Long's Peak even, well over 14,000ft. Fascinating book, very well written, not at all boring or stodgy, incredible woman making her way home to England, from the "Sandwich Islands" (Hawaii)via the Rockies which she wanted to *see*. I am now off to find more of her books as she continued to travel, all over the globe, and to write about it. And, she got down in the nitty-gritty living with the real people with no putting on of airs/agendas other than to see and learn. Extraordinary woman!

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: bankley
Date: 07 Aug 09 - 01:10 PM

"A Man Without a Country"... Kurt Vonnegut.... funny, but he gets crabby toward the end

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 07 Aug 09 - 01:16 PM

Amos (et al)

You paid 99 cents?

Most of us get them for free.


( I have had a copy of the LOTF (Library of the future) for many years- texts no longer under copyright, and freely available for electronic distribution.)

Try this, and stop wasting your money.

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Joe_F
Date: 07 Aug 09 - 08:44 PM

I have been browsing once again in _The Impossible H. L. Mencken_, a fat collection of his journalism as it originally appeared. Aside from the continuing joys of escape to the follies of yesteryear, this book offers the amusing opportunity to compare some of his well-known work as it appeared in the newspapers and as he revised & expanded it for book publication. His classic obituary on Valentino is a good example -- each version has its charms. It is also interesting that the wonderful section in "The Sahara of the Bozart" in which he explains why southern blacks are racially superior to southern whites (which inspired some legislators to make speeches advocating his lynching) was not in the original.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Janie
Date: 07 Aug 09 - 09:15 PM

Recently read The Promise of Rest, the last book of the Mayfield family trilogy written by Reynolds Price - one of my favorite authors.

Had started reading Generation Kill, by Evan Wright before my son absconded with it to read on his 3 week trip with his dad. Evan Wright is a "Rolling Stones" reporter who was embedded with a special forces Marine troop at the beginning of the Iraqi war. He wrote a series of articles for "Rolling Stone" that he turned into a book, published in 2004. Very intriquing and thoughtful. Focuses not on the war, but on the men, their experiences, and their personalities and reactions. We had stumbled across the HBO mini-series on-line and had been watching it, then went and bought the book. From what I have read so far, very thoughtful.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: heric
Date: 07 Aug 09 - 10:20 PM

Common Sense, Thomas Paine, 1776

"By a plain method of argument, as we are running the next generation into debt, we ought to do the work of it, otherwise we use them meanly and pitifully. In order to discover the line of our duty rightly, we should take our children in our hand, and fix our station a few years farther into life; that eminence will present a prospect, which a few present fears and prejudices conceal from our sight."

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 07 Aug 09 - 10:25 PM

My airplane book for my vacation was "The Whiskey Rebels" by David Liss. It is a novel set at the end of 18th century U.S.A. Certain folks are trying to wreck the Bank of the United States, and perhaps the nascent US. At the same time Congress imposes a tax on the distilling of whiskey. This being the major source of income in the West (Pennsylvania at that time), the locals act against the Federal government.. The story is told from two separate perspectives which, in the final chapters prove to be two paths which have been crossing the entire time. Great read! This is the third book--or maybe fourth--by author Liss. All of them have had to do with finance, commodities or stock speculation, and such convelution. None-the-less, they are all terrific stories.

I am currently at the last chapter or two of "1491". This is something of a misleading title, as the book covers thousands of years of civilization(s) in the Americas, and the early years of Spanish conquest. Some parts get bogged down in anthropological data, while others go by rather quickly. If the scholars the author, Charles C. Mann, cites are correct in their analyses and interpretations, there is a lot of rethinking to be done about the civilization of the Americas concurrent with that in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, not that there was ever any contact between the two worlds, but that it is about as old.

JotSC

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Aug 09 - 11:50 PM

I just finished, and highly recommend, "Shannon", Frank Delaney's latest novel. It weaves the tale of an American priest who had served heroically as a chaplain at Belleau Woods during WWI and come home shattered by shellshock. A few years later he has a severe relapse, somehow involving a scandal in the Boston Archdiocese. Tentatively recovering from the relapse, and at the Cardinal's recommendation, he undertakes a journey to Ireland to search for his ancestral roots along the grand river that bears his family name. Ah, but the year is 1922 and he lands in the middle of Civil War. An authentic, poetic evocation of time and place.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Neil D
Date: 07 Aug 09 - 11:54 PM

That last was me. This is the first time I've ever had to reset my cookie. That was easy enough.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Janie
Date: 20 Sep 09 - 09:07 PM

Have recently discovered "the Dresden Files," a series by Jim Butcher that is a load of fun. A modern day wizard/private eye in Chicago. Have finished the first two books, and am just starting on the third. Not great literature by any means, but well-written and entertaining.

Also just finished listening to "The Time Thief", the 2nd book in "the Gideon Trilogy", by Laura Buckley-Archer.   Haven't read or listened to the 1st or 3rd book of the trilogy. It is a fantasy about time travel geared toward adolescent readers. (Because of my now 15 year old son who loves fantasy and sci-fi, I read or listen to a lot in this genre.) Again, not great literature, but entertaining. Not the best of the genre either, but still pretty good - in the middle of the pack, I would say.

If you are in a part of the USA where Cracker Barrel restaurants are common, they offer books on CD that rent for just under $4.00 per week, and I nearly always will rent one to listen to on the 6 hour drive to my parents. A tendency toward too many Nora Roberts and Danielle Steele, but nearly always there is something worth a listen. Usually good biographies are available and some good fantasy fiction that Mom, Dad and the kids can enjoy.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Riginslinger
Date: 20 Sep 09 - 09:14 PM

Does anyone read the Dan Brown books? I tried reading "The Da Vinci Code," and found it written in a prose style that prevented me from finishing it.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Janie
Date: 20 Sep 09 - 09:40 PM

I haven't read any Dan Brown, though both Barnes & Noble and Border's are flooding my e-mail now with promo on his newest release.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 21 Sep 09 - 12:47 AM

I haven't read any of his, either; just don't appeal to me.

Janie, thanks for the info re' Butcher. I will have to look at those books.

I'll post some new titles tomorrow.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Amergin
Date: 21 Sep 09 - 01:07 AM

I have been reading the Night Watch series by Sergei Lukyanenko....English transations from the original russian....but very interesting....detective/fantasy stories....

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: ard mhacha
Date: 21 Sep 09 - 04:47 AM

Two 2nd hand buys from Amazon resulted in two great reads, The Springing of George Blake by Sean Bourke and The Blake Escape by Michael Randle and Pat Pottle. I read the books when they were first published, Bourkes in 1970 and Randles and Pottles in 1990.
The two books will hold you to the finish, both books are amazing tales of Blakes escape from Wormwood Scrubs Prison and the twists and turns on the road to East Berlin.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 21 Sep 09 - 09:17 AM

Just on the second of the Malazan books by Steven Erikson - Very complex plots and masterful characterisations. I would recommend them to anyone who enjoys fantasy or lovers of polital intrigue.

DeG

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Micca
Date: 21 Sep 09 - 09:56 AM

I would recommend "The Girl with the dragon tattoo" by Stieg Larsson non-traditional fiction translated from the Swedish, For the first time in years I stayed up until 4 am to finish it!!

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Micca
Date: 21 Sep 09 - 09:59 AM

insert word "detective" between traditional and fiction

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 21 Sep 09 - 10:13 AM

Audiobook just finished, MARVELOUS: The Lost Prince (free, at Librivox)

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 21 Sep 09 - 11:21 AM

I have read quite a lot lately..lovely to read out side..I read The Cruise of The Snark by Jack London, Loving Monsters by James Paterson Hamilton, loved it. He is a very good writer. Also, Bonjour Tissteste by Francois Sagan, odd but enjoyable. Am now reading Among The Believers by V.S. Naipaul, very enlighteing.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: keberoxu
Date: 13 Aug 16 - 05:15 PM

Well, the publication release date is about two weeks away....

for Louise Penny's latest in her Quebec murder mystery series, which switches between Montreal and the Surete, and a fictitious town called Three Pines near the Canada/US border. The series bears comparison with Elizabeth George's England series, for a number of reasons. One is that both series have gone on for some time, and been adapted to television. Another is that both series, several books in, developed and changed in ways that shocked and alienated many readers.

Louise Penny's next Chief-Inspector Gamache book has had advance-reader reviews already, and most are not only positive but reassuring, as in, the author is back on form.

I just want to make sure that the bistro owners, the poet, and the duck are still all right.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 14 Aug 16 - 06:06 AM

Just finished the remarkable 'The Angel's Game. by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, a follow-up to his equally remarkable, 'The Shadow of the Wind'
Would highly recommend both.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Stu
Date: 14 Aug 16 - 09:45 AM

Thursbitch by Alan Garner

Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd

Both stunning and profound and both invoking English mysticism and a sense of... the other.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: keberoxu
Date: 14 Aug 16 - 05:01 PM

Janie, from the Cracker Barrel rentals, I found one that I really liked, but it wasn't popular fiction.

"Kitchen Privileges" is the name of a volume of memoirs by suspense writer Mary Higgins Clark. She grew up in the Bronx amongst Irish Americans, and she traveled a long and rocky road before she started writing her suspense novels. It's the kind of life story that is really entertaining if you don't have to live through it yourself. And Ms. Clark narrates her memoirs in the audiobook, giving it a sense of authenticity. I loved listening to it.