Books: What have people been reading recently?

Subject: RE: BS: Books
From: Gorgeous Gary
Date: 14 Apr 05 - 08:27 PM

I'm rounding the final turn and heading into the homestretch reading "Jonathan Strange". I've been enjoying it. There's a portion of the story which takes place in Venice which I found cool since we were there last year on our honeymoon.

-- Gary

Subject: RE: BS: Books
From: open mike
Date: 14 Apr 05 - 10:56 PM

i have discovered the female mystery writer Nevada Barr who features a character, Anna Pigeon who is a Park Ranger (see ranger thread) and is solving mysteries in all sorts of situations....California Forest Fires, Gulf of Mexico island historical pirson turned park and wildlife sancturary....
also Terry Pratchett, The Wyrd Sisters, my first introduction to disc world.
Also the cow boy song book from the mud cat auction...The Whore House Bells were Ringing.
also 1040 tax forms....it is that time of year in the U.S.

Subject: RE: BS: Books
From: sixtieschick
Date: 15 Apr 05 - 02:20 AM

LOVE Nevada Barr, open mike. Have you read the one that takes place in a cave? Scary as hell.

Subject: RE: BS: Books
From: open mike
Date: 15 Apr 05 - 02:59 AM

not yet, but it is on the list..
http://www.nevadabarr.com/

Subject: RE: BS: Books
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 15 Apr 05 - 03:46 AM

Liz - I have several systems:

Genre groups: Old German, classic German, modern German literature hardcovers in alphabetical order.
Author groups: German, English pocketbooks in alphabetical order.
Subject groups: Military history, regulations, fiction.
Academic and student history (chronological). Songbooks. Linguistics and dictionaries. Kalligraphy. Woodworking. Trains and engines. Firefighting (all in my studio).

So far they are placed in shelves. Since these are too small now, a lot of books are resting in boxes or on the floor.

Favourite books for frequent reading at my bedside or on a small shelf above my bed.

Encyclopedia and modern atlases in the living room, for easier access of the children.

Just finished a Didius Falco story: Ode to a banker. Started now to reread Lord of the Rings, interrupted by some Odes of Horace.

Subject: RE: BS: Books
From: DougR
Date: 15 Apr 05 - 05:17 PM

We keep our books in our library. Doesn't everyone?

I just finished reading "1916", by Morgan Llywelyn, and am now reading "1921" by the same author. Books that I purchased recently and are on my reading list: "Taking Heat," Ari Fleischer;"The Plot Against America," Philip Roth;"When Will Jesus Bring The Pork Chops," George Carlin;"Night Fall," Nelson DeMille;'Bush At War," Bob Woodward;"The Right Man," David Frum;"The High Cost Of Peace," Yossef Bodansky, and "American Soldier," General Tommy Franks.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Books
From: ranger1
Date: 15 Apr 05 - 07:07 PM

Yeah, Nevada Barr is up there on my reading list. I can identify with Anna, being a female park ranger of relatively short stature, and all. I've had to resort to re-reading them, 'cause I read faster than Nevada Barr can write 'em. As to the method in which my books are kept: on the shelves, in piles on the floor, in boxes in storage, behind the seat of my truck, under the couch, etc. I try to keep the ones on the shelves in some semblance of order, but chaos reigns in our teeny apartment. The only books that I manage to keep organized are the natural history books. They have pride of place in a wooden crate all their own.

Subject: RE: BS: Books
From: katlaughing
Date: 15 Apr 05 - 07:24 PM

I really like Barr's books, too. If you like them, you'd probably also like Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak mysteries in Alaska.

DougR, "1916" was really good!

Subject: RE: BS: Books
From: wildlone
Date: 15 Apr 05 - 08:10 PM

Since moving to Wales I have put up 12 feet of bookshelving and 6 feet of shelving for cds and I still have not got enough space.
Added to that I had a small win on the UK lottery so I got a DVD player,yet more discs to store.
Do not ask about the vinyl.
dave

Subject: RE: BS: Books
From: open mike
Date: 15 Apr 05 - 10:57 PM

Just heard of another book today..
well recomended: the Four Agreements
by Ruiz. www.miguelruiz.com/

Subject: RE: BS: Books
From: kendall
Date: 16 Apr 05 - 02:33 PM

Where do I keep my books? they are strewn from Hell to Hackney.

Subject: RE: BS: Books
From: DougR
Date: 16 Apr 05 - 03:33 PM

Yes, kat, I enjoyed "1916" too. I think she is a pretty good writer. "1921" promises to be good too. It carries the main characters who were not executed in "1916" forward. After "1921", I want to read he book, "1949."

I would be interested in any comments Irish Mudcatters might have about these books. Are they read and enjoyed there very much, or are they considered light-weight history?

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Books
From: sixtieschick
Date: 16 Apr 05 - 05:01 PM

Them's who like Nevada Barr's books may also like those of Laurie R. King:

www.laurierking.com

The Kate Martinelli series features a contemporary female cop in San Francisco. "A Grave Talent" is the first book in the series. The Mary Russell series features a younger, Jewish, California-born, Oxford scholar sweetheart and then wife of ---Sherlock Holmes! Sounds dorky but it works. Each series is a hoot. King is a scholar/geek as well as a fantastic mytery/suspense craftsman (craftsperson?) so the books are quite unusual.

Subject: RE: BS: Books
From: Firecat
Date: 17 Apr 05 - 02:40 PM

I've currently got 4 on the go.

The Horse Whisperer
Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers
Doctor Who: Cat's Cradle - Witch Mark
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy

I also pick and choose bits of Blackadder: The Whole Damn Dynasty, mainly when I'm watching the series because it's the scripts book.

Subject: RE: BS: Books
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 17 Apr 05 - 03:25 PM

Yesterday our local library had one of its 'Sale days' when they clear out books that are not being rented from virtually any of the umpteen libraries in the county.
I picked up seven books, (4 hard back, 3 paperback). Total outlay £1.10.
This is less than the cost from our local charity shops!

The books were all complete (storywise) and in good condition. Some appeared not to have been read.

The only standard failings were the removal of the front fly-leaf (to which the record of borrowers would previously been attached) and a few rubber stamps (which do not obliterate any reading matter)

O.K. 6 were science fiction, and the seventh was Bernard Cornwell's "Battle Flag" (for my wife!), but I will probably read that as well.

What bargains are available. The £1.10 wouldn't even have covered the cost of the plastic book protectors on the 3 paperbacks

CHEERS

Nigel

Subject: RE: BS: Books
From: dwditty
Date: 17 Apr 05 - 04:22 PM

see "Mayor of Macdougal" thread.

Subject: RE: BS: Books
From: Pogo
Date: 17 Apr 05 - 04:47 PM

currently I am reading through my collection of Dashielle Hammet novels starting with Red Harvest...I've been on a noir craze lately. On my list to read also is a book by Marilynne Robinson called Gilead.

Those who are interested in C.S. Lewis's novels...I recommend his science-fiction series " Out of The Silent Planet " " Perelandra " and " That Hideous Strength " All very good reads though he gets a bit more theological in them than in the Narnia series

Subject: RE: BS: Books
From: robomatic
Date: 17 Apr 05 - 10:41 PM

The Great Influenza by Barry - Tells the story of the establishment of modern medical research foundations in the United States ahead of the coming of the great Influenza of 1915 and as a side note gives a very interesting sidelight on President Wilson's mobilization of the United States for World War I.

Wide As The Waters by Bobrick - Tells the tales of the first translations of the Holdy Scriptures and New Testament into common tongues, including King James edition, and what an impact that had on English language, expressiveness, and thought.

Subject: RE: BS: Books
From: robomatic
Date: 17 Apr 05 - 10:44 PM

Currently reading "The Brothers K" by David James Duncan, which looks like it's going to do for baseball what his wonderful "The River Why" did for fishing.

Subject: RE: BS: Books
From: Ebbie
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 01:09 PM

The other day at the library I told a librarian that I want to take out some good fiction. Problem: I no longer know the names of fiction writers that I especially like.

She suggested 'The Time Traveller's Wife'.

I found it most interesting. As with 'The Road', the previously last fiction I read, it is absorbing to feel that the writer is discovering what is happening right along with the reader. Creating and maintaining that perception, I think, is part of the skill of the writer.

To my mind, both The Road and the The Time Traveller's Wife are exceptional.

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: robomatic
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 03:05 PM

I'm in the middle of Robert Grave's "Goodbye to all that" When I was a student I ran into a copy in the library where I had gone to find something completely different, ended up engrossed devoured the whole thing in one go sitting on a footstool in the stacks. Apparently RG created a minor sensation in 1929 with the book chronicalling his youth getting a gentleman's education in the public schools and going from there straight into service in The Great War. His frank description of life in the trenches got much reaction along with some claims of defamation on the part of military units he described. He was under the influence of the poet Laura Riding, and then the book was revised and printed in the 50's when he was eager to expurgate parts of the book (and the influence of Laura Riding). In 1995 his son re-re-issued the book with a lot of the original contents restored, giving it its edge back.

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: maire-aine
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 03:38 PM

Recently finished THE WOMAN BEHIND THE NEW DEAL: The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR's Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience, by Kristin Downey. An extremely interesting woman in her own right, and the book reminds us of how bad conditions really were before the New Deal.

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 04:12 PM

Up to the third book in Steven Erikson's Malozan book of the fallen series. Anyone into epic fantasy will be in for a treat if they have not started it yet. Son #3 is up to the 8th book - Boy what a complex history and world this guy has created. Hard going and things turn out quite nastily at times but, hey, so does real life! What a gripping read. Full of plots within plots, intrigues and detail at an amazingly rich level.

DeG

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: DougR
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 04:25 PM

I'm reading a novel I believe most of my fellow mudcatters would enjoy: "The War after Armageddon", by Lt. Col. (Retired) Ralph Peters. He is a military consultant for Fox News Network. Recommend it highly.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recent
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 04:42 PM

Just discovered the Dragon series by Anne McCaffrey

wow... When they came out I was only 10 years old.

Thinking about reading the Nigel Tranter novels again. It has been a while.

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 04:49 PM

Anne McCaffrey is brilliant, VT - Have you tried Ursulla LeGuin as well?

DeG

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: Riginslinger
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 07:29 PM

Short stories by Vladimir Nabokov.

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 10:26 PM

Paul Johnson's "A History of the American People." It is fun and enlightening to read a comprehensive history of the United States after 45 years or so, and through the eyes of an outsider. It's a bit of a slog at nearly 1000 pages, and with my older eyes which don't read quite as fast as in earlier times.

The Treaty of Paris has been signed. We won! Only 225 years to go.

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: Alice
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 10:54 PM

I grew up with old books from the early 1900's written by a woman who had to publish using her initials, so the readers would think she was a man. B. (Betty) M. Bower wrote Western stories about Montana and other western states based on people she knew on ranches in Montana. I collect these old books and look in second hand book stores and thrift shops for them. I found one in Butte about a month ago.
"The Flying U Strikes"

You can read some of her books online at www.gutenberg.org
Chip of the Flying U

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: Riginslinger
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 11:01 PM

Wow! That's pretty amazing, Alice. She even has Charlie Russell illustrating her books.

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: Alice
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 11:05 PM

Yes, I have one of the first editions of Chip of the Flying U with the illustrations by Charlie Russell.

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: Alice
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 11:18 PM

More of her books online, easier to read than the print at the Gutenberg site
Bower and her books (Click)

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: Alice
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 11:19 PM

Just a note, I have 19 of her books, many titles not on that web page. One unique story is called The Adam Chasers, about an archaeologist.

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recent
From: Janie
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 11:48 PM

Right now I'm thoroughly addicted to the Dresden Files and am about 3/4 the way through the series. Not great literature but thoroughly fun. Recently finished Jean Edward Smith's FDR. The Frances Perkin's biography sounds promising. Think I'll seek it out.

DeG, my son and I both enjoy well-written epic fantasy, and tend to read them in tandem, which leads to some good conversation - not always easy to cultivate with a teenager. Thanks for the heads up on the S. Erikson series.

I was a huge reader of books, mostly fiction, until about 15 years ago, then something happened to my concentration and for years I struggled to finish any work of fiction. Found non-fiction easier to concentrate on, but even that was a struggle. Newspapers, Magazines and professional journal articles were all I could manage. In the last year my concentration has begun to return, and it is a joy to be reading books again. I'm still not devouring them as I once did, but it is good to be reading something other than National Geographic cover to cover again. (Not that I don't enjoy and learn from my NG magazines.)

Sometimes I wonder if getting a computer and the internet have had a negative impact on my concentration and reading habits.

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: kendall
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 05:07 AM

I've read about 6 or 8 John Grisham novels but I just ran into one that didn't grab me. "The Associate". It's another lawyer story and I guess I'm just tired of that genre.
Jacqui loved it , however.

I'm up for another Patrick O'Brien. He tends to be somewhat verbose but interesting.I never tire of stories of the sea; I was so sad when I heard that C.S. Forrester was dead.

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: jacqui.c
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 11:47 AM

Just finished 'The Associate' by Grisham and am now reading the new Dan Brown - 'The Lost Symbol', which I am finding a good read. Not sure how much of the info he gives about the Capitol Building is true but it makes me want to try and find out more.

I've also been reading some Nelson De Mille and have two of his books in the John Corey series ready to take with me to the UK.

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: Mysha
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 12:16 PM

Hi,

A bit of a wasted effort, that hiding behind the initials of B.M. Bower. I've looked at Chip of the Flying U, an her gender appears to read from every page.

Anyway, I'm reading Månefuglen, by Lars Bo at a moment. A story about a young artist at the end of the Viking era.

Bye,
                                                                  Mysha

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: Leadfingers
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 12:27 PM

Someone is not buying enough books ! Just heard tht Borders (UK Bookshops) have gone into liquidation !

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: kendall
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 04:18 PM

It's part of the dumbing down of the world, Lead. Too many high school graduates who can not read their diplomas.

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: maire-aine
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 04:25 PM

I just started reading Jean Edward Smith's FDR. I will probably read it in sections, with silly mystery stories in between.

Maryanne

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: Alice
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 04:29 PM

Mysha, I agree, but I've read articles from the early 20th century at the time her gender was made public, and there were men who declared a woman could never have written in such detail about cowboys and ranch life.

Bower and other female writers of the time have become quite a topic in academic study of gender issues, as in "Gender and Genre: An Introduction to Women Writers of Formula Westerns, 1900-1950 by Norris Yates, The Western Historical Quarterly".

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: Alice
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 04:39 PM

Some of Bower's books were obvious western romances, like Chip of the Flying U. Some were very sentimental in other ways, like Cabin Fever (I won't give the spoiler if someone wants to read it online).

The Uphill Climb is about a cowboy battling alcoholism, and interestingly, even has a chapter titled 'The Feminine Point of View'.
CHAPTER XIV of The Uphill Climb


Illustration by CM Russell here click

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recent
From: Bettynh
Date: 27 Nov 09 - 03:00 PM

Terry Pratchett has a new book, The Unseen Academicals
Not his best, perhaps, but I'm not a soccer fan and probably miss some references. If you haven't met Pratchett in your reading, consider buying used or borrowing from a library. He has more than 40 novels and he's addictive.

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: GUEST,beachcomber
Date: 27 Nov 09 - 03:02 PM

Being a pensioner and unable to afford books myself I am waiting for my local Library to purchase American author John J. Turi's new book on DeValera : "England's Greatest Spy" published by Stacey International.
I wonder if any members have already read it and what are their opinions of Turi's research ?

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recent
From: GUEST,Steamin' WIllie
Date: 27 Nov 09 - 03:07 PM

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

It has resulted in my ordering his "The Selfish Gene"

if you ever wonder why we are here, or what it is all about, then his stance that we are carriers for genes to spread themselves makes sense and answers a good few questions.

Also puts superstition into perspective.

It's just a pity that he harps on and on so much he is rather irritating when on the radio / telly or being quoted in newspapers.

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: DougR
Date: 27 Nov 09 - 05:40 PM

Alice: A neighbor friend of ours recently published her new novel, "Buffaloed." Her name is Fairlee Winfield and her grandmother was a maid in Charles Russell's home in (as I recall) Wyoming. The book is based on stories her grandmother told her when she was a little girl and centers around a (supposedly)true story of how Russell committed a hoax on the Wyoming State legislature who commissioned him to paint a huge mural in one of the legislative chambers in that state, but it was actually painted by one of his students. I enjoyed reading it and you might too.

It's available on Amazon.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 27 Nov 09 - 06:48 PM

Try 'This Is Not A Game' by Walter Jon Williams. It's a sort of cyber-thriller, set in the very near future, in which the boundaries between a game and reality become very blurred indeed.

The remarkable thing about Williams is that all of his books are different and you never know what he's going to write next. He's definitely one of the best writers working in the SF/Fantasy field today and one of my favourite writers of all time - he definitely deserves to be better known.

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: Alice
Date: 27 Nov 09 - 07:07 PM

Russell lived in Great Falls, Montana. The Montana capitol building in Helena does have a mural by Russell, Lewis and Clark Meeting the Flathead Indians. If she put him in Wyoming, it's fiction. Russell's log studio that was in his back yard in Great Falls has been preserved and there is a major museum in Great Falls built in his honor.

The public was very aware of the progress of the mural for the capitol, because Russell and the Governor of Montana had quite a public dispute about how slowly it was coming along when the Governor visited the studio to check on its progress.

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: Riginslinger
Date: 27 Nov 09 - 09:54 PM

Yes, that's what I recall. I don't remember anything about Charlie Russell being in Wyoming. Everything I've heard about him comes from Montana.


               I've been thinking about getting the Dan Brown books on tape. I tried to read the "Da Vinci Codes" and found it impossibly boring. But everyone is reading them so I feel like I have to look into the books to keep abreast of what's going on.

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: Alice
Date: 27 Nov 09 - 10:03 PM

I also have a book on tape going that I was listening to in the car when commuting to work. The Sunday Philosophy Club, by Alexander McCall Smith (who also writes the No 1 ladies Detective Agency mysteries). This one is set in Edinburgh and is a fresh set of characters in a new mystery series.