Books: What have people been reading recently?

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: GUEST,Joe_F
Date: 27 Nov 09 - 10:20 PM

_The Age of Empathy_ by Frans de Waal. Points out that human (and other mammalian) nature contains a lot of resources for cooperation as well as for competition. Some surprising information.

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: maire-aine
Date: 17 Dec 09 - 11:02 AM

Just finished "Supercapitalism" by Robert Reich.

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: GUEST,Mike of Hessle
Date: 17 Dec 09 - 11:35 AM

I am currently reading for the second time 'First they killed my Father' by Loung Ung.

This tells of her experiences under the Khmer Rouge

Incredible story about a terrible time for people in Cambodia

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: Wesley S
Date: 17 Dec 09 - 12:37 PM

Profiles in Courage by John Kennedy and Darkly Dreaming Dexter by John Lindsey

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recent
From: Rowan
Date: 17 Dec 09 - 03:39 PM

Tim Winton's "Breath" was an interesting read that I recommend.

I've just finished my third reading O Robert Fagles' translation of "The Odyssey", which I prefer to "The Iliad", although his translation of that is also excellent reading. It makes me want to search out Alexander Pope's version; Fitzgerald's is OK but doesn't really carry the poetry, for me. But I'll probably have another read of "The Iliad" over CHristmas, because Bernard Knox's Notes (to both of Fagles' translations) are really interesting reading in themselves.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: Joe_F
Date: 17 Dec 09 - 06:01 PM

_The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom_ by Graham Farmelo

_Class Act: The Cultural and Political Life of Ewan MacColl_ by Ben Harker

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: Riginslinger
Date: 19 Dec 09 - 09:46 AM

"Tales from the Time Loop" by David Icke

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: robomatic
Date: 19 Dec 09 - 06:00 PM

Just finished "What is the What" by Dave Eggers which while formally called a novel is a creatively written autobiography (with help). It chronicles the experience of the Lost Boys of Sudan by focusing on the experiences and with the unique voice of Valentino Achak Deng (which name is also a website). It covers horrendous events and situations but is full of personal observations and enough humor so that the read does not become a burdensome tale of woe. The author and subject are still involved in bringing relief to South Sudan particularly in encouraging the education of girls and women.

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recent
From: Joe Offer
Date: 19 Dec 09 - 06:10 PM

I just finished Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, Gregory Maguire's fascinating study of evil in the Land of Oz. There are two sequels, one about the witch's son and another about the lion. I'm tempted to read them both. And I've wanted to see the musical play for years, but San Francisco is a long way from here.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: catspaw49
Date: 19 Dec 09 - 08:55 PM

I seem to be back on the Airship kick again and I have two great books coming for Christmas (just after really).....One is a history of the U.S. Navy program and the other an excellent history of the U.S.S. Los Angeles. I'm still fascinated by them.......Over 2 football fields long (with the end zones) they were the largest things that ever flew and even now it would impressive.....almost an eighth of a mile, think 3 times the size of a Goodyear blimp. They were an outmoded technology before they flew but damn........Can you imagine one passing over at 2000 foot up?

Yeah.....I'm nuts............

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 20 Dec 09 - 03:23 PM

In a perfect world ALL of my books would be segregated by genres n their respective bookcases. (Tom didn't realize when he married me 27 and a half years ago that he'd be spending the rest of his life building bookcases.) Most are, but a substantial amount live piled on our extra wide stairs. Some are in boxes -- I really hate that. Some (film books, primarily) are BEHIND boxes in the guest room (and more or less inaccessible.)

I've just finished (earlier this afternoon) "Walking to Mercury" by Starhawk. Started reading it figuring I could de-accession it to the library sale when I was done, but came to the conclusion yesterday that I'll probably need to loan it to a few people first.

I consider I've "won" if I purchase fewer books from the Nottingham Library's twice a year sales than I've donated -- in November I broke even.

I'm also in the middle of reading a couple books that need to be read more slowly or in smaller amounts at a time: "A History of God" by Karen Armstrong, which I'm enjoying immensely, and a slim volume on literary turns of phrase and what they're called and how they're used called "Turns of Speech: 60 Ways to Turn a Phrase" by Arthur Quinn (not a "read in one sitting" book).

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 20 Dec 09 - 04:13 PM

Terry and the Pirates, volume 4. (All of the Milton Caniff strips from the 1930s through WW2 in six wonderful volumes).

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 20 Dec 09 - 05:05 PM

The Briary Bush
by Floyd Dell---a novel of Chicago--1922

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recent
From: Amos
Date: 20 Dec 09 - 09:02 PM

"The Family", a thoughtful expose of the invisible "followers of Christ" political network in Washington.



A

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: Riginslinger
Date: 21 Dec 09 - 06:47 AM

Amos - Is that the group that was in the news recently where a bunch of Congress people were living together in one apartment complex?

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: Bryn Pugh
Date: 21 Dec 09 - 10:49 AM

Currently I have two (fiction) books on the go - "The First Casualty", Ben Elton, and "The Burning Land", Bernard Cornwell.

Non-fiction - "The Sins of the Father", a biography of Joseph P Kennedy.

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 22 Dec 09 - 09:19 AM

Just finished Walter Jon Williams's SF novel, 'Implied Spaces' (A Novel of the Singularity). It's set in a future in which human technology has unprecedented control over reality via vast artificial intelligences (AIs). Using the powers of these AIs people are effectively immortal and can create 'pocket universes'. A war breaks out as a result of an existential crisis in this 'utopia'.

This is another of Williams's extaordinary imaginings - he just keeps getting better and better!

As a change of pace I've just started 'Empires of the Sea: The Final Battle for the Mediterranean, 1521 - 1580' by Roger Crowley. The first couple of chapters are brilliant.

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recent
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 30 Dec 09 - 01:57 PM

Half way through Robert Rankin's The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse.

What a hoot!

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recent
From: Janie
Date: 20 Jan 10 - 08:09 PM

Recently finished two good ones....

Still Alice by Lisa Genova, is a novel written like a memoir of a woman with early-onset Alzheimers. It seemed to be well-researched, and may offer some excellent insight into the experiences of a person with Alzheimers who attends with awareness to what is happening to them. At times I felt concern that there was an implication in the novel that Alzheimers, especially early-onset Alzheimers, is more tragic for bright, brainy people than for most of us (The protagonist is a PhD Harvard professor, a cognitive psychologist who is world renown for her research in the area of linquistics. Ultimately, however, I decided that was not true, and that function of Alice's credentials is to give credence to her observations and understanding about what is happening to her as the disease progresses. The voice sounds authentic, though only a person with Alzheimers can say for sure. The family reactions and responses over time to the changes in Alice are very realistic, informative, and compassionate.

Paths to Glory by Jeffrey Archer, is a fictionalized biography of George Mallory, and his attempts, probably but not provably successful, to be the first man to summit Mt. Everest. A very good read.

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recent
From: Joe Offer
Date: 20 Jan 10 - 08:14 PM

I'm reading a thousand-page page-turner, Ken Follett's World Without End, the sequel to his Pillars of the Earth. The first book was about the building of a cathedral in England. The second book is set about 200 years later, telling of life and politics in the cathedral town.
Good story.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: katlaughing
Date: 20 Jan 10 - 09:15 PM

Joe, I loved Pillars of the Earth; didn't know there was a sequel. I'll have to get it.

Janie, if you like Jeffrey Archer, I would recommend As the Crow Flies. Excellent.

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: mousethief
Date: 20 Jan 10 - 09:18 PM

Currently: The Meaning of Everything -- about the compiling of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Before that: Notes from Underground - Dostoyevsky.

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: Riginslinger
Date: 20 Jan 10 - 09:34 PM

I read "Notes from (the) Underground" many years ago. It can do funny things to the reader.

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 20 Jan 10 - 09:54 PM

Finished "French Lessons" by Peter Mayle sometime last week -- various food celebrations around France.

A few minutes ago I finished a novel by Patricia Volk, "To My Dearest Friends" -- interesting, but not a keeper. Might give it to a friend who is a real estate broker.

My sister-in-law, professor of religion at a Lutheran college, just discovered the Spider Robinson quote on my email sig line ("If a person who indulges in gluttony is a glutton, and a person who commits a felony is a felon, then God is an iron.") -- maybe I need to re-read some of the early Callahan's Cross Time Saloon stories -- or the Stardance Trilogy -- or "Time Pressure", my favorite.

Or something completely different.

I'm still working on the Karen Armstrong book. And I've started Jimmy Carter's "Sources of Strength: Meditations on Scripture for a Living Faith".

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: katlaughing
Date: 20 Jan 10 - 10:34 PM

mousethief, have you read The Professor and the Madman? Also about the making of the OED. Excellent read!

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: mousethief
Date: 20 Jan 10 - 10:52 PM

kat: Yes! Excellent book.

Rig: I can well believe it!

O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recent
From: Rowan
Date: 22 Jan 10 - 10:18 PM

Also about the making of the OED. Excellent read!
As is "The surgeon of Crowthorne", which I've just finished reading.

It being summer here, with plenty of opportunity to sloth around with books, I've also finished the Stieg Larssen Millenium Trilogy (my daughters gave me "The girl with the dragon tattoo" for Christmas), as well as the latest in The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series ("Tea time for the traditionally built") and John Wyndham's "Trouble with lichen".

One of the local bookshops was discounting Mma Ramotswe's Cookbook (compiled from a study of the recipes and references to food and cooking in The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, so I've got that and am going through some of the recipes. Good fun!

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: Alice
Date: 22 Jan 10 - 10:44 PM

Book on tape.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 23 Jan 10 - 12:18 PM

I have a number of things on the go. Just finished Tracy Chevaliers newest "Remarkable Creatures"..good subject but TC strikes me as an author who always lets a good story slip through her fingers. Am also reading "London, The Biography" by Peter Ackroyd, which I am enjoying. But the best thing I have read in a while is "The Book of Negroes" by Laurence Hill.

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: Joe_F
Date: 23 Jan 10 - 06:11 PM

_Koestler: The Literary and Political Odyssey of a Twentieth-Century Skeptic_, by Michael Scammell. Inasmuch as I have been reading his books all my life, including his autobiographical ones, it is instructive to see a lot of details filled in by someone who has done his homework -- including, alas, that he was something of a drunkard and treated his women execrably.

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: kendall
Date: 24 Jan 10 - 06:48 AM

BARTER ISLAND by Peter Scott. Loosely based on one of the islands that was in my patrol area when I was Captain of the Explorer in the 60's.

Still don't know what he was trying to say, none of the characters fit the people I knew, and little mistakes bugged me. For instance, he mentioned a slant six Falcon engine hanging from a tree branch. The slant six was built by Chrysler, not Ford. I don't know why little things like that bug me, they just do.

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 May 10 - 02:06 AM

They bug me, too, Kendall, esp. if it is about something which I am familiar.

I just finished the Wildwood Boys by James Carlos Blake, an horrific and lyrical novel about Bloody Bill Anderson and other "wildwood boys" who fought the Union during the Civil War, at times in concert with Quantrill. I could swear someone here told me about it, but I didn't find it in a search. It is the more chilling and excellent because of Blake's style of writing...his descriptions of the beauty of the land, the tenderness between lovers and families and friends juxtaposed with his declarative, blunt telling of the atrocities of both warring sides can leave one stunned, yet compelled to read on. I know it is a novel, but it seems to me his research was brilliant as is the result. I highly recommend it for anyone who is interested in the history of our country, esp. to those who may be as uncomfortable as I have been to see the Rebel flag so casually displayed these days. Even though one of my ancestors was a Rebel spy, an "irregular," I've never felt any pride in that flag nor the need to fly it, but, after reading this book, I at least understand why some may feel that way.

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 01 May 10 - 05:50 AM

Just finished "Lila Says" by Chimo. Very short and very tough, probably-partly-autobiographical erotic-grime novel set in a godawful Paris housing scheme in the late 90s. I like books that don't waste a word.

Currently on three at once: Toni Morrison's "Jazz" (actually pretty similar to "Lila Says" in its attitude and style, but set in inter-war black New York), the Bradt Guide to Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Marcus du Sautoy's "Finding Moonshine" (popularized mathematics, about the classification of finite simple groups).

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 01 May 10 - 07:53 AM

I'm always reading more than one book.

from the current selection -

Cecil Beaton - The Glass of Fashion - (1954) - a very beautiful book with a small number of photos & many drawings from portraits & photos. Cecil Beaton designed the costumes for "My Fair Lady"

Alexis, The Memoirs of the Baron de Rede, ed. by Hugo Vickers - 1922-2004, prominent aristocratic aesthete, collector of French eighteenth-century furnishings and decorative arts and socialite in European circles and in New York. He was famous for his parties & fancy dress balls in Paris the 1950s, 60s & 70s - amazing story & pics.

Joseph Mitchell - Up in the old hotel & other stories stories of early/mid 20th century New York.

Ruth Park - The Frost & the Fire, about life on the New Zealand goldfields in the 1860's. It was originally titled 'One-a-pecker, Two-a-pecker' (well-known phrase from a famous NZ song - Bright fine gold) & includes many snippets from songs.

I've just discovered that Ruth Park wrote Bright Fine Gold & that the song is often called a traditional song!

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: GUEST,Hi Lo
Date: 01 May 10 - 10:38 AM

Just finished The Ode Less Travelled by Stephen Fry..very good, also read Howard's End by Forster for about the tenth time..gorgeous prose, the kind no one seems able (or willing) to write anymore. A lot of Biography; Mrs. Oliphant, Virginia Woolf, Graham Greene, most of it excellent. But I do wish that people would not publish thier fantasies about authors, especially Virginia Woolf, and call them Biographies..drives me round the bend.

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: GUEST,songbob
Date: 01 May 10 - 12:35 PM

I typically read Sci-Fi, and am in the middle of one now (Regenesis, by C. J. Charryh), but recently picked up "The Virginian," by Owen Wister, publish around 1912, and it was great fun. Stylistically different from most modern novels, and actually built from seven short stories into one piece, it's a fascinating read. The 'strong, silent' Gary-Cooper / Randolph Scott type of western hero archetype is set by this book.

It was a fun read, and I may go looking for some of the other classics of the genre, from Zane Grey to Luke Short. Or I may start rereading the Harry Potter books yet again. Who knows?

Bob Clayton

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 May 10 - 03:33 PM

I grew up near the old Goose Egg, Bob.

"Smile when you call me that...":-) Loved that book!

HiLo, the Stephen Fry book sounds good, thanks.

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: Amergin
Date: 01 May 10 - 06:08 PM

An alternate history book by Harry Turtledove called Ruled Brittannia....it is about life in England after 9 years of occupation by the Spanish. King Phillip is dying and Shakespeare has been commissioned to write two plays, one by a secret organisation of English rebels...and one by the occupying Spaniards...

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: Joe_F
Date: 01 May 10 - 06:20 PM

A House Is Not a Home, by Polly Adler. Memoir of a 20th-century American madam.

It Can't Happen Here, by Sinclair Lewis. Satirical antiutopia (fascist America).

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 01 May 10 - 06:25 PM

I'm still on Ken Follett: World Without End in January, then Hammer of Eden, Jackdaws, and now Night Over Water. Follett writes adventure stories in a historical context - and he never disappoints. Not profound reading, perhaps, but always a good story.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: Ebbie
Date: 01 May 10 - 11:01 PM

I just returned two books to the library. One was an interesting one called "I'm Perfect; You are Doomed" about growing up in a Jehovah's Witness family. Well written but I found myself aghast much of the time. The Amish, in which religion I was reared, frequently remind me of the JW but the Amish, thank god, are not as bad. Where they are alike, I think, is in the evident disrespect for knowledge and learning for the sake of learning.

I am currently reading 'Amnesia', fiction by Douglas Cooper, a small book in which I still haven't quite figured out what is going on or half the time who is talking and I am already on page 48. It involves a woman librarian who is to be married in three hours' time and is just about to close up and go home when this odd small man walks in and starts talking.

I am also reading 'The Years Alone', an Eleanor Roosevelt biography, by Joseph Lash, the same man who earlier wrote 'Franklin and Eleanor.' Interesting, informative and with lots of pictures I had not seen before.

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: Gern
Date: 02 May 10 - 05:06 PM

I'd be further along if I didn't spend so much time here. I'm reading Barbara Tuchman's Distant Mirror. It's a sad history of western Europe in the 13th Century. Alas, the usual parallels...

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 03 May 10 - 11:33 AM

I read A Distant Mirror..a very fine book. I am curious to know why you say "sad" ?

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: Becca72
Date: 03 May 10 - 03:14 PM

I spent yesterday reading Appaloosa by Robert B. Parker. He never disappoints.

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: Riginslinger
Date: 03 May 10 - 04:07 PM

I really like Robert B. Parker. Haven't read Appaloosa--will get a copy. What bothers me about his publisher is, they'll bring out a Spencer novel, and then several months later they'll change the cover. I think I've fallen for that trap three of four times, buying the same book twice.

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 03 May 10 - 04:11 PM

Lark Rise to Candleford

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: Becca72
Date: 03 May 10 - 04:13 PM

Riginslinger,

I have to keep a list in my bag of the ones I already have so when I'm in a bookstore and see one on sale I can check to see if it's already on my shelf. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: Ebbie
Date: 03 May 10 - 11:59 PM

I didn't mention the other book that I just returned to the library. It's 'The Little Book' by hmmmm- I've forgotten.

It's fiction and involves time travel but is very different from 'The Time Traveller's Wife'.

This one is an intricately devised set of scenarios, where the protagonist meets his father but the son is older than the father, the son falls in love with his young grandmother, and it turns out that his grandmother was also a time traveler. Interesting.

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: Gern
Date: 04 May 10 - 09:49 AM

HiLo: I said A Distant Mirror was a sad history because the events she describes are unremittingly sad, not because of Tuchman's writing or research. Imagine a time of incessant, unnecessary war, out-of-control epidemics, corrupt, irrational leaders and poor people left to clean up the mess. Or am I talking about this morning's CNN headlines?

Subject: RE: BS: Books-What have people been reading recently?
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 04 May 10 - 09:53 AM

Oh yes, I DO see what you mean. The world does not seem to change much, does it ? I have read all of her books, a very good historian. Have you read Paris 1919 by Margaret MacMillan..excellent and yet another story of opportunities lost.