BS: Read any good books lately?

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Riginslinger
Date: 10 Jan 09 - 08:53 PM

Joe - Googling "laissez-faire" one gets this Wikipedia entry. I guess all the Reagan people did was to bring it back from the dead.

    "The exact origins of the term "laissez-faire" as a slogan of economic liberalism are uncertain. The first recorded use of the 'laissez faire' maxim was by French minister René de Voyer, Marquis d'Argenson, another champion of free trade, in his famous outburst:[1]...."

    "According to historical folklore, the phrase stems from a meeting c. 1680 between the powerful French finance minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert and a group of French businessmen led by a certain M. Le Gendre. When the eager mercantilist minister asked how the French state could be of service to the merchants, Le Gendre replied simply "Laissez-nous faire" ('Leave us be,' lit. 'Let us do').[2]"

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: john f weldon
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 11:29 AM

Fresh off the press: "Payback" by Margaret Atwood. Not a novel this time, a lecture on the subject of debt, defined very broadly. As usual, she's a humourous, charming, knowledgeable, fun read. Her discussion about Millers in folk songs will ring true for many folkies.

I'm in the middle of a graphic novel about Staggerlee, a semi-fictional, semi-factual treatment. Most interesting are the notes which talk about the actual known characters involved in Lee Shelton's shooting of Billy Lyons in St Louis, Christmas Eve, 1895.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: heric
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 03:40 PM

I just finished Revolutionary Road which I had to buy because of the enormous critical acclaim insisting he's the best author since sliced bread. Didn't work for me, but that's how it goes.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Wesley S
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 04:07 PM

I've just finished "Band of Brothers' and started "The Wild Blue" - both by Stephen Ambrose. Both are about Americans experiences in World War 2.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 04:20 PM

Second reading (ten years after the first - and it is almost spooky scary how the past decade has confirmed her observations) I have gotten much, much more out of it this time

God Has Ninty-Nine Names: reporting from a militant Middle East by Judith Miller, Simon and Schuster, 1996.

As a professional newspaper reporter she interviewed the highest of levels of Islamic leadership from Israel, Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Algeria, Libya, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan. This is her recounting of the fanaticism that fans the flames of the mid-east.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Joe_F
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 09:03 PM

Taken with me today for subway reading: _The Practical Cogitator: The Thinker's Anthology_ by Charles P. Curtis, Jr., & Ferris Greenslet (1950; first browsed in by me, ca. 1957). A great variety of stuff.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 13 Feb 09 - 05:20 PM

An entertaining book by Jeffrey Archer (first one I've ever read of his. Didn't know he was such a political etc. animal!) called As the Crow Flies.

Also, just finished Sign of the Labrys by Margaret St. Clair. An extraordinary book!

Just started Jackie's Nine about Jackie Robinson, written by his daughter. VERY inspirational.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: heric
Date: 13 Feb 09 - 05:31 PM

I'm reading Mawson's Will again - an Antarctic expedition in 1912. It keeps occurring to me that this would be great escapist reading for our Australian kin these days.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 13 Feb 09 - 06:41 PM

heric, I see they have reprinted Douglas Mawson's own book The Home of the Blizzard. Have you read it, too? If so, which would you recommend of the two? The one Mawson wrote sounds as though it covers much more of his time, in general, there, than the other. I might wind up reading both. Thanks for posting about it!

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: GUEST,heric
Date: 13 Feb 09 - 07:43 PM

No, kat, I wish I'd known about it and had it handy. I don't usually re-read stuff. Those polar guys tended to be broadly educated Renaissance types, capable of powerful prose. There are only sparse quotes:

"The actual experience is something else. Picture drift that blots out the world, that is hurled, actually screaming with energy, through space in a 100 mile an hour wind. When the temperature is below freezing. Those are the facts. But then shroud these infuriated elements with polar night and a plunge into such a black-white writhing storm is to stamp on the senses an indelible, awful impression seldom equalled in the whole gamut of natural experience. [The world became a void], fierce, grisly appalling; a fearful gloom in which the merciless blast was an incubus of vengeance that stabbed, froze, and buffetted intruders with the stinging drift that choked and blinded."

From that, I would guess that the book in Mawson's own words is a good risk.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 13 Feb 09 - 11:23 PM

Thanks, heric. From that, I may give them both a try. There were times, in Wyoming, when it felt as though we came close to those conditions, though, of course, we never had the all-out blackness of night and day and the wind chill only brought it down to fifty below.:-)

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Rowan
Date: 13 Feb 09 - 11:45 PM

Mawson's own writings are not to be missed. I'm currently getting though the verion of his diarising and field-note-taking edited by Fred Jacka and his missus (I apologise for not remembering her name.

As an aside, Mawson made it back to Commonwealth Bay just as the ship disappeared back to Oz and wasn't able to return until the following spring. Mawson and those who stayed and waited for him lived on hard rations for that extra winter. Even now mainland ANAREs take down a year's supply of food, stash the nonperishables and then consume the noperishables brought down by the previous group. And, in my 14 months there, there were no "Use by" or "Best before" dates to keep us from getting stuck into good tucker.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: GUEST,heric
Date: 16 Feb 09 - 01:27 PM

(My son was supposed to return today from snow camping, but he is trapped in a storm. This is southern California. (No worries).)

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 16 Feb 09 - 02:15 PM

Yikes, heric. I hope he knows to remain put and not try to hike out or anything, if applicable.

Rowan, thanks for the further information. Now, when you spend 14 months there??!!! Do tell!? Pretty please? Separate thread? I'd love to hear more!

Just finished the Jackie's Nine book. It was very inspiring and a quick read. I learned more about him, not just in baseball, but also how he helped the Civil Rights movement, etc. Good, good man!

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: open mike
Date: 16 Feb 09 - 02:39 PM

book on tape (c.d.) School Days by Robert Parker...about a school shooting

also a c.d. ... Tony HILLERMAN....Skinwalkers-- i love Tony's books.
he passed away this year.

now on Tyranosaur Canyon, by Douglas Preston a mystery involving moon rock samples and new mexico desert prospectors and treasure hunters.

also plan to soon read (or listen to) Three Cups of Tea by Greg MORTENSON. Thhis has been designated the "book in common" in this county and many classes, and groups are reading it...see here for more:
www.threecupsoftea.

also am reading Libery Falling by one of my favorite authors...Nevada Barr.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: GUEST,heric
Date: 16 Feb 09 - 02:56 PM

Oh thanks open mike I had forgotten I was told to read Three Cups of Tea already, and will go get it.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 16 Feb 09 - 03:01 PM

IT looks really good. I shall go get it, too. Thank om!

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: heric
Date: 15 Mar 09 - 04:47 PM

Kidnapped (Being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751.) It's brilliant and suspenseful, so I'm already distraught it's going to end. Sequels don't sound equal, so I guess I'll go get Weir of Hermiston.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 18 Mar 09 - 02:21 PM

Amos, I just recently read The Forger. Thanks for recommending it!

I've read several others, recently, and esp. liked Forty Words for Sorrow by Canadian author Giles Blunt; well-written and suspenseful. Also just finished a novel, By A Spider's Thread, by Laura Lippman, a former journalist. I enjoyed it, too.

I am looking forward to one on order: Daisy Bates in the Desert : A Woman's Life Among the Aborigines (Vintage Departures) by author Julia Blackburn. "In 1913, at the age of 54, Daisy Bates went to live in the deserts of South Australia. Brilliantly reviewed, astonishingly original, this "eloquent and illuminating portrait of an extraordinary woman" (New York Times Book Review) tells a fascinating, true story in the tradition of Isak Dinesen and Barry Lopez."

Speaking of Barry Lopez, I've now read two of his books and really LOVED Crow and Weasel!!

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: heric
Date: 18 Mar 09 - 02:32 PM

Hey slow down! Not fair.

Kidnapped ended and I'm reading The Wild Trees.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 18 Mar 09 - 03:23 PM

Well, it was over the whole past month.:-)

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: ard mhacha
Date: 19 Mar 09 - 02:40 PM

Two Penguin classics by Patrick Kavanagh, - Tarry Flynn - and -The Green Fool-, two wonderful books by the writer of Raglan Road, and -Borstal Boy- by Brendan Behan, the great wit at his best.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: heric
Date: 19 Mar 09 - 04:32 PM

I read The Green Fool on your recommendation here many years ago Ard. Great stuff.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Janie
Date: 19 Mar 09 - 08:30 PM

In going through a box of books in storage, I came across "Hanta Yo" (Ruth Beebe Hill). I first read it almost 30 years ago, and am about half way through this second reading. Although Hill took a sound, and apparently deserved, drubbing from Native American critics regarding her misrepresentation or misunderstanding of an archaic Sioux culture, it is still a mighty good read.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Rowan
Date: 19 Mar 09 - 11:06 PM

Rowan, thanks for the further information. Now, when you spend 14 months there??!!! Do tell!? Pretty please? Separate thread? I'd love to hear more!

and

Daisy Bates in the Desert :

Somehow I've missed this thread for a while (must have been all the stuff on the fires sidetracking me) so please accept my apologies, kat.

Second things first:
Daisy Bates was indeed a remarkable woman and the book on her was recently accompanied by a half hour program on Radio National (Oz ABC); you might find a podcast still there. At one stage she was married to Harry "Breaker" Morant who was a horse breaker who wrote quite a lot of "bush verse" as it's known in Australia. Kit Denton (the father of Andrew Denton, for those into Oz TV) wrote Breaker Morant's biography and it is a good read in itself. Morant was part of the Australian military contingent to the Boer War in South Africa (then formally known as the "U of SA", just to confuse you States-siders) and was courtmartialled by the British for following Kitchener's orders with more zeal than ethics. He was shot for it and Australians military forces personnel were never since allowed to be courtmartialled by the British. The events were made into a cracking film about 30 years ago.

First things second:
About my stay at Mawson,I can say, with a completely straight face, that I'm a sixtyniner. Our team left Oz before Christmas in 1968 and returned late in February 1970. There were lots of books in the station library and it was where I first encountered Shackleton's description of his "Endurance" expedition and the voyage from Elephant Island to South Georgia. Coincidentally, the trip across South Georgia, from west to east, which Shackleton and co did in three days with no proper gear, was repeated during 1969 by a special contingent of Royal Marines, who had the very latest of lightweight gear; they took three weeks to replicate Shackleton's three-day trip. And they had maps!

And, kat, whenever anyone asked "What was it like?" I'd reply, "Not in any particular order, it was cold, windy, isolated and celibate! And I would recommend anyone jump at the chance to go!"

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: ard mhacha
Date: 20 Mar 09 - 05:38 AM

Good man Heric, and I am sure you are much the wiser regarding the great man, Kavanagh.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Joe_F
Date: 20 Mar 09 - 09:01 PM

I recently read _Dreams from My Father_ by Barack Obama. A remarkable example of hybrid vigor. I downloaded his family tree & used it for a bookmark.

I am now working on _What Have You Changed Your Mind About?_ (John Brockman, Ed.), which I bought because I have not changed my mind about anything recently. 1- to 3-p. snippets by "150 high-powered thinkers" (it says). Some of them, IMO, have changed in the wrong direction.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Amos
Date: 21 Mar 09 - 01:46 AM

I am greatly enjoying The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb--a meandering set of essays on the intricate traps we set for our own ways of thinking, well communicated with an easy nipping sense of humor I enjoy greatly.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: DougR
Date: 21 Mar 09 - 01:53 AM

No, but I'm looking forward to reading George W. Bush's book.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 17 Apr 09 - 08:00 PM

Nothing earth-shattering, but The Hum Bug by Harold Schechter was a fun read this week.

Also read another Brother Cadfael...The Holy Thief.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: ranger1
Date: 17 Apr 09 - 08:07 PM

Just finished two really good books. Bone Rattler by Eliot Pattison and Asta in the Wings by Jan Elizabeth Watson. Very different books, but both hard to put down. Of the two, I think I liked Bone Rattler best.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Joe_F
Date: 17 Apr 09 - 08:27 PM

Harvey Pekar, _Another Day_ & _Another Dollar_. Good old-fashioned Pekar, writing about himself, none of that serious stuff, just everyday misery in Cleveland. In the immortal words of A. Lincoln, for those of us who like this kind of thing, this is just the kind of thing we will like.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Riginslinger
Date: 17 Apr 09 - 10:15 PM

Speaking of that, who's the mystery writer who sets his stories in Cincinnati? They drive down Ezard Charles Boulevard from time to time, which is how I figured out they were in Cincinnati.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Amergin
Date: 17 Apr 09 - 11:14 PM

I recently reread a series by Harry Turtledove....all based on the premise of the Confederacy winning the war....it starts in How Few Remain....in the Civil War....then in a second war that takes place twenty years later.....the next set in this series involve the great war....the trenches are all along the usa/csa border....and then the next set takes place between world wars, and shows the rise of fascism, then comes world war two....a great series for anyone who likes history...and alternative history.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Emma B
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 06:04 AM

I've been addicted to the charming books about The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, a series of ten novels by British author Alexander McCall Smith set in Gaborone, capital of Botswana, and the indomitable Mma Precious Ramotswe, who features as the stories' protagonist.
Just reading the most recent book 'Tea Time for the Traditionally Built'

A continent and 60 years apart, I'm also reading 'Idle Women' a book I bought at the Inland Waterways museum on a trip on the Grand Union Canal last week.
Originally published in 1947, it recounts the experiences of the IW women (nicknamed the Idle Women although very from it) who were the volunteers who manned the cargo boats that ran from London to Birmingham in world War 2

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 06:15 AM

Back in January Ruth Archer asked if anyone had read 'Affluenza' by Oliver James. Well, yes, I read it last year (and I've come late to this thread) - and do you know, I can't remember very little about it - except, possibly, that wanting and having a surfeit of things is bad ... ?

The style rather reminded me of those womens' magazines like 'Cosmopolitan' that I occasionally encounter in dentists' waiting rooms: "Jill, a marketing consultant from Weybridge, had so many designer handbags that her arm fell off" - that sort of thing.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 10:47 AM

I am presently reading the sequel to The Meaning of Night by Michael Cox, it is called The Glass of Time. An excellent yarn which takes place in Victorian England and is written in that style. I have also recently re re read three minor classics...Brat Fararr by Josephine Tey, Crewe Train by the wonderful and undervalued Rose Macaulay and Random Harvest by James Hilton. I enjoyed them all/ Thanks for this thread, lots of good suggestions here.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Becca72
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 12:05 PM

Currently reading "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon". Excellent read, but I suppose only if you're a Warren Zevon fan...

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Neil D
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 12:27 PM

I've been reading Jeff Shaara's military historic novels about the American Revolution and WWII. Quite well researched.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Riginslinger
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 09:38 PM

Does everybody receive those e-mails from Amazon.com? They research what you've ordered in the past, and then they try to interest you in what they think you might want to read. I got one the other day for a book they were hyping as "just out." When I looked into it, it was published in 2005.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 19 May 09 - 11:36 AM

I have not read this yet, as I haven't received my copy, but I did do a little editing when my friend was first writing it. Anyway, I'd like to introduce her murder mystery series Paws for Love Mystery and encourage folks to support her. There's a pretty slick trailer for her first novel, Murder with a View, on youtube.

Thanks,

kat

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Joe_F
Date: 19 May 09 - 09:09 PM

Browsing in my 50-yr-old copy of von Neumann & Morgenstern's _Theory of Games and Economic Behavior_. Game theory is much mentioned these days, often by people who don't know the first thing about it. To learn the first thing about it (utility theory), read Chapter 3.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 20 May 09 - 05:40 PM

I recently finished reading a hardbound book I got from the library called "Damned Rebels" (a sort of humorous title). It's a very thorough study of the American Revolutionary War from the British point of view, but it's quite even-handed. Absolutely fascinating! I recommend it as good reading for anyone, American, Canadian, or British...it would hardly matter. It's an old book, so you might have some difficulty finding it, specially in the USA, I expect. It was written by an Englishman in the 1940s or 1950s (don't remember exactly).

I am now about 1/3 of the way through "Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follet. It's very good. It's a novel about the building of an English cathedral in the medieval period, and the lives of various individuals of that time.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 20 May 09 - 06:01 PM

Correction: I think the first book was called "Those Damned Rebels!"

I have since returned it to the library. It's great because it clearly explains the mistakes both sides made, the courage and efficiency they both showed, and the things they both did right. Either side might have won. It was a very close thing, that war.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 20 May 09 - 11:41 PM

I LOVED Pillars of the Earth, LH!

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: GUEST,Lin in Kansas
Date: 21 May 09 - 12:04 AM

Kat: If you're looking for an author that loves Montana, have you tried Peter Bowen? His books are wonderful, about the Metis Indians, fiddle music, and mysteries to boot.

Also: Anything by James Lee Burke is good. I noticed, way back up there, that you had read one of his and was wondering if the New Orleans landmarks were still there. His latest novels are post-Katrina. He also has a series set in Texas, about a Texas Ranger called Billy Bob (only JLB could get away with that for a hero's name) that's pretty good.

We've been packing the house to move, so all my hardbacks are in storage. I made John leave one box of paperbacks out so I would have something to read--I lucked out and found it full of old Elizabeth Peters novels, so I've been enjoying re-reading her stuff the last couple of weeks.

Would also recommend Charlaine Harris, Kim Armstrong, James Crumley, and too many more to remember without the books to look at. I miss them already!

Lin

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 24 May 09 - 09:56 AM

I've just finished Crewe Train by Rose MacCaulay... very good. I seem to keep going back to read some older things..Read Random Harvest by James Hilton..another great read.The Meaning of Night by Michael Cox is a great yarn as is the sequel, The Glass of Time. And Last but by no means least, The Complete Molesworth...what fun that is, great laughs all the way through.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 24 May 09 - 12:07 PM

Lin, moving??? Good luck and I hope that is what you wanted?! THANKS for the recommendations. I will definitely look into those. May you soon unpack and get your hands on your books, again! luvya!

HiLo, thanks, too, for your recommendations.

I am reading Peace Like A River by Leif Enger, also recommended by a Mudcatter. Wow, what an incredible book; I can't put it down.

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 24 May 09 - 12:23 PM

I also found Peter Bowen's book sheer delight! I managed to read them in the order written to get the "life story" straight. That makes a difference to me.
Loved Elizabeth Peters also but would not do a reprise.
Ellis Peters, Brother Cadfael (sp?) series, with all its wonderful herbal references, are fun.
Lately: Water for Elephants, Snow in August, Last Night I Dreamed of Peace (marvellous to me but others could not read it).

Subject: RE: BS: Read any good books lately?
From: GUEST,quokka
Date: 25 May 09 - 10:04 AM

I'm discovering some Canadian authors...Alistair McLeod's 'The Island', David Adams Richards:'Mercy Among the Children' and Ann-Marie McDonald:'Fall on Your Knees'. All amazing books. Now I just need to put them DOWN so I can do some damn work!!!!!
Cheers,
Quokka (who's meant to be finishing an essay)