Books: Whatcha readin lately?

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 28 Jan 12 - 12:02 AM

Eliza, no worries. I don't think you spoiled the plot. I love those books, regardless and will enjoy it when I get it.

@Max, the Guest who was Max(**bg**) thank you! I know there are many more old buildings there than over here. The ones you describe sound wonderful. I would love to see them. (And, I thought it was incredible when I moved to New England and lived in a house from the 1700s!)

I, too, am interested in hearing that about Kindle. Since I did my own book, I was very careful about typos. SO far, no complaints. It helped that I used the same file I'd used for the paper version and that I am said to be an good copy editor.:-)

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Elmore
Date: 27 Jan 12 - 11:27 PM

P.S. Instead of the word"classics", I should have used Victorian. I didn't mean Sophocles or that bunch. Regards, Elmore

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Elmore
Date: 27 Jan 12 - 08:56 PM

Generally, the free classics have a typo here and there ,but not to the point of being unbearable. Forget about free poetry. It's unreadable. Books you pay for are mostly okay. An exception was a crime novel by Val Mcdermid, which I paid for. Typos were so frequent I gave it up. Still, I enjoy the Kindle. My wife gets books from the library on her Kindle.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 27 Jan 12 - 01:41 PM

Elmore, I'm v interested in what you say about typos on Kindle. I haven't got one as yet, could you tell me more please?

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Elmore
Date: 27 Jan 12 - 01:37 PM

Currently reading Mill on the Floss. by George Eliot. It starts off as a sort of tale about childhood, then takes a dramatic turn. I'm frugal,(read cheap) and bought a lot of the free books on Kindle. I've learned to appreciate them in my old age. But beware of the typos

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 26 Jan 12 - 02:43 PM

Oh dear, kat, I'm very sorry if I've spoiled the plot for you if you haven't read that one yet. Oops!

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Max Johnson
Date: 26 Jan 12 - 02:23 PM

I was that GUEST.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Jan 12 - 02:14 PM

@katlaughing - ...I've always thought of the UK as having so many ancient buildings and artifacts intact from the different reigns, only to find there's very little left of the Tudors...

My local pub, The Old Hall, to which I shall shortly wander over for a couple of pints of Lancaster Bewery's 'Bomber' was completed in 1598. Most of the buildings in the village were built in the early 1600s, and the barn of the other pub (The Royal, which I much prefer but it's a pop quiz night) was built in 1500. It's all still here, and most old buildings are 'listed' - which meants that it's pretty much against the law to demolish them.

If anyone's interested, I've just finished Iain M. Banks 'The Use Of Weapons', and am now re-reading Le Carre's 'The Honourable Schoolboy'. His best book, I think, but read TTSS first.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 26 Jan 12 - 12:51 PM

Oh! I think I missed the last one you listed, Eliza. I'll have to go look for it, now. Thanks!

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 26 Jan 12 - 06:03 AM

Yes, Kat, I did see the short series and agree, just the same atmosphere as the books. But no Rra Polopetsi, instead a jolly hairdresser who seemed to be gay. (I've no objection, but I did like Rra Polopetsi and his sad story.) Did you like "The Double Comfort Safari Club" and "The Big Tent Saturday Wedding"? Poor Rra Phuti Radiphuti and his amputation! Can't wait for the new one!

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 25 Jan 12 - 11:59 PM

Eliza, there are several of us who love that series. I've read them all but the latest. Have you seen the few episodes they made of it on netflix? Really well done on location in Botswana; just as he describes it in the books.

Backwoodsman, thanks for the info about Blue Highways. I've just ordered it from paprebackswap.com.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 25 Jan 12 - 11:33 PM

Just moving on to 'Blue Highways' by William Least Heat Moon. A tale of his travels in his van, nicknamed 'The Ghost-Dancer', through every county of the lower 48, driving only on the back-roads. I expect this one to take a while.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 25 Jan 12 - 02:51 PM

Desert Gold by Zane Grey. This western gem written in 1913.
I am just getting 'round to reading his novels.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 25 Jan 12 - 02:16 PM

I don't know if anyone here likes Alexander McCall Smith's 'The Number 1 Ladies'Detective Agency' series? There's a new one coming out next month, called 'The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection'. They're delightful books, gentle humour and poignant human problems all set in modern Botswana. He's an excellent author, with other series, but the Botswana one is my favourite. I've already pre-ordered a copy of 'Limpopo...'

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Spleen Cringe
Date: 25 Jan 12 - 05:26 AM

I second Shimrod's championing of the Dervish House (in fact it was Shimmy who put me onto it - thanks!). I wish more sci-fi/speculative fiction was half as good as this.

On a similar note, I'm now finally getting round to reading China Mieville's 'The City and the City'. Brilliant. I like everything I've read by him (Kraken, Perdido Street Station) but this far and away the best. A tale of two separate cities sharing the same geographical space...

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 25 Jan 12 - 12:46 AM

Kat, enjoy the Gaslight mysteries. Like most writers, Thompson gets better as she continues to write. I like the books because they give a little flavor of old NYC. A similar series by Rhys Bowen features Molly Murphy and is set in NYC at about the same time.

I think I liked High Country. The hardest ones for me to get through have been ones dealing with physical and/or sexual child abuse. I think Hard Truth and Burn were two of those. There may have been a third, or I may be confusing it with another book. Two of my favorites by her were Blind Descent and Liberty Falling.

In both series, I like seeing the way the main characters develop their lives and relationships.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 24 Jan 12 - 11:47 PM

ChanteyLass, I just ordered the first two of the Gaslight series from paperbackswap.com. Thanks for the recommendation. I also see I am far behind on Anna Pigeon! Last one I read was No.11...the next one sounds grisly, not sure if I want to read it or not, High Country?

kat

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 24 Jan 12 - 11:36 PM

Finished Victoria Thompson's Murder n Sisters' Row and am almost done with Cara Black's Murder in the Bastille. This is the fourth book in her series of Aimee Leduc's Investigations, each set in a different arrondisement in Paris. I wish the maps in the books were larger! Next up is Nevada Barr's The Rope, another of the Anna Pigeon mysteries. Anna is a US National Park Ranger.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 24 Jan 12 - 01:37 PM

Monique, thanks for the mention! (I missed seeing it, earlier.)

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 24 Jan 12 - 12:48 PM

Currently reading Joanna Trollope's latest [I think], Daughters In Law; good, but I feel her work is rather falling into a pattern: tho I suppose same could have been said of her famous ancestor - uncle 5 generations back Anthony], one of the greatest of Victorian novelists, all of whose works I read with great enjoyment when younger, & could embark on projects to read entire works of Dickens, Jane Austen [greatest of all for my money], Hardy, George Eliot, Conrad, Henry James etc. Nowadays I am less adventurous, & tend just to reread favourites like Dorothy L Sayers; tho do try to keep up with some contemps I admire, like above-mentioned J Trollope, Ben Elton - simultaneously just rereading his High Society, good novel about drug scene, & recently reread his Popcorn, which I highly recommend - Howard Jacobson, Stephen Fry.... Other C20-C21 I like are the Drabble sisters {Margaret D & her older sister A S Byatt}, Nancy Mitford, Forster ~~ not a chronological list, just as the names occurred to me. Dislike the other Bloomsburys (V Woolf &c) as rather rarefied; & could never abide the priggish self-satisfied D H Lawrence.

That's just novels ~~ have read much in verse & drama too over the years of a long life; but enough for now ...

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 23 Jan 12 - 08:09 PM

Fans of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series might want to see THIS THREAD. Beautiful song!

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 19 Jan 12 - 06:38 PM

One of the best books that I read last year was 'The Dervish House' by Ian McDonald. It's a SF novel set in Istanbul in 2027 - and completely unlike any SF novel you've ever read. For a start all of the characters are Turkish - not an American or a Brit in sight. It's a complex and fascinating piece of work.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Becca72
Date: 19 Jan 12 - 10:43 AM

Not trying to suck up to Little Hawk (really!) but I just started "Star Trek Memories" by William Shatner :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: kendall
Date: 19 Jan 12 - 10:41 AM

King has written other good stories, Deloris Claiborn and the Green Mile.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Donuel
Date: 19 Jan 12 - 08:46 AM

I used to think Stephen King was just a whimsical macabre horror writer

then he wrote The Green mile.


Does Dawkins supurbly titled The Greatest Show on Earth deal with the early evoloving cell with no impenatrable membrane that is later replaced with the selfish gene that has a wall which denies sharing?


I hope the internet does not evolve along similar lines!





I can not read easily, so I rarely undertake large books.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: GUEST,Manuel
Date: 18 Jan 12 - 05:16 PM

Eliza, do keep up the interest in history. Great minds seem to find it a subject hard to resist!

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: kendall
Date: 18 Jan 12 - 02:41 PM

Q, it's there, you just didn't see it. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 18 Jan 12 - 07:41 AM

Our little village mobile Library van has just been. I got eight books and had a natter with the people in my road. This van spends twenty minutes at each location, and you can have the books for eight weeks. I got some excellent History books, one on the Tudors and another on the Stuarts, two Agatha Christies, two biographies, of life in a country house and a servant's experiences below stairs, and some gardening books, and all free! That should keep me quiet for a while! I do love our Libraries, mobile and buildings. I hope the Local Authority doesn't axe them here in Norfolk UK.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 18 Jan 12 - 03:42 AM

My index of "books on hand" that I made some years ago, and kept pretty well updated for a few years, does contain 2147 books; but probably fewer than 100 are anything resembling current (the last 100 years?) fiction or social/political stuff. I gave up on trying to keep the list up when Lin & I merged our collections (i.e. started piling them on top of each other 'cause they wouldn't fit on the 380 lineal feet of shelves we had at the old place). She may possibly have had more books than I did, but lots of hers are small paperback heaving-bosom trash (but don't tell her, since she has a different opinion).

I have been engaged in the overly ambitious project of scanning some of the "personally significant" ones to pdfs, so that we can have some room to waddle around in our new smaller house. A reliable count of what I've gotten done is difficult, because I've mixed in other kinds of papers before I started to get it all organized.

A problem with this project is that when I scan one, the necessary "proof check" to see if I got all the pages in the right order nearly always gets sidetracked by the necessity of "refreshing my memory" of the ones that are still really interesting. The folder where I decided to separate the "real books" lists (DIR *.* /s>list.txt) 10,000 lines and is 201 pages, but that includes subdirectories and other data scans, like individual pages where I didn't get the OCR done immediately.

Culling the list brings it down to 23 pages, 1582 paragraphs in the list, with each paragraph theoretically representing one book(?).

I probably was "compelled" to reread at least a fair part of about a third of the books scanned, just because it was fun.

I've eliminated about a dozen "book boxes" of the books (the ones that didn't fit on the shelves) and cleared one layer off of some 11 feet of shelves where they were double-deep; but haven't really started on the music or fiction with the exception of some old hymnals that were falling apart already, and were easy to split down to scannable bits.

Of course that's just my books. "She" won't let me touch her valuable ones. And I've only been scanning in my "spare time" for about a year. And all the re-reading makes me pretty inefficient.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 17 Jan 12 - 10:40 PM

Having finished A Moveable Feast, I am finally starting a book I chose, not one chosen by my book clubs. It's Murder on Sisters' Row by Victoria Thompson, set in New York City In the late 1800s. Sarah Brandt is a midwife, widow of a doctor. She and Frank Malloy find themselves investigating the same cases for different reasons. This is the 13th and latest book in the Gaslight Mystery Series.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 17 Jan 12 - 08:14 PM

Kendall, you forgot the (-) in front of that 26.5 F. The two scales get close to each other only at the Arctic end.
U.S   Rest of World
-30 F      -34.4 C
0       -17.8
32          0
100         37.7
212 F       100 C

savagrus?? Yankee patois is most pekoolyar.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: kendall
Date: 17 Jan 12 - 07:30 PM

-32 C? thats approaching savagrus in my state. (-26.5 F)

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Silas
Date: 17 Jan 12 - 06:46 PM

Kendall, there was a dig there in (i think) the sixties conducted by Ralegh Radford, he was apparantly asked by a local old boy if he had come to dig up the old king!

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 17 Jan 12 - 06:20 PM

Gonna hit minus 32 C tonight. I have a nice Zane Gray on the nightstand that I will read under the covers with my trusty flashlight.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 17 Jan 12 - 05:01 PM

Kendall, I'm glad Amos responded about East of Eden because while I have recently finished the 602-page book, I have never seen the movie, just clips! I understand the movie is about the last half of the book. I was about 200 pages into the book before I found a character that I liked. That first 200 pages was slow going for me, but after that my pace picked up.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: kendall
Date: 16 Jan 12 - 02:14 PM

Silas, the one I visited is supposed to be the site of Camelot. There is a legend that says Arthur and his knights ride across the hill on dark nights, and Mr. Ashe said he stood on that spot and heard a flute being played. He did not investigate.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Crowhugger
Date: 16 Jan 12 - 01:57 PM

Amos thanks for reminding me to put Ladies' No. 1 on my reading list!

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Amos
Date: 16 Jan 12 - 11:23 AM

Kendall:

The book, as might be expected, is considerably richer than the movie. As I recall the movie really only covers a central segment of the book. A great read. But its been fifteen years, I reckon.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Silas
Date: 16 Jan 12 - 11:18 AM

I have had the pleasure of meeting Geoffrey on a couple of occasions some years ago, he is a really nice guy.

Ther eis more than one CadburyHill/Castle. The one that is thought to be 'Camelot' is very near Yeovil in Somerset

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: kendall
Date: 16 Jan 12 - 11:09 AM

Silas, I just watched a program on our History channel about the Arthurian legends, and Geoffry Ashe was one of the people they interviewed.
I've visited Tintagle,Glastonbury,and Cadbury hill. They make the legends more real.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Amos
Date: 16 Jan 12 - 10:35 AM

Just finished an endless intricate and informative The Greatest Show on Earth by Dawkins. Interesting, respectable, everything it should be, and I could only finish four or five pages a night. Now zipping through the latest Ladies Number One Detective Agency thriller In the Company of Cheerful Ladies to compensate.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: jacqui.c
Date: 16 Jan 12 - 09:36 AM

Same here Becca - still got one of his latest to read.

I just finished 'the Pillars of the Earth' and 'World Without End' by Ken Follett, both of which were compulsive reading for me. Just started 'The Lion' by Nelson DeMille, another of my favourite authors. Being retired is great - more time for reading!

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Becca72
Date: 16 Jan 12 - 09:10 AM

"Now, hands up who likes Stephen King?"

One of my all time favorites - I own almost everything he's written.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 16 Jan 12 - 08:44 AM

I absolutely adore "Possession" by A.S. Byatt -- she writes convincingly in at least four different voices in a couple different eras. It's been a few years since I read it, but I always seem to be longing to reread it when I can schedule the time.

Yesterday I started "Island", the collected short stories of Alistair MacLeod who wrote "No Great Mischief"...amazing writer.

I also forgot to mention that I'm a couple chapters into "Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong"...of course, I have to read almost everything again aloud to Tom after I've read it...

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: GUEST,kendall
Date: 15 Jan 12 - 02:30 PM

I never read East of Eden; how does it compare to the film with James Dean and Burl Ives?

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Crowhugger
Date: 15 Jan 12 - 01:26 AM

meself, I'll definitely put "Ridgeway" on my list to read. I just finished Pierre Berton's "The National Dream" and I'm now reading "The Last Spike," both about events before, during and after Canada's confederation up to 1885, particularly as they relate to the building of the 1st sea-to-sea Canadian railroad. According to Berton, fear of the Fenians was a major influence upon the creation of Canada and the subsequent building of the railroad to connect the east with Manitoba and British Columbia.

Also I have on the go "Possession" by A.S. Byatt. A very literary whodunit which I'm mostly enjoying. A bit thick sometimes but so far it's been worth it. I listened to some episodes of the BBC radio drama but holy smoke, they took out SO much to make it manageable for a serial drama. I recommend the book, at least so far anyhow!

Recently finished Ruth Rendell's "The Crocodile Bird;" "Mamba's Daughters" by DuBose Heyward--highly readable drama of US coastal lowland blacks in the early 20th century. And "Herding Dogs" by Vergil someone (a UK writer and herding trainer).

There's a bunch of Margaret Atwood I haven't read yet--I think The Handmaid's Tale was the last one of hers I finished--but I'm not at all sure when I'll get to it; I really have to be in the mood for some of her stuff. I do want to read The Blind Assassin, though.

I still want to track down copies of some unread Barbara Kingsolver. Love her stories.

Don Firth & Silas: I really enjoyed Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 both times I read it, first for grade 10 English class, then a decade or more later. (BTW, Silas, 451 degrees F. is the temperature at which paper burns.)

Fun thread and a lot of new book leads to track down, thanks everyone!

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 15 Jan 12 - 12:55 AM

For book clubs I belong to, recently finished East of Eden (which I'd never read), am almost done with Sarah's Key, and will read A Moveable Feast next. Then I hope to squeeze in some books I choose!

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Neil D
Date: 15 Jan 12 - 12:45 AM

I also recently read C.J.Sansom's Shardlake series and enjoyed it immensely. Does anyone know of other historic/mystery novels in a similar vein?
I have also recently read several of Ian Rankin's John Rebus novels.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: ranger1
Date: 14 Jan 12 - 10:32 PM

Fiction: Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay, The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

Non-Fiction: Winter World by Bernd Heinrich, Life in the Cold: An Introduction to Winter Ecology by Peter Marchand

I've also got Champlain's Dream by David Hackett Fischer kicking around in here somewhere that I keep meaning to get to.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: meself
Date: 14 Jan 12 - 10:16 PM

Just finished one that may be of interest to some in this neighbourhood: Ridgeway, by .... Vronsky. It's an account of the only real battle in the Fenian raids into Canada. The Fenian forces, a couple of thousand of battle-hardened Civil War veterans, were opposed by half as many Canadian university students and shop clerks, most of whom had never before fired a shot,led by bungling amateur officers with no battlefield experience. The Canadians were appallingly ill-trained, ill-equipped, and ill-led, but there was some pretty vicious fighting, including some ugly bayonet work. Ironically, the incompetence of their leadership may well have saved the day for the Canadians: through a series of miscommunications and misunderstandings never satisfactorily explained, their "pursuit" of "fleeing" Fenians turned into a panicked retreat on their own part, which meant that they avoided running into a trap the Fenians had set for them, in which they would have been slaughtered, in all likelihood. The Fenian effort collapsed when the American government, to the surprise of the Fenians, blocked their supply and reinforcement lines from the States. This, and the failure of the Irish- and French-Canadians to rise up and join them, led them to abandon their campaign.

One of the many curious factoids that emerges is that one-third of the fifty or sixty Fenian prisoners taken by the Canadians were Protestants.

And the Fenian plan to capture Canada wasn't nearly as far-fetched as it seems at first blush. But it did depend on the goodwill of the US   government which it turned out - too late - they didn't really have (does that sound familiar?).