Books: What book are you reading right now

Subject: RE: Books: What book are you reading right now
From: Joe_F
Date: 07 Nov 19 - 06:30 PM

H. L. Mencken's (What? Him again? I do read books by other people) _A New [1942] Dictionary of Quotations_. Among quotation books, it is weird. There is no index, so it is useless for looking up a quotation; but it has copious cross references, so for browsing it is supreme.

Subject: RE: Books: What book are you reading right now
From: Mrrzy
Date: 05 Nov 19 - 05:03 PM

Kindle finally got all the Dick Francises so I am rereading them. I'm up to Whip Hand [publication order].

Subject: RE: Books: What book are you reading right now
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 03 Nov 19 - 07:55 PM

Jonathan Harr's A Civil Action, nonfiction, about a legal proceeding because of pollution from two factories that seeped into wells in Woburn, MA, causing a high rate of leukemia in children who drank the water from those wells. Hard to read, hard to put down.

Subject: RE: Books: What book are you reading right now
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 02 Nov 19 - 08:33 PM

Have just finished (at long last) C J Sansom's 'Tombland, concerning the 1549 Peasants Revolt lead by Robert Kett
this 7 volume 'Richard Shardlake' series has, in my opinion, marked Sansom out as Britain's finest historical novelist - this seems to be the best yet
Sansom has been quite ill, hence the gap - cant wait for the next

Just started Edna O'Brien's 'In the forest' - a depressingly violent fictionalised account of the effects of the equally depressingly violent treatment meted out to an Irish boy left in clerical care in my home County, Clare
Worth reading - so far - if you're in the mood for it
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Books: What book are you reading right now
From: fat B****rd
Date: 02 Nov 19 - 05:10 PM

Another book about "The Real Peaky Blinders".

Subject: RE: Books: What book are you reading right now
From: keberoxu
Date: 02 Nov 19 - 05:05 PM

"Feathering your Nest"
by an Australian columnist,
about keeping a clean and tidy house

--written while said columnist
was on maternity leave
with her newborn son.

Subject: RE: Books: What book are you reading right now
From: DMcG
Date: 02 Nov 19 - 07:32 AM

Sorry to go on about it, but an article based on an extract from "Invisible Women" is here

Subject: RE: Books: What book are you reading right now
From: DMcG
Date: 02 Nov 19 - 07:21 AM

I am reading Invisible Women : Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men"


Here is clip from one review:
Imagine a world where your phone is too big for your hand, where your doctor prescribes a drug that is wrong for your body, where in a car accident you are 47% more likely to be seriously injured, where every week the countless hours of work you do are not recognised or valued.

If any of this sounds familiar, chances are that you're a woman.

Invisible Women shows us how, in a world largely built for and by men, we are systematically ignoring half the population. It exposes the gender data gap - a gap in our knowledge that is at the root of perpetual, systemic discrimination against women, and that has created a pervasive but invisible bias with a profound effect on women's lives.

From government policy and medical research, to technology, workplaces, urban planning and the media, Invisible Women reveals the biased data that excludes women.

A book like this could easily be a polemical attack on how horrible men are: it is not. It is a calm, thorough account of the scientific basis of many bias issues. So much so that it has recently won the Royal Society science boom prize.

It is one of those books that would make a great textbook for senior school 'personal development' courses.

Subject: RE: Books: What book are you reading right now
From: Joe Offer
Date: 02 Nov 19 - 04:17 AM

I'm reading "Underground Railroad" by Colson Whitehead. In this book, the "railroad" is an actual underground train. I hesitated to read it because it sounded a bit too weird, like steampunk. But I soon got used to the device and got hooked. It's a fascinating book.
Joe

Subject: RE: Books: What book are you reading right now
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 04 Jun 19 - 04:06 AM

I must look that one up, Jack. Sounds very prophetic!

Subject: RE: Books: What book are you reading right now
From: Jack Campin
Date: 03 Jun 19 - 07:49 AM

Daphne Du Maurier's "Rule Britannia". Future dystopian novel about Brexit written in 1972 and set a few years later. The UK has pulled out of the EU after a rigged referendum and is under armed occupation by the US and its British collaborators. I'm only a short way into it and so far she's spent time developing her cast of very odd but completely convincing characters than in working out the political issues, but iit's looking good. I don't think it's been reprinted recently, which seems really odd.

Subject: RE: Books: What book are you reading right now
From: The Sandman
Date: 01 Jun 19 - 01:18 PM

DeValera by David McCullagh

Subject: RE: Books: What book are you reading right now
From: Jack Campin
Date: 31 May 19 - 06:20 PM

Peter Singer's little book on Hegel.

Subject: RE: Books: What book are you reading right now
From: Joe_F
Date: 31 May 19 - 06:03 PM

H. L. Mencken's diary.

Subject: RE: Books: What book are you reading right now
From: Mrrzy
Date: 31 May 19 - 02:33 PM

Any recommendations for a scifi something short?

Subject: RE: Books: What book are you reading right now
From: keberoxu
Date: 30 May 19 - 03:02 PM

"Heir to the Shadows" by Anne Bishop,
which has mind-speaking dogs --
a precursor to her talking wolves.
As the title suggests,
the fantasy in this book is dark,
so the sapient dogs are a welcome relief.

Subject: RE: Books: What book are you reading right now
From: fat B****rd
Date: 27 May 19 - 04:43 PM

I have almost finished working my way through Jonathan Kellerman's "Alec Delaware" series and am on with "Private Eyes".

Subject: RE: Books: What book are you reading right now
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 27 May 19 - 05:46 AM

Born to Run by Michael Morpurgo - about a greyhound!!

Subject: RE: Books: What book are you reading right now
From: Rapparee
Date: 26 May 19 - 06:40 PM

“How chance and stupidity have changed history” by Erik Durshmied.

Subject: RE: Books: What book are you reading right now
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 25 May 19 - 06:42 AM

I have been steadily re-reading all of Terry Pratchett's work but having a bit of a break now to read 'A Confederacy of Dunces' by John Kennedy Toole. Very funny book and I think I am missing a lot of the humour that originates in New Orleans. I guess the humour applies to all situations though and I can relate some of the US themes to anywhere and anyone.

Subject: RE: Books: What book are you reading right now
From: Jack Campin
Date: 25 May 19 - 04:37 AM

Carlo Levi's "Christ Stopped at Eboli" - I was in Matera a couple of months ago.

Subject: RE: Books: What book are you reading right now
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 25 May 19 - 02:07 AM

The Complete Works of Thomas Chatterton.

Subject: RE: Books: What book are you reading right now
From: EBarnacle
Date: 25 May 19 - 12:48 AM

Working by Robert Caro   I was able to get some family history as a result of reading this book and asking the last survivor of the appropriate age cohort about the events in the book.
Lyndon by Merle Miller Both of these first two books gave me new perspectives on LBJ. I am reading them for a play in progress.
Ringworld by Niven
America in Chains by Maclean
The latest releases from Flint and Weber
The latest from Dewey Lambdin and Robert Macomber
I always have several books going at a time. It keeps me from becoming stale.

Subject: RE: Books: What book are you reading right now
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 24 May 19 - 09:52 PM

That was me reading The Boys in the Boat yesterday and posting at 23 May 19 - 11:53 PM. I had just logged in, which. Need to do after every time I charge this device, and I'd done so just before going to Mudcat. I'm surprised I was able to post as a guest. When I realized I needed to log in again, I did.

Subject: RE: Books: What book are you reading right now
From: Charmion
Date: 24 May 19 - 10:02 AM

I tried to read "The Handmaid's Tale" and failed. Too, too sad; I can't stand to feel that angry about anything that isn't in front of my face.

The top item in my bedside stack is William Manchester's "A World Lit Only By Fire". It's about the transition from medieval to Renaissance culture in Europe -- imagine a pop-lit take on Johan Huizinga's "The Waning of the Middle Ages". It was on special at our favourite bookstore, and not a bad way to while away a cold, wet spring; Manchester is a really good writer, if annoyingly prone to judge past times by the standards of today (well, 1990).

I'm also picking away at a collection of A.J. Liebling, and a detective story by Peter Robinson.

Subject: RE: Books: What book are you reading right now
From: Helen
Date: 24 May 19 - 12:40 AM

In the few weeks prior to my last day at work, i.e. now on leave and will submit resignation form in a week or so, I was reading a couple of Scott Adams' books: Dogbert's Top Secret Management Handbook; and The Dilbert Principle. They would be extremely funny if they weren't exactly like the management antics at my ex-workplace, so in fact, the books are so real they are scary. I am so glad to be out of that funny farm!

Every now and then I re-read a Clare Francis mystery fiction book. I like her clever, careful plot twists and interesting characters.

I also re-read Margaret Atwood now and then. I re-read The Handmaid's Tale before the TV series started but the series was slow, annoying and not really relating to the book and then they dragged it out into another long, slow series 2, and in a couple of weeks series 3 will start here in Oz. In total, I probably fast forwarded at least 50% of the first two series by skipping the atmospheric/emotion charged scenes so I probably won't bother watching series 3 anyway. I did read an article which said that Margaret Atwood had a lot of communications from her readers and she is planning to write her own sequel. Bring it on, Ms Atwood. I can't wait for the real/intended story rather than the overdone, Hollywood-style treatment.

Subject: RE: Books: What book are you reading right now
From: GUEST
Date: 23 May 19 - 11:53 PM

This one.

The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
Book by Daniel James Brown

Subject: RE: Books: What book are you reading right now
From: Joe_F
Date: 22 May 19 - 09:58 PM

_Machines Like Me_ by Ian McEwan. Alternative (improbable) 1980s. Weird.

Subject: RE: Books: What book are you reading right now
From: Mrrzy
Date: 22 May 19 - 09:28 PM

Funny what I was reading before... Anyway, Behave. Human kinda cognition book.

Subject: RE: Books: What book are you reading right now
From: keberoxu
Date: 22 May 19 - 06:21 PM

I am discovering the Australian quokka. Seriously.

And the author to thank for that is
Anne Bishop, a USA citizen like myself.

She introduces a quokka-like animal in her
fantasy novel, Lake Silence;
however, her more recent book, Wild Country,
is a quokka-free zone populated by , let's see,
bears, panthers, crows, hawks, owls, wolves,
and an over-population of humans which
is rather brutally, shall we say, culled.

The violence in her fantasy novels can be startling,
but it is leavened with
a mordant black humor.
For me, the books get better with more reading.

Subject: RE: Books: What book are you reading right now
From: Joe Offer
Date: 22 May 19 - 05:19 PM

Our book group is reading Being Mortal, by surgeon and Harvard Professor Atul Gawande. It's an examination of how we should respond to the end of life. The first two-thirds of the book discussed nursing homes and alternative approaches. Now I'm reading about hospice care. It's an interesting topic to explore, and very relevant to most of it. I like his common-sense, compassionate approach.

There's also an interview of Gawande on the PBS Frontline program:

https://www.pbs.org/video/university-place-being-mortal-medicine-and-what-matters-end/

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 23 Jun 13 - 03:43 AM

'Dominion' by C.J. Sansom
A novel set in a fictional Britain which surrendered after Dunkirk and became a Nazi dominion.
Fascinating to find out who collaborated and who didn't.
Good entertaining stuff.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Mrrzy
Date: 22 Jun 13 - 01:18 PM

Working my way back through JAJance's Beaumont series. Alternating with rereading Lawrence Sanders - I've done the commandment and deadly sin series, and will likely do Timothy next.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: GUEST,JotSC from diff. browser
Date: 22 Jun 13 - 01:13 PM

"The New York Times Bridge Book" by Truscott & Truscott
This is not an engineering tome.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Elmore
Date: 22 Jun 13 - 12:58 PM

Hit Me by Lawrence Block.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Claire M
Date: 22 Jun 13 - 11:54 AM

Hiya,

Finally given up on 50 Shades.

Started one of my 30th bday presents, 'Wintersmith' – like being in the desert & then finding a glass of water; like relief after being er, "blocked up". Aaaaahhh!
Can "hear" said tunes/ songs. It's as if Pratchett's written about my upbringing – it's quite creepy actually.

The other half's always freezing & I'm always hot, I'm always asleep when he's awake.

Post-gig, after hearing the songs to go on said cd (one of the reasons I wanted said book of same name), I was babbling on about said songs cos I was so happy, & one of the night carers, who's foreign, looks at me gone out & says:

"Oo eez Cherry Patch-It?"

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Bill D
Date: 21 Jun 13 - 09:51 PM

Right now? Well...I just re-started Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" series. It's been 40 years since the last time.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 21 Jun 13 - 09:12 PM

Simple Genius by David Baldacci. It was chosen by members of one of my book clubs.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: kendall
Date: 21 Jun 13 - 01:41 PM

I just finished "Churchill's triumph" by Michael Dobbs.
It's about the conference at Yalta when FDR gave Stalin all he demanded over the objections of Churchill.

In my not so humble opinion, SIR Winston Churchill, was the greatest Englishman ever. And, FDR should never have been given another term. He was old, sick and totally unfit to serve as president.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: GUEST,Spleen Cringe
Date: 12 Jun 13 - 11:48 AM

"To Live Outside the Law" by Leaf Fielding. From-the-inside account of Operation Julie, the drugs bust in the 1970s that targeted the UK's biggest ever acid factory. The things the products of a British private education get up to!

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 12 Jun 13 - 08:57 AM

Our bedtime read aloud book right now is a delight (really) -- "Holy Shit: Managing Manure to Save Mankind".

It's provoking reminiscences about my early experiences on my grandparents' small dairy farm in Wisconsin and Tom's (few) farming experiences here in New Hampshire. Plus, we've been living with a self-contained composting toilet for the past 35 years. Believe me, I know where my shit is at!

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Edthefolkie
Date: 11 Jun 13 - 10:33 AM

Just finished "Bring Up The Bodies" by Hilary Mantel. Astounding, better than "Wolf Hall". She actually manages to make Thomas Cromwell sympathetic in both the books.

Also "How Do We Fix This Mess" by Robert Peston. A good gallop through the pain that banks, governments and international organisations have put us all through since 2008. No real solutions given though!

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 10 Jun 13 - 08:44 PM

"What Remains," a memoir by Carole DiFalco Radziwill, widow of Anthony Radziwill. Carolyn Bessette Kennedy was her bast friend; John Kennedy, Jr. was her husband's first cousin. It's another book club picks and more interesting than I expected.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Joe_F
Date: 07 Jun 13 - 08:49 PM

Just began _Robert Oppenheimer: A Life Inside the Center_ by Ray Monk, given me by my best buddy Jim. I have read a lot about Oppenheimer, beginning with the transcript of the Personnel Security Board hearings in the '50s, and it is interesting to get some background. I was put off by the title (a center is a point, dammit, and has no inside; you are *at* a center) & by the identity talk on the first page (I think Erik Erikson was a crackpot), but after that, the information about New York German Jews in the late 19th century was interesting.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: Elmore
Date: 07 Jun 13 - 05:37 PM

The Longest Journey by E.M. Forster

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: fat B****rd
Date: 07 Jun 13 - 04:56 PM

The Chessmen by Peter May.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 07 Jun 13 - 04:06 PM

What book you should all be reading right now - Walkabouts: travels and conclusions in verse

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: GUEST,CS
Date: 07 Jun 13 - 03:55 PM

Right now I'm just on the verge of completing 'A Clash of Kings' by George R R Martin which is the second volume in his 'A Song of Ice and Fire' series (currently at seven volumes, but reckoned to reach nine before it's conclusion). I'd say it's one of the best fantasy series I've ever read, maybe the best. Reads more like a historical saga with magical elements than a typical swords and sorcery affair, and I like it the more for it - George gets that all essential 'suspension of disbelief' suspending very well I think.

Today however I was rifling through a box of books (we still haven't sorted out our 'study' room so books are stacked in boxes still, near two years after the move) and found some 'proper' lit including Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina, neither of which I've ever got around to reading. Which set me to thinking I should really get around to reading some classics after wallowing fantasy for months!

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: GUEST,EBarnacle
Date: 29 May 13 - 10:52 PM

Just getting into Philbrick's Bunker Hill. More about the history than I knew and well written.

Subject: RE: BS: What book are you reading right now
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 29 May 13 - 02:19 PM

Hugh Dennis's Britty Britty Bang Bang. Disappointing. I like his humour on TV, but this book is lightweight to say the least. Purports to give a jokey insight into life in Britain, but Dennis manages to get himself into every paragraph!