What Are You Reading?

[TerryLL]

I'm currently deep into this gem:

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Next book in the queue is this brutal indictment of big pharma:

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[Odette]

Bunch of articles about health right now.I learned a lot of new things. For example, there is no need to panic when you can gain 5 pounds in a day (more about it there https://betterme.world/articles/gain...unds-in-a-day/ ), as it can be excess water in the body or other factors. Very useful, you can also read a lot of new things there!

[David G]

Finished last night -- 'The Colony' by Audrey Magee. Huge disappointment after so much promise. Set on a remote Irish island during the time of The Troubles, it was creatively structured, the characters were great, but it led nowhere.

Camus said, "An intellectual is one whose mind watches itself". And that is, or can be, a good thing. But when self-awareness shifts to self-absorption... it does a novel no good at all, at all. There was no real tale told... just a wallowing.

[johnw]

Komi San Can't Communicate. A manga about girl who finds it impossible to talk to anyone, so she writes notes, and a boy who recognizes that she is not aloof, but shy, and vows to help her make 100 friends.



Also, The Road to Unfreedom, by Timothy Snyder, which deals with the forces challenging democracy. We'll see if there's enough new information to hold my interest.

[john welsford]

Terry Pratchett, a life with footnotes
The authorised biography.

By Rob Wilkins.

Very good reading.

John Welsford

[ron ll]

Halfway through “Dreaming Spies” by Laurie King, another Mary Russell, Sherlock Holmes novel. Heavy on Japanese culture which I’m enjoying, I suspect more detective work to kick in shortly.

[David G]

Recently finished 'The Compleat Cruiser' by L. Francis Herreshoff. Been many years since I read it, and was a bit surprised at how good it was. A bit idealized, rather like Swallows & Amazons', but with even better-behaved children <G>... but most pleasant and informative. A few screechers when his 'voice' character begins to bemoan the unfairness of an income tax, the way paid crew these days are getting harder to find and less servile... err, I mean respectful/dedicated/knowledgeable. How his dad had a much larger boat with a 6-person crew, and he was reduced to a smaller boat with a single crew member. But, other than a few sporadic cringes, mostly what comes across is his love of the water, of simplicity in boats, of cameraderie, and of savvy sailing. Really a treat overall.

[Jim Bow]

Douglas Reeman, "Go In And Sink" AKA "His Majesty's U-Boat"
In my ignorance I didn't know who Reeman was, though I'd read Alexander Kent before. Pretty good, but rather far fetched tale.

[NickW]

Facing The Ocean: The Atlantic and its Peoples 8000BC - 1500AD, Barry Cuncliffe Oxford University Press. Won the Wolfson History Prize for 2002. The OUP synopsis is

In this highly illustrated book Barry Cunliffe focuses on the western rim of Europe--the Atlantic facade--an area stretching from the Straits of Gibraltar to the Isles of Shetland.We are shown how original and inventive the communities were, and how they maintained their own distinctive identities often over long spans of time. Covering the period from the Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, c. 8,000 BC, to the voyages of discovery c . AD 1500, he uses this last half millennium more as a well-studied test case to help the reader better understand what went before. The beautiful illustrations show how this picturesque part of Europe has many striking physical similarities. Old hard rocks confront the ocean creating promontories and capes familiar to sailors throughout the millennia. Land's End, Finistere, Finisterra--until the end of the fifteenth century this was where the world ended in a turmoil of ocean beyond which there was nothing. To the people who lived in these remote places the sea was their means of communication and those occupying similar locations were their neighbours.;The communities frequently developed distinctive characteristics intensifying aspects of their culture the more clearly to distinguish themselves from their in-land neighbours. But there is an added level of interest here in that the sea provided a vital link with neighbouring remote-place communities encouraging a commonality of interest and allegiances. Even today the Bretons see themselves as distinct from the French but refer to the Irish, Welsh, and Galicians as their brothers and cousins. Archaeological evidence from the prehistoric period amply demonstrates the bonds which developed and intensified between these isolated communities and helped to maintain a shared but distinctive Atlantic identity.

It may be highly illustrated but it is a serious academic tome of nearly 600 pages.

Nick

[Harry Miller]

Jennifer Ackerman: The Genius of Birds and The Bird Way.
I never thought I wanted to know so much about birds but I did.

[David G]

Facing The Ocean: The Atlantic and its Peoples 8000BC - 1500AD, Barry Cuncliffe Oxford University Press. Won the Wolfson History Prize for 2002. The OUP synopsis is



It may be highly illustrated but it is a serious academic tome of nearly 600 pages.

Nick

Not in my backyard, but sounds interesting enough that I ordered from the biblitheque.

[Mrleft88]

Just finished "THE PAPER PALACE". A very good read by Miranda Cowley Heller.
Not the sort of book I normally read, but it's nice to get out and about on occasion.

[LOKI]

Just finished Mary Trumps "Too Much and Never Enough". Not what I would usually read but picked up for a dollar. Truly a expose of a truly sick family. Strangely enough it also describes my wifes first husbands family to a T. German ancestry, totally useless and vile son held in esteem, successful and good son held to ridicule and abased. Such destructive behavior I never will understand...

[David G]

Finished a couple of good Robert Crais mysteries. Elvis Cole & Joe Pike are always good fantasy fun.

[birlinn]

Just found at our local free library: "Sea Room", by Adam Nicholson.
A book I keep diving back to, for the poetic excellence of the writing.
Adam inherited the now uninhabited Shiant Islands off Harris in the outer Hebrides at the age of 21 from his father, Nigel Nicholson. At present, there is only a stone bothy for accommodation.
The book is a mix of their history, their vanished inhabitants, their legends, their wildlife (including 250,000 puffins!) and Adam's deeply felt reactions to the islands and the present nearby Harris population.
Beautiful vivid prose.

[WI-Tom]

Just found at our local free library: "Sea Room", by Adam Nicholson.
A book I keep diving back to, for the poetic excellence of the writing.
Adam inherited the now uninhabited Shiant Islands off Harris in the outer Hebrides at the age of 21 from his father, Sir Harold Nicholson. At present, there is only a stone bothy for accommodation.
The book is a mix of their history, their vanished inhabitants, their legends, their wildlife (including 250,000 puffins!) and Adam's deeply felt reactions to the islands and the present nearby Harris population.
Beautiful vivid prose.

Ever read John McPhee's "The Crofter and the Laird"? That's an interesting look at what it was like to be a "laird" responsible for a bunch of tenants on your island--tenants who have maybe become a little too dependent on a landlord who can't really afford to provide everything tradition might suggest be provided. Might be worth a look, seems like a similar topic anyway.

Tom

[birlinn]

Not really like the Princeton-educated MacPhee's Colonsay experiences- there was never any crofting on the tiny Shiant islands. Only five farming families there at the most; none by 1770.
It appears that the population increased in the 18th century to more than the land could provide. Marginal land was taken into cultivation. There was no spare land for hay crops, so horses and ponies had to go. All cultivation was by intensive manual labour; the land became increasingly impoverished. Movement to easier land elsewhere was inevitable.

[David G]

Finished Laurie R. King's 'Dreaming Spies'. Part of the Mary Russell & Sherlock Holmes series that started with 'The Beekeeper's Apprentice. No car chases. No gunfights. Just an understated, nicely and complexly plotted, imaginative and subtle mystery.

[Garret]

Finished Laurie R. King's 'Dreaming Spies'. Part of the Mary Russell & Sherlock Holmes series that started with 'The Beekeeper's Apprentice. No car chases. No gunfights. Just an understated, nicely and complexly plotted, imaginative and subtle mystery.

Guess it'll never make it to TV, eh?

[David G]

Guess it'll never make it to TV, eh?

I can see it on BBC.

[ron ll]

Finished Laurie R. King's 'Dreaming Spies'. Part of the Mary Russell & Sherlock Holmes series that started with 'The Beekeeper's Apprentice. No car chases. No gunfights. Just an understated, nicely and complexly plotted, imaginative and subtle mystery.

Her descriptions of Japanese culture in the early 20th century were quite good. I have no way to judge the accuracy of course but she really made you want to be there.

[David G]

Finished 'Tigana' by Guy Gavriel Kay. Sword and scorcery... which I find too often to be shallow and puerile. So I started it poised to drop it like too-old fish. But it won me over. In fact, it's brilliant. Escapist fiction built on a solid intellectual underpinning of history, philosophy, and psychology. I shall hunt down more.

[Ralphie Boy]

“From a Wooden Canoe” by Jerry Dennis. A collection of essays on canoeing, camping and outdoor life previously published in outdoor magazines.

[David G]

“From a Wooden Canoe” by Jerry Dennis. A collection of essays on canoeing, camping and outdoor life previously published in outdoor magazines.

Ordered. Thanks!

[David G]

Finished 'Thief of Souls' by Brian Klingborg. The first in a 3 book (so far) series of murder mysteries set in modern China. Good enough I'll order the next also.

[Tom from Rubicon]

VACCINATED by Paul A. Offit MD
How Maurice Hilleman made the world a better place.

Vaccinated: One Man's Quest to Defeat the World's Deadliest Diseases by Paul A. Offit | Goodreads

[David G]

“From a Wooden Canoe” by Jerry Dennis. A collection of essays on canoeing, camping and outdoor life previously published in outdoor magazines.

Read. Fun. Quick read, and quite worth the time, if only for the nostalgia value. Thanks for mentioning it.

In the same vein, looks like I'm going to a screening this weekend of film-maker Woodrow Hunt's 'Stories From The Canoe', alongside an earlier film, 'Salmon's Agreement'.

https://www.confluenceproject.org/ev...and-gathering/

[Canoeyawl]

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[amish rob]

The Lost City of Z, by David Grann.

[rbgarr]

The title promises more than it delivers but... "Win every argument : the art of debating, persuading, and public speaking" by Mehdi Hasan.

[David G]

Clearing off the nightstand.

Made it almost halfway thru 'The Wolves of Willoughby Chase' before giving up. Not badly written, but such a grim, dour, little tale.

Finished 'The Murder of Mary Russell'. Quite marvelous.

Just last night finished 'Kangaroo Too'. by local author Curtis C. Chen. A little too much of the 'graphic novel' mindset to be perfect... but still quite good. His debut novel, 'Waypoint Kangaroo' was also quite good. I'll be looking to see if he's done another.

[David G]

Finished 'Echoes of the Dead', by Spencer Kope, a few days ago. Quite enjoyable.

Just last night, polished off 'Ysabel' by Guy Gavriel Kay. Fantasy style mystery... Most excellent.

[goodbasil]

The 2009 book by the late Gordon Thomas, Secret Wars.
100 years of British Intelligence inside MI5 and MI6.

[akers]

The last book I've read was To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. But it was weeks ago. Now I don't have much times as I found out about interesting games. My friend recommended I tried games on this site and now I can't stop playing them. I never thought that computer games can be so interesting.

[ron ll]

“Piece of Cake” by Derek Robinson, prompted by the aviation thread.