What Are You Reading?

[mike9199]

The Things We Cannot Say: A WWII Historical Fiction by Kelly Rimmer.
Must admit I discovered a lot of things for myself from this book and also realized how poor is my vocabulary.
Going to use word generator tool now more often https://word-finder.com/words-that-start-with/nix/ and boost it hopefully.

[ron ll]

“The Lincoln Highway” by Amor Towles, author of “A Gentleman in Moscow”. Boys’ road trip and misadventures in the early 1950s.

[Larks]

Sharpes Assassin - yes Bernard Cornwell has another Sharpe novel out with yet another in the making. This one is immediately post Waterloo.

[WszystekPoTrochu]

Bulhakov's the Master and Margarita, again.

[Nicholas Carey]

Bulhakov's the Master and Margarita, again.

My wife is a theater director. she and her theater company turned that into play in 1997. It's been to the Adelaide Fringe in Oz, toured Canada, and won multiple awards in both countries. Also to the Charleston, South Carolina's Spoleto festival, the American offshoot of the big arts festival in Spoleto Italy.

Most of the reviewers in Seattle named it one of the best plays of the year. One called it the best play of the decade. Pretty good for a fringe theater company with no money and no resources. Especially when your competition are well funded, well regarded LORT theaters (League of Regional Theaters) like Seattle Rep and Intiman Theater.

My wife said that the best complement she got was at a Canadian performance, where an elderly Russian woman came up to her and told her that it was a great show, except for the one thing that they'd gotten wrong: "The Master," she said, "had blue eyes."

Here's some clips of their 2019 remount:

[David G]

Shantaram. A novel about India. Mostly set in Bombay. Also about life, philosophy, cultures, and the art of being human. And a fascinating tale of India into the bargain. I was skeptical at first, but it's turned out to be one of the best books I've fallen into in a very long time.

[Keith Wilson]

Makes my head hurt, even without much math. The title is accurate.

[WI-Tom]

Shantaram. A novel about India. Mostly set in Bombay. Also about life, philosophy, cultures, and the art of being human. And a fascinating tale of India into the bargain. I was skeptical at first, but it's turned out to be one of the best books I've fallen into in a very long time.

I'd heard good things, but could not get more than 20 pages in, maybe. And the sheer amount of pages left after those 20, given how uninspiring they were, was too daunting to face up to. I always kind of suspected I was wrong to give up, though. I mean, a book couldn't stay that bad for that many pages, could it?

Tom

[WI-Tom]

Makes my head hurt, even without much math. The title is accurate.

I've read that. Basically a long argument about why religion is wrong about using the idea of "god" to explain the universe, and why that should not make us feel like life is meaningless, but should instead inspire us to find our own meaning. Physics for the postmodern age.

Tom

[CWSmith]

^ Physicists make poor philosophers and even worse theologians.

[Gerarddm]

#1788: Read that last month, thank you local library. I do really like his stuff on the Saxons that was the basis for the TV series The Last Kingdom.

Currently reading the latest issue of Bloomberg Business Week, which is entirely devoted to explaining cryptocurrency. I still agree with Warren Buffett, it's all hot air.

[webishop14]

Working through Sean Carroll's The Biggest Ideas in the Universe. Also re-reading In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead, a James Lee Burk masterpiece.

[WI-Tom]

^ Physicists make poor philosophers and even worse theologians.

Rejecting religion is kind of the opposite of theology, innit?

As for his philosophy, I thought it was OK. A lot more readable than Derrida or Wittgenstein, that's for sure. And I can't disagree with his conclusions, nor the evidence he bases them on.

Tom

[CWSmith]

Rejecting religion is kind of the opposite of theology, innit?

I looked up theology and it's "the study of the nature of God and religious belief." It seems to me that the rejection of God based on science that has little to no data comes under "the study...of religious belief."

[WI-Tom]

I looked up theology and it's "the study of the nature of God and religious belief." It seems to me that the rejection of God based on science that has little to no data comes under "the study...of religious belief."

It seems to me quite otherwise. First, physics has plenty of data.

Secondly, to say that physics is theology is like saying that denying the reality of paranormal activity is engaging in the study of paranormal activity. Hardly convincing.

Tom

[L.A Marche]

A timely read.2588212F-6F4A-4FB3-8497-766496492E3F.jpg

[David G]

I'd heard good things, but could not get more than 20 pages in, maybe. And the sheer amount of pages left after those 20, given how uninspiring they were, was too daunting to face up to. I always kind of suspected I was wrong to give up, though. I mean, a book couldn't stay that bad for that many pages, could it?

Tom

It's worth sticking with. But it IS a commitment. Many pages. And, despite being a fast reader, I'm finding it a slow go. Not because it's bad, but because it's so densely packed with life, joy, sadness, and subtle wisdom.

As I get older, I find myself being a bit more patient with the beginnings of books. But less patient when they don't develop into something. I close down many more books than I used to.

[LeeG]

Findus Goes Camping

I’m buying every one of the Findus books.

[amish rob]

Everything Bad Is Good For You, by Steven Johnson. And some Greg Bear book, because he died and Quad and I are plowing through his stuff. Interesting sci-fi.

I just finished a Philip K. Dick anthology, too. 4 of the weirdest books I’ve read in a while. Ubik. Whoa…

[David G]

I finished 'Shantaram' by GD Roberts. Best thing I've read in years.

[Jimmy W]

Just because I like reading it again every now and then. Linked copy has a few issues, but you should be able to get past them.

“Spotted Horses” a short story by William Faulkner

[peb]

I have started a reread of Paul Johnson's History of the Jews. I read it a couple of decades ago, and have gotten out as a reference book many times over the years, I thought it was a good time to refresh my memory.

[WX]

I just finished, Terry Pratchett, a life with footnotes. Whether you are a Pratchett fan or not it is well worth reading.

[David G]

'Waypoint Kangaroo' - the debut novel of Curtis Chen. A mystery set in space. Really good!

[mswindell]

I enjoy the variety of everyone's selections. I live on my Kindle after spending a year in hospital curing a MRSA infection following hip replacement. I stumbled across this website about history conspiracies etc. Quite the reading list.
https://openroadmedia.com/forbidden-bookshelfForbidden Bookshelf

By looking deep into the darker trends and episodes in US history, these brave works help show how America became the land it is today, and how we might start to change it.



Forbidden Bookshelf

By looking deep into the darker trends and episodes in US history, these brave works help show how America became the land it is today, and how we might start to change it.

[amish rob]

I just finished The Human Comedy by William Saroyan. It’s lovely. It’s odd because it takes place in a fictional town, but a lot of the places and place names are real, and exist (or existed) here, in this town.

I used to pass by his childhood home quite often.

[skuthorp]

Local politics, the previous federal government will keep the presses rolling and the legal and constitutional industry involved for some time.

[David G]

I'm more than halfway thru 'Allow Me To Retort'. Read a bunch more today during the power outage here.

It is a fully engaged, full-throated, roar at the failings built into our Constitution and the failure - in too many instances - of our society to subsequently correct those failings. From a black man who is sick and tired of the inequity, and put his frustration into a loud but thoughtful book that hits the target far more than not.

[David G]

Finished #20 in the Brother Cadfael historical mystery series by Ellis Peters. Always enjoyable.

[Osborne Russell]

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot

[Hugh MacD]

I just finished, Terry Pratchett, a life with footnotes. Whether you are a Pratchett fan or not it is well worth reading.

Just ordered that! Thanks!

[Rigadog]

I'm reading Brown Dog by Jim Harrison, a collection of novellas about a character named
Brown Dog". At first I didn't like it but it has grown on me, he sort of writes like JD Salinger. It's set in the UP of Michigan, BD is a pretty despicable guy but you sort of come to liking him. Anyone read it?

[WI-Tom]

I'm finally getting around to reading Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy (Titus Groan, Gormenghast, and Titus Alone). An eccentric, slow-moving, and utterly atmospheric prose style that echoes Dickens (character names like Mr. Flay, Swelter the chief cook, Steerpike, Dr. Prunsquallor, Lord Sepulcrave, and the estate librarian Sourdust), Lovecraft, and Poe. Probably others.

I'm 134 pages in. The events so far:

1. Titus was born, his christening scheduled, his mother the Countess informed ("bring him back when he is 6"), and Nanny Slagg is dispatched to find a wet nurse from the mysterious villagers who live in hovels outside the walls of Gormenghast.
2. At the christening, baby Titus is dropped to the floor.
3. In a flashback to the day of Titus's birth, Steerpike (apprentice to Swelter) escaped the kitchen, got trapped in a locked room, and had to climb to the rooftops of the immense Gormenghast castle to find an escape, ending up in the attic where Fuschia (Titus's older sister) plays by herself.

It's all about atmosphere, and elegantly vivid description of a mysterious timeless estate.

I like it. At other times I might not have the patience, but in the Long Dark of winter, it's just the ticket.

FYI, Sting starred as Steerpike in a BBC radio adaptation in the 1980s. How you adapt a novel where description outweighs dialogue by better than 10/1, I have no idea...

Tom

[David G]

Mark Greaney - 'They Gray Man' -- some of the worst dreck I've read in years. Hamfisted plotting. Covert Missions, strong silent types, Worshipping all things 'Murkan, all firearms, violence as a nifty and admirable solution. Hating the ragheads. It's said that some authors write... as a form of therapy. In this case, it ain't working. He needs real therapy. Get over the feelings of inadequacy that drive his chasing a faux heroism.

And some writing classes.

David Liss - 'A Conspiracy of Paper' -- an interesting bit of well-researched Historical Fiction dealing with the period in England leading up to the 'Sea Bubble' of 1790. Not what I'd call 'gripping and fast-paced'. A wee bit plodding, in fact. But well-plotted enough, and sorta/almost/kinda/OK'yes well-written enough to keep me engaged until the end, and happy I stuck it out.

[rbgarr]

The Hilary Mantel trilogy about Thomas Cromwell. Fabulous writing.