What book is everyone reading at the moment?

[elipse]

Finished Good Omens last week; now I get to pick a new one!

Will it be a Johnathan Lethem book? Will it be "St Lucy's home for Girls Raised by Wolves?" Re-read the Demon Haunted World? I have so many to pick from! The stack of books that I haven't yet read is huge. Maybe I should take a poll, but the number of options would be a little silly.

Actually, I kind of like that idea. Post maybe 5 books from my list and let y'all choose for me...what'cha guys think?

[jimbob]

Just finished Richard Morgan's "The Steel Remains"

Pretty much what you might expect as a fantasy by him.
The author wrote

Quote:

“If you had to – really had to – kill someone, which way would you rather they made you do it? With a pistol, or with an axe?

Exactly. So welcome to the brutal world of Ringil Angeleyes, scarred hero of Gallows Gap and death-wish-furious, semi-retired warrior aristocrat. I’ve been talking a good fight about fantasy noir for a while – now I’m putting my money where my mouth is. The Steel Remains is a grubby, blood-spattered trawl through exactly how unpleasant it might be to actually have to live in the average fantasy universe. Can you do noir in a fantasy landscape? You can certainly try…”

Joe Abercrombie's review is pretty accurate: (I think I'll read some of his books soon)

Quote:

What else can I compare it to? It has the explosive violence of, well, Richard Morgan (only about twice as explosive), the moral ambiguity of vintage Moorcock (but about three times as dark), with the explicit sexual content of Martin (only about ten times more explicit, and I’m not kidding), the harsh language of Scott Lynch (times about 1,000,000). If those things put you off, really, don’t bother. The first couple of pages will probably give you a bit of mouth sick. The lyricism of Patrick Rothfuss? Not so much. The languid descriptions of Robert Jordan? No. The charming rural laughs of Eddings? No. No. No.

Anyway, I was honoured to be asked for a line or two on it, so here’s mine:

“Bold, brutal, and making no compromises – Morgan doesn’t so much twist the cliches of fantasy as take an axe to them. Then set them on fire. Then put them out by pissing on them.”

I liked it

[Childlike Empress]

I'm halfway through a stunning book about the Iraqi Resistance. The author is a well-known German reporter and ex-politician who went to Iraq "unembedded" in 2007 to meet the people who fought against the occupation. It was a bestseller. I thought it would be great if Americans could read it and went to look if there is a translation available. Was even a bit surprised to find that indeed there is - and it's only 6 bucks at amazon at the moment. If you want some unique, although sometimes challenging insights - get a copy of Why do you kill? by Jürgen Todenhöfer.

[Hazel]

Yesterday I was gifted with what seems to be a very good book. Lost Gold of The Dark Ages by Caroline Alexander is a story of how the British are learning the history of their country during the dark ages by studying archaeological finds left behind by the Saxons. It covers the time from when the Romans left to the time of the Norman invasion. Caroline Alexander has done a great writing job here. She takes time to explain how the system works - the Portable Antiquities Scheme, how it handles the finds, decides on their destination and rewards the finders. She also takes time to fill in historical facts where they are needed to understand the coming and going of the Romans and, later, the Saxons. It looks to be a good read. Hazel

[Dogdoctor]

I am reading Crosby Stills & Nash by David Zimmer. So far so good. I just read 2 books biographies of David Crosby and before that Shakey biography of Neil young. I would say the most interesting was the first one of Crosbys books titled Long time gone. but just started reading this one so will see how it goes.

[Fast Eddie B]

I'm enjoying "Puswhisperer - A Year in The Life Of An Infectious Disease Doctor" by Mark Crislip of Quackcast fame.

I bought it on Kindle for 99¢.

I believe its free now on Crislip's website:

http://moremark.squarespace.com/puswhisperer/

The Kindle version has a large number of typos and missing words and the like, but its still a fun read.

[calebprime]

Just finished, in one sitting, A.N. Wilson's short bio of Hitler. A great read, and he can cut through the crap -- such as briefly debunking the psychoanalysts who were so sure of Hitler's supposed sexual perversions. Wilson is intelligent and has some good psychological insights. But maybe he's more pithy and caustic than he is dependable.

I'd like to hear from other people who are better informed who've read this.

[Skeptic Ginger]

I'm currently slogging through "2666" by Roberto Bolaño. My son bought it for me. All I can say is he and a whole lot of other people have bizarre tastes in reading material.

[NanoWzrd]

Finished Rivers of London and Moon Over Soho both by Ben Aaronovitch. These are urban fantasy novels set in modern London. If you liked the Dresden novels by Jim Butcher you might like these.

Trying to read The Hunger Games.

[BravesFan]

reading Micheal Crichton's posthumous Pirate Latitudes (His books are either great or crap IMO) The after that I start John Dies at the End

[madurobob]

I'm a "Word Book Night" giver and was given a box of 20 "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian". Of course, I had to read it before I started handing it out.

Its a YA book, but really well done; I thoroughly enjoyed it. In part because my mother grew up on the rez in Utah, but mostly because it was just a great book. I LOLed, I cried, I remembered vividly what it was like to be a teen. I handed out 19 of them happily over the past couple of days.

[Bikewer]

Just finished re-reading John Varley's Titan, and started in on Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon.

[calebprime]

Diving into Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace, again. I say diving because I can't seem to read it in order, and because I want to read the more enjoyable parts. The tennis bits are boring, to me.

Parts are set in Boston, which is fun. I also like the parts about Gately and his tenure in the half-way house, and the stuff about addiction. (Addiction is the overall theme of the book, I suppose.) I love Wallace's ear for American idioms, strange manglings of speech, sometimes.

For some reason, I find this book inspiring in a way that I don't find Thomas Pynchon's work inspiring. I'm not sure why I'm reminded of Pynchon by DFW, but I didn't really like Gravity's Rainbow. I've also read a book or two by young writers who were influenced by DFW, and I thought they were absolutely awful. You shouldn't imitate someone like Wallace any more than you should imitate Joyce.

Maybe DFW is on a mission for a kind of moderate modernism, or at least, not-completely-excessive modernism. Ulysses, but not Finnegans Wake. Berg, Dallapiccola or the Schoenberg of the Piano Concerto, but not Ferneyhough, Xenakis, or the Schoenberg of the String Trio or the Third String Quartet.

In hindsight, it seems that one can detect traces of madness in Wallace's work -- in the overwhelming prevalence of addiction and the absence of real pleasure, in the obsessive and clinical descriptions, in the predatory non-relationships, and in the eruptions of violence. It's what gives his work its kick.

But I shouldn't try to sum up a huge book that I haven't read completely, let alone understood.

It's an encouraging example of how to write a big, lonely work -- though I'm never going to compose anything that big or extreme myself.

I suspect The Pale King would be disappointing after this.

[Tiktaalik]

Reading "Why Are You Atheists So Angry?" by Greta Christina
"Unforeseen" by Lauren Grimley in the stack...

[RoseMontague]

Originally Posted by NanoWzrd

Finished Rivers of London and Moon Over Soho both by Ben Aaronovitch. These are urban fantasy novels set in modern London. If you liked the Dresden novels by Jim Butcher you might like these.

Trying to read The Hunger Games.

Love the Dresden books and I will check out the Aaronovitch books. Thank you.

[joolz]

'Deranged' by Harold Schechter.

If you can get past the trashy subtitle complete with exclamation mark (The Shocking True Story of America's Most Fiendish Killer!) then you'll find this a horrific but fascinating tale. Considering the events that Albert Fish confessed to (as opposed to the crimes he was charged with) I'm surprised that I hadn't heard of him until I read 'The Devil's Dozen' by Katherine Ramsland, a book about cutting edge forensics.

Schechter's book made me consider starting a thread about the definition of insanity as it raised so many questions that I found hard to answer. The story is upsetting, so don't read it if you have a nervous disposition, but, if you can handle it, I recommend it if you are interested in crime or psychology.

I gave this book 5 stars and posted the following review on Goodreads:

Quote:

As in other true crime reviews, the rating I've given doesn't literally mean that I 'enjoyed' it, but that I found it a thoroughly interesting book that made me think a lot about the topic.

I am firmly against the death penalty, but this book is the only time I have thought that a person might truly be better off dead. More for the man himself than for the terrible crimes he committed. For his crimes the court should have put him in prison and thrown away the key, certainly, but this book made me wonder if there is any point to someone living when they are driven by such compulsions and desires as Albert Fish was. If your life is so painful and twisted with no hope of recovery then isn't it possible that allowing someone to commit suicide would be the right thing to do?

This book really makes you think hard about the line between sanity and insanity. Is someone insane because they do things that seem insane to you? Or might they actually be sane and just making a deliberate choice to do wicked things? Does being a wonderful father to your children under difficult circumstances mean you cannot be deemed insane? Or can you be insane and do compassionate things while you are also murdering and killing?

Whilst some of the items on Fish's list of perversions may always be considered deviant, there are certainly several that would not be considered that way now, so we need to bear in mind that times change, but no matter what he did to himself, Fish's deeds against children were repugnant and, if I was a juror, I don't know whether I would have made a knee-jerk reaction to the crimes or made a logical consideration of the sane/insane issue. The comment made after the trial by one of the jurors about the decision they made is very interesting.

The photos at the end of the ebook show Fish as I imagined him to be, I can see why he is supposedly the original source of the 'boogie man' that your parents warn you about.

It's thanks to people like him that kids lead more restricted lives nowadays. Heading off for hours at a time and playing in local woods isn't an option now as it was for the kids in my street when I was a child. The publicity of the evil that humans can do has put a stop to that.

[jimbob]

Joolz, He might have added to the archetype of the boogieman but wasn't the origin, as they are a lot older than that.

[joolz]

Originally Posted by jimbob

Joolz, He might have added to the archetype of the boogieman but wasn't the origin, as they are a lot older than that.

I said 'supposedly' as I thought it sounded odd, but I didn't do a search on the origins of the word. I've looked it up and see now that it is very old, as you say.

To be fair to the author he didn't claim that in his book, it was in a book review I'd read, I've changed my review on Goodreads to remove that point.

Thank you.

[HawaiiBigSis]

"The Blind Assassin", by Margaret Atwood.

[calebprime]

More on Infinite Jest

It all hangs together. I'm sure of that by now. But even if it didn't, the set pieces* -- if they can be called that -- make the book worthwhile all by themselves.

I've read at least ten of them, so far, that blew me away. Tony the transvestite is kicking heroin and grain alcohol, and has a seizure on the subway. There's a monolog by the father who is trying to teach his son about physical grace, moving into a pathetic but very funny attempt to teach him grace in tennis. There's a guy waiting for a marijuana delivery -- his last before he quits, again -- who's acutely aware of the clock ticking and a bug crawling around on his entertainment rack. There's a fight to the death between the "Nucks" and Gately. There's the surreal scene in which Hal seems coherent or even brilliant to himself and the reader, but to the assembled administrators and coaches, he apparently is uttering only strange strangled mammalian cries -- or something. It's not clear yet. There are some of the best anatomies of addiction and depression I've ever read. And on and on.



----------------------
* close enough:

a. a composition (as in literature, art, or music) executed in a fixed or ideal form often with studied artistry and brilliant effect

b : a scene, depiction, speech, or event that is obviously designed to have an imposing effect

[Beerina]

Just got back from the bookstore.


1. Arguably, Essays by Christopher Hitchens
2. Children of the Sky, by Vernor Vinge, the 2nd sequel to the Fire Upon The Deep.
3. Extremis, by Steve White, et al., a sequel in the Starfire universe (In Death Ground)


Oh, and the latest issue of Skeptic (both rags of which I still buy through bookstores), Servo, and Robot, which are home robot kit magazines (think Model Railroader but for people who do robots.)

[calebprime]

I tried reading Revelations by Elaine Pagels. But I had to put it down after a few pages. One thing I have in common with many of the truly sciency people here -- although I am not truly sciency myself -- is that I have a low tolerance for fantastic malarky. You know, beasts with many heads, plagues and famines and rains of blood and tongues cleaving to the roofs of mouths, that sort of thing. Meh. Not even meh. Bleh.

F. Nietzsche's Zarathustra affects me much the same way. Can't read it.

Elaine Pagels must be made of sterner stuff than me, to study this sort of thing.

Sure, William Blake and Picasso drew inspiration from the Book of Revelation, but they were flaky geniuses. I'm just pedestrian and sciency and level-headed.

[Alley Cat]

"What Came Before He Shot Her" by Elizabeth George. This is the saddest book I've ever read. If anyone likes the Inspector Lynley tv series, you'll know his pregnant wife is shot on her doorstep. Normally I finish a book, pick up the next one, maybe dwell on a really good book for an hour or so in between. This one is haunting. EG makes you live every moment of the characters terrible lives. Obviously fiction, the characters are not real, but it doesn't leave you thinking like that. Somewhere not too far away the characters are out there. I have this urge to run over to a council estate and hug small boys, tell them its ok, they're safe.

[ZirconBlue]

Mockingjay, the third in the Hunger Games trilogy. Quite the page-turner.

[Bloodtoes]

The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi, the second in the Old Man's War series.

[BravesFan]

John Dies at the End- Davd Wong

Yeah it's just nuts, fun read though

[Bram Kaandorp]

I'm finally going to start in "Fads & Fallacies" by Martin Gardner.

The Introduction drew me in already, so that's a good sign.

[catsmate1]

John Caldwell's Desperate Voyage.
Not my usual fare, it's the story of a man desperate to get from Panama to his home in Australia after WW2. He buys an old sailboat, but lacks the skills one would expect to need................... Things happen.

[elipse]

Originally Posted by madurobob

I'm a "Word Book Night" giver and was given a box of 20 "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian". Of course, I had to read it before I started handing it out.

Its a YA book, but really well done; I thoroughly enjoyed it. In part because my mother grew up on the rez in Utah, but mostly because it was just a great book. I LOLed, I cried, I remembered vividly what it was like to be a teen. I handed out 19 of them happily over the past couple of days.

That's one of the few books that the kids I work with tend to like. Well, the ones who usually don't like books, anyway. The kids who like books also like it.

I recommend it highly for kids (8th-11th grade ish) who don't like to read much.

[derchin]

I'm reading "The Schools Children Deserve," by Alfie Kohn.

[MNBrant]

I am reading what to expect from your babies first year. I just finished the diapers chapter and am getting ready to read about breast feeding. I understand nipple chafing from breast feeding is a myth.

[HawaiiBigSis]

Originally Posted by MNBrant

I understand nipple chafing from breast feeding is a myth.

Only long-term. Short term it hurts like h-e-double hockey sticks.

[calebprime]

Heh. That last exchange was so good I hate to spoil it.

I tried to write a letter to a guy -- Michael Washborn -- at the Boston Globe, about his review of J. Franzen's new book of essays. Franzen writes about David Foster Wallace, who was a friend of his.

The gist of the letter was that Franzen got some things right, but was wrong to make too much out of the exact manner of Wallace's suicide. That is, when someone is that depressed for that long they are in such pain and their judgment is so altered that one shouldn't read too much into it.

I need a hero or two. Sometimes, Mozart, Coltrane, Hendrix, Bartok, Brahms, Bach, or even Phil Markowitz http://www.philmarkowitzjazz.com/ aren't enough. Sometimes it has to be someone who uses her words.

I need David Foster Wallace because I need enthusiasm, and I can ride behind his book like a bicyclist slipstreaming behind a big truck.

There are moments, though, when my hero-worship hits a pothole and my little bike runs off the road. Those are the moments when Wallace or his pals talk about music.

Here's Dave Eggers in the foreward to Infinite Jest:

"...We're faschinated with what can be made by a person with enough time and focus and caffeine and, in Wallace's case, chewing tobacco. If we are drawn to Infinite Jest, we're also drawn to the Magnetic Fields' 69 Songs...or the work of Sufjan Stevens..."

No! No! We're not. Jesus Frickin' Christ on a pogo stick!

That's like saying we're drawn to the statesmanship of Jimmy Carter. He wasn't so bad, but he's not an example of a monumental achievement.

Or, we're drawn to the comedic works of Bill Cosby. Again, a wonderful actor and comedian, but not an inspirational figure if you're talking about great pillars of modernism.

The same effect happened to me when, in the book about the road-trip with DFW, the talk turns to bands. DFW is just as disappointing.

This reminds me of when I used to visit Amherst College to see my girlfriend. Very very bright kids -- many of them the future captains of industry -- were just ridiculously easy to impress when it came to music, and had no idea that there was anything beyond Talking Heads. Nothing wrong with Talking Heads, but come on. If you can't perceive some kind of difference in stature between say, the John Coltrane Quartet and Talking Heads, then Caleb just has to bow out of the conversation.

Hero, yes. Omniscient, no. Worked damn hard, yes. Had overarching ability to discern greatness everywhere he looked? No. No.

Where are those rant tags?

[ZirconBlue]

Finished the Hunger Games trilogy and started Lev Grossman's The Magicians, which was touted as something of a "Harry Potter" for adults. Enjoying it so far, but I've just barely begun.

[maxpower1227]

Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway.

[catsmate1]

John Sandford's latest, Stolen Prey.

[Dogdoctor]

Originally Posted by maxpower1227

Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway.

Interesting book, think I will check it out too

[Eudaemonic Plague]

Currently: Shillelagh The Irish Fighting Stick by John W. Hurley. It's a thorough history of the shillelagh. He's written a couple of other books on the subject, including one on how to use a shillelagh. Turns out that getting your hands on a real blackthorn shillelagh is difficult...the blackthorn walking sticks being sold are mostly not actually the real thing.

[I Ratant]

"Storeys from the Old Hotel" by Gene Wolfe and "Drive Like Crazy", by P.J. O'Rourke. Just finished "Unweaving the Rainbow" by Dawkins. (again)... for all of them..

[BaaBaa]

I usually have 2-3 books going on at any one time; right now, it's "The Master And Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov and "The Manchurian Candidate", by Richard Condon.

I had read 'Candidate' before and really enjoyed but one thing is really bugging me- I knew that Shaw's step-father had been supposedly based on Joe McCarthy (and after reading Richard Rovere's book on McCarthy, it was *really* apparent.) but one thing I hadn't noticed was how much Shaw's mother was like Livia, the wife of Caesar Augustus, and specifically how Condon had ripped off Robert Graves' description of Caesar and Livia's marital relationship. I don't know if it quite counts as plagiarism but as a long-time fan of "I, Claudius" and "Claudius The God" , it certainly put my nose slightly out of joint....