I was away from my computer all weekend and it wasn’t until this morning that I remembered it was now April and I was late with the new thread. My corner of the US is warming up, flowers are blooming and people are coming out of their homes… hopefully to read on their porches.
So Whatcha all readin’?
Print: Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue. The tail end of WWI and the Spanish flu epidemic, set in a small Irish hospital’s maternity ward. It’s very good, and I suspect heartbreaking at the end. I am annoyed at the lack of quotation marks, it makes the dialog “sound” distant - like I am listening to a conversation in another room - in my head, but it’s not enough to stop me reading.
Kindle: Onmyoji and Tengu Eyes Vol 01: The Spirit Hunters of Tomoe by Utamine Yoshiko. I like the characters and it’s easy to read, however, the pacing is wonky plus scene and time shifts are not very clear making it a bit jarring in places to read. I don’t know if that’s a problem with the translation or an issue with Japanese story telling since I’m reading it in English.
Khadaji was one of the earlier members of SDMB, and he was well-known as a kindly person who always had something encouraging to say, particularly in the self-improvement threads. He was also a voracious, omnivorous reader, who started these threads 'way back in the Stone Age of 2005. Consequently, when he suddenly and quite unexpectedly passed away in January 2013, we decided to rename this thread in his honor and to keep his memory, if not his ghost, alive.
Quoted from last month’s thread. I finished it today. It was all right. It seemed to me that the girl and her friends had the same conversations over and over. Also, it was easy to figure out who was stalking her. I kept reading because yes, boyfriend was haunting her and I wanted to see how that played out. I guess it was a good book for a teenage girl to read if she needed help with abuse issues, although I’m not sure it would actually have been effective.
Still working my way through Dream Town by Laura Meckler, nonfiction about the desegregation of Shaker Heights, Ohio, and ongoing efforts to address the achievement gap for students of color in its schools. A number of people I know were interviewed for the book, which is on an important topic but just doesn’t make for very gripping reading.
I’m about a quarter of the way through one of my all-time favorite Heinlein juvenile sf novels, Time for the Stars, about using twins to telepathically communicate between Earth and trans-relativistic starships. Dated in some ways, particularly dialogue, but it has a clever premise and is very readable.
In print I’ve started reading Pyramid Scheme by Eric Flint & Dave Freer. It’s about an alien pyramid that destroys Chicago, then starts transporting people into the world’s of mythology.
I have Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn on Audible. It’s about a quartet of lady assassins. When the foursome is sent on an all-expenses paid vacation to mark their retirement, they are targeted by one of their own. Only the Board, the top-level members of the Museum, can order the termination of field agents, and the women realize they’ve been marked for death.
I read it too, based on @Railer13’s recommendation. I liked it enough to give it to my sister, who is of a certain age (though I don’t believe she is a killer of anything larger than mosquitoes). Hope you enjoy it too.
I read the first I-don’t-know-how-many-any-more pages of Dream Town not so long ago. As someone who’s spent his career in education, I think the questions the book raises are very significant ones, and I was eager to see what the author had to say about the achievement gap. Also I have some cousins in Shaker Heights, though I have never been there.
I stopped reading, though, because the first half(?) of the book was largely on the integration of the community, which I found much less interesting than perhaps I should’ve. Put it down one day and moved on to something else, and then the book was due back at the library, and, well, you know the rest.
Anyway, I haven’t crossed it off my list completely, so if you make it to the end and find it worthwhile I might pick it up again. (Let’s hear it for libraries.) Thanks.
I’m enjoying Killers to the point where I hate to shut the car off and get out before the chapter is over. I’m a fan of Raybourn’s steampunk books and I’m glad I gave this one a try.
I have been a voracious reader all my life.
What don’t I read?
Fiction actually.
I recently read the newest by David Icke. Hes an entertaining read and makes you think ( we really should question the government at times).
He would make it big if he wrote fiction.
Reading Toni Tennilles autobiography.
Also Brooke Shields.
Just finished Dilbert, the Way of the Weasel.
Greg Gutfelds The Plus.
I am a huge fan of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, a gorgeous historical fiction with weird science about two brilliant, somewhat dangerous men in a tormented love affair, plus an octopus. I also really liked the sequel, The Lost Future of Pepperharrow, also a gorgeous historical fiction with weird science about two brilliant, somewhat dangerous men in a tormented love affair, plus an octopus.
Anyway, I just finished The Half Life of Valery K, which is a lovely historical fiction with weird science about two brilliant, somewhat dangerous men in a tormented love affair, plus an octopus. Halfway through I flipped to the “About the Author,” saw who the author was, and everything suddenly made sense.
Natasha Pulley has a very specific story she wants to tell.
Last night, I started and finished reading In the Lives of Puppets. “Finished reading” after reading 40 pages. The “Nurse Ratched” joke started off as a strained acronym and just kept repeating. Rumba as Rambo is the kind of pun I’d bite back as too cringe to inflict on the world. Forty pages in I realized it was just going to annoy me, so I put it down. I’m glad others like it, but decidedly not for me.
Started The Fragile Threads of Power, by VE Schwab. She’s reliably fun, not great literature, but tells a ripping story. I doubt there will be an octopus.
Finished A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (And Some Bears), by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling, which I thought was excellent. Some of the author’s jokes fell flat, but the situation and setting (and bears) were interesting. Also, it has the best title and first sentence that I’ve read so far this year.
Now I’m reading Jewish Futures: Stories from the World’s Oldest Diaspora, edited by Michael A. Burstein.
Currently reading The Cleaner by Brandi Wells, a novel about a night-shift maintenance worker in an office building who meddles with the possessions and lives of the day-shift employees.
No octopus!
Finished Colin Alexander’s Starman’s Saga, which was actually very good. I think it could have been published by an established press, but he’s apparently self-publishing his books.
Now I’m reading (as previously noted) How to Suffer Outside: A Beginner’s Guide to Hiking and Backpacking by Diana Helmuth. I’m not a beginner, but it’s been a while, and I want to know the latest thoughts on several aspects. My daughter and her boyfriend spotted it on my pile and are interested.
After that it’s probably on to Eric Flint’s 1632, which I haven’t yet read.
On Audio, I finished the two John Mortimer Rumpole books. I’m now reading Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child’s The Cabinet of Doctor Leng. P & C’s books are one of my guilty pleasures, especially if they involve Agent Pendergast, which this one does. Once upon a time the two tried to make their plots outrageous and sensational, but not outright fantasy. They crossed that line long ago, however, and this one has Time Travel and Parallel Universes.
After that, it’s on to Condor’s Fury, the latest in the NUMA Files books that Clive Cussler would have written, if he hadn’t died. So Graham Brown wrote this one. Cussler’s books are another of my guilty pleasures. Although Brown’s name is on this one, I suspect that Cussler left a stack of plots for his publishing empire (Dirk Pitt, NUMA Files, Oregon Files, the Fargo series, Isaac Bell) that will be fleshed out by his son and collaborators for years to come.
For my bedside reading I’m finishing up The Annotated The Lost World. Then it’s on to a slim book about Pi that I picked up at the library for a buck. It’s not Beckman, but it was only a buck.
Finished Jewish Futures: Stories from the World’s Oldest Diaspora, edited by Michael A. Burstein. The two best stories were “Moon Melody” by SM Rosenberg and “Matzoh Ball Soup for the Vershluggin Soul” by Randee Dawn, which despite its somewhat silly title is actually a serious story.
Now I’m reading Nuts and Bolts: Seven Small Inventions That Changed the World (in a Big Way), by Roma Agrawal.
After seeing the recent movies and reading a bunch of RPG stuff about the setting I am actually reading the original Dune. Very readable and enjoyable so far even knowing the story.
I finished all 548 or so pages of Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead. Wow. Demon (Damon Fields on his birth certificate, but no one calls him that) traces his life in impoverished Lee County, Virginia from birth (literally) through his teen years. His life is extremely eventful, and mostly damn depressing–a father who died before he was born, a wicked stepfather, terrible foster parents, and finally drugs, drugs, drugs, not just Demon but practically everyone he knows in his age bracket, maybe two exceptions.
The book is grim and painful to read at times, but the plot keeps the reader going, the characters are well-drawn, the social critique is well-handled, the sense of place is powerful, and the narrative voice is a triumph. Reminiscent of David Copperfield, which I’ve not read but on which the book is sort of based, and also Huckleberry Finn and Catcher in the Rye (but if you think Holden is messed up, take a look at Demon).
I finished this last month. Ultimately, I enjoyed it…and I loved the perspective and the setting of the story. It felt a bit bogged down for me and bloated in the middle, but once I hit about 65%, I finished it quickly. This is a book that made me feel things…I visibly cringed during a few scenes. 4/5 Stars.
Just started listening to The River of the Gods by Candice Millard, a history of two British explorers (Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke) sent to try and find the source of the Nile River…set against the backdrop of the colonial exploitation of Africa, it has been engaging so far. I don’t know much about this time period, or the history of colonial Africa, so I am interested to see where it goes. I have loved all of Millard’s other works, so excited to get into this one!
I’m about halfway through The Bee Sting by Paul Murray. I am really, really enjoying it, and love the way it is written from various characters’ perspectives (each with their own unique “voice”, and morphing writing styles). It is taking me longer than I would like, but it is enjoyable and I am finding it to be a smart, witty, and heartfelt character study.