Currently reading Heimskringla, or The Lives of the Norse Kings by Snorri Sturluson. It’s interesting but loooooooooong. I’ll be on this one for a while.
I have it on my short list, but it looks like it would take a while! I’ll await your review with interest.
Reading Sid Meier’s Memoir (which is actually the title). It’s really good because it’s about him but also all the games he developed. Enjoying it a lot so far.
That is a great title for a book from him.
I finished Like, Literally, Dude (Fridland). It was generally good–taking on the prescriptivists who don’t much approve the speech of “young people” and/or other marginalized groups by a) giving the history of some of these expressions and b) pointing out that this is the way it’s always been, that linguistic change is inevitable and tends to bubble up from these marginalized groups. I did find it hard to read more than a few sections at a time, which may be the fault of the book or may be the fault of the slightly distracted reader, who knows. To be fair, it covered a lot of ground I was already familiar with, and that may have played a role. Overall, I liked it. On to…something else…
One of the stories in this book concerns a game of dice between the kings of Norway and Sweden over which country would possess a certain strategically based island. I sold a retelling of this story to Spider magazine. The dice came up twelve five times in a row. On the sixth time, one split in half, so that Norway won the island with a score of thirteen.
Finished Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories They Wouldn’t Let Me Do On TV, edited by Alfred Hitchcock. I’ve read many of the stories in other anthologies. The best of these was “The Moment of Decision” by Stanley Ellin. The best of the ones I hadn’t read before (which, in my opinion, generally weren’t as good as those in the former group) was “Water’s Edge” by Robert Bloch.
Now I’m reading The Last Lecture, by Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow.
Just read Disloyal by Michael Cohen. If you didnt realize how awful Trump was before, you do after this read.
We had a discussion last month, maybe, about Robert Arthur’s short story “Obstinate Uncle Otis,” which many of remembered pretty well despite not having read it since, oh, I don’t know, the previous century or something. I think it was @Elendil_s_Heir who pointed out that this really is the mark of a good story, that it’s memorable still so many years (and so many other stories) later.
Then there’s “The Moment of Decision.” I read it when I was a little older than I was when I read “Obstinate Uncle Otis,” being probably 14 or maybe 15, but boy did that one stick in my mind. (I did read it again a few years ago along with some others of his short stories, but I remembered it very, very well.) His best stories are tremendous achievements, and this one was certainly among his best. Thanks for the ride down memory lane.
You’re welcome. Robert Arthur also had a story in this anthology, “The Jokester”. It was also quite good.
Finished The Last Lecture, by Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow, which was very good.
Now I’m reading Building: A Carpenter’s Notes on Life & the Art of Good Work, by Mark Ellison.
Started this morning on What Lies Between Us by John Marrs. About a woman who is holding her mother prisoner because she feels her mother has wronged her. The word “lies” in the title can obviously be taken two ways.
Glad to!
I finished No Country for Old Men. Good story, and I think that listening to it read by a guy who could speak in the Texas accents made it more enjoyable. It’s been years since I saw the movie, but IIRC the movie followed the book quite closely.
Next up: Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann.
I’m currently on a road trip, so I finished this book over a two-day period. Interesting tale about a series of grisly murders of a large number of Osage over several years in the Twenties. Unsurprisingly, oil money was involved. Would recommend.
And then yesterday I started Gone Girl, which was recommended earlier in this thread by @The_wind_of_my_soul and @Elendil_s_Heir. I was immediately hooked and can’t wait to get back on the road again.
Finished Building: A Carpenter’s Notes on Life & the Art of Good Work, by Mark Ellison. It was very interesting but kind of scary, in the sense that I had no idea how many things can go wrong during renovations. It makes me worried about the kitchen reno I’ve been wanting to do.
Started The Best of R. A. Lafferty, edited by Jonathan Strahan.
Glad you liked it! I was glued to it when I read it a couple years ago.
I read The Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. It’s most similar to a cross between Dragon Flight and Scholomance. I highly recommend it.
A friend of mine loved Flower Moon, but I haven’t gotten to it yet.
Finished The Best of R. A. Lafferty, edited by Jonathan Strahan, which was excellent. The best stories were “Slow Tuesday Night” and “Seven Days Terror”.
Now I’m reading Oscar Hammerstein and the Invention of the Musical, by Laurie Winer.
Finished What Lies Between Us. It was a decent thriller. The chapters were short and a lot of things happened in each one, so that made the book hard to put down. However, by the end things had gone off the rails like a V.C. Andrews novel, so it wasn’t believable any more. Still, a good enough roller coaster ride to pass the time.
Started this morning on The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer. A young teacher’s aide loves one of her students and wants to adopt him but can’t afford to. Then she finds out that the reclusive author of their favorite children’s book series is running a Willy Wonka-like contest. A feel-good, cozy story? Sure, why not.
Finished Oscar Hammerstein and the Invention of the Musical, by Laurie Winer, which was okay.
Now I’m reading The Maltese Iguana, by Tim Dorsey.