I finished Joseph Conrad, The Secret Agent.
The hell is it that everyone dies in his work?
I’m in the middle of two books that were both recommended in this thread:
The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America non-fiction about Roosevelt and the National Forest Service and forest fires. I’m a huge fan of Theodore Roosevelt ANYWAY, so this is great.
and
Redemption Falls, novel set in the years just following the US Civil War. It’s dense reading, but very compelling. I should have figured this out from the general topic, but some parts are quite gory and grim.
I always get a kick out of when I’m reading two books and there seems to be some common elements. In this case, even though the events of the Big Burn take place 50 years after Redemption Falls is set, they both speak to the idea of the American frontier, and frontier towns and the lawlessness that goes with them.
There’s a prequel of sorts – Star of the Sea – same construction, also quite grim. There’s supposed to be a third book, to finish with the theme.
I didn’t realize Redemption Falls was going to be that grim. I had been on the lookout for books by Joseph O’Conner since Ghost Light, a novelization of the life of an actress in love with an Irish playwright. That one was also a bit dark. I’m starting to think Irish = grim.
I’m reading Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis, and since I’m also watching a lot of The Office, there are times when I picture Babbitt as Michael Scott.
Bully! I think What Exit? and I are the two other biggest T.R. fans on the Dope. I hope you’ve read Edmund Morris’s wonderful bio trilogy, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Rex and Colonel Roosevelt?
Read a Why Does the World Exist? An Existential Detective Story by Jim Holt. Found it thought-provoking enough to post a review of it in this thread: Book: Why Does the World Exist? An Existential Detective Story - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board
On a rock autobio kick after reading Pete Townshend’s. Read Ace Frehley’s - basically a Junior Keith Richards kinda tale - silly. Read Don Felder’s from The Eagles - seems like a nice enough guy, but you know that even with Don Henley’s and Glenn Frey’s known arrogance that there is more to the story…
I love Babbitt, so much! Sinclair Lewis is my favorite author. I’ll be excited to hear what you think.
I finished Columbine. It was really fascinating and educational. I’m happy I read it, even though it was difficult to read at times. I’ll concentrate more now on the Wool omnibus. I also need to start The Secret Life of Bees for my book club. It will be a re-read for me.
Got the Kindle version of The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham when it was a Daily Deal a few months ago. It’s a SF classic that I’ve somehow overlooked (both in print & on film) until recently.
The opening scene(s) are chilling - the protagonist, Bill Masen, awakens in a hospital with bandaged eyes, having had surgery. The hospital is eerily quiet - and he has no easy way of finding out what is going on. Wyndam’s writing gives such a great sense of suspense and mystery - great stuff!
I’m a post-apocalyptic fan - and really enjoyed the combination of disasters: the vast majority of the population being blinded and the triffids - mobile, bloodthirsty plants. I found myself comparing the blinded hordes with various portrayals of zombies - just as desperate and ultimately, nearly as as harmful to the survivors. The triffids on their own were creepy, but not necessarily a threat - until combined with the reduction in able-bodied survivors.
The characters are well drawn, if a bit of their time and place, and the plot moved along nicely, even if the ending felt a bit rapidly wrapped-up. Recommended at minimum as a library read to anyone looking for a different take on a post-apocalyptic tale - worth buying a copy (especially on sale!) for me.
Downloaded The Villain’s Guide to Better Living by Neil Zawacki & Bill Brown (Illustrations) as a library e-read - I couldn’t resist the title! The heavily illustrated book came across OK on my Kindle Touch, tho the captions usually got pushed to the next page. It’s a sequel of sorts to How to Be a Villain, tho I don’t feel I missed much by not having read the first book.
As you might guess, it’s a humourous how-to regarding how to “embrace the finer points of the evil life”. The illustrations are key to enjoying this slim volume, but the writing is quite witty as well. It was a fun, fluffy read - worth browsing thru at the bookstore or library, but don’t know if I’d actually buy it - maybe as a used copy.
I’ve finished Ayesha: The Return of She, but before diving into She and Allen or any of the other books I set aside, I’m reading one I found yesterday – Who Hates Whom: Well-Armed Fanatics, Intractable Conflicts, and Various Things Blowing Up; A Woefully Incomplete Guide. It’s a description of Who’s fighting who and why, written by comedy writer , scriptwriter, and offball author Bob Harris, who frankly admits that he isn’t at all qualified to write this book. Which is what makes it wonderful. Huis book assumes zero prior knowledge, and so he mentions and covers things ignored in the nightly news, and fills the book with odd factoids (Mein Kampf is a bestseller in Turkey) and wonderfully snide writing )“…what Uzbekistan lacks in wealth it makes up for in extra dictatorship.”)
The down side is that the book is six years old. On the upside, he’s been updating it on his website ( http://whohateswhom.net/ )
Next up was the library’s copy of Because I Said So! : The Truth Behind the Myths, Tales, and Warnings Every Generation Passes Down to Its Kids by Ken Jennings (yes, THAT Ken Jennings). I heard about this book thanks to the 11 Dec 2012 Shelf Awareness newsletter and it sounded right up my alley! Jennings does a reasonably good job of presenting typical examples of parental advice/wisdom and proceeding to debunk or confirm them, citing existing research whenever possible. Admittedly, many of the bits of wisdom have been debunked previously - whether thru Mythbusters or other sources, but it kept my interest overall. His sense of humor is relatively dry, if a bit forced at times , but I enjoyed the book as a library read. It may get added to my “debunking” shelf at some point, especially if I can find a used copy.
I got the audiobook of The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet by Neil deGrasse Tyson, read by the author. Tyson does an excellent job of reviewing Pluto’s history, its cultural impact and the uproar that was triggered by the overhaul of the Hayden Planetarium exhibit on the solar system. Tyson refers to contemporary sources throughout - including examples of the multitude of letters and emails he received as the visible spearhead of the “demotion” of Pluto. Tyson’s wit and humor shines throughout, even more so being presented in his own voice, I think. If you’re wanting an in-depth, scientifically rigorous look at this topic, this isn’t going to satisfy you, but for we astronomical dilettantes, it fits the bill nicely, IMHO. And anyone who quotes Jonathan Coulton lyrics is all right by me. I think I’ll be picking this up soon - as I missed out on the visual elements of the book.
I really enjoyed Jennings’s Brainiac, about the enduring American love of trivia. Good fun.
Loved the first two, the third is on my list but I have been sidetracked by a collection of his speeches made during his time as governor of NY. If you have any small readers in your life, last year a great picture book was published about his camping trip with John Muir - The Camping Trip that Changed America. I had some quibbles with it as an adult reader, but it’s still nice intro for young children.
I am seriously obsessed with T. R.
I just re-read Kings of the North and Echoes of Betrayal, two of Elizabeth Moon’s new Paksenarrion series books.
I also read Fated by Benedict Jacka, which is pretty good urban fantasy. The lead character is interesting; he’s a “diviner”, a mage who among other things foresees multiple possible futures and can act on them. It gives him an interesting combo of power and weakness; he’s offensively and defensively weaker than other mages, but he had the power of knowledge going for him.
And I just finished The Far West, the latest in Patricia Wrede’s Frontier Magic series set in an alternate frontier America where magic is common, there never were any Indians but there’s legions of magical and non-magical dangerous wildlife. Everything from steam dragons to mastodons.
At my library we’re doing a program where readers draw a category and read a book in that category. I drew Historical.
I’m reading A Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard. I am a major fan of Edgar Allan Poe and this book features Poe during his years at West Point Academy.
I just read Oaxaca Journal by Oliver Sacks. It’s one of Sack’s lighter reads.
The Black Tower is pretty good too. I haven’t read Mr. Timothy – a grownup Tiny Tim Cratchit finds the bodies of two murdered girls. :eek:
Finished Babbitt. yellowval, I liked it a lot. I would have liked it better if Babbitt had stuck to his guns about his new “liberal” positions, but at least his son will have a more fulfilling life, and Babbitt can take some credit for that. He’s a product of his time, I suppose.
I’m reading The Last Man on Earth Club and I love it. So much so that at just about 15% into it I emailed the author telling him how much I like it. What a dorky thing to do. But it is just really, really good.
I recently read Redshirts based on a very enthusiastic thread about here, and it was simply amazing. I’ve told everyone I know to read it. Everyone I’ve convinced to read it has liked it, including my husband who doesn’t read much fiction. So, thanks for that recommendation, person who I’m to lazy to do a thread search to thank personally!
I’m having a lovely booky time with a huge pile next to me on the sofa. I’ve just started teaching English again, and one of my students is a woman brushing up on her English before moving to the US in a few months. I want to start some reading with her, so I pulled down all my straightforward American literature. Now I’m sitting in a huge pile of Ken Kesey and Salinger and Hemingway and Harper Lee and Arthur Miller and Steinbeck and Toni Morrison and many more. I can’t choose, and now I am half-reading all of them to help me make a decision. 
I think we might start with a short story by Raymond Carver, before we start on a whole book. So now I’ll just have to read a bunch of those to determine which one…
Mmmmm I like my job!
Wasn’t me, but I like everything I’ve ever read of John Scalzi’s.
On the home stretch with Napoleon’s Buttons by Penny Le Couteur and Jay Burreson, and it’s OK but still not blowing me away.
This evening I zipped through Underwater Dogs by Seth Casteel, a picture book about… well, dogs photographed underwater. The photographer/author jumps in a pool with his waterproofed camera and a dog or two at a time and takes their pictures, often as they’re trying to grab a ball. Some of the pictures are surreal, many are funny, and a few are actually a little scary - dogs look a lot different underwater. Quite interesting, though. Any dog lover should check out this book.
If you’re interested in reading more about the period, I strongly recommend The Last Apocolypse: Europe at the Year 1,000 AD by James Reston. The primary focus is the replacement of paganism by Christianity and Islam, but there’s a lot of social history as well, if I remember correctly. In any event, it’s a well-written and enjoyable book, as is most of Reston’s work.
I’m currently reading L.A. Confidential by James Ellroy. I’ve already seen the movie and that may be coloring my perception, but while it’s a fun and quick read, it tends toward being loose and sprawling; could have used a little tightening up in places.
I do like the way Ellroy writes, though, especially dialogue. He does a great job distinguishing between the voices of the three main characters and keeps the pace moving quickly. It’s the first book of his I’ve read, but I’ll be sure to read others.
Oh, cool. Loved that book!