Whatcha Readin' Jan 2013 Edition

Cafe Society
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I’ve finished reading Elememnts of Murder, then moved on to two of the three original [BPrisoner** novels (by Thomas Disch and Hank Stine), then read H. Rider Haggard’s She, which I’ve had (and been meaning to read) for ages.

I then re-read Edwin Arnold’s Gullivar of Mars (almost certainly the inspiration for Edgar Rice Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars).

I’m now most of the way through E.G. Lutz’s 1920 manual Animated Cartoons. I have a stack of other books in the wings, including Haggard’s sequel Ayesha: The Return of She. Haggard has to be the first person to revive a main character that has been completely and utterly destroyed and explain it away (unlike Doyle and Dickens, who just ignored the inconsistencies.)

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Chesterton wrote a clever short essay on his 1909 jury service that is close to perfection: Issue Content Essay | Lapham’s Quarterly

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Finished up another read of Watership Down. Cried at the end, like I always do.

Next up is a re-read of Sergei Lukyanenko’s “Watch” series–Night Watch, Day Watch, ***Twilight Watch ***and Last Watch. There’s a new one coming out in English translation later this year, so I want to refresh my memory on all things Anton, Gesar, Zavulon, Svetlana, Semyon, and so on before that. Also, in a general fit of Night Watch geekery, I ordered the blu-rays of both films and a “GORSVET” t-shirt (that I absolutely cannot find right now, bother). Unfortunately, no Kindle edition of Night Watch, so I need to check my shelf to see if I ever actually bought it, back when I read it first.

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Congrats on reading Of Human Bondage! I just couldn’t do it though I tried three times…:frowning:

I finishedWarriors of Medieval Japan by Stephen Turnball. An excellent read, a little dry in a few places but full of pictures and descriptions. Dear Buddha Oda Nobunaga was a prime son-of-a-bitch!

Should finisheHounded tomorrow or early Wednesday…

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Well, bother. Apparently I read Night Watch from the library, so I’ll have to order a used paperback. Meanwhile, I’ll continue the Nero Wolfe project w/ Curtains for Three.

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RIP, Khadaji.

I’m reading Drift by Rachel Maddow. If you like her show, you’ll like the book. The back gives a blurb by Roger Ailes endorsing it. Also, she dedicates the book to Dick Cheney.

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I finished The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. It was good, but I didn’t love it as much as I wanted to. The characters were a little flat, I think. I’m now reading Columbine by Dave Cullen.

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I just bought three books (buy 2 get a 3rd free). I’m about halfway through The Rum Diary by Hunter S Thompson. Next up, I’m going to give The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon a whirl. And then, I grabbed* Killing Them Softly* (originally Cogan’s Trade ) by George V Higgins.

Much thanks to the beyond for these Whatcha Readin’ threads. They’ve always been a source of illumination for me. Fare thee well Khadaji.

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Just finished Overhaul by Steven Rattner, the “Car Czar” who lead the Obama Administration’s efforts to reorganize Chrysler and GM in 2009. Rather dry, but not a bad read especially given that this was the mans first book.

This makes 9 books I’ve read this month, almost 4,000 pages worth! :eek:

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Finished Nine Dragons, by Michael Connelly. A triad case that Detective Bosch is working in LA takes him to Hong Kong after his daughter’s abduction there appears to be related. Another good read. And now I think I’ve gone through all the Connelly that our library has. There are still four novels – not counting the new one coming out this year – that I’ve not yet read and which they don’t have. However, I found all four in a local booksore last weekend and bought them.

But first, a return to the classics. Next up for now is The Magus, by John Fowles.

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Just finished Travels with Charley, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Steinbeck is like Hemingway but more thoughtful or something. The subtlety with which he listened to the people he met around the country makes a great quick sketch of America in 1960.

The last twenty pages, which he spent in Louisiana and talks to people about desegregation, is required reading for anyone interested in understanding the civil rights movement.

Now I’ve started The Big Burn, because of a recommendation [del]in this thread[/del] somewhere here on the dope. Maybe December’s thread?

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I’ll be interested to see your thoughts on that as it is sitting on my shelf.

I just bought the Timothy Zahn Star Wars trilogy and might get into that next. When I bought them I thought the new movies would be based on them, but now I’m hearing they’ll be completely original stories.

Doomsday Book, which I could be found complaining about on previous pages in this thread, gets much, much better in the last 150 or so pages.

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I’ll try to remember to head back here and let you know what I think, but you might want to sit tight. It’s a pretty thick book and I usually only get my reading in on my lunch breaks, so it may be a long haul.

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In the book Columbine, Dave Cullen mentions the standoff in Waco and I’m interested in reading a book on the subject. Does anyone here have a recommendation?

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I finished Hounded today, the first in the Iron Druid series. The ending was rather deus ex machina, though I like a hero getting smacked around bit. However, he characterizations are fantastic! I laughed at Atticus’ sarcasm and the deadpan of the werewolves. I can forgive a lot of technical shortcomings if I have characters I can love. :smiley:

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The new thread is here.

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Could you tell us, in a nutshell, what he learned?

I just finished Robert A. Heinlein’s The Rolling Stones (1952) for the first time, reading it with my teenage son. We both enjoyed it. It was fun and had some amusing passages, although the science is just a bit dated (the characters still use slide rules, prolonged zero-G is considered to be an entirely good thing for human health, and Mars has liquid water and a breathable atmosphere, although it gets a bit chilly at night). The Stones were an enjoyable family to hang out with, though.

Two in-jokes made me smile - one purposeful, I’m sure, and the other coincidental. In the trial on Mars in chapter 13, Hazel Stone tells the court, “I am a stranger here in a strange land,” and in chapter 16, there’s reference to the spaceship Firefly. Nice.

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Well, he went into New Orleans to witness something I don’t remember learning about, but was a big news story of the day - a school that was desegregated, with federal marshals and all, had a group of middle aged women outside the school every morning; they were called “the Cheerleaders.” They took turns shouting invective at the black girl who was escorted into school every morning, and then shouting even more obscene and vile stuff at a white man escorting his white son into the school. The media kept referring to the shouters as housewives, but Steinbeck noted that the leader of the group didn’t have a wedding band on.

He encountered a racist guy, who was nevertheless thoughtful, and gave a pretty articulate account of his belief that he didn’t mean any judgment by saying the races were different and should be separate, and acknowledged it could be an emotional position hard to give up when it’s been that way all your life (he was an old guy). He lived with a black couple who worked for him, and described the living situation as ‘3 pleasant things.’

Charley was a standard size dark gray poodle, and he said he heard the ‘joke’ “Oh! It’s a dog with you! I thought it was a nigger!” countless times, and specifically related 3 times it happened.

He gave a lift to one guy who just hated, mindlessly, the thought that black kids and white kids were going to school together. He praised the cheerleaders. Steinbeck asked why, and the guy couldn’t articulate anything beyond, “I won’t let my (future, imaginary) kids go to school with no niggers!” He had nothing behind it. Acknowledging that he was losing a valuable opportunity, Steinbeck nonetheless stopped the truck and made him get out, and heard “Nigger lover!” over and over as he pulled away, until he was out of earshot.

He gave a lift to a black man, and as soon as Steinbeck mentioned the New Orleans situation, the guy said he was close to home, and could he be dropped off here.

He gave a ride to a black (high school? college?) kid and talked with him about Martin Luther King, and the kid thought non-violent resistance wasn’t going to get the job done fast enough. The kid wanted to see black equality in *his *lifetime. Not just something for his kids or grandkids. Steinbeck talked about what Gandhi accomplished, and the kid pointed out that Gandhi died. Then the kid acknowledged that he didn’t know, maybe Steinbeck was right, but he was selfish.

Steinbeck related that a southern friend of his defended separate but equal with claims that the bus station toilets were just as nice, and the new schools they had just built for the colored (as stated) kids was nicer than the ones the white kids were at! Steinbeck joked that they could really show those negroes, and swap the toilets and schools, just to show them how good they had it. His friend called Steinbeck a troublemaker (but with a smile).

I don’t know how to summarize it better. A nice mix of points in a huge landscape. And in the moment.

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Many thanks! Very interesting.

Was the man afraid of Steinbeck, just didn’t want to discuss the situation, or something else, do you think?

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Steinbeck posits that he came on too strong, and that the guy had was afraid to voice his opinions.

Lots of people judged Steinbeck because of his New York license plate, and figured he was one of them northern troublemakers.