I just finished Charlatan: America’s Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam by Pope Brock, Crown Publishing. 2008. The story of Dr Brinkley. A very interesting story of quackery in the 20’s and 30’s.
Schroedinger’s book? 
You’ll want to open the box to make sure your copy doesn’t have any damage.
You know what this means, don’t you? Now you have to get signed copies of the other two books.
I liked Name of the Wind too, except for a bit at the end that felt like it should have either come earlier in the book or at the beginning of the next one.
This reminds me that I heard the author interviewed on the radio a few weeks ago and wanted to read the book. Sounded fascinating and hilarious. Baaaa.
Watch out. That series will consume you.
Signed,
the person reading part one of the third book
Finished Destiny (Rogue Angel). I enjoyed it. Kind of a female Indiana Jones with a touch of magic thrown in.
I had a little problem with her propensity to not kill her enemies - sorta in the manner of the A-Team. But it wasn’t bad and I’ll probably pick up others.
Next up: Cruel Zinc Melodies (Garrett P.I.) Although I am not entirely certain I haven’t read it already. Amazon led me to believe that it is new, but the title sounds familiar. If I *have *read it, then next up: Melusine
Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O’Nan. I think O’Nan’s biggest strength is the little details he gives his characters – it makes them recognizable.
So I’d recommend the book if you like characterization. Not so much if plot is important to you, because there is none. I’d also recommend it if you’re curious about what happens behind the scenes at a chain restaurant.
Next up is the Summerscale book (nonfiction) about the Victorian detective. And I’m barely into The Confusion. Loved Quicksilver.
I’m over halfway through Cryptonomicon, and it’s killing me that I can’t just sit down and tear through this book. May is a crazy busy month for me and I’m already stealing hours to read when I should be doing something else.
It’s really good. I expected science fiction, but it’s not. I’d call it historical fiction except that the author is inventing a few too many things. I also didn’t expect it to be this funny. My husband is planning to read it and I’m having to struggle not to tell him too much about it.
I’m just finishing Mark Kurlansky’s Salt: A World History. A lot more of the book is about food preservation and its consequences rather than about salt (and I realize that the history of food preservation is inseparable from the history of salt, but there’s a LOT more food preservation than you’d expect in this). An interesting book, with lots of odd facts you wouldn’t expect (24 years before Drake drilled his 69.5 foot deep oil well in Titusville, Pennsylvania, the Chinese had drilled a 3,300 foot deep well using bamboo pipes and ox power, to obtain brine for theor salt works)
It’s a lot like the book Sweetness and Power: A History of Sugar that I read a couple of years ago.
I may have to pick up Cryptonomicon here. There have been more than a few dopers that have enjoyed it and given high praise.
The biggest issue I had with Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn (The DragonBone Chair series) is that the author wrote nothing else in that universe. Talk about a lot of material just begging to be written. I loved the 3 books, but I’m always wanting more stories set in the same place.
Now reading Bad Samaritans, by Cambridge economist Ha-Joon Chang.
I started this last night – you’re right, it’s excellent. My husband asks what I’m reading. “It’s about a cholera epidemic in London in the 1850’s.” “Ewwww.”
It’s only a trilogy and I read fast. (I got through the entire Belgariad/Mallorean/etc in about two weeks, although I’m not reading it that dedicatedly) I’m about half-way through the book. Wolves! Not excessive language porn! Trolls! Priests! Swords! I’m happy. I read the first two books eons ago and never could find the last, um, two.
You should try one of his other books: The Big Oyster. It’s all about the history of New York as it relates to the oyster industry. In case you’re wondering how important that is, remember that when the Dutch arrived, New York harbor and the surrounding tidal areas contained one half of the worlds oyster beds.
Soldiers of Reason: The RAND Corporation and the Rise of the American Empire - Alex Abella
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable - Nassem Nicholas Taleb
The Ideas of the Great Philosophers - William and Mabel Lewis Sahakian
I am always reluctant to chime in with a negative review when someone else has liked a book - I don’t want it to appear as if I’m attacking the person posting.
But it bored the piss out of me. A friend had recommended it and about 1/3 of the way through I asked him when it would get interesting. He said if I didn’t find it interesting by then, I never would. I put the book down shortly after that.
Cryptonomicon is awesome if you like teched out Sci Fi. My Father couldn’t get into it either for some reason. Personally I like the code-breaking espionage angle of the book.
That title seems to refer to a rude poem by Catullus that I just happen to remember. (Possibly cribbed from Sappho? I don’t know.) Finally, a use for my high school Latin!
Lugete! O veneres Cupidinisque, et omnium hominem venustiorum!
… Passer meae puellae mortuus est.
(Or something like that.)
Cryptonomicon seems to drive some very split decisions. Either people are very taken by the details Stephenson put in the book or they’re bored to tears by them. I thought it was okay but it really needed someone to edit it down by about a third (it could have easily lost things like the multipage discussion of Captain Crunch cereal without affecting the story). As I recall it also had a problem with Stephenson’s incredibly abrupt endings; it’s like he suddenly realizes he needs to end the book soon and crams something vaguely like but not quite resolution to the piles of outstanding plot threads into five pages. Not as bad as The Diamond Age which I liked better on the whole but the book that just stops dead…
I good observation. I remember him putting in way too much detail about trees that were covered with plastic bags and wondering how that detail impacted the plot. If it ever did, I didn’t get to that point in the book. I develop software and cryptology is part of what I do, so my friend thought I would be fascinated. Perhaps I just stopped too soon.
You do? How does it work? In Quicksilver, Eliza writes long letters to various people. If you don’t know the code, it sounds like she’s discussing the latest fashions at court. She’s actually relaying political and strategic information. How can something make sense both coded and uncoded?
How can “Satin is in, fur is out, and ostrich feathers are so yesterday” also mean “William of Orange is gathering troops near Amsterdam”?