I’m about halfway through Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors, James Hornfischer. This is probably the most harrowing true account of a naval battle I’ve ever read. A small, undersized American fleet of DDE, DD, and escort carriers are attacked by an overwhelming Japanese force of battleships, cruisers and destroyers (think 5" guns against 14", 16" and 18" cannon). It was a last-ditch effort by the Japanese to retake the Philippines and sink some major American tonnage. Truly amazing and heroic efforts.
Have you read other Trollope? How did you happen to pick up that one? (If it’s the one I’m remembering, it started out OK, but kind of went downhill by the end in my opinion.)
I’ve read a lot about the Civil War and would be glad to make some other book recommendations, if you like.
Finished “Superfreakonomics,” and having read “How We Decide” not too long ago, I am irritated how all these pop social sci books are so similar. How times must I read about the legend of Kitty Genovese, for example? Not a bad book, but I think I might be done with these types of books for awhile.
I’m starting “An Interrogative Mood: A Novel?” by Padgett Powell. It’s not a novel, but 164 pages of questions. The first is “Are your emotions pure?” A few questions later, he asks “Where do you stand in relation to the potato?” It goes on like this. It could become annoying, but I think I’ll like it.
That would be appreciated! I’ve read a piecemeal mix of fiction, alternative fiction, and nonfiction centered around the Civil War, but what I’d really like is a book with a good general overview of the war.
Completed:
The Darkness That Comes Before (The Prince of Nothing, Book 1) by R. Scott Bakker ~ Along the lines of the Malazan series. Complicated & I had no idea what was going on most of the time and enjoyed it almost thoroughly. The only downfall was the lack of female characters of any purpose other than to be fucked or beaten up. Hopefully this will improve in the next book because it’s wonderful otherwise.
Bones: Recipes, History, and Lore by Jennifer McLagan ~ I’m kind of cheating counting a recipe book but it had some great tidbits of info interspersed throughout.
Whoever Fights Monsters: My Twenty Years Tracking Serial Killers for the FBI by Robert Ressler
Some Experiences of an Irish R.M. by E.O.E. Somerville
The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia’s Founding by Robert Hughes ~ It’s always mind-boggling to read how Brits were transported to a penal colony for such extreme crimes as stealing a handkerchief.
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski ~ Great book, hated the ending.
Reading:
The Prodigal Mage (Fisherman’s Children)
When Life Nearly Died: The Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time
The Colour
Finished Prospero Lost: Prospero’s Daughter, Book I.
Prospero’s (from Shakespear’s The Tempest) daughter, Miranda, finds a letter indicating that Prospero has gone missing - and warning her that she and her family are in danger from The Three Shadowed Ones. The letter directs her to go and warn her siblings.
Off she goes with Mab, an Aerie Spirit manifested as a “hard-boiled” PI and her brother Mephisto.
This premise had a lot of promise, but in the end did not deliver. None of the characters are sympathetic and in the end I just didn’t care what happened.
Mab, meant to be a hard-boiled PI, is just a whiney nag, always moaning about how mortals should not be doing magic.
Mephisto, her crazy brother, is portrayed as a spoiled child, often ending a discussion by sticking out his tongue. I suppose this was meant to be whimsical, as he is hundreds of years old, but I found him to be annoying.
Miranda herself is somewhat better, but even though this is the first of 3, I just don’t care enough to buy the other two.
Unless I’m mistaken (Elendil’s Heir will comment) James McPherson’s Battle Cry of Freedom is still the standard overview of the war, including both military operations and politics. For military operations alone, I’d probably recommend Bruce Catton’s trilogy, The Coming Fury, The Terrible Swift Sword, and A Stillness at Appomattox.
I’m still reading Thomas Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon, which is terribly slow going but always with flashes of genuine brillance.
China Miéville’s Kraken. I’m not sure about this book. On the one hand, I’ll definitely finish it and it does hold my interest. On the other hand, I’m never quite sure what to make of it. It’s confused, or confusing, and seems to toy with me in a not-so-friendly manner. And that’s assuming that Miéville will wrap everything up in a solid fashion, because otherwise it didn’t merely toy with me, but was just rambling incoherently. Not a huge recommendation from me.
Reading Stephen King’s Full Dark, No Stars. So far, I have finished the first story (there are four in this book), and am halfway through the second. My impression as of right now is that this is the best stuff he’s given us in a long time. Tonight, I lock myself in the bathroom if necessary to read all the rest of it!
I just read three great books:
At Home - Bill Bryson. Bryson never disappoints. His detailed research into the evolution of the home (touching on subjects like tea and syphilis) was so interesting.
Still Missing - Chevy Stevens. It’s surprising that Room is getting all the thunder, this little thriller was very similar and awesome. Like Room, I liked the first 2/3 best (ending was a tiny bit wack).
Packing for Mars - Mary Roach. I wasn’t wild about Bonk, but this one was right up there with Stiff. Fascinating stuff!
Here’s my Good Reads queue - feel free to check out what I’m reading or friend me!
Oh good, that’s next in my TBR pile.
I’ve taken a break from *Aztec *- I’ll get back to it after Thanksgiving. This week I’ve read:
Seeing a Large Cat, by Elizabeth Peters. Another archaeological adventure with Emerson and Peabody, in 1903 now, and accompanied by an entourage of lively teenagers. I’m enjoying 15-yr-old Ramses, and for the first time we’re given a few scenes written from his point of view.
Saturn’s Children, by Charles Stross. This has been making me sing “The Humans Are Dead”, by Flight of the Conchords, for days now. It’s set several hundred years in the future when the solar system is inhabited by intelligent robots making a life for themselves after the humans all died off - neglecting to free their mechanical progeny from the imposition of Asimov’s three laws. The protagonist was designed as a sexbot, so she’s particularly unfulfilled without any humans around to seduce. There’s a lot of good stuff in the book, and it’s well-written, but plot-wise it’s not a particularly satisfying novel.
A Cold Day for Murder, by Dana Stabenow. This is a short murder mystery set in an Alaskan National Park during the winter, and features an Aleut investigator who has returned home after years of working for the D.A.'s office in Anchorage. The details of life in the Alaskan bush are interesting, but unfortunately the book is amateurishly written.
Now I’m reading Medicus, by Ruth Downie, which is a mystery set in Roman Britain. It has a lighthearted, anachronistic tone similar to Lindsey Davis’s Falco books, although without the depth of historical detail. So far I like it well enough.
Friend request sent!
I like Mary Roach, too. I’ve never read Bill Bryson before, but I have a copy of Notes from a Small Island queued up to read.
Packing for Mars, but in truth more of my time-traveller science fiction. One good thing about the Kindle is people think I am still reading my Jesuit book.
How is Pynchon anyway? I still have his humongous Against the Day sitting on my bookshelf. I received it by default after it was abandoned, and it’s a brand spanking new copy. It had apparently been a free copy sent somewhere for a possible book review, but it looks like no one wanted to read it, and it was ultimately given to me. So I don’t know anyone who’s actually read it.
I’m about 3/4 through Aztec. Still enjoying it. Man, those Aztecs were a really gruesome lot, weren’t they?
I’ve been trying to get through Anthropology of an American Girl: A Novel by Hilary Thayer Hamann, which is huge and got good reviews and seems like it should be so good, yet I’m like “meh”. I’m drifting into Sarah Silverman’s memoir Bedwetter, which I’m liking much better.
It’s an experience. Pynchon leaves me feeling constantly out of the loop of his references–I just know that there’s something he must be riffing off of, but most of the times. I just don’t catch it. Pynchon’s writing is pretty dense, hypotactic, convoluted, but never willfully obscure. In reading him, I always feel like each sentence has been specially crafted with attention to every word.
Pynchon is a fairly philosophical writer, in that his stories will more often revolve around different meditations on a subject, rather than plot as such, but the medidations are always part of the plot, rather than mere exercises in philosophy. In Mason & Dixon, for example, the characters will find themselves in a pub, a point which actually advances the plot, and the whole scene becomes a medidation on the nature of time, but that’s more or less incidental.
I’m not sure you should start with Against the Day, though. It’s on my shelf, but if you want to get into Pynchon, start with Crying of Lot 49, or Inherent Vice, which are both vastly more accesible.
Thanks - I’d agree with all of those suggestions. Catton also wrote the text for the excellent one-volume The American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War. More recently, and a good bit less dated, the Geoffrey Ward et al. book The Civil War, a companion volume for Ken Burns’s celebrated PBS documentary of the same name, is even better.
If there are particular aspects, individuals or battles of the war about which you’d like to read more, feel free to PM me. My own interests are Lincoln, politics in the North, naval warfare, Gettysburg, Sherman, the Draft Riots, Ohio during the war, J.L. Chamberlain, G.H. Thomas and W.B. Cushing.
Eleanor, I read Stross’s Saturn’s Children about a year ago and agree with your summary. He had some clever concepts, but his storytelling left something to be desired.
I like Stross. But I always feel like it’s an effort to read his books.
I finished A Second Chance at Eden by Peter Hamilton yesterday and started Empire of Liberty by Gordon Wood today.