Books: What are you reading tonight?

We have ongoing threads on t.v. and movies we're watching lately; it's time for one for books. daveT's thread on favorite books covers ones we've already read, but let's put ones we are reading/going to read soon or have just finished(i.e., let's make this thread more like a log than a resume) here. Below is some stuff I've pulled from daveT's thread, where I felt compelled to talk about my recent book-buying craziness, with some new comments.

I'm one of those guys who will often read many books at once. Right now I'm at various depths into: Stephen King -- On Writing textbook on real estate Ode to Kirihito - supposedly best graphic novel ever done by Japan's best graphic novelist ever American Splendor (second collection put out after the movie) -- Harvey Pekar, graphic short stories various meditation books -- Mantak Chia How to Cheat Your Friends at Poker -- Penn Jilette Cosmicomics -- Italo Calvino -- another re-read of it On the burner to read next: From Hell -- Alan Moore, graphic novel My Life in the Bush of Ghosts and The Palm Wine Drinkard -- some African dude won a Nobel prize for this I think; supposedly absolutely fantastic; the album by Brian Eno and David Byrne certainly was God is Not Great -- Christopher Hitchens

Way Off the Road by Bill Geist. Geist is (Was? not sure) CBS' latter-day Charles Kuralt, traveling around, seeing small-town America and writing about what he finds. This is a series of his stories. Occasionally interesting for those who enjoy that kind of travel writing. Nothing that made me think, "wow, I should really go there." Space Chronicles by Neil deGrasse Tyson. A compilation of talks and speeches he's given, articles he's written, somewhat edited to be more current. Generally about the reasons why space exploration is good for humanity, and should be an ongoing goal. Rather liked this, as I'm prone to do. Recommend for anyone who enjoys that sort of thing.

Moon Witch Spider King is a wild ride. It's a dark fantasy novel set in an fantasy version of Africa. The language the author uses is bizarre and was hard to get into, but once I did it flowed in a unique way. The story itself is dark, violent, and pulls no punches. It starts off with extreme child abuse and has sudden and extreme violence throughout. Definitely not for everyone, but for anyone who is into fantasy and feels like they know all of the European tropes, it's a worthwhile read. It is the second novel in a planned 3 part series, but runs alongside the first novel and (supposedly) not after the first. Since I was unable to find the first one in Asia, I went for it. The first 1/2 or 2/3 was fine, but I definitely found myself a little lost in the last third of the book and suspect it was due to not having read the first book. It should make reading the first one incredibly interesting.

Dennis Lehane's fiction was much talked about ITT a few years ago, but I never got around to his books until now. Last night I finished his newest, Small Mercies--overall quite a powerful tale. It's set in South Boston in the tense days just before the beginning of Supreme Court-mandated busing to integrate all-white Boston schools. And it's a sad reminder of how little has changed for American race relations in the subsequent 50 years. There's a couple of things that are not resolved in the conclusion, which suggests that there's a sequel coming.

by RussellinToronto m (https://www.twoplustwo.com/post?postId=58413030#post58413030)

Dennis Lehane's fiction was much talked about ITT a few years ago, but I never got around to his books until now. Last night I finished his newest, Small Mercies--overall quite a powerful tale. It's set in South Boston in the tense days just before the beginning of Supreme Court-mandated busing to integrate all-white Boston schools. And it's a sad reminder of how little has cha... See full post

I like Lehane. He wrote a beautiful essay on Elmore Leonard and Get Shorty that is worth reading imo. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/m... (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/mar/26/pitch-perfect-get-shorty-at-30-elmore-leonard-dennis-lehane)

Very much enjoyed the latest Lehane book and a quick read. 'A novel is a collection of opinions that don't add up to a coherent point of view.' ~ V.S. Naipaul. He was a pretty good Nobel winner, I'd say. As is K. Ishiguro, one of my alltime fave writers.

For my birthday, a couple friends gave me a membership to this library. It's the oldest library in continual use in the US. https://redwoodlibrary.org/ Sent from my Pixel 7a using Tapatalk

by John Cole m (https://www.twoplustwo.com/post?postId=58420487#post58420487)

For my birthday, a couple friends gave me a membership to this library. It's the oldest library in continual use in the US. https://redwoodlibrary.org/ Sent from my Pixel 7a using Tapatalk

Website bears checking out. Institution would appear to be right up your alley.

https://www.freelibrary.org/ The Philly Free Library has one of the most important Dickens collections in the world, along with his stuffed raven, Grip. Also a big Poe collection. Anyone who lives in PA can get a library card [online] and download ebooks from them, over 300,000 which ain't bad.

by Phat Mack m (https://www.twoplustwo.com/post?postId=58414943#post58414943)

I like Lehane. He wrote a beautiful essay on Elmore Leonard and Get Shorty that is worth reading imo. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/m... (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/mar/26/pitch-perfect-get-shorty-at-30-elmore-leonard-dennis-lehane)

really fantastic read ty for sharing.

Knocked out Kazuo Ishiguro's A Pale View of Hills yesterday, it was good. Love me some short readable literary novels! This was strange of course, all his books are strange. I'm still thinking it through. This morning I started his The Unconsoled book, which I can already tell is gonna take more effort, zomg 500 pages. But at least with a writer as good as Ishiguro, I know it'll be worth it. Btw, I consider Never Let Me Go to be one of the very best novels written in the last 20-30 years or so. Just an extraordinary reading experience in every way.

Never Let Me Go was insanely great.

So, re-read Never Let Me Go. Most devastating novels that I have read [all more than once]:

1. Lolita
2. Atonement
3. Never Let Me Go ps Blood Meridian is something else entirely to me, in a category of one.

by NajdorfDefense m (https://www.twoplustwo.com/post?postId=58434794#post58434794)

So, re-read Never Let Me Go. Most devastating novels that I have read [all more than once]:

1. Lolita
2. Atonement
3. Never Let Me Go

For me it would be Sebastian Barry's new book, Old God’s Time.

Tip of the Iceberg by Mark Adam's. In this, he more or less takes the route taken by E.H. Harriman's ( of the Union Pacific railroad)tour in 1898. The original was a steamship full of experts, including John Muir, to explore the coast of Alaska. Adams recounts his experience contrasted with what the original group recorded all those years ago. Pretty interesting for readers of travel books.

by golddog m (https://www.twoplustwo.com/post?postId=58436960#post58436960)

Tip of the Iceberg by Mark Adam's.In this, he more or less takes the route taken by E.H. Harriman's ( of the Union Pacific railroad)tour in 1898. The original was a steamship full of experts, including John Muir, to explore the coast of Alaska. Adams recounts his experience contrasted with what the original group recorded all those years ago.Pretty interesting for readers of t... See full post

Have you ever thought of listing your 5 or 10 all-time favorite travel books? I don't know how many of us are addicted to the genre, but it might make a good thread, or sub-thread. Spoiler Show

(Was it Naipul who said that good travel writing is about the author suffering disasters?)

by golddog m (https://www.twoplustwo.com/post?postId=58436960#post58436960)

Tip of the Iceberg by Mark Adam's.In this, he more or less takes the route taken by E.H. Harriman's ( of the Union Pacific railroad)tour in 1898. The original was a steamship full of experts, including John Muir, to explore the coast of Alaska. Adams recounts his experience contrasted with what the original group recorded all those years ago.Pretty interesting for readers of t... See full post

I’m admittedly a James Michener fanboy but have you read “Alaska” by him? More of a novel that still gives you a feel for 1800s Alaska

by NajdorfDefense m (https://www.twoplustwo.com/post?postId=58434794#post58434794)

So, re-read Never Let Me Go. Most devastating novels that I have read [all more than once]:

1. Lolita
2. Atonement
3. Never Let Me Go ps Blood Meridian is something else entirely to me, in a category of one.

Every one of these books. So good. Ishiguro. Just does nothing but write amazing books.

I’ve got 3 going: two by Michael Lewis (Going Infinite and Has Anyone Seen the President, the latter is only an hour long audiobook) and Eighteen Days in October, a NF book about the Yom Kippur War and how it (and other events) shaped the modern Middle East.

by RussellinToronto m (https://www.twoplustwo.com/post?postId=58434812#post58434812)

For me it would be Sebastian Barry's new book, Old God’s Time.

I've had such good results with your recommendations in the past that I checked out the audio version of this and got into it a little but my imagination and concentration start failing me (I'm old now!) so I'm picking up a hardcopy at the library today to finish it. What other Sebastian Barry books do you like? He's got a lot of em.

by Wyman m (https://www.twoplustwo.com/post?postId=58440875#post58440875)

I’ve got 3 going: two by Michael Lewis (Going Infinite and Has Anyone Seen the President, the latter is only an hour long audiobook) and Eighteen Days in October, a NF book about the Yom Kippur War and how it (and other events) shaped the modern Middle East.

FWIW, Number Go Up by Zeke Faux [real name] is much better than the Lewis book.

by NajdorfDefense m (https://www.twoplustwo.com/post?postId=58443266#post58443266)

FWIW, Number Go Up by Zeke Faux [real name] is much better than the Lewis book.

Thank you.

by Phat Mack m (https://www.twoplustwo.com/post?postId=58438657#post58438657)

Have you ever thought of listing your 5 or 10 all-time favorite travel books? I don't know how many of us are addicted to the genre, but it might make a good thread, or sub-thread. Spoiler Show

(Was it Naipul who said that good travel writing is about the author suffering disasters?)

I'm not sure what they'd be. Probably would suffer from recency anyway. Can't think of any I've read more than once. Semi-agree with the quote. I've long said that travel is about turning experiences into stories. Sometimes, that story is, "holy ****, the lion walked right down the middle of the dirt road, not 2 meters from the truck I was in," and sometimes it's "So, Lufthansa decided to have a strike on the day I was due to return..." by LFC_USA m (https://www.twoplustwo.com/post?postId=58439059#post58439059)

I’m admittedly a James Michener fanboy but have you read “Alaska” by him? More of a novel that still gives you a feel for 1800s Alaska

I have not read any Michener.

by kioshk m (https://www.twoplustwo.com/post?postId=58440902#post58440902)

I've had such good results with your recommendations in the past that I checked out the audio version of this and got into it a little but my imagination and concentration start failing me (I'm old now!) so I'm picking up a hardcopy at the library today to finish it. What other Sebastian Barry books do you like? He's got a lot of em.

I've pretty much read them all. And all that I've read are strong. But if I were to choose his best, it would be Days Without End.

to hellholes and back by Chuck Thompson. In this book, he writes of trips to places he thought would be hellholes: The Congo, India, Mexico City and.... Spoiler Show

Walt Disney World

. I find him a good read. First person, unvarnished stories of his experiences. Witty with some cynicism thrown in. Good, entertaining reading.

Read The deluge by Stephen Markley. A truly terrifying & awesome read. Highly recommend, especially if you enjoyed The Stand.

The Longest Walk by George Meegan. The story of his walk from Ushuaia, Argentina, to Deadhorse, Alaska from June 1977 to September 1983. Not straight through, of course. He had to hole up during winters and take time to rest here and there. At first, I was kind of frustrated by the story. Seemed like he was pretty unprepared and made some bad decisions. However, I got past that pretty quickly. He's not a professional writer. It's a first-person retelling of his experiences over that time. Some typos and so on, but still overall enjoyed it. He seems like an affable sort who had this odd drive to do this trip. Turns out, he went through my hometown not long before I graduated from high school. He didn't mention it specifically, but wrote about walking along the south shore of Lake Superior. through Wisconsin IIRC, to get through to Minnesota, he would've had to take a route which went about 2.5 blocks from the house I grew up in. Too bad I didn't know about it at the time. A few other spots during his journey were familiar to me, so those were nice to read about too.

by NajdorfDefense m (https://www.twoplustwo.com/post?postId=58443266#post58443266)

FWIW, Number Go Up by Zeke Faux [real name] is much better than the Lewis book.

Still haven’t gotten seriously into the Lewis book but Number Go Up felt like just a ton of “how could people be such idiots? These are obvious ponzis” with a sprinkling of human trafficking, which was compelling. If it’s that much better I’ll be seriously disappointed by the ML book.

Reading Madness, Rack, and Honey by poet Mary Ruefle. It's a collection of various lectures she has given. She's an exceptional poet and a thoughtful essayist. Highly recommended. Sent from my Pixel 7a using Tapatalk

by John Cole m (https://www.twoplustwo.com/post?postId=58469978#post58469978)

Reading Madness, Rack, and Honey by poet Mary Ruefle. It's a collection of various lectures she has given. She's an exceptional poet and a thoughtful essayist. Highly recommended. Sent from my Pixel 7a using Tapatalk

...so when they asked me whether I had anything else to say I told them that in the beginning you understand the world but not yourself, and when you finally understand yourself you no longer understand the world. They seemed satisfied with that. Cops, they're all so young.

Recommending a book by Aaron Lansky, Outwitting History. It's a fascinating account of Lansky's quest to rescue books in Yiddish, most of which were headed for extinction. Lansky rescued over a million books. I thought of this book when I saw an article about his retiring as the director of The Yiddish Book Center. I also recommend Richard Atlick's The Scholar Adventurers, another book about scholarly detective work. Sent from my Pixel 7a using Tapatalk

Just finished The Bad Weather Friend by Dean Koontz. A lot of what I read these days are the monthly "free reads" I get on my Kindle from Amazon. This was one of those. And wow! It was tremendous. Koontz is a well known author of a zillion books but I have never read any of them before this one. This guy can really write. I could tell in the first few pages he has mastered his craft. It was a quick easy read with a strange science fictionish plot. But the plot didn't really matter as it was just super well written. And the plot itself was merely a vehicle for very strong social and moral commentary which really clicked with me. Anyhoo I expect I will try a few more of his books which I guess is the whole point of free reads to introduce authors to readers (and get them to buy more books!). There were a few other of these free reads that prompted me to read more of a few of the authors presented. This one gets my highest recommendation.

Mission to Mars by Michael Collins. Collins, the Apollo 11 CMP, gives his ideas about what a manned mission to Mars would look like. Written 1990, so things are dated (he talks about a joint Soviet-American venture, for example). He's pretty in-depth about the differing possibilities and needs for such a trip, and gives a recommendation for the solution he thinks will be the best of the options. Some things, he admits, don't exist yet (like a truly closed-loop system for recycling waste, so we'd have to bring less water), but it's a very detailed analysis of the problem. The last several chapters are a fictional account of the first manned mission. That's pretty interesting too, how they overcame problems (and, indeed, what problems came up). Worth a read for space/tech nerds, I'd say.

Sounds very similar to a book I wrote about a while back, which I really loved - Packing for Mars by Mary Roach She goes quite a bit into the history of the space programs (not just NASA's) as well.

Yeah, I'd read that last year, it was pretty good, I think.

by golddog m (https://www.twoplustwo.com/post?postId=58483363#post58483363)

Mission to Mars by Michael Collins.Collins, the Apollo 11 CMP, gives his ideas about what a manned mission to Mars would look like.Written 1990, so things are dated (he talks about a joint Soviet-American venture, for example). He's pretty in-depth about the differing possibilities and needs for such a trip, and gives a recommendation for the solution he thinks will be the bes... See full post

I have put this in the queue. by thethethe m (https://www.twoplustwo.com/post?postId=58483403#post58483403)

Sounds very similar to a book I wrote about a while back, which I really loved - Packing for Mars by Mary Roach She goes quite a bit into the history of the space programs (not just NASA's) as well.

Agree that this was good. Anybody have any comments on Ned Beauman's Madness is Better Than Defeat?

Long time John Grisham fan here — great for escaping. Anyhow, I see someone posted abt this book 13+ years ago but I really enjoyed Ford County, which is a collection of short stories. Similar but different from his usual. I found most of the stories pretty compelling, and in any case they’re short.

any recs either historical fiction or non-fiction about the french revolution? also wouldn't mind a good book about the insane debauchery that was life in the royal family around that time.

I might not have been in the right frame of mind, but I found Paul Beatty's The Sellout too rambling to be serious or funny. My mind kept wandering because the protagonist's own thoughts consistently seemed to go all over the place. May have to give it another try at some point.

by Rooksx m (https://www.twoplustwo.com/post?postId=58488363#post58488363)

I might not have been in the right frame of mind, but I found Paul Beatty's The Sellout too rambling to be serious or funny. My mind kept wandering because the protagonist's own thoughts consistently seemed to go all over the place. May have to give it another try at some point.

I also found that I grew bored—it seemed a repetitious one-trick pony of a novel—and had to push myself to finish it (though I thought it ended strongly). I was struck by how many good readers have judged highly of the book, but later I found that three of the judges for that year's Tournament of Books expressed reservations similar to my own. "it’s relentlessly, exhaustingly, exaggeratedly sardonic. It just hammers away: HELLO I AM BITING SATIRE. BITE BITE. There are funny lines galore—I bet Paul Beatty is great at Twitter. But I also bet I would mute him after a few weeks because Jesus Christ, dude, enough." "A book can be an Objectively Good Book, winning all sorts of awards and getting every accolade, and you could still be like: Why am I finding this to be such a slog? Yes, that’s right: I found The Sellout to be a kind of “drink this, it’s good for you” book that I wanted so badly to like but [whispers] it just left me cold." “unlike many readers, or at least many reviewers, I rarely found The Sellout funny. I found it sad, angry, and, until the last 50 or so pages, incredibly difficult to read—so arduous that I was shocked to find myself won over at the end.”

I've almost finished director Ed Zwick's memoir Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions. I like it, was a huge fan of thirtysomething back in the day and always felt like I was rooting for him over the years. Seems like a good guy for a Hollywood director and has zillions of insider stories. Although geez, his mancrush on Denzel Washington doesn't sit very well. He's a little sweet on Tom Cruise too, heh.

Paul W. Klipsch collection of vintage newsletters and audio philosophies.

E=mc2: A biography of the world's most famous equation by David Bodanis. An interesting kind of approach: one section is dedicated to the symbols themselves: why two parallel lines to describe equality? How did our understanding of energy come to be? Pretty interesting part. The rest is how Einstein came up with the equation, and the use and understanding of its implications, mostly around developed nuclear weaponry. I wouldn't put it in the compelling tier, but it was interesting enough to give it a spin for science-y folks.

I found The Sellout to just be amazingly hilarious and well-written, altho a few parts it dragged -- sure -- but the ending rocked and the legitimate laugh out loud parts still bring a smile to my face when I think of them. The scenes with the dominatrix alone were worth the price of admission. Someone who didn't even find it funny at all? I'd have some doubts about them as a person and a reader. [I honestly think there's a cadre of humans that just don't 'get' satire, except on a theoretical basis. Perhaps it makes them too uncomfortable when done really well, I dunno. Diff strokes, for sure.] Probably time for me to re-read it.

"Someone who didn't even find it funny at all? I'd have some doubts about them as a person and a reader." Well, that certainly raises the stakes ...

Our faculty union has been encouraging everyone to wear red shirts to protest our lack of a contract. I am reminded of Redshirts, John Scalzi's Hugo award winning sci-fi novel. Highly recommended. Sent from my Pixel 7a using Tapatalk

Yup great fun, and that's coming from someone with zero interest in Star Trek.

Reading Very Important People by a model-turned-academic. It is a study of the club scene, promoters, the models/girls, etc. I’m still early in the book but it’s compelling so far. Author’s name is Mears.

Beneath the Underdog by Charles Mingus. Sort of a memoir. Some good jazz stories interleaved with pages of fantasies about his sexual prowess. More bizarre than I hoped it would be.

anyone have any good books on the confederate secret service and espionage in general during the civil war? I've read a ton on the military and political maneuvering in the war but the one thing I've never gotten into is the covert stuff that went on and it's really fascinating. would really appreciate any recs.