Happy Atheist Forum

General => Media => Topic started by: Sandra Craft on May 18, 2018, 10:21:55 AM

Poll
Question: Pick a novel to start our Summer reading.
Option 1: All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr votes: 1
Option 2: And the Mountains Echoed, by Khaled Hosseini votes: 1
Option 3: Dark Intelligence, by Neal Asher votes: 1
Option 4: The Glass Bead Game, by Hermann Hesse votes: 0
Option 5: Underground Airlines, by Ben Winters votes: 2
Option 6: The Yiddish Policemen's Union, by Michael Chabon votes: 1
Title: HAF Book Club: June poll and discussion
Post by: Sandra Craft on May 18, 2018, 10:21:55 AM
All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr
Marie-Laure lives in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where her father works. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure's reclusive great uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum's most valuable and dangerous jewel.
In a mining town in Germany, Werner Pfennig, an orphan, grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find that brings them news and stories from places they have never seen or imagined. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments and is enlisted to use his talent to track down the resistance. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another.

And the Mountains Echoed, by Khaled Hosseini
In this tale revolving around not just parents and children but brothers and sisters, cousins and caretakers, Hosseini explores the many ways in which families nurture, wound, betray, honor, and sacrifice for one another; and how often we are surprised by the actions of those closest to us, at the times that matter most. Following its characters and the ramifications of their lives and choices and loves around the globe—from Kabul to Paris to San Francisco to the Greek island of Tinos—the story expands gradually outward, becoming more emotionally complex and powerful with each turning page.

Dark Intelligence, by Neal Asher
Thorvald Spear has been brought back from the dead. Killed a century earlier by Penny Royal, an unstable AI who turned rogue in the middle of a human versus alien war, the resurrected Spear has one thing on his mind: revenge.  Crime lord Isobel Satomi got more than she bargained for when she struck a deal with Penny Royal. Turning part-AI herself gave her frightening power, but the upgrade came with horrifying repercussions—and it's turning Isobel into something far from human.  Spear hires Isobel to track down Penny Royal, but as she continues her metamorphosis, it's clear that Isobel's monstrous transformations will eventually become uncontrollable. Will Spear finish his hunt before becoming the hunted?

The Glass Bead Game, by Hermann Hesse
Set in the 23rd century, The Glass Bead Game is the story of Joseph Knecht, who has been raised in Castalia, the remote place his society has provided for the intellectual elite to grow and flourish. Since childhood, Knecht has been consumed with mastering the Glass Bead Game, which requires a synthesis of aesthetics and scientific arts, such as mathematics, music, logic, and philosophy, which he achieves in adulthood, becoming a Magister Ludi (Master of the Game).

Underground Airlines, by Ben Winters
It is the present-day, and the world is as we know it: smartphones, social networking and Happy Meals. Save for one thing: the Civil War never occurred.  Underground Airlines is a ground-breaking novel, a wickedly imaginative thriller, and a story of an America that is more like our own than we'd like to believe.

The Yiddish Policemen's Union, by Michael Chabon
For sixty years Jewish refugees and their descendants have prospered in the Federal District of Sitka, a "temporary" safe haven created in the wake of the Holocaust and the shocking 1948 collapse of the fledgling state of Israel. The Jews of the Sitka District have created their own little world in the Alaskan panhandle, a vibrant and complex frontier city that moves to the music of Yiddish. But now the District is set to revert to Alaskan control, and their dream is coming to an end.

Title: Re: HAF Book Club: June poll and discussion
Post by: Davin on June 04, 2018, 03:11:50 PM
I started reading Underground Airlines by Ben Winters. 20% in and I'm liking it. It's already got some rough issues to deal with.
Title: Re: HAF Book Club: June poll and discussion
Post by: Davin on June 12, 2018, 09:55:52 PM
This one really hit me. I liked the writing, the story, the world, and the characters. Well, I didn't like the world, I liked how well it was described and how much it seemed  like it was a possible present. The whole book was filled with difficult situations with no realistic good choices.

The world and most of the people in it got me angry. The situations made me sad.

I think it was a really good book. But a terrible world, like 1984 or Fahrenheit 451.
Title: Re: HAF Book Club: June poll and discussion
Post by: Sandra Craft on June 19, 2018, 06:54:58 AM
Just started reading Underground Airlines, really enjoying it.
Title: Re: HAF Book Club: June poll and discussion
Post by: Velma on June 19, 2018, 09:25:08 AM
I had forgotten about the book club. Since I just finished a book tonight, I will start Underground Airlines next. Now I'm glad that I neglected it. :)
Title: Re: HAF Book Club: June poll and discussion
Post by: Dragonia on June 19, 2018, 09:54:04 AM
I know I'm so late, but my library hasn't had this book all month. I'm on a wait list, but still haven't gotten it. I will read this eventually, I'll just be super late about it.
Title: Re: HAF Book Club: June poll and discussion
Post by: Sandra Craft on June 19, 2018, 03:56:04 PM
Take your time -- it's Summer.  Almost, in any case that's the excuse I'm using.
Title: Re: HAF Book Club: June poll and discussion
Post by: Dragonia on June 22, 2018, 02:21:30 AM
Now it IS officially summer! Makes me happy, and I need to finish Hillbilly Elegy before I start this one. Pressure OFF!  ;D
Title: Re: HAF Book Club: June poll and discussion
Post by: Velma on June 24, 2018, 06:32:06 AM
Has anyone else finished yet?
Title: Re: HAF Book Club: June poll and discussion
Post by: Sandra Craft on June 24, 2018, 07:21:56 AM
Quote from: Velma on June 24, 2018, 06:32:06 AM
Has anyone else finished yet?

I'm about half way thru, should be done by the end of the month.
Title: Re: HAF Book Club: June poll and discussion
Post by: Velma on June 24, 2018, 08:05:47 AM
Quote from: Sandra Craft on June 24, 2018, 07:21:56 AM
Quote from: Velma on June 24, 2018, 06:32:06 AM
Has anyone else finished yet?

I'm about half way thru, should be done by the end of the month.
No rush, whatsoever anyone. I read four or five books a week. Since this is one of the rare books I was thinking about rereading right away, so I wanted to see if I would have time to do it before the discussion got going good.  :)
Title: Re: HAF Book Club: June poll and discussion
Post by: Davin on June 25, 2018, 03:55:37 PM
Quote from: Velma on June 24, 2018, 06:32:06 AM
Has anyone else finished yet?
I finished it on the 11th.
Title: Re: HAF Book Club: June poll and discussion
Post by: Sandra Craft on June 28, 2018, 02:30:03 AM
Quote from: Davin on June 25, 2018, 03:55:37 PM
Quote from: Velma on June 24, 2018, 06:32:06 AM
Has anyone else finished yet?
I finished it on the 11th.

You're always finished by the 11th.  I just finished this morning.  Is anyone else still reading it, or planning to?  This story is a landmine for spoilers.
Title: Re: HAF Book Club: June poll and discussion
Post by: Davin on June 28, 2018, 03:15:12 PM
Quote from: Sandra Craft on June 28, 2018, 02:30:03 AM
Quote from: Davin on June 25, 2018, 03:55:37 PM
Quote from: Velma on June 24, 2018, 06:32:06 AM
Has anyone else finished yet?
I finished it on the 11th.

You're always finished by the 11th.  I just finished this morning.  Is anyone else still reading it, or planning to?  This story is a landmine for spoilers.
Yeah, it's difficult to talk about without spoiling things. That's why my post about it was so short.
Title: Re: HAF Book Club: June poll and discussion
Post by: Dragonia on June 29, 2018, 03:21:29 AM
Ok, if you guys want to start talking, I'll not look at this thread until I finish the book  ;)
Title: Re: HAF Book Club: June poll and discussion
Post by: Sandra Craft on June 29, 2018, 03:49:40 AM
Quote from: Dragonia on June 29, 2018, 03:21:29 AM
Ok, if you guys want to start talking, I'll not look at this thread until I finish the book  ;)

I'll split the difference by posting my FB review, which avoids spoilers by leaving a lot out but covering some main points:

Underground Airlines, by Ben H. Winter. This is an amazingly well-written and suspenseful story of an alternate America -- one that's exactly like modern-day America in nearly every way except that the Civil War never happened and four states (called the Hard Four) still allow slavery.

We follow Victor, a former slave, on what turns out to be his last assignment for the U.S. Marshal Service. Part of the Services' duties are tracking down runaway slaves and returning them to their owners, and they commonly use other runaway slaves for their trackers. Which makes sense, the runaways who become trackers can be held hostage by the combined threat and promise of being sent back if they refuse (or fail) and being set free, eventually, if they accept, and the runaways they track are less likely to be suspicious of another black man.

Victor (not his real name, but we never learn that one and besides, he has plenty others) escaped as a boy from a slaughterhouse where he'd been born and had worked from the age of 5. He had the comfort of an older brother who'd stayed close by him till the end, protecting him as well as he could and teaching him to prepare for a better future. Castle, the brother, always had his eye on escaping.

The story goes back and forth between Victor's current life and his slave past, which I really can't get into because it turns into a minefield of spoilers, but it's a doozy.

Anyway, modern-day Victor is assigned to track down a runaway under circumstances he finds unusual and suspicious. His hunt is by turns helped and hindered by Martha, a young white woman looking for her husband, a runaway slave who was recaptured years ago, and Father Barton, a white priest who's part of the "underground airlines" and his cohorts. In the end the hunt turns out to be less about the runaway slave and more about something he stole on his way out -- something that the abolitionists hope will destroy the slave trade and that the U.S. Marshals and various higher ups want destroyed so slavery can continue.

As I mentioned, the story is very well written and held my interest thru any number of plot convolutions, and this despite my not being that much of a novel reader. And now, here are your excerpts:

Victor's thoughts on the racial politics of Northern Freedman Towns, this America's equivalent of ghettos: "Freedman Town serves a good purpose -- not for the people who live there, Lord knows; people stuck there by poverty, by prejudice, by laws that keep them from moving or working. Freedman Town's purpose is for the rest of the world. The world that sits, like Martha, with dark glasses on, staring from a distance, scared but safe. Create a pen like that, give people no choice but to live like animals, and then people get to point at them and say *Will you look at those animals? That's what kind of people those people are.* And that idea drifts up and out of Freedman Town like chimney smoke, black gets to mean poor and poor to mean dangerous and all the words get murked together and become one big idea, a cloud of smoke, the smokestack fumes drifting like filthy air across the rest of the nation."

And on the value, and otherwise, of forgiveness after he saves the life of his U. S. Marshals handler, a man he hates: "I could not feel that spirit of grace, not in the moment. Not after all I had been through in the preceding two weeks and in the six years before that. I would have had to be superhuman, I think, to feel that forgiveness. I was and am possessed of all human flaws and weaknesses. I did not want to forgive him, so I did not. On the other hand, I wanted to fire the gun and watch him fly backwards on the steps, but I did not do that, either. Call that even."

Because that's what it comes down to sometimes -- you can't forgive someone, but you don't hurt them either. Just call it even and move on.

Very much recommend this book.