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What Are You Reading?

Started by Arturo, March 15, 2017, 11:02:09 PM

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Sandra Craft

Have Purple Hibiscus, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie underway and enjoying it very much, tho I can tell the action is going to get hair-raising sooner or later.  The writing is excellent, and I'm not surprised Adichie won a fistful of prizes for it.

Also starting Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, by Neil DeGrasse Tyson.  Adapted from some of Tyson's essays in Natural History magazine.  Looking forward to seeing if I remember any of them.
Sandy

  

"Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet."  Sarah Louise Delany

Anne D.

I keep starting and stopping Tracy Borman's Thomas Cromwell bio, which is really good. And I love a good mystery series and am on the second book in C. J. Sansom's Matthew Shardlake series, set during Henry VIII's reign. Shardlake is a lawyer who keeps being roped into investigative assignments from Cromwell.

I kind of fell in love with Hilary Mantel's Cromwell. Even though I know he's fictional, it's still a disappointment to encounter other depictions of him that are at odds with hers.

I'm almost finished with Unwanted Advances: Sexual Paranoia Comes to Campus, by Laura Kipnis, a professor at Northwestern. It's a quick read and pretty chilling. What prompted her to write the book was being the subject of a Title IX "hostile environment" complaint for having written an essay.

Biggus Dickus

Hi Anne D.  8)

Don't remember seeing you around here, but hello and welcome.  8)



I recently read a "A Drinking Life", which is a memoir by Pete Hamill, and also just finished "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet" by Jamie Ford.

Pete Hamill is a former New York Post columnist and editor as well as a journalist and novelist, and his book has been lauded as one of the best books detailing the life of highly functioning alcoholic. It's written in the hard, spare prose of a journalist, but what I loved most is it gives one an excellent view of what life was like growing up in New York during the Second world war.
I highly recommend this book, simply an excellent read. (Hamill was actually among the men who disarmed Sirhan Sirhan after he assassinated RFK and helped the police capture him while covering Robert Kennedy's run for the presidency)


I couldn't put down the "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet" by Jamie Ford. A love story that takes place during the second world war between a the son of Chinese immigrants, and a Japanese American girl.

Beautiful story taking place both in the present and past with an excellent background setting detailing the forced relocation of Japanese Americans during the war to internment camps.

The book is very popular, and the writer has said that he wrote it more as love story, and not so much to bring attention to the interment camps, but as this portion of American history is a subject not covered much by the media here in the US and considering the current administrations views on immigrants it may also become a cautionary tale to remind us not to repeat the same injustices again in this country.

In an interview I read the author has said the most frequent question about the book he receives is when will the movie come out, but he said Hollywood won't touch it because the main characters are not white, and they feel it would be a financial risk to come out with a movie with Chinese and Japanese leading characters. He said some independent film companies are interested, but since it is a period piece it would involve an large amount of capital investment to pull off the scenes taking place during the 40's. So for now sadly no movie.

"Some people just need a high-five. In the face. With a chair."

Sandra Craft

Quote from: Father Bruno on July 09, 2017, 07:33:16 PM

I couldn't put down the "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet" by Jamie Ford. A love story that takes place during the second world war between a the son of Chinese immigrants, and a Japanese American girl.

Have added this to my "buy next" list.
Sandy

  

"Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet."  Sarah Louise Delany

jumbojak

I'm about to start The Flechas, an account of the Portuguese recruited bushmen who served in Angola during the war there. It was a small group but supposedly a major contributor to Portuguese forces during the conflict, much like the Selous Scouts in Rhodesia or Koevoet in South Africa.

"Amazing what chimney sweeping can teach us, no? Keep your fire hot and
your flue clean."  - Ecurb Noselrub

"I'd be incensed by your impudence were I not so impressed by your memory." - Siz

Tom62

I've just started to read Jan Timman's "Schakers" (Dutch for Chess players)

Quote from: from the back cover by Google translateOver the course of his rich career, Grandmaster Jan Timman has played against many great chess players. Like no other, he can look on their hands and in their souls. Boris Spasski, Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov are three of the most important older schakers he portrays in this book, besides youngsters like Judit Polgar and Magnus Carlsen. Timman talks about the influence of Mikhail Botwinnik and Mischa Tal on him, both on and outside the board. He has an eye and understanding of the peculiarities of the chessmen, kind and ignorant, human and inhuman. Particularly intriguing is the portrait of Alexander Aljechin, who's trail Timman picks up during a stay in Lisbon, decades after his death; The story is at the same time enchanting and terrifying, as magic as precise.
The universe never did make sense; I suspect it was built on government contract.
Robert A. Heinlein

Biggus Dickus

Quote from: BooksCatsEtc on July 09, 2017, 07:50:27 PM
Quote from: Father Bruno on July 09, 2017, 07:33:16 PM

I couldn't put down the "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet" by Jamie Ford. A love story that takes place during the second world war between a the son of Chinese immigrants, and a Japanese American girl.

Have added this to my "buy next" list.


I don't think you'll be disappointed with this one Books, in fact I lent it to a friend of mine who's already finished and now his wife is reading. He loved it, and said his wife can't put it down.


This same friend gave me a copy of "Gardens of the Moon", by Steven Erikson to read. Has anyone else here read this or any of the other books in this series? He said there are 10 books total, but the first three are not dependent on the series itself and so can be read independently, but he is has given this a high recommendation, and believes I will thoroughly enjoy it even though I'm not a huge fantasy reader. I'll probably start reading as soon as I finish Hillbilly Elegy.

Nice thing is this is a used book, so his instructions to me are when I was finish reading I'm to simply pass the book along to someone else to enjoy... :)
"Some people just need a high-five. In the face. With a chair."

No one


Icarus

 Here is a book whose contents, an expose actually, will annoy you unless you are an investment banker.

The Spider Network.  Subtitle: The wild story of a math genius, a gang of backstabbing bankers, and one of the greatest scams in financial history. The non fiction story is about the way that brokers manage to make mind boggling amounts of money by cheating with total impunity.

Every major world bank is involved in the schemes that separate we ordinary slobs from our pension funds, stock values, and retirement funds.  The main protagonist is the math whiz Thomas Hayes, the fall guy actually.  He was only the most clever of the overabundance of thieves. The story spans the globe to markets in Tokyo, London, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore and elsewhere.  Not a casual read but one that is most informative about the likes of the greedy operatives in the financial sector. Derivatives where millions exchange hands within 24 hours and other mind boggling realities of the financial world....... Torches and pitchforks anyone?

Fascinating read.... if you have the patience for the overly detailed 500 page screed. Revealing none the less.


Velma

The Snowman by Jo Nesbo. It is the seventh in the series - and has been turned into a movie starring Michael Fassbender as the protagonist of the series, Harry Hole.

Life is but a momentary glimpse of the wonder of the astonishing universe, and it is sad to see so many dreaming it away on spiritual fantasy.~Carl Sagan

Sandra Craft

Finished Sara Gran's "Claire DeWitt and the Bohemian Highway".  Meh.  Detective work mixed with New Age woo and massive drugging.

Also finished Neil DeGrasse Tyson's "Astrophysics for People in a Hurry".  Great primer on astrophysics for the lay reader, adapted from several of Tyson's column in Natural History magazine.  Surprisingly short and easy to read, considering the subject.
Sandy

  

"Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet."  Sarah Louise Delany

Velma

Quote from: BooksCatsEtc on July 24, 2017, 03:40:31 AM
Also finished Neil DeGrasse Tyson's "Astrophysics for People in a Hurry".  Great primer on astrophysics for the lay reader, adapted from several of Tyson's column in Natural History magazine.  Surprisingly short and easy to read, considering the subject.
My husband got that for me a day or so after it came out. However, I have been so preoccupied with Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole series that I've not gotten to it yet. So many books, so little time. :)
Life is but a momentary glimpse of the wonder of the astonishing universe, and it is sad to see so many dreaming it away on spiritual fantasy.~Carl Sagan

Sandra Craft

Quote from: Velma on July 24, 2017, 03:55:47 AM
So many books, so little time. :)

The definition of a wonderful life.
Sandy

  

"Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet."  Sarah Louise Delany

Velma

Life is but a momentary glimpse of the wonder of the astonishing universe, and it is sad to see so many dreaming it away on spiritual fantasy.~Carl Sagan

Arturo

There is even a book titled "It's A Wonderful Life" about the making of a movie called "It's A Wonderful Life". I bet It's A WONDERFUL Book.
It's Okay To Say You're Welcome
     Just let people be themselves.
     Arturo The1  リ壱