So . . . What Are You Reading (2013 Edition)

What happens when courts run government...?

Then we get George W. Bush.

 

I actually read some about that in but I don't think it will be covered in Democracy By Decree...

 

What Torture Taught Me and Other Reflections on Justice and Theology by William F. Schulz

Short collection of four essays by Schulz, former Executive Director of Amnesty International USA (1994-2006) and president of the Unitarian Universalist Association (1985-1993), who has since 2010 served as President/CEO of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee. Good read. Just $3.85 on Kindle.

The essays:
What Torture Taught Me
The Virtuous Circle: Making Justice Happen
Force and Justice: Uneasy Bedfellows
The Religion That We Come To Praise: A Theology of Fragility

 

Ploughed through the latest Jo Nesbo book "Police"



And I do mean "ploughed" through. Just keeping track of the cast of characters is a job in itself. So many red herrings it reads like a sardine packing plant, so many side stories. Is Harry Hole alive, why do his friends and team members when they get close all die horribly. Who is beating people to literally a pulp. Is his police chief corrupt, is the police chiefs old friend killing every body............Oh yeh, is the chief bonking the councilwoman?

I hung in and read it to the end where it still twisted and turned but fankly by that time I found I didn't give a hairy rats arse who it was.

Big disappointment to me, I've followed his books from the start and enjoyed them. If you're tempted, you have to have read "Phantom" first or you won't have a clue of what is happening or where this is going.

This NYT review is generous.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/10/books/review/jo-nesbos-police-and-more.html?_r=0

 

The Vikings: A New History by Neil Oliver
I've long wondered what life was like in eighth century Scandinavia that made it so appealing for the Vikings to travel to, raid and colonize pretty much the entire known world at the time. I bought this in hopes of filling in some of those details. So far, so good.

 

What a great question that I'd never considered, but is obvious, of course. Why the heck did the Vikings do their thing?

 

And is it true that the Vikings inter-married with slavs and brought back slavic brides? I ask because I've been told that that's the reason why there are blondes and redheads among my Croat-descended relatives, whereas the Scandinavian side has quite a few un-nordic looking folks.

 

Southern Spain, the "Adriatic" and in the Baltic had a few visits from Vikings. They were pretty well spread out, as far as their ships would take them. From Newfoundland and Iceland to the eastern Med. In the mid 800's their capitol was York in England.
France, that is Ille de France or Paris was so tired of them attacking up the River Seine, that they gave them Normandy to live in.

 

Just getting into "A Delicate Truth" John Le Carre



By just getting into one of Le Carre's books, means putting up the dry erase board and starting a flow chart.

I like this guy but I haven't read him for a while. One has to pay attention...

 

Ain't that the truth!

I'm burning through the Aubrey/Maturin series. Finished Far Side of the World and picked up the next three when I made a big Amazon order for Christmas gifts. Last night I finished The Reverse of the Medal, which I enjoyed a lot. Didn't think I would because most of it takes place on land, but it was a great read. Started The Letter of Marque, hopefully it is just as good!

 

I read all of O'Brian's book a while back. Don't remember a bad one.

 

Good to know. I need to read some more Le Carre. Read the Smiley trilogy, Call for Dead, and The Spy Who Came in From the Cold.

 

I've just realized that I read his first book back in '61. The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. Was his 3rd book and first of the Smiley series.
This latest one is still sharp and on the ball.

 

Got to amend that comment...! Sharp in the beginning, once I'd got the cast of characters sorted. Gathered momentum..... then went out with a whimper. Disappointing ending (for me) even when I know he doesn't do Hollywood endings.

 

"We still face the classic question or challenge of American poetry, posed most sharply by Walt Whitman, and among the modernists by William Carlos Williams. What is, or what would be, a democratic poetry? What is the relation of an art reborn in European courts to vernacular culture?--or of American life to terms like "vernacular," which comes from verna, native or indigenous, denoting in Rome a slave born in his master's household?" from Freneau, Whitman, Williams

 

Pride and a Daily Marathon -- Jonathon Cole

Interesting book about a man named Ian Waterman, who at age 19 lost all proprioception in his body. Proprioception being the brain's ability to feel what the extremities of the body are feeling. In other words, the brain gets no feedback from the body. Ian was left unable to walk, or even sit up. It was an interesting interview on Radio Lab on NPR a while back, but this book, written by Waterman's doctor, is proof of why non-authors shouldn't write books. This is one glorious case study, in greater depth than most, but written only slightly less dry than a medical case study.

P.S. Waterman did in fact learn to walk, and he even drives, but he can only do things that he can see. So if he's in the house, and the lights go out, he's as likely to fall down as to remain standing....

 

Well, I hope you're going to read alot. Because this thread is 225 posts behind last year's reading thread.

I know we seem to have lost CrewArsenal and Black.White&Red from these digital shores, but still. Pookspur didn't live up to his end of the bargain.....

 

Rereading one of my favorite books that I own...



Dreaming with Open Eyes: The Shamanic Spirit in 20th Century Art and Culture by Michael Tucker. Covers poetry, art, music: if the guy had managed to work in sports as well, it would've been my personal bible.