So! You Are Reading What? v. 2018

Discussion in 'Books' started by Ismitje, Jan 1, 2018.

  1. Ismitje

    Ismitje Super Moderator

    Dec 30, 2000
    The Palouse
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    So not the same as the dytopian novel of the same name I read back in high school, about an odd endurance contest which results in 99 dead contestants out of the 100 (two from each state) who begin? Can't recall the author, but for some reason the novel has stuck with me all of these years.

    EDIT: turns out it was Stephen King's first novel, written under the pseudonym Richard Bachman.
     
  2. Dr. Wankler

    Dr. Wankler Member+

    May 2, 2001
    The Electric City
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    It's a pretty common title. And while this one is not by Stephen King, there is a yeti encounter.




    You know that Netflix just released the first season, don't you?
     
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  3. EvanJ

    EvanJ Member+

    Manchester United
    United States
    Mar 30, 2004
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    That reminds me of this book I used in college. The photo below is a newer edition than what I used in Spring 2005:

    upload_2018-4-20_16-24-30.png
     
  4. BalanceUT

    BalanceUT RSL and THFC!

    Oct 8, 2006
    Appalachia
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Just finished Book of Dust, La Belle Sauvage. It was very good. In it, youngsters are being carried headlong through an undesired adventure, metaphorically and literally. They are game for it. Both the male and female protagonists provide compelling moments of bravery, strength and cleverness in equal measure. They are on a mission to deliver the endangered infant Lyra (heroine of His Dark Materials) to Jordan College, Oxford. A wonderfully frightening and dominance brandishing antagonist: his 3-legged hyena daemon stands astride a path our hero intends to take and, staring at our hero, pisses on the path, a vile dominance act that sets the tone for this antagonist.

    Still, it seemed to me the deep fantasy elements of the story felt a bit 'dropped in' rather than integral to the plot. I don't know if when Pullman was writing Northern Lights/Golden Compass if he knew he was writing a trilogy. But, he knows he's writing a trilogy this time, hence he may have foregone insuring the deep fantasy elements being integral because... I don't know... maybe he has already planned to show in a future volume how they are integral? I think this is likely mainly because the second book is, apparently, titled after a cultural classic on the nature of faeries.

    The trilogy is described by Pullman as 'equel' not sequel nor prequel. La Belle Sauvage is definitely prequel. The second book, The Secret Commonwealth, is supposed to be about Lyra at about age 20, less than a decade after the events of His Dark Materials. It is expected later this year. The third book is supposed to be set some years still later and also about Lyra, but is, as yet unnamed and not even known if Pullman has begun writing.

    I recommend it as just a slight cut below Northern Lights/The Golden Compass.

    [​IMG]
     
  5. spot

    spot Member+

    Nov 29, 1999
    Centennial
    Club:
    Colorado Rapids
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    [​IMG]

    Arrived on my Kindle a week ago. Gonna start tonight.

    Alternate read...
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  6. Ismitje

    Ismitje Super Moderator

    Dec 30, 2000
    The Palouse
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I read a story about the Ilgunas book - the shift to closing access to more and more waterways to canoeing or fishing, and to backwoods for walking. I will look for the book at the library.
     
  7. Dr. Wankler

    Dr. Wankler Member+

    May 2, 2001
    The Electric City
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    Just put in an Interlibrary Loan request for Ilgunas' book.

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    The Gulag Archipelago: An Experiment in Literary Form, Volume Two by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. If the second part of this book was available separately, ("The Soul and Barbed Wire") I would assign it in the World Lit classes I'm teaching in the fall.
     
  8. G-boot

    G-boot Member

    Manchester United
    Nov 6, 2004
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    bigsoccer.jpg

    Adjustment Day by Chuck Palahniuk

    Just pre-ordered this. 5 days away from release.

    Favorite modern day author!
     
  9. chaski

    chaski Moderator
    Staff Member

    Mar 20, 2000
    redacted
    Club:
    Lisburn Distillery FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Turks and Caicos Islands
    Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë

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    "It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it."
     
  10. chaski

    chaski Moderator
    Staff Member

    Mar 20, 2000
    redacted
    Club:
    Lisburn Distillery FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Turks and Caicos Islands
    Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys

    [​IMG]

    A postcolonial response to Jane Eyre.
    Forgettable.
     
  11. Dr. Wankler

    Dr. Wankler Member+

    May 2, 2001
    The Electric City
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    [​IMG]

    The Gulag Archipelago, Volume III, which is a mere 575 pages, noticeably shorter than the other volumes, by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
     
  12. Val1

    Val1 Member+

    Arsenal
    Mar 12, 2004
    MD's Eastern Shore
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    I guess I read the expurgated version back in college. It wasn't advertised as a three volume work. At the time, it was the longest work I'd read, and it was a bit of a slog. Ok, it more than a "bit of a slog". I finished by skimming entire chapters.

    How's it going for you? Obviously, you're still reading....
     
  13. Dr. Wankler

    Dr. Wankler Member+

    May 2, 2001
    The Electric City
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    It's skimmable, for sure. But there's a few really compelling chapters I read this morning about the moral dilemmas that came up when the prisoners started killing informants in the prison camps. On the one hand, that's murder and it involves using evil to bring about the good. As a Christian, Solzhenitsyn's is going to have a hard time with that. On the other hand, it did lead to improved conditions.

    But by the time you get to volume three, it's pretty easy to tell when he's covering ground he's covered elsewhere (he points out in the afterword that he's never had the complete manuscript on his desk at any one time, so that would make editing a challenge. It is grim, with elements of dark humor. Still, there's a reason I've been reading this at night...

    [​IMG]

    Bossypants by Tina Fey
     
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  14. 1margarette

    1margarette New Member

    Real Madrid
    Germany
    May 12, 2018
    It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be by Paul Arden

    It has been on my bookshelves for quite some time now. I hope that I will be able to find a motivation after reading it.
     
  15. song219

    song219 BigSoccer Supporter

    Apr 5, 2004
    La Norte
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    Vanuatu
    [​IMG]

    I've had this for years but had never read it until now. I wish I had. Gives good explanations for the basis of Chinese society and culture understandable to the total novice.
    On the other hand I've been reading some of the Robot City novels which are attempts by some SF authors to fill in some gaps within Asimov's Robot Series. I wish I hadn't wasted so much time.
     
  16. chaski

    chaski Moderator
    Staff Member

    Mar 20, 2000
    redacted
    Club:
    Lisburn Distillery FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Turks and Caicos Islands
    The Chickamauga Campaign: Barren Victory - David Powell

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    Confederates won the battle, but the Union Army remained in Chattanooga, which was the whole.point.
    Grant and Sherman arrived a month later and soon sorted things out..
     
  17. Dr. Wankler

    Dr. Wankler Member+

    May 2, 2001
    The Electric City
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    [​IMG]

    They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us, (2017)essays, mostly about music, covering acts ranging from Future, SchoolboyQ, Carly Rae Jepsen, Bruce Springsteen, Fallout Boy, Chance the Rapper, and so forth. Some reflections also on basketball and soccer, which the author Hanif Abdurraqib played in high school and college. This dude is one hell of a writer. A lot of his essays make me think of Lester Bangs. The best ones make me think of Montaigne.
     
  18. Ismitje

    Ismitje Super Moderator

    Dec 30, 2000
    The Palouse
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    The last month or so as I entered the final stretch at university didn't see me read much - short stories in Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine, the comics from my daily newspaper which I had been setting aside since before Christmas, and the like. As soon as grades were in, I re-read the Old Man's War series and then this:

    [​IMG]

    I had never read any of the essay collections from outdoorsman/humorist Patrick McManus, who, as it turns out, is from this part of the country. I was more or less unaware of him before reading his obituary in April and learning of his impact/niche - a sort of Garrison Keillor for Idaho and for folks who like to fish and hunt. So I picked up an enjoyable collection at the library - The Bear in the Attic - to start my summer reading.
     
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  19. G-boot

    G-boot Member

    Manchester United
    Nov 6, 2004
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Origin by Dan Brown
     
  20. Dr. Wankler

    Dr. Wankler Member+

    May 2, 2001
    The Electric City
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    I just gave it back to the library this morning. Pretty good book, and I'm down with his main proposals, but it won't work here. Morons on quads would ignore the "no motors" rule and ruin it, much like they're on the verge of ruining a lot of the Ralis to Trails around here.
     
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  21. BalanceUT

    BalanceUT RSL and THFC!

    Oct 8, 2006
    Appalachia
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Tragedy of the commons is rampant in America, mostly because we have a very poor sense of being all part of a commons. We are individual Americans, take advantage at any opportunity.
     
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  22. Ismitje

    Ismitje Super Moderator

    Dec 30, 2000
    The Palouse
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I picked a total downer for the second book of summer, so I am particularly happy I went with McManus and humor first.

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    Olaf Olafsson has published five novels in the past several years. He's an executive with Time Warner and the guy who introduced the Sony PlayStation as Sony Interactive Entertainment's founder, president, and CEO, so he's a multi-talented individual. Oh, and he's a physicist.

    I haven't read any of the other books, but I found his latest (One Station Away) pretty compelling. Depressing, but compelling. It centers on a neuroscientist who seeks to fins if some comatose folks are actually communicative, and his relationship with four women (everything you read about the book will say three, but a colleague is certainly on par or nearly so with the others): his mother the classical pianist, his lover the Argentine dancer, and his comatose patient. All of their storylines end poorly but the journey is in interesting one, and the protagonist is much less, I don't know, certain about himself and his life than I might expect a character like that might be.
     
  23. BalanceUT

    BalanceUT RSL and THFC!

    Oct 8, 2006
    Appalachia
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Just finished Alan Furst's Mission to Paris. I see him a bit lauded as a 'great spy novelist'. I enjoyed the book, but it wasn't awesome. I do note that ratings on Amazon and Goodreads both place it down a bit compared to others of his. I have one other, A Hero of France, which is similarly rated. Unless you particularly like the genre, I would not suggest going out of the way for this, though it is a nice light read with a romantic tone in describing Europe and specifically Paris.
    [​IMG]
     
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  24. Ismitje

    Ismitje Super Moderator

    Dec 30, 2000
    The Palouse
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    One of the features I enjoy in my reading of Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine is the essay section on books to watch out for. Recently whilst reading one of these, the author twice referenced one of his favorite books/authors - Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman. I had seen the movie of the same name that came out twenty years ago, and found it fairly pleasant but also forgettable, and I never wondered if there was a book. But the recommendation stayed with me, so I looked for it at the library the other day.

    [​IMG]

    Sometimes source material is a long way from the movie in terms of tone. In this, I am reminded of one of my all-time favorite movies - "Hopscotch" starring Walter Matthau - which is a comedy whereas the novel by Brian Singer on which it is based is cynical and dark. Similarly, the movie version of this book is pretty light, with magic being a pretty fun looking thing to add to your life, whereas the book is anything but. I read elsewhere that the book is part of the magical realism genre, but I think it's simply a realistic look of how complicated life is when magic is just a part of it. People who loved the movie and then read the book really don't like the book; I like the book better than the movie.

    My main recommendation, though, is to watch the movie "Hopscotch" with Walter Matthau. :)
     
  25. Val1

    Val1 Member+

    Arsenal
    Mar 12, 2004
    MD's Eastern Shore
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    9780385418492_p0_v2_s550x406.jpg

    How the Irish Saved Civilization -- Thomas Cahill

    This book has been on my bookshelf for a very long time and I've wanted to read it for maybe the last 10-12 years. Or so I thought. I remember reading the Washington Post review of the book, only I read that 23 years ago! This book came out in 1995. Unreal.

    Anyway, a fine read, brief and yet thorough at the same time (since this is a rather narrow slice of history). If you ask a Greek about his contributions to world civilization, he'd tell you about the Parthenon. Ask an Italian and he'll mention the Roman Senate. Or maybe the roads. Ask an Irishman? He'll probably still tell you about Murphy's Pub....

    This work should have changed that.
     

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