“Modesty did not come naturally to her; she seemed to have a knack for drawing attention to herself, a characteristic that went largely unnoticed in a family of spirited exhibitionists. No one took the trouble to put her in her place.”
Online reading has greatly damaged my ability to focus on anything as demanding as a whole book, but fortunately there are so many of them around here that I keep stumbling over “new” (to me) wonderments anyway. Just finished reading Young Bess (Margaret Irwin) and liked it so well that I’m ordering copies of the other two parts of the trilogy. Now I’ve started Marion Meade’s Eleanor of Aquitaine, from which the quotation above is taken.
What are you reading, apart from the interwebz? Any recommendations for the long winter nights?
Yutsano
I am sorely tempted to read my father’s Christmas gift which is still at my house (it arrived late, thanks Amazon!) which is the autobiography of Mark Twain. The only issue there is that if I do so he may not get it!
Ross Hershberger
Uh, having exhausted all fiction options too early in the winter I’m back into The Atlas of Early Man. It has pretty good pictures and despite being decades out of date, with some now glaring omissions it’s interesting.
Currants
Malcolm Gladwell’s What the Dog Saw (for train reading, because I missed them all in the New Yorker) and The Elegance of the Hedgehog. Until tomorrow morning, that is– then no more reading for fun until 15 May.
Omnes Omnibus
Just started rereading Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.
Currants
@Yutsano: Best line from that (so far): “A man who picks up a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.”
tweez
Our Mutual Friend – Charles Dickens. Better than Old Curiosity Shop and Martin Chuzzlewit, Worse than Great Expectations and Nicholas Nickleby. Still pretty good
Yutsano
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m hoping the book is much better than the movie. That was TERRIBLE.
Ross Hershberger
And I’m halfway through Norman Crowhurst’s 1959 book Basic Audio. This guy is one of my heroes. He knew it ALL and knew exactly how to explain complex things clearly. Makes me want to feed everything I’ve ever written into the fireplace.
Alison
One of my non-resolutions is to get back to my old reading levels. I’m a total bookslut but the past year or so saw my reading slow down quite a bit, and I am less than pleased with myself! I’ve set a 50-book goal. We shall see.
Right now I’m reading Bleak House by Dickens. I fucking love Dickens, and this book is just as intriguing as I always find his writing. YMMV of course but I just love his writing style, the strong imagery, the characters (and the names!), etc etc. Also, this is considered one of his best, so there you go…
policomic
I’m finding Eric Foner’s new Lincoln book, The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery a pretty gripping read, which resonates with our current political situation in some interesting ways.
auntieeminaz
Just finished Agent Zigzag by Ben MacIntyre. A fun read.
The Disgruntled Chemist
Physical book: Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. On the Kindle: Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace.
I highly recommend both.
Bmaccnm
War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning and Losing the Ten Commandments on the Freeway (or something like that, and I don’t understand how these tag thingees work at all). Both by Chris Hedges, both sad making.
S. cerevisiae
Here is an important book: Merchants of Doubt.
Read it and weep.
Omnes Omnibus
@Yutsano: There is no comparison. If you haven’t read it, which seems to be the case, give it a shot. Berendt is very good at evoking the personality of a town, in this case, Savannah, GA. Crime, drag queens, football, drinking, history, race relations….
Ross Hershberger
@The Disgruntled Chemist:
I thought that was an essay for Gourmet. I’ve read it and I’m REALLY surprised it saw print in the magazine.
General Stuck
Obama hits home run with Sotomayor SCOTUS pick/ Issues scathing writings on cases not accepted by the court on the whole. And all of it pure humanistic liberal minded. Sounds of a liberal lioness, sorely needed on The Supreme Court.
Obama signs 9-11 first responder health bill, for those who sacrificed their health for the country. Wipes floor with wingnuts.
Puma NUTPIK of the Day – From FDL commenter
Oh, and almost forgot. Obama has record high approval of liberal democrats at 91%
have a nice day :-)
MikeJ
On the nook:
Moll Flanders
Sister Carrie
Keif’s atuobio
haven’t started Franzen’s latest, but on there
Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter
third time through Blood Meridian
Gibson’s Bigend books
Which is a long way of saying I need some new books. I can’t believe I didn’t get Mark Twain’s autobio for xmas after the hinting I did. I got topo maps, a flannel shirt, and a case of beer. Living in Seattle this means I now must either hike or record Touch Me I’m Sick.
mclaren
Quarks and Gluons: A Century of Particle Physics by M. Y. Han, 1999. Also Beyond the Nanoworld: Quarks, Leptons, and Gauge Bosons by Hans Günter Dosch, 2008. In fiction, Surface Detail by Iain Banks, 2010.
Gina
Haven’t read any whole books for a couple of weeks since my Pandigital Novel 7″ got a bashed screen. Their customer service…isn’t . After I finally reached a human who gave me an incident number and promised a call back, it’s been 2 weeks and nothing. Don’t have the money for a Nook right now, so when I get some time I’ll hit the library for dead tree type books.
I’m in the mood to read Gaiman’s ‘American Gods’ again.
The Republic of Stupidity
Just finished The Big Short and When Genius Failed…
Currently working my way thru NYPD, A City and Its Police and then onto Jessica Mitford’s Poison Penmanship
I’ve prolly read more ENTIRE books in the last year than the prior five combined… I’ve ‘rediscovered’ books and have been enjoying this quite a bit…
Worked thru The Octopus, both Frank Norris’ and John Robinson’s, recently, Ida Tarbell’s History of the Standard Oil Company, S Ambrose’s Nothing Like It In the World (about the construction transcontinental rr), and L McMurtry’s Horseman, Pass By… amongst others…
Halteclere
I’m reading John M. Whelan’s The Wooden Plane – It’s History, Form and Function (I’m broadening my woodworking knowledge).
Underneath this book is Barry Glassner’s The Culture of Fear that I can’t wait to get started.
Tattoosydney
My picks from the last few months:
My picks from the last few months:
Raymond Chandler’s “The Big Sleep” and “Farewell, my lovely”—no one does mood and metaphor as well as Chandler at his best.
George Macdonald Fraser’s Flashman series—ripping yarns of a professed cad and coward, with guest appearances by Otto von Bismarck and a young Abe Lincoln—and his standalone book “Pyrates”, which is rip roaring fun.
Richard Dawkins “Ancestor’s Tale” which I just re-read, and which is one of the most gripping science books I have ever read, tracing back our evolutionary history to where each branch branches off.
Bill Bryson’s “At Home”—massively entertaining discussion using each room of the house as the basis for diverting and far ranging discussion. One of those books where you have to stop yourself reading everything out to your long suffering friends.
Finally, Michael Ruhlman’s “Ratio”—not so much a cookbook, as a how-to-cook book, which teaches the right ratios for many different kinds of basic stuff, such as custards and pastry, so you can improvise. Has a killer flaky shortcrust recipe which is the only one I now use.
auntieeminaz
Blood Meridian.
Is that Cormack McCarthy? Mississippi? Totally mesmerizing and depressing!
MikeJ
@auntieeminaz: Yep. Blood Meridian is an awesome, if depressing, book.
Yutsano
@Tattoosydney: I’ve heard interesting things about The City and The City, although the genre doesn’t seem that interesting to me.
Which you plan on sharing non?
We iz all slanty and shtuff. Someone broked the thread kinda.
General Stuck
@Tattoosydney:
I think you may have a ( – ) or two without spaces between a letter..
Suffern ACE
@MikeJ: Blood Meridian is no way to start a new year, though I remember it blowing me away 20 years ago.
Julia Grey
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, by David Mitchell, the author of the justly celebrated Cloud Atlas.
Great, vivid writing, set in 18th C. Japan, which only allows Dutch traders to deal with them from an artificial island in the Bay of Nagasaki. An accountant brought in to clean up the books finds himself attracted to a Japanese woman who is, against all previous convention, attempting to become a Western-style physician. She is sent away to a convent, tries to escape, there is a rescue mission, etc. None of which happens in the way this brief description would lead you to believe. The author is a master of the beautifully unexpected and the perfectly quirked.
This book is a single story, more linear and straightforward than the structurally challenging Cloud Atlas. But it has the same kind of “instant capture” in the storytelling.
Ross Hershberger
@Gina:
I just re-read Spook Country and it was just as good the second time. Of all of my favorite authors he does the best job at closing stories out while leaving room for the next one.
David Fud
Been reading Stacy Schiff’s Cleopatra: A Life. About 1/3 into it, and it is fascinating. She is very careful to articulate what is known, what is guesswork, and what is simply her opinion.
So far, so good.
suzanne
I somehow missed “Catch-22” in my reading life, so I’m going back and reading it now. I recently read “Freedom” by Jonathan Franzen and loved it. Before that, I read architectural theory almost exclusively for about two years. Very glad that that phase of my life is over.
Tattoosydney
@MikeJ:
I really enjoyed “Zero History” – not world changing, just a very satisfying romp.
lahke
Just finished rereading Nicholas Nickleby, after seeing the stage version (a 2-night commitment, but worth it). Dickens is a lot of fun, and his heart’s in the right place, but he doesn’t go farther than getting his hero into the middle class and comfort. Dammit, I want a progressive revolution, not incremental change!
Now on A Mirror for Witches, by Esther Forbes. I’m about a third into it, and still can’t tell how serious this is. Did they do irony in 1928?
Emma
I got a Kindle for Christmas (thanks, Sis and BIL!) and I headed for manybooks.net to browse their genre categories. I have now nearly one hundred classic mystery stories loaded. Also a collection of fairy tales, Life on the Mississippi, the Communist Manifesto, a bunch of Dunsany’s short stories, and on and on and on…
I will have to ration them carefully or I’ll do nothing but work and read and even work might suffer.
auntieeminaz
@David Fud: Next in the stack. Looking forward to reading it.
CaseyL
Eleanor of Aquitaine is one of my very favorite historical persons; I’ve loved her since I first saw “The Lion in Winter” as a teenager. I’m always interested in more books about her, particularly as our understanding of the 12th Century evolves.
As for recommendations, I have two words: Mary Roach.
I recently finished her latest book “Packing for Mars,” which is a hysterically funny and very smart exploration of how the space program solved problems it had no idea it would need to solve: i.e., personal hygiene and waste elimination issues, which only became issues once astronauts were spending more than a day or two aloft. The access she had to people and information is just stunning. Her writing style is accessible without dumbing down. Her enthusiasm for the subject just pulls you along, too.
I laughed out loud, frequently, and often so hard I couldn’t breathe. My aunt, who really isn’t into the space program at all, borrowed the book because there was nothing else to read (we were both traveling), was fascinated and laughed so hard she fell over. My brother (who like me adores the space program) shot through the book in 2 days, and also laughed like a loon.
I’m now in a hurry to read Roach’s other books: “Stiff,” which is about corpses; and “Bonk,” which is about sex. If they’re as witty, informative, and addictive as “Packing for Mars,” I’m in for a very enjoyable few weeks.
Tattoosydney
Apologies for the italic hyphen bomb.
@Yutsano:
I haven’t yet managed to read it, although he’s one of my favourite writers, but “Kraken” is excellent.
Martin
I’m reading a bazillion lines of PHP code. I work too much. My 2011 resolution is to cut my over-40/wk hours in half and get in 2 recreational books per month. I realized over the holiday that I haven’t read a book for recreation in a year.
The Disgruntled Chemist
@Ross Hershberger: It is, but it’s also the name given to a collection of his essays. Most of them make you wonder how they were ever printed in a magazine.
Ross Hershberger
@suzanne:
Not a fan of that book. When I read it it struck me as overly childish and simplistic. I get that it’s a beloved classic but I was frustrated and annoyed all the way through. I’ve liked his other books, but not that one.
Please on’t throw things at me for my apostasy.
robertdsc-PowerBook & 27 titles
China Lake by Anthony Hyde and a re-reading of JRR Tolkien’s Lord Of The Rings.
Geoduck
I’ve been re-reading Tove Jansson’s Moomintroll books. Yeah, they’re for kids. So what? They’re wonderful little books.
And I tried fixing the slants. See if it worked..
Mike Kay (Christine O'Donnell's Co-Witch)
@General Stuck: you actually brave the river of crazy and click on that site?
the horror, the horror
Tattoosydney
@suzanne:
An extraordinary, if sometimes difficult, book. It’s hilarious, sad, terrifying and well worth sticking to.
Richard Fox
Just finished “Cleopatra: A Life” by Stacy Schiff. Given how little we actually know about this queen (history always written by victors, etc.)
I was taken aback at how rich and multidimensional this portrait was. A quick read and a memorable one. Right up there with Stefan Zweig’s biography “Marie Antoinette.” Both women come alive… and definitely stay in the mind. Enjoy!
Ross Hershberger
@The Disgruntled Chemist:
Yup. I looked and I have that book but forgot about it. Concussions = no joke.
My fave is A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again. I read the original in Harper’s and the expanded book version is even better. All the reason I need to never go on a cruise.
Yutsano
@Richard Fox: Which one though? There were six Queens with that name, although the most famous was the one involved with Mark Anthony.
(Also, shouldn’t his name be Marcus Antonio? When did it get Anglicized like that?)
Derelict Dogs
Cryptinomicon – Neil Stephenson
slyder
Reading the novel of Alan Furst. Excellent historical thrillers concerning espionage in central and eastern Europe at the outbreak of WWII. It is catching me up on a lot of geography I somehow missed. Those novels got into Rebecca West’s Black Lamb, Grey Falcon a doorstop of a book about her travels through Yugoslavia in the late 1930s. Remarkable.
The Decameron of Boccaccio in the Musa translation is another book I have started and am having a good time with.
And to round things out I am listening to Simon Winchester’s Atlantic on audiobook.
And to put in a plug: I got all of these from my local public library except for the Rebecca West which I have been working on for a decade and own a copy.
goblue72
nonfiction – Last Call: The Rise & Fall of Prohibition by Daniel Okrent – fascinating read about how the teetotaling religious nutjobs of the late 19th century/early-20th century joined forces with the suffragists, the Progressives, and the Klu Klux Klan to forced the rest of the country into their ill-informed, utopian theocratically-inspired social experiment.
Michael Goetz
I just got two bigass books that’ll get me through the winter:
The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, David Thompson. Aside from James Naremore, my favorite writer on movies.
The Evolution of Childhood, Melvin Konner. Brilliant doctor and anthropologist, 900 packed pages synthesizing 30 years of research on human development from infancy to adolescence.
aliasofwestgate
I got a Sony Ereader for Christmas, so far i’ve only got Jim Butcher’s Turn Coat (Dresden files book 10) and Stieg Larsson’s Millenium Trilogy on it. (Girl w/Dragon Tattoo, etc). I also have designs on rereading The Hobbit. I haven’t read that since at least high school at this point, and i loved that one more than the LOTR trilogy bookwise. I can’t wait to see jackson’s movie version.
But i’ve got plans for The complete collection of Sherlock Holmes stories and novellas, and a whole host of classical writings i never got around to reading. I’m usually a scifi/fantasy nut, and that hasn’t changed but this is affording me a good chance to tote around different things so i can read them in my free time at work or at home without breaking my back to lug around the volumes and whatnot.
MikeJ
@Martin:
You need more time on airplanes. You can have mine.
JPK
These are some of my favorite threads — almost always end up throwing new titles onto my endless list. I just finished The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx, which seemed to me a bit of a slog but good enough to stay with (these days I’m happy to pitch things aside if they don’t hold me, esp. novels, life is too short). Now rereading a collection of essays on movies by Phillip Lopate, Totally, Tenderly, Tragically; he’s a bit old-school French New Wave for my tastes, but a terrific and charming writer and often surprising in his topics. He’s also the editor of one of my all-time favorite anthologies, The Art of the Personal Essay.
Uloborus
I don’t know about ‘reading’ (okay, I’m rereading The Truth by Terry Pratchett), but another novelist just described Wild Children as ‘beautiful and compelling’, so I’m all tingly!
Softail
Trollope, He Knew He Was Right.
So far can’t recommend it… and they recognize me at the used book store as the guy who always buys the Trollope novels.
4jkb4ia
Lords of Finance. Bernanke approved! Also DeLong approved. Sufficient gaps that I have completely lost whether there was a coherent story going on here, but Britain has just gone off the gold standard. Britain has lent too much money to countries who can never pay it back and has set the pound too high at the end of the war. France is the strong analogue to China in this book.
CynDee
33rd on the library waiting list for the new Mark Twain autobiography.
Meanwhile, re-reading Jane Eyre and comparing it to the 2006 Masterpiece Theater production. Landmark piece regarding women’s struggle for equality. At the same time, the gothic literary style addresses the desire of the period’s readers for drama and high romance and even takes on wrong-headed theologians. A unique accomplishment that the English-speaking world was ready for, and it still holds up today.
CynDee
@Softail: I guess you’ve already read Daniel Deronda; I found that one satisfying and unique.
de stijl
test italics close
de stijl
test
Edit: Pah – I suck.
New edit: Hey! I kinda rule.
New, new edit: Grr! I suck again. Why did I briefly see non-italicized text? Reloaded and it and back to italics.
hitchhiker
Can I pimp an unknown book to you all?
It’s called Some Things Are Unbreakable . . . a Seattle family in its first year dealing with a medical catastrophe, spanking good writing, totally unsentimental, great black humor. The book just grabs you by the throat and never lets go.
That link goes to the Amazon used section, so it’s cheap.
Also can’t recommend enough the wonderful Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon.
Steeplejack
For fun I am reading Rennie Airth’s The Dead of Winter, the third volume in his fiction trilogy involving various British policemen from 1921 to 1944, and for “serious” I am reading John Wheeler’s Awakening to the Natural State:
4jkb4ia
@Yutsano:
China Mieville described “The City and The City” as almost an anti-fantasy. He brings you right up to the edge of believing that this could be a fantasy and then subverts it. I myself was not sure it was “genre” enough to get my virtual Hugo vote. Actual Hugo voters clearly disagreed.
Steeplejack
Testing to see if I can break the horrible grip of all italics.
ETA: Apparently not. Ick.
ETFA: Well, apparently I did. I am like unto a god! Kneel down before me, ye, uh, italicized fonts and stuff. Yeah. So there.
Ross Hershberger
@Steeplejack:
I’m reading this through Chrome on Vista and it looks perfectly normal. Extra data point…
de stijl
@Steeplejack:
You got fooled into your I am like unto a Godhead. Reload and you’re back to being a peen like the rest of us.
Re-reading The Years Of Rice And Salt.
Steeplejack
@Ross Hershberger:
Everything after (and including) #23 is in italics for me (and apparently others). I tried some HTML-fu in my post and got it back to regular text, but then when I refreshed the page it went back to italics. Firefox on Windows XP here.
FYWP. The built-in text editor really should clean up after sloppy commenters.
de stijl
@de stijl:
For clarity I said and meant peen. Not a misspelling of peon.
Steeplejack is a peen.
peenpeen
peen
burnspbesq
Just downloaded “Ship of Fools,” Fintan O’Toole’s book about the Irish financial meltdown.
Also sitting on the iPad are the latest from Walter Mosely, Patricia Cornwell, and Dennis Lehane. And “The Autobiography of Mark Twain.”
At some point in 2011, I’m going to read some Sam Harris. Know your enemy, etc.
Steeplejack
@de stijl:
Pride and a haughty spirit goeth before a fall.
I got about halfway through The Years of Rice and Salt and beached. Motivation to pick it up and press on?
Squirrel
Taking a short break from “The Sun Also Rises” to read “The Snitch, Houdini and Me” by Johnny Virgil. He’s the blogger at “15 Minute Linch” that was responsible for the 1977 JC Penney Catalogue post that went viral a few years ago. Easy, quick, and hilarious read. Then back to Hemingway.
Steeplejack
@de stijl:
Yeah, thanks. We get it. Appreciate the clarification.
Lesley
I can relate. Want to change this in 2011.
Ordered Matt Taibbi’s Griftopia from Amazon today, though it will probably keep me awake at night.
Have requested the following award-winning mysteries from the library:
Bury your dead by Louise Penny.
Faithful Place, In the woods, and The likeness, all by Tana French.
PPOG Penguin
@Geoduck: Yes, the Moomin books are terrific: full of whimsy and imagination but also capable of switching into real melancholy and depth (“Tales from Moominvalley” still haunts me). Have you seen Jansson’s Moomin cartoon strips from the 1950s? Drawn & Quarterly are reissuing them at the moment in handsome hardbacks (though there have been some editing issues): if you’re enjoying the Moomin books then check them out (an Amazon search for “jansson moomin comic strip” should bring them up).
As for myself, I’ve been rereading Mark Mazower’s harrowing “Dark Continent: Europe’s Twentieth Century,” about the fragility of the democratic traditions we tend to take for granted, and Philip Bobbitt’s “The Shield of Achilles,” a sweeping historical account of the relationship between military developments and the constitutional nature of states over the last 500 years. I don’t entirely buy Bobbitt’s thesis, as it seems to oversimplify the untidy mess of real history, and his prognostications about the future of the state seem similarly simplified. But it’s challenging and keeps me thinking, which is what counts. I’d be interested to know if others have read it and if so what they thought.
Also finishing up a reread of John Crowley’s extraordinary fantasy novel “Little, Big.” Difficult, but worth it.
burnspbesq
Just finished “All the Devils Are Here,” by Bethany MacLean and Joe Nocera. Strongly recommended.
auntieeminaz
@hitchhiker: Have Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay in the pipeline. So difficult to know what to read next.
MBL
I thought The City and The City was brilliant and Kraken terribly disappointing. I’m generally a big fan of Mieville so I’m hoping he returns to form with his next book.
I reread things in December and January, mostly, but I just hit the halfway point in Ron Chernow’s Washington: A Life and am enjoying it immensely. And I’m going to pick up the Twain book the next time I’m in a bookstore.
Steeplejack
@mclaren:
Finished Surface Detail a week or two ago. Was sort of mildly disappointed, but can’t decide if it’s “real” disappointment or just mild disappointment because it wasn’t as excellent as the other Culture novels I have read. It seemed to go on and on and simultaneously dither about getting anywhere. Perhaps I am too shallow. Would be interested in your take (on the novel, not my shallowness).
Ross Hershberger
I’m scheduled to do a bunch of writing in 2011. Boss wants training manuals and won’t be talked out of it. Of course I like telling people what to do but I dread this because I will have to admit just how low an intelligence/education level I have to write to. Like, we might just do videos instead. With no text.
burnspbesq
If you rely on your iPhone as your alarm clock, read this.
http://www.dkszone.net/iphone-alarm-clock-bug-recurring-alarms-work-jan-3
dr. luba
I am reading a book of memoirs written by my o;d mentor, and GP from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Not in print yet, but I have a copy on my laptop. I’ve read pieces of his over he years, and he was always a good storyteller, so it’s been fun.
I hinted for and got mark Twain’s autobiography, but it’s too big to take into the bath. I will get to it soon……
de stijl
@Steeplejack:
All apologies, lad.
I was trying to fix the italics with various things and your post happened to be handy and I like the word peen.
No offense meant.
I generally enjoy Kim Stanley Robinson, but his books tend to ramp up very, very slowly. For alt history, it doesn’t suck. Less annoying than the Mars trilogy.
San
I am bookmarking this thread for ideas for when I run out of books to read.
I am currently finishing the last book from Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire epos. I was putting it off for a long time, waiting for the time he publishes the next one. It’s been forever, though, so I finally broke down. The upcoming HBO miniseries look promising.
Linkmeister
I was given Keith Richards’ memoir “Life” for Christmas, along with the latest Le Carré “Our Kind of Traitor” and Bill Barich’s “Long Way Home.” Also picked up a hardcover copy of the next-to-last Dick and Felix Francis book “Even Money” for a buck while browsing the used books place above my local CVS drugstore. That completes my Francis collection until the very last book is out in paperback.
de stijl
Holy crap! I’ve bolded the internet!?!
Who’s the peen now?
Edit: It’s fixed! Yay!
Steeplejack
@Tattoosydney:
I don’t think it was you. I think it was the following commenter.
Yutsano
And now we haz gone bold. This is comic and tragic at the same time.
Ross Hershberger
I was so desperate for something to read recently that I picked up Guns, Germs and Steel to see if I could make any more headway in that. Luckily I was sitting down, because I’m so sensitized from reading the first 4 chapters that I nearly lose consciousness on contact with the cover. I can’t believe this is a widely read book. I couldn’t finish it if the future of the race depended on it. Interesting ideas, steeped in Novocain.
Anne Laurie
Notes from the night-shift editor: TattooSydney, please use TWO hyphens / em-dashes or NONE, but never a stand-alone.
I tried copying, yanking, undashing & replacing your comment to remove the Italics Rash, but then I had to brute-force Auntieemaze’s immediately following comment as well. That’s what confused everybody just now.
And I’m not using any fancy-schmancy HTML tags in this comment… just in case!
Yutsano
@Anne Laurie: Should us kids get off yer lawn now? LOL
PPOG Penguin
@4jkb4ia: How curious: I read it completely the other way, as trying all the way through to make you believe that it could be a non fantasy, then blowing it in the final part by dropping hard into genre.
Dee Loralei
I just found out a girl I’ve known since I was 12 was murdered today. Her sister has been my best friend for most of the past 36 years. She doesn’t want me to come because she’s still at the murder scene. She says the cops have told them nothing so far. So she has no idea why or how or who. And I can’t find anything online yet, so I doubt a police report or news story has been filed about it yet. What should I cook? Breakfast stuff and take it over first thing in the AM, or bake a brisket or ham or dessert for later?
Dear God, I’m in a bit of a shock. And man are my thoughts racing. I’ve been sitting here for an hour or so since she called. I woke up my mom and told her because I had to share the awfulness with someone. I’ll tell my dad in the morning. I didn’t even tell my 20 yr old, he’s only met her a few times. She and I graduated together, but were never very close. I only kept up with her all these years later through her sister.
Her daughter is only 10 or so and was luckily with her dad this weekend. Though I think they were the ones to find my friend.
Ideas, suggestions, prayers, best wishes and thoughts, etc would be much appreciated.
I really can’t sleep right now, and I can’t go back to my topless Jake Gyllenhall movie either.
xian
reading my xmas books!
starting with Keef’s biography, which is an entertaining romp. next I’ll probably move on the Iain Banks novel though a bit worried about it being panned in this thread.
then I look forward to savoring Walter Mosley’s The Last Days of Ptolemy Gray.
have to second the mention of Alan Furst’s books. Wonderful insights into the less well known aspects of pre-WWII and WWII history in the Balkans and elsewhere in Europe.
xian
oh Dee… so sorry to hear that. i think any food would be appreciated, for the thought of it, and the sustenance.
Yutsano
@Dee Loralei: Honestly the best thing you can do right now is to be there. Whatever else is required of you will become clear after that.
Steeplejack
@Lesley:
Make sure you read Tana French in proper order: In the Woods, The Likeness, Faithful Place.
I found In the Woods very frustrating. Can’t think how to describe it without risking a spoiler. It bugged me so much that I put aside The Likeness for a cooling-off period. Haven’t gotten around to the third one, but I probably will.
de stijl
@Steeplejack:
Sorry! My first apology comes off way to flip, even tough I didn’t mean it to. I was using your post to test fixes out and I shouldn’t have. It was dumb and insulting and stupid. I was a jerk. Sorry!
sb
Matterhorn was terrific; highly recommended.
Born to Run by Christopher McDougall was my favorite beach read of the year. Heck, I’d read it again.
Very heavy but incredibly good history: Humanity by Jonathon Glover.
Non-fiction recommendation would be Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski.
Happy reading!
Steeplejack
@Tattoosydney:
I loved the Flashman novels, read most of them as they first came out. I saw The Prisoner of Zenda on TV a couple of weeks ago, and that got me thinking about the Flashman episode with the same theme (was it Flash for Freedom?). And then thinking about the whole series in general. I should go back and read a few.
sb
@Lesley: The very best of CI Gamache, IMHO. I think you’ll enjoy that one! :)
Yutsano
@Dee Loralei: Also too: let us know if there is anything we can do for YOU.
@Steeplejack: Considering how well you get on with me and wifey, I found that response amusing, to say the least.
Steeplejack
@de stijl:
No offense taken. Just had to pooch up my “display” to repel boarders, as it were. Couldn’t tell how crazy you were going to go.
de stijl
@Steeplejack:
Thanks for your graciousness.
Let’s go back to blaming TattooSydney.
Steeplejack
I have read and enjoyed all of Alan Furst’s novels, but some of them are like anti-novels–bolts of cloth cut for length but not really worked into any useful article of clothing. In particular I am thinking of the two volumes that follow the French film producer in the year or so after the Germans occupy France. They end with a cliffhanger situation–a knock at a hotel door in the middle of the night–and then nothing is followed up. WTF?! Okay, maybe it’s a sort of wise, meta statement about the essential chaos and confusion of wartime, but did I mention WTF?
I will say that his last one, Spies of the Balkans, was very good.
Yutsano
@de stijl: Hey now! Don’t you be blaming my FH #1 for this! You want to start an international row? Don’t make me call Hillary dude!
BGinCHI
Rose Tremain’s Trespass. Quietly devastating and sharp.
If you like the British laconic style (Penelope Fitzgerald) but with a tense pathos (William Trevor), you’ll love it.
Also really recommend Jess Walter’s The Financial Lives of the Poets. So damn smart and funny.
Give that man a laurel crown.
de stijl
@Yutsano:
My first response would be to reply “Dickhead” a la the Kenneth-bot from the other evening, but I just got out of the doghouse, and don’t relish going back in.
Anne Laurie
@Geoduck:
Oh, I love those!
I think my favorite Christmas story is the one where the Moomintrolls are forcibly roused from hibernation by a pissy neighbor who figures that if he has to suffer through Christmas, then everybody should suffer as well. The Moomins’ failure to understand his grievance — they conclude that “Christmas” is some kind of horrible monster who must be placated with a decorated tree and lots of tasty snacks — is just hilarious, and heart-warming, too.
Amir_Khalid
Just finished rereading Harry Potter (it’s all one story, so that means going from Philosopher’s Stone straight through to Deathly Hallows). In the bathroom, I have Martin Heidegger’s Basic Writings. On the PC, I have three of James Fenimore Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales to get through, downloaded from Project Gutenberg. Kindles, alas, are not sold to Malaysians.
My next book purchase will be Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather (recommended to me last week by Anne Laurie herself!); plus, I’m intrigued by Maggie’s Tree, a comic novel — it’s by Julie Walters, who plays Molly Weasley in the Harry Potter movies. Keith’s Life is on my “wait for paperback” list, along with The Dragon with the Girl Tattoo (I like parodies).
Nothing much in the movie theaters here. I’ve just seen Jack Black’s Gulliver movie. God, it’s awful. If you haven’t seen it, then you should keep right on not having seen it.
Dee Loralei
Xian, Yutsy thanks. I’m just still in shock. I can’t imagine what my friends are going through. I’ve never known anyone who was murdered. I seriously live a charmed life. Other than a few rape victims, I’ve never even known anyone who was a victim of violent crime. 3 suicides that I can recall and one of them looked like a hunting accident.
I think I last saw the victim at our 30th class reunion this past summer. She had a new man and seemed happy, as a matter of fact it was their 2nd or 3rd date. And he was charming.
Yikes, I hope it wasn’t some weird guy she met on facebook or an internet dating site.
Yutsano
@de stijl: “Dickhead”, in this instance, would be entirely the appropriate response. Plus I’m certain FH #1 would approve.
@Dee Loralei: As the Japanese say, ki o tsukete kudasai. It’s not an easy path when another makes the choice to end an existence we know.
Suffern ACE
I’m still working though Stone’s Fall Iain Pears. I liked An Instance of the Fingerpost and decided to read more mysteries this year. John Stone has fallen from his window. He was most likely pushed since he had a far of open windows and would avoid them when he could. That’s as far as I am.
Anne Laurie
@Softail: __
Not one of his best, but I liked it better at the finish than I did half-way-through. I was reading it in early 2002, during the “Saddam does SO have nuklaaar weppins, an’ we’re a-gonna bust his azzz” days, for extra creepiness.
Calming Influence
Neal Stephenson, Anathem. If he’s as prescient as usual, we’ll be visited by aliens soon.
de stijl
@Yutsano:
Dickhead.
BGinCHI
@Amir_Khalid: Heidegger in the jakes. Perfect.
Being and time and plumbing.
anna missed
Biography of dancer, silent film actress, and (and later in life) writer Louise Brooks, by Barry Paris. Amazing woman, amazing story. Weighs in at 600 pgs, and you want more.
BGinCHI
@Suffern ACE: See Dumpty, Humpty.
Coincidence?
Steeplejack
I’m about to head off to bed, but I’ll end with a plug for James Church’s series of novels about Inspector O of the North Korean security apparatus: A Corpse in the Koryo and Hidden Moon are the first two. Very strange and very good.
Oh, and also Eliot Pattison’s series about a former Chinese policeman living on the margins in Tibet. The Skull Mantra and Water Touching Stone are the first two.
BGinCHI
@Calming Influence: Others will hate, but I loved it.
We’ll be Medieval and then aliens. Sounds about right.
Steeplejack
@anna missed:
Louise Brooks has written some good stuff herself–Lulu in Hollywood. And I recommend that everyone see her in the silent movie Pandora’s Box.
Ross Hershberger
This all sounds so much more interesting than my recent binge reading on particle physics. I really should get out to the book store and browse more.
de stijl
@Calming Influence:
Haven’t read Stephenson since the mid ’90s. Probably Snow Crash. I remember the follow ons to be 1000 pagers. Daunting, even if they were well reviewed. I may have to try Anathem (although I’ll probably mispronounce it).
Ross Hershberger
@Calming Influence:
I was… surprised by that, and not entirely favorably. I read everything else he has in print in the summer of 2007 and had high hopes for Anathem. I’m hoping that his next will be more in the line of Cryptonomicon, which is one of my favorite books of the decade.
Anne Laurie
@Dee Loralei: Oh, my gosh, that’s horrible! You & your friend will be in my prayers.
I think bringing “breakfast” over would probably be a very good idea, as long as it’s the kind of food that doesn’t require concentration to eat — bagels and cream cheese, donuts, breakfast bars. That kind of bad news ruins my coordination, I end up spilling & dropping stuff. Or losing focus, and abandoning a dish after the first bite. I think that’s one reason “baked meats” are traditional for funerals, they can be re-heated indefinitely…
Oh, and don’t forget to eat yourself, your friend will need someone whose blood sugar isn’t crashing to help with all the choices she’ll be making.
Dennis SGMM
Gnawing on Harold Bloom’s Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human.
de stijl
@Dee Loralei:
Best wishes to you and your friend’s family. Be well.
Villago Delenda Est
OK, if you’re into Lovecraftian spy novels (and who isn’t?), you need to check out Charles Stross…The Atrocity Archives, The Jennifer Morgue, and The Fuller Memorandum.
Tattoosydney
@Anne Laurie:
Thanks.
FYWP. Stupid hyphen hating dickhead thing.
Yutsano
@de stijl: That’s the spirit. :)
@Tattoosydney: WP is indeed a fickle mistress. FYWP seems to fit just about any situation. Crappy ass dickhead software.
(Hey, that’s kinda fun!)
Dee Loralei
Thanks Anne Laurie and De stijl, I think I have a plan of action for now. Sleep a few hours, if I can. Wake up around 5 AM, Make dough for cinnamon rolls, run to store whilst it’s rising and make 1 egg, sausage and cheese strata and one cheese and egg ( for the vegetarian child and anyone else.) Take those things and a fresh fruit salad around 8 or 9. (Whenever things are done.)
Hang for awhile and help when and how I can. Return home, finish a brisket or something and some dinner rolls a veggie or salad and dessert and take it back by 6 or so (Someone else will be home to finish the cooking if my friend needs me there more.). Should I take wine? A box? Or a bottle? My son said he’d go with me tomorrow evening after he’s off.
And then come home and plan a different menu for Tuesday and Wed and thru the funeral day. We don’t know when they will release the body. We don’t know if we can have a funeral. Her parents have to come in from SCarolina, younger sister from NC. Older sister and brother still live here in Memphis.
Yutsano
@Dee Loralei: I’d suggest avoiding alcohol just because of the potential exacerbated states they’re in, but otherwise sounds like you got a decent plan of attack.
Nellcote
Keith Richards’ “Life”
I’m trying not to read it to fast just to make it last.
Hob
Taking turns with two good, dense, very different novels: The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño and Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon. Also started reading the 1975 translation of Orlando Furioso. Recently read The Magicians by Lev Grossman, liked it a lot.
de stijl
@Tattoosydney:
Next time the Kenneth-bot shows up you should have some canned questions where the response of “Dickhead” would be awesomely inappropriate. Along the lines of “Which part of your body do you think is most unattractive to your potential sexual partner?”
de stijl
@Dee Loralei:
Good luck, DL.
Mnemosyne
@Dee Loralei:
Be prepared for them not to be able to tell you how to help, so you may have to prompt them (like “Do you need any laundry done?” or “I can do the dishes for you if you want.”)
I don’t know if you expect any kind of publicity about this but you could also volunteer to screen their phone calls while you’re there if they’re getting pestered by the press.
de stijl
@Tattoosydney:
The internet didn’t break itself, pal. Where’s the contrition? This “Mistakes were made” crap just won’t cut it.
Tattoosydney
@de stijl:
I ain’t doin’ contrition. I was the victim here. It’s not my fault FYWP hates hyphens. I’m being oppressed.
de stijl
@Tattoosydney:
Bloody peasant!
Tattoosydney
@de stijl:
You can’t be king of the blog just cause some watery tart threw a sword at you.
Suffern ACE
@Tattoosydney: That is the customary coronation ceremony here. Don’t mock the customs of the folk.
de stijl
@Tattoosydney:
You can’t change the dialog!
You’re supposed to say:
“Oh, what a giveaway! Did you hear that? Did you hear that, eh? That’s what I’m on about! Did you see him repressing me? You saw him, Didn’t you?”
Ack! I can’t believe it – you changed the dialog! How’m I supposed to respond?
“And after the spanking, the oral sex.”
Bruuuuce
Just finished Terry Pratchett’s I Shall Wear Midnight (the fourth Tiffany Aching book, possibly the very last Discworld novel) and Rick Riordan’s The Lost Hero (the first book in the new series, however long it will be, in his world of Percy Jackson and the Olympians). About to embark on the biannual rereading of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and whatever fiction is next down in the pile.
de stijl
@Suffern ACE:
Don’t you even start with me.
It’s madness, I tell you! Madness!!
de stijl
@Suffern ACE:
Besides, supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
mikefromArlington
Was gonna make a joke about a Palin book but didn’t want to spoil the new year.
Just finished B Franklins auto biography which inspired me to attempt Xenophons Memorable Thoughts of Socrates.
Platonicspoof
@Dee Loralei:
You are already reaching out, and ready to help support the family, and yourself, especially important for ‘complex grief’ (e.g., homicide) where there is a greater possibility for reactions to worsen over time.
Early support and counseling, as possible prevention of very wrong ideas, and hopefully resources in your area for individualized help, and from multiple approaches.
Best wishes finding a way through this.
(The idea of a wine gift is well-intentioned, but I wouldn’t assume it would help deal with the unexplained.)
jak
Just finished vol 2 of the Liberation Trilogy. Now reading The Looming Towers.
stuckinred
“The Warmth of Other Suns,” Isabel Wilkerson, a recounting of the African-American exodus from the South.
PurpleGirl
I’m rereading The Lord of the Rings, currently halfway through The Fellowship of the Ring; I previously read it in 1967. Also on the active book stack: Michael Chabon’s Gentlemen of the Road and May Sarton’s Journal of a Solitude.
Over the last year I began to borrow from the library again (New York Public Library). I want to reserve a couple of books over the next week or so. That’s easier than trying to find the library branch they “live” at.
tworivers
I’m about halfway through “Luna Park” (a graphic novel by Kevin Baker, with art by Danijel Zezelj) – it’s great so far.
Sarah in Brooklyn
I’m reading “An American Tragedy.” The title says it all. Great book. I expect I’ll be reading more Dreiser after this.
Richard Fox
@Yutsano:
This was a bio of the last Cleo, Gaius Octavius Thurinus and yes Marcus Antonius– they figure prominently, though all with anglicized spellings in the book, no fault of mine I assure you..
From this book I really got a sense of her character and quality of leadership, something I have not had seen front and center in most bios.
geg6
Got Keith’s “Life” for Christmas and it is an absolute delight. I flew through it in about two and a half days. His lyrical descriptions of discovering his five-string technique, the songwriting process, and joys of heroin are masterful. Loved it.
Am now onto Ken Follett’s “Fall of Giants,” always a fun novelist to read. On deck, I have “Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes” by Daniel D. Everett, a linguist who became one when he went to central Brazil to live with a small tribe of Amazonian Indians as a Christian missionary. His aim was to convert them, but instead became so obsessed with their language and its cultural and linguistic implications (no terms for color, no concept of war, no counting system, and no personal property) that he lost his faith in god and devoted his life to the science of linguistics. My sister, a communications prof, highly recommended it.
JPL
@Dee Loralei: I am so sorry for the loss of your friend. The family will appreciate any help that you can give. Please take care and know that you can always express your grief here. We got your back.
hunter
Reissues, reissues, reissues — Glen Cook, Michael Moorcock, Philip Jose Farmer. New collections of Fritz Leiber and Jack Vance. New Books by Elizabeth Bear, Jon F. Merz and Robert Silverberg. Comics, some pretentious enough to call themselves “graphic novels.” (In real life, I’m a reviewer.)
For fun, some manga, and dying to get back to/continue with Steven Erikson’s The Malazan Book of the Fallen — quite possibly the best contemporary heroic fantasy going, give or take Cook’s Black Company. Dark, bitter, and mordantly funny. (That one’s massive, and will easily keep you going all winter and into spring — 10 volumes, each longer than the last, and not a wasted word anywhere.)
martha
Thank you all for the great recommendations. I concur with Tana French–I loved her three books and do recommend starting with In the Woods (the first). Also just discovered Louise Penny and her Inspector Gamache and will be picking up more. I just finished a Victorian mystery by Charles Finch called A Beautiful Blue Death; I’ll definitely buy the second one. Engaging detective and interesting time period (London, mid-1800s).
I read for pure escapism since work makes me crazy. But the other site I read regularly is TNC. After reading all the excellent discussions about What God Hath Wrought by Daniel Walker Howe for the past year, it’s sitting on my desk. So it will be my “serious” read for 2011.
burnspbesq
@Tattoosydney:
Now we see the violence inherent in the system.
Steeplejack
@PurpleGirl:
I liked Journal of a Solitude. I read it a long time ago, along with a couple other books of hers. I think The House by the Sea was one. I admired Sarton’s go-it-alone spirit.
Steeplejack
@martha:
I liked A Beautiful Blue Death, but the second one (can’t remember the title) slowed down a bit for me. Haven’t made it past that one.
Betsy
Oh, what a good thread! I’m late to the party, but I’m currently reading (and loving) Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus. I’ve previously read her Wise Children which I adored. Both books are wild, imaginative, brilliantly written flights of fancy. High quality literature and so much fun at the same time.
Magatha
Dee Lorelai, I’m so sorry. It sounds like you are doing the right things. Other stuff to keep track of is that dishes get washed, there is plenty of paper towels and TP, that someone goes to the airport to pick up the parents, that a list of other people to be notified is made, and sleeping arrangements are made. There may be things scheduled for today that need attending to, like prescriptions to be picked up or laundry to be put in the dryer. And her daughter. Jeebus. She needs to have a change of clothes, and stuff available to do. Like paper and crayons. And until you know what the story is, you should probably keep your eyes and ears open for information that the other grieving people may not be able to notice.
matryoshka
I’m late to the party, too, Betsy, but what a great idea for a thread–got my list out and have added several already. I read all the damn time. I just started The Ghost Map by Steven Johnston. It’s about a cholera epidemic in 1860s London. I will pick up Fixing My Gaze (about vision and the brain) after that, and then Griftopia by Matt Taibbi.
TOP123
So surprised not to see this recommendation that it makes me wonder if I’m missing some long-established internet rule here: the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O’Brian. Not only are they great, but the series is long, so if you were to be snowed in for a week, you would still have plenty to read. The quality tails off toward the end (it is a 20+ book series), but the majority of the books are really good, with some real excellence in parts. For those who are initially leery of nautical novels or historical fiction, it’s worth knowing that the author considered Jane Austen his greatest influence. The books have not only action, adventure, and distant scenery, but have pages upon pages dedicated to discussion of art, music, culture, society, philosophy, science… I read and reread this series regularly.
Other things I pick up when I want a long read: Gibbon on Rome, the Illiad. Also, though I’ve often been somewhat baffled by him, Murukami Haruki is very, very diverting. If you read Latin, Caesar is the best, and I also recommend (in whatever language) Seutonius’ Lives of the Caesars, which is wonderful to read.
Further thoughts: Abe Kobo (Woman in the Dunes and Secret Rendezvous are two famous ones) and Oe Kenzaburo. Oe has a lot of great fiction and semi-biographical fiction (a lot of his work touches on the experience of having a special needs child), as well as a great book on the A-Bombing of Hiroshima.
JLM
Just finished John Adamsby David McCullough which was great. On to lighter reading now Furious Love a bio about Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton which is a lot of fun so far, Brangelina ain’t nothin in comparison.
@Matryoshka Read The Ghost Map last year. It sucked me in and made me think. My kind of book.
joe from Lowell
Knight’s Cross (a Rommel biography) and the fifth Harry Potter book.
TOP123
@joe from Lowell: Curious to get your review of the first.
Random books I picked up at the going-out-of-business sale at the used bookstore in the Berks this weekend and am looking forward to reading: New England Discovery, by Nancy Hale, and Mary Sia’s Chinese Cookbook (Honolulu, 1961, author inscription and notes on the Chinese characters in pen!). Others, but those are at the top o’ the pile.
Also, my brother got me a biography about Rep. Frank which I’m looking forward to.
TOP123
@Dee Loralei: Sounds like you’re already on your way to doing a great job. My two cents: be ready to be silent. People may want to talk, but they may also want to just sit there with a friend and not have to do anything. Small talk, medium talk, big talk, sometimes you just want to be silent. The amount of thought and care it sounds like you’ve already put into this are wonderful and, I’m sure, will be deeply appreciated. Good luck.
Steeplejack
@TOP123:
Well, the topic was what are you reading now, not necessarily what do you recommend. I read all the Aubrey-Maturin novels and consider them (taken together) a towering literary achievement–sort of Jane Austen meets Marcel Proust with guns and swords. Highly recommended, even for the “I hate swashbuckling” crowd. And, really, does anyone want to be a member of the “I hate swashbuckling” crowd?
I liked Abe’s The Face of Another and The Ruined Map. Haven’t read those in a long time, though.
TOP123
@Steeplejack: I guess I dwelt more on the recommendations part, not the reading now part. Whilst I am not reading POB now, I was a few months ago, and will doubtless soon be again. I try to read through once every year or so. More to the point, your comment is awesome. I would so hate to be in the hate swashbuckling crowd.
Tehanu
@CaseyL:
Try Norah Lofts’ book The Lute Player. It’s not a hagiographic picture of Eleanor but it is deeply believable.
I just finished Lois McMaster Bujold’s Cryoburn — not her greatest book, but enjoyable — and Connie Willis’s two-decker (i.e., 2-volume) novel, Blackout and All Clear. In fact, I enjoyed them all so much I read them twice.
Tehanu
@Ross Hershberger:
Loved Anathem and hadn’t really liked anything of his since Cryptonomicon — so I can recommend it highly. Also somebody mentioned Terry Pratchett and The Truth, which is the best satire on journalism I’ve ever read.