Whatcha reading?

[Seasick Sailor 3747]

Been on a Russian lit kick. Finished Dead Souls, Notes from Underground, The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, and Anna Karenina. Reading The Double now. Have The Gambler and War and Peace on deck.  

[WholesomeChungusSocialist 3]

Have never been able to get into Dostoevsky, — I think Nabokov was right to call him Russia’s greatest playwright who never was — but love the rest of that list, especially Anna Karenina, maybe the greatest novel ever written.

[BearSchlong 8087]

Been on a Russian lit kick. Finished Dead Souls, Notes from Underground, The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, and Anna Karenina. Reading The Double now. Have The Gambler and War and Peace on deck.  

How long you in for? Need money for commissary?

[BigOrange1 6436]

i've been reading this lately.  prequel to the godfather.  primary characters are 17 year old sonny corleone and 35 year old luca brasi.  i'm about 200 pages in and am very much enjoying it.

[The Original Greaser Bob 2830]

About halfway through the three volumes (audio - roughly 60 hours) of The Power Broker by Robert Caro. 

There are no words that I can come up to describe how brilliant this whole endeavor is.  Caro basically can do a brilliant mini-novel to disfunctional brotherhood, followed by a laughably readable tome on transit authorities, followed by a heartbreaking short history of the distruction of colonial New York.

99% Invisible is doing a "read along" this year of the book, which should be fun -- I'm a huge Roman Mars fan - dudes radio voice and laugh just make me smile.  Here is the first "intro" intstallment with Conan O'Brien, who is a huge Caro fan.

https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/breaking-down-the-power-broker/

 

The Lyndon Johnson biographies are arguably the greatest books I've ever read.  And now this.

 

Edited January 8 by The Original Greaser Bob

[WholesomeChungusSocialist 3]

Yeah, Caro is a great talent. Just my opinion, but I think this writer named Peter Watson, who recently came out with one of my all-time favorite reads, The French Mind: 400 Years of Romance, Revolution, and Renewal, is an even better literary historian/journalist, which is ofc a huge pedestal granted. Keep in mind I'm a Francophile, so I'm biased. But maybe not, because something even good but lackluster would be instantly forgettable.

Again, still gigantic respect to Caro. He's widely-read, but still not close to enough, given his talent. Just where we're at as a country, so be it.

[NorthLoop 14194]

On 12/7/2023 at 12:12 PM, NorthLoop said:

Kind of ashamed that I've lived 41 years as a Texan and never read Lonesome Dove. 

 

But I started it last night. 

 

On 12/7/2023 at 12:19 PM, TonyTexas said:

I’m jealous. I’ve probably read it 4 times, the first being well before the TV series came out. It was a revelation. 

 

On 12/11/2023 at 11:09 AM, FirstTimeCaller said:

Same boat in that I've made is this far without reading it. Lemme know your thoughts.

 

On 12/13/2023 at 12:11 AM, YuppiesOfftheEastSide said:

*Lonesome Dove* is so good. Definitely read it before the others in the series, even though they're out of chronological order. 

I've never gotten around to the miniseries though. Glad I read it before I had those actors' faces in my head. Good casting though

Finally finished last night. What a great epic western. It had everything. The character development is off the charts - for every single character, including the women. 

I'm glad he didn't go with his original title ideas, "The 22 Worst Ways to Die on a Cattle Drive" or "Everyone Between the Rio Grande and Montana Knows Each Other: Amazing Coincidences on the Plains" 

[Coach pop a bitch 5459]

[BigOrange1 6436]

On 1/6/2024 at 2:44 PM, BigOrange1 said:

i've been reading this lately.  prequel to the godfather.  primary characters are 17 year old sonny corleone and 35 year old luca brasi.  i'm about 200 pages in and am very much enjoying it.

finished this up the other night - strongly recommend for any fans of The Godfather.

[SimonBolivar 10958]

On 1/22/2024 at 12:11 AM, BeardIP said:

It was published in 1605 (again, didn't realize it was so old) which isn't too far after Shakespeare.

 

Shakespeare was still active and doing some of his best work in and around 1605 (Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth).

[Coach pop a bitch 5459]

12 hours ago, SimonBolivar said:

Shakespeare was still active and doing some of his best work in and around 1605 (Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth).

Both died on the same day too. 

[Rimbo 25921]

Picked up a great horror story from the library today.

 

 

And yeah, the first half of the book, I'd definitely describe as being the horror genre.

She didn't really have a real friend until after the FBI sting: Her lawyer.

 

Quote

Years later, she told me that when I walked into her office she immediately understood how it all happened. She said the first thing she thought was "My God, what a beautiful young girl -- those assholes."

 

And they all were. From her parents and their friends to her (ICK) stepdad to her peers to the folks in the industry to the FBI. Everyone wanted to exploit her and use her.

[Mrs Whiggins 13050]

Picked this up at the library but it was disappointing. I didn't care for the writing style much at all. I wasn't looking for gossip, but more in depth information on the structure (which is touched on some) but for a critic who has spent a number of years writing, I was expecting something cohesive and it just wasn't.

[Red Five 40854]

I'm reading The Exchange by Grisham. It's a sequel to The Firm and the first Grisham book I've read in probably 10 years.

It's not very good. 

[Rimbo 25921]

3 hours ago, Red Five said:

I'm reading The Exchange by Grisham. It's a sequel to The Firm and the first Grisham book I've read in probably 10 years.

It's not very good. 

He wasn't ever a great writer, that I recall; he just had some pretty fun ideas in the beginning, even though those first two books were both basically revenge porn fantasies. Now we have Reddit for all your amateur revenge porn fantasy fiction needs (r/MaliciousCompliance, r/AITA, r/pettyrevenge, etc).

 

Edited February 7 by Rimbo

[Red Five 40854]

31 minutes ago, Rimbo said:

He wasn't ever a great writer, that I recall; he just had some pretty fun ideas in the beginning, even though those first two books were both basically revenge porn fantasies. Now we have Reddit for all your amateur revenge porn fantasy fiction needs (r/MaliciousCompliance, r/AITA, r/pettyrevenge, etc).

 

He was a good storyteller. I've probably only read half of his books and nothing recent, but I'm about 100 pages into The Exchange and it's pretty much garbage. It reads like someone off the street ghost wrote it for him. 

Edit: I looked up the reviews. Holy shit. 

Edited February 7 by Red Five

[NoName 16351]

3 hours ago, Red Five said:

I'm reading The Exchange by Grisham. It's a sequel to The Firm and the first Grisham book I've read in probably 10 years.

It's not very good. 

he absolutely should go the Patterson route (harder) or even Cussler (easier read.) write some level of an outline, let the other person finish it.

we're probably 10 years past the last book i like from him - Gray Mountain, which he spent 95% of the book creating a great world then killed it in like 10 pages. i absolutely believe he was going to write a follow up and something happened/changed.

yeah, he has not been great since.

[Red Five 40854]

18 minutes ago, NoName said:

he absolutely should go the Patterson route (harder) or even Cussler (easier read.) write some level of an outline, let the other person finish it.

we're probably 10 years past the last book i like from him - Gray Mountain, which he spent 95% of the book creating a great world then killed it in like 10 pages. i absolutely believe he was going to write a follow up and something happened/changed.

yeah, he has not been great since.

There's no way he needs money. But it seems like it. So many passages like this:

Mitch had a rough day at the office, at the law firm where he works, as a lawyer. His wife Abby was waiting on him when he got home, with a bottle of wine, which they both like to drink. After a brief conversation, they loaded their two children into the car to go get dinner. They all had pizza. (end of chapter)

[Rimbo 25921]

So I finished the Traci Lords book in a day. Surprisingly, she wrote the whole thing herself. You can tell, because she includes a snapshot of her journal in the book, and the writing style is the same. Not bad for a high school dropout. Book has been criticized for... well, playing fast and loose with the facts, but it's easy to imagine that those making those claims might have ulterior motives or more than a little bit butthurt.

Now reading Rob Halford's autobiography. I've had to look up some of the British slang. And why am I now 2-for-2 on childhood tales of pederasty? Halford's childhood wasn't awful, and he makes it clear that while these incidents confused him ("is this what relationships with men is going to be like?" kinda thing), this isn't going to be a sob story.

[TonyTexas 10510]

On 2/3/2024 at 6:30 PM, Rimbo said:

Picked up a great horror story from the library today.

Somewhat surprised that, in the current book banning environment, a public library made the Traci Lords book available. 

Edited February 7 by TonyTexas

[Rimbo 25921]

6 minutes ago, TonyTexas said:

Somewhat surprised that, in the current book banning environment, a public library made the Traci Lords book available. 

I don't live in Texas. This used to make me feel bad; I'm liking being stuck away from home a lot more with each passing news story.

Needles to slay, the book banning fad hasn't really caught on around here.

 

[Mrs Whiggins 13050]

Another recent read from the library. Roxane Gay is a contributing writer to the NYT among other publications and this is a collection of her essays published in several sources over the last few years. A perspective outside of the realm of my own lived experience.

[The Original Greaser Bob 2830]

William Tecumseh Sherman: In the Service of My Country: A Life Hardcover – June 14, 2016

by James Lee McDonough (Author)

 

In audio.

 

Did not like.  The recent great slog of a biography of Grant got me motivated to read a biography of Sherman, but this wasn't the one. It all felt very cursory and to me lacked depth.  Mabye Ron Chernow liked Sherman more than Sherman deserved.

 

Sherman's wife seemed like a beating.

[Coach pop a bitch 5459]

1 hour ago, The Original Greaser Bob said:

William Tecumseh Sherman: In the Service of My Country: A Life Hardcover – June 14, 2016

by James Lee McDonough (Author)

 

In audio.

 

Did not like.  The recent great slog of a biography of Grant got me motivated to read a biography of Sherman, but this wasn't the one. It all felt very cursory and to me lacked depth.  Mabye Ron Chernow liked Sherman more than Sherman deserved.

 

Sherman's wife seemed like a beating.

This is the one.

[Seasick Sailor 3747]

Started Les Miserables last week. About a quarter of the way through it. Really enjoying it so far. 

[CycleTex87 2969]

Read both Les Mis and War & Peace.  Hugo and Tolstoy can both take off on 100 pages of tangential stuff to the main story.  Really dense books with a great window on European history. 

[Hellraiser97 181]

In addition to what I wrote on the SciFi Thread (Second book of the Stormlight Series), which is all on Audible, I've been reading through How to Become a Rainmaker and Atomic Habits and trying to put those lessons into practice in my day to day life.

[The Original Greaser Bob 2830]

Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter (2021)

I thought one of the better books on the current fitness/mindfulness etc. zeitgeist.  I thought the parts on nutrition and contemplation of death were particularly good nuggets, if covered move fully elsewhere.

 

[Post Oak 20210]

My first Neil Gaiman book.  It's light, enjoyable and an easy read.

American Gods is next.

[Mrs Whiggins 13050]

I am almost finished with this book and while it seems gimmicky from the cover, it was a good read. It's organized by numbers, beginning with lists of threes, all the way to 24 (I think the last one is the Greek alphabet). It skips a few numbers at the end, and the bulk of the lists cover the numbers you would expect: 3, 5, 7, 10, and 12 covering a wide range of topics from the Trinity, Newton's Laws of Motion, to the Furies, to types of triangles, quarks, battles, etc. Each list goes into some detail and for the ones with which I was familiar, a good refresher, and others exposed gaps in my education/knowledge. A pretty extensive bibliography/reference at the end as well. It's not a difficult read, but easy to set down and pick up again.

 

[Mrs Whiggins 13050]

Since it had been mentioned here, I checked this one out and have begun reading:

[BearSchlong 8087]

This is absolutely hilarious and terrifying

[Coach pop a bitch 5459]

[Mrs Whiggins 13050]

I am about halfway through and enjoying God Save Texas. While I understand @GreenspointTexas comment about namedropping (from the Texas books thread); it works for me because it gave me some new areas to explore in the future. I enjoyed his short bit on LBJ, as well as Ann Richards and Molly Ivins. I need to read more about the last two. Bold, smart, and sassy, where are those rabblerouser types today in Texas?

 

[GreenspointTexas 9600]

14 hours ago, Coach pop a bitch said:

Long and a bit dry (and uses old school racial/cultural syntax), but a standard bearer of Texas History, even today

[Post Oak 20210]

 

I like Cain's books because they're lean and well written.  Although I like Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett better.

This book was just ok for me.  Double Indemnity is better.  

[Mrs Whiggins 13050]

1 hour ago, Post Oak said:

 Although I like Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett better.

When I was in high school I read a lot of Raymond Chandler; I should go back and reread them. Back then (hs) the mystery/detective genre was something I really enjoyed diving into when school work or teen drama was ugh. Dashiell Hammett, too, but also the great Agatha Christie and for some reason I really enjoyed Martha Grimes (she wrote the Richard Jury books named after pubs and I wanted to run away and marry Melrose Plant, because he was witty and smart and high school girls are like that sometimes.) and P.D. James (police commander Adam Dalgleish).

[mdmost 43001]

Finished Empire of the Summer Moon. What a fantastic read. Brutal, breathtaking, tragic. Going to move next to Hymns of the Republic as I was wanting to dive more into Civil War history.

Edited February 29 by mdmost

[NorthLoop 14194]

Figured I'd read Streets of Laredo since I finished off Lonesome Dove in January. Almost done with it - but man, this book is bleak. I'm gonna need something funny and uplifting after this one. 

[Mrs Whiggins 13050]

Of the four books I've read recently, (Burn It Down, Opinions, What Are The Seven Wonders Of The World, and God Save Texas); it's been brought to my attention (family dinner table conversation) that I've got a rather eclectic taste in reading materials but I'm taking that as a compliment. Of the four most recent, I've liked the last two the best. I'm set to read former WH photographer Pete Souza's pretty book Obama: An Intimate Portrait (2017) on former president Barack Obama next. I've been wanting to grab that one from the library for a while. What a job that must be, to photograph presidents.

[UpperWestside 6163]

A manager at work recommended this book to me recently. He lent me the copy that he said his wife reads at least once a year. It’s outside of what I normally read about, but I found it really interesting and engaging to read. I see why his wife enjoys reading it regularly. I would recommend this one, especially when thinking about what we went through with COVID.

[Red Five 40854]

If someone told me that they read a book about the Black Plague at least once a year, I'd probably walk away slowly, Homer Simpson into the bushes style.

[UpperWestside 6163]

37 minutes ago, Red Five said:

If someone told me that they read a book about the Black Plague at least once a year, I'd probably walk away slowly, Homer Simpson into the bushes style.

Well he told me his wife enjoys the macabre so it fits her personality. Honestly the book was really engaging and written in a way that does make me eventually want to reread it myself. Showing the various iterations of the plague and how and where they originated (And still survive at)  made for some pretty compelling storytelling. So many different things had to happen all at once for the plague to be as deadly as it was. It was a perfect storm of unfortunate events. Again this is outside of my normal reading, but I’m glad I read it and learned a good bit about a really brutal period of history.

Edited March 3 by UpperWestside

[CycleTex87 2969]

Started All the Pretty Horses.  Engaging. 

[The Original Greaser Bob 2830]

On 2/29/2024 at 9:02 AM, NorthLoop said:

igured I'd read Streets of Laredo since I finished off Lonesome Dove in January. Almost done with it - but man, this book is bleak. I'm gonna need something funny and uplifting after this one.

Yep.  No country for old men.

Below is still the funniest book I've read in the last few years.  Just an incredible portrait of his mom and dad.  And as a Coen Bros fan, I loved the stuff on the Coen's early days.

Barry Sonnenfeld, Call Your Mother: Memoirs of a Neurotic Filmmaker 2020

[The Original Greaser Bob 2830]

Going Zero - by Anthony McCarten (2023) (Audio)

Meh.  Great idea for a novel.  Starts out fine, cleverness peters out in the last 1/3.  Dialogue stilted.  Narrator on audio not great.  Technology perfunctory.  (Probably sexist, but women narrators trying to differentiate between male characters run into trouble.  You don't sound like a man in the first place, so why try to not sound like a man ten different ways.)

The movie will hopefully clean that up.

[Mrs Whiggins 13050]

Obama: An Intimate Portrait  (2017) was worth checking out from the library just to remember so many events from the former President's two terms. Souza took some great, great photos.

 

Almost through with former congressperson (IL) Adam Kinzinger's Renegade, which was released last year. Kinzinger was one of ten Republicans that voted for former President Donald Trump's impeachment (the second one) after the events of January 6th. He was in his office in an adjacent building when the Capitol was breached. Writing is a little stilted (although he had a co-author).

 

[Coach pop a bitch 5459]

On 3/3/2024 at 1:00 PM, CycleTex87 said:

Started All the Pretty Horses.  Engaging. 

Loved it. I love the small mentions of San Antonio, being thats where I'm from.

[NeverMarryAStripper 21901]

Just finished this prelude to the future of our country

[Mrs Whiggins 13050]

2 hours ago, NeverMarryAStripper said:

Just finished this prelude to the future of our country

That's on my list but I'm a high number on the library holds for it so I'll have to wait my turn.

About 3 chapters in on this one, At The Existentialist Cafe: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails by Sarah Bakewell. I have zero background in philosophy and a post by @safe sex that mentioned Sartre intrigued me so here I am.