Whatcha reading?

[The Original Greaser Bob 2,888]

Interesting video (narrated by Cronkite) discussed in the book.

 

[salonghorn 216]

I am a big fan of spy novels. I read a lot of John Le Carre many years ago. I decided to go back and re-read the George Smiley novels in order.  Over the last several months, I read A Murder of Quality and A Call For the Dead. Currently reading what some have called the greatest spy novel ever written, The Spy Who Came In From the Cold. 

 

[CycleTex87 3,023]

@salonghorn What is the proper order for the George Smiley novels?

[Patricio Swayze 17,058]

I should read a lot more than I do. Currently reading Paul Bowles “Let it Come Down”.

[Hozz 1,035]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007GZKQTW/

Reading this series.  Historic Viking fiction.  Relatively short books that read pretty fast.

[Baboontyme 2,882]

Anyone finish the 1619 project? It's...not a very fun read. But learning a lot and only 100+ pgs in 

[salonghorn 216]

20 hours ago, CycleTex87 said:

@salonghorn What is the proper order for the George Smiley novels?

A Call For the Dead

 

A Murder of Quality

The Spy Who Came In From the Cold

The Looking Glass War

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy

The Honourable Schoolboy

Smiley's People

The Secret Pilgrim

The Legacy of Spies

 

Edited February 12, 2022 by salonghorn
spelling edit

[Post Oak 20,555]

On 1/25/2022 at 9:13 AM, Post Oak said:

 

Good to know. GIM is one of my favorite books of the last 10 years.  I'll adjust my expectations on Lincoln Highway and hopefully I'll be rewarded. I did the same with Rules of Civility and it worked out 

I gave it about 150 pages and gave up.  I was indifferent to every character.  

[CycleTex87 3,023]

Sad face

[CycleTex87 3,023]

It does pick up some steam in the second half. 

[4th&Five 41,986]

If you like Chuck and are a similar age (41) you’ll like this one. 
 

[Coach pop a bitch 5,974]

[Damor 1,246]

File under "What I'm gonna be reading."

Cormac McCarthy has two new interrelated novels coming in October and November:

https://lithub.com/cormac-mccarthy-is-publishing-two-new-novels-this-fall/

Spoiler

Sixteen years after he devastated absolutely everyone with The Road, Cormac McCarthy is publishing two linked novels this fall: The Passenger on October 25 and Stella Maris on November 22. (Or you can wait until December 6 to get your boxed set.)

Together, the novels tell the story of Bobby and Alicia Western, siblings and the children of one of the inventors of the atom bomb. The Passenger focuses on Bobby, “a salvage diver, haunted by loss, afraid of the watery deep, pursued for a conspiracy beyond his understanding, and longing for a death he cannot reconcile with God.” While diving at the site of a plane crash, Bobby discovers that one of the passengers, as well as the plane’s black box and the pilot’s flightbag, are missing.

Bobby becomes entangled in the mystery, while “shadowed in body and spirit—by men with badges; by the ghost of his father; and by his sister, the love and ruin of his soul.”

The sister, Alicia, is the protagonist of Stella Maris (and McCarthy’s first female protagonist). It’s told in a series of transcripts of conversations between Alicia and the psychiatrist at a facility where she is being treated for paranoid schizophrenia.

According to New York Times reporting, McCarthy delivered a full draft of Stella Maris and a partial draft of The Passenger to his editors at Knopf—who are extremely good at keeping secrets—eight years ago.

 

[futureman 22,691]

@TexArcher I have seen your posts in the past extolling the virtues of tolstoy. I have read some dostoevsky, not much, but enough to have an intimate appreciation for him. recently, though, I just finished resurrection, by tolstoy, and have just gotten into anna karenina. I am now inclined to agree with you. tolstoy has no equal. 

[TurkeyChew 383]

6 hours ago, futureman said:

@TexArcher I have seen your posts in the past extolling the virtues of tolstoy. I have read some dostoevsky, not much, but enough to have an intimate appreciation for him. recently, though, I just finished resurrection, by tolstoy, and have just gotten into anna karenina. I am now inclined to agree with you. tolstoy has no equal. 

I'll be the judge of that, as I just bought The Death of Ivan Illich.

[futureman 22,691]

10 minutes ago, TurkeyChew said:

I'll be the judge of that, as I just bought The Death of Ivan Illich.

you’ll be the judge of nothing. 

[NIUHuskies 505]

Pretty good book that take different approach in discussing the conquest of the West

[WBT 20,969]

I read this in anticipation of the series on Apple TV.  Pretty good spy story.  It's about a bunch of screwup English spies that are hidden away in a dead end department but find themselves involved in a domestic terrorist case.

[BehoId, The Underminer! 11,669]

I just read Lying and it is the worst book I’ve ever read but not for the usual reasons.

The thesis is all lies are bad, with very few caveats.

The author clearly thinks he’s smarter than everyone including both the reader of his book and the people he interacts with as described in the book.  He constantly recommends stupid distraction techniques (if you get a present and don’t like it, say “wow, where did you get this?” so you don’t have to say “wow, this is great!” If guests you don’t like are coming to stay with you, don’t say “glad you’ll be here this weekend,” say [actual example from the book] “that’s what guest rooms are for!” ). You’re supposed to always be outmaneuvering people in conversation. The narcissism that it takes to believe you can always do this three-card-monte in conversation and think the other person doesn’t understand that you’re intentionally not providing the information sought is incredible. They aren’t fooled.  They are letting you get away with it because THEY understand social lubricants.  And it’s not clear what being dishonest through his various techniques is better than dishonest through white lies. 

He creates hypotheticals to prove his point that are easily defeated. In the guests-coming-over one, the set up is there is a discussion beforehand where you tell your wife you aren’t excited to see these folks and don’t really enjoy their company.  Kid over hears this.  Kid points out your lie when you say “good to see you!” and causes embarrassment.   What a stupid hypothetical. What about the 1000 times in your life when you don’t confess immediately before that you think the opposite of a white lie to a person that doesn’t know how to exercise restraint in information he lets out?  Someone asks him if he looks fat.  The appropriate response is to say yes because the guy would be motivated to lose weight!  Well, what about the 1000 other questions where there is no associated health benefit.  Do you like my earrings? My new hair color? So dumb.  

Anyhow, the author comes across as someone who believes he is a master guru or something and doesn’t realize everyone around him is carrying the social load while he thinks he’s outwitting people. 

[George Clooney 378]

The book by Sam Harris? That's unsurprising, considering he's a complete charlatan. It's hilarious how he considers himself to be a philosopher since he merely obtained his BA in philosophy. He's also an Islamophobe, yet he'll dance around that accusation like a bitch any time someone accuses him of such. He and the majority of his fellow New Atheists are just dogmatists on the opposite pole of the religions they despise so much. He is everything wrong with the charlatan intellectual class in America today.

[TonyTexas 10,743]

Just released. It’s about the Irish and Italian mob in Providence. For those who don’t know him, Winslow wrote the Cartel Trilogy, which are excellent. 
 

[BehoId, The Underminer! 11,669]

22 hours ago, George Clooney said:

The book by Sam Harris? That's unsurprising, considering he's a complete charlatan. It's hilarious how he considers himself to be a philosopher since he merely obtained his BA in philosophy. He's also an Islamophobe, yet he'll dance around that accusation like a bitch any time someone accuses him of such. He and the majority of his fellow New Atheists are just dogmatists on the opposite pole of the religions they despise so much. He is everything wrong with the charlatan intellectual class in America today.

glad he is a recognized charlatan because i personally detested him reading it.  i have a a special hatred for people that demonstrate undeserved air of superiority.  morons convinced of their genius bug the hell out of me.  the whole book was 8th grade level argument argument after 8th grade level argument, with him thinking he was kant exposing universal truths.

re: islamaphobe.  i've noticed part and parcel to halfwits that are so impressed with their genius is aggressively loud atheism.  it seems like the easiest bait for those that love to condescend. it doesn't surprise me he loudly says anti-islamic stuff.

[BearSchlong 8,238]

delete post, ban user.

Edited April 30, 2022 by BearSchlong

[High Plains Drifter 11,186]

 

two chapters into this:

 

The setting is Northampton UK, at various times in the history of the city. Book is over 1200 pages long. Notice the dick on the cover.

Only two chapters in and its already a mind fuck. Angels, topology, near death experiences, time dilation, hallucinations, dreams that mean something but I can't figure out what, meditations on space-time, insanity, and higher order dimensions, plus incredible detail about the geography and life in Northampton in two different times (1860s and modern). I suspect other times will be covered as well.

I have to reread every page a couple of times to get everything, and even then, I feel like I'm missing stuff. I might be in over my head on this one.

 

 

[The Original Greaser Bob 2,888]

Just Kids by Patti Smith (2010)

I dug it.  She's a good writer.  Probably a bit too much in the way of dirty feet and head lice for my taste, but viva bohemia.

[The Original Greaser Bob 2,888]

Delete writer, ban book.

Edited May 2, 2022 by The Original Greaser Bob

[George Clooney 378]

2 hours ago, The Original Greaser Bob said:

Just Kids by Patti Smith (2010)

I dug it.  She's a good writer.  Probably a bit too much in the way of dirty feet and head lice for my taste, but viva bohemia.

That was one of the required texts in a lit class I took in college, and I generally enjoyed it as well. It's tragic to read about the deaths of so many (such as Robert Mapplethorpe) in the LGBT community from the AIDS epidemic.

[George Clooney 378]

On 4/30/2022 at 1:27 AM, High Plains Drifter said:

 

two chapters into this:

 

The setting is Northampton UK, at various times in the history of the city. Book is over 1200 pages long. Notice the dick on the cover.

Only two chapters in and its already a mind fuck. Angels, topology, near death experiences, time dilation, hallucinations, dreams that mean something but I can't figure out what, meditations on space-time, insanity, and higher order dimensions, plus incredible detail about the geography and life in Northampton in two different times (1860s and modern). I suspect other times will be covered as well.

I have to reread every page a couple of times to get everything, and even then, I feel like I'm missing stuff. I might be in over my head on this one.

 

 

This one is on my reading list, and I'll probably start it in about a month. For books as long as this one, I always force myself to meet a daily page requirement even if it hits a lull. 

[High Plains Drifter 11,186]

 

It definitely forces you to maintain focus. A page turner, its not.

Four chapters in. To the list above, add:

 

Spoiler

time-traveling ghosts

 

 

 

Edited May 2, 2022 by High Plains Drifter
added spoilers

[Biff Tannen 46,151]

West With Giraffes

 

I don’t read much fiction, but blazed through this in two days. It should be a movie and I’m betting will be. Austin area author. Depression era road trip novel. Loved it. 

Edited May 9, 2022 by Biff Tannen
Historical fiction

[futureman 22,691]

On 5/2/2022 at 12:29 AM, George Clooney said:

(such as Robert Mapplethorpe)

 

[WBT 20,969]

On 4/28/2022 at 5:34 PM, TonyTexas said:

Just released. It’s about the Irish and Italian mob in Providence. For those who don’t know him, Winslow wrote the Cartel Trilogy, which are excellent. 
 

About 2/3rd through this one.  Nothing groundbreaking but pretty entertaining.

[TonyTexas 10,743]

1 minute ago, WBT said:

About 2/3rd through this one.  Nothing groundbreaking but pretty entertaining.

I hate it when authors do the money grab and turn what is essentially one story into multiple books. This is the 1st of 3. Jeffrey Archer does this a lot. 

[Post Oak 20,555]

Just finished this one.  It's a series based on Scot who is living in America during the French Indian War.  He lives in the seams between the natives, French and British.  They're entertaining and a decent read.

 

 

Started this one.  So far so good. I'm a few chapters in.

jpg

I read too much nonfiction, it's nice to just read fiction every now and then to cleanse my palette.

[TonyTexas 10,743]

9 minutes ago, Post Oak said:

Just finished this one.  It's a series based on Scot who is living in America during the French Indian War.  He lives in the seams between the natives, French and British.  They're entertaining and a decent read.

 

 

Started this one.  So far so good. I'm a few chapters in.

jpg

I read too much nonfiction, it's nice to just read fiction every now and then to cleanse my palette.

Iggulden’s Conqueror series on the Mongols is really good as is the Empire series about Rome. 

Edited May 10, 2022 by TonyTexas

[Post Oak 20,555]

1 hour ago, TonyTexas said:

Iggulden’s Conqueror series on the Mongols is really good as is the Empire series about Rome. 

Thanks. I'm enjoying this one so far.

[Vegas64 713]

Anyone read any Joshua Cohen? He's been one of the more interesting writers for the last 7 or 8 years (and is even the recipient of one of the best critical review burns), and he's been on my radar as I've been wanting to read Book of Numbers for a while.

He just won this year's Pulitzer with a book that is supposed to be flat out amazing. I've ordered it today:

https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/joshua-cohen

[The Original Greaser Bob 2,888]

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson (2003) (Audio)

He's just a flat out terrific goddamn writer, but ultimately the promise of the first few chapters sort of faded away, and while it was good and interesting story throughout, it didn't have the dramatic, simple arc of Isaac's Storm (to be honest, I may have just wanted more gore.)  Did learn a hell of a lot and lots of interesting factoids. 

[Hozz 1,035]

Oh man I thought Devil in the White City was fantastic.  I thought it was his best work.  I liked Dead Wake a lot too.  Didn't like the Hitler one at all.  All the rest I enjoyed.

 

[The Original Greaser Bob 2,888]

29 minutes ago, Hozz said:

Oh man I thought Devil in the White City was fantastic.  I thought it was his best work.  I liked Dead Wake a lot too.  Didn't like the Hitler one at all.  All the rest I enjoyed.

 

Have Thunderstruck on the tablet.

[MoJames 8,258]

Need a recommendation re: audiobook

Have some summer trips coming up and need something to put on for the wife and I that the 6 and 9 year old might or might not enjoy but at the same time wouldn't be inappropriate if they did start listening.

In the past year I've revisited Dune, Dune Messiah, Children of Dune, River Runs Through it and Other Stories, Ghost Wars, Ready Player One, Slaughterhouse Five, The Eye of the World to give you an idea of what I'm enjoying. Currently listening to The Stand (obviously not appropriate for kiddos). Wife and I in the past had listened to the Dan Brown stuff and some Clive Cussler to get through trips.

Tried Ready Player Two, but lost interest, but maybe something like that? I was thinking about Jurrasic Park, bc the kids are way into the movies right now, but the wife suggested a baby dies in the book. I honestly don't remember that.

I'm tired of Harry Potter, but that currently is our back up plan.

Thoughts?

[BearSchlong 8,238]

Have Thunderstruck on the tablet.

Great book. Speaks to my inner telecommunications geek child.

[BearSchlong 8,238]

Strange request, but can anyone recommend books on AI, neural networks, and machine learning?

Maybe thow in some Kubernetes and cloud computing for good measure?

I just changed industries and need total immersion.

[Damor 1,246]

@MoJames Have you read Project Hail Mary?  If you liked The Martian and Ready Player One, it's in that geeky humor vein.  Also, the main character is a teacher and therefore has conditioned himself not to swear (though I think he slips a time or two and some other characters do), and while it may or may not hold the kids' attention, I don't remember anything glaringly inappropriate.  And the audio version is pretty well done.

I'm also up for any road trip audiobook suggestions, but I've got a 14 and 17yo and am a bad parent, so we're less concerned.  I was thinking about A Confederacy of Dunces.

[MoJames 8,258]

Thanks Damor. I haven't even read The Martian. Should I start there or go to Project Hail Mary?

Honestly when I was about 16 was when I got deep into Michael Crichton books and there are tons. I have a soft spot for Sphere.

Edited May 13, 2022 by MoJames

[MoJames 8,258]

Nvm, realized the book is based on the Matt Damon movie.

[Mrs Whiggins 13,050]

2 hours ago, MoJames said:

Need a recommendation re: audiobook

Have some summer trips coming up and need something to put on for the wife and I that the 6 and 9 year old might or might not enjoy but at the same time wouldn't be inappropriate if they did start listening.

In the past year I've revisited Dune, Dune Messiah, Children of Dune, River Runs Through it and Other Stories, Ghost Wars, Ready Player One, Slaughterhouse Five, The Eye of the World to give you an idea of what I'm enjoying. Currently listening to The Stand (obviously not appropriate for kiddos). Wife and I in the past had listened to the Dan Brown stuff and some Clive Cussler to get through trips.

Tried Ready Player Two, but lost interest, but maybe something like that? I was thinking about Jurrasic Park, bc the kids are way into the movies right now, but the wife suggested a baby dies in the book. I honestly don't remember that.

I'm tired of Harry Potter, but that currently is our back up plan.

Thoughts?

Oh the Harry Potter mention brought back some memories. When ours were that age we traveled on a long road trip to see family further north and The Goblet of Fire was one of the audiobooks we brought along. My husband always did voices whenever it was his turn to read the books aloud (at home) and I can't recall who was the narrator for our audiotape copy, but for the rest of their lives all my husband has to say is "Who will milk Naaaaagini?" and the family just howls with laughter. Yes we are weird like that, but in our defense, we've always driven small passenger cars so our children get along pretty well. Otherwise they'd be singing for their supper at the nearest Quik Trip to mile marker 320.

This is going to sound highbrow, but if you can find an audiobook version of Tales From Shakespeare (by Charles Lamb), my kids loved that book, and it is not a bad read for adults. Another old one: A Wrinkle in Time (this worked well for us because it has both strong boy and girl characters so the son who claimed he didn't like girl protagonists was mollified).  My next oldest read a lot of Orson Scott Card, too.

Cosmos (one of my favorites!) and other Carl Sagan works can provide some food for thought tangential to the sci-fi and fantasy novels. Code Girls (by Liza Mundy) for a story not so well known about WWII.

There are some celebrity narrators that have some audiobooks out, too. Benedict Cumberbatch narrates the John Taylor version of Sherlock Holmes' Rediscovered Railway Mysteries. He also narrates The Order of Time, which will probably put the youngest to sleep during the more complicated parts. My husband enjoyed it but he's also in the STEM fields and that's his jam. I love science but honestly my jam is a little different, but Cumberbatch has a splendid voice so it worked and the less technical prose was quite entertaining. David Suchet (such a good Poirot) narrates at least one Agatha Christie novel (I think those would be okay? It's been awhile since I've read Christie), as has actor Dan Stevens (another one with a pleasant reading voice) who has done several. Stevens has a version of both The Odyssey and The Iliad and those are worthwhile. My youngest was so fond of the Odyssey that movies like O Brother Where Art Thou  are some of his faves now because he enjoyed learning how people interpret topics in different ways.

I'll try and remember to ask my spouse for some recs because he's read all of the books you listed for the past year and his preferences sound more similar to yours. He also has every book Mark Helprin has written but as I haven't read any of them I have no idea if they have any NSF children material in them.

On one trip we had a whole bunch of Hank The Cowdog audiobooks and while those a definitely children's books, we had a lot of fun with them.

 

[Damor 1,246]

The Martian book predates the movie (and is much funnier), and is totally unrelated to Project Hail Mary.  Wouldn't recommend The Martian as an audiobook for young ears.

[Macanudo 13,314]

I picked up Deighton's Blood, Tears and Folly about WWII.    It's basically a primer on the lead up to the war and then until 1941 when the U.S. came in (officially.)   Reviews tend to call it pedestrian and filled with stuff that someone who knows about WWII already know.   I consider myself a pretty decent student of that war but still learned a bit.   He focuses a lot on the British ineptitudes, both leading up to the war and during those early years.   It was a good read for the most part.

I'm halfway through Robert Graves' Goodbye to a River.  Graves grew up hunting, fishing and generally hanging out on the Brazos between Possum Kingdom and Glen Rose.  He took later trip as an adult.   He intermingles telling the story about the experience along with the history and legends of the people who lived along the river.   There's a lot of emphasis on the Comanches and old settlers who braved living out there.   He wrote the book in 1959 and it's still a great book to get a view on what some would think is a relatively "boring" part of the state.  It really captivates the wanderlust of exploration, pleasant melancholy of revisiting the places of our youth along with the sadness of how the world expands and leaves the past behind.  

[Post Oak 20,555]

On 5/12/2022 at 9:33 AM, The Original Greaser Bob said:

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson (2003) (Audio)

He's just a flat out terrific goddamn writer, but ultimately the promise of the first few chapters sort of faded away, and while it was good and interesting story throughout, it didn't have the dramatic, simple arc of Isaac's Storm (to be honest, I may have just wanted more gore.)  Did learn a hell of a lot and lots of interesting factoids. 

This one didn't do much for me either.  It was fine.  I think The Splendid and The Vile is his best.  

Really liked Isaacs Storm too