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Whatcha readin now? (book, books, reading, read) (2 Viewers)

The Invention of Sound by Chuck Palahniuk. It's been a while since I've read anything of his, not sure why I've put it off. This is dark, and typically absurd. I enjoyed it, but I'm still collecting my thoughts on the end. I think some of the narrative was purposely unreliable. If anyone wants to discuss I'd like to.

Next up is Dune. Have never read it.
 
kupcho1 said:
kupcho1 said:
1933's The Store by T.S. Stribling
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:hot:

So I'm reading this book on-line as my library doesn't have it. I'm rolling along and come to a stop. "This preview does not include pages 26 - 29" What? Apparently the book isn't (fully) available on google books either. Let's look elsewhere; perhaps I'll buy it.
Nope.
Cheapest option is $40. Most of the available inventory are hundreds if not thousands of dollars for 1st editions, signed copies, etc.

I guess I will skip this one for now. In the event I live long enough to finish all of the others, I plan on purchasing the book and closing out the series with it.
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You can borrow it from the Internet Archive if you don't mind renewing it every hour

archive.org

The store : T.S. Stribling : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

archive.org
 
Have an hour or two left on my second Wheel of Time reread in 18 months. Read all the Foundation books and some other stuff during that time. May start Narnia or some other classic Scifi this weekend if anyone has any ideas.
 
Bleak.

That's my 1 word summary of 1935's winner Now in November by Josephine Winslow Johnson. Unrelentingly bleak, if you need 2 words.

Queue Stefon: It's got everything: suicide, the Dust Bowl, depression (both mental and economic), unrequited love, fire, burn victims, poverty.
Hell, even the passage about a birthday celebration ends with the death of the family dog. By knife.

Although well written, this might have been the most depressing book I've ever read. It makes McCarthy's The Road seem like a Bob Hope/Bing Crosby road picture.

41 down, 57 to go.
Next up: Honey in the Horn by H.L. Davis
 
Currently reading Percival Everett’s James. Huck Finn told from the perspective of Jim. So good. Early favorite for book of the year.
 
I just finished Honey in the Horn by H.L. Davis, the 1936 Pulitzer Prize winner. What a great book. It's the story of Oregon in the homesteading period: 1906-1908. Told mainly through the eyes of Clay Calvert, its a little bit analogous to Arrowsmith (Sinclair Lewis) the winner from 10 years previous in that instead of outlining pretty much everything a doctor might experience (Arrowsmith), Honey in the Horn covers everything a homesteader in turn of the 20th century Oregon might experience.

From the jacket cover, The Christian Science Monitor thought it smacked of Bret Harte, Mark Twain -- and Paul Bunyan. I don't get the Paul Bunyan refernce as it isn't a tall tale, nor do I get the Bret Harte allusion as I've not ready him. However, I think the Twain comparison is apt. Let me share a brief passage:

"The proprietor was generally a man who was not able to make a living without that extra revenue, and in most cases he was afflicted by some handicap like a missing limb or twelve children or political ambitions or weakmindedness. The handicap of Clay's employer was piety."

Anyway, strong recommendation on this one.

Next up would be Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, but I've read that already. Instead, I've signed up for the Internet Archive (thanks @Eephus !) and I'll read The Store the 1933 winner by T. S. Stribling.

42 down/56 to go
 
Starting Eye of the World AGAIN, lol. I think this will be my third read through, but possibly it's the fourth. I love the Wheel of Time books so much, why does the TV series have to suxor so bad?
 
Last few fiction books I've read...

The Woman in the Window
Dark Matter
No Exit
The Kind Worth Killing

Suspense my go to genre for an escape, easy reads which you can breeze through
 
I finally managed to finish The Store, the 1933 winner by T. S. Stribling. I don't know how you guys that use Kindles or other electronic methods can do it. Having to read this book on-line went at a snail's pace (and I'm probably doing a disservice to snails).

Anyway, it was not like Confederacy of Dunces as I foolishly though based on the hilarious first passage. But it wasn't bad. Turns out it is the 2nd book in the Aiden trilogy (I did a little research after finishing the book). I don't think you need to read the other books to get this one. It is a pretty straightforward story about the Reconstruction/post-Reconstruction south (Alabama). But given how hard it is to find, I would not recommend it.

Now, back to chronological order: 1938's The Late George Apley: A Novel in the Form of a Memoir by J.P. Marquand
 
Area 51, An uncensored history of America’s Top Secret Military Base by Annie Jacobsen

I listened to an interview with Annie on Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History about her new book on nuclear weapons, it sounded fascinating. Local library doesn’t have the nuke book yet so I took a shot at this one. I could probably learned all this watching the History channel but I knew basically nothing about the U2 spy plane, Ox Cart program, and drone development. Really enjoyed this book and plan on reading her book about the CIA. This is not my normal reading topic, but I’m hooked now.
 
TheFatKid said:
Area 51, An uncensored history of America’s Top Secret Military Base by Annie Jacobsen

I listened to an interview with Annie on Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History about her new book on nuclear weapons, it sounded fascinating. Local library doesn’t have the nuke book yet so I took a shot at this one. I could probably learned all this watching the History channel but I knew basically nothing about the U2 spy plane, Ox Cart program, and drone development. Really enjoyed this book and plan on reading her book about the CIA. This is not my normal reading topic, but I’m hooked now.
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Me too, I ordered all her books. Starting with the most recent one in a few weeks, Nuclear War.
 
beer 30 said:
TheFatKid said:
Area 51, An uncensored history of America’s Top Secret Military Base by Annie Jacobsen

I listened to an interview with Annie on Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History about her new book on nuclear weapons, it sounded fascinating. Local library doesn’t have the nuke book yet so I took a shot at this one. I could probably learned all this watching the History channel but I knew basically nothing about the U2 spy plane, Ox Cart program, and drone development. Really enjoyed this book and plan on reading her book about the CIA. This is not my normal reading topic, but I’m hooked now.
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Me too, I ordered all her books. Starting with the most recent one in a few weeks, Nuclear War.
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Awesome can’t wait to hear back as to what you think. I’m getting the cia book tonight.
 
I just finished The Late George Apley: A Novel in the Form of a Memoir by John Phillips Marquand, the 1938 Pulitzer Prize winner. I went into the book without doing any research into either the novel or the author. Initially, I really hated it. It wasn't over the top in terms of highlighting the virtues of the upper class Bostonian, but it was a near thing. After a chapter or two, I thought: this has to be satire. But if it was, it had such a light touch as to make me wonder.
Turns out, it was satire and to that end, pretty well done. I'm not sure the author intended this reader to hate Boston, the upper class, Harvard, closed-minded individuals as much as I did, but that was the end result.
If you are a Bostonian, you'll probably love this book, particularly if you're from the "bluestocking" class.
That's 44 down, 54 to go.

Next up: one I've at least heard of, The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
 
“Cloud Cuckoo Land” by Anthony Doerr is a mess of a book. Enjoyed “All the Light We Cannot See.” For this one, he tried weaving together about five different stories over different timelines and just a jumbled monstrosity of a novel.
 
kupcho1 said:
I just finished Honey in the Horn by H.L. Davis, the 1936 Pulitzer Prize winner. What a great book. It's the story of Oregon in the homesteading period: 1906-1908. Told mainly through the eyes of Clay Calvert, its a little bit analogous to Arrowsmith (Sinclair Lewis) the winner from 10 years previous in that instead of outlining pretty much everything a doctor might experience (Arrowsmith), Honey in the Horn covers everything a homesteader in turn of the 20th century Oregon might experience.

From the jacket cover, The Christian Science Monitor thought it smacked of Bret Harte, Mark Twain -- and Paul Bunyan. I don't get the Paul Bunyan refernce as it isn't a tall tale, nor do I get the Bret Harte allusion as I've not ready him. However, I think the Twain comparison is apt. Let me share a brief passage:

"The proprietor was generally a man who was not able to make a living without that extra revenue, and in most cases he was afflicted by some handicap like a missing limb or twelve children or political ambitions or weakmindedness. The handicap of Clay's employer was piety."

Anyway, strong recommendation on this one.
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My grandfather was born in Canyon City, OR and met my grandmother in John Day, OR. They essentially were my surrogate parents-----they relayed so many stories to me about their time in eastern Oregon before moving to Portland and then Seattle. My wife and I finally spent a couple days in that region a few years ago and have been wanting to go back for more time.

My wife is an author who reads voraciously and is a big fan of this novel. She has been recommending it for me for a long time. I'm going to read it next. I'm sad that I haven't read it already.

Thanks for mentioning it.


I just started reading The Ratline: The Exalted Life and Mysterious Death of a Nazi Fugitive by Phillipe Sands.
Super interesting so far.
 
Surprise, Kill, Vanish The Secret History of the CIA paramilitary armies, operators, and assassins by Annie Jacobsen

Probably a hard book to write since so much is classified and as a former Director of the Counter Terrorism Center so much was off verbal orders and never written down.

I like her Area 51 book a little better as I felt this one meandered a little bit getting into the secret service, which was interesting, but felt like a long tangent.
 
Eephus said:
I always alternate between fiction and non-fiction so I've moved onto Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism and the World by Malcolm Harris. It's a Marxist history of Silicon Valley that stirred up some controversy when it was published last year.
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It took me forever to make it through the 700+ pages of this one. It started off promisingly with the native Ohlone and the gold rush and robber barons. The story of Leland Stanford and the founding of his university was fascinating. The author started going off in multiple directions around the time of Herbert Hoover tying conservative politics, the military and the birth of silicon valley. The book went into way too much detail about 1960s campus political groups before a critical look at big tech. It was a provocative take but not a totally convincing one.

My last two books have been very long so I'm taking a palate cleanser with a quick work of fiction. I enjoyed E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime.as a teenager so we'll see what's changed in nearly 50 :shock: years.
 
Completed The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, the 1939 Pulitzer Prize winner. This is another book that I'd heard of, but had no real idea what it was about. If pressed, I'd have said it's a children's book. Well ... yes and no. It is a story of a young boy, but there are some dark passages and serious themes throughout. The yearling (i.e., Flag the fawn) doesn't show up until way into the book. The Yearling is really about surviving in a harsh environment, and doing what needs to be done in order to live.
What I didn't know, but learned after reading (from Wiki):
The novel was adapted into a film of the same name in 1946, starring Gregory Peck as Penny Baxter and Jane Wyman as Ora Baxter. Both were nominated for Oscars for their performances. Claude Jarman Jr. as Jody Baxter won the Juvenile Award Oscar.
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Also,
A 1994 television adaptation starred Peter Strauss as Ezra Baxter, Jean Smart as Ora Baxter, and Philip Seymour Hoffman as Buck.
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In reading the novel, I had no idea what the timeframe was, other than it was probably a good bit before 1938 (when it was written). Apparently, it takes place just after the Civil War.
All in all, a solid read and I'd recommend it.

Next up, I'm skipping 1940's The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck as I've already read it, and moving on to 1942's In This Our Life by Ellen Glasgow. There was no prize awarded in 1941. I'm guessing something important caused them to skip a year.

45 read/53 to go
 
Currently reading the new one by Hampton Sides: The Wide Wide Sea. It’s about the last voyage of Captain James Cook where he becomes (possibly) the first European to discover Hawaii as part of a quest to discover the Northwest Passage and then (spoiler alert) meets his demise. I’ve read a few others by Sides that have enjoyed greatly (Ghost Soldiers about the Bataan Death March, Blood and Thunder about Kit Carson and America’s westward expansion, and In the Kingdom of Ice about the USS Jeannette). This one is up there with his best. Pretty balanced and well-told history that is hard to put down.
 
I poke into the RIP thread now and then and was surprised to see neither Paul Auster nor Caleb Carr were referenced in there the past month. So I figured I'd mention them in here, where we have actual readers. Paul Auster was one of my favorites, so his death gave me a bit of a sad. Caleb Carr was notable and important as well.
 
Don Quixote said:
Currently reading the new one by Hampton Sides: The Wide Wide Sea. It’s about the last voyage of Captain James Cook where he becomes (possibly) the first European to discover Hawaii as part of a quest to discover the Northwest Passage and then (spoiler alert) meets his demise. I’ve read a few others by Sides that have enjoyed greatly (Ghost Soldiers about the Bataan Death March, Blood and Thunder about Kit Carson and America’s westward expansion, and In the Kingdom of Ice about the USS Jeannette). This one is up there with his best. Pretty balanced and well-told history that is hard to put down.
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I've read Sides' books about the MLK assassination and the Korean War. He's a good storyteller; popular history at its best.
 
krista4 said:
I poke into the RIP thread now and then and was surprised to see neither Paul Auster nor Caleb Carr were referenced in there the past month. So I figured I'd mention them in here, where we have actual readers. Paul Auster was one of my favorites, so his death gave me a bit of a sad. Caleb Carr was notable and important as well.
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I didn't know Caleb Carr passed away (and I follow a number of obituary accounts on Twitter :bag: )

John Barth died this year as well. I tried reading Chimera when I was young and my brain worked but it was very heavy sledding.
 
My most recent reads were:

1. The final book in Stephen Graham Jones' Indian Lake series. If you like horror/suspense with a healthy dose of humor, check him out. All of his stuff is really good.

2. James Ellroy's Widespread Panic and The Enchanters. I'd never read Ellroy before, but knew who he was (he wrote LA Confidential, among a million other things). These two books star the same real-life character narrating in first-person, though it's fiction. There are tons of real-life celebrities and politicians (including the Kennedys), and very few come off very well. I'm shocked he didn't get sued. It's a wild ride.

3. Stephen King's latest short-story collection. It's hit and miss for me. He can't help but be redundant at this point, but he has some fresh spins on some of his old ideas (also some not-so-fresh spins). There is a sequel of sorts to Cujo in there.

4. Just started Erik Larsen's new one - The Demon Of Unrest - about the lead-up to Fort Sumter in 1861.
 
Lucifer's Hammer - The gigantic comet had slammed into Earth, forging earthquakes a thousand times too powerful to measure on the Richter scale, tidal waves thousands of feet high. Cities were turned into oceans; oceans turned into steam. It was the beginning of a new Ice Age and the end of civilization.

But for the terrified men and women chance had saved, it was also the dawn of a new struggle for survival—a struggle more dangerous and challenging than any they had ever known. . . .
 
In the last 8 months or so I've read:
He Who Fights With Monsters book 10
The three official Three Body Problem books (started The Redemption of Time but it never grabbed me)
Legends and Lattes
Bookshops and Bonedust
The Mage Errant series
Fourth Wing
Iron Flame
The Dragonbone Chair
The Will of the Many
American Gods
Anansi Boys
The First Law trilogy
and finally, just finished my second read through of the first 3 Mistborn books.

Currently waiting on HWFWM 11 and Wind and Truth releases.
 
Kanil said:
In the last 8 months or so I've read:
He Who Fights With Monsters book 10
The three official Three Body Problem books (started The Redemption of Time but it never grabbed me)
Legends and Lattes
Bookshops and Bonedust
The Mage Errant series
Fourth Wing
Iron Flame
The Dragonbone Chair
The Will of the Many
American Gods
Anansi Boys
The First Law trilogy
and finally, just finished my second read through of the first 3 Mistborn books.

Currently waiting on HWFWM 11 and Wind and Truth releases.
Click to expand...
Logan Ninefingers (along with Augustus McCrae) is my favorite character in a novel. Those books are so damn good.
 
Just completed In This Our Life by Ellen Glasgow the 1942 Pulitzer Prize winner. 46 read / 52 to go

The novel is set around 1938-39 as there's only brief mentions as to whether or not there will be a war in Europe (clearly this was written pre-Pearl Harbor). In any event, it certainly isn't about war. It's the story of a disfunctional family in Virginia. Given the setting and the era, you can bet there's some casual and not so casual racism.

That said, I liked the book and thought it was very well written. The primary problem I had with it is that there was not one single character that was likeable or worth rooting for. On the plus side, it was anything but predictable. I'd give it a lukewarm recommendation.

Next up: Upton Sinclair's Dragon's Teeth, the 1943 winner.

But first, I'm going to take a slight break and read Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero. I'm just a little late in getting around to this one seeing as how I posted on it almost 7 years ago.
 
finished Remembrance of Earths past trilogy. Despite the big ideas and crazy science it was an easy straight forward read. Didn't have deep or interesting characters but the story is good. Netflix show did spoil stuff in books 2 and 3. Dark Forest the second book was the best of the three. The trilogy is very good scifi.
 
Sand said:
Kanil said:
In the last 8 months or so I've read:
He Who Fights With Monsters book 10
The three official Three Body Problem books (started The Redemption of Time but it never grabbed me)
Legends and Lattes
Bookshops and Bonedust
The Mage Errant series
Fourth Wing
Iron Flame
The Dragonbone Chair
The Will of the Many
American Gods
Anansi Boys
The First Law trilogy
and finally, just finished my second read through of the first 3 Mistborn books.

Currently waiting on HWFWM 11 and Wind and Truth releases.
Click to expand...
Logan Ninefingers (along with Augustus McCrae) is my favorite character in a novel. Those books are so damn good.
Click to expand...
Agreed. I was really surprised at how good that series was. Was way better than expected when I was searching for a series to read.
 
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