Autumn Reading Thread

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Tue Sep 06, 2016 6:17 am

Well, it is September...

Good as a recitation of facts - I had a vague memory of this bizarre case.

[+] spoiler: Ultimately a bit dull as once Toobin establishes his P.O.V. that Hearst was culpable for all her crimes, there's not much more to add. And besides, she was convicted. The fact that her sentence was commuted by Carter and she was pardoned by Clinton was fairly outrageous, and should really have been analyzed a lot more stringently.

wlu_lax6 · Post by **wlu_lax6** » Tue Sep 06, 2016 6:50 am

Just started this one

Johnnie · Post by **Johnnie** » Tue Sep 06, 2016 4:58 pm

Visited Tucson this weekend and visited Bookman's for the first time in a long time. I have a bunch of credit with them and bought:

Blood Meridian
All the Pretty Horses
On the Origin of Species
Invisible Man
Fahrenheit 451
Ulysses
A Hologram for the King

And I still have a bunch of credit left.

Like $55 for all the books. But Blood Meridian for $7 was a coup. It's not even that cheap on Amazon. We'll see if I start them in a timely fashion.

Post by **Shirley** » Tue Sep 06, 2016 8:16 pm

Blood Meridian is great, but its not always easy reading. McCarthy likes to make up words.

howard · Post by **howard** » Tue Sep 06, 2016 8:36 pm

Johnnie wrote: Invisible Man

Ellison or Wells? Both are really good, so I guess it doesn't matter. But Ellison was one of the most important books I read as a teenager (16 or 17yo), for my personal development. Exposed me to a wide world of Black experiences completely alien to my own up until that point.

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Tue Sep 06, 2016 8:37 pm

Shirley wrote:Blood Meridian is great, but its not always easy reading. McCarthy likes to make up words.

It's a brutal read on a few levels. But still great.

bfj · Post by **bfj** » Tue Sep 06, 2016 8:49 pm

Just finished the last of Stephen King's Bill Hodges Trilogy. The last book was called End of Watch. Good read, great series if there are any Stephen King fans. The first two books are Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers.

Johnnie · Post by **Johnnie** » Tue Sep 06, 2016 8:56 pm

howard wrote:
Johnnie wrote: Invisible Man
Ellison or Wells? Both are really good, so I guess it doesn't matter. But Ellison was one of the most important books I read as a teenager (16 or 17yo), for my personal development. Exposed me to a wide world of Black experiences completely alien to my own up until that point.

Ellison.

Bookmans has a thing currently going on where they wrap up books that have been banned and tell you to rescue them:

That alone intrigued me because it was a discovery effect. So I cheated for some in case I have read or have a book that has been banned. This one caught my eye. So, for $6, I had to.

BSF21 · Post by **BSF21** » Wed Sep 07, 2016 7:37 am

Johnnie wrote:
howard wrote:
Johnnie wrote: Invisible Man
Ellison or Wells? Both are really good, so I guess it doesn't matter. But Ellison was one of the most important books I read as a teenager (16 or 17yo), for my personal development. Exposed me to a wide world of Black experiences completely alien to my own up until that point.
Ellison.

Bookmans has a thing currently going on where they wrap up books that have been banned and tell you to rescue them:

That alone intrigued me because it was a discovery effect. So I cheated for some in case I have read or have a book that has been banned. This one caught my eye. So, for $6, I had to.

That's just like a trivia game. Which I would have guessed wrong on this one (about 8 years early on To Kill A Mockingbird)

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Wed Sep 07, 2016 7:50 am

City of Mirrors, the final installment in the Passage Trilogy by Justin Cronin. The first 60 pages have been good, but I've been a lazy reader this year.

Post by **Sabo** » Wed Sep 07, 2016 8:22 am

Johnnie wrote:Bookmans has a thing currently going on where they wrap up books that have been banned and tell you to rescue them:

That alone intrigued me because it was a discovery effect. So I cheated for some in case I have read or have a book that has been banned. This one caught my eye. So, for $6, I had to.

Odd that it's "unsuited for high school reading lists" these days. I read this in high school because it was on my summer reading list. I don't remember much about it but I remember liking it a lot.

DaveInSeattle · Post by **DaveInSeattle** » Wed Sep 07, 2016 9:28 am

I recently finished "The Underground Railroad" by Colson Whitehead. While its quite good, he made a stylistic choice in the book that just didn't sit well with me.

[+] spoiler: In describing the Underground Railroad, he wrote about it as a REAL Underground Railroad...like with locomotives, train tracks, etc. Didn't quite understand why he did that.

Now I'm reading "The Hike" by Deadspin's Drew Magary. I like Drew's stuff, both on Deadspin and GQ, and I enjoyed his other novel "Post-mortal", but this one isn't really doing it for me.

Steve of phpBB · Post by **Steve of phpBB** » Wed Sep 07, 2016 9:44 am

I've been trying to catch up on books I should have read decades ago. Right now it's A Wrinkle in Time.

My eighth-grade daughter's class this year will be reading Night by Elie Wiesel, Fahrenheit 451, and Animal Farm. I haven't read any of them, so I guess I will be reading along.

Post by **Sabo** » Wed Sep 07, 2016 9:51 am

Steve of phpBB wrote:I've been trying to catch up on books I should have read decades ago. Right now it's A Wrinkle in Time.

My eighth-grade daughter's class this year will be reading Night by Elie Wiesel, Fahrenheit 451, and Animal Farm. I haven't read any of them, so I guess I will be reading along.

Fahrenheit 451 and Animal Farm are excellent. Animal Farm will sound very familiar given what's going on in American society.

Steve of phpBB · Post by **Steve of phpBB** » Wed Sep 07, 2016 10:20 am

Sabo wrote:
Steve of phpBB wrote:I've been trying to catch up on books I should have read decades ago. Right now it's A Wrinkle in Time.

My eighth-grade daughter's class this year will be reading Night by Elie Wiesel, Fahrenheit 451, and Animal Farm. I haven't read any of them, so I guess I will be reading along.
Fahrenheit 451 and Animal Farm are excellent. Animal Farm will sound very familiar given what's going on in American society.

Yeah, I'm figuring that this will give me a good chance to address why Trump's campaign is so scary.

vandwagon · Post by **vandwagon** » Wed Sep 07, 2016 10:37 am

Finished Drew Magary's "The Postmortal" in a couple days after getting it from the library. I enjoyed it, but it felt like something was missing that I couldn't put my finger on. Still can't.

In the middle of "July 1914" by Sean McMeekin right now. It's about the diplomatic process that began once Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo in June 1914 and when the war broke out in August 1914. After listening to the WW1 series on the Hardcore History podcast I realized I knew nothing about WW1.

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Wed Sep 07, 2016 11:58 am

Steve of phpBB wrote:
Sabo wrote:
Steve of phpBB wrote:I've been trying to catch up on books I should have read decades ago. Right now it's A Wrinkle in Time.

My eighth-grade daughter's class this year will be reading Night by Elie Wiesel, Fahrenheit 451, and Animal Farm. I haven't read any of them, so I guess I will be reading along.
Fahrenheit 451 and Animal Farm are excellent. Animal Farm will sound very familiar given what's going on in American society.
Yeah, I'm figuring that this will give me a good chance to address why Trump's campaign is so scary.

Hmmm. You might not be looking in the right spot for that one. Trump isn't exactly into obfuscation.

howard · Post by **howard** » Wed Sep 07, 2016 5:24 pm

Sabo wrote:Animal Farm will sound very familiar given what's going on in American society.

Spoiler, steve. The character Napoleon = Hillary. Orwell was particularly prescient in this regard.

(I keed, I keed. It is an allegory for the Soviet Union/the future of UK social welfare state as he saw it.) (And I love the word prescient, in large part because it violates the 'i before e except after c' rule.)

eta: the wiki article about Animal Farm is pretty good.

Post by **Shirley** » Wed Sep 07, 2016 9:25 pm

Animal Farm is great. I need to reread that one.

I reread A Wrinkle in Time a few years ago when we got it for my kids and was unpleasantly surprised. It hasn't held up at all in comparison with the modern explosion of teen (and pre-teen) fantasy. It's clumsy and cringe-worthy at times. I remembered loving it as a kid. I had read the whole series. Not this time.

howard · Post by **howard** » Fri Sep 09, 2016 8:46 pm

The folks who run the country were kinda pissed off that the general public cancelled their war in Vietnam. They did not want anything like that to ever happen again. So they hired some eggheads to study the problem and report back. Never got around to reading this one.

DaveInSeattle · Post by **DaveInSeattle** » Tue Sep 13, 2016 3:39 pm

"The Hike" by Drew Magary is pretty silly, but the ending is fantastic.

Rush2112 · Post by **Rush2112** » Tue Sep 13, 2016 5:49 pm

Finishing

Working my way through

Starting next

Giff · Post by **Giff** » Wed Sep 14, 2016 8:30 am

Kinda wondering where this one is going in the last act, but it's pretty good.

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Wed Sep 28, 2016 9:51 pm

This one has started out really well...

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Thu Oct 06, 2016 3:58 pm

Pruitt wrote:This one has started out really well...

And just great all the way through.

Highly, highly recommended. A fantastic story (in all senses of the word).

Rush2112 · Post by **Rush2112** » Thu Oct 06, 2016 5:22 pm

Just finishing.

Very interesting. Pretty much rips Scalia and other originalists a new one. Wondering if any of you lawyer types have given it a read and how his arguments stack up.

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Tue Oct 11, 2016 12:29 pm

Whoa! Just amazing thus far.

The Sybian · Post by **The Sybian** » Tue Oct 11, 2016 1:45 pm

Rush2112 wrote:Just finishing.

Very interesting. Pretty much rips Scalia and other originalists a new one. Wondering if any of you lawyer types have given it a read and how his arguments stack up.

I will have to look for this, sounds interesting.

Listening to 1968 on (I think) Rush's recommendation. Really enjoying it. Gets bogged down into the specifics of some student protest groups, especially in France, but a fascinating look at the protests and revolutions across the US and Europe, and how they affected each other. I've read a lot about the era, US politics, music, culture, foreign relations, Soviet Bloc revolutions..., but never read anything that tied all of these together and showed the interplay of everything. It took me some time to get used to the Shakespearean reading of the book, but it's well done.

DaveInSeattle · Post by **DaveInSeattle** » Tue Oct 11, 2016 6:10 pm

Pruitt wrote:

Whoa! Just amazing thus far.

That's a great book.

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Tue Oct 11, 2016 6:47 pm

DaveInSeattle wrote:
Pruitt wrote:

Whoa! Just amazing thus far.
That's a great book.

Only on page 70 but already it has had maybe 6 or 7 incredible and incredibly memorable scenes.

DaveInSeattle · Post by **DaveInSeattle** » Wed Oct 12, 2016 11:20 am

Pruitt wrote:
DaveInSeattle wrote:
Pruitt wrote:

Whoa! Just amazing thus far.
That's a great book.
Only on page 70 but already it has had maybe 6 or 7 incredible and incredibly memorable scenes.

It gets even better. That book really stuck with me for a long time after I finished it.

I just finished Ta-Nehisi Coates's 'Between the World and Me'. Gave me some insight about the African-American experience that I didn't have before. Worth reading.

Now I'm reading "The Sympathizer", by Viet Thanh Nguyen (another Pulitzer Prize winner).

Rush2112 · Post by **Rush2112** » Wed Oct 12, 2016 1:14 pm

The Sybian wrote:
Rush2112 wrote:Just finishing.

Very interesting. Pretty much rips Scalia and other originalists a new one. Wondering if any of you lawyer types have given it a read and how his arguments stack up.

I will have to look for this, sounds interesting.

Just started his "The Fight to Vote."

If you are a Kindle reader I can forward the MOBI file (for either, or both.)

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Wed Oct 12, 2016 6:26 pm

DaveInSeattle wrote:
Pruitt wrote:
DaveInSeattle wrote:
Pruitt wrote:

Whoa! Just amazing thus far.
That's a great book.
Only on page 70 but already it has had maybe 6 or 7 incredible and incredibly memorable scenes.
It gets even better. That book really stuck with me for a long time after I finished it.

I just finished Ta-Nehisi Coates's 'Between the World and Me'. Gave me some insight about the African-American experience that I didn't have before. Worth reading.

Now I'm reading "The Sympathizer", by Viet Thanh Nguyen (another Pulitzer Prize winner).

That's next on my night table - "The Sympathizer"

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Tue Nov 29, 2016 3:11 pm

Will get to "The Sympathizer" soon.

Immersed in these two -

A look at strange and largely unknown places around the world. Happy to say I've been to a couple. Great bathroom reading.

First 100 pages flew by. What a story teller. Mixing family history with some absurd stories...

DaveInSeattle · Post by **DaveInSeattle** » Tue Nov 29, 2016 3:43 pm

I finished "The Sympathizer", and liked it quite a bit.

I recently finished "A Gentleman in Moscow", and can't recommend it highly enough. Really great read about a Russian aristocrat who is played under house arrest after the Russian revolution and has to live out his days in a swanky Moscow hotel.

Currently reading "Kafka on the Shore" by Murakami. I thought I'd read most of his stuff, but that one slipped through the cracks somehow.

Rush2112 · Post by **Rush2112** » Tue Nov 29, 2016 3:53 pm

Rush2112 wrote: Working my way through

This is very very good by the way.

bfj · Post by **bfj** » Tue Nov 29, 2016 8:36 pm

Rush2112 wrote:
Rush2112 wrote: Working my way through

This is very very good by the way.

Waits for snarky comment from Mr. D.

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Tue Nov 29, 2016 9:27 pm

Rush2112 wrote:
Rush2112 wrote: Working my way through

This is very very good by the way.

Just ordered it. It had BETTER be good!

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Tue Nov 29, 2016 9:33 pm

bfj wrote:
Rush2112 wrote:
Rush2112 wrote: Working my way through

This is very very good by the way.
Waits for snarky comment from Mr. D.

Book was better before it got a mass printing.

Rush2112 · Post by **Rush2112** » Tue Nov 29, 2016 9:55 pm

A_B wrote:
Book was better before it got a mass printing.

Damn straight **twirls mustache**