What Book(s) are you currently reading?

[Yohan]

Started reading Raven Rock: The Story of the US Government's Secret Plan to Save itself, While the rest of Us Die. The author was on Fresh Air with Terri Gross on NPR last Wednesday. It peaked my interest.

 

[Riggo-toni]

I finished Crusades volume 3 and Anatomy of Terror.

Picked up Ali Soufan's other book Black Banners, which also looks great fifty pages in.

I also finished reading Don't Be Afraid of the Bullets by Laura Kasinof. It's a memoir of her time as a war correspondent in Yemen. She has a writing style similar to Fouad Ajami as far as showing the culture, attitude, and perspective of locals. It has some good info, but I was looking for something a bit deeper as far as the influence of the Zaidi sect and more historical background, though she does do a good job of explaining the major players in Yemeni society during the Arab spring and the beginning of the civil war. I just ordered another book on Yemeni history to get a better foundation.

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

On ‎6‎/‎9‎/‎2017 at 11:35 AM, Dan T. said:

I just finished Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History by Erik Larson.  It tells the story of the devastating hurricane that ravaged Galveston, Texas, on September 8, 1900, killing as many as 12,000 people, still the single deadliest day in U.S. history.  For a number of reasons, the United States essentially lost track of this storm, so it struck the Gulf Coast with little to no warning.  Larson weaves a minute-by-minute account of the storm's approach and the destruction it caused with an account of the early history of the fledgling U.S. Weather Bureau, of weather forecasting in general, and of Galveston's doomed hopes of being THE major Gulf U.S. port instead of Houston, which it was primed to do before this storm destroyed the city.  Much is told through the eyes of Isaac Cline, a Galveston doctor who was also a Weather Bureau station chief in Galveston.

 

Isaac's Storm is the third book I've read from Erik Larson , and they've all been really good.  I would recommend any and all three:

 

Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America is a weird amalgam.  It combines an interesting account of the planning and staging of the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, which was essentially The U.S.A.'s coming out party as a world power, along with a detailed account of a bizarre serial murderer who had created a real life chamber of horrors near the fair site and was luring fair goers as some of his victims. 

 

In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin tells the story of William Dodd and his family living in Berlin right on the cusp of Adolph Hitler's Nazi Party terrifying rise to power.

 

 

 

 

I've read all three of those. Larson is excellent.

 

I've been on a trash kick lately. I discovered a crime writer from England named Steve Mosby who is really interesting.

[Skinsfan1311]

"The Scent Of Death", by Andrew Taylor. I'm currently in an historical fiction jag, and this fits the bill.  It's the story about a London clerk, assigned to New Yok "to investigate claims of dispossessed loya lists caught on the wrong side of the American War of Independence"   

It takes place in British Manhattan in 1778.   

[Fan since a Fetus]

Finishing up the Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher. I gave the first five books 3 out of 5 on Goodreads. The average reader has them rated over 4. So, I am not sure what I am missing, but they just aren't that good. For some reason I cannot remember the characters. They just aren't memorable outside of the lead character, Tavi

[Burgold]

1 minute ago, Fan since a Fetus said:

Finishing up the Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher. I gave the first five books 3 out of 5 on Goodreads. The average reader has them rated over 4. So, I am not sure what I am missing, but they just aren't that good. For some reason I cannot remember the characters. They just aren't memorable outside of the lead character, Tavi

I listened to my first Butcher not long ago as an audio book. The Gum Shoe Wizard mash up was fun. They were okay popcorn books, but neither the plotting, nor the character building were exceptional. The world building was pretty cool and the story was fun. I enjoyed them, but they weren't great.

[Fan since a Fetus]

1 minute ago, Burgold said:

I listened to my first Butcher not long ago as an audio book. The Gum Shoe Wizard mash up was fun. They were okay popcorn books, but neither the plotting, nor the character building were exceptional. The world building was pretty cool and the story was fun. I enjoyed them, but they weren't great.

 

Yeah, the Dresden files are next on the list. I've been told by close friends that they are better, but your comment doesn't give me confidence.

[Burgold]

That's the ones I chose. They were fine. If you like noir you'll be okay as he blends the genres pretty nicely, but that's also the flaw in the book. You know all the characters. Their the same stereotypes that you have seen in every gumshoe book since Mike Hammer.

 

There's not much originality other than the mash up itself. What he does well though is taken knowns and blending them into a new story.

 

(Of course, the evil fantasy author in me now wants to ask if you tried out mine yet)

[Elessar78]

I'm in the middle of four noves, because ADHD:

 

Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Some Swede

American Pastoral, Philip Roth

Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy

[Going Commando]

Three of the masterpieces of the great 20th century stylists and then some red meat airport genre fiction.  I like it.

 

Marquez and McCarthy are my two favorite writers.  Reading those two books for the first time were seminal/formative literary experiences for me.  If you want to talk about them, I'm game.  But I would recommend reading both LitToC and Blood Meridian through without reading anything else.  They're meditations and you don't want to break the spell by slipping in and out of their worlds.  They're two of the best books ever written, they're worth it.

[PleaseBlitz]

City of Mirrors by Justin Cronin

 

https://www.amazon.com/City-Mirrors-Novel-Passage-Trilogy/dp/034550500X

 

It is the third book in a trilogy.  The first 2 were extremely good.  This one DRAAAAAGS ON FOOOOOOOREVER ABOUT NOTHING.  It's like the author suffered a stroke in between writing the second and third books (and that stroke continued as he wrote the third one).  If I hadn't invested the time in the first 2, I would have put this book in the trash 200 pages ago.  

 

 

1 hour ago, Elessar78 said:

 

Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy

 

Awesome book, but a tough read.    

 

Also always reminds me of this:

 

https://www.widerightnattylite.com/2012/8/24/3264364/cormac-mccarthy-previews-the-big-xii

 

Quote

Cormac McCarthy Previews the Big XII
 

2) West Virginia: He is known as Holgo. He can neither read nor write and already in him broods a taste for mindless violence. All history present in that visage, high forehead and Red Bull-stained teeth. Iowan by birth, traveler by choice. At 27 in Mississippi, he wanders west to the moon desert of West Texas where he learns from the master then he kills his master. Wanders north to Oklahoma and finally east to West Virginia. Why does he wander. Holgo knows. There is always another casino to fall drunkenly from. Always another airplane to jump from. Always something to fill his boundless appetite.

 

[Elessar78]

37 minutes ago, stevemcqueen1 said:

Three of the masterpieces of the great 20th century stylists and then some red meat airport genre fiction.  I like it.

 

Marquez and McCarthy are my two favorite writers.  Reading those two books for the first time were seminal/formative literary experiences for me.  If you want to talk about them, I'm game.  But I would recommend reading both LitToC and Blood Meridian through without reading anything else.  They're meditations and you don't want to break the spell by slipping in and out of their worlds.  They're two of the best books ever written, they're worth it.

LToC, the prose is mesmerizing. I usually give an author one or two paragraphs to see if they are a **** writer or not. LToC was the first novel in a long time where after two pages I was, "this guy can write". I think I'm going to make it my summer goal to read that book and not jump around. I'll get back to you when I'm done. 

5 minutes ago, PleaseBlitz said:

 

 

 

 

Awesome book, but a tough read.    

 

 

 

 

Yeah. It's a tough. I started it last summer when I broke my leg and I was laid up. I suffered a compound fracture and was kinda put off by physical violence for awhile (because of the trauma—something about seeing your leg at an angle it's not supposed to bend may do that). So I was grinding through Blood Meridian. It was weird timing. Revenant just came out on streaming and I couldn't get past the bear scene either at that point. 

[Elessar78]

Forgot to mention also reading some pop management/leadership non-fiction:

 

by Simon Sinek- Start With Why and Leaders Eat Last.

And re-reading Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford

 

Some thought provoking ideas in all these books. I crush the non-fiction more easily these days. If you've never read anything about Genghis Khan it's such a worthwhile read. How an illiterate horse herder started with no armies but ended up building an empire that stretched from China all the way to what is now Hungary. Squares nicely with concepts from Guns, Germs, and Steel (Jared Diamond) how geography really shapes the world. 

[PleaseBlitz]

I cycle through:

 

1.  Literature classics (last three were all Hemingway);

2.  Contemporary fiction with lots of **** blowing up (last three have been this trilogy about a post-apocalyptic future, this does not count reading Harry Potter to my daughter at bedtime);

3.  Non fiction about society (last 2 were American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America and The Storm of War.  Next one will be Triumph of the City).

[sacase]

I read between 1 to 3 books a week, all Sci fi, usually military Sci fi. I got the Amazon Kindle 10/month membership and I am loving it. Lots of good self published authors telling good stories. A lot of them can use a better editor and some help but they are pretty good overall. Biggest complaint is repetitive word use. But that is minor. 

[Fan since a Fetus]

4 hours ago, Burgold said:

(Of course, the evil fantasy author in me now wants to ask if you tried out mine yet)

 

It's at the top of my Amazon Book List so maybe I'll get it for my birthday this weekend.  I asked people to buy me books. Once I read it, I'll let you know.

[Going Commando]

9 hours ago, Elessar78 said:

LToC, the prose is mesmerizing. I usually give an author one or two paragraphs to see if they are a **** writer or not. LToC was the first novel in a long time where after two pages I was, "this guy can write". I think I'm going to make it my summer goal to read that book and not jump around. I'll get back to you when I'm done.

 

Spanish to English translation too.  I enjoy his stream of conscience more than any other 20th century writer.  Breathtaking language veined with elements of story telling that are wildly inventive.  You almost miss them as you're being swept up in the reveries that his prose inspires.  But I still remember particular bizarre and wonderful ones even though I haven't read the book in 13 years.  Like how Dr Urbino frightens Fermina on their wedding night with the forceful and masculine sound of his piss and how the parrots of the jungle speak perfect colonial French 

 

I really hate that all most people care for about the book are the saccharine, out of context quotes on romance that weave in and out of the prose.  Those are the least interesting parts of the work.  And they make it seem like a glorified romance novel.  Blegh.

 

I think it's Marquez's greatest work.  If you end up loving it and wanting more from him, I'd also strongly recommend the Autumn of the Patriarch.  It's spectacular and magisterial in it's own way, and I think I like it even better.

[Going Commando]

10 hours ago, Elessar78 said:

Yeah. It's a tough. I started it last summer when I broke my leg and I was laid up. I suffered a compound fracture and was kinda put off by physical violence for awhile (because of the trauma—something about seeing your leg at an angle it's not supposed to bend may do that). So I was grinding through Blood Meridian. It was weird timing. Revenant just came out on streaming and I couldn't get past the bear scene either at that point. 

 

Blood Meridian is famous for putting people in a weird head space.  The first time I read it, I started thinking things like "what's so bad about killing people anyway?" by the end.  Then you finish and just kind of egress back to reality over the next week or two and you end up feeling drained and depressed.

 

It's a singular book.  It has passages which are among the finest in the English language.  Like the one describing the Indian attack that wipes out the kid's company.  And the communion of desert creatures around the burning tree.  I still get chills thinking about them.  When McCarthy wants to, he can basically pull out his enormous literary dick and shame every other writer.  I believe that he's the greatest American stylist and novelist and that he's our Shakespeare.  And his Western novels are him at the height of his creativity and mastery.

 

Buuuuut... they're not my favorite of his.  I think the Road effected me more personally.  Fallout 3 had just come out at the time I was reading it and I got really immersed in post apocalyptica.  It's probably the last book that made me shed actual tears and feel actual heartache.  And thus, unlike his Westerns, it left me feeling renewed.  And my favorite book period is Suttree.  That is him taking Mark Twain's and William Faulker's road to their end.  The conclusion of his Southern Gothic period.  I think it's his greatest work and it would get my vote for Great American Novel.  The whole damn book is him flexing his muscles as a stylist and slamming that big pecker down on the table.

 

I think it's strangely appropriate that McCarthy ('33), Roth ('33), Toni Morrison ('31), John Updike ('32), and Don DeLillo ('36) were born within a few years of each other.  I don't feel like they get their due compared to past great generations like the Lost Generation of English language writers even though I feel they are the zenith of the American Novelist.  We're about to lose our greatest generation of writers.

[JamesMadisonSkins]

Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers was very fascinating. Mainly about the love lives and women/children behind the scenes of Washington/Jefferson/Franklin/Adams/Hamilton/Madison. Also Dolly Madison was bad freakin ass. 

[Elessar78]

17 minutes ago, stevemcqueen1 said:

 

Blood Meridian is famous for putting people in a weird head space.  ..

My faves, and I read 'em all before movies came out: All the Pretty Horses (when he cauterizes that gun shot wound with the glowing hot barrel of his gun—that was real), The Road (dark–I've re-read other of his books, not sure I can go down that road again), and No Country. In Lit, you're not supposed to have a character that is pure evil, pure anything, but Chigurgh is probably that. I don't think we're exposed to the why of his cruelty. But he's just a psychopath. 

 

Roth, haven't gotten too deep into his catalogue. I think he's a fantastic writer, but I'm bothered by that a lot of his protagonists are writers. Kinda like Eminem was really good at portraying a white rapper from Detroit in 8 Mile. 

[Going Commando]

10 hours ago, PleaseBlitz said:

 American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America

 

I started reading this and put it down after the first or second chapter.  TBH I got turned off by Woodard's level of scholarship and had trouble accepting his premises.  He's a journalist and I felt it showed in the way he was broad brush painting and overselling his conclusions.  It didn't feel like his history was rigorous or detail oriented.

[Elessar78]

12 hours ago, stevemcqueen1 said:

 

 

 

 

I think it's strangely appropriate that McCarthy ('33), Roth ('33), Toni Morrison ('31), John Updike ('32), and Don DeLillo ('36) were born within a few years of each other.  I don't feel like they get their due compared to past great generations like the Lost Generation of English language writers even though I feel they are the zenith of the American Novelist.  We're about to lose our greatest generation of writers.

This popped up on my FB feed today

 

[FanboyOf91]

Seconding that praise of LToC as Marquez's best work.

[Going Commando]

43 minutes ago, Elessar78 said:

This popped up on my FB feed today

 

Nice.  I checked out that article and it's interesting.  Worth noting that these great writers, for the most part, wrote masterful works in their 30s too.  They've just stayed healthy and kept working.  They don't forget their talent and brilliance.  And their art isn't like music, where so much of a popular artist's relevance is based on coolness, sex appeal, youthful exuberance, etc.

 

But the second argument in the article, that this generation saved the novel, might be true.  Capital N Novel--genius works of lasting literary import.  I am afraid that younger writers don't take to the medium any more.  I can't think of more than a few brilliant novelists under the age of 50.  The explosion in production of more ephemeral forms of writing is pulling people away from writing literary novels--talented young writers who may have been novelists in the past are instead going to work for prestige magazines and TV shows and films.

 

Almost all of the rock star novelists today write genre fiction.

 

Also, the publishing industry is infinitely less nurturing of young novelists than it used to be.  They don't have the money to do it any more.  Thomas Wolfe had his genius refined over a grueling process that took years of work with a master editor.  Now your book needs to be finished and just about ready to publish before you send it to a publisher.  So a gifted young aspiring novelist needs to be not just a good writer, but they need to already be educated and refined in the genre and be able to research and edit their own work.  Or they need to be able to pay for that process themselves.  The people I know who are seriously trying to write novels are older and it's a hobby or second career for them.

[JCB]

Interesting thoughts, SM. I think I'm in agreement.

 

Another factor, though, is the almost over-compensatory hype some younger novelists have received in the last decade or so. The passable or the pretty good is celebrated as The Great American Novel. I'm thinking about Eggers about 10 or so years ago, and about Garth Risk Hallberg lately.