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What are you reading at the moment?

Posted: Mon Jan 06, 2014 11:01 am
by Wolverine
theia;1443954 wrote: No, I haven't. I've got a couple of his that I haven't read yet but when I checked just now, there were none of Odd. I'll take a look at amazon...


the first book really caught me off guard.

What are you reading at the moment?

Posted: Mon Jan 06, 2014 11:51 am
by theia
Wolverine;1443961 wrote: the first book really caught me off guard.


Excellent reviews...I've ordered the first one and it should be here by Wednesday when I'll have finished my current book.

What are you reading at the moment?

Posted: Wed Feb 03, 2016 5:08 am
by Peyton
I am currently reading life after death This is my favorite author Deepak Chopra. this book based on its all depend on how u will die . Ater death you die and life goes on with or without you simple just make the best if life while your still alive?

What are you reading at the moment?

Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2016 3:38 am
by spot
SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard

She's an engaging writer and I very much like the structure she's applied to allow back-reference circularity, building a story rather than just telling what happened. She must have studied a lot to be able to pick details from so many interlocking strands.

I rather enjoyed Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic by Tom Holland too.

The book waiting in the wings at the moment is Now is the Time by Melvyn Bragg

What are you reading at the moment?

Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2016 7:33 am
by LarsMac
Was given a copy of Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee. and just finished it.

Her writing was at times, inspiring. It is a very good read. I can see immediately why her publisher suggested that she write something else, though. The historical context is important.

She wrote this shortly after the Brown vs Board of Education decision (1954) and that plays a part in the story line. Had this book hit the streets in that time, the public outrage in the South would have caused her much pain, I think. The publisher would not have wanted to deal with the reaction. Their market in the South would have been ruined.

And, I might add, even the "colored" market would likely have been unkind to Ms Lee in those days.

It is a very strong commentary on life in The South in the mid-fifties. I suspect there is more than a little of her personal experience in these pages.

What are you reading at the moment?

Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2016 11:52 am
by ZAP
I'm reading Say You're One Of Them by Uwem Akpan. It was sent to me along with 4 other books by a friend. He told me that his book might prove to be the most difficult for me to read so, of course, this is the one I chose to read first.

What are you reading at the moment?

Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2016 12:14 pm
by LarsMac
I usually have several books going at once.

Of late, I am reading

Inside, Outside by Herman Wouk

and

The Post American World, by Fareed Zakaria

and

Saving Capitalism, for the Many, Not the Few, by Robert Reich.

What are you reading at the moment?

Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2016 4:11 pm
by tude dog
Coolidge by Amity Shlaes.

Looking forward to The Wright Brothers by David McCullough.

Re: What are you reading at the moment?

Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2020 1:52 am
by theia
I’m thinking of downloading Ben Okri’s latest book (to Audible). It’s a selection of short stories, Prayer for the Living. I really liked Astonishing the Gods. He wrote a good article in the Guardian yesterday about the imagery/symbolism of “I can’t breathe”

Re: What are you reading at the moment?

Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2020 1:58 am
by Betty Boop
Nearly finished Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman

Re: What are you reading at the moment?

Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2020 3:46 am
by Bryn Mawr
I'm currently reading The Highland Lady in Ireland, the diary of a Scottish landowner living on her estate in Ireland during the potato famine and I'm about to start The Confessions of an English Opium-Eater that my youngest daughter tells me is fascinating.

Re: What are you reading at the moment?

Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2020 5:26 am
by spot
theia wrote: Tue Jun 09, 2020 1:52 am I’m thinking of downloading Ben Okri’s latest book (to Audible). It’s a selection of short stories, Prayer for the Living. I really liked Astonishing the Gods. He wrote a good article in the Guardian yesterday about the imagery/symbolism of “I can’t breathe”
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/ ... -of-feasts is a helpful background of small snapshots, I enjoyed finding that.

I think someone used Astonishing the Gods as a springboard for a first novel, I finished it last month on my Kindle. It's David Mogo Godhunter by another Nigerian, Suyi Davies Okungbowa. I'm too ignorant to say whether it gives a helpful picture of aspects of life in Lagos but that's what it left in my mind. https://blacknerdproblems.com/david-mog ... -among-us/ discusses it.

I'm part-way through the extremely famous "From Ritual to Romance" which is still eye-opening a hundred years after it was published, and the boy has finished having the Anabasis as his bedtime story so we're looking for a replacement. He thinks it ought to be Molesworth. Me being the reader, I'm not entirely convinced I can do the voice.

As for audio books, I binged my way through an episode a night of Old Harry's Game on the Radio 4 Sounds website where they were all available. It sprang from a TV series I'd never seen from the 90s called Drop the Dead Donkey. If this were confession time I'd also note that I'm now watching my way through that too. Andy Hamilton is a national treasure.

Re: What are you reading at the moment?

Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2020 8:00 am
by theia
An interesting read from Ben Okri, spot, especially the fasting while he was writing Astonishing The Gods. Thanks.

I haven’t got the hang of how to quote on here. I’ve found the “ but am worried I’ll quote the whole page, or the whole forum.

Re: What are you reading at the moment?

Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2020 9:57 am
by Bryn Mawr
theia wrote: Thu Jun 11, 2020 8:00 am An interesting read from Ben Okri, spot, especially the fasting while he was writing Astonishing The Gods. Thanks.

I haven’t got the hang of how to quote on here. I’ve found the “ but am worried I’ll quote the whole page, or the whole forum.
Tap on the quote marks in the top right corner of the post you want to quote :-)

Re: What are you reading at the moment?

Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2020 10:23 am
by theia
Bryn Mawr wrote: Thu Jun 11, 2020 9:57 am
theia wrote: Thu Jun 11, 2020 8:00 am An interesting read from Ben Okri, spot, especially the fasting while he was writing Astonishing The Gods. Thanks.

I haven’t got the hang of how to quote on here. I’ve found the “ but am worried I’ll quote the whole page, or the whole forum.
Tap on the quote marks in the top right corner of the post you want to quote :-)
Thanks, Bryn

Re: What are you reading at the moment?

Posted: Mon Jun 22, 2020 12:35 pm
by theia
The Prosecutor by Nazir Afzal who worked for the CPS in North West England. He was a prosecutor in the Rotherham case but I haven’t got that far yet

Re: What are you reading at the moment?

Posted: Mon Jun 22, 2020 1:16 pm
by LarsMac
Moving Mars, by Greg Bear

Re: What are you reading at the moment?

Posted: Tue Jun 23, 2020 8:41 am
by spot
LarsMac wrote: Mon Jun 22, 2020 1:16 pm Moving Mars, by Greg Bear
I quite like Mr Bear, he can put a plot together and spin it over a lot of books before he comes up with another.

What I am recently reading is puzzling me. I have red several authors who wrote between the civil war and the thirties. They write in a southern dialect and spell accordingly. One of them, of course, is Joel Chandler Harris, whose Sayings of Uncle Remus are are well worth while. However. I'd quite like an opinion.

Are these pieces best taken verbatim, as they were written, or is it possible to update their vocabulary, that's the question. Would more be lost by removing words one would not have used oneself, or is one listening to somebody who put on paper what he heard on the street. And if that's the authentic way to take it, should one set it aside and refuse to participate any longer. I have the impression that Joel Chandler Harris quite admired the character he was inventing, and that he was not creating a parody or satire or mockery. It's undoubtedly educational. On the other hand I don't think I could reed it to my children. Brer Rabbit I can, but The Sayings is far more capable of causing unintended offence. Perhaps it's on a par with enjoying the film appearances of Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, which we discussed on an earlier occasion.

The other book I'm part way through is The Sellout by Paul Beatty, which may or may not have tangential overlaps with these musings.

For the record, last week I red a first novel which was thoroughly enjoyable, different and thought-provoking: Queen of Hunger by L.E.H. Light though I confess I skipped the bedroom scenes which I'm sure were very tastefully done but I prefer to avoid them, I fast-forward as soon as someone takes off a shirt. I hope she sells in huge numbers and has more published.

Is that why I stopped reeding more volumes of Game of Thrones?

Re: What are you reading at the moment?

Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2020 2:24 pm
by spot
spot wrote: Tue Jun 23, 2020 8:41 amThe other book I'm part way through is The Sellout by Paul Beatty, which may or may not have tangential overlaps with these musings.
Do you know what, I enjoyed that, from cover to cover, more than anything I've seen since William Gibson, and for much the same reason, the use of language. That is one polished performance, I'm definitely going to find Mr Beatty's earlier work. I picked it up at a venture and I've never seen such self-confidence.

Re: What are you reading at the moment?

Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2021 7:51 am
by spot
spot wrote: Thu Jul 02, 2020 2:24 pm
spot wrote: Tue Jun 23, 2020 8:41 amThe other book I'm part way through is The Sellout by Paul Beatty, which may or may not have tangential overlaps with these musings.
Do you know what, I enjoyed that, from cover to cover, more than anything I've seen since William Gibson, and for much the same reason, the use of language. That is one polished performance, I'm definitely going to find Mr Beatty's earlier work. I picked it up at a venture and I've never seen such self-confidence.
For the record, I re-red The Sellout over the last few days and it's a rare day I re-reed anything . It's an astonishing novel. If anyone else gets round to it they could say.

Re: What are you reading at the moment?

Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2021 12:40 pm
by LarsMac
I usually have several books queued up in the Kindle, and swap through them as the mood suits me.
I've been reading Ken Follet's "Historical Novels" recently. Pillars of the Earth, A Column of Fire, and now, World without end. A bit out of sequence, it appears Column of Fire was about the reign of Elizabeth and struggle between the Catholics and the Protestants.
Follet tells a good story, and the historical background is marginally accurate.

Also reading Moving Mars, by Greg Bear.

And Buddha is as Buddha Does, by Lama Surya Das.
and, How Democracies Die - Steve Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt

Re: What are you reading at the moment?

Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2021 2:02 pm
by magentaflame
Oh I'll just put my stuff here then ...didn't see it

Re: What are you reading at the moment?

Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2021 4:21 pm
by LarsMac
Of course, you can guess it probably takes me a couple months to finish any one book.

Re: What are you reading at the moment?

Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2023 1:51 pm
by tabby
"Liar Temptress Soldier Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War" by Karen Abott.

I've read her other books which led me to get this one and I'm not disappointed. Being from Virginia where most of the events took place, I'm certainly familiar with the 4 women to a point and this book fills in lots of interesting gaps. Looking forward to what Ms. Abbott writes about next!

Re: What are you reading at the moment?

Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2023 2:27 pm
by contrary1
I am really enjoying a book called Whiskey When We're Dry. It's a crazy tale about a girl who gets orphaned as a young teenager, on a small farm. Long story short, she cuts off her hair, takes her run away brother's clothes out of a trunk, and leaves everything behind on her beloved horse, dressed as a boy. She turns into a sharpshooter, looking for her brother in the old west. To say hijinks ensue is a big understatement. It's a rough life out there. It's by John Larison, a fellow Oregonian. :)

Re: What are you reading at the moment?

Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2023 2:41 am
by spot
tabby wrote: Sun Jan 29, 2023 1:51 pm "Liar Temptress Soldier Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War" by Karen Abott.

I've read her other books which led me to get this one and I'm not disappointed. Being from Virginia where most of the events took place, I'm certainly familiar with the 4 women to a point and this book fills in lots of interesting gaps. Looking forward to what Ms. Abbott writes about next!


I'm always wary of fictionalized accounts of real people. I can never quite see the point. What you get is a muddied historical account where it's very difficult to shake off the fiction while remembering the actual facts.

There's no problem with a fictional life "based on" someone historical, so long as the names are changed. Then there's hooks keeping the fiction-story from the history, the two characters are never confused.

Being told what is actually known to be true about a historical person is valuable. Being told a story in which the author has invented dialogue, invented events, twisted contemporary accounts into an interpretation, leaves a polluted tale where the truth can't be sifted from the mud.

One problem with my viewpoint is that every historian has always tarted up the tale he's been handed by the records. If the historian goes all the way, like Hilary Mantel, you end up with a wonderfully readable account. I'm not sure she should ever be forgiven but I did enjoy her writing, and a lot more of the French Revolution stuck in my mind because of the way she did what she did. In her case I get a good sense of how far she invented, I'm not sure I'd know the boundaries if I took in Karen Abott's account of the Civil War.

Re: What are you reading at the moment?

Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2023 1:09 pm
by tabby
contrary1 wrote: Sun Jan 29, 2023 2:27 pm I am really enjoying a book called Whiskey When We're Dry. It's a crazy tale about a girl who gets orphaned as a young teenager, on a small farm. Long story short, she cuts off her hair, takes her run away brother's clothes out of a trunk, and leaves everything behind on her beloved horse, dressed as a boy. She turns into a sharpshooter, looking for her brother in the old west. To say hijinks ensue is a big understatement. It's a rough life out there. It's by John Larison, a fellow Oregonian. :)
Sounds interesting, contrary1 That plot sounds like it could go in many directions!

Re: What are you reading at the moment?

Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2023 1:17 pm
by tabby
spot wrote: Mon Jan 30, 2023 2:41 am
tabby wrote: Sun Jan 29, 2023 1:51 pm
"Liar Temptress Soldier Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War" by Karen Abott.

I've read her other books which led me to get this one and I'm not disappointed. Being from Virginia where most of the events took place, I'm certainly familiar with the 4 women to a point and this book fills in lots of interesting gaps. Looking forward to what Ms. Abbott writes about next!


I'm always wary of fictionalized accounts of real people. I can never quite see the point. What you get is a muddied historical account where it's very difficult to shake off the fiction while remembering the actual facts.

There's no problem with a fictional life "based on" someone historical, so long as the names are changed. Then there's hooks keeping the fiction-story from the history, the two characters are never confused.

Being told what is actually known to be true about a historical person is valuable. Being told a story in which the author has invented dialogue, invented events, twisted contemporary accounts into an interpretation, leaves a polluted tale where the truth can't be sifted from the mud.

One problem with my viewpoint is that every historian has always tarted up the tale he's been handed by the records. If the historian goes all the way, like Hilary Mantel, you end up with a wonderfully readable account. I'm not sure she should ever be forgiven but I did enjoy her writing, and a lot more of the French Revolution stuck in my mind because of the way she did what she did. In her case I get a good sense of how far she invented, I'm not sure I'd know the boundaries if I took in Karen Abott's account of the Civil War.
The book is non-fiction so I assume it's reliable. Her sources take up several pages at the end of the book. I know what you mean though about historical fiction but I think it depends on the quality of the writing as well as the intended audience. It's the same with films.

Re: What are you reading at the moment?

Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2023 3:30 pm
by Betty Boop
Witches, Sluts and Feminists, conjuring the sex positive by Kristen J. Sollee.
For centuries the word "Witch" has been used to punish women and to police female sexuality. Now,"slut" has become the damning epithet that is de reiguer. The names and punishments may have changed, but many of the same oppressive attitudes and behaviours toward women that were prevalent during the early modern witch hunts persist. (page 13)

Re: What are you reading at the moment?

Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2023 7:33 am
by Soberano
Spare by Prince Harry. Yes I was one of the ones who preordered the book so I would receive it on the day it went for sale on Amazon.
Thoroughly great read so far, the paparazzi really are the scum of the earth. I recommend you read this book if you get the chance, even if you don’t like Harry. I don’t understand people who say they don’t like him because there is no chance they actually know him, do people actually believe the crap that’s put out by fake news stories.

Re: What are you reading at the moment?

Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2023 7:55 am
by spot
Soberano wrote: Sat Feb 04, 2023 7:33 am Spare by Prince Harry. Yes I was one of the ones who preordered the book so I would receive it on the day it went for sale on Amazon.
Thoroughly great read so far, the paparazzi really are the scum of the earth. I recommend you read this book if you get the chance, even if you don’t like Harry. I don’t understand people who say they don’t like him because there is no chance they actually know him, do people actually believe the crap that’s put out by fake news stories.
I'm not sure I'd enjoy a day out with the chap, to be honest. I doubt whether his conversation would extend into any areas I'd find interesting.

If dimly recall that when The Independent launched, it promised never to mention any Windsor other than in their official capacity. It's sad they didn't stick to their guns for more than the first decade of publication but it was a laudable ambition.

I also doubt that the Prince - any of the Princes - is capable of writing a coherent autobiography. Or any biography, or even a book intended for an audience beyond kindergarten. I understand this one, Spare, was ghosted by a chap who had already written a biography - he even has a Pulitzer Prize in Feature Writing, whatever that covers. He then published his own autobiography, constructed a faction novel about a bank robber and a biography of a salesman who started a footwear brand. A lot more books than the Royal Family, anyway. Four or five at least.

I have no reason to think the late Queen's children have ever done anything less than cringeworthy when straying from their official duties. It's a pity that any journalist even mentioning them in a newspaper isn't automatically prosecuted for treason, that would solve matters. Ideally they would all be anonymous. Perhaps future royal offspring should never be given a name at all.

Re: What are you reading at the moment?

Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2023 12:17 pm
by LarsMac
I just finished Profiles in Ignorance by Andy Borowitz
It is a very entertaining revue of the decline in IQ among Republicans since the days of Ike.

Re: What are you reading at the moment?

Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2023 1:22 pm
by Bryn Mawr
The Map of Knowledge (How classical ideas were lost and found. A history in seven cities) by Violet Moller.

Following three of the great scientific works of antiquity from the end of the Roman Empire in the fifth century through to the beginning of the sixteenth century through Europe and the Middle East.

At last a book that gives due credit to Islamic tolerance and scientific achievement in the mediaeval period.

Re: What are you reading at the moment?

Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2023 3:57 pm
by spot
I've reached the Afterword of Roadside Picnic, "a philosophical science fiction novel by Soviet-Russian authors Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, written in 1971" - it formed the basis of the 1979 film Stalker, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. I think I put them both off when they came out because they're extremely miserable works about miserable subjects but I'm glad I finally decided I ought to read the book at least. Very worthwhile.