Reading related thoughts:
- The Vonnegut re-read has now entered the post-Breakfast of Champions stage where I've read less of the books and they seem to be less well known. I find that I'm more excited to read (or re-read) these.
Read Slapstick in July and it was pretty good. The theme of the secondary family has been more obvious as I read all of these novels back to back and I think this is the biggest example of that theme in his work. I wouldn't put this up there among the best Vonnegut, but I enjoyed it just fine.
Jailbird and Deadeye Dick are up this month. I honestly can't remember if I have ever read Jailbird before, so that will be interesting. - In previous editions of FMBD, I know I've talked about my enjoyment of Two Dollar Radio as an independent publishing house. Well, I got Haints Stay by Colin Winnette from them this month and I tore through it in about 12 hours. It's an "acid western" about two brothers (one who is transgender) that are bounty hunters who find that a boy has appeared in their campsite.It's a violent thing and Winnette is always writes in an unrelenting style (a style that I've loved in everything I've read of his) and I felt like this was my favorite book of his that I've read. It was definitely my favorite July read.
- I had heard good things about Wesley Chu's Tao series, so I read that this month as well. From the first book (Lives of Tao - Chu's debut) to the third, you can see him improve as a writer and the whole series is an interesting setup (aliens have been inhabiting select humans since the dawn of history and controlling the development of human civilization). I would say it was reasonably good sci-fi, and worth checking out, but nothing that was groundbreaking.
- Next month is the now-somewhat-annual Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Fiction Award post - this year not quite so focused on the Hugo Award, but there's plenty of good stuff to link to and discuss. So mark your calendars?
This is here. On a first Monday, even!
Better not read it until tomorrow!
But still half-baked! Good work!
I'm about 30 pages from the end of The Big Sleep. Hopefully I'll have something to add further while this thread is inevitably still humming later in the week. I can say so far that it's pretty good, but some of the slang is ridiculous (I"m sure it wasn't at the time, but man it seems dated at times).
Well, it was published 76 years ago...
Chandler is a personal favorite. I prefer The Long Goodbye to The Big Sleep or Farewell, My Lovely, but love all of them.
My reading pace took a hit this summer because a friend was commuting with us temporarily while doing some house-hunting (previous house sold out from underneath him). As nice as it was to get to talk with him regularly – we both work on campus, but in separate units – it was good to finally get back to my commute routine of reading on the bus. A half-hour of book time each morning (provided I'm not too groggy) and again in the evening is one of the quiet joys of my life.
My most recent reads:
- Gary Snyder's This Present Moment: New Poems. This was my first book-length experience with Snyder. I can't claim to have understood all his references, much less how the book sits within his arc as a poet, but that didn't keep me from appreciating his mystical awareness of the world around him. "Go Now" is one of the most real, compassionate poems I've ever read. Contemplating his wife's death, Snyder captures the triple depth of love, sorrow, and relief with such rooted resonance. His verse has the tenacity of one of the gnarly old trees that crop up throughout the book, but is imbued with the emotional and spiritual resilience necessary to keep from snapping.
- Robert & Edward Skidelsky's How Much is Enough: Money and the Good Life. I am still forming my opinion on this one. I am sympathetic to the Skidelskys' main arguments: that the economies of the developed world must shift its focus from a Faustian obsession with maximizing growth & wealth generation to maximizing the things that make life worth living (health, relationships, leisure, respect, security, etc.), and that the discipline of economics has largely abdicated its role in shaping a better (instead of a more efficient) world. The chapter on environmentalists' criticisms of modern capitalism & conceptions of the good life, however, exasperated me.
- Chade-Meng Tan's Search Inside Yourself: The Unexpected Path to Achieving Success, Happiness (and World Peace). Currently reading. One of the books I will be teaching this fall.
Being able to read on the subway/tram in Prague is something I definitely miss. I love being able to ride my bike to work every day here, but it requires slightly more attention than the Metro.
While in the army, I tended to get a lot of reading in just by keeping a book in my cargo pocket for the hurry-up-and-wait moments. I never minded running errands even amid government inefficiency under those circumstances.
I once was chastized by my battalion XO for my reading selection - Chalmers Johnson's The Sorrows of Empire - while reading it outside the battalion CP. He made it pretty clear he didn't think enlisted Marines had any business reading criticism of foreign policy.
I got so much reading done in the field (and on deployment). The advent of smartphones must have changed field operations forever, especially if you have access to generators. We rigged my Hummve with a power inverter, which we needed for our COTS gear anyway. But it sure was handy for keeping a cell phone charged (to stay in communication with the ladies) and more importantly, keeping juice in your mp3 player.
This, but DC. I read so much in the years I was out there (after law school... I read a lot in law school too, but that was different reading).
I finished the second and third books in R. Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing series. Great, great fantasy stuff, albeit pretty "adult". If you don't like s-e-x in your swords-n-sorcery, this is not for you.
also read volume 1 of the Sandman graphic novels, Preludes and Nocturnes. I think I see why the series was so acclaimed. This was the first half of my birthday present from The Girl.
I'm now three chapters into the second half of my birthday present, Reza Aslan's Zealot. Wow. I hope the history is as solid as his writing, because I'm learning a lot about the historical milieu.
Still working on Anna Karenina. Still enjoying it, though obviously at my snail's pace. Might need to try a thriller after this.
Or, if anyone reads David Brooks's The Road to Character, please let me know what you think. I've always liked Brooks's tone and heard him on NPR this weekend discussing this one. I hope to get to it.
I pretty much haven't read anything this past month. I blame homeownership and focusing on writing for PWTP.
In light of my lack of contribution to this discussion with books actually read, I'll offer a minor diversion of a literary and/or scientific nature.
We named our new kitty Bell. Care to guess why?
Free Hint: It's First Monday Book Day.
Well, my picture didn't work. Crap.
That's the URL of the Google Photos page, not the address of just the picture. Your tags are right, it's just the URL isn't pointed at a picture file (.jpg .gif .png etc)
Read the Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson. Even knowing the plot, spoilers and ultimate resolution, having seen both the Swedish language versions of all three novels (and the English language version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), I was interested in reading the novels. I don't speak Swedish, but if I could, I have a feeling I'd have enjoyed them even more than I did. Interesting characters with lots of morally questionable actions - though solidly within each character's established personality & makeup - the first one felt like a stand-alone story and the second and third could have been just one with some editing. All in all, really entertaining reads.
Also knocked out The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. A story about a teenager with autism-spectrum attempting to figure out who killed a neighborhood dog and telling us about his life in the process ... narrated (and illustrated) by the teenager. After the set-up, it didn't go exactly where I expected it to, and I felt it missed some opportunities to be great, but I found the characters to be generally believable and sympathetic.
I also read Redeployment this month. Powerful and unsettling for sure, and I can easily see why it got so much recognition. On the other hand, it seemed to me that many of the narrators were cut from very very similar cloth so the effect of that voice wore out as the book went on.
I agree with your thoughts, DG. The book started off so strong, but I thought it lost a bit of momentum in some of the later stories. I like the concept of each story having a different point of view as a way to show the variety of experiences soldiers have, but some points of view ended up feeling more fully realized than others.
Another book award nomination, another scandal.
I have never heard of the RITA Awards before today; what a tough way to get exposure. How anyone thought the premise of that
trashbook was anything other than offensive is amazing.#NotAllNazis?
There's a category for Stockholm Syndrome "romances"?
Well I watched Holiday In Handcuffs last Christmas, so... I guess it transcends the medium?