Samnell |
Speaking of...here's their interview with Eric Foner with a picture of DuBois:
I've read an interview somewhere where Foner brags about the fact that there's a picture of him as a small child on DuBois' shoulders. I think he should email scans of it to wingnuts who rant about him being from an Old Left family.
Used to slightly know a guy about a generation younger than him, but in a similar position. (Not the famous family, but similar politically.) Grew up hearing again and again about the old fights of the Fifties. Called himself a red diaper baby, which was a bit retro even in the mid-60s. Lots of personal investment in Alger Hiss. Did some work for the ACLU now and then.
SmiloDan RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32 |
Samnell, the Daemon novels by Daniel Suarez are real good too.
Sunshine by Robin McKinley might meet your needs, but I personally found the story weak and the heroine WAY too passive and reactive. I really liked the world building, but I really think the author just wanted to write about pastry chefs and felt "forced" to write about them in an urban fantasy genre because she is a genre author. I should check to see if she wrote any follow ups in that universe. Also, I read it because it's a recommendation from The Complete Scoundrel, but there are no Han Solos or Mal Reynolds or Locke Lamoras amongst its cast.
Bjørn Røyrvik |
What's the f%*+ing point in having a Master's Degree in English if you're not going to read books?!?
Being able to point to a mostly useless degree while trying to find a job?
(he says with some experience).Re: Dresden Files.
Yes, I've heard the books get better around book 4 but I still have so much stuff I know I will like (or at least have a much greater probability of liking based on previous experience with the author) to read, as well as all those classics I haven't gotten around to that giving another shot for something from an author who didn't impress the first time around. Unfair and plenty of reasons to argue against this stance? sure, but at the end of the day there are only so many books one can read.
And very little I've heard about the books apart from that have piqued my interest.
Kirth Gersen |
you've already memorized every single one of Robert B. Parker's Spenser books.
Have you been spying on me again? Some of the earlier ones I can almost quote from memory.
The Jesse Stone ones started off really good but then he starting crossing them over with Sunny Randall, which led the series to an ignominious death. I really like the Jesse Stone movies with Tom Selleck, though.
Samnell |
Re: Dresden Files.
Yes, I've heard the books get better around book 4 but I still have so much stuff I know I will like (or at least have a much greater probability of liking based on previous experience with the author) to read, as well as all those classics I haven't gotten around to that giving another shot for something from an author who didn't impress the first time around. Unfair and plenty of reasons to argue against this stance? sure, but at the end of the day there are only so many books one can read.
And very little I've heard about the books apart from that have piqued my interest.
No argument there. I've written off numerous authors for poor work. There's only so much time and patience anyone has to spend.
Kirth Gersen |
Has anyone read any Joe Lansdale? Assuming my interest in Dresden doesn't increase dramatically within the next couple of chapters, I'm thinking of buying the first "Hap & Leonard" novel and give it a try.
I tumbled onto his name because (a) he's a good friend of Andrew Vachss'; (b) he wrote "Bubba Ho-Tep"; and (c) he lives in East Texas.
Treppa |
Finished The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro at around 5:30 a.m. today. It's an intriguing little story set in immediately-post-Arthurian Britain and features some Round Table characters as well as new folks. The setting is as much a character as the people and monsters who inhabit it, bringing to mind some of the most barren, windswept scenes from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Unlike Grail, there's not a hint of comedy as the story slowly unwinds through the minds of several characters: Axl, an elderly man; Edwin, a young Saxon boy; Gawaine, elderly knight and companion of Arthur; Wistan, the Saxon warrior; and a few mysterious figures. The plot and exposition are as full of mists and confusion as the primitive landscape, though all is clear by the end.
I love a book that keeps me guessing and doesn't have heroes and villains. This one kept me reading to see what would unfold next, what truth would be revealed, what character exposed to scrutiny and unflinching examination. It started a bit slowly and the read was as much of a journey as that taken by any character, but the revelations at the end are well worth the trip. Fascinating, teasing, mysterious, enigmatic: this is not a feel-good book, but it's rewarding.
Samnell |
Got a recommendation out of the blue for Ancillary Justice. Different board. Wasn't even talking books. Guy just PMed me because he thought I'd like the second book in the trilogy. Of course you have to read the first before that.
So far the military scifi aspect isn't utterly alienating, which is nice. Quite like the protagonist.
Stockvillain |
On a recommendation from a friend, I just finished Name of the Wind and fully enjoyed it.
I managed to slow down and pace myself after only bulling through 350 pages.
Anywho, just picked up the second book (Wise Man's Fear), so I'll be getting started on that tonight.
thejeff |
Has anyone read any Joe Lansdale? Assuming my interest in Dresden doesn't increase dramatically within the next couple of chapters, I'm thinking of buying the first "Hap & Leonard" novel and give it a try.
I tumbled onto his name because (a) he's a good friend of Andrew Vachss'; (b) he wrote "Bubba Ho-Tep"; and (c) he lives in East Texas.
I read some comics he did with Tim Truman. Weird Western stuff. Jonah Hex. Maybe something else.
Doodlebug Anklebiter |
Doodlebug Anklebiter wrote:What's the f%*+ing point in having a Master's Degree in English if you're not going to read books?!?
Being able to point to a mostly useless degree while trying to find a job?
(he says with some experience).
But you, based on the evidence of this thread, read books.
In other news, I didn't realize the auteur of Bubba-hotep wrote novels. Let us know how it goes, Kirth!
In other other news, I resolved my quandary, and I don't know why I didn't think of it earlier. I don't believe my vow to not read A Song of Ice and Fire until either etc. or etc. ever included not watching the tv show. That was just tacked on later as a given when they later made a tv show. So, I'll just watch the tv show and put the books away until either etc. or etc.! Huzzah. I wish all of my life's problems were so easily solved. But I'll finish the first one because I'm only about 100 pages to the end and, don't know if you've heard this, but it's pretty f@&!ing good.
In other other other news, that Ishiguro sounds pretty interesting, Treppa. [Adds to list]
Treppa |
I've got Name of the Wind queued up on my library list.
A lot of books 'reviewed' here sound good, but the library doesn't have 'em. It makes me sad. In fact, I tried to find a single noir book in our library system, and there wasn't one to be had. No Hammett!
Of course, I only wanted the noir books to pick up the writing style. I think the market is ripe for modern noir.
thejeff |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Got a recommendation out of the blue for Ancillary Justice. Different board. Wasn't even talking books. Guy just PMed me because he thought I'd like the second book in the trilogy. Of course you have to read the first before that.
So far the military scifi aspect isn't utterly alienating, which is nice. Quite like the protagonist.
I actually quite liked both of them. The second a little more than the first, which is apparently uncommon.
I found that the whole genderless SJW thing that had everyone up in arms is far less emphasized than rumour had it.
thejeff |
thejeff wrote:I wasn't even aware that that was a thing, though of course it stands to reason. I take criticisms like that as reason to read. :)
I found that the whole genderless SJW thing that had everyone up in arms is far less emphasized than rumour had it.
It was part of the whole Hugo Award/Puppies thing.
Samnell |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Samnell wrote:It was part of the whole Hugo Award/Puppies thing.thejeff wrote:I wasn't even aware that that was a thing, though of course it stands to reason. I take criticisms like that as reason to read. :)
I found that the whole genderless SJW thing that had everyone up in arms is far less emphasized than rumour had it.
That I am in some small way spiting those people by reading this book is a pleasure and a privilege.
Readerbreeder |
On a recommendation from a friend, I just finished Name of the Wind and fully enjoyed it.
I managed to slow down and pace myself after only bulling through 350 pages.Anywho, just picked up the second book (Wise Man's Fear), so I'll be getting started on that tonight.
Just a heads-up, though it's a wonderful book, and well worth reading, compared to Name of the Wind, Wise Man's Fear suffers from serious middle-book syndrome.
Comrade Anklebiter |
More Jacobin:
The Party and Black Liberation
I first met Professor Zumoff twenty-two years ago at a Harvard picket line against Operation: Rescue when he was a snot-nosed kid from Arizona who wrote drunken letters to Maoist rags defending The Grateful Dead. Now, he's a globe-trotting, book-writing history professor who gets interviewed in Jacobin.
I hate you, Jacob!
Lord Snow |
Read three books since last reported here. "The Alloy Of Law" (Wax & Wayne 0 by Brandon Sanderson), then "Winter's Heart" (Wheel of time 9 by Robert Jordan) and Half a King (Shattered Sea #1 by Joe Abercrombie). Currently reading Crossroads Of Twilight by Robert Jordan, though I can't get into it out of extreme boredom and am likely yo switch to another book before I came back to finish it.
However, the book continues to do what the previos one startedm which is actually resolve some plot threads that have been present for a long time. Specifically the cleansing of the male source could be a huge game changer, and it appears a couple of Forsaken may have dies, so that oughta speed things up. Have to say, though, I'm pretty happy that I only have to trudge through two more Jordan books before Sanderson takes over and hopefully gets the series back on track.
Comrade Anklebiter |
Doodlebug Anklebiter |
Been having a terribly hard time finding a copy of Hawthorne's The Twice-Told Tales so I settled and picked up a copy of Penguin's Selected Tales and Sketches. I have absolutely no recollection of ever reading the story "Wakefield," which, some may recall, is about a Londoner who leaves his wife and spends the next twenty years living in a house a street over before returning home. But I must have, because I definitely remember this sentence:
It is perilous to make a chasm in human affections; not that they gape so long and wide--but so quickly close again!
Oh yeah, finished A Game of Thrones today. [Sobs]
Aaron Bitman |
I saw my 9-year-old son reading the Joshua Dread series by Lee Bacon. I found the premise intriguing, so I read the first two books, and I just started on the third.
The series parodies superhero comics. The main character is the child of a super-villain duo, and one of the first things the series does is to point out explicitly many reasons why these villains' nefarious schemes make no sense. That pretty well establishes the background and atmosphere.
Obviously, the references to DC and Marvel comics are inevitable. One villain is a bald-headed scientist named Vex. In the second book, the main characters join a summer camp for training young superheroes, some of whose employees are former campers. As if that reference weren't obvious enough, the book tells us that years earlier, those former campers had formed a hero group called X-Treme Team.
Those first two books made me laugh quite a few times. I'm not yet sure about the third, though. The front and back covers make it look more like Harry Potter than Superman or X-Men.
Don Juan de Doodlebug |
Doodlebug Anklebiter wrote:
Oh yeah, finished A Game of Thrones today. [Sobs]You can't lose your head over these things.
*rimshot*
It was the demise of Khal Drogo, that did it, actually. La Principessa really, um, gets into it when we do the KD/Dany scenes, so, you know, I started to identify with the barbaric, rapacious, horselord. I think I'm going to start putting bells in my hair.
Limeylongears |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I found out a while ago I'd subscribed to an audio books site and had quite a few credits that I'd forgotten about, so I downloaded a bunch of books that I couldn't find hard copies of (they're still books, alright?!)
'Republic of Thieves' by Scott Lynch
'Violated by Monsters: The Dragon's Dungeon' by Hannah Wilde, narrated by the author - a charming tale of a young lady with a slightly unusual way of making her Skill (Animal Training) roll
'Witness of Gor' by John Norman, and
'The Phoenix Guard' by Steven Brust. I love that book so much, and intend to get my grubby little mitts on a paper copy as soon as I possibly can.
I have also been reading, reading 'The Rites of Man' by Rosalind Miles and writing a play for PFPL about
I think it's very good indeed. We shall see how its opening night goes tomorrow.
Samnell |
Finished Ancillary Justice. Pretty good, though the back half of it got interrupted several times. I could have had it done a few days back if not for that.
Now I've really got to read some history. Looks like Freehling's book on the Nullification Controversy. It's less than 400 pages, so if I can stick with it I might have the thing done by Christmas.
Treppa |
Samnell wrote:Got a recommendation out of the blue for Ancillary Justice. Different board. Wasn't even talking books. Guy just PMed me because he thought I'd like the second book in the trilogy. Of course you have to read the first before that.
So far the military scifi aspect isn't utterly alienating, which is nice. Quite like the protagonist.
I actually quite liked both of them. The second a little more than the first, which is apparently uncommon.
I found that the whole genderless SJW thing that had everyone up in arms is far less emphasized than rumour had it.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm sick unto death of one aspect of a book (politician, event, article) being blown all out of proportion and being made the entire story by the Highly Offended Few. Honestly. Can't we take a subtle, nuanced look at the world? Between the blowup about the genderless narration of the Ancillary books and the ruckus about Atticus Finch's paternalistic attitude towards blacks in Watchman, I'm wondering if anybody bothers to, you know, read the actual books and look more than skin deep.
Samnell |
I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm sick unto death of one aspect of a book (politician, event, article) being blown all out of proportion and being made the entire story by the Highly Offended Few. Honestly. Can't we take a subtle, nuanced look at the world? Between the blowup about the genderless narration of the Ancillary books and the ruckus about Atticus Finch's paternalistic attitude towards blacks in Watchman, I'm wondering if anybody bothers to, you know, read the actual books and look more than skin deep.
People are people. We're all perpetually infuriated that others disagree with what we consider important value judgments. I don't see us stopping any time soon. If we did, we'd probably instead have discovered that we didn't value some things quite like we thought we had.
But on topic, here's the first sentence of Freehling's nullification book: "February was the gay month in ante bellum Charleston."
A paragraph later he mentions that it was not up to usual standards. Someone should survey extant architecture and check if there was a recent upswing in closet construction which could have caused this. Come to think of it, the book is nearly fifty years old. There must be at least a dissertation on the subject by now.
Incidentally, to judge from Freehling's citations the prior historiography is pretty sparse too. As far as dedicated works go, it seems the last on the Nullification Controversy itself rather than treating it as part of a broader subject was from 1928, though there's also one from 1916 and another from 1893. In subsequent work I know of one from the late 80s. Seems like this is one of those areas where if I wanted to I could easily read all the major works. Might do that someday.
Zeugma |
All book-talk is accepted here, Treppa!
I'm still reading "Wolf Hall" by Hilary Mantel. It's taking me a super-long time because of her writing style and the fact that people have first names that are indistinguishable (e.g. Thomas), family names, and exchangeable titles (e.g. master secretary). But I'm in the last section now, so I feel I'm getting a better grip on things.
Hitdice |
thejeff wrote:Samnell wrote:Got a recommendation out of the blue for Ancillary Justice. Different board. Wasn't even talking books. Guy just PMed me because he thought I'd like the second book in the trilogy. Of course you have to read the first before that.
So far the military scifi aspect isn't utterly alienating, which is nice. Quite like the protagonist.
I actually quite liked both of them. The second a little more than the first, which is apparently uncommon.
I found that the whole genderless SJW thing that had everyone up in arms is far less emphasized than rumour had it.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm sick unto death of one aspect of a book (politician, event, article) being blown all out of proportion and being made the entire story by the Highly Offended Few. Honestly. Can't we take a subtle, nuanced look at the world? Between the blowup about the genderless narration of the Ancillary books and the ruckus about Atticus Finch's paternalistic attitude towards blacks in Watchman, I'm wondering if anybody bothers to, you know, read the actual books and look more than skin deep.
** spoiler omitted **
Subtlety and nuance are too much work! I just want to shout insightfully pithy bons mots about books I haven't bothered to read, it's easier!
SmiloDan RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32 |
Treppa |
Bon bons > bon mots.
Finished Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore and am not sure what to think, really. I'm trying to find something insightful to say about it because it's a book club read and I'm afraid to go there without something for show and tell. At the same time, I'm finding books that integrate a lot of technology talk to be rather dull and mundane. Maybe it's fascinating to non-techies.... naaaaah. Probably not.
Started The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society for October's book club read. So far, it's entirely in letter format and that is getting old fast.
Treppa |
All book-talk is accepted here, Treppa!
I'm still reading "Wolf Hall" by Hilary Mantel. It's taking me a super-long time because of her writing style and the fact that people have first names that are indistinguishable (e.g. Thomas), family names, and exchangeable titles (e.g. master secretary). But I'm in the last section now, so I feel I'm getting a better grip on things.
I had that same problem with Wuthering Heights. I had to make a family tree to distinguish all the Catherines and Earnshaws.
Samnell |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Two days and two chapters into Freehling, though I confess the second was deeply confusing. I should probably go back and make a South Carolina politics & economy cheat sheet. Going into the crisis you have:
Upcountry Staple Cotton Planters
Upcountry Yeomen
Lowcountry Luxury Cotton Planters
Lowcountry Rice Planters
Lowcountry Mechanics and Merchants
Each one of these had a different experience with the economic dislocations of the 1820s, ranging from a small pinch that irritated more than hurt (rice) to a dip that prompted many of them to get their acts together and stop being obnoxious tools (long-staple cotton in the lowcountry). Guys used to ship their cotton, which was the good stuff used for lace and other luxury products, stuffed with dirty material, stained cotton, potato skins, rusty knives, whatever. They thought they were recession proof and had the world by the balls.
The upcountry felt the squeeze very badly since they were over-mortgaged. The whole state suffered from a shortage of hard money, which many state policies made worse, but the upcountry cotton planters were really on the rack for it.
Then you get into the mechanics (skilled labor in 19th century parlance) who saw their jobs going to a growing free black population and were increasingly unable to compete because of both economics and cultural things. (They could not advertise without a serious blow to status, since free blacks advertised.) And the merchants were being bought out and edged out by northerners.
Plus all the rich whites were dealing with the problem that they culturally loathed anybody who worked in any profession that wasn't planting, law, government, or clergy. Exploring options would have meant a massive status drop but those professions were all full to bursting.
It's a tangled mess and I'm sure half of this is wrong. You try sorting it out while you're starting to drift off. :)
But there is a nice aspect of it, aside the learning. In 1966 Freehling hadn't yet developed his love of nicknames or inclination toward private cant that make passages of Road to Disunion so hard to parse.
Hitdice |
ZOMG Samnell, dumb it down a bit for the rest of us, will you? I prefer books featuring rocketships and rayguns, okay?
. . .
Y'know, back in the early 80s, some publisher rebooted the Tom Swift series as science fiction. God, those books were awesome; a redhead (platonic) girlfriend, an "Amerindian" sidekick and a robot named Aristotle, but best of all? No complicated words to look up!
Doodlebug Anklebiter |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Doodlebug Anklebiter wrote:Doyle totally ripped off Sherlock Holmes from the Dupin stories.Went rooting around in my attic last night and found my copy of the 1000+ paged The Unabridged Edgar Allan Poe which I've been looking for for over a year now.
Huzzah!
IIRC, Sherlock thought Dupin was a rank amateur.
Doodlebug Anklebiter |
Comrade Anklebiter |
Literary Magazines for Socialists Funded by the CIA, Ranked
Fun read. Lots of highbrow shiznit in there.
Limeylongears |
A bit late, but interview with Michael Moorcock in The New Statesman (that's some kinda commie rag, ain't it, Limey?)
It's the house mag for the Labour Party soft left, so... not really. The Spectator is the Tory equivalent, and I think there's an American Spectator too, which is even further to the right.
I read Rogue of Gor on Saturday, which only had one Rogue in it. He got his wrist broken and was then thrown into the canal, which left plenty of time for the hero to swan about acting like a swollen plonker alongside the usual four page ruminations about the essential differences between mens and womens.
These books are getting worse, and Norman seems to have given up on the semi-thrilling intergalactic alien war metaplot thing which kind of made me want to keep reading. Still, I shall carry on until the bitter end. For some reason.
Comrade Anklebiter |
Started by Fabians, though, right? (Not that they were actually commies.)
In my own reading, I am kind of surprised that I don't enjoy Whitman's Civil War poems more. Did about thirty pages of Poe's poetry last night.
My short story reading took a decidedly Vive le Galt!-ish turn with "The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge" in which Sherlock Holmes has to deal with a secret society bent on assassinating a Latin American dictator-in-exile; and Hawthorne's "My Kinsman, Major Molnieux" (sp?), a delightful tale of tar-and-feathering the colonial governor.
In other news, I started re-reading Jane Gaskell's The Serpent. Gonna finish the series this time, I swear.
Doodlebug Anklebiter |
2 people marked this as a favorite. |
31 FAIRLY OBSCURE LITERARY MONSTERS
Last one is Kafka's father, which made me laugh.