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Currently reading: The Ultimate Wodehouse Collection.
While Wodehouse is most widely known for the Jeeves and Wooster series, this book starts with little known but just as amusing short stories, relying on hysterical character development and contrasts as well as more than a jigger of cutting English linguistics.
I'll by you lunch if you don't love it. Love might be the wrong word...if you're not captivated.Quote:
Originally Posted by The AD
I'm part way through Fishing for the Little Pike by Juhani Karila and enjoying it so far. Magical realism isn't usually my thing but the writing is fun to read and I'm enjoying the story. I heard the author and translator speak a couple weeks ago and even though I got the book for my girlfriend I started reading it before she did.
Oh that sounds interesting, worth keeping an eye for at least.Quote:
Originally Posted by evasive_MT
Continuing the Finnish author theme, I noticed at the bookstore that Pekka Hämäläinen's Indigenous Continent is now available in paperback which makes it more tempting to pick up.
Has anyone here read No Friends but the Mountains by Judith Matloff? I got a suggestion to read it and it's looks intriguing but possibly dense.
https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/ti...ns=basic-books
I need a page turner. I have consumed all of Cormic McCarthy, Larry McMurtry, and Bernard Cornwall that is good recently. I tried some other historical fiction and revisionist westerns but they didn’t stick.
Try some CJ. Box.
I just finished Cornwell’s Arthur series. It’s probably been 20 years since I read it last. I enjoyed it, but his Saxon series is better by a good margin. I’ll probably revisit that this winter.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hood26
Have you read Gallows Thief? It’s one of his one-offs that probably flies under the radar, but I remember enjoying it.
I went on a Louis L’Amour jag earlier in the year. They’re pulp and predictable, but still fun. I’m back to nonfiction now, though.
Have you checked out these revisionist Westerns?:Quote:
Originally Posted by Hood26
• The Sisters Brothers - Patrick deWitt
• Dragon Teeth - Michael Crichton (I also really enjoyed his swashbuckler Pirate Latitudes).
• The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu - Tom Lin
• True Grit - Charles Portis (his other novels are great, too).
That’s some good recommendations. I will be hitting up the library soon. Thanks!
You might also try the Oathsworn series by Robert Low. Definitely not as good as Cornwall but still pretty entertaining and it's all Vikings. The Crusaders Trilogy by Jan Guillou is good too if you aren't sick of historical fiction yet. The Aubrey/Maturin series is worth checking out. After the first few books they start to get tedious with a lot of onshore political intrigue and not enough action at sea but the character development helps pull you through most of the time.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hood26
Occasionally sold bud to Tom in college--nice guy and a talented writerQuote:
Originally Posted by dookeyXXX
I've been reading Agatha Christie mysteries lately for candy. They're usually entertaining and easy reads.
INHERENT VICE
I finally finished Thomas Pynchon’s stoner detective noirvel.
Not quite sure how I feel about it. It took me several attempts to read, having started it way back when it was first published, stalling out about 50 pages in, then putting it aside. I recently (a few months back) watched PT Anderson’s cinematic adaptation, which was interesting if only for its faux Tarantino vibe.
It prompted me to pick the book back up and I got 75% through it over Thanksgiving and then forgot about finishing it til now.
It’s an absurdly complex narrative featuring way too many characters to keep track of and ultimately the resolution is a bit vague and slightly unsatisfactory.
In many ways it feels like a cheap knockoff of Hiassen and Leonard, crossed with The Big Lebowski.
The film made it all seem like a stoner’s fever dream, but the book comes off more straightforward, though its aftertaste is somewhat akin to a fading marijuana haze of confusion and ennui, which might have been Pynchon’s end goal after all.
To be fair, my experience with TP is limited to The Crying of Lot 49, which similarly I started reading, lost interest/got confused by the elaborate plot, stopped reading, and then revisited/restarted years later. I dug that book more, even though both mine similar territory.
PS
I know this book has been mentioned before, but due to the ever wonky search function, I couldn’t find anything of the sort.
YMMV in regards to enjoyment; I dug parts of it, but also found it unnecessarily convoluted and it ended with too many loose strings and unresolved elements for my taste.
The Three Body Problem has been mentioned a few times in here and was on my list but I haven't read it. Just saw that Netflix is coming out with a series this week.
Latest acquisitions:
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If you're looking for pure fun, with good laughs and a funny plot, check out Starter Villain. I'm almost done and enjoying it immensely.
https://us.macmillan.com/books/97807...startervillain
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Nice.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Reverend Floater
I just read about that book earlier this week as the author was referenced by another author I dig (or in a book review I was reading, I forget…).
You might wanna check this one out while you’re at it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soon_I_Will_Be_Invincible
Listened to No Country for Old Men on a 16 hour solo drive over the past two days. I'd read it before and also seen the movie.
Goddamn, Cormac McCarthy can fucking write.
Listening to it puts another angle on it for me...I can think a bit more about what is being said and it felt like I was exploring it under a whole different light.
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First book is pretty good and a fun read. The second starts out slow weird and depressing but redeems itself at the very end, not sure if I can recommend. It was not helpful for my mental state while reading. Debating if I read the third or not.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Danno
Hmmm, I was going to start a thread on whole albums I should be listening to on a cross country drive, but maybe I need to be thinking about audiobooks....Quote:
Originally Posted by The Reverend Floater
It's the only way I roll on all day drives. Keeps me awake, interested and the day goes by quickly.Quote:
Originally Posted by oldnew_guy
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NCFOM question:
Is Anton CMC's take on God? This time around some things and quotes hit me.
Anton's devotion to chance.
His indifference to life, violence, pain and love.
His speeches to the dying.
These quotes:
I dont know what I ever done, she said. I truly dont.
Chigurh nodded. Probably you do, he said. There's a reason for everything.
----------
Even a nonbeliever might find it useful to model himself after God. Very useful, in fact.
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It's not about knowin where you are. It's about thinkin you got there without takin anything with you. Your notions about startin over. Or anybody's. You don't start over. That's what it's about. Every step you take is forever. You can't make it go away. None of it. You understand what I'm sayin?
You think when you wake up in the mornin yesterday don't count. But yesterday is all that does count. What else is there? Your life is made out of the days it's made out of. Nothin else. You might think you could run away and change your name and I don't know what all. Start over. And then one mornin you wake up and look at the ceilin and guess who's layin there?
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I’ve read quite a few books on the Apollo program- most of the astronaut and flight director memoirs, and a number of histories. This was very different, and the new perspective was fascinating. It was more about developing the systems and technology that underlay the whole effort.
Haven’t read it yet, but this article makes Dawson’s new book sound interesting. And hey, skiing and such.
https://www.aspendailynews.com/news/...ea36bd85e.html
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/...L._SL1499_.jpg
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Fantastic book if you like this genre. The Guardian reviewer said “one of the finest non-fiction books I’ve ever read”
Skip the authors note and the prologue unless you want the plot spoiled - skip right to chapter 1.
I noticed "A Gentleman in Moscow" by Amor Towles has now been made into a TV series starring Ewan McGregor, so might be a good time to read the book. I just read it a couple months ago and enjoyed it.
Ordered that the other day, looks very interesting. Also pre-ordered Beth Rodden's memoir A Light Through the Cracks.Quote:
Originally Posted by Meadow Skipper
Sebastian Junger’s new book is worth picking up. Quick read but powerful
http://www.sebastianjunger.com/in-my-time-of-dying
^^That does look interesting.
Following up on my post above, I thoroughly enjoyed the books by Lou Dawson and Beth Rodden. I'm a sucker for climbing memoirs. (And I was surprised to learn that Dawson was a serious climber BITD. Skiing almost seemed like an afterthought in his memoir.)
I just read The Darkest White by Eric Blehm while out camping. I picked up that and The Last Season after hearing him on the Blister podcast.
Working in a slopeside ski/snowboard shop in the early '00s, the disappearance and then loss of Craig was huge. I didn't know much about his early life, but I'm glad I got a chance to see what made him tick.
Agreed. One of his best works.Quote:
Originally Posted by Brownski
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I have fallen right into Follet’s Pilars of Earth.
Characters that are interesting and plenty of historical nerdiness.
600 pages deep in less than a week. It’s a page turner.
It was great. I read the second one, too, but haven't gotten to the others in the series.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hood26
Haven’t opened it yet, but I’m optimistic.
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Man I had one of those and I didn't see shit. He saw his Dad and got a bestseller out of the deal, what a ripoff.Quote:
Originally Posted by Brownski
here’s a quick and interesting summer time true crime read about the corrupt shenanigans taking place on the upstate canals in the late 19th century…
Attachment 496560
Description
The Forestport Breaks: A Nineteenth-Century Conspiracy Along the Black River Canal. Michael Doyle. The Erie Canal was dying. Adirondack sawmills were falling silent. And in the final years of the nineteenth century, the upstate New York town of Forestport was struggling just to survive. Then the canal levees started breaking, and the boom times returned. The Forestport saloons flourished, the town’s gamblers rollicked, and the politically connected canal contractors were flush once more. It was all very convenient until Governor Theodore Roosevelt’s administration grew suspicious and the Pinkerton National Detective Agency began investigating. They found what a lawman called one of the most gigantic conspiracies ever hatched in New York. In The Forestport Breaks, Michael Doyle illuminates a fresh and fascinating chapter in the colorful history of the Erie Canal. This is the canal’s shadowy side, a world of political rot and plotting men, and it extended well beyond one rough and tumble town. The Forestport breaks marked the only time New York officials charged men with conspiring to destroy canal property, but they were also illustrative of the widespread rascality surrounding the canal. For Doyle, there is a story with a personal dimension behind the drama of the canal’s historical events. As he uncovered the rise and fall of Forestport, he was also discovering that the trail of culpability led to members in his own family tree. Syracuse University Press, 2004, 256pp.
check your local library or you can find it on the Canal museum website.
https://eriecanalmuseum.org/store/pr...stport-breaks/
Sounds kinda Upstatey.
I believe I have plugged the works of WILLY VLAUTIN in this thread before.
He’s just dropped a new book and he’s doing a smattering of in-store events.
I highly recommend his novels and he’s great to catch live, too.
Often times at his readings/signings he’ll break out his guitar and play a few tunes, too!
List of events here:
https://www.willyvlautin.com/post/the-horse-events-usa
This one is on the way. Lakota are cool humans
Attachment 496729
If you love the Yellowstone trg tourist thread this a must read. Vintage stories. Getting gored and boiled alive is nothing new.
Attachment 496730
Library didn’t have #2 available, so ended up reading the prequel and then #3; I am a weirdo who doesn’t mind taking a series out of order. Prequel was OK and #3 was good with plenty to think on from the Reformation Era. True to form, neither was as good as #1, but I don’t retreat reading either. Again, fast reads despite their length.Quote:
Originally Posted by The AD
This month I have read Astoria: John Jacob Astor’s and Thomas Jefferson’s Lost Empire, by Peter Stark. Great read. Written more as popular history in the journalistic style of the author.
I am now reading Follet’s Fall of Giants from the Century Series, and may try to return to the Kingsbrodge when on vacation.