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I knew about the fiction/nonfiction question or discussion or whatever, but still most of it rang pretty true. But he's in the middle of the Outback in the book, Arkady left him behind, he turns to his notebooks and all of a sudden it's a different book that I don't like as much.Quote:
Originally Posted by Flyoverland Captive
DRAGON TEETH - Michael Crichton
I ripped through this rousing bit of historical fiction in a day.
Essentially a dime store western with elements of paleontology tossed in for good measure.
Crichton's prose is easy going and the pacing is swift, all augmented by colorful characters both real and imagined.
RIYL
The early western storeis of Elmore Leonard; The western novels of Louis L'amour; Pirate Latitudes
^that’s funny- I read Dragon Teeth in a day too. Really enjoyed it.
I described it to my husband as a “man’s beach read” so I bet you guys will like it too
A Confderacy of Dunces has been gathering dust in my bookshelf for at least 2 decades.
Might be high time to dig into it...
https://www.newyorker.com/books/seco...60svUMqOA6GAVs
Definitely. Hilarious and incredibly unique.Quote:
Originally Posted by dookeyXXX
:cool:Quote:
Originally Posted by The AD
"There Is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the Twenty-first Century", - Fiona Hill.
Really fantastic personal synopsis of impacts of the post industrial slump across Russia, the UK and America. Etches commonalities across different cultures. politics and economic structures, teasing out the shared threads of populism and the heeling over slide towards authoritarianism. Well written, funny in parts, scathing in others, brutal evisceration of sexism, classism and the layers of western castes. OK, the middle gets boggy with data.
I'd love to see her compare notes and observations with J.D. Vance who seems to either have drawn orthogonal conclusions relative to her observations or decided to take advantage of them.
If you like Dunces, check out “The Fan Man” by Kotzwinckle.Quote:
Originally Posted by The AD
Bomb is a great read: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13170021-bomb
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The Fan Man is great, as are some of the other Kotzwinkle novels I have read-- The Game of Thirty, The Bear Went Over The Mountain...Quote:
Originally Posted by Flyoverland Captive
Dude's bibliography is incredibly (perhaps even bizarrely) diverse.
He wrote the novelization of E.T. and has written quite a lot of children's lit, too, including Walter The Farting Dog .
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kotzwinkle
BTW, his newest novel, Felonious Monk, from the reviews I quickly glanced at, sounds great. It was released last year.
Speaking of the atomic bomb, I've been reading The Last Ship by William Brinkley. Basically it tells the story of a guided-missile destroyer that receives orders to launch nuclear-tipped missiles at the Soviet Union and what happens afterward (spoiler: most of the world is rendered uninhabitable). I almost quit reading after 100 or so pages because the writing style is so unbelievably wordy to be annoying, but he sucked me in. I'm about 2/3 through it now and it's difficult to put down. It's a very compelling story despite the faults. The book came out in 1988, so you might think it would read like a Tom Clancy novel, but other than the military setting it's completely different. It's really focused on the leadership choices required to be the captain of a ship and the consequences of those choices. And, of course, the potential consequences of nuclear weapons.Quote:
Originally Posted by buildakicker
jdvAnce is a scam. A taint snorting Ivy League asshole who did Benny profane parachutes into real AmericaQuote:
Originally Posted by Buster Highmen
That's an awful oversimplification of where he came from, similar to Hill's background. How did they end up so opposed?Quote:
Originally Posted by dunfree
I’m loving Three Body. It’s so layered, picturing the 30 million person ‘computer’, is bending my mind. Almost done with it, just ordered Dark Forest, thanks for the recommendation. These last few chapters are flying by.Quote:
Originally Posted by basinbeater
Yeah, good stuff! I liked dark forest even better.
I’m reading Dark Forest now, I agree it’s even better. Different translator on this book, an American guy not a Chinese translator. It just seems to flow easier for some reason
My latest haul:
Attachment 413223
Timothy Snyder's "On Tyranny" is a pretty quick read, largely because he stays on point.
I could quibble about the specificity in his most recent examples, but having been updated in 2021 it's echoing pretty well now, so I think that's a point to Snyder. The graphic additions sometimes make it odd to find the next word, but it's fine. Good stuff, will read again.
Any recommendations for a leadership related book? Yes it’s for a training. I realize it’s all the same repackaged ideas, so something enlightening and grounded in science would be interesting.
Im thinking Thinking Fast and Slow might be one, but maybe long and dense for the timeframe I’m on.
This one didn’t suck too bad. Actually helpful in many areas.
Attachment 414537
I was waiting for a couple holds from the library, so decided to finally read The Da Vinci Code while I was waiting. God, it's hokey. I can't tell if Dan Brown thought the big reveal of the "secret password" was supposed to make us all say "Of course! Why didn't I think of that?" or make us internally yell at the supposed 'expert' characters who were so stumped by it for so long, but it was definitely the latter for me. :)
Anyway, it is mildly entertaining for all its faults.
On the last chapter of American Dirt what a story. Starts with a scene straight outta hell and never lets up. Highly Recommended and fuck the controversy over the color of who wrote it. It's just a damn good bit of fiction pulled straight from the headlines.
Just got that out of the library, looking forward to it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marshall Tucker
Recently finished The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett. Interesting novel about black people "passing" for white. I only read it bc somebody gave a copy to my wife. It wasn't a waste of time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by The AD
have you ever read “the name of the rose” by umberto eco? Better.
tdc was the end of the airport thriller novel buy
88 Names - Matt Ruff
Sadly, it's not as distinctive in voice as either Bad Monkeys or Lovecraft Country. And, despite being unable to shake the spectre of Ready Player One and borrowing elements of the films Dreamscape and The Game (amongst other fairly obvious influences; often times it feels like a Mission: Impossible storyline), this is still a fun read (I knocked it out in a day).