What Are You Reading Now?

[Walter Sobchak]

Recent camping trip reading:

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn

Recommend TSP highly. The Woman in the Window was entertaining enough to burn some time (have not seen the Amy Adams film).

[BigPiney]

Recent camping trip reading:

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn

Recommend TSP highly. The Woman in the Window was entertaining enough to burn some time (have not seen the Amy Adams film).

Nice.

On my backpacking trip I read the Sasquatch book by Max Brooks. Devolution.

His and Hers by Alice Feeney. I really liked this one. Fun suspense.

[SteelBlue]

Got the new DeLillo, "The Silence" and the new Marilynne Robinson, "Jack". I'm looking forward to the weekend so I can dive in.

[BigPiney]

Got the new DeLillo, "The Silence" and the new Marilynne Robinson, "Jack". I'm looking forward to the weekend so I can dive in.

Ohh, Jack. Didn't know about that. Thanks for the heads up.

DeLillo is to weird for me.

[SteelBlue]

Marilynne Robinson's "Jack" is excellent and I imagine it will be well received critically. Just starting the new DeLillo today and it's very short. More of a novella it appears. I'll return and report but so far it resembles Zero K a bit in tone and philosophy.

After 4 years, I finished Proust's In Search of Lost Time.

[SteelBlue]

Finished Bolano's 2666. Five stars from me.

[Mormon Red Death]

Just finished "king rat" by james clavell. Great story of survival.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6013 using Tapatalk

[BigPiney]

Finished Dune last night. Wanted to totally ruin the movie.

It was great. I haven't read much sci-fi, but I thought this was excellent. I will at some point read the next two books in the series.

I finished Deacon King Kong last week. That was a dumb book- do not recommend.

The New Wilderness by Diane King is good. I thought it was interesting. That is on the Booker shortlist, but deals with environmental things and not race or sexuality, so won't win.

I also read Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler. I really liked this and have never read her books, but it looks like she won the Pulitzer for Breathing Lessons, so I may read that.

[Non Sequitur]

Finished Dune last night. Wanted to totally ruin the movie.

It was great. I haven't read much sci-fi, but I thought this was excellent. I will at some point read the next two books in the series.

I finished Deacon King Kong last week. That was a dumb book- do not recommend.

The New Wilderness by Diane King is good. I thought it was interesting. That is on the Booker shortlist, but deals with environmental things and not race or sexuality, so won't win.

I also read Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler. I really liked this and have never read her books, but it looks like she won the Pulitzer for Breathing Lessons, so I may read that.

I downloaded that a couple of weeks ago. Don't remember who recommended it, but I didn't get very far into it before I moved on to the next book in the queue.

I'm currently reading -- listening to actually -- Apropos of Nothing, Woody Allen's memoir. I've always been a huge fan, and this is a nice peek behind the public persona. If you enjoy Woody Allen, you'll like this book.

[BigPiney]

I downloaded that a couple of weeks ago. Don't remember who recommended it, but I didn't get very far into it before I moved on to the next book in the queue.

.

It took me so long to finish it, like 2 months. The dialogue was terrible and it was just rambling. And all the little side stories added nothing. There a part about the ant that invade every year, but it adds absolutely nothing at all the whole book. Just wasted words. I was really disappointing, because his other book, The Good Lord Bird, was really good imo. This one just sucked. Not as bad a Underground Railroad, but still really bad.

[bluegoose]

Finished Dune last night. Wanted to totally ruin the movie.

I read Dune 8 or 9 months ago. I haven't read a ton of Sci-fi, but this was always on my list. I really enjoyed it.

[SteelBlue]

Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami. She has been dubbed one of Japan's finest new authors by none other than Mr. Haruki Murakami. I saw her interview him several months ago and it got pretty interesting/awkward when she started asking him pointed questions about the way he portrays his female characters. Asking questions like that of her country's most popular author got my attention and I found this novel, which I believe is her first. It sounds like she is a driver of a new wave of feminism in Japan, but I don't really have any idea what I'm talking about beyond a few headlines and the first half of this novel.

I've never set foot in Japan, but I've enjoyed every novel by a Japanese author I've ever come across/had recommended to me and this one is no exception. There's an honesty that initially comes across as strange/weird but as I read, I realize they just don't sugar coat things and almost without exception I've found it endearing and refreshing.

[The_Tick]

Just finished like Book 10 in the Expeditionary Force series. Really enjoyed it. Best one by far.

And for those that have read the Bobiverse series...Book 4 came out last week.

[happyone]

Finished Dune last night. Wanted to totally ruin the movie.

It was great. I haven't read much sci-fi, but I thought this was excellent. I will at some point read the next two books in the series.
...

For as much SF that I read when I was younger - I could never get into "Dune". I must have started it 4 or 5 times and never go past page 100 I had the same problem with the "Lord of the Rings Trilogy"


Now for an update of some of the books I've read recently

A couple of really, really good WW II books

Spearhead

In March of '45, there was a newsreel of an American Pershing tank knocking out a German Panther in the streets of Cologne Germany. This is the story of that Pershing's crew, esp the gunner - Clarence Smoyer, from Normandy through the end of the war. It a superb look at the day-to-day existence of both the tank crews and their supporting infantry for those nine month of combat in Northern Europe. The crew starts out in Shermans and is given one of the new Pershings in Mar '45 partly because Clarence is such an excellent gunner. The author also includes the story of the German tank crews fighting the Americans, both Panther and Panzer IVs. The epilog looks at both Clarence's struggle with PTSD that was triggered when he finally saw the newsreel footage in the 1980s. It turns out that a civilian car got in the cross fire a Clarence can't shake the feeling that he killed a couple of civilians, including a young woman. He and a couple of other veterans return to Cologne and meet a former opponent in 2013 and how that helped him deal with the PTSD
The title comes form the nickname for the 3rd Armored Division.

Fire and the Darkness

A look at the bombing of Dresden in Feb '45. This account tells the story from the view points of both the people on the ground and the air crews flying the mission.
For those that don't know, on the night of Feb 13, 800 RAF Lancaster Bombers visited Dresden setting off a fire storm comparable to what happened at Hamburg in July 1943. The next day 400 USAAF B-17s also left there calling cards on the city. We will never know how many people were killed, but the best estimates put the death toll at about 25K.

The author looks at some of the myths surrounding the raids - was Dresden a legitimate target, it had never been bombed, how it became so notorious etc.

I thought it was a really even handed look at the raid and its aftermath. For the record, the author comes down firmly on the side that it was a legitimate target. The marshalling yards Dresden were major connection for all rail traffic between Berlin and Vienna, there were several munition factories there as well as optic and electronic plants. Plus the Russians had specifically asked for it to be bombed at Yalta to hinder the transfer of troops to face them in there upcoming offensive. Also, it had been bombed before by the Americans - twice. Once in Oct 1944 and again in January '45.

One fact I didn't know was that the night of the raid it was completely undefended. The Germans had moved the AA batteries defending the city to face the Russians about 50 miles to the east.

Some non WWII history

Influenza

This is a look at the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918 and the modern search for the virus that caused it. The author, a Emergency Room MD in NYC, looks both the search for the virus and just why it was so deadly. Along the way he discusses modern day flu pandemics and why the flu keeps coming back, in spite a vaccines. He also looks at how just prepared the US in particular and the world in general is for another major flu pandemic. This came out in 2018, before COVID, but is rather applicable to todays events.

A New World Begins

A recent history of the French Revolution, from its beginnings in the 1770s through to the rise of Napoleon and the ending of the first Republic in 1804.
A very good look at the personalities, how it went from a popular uprising that most just wanted to reform the monarchy to a republic, the descent into the "Terror" and the aftermath and finally the rise of Napoleon.

Excellent read.

A Novel

Lionheart
Author Ben Kane normally writes HF set in acient Rome. With this novel he has switched eras. This is the first novel in a proposed series on one of England's greatest warrior kings - Richard I. This novel covers the time before Richard actually becomes King. He is the Duke if Aquataine and the story revolves around his struggles with his father and brothers. To say that the family did not get along is an understatement. Richard was at war with his father about just who controlled his duchy, who would succeed his father, the relationship Richard had with the King of France among other things.

One of the main supporting characters in William Marshall, who became know as "The Greatest Knight"

Excellently researched and a fun read, if you are interested in that era of history. Covers much the same ground as Sharon Kay Penman's Devil's Brood trilogy.

[Northwestcoug]

During a moment of weakness half way through "A World Undone", I started the V.E. Schwab "Shades of Magic" trilogy. I just finished it. She is a very good writer. Her style is easy enough to read dozens of pages in one sitting. I'm very picky with my fantasy reading, and I really enjoyed it. Characters are interesting, and her world of magic was unique. I recommend it to fantasy fans.

Now I got to get back to WW1.