What Are You Reading Now?

[Donuthole]

Demon Copperhead kinda sucked. Started out great, but gosh the high school and post high school years were a slog to read through. Became a snooze fest. #sjbh

[happyone]

Kind of a shot in the dark here but thought I'd give it a try.

I read a really interesting Twitter thread about the Comanches today, how the introduction of the horse basically turned them into the Mongols of the American plains, and that if they had had a little more time they probably would have conquered a huge portion of the continent. Anyone know of a good book on the Comanches?

as it was, they controlled most of Texas, Northern Mexico, New Mexico, most of Colorado, Oklahoma, some of Kansas

If you haven't already found it, you might want to look as S.C. Gwynn's Empire of the Summer Moon

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...he-summer-moon

[SteelBlue]

If you enjoyed A Gentleman in Moscow, the series has debuted episode 1 on Showtime and Paramount+. Ewan Mcgregor is Count Rostov. I thought it was a solid episode. I will definitely keep watching.

[Donuthole]

I just finished Erik Larson's newest offering

The Splendid and the Vile

I think this has been mentioned previously somewhere in the thread, but I'm too lazy to look it up.

This a look at Winston Churchill's first year as Prime Minister, the Battle of Britain and The Blitz from a very personal level. Larson uses WSC's daughter's diaries, one of the Private Secratary's and his body guard's to give a look at how the family worked and more importantly how they coped with the stress and bombing.

Excellent as usual with some humor, a good look at WSC's son Randolf and his marriage to Pamala - which didn't end well and started unraveling during this time frame, WSC's insane work schedule, just how the bombing affect the common Londoner amoung many other topics. I think it is a five star read for GR

I have this on my nightstand. I think it’s 2nd it 3rd in the queue. I just finished Devil in the White City and thought it was fun, if not quite as enthralling as I was hoping.

i read them back to back and the thought they were both boring.

Well, thanks to OG's take, I moved this down in the queue quite a bit from a couple years back. But I finally got around to it. I liked it ok. I am admittedly not a WWII nerd or buff, and my knowledge of the war is very Americentric, i.e. Pearl Harbor and onward. So I found the subject of Chamberlain's first year in office quite fascinating and very enlightening. Still, the tone wasn't my favorite. I think Larson thinks he is funnier than he actually is. Anyway, i'm glad I read it, but mainly for the content, and not for the experience. Also, RIP Snakehips.

[frank ryan]

This year I read a truly great book that should iinterest all of you. Here is my book review. https://x.com/johnrneeleman/status/1...yER1gbdJexlx5Q

Remarkably, Hong Xiuquan had the same vision as Joseph Smith, at about the same time--God the Father and Jesus, with Satan trying to break up the encounter. Hong Xiuquan took from the event that he was the brother of Jesus--sort of like the prophet to usher in the last dispensation.

Not only this, Hong Xiuquan's godhead was the same as Joseph Smith's. No trunity, three separate gods, with God the Fother and Jesus separate beings.

The Taiping religion also organized the universe by family units and pedigrees, and strictly enforced moral chastity. Yet naturally Hong Xiuquan had fir himself a harem that included wives of his followers and girls.

A weird, little known event in human history, yet possibly more significant historical event that Mormonism. Hong Xiuquan's movement grew into the Taiping Rebellion against the Qing dynasty that left 20 million dead. Hong Xiuquan's movement would go on to inspire Mao's successful rebellion against the Quing and Chiang Kai-check.

Nice to see a review from you! Hope you are well. This sounds fascinating, my attention has been pitifully limited and I blame the head injury for that, but I'm going to check it out

[happyone]

A couple of reads I have finished recently

The first is a new look at possibly the greatest victory of English arms - the Battle of Agincourt. Fought in 1415. It the backdrop of Shakespeare's Henry V

Agincourt - The Battle of the Scared King

The basic premise of this book is that the traditional site of the battle is wrong. The author used 15th century accounts, 18th century maps and some retranslations of the original accounts to purpose a different site for the battle. Along the way he looks at Henry's motives for launching the campaign and what his wounding a Shrewsbury in 1403 (he was hit in the face with an arrow) must have done to his psyche. Interesting read for those interested in the topic

The second is a look at Nisei's who fought in the US Army in the Pacific

A Bridge to the Sun...

If anyone knows anything about the Japanese Nisei's in WWII, it the the exploits of the 442nd RCT in Europe (the most decorated Regiment in the European Theater). Niseis ( children of Japanese immigrants) were supposedly banned from serving in the Pacific, but starting in about 1940, the Army realized that a war with Japan was coming and they need people to "Interpret, translate and interrogate, So, they started recruiting people who had a background in Japanese, including Niseis. With the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the subsequent internment of all people of Japanese descent, this became more difficult. They even had to move the school, from the Presidio in San Francisco to newly constructed base in Wisconsin. The were eventually able to recruit and train enough people to assign each division in the Pacific (according to John McManus - 26 Army and 6 Marine divisions) their own twelve man team. One of the stories the author relates in the difficulty in getting the PBI to take prisoners, even if a Japanese wanted to surrender. As the author says, the Japanese generally didn't want to surrender, and the troops were happy to oblige them. The author tells the story of 6 of these men. I really liked it

The third is a new biography of Eric Blair (who? who might ask) better known as George Orwell

Orwell: The New Life

The author looks a Orwell's life, both personal and professional, his political view points, his religious convictions (or lack thereof), his relationship with women, and other contradictions in his life.

An ardent socialist, he was equally an ardent anticommunist. Apparently, the NKVD complied quite a lengthy file on him. He fought in the Spanish Civil war on the Republican side, but not with the International Brigades - earning the suspicion of Stalin and he NKVD, He was wounded in the neck there.

He was anti imperialist, but worked for the BBC India division during the war. An agnostic, he wanted and received the full burial rights of the Church of England.
I had never read much about Orwell's life and again found this fascinating

[falafel]

I just finished The Secret History by Donna Tartt. What do we think of this book? I'm not sure. Big fan of the Goldfinch, and there are a lot of similar themes.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I just finished The Secret History by Donna Tartt. What do we think of this book? I'm not sure. Big fan of the Goldfinch, and there are a lot of similar themes.

I liked it.

I swear I read it was being made into a movie or a series.

[falafel]

I liked it.

I swear I read it was being made into a movie or a series.

Apparently been optioned 3 times

[Jeff Lebowski]

I just finished Dune. Was fun to see how it differed from the movie.

For a sci-fi book written in 1964, it holds up remarkably well.

Now I want to re-watch the movies and then I will read Dune Messiah.

[SteelBlue]

I just finished The Secret History by Donna Tartt. What do we think of this book? I'm not sure. Big fan of the Goldfinch, and there are a lot of similar themes.

Big fan of her style and I liked The Secret History a lot. We must be coming up on 10 years since The Goldfinch. She seems to write a tome every decade.

[happyone]

I just finished Dune. Was fun to see how it differed from the movie.

For a sci-fi book written in 1964, it holds up remarkably well.

Now I want to re-watch the movies and then I will read Dune Messiah.

In spite of the fact that in my younger days, I inhaled anything science fiction, I've never been able to finish Dune, I must have started in 4 or 5 times
Same thing with "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy

I don't know what that says about me

[falafel]

In spite of the fact that in my younger days, I inhaled anything science fiction, I've never been able to finish Dune, I must have started in 4 or 5 times
Same thing with "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy

I don't know what that says about me

Me neither. Gets reeeeeeaaaaal boring once Muad'Dib shows up.

[SteelBlue]

I just finished Dune. Was fun to see how it differed from the movie.

For a sci-fi book written in 1964, it holds up remarkably well.

Now I want to re-watch the movies and then I will read Dune Messiah.

My 19 year old son who I’ve always struggled to connect with (football is our main shared love) recently texted and asked if I wanted to read this with him and share our thoughts together. So needless to say I’ll be reading the hell out of Dune starting today.