# What are we reading lately?



## oval99

Well, let's complete the "doing lately" trilogy with what we've been reading. Here we go:

-The New Biographical Dictionary of Film (6th ed., David Thomson). I love this guy (I know many don't). He has some of the tastiest film writing out there, and his knack for getting to the core of an actor or director is eerie (and often hilarious). His insights into film are trenchant and revealing, built on decades of viewing and writing. He brings to his writing a wonderfully holistic quality: clearly he's read a lot (I even spotted an AJ Liebling reference in there somewhere) and he knows about art history too. He's also not afraid to slay sacred cows (if you're a John Ford fan, go ahead and skip that entry). In all, I respect him the most for prodding filmgoers to become more demanding viewers, to ask more of films. I can't think of higher praise for a critic than that.

By the way: If you love film and want to get to know Thomson better, watch the youtube video below where he and longtime friend Michael Barker (of Sony Pictures Classics) shoot the breeze about how much they love films. It's a treat.

Some choice bits:

-About Burt Reynolds: "Burt without his mustache (but with his rug) could look grim and shifty."
-On Woody Allen: "'Woody' was the most famous film director in America from the late 1970s onwards, and then a reluctant household name as his famed soul-searching took a banana-skin skid into public scandal. Can he be merely amusing when he has drawn so melodramatic a trail through the courts and the public prints? More important, can he develop as an artist? Has he ever shown that unmistakable promise? I am skeptical."
-On Jennifer Lawrence: "Lawrence has great skin tone, the rather fleshy sheen of a teenager, still, and she has considerable screen presence -- whether she can act is another matter. But influence is everything."
-On Stanley Kubrick: "The Shining, for me, is Kubrick's one great film, so rich and comic that it offsets his several large failures. Perhaps Jack Torrance is a monster, a dad run amok; perhaps family is the suffocation that anyone should dread. The film is very funny (especially as Nicholson goes over his edge), serenely frightening, and endlessly interesting."

[video=youtube;kCFSk1l3O7k]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCFSk1l3O7k[/video]


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## DamageInc

Past six months:
Lowry - Under the Volcano (2nd time, stunning piece of literature. Prose off the charts)
Pynchon - Vineland (worst thing he has written, easily)
Herr - Dispatches
Sebald - Austerlitz
Macdonald - Based on a True Story: A Memoir
Céline - Journey to the End of the Night
Zola - The Belly of Paris
Sartre - Nausea
Camus - The Plague
Weiss & Sallah - Tiger Force: A True Story of Men and War (interesting journalism, but poorly written)
DeLillo - Mao II
Bourdain - Kitchen Confidential Updated Edition
Matthiessen - Far Tortuga (absolutely brilliant, a big highlight)
Faulkner - Light in August (2nd read, great atmosphere and tone throughout)


Currently reading The Savage Detectives by Bolaño and Drawing the Line by Edwin Danson.


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## Badgertooth

DamageInc said:


> Past six months:
> Lowry - Under the Volcano (2nd time, stunning piece of literature. Prose off the charts)
> Pynchon - Vineland (worst thing he has written, easily)
> Herr - Dispatches
> Sebald - Austerlitz
> Macdonald - Based on a True Story: A Memoir
> Céline - Journey to the End of the Night
> Zola - The Belly of Paris
> Sartre - Nausea
> Camus - The Plague
> Weiss & Sallah - Tiger Force: A True Story of Men and War (interesting journalism, but poorly written)
> DeLillo - Mao II
> Bourdain - Kitchen Confidential Updated Edition
> Matthiessen - Far Tortuga (absolutely brilliant, a big highlight)
> Faulkner - Light in August (2nd read, great atmosphere and tone throughout)
> 
> 
> Currently reading The Savage Detectives by Bolaño and Drawing the Line by Edwin Danson.



That is the best list I've seen in some time.


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## Badgertooth

Marlon James - A Brief History of Seven Killings 

A multi narrative masterpiece of the time leading up to the attempted assassination of Bob Marley

Kent Haruf - Eventide 

Sentence by quiet sentence, it unfolds some of most mesmerically beautiful prose.

John Williams - Stoner

It made me think earnestly about the Big 3: beauty; truth & death

Cormac McCarthy - Blood Meridian

Two words: The Judge

George Saunders - Tenth of December

Short form isn't dead, it's kicking ass and taking prisoners


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## DamageInc

One of my favorite segments of Blood Meridian. Near the end of book, the kid has some small semblance of a search for redemption going on. But it's all too late for him.

The kid rose and looked about at this desolate scene and then he saw alone and upright in a small niche in the rocks an old woman kneeling in a faded rebozo with her eyes cast down. He made his way among the corpses and stood before her.
She was very old and her face was gray and leathery and sand had collected in the folds of her clothing. She did not look up. The shawl that covered her head was much faded of color yet it bore like a patent woven into the fabric the figures of stars and quartermoons and other insignia of provenance unknown to him.
He spoke to her in a low voice. He told her that he was an American and that he was a long way away from the country of his birth and that he had no family and that he had traveled much and seen many things and had been at war and endured hardships. He told her that he would convey her to a safe place, some party of her countrypeople who would welcome her and that she should join them for he could not leave her in this place or she would surely die.
He knelt on one knee, resting the rifle before him like a staff.
Abuelita, he said. No puedes escúcharme?
He reached into the little cove and touched her arm. She moved slightly, her whole body, light and rigid. She weighed nothing. She was just a dried shell and she had been dead in that place for years.

Have you read The Border Trilogy? The Crossing is every bit as brilliant. Suttree as well.

Stoner was quite a classic read. Surprised it had gone overlooked for so many years considering its themes and readability. Then again, Moby Dick only sold a few hundred copies while Melville was still alive.


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## zoze

+1 on the border triology and let me add "Child of god".
Also William's two other novels "Butcher's Crossing" and "Augustus".


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## oval99

> Lowry - Under the Volcano (2nd time, stunning piece of literature. Prose off the charts)
> Pynchon - Vineland (worst thing he has written, easily)
> Herr - Dispatches
> Sebald - Austerlitz
> Macdonald - Based on a True Story: A Memoir
> Céline - Journey to the End of the Night
> Zola - The Belly of Paris
> Sartre - Nausea
> Camus - The Plague
> Weiss & Sallah - Tiger Force: A True Story of Men and War (interesting journalism, but poorly written)
> DeLillo - Mao II
> Bourdain - Kitchen Confidential Updated Edition
> Matthiessen - Far Tortuga (absolutely brilliant, a big highlight)
> Faulkner - Light in August (2nd read, great atmosphere and tone throughout)





> That is the best list I've seen in some time.



Couldn't agree more. Amazing list. Funny you mention Lowry/Volcano. I recently saw the John Huston film and was blown away. Albert Finney is devastating. Only "Leaving Las Vegas" offers as demolishing a view of end-stage alcoholism. Some might find these works depressing, but I love the honesty. People having a beastly time of it deserve to have their stories told too. To deny those stories is to deny the maddening complexity of life. And it's reassuring in my times of darkness that life isn't indeed all roses and that pain is a part of life. I take the "Otto Dix" approach to life: show me it all. I want to learn as much about humanity as I can -- and that includes the painful stuff. Exhibit A: His painting below ("Uneven couple"). It unsparingly speaks to the implacability of sexuality, despite the harsh inevitability of a body's decay (painfully displayed here). The overall effect is overwhelming: absurd, grotesque, and almost too real to bear.


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## Matus

... KKF forum posts .... :dontknow:


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## valgard

Matus said:


> ... KKF forum posts .... :dontknow:



:rofl2:


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## oval99

> ... KKF forum posts .... :dontknow:



Hey, this is the off-topic forum, we can let it get a little blue. But then again I'm weird: I'll be looking at something like that painting while watching an old Frasier rerun :dontknow:


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## Nomsdotcom

Just read:
Wayward Bus by Stienbeck
Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy
Dubliners by Joyce

Food related:
Sea and Smoke (really good read, great young chef from the NW)
Franklin BBQ ( I want to build a smoker now  
Heritage- Sean Brock

Need something dark and similar to Stienbeck... if anybody has any recommendations?


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## Chicagohawkie

Samurai by Saburo Sakai


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## DanHumphrey

Currently: Clan of the Cave Bear

Previous: All five existing A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) books, twice. It takes a little bit of time to get through those...


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## BloodrootVW

DamageInc said:


> One of my favorite segments of Blood Meridian. Near the end of book, the kid has some small semblance of a search for redemption going on. But it's all too late for him.
> 
> The kid rose and looked about at this desolate scene and then he saw alone and upright in a small niche in the rocks an old woman kneeling in a faded rebozo with her eyes cast down. He made his way among the corpses and stood before her.
> She was very old and her face was gray and leathery and sand had collected in the folds of her clothing. She did not look up. The shawl that covered her head was much faded of color yet it bore like a patent woven into the fabric the figures of stars and quartermoons and other insignia of provenance unknown to him.
> He spoke to her in a low voice. He told her that he was an American and that he was a long way away from the country of his birth and that he had no family and that he had traveled much and seen many things and had been at war and endured hardships. He told her that he would convey her to a safe place, some party of her countrypeople who would welcome her and that she should join them for he could not leave her in this place or she would surely die.
> He knelt on one knee, resting the rifle before him like a staff.
> Abuelita, he said. No puedes escúcharme?
> He reached into the little cove and touched her arm. She moved slightly, her whole body, light and rigid. She weighed nothing. She was just a dried shell and she had been dead in that place for years.
> 
> Have you read The Border Trilogy? The Crossing is every bit as brilliant. Suttree as well.
> 
> Stoner was quite a classic read. Surprised it had gone overlooked for so many years considering its themes and readability. Then again, Moby Dick only sold a few hundred copies while Melville was still alive.



Blood Meridian--what a great read.


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## BloodrootVW

Also, just started Master and Margarita by Bulgakov


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## Badgertooth

BloodrootVW said:


> Also, just started Master and Margarita by Bulgakov



Essential. Darkly funny too.


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## BloodrootVW

Badgertooth said:


> Essential. Darkly funny too.



I am really liking it so far. Any other recommendations from that period?


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## DamageInc

V. by Pynchon was released in 1963.


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## riba

BloodrootVW said:


> I am really liking it so far. Any other recommendations from that period?



Twelve chairs? Monday Begins on Saturday is pretty cool. Victor Pelevin for recent stuff (e.g. The Sacred Book of the Werewolf)


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## Badgertooth

BloodrootVW said:


> I am really liking it so far. Any other recommendations from that period?



Release period... 
Anthony Burgess - Clockwork Orange 
But the 60's were so rich with counterculture classics: 
Catch 22
Slaughterhouse 5
100 years of Solitude 

But perhaps more prescient is a book written in the same era (20's) but that resonated especially in the '60s and after: Hermann Hesse - Steppenwolf


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## DanHumphrey

Finished Clan of the Cave Bear last night; on to The Valley of Painted Horses.


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## fimbulvetr

Nomsdotcom said:


> Just read:
> Wayward Bus by Stienbeck
> Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy
> Dubliners by Joyce
> 
> Food related:
> Sea and Smoke (really good read, great young chef from the NW)
> Franklin BBQ ( I want to build a smoker now
> Heritage- Sean Brock
> 
> Need something dark and similar to Stienbeck... if anybody has any recommendations?



Similar to Steinbeck SORT OF is Dos Passos's USA Trilogy. It blew my dang mind.


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## Nomsdotcom

fimbulvetr said:


> Similar to Steinbeck SORT OF is Dos Passos's USA Trilogy. It blew my dang mind.



Thanks, I'll check out out!


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## DamageInc

Just started on Absalom, Absalom! by Faulkner.


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## stuplarosa

A Reader's Guide to The Classic British Mystery by Susan Oleksiw has a list of 100 books. I have been working on reading all 100.


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## Chef Doom

All things related to Tantra and Neo-Tantra.

There is more to life than knives and stones if you know what I mean &#128521;


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## alterwisser

Chef Doom said:


> There is more to life than knives and stones if you know what I mean [emoji6]




Quick, this guy needs to be banned before he infects us with this virus that's wrecking him [emoji12][emoji6]


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## Chef Doom

That's not fair, the off topic room is suppose to be a safe space line my psychologists couch, or a massage table, or a lonely bar &#128514;


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## online

Also William's two other novels "Butcher's Crossing" and "Augustus".


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## DamageInc

After watching Blade Runner 2049, I really wanted to read Pale Fire by Nabokov, so that's what I'm doing. Liking it better than Lolita so far.


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## zoze

Non-fictional "Homo Deus" by Harari was a great read.


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## Badgertooth

online said:


> Also William's two other novels "Butcher's Crossing" and "Augustus".



High on my list. Stoner broke me.


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## TheCaptain

Way Station by Clifford Simak. Working my way through the Hugo winners.


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## Mucho Bocho

Big Magic Elizabeth Gilbert


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## DamageInc

Mucho Bocho said:


> Big Magic Elizabeth Gilbert



Is she a fat wizard?


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## Mucho Bocho

S, go easy with me, your far more read than I


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## DamageInc

Just started Ordinary Men by Christopher Browning.


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## Keith Sinclair

Truman Capote - In Cold Blood . That guy could write until drugs & booze finished him off.


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## ecchef

Just started _In My Own Way_; Alan Watts autobiography.


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## Badgertooth

The Heart Goes Last - Margaret Atwood


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## malexthekid

Slowly rereading The Lord of the Rings... 

And I know people will laugh, but will probably reread the Harry Potter series when I am finished with that


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## DamageInc

malexthekid said:


> And I know people will laugh, but will probably reread the Harry Potter series when I am finished with that



But why?


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## TheCaptain

Nothing to laugh at. I've read the Lord of the Rings series four times now (12yo, late teens, late 20's and early 40's). Even though it's the same story, obviously, it read very differently based on my different stage in life.

Good idea on Harry Potter, time to give those another spin and see how they feel different now that I know the whole story line.


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## Seqmt

The wind up bird chronicle - Murakami, not quite sure what the hell is going on...


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## tripleq

Engineering mathematics (John Bird), A couple of photography monographs - Sebastiao Salgado, Steve McCurry, Constantine Manos, Fred Herzog, a book on the history of the Galapagos Islands and Cosmos by Carl Sagan.


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## Seqmt

Carl Sagan is amazing, I just finished watching cosmos last night. Lost count how many times I have seen it now.


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## tripleq

They did a wonderful job with the new series. As for what you're reading Murakami is a great author but The Wind up Bird Chronicle was not one of my favourites. I did like the May Kasahara character. I found May representative of a recurring motif in Murakami's fiction that I appreciate.


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## Seqmt

Yes there are definitely recurring motifs with with many characters in most of his books. I love his short stories.


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## DamageInc




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## StonedEdge

Ah economists...the hornor guard of academia, they look and sound good but get them out in the field and they're useless


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## DamageInc

StonedEdge said:


> Ah economists...the hornor guard of academia, they look and sound good but get them out in the field and they're useless


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## StonedEdge

I respect the businessman and the author but not the pontificating, data manipulating, and over-generalizing economist. One of the many academic endeavors of little actionable value in the real world (along with political science and all that other nonsense). Show me an economist and I'll show you someone who should do something more worthwhile with their time and resources.

Edit: apologies in advance if you're a career economist, I just find they're glorified statisticians with a personal point of view to push through specific ways of handling data. That, and if economists didn't exist the world wouldn't be any different without them.


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## DamageInc

StonedEdge said:


> Edit: apologies in advance if you're a career economist, I just find they're glorified statisticians with a personal point of view to push through specific ways of handling data. That, and if economists didn't exist the world wouldn't be any different without them.



I'm studying for my master's degree in Supply Chain Management. I need to take a course in international macroeconomics as part of that degree. My exam is on Friday. I don't like macroeconomics much as close to none of it is practically applicable, it's just pure theory. Need those ECTS points though.


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## StonedEdge

Not digging at you by any means good sir, just having fun digging a little at the career economistst of this world. Supply chain management is something with real world value and practical applicability to solve real, actual problems. The world would be a different place without it.

As someone who had to take many political economics courses throughout my degree I feel your pain. One thing we can learn from economists is research methodology because those people tend to be good at pushing a narrow point of view through the use of data. 

The trouble with them is that they actually believe they can comprehensively explain things that are far too complex in nature and usually their work is riddled with bias. Perhaps the most recent or noteworthy example is Thomas Piketty winning a Nobel Prize in Economics with a work based largely on raw data that actually contradicts his thesis. Just another day in the office of an economist.


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## DamageInc

Nobel prizes don't mean much nowadays. Obama got one before he even really did anything. Bob Dylan got one for literature.

I think of them more as the Academy Awards / Oscars. Winning is nice and all, but it doesn't mean what you did was any good.


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## DamageInc

Wait a minute, Thomas Piketty hasn't won a nobel prize as far as I can tell.


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## StonedEdge

Obama winning the peace prize is a complete joke in the purest sense of the word. Dylan, I can kind of understand even tho there are hoards of better writers in any language still kicking today. 

You're correct tho (thank God!!), that charlatan Piketty hasn't won a Nobel...don't know where I got that notion.


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## DamageInc

Dylan getting a Nobel Prize while Pynchon is still breathing is so bonkers.


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## LifeByA1000Cuts

As much as Patricia Highsmith is seen as a "just crime stories" author often - "Tremor of forgery"


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## DamageInc




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## dwalker

DamageInc said:


>


That was some evil **** that went down. A piece if history that most people don't know and Japan would like to forget. I am sometimes in sad disbelief over what horrible things human beings are capable of.


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## Badgertooth

Yeah.. This was good.


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## PalmRoyale

Weave-world by Clive Barker. Quite possibly the most original dark fantasy novel I've ever read.


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## Drosophil

The Expanse. I haven't been so captivated by a book series since I read the Foundation and Dune in high school.


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## Nemo

PalmRoyale said:


> Weave-world by Clive Barker. Quite possibly the most original dark fantasy novel I've ever read.


I read this many years ago. Very strange and quite disturbing from memory.


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## Chef Doom

reading the last issue of playboy with actual nudity.


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## DamageInc




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## Badgertooth

Really enjoying this one.


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## chinacats

Just started Cod: a biography of the fish that changed the world


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## WYSkinny

Frog and Toad are Friends
Frog and Toad Together
Owl at Home


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## Neko

just finished reading 'The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down' by a Korean monk names Haemin Sunim.

It's mainly about mindfulness, and definitely worth one's time.


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## DamageInc




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## Neko

Next up is Nudge by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, this is a guide on how to make better decisions. I've been exposed to some of their work in Daniel Kahneman's Thinking Fast and Slow. Truly fascinating insights on human behaviour.

Anyway here it is:


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## DamageInc




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## Christian1

Land law books, getting ready or fundamentals exam


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## DamageInc

Just started.


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## apicius9

Madness in civilization - a cultural history of insanity by Andrew Scull.

Next up:
Twisted Prey - John Sandford
Enlightenment - Steven Pinker

Well, that and a few text books while preparing my late summer and fall courses. Infectious Diseases Handbook, Health Psychology, Program Planning & Grant Writing etc. 

Stefan


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## Badgertooth




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## Paraffin

"The Dead Mountaineer's Hotel," by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. This is a novel they wrote just prior to "Roadside Picnic," the inspiration for the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. movie and video games. Very funny at times... sort of a mashup of Agatha Christie murder mystery with a sci-fi/fantasy edge. 

After I finished it, I was inspired to re-read Roadside Picnic, which I haven't done in a while. That's a classic, with a very different feel from Western sci-fi. I might try to track down some of their other books that have been translated.


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## PalmRoyale

The Great and Secret Show by Clive Barker. One of the best books I've ever read. The visions Barker comes up with are beyond other authors in the genre.


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## DamageInc

Finished this one yesterday.


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## Godslayer

Atelier the cookbook, defiantly a must for any chef or Canadian or food lover.


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## Neko

Mastering the Market Cycle by Howard Marks. I'm a huge fan of his Oaktree memos - for those interested, we're towards the end stages of the current economic cycle.


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## Badgertooth

Dense


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## McMan

chinacats said:


> Just started Cod: a biography of the fish that changed the world



Fun book.
His books on Oysters and Salt are also worth reading.

This one’s good too:
“The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins” by Tsing:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0691162751/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20


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## Neko

Probably the most important book I've read all year


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## DamageInc

Halfway through this.


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## changy915

Just finished 100 years off solitude and started on the zahav cook book. The first couple of pages have been very interesting, a cook book that actually makes you want to read rather than just flip and reference to.


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## LostHighway

Currently reading Peter F. Hamilton's The Abyss Beyond Dreams. Prior to that it was Thomas Frank's Listen, Liberal. Next up, Cork Dork: A Wine-Fueled Adventure Among the Obsessive Sommeliers, Big Bottle Hunters, and Rogue Scientists Who Taught Me to Live for Taste.


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## DamageInc

Started on this.


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## captaincaed

Beautiful prose


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## captaincaed

Read this in college, gave me a lot to think about. Seems to give some insight into a Stoic mindset. Stoic as in the way of thinking, not the pejorative remark. Gave me tools to think about the issues right in front of me, not get carried away mentally with things I can't control. Curious to know how you take it. 



DamageInc said:


> Halfway through this.


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## DamageInc

captaincaed said:


> Read this in college, gave me a lot to think about. Seems to give some insight into a Stoic mindset. Stoic as in the way of thinking, not the pejorative remark. Gave me tools to think about the issues right in front of me, not get carried away mentally with things I can't control. Curious to know how you take it.


If you want to read more stoic literature, I highly recommend Marcus Aurelius' Meditations.


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## captaincaed

DamageInc said:


> If you want to read more stoic literature, I highly recommend Marcus Aurelius' Meditations.



It's funny you say that - I have a coffee date with coworker to read some together tomorrow morning. I tried once, couldn't get into it (translation maybe?). She's taken to it, and is going to share her favorite bits.


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## Mucho Bocho

The obstacle is the way.


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## DDPslice

captaincaed said:


> Read this in college, gave me a lot to think about. Seems to give some insight into a Stoic mindset. Stoic as in the way of thinking, not the pejorative remark. Gave me tools to think about the issues right in front of me, not get carried away mentally with things I can't control. Curious to know how you take it.



For me it put things in perspective. Minimized the draining mentality of endless progress. Or at least helps me slow down and enjoy things. 

I'm reading:






It tolls for thee.


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## LostHighway

DDPslice said:


> For me it put things in perspective. Minimized the draining mentality of endless progress. Or at least helps me slow down and enjoy things.



The late Christopher Lasch published a book in the early 1990s titled The True and Only Heaven: Progress and Its Critics that I remember (it has been a long time since I read it) as being a very worthwhile read. Lasch was very willing to advocate for unpopular opinions and the book is likely to challenge both conventional "liberal" and "conservative" preconceptions. Admirers of Wendell Berry's essays might find some common ground with Lasch.


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## Castalia

DamageInc said:


> If you want to read more stoic literature, I highly recommend Marcus Aurelius' Meditations.




And also try Memoirs of Hadrian by Yourcenar.


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## Cutting_Edge

Carving and Whittling by Gert Ljungberg


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## Neko

The fascinating life of Mochtar Riady.

The Nikkei has a 30 part series here:

https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/M...-and-modern-Indonesia-Mochtar-Riady-s-story-1


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## Neko

The Four Agreements by Miguel Ruiz:


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## DamageInc

Almost finished with The Stalin Front. Good companion piece to Storm of Steel.


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## Badgertooth

DamageInc said:


> Almost finished with The Stalin Front. Good companion piece to Storm of Steel.



Man, just finished Dan Carlin’s 15hours of WW1 and Storm of Steel is probably one of the most cited books on the whole thing. Adding this to my list


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## DamageInc

Stalin Front is of course WWII east front, but if you liked Storm of Steel, it's a must read.


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## DamageInc

Started on this.


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## DamageInc

Halfway through Voices from Chernobyl. Gut churning sadness in this book.


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## DamageInc

Finished Voices from Chernobyl. I highly recommend it. Started on this today.


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## Michi

The movie by the Coen brothers is well worth watching, too.


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## DamageInc

I've seen it a few times. 2007 was a good year for film.


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## DamageInc

Finished No Country for Old Men and just started on this.


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## Lars




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## DamageInc

Started this yesterday.


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## DamageInc




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## CiderBear

I started this book on Monday https://smile.amazon.com/Frozen-Tim...rozen+in+time&qid=1568256037&s=gateway&sr=8-2

I've been into polar explorations lately. Read Endurance (Alfred Lansing) and In The Kingdom of Ice (Hampton Sides) last month


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## DamageInc

CiderBear said:


> I started this book on Monday https://smile.amazon.com/Frozen-Tim...rozen+in+time&qid=1568256037&s=gateway&sr=8-2
> 
> I've been into polar explorations lately. Read Endurance (Alfred Lansing) and In The Kingdom of Ice (Hampton Sides) last month



Have you read The Worst Journey in the World?

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48503.The_Worst_Journey_in_the_World


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## Bill13

A great book consisting of a collection of his articles. He died recently partly due to complications from being paralyzed which happened when he dove into a pool. He was attending Harvard Medical School at the time and one of the books he was reading before he decided to cool down was "The Anatomy of the Spinal Cord" Creepy.


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## Bill13

A great book consisting of a collection of his articles. He died recently partly due to complications from being paralyzed which happened when he dove into a pool. He was attending Harvard Medical School at the time and one of the books he was reading before he decided to cool down was "The Anatomy of the Spinal Cord" Creepy.


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## DamageInc




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## inferno

I'm illiterate but this last year i've been listening to audiobooks on youtube and tokybook.com, quite good selection for being free. and since these are my sleeping pills. i cant really complain. i'm a mass consumer kinda.


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## DamageInc

I finished reading The Rings of Saturn this morning and it's already one of my favorite books. I would like to recommend it if you can enjoy melancholy literature.


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## Nemo

Just read Hawking's Brief Answers To The Big Questions.

That guy had a wicked sense of humour.

Rest in peace.


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## DamageInc




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## DamageInc

Started this morning.


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## Michi

https://www.amazon.com/Permanent-Record-Edward-Snowden/dp/1250237238


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## DamageInc

I recommend this. I'm about half way.


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## CiderBear

I've been listening to audiobooks during my early morning gym sessions. I'm a few chapters into "Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us" bu Michael Moss and it's fascinating.


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## DamageInc

Finished Outer Dark this morning.


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## LostHighway

Matt Stoller's Goliath: The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy


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## GreyBoy

Really liked Norwegian Wood, Murakami. Now reading translation of Bhagavad Gita.

That book about the Afghanistan War looks cool, is it a translation? Lol what on Earth is Zinky Boys??


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## LostHighway

I just started William Gibson's new works including The Peripheral and Agency, presumably there will be a third or fourth book. These are good but I much preferred the immediately prior Blue Ant books: Pattern Recognition, Spook Country, and  Zero History. IMO few writers can rival Gibson's capacity to conjure the psychic gestalt of the present and near future.


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## DamageInc

Started this morning.


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## CiderBear

Just finished listening to *The Pentagon's Brain: An Uncensored History of DARPA, America's Top-Secret Military Research Agency *and it was pretty interesting stuff.

Starting *In Defense of Food* next


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## Keith Sinclair

Just finished CONFESSIONS OF A GREENPEACE DROPOUT

The Making Of a Sensible Environmentalist 

Patrick Moore


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## Corradobrit1

This is looking more and more appealing every day. Part of my 10 year plan, so getting the research in early

https://www.abebooks.com/live-trave...MIt87Lkaqf6AIVjMDACh1DOQGkEAQYAiABEgK6fPD_BwE


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## captaincaed

Atul Gawande is worth reading every time (as is Siddhartha Mukherjee). Checklist is eye opening if you've ever been in the hospital or know someone who's a pilot. Quick read.

The Coddling is one I'd recommend if you're interested in how people learn in college and how they get prepared and toughened up for the world.


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## chefwp

I read a lot, here are some highlights of about the last year in books, ones that stand out.

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders - a very unique way to tell a story

Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson - an older book, excellent writing

Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson - you won't feel good after reading this about the improprieties of the US justice system, but you should know about it if you live in the US

Anxious People by Frederik Backman - an amusing read

Burial Rites by Hanna Kent - based on real events in 1828, this novel is a fascinating look at Iceland in those times

Underland by Bobert McFarlane - nonfiction, a cool compilation of what lies below the surface of the Earth

Dark Mirror - Edward Snowden and the American Surveillance State by Barton Gelman - also nonfiction, I almost didn't include this one, can be a bit of a slog at times, could have been shorter, but it was pretty interesting

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula LeGuin - this great sci fi set the standard for so many authors that came after. Beyond that, what a feat of the imagination to envision a whole different world and such a different culture as she does here, amazing.

The Woman Who Smashed Codes by Elizabeth Smith Friedman nonfiction biography, great story 

I'm currently reading Aperigon by Collum McCann, still too early to tell


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## DamageInc

I'm halfway through Bleeding Edge by Pynchon.


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## tcmx3

Lean Against this Late Hour & Children of Dune


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## captaincaed

Really enjoyed Crying of Lot 49.
Working on Dune Messiah and Stony the Road


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## luuogle

Currently reading Alice Waters And Chez Panisse by Thomas McNamee.


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## Keith Sinclair




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## inferno

i dont actually read anything since i cant actually read. but lately i've been listening to the "gray man" books on youtube. Mark Greaney.
the whole series is on youtube. i've kinda depleted all my stream sites and youtube on truly good material about 2 years ago. so now i'm here.

there are 2 genres of books that seems to have an infinite amount of new material written. the zombie/survivor genre, and then the fantasy/dragons genre. i just cant handle it for more than 5 minutes.


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## inferno

wait wait i forget one quite good.


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## PJD

Very glad to have discovered this thread! I'm a constant reader - I can't remember a time when I didn't have at least one book on the go, and my favourite way of easing the pains of the day is by spending an hour with a good book.

Currently reading through all of my Graham Greene novels and Jeeves and Wooster novels to decide which ones I'll keep and which can be donated to the charity shop. I'm on The Mating Season by Wodehouse at the moment, and this one is definitely staying.


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## Keith Sinclair

I got couple poetry books from library


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## PJD

Looks like you're in for some good reading, going by the names on the cover of that book!  

I've finished The Mating Season and have begun Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory. This is the seventh or eight Greene novel I've read this year and I enjoyed them all, but this is the first _great_ one - it reminds me why I loved Greene so much, many years ago...


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## LostHighway

I read Bill Buford's Dirt recently. I liked it even more than Heat which is also very good. I followed that with Eve Babitz's Eve's Hollywood and Slow Days, Fast Company: The World, The Flesh, and LA as well as some Joan Didion for a brief dive into '60s and '70s Southern California. I'm currently reading The Genius of Dogs and I'm always kind of casually looking at cookbooks - sometimes the idea of a dish is better than the dish itself. Next I'll start Benjamin Lorr's The Secret Life of Groceries - food in North America is such a mess all the way from industrial agriculture to the retail shelves.


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## captaincaed

Interesting book that goes over Reconstruction and the backlash to it. Most interesting for primary images of propaganda that aren't commonly seen, especially not assembled together in such a large collection.


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## PJD

_Ring for Jeeves,_ by P. G. Wodehouse. Every Wodehouse novel I read this year seems to be better than the one before, and this is no exception. The master of the comic novel turns them out so beautifully they feel effortless - which is a sure sign that they are the result of some Herculean labour...


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## LostHighway

PJD said:


> _Ring for Jeeves,_ by P. G. Wodehouse. Every Wodehouse novel I read this year seems to be better than the one before, and this is no exception. The master of the comic novel turns them out so beautifully they feel effortless - which is a sure sign that they are the result of some Herculean labour...



Maybe, his gift for the language is undeniable but his insanely high output (I can't remember the total number including his work for the stage but at his peak he was cranking out more than two books a year) doesn't suggest to me a laborious series of drafts.
The early Leave it to Psmith has always been a personal favorite. Very, very few writers can make me laugh out loud but Wodehouse is in that small company.


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## PJD

LostHighway said:


> Maybe, his gift for the language is undeniable but his insanely high output (I can't remember the total number including his work for the stage but at his peak he was cranking out more than two books a year) doesn't suggest to me a laborious series of drafts.
> The early Leave it to Psmith has always been a personal favorite. Very, very few writers can make me laugh out loud but Wodehouse is in that small company.



Ah yes, Leave it to Psmith is a favourite of mine too.  You make a fair point about his output - it doesn't suggest the meticulous crafting of every novel. I'd love to find out more about his working methods!

Are you reading anything enjoyable at the moment?


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## ModRQC

Lazily making my way through the whole Inspector Rebus series from Ian Rankin, while loosely picking out some of the latest Stephen King because they look better than his general output for the last 20 years or so, but rarely finding them any good in reality. Only one I've retained was Revival. Closer to the roots of his better works, but disappointing still. Don't know why I'm still trying. But it passes downtimes well. 

I know these are not high-flying reads. Last nice book I've read was The Sisters Brothers, and while funny, good paced and well written, it wasn't flying that high neither.


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## Keith Sinclair

Like movies that make me laugh I'll have to check out Wodehouse.


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## Bill13

Keith Sinclair said:


> Just finished CONFESSIONS OF A GREENPEACE DROPOUT
> 
> The Making Of a Sensible Environmentalist
> 
> Patrick Moore


He is active on Twitter and a fun follow.


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## chefwp

DamageInc said:


> Started this morning. "House of God"


Read that one years ago, interesting and kind of frightening, but also entertaining and amusing to boot.


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## chefwp

Took me longer than it should have, but finally finished "A Soldier of the Great War." It was really quite good


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## chefwp

Currently in this, so far I like it a lot


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## Keith Sinclair




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## tcmx3




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## DamageInc

tcmx3 said:


> View attachment 140645


Great book, I enjoyed it a lot.


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## captaincaed

Yeah, betrayal stories can become trite, but that one was done really well.


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## LostHighway

I just finished Mary Karr's Cherry  and Lit. I'm currently reading Sheldon Wolin's Democracy Inc: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism and Michael Hudson's Killing the Host.


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## DamageInc

Started reading this yesterday.


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## Keith Sinclair

Lost highway turned me on to this book on another thread. We were discussing fresh water shortage in future years.

Pick it up from library today.


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## tcmx3

so, so good:


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## captaincaed




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## chefwp

Nemo said:


> Just read Hawking's Brief Answers To The Big Questions.
> 
> That guy had a wicked sense of humour.
> 
> Rest in peace.


I am in a small book group and we picked our selections for the year a couple of months ago, this one is on it, I think slated for next spring (we read one a month), glad to hear you enjoyed it and I'm looking fwd to it.


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## chefwp

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, I found it to be a fun quick read, it wasn't without flaws, but easy to suspend belief for the sake of the story. I'd label it lower-case 'f' fantasy.






goodreads description:

"Piranesi's house is no ordinary building: its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls are lined with thousands upon thousands of statues, each one different from all the others. Within the labyrinth of halls an ocean is imprisoned; waves thunder up staircases, rooms are flooded in an instant. But Piranesi is not afraid; he understands the tides as he understands the pattern of the labyrinth itself. He lives to explore the house.

There is one other person in the house—a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known."


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## Keith Sinclair

Marc Reisner published this book 1986. It's a great read, not dry at all, no pun intended. 

From native Americans, early beaver trappers, 
explorer's. Railroads it's a big story. How desert lands unfit for humans was transformed with thousands of dams both large & small. 

How this & large under ground water have been tapped for agriculture & creation of whole cities. All on borrowed time. He died in 2000, his predictions clearly coming true in the new 
millinium.


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## LostHighway

I just started reading David Wengrow's and the late David Graeber's The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity and, so far, I'm really liking it. There are some shots at Steven Pinker (The Better Angels of Our Nature) early in the book which helped to endear it to me. I've read two prior David Graeber books Debt: The First 5000 Years (great!) and The Utopia of Rules (worth a read but slightly disappointing) which led me to this, his last book. Graeber died suddenly at 59 in September 2020 from necrotic pancreatitis. I lost a good friend in December, also after a bout with necrotic pancreatitis which morphed into pancreatic cancer. Stay well people!


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## chefwp

LostHighway said:


> I just started reading David Wengrow's and the late David Graeber's The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity and, so far, I'm really liking it.


My wife gave me a copy of this for Christmas, just cracked it open the other night, looking fwd to it.


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## chefwp

I just finished a couple




This is a historical fiction of the 'current wars' fought out in the labs and in the courts between Edison, Westinghouse, and Tesla. I loved it. I like historical fiction in general, but I have one big misgiving about it and that is it may mess me up on which part is true to history and which part is fiction. In this book it was nice that the author put in an afterword to disentangle all that for the readers.





This Backman was ok, I don't highly recommend it. I liked his "Anxious People" better and would recommend it. I've only read the two of his. Although my wife has read more and this one it her favorite, so there you go...


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## DamageInc

Almost finished with this. His writing is incredible.


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## DamageInc

About a third through this. The prose is quite simple compared to his earlier work, but almost hits harder for it.


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## captaincaed

Finishing this gem up. I've read the first two to the boys for nightly story time, always read them in advance. Wonderful ya lit, good for full adults too.


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## Beerzebub

captaincaed said:


> Finishing this gem up. I've read the first two to the boys for nightly story time, always read them in advance. Wonderful ya lit, good for full adults too.
> 
> View attachment 202373


I can't wait to read the Earthsea books with my son, he just turned eight, maybe it's time. Le Guin was one of my favorites growing up. And The Left Hand of Darkness is one of my favorite books, although that one's not for kids.


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## captaincaed

Beerzebub said:


> I can't wait to read the Earthsea books with my son, he just turned eight, maybe it's time. Le Guin was one of my favorites growing up. And The Left Hand of Darkness is one of my favorite books, although that one's not for kids.


Left hand is in my top 5 of all time. What a fantastic book.


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## transwerewolf




----------



## ian

@tcmx3, on your recommendation. Super good so far.


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## DamageInc

DamageInc said:


> About a third through this. The prose is quite simple compared to his earlier work, but almost hits harder for it.


Finished this now. Tough read.


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## Keith Sinclair

She writes, you can feel the passion of a different life. She puts you there in Kenya, rift valley


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