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What are you reading?

Neo-Colonialism: The last Stage of Imperialism by Kwame Nkrumah, independence leader of Ghana.

Down we go further into the African rabbit-hole..
 
Modoc. Ralph Helfer

Chaucer, A European Life Marion Turner

Tomorrow, When the War Began John Marsden (Highly recommend this for teenagers.)
 
The Harmless People - Elizabeth Marshall Thomas. Fascinating, narrative driven work of anthropology on hunter-gatherers in the Kalahari desert in the 50s.

And because it's winter and the library is a good lunch-break destination..

Before Modern Humans - Grant McCall. A work of archaeo-anthropology published in 2015, that theorizes about our prehistory before modern humans, during the Paleolithic (old stone age) era. So far I've read it's introduction, which is a survey of the history of the field.

I'm still chipping away at many of the above books I've mentioned, but recently unloaded The Fourth World, Causes of Freedom, Concise Anthropology of the Indigenous, and the two Max Weber volumes. But there's still a pile of books sitting on the side-table in our study.
 
rousseau said:
The Harmless People - Elizabeth Marshall Thomas. Fascinating, narrative driven work of anthropology on hunter-gatherers in the Kalahari desert in the 50s.

And because it's winter and the library is a good lunch-break destination..

Before Modern Humans - Grant McCall. A work of archaeo-anthropology published in 2015, that theorizes about our prehistory before modern humans, during the Paleolithic (old stone age) era. So far I've read it's introduction, which is a survey of the history of the field.

I'm still chipping away at many of the above books I've mentioned, but recently unloaded The Fourth World, Causes of Freedom, Concise Anthropology of the Indigenous, and the two Max Weber volumes. But there's still a pile of books sitting on the side-table in our study.
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Goodness, you outpace even me on the reading. Let me know if Anthropology of the Indigenous is any good.
 
Politesse said:
rousseau said:
The Harmless People - Elizabeth Marshall Thomas. Fascinating, narrative driven work of anthropology on hunter-gatherers in the Kalahari desert in the 50s.

And because it's winter and the library is a good lunch-break destination..

Before Modern Humans - Grant McCall. A work of archaeo-anthropology published in 2015, that theorizes about our prehistory before modern humans, during the Paleolithic (old stone age) era. So far I've read it's introduction, which is a survey of the history of the field.

I'm still chipping away at many of the above books I've mentioned, but recently unloaded The Fourth World, Causes of Freedom, Concise Anthropology of the Indigenous, and the two Max Weber volumes. But there's still a pile of books sitting on the side-table in our study.
Click to expand...

Goodness, you outpace even me on the reading. Let me know if Anthropology of the Indigenous is any good.
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In fairness, I very rarely come close to finishing any of these titles.

A topic has to really grab me to read it cover to cover, the last one being The Rise and Decline of the Zairian State by Crawford Young. Usually what I'm doing instead is checking out a stack of books, having 5 - 10 at any given time, and picking away at the parts I'm interested in until I lose interest. Some go back to the library pretty quickly, others I hold on to for months and still don't finish.

The Anthropology of the North American Indigenous I mentioned in that post was your friends book, which I browsed through a few times. Looked good, but I'm losing interest in the topic.

Another factor is that it's getting cold here and the library is a good place to stretch my legs on lunch-breaks. Really hard to walk out of there without checking something out.
 
Just finished An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green

Highly recommend it.

This is the sort of book that kept me reading SF when I was a kid.

I learned some things about the world I live in that I didn't already know, the author had some insights about people that were useful and an interesting premise.

What more could you want?
 
Does anybody have any recommendations for books with a dragon theme? In case it isn't obvious: fantasy/sci fi.

NOT Tolkien and not McCaffey. I'm looking for a gift for my son who is a big Tolkien fan and has all the books and would not likely be a fan of McCaffey.
 
Toni said:
Does anybody have any recommendations for books with a dragon theme? In case it isn't obvious: fantasy/sci fi.

NOT Tolkien and not McCaffey. I'm looking for a gift for my son who is a big Tolkien fan and has all the books and would not likely be a fan of McCaffey.
Click to expand...
define dragon theme - like, as in, prominently features dragons as central characters? or takes place in a world where dragons exist? or a more generalized 'sword and sorcery' style high fantasy?

i just finished The Burning White by Brent Weeks, the 5th and final book of his Lightbringer series.
it was an unbelievably huge disappointment, to the level where i'm seriously wondering if someone murdered Weeks and ghost wrote this as a prank.
the first 4 books are uniformly and consistently the best new fiction i have read in the last 10 years (and i devour fiction ravenously, probably reading 15-20 books per year) and i was just mad for this author, and the level to which he utterly shit the bed in the last book is frankly mind blowing.

with martin and ruthfuss both having gone full blown fat-bearded-recluses-who-don't-put-out-work, weeks being replaced by a pod person, scott lynch had a nervous breakdown, and peter brett just finished his series so won't put anything new for years... i kinda think that basically brandon sanderson is the only viable Big Deal author left in high fantasy right now.
thankfully he's a rather prolific writer, but g'damn it's depressing to have so little to choose from.
 
prideandfall said:
Toni said:
Does anybody have any recommendations for books with a dragon theme? In case it isn't obvious: fantasy/sci fi.

NOT Tolkien and not McCaffey. I'm looking for a gift for my son who is a big Tolkien fan and has all the books and would not likely be a fan of McCaffey.
Click to expand...
define dragon theme - like, as in, prominently features dragons as central characters? or takes place in a world where dragons exist? or a more generalized 'sword and sorcery' style high fantasy?

i just finished The Burning White by Brent Weeks, the 5th and final book of his Lightbringer series.
it was an unbelievably huge disappointment, to the level where i'm seriously wondering if someone murdered Weeks and ghost wrote this as a prank.
the first 4 books are uniformly and consistently the best new fiction i have read in the last 10 years (and i devour fiction ravenously, probably reading 15-20 books per year) and i was just mad for this author, and the level to which he utterly shit the bed in the last book is frankly mind blowing.

with martin and ruthfuss both having gone full blown fat-bearded-recluses-who-don't-put-out-work, weeks being replaced by a pod person, scott lynch had a nervous breakdown, and peter brett just finished his series so won't put anything new for years... i kinda think that basically brandon sanderson is the only viable Big Deal author left in high fantasy right now.
thankfully he's a rather prolific writer, but g'damn it's depressing to have so little to choose from.
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He was/is a huge fan of Tolkien--and has the books, dvds, etc. I got him a pair of chinese dragon bookends and I thought another book/series of books featuring dragons would be good to go with. He's smart, philosophical, into languages and history.
 
He might like Tad William's Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy (first book in the series is called The DragonBone Chair). It's similar to Tolkien in that the dragons are rarely seen but are powerful agents of change (which is how I prefer my dragons, if at all.). If Martin's series is R-rated, then William's is definitely PG, but Martin cited it as inspiration for Game of Thrones.

An older series (might not be in print) is Guardians of the Flame by Joel Rosenberg, which showcases a dragon. Later books in the series, the dragon even takes on a sense of humor which might or might not appeal.

I've never bothered with McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series. Same with Paolini's Eragon series. But of course, they both feature dragons heavily.

Here's a long list of Dragon Lovers books, almost none of which I've read.
 
James Brown said:
He might like Tad William's Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy (first book in the series is called The DragonBone Chair). It's similar to Tolkien in that the dragons are rarely seen but are powerful agents of change (which is how I prefer my dragons, if at all.). If Martin's series is R-rated, then William's is definitely PG, but Martin cited it as inspiration for Game of Thrones.

An older series (might not be in print) is Guardians of the Flame by Joel Rosenberg, which showcases a dragon. Later books in the series, the dragon even takes on a sense of humor which might or might not appeal.

I've never bothered with McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series. Same with Paolini's Eragon series. But of course, they both feature dragons heavily.

Here's a long list of Dragon Lovers books, almost none of which I've read.
Click to expand...

Thanks. The Williams series sounds like something he might enjoy. He has read all the GoT to date. I don't remember if he has avoided the series or not. He was for a while to avoid spoilers plus it can be weird to watch when a series really diverges from the books...
 
The DragonBone Chair

The Stone of Farewell

To Green Angel Tower

I warn everyone when I recommend this series--it's a slow-building story. The first few chapters are mostly character introductions, and very understated conflict building. I've heard a lot of people give up on the series early on because they think that nothing is happening. And I agree with that. But when I hit about page 200 or so, a key event occurs that's like the removal of a keystone that causes an avalanche. After that, I couldn't turn the pages fast enough.
 
James Brown said:
The DragonBone Chair

The Stone of Farewell

To Green Angel Tower

I warn everyone when I recommend this series--it's a slow-building story. The first few chapters are mostly character introductions, and very understated conflict building. I've heard a lot of people give up on the series early on because they think that nothing is happening. And I agree with that. But when I hit about page 200 or so, a key event occurs that's like the removal of a keystone that causes an avalanche. After that, I couldn't turn the pages fast enough.
Click to expand...

Very much appreciated!
 
1947: Where Now Begins by Elizabeth Asbrink

Will in the world. by Stephen Greenblatt

Winter's Bone. Danial Woodrell

A Boy and his dog at the end of the world by C A Fletcher

Posting to thank the people who recommended these books.
 
Right now, a review article (Vilchis 2019) on the plausibility of the old hypothesis that humans were responsible for the death of North American megafauna at the end of the Pleistocene.

Later, planning to dig into Zora Neale Hurston's "Barracoon", paired with the fictional (it's vacation time!) "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
 
What the Negro Thinks by Robert Moton (1929), written deep in the swamp of old-style Jim Crow by a black author. He sees glimmers of hope but states that real change is elusive where blacks cannot vote. The title is somewhat deceptive. I am just past the halfway point in the book, but wherever he starts a sentence with "The thinking Negro.." (which is frequent) and then says what the race is thinking, he does it without any indication of how he came by his insight. The thinking Negro is really a phrase indicating his own gut reactions.
 
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