spikepipsqueak
My Brane Hertz
Doc by Mary Doria Russell.
I loved The Sparrow by this author, and this book about Doc Holliday doesn't disappoint.
I loved The Sparrow by this author, and this book about Doc Holliday doesn't disappoint.
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DBT
Contributor
The Sea-Hawk by Rafael Sabatini.
''Oliver Tressilian, a Cornish gentleman who helped the English defeat the Spanish Armada, is betrayed by his ruthless half-brother and seeks refuge in the Middle East, where he takes on a new role as a Barbary pirate.''
A nice light relaxing read.
''Oliver Tressilian, a Cornish gentleman who helped the English defeat the Spanish Armada, is betrayed by his ruthless half-brother and seeks refuge in the Middle East, where he takes on a new role as a Barbary pirate.''
A nice light relaxing read.
bilby
Fair dinkum thinkum
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D-Day through German eyes by Holger Eckhertz
Five fairly long interviews, taken in 1955, with ordinary German soldiers who were in the first line of defence at Normandy on D-Day. Some truly harrowing descriptions of the personal experience of what each man went through on June 6 1944 - one interviewee was selected from each of the five allied landing beaches.
The interviewer was a German reporter who had written a propaganda piece in early 1944 about the Atlantic Wall, and who decided ten years later to try to locate and interview what survivors he could find of the men he had met when writing that first article. The book was edited and published by his son in the 1990s, after he found the unfinished manuscript in his father's effects.
Five fairly long interviews, taken in 1955, with ordinary German soldiers who were in the first line of defence at Normandy on D-Day. Some truly harrowing descriptions of the personal experience of what each man went through on June 6 1944 - one interviewee was selected from each of the five allied landing beaches.
The interviewer was a German reporter who had written a propaganda piece in early 1944 about the Atlantic Wall, and who decided ten years later to try to locate and interview what survivors he could find of the men he had met when writing that first article. The book was edited and published by his son in the 1990s, after he found the unfinished manuscript in his father's effects.
marc
Veteran Member
Empire of Imagination
a biography of Gary Gygax, the creator of Dungeons and Dragons. It is written in a storytelling fashion, rather interesting. Gary seems kinda bi-polar at times. Imaginative game creator, not as good at the rest of his life. Up to the power struggles that were going on in TSR, leading to Gary being forced out of the company he created. Makes me want to get all the old AD&D books that I had long ago.
a biography of Gary Gygax, the creator of Dungeons and Dragons. It is written in a storytelling fashion, rather interesting. Gary seems kinda bi-polar at times. Imaginative game creator, not as good at the rest of his life. Up to the power struggles that were going on in TSR, leading to Gary being forced out of the company he created. Makes me want to get all the old AD&D books that I had long ago.
DBT
Contributor
I plan to read war and peace when I am retired.
James Brown
Veteran Member
DBT
Contributor
Hitch-22- Christopher Hitchens.
Surprised that he argued for and supported the Irag war, although I vaguely remember some mention of it at the time.
Surprised that he argued for and supported the Irag war, although I vaguely remember some mention of it at the time.
DrZoidberg
Contributor
HC Andeersens collected works. In Danish.
I'm trying to learn Danish. So I thought this would be a good start. Surprise surprise, he's better in the original.
I'm trying to learn Danish. So I thought this would be a good start. Surprise surprise, he's better in the original.
Tars Tarkus
Veteran Member
Just finished The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes. Excellent.
Working Families: Age, Gender, and Daily Survival in Industrializing Montreal
It's essentially just summarizing findings from censuses taken between 1860 - 1890 in Montreal. So far it looks like this period, at least in Montreal, marked the roots of the 9-5 grind. Many people (mostly men) became wage earners, working long hours throughout the week while their wives ran the household in support of their husband's job. To a large degree marriage seemed to have been a practical move, because single men and women were quite hard-off. During the period fertility started taking a nose-dive too, but that's about as far as I've gotten into it.
It's essentially just summarizing findings from censuses taken between 1860 - 1890 in Montreal. So far it looks like this period, at least in Montreal, marked the roots of the 9-5 grind. Many people (mostly men) became wage earners, working long hours throughout the week while their wives ran the household in support of their husband's job. To a large degree marriage seemed to have been a practical move, because single men and women were quite hard-off. During the period fertility started taking a nose-dive too, but that's about as far as I've gotten into it.
spikepipsqueak
My Brane Hertz
Burial Rites. Hannah Kent
Need to make a final push to finish Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History. The author has taken the most macroscopic possible look at human history, beginning at the Big Bang, and the results are fantastic. It's one of the few books that I've had the motivation in the past few years to finish all at once. Also making progress with Thoreau's Walden, absolutely gorgeous work.
Last night, though, I took down a bottle of Cabernet-Sauvignon and sped read an Art History textbook I bought years ago, as well as flipped through a book I got a few weeks ago at a library book sale called 'Historian's Fallacies'.
Last night, though, I took down a bottle of Cabernet-Sauvignon and sped read an Art History textbook I bought years ago, as well as flipped through a book I got a few weeks ago at a library book sale called 'Historian's Fallacies'.
Finished two series this month:
Remembrance of Earth's Past by Liu Cixin
★★★★
A hard sci-fi trilogy that begins by creating an epic plot that starts with an answer to the Fermi paradox. I give it four stars because I don't know how I could make it any better.
Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind
★★☆☆
A fantasy series with a few faults:
I've enjoyed it but I wouldn't recommend it.
Remembrance of Earth's Past by Liu Cixin
★★★★
A hard sci-fi trilogy that begins by creating an epic plot that starts with an answer to the Fermi paradox. I give it four stars because I don't know how I could make it any better.
Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind
★★☆☆
A fantasy series with a few faults:
I've enjoyed it but I wouldn't recommend it.
Underseer
Contributor
A Universe from Nothing
Lawrence Krauss
Just started it, so too early to offer a rating.
Lawrence Krauss
Just started it, so too early to offer a rating.
DrZoidberg
Contributor
The Martian 10/10
Andy Weir
A well crafted hard science book about Robinson Crusoe on Mars. Just read it. Yes, the book the film is based on. I haven't seen the film so I can't comment on how similar they are. But the book is amazing. If you like sci-fi you must read.
Confessions of an Opium eater
Thomas DeQuincy
Interesting how relevant it is still. A nice little snapshot into British gentleman life of the late 19'th century. Unsurprisingly it's about a guy and his battles with his opium/heroin addiction. I find it hard to rate since it suffers from the same problem most books of it's era are. They're overly writerly and eloquent. I kept wishing for him to just get on with it. But such was the style of the time.
Andy Weir
A well crafted hard science book about Robinson Crusoe on Mars. Just read it. Yes, the book the film is based on. I haven't seen the film so I can't comment on how similar they are. But the book is amazing. If you like sci-fi you must read.
Confessions of an Opium eater
Thomas DeQuincy
Interesting how relevant it is still. A nice little snapshot into British gentleman life of the late 19'th century. Unsurprisingly it's about a guy and his battles with his opium/heroin addiction. I find it hard to rate since it suffers from the same problem most books of it's era are. They're overly writerly and eloquent. I kept wishing for him to just get on with it. But such was the style of the time.
James Brown
Veteran Member
The film is very similar and also well done. The film's ending is, in my view, better than the book's, and certainly more visually appealing.
If we can ignore the improbable premise (Martian winds aren't violent enough to tip over a spacecraft) then both book and film are extremely top notch.
Best of all, not a single ounce of woo. Science for the win!
It finally dawned on me to go spend a good amount of time at my favourite local this past Friday, and really suck it dry of new books. I picked up a History of Warfare, Modern History of China, Short History of the Jewish People, a political work by Garry Kasparov on Russia and Putin, some odd book about language by Chomsky, and a book of thinking tools by Daniel Dennett.
Also stopped by two second hand shops and found some stuff that I normally wouldn't buy but were so cheap that I couldn't pass them up. Two notable ones were the latest biography on Steve Jobs, as well as 'Lean In' by Sheryl Sandberg, which is the book of the day for business-women. I doubt I'll read either of them in full, but at 3 dollars each I'll get to take a little browse through now and then.
Also purchased 'The Second Sex' by Simone de Beauvoir on my e-reader which is a good read so far.
And finally finished 'A History of Christianity' by Paul Johnson yesterday, if you count speed reading 300 pages of the book as finishing it. Too detailed.
Also stopped by two second hand shops and found some stuff that I normally wouldn't buy but were so cheap that I couldn't pass them up. Two notable ones were the latest biography on Steve Jobs, as well as 'Lean In' by Sheryl Sandberg, which is the book of the day for business-women. I doubt I'll read either of them in full, but at 3 dollars each I'll get to take a little browse through now and then.
Also purchased 'The Second Sex' by Simone de Beauvoir on my e-reader which is a good read so far.
And finally finished 'A History of Christianity' by Paul Johnson yesterday, if you count speed reading 300 pages of the book as finishing it. Too detailed.
DrZoidberg
Contributor
At the Mountains of Madness
H.P. Lovecraft.
Just reading it to tick off classics. Had read this as a teenager. I remembered it fondly without actually remembering much. So re-read it. I shouldn't have bothered. It's pretty... meh.
It's interesting since it gives us a glimpse of a racist, conservative and xenophobic mind. Take away the adjectives and there would have been no menace in the book. The horror lies in the strangeness. The horror lies in that a once intelligent and advanced civilization had now been reduced to mere animals. Ok. But where's the horror? I'm not going to stay awake at night worrying about the state of the human race in 3 million years. Which is what they're talking about in the book. I'd be glad if humans survive that long in any form. I highly doubt we will. So I'm not worrying. Or the "horrible" insight that humans were once genetically engineered by the Old Ones as a slave race for them. A result of genetic engineering. Where's the horror in that? We're obviously not a slave race anymore. I would have thought it's mostly nice to have an answer to that big question. Which is more than we have now. Or the Shuggoth. It's a slime monster. It's basically a big amoeba. In the mythos they were also a slave race that gained indipendence from the Old One's. So they're on the "same side" as us. Nope. Their independence makes them a monster. But doesn't that also make humans monsters?
I love how penguins are described as degenerate vicious monsters. Lol. No. Penguins are cute. Regardless if they're albino or not. Albinism doesn't make something a monstrosity. There's also the issue of information. Dyer interprets bas-reliefs from the walls of the ancient city. And from this constructs their story. But if we look at human history bas-reliefs on temples and palaces were propaganda. Also a lot of religious myths. If the bas-reliefs on Mayan pyramid temples, the Parthenon and the Pyramids aren't accurate perfect documents/manuals on life in those societies and their history then why does he think that these bas-reliefs are of the Old One's? Most human culture's religious myths exaggerate the age of their culture. Why would this race be a race of honest Aspies? When I was reading this I just thought of Dyer as a master mansplainer, over-interpreting and talking out of his ass about things he only thinks he does, but ultimately doesn't understand. He's supposed to be a scientist for Gods sake! Took me right out of it. It's basically a paranoiacs rambling.
It's amusing how Danforth goes insane after learning stuff. He's a researcher. Learning stuff and challenging his preconceptions is what he does. If you're so afraid of having your biases shattered perhaps scientific research is not for you. If the character would have been a priest or something, then maybe. But now it's just stupid.
If you want to see this as a film, look at Prometheus. It's the same basic story. But in that one we've got Aliens. So there's some suspense. This book doesn't really have any. But it is interesting for historical reasons. He does invent a bunch of genres. Science fiction has borrow heavily of this. Also Von Däniken's ancient astronaut theory. I think it's hilarious that this "serious" theory is just sprung from a horror novel.
BTW, H.P. Lovecraft is great at crafting sentences. Fuck he can write. That's what makes this at all readable. Because the basic story is pretty pointless. All the suspense is created in the writing.
H.P. Lovecraft.
Just reading it to tick off classics. Had read this as a teenager. I remembered it fondly without actually remembering much. So re-read it. I shouldn't have bothered. It's pretty... meh.
It's interesting since it gives us a glimpse of a racist, conservative and xenophobic mind. Take away the adjectives and there would have been no menace in the book. The horror lies in the strangeness. The horror lies in that a once intelligent and advanced civilization had now been reduced to mere animals. Ok. But where's the horror? I'm not going to stay awake at night worrying about the state of the human race in 3 million years. Which is what they're talking about in the book. I'd be glad if humans survive that long in any form. I highly doubt we will. So I'm not worrying. Or the "horrible" insight that humans were once genetically engineered by the Old Ones as a slave race for them. A result of genetic engineering. Where's the horror in that? We're obviously not a slave race anymore. I would have thought it's mostly nice to have an answer to that big question. Which is more than we have now. Or the Shuggoth. It's a slime monster. It's basically a big amoeba. In the mythos they were also a slave race that gained indipendence from the Old One's. So they're on the "same side" as us. Nope. Their independence makes them a monster. But doesn't that also make humans monsters?
I love how penguins are described as degenerate vicious monsters. Lol. No. Penguins are cute. Regardless if they're albino or not. Albinism doesn't make something a monstrosity. There's also the issue of information. Dyer interprets bas-reliefs from the walls of the ancient city. And from this constructs their story. But if we look at human history bas-reliefs on temples and palaces were propaganda. Also a lot of religious myths. If the bas-reliefs on Mayan pyramid temples, the Parthenon and the Pyramids aren't accurate perfect documents/manuals on life in those societies and their history then why does he think that these bas-reliefs are of the Old One's? Most human culture's religious myths exaggerate the age of their culture. Why would this race be a race of honest Aspies? When I was reading this I just thought of Dyer as a master mansplainer, over-interpreting and talking out of his ass about things he only thinks he does, but ultimately doesn't understand. He's supposed to be a scientist for Gods sake! Took me right out of it. It's basically a paranoiacs rambling.
It's amusing how Danforth goes insane after learning stuff. He's a researcher. Learning stuff and challenging his preconceptions is what he does. If you're so afraid of having your biases shattered perhaps scientific research is not for you. If the character would have been a priest or something, then maybe. But now it's just stupid.
If you want to see this as a film, look at Prometheus. It's the same basic story. But in that one we've got Aliens. So there's some suspense. This book doesn't really have any. But it is interesting for historical reasons. He does invent a bunch of genres. Science fiction has borrow heavily of this. Also Von Däniken's ancient astronaut theory. I think it's hilarious that this "serious" theory is just sprung from a horror novel.
BTW, H.P. Lovecraft is great at crafting sentences. Fuck he can write. That's what makes this at all readable. Because the basic story is pretty pointless. All the suspense is created in the writing.
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