Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading? - Page 2081

Uncle Robin · 02-05-2023, 03:24 PM

4.5/5 at the StoryGraph for Invincible: Inside Arsenal's Unbeaten 2003-2004 Season by Amy Lawrence. An intersting and informative look back. And now I'm back into the Complete Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, wading through his account of 8 years in Samoa to get to the first of his novels in this Kobo edition, Treasure Island.

pdurrant · 02-06-2023, 02:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: The Great North Road by Robert Louis Stevenson

Which turns out to be another fragment. The start of a story that just stops mid-chapter. Which explains why I'd not heard of it before.

Next up:Charmed Sphere by Catharine Asaro. The first in her Lost Continent series.

Uncle Robin · 02-06-2023, 04:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Which turns out to be another fragment. The start of a story that just stops mid-chapter. Which explains why I'd not heard of it before.

Thanks for the heads up. It's in the "Complete Works" I'm currently reading, good to be forewarned

PredicateD · 02-07-2023, 01:28 PM

Recently Finished:

The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks - Book 2 in The Culture series. Really enjoying this series so far.

Currently Reading:

How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith

Luffy · 02-09-2023, 01:34 PM

My 3 star review of We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland, by Fintan O'Toole :-

Spoiler:

I identified with the author immediately, even if I did not know substantially about him. This book, despite being a nonfiction one, has a beginning, a climax, and an end. O'Toole uses the English language with calm and restraint. He does not even think of showing off. His story seems to have existed and been compiled for years without any release of any kind. It is safe to say that O'Toole is not a prolific author. Should we apply the 'death of the author' philosophy to someone so alive?

The Ireland from the author's childhood made the poor pay dearly for their lack of money. The poverty of Ireland is vaster than its shores. It bears kinship with the poorest of India and some parts of Africa. But the slums of Ireland are residences proper. They cannot be called slums. There is a sluggishness about Crumlin, where the writer began living. Though there are few toilets in the developing towns at that time, there was too much concreteness about these poor houses to call them squalid. Urban Ireland was grey, depressing, claustrophobic, and too uniform to call them hellholes. All this back in the 60s.

The impression I got from reading the beginning of the book was that the latter could have been longer. O'Toole gives us a lot, yet the length of his historical, fireside-like chat could have revealed more. This is what I take away from the book. It does not censure itself. It simply makes us understand that it is revealing everything but not going through even a fifth of what was worthy of hearing.

Fintan O'Toole made us side with him easily, even if most of his personal focus was on his childhood. Here too, he does not tell everything worth telling. The swirling traumas of child molesting was all around him. The Catholics' world famous hypocrisy at work. John F. Kennedy visited the country and must have looked on the populace with fantastically concealed pity. The author did not meet the president. That would be too theatrical. But he gave us a glimpse into Ireland's position in the world through that visit.

There is a perversity about the desire to enjoy the plight of a terrorism infested place like Ireland. The IRA was an insane landmark in the pockmarked face of the country. Just as many people seem to follow the war on Ukraine and find excitement in it... so too did I find excitement in this book. On one hand I shouldn't really do so. I ought not to find joy in this violent narration. But if I hadn't enjoyed the book, I could not have finished it. It was a guilty pleasure. Here was I, safe in my humble abode, in a different island where there exists no army, let alone a draft. I could not live in a war torn country. It would have finished me off, regardless of any circumstances.

But I did draw pleasure of a more karmic kind that is the dominion of the endless fight between good and evil. Here at last we have a contextual bookkeeping of Haughey, the Taoiseach of Ireland. The rapacity of the latter person was a foil to the author's telling of the corruption and frozen ability to think of the population at large. We get to see the disadvantages of living in a country where religion is meant to be the natural way of organising society. All of this was very fascinating.

It began to dawn on me that the book has a happy ending, with a look to the future too. The fall of the political troupe and the defeat of the hold of Catholicity on the laws of the land was a rewarding aspect. This was one of the reasons why I think many people still now in the US can read the book with a touch of familiarity about them. If they had not been there they sure will be.

As the chronology of the book went on almost linearly, we see the icy façade of orthodoxy and the reality of the society undergo changes. Changes in office, and in law. I give this book 3 stars because simply I reserve 4 or 5 stars for outstanding reads. This book is very revelatory about my own self and the place I live in. For that alone I would reread the book. But I don't think I will. A reread will bring to fore the nasty bits that I have half forgotten in it. Since I cannot reread it, I cannot give it more than 3 stars. I recommend it though. And I wouldn't be surprised if many people like it more than I.

Apache · 02-11-2023, 05:42 AM

I am currently reading The Great North Road by Peter Hamilton. So far it is very good.
Apache

pdurrant · 02-11-2023, 02:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up:Charmed Sphere by Catharine Asaro. The first in her Lost Continent series.

Which turned out to be a fairly light fantasy romance. OK. I wonder if the rest are the same?

Next up: Knight of the Demon Queen by Barbara Hambley. Rather better!

Fbone · 02-12-2023, 10:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fbone

Next, finally available from the library, Orphan X by Gregg Hurwitz

After a slow start, the action is non-stop. Similar to Jason Bourne but not nearly as tense and exciting. However, this is very enjoyable, and I'll continue on with the series. The story does end on a medium-hard cliffhanger. Rated C+ [3 stars].

Next will be A Year and a Day in Old Theradane by Elizabeth Bear, Scott Lynch, Katherine Addison.

Uncle Robin · 02-12-2023, 11:25 PM

Currently reading Prince Otto in the Kobo Complete Works of Robert Louis Stevenson. An interesting story, not quite sure what to make of it, or whwther I can "connect" with any of the characters

David Munch · 02-13-2023, 01:53 AM

Finished Ursula K. Le Guins short story collection Orsinian Tales. 3/5 I usually devour anything fantasy and science fiction, but for some strange reason Le Guin is just an author who doesn't strike with me. She writes amazingly, but I just don't find her stories interesting. Annoying, as I should like her, but that is how it is.

Currently listening to City of Glass, book three of The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare on audiobook. Young adult fantasy, which is, to say the least, quite dull. Only listening to it because my wife absolutely adores the books, but I have promised myself to stop after the third one. It is the same incestious (!), whining, teenage romance thresome (Foursome at one point), over and over and over again. I don't get what she sees in them honestly.

Then I read the foreword to Ulysses (: The corrected text) by James Joyce yesterday. Wish me luck tonight, for when I dive in. :P Lets see if I make it to the end.

pdurrant · 02-13-2023, 06:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: Knight of the Demon Queen by Barbara Hambley. Rather better!

But unlike the first two books, this one's a cliff-hanger! Luckily I have the fourth volume immediately to hand....

Next up:
Dragonstar by Barbara Hambley. The final part of her Winterlands series. I hope!

astrangerhere · 02-13-2023, 08:05 AM

Finished:

A Train in Winter: An Extraordinary Story of Women, Friendship, and Resistance in Occupied France by Caroline Moorehead
Into the Riverlands (Singing Hills Cycle #3) by Nghi Vo

Still Reading

Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace
Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain (Wood translation)

New Reads:

Rome West by Brian Wood and Justin Giampoli, illustrated by Andrea Mutti
My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout

Uncle Robin · 02-15-2023, 08:04 AM

Finished Prince Otto and Kidnapped in my RLS read through - the Scots is easy to follow, especially thanks to its similarities to Geordie, I wish he'd put notes for the Latin instead of for the Scots.

Tarana · 02-15-2023, 10:02 AM

Recently Finished:
Tree of Hands by Ruth Rendell. Excellent mystery.
Evolutionary Void by Peter F Hamilton. Final of scifi trilogy. Was great but had to reread the end a couple of times because too much happened and I lost the plot.

Kiss and Kill - Ellery Queen - another amazing pulp private eye piece.

Currently reading mystery cozy Death of a Blueblood by Jessica Fletcher/Donald Bain[/B]. This story is just average. Also reading novella Monday Is Murder by Jess Lourey - an add on to her cozy Murder by the Month series based in central MN where my sis lives.

astrangerhere · 02-15-2023, 10:13 AM

Finished:

My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout
Rome West by Brian Wood and Justin Giampoli, illustrated by Andrea Mutti

Still Reading

Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace
Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain (Wood translation)

New Reads:

Lab Girl by Dr. Hope Jahren - I have really kicked off on memoirs and biographies in the last six months and this one is shaping up to be stellar!

02-13-2023, 08:05 AM	#31212
astrangerhere Professor of Law Posts: 3,755 Karma: 68428716 Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Chapel Hill, NC Device: Kobo Elipsa, Kobo Libra H20, Kobo Aura One, KoboMini	Finished: *A Train in Winter: An Extraordinary Story of Women, Friendship, and Resistance in Occupied France* by Caroline Moorehead *Into the Riverlands* (Singing Hills Cycle #3) by Nghi Vo Still Reading Leo Tolstoy's *War and Peace* Thomas Mann's *The Magic Mountain* (Wood translation) New Reads: *Rome West* by Brian Wood and Justin Giampoli, illustrated by Andrea Mutti *My Name is Lucy Barton* by Elizabeth Strout

02-15-2023, 10:13 AM	#31215
astrangerhere Professor of Law Posts: 3,755 Karma: 68428716 Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Chapel Hill, NC Device: Kobo Elipsa, Kobo Libra H20, Kobo Aura One, KoboMini	Finished: *My Name is Lucy Barton* by Elizabeth Strout *Rome West* by Brian Wood and Justin Giampoli, illustrated by Andrea Mutti Still Reading Leo Tolstoy's *War and Peace* Thomas Mann's *The Magic Mountain* (Wood translation) New Reads: Lab Girl by Dr. Hope Jahren - I have really kicked off on memoirs and biographies in the last six months and this one is shaping up to be stellar!

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02-05-2023, 03:24 PM	#31201
Uncle Robin Diligent dilettante Posts: 3,661 Karma: 52758936 Join Date: Sep 2019 Location: in my mind Device: Kobo Sage; Kobo Libra Colour	4.5/5 at the StoryGraph for Invincible: Inside Arsenal's Unbeaten 2003-2004 Season by Amy Lawrence. An intersting and informative look back. And now I'm back into the Complete Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, wading through his account of 8 years in Samoa to get to the first of his novels in this Kobo edition, Treasure Island.

02-07-2023, 01:28 PM	#31204
PredicateD Member Posts: 10 Karma: 2758 Join Date: Jan 2023 Device: Kindle Paperwhite (10th Gen.)	Recently Finished: *The Player of Games* by Iain M. Banks - Book 2 in The Culture series. Really enjoying this series so far. Currently Reading: *How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America* by Clint Smith

02-09-2023, 01:34 PM	#31205
Luffy Wizard Posts: 4,464 Karma: 429063498 Join Date: Aug 2014 Location: Mauritius Device: Kindle Paperwhite 4	My 3 star review of We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland, by Fintan O'Toole :- Spoiler: I identified with the author immediately, even if I did not know substantially about him. This book, despite being a nonfiction one, has a beginning, a climax, and an end. O'Toole uses the English language with calm and restraint. He does not even think of showing off. His story seems to have existed and been compiled for years without any release of any kind. It is safe to say that O'Toole is not a prolific author. Should we apply the 'death of the author' philosophy to someone so alive? The Ireland from the author's childhood made the poor pay dearly for their lack of money. The poverty of Ireland is vaster than its shores. It bears kinship with the poorest of India and some parts of Africa. But the slums of Ireland are residences proper. They cannot be called slums. There is a sluggishness about Crumlin, where the writer began living. Though there are few toilets in the developing towns at that time, there was too much concreteness about these poor houses to call them squalid. Urban Ireland was grey, depressing, claustrophobic, and too uniform to call them hellholes. All this back in the 60s. The impression I got from reading the beginning of the book was that the latter could have been longer. O'Toole gives us a lot, yet the length of his historical, fireside-like chat could have revealed more. This is what I take away from the book. It does not censure itself. It simply makes us understand that it is revealing everything but not going through even a fifth of what was worthy of hearing. Fintan O'Toole made us side with him easily, even if most of his personal focus was on his childhood. Here too, he does not tell everything worth telling. The swirling traumas of child molesting was all around him. The Catholics' world famous hypocrisy at work. John F. Kennedy visited the country and must have looked on the populace with fantastically concealed pity. The author did not meet the president. That would be too theatrical. But he gave us a glimpse into Ireland's position in the world through that visit. There is a perversity about the desire to enjoy the plight of a terrorism infested place like Ireland. The IRA was an insane landmark in the pockmarked face of the country. Just as many people seem to follow the war on Ukraine and find excitement in it... so too did I find excitement in this book. On one hand I shouldn't really do so. I ought not to find joy in this violent narration. But if I hadn't enjoyed the book, I could not have finished it. It was a guilty pleasure. Here was I, safe in my humble abode, in a different island where there exists no army, let alone a draft. I could not live in a war torn country. It would have finished me off, regardless of any circumstances. But I did draw pleasure of a more karmic kind that is the dominion of the endless fight between good and evil. Here at last we have a contextual bookkeeping of Haughey, the Taoiseach of Ireland. The rapacity of the latter person was a foil to the author's telling of the corruption and frozen ability to think of the population at large. We get to see the disadvantages of living in a country where religion is meant to be the natural way of organising society. All of this was very fascinating. It began to dawn on me that the book has a happy ending, with a look to the future too. The fall of the political troupe and the defeat of the hold of Catholicity on the laws of the land was a rewarding aspect. This was one of the reasons why I think many people still now in the US can read the book with a touch of familiarity about them. If they had not been there they sure will be. As the chronology of the book went on almost linearly, we see the icy façade of orthodoxy and the reality of the society undergo changes. Changes in office, and in law. I give this book 3 stars because simply I reserve 4 or 5 stars for outstanding reads. This book is very revelatory about my own self and the place I live in. For that alone I would reread the book. But I don't think I will. A reread will bring to fore the nasty bits that I have half forgotten in it. Since I cannot reread it, I cannot give it more than 3 stars. I recommend it though. And I wouldn't be surprised if many people like it more than I.

02-11-2023, 05:42 AM	#31206
Apache Readaholic Posts: 5,280 Karma: 90000484 Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: South Georgia Device: Surface Pro 6 / Galaxy Tab A 8"	I am currently reading The Great North Road by Peter Hamilton. So far it is very good. Apache

02-12-2023, 11:25 PM	#31209
Uncle Robin Diligent dilettante Posts: 3,661 Karma: 52758936 Join Date: Sep 2019 Location: in my mind Device: Kobo Sage; Kobo Libra Colour	Currently reading Prince Otto in the Kobo Complete Works of Robert Louis Stevenson. An interesting story, not quite sure what to make of it, or whwther I can "connect" with any of the characters

02-13-2023, 01:53 AM	#31210
David Munch Scholar Posts: 1,009 Karma: 3999312 Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Denmark Device: Kobo Libra H2O + iPad Air 4	Finished Ursula K. Le Guins short story collection Orsinian Tales. 3/5 I usually devour anything fantasy and science fiction, but for some strange reason Le Guin is just an author who doesn't strike with me. She writes amazingly, but I just don't find her stories interesting. Annoying, as I should like her, but that is how it is. Currently listening to City of Glass, book three of The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare on audiobook. Young adult fantasy, which is, to say the least, quite dull. Only listening to it because my wife absolutely adores the books, but I have promised myself to stop after the third one. It is the same incestious (!), whining, teenage romance thresome (Foursome at one point), over and over and over again. I don't get what she sees in them honestly. Then I read the foreword to Ulysses (: The corrected text) by James Joyce yesterday. Wish me luck tonight, for when I dive in. :P Lets see if I make it to the end.

02-15-2023, 08:04 AM	#31213
Uncle Robin Diligent dilettante Posts: 3,661 Karma: 52758936 Join Date: Sep 2019 Location: in my mind Device: Kobo Sage; Kobo Libra Colour	Finished Prince Otto and Kidnapped in my RLS read through - the Scots is easy to follow, especially thanks to its similarities to Geordie, I wish he'd put notes for the Latin instead of for the Scots.

02-15-2023, 10:02 AM	#31214
Tarana Wizard Posts: 4,040 Karma: 38840460 Join Date: Sep 2012 Location: Minneapolis Device: PWSE, Voyage, K3, HDX, KBasic 7 & 8, Nook Glo3, Echos, Nanos	Recently Finished: Tree of Hands by Ruth Rendell. Excellent mystery. Evolutionary Void by Peter F Hamilton. Final of scifi trilogy. Was great but had to reread the end a couple of times because too much happened and I lost the plot. Kiss and Kill - Ellery Queen - another amazing pulp private eye piece. Currently reading mystery cozy Death of a Blueblood by Jessica Fletcher/Donald Bain[/B]. This story is just average. Also reading novella Monday Is Murder by Jess Lourey - an add on to her cozy Murder by the Month series based in central MN where my sis lives.