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| Whatcha Reading?; War and Peace? Best of Jugs? I'm curious | |
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| Topic Started: Apr 26 2006, 05:09 PM (3,428 Views) | |
| Cookesland | Feb 21 2009, 08:05 PM Post #271 |
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Phantom Nation
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So Long and Thanks for All the Fish by Douglas Adams, a bit confusing at times but still good |
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| qumkent | Feb 22 2009, 06:59 AM Post #272 |
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NOT AN AO MEMBER!
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"Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition " by Rafael Sabatini. It's so good it must be fattening
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| eco | Feb 24 2009, 08:55 AM Post #273 |
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Advanced Member
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Sixty Days & Counting ~ Kim Stanley Robinson (the final part og the trilogy) Never Let Me Go ~ Kazuo Ishiguro |
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| Gruenberg | Mar 2 2009, 10:26 AM Post #274 |
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aka Kleinschnauzer
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A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Solzhernitzyn. Not a happy book. Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser is entertaining. |
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| The Palentine | Mar 27 2009, 08:44 AM Post #275 |
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The thinking man's pervert
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All for the Union: The wartime journel of Elisha Hunt Rhodes by Robert H. Rhodes Co. Aytch: Or, a Side Show of the Big Show by Sam Watkins These are two of the best memoirs of the American Civil War(Grant and Sheman's memoirs probally being the very best). These memoirs tell of the common soldier. Rhodes rose in rank from enlisted private, to eventually command the 2nd Rhode Island Regiment as its Colonel. Sam was once promoted to "Fourth Corporal", and insted stayed in the ranks of the First Tennessee Infantry, Company H (the “Maury Greys”) throught the war. I will say that probally Sam Watkins' book was more enjoyable a read. Sam comes across as having a very likable personality, and sense of humor that he was able to keep even through some of the horriffic battles he fought. Sam also writes very well and really paints excellent pictures with his words. |
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| Greenland | Mar 27 2009, 01:13 PM Post #276 |
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post plz k thnx lol
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Early Contacts Between Uralic and Indo-European By Christian Carpelan, Asko Parpola, Petteri Koskikallio Not a bad read, though perhaps a little heady. |
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| artichokeville | Mar 28 2009, 05:29 AM Post #277 |
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MASCOT-NAZI!!!!
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I'm re-reading a whole slew of the Miss Silver mysteries by Patricia Wentworth. They're so dated they're sweet, and her characters are so full of what used to be common attitudes to what women should be like (and what the lower classes should be like) that I raise a grin at least once a page. I've just finished one of Thomas Costain's histories of Edwards I, II and III, which means I feel another attack of the Wars of the Roses coming on (I get them like hives) -- and I've got another Richard III history up my sleeve. The Edwards were an indulgence for me because the Hundred Years War saw so much overturned and so much founded I can't help but be fascinated. Then, too, I've just read a novel about a village that shut itself off for a year so it wouldn't spread the plague, and that coloured the re-reading of Costain's history. (Enjoying Costain marks me as a total amateur, BTW. His stuff is pretty much a "novelisation", even if it poses as straight history.) |
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| qumkent | Mar 28 2009, 08:00 AM Post #278 |
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NOT AN AO MEMBER!
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I just finished "Catherine De' Medici and the French Reformation" by Edith Sichel and I'm continuing the theme with "Henry of Navarre" by George Slocombe, both are fascinating for their content, but also for the way they highlight how history used to be written before the First World War. Riveting. |
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| The Palentine | Mar 28 2009, 08:06 AM Post #279 |
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The thinking man's pervert
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Nothing wrong with than, my friend. Costain's books are great to give a person a nice introduction, thus making them want to dig deeper into the history. I'm the same way with Allen W. Eckertt. He writes books on the American frontier, and the Indian tribes like the Miami's and Shawnee. His book The Frontiersman is an excellent biography of the life of Simon Kenton. My favorite of his books is called That Dark and Bloody River. Its a history of the Ohio River Valley during the frontier times. Its also pretty much "backyard history" for me as I am familiar with most of the people and places he writes about. His books are considered historical fiction or narritives. He usually does provide a lot of footnotes and endnotes showing his sources. |
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| Gruenberg | Mar 30 2009, 06:57 AM Post #280 |
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aka Kleinschnauzer
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I've never really read any "historical fiction", though Winter in Madrid by CJ Sansom was quite good. Perhaps I should give some a go. (Does Locked in the Cabinet count? :P) At the moment, I'm reading Not For Sale, which is about human trafficking, and The Roaring Nineties, which is a fantastic if wildly partisan economic history of the 1990s. Next up is Disgrace by JM Coetzee. |
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| qumkent | Mar 30 2009, 07:11 AM Post #281 |
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NOT AN AO MEMBER!
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"Disgrace" is good but it tails off a bit in my opinion <_< |
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| Gruenberg | Oct 31 2009, 09:56 PM Post #282 |
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aka Kleinschnauzer
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Recent readings from the summer and beyond, plus typically self-indulgent reflections: White Teeth by Zadie Smith, about seven years too late. Still, it was absolutely worth the hype. I tend to use "read Grapes of Wrath" as my stock rebuttal in any argument about the minimum wage, and I think from now on "read White Teeth" will serve in any argument about multiculturalism. A fantastic portrait of postmodern Britain. The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank. Bright yellow cover, block pink capitals, picture of little girl on front...hmm, this looks like chick lit. Maybe it is, but in that case I have completely misjudged the entire genre for this is a sobbingly brilliant book. Really very funny and smart, with beautiful character portraits throughout. Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger. Look, I read her sodding book and she still broke my heart, so there's not much else to say. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer or however it's spelled. Though at times the sheer profusions of style and his determination to be oh-so-clever, I still can't quite imagine a better book being written about 9/11. I was asked to leave my local Wetherspoon's because I started crying in the penultimate chapter. This is possibly the biggest literary indignity I have ever suffered. A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby. I like Hornby too much, so I'll give him a free pass on this one. But whereas his other books read like good books that were fortunate to be recipients of great film adaptations, this one is basically an extended memo to Universal Studios. Doesn't work as a novel but is consistently funny enough to make you think the film really would be quite good. Things Can Only Get Better by John Sodding O'Farrell. Given the knobtacularness of his Guardian columns I was not expecting great riches, and failed to learn the earlier lesson regarding judging a book by its cover. Consistently very warming, and though he is still quite open about his middle-class self-indulgence, the stories are just a bit too tragic to hate him for it. The story behind writing the Spitting Image after Kinnock's election loss is fantastic. Double Indemnity by James Cain. Good, though very different to the film, which is definitely superior. Doesn't really have the wit of Chandler but still very dry. Current projects are Siddhartha, Atonement, and a biography of Flaubert. Also: bump |
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| The Palentine | Jan 15 2010, 09:51 AM Post #283 |
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The thinking man's pervert
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just bought two books from the bookstore, one lightwer reading than the other, but both look enjoyable..... The Official Chuck Norris Fact Book, by Chuck Norris. It contains 101 of Chuck's favorite facts and some of the stories behind them. Silver: My Own Tale as Written by Me with a Goodly Amount of Murder, by Edward Chupack Its supposedly the last will and testement of Long John Silver, written as he was being taken back to England to be hung at the pleasure of the King. It looks to be a jolly good romp. I read about the book on the Pirate Guy's website. YAR! |
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| Gruenberg | Jan 21 2010, 12:39 AM Post #284 |
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aka Kleinschnauzer
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E.M. Forster, Passage To India - boring Alex Ross, The Rest Is Noise - very interesting history of 20th C. classical music And, in celebration of my trip to Dublin, I got Ulysses from the library, so I imagine that'll be occcupying for the rest of the year. |
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| Gruenberg | Jan 28 2010, 10:36 AM Post #285 |
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aka Kleinschnauzer
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Normally I don't like RIP threads, but two of my favourite writers died in very close succession: Howard Zinn and J.D. Salinger. |
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