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Just finished Water Music by T. C. Boyle. A reread but a pretty fantastic book. A funny and sometimes horrifying imagining of the misadventures of Mungo Park, the Scottish explorer of Africa. Energetic, often hilarious.
Now about a fourth of the way through The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Chabon. It won the Pulitzer and, frankly, I'm still trying to figure out why.
Also, when I'm not in the mood for fiction, I'm reading The Case For Space, by Zubrin. It's a fascinating depiction by a longtime expert on how commercial launch companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin have slashed launch costs dramatically, in turn making space exploration into an Everyman kind of endeavor. Also, the Denial of Death by Becker, which is a psychological and philosophical exploration of society's attitudes towards the subject. It made a big impact in the 70s. While some of its concepts haven't stood the test of time, the broad principles are still compelling today.
Last edited by MinivanDriver; 06-25-2020 at 05:57 AM..
I'm re-reading 'Rise and Fall of the Third Reich', by William Shirer; 'Salem's Lot', by Stephen King; 'Blue Highways' by William Least Heat Moon; and a couple others. I seem to have several in various stages of consumption. 'Blue Highways' was supposed to be a classic but I'm having a very hard time getting through it. The author seems to be all over the place and it lurches from location to location. Reminds me of when I tried to read 'This Side of Paradise'; very difficult to read.
I'm glad you said that about Blue Highways, which I thought was total hack work, nothing more than a lazy ripoff of far more worthy travel writers such as Theroux. As a Southerner who doesn't buy into all the moonlight and magnolia crap about the South, I was nonetheless scratching my head at his descriptions, wondering if he and I actually visited the same places. It was almost as if he was working off a preconceived notion of things and fit his narrative to existing biases. Even the dialog rang false. I remember him quoting a child talking to her father and thinking, "No Southern child would ever say that."
Last edited by MinivanDriver; 06-25-2020 at 06:04 AM..
Now about a fourth of the way through The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Chabon. It won the Pulitzer and, frankly, I'm still trying to figure out why.
I liked that book, but I thought the author and editor could have EASILY chopped 150 pages out of it. There are two plotlines that seemed like needless rabbit trails.
I'm currently reading The Complete Aliens Omnibus: Volume One (Earth Hive, Nightmare Asylum, The Female War). It's been a long time since I read any of these.
Earth Hive:
Wilks was a space marine with a near-fatal flaw: he had a heart. Billie was a child, the only survivor of a far-flung colony outpost. Thrown together in the last hellish night of an alien invasion, Billie and Wilks helped each other get out alive. Thirteen years later Wilks is in prison, and Billie lives in a mental institution, the nightmare memories of the massacre at Rim seared into her mind. Now the government has tapped Wilks to lead an expedition to the aliens' home planet to bring back a live alien. But the competition on Earth to develop the aliens as a new weapons system is brutal. When Wilks's team departs on their mission, a trained assassin trails them. And what follows is no less than guerrilla warfare on the aliens' planet--and alien conquest on Earth!
Currently, I'm reading 'American Character', A History of the Epic Struggle Between Individual Liberty and the Common Good. Its author is Colin Woodard.
This book explores the ongoing debates throughout US history between the fight for individual rights and the community as a whole. The author starts with discussions which took place at the Constitutional Convention, through the Civil War, and up to the Tea Party.
Just finished Water Music by T. C. Boyle. A reread but a pretty fantastic book. A funny and sometimes horrifying imagining of the misadventures of Mungo Park, the Scottish explorer of Africa. Energetic, often hilarious.
Now about a fourth of the way through The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Chabon. It won the Pulitzer and, frankly, I'm still trying to figure out why.
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Interesting- I have only read a few Pulitzer prize winners, but the most recent ones I read, I really had to force my way. I have kind of decided that Pulitzer Prize Winner is not a desirable book for me.
Interesting- I have only read a few Pulitzer prize winners, but the most recent ones I read, I really had to force my way. I have kind of decided that Pulitzer Prize Winner is not a desirable book for me.
There have been some great and deserving ones. Lonesome Dove, Confederacy of Dunces, and Angle of Repose are three I'd recommend right off the bat. But your point is well taken.
I was flabbergasted when I saw the low ratings on Goodreads and Amazon just now.
This was a 5 star read for me! But this read was right up my alley, jam packed with descriptive, humorous writing!
You might like this one, tigerlily, because it reminded me so much like the writing in the "Paragon Hotel" which I know you really enjoyed.
"Every spirit builds itself a house; and beyond its house, a world, that's what Emerson said, and I never really got it, I think, until that moment. I was queen of the realm, or at least one of four queens, and I looked down on the neatly laid out plots of grain and vegetables below and the potted sweet potatoes lining the rail of the balcony with a pride of possession I'd never known. I kept envisioning our first harvest and then the one that would succeed it and the one beyond that, all our riches brought home to store and consume and nourish us through the seasons, eight seasons all our own. We'd eat healthy, be healthy, live close to the earth. Everything that went on outside, the shootings, regime shifts, political maneuverings, the disasters and plagues and hopeless ongoing suffering of the mass of humankind, was part of another reality. I was inside now -- and not just for an eight-hour shift, put permanently -- and the security of it, the serenity, was worth everything I'd ever done and been and hoped for. Johnny wouldn't have understood it. Or my parents either. It was their loss."
Thanks for the recommendation, Firehorse. I downloaded from library. The only Boyle book I’ve read is The Women which I enjoyed.
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