What books are you reading right now?

MFK Fisher's The Art of Eating. I like her writing, though some of her stuff-- both about food and other things-- is horribly dated. But most holds up well, and is charming. I haven't actually sat and re-read all her major stuff like this in probably a decade.

 

I'm about to start Brave New World.

 

Great book! Not as great writing, IMO, as 1984, but just as relevant and prescient.

 

I haven't yet finished Brave New World, but so far I find Society as presented by Aldous Huxley very interesting,
but.......

I can't see those in power in the World State allowing Linda and John the Savage to leave the Savage Reservation, at least not so easily. IMO in such a controlled society the bureaucratic red tape would be endless; the power to approve their entrance would certainly never rest with just one person. Huxley definitely took a shortcut.

 

The Devil That Danced On The Water (A Daughter's Quest) by Aminatta Forna. Non-fiction.

In 1974 Forna's father in taken into custody by authorities in Sierra Leone when she is 10 years old, never to be heard from again. Twenty-five years later she starts investigating his disappearance.

 

Finished up my Harry Potter reread, read the Cursed Child twice (I really liked it), and started and finished I Am Legend.




And I was super-excited to discover that Wizard's First Rule was a Daily Deal, so I'm currently reading that. I've been meaning to start the Sword of Truth series for a while now, so huzzah!

 

I haven't finished TDTDOTW, but want to share a few thoughts. While none of them "give away" the book, and most people won't read this book, I'll use the spoiler function.

1. Forna's writing is very good, although in the first few chapters some of her writing is poetic (I can't explain this, it's something that has to be read).
2. She frequently moves around in time. She might be describing an event in 1975, then she'll go back a few years (say 1970) to provide some background, then jump ahead to say 1979 to discuss a consequence, then return to the 1975 event.
3. The book is broken down into Book One and Book Two. The book is 403 pages long. Book One mostly focuses on her childhood, but does provide much useful background info important to Book Two. She doesn't start seriously discussing her effort to find out what happened to her father until Book Two starting at page 269. This division doesn't work that well for me because much of Book One should've been included in Book Two.
4. The combination of two and three make following her story chronologically a bit difficult.
5. It's as though she wanted to write two books, which she did (see #3), but the result is somewhat confusing (see #3 and #4).
6. A map of Africa, and a chronological list of events, would've been very useful.
[Spoiler/]

 

A Brief History Of Seven Killings by Marlon James.

This novel published in 2014 is set in Jamaica, covering roughly 3o years. It's not so brief at 686 pages (PB, 5.5 x 8.5 roughly, small print).



I'm at page 52, far enough in to want to know if Marlon James actually has any serious experience in the Jamaican underworld, or is his fiction based on.....fiction (that makes sense if you think about it ).


Note--My PB copy is the 7th edition, which shows this book sold very well in a relatively short time period. Which also allows the publisher to include many blurbs praising the novel, and lists of awards it has won. While I don't usually pay much attention to the hype, in this case it's nearly impossible to ignore. The downside to (over)hype is some readers might think the book didn't live up to expectations (I have that feeling frequently with hyped movies).

My computer is acting up, taking it's sweet time allowing me to use enter for new paragraphs. So this post might appear as though I'm PUI.

 

Just picked up Radio Girls, historical fiction about the early days of BBC Radio. The fictional Canadian born/American raised assistant works for the two real life figures, John Reith, the conservative Director General of BBC and Hilda Matheson, the socialist lesbian who ran the "Talks" programming (everything other than music and drama) . Added intrigue with early Nazi sympathizers figuring into the plot.

More on the little known Hilda Matheson - The Forgotten Queer Woman Who Revolutionized Radio | Broadly

 

Currently immersed in Wizard's First Rule. It isn't quite what I was expecting, but I'm enjoying it.

 

A Brief History Of Seven Killings by Marlon James. I enjoyed this novel, but it took me a while to adjust to how James organized it. My main complaint is James includes small but key pieces of information, buried in long manic paragraphs. IMO this one of those books where spending some extra time reading random parts before committing to it is a really good idea.

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Means of Escape by Philip Caputo. Non-fiction, basically the memoir of a former Marine, journalist, and war correspondent.

 

The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore. Really well done, historical piece on the true origin of Wonder Woman. An in depth look at the man, the woman and the times that created one of the most iconic super heroes. As a history geek and a comic book geek I'm really loving this.

 

Haven't read a book in months. Finally got a new library card but had no idea what to get at the physical library. After stopping in with only 30 minutes to spare, I couldn't find the computer for adults but remembered an Australian friend with a teen recently reading and liking Garth Nix's Old Kingdom Series (also that my kid had read Nix and that I hadn't yet) so went looking for Sabriel and found it--their only copy of anything Nix.

Having great fun, it's a total ride of a read.

 

Means of Escape by Philip Caputo. Non-fiction, basically the memoir of a former Marine, journalist, and war correspondent.

MOE was interesting read. While I have no reason to doubt Caputo's honesty about his experiences, I did find that in many places MOE read like a novel written in the first person (BTW/FTR I'm not talking about the sections that Caputo very clearly identified as fiction based on a mix of factual experiences).

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Pearl Harbor Final Judgement by Henry C. Clausen and Bruce Lee (no, not that Bruce Lee ) published 1992. This should be an interesting read.

Clausen was a Colonel in the US Army in 1945 when he conducted his investigation. The bad news is that's a potential conflict of interest since both the Army and Navy shared responsibility for Pearl Harbor disaster and the fiascos that lead up to it. The good news is Clausen had top secret clearance, giving him access to many complete documents that other writers never saw or only saw as heavily redacted versions.

Prior to this book Lee was the editor of two major Pearl Harbor books, At Dawn We Slept by Gordon Prange (1982), and I Was There by Edwin T. Layton (1985).

Interesting note: I also have another book, The Pearl Harbor Myth, published 2007. It will be interesting to see how the stories and conclusions have changed over the years.

Note & edit--My fucking computer and/or the fucking software here at TFP is/are refusing to show paragraph breaks (not the first time I've had this issue on TFP). Hopefully I've figured out how to work with this, or I can edit my post.

 

I had a good book day at a couple of thrift/resale stores. Nothing worth $$, but all should be good reads.

Freedom Song by Amit Chaudhuri.
Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane.
Body Double by Tess Gerritsen.
Room Full Of Mirrors A Biography of Jimi Hendrix by Charles R. Cross.

 

Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane.

I blew through this novel pretty quickly, probably because I was ready for a break from 'serious' reading. This is not one of Lehane's better Patrick Kenzie novels.

It might be his last. In the book, Patick promises his wife Angie/Angela (also his crime solving partner in several of the earlier novels) that he is done with being a private investigator. If MM is anything to go by, that's probably for the best.

 

Essential Requirements for Medical Devices...very boring.