What books are you reading right now?

My desire to read pretty much died around six months ago. Hopefully some recent purchases will help get me back on track.

I've read many John Irving novels, and I was happy to find a threefer: Setting Free The Bears, The Water-Method Man, and The 158-Pound Marriage.

The Meanest Man In Texas. I seriously hope this isn't completely God-is-wonderful.

The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty. I don't recall reading any of her works.

In The Blink Of An Eye. Hopefully the science won't give me a headache.

 

I have a book going both in print and audio book.

Audio book: I borrowed SHATTERED, the story of Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign, from the library. I love happy endings, and while I was not a Trump fan, I was so glad we didn't have her for 4 years. The ineptness of her campaign is laid bare, but the bottom line is the political operatives couldn't change the unappealing candidate.

In print: NATIONAL PASTIME by Martin Babicz and Thomas Zeiler. It tries to tell American history through baseball. I know Babicz, mainly from online conversations, but we also met in person in 1996, and thus, I wanted to read his book. Not bad so far--I'm about 60 pages into it.

AVOR

 

In my admittedly simplistic view from north of the border, I am curious as to how things played out in your last election. From here, or at least for me, I couldn't see what was unpalatable about Hillary Clinton, that wasn't at least matched and more than made up for by Trump. Hillary seemed to be a typical politician, with lots of experience, and representing a party that is supposed to be progressive. Trump on the other hand is a clown, a swirling chaotic blowhard with no experience and a blatant misogynist. I have to think that the conservatives that he represents are the fringe area that is the least progressive about the republican party. In fact, I would be hard pressed to identify them as conservative, as the republican party tends to have some very innovative concepts as long as they aren't trying to tea party or alt something.

I land myself in that great first standard deviation from the mean of the centrist voter. Small L liberal, Small C conservative (a red Tory we call them up here). We like progressive policies, some government programmes, fiscal responsibility, but understanding that the state has no business in the bedrooms of the people.

 

The problem with trying to explain why someone didn't like Hillary is that one tends to then assume the person is a Trump supporter. I am a conservative, which puts me more in touch with the Republicans than the Democrats, but I am not a cheerleader for either side. I voted for neither--I went third party.

Hillary is corrupt. greedy, vicious, and lacking core beliefs other than the one her husband had: She believes you should vote for her, and will say anything to get you to do so. The book I reference goes to great detail about how she was trying to find her message, how she couldn't answer the simple question "why do you want to be president?" She wanted the power for herself.

In that way, she's not that much different than many politicians. I liked the idea of someone like Trump--but not Trump--that was an outsider to Washington and understood how the real world works. America had someone like that in 1992--Ross Perot--who proved to be a flake, but the 20% that voted for him that year was sending a "none of the above" message that I think still resonated over the years. After 24 years, it finally took root--Sanders in the Democrat party and Trump in the Republican were both promising to overthrow the elite class of Washington politics, and many here were willing to see what that would look like. Hillary was just going to be more of the same.

AVOR

 

As soon as Sanders appeared on the scene and the DNC started colluding to rig the primaries I said pretty much the same thing, that this past election was not going to be between Republican and Democrat candidates but between Establishment and Outsider candidates in the primary.

 

And I always thought that was a "Bush" stance. It's funny how no matter who is in power, it's always the same. Except maybe for trump. Maybe that's the key - he's the great disrupter. He may not know how things work in DC & Gov't, but that's his appeal. Regardless that he is basically corrupt and supports the intolerant fringes of society, he has a shiny boy-face approach to governing.

 

I think the actual term is fascist approach to governing.

 

The real dividing line is between the plutocrats and the peasants.

 

We do have political threads here at TFP, folks.

 

You mean we have to move on over there to continue the conversation?

 

Ask a mod.

 

It's a fair point, this thread is about 120 pages of "What books are you reading". To which my answer is I'm trying to get back into O'Reilly's "Learning R". Riveting stuff.

 

I'm trying to get into Green Beach by James Leasor.

This historical non-fiction sounds promising: In 1942 Jack Nissenthall, a radar expert serving in the British military, goes on a secret mission to overtake a German radar station in order to study their radar system which is giving the Germans a clear advantage in the war. The major twist is Nissenthall is so knowledgeable and valuable he is to be killed by his own troops should he be at risk of being captured by the Germans.

The problem: So far Leasor has made an intriguing story extremely boring.

 

good point.

 

On a road trip this week, I listened to John Grisham's CAMINO ISLAND. A bit far-fetched in places, but a nice listen for the trip. If you've read his others--I think I've read/listened to all the novels except the one that came out last month, you'll know what to expect, and enjoy what is here. If you've not read Grisham, don't start here--go for A TIME TO KILL or THE LAST JUROR.

And I finished SHATTERED on the trip as well. A bit repetitive in places, but still a good account of the election of 2016, at least from Clinton's standpoint. Recommended.

JcS

 

Took advantage of Cyber Monday to download A Song of Fire and Ice for my Kindle. I know I'm late to the party, but now I will start to get caught up.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

The Revenant, by Michael Punke.

 

Currently sampling hard sci-fi in an anthology called Engineering Infinity. Edited by Jonathan Strahan (it's hard to get used to short stories...)

Just finished Proxima and Ultima by Stephen Baxter

Just started Gone by Mo Hayder (a Jack Caffrey police mystery)

I've parked The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu until I can get back into it.