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What Are You Reading Right Now?

I just finished a thriller, Vanished by Joseph Finder. It is part of a "Nick Heller" series. It was a page-turner, but too convoluted to follow in every detail and also incredibly improbable. I decided not to read any more books in the series. I am now reading The Alice Network by Kate Quinn. A few members of my family raved about it, so I bought it, but so far I haven't really liked it. It feels unrealistic, but not in a charming way. I will keep reading and see if I just had a bad first impression of the book.
 
A couple of books..

I've gotten back to my march trough the various Warhammer 40K novel series.

I've been mostly staying within a small set of writers when necessary because there seems to be a dramatic drop off in skill without the cadre of WH40K novelists.

The best by a wide margin is Dan Abnett. His works are great and thoughtful and engrossing.
I decided to break from working through the Horus Hersey novels in order after the first 4 books, which cover the backstory of the Horus betrayal, and jump forward to the Novel series "THE END AND THE DEATH" which covers the final day(s) of the Siege of Earth (Terra).



One of the things I find fascinating about Abnett is his ability to take a story that most people with a passing knowledge of WH40K lore already know the ending for and still make it engrossing.

Yes, there will be an ultimate face off between The Emperor and Horus, and Horus will lose and the Emperor will suffer a mortal wound and only be spared death by being placed in his throne where he will remain for 10,000 years... this is known, and has been known for maybe 30 years, but Abnett tells the story in a way that makes the confrontation about far more than who wins.

I've also finished...



This is probably my third reading of this book, but de to recent events, probably the first time I really understood it.

It's poignant and sad and uplifting, and now with my own experiences I realize it is personal.

I mean, that should be obvious, but I realize now how the same and different everyone's experience is with grief. I couldn't really tell anyone that they are doing it wrong, except insofar and what others might do to harm themselves in that grief.

Maybe I am just lucky as a devout believer in God, being almost dragged back to faith in my late 20s, that I don't see finality in death. That doesn't mean that I don't despair, I certainly do, God willing I will live to a ripe old age, and that is a long time to wait to be with my daughter again. but it's not final.

I am eternally grateful for this book, having read it twice before my daughter's passing, I am navigating the grief better than I would have without Lewis' wisdom.

And I have reread...



This is my second cover-to-cover read through of Sowell's treatise on the origins of the Western political divide.

I first read the book in the mid 90s, and it was a catalyst of change in the way I view Western politics.

Sowell's book covers what he sees and two competing principles (visions) that underpin all Western political philosophy. He argues that all political positions rely on two different expectations of humanity. These expectations are that either Mankind is constrained (unchangeable and forever burden by our shortcomings of greed, etc.) or the unconstrained, meaning that a better humanity is possible.

What first attracted me to Sowell's argument is that to my old way of thinking his argument seemed cynical and self defeating, but by the end of the book I was convinced. It would seem to me now that the greatest threat (this isn't Sowell's conclusion necessarily) to mankind is optimism in mankind being able to change, in writing laws that need a humanity that doesn't exist. The worst we do to ourselves is done almost entirely in a foolish belief that a better humanity ill come out on the other side, while the best we do for humanity begins with the assumption that we all have competing self interests and always will, and moreover, that we are all prone to corruption.

From that latter position comes opposition of monopolies (public and private), a belief in the need for checks and balances, a distrust of government power and a defense of freedom and individual agency.

The whole argument is beautifully cast in the comparison of two revolutions that happened in short succession, each an adherent to one of Sowell's two stated visions. The American Revolution being grounded mostly (eventually?) in the Constrained Vision, and the French Revolution in the Unconstrained vision. The outcomes of these two revolutions could not have been more different.
 
Excerpts:

I just finished reading Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates by David Cordingly. I purchased this book on a whim from the gift shop of Fort Macon State Park in North Carolina, which I rarely do since it is a decidedly uneconomical way of obtaining reading material. It was decidedly worth the purchase. First the quibbles; it is a slower read than most since I had no previous familiarity with the subject matter, the history of piracy. My knowledge was limited to childhood entertainment such as Peter Pan and children's editions of the works of Robert Louis Stevenson and Daniel DeFoe. This goes back to Second Grade, 1964-5. Also, the descriptions of pirate violence, and of the civil authorities' execution of many of the pirates was quite graphic.
Among the many things the author does is make clear that there was nothing romantic about pirate life, or civilian interactions with pirates. They were extremely violent. One could make a serious case that pirates could not coexist with civilization. In fact, according to the book, many were granted pardons and promptly returned to a life of violent crime. The book covered lots of material, and was thoroughly absorbing. Of particular interest to me, as a history buff, was the fact that pirates were rapidly eliminated as advanced commerce developed between Europe and the Americas. In fact, piracy is ongoing in many areas that are now called "Third World." The struggle against piracy can be analogized to modern "total warfare."
I have included, below, a link to Great Big Sea's song "Captain Kidd" and a sea shanty version that is but one example of the romanticizing of pirate life.
 
Last night I watched the PBS documentary, "Julia Alvarez: A Life Reimagined." This morning, I ordered two of her novels.


How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents is a fictionalized account of how Alvarez and her three sisters were Americanized after their parents fled the Dominican dictatorship of Gen. Rafael Leónidas Trujillo. I'm curious to read the process of acclimation between two very different cultures.

In the Time of the Butterflies is a historical novel depicting the events leading to the murders of Las Mariposas--the Butterflies. The four sisters were opponents of the Trujillo dictatorship. Three paid for their resistance with their lives.
 
I am very interested in how you like How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents. I will try not to miss your review of it. Many years ago I read La Vida by Oscar Lewis and I have been thinking that I should reread that. Has anyone else who reports on books here read that?
 
I finished The Alice Network by Kate Quinn. It was riveting to read, but left me with the feeling that I had just read a piece of pulp fiction. The author did some research on World War I spy networks and provided notes about that research, but the characters and story just seemed superficial to me. It was a book that was half escape fiction and half serious reading to me and I had trouble putting the two together. I will say, however, that I could not put it down.

I have now started Somewhere Beyond The Sea by T.J. Klune.
 
I’m heading off to the Caribbean in a couple days and need some beach reading, I think I’ll get this!

Thanks!
 
I just finished re-reading The Great Gatsby (Paperback) by F. Scott Fitzgerald; in High School senior year, 1974-5 and now.Rereading classics without the pressure of a pending exam and the competitive pressure of an English honors class definitely helps enjoyment. Particular since I started honors track in Junior Year, I couldn't hope to compete with the eloquence of my class mates. One of many key excerpts:

F. Scott Fitzgerald said:
They were careless people, Tom and Daisy-they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.
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I have used this expression again and again, to describe people that don't mind damaging each other, and other people. One of many examples of great writing.

Also, the book is a great period-peace of the halcyon days of the Prohibition Era, early 1920's, particularly those with the privilege of imbibing freely. I would write more and might start a thread. Re-reading classics that perhaps we were too young, or under too much academic pressure to appreciate has its values.
 


The Cleopatras: The Forgotten Queens of Egypt
By Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones / Basic Books / 2024 / 384pp

Every Queen of the Ptolemaic Dynasty of ancient Egypt (305 BCE - 30 BCE) was either named Berenice (I-IV), Arsinoë (I-IV), or Cleopatra (I-VII). We are most familiar with the last ruler of the Ptolemaic Dynasy - Queen Cleopatra VII - she of Julius Caesar and Marc Antony fame who committed suicide rather than be captured by Octavian as a prisoner of war. Be that as it may, there were other Queen Cleopatra's who were powerful and strengthened the dynasty. Cleopatra I (Syra) was actually a princess from Syria who was sent to Egypt by her father as a bride to end the wars between the Ptolemaic and Seleucid empires. Cleopatra II and III were very powerful and ruled Egypt (either directly or vicariously) for many decades. This is an illuminating and fascinating book if you like ancient Egyptian history.
 


God's Ghostwriters: Enslaved Christians and the Making of the Bible
By Candida Moss / Little, Brown and Company / 2024 / 336pp

The author, a noted Professor of Theology (Notre Dame/Oxfortd/Yale), presents the evidence that the Gospels and most other Christian tracts from the 1st-4th centuries were actually written by scribes who were enslaved people. To understand properly, you must also be aware that most Jews and supporters of Jesus/Christianity in the 1st century were enslaved and trafficked individuals after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE. In that era, most people could not read or write, so they hired scribes (usually enslaved individuals themselves) to transcribe oral histories as told by others (the Apostles et. al.). If you look closely, as the author shows us here, you can see the biases of the enslaved scribes in the Gospels and other Christian texts. This is a dry read, but fascinating nonetheless. I had never thought about the Apostles not being educated enough to write the Gospels by themselves. They had to use ghostwriters.
 


Haven't finished it yet, but I don't see what all the fuss is about.
 
Mr Person said:
Finally got around to starting a four-part sci-fi series: Hyperion, Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, Rise of Endymion. I'm towards the end of the third.
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I read the first one ages ago, then read it again maybe 10 years, ago, then saw all of them being pushed as great so I went back and read them all. They were not my favorite, but apparently a lot of people like them.

But to be constructive, I finally read Gene Wolf's New Sun series (I think there was a newer one added to the originals too), and felt is was pretty refreshing and nicely done. The puzzles in that one...I found much more rewarding.
I feel I missed a lot and will have to re-read it soon.
 
Loulit01 said:
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Haven't finished it yet, but I don't see what all the fuss is about.
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His debut novel. I liked it, very inventive, lots of biological, genetic engineering, environmental issues. Fairly dystopian. I keep following his writing - since that first, he's writing mostly for the YA market - but I still think he's doing interesting stories, with different takes on science/tech/biological/human topics.
 
Just quickly re-read The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (Philip K. Dick). Reminds me I should reread all his novels, if I can remember who I lent them to.

I was given the Silo series by Huge Howey. I'm at least entertained but two things about how he assumes people would behave strike me as off. But we'll see.
 
This is the most recent book :



To paraphrase all of the plot summaries online, a grandmother, mother, and granddaughter join forces to investigate a murder in a coastal California town. I liked the flow of the plot and the character development. Edit to add : I also enjoyed the nature theme. It was very visual.
 
I just finished reading Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team by George Jonas. As usual I have my quibbles, these somewhat more profound than usual. The book, about the Israeli government and intelligence efforts to kill those responsible for the 1972 Olympic massacre, is in the "non-fiction" category but just barely. A lot of the dialogue is necessarily invented. The protagonist of Vengeance, one ex-Mossad agent "Avner" is admittedly an invented person. Obviously, a Mossad agent with a price on his head, both my Arab terrorists and by some elements of the Mossad and his loose supervisors, was not going to be named in a book about him. More to the point though, much of the dialogue had to have been imagined or filled in, unless "Avner" had a superhuman memory. This invention of dialogue is necessary feature of many books about war, espionage or disaster. Can one, for example, reproduce the discussions on board The Titanic or the boat that sank in The Perfect Storm? Could Gordon Lightfoot known that the captain said "fellows it's been good to know you."

That being said, however, it is a historical fact that most or all of the 1972 Olympics butchers met violent ends. It is known, from a study of current events, that strange things happen to terrorists who cross Israel. With those caveats in mind, I recommend reading Vengeance.
 


Coming Home
By Brittney Griner with Michells Burford
Knopf - 2024 - 320pp

The story of how American basketball star Brittney Griner wound up in a Russian penal colony for 293 days. The differences between the Russian police state/prison system and that of the US is vast and described here by Griner.

Warning to everyone: Do not travel to Russia for any reason. The US Dept. of State describes Russia as a Red Level 4 country.... Do not travel to Russia
 
Maybe off topic but I will tell you one thing about Russia; I'm glad that my ancestors left modern Ukraine and Poland, then Russia, for the United States. That area is a cesspit.
 
Fatherland by Robert Harris.

About 100 pages in and really enjoying it so far.
 
Re reading The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.
 
I am reading Resurrection Walk by Michael Connelly. Nominally it is one of Connelly's "Lincoln Lawyer" books, but it also advances the story of Harry Bosch, another protagonist of Connelly and one of whom I am actually fonder. (I like the work on cold cases Bosch has been doing with a current Hollywood Division detective.)

I really enjoyed the second T.J.Klune book that I recently finished. The author writes, in part, to give voice to the LGBTQ community. In his notes to the reader he expresses that he wants to be known as the opposite of J.K. Rowling who would not use queer characters in her books. I was unaware that J.K.Rowling had any stand about queer characters and was surprised by his level of animus. I just enjoyed his books because they had warm and loving characters and were entertaining.
 
I just got finished reading Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand. All I can say is "wow." "Gripping" would be an understatement; I work full time and read it in eight days cold. I could barely put it down.

The comparison between the civilization of America and the rank savagery of much of the rest of the world is breathtaking. The first part of the book focuses on his accomplishments in the Berlin Olympics in 1936; itself a savage territory, temporarily concealing its bestiality. After his return from the Olympics, US involvement in World War Two began. He wound up in the Army Air Force, had not yet morphed into the Air Force. I will not spoil the story for future readers except that he spent 47 days floating on a raft in the Pacific, and wound up being captured by the Japanese in the Marshall Islands and subject to years of incredible abuse. Then he survived is unbelievable. Though the books title is unbroken, in many respects he really was broken. As cover I'm sure, where many people of that generation.

There is some discussion of his “redemption” after the war. Let's just say that if that is redemption, I would want something a lot better. Den is now covered there was insufficient focus on the mental health needs of trauma victims. I don't know if that could have been handled better but I certainly would like to think so.
 
The Agony and the Ecstasy in preparation for my trip to Italy next year.
 
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