What Are You Reading Right Now?

[JBG]

I am so glad you are well. You were also in my backyard when you were at Greenwich Hospital.

Interesting. I'm glad I wasn't savaged by your Newfoundland dogs.

I volunteered as a candystriper there when I was 15, working in the Central Supply Room under the watchful eye of a Head Nurse. (They wore caps in those days.) (We wore red and white pinafore type uniforms over white blouses, if I remember correctly.) I learned how to fold towels and blankets really, really well. I looked at the glamorous 18 year-old nurse's aides in their blue and white uniforms who could handle syringes and things we couldn't go near. They were really old and pretty. I wanted to be one someday. And guess what? When I graduated from high school at 18, I got a job that summer as a nurse's aide at Greenwich Hospital! I got the blue and white uniform and all the glamour of being a nurse's aide.

Things such as nursing and airline travel were more classy and glamorous back in the day. People now go to religious services in sweats.

 

[JBG]

The irony was undeniable; Drugs had helped us to create our group mind and fuse our music together, and now drugs were isolating us from one another and our own feelings, and starting to kill us off."

I just finished Phil Lesh (of the Grateful Dead's) autobiography Searching for the Sound: My Life with the Grateful Dead by Phil Lesh.

This is not my usual reading, and I am not the usual Grateful Dead fan. Still, this autobiography rates a "5" despite some factual nits and picks. The book is a great social history of music and its impact on the 60's through 90's. The author does not avoid the underside. In other words it was not all "peace and love." He sensitively covers the underside of that era as well as its great artistic contributions. He had formal musical training and came from an intact, stable family. He was a person of obvious intelligence.

The author was swept into the drug maelstrom and, with great efforts pulled himself out. He went on to form a stable, loving family, along with his Grateful Dead "family." Phil Lesh was a druggie but got off the sauce soon enough to survive to age 87 or 88 with a transplanted liver. Many other members of the Dead were literally "dead." They were by and large intelligent people who died too young and tragically. Add to it the numerous other rock dead, too many to mention.

I went to two Dead concerts, Barton Hall, Cornell in May 1977 and Broome County Arena, Binghamton in May 1979. Another poster even asked "how much acid I dropped" at the concert. The answer was "none"; aside from minor marijuana use, a rare snort of cocaine and use of speed (for academics) I avoided drugs.

 

[Juin]

I go to the library and walk the stacks until something catches my eye. I screwed up today by going at lunch time.

I go to old book stores and do exactly the same thing. The Iliad is a huge old book store not too far from me. I used to visit on a regular basis. But online books, and access to books online cut visits down a lot

 

[Rogue Valley]

Stench: The Making of the Thomas Court and the Unmaking of America

By David Brock / Knopf / 2024 / 384pp

Brock explains in exquisite detail how conservatives and their billionaire donors corrupted our Supreme Court.

 

[MaryP]

I just bought 'The Mesopotamian Riddle...' by J. Hammer for my Kindle. Sounds fun. I'll report back.

 

[Quag]

I'm reading The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens
An unfinsihed novel

 

[NewfieMom]

I finished all the books in the series about ladies of a certain age solving murder mysteries in England with dragons by Kim M. Watt. The last one was Something in the Waters. Then I quickly went through books that the authors had just added to their ongoing series that I read: Battle Mountain by C.J. Box; Capture or Kill by Don Bentley who is now continuing the Vince Flynn series; and then Lethal Prey by John Sandford. Now I am reading a book I was given as a favor at a bridal shower over the weekend: The Wedding People by Alison Espach.

CJBox writes about a game warden in Wyoming named Joe Pickett. Vince Flynn wrote about a special forces hero who works for the CIA named Mitch Rapp After his death from cancer, three other men continued the series. The latest book is only the first by Don Bentley. John Sandford, who is really John Camp, has several series in which he has characters. I believe I have read all of them. The main character in the "Prey" series used to be Lucas Davenport. Lucas Davenport is a US Marshall who used to be a homicide detective. The books are largely set in Minnesota. Now he is often accompanied by Virgil Flowers and/or Letty Davenport.

So far The Wedding People seems interesting. It is extremely different, quirky, and funny.

 

[JBG]

And it operates on free-market principles, as a laboratory for economic experimentation, providing (theoretically) unbounded opportunity for its inhabitants. New York came into being not organically but through a purposeful act, which involved the stitching together of two cultures and traditions into something new. The Dutch had developed New Amsterdam to be an entrepôt—a port city with pretensions to global trade. Richard Nicolls, as the representative of relatively tolerant and pragmatic factions within England, came to see that rather than crushing New Amsterdam and starting over, it would be in his interest to make a deal with his Dutch nemesis, one that might benefit both of them. The pluralistic and capitalistic features of New York had their origins in the Dutch colony, and both of those elements of the city were reconfigured and invigorated when the Dutch and English strains merged.

As with, say, the light bulb or the computer, the invention of New York rested on earlier ideas. It required a willful steering of forces in a particular direction, as well as a will on the part of the inhabitants to be steered in the new direction. And, as with the light bulb and the computer, nobody who played a role in the invention of New York could comprehend what it might lead to.

I just finished reading Taking Manhattan: The Extraordinary Events that Created New York and Shaped America by Russell Shorto. This book got an extraordinary sendoff and I put myself on the library list shortly after it was published. It was good, but a three and a half rather than four star read. I previously read the author's The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America and expected more. Basically, his thesis, which I think he overstates, is that remaining Dutch influence, after Great Britain took control of New Amsterdam in 1664, was pervasive. The book did introduce me to a new character, Richard Nicolls, the British leader that actually orchestrated the peaceful takeover. Again, I think that New York was the major center for immigration and many groups had similar influence.

Still, it was a fast (I had no choice since as newly published it was a two-week book) read and stimulating. I would like to debate the author in person at some point.

 

[Rogue Valley]

Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism

By Sarah Wynn-Williams - Flatiron Books - 2025 - 400pp.

An explosive memoir charting one woman’s career at the heart of one of the most influential companies on the planet, Careless People gives you a front-row seat to Facebook, the decisions that have shaped world events in recent decades, and the people who made them. Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is the consummate liar wrapped in the American flag. He willingly cooperates with brutal dictatorships to gain access to their countries and to their people.

 

[NewfieMom]

I finished The Wedding People by Alison Espach. It was creative, but not, in my opinion, really deep. I believe the author was trying to convey a message about how to live one's life better, but I'l be darned if I know what that way is. The surface plot was very enjoyable, however. If one ignored the message, it was funny and entertaining. It was not hysterically funny or slyly amusing, though. I love subtle humor, irony that can be missed if one is not paying strict attention. There was none of that here.

I am now reading the most recent book in a series of legal thrillers by Sheldon Siegel, a San Francisco attorney who has written a plethora of great books about two married public defenders and their cases and families. This book is entitled Never Plead Guilty.

 

[southwest88]

Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism

By Sarah Wynn-Williams - Flatiron Books - 2025 - 400pp.

An explosive memoir charting one woman’s career at the heart of one of the most influential companies on the planet, Careless People gives you a front-row seat to Facebook, the decisions that have shaped world events in recent decades, and the people who made them. Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is the consummate liar wrapped in the American flag. He willingly cooperates with brutal dictatorships to gain access to their countries and to their people.

Just checked it out of the library, looking forward to reading it.

 

[maquiscat]

Working my way through the Game is Life series. It's rather existential dealing with nested VR systems, and questions what is reality, via a great story line, and griping short chapters. It can get confusing. I first went through it with gaps between the books. Hopefully going straight through this time will help

 

[JBG]

I just finished reading Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis. The book has been kicking around my TBR pile since before I graduated high school and I never got around to it. I confess that maybe I started it, read one page and actually liked it and then I had to ditch it for assigned reading in one of my courses.

This is the kind of book that makes me pine for the days of having a high school teacher to help me with the symbolism and references, of which this book is dense. Mr. Ladensack and Mr. Myers (they were not young men when I graduated in 1975 so I am not outing anyone), where are you when I need you? Still, I much enjoyed it. Basically the story is about an employer and a much older hire, Zorba, who is full of lessons and more full of ego. An excerpt:

"But don't you believe in anything?" I exclaimed in exasperation.
"No, I don't believe in anything. How many times must I tell you that? I don't believe in anything or anyone; only in Zorba. Not because Zorba is better than the others; not at all, not a little bit! He's a brute like the rest! But I believe in Zorba because he's the only being I have in my power, the only one I know. All the rest are ghosts. I see with these eyes, I hear with these ears, I digest with these guts. All the rest are ghosts, I tell you. When I die, everything'll die. The whole Zorbatic world will go to the bottom!"
"What egoism!" I said sarcastically.
"I can't help it, boss! That's how it is. I eat beans, I talk beans; I am Zorba, I talk like Zorba."
I said nothing. Zorba's words stung me like whiplashes. I admired him for being so strong, for despising men to that extent, and at the same time wanting to live and work with them.

Zorba was a person who lived life to its fullest. A model I can admire and learn from, as did the narrator.

 

[venice_ca]

Late to the party as I’m just now reading Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kinsolver.

I was forced to read David Copperfield in the 9th or 10th grade, and found that novel torture to read. The retelling by Kinsolver is compelling, and as one reviewer stated, with a fair amount of Mark Twain included. The Twainisms had me feeling guilty by laughing as the boy Damon aka Demon describes the daily horrors of a child’s life in poverty, and the callous, and at times exploitative, attitudes of those that make up the so-called safety net.

I’m maybe a third of the way through the novel, and just know life is going to throw the now orphaned Demon more disasters on his way to adulthood.

Kinsolver’s Demon Copperhead won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

 

[NewfieMom]

Late to the party as I’m just now reading Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kinsolver.

I was forced to read David Copperfield in the 9th or 10th grade, and found that novel torture to read. The retelling by Kinsolver is compelling, and as one reviewer stated, with a fair amount of Mark Twain included. The Twainisms had me feeling guilty by laughing as the boy Damon aka Demon describes the daily horrors of a child’s life in poverty, and the callous, and at times exploitative, attitudes of those that make up the so-called safety net.

I’m maybe a third of the way through the novel, and just know life is going to throw the now orphaned Demon more disasters on his way to adulthood.

Kinsolver’s Demon Copperhead won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

You are ahead of me. Kingsolver is one of my favorite authors, but that book has been on my list for years. Congratulations on tackling it.

 

[Roadvirus]

Late to the party as I’m just now reading Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kinsolver.

I was forced to read David Copperfield in the 9th or 10th grade, and found that novel torture to read. The retelling by Kinsolver is compelling, and as one reviewer stated, with a fair amount of Mark Twain included. The Twainisms had me feeling guilty by laughing as the boy Damon aka Demon describes the daily horrors of a child’s life in poverty, and the callous, and at times exploitative, attitudes of those that make up the so-called safety net.

I’m maybe a third of the way through the novel, and just know life is going to throw the now orphaned Demon more disasters on his way to adulthood.

Kinsolver’s Demon Copperhead won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

And the 2023 Woman's Prize for Fiction

 

[Josie]

When I read a Freida McFadden, I always have a moment where I say to myself, "Oh, *I* know what's going on here!" and then it will twist once or twice away from what I thought was going to happen. I'm at that part in this book now so I'm trying to twist my own twist in my head to figure out the actual twist she's going to give us.

 

[Rexedgar]

Homeland by John Jakes, same author as the North/South trilogy. All have a good dose of history as a backdrop for an American story of life and family in the period.

Homeland book by John Jakes

 

[NewfieMom]

I just finished The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. When I first started the book I was struck by some of its similarities to The Wedding People, which I had just finished. Spoiler Alert! Both books start with a female protagonist who is suicidal and has just lost a beloved pet cat. I couldn't get over the morbidity as well as the seeming coincidence of this. Frankly, neither of these books would usually have been ones that would usually appeal to me. I guess I just branched out to popular reading recently. (Well, one of the two books was a favor I received a bridal shower I attended and I noticed that the other one was a choice I could have made. I guess these books are the kinds currently in vogue.)

The Midnight Library was interesting enough for me to want to finish it, but I would not recommend it. I didn't feel it was really compelling or charming.

 

[Helix]

Pretty much every time I read this book, I'm losing weight for one reason or another. It's a good read every time.

 

[Risky Thicket]

View attachment 67567562
Pretty much every time I read this book, I'm losing weight for one reason or another. It's a good read every time.

Stranger things have happened. Keep it up.

In fact, I wonder if those of us who are married men when reading a book called "Laid" would get lucky every night. Hey! It could happen.

 

[Risky Thicket]

Old Flames by John Lawton. British post WWII spy novel.

I Am Not Sidney Poitier by Percival Everett. Everett has become one of my favorite authors. Everett has real, deep, fearless talent and the reader benefits from it page after page.

 

[WillyPete]

View attachment 67567562
Pretty much every time I read this book, I'm losing weight for one reason or another. It's a good read every time.

All the original Bachman books are classics to me.

If any film students are romping about, I think The Long Walk would make for an excellent little student film.

And a true (to the book) version of The Running Man would be nice to have, too.

For my part, I'm picking through the second book of the Revenger series by Alastair Reynolds, Shadow Captain.

Certainly not hard sci-fi, but I'm liking it. It's distant future, and human have devolved and are running around talking like pirates and fighting over the best leftover alien technology.

Never seen the word "cove" used so aggressively!

 

[Helix]

Stranger things have happened. Keep it up.

In fact, I wonder if those of us who are married men when reading a book called "Laid" would get lucky every night. Hey! It could happen.

Nah. Only Thinner works like that. It should be in the self help diet section.

 

[Helix]

All the original Bachman books are classics to me.

If any film students are romping about, I think The Long Walk would make for an excellent little student film.

And a true (to the book) version of The Running Man would be nice to have, too.

For my part, I'm picking through the second book of the Revenger series by Alastair Reynolds, Shadow Captain.

Certainly not hard sci-fi, but I'm liking it. It's distant future, and human have devolved and are running around talking like pirates and fighting over the best leftover alien technology.

Never seen the word "cove" used so aggressively!

I've heard that The Long Walk is a new series. If it is, I'll watch it. Go, Go Garraty. Maine's Own.