What Are You Reading Right Now?

[JBG]

I just finished reading Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand. There are not enough superlatives to describe how much I enjoyed reading it. Perhaps it was surpassed by Unbroken, by the same author. It is too bad that this author has not written more.

While the book had an inevitable focus on the famous horse, a wisely also concentrated on the trainer and the various jockeys. My grandfather always said come with horses, “watch the jockey more than the horse” because “the horse is just an animal.” Obviously the trainer must have material to train, and the jockey must have material to ride. The trainer often gets less notice than even the jockey. The names Secretariat (Triple Crown 1973), Seattle Slew (Triple Crown 1977) and Seabiscuit are household words. Their trainers and jockeys are relative unknowns.

Overall, it is the kind of book that leaves one with a good feeling. It shows what is possible. And to always aspire to excellence.

 

[SayMyName]

A book given to me by a monk during a visit to the new Tiantai monastery. It is called, "Emptiness and Omnipresence."

 

[GIJane]

The Expanse-Caliban's War. Just finished Leviathan Wakes

 

[JBG]

I just finished reading Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again by Jake Tapper. I was always taught as a child never to kick someone when they are down, and never pick on someone weaker than myself. While a thrilling and quick read, this book violates those rules and more.

The book lays out in detail the cognitive and frightening decline of President Biden. Clearly he was never, at least after the Afghanistan withdrawal in 2021, making too many decisions. That may have been for the better. And Tapper outlines how the 25th Amendment is well-intentioned but impractical.

I borrowed this book from the library since I would not contribute one thin dime to the owners of the "intellectual property" of this work. Most objective people arrived at the same conclusion with the June 27, 2024 debate; he could not run or serve again. Presumably, Jake Tapper, once a leading Biden sycophant, was among them. He then wrote this book, which is like between traded from a losing team to the opponent in a game in the eighth inning. While I did not vote for him, ever, I consider this book an A-1 act of bullying. That is why I give it one star.

 

[uptower]

Afghantsy by Roderick Braithwaite - former Brit diplomat to the USSR and Russia.

Afgantsy: The Russians in Afghanistan 1979-89 : Rodric Braithwaite : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

archive.org

Tracks the Soviet Afghan war from start to finish. The politics behind, how the got involved, bogged down and eventually got out. The lives of the soldiers there. The legacy after. Absolutely riveting.

So good, it's my second read through in six months.

In between I also read Emma's War: its the story of a British aid worker who married a Sudanese warlord and also a great primer on that country's history and troubles.

Emma’s War: Love, Betrayal and Death in the Sudan

Love, corruption, violence and the dangerous politics of aid in the Sudan, by an exciting new writer. Emma McCune’s passion for Africa, her unstinting commitment to the children of the Sudan, and her striking glamour set her apart from other aid workers the moment she arrived in southern Sudan...

books.google.co.nz

 

[GIJane]

I've been reading the Expanse series by James S.A. Corey (Actually 2 writers working together). As good as the TV series was, and it was good, the books are better. More in depth and more humor. I'm on book 5 of 9, plus there are a few novellas that go along with series.


Now I have a rant. I've read almost everything John Ringo has written, but his latest, Behind the Veil, is unreadable. This is what happens when you let other people write books and they do the bulk of the writing. I feel the same about Lee Child.
Ok, rant over.

 

[JBG]

I just finished reading The Year of No Garbage by Eve O. Schaub. I will give this book a 3 1/2. Since that is not available, I rated it a four. In an effort of personal disclosure, I gave some weight to the fact that the author is alumnus of my Alma Mater, Cornell.

The writing flows well. There is some humor. The book makes points that I believe needs to be made, which is that we torture ourselves to be environmentally perfect, to little real effect. She does praise the widespread effort to do better. She analyzes, in excruciating detail, what is wrong with most personal environmental efforts. She never calls it environmental theater, but she may as well have.

What is wrong with the book and why do I not give it a higher reading? Like many books there is an apparent effort to inflate the number of pages. There was enough repetition that I skimmed much of it and actually skipped half of a very long chapter. Quibbles aside, the book is worth reading.

 

[Josie]

The Serpent and the Wings of Night. A vampire/human love story that's way better than Twilight.

 

[JMR]

I just finished the Lion Women of Tehran by Morgan Kamali. I'd give it a 4 out of 5. It's a great story of female friendship, set in Tehran during political upheaval.

 

[Risky Thicket]

Munich Wolf by Rory Clements

"MUNICH, 1935 - The Bavarian capital is a magnet for young, aristocratic Britons who come to learn German, swim in the lakes and drink beer in the cellars.

What they don't see - or choose to ignore - is the brutal underbelly of the Nazi movement which considers Munich its spiritual home.

When a high-born English girl is murdered, Detective Sebastian Wolff is ordered to solve the crime. Wolff is already walking a tight line between doing his job and falling foul of the political party he abhors. Now Hitler is taking a personal interest in the case.

Followed by the secret police and threatened by his own son, a fervent member of the Hitler Youth, the stakes have never been higher. And when Wolff begins to suspect that the killer might be linked to the highest reaches of the Nazi hierarchy, he fears his task is simply impossible - and that he might become the next victim."

Damn good read so far. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys well written WWII spy novels. You can see the striking parallels between Nazi Germany in WWII and the current fascist madness in the United States.

 

[JBG]

Just before Labor Day I finished reading Hidden History of Vermont by Mark Bushnell. I highly recommend this book. Vermont has a lot of history given its key geographic position. Especially during the revolutionary period. This book contains a series of vignettes about the state, in various periods.

 

[JBG]

I just finished reading For a Time Such as This by Rabbi Elliott Cosgrove.

The first two parts of this book were inspiring. They were an interesting exegesis on Jewish history and theology. This focus was on the book of Esther and secondarily on Elijah, the prophet who allegedly visits every household during Pesach. What dropped the book from 4 1/2 or five stars was the concluding part of the book. The concluding part was a warmed over rehash of typical Reform and Conservative Jewish views about a “two state solution.”

My views on this are not material to the review; Suffice to say that I consider his solutions not to be well thought out. I know this Rabbi can do better. The ultimate solution to a two thousand year old problem is inessential to the topic of being a Jew today.

 

[Josie]

I finished The Unmaking of June Farrow. It started out really good and then was just okay the rest of the way.

 

[Fearandloathing]

What Are You Reading Right Now?

What I am reading is a transcript from the Charlie Rose show; an hour-long interview with David Kilcullen.

This..

 

[Quag]

Just finished the mystery of Edwin Drood, well I didn't finish it actually as Dickens died before completing it but it was pretty interesting if rather disappointing as you never find out what happens

 

[Rexedgar]

Reading “The Zimmerman Telegram” by Barbara Tuchman (1958); it starts a little slow, but is worth continuing. I found this passage to to be interesting in light of current events.

 

[Along Came Jones]

Have not checked in here for a while. Amazon delivered the next two week's reading diet.

David McCullough: History Matters

Stephen Breyer: Reading the Constitution: Why I Chose Pragmatism, Not Textualism

Amy Coney Barrett: Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and Constitution

 

[JBG]

I just finished reading A Billion Years: My Escape From a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology by Mike Rinder.

"But most of all, I felt the embrace of the realization that suddenly, I was answerable only to myself. I felt the elation of freedom for the first time in decades. Nobody to tell me what to do. Nobody to criticize or punish me. Nobody looking over my shoulder, second-guessing everything I did. I had never been in that position before and it sure felt good." This is a quote from A Billion Years: My Escape From a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology, a book recommended to me by a Canadian friend I know on Goodreads. This book is simply excellent. The author describes the abuses of Church of Scientology and how difficult they make life for people who deign to escape. It describes in riveting detail how many people are simply into this cult and its bizarre belief systems.

My main quibble with the book is that It spins far too little time on the “escape” of the author. The book purports to be about the escape and only approximately 1 eighth of the book is spent describing the events leading to his decision and the life afterwards. Thus, four rather than five stars. Otherwise, I fully recommend the book. It was a very quick and gripping read.

 

[maquiscat]

I just got done the first two books in the Eye of the Goddess trilogy by Sariah Wilson. Frustratingly the last book isn't due until the end of the year.

It's a romance fantasy, and the world is well constructed. I get highly frustrated with the main character, Lia, as she keeps letting her letting her emotions and paranoia hamper her vision, causing her to miss things and then later realize she could have avoided a lot if she had caught them. But overall, a great read so far. The plot twist of the Prince at the end of book one, was not surprising, although I hadn't suspected it. But the plot twist at the end of book 2 was incredible and nowhere near where I thought it was going to go.

 

[Nickyjo]

I just got done the first two books in the Eye of the Goddess trilogy by Sariah Wilson. Frustratingly the last book isn't due until the end of the year.

It's a romance fantasy, and the world is well constructed. I get highly frustrated with the main character, Lia, as she keeps letting her letting her emotions and paranoia hamper her vision, causing her to miss things and then later realize she could have avoided a lot if she had caught them. But overall, a great read so far. The plot twist of the Prince at the end of book one, was not surprising, although I hadn't suspected it. But the plot twist at the end of book 2 was incredible and nowhere near where I thought it was going to go.

Reading two books: The Red Scare by Clay Rosen, a review of post WWII anti-communist paranoia. (“Mass movements can rise and spread without a belief in a god, but never without belief in a devil,” said Eric Hoffer, who could have been speaking of today and immigrants.) And also just started The Ancient Wisdom of Baseball: Lessons for Life from Homer’s Odyssey to the World Series by Christian Sheppard. Interesting link between the two, as anti-communism of the 1950s had the Cincinnati team change its name from Reds to Redlegs.

 

[Along Came Jones]

This week I'm reading

Reading this professional biography ought to be a nostalgic remembering of how the news was once collected by insiders and reported to us outsiders. I still remember when a brash Ted Turner declared war on the major news networks and vowed to start his own. Which he most certainly did. He built it so well that during Desert Storm the DoD got as much information from CNN correspondents as they did from their own intelligence resources.

 

[Decypher]

Been travelling a lot the last couple of months so had plenty of time of reading.

Two Irish novels: Intermezzo by Sally Rooney and Heart, Be at Peace by Donal Ryan. Both pretty good. Read the Japanese novel Butter by Asako Yuzuki. Good idea but long and boring. The Amber Fury by Natalie Haynes was nowhere near as good as her retellings of Greek Myths in her previous two books. Started The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan but it’s dull so don’t know if I’ll finish it.

For non-fiction I am currently reading Racket by Conor Niland which is about the ATP Tour and Weaning by Annabel Karmel because my daughter is 6 months old and about to start on solids.