What Are You Reading Right Now?

[Gaius46]

I don't blame him for hating it.... he's the one who had to walk around like a bug-eyed zombie the whole episode.

If you're a Trekkie (Treker?) you should check out Star Trek Continues. They did a good job recreating whole original series vibe. Certainly better than anything the studios are doing nowadays.

ST Continues looks good. Thx I’ll check it out.

 

[maquiscat]

Current reads:

I Am Spock by Leonard Nimoy

I am an unabashed Star Trek fan and am usually either (re-)watching one of the series or movies or reading a novel set in the Trek universe. It is my biggest guilty pleasure. Nimoy recounts his career, with an emphasis on Trek though the mid 90s or so. He’s an engaging writer and his love for his pointy eared creation is evident.


The Legal Analyst: A Toolkit for Thinking about the Law by Ward Farnsworth

Farnsworth who is Dean of the of University of Texas School of Law and clerked for SC Justice Anthony Kennedy writes extensively on philosophy (I’ve also read a book of his on stoicism) and law. This book, which is a relatively easy read, delves into such topics as ex-ante vs ex-post thinking, prisoners dilemma, property vs liability rules, voting paradoxes etc and how they effect legal rules and rulings.

Have you read Q-in-Law yet? Excellent read. Heck anything by Peter David is excellent, but he outdid himself with that one. Even better, find the audiobook read by John DeLancie, and Majel Barret Roddenberry. They really bring it alive, to the point that my step-son's dad was convinced that it had originally been an actual episode.

 

[maquiscat]

I'm currently on the Hunter series by Mercedes Lackey. Just recently got done the 3 sets of books centered on Mags and his family set in Valdemar, also by Lackey. Damn that woman can write. I so badly want to see her stuff made into Live action. Oh wait! They're making Last Herald Mage into a series.

 

[Gaius46]

Have you read Q-in-Law yet? Excellent read. Heck anything by Peter David is excellent, but he outdid himself with that one. Even better, find the audiobook read by John DeLancie, and Majel Barret Roddenberry. They really bring it alive, to the point that my step-son's dad was convinced that it had originally been an actual episode.

Thx for the pointer. I haven’t read anything by Peter David but will check him out.

 

[maquiscat]

Thx for the pointer. I haven’t read anything by Peter David but will check him out.

You might also consider checking out his New Frontier series. While Q-in-Law is comedic gold, the series has that wonderful tongue in cheek humor we saw in Firefly.

 

[Rogue Valley]

The Last Slave Ship: The True Story of How Clotilda Was Found, Her Descendants, and an Extraordinary Reckoning

by Ben Raines - Simon & Schuster - 2022 - 304pp

The incredible true story of the last ship to carry enslaved people to America, the remarkable town its survivors founded after emancipation, and the complicated legacy their descendants carry with them to this day—by the journalist who discovered the ship’s remains.

 

[Rogue Valley]

The Light Of Days: The Untold Story Of Women Resistance Fighters In Hitler's Ghettos

by Judy Batalion - William Morrow - 2021 - 576pp

A spectacular and searing history that brings to light the extraordinary accomplishments of brave Jewish women who became resistance fighters. A group of unknown heroes whose exploits have never been chronicled in full until now.

 

[NewfieMom]

Rogue Valley continues to attempt to shame me by doing serious reading, but I let his continued choice of excellent books roll off me like water off a duck's back. I read the very latest books by two of my favorite authors, both of which just came out in paperback. One was Michael Connelly's latest addition to his Harry Bosch and Renée Ballard series, The Dark Hours, and the other was CJ Box' latest addition to his Joe Pickett series, Shadows Reel. (I wait for Amazon to have these in paperback, then I buy them.) I loved both books as I knew I would. Now I am back tA lot of the action thereo reading through the series about Cork O'Connor by William Kent Krueger. Sometimes I forget that I am in the woods of Minnesota and not the mountains of Wyoming or Montana as I am when I read books by CJ Box. But at least I don't get confused by the two series I read by Dana Stabenow that are set in Alaska. I'm not sure when I left the drawing rooms of Jane Austen and Emily Eden.

 

[Gaius46]

Just started Voicws From Chernobyl in which the stories of various survivors of the disaster are told. It’s utterly fascinating.

 

[maquiscat]

Just got done Fairy Godmother by Lackey. Her 500 Kingdoms series is a great take on fairy tales. Onto The Lark and The Wren by the same woman, first of her Bardic Voices series.

 

[Allan]

For some design work I'm doing I wanted to learn a bit about fonts so I picked up Just My Type from the library. I thought it would be dry but it's a fascinating history of fonts and typesetting.

Interesting tidbits:
Verdana was developed for Microsoft, who let anyone use it. It's in common use by both Microsoft and Google so is now the most read font.
There are about 100,000 fonts. Many, like easyJet's font, are trademarked.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the science and art of written communication. The material is interesting and the writer is quite a wit. You can read the Guardian review here.

 

[VySky]

Logs of a Pasture Pilot by Gordon Baxter

A collection humorous essays from Gordon Baxter's "Bax Seat" columns inFLYING Magazine. Together, the form "the story of how a good ole boy from southern Texas found himself working with the blue-pencil, New York-based clickers who edit the world's most widely read aviation magazine."
"Bax Seat" is a reference to the fact that many antique planes are flown from the back seat, and the passenger sits up front.

 

[Rogue Valley]

One Hundred and Sixty Minutes: The Race to Save the RMS Titanic

By William Hazelgrove - Prometheus - 2021 - 320pp

Terrific book tells two stories simultaneously - the last 160 minutes aboard the Titanic, and how Marconi's new invention of wireless telegraphy aboard Titanic played a part in rescuing passengers.

 

[Allan]

One Hundred and Sixty Minutes: The Race to Save the RMS Titanic

By William Hazelgrove - Prometheus - 2021 - 320pp

Terrific book tells two stories simultaneously - the last 160 minutes aboard the Titanic, and how Marconi's new invention of wireless telegraphy aboard Titanic played a part in rescuing passengers.

I'll be reading this. Thanks for the tip.

 

[NewfieMom]

Vermilion Drift by William Kent Krueger.

 

[Rexedgar]

Published less than a year before the wall came down.

 

[NewfieMom]

I have been considering reading Bloodlands by Timothy Snyder which has been newly updated. Has anyone here read it? Obviously my interest is the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I wanted to know if it would give me new insights into it. If you read it, how did you like it?

 

[maquiscat]

We just got done with a discussion of a couple of series my wives were reading. Extreme Medical Services series (which I have listen to the first three on audio) and Fire and Rescue Shifters series. The later series, as described by my one wife, sounds like it would be a great modern replacement for Dallas, insofar as being a prime time soap opera, with some paranormal/sci-fi thrown in. And since I am talking series, I have probably mentioned it before, by The Game is Life series is an excellent read, especially if you like the more existential type of books.

 

[Threegoofs]

The Dawn of Everything, by Graebar and Wengrow.

Amazing book- sort of pick through the fallacies of Guns Germs and Steel and Sapiens about the inevitability of agriculture and cities to automatically lead to a top-down authoritarian society with a ruler or ruling class. There’s evidence of democracy or at least non-oligarchical rule.



Lots of angles on early civilization that I have never heard of before, like the social structures in Native American society, Mexico and the apparent revolution in Tenochitlan, which Resulted in an egalitarian society for a few hundred years.

One of the best books I’ve come across in years, in that it’s really changed my view on ancient history snd early civilization.

 

[Rogue Valley]

I have been considering reading Bloodlands by Timothy Snyder which has been newly updated. Has anyone here read it? Obviously my interest is the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I wanted to know if it would give me new insights into it. If you read it, how did you like it?

I've read it twice and consider Bloodlands to be a well researched reference regarding mass-murder in Central and Eastern Europe during WWII.

Professor Snyder [ @TimothyDSnyder ] is also a staunch supporter of Ukraine.

 

[NewfieMom]

I've read it twice and consider Bloodlands to be a well researched reference regarding mass-murder in Central and Eastern Europe during WWII.

Professor Snyder [ @TimothyDSnyder ] is also a staunch supporter of Ukraine.

Well that's pretty definitive! Thank you for sharing your experience. I will read it.

 

[Rogue Valley]

The Story of Jane: The Legendary Underground Feminist Abortion Service

By Laura Kaplan - Pantheon - 1996 - 314pp

This account takes the reader back to the time in America before Roe v. Wade, when the mob ran illegal abortion clinics and women died in droves. The author, Laura Kaplan, was one of the founders of "Jane" (The Service) an underground abortion service. Eventually, the women of Jane learned how to perform abortions and eventually wound up doing 11,000 abortions in Chicago, each proceedure a felony crime. This book takes you back to the abortion scene in Chicago in 1971, a dark past that American women may be returning to in 2022 thanks to a conservative Supreme Court and Republican state legislatures.

 

[Rogue Valley]

Waiting for the Barbarians - by J.M. Coetzee - Penguin - 1980 - 192pp

"Where civilization entailed the corruption of barbarian virtues and the creation of a dependent people, I decided, I was opposed to civilization." Fear can blind oppressors from seeing an existing peace and make them see simple nomads as threatening barbarians. We cannot let ourselves be contaminated by atrocities nor be poisoned by hatred. The despotic Empire in this powerful novel by Nobel Laureate J.M. Coetzee had its people living in fear and distrust as they continuously waited for an attack by the "barbarians". Many people today live in fear of "threats" that may never materialize because they are not real. Barbarians is a beautifully written study in psychology.

 

[Rogue Valley]

Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, & Revolution In The Borderlands

By Kelly Lytle Hernández - W. W. Norton & Company - 2022 - 384pp

'Bad Mexicans' tells the dramatic story of the magonistas, the migrant rebels who sparked the 1910 Mexican Revolution from the United States. The book also explains the racism (the caste system) employed in Mexico, and the racial divides that existed over the border in the United States. The underlying villians in much of this borderlands strife are the American investment/venture capitalists, paying off Mexican political administrators (jefe politicos) and buying huge tracts of valuable lands in Mexico.

 

[NewfieMom]

I'm reading Tamarack County by William Kent Krueger. I can't seem to tear myself away from his Cork O'Connor series for long enough to pick up Bloodlands. I love to be entertained by a good yarn.