Reading anything?

[BoyScoutKevin]

Ye-es!
and a half dozen more in various formats


Julian Symons
Brit
award winner
The Colour of Murder
with an intro by Martin Edwards
part of the British Library Crime Classics series
1st published 1957
republished 2018
1st U.S. ed. published 2019
Hero: Brit
Place: U.K.
Time: 1950s


graphic novel
Firefly :
part 1. The Unification War
based upon the TV series


graphic novel
Solo :
a Star Wars story
adaptation of the film


Simon Beaufort
(pseudonym of a male and female writing duo)
Mind of a Killer
1st in the Alec Lonsdale series
Hero: Brit
Place: London (U.K.)
Time: 1880s
features some a half dozen characters who actually lived in London at this time


graphic novel
Baggywrinkles :
a Lubber's Guide to Life at Sea
featuring 10 seafaring stories inspired by the cartoonist crewing the tall ship The Lady Washington one summer.


Bill Crider
American
award winner
That Old Scoundrel Death
24th, and last due to the author's own death, in the Dan Rhodes series.
a series that ran from 1986 to 2019
Hero: American
Place: Texas
Time: Present

next time: 6 of 1 in various formats

[ER]

A lot of work-related fare, none of it interesting at all. Must've been written by a megalomaniac with a thing for stealing people's time.

[indianasmith]

I just finished NERO: EMPEROR IN REVOLT by Michael Grant.  A fascinating look at the life of Rome's much maligned Emperor that tries to present a balanced portrait; no mean feat when all the contemporary written sources are so overwhelmingly negative.  It was a nice addition to my library, and lavishly illustrated to boot!

[indianasmith]

A WARNING by Anonymous

My loathing of Donald Trump is well known, but it isn't just the man I dislike.  His Presidency has set a track record of criminality, ineptitude, and viciousness unparalleled in our nation's history.  This book, penned by an official who has worked for the President since day one, documents all of it: his complete ignorance of the Constitution, his vindictiveness, his arrogance and stupidity, his absolute  unwillingness to learn, to listen to any opinion other than his own, and his complete disregard for expertise or knowledge on any subject whatsoever.
I recognize that political books about sitting Presidents should ALWAYS be taken with a grain of salt; but even if only half of the things in here are true, it is still an alarming book that every American should read.  Sadly, those who need to read it the most will not only refuse to do so but scream from the rooftops that it is nothing but "fake news." 

I wish it was.

[chefzombie]

i wish it was fiction, but it isn't...

[ER]

Re-reading my favorite parts of one of my favorite books The Voyage of the Beagle. When people like my maternal grandmother tell me they don't like Darwin, I tell them how this book reads like a wonderful extended National Geographic style travelogue covering biology, sociology, anthropology, history, geography, and alas a lot of wholescale animal slaughter.  But I remind myself that except for some of the turtles those beasts would be dead by now anyway. (Though bashing the friendly fox who came up on the hill and sat next to you still ranks as a dick move, Chuck.)

[BoyScoutKevin]

A WARNING by Anonymous

My loathing of Donald Trump is well known, but it isn't just the man I dislike.  His Presidency has set a track record of criminality, ineptitude, and viciousness unparalleled in our nation's history.  This book, penned by an official who has worked for the President since day one, documents all of it: his complete ignorance of the Constitution, his vindictiveness, his arrogance and stupidity, his absolute  unwillingness to learn, to listen to any opinion other than his own, and his complete disregard for expertise or knowledge on any subject whatsoever.
I recognize that political books about sitting Presidents should ALWAYS be taken with a grain of salt; but even if only half of the things in here are true, it is still an alarming book that every American should read.  Sadly, those who need to read it the most will not only refuse to do so but scream from the rooftops that it is nothing but "fake news." 

I wish it was.

That is one book I have to read. Though, you know what is scary, despite all of Trump's criminality, ineptitude, and viciousness, come November 2020, enough American voters may have voted for Trump, that we have him around for another 4 years, or, so he hopes, as he is hoping to ride the economy for all its worth to another term in the White House. Though, how much he has to do with the present economy is open to debate. And we will see what we will see in less than an year.

[lester1/2jr]

finally finished "the Apostle" by Sholem Asch. the previous book "the Nazarene" was insane. It was based on the gospels, this one is Paul's letters. Most of it is hashing out the differences between Judaism and Christianity. Sometimes they were very close other times not so close. The original Christians were Jewish but they ran into problems when they tried to expand it while keeping its Jewish character. This tension is portrayed in the gospels when Peter won't eat with the gentiles and Paul does. James wrote that faith wthout works are meaningless and Paul wrote that its all about faith and yadda yadda.

Asch is a messianic Jew and was actually banned from Israel for the pro christian sentiments in this series ( the last book "Mary" I haven't read yet) . If you contemplate these sort of issues this book is a must read. One good part is when pagans have some sort of celebration and exhort each other to chop off their genitals which one guy does. it wasn't all fun and games, that stuff. The latter part of the book deals a lot with The Great Fire of Rome and the fallout for both sides of the wacky new Christian sect.

[ER]

Aug 9--Fog.

In the early 1990s this book's editor was home from school and spent time going to estate sales with her parents when she found a diary in a box set out for garbage. When she read it she discovered that it was a gift given in 1968 to an 86-year old woman by her daughter. The old woman spent the next four years writing minimalist but deep entries about her life in rural Illinois. The editor, poet Kathryn Scanlan, has placed one except per page from the long-ago entries and in doing so has created a haunting echo of a distant, forgotten life.

It left me wondering what will become of my diary.

[BoyScoutKevin]

A special report.

Stephen Pastis is an equal opportunity cartoonist, as in Pearls Takes a Wrong Turn, he depicts the following and not always to their benefit:

airline employees -- the Amish
bank employees -- Biblical characters -- baseball managers
censorts -- CEOs -- childrens' authors -- clowns -- computer programmners -- cyclists -- Charlie Brown
delivery people -- dentists
Europeans -- educators
film critics
Girl Scouts -- government employees -- grandparents
high school classmates
the legal profession
the medical profession -- Mormons -- motivational speakers
Pokemon Go players --politicans -- preachers -- parents
Rube Goldberg
scientists -- siblings -- Southerners -- sports reporters -- Star Wars fans
tech companies -- triathletes
umpires
Waldo

Next time: 6 of 1 in various formats

[indianasmith]

Just finished Stephen King's THE INSTITUTE.
Best thing I've read by him in a while; he's definitely out of his slump!
I highly recommend it!

[BoyScoutKevin]

Ye-es!
6 of 1 in various formats

Cora Harrison
Irish
Season of Darkness
1st in the Gaslight Mystery series
17 more fiction in 2 more series
Heroes: Brits
Place: U.K.
Time: 1st half of the 19th century


Gaston LeRoux and Erik Forrest Jackson
The Phantom of the Opera
1st in the Muppets Meet the Classics series


John Cleese
Professor-at-Large :
the Cornell Years

lectures and interviews by John Cleese delivered between April 4, 2019 and September 11, 2017, when he was Professor-at-Large at Cornell University.


Dan Hucklebridge
ex-pat American
No Beast So Fierce :
the Terrifying True Story of the Champawat Tiger, the Deadliest Animal in History
2 more non-fiction + 1 more fiction


graphic novel
Star Wars Adventures :
Tales from Vader's Castle

5 scary stories from 5 Rebels who are forced to land on Vader's planet of Mustafar.


Aaron Mehnke
American
Wicked Mortals
Dreadful Places
2nd and 3rd in the World of Lore series
both from the Lore podcast
If one'd rather see it than read it, the podcast is available on Amazon Prime.


Next time: and a half dozen more in various formats

[The Burgomaster]

I just read this for Christmas:



This one might be next on my agenda:

[FatFreddysCat]

Right now:

That's Not All, Folks! My Life in the Golden Age of Cartoons and Radio by Mel Blanc and Philip Bashe

On deck:
Ticket Masters: The Rise of the Concert Industry and How the Public Got Scalped, by Dean Budnick

[indianasmith]

I've been binge-reading fiction over this Christmas break: I read two novels by James Rollins - SUBTERRANEAN and THE DEMON CROWN, and then a recent one by Stephen King: THE WIND THROUGH THE KEYHOLE, two enjoyable tales interwoven with one another, set in Midworld, the home of THE GUNSLINGER series.