New! Reading Anything Thread 2.0

[lester1/2jr]

Er - no I watched some Russian series about Catherine the great though

[Rev. Powell]

I'm skeptical.

[Alex]

Troop Leader - A Tank Commanders Story by Bill Bellamy.

[ER]

The Narrow Road to the Deep North, by Basho. A journey across Honshu in the 17th century is described by Japan's great poet in this intimate and detailed travelogue. I enjoyed reading this!


Koresh, by Stephan Talty.  Marking the upcoming thirty-year anniversary of the Branch-Davidian conflagration in Waco, Texas, this grim and difficult to process book tells a long story about its title character, his strange delusion-filled life of increasing megalomania, and the suicides of (and more commonly the mass murders of) his followers. I think this is a very fair investigation into an unpleasant subject which still fascinates today, and it serves to show in some detail that while the government forces did make errors, they were throughout the siege and in the raid before it, the good guys, who were in the right in their actions, and in no way caused the fire that ended the standoff. (Spoiler: Davidian fanatics inside the buildings set the fire because they believed the FBI was entering the compound, and so they sought to burn them to death, and also shot and murdered dozens of their fellow faithful, including many children.) A hard book to read because its subject is so awful.

[HappyGilmore]

My friend brought over an Avengers hardback edition book. And a history of WWE Smackdown.

I've also been reading The Essential Doctor Strange Volume 3

[lester1/2jr]

"Going Clear" It's about Scientology which is worse than I thought it was. Its basically a celebrity cult and non celebrities could well end up living in a weird base somewhere making 30 dollars a day. They also harass people who try to leave and are essentially their own communist government to their brainwashed members.

[indianasmith]

SANTA ANNA OF MEXICO by Will Fowler

   I have taught Texas history for over 25 years now, and I've studied Santa Anna's conflicts with Texas pretty closely.  But I didn't know much about him beyond that, nor why he was so popular with the people of Mexico that he wound up serving as President no less than six times (or 11, according to some counts - he often took long breaks from the capital while serving as President).  This was an interesting, informative look at the life of the man who was considered a founder of the Republic, who was a brave general on the battlefield but also guilty of extreme arrogance and incompetence; whose political ideology veered back and for from Federalist to Centralist to monarchist.   Unlike many Latin American dictators, Santa Anna outlived his times, his many terms of office, survived being tried for treason, and finally died of old age in relative poverty and obscurity at the age of 82.  Overall, an excellent read!  4/5

[indianasmith]

CAESAR TRIUMPHANT: INVASION OF PARTHIA by R.W. Peake

    On his way to address the Senate before leaving to join his armies, Caesar is warned again by the seer who dwells in the Forum: "Beware the Ides of March!"
But this time, Caesar heeds the warning.  He skips the Senate meeting, but sends lictors in, who discover 23 Senators with daggers in their cloaks.  Having scotched the assassination attempt, Caesar joins his army and goes on to lead the long-anticipated invasion of Rome's greatest rival, the Parthian Empire.

This was a book I planned to write someday, but this guy has done such a good job I think I'll choose another topic. Over 400 pages, but I finished it in 3 days!  Amazing story.  5/5

[indianasmith]

EXTINCTION by Douglas Preston

   "Welcome to Pleistocene Park!"
   No, you never hear these words, but they would fit quite well.  Erebus Corporation has "de-extincted" several species of Pleistocene megafauna - mammoths, glyptodonts, giant ground sloths, etc. - and taken out their genetic tendencies to aggression.  Now the park is open to anyone with the money to come and stay and go hiking with the mammoths!  But when two hikers are mysteriously murdered, it's up to CBI Agent Frankie Nash to find out what happened - and how two healthy young campers could be decapitated, removed from the scene of the crime in moments, and then grotesquely cannibalized!  As the investigation proceeds, Frankie and the local sheriff who joins her realize that giant herbivores aren't the only DNA that Erebus has resurrected . . .

This is one of Preston's best novels, and that is saying a good bit!  Excellent, fast-paced, and compelling, I blew through it in 4 hours flat and wanted more when I was done!  5/5

[Alex]

The Warriors by Sol Yurick.

While I've always been aware that the movie of The Warriors was from a book, I've never really been tempted to seek out the book and read it. Recently though Kristi bought me it so I gave it a go. Whereas the film has them blamed for the death of the leader of the biggest gang in the city, in the novel he is just kind of shot accidentally when order breaks down at the meeting. The Warriors (Coney Island Dominators), must then travel back home, with the biggest problem being that none of them know how to read a subway map.

The fights with the rival gangs and the sense of battling through hostile territory is missing from the book. It is more of a retelling of the old Greek story Anabasis (which is referred to in the story itself). The gang fights are reduced to a bit of a melee when Ismael (Cyrus in the movie), and when the gang stab a random man on the side of the street (shortly before gang raping then leaving the woman accompanying them lying in the street).

It is more of a highbrow read than the film would have you expect. Is it any good? Well that is very much going to come down to personal taste. I found it hard to sympathise with any of the main characters (who are all between 14 and 20). There seemed to real urgency or threat in the journey home. If RC has read it, I'd be interested on his take of how it compares to New York back then (the writer based it partly on his own experiences in his work dealing with gangs). I found it slightly dull and stilted, but then again I was expecting something more along the lines of the film. At some point in the future I will sit down and reread it without my preconceptions and see if I like it more.

[Alex]

The Eaters of the Dead.

Another one for the film (13th Warrior) is better than the book. Michael Criton's attempt to make Beowulf more interesting and an easier read. Not having read the original I can't comment on if he was successful, but the movie is a whole lot more enjoyable.