New! Reading Anything Thread 2.0

[Neville]

I'm doing a break in my diet of crime novels and I'm now reading the Lapierre / Collins bestseller "Freedom at Midnight". It's a detailed account of the events that lead to the independence of India and the creation of Pakistan. It's very pro-British, reading it you'd never think GB did anything wrong by conquering India, but an absorbing read anyway. The portraits of Louis Mountbatten and Gandhi are very interesting, but also the accounts of the reasons why Hindu, Muslim and Sikh refused to share the same country after its liberation.

[Dennis]

I recently finished reading The Good Shepard By C. S. Forester, so when I saw the opening of the trailer for Greyhound I realized it's now a Tom Hanks movie. I'm hoping the film is as good as the book.

[ER]

I've decided to spend the next year reading few to no new books, but going back and re-reading books I loved in the past.

On my list:

LOTR
The Little House books
The Voyage of the Beagle
Harry Potter
Night-Side, by Joyce Carol Oates
If You Could See Me Now, by Peter Straub
Creation, by Gore Vidal
This Side of Paradise, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Several Far Side Collections
The Little Stranger, by Sarah Waters
Cash: The Autobiography, by Johnny Cash
The Complete Stories of Flannery O'COnnor
Night Shift, by Stephen King
The Valley of Fear, by Arthur Conan Doyle
Lost in the Forest, by Sue Miller
A Song of Fire and Ice
The Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant

and if I make it that far I'll (be surprised) maybe throw in The Ruins, by Scott Smith.

All these books meant something to me at one point or another in my life, and while I guess it can be hazardous to memory to re-read old favorites in another era of life, it might also be a happy experience. I'll tell you guys how it goes.

Then I may spend a year after that reading books I always meant to get around to reading but never did. Books like:

The Reivers, by William Faulkner
Marvel 1602, by Neil Gaiman
The Tale of Genji, by Murasaki Shikibu
The Unaborted Socrates, by Peter Kreeft (a teacher gave this to me in high school and I've never opened it)
The Aeneid, by Virgil


(Heck that list could go on forever...)

Or, you know, maybe I won't. We'll see. Namaste.

[lester1/2jr]

http://youtu.be/qw8HhTnot0w

[BoyScoutKevin]

I recently finished reading The Good Shepard By C. S. Forester, so when I saw the opening of the trailer for Greyhound I realized it's now a Tom Hanks movie. I'm hoping the film is as good as the book.

Haven't read the book. Haven't seen the film, so I can't say whether the film is as good as the book, but I have seen the trailer, and I'd say it certainly is something different for Hanks. One of those films that was suppose to get a theatrical release, but, because of the pandemic was shown on one of the streaming services.

[BoyScoutKevin]

Ye-es!
6 of 1

Michael Stanley
(Michael Sears and Stanley Trollop. South African writing duo)
award winners
Shoot the bastards
1st in the Crystal Nguyen series
+ 7 more fiction in 1 more series
Heroine: Asian American
Places: Mozambique, South Africa, Switzerrland, U.S., Vietnam
Time: Present


Michael Stanley
(Michael Sears and Stanley Trollop. South African writing duo)
award winners
Facets of death
7th in the Detective Kubu series
+1 more fiction in 1 more series
Hero: Motswana
Place: Botswana
Time: 1990s


Kathleen Kent
American
The burn
2nd in the Detective Betty Rhyzyk series
Heroin: Polish American
Place: New York City and Dallas (Texas)
Time: 2010s with a flashback to the 1990s


Catherine Lloyd
ex-Pat Brit
Death comes to the nursery
7th in the Kurland St. Mary series
Heroine: Brit
Place: U.K.
Time: 1820s


Martin Limon
American
G.I. Confidential
14th in the Sueno and Bascom series
+1 short story collection
Heroes: Mexican American and Caucasian
Place: South Korea
Time: 1970s


Rebecca Roanhorse
Native American
award winner
Star Wars : Resistance Reborn
part of Journey to Star Wars : the Rise of Skywalker
prequel to the film


Danny Fingeroth
American
A Marvelous life :
the Amazing story of Stan Lee
6 more non-fiction

Next time: a half dozen more

[jimpickens]

The Flesh Eaters by LA Morse.

[Rev. Powell]

I'm rereading "Immoral Tales: European Sex & Horror Movies 1956–1984." Some of you have probably read it and if not, you probably should.

[BoyScoutKevin]

Well, now  that we have found you, here are a half dozen more that I have read.

Disney Princess Cross-Stitch :
22 easy to follow patterns featuring
Ariel, Belle. Jasmine, Mulan, and more . . .

and more . . .
Aurora, Cinderella, Merida, Pocahontas, Rapunzel, Snow White, and Tiana.


Jean Luc Banalee
ex-pat French or ex-pat German
The Killing Tide
translated by Peter Miller
5th in the Brittany mystery series
1st published in 2016
translation published in 2020
Hero: French
Place: Brittany (France)
Time: Present


Mike Isaac
American
award winner
Super pumped :
the battle for Uber


Eiily Griffiths
Brit
award winner
Now you see them
5th in the Magic men series
11 more fiction in 1 more series + 1 stand alone
Heroine: Brit
Place: U.K.
Time: 1960s


Cavan Scott
Brit
Star Wars :
Dooku : Jedi lost
10 more fiction in 3 more series


Martin Edwards
Brit
award winner
The measure of malice :
scientific detection stories
edited and introduced by Martin Edwards
14 stories published bteween 1891 and 1955 in which the detective uses scientific deduction to solve a crime.


Next time: 6 more

[jimpickens]

A Coffin Full Of Dreams by Frisco Hitt.

[BoyScoutKevin]

Ye-es!
6 more

1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Elly Griffiths
Brit
award winner
The Lantern Men
12th in the Ruth Galloway series + 5 more in 1 more series + 1 stand alone
Heroine: Brit
Place: U.K.
Time: Present with flashbacks to 2007


Alexander Freed
American
Star Wars : Shadow Fall
2nd in the Alphabet Squaeron trilogy
4 more fiction in the Star Wars series


Rae Carson
American
Star Wars : the Rise of Skywalker
expanded edition
novelization of the screenplay
2 more Star Wars + 8 more fiction in 2 more series


Timothy Zahn
American
award winner
Thrawn Ascendeency : Chaos Rising
1st in the 2nd Thrawn trilogy
14 more Star Wars

Whereas, the 1st trilogy took place between Solo and Rebels. This takes place in an earlier time between Atack of the Clones and Return of the Sith.


Star Wars : the Force Awakens
grphic novelization of the screenplay


Next time: something a little different. Only 1 or 2 at a time, but with more detail.

[BoyScoutKevin]

Eric  Jay Dolin
American
award winner

A Furious Sky :
the Five Hundred Year History of America's hurricanes
8 more non-fictrion

While there have been individual books about individual hurricanes, this is one of the few that cover almost the entire history of hurricanes  from 1502 to 2019. Of the 46 hurricanes for which we have a death toll and/or are covered in some depth, we have a total death toll of 51,817 or 1126.5 per hurricane. Probably only earthquakes cause more loss of life per disaster than hurricanes. And that figure is probably an undercount, as in 1980 the way deaths from hurricanes was changed.

1502-1979 only people killed directly by the hurricane during the hurricane were counted, but, in . . .
1980-2019 people who died indirectly, or people who would not have died otherwise,  before or after the hurricane were counted as victims.

Hurricanes have not only had affects on meteorlogy, but also on . . .
the arts (including films) -- botany -- history -- literature (both fiction and non-fiction) -- politics -- and zoology . . .
according the the writer.

If there is one knock I have is that the writer does not cover Central America, which we know from this year, is part of the Americas and is threatened by hurricanes. The writer actually spends more time in the Pacific, which should be out of the scope of this book, then he does Central America.

Next time: A. J. Baines' Dewey Defeats Truman

[BoyScoutKevin]

The above is so wide ranging in its coverage of hurricanes in America, over the past 500 years, the following people have some connection with hurricanes and thus are associated with the subject.

John James Audubon
Dave Barry -- Clara Barton -- Mary McLeod Bethune -- David Brinkley
Christopher Columbus -- Walter Cronkite
Margery Stoneman Douglas -- Michael Eric Dyson
Colin Farrell -- Henry Morrison Flagler -- Benjamin Franklin
William F. "Bull" Halsey -- Alexander Hamilton -- Katherine Hepburn -- Ernest Hemingway -- Zora Neale Hurston
Thomas Jefferson -- Sebastian Junger
Dr. Juanita Kreps
Jean Lafitte
Samuel F. B. Morse -- Edward R. Murrow
Sam Neill
Dan Rather -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt -- John Ruskin
Stephen Spielberg
and Bernard Vonnegut (Kurt's elder brother)

and next time: A. J. Baines' Dewey Defeats Truman

[Neville]

I'm reading the collected works of George Leigh Mallory, the English mountaneer who died while trying to reach the Everest summit in the 1920s. They are a bit arid, but things pick up when he chronicles his expeditions to the Everest and the difficulties he saw in reaching its top.

When I'm done it's hard boiled time again, either Mike Hammer ("Kiss me deadly") or Easy Rawlins ("Little scarlet"). Unless I find something that catches my eye at the local library.

[BoyScoutKevin]

A. J. Baines
American
Dewey Defeats Truman : the 1948 Election and the Battle for America's Soul
4 more non-fiction

in which the writer points out at least a dozen haunting parallels between 1948 and 2020.
like no other that I have seen, he puts a face on the election.
while we have known the results for 72 years, he still manages to create some suspense.
and while there have been individual books about each of the individual candidates, treating them not as individuals, but, as an equal part of the whole makes, as in Aesop's fable, a stronger whole.
in the end, the best man won.