what are you reading?

Halfway through The Emperor of Scent, by Chandler Burr, about polymath Luca Turin and the exploration about how the sense of smell works, but also about his obsession with scent, his review of perfumes, the frustration of trying to break a long-standing theory in science... Great read, I am super enjoying it!
 
Oh, Helga! That’s on my list of books I need to buy! I’m picking up cheap King hardcovers and building up a library of all of his books. So far I’m at 53. My rules are that I can’t pay cover price, I have to buy it AT the shop (no mail order and no private sales), they have to be in good condition, and the editions don’t matter EXCEPT in the case of The Stand (which needs to be complete and uncut) and Desperation and The Regulators need to match.

The hunt is fun. My only REAL concern is finding “Faithful” since it’s 1) nonfiction and 2) I’ll be looking for it in the UK soon if I can’t find it here in the US and I don’t think Brits are super keen on the documentation of a season in Red Sox history.

XXXXXXX

I finished Beaches, Bungalows, and Burglaries (which didn’t have beaches, bungalows, OR burglaries! It’s a real case of false advertising) and Machiavelli‘s The Prince (which I found boring).

Now I’m reading a book by the Pope.
 
Finished the book by Pope Francis. It was interesting even if you’re not Catholic.

Next up is You Suck: A Love Story (a vampire love comedy book).
 
Deception Point by Dan Brown

A real "cliff hanger".
 
I just finished Relic by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. This is my first book by the joint authors and I enjoyed it. I don't think that I was ever bored but the book seemed a bit bloated and could have been 100 pages shorter and the story still could have been easily told. Perhaps having two authors contributed to that. Still I enjoyed it and will read more from them.
 
I just finished Relic by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. This is my first book by the joint authors and I enjoyed it. I don't think that I was ever bored but the book seemed a bit bloated and could have been 100 pages shorter and the story still could have been easily told. Perhaps having two authors contributed to that. Still I enjoyed it and will read more from them.
Very nice! I read that one in high school and recently picked up the sequel, but I haven’t gotten around to reading it yet.
 
Very nice! I read that one in high school and recently picked up the sequel, but I haven’t gotten around to reading it yet.
I enjoy it when I can find a good character series and Relic was the first book in the Pendergast stories. I get the impression that this book may not have started out with the intention of introducing that character for a series because Pendergast wasn't really featured all that heavily and we're not really fed the story through his point of view over others point of view. I can see now with the prologue how they were setting this book up for a sequel so I'll have to check out Reliquary somewhere down the line.

This has nothing to do with the story but another thing I loved about the book is that most chapters were only 5-10 pages long. I like to end reading sessions at the end of a chapter and with my sometimes short attention span, short chapters are great!
 
I enjoy it when I can find a good character series and Relic was the first book in the Pendergast stories. I get the impression that this book may not have started out with the intention of introducing that character for a series because Pendergast wasn't really featured all that heavily and we're not really fed the story through his point of view over others point of view. I can see now with the prologue how they were setting this book up for a sequel so I'll have to check out Reliquary somewhere down the line.
Wow there are 21 books in that series now! I'd never heard of it, I'll have to see if my library carries it.

This has nothing to do with the story but another thing I loved about the book is that most chapters were only 5-10 pages long. I like to end reading sessions at the end of a chapter and with my sometimes short attention span, short chapters are great!

I like that, too. Especially when I'm reading a bit late at night, it's nice to have a shorter chapter so that I can get it finished before turning out the light!
 
Wow there are 21 books in that series now! I'd never heard of it, I'll have to see if my library carries it.



I like that, too. Especially when I'm reading a bit late at night, it's nice to have a shorter chapter so that I can get it finished before turning out the light!
Sir Terry Pratchett wrote 41 books in his Discworld series (3 made in to TV Movies + a TV series), authoring over 70 books over the years.
He had such a wonderful imagination and way with words and each and every book was a pleasure to read.
Hid death from Alzheimer's was a sad loss, or as he would have said.... An Embuggerance!
 
Started "A Distant Mirror" (thanks, UU'r bbkobabe) about 2 weeks ago. I'm only on page 72!. There is so much to take in on every page. It is about the post-Black Death (around 1300) transition from Middle Age (Medievil) societies to where we are now* (*at the time the book was written -1978)... all of it is very pertinent today.
Yes... that is what make Barbara Tuchman so vital: the way she relates these distant times to the events of today! I've read Distant Mirror twice and I may need to read it one more time! I usually get my books from the library - but I own this one!

I've moved on to Tecumseh and the Prophet by Peter Cozzens... Yes, another history book. This one is about the native American brothers Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa and their attempts to create an alliance between all of the native people in an attempt to push back against American incursion onto Native lands.

I'm about half way through, and it's an amazing story that is heading to a really depressing conclusion.

One unforgettable passage describes how territorial governor (and future President) William Henry Harrison attempted to undermine Tenskwatawa's authority by challenging him to "...cause the sun to stand still - or the moon to change course..." in order to prove his supernatural powers. Tenskwatawa had heard that a solar eclipse was coming later that year, and so he called for everyone to come to Greenville (in today's state of Michigan) attend a demonstration of his powers. The date was June 16, 1806. Appearently Harrison had not heard of the approach of this celestial event! He was gobsmacked, just like everyone else who attended.

I'm betting that Mark Twain had heard of this event and re-imagined it in his 1889 novel A Connecticut Yankee in King Author's Court.

This book it heading to a tragic ending, though. We all know how it's going to end up...
 
I didn't realize that there was a section on books!

Someone here mentioned the Victor Wooten book(s). I loved The Music Lesson, (great as an audio book), but was disappointed in The Spirit of Music.

I tend to read a few different books at a time. Currently am reading How Democracies Die, (gulp), Sway (quick read), Hamnet (probably won't finish before it's due back at the library, since I got distracted by other books and other things.) Just picked up The Perpetual Beginner: a Musician's Path to Lifelong Learning, which might be interesting. In the stack but probably will have to renew to get to it: Presumed Innocent, and I think something else....

Recently finished The Plague Year: America in the Time of Covid and The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History.

I tend to get audio books and digital books from the library, but do buy some. As a Beatles fan, I got the recent Get Back book, which is waiting for me to get to it. Plan is to read it along with watching the recently finally available on DVD version of Get Back.
 
I finished The Running Man, Thinner, and The Regulators. I was on a Richard Bachman kick and figured I would read The Long Walk next, but I have an Instagram account for short reviews and the covers of the books I read (mostly because it’s fun to look at all those covers) and couldn’t stand the idea of The Regulators being separate from Desperation, so that’s what I’m reading now. I was reading it while a tech was prepping me to donate plasma (this is how I’m going to pay for a Hive) and I jumped when they touched me because I had read a scene where characters come across a grisly tableau of dead bodies in a dining room with tons of rattlesnakes.

Gross. I hate snakes.
 
I have just finished Companion Piece, by Ali Smith,
the follow up and, in terms of themes and subject matter,
follow on from her incredible Seasonal quartet.
I found the book deeply confronting and wonderfully imaginative.

This morning I began reading The Green Knight, by Iris Murdoch -
my favourite author alongside John Banville. I fell in love w/ this
one on the first page. Can't wait to get my teeth into it.
Such a fiercely intelligent, playful writer.

🌻
 
Skull Session by Daniel Hecht. LOVE that book. A certain tall Nordic woman is a terrifying psychopath, but I kind of want to be her...perhaps if I drink enough Red Bull back to back...

Ok, enough. I won't spoil the plot for anyone who might want to read this book.
 
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