next genre, Classics, Tess of the D’Ubervilles - Hardy
1 Like
Really enjoyed As I Lay Dying, which is my first Faulkner. Just bought The Sound and the Fury and The Three-Body Problem by Ken Liu (Sci-Fi) at the used bookstore.
Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green. It’s very interesting, touching on the history of the disease, impact on society (including New Mexico becoming a state, start of WWI, cowboy hats), the varying social perception (stigmatization vs. romanticization), and socioeconomic and racial disparities.
1 Like
I am reading this as well. As the worm brain and his minions took over health care in America I had to set it down. I’ve picked it back up recently and hope to finish it in the next two weeks.
The Sound and the Fury is incredibly difficult to understand. I’ve had to re-read a lot of it and then read an internet summary to figure out what’s going on. I may re-read the entire thing once I’m done.
I think I read it in school. Is there a scene where someone walks in crap to track it across a white carpet he considered pompous?
I don’t think so, but just had some interesting things pop up when I searched that description…
googled, I guess it was Barn Burning, a short story which I wouldn’t have remembered the title of
travelling and forgot my book.
grabbed a Reacher novel at the airport. Easy read, good size, weight and price
not sure if i will count the genre, or just make it a one off
If only life were like this and the presence of unpleasant characters meant that you get a really good ending… wait maybe that’s what religion is for
I just finished A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett. Two for two in this series in my opinion. Next up is Nightmares & Dreamscapes by Stephen King.
Finished up The Sound and the Fury, which I enjoyed but certainly wouldn’t be for everyone. I actually preferred As I Lay Dying. Going to take a break before reading other Faulkners.
Started on an audiobook called Jade City by Ken Liu which is like a Chinese Fantasy Godfather. Pretty cool so far. I also just started a Sci-Fi called The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu.
I recently read The Collected Schizophrenias by Esmé Weijun Wang. I’d never heard of the book but saw it in a bookshop (they still exist!) and It looked interesting. It was. It’s a series of autobiographical essays about her experience as someone who suffers from Schizophrenic Affective Disorder, amongst other things. She writes extremely well, with great feeling but quite objectively. If you have the slightest interest in the subject matter or even if, like me, you don’t, I recommend reading it.
I also finished Days At The Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagasawi, which I also had never heard of. Since it involved second hand bookshops and coffee shops, two of my favourite things, I was hooked. But it turned out to be rather a throwaway read, the kind that you’d finish on airplane and not mind at all if you left in the seat pocket in front of you.
A while back I finished Wings On My Sleeve by Eric “Winkle” Brown, a Royal Navy aviator. If you have any interest in aviation, especially military aviation, this is a must-read. The book is an autobiography focussing very much on his flying career from the 1930’s to the 1960’s, which was quite extraordinary. He still holds the record for the most aircraft carrier landings (over 2,000) and the most types of aircraft flown (almost 500.) He has some fascinating stories, especially when you realise that he’s actually underplaying what he’s experienced rather than exaggerating the role he had. He was fluent in German and liked German culture and during the war felt that the majority Germans had really been misled by Hitler. But after being present at the liberation of Belsen he simply said, “There were no excuses for that.”
1 Like
The Three-Body Problem was much heavier on science than any sci-fi book I’ve ever read. I had a lot of fun with it and will most likely continue the series.
My big problem with the Three-Body Problem is the amount of “science” masquerading as science. Liu tries to explain too much, but too many of the explanations slide into grade-A nonsense.
Yeah, I agree with that. I liked the concepts even though he took many of them to unrealistic places. I also found the parts about the Chinese Cultural Revolution interesting.