Just finished “The Jakarta Method” returned to library.
Having successfully dumbed the USA down, this just might work here. Dumb people scare easily. Dumb people react strongly when scared. Dumb people in this nation also have tons of guns.
Monsters on Maple Street, indeed.
This was required reading for me in high school. I didn’t think much of it at the time (other than the overuse of “yes”), but I’ve reread it a few times since then and enjoyed it.
Just finished Paper by Mark Kurlansky
Really interesting on the history side, but didn’t do too great on the epilogue (published in 2016, used 2014 data) in trying to forecast stuff like where newspapers (going down down down… duh) and magazines (boy, did he not understand how digital mags could track readers, eventually….) would go. Got the packaging aspect down.
Reading with the wife:
Someone you can build a nest in
The main character is a doppelganger that lives in a cave eating would-be heroes. It falls in love with a human woman. Hijinks ensue. It’s light queer romance with a twist, but the writing is pretty good too.
Also randomly reading:
The botonay of desire by Michael Pollan, which was before he wrote the omnivore’s dilemma, and sort of a nice non-fiction science/history book that follows specific plants (apples, tulips, marijuana, potato).
and mayybe Uncle Tungsten Oliver Sacks’ autobiography.
Starting up The Anti-Federalist Papers (1986). Tiny paperback with tiny font. 356 pages, plus appendices: the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution and Amendments up to #26 (1971, added in reprints).
next genre Suspense and Thriller - The Coffin Dance - Deaver
Randomly picked up Heart of Darkness. So friggin good.
Slogging through Exit Ghost by Philip Roth. He sure writes a lot without saying much. Not very far in but not enjoying it. I’ll try to soldier on though.
read Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson, for book club that I will not be able to attend. Pleasant, but by no means earth-shattering prose or genre-bending ideas.
“The Anti-Federalist Papers”
Came out some 40 years ago.
TIL: The “Federalists” were actually hard-line strong National Government, while “federalist” mainly means the opposite (more power to states). They called themselves federalists, because most people were federalists at the time, being opposed mainly to anything resembling a monarchy.
So, the book has actual speeches (as best that Madison could steno) whose language has been modernized to make it understandable to us.
I’m about to start Ship of Destiny by Robin Hobb, which will wrap up the second trilogy of her many series all set in the same world.
Started The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles. Like his other 2 books, I really connect with the characters and storytelling.
Picked up (again) a compilation of letters by Kurt Vonnegut.
Kinda wish I lived in an age of written correspondence.
I liked A Gentleman in Moscow, Rules of Civility, and A Table for Two. But The Lincoln Highway was a DNF for me. About a third of the (high)way, I got bored and lost interest.
next genre - Historical Fiction- chose Ironweed - William Kennedy
next genre - Literary/Contemporary Fiction
The Bluest Eye - Toni Morrison
Edit: I accidentally deleted my post, I’ll try to remember what I wrote.
Here’s a list made by surveying current authors from around the world (they were each asked their top 10, so any books that was consistently number 11 potentially could miss out). It may skew towards British/Irish tastes.
I’ve read 10 but hope to read all of them, however…
In Search of Lost Time has around 3,500 pages. I might have to find some lost time to read that one.
OTOH, of the top 10, To The Lighthouse, Beloved, Pride and Prejudice and Madame Bovary have between 200 and 400 pages.
I think I might have read 12 on the list. It skews older and English for sure.
I’m reading James S.A. Corey’s - The Faith of Beasts - 2nd in his Captive War series. If you were a fan of his Expanse novels, you will probably enjoy these. The writing style is similar but set in a different universe timeline than the Expanse, it’s not a continuation or related to that series.
But they do the same good job with character development and world building.
I hear it’s being adapted to an Amazon Prime TV series which I will look forward to, but I don’t think there is a release date for it yet.
32 - including The Bluest Eye, which I am reading now