Spoilers What Book Are You Reading?

[frazzm737]

I just finished "Go Set a Watchman" and will try to put my feelings bout the book into words. I can't believe this was written before Mockingbird--it is such a perfect sequel. In both books Miss Lee is at her best when describing the escapades of her brother and childhood friends. Those of us of a certain age, especially those of us who grew up in small towns, can relate to the delights of simpler times. I have seen readers of this new book surprised to find that Atticus is a racist. I do not see him as such. He lives in a town in the South going through a revolution of sorts. Jean Louise returns after 10 years to find a new atmosphere in her hometown and cannot come to grips with the fact that her father is a member of the town's 'White' Council. I think his love for the law caused him to join so he could be an influence to prevent undue violence, just as it caused him to defend the accused black man in the first book. We all remember those years of change in attitude and law and must understand his position in his generation, his community and his family. I think he early recognized the winds of change and avoided instilling prejudice in his children. Only in the end does his daughter come to appreciate that the finest gift Atticus gave his children was the freedom of choice based on their own experience rather than the racial bias surrounding them. He developed their inquiring minds to be free thinkers and to see that there may be more to a situation than appears on the surface. This was a book which I thoroughly enjoyed and one which will keep me thinking about it long after it was finished.

 

[LadyX]

That book was the source for the excellent movie of the same name (starring Bette Davis and Joan Crawford), one of the relatively rare examples of a book being translated faithfully to the screen and resulting in a seriously good movie.

I had no idea until I read "The Chilling Novel That Inspired the Iconic Film" on the cover of the book. I just finished reading it by the way. A twisted tale but so good! A real page-turner. Now I have to see the film which I only knew of its existence from the book.

The version I have also includes three short stories. One of them is What Ever Happened to Cousin Charlotte? which, from what I have read, inspired the film Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte. I haven't heard or seen this one either before. I may watch it after reading the short story.

 

[aaronvan]

Loved Goodfellas, so I picked up this:

 

[Scepticalscribe]

I had no idea until I read "The Chilling Novel That Inspired the Iconic Film" on the cover of the book. I just finished reading it by the way. A twisted tale but so good! A real page-turner. Now I have to see the film which I only knew of its existence from the book.

The version I have also includes three short stories. One of them is What Ever Happened to Cousin Charlotte? which, from what I have read, inspired the film Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte. I haven't heard or seen this one either before. I may watch it after reading the short story.

'Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte' was another of those rare (but excellent) Hollywood movies that offered stunning parts to accomplished older actresses and delivered an excellent, gripping classic. Well worth watching.

 

[pachyderm]

Loved Goodfellas, so I picked up this:

is the heist mentioned in the film good fellas?

 

[Plymouthbreezer]

I just finished "Go Set a Watchman" and will try to put my feelings bout the book into words. I can't believe this was written before Mockingbird--it is such a perfect sequel...

I too just finished Go Set a Watchman, and enjoyed it. I know there's all the controversy surrounding it (mainly about Harper Lee being taken advantage of in her old age), but overall, I didn't find anything content wise objectionable.

Just started re-reading To Kill a Mockingbird last night. While Watchman is a good sequel, I think they both stand on their own just fine.

 

[LadyX]

The year is 1954. U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels and his new partner, Chuck Aule, have come to Shutter Island, home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane, to investigate the disappearance of a patient. Multiple murderess Rachel Solando is loose somewhere on this barren island, despite having been kept in a locked cell under constant surveillance.

As a killer hurricane bears relentlessly down on them, a strange case takes on even darker, more sinister shades--with hints of radical experimentation, horrifying surgeries, and lethal countermoves made in the cause of a covert shadow war. No one is going to escape Shutter Island unscathed, because nothing at Ashecliffe Hospital is remotely what it seems.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Started 'Dynasty: The Rise And Fall Of The House Of Caesar' by Tom Holland.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Well, I have finished Tom Holland, and have enjoyed his most recent work on Ancient Rome. .

Next up is a book called 'The Anatomy Of The Nuremberg Trials - A Personal Memoir' by Telford Taylor, which arrived today, (indeed which took a while to arrive), and which I am looking forward to reading.

 

[impulse462]

I just finished reading The Great Gatsby. Didn't realize how thought provoking it would be, but I guess there's a reason it's a classic.

 

[aaronvan]

is the heist mentioned in the film good fellas?

The same.

 

[cdcastillo]

I recently changed jobs (3 months now on the new one), and due to my new employer logistics/policies I've been having lots of dead time in the office, so I started taking a book with me to make good use of the idle time, this are the books I've read (while on the clock, I kind of feel like I'm cheating someone):

• The Martian, A Weir (LOVED IT!!)
• Seveneves, N Stephenson (Also loved it!!)
• Los detectives salvajes, Bolaño
• American sniper, C Kyle
• Dark Places, G Flynn (left me feeling dirty and perturbed)
• The knight of the seven realms, GRR Martin
• El peregrino en su patria, Lope de Vega
• The science of StarWars, J Cavelos
• Broken Monsters, L Beukes
• Putas asesinas, Bolaño
• Miracles, CS Lewis
• Hombres buenos, A Perez-Reverte
• finally finished "The amazing story of quantum mechanics", J Kakalios
• To kill a mockingbird, H Lee. (yes, I had never read it before, loved atticus and Scout)
• The goblin emperor, K Addison
• The silkworm, JK Rowling (under its pen name: R Galbraith).

I have already bought another 8 books and have them on my queue. I hope to read them on the next few months, because my amazon.com cart is already bursting with new titles.

Gotta love my new job!

 

[LadyX]

The protagonist of Tobias Wolff’s shrewdly—and at times devastatingly—observed first novel is a boy at an elite prep school in 1960. He is an outsider who has learned to mimic the negligent manner of his more privileged classmates. Like many of them, he wants more than anything on earth to become a writer. But to do that he must first learn to tell the truth about himself.

The agency of revelation is the school literary contest, whose winner will be awarded an audience with the most legendary writer of his time. As the fever of competition infects the boy and his classmates, fraying alliances, exposing weaknesses, Old School explores the ensuing deceptions and betrayals with an unblinking eye and a bottomless store of empathy. The result is further evidence that Wolff is an authentic American master.

 

[bradl]

This, as my kids are absolutely ecstatic over the episode of Reading Rainbow that featured this book...

.. as well as the fact that the author is going to be in town this coming weekend for our town's annual children's book festival.

I don't know if it's just now that I'm a parents, or something that I've missed, but I've come to the realization that children's books are cool.

BL.

 

[CrickettGrrrl]

This, as my kids are absolutely ecstatic over the episode of Reading Rainbow that featured this book...

.. as well as the fact that the author is going to be in town this coming weekend for our town's annual children's book festival.

I don't know if it's just now that I'm a parents, or something that I've missed, but I've come to the realization that children's books are cool.

BL.

Children's books are definitely cool! So many incredibly good ones, it's like we're in a Golden Age. (Not exactly referencing Golden Books here, on purpose...)

I have a particular fondness for "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" because I was asked to paint it into a trompe l'oeil bookcase mural for lawyers once. Plus the obligatory "To Kill a Mockingbird".

 

[LadyX]

I don't know if it's just now that I'm a parents, or something that I've missed, but I've come to the realization that children's books are cool.

BL.

Children's books are definitely cool! So many incredibly good ones, it's like we're in a Golden Age. (Not exactly referencing Golden Books here, on purpose...)

I have a particular fondness for "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" because I was asked to paint it into a trompe l'oeil bookcase mural for lawyers once. Plus the obligatory "To Kill a Mockingbird".

Have you read The Day the Crayons Quit and The Day the Crayons Came Home by Drew Daywalt? Fantastic books and laugh out loud funny. Enjoyed by adults as well.

 

[bradl]

Have you read The Day the Crayons Quit and The Day the Crayons Came Home by Drew Daywalt? Fantastic books and laugh out loud funny. Enjoyed by adults as well.

Just ordered them for our son's first Scholastic book order! I'm into books, but my wife is much more into it than I am, to the point where while we need to catch back up on it (she stopped for a bit in 2008), she has collected every Newberry and Caldecott Award book since their inception. The Day the Crayons Quit is one from either this year or last year, IIRC, so that went straight onto the list.

Heh.. first book order for him, and we're trying to keep it UNDER $100! Hard as hell, I tell ya!

BL.

 

[pachyderm]

This, as my kids are absolutely ecstatic over the episode of Reading Rainbow that featured this book...

.. as well as the fact that the author is going to be in town this coming weekend for our town's annual children's book festival.

I don't know if it's just now that I'm a parents, or something that I've missed, but I've come to the realization that children's books are cool.

BL.

A. i work in education and i can tell you from first hand experience that that mouse, and all the other critters in that book series, need Ritalin.

B. my wife and i collect children's books.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

A collection of short stories called 'Rogues',which features short stories by Garth Nix, G R R Martin, Scott Lynch, Connie Willis, Neil Gaiman, Joe Abercrombie, Patrick Rothfuss and Cherie Priest among others.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

'The Republic of Thieves' by the excellent Scott Lynch.

 

[JamesMike]

'The Republic of Thieves' by the excellent Scott Lynch.

I was given this book by one of my teammates and surprise-ling enjoyed it, it is not the type of book I normally read. It had excellent repartee, devious scheming and great action.

 

[Don't panic]

'The Republic of Thieves' by the excellent Scott Lynch.

is this part of a series?

I'm really excited about that book!

For me, first, I'm re-reading a personal favorite

this was good.
i recommend reading in parallel
"Spectacle in the White City", Stanley Applebaum

which is a gorgeous book about the world fair itself, with high quality B&W reproductions of the original photographs.
and although the book is "made" by the exquisite pictures, the accompanying text is extremely interesting, very accurate, in depth, especially to readers that are into old photography

 

[Don't panic]

Fantastic selection that you have listed there, @Don't panic.

I have long loved Dava Sobel's work, ('Longitude' was a brilliant and original piece of research), and am a big fan of the writing of the late, great Terry Prachett. The Amsterdam book sounds fascinating, and I really like both Neal Stephenson and John Scalzi. And, as for Galileo himself…..what can one say? Wonderful.

The only book among those you have listed that I know absolutely nothing about is the work penned by Andy Weir, whereas I have heard of Haruki Murakami but have not actually read any of his works.

The Martian was a really pleasant surprise.
it came highly recommended from my teen-age son, and i enjoyed it a lot.
Hard science fiction, were the science is if not all necessarily true, at least very plausible.
the movie is coming out soon and apparently they nailed it.
still i -as always- recommend to read the book first. it is relatively short and definitely a page-turner.
Funny too.

i had to temporarily abandon Galileo's book, since i got sidetracked first by a semi-historical detective story, starring Sir Isaac Newton himself:
Dark Matter: the private life of Sir Isaac Newton, By Phil Kerr

where Newton is a genius sleuth.
the book is ok, but it is a bit too much Sherlock Holmes.
some of the historical settings are nice and well done, and the 'case' itself is not bad, but the characters are iffy and some bits are completely gratuitous (like a couple of 'erotic' scenes which are completely pointless in the story and are possibly the worst sex scenes ever written)

then after reading:
The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss,

a biography of General Alexandre Dumas, father of the french novelist Alexandre Dumas (pere), of Three Musketeers and Count of Monte Cristo fame.
Fascinating book, narrating how the mulatto son of a french aristocrat and a black haitian slave was able to thrive within a short time window around the French Revolution, when slavery was temporarily eliminated in France, and ascend (by means of heroic feats) in the ranks of the french Army to the that of a highly successful General, Commander of the Army of the Alps, and then of Napoleon's cavalry, only to fall victim of his own pure revolutionary idealism, of Napoleon's jealousy and eventually of his skin color.
He also spent a couple of years 'forgotten' in a coastal fortress/prison in southern italy (very similar to the Chateau d'If, in Monte Cristo) and was the protagonist of many an adventure that would be the real-life inspiration for the Count of Monte Cristo and to parts of the Three Musketeers, written by his son.

of course, after this i felt compelled to (re)read
The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas

it is more massive than i remembered (i think i must have read an abridged version in my youth -be sure to read the unabridged one), and although a bit too much '1800s' in some part, it is quite memorable and a must-read.

we are talking, after all, about the precursor of all superheroes, and the granddad of Batman in particular:
dark, eccentric millionaire with a mysterious past, with severe issues, skillful in all weapons and physical activities, set on a deadly avenging mission to punish the bad guys.
He even has a secret cave.
ok, no batmobile, but owns best horses in france, and an unbeatable sailing vessel
oh, and wears a cape...

now, before i will give another shot at Galileo's Dialogue, i started

Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel,
which has been sitting on my bookshelf for some time

a fictionalized chronicle of Thomas Cromwell's rise to power.
we shall see.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

is this part of a series?



this was good.
i recommend reading in parallel
"Spectacle in the White City", Stanley Applebaum

which is a gorgeous book about the world fair itself, with high quality B&W reproductions of the original photographs.
and although the book is "made" by the exquisite pictures, the accompanying text is extremely interesting, very accurate, in depth, especially to readers that are into old photography

Yes, it is a series, and - to my mind - Scott Lynch is an exceptionally good writer. Anyway, 'The Republic of Thieves' is the third book in his excellent 'Gentleman Bastard' series. The first two (which I recommend highly) are 'The Lies Of Locke Lamorra', and 'Red Seas Under Red Skies'.

The Martian was a really pleasant surprise.
it came highly recommended from my teen-age son, and i enjoyed it a lot.
Hard science fiction, were the science is if not all necessarily true, at least very plausible.
the movie is coming out soon and apparently they nailed it.
still i -as always- recommend to read the book first. it is relatively short and definitely a page-turner.
funny too.

i had to temporarily abandon Galileo's book, since i got sidetracked first by a semi-historical detective story, starring Sir Isaac Newton himself:
Dark Matter: the private life of Sir Isaac Newton, By Phil Kerr

where Newton is a genius sleuth.
the book is ok, but it is a bit too much Sherlock Holmes.
some of the historical settings are nice and well done, and the 'case' itself is not bad, but the characters are iffy and some bits are completely gratuitous (like a couple of 'erotic' scenes which are completely pointless in the story and are possibly the worst sex scenes ever written)

then after reading:
The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss,

a biography of General Alexandre Dumas, father of the french novelist Alexandre Dumas (pere), of three musketeers and Count of Monte Cristo fame.
Fascinating book, narrating how the mulatto son of a french aristocrat and a black haitian slave was able to thrive within a short time windows around the french revolution when slavery was temporarily eliminated in France, and ascend (by means of heroic feats) in the ranks of the french Army to the that of a highly successful General, Commander of the Army of the Alps, and then of Napoleon's cavalry, only to fall victim of his own pure revolutionary idealism, of Napoleon's jealousy and eventually of his skin color.
he also spent a couple of years 'forgotten' in a coastal fortress/prison in southern italy (very similar to the Chateau d'If, in Monte Cristo) and was the protagonist of many an adventure that would be the real-life inspiration for the Count of Monte Cristo and to parts of the Three Musketeers, by written by his son.

of course after this i felt compelled to (re)read
The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas

it is more massive than i remembered (i think i must have read an abridged version in my youth -be sure to read the unabridged one), and although a bit too much '1800s' in some part, it is quite memorable and a must-read.

we are talking, after all about the precursor of all superheroes, and the granddad of Batman in particular:
dark, eccentric millionaire with a mysterious past, with severe issues, skillful in all weapon and physical activities, set on a deadly avenging mission to punish the bad guys. He even has a secret cave.
ok, no batmobile, but owns best horses in france, and an unbeatable sailing vessel

now, before i will give another shot at Galileo's Dialogue, i started

Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel,
which has been sitting on my bookshelf for some time

a fictionalized chronicle of Thomas Cromwell's rise to power.
we shall see.

Thoroughly enjoyed 'The Count of Monte Cristo' as a child, and yes, I recall the unabridged version. It is a big, hefty, tome. Remember, both Dumas and Dickens serialised their books - made for better sales and added anticipation. So, you have cliffhanger chapter endings, and a bit more padding than might have been the case were a good sub-editor to hand, or - more tellingly - the books not serialised. which encouraged stretch in the story out.

'Wolf Hall' is excellent; the first fifty pages are the most difficult. Bear in mid that Hilary <Mantel writes as though Thomas Cromwell is sitting on her shoulder. Unless the text makes it clear by suggesting otherwise, (a literary device she improved - or clarified somewhat in 'Bring Up The Bodies' - the superb sequel) when Hilary Mantel writes 'he', she usually means Cromwell.

I knew a bit about the background of Dumas Père, but that biography sounds absolutely fascinating.

I was given this book by one of my teammates and surprise-ling enjoyed it, it is not the type of book I normally read. It had excellent repartee, devious scheming and great action.

Have you read his other works? I find his stuff to be excellent, very clever, with superb dialogue sequences (as you have phrased it 'excellent repartee', I'd term his writing extremely articulate with an exceptional mastery of language), strong female characters (not always the case in fantasy writing written by men), excellent world building, and a nice morality at the core (some modern fantasy writers take 'realism' too far), where Scott Lynch's dislike of unfairness and injustice inform a lot of his writing.

 

[JamesMike]

Yes, it is a series, and - to my mind - Scott Lynch is an exceptionally good writer. Anyway, 'The Republic of Thieves' is the third book in his excellent 'Gentleman Bastard' series. The first two (which I recommend highly) are 'The Lies Of Locke Lamorra', and 'Red Seas Under Red Skies'.



Thoroughly enjoyed 'The Count of Monte Cristo' as a child, and yes, I recall the unabridged version. It is a big, hefty, tome. Remember, both Dumas and Dickens serialised their books - made for better sales and added anticipation. So, you have cliffhanger chapter endings, and a bit more padding than might have been the case were a good sub-editor to hand, or - more tellingly - the books not serialised. which encouraged stretch in the story out.

'Wolf Hall' is excellent; the first fifty pages are the most difficult. Bear in mid that Hilary <Mantel writes as though Thomas Cromwell is sitting on her shoulder. Unless the text makes it clear by suggesting otherwise, (a literary device she improved - or clarified somewhat in 'Bring Up The Bodies' - the superb sequel) when Hilary Mantel writes 'he', she usually means Cromwell.

I knew a bit about the background of Dumas Père, but that biography sounds absolutely fascinating.




Have you read his other works? I find his stuff to be excellent, very clever, with superb dialogue sequences (as you have phrased it 'excellent repartee', I'd term his writing extremely articulate with an exceptional mastery of language), strong female characters (not always the case in fantasy writing written by men), excellent world building, and a nice morality at the core (some modern fantasy writers take 'realism' too far), where Scott Lynch's dislike of unfairness and injustice inform a lot of his writing.

Not yet, but will read the rest of the series in the future. I got the cart before the horse, but did not have anything to read and my teammate loaned it to me.