quote:

Originally posted by Dan:
Another good sci-fi I've read recently is Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. He also wrote The Martian, which is (like nearly all books) better than the movie even though I really like the movie. I would recommend both.

I read it recently as well and really enjoyed it! The Martian is a favourite and I agree on all counts. Keep the sci-fi recommendations coming, please! I have had a hard time finding new things to read recently!

Really glad I read Gupta's book World War C. Great info, especially given the recent emergence of omicron.

Have moved on to Chris Christie's Republican Rescue. The behind the scenes stories about TFG are...interesting.....

Sounds to me like Christie is going to make another run for the presidency.

Betrayal, by Jonathan Karl. Confirms some of the stories Christie told, and provides way more detail on what went on behind the scenes during the last few months.

And yes, it's as bad as you could imagine. Even worse.

Had this on my list after seeing Tom Hanks is in a movie version. Reading now before I see the film.

As important as the prose, this paperback is beautifully printed on lovely paper with a deckle edge. I bought my copy at my NEW local book shop, in person.

I finished Project Hail Mary a couple weeks ago and ended up really enjoying it! I’d recommend it to sci-fi fans for sure.

I’ve just started The Gone World on audio. As Dan said, it’s dark, but I’m really enjoying it so far. After telling my hubby about it he put in a hold at the library for the print version.

Reading The Key to Rebecca by Ken Follett because I wanted a break from The Dawn of Everything by Greaber.
Follett is usually entertaining once he gets going and this book is no exception. Not his best and not his worst work.
Expect to get back to Graeber's book next week.

Just finished.

Jf

Just finished The Gone World (on audio) and it was fantastic! Hubby is reading it now. Thanks for the recommendation!

If anyone is looking for a super quick, fun, hilarious read, check out graphic novels by Huda Fahmy. I just read That Can Be Arranged which is the story of how she met her husband and the dating rituals involved in being a Muslim woman. I have Huda F Are You on hold at the library after it was highly recommended by a friend. There is also Yes, I’m Hot In This: The Hilarious Truth About Life in a Hijab.

Glad you liked Gone World. I'm still working through the Wayfarers books, and just finished up Where the Crawdads Sing.

Honestly I've been out of the sci-fi reading realm for quite a long while other than stuff by Weir and Cline. Here's some old favorites of mine and my wife, but I'm guessing you've read these already.

Asimov - The Foundation Trilogy. There's more than three of these but I forget just how many, also a new show out on Apple TV.

Arthur C Clark - Rendezvous with Rama and the sequels

Larry Niven - Ringworld and sequels

Niven & Pournelle - Lucifer's Hammer (and Footfall is good too)

Heinlein - The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

Clifford Simak - City

Lots more, but you get the idea about how long ago I was hooked by sci-fi.

Anyway, all of those are worth your time if you haven't consumed them already.

I am 2/3 of the way through "Regarding Willingness" by Tom Harpole. He is a local logger/arborist and a FB friend. I have never met him, and when he started hawking his book on FB earlier this year, I pretty much ignored him. I figured it was a vanity project, but even if it wasn't, I try to avoid reading books wherein the author might at some point ask me how I liked it. The reason for this is that I am both a very picky reader and a bad liar: a terrible combination for someone in a tiny writing community.

Then all our mutual FB friends started raving about the book, and it won this year's Montana Book Award. But still I dismissed it. People are just being supportive, I thought, and those local awards are pretty political. And Tom Harpole had obviously worked his ass off doing grassroots promotion. He asked to friend me and several of my other friends on FB when the book came out. To the point that friends were messaging me saying "do you know this guy?"

I never had the slightest intention of reading this book.

But then Mr. Pique (who the author also friended on FB), saw that Tom was offering to mail out signed copies for $20, postage included, for Christmas. And Mr Pique, ever the writers' groupie ("writers are my heroes" he told me when we first met) asked where to send the check. Turns out the address was on his way to the dentist that day, so he asked Tom if he could stop by and get the book in person. Which he did. And came home with it.

I picked up the slim paperback with skepticism. All the blurbs on the cover were written by mutual friends, local authors. One friend of mine called Tom a "literary Evel Knievel". I thought "really?" I hate the whole blurb game. And so many, many local authors have done the same as Tom and many I have found unreadable. I gave up reading local authors--with a very few notable exceptions--a long time ago.

But, there was the book in front of me, so I put it to my standard test: I opened at random, and started to read. Then I sat down with it. And kept reading.

It's been a few days, and Mr Pique still hasn't had a chance to read his new book because I am reading it.

Is it any good?

Well, imagine Mark Twain and Jack London had a baby and named him Tom Harpole. The guy is a born storyteller. He has a voice like no other, totally original. And the true exploits he writes about are so far-fetched and amazing. Like the time he went skydiving in the USSR with cosmonauts--he'd never skydived before and was instructed on what to do in Russian, which he does not speak.

Or the time he cut off his left arm with a chainsaw.

Or the time he drove from Fairbanks, AK to Prudhoe Bay when the road was closed because it was 80 below zero.

But as wild as the stories are, it's also beautiful writing, the stories are artfully crafted. And the impact of his language is that you feel you are right there with him. Unlike so many others, he understands how to use the full arc of the story. The short pieces are therefore deeply satisfying. I sigh at the end of each one.

This his only book, and the chapters were originally printed in magazines and newspapers, so it is an anthology of previous work. He published them at the urging of a friend, who found him a publisher.

My older brother was also a logger in Oregon and Alaska so I plan to send him a copy. And I plan to buy it from Tom in person, so I can shake his hand.

Highly recommend.

Regarding Willingness: Chronicles of a Fraught Life https://www.amazon.com/dp/1736...7M4A8VS07SHT7H8GHDQ2

Started this...already hooked..She pinged a favorite historical author of textiles in the intro...

This book won lots of awards..and yet in the B&N store the clerk had to hunt for it..I bought their only copy. (I did buy my copy in suburbian NJ, so...there is that..)

A huge thank you to Dol. I finished the Wayfarer series Friday night and it was WONDERFUL!! Highly recommended to anyone that hasn't read it.

I got Leviathan Wakes as an Xmas present and am about 3 chapters in so far. It's good, but so far it hasn't hooked me. I know there's a series based on it as well, but I'm holding off on watching The Expanse until I'm further into the books.

I'm also working through the second book of the Paper Magician series by Charlie Holmberg and I'm enjoying those too. I've read a few of her other books and enjoyed them all so I'd recommend her to anyone that likes Magic/Fantasy works. Her's are mostly set in Victorian England by the way.

Also finished off Winter Garden by Kirsten Hannah. It was excellent. I never could get into The Four Winds though so I ended up setting it aside without finishing it.

Thanks again Dol for a great recommendation.

quote:

Originally posted by Dan:
A huge thank you to Dol. I finished the Wayfarer series Friday night and it was WONDERFUL!! Highly recommended to anyone that hasn't read it.

I got Leviathan Wakes as an Xmas present and am about 3 chapters in so far. It's good, but so far it hasn't hooked me. I know there's a series based on it as well, but I'm holding off on watching The Expanse until I'm further into the books.

I'm also working through the second book of the Paper Magician series by Charlie Holmberg and I'm enjoying those too. I've read a few of her other books and enjoyed them all so I'd recommend her to anyone that likes Magic/Fantasy works. Her's are mostly set in Victorian England by the way.

Also finished off Winter Garden by Kirsten Hannah. It was excellent. I never could get into The Four Winds though so I ended up setting it aside without finishing it.

Thanks again Dol for a great recommendation.

I’m so happy you enjoyed it!

Currently reading Will, Will Smith’s autobiography on audio. It is EXCELLENT. I highly recommend it. I’m really enjoying the audiobook version as he does the reading and I think it’s probably even more impactful than it would be in print.

quote:

Originally posted by BeeLady:
My latest is "The Fabric of Civilization: How Textiles Made the World"

Much of it I already know after years of textile crafting..But it is nice to see it all in print in one place.

And has me wanting to reread an old fav "The Perfect Red" by Amy Butler Greenfield..One of all time fav non fiction reads.

Finally got around to this one and it was fantastic! I listened on audio and may have zoned out a bit during the banking section but the rest was fascinating! The most interesting part, for me, was the chapter on spinning, perhaps because it’s something I have never tried and the labour hours needed to make sure simple things were mind-boggling. Thanks for the recommendation!