quote:

Originally posted by CHAS:
Read The Boys in the Boat .
In 1936 9 blue collar boys won the Gold Medal in the 1936 Olympics in Hitler's Germany.
Very well written.
The author puts everything in the context of the time.
He uses one of the boys as the main character.

This was an excellent book.

quote:

Originally posted by Nina:
I just blasted my way through "Educated," a memoir of a woman who grew up in a doomsday prepper family in Idaho. I found it fascinating and infuriating. I don't want to include any spoilers, because there are plenty of twists and turns. There were times when I got so angry I wanted to throw the book across the room. (Full disclosure, I was reading it on a kindle ).

It's a really fascinating look at what it's like to grow up being told that "everyone" is out to get you, and no one can be trusted outside the family. It really outlines how a family can descend into what I would describe as willful ignorance, and the power of a cult leader (in this case, the father).

I just finished it and I agree with everything Nina said, including the urge to throw my Kindle across the room.

Think "Glass Castle" meets "Hillbilly Elegy".

Just finished this:





It’s a recent book, covering the disaster and the entire aftermath, including the eventual exoneration of the Captain and Paul Allen’s discovery of the wreckage.

Very well written, engaging throughout. Those of you who ever read books like this - put it on your list. You won’t be disappointed.

Now reading this. 6th London edition, the final one edited by Darwin himself. Free from Project Gutenberg.

I'm reading "Spirit Blending Foals: An old way continued"
A loan from my riding instructor. The author is a Cherokee, and he learned horsemanship from his grandfather, who taught him how to blend his spirit with the horse's, starting from before birth. At first I could not figure out why my instructor wanted me to read this, but it has turned out to be a transformational book.

My latest is dense but I am enjoying it...

After seeing all she did that I saw on my trip to Spain last fall, I needed to know more..

Happy Doomsday by David Sosnowski

It was a Kindle free book. I'm about 2/3rds through it and it is very very good. Check it out.

I've had that Isabella book on my list, BeeLady. You might be interested in "Sister Queens," the story of Ferdinand and Isabella's daughters Catherine of Aragon (King Henry VIII's 1st wife) and her sister, Juana. Full of intrigue and politics, I had never heard the story of Juana at all. It was fascinating.

Just finishing "Now It Can Be Told", General Leslie Groves' history of the Manhattan Engineering District from the inception through the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the postwar transition to the Atomic Energy Commission. I've read a good bit of WWII history including Richard Rhodes' books about the atomic and hydrogen bombs as well as a biography of Robert Oppenheimer, but Groves, who was in charge of the entire effort during the war, contributes some insights that I hadn't encountered before. The most impressive aspect is how he was able to lead a project that proceeded at express speed, not knowing which, if any, solutions to the immense technical problems might succeed and to accomplish all that under wartime constraints and while maintaining security over the developments as they occurred. Just compartmentalizing the scientists, engineers, major companies, and military components along with the Canadian and British interaction is a feat nearly beyond comprehension. I was left with great admiration for General Groves accomplishment, even as I continue to fear whether mankind can continue to succeed in avoiding nuclear destruction. Our current flirtation with climate disaster doesn't fill me with optimism, although that could be a slow and painful death rather than the immediacy of nuclear annihilation.

Big Al

Just finished N. K. Jemisin's The Fifth Season and am now starting the next book in the Broken Earth trilogy, The Obelisk Gate.



Fantasy, Sci-fi, dystopia, themes of racism, climate disaster, strengths v. disabilities...

You have to see the author's Hugo Award acceptance speech. That was my introduction to her.

quote:

Originally posted by piqué:
Just finished reading "Paris in the Present Tense," the new Mark Helprin novel. It was a gift from the author. He thought it might be meaningful to me because of the musical themes in it. It is a profound and beautiful book that I am sure I will reread. And I almost never do that.

I haven't read this one but I love his writing.

quote:

Originally posted by AdagioM:

quote:

Originally posted by CHAS:
Read The Boys in the Boat .
In 1936 9 blue collar boys won the Gold Medal in the 1936 Olympics in Hitler's Germany.
Very well written.
The author puts everything in the context of the time.
He uses one of the boys as the main character.

This was an excellent book.

My daughter gave me this book. I swapped her for “Educated”.

It’s next after I finish “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy”, which has turned in to something of a slog.

I finished a few more chapters in Relics on a flight from SEA to DUB and DUB to CDG. On the return flights, I slept from CDG to DUB and binge-watched Peaky Blinders from DUB to SEA. It's not the sort of thing I would normally watch, but something got me hooked.

So, I'm still working on Relics -- I'm just past the part about Jimmie and the cell tower.

Seriously, I don't get enough time to just read.

I just tuned in to PBS's series The Great American Read

Dang! Now I have so many more books I have yet to read!

My current read is

Next up on deck is

About a third of the way through it. Interesting in ways I wasn't expecting.