What are you reading?
- Thread starter Snowlilly
- Start date
My audio listen is ‘The Better Son’ by Katherine Johnson, narrated by Steve Shanahan. A man returns to his hometown in Tasmania where 50 years before his brother had gone missing,
My paperback read is a very small book ‘Glittering City’ by Cyprian Ekwensi which is set in Lagos, Nigeria in the 1960s.
My paperback read is a very small book ‘Glittering City’ by Cyprian Ekwensi which is set in Lagos, Nigeria in the 1960s.
Current audiobook: Nightwatch by Terry Pratchett.
Current printed book: Dipterists Digest #9 - a Colour Guide to Hoverfly Larvae. Propably not a book a non-biologist would fancy for a bedtime read but it's unusually well written and the author (Graham Rotheray) shares a lot of personal experiences. The general feeling is not so much that of a determination key but rather like you'd chat with the author over a cuppa.
Current printed book: Dipterists Digest #9 - a Colour Guide to Hoverfly Larvae. Propably not a book a non-biologist would fancy for a bedtime read but it's unusually well written and the author (Graham Rotheray) shares a lot of personal experiences. The general feeling is not so much that of a determination key but rather like you'd chat with the author over a cuppa.
Saturday by Ian McEwan.
I am listening to Make Room, Make Room by Harry Harrison, narrated by Eric Michael Summerer. Written it 1966, set in 1999 Harrison predicted the population of the world being 7 billion, but was way off the mark at having the population of New York at the 35 million mark.
Just started The Fifth Heart by Dan Simmons, a Sherlock Holmes mystery featuring the author Henry James.
I just finished ready the original "The World of Star Trek" by David Gerrold, pretty interesting perspective from back in the day (which I remember quite well). Now, I just started "The Right Stuff" by Tom Wolfe; I have not read it in about 20 years so it sounds good.
Isn't that the book that Soylent Green was based on?
Yes, it is. It has been a very long time since I have read the book or watched the movie
"On Earth We are Briefly Gorgeous" by Ocean Vuong. I anticipated two books to arrive today, in the mail, and this was one of them. It is billed as a son's letter to his mother, a Vietnamese family in America and the mother was a child herself during the bloody war. The title was titillating and within the first chapter, it has not been a disappointment.
The mother is dead, physically, as this letter is written. The relationship involves abuse from mother to child, after she suffers from PTSD, and her struggles to connect with a young boy, his mounting frustrations, and its sober assessment of a complicated relationship. It leans heavy on symbolism. There is the use of shadow repeated to show that while the mother is abusive, the son, as an adult, is also "a monster." Eyes are loneliness. Death is on every page, and it is almost a stage of sleep, reimagining the blood and injury and death and loss in this relationship. It's beautiful.
The mother is dead, physically, as this letter is written. The relationship involves abuse from mother to child, after she suffers from PTSD, and her struggles to connect with a young boy, his mounting frustrations, and its sober assessment of a complicated relationship. It leans heavy on symbolism. There is the use of shadow repeated to show that while the mother is abusive, the son, as an adult, is also "a monster." Eyes are loneliness. Death is on every page, and it is almost a stage of sleep, reimagining the blood and injury and death and loss in this relationship. It's beautiful.
Princesses Behaving Badly by Linda Rodriguez McRobbie. Currently learning about Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester who was found guilty of witchcraft.
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain.
Would like to know what you think of it -I’ve put it on a watchlist to poss buy.
I am enjoying it so far though each ‘princess’ is only covered briefly. I already knew about some of the European women mentioned but nothing at all about the African women. As far as the Chinese women are concerned I had only previously known about Empress Wu. I had never heard of Roxalena (Hurrem Sultan) wife of Suleyman the Magnificent, nor had I heard of La Malinche wno was an interpreter, advisor, and intermediary for the Spanish conquistador, Cortes.
It has been slow going with this book because I keep going and researching more about these women.
It has been slow going with this book because I keep going and researching more about these women.
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Sounds awesome, thank you!
Yesterday I listened to The Amazing Mrs Livesey by Freda Marnie Nicholls, narrated by Ella James.
Biography of a rather horrid woman. Married at least 8 times, sometimes bigamously, abandoned one son to be raised by her in-laws in England, deserted two sons to be raised in foster care in Australia, ripped off her loving father, her husbands, people who considered her to be a friend, shopkeepers, old people she was housekeeper to etc etc.
Today I have just started Women’s Work: The First 20,000 Years: Women, Cloth and Society in Early Times by Elizabeth Wayland Barber.
Biography of a rather horrid woman. Married at least 8 times, sometimes bigamously, abandoned one son to be raised by her in-laws in England, deserted two sons to be raised in foster care in Australia, ripped off her loving father, her husbands, people who considered her to be a friend, shopkeepers, old people she was housekeeper to etc etc.
Today I have just started Women’s Work: The First 20,000 Years: Women, Cloth and Society in Early Times by Elizabeth Wayland Barber.
I am about a third of the way through One Hot Summer: Dickens, Darwin, Disraeli and the Great Stink of 1858 by Rosemary Ashton. It is meandering but interesting. The bits I have found most interesting are those dealing with the first sittings of the newly formed divorce courts and a
So of certain scandals that never reached the divorce courts including Dicken’s affair with young actress. I am not sure how riveted I will be when the book starts to discuss in details the problems of the the London sewerage system.
Currently covering Alfred Russel Wallace.
Edited to cover my big mistake - it was Dickens who had the affair with the actress. I have no idea why I typed in Darwin.
So of certain scandals that never reached the divorce courts including Dicken’s affair with young actress. I am not sure how riveted I will be when the book starts to discuss in details the problems of the the London sewerage system.
Currently covering Alfred Russel Wallace.
Edited to cover my big mistake - it was Dickens who had the affair with the actress. I have no idea why I typed in Darwin.
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The Action Hero's Handbook
also A Fine and Pleasant Misery.
also A Fine and Pleasant Misery.
