WWTBAM Bored

I'm finishing up:



It's a very complicated (for me) techno-thriller that want to see through to the end.

Still reading:



Recently finished:



and




Coming up:

Reading some guy named Clark, The Ticktock Man. Very cool and weird.
Also, don't judge, Susan Wiggs, Lakeshore Chronicles. Qualify as romance novels but if you slough off the heart throbbing the storylines are engaging.
Finished Heartbreak Hotel, Johnathan Kellerman. It's okay.
Been awhile but recommend Swamplandia! (exclamation point in title) by Karen Russell, finalist for Pulitzer in 2012. Brilliant.

Among the more mainstream books I've read lately are a couple of older mysteries, Blood on the Moon by James Ellroy, and To Die in California by Newton Thornburg. This is early Ellroy, not his best but still good, albeit with some very dated views on homosexuality (a major plot point in the book). Thornburg is largely forgotten today, but the man could write and this book about a political cover-up reads more like classic tragedy than a typical whodunit.

Also a non-fiction book that's highly interesting, Everything Is Obvious by Duncan Watts. It exposes a lot of fallacies about using "common sense" to solve large scale world problems.

Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right
Jennifer Burns, 2009

Re-reading
To Sail Beyond the Sunset
Robert Heinlein, 1987

Sampling as a treat here and there (I don't want it to be over so I am reading only a little bit each day)
Becoming Wise: An inquiry into the mystery and art of living
Krista Tiplett, 2016

For fiction-Reading the first of the "Inspector Pekkala" books.

Also "The Devil's Oasis"-The 3rd of 3 Anton Rider books by Bartle Bull.

Non-fiction-"A Man For All Markets"-mentioned in another thread-I am disappointed and won't recommend it.

And "The Conquering Tide"-2nd of a planned WW2 Pacific Naval trilogy.

I just finished Charles Bukowski's Post Office and just started re-reading Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls (I last read it in 1988).

"Alexander Hamilton" by Ron Chernow

I like these threads a lot better since I joined two book clubs.

Just finished The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen. I'm still struggling with the most telling question of the afternoon -- How do I apply this to my life? Next up -- Lab Girl by Hope Jahren.

Other book club's book from last month, Dreamland by Sam Quinones. I know I mentioned it somewhere on the Bored. Next up -- All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. Before this book, I never traveled with a hardback in my life, but I took this one to Alaska. I'm re-reading it now because I get to lead the discussion.

Beebs52 wrote:Reading some guy named Clark, The Ticktock Man. Very cool and weird.

But how's the book?

Estonut wrote:

Beebs52 wrote:Reading some guy named Clark, The Ticktock Man. Very cool and weird.

But how's the book?

Ba da bing! Thank you, you'll be here all night.

I'm reading an anthology in Eric Flint's 1632 series:



New volumes are being published in this series faster than I can keep up with them!

Kindle: Hillbilly Elegy
Audible relisten: The Handmaid's Tale
Dailylit e-mail: Middlemarch

Heatwave wrapping up here, but I'll play anyway.

Reading: Blogging for Dummies (yeah, yeah, that Quality blog never got off the ground last year. Maybe now that I'm semi-retired, it'll happen.)

Listening to: How Great Science Fiction Works from The Great Courses collection. Interesting stuff and a great reminder of some authors I'd nearly forgotten.

gsabc: I dunno how that course is structured, but back in the 60s & seventies I read several really good essays about several authors, probably in the intros to anthologies &/or as sections in the anthologies themselves.

And there's one priceless essay taking apart one of the A.E. Van Vogt books, probably The World of Null-A or another in that series, where they showed where events occurred out-of-order; someone refers to something on page 38 as having happened when the actual event doesn't occur 'til page 106, that sort of thing. I loved the books anyway. Not the economical philosophies; sheesh. And I've got Slan-like silver tendrils all the heck over my head these days, but no telepathic abilities to speak of. Oh well.

GhostJMF>>>And I've got Slan-like silver tendrils all the heck over my head these days, but no telepathic abilities to speak of. Oh well.<<<

Don't sell yourself too short. I knew that you were going to say "Slan-like silver tendrils" before you posted this.

Just finishing Neil Stephenson's Snow Crash. The audio version was available for a reduced price on Amazon. I liked it.

themanintheseersuckersuit wrote:Just finishing Neil Stephenson's Snow Crash. The audio version was available for a reduced price on Amazon. I liked it.

It's funny how it's dated already.

I almost forgot to recommend Michael Connolly's THE WRONG SIDE OF GOODBYE, one of the best in the Harry Bosch series