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What are you reading Chapter 4
- Thread starter slobake
- Start date
Couldn't stand Hemingway! No description = no good to me. But read what you like of course. My tastes are just as subjective.
After a break, I'm back on the Ender's Game series. Just finished Speaker for the Dead. Great book, but took a few chapters to hook me.
After a break, I'm back on the Ender's Game series. Just finished Speaker for the Dead. Great book, but took a few chapters to hook me.
Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror - Richard A. Clarke
no comment
no comment
Fifth Business - Robertson Davies
Very well written novel and an interesting tale.
The phrase "fifth business" refers in theater to those roles which, being neither those of hero nor Heroine, Confidante nor Villain, but which were none the less essential to bring about the Recognition or the denouement were called the Fifth Business in drama and Opera companies organized according to the old style; the player who acted these parts was often referred to as Fifth Business.
Dunstan Ramesy grows up in small rural town in Ontario, Canada. Has childhood misshap when a pregnant townlady is struckby a snowball aimed for him, goes into premature labor and becomes "simple in the head".
Grows up a smart kid, but ordinary. Leaves home early because of parental and small town pressures and joins Canadian Army underage and fights in WWI. Witnesses much horror and is wounded in a heroic action.
Comes back to become an Assistant Headmaster at a boy's school. Becomes interested in Saints and Sainthood and stories. Becomes a well renowned author on the subject - taking sabaticals to travel the world and explore the subject.
While on sabatical in Mexico reunites with a travelling magician and entourage. Becomes involved working for them a little on the side.
Wiki: Ramsay's passion for hagiology and his guilty connection to Mary Dempster provide most of the impetus and background for this novel. He spends much of the book struggling with his image of Mary Dempster as a Invalid Link Removed and dealing with issues of guilt that grew from a childhood accident.
Very well written novel and an interesting tale.
The phrase "fifth business" refers in theater to those roles which, being neither those of hero nor Heroine, Confidante nor Villain, but which were none the less essential to bring about the Recognition or the denouement were called the Fifth Business in drama and Opera companies organized according to the old style; the player who acted these parts was often referred to as Fifth Business.
Dunstan Ramesy grows up in small rural town in Ontario, Canada. Has childhood misshap when a pregnant townlady is struckby a snowball aimed for him, goes into premature labor and becomes "simple in the head".
Grows up a smart kid, but ordinary. Leaves home early because of parental and small town pressures and joins Canadian Army underage and fights in WWI. Witnesses much horror and is wounded in a heroic action.
Comes back to become an Assistant Headmaster at a boy's school. Becomes interested in Saints and Sainthood and stories. Becomes a well renowned author on the subject - taking sabaticals to travel the world and explore the subject.
While on sabatical in Mexico reunites with a travelling magician and entourage. Becomes involved working for them a little on the side.
Wiki: Ramsay's passion for hagiology and his guilty connection to Mary Dempster provide most of the impetus and background for this novel. He spends much of the book struggling with his image of Mary Dempster as a Invalid Link Removed and dealing with issues of guilt that grew from a childhood accident.
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The Return of the Wolf to Yellowstone - Thomas McNamee
1997 book about reintroduction of wolves back into Yellowstone Park. The trials of trying to capture wild wolves from Canada. The political struggle to get the project OK'd over legal objections from livestock ranchers. Of tracking and hoping they will stay in the park and the legal protections and government designations as far as being considered "endangered."
Well written. Lots of action, both animal and human.
Amazing how much the ecological health of Yellowstone has bounced back in the last 15+ years. Elk, deer, and cayote numbers have dropped of to a healthy level. he forests and grasslands are now returning to good health because they aren't being over grazed. The roots are keeping the river banks in check which leads to better flood control and rebounding of the beaver and small animal population. Healthy for trout and other fish needing clear, deeper, fast running streams to spawn.
1997 book about reintroduction of wolves back into Yellowstone Park. The trials of trying to capture wild wolves from Canada. The political struggle to get the project OK'd over legal objections from livestock ranchers. Of tracking and hoping they will stay in the park and the legal protections and government designations as far as being considered "endangered."
Well written. Lots of action, both animal and human.
Amazing how much the ecological health of Yellowstone has bounced back in the last 15+ years. Elk, deer, and cayote numbers have dropped of to a healthy level. he forests and grasslands are now returning to good health because they aren't being over grazed. The roots are keeping the river banks in check which leads to better flood control and rebounding of the beaver and small animal population. Healthy for trout and other fish needing clear, deeper, fast running streams to spawn.
Orson Scott Card - Xenocide. Part of the Ender's Game series. Pretty darn good, but I've become quite fond of his writing lately.
A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
Narrated from a banker's point of view. Young English lady gains inheritance. Goes to Austrailian outback to search for man who helped her and a bunch of women and children as they were being marched around as prisoners by the Japanese in Malaysia in WWII. Good read.
Moves right along. Very to the point writing that is at once proper and moral. Author was an aeronaughtical enginner. So an engineer writing a love story. Really is a good action packed story. Almost Ayn Randish with very self determined, capable, and able lead characters.
Narrated from a banker's point of view. Young English lady gains inheritance. Goes to Austrailian outback to search for man who helped her and a bunch of women and children as they were being marched around as prisoners by the Japanese in Malaysia in WWII. Good read.
Moves right along. Very to the point writing that is at once proper and moral. Author was an aeronaughtical enginner. So an engineer writing a love story. Really is a good action packed story. Almost Ayn Randish with very self determined, capable, and able lead characters.
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OK, this is going to be a bore for most, but I'm currently tearing through Amy Livingstone's Out of Love for My Kin. It's a study of the nobility of the Loire valley in France during the 11th and 12th centuries. I was thrilled to get a copy because this is usually an "academic price" book ($120 or something) that only a college library would have, but I scored a used one for $15. Thank you, Powell's!
OK, if anyone is still awake, here's what's interesting about it; in my western civ classes, I've taught the traditional notion, which was that around the year 1000 noble families stopped splitting up inheritances among all their children and started giving the whole hog to the eldest son only (primogeniture). This meant you had a more restricted nobility, a lot more emphasis on pedigree (since that was your claim to noble status), and a lot of landless "younger sons" cut loose trying to make their way as freelance knights or going into the church. That in turn is supposed to explain most of what made the Middle Ages "medieval" - knighthood and chivalry, private wars, waves of religious movements, crusades, etc. Basically, Livingstone shows that nothing of the sort happened. The noble families she looks at continued to act "horizontally" rather than "vertically," including all the children in the inheritance, treating women as important participants in decision making, and so forth. Which opens the door to re-examining... everything else. Very exciting for research. Terrifying for teaching.
OK, if anyone is still awake, here's what's interesting about it; in my western civ classes, I've taught the traditional notion, which was that around the year 1000 noble families stopped splitting up inheritances among all their children and started giving the whole hog to the eldest son only (primogeniture). This meant you had a more restricted nobility, a lot more emphasis on pedigree (since that was your claim to noble status), and a lot of landless "younger sons" cut loose trying to make their way as freelance knights or going into the church. That in turn is supposed to explain most of what made the Middle Ages "medieval" - knighthood and chivalry, private wars, waves of religious movements, crusades, etc. Basically, Livingstone shows that nothing of the sort happened. The noble families she looks at continued to act "horizontally" rather than "vertically," including all the children in the inheritance, treating women as important participants in decision making, and so forth. Which opens the door to re-examining... everything else. Very exciting for research. Terrifying for teaching.
the Godfather by Mario Puzo...
pretty good...
This book spawned a new rule in my junior high English class. We were tasked with reading a book and writing a report on it. I did mine on The Godfather and when I turned it in I thought my teacher was going to excrete a big yellow squealing worm. She wound up refusing to take the report, but did assign me a new book.
After that the same assignment was still part of the curriculum, but with a book chosen off a pre approved list.
Tropic of Cancer - Henry Miller
Young American ex-patriot writer living on Paris in the 30s. Broke, without any real source of steady income hangs around with other expatriots and other French starving artists participating in much debachery and carefree survival. The narrator hangs on by borrowing and sponging off of his neer-do-well pals and landing low pay temporary jobs.
Total irreverce for all things thought by common society that would be deemed normal. Commentary on society, religion, schooling, local politics, poking fun at the military.
Hilarious long stream of thought descriptions of events, people, places, and ideas. At times maddening because it reads so flippant and impudent, but then realize this was written in the 30s and this kind of thinking was just outrageous. Book was banned in the USA and took the Supreme Court to declare it legal to print having 1st amendment trump obscenity laws.
Young American ex-patriot writer living on Paris in the 30s. Broke, without any real source of steady income hangs around with other expatriots and other French starving artists participating in much debachery and carefree survival. The narrator hangs on by borrowing and sponging off of his neer-do-well pals and landing low pay temporary jobs.
Total irreverce for all things thought by common society that would be deemed normal. Commentary on society, religion, schooling, local politics, poking fun at the military.
Hilarious long stream of thought descriptions of events, people, places, and ideas. At times maddening because it reads so flippant and impudent, but then realize this was written in the 30s and this kind of thinking was just outrageous. Book was banned in the USA and took the Supreme Court to declare it legal to print having 1st amendment trump obscenity laws.
Read half of PKD's A Scanner Darkly sitting in airports/on planes yesterday-- wow! It's a heck of a lot more than just a good sci-fi novel.
