What's the one on Charlemagne? If it's Janet (Jinty) Nelson's one she got out before she died, you can be forgiven for needing more than a couple weeks to get through it... that thing is massive.
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
What are you reading Chapter 4
- Thread starter slobake
- Start date
It was (Derek?) Wilson's. Thorough, and well done, but I found most of it review as I've read a few books on Charlemagne the past year.
And I've officially hit 104 books this year! Might go for 106 now, since I have two books still checked out of the library.
Cities of the Plain - Cormac McCarthy
Trying to knock out at least one more series before the end of the year.
Trying to knock out at least one more series before the end of the year.
Finished "Rasputin: The Untold Story" last night. A great read, with an in-depth look at the fascinating historical figure. I can't say I knew much more than the "standards" about him being a mystic holy man etc., but this oddly humanized the figure. Not that he was a "good guy" in the end or anything like that, but more in that he knew he had his demons, and that he didn't shy away from that reality. And his faith seemed genuine, even though it was constantly questioned during and after his lifetime. He felt that everyone screwed up, himself included, and that you can only keep going. None of this excuses his manipulations of the Russian monarchy or any of that other stuff, but I came away with a different appreciation for the figure after this book.
Jeannette Walls - Hang the Moon
Another page turner from Jeannette Walls. Not a memoir this time, but might as well be. Highly recommended.
Another page turner from Jeannette Walls. Not a memoir this time, but might as well be. Highly recommended.
As an Amazon Associate, TalkBass may receive commissions from qualifying purchases made via links on this site.
Oh, man. My brain is thoroughly melted. I'm going to need time to process this.
If you like science fiction - not space opera, but fiction based on what if theoretical physics really is real - Liu is amazing.
Just started an early trilogy of Star Wars novels about Han Solo. Over halfway through the first book - "Han Solo At Star's End". Easy reading, and I think I may have read this a few decades ago? Regardless, I'm enjoying the lighter fare as a break from my usual heavy historical topics. Will likely get about 3/4 through tonight, then finish it and start #2 tomorrow.
Nick Mason - Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd
As an Amazon Associate, TalkBass may receive commissions from qualifying purchases made via links on this site.
I remember reading those! Maybe 1980ish? Or even earlier, I think they date from when there was only one Star Wars movie...
Oh, I don't think I mentioned it... about a week ago or so, I finished Esau McCauley's memoir How Far to the Promised Land? It was interesting. He's a black pastor and theologian. To an extent it's a very familiar story - born in poverty, struggling school with crime and drugs, racist episodes, he manages to go to college and become successful.
What makes it interesting is that he pushes back against the narrative of himself as an individual overcoming the odds to pull himself up by his bootstraps. Instead, he really foregrounds the African-American community, in a couple of ways. One is by making it his family story rather than his individual story. He really stresses how it was the collective effect of the family that enabled him to succeed, not any grit of his own. Another is that he's attentive to the statistical chances of black men from his neighborhood and shows that it doesn't mean that he's the good one who pulled it off, but that the way the structures around them affected them, just statistically there were only going to be a certain proportion who would be enabled to succeed, and the rest doomed to fail. It wasn't a story of how anyone could do what he did with enough elbow grease and willpower.
For instance, he tells a story of a drive-by shooting at his house (his sister, unknowingly, had started dating a drug dealer). He was sitting on his bed when bullets came flying in through the window. He didn't duck or hide, he just froze. When he looked later, he realized one bullet had hit the wall just inches from his head. It had missed him by pure chance (or divine providence). If he had tried to duck to the side, he would have been killed. And if that had happened, he would have been one more statistic - "young black man killed in a drive-by," etc. So the fact that he wound up as an Episcopalian priest and college professor wasn't because of his herculean effort, but because the chances just didn't play out otherwise.
What makes it interesting is that he pushes back against the narrative of himself as an individual overcoming the odds to pull himself up by his bootstraps. Instead, he really foregrounds the African-American community, in a couple of ways. One is by making it his family story rather than his individual story. He really stresses how it was the collective effect of the family that enabled him to succeed, not any grit of his own. Another is that he's attentive to the statistical chances of black men from his neighborhood and shows that it doesn't mean that he's the good one who pulled it off, but that the way the structures around them affected them, just statistically there were only going to be a certain proportion who would be enabled to succeed, and the rest doomed to fail. It wasn't a story of how anyone could do what he did with enough elbow grease and willpower.
For instance, he tells a story of a drive-by shooting at his house (his sister, unknowingly, had started dating a drug dealer). He was sitting on his bed when bullets came flying in through the window. He didn't duck or hide, he just froze. When he looked later, he realized one bullet had hit the wall just inches from his head. It had missed him by pure chance (or divine providence). If he had tried to duck to the side, he would have been killed. And if that had happened, he would have been one more statistic - "young black man killed in a drive-by," etc. So the fact that he wound up as an Episcopalian priest and college professor wasn't because of his herculean effort, but because the chances just didn't play out otherwise.
Does Nick talk about his "small" car collection?
As an Amazon Associate, TalkBass may receive commissions from qualifying purchases made via links on this site.
Yup - those are the ones! Finished #1 today, but too mentally drained to start #2. Perhaps tomorrow.
The Subtle Knife - Philip Pullman
I've got quite some time off for the holidays and I'm using some of it to utilize my local library and try to complete some more series I've left unfinished.
I've got quite some time off for the holidays and I'm using some of it to utilize my local library and try to complete some more series I've left unfinished.
