Amph What are you reading right now?

Finished Will McIntosh's first novel Soft Apocalypse - very good read: https://andrewliptak.wordpress.com/2011/04/29/out-with-a-whimper-soft-apocalypse/

 

I'm reading Michael Braddick's God's Fury, England's Fire. A New History of the English Civil Wars(2009, originally 2008).

I really think that there ought to be added a word between "New" and "History" in the title, and that would be "Calvinism".

To the author Calvinism = Protestantism and every other Protestant nomination is "popery".

 

While Mortals Sleep by Kurt Vonnegut

A collection of short stories published after his death. I am so familiar with his habits and formula for short stories that I guessed what was next in nearly every story before I turned the pages. Regardless, I devoured them with pleasure because no one writes like him.

Small Gods by Terry Pratchett

Pratchett pokes fun at religion, zealots, hierarchy and hypocrisy.

 

The Lincoln Lawyer. I saw the movie and really wanted to read the book.

 

Rereading "Stalingrad" by Anthony Beevor

 

Summer Knight: Dresden 4 this is turning into a badass series.

 

Pathfinder Orson Scott Card.

 

Just finished A Feast for Crows by GRR Martin, in anticipation of both the Game of Thrones HBO show and the upcoming publication of the 5th book in the series, A Dance with Dragons (which is really part 2 of AFFC). AFFC is a remarkable work, even if it is only 1/2 of a book. I finally understand Cersei's motives, even if she is an evil harridan who will stop at nothing to protect her idiot children. Brienne the Beauty has emerged as my favorite character -- except for Tyrion of course, who isn't in this book except by name and reputation.

Now I'm re-reading Watchmen by Moore and Gibbons. Anyone who thinks the Snyder film is a "slavish recreation" of the graphic novel has either never read the graphic novel, or read it so long ago they only remember the key images and general events that did make it faithfully to the screen. Snyder's cinematic version excises a lot (yes, I've seen the Extended Cut), and more unforgivably, changes the staging of scenes so that we lose what's really important: the psychological effect the events have on the characters' minds and choices.

Pages full of purely visual information with no dialogue, such as Dan Dreiberg's descent into his basement to put on the glasses and rediscover his identity, are glossed over in the film. The movie for the most part plays like an adolescent's memory of having read the superlative Watchmen. Then there was this cool scene where this guy hit this other guy with a lamp-post, and it was all slo-motion-y and blood spurted everywhere! Yes, but why is that scene important? Uhhhh... it looks cool?

 

Ernst Breisach: Historiography: Ancient, Medieval & Modern(2007, originally 1983).
Steven Manly: Visions of the Multiverse(2011).
Michael Swanwick: Stations of the Tide(2011, originally 1991).
Quinlan Vos - Jedi in Darkness(2010).

 

Read Shakespeare's Cymbeline recently and I didn't really care for it that much. It's easily my least favorite of the ones I've read. It has some interesting elements though including a blunt deus ex machina moment that I would have never expected from Shakespeare. The whole play though is very anti-climactic with plot elements he used before more competently.

 

Hunter S. Thompson's The Rum Diary. Real solid, I think they're making it into another Johnny Depp movie.

Also Hitch 22 by Christopher Hitchens.

 

Jeremy Scahill: Blacwater

 

New biography of Bismarck. Pretty dry.

 

Blood Rites: Dresden 6. This series is so Fbombing good!!!

 

Undisputed: How to Become the World Champion in 1,372 Easy Steps by Chris Jericho

 

New book by Erik Larson, "In the Garden of Beasts"

 

Robert Fagels' translation of The Iliad.

 

How does it compare to Larson's other work?




The Fugitive by Marcel Proust

The penultimate volume of In Search Of Lost Time


Lords And Ladies by Terry Pratchett


The Hound Of The Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle

 

The English translation of Shusaku Endo's Silence. It's a brilliant pageturner and it's questions of theology are extremely engaging. What Endo does is take Christianity/Catholicism and brings it to the basest questions you can ask about it.

 

Silence is next up for me...I'm really looking forward to it.

 

After putting Dresden 6 on hold for Conviction Im now back to it after finishing Conviction.

 

I didn't get very far with "The Devil in the White City", and I'm stalling here, too; though the subject is fascinating.

 

Those Guys Have All The Fun-An Oral History of ESPN: Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller

 

Currently reading:
The Wolf's Tooth: Keystone Predators, Trophic Cascades, and Biodiversity (2010) by Cristina Eisenberg
Beggars and Thieves: Lives of Urban Street Criminals (1995) by Mark S. Fleisher
The Damned Busters (2011) by Matthew Hughes

And, wow, it's been a while. Books read since my last update:

Fiction
Bet Me (2004) by Jennifer Crusie
Mirror Dance (1994) by Lois McMaster Bujold
Cetaganda (1995) by Lois McMaster Bujold
Memory (1996) by Lois McMaster Bujold
The Brains of Rats (1990) by Michael Blumlein
A Game of Thrones (Book One of A Song of Ice and Fire) (1996) by George R. R. Martin (4th time or so, but the first time in a decade)
A Companion to Wolves (2007) by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear
The Hunger Games (2008) by Suzanne Collins
Dreamweaver's Dilemma: Short Stories and Essays (1996) by Lois McMaster Bujold
Komarr (1998) by Lois McMaster Bujold
A Civil Campaign (1999) by Lois McMaster Bujold
Catching Fire (The Second Book of The Hunger Games) (2009) by Suzanne Collins
The Mermaids Singing (1995) by Val McDermid
Mockingjay (The Final Book of The Hunger Games) (2010) by Suzanne Collins
Sensation (2011) by Nick Mamatas
Deathless (2011) by Catherynne M. Valente
Pym (2011) by Mat Johnson
Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti (2011) by Genevieve Valentine

Nonfiction
Essential Theory for Social Work Practice (2006) by Chris Beckett
Meat Market: Female Flesh under Capitalism (2011) by Laurie Penny
True Notebooks (2003) by Mark Salzman
Waging Nonviolent Struggle: 20th Century Practice and 21st Century Potential (2005) by Gene Sharp, with the collaboration of Joshua Paulson and the assistance of Christopher A. Miller and Hardy Merriman
The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart (2008) by Bill Bishop with Robert G. Cushing
Death's Acre: Inside the Legendary Forensic Lab?the Body Farm?Where the Dead Do Tell Tales (2003) by Dr. Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson
One-Dimensional Woman (2009) by Nina Power
Falling in Love: Why We Choose The Lovers We Choose (second edition; 1999, 2005) by Ayala Malach Pines
Words to Our Now: Imagination and Dissent (2005) by Thomas Glave

Comics
The Hedge Knight (2003-2004) adapted by Ben Avery (script) and Mike S. Miller (pencils) from the "The Hedge Knight" (1998) by George R. R. Martin
The Hedge Knight II: Sworn Sword (2007-2008) adapted by Ben Avery (script) and Mike S. Miller (pencils) from "The Sworn Sword" (2003) by George R. R. Martin
Thor: The Mighty Avenger (2010-2011) by Roger Langridge (script) and Chris Samnee (art) with Matthew Wilson (colors)
Existence 2.0 (2009) by Nick Spencer (words) and Ronald Salas (art)
Existence 3.0 (2009-2010) by Nick Spencer (words) and Ronald Salas (art)

 

What did you think of the Hunger Games trilogy? I thought the first two were fantastic. The third one lost its way and felt rushed; it crammed too much info and events into a single, short book. The author surprised me by the unconventional choices she made with the characters toward the end of the novel.