CCE
(Keyrock the unfrozen caveman lawyer; your world frightens & confuses me)
41
I mostly read speculative fiction/sci-fi. Recently I read Andy Weir’s 3 novels. He’s best known for The Martian, which became a Matt Damon movie, and his other 2 so far are The Hail Mary Project, which is at least as good/entertaining as The Martian, and Artemis, which is much less so. Hail Mary has some pretty good brain-stretching concepts in it.
I’ve also been reading speculative fiction by an Aussie named James Islington, The Will Of The Many (which I wouldn’t have read yet if I had realized it was book 1 of 3, with 2+3 yet to be published - but it was a gift from my son) and an older series of Islington’s called the Licanius Trilogy.
Being temporarily out of new stuff, I just re-read Roger Zelazny’s 10-book series Chronicles of Amber, but that doesn’t really count because I’ve read them all before.
Mostly I’m back to reading more online news/commentary/politics (ug)/etc.
A few years ago the head librarian in this county wanted a $30K a year raise. Or she would have to drive one hour each way to a different library where she was offered another job. As far as I know she’s still here and seriously doubt she got much of a raise.
I’m starting on a big project – every Ed McBain book (87th Precinct, Matthew Hope, etc). Looks like I had previously read 17 of them so I have a buttload to go. Recently read the first 87th Precinct book (Cop Hater) and now on The Pusher. These books are from the mid 50s so pretty dated but the writing is crisp and it’s interesting to see how far the envelope could be pushed in that era.
At @MTS, my sister’s book club just did Lesson In Chemistry. Working through some books Easy Rawlins books
by Walter Mosley; Trouble is What I Do and Blood Grove so far.
On Mrs. ricepad’s recommendation, I’m mostly through “Properties of Thirst” by Marianne Wiggins. It’s a historical novel set in the Owens River Valley during World War 2, and brings together issues of water/water rights, incarceration of Japanese Americans, and obsessions with food. It took me while to get used to the author’s writing style, and I’m not too thrilled at the implied depiction of “White Saviors”, but the intersection of food and Japanese American history speaks to me (although my family wasn’t at Manzanar). I’m withholding final judgment until I finish the book.
My heavier ongoing series completion project is all of Mark Zuehlke’s books on the Canadian Army in WW2. I have discovered that I am woefully uninformed on the Canadian contribution to victory in the ETO, which means that 99.9 percent of Americans are 100% uninformed about this stuff.
The books cover the disastrous raid on Dieppe in 1942, the 1943 invasions of Sicily and Italy and the slow crawl up the peninsula through 1945, D-Day and its aftermath, and the liberation of Belgium and Holland through the end of the war in Europe.
I know this is way too much for most readers but if you have any interest in WW check this guy out.
Cheuk Kwan’s Have You Eaten Yet is a round-the-world tour of Chinese restaurants in out of the way places, such as Norway above the Arctic Circle, Peru, India, Turkey. He concentrates on the communities Chinese emigrants have forged everywhere, with just a glance at the food itself. Everywhere he goes, even second-generation children of emigrants consider themselves Chinese, and many long to return there even if they’ve never been.
The book is a companion to a series of videos the author produced, called Chinese Restaurants. It’s on YouTube.
I’m on a lengthy wait list for Goodbye, Vitamin. I wasn’t aware of Rachel Khong until I heard her on the Recipe Club podcast and Priya Krishna hyped her book.
My book club is discussing Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine tonight. Unfortunately, food isn’t discussed in detail but the narrator/protagonist is a hilariously controlling Soviet mama. Listening to Tom Lake on audio - Meryl Streep narrates beautifully.
I’m stuck part way through ‘The Age of Deer’.
Sidetracked with magazines (from the online service through the library) and ‘A Year Down Yonder’ by Richard Peck. His ‘Grandma Dowdel’ can be a good diversion.
I couldn’t take anymore of ‘Brain Droppings’ by George Carlin.
Wanting to re-read ‘Tisha’ by Robery Specht.
