What are you reading this week of September 3, 2017?

[hermetic]

I am finally finishing up my Rebus short stories and the Erdrich masterpiece. Next I will embark upon a long-awaited journey back to Lincoln's time in the historical-fiction novel, Henry and Clara by Thomas Mallon. This unusual love story of a "young couple whose fateful encounter with history profoundly affects the remainder of their lives. Lincoln's assassination is only one part of the remarkable life they share, a dramatic tale of passion, scandal, heroism, murder, and madness..." has been on my must-read list for several months. to one of our participants here for recommending it.

I am listening to Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair, a surreal version of Great Britain, circa 1985, where time travel is routine, cloning is a reality, and literature is taken very, very seriously. This is a fun story of characters being kidnapped from novels and how a renowned Special Operative in Literary Detection must enter a novel herself to avert a heinous act of literary homicide.

Wishing everyone a peaceful and pleasant

[bdtrppr6]

1. always more than one

depends on my reading mood of the moment.

A Demon Haunted World-Carl Sagan
This is Orson Welles-Orson & Peter Bogdonavich
Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In-Joe Bob Briggs(John Bloom)

and for fun and a good daily reminder,
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.

[hermetic]

2. Pay close attention

to The Fall part of that last one. It could come in handy soon.

Joe Bob sounds terrific. Movie reviews written between 1982 and 1985. From Wikipedia: "Joe Bob exclusively viewed movies in drive-ins, in his Oldsmobile Toronado with any one of several girlfriends. According to his column, he has four ex-wives, and is always on the lookout for "ex-wife number five". An entire fictional cast of characters popped up over the period of the column, who would often be mentioned in the story along with the movie reviews."

Sagan's book is most excellent and the Welles book looks like something anyone really interested in film should read.


Thanks for the input.

[shenmue]

3. Hidden Killers, Lynda La Plante

https://imgur.com/gallery/o8RDL

I really hope it's less depressing than the last one.

[hermetic]

4. I hope so, too

I've decided I really want to see the British TV productions of La Plante's Prime Suspect. I love Helen Mirren and they do sound really good.

[shenmue]

5. Enjoy!

[TexasProgresive]

6. I have been incredible busy but managed to finish "Axeman Jazz" by Julie Smith and

Foundation and Empire and start Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov. I read these Foundation novels years ago and have scant memories so it is almost like new. I only knew about the 3 but I find there are 6; Prelude to Foundation,Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation, Foundation's Edge and Forward the Foundation. I have [Forward the Foundation but I'm going to have to locate Prelude and Edge.

I really liked and Empire. One of the most important characters was Bayta a strong and capable woman. I don't think women had a voice in Foundation at all. They were mentioned as cooks and bottle washers.

edit to add: I just love the smell of old high acid paper backs. I know the paper is degrading but that slightly sweet indescribable smell makes me happy. Newer publications that use soy ink are really nasty smelling. (but that won't stop me from reading).

[hermetic]

9. No doubt

you've been busy. Are you able to get around okay? Able to get things you need?

Ha! You made me go smell my books and by golly, you're right!

[TexasProgresive]

11. We were very lucky.

We got a total of 9 inches in the north part of the county. Friends more south got 24. Nothing like the coast.

[PoorMonger]

7. Stephen Florida by Gabe Habash

"In Stephen Florida, Gabe Habash has created a coming-of-age story with its own, often explosive, rhythm and velocity. Habash has a canny sense of how young men speak and behave, and in Stephen, he's created a singular character: funny, ambitious, affecting, but also deeply troubled, vulnerable, and compellingly strange. This is a shape-shifter of a book, both a dark ode to the mysteries and landscapes of the American West and a complex and convincing character study."
―Hanya Yanagihara, author of A Little Life

Foxcatcher meets The Art of Fielding, Stephen Florida follows a college wrestler in his senior season, when every practice, every match, is a step closer to greatness and a step further from sanity. Profane, manic, and tipping into the uncanny, it's a story of loneliness, obsession, and the drive to leave a mark.

[hermetic]

10. Intriguing!

Sounds like dark fun. It says "the American West." Does this take place in current time? Which states, specifically? Inquiring minds and all...

[PoorMonger]

12. Yeah

It starts out in small town North Dakota , but I think that it will move further west.

[PoorMonger]

8. Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians by Gilbert Livingstone Wilson

This is a neat kind of oral history that was originally Wilson's graduate thesis ; it is transcribed as it was told to him by Maxi'diwiac (Buffalo Bird Woman). This was in the Hidatsa - Mandan settlements along the Missouri River. Later it was called Berthold Reservation by whites. As the title suggests mostly it is concerned with agricultural methods , though what I find most interesting is the look that it gives toward their gendered division of labor and society where women did the bulk of the farming and production.