Another Book Thread

[Kepler]

Re: Another Book Thread

Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly, and the Making of the Modern Middle East by Scott Anderson I tend to find books on WWI to not be that good basically due to the plodding stalemate of trench warfare that marked the conflict.

Have you read Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August? I highly recommend it for the politics and diplomacy of the war. There is also quite a bit on grand strategy and lots of stuff about tactics, particularly Ludendorff's early genius and the Germans' ability to devolve decision-making down to field commanders allowing them to be flexible and creative.

 

[leswp1]

Re: Another Book Thread

Listening to an audiobook where the narrator is horrible. Her speech patterns are terrible. The story is good but I might not make it

 

[jen]

Re: Another Book Thread

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond - really, really interesting. He did fieldwork in Milwaukee and moved into a trailer park and also a rooming house on the north side of Milwaukee to see how evictions affected people in poverty. Sad and frustrating.

 

[jen]

Re: Another Book Thread

The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict - story of Hedy LaMarr. Really interesting - I had no idea she did so much other stuff besides act. I wish the author had spent a little more time on her life during and after the war in the U.S. - that part of the book was a little short on details.

 

[jen]

Re: Another Book Thread

Maltese Falcon - I hated every person in this book. Had never read it before (or seen the movie). The role of women in the book was very... dated (as I would expect, given when it was written). Maybe it was that the guy who was reading it made them sound even more helpless and annoying. p.s. Sam Spade has blonde hair in the book.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Another Book Thread

Maltese Falcon - I hated every person in this book. Had never read it before (or seen the movie). The role of women in the book was very... dated (as I would expect, given when it was written). Maybe it was that the guy who was reading it made them sound even more helpless and annoying. p.s. Sam Spade has blonde hair in the book.

I love the book and the movie. I never liked Mary Astor's performance in the movie until I finally read the book and understood she was doing a perfect execution of Brigid. And she is anything but helpless.

Obviously the portrayal of women is not in fashion with this year's hemlines.

I recommend the movie. It follows the book well (though it is very cleaned up -- the implied sex is completely removed) and the casting is superb.

 

[jen]

Re: Another Book Thread

I love the book and the movie. I never liked Mary Astor's performance in the movie until I finally read the book and understood she was doing a perfect execution of Brigid. And she is anything but helpless.

Obviously the portrayal of women is not in fashion with this year's hemlines.

I recommend the movie. It follows the book well (though it is very cleaned up -- the implied sex is completely removed) and the casting is superb.

Brigid was obviously not helpless, but not likable either. Spade was probably the most likable... and I still didn't like him, but I did like that he let Brigid get what was coming to her.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Another Book Thread

Listening to an audiobook where the narrator is horrible. Her speech patterns are terrible. The story is good but I might not make it

That can kill a book. Right now I am listening to a scholarly book about Hegel and the narrator insists on using a comical Burgermeister Meisterburger accent whenever a German is quoted. It's incredibly off putting.

Even worse are narrators who mispronounce words and/or are obviously too stupid to understand what they're reading. Audible is typically good but some of the other outfits have zero quality control.

 

[jen]

Re: Another Book Thread

also, listened to the Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal. Really enjoyed it. Good story and interesting characters I could relate to (especially as someone from the Midwest). The narrator did a terrible job with the supposed Minnesota accents, though. Way too over the top.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Another Book Thread

Brigid was obviously not helpless, but not likable either. Spade was probably the most likable... and I still didn't like him, but I did like that he let Brigid get what was coming to her.

Brigid is a thoroughly horrible person; that's her charm. My only real objection to the movie is Sam is too good. The driver of the psychodrama is it should be wrenching for Sam to do the right thing in the end. In the book you get at least some feeling of Sam's corruption but Bogie's version is so honorable that Sam's decision is obvious.

In the book everybody stinks because it's a bad business in a bad town. That is the grimy feeling of the genre. An antihero is genuinely supposed to be a shnook. We are used to characters like Han Solo who are practically waiting to be redeemed. The only genuinely bad, and thus interesting, antihero I've seen in the last 50 years or so is Nicholson's character in Five Easy Pieces.

 

[leswp1]

Re: Another Book Thread

That can kill a book. Right now I am listening to a scholarly book about Hegel and the narrator insists on using a comical Burgermeister Meisterburger accent whenever a German is quoted. It's incredibly off putting.

Even worse are narrators who mispronounce words and/or are obviously too stupid to understand what they're reading. Audible is typically good but some of the other outfits have zero quality control.

Every time I listened it would take me 10 minutes to get in the rhythm (or lack of it). There was no change between sentences, questions, statements or anything. Like listening to someone reading a bunch of words with no punctuation. Worse was when she would say things that were the end of a section like there was no change. She also had a horrid British accent. Lived over there when I was a kid so that was even more grating. Like a cartoon character. The only time she got it right was when she was speaking the part of the Scottish maid. Then, for no explainable reason, things had punctuation and the correct inflection.

 

[jen]

Re: Another Book Thread

The Girl Who Lived Twice - latest in the Millennium series - enjoyable enough. I was surprised by the ending. I still don't think Lagercrantz really "gets" Lisbeth. Is this the last one? The end of the book seemed like it.

 

[MadTownSioux]

The Girl Who Lived Twice - latest in the Millennium series - enjoyable enough. I was surprised by the ending. I still don't think Lagercrantz really "gets" Lisbeth. Is this the last one? The end of the book seemed like it.

I remember hearing Steig Larsen had outlines for 9 books. If I’m remembering correctly.

 

[SJHovey]

Re: Another Book Thread

I remember hearing Steig Larsen had outlines for 9 books. If I’m remembering correctly.

I think there were urban legends of multiple manuscripts, but as I recall he really only left one behind and his girlfriend had possession of it. I don't think any of Lagercrantz' work is based off of anything Larsen wrote, other than just the basic characters.

 

[BassAle]

Re: Another Book Thread

just read Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham. Fascinating and terrifying at the same time. I found it interesting not only for the history of the Soviet nuclear industry and detailed analysis of the accident and its aftermath, but also for a glimpse into how the Soviet state operated. If you've seen the HBO series, which obviously was dramatized, this book is entirely based in facts obtained from interviews the author conducted as well as material that was declassified after the breakup of the Soviet Union.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Another Book Thread

About to start A Farewell to Arms after months of it sitting on my shelf. I tend to like his short stories but not his novels, so we'll see.

 

[The Sicatoka]

Re: Another Book Thread

I'm in the midst of the Scott Adams trifecta:

How to Lose at Almost Everything and Still Win Big
Win Bigly
Loserthink

 

[leswp1]

Re: Another Book Thread

Just listened to Magnus Chase by Rick Riordan. YA book that was surprisingly engaging. (He did the Percy Jackson series).

 

[Drew S.]

just read Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham. Fascinating and terrifying at the same time. I found it interesting not only for the history of the Soviet nuclear industry and detailed analysis of the accident and its aftermath, but also for a glimpse into how the Soviet state operated. If you've seen the HBO series, which obviously was dramatized, this book is entirely based in facts obtained from interviews the author conducted as well as material that was declassified after the breakup of the Soviet Union.

A few weeks ago I read a book on the event that was the precursor to this, ‘The Great Halifax Explosion.’ It’s one of the better nonfiction books I’ve ever read and it has a college hockey connection which makes it even better. I knew of the event before reading it, but the whole story was a lot more interesting than I would have thought. The book gives some context to Don Cherry’s remarks too.

 

[The Rube]

Re: Another Book Thread

just read Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham. Fascinating and terrifying at the same time. I found it interesting not only for the history of the Soviet nuclear industry and detailed analysis of the accident and its aftermath, but also for a glimpse into how the Soviet state operated. If you've seen the HBO series, which obviously was dramatized, this book is entirely based in facts obtained from interviews the author conducted as well as material that was declassified after the breakup of the Soviet Union.

I've been looking for another book to read, and this sounds like right up my alley. It's close enough to Black Friday, though, and while I detest participating in that event, sometimes the deals are too good to pass up. I only make a couple of purchases from Amazon a year; I build a list, then make a big purchase, in general. I figure in 2 weeks, I will pull the trigger on a purchase.