The Book Thread 2022

[Blip]

I read most books on Kindle these days but can't find the English version on Amazon. Perhaps Kaleid or don't get me started can throw some light?

[scott1328]

1. Professor Unrat, Heinrich Mann
2. God is not Great, Christopher Hitchens
3. The Ill-Made Knight, T.H. White
4. Northern Lights, Philip Pullman
5. The Subtle Knife, Philip Pullman
6. The Amber Spyglass, Philip Pullman
7. The Character of Physical Law, Richard Feynmann
8. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, Douglas Adams
9. Knight Crusader, Ronald Welch.

10. Die Physiker, Friedrich Dürrenmatt

Appparently this was one of the most frequently played plays in the German-speaking world for decades after it was first performed (in 1962, I think); maybe it still is. Personally I think it's rather dated, and contrived, and I greatly prefer his other famous play, Der Besuch der alten Dame, which I remember reporting on in an earlier incarnation of this thread. I suppose it hit home at the time, because of all the angst about atomic war.

in my German literature class, we performed a reader’s theater of Der Besuch der alten Dame. i remember not “getting it’

That surprises me. Was the language too challenging, or what was the problem?

I found the play deeply ominous and troubling, as his fate closes in on Whatsisface (can't remember the chief character's name), and towards the end as he wants to leave on the train, is surrounded by his fellow villagers at the station, and he knows they're going to stop him, although they deny it with fake friendliness, and so he capitulates and just walks back into the village towards his inexorable destruction.

I understood the story, I just didn't get the point of the story. My reaction to it was much like my reaction to "The Lottery". Probably it is my own personal denial that real people would behave as depicted.

[don't get me started]

I read most books on Kindle these days but can't find the English version on Amazon. Perhaps Kaleid or don't get me started can throw some light?

Nah, sorry. I ordered my copy as a paperback from Amazon jp.

I don't really like reading on a screen and my research budget from work is used for actual books....the admin would get a bit panicked if I started buying digital books and many academic books are only available as physical books. For books under 10,000 yen, they are mine and I get to keep them if/when I leave. Books over 10,000 yen (and many academic books are) are the property of the university and when I leave/retire I have to hand them over and they will be added to the library. Not sure how this would work if they were on a kindle or somesuch.

Just doing a massive overhaul of my office as the bookshelves were getting full...got rid of the old shelves and brought in some new floor to ceiling ones to handle capacity. don't get her started has instituted a 'no more books at home' policy so any new volumes get taken to work.

[Evolving]

[bla bla bla...]

I understood the story, I just didn't get the point of the story. My reaction to it was much like my reaction to "The Lottery". Probably it is my own personal denial that real people would behave as depicted.

Ah, I see what you mean. One would, of course, like to hope that people wouldn't behave like that. I rather fear that in practice very many people would; when I think, for example, of denunciations in Nazi and Communist regimes - in full knowledge, or with a shrewd idea, of what lay in store for the denouncees - and probably other regimes that I know less about; and of how people turned on their neighbours in Bosnia in the 90s.

Possibly in reality it wouldn't happen quite so quickly (it all had to be squeezed into one evening at the theatre).

[scott1328]

[bla bla bla...]

I understood the story, I just didn't get the point of the story. My reaction to it was much like my reaction to "The Lottery". Probably it is my own personal denial that real people would behave as depicted.

Ah, I see what you mean. One would, of course, like to hope that people wouldn't behave like that. I rather fear that in practice very many people would; when I think, for example, of denunciations in Nazi and Communist regimes - in full knowledge, or with a shrewd idea, of what lay in store for the denouncees - and probably other regimes that I know less about; and of how people turned on their neighbours in Bosnia in the 90s.

Possibly in reality it wouldn't happen quite so quickly (it all had to be squeezed into one evening at the theatre).

The othering is what was missing for me in both the "Lottery" and "Besuch". Groups commit atrocities to outsiders. Both stories didn't do the job of othering the victim sufficiently, (or in the case of Besuch, my own defficiencies in the language prevented me from registering it).

[Macdoc]

Fast paced and intensely interesting ( to me at least ).

[Macdoc]

Facsinating https://harvardreview.org/book-review/exhalation/

[NamelessFaceless]

Audiobooks in Italics

1. Hope of Heaven - John O'Hara
2. Pal Joey - John O'Hara
3. Invitation to a Beheading - Vladimir Nabokov
4. Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever - Bill O'Reilly
5. Haroun and the Sea of Stories - Salman Rushdie
6. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky
7. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie
8. The Innocence of Father Brown - G.K. Chesterton
9. The Lost World - Arthur Conan Doyle
10 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
11. The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway
12. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
13. The Idiot - Fyodor Dostoevsky
14. A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

[Blip]

1. A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson
2. The Expectation Effect by David Robson
3. Crow Lake by Mary Lawson
4. Road Ends by Mary Lawson
5. A Brief History of Earth by Andrew H Knoll
6. Roseanna by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö translated by Lois Roth
7. The Man Who Went Up in Smoke by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö translated by Joan Tate
8. The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson
9. The Man on the Balcony by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö translated by Alan Blair
10. Rachel's Holiday by Marian Keyes
11. The Laughing Policeman by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö translated by Alan Blair
12. Monsieur Ka by Vesna Goldsworthy
13. The Fire Engine That Disappeared by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö translated by Joan Tate
14. Gorski by Vesna Goldsworthy
15. Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
16. Murder at the Savoy by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö translated by Joan Tate
17. The Abominable Man by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö translated by Joan Tate
18. The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak
19. Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl part translated by Ilse Lasch
20. The Locked Room by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö translated by Paul Britten Austin

These are good!

[don't get me started]

1. Cognitive Discourse Analysis: An introduction - Thora Tenbrink
2. Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything About Race, Gender And Identity- And Why This Harms Everybody – Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay
3. A History of the World in 12 Maps – Jerry Brotton
4. Origins of the Specious: Myths and Misconceptions of the English Language – Patricia T. O’Connor & Stewart Kellerman
5. Peer Interaction and Second Language Learning - Jenefer Philip, Rebecca Adams & Noriko Iwashita
6. Eugene Onegin - Alexander Pushkin
7. Found in Translation: How Language Shapes Our Lives and Transforms the World - Nataly Kelly & Jost Zetzche
8. English Words: A Linguistic Introduction - Heidi Harley
9. Questions: Formal, Functional and Interactional Perspectives Jan P. de Ruiter (Ed.)
10. Persepolis Rising - James S.A. Corey
11. English Prepositions: Their meanings and uses - R.M.W. Dixon
12. Draußen vor der Tür - Wolfgang Borchert
13. Metonymy: Hidden Shortcuts in Language, Thought and Communication - Jeannette Liitlemore

14. Tiamat's Wrath - James S.A. Corey

531 pp.

Book 8 in the series. Great stuff. Couple of "Wow" moments and a satisfying story arc (although I did see one plot twist from a mile away...) Book 9 on order.

[Macdoc]

Yep lovely stuff. Try SevenEves if you haven't already.
.....
Looking forward to this

[NamelessFaceless]

Audiobooks in Italics

1. Hope of Heaven - John O'Hara
2. Pal Joey - John O'Hara
3. Invitation to a Beheading - Vladimir Nabokov
4. Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever - Bill O'Reilly
5. Haroun and the Sea of Stories - Salman Rushdie
6. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky
7. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie
8. The Innocence of Father Brown - G.K. Chesterton
9. The Lost World - Arthur Conan Doyle
10 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
11. The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway
12. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
13. The Idiot - Fyodor Dostoevsky
14. A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle
15. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert (a re-read, this time listened)
16. Around the World in Eighty Days - Jules Vernes (I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed this!)
17. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (another re-read, this time listened)

[Macdoc]

You buying all those classics audio books or library? or other?

[don't get me started]

1. Cognitive Discourse Analysis: An introduction - Thora Tenbrink
2. Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything About Race, Gender And Identity- And Why This Harms Everybody – Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay
3. A History of the World in 12 Maps – Jerry Brotton
4. Origins of the Specious: Myths and Misconceptions of the English Language – Patricia T. O’Connor & Stewart Kellerman
5. Peer Interaction and Second Language Learning - Jenefer Philip, Rebecca Adams & Noriko Iwashita
6. Eugene Onegin - Alexander Pushkin
7. Found in Translation: How Language Shapes Our Lives and Transforms the World - Nataly Kelly & Jost Zetzche
8. English Words: A Linguistic Introduction - Heidi Harley
9. Questions: Formal, Functional and Interactional Perspectives Jan P. de Ruiter (Ed.)
10. Persepolis Rising - James S.A. Corey
11. English Prepositions: Their meanings and uses - R.M.W. Dixon
12. Draußen vor der Tür - Wolfgang Borchert
13. Metonymy: Hidden Shortcuts in Language, Thought and Communication - Jeannette Liitlemore
14. Tiamat's Wrath - James S.A. Corey

15. Leviathan Falls - James S.A. Corey

514 pp.

Final book in the expanse series. Yep. I'm satisfied. Brings the story to a nice end. There is all of the usual stuff of sci-fi here- the space battles, mysterious alien artifacts, new worlds to explore and so on, but the strength of the series (compared to some of the other sci-fi that I have read over the years) is the depth of characterization, the detailed and believable world building, the ear for dialogue and also the commentary of various aspects of the human condition that raises it from mere narrative to serious art. Well done the writers.

Bit sad that it has finished (both the TV series and the book series) but I can well see why the last three books would be a handful to translate to the screen.

[scott1328]

1. Caliban's War, James S A Corey Book 2 in the Expanse Series.
2. Time’s Eye, Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter
3. Sun Storm, Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter. Sequel to Time's Eye.
4. The Firtstborn, Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter
5. Abaddon’s Gate, James S A Corey, Book 3 in the Expanse Series.
6. Cibola Burn, James S A Corey, Book 4 in the Expanse Series.
7. Nemesis Games, James S A Corey, Book 5 in the Expanse Series.
8. Babylon’s Ashes, James S A Corey, Book 6 in the Expanse Series.
9. Persepolis Rising, James S A Corey, Book 7 in the Expanse Series.
10. Tiamat’s Wrath, James S A Corey, Book 8 in the Expanse Series.
11. Leviathan Falls, James S A Corey, Book 9 in the Expanse Series.
12. Fragment, Warren Fahy
13. Memory’s Legion,James S A Corey, Collection short stories and novellas set in the Expanse universe.
14. Kaiju Preservation Society, John Scalzi.
15. Old Man’s War, John Scalzi.
16. The Ghost Brigades, John Scalzi, Sequel to Old Man’s War.
17. The Last Colony, John Scalzi, Third in the Old Man's War series.
18. The Human Division, John Scalzi, Fifth book in the Old Man's War series.
19. The End of All Things, John Scalzi, Sixth book in Old Man’s War series.
20. Redshirts, John Scalzi.
21. Fuzzy Nation, John Scalzi, A reimagining/retelling of H. Beam Piper’s sci-fi classic Little Fuzzy.

22. Neptune Crossing, Jeffrey A. Carver. I regret reading this. 10 hours of what should have been a 10 page short story.

[Blip]

1. A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson
2. The Expectation Effect by David Robson
3. Crow Lake by Mary Lawson
4. Road Ends by Mary Lawson
5. A Brief History of Earth by Andrew H Knoll
6. Roseanna by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö translated by Lois Roth
7. The Man Who Went Up in Smoke by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö translated by Joan Tate
8. The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson
9. The Man on the Balcony by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö translated by Alan Blair
10. Rachel's Holiday by Marian Keyes
11. The Laughing Policeman by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö translated by Alan Blair
12. Monsieur Ka by Vesna Goldsworthy
13. The Fire Engine That Disappeared by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö translated by Joan Tate
14. Gorski by Vesna Goldsworthy
15. Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
16. Murder at the Savoy by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö translated by Joan Tate
17. The Abominable Man by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö translated by Joan Tate
18. The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak
19. Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl part translated by Ilse Lasch
20. The Locked Room by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö translated by Paul Britten Austin
21. Cop Killer by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö translated by Thomas Teal

[UncertainSloth]

1. the long take - robin robertson - 8/10
2. the gatekeeper - russ kane - 5/10
3. dr potter's medicine show - eric scott fischl - 8/10
4. just one damn thing after another - jodi taylor - 8/10 -
5. trinity - louisa hall - 8/10
6. the night ocean - paul la farge - 9/10
7. washington black - esi edugyan - 8/10
8. the monsters of templeton - lauren groff - 8/10 - a study of a family through modern-day happenstances and historical documents as the main character investigates who her real father may be

[Animavore]

Beyond the Tape by Ireland's State Pathologist Marie Cassidy. An autobiographical account of her career.

Everyone in Ireland knows Marie Cassidy. If there was a murder and the news said the State Pathologist Marie Cassidy was being flown to the scene you knew it was either high-profile or particularly gruesome.

However, I didn't know until reading this book, Marie is from just outside Glasgow, how odd this was, as she relays herself how odd it is. Apparently no one knows who the head pathologist is anywhere else.

But apparently the Irish are obsessed with death.

[scott1328]

1. Caliban's War, James S A Corey Book 2 in the Expanse Series.
2. Time’s Eye, Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter
3. Sun Storm, Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter. Sequel to Time's Eye.
4. The Firtstborn, Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter
5. Abaddon’s Gate, James S A Corey, Book 3 in the Expanse Series.
6. Cibola Burn, James S A Corey, Book 4 in the Expanse Series.
7. Nemesis Games, James S A Corey, Book 5 in the Expanse Series.
8. Babylon’s Ashes, James S A Corey, Book 6 in the Expanse Series.
9. Persepolis Rising, James S A Corey, Book 7 in the Expanse Series.
10. Tiamat’s Wrath, James S A Corey, Book 8 in the Expanse Series.
11. Leviathan Falls, James S A Corey, Book 9 in the Expanse Series.
12. Fragment, Warren Fahy
13. Memory’s Legion,James S A Corey, Collection short stories and novellas set in the Expanse universe.
14. Kaiju Preservation Society, John Scalzi.
15. Old Man’s War, John Scalzi.
16. The Ghost Brigades, John Scalzi, Sequel to Old Man’s War.
17. The Last Colony, John Scalzi, Third in the Old Man's War series.
18. The Human Division, John Scalzi, Fifth book in the Old Man's War series.
19. The End of All Things, John Scalzi, Sixth book in Old Man’s War series.
20. Redshirts, John Scalzi.
21. Fuzzy Nation, John Scalzi, A reimagining/retelling of H. Beam Piper’s sci-fi classic Little Fuzzy.
22. Neptune Crossing, Jeffrey A. Carver. I regret reading this. 10 hours of what should have been a 10 page short story.

23. Apes and Angels, Ben Bova. The Predecessors have charged humans with saving less advanced sentient beings inhabiting neighboring star systems from a gamma wave burst from the galactic core and have given humankind the technology to accomplish this,

[NamelessFaceless]

You buying all those classics audio books or library? or other?

They're free on Amazon Prime. But I've just about tapped out the Prime library except for their original short stories, which I have no interest in. There is one left I haven't downloaded - War and Peace. If I had already read it I would definitely start listening to it, but it feels like cheating to listen to it first.