Well hello there! It’s been a while. I’ve been wanting to write but not feeling up to it. Work is intense, the world is on fire, and I’m just flat-out tired. I’m enjoying the flowers bursting out and popping up everywhere though, like these little lovelies in our driveway.
It’s a very soggy end to winter here today - a perfect day to stay in and read. So let’s talk about books! What are you reading these days? Or listening to? Audiobooks always count as reading. Maybe you’ve read something especially good on the internet. Do tell… leave a comment below with your recent faves. Feel free to warn us away from anything overtly awful too.
Here’s a bonus for you! The perfect soundtrack for staying in to read on a rainy day (or hanging out on the patio if it’s warm where you are). Pour yourself a drink and enjoy the jazzy tunes. I particularly enjoyed “Industry in Motion #2.”
At the moment I'm reading "Life" by Keith Richards (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9439303-life). I'm quite enjoying his tales of growing up, getting into music and of course everything from day one of the Rolling Stones. I highly recommend it if you're a fan of the Stones or enjoy celebrity memoirs. Very readable, but it's taking a while because it's a bit of a doorstop! No surprise, he's got so many stories to tell.
I recently finished two books: a catty bio about Liz Taylor called Who's Afraid of Elizabeth Taylor by Brenda Maddox, and a non-fiction account of the rise and fall of the Comanches by S. C. Gwynne. I thoroughly enjoyed both. And I'm almost finished with The Copenhagen Trilogy: Childhood, Youth, Dependency by Tove Ditlevsen which falls into the genre of autofiction. I'm liking it a lot better than I did Karl Ove Knausgård's tedious My Struggle volumes. Next up I'm looking forward to reading House of Gucci by Sara Gay Ford. Enjoy all the blooms of springtime, Anne!
I had decided to read Kurt Vonnegut, Dashiell Hammett, and Svetlana Alexievitch this year. Vonnegut I haven't read since a teen, Hammett never, and Alexievitch only "The Unwomanly Face of War" (which I absolutely loved). Hammett was fun, very odd hard-boiled detective stories. Vonnegut's "Cat's Cradle" I'm sad to feel has had its time and has to be read in context, but I felt like "Slaughterhouse Five" held up better. Haven't started Alexievitch's "Zinky Boys" yet (about the Soviets in Afghanistan; "The Unwomanly Face of War" is about Soviet women who volunteered to fight in World War II).
And of course Murderbot kept me very good company while I had Covid ;)
I am about to start Matt Haig's 'The Humans'. Just finished Al White's 'Story of a Marine in the First Division' and 'Campaign in the Balkans' by Luz(?) -(solid guess I may have the name wrong it was a Libre Vox audio I lost the link here it seems...)
~thanks for the Jazzy interludes-my pooch loves Jazz! (JAZZ HANDS) Happy Spring Anne and Michael... it could not have come sooner.
Got two going at the moment. The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh and Night of the Gun by David Carr. Hungry Tide is set in the Sundarbans, off the coast of India and Bangladesh. Night of the Gun is Carr's memoir of his time as a reporter and addict, and a generally unpleasant human. Carr went on to straighten up and became an influential reporter at the NYT.
I recently finished "Mickey7" by Edward Ashton (https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250275035/mickey7). Mickey is an "expendable" and it's his job to do the dirty work that will likely end in death. He gets to be immortal, though (sort of). As the novel opens, Mickey is in a pickle and since he's confident of the outcome, he sends his crew home (who wants an audience, right?). Against all odds, Mickey survives - yay - but by the time he gets home, there's a Mickey8 in his bed - uh oh. One of them is bound for the corpse hole unless they can figure out how to coexist without detection. "Mickey7" is funny and exciting. Fellow Murderbot fans, you are likely to enjoy this as much as I did.
LOL - I deleted my recent reading list because I got typecasted into what type of books people think I like reading. The one I mentioned in the thread I deleted was because I was interested in the philosophical context, not the military context.
I read the other because I'm anti-gun zealotry.
This might have to be the last time I tell people what I've read. LOL
How did I miss this? Anyway, I’m “reading” a Regency Romance on audiobook by Julia Quinn. I call this kind of book a “potato chip” book because it’s easy to get addicted but it’s not at all improving of the mind (except if you count escaping the world’s troubles for a time). I’m also slowly working my way through Old in Art School: a Memoir of Starting Over by Nell Painter. I think the title explains much.
At the moment I'm reading "Life" by Keith Richards (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9439303-life). I'm quite enjoying his tales of growing up, getting into music and of course everything from day one of the Rolling Stones. I highly recommend it if you're a fan of the Stones or enjoy celebrity memoirs. Very readable, but it's taking a while because it's a bit of a doorstop! No surprise, he's got so many stories to tell.
I recently finished two books: a catty bio about Liz Taylor called Who's Afraid of Elizabeth Taylor by Brenda Maddox, and a non-fiction account of the rise and fall of the Comanches by S. C. Gwynne. I thoroughly enjoyed both. And I'm almost finished with The Copenhagen Trilogy: Childhood, Youth, Dependency by Tove Ditlevsen which falls into the genre of autofiction. I'm liking it a lot better than I did Karl Ove Knausgård's tedious My Struggle volumes. Next up I'm looking forward to reading House of Gucci by Sara Gay Ford. Enjoy all the blooms of springtime, Anne!
I had decided to read Kurt Vonnegut, Dashiell Hammett, and Svetlana Alexievitch this year. Vonnegut I haven't read since a teen, Hammett never, and Alexievitch only "The Unwomanly Face of War" (which I absolutely loved). Hammett was fun, very odd hard-boiled detective stories. Vonnegut's "Cat's Cradle" I'm sad to feel has had its time and has to be read in context, but I felt like "Slaughterhouse Five" held up better. Haven't started Alexievitch's "Zinky Boys" yet (about the Soviets in Afghanistan; "The Unwomanly Face of War" is about Soviet women who volunteered to fight in World War II).
And of course Murderbot kept me very good company while I had Covid ;)
I am about to start Matt Haig's 'The Humans'. Just finished Al White's 'Story of a Marine in the First Division' and 'Campaign in the Balkans' by Luz(?) -(solid guess I may have the name wrong it was a Libre Vox audio I lost the link here it seems...)
~thanks for the Jazzy interludes-my pooch loves Jazz! (JAZZ HANDS) Happy Spring Anne and Michael... it could not have come sooner.
Got two going at the moment. The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh and Night of the Gun by David Carr. Hungry Tide is set in the Sundarbans, off the coast of India and Bangladesh. Night of the Gun is Carr's memoir of his time as a reporter and addict, and a generally unpleasant human. Carr went on to straighten up and became an influential reporter at the NYT.
I recently finished "Mickey7" by Edward Ashton (https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250275035/mickey7). Mickey is an "expendable" and it's his job to do the dirty work that will likely end in death. He gets to be immortal, though (sort of). As the novel opens, Mickey is in a pickle and since he's confident of the outcome, he sends his crew home (who wants an audience, right?). Against all odds, Mickey survives - yay - but by the time he gets home, there's a Mickey8 in his bed - uh oh. One of them is bound for the corpse hole unless they can figure out how to coexist without detection. "Mickey7" is funny and exciting. Fellow Murderbot fans, you are likely to enjoy this as much as I did.
I'm currently reading "When We Were Birds" by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/672073/when-we-were-birds-by-ayanna-lloyd-banwo/). Darwin, whose culture dictates he never go amongst the dead, begins working as a gravedigger because there is no other work. Yejide's family has a different relationship with death and the dead. I'm about halfway through this on audio and I could almost believe I am in the Caribbean! Listen to a sample: https://www.booksontape.com/narrator/2275231/sydney-darius/
Meanwhile, I am compelled to read "Life" by Keith Richards now. Thanks for the tip, Anne!
LOL - I deleted my recent reading list because I got typecasted into what type of books people think I like reading. The one I mentioned in the thread I deleted was because I was interested in the philosophical context, not the military context.
I read the other because I'm anti-gun zealotry.
This might have to be the last time I tell people what I've read. LOL
How did I miss this? Anyway, I’m “reading” a Regency Romance on audiobook by Julia Quinn. I call this kind of book a “potato chip” book because it’s easy to get addicted but it’s not at all improving of the mind (except if you count escaping the world’s troubles for a time). I’m also slowly working my way through Old in Art School: a Memoir of Starting Over by Nell Painter. I think the title explains much.