Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
A Journal of the Plague Year, by Daniel Defoe.
The year referred to is 1665, with the last great outbreak of the bubonic plague in Great Britain. Defoe was a small boy in that year, but wrote his account in 1722 in the form of a memoir by a London tradesman of the time. Although it is fictionalized, he did much serious research for it, and I understand it is considered fairly accurate.
Not to belabor the point, but much of this seems relevant to our current situation, with travel restrictions, quarantines, and an ever active rumor mill in both that era and our own. Of course, the people of the 17th and 18th centuries were a long way away from germ theory or a modern understanding of hygiene, but there were attempts to address their situation as rationally as they could with the information they had.
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
Currently not quite halfway through The Great Wide Open, by Douglas Kennedy.
Tale of a book editor who attended Bowdoin College, transferred to Trinity College in Dublin. Kennedy's a graduate of Bowdoin College
Have reached the point where the protagonist, while in Dublin pulls out her grandfather's Parker Big Red pen to dash off an aerogramme to her brother in Chile.
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
Just finished The Song of Achilles , by Madeline Miller. A pretty easy read except for all the Greek names, most of which I could not pronounce and quickly gave up trying. It is historical fiction, I think, and was in the time before the Trojan horse which we find out would be done by Achilles son. The author said "like shining scales of a fish" way to many times but I found nothing else annoying. Very good geological descriptions. There was love, hate, wars, loyalty, courage, and anger.
I got the paperback at Amazon. A definite recommend.
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
Just finished The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal. I loved it. I'm looking forward to the other books in the series.
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
Red Sparrow, by Jason Matthews.
Written by a retired CIA officer. In addition to the tale of counterespionage, the writer concludes each chapter with the recipe for the food item featured in that chapter.
And there is a fountain pen twist.
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
I just finished Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini, a classic pirate story. I downloaded it from Project Gutenberg. It's a good book. I recommend it if you like adventure novels.
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
Palace of Treason, the next in Jason Matthews' Red Sparrow series. Some interesting insights on the restarted Cold War.
During a nighttime op in the book, one of the CIA agents looks at his Luminox watch. Coincidentally, I've been looking for a new watch. Intrigued, upon looking up the brand I learned that Luminox, which uses Tritium technology to illuminate their watches' hands and markers, makes watches for Navy SEALS.
Just started the third and final novel in the series, The Kremlin's Candidate.
Next on the table: Daniel Patrick Moynihan: A Portrait in Letters of an American Visionary. Includes transcribed journal entries. According to the introduction, he typed most of his letters. I did find this about a pen that President Kennedy gave him.
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
Sooley, John Grisham's latest novel. Story of a basketball player from South Sudan whose dream of stardom takes him to the United States so he can help his struggling family back in Africa.
Just in from the library - Sergeant Stubby: How a Stray Dog and His Best Friend Helped Win World War 1 and Stole the Heart of a Nation, by Ann Bausum.
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
Just finished Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells. Started A Master of Djinn by P. Djeli Clark.
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
Just finished - again - On the beach, by Nevil Shute.
The plot and ending still chokes me up. Granted, by now, half a century later, out of the imminent threat of the cold war, i hope, no, i think, that all major powers realize that war is not the means to an end. But it could have been.
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
The Grizzly Maze: Timothy Treadwell’s Fatal Obsession with Alaskan Bears
By Nick Jans, Alaskan hunter turned hunting guide turned wildlife photographer/writer. Excellent and thoughtful take on the story
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
du côté de chez Swann
oof — this took a while, reading and rereading. And it was just the first volume…
The highlight for me was the rhapsody on the little theme towards the end of the 2nd part. The last lines of the book evoked the opening of Basho’s Narrow Road, which i’ve always thought were some of the best words written on the passage of time. It seems doubtful that Proust knew Basho's work; it’s probably just coincidence.
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
sharmon202
Just finished The Song of Achilles , by Madeline Miller. A pretty easy read except for all the Greek names, most of which I could not pronounce and quickly gave up trying. It is historical fiction, I think, and was in the time before the Trojan horse which we find out would be done by Achilles son. The author said "like shining scales of a fish" way to many times but I found nothing else annoying. Very good geological descriptions. There was love, hate, wars, loyalty, courage, and anger.
I got the paperback at Amazon. A definite recommend.
Read this one. Loved it!
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
BlkWhiteFilmPix
My son won a history competition with his Sgt. Stubby display. He dressed as Cpl. Conroy and our Boston Terrier dressed as Stubby
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
The Complete Guide to Aspberger’s Syndrome by Tony Attwood
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
Finished A Promised Land by Barack Obama...very worth it as someone who was just a bit too young to fully understand his first term.
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
Finally got around to "The man who mistook his wife for a hat". If I'm not wrong, I believe I heard of this book right here, in this thread, and had it wishlisted for years
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
Congrats to son and Terrier. Do you have a photo (if you're comfortable posting one) ?
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
Dark Sky, C. J. Box's latest Joe Pickett novel. Joe Pickett is a Wyoming game warden. Dark Sky is the twenty-second novel in the Joe Pickett series.
Thankfully our local library just got it.
Finished it in a day. The joy of retirement.
"So many books, so little time."
Re: What Was the Last Book You Read?
Windy City Blues, a collection of Sarah Paretsky stories. I wanted to like it, but didn’t.