What are you reading this week of January 22, 2017?

[hermetic]

To all who marched yesterday: HURRAH and THANK YOU! You are all awesome.

Still reading Snow Crash. This book has given me much to ponder. I have always been intrigued by the idea that language/sounds have a certain power. Combine that with computer language and you really get into some deep thoughts. Which reminded me of the old eyeball theory in Firesign Theater's Give Me Immortality or Give Me Death. You know, an eyeball. A one and a zero. Computer language! No longer sure whether to laugh or cry.

Meanwhile, I'm still struggling against ice and snow. Starting to feel like Sisyphus. This is one hell of a hoax the Chinese are playing on us here.

So, what are you eyeballing this week?

[democrank]

1. Fiction set in1973.

Second Sight by Rickey Gard Diamond. Picked it up at a yard sale because of what Wally Lamb said about it. After that (non-fiction)....Eric Sloane's Weather Book.

[hermetic]

4. Sound pretty intense

(I looked it up ) A haunting story of a graduate student who returns to her childhood home in the Michigan wilderness and finds herself caught in a web of violence with her brother, a Vietnam vet just released from prison, and his hippie wife. Thanks for sharing.

[mindem]

2. The Italian Baker

It's not fiction, but I'm a cottage baker and it's almost required reading.

[hermetic]

6. Carol Field's?

I was literally drooling just reading about that book on Amazon. I have started making my own bread very recently, got a machine, and I would love to be able to bake a thick, chewy Italian loaf. Sad to see they don't have that book at my library.

[mindem]

9. That's the one.

You may want to keep checking at Alibris, that's my go-to source for cookbooks. I have saved a fortune picking up slightly loved books at Alibris.

[TexasProgresive]

3. "Wenesday's Child" by Peter Robinson

I posted the following in GD
Psychotic symbiosis

I ran accross this phrase in a novel Wednesday's Childby Peter Robinson. It struck a chord that it fits what is going on with a certain group of people. Regardless of the facts they are in a group session that reinforces their communal illness. They insist that bad times when the conservatives were in power did not happen and that even as things improve with a democrat in power they think things are worse. Here's a dialogue from the same novel that, while not a perfect analogy, does illustrate my point.

DCI Alan Banks is questioning a deplorable, Les Poole.

“I don’t have a job, Mr. Banks. You know what it’s like these days, all that unemployment and all.”

“Join the rest of us in the nineties, Les. Maggie’s gone. The three million unemployed are a thing of the past.”

[hermetic]

5. Yes, most assuredly

They've got to have others, even just one, to give the feedback that assures them they are right. Definitely see a lot of that happening these days. Facebook is a good example. People post utter garbage but they get a few likes and then just unfriend anyone who tries to point out the error of their thinking. SMH

I've really got to get some of Robinson's books.

[longship]

7. Kurt Vonnegut, "Cat's Cradle"

Because, no cat; no cradle.

Busy, busy, busy.

[hermetic]

8. A true classic

I should read that again. I think I will.

[longship]

10. Stay busy, busy, busy! nt

[TexasProgresive]

11. I've read several Vonnegut novels. The first when I was about 12.

Something Wicked This Way Comes. It scared the you know what out of me. I reread it several years ago and didn't find it quite so terrifying. What is his novel about the substance that will turn all water solid, Ice Nine?

There is a young lady who works at a Michaels near us who has a tattoo of Vonnegut's signature. She is a real fan.

[longship]

13. Cat's Cradle is indeed about ice nine.

But mostly it's about Bokononism and the writer's search for his karass.

I highly recommend it.

[TexasProgresive]

14. When you're as old as I am and have read as many books they get conflated.

I will probably read Vonnegut again this year.

[getting old in mke]

18. SWTWC is Ray Bradbury

Illinois boy instead of Indiana boy Vonnegut

[TexasProgresive]

20. Well, I do declare! I guess I've developed a case of CRS* disease.

* CRS- can't remember shit.

I was thinking that SWTWC was written by the same author of The Illustrated Man which is definitely a Bradbury book. And then I gave credit to Vonnegut. My bad.

[longship]

21. "Something Wicked this way Comes" is Ray Bradbury.

I've never read it, however it was first a screenplay, then later a published story when Bradbury's attempts to get a production together failed. Unfortunately, the eventual resulting film was produced by fucking Disney which took the edge off the plot because it would hurt their family values. Poor Disney snowflakes. (This according to Wiki.)

I've never seen the film either.

There has been word that Cat's Cradle will be filmed, but I have not seen that such a project is in the works. I guess we'll have to be satisfied with the only Vonnegut novel to be filmed, Slaughterhouse Five, which I rather like.

No hope for a cinematic Sirens of Titan. I suspect chronosynclastic infundibulum does not translate well to celluloid.

[TexasProgresive]

22. I have been corrected. See reply 18

[longship]

24. No prob, my friend.

Good lit is good lit.

[Number9Dream]

23. You should check out SWTWC the movie. It's quite good.

Bradbury wrote the screenplay. Jonathan Pryce is so creepy as Mr. Dark. Also good performances by Jason Robards, Pam Grier, and others.

[longship]

25. Yup. Think I'll stick it into my NetFlix queue.

Thanks!

And with crotchety Robards, it has to be good.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

12. The Forever War by Joe Haldeman.

I've been on a sci-fi kick lately.

I was always interested in science, but only recently started enjoying some science fiction.

I recently finished Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons. They're rated well, but I didn't care for the premise. Is Simmons a religious kook?

Hyperion's similarity to The Canterbury Tales was clever, I guess.

[hermetic]

16. Not sure how religious he is

In a review of Under the Dome, someone said he "took continuous cheap shots at christianity and multiple low blows at conservatives." It seems he comes off as a racist in a lot of his work. In Flashback he writes about a dystopian future where the U.S. has been bought out by Japan due to being bankrupted by Liberal entitlement programs like Social Security. That definitely got him removed from my must-read list. If I ever absolutely run out of good books to read, I might give him another try.

[Number9Dream]

15. "Fever Dream", "Cold Vengeance", & "Two Graves" by Preston & Child

These are the trilogy of books regarding the death of agent Pendergast's wife, Helen. A mystery revolving around the painter / naturalist John James Audubon adds even more interest to Fever Dream. The usual excellent action, page-turners from Preston & Child.

[hermetic]

17. Fever Dream

was quite interesting. I even researched the bird. Haven't read the other 2 yet. Didn't realize there was a trilogy.

[getting old in mke]

19. Just finished

Witches of America by Alex Mar. Non-fiction combination review of paths and personal spiritual memoir. Sort of Drawing Down the Moon in the 2010s.

This started off with a 2010 documentary she made American Mystic (available on Amazon Prime Streaming free) that spent time with three people in their early-mid 20s with non-mainstream paths. One is a young man, Kublai, on a Spiritualist farm in New York; another a Lakota Sun Dancer, Chuck; and the third, Morpheus Ravenna, a witch of the Feri tradition.

She (Mar) uses a very light hand, just recording their thoughts and experiences about life, family, work, practice, growth and weaves them together with no explicit interpretation.

Started John Le Carre's A Most Wanted Man but not far enough to opine yet

[hermetic]

27. WITCHES book

sounds quite intriguing.

Let us know how you liked the Carre book. Review says "Thrilling, compassionate, peopled with characters the reader never wants to let go, A Most Wanted Man is a work of deep humanity and uncommon relevance to our times." If that's true, I think I'd enjoy reading it, too.

[japple]

26. Hi all! Thanks for the thread, hermetic. The march in Atlanta was a day to remember.

I posted an account in the Georgia group as well as in GD: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10461605

I started reading Bernice McFadden's book, The Book of Harlan last night and am really caught up in the story.

BTW, I went to a play on Sunday at the local little theatre. It was Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris. If you get a chance to see it, I highly recommend it.

[hermetic]

28. So happy for your experience!

Your sign is fabulous and to shake hands with John Lewis!

The Book of Harlan gets very high praise. "During WWII, two African-American musicians are captured by the Nazis in Paris and imprisoned at the Buchenwald concentration camp." Wow, that's got to be interesting.

That play sounds fantastic. Sadly, no theatre here. I'll have to look around for a copy of it. I have no problem reading plays; done it a lot.

[japple]

29. You will have no problem finding the play. Clybourne Park was a

Pulitzer Prize winner for playwright Bruce Norris!

Thank you, hermetic.