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hermetic

(8,301 posts)
Sun Oct 29, 2017, 01:34 PM Oct 2017

What are you reading this week of October 29, 2017?



I'm reading Broken Things by G.S. Wright, who is my mailman. I've known for a while that he is a (self) published sci fi author but only now have been able to get a hold of one of his books. It's quite good, about the future in which there are no more children, only androids. At 149 pages I expect to finish it today or tomorrow then I will undertake the 793 pages of The Harry Bosch Novels by Michael Connelly. This is a compilation of three of his books, The Black Echo, The Black Ice and The Concrete Blonde. I'm looking forward to it being an enjoyable read. I just hope I don't drop it on my foot. Sucker must weigh 5 pounds!

Have a calm, safe and fun Halloween, every'body'. (I'm keeping my hopes high that we won't be under martial law or something by then, otherwise I'm gonna be stuck with an enormous lot of candy.) Special thoughts for you Eastcoasters in the current storm path.


35 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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What are you reading this week of October 29, 2017? (Original Post) hermetic Oct 2017 OP
The Consolation of Philosophy Marie Marie Oct 2017 #1
That sounds really interesting hermetic Oct 2017 #5
I just read an Alain de Bottom book womanofthehills Nov 2017 #25
The wisdom of the Stoic Philosophers are what is keeping me sane during these "interesting" times. Marie Marie Nov 2017 #29
Thanks to you, hermetic, I am reading my first of Michael Connelly's Lincoln Lawyer novels TexasProgresive Oct 2017 #2
The Fifth Witness hermetic Oct 2017 #6
Found it! hermetic Oct 2017 #12
Keys to the Kingdom JonLP24 Oct 2017 #3
I'd read it hermetic Oct 2017 #8
I haven't started it yet JonLP24 Oct 2017 #9
So far Break time Oct 2017 #4
Cool! hermetic Oct 2017 #7
I couldn't even watch the show even though JonLP24 Oct 2017 #10
Turtles All the Way Down by John Green pscot Oct 2017 #11
Well, hermetic Oct 2017 #13
Turtles all the way down pscot Oct 2017 #14
Love that levitating candle! Happy Halloweenie, friends. Thanks, hermetic, for the thread. japple Oct 2017 #15
Hi hermetic Nov 2017 #19
We didn't have one single trick-or-treat-er at our house. We are way too far out in the boonies. japple Nov 2017 #21
Oh, yes hermetic Nov 2017 #22
Well that was months and months ago! I can't remember past breakfast anymore, sad to say. japple Nov 2017 #23
Yeah, me too hermetic Nov 2017 #24
"Post Captain" by Patrick O'Brian Number9Dream Oct 2017 #16
Both fast and slow getting old in mke Oct 2017 #17
Thanks for the info - makes more sense Number9Dream Oct 2017 #18
Hey, how nice hermetic Nov 2017 #20
This message was self-deleted by its author HopeAgain Nov 2017 #26
Just downloaded The Gentleman From Moscow dhol82 Nov 2017 #27
Hope you are enjoying it now hermetic Nov 2017 #32
Undoctored: How Healthcare Has Failed You and rainy Nov 2017 #28
Sadly hermetic Nov 2017 #35
The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King PennyK Nov 2017 #30
Oooh, Sherlockian! hermetic Nov 2017 #33
A few matt819 Nov 2017 #31
I'm really enjoying hermetic Nov 2017 #34

hermetic

(8,301 posts)
5. That sounds really interesting
Sun Oct 29, 2017, 02:05 PM
Oct 2017

Never heard of it before. Written from a prison in the year 524 AD, the issues are eternally relevant: the nature of predestination and free will, why evil men often prosper and good men fall into ruin, human nature, virtue, and justice.
Here is a fun summation of the novel:
https://www.shmoop.com/confederacy-of-dunces/boethius-consolation-philosophy-symbol.html

Fascinating! Thanks.

womanofthehills

(8,650 posts)
25. I just read an Alain de Bottom book
Wed Nov 1, 2017, 10:17 PM
Nov 2017
How Proust Can Change Your Life - sounds tongue in cheek but lots of good stuff.

TexasProgresive

(12,154 posts)
2. Thanks to you, hermetic, I am reading my first of Michael Connelly's Lincoln Lawyer novels
Sun Oct 29, 2017, 01:50 PM
Oct 2017

Same one as you posted last week The Fifth Witness. I didn't know about this series. I've read several Harry Bosch novels including 2 of the 3 you have. I don't remember The Concrete Blonde. I really like them- all set in LA if I remember correctly. Anyway I'm enjoying Mickey Haller.

Last night at a wedding reception dinner I was sitting next to a lawyer friend- He had not read the Lincoln Lawyer books but said there was a movie with Matthew McConaughey that he thought was quite good. I may watch that someday.

hermetic

(8,301 posts)
6. The Fifth Witness
Sun Oct 29, 2017, 02:09 PM
Oct 2017

Was quite a story; had some interesting twists.

I, too, will look into that movie. Thanks.

hermetic

(8,301 posts)
8. I'd read it
Sun Oct 29, 2017, 02:22 PM
Oct 2017

Sounds like a good story but it looks like many are put off by his writing style which I see referred to as weak, contrived and stilted. What do you think?

JonLP24

(29,322 posts)
9. I haven't started it yet
Sun Oct 29, 2017, 02:24 PM
Oct 2017

But I enjoyed his book Intelligence Matters he knows what he is talking about which is mostly why I like reading him. He was thorough going back to the Culper Ring highlighting the need for intelligence but it was something that was never valued much in US history going back to the Culper ring.

Break time

(195 posts)
4. So far
Sun Oct 29, 2017, 01:55 PM
Oct 2017

I have already read all of Connelly's stuff, and have watched the Bosch series... Today amd reading Sandford's Deep Freeze, a new one in the Virgil Flowers series....

JonLP24

(29,322 posts)
10. I couldn't even watch the show even though
Sun Oct 29, 2017, 02:37 PM
Oct 2017

It has Jamie Hector and Lance Reddick two actors from The Wire but the show was too far off from the book which makes the story interesting.

I always found the contrast between Michael Connelly and David Simon. Connelly was a homicide police reporter that chose to do fiction while David Simon was a Baltimore homicide police reporter and went on to do some very truthful & non fiction type work.

pscot

(21,024 posts)
11. Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
Sun Oct 29, 2017, 02:53 PM
Oct 2017

It took almost 3 months to get this one from my library but it was worth the wait. Next up No Angel by Penny Vincenzi and Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny. Be careful, Hermetic. I pulled a bicep hefting a Neal Stephenson epic; The Baroque Trilogy. You have to be in shape to sustain a 5 pound curl for a month.

hermetic

(8,301 posts)
13. Well,
Sun Oct 29, 2017, 03:27 PM
Oct 2017

I do do a lot of 12 oz elbow curls. Hopefully that will help.

I love that I just found this: Turtles All the Way Down. The expression is an illustration of the concept of Anavastha in Indian philosophy, and refers to the defect of infinite regress in any philosophical argument. Contrary to most extant western references, it is not a popular Hindu belief. Rather, it is a widely accepted principle in Indian philosophy, commonly used to reject arguments for the creator God or "unmoved mover".

No Angel is, as British Good Housekeeping wrote, an absorbing page-turner, packed with believable characters and satisfyingly extreme villains, eccentrics, and manipulators.

And then, from Zelazny: A band of men on a colony planet have gained control of technology. With it, they have given themselves immortality and godlike powers, and they rule their world as the gods of the Hindu pantheon.

Great choices, all!

pscot

(21,024 posts)
14. Turtles all the way down
Sun Oct 29, 2017, 06:00 PM
Oct 2017
The origins of the turtle story are uncertain. It has been recorded since the mid 19th century, and may possibly date to the 18th. One recent version appears in Stephen Hawking's 1988 book A Brief History of Time, which starts:
A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise." The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?" "You're very clever, young man, very clever," said the old lady. "But it's turtles all the way down!"

wikipedia

japple

(9,800 posts)
15. Love that levitating candle! Happy Halloweenie, friends. Thanks, hermetic, for the thread.
Sun Oct 29, 2017, 08:05 PM
Oct 2017

I'm still reading Barefoot to Avalon by David Payne, but I saw something this week that sounded very interesting:


Radio Free Vermont: A Fable of Resistance by Bill McKibben

"I hope no one secedes, but I also hope that Americans figure out creative ways to resist injustice and create communities where everybody counts. We've got a long history of resistance in Vermont and this book is testimony to that fact.”
–Bernie Sanders

A book that's also the beginning of a movement, Bill McKibben's debut novel Radio Free Vermont follows a band of Vermont patriots who decide that their state might be better off as its own republic.


As the host of Radio Free Vermont--"underground, underpowered, and underfoot"--seventy-two-year-old Vern Barclay is currently broadcasting from an "undisclosed and double-secret location." With the help of a young computer prodigy named Perry Alterson, Vern uses his radio show to advocate for a simple yet radical idea: an independent Vermont, one where the state secedes from the United States and operates under a free local economy. But for now, he and his radio show must remain untraceable, because in addition to being a lifelong Vermonter and concerned citizen, Vern Barclay is also a fugitive from the law.

In Radio Free Vermont, Bill McKibben entertains and expands upon an idea that's become more popular than ever--seceding from the United States. Along with Vern and Perry, McKibben imagines an eccentric group of activists who carry out their own version of guerilla warfare, which includes dismissing local middle school children early in honor of 'Ethan Allen Day' and hijacking a Coors Light truck and replacing the stock with local brew. Witty, biting, and terrifyingly timely, Radio Free Vermont is Bill McKibben's fictional response to the burgeoning resistance movement.

hermetic

(8,301 posts)
19. Hi
Wed Nov 1, 2017, 08:31 PM
Nov 2017
Radio Free Vermont sounds like great fun. Kind of takes me back to the 70s when I hung out with some guys who did pirate radio. It wasn't anything political, though, just music. Good times. So, I really want to read this book.

McKibben has an earlier work that sounds great, as well. The Age of Missing Information. “By turns humorous, wise, and troubling . . . a penetrating critique of technological society.” Glad you brought him to our attention.

Sure were a lot of happy people out and about last night.

japple

(9,800 posts)
21. We didn't have one single trick-or-treat-er at our house. We are way too far out in the boonies.
Wed Nov 1, 2017, 08:38 PM
Nov 2017

Have you heard/read about Louise Erdrich's new book? Future Home of the Living God, is a dystopian fiction work that sounds like one I will love reading. https://www.amazon.com/Future-Home-Living-God-Novel-ebook/dp/B06WP9LW1D/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1509582957&sr=1-1&keywords=louise+erdrich+future+home+of+the+living+god

hermetic

(8,301 posts)
22. Oh, yes
Wed Nov 1, 2017, 08:50 PM
Nov 2017

I posted about it back around the time of the eclipse, https://upload.democraticunderground.com/119310153 A must-read for sure.

I only got a few kids so I have leftovers galore. I live in a small town but they do a Trick or Treat Main Street thing and I drove past that while it was going on and I'd swear half the town was there. I guess they got so much there they decided it wasn't worth walking the streets after. It was still fun, though. Went around to a few neighbors' places and swapped candy bars, had a beer, enjoyed decorations. It was nice.

japple

(9,800 posts)
23. Well that was months and months ago! I can't remember past breakfast anymore, sad to say.
Wed Nov 1, 2017, 09:07 PM
Nov 2017

Our little village has Halloween on the Square and EVERYONE turns out for it. For many years, our spay/neuter group set up a table and passed out spay/neuter info along with tons of candy. One of our members brought her sweet little dog who loved dressing up in costumes. It was a labor of love and we all had a good time. It was time for someone else to take on that mission, but no one stepped up, and our member with the performing dog moved out of town, so we just hung up the towel. Sad that no one would step up to carry on, but there is a new wave of interested young folks coming up~~~~

hermetic

(8,301 posts)
24. Yeah, me too
Wed Nov 1, 2017, 09:30 PM
Nov 2017

I remembered THAT, though, because I love her so much and was quite excited about this new book. I DID have to use the search function to find the post. You were pretty busy back then, too.

Aww, that's sad but hopefully the youngsters will revive it What I see in many kids these days gives me hope for the future. Speaking of dogs............

This was at a house a few blocks from mine. These guys had their entire yard filled with stuff like this. It was marvelous.


Number9Dream

(1,560 posts)
16. "Post Captain" by Patrick O'Brian
Mon Oct 30, 2017, 12:52 PM
Oct 2017

Thanks for the thread, Hermetic.

This is the second book in the Aubry - Maturin (Master & Commander) series. I enjoyed the Russell Crowe movie, so I decided to check out the books. I'm a little more than half-way through, and have found the pace both fast and slow. I didn't find the romantic intrigue sections very interesting. It's an inter-library loan, which I can't renew, and it's looking like it's going back unfinished. Has anybody out there read this series? Worth trying book three (H.M.S. Surprise)?

getting old in mke

(813 posts)
17. Both fast and slow
Mon Oct 30, 2017, 04:16 PM
Oct 2017

Is an interesting and spot-on description.

I've likened O'Brian's writing to an artist creates a drawing where parts are quick sketches that blend into detailed realism then flow out to sketch again. If you've seen the drawing of a hand that is clearly just lines at the edge, then realistic in the center, you have the idea. It's more of a sequence of scenes than a through-written book. I hope that makes sense.

I do know that O'Brian's favorite writer, whom he credited with his development as a writer, was Jane Austen.

That said, I love the Aubrey/Maturin series--I've been through it a couple of times, including on audio,

Post Captain, though, is a bit of an odd-duck. It's like the first 60% is one book and the second 40% is another one. Jo Walton wrote a while ago that she thought it was because he realized, unlike in Master and Commander, that he was setting up a long series and tried to get the roots of as many complications as possible into the book and that it would have been better served as two shorter books.

I can say that the later books have far more unitary plot lines.

hermetic

(8,301 posts)
20. Hey, how nice
Wed Nov 1, 2017, 08:37 PM
Nov 2017

Someone who read those books and could answer your query here. I like when that happens.

Response to hermetic (Original post)

dhol82

(9,351 posts)
27. Just downloaded The Gentleman From Moscow
Wed Nov 1, 2017, 10:20 PM
Nov 2017

That’s my book club choice for the month
Have not started reading it yet.

hermetic

(8,301 posts)
32. Hope you are enjoying it now
Sun Nov 5, 2017, 12:40 PM
Nov 2017

I thought it was a lovely story. Search Google Images for the hotel. It is quite something to see, still.

hermetic

(8,301 posts)
35. Sadly
Sun Nov 5, 2017, 12:53 PM
Nov 2017

This is not fiction. Personally, I quit being so trusting of our healthcare system some time ago. Hope you are doing well.

PennyK

(2,301 posts)
30. The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King
Fri Nov 3, 2017, 10:26 AM
Nov 2017

I've become addicted to period murder mysteries after finishing most of the Phryne Fisher books and this Sherlockian series sounds appealing.

matt819

(10,749 posts)
31. A few
Fri Nov 3, 2017, 02:58 PM
Nov 2017

Just finishing Holding, the first novel by British TV personality Graham Norton. Secrets and lies uncovered in a small Irish village. Something along the lines of an Irish version of the Father Brown mysteries, with the priest role played by a small-town cop. A few issues with relationships between the cop and some village folks - didn't seem to make sense - but overall a good read.

Just started The Birdwatcher by William Shaw. My guess is that this will be secrets and lies uncovered in small British village, complete with small-town cop and a new DS with experience at "The Met" (ooh, ahh). About 50 pages in and I'm enjoying it.

Just finished listening to The Late Show by Michael Connelly. Not a Bosch novel, but a good police procedural. Something of 1 from column a and 2 from column b in terms of story lines, including: cop accused of sexual harassment but male partner doesn't back her up and the woman is relegated to the night shift; hard-charging female cop that no one, until the very end, takes seriously; bent cops, etc. A few twists and turns. As with most Michael Connelly books, you won't be disappointed.

hermetic

(8,301 posts)
34. I'm really enjoying
Sun Nov 5, 2017, 12:48 PM
Nov 2017

my first Bosch novel.

I also have a penchant for British village mysteries. Yours sound quite good.

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