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Grand unified books thread

Started by Syt, March 16, 2009, 01:52:42 AM

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Darth Wagtaros

#135
May 27, 2009, 09:41:54 PM
Anansi Boys was better than American Gods.  And Neverwhere. 

I'm reading Stephen Baxters Manifold:Time. And some zombie book called Patient Zero.
PDH!

Berkut

#136
May 28, 2009, 03:12:26 PM
"If you think this has a happy ending, then you haven't been paying attention."

select * from users where clue > 0
0 rows returned

Sophie Scholl

#137
May 29, 2009, 06:40:14 PM
"Everything that brought you here -- all the things that made you a prisoner of past sins -- they are gone. Forever and for good. So let the past go... and live."

"Somebody, after all, had to make a start. What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just don't dare express themselves as we did."

Scipio

#138
May 30, 2009, 08:09:09 AM
The Black Tower by Louis Bayard.  It's a novel starring Vidocq, about the Lost Dauphin.  Fantastic atmosphere, but the pacing is awkward.  Strong characterization of Vidocq, but the main character is a cypher.

Drood, by Dan Simmons.  It's a fictional biography of CHarles DIckens's last five years of life, written by Wilkie Collins.  Pretty good, scary, amusing, etc.  Very typically Simmons.
What I speak out of my mouth is the truth.  It burns like fire.
-Jose Canseco

There you go, giving a fuck when it ain't your turn to give a fuck.
-Every cop, The Wire

"It is always good to be known for one's Krapp."
-John Hurt

BuddhaRhubarb

#139
May 30, 2009, 02:58:00 PM
Has anyone read John Crawley's Ægypt books... The first one (Ægypt) starts kinda slow, but is getting really good towards the end. Do the others hold up?
:p

Syt

#140
June 02, 2009, 02:27:44 AM
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

BuddhaRhubarb

#141
June 02, 2009, 12:06:21 PM
started "A Swell Looking Babe" by Jim Thompson. One I hadn't read. The only downside so far is the unimaginatively named main character "Dusty Rhodes". Otherwise, solid Thompson brand(tm) Noir.
:p

jimmy olsen

#142
June 03, 2009, 06:01:26 PM
It is far better for the truth to tear my flesh to pieces, then for my soul to wander through darkness in eternal damnation.

Jet: So what kind of woman is she? What's Julia like?
Faye: Ordinary. The kind of beautiful, dangerous ordinary that you just can't leave alone.
Jet: I see.
Faye: Like an angel from the underworld. Or a devil from Paradise.
--------------------------------------------
1 Karma Chameleon point

Sheilbh

#143
June 03, 2009, 07:36:13 PM
The so far superb Voices of Morebath:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Voices-Morebath-Reformation-Rebellion-English/dp/0300098251

Basically it's a book by Reformation historian Eamon Duffy based on the parish accounts of one small village in Devonshire.  What makes the accounts interesting is that they were written by the priest and apparently were his notes to address the parish about the accounts of the various stores and wardens of the parish.  The priest was there from 1520 to 1574 so he covered most of the big events of the English Reformation and, luckily, is quite gregarious and free in his notes so you get the opinions of one man, a glimpse into a late medieval-early modern village as well as the accounts of the parish.

If I continue to enjoy this I may plunge more deeply into micro-history and get The Village of Cannibals and The Cheese and the Worms :)
Let's bomb Russia!

jimmy olsen

#144
June 03, 2009, 10:40:18 PM
The Village of Cannibals?
It is far better for the truth to tear my flesh to pieces, then for my soul to wander through darkness in eternal damnation.

Jet: So what kind of woman is she? What's Julia like?
Faye: Ordinary. The kind of beautiful, dangerous ordinary that you just can't leave alone.
Jet: I see.
Faye: Like an angel from the underworld. Or a devil from Paradise.
--------------------------------------------
1 Karma Chameleon point

Sheilbh

#145
June 04, 2009, 06:29:31 AM
Quote from: jimmy olsen on June 03, 2009, 10:40:18 PM
The Village of Cannibals?
Another micro-history, this time of a particularly shocking crime in rural, 19th century France:
http://www.amazon.com/Village-Cannibals-Studies-Cultural-History/dp/0674939018
Let's bomb Russia!

Syt

#146
June 08, 2009, 10:56:48 AM
Picked up at my preferred store over here while looking for a little guide for Fuerteventura:
A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Has Shaped the World from Prehistory to the Present by William Bernstein.
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

jimmy olsen

#147
June 08, 2009, 01:27:50 PM
"The Most Glorious Fourth" - A book about Gettysburg and Vicksburg. Well written but didn't really tell me anything I didn't already know.
It is far better for the truth to tear my flesh to pieces, then for my soul to wander through darkness in eternal damnation.

Jet: So what kind of woman is she? What's Julia like?
Faye: Ordinary. The kind of beautiful, dangerous ordinary that you just can't leave alone.
Jet: I see.
Faye: Like an angel from the underworld. Or a devil from Paradise.
--------------------------------------------
1 Karma Chameleon point

Oexmelin

#148
June 08, 2009, 03:22:41 PM
Quote from: Sheilbh on June 03, 2009, 07:36:13 PM
If I continue to enjoy this I may plunge more deeply into micro-history and get The Village of Cannibals and The Cheese and the Worms :)

The Cheese and the Worms is very good, esp. if you enjoy the miller's esoterism. I can also recommend The Return of Martin Guerre (along with the film also).

I haven't read Le village des cannibales, but I read and enjoyed his Monde retrouvé de Louis-François Pinagot. Corbin showed up at the archives of his home departement, opened up a register, closed his eyes and picked a name and proceeded to reconstruct the universe of this no-longer anonymous man. A good lesson in history-writing.
Que le grand cric me croque !

Sheilbh

#149
June 08, 2009, 03:32:51 PM
Ironically given the BNP's victory I'm about 50 pages in in Derek Raymonds A State of Denmark:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/State-Denmark-Derek-Raymond/dp/185242947X
Let's bomb Russia!
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