Books and literature recommendations

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BoSoxGal
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Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by BoSoxGal »

If I only want to read one book about this incident, which is better?
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan

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Gob
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Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by Gob »

The one I linked to has more information, and has more sources. It's a bloody good read too.
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”

Jarlaxle
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Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by Jarlaxle »

Think I read the first one 20 years ago.

Currently buried in stuff to read...plus working 60 hour weeks, and have discovered the fanfiction.net stories...ugh, time-suck! Currently the Kindle free Prime book "When They Come For You", by James Hall.

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MajGenl.Meade
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Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by MajGenl.Meade »

I recommend the works of Herman Charles Bosman (1905-1951)

In the Withaak's Shade

LEOPARDS? - Oom Schalk Lourens said - Oh, yes, there are two varieties on this side of the Limpopo.
The chief difference between them is that the one kind of leopard has got a few more spots on it than the other kind. But when you meet a leopard in the veld, unexpectedly, you seldom trouble to count his spots to find out what kind he belongs to. That is unnecessary. Because, whatever kind of leopard it is that you come across in this way, you only do one kind of running. And that is the fastest kind.

I remember the occasion that I came across a leopard unexpectedly, and to this day I couldn't tell you how many spots he had, even though I had all the time I needed for studying him. It happened about mid-day, when I was out on the far end of my farm, behind a koppie, looking for some strayed cattle. I thought the cattle might be there because it is shady under those withaak trees, and there is soft grass that is very pleasant to sit on. After I had looked for the cattle for about an hour in this manner, sitting up against a tree trunk, it occurred to me that I could look for them just as well, or perhaps even better, if I lay down flat. For even a child knows that cattle aren't so small that you have got to get on to stilts and things to see them properly. So I lay on my back, with my hat tilted over my face, and my legs crossed, and when I closed my eyes slightly the tip of my boot, sticking up into the air, looked just like the peak of Abjaterskop.

Overhead a lonely aasvoël wheeled, circling slowly round and round without flapping his wings, and I knew that not even a calf could pass in any part of the sky between the tip of my toe and that aasvoël without my observing it immediately. What was more, I could go on lying there under the withaak and looking for the cattle like that all day, if necessary. As you know, I am not the sort of farmer to loaf about the house when there is a man's work to be done.

The more I screwed up my eyes and gazed at the toe of my hoot, the more it looked like Abjaterskop. By and by it seemed that it actually was Abjaterskop, and I could see the stones on top of it, and the bush trying to grow up its sides, and in my ears there was a far off humming sound, like bees in an orchard on a still day. As I have said, it was very pleasant.

Then a strange thing happened. It was as though a huge cloud, shaped like an animal's head and with spots on it, had settled on top of Abjaterskop. It seemed so funny that I wanted to laugh. But I didn't. Instead, I opened my eyes a little more and felt glad to think that I was only dreaming. Because otherwise I would have to believe that the spotted cloud on Abjaterskop was actually a leopard, and that he was gazing at my boot. Again I wanted to laugh.

But then, suddenly, I knew. And I didn't feel so glad. For it was a leopard, all right - a large-sized, hungry-looking leopard, and he was sniffing suspiciously at my feet. I was uncomfortable. I knew that nothing I could do would ever convince that leopard that my toe was Abjaterskop. He was not that sort of leopard: I knew that without even counting the number of his spots. Instead, having finished with my feet, he started sniffing higher up. It was the most terrifying moment of my life. I wanted to get up and run for it. But I couldn't. My legs wouldn't work.

Every big-game hunter I have come across has told me the same story about how, at one time or
another, he has owed his escape from lions and other wild animals to his cunning in lying down and
pretending to be dead, so that the beast of prey loses interest in him and walks off. Now, as I lay there on the grass, with the leopard trying to make up his mind about me, I under-stood why, in such a situation, the hunter doesn't move. It's simply that he can't move. That's all. It's not his cunning that keeps him down. It's his legs.

In the meantime the leopard had got up as far as my knees. He was studying my trousers very carefully, and I started getting embarrassed. My trousers were old and rather unfashionable. Also, at the knee, there was a torn place, from where I had climbed through a barbed-wire fence, into the thick bush, the time I saw the Government tax~collector coming over the bult before he saw me. The leopard stared at that rent in my trousers for quite a while, and my embarrassment grew. I felt I wanted to explain about the Government tax collector and the barbed wire. I didn't want the leopard to get the impression that Schalk Lourens was the sort of man who didn't care about his personal appearance.

When the leopard got as far as my shirt, however, I felt better. It was a good blue flannel shirt that I had bought only a few weeks ago from the Indian store at Ramoutsa, and I didn't care how many strange leopards saw it. Nevertheless, I made up my mind that next time I went to lie on the grass under the withaak, looking for strayed cattle, I would first polish up my veldskoens with sheep's fat, and I would put on my black hat that I only wear to Nagmaal. I could not permit the wild animals of the neighbourhood to sneer at me.

But when the leopard reached my face I got frightened again. I knew he couldn't take exception to my shirt. But I wasn't so sure about my face. Those were terrible moments. I lay very still, afraid to open my eyes and afraid to breathe. Sniff-sniff, the huge creature went, and his breath swept over my face in hot gasps. You hear of many frightening experiences that a man has in a lifetime, I have also been in quite a few perilous situations. But if you want something to make you suddenly old and to turn your hair white in a few moments, there is nothing to beat a leopard - especially when he is standing over you, with his jaws at your throat, trying to find a good place to bite.

The leopard gave a deep growl, stepped right over my body, knocked off my hat, and growled again. I opened my eyes and saw the animal moving away clumsily. But my relief didn't last long. The leopard didn't move far. Instead, he turned over and lay down next to me. Yes, there on the grass, in the shade of the withaak, the leopard and I lay down together. The leopard lay half-curled up, on his side, with his forelegs crossed, like a dog, and whenever I tried to move away
he grunted. I am sure that in the whole history of the Groot Marico there have never been two stranger companions engaged in the thankless task of looking for strayed cattle.

Next day, in Fanie Snyman's front room, which was used as a post-office, I told my story to the farmers of the neighbourhood, while they were drinking coffee and waiting for the motor-lorry from Zeerust.

"And how did you get away from that leopard in the end?" Koos van Tonder asked, trying to be funny. "I suppose you crawled through the grass and frightened the leopard off by pretending to be a python."

"No, I just got up and walked home," I said. "I remembered that the cattle I was looking for might have gone the other way and strayed into your kraal. I thought they would be safer with the leopard."

"Did the leopard tell you what he thought of General Pienaar's last speech in the Volksraad?" Frans
Welman asked, and they all laughed. I told my story over several times before the lorry came with our letters, and although the dozen odd men present didn't say much while I was talking, I could see that they listened to me in the same way that they listened when Krisjan Lemmer talked. And everybody knew that Krisjan Lemmer was the biggest liar in the Bushveld.

To make matters worse, Krisjan Lemmer was there, too, and when I got to the part of my story where the leopard lay down beside me, Krisjan Lemmer winked at me. You know that kind of wink. It was to let me know that there was now a new understanding between us, and that we could speak in future as one Marico liar to another. I didn't like that.

"Kêrels," I said in the end, "I know just what you are thinking. You don't believe me, and you don't
want to say so"

"But we do believe you," Krisjan Lemmer interrupted me, very wonderful things happen in the
Bushveld. I once had a twenty-foot mamba that I named Hans. This snake was so attached to me that I couldn't go anywhere without him. He would even follow me to church on Sunday, and because he didn't care much for some of the sermons, he would wait for me outside under a tree. Not that Hans was irreligious. But he had a sensitive nature, and the strong line that the predikant took against the serpent in the Garden of Eden always made Hans feel awkward. Yet he didn't go and look for a withaak to lie under, like your leopard. He wasn't stand-offish in that way. An ordinary thorn-tree's shade was good enough for Hans. He knew he was only a mamba, and didn't try to give himself airs."

I didn't take notice of Krisjan Lemmer's stupid lies, but the upshot of this whole affair was that I also began to have doubts about the existence of that leopard. I recalled queer stories I had heard of human beings that could turn themselves into animals, and although I am not a superstitious man I could not shake off the feeling that it was a spook thing that had happened. But when, a few days later, a huge leopard had been seen from the roadside near the poort, and then again by Mtosas on the way to Nietverdiend, and again in the turf-lands near the Malopo, matters took a different turn.

At first people jested about this leopard. They said it wasn't a real leopard, but a spotted animal that had walked away out of Schalk Lourens' dream. They also said that the leopard had come to the Dwarsberge to have a look at Krisjan Lemmer's twenty-foot mamba.

But afterwards, when they had found his spoor at several water-holes, they had no more doubt about the leopard. It was dangerous to walk about in the veld, they said. Exciting times followed. There was a great deal of shooting at the leopard and a great deal of running away from him. The amount of Martini and Mauser fire I heard in the krantzes reminded me of nothing so much as the First Boer War. And the amount of running away reminded me of nothing so much as the Second Boer War.

But always the leopard escaped unharmed. Somehow, I felt sorry for him. The way he had first sniffed at me and then lain down beside me that day under the withaak was a strange thing that I couldn't understand. I thought of the bible where it is written that the lion shall lie down with the lamb. But I also wondered if I hadn't dreamt it all. The manner in which those things had befallen me was also unearthly. The leopard began to take up a lot of my thoughts. And there was no man to whom I could talk about it who would be able to help me in any way.

Even now, as I am telling you this story, I am expecting you to wink at me, like Krisjan Lemmer did. Still, I can only tell you the things that happened as I saw them and what the rest was about only Africa knows.

It was some time before I again walked along the path that leads through the bush to where the
withaaks are. But I didn't lie down on the grass again. Because when I reached the place, I found that the leopard had got there before me. He was lying on the same spot, half-curled up in the withaak's shade, and his fore-paws were folded as a dog's are sometimes. But he lay very still. And even from the distance where I stood I could see the red splash on his breast where a Mauser bullet had gone.
For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts

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Lee Child "The Midnight Line"

Post by Burning Petard »

Lee Child is an Aussie who has spent most of his professional life in England. He has made a pile of money with a series about an American retired Army MP Major who wanders the lower 48 with a toothbrush and a passport and nothing else. Not clear if he even has a bank card to get money electronically from the bank where his Army retirement check is deposited.

Along the way Child portrays many bad guys destroyed by the idiosyncratic morality and mighty physical prowess of Jack Reacher. Child can be un-even in his portrayal of details in the America Child has not experienced. In a previous book he got local geography all wrong about Lees Summitt Missouri. In this one he misses our nomenclature for military rifles and where Marine Corps veterans get medical treatment. But not important stuff. Truman Capote erected a benchmark via 'In Cold Blood' to the concept that truth can be coveyed vividly and convincingly via fiction. This latest from Lee Child hits me hard with truths about our current treatment of military veterans and our opioid epidemic

The Amazon low-star reviews complain that this book is not enuff action, too genteel, too much moralist mush, a diversion from the real Jack Reacher series. Those are the characteristics that make it much better for me and for the reviewer at the NY Times.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/08/book ... child.html

snailgate

Jarlaxle
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Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by Jarlaxle »

Currently hooked on fanfiction.net stories. That site is addictive.

Jarlaxle
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Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by Jarlaxle »

Just finished David Baldacci's End Game, the latest Will Robie book. Excellent, as usual.

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Gob
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Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by Gob »

Just reading this, not my usual sort of read but enjoying it greatly.

We saw the couple involved, in a report on the local news, and bought a copy to support them.
The Salt Path

Image

The uplifting true tale of the couple who lost everything and embarked on a journey of salvation across the windswept South West coastline. Now a Top Ten Sunday Times Bestseller

'The landscape is magical: shape-shifting seas and smugglers' coves; myriads of sea birds and mauve skies. Raynor writes exquisitely . . . It's a tale of triumph: of hope over despair; of love over everything . . . home was no longer about bricks and mortar. It was a state of mind' The Sunday Times

Just days after Raynor learns that Moth, her husband of 32 years, is terminally ill, their home is taken away and they lose their livelihood. With nothing left and little time, they make the brave and impulsive decision to walk the 630 miles of the sea-swept South West Coast Path, from Somerset to Dorset, via Devon and Cornwall.

Carrying only the essentials for survival on their backs, they live wild in the ancient, weathered landscape of cliffs, sea and sky. Yet through every step, every encounter and every test along the way, their walk becomes a remarkable journey.

The Salt Path is an honest and life-affirming true story of coming to terms with grief and the healing power of the natural world. Ultimately, it is a portrayal of home, and how it can be lost, rebuilt and rediscovered in the most unexpected ways.

'The Salt Path is a life-affirming tale of enduring love that smells of the sea and tastes of a rich life. With beautiful, immersive writing, it is a story heart-achingly and beautifully told.' Jackie Morris
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”

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Long Run
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Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by Long Run »

Looks interesting Gob, I'll have to put it on my list.

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Gob
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Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by Gob »

I haven't got to the point where they are in my neck of the woods, I'll be interested to see what effect it has on them.
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”

Jarlaxle
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Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by Jarlaxle »

My March free Kindle book: Kylie Brant's Pretty Girls Dancing. Fairly creepy.

So far, best find from Kindle was Sandra Saidak's spectacular From The Ashes.

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BoSoxGal
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Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by BoSoxGal »

I tried to order The Salt Path; it’s not (yet?) available in the US. :(
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan

Burning Petard
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question for fans of JL Burke and Dave Robicheaux

Post by Burning Petard »

I bought 'Robicheaux' on kindle when it first came out, but just now getting around to reading it. Near the very beginning Dave is in soliloquy about ghosts and getting old. He says, "Why should an old man thrice widowed dwell on things that are not demonstrable and have nothing to do with a reasonable view of the world?"

Thrice widowed? I thought I had read every book in this saga (this one is #21) but I only remember two wives: the first with chronic Lupis, the second a former nun. In this one, the latest wife was killed in an accident reminiscent of the death of James Dean. Can anybody fill some of the holes in my senile memory with the book that describes wife I don't recall?

snailgate.

Jarlaxle
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Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by Jarlaxle »

Harry Potter and the Prince of Slytherin by Sinister Man is absolutely spectacular. It's on fanfiction.net free.

My wife is about to lose me for a couple days...because the latest Destroyermen book, River of Bones, is out tomorrow. WOOHOO!

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Gob
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Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by Gob »

“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”

Jarlaxle
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Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by Jarlaxle »

River of Bones has arrived!

rubato
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Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by rubato »

I just got a few new books and started on Yanis Varoufakis "And the weak suffer what they must" which I am enjoying a great deal. A lot of interesting information about economics and economic history heavily illustrated with references to literature, philosophy, history &c. Yanis is a mathematical economist and was Greek minister of finance for a short time in 2015.

yrs,
rubato

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Guinevere
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Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by Guinevere »

About to take on the new bio of de Gaulle by Julien Jackson, but seeing as how it’s almost 1000 pages, I may wait for cooler indoor temps.

Otherwise I enjoyed the latest Gabriel Allon, in the series by Daniel Silva. I also loved Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff.
“I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.” ~ Ruth Bader Ginsburg, paraphrasing Sarah Moore Grimké

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datsunaholic
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Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by datsunaholic »

I'm going to post a recommendation for a book by a good friend of mine.

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https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Produ ... 1625450661

"A Race to Freedom - The Mira Slovak Story".

Mira Slovak was a young airline pilot who hijacked his own commercial flight and flew over the iron curtain in 1953. He became the only person to ever win both the APBA Gold Cup and the National Championship Air Races’ Unlimited Category.

David Williams, the author, is the director of the museum I volunteer at. Plus, I had the privilege of meeting and having several conversations with Mira Slovak before he passed in 2014.
Death is Nature's way of telling you to slow down.

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Gob
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Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by Gob »

My mate Patrick has a new one out.

Image
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”

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