Books and literature recommendations

Movies, books, music, and all the arts go here.
Give us your recommendations and reviews.
Post Reply
Jarlaxle
Posts: 5370
Joined: Sun Apr 25, 2010 4:21 am
Location: New England

Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by Jarlaxle »

Red Star Rogue by Kenneth Sewell & Clint Richmond. Very, very scary.

User avatar
Gob
Posts: 33642
Joined: Tue Apr 06, 2010 8:40 am

Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by Gob »

Image

In literature, posterity is the name of the game. John le Carré (aka David Cornwell), who knows this only too well, has been flirting with the idea of his biography since 1989, with many second and third thoughts. Quite a few Le Carré watchers believed that his complicated alter ego would never surrender to the biographer’s torments. Surely, it was said, Britain’s greatest living storyteller is so addicted to mysteries and fabrications that he must always be at odds with the demands of any good Boswell. In the end, the writer’s approaching rendezvous with oblivion tipped the balance, and he struck a deal with Adam Sisman.

The upshot is a fascinating truce between candour and guile. Sisman, justly acclaimed for writing about the dead (AJP Taylor; Hugh Trevor- Roper), must have known what he was risking, but possibly underestimated the fathomless complexity of his subject. Besides, who could capture Le Carré? An addictive mixture of Hamlet and King Lear, with a dash of Mercutio, he has become his own best fiction.

Le Carré is a romantic “lost boy” whose appetite for telling his own story can only be satisfied by enthralling reinvention. His own website even boasts a Prospero-like indifference to the truth: “Nothing that I write is authentic. It is the stuff of dreams, not reality. Artists, in my experience, have very little centre. They fake. They are not the real thing.”

Continues: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/o ... man-review

David Cornwell's life and loves are every bit as fascinating as anything he has ever created for print. Met the man on a couple of occasions, a charming gentleman and very polite.

Though his father deserves a biography of his own. ( "A Perfect Spy" not withstanding.)
“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.”

liberty
Posts: 4406
Joined: Thu Jun 24, 2010 5:31 pm
Location: Colonial Possession

Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by liberty »

I prefer Bernard Cornwell:

The Warrior Chronicles/Saxon Stories


Displaying book editions selected for your country.
If you would like to change country please use the selector on the right.

gb ▼



WarriorsStorm



Warriors of the Storm (2015)

Regional Editions: GB
US


Warriors of the Storm is the ninth book of the Warrior Chronicles/Saxon Stories. Uhtred’s struggle between family and loyalty, between oaths given and political demands, has no easy solution. And the clash between the Vikings and the Saxons will resound…
Read More...


Empty Throne



The Empty Throne (2014)

Regional Editions: GB
US


The forces of Wessex and Mercia have united against the Danes, but instability and the threat of Viking raids still hang heavy over Britain’s kingdoms. For Aethelred, Lord of the Mercians, is dying, leaving no heir and the stage is…
Read More...


Pagan Lord



The Pagan Lord (2013)

Regional Editions: GB
US


Alfred the Great is dead and Edward his son reigns as king. Wessex survives but peace cannot hold. The Danes in the north, led by Viking Cnut Longsword, stand ready to invade and will never rest until the emerald crown…
Read More...


death_of_kings



Death of Kings (2011)

Regional Editions: GB
US


Death of Kings continues the story of Uhtred, this time through the tumultous years which followed the death of Alfred the Great as two men struggle to inherit the crown of Wessex. Uhtred has to contend with betrayal, treachery and the largest army the Danes have yet assembled to conquer Wessex . . . all brought to a climax in a winter battle fought in the fens of East Anglia.
Read More...


burning



The Burning Land (2009)

Regional Editions: GB
US


This novel, the fifth in the magnificent series of England’s history, tells of the final assaults on Alfred’s Wessex
I expected to be placed in an air force combat position such as security police, forward air control, pararescue or E.O.D. I would have liked dog handler. I had heard about the dog Nemo and was highly impressed. “SFB” is sad I didn’t end up in E.O.D.

User avatar
Gob
Posts: 33642
Joined: Tue Apr 06, 2010 8:40 am

Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by Gob »

Image

Just finished this, and it's so good I couldn't help but recommend it.

It's the novel on which this was based, but inevitably, the book far outclasses the TV movies series.
“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.”

rubato
Posts: 14213
Joined: Sun May 09, 2010 10:14 pm

Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by rubato »

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/25/books ... eview.html
espousal of group selection.

As Thomas Kuhn famously proposed, most scientists do normal science. Trivers didn’t do much of that. Instead, he was into paradigmatic revolutions. Indeed, he takes the prize when it comes to research of foundational consequence and originality. (He was in fact awarded the Crafoord Prize, an alternative Nobel.)

In an extraordinary burst of creative accomplishment during the first half of the 1970s, he established the basis for our current understanding of how evolution shapes an array of behaviors; his work from this half-decade alone comprises much of the backbone of today’s sociobiology (or evolutionary psychology, if you prefer the more current moniker). Thus, even among non-biologists, it is well known that a process called kin selection, or maximization of inclusive fitness, provides an evolutionary rationale for individuals acting “altruistically” toward others, in proportion as the cost to the actor is relatively low, the benefit to the recipient relatively high, and the interactants enjoy an adequate probability of sharing genes via common ancestry. This form of altruism is a direct consequence of natural selection acting on genes rather than on individuals, groups, or even species, with behavior that seems altruistic at the level of bodies actually being selfish from the perspective of the genes themselves.


Although I am reasonably certain that no one here is intelligent enough to read Bob Trivers and be able to understand him.



yrs,
rubato

User avatar
Gob
Posts: 33642
Joined: Tue Apr 06, 2010 8:40 am

Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by Gob »

rubato wrote:


Although I am reasonably certain that no one here is intelligent enough to read Bob Trivers and be able to understand him.



yrs,
rubato
Well, we all know one person here who isn't.
“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.”

User avatar
Gob
Posts: 33642
Joined: Tue Apr 06, 2010 8:40 am

Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by Gob »

Just finished this;

Image

Not everybody's cuppa. But for Cornuphiles like me, it's a very well written look into a dying way of life.

Review here...
Most Cornish fishing villages, including Cadgwith on the Lizard, where Knight has gleaned about a third of his stories, have succumbed to the siren lure of second-home syndrome: locals are unable to resist inflated offers for quaint old houses, but in selling up see their sons and daughters priced out of their birth communities. Bakeries become art galleries, a sail loft becomes “The Old Sail Loft” and a tide of tasteful heritage paintjobs marks the ineluctable replacement of a smelly, dangerous industry with an ostensibly fragrant, risk-free one. Village after village has gone this way. Port Isaac, Mevagissey and Polperro may retain excellent fishmongers and a handful of fishing boats in their harbours, but look up from those harbours on a miserable night in late March or early November and most of the domestic light will come from the newer housing on their fringes.

Newlyn, to the immediate west of unspoilt Penzance, is an exception and continues to host Cornwall’s principal fish market and busiest commercial harbour. It’s there that Knight clearly did most of his research, notably in the two pubs of the title, which stand just yards apart across the road from the fish market and Seaman’s Mission and, indeed, between an art gallery and spanking new art house cinema in a converted crabbery.

Knight has gone in search of old smells and danger and found them in spades. There are extraordinarily evocative stories here, of the mad bravado of scarred, de-fingered fishermen and the stoicism of their women. Some of the stories are little more than jokes or anecdotes, like the much adapted St Just Prayer (“Dear Lord, We hope that there be no shipwrecks, but if there be let them be at St Just for the benefit of the inhabitants.”). Others take far longer, weaving in and out of the book’s freeform narrative tapestry, like those of Martin Ellis (AKA Nutty Noah) who set out singlehandedly to revive the 19th-century practice of ring netting to bring in entire shoals weighing upwards of four tonnes; or Nick Howell, another revivalist, who not only brought back pilchard fishing and canning but wisely rebranded the fish as Cornish Sardines so as to see them sold in M&S and Harrods.
Continues.
“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.”

liberty
Posts: 4406
Joined: Thu Jun 24, 2010 5:31 pm
Location: Colonial Possession

Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by liberty »

How about this one Meade?

https://www.bookbrowse.com/reviews/inde ... of-the-Bow

Genghis: Lords of the Bow

by Conn Iggulden

First Published:
Mar 2008, 400 pages
Paperback:
Feb 2009, 528 pages

Book Summary

He came from over the horizon, a single Mongol warrior surrounded by his brothers, sons, and fellow tribesmen. For centuries, primitive tribes had warred with one another. Now, under Genghis Khan, they have united as one nation, setting their sights on a common enemy: the great, slumbering walled empire of the Chin.

Conn Iggulden’s novels are grand historical tales of conquest and vengeance, cruelty and greatness. Now the acclaimed author of Genghis: Birth of an Empire delivers a masterful new novel of the mighty Mongol conqueror—as Genghis Khan sets out to unify an entire continent under his rule.…

He came from over the horizon, a single Mongol warrior surrounded by his brothers, sons, and fellow tribesmen. With each battle his legend grew and the ranks of his horsemen swelled, as did his ambition. For centuries, primitive tribes had warred with one another. Now, under Genghis Khan, they have united as one nation, setting their sights on a common enemy: the great, slumbering walled empire of the Chin.

A man who lived for battle and blood, Genghis leads his warriors across the Gobi Desert and into a realm his people had never seen before—with gleaming cities, soaring walls, and canals. Laying siege to one fortress after another, Genghis called upon his cunning and imagination to crush each enemy in a different way, to overcome moats, barriers, deceptions, and superior firepower—until his army faced the ultimate test of all.

In the city of Yenking—modern-day Beijing—the Chin will make their final stand, setting a trap for the Mongol raiders, confident behind their towering walls. But Genghis will strike with breathtaking audacity, never ceasing until the Emperor himself is forced to kneel.
I expected to be placed in an air force combat position such as security police, forward air control, pararescue or E.O.D. I would have liked dog handler. I had heard about the dog Nemo and was highly impressed. “SFB” is sad I didn’t end up in E.O.D.

User avatar
MajGenl.Meade
Posts: 20704
Joined: Sun Apr 25, 2010 8:51 am
Location: Groot Brakrivier
Contact:

Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by MajGenl.Meade »

I've read several of Iggulden's novels - the Rome series for example.
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

oldr_n_wsr
Posts: 10838
Joined: Sun Apr 18, 2010 1:59 am

Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by oldr_n_wsr »

Most Cornish fishing villages, including Cadgwith on the Lizard, where Knight has gleaned about a third of his stories, have succumbed to the siren lure of second-home syndrome: locals are unable to resist inflated offers for quaint old houses, but in selling up see their sons and daughters priced out of their birth communities. Bakeries become art galleries, a sail loft becomes “The Old Sail Loft” and a tide of tasteful heritage paintjobs marks the ineluctable replacement of a smelly, dangerous industry with an ostensibly fragrant, risk-free one. Village after village has gone this way. Port Isaac, Mevagissey and Polperro may retain excellent fishmongers and a handful of fishing boats in their harbours, but look up from those harbours on a miserable night in late March or early November and most of the domestic light will come from the newer housing on their fringes.
Sounds like Long Island, especially the south fork. Even Montauk (The End) has been mostly assimilated.
:(

User avatar
BoSoxGal
Posts: 18299
Joined: Tue Apr 06, 2010 10:36 pm
Location: The Heart of Red Sox Nation

Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by BoSoxGal »

I was thinking coast of Maine.
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

Jarlaxle
Posts: 5370
Joined: Sun Apr 25, 2010 4:21 am
Location: New England

Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by Jarlaxle »

Just got the latest Destroyermen book (Blood in the Water)...great so far. :D

Jarlaxle
Posts: 5370
Joined: Sun Apr 25, 2010 4:21 am
Location: New England

Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by Jarlaxle »

Reading Ready Player One. Wow!

Burning Petard
Posts: 4050
Joined: Fri Feb 12, 2016 5:35 pm
Location: Near Bear, Delaware

Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by Burning Petard »

It reveals yet more strange details about me that I really liked McPhee's Orange and Deltoid Pumpkin Seed.

snailgate

User avatar
Guinevere
Posts: 8989
Joined: Mon Apr 19, 2010 3:01 pm

Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by Guinevere »

Not really, McPhee is my all-time favorite writer. I'd read the phonebook if he wrote it :lol:
“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

User avatar
Guinevere
Posts: 8989
Joined: Mon Apr 19, 2010 3:01 pm

Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by Guinevere »

I'll be reading this one beginning October 10 -- after I get to meet him earlier that day in Cambridge MA and pick up my signed copy!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertai ... story.html
Image
“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

User avatar
Long Run
Posts: 6717
Joined: Sat Apr 17, 2010 2:47 pm

Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by Long Run »

Looks good. Unlike many musicians (including the last two I read), I bet he has plenty worth reading.

User avatar
Gob
Posts: 33642
Joined: Tue Apr 06, 2010 8:40 am

Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by Gob »

Image

The Sixties ended a year late – on New Year's Eve 1970, when Paul McCartney initiated proceedings to wind up The Beatles. Music would never be the same again.
The next day would see the dawning of a new era. 1971 saw the release of more monumental albums than any year before or since and the establishment of a pantheon of stars to dominate the next forty years – Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Marvin Gaye, Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Rod Stewart, the solo Beatles and more.
January that year fired the gun on an unrepeatable surge of creativity, technological innovation, blissful ignorance, naked ambition and outrageous good fortune. By December rock had exploded into the mainstream.
How did it happen? This book tells you how. It's the story of 1971, rock’s golden year.
Started this last night, so far, so good.
“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
Posts: 5370
Joined: Sun Apr 25, 2010 4:21 am
Location: New England

Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by Jarlaxle »

Jarlaxle wrote:Reading Ready Player One. Wow!
Rad this book!

ex-khobar Andy
Posts: 5419
Joined: Sat Dec 19, 2015 4:16 am
Location: Louisville KY as of July 2018

Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by ex-khobar Andy »

Per Rube, a couple of months ago:
Although I am reasonably certain that no one here is intelligent enough to read Bob Trivers and be able to understand him.
I don't visit this page much but Rube, you are turning into rather a turd in your old age. I can take or leave Trivers but I much prefer Dawkins or Gould even though they differ hugely on some of the details. Of the three great evolutionary biologists of the last half century the greatest in my (and many specialists') opinion was John Maynard Smith, and I think that not just because he was the first real live professor I ever met, and he taught me a few things.

What made those three so great (and Dawkins, of course is still writing although not so much on evolution any more) was their sheer ability to communicate very complex ideas. Every now and then I take a fancy that I can write; but half an hour with Gould (even if I think he is so wrong about punctuated equilibrium) is enough to disabuse me of the idea.

Rube -- put your reasonable certainty into a pipe and smoke it.

Post Reply