posted
China Miéville! His new book hasn't been released here yet, but it's definitely going to the top of the list when it's available.
Now I'm reading The End of Overeating by David Kessler. No earth-shattering news, so far, but he presents a good story of how the food industry combines fat, sugar and salt in many, many foods - a combination which triggers the powerful reward system in our brains (well, many of us) and breaks down rational control over what we eat.
quote:Originally posted by Fat Cramer: [QB]China Miéville! His new book hasn't been released here yet, but it's definitely going to the top of the list when it's available.
It's not like his other ones but it's really good. I went to a q and a session he did and he's also completely GAWJUSS!!!
What is your favourite of his? You should definitely read his short story collection, Looking For Jake, there are some great ideas in that.
Anything else along the Bas Lag book theme that you'd recommend?
posted
Hard to choose a favourite, but probably Iron Council, which I saw described as "a love story disguised as a protest story or a protest story disguised as a love story". (And I still can't get his horrible mosquito people out of my mind.) Perdido Street Station was the one I read first and it took me a while to get accustomed to the universe - should probably reread it.
I haven't read Looking for Jake, only a couple of the stories in it. Looks good, though!
So far: I've finished 3 of her 4 book (called Quarters or Quartets) series; 2 books about the Copper Isles = to a 4 book series; and am on the second book of another 4 book series. whewww
After these 4, I just have one more quartet to go, that my school's library has, anyway.
What I like about them most, is that kids and adults work together as the kids grow into their various magic based powers. There's a lot of respect that builds between the characters and their powers are always used imaginatively.
They're also sort of generational, which I enjoy.
I may have to settle for thses last 3 books and leave the rest for the city library this summer. sigh
-------------------- 'In the twinkling of an eye' I'll be dancing in the sky!
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From: Salem, Oregon USA | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
Gah! This thread is like a book-brothel with the number of great reads it makes me want to take to bed every night! I love it! Keep pimping them out people!
As for me, I've unfortunately only had time to read one book recently and even more unfortunately it was [small voice] Angels and Demons by mega-millionaire Dan Brown.
I kept hearing that this one was so much better than The Da Vinci Code (which I had actually enjoyed for its page-turning readability and some of the interesting ideas it expressed - though certainly not for its extremely pedestrian use of the English language or its predictability) but I was quite disappointed.
Once Langdon gets to Rome and starts to look for the missing cardinals it picked up a lot but there's a full 50% of the book to get through before that and that was full of some of the most groan-inducing characterisation and exposition I've ever read. I literally had to force myself to keep going.
The last half is pretty exciting in its own trashy way though and I think this part could make for a good movie. I hope so anyway since my sister is dragging me to see it this week.
From: Australia | Registered: Dec 2003
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Did I mention that Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer was really good. It's in your face and unapologetic but I loved it.
Anyways reading something light and fun right now. Peter Maye's Anything Considered. It's a southern france escapade type of book. Here is an intro I found that sums it up exactly.
"A Snooping Maid, A Neopolitan Beast, A Shady Lord, A Corsican Hood, An Ex-Girlfriend, A Bibulous Monk, A Retiring Detective, A Japanese Bodyguard, An Etonian Villain, A Fair Accomplice, And An Unlikely Hero.
A rollicking caper set on the Cote d'Azur and in the luscious landscape of Provence.
Bennet, an English expatriate living in France, has champagne tastes and a vin ordinaire bankroll. He has abandoned a successful career and found an ideal village to idle in. But a business scheme fails to work out, and he finds himself broke.
Not a man to be downhearted, he places an ad in the newspaper volunteering his services -- any services, Anything Considered. The most attractive response comes from a rich Englishman named Julian Poe who has developed a means of producing superb truffles and is close to cornering the immensely lucrative truffle market.
Bennet signs and - bliss! He finds himself in Monaco and able to live in a style to which he has wished to become accustomed including eating to beyond his heart's content. He is joined thre by the beautiful and experienced (in many ways) Anna, a New Yorker who has put in time in the Israeli army.
But soon ---sniffing the financial potential of the truffle --- Sicilian and Corsican Mafiosi intrude. Life gets hectic. Ham-fisted goons working at cross-purposes, French village busy bodies and an order of monks dedicated to the god Bacchus all play a role."
From: Tampa | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
LOL I thought you were describing the plot to Tropic of Cancer (which I haven't read) and I was wondering why the heck it had been so controversial.
I listened to the audiobook version of World War Z about a world-wide zombie war. Interviews with survivors, with various actors reading the different parts. Not a big zombie fan, but it was very interesting from a survivalist/emergency strategy point of view. Surprisingly light fare compared to the next one:
Family of Secrets by Russ Baker. George Kenney, interviewing Baker about the book on the Electric Politics podcast, said it made him physically ill to read it and I'd have to say it took me pretty close to that.
Baker goes deep into the history of the Bush dynasty with a thoroughly researched and documented investigation. The web of connections, some of them officially denied, is disturbing and wide-reaching.
Although Baker spends a lot of time discussing Poppy Bush and his associates' links to the Kennedy assassination and many other events of the past 50 years, what I found most disturbing was the re-examination of Watergate. To cut to the chase, Nixon may have been a creep, but he was set up by the Bush clan with the Watergate scandal.
Baker also examines W, and while there are revelations, I think, with the internet, that we have been afforded better coverage of what shenanigans he's been up to, even if we don't know all the details.
Baker, in the final chapter, writes: I discovered that Poppy was not really the sentimental preppy, the oft-bumbling public servant most of us believed him to be. Poppy had led what amounted to a double life, and the secret portion of that life included participation in an astonishing range of covert operations. As I began to examine Poppy's most improbable statements about himself, I found myself struggling through a miasma surrounding the John F. Kennedy assassination, Watergate, the American relationship with the Saudis, and other chapters of the American experience that have never been properly explained. While I was in my reporting phase and sharing some of my more surprising findings with colleagues, one of them suggested, only half in jest, that the book be called "Everything You Thought You Knew Is Wrong."
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I may be stretching the topic here, but I read a letter from the Christian Appalachian Project this morning. Appalachia contains some of the poorest regions in the USA. Often, families can't afford to feed their children properly, and so the only decent meals they can get are at school. Hence, when school lets out for summer these kids are SOL.
One of the tasks of the Project is to feed these luckless youngsters when school's out. If you feel you can spare some money, their website is http://www.christianapp.org/ .
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From: Arkansas Province, Baaldur | Registered: Jul 2007
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
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Thanks for bringing attention to something which is an important but incredibly neglected issue, KC.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
A lot of the kids I work with depend on school meals, a lot even stay after school in clubs and things to get the extra lunches. And I live in Salem, Oregon. sigh
I'm sure the problem is even worse in Appalachia.
-------------------- 'In the twinkling of an eye' I'll be dancing in the sky!
Come, join me!
From: Salem, Oregon USA | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
Welcome to my corner of the world. 70-80% of our high school kids are on lunch program, what's called a "type a" lunch. They won't eat it though because then everyone can see that they're "poor." (even though they have all that company). sigh So they buy pizza slice for a dollar, EVERYDAY! sigh^2
Oh yeah, OT
They read "Twilight." Not much else.
From: East Toledo | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
I feel funny here. I've read a number of classics over the years, but now I tend to read humorous fantasy (Terry Prachett), fantasy-scifi, or kids books.
I finished all of the Tamora Pierce books about young people growing up in magical worlds with various powers or gifts, that the school libray had. I finished 5 quartet mini-series and a two book set. Then, I started on a Harry Potter type series by Brandon Mull called Fablehaven, which was part of a 10 book intercolegient reading competition.
I read the 2 at the school, now I have to hit the city library (for the rest of the Pierce books, as well.)
I may go to the local book stores, too. My grand-daughters are almost the right age to enjoy them ~ the oldest is 7 and the heroines/heroes in the books are around 10 - 13 when the stories start.
They're all young by Legion standards, but they all start as students/pages/grandkids with adult mentoring. sigh
-------------------- 'In the twinkling of an eye' I'll be dancing in the sky!
Come, join me!
From: Salem, Oregon USA | Registered: Aug 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Blockade Boy: Welcome to my corner of the world. 70-80% of our high school kids are on lunch program, what's called a "type a" lunch. They won't eat it though because then everyone can see that they're "poor." (even though they have all that company). sigh So they buy pizza slice for a dollar, EVERYDAY! sigh^2
Oh yeah, OT
They read "Twilight." Not much else.
Yes, Twilight. We had a Twilight dance, too.
Our kids seem to eat, though. Pizza is one of their choices. I work in a Middle School, though.
-------------------- 'In the twinkling of an eye' I'll be dancing in the sky!
Come, join me!
From: Salem, Oregon USA | Registered: Aug 2003
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