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Starting to re-read the Rachel Morgan books by Kim Harrison to refresh my memory before starting the last three that I haven't read.
-------------------- Some people are like slinkys: not really good for anything, but they bring a smile to your face when you knock them down a flight of stairs
From: Penthouse atop Levitz Hall, LMBP Plaza, Embassy Row, Legion World | Registered: Jul 2003
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The Company of the Dead by David J. Kowalski
April 1915: Dr. Wells, a time traveler, relaxes, believing he has altered the course of The Titanic just enough to avoid the iceberg. But 3 hours later, the ship hits another iceberg. Somehow, John Jacob Astor survives and Earth's timeline shifts.
April 2012: Major Joseph Kennedy, scion of the wealthy political clan, works for the Confederate Bureau of Investigation. However, he has clandestinely devoted his time and fortune to his own agenda, which is to restore Earth's original timeline. For his scheme, he must recruit Captain Lightholler, who has just brought The Titanic on her maiden voyage to the Japanese Protectorate of New York. He wonders if he should even exist, and he has a feeling that he's done all this before.
Europe is ruled by kings, Japan occupies New York and the west coast of North America, the Second Confederacy is allied with Germany, the Mexican Empire threatens and Quebec is free.
Throw in a few other time travelers, a mysterious journal rescued from the original Titanic's wreck, atomic weapons, Roswell, a psychopath running the CBI, ghost dancers, the Yakuza, T. S. Eliot and plots within plots and you've got a 750-page book that's very hard to put down.
It's zombies at a Star Trek convention. What's not to love here. So far it's just ramping up, but actually pretty good.
From: Turn around... | Registered: Jul 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Dave Hackett: Currently reading "Wild Boys: A Book of the Dead". Love William S. Burroughs.
I'm back to trying this for the third time. The last two times I've started this, I've lost the book for an extended period of time. Last weekend while looking for backpack to take camping, I found this in the bottom of the closet. Before that I'd left it at my in-laws over Christmas two years ago. Let's see if the book defies my attempts to read it once more.
From: Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada | Registered: Sep 2004
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The author describes his book as the follow-up to Vance Packard's Hidden Persuaders. Lindstrom reviews a number of techniques that companies use to get us to buy their stuff. He still works in the industry, so I bet he's saving the best stuff for his clients!
I have read a number of books on the dirty tricks manufacturers use to get us to eat more junk and processed food, but this book was a good eye-opener to how manipulative other products can be - even marketing to you in the womb and targeting very young children. Scary! Given the way some of this stuff works to rewire our brains makes me wonder if future generations will even be able to choose whether or not to buy material goods.
Did you know that some brands of lip balm are addictive? That marketers understand nostalgia better than we do and use it to get us to buy more?
He did have some interesting things to say about grocery stores, using Whole Foods as an example, regarding how they work on our senses with their displays and set-ups. Fresh flowers at the entrance set the stage and make you think everything is fresh. One totally new thing to me: digital pricing, so the price can vary according to time of day or how many shoppers are in the store (for example, raising the price of snack foods in the evening).
Also an interesting chapter on Royal Families - the only brand with a 75-year marketing plan, according to Lindstrom. And I thought it was all about the hats!
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I'm just about finished the Ender book so I downloaded "The Company of the Dead" to my Kindle a few minutes ago. Thanks for the recommendation FC! I read a sample on the Amazon site and it sounds even better than you described.
From: Fort McMurray | Registered: Nov 2004
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Hope you enjoy it! It's very complex, but I didn't want to put all the details into the review - it would take pages. When you finish, explain to me what happened to Lightholler - that one left me a bit confused.
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For my book club... "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier... just started it last night... lovely use of language...
-------------------- Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...
From: The waters off eastern Long Island | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
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I read "Rebecca" a few months back. Completely awesome, Imo.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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"Main Street" by Sinclair Lewis. I have made about 6-7 attempts to read it over many years to no avail. I always seem to get distracted. I found a receipt in it from a prior attempt in 2004. I have loads of time on the commuter bus, so 8th time's the charm.
From: Douglasville, GA | Registered: Jul 2003
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I have some time on my hands this week, so I decided to finally sit down and read Max Brooks' zombie epic "World War Z". I'm about a quarter thru it so far, and it's pretty gripping and has a believability to it that I wasn't expecting.
It's told as a series of interviews post-apocalypse in such a way as we experience the story chronologically from the earliest stages all the way through. It includes perspectives from opportunists who found a way to underhandedly capitalize on the epidemic...to those who were there near the presumed ground zero...to government officials who handled the impending threat in an attempt more to assuage the masses rather than actually do much to combat it...to unexpected and logical ways the plague spreads...to simple but harrowing stories of survival.
And that's just a sample of what I've already read in less than 100 of 350-ish pages. We're barely into where the shit really hits the fan, and it's already a major page-turner!
My wife's had the book for over a year, and I always intended to get around to reading it. Well, the time is now, folks. If you're into the zombie subgenre or horror in general or just gripping reading told in an uncoventional manner, I can already tell you that "World War Z" is for YOU! It clearly deserves its reputation as a quality book.
EDIT: Oh yeah, first zombie work I know of that shows the global perspective!
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LardLad, "World War Z" is a spectacular book!
Walking Dead fans need to read this book!
It is terrifying, because it shows exactly what a "zombie apocalypse" would be like if it really happened.
I can *totally* see myself being amongst the millions of people fleeing to northern Canada simply to avoid being eaten alive... and then realizing the only alternative is starving/freezing to death among the millions of refugees. Chilling stuff.
I'll admit, though, the chapters detailing the rebuilding of the military, economy, infrastructure, etc. were a bit "dry" for my tastes.
Apparently this will be a movie starring Brad Pitt sometime this coming December, but they are abandoning the "survivors tell their tales of survival" format in favor of a traditional action "Brad Pitt tries to prevent the zombie apocalypse" format...
-------------------- "are you forgetting that I was a professional twice over- an analyst and a therapist. The world's first analrapist."
Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
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Recent reads include Henry James's Portrait of a Lady, which started out kind of slow, got pretty good for awhile, slowed down a bit again, got interesting once more, then kind of annoyed me with the ambiguous ending.
Currently reading the Hugo-nominated space opera Leviathan Wakes. Fun read for the most part so far, but I'm reserving judgment until I get to the end.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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