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What book is everyone reading at the moment? Part 2.

A couple of hundred pages into Heinrich Himmler: A Life by Peter Longerich, straight after finishing Iris Chang's The Rape of Nanking.

A change of topic will definitely be required after finishing this one.
 
Helen said:
A little light reading, I see!
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I normally buy a few books at a time from my shopping list, covering a variety of subjects. The two I mentioned represent the last book from the previous order and the first one from my latest delivery. I tend to alternate between topics, although I didn't really think about it this time. My next read will certainly be a bit lighter in tone. Possibly a biography of George Stephenson.
 
Finished Alas, Babylon. I am still surprised that I remembered absolutely nothing about it even though I noted that I had read it before. I enjoyed it, but I can't say there was anything either story-wise or character-wise that was outstanding. It did kind of make me want to read When/After Worlds Collide again, though.
 
LDE1976 said:
I normally buy a few books at a time from my shopping list, covering a variety of subjects. The two I mentioned represent the last book from the previous order and the first one from my latest delivery. I tend to alternate between topics, although I didn't really think about it this time. My next read will certainly be a bit lighter in tone. Possibly a biography of George Stephenson.
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I do something similar, I usually have three or four books, of varying weight going at the same time - the closer to bedtime, the lighter the read.
 
alfaniner said:
Finished Alas, Babylon. I am still surprised that I remembered absolutely nothing about it even though I noted that I had read it before. I enjoyed it, but I can't say there was anything either story-wise or character-wise that was outstanding. It did kind of make me want to read When/After Worlds Collide again, though.
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I read the Collider (giggle) books in high school. (Class of '69) They were good for that demographic.
 
alfaniner said:
If that's a joke, I don't get it. But, no.
BTW, it wasn't The Dude either.
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The hero had a hammer that became a sign of highest rank in the survivors' tribe. He ritually passed it on to his successor and after he was left behind to die ala Plains Indians. (Left the ones who couldn't travel in the shade of a bush or tree to die, or have dinner with wolves.)
 
I read The Sea by John Banville, 2005, which won the Booker Prize in that year. A friend gave it to me after they'd read it.

Banville has a terrific vocabulary, lots of nice words in this. The story stays with you. 4 or 4.5 stars out of 5. Not sure I'd recommend it because it disturbed me, but that could be just me.


Now I've started Stuff the British Stole by Marc Fennell, 2026. Based on the award-winning podcast and TV series, this looks at 10 historical objects. Fantastic introduction, and interesting first chapter.

"The moment someone claims they know why the past unfolded the way it did, I get twitchy. History isn't a set of tidy answers - it's a collection of awkward questions. A long, unresolved conversation between clashing points of view, many of which are destined to glare at one another forever."
 
John Banville is one my favourite authors.

I'm reading Mary Beard, Talking Classics, and enjoying it immensely; her comprehensive knowledge makes her curiosity and joy very contagious, and her unique perspective is compelling - thought-provoking, even. Not a good bedtime read, for those of us who do not usually think, in other words, but other than that, I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in the classics. You may not get to meet all your favourite classic texts, but the ones she delves into are well worth knowing.
 
The Faith of Beasts, part deux of the The Captive's War series by James S.A. Corey.

I suggest reading the in-between novella Livesuit (part 1.5 of the series) first, as it puts some part of the second book into perspective.

I like the complete overload of alien species and tech that is never explained (because the characters in the story either do know nothing about them or don't really care) that was already a feature of the first book.
But I do understand that it's probably not what someone would want in a High Sci-fi novel.
 
I am reading The Complete Codex Zouche-Nuttall: Mixtec Lineage Histories and Political Biographies, by Robert Lloyd Williams, 2013.

A comprehensive analysis of the meaning of the codex and at the end a full colour series of photos of the original text.

One side of the codex is a series of Mixtec royal genealogies the other side is the life of the Mixtec leader Eight Deer.

I find it a fascinating.
 
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