Bibliophile Thread

Postby **DigitalGypsy66** » Wed Sep 27, 2017 9:13 am

I finished David Maraniss' Once in a Great City, which tells the history of an important 18 months in Detroit in 1963-1964: civil rights movement, Motown, and the creation of the Ford Mustang. Very well written. I also recommend his Clemente biography.

I then read The Railway Man, a biography of a British POW in Singapore and how he reconciled with one of his captors. Colin Firth starred in the film a few years ago, but the movie took a lot of liberties with the story. As always, the book is superior.

Postby **obhave** » Thu Sep 28, 2017 9:07 am

I am just wrapping up The Colour of Magic. If you go on Terry Pratchett's website, it gives you a recommended reading order and that is the first. Wow...how did I miss this series for so long? The writing is brilliantly funny, sharp, and witty. The characters are rich, and horrifying yet humorous. I'll definitely be reading this whole series at some point.

I actually think the series takes a bit to get it's stride. So if you enjoyed the first one you are in for a real treat.

Postby **eddy** » Tue Oct 03, 2017 1:29 pm

@obhave

V.E. Schwab, author of the popular Shades of Magic series, is writing a new trilogy set in the same world called Threads of Power. According to Entertainment Weekly, the books will be coming to publisher Tor as part of a massive $1 million deal.

According to Schwab, the new series will be set five to 10 years after A Conjuring of Light, the final book in the Shades of Magic trilogy, and will feature both new and returning characters. For those unfamiliar with Shades of Magic, it’s best known for its setting — the books span four parallel Londons, each with their own cultures and magic — and characters, including the cross-dressing pickpocket Lila Ba

https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/28/1621 ... -1-million

Postby **obhave** » Tue Oct 03, 2017 3:15 pm

@obhave

V.E. Schwab, author of the popular Shades of Magic series, is writing a new trilogy set in the same world called Threads of Power. According to Entertainment Weekly, the books will be coming to publisher Tor as part of a massive $1 million deal.

According to Schwab, the new series will be set five to 10 years after A Conjuring of Light, the final book in the Shades of Magic trilogy, and will feature both new and returning characters. For those unfamiliar with Shades of Magic, it’s best known for its setting — the books span four parallel Londons, each with their own cultures and magic — and characters, including the cross-dressing pickpocket Lila Ba
https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/28/1621 ... -1-million

<3

I really loved how A Conjuring of Light ended, so I'm hoping that she doesn't ruin that ending for me with too much about the older characters in the new trilogy.

Postby **eddy** » Fri Oct 06, 2017 11:17 am

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00725WH8O/re ... 1zbTD3MWX3

Southern Gods by John Hornor Jacobs is $1.99 on Kindle today. Pretty good horror book, theres some pretty messed up parts to it, I've enjoyed everything I've read from him.

Recent World War II veteran Bull Ingram is working as muscle when a Memphis DJ hires him to find Ramblin' John Hastur. The mysterious blues man's dark, driving music—broadcast at ever-shifting frequencies by a phantom radio station—is said to make living men insane and dead men rise. Disturbed and enraged by the bootleg recording the DJ plays for him, Ingram follows Hastur's trail into the strange, uncivilized backwoods of Arkansas, where he hears rumors the musician has sold his soul to the Devil. But as Ingram closes in on Hastur and those who have crossed his path, he'll learn there are forces much more malevolent than the Devil and reckonings more painful than Hell... In a masterful debut of Lovecraftian horror and Southern gothic menace, John Hornor Jacobs reveals the fragility of free will, the dangerous power of sacrifice, and the insidious strength of blood.

Postby **DigitalGypsy66** » Fri Oct 06, 2017 4:31 pm

I could probably post this in three different threads, but I finally got around to reading We Were Soldiers Once. It's been on my to-read list for about 20 years

The superb Vietnam War documentary covered the battle depicted in the Mel Gibson film of the same name, so that's what pushed me to finally read it.

The film covers only one of the major battles in the Ia Drang: LZ X-ray. Evidently, the film does a pretty decent job of conveying that battle. But almost a third of the book recounts the battle at LZ-Albany, which was a horrendous debacle: a battalion of airmobile cavalry humps through the bush to a clearing to wait helicopter pickup, only to stumble upon most of two NVA regiments. 100+ KIA, a couple hundred wounded. That last third was a tough read.

Postby **eddy** » Sun Oct 08, 2017 8:25 pm

https://youtu.be/72tlOCvPd3o

Postby **Shyster** » Tue Oct 10, 2017 8:46 pm

Atlas Shrugged was published 60 years ago today (October 10, 1957).

Postby **Gaucho** » Thu Oct 12, 2017 5:36 am

i'm currently reading The Black-Eyed Blonde, a Philip Marlowe novel written by Benjamin Black (=John Banville). Great read.

Postby **shafnutz05** » Wed Oct 25, 2017 8:52 pm

I am well over halfway through The Light Fantastic (Discworld)...this is already one of my favorite series I've ever read. This is one of the first and only books that I constantly find myself chuckling to myself as I read through it. @eddysnake, weren't you the one that said you wanted to read it but wouldn't know where to start? Go with this site:

https://www.terrypratchettbooks.com/dis ... ing-order/

Postby **eddy** » Thu Oct 26, 2017 3:37 pm

I am well over halfway through The Light Fantastic (Discworld)...this is already one of my favorite series I've ever read. This is one of the first and only books that I constantly find myself chuckling to myself as I read through it. @eddysnake, weren't you the one that said you wanted to read it but wouldn't know where to start? Go with this site:

https://www.terrypratchettbooks.com/dis ... ing-order/

awesome, thanks!

I recently finished Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargill and it was a great robot apocalyptic story that takes you through humans creating AI and the AI destroying humans to the AI destroying each other. A lot of good action, but I found his writing about the AI and apocalypse the heart of the book. Fun read.

Postby **Troy Loney** » Thu Oct 26, 2017 3:41 pm

The Cartel by Don Winslow was highly entertaining.

Postby **Gaucho** » Thu Oct 26, 2017 6:18 pm

The Cartel by Don Winslow was highly entertaining.

Did you also read Power of the Dog?

Postby **Silentom** » Fri Oct 27, 2017 6:48 pm

Dove headfirst into The Silmarillion tonight. Only a few pages in, but it's awesome how deep of a mythos Tolkien created for Arda and Middle-Earth .

Postby **Troy Loney** » Fri Oct 27, 2017 9:40 pm

The Cartel by Don Winslow was highly entertaining.
Did you also read Power of the Dog?

No, i read them out of order (after I read it)

Postby **DigitalGypsy66** » Wed Nov 01, 2017 4:02 pm

After watching the Vietnam War PBS documentary (go check it out, it's phenomenal), I went back and watched Full Metal Jacket.

The book that it's based on - The Short Timers by Gus Hasford - has been long out of print, which has hindered reading it for years...until now. (It's available in various formats on the Google machine).

It's really an excellent novel, obviously a lot more in depth than the film, and much darker. That being said, Kubrick did an unbelievable job in adapting it for the screen. He really gets most of the essence of the novel into the film. But the book is so good.

Postby **dodint** » Wed Nov 01, 2017 4:19 pm

The unpublished sequels to FMJ are available online too. They're really...out there.

Postby **columbia** » Wed Nov 01, 2017 4:31 pm

I usually stop watching it after the Parris Island stuff.

Postby **robbiestoupe** » Wed Nov 01, 2017 5:08 pm

About halfway through An Ember in the Ashes and not disappointed. I find myself wincing during the Laia chapters, her life is always on a razor thin edge.

Postby **shafnutz05** » Wed Nov 01, 2017 7:30 pm

I usually stop watching it after the Parris Island stuff.

Postby **DigitalGypsy66** » Wed Nov 01, 2017 8:38 pm

I usually stop watching it after the Parris Island stuff.

Yeah, the Hue city fighting scenes aren't as good (and completely different in the book). Hue doesn't look anything like it, as it was a factory in England that was going to be demolished. Kubrick didn't like to fly, so the whole thing was filmed in the UK. They had to fly in palm trees lol.

Postby **Gaucho** » Wed Nov 15, 2017 6:12 pm

Jennifer Egan, Manhattan Beach. Excellent read.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/03/book ... beach.html

Postby **DigitalGypsy66** » Sat Dec 23, 2017 7:21 pm

Whoa, Wool and Shift were excellent. Read them in just a few days. Started Dust today.

Hugh Howey announced that he is writing the teleplay for Wool TV series. Nothing imminent, but that would make a fantastic series.

Postby **columbia** » Sat Dec 23, 2017 7:23 pm

I picked a two volume set of architecture photography books on Soviet bus stops. Really cool.

Postby **Troy Loney** » Wed Dec 27, 2017 11:35 am

I finished the final GOT book yesterday.

He probably could have offed Stannis earlier. Some of those plotlines should have been consolidated, no reason for Quentyn and Young Griff. Also Victarion's having like 2 chapters out of the last 2000 pages was pretty worthless.

I can see why he stalled, it's too expansive, I'm looking forward to the day the next book comes out but I fear it never happens.