Fifth Avenue Forum

I'm a big fan of Jim Carrey and crazy Jim Carrey of recent is fascinating. Pretty tempted to get this



Currently reading Jeff vandermeers new book A Peculiar Peril and it's so weird

I know there aren't many horror fans here, but I'm a third of the way into "The Only Good Indians" by Stephen Graham Jones and I'm loving the hell out of it.

The Bear by Andrew Krivak is simply one of the most wonderful books I've ever read. Absolutely loved it. Quick read too. Highest recommendation. It's beautiful.

I've said this before, but I HIGHLY recommend the Jack West Jr. series from Matthew Reilly. One of the most fun series I've ever read, nonstop action.

I'm sitting on the beach reading Ambrose's D-Day. So good.

Just finished with Talking To Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell... boy I bet this book pissed off a ton of people. Got into it because I love his revisionist history podcast.

He goes into why the admin at Penn State didn't act like everyone in hindsight thinks they should have acted, how men and women (hell, women and women too) can't even agree on what consent means when sober let alone when drunk, cops/detectives/fbi agents not only can't tell when someone is lying or telling the truth but they're WORSE than normal people at telling truth from lie, policing methods (mind you this was written prior to George Floyd) are just straight up dumb and wasteful, suicides in the USA would plummet if guns were removed from the populace(regardless of constitutional arguments, he backs it up with a wealth of data to support it). Like I said, probably pisses off a TON of people.

Overall, it's interesting, but I'm not sure how much "ah ha!" comes from reading it other than to say "people are people... and people are messy".

Just finished with Talking To Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell... boy I bet this book pissed off a ton of people. Got into it because I love his revisionist history podcast.

He goes into why the admin at Penn State didn't act like everyone in hindsight thinks they should have acted, how men and women (hell, women and women too) can't even agree on what consent means when sober let alone when drunk, cops/detectives/fbi agents not only can't tell when someone is lying or telling the truth but they're WORSE than normal people at telling truth from lie, policing methods (mind you this was written prior to George Floyd) are just straight up dumb and wasteful, suicides in the USA would plummet if guns were removed from the populace(regardless of constitutional arguments, he backs it up with a wealth of data to support it). Like I said, probably pisses off a TON of people.

Overall, it's interesting, but I'm not sure how much "ah ha!" comes from reading it other than to say "people are people... and people are messy".

I read this a while ago, maybe before the pandemic. His books are always insightful. If read with an open mind, it shouldn't piss anybody off. I'm guessing the people it would piss off are not the ones reading his books anyway.

SPARKS COME FROM THE VERY SOURCE OF LIGHT AND ARE MADE OF the purest brightness-so say the oldest legends. When a human Being is to be born, a spark begins to fall. First it flies through the darkness of outer space, then through galaxies, and finally, before it falls here to Earth, the poor thing bumps into the orbits of planets. Each of them contaminates the spark with some Properties, while it darkens and fades.

First Photo draws the frame for this cosmic experiment and reveals its basic principles-life is a fleeting incident, followed by death, which will one day let the spark escape from the trap: there's no other way out. Life is like an extremely demanding testing ground. From now on everything you do will count, every thought and every deed, but not for you to be punished or rewarded afterward, but because it is they that build your world. This is how the machine works. As it continues to fall the spark crosses Neptune's belt and is lost in its foggy vapors. As consolation Neptune gives it all sorts of illusions, a sleepy memory of its exodus, dreams about flying, fantasy, narcotics and books. Uranus equips it with the capacity for rebellion: from now on that will be proof of the memory of where the spark is from. As the spark passes the rings of Saturn, it becomes clear that waiting for it at the bottom is a prison. A labor camp, a hospital, rules and forms, a sickly body, fatal illness, the death of a loved one. But Jupiter gives it consolation, dignity and optimism, a splendid gift: things-will-work-out. Mars adds strength and aggression, which are sure to be of use. As it flies past the Sun, it is blinded, and all that it has left of its former, far-reaching consciousness is a small, stunted Self, separated from the rest, and so it will remain. I imagine it like this: a small torso, a crippled being with is wings torn off, a Fly tormented by cruel children who knows how it will survive in the Gloom. Praise the Goddesses, now Venus stands in the way of its Fall. From her the spark gains the gift of love, the pur est sympathy, the only thing that can save it and other sparks, thanks to the gifts of Venus they will be able to unite and support each other. Just before the Fall it catches on a small, strange planet that resembles a hypnotized Rabbit, and doesn't turn on its own axis, but moves rap idly, staring at the Sun. This is Mercury, who gives it language, the capacity to communicate. As it passes the Moon, it gains something as intangible as the soul.

Only then does it fall to Earth, and is immediately clothed in a body. Human, animal or vegetable.

That's the way it is.

Pulling a gaucho after reading Drive Your Plow Over The Bones Of The Dead by Olga Tokarczuk. A very quirky polish novel (which won the Nobel prize) that reminded me a lot of a Coen Brothers movie. Highly recommend.

I have a csb for ya: Olga Tokarczuk was doing an author reading in my hometown when she got the news she won the Nobel. (I didn't attend.)

Very cool, have you read any of her books?

I have not, but The Books of Jacob sounds very intriguing. And so does Drive Your Plow.

Why did I wait this long to read D Day? What an incredible read. The first hand accounts... My goodness. Bad break if you landed at Omaha in those first waves (and not Utah).

Just ordered Band of Brothers so I'll sink my teeth into that next.

The interesting thing about Band of Brothers is a lot of the featured Easy Company soldiers wrote memoirs, so you can really get a broad perspective on what actually happened.

I really recommend David Kenyon Webster's Parachute Infantry. Ambrose borrows quite a bit from it, quoting most of it properly. Webster was one of the few enlisted men with a college background (Harvard).

Of course, the handful of books that feature Dick Winters are well worth your while as well.

Leviathan Falls is the title of the ninth and final Expanse book, due out in 2021.

https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-expanses-9t ... 1845076940

I had a lot of fun reading those this year. Certainly nice to have an escapist fantasy to keep my mind off the current state of the world.

I "read" the first one via audiobook, but since I WFH most of the time, it's hard to get through an entire book anymore. It's one of the few negatives of WFH.

Thomas Wolfe at the Oktoberfest

—and in these places you come to the heart of Germany, not the heart of its poets and scholars, but to its real heart. It is one enormous belly.

http://theamericanreader.com/4-october- ... bernstein/

Thomas Wolfe at the Oktoberfest

—and in these places you come to the heart of Germany, not the heart of its poets and scholars, but to its real heart. It is one enormous belly.

http://theamericanreader.com/4-october- ... bernstein/

This is a great read, thanks for sharing. His discomfort is palpable.

Btw, don't click the "+" at the end...

Dune was a hell of a book. That ending was awesome, and I look forward to seeing how they film that in the new movie. Love how weird this was.

Nothing but blue skies by Thomas McGuane is up next

I finally have time to read again after the race to finish up my PhD early. I have about 20 books I have amassed over the past few months.

Starting with Shorefall, Robert Jackson Bennett. I absolutely loved the first book, Foundryside, in this series and this holds up. @eddy if you haven't already, you should check it out.