what are you reading?

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Northwind said:
I'm reading the third and final book of the Century Trilogy by Ken Follett. It's a great read. The first book started just before WWI. The second book is around WWII and the characters are the adult children of the characters in the first book. The third book is from 1961 to the 80's Characters are in Russia, Germany England and the US. I'm going to go through withdrawal when I'm done this. I've read the second two books one after the other.
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Great read. It made me think how people keep hoping that there will be no war, or that it will be only short, and just keep on pulling through. It is no surprise that many jews stayed in Germany until it was too late.
It made me compare how similar we deal today with the upcoming catastrophe of climate disaster or the possibility of Trump starting a war.
 
I've been thinking along those lines too @Mrs.Anteater. I've also been struck by the fact that the political systems really have not changed over the years. There seems to be the same resistance to changing things. I guess the elite won't willingly change the system. Why would they, it works for them.
 
Northwind said:
I've been thinking along those lines too @Mrs.Anteater. I've also been struck by the fact that the political systems really have not changed over the years. There seems to be the same resistance to changing things. I guess the elite won't willingly change the system. Why would they, it works for them.
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Can’t say that the political systems haven’t changed for Germany. Having proportional representation has significantly influenced how Germany deals with the environmental issues. The European Union is also a post war benefit. What hasn’t really changed is the way people are manipulated and the tendency to need someone to blame. What also is new is the internet and the massive availability of false information.
I have read a book written by Helmut Schmitt, former Chancellor of Germany, born in 1918, who grew up during Nazi time. With information only being available through newspapers, radio or word of mouth, once propaganda took hold of those media, it was difficult not to be influenced by it or get alternative information.
Today, there is more information, but it is still up the the individual to judge what to believe.
 
I suppose I meant in the US. Reading about the resistance to change in the 60s, then Nixon, etc., it seems that things there continue as they were.
 
Reading a translation of a German Book on the history of symbolism and how it contributes to thought and abstraction leading to creationism ... and thus we turn out hoards! Same old same old as alien knowledge is not well accepted ... for mysterious rationale that may be endless!

The background may allow for the Hebrew Unknown God ... a total integrated loss of reason? Thus all was blown in the big one ...
 
Not that I have ever read her (not my cuppa) but I note that popular novelist Judith Krantz died at 91. The piece I saw suggested she something like 84 million copies in print over her career.
 
At a rte of $.10 a copy I'd be more than in the comfort zone ... but told not to be comfortable for the sake of pain of greater schools of learning ... is that phe shae 'd?

As a counter view some leaders state they can jerk anyone out of the human pool ... a dark one at that!
 
I am currently reading two fictional books (I haven't finished Oord yet, but haven't cracked it in weeks): Book 5 of the Harry Potter series. I'd forgotten how dark and angst-y The Order of the Phoenix was. And second in a series by a new author, Katherine Arden, of a witch-like character in ancient Russia.
 
I have started reading a series called The Pendergast Novels. Written by Preston and Child. They r volve around an eccentric FBI agent and various weird and strange mysteries. Quite like them. So far I think I have read five or six. Some must be read in sequence. Well written, often take place or involve the New York Museum
 
Complete book club assignment --- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks --- Rebecca Skloat!

Another script holding some of the power of science ... and how it can corrupt in the extreme ... as powers often do if not moderated! Some find such cognizance a mist condition! Kind 've clouded by desires of unneeded matter ... yet emotions can create heedlessness ... causing lost thoughts! Interned things to be uncovered later ...
 
I'm reading "The People of the Book" by Geraldine Brooks. I am walking a number of miles in Jewish shoes as I read the various stories. I am also shuddering at the word "Christian" as I read about how they treated the Jewish people.

I have recently been discovering more and more young readers: people in their 20s who can't get enough good reading! So, 63 year old me can sit down with a college student and talk books for a significantly long time, and come away feeling like we've made a connection! This is wonderful!
 
I'm reading The Moor by Laurie R. King - it's about the 4th in a series I've read of her books - really like them! Sherlock Holmes & his brilliant younger wife go about solving interesting cases - the dialogue is witty, vocabulary & writing style are sophistocated, characters are always quirky and well developed, settings are interesting ... and they tend not to be gory like many mysteries tend to be. If you want to pick up with this author - start at the beginning with The Beekeeper's Apprentice.
 
Was starting to read Jade City by Fonda Lee and may try to continue with the ebook from the library. It's fantasy but not your usual Tolkien or Game of Thrones clone. It's set in a modern world Asian state (i.e. there are cars, airplanes, etc.) inspired by Hong Kong, Singapore, and similar where jade is the basis for powerful magic that some inhabitants can wield. The jade wielders are organized into clans that are run like crime families (the Chinese triads being the obvious inspiration), making this a kind of mash-up of The Godfather and Hong Kong action movies with a shot of wuxia. It's the first book of a trilogy, with the second just out. Only got through the opening chapters that kind of set up the characters and setting. Definitely interested but life...

FYI, Lee is originally Canadian, born and raised in Calgary, but currently resides in the USA.
 
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I've just started listening to audio book by William Kent Krueger called Ordinary Grace. So far it's good.
 
A non-fiction one for me.

The Science of the Sacred - Nicole Redvers.

I'm finding it both fascinating and 'beyond my science education.' The author ties together the traditional and modern teachings about health and wellness. The parts I understand seem to confirm what I seem know 'from that place deep inside'.
 
I remember when I was in grade 4 or 5, snoozing through Canadian History. As a young reader, my imagination flickered a bit when I was learning about the attempts at finding a northwest passage, but that interest was certainly never nourished by the existing textbooks.
Even the teachers were bored.
The high Arctic may as well have been another distant and desolate planet....something compelling and tragic at the same time.
The book I'm recommending breathes life so refreshing into one of those stories. The writing style deftly engages every sense to make it come alive. Reading this book, you feel present in a way that makes it hard to put it down.It is also very respectful of Indigenous people as they appeared in the story, but not attempting to tell their story.
This through the eyes of a 12 year old boy. For me, it changed the way I viewed the Franklin Expedition (and all the documented facts) as more than those poor men frozen for a century in permafrost.
It is the book that should have been in my hands while I was thinking about escaping through the window in class.
It's a relatively slim volume...(good in these days of shortened attention spans) and a seamless read from beginning to end.
Ship's Boy in the Arctic Survivor
By Elizabeth Savoie
 
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