“Trees” is in my options for next few books.
I’m finishing up Neuromancer now. I’m not a terribly big fan of sci-fi, but it has been credited enough lately with accurately predicting AI dysptopia forty years ago. I don’t really understand what anyone is talking about, but it’s a fun read.
Started Rubicon by Tom Holland.
It was published 20-something years ago so not hot off the presses. But I like history and I wanted something that covered the end of the Roman republic.
I really enjoyed Big Wonderful Thing, too. Will probably re-read sometime.
I love William Gibson’s early novels. I think if you read Count Zero and then Mona Lisa Overdrive, Neuromancer will make a lot more sense.
Finally started reading The Gay Place. One of my dad’s favorite novels and years ago he gave his copy of the first edition. Sadly, it was ruined during one of the numerous moves since my mid 20’s.
The Iron Orchard is next on my reading list.
Persian Fire is excellent. Highly recommend reading it if you’re enjoying Rubicon.
Thanks I’ll definitely add that to the queue.
“Trees” looks good, it’s on the list now.
I’m a sucker for short stories, and one of my guilty pleasures is Stephen King, so once it comes out in paperback there’s a new collection of stories from various authors that are set in the world of “The Stand”…“The End of the World As We Know It”
Let us know how you like The Gay Place. I read it years ago and have been thinking of re-reading it sometime.
I read The Trees two years ago and it just missed my Top 10 for the year. I started Erasure last year and got sidetracked, but it’s on my list to get back to soon.
Lately I’ve been on an Ann Patchett kick (Tom Lake, The Dutch House, and Bel Canto… all fantastic, though the latter took a while to “click” for me). Also gotten into Elizabeth Strout the past couple of weeks (My Name is Lucy Barton and Anything is Possible - both part of a larger series all at least tangentially related to the aforementioned Lucy Barton character).
I love Patchett but I haven’t read any of those. I tried Bel Canto but couldn’t get into it–happy to hear it took a while for you, that bodes well. It is the book that put her on the map. For me it’s been Commonwealth and State of Wonder and her essays.
Re-reading, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. I read it 40 years ago. Still very interesting.
I listened to the audiobook, which I highly recommend. The narrator (Dominic Hoffman) was fantastic. Added a whole other level to the book which was fantastic in itself.
“Full Count” by David Cone sounds interesting. Ran into this while I was on a hunt for Quisenberry highlights:
Last night I had a dream that I was re-reading The Perfect Spy, by John LeCarre, except that this time it was by @Limey and it included a riveting and exhaustively researched blow-by-blow account of the Astros 2017 postseason.
Didn’t know where else to put that, so…
Have recently finished The Quest for Merlin by Nikolai Tolstoy (the other Tolstoy’s great nephew), a bunch of novels by my own uncle’s former college roommate, Lawrence Wright (The End of October, The Human Scale, and Mr. Texas), a little-known gem from 60s UK, O Caledonia, by Elspeth Barker, and a Kunstler bildungsroman by Adam Ross called Playworld.
I would only recommend the Tolstoy to other people who for whatever reason have an abiding interest in the ancient, pagan/Druid background of popular Merlin mythology. It was an extremely in-the-weeds antiquarian, uh, “romp.”
Lawrence Wright, best known for The Looming Tower and his New Yorker writing, writes a mean novel. They combine his peerless capacity for long-form journalistic research with a real knack for page-turning movement. October was a plague novel that actually came out in March of the plague year, Scale is about Israel/Palestine and concludes with the events of October 7th, and Texas is about a likable freshman legislator surfing the insane waves.
The Barker and Ross books couldn’t be more different except for sharing themes of coming of age. Barker’s protagonist is a Scottish Wednesday Addams before Wednesday Addams was a thing (I think), and she dies at the end (not a spoiler: it’s foreshadowed in the first paragraph); Ross’s is a young lad growing up in New York during the Reagan administration, balancing competing interests in wrestling, acting and D&D. Barker never wrote another novel. Ross’s debut was a novel called Mr. Peanut I’ve got on order.
Reading Matrix currently, by Lauren Groff. Not loving, but Mrs banedoodle doesn’t often push books on me so I’m obligated to at least finish.
Get help.
Speaking of Le Carre…if you haven’t seen the miniseries “The Night Manager” you’re missing out
I’ve tried to like Lauren Groff, I really have.
I like her short stories.
Seconded.
I liked one of them.