I read Termination Shock about a month ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. Like most of Stephenson’s books, there are a lot of seemingly disjoint threads, but they all come together eventually, sometimes in surprising and amusing ways.
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We went to Alaska last month, and I read a lot of stuff written about Alaska, and I was surprised by how much there was. Some I’d read before and re-read/listened to–John McPhee’s Coming Into the Country. I’d never wanted to read Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild but forced myself to. The best of the lot was Barry Lopez’s Arctic Dreams, which won the National Book Award in 1986. It is a stunningly beautiful and affecting book.
I’ve got Arctic Dreams in the queue on Audible. Lopez was a national treasure.
I’m only 850 pages into James Clavell’s Shōgun but I’m enjoying it quite a bit. I’m a sucker for true-ish-story historical adventures.
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Ron Howard is the movie maker for you.
I bet you can’t read just one! His books are amazing. I read them before I spent time in Asia and re-read them afterward, but I would recommend them to anyone either way. All of them.
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Noble House was my favorite. They are all fun, and if you have a lot of time on your hands a terrific way to fill it.
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FX is doing a(nother) miniseries treatment of Shogun. I really hope it’s good.
I hear they’re filming it on the Great Plains.
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and no damn trees
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With an all Comanche cast
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There’s a town on west Texas called “Notrees”. Ironically, they have a tree.
I’m going to Bismarck, Nd, next week, and decided to re-read Louise Erdrich’s Round House. I read it when it came out, and thought it was overrated. Now I think that once again I was an idiot. It is a brilliant novel.
Now I’m going to go back and read more Louis Erdrich.
There’s fishing in North Dakota?
I hope there’s at least one fish in North Dakota
I just finished this biography of Oscar Charleston. Seems to be the first time an author has really compiled a deep dive of Charleston’s life. I’ve seen him pop up near the top of several “greatest players of all time” lists lately, but I knew nothing about him. It’s a good, thorough read:
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Just finished “The Premonition: A Pandemic Story”.
This is Michael Lewis’ account of the US response to COVID-19. It’s a pretty fascinating, but disturbing, look at the ways our government works, and doesn’t work, and at some key individuals who made a difference in our response.
(Guess I could have put this in the COVID thread.)
We’re headed out on a cruise tomorrow which means about 3 days of reading. I seem to always read a Pratchett book when cruising, this time it will be Mort. After that, in the same lighter vein, I’m going to be reading either Sartre’s Nausea or Camus’ The Fall (I’m not some pretentious reading mook I just like good novels). I have a few others in case I’m not in the mood for the Frenchies (I’m quite fond of my complete H.P. Lovecraft book and the complete short stories of Ray Bradbury) but those are probably the two I’ll read.
As for something I’ve already read, I highly and bigly recommend Lanny by Max Porter. Brilliant book.
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Something not within my normal wheelhouse, “Cold Comfort Farm” by Stella Gibbons. Would recommend it to anyone as Gibbons had one helluva sense of humor. There is no mention of baseball.
That’s a book from the 30s maybe? I’ve heard it’s hilarious, but have never read it.