Bred Any Good Rooks Lately?

cat

I borrowed one called The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart from the library. Borrowed a digital copy for my kindle and only got half through before the due date and it poof! disappeared from my kindle. Need to go check it out again and finish. 

First time read for me by this author and so I do not have anything to compare it to. The writing is a little bit choppy but the story was intriguing. Set at a hotel where there is a portal for time travel, people go on vacations to the past. Only the past, never the future. The main character is a "cop" of sorts, she works to make sure no one changes anything, like killing Hitler or stopping JFK's assassination. But she has traveled too many times and is sick from it but stubbornly refusing to acknowledge it. She is trying to peacefully oversee the sale of the govt run hotel to a private business with several different companies involved and deal with her sickness and solve a murder that no one but her knows is going to happen yet. I don't quite get that yet, if no one can travel to the future, how she can know something is going to happen but she gets these little flashes of things that she can change, because they haven't happened yet. I think it is part of her illness. 

Interesting enough I want to finish it. 

And there is a new Chet and Bernie arriving Tuesday! 😍

Kurben

I am reading The Popes by John Julius Norwich at the moment. It is a political history of the popes which is logical when most of the popes were political leaders until rather recently. It starts with St Peter (it discusses the problem with sources with the early popes and that we cant with 100 % certainty even say that Peter traveled to Rome or died there even though he is prepared to accept that as slightly more likely than that he never came to Rome). Except when its necessary he avoids theology (the big theological thinkers were usually not popes) and when it is necessary (like Arianism, the split between the Catholic and the Orthodox churches, and the reformation) for the context he explains it. There are some brave and good leaders among them but also some real monsters in human shape (Alexander VI, Julius II for example). Also some fascinating myths have been created that have no historical basis at all like the female pope myth, pope Joan. As the story goes she dressed as a man, got elected and was found out when she gave birth to a son some years later. This never happened but its a good story and many still believe it to be true. A good novel was written based on that story too that became quite populat, Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross.

GNTLGNT

Hedda Gabler

I am listening to the audiobook on youtube of The Martian Chronicles. How I wish Ray Bradbury had done a Masterclass. 

The MC, like The Illustrated Man, is a cleverly constructed book of short stories, woven together by one main idea. The base story and then all these other stories just weave their way through his world. 

His words are poetry, or music. A painter. There is a beat and a cadence to his word choices. Really just a master of the language. Bold and picturesque choices.

I have never read this book. I’ve read an individual story here and there; I’ve seen some adapted to the screen in Ray Bradbury’s Theater.   I’m older now and can appreciate how skilled and conscious he was in engaging our senses. 

I give you just a small sample below. 

THE LOCUSTS 

“The rockets set the bony meadows afire, turned rock to lava, turned wood to charcoal, transmitted water to steam, made sand and silica into green glass which lay like shattered mirrors reflecting the invasion, all about. The rockets came like drums, beating in the night. The rockets came like locusts, swarming and settling in blooms of rosy smoke. And from the rockets ran men with hammers in their hands to beat the strange world into a shape that was familiar to the eye, to bludgeon away all the strangeness, their mouths fringed with nails so they resembled steel-toothed carnivores, spitting them into their swift hands as they hammered up frame cottages and scuttled over roofs with shingles to blot out the eerie stars, and fit green shades to pull against the night. “

GNTLGNT

...he was a poet in prose.....

Hedda Gabler

GNTLGNT said:

...he was a poet in prose.....

Yes he was. And i wasn’t really focused on that when i was reading him as a younger person. I just loved the stories.

 In listening to it now, with a good narrator, i am so much more appreciative of the way he was engaging us.  The telling was much more than the story. If i make any sense. 

GNTLGNT

...it does...like you, I read for the stories when but a boy, but now-I savor the imagery....

Kurben

A Brief History of The Anglo-Saxons by Geoffrey Hindley. I see it as a kind of refresher on the subject until i get my hands on Dan Jones book on the same subject. Jones is a better narrator than Hindley (at least he was in the two other books i've read by him). And since britain after Rome and before The Conqueror is a rather confused era it needs a firm hand on the helm to steer the reader through it. It has some really interesting Kings (Uffa, Ethelred, Alfred, Athelstan and Edward the Confessor just to mention a few) but since it was really not until Athelstan that one with fairness could claim to be king of Britain and not a bigger or smaller part of it. Borders to Britain is, unusually in these times, pretty clear. The ocean except for the northward border which had been Hadrians Wall since it was built in 122 AD. Originally the people living there were called the Picts but when the Anglo-Saxons starts coming from Germania and starts to push the British away about the same thing happen north of the wall where a gruop of people known as the Scotti starts to take over from the Picts. The Scotti came originally from Ireland and gave name to Scotland. The years from 410 when the last roman legions left to 1066 is a mess with invasions. migrasions, counterinvasions and shifting loyalities at all time plus, as an extra confusion the strong and growing nordic influence from about 600. They even had gtheir own kingdom for awhile in the north of Britain (capital York which is just the english spelling of the nordic Jorvik) with two great kings, Swein Forkbeard  and Cnute the Great. So, as i said, a mess but a very interesting mess.

Hedda Gabler

When is Castle rock cookbook out? Off to google

Kurben

I'm not so hot on Hindleys way to handle The Anglo-Saxons. It is very clear that he is a very knowledgeable expert on the subject but when you're writing a brief history in one book it is vital to decide on a line and stick to it. He has decided on a mostly thematic approach to the era. That is an approach that makes it easier for the writer but harder for the reader. Especially when, as Hindley himself points out, they saw themselfes as one people with one language (what we today call Old English to distinguish it from later variations). To then discuss the many separate kingdoms mainly separately without really making totally clear the many interconnections between them i feel he does himself a disservice. It also means that he is on many occasions forced to repeat himself and cover the same ground he already covered but from another angle. He also has seoarate chapters for the church, apostles, law, learning, language and literature. All important aspects of Anglo-Saxon England but i rather have them treated in context and in a narrative timeframe. Then when he comes to the last 100 years or so he gradually shifts to a more narrative style probably because by then the anglo saxons were united under one king, Athelstan, and the history from their is much about their battles with the danes. And so, in 1066, when they just won a big battle in the north against the danes(Stamford Bridge) they got the news, when celebrating their big victory, that the Normans invaded in the south. They quickly gather the army again and subsequently lose the battle of Hastings. And so ends Anglo-Saxon rule in England. It is interesting to note that England has from roman times forward always been ruled by foreigners. The reigning Royal House is really german and was called The House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha until 1917 when because of great anti-german feelings in the country because WW1 they changed name to Windsor. Their predecessors, The House of Hannover (the boring Georges) was German, The Stuarts were mainly Scottish and the Tudors were of mixed Welsh-french origin. The Plantagenets were mainly from Anjou in France and kept on speaking french as the main language for a long time. Closest are the Tudors clearly. The welsh then were the british way back when until the anglo-saxons swept them aside and they resituated in Wales and formed a lot of very small kingdoms whose foremost pleasure was to raid their anglo-saxon neighbors.

GNTLGNT

...and if any of them had been the dentists of their day-would they have been known as "Toothpicts"??....

Lou_Sytsma

Finished Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. It's a post-pandemic novel much like The Stand in concept with no supernatural elements. It delves into how connections pre-pandemic survive post-pandemic even if the people involved are not aware.  It's about people coping the best they can in a fallen world and there's an enchanting theme of nobility and grace under pressure.

Currently reading, The Pallbearers Club, by Paul Tremblay. A book about vampires, maybe?, with a unique dual narration concept where the protagonist's story is being critiqued by one of the members all done in a red cursive font.  Must have been a fun book to print.

cat

The latest Chet and Bernie book, Bark to the Future was good. I giggled out loud several times. Chet is a hoot and a great narrator! 

Now reading The Godfather for the first time. The movie is one of my all time favorites, was a little worried the book would ruin the movie for me, but it follows very close! At least so far, I'm about 25% in. 

Chomping at the bit to get at Fairy Tale though. Less than 2 weeks to go! 

Kurben

Now reading Marc Morris The Anglo-Saxons. (i was wrong earlier, it was not Dan Jones but Morris all along. I was thinking of a book on medieval Europe by Jones. Both are very good writers). Morris handles the Anglo-Saxons the way they ought to be handled, IMO, in a clear narrative and in context. I especially like that he dares to point out that Bede (practically the only written source about early anglo-saxon times) was wrong on several points and that he takes archaeological finds into consideration in a much higher degree then for example Hindley did. Started very good!

Hedda Gabler

Modern Etiquette Made Easy — Myka Meiers. 

GNTLGNT

Lou_Sytsma

Finished The Pallbearers Club by Paul Tremblay. 

He is hit and miss for me. Loved - A Head Full of Ghosts and Cabin at the End of the World. Disappearance at Devil's Rock - left me frustrated and Pallbearers Club was a slog, even despite the nifty dual narrative device used.

GNTLGNT

Lou_Sytsma said:

Finished The Pallbearers Club by Paul Tremblay. 

He is hit and miss for me. Loved - A Head Full of Ghosts and Cabin at the End of the World. Disappearance at Devil's Rock - left me frustrated and Pallbearers Club was a slog, even despite the nifty dual narrative device used.

...agreed...."uneven" was my thought....

Kurben

Reading Lord Tyger by Philip Jose Farmer. Farmers imagination was absolutely firstrate. Exemplified by his World of Tiers, Riverworld and Dayworld series. But he also had an big obsession with pulp heroes in general and Tarzan in particular. He has written several novels featuring his version of the jungle King that are very good. This is not a Tarzan novel but is clearly inspired by Borroughs creation. The first sentence sets the tone: My mother was an ape, my father was God. But as he grows up more and more he realizes that what he has been told about the world, his parents and who he is is a falsehood and in his quest about finding the truth about who he is he finds some shocking answers. SF at its finest. I have always thought that Farmer is a bit underrated as an SF-writer. His best work is really good.

Lou_Sytsma

Loved his Riverworld series.

Kurben

Lord Tyger was great!! Now reading his Lord of The Trees. Full of action. Tarzan has rebelled against an organisation called The Secret Nine together with his friend Doc Caliban (Doc Savage). Here he lets his Tarzan obsession out in full bloom. He cant use the name Tarzan or Lord Greystoke so its Lord Grandrith instead and he talks about the romantic liberties his biographer took with his life (meaning Burroughs books about Tarzan and implying that Tarzan has told the true story to him). The book really express his love for the original books and is a fun read, especially if you have read some of the original Tarzan Books. He insisted that an undertitle of the book would be "Volume X of The Memoirs of Lord Grandrith as edited by Philip Jose Farmer"

Lou_Sytsma

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel. A time travel novel that in tone and voice is much like Station Eleven. It's a delicate tale, intricately interwoven. Somber yet joyful with ties to her previous novels in a very Stephen Kingish way.

Hedda Gabler

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk.  David Sedaris.  A very good Aesop fablesque group of morality tales.  Kind of. 

Kurben

Right now i'm deep in several books....  Fairy Tale of course but also Power And Thrones, a truly excellent history of the Middle Ages in Europe. Its written by Dan Jones and he does a great job of keeping all the different threads over a period of 1100 years at least. He manages to cover, in one book, the stories of the roman decline, the Visigoths, The Ostrogoths, The Vandals and several other important tribes that later founded kingdoms, The Huns are there and so is the Mongols and of course the Byzantine Empire and the Arab expansion. He stops his story when the Reformation begins and many countries become some form of protestant church. I did not think it possible to pack so many subjects from so many cultures into one book. At the same time he manages to keep the story going in a very well narrated story that connects the dots and even if the book is thick (about 700 pages) it is pages filled with interest. Usually you would have to read at least 5-6 different books to get similar information but without the context he manages to give it. Very good book.
I am also reading Dayworld by Philip Jose Farmer. I just got hold of it. It is the first book of a trilogy and i have book 2 and 3 in the series but havent read them because i havent found the book one. And now i did! For a cheap price in a used book store. I was so happy!!

SusanNorton

I finished reading "The Ink Black Heart," by Galbraith/Rowling. It took a little time to get used to the format, but once I did all was fine. I enjoyed the book, but I think that "Troubled Blood" was just so damned good that anything would have paled in comparison.