What are you READING right now?

[iris lily]

My Dark Vanessa, a novel about a 15 year old girl who is sexually abused/has an affair (choose your phrase) by her middle aged teacher. It is fascinating to watch her understanding change about his role in the years after.  Her feelings of power and  control are intoxicating, and her acknowledgement of those feelings feed her guilt in participating in it. She crafts a “ love story” view of them together which he encourages to keep her silent and not report him.

It is interesting to see how she handles her thoughts and feelings juxtaposed with today’s culture of 0 tolerance for sexual abuse.

Nabokov’s Lolita figures prominently in this novel as a touchstone.

This book is next up in my library holds. I will be interested to see if I like it.

I did like it. I finished it, and I only finish  about half of the books I read these days. I loved Lolita for many years So all of these references to the leader or up my alley.

[bbqbonelesswing]

Last week I read The Indigo Girl. If you're looking for a good portrayal of plantation life in the Deep South, this isn't it. Too whitewashed, in an uncomfortable "the slaves were her friends!" kind of way. Yuck. While the book wasn't very good, I did appreciate being introduced to Eliza Lucas Pinckney, who I continued reading about afterward. She led quite the life; as a businesswoman, botanist, and patriot. George Washington was a pallbearer at her funeral.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliza_Lucas

I got a nice bunch of new books for Hanukkah and Christmas that should get me through the next few months. Now I'm making my way through Fields of Battle by John Keegan, a take on the history of war in North America and how it's been determined by the continent's geography.

[LennStar]

The Devil King is a Part Timer (Light novel)

Not exactly literature, but I like to read that lighthearted stuff.
Mostly the half-angel hero is pissed off that the Devil King Satan is a more decent and caring being that the whole heaven and it's angels together.

It still got more than 10 books to go, so I am curious where this will go.

[horsepoor]

I don't read much fiction, but just finished The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, which I really liked. It's a novel set in 1930's Kentucky with the main character delivering books to people in the hills through the government Pack Mule Library project. She also happens to be a "blue" and thus is shunned as a "colored." This turns out to be a real genetic condition causing the skin to appear blue due to blood not oxygenating, so I learned some interesting science too.

Now I'm reading "Careless People" which is about F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, and the murders that inspired much of The Great Gatsby. So far so good, I think I'm about 15% into it.

[sui generis]

Obama's book, "A Promised Land," which I only discovered after diving in is just volume 1 and an intended volume 2 is yet to be written. This one is 768 pages. Yikes.

Anyway, there are frequently interesting tidbits. But it's also been pretty depressing to relive it all. I was disappointed to learn that Obama apparently likes his steak medium well.

[bbqbonelesswing]

Obama's book, "A Promised Land," which I only discovered after diving in is just volume 1 and an intended volume 2 is yet to be written. This one is 768 pages. Yikes.

Anyway, there are frequently interesting tidbits. But it's also been pretty depressing to relive it all. I was disappointed to learn that Obama apparently likes his steak medium well.

I got this for Hanukkah but haven't started it yet. Have you read any of his other books?

[sui generis]

Obama's book, "A Promised Land," which I only discovered after diving in is just volume 1 and an intended volume 2 is yet to be written. This one is 768 pages. Yikes.

Anyway, there are frequently interesting tidbits. But it's also been pretty depressing to relive it all. I was disappointed to learn that Obama apparently likes his steak medium well.

I got this for Hanukkah but haven't started it yet. Have you read any of his other books?

I read Dreams From My Father earlier this year (didn't even know about this pending memoir at the time, but had wanted to read something by him for a long time), which I liked. This book is a lot more detailed and in the weeds of course.

[Luke Warm]

i was listening to 'catch-22' on a recent road trip. i'm only a quarter of the way through but i doubt i will finish it. the story is funny and absurd and the guy reading it brings the characters to life, so much so that i doubt i could enjoy it as much by reading it and i don't have a road trip planned any time soon to finish it off.

i also listened to 'an absolutely remarkable thing' by hank green. it was a light read and i almost turned it off a few times but i finished it, or so i thought because there is a sequel. it was entertaining but i don't feel i'm a better person having read it.

i just started 'white fang'. i'm sucked in.

[mizzourah2006]

I tend to have multiple books going at once. Right now I'm reading.

- The Daily Stoic (One page per day per year)
- Think Like a Monk
- A People's History of the United States

[TempusFugit]

I tend to have multiple books going at once. Right now I'm reading.

- The Daily Stoic (One page per day per year)
- Think Like a Monk
- A People's History of the United States

I usually have 2 going at once, a nonfiction and a fiction.  When i have more than 2 in play, it means that I'm not particularly enjoying any of them.   Right now I've got 6.   

The ones that I’m enjoying more than the others are Cats Cradle by Vonnegut and The Conservative Sensibility by George Will.

[Luke Warm]

Malcolm Gladwell's Talking to Strangers on the Libby app. 

Anyone who doesn't know about the Libby app should check it out (oooh, pun).  Libby is a library app that allows you to use your own local library membership to get access to a larger national library.  I've now read 4 books on it (you can also read on your Kindle).   

i got libby recently but i'm stuck with my local library. how do you access other libraries?

[TempusFugit]

Malcolm Gladwell's Talking to Strangers on the Libby app. 

Anyone who doesn't know about the Libby app should check it out (oooh, pun).  Libby is a library app that allows you to use your own local library membership to get access to a larger national library.  I've now read 4 books on it (you can also read on your Kindle).   

i got libby recently but i'm stuck with my local library. how do you access other libraries?

Perhaps I've misspoken.  I've found titles available through Libby that my local library doesn't carry in physical form, but perhaps the local library has digital copies available which can be lent.  Overdrive is the umbrella service that libraries use to make their digital copies available, but I suppose you may still be limited to what your own local library has licensed.

[BicycleB]

...

i just started 'white fang'. i'm sucked in.

Based on your screen name, that is an appropriate book. :)

[sui generis]

I'm reading King Leopold's Ghost right now and although I'm less than 15% in, I'm fascinated.  This was the book I was looking to read about 17-18 years ago, but didn't know existed.  I've since traveled to Africa a handful of times and maybe it's better than I ended up waiting to find it.

[FIRE Artist]

I am reading The Splendid and the Vile, by Erik Larson.  It is about WWII focused on Churchill and Hitler and those who surround them.

I keep finding myself being drawn to stories of WWII this year, it puts all of this COVID business into perspective for me, I think this is helping my mental health quite a bit - isolation is a cakewalk compared to living in the UK during the blitz. 

[John Galt incarnate!]

The New York Times

Georgia Senate Runoff Election Results




Loeffler +1.1
79% reported



Perdue +1.9
79% reported


UPDATE

Last updated 11:00 p.m. E.T.

Loeffler +1.9
90% reported

Perdue +3
90% reported


Last updated 11:27 p.m. E.T.

Warnock +0.46
95% reported


Perdue +0.38
95% reported


Last updated 12:20 a.m. E.T.

Warnock +0.80
97% reported

Perdue +0.04
97% reported

[sui generis]

A Wrinkle in Time.  It seems that it can be a bad idea to re-read a beloved book from childhood.  I'm going to finish it - I'm still curious about what happens, because I've forgotten a lot of it.  But it's disappointing.

[turketron]

A Wrinkle in Time.  It seems that it can be a bad idea to re-read a beloved book from childhood.  I'm going to finish it - I'm still curious about what happens, because I've forgotten a lot of it.  But it's disappointing.

Yeah I re-read it a year or two ago and was pretty underwhelmed as well. I had read it when I was like 8 or 9 and while I didn't love it as a kid it was definitely worse than I remembered. A simplistic plot, with bad characters that seemed to be just acting out their parts to fit the story. The cliche of "love" winning the day had me rolling my eyes.

[Luke Warm]

i'm listening to 'king solomon's mines'. quite entertaining.

[TempusFugit]

Suicide of the West by Jonah Goldberg which explores how we are watching our society splinter due to a neglect of our civil institutions and our failure to deal with the natural consequences of human nature as we become more driven by identity politics and zero sum politics.

A good follow up to George Will’s The Conservative Sensibility

[LennStar]

A Wrinkle in Time.  It seems that it can be a bad idea to re-read a beloved book from childhood.  I'm going to finish it - I'm still curious about what happens, because I've forgotten a lot of it.  But it's disappointing.

Yeah I re-read it a year or two ago and was pretty underwhelmed as well. I had read it when I was like 8 or 9 and while I didn't love it as a kid it was definitely worse than I remembered. A simplistic plot, with bad characters that seemed to be just acting out their parts to fit the story. The cliche of "love" winning the day had me rolling my eyes.

That perfectly sums up 90% of Hollywood movies.

[iris lily]

A Wrinkle in Time.  It seems that it can be a bad idea to re-read a beloved book from childhood.  I'm going to finish it - I'm still curious about what happens, because I've forgotten a lot of it.  But it's disappointing.

Yeah I re-read it a year or two ago and was pretty underwhelmed as well. I had read it when I was like 8 or 9 and while I didn't love it as a kid it was definitely worse than I remembered. A simplistic plot, with bad characters that seemed to be just acting out their parts to fit the story. The cliche of "love" winning the day had me rolling my eyes.

That perfectly sums up 90% of Hollywood movies.

Agree that Wrinkle in Time does not age well.

[BicycleB]

Just starting re-reading the Chronicles of Narnia. Is it sad that I'm quite enjoying it?

Not for me! :)

[BuffaloStache]

Just starting re-reading the Chronicles of Narnia. Is it sad that I'm quite enjoying it?

Not for me! :)

Not sad at all! I think that is a fun series.

[chaskavitch]

I just read Spinning Silver, by Naomi Novik.  I enjoyed her Temeraire series, but Uprooted and Spinning Silver are better, I think.  I really like them.

[sui generis]

I'm reading (listening) to the Tyranny of Merit by Michael Sandel.  It's a topic that I feel is related to my mustachian/FIRE interests in that the whole meritocracy thing is definitely one of the reasons I wanted to FIRE.  I was fine with meritocracy as a kid and in college, but getting into the workplace and finding you actually belonged to your employer 24/7 and the constant pressure to sell yourself and be your own brand, etc. was just a real turn-off to me.  Then, not to mention Felicity Huffman & Co. bribing crew coaches to get her already-privileged kids into Yale or whatever.

BUT, this book is terrible!  Heavily influenced perhaps by the fact that the narration is nail bitingly painful (it's read by the author). it feels like it alternates between making an argument ad nauseum ("OK, I GET IT already!" I've yelled at the book a couple of times) and making an assertion without any commentary or discussion. And, leaving huge ideas and themes completely out of the discussion.  Or so I suspect, because I haven't quite finished it.  So as much as I don't like it, I am going to finish it because I want to be fair and know whether it really did elide a number of important sub-topics or not.

Maybe it's the Meritocracy Trap that I meant to read.  Although that one doesn't get quite as good reviews on Goodreads.

[LennStar]

I was fine with meritocracy as a kid and in college, but getting into the workplace and finding you actually belonged to your employer 24/7 and the constant pressure to sell yourself and be your own brand, etc. was just a real turn-off to me.

Uh? That has nothing to do with merit or meritocracy, quite the opposite.

[grantmeaname]

Maybe you should read the book? If two different authors did hundreds of hours of work on the question and concluded they are related, and you thought about it for a quarter of a second and concluded they are not, perhaps one of the two books would teach you something...

[LennStar]

Maybe you should read the book? If two different authors did hundreds of hours of work on the question and concluded they are related, and you thought about it for a quarter of a second and concluded they are not, perhaps one of the two books would teach you something...

I would prefer it if you could just give me a few lines of why the authors think those practically opposites are closely connected, before I order a book to be flown over the great water.

[grantmeaname]

Here is a short statement of Meritocracy Trap's thesis

[LennStar]

Here is a short statement of Meritocracy Trap's thesis

Okay, I stopped after the first 20% because it was clear that it was as I guessed it would be - different definitions. I am damanged here by knowing the real meaning of the word, not what it has seemingly changed into.

(hint: the -cracy says it: it's about being the government, not about admission to university or anything else. You can have a meritoracy (government) with drawing-lots-admission to education, no problem.)

What the article really means is classicism. Your class is the major deciding factor for your later income and/or prestige position.
That classicism can of course use "meritocracy" rules to ensure that, like housing lot and house sizes were used after the segregation was over to make sure that black people don't live in your neighborhood.
The old blue blood will always spot a nouveau riche even by things like pronounciation, and will behave worse against them than towards themselves.

Or to use the old phrase: The law in it's heavenly glory forbids everyone to steal and to sleep under bridges - for the poor and the rich equally.

[grantmeaname]

It strikes me that sometimes as a non-native speaker you take a narrow definition of a word that native speakers use more broadly and then use your narrow definition to be pedantic towards the native speakers for their usage which is by no means incorrect.

Because the government does not exercise all levers of power, "-cracy" type roots are not incorrect when used to describe other access to the mechanisms of power like elite jobs.

Moreover, if you read the entire article for understanding instead of enough to seize on an 'error' you would see that it really isn't classism at all that he is referring to. I work an 'elite' job with a state school degree and am surrounded by other public college graduates as well as Ivy Leaguers. The job is lucrative but has extremely demanding hours for both groups alike. That is the 'meritocracy trap' and has nothing to do with social signifiers of status or new vs old money.

A person who extracts income and status from his own human capital places himself, quite literally, at the disposal of others—he uses himself up. Elite students desperately fear failure and crave the conventional markers of success, even as they see through and publicly deride mere “gold stars” and “shiny things.” Elite workers, for their part, find it harder and harder to pursue genuine passions or gain meaning through their work. Meritocracy traps entire generations inside demeaning fears and inauthentic ambitions: always hungry but never finding, or even knowing, the right food.

[Dollar Slice]

What the article really means is classicism.

For future reference, the word "classicism" refers to ancient Greek and Roman art and literature. You're looking for "classism" in this context. Similar words with completely different meanings.

[BussoV6]

I'm reading King Leopold's Ghost right now and although I'm less than 15% in, I'm fascinated.  This was the book I was looking to read about 17-18 years ago, but didn't know existed.  I've since traveled to Africa a handful of times and maybe it's better than I ended up waiting to find it.

Yeah, fascinating read. I have traveled often to DR Congo since the mid 1990s. It's a country I have never felt comfortable in.

If you enjoyed that, maybe give Tim Butcher's "Blood River" a try.

[Luke Warm]

i'm currently listening to 'the last of the mohicans'. enjoying it so far.

[TempusFugit]

I'm reading King Leopold's Ghost right now and although I'm less than 15% in, I'm fascinated.  This was the book I was looking to read about 17-18 years ago, but didn't know existed.  I've since traveled to Africa a handful of times and maybe it's better than I ended up waiting to find it.

Yeah, fascinating read. I have traveled often to DR Congo since the mid 1990s. It's a country I have never felt comfortable in.

If you enjoyed that, maybe give Tim Butcher's "Blood River" a try.

I just finished Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.  Turns out, Apocalypse Now totally ripped him off!

[Warlord1986]

I just read Spinning Silver, by Naomi Novik.  I enjoyed her Temeraire series, but Uprooted and Spinning Silver are better, I think.  I really like them.

Same. I love Uprooted and Spinning Silver, but couldn't get into the Temeraire series. It just didn't have the same polish. But Spinning Silver is soooooo good, and I think she's got a new series coming out. :)

I just finished Adam Gidwitz's 'The Inquisitor's Tale: or Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog' and adored it. It's set in the Middle Ages and discusses racism, anti-Semitism, and classism in Europe at the time. The characters are very three dimensional and believable. It also includes a farting dragon.

[LennStar]

I started reading the light novel "The Alchemist Who Survived Now Dreams of a Quiet City Life" and it feels like it will be a good read. The author takes time for details, both in world building and activites, which I like.
I am half in the first book and while it is clear it has a typical isekai setting, practically nothing of that has played a role for the persons bar defining the starting point. Very character-driven.

What the article really means is classicism.

For future reference, the word "classicism" refers to ancient Greek and Roman art and literature. You're looking for "classism" in this context. Similar words with completely different meanings.

Haha, right!
The finger were faster than they should have been :D

It strikes me that sometimes as a non-native speaker you take a narrow definition of a word that native speakers use more broadly

Definition of words are problematic, especially across languages. That's why I try to get to the root. "Meritokratie" in German only refers to the governmental style. NOT to the trap mentioned, which, I think you will agree, is a strap-on to the original meaning (that may have happened in US English, but not in German).

[sui generis]

I'm reading Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World now.  Still near the beginning where they are giving a lot of background, particularly on the different tribes in the area at the time.  It talks about how the main subsistence activities are hunting, trading, herding and fighting (raiding to steal animals and goods) and how critical all 4 of them were to their survival.  One thing I am stumped by is the idea of trading with the same people, presumably, as you have previously raided (where the raiding was also always cyclical, each new raid just revenge for the prior). How does that relationship work?! 

Anyway, super interested in the book and learning a lot about Genghis Khan and Central Asia through Siberia in the 1200-1300s.

[BicycleB]

One thing I am stumped by is the idea of trading with the same people, presumably, as you have previously raided (where the raiding was also always cyclical, each new raid just revenge for the prior). How does that relationship work?! 

You have me wondering that too.

Maybe if you come to trade, you make some signal that you come in peace? And maybe trading was important enough that people accepted the truce flag or whatever, taking their revenge on some other occasion?

***
Recently was re-reading old favorites, most notably The Hobbit. Topped off by re-reading Agency, by William Gibson. For something new, may read some of the books just listed on this thread!

ETA 4/27: Ended up starting "How Asia Works", a 2013 book by Joe Studwell on the economics of how modern Asia came to be. An amazingly clear comparative description advancing the idea that specific policy choices made huge differences in how different countries developed, to the point where a couple of generations of key tweaks have made the difference between wealth and poverty in similar cases. Only partway through, but absolutely blowing my mind by answering questions I've had for a long time.

[LennStar]

One thing I am stumped by is the idea of trading with the same people, presumably, as you have previously raided (where the raiding was also always cyclical, each new raid just revenge for the prior). How does that relationship work?! 

You have me wondering that too.

Maybe if you come to trade, you make some signal that you come in peace? And maybe trading was important enough that people accepted the truce flag or whatever, taking their revenge on some other occasion?

If you read "Debt - the first 5000 years" there are mentions of this: trade with "foreign" people you might never meet again was always done with a feeling that it could change into war in the blink of an eye. That's why even today there are still "primitive Amazonion tribes" that, if they meet, do a big ritual dance that looks like a fight.
After that, if no killing happened, it came to the exchange of goods (often including women). After that the exchange of private bodily fluids may also happen, depending on culture.

And that is also the origin of money - it was a token used between tribes who had no ties to each other, so they could not rely on paying back later. Instead they used something holy or rare that had no practical use besides that trade. (Except maybe as a beauty article, since the item mostly traded in many of those cultures were slaves, especially slave girls. A slave girl itself was sometimes the accounting value of items.)

It is an incredible interesting thing how different societies invent things and for what. Like "rolling coal", a culture artifact that will have archeologist or historians baffled as much as we are about those war dances which end with the nightly "sneaky" kidnapping of (paid for) girls from the other tribe.

[BicycleB]

Some of the most thought provoking reading I do lately is a couple of commentary emails:

"Money Stuff" by Adam Levine. Formerly just an email, now a column in Bloomberg Opinion, it's commentary on financial news by a former investment banker who likes noting how the day's trends relate to business fundamentals. Along the way, he explains the business of investment markets in more detail than I'm familiar with.

"Astral Codex Ten" by Scott Alexander. Formerly a blog and now published on Substack, focuses on whatever he wants but usually some aspect of the search for truth, usually by scientific means. Sometimes offers a passionately thoughtful critique of modern scientific method, using concrete examples (like the time where he showed science is often less proven than psionic powers, and argued this means science is doing a bad job) but ranges widely. Today's edition is one of a series of book reviews, some by readers rather than Alexander. Today's book is "The Wizard and the Prophet", which uses a comparative biography of two people as a way to examine the question of whether technology can solve our problems (the two people are Norman Borlaug, the Green Revolution wheat developer, and William Vogt, early US environmental advocate).

Both emails are lengthy, but entertaining / interesting.

[mm1970]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N0SGUQC/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

The Desert and the Sea.  It's pretty fascinating.  This guy (Michael Scott Moore) was held in captivity by Somali pirates for 977 days.

[LibrarIan]

I got sucked into the MCU a while back and I decided recently to check out some Marvel comics. I didn't read comics often when I was a kid and when I did it was DC. I recently got into Christopher Priest's Black Panther series from the late '90s and it's been awesome. The entire series is available on Hoopla (library digital platform). I've also read some old-school X-Men comics and I want to check out series related to some of the lesser known characters (at least lesser known before the MCU blew up). It's been great fun.

[Frankies Girl]

I've been working through the Phryne Fisher mystery books that the television show is based on. I wish they'd stuck closer to the books now after reading several. They really changed up some significant stuff. The books are fun reads.

Also read the same author's series about Corinna Chapman, set in mostly present day (published ~2004) a bread baker with her own business in Melbourne. They're interesting and a bit more fluffy than some mystery series, but great fun also.

Someone in one of these reading threads recommended the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, and I'm on my 3rd in the series. I used to read more scifi/fantasy so this is nice. I'm at the point where I still feel like the main character is underdeveloped but I think that's kind of the point? He's figuring out who he actually is, and we're along for the ride is how I'm taking it anyway. I'm enjoying them in any case, so thanks if that was someone here. :)

[sui generis]

I'm listening to The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans.  And WOW.  This is what words like "rich storytelling" were created for.  I don't want to finish it!

[RetiredAt63]

I just finished reading Strong Towns.  Good read for any mustachian.  Anyone who watches the Not Just Bikes You-tubes will be familiar with Strong Towns ideas.

[Luke Warm]

rereading '1491' by charles mann.

[Frankies Girl]

Current reads:

The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle

Phryne Fisher mystery series, by Kerry Greenwood. The one the tv show is based on. They changed some characters significantly, but overall still has the general feel of the books. Enjoying them but I'm nearly caught up, so I hope she keeps writing.

Cassandra, Kerry Greenwood. Part of her Delphic Women Book series.

The Silent Patient, by Alex Michaelides. Joined an online book club and this has been a surprisingly good read. Psychological thriller.

The Murderbot Diaries, by Martha Wells. I'm on book 5 in the series: Network Effect. Sentient robot/hybrid created for protection and security on missions for hire, the main character has hacked his control and is now trying to discover who and what he is. I am really enjoying them, and I believe someone in here recommended them?

[BuffaloStache]

I just finished reading Strong Towns.  Good read for any mustachian.  Anyone who watches the Not Just Bikes You-tubes will be familiar with Strong Towns ideas.

This book looks really interesting, thanks for the suggestion!

I haven't opened it yet, but I just picked up Post Corona: From Crisis to Opportunity by Scott Galloway from my local Library. I haven't read any of his books yet, but I definitely relate to some of the videos/tweets/excerpts I've seen from him, especially some of his criticisms of the Corporate-facing society we now live in. This TED talk is a great example.