Now Reading

The Children of Hurin was very good as expected. As it a compilation and expansion of one of the stories told in the Simarillion, I didn't learn a lot that was new, but it was good to solidify my understanding of Tolkein's Universe.

After I finished that I read through Orson Scott Card's Shadow Puppets in his contination of his alternate viewpoint series from his fabulous book Ender's Game. I have to say that he's gotten better at ending out series. This one ended with only a few loose threads and those too where not so big that you could drive a car through as they were with some of his other series.

I'm now reading Dominic's Goa by Dominic Fernandes. It was given to me by my uncle in Kuwait. It's a nostalgic look back at Goa from the 1940's on. A very interesting read laced with Konkai words and phrases that I'm struggling to pronounce and recognize. It talks about a Goa that is almost completely foreign to me. It makes me wonder what we've lost by coming as far as we have. The editing leaves something to be desired, but as it's really a compilation of essays that were fomerly posted on a Goa-centric web forum those failings can be understood if not forgiven. I don't think you will find this one easily on-line. You'll have to ask me for a copy of it after I'm done with it.

Now Reading

The Children of Hurin by J.R.R. Tolkien. This is apparently a stroy extracted from The Silmarillion edited to be a complete work with few distracting refereneces to other events. Apparently Tolkien had intended for a number of stories in The Silmarillionto be stand alone works similar to The Hobbit and this was one of them. As I have already read The Silmarillion this should be nothing new, but it is nice to get back into the lore again.

Flyboys was very good. A very balanced view of the cruelty and barbarism of both the Americans and the Japanese during WWII. While it's been touted as a memorial to a number of pilots who were killed on the island of Chichi Jima around the time of the invasion of Iwo Jima, it is in fact an overview of the Pacific War in general. I think its a view that not a lot of people are aware of. I learned quite a few things that I thought of as gospel that turned out to be inaccurate. For example, I didn't realize the Emperor was as involved in running the war as he was. I always belived that it was the military that was in command, but it was apparently all a coverup by the U.S. military because after the surrender of Japan, McArthur thought that if the Emperor were brought to trial that Japan would collapse. He compared how he thought the Japanese considered the Emperor was equivalent to how Christians thought of Jesus. In reality the ordinary Japanese citizen had no contact with the Emperor and it wasn't until late in the 19th century with the loss of power of the Shogun that the Emperor even had any power at all. Regardless its interesting how people's biases are played out. A very good read if a bit gruesome on the details but I'm not sure I would have wnated the facts sugar coated anyway.

Now Reading

Geeze. I can't belive I did it again - I skipped over another book. I finished The Lessons of History (highly recommended) and read (and just finished) Judas Unchained by Peter F. Hamilton.

It's the sequel to Pandora's Star. As with his other books, its a well written "space opera" with a multitude of characters all belding together to write a comlpete story of a futuristic human space civilization. A fabulously fun read.

I've now started Flyboys: A True Story of Courage by James Bradley - he also wrote Flags of Our Fathers which was recently made into a movie. It's a WWII book about the air raids that were taking place on the island of Chichi Jima while the land and sea battles for neighboring Iwo Jima were raging. I've only got through one chapter so no conclusions yet but it came highly recommended.

Now Reading

The Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant

I'd listened to this as a book on tape once and it immediately grabbed my attention. I've been trying to get a written version ever since and now I finally got it. No doubt I will be making posts on this one.

Now Reading

I finished book one of my friends book and it was fabulous!!! I can't wait for the second one. (Although there were a couple of minor editorial changes to be made. ;-) )

I picked up Empire of Blue Water by Stephan Talty which is a history of the pirates of the Carribbean starting with Captain Morgan. So far its a fabulous read. You can't make this stuff up.

Now Reading

I just finished Union 1812 and it was a great read! The author made a comment in the acknowledgement that history can be written to read as a novel and I agree with him. It doesn't have to be dry and merely nyumbers and academics. The character of the lives touched are given much more meaning if laid out in terms of motivations and reasoning rather than bare facts.

I'm now picked up an unpubilshed book by a good friend of mine Margaret Collins. The first of a fantasy trilogy. The trilogy is called Shadows of Earth and the first book is called Borders.

I finished the book of obituaries and started Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows but finsihed it before I got around to posting that I was reading it! It was great! I won't give it away. Go read it.

I'm now reading Union 1812: The Americans Who Fought the Second War of Independence by Langguth. Each chapter is written as am episode focusing on an individual. He does a great job of keeping it interesting, even if it's a bit disjointed in that he's not covering a specific timeline in great detail. So far so good. I don't know much about the War of 1812 so it's a great primer on the era.

Now Reading...

The Last Word the New York Times Book of Obituaries and Farewells: A Celebration of Unusual Lives.

This one is as advertised a collection of obituaries. They are very short. So far I've read about eight of them and the longest one is about almost four and a half pages, but its very interesting to read what's been written about these people who've had lives that have impacted a lot of people in unexpected ways. Such as the inventor of the spacesuit, the woman who left $22 million to a university, etc.

A Canticle For Leibowitz was a suprisingly good read. I suspect that some might find it moralistic and preachy but I had no trouble appreciating what was going through the author's mind. A great read and higly recommended.

Now Reading

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.

I finished reading Hyperion in less than a week and of course its a two-part novel for which I don't have the second part *slaps forehead* *sigh*. Moving on...

Now Reading...

Hyperion by Dan Simmons. I've been readins so many histories and biographies that I had almost forgotten the simple pleasure I get from reading a well written sci-fi! I started this book on Saturday and I'm almost 2/3 of the way through it. This book has been recommended to me as a "must-read" by meany friends and I never got around to it, but I can see now why it was such a big deal. There are elements of The Canterbury Tales in that a group of pilgrims each recounts their story to the group as they move to their final destination. (Obviously I'm skipping out major plot lines here but hey you should read it.) One of the stories almost got me choked up.

Now Reader

I just realized I skipped a book! I just finished His Excellency: George Washington which an incredibly well done biography of the first US President. It cleared up a lot of questions I had about the Revolutionary War and dispelled many myths. A great read that I highly recommend.

I picked up Found Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation also by Joseph J. Ellis . Both these books I borrowed from a co-worker who got into a history kick. I'll probably be reading something about the War of 1812 next. Either that or the French Revolution (the big one).

Now Reading

1776 was a great read! I highly recommend it. I found this book, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini on the shelf of a co-worker. He got it and had it there for several months and when I asked him about it, he said I could read it and give him a review. I took him up on it. I've heard from M that it's a great read so I'm looking forward to it.

Now Reading

1776 by David McCullogh. I read his biograpgy of John Adams and told a co-worker about it which got him into a whole Revolutionary War kick including purchasing the PBS and te History Channel series of documentaries on the Revolutionary War, the John Adams biogrpahy on tape, and this book. I asked to borrow it when he was done with it.

Comments on Harpo Speaks!: What a great book. I didn't get that many quotable items fro it, but as a story of a man's life, its an incredible piece of work. There's something to be said for making the most of what you have yet at the same time striving for more than you or more than people may feel you are entitled to.

Now Reading

I gave up on Possession. Excerpts from a conversation about it:

C: and you? Any LUE insights?
Me:me? some
one thought: A book that labels itself as a "Romance" has three ways of going - 1) a sappy love story, 2) a "Romance" in the literary or artistic vein, or 3) a combination of 1) and 2)
Possession , which I just gave up on reading was in the third category
C: ooh, but that was a good movie!
:)
Me: they made it into a movie?

huh
C: hmm. I'm not sure about those categories.
You are probably right though
I think it's a movie with Gwyneth Paltrow
Me: really?
huh
I can see that
C: If it's the movie I'm thinking of, I really enjoyed it
Me: The book was very slow, the poetry was very good though and the literary Romance part of it was intriguing but the contemporary parts were just plodding, especially in comparison to the language in the old letters. The contrast was just too much
Anyway I switched to "Harpo Speaks!" an autobiography of Harpo Marx which is very interesting.
The Marx brother's up bringing was so much in line with "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" that it gave both books an air of authenticity. You look at how people in NYC lived in the early 1900's and you can only marvel at the changes that have come about in this country since then and just imagine what will happen in the next 40 to 50 years. Its incredible!

Now reading

Finished Odd Thomas - a great read. Highly recommended. Very well written.



I picked up Possession by A. S. Byatt. I've had it on my shelf for a long time but I finally decided to read it.

Now reading

I've been a bit lax about keeping this up but I've gone through a couple of books since the last "now reading" posting.

I'm now reading: Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz

Another free book from BzzAgent. I like this deal - I get to read excerpts from books online and I get a free one every few weeks as a thank you. I've read a Dean Koontz book a long time ago and I remember liking it quite a bit, but this one seems to me to be a cut above what I remember reading. The language is very well formulated and the main character is incredibly likeable. I had this book with me when I went to a doctor's appointment and the doctor had read it and love it too.

Previous to this I read Grave Surpise by Chalaine Harris which was another free book from BzzAgent. This was fun reading a murder mystery with a X-filesish twist. Very readable but not very deep. Recommended light reading.

Before that I read yet another free book from BzzAgent Killing Rain by Barry Eisler a spy/assasin thriller. Another great fun read. Also recommended light reading.

Now Reading...

A Mind of Its Own: A Cultural History of the Penis by David M. Friedman.














Its pretty interesting so far. I'll post some quotes later...

Now reading...

The diary of Michael Hilf from 1894 to 1896. He's the great grandfather of the Human Resources Manager in our office. We got to talking about languages and such and she mentioned that she had a really old diary of her greatgrandfather who was a officer in the Kaiser's army in the late 1800. She had it translated into English. Its a very quick read and its very interesting. I have read many diaries of soldiers in wartime and none in peacetime, yet its insightful to read his thoughts - they are mostly about women and patriotism. He was a very poetic person and the vast majority of entries are poems about the current woman he's with. He record a lot of folk songs and soldier's songs as well.

This is unpublished so no cover art.

Here's one entry I thought was amusing:

The Soldier's Our Father February 16, 1895
Our Father, who art in Vienna, hallowed be thy name. Your will be done in Vienna, as also here in the garrison. Give us today 2 guilders and a good supper, and forgive us when we stay out beyond curfew. Do not lead us to drill sessions and deliver us from the many inspections, assignments, and manoeuvers, because we are yours until we get our blessed discharge. Dear Emperor and King, 6 kreuzer are not enough, give us 2 guilders per day, then we won't go into debt. Because with only water and no wine, not even the devil would want to be a soldier. Amen.

Now reading...

Going Postal by Terry Pratchett

Now Reading....

I finished A First Glance at St. Thomas Aquinas - A Handbook for Peeping Thomists by Ralph McInerny and while I do have a follow-up book with some translations of Aquinas that I could read and that I am interested in reading, I think I'll take a less "heavy" jump into another genre.
I'm now reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith:














One of the admins at work had it on her counter - she had just finished it and I commented that I had heard about it. She let me borrow it. The first couple of paragaphs are promising.