https://www.amazon.com/Quitting-Grav.../dp/B00TET3514

My friend's first novel involves the Oregon Trail

______________


noir fiction is what I am enjoying now

I've read and re-read all of Raymond Chandler - what a master he was

just finished David Goodis's "Secret Squad" __________great, great stuff IMO_________________the violence is exaggerated but that's okay

also really impressed with Jim Thompson's "The Killer Inside Me" and "Grifters"

and now I'm on to Megan Abbott's "Queenpin"________________________________________ ____she's a trip


.

I've been reading Storming Las Vegas by John Huddy.

Around the turn of the century, there were a series of professional robberies of casinos and armored vehicles in Las Vegas. Well-armed, well-thought out.

The leader of the gang was ex-Cuban military who came here in the Mariel boat lift. It's the story from both him and the authorities.

I get the feeling this guy isn't a professional writer. However, the story moves along, it's not terrible. Might be an ok read for people who are interested.

Started listening to it recently and after about 1/10th in I have to say I'm already rather lost. Currently debating whether or not to stick it out and hope things fall in place, as it it meant to be a good series.

I think my brain just isn't very good at processing the Asian names while I'm listening to it, as I had a similar issue with The Three Body Problem (which was translated by Liu).

I have this problem a lot with Asian literature. I find it helps to look up the names and examine their ideographs for meaning. It's easier than it sounds, but I'm not sure many people want to go to that trouble. Anyway it helps once I know the name means "Full Moon" or "No Parking" or whatever.

I think my named literally translated into Chinese means: Barking Spiders will eat your brain.

It should be obvious that this makes me very proud.

The Devil Knows You're Dead (finished) and A Long Line of Dead Men, both Matthew Scudder novels by Lawrence Block and Letters on Ethics by Seneca; Margaret Graver and A. A. `Long translators.

Comet by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan. For some reason when I picked this up, I expected it to be a Contact-like work of fiction. No, it's a scientific/historical look at how we've thought about and learned what comets are and how they work. Enjoyable, as always they do a great job making science accessible to the layment.

Also Caro's Most Profitable Hold Em Advice by Mike Caro. Published 2007, it seems kind of dated. Interesting to read how he thought of the game back then.

I love reading How-To books, even books about stuff I'll never do again, so I found this in my public library. Pretty good imo.

I'm approaching my 50th year of not writing a paper, but I wish I had read this when I was in school. Some of the ideas are old and had fallen out of use, but are revived here (rephrasing ideas in your own words), and some are newer, e.g. connecting note cards conceptually and letting them generate new ideas.

Also, you have to write things down. Once you do that, you can forget them and use your brain for tasks other than memorizing.

And organize your work, but don't plan it. The planning will take care of itself after you're done.

I feel like writing a paper now.

I'm a highly neurotic and disorganized individual so that book was really designed with me in mind. I'm finding the notetaking system to be lifechanging. If you do decide to give it a shot, I highly recommend downloading Obsidian: https://obsidian.md/

It requires that you know a little bit of markdown, but it's incredibly easy to learn. This series goes over most of the app, and has a quick section on markdown which explains everything you need to know in 10 minutes or less.

Washington: A Life, by Ron Chernow. A monster tome that won a Pulitzer Prize. Justified in my opinion. Details are almost overwhelming. But a very worthy read. Highly recommend.

chernow is a beast

Sorry if this review is a little late, been taken a little drunk lately.
The Crystal Bucket is still an amazing piece of work, it contains at least two lines that will leave you dying of laughter.
The thing about this is that it is just a collection of reportage about TV , but also contains some of the greatest insights into the human condition that you will ever hear.

“Don’t despise people just because their dreams are cheap, it may be better for them if they were not , but it would make life less various for the rest of us”

I'm half way through The Perfect Police State - Geoffrey Cain. It's a very interesting read and highly recommended.. Its crazy how books such as 1984 predicted much of how the world is today.. Its so scary..

Agreed! Everything he writes is a must read. Then again he covers some of my favorite periods of time. Washington was tremendous as they all are but I think my favorite was Titan (John D. Rockefeller).

Am nearly thru The Code Breaker, about CRISPR, more or less. Very enjoyable, easy to digest popular science.

Great Trade Route, by Ford Madox Ford. Round the world tour as only Ford Madox Ford could write. Published, 1937 - On the eve of WWII. He partially anticipates the cataclysmic to come. The style is best described as eclectic. Excellent read.

^^
Also “The last grain race “ by Eric Newby

I just read most of a recent biography of Soren Kierkegaard by Claire Carlisle. She's a good writer and presented his ideas well. Fascinating man, crazy life, amazing really. Christians like Kierkegaard sure don't grow on trees that's for sure, few and far between. I'm pretty sure Camus and Sartre were leaving out the most important part when they chose to forget all the messy God stuff.

_____________


lately I've been reading books by David Goodis who is a tremendously underrated crime fiction writer - he's not well known at all

I've recently read "Shoot the Piano Player" and "Cassidy's Girl" and they were both great - he's as good as it gets in this genre IMO

I just started on "Black Friday" - published in 1954 - so far it's delivering the goods - just like the other 2 of his that I've read


.

I've started on and yet..., a collection of writings from Christopher Hitchens.

I'd always heard good things about his writing. Some of these are book reviews of things I haven't read, so not that meaningful to me. So far, those seem to me to be a lot of "a mention of the book being reviewed, then I'm going to write a lot about the topic of the book rather than the book itself."

The other essays I'm finding quite entertaining and well written.

Bowerman and the Men of Oregon
Interesting read. Bill Bowerman coached Phil Knight and Steve Prefontaine.

Ringworld - Larry Niven
Bit of classic sci-fi. Very enjoyable and deserving of it's awards. I didn't realise there are a bunch of them though, which is nice, but I was planning on moving to some different stuff. Get a bit fatigued reading the same kind of stuff repeatedly.

I loved Ringworld. Anybody know if the sequels were any good?

The talk of classic sci-fi has made me think that I should re-read some “Stainless Steel Rat” by Harry Harrison.