Which book are you reading now? Volume XI

[FriendlyFire]

I knew Obama was HITLER !

It Can't Happen Here is a cautionary tale about the fragility of democracy, an alarming, eerily timeless look at how fascism could take hold in America. Written during the Great Depression when America was largely oblivious to Hitler's aggression, it juxtaposes sharp political satire with the chillingly realistic rise of a President who becomes a dictator to save the nation from welfare cheats, rampant promiscuity, crime, and a liberal press. Now finally back in print, It Can't Happen Here remains uniquely important, a shockingly prescient novel that's as fresh and contemporary as today's news. "Written at white heat". -Chicago Tribune "A message to thinking Americans". -Springfield Republican "Not only "Lewis's" most important book but one of the most important books ever produced in this country". -The New Yorker

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Modernist kick.

John Steinbeck - East of Eden
Mikhail Bulgakov - The Master and Margarita
Boris Pasternak - Dr. Zhivago
Rudyard Kipling - Kim
James Joyce - Ulysses
and just for kicks:
John Milton - Paradise Lost

 

[gay_Aleks]

Re-reading Discworld books.

The good thing is, that no matter how many times you've read them, you happen to discover a new joke or you finally understand a joke you've seen before. Mainly because I have wilfully desired not to, like, read all the separate TVTropes pages for all the books. Not only because that would take ages, but it'll also ruin them forever.

 

[Takhisis]

You should read Terry Pratchett's A blink of the screen, which I am reading right now.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Logic: the Laws of Truth by Andrew Smith. Good introductory text.

 

[Antilogic]

Okay, I'm restarting my reading after a fairly long hiatus. The current three:

Freedom from Fear by David Kennedy: History of the US during the Great Depression and to WW2, much more detailed than what I had in history class. I remember seeing Dachs post some stuff on Hoover and Roosevelt, and I am reading something fairly similar here.

A Country of Vast Designs by Robert Merry: I've heard very good things about this book, especially from a few here at CFC. So I'm tackling Polk too. Currently reading about his campaigns in Tennessee, rising and falling with Andrew Jackson's fortunes.

Before the Storm by Rick Perlstein: Offline friends have recommended this one, and I remember talking with Farm Boy about Goldwater so I figured I'd start reading up on the early post-WW2 conservative movement.

 

[Joecoolyo]

Reading The Guns of August for my World War One class. So far, I've found she's an excellent writer, and does a great job of keeping my attention.

Of course, CFC has completely spoiled this book for me. So I spend less time enjoying it, and more rolling my eyes at everything she gets wrong/leaves out. And oh boy, there's so much left to be desired.

 

[Antilogic]

I read it too, and the writing is not where anyone, I think, can rightly criticize Tuchman. The facts, on the other hand...

So, the entire class is about WW1? Will you be comparing older and newer scholarship on the subject at some point?

 

[Joecoolyo]

I'm secretly hoping that we do. I'm also hoping the professor is making us read the book in order to criticize what it gets wrong, rather than use it as a jumping off point for the war. I'll be in a very sad state the whole semester if he doesn't.

 

[Smellincoffee]

Politics on a Human Scale: the American Tradition of Decentralism, Jeff Taylor

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Always deserves a re-read.

 

[Smellincoffee]

I just finished The Human Zoo by Desmond Morris and haven't gotten into anything yet. I'm nibbling at The Monkey Wrench Gang, I Am Malala, and I, the Jury.

 

[Cutlass]

Little Myth Marker by Robert Asprin

Hard to believe how long ago that series started.

 

[JohannaK]

So against any sensible opinion (seeing how I should be reading class materials such as Woolf's A Room of One's Own), I purchased Philip K. Dick's The Man in The High Castle about four hours ago. I have already gone through like two fifths of the book's length by now.

 

[Mouthwash]

Beyonders by Brandon Mull.

Spectacular. Despite the cliche of 'tween getting pulled into magical world', it is the most original work of fantasy of the last fifty years. Easily comparable to Fire Upon the Deep or 1984.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Finished re-reading both Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy and Vortex by Larry Bond. Now reading Candide and Other Stories by Voltaire (translated and annotated by Roger Pearson). Apparently Voltaire wrote some science fiction too.

 

[Cutlass]

Reading Proxima by Stephen Baxter. About 1/4 the way into is. It's a scifi novel about the colonization of a new planet. A very odd premise about how they go about it. Seems designed to fail. We'll see as I get through the book.

 

[Borachio]

So against any sensible opinion (seeing how I should be reading class materials such as Woolf's A Room of One's Own), I purchased Philip K. Dick's The Man in The High Castle about four hours ago. I have already gone through like two fifths of the book's length by now.

Gawd, they're making you suffer, Mr K!

Gloomsbury.

Woolf! Gah! I found her dull as ditch-water. But maybe I didn't do her justice. And I've not read A Room of One's Own.

 

[JohannaK]

I must say, she has a point, but this partiular work is overwroght with images and examples which, especially in the beginning, can easily become tedious. I much preferred her shorter essay Mr Bennett and Mrs Brown, quite a deliciously built argument.

 

[Smellincoffee]

Plastic: A Toxic Love Story, Susan Freinkel