What Are You Reading??

Almost too cute

Currently chewing my way through Rachel Carson's Silent Spring.

The good news is that many of the worst chemicals she goes after got banned, others got tighter restrictions, and a few turned out to not be quite as horrific as early data suggested.  Still. it makes me shudder to see now many of the names I recognize as things sitting on a shelf in the garage when I was growing up.

Also makes me worry a bit about what some of my neighbors may be spraying in their gardens.

A Breath of Snow and Ashes. Book 6 of the Outlander series.

This currently very buzzy book, The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers, turns out to be an odd beast. It's possible to keep reading because it's chock full of novelty - gregarious lizard people, beautiful fish people, regular humans, space flight, weird tech, odd beasts, etc and so on - but there's only one conflict, how to be even more fluffy, loving and accepting. I want to call it tolerance porn. The entire universe is just so darn forgiving. Oh sure, there's war and weapons of mass destruction, but that's present as news headlines. The real "story" is just how these different people are being nice and accepting of each other on Serenity Wayfarer, and also visiting different planets to be nice and accepting to neighbours and old friends. And they're loving it over at Goodreads and io9 and etc. It's not badly written. It's not terrible. It's a Kickstarter book. It'll probably be a tv show. Literature has ended.

wow, it's been a long time since I followed this thread. Considerig I'm back in Canada (I think of it as the upper-middle kingdom, half way between the second-highest civilization on earth and heaven) though, it's time I started looking for some books to bring back to the muddled kingdom.
Some stuff I've already picked up for my Kobo:
Guns, Germs, and Steel: Jared Diamond
I've already gone through a brief history of the Ottoman Empire, and Nial Fergusen's Civilization: The West and the Rest, so I'm cautiously approaching history overload. Next week I'm at the cottage, I'll get through it then.
The Master and Margarita: Mikhail Bulgakov
I've read half of it already, and am taking a break before I hit the second half. A very imperfect book, but one that demands and rewards a slow patient digestion. (pun not originally intended, but on reflection I just have to leave it there) I might finish it at the cottage next week, but together with all the history I've been chewing on, that's a lot of heaviness
Therese and Isabelle Violette Leduc
Far from my usual reading, but while I was preparing material for one of my classes I did some background reading on Simone de Beauvoir and saw this. Something new
Mona Lisa Overdrive and The Peripheral: William Gibson
I'm saving these for later. My nephew hooked me onto Gisbson, and I like to savour each book individually.
The Shepard's Crown: Terry Pratchett
again, I'm saving the good stuff for later. I think (ICBW), this was the last of his discworld books. I've read most of his work, just catching up the tail end.
The Eight Katherine Neville
I know nothing about this, except it has been recommended to me by a chess-playing friend whose opinions I largely share. Again, something new.

I have about a week after I get back from the cottage before I get back to China. Looking for recomendations

Looking for recomendations

I'm literally only one prologue and a lengthy first chapter in, but the Dublin Murder Squad books by Tana French (of which In The Woods is the first) seem like they're going to be entertaining.

It's.... unusual.

I would have gone on to book 2 of Stephen King's Dark Tower series, which reportedly is a lot better than book 1, but book 1 was a slog so maybe later

This is f*@#*&g brilliant writing: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/10/o/497540/

I want to read on.

Cracking yarns, the Aubrey/Maturin books, exceptionally easy to engage with and become entertained by. I read most of them as a young man, and on the spur of the moment I looked into this the first of them again, and now I'm three chapters in.

 

 The Lil Red Book by Mao Zedung.

The Shiva Trilogy by Amish Tripathy.

About 60% of the way through book 3, The Oath of the  Vayaputras.

The writing style reminds me a bit of Edgar Rice Burroughs, but with better character development.