Whatcha reading?

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Kory
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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Kory »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
18 May 2021, 6:04pm
Kory wrote:
18 May 2021, 5:47pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
18 May 2021, 5:10pm
Political leaders do matter for encouraging and discouraging behaviours.
I don't think there can be any question of that after the last four years. :twitch:

I hope you like Communist. I haven't read it in a while, but it's considered part of the trilogy that also contains American Pastoral, which I recall you saying you liked.
Such a long time since I read AP, but, yeah, I liked it. The film adaptation was pretty limp, tho.
It's hard to adapt Roth to film because his books are all so dependent on narration. They're often about internal dialogue, not external.
"Suck our Earth dick, Martians!" —Doc

Dr. Medulla
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Re: Whatcha reading?

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Kory wrote:
18 May 2021, 6:27pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
18 May 2021, 6:04pm
Kory wrote:
18 May 2021, 5:47pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
18 May 2021, 5:10pm
Political leaders do matter for encouraging and discouraging behaviours.
I don't think there can be any question of that after the last four years. :twitch:

I hope you like Communist. I haven't read it in a while, but it's considered part of the trilogy that also contains American Pastoral, which I recall you saying you liked.
Such a long time since I read AP, but, yeah, I liked it. The film adaptation was pretty limp, tho.
It's hard to adapt Roth to film because his books are all so dependent on narration. They're often about internal dialogue, not external.
Did you watch HBO's Plot? The Boss and I were fully captured by the atmosphere of dread.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

Kory
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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Kory »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
18 May 2021, 6:34pm
Kory wrote:
18 May 2021, 6:27pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
18 May 2021, 6:04pm
Kory wrote:
18 May 2021, 5:47pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
18 May 2021, 5:10pm
Political leaders do matter for encouraging and discouraging behaviours.
I don't think there can be any question of that after the last four years. :twitch:

I hope you like Communist. I haven't read it in a while, but it's considered part of the trilogy that also contains American Pastoral, which I recall you saying you liked.
Such a long time since I read AP, but, yeah, I liked it. The film adaptation was pretty limp, tho.
It's hard to adapt Roth to film because his books are all so dependent on narration. They're often about internal dialogue, not external.
Did you watch HBO's Plot? The Boss and I were fully captured by the atmosphere of dread.
Yeah we both watched and liked it here, too. The casting was great, and I was so pleased when they included my favorite line ("pulla the trig") I thought it was interesting how they set themselves up for a potential second season—I don't know where they would take it or why, but I guess Handmaid's Tale has created a new market for shows that write sequels to books.
"Suck our Earth dick, Martians!" —Doc

Dr. Medulla
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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Dr. Medulla »

Kory wrote:
18 May 2021, 6:47pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
18 May 2021, 6:34pm
Kory wrote:
18 May 2021, 6:27pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
18 May 2021, 6:04pm
Kory wrote:
18 May 2021, 5:47pm


I don't think there can be any question of that after the last four years. :twitch:

I hope you like Communist. I haven't read it in a while, but it's considered part of the trilogy that also contains American Pastoral, which I recall you saying you liked.
Such a long time since I read AP, but, yeah, I liked it. The film adaptation was pretty limp, tho.
It's hard to adapt Roth to film because his books are all so dependent on narration. They're often about internal dialogue, not external.
Did you watch HBO's Plot? The Boss and I were fully captured by the atmosphere of dread.
Yeah we both watched and liked it here, too. The casting was great, and I was so pleased when they included my favorite line ("pulla the trig") I thought it was interesting how they set themselves up for a potential second season—I don't know where they would take it or why, but I guess Handmaid's Tale has created a new market for shows that write sequels to books.
I really dig Zoe Kazan. While far from conventionally attractive, she has a real charisma in the things I've seen her in.

I'd rather no sequel or second season be produced. The story was told and told well.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

Silent Majority
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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Silent Majority »

18) The Pillow Man - Martin McDonagh. Play. 2003. From the writer of In Bruges. A writer in a Totalitarian state is interviewed by the secret police after a series of child killings share all the details from the fairytales he writes. A good black comedy, I like the way McDonagh writes dialogue. I think he had some maturing to do after this artistically. His best piece so far is Three Billboards with Woody Harrelson.
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Dr. Medulla
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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Dr. Medulla »

Tub readin'
Image
Read this around twenty years ago. Apparently I liked it enough to buy several other novels by Thorne, but oddly enough I don't remember much about any of them, let alone whether I actually liked them. Anyway, the premise is that a 20-something working in a call centre is forced by financial trouble to start covertly living there.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

Silent Majority
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Re: Whatcha reading?

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19) The Invisibles: Book 1 - Grant Morrison. Comic. 1994. A blast of pop art inflected magickbabble which tells engaging, high stakes stories with believable characters. I had a great time with this, a huge influence on the Matrix, but, you know, actually good. He writes with his head deep into a different era of psychedelia, but what I found myself mostly impressed by was how much its feet were safely on the ground.
a lifetime serving one machine
Is ten times worse than prison


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Silent Majority
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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Silent Majority »

20) And What Do you Do? - Norman Baker. Paperback. 2020. Non-fiction book about the British Royal family, and how they take the piss financially, constitutionally and hanging out with Jeffrey Epstein-ally. It's remarkable how much power they quietly wield still. Not just the Queen, but Charles and William and all the little hangers onners. It's a real "read this and get angry" kind of book. Written by Lib Dem MP who is also a privy councillor, there's respect shown for the Royals' private life but not the way they use public funds or blur the lines between the two. These people are so rich and stingy and taking an increasingly large amount of subsidised money from the taxpayer.
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Dr. Medulla
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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Dr. Medulla »

This arrived yesterday, so I immediately devoured it.
Image

This is the second graphic novel from Brubaker and Phillips starring their new noir character, Ethan Reckless, a former FBI agent who infiltrated a New Left terrorism group and emerged burned out and alienated. In these stories, he's become a kind of go-to, unofficial private detective who'd rather watch movies in his indie cinema. Historical context is big with these stories, with sinister cults and drugs in the 1960s hangover. Really good stuff for noir fans. Both books would work well as films.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

Dr. Medulla
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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Dr. Medulla »

Audiobook:
Image
New book by Lewis, which was inadvertently presaged by his last book, The Fifth Risk, which was about preparedness in the US government for any number of disasters (e.g., nuclear accidents) and how negligent the Trump gang were toward that work. And then comes along a new virus. So this is about the efforts of medical experts and their efforts while being stymied by the goons.

BTW, having finished Loomis, I highly recommend it. It's a survey work, but it's especially accessible and a fine example of a historian doing advocacy work. He doesn't shy away from how labour has fucked itself—thru racism, sexism, corrupt union leaders—but that the assertion of worker rights is a core theme of American history and life.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

Wolter
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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Wolter »

Silent Majority wrote:
24 May 2021, 8:58am
19) The Invisibles: Book 1 - Grant Morrison. Comic. 1994. A blast of pop art inflected magickbabble which tells engaging, high stakes stories with believable characters. I had a great time with this, a huge influence on the Matrix, but, you know, actually good. He writes with his head deep into a different era of psychedelia, but what I found myself mostly impressed by was how much its feet were safely on the ground.
*They
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"But the gorilla thinks otherwise!"

Silent Majority
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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Silent Majority »

Wolter wrote:
31 May 2021, 1:09pm
Silent Majority wrote:
24 May 2021, 8:58am
19) The Invisibles: Book 1 - Grant Morrison. Comic. 1994. A blast of pop art inflected magickbabble which tells engaging, high stakes stories with believable characters. I had a great time with this, a huge influence on the Matrix, but, you know, actually good. He writes with his head deep into a different era of psychedelia, but what I found myself mostly impressed by was how much its feet were safely on the ground.
*They


Thank you. I should have been far less thoughtless about their pronouns; I was in a two year relationship with an nb person til a few weeks ago.
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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Wolter »

Silent Majority wrote:
01 Jun 2021, 1:57am
Wolter wrote:
31 May 2021, 1:09pm
Silent Majority wrote:
24 May 2021, 8:58am
19) The Invisibles: Book 1 - Grant Morrison. Comic. 1994. A blast of pop art inflected magickbabble which tells engaging, high stakes stories with believable characters. I had a great time with this, a huge influence on the Matrix, but, you know, actually good. He writes with his head deep into a different era of psychedelia, but what I found myself mostly impressed by was how much its feet were safely on the ground.
*They


Thank you. I should have been far less thoughtless about their pronouns; I was in a two year relationship with an nb person til a few weeks ago.
I only noticed because I stumble on Morrison all the time.
”INDER LOCK THE THE KISS THREAD IVE REALISED IM A PRZE IDOOT” - Thomas Jefferson

"But the gorilla thinks otherwise!"

Silent Majority
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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Silent Majority »

21) The Million Dollar Policeman - John Swartzwelder. 2012. Kindle. Frank Burly, Homer Simpson as a dunderheaded noir detective, joins the police, gets pulled into cartoon land, tries to get a witch to give details for a census and makes me laugh at least once a page. Is it possible I found this less appetising than the previous entries, or was it the mood I was in when devouring it? I'm still totally here for the guy's box of tricks. I think I'm going to enjoy everything that Swartzwelder does. The guy's a rare one of a kind.
a lifetime serving one machine
Is ten times worse than prison


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Silent Majority
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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Silent Majority »

22) Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers - Grant Naylor. 1989. Kindle/Audiobook. I've read this, on average twice a year since I was nine years old and listened to the Chris Barrie read audiobook on cassettes a number of times, too. It's probably been about three years since I picked up the now coverless paperback but the damn thing is in my bones. A relief to learn the book is still an overachiever. Episodic, naturally, but an actually solid novel and the definitive take. The series looks so much worse in comparison, in terms of the depth of the writing.
a lifetime serving one machine
Is ten times worse than prison


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