I’m finishing All Systems Red by Martha Wells
It has been surprisingly fun to read.
Really enjoyed all the Murder Bot books thus far and really wish she’d get more written!
Just finished the latest James Rollins thriller, Trust No One. I like fast-paced thrillers as sort of a palate-cleanser between other stuff.
Prior to that, finished Strange Buildings by Uketsu, a follow-up to his Strange Houses. Over the years I’ve become quite a fan of translations from the Japanese, simply because their viewpoints and writing style are so much different from that of American authors. Really exercises the wetware.
On deck is the Japanese translation of Hooked by Asako Yuzuki. I enjoyed her previous book, Butter, so I thought I’d give this one a try, even though books about female friendship aren’t really my thing.
What is my thing are distopias (distopiae?). An author who comes into the library where I work part-time recommended to me We by Yevgeny Zamyatin. Written in 1920 in Russian, but first published in English translation in 1928, it’s considered the book that established distopia as a genre and is said to have inspired things like Brave New World, 1984 and Animal Farm.
Although it’s a slim volume, more of a novella-length, I’m finding it slow-going because of the differences in culture and writing style in 100 years. I’m enjoying it nonetheless, but have to take it in small doses. Fortunately the chapters are short, almost (ick!) James Patterson short.
Waiting patiently for me to check it out is Wings: the story of a band on the run by Paul McCartney. Turns out, Paul wasn’t dead after all.
Thanks for the tip. I really need to start reading about the winners and nominees of hugo awards and Nebula awards.
Has this book, i.e. All systems red, been made into an Apple series? Or is this book made from an Apple series?
On a side note, Good Reads leaves out a few important details of the book, like ISBN number, if this is part of a series, then a link to the series from its page and so on.
I have been bitten by the History bug and have started reading
Turkey, the Great Powers, and the Bagdad Railway: A Study in Imperialism by Edward Mead Earle.
First published in 1924 when America was not taking part in the mad scramble for colonies and had isolationist tendencies. A very dispassionate and balanced book, written by taking all the different views into account. The view from Ottoman empire, from the Russian Empire, French empire and British empire. A very well researched and written book. Definitely recommend it.
This book covers how the Central powers, especially German empire, sought to capitalize on the so called “sick man of Europe” and turn the “Eastern question” into something useful for Berlin and its industry. Initially the British press, opinion and its leadership were welcoming and supportive of the railway line. But then turned hostile, with a significant part being played by the British Lynch brothers, whose Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Company would be worst impacted.
The British were offered a financial stake the railway, but due to some circumstances could not join. In the end it became a Franco-German project, with Berlin in the driving seat. There was another alternative route for this railway but it was stuck down by Russians, man Ottomans had to take permission even from the Czar to do anything inside their own territory.
The exorbitant concessions sought by the Germans and granted by the Sultan. No taxes of any kind. A subsidy which guaranteed that the Railway company would make a profit, even when the first train had not run on it. The grants of thousand of square acres of land, free of cost, to the railway. And so on.
It was fascinating to know that cost of transporting goods between Baghdad to Basra was more than the cost of transporting of goods from Basra to London, even when both of the transport mechanism were water boats. The Brits were experts on how to suck money out of a country.
This does put the entire WW-I perspective in a different light. The tensions were building up and the single shot in Sarajevo, present day Bosnia, was the final straw that broke the camels back. Most of the books related to WW-I do a piss poor job of explaining the origins of the war, sticking to what happened on that fateful day in Sarajevo. On its own that incident was not sufficient to start a global kerfuffle.
History does not repeat, they say, it rhymes. Well it is rhyming again. With China playing a similar role as that of Imperial Germany. Its BRI looks similar to what the Berlin-to-Baghdad railway was all about.
I really don’t really know since I don’t consume TV streaming services of any kind.
ISBN: 9780765397522
reading the 4th and final tome of hellboy, hellboy in hell.
Don’t project European history onto other places, and times. (For instance, the contemporary Australian security bureaucracy considers India a potential threat to Australia, because it’s rather obvious to, all British- or American-trained, them that a stronger future India with a navy would sail to Australia and conquer the land.)
Putting that aside, I heard, we in Europe, also have a dream, for a (new) transport corridor from Berlin to Bombay, all warzones included, of course.
Please be careful with the geo-political discussion folks. I understand it’s somewhat unavoidable when reading non-fiction history of course, but perhaps we can try to keep present day commentary out of it.
Just finished reading Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov after watching a YT video that claimed tie-ins to Blade Runner 2049, so now I need to watch the movie again
Odd read but recommended
A look at a specific period I am totally guessing like 73-89(?). Interesting. But necessary? Wing were pop craftsmen, like their creator, and fun, and a lot of great songs. I did not think they were innovative or inventive in any way, just a clean, radio-friendly listen.
28IF.
I recently finished watching the finale of Good Omens on Amazon Prime, so I was quick to pick up a copy of the book (upon which season one, the only good one, is based, from what I understand) when I saw it on offer for just 1 USD at a local Goodwill thrift store, including a free bookmark from the Strand bookstore in NYC. Seemed like a fine purchase to me at the time…
Just now I started to thumb through the initial pages to start reading, so imagine my surprise when I found it to be signed by Neil Gaiman
So I guess I should put my copy back on the shelf and visit my local library instead to actually read the novel… 
The photos below are not from my copy but from an identical edition with a similarly signed page that I found online:
days like that add a richness and joy to life.
Calling the prophesier “Nutter” is the tell here about how they feel. It looks funny.
Not necessary at all. And simply because you don’t think they were innovative or inventive, does not make them any less interesting as people–which is the difference between discography and biography. One is about the music, the other about the people.
I’ve not started the book yet. The piece about the book in The Guardian caught my attention, and just the two or three things I learned there got me wondering what it must have been like to go from being in THE biggest, influential, and most adored band of all time (to date), to being a farmer, to starting a new band knowing full well it would never reach the heights of The Beatles, yet would always be compared to them. Learning how someone wraps their head around that is what I’m looking for in the book.
FWIW, I was never a fan of the band back then, being stuck in a rut of progressive/stoner rock at the time.
fair enough. Macaw’s farming life was captured lovingly in pics plastered in the Ram album (brilliant)…god remember album art? and I remember McCartney 1 (I think) the one with Maybe I’m Amazed. Maybe 1-2 more solo albums and then Wings.
that’s an angle I did not think of. would be interested in his thoughts on that.
Conversely I’d like to hear new Beatle anecdotes if he has any.
Understand that now.
I tried to love King Crimson and early Yes and ELP as a young’un but I didn’t always get it. That’s on me.
PS—Rock books are hit and miss. I hope this is a good one.
Agreed. IMHO, good biography has more in common with psychology than with history or whatever topic vaulted the subject to fame. Additionally, rock bios tend to be more about fandom, than even music or history.
interesting list to pick few short classics
