January 2018: Reading thread

[Bick]

I've finished reading To the Mothers of the Movement with Love by Dianne Liuzzi Hagan. I'm conflicted about this book... I gave the book (for me) a very unusual 5 stars so as to encourage more readers...

Doesn't encourage me, Parson - it sounds dreadful!

 

[Parson]

Your loss, but I tell the truth. Both about the quality and the advisability of reading it.

 

[Bick]

Your loss, but I tell the truth. Both about the quality and the advisability of reading it.

That's the death-knell for that then - as soon as I hear its 'advisable' I read a book, which seems to imply it will improve me in some way (which further implies I need improving), it makes me want to get some fresh air and think of England (or read some SF).

 

[Randy M.]

That's the death-knell for that then - as soon as I hear its 'advisable' I read a book, which seems to imply it will improve me in some way (which further implies I need improving), it makes me want to get some fresh air and think of England (or read some SF).

Not to argue, but the advisability isn't about self-improvement and it's not a self-help book. More Dianne is trying to generate discussion while clarifying her position on the issues surrounding race in the U.S.

And for now I'll leave off discussing the book until I finish it.


Randy M.

 

[soulsinging]

I think you'll enjoy that piece of literature. The story was intriguing, but I was never quite sure how well researched it was. Maybe it was dead on, but it seemed a little off to me. Perhaps it was a little too close to modern sympathies in a medieval dress? Too little inevitability of life situation? Maybe you'll be able to help me there.

There's definitely some of that. It reminds me of a certain late 20th century historical epic style, (Shogun, Trinity, Lonesome Dove, etc.), specifically a brawny, John Wayne style protagonist that ladies just can't resist (eg. [SPOILERISH]the main character leers openly at one of the most memorable women in England right in front of his wife, and she so can't resist him that she's right)... very James Bond. I get the impression most of his research was into the actual building/architecture issues more so than the general medieval environment, with the church being more a source of plot-driving, soap opera-esque political intrigue. Still seems fun, and accurate or not, the glimpses into monastic life when the church was one of the ultimate powers is fascinating to think about.

I've finished reading To the Mothers of the Movement with Love by Dianne Liuzzi Hagan. I'm conflicted about this book. On the one hand it is a powerful message and one a lot of white Americans haven't heard or have ignored. She makes a terrific case for the pervasive quality of white privilege in America. She doesn't lay the blame at any one overt conspiracy. She does see some organization, but she lays a good share of the blame on people, especially whites, who close their eyes to what is happening all around them. She sees the problems of race relations in the U.S. as deteriorating with little hope for any reversal, especially under the Trump administration. It is well documented and I doubt that there's any "fake news" in it. On the other hand her message seems too simplistic. She sees white American treatment of African Americans, especially the last 20 years, as all but universally wretched and self serving. She sees even the effort to move to a more nuanced position as blatant racism. I gave the book (for me) a very unusual 5 stars so as to encourage more readers, but if I were to rate that simply on its literary merits I think I would move to 3 stars. I found that much of the book seems to alternate between screaming, whining, and crying. It was obvious that this was a kind of compilation of blog posts and that probably accounts for the overly emotional tone of this. That said, I would recommend that white Americans everywhere read this and respond with empathy to the problem that she so passionately addressed.

Interesting, seems kind of the opposite of New Jim Crow, by Michelle Alexander. Interesting read, and recommended, but it's almost too academic/clinical (heavy on jargon and sociological terms), while at the same time its claims are possibly more incendiary (that the way our justice system operates was specifically designed and implemented, via the Nixon/Reagan war on drugs, to punish/control/subjugate African-Americans after Jim Crow and ensure their continued second class status). It has some interesting points (particularly regarding the way it drives a wedge between poor blacks and poor whites, the latter of who suffer under this system almost as much, but still use it as a way to prop up racist views by rationalizing that their dislike is driven by facts/culpable behavior rather than race, even though the criminality it supposedly proves is a result of openly racist enforcement).

As a former attorney, son of an attorney, husband to an attorney (and more), I found its arguments and evidence pretty convincing, and very much in line with my firsthand experience with the justice system. To the layman though, its claims might seem to go too far or indict too much.

 

[AE35Unit]

Next up, Casino Royale -Ian Fleming
Never read a James Bond before, could be interesting...

 

[Parson]

Never read a James Bond before, could be interesting..

Get thee in a 60's frame of mind and it will be a blast. I loved them in the 60's.

 

[dask]

Started this little doozie:

About the only Doc I can afford right now.

 

[Hugh]

I’ve been reading the biography “James Tiptree, Jr. The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon” by Julie Phillips, and at the same time the Masterworks collection of 18 of her stories, “Her Smoke Rose Up Forever”.

Prior to this I’d only read maybe seven or eight Tiptree stories, but my interest had been piqued by the Charles Platt interview with her and his subsequent additional comments in the updated Stairway Press Collected Edition of “Dream Makers”. It sounded such a fascinating story: this new author bursting onto the SF scene in the late 60s, speedily accumulating three Nebula Awards and two Hugos, then it emerging that the author was in fact a woman, Alice Sheldon, and, at the end, the sad shooting of her husband and then herself in an apparent suicide pact.

The author had full access to Alice Sheldon’s papers, and this makes for a very informative biography with little noticeable imaginative conjecture. However I found it harder going than I had expected, in large part because I found it painful to read about her difficulties. It seems that despite her wealthy background and unusual intelligence she never really found a niche for herself, struggling to fit both her sexuality and her desire for meaningful work into the environment of the 1930s/ 1950s in which there was no real place for a woman who was not prepared to be the stay-at-home mother.

I also found “Her Smoke Rose Up Forever” more difficult than I had anticipated. Perhaps it’s my age (66), but almost every story features sex and violence in a way that I find uncomfortable and even abusive. At the same time, many of the stories, particularly the earlier ones, are so well written with such clear streamlined prose and minimal embroidery that I am left full of admiration. This collection is said to be the best and the most representative of her work, and of course includes the four Hugo/Nebula winners, but I’m surprised it does not include “The Milk of Paradise”, the one outstanding story in the tedious (as I experience it) second volume of “Again Dangerous Visions”. My personal favourite was one of her final stories, “Slow Music”, due to its slower pace and the overtones, for me, of Clifford D. Simak.

As I was finding these two books harder than I expected, I found myself really loving another biography, “The Surreal Life of Leonora Carrington” by Joanna Moorhead. Since I came across “The Hearing Trumpet”, one of my all-time favourite books, I have been fascinated by anything to do with Leonora. Like Alice Sheldon, she came from a wealthy background, but, much more than Alice, broke away from the roles expected of her, and despite significant hardship/ trauma managed to find her feet and live a life dedicated to the pursuit on canvas of her unconscious images. Dipping into this book was the perfect antidote to the two Tiptree volumes.

 

[janeoreilly]

Reading Robots v Fairies which is a new short story collection. Saw it in Forbidden Planet and was sold on the strength of the title alone

 

[AE35Unit]

Get thee in a 60's frame of mind and it will be a blast. I loved them in the 60's.

Nothing like the films I take it?

 

[dask]

Next up, Casino Royale -Ian Fleming
Never read a James Bond before, could be interesting...

Read Moonraker and really liked it. Cool avatar by the way.

 

[hitmouse]

The Bond books are quite good. Well written and a cut above most contemporary thrillers. He is a bit of a thug, though suave and sophisticated, and there is sometimes an almost kinky undercurrent of nastiness in the stories.
Comparing the books to the films, the Daniel Craig Bond (minus the gadgets) probably comes closest.

 

[AE35Unit]

Read Moonraker and really liked it. Cool avatar by the way.

Cheers. Its from the book cover

 

[J-Sun]

Nothing like the films I take it?

Almost nothing. I agree with @hitmouse about Craig, though Connery also had Bondian elements but that's in terms of the character. The mood and plot of the books are much darker and sober/intense vs. the sort of freewheeling technicolor film fantasies. (Not that the books are realistic, either - "Bond lit his seventieth cigarette of the day." And then ran a mile and beat up the bad guy.) I usually only like one or the other of things like that but I love both the books and the movies in their very different ways. Casino is the first and one of the best of the books, so that's a good place to start.

 

[Danny McG]

Nothing like the films I take it?

If you read it as the first introduction of vodka to the Englishman of the sixties you won't go far wrong!

Part of the blurb on my copy sums it up:- "snobbery with violence"

 

[Brian G Turner]

I somehow ended up on a page at Amazon.com for a black history book, written by Dick Gregory - someone I'd never heard of. Out of idle curiosity I opened the sample chapter and became completely absorbed by the easy narrative.

Unfortunately, it wasn't available as a Kindle ebook, so I looked for something else by him. There was only Nigger, an autobiography of his difficult life growing up in segregated 1950's America, then managing to break out from poverty as a comedian, before becoming involved in the Civil Rights movement.

Bought it, and couldn't put it down.

Absolutely brilliant.

 

[Stewart Hotston]

So many books this month:
Imaginary Cities - which is a rollicking tour of the city as seen through the eyes of visionaries and architects through the centuries
Stone Sky by NK Jemisin - the conclusion to her gate cycle which is, frankly, the best of the three.
The NIX, which is a fantastic 'American Novel' about so many things but especially the riots of 68 in Detroit
Hannah Green and her unfeasibly mundane existance by Michael Marshall Smith. Pretty solid entertainment.
Women and Power by Mary Beard which was excellent

Now reading Court of Broken Knives and Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie - both of which have started strong.

However, I've just started writing a new book for a big publisher so have got to get on with that so my reading's going to slow down...

 

[Steve S]

Next up for me is Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman - it's been on my 'to read' list for a while, so looking forward to it.

 

[Perpetual Man]

I've finished Sins of Empire by Brian McClellan and thought it was a superb read, a worthy follow up to his original series. Review Here

And have followed it up with Holmes and Watson investigating The Sign of Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle