OT: The Good Book: What are you reading right now?

Runner77

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Jun 24, 2012
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This book is getting a lot of attention:

DrmUbUp.jpg


One of Publishers Weekly's Top 10 Most Anticipated Books of Spring 2020!

Named one of the most anticipated books of 2020 by The Millions, The Week, Houston Chronicle, San Francisco Chronicle, Electric Lit, Vogue.com, Medium, Paste Magazine, and more.

"Likely to be the debut novel of the year." - San Francisco Chronicle

An electric debut novel set against the twilight of the American gold rush, two siblings are on the run in an unforgiving landscape--trying not just to survive but to find a home.

Author was on last night with Seth Meyers:



I don't remember the last time I saw a novel receive so many positive reviews on Goodreads: How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang

Would love to know if this book is on anyone's radar.

 
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Chili

Time passes when you're not looking
Jun 10, 2004
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Reading two books:

A Sting in the Tale - James Berryman

Imagine your best friend in high school writing a book about the experience. Sting encouraged him to write this book., found about it when Sting plugged it in his autobiography. Some interesting stories, Sting went home with a sore behind more then a few times (in the days of spare the rod...).

A Life in Letters John Steinbeck- Elaine Steinbeck

Would be of interest to anyone who has read Steinbeck to read the evolution of his stories. He didn't like using the phone so he wrote lots of letters, to friends, family and related to his books. There are some letters in there he sent to JFK and Lyndon Johnson. Also a few to Jackie after Nov 22nd, 1963. Even after he had a couple of books published he was still living on the poverty line, living on $400 a year (1935). Interested to read the background of The Grapes of Wrath.
 

JuicyHam

Registered User
Dec 16, 2013
8,718
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windsor
Just finished reading Jagmeet Singh's Love and Courage.

Not your typical pre election biography and is very worth a read regardless of how you feel about the NDP or politics in general. A very beautiful Canadian story essentially about personal and familial struggles and how the power of Love and Courage can have you come out stronger on the other side.
 

Pompeius Magnus

Registered User
May 18, 2014
21,221
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Kanata ,ON
Just finished reading Jagmeet Singh's Love and Courage.

Not your typical pre election biography and is very worth a read regardless of how you feel about the NDP or politics in general. A very beautiful Canadian story essentially about personal and familial struggles and how the power of Love and Courage can have you come out stronger on the other side.
I have it on my list, I'll probably get to it at some point this summer. I went to one of his rallies last year, he's a very compelling speaker, if it translates at all in his writing it should be a good read.
 

Per Sjoblom

Registered User
Jan 3, 2018
7,134
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Reading two books:

A Sting in the Tale - James Berryman

Imagine your best friend in high school writing a book about the experience. Sting encouraged him to write this book., found about it when Sting plugged it in his autobiography. Some interesting stories, Sting went home with a sore behind more then a few times (in the days of spare the rod...).

A Life in Letters John Steinbeck- Elaine Steinbeck

Would be of interest to anyone who has read Steinbeck to read the evolution of his stories. He didn't like using the phone so he wrote lots of letters, to friends, family and related to his books. There are some letters in there he sent to JFK and Lyndon Johnson. Also a few to Jackie after Nov 22nd, 1963. Even after he had a couple of books published he was still living on the poverty line, living on $400 a year (1935). Interested to read the background of The Grapes of Wrath.


We read the Pearl in middle school, very sad story. In high school we read Of Mice and Men (also sad). Then later I went through many of his books like the Grapes, Cannery Row, East of Eden although I watched the film East of Eden before I read the book. Come to think of it, so many of his books are sad.
One of the greatest writers coming from the US.
 
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Runner77

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Just finished reading Jagmeet Singh's Love and Courage.

Not your typical pre election biography and is very worth a read regardless of how you feel about the NDP or politics in general. A very beautiful Canadian story essentially about personal and familial struggles and how the power of Love and Courage can have you come out stronger on the other side.

I was forever marked by Steinbeck's The Pearl, which I read as a high school student. It would sure be interesting to read more about him.
 

Per Sjoblom

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Jan 3, 2018
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I was forever marked by Steinbeck's The Pearl, which I read as a high school student. It would sure be interesting to read more about him.

It seems to have been a very common book for schools and I can understand that. The size of the book is a novella and of course it describes all of mankind's ills. Greed, lying and cheating, murder, thieving and racism.
 
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Runner77

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It seems to have been a very common book for schools and I can understand that. The size of the book is a novella and of course it describes all of mankind's ills. Greed, lying and cheating, murder, thieving and racism.

Correct, it's a novella. But, it's so dark and powerful, esp. for an impressionable young reader. You never forget it.

In fact, I'd probably read it again now just to see if it brings back memories.
 
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Chili

Time passes when you're not looking
Jun 10, 2004
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We read the Pearl in middle school, very sad story. In high school we read Of Mice and Men (also sad). Then later I went through many of his books like the Grapes, Cannery Row, East of Eden although I watched the film East of Eden before I read the book. Come to think of it, so many of his books are sad.
One of the greatest writers coming from the US.
When he first finished school his letters were upbeat, he believed he would become a great writer. But after several years of numerous rejections of his works it was wearing on him, probably influenced his writing. He won an award in the mid 1930's and he sent a letter explaining he wouldn't be attending the dinner. In there he said he didn't believe he would ever win another award (he would later win several including a Pulitzer and the Nobel prize for literature).

Read Grapes in school and it's one of my favorite movies. Mice is unforgettable.

Edit: This may be of interest...Steinbeck went on a trip to Europe in 1937, including Sweden. He had met the artist Bo Beskow in NY had his address and they became good friends. Beskow painted Steinbeck`s portrait three times, must have been well known in Sweden back then. Several letters Steinbeck wrote to him in the book.
 
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Per Sjoblom

Registered User
Jan 3, 2018
7,134
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When he first finished school his letters were upbeat, he believed he would become a great writer. But after several years of numerous rejections of his works it was wearing on him, probably influenced his writing. He won an award in the mid 1930's and he sent a letter explaining he wouldn't be attending the dinner. In there he said he didn't believe he would ever win another award (he would later win several including a Pulitzer and the Nobel prize for literature).

Read Grapes in school and it's one of my favorite movies. Mice is unforgettable.

Edit: This may be of interest...Steinbeck went on a trip to Europe in 1937, including Sweden. He had met the artist Bo Beskow in NY had his address and they became good friends. Beskow painted Steinbeck`s portrait three times, must have been well known in Sweden back then. Several letters Steinbeck wrote to him in the book.


When I hear the name Beskow I think of his mother, Elsa Bescow, famous Swedish author and illustrator of children books. We read her in first grade. Cool to know her son or rather one of her sons (she had 4) painted a portrait of Steinbeck. He was known to me only as the painter of one of Sweden's most popular prime minister the social democrat Tage Erlander. below is one of Elsa's illustrations.

458px-Elsa_Beskow_-_Sov_du_lilla_videung%2C_%C3%A4n_s%C3%A5_%C3%A4r_det_vinter..._-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
 
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Frozenice

No Reverse Gear
Jan 1, 2010
7,027
526
Reading Civil War Two - The Coming Breakup of America by Thomas Chittum

Read it 5 years ago or so, seemed farfetched at the time, doesn't seem so farfetched now. Not a book for idealists and kind of out there in terms of realistic scenarios.

It's written by an ex-soldier with a very dry, pragmatic sense of what a civil war could look like if one were to break out. Food for thought, it definitely will rub a lot of posters here the wrong way. I disagree with some of the author's ideas presented here, so I would be expecting that would be true of how others here react, only more so.

Definitely something to think about.
 

Chili

Time passes when you're not looking
Jun 10, 2004
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Watched Das Boot recently so reread The Golden Horseshoe. It's a detailed account of the career of Otto Kretschmer, the ace of the Wolfpack, including his time in Bowmanville as a prisoner of war. There is another movie called 'The McKenzie Break' loosely based on some real incidents in the POW camp. Get a sense of the danger at sea for both the hunter and the hunted during WWII.

Also watched 'The Aviator' recently, now reading Howard Hughes: The Untold Story. Interesting life, he had a significant impact on the evolution of air travel.
 

Per Sjoblom

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Jan 3, 2018
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Watched Das Boot recently so reread The Golden Horseshoe. It's a detailed account of the career of Otto Kretschmer, the ace of the Wolfpack, including his time in Bowmanville as a prisoner of war. There is another movie called 'The McKenzie Break' loosely based on some real incidents in the POW camp. Get a sense of the danger at sea for both the hunter and the hunted during WWII.

Also watched 'The Aviator' recently, now reading Howard Hughes: The Untold Story. Interesting life, he had a significant impact on the evolution of air travel.


I remember when watching the movie I felt physically unwell, to die in a little tin can just waiting for it to come.
 

Chili

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Jun 10, 2004
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I remember when watching the movie I felt physically unwell, to die in a little tin can just waiting for it to come.
It really feels like you`re on the sub during the depth charge scènes, so i hear you.

Also read another Neil Young book, Special Deluxe. It`s an autobiography through the cars he`s owned and known. There are well done watercolour drawings of all the vintage vehicles (all done by NY), including the car he had converted to run on biofuel that he calls Lincvolt (1959 Lincoln Continental convertible). Good book for fans of Neil & 1950`s era cars.

drivinglinc2
 
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Per Sjoblom

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Jan 3, 2018
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It really feels like you`re on the sub during the depth charge scènes, so i hear you.

Also read another Neil Young book, Special Deluxe. It`s an autobiography through the cars he`s owned and known. There are well done watercolour drawings of all the vintage vehicles (all done by NY), including the car he had converted to run on biofuel that he calls Lincvolt (1959 Lincoln Continental convertible). Good book for fans of Neil & 1950`s era cars.

drivinglinc2

He's a bit of a renaissance man with many talents, isn't he! Is that a Canadian thing? I mean I'm also a big fan of Joni Mitchell and she's a renaissance woman, than you have L. Cohen too.
 
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Chili

Time passes when you're not looking
Jun 10, 2004
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He's a bit of a renaissance man with many talents, isn't he! Is that a Canadian thing? I mean I'm also a big fan of Joni Mitchell and she's a renaissance woman, than you have L. Cohen too.
Don't know how to describe him, other then saying he has his own way, which is subject to change at times too. He chose to convert a gaz guzzler of the past to make a point about more enviro friendly vehicles. I can relate to his attachment to vintage cars, back when cars were made for style and beauty.
 
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ahmedou

DOU
Oct 7, 2017
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THE GOLDEN YEARS: BEE HIVE

''The Golden Years: Bee Hive Golden Corn Syrup Hockey Picture Promotion 1934-68, is a glorious, 296-page coffee-table album tour of the most successful consumer promotion in Canadian history. Tracing history of collectibles that sparked dreams of reaching NHL.''

upload_2020-7-5_12-33-3.png
 

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