What are you reading?

Re-reading actually, but feeling as though I am reading it for the first time: Peter Matthiessen's The Snow Leopard, described in the now-defunct Saturday Review as a book in which "the naturalist, the spiritual apprentice, and the writer converge simply and dramatically."
 
GrahamLewis said:
Re-reading actually, but feeling as though I am reading it for the first time: Peter Matthiessen's The Snow Leopard, described in the now-defunct Saturday Review as a book in which "the naturalist, the spiritual apprentice, and the writer converge simply and dramatically."
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@CatrionaGrace -- have you read this? Being a naturalist and a writer I think you would especially appreciate it.
 
GrahamLewis said:
@CatrionaGrace -- have you read this? Being a naturalist and a writer I think you would especially appreciate it.
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I haven't, but I will put it on my list. Right now I'm reading Finding the Mother Tree by a professor of forest ecology named Suzanne Simard. She had the education and field career I wanted when I was young, so I'm reading with a combination of interest and envy. The college where I lived didn't offer forestry degrees, and I couldn't afford to go elsewhere, so I became an agronomist and range conservationist instead. Not a bad alternative, but... trees.
 
Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth. My first book by him. I'm only two chapters in, but it seems incredibly promising. The writing is lush and lively, and the characters I've met so far have an element of authentic humanity about them, with all the beauty and ugliness that entails. This story seems to be right up my alley, and I'm happy it's as long as it is. I've been wanting to dive into something rich and multidimensional.
 
Just finished the 1st Heirachy book "The Will of the many" by James Islington. Pretty good read. I'll read the next book that just came out. Took me a little bit to get into but enjoyed it throughout. Felt like a "Ender's Game" "Harry Potter" young man out of his elements trying to make it through school kind of a book. The main character had a lot to live up to in my mind because I love Ender as a character. All together it's worth a read.
 
Yesterday I started Marathon Man by William Goldman, the author of The Princess Bride. It hasn’t hooked me yet, but I’m optimistic. I’m also chipping away at a biography (a real, imposing chunker) of Douglas MacArthur by William Manchester.

My daughter and I are nearly through with a Great Illustrated Classics edition of Aesop’s Fables. She’s thrilled with it. She enjoys trying to work out the message of each fable. I’m liking it too, honestly.
 
Bone2pick said:
Yesterday I started Marathon Man by William Goldman, the author of The Princess Bride. It hasn’t hooked me yet, but I’m optimistic. I’m also chipping away at a biography (a real, imposing chunker) of Douglas MacArthur by William Manchester.

My daughter and I are nearly through with a Great Illustrated Classics edition of Aesop’s Fables. She’s thrilled with it. She enjoys trying to work out the message of each fable. I’m liking it too, honestly.
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American Caesar? That was in my dad's bookshelf but I never got to it.
 
Iain Aschendale said:
American Caesar? That was in my dad's bookshelf but I never got to it.
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That’s the one. :) My copy sat unread on my bookshelf for several years — at least three. I probably kept putting off reading it because it’s nearly 800 pages (large hardback, no less) and it looks especially stuffy/serious.

I’m about 200 pages into it now, and I’m digging it. Manchester is a gifted writer, so that helps. But mostly my enjoyment is the result of MacArthur being such a fascinating historical figure. Well-bred. Bright. Fierce. Political. Reminds me a little of Teddy Roosevelt, which is noteworthy since I think of Teddy as remarkably unique. MacArthur lacks Teddy’s boyish charm and enthusiasm, but there’re a lot of similarities between the two imho.
 
Currently reading, for the second time, Rage by my favourite author Wilbur Smith. It is a 'epic novel' with an estimated 224,000 word count.
 
Homer Potvin said:
South African guy, right? My aunt is from South Africa and gave a couple of his once. I couldn't get into him but that was decades ago. What would you recommend by him if I had to pick one?
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Yeah, he's South African. He wrote 3 series of books namely; The Courtney, The Ballantyne and The Egyptian. He also wrote a number of standalone novels - Eagle In The Sky being my favourite. My favourite series was The Courtney's For the Courtney series I suggest starting with When The Lion Feeds. The standalone - read Eagle In The Sky.
 
I read some of African American writers (actually playwrights) such as August Wilson who drew a lot of inspiration from African art, in terms of African writers I read Adichie long time ago and liked the novel, I think it was Half of a yellow sun but don't remember exactly. What I'm reading these days, it's the books on how to adapt plays for specific theatre form, e.g. Shadow of Hamlet. And I'm still supposed to finish reading Dan Brown's Origin and Paul Auster's The Brooklyn Follies and few other books.
 
Behold, I am not reading anything right now. Feels kinda strange, but, okay, new experiences are good.
 
I gave Ernest Hemingway's famous short story "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" a read tonight. Man, has it not aged well. There are a couple of decent action scenes, but as far as I can tell, the moral of the story can be summed up essentially as, "American bitches suck, don't they?"

On a more positive note, a novel I finished last night was August of the People by V.F. Aubrey. It's a sci-fi YA story about a young man who grows up among a hunter-gatherer community in a post-apocalyptic Pacific Northwest. Cloned Ice Age fauna, cloned Neanderthal tribes, android priests, and evil imperialistic pseudo-Romans with battle robots are all things in this setting. It's quite a solid read, although it took a while for the saber-toothed cats advertised on the cover art to appear.
 
I just listened to the audiobook of Milo Rossi's The Encyclopedia of the Weird and Wonderful: Curious and Incredible Facts that Will Blow Your Mind. My mind was not blown, but I enjoy his youtube channel a lot, and this book was very him, just tamed way down. I'm still reading The Sun Also Rises. Hemingway has some lines that have sniped me right in the "damn, dude, that was a good fuckin' line."
 
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