Picked up any good reads at the bookstore?

[Minge är en jävla besserwisser]

Bicycle Diaries by Davis Byrne.


Talking Heads and Bicycles. What more can a man ask for?

[lala]

Oh, I'm also reading Happy Like Murderers, by Gordon Burn. About Fred and Rose West. As you can imagine, it's a bundle of laughs.

[Repat Van]

Feb 3, 2017 6:39:31 GMT lala said:

Feb 3, 2017 6:36:30 GMT Repat Van said:

I really doubt that though and reading the description I am sure I have never read it.

Stranger, by David Bergen?

"Iso, a young Guatemalan woman, works at a fertility clinic at Ixchel, in the highlands of the Sierra Madre de Chiapas. She tends to the rich northern women who visit the clinic hoping that the waters of the nearby lake might increase their chances of conception. Like many of the women working at the clinic, Íso is aware of the resident American doctor, Eric Mann. Soon Íso is his secret lover, stealing away with Dr. Mann on long motorcycle rides through the mountains and enjoying beach vacations with Eric and his doctor friends. But their tryst does not last long. Dr. Mann decides he will return to the US, and a freak accident cuts the couple’s time together even shorter. Before Íso can tell Dr. Mann that she is pregnant, he is gone."

Nope, not that either.

[Repat Van]

Found it!!

www.goodreads.com/book/show/22571540-the-stranger

[nobody]

My Life and Loves.


Frank Harris.

Read it years ago, but still fun

[flatandy]

As I mentioned the other day, I think, I'm reading The Sellout, which is basically excellent; and Atlas Shrugged, which I think is the worst book I've ever read, and fails on every single level.

[voice]

For Marshall

Been reading Agent to the Stars, very funny and we'll written.

[Marshall]

Thanks, will return to this after lunch.

[hammerhead]

Never heard of that one.

[Marshall]

It was very good, a lot to chew on.

[Marshall]

Okay, some of the books I've read in the past few months:

Leaving Berlin - Joseph Kanon
Espionage in post-war Berlin with duplicity, betrayals, and politics. Lots of (very good) dialogue.

The Three Body Solution - Liu Cixin
SF by a Chinese writer, heard a lot of raving about this so I had high expectations. Had some good ideas in it but not enough to make up for the terrible writing. I don't think it was just due to translation, either. First book in a series of three, I'll skip the rest.

The Electric Kool-aid Acid Test - Tom Wolfe
The subject is certainly not everyone's cup of tea/kool-aid, but is mine. Took me a while to get used to his style of writing in this one (different than his other books I'm sure), but ended up really enjoying it. Started with Ken Kesey taking part in LSD experiments at Stanford (around '62), continued through the Merry Prankster days and the acid tests up to just after his 2nd conviction on marijuana charges.

Fighter: The True Story of the Battle of Britain - Len Deighton
Just started this one but already know I'm going to enjoy it.

[flatandy]

The best non-fiction thing I've read in the last few months is Bad Blood by John Kiryakou, about the failures at Theranos. Brilliant and very readable.

Also in non-fiction, is Blue Highways by William Least Heat Moon, a travelog of a dude driving the length and breadth of the US on backroads in the 80s. It's well written, but doesn't quite live up to expectations. There's no drive at all, nothing to make you want to read the next page. Just a ton of vignettes.

In fiction, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine is a really good little book. Interesting, and it doesn't take you where you expect it to. Socially awkward woman in in Glasgow Does Socially Awkard Things is not a compelling precis, but it's way better than that.

There was a very entertaining, if lightweight, by spy thriller called Slow Horses by Mick Herron

And I'm most of the way through a very interesting book called The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner, which I'm enjoying, but I'm bothered by the fact that it feels a bit like an Orange is the New Black rip-off, and by the way that it keeps changing between first person and third person. California prison book set in the early 2000s. Lots of SF references.

[Repat Van]

Reading “Into the Wild” with my book club. I normally hate non-fiction but I am enjoying this.

[mids]

I think I've read that.

[flatandy]

It's a decent book, but McCandless is such a plonker.

[Deleted]

Quite liked the film. That's to say, I didn't lose interest or feel the need to turn it off. Pretty depressing actually.

Currently reading Four Kings, about boxers Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Tommy Hearns and Marvin Hagler, a pass-on from my brother-in-law who, knowing that I once boxed feels that I'm still interested in the subject.

Did I mention I read Bonfire of the Vanities at last, after 20 years? I suppose it was all right at the time.

[Repat Van]

Oct 12, 2019 13:58:39 GMT flatandy said:

It's a decent book, but McCandless is such a plonker.

I am reaching that conclusion too.

[flatandy]

It's weird that he's acquired a sort of devoted fanbase who find the whole thing incredibly romantic (including, I've always suspected, Krakauer). There's a hilarious (but tragic) story from earlier this year that I can tell you about once you've finished the book.

[Repat Van]

Oh Krakauer quite clearly is in admiration of him.

Which shows just how much of a plonker McCandless was in that even Krakauer's admiration in the book has not made me view CM in a good light.

Krakauer actually wrote a more recent article defending CM where he does further investigation on how he died and shows it was accidental poisoning not starvation.

[flatandy]

Well, you clearly know how it finishes - with CM trapped in his bus because of the raging river. So, here's a tragic/hilariously ironic story from earlier in the year.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/28/woman-dies-alaska-into-the-wild-bus