What are you reading this week of September 24, 2017?

[hermetic]

I got Crosstalk by Connie Willis but I haven't started reading it yet.

Listening to Night and Day by Robert B. Parker, a Jesse Stone story from '09. Really enjoyable. Kind of funny it involves "swingers." There's a term I haven't heard for some time. I guess that activity has fallen out of favor. I am def going to have to find more of his books.

What good books will you be leafing through this week?

Also...
This is Adult Education and Family Literacy Week. How to Participate:
Start with toolkits and other resources for planning advocacy around AEFL week.
Customize and share NCL’s AEFL Week social media messaging for direct service providers, policy makers, and donors.
Host an activity or event to raise awareness of adult education and family literacy. Send us your press releases, photos, and related information, and we’ll post them here. Or send us an AEFL Week Activity Report.
Send us the link to your blog post and we’ll link to it here.

Links here: http://national-coalition-literacy.org/adult-education-and-family-literacy-week/

[samnsara]

1. i have Hillary and Katy's books on tape..does that count?

[hermetic]

2. Sure

It all counts. Not everyone has time to read so we listen to books instead. Then, when we talk about them here, that will encourage others to read. So, it's all good.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

3. Currently I have three books going.

The Eyre Affaire by Jasper Fforde, and for some reason I'm finding it a bit of a slog. I listened to One of Our Thursdays Is Missing on a recent road trip and really liked it, so I decided to go back to the beginning of the series. I am in awe of the amazing world he has created, but I'm getting impatient to finally get into the Book World.

I'm also reading The Bridegroom a collection of stories by Ha Jin. Everything he writes is excellent.

And my current guilty pleasure It Takes Two by Jonathan and Drew Scott, the Property brothers. It's interesting to get a context for them.

Oh, and I finished Tornado Weather by Deborah E. Kennedy, and it turned out to be quite good. We get into the heads of quite a few of the characters in that small town, and I found it to be quite satisfactory. Most of the people in the novel are really trapped in that small town in Indiana. Most of them were born there or came there for some sort of a job. There are not many jobs, and when the dairy farm is shut down there are even fewer. This is one book I'd recommend strongly.

[hermetic]

5. I just listened

to The Eyre Affair last week and I would say that it is a bit longish. But I so loved the puns and double entendres that it was worth it and it made me want to read more of Fforde.

The Bridegroom is hailed as both comical and deeply moving. In "After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town," the Chinese workers at an American-style fast-food franchise receive a hilarious crash course in marketing, deep-frying, and that frustrating capitalist dictum, 'The customer is always right.' Sounds like a great read.

Thanks!

[CurtEastPoint]

4. The Rosie Effect

Liking it but the first one, the Rosie Project, I think was much more clever and funny.

[hermetic]

6. Yes, I remember

The first one sounded quite amusing. I put it on my list of books to keep an eye out for.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

8. Yes!

The Rosie Project really is vastly better.

I had the good fortune to meet the author when he was on book tour when Project came out in paperback. Delightful man.

[PoorMonger]

7. Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami

A dazzling new collection of short stories--the first major new work of fiction from the beloved, internationally acclaimed, Haruki Murakami since his #1 best-selling Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage.

Across seven tales, Haruki Murakami brings his powers of observation to bear on the lives of men who, in their own ways, find themselves alone. Here are vanishing cats and smoky bars, lonely hearts and mysterious women, baseball and the Beatles, woven together to tell stories that speak to us all.

Marked by the same wry humor that has defined his entire body of work, in this collection Murakami has crafted another contemporary classic.

[hermetic]

9. Sounds great!

[TexasProgresive]

10. Still reading Asimov's "Prelude to Foundation"

I recently read the original Foundation trilogy. This prequel was written after those. I have notice a progression in Mr. Asimov's thoughts on gender. In the 1st Foundation book there were no female characters and their only mention was as wives and homemakers. In the 2nd there is a strong woman character who plays a major role. In the 3rd the whole plot hinges on a precocious 14 year old girl/woman. In Prelude there is the pairing of 2 scholars, one male mathematician, Hari Selden and a historian, Dors Venabili.

I wonder if Mr. Asimov was reflecting a culture that was recognizing the value of women or if he was already of that mindset.

[hermetic]

11. Welll...

We can only speculate now. But Wiki says this: "Asimov was criticized for a lack of strong female characters in his early work. However, some of his robot stories, including the earliest ones, featured the character Susan Calvin, a forceful and intelligent woman who regularly out-performed her male colleagues."

So, there ya go.

[Number9Dream]

12. Finished "The Rule of Four" by Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason

"An ivy league murder, a mysterious coded manuscript, and the secrets of a Renaissance prince collide memorably in The Rule of Four—a brilliant work of fiction that weaves together suspense and scholarship, high art and unimaginable treachery." - from Amazon promo. It was a bit Dan Brownish, but not as fast paced. Overall, a pretty good read.

Started Serpent by Clive Cussler. So far, so good.

[hermetic]

13. Heyo,

Yeah, as I was reading that, my mind went straight to Dan Brown.

Good to see you, as always.

[Number9Dream]

14. The feeling is moochal...

[Ohiya]

15. I'm supposed to start Hillbilly Elegy...

... It's for book club, but I,ve heard that the author is a conservative so I'm having reservations.

[hermetic]

16. Here is a really interesting review

It helped me realize I would not enjoy reading this book and I could probably learn enough from the review to hold my own in a discussion.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/11/books/review-in-hillbilly-elegy-a-compassionate-analysis-of-the-poor-who-love-trump.html

I am certainly not trying to tell you what to do, though. I have no idea what the other members of your group are like. Plus, there is probably some value to be gained from reading this. It's just not my cup of tea.

[Ohiya]

17. Thanks