What Are You Reading Now.

Um, not really? Sorry. Please illuminate me.

Yes, I was being sarcastic. I don't have a favourable view of either the Stuarts or the Hanovers.

I agree, you can't. The worst you can say about George III is that he had boring habits. But it takes more than one man to lose a war, obviously. (Perhaps you could blame Lord North's obstinacy for that).

 

so i gathered

 

The Scotch-Irish have a reputation for irascibility, obstinacy, a dislike of being told what to do by anyone, and a willingness to rumble until everyone else gives up and goes home. By the time of the Revolution, the Scotch-Irish had been pushed far enough. King George's soldiers didn't have a chance.

William Penn urged the disaffected Scots in Ulster to move to Pennsylvania in the 1720s, intending them to settle the western part of the country and be a buffer zone between civilized Pennsylvania and the enemies that lay to the west. Didn't work out quite the way it was intended. Penn's representative, James Logan, wrote, "...a settlement of five families from the north of Ireland gives me more trouble than fifty of any other people.’”

 

All right, I didn't know that. Thank you, Catriona.

So ...when the Scotch-Irish moved to Pennsylvania, did they become a buffer zone against the Native Americans? Or did they cause more trouble for the British settlers? (I'd imagine the latter, but I could be wrong. Sorry if I am).

 

I'm currently reading (well, finishing in the next half-hour) The First Rumpole Omnibus. Grumpy barrister ahoy! It's a real throwback both in terms of the bar it represents and in terms of my own career. I never reached the Old Bailey, though, and I confess to a certain jealousy of the plonk-swilling, She Who Must Be Obeyed-fearing, 60-something Rumpole, with his quick arguments to keep his disreputable clients out of clink. Think a slightly less gentle PG Wodehouse combined with Crown Court.

And I'm listening to The Oppenheimer Alternative. I'd heard of Robert J Sawyer thanks to Flashforward (although I've not read it - one for the list). I have to say I'm enjoying it. And I say that having some working knowledge of the Manhattan Project, and having not actually seen the Christopher Nolan film yet. I need to read more historical fiction - so historican faction combined with science fiction is just the sort of thing to keep me entertained. Enjoying it after the first couple of hours (it's a 13 hour 40 minute audiobook).

 

Ah, I recall my Wodehouse. IIRC, Wooster's uncles and aunts were equally They Who Must Be Obeyed (at least as far as Wooster was concerned. Or was Jeeves "He Who Must Be Obeyed"?)

I've no legal background or experience, but I've read enough contracts to get the general gist, and I also (tried to) read a few laws (when necessary, just to understand my rights and obligations). The language is not easy. But it came in handy when I parodied the story of Perseus and Medusa, and created a short 'parody' contract (just for fun).

IIRC, the plays of Gilbert and Sullivan are stuffed full of legal phraseology, especially their first (short) collaboration, Trial by Jury. When the judge enters, the jury rises and sings:

"All hail great judge,
to your bright rays
we never grudge
ecstatic praise.
All hail! All hail! (etc.)

May each decree
a statute rank,
and never be
reversed en banc!
All hail! All hail!" (etc.)

The plot is very simple: a young man has proposed to a young woman, and then turns around and jilts her, so she sues him for "breach of promise". The judge hears the case, proposes a solution (which is rejected), gets huffy, and decides to marry her himself.

If you haven't seen it, I recommend it. It's terrific fun. (Just don't expect anything complicated). In G&S circles, it's widely believed that Gilbert -- who was a barrister himself, albeit not a very successful one -- wrote Trial by Jury as his revenge on the legal profession for his own failure at the bar.

 

Reading "As Good As Dead" right now. Honestly the best AGGGTM book!!! I'm hooked!
Pip's way more unhinged and the plot is a nice change from the previous solving-murder-cases plot line since she's actually trying to cover UP a murder.

 

Marlowe with my reading selections for this weekend.

 

Sorry. Just now noticed your question. Yes to both. The majority of those settlers eventually emigrated south along the mountain roads, including many of my ancestors.

Currently reading The Perfect Horse by Elizabeth Letts. It's about rescuing the Lipizzan horses from the Nazis. When I was thirteen, I had the pleasure and honor of seeing the Lipazzaners at a time when they were still being ridden by some of the men who had helped liberate the horses twenty years earlier. I still have the program. I saw the horses again many years later, but that show was nothing like the first one I saw.

 

Following the discussion upthread, I looked out for Night by Elie Wiesel. Harrowing, as mentioned by other members, hard to read and hard not to see parallels in what's happening today, and not just in Gaza. My prior reading of first-hand accounts was fairly exclusively based around Primo Levi who wrote with uncommon understanding of the human condition, revealed through but not limited to his experience of Auschwitz. I must re-read some of his.

After that, Wes Craven's Everville, which took me forever even though it is very well written and enjoyable.

Then a trip to London, including visit to Brighton and collected a few Nobel laureates. First off, Toni Morrison's debut The Bluest Eye. Beautiful, utterly fearless writing, tackling difficult subjects in ways that defy convention. Will be going back to her, I think I have Beloved somewhere.

Then a novelette by Maeve Brennan called the visitor. Not exactly an action piece but meaty all the same.

The other notable is The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum by Heinrich Boll, which I've had to restart because I wasn't paying enough attention. He's really fucking with our heads but doing it so cleverly and oddly humorous that it's compelling. Brilliant.

 

I've just finished reading Dashiell Hammett's The Glass Key. I thought it was interesting and fun. I also learned a thing or two about how powerful and ruthless political 'fixers' can be. (Never mind the President or the State Governors; watch the people behind them).

 

I really like the movie, with Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake:



It's one of my favorite noirs.

 

Hmm, I haven't seen the movie, but I'd always enjoyed the noir genre. Perhaps weirdly, though, I came to it in a rather roundabout way.

When I was much younger (in my early university years), out of curiosity, I read Murder on the Orient Express. I was hooked, and spent the next few years slowly collecting every Poirot story I could find; still a fan.

At the same time, I started reading Terry Pratchett's Discworld -- and ditto. But, at some point during that time, a computer game came out called Discworld Noir, a fascinating blend of Discworld and the noir genre. I gave it a try, and the complicated plot, strong characters and excellent voice acting drew me in. (Not surprising - the voices are provided by such legends as Rob Brydon, Kate Robbins, Robert Llewelyn, and Nigel Planer). The music was also excellent, a blend of turn-of-the-century jazz and blues.

I wasn't sure where to go from there, though, and it took me nearly 15 years before I picked up The Big Sleep, my first Chandler and still my favourite. After racing through the Chandler canon, I started looking elsewhere and raced through the Dashiell Hammett canon (The Glass Key is my fourth, after The Maltese Falcon, Red Harvest, and The Thin Man). I'm not sure who to try next, though. Who would you recommend?

P.S. I tried Ian Fleming ("Diamonds are Forever"), but I thought it couldn't hold a candle to Chandler. I also tried James Hadley Chase ("You Find Him -- I'll Fix Him"), but was likewise unimpressed. But that's just me.

 

I haven't read much of it. So far my two favorite stories in the genre are Sail by Lester Dent and The Man Who Liked Dogs by Raymond Chandler. I tried following up on Dent and didn't care for the other stories about Oscar Sail he had written (it's weird how excellent Sail is compared to the others). So I guess I'd recommend at least those two stories, and following up on Chandler if you like his. They're both available throuh Archive.org, and in the same book as a matter of fact:

• Sail by Lester Dent
• The Man Who Liked Dogs by Raymond Chandler

I did a little write-up where I tried to see what I could learn about writing from them.

PS—Oh, my bad. Chandler is one you're already familiar with. You could also try Hemingway's noir output. Or you could just check Archive.org's extensive backlog of Black Mask magazine, one of the big publishers of noir, and read a bunch of random stuff, sort of spin the dice.

 

Yep, I'm familiar with "The Man Who Liked Dogs". I think Chandler used that plot for one of his later books, in which Phil Marlowe is close to solving a case, and is then beaten senseless and put in a "dope house". (I think that's what they used to call one of those phony 'hospitals' that 'cured' people who took drugs by giving them even more drugs). Jesus. Thank goodness hospitals these days aren't as bad as that.

Yep, I'm very familiar with Chandler. He's great with describing scenery, which is something I've sometimes struggled with, so I've looked at some of his books for inspiration. He also has some wonderful metaphors, and is very good for noir (1930s-50s) slang.

Of course, his plots and characters are masterly. But no-one would read his books if they weren't.

 

I like that movie too, though I don't recall the name of it offhand.

 

Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity. Sarah B. Pomeroy

 

Excellent choice. I read that in uni and while I don't recall the exact content I do recall that I thought it was pretty good.

 

It was one of my daughter's college textbooks, though I don't recall for which class. I held onto it when she sold the others and am just now getting around to reading it.

 

Beasts of a Little Land by Juhea Kim.

 

I'm on book 3 of the Earthsea Cycle by Ursula K Le Guin. They're not bad. I get why people love them, but between these and LotR a few months ago, I'm finding I just don't care all that much about high fantasy. I do love Brandon Sanderson, but he's kinda doing his own thing over there it seems like.

I will mention one thing about Le Guin's style. People who shout "Show, don't tell!" every time they come across a bit of exposition should see what they think of these books. She "tells" about 70-80% of the story, and it works just fine. It's almost like reading Grimm's, which I do love.

 

Reading The Count of Monte Cristo. I felt the need for a proper doorstopper of an adventure. Long, but easy reading.

Listening to The Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway. Read by Kate Mulgrew. Not the biggest Voyager fan (I prefer DS9), but an admirer of Janeway. There's coffee in that nebula...

 

I kept all the books from my literature courses, but this is one I've read many times. It's such a haunting, beautifully told story.

I'm currently reading The Human Target, Volume Two. My brother always has comics for me to read when I spend time with him, and this time is no different.