|
Post by Batflunkie on Apr 22, 2016 15:34:37 GMT -5
I stumbled across this from a compulsive search after watching a particular video on youtube I'm sure many of you are familiar with Dorling Kindersley (DK) as they provide a wide array of books that can stimulate the minds of many an inquisitive younger, but they also offer books for adults as well. And that's how I came across their "Big Ideas Simply Explained" line which is like a treasure map of so many different things that I've always wanted to learn about, but didn't want to digest a trillion wikipedia pages trying to get to the real meat of a particular topic. The books feel like they're written by a very enthusiastic grade school teacher and don't talk down to the reader, just guide you along and let you come to your own conclusions which I really cannot stress how much I appreciate
|
|
|
Post by Ish Kabbible on Apr 22, 2016 18:44:56 GMT -5
Which reminds me:
Can anyone recommend a good Cliff-Notes edition for the Dick and Jane series of novels? What happened to Spot after he ran?
|
|
|
Post by wildfire2099 on Apr 26, 2016 13:48:52 GMT -5
LOL.
The Wee Free Men by Terry Prachett
I wouldn't call myself a Terry Prachett fan, but I do certainly appreciate his writing. He has a very unique style that combines dry humor, language gymnastics, and straight up epic fantasy that is always entertaining. I've never sat down and read all of Disc World, but when a title comes across my radar (as this one did), I usually find myself engaged.. like that old college buddy you love hanging out with once a year, but wouldn't really want to see every Saturday Night.
The beginning of the story of Tiffany Aching and the pictsies is definitely like that.. it's a very entertaining story in the Prachett style, and I've very glad I read it, but somehow it doesn't quite rise to the level of wanting to run out and read the next one (which books I enjoyed less certainly do)... it's an odd sorta thing.
|
|
|
Post by Slam_Bradley on Apr 26, 2016 17:26:35 GMT -5
The Best of Fredric Brown by Fredric Brown. Probably the best collection of short stories from one of the masters of the SF short story and the absolute master of the "short short". This one is nice because it is spans Brown's career from the very start to his last published SF stories. And it spans the lengths from short shorts to the novelette length "Come and Go Mad." Highly recommended.
|
|
|
Post by Ish Kabbible on Apr 26, 2016 18:15:22 GMT -5
The Best of Fredric Brown by Fredric Brown. Probably the best collection of short stories from one of the masters of the SF short story and the absolute master of the "short short". This one is nice because it is spans Brown's career from the very start to his last published SF stories. And it spans the lengths from short shorts to the novelette length "Come and Go Mad." Highly recommended. I couldn't agree more. The short stories of Heinlein, Brown, Clarke, Asimov and a few others are the foundation of SF
|
|
|
Post by wildfire2099 on Apr 29, 2016 14:24:03 GMT -5
I haven't read much of him, but man, that's a great cover!
The Jugger by Richard Stark
Parker really dialed up the old Curmudgeon factor to 11 on this one. After being almost nice in the previous book (The Score), and trying to keep the body count to a minimum, here we get several deaths, one of which seemed almost for fun, all in the name of preserving his cover id (which is destroyed at the end of the book anyway).
It was interesting to see Parker operate 'on the fly' instead of with a planned operation.. perhaps that why there was extra violence, since he couldn't be sure of things otherwise.
Defintely not as good as 'the Score' but still a very good read.
|
|
|
Post by Batflunkie on May 3, 2016 13:37:02 GMT -5
After re-watching the McGraw-Hill/Orson Welles 70's school room docu-drama regarding "Future Shock", I decided to finally look into the speculative futurist book on which it was based by Alvin Toffler. And even in the introduction, Toffler does not pull any punches not worth landing, as the book is culmination of many years of research with people in various fields of study that produced some very staggering results that at the time may not have had much social relevance but has it by the bucketfuls now
|
|
|
Post by Slam_Bradley on May 3, 2016 14:28:22 GMT -5
Smart Moves by Stuart Kaminsky. Toby Peters is back. But this time, instead of being in Hollywood, he's in New York City and Princeton New Jersey trying to protect Albert Einstein and Paul Robeson from NAZI spies. This is probably the weakest of the Toby Peters books to date. Part of it is that Kaminsky doesn't seem as comfortable with the setting as he does with Hollywood. And part of it is that he sells Peters short. Toby always figures it out in the end...but this time he didn't. Even though the bad guys were pretty damn obvious, it took an atomic scientist to figure it out rather than our hero. And that was pretty disappointing.
|
|
|
Post by Ish Kabbible on May 3, 2016 15:26:10 GMT -5
After re-watching the McGraw-Hill/Orson Welles 70's school room docu-drama regarding "Future Shock", I decided to finally look into the speculative futurist book on which it was based by Alvin Toffler. And even in the introduction, Toffler does not pull any punches not worth landing, as the book is culmination of many years of research with people in various fields of study that produced some very staggering results that at the time may not have had much social relevance but has it by the bucketfuls now My recollection is that Future Shock was a best seller when released and the author made the rounds of just about every talk show and radio show for interviews. I think I bought it and read most of it. And like many Chicken Little Sky Is Falling books, many predictions have failed to come true. The U.S. is not a nation of gibbering psychotics like the book had, I believe, would have occurred by this time. In the future, who knows, but so many of those 'we are doomed" books failed to pan out-no WWIII, no ice age, no burned to a crisp from the depletion of the ozone layer, no world wide famine, no decimation of population due to AIDS. Again, the future will be what it brings, but the time frames for these books are invariably way, way, off. And that's An Inconvenient Truth
|
|
|
Post by Batflunkie on May 3, 2016 16:06:50 GMT -5
I agree, but Toffler specifically states in the introduction that it's "more interesting to be imaginative and speculatory than factually correct", and I concur with him in that respect. Yes, maybe he was theoretically wrong about a lot of things that he predicted, but that's what often happens when you're trying to speculate 20-40 plus years into the future
I still believe that the idea of people going stark raving mad because of intense advancement of scientific and societal change around them to be a very interesting concept in of itself
|
|
|
Post by wildfire2099 on May 4, 2016 17:51:32 GMT -5
Golden Son Pierce Brown
This book suffers a bit from mid-series blahs, as much of the action is pretty predictable. There are alot of reveals, but none were very shocking. Still a page turner that makes me want to finish the series, but between the cliff hanger ending and the predictibility, definitely not as good as the 1st one.
I think the main problem is I like the minor characters alot more than Darrow, who is clearly supposed to be the everyman hero you relate to. On one level, I want to think that's on purpose, and that his flaws are purposeful, in order to make a point about becoming what you hate and such (of course, he always overcomes the impulse in the end), but really I think it's just the author trying a little hard.
|
|
|
Post by Slam_Bradley on May 12, 2016 14:42:16 GMT -5
Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett. I don't remember exactly when I started my read-through of the Discworld books. I would guess that it was sometime in late 2010. So I read one about every other month, on average. I'm getting down to the end. My understanding is that this book came out around the time Pratchett announced he had Alzheimers. And I'm not going to say that that effected this particular book. The Wizards have probably always been my least favorite series within the series. And this one deals a lot with Soccer (Football) a sport I find about as interesting as watching paint dry. But it's certainly not without redeeming value. Vetinari is in rare form in this one. And it's nice to see Rincewind again, even if his part is small (possibly better that it was). Glenda shows again that Pratchett is possibly the best writer of female characters in the genre. But overall it seemed to be a number of vignettes in search of a coherent plot. Worth a read. But not high quality Pratchett by any means.
|
|
|
Post by Calamas on May 15, 2016 10:19:45 GMT -5
I haven’t done this in a while, so . . .
(Not So) RECENTLY FINISHED:
Secret Prey by John Sandford Sandford’s early Prey novels seemed to be more mystery based. Even when we knew who the killer was, there remained some element that Lucas Davenport had to figure out, which usually came as a surprise to the reader. Though the author tries to create something different about each book, they’ve evolved into “here’s the villain, here’re the good guys, let’s follow both until they converge.” Secret Prey splits the difference. The killer is concealed for the first half of the book, and then it’s a race to the end.
The chairman of the board of a major bank is murdered while deer hunting, and thanks to a forthcoming merger there are plenty of suspects. Actually, the suspect pool is considerably bigger than usual. But if you like Sanford’s work--and I do--you’ll be entertained as Davenport wades through the various possibilities. Maybe not Sandford’s very best but up there.
Comeback by Richard Stark Once Donald Westlake decided to bring back Richard Stark and Parker, he wisely also brought back everything that made the series so beloved--all of it, in one outing. A unique theft and its planning and execution, interesting cohorts, a betrayal, the avoiding and conning of the police, the recovery of stolen (restolen?) loot, and the dealing (permanently) with those still foolish enough to cross Parker. Sometimes it works to give the reader exactly what they expect. A fine welcome back.
Frames by Loren D. Estleman In a way this is an appropriate book to read next. Westlake had balanced the hardcore Richard Stark books with the comic romps of a smalltime thief named Dortmunder, written under his own name. Estleman, whose best known for hardboiled P.I. Amos Walker, has branched out into Dortmunder territory with Frames. It’s not the first time. In 1991 Estleman wrote Peeper, a send-up of every cliché in the P.I. handbook. It took until 2008 for Valentino to show up, at least in novel form; he has been featured in many short stories. A film archivist, his love of movie history overwhelms practicality (both financial and realistic) the moment steps inside a neglected old movie theatre. He buys it, and promptly discovers the print of a long lost silent movie alongside the skeletal remains of a murder victim. Valentino finds himself forced to solve the murder before the LAPD confiscates the film as evidence, which he can’t allow because the print is in such a fragile state that improper handling would destroy it. A lighthearted and often humorous misadventure.
|
|
|
Post by Calamas on May 15, 2016 12:46:37 GMT -5
AND A FEW MORE:
Infernal by F. Paul Wilson This is the most disjointed entry in the Repairman Jack series so far, almost certainly because of the self-imposed restrictions set in place by the author himself. All of Jack’s solo adventures (not counting the prequels) take place between his debut in The Tomb and the conclusion of the Adversary Cycle, Nightworld--written in 1984 and 1992, respectively. Infernal came out in 2005, with six more volumes to follow.
As usual, the story opens coldly realistic, as befitting an urban fix-it man and sometime avenger. It’s not long before the mystic and otherworldly elements come into play. Story problems lay in both aspects of Jack’s world.
Almost immediately Jack’s father dies in a hail of terrorist bullets at New York’s La Guardia Airport. Jack mourns but the quest for vengeance is quickly set aside. The story turns out to be more about Jack’s brother, a sleazy Philadelphia judge whose past is about to land him permanently in jail. In using the supernatural as a means to escape his earthly woes, he promptly endangers Jack’s girlfriend and her daughter, the only two people left whom Jack loves.
The terrorist getting away virtually unscathed is the byproduct of telling a larger overreaching story, and they’ll probably be dealt with soon. Therein lay the point. The story’s problems are only problems to the uninitiated. Jack knows exactly where to find a particular “séance” that leads him to an ancient book with possible solutions; this come off as very convenient. It also stretches credibility that Jack has seen this book before and knows exactly where to find it. But only in this book. Again, the bigger picture. This has all been established in previous novels.
This is not the place to be dropped into Jack’s world. And I suspect this to be true of the rest of the novels going forward. So go back to the beginning. Repairman Jack is a fascinating character and Wilson is master storyteller. It’s still a trip worth taking. But in the proper order.
Certain Prey by John Sandford The 10th Lucas Davenport novel is one of his most popular because, I believe, it’s a study of opposites and contrasts. Davenport crosses more than a few lines in pursuit of a murderer and professional killer she’s hired. Meanwhile the assassin is an extremely sympathetic character. When a complication arises that may trace back to the hired killer, the instigator arranges a meeting and is surprised that the killer is a woman. As each complication is removed, another grows; and the developing friendship between the women is yet another contrast. The thriller aspect of the book as it races to its conclusion becomes almost secondary.
Backflash by Richard Stark This wasn’t supposed to be my next read but in the above novel near the end Davenport was reading this book. Since it was next in line for me anyway, why not?
This time the heist involves a casino ship sailing the Hudson River in upstate New York and a lot of the book involves deciding whether the inside man is trustworthy, if the theft is viable, and the gathering of the crew once the decision to go ahead is made. Secrecy is compromised on several levels and there’s a lot for Parker to clean up. As usual, light and entertaining.
|
|
|
Post by Slam_Bradley on May 15, 2016 16:15:59 GMT -5
Route 12 by Marietta Miles I've read a lot of really good neo-noir in the last couple of years. Thuglit and suggestions from those books have lead to some great stuff. This...wasn't one of them, unfortunately. This is actually two novellas combined into an okay sized book. The first novella, Route 12 wasn't too bad. It has a "ripped from the headlines" feel. And it doesn't hold back on being hardcore. The second novella, Blood and Sin, simply didn't work for me at all. I understand what she was trying to do. But to me it was vignettes in search of a story and it didn't find one. The book has been very well reviewed. So maybe it's just me who isn't getting out of it what others are. But it was a disappointment...though one that had redeeming moments.
|
|