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Author Topic: Books to Read During Quarantine  (Read 14215 times)

LloydsLegs

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Re: Books to Read During Quarantine
« Reply #50 on: June 04, 2020, 11:28:04 AM »
Almost done with third volume of Hilary Mantel's fictional trilogy which is structured around Cromwell's rise as a counselor to Henry VIII (I. Wolf Hall- downfall of Thomas More; II. Bring Up the Bodies- the fate of Anne Boleyn; and III. The Mirror and the Light - Thomas Cromwell's undoing).  It is as good as the first two; she has a remarkable ability to place the reader in the room.  It takes a while to get used to how she identifies Cromwell's thoughts and dialogue, and there is a fair amount of archaic language and unfamiliar (to most of us) people and places, but I have enjoyed learning about those.  It was especially easy using a digital reader (which I did for the first two volumes) where I could click on unfamiliar terms and have them defined or link to a website to give me more history on certain topics. I've been reading an old fashioned book for Vol. III, though I have my phone handy for quick look-ups.

It will be a new (and, shall we say, more balanced) treatment of St. Thomas More for most Catholics or anyone whose understanding of him is based on the book and/or film A Man for All Seasons.

Also read the first volume of a 5 volume history of Illinois (let the jokes commence) written by a shirt-tail relative and published in 1933.  BinL gave it to me for my birthday-beautiful leather bound books - first edition bc God know there were no more editions published!  That ended with Lincoln Douglas debates.  It will take a lot to muscle through the next 4...

Frenns Liquor Depot

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Re: Books to Read During Quarantine
« Reply #51 on: June 07, 2020, 03:06:36 PM »
Not an uplifting tale, but I’m about halfway through “Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism” by case and deaton.

It is data driven and very interesting. 
« Last Edit: June 07, 2020, 03:46:09 PM by Frenns Liquor Depot »

Silkk the Shaka

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Re: Books to Read During Quarantine
« Reply #52 on: June 07, 2020, 03:28:01 PM »
Utopia for Realists by Rutger Bregman

BM1090

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Re: Books to Read During Quarantine
« Reply #53 on: July 06, 2020, 11:41:31 PM »
Just finished Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli.
« Last Edit: December 12, 2020, 10:58:01 PM by BM1090 »

LloydsLegs

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Re: Books to Read During Quarantine
« Reply #54 on: July 07, 2020, 09:00:59 AM »
Utopia for Realists by Rutger Bregman

Speaking of Thomas More (see two posts above)...

Read Ezra Klein on "Why We're Polarized."  Good analysis.  If you lean right of center, you may not love it because of his politics, but I also think his assessment of why we are polarized is well done.

Halfway through "Say Nothing", non fiction on a kidnapping murder mystery during the Troubles.  Very well written and researched.  It brings back my vague memories as a 5 to 10 year old of seeing what was happening in Belfast on the news. 

Listened to Erik Larsen's The Splended and the Vile on a road trip last week.  I've read a lot on Churchill, but this was a fresh take for me in that it focused on one year during the war - his first year as PM, dealing mostly with the German bombing of London.  A flawed man, but a great Leader during that time.

WellsstreetWanderer

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Re: Books to Read During Quarantine
« Reply #55 on: July 07, 2020, 02:27:04 PM »


 " The Decameron"  would be an appropriate read about now

dgies9156

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Re: Books to Read During Quarantine
« Reply #56 on: July 07, 2020, 04:52:53 PM »
One of the books I have been rereading as of late is a 2016 book called Making the Unequal Metropolis: School Desegregation and Its Limits. It was written by Ansley T. Erickson about my former hometown, Nashville, TN, and the era during the time I lived there (1960s and 1970s). Had I not been educated in Nashville's Catholic School System (which also produced the lovely and talented Chick), I would have been in the middle of it. Many of my friends were.

Ms. Erickson is an education history scholar at Columbia. She is not a native Nashvillian and it shows at times in her occasional lack of understanding of the city and infrequent factual mistakes. Yet she captures the tenor of times from an African American's perspective. The Caucasian perspective on School Desegregation in Metro Nashville long ago was over-covered. The African-American perspective far less so. Given the re-emergence of a protest movement and concerns above acceptance by African-Americans into the broader community, the book is an eye-opener.

Ironically, it also explained more than a few bizarre trends that went on in Metro education from the 1950s to the 1970s.

warriorchick

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Re: Books to Read During Quarantine
« Reply #57 on: July 07, 2020, 06:25:30 PM »
One of the books I have been rereading as of late is a 2016 book called Making the Unequal Metropolis: School Desegregation and Its Limits. It was written by Ansley T. Erickson about my former hometown, Nashville, TN, and the era during the time I lived there (1960s and 1970s). Had I not been educated in Nashville's Catholic School System (which also produced the lovely and talented Chick), I would have been in the middle of it. Many of my friends were.

Ms. Erickson is an education history scholar at Columbia. She is not a native Nashvillian and it shows at times in her occasional lack of understanding of the city and infrequent factual mistakes. Yet she captures the tenor of times from an African American's perspective. The Caucasian perspective on School Desegregation in Metro Nashville long ago was over-covered. The African-American perspective far less so. Given the re-emergence of a protest movement and concerns above acceptance by African-Americans into the broader community, the book is an eye-opener.

Ironically, it also explained more than a few bizarre trends that went on in Metro education from the 1950s to the 1970s.

My family moved to Nashville from downstate Illinois in the summer of 1972.  That fall, I was one of six new kids in my Catholic School class (one would normally expect one or two).  I found out later that it was the first year of integration in Nashville.
Have some patience, FFS.

cheebs09

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Re: Books to Read During Quarantine
« Reply #58 on: July 16, 2020, 10:59:02 AM »
I just finished “Killers of the Flower Moon” and it was fantastic. It’s about the Osage tribe murders and the FBI. Interesting read based on current times of how white people treated minorities only 100 years ago.

Quick read that read a bit like a Law & Order episode.

brewcity77

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Re: Books to Read During Quarantine
« Reply #59 on: July 16, 2020, 03:58:28 PM »
Been rereading the Hunger Games series as we got the prequel and I wanted to refresh myself on the world first.

Took a detour to read Trevor Noah's excellent autobiography Born A Crime. Also started with audiobooks for the first time, listening to The Hate U Give. Also had no idea there was a new Robert Langdon book from Dan Brown out, just waiting on that audiobook to become available. I'm listening on the Libby app, which allows me to get audiobooks from the Milwaukee Public Library. Nice function and feature.
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Jockey

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Re: Books to Read During Quarantine
« Reply #60 on: July 16, 2020, 05:32:20 PM »
Almost done with third volume of Hilary Mantel's fictional trilogy which is structured around Cromwell's rise as a counselor to Henry VIII (I. Wolf Hall- downfall of Thomas More; II. Bring Up the Bodies- the fate of Anne Boleyn; and III. The Mirror and the Light - Thomas Cromwell's undoing).  It is as good as the first two; she has a remarkable ability to place the reader in the room.  It takes a while to get used to how she identifies Cromwell's thoughts and dialogue, and there is a fair amount of archaic language and unfamiliar (to most of us) people and places, but I have enjoyed learning about those.




Did you see the mini-series on Netflix based on the 1st two books? Very well done.

LloydsLegs

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Re: Books to Read During Quarantine
« Reply #61 on: August 13, 2020, 04:12:59 PM »

Did you see the mini-series on Netflix based on the 1st two books? Very well done.

Yes and agreed.  Mark Rylance is remarkable and I can't watch Billions without thinking of Damian Lewis as Henry VIII.

ZiggysFryBoy

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Re: Books to Read During Quarantine
« Reply #62 on: August 13, 2020, 06:37:34 PM »
Been rereading the Hunger Games series as we got the prequel and I wanted to refresh myself on the world first.

Took a detour to read Trevor Noah's excellent autobiography Born A Crime. Also started with audiobooks for the first time, listening to The Hate U Give. Also had no idea there was a new Robert Langdon book from Dan Brown out, just waiting on that audiobook to become available. I'm listening on the Libby app, which allows me to get audiobooks from the Milwaukee Public Library. Nice function and feature.

You got me excited to read more shítty fiction by dan brown, but then realized you were talking about his book from 2017.   ;D ;D

brewcity77

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Re: Books to Read During Quarantine
« Reply #63 on: August 13, 2020, 09:00:07 PM »
You got me excited to read more shítty fiction by dan brown, but then realized you were talking about his book from 2017.   ;D ;D

Somehow I totally missed that one. Honestly, it was probably the most predictable one I've read by him. Had the ending figured out about 2/3 of the way through.

Just finished The Good Neighbor, which is a biography of Fred Rogers. Really endearing book, brought back a lot of fond memories of the show and the simple lessons he made so clear to me as a youngster.
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Lennys Tap

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Re: Books to Read During Quarantine
« Reply #64 on: August 13, 2020, 09:12:15 PM »
You got me excited to read more shítty fiction by dan brown, but then realized you were talking about his book from 2017.   ;D ;D

Never got the whole Dan Brown thing. Lots of better “sh!tty fiction” out there if that’s what you’re looking for.

ZiggysFryBoy

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Re: Books to Read During Quarantine
« Reply #65 on: August 13, 2020, 10:10:25 PM »
Jockitch has a pre-order on the graphic novel version of Michael Cohen's book.

Hards Alumni

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Re: Books to Read During Quarantine
« Reply #66 on: August 14, 2020, 07:29:28 AM »
Jockitch has a pre-order on the graphic novel version of Michael Cohen's book.

LOL

MU82

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Re: Books to Read During Quarantine
« Reply #67 on: August 19, 2020, 04:35:55 PM »
Just finished Mary Trump’s book. I don’t really recommend it. Not much there we don’t already know. The first half was mostly about her grandfather (Fred Trump) and her dad (Freddy, Don’s oldest brother), and it was pretty boring.

A much better read was “Commander In Cheat,” by Rick Reilly. Far funnier and more revealing. Rick Wilson’s book is also much better.

Agree with brewski about Trevor Noah’s book. A real eye-opener.

And just for kicks I re-read one of my all-time faves, The World According to Garp.
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GooooMarquette

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Re: Books to Read During Quarantine
« Reply #68 on: August 19, 2020, 05:24:04 PM »
It's an old one...but I just finished The Cider House Rules by John Irving. Outstanding read if you haven't already done it. IMHO, much better than The World According to Garp (which I thought was good, but not great).

Next on my list is Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski.

Silkk the Shaka

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Re: Books to Read During Quarantine
« Reply #69 on: August 19, 2020, 05:50:04 PM »
1/3 the way through The Jakarta Method by Vincent Bevins, great so far

Frenns Liquor Depot

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Re: Books to Read During Quarantine
« Reply #70 on: August 19, 2020, 06:39:20 PM »
I read “A Burning” during vacation.  Was written in a way that is really engaging and lived up to the hype. 

MU82

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Re: Books to Read During Quarantine
« Reply #71 on: August 21, 2020, 01:28:11 PM »
It's an old one...but I just finished The Cider House Rules by John Irving. Outstanding read if you haven't already done it. IMHO, much better than The World According to Garp (which I thought was good, but not great).

Next on my list is Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski.

Obviously, since I just got through saying Garp was a fave, I disagree that Cider House was better. But I liked it. Irving’s Hotel New Hampshire and Owen Meany also excellent reads.
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GooooMarquette

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Re: Books to Read During Quarantine
« Reply #72 on: August 21, 2020, 03:51:23 PM »
Obviously, since I just got through saying Garp was a fave, I disagree that Cider House was better. But I liked it. Irving’s Hotel New Hampshire and Owen Meany also excellent reads.

Funny - I read your comment about Mary Trump and Rick Wilson's books, and somehow skimmed right over your comment on Garp when I posted.

In any event, Garp and Cider House are both worth reading, and I can see how someone could pick either as his or her fave.

Just starting the Bukowski book now, but I might grab the other Irving books you mentioned - both have been on my 'someday' list for a long time.

BM1090

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Re: Books to Read During Quarantine
« Reply #73 on: August 21, 2020, 07:02:46 PM »
Asymmetry - Lisa Halladay.

Just started The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai.

Looking forward to taking some suggestions from earlier and reading Say Nothing and They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us.

MU82

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Re: Books to Read During Quarantine
« Reply #74 on: August 21, 2020, 09:52:33 PM »
Funny - I read your comment about Mary Trump and Rick Wilson's books, and somehow skimmed right over your comment on Garp when I posted.

In any event, Garp and Cider House are both worth reading, and I can see how someone could pick either as his or her fave.

Just starting the Bukowski book now, but I might grab the other Irving books you mentioned - both have been on my 'someday' list for a long time.

Everybody in my family loved Owen Meany. Reading it, you can "hear" Owen's incredibly distinctive voice.
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