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Jack Aubrey
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I'm currently reading Blood Price by Tanya Hoff (which had a short-run Canadian television series), The Tragic Story of Henry VIII's Fifth Queen by Josephine Wilkinson, as well as various other biographies I'm waiting on in regard to both Catherine Howard and Alexander Hamilton. 

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On 6/4/2023 at 10:10 AM, GlamMistress said:

I'm currently reading Blood Price by Tanya Hoff (which had a short-run Canadian television series), The Tragic Story of Henry VIII's Fifth Queen by Josephine Wilkinson, as well as various other biographies I'm waiting on in regard to both Catherine Howard and Alexander Hamilton. 

That Tanya Huff series was fantastic.  I read them around the time Twilight became a thing and it was heads and shoulders above Meyer's glitter fest.  The tv show wasn't bad but as usual, the books are so much better.  Plus having it take place in Toronto was a great change of scene too.

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Still getting through Gene Wolfe's "Book Of The Long Sun" saga.  

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Finished up the las book I was working on ("They Called me a Lioness" - very interesting) and moved on.  Now I am working on:

 

How Civil Wars Start and How To Stop Them by Barbara Walter

 

About 60 pages in and its an interesting read.  Not a good as "How Democracies Die" by Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt (which was excellent).  Not as good as "How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them" by Jason Stanley (which was also excellent) but still very interesting.  Together the 3 sort of make up a trilogy - even though it an unintentional trilogy and I had read the other 2 several years back. 

 

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On 6/12/2023 at 9:09 PM, spaceaudity11 said:

I am reading Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris and Anthem: Rush in the 70s by Martin Popoff simultaneously.

How is Anthem? Has it revealed anything we didn't already know?

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If I may add to this, the books were written as a trilogy - Anthem: In the 70s, Limelight: In the 80s and Driven: In the 90s And 'In The End".

I came across the three of them together in a bookstore and bought and read all three. They are more than just a history of notes and band info-summary sort of books. The pages are almost all interviews and researched details along the way. I was pleasantly surprised along all three books that pretty much every page is an account of the years and albums and what it took to keep going, not just fluff and filler re-hashed material.

I think they are great books to include in a collection of the band's history.

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I've been slacking on reading The BFG. I just bought Bound by Donna Jo Napoli, it's a Cinderella retelling about Chinese foot binding that I really enjoyed in 8th grade. I'm slowly but surely trying to read for leisure as an adult, because I haven't done that as much as I would have liked to. One of my goals is to get a library card this year.

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On 6/14/2023 at 1:06 PM, Jack Aubrey said:

How is Anthem? Has it revealed anything we didn't already know?

 

On 6/20/2023 at 10:14 PM, Bahamas said:

If I may add to this, the books were written as a trilogy - Anthem: In the 70s, Limelight: In the 80s and Driven: In the 90s And 'In The End".

I came across the three of them together in a bookstore and bought and read all three. They are more than just a history of notes and band info-summary sort of books. The pages are almost all interviews and researched details along the way. I was pleasantly surprised along all three books that pretty much every page is an account of the years and albums and what it took to keep going, not just fluff and filler re-hashed material.

I think they are great books to include in a collection of the band's history.

I agree with Bahamas' take on the matter. I really enjoy Martin Popoff's writing voice and the whole thing feels very thorough and well researched. Martin is also a really nice and personable guy and I had the pleasure of having him on my college radio show back when I was a student last year.

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Mary Downing Hahn books - pretty much all of them I can get my hands on because they're quick, short reads. I was obsessed with her books in middle school lol.

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On 5/27/2023 at 8:09 PM, TheAccountant said:

 I will be curious if you think this is good or not.  I read one review of it and it seemed to be a very interesting read.

It was good. His research and insights are thorough. His paths to improvement are reasonable. "Evicted" was very person centered as he followed people trying to survive on poverty wages and told their stories. This one was more idea centered so lacked the same magnitude of engagement. I'd recommend reading Evicted first and then this one afterwards. 

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Finished up the last book I was reading (How Civil Wars Start and How To Stop Them by Barbara Walter).  It was ok but not special.  Some interesting points but I thought she completely contradicted herself.  She argued early in the book that in recent decades civil wars have not been driven by economic factors but rather by cultural & religion factors.  Then at the end of the book she talks about how to stop one from occurring in the US and she basically says you have to have a government that works for people and does things like raise the minimum wage, improve education, childcare, healthcare etc.  Sp she basically says civil wars are caused by economic factors as she is saying improving peoples standard of living would prevent one.  Totally contracts herself.  But otherwise a decent book.

 

So then I moved onto:

 

How To Resist Amazon And Why by Danny Caine

 

Short book - 177 pages.  Just finished it.  Decent. Right up my ally in a way.  I have never ordered from Amazon.  Never.  Nor do I do business with Amazon affiliated entities like Whole Foods.  Used to (when I lived just north of NYC) until Amazon bought them out.  Now I mostly shop in a co-op in Albany NY.  For books I shop at several independent book stores.  So the entire argument was spot on with me.  BTW - I have never set foot in a Way-Mart either.

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On 6/24/2023 at 12:45 AM, Richard Reyes said:

It was good. His research and insights are thorough. His paths to improvement are reasonable. "Evicted" was very person centered as he followed people trying to survive on poverty wages and told their stories. This one was more idea centered so lacked the same magnitude of engagement. I'd recommend reading Evicted first and then this one afterwards. 

Hmm - I may wind up reading these in the opposite direction of what you suggested.  I found Poverty, By America at my local book store and started reading it and don't want to put it down.  About 60 pages in and I can tell its very much to my liking.

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On 5/31/2023 at 8:09 AM, Chronos said:

Donna Tartt: The Secret History

 

Ooooh! My mother hated that book as the plot revolves around what was (to her) an unthinkable act.

 

I'm reading corporate training literature. For my "work husband." lolllll

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11 hours ago, BigMontanaSKY said:

 

Ooooh! My mother hated that book as the plot revolves around what was (to her) an unthinkable act.

 

I'm reading corporate training literature. For my "work husband." lolllll

 

I adored this novel. And I love its "inverted mystery" format where we learn in the first sentence who is murdered, and on that first page we learn whodunnit. But the how and the why remain to be seen.

 

As a Latin and Greek enthusiast myself, I of course was geeking over its setting!

 

I've been wanting to read this since it was released and just never got around to it.

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Ghost Rider - Travels on the Healing Road. 

 

I attempted it many years ago but only got up to around page 200. Right now I'm around 270 so more than half-way there. 

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