Reading any good books lately?

[OmarLittle]

I always like to have a book going. Recently I finished James by Percival Everett. It's a reimagining of Huck Finn from Jim's point of view. An absolutely fantastic read. I finished it in 2 days because every time I would set it down I could not wait to get back into that world.

It follows Jim and Huck's river journey for the first 100 pages or so but then when they separate it tells the story of what happens to Jim. It also throws a twist into the story that caught me by surprise.

Great book that I would highly recommend.

Anyone else read anything good recently?

[pondgardener]

@OmarLittle Sounds interesting...I put a hold on the book at my local library. I just picked up the book below and I'll probably get started on it while the basketball tournament winds down.

Bball.png

[worth1]

More reruns.
This time the Oregon Files Corsair.

[rxkeith]

currently reading a country of vast designs by robert merry, a biography
of james k polk. i didn't know much about that president or time in our nations
history, so i am fixin to change that.


keith

[DriftlessRoots]

just finished this and am looking for my next read. I recently finished “1491” so I suppose I could dive into “1493” which is sitting in Kindle liberry

IMG_7697.jpeg

[Cornelius_Gotchberg]

@OmarLittle Sounds interesting...I put a hold on the book at my local library. I just picked up the book below and I'll probably get started on it while the basketball tournament winds down.

The Big O, whom The Gotch had the rare pleasure of meeting, was an infreakin'credible College Player...averaged...AVERAGED....a Triple Double @the University of Cincinnati during the 1961-62 season(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Rob ... %20assists.

One more thing.

He won the 1971 NBA title with the Milwaukee Bucks!

The Gotch

[karstopography]

I have been working through the Jack Reacher series by Lee Child. Nothing but entertainment.
C.J. Box Joe Pickett series of novels about a Wyoming game warden is another one, entertaining.
Anything new by Bernard Cornwell, seems like one is about to be published.

[JRinPA]

I have read most of Cornwell, last was the last of the Saxon Tales. Didn't read his sailing books. Read all the O'brian books, might have been enough sailing. I'm up to about 1957 or so in the works of Heinlein.

Oh boy, I was just going to recommend reading the winter king, and now I see they are ruining it with a TV show....shows are terrible versions of books, read the books, never watch the show. All I can say. Don't get some pretty actor imprinted in your head for a real, well written character that has to do things that aren't politically correct for modern TV. Read the author and judge it within the context of its time.

[karstopography]

I have read most of Cornwell, last was the last of the Saxon Tales. Didn't read his sailing books. Read all the O'brian books, might have been enough sailing. I'm up to about 1957 or so in the works of Heinlein.

Oh boy, I was just going to recommend reading the winter king, and now I see they are ruining it with a TV show....shows are terrible versions of books, read the books, never watch the show. All I can say. Don't get some pretty actor imprinted in your head for a real, well written character that has to do things that aren't politically correct for modern TV. Read the author and judge it within the context of its time.

I read the O’Brian series. Aubrey-Maturin. Great series of books. Been a long time since I read them.

Books in my opinion are almost always much better than any movie or television adaptation.

The Reacher series on Netflix is pretty good. At least the Jack Reacher character is approximately like the book character in size and personality. The Netflix show changes Neagley into a Black female intsead of how the character really is in the books and there are other changes.

The C.J. Box character Joe Pickett series on television changes his often savior and sidekick Nate Romanoski into a relatively short black male instead of a giant Viking like special forces fighter like the character is in the book. Joe Pickett’s wife is a green eyed blond in the books, but a brown eyed brunette in the series. Joe Pickett mostly keeps his problems to himself in the book, but is sort of sappy and sentimental in the series.

I don’t remember particularly liking any of the Sharpe’s television adaptations of Cornwell’s character Rifleman Richard Sharpe.
https://www.bernardcornwell.net/sharpes-command/
Sharpe’s Command comes out Tuesday.

[JRinPA]

He's still writing sharpe books? Wow. Waterloo was in a book forever ago. Most everyone got discharged and dumped on society, after that.

I saw the sharpe TV just the last couple years. Long after I read the books. That is exactly it, the actors don't fit the characters, neither Sean Bean or his sergeant, and the stories are watered down, and guess what, Sharpe was a survivor, not a hero.

Sean Bean's best roles were in Ronin and Patriot Games.

I wish we he would have finished the civil war ones, US Civil War. Starbuck? Geez, they are tearing down statues now to go PC. Cornwell probably figures a rebel hero would be bad business nowadays, let alone a slave that would fight for his homeland.

[Paulf]

With more than 200 titles in Kindle, most of them British police procedurals, I am going through them book by book...for the second time plus adding any newly written books by the authors already in place.

As a science fiction reader and writer one I have never read is Neuromancer by Gibson. That is my current nighttime book. To tell the truth, this supposed classic has been putting me to sleep early every night I give it a try. If tonight's read doesn't pick up the pace, that's it, back to some good story telling.

We also enjoyed the Joe Pickett novels and actually the TV series was not so bad. At least the new Reacher series has Jack as the books depict. Wasn't there a movie that had the 6'6" 250 pound guy played by a 5'6" 140 pounder? I really dislike the political correctness displayed by Hollywood in their casting. If I ever write a story picked up by the movies I hope my characters are at least a little like in the story...maybe money will talk louder than my convictions.

[JRinPA]

The only movies I've seen that are about comparable to the books are the Hunger Game books. If you read them...and I'm not advising it...seemed to me the movies covered about every paragraph in the books. Like the books were written for 7th grade reading level... by a 10th grader! When they made the movies they shot every scene... I mean, I'm sure there were some changes, but the books were Very Simple.

Speaking of hunger games, I recently read a Heinlein book that had both stargates and the hunger games in it...but much better and more believable. Written way back in the 50s. So many books/shows that I thought were original ideas, I now see were derivative/lifted. One thing Heinlein overlooked was texting - typing to communicate on your carry device, instead of audio or video. But hey, I don't get texting either. Who knew people would want to stare and type at a little screen?

[OmarLittle]

currently reading a country of vast designs by robert merry, a biography
of james k polk. i didn't know much about that president or time in our nations
history, so i am fixin to change that.


keith

I'm kind of on a fiction run lately but I usually enjoy a good history book.

River of Doubt about Teddy Roosevelt and Destiny of the Republic about James Garfield both by Candice Milliard were very good books

[OmarLittle]

I have been working through the Jack Reacher series by Lee Child. Nothing but entertainment.
C.J. Box Joe Pickett series of novels about a Wyoming game warden is another one, entertaining.
Anything new by Bernard Cornwell, seems like one is about to be published.

I read a lot of Jack Reacher books in the past, but the thing about long series like that is I tend to get burnt out on them. Same thing happened to me on the Longmire series.

I haven't read any Bernard Cornwell but I am thinking of starting Shogun since the new show is getting such good reviews

[OmarLittle]

just finished this and am looking for my next read. I recently finished “1491” so I suppose I could dive into “1493” which is sitting in Kindle liberry
IMG_7697.jpeg

Looks interesting. Kind of reminds me of Leave Only Footprints by Conor Knighton about his travels to every National Park in a single year

[rxkeith]

i read the river of doubt. agree it was a good book. what a torturous venture that was.
i have gravitated to history. andrew jackson is up in a box waiting to be read. that should be
a good read. he was pretty influential. my thinking is in order to understand where you are at,
you need to understand where you started from. you can apply that statement to many different
topics.


keith

[karstopography]

I have a hard time finishing most biographies. The personal life details after a while become excruciating. Last biography I’m part way through is “Nelson: The Sword of Albion” by John Sugden. Too much, pages and pages, in there about Nelson’s affair with Lady Hamilton, a married woman and then chapters on Nelson’s money problems. I get it, Nelson was a flawed man, who isn’t.

[worth1]

I can only remember reading one biography and it was about Tesla.
Read almost like science fiction.

[OmarLittle]

I can only remember reading one biography and it was about Tesla.
Read almost like science fiction.

Empires of Light by Jill Jonnes was a good book about the battle of AC vs DC between Edison and Tesla and Westinghouse and

[JRinPA]

Certainly most of the TV shows that have Tesla as a character come off as science fiction. Seems I saw one last year with some ridiculous magicians thrown in.