Book Thread. I have nothing good to read.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Dark skin and blue eyes...

Cavemen in England IIRC.



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[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

EEMH=Cro Magnon

Who knew?

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[doclinkin]

I’m reading A Firing Offense, written by one of the Wires’ screenwriter/producers. It’s dark, but a hoot, set in 1980 Silver Spring/DC.

I graduated from Kennedy in 1984, so a bunch of the clubs/music/radio stations show up in just about every chapter. My favorite? Weasel spinning some NRBQ on WHFS, prior to the Annapolis move, I think

George Pelecanos. He wrote that book sitting at a table in the library where I worked at that time. All of his books have a DC MoCo connection. I think his family used to own a diner that was in Bethesda back then. Not Tastee Diner, another one.

[montestewart]

Friendly '79

I'm reading BOOKS for DUMMIES. Yellow and black like Cliff's Notes.

Right now: IDIOT'S GUIDE to the Bible. Orange and White, as are all the idiot guides.

Best of all: Costco offers "Smartest Kid in Class", Everything You Need to Ace...

Science
Geometry
Biology
Etc.

Good for Middle and High School students.

Lots of pictures
Lots of colored notes
Great notes
Simple explanations

Them is my kinds books from a PG County dude.

Thought you were pretty well versed in the bible, pardon the pun....Doubt you need a guide....Hope you're doing well big fella....

I'm middle eastern but I bought a bible with all of Jesus' words in red text...good read.

My personal Bible has the red font. Useful in quickly determining what would Jesus do. Counterintuitively, the words of God are given no special color font in mine. That’s confidence, I guess.

I think most on this board (at least in this thread) read a lot more than I do these days, but I like this thread for the same reason I like reading book reviews, keeping up generally with new authors and titles even with no time/inclination to read.

CCJ, when I do read, I read almost anything, including “for dummies”-type books, scientific, medical, and legal journals, sci fi, tough guy novels, owners manuals, cookbooks, (lots of) comics, regional histories, catalogues and similar business-related ephemera. We also have a large children’s book collection, most of which I’ve read.

When I consider my recent reading habits, it seems CCJ posts have been dominating the list.

[payitforward]

...I'm middle eastern but I bought a bible with all of Jesus' words in red text...good read.

The gospels of Mathew & Luke were based on oral traditions -- people's memories of what Jesus said. Not on any first-level data. Both of the writers were born after he was dead.

Mark, who wrote the earliest gospel, also had no first-hand knowledge of what Jesus actually said.

As for the gospel of John, it has virtually nothing concrete to do with the historical Jesus. It was written a few years before 100AD.

Scholars have tried for a long time to figure out what was something Jesus actually said, someone heard, & was written down. They have come up w the idea of the "Q document" or sometime "Q source" or even "Q gospel."

Read about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_source.

It's worth noting that all 4 of the gospels were written in Greek -- a language Jesus would not have been able to speak or read. He would have spoken only Aramaic & would have had the ability also to read Biblical Hebrew -- because he was educated in Galilee, where Biblical education began very early (sometimes as young as 3).

In the gospels, people repeatedly call Jesus "master." The source-word in Aramaic/Hebrew was "Rav" -- i.e. "Rabbi" (which means "my master").

& even "Q" is someone else's version of what Jesus said, since it too is in Greek. Thus, there are no words of Jesus available as he spoke them.

If you're interested in Q, you can get it as a pdf -- https://www.academia.edu/28395607/The_Gospel_of_Q_A_Public_Domain_Translation

or as a website: https://www.gospels.net/quelle

Note that Q is an idea -- a later creation, the product of a scholarly attempt to figure what can be said reliably, or at least probably, to actually represent what Jesus thought & said. Most of Christianity, obviously, has little to do with that.

[doclinkin]

Bump.

Recent audiobook listens:

All Systems Red. (Murderbot diaries). Security bot has overridden its governor module and is laying low pretending to follow its programming. The survey team it is contracted to protect comes under threat. Should it fulfill its programming, though it is no longer compelled to? Cynical and cunning narrator struggles with the concept that he can actually choose to obey or not, but is hardwired to be damned good and lethal at his job. Sequel so far is as good as the first.

The Girl with all the Gifts (and sequel The Boy on the Bridge). Fungal zombie apocalypse has destroyed England, and the world. A small colony of scientists and military types have holed up on a compound and are testing the infected to try to understand and find a cure. Told from the perspective of one of the test subjects, an infected girl who happens to be a genius.

Demon Copperhead. Foster care kid, highschool athlete struggles with addiction in the near south (Appalachian Virginia). Manages to remain noble in his own way. Charming voice of the main character, in offhand lyrical spoken redneck poetry. Pulitzer Prize winner, and yeah it's worth it.

All written in first person, not sure why I landed on a string of these, but I find it adds an immediacy to the story, allows for unreliable narrators. Adds tension somehow, which is a paradox since you know the character survived else they couldn't easily tell you the story.

[Endless Loop]

Escapist reading...

I assume everyone has read all the Reacher novels by Lee Child. If you haven't... what fun awaits you! Great storyteller & a great character.

Equally strong recommendation for Andrea Camilleri's series of detective novels set in a fictional town in Sicily featuring Inspector Salvo Maldonado. They're terrific. Very light touch with a comedic edge, great characters, endlessly entertaining.

The Rome Sub Rosa series by Stephen Saylor is a set of "detective" novels set in ancient Rome -- end of the Republic from about 40 BC. They're very well done.

My favorite author of detective novels is Lawrence Block (enough so that I may have written about him here already). He has 3 series that are great. One is classic in that it's about a private eye who is an ex-cop, has a drinking problem, etc. Matt Scudder -- there are a dozen or more of them all set in New York. If you want to get hooked immediately, read When the Sacred Ginmill Closes.

Block's 2d series are the Bernie Rhodenbarr novels -- Bernie is an antiquarian bookseller & a burglar. They're set in NY as well. Tend to be funny rather than heavy.

His 3d series are about professional hit man named Keller. The first one is just called Hit Man. These are also outstanding. Block is great.

Some more fun stuff.

I love the Reacher novels as well. Just as good- the Gray Man series by Mark Greaney.

One of my favorite light reads is The Island by Thomas Perry. He now writes mysteries, but The Island is a comedy. Written 35 years ago, and (who knows) maybe the inspiration for Dryden Brown and Charlie Callinan to start Praxis.

Isaacon's bios of Steve Jobs and Elon Musk are easy, fun reads.

A little heavier, but still really enjoyable- Daniel Suarez's early books. Like Daemon, Kill Decision, and Freedom. But not his more recent efforts.

And anything at all by Michael Crighton, he was amazing.

[penbeast0]

Been rereading stuff that's been on my shelf for a while.

Kahneman's Thinking fast, thinking slow, about how people make decisions is well worth rereading.

And the Band Played on, Randy Shiltz, about the gay community's response to the AIDS epidemic.

In lighter fare, reread some of the Mary Renault books about Ancient Greece. Best is probably The Kind Must Die. Young adult fare now, when they came out in the 1950s and 60s, the casual acceptance of homosexuality in Greece must have been a bit shocking.

And really like the Zelasny/Lindskold sci-fi Donnerjack that she finished after his death. Never got a lot of awards like his earlier stuff but plays with similar themes and stays fresh.

Tried Demon Copperhead and enjoyed it but it didn't really stick with me after reading so I don't recommend it as highly.

[doclinkin]

Tried Demon Copperhead and enjoyed it but it didn't really stick with me after reading so I don't recommend it as highly.

I can see that. I guess I've known a few charismatic addicts and various hard working folks both debauched and noble so I felt I recognized the flavor of it, even if my own particular brand of redneckery was more urban and north.The punk rock 80s era crack plague version of the same. I dunno.

[doclinkin]

BUMP

The Murderbot diaries, Martha Wells. Malfunctioning security bot fakes at doing his job so they won't discover him and burn his biological brain parts out. But all he wants to do is watch soap operas. Excellent listen on audiobook.

Devolution by Max Brooks. Detailing a Sasquatch attack on an intentionally isolated eco community following an eruption of Mt Ranier in Seattle.

Whalefall. Daniel Kraus. The slow process of being digested by a whale, from the perpsective of a diver who was looking for the body of his father who suicided into the waters off the california coast.

Gideon the Ninth. Tamsyn Muir. Raised on a planet of the working dead, swordsb!tch Gideon is bamboozled into acting as bodyyguard for the princess necromancer and heir apparent of the planet through some deadly trials to become the chief deadswoman of the emperor. A unique talent. Tough swordswinging lesbian chica with a flair for truly enjoyably disgusting metaphors. Engaging characters. Vivid descriptors.

Fairy Tale by Stephen King. How is this guy still writing as competently as he ever was? Kid with a dead mom dogsits for a dying misanthrope. Discovers a stairway into another realm in the workshed in the codger's backyard. He and the dog go looking for hte fountain of youth to prolong the old dogs life. I mean, okay. Odd, but King still puts in a workmanlike job.

The Girl with all the Gifts (and sequel Boy on the Bridge). MR Carey. A zombie fungus apocalypse tale told from the perspective of a genius girl who happens to be fully infected by the cordyceps organism. Surprisingly sweet, even naive lead character, for all her brilliance. The sequel follows an autistic boy in the same realm.

The Making of Another Major Motion Picture, Tom Hanks. Probably should not be surprised that the book was as charming and engaging as the author.

All available on audiobook through montgomery county libraries.

[AFM]

Paul Auster died today...met him at Politics and Prose a decade ago. One of the best writers EVER!!!!!!