The Pledge Drive continues! If you enjoy this blog, and can afford it, please click on the “donate” button below! Thanks!
I gotta skip the misogyny/alt-right crap today. So here’s a question for you all: what are you reading?
I’ll start: in addition to reading way too many news stories about Donald Trump, I’ve been reading about meditation. Here are a couple of books I especially like:
Mindfulness in Plain English, by Henepola Gunaratana (An older version is available for free online!)
The Mind Illuminated, by Culadasa (John Yates). Website here.
How about you?
As an added bonus, here are some words of wisdom from my unconscious mind:
"Pickles don't just CAUSE hippies. Pickles ARE hippies." — Someone said this in a dream of mine last night. #PicklesAreHippies #TrumpTail
— David Futrelle (@DavidFutrelle) September 30, 2016
It didn’t make any more sense in the dream than it does in the real world.
And a Pledge Drive capybara reading a goddamn book!
Well, I finished A Square Meal last week, which was a fascinating book on the food history and traditions of the Great Depression. The various approaches to relief aid and what food was available was very interesting. This is also how we got school lunches, federal guidelines for nutrition, and a lot of other things besides.
I also have the new Shirley Jackson bio on hold at the library. I haven’t heard back, maybe they can’t read my handwriting. I have a couple of her short story collections checked out. I just love her-one of my favorite writers, in or out of the horror genre. If you’re the type to buy horror magazines, she’s on the cover of Rue Morgue.
@Usamljeny Nitko (that’s a fun nym ?)
That works. We usually put an @ sign just before (see above), but it’s fine either way 🙂
Hiya, I’m Axe! Welcome package is on the right side of the page, and don’t be a stranger!
@ Julia
Just want to say I read your article and really enjoyed it.
I’m reading “In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692” which puts the Salem witch trials into the political context of the times. It’s very interesting and a good read.
@David – my Twitter account is solely dedicated to recording my often ridiculous dreams @stpddreamscape. Pickles do indeed cause hippies!
@ dreemr (and anyone else interested in Salem)
You might find the Pendle witch trials interesting. That was sort of the English version. Some similar themes.
I’m just about to finish Bernard Cornwell’s novel series on Alfred the Great. I’ve been reading it periodically over a long time, while dreaming about getting around to writing a long fanfic I’ve barely started on another of Cornwell’s historical novel series, the Warlord Chronicles.
@Usamljeny Nitko
welcome in.
@FrickleFrackle
Welcome back
@Peaches
Speaking of bios, I recently read Granuaile: Grace O’Malley – Ireland’s Pirate Queen . The title basically says it all; she led a fleet of ships on trading missions up and down the Atlantic seaboard, and on missions of war and vengeance in Ireland and England, in between taking over castles to secure her hold on the Mayo coast.
@Julia,
good work, you’ve certainly drawn the ire of AVFM, the top comment is one of their most devoted goons.
Good article, btw 🙂
@Alan thanks for the tip, I will check it out.
I am currently reading the Drizzt Do’Urden series by R. A. Salvatore. After that, I plan to read the Raistlin series by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. Not sure what to read when I’m done, maybe I’ll re-read Lilith’s Brood by Octavia Butler.
Thanks guys!
I just finished TELL ME SOMETHING REAL by Calla Delvin, and it was heavy. Beautifully written.
Right now I’m simultaneously reading a bunch of things, including PEDAGOGY OF THE OPPRESSED for a teaching class, THE SACRED LIES OF MINNOW BLY (cult YA), and perusing through THE DENIAL OF DEATH (classic non-fiction).
It’s good to know I’ve gotten the attention of some of the most adamant MRAs. Their tears have been delicious.
There’s another book? I always thought this was the last one. I used to reread these books annually during my summer breaks.
I’ve been working through the books I own but have never read: Currently I’m reading ‘Charleston in the Age of the Pinckneys’. I’m a bit of a fiction binge reader, so having some less thrilling reading for bedtime helps keep me from over-indulging.
I’m also rereading ‘The Trumpet of the Swan’ by E.B. White out loud to my little one. It was a favorite of mine as a child, and I’m glad to see it holds up.
I usually read a trashy romance every weekend, although it can be tough work to find them both trashy but also with relationships that aren’t clearly abusive. I’m ok with ridiculous plotlines though.
I’m currently reading WHTM and Mark Reads. He’s currently on Hogfather now. I’ve also recently re-read Hogfather (to follow along with Mark’s blog, but I went too quickly) as well as Jingo (because I had to keep going). I’ve been enjoying Mark’s reviews of the books. I think that having to take books in one chapter or section at a time allows for more reflection. Some things I had not really thought about before, such as female characters often portrayed as mysterious others in Pratchett’s earlier works. Or that he glosses over racism in the Discworld (at least in the beginning, Pratchett gets better by Jingo) and articulated why I didn’t enjoy a lot of the books on the Wizard’s story track such as Interesting Times.
I haven’t been reading as much since I was recently consumed by watching all of Steven Universe. I found a site called Kiss Cartoons which streams all of SU up to Season 4 Episode 7, including the shorts.
I’m reading an everlasting meal. It’s not doing anything for me yet, but I’ve been trying to get a handle on how I feel about food, food prep, baking science and all of that crap.
Dr. Dead, I LOVE trashy romances, I wish I still had time to read them!
I’m reading The Aeronaut’s Windlass by Jim Butcher. Which is delightful steampunk fantasy dreck. It’s very enjoyable, and sometimes that is all you want.
I’d recommend it.
To InitHello. Instead of rereading, if you trust recommendations. If you like the Drizz’t Novels and the Dragonlance books. Might I, as a fellow D&D enthusiast, and a Fantasy Buff, recommend Guy Gavriel Kay? The Finonovar Tapestry is an excellent retelling of Arthurian legend.
I’d also recommend The Abhorsen series by Garth Nix. (Sabriel, Lirael, Abhorsen.) Which are YA, but very interesting and solid reads. With a strong female protagonist to boot. Both series are good, in fantasy, and are kind of cross platform with your other authours.
dreemr, hey, I took a class with Mary Beth Norton when I was in college. In an odd coincidence, in grad school I was also a TA for Paul Boyer, who also wrote a history of the Salem Witch trials. But I have to confess I’ve read neither book. Yet!
I’ll have to check out your twitter. I love weird dreams!
I just finished re-reading, “The Girl Who Played With Fire” by Stieg Larsson – it’s the last of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” series. A woman who hates men who hate women. I can’t help thinking she’d be a fan of this blog.
I’ve also be reading through my novel-in-progress, sorting out continuity bugs. It’s a whodunnit set in an astronomical observatory, currently titled, “Murder by Starlight”
And that lovely photo of the capybara reading reminded me of this photo of Carmelo the raven reading. Yup, he’s in the book. I hope it embeds properly.
http://sheilacrosby.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/raven48web.jpg
Well, I’ve mainly been reading a book about the history of the French Revolution, but I got started today on Das Kapital. It’s proving to be a bit heavier than I was expecting, but I’m just going to power through and see what the big fuss is all about.
@Jaygee
I’ve literally got an episode running on that exact site. It’s been about three weeks since I first started watching, and I’ve run through all the seasons about four times already. I haven’t been this excited for a cartoon since I was 5 and Spongebob first started airing.
There used to be a comic strip in my local paper called ‘Draw My Dream’–people would send the artist their dreams and he’d do comics of them. He did one of mine once.
@Moggie and Kylo Ronin
Funny, I remember not being able to get into The Wind-up Bird Chronicle. I’ll have to try again. I loved Hard-Boiled Wonderland And The End Of The World and the one about the sarin gas attacks Underground.
Lots of good recommendations on this thread!
Has anyone else read any of the Oliver Pötzsch Hangman’s Daughter series? They’re set in the 1650/60s and I think they’re a lot of fun, at least the two I’ve read so far.
Audiobooks:
I just finished For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood by Christopher Emdin. The title sounds gimmicky, but I’m a white guy from a small white town teaching mostly-black students from what passes for the hood in a small midwestern city, and there are lots of parts of that book where Emdin could be reading my mind. It’s been a help already. I’ve ordered a paper copy so I can annotate and reread.
Right now I’m listening to Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me. It’s eye-opening and it makes me uncomfortable, so it’s got that going for it. I bought Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals at the same time, and that’s next. I want to read it mostly because I have so many acquiantances who think it’s the manual for Communist subversion of the American Way of Life, but from what I’ve seen, it looks like Alinsky’s ideas have become standard for activism from all political sides. I know I spent years working for gun rights in Illinois (you’re welcome) and when I read summaries of Alinsky’s rules, I see lots of strategies we tried to apply, though I don’t think anyone I knew in the movement had read Alinsky.
Today on a friend’s social media feed, somebody explained to him that it was good to ostracize a mutual friend who had come out in favor of Hillary Clinton because “Read Alinsky. That’s the playbook Jorge’s side is using. . . .” I wanted to ask him whether he’s ever read Alinsky, but I realized I haven’t, so . . . here we are.
I’m currently re-reading the Darkover cycle by Marion Zimmer Bradley.
The book I’m reading right now is A Flame in Hali.
The last full book I read is (apart from hiking and canoeing guides) Shubin’s Your Inner Fish — which really helped me understand evo-devo arguments.
Without it, I wouldn’t have understood the discovery this summer by … oh right, Shubin … of how fish fins are built in a surprising way similarly (but different) to how land animal limbs are made, and in particular why it’s so significant.
I’d had it on my reading list during my postdoc but only finally got around to it a few month ago when visiting the not-in-laws.
I’m also reading the wunderground blog. Looks likely that Haiti is going to get hit by a terrible storm 🙁