What BOOK are you reading right now?

c.i., I am consumed with envy. My last trip to India, about two years ago, was three weeks touring the south, ending in Mumbai. I'd go back to India tomorrow...surely it is the most diverse, colorful country imaginable with an ancient and fascinating history. I was with a small group (10 people) organized by TripsIntoIndia.com. (I had done northern India with them a year before...Delhi and up to Shimla and into the Himalaya. ) The carved stone temples at Tamil Nadu are etched into my mind forever. Books are good. Travel is the best.

I'm reading Born to Run by ChristopherMcDougall. Think the gist of the book, why anyone would write about "A hidden tribe, superathletes, and the greatest race the world has never seen" is finally coming thru. It's about the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico's Copper Canyon and has been on the best seller lists for awhile - I'm on pg. 37 and the writer is still searching mountains & canyons for this hidden tribe.

Sometimes I read books just to send them to my two boys. I'll send this to my youngest (they are in their 40's now) who owns a bicycle & hiking store in Colorado. He was national mogul champion during the 80s and skied World Cup for several years. He's raced everything imaginable - skis, sailboats, motorcycles, now only bikes - and loves to push his body to the limit!

I have just started Deer Hunting with Jesus. I actually forgot I owned this book until I discovered it while looking for a copy of Neverwhere

I hope this is not a spoiler.
When it was found out about the mindnumbing races of the Rarámuri (that's how the Tarahumaras call themselves), there was a try to make them competitive marathoners.
It didn't work: the Marathon race is too fast and waaay too short for them.

No, not a spoiler - can't wait to read on. Born to Run was written by a former war correspondent, now a contributing writer for Men's Health, and is supposedly humerous, too. He seems to be getting a little into the history of these people, and why they don't want to be found.

OH MAN! You just gave away the entire twist ending to Avatar 2!
Oh that make me so hot under the collar!

I might like that book, thanks for the introduction, Pemerson.

I just got a package from my cousin. We had spent about two weeks together back this last October, and discovered things we hadn't really known about each other all these years - including what berserkly avid readers she and her husband and I are. We traded books then, and now, when she was mailing me a dress I had left at her house by mistake on the last day, she included five books I might like. Who knows if I'll like them, but they'll feed the craving maw of a mad reader and put off for another day my finally knuckling down and reading some of the books I have by Fernand Braudel.

The books -
Blow Fly by Patricia Cornwell - I got well sick of Cornwell many years ago, so that guarantees I haven't read this one from 2003.
The Stalking Man by William J. Coughlin - well, this will be a venture into writing unknown..
Company Man by Joseph Finder - also an unknown to me
Vanish by Tess Gerritsen - unknown again
Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow - I think I read this, but it would have been back in the eighties, so.. like new, eh? I vaguely remember liking it.

Sure is good to have a cousin who swaps books, discusses them, with you. I don't really have anyone I see here to discuss my book reading with. I send most to my oldest son, who is the most voracious reader ever. I didn't raise my kids in any religion so, since reading da vinci code I have probably bought 50 or so books, read them and passed them on to him. Just, the long history of humans who have lived on this planet.

I gave my entire library to a charitable organization two years ago, and each book I buy I send to someone - a sister-in-law, a niece. I'm starting to collect a bunch of books that I didn't care about sending anyone else: Random acts of Heroic Love by Scheinmann, The Weight of Heaven by Thrity Omrigar, Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson, A Day and a night and a day by Glen Duncan, South Broad by Pat Conroy, Ecumensus by Clifford Lane Mark. Brand new books - that was dumb, I should have waited and ordered used from Internet.

Enjoy those books from your cousin. They aren't exactly like the books you usually report on here.

Pemerson, I read Born to Run last summer. It is a great read. I was so inspired that, although I don't run anymore -- just walk fast , I ordered some of the barefoot shoes they describe. I love them. My roommate liked the book, too, said it was seminal. I will probably read it again every year, just to feed on the energy there.

<chuckle>

So far I'm hating (well, in a manner of speaking) The Stalking Man. After a number of pages I'm skipping the killer's musings and skipping the details of the murders (sensationalistic) because I'm interested in the purported legal aspects. I may just skip along to the last few pages.

Okay, I stopped reading The Stalking Man, enough is enough.

Meantime I had a fine shopping experience yesterday at the Goodwill shoppe and picked up a goodly batch of books. There was an interesting mix there, the usual best seller plethora and some romance novels (not my thing), self help (I'm beyond it already) with Beowulf and Arabian Nights mixed in. What I got:

Return Policy by Michael Snyder, whom I've never heard of. The blurb on the back made it sound interesting.
Glamorama by Bret Easton Ellis, of whom I've heard but never read.
The Mission Song by John le Carre, whom I always like, though some of his books better than others.
Brazil by John Updike: never heard about this Updike title, but I started it last evening, now only on page 10, love the writing already. And I can never learn too much about Brazil, from whatever sources.
Stone Cold by David Baldacci: a best seller type book (not very often a good thing from my point of view) by an author I haven't read before
The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan; I missed this one of hers.
The Poet by Michael Connelly - I usually read his books if I find them, if only for the visit to Los Angeles scenery.
MythologyTimeless Tales of Gods and Heroes , by Edith Hamilton - I've read a little bit of Hamilton before. Mythology is a weak spot in my education.

Just finished Pirate Lattiudes by Michael Crichton. Very good book. It was found in a filing cabinet upon his death fully finished and sent to publish. Enjoyed it. A very fast read (took me 3 days to finish the 312 paged hard back. Full of sailing terms and danger and pirates and fighting and all around scalawag good times

Is it a historical work of fiction or his usual modern day techno/dysutopic scare-ya-pants off-thriller? Or a combination of the both?

umm can I please get a definition of historical fiction?

a fictionalized work about a historical event or time period

stuff like this

Masters of Rome is a series of historical fiction novels by author Colleen McCullough (b. 1937) set in ancient Rome during the last days of the old Roman Republic; it primarily chronicles the lives and careers of Gaius Marius, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, Pompey the Great, Julius Caesar, and the early career of Caesar Augustus. It spans from January 1, 110 BC through to January 16, 27 BC.

Other major historical figures who appear and play prominent parts in the series include Mithridates VI of Pontus, Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, Publius Rutilius Rufus, Quintus Sertorius, Marcus Livius Drusus, Jugurtha of Numidia, Spartacus, Marcus Licinius Crassus, Marcus Tullius Cicero, Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus, Marcus Porcius Cato, Publius Clodius, Vercingetorix, Marcus Junius Brutus, Gaius Cassius Longinus, Mark Antony, Cleopatra VII of Egypt, Caesarion and Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. Each book in the series features a detailed glossary, hand-drawn illustrations of the major characters, and notes by McCullough detailing her reasoning for portraying certain events in certain ways.

The series has a thesis: as Rome became more powerful within the Mediterranean world, the old ways of doing things " through the deliberation of various interests, mainly aristocratic and mercantile " became impossibly cumbersome. It became more and more difficult to govern an empire with institutions originally designed to administer a city-state. Certain powerful leaders (especially Marius, Sulla, and Caesar) tried to create a state in which they had autocratic power but also preserved the externals of the old ways. They were opposed by the conservatives (called the optimates by classical historians, though they themselves preferred the title boni or "good men"). The obtuse or simply ignorant resistance of these reactionaries, who are all presented as degenerate or self-serving, made the creation of an autocracy necessary. The result was the birth of an imperial monarchy, and a radically different organization of power. The novels have been criticized for their idealization of military dictators and strong men like Caesar and Octavian.

The novels of the series are
The First Man in Rome (1990); spanning the years 110"100 BC
The Grass Crown (1991); spanning the years 97"86 BC
Fortune's Favourites (1993); spanning the years 83"69 BC
Caesar's Women (1997); spanning the years 67"59 BC
Caesar (1998); spanning the years 54"48 BC
The October Horse (2002); spanning the years 48"41 BC and
Antony and Cleopatra (2007); spanning the years 41"27 BC

McCullough originally decided to end the series with The October Horse because in her opinion the ultimate fall of the Roman Republic took place after the Battle of Philippi, with the death of Caesar's assassins. However, most historians place the end of the Republic a decade later, after the final showdown between Augustus and Mark Antony at the Battle of Actium, in 31 BC.

In response to lobbying from fans McCullough completed one more volume concerned mainly with Antony and Cleopatra, Antony and Cleopatra, released in September, 2007, in the UK, and December, 2007, in the US. Bob Carr, former Premier of New South Wales, Australia has very publicly campaigned for McCullough to write further Roman novels. He argues that she should not continue in chronological order through the Second Triumvirate and the Julio-Claudian and Flavian Dynasties but instead skip ahead to write about the Five Good Emperors. This is unlikely, because her eyesight is rapidly failing due to macular degeneration.

Yeah what he said.

Historical fiction is fiction that's based around a major historical event or period. The characters maybe based on real people or never have existed. The fiction part of it is the story never happened though it's historical context has a relatively accurate basis in history. Say a love story that takes place while the French Revolution is underway. Details and characters both real and made up are often parts of the novel via subplots and such.


For further explanations...
http://tinyurl.com/yjlsrx6

Umm I will say no on it being a historical fictional just for the simple fact that as far as I know none of the main characters are of no historical importance. It is a book that is full of facts on sailing, pirates and the life and times of the 1600's. It was very fluid and a very easy read.

picked up a collection of short stories today



mainly based on the title of a story contained within

Dog-Eared Paperback of My Life
Lucius Shepard

Thomas Cradle is an author of genre fiction"until one day he spots a book on Amazon.com by another Thomas Cradle, a literary, winding piece about alternate universes and travel through Cambodia. After he orders a used copy, however, all trace of the book disappears from Amazon or any other source. Slowly he comes to believe that he must travel the same route through Cambodia, and there he encounters a most unusual “family” history of Thomas Cradles. This is one of my favorite stories of the book, even though the ending somehow didn’t quite live up to the rest of it. The lush, winding feel of the story imitates the changes occurring in Thomas absolutely perfectly, and his unfolding discovery of his alternates’ place in the Cambodian world is fascinating and feels surprisingly “real”.

other stories in the book

Robert Charles Wilson, This Peaceable Land; Or, The Unbearable Vision of Harriet Beecher Stowe: It is perhaps unsurprising, given recent events, that slavery and the events surrounding the Civil War are on some minds. Robert Charles Wilson asks, what would have happened if the Civil War had never happened? If slavery had simply become economically and politically unfeasible, instead of being outlawed? And the answer might not be what you’re expecting. This story is a slow, seemingly gentle introduction to Other Earths, but the ending packs a punch.

Jeff VanderMeer, The Goat Variations: Jeff VanderMeer’s tale is half experimental exploration of the concept of alternate universes itself, and half exploration of one particular alternate universe. It’s a head-twisting tale that I find myself almost entirely unable to describe without saying too much. I particularly like it in that it’s an experiment that doesn’t sacrifice story in order to play with form.

Stephen Baxter, The Unblinking Eye: Stephen Baxter’s tale of the recent past sets the world on its ear, placing the Incan civilization at the apex, with flying ships and radios, while the rest of the world still struggles with the knowledge that the world is round. A most interesting sort of culture shock and confrontation is about to change the balance of power. The plot itself is more traditional than that of the other stories in here, but the world the story explores is beautiful and fascinating.

Theodora Goss, Csilla’s Story: What if fairies were real? What if they’d intermarried with a certain tribe of early humans, and while those humans revered them, others persecuted them? What if their descendents were refugees, forced to hide and in danger of losing their most precious things"their histories, their understanding of who they were? This is a beautiful story with poignant real-world parallels.

Liz Williams, Winterborn: Aeve is the half-faery Queen of England, and she has hired Mistress Dane, a river-speaker, to find out why drowned ghosts walk the halls of her palace. An interesting world, but to my mind, not the most engrossing of the stories in this volume.

Gene Wolfe, Donovan Sent Us: London has been bombed all to hell, Kuhn is president of the US, and Churchill is a prisoner of the Germans. An office previously established by Roosevelt has sent men in to rescue Churchill, hoping to use him to stir a British resistance up against the Germans. Of course, things can never be quite that simple. Despite the fact that this isn’t a time period that fascinates me the way that it does so many others, this story was so well-written and detailed that it riveted me.

Greg van Eekhout, The Holy City and Em’s Reptile Farm: In a world where religion rules men’s hearts and minds with all the zeal (and slot machines) of Vegas, Em and her family run a tourist stop on a failing pilgrimage route. What she does to save her business and family brings her face-to-face with deadly Templars, disenfranchised Hawaiians, a deadly pit of snakes, and a holy relic armies would kill for.

Alastair Reynolds, The Receivers: To be honest, I’m not even sure how to describe this one. It contains an unlikely mix of wartime ambulance drivers, ex-composers manning listening posts, and a sort of unearthly music. It has a lovely aspect to it, but I was never quite sure what to make of it.

Paul Park, A Family History: This is the story that felt most self-consciously “experimental.” A winding, tortuous back-and-forth explores several possible routes a family history might have taken. It was somewhat interesting, but mostly I found it confusing and unnecessary.

Benjamin Rosenbaum, Nine Alternate Alternate Histories: This is an unusual and experimental form that explores brief points of convergence and divergence. But instead of feeling self-conscious or too intellectual, it comes to an all-too-real and chilling end that turns what could have been a merely good and interesting piece into a wonderful one!

djjd...sounds fascinatingly eclectic