Pit Book/Discussion Thread

[leftcoastdeac]

Just wrapped up “River of Doubt” by Candice Millard which chronicles the 1913-14 (Teddy) Roosevelt-Rondon expedition down a then unknown/unmapped river in Brazil. Really well written and a fascinating account that does a nice job of giving interesting context and history around the both the expedition and some of the key figures. Good epilogue to wrap it all up, too.

 

[leftcoastdeac]

Started reading The Midnight Library this week and was getting into it and then got notified that it was due at the library and I couldn't renew it because there were people on the waiting list for it. #cancellibraries

Just commit to reading it and turn it in past due.

 

[WRS]

Just wrapped up “River of Doubt” by Candice Millard which chronicles the 1913-14 (Teddy) Roosevelt-Rondon expedition down an unmanned river in Brazil. Really well written and a fascinating account that does a nice job of giving interesting context and history around the both the expedition and some of the key figures. Good epilogue to wrap it all up, too.

So good. Incredible story and really enjoyed Millard’s writing.

 

[LilburnDeac]

So good. Incredible story and really enjoyed Millard’s writing.

She is good. I liked her book Destiny of the Republic, about the assassination of James Garfield.

 

[06deacon]

Started reading The Midnight Library this week and was getting into it and then got notified that it was due at the library and I couldn't renew it because there were people on the waiting list for it. #cancellibraries

I’ve noticed when I check out a kindle copy and download to my ancient kindle - as long as I never exit the book on the kindle it does not disappear even past the return date. As soon as I hit the home button then poof but have been able to get some grace period with that little hack.

 

[Kory]

about halfway through Shogun

my grandfather gave it to me as a gift once and I just never touched it

I can see why it made such a splash in the 70s, though I do wonder how much of the presented context is historically accurate

I do like how Clavell plays with the language barrier in the first half - switching between characters dialogue seamlessly to change perspective cool stuff

 

[Biff Tannen]

#5 House Of Sticks by Ly Tran.

This is the memoir of a Vietnamese woman who immigrated to NYC as a child. Tran has an abusive father who suffers from PTSD from his time in the South Vietnamese army and decade as a prisoner of war. The family’s roach infested apartment functions as a sweatshop for Tran who spends a lot of her childhood hours outside of school making cummerbunds or whatever other work her father can find for the family.

She desperately needs glasses, but her father does not believe her or the school. He thinks she can make her eyes stronger if she does not become dependent on glasses. Also, glasses cost money. She is able to get contacts eventually but has to hide them from her father, which leads to some ridiculous situations. That is one example of the obstacles she faced. There were many more, but no spoilers here.

So what about #4 - #1 ?

 

[KennyRogersRoast]

Thanks for the reminder Biff.

#4 A Fever in the Heartland by Timothy Egan

This book is about the “second coming” of the KKK in the 1920s. As the title suggests, the focus is mainly on the Midwest, specifically Indiana. The main character is David Stephenson who rose to be a leader of the Klan. He started out as a low-level criminal but developed a talent for tapping into hatred. He would tell people what they wanted to hear. How much of it did he believe? He studied speeches endlessly and was especially fond of Mussolini. He expanded the resentments of the Klan and was successful in amassing a shocking amount money and power. He had politicians and police in his pocket and had a real shot at the governor’s mansion, which he viewed as his stepping stone to the US Presidency.

The book’s subtitle is “The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them.” Stephenson was self-destructing, his violence was becoming uncontrollable, and he (finally) seemed destined for a bad and deserved end in some way. The “woman who stopped them” was one of the few heroes of the book and was the one to deliver the decisive blow.

I am never surprised by the hateful egomaniacs who will do anything for power and money but rather all those who follow along. Or at least it used to surprise me.

In 2020 I read Egan’s The Worst Hard Time. I really enjoyed it, but it was not the page turner this one is.

 

[BeachBumDeac]

I finished Good Omens last night. Really really good. Liked it a little better than American Gods.

Gonna dive into Terry Pratchett's Discworld series now. I don't know how I avoided it over the years when I was reading the Hitchhiker's series through multiple times.

 

[TimmyClutch]

I finished Good Omens last night. Really really good. Liked it a little better than American Gods.

Gonna dive into Terry Pratchett's Discworld series now. I don't know how I avoided it over the years when I was reading the Hitchhiker's series through multiple times.

So this is tricky because there are several standalone books, but many more happen sequentially, and as the title suggests they are all in the same world but focus on different sets of characters. I will say that some of the older ones are not quite as good and it took him a little while to find his footing. So if you don’t like them at first, don’t shut down the whole series.

 

[BeachBumDeac]

okay Jesus this is complicated

 

[TimmyClutch]

okay Jesus this is complicated

I know right. Ok, the first one is Colour of Magic, which isn't the strongest. Alot of people recommend Guards Guards to start with, because it's the first City Watch novel (I think you are going to be a Sam Vimes fan). The Tiffany Aching books were meant for more YA, but are still good and can be a gentle lead in, but you will miss some stuff, as they connect with the Witches novels. You could technically start with any of the first 4 Industrial Revolution ones, but once again, you will miss some of the world building. I started with Monstrous Regiment, so I missed a little bit of stuff, but I also re-read books several times, so I caught the references later. Alot of it depends if you are someone who needs to be there at the beginning or if you are ok picking stuff up along the way. You really don't need to read them all in order, but its nice to have some background.

 

[JuiceCrewAllStar]

anybody read (or seen films by) Rudy Wurlitzer?

reading The Drop Edge of Yonder now and I'm digging it -- an acid western, stream of chaos novel

been reading a bit on Wurlitzer and he's done most of his career in the road book/film and western theme space

I'm into it

 

[KennyRogersRoast]

#3 A Stone is Most Precious Where It Belongs by Gulchehra Hoja

This is Hoja’s personal account of growing up as a Uyghur in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. She was a gifted dancer from a prominent Uyghur family. This led to her becoming, at a young age, a popular TV personality as a host of a show for children. She wanted to teach children about Uyghur culture but was thwarted by censorship. She realized she was being used, and thus complicit, in part of China’s determination to erase Uyghur history, culture, and religion.

When she was 28, she fled China to come to the United States to work for Radio Free Asia. Doing so subjected her family to arrest and abuse. She knew that by leaving she may never see her family or her home again. She gave up a lot to work to shine a light on China’s persecution of her people. I was familiar with the detention camps, forced labor, disappearances, and push for colonization of the area by a Han majority, but this was the first in depth first person account I read.

 

[KennyRogersRoast]

#2 The Abyss by Max Hastings

This book made me feel as though I lived through the Cuban missile crisis. And it was frightening. If Kennedy had accepted the view of some of his staff and military leaders, it seems likely we would have had a nuclear war. Although neither side wanted that, it did not mean it was not likely to happen. The book did an excellent job of showing how confusion, bad communication, and just a lack of experience and rules of engagement could have set off a series of events with dire consequences. Khrushchev was careless and impulsive and came off as not putting any thought into forward thinking. He was definitely not playing chess.

At one point the military advised Kennedy to bomb the missile sites in Cuba before they were completed and then invade. A majority of Kennedy’s advisors agreed, including Robert Kennedy. What the US did not know until decades later is that the Soviets already had nukes in Cuba ready to launch at any sign of attack. The Soviets also had many times the number of troops in Cuba than the CIA estimated.

Another highlight of the book was the focus on Cuba itself. Most of my recollections of the crisis were limited to the US and USSR. Cuba was just a blank setting. The book started with the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. It included a lot of background on Castro of which I did not know or had forgotten.

A book that can have me in suspense, and a little stressed, even though I know the outcome is one that is going to stick with me.

 

[Wakelaw2006]

#2 The Abyss by Max Hastings

This book made me feel as though I lived through the Cuban missile crisis. And it was frightening. If Kennedy had accepted the view of some of his staff and military leaders, it seems likely we would have had a nuclear war. Although neither side wanted that, it did not mean it was not likely to happen. The book did an excellent job of showing how confusion, bad communication, and just a lack of experience and rules of engagement could have set off a series of events with dire consequences. Khrushchev was careless and impulsive and came off as not putting any thought into forward thinking. He was definitely not playing chess.

At one point the military advised Kennedy to bomb the missile sites in Cuba before they were completed and then invade. A majority of Kennedy’s advisors agreed, including Robert Kennedy. What the US did not know until decades later is that the Soviets already had nukes in Cuba ready to launch at any sign of attack. The Soviets also had many times the number of troops in Cuba than the CIA estimated.

Another highlight of the book was the focus on Cuba itself. Most of my recollections of the crisis were limited to the US and USSR. Cuba was just a blank setting. The book started with the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. It included a lot of background on Castro of which I did not know or had forgotten.

A book that can have me in suspense, and a little stressed, even though I know the outcome is one that is going to stick with me.

Oh, this sounds like another one I need to add to my list. In the middle of Operation Mincemeat now.

 

[TimmyClutch]

I promised Townie a top 10 list of the books I read in 2023. With Townie on hiatus I have been slow to fulfill my obligation. These will all be nonfiction. I did read a little more fiction in 2023, but I would guess I read at least 85% nonfiction.

#10: Eight Bears by Gloria Dickie.

This book is about the eight types of bears that still exist. This is not the type of book I typically read. Then again, maybe it is, because it takes place in eight different areas of the world. When I saw this book, I realized I knew little about bears. Eight bears? Can I even name five? My kids certainly knew a lot more than I did and part of the fun of reading this book was discussing it with my kids. Like, how did my son know the seal is the closest relative of the bear? Is this common knowledge?

The primary focus of the book is to detail the dangers that face bears due to humans. Climate change is challenging the polar and spectacled (my personal favorite of the eight after reading the book) to the greatest degree. Dickie is especially pessimistic about the polar bear being able to survive in the wild much longer. The moon bear is subjected to bile harvesting. Humans are crowding out the aggressive sloth bear. (The sloth bear is terrifying, by the way. If I had sloth bears around my house I would never go outside.) On the other hand, the North American bears, black and brown (grizzly), are faring better, especially the brown.

It is an entertaining book, with some history, science, geography, and myth all included in a relatively quick read.

Just finished. Thanks for recommending, though I felt bad reading about the polar bear’s future while flying on an airplane.

 

[Demonwolverine]

I got to maybe 6? Kodiak, Grizzly, Black, Panda, Polar, Koala…

ETA: So I googled it. I actually got 3, maybe 4. Just ordered the audiobook though. I like listening to nature books to go to sleep. If you’re in the market, my favorite is:

“Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter” by Ben Goldfarb

 

[Biff Tannen]

#2 The Abyss by Max Hastings

This book made me feel as though I lived through the Cuban missile crisis. And it was frightening. If Kennedy had accepted the view of some of his staff and military leaders, it seems likely we would have had a nuclear war. Although neither side wanted that, it did not mean it was not likely to happen. The book did an excellent job of showing how confusion, bad communication, and just a lack of experience and rules of engagement could have set off a series of events with dire consequences. Khrushchev was careless and impulsive and came off as not putting any thought into forward thinking. He was definitely not playing chess.

At one point the military advised Kennedy to bomb the missile sites in Cuba before they were completed and then invade. A majority of Kennedy’s advisors agreed, including Robert Kennedy. What the US did not know until decades later is that the Soviets already had nukes in Cuba ready to launch at any sign of attack. The Soviets also had many times the number of troops in Cuba than the CIA estimated.

Another highlight of the book was the focus on Cuba itself. Most of my recollections of the crisis were limited to the US and USSR. Cuba was just a blank setting. The book started with the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. It included a lot of background on Castro of which I did not know or had forgotten.

A book that can have me in suspense, and a little stressed, even though I know the outcome is one that is going to stick with me.

Cranking it to this book rec.

 

[leftcoastdeac]

Finished "Watership Down" by Richard Adams....phew, what a ride. I can't believe I had never read it before, but what an incredible journey that book is!