pickI have a lot in common with Vance. We‘re about the same age, we both grew up poor hillbillies, we both wound up going to elite law schools. I‘ve read Hillbilly Elegy twice now. It is so poignant and familiar. Full review at Hillbilly Highways (with pictures from my trip to Jackson and Middletown) - https://hillbillyhighways.wordpress.com/2019/07/31/nonfiction-hillbilly-elegy-jd...
pickThis is an excellent book. It‘s a dog book. It‘s emotional beats poignant and rich. I loved, loved the hauntingly empty post-apocalyptic world. I have one serious quibble. Too many heavy-handed hints and bits of foreshadowing strongly suggest a different kind of book. The writer wants their cake and to eat it too. Full review - https://everydayshouldbetuesday.wordpress.com/2019/07/30/a-boy-and-his-dog-at-th...
no-angel says it needs more pictures and textures.
Very Narrator Voice: There was not peace in the Middle East (Bobos in Paradise was published in 2000)
Hit the used bookstore today (a bittersweet experience for a claustrophobic reader). “Sold” many books (allegedly a check will be in the mail at some future date). Two of the five books I bought were on my list walking in, which is a pretty good ratio, tbh. #bookhaul
One statement that hasn‘t held true over the last 20 years...
“Bobos are not anxious because there is an angry mob outside the gates threatening to send us to the guillotine. There isn‘t.”
pickC.L. Moore is hugely underrated. She is incomparable as a stylist. Nobody did creeping, cosmic horror better. The first story, Black God‘s Kiss, gives us the first great sword & sorcery heroine and is just incandescently brilliant. The rest, though, are great but derivative. Full review - https://www.google.com/amp/s/everydayshouldbetuesday.wordpress.com/2019/06/06/th...
pickKings of the Wyld is tremendous, pulpy SF fun, although it stops short of being great. The highlight is taking adventuring bands to their logical conclusion. And it has rabbit-eared elves. Full review - https://everydayshouldbetuesday.wordpress.com/2019/07/16/kings-of-the-wyld-is-a-...
Robert Heinlein would have approved. #SpecializationIsForInsects
Finally some decent outside reading whether for my Canadian vacation. Although Hiero‘s Journey would be the more appropriate post-apocalyptic choice.
“You‘ve got every right to try to live any goddamned idiotic way you want to.”
This is the core of my philosophy.
What better setting to read Once Upon a River than the Kalamazoo River?
Check out my June 2019 Month-in-Review and Mid-Year-in-Review. Many books were read and reviewed (not Once Upon a River, though—I started that yesterday). https://everydayshouldbetuesday.wordpress.com/2019/07/02/june-2019-month-in-revi...
pickWell that scared the s___ our of me. Sciutto builds a compelling case of how both Russia & China have moved aggressively against the USA via unconventional means. We are unprepared & our presidents have proven feckless (Obama gets the worst criticism, but really this is a failure from W thru Trump). Depressing, but it needs to be said and even more importantly heard (I was gratified to see signs of hawkishness toward China in the first Dem debate)
pickI had a backlog of reviews, so I decided to do an omnibus post with 5 short reviews. Curiously, each book disappointed me b/c I came in with expectations too high. Reviews of The Dragon Waiting by John Ford, Vita Nostra by the Dyachenkos, Monster Hunter Int‘l by Larry Correia, Raid by K.S. Merbeth & The True Queen by Zen Cho here - https://everydayshouldbetuesday.wordpress.com/2019/06/25/short-review-roundup-fa...
I try to read a book on SE Asia every year (my wife has Burmese heritage and her brother lives in Singapore). This year I read China‘s Asian Dream, which is partly about SE Asia, mostly about China. I read about China on a regular basis too, and I might start traveling there for work, so I went ahead and picked up another China book. #bookhaul
pickMost notable for featuring a newly-finished, never-before-seen ERB Tarzan fragment, more interesting is the turn from heroic fantasy toward good, old-fashioned adventure SF. Another more than solid collection of stories, and the diversity among adventure, fantasy & scifi provides nice balance. #Pulp Full review - https://everydayshouldbetuesday.wordpress.com/2019/06/13/throwback-sf-cirsova-ma...
“Novelists and poets are the landscape artists and portrait painters; academic writers are the people with big paint sprayers who repaint your basement.”
Post-yard work book and beer.
So I was inspired by Console Wars to turn on some quality Saturday morning television for the baby girl.
My To-Review stack. I should probably get on that... #bookbloggers
“I felt like Ivy Rowe in Lee Smith‘s Fair and Tender Ladies when she says that she‘s like her daddy and needs a mountain to ‘set her eyes against.‘”
Finished two books already today; started this one.
Took a big stack of books with me for my unexpected trip this week.
pickHorwitz‘s books are a mix of travelogue and history, all told with good humor. Here he retraces a journey by Frederick Olmstead thru the pre-Civil War South. It is his most political and pessimistic book, but it remains thoroughly entertaining and engaging. Full review - https://hillbillyhighways.wordpress.com/2019/05/22/nonfiction-spying-on-the-sout...
“No one should attempt to describe a utopia unless he‘s recently reread, for example, Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Jane Austen, Rabelais and Dostoevsky to remind himself how different people are. (It will also serve to remind him how complex they are.)
Broke out the good stuff for the #GameOfThronesFinale
“The novel that I‘m reading has a character a lot like you
And it took a little while but I recognized things you do
Yeah the novel that I‘m reading has a character a lot like yours
I put it back on the shelf, took a drink and closed the drawer.” 🎼
- Run This Town by Corb Lund
Books at the family dinner table are a point of contention between me and my wife. She says they should be banned. I say they should be required.
pick14 noir tales that explore the vast, fetid underbelly of Houston. They aren‘t all winners, but diversity of every sort in the stories mean they balance each other out. And the stories have wonderful senses of place (plural—Houston is big). Full review - https://hillbillyhighways.wordpress.com/2019/05/15/fiction-houston-noir-edited-b...
so-soIt is a somewhat dry academic book with a very narrow focus—working class, female anti-poverty activists in the eastern Kentucky coal country during the War on Poverty and it‘s aftermath—but I enjoyed it nonetheless and learned a lot. Full review - https://hillbillyhighways.wordpress.com/2019/05/09/nonfiction-to-live-here-you-h...
Lifted weights today for the first time in way too long and it didn‘t go so well, so I‘m back to safer activities like reading.
I‘m always fascinated by what people in the US had to say at the time about Hitler in the very early days (the book is copyright 1938). Hidden for what might be considered pretty minor spoilers.
Halfway through May and it‘s finally drink-beer-and-read-outside weather. Very satisfying mystery involving a mystery writer (meta!) and a cowboy-turned-cop in 1930s El Paso. Halfway through and have no idea who the woman on the cover is supposed to be.
so-soWith #GameOfThrones drawing to a close, I am revisiting the book series. A Dance with Dragons has obvious issues, although perhaps not as bad as the long wait for book 6 makes them seem. My full review - https://everydayshouldbetuesday.wordpress.com/2019/05/14/revisiting-george-r-r-m...
My reaction and recap post for the penultimate episode of #GameOfThrones is up. I have very mixed feelings. Full spoilers at the link. https://everydayshouldbetuesday.wordpress.com/2019/05/12/game-of-thrones-recap-s...
so-soWith #GameOfThrones drawing to a close, I am revisiting the book series. A Feast for Crows marks a sharp downturn in the quality of the series. My full review - https://everydayshouldbetuesday.wordpress.com/2019/05/07/revisiting-george-r-r-m...
pickWith #GameOfThrones drawing to a close, I am revisiting the book series. A Storm of Swords furiously cashes in on three books worth of plot lines .with developments that hit you like a Mack truck. My full review - https://everydayshouldbetuesday.wordpress.com/2019/04/30/revisiting-george-r-r-m...
pickWith #GameOfThrones drawing to a close, I am revisiting the book series. A Clash of Kings is an underrated and too often overlooked book 2. My full review - https://everydayshouldbetuesday.wordpress.com/2019/04/23/revisiting-george-r-r-m...
pickWith #GameOfThrones drawing to a close, I am revisiting the book series. A Game of Thrones is one of the best fantasy novels ever written. My full review - https://everydayshouldbetuesday.wordpress.com/2019/04/16/revisiting-george-r-r-m...
I decided to reward myself for placing my latest academic article by splurging on a couple fancy books. (My wife said The Spirit of the Common Law looks and sounds like an occult book, hence the use of a skull as a prop.)
#boohaul from City Lights bookstore in Sylva, NC. The David Joy book and the Ron Rash short story are autographed (City Lights is Rash and Joy‘s home bookstore). #CountryNoir
