What are you currently reading?

[SimonNZ]

Started:

[milk]

In Butler's post-apocalyptic future (c. 1983), a populist presidential candidate has the following slogan: "Make America Great Again."

[Jo498]

Just ordered Wilkie Collins's "No Name". I can't wait to get my hands on it, The Moonstone was absolutely wonderful.

Check out "The woman in white". It is more romantic mystery than crime mystery, compared to the Moonstone and it lacks a narrator as entertaining as the Robinson-Crusoe-obsessed butler, but it is pretty good and has a remarkable villain character.

[Jaakko Keskinen]

And has a remarkable villain character.

Yes, I've heard much positive about Count Fosco.

[Crudblud]

Gore Vidal - Virgin Islands

Very enjoyable essay collection with subjects ranging from American literary figures to presidents to policy at home and abroad. On the strength of this I would like to get my hands on the much larger (and indeed large in general) United States collection.

[Ken B]

Check out "The woman in white". It is more romantic mystery than crime mystery, compared to the Moonstone and it lacks a narrator as entertaining as the Robinson-Crusoe-obsessed butler, but it is pretty good and has a remarkable villain character.

TWIW is incredibly readable. I read that and the Moonstone back to back one weekend.

[Todd]

Millard Fillmore: Biography of a President.  Due to a bargain basement price for this recently reprinted bio, I ended up with a bio of a lesser president.  It's a slim volume, but even so there are extended sections that cover the political scene of Fillmore's era and location rather than the president himself.  Not that there's a huge amount to cover.  Domestically, the Compromise of 1850 is the major thing he is remembered for, and that was more the work of the political giant Henry Clay (which reminds me that I need to get to a bio on him).  The book was written in the 50s, and some of the writing style is dated, and some if it is kind of clunky.  Also, I believe this is the first time I've seen the word "bailiwick" used twice in a bio.  There aren't exactly shelves full of works on Fillmore, so this will have to do. 

[kishnevi]

Got this today

[aligreto]

Got this today

I hope that you enjoy that. I read a lot of Dylan Thomas when I was younger and always liked his energy.

[kishnevi]

I hope that you enjoy that. I read a lot of Dylan Thomas when I was younger and always liked his energy.

The way he forces the reader to stop and unpack the meaning of his phrases is what attracted me....

[Crudblud]

Re-reading The Crying of Lot 49. As is typical of Pynchon, a second reading offers greater clarity on things you noticed previously but may present yet more new questions.

[bwv 1080]

Re-reading The Crying of Lot 49. As is typical of Pynchon, a second reading offers greater clarity on things you noticed previously but may present yet more new questions.

Wonder how Trystero would have managed all the Amazon.com Christmas deliveries?

[bwv 1080]

Kotkin convincingly portrays Stalin as a rational (and ruthless) ideologue rather than some sort of deranged psychopath.  All he did was obstinately apply Leninist ideology, refusing any concessions or compromise.

[SimonNZ]

Superb. An oral history of the Russians' hopes of realising a better form of socialism in the early 90s, and their crushing disappointment at ending up with the worst aspects of capitalism and the creation of the oligarchy.

[Ken B]

Kotkin convincingly portrays Stalin as a rational (and ruthless) ideologue rather than some sort of deranged psychopath.  All he did was obstinately apply Leninist ideology, refusing any concessions or compromise.

So does Ulam, though he does not underplay the paranoia.
Stalin, when he had to be, was impressively capable and competent. It was only when he could that he indulged his paranoia. He impressed men not easily impressed, like FDR and Churchill. Montefiore's book is outstanding.

[Florestan]

Kotkin convincingly portrays Stalin as a rational (and ruthless) ideologue rather than some sort of deranged psychopath.  All he did was obstinately apply Leninist ideology, refusing any concessions or compromise.

But, but... anyone who rigidly and ruthlessly tries to force a whole society to conform to an ideology is ipso facto a deranged sociopath.

Anyway, so much for all those who still think in terms of "the good Lenin" against "the bad Stalin". The former was no less rigid and ruthless than the later.

[Ken B]

But, but... anyone who rigidly and ruthlessly tries to force a whole society to conform to an ideology is ipso facto a deranged sociopath.

Anyway, so much for all those who still think in terms of "the good Lenin" against "the bad Stalin". The former was no less rigid and ruthless than the later.

True.

[Artem]

Superb. An oral history of the Russians' hopes of realising a better form of socialism in the early 90s, and their crushing disappointment at ending up with the worst aspects of capitalism and the creation of the oligarchy.

Her book about women that participated in the WW2 is heartbreaking.

[SimonNZ]

Her book about women that participated in the WW2 is heartbreaking.

Of the four of her books that are available in English that's the one I don't have. I got the ones on Chernobyl and on the Afganistan War lined up to be read very soon.

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Starting my first Christopher Marlowe play, the controversial "The Jew of Malta".