What are you currently reading?

[MN Dave]

Non c'è due senza tre. 

[Omicron9]

"The Big Love: Life and Death with Bill Evans," by Laurie Verchomin.  I'm a huge Bill Evans fan; Laurie was his life partner for the final couple of years of his life, and was there when he passed.  Well-written and fascinating; however, it is not an easy read.  The author holds nothing back, and in many passages it almost reads as a personal journal.  By "not an easy read," I mean the facts and details of the last couple of years of Bill's life are not easy to read.

Highly recommended.

-09

[Omicron9]

"The Big Love: Life and Death with Bill Evans," by Laurie Verchomin.  I'm a huge Bill Evans fan; Laurie was his life partner for the final couple of years of his life, and was there when he passed.  Well-written and fascinating; however, it is not an easy read.  The author holds nothing back, and in many passages it almost reads as a personal journal.  By "not an easy read," I mean the facts and details of the last couple of years of Bill's life are not easy to read.

http://www.billevanswebpages.com/biglove-varrallo.htm

Highly recommended.

-09

[Brian]

"The Big Love: Life and Death with Bill Evans," by Laurie Verchomin.  I'm a huge Bill Evans fan; Laurie was his life partner for the final couple of years of his life, and was there when he passed.  Well-written and fascinating; however, it is not an easy read.  The author holds nothing back, and in many passages it almost reads as a personal journal.  By "not an easy read," I mean the facts and details of the last couple of years of Bill's life are not easy to read.

Highly recommended.

-09

Sounds very much like Sue Graham Mingus's memoir of her last few years with Charles. That was a beautiful, excellent, difficult read.

[SimonNZ]

[bwv 1080]

A definitive history of the 2008 Financial Crisis

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/sep/26/crashed-adam-tooze-masterful-account-financial-crisis

[Ken B]

A definitive history of the 2008 Financial Crisis

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/sep/26/crashed-adam-tooze-masterful-account-financial-crisis

I likedTooze's book on WWII. Let us know if this is good.

[bwv 1080]

I likedTooze's book on WWII. Let us know if this is good.

It is - I work in finance and followed the whole debacle in detail - like the good historian he is, does a great job of separating what was known and reasonably believed at the time vs what was not widely understood.  His key point is the SIVs - highly levered off balance sheet pools of non agency RMBS issued by banks and funded with short term securities purchased by money market funds- were the primary mechanism that rendered the US and European banking systems insolvent.  After all, if the banks had really just securitized bad mortgages and sold them all off to investors then they would not have failed - the investors would have just taken the losses. 

[Ken B]

It is - I work in finance and followed the whole debacle in detail - like the good historian he is, does a great job of separating what was known and reasonably believed at the time vs what was not widely understood.  His key point is the SIVs - highly levered off balance sheet pools of non agency RMBS issued by banks and funded with short term securities purchased by money market funds- were the primary mechanism that rendered the US and European banking systems insolvent.  After all, if the banks had really just securitized bad mortgages and sold them all off to investors then they would not have failed - the investors would have just taken the losses.

Thanks. Placed a hold at the library.

[Ken B]

Just started this



(The Story of San Michele --- the Romanian traditional translation actually reads The Book of San Michele)

and it's a page turner. One of the most humane and enjoyable books I've ever read. It literally made me happy while reading. Fwiw, the latest occasions in which I felt something similar was when listening for the first time to Saint-Saëns's Septet and Moeran's Violin Concerto.

Actually Andrei I suspect my wife might like this a lot, as a Christmas present. Have you finished it? Good all the way through?

[JBS]

The piano in question being the one which FC used while in Majorca, and which decades later found and restored by Wanda Landowska, kept in her Paris apartment until she had to flee the Nazis. Which is why the last part of the book is heavily focused on the topic of Nazi loot.

[Florestan]

Actually Andrei I suspect my wife might like this a lot, as a Christmas present. Have you finished it? Good all the way through?

I'm halfway through. Consistently good. (And he hasn't even started building his "Roman" villa yet. ).

[MN Dave]

John Steinbeck, Writer: A Biography
The History of Rock & Roll, Volume 1: 1920-1963
The Brickeaters by the Residents

[Karl Henning]

From the Loyal Opposition:

Because Christians start with two false beliefs, they can't possibly begin to empathize with the victims of abuse and disasters.

Premise 1: The Christian god loves his followers and wants to help them wherever he can, except when he makes cheap bets with Satan, of course.

Premise 2: Sinful behavior stymies this omnimax god's efforts to help.

Conclusion: Anybody who suffers must have come by that suffering through some sin they committed. They need to quit doing that, so they can receive the help of their divine safety net.

It's a purely insidious line of thinking. And yet we see examples of it everywhere in the religion.

[Ken B]

From the Loyal Opposition:

Because Christians start with two false beliefs, they can't possibly begin to empathize with the victims of abuse and disasters.

Premise 1: The Christian god loves his followers and wants to help them wherever he can, except when he makes cheap bets with Satan, of course.

Premise 2: Sinful behavior stymies this omnimax god's efforts to help.

Conclusion: Anybody who suffers must have come by that suffering through some sin they committed. They need to quit doing that, so they can receive the help of their divine safety net.

It's a purely insidious line of thinking. And yet we see examples of it everywhere in the religion.

Jeez Louise. I am about as atheistic an atheist as you can be and even I find that kind of argument stupid. Look around. Do you see the ThereIsNoSalvation Army collecting for the poor?

[Karl Henning]

Jeez Louise. I am about as atheistic an atheist as you can be and even I find that kind of argument stupid. Look around. Do you see the ThereIsNoSalvation Army collecting for the poor?

Separately . . . there is a scene in Jacob's Ladder where the title character has fallen to the street out of a moving car, his back injured, and a Salvation Army Santa lifts his wallet.


Aye, there has to be a better way to make his points;  "except when he makes cheap bets with Satan, of course" would probably have struck almost any other writer on the planet as cheaper than the cheap bets.

[Ken B]

Separately . . . there is a scene in Jacob's Ladder where the title character has fallen to the street out of a moving car, his back injured, and a Salvation Army Santa lifts his wallet.


Aye, there has to be a better way to make his points;  "except when he makes cheap bets with Satan, of course" would probably have struck almost any other writer on the planet as cheaper than the cheap bets.

The wallet joke works because it's incongruous. Like a catholic priest who prefers grown women ...

[NikF]

The wallet joke works because it's incongruous. Like a catholic priest who prefers grown women ...

Good stuff.

[Karl Henning]

Jeez Louise. I am about as atheistic an atheist as you can be and even I find that kind of argument stupid. Look around. Do you see the ThereIsNoSalvation Army collecting for the poor?

The wallet joke works because it's incongruous. Like a catholic priest who prefers grown women ...

It's What I was currently reading, not An argument I absolutely stand by.  So, yes:  point taken.

[milk]

Having read all the novels, I'm currently reading all of Ursula Le Guin's Hainish short stories. They're scattered throughout various collections. Le Guin is the only sci-fi writer I really love. For one thing, she has a great command of language: she never wastes a word and she's quite elegant. But Le Guin always presents a deep idea for consideration. And she also always pushes our understanding of ourselves as human beings in imaginative ways. She's not dark; she's not verbose; she's not technical or "scientific." She's "human" to the core: anthropological and sociological. There's no one like her. I recommend all things Hainish (except her very very first short novel "Rocannon's world").