What are you currently reading?

[JBS]

Possibly the volume in the Penguin Monarchs series? And apparently Alison Weir covers Edward II's "death" and subscribes to the view that he survived in her book on Isabella.

I know it's not Weir, because I have read a few of her books and they were all War of the Roses or later.
The other does not look familiar.
The book I read was especially hostile to Edward on the subject of Scotland, depicting him as greedy for power and nearly villainous in his treatment of the Scots. Would that describe Mortimer?

Speaking of Mortimer, I got from the library today his biography of Roger Mortimer (the author blurb takes care to say there is no family relationship).

[JBS]

Dear me.
I just realized I was getting my Edwards all mixed up
The book I actually read was

[Ken B]

Dear me.
I just realized I was getting my Edwards all mixed up
The book I actually read was

Florida recount!

[SimonNZ]

Ah well, criticisms of villainous treatment of the Scots would certainly apply.

Ian Mortimer doesn't really criticize E3 for anything, going out of his way - too far out of his way on many occasions - to plead that his actions were within a Chivalric ideal and worldview, and claims - rather sophomorically - that applying our 21st century notions of governance and war is anachronistic.

But the book has other merits and those regular moments of apology don't obscure them.

[bwv 1080]

I really get tired of all the portrayals of the Scots as The World's Most Noble People.  There was never going to be peace in the Island with separate kingdoms with opposing interests. The English were no more or less moral than any other group at the time.

[Ken B]

Better watch out with these anti-Edward tracts. The British cops might not be amused. https://reason.com/archives/2018/11/20/uk-anti-terrorism-efforts-are-terrifying

In 2017 British police laid over 3600 charges ... for Facebook posts.

[steve ridgway]

Yes there is the infamous case of a schoolchild who tried to tell the teacher he lived in a terraced house but ignorantly said terrorist house so the police went round . I wasn't aware of this one though and it sounds very dangerous .

[Brian]

This holiday so far:

- And Then There Were None (Agatha Christie)
- Garlic and Sapphires (Ruth Reichl's memoir of her disguise-happy life as a NY Times food critic... fascinating look behind the curtain with lots of stories of her work adventures, but I disapprove of her practice of using the disguises as excuses to act like an asshole to wait staff, and she seems to regret it too)
- White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America (Nancy Isenberg)

[Ken B]

Various things on the go

Pale Horse, by Agatha Christie, one of the few I have never read.
The Rise of Germany, by Holland. The war in the west to 1941.
Puzzle For Puppets, Patrick Quentin.
Bleak House. Rereading this, but episodically.
The Button Man, Brian Freemantle. Rereading this spy thriller.

Flirting with starting The Winter Fortress by Neal Bascomb, about the raid on the Norwegian heavy water. Coming up soon, Big Week by Holland, about operation Pointblank, the destruction of the Luftwaffe.

Recently gave up on:
Red Sparrow. Oy.
Anatomy of Ghosts, by Andrew Taylor. People seem to love it, I found it formulaic.

[Draško]

The latest enfant terrible of French literature, though given the novel is 15 years old they may have a newer one nowadays. The opening reads like Houellebecq-lite, but let's wait and see ...

[SimonNZ]

[Florestan]

Available for free here:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/books/Pauls_two_centuries_in_one.pdf

This book greatly appeals to my unabashedly and unapologeticallly romantic self --- and will probably infuriate hardcore modernists no end. 

[bwv 1080]

Available for free here:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/books/Pauls_two_centuries_in_one.pdf

This book greatly appeals to my unabashedly and unapologeticallly romantic self --- and will probably infuriate hardcore modernists no end. 

well you get what you pay for (looked at it briefly)

You should start a drinking game for every time the author uses the word 'emotion'

like emotion is somehow the exclusive province of traditional tonality

he does not seem to understand that Schoenberg, Berg and other modernists were expressionists, defined by Adorno as seeking "the truthfulness of subjective feeling without illusions, disguises or euphemisms"

he seems equally perplexed that people could ascribe emotion to later composers in this tradition such as Ferneyhough

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

Available for free here:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/books/Pauls_two_centuries_in_one.pdf

This book greatly appeals to my unabashedly and unapologeticallly romantic reactionary self --- and will probably infuriate bore hardcore modernists no end. 

Fixed for you! 

[ritter]

Available for free here:
....

Still appears a bit too expensive to me....

[Florestan]

well you get what you pay for (looked at it briefly)

You should start a drinking game for every time the author uses the word 'emotion'

like emotion is somehow the exclusive province of traditional tonality

he does not seem to understand that Schoenberg, Berg and other modernists were expressionists, defined by Adorno as seeking "the truthfulness of subjective feeling without illusions, disguises or euphemisms"

he seems equally perplexed that people could ascribe emotion to later composers in this tradition such as Ferneyhough

The tables can be turned just as easily: if "emotion" is such a negative term / concept, then why the need to ascribe it to Schoenberg and Ferneyhough?

[Florestan]

Fixed for you! 

Why, thanks! In my book "reactionary" is a badge of honor.

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

The tables can be turned just as easily: if "emotion" is such a negative term / concept, then why the need to ascribe it to Schoenberg and Ferneyhough?

The point is not that emotion is a negative term. The point is that the author mistook his inability to grasp the emotional content of modern music for an absence of emotional content in modern music.

[Florestan]

Still appears a bit too expensive to me....

It certainly doesn't sing any praise of Boulez, that's for sure. 

[Florestan]

The point is not that emotion is a negative term. The point is that the author mistook his inability to grasp the emotional content of modern music for an absence of emotional content in modern music.

Should I assume that you took the care to read the book and think through its arguments? That would be quite a feat, reading a 500-page book in 10 minutes.